Future Boy Conan
Future Boy Conan, also known as , is a 26 episodes
anime series by
Hayao Miyazaki first aired in April 1978. It was translated and dubbed into English by the anime television network,
Animax, who broadcast the series under the title
Conan: The Boy in Future, in its respective networks in
Southeast Asia and the
Indian Subcontinent.
The story is based on the novel
The Incredible Tide by
Alexander Key. The story begins in July 2008. Mankind is faced with the threat of extinction. An ultra-magnetic weapon, far more devastating than any nuclear weapon known, had destroyed half the world in a single instant. The earth's crust was rocked by massive movements, the earth was thrown off its axis, and the five continents were torn completely apart and sank deep below the sea.
The attempt by a number of people to flee to outer space failed. Their spaceships were forced back to the earth and vanished, shattering their hopes. But one of the spaceships narrowly escaped destruction and crash landed on a small island which had miraculously survived the devastation. The crew members of the spaceship settled there, as if they were seeds sown on the island.
After years, a boy named Conan was born. He was a new life in the desert, a ray of light in the darkness of the annihilated earth.
The series is about Conan's and Lana's adventure. Among the few survivors were those who started the war who continued their fighting by taking over the remains of the devastated planet. Conan and his friends fought against them in several ways including using the power of communicating with animals.
Many believe that the characters of the series were the prototype for the characters of Miyazaki's later artwork
Castle in the Sky (known as
Laputa: The Castle in the Sky in Japan).
This anime is also notable for being one of the rare anime to be broadcast on Japan's state-run public broadcaster,
NHK, and its popularity in Japan paved the way for other anime to be broadcast on NHK, such as
GAINAX's
Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (which was based on the same Miyazaki plot outline that became
Castle in the Sky, and thus could be considered a spiritual cousin of
Conan). Because NHK is commercial-free, Miyazaki did not need to create "eyecatches" as commercial bumpers for the series, but he did so anyway, and the result was the famous eyecatch known as the "Slot Machine."
The series has also been successful in Europe, including in Italy (
Conan il ragazzo del futuro), France (
Conan le fils du futur), and Portugal (where it was shown in the original Japanese with Portuguese subtitles). In addition, a Spanish dub of the series was shown in the U.S. and Latin America. As well, the series was aired in many Arab countries in the 1980s with much success, dubbed into Arabic (
Adnan wa Lina - "Adnan and Lina") with a translation done in
Kuwait. The Arabic dub was rerun in
Iraq as recently as 2003.
Despite the title of the series and the male lead's name, it has nothing whatsoever to do with
Conan the Barbarian or with
Gosho Aoyama's manga and anime
Detective Conan ("Case Closed" in America). The names "Conan" & "Lana" (in Japanese "Konan" & "Rana") may have inspired Gosho Aoyama to call the girlfriend of his
Detective Conan character similarly "Ran" (renamed "Rachel" in the English dub).
Conan: The main
protagonist of the series,
Conan, is a 10 year old boy who grew up on Remnant Island, raised by his grandfather. Conan is very strong, and can even hang from a ledge using only his toes. He and Jimsy become good friends.
Voiced by: Ohara Noriko (Japanese), Marco Guadagno (Italian), Brigitte Lecordier (French), Jassem El Nabhan (Arabic)
; Lana: Lana is the first non-Remnant Island inhabitant, and the first girl, that Conan sees. Lana is the granddaughter of Dr. Lao, and Lepka wants to use her to get Lao to tell him the secret of solar power.
Lana comes from High Harbour, and the first part of the series involves her and Conan trying to get there.
Voiced by: Shinozawa Mieko (Japanese), Monica Cadueri (Italian), Amelie Morin (French)
*
Nausicaa.net page on Conan*
High Harbour - Conan Fansite (French, Japanese and English)
*
Bandai Visual's Conan page, in Japanese
