Lupine III - The Fuma Conspiracy - the 1987 anime film
Lupine III - The Fuma conspiracy (ル パ ン 三世 風魔 一族 の 陰謀 Rupan Sansei - Fūma ichizoku no inbō) first released in North America as Rupan III: The Fuma Conspiracy, is a 1987 Japanese OVA action film based on Monkey Punch's Lupine III manga. For budget reasons, he used a different vocal cast from previous voices, with Toshio Furukawa as Arsène Lupine III, Banjō Ginga as Daisuke Jigen, Mami Koyama as Fujiko Mine, Kaneto Shiozawa as Goemon Ishikawa XIII and Seizō Katō as Inspector Kouichi Zenigata. It was the first Lupine III animation from the 1969 pilot film not to feature Yasuo Yamada as Lupine and the only one not to feature Kiyoshi Kobayashi as Jigen until part 6.
History
Arsène Lupine III and his gang attend the wedding of Goemon Ishikawa XIII and his fiancée Murasaki Suminawa. During the ceremony, Goemon is entrusted with the heirloom of the Suminawa family, a precious ancient urn. Before the ceremony is completed, several ninjas attack and attempt to steal the urn. Lupine and his colleagues fight the ninja, but during the confusion, another group of ninjas kidnap Murasaki and leave a ransom note proposing to exchange Murasaki for the ancient urn.
Meanwhile, Inspector Koichi Zenigata has retreated to a Buddhist temple after the apparent death of his longtime prey, Lupine. Kazami, a colleague from the police force, tries to persuade him to return to work. Zenigata "has no interest in a world without Lupine," but when shown a photograph of Lupine taken at the broken marriage, Zenigata comes out of retirement and resumes her lifelong search for Lupine.
At the Suminawa home, the elder of the Suminawa clan explains to Goemon that the urn holds the secret place of the Suminawa family's treasure. The Ninjas of the Fuma Clan, who attacked during their marriage, have been trying to steal the urn for centuries. He refuses to trade the family urn with his granddaughter Murasaki, so Lupine steals it. Lupine and Daisuke Jigen discover that the urn contains a hidden drawing that reveals the location of the treasure: a cave deep in the mountains. Lupine, Jigen and Goemon follow the ransom note instructions and exchange the urn with Murasaki, but the ninja starts shooting after Lupine attempts to cross paths with them. Zenigata and her officers arrive in time to see Lupine, his friends escape on a train. Wanting the treasure for themselves, Lupine and Jigen make their way to the treasure alone, with Zenigata and the police in pursuit, while Goemon and Murasaki travel their way, all trying to beat the Fuma Clan at the treasure.
Following a lead, Fujiko Mine tracks down the headquarters of the Fuma clan, but they discover it and capture it. In the ranks of the Fuma clan, Fujiko sees Inspector Kazami, who secretly worked for the clan leader. The Fuma also discovered the map on the urn, and now that the urn is useless, Kazami puts the urn over Fujiko's head to tease her. The Boss, Kazami and the ninja leave for the treasure cave. Handcuffed to a large post, Fujiko manages to escape and, in doing so, hits the urn in the head and notices a gold key among the fragments of the urn. She takes the key and keeps it secret.
After initially discovering that the urn has disappeared, Suminawa goes to the cave and destroys a key lock outside, before waiting inside. Later, the Fuma clan arrives and Suminawa confronts The Boss, but disarms Suminawa and has him thrown off the cliff. When Murasaki and Goemon arrive, they begin negotiating the trap-filled caves under the mountain to find the ancient treasure. Murasaki discovers a secret passage, but the Boss and the Ninjas of the Fuma Clan secretly follow them.
After reuniting with Lupine, Jigen and Fujiko, Goemon enters a hall clad in samurai armor, but his entrance has caused the hall to fill with hallucinogenic gas. The gas makes everyone attack him and in the scuffle he inadvertently injures Murasaki. After surviving the gas, Lupine and his companions enter a large cave, where they find an old castle furnished from top to bottom with solid gold objects. They are ambushed by the Fuma clan, with Lupine, Jigen and Fujiko taking care of the ninjas, while Goemon takes on The Boss. While escaping, Kazami captures Murasaki and holds her hostage with a knife. Not wanting to cause Goemon's death, Murasaki throws herself off the roof of the castle, taking the traitor Kazami with her, although Lupine and Jigen manage to save her before she falls to her death. At the same time, Goemon is able to defeat the Boss in battle.
At the entrance to the cave, Zenigata and his officers rescue Suminawa from the river at the base of the cliff. He explains that the cave is rigged to collapse unless the golden security key, the one found by Fujiko, is inserted into the slot in the entrance, but by destroying it, it ensures the destruction of the treasure and the disappearance of the treasure. Clan Fuma. Zenigata tells him that Lupine and company, as well as Murasaki, are in there, so the two rush into the cave, arriving at the castle just in time to tell everyone about the collapse. The Boss stays behind as everything around him is destroyed, dying in the rubble. Zenigata and Suminawa exit through the main tunnel, but Lupin's group exits through a distant tunnel, fleeing once again from Zenigata and his officers. Fujiko has managed to save a golden tile for herself and drives off on her motorcycle. Goemon says goodbye to his fiancée, declaring that she must undergo training to deal with her weaknesses; only then will he return to marry Murasaki. She calls him, declaring that she will not wait for him. Goemon looks at Murasaki for a moment, then continues his journey.
Production
Due to budget concerns, TMS decided not to use the regular voice cast for the OVA, instead opting for a slightly less expensive but still well-known Aoni Production cast. When the news was given to Yasuo Yamada, it was not made clear who was responsible for the dismissal, leaving him with the impression that the creator of Lupine III Monkey Punch had been lobbying producers for a new voice actor. In fact, Monkey Punch was happy with Yamada's portrayal, but he felt he had no interest in telling the production company what to do. Monkey Punch tried to reassure Yamada (with whom he had formed a friendship during the Lupine TV series years) that it had nothing to do with it, and the regulars were reinstated with the first TV special, Bye-Bye Liberty - Close Call! . However, the relationship between Yamada and Monkey Punch was permanently strained by the cast replacement.
Due to the same budget constraints, the usual composer, Yuji Ohno, was replaced by Kiyoshi Miyaura.
The budget focused on animation. In the background, the characters have a very distinct style, which is not usual in anime, but more common in Western cartoons. Before working on this film, Telecom Animation Film had done projects in the West, such as The Real Ghostbusters and DuckTales. Two of their employees were Hayao Miyazaki and Yasuo Ōtsuka, who is the supervisor of this film. Lupin's cars are based on the vehicles owned by Hayao Miyazaki, a Citroen 2CV, and Yasuo Ōtsuka, a Fiat 500. Using their own cars as models, they were able to keep the animation consistent throughout production.
The story is set in Japan, so the production staff could easily research the locations and props. For example, the treasure cave mountain is based on a real place in Gifu prefecture: Mount Shakujo, as well as the rotemburo of the local hot springs, an outdoor swimming pool, used in the police chase.
Technical data
Original title ル パ ン 三世 風魔 一族 の 陰謀 Rupan Sansei: Fūma ichizoku no inbō
Original language Japanese
Country of Production Japan
Year 1987
Duration 73 min
Relationship 1,33:1
Gender action, adventure, comedy, sentimental
Regia Masayuki Ozeki
Film script Makoto Naito
Producer Koji Takeuchi
Production house Toho, Tokyo Movie Shinsha
Distribution in Italian Jellyfish Video
Photography Akio Saito
Editor Takeshi Seyama
Music Kiyoshi Miyaura
Art director Shichirou Kobayashi
character design Kazuhide Tomonaga
Entertainers Kazuhide Tomonaga
Wallpapers Makoto Shiraishi, Nobuhiro Otsuka, Sadahiko Tanaka, Satoshi Shibata, Shinji Kimura, Tadashi Katayama, Tsuyoshi Matsumuro
Original voice actors
Toshio Furukawa: Lupine III
Banjo Ginga: Daisuke Jigen
Kaneto Shiozawa as Goemon Ishikawa XIII
Mami Koyama as Fujiko Mine
Seizō Katō: Koichi Zenigata
Mayumi Sho as Murasaki Suminawa
Kōhei Miyauchi: Old Suminawa
Masashi Hirose: Boss of the Fuma
Shigeru Chiba as Keiji Kazami
Shigeru Nakahara as Gakusha
Yū Shimaka: Captain of the Fuma
Italian voice actors
Roberto Del Giudice: Lupine III
Sandro PellegriniDaisuke Jigen
Antonio Palumbo as Goemon Ishikawa XIII
Alessandra Korompay as Fujiko Mine
Enzo Consoli as Koichi Zenigata
Antonella BaldiniMurasaki Suminawa
Ettore Conti: Old Suminawa
Diego Regente: Boss of the Fuma
