Promare

The planet Earth suffered a calamity known as the Great World Blaze, where the fires from mass spontaneous human combustions killed half the world's population. Certain ones developed pyrokinetic abilities during and subsequent to the event, and became known as the Burnish.

Thirty years later, Galo Thymos lives and works as a member of the firefighting group Burning Rescue, in the city of Promepolis. He responds to incidents involving the purported Mad Burnish, a group of liberating terrorists. Galo defeats Lio Fotia, who is brought into custody by Freeze Force, a police force owned by Kray Foresight. However, Lio frees all refugees and himself, in order to escape from prison. They arrive at the cave near a frozen lake, where Lio fails to revive a Burnish scientist with mouth-to-mouth flame transfer technique. Lio tells Galo that Kray is capturing Burnish for use in human experiments.

Kray reveals the plan that Earth will soon be destroyed by an uncontrollable surge of magma from the planet's core which Galo disagrees. Kray discovers that the ability of Burnish can be used to create a warp drive, which he intends to use to flee Earth with a select portion of humanity. Meanwhile, Freeze Force recapture all Burnish remnants and they are sent to the city. When Lio arrives there to confront Kray, Galo intervenes with Lio and the two escape to a frozen lake. The flames melt the lake's ice and reveal a laboratory run by a holographic projection of Deus Prometh. He explains that the Burnish can communicate with the Promare, a race of inter-dimensional flame beings residing in the planet's core. The surging magma has a side effect of subjecting them and Kray's experiments on the Burnish are accelerating the growth.

When Galo and Lio pilot the mecha of Deus' design Deus X Machina, they return to the city and Kray reveals that he is a Burnish. Kray kidnaps and tries to use Lio to power the warp drive, but Galo revives Lio using the mouth-to-mouth technique. Galo, Lio and all refugees sacrifice their power by combining the drive with the mecha, in order to control the magma and protect everyone by themselves.

With the planet restored, Kray loses his power, and Galo and Lio resolve to bring peace.

The film's theme songs, "Kakusei" (覚醒, lit. "Awakening") and "Kōri ni Tojikomete" (氷に閉じこめて, lit. "Imprisoned in Ice"), are performed by Superfly.[10] The soundtrack is composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, with the album published by Aniplex on May 24, 2019.

All music is composed by Hiroyuki Sawano.

Promare was announced at the 2017 Anime Expo on July 2, 2017 as an original anime project co-produced by Trigger and XFLAG that has been in production for over four years,[13] later revealed to be a film in October 2018. Hiroyuki Imaishi and Kazuki Nakashima, both whom worked together previously on Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill, are directing and writing the film, respectively.

Nakashima and Trigger are credited for the original work, with Shigeto Koyama providing the character and mechanical designs, Sanzigen animating the 3DCG sequences and Hiroyuki Sawano composing the music. The film's logo is designed by Saishi Ichiko and Tomotaka Kubo is serving as art director. Sushio, who designed the characters and served as chief animation director on Kill la Kill, is involved as one of the film's animators.[14]

Promare premiered in Japan on May 24, 2019, with Toho distributing the film.[9][15] On June 13, 2019, GKIDS acquired the film for North American distribution, with showings occurring on September 17 and 19, 2019.[16][17][18] It was dubbed into English by NYAV Post.[19] The film was later released again with showings on December 8, 10, and 11, 2019, where it also aired a short prequel film Side: Galo.[20] Another showing of the film in North America was expected to re-air April 7 and 8, 2020 with the two prequel films Side: Galo and Side: Lio as well as a message from Imaishi.[21] However, the third screening in North America was postponed during COVID-19 pandemic.[22]

To promote the upcoming European release, Trigger partnered with Goodsmile Racing and Black Falcon team to field a Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Promare livery in the 2019 Spa 24 Hours endurance race.[23] The car started on pole position and finished 3rd.[24]

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Anime Limited acquired the film, and premiered it at Scotland Loves Anime in Glasgow on October 13, 2019,[25] and a special screening in Edinburgh on October 19, 2019 with director Hiroyuki Imaishi, creative producer Hiromi Wakabayashi, and character designer Shigeto Koyama.[26] In Australia and New Zealand Madman Entertainment premiered the film at Madman Anime Festival Melbourne on September 14, 2019.[27]

• Official website (in Japanese)
• U.S. and Canada official website
• Australia and New Zealand official website
• U.K. and Ireland official website
• Promare (film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Promare on IMDb
• Promare at Box Office Mojo
• Promare at Rotten Tomatoes