In 1967, manga writer Monkey Punch created a comic called Lupin III, about a charming thief who was able to commit incredible heists and get away to brag about them. The manga was a roaring success, with its thrilling adventures, sensual women, and charming (if not trustworthy) protagonists; today it has passed into anime history as a milestone, with Lupin's incredible escapades making him a counterpart to James Bond. This was the first ever animated adaptation of Lupin III, airing only two years after the manga began. As its title notes, it was a pilot film, intended to start up a series about Lupin. It basically introduces the main cast and then gets straight to them making a grand getaway, with OO7-like flamboyance and finesse. Of note is that as this feature aired in 1969, just two years after the manga began. Thus, it appears to have a raw, prototypical feel about it; the animation is a little dated by today's standards. Also, no adventure or heist occurs here, only an escape from a police hunt led by Lupin's rival Inspector Zenigata; this sort of enhances the unrefined feel of this feature, since these characters are not quite their definitive versions (notably Lupin's ally Goemon is an enemy in this). However, overall the film maintains the racy, fast-moving pace that is characteristic of Lupin: whatever scrapes he ends up in, he always finds a way out of them. And while it's shorter and sketchy in comparison to the consequent Lupin features (five TV shows, five films and about 20 animated specials as of 2015), it holds up against those well in doing what all these Lupin stories do: put him through a perilous adventure with high odds against him, from which he comes out of it in style.It's not too bad a beginning for an anime legend. It's certainly worth a watch.

This was Lupin's first debut in animation. 2 years after being published in a comic by Monkey Punch.This short film was just the beginning of a long history of one of the most popular series of Japan.In this Pilot film, it introduces all 5 characters including Lupin, and gives you the basic idea of what the series is like.Lupin plays Shouji with Zenigata on the phone, but only to discover that one of the pieces is fake with a bomb in it. Which makes Zenigata ferocious and wants to track down Lupin. While Goemon wants to kill Lupin for his own purposes.It's a short story, the whole point of it was to show the profiles in animation form, and soon be promoted to TV and movie industries.2 different versions were made of this short. On for TV and one for the movies. Course both have their differences, but same story to follow.It's older than the 23 episode series, but it was the first tiny step for Lupin to become highly known throughout Japan.It's only available to view by fan sub or the Secret Files R2 DVD.