Promare

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Promare is a 2019 Japanese animation film co-produced by Studio Trigger and X-Flag, released in Japan on May 24 with US release scheduled to screen on theaters on September 20.

The movie takes place in a world where part of humanity underwent a severe mutation, transforming them into flame beings labelled "Burnish". 30 years later, a terrorist group called "Mad Burnish" started riots in order to voice their survival, and it's the job of a squad of firefighters called "Burning Rescue" to stop them.

Tropes used in Promare include:
  • Ambiguously Gay: The movie is all about Galo and Lio's developing trust and relationship, with the soundtrack containing romantic lyrics from both sides and official artwork putting them in very compromising positions. Not to mention the Kiss of Life Galo gives Lio. Especially evident with Galo, since he ignores Aina's crush on him in favor of Lio. The only thing keeping it ambiguous is the lack of statements by the creators.
  • Angst Nuke: The Burnish were ordinary humans who mutated due to severe stress.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Heris Ardebit has this toward her little sister Aina, working hard to give her sister a better life. Tragically, it's also the reason why she keeps working for Kray Foresight in his plans to eradicate the Burnish despite her distaste of doing so. Thankfully, she manages to fight back once Kray made it clear her sister was expendable.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kray Foresight, the seeming symbol of peace for the people and Galo's hero, is actually a psychopathic madman obsessed with eradicating the Burnish, no matter the cost.
  • Boomerang Bigot: What makes Kray Foresight all the more despicable is that, for all his attempts to eradicate the Burnish, he's secretly a Burnish himself.
  • Broken Pedestal: Galo has always admired Kray Foresight ever since he saved him from a fire when he was younger. Needless to say, he doesn't take it well when he learns what Kray has been doing to the Burnish, and even less so when he learns of how much Kray hated his guts to the point of trying to get him murdered. Ouch.
  • Demonic Possession: The Burnish's powers are actually caused by alien lifeforms who react to emotionally stressed humans. Once they awaken the mutation, it gives the users the ability to transform their flames into every weapon they so desire. That said, they can become Heroic Hosts due to their hosts' mindset, which the Mad Burnish actually are.
  • Fantastic Racism: Humanity is shown to be deeply prejudiced against the Burnish due to their powers.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Galo and Lio start out as enemies, but once the true villain appears and the truth comes out, they team up to save the Burnish, becoming this. It also applies to Burning Rescue and Mad Burnish as a whole.
  • Good All Along/Evil All Along: What The Reveal amounts to. Promepolis' supposed hero, Kray Foresight, is actually a genocidal maniac and the true Big Bad; while the supposed bad guys, Mad Burnish, are actually trying to save their kind from him.
  • The Good, the Bad, and The Evil: What the movie's conflict turns out to be. We have Burning Rescue as the Good, Mad Burnish as the anti-heroic Bad, and Foresight Foundation as the Evil. At the end, though, Mad Burnish teams up with Burning Rescue, becoming the Good as well.
  • Kiss of Life: The Burnish can resurrect themselves this way. Lio tried to save a young girl this way, but it didn't work. In the movie proper, Lio is the one who receives it from Galo, and this time it's successful.
  • Terrible Trio: Lio, Gueira and Meis; with Lio being the cool and collected leader to Gueira and Meis' loud henchmen. True to the trope, they aren't villains to begin with.
  • Undying Loyalty: Gueira and Meis are staunchingly loyal to Mad Burnish's leader Lio Fotia, seeing him as The Paragon for the Burnish race.
  • Uriah Gambit: Galo's recruitment into Burning Rescue turns out to be this, courtesy of Kray.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Subverted. While enslaving the Burnish for fuel and sacrifice most of humanity to save their dimension sounds like this trope, the fact that he never considered more benevolent alternatives, instead ordering genocide on his own kind, make it explicitly clear Kray Foresight is only interested in preserving his personal glory and prestige, with many characters calling him out of it.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Promare?oldid=2005936"