Lupin III Part 6 - Here comes the Italian dub

Lupin III's sixth series finally comes to Italian television! Lupin III Part 6 aired in Japan for the first time in October 2021 on broadcasting channel NTV, then it was dubbed in English and broadcasted on American programming block Toonami in April 2022 and available at the same time on the streaming platform HIDIVE. Regarding the Italian market Yamato Video, that usually takes care of dubbing the movies and the distribution of home video releases, worked on the official Italian subtitles for the simulcast release on the streaming platform Amazon Prime Video. This way, the Italian audience could watch the series at the same time as the Japanese broadcast. A year later, television company Mediaset (here we briefly talked about its history and collaboration with other European broadcasters) announced the release of the new series starting from October 12. The series, presented with the title “Lupin III - Una storia senza fine” (Lupin III - A neverending story), will air every Wednesday night in groups of five episodes each, covering 24 episodes in the span or a bit more than a month. With the release of the series’ promotional video, the fans noticed a detail not yet mentioned: almost all the voice actors were replaced.

Promotional video for the premiere on channel Italia 2

When a franchise runs for so long changing voice actors through the decades is a common event, but usually it’s a decision debated between the interested parties, and it aims at keeping vocal continuity as much as possible. The most frequent reasons are the actor’s retirement or passing. In this case, the most probable reason is that choosing a voice acting cast based in the Milan area is more convenient logistically for Mediaset than still working with the cast based in Rome (as Yamato Video prefers to do).

Promotional video for the Italian release of "Lupin III-The First"

In order to celebrate this phase of Lupin history in Italy, let’s remember the actors that voiced the gang in the past series.

Lupin III

Roberto del Giudice (1979-2007)

• Part 1 (first and second dub), Part 2, Part 3
• Tv specials since the first (Bye Bye Lady Liberty) to the 15th (Angel Tactics)
• Movies from the first (The mystery of Mamo) to the fifth (Dead or Alive) + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan) 

Stefano Onofri (2008-2021)

• The woman called Mine Fujiko, second dub of Part 3 (2021), Part 4 y Part 5
• He debuted as Lupin in the tv special “Seven Days Rhapsody” in 2008 by choice of Roberto del Giudice before his death, he kept dubbing the specials until the 27th (Prison of the past)
• Movies from “Lupin The Third vs Detective Conan” until “Lupin III-The First”

Luigi Rosa (2022)

• Part 6
• Second dub for the home video release of “The Castle of Cagliostro” (1992)

Jigen Daisuke

Germano Longo (1979)

• Primero doblaje de Parte 1

Sandro Pellegrino (1979-2012)

• Second dub of Part 1 (1987), Part 2 y Part 3
• Tv version of the first movie (The mystery of Mamo, 1979), movies from the third (Legend of the Gold of Babylon) until the fifth (Dead or Alive)
• Tv specials from the first to the 15th + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan)

Alessandro Maria D’Errico (2014-presente)

• The woman called Fujiko Mine, second dub of Part 3 (2021), Part 4, Part 5 y Part 6
• Tv specials from the 22nd (Lupin III: Blood seal - Eternal Mermaid) onwards
• Movies from “Lupin The Third vs Detective Conan” until “Lupin III-The First”

Goemon Ishikawa

Enzo Consoli (1979)

• First dub of Part 1
• Vittorio Guerrieri (1987)
• Second dub of Part 1 (1987), Part 3, second dub of Part 3 (2021)
• Tv version of the first movie (The mystery of Mamo, 1979) and third (Legend of the Gold of Babylon)

Massimo Rossi (1982)

• Part 2

Antonio Palumbo (1996-2021)

• The woman called Fujiko Mine, Part 4, Part 5
• Tv specials from the first (Bye Bye Lady Liberty) to the 27th (Prison of the Past)
• Movies from “Farewell to Nostradamus” until “Lupin III-The First” + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan)

Patrizio Prata (2022)

• Part 6

Fujiko Mine

Piera Vidale (1979-1982)

• First dub of Part 1, Part 2
• Theatrical release of “The mystery of Mamo” (1979)

Alessandra Korompay (1987-2021)

• Second dub of Part 1 (1987), Part 3, second dub of Part 3 (2021), Part 4 y Part 5
• The woman called Fujiko Mine
• Tv special from the first (Bye Bye Lady Liberty) until the 27th (Prison of the Past)
• Movies from the tv version of the first one (The mystery of Mamo, 1987) until “Lupin III-The First” + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan)

Emanuela Pacotto (2022)

• Part 6

Koichi Zenigata

Enzo Consoli (1979-1992)

• First (1979) and second dub of Part 1 (1987), Part 3
• Tv version of the first movie (The mystery of Mamo) and third movie (Legend of the gold of Babylon) + the OVA movie (The plot of the Fuma clan)
• First tv special (Bye Bye Lady Liberty) and home video release of “Crisis in Tokyo” (2002)
• His recordings were kept for the second dub of Part 3 (2021), that took place after his death in 2007

Marcello Prando (1982)

• Part 2

Rodolfo Baldini (años 90)

• Tv specials number 2 (The Hemingway Papers), 3 (Napoleon's Dictionary)  and 4 (From Siberia with love)

Rodolfo Bianchi (1996-2021)

• The woman called Fujiko Mine, Part 4, Part 5
• Tv specials from the 5th (Voyage to danger) until the 27th (Prison of the Past)
• Movies from “Farewell to Nostradamus” until “Lupin III-The First”

Mario Zucca (2022)

• Part 6

Lupin III Part 6 promotional video with Luigi Rosa

After two Wednesdays of broadcast, there are interesting considerations about the Italian approach to the series. First of all, the broadcasting of five episodes in a row every Wednesday night in prime time initially seemed odd, as if it was a way to complete the release as soon as possible, but now everything is clearer. Wednesday night has been for a very long time the time slot dedicated to the Lupin movies and tv specials: the block of five episodes probably aims to keep the usual weekly programming. Furthermore, the episode order was slightly changed, shuffling the standalone episodes: this way the six chapters covering the arc “Lupin III vs Sherlock Holmes” were aired with no interruption by the single stories, replicating the feeling of watching a movie (five episodes plus the the end of the arc the following week). This shows an interesting broadcast strategy created for the audience’s ideal enjoyment of the series. 

Regarding the translation and adaptation, to this day it seems that the dialogues stayed accurate to the original version, differently from the previous series, in which dialogues about death and murders were “softened”, part of a character’s history was changed (kidnapped for a ransom, when in reality the poor girl was exploited for pornografic pictures) and any mention of one of the supporting characters’ homosexuality was omitted.

Finally, the new voice acting cast proposes a convincing interpretation of the characters, hugely contributing to the pleasant vision experience. Personally it wouldn’t be a bad idea if the new cast kept dubbing the eventual future series and the “classic” cast kept dubbing the movies for Yamato Video. In any case, we will see soon what they will decide when it comes to the movie Lupin III VS Cat’s Eye coming in 2023 on Amazon Prime Video. Until then, I wait with enthusiasm for next Wednesday for the continuation of the series!