First Look: Promare (v2)
Added 2022-10-04 04:30:00 +0000 UTCHindsight: Promare (name pending) will be coming in 1 week. Put your mouth where your money is and help me understand this thing.
Comments
I mean yea, that is textbook Imaishi
TerminuS
2022-10-19 01:50:55 +0000 UTCWhen i first saw Promare, I didn't think that much of it. Sure, it was funtastic, with great and original animation techniques, a bombastic plot and lots of spirit going into it. That being said, i don't think this movie tells a very complex or compelling story. 1-There is a conflict between a subgroup of the population desiring change but expressing their anger the wrong way and a corrupted/obsolete government directing their ressources in the wrong direction. 2-Said sides are represented by 2 protagonists, a destructive advocate of change and a passionate protector of peace. 3-Both protagonists are right in their ideals, but wrong about how those ideals fit into the bigger picture. 4-They meet and start a series of clashes (where they stand their grounds) and discussions (where they get to see the other side of the argument). 5-Said confrontations lead them to understand each other better and get closer to the truth. 6-In revealing the truth, they face a villain playing hero, a strong willed individual leading mankind to its doom with a flawed perception of the truth. Said flawed perception is never called into question by the villain because, as he stands alone, he has no tool to see the other side of the argument. 7-The two protagonist reach the truth: a state where both of them understand the bigger pictures, and act in unison to create change. The truth explodes and the world is saved. Overall, the movie works, makes for a good thrillride. What's bugging me is that the movie isn't trying to make the most of its story. It's not trying to be subtle about it: Kray makes an easy heel-turn really early-on, the people go from loving the pizza to hating it when they know it's from a burnish... It's not trying to do much more either: we don't spend enough time with secondary characters to get invested in them, Aina and her sister have the most of it, and it's reeeaaally simple. We never get to truly know the Promare and their desire to burn, they can't even register as characters, we vaguely cared for them through the burnish, and at the end they just go away, leaving an absolute happy ending where the problem is over and that's it (not really good for any representation the movie could be going for). Plus, the themes are a bit vague and could represent a lot of things, from societal critic to ecologic message, and the subgroup represented by the Burnish could be anyone. I have no familiarity with LGBTQ+ representation in media, nor do i particularly seek it, but i don't think there's a lot to infer here. At the end, i come back to this movie because of it's production value and artistic components, it's very well made and worth the time and effort, plus it's a fun time and the story is cool and have you listened to that music! It's not as good as the studio's best works tho.
darkymatter
2022-10-06 21:18:07 +0000 UTCI think this show is an anthem for anyone passionate about something and facing strong opposition to it. You took a viewpoint of it representing LGBTQ vs. the world. I could take it with a religious slant. The fire burning inside those who were oppressed is the Gospel of Christ. There are those who violently oppose the Gospel waving their flag for science and reason, trying their best to snuff out any vestige of religion. If we only worked together, we could see a new world of cooperation. This movie's message is one of unity, through mutual understanding, in the face of differing views for the greater betterment of humanity.
Mark Wise
2022-10-06 09:35:12 +0000 UTCJust trying to watch the shows, but almost forgetting myself
Virjunior
2022-10-06 04:11:19 +0000 UTCAlright! I'm gonna watch again. I admit, I wasn't anywhere near as secure as I am now back when I saw those shows. Even Promare. I saw that maybe 2 years ago, but only in the last year and change have I been confident in saying I'm bi.
Virjunior
2022-10-06 04:10:49 +0000 UTCPromare as seen through in lgbtq lens is really interesting to me. When I first saw the film, I went into it thinking there was going to be obvious shipping fanservice added into it (Lio’s feminine androgynous appearance and Galo’s overly masculine appearance pointed to this) and nothing else. And to an extent, that is true. But I was pleasantly surprised by the queer subtext apparent throughout the film. Maybe in can see as be reaching, or that it was unintended, but there’s a little too much of it that I don’t think the queer undertones can be written off completely. The burnish can be seen as an obvious metaphor for queer people, like you said with the oppression they faced. But there’s a little more to it than that imo, as it also shows how close tight knit the group is, how the burnish look out for one another, that I think rings very true to real life queer communities. And the kiss “cpr” scene wasn’t put there by accident. And it plays out in a refreshing way-there’s a clear joke set up for Galo to freak out about kissing Lio, and to reaffirm to the audience it was only to save him and he is completely straight-only to subvert that and the punchline is instead that Galo is upset that he lit a fire, not that he kissed another man. And it’s a kiss, or love, that heals the burnish. There’s also added little touches, like the fact that Galo has a straight romance clearly set up, but he never actually ends up with her. He literally drops her when she’s expecting a kiss to chase after Lio and the burnish. (also-this is likely unintended, but pink triangles have historically been used as a symbol for lgbtq, which is in abundance in the film). All these elements and other aspects makes me feel like the queer subtext is intended. It’s not particularly deep nor explicit, and it’s only really there if you look for it and want to see it, and for those that don’t, won’t. A sort of having the cake and eating it too here. Mostly, the queer subtext in the film is just shipping fan service at the end of the day. But I think that’s fine for this film, as it’s main purpose is to not be particularly deep anyway. Also, the music slaps.
707
2022-10-05 20:27:27 +0000 UTCYeah I thought it was funny when he said "I've heard this film has some LGBT representation" because I knew it was just the doujins.
giraffekey
2022-10-05 05:19:27 +0000 UTCI'm sure one can find deeper meaning in Digimon, but most watching it are enamored with something so long-lived as well as the cultivated FOMO mindset of something collectible, paired with nostalgia. In Promare, I saw this taking an almost Smash Brothers approach where most of the meat is just referencing "remember those cool things we made?" And adding an androgynous character, I think the studio misjudged the audience's progressiveness and it came off as a type of pandering... ticking off boxes to hit demographics. Despite the movie being nothing to me, I look forward to seeing what you and other people get out of it.
Virjunior
2022-10-05 03:48:01 +0000 UTCI'm real simple. I didn't care, and never really look for reactions on things I've never watched. So going in completely blind, honestly, the gay "implications" just came off as bishonen androgynous fanservice. Fio is really.. like REALLY cute, and I think that ended up being a bit detrimental to the show... not from a standpoint of possible LGBTQ representation, tropes or physical depiction, but because I kinda feel like the larger anime fan community is kinda simple.
Virjunior
2022-10-05 03:42:17 +0000 UTCTl;Dr - gay rep was just an overhyped moment by shippers, and I don't think it was actually intended as such by the movie's creators.
BeastialMoon
2022-10-04 23:46:17 +0000 UTCI, too, went in to this looking for the LGBT rep that had been shown and social media, and while there is a hint of it here and it flows naturally if you're looking for it, I actually think that most of it comes from people just looking to ship the two of them. Which is totally OK! As someone who does identify as bi, I was excited to see any rep if it happened! But, in my opinion, there's nothing inherently romantic here. Besides some CPR - note how Galo is using two of his fingers to hold Lio's head in the right position to keep the airways clear in that scene. That's not to say there's not a potential for it in their future, and there's the argument one could make that combining two personalities like they do is analogous to a marriage or partnership. However, that's all background, and in-shot it just doesn't come across to me as them actually being gay for each other - just two people with different ideals coming together to protect others. [I will, however, continue to ship them without remorse, even if it doesn't look Canon] All in all, though, this was a VERY welcome video and discussion, and I CANNOT wait for next week! ❤️
BeastialMoon
2022-10-04 22:21:04 +0000 UTCOne thing I found interesting from discussions when Promare came out was the discord around the nature of the film as an allegory for being gay. It's a pretty common thing for anime to have messy allegories for such things, having the oppressed group also be violent by nature (another anime talked about a lot with this is Yurikuma Arashi). I understand both sides of this kind of argument, whether an allegory can fall into misrepresenting the nature of its message, that the inherent urge for destruction from the Burnish can be interpreted negatively about being gay and that an allegory doesn't need to be a perfect recreation of the idea it's representing. I'd be curious about your ideas on the matter though.
beans
2022-10-04 18:58:23 +0000 UTClooking forward to the follow up vid next w/k! 😃
anichannel
2022-10-04 18:26:00 +0000 UTC
