Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (Rupan za Saado ~Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna~) is a 2012 television anime series loosely based on the Lupin the Third manga from writer Monkey Punch. The anime was animated by studio TMS Entertainment with director Sayo Yamamoto and writer Mari Okada. The series first broadcast in Japan on April 2012 as part of the Spring 2012 anime season.

Background:

“A cult has become the target of Lupin III’s latest heist, but he might not be the only one after their hidden treasures. It seems the alluring lover of the cult leader may just be a thief herself and more than capable to handle Lupin in the race for the treasure.

But in a chase to outsmart the other, this little game takes a twist for the unexpected. Lupin sets his sights on the female thief, Fujiko Mine, and he may just be a little in love with this femme fatale beauty. But behind her wily charms lies a greater tragedy at hand.

This is the story of how Lupin III, the greatest thief of his generation, met his match.”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, June 2021.

Lupin the Third, a classic manga series that spawned dozens of anime shows, films and television specials. It’s basically TMS Entertainment’s goldmine to what Gundam is to Sunrise. Despite the tons of anime content out there, Lupin the Third is actually pretty easy to jump in because a majority of the titles are newcomer friendly including this one, which is a unique series focusing more on one of the group’s characters Fujiko Mine.

Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine is a series that basically takes place during the early days of the Lupin adventures, where Lupin and Fujiko Mine encounter each other for the first time. This series also has its own unique art style, that carries over into the three films Jigen’s Gravestone, Goemon’s Blood Spray and Fujiko’s Lie. Much like the Lupin film The Secret of Mamo, this series is aimed more for mature audiences than for family friendly viewers that Castle of Cagliostro offered. That being said, Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine is a very good series with a pretty solid English dub.

In terms of licensing, Funimation and Geneon used to handle a fair amount of the Lupin the Third titles (mainly Part II and a dozen television specials) so it made sense that Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine would also be licensed by them. However, after roughly five to six years, the license expired. That being said, around the same time Discotek Media had slowly been offering more Lupin the Third titles so it was evitable that they would take over the license. Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, Manga Entertainment’s license also expired roughly around the same time, and with Anime Limited distributing Lupin the Third Part IV and Part 5, it also made sense for them to rescue the series as well.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

In the past couple of months Anime Limited had been switching things around with their packaging designs, opting more for an Amaray or Scanavo (Criterion type) cases. Though for this instance, they have kept their digipack approach.

The collector’s edition package for Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine is presented with a rigid box housing a digipack containing the two Blu-ray discs and a 36-page booklet. The booklet comes with character bios, artwork and interviews with the director, character designer and writer of the series.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £59.99. In addition, this is also a Blu-ray only release and is expected to receive a standard edition over time.

I pre-ordered the series via Anime Limited’s store during its early bird week for £34.99 plus the 10% store discount from Screen Anime (which is now replaced by the (Un)Limited membership).

I actually do own this series thanks to Funimation’s limited edition release back when I ordered it in January 2014, however not only was that release region locked to A (i.e. US Blu-ray players) but it’s mainly only worth owning if you want a rigid box with two slim amaray cases and some additional artwork, this new release is a much better collector’s edition package and it’s also playable on my local Blu-ray players.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with digipack packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 36-page Booklet

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 14th June 2021

This release for Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine contains the series across two Blu-ray discs, with 13 episodes total. The encoding and authoring is an interesting one as the previous UK & US releases were handled by Funimation, but now with Discotek taking over the license in the US, they have re-authored the release which Anime Limited will be using.

There are a few differences between the Funimation and Discotek discs. The Discotek version uses the original Japanese credits during the opening/closing sequences rather than Funimation’s English credits, there’s 2.0 & 5.1 audio available for the English dub, and the subtitles for the Japanese audio have been updated to fix some mistranslation from the Funimation release, plus on-screen text and lyrics were also included.

The audio options available for the series include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub. The yellow subtitles are unlockable during playback, while the regions are locked to B only for Blu-ray players.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Japanese Linear PCM 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	2 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 1:

• Episode 6 English Audio Commentary with Brina Palencia & Josh Grelle
• English Credit Sequences (Episodes 1-8)

Disc 2:

• Episode 9 English Audio Commentary with Christopher R. Sabat & Sonny Strait
• The Woman Called Fujiko Mine Cast Reunion
• Fujiko Mine at Okratron 5000
• Japanese Announcement Trailer
• Original English Trailer
• Remastered Edition Trailer
• Art Gallery
• Creditless Opening Sequence “New Wuthering Heights”
• Creditless Ending Sequences “Duty Friend”
• Non-Vocal Opening Sequence
• English Opening Sequence
• English Credit Sequences (Episodes 9-13)

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine is available to own on Blu-ray from United Kingdom distributor Anime Limited. The collector’s edition Blu-ray is available to order from multiple retailers including Amazon UK.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills. Due to current global situations, shipping restrictions may apply.)