Lupin VIII is a cancelled animated series that was produced in 1982. The remains of the project were released in 2012 with a voiceless pilot, and selected animated scenes with 5 scripts.
Production and Release[]
DiC decided to do a co-production with TMS and bring the Lupin the 3rd series to a Western audience. Some changes were made such as Lupin was no longer a thief but a detective, Jigen was no longer a smoker and it was set in the future. It was decided that the series was going to be called Arsène et Cie in France while it was called Lupin VIII internationally. Rintaro (Shigeyuki Hayashi) who worked on Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 was the director and Shingo Araki was brought in as a character designer along with Michi Himeno. Monkey Punch had originally came up with character designs of the cast[1] however the character designs had changed from his early designs.
Due to international animation production being different than Japanese at the time, it meant that the series could not have any violence, blood was not allowed to be shown outside of accidents, the intent to murder was not allowed, it had to be strict regarding sexual attraction with characters not allowed to show their skin and no smoking.[2]
There was a problem during production and that was with the Maurice Leblanc estate. While the Lupin name was used in Japan and Italy at this point without issues, the Maurice Leblanc estate demanded money for the use of the Lupin name while TMS and DiC refused to pay what they were asking. This was also the same issue that had problems releasing the series outside of Japan with France adopting the Edgar de la Cambriole name, Lupin was renamed to Wolf or Cliff in the US while Spain and Italy that kept the Lupin name had to distance from Arsène Lupin affecting later dubbed episodes of Lupin the 3rd Part 2.
Due to the cancellation, Lupin the 3rd Part III was instead created and aired in Japan in 1984. Shingo Araki also worked on the first episode of the series.
While the pilot received private airings, it was released as part of the "Lupin III Master File" collection on March 28, 2012 along with Lupin Family Line-up and the Lupin III 3DCG short. It also features scenes from the unfinished episodes with commentary.
Episodes[]
| No. | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | A Man from the Past (過去から来た男 Kako kara kita otoko?) |
Fully animated, music and sound effects, no voices |
| 02 | Space Detective Lupin VIII Appears (宇宙探偵ルパン8世登場 Uchū tantei Rupan Hassei tōjō?) |
Selected scenes were animated |
| 03 | Get Your Hands on the Cash (現金に手を出せ Genkin ni te o dase?) |
Selected scenes were animated |
| 04 | Space Corridor Grand Prix (宇宙回廊グランプリ Uchū kairō guranpuri?) |
Selected scenes were animated |
| 05 | Aim for the Quarterback (クオーターバックを狙え Kuōtābakku o nerae?) |
Selected scenes were animated |
| 06 | Letter from the Dead (死者からの手紙 Shisha kara no tegami?) |
Selected scenes were animated |
Notes[]
- While six episodes were already planned into its production, only the pilot episode was fully animated with the sound and music track also completed however due to the cancellation, no voices were ever recorded.
- A tie in manga was written by Ken Takigawa and drawn by Eiichi Saito under the pen name おりはるこん (Orichalcum) however only the first chapter was based on the series with the other nine chapters being original.
- The original concept artwork had a redesigned Jigen resembling a truck driver however this was changed to a tweaked version of his character design. [3]
- An unproduced episode "Revived Venice" (甦みがえれベネツィア, yomigaemiga ere benetsia) had the script written by Akinari Takashina (as Kō Takashina) and the episode was going to be directed by Rintaro[4] however the series got cancelled. It is unknown whether the episode had begun pre-production.
- Since TMS and DiC were invested into the project, it is rumored that it was repurposed into DiC's Inspector Gadget series.
- On January 19, 2019, Alexis Tallone and Bernard Deyries wanted to revive the Lupin VIII project and presented a pitch to TMS. Twitter
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References[]
- ↑ http://blog-imgs-93.fc2.com/w/a/l/waltherp38709/furoku031.jpg THE LUPIN -旧ルパン三世からルパン8世まで- (in Japanese)
- ↑ Animage Vol 45, page 6. Comment by ex TMS CEO Yutaka Fujioka about the differences between Japanese and International animation production.
- ↑ http://waltherp38709.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-44.html
- ↑ http://typerlpn3.web.fc2.com/sub13_13.htm (in Japanese)