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Greetings everyone! It’s been a little while since we’ve gathered you for a major new license acquisition announcement, but we simply can’t keep this to ourselves any longer and so we had to share it.
Let’s get straight to the headline – we’re thrilled and excited to announce that we’re bringing the legendary directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki, Future Boy Conan, to the UK, starting in early 2022. What’s more, we’ll be releasing the entire series not only on Blu-ray, but also on 4K UHD Blu-ray for the first time anywhere in the world!
Want to know more? Oh, we bet you do, so read on for details!
About Future Boy Conan
If you’re not familiar with the series (which is understandable, and it’s never been made readily available in the UK), this post-apocalyptic sci-fi series arrived on Japanese television in 1978.
Adapted from American writer Alexander Key’s 1970 novel, The Incredible Tide, the series marked the directorial debut of one Hayao Miyazaki, who of course went on to become the renowned creative powerhouse at the heart of Studio Ghibli. This marks Future Boy Conan as a pivotal moment in the history of Japanese animation, and a series that inspired a whole generation of creators who would go on to work in the anime industry as a result of watching the series (see the first episode of the popular Keep Your Hands Off, Eizouken for a particularly loving homage to the series).
Synopsis: 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.
Our release plans
This classic series has recently received a full 4K restoration in Japan, and as always at Anime Limited we strive to bring you content in the best way possible – thus, our plan is to release the series as a Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray combo Collector’s Edition, making our release the first 4K release of the series anywhere in the world!
Our intention is to release the series over two Collector’s Edition instalments, each containing 13 episodes across two 4K UHD Blu-rays, and two regular Blu-rays.
But that’s not all – our Part 1 Collector’s Edition of the series will include a whopping 132-page book! Written by Jonathan Clements and Andrew Osmond, this full-blown book chronicles the history and production of the Miyazaki’s directorial debut, and is absolutely packed with insight as well as delving deep into the production of every episode of the series as it recounts tales from staff members who were there and taking part in its creation. This is a must-own book for fans and anyone interested in this seminal part of anime history, and is worth the price of entry alone as the most exhausting examination of the series available in English.
Of course, this release will also include a beautiful rigid slipcase, which will house both part one and two of the series – once released, part two will simply slip inside.
As things currently stand, our aim is to release our Future Boy Conan Part 1 Collector’s Edition in the first quarter of 2022 – we will of course have full details, pre-order dates and imagery of what our release will look like closer to the time.
After all that, you’d be forgiven for needing a moment to recover…
With those initial details now out in the open, we hope you’re as thrilled to see this classic series arrive on UHD Blu-ray as we are, and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on not only the series itself, but the included book too!
I watched it five years ago. It was my final Miyazaki thing. Nothing left now aside from that movie he's working on.
I'm very much hoping to make it to the Ghibli museum one day to tick the rest of his shorts off my list. I think this will be the last thing I've not seen that's available legitimately at home though.
I'm very much hoping to make it to the Ghibli museum one day to tick the rest of his shorts off my list. I think this will be the last thing I've not seen that's available legitimately at home though.
Shorts? Then I'm not done either. I've only watched On Your Mark.
So the British come through with 4k UHD plans, while GKids over in the US thinks it's too risky and will probably dump it on 4k digital.
Could happen, but might be later... and would be after people import the UK version and then the US sales will suffer for Shout's delay... Same could be said for Your Name. Been waiting for Funimation to announce a US 4K and still nothing after 4 months.
I'd probably be interested, but splitting it up means they'll probably be too expensive all together for me.
No HDR just SDR but in 4k.. they posted about it .
And that’s probably a good thing, IMO. HDR on anime in general has been spotty in terms of implementation quality. I’m all for it being done right, but there’s been far too many disappointing HDR grades.
And that’s probably a good thing, IMO. HDR on anime in general has been spotty in terms of implementation quality. I’m all for it being done right, but there’s been far too many disappointing HDR grades.
My view exactly. To quote a message I just posted on the A-ko thread:
"Might be just as well that they're not releasing this one on 4K UHD. I'm still not convinced that UHD is bringing much advantage to anime. Basically it's always grain free and a lot of the time doesn't necessarily look better than previous blu rays. In the case of Lupin and Akira I felt it definitely worse looking, and with Cobra and GITS I'm unsure that it's that much better. Might just be that the folks making these anime UHD's aren't adjusted to the format yet."
From the screencaps of the restoration on the Italian Blu-Ray, it certainly looks like there has been DNR applied but I can't really see any loss of detail.
Also, I've already said this elsewhere but - this is absolutely incredible news.
That’s right, the first half of Future Boy Conan is coming to Collector’s Edition on May 23rd, with Part 1 comprising of the first half of the series on both 4K UHD Blu-ray (in an SDR presentation across two discs) alongside two traditional Blu-rays.
These discs sit within an Amaray case, which itself fits inside a rigid slipcase designed to house parts one and two of the series – don’t forget, the second half of the series also comes with a full-blown, comprehensive book penned by Jonathan Clements and Andrew Osmond detailing the series and its production, so look forward to more on that over the coming months.
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Hayao Miyazaki's Future Boy Conan 4K UHD (1978)
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