English Dub Review: Lupin the Third Part One “Is Lupin Burnin…?!”

Overview:

Arsène Lupin III is the grandson of world-famous thief Arsène Lupin, and he’s living up to his grandfather’s memory as a high-profile thief himself. Due to his infamy, Lupin III attracts the attention of the persistent Inspector Zenigata of the ICPO, as well as rival criminals. Lupin III’s criminal lifestyle even seeps into his love life. The main woman in Lupin III’s world is femme fatale Fujiko Mine, who Lupin III can never tell is working with or against him. Follow Lupin and his gunman partner Daisuke Jigen on their quest to own the world－or at least the valuable bits!

Our Take:

This is my first experience with Lupin the Third in any form. I haven’t seen anything before but it blows my mind that the original series is just now getting a dub. I don’t know the reason behind it but I’m glad it has one now. It’s really cool for new fans that they can start at the beginning but also for current fans to see some of their favorites dubbed finally.

I really like heist movies and protagonists who always seem to have the upper hand. Lupin is definitely one of those characters and since he is the grandson of a world-famous thief you can bet there are plenty of heists to go around. Not so much in this episode but I imagine there will be at some point… right?

I have one nitpick but nothing too big. The first is that this is supposed to be the beginning of Lupin the Third right? But it feels like we’re dropped right into the middle of the story. It was a bit jarring and I didn’t really understand what was happening. But once Lupin started doing cool shit I got over it pretty quick.

Suffice it to say Lupin the Third has been going for a LONG time. I think fans everywhere are excited for the earliest of the series to finally be getting dubbed and I can start to see why it’s so beloved after one episode. This series spans soooo many things that doing research for this was kind of daunting and I still don’t think I’ve scraped the surface. It has crossovers galore even getting in with Detective Conan another long-running series. I’m not quite sure if they are going to be dubbing this series weekly or what but trust me I’ll be here for it.