Yet another fortuitous purchase at the local post office while shipping out some books – Future Boy Conan stamps. Produced by Nippon Animation, Future Boy Conan started airing on Japanese television in 1978, ( Phew, that’s one full year before I was even born. ) and is of particular significance in the history of anime because it marked the directorial debut of Miyazaki Hayao.

Miyazaki Hayao was also the character designer for the series, and Conan/Lana’s unmistakable resemblance to characters in his later films can cleared be seen. A little less known trivia is that Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of Gundam also worked on the series as a storyboard artist. I remember meeting him a long many years ago during the Singapore Animation Fiesta 2000, when I was still a starstruck student and then again in Japan at Sunrise’s 2006 Year End party; he doesn’t seem to have aged one bit.

(Below) A scan of the stamp.

Folks who are interested in collecting this can get one here. There’s also a Patlabor and  Evangelion Stamp collection from the same stamp series.

Future Boy Conan entry in Wikipedia.