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ANNCast - Kurt in Earnest

tempest wrote:

penguintruth wrote: Lupin is pronounced "LU-PAHN". Actually, it's a French name, and it's pronounced "Lou Pehn." Of course, expecting you to pronounce it the French way is silly of me, isn't it? Maybe I should just let you pronounce it the way that is most comfortable to you. -t

ルパン三世 (Rupan Sansei) is clearly pronounced "RU-PAHN SAHN-SAY" (Lupin III) in the Japanese versions, but if the intention is that the "r" sound is an "l", it's "LU-PAHN".

The franchise theme song is a long chorus of "LU-PAHN THE THIRD". The same song that's in pretty much every TV special and movie since the '78 TV series.

I'm not usually a stickler for pronunciation, but when the damn theme song pronounces it for you, there you go.

I really like Lupin, but even so, it's not the kind of thing that I'm likely to watch every episode of. I always have a hard time finishing comedies - even those that I really like. They like the action, drama, suspense, etc. which make it so that you have to see the next episode to find out what happens. It's the achilles heal of every episodic show, and it's that much worse for comedies which tend to lack plots (though Lupin does better in that regard than many - at least within an episode). To really get me to keep watching, you need an overarching plot of some kind, and comedies almost always lack that. It's actually one of the strengths of anime that so much of it actually has a plot which continues from episode to episode rather than being episodic. But Lupin definitely doesn't fall in that category.

It's definitely a shame that Lupin hasn't done better in the US, but with how old it looks (even the new stuff tends to look older due to the art style), and how it's just another comedy (albeit a fairly good one), it just doesn't stand out enough, I guess.

As for the Castle of Cagliostro, I find it funny that Zac thinks that that was a particularly good one, but I guess that comes from the fact that he doesn't care for Lupin in general. Cagliostro tends to very much be what Lupin isn't. It had some good stuff in it, but it was not a raucous, hilarious adventure like Lupin usually is. It was going more for the cute, fairy tale type of story which, while not entirely un-Lupin, really isn't where they typically take Lupin stories, and it's certainly not Lupin at his best.

The Lupin special that I'd like to see come over here though is Lupin III vs Detective Conan. The fact that it covers two different franchises, both of which have been release by Funimation probably increases its chances. But the fact that neither of those franchises have been huge hits doesn't help. Here's to hoping though.

penguintruth wrote:

tempest wrote: penguintruth wrote: Lupin is pronounced "LU-PAHN". Actually, it's a French name, and it's pronounced "Lou Pehn." Of course, expecting you to pronounce it the French way is silly of me, isn't it? Maybe I should just let you pronounce it the way that is most comfortable to you. -t ルパン三世 (Rupan Sansei) is clearly pronounced "RU-PAHN SAHN-SAY" (Lupin III) in the Japanese versions, but if the intention is that the "r" sound is an "l", it's "LU-PAHN". The franchise theme song is a long chorus of "LU-PAHN THE THIRD". The same song that's in pretty much every TV special and movie since the '78 TV series. I'm not usually a stickler for pronunciation, but when the damn theme song pronounces it for you, there you go.

His name's always getting butchered one way or another. The Japanese do not pronounce it correctly (it is French after all), but that's not at all surprising. Added to that, you get at least a couple different pronunciations when it gets dubbed into English. So, his name gets pronounced differently left and right.

However, the Japanese definitely pronounce it Lup-pahn as you say. Personally, I don't care too much. I can pronounce it correctly in French, but there's no way they're going to do that in either Japanese or English unless they've actually learned some French (I don't think that either language really has the correct vowel sound for the "in" at the end of Lupin). But if you want to stick to what the Japanese say, then it's Lup-pahn.

Regardless, given that the Japanese don't even pronounce it correctly, and most people who aren't French won't either, I think that it's a bit silly to worry about it much.