YMMV / Future Boy Conan

• Complete Monster: Lepka is the ruthless Chief of Administration in Industria, one of the final bastions of humanity after war ravaged the Earth. Lepka seeks to repeat the mistakes of the past for the sake of his own power by utilizing one of the ancient warplanes that devastated Earth to conquer it. Already responsible for having branded and thrown hundreds of people into Industria's dungeons—a fate he threatens for the two young protagonists—Lepka steadily becomes worse as the plot goes on, betraying Industria's Security Council and attempting to drown thousands of innocent people to flush out the heroes, all after lying that he would save them if they caved into his Sadistic Choice. Lepka tortures the old, pacifistic Dr. Lao to the point where he goes both blind and deaf; repeatedly threatens to kill Lao's granddaughter; and he has no compunction killing his own men and abandoning them all to die when his plans go south. As a spiritual predecessor to future Miyazaki villain Muska, Lepka is unusually and totally Beyond Redemption in an otherwise idealistic series.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • The show was very popular in the Arab world and still is today. The dubbing was performed by Arab Audio and Video Center, which was based in Kuwait. The cast included a number of Kuwaiti TV stars such as Jassim Al-Nabhan, Ali Al-Mufidi, and others. Conan's name was changed to Adnan, Lana's was changed to Leena, and Jimsy's was changed to Abbsi so that they could have names similar to Arabic names. Unlike most Arabic dubs of anime, Future Boy Conan has retained most of its plot details without any altering.
  • It was popular in South Korea and became the favorite anime for South Koreans who attended elementary schools in the early 1980s, especially with the help of the localized opening theme song that has a military band vibe.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Jimsy trading food for cigarettes and smoking them would never be allowed to be shown on TV these days.
  • The Industrian High Council letting themselves be killed by their island sinking is treated quite casually, and Dr. Lao basically tells Lana not to stop them. Committing suicide out of extreme shame could be considered at least somewhat normal in 1970s Japan, but in many other places and more recent times it would be considered a bizarrely dark thing to allow, especially considering Dr. Lao's words to them which seemed to have inspired it.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The show's animation is very nice and smooth, especially by 70s standards (and even compared to most modern TV anime). Indeed, Miyazaki later took many of the animation staff for this series with him to Studio Ghibli.

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