Towa no Quon Complete Series Collection   Starring (voice): Hiroshi Kamiya, Kaori Nazuka and Ryoko Shiraishi Manga Entertainment RRP: £24.99 MANG5281 Certificate: 15 Available 12 November 2012

Frightened and alone, Yūma, find himself in a park, his body transforming. Shooting destructive coloured globes from his body, he is confronted by Custos, a clandestine organisation intent on eliminating any child which shows emergent powers. Before they can properly attack, the boy is rescued by Quon and taken to a secret facility, hidden within the Fantasium Gardens amusement park, where he can learn to control his powers...

Towa no Quon (2011) is a six episode anime show, directed by the late Umanosuke Iida (Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team (1996), Hellsing (2001)), from a Masashi Sogo (Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal (1999), Bleach: Memories of Nobody (2006)) script. Each episode is forty-five minutes long, joining the shows which fall somewhere between regular half an hour shows and full blown movies.

The whole season is presented on a two DVD set. The six episodes of the show are spread across the two DVDs, Fleeting Petals, Wild Dance of Chaos, Never ending Crime, Crimes in a Blank Dream, Heroic Return and Eternal Eternity. Audio is DTS 5.1 in English or Japanese, with English subtitles. The extras are to be found on the second disc with a full length commentary for Episode 6 with Stephen Foster (ADR director and script writer) and Ty Doren (Yūma), whose first anime this is. You also get the Original Japanese Teaser (31 sec), Original Japanese Trailer (1 min, 28 sec), six Extended Previews (all around 1 min, 41 sec) and the Textless Closing Songs (5 min, 11 sec).

The opening sequence sets the standard of the show very high with a well-choreographed and visually stunning battle between the Custos cyborgs and the Attractors. The quality of the animation is much higher than your average show and at points it more than often verges on, and achieves, a cinematic quality.

The show has a modern, urban and contemporary setting, although the technology would indicate that the show is set sometime in the future. The show’s opening sequence is a mash of Guyver and Akira, although the underlying premise of the show owes more than a little to the X-Men, with Quon, who has been alive for a thousand years, playing the role of Professor X, determined to save all the emerging Attracters, as the super powered children are called.

Each of the children has a different power, although none, including Quon, are indestructible and through the series many get seriously injured. Custos is headed by the relentless Genji Kamishiro, who commands the army of cyborgs, only one, Epsilon, retains a semblance of his humanity, a fact which will play an important part in the story.

Overall, it’s a very worthy show and an appropriate swan song for Umanosuke Iida, even if some of the concepts are a little derivative.

8

Charles Packer