Most people know by now that Coyboy Bebop was inspired by Lupin III, but not everyone knows that the Lupin Gang had their own space adventures.

This got a pilot episode out before it was scrapped by TMS for Inspector Gadget.

Apparently at some point an unwholesome redesign of Jigen that would have made him look more like Jett Black was mocked up for the animation pilot.

So here we are, finally able to read the manga that got a canceled animation pilot with no voice acting. The last 3 chapters are considered LOST MEDIA until some hoarder in Japan with old copies of Monthly 100 Ten Comic scans & uploads them.

This manga was apparently not written by Monkey Punch at all, but done with his permission, aiding a statement he once gave in an interview about embracing alternative interpretations of his characters.

This is clearly inspired entirely on the Part 2 anime & not at all on the manga series. It seems like it was dumbed-down for a teen audience & was borderline chibified. I almost want to compare the mood to Goldfish Warning, but for boys. The pacing is rapid & feels like it was written to be the story guide for an animated series.

The art tries to mimic the TV series but the artist frequently slips into his own art style, making the faces inconsistently drawn. The heads are far too large for the bodies.

Lupin runs a detective agency but never does any actual detective work. Everything is pointed out for him & he just goes out on retrieval missions. Jigen & Goemon are accessory characters who never get any real focus, which was a major issue I had with the CGI movie. Zenigata has it worse, basically turned into Freddy from A Pup Named Scooby Doo who shows up at the end of some adventures to accuse Red Herring of the crime when it's never him. He is barely in this series at all. Fujiko flip-flops between helpless damsel who needs rescuing to thieving vulture, & unlike the animes she never wins in the end.

The gang encounters their original selves cryogenically frozen. As Lupin 8 is romantically interested in Fujiko 8, I have to assume they are all clones, because Monkey Punch wrote Lupin Jr, a manga about Lupin 4 where Fujiko is his mom, & it would be weird if Lupin the 4th's great grandson was trying to date what would have to be a close cousin or sibling.

As a manga it's disappointing, but I could see it working as an anime series targeted at a younger audience, & actual animation replacing Lupin just monologuing everything he's doing.

In the end, Orichalcum gave us the Lupin gang in outer space kicking ass in high heels, & for that I thank them.

... Last updated on December 22nd, 2022, 5:34am