Lupin III: The First (English and Japanese Language)

You don't have to be a fan of the original anime series or manga to thoroughly enjoy this movie. Action packed, gorgeously animated, and highly entertaining, it will keep you on the edge of your seat. The movie has a well written plot and unique, fleshed-out characters to boot, which is something you don't see too often with CG animated movies these days. The translation of the characters from 2D to 3D was very well done. Many comedic faces didn't seem out of place, style wise, which takes incredible talent and work to pull off tastefully. The explosive jazz soundtrack was wonderful as well. You can tell this movie was a labor of love. Please note that the English dub may not sync up perfectly with the animation. It seems that the original animation was done in Japanese only, and dubs can only go so far translation-wise without removing plot elements to keep up with lip-syncing. So, if you want a seamless watching experience, I recommend watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles, or whichever language you prefer to read if it is available. Also, this movie isn't the best for small children. There's a misconception that animated movies are automatically safe for kids to watch, since all animations are only for kids, right? Not always. Save this film for older kids (9-10 years) and up since it features guns and [SPOILERS] Nazis. No blood or gore is shown on screen.

Content wise, visuals are fun, but the actors for English dub are all pretty bland. Heads up that the English dub's audio is all off by a split second. I would've gone with three or four stars, but the off-kilter audio really damages things. Another reviewer mentioned that it was just Google Play's version. Going to request a refund, as that's not worth keeping.

First, let me say I did eventually get to watch Lupin III: The First and it was amazing. Great story & animation! An extremely fun time for any Lupin the 3rd lover. My 1 star review is from the Play store purchase itself. The audio was out of sync for the English dub. About 7 minutes into the movie I realized (although dubbed in English from Japanese) the audio for everything was just oos enough to be distracting. Thankfully I got a refund from Play and purchased through another service.