Recreational Hazard Redux

Although hard-bitten enough to watch those fabled older anime series that only have “fan translations” (and lacking the language skills that would make discs without subtitles from Japan more than conspicuous consumption, anyway), I at least take note of announcements another one of those old series has been licensed over here. Today, I ran into a pretty big announcement there’d been whispers of wild possibility days before: GKIDS, who are now releasing the Studio Ghibli movies over here, have just licensed Future Boy Conan, that slightly earlier TV series from Hayao Miyazaki. That an anime series over four decades old can get licensed by a company not that associated with that sort of thing yet speaks to the significance of the name attached to it.

However, “being hard-bitten” might sting a little harder now knowing it hasn’t been that long since I got around at last to “fansubs” of the cheerful post-apocalyptic romp. I am at least a bit conscious, too, that as I got towards its conclusion, I started wondering why I couldn’t commit to thoughts of it being “the most satisfying anime series ever,” “suitable for everyone.” It’s that old matter of “one favourite” means “everything else... isn’t,” I guess.