Before the GENTLEMAN THIEF graced television screens-THE LUPIN III 1969 PILOT FILM

When Lupin III premiered on August 10 1967 as a manga series written and illustrated by the late KAZUHIKO KATO, aka MONKEY PUNCH, 

Little did people or Kato himself know that what was spearheaded that day would forever change the landscape of Anime Audience Perception.

But did you know that before the 1971 series debut, TMS made a pilot film in order to appease bankers and financers to gain some finances to produce a series before the project goes PRIMETIME?

It's true. 

Behold the PILOT FILM of LUPIN III

What differs with this version of LUPIN vs. the later more well known adaptations is the presentation.

Is the visuals.

Unlike the later anime adaptations which often at times prefers to deviate away from MONKEY PUNCH's art style, in favor of something more CONVENTIONAL for the presentation, 

This PILOT FILM seeks to make the art sort of match MONKEY PUNCH's art in ways you can't possibly imagine.

That's the fierce dedication that the artists have when they happen to be fans of the author.

Also, some of the voices sound different too.

Most noticeably ARSENE LUPIN III himself.

Before they decided to have YASUO YAMADA perform the voice of the gentleman thief, they had given ARSENE's grandson a different tone of voice in both performance and octave.

That may explain why LUPIN sounds deep-voiced instead of NASAL and funny which we've come to associate the thief with.

In the Cinemascope version, he was portrayed by NACHI NOZAWA

while on TV, he was portrayed by Taichiro Hirokawa.

None of these actors accurately portrayed the Nasal octave and performance tone that YASUO YAMADA was known for.

Also, Zenigata and Goemon have their respective actors swapped.... sort of.

In Cinemascope, Zenigata was performed by SHINSUKE CHIKAISKI,

While on TV, it was CHIKAO OTSUKA.

In Cinemascope, Goemon was portrayed by GORO NAYA,

while on TV, it was OSAMU KOBAYASHI.

When the TV series premiered, OTSUKA and NAYA swapped their parts as NAYA felt he's better off as Zenigata while OTSUKA felt he's a better GOEMON.

Of course, in part 2, OTSUKA was replaced with MAKIO INOUE.

The only noticeable standouts who would actually be mainstays in LUPIN till their retirement later in life were

KIYOSHI KOBAYASHI as JIGEN

and EIKO MASUYAMA as FUJIKO.

Did I say that the animation of this PILOT FILM aimed to mimic the art style of MONKEY PUNCH?

Here are some images of the manga to prove what I'm talking about:

Now let's use some VLC Screenshots to compare to the MANGA:

You'll also notice this old man on the right next to Zenigata.

Apparently, TMS was planning to add this character to serve as a fatherly assistant to the inspector.

He goes by the name of KOGORO AKECHI.

This character already existed before LUPIN so I think the plan was to bring this character full circle as an adversary for Lupin considering he actually arrested the thief in the the very first Chapter of the Manga.

But my guess was there was a Copyright issue with this character back in the late 60s that prevented this character from appearing in future LUPIN III adaptations so TMS dropped AKECHI from the LUPIN Canon.

Where can you find the pilot film?

If you have the Green Jacket DVDs, then it's where you can find this.

I'm sure it's also on YOUTUBE but...

Let me share you this link to film I found on ARCHIVE.ORG:

https://archive.org/details/lupin-iii-pilot-film

You might be asking

"HEY DAN, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE SUBTITLES? IS THIS THING DUBBED?"

My answer:

The pilot film was never officially dubbed in ENGLISH. 

The version of the Pilot film I'm using for my VLC Screenshots is actually in Japanese but for some reason, the copy I found on ARCHIVE.ORG is the Raw Japanese print so that's why there are no subtitles.

Also, the print I'm using is the TV Pitch print from the 1971.

I'm still on the lookout for the original Cinemascope Print with the original 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio as well as the original actors but finding the Lupin Pilot Film in Cinemascope has been surprisingly difficult.

And no, Lupin himself didn't steal the Cinemascope Prints.

He fiercely believes in film preservation as much as we all do.

Anyway, after these prints of the PILOT FILM were made, they all spearheaded the LUPIN Franchise.

The first was the Green Jacket TV Series in 1971

The Red Jacket Series from 1977 until 1980

The Pink Jacket series from the Mid-1980s

Theatrical Movies that include

Mystery of Mamo in 1978

Most famously CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO in 1979

The various Tv Specials which can range from Artist to Artist depending on the special

And culminating in the 3DCG theatrical movie released in late 2019

While the art for Lupin has changed over the years depending on Animation Director, production team, budget, or whether the team prefers to mimic Monkey Punch's art vs the Fandom preferring the art to be as conventional as anime should be, 

Be sure to remember where it all started.

Sure, the Manga started in 1967 

but the animation of Lupin all began with a simple Pilot Film released in 1969 and was originally meant to be screened to investors....

Which succeeded the second time around during the start of the 70s.