Lupin The Third Part I

Lupin The Third Part I is the first animated television adaptation of the Lupin III (ルパン三世, Rupan Sansei) manga series written by Monkey Punch. The series was originally broadcast as Lupin III between October 24, 1971 and March 26, 1972.

Plot

Arsene Lupin III, grandson of the gentleman thief Arsene Lupin, is an internationally wanted thief. His right hand man is Daisuke Jigen, an expert marksmen who can shoot a target within 0.3 seconds. They are joined by Fujiko Mine, Lupin's love interest who often manipulates situations to her advantage. After several encounters with the samurai and expert swordsmen Goemon Ishikawa XIII, he becomes part of the group. They are constantly chased by Inspector Zenigata, an expert on Lupin from Interpol, whose goal is to arrest Lupin and his collaborators.

Production

Adapting the manga into animation was first suggested by animator Gisaburō Sugii to Yutaka Fujioka, the founder of Tokyo Movie Shinsha. While Fujioka was interested in the idea, the project needed to be funded. This lead to the creation of a theatrical pilot film intended to create interest in the project and secure funding. The pilot film was created by four people, Sugii, Yasuo Otsuka, Tsutomu Shibayama and Osamu Kobayashi with supervision by Masaaki Ōsumi.^[1] Yasuo Otsuka had left Toei Animation to join A Productions in order to work on the Lupin adaptation as working on Lupin would allow him to use his knowledge and lifelong interest in guns and transport in his animation. Otsuka studied Monkey Punch's artwork and the influence of American comic artist Mort Drucker on the series. The team studied Monkey Punch's style in detail and analysed the characters from all angles. They were initially assisted by Monkey Punch until he felt the project was too much for him.^[2][3]

After a year, the project was still unsold and the pilot film was adapted to television format. In 1971, Yomiuri Television funded the series.^[4] By this time only Otsuka and Ōsumi were still at TMS. Ōsumi was assigned as Director, and Otsuka became the character designer with Kobayashi providing Key animation on several episodes. The series was originally planned for 26 episodes, with synopsis created for each one. ^[5]

The series paid a lot of attention to details of vehicles, weapons and consumer items which were only approximated in the manga.^[6]

After the broadcast of the second episode, Osumi was asked to make changes to the series. After he refused to do so, he was fired as director.^[7] Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata had recently moved from Toei to A Productions in order to begin pre production on an adaption of Pippi Longstocking.^[8] However that work was cancelled and they were chosen as replacements for Osumi by Otsuka, who had worked with them previously at Toei. Production was credited as "A Production" rather than assigning Directorial credit. ^[9] Due to the production schedule of the series, many episodes are a mix of influences between Osumi, Takahata and Miyazaki and several episodes do not credit a director.^[10] Episode 9 was the final episode that Osumi had full creative control.^[11]

The series was the first animated series created in Japan to target an adult audience with an emphasis on complex characters and storylines as well as a focus on realism. Previously all animated series were family friendly.^[7]

Miayazaki and Takahata were asked to make several changes to the series and also made other changes based on their own views. They immediately set out to remove a sense of apathy from the series which they felt was also evident in society. To achieve this they gave the characters a more positive outlook. Lupin would become "happy-go-lucky" and "upbeat" while Jigen would be "a friendly, cheery fellow". They also removed Fujiko's "cheap eroticism". The changes during production lead to a lack of unity in the visuals and a "duality".^[6]

Release

The series was broadcast on Yomiuri TV between October 24, 1971 and March 26, 1972.^[12] The opening credits for the series made use of footage from the pilot film to introduce the characters and the concept to the audience.^[10]

Numerous home releases have been published in Japan. Emotion and VAP both published VHS releases of the series. For the 25th anniversary of the original manga, VAP released a six volume edition from March 1993.^[13][14] A four volume edition was released on July 23, 1999.^[15] The series was released in Japan in a DVD box set by VAP on July 4, 2001. The set was limited to 30,000 copies.^[16] A Blu-Ray box set of four discs was released on December 21, 2008, and on four individual discs on January 21, 2009.^[17][18][19] Kodansha launched Lupin III DVD Collection, a bi-weekly magazine on January 27, 2015. Scheduled to run for 45 issues, the magazine will includes a DVD containing episodes from the first two Lupin III tv series.^[20]

Discotek Media licensed and released the series on DVD in North America as Lupin the 3rd: The First TV Series Complete Collection on June 26, 2012.^[21] The release includes audio commentaries on several episodes, essays and liner notes as well as both versions of the pilot film.^[22] The series is also available in North America via the Hulu streaming service as Lupin the Third Part I.^[23]

Several releases have been made of the music from the series. Two singles were released on December 10, 1971 and January 20, 1972.^[24] The Original BGM Collection was released as an LP by Nippon Columbia on March 25, 1980.^[24] This was later reissued on CD on March 14, 2007 for the 40th anniversary of the original Manga.^[25][26] Music from the series was also released on the album Lupin III The 1st Series Music Anthology, published by Nippon Columbia on March 21, 2003.^[24] Due to a loss of the original master tape for the background music, the music from the series was recreated by Takeo Yamashita and released as Rebirth From '71 Series on January 21, 2003.^[27]

Reception

Shinichirō Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo has spoken of being heavily influenced by the work of director Masaaki Ōsumi on the series.^[28]

Chris Beveridge of The Fandom Post praised the extras and production of Discotek's DVD release. He described the series as "a ton of fun".^[22] Mike Dent, writing for Otaku USA called the series "fantastic" but highlighted the first 12 episodes as the "true gems of the show".^[29] In Anime Classics Zettai!, Brian Clamp and Julie Davies observed the series had a serious "crime film feel" and darker tone compared to other animated adaptions of the series due to violence as well as the sexualisation of Fujiko. They also noted the attention to background detail and animation.^[30]

References