Twilight Q

A Knot in Time
High school students Mayumi and Kiwako are relishing their summer vacation at the beach; however, when Mayumi discovers a presumably lost camera while scuba diving, she cannot help but feel an insatiable curiosity. Upon developing the camera's film, she is shocked to find herself photographed alongside an unknown man. Enlisting the help of Kiwako's older brother, the three find out something even more troubling: the camera model has yet to be released. In turn, Mayumi becomes obsessed with discovering the origin of the peculiar camera and its mysterious photograph.

File 538
Airplanes have been vanishing from the sky! Even stranger, rumor has it that the disappearing aircraft have been turning into giant carp. Meanwhile, a freelance detective investigates a run-down apartment on the outskirts of town, where he finds a middle-aged man and a young girl with a penchant for fish. Unable to identify the two, the investigator enters their room, only to find it empty save for a document that reads, "This story has been prepared for you, my successor... who should be visiting this room in due time."

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hirata, Mayumi Main

Hyoudou, Mako Japanese

Girl Main

Hyoudou, Mako Japanese

Kiwako Main

Tominaga, Miina Japanese

Oshii, Mamoru Co-Director, Director, Episode Director, Script, Creator, Original Creator

Okamura, Masahiro Producer

Unozawa, Shin Producer

Mochizuki, Tomomi Director

Reviews

Aug 26, 2019

Terajima

Recommended

Two visions on animation and the paranormal.

·Reflections:

What I liked most about this is its naturalness; strange things happen, but everything is told without resorting to the formulas of this type of stories. The colors and the animation are beautiful, the ambiance too, and despite playing with multiple historical moments, the aesthetics of the 80's is always preserved; it doesn't play at any time to guess what the future will be like, or how the past was.

Very good, calm, beautiful, with a great soundtrack and a fantastic capture of the summer atmosphere, of vacations, adolescence, with a sun and a wind that you seem to feel. ... Delightful.

·File 538:

In the usual line of the great Mamoru Oshii, a spectacular animation, beautiful, different, very careful.
And also like always full with dialogues, in this case a single character, a detective, who reads for almost half an hour the letter he writes to another detective who believes he will continue the investigation he has begun.

Dense, complex, visualy wonderful. Only the end is a little below.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 20, 2013

Singan

Recommended

Twilight Q is an interesting albeit largely forgotten OVA produced back in 1987. Originally, it was supposed to be a showcase for young talents in the industry; alas, only 2 episodes were made before the project was abandoned due to low sales, and the anime ultimately sunk into oblivion. Well, I guess it's high time to do the show some justice and bring it back to the surface.

STORY
As the title clearly suggests, the OVA is a sort of Twilight Zone anthology, which means the episodes don't bear any connection plotwise, yet they have similar mysterious atmosphere and employ the same mix of genres that may ... be roughly described as mystery + sci-fi + mindf*ck. A very good mix, if you ask me.
The first episode called Reflection is based on a story by Kazunori Ito (the scriptwriter for Ghost in the Shell & Patlabor movies), directed by Tomomi Mochizuki (known for his work on studio Ghibli's Ocean Waves and studio Manglobe's House of the Five Leaves). One day, a girl named Mayumi dives into the ocean and finds a camera stuck on a coral riff; later, she discovers a film inside the camera and, much to her surprise, the film contains a picture where she poses with some guy she doesn't even know. Obviously, she decides to find out the truth about the picture's origins, and so the sequence of enigmatic events begins.
Without spoiling anything, the episode is simultaneously interesting and easy to follow, moving at a fine pace, providing enough twists to keep you intrigued, and offering a conclusive ending while leaving some of the mystery to the viewer's interpretation. That being said, the story does have a certain problem, as it ends up lacking any distinctive central theme or well-defined message; and even though the episode is tagged as "romance", it appears to be almost non-existent in the show. Besides, the story incorporates a certain ecological disaster and a certain historical event that, while interesting on their own, remain unexpanded and contribute very little to the main plotline. Eventually, the story turns out well-written and intriguing yet somewhat empty at the core.
The second episode called File 538 is cut from an entirely different cloth. Directed by Mamoru Oshii and based on his own story, it tells about a private detective spying on a father - daughter pair living next door (well, not entirely like that, but I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers). One summer night, the main character enters the apartment and finds a sleeping girl, a fish, and what seems to be a letter from another detective previously working on the same case. As he sits there reading the message, the mystery unravels before his eyes.
This episode turns out very multifaceted and surreal, as the story seamlessly blends real and dreamy events to show how we are often unable to distinguish illusion from reality and end up getting trapped into dreams; also, it provides an ironic commentary on human existence, full of dark humor and Kafka-esque transformations; and some Christian symbolism may be found here as well, although only a bit of it. In general, the story is very original, multilayered and thought-provoking, with plenty of ideas to infer and a couple of amazing revelations that I won't spell out to avoid spoilers.
That all being said, the anime also has a very dry & demanding presentation, as the whole story is narrated very slowly by the protagonist while he sits in the room, doing nothing else at all. Thus, the show ends up way too static, not to mention a radical violation of the "show, don't tell" rule. Thankfully, the story makes sense overall, with the protagonist factually explaining everything in the ending; the problem is, many viewers may have trouble following 20 minutes of ultra-slow & rather complex narration that precedes it.
To sum everything up, the two stories of Twilight Q turn out diametrically opposed in their strengths & weaknesses, as the first is well-presented yet has fairly little substance in it, while the second has plenty of substance and the presentation arguably too challenging for its own good. The only thing they have in common, besides the overall mysterious tone, is that both are far from perfect yet unusual & interesting, each in its own way.

ANIMATION
If you look at the staff credits, you will see two very big names in the credits for the 1st episode: the character designs were made by Akemi Takada, who also worked on Mobile Police Patlabor, Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura and some other classic shows; and the art director was Shichiro Kobayashi, known for working on Lupin III Castle of Cagliostro, Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, Berserk, Revolutionary Girl Utena and Nodame Cantabile, among other things. Plus, there're some great animators in there, such as Takayuki Goto, a co-founder of studio I.G Tatsunoko, which was later renamed as Production I.G (the G in the studio's name comes from his surname, by the way). So, no wonder that the animation in this episode is very nice: it's very colorful, neat and detailed, with both artwork and motion done right. However, the overall style is just realistic with few unique features, and while Takada's character designs are nice, as they always are, Kobayashi's backgrounds don't stand out as much as they normally do for some reason (that may be only my personal impression though). As a result, it makes the animation pleasant to watch yet rather unmemorable in the long run.
The animation in the 2nd episode is no worse although it appears much more limited at first, showing only the room where the protagonist dwells or some stills & abstract imagery going along with his speech, like airplanes in the sky; view of the city streets with clouds flying above; and other stuff like that. It all may look boring on paper, yet the visuals turn out quite impressive in their own way, which is no wonder when the art director is Hiromasa Ogura - the same man who later worked on Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh and FLCL among other famous anime; and the animation director is Shinji Ootsuka - a longtime Studio Ghibli animator who also assisted with key animation for Angel's Egg, Jin-Roh, FLCL, Millenium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers. In general, the main strength here is the artistic composition that makes some clever use of stills & abstract imagery; and when things actually move, the animation is quite smooth & detailed. Also, the colors are rich, dark and pleasant to the eye, and the overall quality is very good considering the show's age. The one and only aspect I strongly dislike is the character design of the male protagonist: while it may be a matter of subjective taste more than anything, I think it is way too grotesque, giving him a fairly ugly appearance. Perhaps, Oshii wanted him to look unusual in some way, but that remains beyond my understanding.
Overall, the animation in both episodes reflects their nature and differs the same way as the stories: the animation in the 1st episode is nice to look at yet rather forgettable; the animation in the 2nd episode is quite original & well-done, yet some questionable artistic decisions make it hardly tolerable for some viewers. Nevertheless, both display some genuine quality only hand-drawn anime can offer.

SOUND
The soundtrack for both episodes by maestro Kenji Kawai consists mostly of keyboard music that isn't really memorable, and you probably won't even notice it if you don't pay specific attention. However, if you do, you'll realize that the tracks are nicely composed and they do a great job at creating the enigmatic atmosphere of the OVA. I only wish the melodies were more diverse and employed more instruments, but even this way they're still good & fitting for the show.
The voice-acting in the first episode is fine, with nothing particularly standing out. The protagonist's voice in the second episode is really weird, and exactly like with the character designs I have no clue why Oshii wanted him to talk that way: maybe, to make him sound mysterious? I don't know. Well, at least I wasn't annoyed with his voice although it did sound very strange to me.

CHARACTERS
The characters in both episodes have no remarkable personalities and few distinctive features in general: in fact, they are just gears used to keep the plot going. However, while the lack of outstanding characters is never a good thing, it may be not too bad in this case, considering the anime's relatively short length & the very story-driven nature of the mystery genre it belongs to. Taking that into account, I believe the cast is more or less ok for this kind of show... and that's pretty much it. I wish I could tell you more about them, but there really isn't much else to say aside from a couple of spoilers.

OVERALL
While far from flawless, Twilight Q is certainly an interesting & innovative anime that may be recommended if you're into mystery, sci-fi & mindf*ck genres or if you particularly like any of the creators involved in the project. I hope this review helps you set the right expectations before going into the show, and perhaps, you'll enjoy it more than I did.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Nov 22, 2017

ktulu007

Not Recommended

Twilight Q is an old OVA from the late 80s. It has two parts, each one from a different studio. The first being from Ajia-do, the same studio we have to thank for Shuumatsu no Izetta. The second part was brought to us by Studio Deen, the studio behind Gravitation, The law of Ueki & Kore wa Zombie desu ka. I'm sure they're ashamed over that last one so let's not hold it against them. Let's look at this 1987 work and see how each studio did.

Story:

Twilight Q follows the format of a sci-fi anthology show like the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. Which ... is probably where it gets the name from. Each episode focuses on a different strange scenario. In the Ajia-do episode, we follow a young girl, Mayumi, who happens across a camera that's probably been underwater and corroded for a long time. When she has her friend's brother investigate he comes across something strange. The camera model hasn't been released yet. The Deen episode opens with a plane turning into a fish. We cut to a grotesque fat man and his young daughter eating noodles. The two scenes are tied together when she looks at a plane flying overhead and shouts the word “fish” at it. But what does it mean?

There are two major issues with this OVA in the context of one of those anthology shows. The first is that the characters we follow don't have much reaction to the strange circumstances they find themselves in. In our first part, Mayumi fatalistically accepts that time travel is a thing and she's getting a glimpse of the future without it seeming to bother her in the slightest. In the second we follow a nameless private investigator who learns the truth and, with it, the fate in store for him and he pretty much just grins and goes “well, that's my life now.” You can't really have stakes or tension when the characters themselves don't give a shit. You get those things in an anthology when the focus character(s) fight(s) against his/her/their situation. That's also how you get a compelling conflict, incidentally. Which is another thing this is lacking.

The second big issue is just that the situations themselves aren't explored very deeply. In the first, we have the time travelling camera. Then we have Mayumi leap to two different time periods for a couple minutes each and then it all gets resolved neatly. That's not a spoiler, by the way, we're told pretty much the instant she leaps that it's all going to turn out fine. Because her non-reaction wasn't enough of a tension-drainer. We needed to be outright told how things were going to go too. In the second, most of the story revolves around our PI reading an expository note. I wish I was kidding but that is actually what's in store for us.

About the most positive I can be is to say that the scenarios are strange enough to somewhat keep your attention and there's nothing in them that's really bad. It's more that you never get any kind of strong pay off and the coverage for them remains pretty shallow and lacking in any real tension, conflict or stakes. Which isn't cricket for this type of series.

Characters:

You can probably guess what I'm basically going to say already since I kind of covered this when talking about the story issues. The problem with the characters in this comes down to one simple thing, they aren't believable. Their reactions are just too stoic given the circumstances and it makes them tremendously boring. Kit's interesting to see characters rage, rage against the winds of fate. It's interesting to see characters who freak out a little bit when they find themselves in a situation that would challenge anyone's perception of reality. Even if the character is able to compose themselves pretty quickly we still need something of a reaction. Because doing it this way is just dull.

Art:

The artwork is a bit dated. It's pretty obvious what era it comes from. But it still holds up pretty well. The movements flow nicely and there's a clear effort put into making the backgrounds and characters look good. The only real issue I have with it is that there's a decided lack of strange imagery. Our first tale deals with time travel and the transition we get is a little girl on a swing. The only otherworldly sight we get is the plane turning into a carp. That's the only interesting sight we get. Which is kind of a load of stale wank.

Sound:

The problem with the acting ties into the big issue with the characters. No one involved ever sounds invested. The closest we get is some lines from Hyoudou Mako. I'm guessing she had to redo them a few times because she was being too expressive and they finally decided that they were bland enough since her character looks unconcerned during them. The music isn't bad but it is pretty dull and forgettable. Which, I suppose, does suit the series well.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any. Which, I'm sure, is completely unrelated to the series not having interesting character dynamics in the slightest.

Final Thoughts:

Twilight Q is an OVA that really wants to be a compelling sci-fi anthology and probably tried to model itself after the Twilight Zone. The trouble it has is that the team behind it doesn't seem to understand what made that series interesting. They seem to think that all you need is a bizarre situation. You don't need interesting characters, a strong conflict, tension, stakes or even odd visuals. They thought that they could just throw any bland character into a strange situation and the situation itself would carry the entire thing. And that doesn't work. I can't call it a bad OVA since it's more boring than anything, but I will say it's weak. It is a sub-par work and I can't recommend it for your anthology needs when there are much better series out there. The Final rating is going to stand at a 4/10. Next week I'm looking at Dennou Sentai Voogie's Angel. I've heard things, none of them positive. So, we'll see how that turns out.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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