Lupin III is an anime franchise based on the manga series written and illustrated by Kazuhiko Kato (which he does under the pen name Monkey Punch).

The main character of Lupin III is Arsene Lupin III, the grandson of the fictional gentleman thief, Arsene Lupin. His right-hand man is Daisuke Jigen, and he is an expert marksman. These two are often joined by Goemon Ishikawa XIII (a master swordsman) and Fujiko Mine (Lupin's love interest). Sometimes, Fujiko uses Lupin's interest in her to steal some treasure for herself. The group is constantly being followed by Inspector Koichi Zenigata of the ICPO, who wants to arrest Lupin so he can be brought to justice for all the heists he has committed.

Even though Monkey Punch used the character of Arsene Lupin as an ancestor for his character, he never acquired permission from the estate of Maurice Leblanc (the creator of the original Arsene Lupin). This would later cause copyright problems between Monkey Punch and the Leblanc estate. In fact, these copyright problems did, for a time, cause title changes to be made to Lupin III releases outside of Japan; this would usually mean that Lupin III would be left off entirely. Also, the name of the character changed for releases outside of Japan. Lupin was renamed as "Rupan," "Wolf," and even "Edgar de la Cambriole" in France (in English, this means "Edgar of Burglary"). However, the copyright for the original Arsene Lupin has now expired, and the Lupin name can now be used on releases outside of Japan.

Over the years, the Lupin III franchise has either had a dark theme, or focused quite a bit on slapstick humor. With some of the themes involved with this franchise, I would recommend Lupin III for anime viewers who are 13 or 14 years of age and older.

Title	Episodes	Release Year(s)	Director	Studio	N.A. Licensor
Lupin III Part I	23	1971-1972	Masaaki Osumi/Hayao Miyazaki/Isao Takahata	TMS	Discotek Media
Lupin III Part II	155	1977-1980	Hideo Nishimaki/Hideo Takayashiki/Ichinori Tanahashi/Kyosuke Mikuriya/Noburo Ishiguro/Shigetsugu Yoshida/Yagi Ishikura/Yasumi Mikamoto/Hayao Miyazaki	TMS	Geneon
Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo	N/A	1978	Soji Yoshikawa	TMS Entertainment	Discotek Media
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro	N/A	1979	Hayao Miyazaki	Tokyo Movie Shinsha/Topcraft	Manga Entertainment
Lupin III: Part III	50	1984-1985	Osamu Nabeshima/Shigetsugu Yoshida/Yuzo Aoki	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Legend of the Gold of Babylon	N/A	1985	Seijun Suzuki/Shigetsugu Yoshida	Toho	Discotek Media
Lupin III: The Plot of the Fuma Clan	1	1987	Masyuki Ozeki	?	Discotek Media
Lupin III: Secret Files	1	1989	?	TMS/Toho	Discotek Media
Lupin III: Bye Bye Liberty Crisis	1	1989	Osamu Dezaki	TMS	Manga Entertainment
Lupin III: Hemingway Papers	1	1990	Osamu Dezaki	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Napoleon	1	1991	Osamu Dezaki	TMS/VAP	N/A
Lupin III: From Russia With Love	1	1992	Osamu Dezaki	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Voyage to Danger	1	1993	Masaaki Osumi	TMS	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: Dragon of Doom	1	1994	Masaharu Okuwaki	TMS	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus	N/A	1995	Shunya Ito/Takeshi Shirato	?	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure	1	1995	Osamu Dezaki	TMS	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: Dead or Alive	N/A	1996	Monkey Punch	?	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: The Secret of Twilight Gemini	N/A	1996	Gisaburo Sugii	TMS	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: Island of Assassins	1	1997	Toshiyasu Shinohara	TMS	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: Crisis in Tokyo	1	1998	Toshiya Shinohara	TMS/VAP	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: The Columbus Files	1	1999	Shinichi Watanabe	TMS/VAP	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: Missed by a Dollar	1	2000	Hideki Tonokatsu	TMS	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: Alcatraz Connection	1	2001	Hideki Tonokatsu	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Return of the Magician	1	2002	Mamoru Hamatsu	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Return of Pycal	1	2002	Mamoru Hamatsu	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Episode 0 'First Contact'	1	2002	Minoru Ohara	TMS	Discotek Media
Lupin III: Operation Return the Treasure	1	2003	Jun Kawagoe	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Stolen Lupin	1	2004	Hidehito Ueda	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Angel Tactics	1	2005	Shigeyuki Miya	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Seven Days Rhapsody	1	2006	Hajime Kamegaki	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Elusiveness of the Fog	1	2007	Toshihiko Masuda	TMS	N/A
Lupin III: Green Vs. Red	1	2008	Shigeyuki Miya	?	Discotek Media
Lupin III: Sweet Lost Night – Maho no Lamp wa Akumu no Yokan	1	2008	Tetsuro Amino	TMS	N/A
Lupin III vs. Detective Conan	1	2009	Hajime Kamegaki	Tokyo Movie	N/A
Lupin III: The Last Job	1	2010	Tetsuro Amino	TMS Entertainment	N/A
Lupin III: Chi no Kokuin Eien no Mermaid	1	2011	Teiichi Takiguchi	Telecom Animation Film	N/A
Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine	13	2012	Sayo Yamamoto	TMS Entertainment/Po10tial	FUNimation Entertainment
Lupin III: Toho Kenbunroku ~Another Page~	1	2012	Hajime Kamegaki	TMS	N/A