Lupin the Wolf
02-17-2003, 04:19 PM
Monkey Punch (a pennanme for Japanese manga author Kazuhiko Katoh) read the novels of Maurice Leblanc's Arsene Lupin, and gained a fondness for them. Under pressure to create a short story in a manga anthology, he threw together a story about Arsene Lupin's grandson, Arsene Lupin the Third. It was published in August of 1967, eventually gaining great success.
By 1968, production was begun on a pilot film for a Lupin the Third anime. The pilot's budget could not be agreed on, and the project remained incompleted for some time.
In 1971 an anime series was made, called "Lupin the Third" ("Rupan Sansei"). This series, which featured Lupin in a teal-green jacket, introduced Goemon as a character, as well as recurring character, Mr. X. The first 6 episodes were based in the style of the manga, but when the ratings didn't improve, the producers decided to aim the programs at a younger viewing audience. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata (now of Studio Ghibli fame) co-directed the rest of the series (episodes 7-23). The ratings apparently simply didn't improve enough to warrant a continuation, so at episode 23, the series was cancelled in 1972. Thankfully, it was put into nearly endless reruns for the 5 years that followed....
The manga continued running and in 1974 a live-action Lupin film was released, "Lupin the Third: Strange Psycho-Kinetic Strategy." The film was missing Goemon and Zenigata was missing his hat, but reports say that the film was true to the source material.
The manga had stopped, and started again in 1976, with "The New Lupin the Third."
The next year, due to the popularity of reruns of the First TV Series...a Second TV series was begun: "The New Lupin the Third." This was the first TV anime to be broadcast in stereo, and lasted for 155 episodes across 3 years. This means that a new episode aired basically EVERY week, like clockwork, until its conclusion. The character designs of the series varied greatly, mostly due to the fact that multiple studios were working on multiple episodes at any given time. By the series' conclusion, the character designs present in "Castle of Cagliostro" replaed the rougher look used in the manga and the first anime movie.
The first anime movie for Lupin was called "Lupin the Third," released late in 1978. Shortly afterwards, this movie was dubbed into English under the title "Lupin III" and shown on trans-atlantic Japan AirLines flights. The characters had been renamed except for Lupin: Jigen=>Dan Dunn, Fujiko=>Margot, Goemon=>"The Samurai", and Inspector Zenigata=>Detective Ed Scott. Lupin was pronounced "Loo-pawn" or "Loo-pan" for this dub, which has since fallen by the wayside and never released to the public outside of very rare film copies and multi-generation bootlegs. This film would later be released in America on VHS (in 1995) and DVD (~1998) as "Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo." Both versions are out-of-print.
In early 1979, Hayao Miyazaki had achieved great success as an animation director with the Future Boy Conan TV series (not available Stateside). TMS requested that Miyazaki create a Lupin feature film to follow-up the first movies' success. After around 7 or 8 months of storyboarding, which overlapped with the mere 5 months (!) of actual animation work by the staff, the feature film was released in December as "Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro." The film...was unsuccessful. Only after later TV broadcasts and home video release did the film gain its long-deserved recognition. The film is fantastically deep, though not necessarily visible on its surface. "Cagliostro" is often criticized on the basis that it's not a real "Lupin" film. This is true, in that Lupin is not as selfish as he is in most Lupin anime. This movie has been released three times in America....once theatrically (limited release, subtitled, in 1991), once on home video (dubbed, 1992), and the final time on video and DVD by another company (re-dubbed and subtitled, 2000).
The Second Series, "The New Lupin the Third," ended with two memorable episodes directed and scripted by Miyazaki: "Albatross-Wings of Death," (episode 145) and "Farewell, Beloved Lupin" (episode 155). There were dubbed into English and released on VHS (1994, 1995) in America individually as "Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf," and later combined onto "Lupin III's Greatest Capers." In these earlier dubs (along with early versions of "Castle of Cagliostro"), Lupin is named "Wolf." In the English releases for these episodes, you can see the occasional use of the name "Lupin," though pronounced improperly. Lupin's voice is Bob Bergen in these older dubs, now the modern voice of Porky Pig.
The Third TV Series ("Lupin the Third Part III") picks up in the early 80's (1983, I believe) and concludes in 1985, just before the release of the theatrical feature, "Lupin the Third: The Golden Legend of Babylon." The third series featured Lupin in a pink jacket and a somewhat "goofier" version of the Lupin cast. The theatrical film "Babylon" shares many traits with the Third Series, from what I've seen, and may turn off potential fans of the show.
Lupin the Third remained dormant for a while after the Third Series' 50 episodes ran their time, then the OAV feature, "Plot of the Fuma Clan" was scheduled for release in 1987. It ended up in theaters instead of direct-to-video, and is often considered the second-best Lupin movie amongst anime fans.
In 1989 a new tradition began....that of the annual Lupin TV Specials. The TV specials air in the summer each year in Japan, and there are too many to practically list here. FUNimation acquired the rights to most of these specials, 3 of which have been released as of this writing. The specials continue to this day; the last one released was an origin story, explaining how the Lupin gang got together in the first place.
In 1995, the theatrical feature, "Die! Nostradamus" was released, featuring the same character designs and animation studio as "Castle of Cagliostro." Unfortunately, without Miyazaki, the magic and atmoshpere of "Cagliostro" wasn't quite there. The movie was mostly just silliness, but I digress.
The story goes that Monkey Punch himself was dissatisfied with the result of "Nostradamus" and set out to direct his own Lupin film. Thus, his first-ever directed anime was the 1996 Lupin feature "Dead or Alive," which has come to many rave reviews, despite its incredibly intesnse violence.
Here is a complete list of what Lupin stuff is (or has been) available in America:
Dubbed by Streamline Pictures:
-Lupin the Third (Movie 2): The Castle of Cagliostro ("Lupin" is not on the video cover)
-The New Lupin the Third TV: Episodes 145, 155
-Lupin the Third (Movie 1): The Mystery of Mamo (Goemon's voice is different than in the other dubs)
Dubbed by AnimEigo:
-Rupan III: The Fuma Conspiracy
-Rupan III: Legend of the Gold of Babylon (subtitled-only, actually)
Dubbed by Manga Video:
-Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (the "Lupin" part is only mentioned on the back cover)
Dubbed by FUNimation:
-Lupin the Third: The Secret of Twilight Gemini (TV Sp '96)
-Lupin the Third: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure (TV Sp '95)
-Lupin the Third: Dragon of Doom (TV Sp. '94)
-Lupin the Third: Voyage to Danger (coming in May - TV Sp '93)
Dubbed by Pioneer Entertainment:
-The New Lupin the Third TV Episodes 1, 2, 4-7. ("The World's Most Wanted")
Any other questions? I'll probably update this post in the future with links and stuff, and to correct any errors.
By 1968, production was begun on a pilot film for a Lupin the Third anime. The pilot's budget could not be agreed on, and the project remained incompleted for some time.
In 1971 an anime series was made, called "Lupin the Third" ("Rupan Sansei"). This series, which featured Lupin in a teal-green jacket, introduced Goemon as a character, as well as recurring character, Mr. X. The first 6 episodes were based in the style of the manga, but when the ratings didn't improve, the producers decided to aim the programs at a younger viewing audience. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata (now of Studio Ghibli fame) co-directed the rest of the series (episodes 7-23). The ratings apparently simply didn't improve enough to warrant a continuation, so at episode 23, the series was cancelled in 1972. Thankfully, it was put into nearly endless reruns for the 5 years that followed....
The manga continued running and in 1974 a live-action Lupin film was released, "Lupin the Third: Strange Psycho-Kinetic Strategy." The film was missing Goemon and Zenigata was missing his hat, but reports say that the film was true to the source material.
The manga had stopped, and started again in 1976, with "The New Lupin the Third."
The next year, due to the popularity of reruns of the First TV Series...a Second TV series was begun: "The New Lupin the Third." This was the first TV anime to be broadcast in stereo, and lasted for 155 episodes across 3 years. This means that a new episode aired basically EVERY week, like clockwork, until its conclusion. The character designs of the series varied greatly, mostly due to the fact that multiple studios were working on multiple episodes at any given time. By the series' conclusion, the character designs present in "Castle of Cagliostro" replaed the rougher look used in the manga and the first anime movie.
The first anime movie for Lupin was called "Lupin the Third," released late in 1978. Shortly afterwards, this movie was dubbed into English under the title "Lupin III" and shown on trans-atlantic Japan AirLines flights. The characters had been renamed except for Lupin: Jigen=>Dan Dunn, Fujiko=>Margot, Goemon=>"The Samurai", and Inspector Zenigata=>Detective Ed Scott. Lupin was pronounced "Loo-pawn" or "Loo-pan" for this dub, which has since fallen by the wayside and never released to the public outside of very rare film copies and multi-generation bootlegs. This film would later be released in America on VHS (in 1995) and DVD (~1998) as "Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo." Both versions are out-of-print.
In early 1979, Hayao Miyazaki had achieved great success as an animation director with the Future Boy Conan TV series (not available Stateside). TMS requested that Miyazaki create a Lupin feature film to follow-up the first movies' success. After around 7 or 8 months of storyboarding, which overlapped with the mere 5 months (!) of actual animation work by the staff, the feature film was released in December as "Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro." The film...was unsuccessful. Only after later TV broadcasts and home video release did the film gain its long-deserved recognition. The film is fantastically deep, though not necessarily visible on its surface. "Cagliostro" is often criticized on the basis that it's not a real "Lupin" film. This is true, in that Lupin is not as selfish as he is in most Lupin anime. This movie has been released three times in America....once theatrically (limited release, subtitled, in 1991), once on home video (dubbed, 1992), and the final time on video and DVD by another company (re-dubbed and subtitled, 2000).
The Second Series, "The New Lupin the Third," ended with two memorable episodes directed and scripted by Miyazaki: "Albatross-Wings of Death," (episode 145) and "Farewell, Beloved Lupin" (episode 155). There were dubbed into English and released on VHS (1994, 1995) in America individually as "Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf," and later combined onto "Lupin III's Greatest Capers." In these earlier dubs (along with early versions of "Castle of Cagliostro"), Lupin is named "Wolf." In the English releases for these episodes, you can see the occasional use of the name "Lupin," though pronounced improperly. Lupin's voice is Bob Bergen in these older dubs, now the modern voice of Porky Pig.
The Third TV Series ("Lupin the Third Part III") picks up in the early 80's (1983, I believe) and concludes in 1985, just before the release of the theatrical feature, "Lupin the Third: The Golden Legend of Babylon." The third series featured Lupin in a pink jacket and a somewhat "goofier" version of the Lupin cast. The theatrical film "Babylon" shares many traits with the Third Series, from what I've seen, and may turn off potential fans of the show.
Lupin the Third remained dormant for a while after the Third Series' 50 episodes ran their time, then the OAV feature, "Plot of the Fuma Clan" was scheduled for release in 1987. It ended up in theaters instead of direct-to-video, and is often considered the second-best Lupin movie amongst anime fans.
In 1989 a new tradition began....that of the annual Lupin TV Specials. The TV specials air in the summer each year in Japan, and there are too many to practically list here. FUNimation acquired the rights to most of these specials, 3 of which have been released as of this writing. The specials continue to this day; the last one released was an origin story, explaining how the Lupin gang got together in the first place.
In 1995, the theatrical feature, "Die! Nostradamus" was released, featuring the same character designs and animation studio as "Castle of Cagliostro." Unfortunately, without Miyazaki, the magic and atmoshpere of "Cagliostro" wasn't quite there. The movie was mostly just silliness, but I digress.
The story goes that Monkey Punch himself was dissatisfied with the result of "Nostradamus" and set out to direct his own Lupin film. Thus, his first-ever directed anime was the 1996 Lupin feature "Dead or Alive," which has come to many rave reviews, despite its incredibly intesnse violence.
Here is a complete list of what Lupin stuff is (or has been) available in America:
Dubbed by Streamline Pictures:
-Lupin the Third (Movie 2): The Castle of Cagliostro ("Lupin" is not on the video cover)
-The New Lupin the Third TV: Episodes 145, 155
-Lupin the Third (Movie 1): The Mystery of Mamo (Goemon's voice is different than in the other dubs)
Dubbed by AnimEigo:
-Rupan III: The Fuma Conspiracy
-Rupan III: Legend of the Gold of Babylon (subtitled-only, actually)
Dubbed by Manga Video:
-Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (the "Lupin" part is only mentioned on the back cover)
Dubbed by FUNimation:
-Lupin the Third: The Secret of Twilight Gemini (TV Sp '96)
-Lupin the Third: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure (TV Sp '95)
-Lupin the Third: Dragon of Doom (TV Sp. '94)
-Lupin the Third: Voyage to Danger (coming in May - TV Sp '93)
Dubbed by Pioneer Entertainment:
-The New Lupin the Third TV Episodes 1, 2, 4-7. ("The World's Most Wanted")
Any other questions? I'll probably update this post in the future with links and stuff, and to correct any errors.