It’s a bright day in 1969, two years after the Lupin III manga has been published for the first time. A group of folks — Gisaburō Sugii , Yasuo Otsuka, Tsutomu Shibayama and Osamu Kobayashi — scripted & animated the pilot, with help from the creator until he expressed that animation was simply too much for him to deal with (Monkey Punch would come back to direct a small part of the Lupin III special Dead or Alive in 1996, and he would express similar thoughts then, too).
The creator himself expressed caution at turning his comic — something that was very much published for an adult audience — into a cartoon, due to the anime that had been produced by that time. Fortunately for all of us, he ended up being pleased by the pilot.
The pilot was directed by Masaaki Ōsumi, who would go on to direct the first half-ish of Part 1.
There are numerous theories on which issue of the manga the pilot is based on, however since the production time vs. publication time is unknown, as far as I’m aware, this is disputable.
So, what is the pilot about? It’s an introduction, really: here’s 5 characters we’re trying to fund enough to get onto television, and the madcap antics they all get into. Technically I should say 6 characters, though Kogoro Akechi (who is Japan’s Sherlock Holmes, created by Edogawa Ranpo) did not carry through to what became the normal series. Likewise, Goemon is introduced as a rival (and assassin) in the pilot, but becomes a friend and partner in the series.
There are two versions of the pilot: the Cinemascope version, designed for movie theaters, and the version designed for television. The animation quality is surprisingly good on both, considering the limited budget that the studio was working with.
Both versions keep similar scripts, though their voice actors change (except for Kiyoshi Kobayashi, who would be Daisuke Jigen for the next 50+ years, and Eiko Masuyama, who would say no to Part 1 but return in Part 2 as Fujiko Mine).
We start with a game of shoji, played over the phone by Heiji Zenigata the Seventh — also known as Inspector Zenigata, and in the future called Koichi Zenigata (according to Monkey Punch, this was a spelling error on his part, though I’ll be damned if I can recall where I read that) and Lupin the Third.
Our antihero wins, by ways of stolen shoji pieces and an exploding phone booth, and we get a look into his character by way of Enthusiastic Introduction Via Narrator.
He is suave, he is cool, he drives a cool car, he’s knowledgable about fashion, women want him and men want to be him! He is Lupin the Third, and he always gets what he wants.
The famous running scene, which would be used periodically for the next 50+ years, originated in the pilot.
Next we’re introduced to Daisuke Jigen, Lupin’s longtime partner-in-crime and master gunman. Though the pilot lists his favorite gun as a Smith & Wesson double-action M19, they show a variety of Colt revolver (the 5 chambers give it away). This animation would be re-used in Part 1, and Jigen’s magnum — as it would come to be known — has 6 chambers, not 5.
ANYWAY. Jigen gets an intro with his 0.3 second quickdraw and his undying loyalty to the coolest man on the planet earth (or at least, in Japan), and then we are introduced to Fujiko Mine. She’s Lupin’s mysterious rival, always willing to both lend a hand and betray the duo whenever it suits her needs. Like Lupin, she’s elegant and fashionable, and she gets a cool-ass motorcycle.
The animation in Fujiko’s intro is interesting, as a version features flashing photos of psychedelic sexiness that date the pilot immensely (not that the animation doesn’t). It also features some non-consensual sexual exposure and groping, some of which on the part of Lupin himself.
After Fujiko, we get an introduction to Goemon Ishikawa the Thirteenth. As mentioned previously, in the pilot he is not a partner of Lupin but a rival set on his destruction — an assassin hired to kill the man, and a very dangerous assassin at that.
We won’t see Goemon again until Part 1, episode 5, where he is reintroduced (still set on killing Lupin. This will come up again multiple times throughout the series, though, spoilers, he has yet to finish the job.
He also hasn’t let anyone else finish it either, though.)
After a few more attempts on his life and a quick escape, our titular antihero escapes and lives to heist another day. Oddly, for being a gentleman thief, the pilot focuses little on his thieving abilities, going more into how cool and suave Lupin III is.
Was the pilot successful? The series got made, so in all technicality, yes — though it took two years, and it would take quite a few more before the public saw the pilot itself (it would be broadcast in 1988, for a thirtieth anniversary event), and it became widely available on a VHS tape in 1989.
Is the pilot worth watching? Yes. Keep in mind it was 1969, and these are very rough drafts of the characters we know and love today, pulled much more from the manga than who they would eventually become on television. There are some problematic elements — there’s some non-consensual sexual aggression towards Fujiko, both by an unnamed character and by Lupin himself, and it outright mentions that Lupin’s car is Hitler’s favorite, which is certainly a narration choice.
Nipple Sightings: Lupin, Fujiko
Underpants Sightings: Zenigata (the first appearance of the blue-striped boxers we will come to know and love; as far as I’m aware, this was a standard pair of underwear in Japan in this time period, similar to the way briefs are used as standard American underpants)
“Impossible isn’t in his dictionary” will get used again in the series, though it is usually attributed to Napoleon, not Lupin the Third.
Has it been dubbed in English? By fans, yes, and it can be viewed here. There is no officially recorded English dub of the pilot.
Personal Rating:
5/8 Bullets from a Walther P38. Not a You must see this, this is fantastic, episode, but a slice of Lupin III history.