The Old School Otaku Lounge

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... shun-oguri

Hmmm. Not sure how I feel about the guy who's playing Lupin yet, but the other actors look promising? I'm always a bit weary of live-action anime adaptations, though.

It's all becoming very 'Hollywood', isn't it?

I'm to the point of not really caring. As has been said, the original is still out there to be enjoyed.

Of course I'm known to be a crazy man, I kind of thought Bill Hader (ex-SNL player) would make a decent live Lupin III.

SteveH wrote:It's all becoming very 'Hollywood', isn't it?

I'm to the point of not really caring. As has been said, the original is still out there to be enjoyed.

Of course I'm known to be a crazy man, I kind of thought Bill Hader (ex-SNL player) would make a decent live Lupin III.

...actually, I could kind of see that. With a little makeup to highlight the more "cartoony" features he has, he could pull off that look, probably.

I think I've mentioned before that a few years ago I saw a really neat trailer for an Italian fan-made live-action Lupin "film" where the actor for Lupin looked pretty convincing...I Googled it and was surprised to see that the full film actually got finished and uploaded to the internet recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f3KqEkcpC0

It's not even 20 minutes long, but for a fan film it's not bad! (My only real gripe is that they pronounce Fujiko's last name like the English word "mine" instead of the Japanese way...but since they're Italian, that might be how the original series was translated it for the Italian release? I have no idea.) It's very much a tribute to the original anime, with lots of cheesy/goofy moments, but that's part of the fun. It's a cute homage, and the fact that it was shot in an international location helps, I think.

Cool! I started a topic on that Italian movie's trailer a long time ago on here. Now that it's been uploaded, I will definitely watch it!

My friend introduced me to a Google doohickie that plugs into your TV and lets you watch YouTube on your TV. You can use either a computer or a smartphone to control it. I am considering getting one.

I've heard of those, but never tried it. You can watch Youtube via an "app" on the PS3, so I've watched anime on Youtube through that on our big TV. It's fun!

So Lupin is Japanese? I thought he was always French, like his ancestors. And with the Japanese having "a thing" with the French, I could see it. Japanese cast? Well, we'll have to see how it turns out...

I was always under the impression that Lupin was probably at least mixed heritage? He's supposed to be the grandson of the original Lupin, so I figured that meant he had a Japanese (or mixed Japanese) mother or something. I don't recall if that's ever clearly explained or not...

Well, this isn't the first time there's been a live-action Lupin movie from Japan. There was one in the '70s. This is a movie intended for Japanese audiences, so naturally it will be done in Japanese by Japanese actors for Japanese viewers. It's really no more absurd as the American live-action Dragonball, Chun Li, or Avatar movies in which Caucasians are cast as Asian characters.

But I do believe that Lupin is supposedly either half or third Japanese. It explains why he is so comfortable with Japan, since the anime was never presented in such a way that Lupin seemed to be a foreigner and unfamiliar with Japan.