Anime Expo 2019

Promare Premiere with Studio Trigger

While the weather in Los Angeles at Anime Expo 2019 was not as hot as last year, Trigger's Promare premiere (Promiere?) was lit in its own right. The newest project from director Hiroyuki Imaishi, screenwriter Kazuki Nakashima (known for their collaborations on Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill) and Studio Trigger initially released in May in Japan, but Anime Expo attendees got a special screening before the East Coast showing at Otakon and the film's wider release in September.

30 years after the first appearance of Burnish, humans who spontaneously combust and can control fire, special firefighting units are created to take care of the destruction. Galo (who is not Kamina!), the steadfast, headstrong rookie of one such group called Burning Rescue, one day encounters the leader of the Burnish terrorist group, Mad Burnish/Lio Fortia. After clashing with Lio, Galo comes to learn the truth of Burnish's powers, how the government is responding to the Burnish race, and what exactly Lio's goals are.

One should go into Promare expecting the full tasting menu of Trigger staples: hard and fast "no time to explain" action with characters who burst through the scenery. Promare has the added visual flair of using both 2D and 3D elements, with XFLAG and SANZIGEN largely heading the later. The movie does a good job of blending the two animation styles, with a focus on simple geometric shapes that explode with a flourish of pinks, blues, and greens.

While the beginning of the story has a certain flavor of politics from the last twenty years, philosophies are then exchanged in the middle of brawls, abilities are amplified with the character's grit, and the solution to a lot of problems come down to "use a cooler robot." But it's hard to argue this as a negative, as every Imaishi and Nakashima outing has promised and delivered that tone. There's a certain energy lingering in a full room of Trigger fans who are ready for just that, strapped in for the impending ride. The creators themselves can't help but give nods to past work, so scenes that seemed even slightly reminiscent of Gurren Lagann or Kill la Kill was met with loud applause and cheer. This is a movie that is built for a theater outing.

After the credits rolled, Tatsuru Tatemono (Tattun), Hiromi Wakabayashi, Shigeto Koyama, and Hiroyuki Imaishi started the official AX Trigger panel to talk about Promare's production and future projects.

Wakabayashi started by saying the studio wanted to premiere Promare at AX since it was originally announced at the event two years ago. "We understand that we have a global audience," Wakabayashi said. "The most common response we hear is that [Promare] is for core fans, but we disagree.”

"Of course we made it for our fans, but we also want it to be an introduction to our work,” Imaishi said.

The team talked about the central themes encapsulated in each Imaishi and Nakashima work: "drills" for Gurren Lagann, "clothes" for Kill la Kill and "fire" for Promare. "I had multiple meetings with Kazuki Nakashima and he came up with [fire]," Imaishi said. "I liked it since fire is a material that doesn't have a physical form. That appeals to me as an animator because it's like emotions: It doesn't have reality or shape. And that's a challenge for an animator."

The chosen colors also played an important role in how the team wanted to show fire as a living, breathing creature. "We tried to avoid using a typical color for it and went with pink and green to make it apparent that it's not an ordinary flame," Koyama said. "At the beginning, the fire is depicted as a snake-like creature. We wanted to show that it's alive."

"I was trying to go for something that is not a real fire, but if you see it in motion it looks real," Imaishi said. "In order to extinguish it, you can't just pour water on it so you have to get into robots and punch it down."

Imaishi added, "Nakashima said to me 'That's not extinguishing. They're just destroying the scene!'”

Wakabayashi then briefly talked about their location research to Yonkers, New York, where they met with a local firehouse. This included two candid photos of Imaishi with a giant chainsaw and another with Imaishi in full firefighter gear carrying a hose. As a nod to the fire department, the character Vinnie the rat is based on one of the people at the station.

Wakabayashi also announced that NY AV Post would be doing the dub, with Trigger closely overseeing the process. It will be interesting to hear how it comes out, particularly between Galo's instinct to make Kabuki-like speeches and some of the more explosive displays of emotion.

The panel then moved onto other projects, starting with the studio's involvement in producing the Shantae 5 game opening. Produced by Naoko Tsutsumi, the short opening features a lot of the Studio Trigger signature style. Imaishi noted that while it may look like something he worked on, he was not involved in the production.

Wakabayashi then gave more details on BNA (Brand New Animal), the new project headed by Yoh Yoshinari and Kazuki Nakashima. Although the info was leaked the day before, Wakabayashi showed off the character concept art for the raccoon Michiru, the unnamed wolf character, and some background image boards. The style looked a lot like Promare at first glance, but whether this is a new house style for Trigger is yet to be seen. While the Imaishi and Nakashima combo is well established, the studio seems willing to experiment and see what chemistry can develop between Yoshinari and Nakashima.

With Trigger in full tour mode for Promare, it's exciting to see how the project came to life from a simple teaser two years ago. The premiere seemed absolutely well received and one can only wonder what Imaishi is cooking up next. But in the spirit of Galo, the elements (whether fire or earthquakes) don't seem to be stopping Trigger's full forward momentum in any way.

Anime News Network later had a chance to sit down with Imaishi, Wakabayashi and Koyama for a brief interview.

ANN: First I want to ask about the color and design of Promare. For example there's a lot of pinks and oranges, and it looks like 1980s pop. How did you come to that choice in design?

Imaishi: Since we knew we were going to be incorporating a heavy use of CG at the beginning, we needed to make the designs and the colors as simple as possible. Then that's where we kind of ended up.

Koyama: There's always like “what's in style.” There's always a method of representation that's in style. For example with app designs on an iPhone. A while ago, all these apps had shadows or were three dimensional. Nowadays they are very flat. This is a style that will be prevalent for a while. We tried to incorporate that and stay with that style. I also notice a lot of 3D animation overseas is becoming very photorealistic. In the anime industry, it's also that same trend of having rich details. We intentionally took an opposite route. I've spoke with Imaishi about that ever since Kill la Kill. His short Sex and Violence with Machspeed was like a test project for what we wanted to do with Promare.

Is the future of anime a hybrid style of 2D and 3D like Promare?

Imaishi: I do think that CG will become more prevalent in the animation industry.

In the special thanks, there's a special credit to Yonkers Fire Department Squad 11. I know you were also just at Anime NYC. When did you go to Yonkers and what was the location research like?

Wakabayashi: We went [to Yonkers] way before Anime NYC. Anime NYC wasn't even an event when we went. Promare doesn't actually take place in New York, but we would like to say it's heavily influenced by New York City. So we went to Yonkers a while ago, and the Yonkers fire station and people were very cooperative. They showed us a lot of equipment and were very helpful in the interviews. We thought it was only natural to give them a special thanks credit.

Was working on a movie more stressful than a tv show? How did you take care of yourself during that process?

Imaishi: If I have to choose, it might be television because there are these small delivery milestones that we have to keep up for almost half a year for every episode week by week. That is stressful. On the other hand, movies just have one delivery that hits like a brick wall. I'd rather get done with the pain with one blow instead of lots of small jabs.

Where is Inferno Cop 2? (Note: Minor spoilers for Promare below)

[group laughs]

Wakabayashi: Inferno Cop 2 was unfortunately delayed because of SSSS.Gridman and Promare. Our president (Masahiko Otsuka) won't give us time to work on Inferno Cop 2 unless we do actual work.

Koyama: Those people who are interested in requesting Inferno Cop 2 are definitely the type of people who would have been chosen for the 10,000 selected few for the Parnassus Project (Note: Koyama is referring to a plot element in Promare). We have nothing to worry about.

Wakabayashi: There is a little easter egg for Inferno Cop in Promare. It's a huge hint for the sequel. It's not just a simple easter egg. If you're a fan, you should rewatch Promare until you find it. You'll be quite surprised when you find it because the detail in the easter egg is pretty good. It shows up for less than a second.

Koyama: But you're the chosen 10,000 so it won't be a problem.

Our thanks to GKIDS, Hiroyuki Imaishi, Shigeto Koyama, Hiromi Wakabayashi, and Tatsuru Tatemono for this opportunity.