• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
• Audio Codec: Japanese & English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
• Subtitles: English
• Subtitles Color: Yellow/White
• Region: A (Region-Locked)
• Rating: TV-14 (V)
• Run Time: 300 Mins.
• Discs: 2 (2 x Blu-ray)
• Studio: Sentai Filmworks
• Blu-ray Release Date: June 26, 2012
• List Price: $69.98

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Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Series

[Rating:3.5/5]

Towanoquon (Towa no Quon; トワノクオン; Towa no Kuon) is the last anime production of late director Umanosuke Iida (Takeshi Mori actually fills in in his place). It is a sci-fi fantasy series of six hour-long feature films set in a future Earth in which special humans are emerging with supernatural abilities and are being hunted by a secret government agency known as Custos.

The story revolves around the character Quon, a young man who is one of these special humans, known as “Attractors,” who has gathered together a group of these special people with abilities and wants to save them all from the government persecution. Quon has apparently lived for over a thousand years, cannot die, and has great strength when he transforms into his mutated state. As the story unfolds across the six films, we are introduced to his tight knit circle of trusted Attractors, all living under an amusement park in a secret base that has been electronically masked from the prying government eyes.

The series of films is defined by some awesome character designs and rather spectacular special effects. Backgrounds are nicely detailed as well and individual characters are nicely fleshed out, allowing each member of the group of Attractors to uniquely stand out. There is a growing conspiratorial story arc that perhaps could have been shored up and more tightly connected across the six-hour series, but on the whole, this is a solid effort from Bones.

Video Quality

[Rating:4/5]

Although Towanoquon comes to Blu-ray with a 1080p/24 AVC/MPEG-4 encodement that is rather high bitrate, often peaking at ~40Mbps and averaging around ~32Mbps, the image is not the absolute best reference quality I have seen from a Sentai Filmworks anime title. There is just a bit of softness that veils the imagery and color banding seems to be an issue as well. Still, colors look brilliant and I didn’t detect any really egregious anomalies like aliasing or macroblocking at any time.

Audio Quality

[Rating:4.5/5]

The Japanese and English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) soundtracks for Towanoquon are spectacular. Firstly, dialogue is full and clear, mostly in the center channel, but often panned across the front as the action moves. The dynamics are wide and there is good low frequency extension. The surround channels are nicely balanced into the mix with an abundance of atmospheric effects and discrete sound effects, particularly during the numerous fight sequences.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:1/5]

There’s little in the way of extras offered here, but there is a single audio commentary for episode 6 with the English voice cast.

The supplements:

• Episode 6 Commentary with English Voice Actors
• Sentai Filmworks Trailers
• Disc Credits

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:4/5]

A nice effort from Bones and Sentai Filmworks, Towanoquon is enjoyable over the course of its six films, offering a high quality level of animation and sound with a solid transfer to Blu-ray.

Additional Screen Captures

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Purchase Towanoquon: The Complete Film Series on Blu-ray at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:4/5]
The Series
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]

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