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Hayao Miyazaki's feature-film directorial debut.
This film brings Monkey Punch's international jewel thief and loveable rogue, Arsene Lupin III, to the big screen. Miyazaki had directed the first season the the Lupin III television anime, and was given a free hand in developing the characters for a feature film. The result was this uproariously slapstick comedy.
Things to note in this film: many consider the character design of Clarisse to be a fore-runner of Nausicaa (Clarisse and Nausicaa were played by the same voice actress, Sumi Shimamoto). Miyazaki used the same character design (and actress) in the last episode of the first Lupin III TV series --- Farewell, lovely Lupin, where she appeared with the Laputa robot (which, in turn, was taken from a Max Fleischer cartoon).
Legend has it that Steven Spielberg praised the car-chase that opens the film as one of the best car-chases ever.
The climactic scene at the clock-tower puts in a cameo appearance in the third episode of Koko wa Greenwood.
