Will "Future Boy Conan" ever get licensed?

[Njr Scrawl]

I know the name licensing is a black hole, but even if they renamed/retitled him/the series, do you think Miyazaki's first anime, Future Boy Conan is ever likely to be licensed?

[fantasydewdrop]

Well, there is a growing Miyazaki fanbase here, but sadly, it may be too old even for a lot of them. But then again, we got an Animal Treasure Island revival and we did get Sherlock Hound.... Whoever did get it would have to pimp the Miyazakiness for all it's worth, considering it's age. Though, I bet all the fans of old-school anime would eat it up. Diskotech may want it once they start getting interested in series. Media Blasters is also into old-school lately. There's probably a chance that someone will get it, but I don't think it's that big of one.

I'd certainly be interested in looking into the series if it came stateside.

[Mr. Nail Bat]

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KasiTL said:
Well, there is a growing Miyazaki fanbase here, but sadly, it may be too old even for a lot of them. But then again, we got an Animal Treasure Island revival and we did get Sherlock Hound.... Whoever did get it would have to pimp the Miyazakiness for all it's worth, considering it's age. Though, I bet all the fans of old-school anime would eat it up. Diskotech may want it once they start getting interested in series. Media Blasters is also into old-school lately. There's probably a chance that someone will get it, but I don't think it's that big of one.

I'd certainly be interested in looking into the series if it came stateside.

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Geneon might consider it as soon as they're done with Lupin III.

[Mazinkaizer]

Ah the sweet good old days /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif that's 1 of first anime shows that i watched when i was a kid /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

Now i surly would love an R1 release for it but IMHO it's very unlikely considering that it's not what would appeal to the mass market. But you never say never /images/graemlins/wink.gif

A bit off-topic, there was a Future Boy Conan PS2 game that came out late in 2005 (import) and it's surly a must for the fans of the series /images/graemlins/happy.gif

[Vicserr]

Well, basically the series screams Old School and they would have to play the Miyazaki card very heavyly to generate some interest in the title in the general public, it would be nice to get a release in R1 but I wouldn't get my hopes up...

[mcarocks2003]

They could try branding it under the very successful 'Ghibli Label'.

With that in mind, maybe there's an outside chance of Disney picking it up, lol.

[Chiyosuke]

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mcarocks2003 said:
They could try branding it under the very successful 'Ghibli Label'.

With that in mind, maybe there's an outside chance of Disney picking it up, lol.

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They could try... then there's the fact that it's not a Ghibli title /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Thanatos]

Probably not. Although an excellent series, Future Boy Conan suffers from being old, long (26 episodes as opposed to one film), and was directed by Miyazaki. Anything Miyazaki could be hot, but Miyazaki's directing, rather than being a cel painter, likely makes the license very expensive. Expensive license + projected low sales = no R1 release.

[fantasydewdrop]

Hmmmm.... If Disney got it, they could do a "Miyazaki Month" on their TV channel to drum up interest. Air an episode per weekday, and a movie or two per week. Kick it off with a double feature of two movies with the first episode of Future Boy jammed in the middle (then have the episode re-aired durring the time slot the rest of the series gets). Little, little kids won't mind the old animation too much, and Miyazaki fans will be either alerted to it's existence or will suddenly have a reason to watch the Disney Channel. They might have a few issues with older kids rejecting the older animation, though. (But then again, I've not seen it, so I can't really say how the animation actually is. I'm sure it's quite excellent for it's time, being Miyazaki's, but how well did it age?)

[aquapermanence]

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KasiTL said:
(But then again, I've not seen it, so I can't really say how the animation actually is. I'm sure it's quite excellent for it's time, being Miyazaki's, but how well did it age?)

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Like a lot of older shows, the characters move around a lot and don't stay quite as on-model as someone used to watching newer anime would expect. At the same time, there's very little in the way of close-ups and head-shots. The character designs are as much defined by the way the whole character's body looks and moves, rather than just the details of the face.

If you've seen Miyazaki's famous episodes of Lupin III, "Albatross: Wings of Death" and "Farewell, Lovely Lupin", you'll know what kind of animation style and quality you're getting from Future Boy Conan. Design-wise, though, much of the middle of the show takes place in a bleak technological dystopia, reminiscent of Matsumoto's Galaxy Express 999 or Queen of a Thousand Years.

Watching Conan, you'll probably see a lot of iconic elements that were used with more central relevance later. The core story was basically retold in Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and again in Gainax's Nadia. The flying fortresses that appear are eerily similar to those used in Nausicaa, and later in Howl's Moving Castle. And I can't help but think that Akitaroh Daichi's Now and Then, Here and There portrays the bitter corruption of the ruined future of Hellywood in a direct answer to Conan's presentation of the city of Industria.