Release
The series was broadcast on Nippon TV from October 3, 1977, to October 6, 1980. Episode 99 was the first anime episode to ever be broadcast in Stereo Sound.[7]
The series was released on Blu-ray by VAP as individual discs as well as several boxsets. Six boxsets were released between February 25 and December 23, 2009.[8][9] Twenty-Six individual discs were released between March 25, 2009, and January 27, 2010.[10][11] Kodansha launched Lupin III DVD Collection, a bi-weekly magazine on January 27, 2015. Scheduled to run for 45 issues, the magazine includes a DVD containing episodes from the first two Lupin III TV series.[12]
The first American release of the series was handled by Streamline Pictures, which distributed English language dubs of episodes 145 and 155 individually to VHS in 1994 as Lupin III: Tales of the Wolf. Orion Home Video distributed the episodes together as Lupin III's Greatest Capers in 1995.[13] The series was licensed by Pioneer Entertainment/Geneon for North America. Due to some licensing issues regarding trademarked logos and musical elements, Pioneer were provided with altered masters by the licensor. An English dub was created by Phuuz Entertainment and given a "modern feel" alongside a subtitle script that is more faithful to the original dialog. The storylines are unaffected by these changes. Due to potential controversy concerning an episode regarding Adolf Hitler, the episode that was originally broadcast third in Japan was delayed until later in the series.[14] Fifteen volumes of the series containing a total of 79 episodes were released on DVD between January 28, 2003, to July 4, 2006.[15][16] Episodes 1–27, omitting the Hitler episode, were broadcast on Adult Swim from January 14, 2003.[17]
In 2009, the Southern California-based United Television Broadcasting network began airing subtitled episodes from the series on their UTBHollywood channel.[19] The full series is available to watch on Crunchyroll in Japanese and the Pioneer/Geneon English dub; the Streamline English dub is not included.[20]
On December 20, 2015, Discotek Media announced their acquisition of the North American distribution rights to the entire second series. Released in four sets, the releases included "any English dubs that already exist" and newly produced subtitles for episodes 80 to 155. The first set included the first 40 episodes and was released on January 10, 2017.[21][22] The second set included episodes 41 through 79 and an interview with Richard Epcar and was released on December 26, 2017.[23] Set three with episodes 80 through 117 was released on January 29, 2019.[24] The fourth and final set was released on January 28, 2020, and included the Streamline English dub of episodes 145 and 155.[25]
