Hayao Miyazaki’s Future Boy Conan Coming to RetroCrush

IndieWire reports that the 1978 anime series Future Boy Conan, the directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki, will begin streaming on the RetroCrush service this month.

The 26 episode series, an adaptation of Alexander Hill Key’s 1970 novel The Incredible Tide, will be rolled out on a weekly basis, starting on April 18. 

The anime will also be on RetroCrush’s free ad-supported television (FAST) version on April 20, 22, and 27 as part of its Miyazaki marathons.

Future Boy Conan first premiered on April 4, 1978 JST. It was the first completely Japanese-produced animation to air on NHK. The synopsis on the 2021 Blu-ray release reads:

Twenty years ago, a terrible war fought with magnetic weapons caused the earth’s axis to tilt, and earthquakes and tidal waves destroyed civilization. Conan is born into this new world, raised by his grandfather on an isolated island. But his life is forever changed when a mysterious girl named Lana washes ashore, pursued by shadowy operatives who seek to use her in a new scheme to control what’s left of the world.

Miyazaki shares character design credits on the Nippon Animation-produced series with the late Yasuo Otsuka, who was also its animation director. Among the other staff were the late Nizo Yamamoto (Grave of the Fireflies) as background art director and Katsuji Misawa (Akira) as director of photography. The late Studio Ghibli director Isao Takahata was one of its storyboard artists.

Future Boy Conan inspired 1999 to 2000’s Future Boy Conan II ~Taiga Adventure~, which was directed by Keiji Hayakawa, the original series’ assistant unit director and one of its storyboard artists.

Source: IndieWire