Lupin III Manga author Monkey Punch passes away at 81 | Hacker News Reader

Lupin III Manga author Monkey Punch passes away at 81

crunchyroll.com

Not directly his work, but one of my favorite animated films of all time is based on Lupin III (and was written/directed by Hayao Miyazaki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castle_of_Cagliostro

Yeah, it's really great. Beautiful animation and solid comedic timing.

The TV series that was broadcast just a little before that was also pretty remarkable [1], it involved Miyazaki, Isao Takahata (who later made "Grave of the Fireflies") and Masaaki Osumi, who was in charge of the first few episodes which have a really special jazzy and cool feeling, which I've only seen reproduced at the same level in "Cowboy Bebop" which was made more than 20 years later.

Also, the opening scene of the even later Lupin the 3rd TV series dubbed in Italian will forever be one of my best childhood memories. I don't know how they managed to do it but sometimes the Italians were able to create opening scenes that were even better than the original ones in Japanese, a very hard feat to accomplish as the latter were also very good.

[1] https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=8...

[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKmzwpALHg4

Season 1 was amazing, but as it progressed to (I wanna say to season 2 or 3) it became more and more of a cheaply produced slapstick cartoon.

But the earlier episodes had an amazing cinematic feel to them.

I see what you mean, but I really feel that season 2 in particular did a great job of developing a lot of characters, particularly Zenigata.

The music participates a lot to the jazzy feeling. Both for Lupin and Cowboy Bebop, by the way.

Interesting trivia: the current voice actor for Lupin in the anime in Japan is an impersonator comedian who was known for his impression of the original voice actor, and took his place after he passed.

I personally preferred the "chanson d'amour"-styled ending, which was performed by an actual balera orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZy8ydPxpeY

Oh, and Miyazaki in the '80s was a literal Midas of animation - everything he touched turned into gold.

It's hard to over-estimate the cultural influence Lupin III has had inside and outside Japan. The original manga was a timeless masterpiece in its own right, but the animated productions that followed solidified its place into popular culture.

Au revoir, Katō-san. Your creations will keep stealing our hearts forever.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com