The opening minutes of Future Boy Conan, Hayao Miyazaki’s’ classic but seldom-seen 1978 directorial debut, is a prophetic vision of our eventual self-destruction. Sieged by a future war and post-nuclear weapons of mass destruction, humanity has doomed itself; cyberpunk mega-cities crumble, populations are wiped away, the climate withers, and the waters rise. In the decades since Future Boy Conan, Miyazaki has developed a reputation for warm-blanket whimsy that can nurture the soul like the best bowls of noodle soup. But from the beginning of his career, he has always wrestled with the dark and difficult emotions that smolder inside us, and the deadly consequences they can unleash.
