''Lupin the 3rd Part IV: The Italian Adventure'', also known simply as , 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 animated by

Telecom Animation Film is a Japanese animation studio founded on May 19, 1975 and currently affiliated with 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 a ...

. Part of the ''Lupin III'' franchise, it is the fifth 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 aired from August to November 2015 on

Italia 1 Italia 1 (Italian pronunciation ) is an Italian free-to-air television channel on the Mediaset network, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It is oriented at both young and adult people. Italia 1 was launched on 3 January 1982 and, originally, was o ...

in Italy, and from October 2015 to March 2016 on

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 ...

in Japan. It started airing in the United States 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 ...

Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a divis ...

programming block in June 2017.

Plot

Most of the story takes place in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

, although some episodes are partly set elsewhere (e.g., France, Japan), with Lupin wearing a blue jacket.

Voice cast

Media

Manga

A manga adaptation by Naoya Hayakawa began publication on December 28, 2015. Titled , four volumes have been published by

Futabasha is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Higashigokenchō, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.会社概要
" Futabasha. R ...

as of November 28, 2016.

Anime

The series received its world premiere in Italy on August 30, 2015 on the

and Italia 1 HD channels, and a preview screening at Concordia theater in

on August 29, 2015. The Japanese premiere was on October 1, 2015 on

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televis ...

and the series was made available on the J:Com and Hulu Japan services on October 21. It ran for 26 episodes in Italy and 24 episodes in Japan. The main theme song for the Italian version of the series, "Lupin, un ladro in vacanza" (''Lupin, a thief on holiday'') is performed by Italian hip-hop singer

Moreno Moreno may refer to: Places Argentina *Moreno (Buenos Aires Metro), a station on Line C of the Buenos Aires Metro *Moreno, Buenos Aires, a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina * Moreno Department, a depatnent of Santiago del Estero Province, ...

featuring Giorgio Vanni. The main theme song for the Japanese version of the series "Theme from Lupin III 2015" is 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 ...

and performed by ''You & The Explosion Band''. The ending theme for the Japanese version of the series is performed by

enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than '' ryūkōka'' music, ...

singer

Sayuri Ishikawa is a Japanese enka singer who made her professional debut in 1973. With a career nearing five decades, she is one of the most-recognized and successful enka singers in history. Ishikawa is a popular contestant on the annual NHK ''Kōhaku Uta Gas ...

and features lyrics written by

Tsunku , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer, record producer, and songwriter. He is the lead singer of the rock band Sharam Q. As a songwriter, Tsunku is the primary producer for Morning Musume and other Hello! Project acts, such as Coco ...

. It was released as a single with additional tracks in Japan on October 1, 2015. The series was released across

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 ...

and

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 ...

releases by VAP in Japan between December 23, 2015 and July 20, 2016. Crunchyroll began streaming the series as ''Lupin the Third - Part 4'' on January 7, 2016. All episode previously broadcast in Japan were added at the same time. The series has been licensed by

Anime Limited Anime Limited, also known as All the Anime is a British anime distribution company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It releases anime for British, Irish, French and other European audiences. The company was established in 2012 by Andrew Partridge, b ...

for the UK market and 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 ...

for the North American market. The English dub, which was directed by

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 ...

and Ellyn Stern, started airing in the United States on

programming block on June 18, 2017 and concluded on January 21, 2018. The dub, which was created as an adaptation of the Italian version, and the original Japanese version of the series have been released on home video separately in English-speaking markets due to the differences between the two versions. According to Anime Limited, these differences in video footage made it "simply not possible to include both language options" in one set. Discotek released the English dub in North America on Blu-ray on May 29, 2018, and on DVD on June 26, 2018, while the subtitled Japanese version was released on Blu-ray on April 30, 2019. On July 1, 2017,

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

also started streaming a simuldub of the series with episodes airing every Sunday.

Production

The series was announced at

Mipcom MIPCOM (Marché International des Programmes de Communication, English: International Market of Communications Programmes) is an annual trade show held in the French town of Cannes, traditionally in the month of October and running for 4 days. It ...

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

, France, in October 2014 to be broadcast in spring 2015 in Italy, but was delayed to August. The series was produced by

, with franchise veteran

Kazuhide Tomonaga is a Japanese director, animator, storyboarder, and cartoonist. he has worked at Toei Animation, Group TAC, Oh! Production, and TMS Entertainment. He is currently a director at Telecom Animation Film Company (a subsidiary of TMS). He is a mem ...

serving as chief director and Yoichiro Yane directing with scripts by Yūya Takahashi.

returned as series composer. Tomonaga's aim was to mix the opposing elements of the franchise and combine them into a series that is both

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

and comical, realistic and fantastical.

Reception

Daryl Surat of '' Otaku USA'' magazine refers to Part 4 as the "grand unification of Lupin styles" due to combining elements from several different eras of the franchise; "a bit dangerous like the originals, a bit silly like the 1980s ' pink jacket' Lupin, a bit bizarre like '' The Woman Called Fujiko Mine'', a bit 'gentleman thief with a heart of gold' like

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 ...

's ''

Cagliostro Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (, ; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795) was the alias of the Italian occultist Giuseppe Balsamo (; in French usually referred to as Joseph Balsamo). Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician. ...

'' interpretation."

References

External links

Official website
* * {{Toonami Adult Swim Part 4 2015 anime television series debuts Adventure anime and manga Comedy anime and manga Discotek Media Nippon TV original programming Television series set in 2014 Television series set in 2015 Television shows set in Italy TMS Entertainment Toonami Anime series based on manga