Lupin III TV Series

[INVAL1D]

Can anyone tell me if the series on bluray has either English subtitles or English dubs?

[MOONPHASE]

English dub-No
English subtitles-Don't know

However if I were you I would wait till some anime company in the U.S. like maybe Funimation gets the license to the series because it would be cheaper, have both English dub audio and Japanese audio, English subtitles, and contain more episodes per season.

Geneon USA had the license to the series to America but however when their company shut down so did all of their licenses to the animes they had. Funimation has already rescued When They Cry, Black Lagoon, Elemental Gelade, Ergo Proxy, Fate/Stay Night, and so on from Geneon and has re-released them onto dvd. Sentai has also rescued some titles that were from Geneon like Kannazuki no Miko and Mahoromatic but however Funimation has already made Blu-rays of some of their own titles that have always been with Funimation so Funimation releasing Lupin the Third tv series is your best bet.

[Billy-Bob]

We stand a better chance that Funamation might get the rights to Pioneer Animation's dubbed Lupin TV series than seeing it on Blu-Ray any time soon.
Lately, anime video sales here in the US have not been doing too well. Before
any of the surviving anime distribution companies will distribute any titles in
Blu-Ray format, they have to make sure they can make a profit with it.

[Kirben]

Originally Posted by Billy-Bob

We stand a better chance that Funamation might get the rights to Pioneer Animation's dubbed Lupin TV series than seeing it on Blu-Ray any time soon.

The Lupin movies/specials released on DVD by Funimation were not good sellers, which is why they stopped releasing them. So I doubt Funimation would ever license the Lupin TV series.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Kirben

The Lupin movies/specials released on DVD by Funimation were not good sellers, which is why they stopped releasing them. So I doubt Funimation would ever license the Lupin TV series.

Well Funimation did get 10 Lupin the Third movies so couldn't have sold that badly but will admit I do think they might have lost some interest in all of those movies they licensed after those Movie Pack dvd releases.

[Kirben]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

Well Funimation did get 10 Lupin the Third movies so couldn't have sold that badly but will admit I do think they might have lost some interest in all of those movies they licensed after those Movie Pack dvd releases.

I suspect Funimation licensed all ten Lupin the Third movies/specials, via a package deal. I wonder if Funimation even still has the rights, considering their Lupin DVD releases are out of print now.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Kirben

I suspect Funimation licensed all ten Lupin the Third movies/specials, via a package deal. I wonder if Funimation even still has the rights, considering their Lupin DVD releases are out of print now.

The single dvd releases are most definitely out of print, but not sure about those Movie Packs that have like 5 movies per set(that Funimation accidentally threw in the edited version of 1 of those movies instead of the uncut version) but that's probably out of print too and hasn't been a release since then.

Funimation though has shown quite interest in rescuing old Pioneer/Geneon titles the most out of all the anime companies in the U.S. and even rescued a Geneon title that I personally think should belong to NIS America. So really it's hard to say. Plus Lupin is a longer series and Funimation can barely even handle of having Case Closed and the whole Dragon Ball series. Plus Funimation may have to redub it since Geneon couldn't finish their dub for it if they can't get the whole old Geneon voice cast back.

[Kirben]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

The single dvd releases are most definitely out of print, but not sure about those Movie Packs that have like 5 movies per set(that Funimation accidentally threw in the edited version of 1 of those movies instead of the uncut version) but that's probably out of print too and hasn't been a release since then.

Even those Movie Packs are long out of print, they went out of print around a year ago.

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

Funimation though has shown quite interest in rescuing old Pioneer/Geneon titles the most out of all the anime companies in the U.S. and even rescued a Geneon title that I personally think should belong to NIS America. So really it's hard to say. Plus Lupin is a longer series and Funimation can barely even handle of having Case Closed and the whole Dragon Ball series. Plus Funimation may have to redub it since Geneon couldn't finish their dub for it if they can't get the whole old Geneon voice cast back.

Unfortunately Funimation doesn't plan to license any more of the Case Closed TV series, due to poor sales too. Although more Case Closed movies are still a possibility in the future.

I think Discotek Media are the only chance of more Lupin movies/specials been licensed in the future, but the TV series would be far too long.

[Billy-Bob]

There was a rumor several years back that Pioneer/Geneon actually had finished dubbing and subbing the 2nd Lupin III TV series back during the early 2000's. They stopped releasing the TV series on DVD after vol 15 due to poor sales and money problems. If the rumor is true, that means that the D1 tape masters are sitting somewhere in storage.

[Billy-Bob]

All three Lupin III TV series are being re-released in Japan on Blu-Ray. I don't think that any of them will be subtitled or re-dubbed in English. They're really expensive as well. If you manage to get yourself a box set, I don't know if those Blu-Ray discs will even play on your Blu-ray player due to the fact that Japan is in another region.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Billy-Bob

There was a rumor several years back that Pioneer/Geneon actually had finished dubbing and subbing the 2nd Lupin III TV series back during the early 2000's. They stopped releasing the TV series on DVD after vol 15 due to poor sales and money problems. If the rumor is true, that means that the D1 tape masters are sitting somewhere in storage.

That's likely a rumor, as the series still had about a hundred episodes to go, Cartoon Network was paying the bills, the CN dub--which Geneon tried to kiss up to with one of the most obnoxious pottymouthed "comedy" dubs this side of the Sgt. Frog dub--was a tragic misfire; both companies quickly scapegoated the "old" animation as a quick and harmless source of blame and CN's airing was exiled/canceled earliy.

..When will they ever learn?

[The Theory]

Geneon released everything they licenced from the Lupin III TV series. It was a HUGE financial disaster for them--though only one part of what eventually sunk them. So there is no way they ever dubbed any more of the series.

I would love to see some US company pick the series up on the cheap--but the license is waaaay too popular in Japan for them to ask anything less than top-dollar for a US license. And the US market has shown that it won't support a show like Lupin.

Sad but true.

[Jeff Kleist]

That's likely a rumor, as the series still had about a hundred episodes to go, Cartoon Network was paying the bills, the CN dub--which Geneon tried to kiss up to with one of the most obnoxious pottymouthed "comedy" dubs this side of the Sgt. Frog dub--was a tragic misfire; both companies quickly scapegoated the "old" animation as a quick and harmless source of blame and CN's airing was exiled/canceled earliy.

Dub quality aside, it's a fact that the kids today will simply NOT watch the old stuff. Even as late as mid-90s is "old". They're turned off by the limited animation and the designs. Seriously, for every kid that finds the joy of old Leiji Matsumoto shows, there are 500 that will never give it the time of day.

It's a real shame they didn't put the subs on the Japanese Blus on a lot of titles, they already have timed files so the cost is virtually nothing. This show will never get a US Blu-ray release, sadly

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Dub quality aside, it's a fact that the kids today will simply NOT watch the old stuff. Even as late as mid-90s is "old". They're turned off by the limited animation and the designs. Seriously, for every kid that finds the joy of old Leiji Matsumoto shows, there are 500 that will never give it the time of day.

The "Eww, it's like, OLD!" was, as noted, a Cheap Excuse.
For every kid who's never seen anime before CN, there's just as many who'd never seen it before their parents (ahem ) showed them "The Castle of Cagliostro"--And while the series wasn't Miyazaki animation (or as kid-friendly), with the right-raised generation, Lupin is usually the first immediately memorable anime character most newbies already know by name.

The dub did turn out to be a factor, as the anime fandom was pushing newbies into watching one of the "classics" for free, the dub was insufferable, and said newbies who didn't know any better came out shrugging "So what's the big deal?...THAT's a classic?? "
Another cultural casualty lost to signing a Faust contract with the Network That Hates Anime.

[J-Syxx]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

Dub quality aside, it's a fact that the kids today will simply NOT watch the old stuff. Even as late as mid-90s is "old". They're turned off by the limited animation and the designs. Seriously, for every kid that finds the joy of old Leiji Matsumoto shows, there are 500 that will never give it the time of day.

It's a real shame they didn't put the subs on the Japanese Blus on a lot of titles, they already have timed files so the cost is virtually nothing. This show will never get a US Blu-ray release, sadly

This is a bunch of crap. DBZ still gets good ratings and it was made in the late-80's/early 90's. Lupin was also shown in the late Adult Swin timeslot when kids wouldn't be watching it anyways. Do we have to bash a show for having old animation every time a show that is older than last year is discussed?

[MJW]

I'm a little late to the game here, and although not Blu-ray news, Discotek Media announced on their Facebook page that they've licensed the first season of Lupin III for DVD release in Spring 2012.

No word yet on whether the set will include a dub or subs only. Also, from what I've heard, Discotek is a smaller company, so not sure if there is any chance that we'll see a Blu-ray release, but I guess a DVD set is better than nothing...

I'm still desperately holding out hope we'll someday see The Castle of Cagliostro on Blu-ray in the US. I don't even know who owns the North American license rights now - I can't get a straight answer from anyone. It is widely believed Manga has the rights, but I've been in contact with them via Twitter and they told me to ask Optimum.

My question, for anyone who knows the ins and outs of anime licensing, is that if Manga no longer owns the rights to Cagliostro and another company has acquired them, is there any chance that they'll use the existing Manga dub on a Blu-ray release? I don't know how licensing works and if other companies are able to re-use existing dubs by previous license owners. I've heard both the original Streamline dub and Manga's 2000 re-dub, and since my first experience with the film was a Manga release, I prefer their dub.

[lkmg]

Where to order or pre-order this?

[Flatnate]

Agreed, I would pre-order even just the dvd series of this. Import even with english dubs would be fine. I think my blu-ray player will play any region dvd at least.

[MJW]

Originally Posted by lkmg

Where to order or pre-order this?

I don't think it's available for pre-order yet, there has been no new information since Discotek's initial post on Facebook.

Originally Posted by Flatnate

Agreed, I would pre-order even just the dvd series of this. Import even with english dubs would be fine. I think my blu-ray player will play any region dvd at least.

According to their Facebook page, "Discotek licenses and releases anime and live action Asian movies on DVD in North America." So those of us that live in the US won't have to import. Some of the comments on Facebook say that Discotek doesn't usually do dubs, but I am not sure if that means we're going to get subs only. I'm sure more information will be revealed as we get closer to Spring 2012.

I'm subscribed to this thread, so I'll be sure to post an update if and when I see additional information from them or elsewhere!

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

However if I were you I would wait till some anime company in the U.S. like maybe Funimation gets the license to the series because it would be cheaper, have both English dub audio and Japanese audio, English subtitles, and contain more episodes per season.

Hopefully, they might also want to retain some ownership on the US version by doing a DIFFERENT DUB than that dopey potty-mouthed made-for-Cartoon-Network version that sank the original Geneon disk release.

(But then, the studio that gave us the this-means-war Sgt. Frog dub would be a fine one to talk.)