Towa no Quon

“Fear cannot be without hope, nor hope without fear.” – Baruch Spinoza.

A series of six 45 minute films, Towa no Quon is about a race of beings called “Attracters” (or “Attractors” if you are American), advanced humans with various superpowers who have been feared for centuries. Quon and his brother Towa suffered this, but Quon has seen more than he cares for, as his main special ability is immortality.

He and his fellow Attracters have been searching for more of their kind, using a fairground attraction known as the Fantasium Gardens as their base in which they protect themselves from those who seek to kill them. The main threat comes from the mysterious group called Custos who use mechanically advanced humans in special suits to track down any Attracters they find but often end up losing to Quon.

The story takes an interesting turn when one of Custos fighters, named Epsilon, encounters Quon in someone else’s dream, and discovers something shocking about himself and the circumstances that have led him to his current path.

Watching Towa and Quon, one cannot help but identify bits from other, more famous anime series from which it may have drawn inspiration. The Custos fighters in their suits, who arrive to battle on motorbikes, immediately draw parallels with Bubblegum Crisis.

Certain individual characters bring up connections too. One Attracter, Kiri, is a girl who at the beginning of the series is mute due to a shocking tragedy, but by the end of the first film we discover that she can heal people when she sings. However, she is not the first anime character who can do this; other examples include Azmaria Hendric in Chrono Crusade.

While the plot and situations are not that original, the characters are more enjoyable to watch, such as Epsilon, and the head of Custos, Genji, who provides his own dramatic twist to the story in the fifth film. 

Towa no Quon is not the greatest series ever made, but if you enjoy this kind of medium-paced action series, then this might be for you.