[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Future Boy Conan episode 9: The Salvage Ship
What with recent events I’ve neglected Future Boy Conan a little but it looks like I can get back to blogging it now. Ep #9, The Salvage Ship, is another rather slow episode but nevertheless an interesting one in terms of giving some background to Conan’s post-apocalyptic world.
After making it through the desert Conan and Lana find themselves the prisoners of a group of salvage engineers, presided over by the slave-driving Patch - a charming fellow who looks like a cross between Frankenstein’s Monster and a one-eyed John Cleese. Patch and his men appear to be subcontractors to Industria and their salvage operation is in desparate need of extra hands.
It’s too early to say what place the salvage team will have in the bigger picture but it shows how, outside of Industria itself, the authorities’ powers are limited and it is up to the outposts themselves to decide on how to get the job done. While many are aware of Industria’s policies on things such as child labour and the reporting of missing persons, in practice these rules are irrelevant and take a definite second place to the task at hand. For Patch and his men, the salvage takes top priority over the welfare and origins of his young prisoners.
Because this is another episode in which Conan and Lana are in captivity once again, not a great deal happens in the action department. Conan is clearly a tough youngster so Lana comes across as little more than a weak child in comparison; nevertheless she shows some defiance and fortitude in carrying out the exhausting labours assigned to her. Even though he gets a few clips around the ear for his trouble Conan brazenly mocks the cowardly and pitiless men who are ordering him around.
The Future Boy Conan episodes seem to alternate between fast-paced escapes and the periods of confinement that precede them; this fact and one or two intriguing details concerning Lana’s grandfather promise to make the next outing a little more exciting.
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