#boop rambles

There are of course so many similarities and influences of Hikeshi and their history in Promare. I’m mostly going to just name a few very obvious ones and possibly get too into ‘thinking too much about an anime’ mode on a couple.

Looking up Edo firefighters brings a ton of articles nicknaming it ‘The city of Fires’. “ Edo (sometimes called City of Fires), was perhaps the most fire prone city in the world; there is a saying, “Fires and quarrels are the flowers of Edo, yet the greater essence is the fireman”. There were over five hundred major fires alone in the period between 1851 and 1867. “ There was a mix of reasons for the constant fires, the hot dry weather conditions, how homes were mostly built with timber and paper, the urban population growing quickly and being confined to small places, and...arson. Arson was a factor as the city was restless with their government and many people were in poverty that burning their own houses and commiting crimes as they felt they didnt have much else to lose from doing so. I honestly recommend just quickly reading the wiki article on the arsons committed during that time as many were of the fires were considered something good or positive. All of this are easy comparisons to the Promare universe, though with a fantastical twist of the Burnish being fire alien hosts.

Hikeshi (firemen) units arose to prevent the fires from spreading. Hikeshi were seen as more of a ‘gang’ and were ‘lawless’ as they didn’t obey police authorities. “ A cross between gangsters and firefighters, these men were heroes to the urban population and feared by the authorities for their lawlessness and bravado. “ They worked for the communities safety first and foremost. And Galo sure has a lot of bravado. 

As arson was a big factor in the fires, the government created a position outside of Hikeshi that was meant to capture and persecute arsonists. The arsonists punishment was to be burned at the stake. “ As a warning to the public, arrested arsonists were paraded through the city and burned at the stake. “ All this is holds very simple comparisons to how Burning Rescue and Freeze Force operate. There is a lot of tension between Ignis and Vulcan in how each organization handles these ‘fires’. The sad scary influence of this history in Promare being that those who caused the fires were to die by fire.

Galo and his Matoi is a very obvious historical refrence and the movie even explains the pride of Hikeshi spirit in Galo’s slideshow. A very simple definition of a Matoi is a flag used to notify people of a fire and to draw attention to other firemen to help put out the fire. It’s not.. a weapon in the way Galo uses it. Each unit had there own Matoi to identify themselves. There were people who were assigned as Matoi holders of each unit and would infact do what Galo does in being loud and waving the Matoi around and were very much needed and respected in their units. 

When I was looking all this up I was mostly researching different things about their uniforms and historical fashion. Looking up Matoi’s you can see how elaborate and unique they were with each Hikeshi unit.

Understandable how Galo’s Matoi was his symbol of pride and handcrafted with such love. Lio making a Matoi for him afterwards must've meant a whole lot to Galo besides the fact of Lio just even remembering what it was. Lio actually payed attention to that slideshow of Galo’s.. he must’ve!

I could talk a bit about the historical uniforms and how intricate and unique each hand embroidered and hand dyed and layer outfit was but ... that doesnt have a connection to Promare and I really do wish Galo had his own unique hand stitched uniform inspired by the Hikeshi. I just headcannon Galo has their old great grandfathers uniform that somehow survived the family’s housefire.

Hikeshi were mostly known to put out fires by destroying and collapsing the houses that were on fire. It was the best means to prevent the fires from spreading. Yet another method was used, “ a type of wooden pump operated by manpower called ryūdosui (竜吐水, "dragon spraying water") was used, but it never became a fully viable means of firefighting due to the lack of uninterrupted water supply. “ Possibly an influence for Lio’s dragon but.. dragons were a big thing in many ways in history so it could be argued that this particular instance in of ‘dragon spraying water’ is just a coincidence and didn’t make the Promare creators go ‘oh lets have a dragon for this exact reason!’.

Sooo there is many things in Promare that was directly influenced by Edo’s history. Galo’s Matoi and passion for Hikeshi being the very obvious one pointed out by the movie itself. But also the power imbalance by the government and the poorer community and how arson and playing with fire was a way to fight back against those in power and how those in power fought back with pure cruelty by turning the arsonists into ash as a warning to others.

Pomare’s creators state how Promare’s main theme is the influence of propaganda skewing facts and causing prejudices. They were focusing and more modern day issues but of course history is very similar to the present in some unfortunate ways sometimes. They may or may not have meant these particular parts of history to be similar to Promare’s plot or storyline and maybe weren’t influenced at all by these events. I just felt like sharing and this is what felt very similar and interesting to state.

If I do have anything wrong or you have more information please add on! Like I stated before I was mostly reading and looking into historical fashion with the Hikeshi when looking them up so i am definitely missing some information.

Truthfully, it hasnt been fun being in the dd fandom on tumblr. Many times ive felt a mixture of anger and frustration. Certain characters written up or being characterized in ways that makes me depressed. I find myself strongly disagreeing in here than actually finding ideas/headcanons to agree with.

Of course, everyone has the freedom to do anything with fictional characters. I suppose I want these characters to be treated the way I specifically want to. A selfish thing but its how I genuinely feel ><

I left after a month and stayed unemployed for a month while job hunting. did commissions and fishcare job for my dad, financially i was stable since i had alot of savings.

soooo right now, i got a new job! i just started this week and im happy to say, its been going well. the pay is just the same as my last job but at least im not stressed out of mind and i can sleep easily fgjfjf

i do hope...i can find some stability in my working life. at least a year or two.

okay thats enough rambling 🐛 also here's a pic of my cat, her name is Baby ❤️

Spells that make you bounce on it are forbidden