Fans Picked Premieres and Finales
The ballot was unusually large. Voting covered 303 episodes spanning Lupin III Part 1 through Part 6, plus all 13 episodes of the 2012 spinoff Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, for 316 in total. Polls closed on August 31. Thirteen episodes survived: the top two from each of the six main series, and the single highest-ranked Fujiko Mine episode.
Only the seven first-place winners have been named. Part 1's winner is episode 1 itself, the 1971 premiere, "Is Lupin Burning...?!" Part III and Part 4 also gave first place to their openers, "The Gold Ingots Summon Lupin" and "The Wedding of Lupin the Third." The Woman Called Fujiko Mine's winner is its own premiere, "Master Thief vs. Lady Looter."
The other two series went the opposite way. Part 2's winner is episode 155, released in English as "Aloha Lupin." It closed out the 1977 run, it was the last episode Telecom Animation Film produced for that series, and Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed it under a pseudonym. Part 5 picked its own closer, episode 24, "Viva Lupin the Third." Part 6's winner is "Episode 0 -Era-," the installment that launched the 2021 series.
None of the seven changed position after the interim tally, according to Anime Anime, the Japanese anime news site that reported the results. The six runners-up stay under wraps until broadcast. Each is named only when it airs, so the weekly block carries a guessing game on top of the reruns.
The Narration Exists Only Here
Every episode in the lineup comes with a fresh introduction voiced by the current main cast: Kan'ichi Kurita as Lupin III, Akio Ōtsuka (Batou in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) as Daisuke Jigen, Daisuke Namikawa as Goemon Ishikawa, Miyuki Sawashiro as Fujiko Mine, and Kōichi Yamadera (Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop) as Inspector Zenigata.
The cast recorded those introductions for the anniversary block specifically, and the broadcast is the only place to hear them. No home video or streaming reuse has been announced. Viewers watching Part 1 in 2026 will hear today's Lupin introduce a 1971 Lupin.
Fifty-Five Years of Arsène Lupin's Grandson
The franchise started as a manga by Monkey Punch and became a TV anime in 1971. Lupin III is the grandson of Arsène Lupin, a thief with a global reputation. He works with gunman Daisuke Jigen, swordsman Goemon Ishikawa and the reliably unreliable Fujiko Mine, while Inspector Zenigata stays permanently one step behind them.
Six TV series carry the main numbering, from the 1971 original through Part 6 in 2021, and the art style, tone and setting shift substantially across them. Part 1 is loose and adult. Part 4 relocates the crew to Italy. The Woman Called Fujiko Mine hands the lead to Fujiko and reworks the visual language entirely. A vote across 316 episodes was always going to produce a strange mix, and it did. Four of the seven confirmed winners are first episodes, which suggests voters treated the question as "what should someone watch first" rather than "what is objectively best."
The broadcast credits run under TMS Entertainment, with Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV attached depending on the series.
Looking Ahead
The block runs weekly on Nippon TV, Saturday late nights, starting October 3, 2026. Each episode goes up on TVer, Japan's free catch-up streaming service, right after it airs. TVer is restricted to viewers in Japan. The six unannounced episodes will be revealed one at a time as the schedule progresses.
International fans have no way to watch the block itself, and no overseas partner has been announced for it or for the new narration. The episodes, though, are another matter. Crunchyroll currently carries Lupin the 3rd Part 1 and Part 6 in the United States, which covers two of the seven confirmed winners, including the 1971 premiere. Discotek Media has handled most of the franchise's North American home video releases, so the rest of the lineup is findable on disc even where it is missing from streaming.