''Lupin the 3rd Part II'' is a Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series produced by

Tokyo Movie Shinsha , formerly known as the is a Japanese animation studio owned by Sega Corporation. TMS is one of the oldest and most renowned animation studios in Japan, known for its numerous anime franchises such as ''Detective Conan'', ''Lupin the Third'' ...

. Part of the ''Lupin III'' franchise, it is the second 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 ...

. Although originally broadcast as simply , the series is now often referred to as by Japanese fans. Among English-speaking fans, the series is commonly known as the "Red Jacket" series in reference to Lupin's outfit. The series contains 155 episodes, which aired between October 3, 1977, and October 6, 1980, on the Japanese television network

Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...

. Episodes 145 and 155 were the first to appear in the United States on VHS in 1994, released by

Streamline Pictures Streamline Pictures was an American media company. Founded by screenwriter Carl Macek and animation historian Jerry Beck, it was one of the earliest distributors of English-dubbed Japanese animation. History Founding Founded in Los Angeles, ...

separately as ''Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf'' and together as ''Lupin III's Greatest Capers''. In 2003,

Pioneer Entertainment Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. (abbreviated as Geneon USA) was an American anime, multimedia production and distribution company that was owned by Geneon Entertainment. It was primarily involved in the production and distribution of anime from ...

licensed and released 79 episodes in North America, some of which were broadcast on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

. The series was picked up 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. History Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retr ...

, who released all 155 episodes to DVD between 2017 and 2020.

Story

The series, based on the ''Lupin III'' manga written by

beginning in 1967, centers on the adventures of

Lupin III , also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese media franchise created by Monkey Punch. The series follows the endeavors of master thief Lupin III (character), Lupin III, grandson of gentleman t ...

, the grandson of

Arsène Lupin Arsène Lupin () 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 magazine '' Je sais tout''. The first ...

, the

gentleman thief A gentleman thief, gentleman burglar, lady thief, or phantom thief is a stock character in fiction. A gentleman or lady thief is characterised by impeccable manners, charm, courtesy, and the avoidance of physical force or intimidation to stea ...

Maurice Leblanc Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc (; ; 11 December 1864 – 6 November 1941) was a French novelist and writer of short stories, known primarily as the creator of the fictional gentleman thief and detective Arsène Lupin, often described as a French ...

's series of novels. He is joined by

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 Goemo ...

, crack-shot and Lupin's closest ally;

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 and spy who regularly uses her attractiveness to fool her targets. ...

, the ''

femme fatale A ( , ; ), sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and Seduction, seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype ...

'' and Lupin's love interest who works against Lupin more often than with him; and

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 famous ...

, a master swordsman and the descendant of

Ishikawa Goemon was the leader of a group of bandits during the Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan. Over time, and especially during the Edo period (1603-1867), his life and deeds became a center of attention, and he became known as a legendary Japanese outlaw h ...

, the legendary Japanese bandit. Lupin is often chased by

Inspector Zenigata , usually called and formerly Heiji Zenigata VII, is a fictional character created by Monkey Punch for his manga series ''Lupin III'', which debuted in ''Weekly Manga Action'' on August 10, 1967. He is named after the famous fictional Japanes ...

, the dogged detective who has made it his life mission to catch Lupin.

Production

After '' Lupin the Third Part I'' became popular during reruns, a new series was created. In contrast to the dark tone and violence of the more serious first series, this series made use of a lighter tone and more exaggerated animation to create a crime caper. Pop culture references appear frequently. The music for the series was 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''. E ...

. Episodes 145 and 155 were written and directed by

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as honorary chairman. Throughout his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Anime, Japanese ani ...

under the pseudonym "Terekomu" and they marked his final involvement with the ''Lupin'' franchise. Elements from these episodes would be reused in his films '' Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'', '' Laputa: Castle in the Sky'', and ''

Porco Rosso is a 1992 Japanese Anime, animated Adventure film, adventure fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his 1989 manga ''Hikōtei Jidai''. The film stars the voices of Shūichirō Moriyama, Tokiko Kato, Akemi Okamura and Akio ...

''.

Cast

Bob Bergen intended to reprise his role as Lupin in the Pioneer/Geneon dub, but chose not to because the dub was a non- union project.

Release

The series was broadcast on

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...

from October 3, 1977, to October 6, 1980. Episode 99 was the first anime episode to ever be broadcast in

Stereo Sound Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

. The series was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

by VAP as individual discs as well as several boxsets. Six boxsets were released between February 25 and December 23, 2009. Twenty-Six individual discs were released between March 25, 2009, and January 27, 2010.

Kodansha is a Japanese privately held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha publishes manga magazines which include ''Nakayoshi'', ''Morning (magazine), Morning'', ''Afternoon (magazine), Afternoon'', ''Evening (magazine), Eveni ...

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. The first American release of the series was handled by

, who distributed English language dubs of episodes 145 and 155 individually to VHS in 1994 as ''Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf'' and together as ''Lupin III's Greatest Capers'' in 1995. Lupin III Part II English title card

The series was licensed by

for North America. Due to some licensing issues regarding trademarked logos and musical elements, Pioneer were provided with altered masters by the licensor. An English dub was created by Phuuz Entertainment and given a "modern feel" alongside a subtitle script that is more faithful to the original dialog. The storylines are unaffected by these changes. Due to potential controversy concerning an episode regarding

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, the episode that was originally broadcast third in Japan was delayed until later in the series. Fifteen volumes of the series containing a total of 79 episodes were released on DVD between January 28, 2003, to July 4, 2006. Episodes 1–27 were broadcast on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

from January 14, 2003.

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 ...

, the director of the English dub and voice of Jigen revealed via

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that Geneon lost the license to the series before they could dub the rest of the episodes in English. In 2009, the Southern California-based United Television Broadcasting network began airing subtitled episodes from the series on their UTBHollywood channel. The series is available to watch in dubbed and subtitled options on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

and

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

. On December 20, 2015, longtime ''Lupin III'' distributor

announced their acquisition of the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...

distribution rights to the entire second series. Released in four sets, the releases included "any English dubs that already exist" and newly produced subtitles for episodes 80 to 155. The first set included the first 40 episodes and was released on January 10, 2017. The second set included episodes 41 through 79 and an interview with Richard Epcar and was released on December 26, 2017. Set three with episodes 80 through 117 was released on January 29, 2019. The fourth and final set was released on January 28, 2020, and included the Streamline English dub of episodes 145 and 155.

Reception

The final episode of the series received a viewing share of 32.5% in the

Kantō region The is a geography, geographical region of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures of Japan, prefectures: Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefe ...

during its original broadcast on December 8, 1978. Due to this the series was ranked sixth on Video Research's list of anime series ranked by their highest rated episode in December 2015. The series has attained a favourable response in

the West West is a cardinal direction or compass point. West or The West may also refer to: Geography and locations Global context * The Western world * Western culture and Western civilization in general * The Western Bloc, countries allied with NAT ...

. Rob Lineberger of

DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose revie ...

drew comparisons of the series to western works. He compared the flyovers of major cities and villains planning world domination to

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

, the teamwork and "campiness" to

Charlie's Angels ''Charlie's Angels'' is an American crime drama television series created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts for ABC. It originally aired from September 22, 1976, to June 24, 1981, airing for five seasons consisting of 115 episodes. It was produ ...

and the "Zany humour" and disguises to

Scooby-Doo ''Scooby-Doo'' is an American media franchise owned by Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Entertainment and created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears through their animated series, ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'', for Hanna-Barbera (which wa ...

but added that the series has "its own fun flavour". He expressed mixed views over the English dub and its attempt to modernise the series, understanding the negative reaction to it. However he personally enjoyed the dub. Chris Beveridge of Mania.com and Mike Crandol of ANN disliked the dub of the series because

used many modern references and updated dialogue for a series that was released in the late 1970s, although the series itself received a positive overall review from both reviewers.

References

External links

Official website
* * {{Hayao Miyazaki 1977 anime television series debuts 1980 Japanese television series endings Geneon USA Part 2 Nippon Television original programming TMS Entertainment Topcraft Anime series based on manga