"2DAniCritic" Review:

Towanoquon

Review Score: 1.50 / 5.00        

Have you ever made a blind-purchase of anime on home video? It's a silly question. Who would spend $30 - $60 on an anime without knowing if it's good? On the other hand, everyone throws money away on something, be it $100 on a Friday night drinking and dancing, or $200 on a nice pair of shoes. In my case, physical media of animation is my weakness, partly spurred by a constant fear that something I may one day be interested in will be made unavailable or out of print, and further encouraged by extreme sales around the holidays. I picked up a Bluray of 2011s "Towa no Quon," (or "Towanoquon" on the US box) for under $10, a seemingly good deal for a series of six feature films. It came from Studio Bones, a strong animation house, and had interesting cover art.

In this case, I was bored out of my mind. The plot is set in an alternate future where mutant humans are hunted by an evil organization. The mutants stay in hiding together, protected in part by the fearless and brave hero Quon, able to transform into a superhero capable to taking significant damage as a martyr while others escape. Basically its a weird cross between "X-Men" and "Power Rangers," told across six 50-minute films. The stories aren't entirely bad (there is drama and tension to be had), but the anime suffers from being incredibly generic. At no point was there a unique plot point or visual that I could connect as being distinct to this show; all of it could easily be mistaken for something else. Despite being a "theatrical" series of films, the animation is severely limited, only impressing in roughly a minute of flash-back footage drawn in a sketchy-pencil style. Otherwise, it looks significantly worse than anything else with Studio Bones' label on it.

Back to the story, where could it have been fixed? Quon is the only vaguely memorable character, but even he feels one-dimensional, with the sole purpose of sacrificing himself and carrying the pain of battle to save those he loves. Better enemies would have helped (while they do have an arc, it is far too predictable and not as compelling as it wants to be). Using "sentai" inspired hero costumes looks and feels ridiculous in this context. Better directors and writers have taken worse ideas and made them interesting or at least fun to watch. With "Towanoquon," it feels a chore to sit through. Being one of Sentai Filmwork's earliest English dubs, the voice acting (either English or Japenese) doesn't help matters.

Granted, it's easy to find this particular series on sale, and if you are explicitly in the mood for it, "Towanoquon" might be worth the cheap entry price. But it is otherwise entirely skippable, better shows and film series exist to spend your money on.