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Lupin the Third Part I is the first incarnation of TMS Entertainment's long-running anime television adaptation of the Lupin III (ルパン三世) manga series written by Monkey Punch. The series was originally broadcast as Lupin III between October 24, 1971 and March 26, 1972.

Premise
Arsène Lupin III (Yasuo Yamada), grandson of the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, is an internationally wanted thief. His right-hand man is Daisuke Jigen (Kiyoshi Kobayashi), an expert marksmen who can shoot a target within 0.3 seconds. They are joined by Fujiko Mine (Yukiko Nikaido), Lupin's primary love interest who often manipulates situations to her advantage. After several encounters with the samurai and expert swordsmen Goemon Ishikawa XIII (Chikao Ōtsuka), he becomes part of the group. They are constantly pursued by Inspector Heiji Zenigata VII (Gorō Naya), an expert on Lupin from the Tokyo MPD (led by its commissioner, voiced by Ichirō Nagai), who has made the capture and arrest of Lupin and his collaborators his life goal.

Pilot Film
Adapting Monkey Punch's manga into animation was first suggested by animator Gisaburō Sugii to Yutaka Fujioka, the founder of Tokyo Movie Shinsha (then known as Tokyo Movie). Although Fujioka was interested in the idea, Tokyo Movie lacked the financial resources to produce such a project on its own. This led to the creation of a CinemaScope Pilot Film, which was intended to generate interest in the project and secure funding. The Pilot Film, consisting of narrated introductions to the five lead characters of the manga, was scripted and animated by Sugii, Yasuo Otsuka, Tsutomu Shibayama and Osamu Kobayashi, with supervision by Masaaki Ōsumi and background art by Reiji Koyama. The music soundtrack was composed by Norio Meida, while the narration dialogue was written by Jiro Saito and Toshiaki Imaizumi. Yasuo Otsuka had left Toei Animation to join A Productions in order to work on the Lupin adaptation as working on Lupin would allow him to use his knowledge and lifelong interest in guns and transport in his animation. Otsuka studied Monkey Punch's artwork and the influence of American comic artist Mort Drucker on the series. The team studied Monkey Punch's style in detail and analysed the characters from all angles. They were initially assisted by Monkey Punch until he felt the project was too much for him. Scripts and treatments were also written for a feature film adaptation, one of which depicted Lupin before the start of his thieving career as a hippie in Shinjuku, and would explain how he came to be pursued by the police and other criminals.

Although the animation quality of the Pilot Film was high for the time in which it was made, few were interested in the project due to its adult themes of violence and sexuality. After a year, the project was still unsold, and the Pilot Film was adapted for television. The animation of the TV version was mostly identical to the CinemaScope version, but featured a largely different voice cast - the only voices who were retained for both versions were those of Kiyoshi Kobayashi (as Jigen) and Eiko Masuyama (as Fujiko). In 1971, Yomiuri Television funded the series. By this time, only Otsuka and Ōsumi were still at Tokyo Movie. Ōsumi was assigned as director, and Otsuka became the character designer; Kobayashi provided key animation on several episodes. The series was originally planned for 26 episodes, with synopsis created for each one. Kiyoshi Kobayashi was retained as Jigen for the TV series (and continues to voice the role as of 2016), while Gorō Naya and Chikao Ōtsuka, who voiced Goemon in the CinemaScope version of the Pilot Film and Zenigata in the TV version respectively, were assigned the opposite of each other's roles for the series. Yasuo Yamada and Yukiko Nikaido, neither of whom were involved in the Pilot Film, were cast as Lupin and Fujiko. Yamada, known for his dubbing of Clint Eastwood, continues to be widely acclaimed for his serious and humorous portrayals of Lupin, and became synonymous with the role even after his death in 1995. Masuyama played the one-time character of Catherine in an episode of the series, and eventually replaced Nikaido as Fujiko from the second series onward until her retirement in 2010. Although not officially released until the collection in 1995, animation from the TV version of the Pilot Film was recycled for several of the series' opening credits sequences, despite Lupin wearing a red jacket in these sequences (it was changed to green for the series at Otsuka's insistence).

Production and broadcast
The series was broadcast on Yomiuri Television between October 24, 1971 and March 26, 1972. Early ratings for the series were poor; after the broadcast of the second episode, Osumi was asked to make changes to the series in the hopes of broadening its appeal. After he refused to do so, he was fired as director. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata had recently moved from Toei to A Productions in order to begin pre production on an adaption of Pippi Longstocking. However that work was cancelled and they were chosen as replacements for Osumi by Otsuka, who had worked with them previously at Toei. Production was credited as "A Production" rather than assigning Directorial credit. Due to the production schedule of the series, many episodes are a mix of influences between Osumi, Takahata and Miyazaki and several episodes do not credit a director. Episode 9 was the final episode that Osumi had full creative control. Miyazaki and Takahata were asked to make several changes to the series and also made other changes based on their own views. They immediately set out to remove a sense of apathy from the series which they felt was also evident in society. To achieve this they gave the characters a more positive outlook. Lupin would become "happy-go-lucky" and "upbeat" while Jigen would be "a friendly, cheery fellow". They also removed Fujiko's "cheap eroticism". The changes during production lead to a lack of unity in the visuals and a "duality". The music for the series was composed by Takeo Yamashita, with many songs being performed by Charlie Kosei.

Lupin the Third Part I is noted to be the first animated series created in Japan to target an adult audience with an emphasis on mature, complex characters and storylines. It also frequently placed an emphasis on realism, with attention to details of vehicles, weapons and consumer items (which were only approximated in the manga) being a cornerstone of Otsuka's animation style. Previously, all Japanese animated series were family-friendly.

Release
Numerous home releases have been published in Japan. Emotion and VAP both published VHS releases of the series. For the 25th anniversary of the original manga, VAP released a six volume edition from March 1993. A four volume edition was released on July 23, 1999. The series was released in Japan in a DVD box set by VAP on July 4, 2001. The set was limited to 30,000 copies. A Blu-ray box set of four discs was released on December 21, 2008, and on four individual discs on January 21, 2009. Kodansha launched Lupin III DVD Collection, a bi-weekly magazine on January 27, 2015. Scheduled to run for 45 issues, the magazine will includes a DVD containing episodes from the first two Lupin III TV series. Discotek Media licensed and released the series on DVD in North America as Lupin the 3rd: The First TV Series Complete Collection on June 26, 2012. The release includes audio commentaries on several episodes, essays and liner notes as well as both versions of the Pilot Film. The series is also available in North America via the Hulu streaming service as Lupin the Third Part I.

Several releases have been made of the music from the series. Two singles were released on December 10, 1971 and January 20, 1972. The Original BGM Collection was released as an LP by Nippon Columbia on March 25, 1980. This was later reissued on CD on March 14, 2007 for the 40th anniversary of the original Manga. Music from the series was also released on the album Lupin III The 1st Series Music Anthology, published by Nippon Columbia on March 21, 2003. Due to a loss of the original master tape for the background music, the music from the series was recreated by Takeo Yamashita and released as Rebirth From '71 Series on January 21, 2003.

Reception
The series received a record amount of orders from the broadcast industry and had a 9% viewing share during its original broadcast.

In November 1994, Monkey Punch himself named the first series as the best anime adaptation of Lupin III, particularly the first few episodes, citing its faithfulness to his manga. Shinichirō Watanabe, director of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, has spoken of being heavily influenced by the work of director Masaaki Ōsumi on the series.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs placed the series in 50th place on a list of the best anime.

Chris Beveridge of The Fandom Post praised the extras and production of Discotek's DVD release. He described the series as "a ton of fun". Mike Dent, writing for Otaku USA called the series "fantastic" but highlighted the first 12 episodes as the "true gems of the show". In Anime Classics Zettai!, Brian Clamp and Julie Davies observed the series had a serious "crime film feel" and darker tone compared to other animated adaptions of the series due to violence as well as the sexualisation of Fujiko. They also noted the attention to background detail and animation.

In a feature written for Anime News Network, Reed Nelson states that "The transition [between Ōsumi's seinen-themed episodes and the family-friendly Miyazaki-Takahata installments] is not entirely smooth, but [the series is] a fascinating watch for the curious, and can give new viewers a glimpse into the variety the franchise offers as a whole".