Conan il ragazzo del futuro

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!

This is one of the first Miyazaki's. He made it in 1978. Was originally released in Italian then dubbed to Japanese. Future boy Conan is a story about a boy and his grand father who were the only survivors of the third world war. Apparently, there were more survivors who did not learn the lesson of preserving life. The anime is not about super beings or the supernatural. It is about ordinary people with ordinary powers driven by pure feelings of goodwill and platonic love. Miyazaki engraved his name in history and in the heart of generations to come with this anime. He gave life to those characters who live in our heart as people we know and learn from. The story line is superb. The characters are lovely. The drawing is magnificent for a 1978 anime. What else are you waiting for....don't miss this anime.

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.

Highly dramatic and engaging, this TV series was near perfect and shows Miyazaki's talents for the first time he directed something. Interestingly, Miyazaki's characters that he developed in this TV series served as prototypes for the films he made. Indeed, this TV series is actually one 26 episode long film with many subplots that constitute each of the episodes.

Also, it is impressively dramatic considering it was a TV series marketed for children. The Japanese animated TV series were always much more dramatic and complex than American animated TV series, but in the 1970's anime it was still in its early stages and wasn't as well developed as it became in the 1980's, when it's range expanded to all demographic groups.

An excellent TV series, indeed, one of the most powerful ever made. Yes, I said powerful for an animated TV series from the 1970's, because it is.

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.