"Flowers don't go well with murder." The theme of the second outing in the Towa no Quon series is all about flowers. There's a new Attractor (super-human) in town with the power to control flowers and their fragrance, which also has the power to evoke strong emotions and insanity in humans. The first half of the episode is presented in a pseudo-detective manner. Two of the rookie cyborgs working under Custos (a secret military-like organization set out to destroy all Attractors), Kazami and Asuka, use the advanced technology at their disposal to investigate crime scenes that have been popping up around the city. They suspect anAttractor at work behind the serial murders, and follow up on leads related to the flowery tableaus left behind. Meanwhile, Quon is also trying to find the culprit.

While interesting, the story never really coalesces into anything great. I enjoyed the detective aspects, but they were short lived and never fully realized due to the shortness of the episode, and the director's need to showcase as many of the characters as possible. I believe the main problem holding this show back is the extensive cast of characters - there are simply too many to focus on, and the show seems to want to develop most of them at the same time. Most scenes are short and cut to another character before much happens. This has an effect of keeping every character fresh in our minds, but little else.

Despite a general lack of character development, the new flower Attractor introduced does manage to come across well throughout the episode. His struggle, represented metaphorically by the struggle that flowers face living in a world dominated by humans, is the struggle of all the Attractors at large, and drives across the point that societal outcasts have a hard time, and can lose all hope and even themselves in the face of a cruel and uncaring world.

Even though this show doesn't carry the heavy maturity of other shows, Towa no Quon 2 is a darker and heavier adventure than the first episode. The murder scenes are actually rather brutal, and we are presented with the sad reality with which our hero Quon must grapple - he cannot save everyone, and every time he fails, it means that another life is lost forever, regardless of whether that person was 'good' or not.

The animation and sound remain top notch, with a lot of very beautiful scenes involving flowers. The fight scenes in this episode aren't as thrilling as the last outing, but the final fight is physically much larger in scale and the flower Attractor is extremely good looking in full bloom. In place of Quon/Insania performing any fancy moves or defeating the enemy, the episode chooses to focus his fighting on revealing more of his powers, and hinting more at an unpleasant past.

This episode aims to present us a tragic view of the world, and in that aspect it succeeds. We are able to gain a deeper sense for the life-or-death struggles the Attractors face. Unfortunately in terms of character development we don't see anything deep - the detective work done by the cyborgs feels pleasant or interesting but not meaningful. We are given something with Quon, and another main character Kiri keeps developing her powers and struggles to control them, but it all feels like just a taste - a bare minimum.

Even with all that said, I believe the episode was approximately as good as the first, and will not disappoint those who enjoyed the first episode, except somewhat in the action department. However, it is still promising enough to continue to the sequel.