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Bye Bye, Lady Liberty

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Bye Bye, Lady Liberty
North American cover artwork by Discotek Media
バイバイ·リバティー危機一発!
(Baibai Ribatī – Kiki Ippatsu!)
Anime television film
Directed byOsamu Dezaki
Produced by
  • Hidehiko Takei
  • Motoyoshi Tokunaga
  • Yutaka Yasuda
Written by
  • Junichi Iioka[a]
  • Hiroshi Kashiwabara[b]
Music byYuji Ohno
StudioTokyo Movie Shinsha
Licensed by
Original networkNippon TV
ReleasedApril 1, 1989
Runtime97 minutes

Bye Bye, Lady Liberty (ルパン三世 バイバイ·リバティー危機一発!, Rupan Sansei Baibai Ribatī – Kiki Ippatsu!, Lupin III: Bye-Bye Liberty – Close Call!)[c] is the first television special in the Lupin III franchise. Directed by veteran director Osamu Dezaki, it was broadcast by NTV on April 1, 1989. A number of Lupin III television specials have followed with a total of 28 airing as of November 2019, including a crossover special with Detective Conan.

Plot

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Lupin is forced to give up his life of crime when he encounters Michael, a young boy who demonstrates that police computers are able to predict his every move. His retirement is short-lived when his colleague Jigen learns the location of the giant diamond called the Super Egg which was stolen from the Three Masons,[d] a sinister secret society. The Egg is hidden in the Statue of Liberty and Lupin helps recover the diamond by stealing the entire Statue. Meanwhile, Goemon becomes bodyguard to Isabelle, a beautiful woman who is also seeking the Super Egg. It transpires that Michael is the son of the woman, Isabelle Silverman, Number 2 of the Masons and a computer scientist who invented the Neovirus. She conspires with Jimmy, Number 3, to get the Super Egg and kill number 1 to take over the Masons. However, once they have the egg, Jimmy fatally stabs Isabelle and releases the Neovirus. The virus causes the US and USSR to prepare their nuclear missiles for launch, but Lupin helps Michael to halt the computer program and avert a global disaster.

Voice cast

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Character Voice actor
Japanese English[2]
World Wide Sound/Manga UK
(1996)
Arsène Lupin III Yasuo Yamada Wolf III
William Dufris
Daisuke Jigen Kiyoshi Kobayashi Eric Meyers
Fujiko Mine Eiko Masuyama Toni Barry
Goemon Ishikawa XIII Makio Inoue Garrick Hagon
Inspector Koichi Zenigata Gorou Naya Seán Barrett
Michael Mayumi Tanaka Sue Sheridon
Isabel Yui Komazuka Isabella
Liza Ross
Jimmy Cants Masane Tsukayama Jimmy Smith
Peter Marinker
Silverman Michio Sakiyama Don Fellows
Ed Kenichi Ogata Colin Bruce
Jones Unshou Ishizuka Bob Sherman
Rooster Tamio Ooki Bob Sherman
Judy Naoko Kouda Sue Sheridon
News Anchor Minoru Inaba Toni Barry
Colin Bruce
Cab Driver Yousuke Akimoto Bob Sherman
Computer Kenyu Horiuchi Toni Barry
Don Fellows
French Police Officer Mitsuaki Hoshino Garrick Hagon
Sheriff Atsushi Ii Colin Bruce


Production

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The special was directed by Osamu Dezaki, an experienced anime director who had previously storyboarded several episodes of Lupin The Third Part I.[3] In addition Dezaki created the storyboards under the pseudonym Makura Saki, something he commonly did despite being well known for creating his own storyboards.[4]

During his career Dezaki created many animation techniques that became standard in the Japanese animation industry and are used throughout the special. One of his best known techniques "Postcard memories", also commonly known as "Harmony" involved adding painted lines to a cel to give the appearance of a watercolor effect and provide visual impact with minimal animation. While this technique is normally used to end a scene, during the special it is also used during action scenes.[5][6] Another signature technique used during the special is the "triple take" where a cel is moved quickly across the camera multiple times to produce a sense of speed. The name comes from its typical usage of 3 passes of the cel.[7] Lighting techniques used techniques include backlit backgrounds, gel effects, lighting bloom in the corner of a scene and diagonal spotlights across heavily shadowed images to produce a sense of darkness. other techniques include Parallax scrolling to give depth to city scenes, split screens and dutch angle.[8][9][10][11]

Release

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Bye, Bye Lady Liberty was broadcast on April 4, 1989.[12]

VAP have published several home releases of the special in Japan. At first the special was released as both a VHS and a Laserdisc edition.[13] They then released the special on DVD on December 22, 1999 and again in April 2006.[14] A DVD containing both Liberty and the next special, Hemingway Papers was released by Futabasha on July 4, 2014.[15] The soundtrack was released on October 21, 2000.[16]

Manga Entertainment UK released an English dubbed VHS as Goodbye Lady Liberty in the United Kingdom on 9 September 1996.[17] Discotek Media released the special on DVD in North America as Bye Bye Lady Liberty on March 25, 2014.[18]

Reception

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In 500 Essential Anime Movies, Helen McCarthy called Liberty her personal favourite of the Lupin TV specials. She describes it as "light, funny and entertaining" and "terrific entertainment".[19] Reviewing Liberty for Manga Mania, John Spencer felt it was a "rather routine television movie, with none of the flair and style of the previous films". He compares the secrecy of one of the characters to Scooby-Doo and in summary describes the film as "not classic Lupin...but good enough".[20] Lupin expert Reed Nelson expressed that although Liberty is superior to several of the specials that followed it, it suffers from uneven pacing and a climax comparable to The Mystery of Mamo.[21]

Writing for The Fandom Post, Darius Washington noted the techniques used by Dezaki on Golgo 13: The Professional worked well with the special. He called the UK dub "solid" with the exception of one scene and highlighted the special as one of the better feature length entries in the series.[22]

Notes

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  1. ^ Scenario Director (シナリオディレクター)
  2. ^ Screenplay (脚本)
  3. ^ Prior to its North American release, the film's title was usually translated by fans as Bye Bye Liberty Crisis. "Crisis" is an oversimplification of "Kiki Ippatsu" (危機一発), as the first two kanji characters do mean "crisis", but the last renders the phrase to refer to "a close call", "a narrow escape" or "in the nick of time". When preparing the film's DVD release in North America, Discotek Media and Reed Nelson opted to name the film Bye Bye, Lady Liberty as a median between the Japanese title and the film's British title, Goodbye Lady Liberty.[1]
  4. ^ Known as "Conquer the Universe, Inc." in the English dub.

References

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  1. ^ Bye Bye, Lady Liberty (References & Translation Notes) (DVD). Altamonte Springs, Florida: Discotek Media. 1989.
  2. ^ English Dub cast and Crew, Discotek DVD
  3. ^ Toole, Mike (April 25, 2011). "Dezaki's Due". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
  4. ^ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 8 minutes in.
  5. ^ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 14 minutes in.
  6. ^ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 26 minutes in.
  7. ^ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 28 minutes in.
  8. ^ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 6 minutes in.
  9. ^ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 9 minutes in.
  10. ^ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 19 minutes in.
  11. ^ Toole, Mike. Lupin III Bye Bye Lady Liberty (DVD Commentary). Discotek Media. 4 minutes in.
  12. ^ ルパン三世アニメ全歴史完全版. Futabasha. April 1, 2012. p. 153. ISBN 978-4-575-30406-0.
  13. ^ The ルパン三世 Files. Kinema Junpo Sha. July 24, 1998. pp. 64–65.
  14. ^ "バイバイ・リバティー・危機一発!". Oricon. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  15. ^ "DVD) TVSPルパン三世イッキ見スペシャル!!! バイバイ・リバティー・危機一発!&ヘミングウェイ・ペーパーの謎". Futabasha. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  16. ^ "バイバイリバティー危機一髪". VAP. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  17. ^ Manga Mania 37 Pg3
  18. ^ "North American Anime, Manga Releases, March 23–29". Anime News Network. March 25, 2014. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  19. ^ McCarthy, Helen (2008). 500 Essential Anime Movies. HarperCollins. p. 426. ISBN 978-0-06-147450-7.
  20. ^ Spencer, John (September 1996). "Manga Mania" (38). Manga Publishing: 88. ISSN 0968-9575. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. ^ Nelson, Reed (January 27, 2016). "Lupin the Third: The Complete Guide to Films, TV Specials and OVAs". Anime News Network. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  22. ^ Washington, Darius (December 9, 2014). "Lupin III: Bye Bye Lady Liberty Anime DVD Review". The Fandom Post. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
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