Promare

Now that was an absolute trip! When I was reading the premise of a movie about a world where spontaneous combustion of a human occurs, I almost immediately thought, OK here comes another Fire Force. However, I was wrong, because this is Studio Trigger, and when you look at who directed it nothing much should surprise you. From the first few minutes and while watching the supercharged, dynamic, and insane fight scene I was just open-mouthed, glued to the screen, and the pace never let up. I myself am shocked that they managed to cram a decent, interesting narrative into an action-packed movie with such a limited running time, which on the one hand makes a lot of sense and on the other hand contains, as usual with this studio, a completely exaggerated, insane and sometimes unbelievable ending!  In addition, calling one of the mechas that unexpectedly shows up Deus ex Machina is a total, genius fucking stunt that had me laughing and banging my head against the wall at the same time. Sure, it is full of tropes and clichés, the characters are pretty flat and the whole thing is incredibly over-the-top at times, yet I could not care less... The animation is not done in a style that suits everyone, however, they make the fight scenes beautifully colorful, incredibly dynamic - and simply very impressive (especially the first and then the last). Then there is the soundtrack which is just great! It comes naturally to compare this anime to Gurren Lagann, even though Promare loses by at least a point in most respects, simply because GL anime devotes more time to plot and character development... Even the action scenes in Gurren Lagann are more explosive. Well never mind, I still enjoyed the hell out of this. Everything Burns... 8/10. (02/08/2020)