Future Boy Conan

How I wish I was a child seeing Conan, if not to enjoy without knowledge of Hayao Miyazaki, but to have been able to go to school and talk about it with all my friends. It would have been my favourite show. Instead I've made do watching older, it's excellent though.

To explain the plot, the world has been partially destroyed by man through use of nuclear weapons, tilting the world on its axis, thus sinking most of the land and destroying civilisation as we know it. 30 years later the few survivors are on living on a small island, Conan an 11 year old boy lives with his grandfather peacefully, until a girl washes up on the beach. It would be criminal to go much further since one of the best features of 'Conan' is its storytelling, and at 26 episodes it can take it's time.

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki with some help from Isao Takahata, Conan displays many of the traits of a Ghibli movie, best described and a cross between 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' and 'Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind', both in plot and design. It could be said that these films improved and expanded on the ideas in Conan which could be taken that Conan isn't worthwhile, but it's more like Conan is an opportunity to see 13hrs of Miyazaki doing what he does so well.

Personally it's very difficult to review Conan, I know I love it, but there's so much to write. The plot is pretty complex, its twists and turns are genuinely surprising. The characters are great, since it's early Miyazaki there's a lot of slapstick, much in the vein of Miyazaki's Lupin III movie, the art direction is certainly of lower quality than his later offerings, but it was his directorial debut. Conan is dated in terms of animation, but again like in Lupin the characters are simplified, thus allowing animation to go smoothly, plus the backgrounds are beautiful, the ideas flowing, the design of the main boat is cleverly an upside down boat adapted to sail, at least I think it is! Its a few years before Joe Hisaishi is working with Miyazaki, so the music is less grand, but sweet and catchy.

Conan is a fantastic, while dated is as good a show a child or adult could watch today, plus another excellent Miyazaki project for the converted. I really can't praise Conan enough!

I have seen all 11 of Miyazaki's films multiple times, being a huge fan of his and Studio Ghibli's work, but in my opinion, out of all the works he has done, Future Boy Conan is his masterpiece. I absolutely adore this show! I loved the story, I loved the characters, I loved the chemistry between Conan and Lana, I loved how gripping the whole thing was and it ended on a great note!

Future Boy Conan could be the most underrated and overlooked TV show of all time. I've seen this show twice and honestly, I'm tempted to call it my favourite TV show of all time (NO JOKE!). It is that good. So many people are missing out. If you are a Miyazaki fan, I strongly recommend you check out 26 episodes of brilliant story-telling. All the episodes are available in 1080p quality on KissAnime, subbed only. What are you waiting for? Watch it right now. You will not be disappointed!

If only most kids TV shows nowadays were even close to the quality of Future Boy Conan.

10/10 from me!

This was Miyazaki's first TV series he directed. It aired in Japan back in 1978 a year before his first film "Castle of Cagliostro".

It's about an alternate future when WW3 ended in 2008. After that most of the earth's continents are underwater. And forming small separate islands.

On one Island there's a young Boy who's no ordinary kid. Has super strengh and can hold his breathe for a long time. Lives alone with his Granfather on a lonely island where several people use to live on.

One day how ever when a girl appears on the shore of the island that's when Conan goes on his adventure to see the rest of the existing world he didn't know existed.

"Future Boy Conan" is a unique anime series. It showed how great Hayao Miyazaki was way before he got into movie making. A total of 26 episodes each one continues from the other. It's like watching a really long movie.

Has everything you'd expect from a Miyazaki made Anime. A Boy and Girl with mysterious powers or past, Anything that can fly, pigs, women with good role play, and hope for a brighter future.

This was known to be Miyazaki's earlier version of "Castle in the Sky" the 2 Main Characters look a lot like Pazu and Sheeta, and the main villain looks almost like Musca too. This anime had a lot of reused ideas he used for his later anime films too.

Sadly this anime has never been debuted into English before. Even if it did 20 years ago TV Cencorship of America would edit out the violence and certain drug use.

When will it be available in English, only time will tell. It's highly recommended to those who admire Miyazaki and anime. Conan deserves to be on the top 10 classic Animes of all time.

Those who want to see it, try Fansubs or internet search to see the series. It's worth watching.

I give it a 9/10 for a cool anime.

i saw that series may be 10 times, it was my favorite and still is, to my knowledge they still run the series in Baghdad TV.

the story, the drawing, the coloring, the robots, the castle, and the flying wing, all these were smashing great.

i wish they turn it to a movie, it was one hell of work, and every kid and adult favorite in Iraq back in the 1980. the show was a welcome change to Iraqi channel and a new introduction to sci fie to Iraqis , people started to like sci fie as a choice to see . the show talked about dictatorship and people control ( something every Iraq back in 80's know it), so the show hit more than one spot.

Though Hayao Miyazaki's work at Studio Ghibli is known the world over, few outside of Japan seem to know or care about the work he did before that in the 70s and early 80s. It's a real shame, because works such as Future Boy Conan (1978) still hold up well today despite the choppy television animation.

The plot is chock full of iconic Miyazaki themes and archetypes which look forward to his later films and manga. The post-apocalyptic setting, motif of flight, morally ambiguous characters, and environmentalist theme should all be familiar to hardcore Miyazaki fans. In fact, the whole thing feels like a dress rehearsal for the later Castle in the Sky (1986): the relationship between Lana and Conan mirrors the later bond between Pazu and Sheeta, the villain Lepka resembles Muska, and Captain Dyce and his crew bring to mind the Dola pirates.

Despite the similarities, though, Future Boy Conan stands well on its own. I would even go as far as to say it equals (or in some cases, even betters) Castle in the Sky. Being a 26-episode TV series, it has more time to let its characters develop and grow. One major difference between FBC and later Miyazaki is it's broad comedy. There's lots of goofy slapstick and silly moments that you don't see the like of in post-Nausicaa Miyazaki. Still, it's good comedy that never feels out of place.

I know most anime fans won't watch anything preceding Dragonball, but Ghibli fans and Miyazaki diehards will enjoy this series without a doubt. It helps show you where all those ideas, characters, and themes of his later films were first allowed to be fully expressed.