TMS Entertainment has announced Lupin III: Part 6 will premiere this October to commemorate the anime franchise's 50th anniversary.
The announcement came with a 17-second teaser video, a fast montage of disguises being ripped off, time bombs counting down, shootouts in the streets and a big reveal of the titular gentleman thief in his green jacket from the original 1971 anime. The captions ask "Is he a villain or a hero?" Lupin seems to be responding to this question when he says, "You've got to be kidding me."
Eiji Suganuma will be directing the anime, with Takahiro Okura in charge of script supervision. Both have some previous experience working with the Lupin III characters, with Suganama serving as a unit director and animator on the 2019 Lupin III: Prison of the Past special, and Okura writing Episode 17 of Lupin III: Part 5.
TMS Entertainment also released a poster for the new series, sharing the same "villain or hero?" tagline as the trailer, to go with the announcement.
Since the release of the original 1967 manga by Monkey Punch, which was itself an unofficial spinoff of Maurice Leblanc's classic Arsène Lupin books, Lupin III has been adapted into five mainline TV series plus the darker prequel series Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, as well as seven theatrical films and numerous OVAs and television specials. The most recent movie, the CG-animated Lupin III: The First, will be returning to theaters on August 29 and 31.
Lupin III: Part 6 will premiere this October.
Source: TMS Entertainment, YouTube
