▷Conan, the boy of the future: dystopia by Miyazaki 🥇

The appointment with the anime of the 80s is back again this week, this time with a dip in the adventures of Conan, the boy of the future. We are talking about a cartoon, of 26 episodes, directed by the master Hayao Miyazaki. With him great names in Japanese animation, such as Yoshiyuki Tomino e I (the latter later co-founder with Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli). We are in 1981 when this kid with exceptional physical abilities arrives in Italy with a history full of unexpected events and enemies to face. A story, however, also made up of feelings thanks to which each of these obstacles is promptly overcome.
What is it then Conan's story?

Conan, the boy of the future: the plot

Conan, the grandfather and the arrival of Lana

“In the year 2008 the Third World War broke out and the countries involved, without worrying about the consequences, used the most terrible weapons. So it happened that they destroyed the land and the sea and the survivors found themselves facing the most total catastrophe. " It has already been 20 years since that apocalyptic war and only two are left alive, or at least this is what Conan's grandfather believes as he writes in his diary and tells what happened. It is with the finding on the beach of a fainting child, Lana, on the part of Conan who discovers that there are other survivors on earth (and there are not a few!)

Who is Conan?

The arrival of a seaplane with two armed guards changes everything for Conan and his grandfather. The two are looking for the little girl, Lana, and eventually manage to capture her. Conan tries to save her by jumping on the seaplane and trying to sabotage him but, despite damaging him, he is unable to retrieve his new friend. He then returns to the island where he finds his dying grandfather. The man, before dying, decides to tell him the truth about his origins and how they ended up on the Lost Island. Many years earlier, the man, along with many other people, tried to leave the earth aboard a missile. This crashed right on the island, where their new life began. Conan is the son of one of the couples who ended up on the Lost Island and, adapting to the hostile environment, grew up strong and athletic, with unique and developed skills.

The meeting with Gimsey and Captain Dyce

Conan, overcome the desperation for the mourning, decides to create a raft with which to leave the island and go in search of Lana. During his journey, however, he lands on another island. Here it meets Jimsey (or Gimsey), a boy with a prehistoric appearance, initially a rival but who later became his great friend. A ship then lands on the island - Il Barracuda - at which head there is Captain Dyce. The two children are convinced that this is where Lana is but, listening to some sailors, they discover that the girl has run away and is 'wanted' because she knows the secret of solar energy. Conan and Gimsey are captured but ask to be allowed to stay on board (in order to get to Indastria and find Lana): Captain Dyce accepts but only in exchange for work (and after a brutal punishment).

Indastria, the evil Repka and the discovery of Lana's grandfather

Arrived at industria, we know the Superior Committee headed by the tyrannical and ruthless Repka, true antagonist of history. The man forcibly restrains Lana, eager to find out from her where she is his grandfather, Doctor Briac Rao, a former astronaut and the only one who knows the secret of solar energy and how to obtain it. Conan manages to find Lana but their escape is short-lived. Unexpectedly to free Lana will be Captain Dyce, now determined to rebel against the evil Repka. Conan will take a short time to free himself and then swim to the ship and it will be on this occasion that we will witness the first (and only) kiss (underwater) between him and Lana. The boy is in fact blocked and it is the girl who helps him. Safe, they are finally shipwrecked on an island. This is where they will be captured and put to work by a seemingly bad man who, surprisingly, turns out to be Lana's grandfather instead. The man had been hiding behind a false identity for years in order not to be recognized by his enemies. The two joyfully embrace each other and decide to get back on the road together.

Return to High Harbor

After returning to Indastria to retrieve a useful circuit to restart their spacecraft, the group leaves for the Barracuda. Here the grandfather leaves his granddaughter Lana, Conan e Gimsey in the hands of Captain Dyce and leaves to reach Indastria again and warn everyone of an impending earthquake. The group, on the other hand, leaves at a time of High Harbor, the Isle of Lana, and here lives new adventures, unfortunately also unpleasant, due to Unrest, a bully man at the head of a gang trying to impose himself on the local citizens. He will be the one to ally himself with Mosley - the woman who kidnapped Lana at the beginning of the story and who works for the evil Repka - and to cause a war on the Island. Uro manages to win it but it will be the arrival of a tsunami that will change the balance: once the waters have receded, the inhabitants of the island manage to imprison all the soldiers of Indastria, then convincing them to work on their side.

The end

We then leave for Indastria where Lana's grandfather was captured by Repka. To free him, he asks that Lana be handed over to him: in exchange he would also free all the citizens imprisoned in the basement of the structure. However, it is only a deception: Lana is captured and the prisoners sentenced to die. But it will be Conan, with the help of Gimsey, Captain Dyce and his crew, to set up a plan to free everyone, succeeding. Lana is then freed and Repka, who was trying to escape, is blown up inside the ship or at least that's what everyone believes. Repka is not actually dead and attempts the last attack via a large armored plane. Conan, Gimsey and Dyce will once again stop him and definitively destroy the enemy, sinking into the sea with his plane and his henchmen. THEndastria is razed to the ground and all the inhabitants, including our protagonists, manage to return to Hyarbor / High Harbor. Here Dyce marries Mosley and, soon after, the Barracuda gets back into the sea, ready to bring Conan back to where it all began: his Lost Island.

Conan, the boy of the future: curiosity

Conan in Italy and the sequel

If in Japan Mirai Shonen Konan, that is Conan the boy of the future, airs for the first time in 1978, in Italy the cartoon arrives in 1981 on some local networks. The following year it then arrives on Rete 4, in the 90s on TMC, then in the 2000s, in addition to making its debut in the Home Video market, it arrives with a new dubbing on Cooltoon (Sky). About 20 years after the series ended, what - at least for the title - is the sequel to the cartoon aired. Mirai Shonen Konan II: Adobencha. 24 episodes that, however, tell a completely new story and not at all connected to the previous one.

The novel and Miyazaki's request

The anime Conan the Boy of the Future is not based on comics but on the novel The Incredible Tide by Alexander Key. Hayao Miyazaki, which came from the production of Marco - From the Apennines to the Andes (certainly not the happiest of stories), admitted in the course of an interview that he had agreed to develop the story of this novel only on condition that he could modify the plot in the saddest and most dramatic features. Miyazaki was in fact more than determined to give life to a story with an optimistic mood, trying to give hope to the viewer. “It is stupid to pour your pessimism about the future onto children. - were the words of Miyazaki in the interview of the 80s - If you have lost hope in tomorrow, you can talk about it to adults, but there is no need to do it with the boys. At that point it is better not to say anything at all ”.

Miyazaki and nature: the themes of the story

There are many issues addressed by Miyazaki in the course of Conan's story. Science and nature collide constantly in this cartoon, as well as good and bad. On the other hand we find ourselves faced with a dystopian tale, where humanity risked extinction due to a terrible world conflict during which an electromagnetic bomb was used that devastated the planet. It is in this context that the adventures of Conan unfold, the adoptive grandson of a man who has in vain sought shelter in space. One of Miyazaki's most cherished themes (which we will often find in his works) is certainly preponderant: the environmental message. The respectful coexistence between man and nature is clearly the latent desire of the 'good' protagonists of this anime (and of Miyazaki himself). Eventually it is reached with the destruction of Indastria, who on the show takes on the role of antagonist of nature.

Acronym

The first Italian theme song of Conan, the boy of the future is 'Conan', written by Massimo Buzzi and Lucio Macchiarella and sung by Georgia Lepore. When the cartoon is then aired on TMC, a second theme comes with the title Conan, boy from 2000, sung by Antonio Galbiati and the Cartoon Kids and written by Silvio Amato and Fabrizio Berlincioni.

The main characters

Conan - The twelve-year-old boy protagonist of the story.
Lana - Conan's inseparable friend (whom he seems to have a crush on). Like Conan he has special powers, such as telepathy with which he can communicate with birds in particular.
Jimsey/Gimsey - Great friend of Conan, by his side throughout the adventure.
Doctor Briac Rao - Lana's grandfather, scientist who knows the secret of solar energy.
Captain Dyce - Captain of the Barracuda ship.
Repka - Director of Indastria and villain of history.
Monsley - Deputy director of Indastria and right-hand man of Repka.
Nonno - Conan's adoptive grandfather.
Mr. Gull (Uncle Gooll) - Village fisherman on High Harbor as well as explosives expert with whom Conan works for a while.
Committee of Indastria - Engineers and scientists in the service of Repka.
Rooke - Chief of the inhabitants imprisoned underground.
Unrest - Bossy boy from High Harbor, who will team up with Monsley to take over the island, sparking a war.
Tera - Uro's spoiled sister who falls in love with Gimsey.
Zia Meisar - Doctor Rao's daughter and Lana's aunt.

You are eager for a little more 80s nostalgia? We recently delved into the little girl's adventures Flo and her Robinson family, in the troubled history of Lady Oscar, between Sorgenti Maledette with Ranma 1 / 2, among the thousand messes of Doraemon e Nobita. We went to the discovery of the human body with 'That's how we are done', and we are passionate about the sporting challenges of Holly and Benji e Mila and Shiro. But also a lot, more!