(aka,Promare: Puromea, Promare 4D, Puromea 4D)
I know, I know.
I keep grumbling that all the animation out there looks like Pixar-lite. Unless it is anime, and then it looks like Miyazaki-lite.
Yeah, yeah, there are quite a few animated films which break from these molds, but they are sadly rare. However, anime isn’t quite as chained to its conventions as Western animation has been.
Although, even in the world of anime, there aren’t too many movies out there which so thoroughly shred our expectations the way Promare does.
It’s hard even to begin to describe Promare.
For starters, the first thing you notice is the color palette.
This is a story about the mysterious Burnish, human mutants who suddenly burnt down most of civilization on a single day when they spontaneously produced vast amounts of flame from within themselves.
However, these flames do not look like any flame you’ve ever seen in your life before, as they are sky blue and magenta!
This odd color pairing sets the theme for most of the film, which seems to be primarily in pastel colors. Even the red of the fire engines is muted.
Naturally, in a world where an angry mutant can set huge fires without trying, the fire department is dedicated and technologically advanced, with a big collection of high-tech machines, special suits and tools, and the incredibly dedicated (if not terribly bright) Galo rushing first into any fire no matter how big.
And, when we are introduced to him and to the rest of the team — and to any of the other major characters in the story — we are given a beauty shot and a huge, fullscreen logo in both English and Japanese.
Before you know it, the firemen find themselves up against the most dangerous of all the Burnish, the group known as “Mad Burnish” and their supremely talented and powerful leader, Lio.
Who is quickly identified with a big logo, just like his two top henchmen.
But we’ve all seen anime movies before, so we know that Lio and Galo will have to team up, there will be conspiracies and a potentially world ending threat.
More than just a color palette, there is the total look of this film. I have no idea how it works: every scene seems a total riot of colors and shapes, and yet, if you stop and look at any image, no matter how cluttered it might seem at first glance, it is perfectly composed, and communicates immediately. While it may look like utter chaos, it is remarkably controlled, thought out and carefully presented.
All this in a film which will probably induce epileptic seizures in those with no history of the disease.
If you need some sort of explanation for this incredible feat, you need look no further than the director, Hiroyuke Imaishi, who also directed the utterly insane cult favorite, Dead Leaves, a crazy, non-stop film with a dazzling display of stylized animation, and an equally simple story.
And dazzling is definitely the word for Promare, with its eccentric but instantly recognizable character designs, the wild-eyed vehicles whose 3-D animation has seamlessly been combined with a largely hand-animated world, and its over the top action sequences.
But the story is always interesting, if somewhat familiar for an anime, and it all moves along like a freight train, with no intention of stopping. And yes, it is silly and goofy enough to be fun the whole way through.
And yes, it got one big laugh from me when a giant robot is first introduced, and we get the big, fullscreen logo identifying it as:
Deus X Machina.
Okay, that’s bad. Extra points for that one!
Let’s face it: if you are as tired of routine anime films as I am, if you are hoping to find something unique, weird and yes, a little strange which could only be achieved through animation, then this is the film you have been looking for. It’s weird, it’s wild, it doesn’t look like anything else you’ve ever seen before, and it makes its crazy balancing act between excessive style and comprehensibility look easy.
Only in Japan, right?
I suppose there’s still a little hope left for animation, after all…