Akemi's Anime World

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro Anime Review

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro Box Art

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

5 stars / Theatrical Movie / Adventure / 10-up

Bottom Line

Engrossing and entertaining--a classic, period.

It’s Like...

...Miyazaki's kinder, gentler take on Lupin III.

Second Opinion

Wow. What an engrossing and entertaining movie! I was hooked from beginning to end. This is definitely a classic, not just an anime classic but a classic, period. Cagliostro has a plot that may not be original but is well-written and paced perfectly, keeping you glued to your seat. The characters are simply a delight. I suppose being familiar with the Lupin series would help, as I didn't know or get used to a few of the characters, but Lupin himself held the fort. He's a throughly engaging fellow and I don't doubt that he's one of the most beloved anime characters ever.

But this wouldn't work if he wasn't backed up with a good voice. I must say, the acting in this new dub is top-notch and the casting is very good. I'll admit I didn't know if Sean Barker (Tamahome in the Fushigi Yugi dub) could portray Lupin, but he pulled it off flawlessly. The rest of the cast is great as well. I can't speak for the Streamline dub but I can't imagine it living up to this level of quality. The Japanese acting is top-notch too, but I'd go as far to say that the new dub is on par with it. Although the new dub does contain a lot of uncalled for language.

And the DVD... Perfect. The quality of this DVD is up there with modern anime DVDs. The video comes across as crisp, clear and clean with no pixellation, color bleeding, or artifacts in general. The worst are some nicks here and there, and those were simply unavoidable and can't be counted as a fault. The audio may not be extremely dynamic but is crisp, clean and clear in English. The Japanese audio sounds good too, but you have to keep the volume lower as it has a noticeable hiss if it's turned up too loud. This is due to the age of the recording and can't be counted as a fault.

I'll just finish by saying if you have the Streamline version, you'll probably want to replace it and if you don't have it, or haven't seen it then this is a no-brainer. This is essential anime for your collection (especially the DVD!).