Lupin III: Island of Assassins (special)

In the Japanese version, the island doctor was never refer to by any name. While in the English dub, he was simply address as Doc.

Kenji Utsumi’s first & last role in a Lupin anime in 18 years.

Masane Tsukayama’s first role in a Lupin anime in 8 years.

The “human hunting” (manhunt in the English dub) scene was inspired by the Richard Connell’s famous 1924 short story “The Most Dangerous Game”.

The Japanese restaurant that Zenigata & Vicky dine at is called “Oh E Do”. Named after “Oh-Edo” or “Great Edo”, the common name for Edo, the capital of Japan that eventually transformed into Tokyo. It became the capital during the Edo period under the Tokugawa shogunate.

The assassination orders Gordeau received at first appears to be a schedule. It however lists bizarre phrases like “The Attention She Deserves”, “For New Subscribers”, & “Take a Look at this King”.

The disc that the doctor hands to Lupin is a Magneto-optical (MO) disc. A special, high-capacity encased “floppy” disc that, although optically read and written, contained magnetic elements in its construction. It supported sizes in the hundreds of megabytes or even two or more gigabytes per disk in some cases. It was never much of a hit outside of Japan, and in America Iomega’s lower-capacity Zip drives took the lead as the popular “holds more than 1.44 megabyte floppies, but smaller than CD-RWs” product. The disc that is shown on-screen is a “Tetsujin” version(most likely a parody brand of Fujitsu), which means “Iron Man”(no relation to the Marvel comics character). The similarly titled TV anime “Tetsujin 28”(Gigantor in the US) might have been an inspiration for the branding. Another Magneto-optical format was even bigger in Japan; the Sony MiniDisc. One reason MiniDiscs were so popular is that, because music CDs could be rented in Japan (a practice prohibited in the US for just such a reason), one could easily connect a CD player containing the rented album to a MiniDisc Walkman equipped with writing capability and illegitimately copy the media in its entirety in real-time while out and about. Naturally, such practices are not condoned by the author of these notes or anyone else involved with this creation of the disc you’re reading these on.

The song Zenigata listens to at the hospital is listed as “What is a Man?” (Otoko to wa) by Joe Kenjiroh on the poster. This however is a mere disguise, as the song is actually a 1995 song performed by enka singer Takashi Miyagawa called “The Ship Hanasaki” (Hanasaki Fune). It was composed by Toru Funamura, the lyrics were written by Tetsuro Hoshino, and it was arranged by Tatsuya Nangoh. The lyrics are about crab fishing deep in the northern seas, hence the bit about crab-catching baskets (kanika).

Goof: The newspaper article on Zenigata being shot reads as “Nspector Zenigata Shooted” when it should be “Inspector Zenigata Shot”

The newspaper articles on the assassination, Zenigata being shot and files on the poison do not actually contain the topics they are actually suppose to have. Instead it’s random sentences and phrases in English.

According to the hand drawn map of the island, the ship is named “Noa’s an Ark”.

According to one of the “worthless” files that Zenigata was looking through, the Tarantulas have been active assassins since at least prior to February 1, 1976.

One of the “worthless” files that Zenigata was looking through mentions that the Tarantulas’ first successful assassination took place at the Four Signal Hotel in San Francisco, California.

The first Lupin TV special to not have Zenigata share any screen time with Jigen, Goemon, or Fujiko.

In the English dub, after Jigen learns the truth of how ships and planes got lost within the Devil’s Triangle, he asked Lupin about the truth behind the Loch Ness Monster in which Lupin replied “You don’t want to know”. Lupin & Jigen have encountered the Loch Ness Monster in episode 4 of Lupin III Part 2 TV series titled “I Can Hear Nessie's Song” (Retitled “50 Ways To Leave Your 50 Foot Lover” for English dub).

Bomber's method of assassination, littering his victims with explosives, is the same method utilized by a killer Lupin worked with in episode 7 of the first Lupin III TV anime.