This is a TV Specials Guide of the Lupin III franchise. In a tradition that began in 1989 with Bye-Bye Liberty - Close Call!, every year up to 2013 had featured a new 90 minute Lupin III anime television special that airs on NTV at 9:03pm on a Friday evening as part of the Friday ROADSHOW!. Afterwards there are currently three TV specials, one made to tie in with Lupin the 3rd Part 4 and two in 2019.
These TV Specials are co-produced by Nippon Television along with TMS Entertainment.
Licensing Names[]
Due to copyright reasons regarding the Lupin name outside of Japan, Italy and Spain; when NTV was licensing the TV Specials originally it was going to have the Cliff Hanger name with each TV Special being numbered Cliff Hanger (x) - Title [1]. In late 1999, NTV decided to rename Cliff Hanger to Chase Tracer. [2] The reasons for the name change are unknown.
Manga Entertainment decided not to use the Cliff Hanger name when they dubbed Goodbye Lady Liberty, instead the character was called Wolf the Third. In the French release however Pathé used the Cliff Hanger name on the packaging and the only time that France used Cliff Hanger instead of Edgar de la Cambriole.
Funimation Entertainment purchased the North American distribution rights to specials five through twelve in 2002, in a package that also included the two theatrical films Farewell to Nostradamus and Dead or Alive from NTV. The original copyright name was going to be Chase Tracer however due to that the copyright to the Lupin name had expired in the US, the dubs retained the Lupin name. Despite releasing second, The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure did not have the International Lupin the 3rd gold bar logo and kept the Japanese logo while the other releases had different title cards compared to the Japanese original.
NTV renamed from Goodbye Lady Liberty to Missed by a Dollar while from Alcatraz Connection onwards, TMS had named the International names.
Releases[]
All of the TV specials were released on home media in Japan by VAP and most TV specials are available to stream.
Manga Entertainment released the first special on VHS in the United Kingdom and Australia in 1996 as Goodbye Lady Liberty, using an English dub that they had created. Funimation Entertainment dubbed specials five through twelve via a package from 2002 to 2006 however they did not pursue any further dubs. North American distributor Discotek Media released Episode 0: First Contact in 2010, the first and second television specials in 2014, then the third and fourth in 2015 on DVD. Due to copyright reasons From Russia With Love was renamed to From Siberia with Love. They also released the Lupin III vs. Detective Conan special and its theatrical film sequel on October 27, 2015. They have released Blood Seal of the Eternal Mermaid that was the first and currently the only TV special handled by Discotek to be dubbed into English in 2019. Discotek have released the TV Specials on Blu-ray with any existing English dubs otherwise they are Japanese with English subtitles. TMS has also been uploading TV Specials on Amazon Prime in the US.
In the US; currently 21 out of 28 TV specials have been released with 7 yet to have a release, 14 have also been dubbed into English. In the UK; only three TV specials were released being Goodbye Lady Liberty on VHS, The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure and The Secret of Twilight Gemini on DVD. These are long out of print and hard to find. Goodbye Partner also received a release on Amazon Prime.
In Italy, the TV Specials were also aired on Mediaset channels and dubbed into Italian airing most of them with the exceptions of Goodbye Partner and Prison of the Past. Up to Sweet Lost Night, they were also released on DVD with Elusiveness of the Fog and Sweet Lost Night also receiving Blu-ray releases.
TV Specials[]
On Japanese official websites, the Detective Conan crossover is not numbered like the other TV specials.
| No. | Original Japanese title | International title | Director | Original air date | Poster |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bye-Bye Liberty - Close Call! バイバイ・リバティー・危機一発! (Baibai Ribatī – Kiki Ippatsu!) |
Goodbye Lady Liberty | Osamu Dezaki | April 1, 1989 | 
|
| 2 | Mystery of the Hemingway Papers ヘミングウェイ・ペーパーの謎 (Heminguwei pēpā no nazo) |
The Hemingway Papers | Osamu Dezaki | July 20, 1990 | 
|
| 3 | Steal Napoleon's Dictionary! ナポレオンの辞書を奪え (Naporeon no jisho o ubae) |
Napoleon's Dictionary | Osamu Dezaki | August 9, 1991 | 
|
| 4 | From Russia With Love ロシアより愛をこめて (Roshia yori ai o komete) |
Bank of Liberty | Osamu Dezaki | July 24, 1992 | 
|
| 5 | Orders to Assassinate Lupin ルパン暗殺指令 (Rupan ansatsu shirei) |
Voyage to Danger | Masaaki Osumi | July 23, 1993 | 
|
| 6 | Burn, Zantetsuken! 燃えよ斬鉄剣 (Moeyo Zantetsuken) |
Dragon of Doom | Masaharu Okuwaki | July 29, 1994 | 
|
| 7 | Pursue Harimao's Treasure!! ハリマオの財宝を追え!! (Harimao no zaihō o oe!!) |
The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure | Osamu Dezaki | August 4, 1995 | 
|
| 8 | The Secret of Twilight Gemini トワイライト☆ジェミニの秘密 (Towairaito Jemini no himitsu) |
Gisaburo Sugii | August 2, 1996 | 
| |
| 9 | Walther P38 (In Memory of the Walther P38) ワルサーP38 ~In Gedenken an die Walther P38~(Warusā P38) |
Island of Assassins | Toshiya Shinohara & Hiroyuki Yano | August 1, 1997 | 
|
| 10 | Memories of the Flame: Tokyo Crisis 炎の記憶〜TOKYO CRISIS〜 (Honō no kioku - TOKYO CRISIS) |
Tokyo Crisis | Toshiya Shinohara | July 24, 1998 | 
|
| 11 | Da Capo of Love: Fujiko's Unlucky Days 愛のダ・カーポ〜FUJIKO'S Unlucky Days〜 (Ai no da kāpo - FUJIKO'S Unlucky Days) |
The Columbus Files | Shinichi Watanabe | July 30, 1999 | 
|
| 12 | $1 Money Wars 1$マネーウォーズ (1 Doru Manē Wōzu) |
Missed by a Dollar | Hideki Tonokatsu | July 28, 2000 | 
|
| 13 | Alcatraz Connection アルカトラズコネクション (Arukatorazu Konekushon) |
Hideki Tonokatsu | August 3, 2001 | 
| |
| 14 | Episode 0: First Contact EPISODE:0 ファーストコンタクト (EPISODE:0 - Fāsuto Kontakuto) |
Episode 0: The First Contact | Minoru Ohara | July 26, 2002 | 
|
| 15 | Operation: Return the Treasure!! お宝返却大作戦!! (Otakara henkyaku dai-sakusen!!) |
Never Wants a Diamond | Jun Kawagoe | August 1, 2003 | 
|
| 16 | Stolen Lupin - The Copy Cat is a Midsummer's Butterfly 盗まれたルパン 〜コピーキャットは真夏の蝶〜 (Nusumareta Rupan - Copī Kyatto wa manatsu no chō) |
Swallowtail Tattoo | Hidehito Ueda | July 30, 2004 | 
|
| 17 | Angel's Tactics - The Fragment of a Dream Smells of Murder 天使の策略 〜夢のカケラは殺しの香り〜 (Tenshi no Takutikusu - Yume no kakera wa koroshi no kaori) |
Tactics of the Angels | Shigeyuki Miya | July 22, 2005 | 
|
| 18 | Seven Days Rhapsody セブンデイズ・ラプソディ (Sebun Deizu Rapusodi) |
Hajime Kamegaki | September 8, 2006 | 
| |
| 19 | Elusiveness of the Fog 霧のエリューシヴ (Kiri no eryūshivu) |
The Elusive Mist | Masada Toshihiko | July 27, 2007 | 
|
| 20 | Sweet Lost Night - Magic Lamp: Premonition of a Nightmare sweet lost night 〜魔法のランプは悪夢の予感〜 (Sweet Lost Night - Mahō no ranpu wa akumu no yokan) |
Sweet Lost Night | Tetsuro Amino | July 25, 2008 | 
|
| N/A | Lupin III vs. Detective Conan ルパン三世VS名探偵コナン (Rupan Sansei vāsasu Meitantei Konan) |
Lupin the 3rd VS Detective Conan | Hajime Kamegaki | March 27, 2009 | 
|
| 21 | The Last Job the Last Job |
Tetsuro Amino | February 12, 2010 | 
| |
| 22 | Blood Seal - Eternal Mermaid 血の刻印 〜永遠のMermaid〜 (Chi no kokuin - Eien no Mermaid) |
Teiichi Takiguchi | December 2, 2011 | 
| |
| 23 | Record of Observations of the East - Another Page 東方見聞録 〜アナザーページ〜 (Tōhō kenbunroku - Anazā Pēji) |
The Secret Page of Marco Polo | Hajime Kamegaki | November 2, 2012 | 
|
| 24 | Princess of the Breeze - Hidden City in the Sky princess of the breeze 〜隠された空中都市〜 (Princess of the Breeze - Kakusareta kūchū toshi) |
Takaomi Kisaki | November 1, 2013 | 
| |
| 25 | Italian Game イタリアン・ゲーム (Itarian gēmu) |
Kazuhide Tomonaga | January 9, 2016 | 
| |
| 26 | Goodbye Partner グッバイ・パートナー (Guddobai paatonaa) |
Jun Kawagoe | January 25, 2019 | 
| |
| 27 | Prison of the Past プリズン・オブ・ザ・パスト (Purizun obu za pasuto) |
Hatsuki Tsuji | November 29, 2019 | 
|