Director: Umanosuke Iida
Starring: Corey Hartzog, Hiroshi Kamiya, Jessica Boone, Kaori Nazuka, Monica Rial, Ryoko Shiraishi, Adam Gibbs, Chiaki Omigawa, Andrew Love, Jouji Nakata, David Matranga, Kousuke Toriumi, David Wald,
Running Time: 300 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: Textless outro, commentary on Episode 5, original Japanese teaser and trailer, extended previews
Unlike most anime series TOWANOQUON decides to express itself over the course of six 45 minute mini-movies, rather than the usual 22 minute long episodes. So what does this mean in terms of story? First of all, I am happy to say, each episode is wonderfully paced and justifies its running time. The exciting action elements play out well, while we also get plenty of character development. This is essential in anime, as many can often rely on a formulaic approach to each episode.
TOWANOQUON takes place in the near future, where certain children start displaying signs of supernatural abilities. The more experienced superpowered beings protect the younger ones and are lead by Quon, a being with the ability to turn into an awesome fighting beast. Quon has a dark past which makes him feel responsible for having to save as many of the superbeings as possible, which proves to be a rather difficult task given that a unit of cyborgs are given the task of hunting them down.
The not-too-distant-future setting is brought to life with some exceptional animation that creates bold and vivid colours which don’t detract when the material gets a little darker. The superhuman abilities gradually appearing are somewhat reminiscent of X-MEN and other comic based superheroics, but it is also culturally rooted in Japanese anime with robots, violence, and difficult emotional arcs for characters, being heavily present. As the powers awaken we see them clearly represented as both gifts and curses. Some of the children are genuinely very dangerous and cause concern even amongst their own kind. I loved how each character is also at a different level in terms of how they can control their power. The teleporter Takao, serves as the antithesis of Quon, he doesn’t believe everyone can be saved, but he is also not so fussed about using his power. This means that when he does decide to teleport, he often twists his wrist or lands awkwardly. It makes action scenes more exciting if we know that the powers may not always serve the characters perfectly.
As the series progresses, the shady government cyborgs working for Custos, who are in turn working for The Oldoe, get closer and closer to causing some real damage to the young superbeings, but as you may have guessed there are other things at work. Leader of Custos, Kamishiro, seems to be pushing his luck when concerning what he can get away with, while Quon has some deep dark secrets of his own. These revelations come about at the most important times in the series, raising the stakes and adding some emotional context to fights and battles.
The real brilliance of this series comes in the action sequences. Every single one is beautifully drawn, coloured, animated, and flows with expert pacing and precision. The well framed shots keep the action visible without putting us at a distance, while the editing keeps the beat. The violence is also used sparingly and to great effect. It’s easy in these kinds of shows to use the violence to such a degree that it fails to have an impact. Despite being animation, you can feel the cuts and bone crushing during each fight.
TOWANOQUON is a great mix of everything science-fiction, but don’t expect it to shy away from going full on fantastical. Lovers of the genre should have a real blast getting to know the wide range of characters and seeing some unforgettable visuals, but those same fans will also be familiar with a lot of the twists and turns present throughout the six episodes.
Extras: A textless closing credit sequence, which isn’t as impressive as previous releases because the sequence doesn’t really stand out as an artistic visual piece by itself. There’s a commentary on episode 5 with the ADR director and Ty Doran, which is interesting as it is Doran’s first time voicing an anime and he is also the youngest member of the cast. Other members of the cast join throughout the running time and give their own experiences. I’d still like to have some subtitled efforts of those that actually make the show, even though the dub is very good.
TOWANOQUON is released on DVD on 12th November 2012. Grab a copy here.
