Future Boy Conan (未来少年コナン, Mirai Shōnen Konan) is a 1978 television anime series loosely based on Alexander Key’s 1970 novel The Incredible Tide. The series was produced by studio Nippon Animation, and the staff credits include director Hayao Miyazaki, screenplay writers Akira Nakano, Satoshi Kurumi & Sōji Yoshikawa, and music composed by Shin’ichirō Ikebe. The series first aired in Japan on April 1978.
Background:
“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 adopted 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.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, June 2022.
Many will be familiar with Hayao Miyazaki for his work over at Studio Ghibli as well as the classic Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro film, or even him retiring then unretiring and vice versa. But before all of that, he also worked on a few television shows back in the 70s like Lupin the Third Part I and the big and most notable one of the lot – Future Boy Conan.
Future Boy Conan is a pretty popular anime series in Japan and has inspired or been referenced by numerous titles ever since, even Masaaki Yuasa’s Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! that aired a few years back. But the series never got released in the English speaking territories due to various issues like high costs to acquire the rights or licensing issues in general. And it wasn’t until the series was given the 4K digital restoration treatment that it managed to get a second chance in the west.
Future Boy Conan did eventually make its way in the west, starting with North America through GKIDS and using Japan’s 4K digital restoration master. They even went out of their way to provide a new English dub, which before Discotek stepped in with The Flying Phantom Ship (another title that Miyazaki did work on), was considered to be the oldest series to be given a modern English dub.
However, GKIDS only released it on Blu-ray, but the 4K master did eventually make its way into the United Kingdom through Anime Limited, which they revealed not long after their US announcement. And to the surprise (or no-surprise for some), they also revealed they would release the series on 4K Ultra HD, a first for a Japanese anime series.
Collector’s Edition Contents:
Anime Limited have decided to split the series into two parts, but regardless we still get some collector’s packaging to make up for it. The idea is pretty much similar to the Gundam franchise Anime Limited have released, with Part 1 including a rigid box while Part 2 has a booklet.
The rigid box includes a 4K Ultra HD case that houses both the Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD discs. There’s also some extra artwork for those who want that. The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases.
The collector’s edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack set is limited to 1000 units for SRP £79.99 (the higher SRP is due to the distributor bringing the series onto the 4K Ultra HD format for the first time anywhere in the world, so there’s also costs to make that happen). A standard edition Blu-ray collection is scheduled to be released around the same time as the release of Part 2’s 4K collector’s set.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and UHD Amaray packaging
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 27th June 2022
The collector’s edition Part 1 release for Future Boy Conan contains the first 13 episodes across two 4K Ultra HD discs and 2 Blu-ray discs. The audio options for both formats include Japanese with English subtitles and a brand new English dub from the Ocean Studios English dub commissioned by GKIDS. English SDH subtitles are also available for both formats.
The 4K UHD discs are encoded and authored by the folks over at MediaOCD, known for handling previous Anime Limited releases like Millennium Actress and Your Name so they know what they’re doing. While the series was given the 4K digital restoration treatment, it is presented in Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) format as well. As for the playback, the white subtitles (plus blue subtitles for on-screen lyrics) are unlockable during playback, and the disc is all region. Worth noting that the 4K discs are also being used for France (as Anime Limited also has French rights), therefore the French dub and French subtitles are also included.
The Blu-ray discs were also encoded and authored by MediaOCD, which is interesting considering the discs were already available via the North American release by GKIDS who released the series on Blu-ray a while back. As for the playback, the subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the disc is locked to Region B players.
4K Ultra HD Specs:
| Languages | English, French, Japanese |
| Audio | English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 |
| Video | 2160p Ultra High Definition format 1.33:1 aspect ratio SDR |
| Region | All Region |
| Subtitles | English, English SDH, French |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 1.33:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | B |
| Subtitles | English, English SDH |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
4K Ultra HD On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras across all discs
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras across all discs
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Future Boy Conan Part 1 is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The collector’s edition 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray combo pack can be acquired through Amazon UK, Anime Limited’s store, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, and United Publications.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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