Lupin the 3rd Dub Review

By: Allen Divers
Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Following up the recent releases of Blue Gender and Yu Yu Hakusho, FUNimation shows quite a bit of confidence with the dub for their first release from the popular Lupin the 3rd series. Just how popular is Lupin the 3rd? Lupin started out in 1971, ending its TV run in Japan in 2001. With 208 ½ hour episodes, 5 animated movies and 1 live action film, its pretty safe to say this show has a bit of a following. The movie, Twilight Gemini finds the hero, Lupin, entrenched in the hunt for a mysterious jewel, as well as a huge political scheme. The Lupin franchise blends high-speed James Bond action with a nice set of mystery and intrigue. This plays very well as Lupin evades his nemesis, police detective Zenigata, all while trying to solve the mystery of the Twilight Gemini.



Of course, there is an inherent problem with most movies based on a TV series. It's the fact that a lot of information about the various characters and their relationships is often left to the TV series to explain. For fans of the show, it works out fine because they end up with more movie plot and less setup exposition. This leads to newcomers to the series feeling a bit left out. Luckily for Lupin, the main characters feel familiar playing with the standard stereotypes found in mystery movies. While the plot itself is pretty intricate, the characters come across very well without a lot of background information. FUNimation's take on the script is well done, with witty dialogue that keeps the characters and action interesting. At 90 minutes, Twilight Gemini is rather long for an Anime movie, but its pace stays constant from beginning to end.




With its casting choices for Lupin, FUNimation shows off the depth of its acting stable grown from their work with previous series. Christopher R. Sabat, takes on the ADR director duties, as well as the voice of one of the main characters. Chris brings his experience from the Dragonball Z and Blue Gender dubs adding an experienced hand that allows the performers to do outstanding jobs with their various characters.



Sonny Strait steps up from his previous sidekick role (he plays Krillin in DBZ) to take on the lead as Lupin. Lupin is an easy going, girl crazy, master thief and Sonny plays this well with his performance. Sonny easily slips between all the roles that Lupin plays as he makes his way through the film. Backing up Sonny, in the role of valet/sidekick is Chris Sabat in the role of Jigen. Jigen is definitely the straight man in this duo, so comes across a bit monotone. Chris does a good job breathing life into this role, but unfortunately the part Jigen plays in the overall plot takes a bit of backseat to the action. He's there for the big parts of the movie, but doesn't really do much in helping move the plot along.



Playing more of a sidekick is the role of Fujiko, voiced by Meredith McCoy. Fujiko is more rival than sidekick, and ends up stuck right in the middle of the plot. Fujiko is probably the most complicated character of the bunch, ranging from sexy and seductive to tough as nails fighter. Meredith has managed similar roles before, but never as one character. To round out the main cast of heroes, comes the love interest. Elly King plays the role of Lara in a very level manner. Being the damsel in distress, she comes across as soft and caring, doing the best to carry out her convictions.



In opposition to every master thief is the police officer trying to catch him. Playing the role of police detective Zenigata is Phillip Wilburn. Zenigata is the standard incorruptible police officer. His single goal is to catch Lupin, but even that is placed on hold when the greater good is at stake. A character like this is very stereotypical, and could be played one-dimensional. Luckily, Phillip brings a lot more than the simple stereotype to the role. Zenigata ranges from the serious cop to an almost keystone capers as everything just seems to go wrong for him as he tries to catch Lupin. Phillip's performance mirrors Zenigata's plight as he moves through the film.



Going with the James Bond action style leads to the inclusion of an over the top villain type. Filling this role is Sadachiyo, voiced by Jerry Jewel. Jerry's performance causes quite a stir as both the audience and Lupin realize Sadachiyo's nature rather quickly. Being a villain, this part is pretty one-dimensional, but the performance comes across as being very memorable. After the initial encounter, there's quite a bit of verbal as well as physical dueling between Sadachiyo and Lupin that the voice actors portray quite well.



The soundtrack for Lupin follows FUNimation's new commitment towards keeping things as close to the original as possible. All music is based on the original soundtrack and is well mixed with the dialogue. Overall dialogue choices work towards keeping a nice consistent feel throughout the dub.



FUNimation has done a great job with this classic series. They've shown some great choices with the voices picked for the continuing characters, and have set a good foundation for the rest of the series. Its unfortunate that FUNimation will be putting about 6 months between each release, but hopefully that will allow them to try and better the outstanding effort they placed on this first release.