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Lupin III THE FIRST CG Anime Film Opens in February in Thailand
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Thai film distributor M Pictures began streaming a Thai-subtitled trailer on Sunday for Lupin III THE FIRST, the new anime film in Monkey Punch's Lupin III franchise. The trailer reveals that M Pictures will open the film in Thailand on February 27.
The film is the franchise's first 3D CG feature-length film, and it opened in Japan on December 6. The film debuted at #2 at the Japanese box office, and it sold 177,000 tickets for 244,827,850 yen (about US$2.26 million) in its opening weekend. The film has so far earned a cumulative total of 1 billion yen (about US$9.22 million) as of January 5. The film is nominated for the Animation of the Year category in the Japan Academy Film Prize Association's 43rd annual awards this year.
Takashi Yamazaki (Stand By Me Doraemon, Dragon Quest: Your Story) directed and wrote the film. The film's story centers on Lupin teaming up with a woman named Leticia to steal the Bresson Diary, a treasure that even the first generation Arsène Lupin could not steal.
Lupin III creator Monkey Punch passed away last April, but the film's website posted an October 2018 message in which he had expressed his excitement over imagining how this fresh take on his character would turn out.
Lupin the IIIrd: Fujiko's Lie (Lupin the IIIrd: Mine Fujiko no Uso) is the most recent film in the franchise, and it opened in Japan last May. The film ranked at #1 in the mini-theater rankings in Japan in its opening weekend. The film is the third film in a series consisting of 2014's Lupin the Third: Jigen's Gravestone and 2017's Lupin the IIIrd Chikemuri no Ishikawa Goemon. Takeshi Koike directed all three films, and Yūya Takahashi wrote the scripts.
Lupin the Third: Part 5 is the most recent television anime in the franchise. The anime premiered in NTV's AnichU programming block in Japan in April 2018.
