Lio Fotia (リオ・フォーティア) is the leader of Mad Burnish and starts off as the antagonist of Promare. He later becomes a strong ally to Galo and the Burning Rescue.
Personality
Lio is the leader of Mad Burnish, a resistance movement against the experiments on Burnish. To the general public, his resistance is viewed as terrorism. Though he uses his abilities as a Burnish to burn buildings, he always leaves an escape route for those inside. He is adamant that Burnish should never kill. He is incredibly passionate about protecting those who cannot protect themselves. He's one of the most powerful Burnish, intelligent, and a reliable leader. However, his passion and abilities also lead to his downfall, as he will rampage due to his and others pain.
He is shown to mock those in authority, specifically Freeze Force and the Foresight Foundation. This is why he shows distrust with Galo at first, as Galo was affiliated with Kray. Lio was also quick to point out the issue with Galo's beliefs on Burnish, as Burnish are still human.
His and Galo's aggressive fighting styles are very compatible. This is evidenced by their cooperation together with Lio de Galon and Galo de Lio.
Appearance
Lio is of slender build and relatively short stature. He has pale skin, and light green-blonde voluminous hair. His eyelashes and eyebrows are the same color. His eyes are pink, though often reflect purple and orange hues.
Lio wears a black leather jacket adorned with military-esque cords, zippers, and belts. Underneath he wears a long-sleeved white shirt with frilled cuffs and a cravat. He wears a pair of cropped black gloves and pants thay resemble sleek biker pants with built-in kneepads and multiple fastening belts. His shoes are black with two buckles.
The armor he creates with Promare is jet black, sleek, and tall, with stilted blade-like legs with whitened segments. His helmet's visor resembles jagged pointed teeth and ends in two horn-like flairs. In an attempt to appear more intimidating, the armor is much taller and well built looking than he actually is. This occasionally results in the shock of others.
When consumed by rage and agony, flames cloak him and his entire form takes on a silhouetted appearance only defined by stark white outlines and his own bright eyes. He also appears to emit two horn-like flames from his head, resembling his armor.
History
| Warning! Exploring this aspect of the Promare Wiki contains heavy spoilers. |
Lio-Hen
Lio is first introduced during the prologue Lio-Hen, where he arrives to save the then lawless Mad Burnish from the Freeze Force. Following their rescue, Lio states that the Mad Burnish's thoughtless attacks are simply making life more difficult for the Burnish and if they go so far as to kill someone the government would crackdown on the Burnish ten-fold. When prompted for what they should do instead, he proposes they build a self-sufficient society away from humans. The former leaders of Mad Burnish agree to his plan and say they will follow him as their new leader.
Promare
Lio fighting Galo with his Katana
During the events of Promare, Lio, Gueira, and Meis devise a plan in which the three of them will be captured by Freeze Force in order to free the Burnish prisoners. They start off by causing havoc in the city, which ends up alerting Burning Rescue. Once everyone is rescued by the firefighters, the trio step in to force a fight between themselves and Galo. Despite Galo struggling with them at first, he and his team end up restraining all three Burnish. As predicted, Freeze Force arrives on the scene to claim them.
Once they arrive at the penal institution, they are forced into their cell, where several children and a dying, young woman are. Gueira is made upset by this and attempts to break his locks, which ends up freezing him. One of the elders explains this more. This gives Lio an idea.
When the trio are later removed, Lio uses his new-found knowledge to break his hand cuffs, restrain the guards, and free his two allies. The three of them proceed to enact a prison breakout as they release as many Burnish as they can. With the exception of Lio, all the escapees take flight via helicopter. Lio uses his flames to fly instead.
Later, Lio's flare is seen by Galo and Aina at the frozen lake. Galo follows it to a local cave where several escaped Burnish are. Before Galo can do anything, Lio knocks him out. As Galo awakens and finds himself to be restrained, Lio reveals himself to him. He appears to of come back from a recent grocery trip, which makes Galo question if Burnish even eat. Lio takes offense to this. Attention is then brought back to the previously mentioned woman, Thyma.
Lio attempts a Burnish form of CPR in which flames are given via mouth-to-mouth. Galo offers to help, but Lio rejects it, knowing normal CPR wouldn't work. Despite his best efforts, Thyma is still left to die due to her wounds caused by the Foresight Foundation. Lio confides this to Galo before he leaves with his fellow Burnish.
Relationships
Galo
Mad Burnish
Kray
Gallery
Trivia
- Lio's last name, Fotia, comes from Greek word for 'fire.'
- Incidentally, it is also the name of one of Greece's islands.
- Lio's first name comes from Leo, which is a Latin term meaning 'lion.'
- Lio Fotia's Japanese voice actor, Taichi Saotome, has not previously voice acted before. In the 2018 adaption of Bleach, he plays Renji Abarai in the film.
- His English voice actor, Johnny Yong Bosch, also voices Persona 4's Yu Narukami, Jonathan Joestar of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Danganronpa's Hajime Hinata, and Popuko from Pop Team Epic.
- Lio Fotia was made into the leader of Mad Burnish in Lio-Hen. He seems to not have any affiliation with Mad Burnish beforehand, as Gueira and Meis are shown introducing themselves to him.
- Lio's armor has three horns on his head. Meanwhile, when in his enraged form, Lio has two horns sprouting from his hair instead.
- Between Lio, Gueira, and Meis, Lio is the shortest.
- Both Lio and Thyma are currently the only Burnish characters shown to create animals with their flames, with Lio having his fire dragon and Thyma with her snake.
- Lio's flames from being enraged were hot enough to evaporate an entire frozen lake.
- After the CPR kiss scene with Galo, the rest of Lio's jacket disappears for unknown reasons.
- Furthermore, unlike Thyma, Lio's wounds were fully restored by Galo giving Lio his flames.
- Lio is shown to have a fairly good memory, as evidenced by him remembering Galo's name and his matoi tech enough to be able to replicate it with Lio de Galon and Galo de Lion.
- In Lio's grocery bags for the escaped Burnish, there appears to be cans of Spam, Campbell's soup, a box of Twinkies, and Kraft Mac & Cheese.
- Lio can turn his flames into a variety of weapons. A few examples include a bow and arrow, a katana, scythe, and whip. He appears to have a preference towards his bow, as it is the one shown the most in Lio-Hen.
- In the 4DX release of Promare, when Lio's mask breaks off, Lio smells of roses.
- In pre-production, Lio was originally not going to be Burnish, with that role going to Galo instead[1].
- When it was decided he would be, Imaishi planned on having Lio be a human-shaped flame. Koyama scrapped the idea entirely.
- In the Memorial art book is a piece featuring Galo standing over a laying down, smirking Lio. When questioned about it, the artist of the piece, Gunyasu Shumpei, merely said it was up to interruption.
- In another Memorial art book piece, one image reveals that the strap belts on his pant legs aren't actually attached to them.
- Lio appears in the Japanese mobile game Monster Strike alongside other Trigger characters.
References
- ↑ "Some notes from the Promare panel yesterday!!!" https://twitter.com/Turbocrit/status/1196125354785529856