LUPIN LOST MEDIA ~ The Debunked and the Yet to be Found

Still on the lookout for the now lost mobile game Lupin III: Kessen Card Battle from 2012, more or less the last Lupin game that isn't a collab event of a popular game. Since it's an early Android/iOS game, it meant that any download links are long gone and that quite a lot of Japanese mobile games literally are lost media.

Outside of what was written on the wiki, a few screenshots are floating around online showing what the game looked like and what appears to be a listing with an app icon.
 

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Oh yeah that game. I downloaded a couple of images from it on Twitter a few years ago.
I made a gallery for it just now. I made it open for registered users if anyone has any cards to add.

I found a video of the ad.
and what looks like a fan wiki page listing every card. (No artwork unfortunately)
 
Something interesting regarding the famous "The Viper" dub rumor:
Recently someone added "The Viper" dub to the Part 1 page on wikipedia, but the interesting part is the source. 1684600114486.png
The source lists a book from March 30, 1999 called スタジオバード (1999). ルパン三世研究報告書. 年 双葉社刊/"Lupin III Research Report", it's a book containing " a collection of detailed research materials covering all the information on Lupin III up to that time".
image0.jpg

Does anybody here own/have more information on the book? I still don't think the dub is real, but i would never guess that this rumor would be this old!
There's also a auction for the book on Yahoo Auctions for 749 yen (although there is only one left): https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/funfunhomes/boko0004an48516x56683.html
 
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aisterion

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The source lists a book from March 30, 1999 called スタジオバード (1999). ルパン三世研究報告書. 年 双葉社刊/"Lupin III Research Report", it's a book containing " a collection of detailed research materials covering all the information on Lupin III up to that time".
image0.jpg

Does anybody here own/have more information on the book? I still don't think the dub is real, but i would never guess that this rumor would be this old!
There's also a auction for the book on Yahoo Auctions for 749 yen (although there is only one left): https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/funfunhomes/boko0004an48516x56683.html
i would most likely believe this to be source fraud, where the editor has pulled an obscure source and claimed that such information was in it. I heavily doubt that anything about The Viper is in it, and that the editor is using the book's obscure status as an opportunity to insert false information into the page.
 
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Tsushi

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I would

i would most likely believe this to be source fraud, where the editor has pulled an obscure source and claimed that such information was in it. I heavily doubt that anything about The Viper is in it, and that the editor is using the book's obscure status as an opportunity to insert false information into the page.
The book looks cool either way... I would love to hear what it has in it anyway haha but it would require me getting it translated not just obtaining it!
 

jojosuibhne

aroace fujiko truther
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I personally love the idea of looking for and finding lost media, and Lupin being such a long-running series is bound to have some lost media, and as far as I'm aware there are three major items of note: something probably completely lost, something that we might be able to find, and something that probably never existed.

Debunked Lost Media
First up there's the Geneon dubbed episodes 80 - 100 of Part II. These are probably long gone, and even if they aren't, they are probably in some company's archive, what company, I dunno, Geneon went out of business almost 20 years ago so these voice lines are either completely lost to time or in so much legal red tape that they might as well be lost to time.
EDIT: Apparently, like in the Goemon Cagliostro rumour, this supposed lost dub came from a clerical error in Richard Epcar's resume. The original dub producer, Ken Duer, has confirmed they only 79 episodes were ever produced.

Then there's "The Viper" a supposed dub of Part I from 1972. This was some random claim on the lostmediawiki forums, the OP only gave two pieces of evidence to back up their claim, and both turned out to be dead-ends. So I think this isn't really lost media I think this is a myth.
Here's a video by LSuperSonicQ about this supposed dub

Yet to be Found Lost Media
And here's the real reason I wanted to make this post, the one piece of Lupin media I'm sure exists in some capacity as we have multiple references to its existence. I'm sure many of you are aware of the Lupin Takarazuka musical, but what I know a lot of you don't know is that there is another Lupin musical that predates it by 17 years. The 30th Anniversary Musical I'm Lupin! アイムル ルパン三世 also known as Anime Musical: Love Dream Lupin ア二メカル 愛・夢・ルパン. Notably, Dragon Ball Z theme singer Hironobu Kageyama played Goemon Ishikawa in this musical. The musical was performed by Troupe Something on November 4th, 1998 through November 8th, 1998 at the Sunshine Theatre in the Sunshine City building in East Ikebukuro in the Toshima ward in Tokyo. The soundtrack to the musical was released on CD on November 21st, 1998.
At some point in time, a recording of one of the performances aired on the Japanese Children's TV Station, Kids Station キッズステーション. So there is the slight possibility that a recording of it still is floating around somewhere, whether that be somewhere randomly on the internet or on some random Japanese VHS recording, who knows? But it is the one confirmed piece of Lupin media that we know exists that has not had an official release in almost 25 years.
So this is a call to action to see if anyone can help me find a recording of this musical, even just a snippet of a recording would be helpful as it would give definitive proof it exists.

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ルパン三世_I'm_LUPIN
https://lupin.fandom.com/wiki/I'm_Lupin


And if there's anything I missed, please tell me and I'll add it to this post. [I'll get to this in a minute to add the other things mentioned below]
hi there! i found this thread while researching the 1998 musical, which i found mentioned in the lupin iii wikipedia page (without any sources!!). i've fallen down the rabbit hole completely and am completely dedicated to finding this thang. i don't have much but i did find a few images that i thought might interest you if you haven't seen them already! here is what seems to be a promotional poster for the musical! the quality is not great, unfortunately.
l3musical poster.jpg
this is from the pamphlet that comes with the soundtrack CD, which supposedly describes the plot of the musical in brief. this is the best quality version of this image i could find, and it's not great. :( i don't think i could read any of the characters well enough to plug them into a translator, but maybe a native speaker could pick out a few words?
l3musical CD back.jpg
and here is the full version of the artwork featured on the case of the CD! it appears to be a poster, but i'm not 100% certain it is original to the release of the musical. however, it is for sale!! for a couple hundred USD lol.
l3musical promo poster.jpg
if i can find someone who can translate for me, i'd like to send an email to Kids Station to see if they might still have a copy of the recording they broadcast. it's a long shot, but unless anyone can track down a VHS home recording it might be our best bet. i was also considering contacting lou oshiba because he seems cool lol.

i hope you enjoy these images at the very least!
 
There are lost Lupin VIII scripts that have been uploaded to the drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fs778XVeQhhm6YIiztmNPNVRjrcgIwkQ
If they are real, that would make a grand total of three Lupin VIII scripts collected of what could've been.

This drive has ベガス衛生最後の日 and 宇宙回廊グランプリ while the other Lupin VIII drive not mentioned here has 甦みがえれベネツィア which was gathered from typerlpn3's website.
 
Considering that 宇宙回廊グランプリ(Space Corridor Grand Prix) was part of the commentary video on Master File, at least one of those scripts did at least make it towards the animation stage. It would have been Episode 4 or Episode 3 if you class the first episode as a pilot/special.

Other things that would push it more towards the real side is the use of the early 1980s TMS logo, that logo didn't last very long. Since it was around 1982 and the only other well known use would have been the original Italian credits for Part 2, it seems right. Had it been the other logos, would have put it down as fake straight away. If they get translated then we might see if there's more evidence whether they're real or not (we do have a rough idea on one of them in terms of plotline).

First time I've heard of ベガス衛生最後の日 though. Strangely all three scripts were written by the same person so there is a connection there.
 

Tsushi

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So what does this say
This is a scenario writer who maybe? worked on Lupin, this was a pitch they made. Here's a rough auto translation "
"A plan that was quietly advanced and quietly flowed" series (Part 2)
TV series "Lupin III Once Upon a Time"
Probably in the 1990s, I secretly made a proposal under the direction of Mr. Shunzo Kato, the president of Tokyo Movie Shinsha (now TMS), and Mr. Junichi Iioka, a literary person who has been involved with Lupine since its early days."


Also more tweets!
Rough Auto translation:
"Lupin III (Proposal)"
The setting is America in the 1920s and 30s.
It's not a time slip, it's a turbulent era when Al Capone and Babe Ruth were active, and Lupine and his friends were also rampaging with thieves.
Inspector Zenigata also makes a quick appearance as a special investigator for the newly formed FBI.


Rough auto translation: "
"Lupin III (Proposal)"
A well-known animation director draws dozens of images.
I also wrote three (slightly sentimental) sample stories.
("The Miracle of Bambino". "The Man Who Killed Dillinger" in the "Angel with Broken Wings" dimension, which depicts Lupine's contact with a female pilot who was scattered on a transatlantic flight)."



Rough Auto translation: "
"Lupin III (Proposal)"
In the 1990s, there weren't many means of gathering information, so
Mr. Iioka copied a large amount of American materials at the time in the library and gave me guidance ^_^
I also had a lot of trouble writing a proposal, but it didn't even come up as a topic ^_^
I don't think it will see the light of day anymore, but I think it's a waste ^_^"

We should probably also archive these images in one of the albums btw, never know if twitter servers might just flop one of these days.
 

Tsushi

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Updating the names via info in a tumblr post and adding the images. Toshimichi Ohkawa (Lupin Writer on Sweet Lost Night, Green vs Red, and Part 3) and franchise vet Junichi Lioka made this pitch with the Concept art and character design by Toshihiko Masuda.

It seems to me like Part 3 had at least a tinge of this, as it focuses multiple times on America as a setting. Interesting to get to see these bits of the process for even Lupin projects that were short lived.







 
(Also thank you both Giovanni and Yawackhary for correcting me)

Since Lupin III isn't that popular in most countries, some dubs aren't archived very well and and that includes the

1980 Mexican dubbing of mamo, which is based on the eng toho/frontier dub, but it isn't known if it was screened in cinemas, broadcast on TV or if it was released on vhs

There is also a Mexican dub of cagliostro with the same cast as the 1980 mamo dub. The cagliostro dub was made between 1980-1985 and aired on TV in cuba, unknown if any vhs releases or cinema screenings exist

The 1991 Spanish dubs of part 1,2 and 3. Mediaset owns a big part of Lupin III in Italy and also had a company in Spain called telecinco. Mediaset wanted to also air Lupin III in Spain, so they did. Telecinco would first first air lupin III part 3. Only episodes 11-38 were dubbed, which are 26 episodes. After part 1 was dubbed part 3’s undubbed episodes were dubbed. Part 1 & 3 were based on the second Italian dub of part 1 and the first Italian dub of part 3, part 2 wasn’t based on the Italian dub and completely Uncensored. The names were different than in the Japanese version and the voice actors were also different per series, some actors returned for other parts, while some were completely recast. There used to be a torrent of the telecinco dubs, but it doesn’t exist anymore. There was also a original Intro for part 3 dunno if it is also used in part 1 & 2.

The valencian dubs of part 1,2 and 3 have been lost, but that's all I know

The latin American Cagliostro, mamo and Babylon dubs from the Filmzone. The filmzone would air and dub Lupin III TV special 1-9 and lupin iii movies 1-6 in Latin America for their Japanimation block from 1999 til 2003. The dubs have never aired after 2003 on the filmzone, nor has ever aired on another tv channel or released on home media or screened in cinemas. Most of the dubs have luckily been found and archived by fans, but the Cagliostro, mamo and Babylon dubs are the only lupin dubs from the filmzone that haven’t been found and have become lost media.

That lost Portuguese dub of part 2, which Giovanni talked about before, which aired from 2001 till 2002 and is thought to be dubbed on around 60 episodes.
There is also this fansite that claims it started airing on November 24, 2001, which dies sound legit as other info I found there is true, but it cant be 100% proven as this site isn’t official.
IMG_2952.jpeg
The Spanish Animax dubs of part 1, 2 and 3. Animax would air lupin iii part 1 & 2 in in Spain 2008 and part 3 in 2010. The names were the same as in the Japanese and part 2 and 3 had the same cast, while part 1 had a different cast. There is also this site, which seems to have the Animax dubs. I haven’t checked every episode, but from the episodes that I have, all used the animax dub, so its likely its all episodes are just the Animax dubs.

The fourth Italian dub of mamo. The first dub of mamo used the main cast of Lupin, but was back than lost media, the second dub of mamo also had the main cast, but was heavily censored, the third dub was uncensored, but didn’t use the main Italian cast and was unpopular among fans, but there would come a fourth dub of mamo that would use the main cast and uncensored. It was made in 2007 and would air on tv between 5 days and split into 4 parts(since one of the days was skipped and didn’t air mamo so, it took 5 days)It didn’t air until 2008, but the first dub of mamo was found a couple months later and Italian companies seem to favour that dub, as the fourth has never released on home media or streaming services, but I dont know about tv airing(but even if mamo airs in Italy, it happens rarely, since there is so much lupin media), but the blu-ray and streaming services do use the first dub and the fourth dub is not lost for mediaset(who owns the dub), but is lost for the general public and its unlikely it will ever be found, if mediaset wont release it.

This is all lost media as far as West-European and American countries go. Lupin III’s history in Europe outside West Europa and in Asia and other continents isn’t as well documented and is much trickier to find info about.

EDIT: oopsie, I forgot to mention the Brazilian locomotion dub of part 1, my bad.

TMS basically commissioned a dub to be made of part 1 in Latin America. So a Latin-American dub was made airing on 1997 on locomotion. A Brazillian dub would later be made(also commissioned by TMS) airing in 2001 also on locomotion. The Brazilian dub is based on the Latin American one and episodes 8, 16, 17, 18 and 23 of the Brazilian dub has been lost.
 
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can't find any info that it was actually dubbed
It was dubbed by Somnorte SA, on their official website states: ""As Aventuras de Lupin", we dubbed it in 2001 for RTP."
I assume it's Part 2 since it's the only once i've seen that people said had a dub, never seen anyone claim that Part 1 had a dub. Part 3 also aired on Animax, but it was sub only, as it can be seen in this video.
image.png

Also on the Lupin III European Page, i found the portuguese titles and synopsis for episodes 1-31, there's also a post on the site of someone saying that a portugal vhs copy might exist, although they didn't specify exactly what Part it was.
1688853602133.png

There's also something related to Lupin and Portugal that i forgot to mention in the original post:
In 2007, Mangaline relased two volumes of the original manga in Portugal, these versions being based on their spanish release. Although only two volumes were released and the other 3 volumes were never released due to the Portugal branch shutting down. (video showcasing the portuguese version of the manga)
Lupin-III-1-jpg.webp
FUsDRsOXEAErpYf.jpg
Efaa8mIX0AEzLxn
 
Oh, so RTP also aired Lupin III in 2001 and 2008. I could only find info about Lupin III part 2 being broadcast on Portugese TV from Animax and thought you were talking about that, since RTP was also involved in that, so I was talking about the wrong broadcasting, my bad.

I also made a error, Animax would still air anime till 2011(Wikipedia doesn’t say Lupin III aired till 2011 and I quickly scanned through the wiki and since I didn’t find any mention of Lupin, I forgot and didn’t really read through this part)
1688892685867.png

Didn’t know animax aired part 3 before, since the sites from AXN and Animax just say Lupin III and dont specify which part it is. But im kinda wondering, how do you know that RTP’s site was from the 2001 broadcasting and not from the 2008 version? since I think if it would be called As Aventuras de Lupin, instead of Lupin III if it was from 2001 and just Lupin III if it was from 2008.
 
Sorry, but I ment This site, like how do you know its the RGP2001 broadcast and not the RGP 2007-2008( Animax broadcasted lupin iii on RGP in 2007 and 2008, not only 2008, I forgot this info much easier, since Im kinda new to lupin iii in Portugal, compared to other countries)broadcast by Animax version?
But im kinda wondering, how do you know that RTP’s site was from the 2001 broadcasting and not from the 2008 version? since I think if it would be called As Aventuras de Lupin, instead of Lupin III if it was from 2001 and just Lupin III if it was from 2008.
 
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After part 1 was dubbed part 3’s undubbed episodes were dubbed according to the lupin wiki, but Veggie11 says part 3 never finished, so take this with a grain of salt, since info about this isn’t very good.

The source from the wiki was from Mazochungo who wrote this article and provided a video. Someone who has been on the Internet for a very long time and was someone who provided info even as far back as the early 2000s, gave some info and episode titles of the Telecinco dub on Lupin the 3rd European Page (Part 2 example, the Animax dub wasn't done at the time). There was actually a torrent that got removed that had as much of the archived dubs for Parts 1 to 3, Mazochungo provided many of the audio tracks from recordings but sadly not every episode was preserved. Also yeah, there's no official release of the TV series in Spain so the rips online are done by fans syncing the audio with the Japanese DVDs as a video source. (I'm actually surprised that the Telecinco dub didn't resurface on a local channel like what happened to Adventures of Sonic in the mid 2000s [around 2008-2009?], nearly all the episodes were online at one point but most likely gone now).

For Part 3, I've heard the same as in not every episode was dubbed and was like this on the wiki originally before more research was done and someone claimed that it was fully dubbed. This was the source saying that episodes 11 to 38 were dubbed but then why does the Lupin European Page mention episodes not part of that batch? (As a note, Mediaset decided that Episode 11 was the first episode of Part 3 shown in both Italian and Spanish, the order got corrected in the new dubs). The video that Mazochungo posted showed clips from 27 (batch 1), 41, 49, 50 (batch 2) of the Telecinco dubs and also shows a different way of saying the characters names as well. The video evidence would have dismissed both Veggie11's claim that to be fair was the case of lack of knowledge at the time (it might be a very old forum post, if it was for the French dub it would be a different story), supports the Lupin European Page for the episode names and also supports the wiki claim of the dubbed episodes with a different cast.

The Part 1 and 2 episodes that were posted on earlier (from the ones that I checked) were the Animax dub and the easiest way to tell is using the correct character names (Jigen, Fujiko, Goemon, Zenigata) and the audio clarity. It was clear and a bit jarring in Part 1's case where it's better than the Japanese original, had it been a bit muffled and harder to make out, it's a tape rip of the Telecinco dub. It was the Animax dub of Part 1 that is dispelled the rumour that the English dub wasn't possible for the series (it was the soundtrack that was lost, not the M&SE tracks used for dubs). An example is Part 2 Episode 63, it uses the same edited soundtrack as the English dub did as in removing the Pink Lady song. While I'm not sure about the Telecinco dub, the Japanese original [excluding the Geneon DVD] and the Italian dub did have the Pink Lady song. Yet Episode 74 has the Pink Lady song Chameleon Army that the English dub didn't have but is still the Animax dub (also weird hearing the song at its clearest).

I've also checked the 4 Part 3 episodes on that site and they are not the Telecinco dub. Clues. Clear audio and use of the correct character names pushing towards an Animax dub. Plus Episode 3 is UNCUT which is a big clue that it's not from the Telecinco dub (since that would use the Italian Mediaset dub masters, it would have cut out a certain scene with Lupin and Flora, Lupin and Fujiko on the beach, Flora getting Lupin's attention but he's not interested). Same thing for Episode 4 where that one was cut quite a bit on the older Italian dub due to the nudity and romantic gestures but again it's UNCUT. As a note Italy didn't have access to the Japanese uncut version until 2010 when it was released on DVD (and in dub form until 2021!) so this dub didn't come from there.

Done a deep dig into Animax's schedule and can confirm (after a lengthy all nighter) that Part 3 was indeed aired on the channel with its own dub. On February 8, 2010 Episodes 40 and 41 were aired. The next day Episode 41 was repeated and Episode 42 was aired, then Episode 43 the day after with repeats of 42. This continued to 44 and 45 on the Friday. While at the weekend, it looped back to 27 and 28. 29 and 30 too. First hand source via what was left of the Wayback Machine, these may not be their original air dates. Would have pulled all the episode names from their website, sadly they only have most of Part 2 listed as episodes (except Episode 1 for some reason). I think the confusion is that it wasn't well reported.

Also I didn't know the Valencian dub existed until a random search one day and found the network that aired the series. Only managed to find a few Part 2 episode titles from TV guides via the Wayback Machine though.
 

jojosuibhne

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The valencian dubs of part 1,2 and 3 have been lost, but that's all I know
i zeroed in on this particular piece of lost media, but idk why lol since i can't speak valencian. but i managed to find many of the valencian dubbed episodes thanks to this wonderful blogger!! it seems like they are working on sharing all of the dubbed episodes for parts 1, 2, and 3. at this point they have uploaded all of part 1 and 77 nonconsecutive episodes of part 2. i had to download telegram in order to get the episodes so i am working on throwing them into a google drive so others can watch them more easily if they want! i am also working on archiving all the available episodes. this person was still active as of april of this year so hopefully we will have access to the rest of the episodes soon!
here is part 1 on google drive. i'll update this as i finish uploading everything. :)
 
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