Video:

Considering the age of this show, the video quality is superb. There were only two instances I saw of any sort of degredation, one in the episode where Lupin, Jigen, and Fujiko are fitted with explosive watches, where the video is quite washed out and colorless in the first part of the second half of the episode. Another is in the "thief island" episode where there's a single 5 second scene where there's quite a bit of dust and scratches. Aside from these two small instances, everything else is flawless. No interlacing or macroblocking here. Note that each episode has either a MI watermark or MI e-mail addresses at the beginning. I'm not going to take points off for these as they aren't explicitly part of video quality. I'd just like to point out however, that they are there.

Audio:

Mono sound, but that's the best you can get for a show this age. No distortion or dropout. The sound seems like it might be a little off with the video on one of the three intros (the first one, to be precise), but I can't tell if it's that way because of the show or the encoding. Still, no reason not to give it a perfect score, so I will. Heh.

Subtitle:

The subtitles are fairly on-again, off-again. In some episodes they're excellent, almost at Fansub level. In other episodes, they're fairly bad, with things like "Baka!" being translated to "Basket!". It can be quite amusing. In no instance do the subtitles become completely non-understandable, and despite some dubious episodes, the subtitles are, overall, quite good. Occasionally on the second disk a ?K will appear mid-subtitle, but it's only a few times. Overall, the subtitles vary from acceptable (and that's only a few times, too) to excellent, and never below that. Subtitles were white with black borders.

Comment:

NOTE: This set is a MI rip [Packaging] The packaging for this set, in the light of some of the more recent MAC titles I've reviewed, is a little disappointing. For the most part it's identical to the MI gatefold (smaller in size, of course, as MAC cases always are), with a grinning Lupin adorning the front cover. While the MI gatefold features Zenigata on the direct inside of the case, the MAC case has a picture of Fujiko which is also found behind third disc. Poor goemon gets left out completely :P, with Lupin, Jigen, and Fujiko taking their places behind the discs. Disc art matches the gatefold art. The images used for the disc backgrounds and the discs themselves are fairly grainy and washed out looking, particularly with the first disc where the spotlit Lupin looks very blotchy. The back of the case has pictures of the show's 5 stars along with the disc information. Overall, it's not a bad looking set, with a fiarly high quality smooth feel on the outside that's marred only by some rather washed out art on the inside. [Menus] The menus load after a brief appearance by the "Manga International" logo. There's a short animation, a spot of theme music, and then the menu appears. From the main menu you can play from the start of the disc, change between Chinese and English subtitles, and go to a chapter selection menu. The chapter selection menu displays each episode with a picture from the episode and a number. Overall, very nice menus that are quck, painless, and easy to use. [Chapter Breaks] There are breaks for each episode immediately following the intro, and right before the end credits, 3 segments in total for each episode. [Content] I'll admit, this show failed to impress me for the first several episodes. It was amusing, but for the most part nothing really stood out that said "Great show!" However, once the series progressed, I found myself engrossed with the characters within. Lupin is a charismatic scamp that you can't help but root for, while Fujiko's treachery is sure to instill in you a great moral outrage... until she gets her comuppance, of course ;D. The characters are really what make this series great, despite some rediculously outlandish plots and solutions (time machines and computers with the foresight to predict someone's every move? please!). Some of the episodes near the center point of the series really stand out as being absolutely phenomenal (the exploding bridge episode in particular). Alas, the season (for me, anyway) ended on a rather silly note and lost some of its real drama and excitement in the last several episodes, but it still scores major points with me overall. Personally, I liked the "rougher", more edgy lupin of the first half of this series than the more silly and comical Lupin of the later episodes, but hey, that's just my opinion. [Random notes] This series, apparently, was directed (or at the very least overlooked) by the animation genius Hayao Miyazaki, and you can see several influences this series had on the phenominal movie "Castle of Cagliostro" (the clocktower episode in particular). If you haven't seen "Castle of Cagliostro"... well.. do. Overall, this series gets an A from me, while MI's/MACs presentation of it gets an A-. Check it out.

Video:

This is a rip of the Manga International set. The video is nice and crisp without any noticeable macro blocking or anything. There is a slight amount of quality loss that will be found in any set of this series due to the age of the masters.

Audio:

The sound levels are all great except for the openeing menus seem to have the volume turned way up. It's also presented in mono sound as it was originally recorded.

Subtitle:

Great timing, easy to understand translations, easy to read yellow subs, and all the original names are preserved. These subs are worthy of an R1 release.

Comment:

The box on this has been updated and looks very similar to the MI box. There are a few slight differences in the box text and the images of Zenigata and Goemon have been replaced with duplicated images of Lupin and Fujiko. All of the openings, closings, and coming attractions have been left intact. It's interesting to look at a lot of the characters throughout this series and note Miyazaki's style deveopling as he worked through this series. You can even see a number of scenes that he used later in his career when he made Castle of Cagliostro. If you are interested in another old Miyazaki title, get a copy of Conan: Boy of the Future. From what I understand, a lot of Lupin purists don't like the Miyazaki series (this set) as much as the later Lupin series because of a lot of the changes Miyazaki made from the original manga. The second series is supposed to be more true to the manga. The easiest way to tell the difference is to look at the colour of Lupin's jacket, green jacket equals Miyazaki, red jacket equals second run of the series.

Video:

Very good for a show of this age, it really impressed me.

Audio:

Good but it sounds a bit weird sometimes,i think this is due to the age of the show and not because of MAC.

Subtitle:

Excellent subs, looks like fansubs or R1.

Comment:

The boxset its a boring Mac generic gatefold. But the discs have very nice pics on them.