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New Lupin III Show to Launch with Lupin's Wedding to New Beauty
posted on by Egan Loo
This year's Lupin III, the first full-fledged television anime to star the legendary thief character in three decades, unveiled a new character on Wednesday. Rebecca Rossellini is a business owner with beauty to match even Lupin III's mainstay heroine, Fujiko Mine. In the first episode of the new series, an invitation to Lupin and Rebecca's wedding, addressed to Inspector Zenigata, arrives. Fujiko, Daisuke Jigen, Goemon Ishikawa gather at the ceremony.
Rebecca is the young president of a conglomerate based in the Republic of San Marino, the story's setting. She has also worked as a model and an actress, and has become an international "gossip queen" due to rumors of affairs with many celebrities. She has an independent wild streak, as well as a secret she cannot tell anyone.
The new character is the "mysterious beauty" teased in the promotional video that debuted in April:
Text: 2015. After 30 years, he returns!
Text: The setting is Italy and San Marino.
Logo: Lupin III
Text: A new history begins for Lupin III, the world's greatest thief.
Text: Original creator - Monkey Punch
Text: Chief director - Kazuhide Tomonaga, Music- Yuji Ohno
Text: Premiere broadcast in May in Italy. Showing on NTV and other channels this fall.
The new series will be the first full-fledged Lupin III television anime series to star the legendary thief character since 1984-85's Lupin III: Part III ended three decades ago. (Sayo Yamamoto and TMS Entertainment made the Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine television anime spinoff in 2012.)
The series was originally announced at the MIPCOM event in Cannes, France last October. The series is set to have its world premiere on Italy's RTI channel. The series will be broadcast in Japanese television this fall. The story of the new series will take place in Italy and San Marino, and it features a blue-jacketed Lupin in his 20s.
Monkey Punch, the creator of the original 1967 Lupin III manga, commented that he is excited for the start of a new animation series, and that he is looking forward to Lupin's exploits.
Franchise veteran Kazuhide Tomonaga (key animator on Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo and Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, particularly the whole iconic car chase) is serving as chief director, and Yuichiro Yano (Moyashimon, Francesca, Mujin Wakusei Survive, Patapata Hikōsen no Bōken) is directing at Telecom Animation Film. Writer Yuuya Takahashi (Donten ni Warau, Tiger & Bunny, Lupin the IIIrd: Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone) is in charge of the series scripts. The franchise's veteran composer Yuji Ohno will again compose the series' music.
Tomonaga noted that the Lupin III anime that his generation watched four decades ago was completely different from the previous anime aimed at children. He added that it had a very huge impact on the diehard adult fanbase. For the generation that already experienced that amazement as well as the generation unaware of those days, Tomonaga wants to make an exciting animation that is realistic yet sprinkled with fantastic elements. Furthermore, he wants to depict a Lupin in which conflicting elements coexist — hard-boiled yet comical, cool yet tongue-in-cheek.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
Update: TMS updated the promotional video so that it no longer reports that the Italian broadcast will premiere in May:
