promare review

so i'm a pretty big trigger fan. while i can admit that they don't necessarily make the most cohesive and best shows (really side eyeing Darling in the FranXX right now), they've never the less got some really cool aspects delivered really unique ways. a lot of their ideas are typically recalls of older shows and shove in a ton of homages and if you're a trigger/gainax fan you'll get a lot of these references.

to be honest, i didn't really have any expectation when I went into this movie, knew nothing about it and it had been a good while since i first heard about the movie (it's been in development for ages, think 2014). the movie boasts a blend between Trigger's signature block letter styling and fun aesthetics, except the color palette of this movie is a lot more psychedelic, with lovely pastel neons of pinks and blues, and the same breakneck action and high energy directions.

other things i love - that the whole KLK voice cast is here. most notably, nonon is lucia (i, somewhat irrationally, absolutely adore her voice), and remi is Houka Inumuta (i love his designs in both so) and heris is ryoko, and etc etc. it's a nice little recall and one i also just love.

so whats the movie about?
well seasoned weebs will be familiar with these - it's sort of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan (the main character also looks exactly like Kamina), a dash of Kill la Kill (Trigger's most Trigger-y work plus all of KLK's voice cast) and the plot of Fire Force - which is human combustion, but instead of countering it with more fire, they use ice in this movie, and those people who spontaneously combust are called Burnish.

in regards to the whole fire force/promare who ripped off who kinda thing, there's not really that much in similarities besides the general premise - spontaneous human combustion and firefighter aesthetics. Fire Force creator says something shady here, and also there's some more discussion here, but it's pretty hard to say who stole what from who if you take into account a ton of similar occurrences, such as a bug's life and antz, or more funny,  the musical "the wild party", where two were created and debuted in the same year, by andrew lippa, and another by michael john lachiusa. so i personally can't say that i have anything significant to say.
plus we live in a postmodern-art world, if fifty shades of grey which is actual fanfic off twilight can become the top selling novel, fire force and promare can have the same concept, especially since they have vastly different plots.

THERE ARE SPOILERS SO GO BACK NOW IF YOU CARE ABOUT THAT SORT OF STUFF

So basically, there's been a rift in space/time that lead to the aliens (called Promare) to fuse with certain people who resonate with the aliens (who all happen to be kinda disenfranchised if the beginning of the movie says anything) and those people become Burnish, and have cool fire powers, and the whole earth has overlapped with that sister planet in the middle of nowhere. For some reason, Cray Foresight is the governor of the city and instead of combating the imminent disaster of the magma in the earth, he's decided to build a noah's ark and only take certain people onto a habitable sister planet. turns out tho, the whole reason why the magma is boiling in the first place is because cray's been torturing the firepower in the Burnish people so he can open a warp gate to send his chosen people. so, kinda a catch 22 he doesn't know about.
i also think there is some implication in terms of the source material, that those people who are disenfranchised and further oppressed for being 'terrorists' because of Burnish status kinda fed into the imminent global burning, but that's neither confirmed or denied in any capacity.

While I don't necessarily think this is the BEST plot, it certainly is a little more compact and much better than other Trigger works which I don't think were given enough time to develop, like Kiznaiver (which went a little haywire) and FranXX - which of course, went completely off the rails in terms of plot and remains to this day, one of the most disappointing progressions of a show I've ever seen - and I've seen Daybreak Illusion.

It's sort of how I feel about Your Name - it's not the most original idea, or the best plot, but it's solidly executed and doesn't try to go beyond what it is. A simple little save the world story, with fun characters, bomb fashion, a surprise baddie who you see from a mile away, but it's ridiculously high octane, fun, visually stunning and paced well within its light plot - it doesn't need excessive bells and whistles to get the point across and it delivers on what it promises. it's also just an extremely entertaining watch - and one i'd recommend to everyone just on that premise alone. a solid 8/10.

also my last and favorite thing - lio and galo's relationship. one thing about trigger is they never shy away from a gay thing - like kizaniver's tragic dead girlfriend sideplot, and the whole gay awakening in FranXX, and the homoerotica in KLK. they kiss for a solid 25 seconds, i'm not joking. it's beautiful. they just straight up shove in that lil bit of romance at the end there. so yeah it's canonically gay. that considered : 10/10