A film that I consider wild is Promare, produced in 2019 by Japanese animation companies Trigger and XFLAG, directed by Hiroyuki Imashi, and written by Kazuki Nakashima. The movie stars Galo Thymos (Kenichi Matuyama), a rookie member of the Burning Rescue firefighting team who faces Lio Fotia (Taichi Saotome), the leader of the arsonist terrorist group Mad Burnish composed of pyrokinetic humans called the “Burnish” who must burn to survive. As the film progresses, Galo learns from Lio that the Burnish are facing persecution from his childhood hero, Kray Foresight (Masato Sakai), eventually leading them to join forces & stop Kray from using the alien Promare inside the Burnish to fuel a spaceship needed to flee a soon to explode Earth. Working together, Lio and Galo pilot a mecha to destroy the ship and let the Burnish burn off their Promare harmlessly, preventing Earth’s destruction and allowing humans and Burnish to live together. The movie has themes of prejudice, segregation, perseverance, unity, & love as Galo and Lio figuratively (and literally) get together to destroy the walls that separated the Burnish and humans. What makes this film wild for me is Trigger’s explosive animation work and electrifying colors, along with the spontaneous and insane plot, creating a viewing experience that is excessively over the top and captivating.
One scene that best reflects my reasoning on Promare’s wildness is the finale of the film where Galo and Lio burn the Earth. The two of them power up their mecha again through the support of the humans and Burnish they represent and transform to galactic proportions, in which they then proceed to punch the Earth several times to combust all of the Promare on the planet, allowing them to burn safely. Their punches echo through the solar system, igniting the other planets and allowing them to send the Promare back home. I feel that the intensity of the action combined with the visual overload of colors, which some may say is hard to follow, ultimately encapsulates the extravagant nature of Promare.
– Kenny Ly