Following a devastating global war that nearly eliminated human civilization in its entirety, one boy steps up and makes a difference. The anime series Mirai Shounen Conan (1978), known to most westerners simply as Future Boy Conan, is a hearty classic, and makes the most of its roots in sci-fi/fantasy and eco-conscious adventure. The first animated full series under the direction of now legendary anime writer and director Hayao Miyazaki, Future Boy Conan wraps up its humorous characters in one memorable and suspenseful glint of action after another. Japanese animation and comics distributor Dynit (Bologna, Italy) has scheduled the local, Italian, complete DVD Set release of Future Boy Conan for June 2011.
The anime series takes place in the summer of 2008, roughly two decades following a global conflict that raised the tide and shifted continents. To be a little more specific, the war involved a little electromagnetism and plenty of ego. Military leaders of the countries involved paid no heed to those more cautious and went ahead with their plans for war.
The result of their conflict, as viewers of Future Boy Conan come to find, was a twisting of the Earth's axis and catastrophic flooding on all continents. Billions of people died, entire nations vanished, and civilizations of legend faded into memory.In the present day, Conan is an energetic kid who lives with his adoptive grandfather on one of many remaining islands. Are there any other survivors of the magnetic war? Has humankind reverted to its near-prehistoric dispositions? Conan sometimes wonders, but doesn't really care. He's a carefree kid with ridiculous physical strength who adores the outdoors.
As Future Boy Conan continues, the story speed up when a girl named Lana washes up on the shores of Conan's island. The girl is pursued by group of shadowy agents with corrupt intentions, and its up to Conan to save her. Future Boy Conan is a boy's adventure at heart, but also incorporates plenty comedy and suspense over the course of its twenty-six episodes. The anime's complete DVD Set retails June 1, 2011 (price unavailable).
Dubbed languages on the local release will include Italian and Japanese; subtitles will be Italian only; runtime is 728 minutes. Retail notes indicate Dynit has previously released the animation by way of two, separate DVD Sets back in December 2009 (EUR 44.91) and January 2010 (EUR 40.43).
As Hayao Miyazaki's debut as a series director, Future Boy Conan (or Conan: Il Ragazzo del Futuro) relies heavily on characters' emotional connections to one another and to the environment. Conan and Lana forge a strong friendship over the course of the animation, which is no doubt highlighted by their on-going conflict with machines, weapons of war, and other problems bred from a lost industrial age.
The anime is more than thirty years old, but is known for layering its character motivates extraordinarily well. Future Boy Conan has also earned high marks for its skilled integration of slapstick comedy with the more heady themes most fans have come to expect from Miyazaki-directed animation.
The series targets the decision-making of wary human ambitions, but never forgets that at the core of its story is simply a kid who likes to fish and venture in the open air.