Welcome to the all new Lupin Central!
We’re back!
After a short hiatus, Lupin Central has returned… and just in time, too!
The Lupin franchise has been on a bit of a winning streak as of late. The fantastic Part 5 aired for the first time in Japan last year, and saw decent subtitled and dubbed releases in the west. The third installment in Takeshi Koike’s darker themed Lupin the IIIrd spin-off series, Fujiko Mine’s Lie dropped in Japanese theaters this May and has already received an English dub. Coming up next, we have the promising looking 3DCG film Lupin III: The First - the trailer of which has gained a lot of traction across online social networks. The film itself is set to release in Japan this December.
In contrast, we have also lost the man behind the monkey, Kazuhiko Katō. Katō passed away on April 11th 2019 at the age of 81. It was reported at the time that the cause of death was pneumonia. If it was not for Monkey Punch, this website would not exist. If it were not for him, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy these characters, this show, and share all of these amazing experiences together. It’s still a difficult pill to swallow, even after all of these months - but looking ahead, we should all aim to celebrate his work and this series as much as we can! We will be remembering Monkey Punch and his various works in featured articles to come.
What’s new?
We have moved hosts, from Ghost to Squarespace. A common issue we found with Ghost is that the posting software was relatively bare bones, which led to long editing times (and had a steep learning curve). This paired with inaccessibility on mobile made creating content a chore.
Squarespace fixes that! Posting is a breeze, with a rich text editor that works just as well on mobile as it does on the desktop. The layout has changed - too! The new design features faster load times when hopping between articles, has a dedicated search function and shows all of the latest content at a glance via the main page.
Schedule
In terms of content, we have been toying with the idea of what we would like Lupin Central to be going forwards.
Please find below some loose information on what you can expect from the site:
Monkey news; a weekly news roundup focusing on the world of Lupin III.
This will be in favor of desperately trying to get stories posted online. The roundups will be in magazine format, and will go up once a week, at a set date / time (currently Tuesdays). Waiting for the dust to settle allows for more accurate stories; posts will not be rushed up at the time the news breaks, and details should not go missed. It also works better with our schedule! We all discuss and post up news on social media as it happens, and that won't change.
Featured articles; semi-regular written content by myself and guest writers.
These were a focus on our old Lupin Central website, however they were not nearly as fleshed out as much as we would have hoped them to be. Expect opinion pieces, informative articles, written recollections of experiences, and more - all related to the franchise. There will be no set date and time for when these go up, so be sure to keep an eye on the site or our social media to stay up to date!
Reviews; critical analysis of Lupin work new and old.
With each new piece of Lupin media, we will aim to give you a review. All of these will be written up from the perspective of a fan, but we will still aim to do our best at providing a balanced view. Each review will be formatted in a way that should be easy to digest, and pleasant to read!
Audio; weekly audio snippets and more (to be added at a later date)!
To go alongside Monkey news, we would like to start recording quick and to the point audio updates on the world of Lupin III. These will be included in the same post as our weekly news update, and be a part of that format. While we’re not planning an audio podcast (we’ll leave that to the professionals), there will likely be future discussions, music and more posted in an auditory format going forwards.
The base idea is that - the core website will be a hub for all of the latest information, along with other features and articles. A "central" home for Lupin content in English, if you will!
Contact
There are bound to be teething problems with our new site. If you do notice anything out of the ordinary, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by heading to the contact page.
You can head to the same page to get in touch - want to send us a news tip? Ask a question? Vent about something related to the show? We’re here for you! Please feel free to drop us a line.
