REDLINE, Lupin the IIIrd: The Immortal Bloodline Director Takeshi Koike
by Kevin Cormack,
Koike recently attended the Scotland Loves Anime 2025 film festival in Glasgow to promote The Immortal Bloodline, while three of his Lupin III OVAs and REDLINE were also screened at the festival. He participated in two audience Q&A sessions, following the fully-booked screenings of both The Immortal Bloodline and REDLINE, hosted by Scotland Loves Anime festival jury chairman Jonathan Clements. The audience welcomed Koike with enthusiastic claps and cheers, especially for REDLINE, a movie that is now over fifteen years old. Koike was visibly affected by the love of his Glasgow fans for his work, especially considering that in his homeland, REDLINE was not a financial success and has since largely faded into obscurity. His Scottish fans clearly touched him with their continued appreciation of REDLINE, and he spoke with enthusiasm about his time in the animation industry.
In 1986, at the age of eighteen, he secured his first break into the animation industry through an interview with the famed director Yoshiaki Kawajiri at Madhouse Studio. Koike reports that Kawajiri was not so much impressed with his drawing skills, but by the fact that he had ridden his motorbike five hours from his home to Tokyo for the interview. Thankfully, once offered a position at Madhouse, he moved to Tokyo to stay with an uncle who lived near the studio, preventing a lengthy daily commute! When an audience member asked what Koike's current choice of motor vehicle was, he surprisingly answered that he doesn't drive anything anymore because “I don't want to get into an accident!”
Koike learned a great deal from Kawajiri, working on such titles as Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, and Cyber City Oedo 808. He recalls Kawajiri flipping through the leaves of his key art to provide feedback, which spurred him to improve. He cites highly respected animator Yoshinori Kaneda as an inspiration for his entire generation of similarly aged compatriots, and when hired by mentor Katsuhito Ishii to provide an opening sequence for live-action movie Party 7, the main instruction he was given was to make it “Kaneda Style,” which to him was an attractive prospect.
He has continued to work with Ishii for the rest of his career, with him being a primary creative drive behind the production of REDLINE, including the creation of multiple characters within the world. Ishii was also the mind behind the design of The Immortal Bloodline's main antagonist, Muom, questionable assless chaps and all. Koike also discussed his time working with animator Peter Chung on the 1990s MTV animation Aeon Flux, when an audience member compared the similarity between their animation styles, with action-oriented scenes full of altering perspectives and exaggerated deformation, such as in REDLINE's iconic acceleration scenes.
Following the Q&A, the very approachable Koike remained in the theater to meet fans directly, signing film posters and chatting (via the extremely able translation of Bethan Jones, a freelance Japanese interpreter integral to Scotland Loves Anime's ongoing success). He happily posed for photographs with fans.
Perhaps my fondest memory of meeting Koike is when he met my daughter's boyfriend, a second-year digital arts and animation student, who showed Koike the sketch of Lupin and REDLINE's Sweet JP he had drawn between screenings. Obviously impressed, Koike said, “You should come work for me sometime”, and provided an autograph for the sketchbook. Then Koike's PR entourage asked more questions, took a photograph of the sketch, and asked permission to put it on the official Lupin_anime Twitter/X feed. My daughter's boyfriend beamed from ear to ear. Koike told him that the reason he continues to make anime is to inspire younger creators, much as animators like Kaneda and Kawajiri had inspired him himself. I like to think he felt vindicated by my daughter's boyfriend telling him, indeed, how much of an inspiration he is to young animators for his own work on films like REDLINE and Lupin III.
First of all, thank you so much for visiting us here in Scotland, and also thank you for agreeing to be interviewed by ANN. I know that multiple site staff members are big fans of your work, especially REDLINE and Fujiko Mine. Before we talk about your new movie, I'd like to ask about REDLINE.
REDLINE is an incredible achievement. A gorgeous film that took you seven years of painstaking hand-drawn animation to complete. What stands out the most about that period in your life, and do you think you could ever devote as much time and energy to another project in the future?
Takeshi Koike: I would love to do something like that again, but I don't think I could now. Doing all that drawing and animating with that intensity was hard. I was young then; the whole team was young. It was a miracle what we were able to pull off.
It was a miraculous film! Although in 2003 you co-directed the four-part OVA Trava - Fist Planet, set in the REDLINE universe, are there other stories in that universe you'd like to tell in the future, given the chance?
KOIKE: There are loads of characters in the REDLINE universe I really like. I like the characters from the Trava series. So I would like to make other stories, but various things would need to happen before that could happen. If there was an opportunity and the timing was right, then I would like to.
Two of your reported influences on REDLINE's unique style are U.S. comics artists Frank Miller and Mike Mignola. Do you still read international comics or manga? Which artists' work do you currently enjoy?
KOIKE: I still re-read Mike Mignola and Frank Miller's comics as inspiration for my drawing style. I wouldn't say there was anyone right now who was a particular influence.
For The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, your role was animation director, yet for the sequel OVAs and The Immortal Bloodline movie, you are credited as director. For our readers who may not understand the difference, could you describe the distinction between direction and animation direction?
KOIKE: The director has overall control of the world of the anime; it's the most important, most influential position. The animation director, on the other hand, takes orders and instructions from the director. The animation director is part of the team.
You maintained your role as character designer throughout Fujiko Mine, the OVAs, and the movie, yet there's a significant difference in general aesthetic. Fujiko Mine features characters heavily shaded with thick black lines, almost sketch-like, and with a very muted color palette. The OVAs and movie no longer feature these aspects, favoring a much more traditional look. What was the reason for this change?
KOIKE: The change is down to the director. The director of Fujiko Mine was Sayo Yamamoto. The style was down to her. It was closer to the manga and didn't use the kind of shading we normally use in anime; it used pencil line hatching. But for me, because I've directed this, I didn't use that effect; I've used a more traditional style of shading in the animation. I tried to make it more in line with popular animation style, something more visually accessible.
The Immortal Bloodline functions as a conclusion to this particular chapter of Lupin III's story, culminating a storyline begun in Jigen's Gravestone back in 2014. Have you said everything you wish to say with Lupin III now, or would you like to continue with the franchise?
KOIKE: I've done everything I'd like to do with Lupin now. I do really like the series, and if I were approached again to do more, I would consider it.
The Immortal Bloodline features some very overt links to the very first Lupin III film, The Secret of Mamo, from 1978, directed by Sōji Yoshikawa. This film is probably my very favorite Lupin III anime. Which entries in the Lupin III franchise do you like the most, or at least influence your recent Lupin III work?
KOIKE: Well, of course, I love The Secret of Mamo as well, and it's my favorite Lupin film. In terms of TV series, I love the very first Lupin series, especially episodes 1-5.
If you were a master thief like Lupin and could get away with stealing anything in the world without legal repercussions, what would you steal?
KOIKE: What I'd want most right now is time. It's a bit abstract, but I'd like to steal some time!
That's still a good answer!
KOIKE: Thank you!
Do you watch much anime yourself, and if so, have there been any recent anime that you particularly enjoyed? Any that you thought to yourself, “I wish I'd made that!”
KOIKE: Ahhh! The one that I've seen recently that I would have loved to have been involved in was Chainsaw Man. Because I love the manga, I find it really exciting to read, but having said that, Chainsaw Man was not made by me and is really well done. It's a great quality story; the characters are really good, and I've seen the recent movie as well.
What about live-action, or Western-made films or TV shows? Anything you enjoyed recently?
KOIKE: Not that recent, but I saw Toy Story 4 on the plane and had a good cry!
What is it about anime as a medium that motivates you to keep working within it?
KOIKE: When I watched animation as a child, I loved the freedom, the worlds that I saw, and I loved the method of making drawings look like they're moving, something hand-drawn. That brings me joy, both in watching it and in the act of watching it, which made me want to do it. I'm grateful for animation for bringing me into this world.
What career ambitions have you yet to achieve (if any)?
KOIKE: I want to carry on making animation, and the reason I wanted to make animation in the first place was due to the animated films I saw as a child that inspired me to be creative. And so I want to be able to inspire younger viewers in the same way with the animation I make.
Which particular anime movies inspired you as a child?
KOIKE: Secret of Mamo would have been one, and Galaxy Express 999.
Galaxy Express 999 is a wonderful movie! Do you have any particular message you'd like to pass on to your fans in the West today?
KOIKE: My latest film, Lupin the IIIrd: The Immortal Bloodline, is full of the characters and storylines, and a world that I love, and I really hope you get the chance to see it on the big screen!
Thank you very much for your time. It's been wonderful.
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