Forum - View topicANNCastle of Cagliostro
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MetalUpa1014
 Posts: 283 Location: USA |
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Great 'cast, just wish my Twitter question about Legend of the Gold of Babylon was answered.
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Lupin the Third
Posts: 88 Location: Idaho |
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You just wanted to know if it was coming out, right?
I think it probably will in due time, but it's a different Japanese licensor than most of the Lupin franchise, so who knows when it'd happen. It's not a generally well-received movie so it may be lower on the list. |
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Brand
 Posts: 1028 |
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Zac good to know you can give your friend just as much of a hard time as anyone else. LOL.
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Discotek rising!
Discotek is swiftly increasing in favor in my eyes, because of their willingness to rescue old titles and take on things other licensors would hestitate to do. In the case of the Lupin franchise, it's a bit of both, because with them licensing the classic Lupin III TV show a few years ago, picking up TV special after TV special, and even licensing the newer Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone and even getting it dubbed, they're a Lupin fan's dream. All we need is a disc release of the second TV series now, or maybe licensing the upcoming series. I remember when Discotek was just this weird group that for some reason licensed that live-action Lupin movie from the 70s (which I bought, it's a corny blast) and a couple of old anime. Now I think of them as being almost as good as Funimation, and in some cases, better. And make no mistake, I am a big Lupin III fan, though I am pretty picky as to which Lupin III titles I enjoy and will purchase. Surely I'll avail myself of the new Castle of Cagliostro Blu-Ray, though, because while it isn't typical Lupin, it's not typical in both good and bad ways. What makes Castle of Cagliostro work so well isn't any individual element. In fact, as a Lupin adventure, it's not particularly strong in pure writing or characterization, and Lupin is sometimes a bit out of character. What makes it work so well is clearly Miyazaki's direction, and the gorgeous, emotion-provoking visual storytelling and production values. Right now the only version of CoC I own is the crappy Manga Entertainment DVD release with the screenshot cover. The swearing in the dub is a little weird, given that it's a softer version of Lupin than usual, but it's not that big a deal. I mean, there are people who get killed in this movie, and the Count meets a horrible fate, so the "fifteening" isn't so horrible. I imagine thieves like Lupin and Jigen probably swear a blue streak, but yeah, I don't believe the Japanese version has harsh language other than maybe a single "kuso" from a character. It's not Black Lagoon. I have no problem with a "family friendly" English dub being made by taking out the swears in the dub. I mean, honestly, it's probably more accurate that way, and the original version of that dub with the swears is still there. There's literally nothing to bitch about. Wherever you stand on the subject, you can be satisfied by this release. A lot of people I know prefer the Streamline dub, anyway. I just want people to know that I'm not "that one guy". I know I often am, but not in this case! I think what's interesting about CoC is that though many Lupin features, and several Miyazaki features have done certain elements that CoC did, but better, few, if none of them have done all of those elements at once better. In other words, there are dozens of Lupin features that are better Lupin features in certain individual elements, but overall, CoC beats the pants off of them because of Miyazaki's guidance. Fuma Clan has the better car chase and better treasure adventure, Mamo has the better, more accurate characterization and satire, Episode 0: First Contact comes together better in terms of subplots tying together, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine has bigger ambition and more to say, but Castle of Cagliostro overall has this spirit to it that is tough to even measure up to, let alone surpass. It's the best CRAFTED Lupin feature, but not necessarily the best Lupin feature. I would go with First Contact, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone, and certain episodes of the second series. I always enjoy hearing commentary from Reed Nelson on Lupin features. He is a wealth of Lupin knowledge that even some one like me, who's seen a lot of Lupin, do not know. Sometimes I'll watch my Fuma DVD or First Contact DVD just to listen to his commentary. What Mike LaBrie is to Dragon Ball and Mark Simmons is to Gundam, Reed Nelson is to Lupin (with Mike Toole as a second), undoubtably. He's an authority. And Brady does a lot of great work for Discotek and I always appreciate what he does and look forward to seeing what he does next. As soon as I get some kind of money, I'm going to buy plenty of Discotek products. As for the hit-or-miss quality of Lupin TV specials, there hasn't been a good one since, I would argue, Stolen Lupin, from 2004. Well, I guess Seven Days Rhapsody and the mermaid one were decent. The ones in the past ten or so years have been travesties, from the pitiable final special to have Goro Naya in it, The Last Job, to the Detective Conan crossover nobody asked for, to that really desperate Cagliostro wannabe, Princess of the Breeze. If it weren't for Yamamoto, Okada, and Koike, the Lupin franchise would be creatively dead today. Hopefully the new TV series follows more in their footsteps than in the TV specials, because they've been watering Lupin down more than Miyazaki ever did. Part II is a must-have for me. For one, I love the nature of it. It can be very silly, but it can also have shades of hardboiled at times, too. There's an episode where Jigen and a ballet dancer try to cross the border into the Western powers from the communist bloc, because she wants to defect, and it's an amazing episode. And second, I really like the English dub cast, despite the loose dub script. Tony Oliver, Richard Epcar, Michelle Ruff, and Lex Lang are fantastic in their roles, probably my favorite English dub voices of those characters. They have a lot of chemistry. I've been rewatching a lot of this, both in Japanese and English, on Hulu and Crunchyroll, lately. David Hayter is a great Lupin for Cagliostro, though. I can't imagine Oliver in Cagliostro, nor can I imagine Hayter in Mamo or Part II. This should prove the brilliance of Yasuo Yamada, by the way, because he could do Lupin in any tone of a feature. Kurita has done really well, too. Oliver's Lupin is the "hey, I'm a snarky pervert" Lupin and Hayter's is the "I'm a heroic scoundrel" Lupin. I never cared for Sonny Strait's Lupin, because he makes Lupin sound too nerdy. Lupin should sound cool. If anyone's looking for Lupin recommendations, I did a video about it. |
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MetalUpa1014
Posts: 283 Location: USA |
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Yeah, and your general thoughts on it. I know that it was directed by Seijun Suzuki which is a pretty big deal seeing as he's one of Japan's most famous directors. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15307 |
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Metal: This is a trailer. So you can at least get an idea of what it's like.
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Lupin the Third
Posts: 88 Location: Idaho |
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Wellll... It's got a lot of issues. It's overly long for what it is. To paraphrase old-school Lupin fan Carl Horn, "it feels like an 100-minute third series episode". It doesn't feel cohesive. The story just jumps around moving from scene to scene, gag to gag. The same story could have probably been done better in roughly half the runtime, but they probably had to meet the 100-minute quota. Nowhere is this more evident than in the infamous New York City motorcycle chase, a 7-minute tour-de-force of...basically nothing. Looping animations, boring shots of crowd cheers, taking bets and such. Seven minutes. The character designs are definitely unique, extreme even compared to the early PART III series designs. I have very little against Yuzo Aoki's wacky take on the characters, but it got so extreme that it almost felt like they were trying to replace smooth visual animation with as many wild takes and expressions as possible. I dunno, it has some high points but also lots of low points. It's worth at least one watch but I don't know if I'd buy it on DVD. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15307 |
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LTT: Again, crowdfund it.
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4575 |
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Can't listen right now, but my Cagliostro copy is inbound from RightStuf now, and it's something that I was extremely happy to double-dip on. I've only had the pleasure of watching the movie once, so it'll be a real treat to sit down with it in all its HD glory.
And I'm with PenguinTruth: I managed to snag all of the Part II singles that were released, but I'd love it if someone put it back in-print again, because it's just so much fun to watch. It's a royal shame that dub only made it halfway through.
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penguintruth
Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I wonder if Discotek could influence the same cast to return and dub the other episodes. Eh, given the number of episodes, probably not. But I'd buy the rest sub-only if I had to. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13555 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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If this movie was originally meant to be more family-friendly, at least for Japan, then I think they should keep it that way. If it was meant to be for a more mature audience, maybe add some swearing but doing it a lot I think is overemphasizing it.
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2025 |
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I don't mind the family friendly version of the dub, especially since the unedited version is still on the disc. As long as it's seamless and they get the original voices back to loop their lines (or close sound-alikes). Though alternatively, you could just show your kids the cleaner Streamline dub if you're that concerned about language.
And I totally know who they were talking about that was bitching about the family friendly dub. He's on a couple message boards I lurk/post on. Pay him no mind. He's a weirdo and overreacts to a lot of strange stuff. Discotek's definitely getting bigger. The titles they license are the most relevant to my interests, they always put out solid releases, and they actually CARE about the stuff they release. Their deal with Crunchyroll is interesting though. They may have helped fund it, but I think it was actually TMS that commissioned the Jigen's Grvestone dub with Bang Zoom. It's up on Hulu if you want to watch it. It's pretty solid. Keith Silverstein is an interesting Lupin, and Cristina Vee sounds EXACTLY like Michelle Ruff as Fujiko. |
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FLCLGainax
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MetalUpa1014
Posts: 283 Location: USA |
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I haven't seen any of Suzuki's work, I'm just aware of who he is and that's he's one of Japan's most famous directors. Perhaps his style is better suited to live action, rather than animation. That's also why you don't see too much crossover between live action and animation directors. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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They've become the Anime Museum, rescuing mainstream 70's-90's anime from the days of its current abuses, and making sure every vintage exhibit is exhaustively curated. Thanks to their efforts, my old preserved anime club-VHS crate from 1992 is now nearly empty. 
Now, if only we could have a long, long, long overdue Family Friendly dub of the Pioneer TV Series 2, where the Crap would not so often be Friggin'. If you never thought that the occasional cussword felt out of place in Lupin's sanitized honor-among-thieves 60's wonderland, just listen to it neurotically pumped up to Tourette's level to satisfy Adult Swim.
Fujiko always seemed like Punch's own rat-pack uber-misogyny, whether or not it went with the genre (all the girls in Lupin's life are either nameless Bond Girls, the one heartless golddigger who'll sell him out at the first opportunity, or the ruthless solo schemer she'll eventually team up with), while Miyazaki's G-rated world turned her into a cute resourceful secret agent, like the Ghibli version of Black Widow. Every new female fan I've tried to start on with Cagliostro, including the 9-yo. niece, is always hooked on anime just from liking her bag-of-tricks character, and I never have the heart to break the truth to them...
Also, I think Zenigata works better with his thousand-hordes of Interpol riot cops (like Insp. Lestrade on Miyazaki's old Sherlock Hound cartoon); it at the same time makes him seem crazier and strategically smarter.
I'm club-days sentimental enough to like some of the 90's specials, m'self, even with the horribly dodgy Monkey-Punch inspired animation. Just for the complex comic-book-fun plots of Bye Bye Liberty or Napoleon's Dictionary, before they started trying to become more noir-ish, like we didn't already have enough trouble confusing Lupin with Spike Spiegel. Fortunately, My-Generation anime is what Discotek plies its stock and trade at so well. 
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