Towa no Quon is a six-part animated film directed by the late Umanosuke Iida (with Takeshi Mori, of Vandread fame, acting as "collaborative director" in his place) and produced by Studio BONES.
In a futuristic Tokyo, unique human beings are developing strange abilities and are being hunted by a mysterious organization known as Custos. Known as "Attractors", these humans join forces to defend themselves and create a place where they can live in peace, led by a boy named Quon, an idealist who is determined to save all the Attractors he can.
Sentai Filmworks announced during the 2011 Anime Weekend Atlanta that they have licensed the film series and is currently broadcasting it on their Anime Network subtitled on a biweekly basis starting on Thursday, October 13th. A DVD and Blu-Ray release is expected to follow shortly afterwards.
The OVA also has a one-volume prequel manga, Towa no Quon: Episode at Daybreak, that takes place shortly before the start of the OVA.
Tropes found in Towa no Quon:
- All-Loving Hero: Quon, with a bit of The Paragon in there as well, as he encourages the other Attractors to learn to use their abilities for good. In Chapter 6, he comes close to killing the Big Bad in revenge for Towa, despite knowing that it goes against his ideals.
- All There in the Manual: Certain pieces of information, such as Quon's last name, are never mentioned within the OVA but in outside material.
- Anti-Villain: Aside from Kamishiro and some of the cyborgs, Custos eventually becomes this—particularly the unnamed scientists that works with the cyborgs. In the finale, all of the workers choose to work with the Attractors to survive and escape.
- Art Shift: The beginning of Chapter 4.
- Bandage Wince: Takao, when getting his casts put on.
- Blessed with Suck: Most of the powers, considering they come with a constant risk of the user completely losing control of them.
- Face–Heel Turn: Takao, briefly, when he's told that he'll be able to see his parents again.
- Failure Knight: The reason Quon's so dedicated to protecting everyone? Guilt for not being able to help one thousand years ago when his clan was slaughtered.
- Fantastic Racism: Against the Attractors, as their existence disturbs the 'order.'
- Genre Throwback: The character designs and animation style are clearly a homage to 80's anime such as those by Leiji Matsumoto. The Art Shift beginning of Chapter 4 are especially blatant homage of violent, surreal anime of days gone by.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: See Healing Factor below. Quon receives injuries that would be fatal to just about anyone else almost Once an Episode.
- Government Conspiracy: Averted. The group going after the kids are revealed to be unassociated with the Japanese government.
- Healing Factor: One of Quon's abilities, to the point of him being Nigh Invulnerable. And it's a good thing, too.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- In Chapter 6, Hizuru shields Shun from being stabbed.
- A wounded Shun blows himself up so that everybody else can escape from a self-destructing building in Chapter 6.
- Honor Before Reason: Quon, when deciding to take in and trust Shun, despite knowing that he could betray them.
- I Am Who?: Epsilon/Shun Kazami, it turns out in Chapter 4 that he is actually an Attractor, with the power to control fire. This also caused the death of his beloved younger sister.
- Ideal Hero: Quon. Lampshaded by Takao, who derogatorily calls him "superhero," and deconstructed, as Quon's 'heroic' attitude stems from major issues on his part and his inability to let go of his past, with it practically being a defence mechanism and the only way he can cope. As the OVA goes on, it becomes clear that he's trying to live up to impossibly high standards, which only makes things worse.
- Kids Are Cruel:
- In the prequel manga, it's revealed that some of the other Attractor kids would bully Miu, to the point of killing a bunch of rabbits simply to upset her.
- Kaoru was bullied as a child—and gets it again from the children in Fantasium Garden due to his unusual ability.
- Along those lines, one unnamed kid in Fantasium Garden in particular tends to be a jerk, from the aforementioned insulting Kaoru to calling Quon a murderer—in response to Quon just asking if he was okay after he fell—and attacking the reformed Shun. The last one could potentially be justified, but otherwise, the kid kind of comes across as a douche.
- Mission Control: Many of Quon's friends stay behind and watch the progress of his mission via their powers.
- No Name Given: The scientist that works with the cyborg team who, while a recurring character, is never named.
- The Not-Love Interest: Tei and Shun are this for each other, with
Word of God stating that their relationship was platonic, rather than romantic.
- Power Incontinence: The Attractors, with few exceptions, suffer badly from this. Most of the people at Fantasium have to wear special bracelets to keep their powers in check.
- Really 700 Years Old: Quon may look like a teenager, but he's really over 1000 years old.
- Repressed Memories: Shun/Epsilon repressed his memories of killing his sister. These memories being brought to the surface led to him awakening as an Attractor and his subsequent Heel–Face Turn.
- Sinister Geometry: Custos uses some rather intimidating vehicles.
- Survivor Guilt: Quon, whose clan was wiped out years ago. He survived because he'd been elsewhere, slacking off.
- Thinking Up Portals: Takao's ability. Though he usually gets seriously injured whenever he uses it.
- Token Good Teammate: The scientist that deals with the cyborgs. Though he himself would deny being this trope, given that he's still treating them like objects due to the line of his work, he evidently shows concern over their well-being that no one else does.
- White-and-Grey Morality: Although the group out to capture awakened children (dead or alive) is a very dark shade of gray, their ultimate goal is to protect the public. For now.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Though Quon doesn't openly angst over his immortality, he's pretty happy to finally be free of it at the end.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Tei is a very traditional example of this trope. Right down to walking around in a kimono.
