is a Japanese animated crossover

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of e ...

between the '' Lupin III'' and ''

Detective Conan ''Case Closed'', also known as , is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 1994, with its cha ...

'' series. It was broadcast on Yomuri TV on March 27, 2009. Discotek Media released the television film on DVD in

North America 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 th ...

on October 27, 2015.

Plot

Queen Sakura, sovereign of the European absolute kingdom of Vespania, in Turkey, is killed while out hunting. All indications suggest that she was accidentally shot by her son, Prince Gill, who immediately commits suicide, overcome by guilt. The title of heir to the throne of Vespania passes to Princess Mira, a girl who rejects the throne because she thinks that she's not the rightful heir. The coronation ceremony is threatened by a growing popular movement that believes Princess Mira is unfit to govern. Duke Keith, the chief of Commons, makes Daisuke Jigen, former trainer of Vespania's regular army, a personal guard of the princess. Simultaneously, Arsène Lupin III reaches Vespania; his and Jigen's plan is to get their hands on the crown for the Queens of the Realm. To increase the princess' popularity, a trip around Japan is organized. A festival is held at the Grand Hotel West City Tama, which

Kogoro Mouri The manga series ''Case Closed'', known as in Japan, features a large number of recurring fictional characters created by Gosho Aoyama. The series takes place in modern-day Japan and follows an amateur detective Jimmy Kudo (Japanese name: Shin ...

and Conan Edogawa attend. At the party, Conan exposes an attempt to poison the princess. The princess wants nothing more than to escape from her condition, so in the confusion that follows, she sneaks away. Conan notices this, and follows her. The Princess meets Ran Mouri, who is returning from evening classes. She notes an uncanny resemblance in their appearance, and decides to trade places with her. Ran, dressed as the princess, goes back to the hotel and explains what happened. Duke Keith, to avoid a diplomatic incident with Japan, forces Ran to continue to play the role of Mira. Duke Keith breaks his promise to return Ran after a press conference at the airport, and brings her to Vespania. Conan, who noticed what Duke Keith was doing, boards the plane, and is saved from hypothermia by the Duke. Desperate to save his daughter, Kogoro is aided by Inspector Megure, who calls in a fellow police academy graduate, Koichi Zenigata. Since it has been learned that Lupin has traveled to Vespania, Megure arranges for Kogoro to officially accompany Zenigata as his assistant to apprehend the master thief. In the meantime, Mira is collected by

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 th ...

, who knows her identity and offers to take her around Japan. Conan tracks the princess and chases the pair on his skateboard, but Fujiko loses him and disappears. Meanwhile, hidden beneath the kingdom is a mineral that thanks to its "complete stealth powers" may be totally invisible to radar. Using

dowsing rods Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations (radiesthesia),As translated from one preface of the Kassel experiments, "roughly 10,000 active dowsers in Ge ...

, Lupin locates the mineral and appropriates a piece of it to help him facilitate his theft of the crown. Princess Mira has since returned to Vespania. Fujiko was hired by Duke Keith to remove the princess from court life to make her feel, at least for a while, the typical teenage experience, which helped her overcome her earlier cynical, fatalistic attitude. Mira, after visiting the place where her brother and mother died, decides to assume her duties as future queen, and agrees to return to the palace. Lupin later enters the vault of the building, and finds out that the crown has already been stolen by Fujiko. He is forced to give up and flee the building with Goemon Ishikawa XIII's aid when it is surrounded by police after an alarm sounds. After meeting with Ran and Kogoro, Conan begins to investigate the murder of the Queen with the involuntary help of Jigen. After Conan and Kogoro have concluded their investigation, Conan tries to put Kogoro to sleep with a tranquilizer needle, but fails to hit Kogoro (who is actually Lupin in disguise), and hits Zenigata instead, who wakes up again after only a few seconds. Lupin reveals his secret identity to Conan, and helps resolve the case by pretending to be the true Kogoro. Together they reveal the truth: The murder of the queen is the work of Duke Gerard Musca Vespaland, Queen Sakura's own brother and the Prime Minister of Vespania. Gerard had also killed the prince, making the case seem to be a murder-suicide. His plan was to ascend to the throne himself, and to get rich from selling the ore the Queen had forbidden to mine, due to its potential to be used in war and her love for nature, which would have been destroyed if excessive mining had taken place. Thanks to Conan and Lupin, Vespaland is apprehended, and Princess Mira becomes the new queen of Vespania, after Lupin returns the Queen's crown to her. Ran and Kogoro are welcomed as saviors of the kingdom, and Zenigata yearns for yet another fight with Lupin. Conan is taken in a car by members of the Japanese embassy, who are really Lupin and his gang, who have decided to help Conan return to Japan due to Conan's lack of a legal identification. Lupin explains that he returned to Vespania to honor a promise he made to Queen Sakura. He knows the true identity of the young detective, calling Conan

Shinichi Kudo , known in some major English adaptations as Jimmy Kudo, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the manga series ''Case Closed'', created by Gosho Aoyama. A high school detective, he is forced to ingest the lethal poison after an ...

, while Conan promises them that if one day they cross paths again, he will definitely arrest them all. The film ends with Conan and Fujiko taking a ride on a borrowed submarine back to Japan, during which Fujiko begins to very closely "investigate" the effects the APTX-4869 had in transforming Shinichi Kudo into Conan Edogawa.

Cast

* Conan Edogawa - Minami Takayama * Arsène Lupin III -

Kanichi Kurita is a Japanese actor, voice actor and comedian. His most famous role is as the titular character of the anime series ''Lupin the Third''. He inherited the role from Yasuo Yamada after the latter's death in 1995, and his first role as Lupin was i ...

* Daisuke Jigen - Kiyoshi Kobayashi * Goemon Ishikawa XIII - Makio Inoue *

- Eiko Masuyama * Koichi Zenigata -

Gorō Naya was a Japanese actor, voice actor, narrator and theatre director from Hakodate, Hokkaidō. He and his brother were two of seven children, and was a drop-out of the legal education division of Ritsumeikan University. He was connected to Theatre ...

* Ran Mouri -

Wakana Yamazaki is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator who works for Aoni Production. She was born in Yokohama and is best known for her roles as Ran Mouri in ''Detective Conan'', Atsuko "Akko" Kagami in the 1998 version of '' Himitsu no Akko-chan'', ...

Akira Kamiya is a Japanese voice actor. He played several notable roles in Japanese manga and anime television series, including Kenshiro in '' Fist of the North Star'', Ryo Saeba in '' City Hunter'' and Shutaro Mendo in '' Urusei Yatsura''. In mecha anim ...

Juzo Megure The manga series ''Case Closed'', known as in Japan, features a large number of recurring fictional characters created by Gosho Aoyama. The series takes place in modern-day Japan and follows an amateur detective Jimmy Kudo (Japanese name: Shini ...

- Chafurin *

Wataru Takagi is a Japanese actor and voice actor from Chiba Prefecture. He is affiliated with Arts Vision. He is best known for his roles in ''Detective Conan'' (as Genta Kojima and Wataru Takagi), '' After War Gundam X'' (as Garrod Ran), '' Slayers Try' ...

* Sonoko Suzuki -

Naoko Matsui is a Japanese voice actress and narrator from Hakodate, Hokkaido. Matsui was a member of Production Baobab for 20 years before becoming a freelancer. Matsui is most notable for the roles of Uru Chie in '' High School! Kimengumi'', Rem Ayanokō ...

- Kappei Yamaguchi * Mira Julietta Vespaland -

Yui Horie is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with VIMS and Starchild. She has been affectionately nicknamed by her Japanese fans. She debuted as a voice actress in 1997, releasing her debut single "''My best friend''" on . Since then, s ...

* Keith Dan Stinger - Hikaru Midorikawa * Sakura Aludia Vespaland - Hiroko Suzuki * Gill Cowell Vespaland -

Jun Fukuyama is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He played Lelouch Lamperouge in '' Code Geass'', Koro-sensei in '' Assassination Classroom'', Ichimatsu in '' Osomatsu-san'', Yuta Togashi in '' Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions'', Kraft Lawrence in ''Spice ...

* Gerard Musca Vespaland -

Yusaku Yara is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator from Tokyo, Japan. He is affiliated with Vi-Vo. His real name is , and his former stage name was . He is best known for his roles in ''Saint Seiya'' as Sagittarius Aiolos, ''Chibi Maruko-chan'' as ...

* Kyle - Taiten Kusunoki * Maid A - Yukari Honma * Maid B - Shizuka Arai * News announcer - Mari Kishi * Announcer - Shinichirou Ohta * Sommelier - Shinpachi Tsuji * Fake Sommelier - Toru Furusawa * Cloakroom Woman - Chieko Honda * Security Police -

Yasuhiko Kawazu is a Japanese voice actor affiliated with Aoni Production. Filmography Television animation ;1991 * '' Kinnikuman: Kinnikusei Oui Soudatsu-hen'', Golemman, Iwao, Leopardon, Mixer Taitei, Motorman, Rikishiman, Mr. Refereeman ;1992 * ''Sailor Moon ...

Reception

The special ranked first on the Japanese anime television ranking of March 23–29, 2009. The DVD release sold over 7,000 in its first week. The Blu-ray edition was the third best selling anime between July 27 and August 2, 2009, and remained in the top twenty as of November 29, 2009. ''Lupin'' expert Reed Nelson, in writing a feature titled ''Lupin the Third: The Complete Guide to Films, TV Specials and OVAs'' for

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and ...

, felt that ''Lupin the 3rd vs. Detective Conan'' was not an element of the ''Lupin'' franchise that was worth viewing, describing the special as follows: "More parts ''Case Closed'' than ''Lupin the Third'', there's a lot of dialogue and not much action. And forget about the “versus”...it doesn't happen here".

Manga adaptation and film sequel

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

adaptation of the special was published in the magazine ''

Shōnen Sunday S , formerly known as ''Shōnen Sunday Super'', is a monthly '' shōnen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan in Japan. History and background Originally billed as a special edition of ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'', titled , it was renamed in 1995 ...

'' August 25 to October 25, 2013. A theatrical film sequel to the TV special titled '' Lupin the 3rd vs. Detective Conan: The Movie'' was released in Japanese cinemas on December 7, 2013.

References

External links

''Lupin the 3rd vs. Detective Conan'' Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lupin Iii Vs Detective Conan Lupin the Third Case Closed Crossover anime and manga Discotek Media 2009 anime films TMS Entertainment Tokyo in fiction