Lupin By Miyazaki?!

Upon reading the comment left by parrots on my last post about Nausicaa, saying how I should watch more old Miyazaki films, I decided to look up Miyazaki on IMDB. I know he has directed films like Porco Rosso and Kiki's Delivery Service among many others that I haven't watched, but what I found made me do a double take.

Hayao Miyazaki was the director of 15 Lupin III episodes!

The catch here is that there were three different versions of Lupin. The first in 1971-72 was more serious, and this is the one that Miyazaki had a hand in. This is referred to as the "green jacket" version. The second series ("red jacket", 1977-80) is what has aired on Cartoon Network, and seems to be the most popular. There is also a third series ("pink jacket",
1984-5).

I never liked Lupin III, but that's probably because I've only watched the red jacket series. I really want to go and find the green jacket series now!

A Change In The Wind

Of all of Hayao Miyazaki's films, I watched Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime) first. So, when I watched his earlier film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika) for the first time, my immediate reaction was to say, "Oh, Princess Mononoke was a natural evolution from this film. This one was imperfect so he did it over, and you can see that in his later film."

I was wrong. I got the DVD of Nausicaa for Christmas and watched it over. I was wrong to make my hasty judgments. Even the dub is awesome, with an all-star cast including Patrick Stewart and Uma Thurman.

I am sorry, Nausicaa. I am sorry, Miyazaki. Sorry for doubting you.