Can you talk more about Japan's obsession with Arsene Lupin and the slew of Gentleman Thief characters in anime very much directly inspired by him?
Japan's history with Lupin doesn't actually start with Lupin himself, but with a different character named Zigomar. Zigomar is an 1908 French pulp character who was Fantomas's direct predecessor and inspiration, and a fairly popular character for quite a while. He got to cross over with Nick Carter for one of his serials and the name Zigomar was used worldwide for several characters over the decades (even in Brazil). During the start of Japan's film history, movies were largely film variants of scenes from kabuki & noh plays, but in the 1910s, when further experimentation began occuring and foreign exports started becoming more commonplace, one particular trend at the time was ninja films, which for over two decades were functionally the equivalent of superhero films today.
Predating this ninja craze, and possibly even influencing it, the French Zigomar serials were quite popular in Japan, and they would start creating their own Zigomar films, beginning in 1912 with NIHON JIGOMA. These were a smash hit that influenced a lot of filmmakers into incorporating European film techniques, particularly in editing. I imagine the Japanese probably turned Zigomar into less of a murderous villain, because one of the subsequent films is called Great Detective Zigomar, although regardless of how they adapted it, they caused a moral panic when daily newspapers began to attribute crimes to the "immoral" influence" of Zigomar on the young.
And so, police started banning them and they had to create a new film exhibition code to forbid works which "promoted" adultery, crime, cruelty or moral corruption. And we all know by this point that censored works are only made all the more appetizing to those that can't have them, and Zigomar proved there was definitely a market for pulp anti-heroes in Japan. Enter the 1920s.
By this point, Lupin was already one of the biggest of fictional icons, a frequent guest star in international pulp magazines next to the likes of Nick Carter, Sherlock Holmes, Fantomas and Fu Manchu. All across the world, you could already find either people inserting Arsene Lupin into their stories (such as Ogonek's Sherlock stories in Siberia or the James Robertson pulps from Germany) or creating their own spins on Arsene himself (such as China's Lu Ping or Batavia's Si Pitung). And so, in 1923, you had the first Lupin serial made in Japan we have records of: 813 - Rupimono, retitled Hachi Ichi San. The character was renamed Akira Naruse for copyright purposes but everyone knows who it was supposed to be. In the 50s, there was also Nanatsu-no Houseki (1950), Tora no-Kiba (1951) and Kao-no Nai Otoko (1955). All of these films are lost completely, but they show that, in the 50s, there was still an interest in Lupin around Japanese media. And not just in Japanese media.
This probably didn't influence anything much in the history of Japan's relation with Lupin (although considering the cultural exchange between Brazil and Japan runs deep, this very well could have ended up overseas for a Japanese audience to watch), but the first TV series based on Arsene Lupin was actually created in Brazil in 1959. It was called As Aventuras de Arsene Lupin, and much like the Japanese started producing Zigomar films based on a love for the French serials, Brazilians loved the Lupin films so much that, eventually, an original series was created.
It starred comedic legend and circus performer Walter Stuart, who had already starred in a Sherlock pastiche for the network, and whose look was already frequently compared to that of Lupin, even before he was cast in the show. And he spoke French, too. The series was short-lived, and is mainly included here because very few records of it exist, and certainly none written in English. Still, it's also interesting as a much more comedy-based approach to Arsene Lupin, a couple of years before that would hit the world in a big way.
Enter the 60s, and we get to the character most responsible for ensuring the name Lupin would never again stay out of people's minds for long: Lupin the Third. A pretty ingeniously designed character who combined Lupin with James Bond (the obvious guy to rip-off if you're a fictional character in the 60s) and whose quick rise to prominence also led to it being behind several of manga and anime's most enduring properties, several of the biggest names over the decades getting their start either in Lupin III, or starting with Lupin III and ending somewhere else.
You have, of course, Hayao Miyazaki, and the monumental popularity of Castle of Cagliostro (which is still the closest thing to a LeBlanc Lupin story this franchise's ever had). You have Shinichi Watanabe who goes around dressed like Lupin. You have Mamoru Oshii, whose canned Lupin film would eventually result in him re-using the ideas for Patlabor, Angel's Egg and Ghost In The Shell. You have Shinichiro Watanabe who said that the biggest inspiration for Cowboy Bepop came from Lupin III's cast. Takeshi Koike, creator of Redline, currently the animation director for the more recent Lupin films. Lupin III has become this springboard of creativity and talent and variety that has directly and indirectly led to many of the biggest names in pop culture today.
Lupin is the single biggest argument I could possibly make as to why I think taking the pulp heroes to anime and videogames is their best shot at long-term vitality, because look at how well that turned out for him. It's been 116 years since Maurice LeBlanc first penned Arsene Lupin, and still the character has a freshness and vitality to him virtually unheard of in properties this long lived.
Not just because of the original stories, which are fantastic and definitely deserve better translations, but because the character's legacy has found a footing the likes of which would be inconceivable back then. Lupin movies, Lupin tv shows, Lupin reprints, Lupin public domain guest appearences. The novels get to stand side by side with the biggest of all literary icons. Persona 5 was explosively popular even by the standards of prior franchise installments. Arsene Lupin is in Smash Bros, something that only Dracula had a snowball's chance in hell of achieving.
As with the original stories, it's not enough for Lupin to win and get away with winning, he also has to rub his victory in everyone's faces, and man do we love to watch that happen.
