The very first in the Lupin III Yearly Specials, a series of Made For TV Movies produced by TMS Entertainment and Nippon Television. Bye-Bye Liberty Crisisnote first aired in Japan on April 1st, 1989. It was directed by the legendary Osamu Dezaki, who would go on to direct four more of the Lupin specials, making him the director to have headed the most of them. Yasuo Yamada, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Eiko Masuyama, Makio Inoue and Goro Naya were lured back to reprise their roles after being replaced for The Fuma Conspiracy.
The special was dubbed into English and released in the United Kingdom by Manga Entertainment in 1996 under the title Goodbye Lady Liberty. It was, for many years, one of the only bits of the Lupin III franchise that saw release in the UK, but not the US. Thankfully, Discotek Media (ever the champions of Lupin) announced that they would give the special a DVD release in the US, including its rare English dub, under the title Bye Bye Lady Liberty. For a long time, this was also the only Lupin special outside of Funimation's block to have an English dub, until Discotek Media announced that they would make dub of Lupin III: Blood Seal ~Eternal Mermaid~ in 2018.
Lupin has decided to give up his life of crime when he finds out that New Scotland Yard's new supercomputer can predict his every move. Still, Jigen comes with a proposition for one last job, which involves stealing a large diamond called the Super Egg from the Statue of Liberty. However, when they are later joined by the young computer whiz-kid Michael and the lovely lady Isabelle, who hides a lot more than she lets on, and an evil organization called the Three Masons is hot on their trail, they start learning of a terrible secret that might cause The End of the World as We Know It.
Followed by Lupin III: Mystery of the Hemingway Papers.
Complete spoilers below – don't read further if you don't want to know how this caper turns out!
This TV Movie provides examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Goemon cuts a helicopter in half with his Zantetsuken, and later does the same with the Super Egg diamond.
- Animation Bump: Not quite to the level of Fuma, but it's a damn sight better looking than any of the TV series, largely due to being storyboarded and directed by Osamu Dezaki.
- Child Prodigy: Michael most certainly qualifies as one, being able to hack into databases. He inherited it from his mother Isabelle, and this proves important in the last act.
- Demonic Possession: Number 1 does this with Fujiko. While possessed, she is somehow able to levitate, and he is able to speak through her.
- Dub Name Change: This English dub follows the precedent set by the original Cagliostro dub of avoiding lawsuits from angry French heirs by changing Lupin's name to "Wolf".
- Evil Old Folks: The leader of the Three Masons is extremely ancient and ill-looking, as well as being something of an Evil Sorcerer.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Goemon slices the clothes off a couple of secret agents without leaving a scratch.
- Ice-Cream Koan: Much like in The Mystery of Mamo, many of Goemon's lines follow this trend.
- Manchild: The way Lupin reacts when he can't share a hotel bedroom with Isabelle since Goemon is her bodyguard. This is, of course, Played for Laughs.
- Mineral MacGuffin: The Super Egg, stated to be the World's largest Diamond.
- Monumental Theft: Go on, take a freaking guess! And this is all in Act 1 of the special too!
- The Reveal: Halfway through, we find out that Isabelle is actually one of the Three Masons, and leads the organization when the elder leader dies.
- Sky Heist: The big heist for this film is Lupin stealing the Statue of Liberty in order to have plenty of time searching it for a large diamond called the Super Egg. To take the statue, Lupin and Jigen use a helicopter and ropes.
