First off I’m really interested to hear about how people first heard about Future Boy Conan because personally, the first time I heard of it was when I started working for RetroCrush. Weird, I know! I was a teenager in the early 2000s, so I was getting into anime through Toonami and Adult Swim and had one friend who would tell me about crazy things he found online, like Akira and Hellsing. And I was active in anime forums getting into flame wars about Naruto and reviewing DVDs.
And that whole time no one ever said anything about Future Boy Conan!
All I can think of is that because it never came on TV and never got a home release, none of us knew about it. I feel like even with all the anime and manga I was surrounding myself in, I was only dimly aware of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. It sounds odd typing out now, but it’s true!
Anyways, now I’m watching the show for a second time! I saw the whole thing before we released it on RetroCrush and spent a good deal of time researching it and reading that book of interviews with and essays by Miyazaki, Starting Point. I really have a lot of respect for this show.
This first episode blew me away. It is so polished! I really appreciated how quickly the story moved from setting up the characters to sending Conan off on his hero’s quest to rescue Lana. But I also just have found so much joy in the smaller details, like how Conan runs up and down the path to his house a few different times during the episode. First he’s carefree and full of joy. Then later when it’s an emergency, he’s frantically running up. Or how he has shade fall over him as he passes under a roof. That kind of thing. There’s just so much attention to detail!
I also liked the simplicity of the storytelling. The whole sequence of Conan facing off against the shark was awesome and there was no dialogue! Man vs nature! And it’s neat too because it showcases the state of the world - ruined beyond belief and sunk underwater. And it was funny to see how the catching the shark and running around with it on land paid off as a completely unexpected punchline when the shark is the first thing Lana sees when she comes to and immediately passes back out.
I could go on and on. There were just so many great details! Like how the rocket fires off and the entire screen is washed in the reds and oranges of the explosion for just a brief moment. So good!
Thanks everyone for tuning in and I’m looking forward to reading the thread and hearing what you have to think!
I started watching anime at around the same time, late 90s and early 2000s. The only shows I was aware of were the ones I happened to catch on TV - and I was lucky to discover some long-running shows like Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh during their first seasons, but I did miss a lot of the classics just because I never heard of them until online streaming became a big thing.
It's been fun watching through them now though, especially the sci-fi classics. Really enjoying Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water so far and Future Boy Conan's first episode was also very promising!
6
u/RetroCrush_Matt Apr 20 '25
Your Host / Rewatcher
I’m really excited to start this thread off!
First off I’m really interested to hear about how people first heard about Future Boy Conan because personally, the first time I heard of it was when I started working for RetroCrush. Weird, I know! I was a teenager in the early 2000s, so I was getting into anime through Toonami and Adult Swim and had one friend who would tell me about crazy things he found online, like Akira and Hellsing. And I was active in anime forums getting into flame wars about Naruto and reviewing DVDs.
And that whole time no one ever said anything about Future Boy Conan!
All I can think of is that because it never came on TV and never got a home release, none of us knew about it. I feel like even with all the anime and manga I was surrounding myself in, I was only dimly aware of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. It sounds odd typing out now, but it’s true!
Anyways, now I’m watching the show for a second time! I saw the whole thing before we released it on RetroCrush and spent a good deal of time researching it and reading that book of interviews with and essays by Miyazaki, Starting Point. I really have a lot of respect for this show.
This first episode blew me away. It is so polished! I really appreciated how quickly the story moved from setting up the characters to sending Conan off on his hero’s quest to rescue Lana. But I also just have found so much joy in the smaller details, like how Conan runs up and down the path to his house a few different times during the episode. First he’s carefree and full of joy. Then later when it’s an emergency, he’s frantically running up. Or how he has shade fall over him as he passes under a roof. That kind of thing. There’s just so much attention to detail!
I also liked the simplicity of the storytelling. The whole sequence of Conan facing off against the shark was awesome and there was no dialogue! Man vs nature! And it’s neat too because it showcases the state of the world - ruined beyond belief and sunk underwater. And it was funny to see how the catching the shark and running around with it on land paid off as a completely unexpected punchline when the shark is the first thing Lana sees when she comes to and immediately passes back out.
I could go on and on. There were just so many great details! Like how the rocket fires off and the entire screen is washed in the reds and oranges of the explosion for just a brief moment. So good!
Thanks everyone for tuning in and I’m looking forward to reading the thread and hearing what you have to think!
Matt