Why are the manga's chapters position so out of order?

[Peater]

Ever since I've started making this Lupin manga guide, the more apparent it seems that the chapter's order is completely out of wack
If you don't know, when Lupin III's manga chapters were made into a volume, a lot of the chapters were reordered for no apparent reason.. For example, "Magician" which is the Pycal chapter was made into Chapter 7 in the books, but in reality it was the 14th chapter when it was originally published in Weekly Manga Action. Strange, right?
If the manga was just an episodic type of series, the reordering wouldn't really matter to be honest, but my biggest issue is that it ISN'T. The manga was divided into short series that have a certain plot to them that would only make sense if read in the WMA order.

Take the Goemon (left) and Kobudo Series (right) as an example.

The Goemon Series is supposed to introduce Goemon, and for the entirety of that series, Goemon is Lupin's enemy. The Kobudo Series would end in Goemon befriending Lupin, so why did two chapters of the Goemon Series come AFTER the ending of Kobudo??? The ordering seriously doesn't make sense at all, and I'd appreciate it if anyone has any idea on why it was reordered this way in the first place.

 

[Lupin34]

Ever since I've started making this Lupin manga guide, the more apparent it seems that the chapter's order is completely out of wack
If you don't know, when Lupin III's manga chapters were made into a volume, a lot of the chapters were reordered for no apparent reason.. For example, "Magician" which is the Pycal chapter was made into Chapter 7 in the books, but in reality it was the 14th chapter when it was originally published in Weekly Manga Action. Strange, right?
If the manga was just an episodic type of series, the reordering wouldn't really matter to be honest, but my biggest issue is that it ISN'T. The manga was divided into short series that have a certain plot to them that would only make sense if read in the WMA order.

Take the Goemon (left) and Kobudo Series (right) as an example.
View attachment 670View attachment 671
The Goemon Series is supposed to introduce Goemon, and for the entirety of that series, Goemon is Lupin's enemy. The Kobudo Series would end in Goemon befriending Lupin, so why did two chapters of the Goemon Series come AFTER the ending of Kobudo??? The ordering seriously doesn't make sense at all, and I'd appreciate it if anyone has any idea on why it was reordered this way in the first place.

I couldn't say about the Goemon chapters, that is really strange...
But for Chapter 14 becoming Chapter 7, that could be due to Tokyopop ensuring they get a fan-favourite villain from the anime to appear in volume 1, and the bonus in having Jigen appear in the chapter as well probably helped. Tokyopop also probably considered the chances of fans being able to research this at the time to be relatively slim, but who knows what goes on in executives heads, haha

 

[Shmeepy!]

Oh my god, that's infuriated me for ages. Like, don't get me wrong, the stuff they did with Goemon's story is equally infuriating, but it also bothers me to no end that the actual chapter Jigen is supposed to be introduced in is like, his fourth appearance in the Tokyopop publication. Like, imagine reading the manga, excited to see where all your favorite characters were first introduced, and then seeing Jigen just. Show Up. Nothing special, he's just there. And then, just for kicks, the first (and only, in that chapter) time they say his name they somehow spell it wrong (and yes I know this is just a nitpick, but them misspelling it as "Gigen" the first time they tried is both hilarious and infuriating to me).

It's something that's bothered me for a while and honestly I'm really glad to know that people other than me have noticed.

 

[Peater]

Oh my god, that's infuriated me for ages. Like, don't get me wrong, the stuff they did with Goemon's story is equally infuriating, but it also bothers me to no end that the actual chapter Jigen is supposed to be introduced in is like, his fourth appearance in the Tokyopop publication. Like, imagine reading the manga, excited to see where all your favorite characters were first introduced, and then seeing Jigen just. Show Up. Nothing special, he's just there. And then, just for kicks, the first (and only, in that chapter) time they say his name they somehow spell it wrong (and yes I know this is just a nitpick, but them misspelling it as "Gigen" the first time they tried is both hilarious and infuriating to me).

It's something that's bothered me for a while and honestly I'm really glad to know that people other than me have noticed.

ah yes, my favorite gunman, GIGEN.
but oh my god i never even considered how jigen's first introduction was also butchered too... I always thought that jigen's first appearance was in the pycal chapter, and it was just MP making it a really awkward one at that. That's a huge shame, the manga doesn't deserve that kind of treatment done to it tbh.

 

[The Amazing Chris Godbey!]

But for Chapter 14 becoming Chapter 7, that could be due to Tokyopop ensuring they get a fan-favourite villain from the anime to appear in volume 1, and the bonus in having Jigen appear in the chapter as well probably helped. Tokyopop also probably considered the chances of fans being able to research this at the time to be relatively slim, but who knows what goes on in executives heads, haha

Tokyopop's first volume was released in 2002, a good decade or so before Part I was officially available in North America, so I doubt that Pycal's popularity was a factor at all.
Futabasha did the original manga collections (back in the late 60s, I think?), and the second collection was by Chuokoron-Shinsha in 1989. Tokyopop's release was a translation of the 1989 Chuokoron-Shinsha edition (maybe they wanted to have a fan-favorite villain in the first volume, though?)

I have no idea why Chuokoron-Shinsha shuffled chapters around and combined some two-parters, but it totally blew my mind when I found this out. I'd always assumed that I was reading them in the order they were printed in Weekly Manga Action.

In fact, it caused me to wonder if there might be some entire chapter's of Monkey Punch's Lupin that weren't included in either collection, and have been lost to time. God, I hope not!