#masaaki osumi

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

wake up animation enjoyers, fantastic article on Lupin III: Part 1 just dropped!

[roseillith]

LUPIN III: PILOT FILM (1969) dir. MASAAKI OSUMI

[mine-fujiko]

About Lupin III, I grew up watching part 1 and still to this day it remains my favourite installation of the franchise, with only Lupin Zero as a very close second if not even on the same level. I just adore Yasuo Otsuka’s style for the characters design and to me that’s the way they look best (redhead Fujiko, cute tall and lanky Lupin and Jigen and Zenigata, first time we see Goemon he looks like an Utamaro’s painting!) and the animation is pretty good for a 1971 tv series. I love the “more violent” episodes by Osumi but also the more comedic later ones by Miyazaki/Takahata.

The series as a whole is incredibly original, it doesn’t follow the usual tropes but instead it gives us a terrific interaction between the main characters. It also doesn’t claim to do any big explanations but just presents the viewers with characters and situations that are just there to be interpreted as the viewers wish. Very interesting to see as both characters and situations develop in the course of the 23 episodes. I’m going to focus only on Lupin, Jigen and Fujiko because there are some episodes that are just “Lupin and Jigen vs Fujiko” that are absolute comedy jewels 😁

On to the characters.

Lupin: is an arrogant, egocentric, over confident arse. He’s convinced that Fujiko is his girlfriend but he is the only one who thinks that! He is very attached to Jigen. He also kills cops. In later eps he starts to see Fujiko as a rival, stops molesting her(!) and by the end of the series they’re more like friends/colleagues.

Jigen: is very loyal and very reliable, off the scale cool guy who saves Lupin’s life like every 5 minutes, he’s sarcastic, cynical but also fun loving and a bit mischievous too. Doesn’t trust Fujiko and he is right because (see below). In later eps he too starts to see Fujiko as a friend/colleague. Still doesn’t trust her, though!

Fujiko: is a wild psychopath. Literally trumps on everyone’s dead body to get what she wants. Nobody’s girlfriend but totally Lupin’s antagonist. Doesn’t give AF and does whatever is best for her. Backstabbing made perfect. In later eps she loses a lot of her sexy man-eater traits but that’s the Miyazaki effect.

I also want to add what really makes the series and thanks god the whole franchise for me, which is the great amount of humour (all characters can turn from extremely cool to goofballs in a sec) and the ability to mix drama, comedy, mystery, mad gags, etc.

As someone who loves the original manga I maintain that the series that did the best job about basically *anything* was part 1.

For reference, the “Lupin and Jigen vs Fujiko” episodes are:

… basically all of them? LOL! No, for real episode 6, 10, 12, 16, 17, 21 because Rie is mini-Fujiko!

To quote one resume it usually goes like this:

“Fujiko goads Lupin into stealing a large shipment of diamonds. Lupin takes the task despite Jigen's protest that Fujiko is playing them for fools. Of course, Jigen is right.”

[mine-fujiko]

Part 1

Lupin III - The Big Golden Showdown!

[kaleen-art]

Lupin Movie Marathon Analysis #1

The Mystery of Mamo (Lupin VS. The Clone)

Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo has been a long standing favorite Lupin movie of mine. When I originally watched it, I couldn’t stand it due to its adult content, but since then, I have not only grown to like it, but I think it’s one of my favorite pieces of Lupin media, period. However, it had been a long time since I watched the full movie by myself, so I decided to put on the Blu-ray and watch it again.

Mamo has always been a movie with a lot of complex themes I like to explore, but I noticed something new this time, as well as coming to new conclusions about previous realizations. So join me in my lengthy analysis/report on Mamo, the most insane masterpiece of a film ever made.

At face value Mamo is just a stupid silly Part 2-like romp. Released in 1978, it reflects a trend amongst Lupin media at the time to be closer to the original manga and Masaaki Osumi’s Part 1 work in tone. For this movie, they even got back a significant portion of the early Part 1 staff in order to bring back this grittier, less bubbly Lupin. His characterization here is notably close to the original manga. But where Mamo succeeds (and Part 2 fails, in my opinion) is the fact that there is depth to Lupin’s character. Unlike Part 2 which has very little stakes, we see Lupin pushed to his absolute limit as the film breaks him down as a person. In a way, the movie is a sort of character study on him. But in order to study Lupin as a person, we have to see how the people around him are affected by, and affect him. Primarily, Fujiko Mine.

Fujiko’s characterization in this movie is perfect. This movie captures something I find a majority of Lupin fails to understand. Fujiko is exactly like Lupin. She is just as calculated and manipulative as him, Lupin just has more practical skill in place of where Fujiko utilizes her beauty to get the things she wants. They don’t even listen to their partners in crime (Lupin with Jigen and Goemon, Fujiko with Mamo) as they lust after each other (while secretly planning to deceive them). They are both horrible people, and therefore are made for each other. The movie drives this point home when Lupin even says him and Fujiko are bound together and can’t be separated, to Mamo. But there’s another character Lupin is bound to.

Zenigata, as he usually does, serves as Lupin’s foil. While Mamo is the actual villain of the movie, Zenigata is always there behind Lupin. In a way, he’s kind of a parallel to Fujiko, because he’s the only other one who never leaves Lupin’s side. And as Delaney Jordan denotes in her amazing video essay on Mamo, in Lupin’s subconscious, the only people who appear are Zenigata and Fujiko. They are the only ones who truly stand to challenge him in comparison to his other partners, which is why he subconsciously holds them in such high esteem. To analogize it, Jigen and Goemon are there to catch Lupin when he falls, while Fujiko and Zenigata are the ones who pushed him off.

On the topic of Jigen and Goemon, they are also very important characters to Lupin in this movie, but in a way, they both serve the same plot purpose. They both act as a sort of conscience to Lupin, keeping him in check throughout the movie, and judging his actions. That is up until they leave (which is very unexpected, especially at the time when the movie came out. If you had been watching the weekly Part 2, it was common to hear Jigen and Goemon bitch about Fujiko, but to see them pushed so far to the limit that they abandon Lupin? It was plain unusual to see.) It’s not until they’re both away from Lupin that we get to see the true side of Lupin. One without refrain. And that’s a good thing for him, because that’s the only Lupin that could go against Mamo.

Mamo is a particularly interesting villain because he’s almost like the anti-Lupin. As one of my friends (@curleyclown) described it, Mamo is an unstoppable force to Lupin’s immovable object. While Mamo is constantly growing more and more intelligent and trying to change time itself, Lupin is a stubborn person opposed to change. And that might be Mamo’s most prevalent theme. The main cast’s refusal to change. The characters don’t grow or change as people, they don’t mature, they end the movie the exact same people they were when it started. And though Mamo tried to influence them through his actions, likely knowing Fujiko would pull Lupin, Jigen and Goemon apart, he was unsuccessful because these characters just aren’t capable of growth. Lupin even remarks this himself about Jigen when twice in the movie, once in the beginning and once near the end, he calls Jigen a unchanging classic. Even a line that seems just like a throwaway joke has depth in this film.

Another thing I love is the movie’s emphasis on Lupin’s subconscious. When Mamo enters the mind of Lupin, he’s stunned by Lupin not dreaming, but later on in the film, when Jigen is arguing with Lupin, Lupin says he had his dream stolen from him, and Jigen asks if he's referring to Fujiko. This is genius. The reason Mamo couldn’t see Lupin’s dream was because Mamo had taken it from him. This might be one of my favorite parts in the whole movie.

My favorite part about the theming in the movie though are the biblical parts. Mamo’s claim to be God isn’t just said through dialogue, the movie continually showcases this visually. Behind Mamo in this shot (see first image below paragraph) is Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Man”, which showcases God creating Adam, the first man. Many people have remarked that you can see the silhouette of a brain in the background shapes behind God (see second image below paragraph), and when Mamo reveals his true form at the end of the movie– (see third image below paragraph) Do you see what I’m getting at? It’s brilliant foreshadowing.

Furthermore, Mamo compares him and Fujiko to Adam and Eve many times which, as said in the Streamline dub, makes Lupin the snake.

Overall, The Mystery of Mamo has a really engaging plot with really good character writing and themimg. But it’s not just that I love about Mamo. The art is gorgeous, and in my opinion, is better than Cagliostro. While Cagliostro has smoother animation, Mamo’s limited animation works really well with the manga inspired artstyle, making it more distinctive, and because they saved time and money by using less character animation, they were able to put more into other aspects of the movie. The movie’s camera shots are really well done and always have a really interesting perspective to them. Additionally the meshing-together of live action materials and animation (such as the scene with Fujiko overlaid on top of a ton of breasts) is really unique, especially for its time. My final note is about the scene where Goemon chops Flinch’s head in 3 and the frame literally gets chopped. It is jaw-droppingly awesome and always impresses my friends when I show them the movie.

The music is also really good. It’s nothing too remarkable as a lot of the music is in Part 2, but its placement in the movie is very nice and I especially love some of the timed cues. The music cue in the scene where Lupin clicks on Fujiko’s nipple (that’s a sentence, alright) is hilarious to me. 

Now we get to another really long section. The voice acting. The voice acting in the Japanese version is absolutely fantastic, all the voice actors deliver a really great performance and you can just hear the psychoticness in Yasuo Yamada’s Lupin. Kou Nishimura’s Mamo is very distinctive and very fitting for the character. And of course the rest of the cast, as usual, deliver a great performance. But of course, I can’t mention Mamo and voice acting while not discussing the 4 English dubs.

Toho’s dub’s script is actually quite decent and it’s a competent dub given it was made in 1979 but the voice acting is rough and because it hasn’t been well preserved, the audio quality isn’t great. Overall, it’s a 5/10.

I adore Streamline’s dub. The script is accurate while simultaneously maintaining really good flow. The voice actors are also amazing and I love Bob Bergen’s performance as Lupin, as well as Edie Mirman’s Fujiko. They both have that perfect energy for their characters and I love their performances. Steve Bulen’s Jigen is also great, my friend (@theshmeepking) always describes him as sounding like a “weed dealer”. Ardwight Chamberlain’s Goemon and David Povall’s Zenigata are also fantastic. Overall, my favorite dub of the movie, 9/10. I just wish it maintained Lupin’s line about Fujiko being his dream. 

Manga’s dub is overall forgettable and the script is littered with out of place cursing. It’s an adult movie, sure, but it just feels tonally inappropriate in my opinion. Voice acting is decent, though I find Bill Dufris’s Lupin a little grating. Audio quality is better than Toho but still rough. Overall, I give it a Dyslexic Zenigata/10 (Zenigata actually says he’s dyslexic, I’m not kidding.)

And then we have the ever-popular Geneon dub. I don’t particularly care for the modern Tony Oliver cast, but I will say, their performances in this aren’t bad even if I don’t personally care for the voices. I find Michelle Ruff’s Fujiko a little unfitting for her depiction in Mamo though. My main problem is the script that deviates way too much from the Japanese original and adds in a ton of unfitting jokes. It’s a fine dub if you’re watching the movie as a fun “turn your brain off” romp, but personally, I don’t think it’s a good adaptation of the original Japanese version.

On that note, that’s about all my collected thoughts on The Mystery of Mamo. This is definitely one of my favorite Lupin films, and maybe just films in general. I don’t have much more to say, but overall I give it a solid 9.5/10. I'd like to give a special shoutout to Delaney Jordan, whose video essay on Mamo was a huge inspiration not only for this, but for my passion for Lupin analyses in general. I'd also like to thank @curleyclown and @eva-of-the-sea for reading my WIPs for this essay. And finally, join Cagliostro Central, the Lupin server I co-own. I usually post the WIPs in question there.

I hope you enjoyed reading this ramble-analysis! I’m doing a Lupin movie marathon, so next up is The Castle of Cagliostro! Stay tuned.

[canmom]

Animation Night 143 - Lupin III

Animation Night oldtimers - what few remain... - may remember Animation Night 37. It was a fun night where we carved a core through the Lupin III franchise in its many iterations.

For a series of such towering importance to the history of anime, I must have written a massive writeup, right? Ah, if only ‘twere so. Apparently I was having meds trouble - la plus change... - so all you got was a list of films and a promise to write more later.

Well, it’s finally time! Fully two years later x3

So, Lupin III! It’s a lot of things but before it was any of them, it was a gritty seinen manga by Kazuhiko Katō - far better known by the name Monkey Punch - serialised in a magazine called Weekly Manga Action starting in 1967. Here’s the opening spread...

At this time, Monkey Punch was 30, meaning he’d grown up through the second world war, starting his career in comics in junior high where he competed with other artists in the school newspaper. His route into manga was via dōshinshi, then 4koma, and eventually working as an assistant to Naoki Tsuji on influential wrestling series Tiger Mask.

Lupin III took inspiration from, of course, Maurice Leblanc’s stories of gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, by way of a little James Bond. Many of the details of the plot were improvised. Femme fatale Fujiko Mine was originally to be one of a rotating cast of girls like in the Bond films, but that proved to be too much work, so she became a recurring character. Lupin’s samurai buddy Goemon was originally his enemy.

The Lupin manga has that strange horny energy that you tend to expect from 60s manga. It’s definitely still a comedy, but the kind of comedy where the first issue involves microfilm hid inside someone’s vagina and the second has a man almost wrongfully executed. The artwork is sometimes very detaile, but more often sketchy; its expressions are exaggerated, but it predates the codification of standard manga expressions. It’s shaded - in watercolours, I think, and markers. It feels very different from later manga characterised by ultra-precise illustration.

At this point in the history of manga, the waves of gekiga were beginning to be felt. So far as I’m able to tell the distinction goes, Lupin falls outside the (later-defined) line between ‘gekiga’ and ‘manga’, but there was definitely a feeling that more ‘serious’, dramatic stories were coming in. Original flavour Lupin is less ‘thief with a heart of gold’ and more ‘horny trickster’, a much more amoral character.

The manga introduces at first the cat-and-mouse pair of Lupin and Inspector Zenigata, perpetually a step behind. It gradually introduces the rest of the recurring characters: rival thief Fujiko the sexy girl full of cunning plans; Lupin’s partner the gunslinger Jigen whose main trait is shooting really fast and accurate; samurai Goemon whose sword can cut anything, especially clothes.

So, the anime then! This is one of those nights where we’re leaning on Matteo Watzky, who’s provided a great deal of information on the production of the original Lupin TV series.

Lupin was only in serialisation for a year when esteemed animator Yasuo Otsuka left Toei in the midst of ongoing union struggles, shortly after the completion of Horus: Prince of the Sun on which he’d worked as animation director. (See Animation Night 70 for more on that!) Otsuka landed at A-Pro, one of a number of studios in the orbit of a company called Tokyo Movie Shinsha, to work on an adaptation of Lupin - at the time, intended to be a feature film under the direction of Masaaki Osumi.

In 1969 they finished a twelve-minute pilot film that steered close to manga in both design and sensibility. Monkey Punch himself provided some supervision. The pilot is a series of brief vignettes introducing the main characters of the manga, with a narrator describing their main traits and fashion choices before brief skits that mostly end in explosions. Its animation is impressively elaborate and stylish and does not look like much from the era, but producers balked at all the sex and violence, so it was retooled into a TV show. Otsuka and Osumi were pulled away to work on Moomin, and the staff shuffled around a lot - not for the last time.

Lupin finally hit TV in 1971, again under Osumi with Otsuka designing characters. It was going for something dark and dramatic by the standards of the time, in the vein of Ashita no Joe (c.f. Animation Night 95) or Star of the Giants. But Osumi’s manga-faithful take hit poor ratings, and when Osumi was unwilling to compromise, he was gradually squeezed off the project.

Instead, Otsuka brought in two of his protégés from the Toei days, recently hot off the collapse of Pippi Longstocking. You may have heard of them. They were of course Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata - at this point an inseparable pair. Although they took over the series, they did a lot of it pseudonymously, and they would leave A-Pro down the line.

The series that resulted under their direction is known to fans as ‘Green Jacket’ Lupin, because (shockingly) Lupin wears a green jacket. It’s full of foreshadowing for Miyazaki’s later works. Osamu Dezaki, also working pseudonymously, directed a number of episodes as well in his distinctive style. Under their direction, the series became a lot lighter in tone, with a gleeful sense of chaos that would become the defining tone of later adaptations. It wrapped up after 23 episodes, with Miyazaki apologising for the stuff - but all in all it was a success, although not as much as the next one would be...

The second Lupin III adaptation, Lupin III Part II known as ‘Red Jacket’ Lupin, came six years later. In this time a great deal had happened. A-Pro had evolved into Shin-Ei and left the TMS orbit, and the other TMS satellites like Madhouse were also going their own way; in such uncertain conditions, and with their own director obsessed with his ultimately fruitless project to adapt Little Nemo In Slumberland, TMS sought to return to some of their various established licenses to make some reliable money.

A very long production that hit 155 episodes, the Red Jacket series is where Lupin really took off. It’s a mixed bag, with plenty of filler, but also several real standout scenes and episodes. In Watzky’s account, much of this has to do with the involvement of Oh Production, a subcontracting studio that would be a close ally of Takahata and Miyazaki right into the Ghibli days. Their star was Kazuhide Tomonaga, known for his work on Space Battleship Yamato, not to mention duelling Yoshinori Kanada to outdo each other in effects for the ridiculously elaborate finale of Galaxy Express 999. Tomonoga’s best moments would come after Miyazaki’s return, but we’ll come to that in a moment.

Red Jacket gave rise to the first Lupin movie, The Mystery of Mamo, which served as a vehicle to bring back a lot of the departed Shin-Ei animators into the TMS fold, and prior to Akira, it was the highest budget animated film in Japan with enormous ambitions for animation. Read Matteo’s article to get a sense of the different animators and studios shuffling around, but to summarise very briefly, it brought back most of the staff who had created the pilot film and they were able to bring much of the same energy. The film sets Lupin up against an immortal psychic billionaire, and it features an impressively varied animation style, with manga panels or a dreamlike psychic sequence when Lupin runs through a series of series of surrealist paintings.

Next came... guess what... The Castle of Cagliostro! Miyazaki’s back and he’s going to push his vision of Lupin as a romantic, kind-hearted character to a new level, once again in a green jacket. The film featured startlingly elaborate animation. The car chases cemented Lupin’s car as a staple of the series, the finale features the classic ‘I am a traditional animator and I want to flex’ setting of a gigantic clock full of cogwheels. It’s as fun and impressively shot a film as you’d expect from something headed by Miyazaki, although to Lupin fans, it is widely seen as a frustrating one, since it hews furthest from the ‘proper’ roguish characterisation of Lupin.

Cagliostro is also important for another reason: among otaku, the nascent lolicon movement fixated on its character Clarisse, much as Miyazaki himself had once fixated on the girl Bai-Niang from Toei’s The White Snake Enchantress. That’s a... complicated subject to explicate to put it mildly; I discussed it more on Animation Night 69. ‘Clarisse clones’ started popping up all over the place; Cagliostro was perfectly placed as one of the most impressive animated movies at the dawn of the otaku boom.

The TV series continued to run throughout all this, and the success of Cagliostro washed back in, with sudden character redesigns and of course, the two episodes directed by Miyazaki exhibiting all his quirks. Its scenes feel eerily preminiscent of Ghibli, even more so than Green Jacket, elaborate enough to seriously push the envelope on TV animation.

After all this, Lupin had been firmly cemented as a ‘classic’, nostalgic series in anime. Rather than a single canonical story, it was a group of iconic characters with a general setting and tone that was flexible enough to accommodate many more stories. This probably has a lot to do with its enduring presence: you certainly don’t have to have followed Lupin III from the very beginning to be able to jump in to one of the later installments and have a pretty good sense of what’s going on. There is a comfortable status quo, with Zenigata chasing Lupin who’s always one step ahead; from there, you can pull Lupin and the gang into whatever escapade you have in mind.

Through the 80s and 90s, TMS continued to produce Lupin films with a variety of directors. These generally follow the tone set out by the TV series and they’re a lot of fun. Monkey Punch himself actually directed one, being Lupin III: Dead or Alive, albeit reluctantly at the last minute! The 2000s saw TMS, facing budget limits, stripping production down to OVAs.

The most interesting change of direction came with Sayo Yamamoto, of Michiko and Hatchin and later, Yuri on Ice, who we covered back on Animation Night 36. Reading back her comments in the present, it’s like, wait, that Mari Okada?

In Yamamoto’s hands, the focus shifted from Lupin (though he’s still present) to Fujiko as the main character. The tone hews far closer to Monkey Punch’s manga: sex and violence, sure, but also escapades. It’s a hell of a ride, with all sorts of unexpected tones.

The animation, although clearly taking inspiration from the heavy lines of the manga, is most of all a Koike-ism - the deliberate and weighty way characters move, the use of black, the colour palette all scream ‘I just finished working on Redline for seven years’. Koike would end up staying with Lupin even after Yamamoto moved on, directing a trilogy of hour-long movies, Jigen’s Gravestone, Goemon’s Blood Spray and Fujiko’s Lie.

Last time we did Lupin, we watched one of the three, Goemon’s Blood Spray, last time, and honestly... well it’s a weird one! If Yamamoto’s take was able to preserve the comic chaos even with the darker content, Koike decided to fully go for a drama, with a very strange plot that sees Goemon going on a kind of spirit quest as he’s drawn into an intense battle with first gangsters and then a massive lumberjack guy. The long final battle of the movie sees the two gradually slicing bits off each other, meticulously animated in the way only Koike can (truly I never have seen a more carefully rendered sagittal section of the upper arm muscles), but at the time I found the film struggles to deliver the emotional stakes. It’s a long way from the rest of Lupin, and I’m curious but a little apprehensive to see what Koike did with the other two films.

The other major development in Lupin films is the CG film Lupin III: The First (2019) dir. Takashi Yamazaki (his first animated film), featuring a distinctive stylisation that reminds me most of recent Chinese films like New Gods: Nezha Reborn. It’s a curiously bold departure; it caught my attention with clips of hyperchoreographed action scenes; it’s got a very broad, exaggerated style of movement that’s far from the norm for anime and a constantly roving camera. It’s kind of fascinating to look at, CG that isn’t trying to look like something else. It’s also a departure for the animators at Marza Animation Planet, whose previous works tended to be hyperrealist adaptations such as the 2013 version of Space Pirate Captain Harlock or Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. That’s a lead to follow up on, actually. They would later come to work on the Sonic the Hedgehog films.

So, this movie. It’s evidently attempting to retool Lupin for the CG era, with tributes to the iconography of the old anime, such as remaking Lupin’s car in 3D and staging a chase with it; whether this attempt to ‘modernise’ will land I’m not sure. I don’t love their models for the female characters especially lol, they’re painfully Disney. The plot is a Lupin escapade vehicle with a dash of Indiana Jones, putting Lupin and the gang up against Nazi occultists. I don’t expect it to challenge much, but it does look fun.

So! What’s the plan for tonight?

Well, it’s basically the same plan as last time: another cross-section through the Lupin III series! We’ll hit the following notes:

the original Lupin pilot!

The Mystery of Mamo

Miyazaki’s two episodes of Lupin III Part 2!

the two parts of Jigen’s Gravestone

Lupin III: The First

Sound fun? Great! (Doesn’t sound fun? I’ll shoot you.) We’ll be starting early tonight; going live at 7pm UK time, and starting films after about 20 minutes. I’m going to try and keep the start of Animation Night in the 7-8pm range from now on - let’s see if we can rebuild this thing.

If you will, then: head to https://twitch.tv/canmom and get ready for some burglary, robbery, theft, and even perhaps a bit of larceny. See you in the theatre~

[ljaesch]

Anime Spotlight: Lupin The Third Part 1

Lupin The Third Part 1 is the first television anime series for the Lupin III franchise. Masaaki Osumi started out as the sole director for the series for the first six episodes. However, when ratings were poor and Osumi refused to make changes that the studio requested, Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki were brought in to help with direction. Osumi was no longer regularly directing by Episode 14,…

[zantetsuken-blues]

He only discarded him in Albatross bc he knew Goemon would cut that stupid ass airplane within two seconds

Did you noticed this amazing detail in The Castle of Cagliostro?😱😱🫣👽

If you pay close enough attention you can see that Goemon appears right at the beginning in the fiat before the title sequence, which makes no sense that he doesn't appear in said sequence, in the chase, when they rescue Clarisse or enter the country of Cagliostro.

All this is due to the fact that Hayao Miyazaki hates his ass.

[dangerously-happy-world]

(Correction)

[There won't be an interview with koike or Ryōhei Suzuki during August. Just a rebroadcast and premier of fujikos lie]

TMS has something planned for a 55th anniversary event to finish off the celebration year for lupin the third.

• They'll be rebroadcasting part 1 in July with interviews from director Masaaki Osumi in japan.

• the live action zenigata series and the lupin the iiird movie series will be broadcasted with a TV premiere of Fujiko Mines Lie

(RUMOR)

During the broadcast of the koike movies, a trailer for the 4th installment of the koike lupin series will debut, nothing confirmed yet.

[odirra000]

70s Anime Retrospective

i've watched about 26 different anime released in the 70s. At its best there were a few TV series that I stuck with for the enjoyment I got out of them. At its worst it was dropped after 1-2 episodes or after 30 minutes of a movie. There was a developed trend that formed thanks to the popularity of a few series and the rest attempted to follow suite, causing 70s anime as a whole to get a bit monotonous and difficult to get through.

The Lists

Completed

By nature of having been completed, anime in this list represents my personal top 10 of everything I watched in the 70s.

Everything will be ordered from most enjoyed to least enjoyed

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

Tomorrow's Joe (Movie)

Future Boy Conan

Rose of Versailles

Lupin III

Aim for the Ace!

Galaxy Express 999

Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Lupin III: Lupin vs. Fukusei-ningen

Space Battleship Yamato Series & Movie

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

Miyazaki's first feature film as director!

Beautiful animation & proper Lupin depictions. A great place to start for anyone interested in getting into Lupin III. A classic.

Tomorrow's Joe (Movie)

Thanks to the movie being a condensed version of the TV series, I was able to get passed the notorious prison arc. It's pretty clear within the first few story beats that Joe is a bit of a rascal. The prison arc really exaggerates that character trait to cartoonish levels that will leave you scratching your head. I imagine the manga gets through this arc a lot faster than 20 minutes of "showcase the least amount of original source material" episodes.

Besides that, this is some great storytelling. Many different characters with different motives, priorities, philosophies, and ideas clashing together. An exploration of different types of rivalries through Joe and his different opponents.

Themes of doing your best, handling death, acting for yourself vs acting for other people, doing something out of pure enjoyment rather than for money, full devotion to a craft, and more.

Recognized as one of the top 10 greatest stories of all time in Japan and has influenced many, many stories to come. A favorite amongst the working class and political revolutionaries of the time.

This goes down as one of my favorites of all time. Highly recommend starting with the movie or skipping every other episode through the prison arc.

Future Boy Conan

Cool! Miyazaki makes a TV series! Hands down the best TV series of the 70s. This is mostly credited to the more modern episode count of 26 episodes (roughly equivalent to 2 seasons of anime today). Every episode is impactful and doesn't feel like a waste of time.

The story is a classic anime template of this era.. sci-fi, post nuclear apocalypse, and a fascist/totalitarian/anti-environmentalist group vs. freedom/tree-huggers. Very similar to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.... which makes sense since Miyazaki started writing the manga in 1982 (4 years after directing Conan).

As with pretty much everything Miyazaki has been involved in, the focus is interpersonal relationships and believable characters.

An enjoyable watch.

Rose of Versailles

An neat historical fiction story set during the moments before and the beginning of the French revolution. Gives me slight Legend of the Galactic Heroes vibes with how many characters there are. Sometimes gets hard to follow, but for the most part it's entertaining and considered a classic.

It also has the first bisexual & gender nonconforming icon with Oscar. A woman in the French military during the 1700's?? How does she do it?? Watch it to find out!

Lupin III

What's interesting about this series is that it rated incredibly poorly in japan on release. Apparently it was slightly darker and felt a little too 'realistic' to japanese audiences. The initial director, Masaaki Osumi, was fired for refusing to adapt the source material to appeal to a broader (ie. children's audience). Miyazaki and Isao Takahata were brought in as replacements and eventually the show was cancelled.

Because of this director swap, there is some controversy over which interpretation of Lupin characters is the "correct" one. For me personally, I find the Miyazaki's version more entertaining and enjoyable. There wasn't enough substance to the dark themes to really warrant their use. There's not much to being edgy just to be edgy.

This is absolutely not a TV series you need to watch every episode of, but it's similar to Future Boy Conan in that it has a much lower episode count thanks to its cancellation. You could also skip this entirely and start from Part II.

Aim for the Ace!

This is one of the most popular sports stories of all time and is still ranked within the top 50 best anime productions of all time on many japanese anime/manga polls over the years since it's inception.

This story is responsible for a tennis boom in the 1970s, became the template for many other characters in shoujo anime. The clumsy wallflower with hidden potential, the popular narcissist, and handsome coach with a tragic fate. Sound familiar?

Aim for the Ace has been re-interpreted so many times it became a cliché. One of Gainax's first works, Gunbuster - Aim for the Top!, is a sci-fi/mech parody of the story and one of my favorite works of all time.

This truly is a classic story and a treat to experience. (manga might be better.. up to you)

Galaxy Express 999 (film)

Winning the Japanese Academy Award for most popular film in 1980, Galaxy Express 999 has a unique story from the rest. A 10-year-old's journey to get what he thinks he needs and accompanied by a mysterious woman.

A fun watch! Can feel a little long, but overall an enjoyable experience.

Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Earth's government got you down? Tired of your incompetent government leaders wasting their time watching horse racing? Do you wish something could be done to stop the aliens from invading? Then join Captain Harlock and his merry band of "pirates" and do the work yourself!

This is yet another influential story created by the same people that made Galaxy Express 999. Robots with human souls, stoic & badass space captain with a cape, and a kid that just wants to go home to mommy only to realize fighting for what's right is better, and more can all be found here.

~50 or so episodes and can feel pretty long at times. Takes a lot of inspiration from Space Battleship Yamato with its own variations.

Not a super necessary watch, but definitely one to remember.

Lupin III: Lupin vs. Fukusei-ningen

Uhh.. I got nothing for this one. Don't watch this unless you are looking for something very, very weird.

Space Battleship Yamato Series & Movie

I'm honestly surprised this is was popular. The lost at space, stoic spaceship captain, macguffin, idiot kid that misguides his sadness from the loss of his brother into hatred towards everyone around him & has a crush on the alien woman tropes all started here.

As the first "anime first, manga later", Yamato is the reason anime became popular in Japan. The series went entirely unnoticed (and i can see why), but the film took off and acquired a cult following because of its more 'serious tone' (think blues clues vs. avatar the last airbender).

Where Masaaki Osumi's Lupin III failed, Yamato succeeded and set the new standard for anime.

It's probably worth a watch of the film if you're an anime history head, but is definitely not a required viewing.

Dropped

Devilman

uh.. this.. umm.. isn't devilman..

Mazinger Z

Go Nagai really only knows how to design one kind of person lmao. clearly the trend setter for super robot anime, but not worth 92 20min episodes.

Cutey Honey

Clearly Go Nagai is the king of anime TV series.. it's too bad the TV series of the 70s are incredibly weak.

One of the OG magical girl stories.

UFO Robo Grendizer

wow chill Nagai

Magnerobo Ga-Keen

the original darling in the franxxx with only slightly less less sexual connotation and a hilariously aloof main character. I bet kids loved this at the time.

Candy Candy

too much of a kid's show for me to watch even 1 episode.. let alone 115 of them.

Remi, the Nobody's Boy

what is it with anime dad's being assholes? At least Remi's new musician dad seems okay. This is probably good to watch if you're very young and need to learn the basics of morality. apparently this is more popular in other areas across the globe outside of Japan.

Cyborg 009

suffers from "too many episodes" disease. definitely inspired megaman and animation quality is pretty good compared to the other tv series. probably better off reading the manga instead.

Doraemon

Probably somwhere in the top 5 longest running anime of all time with 1787 episodes. Very, very much so a show for kids. it's pretty cute and very popular... but wow yeah no thanks.

Couldn't Find :'(

Tiger Mask

ughhh really wanted to watch this.. sports anime... king from tekken... wrestling... pls...

The Dark Red Eleven

Another sports anime about soccer :'(

Machine Hayabusa

Wow.. this is virtually unknown in the west. Doesn't even have an english wikipedia page. basically this is speed racer

Go For It! Genki

Cute kid kicking ass

[tabuartesanal]

Hablemos de Ghibli: El castillo de Cagliostro

No creo que sea necesario presentar al estudio Ghibli, después de todo, no por nada se han convertido en el fenómeno cultural que son ahora. Ver a totoro antes de una película, es un indicador de calidad único e inigualable, que se ha ganado su prestigio a base de películas de calidad, visualmente impresionantes y con historias que te dejan deseando más. De hecho, se podrían hacer mil análisis sobre las películas de Ghibli, desde cómo Miyazaki construye el mundo que rodea a sus personajes, como se considera la religión dentro de sus películas, cuáles son los mensaje políticos mas prevalentes, e incluso análisis más técnicos, como el estilo de animación, o el detalle del dibujo, etc.  Pero hoy no escribo para inventar la rueda, sino para revisar un par de trabajos del gran Hayao Miyazaki que quizás han pasado mas desapercibidos que otros grandes como El castillo de Howl, El viaje de Chihiro o Mi vecino Totoro. Hoy les presento la primera película dirigida por Hayao Miyazaki: El castillo de Cagliostro. 

Primero que nada, hay que entender que esta verdadera obra maestra se enmarca en la franquicia de Lupin III (dejo el link a wikipedia, porque intentar explicar 6 temporadas y mas de 42 películas se me haría imposible en un solo post que además quiere hablar de Hayao Miyazaki). Un manga creado en el 67 por Monkey Punch (RIP), y posteriormente llevado al animé en el 71, de la mano de tres directores: Masaaki Osumi, Hayao Miyazaki e Isao Takahata. La serie trata del nieto del ladrón de guante Blanco Arsene Lupin, un personaje ficticio creado por Maurice Leblanc. 

Lupin III tiene a junto a él a su pandilla de simpáticos personajes, esenciales para entender cualquiera de sus aventuras, y estos son: Jigen Daisuke, un pistolero que es capaz de disparar su magnum en 3 segundos, Goemon Ishikawa, un samurái que posee una espada que puede cortarlo todo y Fujiko Mine, una ladrona y estafadora femme fatale, rival e interés amoroso de Lupin. Y siempre son perseguidos por Koichi Zenigata, de la interpol, quien quiere meter a Lupin a la cárcel para reformarlo y reinsertarlo a la sociedad como un buen ciudadano.

La trama de la película es bastante simple:  Luego de un exitoso robo de dinero a un casino, Lupin nota que los billetes son falsos. Para desentrañar este misterio, se dirige a Cagliostro, un país ficticio europeo, donde conoce a Clarisse, una princesa a punto de ser forzada a casarse con un sospechoso Conde. A partir de aquí, todo es aventura, sentimientos, paisaje bellisimos, persecuciones, enfrentamientos y diversión.

Si vemos la película pensando en que es la primera de Miyazaki, nos damos cuenta que tiene todos los elementos recurrentes en la filmografía del nipón. Aviones, barcos, agua, naturaleza, motores, máquinas. El diseño de Clarisse también es muy reminiscente de Ghibli, y a lo largo del filme la vemos usar mas de una expresión típica del estudio. Particularmente, me gusta cuando para el final de la película, Clarisse abraza a Lupin y a este se le ponen los pelos de punta, y comunica un sin fin de emociones con su lenguaje corporal, otra de las grandes características de las películas de Hayao. Podemos decir que la trama no es tan “Ghiblesca”, acá si hay buenos y malos (un malo al más puro estilo de los 70, con bigote y capa), no existe una dimensión ambigua en la que comprendemos al tipo malo, como si pasará en los futuros largometrajes del joven y talentoso Hayao. Además, si prestas la suficiente atención, te das cuenta que la producción apresurada de la película (solo 5 meses para hacerla), o de los alcances de la tecnología de la época, pero esos son detalles que apenas se notan la hora y cincuenta minutos que dura la película.

Y aunque podría seguir alabando el arte de la película por cinco párrafos, la música también merece una mención honrosa. De la mano de Yuji Ohno, el icónico tema de Lupin III, o la siempre agradable “Samba Temperado”, quizás la mejor canción escrita para un animé. Mezclado también con una balada de la época, que le da ese nivel de cursilería necesaria a una película de animé. Claro, no es Joe Hisaishi, el recordado compositor de las películas de Miyazaki que ha compuesto un sin número de piezas etéreas y nostálgicas, pero no es menos disfrutable o apreciable, solo distinto.

Si tuviera que hablar de mi conexión emocional con la película, la remito al maldito ladrón Lupin III. Sin duda, de mi top 5 de preciosos husbandos del animé. Su carisma y actitud lo hacen un personaje muy agradable, . La animación es maravillosa, y la música es perfecta, gracias Yuji Ohno por inventar el jazz. Pero no me escuchen a mi, vamos a guiarnos por los hechos y datos duros, después de todo el arte es subjetivo… ¿o no? La película no fue muy exitosa en taquilla, pero si hablamos de impacto cultural, entonces es otro cuento.

El legado de Cagliostro es enorme, si ENORME, me atrevo a decir que es una de las películas de animé esenciales, incluso de la animación en general.  John Lasseter de Pixar la cita como la película que lo abrió a Miyazaki y lo hizo querer explorar y experimentar más profundamente con la animación. En la película Policias y Ratones (o The Great Mouse Detective) de 1984, la escena del enfrentamiento final entre Basil y Ratigan en la torre del reloj, está inspirada directamente en la escena de la torre del Reloj con el Conde y Lupin. También la escena de la película de Los simpson en la que bart se cae del techo, una referencia a Lupin en el techo del castillo. Incluso, Shinchiro Watanabe, creador de Cowboy Bebop, admitió inspirarse directamente en Lupin y su pandilla para crear a Spike y sus amigos, incluso en el jazz que llena el aclamado OST de los vaqueros espaciales. 

Finalmente, decir que para escribir lo que sea que es esto, vi la película de nuevo, y saben? La sigo disfrutando tanto como la primera vez. Aún me maravillo con la paleta de colores del casino, y aún esbozo una sonrisa cuando escucho los efectos de sonido de Lupin saltando mientras corre. Soy fan de ambos, la obra de Monkey Punch y la obra de Hayao Miyazaki, y no podría pedir un producto más perfecto como el que nos fue entregado, es realmente sorprendente lo bien que se mantiene una película del 79, y como aún podría enfrentarse y salir victoriosa frente a nuevas animaciones hechas en un mayor lapsus de tiempo y con mayorr tecnología.

[giornalepop]

DOPO LADY OSCAR, TULIPANO NERO O STELLA DELLA SENNA?

DOPO LADY OSCAR, TULIPANO NERO O STELLA DELLA SENNA?

Tra spade lucenti e cavalli al galoppo, carri stridenti e qualche schioppo, si fece strada negli anni ottanta la bella Simone Lorène, fioraia di Parigi, alias Stella della Senna. Solo in Italia al titolo dell’anime è stato aggiunto il nome del suo coprotagonista: il Tulipano Nero, altro spadaccino dotato di eguale eleganza che combatteva i soprusi dell’aristocrazia francese sotto un’identità…

[recentanimenews]

Upcoming Documentary Chronicles the Rise of Lupin the 3rd

  Lupin the 3rd is one of the most beloved, respected, and enduring titles in anime and manga history. But how did it get that way? A new NHK documentary aims to find out.

  Another Stories: Destiny's Turning Points is an NHK documentary series that focuses on major world events and developments, reconstructing specific points in time that led to the end point we know. Previous specials have covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the death and mourning of Princess Diana, and Beatlemania.

    In the wake of Kazuhiko Kato's passing, Another Stories has gathered together voice actors, editors, directors and many others to tell Lupin's multifaced story. Appearing in interviews will be, among others:

  Michiko Hara: First editor of Manga Action, where Lupin the 3rd first ran:

  Baron Yoshimoto: Another creator at Manga Action, who saw Monkey Punch as a friend and rival:

  Masaaki Osumi: The first director of Lupin the 3rd, who aspired to create a TV anime for adults:

  Yasuo Otsuka: Character designer and animation director for Castle of Cagliostro

Kanichi Kurita: The voice of Lupin since 1995

  Another Stories: Destiny's Turning Points will air its special And Then, Lupin the 3rd Was Born ~The Men Who Brought Lupin to Life~ on August 20.

  >> Another Stories Website

Source: Comic Natalie

    -----

  Kara Dennison is a writer, editor, and interviewer with bylines at VRV, We Are Cult, Fanbyte, and many more. She is also the co-founder of Altrix Books and co-creator of the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. Kara blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[newsintheshell]

YAMATO VIDEO: le uscite home video di novembre

Tornano da oggi tre grandi classici targati Toei Animation e Sunrise.

Disponibili da oggi tre nuove edizioni home video, targate Yamato Video, Koch Media e Anime Factory, che proseguono la linea editoriale di pubblicazioni a ritmo mensile. Ve le avevamo anticipate nel nostro speciale in occasione del Lucca Comics & Games, ma vediamole in dettaglio. 

Torna per la prima volta anche in alta definizione “Ufo Robot Goldrake”, la storica serie prodotta negli anni ‘70 da Toei Animation che ha reso celebre il robot nato dalla mente del maestro Go Nagai. L’edizione contiene il doppiaggio storico rimasterizzato, dei sottotitoli italiani fedeli all'originale, le sigle storiche della versione TV italiana e un booklet esplicativo con disegni preparatori. 

In seguito all’invasione del suo pianeta natale da parte delle truppe di Re Vega, il principe Duke Fleed si vede costretto a fuggire sulla Terra a bordo del suo robot spaziale Goldrake. Spaesato e ferito, Duke Fleed viene accolto dal dottor Procton, il direttore dell’istituto di ricerche Spaziali. Oltre a curarlo lo spaccia anche per suo figlio Actarus. Nel frattempo passano 8 anni e Re Vega arriva ad invadere anche la Terra. Actarus torna quindi a bordo del suo fedelissimo Goldrake e insieme allo storico pilota del Mazinga Z Koji Kabuto, inizia una lotta feroce contro gli invasori.

Il primo dei tre box previsti è disponibile da oggi su Amazon al prezzo di 34,99 € nella versione Blu-ray, mentre a 27,99 € in DVD. Il secondo ed il terzo usciranno rispettivamente a dicembre e a gennaio.

Nuovo cofanetto anche per la giovane eroina parigina de “Il Tulipano Nero - La Stella della Senna”, le cui gesta sono state narrate da Yoshiyuki Tomino e Masaaki Osumi grazie alla storica serie animata da Sunrise nel 1975. L’edizione raccoglie i 39 episodi della serie in 10 DVD e contiene un booklet di 32 pagine con le sinossi e i disegni preparatori.  

Parigi, alla vigilia della Rivoluzione. Il popolo soffre sotto la tirannia di una classe aristocratica corrotta e prepotente. Simone è una ragazza i cui genitori adottivi sono stati uccisi per motivi misteriosi e che deve lottare per svelare le proprie origini e difendere gli innocenti. Una maschera rossa le copre il volto e un fiore rosso è il segno del suo passaggio: Simone è la «Stella della Senna,» l'eroina di Parigi all'alba di una nuova era.

Il cofanetto è disponibile da oggi su Amazon al prezzo di 27,99 €.

Torna in un unico cofanetto anche “Planet Robot Danguard Ace”, la serie robotica ideata da Leiji Matsumoto e animata da Toei Animation fra il 1977 e il 1978. L’edizione oltre a racchiudere i 56 episodi della serie in 10 DVD, contiene dei sottotitoli italiani fedeli all'originale e un booklet di 32 pagine con sinossi delle varie puntate e alcuni disegni preparatori.  

Il gruppo di ricerca del dottor Oedo vuole raggiungere il decimo pianeta del sistema solare, Prometeo, allo scopo di sfruttarne le risorse naturali e garantire un futuro all'umanità. Prometeo è però anche nelle mire di Doppler, un ricco e malvagio scienziato a capo di un'organizzazione paramilitare che ha deciso di fare del decimo pianeta la patria di una nuova razza di eletti. I mostri meccanici di Doppler si scontreranno con il prode robot Danguard.

Il cofanetto è disponibile da oggi su Amazon al prezzo di 34,99 €.

SilenziO)))

[bowloflentils]

Run Melos! ( 走れメロス! ) - Visual 80 - 1992

[recentanimenews]

WOWOW Re-Airs Lupin the 3rd Pilot Film in Monkey Punch Tribute

  Fans are about to get another chance to look back on the works of Kazuhiko Kato, a.k.a. Monkey Punch, thanks to a block of vintage programming coming next month to WOWOW.

  The channel will air reruns of Lupin the 3rd Part 1 every Sunday at 9 pm for the month of June. This original series, called "old Lupin" among Japanese fans, originally aired between 1971 and 1972. The series included episodes directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and many other legends in the anime industry.

    Two cuts of the pilot film from 1969 will also be airing. The standard-ratio cut featuring Nozawa Yasutomo as Lupin will be shown at 11 pm on June 2, with the Cinemascope version starring Hirokawa Taichiro due to air on June 30.

  A new mini-film on Lupin the 3rd Part 1 will also air during the month of June. Critic Ryusuke Hikawa will offer commentary, and there will be an interview with director Masaaki Osumi, who directed nine episodes of the TV series and the special Voyage to Danger.

  >> WOWOW Website

>> Watch Lupin the 3rd Part 1 on Crunchyroll

Source: Eiga.com

    -----

  Kara Dennison is a writer, editor, and interviewer with bylines at VRV, We Are Cult, Fanbyte, and many more. She is also the co-founder of Altrix Books and co-creator of the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. Kara blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com