Okay, so Promare is a mecha firefighting anime movie where the world and its people are protected by a physical manifestation of the power of friendship and unity which consumes the entire planet in flames, then saved by a giant fucking robot called Deus X Machina who punches the shit out of it. It is easily one of if not the most ridiculous anime I have ever seen and not shy about that fact in the slightest, and I fucking loved it. Promare was made by Studio Trigger, who I’m sure many of you are familiar with as being the studio responsible for Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann. Now, I have not seen either of those shows but I am familiar with them, they’re widely regarded as being super classics within the anime sphere and particularly recognizable for their extremely stylistic art and animations. Promare is no different and is easily one of the best animated shows I’ve seen in a solid while, up there at the same level as even One Punch Man. In general, Promare is not about telling a super deep and engrossing story. In reality, the story exists as an excuse for the action, and it gets away with it for multiple reasons, the first and foremost among them being how god damn good the action is. It is flashy as all hell, fast-paced and incredibly well-animated, a stunning display of pure visual spectacle from what are easily some of the best artists and animators in the industry. There are occasional sections of the show where it is clear all of the really hardcore work was put into the action sequences leaving some of the quieter sections less well off, but this is mostly unnoticeable and very minor especially with how cool the art style is to look at even when there isn’t a whole bunch of crazy shit happening on screen (which is not often in the first place). The context for the action is utterly silly and nonsensical, but it’s not meant to be serious. Part of what makes this show so enjoyable is the sheer absurdity of what is happening onscreen, with people using ice guns and fighting purple fires with giant fucking mech suits. I should probably actually properly elaborate on the basic premise; essentially, our world is suddenly changed when people start spontaneously combusting into purple fire and becoming these supernatural alien beings known as the Burnish. The Burnish cause this huge fucking cataclysm event where they set fire to half the world, and eventually regular humans are forced to develop super advanced firefighting technology in order to combat them. They deem all of the Burnish as terrorists, make this cool city called Promepolis built by the Foresight Foundation led by this dude called Kray Foresight and like 30 years later the movie is about the misadventures of our protagonist Galo, a new recruit of the Burning Rescue team dedicated to keeping the people safe from Burnish criminals. For as ridiculous as the story is, I’d rather not spoil any of it because it is a hell of a trip, all you need to know is that in the end it boils down to the Earth being saved by the power of friendship. In terms of the ways in which they make use of the firefighting theme here, it’s fucking great; ice turrets mowing down waves of what are essentially fire aliens and turning them into ice blocks is so god damn ridiculous yet such a flashy spectacle. Everything about the show is over the top, from the villains to the action to the stakes, etc. If you’re looking for a deep and well-constructed story with meaning, this isn’t it—this is a movie about fire people and firefighters fighting eachother with giant mechs and it’s fucking incredible. In terms of the characters, I initially thought I wasn’t going to like Galo, but you quickly start to realize that he’s a good protagonist here specifically because his entire demeanor is so ridiculous. Some of the shit he says would be terrible dialogue in any other show, but here it is icing on the cake when Galo goes on about his burning firefighter soul, it’s some of the funniest fucking shit I have experienced in a while, ESPECIALLY considering I watched the dub (GASP). The writers pull every imaginable trope straight out of their asshole knowingly creating what I can only describe as the most anime-anime that I have ever seen, it’s incredibly self-aware yet I’m not sure I can really describe it as being a parody because the whole thing is played completely straight, used as a vehicle for over-the-top action scenes. Honestly the entire thing is one giant excuse for its animators to be like “Alright, we’re gonna show all of these other lazy-ass animators out here how it’s fucking done”. All-in-all, this movie may be no literary masterpiece by any means, but its self-awareness, incredibly well animated action sequences, unique looking artstyle, bangin’ soundtrack and strong comedic element make this an easy one for me to recommend to everybody. Also, I briefly mentioned that I watched the dub—Promare has what is easily one of the best English dub jobs I’ve heard in a very long time, though I’m sure part of that can be attributed to how intentionally silly its characters are. It just sounds like everybody voicing it was having a good time, you can tell there was a lot of care and attention to detail put in here by people who actually gave a shit and were having fun with it. There’s not much more for me to say, so go and give this a watch, I’d recommend this especially to those of you who primarily watch dubs since I think the English dub here legitimately enhances the experience and helps some of the ridiculous comedy and absurd dialogue land a little harder.