So, Towa no Quon has finally been released. I’m not sure whether I got the full version of the first of six movies, but I watched something of about forty minutes in length. And I will be honest here: a lot of hype went into Towa no Quon, and it has not lived up to that yet. I want to emphasis the word “yet”, because it does have potential, but this first movie cold have been better.
The promo art for this movie looked really good, and I’ll get to the actual production values below, but behind that lies a surprisingly mundane premise: we live in a world where people have superpowers. The good guys (who are mostly teenagers who have powers themselves) want to protect those people, while the bad guys want to… I guess either kill them or exploit their powers through force. It’s all deceptively cliched. The scenarios also did not bring any depth to this concept to this movie yet nor were there any hints, beyond a bunch of sad pasts.
On top of that, it also has fairly bland characters: most are one-dimensional, and even though there are a few adults amongst the good guys, they all stand in the shadows of the teenagers who go out and save the day. The acting is either unimpressive or rather annoying, and none of the characters stands out so far, aside from an obnoxiously nice main character. The villains are also not very intimidating and pretty incompetent at their jobs, not to mention the amount of techno-babble that pops up once in a while.
The storytelling, pacing and animation are very good though. This show may not have gotten a real movie budget, but it does have a number of really talented animators working on the action scenes, and they make the action scenes a feast for the eyes, with detailed movements, bold actions and excellent choreography. The soundtrack is also pretty good, and the movie was well paced, with few points that dragged on. Even shows with cliches can be great, and these are the ingredients that can actually make this work for Towa no Quon in the long run.
It’s also not that all of the characters have bland actors. There are a few characters here and there that look like they can become very interesting to watch over time. At the moment though, they’re a bit overshadowed by the bland ones. This movie series needs time. Can the upcoming five movies make use of that?
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – A well balanced movie with good build-up, though there’s too much techno babble. |
| Characters: | 7/10 – It’s fine for the creators to hold back and all, but at the moment the characters are too bland and one-dimensional for a standalone movie. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Nothing special during the quiet scenes, awesome during the action scenes. |
| Setting: | 7/10 – Potential is lurking, but for now it still is a bit too cliched. |
Suggestions:
– Toward the Terra
– Crystal Blaze
– They Were 11
Where in the world do you find this stuff?? I have looked everywhere and all I can find are Raws of this. Are you able to watch these without English subs?
Tempest: yup, I watched a raw version.