History Trivia / LupinIII

** Very few of the Manga have left Japan, even in scanlation form.

* RelationshipVoiceActor:
** Geneon's English dub:
*** Lupin and Fujiko are [[Manga/{{Chobits}} Shinbo and Chii]], [[Manga/{{Tokko}} Ranmaru Shindo and Ryoko Ibuki]], [[VideoGame/{{Gungrave}} Harry [=McDowell=] and Maria Asagi]], [[VideoGame/MegaManStarForce Kelvin and Hope Stelar]], [[Anime/StellviaOfTheUniverse Jojo and Yayoi]], [[Anime/BrigadoonMarinAndMelan Melan and Moe]], [[Anime/GadGuard Hajiki and Aiko]], and [[VideoGame/BlazBlue Bang Shishigami and Carl Clover]].
*** Fujiko and Jigen are Rukia and Mr. Kagine in episode 11 of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. They're also [[VideoGame/{{Drakengard}} Arioch and Salamander]].
** Funimation's dub:
*** Lupin and Fujiko are [[Anime/DragonBallZ Krillin and Android 18]] respectively.
*** Speaking of couple, Jigen gets into a fight with Fujiko as [[Anime/DragonBallZ Vegeta and Android 18]] respectively.
** In Japanese dubs of British comedy, [[Creator/YasuoYamada Lupin]] and [[Creator/GoroNaya Zenigata]] are [[Creator/MontyPython Graham Chapman and John Cleese]].

** The third Lupin III movie was originally set to be written and directed by Creator/MamoruOshii, and had a markedly bizarre plot: Lupin, now older, depressed and unable to find anything worth stealing, is reinvigorated after hearing of an angel fossil being held in the Tower of Babel (which is in the middle of contemporary Tokyo because...[[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse It just is]]) and decides to steal it. There he would meet a girl claiming to be the granddaughter of the architect who built the Tower, only to discover later on that she's actually an angel who hates humanity, and uses the angel fossil (which is actually made of plutonium) to effectively [[TheTokyoFireball nuke Tokyo]], destroying it. Lupin then realises that he, and by extension the entire world, are fictional characters, and steals the angel fossil (in the process stealing himself and ''all of reality''), presumably ceasing to Exist. Needless to say that TMS weren't happy with such an abstract MindScrew of a plot and fired most of the film's crew, including Oshii, before going on to make ''Anime/LegendOfTheGoldOfBabylon'' instead.

** The third Lupin III movie was originally set to be written and directed by Creator/MamoruOshii, and had a markedly bizarre plot: Lupin, now older, depressed and unable to find anything worth stealing, is reinvigorated after hearing of an angel fossil being held in the Tower of Babel (which is in the middle of contemporary Tokyo because...[[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse It just is]]) and decides to steal it. There he would meet a girl claiming to be the granddaughter of the architect who built the Tower, only to discover later on that she's actually an angel who hates humanity, and uses the angel fossil (which is actually made of plutonium) to effectively [[TheTokyoFireball nuke Tokyo]], destroying it. Lupin then realises that he, and by extension the entire world, are fictional characters, and steals the angel fossil (in the process stealing himself and ''all of reality''), presumably ceasing to Exist. Needless to say that TMS weren't happy with such an abstract MindScrew of a plot and fired most of the film's crew, including Oshii, before going on to make ''Anime/TheLegendOfTheGoldOfBabylon'' instead.

** The third Lupin III movie was originally set to be written and directed by Creator/MamoruOshii, and had a markedly bizarre plot: Lupin, now older, depressed and unable to find anything worth stealing, is reinvigorated after hearing of an angel fossil being held in the Tower of Babel (which is in the middle of contemporary Tokyo because...[[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse It just is]]) and decides to steal it. There he would meet a girl claiming to be the granddaughter of the architect who built the Tower, only to discover later on that she's actually an angel who hates humanity, and uses the angel fossil (which is actually made of plutonium) to effectively [[TheTokyoFireball nuke Tokyo]], destroying it. Lupin then realises that he, and by extension the entire world, are fictional characters, and steals the angel fossil (in the process stealing himself and ''all of reality''), presumably ceasing to Exist. Needless to say that TMS weren't happy with such an abstract MindScrew of a plot, and fired most of the film's crew, including Oshii, before going on to make ''Movie/TheLegendOfTheGoldOfBabylon'' instead.

*** To celebrate his 52-year tenure as the voice of Jigen, Kiyoshi Kobayashi reprised the role for the final time in episode 0 of ''Part 6''. Then, he finally stepped down from the role once and for all, with Creator/AkioOhtsuka replacing him.

** It has been rumored that Creator/RodgerBumpass based the voice of [[Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsSquidwardTentacles Squidward Tentacles]] off of Phillip Wilburn's voice for Zenigata, though this has never been confirmed.

** It has been rumored that Creator/RodgerBumpass based the voice of Characters/SpongeBobSquarePantsSquidwardTentacles off of Phillip Wilburn's voice for Zenigata, though this has never been confirmed.

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: [[ScrewedByTheLawyers Due to copyright issues with the original Arsène Lupin stories outside of Japan]], American licensors in the 90's were forced to use several workarounds: Creator/{{AnimEigo}} using ''[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Rupan]] the Third'', or Creator/StreamlinePictures just calling him "The Wolf" in the dub and promotional materials. The issue was resolved when Arsène Lupin lapsed into the [[PublicDomainCharacter Public Domain]]. This is why everything Lupin related that came out in North America ''after'' the 90's uses the correct name.[[note]] Fun Fact: According to ''Fuma'''s liner notes, the original ''Arsène Lupin'' stories had fallen into the public domain in the USA prior to Creator/{{AnimEigo}} licensing it. But the contract TMS handed them was the same one that Streamline had signed years earlier (and had been written when [=LeBlanc=]'s work ''wasn't'' Public Domain yet). This resulted in the infamous "Rupan". Streamline ''was'' allowed to refer to the character as "Lupin" full time eventually, but it was consistently with the French pronunciation instead of the Japanese pronunciation, a quirk that only also appeared in the Funimation dubs, which were otherwise infamous for constant mispronunciations of character names.[[/note]]

** In 1982, Creator/{{TMS|Entertainment}} and Creator/DiC planned to create ''Lupin VIII'', a spin-off series that [[RecycledINSPACE took place in the distant future]] and [[{{Bowdlerization}} was seemingly going to be targeted to younger audiences]]. The Leblanc estate, however, [[ScrewedByTheLawyers killed those plans]] before the first episode could be finished. Strangely, the first episode, which still lacks a vocal track, is [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes quietly being circulated on VHS tapes]]. After ''Lupin VIII'' was scrapped, Creator/DiC had to come up with something to replace it (they had already committed considerable capital to the project). They ultimately created ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget''. TMS even helped animate the first season. The ''Lupin VIII'' pilot has been released on the [[NoExportForYou as-of-now Japan-exclusive]] ''Lupin III: Master File'' collector's DVD, with subtitles derived from the pilot's original script.