New Lupin III series finally confirmed

Joshawott

Joshawott

Monsieur Monster
AUKN Staff
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It's been an odd few months for Monkey Punch's Lupin the 3rd franchise, with rumours about a new series coming and going like a frantic tennis game. However, all of that ends now as the curtain has been raised and the fourth anime series for the franchise has been announced - Lupin the 3rd - The Woman Named Fujiko Mine will begin on 4th April at 1:29am (Japan time) and last for 13 episodes.

Production of the series will be handled by TBS and directed by Sayo Yamamoto. The character designers and animation direction will be handled by Redline's Takeshi Koike, while Mari Okada will be the script writer.

The cast is as follows:
Arséne Lupin III: Kanichi Kurita
Daisuke Jigen: Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Goemon Ishikawa: Daisuke Namikawa
Fujiko Mine: Miyuki Sawashiro
Inspector Zenigata: Kouichi Yamadera

Source
 
Really looking forward to this,the promo pic is very cool indeed and there alot of good names involved in the production of this new Lupin so fingers crossed they will deliver the goods.
 
Potentially excellent news, though I'm yet to warm to Zenigata's new seiyuu and if I'm honest, I'm slightly unsure of those character designs (though I'm leaping to the conclusion here that the promo pic is indicative of the animation - they often aren't). I'd think they were pretty good by modern standards if this was an entirely new thing... However this is Lupin, with 40 years of history behind it.

I certainly can't deny that the prospect of new Lupin TV does make me feel a little giddy though. Also blue jacket Lupin? Craziness.
 
ayase said:
Also blue jacket Lupin? Craziness.
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With a new series comes a new jacket colour xD

Although there has been discussion on whether those will be the final colours, because you'll notice that Jigen's outfit is a similar colour scheme was Lupin's green jacket outfit, so it could all be for illustrative purposes.

Either way, I still prefer his green jacket.
 
Perhaps Jigen got Lupin's hand-me-down. Blue seems a bit conservative (ha!) for Lupin though... Yellow might have been good. Or Purple (red jacket FTW).
 
So this is actually on again - fo' realz this time? I'm amazed. Having had this dangled in front of us, then snatched away so many times in the past, I was assuming it was either stuck in funding-related limbo or just a cruel way of grabbing attention.

I'm intrigued by the addition of the sub-title too; suggests we might be looking at an ongoing series rather than self-contained episodes as per tradition.

ayase said:
I'm slightly unsure of those character designs (though I'm leaping to the conclusion here that the promo pic is indicative of the animation - they often aren't).
Click to expand...

I'd imagine this is probably a fair indication of what the series would look like in practice. I've actually rather warmed to the character designs myself; they've got something of the original manga about them without being quite so loose as the art was back then.
 
I like the artwork, though Lupin's face does look a little like a sadistic mouse in those pieces. I've never really watched much Lupin though, so I'm quite surprised that it can be "rapey".
 
I go onto the website and among the sea of Japanese words is "HARD & DANGEROUS". So if it isn't back to rapey Lupin, I'll be disappointed after that xD

Also, Fujiko's nipples look weird.
 
My understanding is that it was really only the original manga that was particularly rapey, but I've not actually read any of it, so I'm only going on what I've heard. I guess it would make sense for the time period as I think it would have been running while the gekiga movement was still at its peak.

There is also one scene in Mamo (which I think is what Daichi was referring to) where Lupin attempts to pounce on Fujiko, but if memory serves me, she smashes his face in with a frying pan. Don't quote me on this one, but I could swear I've also heard that the writer of Mamo previously worked on porn films, so interpret that as you will.

At any rate, I highly doubt they'd make Lupin quite so unpleasant in this day and age, but I guess only time will tell.
 
Dai Sato (Episode writer; Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Eureka 7, Eden of the East) joins the team as episode writer, as does Naruyoshi Kikuchi (.hack//Legend of the Twilight, Trigun) to do both the opening theme and in-show music (so expect a lot of sax? =3). The ending theme will be "Duty Friend" by singer-songwriter Nikiie.

The series will apparently portray the Lupin gang during their younger years and will capture the "sensuality" of the original manga.

source.

EDIT: You can listen to some of Kikuchi's samples here, to get a taste of what his work feels like.
 
New official site up here.

Most notable thing on it at the moment is the gallery of character designs; they're quite a departure from the pachinko video after all.

Zenigata looks particularly Koike-esque.
 
Cheers Prof! Now I can see them in a bit more detail (and not just in stock action poses as per original illustration), seeing the familiar character expressions on those designs has done much to endear them to me. And judging by the fashions, this has to be set in the 60s, surely?

Currently attempting to make some sense of the text, but Google Translate isn't helping:

"Do you want to draw any Fujiko Mine. The principle hobby is sex play cool moment, crazy."
 
Yeah, it does look rather as if they may be going for a retro setting for the show. Seems like it would suit the franchise, so it's all good. Incidentally, I think I want "sex play cool moment, crazy" to be my epitaph.

Fake Edit: Well, here's a thing. (NWS for brief nudity).

<object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Om_UdToxqqE?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Om_UdToxqqE?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

I AM SATSIFIED WITH THIS.
 
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