By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
Available on iTunes and Regular Release Now
Collector’s Edition
August 4th, 2020
When humans are spontaneously combusting like nobody’s business, a new type of firefighter is needed to keep the peace in the feature-film length film, Promare. Some of these “victims” have learned how to control this pyrokinetic ability so they don’t die. They’re known as the Burnish and Lio Fotia rallied the bad ones together to form a terrorist organization to which the Freeze Force has to put (pardoning the pun) on ice.
30 years later, the struggle continues on. The Earth is undergoing a geologic change, and only a select few mutants can escape since they can “teleport” away. But nobody knows that there’s another race, the Promare, who resides in this planet’s inner core. They are in pain, and what’s happening results from the enemy toying with them.
The mythology in this series is as wild as the character designs. I like to see a role playing game developed, but I’m sure using the rules from Mekton Zeta by R Talsorian Games is enough–with a little house rules added in.
For the series itself, I particularly love the use of solid colour design over phong shading. When dealing with a style that hints towards Andy Warhol, the artistic style is one I will never tire of! For some unknown reason, FLCL comes to mind more so than any other anime because of the funky designs used here. The sharp angled designs by Shigeto Koyama caught my attention when this anime was first advertised.
Ever since I learned this movie would close off Fantasia Animation Festival 2019, I knew it might make a screening in my province either in Vancouver or Victoria. Though it didn’t happen, I knew the home video would be soon. Aside from noticing a huge difference between the Japanese Language and English Dub edition, that age-old argument doesn’t have to be made. I favour the original since the nuances in the animation was created for Japanese dialogue in mind.
The regular edition is available now, but I want the Collector’s Edition due August 4th, 2020! This edition includes an exclusive soundtrack, booklet, poster and sticker. Plus, it will have the shorts Gaio and Lio so I will have everything in one package! As for whether there will be more Promare, I’m expecting Studio Trigger will produce more.
5 Stars out of 5
Bonus Features included with the Collector’s Edition:
- CD Soundtrack
- 52-Page Booklet
- English Souvenir Script
- Mini-Poster
- Decal Sticker
- Interview with Director Hiroyuki Imaishi
- Studio TRIGGER Roundtable
- Side: Galo and Side: Lio Short Films with Original Versions and English Dub
- English Dub Cast Featurette
- Trailers
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