''Lupin the 3rd Part I: The Classic Adventures'' 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 first 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 ...

. The series was originally broadcast as simply on

Yomiuri TV JOIX-DTV (channel 10), branded as , is the Kansai region flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned by the subsidiary of the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomer ...

between October 24, 1971 and March 26, 1972. Among English-speaking fans, this series was commonly known as the "Green Jacket" series in reference to Lupin's outfit, but more recently it is now known as "the first Green Jacket" series because of the outfit's return in ''Part 6''.

Premise

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 ...

, grandson of the gentleman thief

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 ...

, is an internationally wanted thief. His right-hand man is

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 ...

, an expert marksman who can shoot a target within 0.3 seconds. They are joined 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 t ...

, Lupin's primary love interest who often manipulates situations to her advantage. After several encounters with the samurai and expert swordsmen

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 ...

, he becomes part of the group. They are constantly pursued by Inspector Heiji Zenigata VII, an expert on Lupin from the Tokyo MPD, who has made the capture and arrest of Lupin and his collaborators his life goal.

Cast

Production

''Pilot Film''

Adapting

's manga into animation was first suggested by animator

Gisaburō Sugii is a Japanese anime director and Nihonga artist. He is best known for his work as director of the ''Touch'' series, the movie adaptation of the '' Arashi no Yoru ni'' children's book series, and the movie ''Night on the Galactic Railroad''. He i ...

to Yutaka Fujioka, the founder of

Tokyo Movie Shinsha , 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'', ...

(then known as Tokyo Movie). Although Fujioka was interested in the idea, Tokyo Movie lacked the financial resources to produce such a project on its own. This led to the creation of a CinemaScope ''Pilot Film'', which was intended to generate interest in the project and secure funding from potential producers. The ''Pilot Film'', consisting of narrated introductions to the five lead characters of the manga, was scripted and animated by Sugii,

Yasuo Otsuka Yasuo is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Yasuo can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *安雄, "tranquil, male" *安男, "tranquil, man" *安夫, "tranquil, husband" *安� ...

Tsutomu Shibayama is a Japanese anime director of film and television. He is known for directing the 1980 and 2006 '' Doraemon'' series. He was born in Asakusa, Taitō, Tokyo. In 2012 he won Agency for Cultural Affair Award.Osamu Kobayashi, with supervision by

Masaaki Ōsumi is a Japanese director known for his work in animated television series and films. Career Ōsumi was born in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and graduated from School of Media Science at the Tokyo University of Technology. He got his start in the e ...

and background art by Reiji Koyama. The music soundtrack was composed by Norio Meida, while the narration dialogue was written by Jiro Saito and Toshiaki Imaizumi. Yasuo Otsuka had left

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' '' GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

to join Tokyo Movie, as working on ''Lupin'' would allow him to use his knowledge and lifelong interest in guns and transport in his animation. The team studied Monkey Punch's style in detail, including the influence of American cartoonist

Mort Drucker Morris "Mort" Drucker (March 22, 1929 – April 9, 2020) was an American caricaturist and comics artist best known as a contributor for over five decades in '' Mad'', where he specialized in satires on the leading feature films and televisio ...

on the manga, and analysed the characters from all angles; they were initially assisted by Monkey Punch himself until he felt the project was too much for him. Scripts and treatments were also written for a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

adaptation, one of which depicted Lupin before the start of his thieving career as a hippie in Shinjuku, and explained how he came to be pursued by the police and other criminals. Although the animation quality of the ''Pilot Film'' was high for the time in which it was made, few financial backers were interested in the project due to its adult themes of

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

and sexuality. After a year, the project was still unsold, and the ''Pilot Film'' was adapted for television. The animation of the TV version was mostly identical to the CinemaScope version, but featured a largely different voice cast - the only voices who were retained for both versions were those of

Kiyoshi Kobayashi Kiyoshi, (きよし or キヨシ), is a Japanese given name, also spelled Kyoshi. Possible meanings *'' Kyōshi'', a form of Japanese poetry *Kyōshi, a Japanese honorific Possible writings *清, "cleanse" *淳, "pure" *潔, "undefiled" *清志, ...

(as Jigen) and

Eiko Masuyama is a Japanese actress and narrator. She works for Aoni Production. She is most known for originating the roles of Fujiko Mine ('' Lupin III''), Honey Kisaragi ('' Cutie Honey''), and Bakabon's Mama ('' Tensai Bakabon''). Early life Eiko Masuya ...

(as Fujiko). In 1971,

Yomiuri Television JOIX-DTV (channel 10), branded as , is the Kansai region flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned by the subsidiary of the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Japan's largest media conglomerat ...

agreed to produce a TV adaptation of the manga. By this time, only Otsuka and Ōsumi were still at Tokyo Movie. Ōsumi was assigned as director, and Otsuka became the character designer; Kobayashi provided key animation on several episodes. The series was originally planned for 26 episodes, with synopsis created for each one. Kiyoshi Kobayashi was retained as Jigen for the TV series (and continued to voice the role until 2021), while

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 ...

and

Chikao Ōtsuka was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator. He was most known for the roles of Captain Hook ('' Peter Pan no Bōken & Disney's Peter Pan''), Dick Dastardly (''Wacky Races'' & ''Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines''), Goemon Ishi ...

, who voiced Goemon in the CinemaScope version of the ''Pilot Film'' and Zenigata in the TV version respectively, were assigned the opposite of each other's roles for the series.

Yasuo Yamada was a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator. Career Yamada left the faculty of literature of Waseda University, and had performed in many stage, radio, and television productions. He appeared in performances of plays by Hisashi Inoue. His ...

and Yukiko Nikaido, neither of whom were involved in the ''Pilot Film'', were cast as Lupin and Fujiko. Yamada, known for his

dubbing Dubbing (re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, often in concert with sound design, in which additional or supplementary recordings are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production sou ...

of Clint Eastwood, continues to be widely acclaimed for his serious and humorous portrayals of Lupin, and became synonymous with the role even after his death in 1995. Masuyama played the one-time character of Catherine in an episode of the series, and eventually replaced Nikaido as Fujiko from the second series onward until her retirement in 2010. Although not officially released until the collection in 1995, animation from the TV version of the ''Pilot Film'' was recycled for several of the series' opening credits sequences, despite Lupin wearing a red jacket in these sequences (it was changed to green for the series at Otsuka's insistence).

Production and broadcast

The series was broadcast on Yomiuri Television between October 24, 1971 and March 26, 1972. Early ratings for the series were poor; after the broadcast of the second episode, Ōsumi was asked to make changes to the series in the hopes of broadening its appeal; after refusing to do so, he was fired from his directorial duties.

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 ...

and

Isao Takahata was a Japanese director, screenwriter and producer. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he earned international critical acclaim for his work as a director of Japanese animated feature films. Born in Ujiyamada, Mie Prefecture, Takahata joined Toe ...

had recently moved from Toei to Tokyo Movie in order to begin pre-production on an adaptation of ''

Pippi Longstocking Pippi Longstocking ( sv, Pippi Långstrump) is the fictional main character in an eponymous series of children's books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. Pippi was named by Lindgren's daughter Karin, who asked her mother for a get-well story w ...

''. When that work was cancelled, they were chosen as replacements for Ōsumi by Otsuka, who had previously worked with them at Toei. Episodes produced following Ōsumi's departure either did not provide a directorial credit, or were credited to "A Production's Team of Directors" in place of Miyazaki and Takahata. Due to the production schedule of the series, many episodes are a mix of influences between Ōsumi, Takahata and Miyazaki. Episode 9 was the final episode that Ōsumi had full creative control of. Unlike Ōsumi, Miyazaki and Takahata agreed to make several changes to the series, many of which were based on their own perspectives regarding the source material. They immediately set out to remove what they perceived as 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", Jigen would be "a friendly, cheery fellow", while Fujiko's "cheap eroticism" was removed and Goemon's

anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...

nature was used for occasional

comic relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic epis ...

. These changes lead to a lack of unity in the visuals and a "duality". The music for the series was composed by Takeo Yamashita, with many songs being performed by Charlie Kosei. ''Lupin the Third Part I'' is noted to be the first animated series created in Japan to target an adult audience with an emphasis on mature, complex characters and storylines. It also frequently placed an emphasis on realism, with attention to details of vehicles, weapons and consumer items (which were only approximated in the manga) being a cornerstone of Otsuka's animation style. Previously, all Japanese animated series were

family-friendly A family-friendly product or service is one that is considered to be suitable for all members of an average family. Family-friendly restaurants are ones that provide service to families that have young children. Frequently, family-friendly produc ...

. The first episode of the series ("Is Lupin Burning...?!") is also noted for being the first animated work in the ''Lupin'' canon to execute what Reed Nelson describes as the "Lupin-Formula", a series of plot elements that would frequently be revisited through future instalments in the franchise. These elements include: :*Lupin and/or his gang challenging or robbing a more sinister criminal/organization than themselves. :*Fujiko being captured by the villain(s) and subsequently being rescued by Lupin. :*Fujiko betraying Lupin to give herself an advantage in the caper. :*Zenigata attempting to capture Lupin (occasionally with success), only to have Lupin escape his grasp.

Release

Numerous home releases have been published in Japan.

Emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is currently no scientific ...

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. A four volume edition was released on July 23, 1999. The series was released in Japan in a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

box set by VAP on July 4, 2001. The set was limited to 30,000 copies. A

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 ...

box set of four discs was released on December 21, 2008, and on four individual discs on January 21, 2009. 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.

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 ...

licensed and released the series on DVD in North America as ''Lupin the 3rd: The First TV Series Complete Collection'' on June 26, 2012. The release includes audio commentaries on several episodes, essays and liner notes as well as both versions of the ''Pilot Film''. Several releases have been made of the music from the series. Two singles were released on December 10, 1971 and January 20, 1972. The ''Original BGM Collection'' was released as an LP by Nippon Columbia on March 25, 1980. This was later reissued on CD on March 14, 2007 for the 40th anniversary of the original Manga. Music from the series was also released on 2 albums, ''Lupin III 71’ Me Tracks'' published by VAP on February 21, 1999 and ''Lupin III The 1st Series Music Anthology'', published by Nippon Columbia on March 21, 2003. The songs and background music on both albums were using tapes that had sound effects layered on-top of the music. 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. In honor of ''Lupin III''’s 50th anniversary, an English dub of the first episode of ''Part I'' was announced by Lex Lang with the help of

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

. The English voice cast of prior ''Lupin III'' dubs from ''

Part II Part Two, Part 2 or Part II may refer to: Films and television * "Part 2" (Twin Peaks), also known as "The Return, Part 2", the second episode of the third season of the TV series ''Twin Peaks'' Music * ''Part Two'' (Throbbing Gristle album), 200 ...

'' and

Doug Erholtz Doug Erholtz is an American voice actor. He is best known for his performances as Inspector Zenigata from '' Lupin the Third'', Kisuke Urahara, Gin Ichimaru, and Rudbornn Chelute briefly from ''Bleach'', TK Takaishi from ''Digimon Adventure 02'' ...

of '' Part IV'' onward will reprise their roles for the project with

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 ...

serving as director and providing a 9-minute video introduction. The dubbed episode received a limited theater release alongside the first two episodes of ''Part VI''. A YouTube release was originally planned by TMS, but was later postponed due to scheduling conflicts. It was eventually released on November 21, 2021. On December 13, 2021, Discotek Media announced ''Part I'' would be released on Blu-ray with all 23 episodes restored from their original 35mm film sources along with a restored soundtrack and sound effects from the original

master tapes Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via me ...

. It also contains linear notes, rare production art, and a new English dub of the entire series. It was released on May 31, 2022.

Reception

The series received a record number of orders from the broadcast industry and had a 9% viewing share during its original broadcast. In November 1994, Monkey Punch himself named the first series as the best anime adaptation of ''Lupin III'', particularly the first few episodes, citing its faithfulness to his manga.

Shinichirō Watanabe is a Japanese anime television and film director, best known for directing the critically acclaimed and commercially successful anime series '' Cowboy Bebop'' and ''Samurai Champloo''. An auteur of the industry, Watanabe's work is characterized ...

, director of '' Cowboy Bebop'' and ''

Samurai Champloo is a 2004 Japanese historical adventure anime television series. The debut television production of studio Manglobe, the 26-episode series aired from May 2004 to March 2005. It was first partially broadcast on Fuji TV, then had a complete a ...

'', has spoken of being heavily influenced by the work of director

on the series. Manga artist

Naoki Urasawa is a Japanese manga artist and musician. He has been drawing manga since he was four years old, and for most of his professional career has created two series simultaneously. The stories to many of these were co-written in collaboration with his ...

considers Miyazaki's depiction of Lupin in this series to be the "real Lupin." The Agency for Cultural Affairs placed the series in 50th place on a list of the best anime. 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". Mike Dent, writing for Otaku USA called the series "fantastic" but highlighted the first 12 episodes as the "true gems of the show". 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. In a feature written for Anime News Network, Reed Nelson states that "The transition etween_Ōsumi's_''seinen''-themed_episodes_and_the_family-friendly_ A_family-friendly_product_or_service_is_one_that_is_considered_to_be_suitable_for_all_members_of_an_average_family.__Family-friendly_restaurants_are_ones_that_provide_service_to_families_that_have_young_children._Frequently,_family-friendly_produc_...

_ etween_Ōsumi's_''seinen''-themed_episodes_and_the_family-friendly_ A_family-friendly_product_or_service_is_one_that_is_considered_to_be_suitable_for_all_members_of_an_average_family.__Family-friendly_restaurants_are_ones_that_provide_service_to_families_that_have_young_children._Frequently,_family-friendly_produc_...