Review of Future Boy Conan
Future Boy Conan is one of the classics of TV anime. It's a loose adaptation of an American sci-fi novel, Alexander Key's The Incredible Tide, but, perhaps more crucially to folks looking into older anime, it's Hayao Miyazaki's first directoral work, and his touch lends this story a gravity that is pretty rare in animation. That isn't to say that this is a story told in a serious style. It adheres to the gag-joke conventions of 70's era cartooning frequently, and the action sequences beg you to suspend disbelief as Conan once again(and he's constantly doing this stuff) hangs onto a ledge by the tips ofhis toes, breaks out of his chains by flexing, dances around bullets, or throws his harpoon with perfect accuracy. He is a "very strong" kid, and that's all the explanation we get for why he, and a good portion of the cast, are apparently superhuman. It's a good cast, though. The characters are all memorable, well voiced, and demonstrate a lot of plot agency rather than being just pawns or "side characters".
Anyway, the themes and topics covered are all stuff that is just as crucial today as it was then: The impact of humans on their environment, and what it means to live well. This show foreshadows pretty much every other Miyazaki work. The premise is that the planet was ruined by "magnetic weapons", and small fragments of humanity remain on tiny islands or ships. Conan, our hero, gets pulled by various plot events into an adventure to find a missing girl, uncover some mysteries about the past, and stop various antagonists from repeating the same mistakes.
What sorts of things does he find on the way? Just the usual: A dying industrial society, enslaving the islands around it to feed its machines with trash. And a pastoral, "back to the farm" society that is apparently peaceful and deindustrialized. The plot firmly favors the latter, sidestepping the philosophical conundrums of whether that life is truly good for everyone, but allows some antagonists to exist throughout to keep things moving. The world building done here is excellent, and you won't find anything else like it, except maybe in other Miyazaki. It builds up the action at a leisurely pace - fast for its era, but slower by modern standards - so although you hear about all these locations, you don't get to see all of them until you're well into the series, and that makes them more of a treat when they finally arrive.
As with a lot of older anime, I have to mark down the presentation quality since the style is antiquated and it doesn't have the budget, techniques, or technologies available now. But this is more true of the sound, which is typical 70's themes and SFX, than the art, which is limited by analog processes and sticks to a cartoony, low-detail style, but still demonstrates some really great and consistent animation, with good storyboarding and very few(maybe no?) reused clips.
Why would I not recommend it? If you don't like other Miyazaki stuff, that might be one reason. Or if you want more of an edgy, blood-spurting and guts-showing action style, or a more grounded, realistic drama, this one will disappoint you with its unbelievable antics.