''Lupin the 3rd Part II'' is a Japanese

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series produced by

TMS Entertainment , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as '' Lupin the Third' ...

. Part of the ''Lupin III'' franchise, it is the second anime television adaptation of the ''Lupin III'' manga series created by

Monkey Punch , known by the pen name , was a Japanese manga artist, best known for his series ''Lupin III''. Life and career Katō was born in Hamanaka, Hokkaido; he began drawing at a very young age, but did not draw manga until junior high school, when h ...

. Although originally broadcast as simply , the series is now often referred to as by Japanese fans. Among English-speaking fans, the series is commonly known as the "Red Jacket" series in reference to Lupin's outfit. The series contains 155 episodes which aired between October 3, 1977 and October 6, 1980, on the Japanese television network

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

. Episodes 145 and 155 were the first to appear in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

on VHS in 1994, released by Streamline Pictures separately under the title of ''Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf'', and together as ''Lupin III's Greatest Capers''. In 2003,

Pioneer Entertainment (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime within Japan. The ...

licensed and released 79 episodes in North America, some of which were broadcast on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

. The series was picked up by

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

, who released all 155 episodes between 2017 and 2020.

Story

The series, based on the ''Lupin III'' manga written by

beginning in 1967, centers on the adventures of

Lupin III , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch. It follows the endeavors of master thief Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of Arsèn ...

, the grandson of

Arsène Lupin Arsène Lupin (French pronunciation: ʁsɛn lypɛ̃ is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazi ...

, the

gentleman thief A gentleman thief, gentleman burglar, lady thief, or phantom thief is a stock character in fiction. A gentleman or lady thief is characterised by impeccable manners, charm, courteousness, and the avoidance of physical force or intimidation to ...

Maurice Leblanc Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc (; ; 11 December 1864 – 6 November 1941) was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French c ...

's series of novels. He is joined by

Daisuke Jigen is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in '' Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. Jigen is the marksman, aide-de-camp and best friend of Arsène Lupin III. Along with colleague Goe ...

, crack-shot and Lupin's closest ally;

Fujiko Mine is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in ''Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. She is a professional criminal who regularly uses her attractiveness to fool her targets. Unlike t ...

, the '' femme fatale'' and Lupin's love interest who works against Lupin more often than with him; and

Goemon Ishikawa XIII is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in '' Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. Goemon is a thirteenth generation descendant of the renegade samurai Ishikawa Goemon. He is famo ...

, a master swordsman and the descendant of

Ishikawa Goemon was a legendary Japanese outlaw hero who stole gold and other valuables to give to the poor. He and his son were boiled alive in public after their failed assassination attempt on the Sengoku period warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His legend lives ...

, the legendary Japanese bandit. Lupin is often chased by Inspector

Koichi Zenigata , usually called and formerly Heiji Zenigata VII, is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in '' Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. He is named after the famous fictional Japane ...

, the rather cynical detective who has made it his life mission to catch Lupin.

Production

After ''

Lupin the Third Part I ''Lupin the 3rd Part I: The Classic Adventures'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by TMS Entertainment. Part of the ''Lupin III'' franchise, it is the first anime television adaptation of the ''Lupin III'' manga series created b ...

'' became popular during reruns, a new series was created. In contrast to the dark tone and violence of the more serious first series, this series made use of a lighter tone and more exaggerated animation to create a crime caper. Pop culture references appear frequently. The music for the series was composed by

Yuji Ohno is a Japanese jazz musician. Ohno is known for his musical scoring of Japanese anime television series, particularly ''Lupin III'', and most famously the 1977 series '' Lupin III Part II'' and the feature film ''The Castle of Cagliostro''. Ea ...

. Episodes 145 and 155 were written and directed by

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...

under the pseudonym "Terekomu," and they marked his final involvement with the ''Lupin'' franchise. Elements from these episodes would be reused in his films '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'', '' Laputa: Castle in the Sky'', and ''

Porco Rosso is a 1992 Japanese animated adventure-fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It is based on '' Hikōtei Jidai'' ("The Age of the Flying Boat"), a three-part 1989 watercolor manga by Miyazaki. It stars the voices of Shūichirō M ...

''.

Cast

Bob Bergen intended to reprise his role as Lupin in the Pioneer/Geneon dub, but chose not to because, according to Bergen, the dub was a non-

union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

project.

Release

The series was broadcast on

from October 3, 1977 to October 6, 1980. Episode 99 was the first anime episode to ever be broadcast in Stereo Sound. The series was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

by VAP as individual discs as well as several boxsets. Six boxsets were released between February 25 and December 23, 2009. Twenty-Six individual discs were released between March 25, 2009 and January 27, 2010. Kodansha launched ''Lupin III DVD Collection'', a bi-weekly magazine on January 27, 2015. Scheduled to run for 45 issues, the magazine includes a DVD containing episodes from the first two ''Lupin III'' TV series. The first American release of the series was handled by Streamline Pictures, who distributed English language dubs of episodes 145 and 155 individually to VHS in 1994 as ''Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf'' and together as ''Lupin III's Greatest Capers'' in 1995. The series was licensed by

for North America. Due to some licensing issues regarding trademarked logos and musical elements, Pioneer were provided with altered masters by the licensor. An English dub was created by

Phuuz Entertainment phuuz entertainment is a company based in Universal City, California that develops content for various forms of media, including television, theaters, the internet, mobile devices, and video games. The president of the company is former Warne ...

and given a "modern feel" alongside a subtitle script that is more faithful to the original dialog. The storylines are unaffected by these changes. Due to potential controversy concerning an episode regarding

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

, the episode that was originally broadcast third in Japan was delayed until later in the series. Fifteen volumes of the series containing a total of 79 episodes were released on DVD between January 28, 2003 to July 4, 2006. Episodes 1–27 were broadcast on

from January 14, 2003.

Richard Epcar Richard Epcar is an American voice actor, voice director, and writer who has voiced over 1,200 characters in animation, video games and anime. Some of his major roles include Raiden in the ''Mortal Kombat'' franchise, The Joker in several proje ...

, the director of the English dub and voice of Jigen revealed via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that Geneon lost the license to the series before they could dub the rest of the episodes in English. In 2009, the Southern California-based United Television Broadcasting network began airing subtitled episodes from the series on their UTBHollywood channel. The series is available to watch in dubbed and subtitled options on Hulu and Crunchyroll. On December 20, 2015, longtime ''Lupin III'' distributor

announced their acquisition of the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

distribution rights to the entire second series. Released in four sets, the releases included "any English dubs that already exist" and newly produced subtitles for episodes 80 to 155. The first set included the first 40 episodes and was released on January 10, 2017. The second set included episodes 41 through 79 and an interview with Richard Epcar and was released on December 26, 2017. Set three with episodes 80 through 117 was released on January 29, 2019. The fourth and final set was released on January 28, 2020, and included the Streamline English dub of episodes 145 and 155.

Reception

The final episode of the series received a viewing share of 32.5% in the Kantō region during its original broadcast on December 8, 1978. Due to this the series was ranked sixth on

Video Research is a Japanese marketing research company conducting audience measurement for television and radio. Since its foundation in 1962, Video Research has created its own nationwide network of branch offices and founded two international subsidiaries. ...

's list of anime series ranked by their highest rated episode in December 2015. The series has attained a favourable response in

the West West is a cardinal direction or compass point. West or The West may also refer to: Geography and locations Global context * The Western world * Western culture and Western civilization in general * The Western Bloc, countries allied with NATO ...

. Rob Lineberger of DVD Verdict drew comparisons of the series to western works. He compared the flyovers of major cities and villains planning world domination to

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

, the teamwork and "campiness" to Charlie's Angels and the "Zany humour" and disguises to

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American animated media franchise based on an animated television series launched in 1969 and continued through several derivative media. Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are ...

but added that the series has "its own fun flavour". He expressed mixed views over the English dub and its attempt to modernise the series, understanding the negative reaction to it. However he personally enjoyed the dub. Chris Beveridge of Mania.com and Mike Crandol of ANN disliked the dub of the series because

used many modern references and updated dialogue for a series that was released in the late 1970s, although the series itself received a positive overall review from both reviewers.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{Hayao Miyazaki 1977 anime television series debuts 1980 Japanese television series endings Discotek Media Geneon USA Part 2 Nippon TV original programming TMS Entertainment Topcraft