Promare (プロメア) is an animated film by Studio Trigger and co-produced by XFLAG. It was announced at Anime Expo in the summer of 2017 and was released on May 24th, 2019 in Japanese theaters, July 31st, 2019 in French theaters, August 16th, 2019 in Taiwanese theaters, and September 12th, 2019 in Russian theaters. In Italy, it was released as a special event from February 3rd to 5th, 2020. The trailer was revealed October 12th, 2018.
GKIDS released Promare in select theaters on September 17th (English dubbed) and September 19th (subbed) as a special event, with a limited release on Sept. 20. The official website for the movie is promare-movie.com.
Plot[]
| Warning! Exploring this aspect of the Promare Wiki contains heavy spoilers. |
For Promare (movie)/Warnings, go here.
Two people from seemingly opposing sides clash head-on. Lio, leader of the Mad Burnish and Galo, rookie member of Burning Rescue.
The Burnish are a group of humans with the ability to create bend fire to their will. Burnish first appeared 30 years ago, when an alternate dimension meshed with the one earth resides in. Sentient beings from the alternate dimension called Promare became trapped on Earth. The Promare has a desire to burn as that is how they thrive. They latch onto humans for hosts, and obey their host's will, creating those known as Burnish.
Due to the heightened Promare activity, much of it living in the magma beneath the surface, the world is going to be consumed in lava in the foreseeable future. Only a select few know about their impending doom and prepare ways to prevent total annihilation. Their methods are dubious.
Burnish are loathed by society, mostly out of fear and negligence that Burnish are also human. The Mad Burnish, who are claimed as terrorists, only wish to leave a message to those in power. Lio shows Galo who the real enemy is.
Galo, once believing in the same things as society, his morals of protecting everyone remains unshaken. He shows Lio a better way to fight. They forge an unlikely bond with similar goals. Galo's will combined with Lio's creates a new flame that is used to save the world.
Release[]
Home Media[]
The movie was released in Japan on Blu-Ray and DVD on February 5, 2020[1]. On April 21st, both the English and Japanese dub were released digitally for western audiences. Blu-ray was then released on May 19th[2].
Soundtrack[]
The official original soundtrack for the film was released on May 24th, 2019[3]. Furthermore, the band Superfly's album Ambitious featuring original songs for Promare were made accessible on June 12, 2019[4].
Reception[]
On the review site Rotten Tomatoes, the movie currently sits at a positive 97% with an audience score of 94%. For the Critics Consensus, Promare was stated to be "visually dazzling and narratively exhilarating[5]." Metacritic on the other hand weighs it at an average of 77 based on critics. User reviews on the site were fairly positive with issue coming from limited characterizations[6]. IMDb places the movie at a 7.1 with MyAnimeList at 8.1, the latter's user reviews making comparison to previous works such as Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann[7][8]. All agreed the target audience to be that of teens and young adults due to its PG-13 rating.
Jaylon Martin from the site Anime News Network on the movie's discrimination message found it to be hypocritical, especially in regards to the ending. He also felt fans only portrayed the movie as a "cute, fun, ride" online despite the multiple instances of violence towards the Burnish in the film[9]. A similar sentiment was shared with Reuben Baron on CBR, who claimed that Kazuka Nakushima's recent writings' twists of having a main villain be a part of a minority group would be considered a "potentially problematic trope[10]."
Animation-wise, it has been noted that the film bears similar visuals to the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse by IMDb's trivia section and user reviews[7]. This may of been intentional as Imaishi made comparisons himself[11]. With that said, Matt Schley of The Japan News found the transition from 2D to 3D jarring in rare instances, but heavily enjoyed the cell-shaded appearance of the characters. This was something he noted to be common with anime as well[12].
Trailer[]
Gallery[]
For Promare (movie)'s full gallery, go here.
Trivia[]
- According to Eiren, Promare achieved 1.5 billion yen in Japanese box offices, or 13.8 million USD.
- Worldwide, the movie earned over $17 million[13].
- Promare was both nominated for an Annie (Independent category) and Mainichi Film Award (Best Film category) in 2020[14][15].
- In a few select events of the film's first theatrical release, character ID cards were given out. Said cards had two editions with the IDs for Galo and Lio bearing different icons for each and various graphic design changes.[18]
- In April, a complete version theater release of Promare was planned with both Galo-hen and Lio-hen shown in US theatres. However, due to health issues concerning COVID-19, the event was postponed[19].
- According to a survey conducted during the 3rd Anniversary stream, most participants saw the film through a film theater and watched it more than 11 times[20].
- According to TRIGGER live drawing 07[21]:
- Studio Trigger enlisted Sanzigen Inc. to assist it in working on the film's CGI animations.
- The studio made several requests concerning Galo's dubbing voice actor. Notably, among considered actors for the endeavor being Zac Efron and even Channing Tatum.
- The selection of the character's dubbing voice actor was also overseen by Hiromi Wakabayashi
- The development of the film involved three times more effort in drawing than other animes thus three more efforts to execute (the film uses three different outline colors for hair, clothing, and skin tones respectively), something which requested by the director.
- The G on Matoi Tech in the film is short for Gaian Gear, manufacturer in the film's universe.
- It was Shigeto Koyama's idea of adding the tiny tail on Lio's back while working on his design.
- It was Hiromi Wakabayashi's idea of Burning Rescue's favorite food in the film being pizza since the food being something one share with one's family and/or friends/communal, symbolizing it as a team.
- Working on the kanji for the tattoo in the film was challenging because the filmmakers involved made a common mistake often made by people in America with kanji and Chinese tattoos.
- The idea of Burning Rescue's uniform which customization varied among its members in Promare came from a certain captain of Yonkers Fire Department (YFD) whose personal jacket customized into resembling the organization's standard-issue ones.
- Studio Trigger couldn't get too liberal with its Geek Boat universe stories out of respect toward Kazuki Nakashima thus had to check in once a while.
- The filmmakers managed to finish much of the film that, by the time only main theme track/song was left, they simply requested some adjustments to make said track/song fit better to appropriate scenes.
- If Kray, Galo, and Lio decided to try some bento at Kichijoji Satou (the restaurant where Hiromi Wakabayashi and Shigeto Koyama enjoy their favorite bento), they likely chose squid sushi, tuna, and seaweed sushi respectively.
- The logo of Promare was made by Saishi Ichiko who also involved in Kill la Kill and Evangelion.
- According to TRIGGER live drawing 08[22]:
- Promare had a collaboration event with Gyoza at the time of Live Drawing 8.
- According to Christmas Live Drawing Special[23]:
- As shown in the original storyboard of Promare, there was supposedly an additional battle scene during the prison-wide breakout Lio and his fellow Mad Burnish instigated to free as many Burnishes as possible there. The battle scene in question involved Lio engaging Vulcan in aerial combat with Yoshinari even completed it only to be unused due to balance issue (the film already had sizable amount of fight scenes at that point).
- As confirmed during the development of Promare, Galo's hands being drawn bigger while his Burning Rescue-issued firefighter gloves were on was to reflect similar gloves utilized as part of firefighting equipment in real-life had bulky design. Akira Amemiya mentioned research he and his peers partaken for the film which involved trying firefighting equipment in addition of scouting New York City.
- To emphasize Lio's reveal scene as his helmet cracked, a scent was added into the scene for the 4DX release. Said scent being roses.
- The studio didn't expect the good reception Promare attained as well as its long screening time in Japan.
- As shown in PROMARE nendroid unboxing by Shigeto Koyama and Hiromi Wakabayashi in Twitch[24]:
- The reason Promare nendroids were released much sooner than expected were in courtesy of Shigeto Koyama's involvement in their review process for Good Smile Company as well as their construction progress. Indeed, he had previously reviewed figures of Sword Art Online and Fate/Stay Night. He had also reviewed 100 figures in a year as well as 40 titles.
- In addition of plushies of Galo, Lio, and Frag-chan (a Studio TRIGGER mascot) as well as aforementioned Nendroids, the event also features a limited edition BD with interchangeable jacket cover and a character pop quiz where the winner would be rewarded with Koyama's icon.
- As a nod to resemblace between Kamina and Galo design-wise, Koyama attached the cape of Kamina's nendroid on Galo's.
Intertextuality and References[]
- Writer Kazuki Nakashima claims he found inspiration from a sci-fi novel about cross-dimensional communication[25].
- The movie’s name is a reference to Prometheus, a Greek trickster titan who stole fire and gave it to humans.
- Early interviews before release had staff claim the term also came from ‘Proto-nightmare.” As the film doesn’t revolve around dream concepts, this appears to have been a lie to hide the plot[26].
- The plot of the movie bears resemblance to the 2001 adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis. Both involve themes of discrimination, a blonde main character, and father figure tyrant.
- A 2017 concept art poster of Promare appears in Akane's room in SSSS.Gridman.
- The Star Wars: Visions short "The Twins" was inspired by Promare[27].
- Both Karre and Am heavily resemble Lio Fotia in looks.
- Both feature a scene where a character's mask breaks off in a dramatic confrontation against the protagonist.