Lupin III features at Super Discotek Day!
Discotek Media have finished airing their latest digital media panel over on Twitch, and have given a few Lupin III series updates!
While there were no brand-new announcements (sorry to those looking forward to the rumored Lupin III VS Detective Conan: The Movie English dub), three upcoming Blu-ray releases were mentioned. This included Elusiveness of the Fog, Part III and The Return of Pycal - all of which were announced during Discotek Media’s previous livestream in December last year.
Let’s quickly run down each title, with the new information on each!
First up was a brief update on Elusiveness of the Fog.
This 2007 TV special is coming to North America on Blu-ray later this year, with 1080p video quality and original Japanese audio. The team working on the release currently have their heads down, focusing on bringing us the best video quality possible.
Due to the nature of when this special originally released, and the state of animation at the time, there are a few tricky issues regarding interlacing that the team are facing. Hopefully this is soon cleared up (as much as possible, at least) and we have a final release date shortly!
Temporary artwork, final box artwork is pending.
Next up we have a note regarding the 1980’s pink jacket series, which is coming to North America later this year!
While a release date for Lupin III: Part III has yet to be decided, it is to be expected shortly. The set is authored, and Brady Hartel over at Discotek is currently waiting on a few translation fixes. The Blu-ray also includes an art gallery that features a lot of old artwork, much of which requires a some restoration, so the work going into this has been intense.
The box set has two covers - the first half features art from the first portion of the series' run, whereas the second half features some of the zanier, fun artwork from the latter episodes. Some fans of the show prefer one style over the other, so with the option of two different covers, you can decide how best to display your set!
Temporary artwork, final box artwork is pending.
Finally, everyone's favourite OVA, Lupin III: The Return of Pycal, is getting some special upscaling treatment!
The film is due to release in North America for the very first time later this year, with 1080p video quality and original Japanese audio.
Back to the upscaling work - take a look at the images below. The picture in the top left is the original resolution of this film, whereas the larger image is new, touched up version. Again, lots of hard work is going into this one!
The Return of Pycal is often referred to as one of the lesser quality Lupin animated features, but there is still a lot of care and attention going into this release. If you do need a reason to check out this film, it's worth having a watch to take a look at some weird and experimental early anime CGI.
A few examples are shown in the image below - one even features a bizarre visualization from computer audio software Winamp…!
And that’s a wrap!
While it was a relatively light Discotek Media update in terms of Lupin III goodies, there were plenty of stellar unrelated announcements. If you are into anime outside of Lupin, we recommend checking out the livestream to see titles such as Memories, A-Ko, Lady Oscar and more!
The team also stuck around for a very lengthy Q&A session after the main event, which was super interesting and insightful.
Be sure to keep an eye on our Lupin release radar to keep track of all the releases mentioned here by clicking the banner below - and we hope you had a happy Discotek Day!
