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Galo Thymos (ガロ・ティモス) is the main protagonist of Promare.

Portrayal: Kenichi Matsuyama

Personality

Galo is the latest recruit of Burning Rescue. He isn't one for planning ahead of time and often speaks his mind. He is willful and often relies on that to get through battles. He appears to be all brawn and little brain, however he is deeply compassionate and hates to see others hurt.

Set with a burning passion to extinguish all that is wrong, you can expect Galo to rush in first to the scene of an emergency.

His determination to extinguish all that is wrong leads him into wanting to understand the Burnish more and why they are fighting. He won't target a group of people without knowing why. He wants to protect all who are innocent. This can make him a little too faithful and easy to be deceived.

He tends to not follow orders that prevent immediate action, nor does he do well when dealing with his superiors.

His and Lio's fiery fighting styles are very compatible, leading them to team up in the final battle.

Appearance

Galo is a well-built man with a long, blue mohawk that is shaved on the sides. Both his eyes and eyebrows are blue. His complexion is slightly tan. He is shown to be taller than most characters, but is still shorter than Varys and Remi.

Galo's uniform is that of red pants displaying a yellow 3, black gloves with yellow segments, and black boots also with yellow segments. He is often seen wearing a Burning Rescue uniform without a shirt, and a white, medical sleeve on his left arm. Said arm has several burn scars.

In the prologue Galo-Hen, he was previously shown wearing a red firefighter jacket akin to Remi's, but it was destroyed. Said prologue also shows that he gained his scars from saving a woman during his first day on the job, when she mutated into a Burnish and then accidentally hit him.

When he does wear a shirt, it is that of a blue-ish black short sleeve. This appears to be another part of his uniform as Remi has a similar shirt.

History

Warning!
Exploring this aspect of the Promare Wiki contains heavy spoilers.

Galo-Hen

Galo is first introduced in one of two prequels that discuss the events before Promare. Here, it is revealed that Galo is the newest member of Burning Rescue thanks to Kray Foresight's efforts. When introducing himself to his new colleagues, he is shown wearing a red jacket, infodumping about ancient firefighters and showing off his own homemade Matoi. His colleagues do not take the same interest.

When the station's emergency sirens go off, everyone begins to set off. Galo is almost left behind, but thanks to him arguing that this could work as job experience, Ignis has Lucia take care of Galo in the truck. This results in Galo getting impatient. Eventually, Lucia discovers that one of the facilities still has a woman trapped inside. This results in Galo taking initiative, covering himself and his matoi with an extinguishing gel, and running off to go save her.

When Galo finally finds Thyma, he proceeds to carry her outside as Burnish flames flow behind them. From the flames, Galo's jacket is burned off. Lucia's calculations state that Galo's plan had the highest rate of both Thyma and Galo surviving, making Galo out to be commendable to his peers. However, when Thyma wakes up, she suddenly becomes a Burnish, resulting in Galo receiving several burn scars to his left arm. Thyma is then taken away by Gueira and Meis before either Burning Rescue or Freeze Force can do anything.

Promare

File:Lio fights Burning Rescue.jpeg

Galo and Lio's first encounter

In the present, Burning Rescue is sent out to deal with a recent Mad Burnish attack. Due to Galo being asleep at first, he is the last to appear. He proceeds to help Aina with rescuing survivors on the roof. As they work, the Mad Burnish reveal themselves: Gueira, Meis, and Lio. Gueira and Meis are the first to go after Galo. Galo at first struggles, but after changing his matoi tech, he defeats the duo. This results in Lio slamming his bike into Galo. Another fight breaks out. Eventually, with the help of his fellow Burning Rescue members, Lio is taken care of.

With the leader of the Mad Burnish captured, Freeze Force enters the scene to arrest him. Galo claims that he should be credited for the capture of Lio Fotia, but this results in Vulcan threatening to take Galo as well. Ignis then steps in to stop anything further from occurring. With the flames dealt with, Burning Rescue leaves.

Later, Galo is shown attending a local ceremony for himself. Here, Kray is shown awarding Galo for his deeds with a badge of honor. Galo's face is then projected all around the city of Promepolis.

Galo is then shown eating with his co-workers at a local pizzeria. As they all talk, Galo's badge is brought up into the conversation. Here, Galo reveals that he idolizes Kray. This is due to Kray saving Galo when he was a child. He comments that Kray lost his arm as a college student from the flames. However, the conversation abruptly ends when Freeze Force makes another appearance.

Pizzeriatrouble

Galo and Aina at the pizzeria

Here, Freeze Force captures one of the employees due to him being a Burnish. Both Galo and Lio attempt to stop Vulcan, but their words mean nothing. After the incident, passersby find disgust with the presence of a Burnish, resulting in Galo riding away on his motorcycle in anger. Aina goes after him.

She eventually tracks him down to a local frozen lake, where Galo reveals that this is where he goes to cool off. The duo then begin to skate together. They both discuss how they are seen as projections of those they respect: Kray in Galo's case and Heris in Aina's. Suddenly, Aina nearly falls, but is caught by Galo. The both of them then notice a Burnish flare. Galo tells Aina to report the flare as he goes after it.

Galo eventually finds a local cave in the area. Assuming the cave was where the flare went, Galo enters. Lurking inside, Galo discovers the presence of several escaped Burnish huddling around a campfire. Of these Burnish, a young boy notices Galo. Galo can only stare back before Lio knocks him out. As he becomes conscious again, he finds his wrists tied behind him. Yanking at the ropes, Galo then notices Lio's presence and realizes he escaped from custody.

Lio briefly talks to Galo, with Galo questioning the need for food and to set ablaze things. Insulted by Galo's claims, Lio retorts and states that Burnish are humans too and that they can hear their flames' cries. Only releasing the flames can free the Burnish. Galo later wishes to help save a dying Thyma, but Lio refuses it and attempts a Burnish form of CPR where flames are given to the receiver via mouth-to-mouth. As Lio's attempt is sadly shown to be unsuccessful, Lio reveals that her death was caused by the Burnish experiments at Foresight Foundation, Kray's company. Yearning to help his fellow Burnish escape, Lio leaves right before Aina finds Galo.

Having been freed, Galo meets with Kray to discuss Lio's escape and the Burnish experiments. Seeing that Galo is insistent on an answer, he reveals that the Earth will soon be over flooded by magma and that the only way to save anyone is to transport the people of Promepolis. Kray then brings Galo to Dr. Heris' lab, where they are currently experimenting with transportation. Galo discovers that the Burnish being used is the pizzeria employee he saw. After the torture of the Burnish employee, Galo makes up his mind and says that they could easily just remove the magma from within rather than only saving some. Kray, however, retaliates to the idea and proceeds to punch and throw him into a cell to be executed.

Galo is later seen given food by Heris. Heris unlocks his cuffs, believing that he wouldn't physically attack her. He then asks Heris if Aina knows about the transportation plan, resulting in her briefly arguing with him before stopping herself and leaving. When Aina asks about Galo, Heris claims that she saw Galo attack Kray with her own eyes.

During Lio's rampage in the city, he accidentally frees Galo from his cell. This results in Galo managing to escape, where he then decides to meet up with Burning Rescue to stop Lio. With the usage of matoi tech and Aina's helicopter, Galo ends up forcing Lio and himself into a container in an attempt to calm Lio down. What does end up stopping him is Aina opening the helicopter's container, where the duo land at the frozen lake. Lio's flames end up extinguishing the ice to reveal a hidden lab.

Deus' computer AI then presents himself to the trio, revealing the lab to have belonged to the late Dr. Prometh. The trio head inside.

Inside, Deus reveals to the trio his late findings: rather than there being an overflow of magma at the center of the Earth, an energized alien species he named Promare is stuck. They appear in the shape of flames to humans, hence the existence of Burnish and their fire. The transportation plan was also one that Deus researched, but he concluded that this would only speed up Earth's destruction and was too risky. This eventually resulted in Deus' murder by the hands of Kray, which Deus' AI reveals to the trio via camera footage.

Deus then commands Galo and Lio to control Deus ex Machina to stop Kray and save the world. The duo oblige.

Galo and Lio arrive at the Foresight Foundation, where the transportation plan is already underway. Despite this, Galo finds Deus ex Machina to be 'uncool' and can't focus, resulting in the creation of Lio de Galon. They then start off by attacking the command tower. Realizing this isn't getting anywhere, they then try to dig into the Earth towards the machine's core. Kray eventually takes things into his own hands and comes out with his own mecha. From this, a fight breaks out in the

Cityfight

City mecha chaos

Kray at first is shown having the upper hand, but with Deus ex Machine being transformed once more into Galo de Lion instead, the fight ends at a standstill, with both mechs frozen in place. After thawing Galo, Lio exits the mecha in order to burn Kray to death for his crimes against humanity. Kray is left unaffected.

Thus, Kray captures Lio and reveals himself to actually be a Burnish as well, with his prosthetic actually being made from Burnish flames. He admits to Galo that he did not enter his house to save him, rather he was the one who burned it to the ground. Galo just incidentally ran into him after, causing him to look like a hero. However, he found Galo's presence afterwords to be an annoyance at best, causing him to assign him at Burning Rescue for its high casualty rates. As Kray finishes up his explanation, he launches Galo in the air in an attempt to kill him and takes Lio away as a replacement core.

As Galo gets up, he finds that he was protected by Lio's flames. Seeing this act of kindness, he asks for the help of Burning Rescue to launch him underground to rescue Lio. They oblige.

At the machine's core, Galo ends up landing where a dying Lio is, in which he accidentally releases Lio. For this, Kray attempts to kill Galo once more. Galo is still protected by Lio's flames, thus, he eventually brings himself to Kray to give him one last punch to the face. He then tells him to watch as he saves everyone.

Galo brings himself to where Lio is. He recalls what Lio attempted with Thyma earlier and, after swallowing Lio's flames, he gives Lio a CPR kiss, resulting in Lio healing from his wounds. With Lio safe, the duo work together once more to save the world. Lio commands his fellow trapped Burnish to assist them. As all of the non-Burnish are protected from the flames, Galo de Lion is formed once more at a much larger scale to help remove the Promare stuck in the Earth. Thus, the world is saved.

After Galo and Lio land back on Earth, Galo comments on the need for more helping hands to restore Promepolis. He asks for Lio's cooperation. Lio agrees.

Relationships

Lio

Lio Fotia was first seen by Galo as a terrorist with no other agenda than to set cities on fire. However, when they encounter each other once more, Galo then realizes the error of his ways. He attempts to make up for it, offering to help save Thyma, but Lio refuses, likely knowing that normal CPR wouldn't work.

Later, while attempting revenge against Kray Foresight, Lio accidentally frees Galo from his cell, resulting in Galo looking into the night sky where Lio is. From Lio's dragon's eyes, Galo recognizes the blue flames to be that of tears. He finds himself relating to Lio due to Kray locking him up a week before. Even with this, he refuses to let Lio destroy the city, resulting in Galo setting off to go stop him.

Afterwards, both them and Aina come across Deus' Lab, where the truth of the Burnish and Kray's plans are revealed. From this, Deus' computer AI insists that Galo and Lio work together to control Deus ex Machina. They promptly do so. During this period, neither of them struggle with controlling the mecha, with the only issues being that Galo struggles to find the machine to be cool. This results in Lio complying with his wishes and reforming the mecha into both Lio de Galon and Galo de Lion.

When Lio attempts to kill Kray for all of his crimes against the Burnish, Lio is instead captured by Kray. However, Lio puts Galo's safety first and uses the remains of his flame to protect Galo. Galo is touched by this, resulting in him going after Kray once more.

Galo eventually catches up with the duo, where he ends up defeating Kray for Lio. Galo then decides to repeat Lio's method of CPR by swallowing Lio's flames and kissing Lio via mouth-to-mouth. He successfully revives Lio. The duo then save the world with the help of the Burnish. In the aftermath, the duo are shown fist bumping.

Kray

Kray was at first Galo's idol. Believing him to have saved him as a child, he saw him as a hero. He took pride in both the opportunity to work at Burning Rescue and a badge that Kray gave him. He would then begin to slowly doubt this belief when Lio reveals Foresight Foundation's involvement with the Burnish.

Still idolizing Kray, Galo questions him on the issue, which results in Kray admitting to his plans. He at first attempts to convince Galo that this is how things should be, but Galo disagrees, resulting in Kray revealing his true feelings in the form of a punch to the stomach. Kray admits that he sees Galo as nothing more than a nuisance and a waste. He then promptly locks Galo up to soon be executed.

When Kray reveals himself to actually be Burnish, he admits that he was the one who set Galo's home ablaze and that he only used the incident to make himself out to be a hero. When Galo continued to exist in his life after that, he decides to have Galo become a firefighter so he can eventually die. Galo has now lost all respect for Kray at this point.

When Kray attempts to kill Galo, Galo is protected by Lio's flames, resulting in him saying that Galo will save everyone, including Kray. He then punches Kray. When Kray is dealt with, he then forces him to watch as he performs mouth-to-mouth CPR on Lio, proving that he will be saving everyone.

Aina

Aina is one of Galo's co-workers at Burning Rescue. Out of all other members, Aina appears to be the most acquainted with Galo, where she is the one to go after him when he gets upset and is the one who saves Galo in a few instances. Heris comments that Aina talks about Galo a lot to her.

When Galo is locked up by Foresight, she immediately retorts to the idea that Galo would hurt Kray. This results in her briefly arguing with her sister. Aina also accidentally assists in the finding of Deus' lab, in which her, Galo, and Lio explore together.

With the new information revealed to her, she helps assist Galo and Lio by revealing Deus' murder to Heris and helps stop the transportation plan.

Burning Rescue

At first, most members of Burning Rescue found Galo to be unqualified. However, after his successful rescue of Thyma, they grew to see him as a valuable member of the team. They occasionally are shown hanging out with him outside of work.

Besides Aina, Lucia seems to be well acquainted with Galo, as she is shown projecting a PowerPoint Galo made about ancient Firefighters. She was also the one put in charge of Galo on his first day.

Gallery

Trivia

  • Galo's last name, Thymos, comes from the Greek word Thumos, which is the concept of "spiritedness" or the need for recognition.
  • Galo's appearance, specifically his hair and lack of shirt, are fairly similar to the character of Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, another animated work by Studio Trigger.
    • According to Promare's director, Hiroyuki Imaishi, Galo's similar appearance to Kamina was that of a coincidence and was not intended[1].
      • When discussing his design, his hair is referred to as 'job hair.'
    • During a panel, Imaishi comments that his hair was said to also be made this way to act as a sign that he's an idiot protagonist and because Imaishi enjoys the look. An example of this would be Panty from Panty and Stocking[2].
      • He also commented that he prefer writing stories with stupid protagonists due to the fact that the story would end too soon if the protagonist was smart. This would result in the rest of the run time being wasted. Thus, stupid is the way to go.
  • His Japanese voice actors, Kenichi Matsuyama, has voiced both L and Gelus from Death Note.
  • His English voice actor, Billy Kametz, also voices Josuke of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and U-1146 from Cells at Work.
  • With the lyrics of "I will follow my grandfather's journey" in Inferno and his interest in Japanese firefighters, Galo may be Japanese.
  • His matoi, alongside a tribute to ancient Japanese firemen, is likely a reference to the protagonist of Kill la Kill, Ryuko Matoi.
  • Even when wearing a shirt, Galo is shown wearing his medical sleeve in Promare. Promotional art has shown him wearing a shirt without the sleeve though.
  • A running joke that occurs is of Galo being unable to focus on the situation at hand. This is most prominent during Deus' explanation, where he falls asleep briefly.
  • When Heris gives Galo his final meal, it appears to be that of a loaf of bread, a salad, and salmon.
  • Galo is constantly shown in both promotional art and in the film to enjoy pizza. He also appears to personally know the owners of the local pizzeria.
  • Galo is shown to own a motorcycle.
  • According to Galo himself, whenever he's upset, he goes to a local frozen lake where he vents out his frustrations. As it would later be revealed, said lake is where Deus Labs was hidden.
    • Galo tried digging to the bottom of the lake one time, only reaching five feet in.
    • When Aina dumps Galo and Lio towards the lake, Lio ended up evaporating all of the water from the ice, resulting in the discovery of Deus Labs.
  • If flashback scenes are to be believed, Galo originally thought Kray had carried him out of his burning house. However, a later one reveals him running out of the house into Kray's arms, resulting in Kray using the situation to make himself look like a hero.
    • It is unknown if there were any other victims in the fire.
  • During the Burnish CPR kiss scene, Galo comments that Lio is the first to make him light a fire, causing him to freak out and demand Lio "take responsibility." The phrase itself is one typically associated with romance media in Japan, where one partner will use the phrase in order to get married or start dating.
  • Galo seems to be fairly forgetful with names, where he is shown to struggle with remembering Lio's name when meeting him again and constantly switching the names for the mechas he, Lio, and Kray control.
  • Instead of Lio being Burnish, Galo was at one point planned to be a motorcycling Burnish.
  • Early concept art shows Galo originally having a braid with his mohawk, his medical sleeve being black, having a mechanical arm that shot ice or wearing an eye patch.
  • During a live stream, when asked about an image in the Memorial art book featuring Galo standing over Lio, the artist of the piece, Gunyasu Shumpei, merely said it was up to interruption.
    • The Memorial art book also features a piece with Galo's face on a skateboard.
  • Galo has appeared in the Japanese mobile game Monster Strike alongside other Trigger characters.

References

  1. "Promare Director Addresses Main Character's Resemblance to Gurren Lagann" https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/06/08/promare-galo-kamina-gurren-lagann-resemblance-studio-trigger-comments/
  2. "Some notes from the Promare panel yesterday!!!" https://twitter.com/Turbocrit/status/1196125354785529856
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