Bye Bye, Lady Liberty

Bye Bye, Lady Liberty

North American cover artwork by Discotek Media
バイバイ·リバティー危機一発!
(Bai Bai Ribatī – Kiki Ippatsu!)
Genre Adventure, Comedy-drama, Kaitō
Anime television film
Directed by Osamu Dezaki
Produced by Hidehiko Takei
Motoyoshi Tokunaga
Yutaka Yasuda
Written by Hiroshi Kashiwabara
Music by Yuji Ohno
Studio TMS Entertainment
Licensed by
Original network NTV
Released April 1, 1989
Runtime 97 minutes

Bye Bye, Lady liberty (ルパン三世 バイバイ·リバティー危機一発!, Rupan Sansei Bai Bai Ribatī – Kiki Ippatsu!, Lupin III: Bye Bye Liberty – Close Call!) was the first television special in the Lupin III franchise. Directed by veteran director Osamu Dezaki, it was broadcast by NTV on April 4, 1989. A number of Lupin III television specials have followed with a total of 23 airing as of December 2012, as well as an additional crossover special with Detective Conan.

Plot

Lupin is forced to give up his life of crime when he discovers police computers are able to predict his every move. His retirement is short-lived when his colleague Jigen inherits the secret location of a stolen giant diamond called the "Super Egg", which is hidden in the Statue of Liberty; Lupin helps recover the diamond by stealing the entire Statue. Meanwhile, Goemon becomes bodyguard to a beautiful woman who is on the run from a sinister secret society which is also seeking the Super Egg.

Voice cast

Character Japanese English[1]
Arsène Lupin III Yasuo Yamada Bill Dufries as Wolf III
Daisuke Jigen Kiyoshi Kobayashi Eric Meyers
Isabel Yui Komazuka Liza Ross as Isabella
Michael Mayumi Tanaka Sue Sheridon
Goemon Ishikawa XIII Makio Inoue Garrick Hagen
Fujiko Mine Eiko Masuyama Toni Barry
Inspector Koichi Zenigata Gorō Naya Sean Barret
Jimmy CantsMasane Tsukayama Peter Marinka as Jimmy Smith
Silverman Michio Sakiyama Don Fellows
Ed Kenichi Ogata Colin Bruce
Jones Unshō Ishizuka Bob Sherman
Rooster Tamio Ōki
Judy Naoko Kouda Sue Sheridon
News Anchor Minoru Inaba Toni Barry
Colin Bruce
Cab Driver Yōsuke Akimoto Bob Sherman
Computer Kenyu Horiuchi Toni Barry
Don Fellows
French Police Officer Mitsuaki Hoshino Garrick Hagen
Sheriff Atsushi Ii Colin Bruce

Production

The special was directed by Osamu Dezaki, an experienced anime director who had previously storyboarded several episodes of Lupin The Third Part I.[2] In addition Dezaki created the storyboards under the pseudonym Makura Saki, something he commonly did despite being well known for creating his own storyboards.[3]

During his career Dezaki created many animation techniques that became standard in the Japanese animation industry and are used throughout the special. One of his best known techniques "Postcard memories", also commonly known as "Harmony" involved adding painted lines to a cel to give the appearance of a watercolor effect and provide visual impact with minimal animation. While this technique is normally used to end a scene, during the special it is also used during action scenes.[4][5] Another signature technique used during the special is the "triple take" where a cel is moved quickly across the camera multiple times to produce a sense of speed. The name comes from its typical usage of 3 passes of the cel.[6] Lighting techniques used techniques include backlit backgrounds, gel effects, lighting bloom in the corner of a scene and diagonal spotlights across heavily shadowed images to produce a sense of darkness. other techniques include Parallax scrolling to give depth to city scenes, split screens and dutch angle.[7][8][9][10]

Release

Bye, Bye Lady Liberty was broadcast on April 4, 1989.[11]

VAP have published several home releases of the special in Japan. At first the special was released as both a VHS and a Laserdisc edition.[12] They then released the special on DVD on December 22, 1999 and again in April 2006.[13] A DVD containing both Liberty and the next special, Hemingway Papers was released by Futabasha on July 4, 2014.[14] The soundtrack was released on October 21, 2000.[15]

Manga Entertainment UK released an English dubbed VHS as Goodbye Lady Liberty in the United Kingdom on 9 September 1996.[16] Discotek Media released the special on DVD in North America as Bye Bye Lady Liberty on March 25, 2014.[17]

Reception

In 500 Essential Anime Movies, Helen McCarthy called Liberty her personal favourite of the Lupin TV specials. She describes it as "light, funny and entertaining" and "terrific entertainment".[18] Reviewing Liberty for Manga Mania, John Spencer felt it was a "rather routine television movie, with none of the flair and style of the previous films". He compares the secrecy of one of the characters to Scooby-Doo and in summary describes the film as "not classic Lupin...but good enough".[19] Lupin expert Reed Nelson expressed that although Liberty is superior to several of the specials that followed it, it suffers from uneven pacing and a climax comparable to The Mystery of Mamo.[20]

Writing for The Fandom Post, Darius Washington noted the techniques used by Dezaki on Golgo 13: The Professional worked well with the special. He called the UK dub "solid" with the exception of one scene and highlighted the special as one of the better feature length entries in the series.[21]

References

  1. ↑ English Dub cast and Crew, Discotek DVD
  2. ↑ Toole, Mike (April 25, 2011). "Dezaki's Due". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  3. ↑ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 8 minutes in.
  4. ↑ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 14 minutes in.
  5. ↑ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 26 minutes in.
  6. ↑ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 28 minutes in.
  7. ↑ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 6 minutes in.
  8. ↑ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 9 minutes in.
  9. ↑ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 19 minutes in.
  10. ↑ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 4 minutes in.
  11. ↑ ルパン三世アニメ全歴史完全版. Futabasha. April 1, 2012. p. 153. ISBN 978-4-575-30406-0.
  12. ↑ The ルパン三世 Files. Kinema Junpo Sha. July 24, 1998. pp. 64–65.
  13. ↑ "バイバイ・リバティー・危機一発!". Oricon. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  14. ↑ "DVD) TVSPルパン三世イッキ見スペシャル!!! バイバイ・リバティー・危機一発!&ヘミングウェイ・ペーパーの謎". Futabasha. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  15. ↑ "バイバイリバティー危機一髪". VAP. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  16. ↑ Manga Mania 37 Pg3
  17. ↑ "North American Anime, Manga Releases, March 23–29". Anime News Network. March 25, 2014. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  18. ↑ McCarthy, Helen (2008). 500 Essential Anime Movies. Harper Collins. p. 426. ISBN 978-0-06-147450-7.
  19. ↑ Spencer, John (September 1996). "Manga Mania" (38). Manga Publishing: 88. ISSN 0968-9575.
  20. ↑ Nelson, Reed (January 27, 2016). "Lupin the Third: The Complete Guide to Films, TV Specials and OVAs". Anime News Network. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  21. ↑ Washington, Darius (December 9, 2014). "Lupin III: Bye Bye Lady Liberty Anime DVD Review". The Fandom Post. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
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