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Towa no Quon
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:CreationDate: 2013-01-21 21:15:22
:Id: anime/review/towa-no-quon
:tags: - anime
- review
:rating: 3
:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/towa-no-quon-complete-series-collection
Someone at Bones has been reading the X-Men.
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Bones is a big name in anime: Escaflowne, RahXephon, Wolf's Rain,
Scrapped Princess, Ouran High School Host Club, Soul Eater. They've
spanned several genres, but some of the "signature traits" are very
detailed animation and a preference for character-centric stories. On
the animation aspect, Towa no Quon does not disappoint: people,
backgrounds, monsters, cyborgs, even the "shadowy powers" who seem to
be pulling the strings, they're all drawn and animated with care and a
very good sense of mood and atmosphere. The story, on the other hand,
feels too familiar and phoned in.
What's the story about? Well, there are mutant people with
superpowers; when such power awaken, most people can't control them
and they become dangerous to themselves and those around them. An
organisation called Custos employs assault troops and cyborgs to
capture them, and either study or eliminate them (it's not completely
clear).
Quon is an exceptionally powerful mutant (strength, speed,
regeneration, energy weapons, some kind of telekinesis…) who fights
Custos to protect a large group of (mostly young) mutants, and the
help them learn to control their powers. He's been around for a very
long time (regeneration will do that, just ask Logan), and after
losing his entire village (including his brother Towa), he is
determined to "save everybody". "Saving everybody" has become so
common in anime that it's usually a flag for lazy writing…
Custos is apparently controlled by The Order, a vaguely-defined power
group whose members appear via tele-presence as shadowy figures. If
this does not remind you of the relationship between Seele and NERV,
let me add that The Order only talks to the head of Custos, Kamishiro,
and that he's got his own agenda which is probably not aligned with
either Custos's purpose, or The Order's wishes. He's way less likable
than Gendou, though: he's not just manipulative, he's clearly
power-crazy and evil.
Final pieces on the board, the cyborgs used by Custos are very
powerful (they can go head to head with Quon and hold their ground),
but have some interesting emotional instabilities. I don't want to
spoil the only interesting part of the story, but let me say that some
of the cyborgs are the only characters showing actual development.
In the end, Towa no Quon's story is just not very good, and the
characters feel very flat, to the point that not even director IIDA
Umanosuke (飯田 馬之介) could make the show work, and he was not
without experience: he directed Gundam: 08th MS Team, Hellsing, and
Origin: Spirits of the Past.
I did not notice the music, which is apparently written by KAWAI Kenji
(川井 憲次), one of the greatest anime musician (from Maison Ikkoku to
Ghost in the Shell to Eden of the East). Either the music was very
well coupled with the scenes, or there was not much of it. I should
probably skim the episodes again paying more attention to the
background tunes.
In summary: nothing particularly original, an adequate presentation,
plenty of fights. Not a bad product all in all, but very average.
(Linguistic curiosity: Quon (久遠) means "eternity", and Towa (永久)
means more-or-less the same with a sense of "immortality"; the title
of the series could be read as "immortal eternity" or something like
it).
