Promare-
Easily the best thing Imaishi has done since TTGL. I say this as someone that generally doesn't like Imaishi's directorial style. Still though, the work is Imaishi through and through so if you absolute hate all of his shows, including TTGL, then you probably won't like this. This movie though unlike most of Imaishi's works had an emotional core in it that is definitely closer to TTGL than any of his other works. In short, unlike Kill La Kill that was marketed by Aniplex as the spiritual successor to TTGL, Promare is without a doubt the spiritual successor to TTGL. Why am I bringing up TTGL so much? Because
the movie is pretty much another take on the second half of TTGL almost note for note early on. Promare is a work where the more familiar you are with Imaishi's past works the more you will get out of it, both positively and negatively. The first 3/4ths of the movie aren't that referential despite sharing larger themes with past works but the final battle has a ton of Gainax references such as the Gainax Pose or throwbacks to Panty & Stocking. I was talking with someone after the movie and they loved that aspect of the movie while I hated it so you're going to see a lot of split opinions especially in regards to that part.
That said, up until a very particular point in the movie, I was seriously thinking that this might end up being better than TTGL. The movie goes to a certain place and it's such a high that I was sitting there being blown back in my seat.
It's when Lio is in utter despair and is just going to burn down the entire city.Not only was the animation in that part especially good but the raw emotions from everyone came through. The movie had been building up to that scene and it's really something else. The problem is the part right after where the movie takes such a swerve that it forces you to have to roll with it and while they do play it off with jokes, it comes across as a really clumsy way of getting the characters back into the plot and serves as an exposition dump. It's a big misstep especially after how good the rest of the movie had been up onto that point. I feel like Nakashima could have done better to smooth that part into the movie, he does somewhat foreshadow it but it's placement and how important the sequence is, he should have done more.
I also have issues with how they handled the villain. I think a more nuanced take similar to how
Rossiu was handled in TTGL would have done wonders. Early on that seems to have been what they were going for but they threw that out the window at a certain point. I guess Imaishi likes his villains being very 'defined'. One thing I'm not sure I'm reading correctly is that
the villain hates Galo because Galo is a reflection of his own weakness and guilt, hence him trying to kill Galo all along. The villain's final form and weapons are really neat from both a design and functionality standpoint.
The animation in the movie is very good, both 2D and CGI. Imaishi deserves a lot of credit for how well implemented CGI was into this movie. There were a few cuts that I noticed the models were CGI but other times I wasn't sure. Imaishi also used lots and lots of camera rotations and motion so he was definitely taking advantage of the strength of CGI. It's in line with his work on Black Rock Shooter. Early on there is so much motion going on that it becomes a little overbearing, in that it's hard to keep track of everything but the movie takes a few steps back later and, outside of the final battle, the motion is a bit more restrained in comparison to the opening rescue sequence. The art direction uses lots and lots of geometric shapes such as triangles and rectangles, which gives it a unique flair in comparison to not only Imaishi's previous works but other anime in general. Similarly the color palette was surprisingly good especially in the more atmospheric/slower moments. The soundtrack is very Sawano which of course means there's some scenes that work really well and some that don't. I don't think there were any major clunkers music-wise though.
One thing that surprised me is how dark this movie is. The opening sequence actually reminded me of Shin Sekai Yori.
The whole opening montage of the riots against the mutants and people being set on fire along with large parts of the Earth being set ablaze threw me for a loop. It was such a dark and untypical way for Imaishi to start any of his productions off. It works though as a way of highlighting how dangerous the Burnish are, as well as how showing how close the human race came to extinction. The movie has some really awesome scenes in it such as
when the villain is trying to burn Galo to a crisp and Galo is covered in flames. Galo's outline looks like it's going to disappear like when a character dies such as Kittan in TTGL but the outline visually recovers itself and you see that Galo is alive and walking forward. It's a nice little play on the usual visual trope. I thought the storyboarding as well was a little sharper than Imaishi's usual fare for example he uses a pizza slice as a screen wipe early on.
Before watching this movie I was joking about if Imaishi is washed or not. Turns out both Imaishi and Nakashima still got some juice left in them.
