Conan The Adventurer: Season One

Many of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s love our nostalgia, especially when it comes to cartoons. We grew up with the best cartoons ever produced. Now many of us(including myself) ask ourselves,"Where did all the good cartoons go?" Thanks to Shout! Factory, we can experience one of the most underrated and often-forgotten action cartoon, Conan the Adventurer.

Based on Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Adventurer debuted in 1992. Like many other 90s action cartoons, Conan the Adventurer was successful and ran for 51 episodes. Although successful, Conan the Adventurer remains one of the most underrated action cartoons.

Conan the Adventurer centers around Conan, a young barbarian and his friends Needle a baby phoenix, Zula a shaman, Jasmine a circus acrobat, Greywolf a wizard, Falkenar, a flying warrior and Snagg a wiking as they set out to find a cure to save Conan's family who have been petrified by the evil serpent wizard Wrath-Amon. Wrath-Amon himself is out to free his master Sett, a giant cobra demon who long ago was imprisoned by Conan's ancestors.

Thanks to this, we can now witness this highly underrated cartoon and feel like we're in the 90s once again. Here are the episodes.

1.The Night Of Fiery Tears-Conan, a young barbarian in Cimmeria, has his family turned to stone by the cruel warlord Wrath-Amon. Now the young warrior must go on a quest to break the curse on his family and end the tyranny of Wrath-Amon.

2.Blood Brother-Conan along with his new friends Needle and Zula are enslaved by spies of Wrath-Amon. Now Conan must face the monster that cursed his family.

3.Star of Shadizar-Conan and Zula journey to Shadizar to find the Star of Transmutation, a powerful magical jewel which might help Conan break the curse on his family. On the way they meet a mysterious circus performer named Jazmine who might help them on their quest.

4.Conan the Gladiator-When Conan and Jezmine are given the news that Zula has been captured by cannibals and is presumed dead, Conan vows to find his Blood Brother.

5.The Heart Of Rakkir-Wrath-Amon has discovered the location of the Heart of Rakkir which will give him the power over a sea monster. He finds out that only a person with Atlantean blood may acquire the jewel. Luckily for Conan, he is the descedent of the Atlanteans.

6.Men Of Stone-When Wrath-Amon enslaves a village and turns their chief to stone, Conan goes to investigate the matter and learns the secret behind the curse, but will it cost him his friends?

7.The Terrible Torrinon-Conan, Jasmine and Snag ride into a town shunned by locals as being "cursed". There, they see a woman being carried away by an evil wizard, feared as the Terrible Torrinon. The adventuring trio mount a rescue, only to find that they have been deceived by a clever ploy of the villagers. Unfortunately, Wrath-amon too has been deceived, and he arrives to challenge Torrinon to a sorcerer's duel.

8.Greywolf Of Xanthus-Conan, Jezmine, and Zula journey to Xanthus, the ancient city of wizards, to look for a way to break the stone curse that Wrath-Amon placed on Conan's family. There, they meet and befriend a wizard named Greywolf.

9.Shadow Walkers-Conan and Greywolf are in the city of Phenion. When they are attacked by a gang of ninjas. The ninjas then explain that they are the Silent Dragons and they need his help. Conan agrees and the ninjas offer to teach him how to be a ninja.

10.The Claw Of Heaven-Conan and Greywolf hear of a tribe of Picts (primitives) whose shaman/tribal leader wields a staff with a piece of Star Metal forged in the shape of a claw upon it. This specially forged Star Metal amplifies magical power, so the duo must both persuade the Picts to give them the Claw and protect it from Mesmira and Skulkur.

11.The Serpent Riders Of Sett-Conan, Jasmine and Snag are travelling through a forest when they come across a band of warriors led by a youth, the ruler of the local land who was recently ousted by Wrath-Amon and his Serpent Men. Wrath-Amon captures castle and a mystical tomb of the Serpent Riders of Set, seven mystical 'horsemen' who served Set eons ago and who can be resurrected. Conan and the others agree to help the youth regain his castle.

12.Windfang's Eyrie-Windfang, Wrath-amon's number one general, kidnaps Jasmine and imprisons her in his lair. As Conan comes to her rescue the draconically deformed Windfang reveals his previous existence as a normal human to Jasmine.

13.Seven Against Stygia-Wrath-Amon is about to complete a second pyramid and come much closer to free his master Set. Conan and Zula discover this and call on the rest of their comrades so they may prevent it from happening.

Conan the Adventurer ran for 64 episodes, the first season was 13 episodes and the rest of the series ran at 51 shows. The first season ran on Saturdays in syndication and then in the second season it ran daily. This is the first time Conan the Adventurer has appeared in the US on dvd, having had a few releases in Region 2 up to a season 1 release and a full series release in Region 4 broken up into many volumes.

Conan ran in the ealy 90s and it's action packed and story driven. Each episode often runs into the next episode though there are quite a few stand alone episodes as well. The main goal for Conan is trying to undo the spell of living stone cast upon his family which takes him across many lands gaining many new allies/friends in his fight against Wrath-Amon and Set:the evil snake god.

Conan is really an underrated cartoon from 1992-93, it is most similar to the great 80s series "Dungeons and Dragons." One of the best things about Conan the Adventurer is that is actually finished it's series story line which not many cartoons do, due to the fact that they are always looking to get picked up for another season. The end of the series was very thrilling and satisfying to say the least. Though there was an ending it still left the cartoon with different arcs to take and in fact there was a Spin-off series called " Conan and the Young Warriors " which had 13 episodes but got cancelled shortly after it had aired back on CBS on Saturday mornings.

I think Conan would be most enjoyed to see it from start to finish episode 1 to 64. It is disappointing to see only a Season 1 Dvd release for now but with good sales I am told Shout Factory will release the rest, the next set could come out in 6 months and it could be broken up into two more sets to finish it off on dvd. I really hope people will support this dvd release because it's a great cartoon, the stories were well written, the story arcs were great, though it's not as savage as the original books it is a kids series at heart after all. And I think if the sales are super, we might just also get the spin-off series Conan and the Young Warriors later also. Spread the word on supporting this dvd release, they aren't many cartoons made like this these days.

*UPDATE* POSTED ON AUGUST 5Th, 2011

Here's a good but not great update, in the Shout Factory release calendar it says Conan the Adventurer will have another release in November, it's a Season 2 part 1 dvd release of just 13 episodes, well season 2 had 51 episodes so it seems like they are breaking this season into little pieces. Not good. They should just do two sets of 26 and 25 episodes to finish it off, but hey that's just my opinion.

Wow. I watched this like others, in the early 90s. Needless to say, this is an awesome show and worthy of being on dvd! You CANNOT go wrong with this dvd! I look forward to the future Season 2 dvds!

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 8 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars