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Lupin III Coming to Hollywood
Secret anime ninja writes "A story in today's Toronto Star says, "Master thief Lupin the Third, a comic book hero in Japan for more than 30 years, will soon make his Hollywood debut." The story goes on to say that it's been optioned by the producer of Minority Report, Schindler's List and Jurassic Park." Lupin III is currently airing on Cartoon Network and several Lupin movies are available on DVD. Castle of Cagliostro, directed by Miyazaki is a great movie.
Lupin III was also used to make the classic 80's videodisc game, Cliff Hanger.
If your bitterest enemies are people who hack the heads off civilians, then I would say you're doing something right.
If you want to know more about the original Arsène Lupin, gentleman-burglar, and the author, Maurice Leblanc: here and there
If you've never heard of lupin before head to www.lupinofficial.com to catch a glimpse. It's the official website pioneer set up to advertise the tv/dvd showings of the original lupin tv series on CN. You should be able to watch it Monday through Thursday nights at midnight + 1/2 on cartoon network. Before it starting rerunning episodes (because it takes awhile to dub new ones) me and my friends watched it religiously. We also watch every movie we can get our hands on. Lupin is absolutely hilarious. A great party anime.
And I quote
Ahhhh, the old exploding bear trap on the ass trick!
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Lupin the 3rd is basically a story about the exploits of four legendary thieves and an Interpol investigator who's constantly on their trail. They seem to try to rob and rip people off more for the challenge of it then for the actual money (though, they do seem to enjoy the money as well). Central to Lupin's character is that he doesn't seem to be a killer, just an unorthodox thief.
Lupin (pronounced Loop-ON, I believe) is the grandson of a legendary criminal, and has taken on his legacy of performing impossible crimes under the very nose of authorities many times. His main ability seems to be his quick wit and extreme intelligence when it comes to stealing things. He (as well as the rest of the crew) is a fairly good master of disguise.
Jigan is a guy who tends to wear a suit and a dark hat, drinks an awful lot, and is a damn good shot with a revolver. He's generally a rather pragmatic figure who tends to just like hanging out with Lupin, because Lupin's an interesting guy.
Goemon is a legendary swordsman (a kind of stereotypical samurai), who also enjoys just hanging out with Lupin and Jigan. Of all the characters, he is probably the most outlandish, performing rather impossible feats with his sword. However, it would not be difficult to mute this down to reality's level.
Fujiko (not positive on the spelling of these names by the way) is who Lupin is particularly smitten with. She has rather um...large breasts (sorry, there's really little else to say, since they're kind of central to her character). Of the 4 criminal characters, she is probably the most in it for money. She is probably the best at disgusing herself, and will often backstab multiple people just to get more money for herself. She often attempts to pull one over on the other main characters to enrich herself. Jigan and Goemon aren't too fond of her, but put up with her because of Lupin.
Zenigata is the Interpol inspector who has gotten pretty good at figuring out where and how Lupin works, but he has some behavioral problems so the local authorities tend to not believe him or comply with him fully when he makes requests. As such, he's usually there to witness Lupin's hijinks, but he never seems to catch him. Also referred to as "Pops."
That's the basics of it. Its a pretty fun, though simple show.
Outside Japan, they had to distribute the Lupin III anime with an alternate name, Cliff or Wolf (the latter being closer to the original as lupus means wolf in latin).
;-)
Anyway story-wise the guy is supposed to be the grandson of Arsene Lupin, hence the number. However, the actual grandson of the original French writer has sued companies airing it for usurping the name, which was settled by changing the character's name.
So, I wonder what kind of deal they have to release a "Lupin III" movie.
Before anybody starts whining that copyrights are bad, just remember that they're going to turn Lupin III into a commercial trademark (it already is in Japan), so it's like Hollywood making millions by distributing "Linux: the movie" and trademarking the name...
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Not based on an urban legend but actually based on truth.
The movie is based on a play by Alan Bennett called "The Madness of George III". The popular story in the UK is that the movie's title is different from that of the play because it was thought the American audience might mistake it for a sequel. While not wholly true, director Nicholas Hytner has confirmed that it was "not wholly untrue" and it is now widely held that this almost certainly did play a part in the titling of the film. In the UK it would be obvious to anyone that "George III" referred to King George III, but it was felt that elsewhere this might not be so clear and that adding "King" to the title might help. While this explains part of the title change, it glosses over the dropping of the "III", adding renewed weight to the original theory.
Just to follow up, the creator of Lupin III, who uses the name 'Monkey Punch', did once note that Fujiko was named after Fujiyama (better known to us foreign devils as Mount Fuji), the largest peak in Japan. Because, well, she had... large peaks herself.
This has been your totally useless trivia moment.
Brazil has decided you're cute.
In some countries, the maker of Lupin III can't publish under the title Lupin III because of trademark problems. In those countries, he becomes "The Wolf" (literal translation of "Lupin") or "Rupan III" (transliteration of kana).
Will I retire or break 10K?
Lupin (pronounced Loo-PAN/PON. The syllablization cuts after the "lu" and depending on who's pronouncing it, it'll sound like Lu-PON or Lu-PAN. If you watch the dubbed anime in the US, they often refer to him as Ru-pan but that's not quite right.) is pretty much like described above, but in addition, will never take the same punch twice. This is why in certain cases you'll see him absorb a tremendous amount of damage...he's studying the foe's moves for the next time they meet.
Also, Lupin will be smitten by whichever single female the writers put in the plot for that day. He's not really obsessed with Fujiko...she just happens to be in range more often than other women. Lupin has his heart swiped as often as he swipes stuff.
Jigen Daisuke is Lupin's main sidekick. Looks exactly like Abe Lincoln, and is vicious with his gun...as long as he has his hat.
Goemon has a love/hate relationship with Lupin and Jigen. Sometime it seems like the group is begrudging friends, other times it seems like Goemon's only there to get paid. His katana cuts through anything. (In the intro to the PS2 game, he cuts a suspension bridge in half.)
Fujiko is a female character from Lupin's past who hangs around his present to get her share of the loot. It's implied that they had something going on before the comic started but it's never really revealed if this is only in Lupin's mind, or if Fujiko actually agrees upon this. She's a tease and uses her...ample skills to fulfill her role and is basically in it for the money, though if it comes down to it, she'll begrudgingly choose saving the guys over getting away with the loot.
Zenigata is an inspector that runs around trying to catch Lupin. If he does, it's never for more than a couple minutes, kinda like the A-Team. Zenigata will declare various little truces with Lupin, especially in the movies, because he sees that Lupin's trying to stop a greater evil. (usually for money/the girl.) This allows for Zenigata to look like he's still doing work, instead of just chasing Lupin all the time.
Castle of Cagliostro is the Lupin film most fans will recommend you watch. It's good stuff. I also enjoyed "The Legend of Harimao's Treasure" and "The Fuma Conspiracy".
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You can actually find quite a few of the Arsene Lupin novels and stories--including a couple that I donated to be scanned for Gutenberg (though they haven't made it to Gutenberg yet for some reason)--at BlackMask.com. Just search on Maurice Leblanc. They're very good.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Well, the cartoon originally aired in Japan in the late 60s/early 70s... This is why the animation seems so "dated."
Even as newer Lupin comics, movies and TV shows were produced, the artist kept the same style.
Lupin's popularity in Japan was mainly due to the whole spy/gadget craze back in the 60s - when Lupin debuted.
Most Americans were introduced to Lupin via the movie "Cagliostro Castle" which still stands today as one of the classics of anime, as well as just being an overall great action film.
With the Lupin cartoon on TV in America, now Americans can see what the original was like. Cagliostro Castle toned the characters down a bit (especially Fujiko.)
Still, if you're a fan of the older James Bond films, along with the Flint spy films and The Pink Panther films, then there's a pretty good chance you'll find Lupin III enjoyable.
posting late, but:
If anybody watched the movie about treasure of Caliostro; in the end, you can see the interpol (Internatioal Police, supposedly) cars, but they have "åY¼çZè¦åY" or somesuch written on the side - which is actually "Saitama Police" - Saitama being a Japanese prefecture north of Tokyo.
Now, this was supposedly in the small but influential *country* of Caliostro, which is supposedly in Europe or something, so I couldn't help but chuckle.
ahem, now a piece of *useful* information has been squeezed out of your brain, I feel a bit better.
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