“Leave it to my psychokinesis.” 

The third season of Japanimation Station comes to a close with the jam-packed final installment of The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd! We start by taking a look at Lupin’s first live-action adventure, 1974’s Strange Psychokinetic Strategy. This is one of the earliest Lupin adaptations period, created between the first and second anime before the franchise had become enduringly popular, and it’s a surprisingly creative, if narratively scattershot, madcap comedy, putting Lupin in a white jacket and throwing him into a series of increasingly ludicrous scenarios. Then, Jonathan gives us an exhaustive (maybe even obsessive) guide to the best Lupin the 3rd soundtrack albums and the wide world of Yuji Ohno’s Lupin the 3rd Jazz releases. And finally, Sean and Jonathan play a game drafting all our favorite Lupin characters for a hypothetical heist! 

Thanks so much for listening to Season 3 of Japanimation Station. We’ll see you later this fall for the debut of Season 4, Japanimation Station’s Kyoto Vacation, where we’ll be looking at the output of one of anime’s greatest studios, Kyoto Animation! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Strange Psychokinetic Strategy: 0:01:20 – 1:09:05

Eyecatch Break 1: 1:09:05 – 1:09:38

Jonathan’s Guide to Lupin Music: 1:09:38 – 1:50:51 

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:50:51 – 1:51:22

Season 3 Wrap-up: 1:51:22 – 2:12:21

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:12:21 – 2:12:49

Lupin Family Draft: 2:12:49 – 2:35:17

Season 4 Preview: 2:35:17 – 2:39:49 

End Theme: 2:39:49 – 2:41:04 

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Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

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“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

“I guess we do battle tonight, Pops!”

For the penultimate episode of Japanimation Station Season 3, we’re looking at a selection of Lupin the 3rdfilms and specials from the brink of the new millennium! Starting with 1996’s Dead or Alive, a theatrical feature directed by Lupin creator Monkey Punch himself, which sees our favorite thief embroiled in a narratively messy but visually stunning adventure on a very strange island. 1997’s Island of Assassins is a lesser Lupin special, weirdly violent but without any particular bite, while 1998’s Tokyo Crisis is one of our absolute favorites, a Zenigata-led, uproariously funny comedy with fantastic guest performances by Megumi Hayashibara and Kōichi Yamadera. And finally, we end our examination of Lupin the 3rd anime with 2002’s Episode 0: The First Contact, an origin story caper for the entire Lupin gang that sees the franchise taking its early steps into digital animation, with mixed results.   

Enjoy, and come back next week for our season 3 finale, where we’ll be reviewing the 1974 live-action Lupin adaptation, Strange Psychokinetic Strategy, and celebrating all this season’s Lupintic adventures!  

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro: 0:01:20 – 0:15:04

Dead or Alive: 0:15:04 – 1:15:59 

Eyecatch Break 1: 1:15:59 – 1:16:33 

Island of Assassins: 1:16:33 – 1:45:56

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:45:56 – 1:46:18 

Tokyo Crisis: 1:46:18 – 2:32:12 

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:32:12 – 2:32:37

Episode 0 First Contact: 2:32:37 – 3:08:44

End Theme: 3:08:44 – 3:09:59 

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://weeklystuff.substack.com

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

“I can’t just ignore a lovely lady with a big Diamond.”

As Lupin the 3rd rounded the corner of the 1980s into the 1990s, the character and the series was in a period of transition. The 1987 OVA film The Fuma Conspiracy featured some of the franchise’s greatest animation, but also had a completely different voice cast than Japanese fans had come to know and love. The series went back to the tone and style of Part II for the 1989 Osamu Dezaki-directed TV special Bye Bye Lady Liberty, with Yasuo Yamada, the original voice cast, and the red jacket in tow, and it was a huge success, creatively and commercially, kicking off an annual string of feature-length TV specials that continued through 2013, including 1993’s Voyage to Danger, which saw the one-time-only return of Part I director Masaaki Osumi to the franchise. Sadly, Yasuo Yamada grew ill and passed away in 1995, just before the release of the first theatrical film in 10 years, Farewell to Nostradamus, with Kanichi Kurita stepping into those impossibly large shoes as his replacement, and doing such an amazing job that he continues to voice Lupin to this day! We cover all 4 of these feature-length Lupin experiences in today’s episode, analyzing a period where everything is in flux for Lupin III, and the possibilities are endless! 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we look at Lupin’s adventures on the brink of the new millennium with a selection of films and specials from 1996 to 2002 – Dead or Alive, Island of Assassins, Tokyo Crisis and Episode 0: First Contact! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro: 0:01:20 – 0:06:57 

The Fuma Conspiracy: 0:06:57 – 0:49:06

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:49:06 – 0:49:38

Bye Bye Lady Liberty: 0:49:38 – 1:51:46

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:51:46 – 1:52:10

Voyage to Danger: 1:52:10 – 2:35:28

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:35:28 – 2:35:54

Farewell to Nostradamus: 2:35:54 – 3:27:49 

End Theme: 3:27:49 – 3:29:04 

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

https://weeklystuff.substack.com

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com