, also known as Conan, The Boy in Future, is a Japanese post-apocalyptic science fiction anime series. It is an adaptation of American science-fiction writer Alexander Key's 1970 novel The Incredible Tide. It was broadcast for twenty-six episodes on NHK General TV between April and October 1978.

A spin-off series, ' aired for twenty-four episodes on TBS from October 1999 to April 2000.

Story

The story begins in July 2008, during a time when mankind is faced with the threat of extinction. A devastating war fought with ultra-magnetic weapons far greater than anything seen earlier brings about a post-apocalyptic world, resulting in several earthquakes and tsunamis. The Earth is thrown off its axis, its crust rocked by massive movements, and the continents are torn completely apart and sink deep below the sea.

An attempt by a group of people to flee to outer space failed, with their spaceships being forced back on Earth and crashing on a small desert and dry island. Although initially desperate, the survivors discover that the crash landing has opened a freshwater well, and gradually life returns to the island. The crew members of the spaceship gradually settle on what they call 'Remnant Island' and they lead a simple and happy life as an extended family. A new baby, Conan, is eventually born within the community in October 2016.

Year after year the older survivors die off in their isolation and unaware of the sort of humanity beyond the small island, until the only people left are Conan and his adoptive grandfather. One day Conan finds on the beach a young girl named Lana, the first stranger and person of his own age whom he had ever known. Lana was raised on another surviving island called High Harbor, where a simple society has re-developed in close contact with nature. She has ended up on Conan's island while trying to escape from abduction by the crew of the Barracuda, a sailing ship from the leftover of the old world, Industria. Industria is in desperate need of energy, having barely managed to continue its highly industrialized economy through careful husbandry of a backup nuclear reactor, and devolving into a caste-based dystopia. The main resource of highly concentrated orbital-based solar power has become unavailable after the disappearance of Lana's grandfather, Dr. Lao, who has gone into hiding after the war in order to avoid further military usage of his research: a power that could rebuild the world, but which was also the weapon that brought humanity to the brink of apocalypse during the last conflict.

Soon another crew from Industria manages to locate Lana. In the altercation, Conan's grandfather is killed and the boy is initially abandoned alone on the now-desert island. He decides to take his chances with the unknown ocean on a simple raft, in order to try and save his new friend Lana. In his journey he first meets another young boy, Jimsy, who grew up in semi-feral status on yet another island, where the Barracuda makes regular trips in order to acquire plastic rubbish to be converted back into oil at the Industria facilities. The rubbish is mined by the impoverished and still war-traumatized local population, in exchange for simple trinkets, alcoholic beverages and surrogate cigarettes.

Conan and Jimsy soon begin to socialize and also decide to raid the ship, respectively to save Lana and to steal its goods. The attempt fails and they are punished and forced into labor by the captain. The group is eventually brought to Industria and separated and reunited again various times, as the situation on that island further degenerates due to further natural disasters and the deteriorating social fabric, turning more and more into a dictatorship under the Director. Over the course of the story, he is the only irredeemable figure, devoid of any scruples and ever greedy for power at any cost. All the other characters, including the minor ones, develop significantly in response to events and in particular after being exposed to the selfless example of Conan. A pure love story also develops with Lana. After multiple separations and various challenges, the group eventually locates Dr. Lao, restores access to solar power just in time to salvage another ship and evacuate Industria just before another cataclysmic earthquake, and finally destroys the super-weapon which the Director was trying to deploy in order to maintain his hegemony over High Harbour and all the other remaining lands. As the last legacy of the society responsible for the apocalypse dies off, nature continues its recovery process, new families are founded, and the younger, still innocent but now more mature Lana and Conan set sail to build a new world that keeps only the positive aspects of the past.

Characters

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:Conan is a fearless 11-year-old boy who was born on Remnant Island and raised by all survivors of a failed escape attempt into space from the Great Disaster. Conan is very attuned to his rural, secluded lifestyle, where he has grown up mainly in the company of the oldest surviving crew member, his adoptive grandfather. Conan is inexperienced but an intelligent, strong, and exceptional athlete, underwater swimmer, and spear-fisher. Despite his lack of social exposure, he is gentle and can quickly integrate among strangers. Deciding to rescue Lana in a self-constructed sailboat after his grandfather's killing and Lana's subsequent capture, Conan meets new friends and acquaintances while becoming caught up in Lepka's plots for Industria and High Harbor.

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There was a preparation time of three months for the layout. Six months passed between the start of the key animation work and the airing of the first episode. Although a stock of eight episodes was already produced by that time, the show still went behind schedule. GKIDS released a four-disc Blu-Ray set of the complete series on November 16, 2021, alongside a digital release. On September 28, 2021, Anime Limited announced they got the license for the series for the UK. Anime Limited released the show in a two part collector's edition set with Part 1 released on June 27 and Part 2 on July 25, 2022, on Blu-Ray and 4K UHD, making it the first 4K release of the series anywhere in the world. The series began streaming exclusively on the RetroCrush platform on April 18, 2025.

Video games

A video game version of the series by Telenet Japan was released in 1992 on NEC's PC Engine console. The game was released on the Super CD-ROM² format and was only available in Japan. On October 20, 1995, another game titled Conan, The Boy in Future: Digital Library (未来少年コナンノデジタルライブラリー), was exclusively released on the 3DO, and was developed by Bandai Visual and published by Emotion Digital Software. The game also is exclusive in Japan, and is extremely rare. Two clips of the Intersound, Inc pilot English dub appeared in the game. Another video game adaptation of the series was released for the PlayStation 2 home console on August 25, 2005, only in Japan.

In 2005, a pachinko game titled Future Boy Conan was released. In January 2011, NewGin announced another pachinko game titled . A pachislot game titled Future Boy Conan was also released the same year.

Reception and legacy

In a 1983 interview with Yōko Yomizawa, Hayao Miyazaki acknowledged that ratings for the show had not been very good, noting that episode 25 had received the highest rating at 14 percent. In 2013, anime director Kenji Kamiyama, most known for the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series, cited the series among the 15 best anime of all time.

A redrawn and renamed version of Future Boy Conan appears in the anime Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, where it is foundational to the main character's love of anime.

The screenwriter Chiaki Konaka has cited Future Boy Conan as a key reference model for the production of the 2001 anime Digimon Tamers.

Taiga Adventure

is a spin-off centered around a boy named Taiga and his adventure in the world of magical artifacts known as OOPArts. The central OOPArt, known as , is a giant living statue, and it is on its path to bring forth doom to the world as it collects other OOPArts and becomes more powerful.

Characters

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: A robust young boy who travels with his archaeologist father to ruins around the world. Conflicts arise once they accidentally awake the magical artifact Obats. Taiga then has to chase it and try to acquire key OOPArts before Obats can get them.

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: A young girl who likes riding her motorcycle. Her father is also an archaeologist. She is chosen to be the host of the energy harvested from Obats.

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: A "tribalesque" jungle boy who believes everything his TV says, including how to talk to girls. He becomes Taiga's best friend.

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: The apocalyptic giant living OOPArt. It originally takes the form of a giant bird, but after being awakened, it begins to head for places where other key magical OOPArts are kept, at the same time takes various forms, such a giant mole, a giant fish monster, a giant bat, a giant sphinx, etc.

Notes

References

  • Nippon Animation's official website
  • Nippon Animation's introduction page
  • Nippon Animation's official English website
  • NHK's official website
  • Bandai Visual's official website
  • Future Boy Conan at Nausicaa.net