Netflix's Lupin Isn't Based on the Anime of the Same Name, Despite Similarities

Netflix has been churning out some seriously original shows for quite some time now. It's crazy to think how a home DVD rental delivery service ended up becoming a movie-streaming mega giant and one of the biggest film and TV production houses in the world now. And because of Netflix's global appeal and ability to instantly synthesize streaming numbers and data, the company's discovering what kind of content people really enjoy watching. Lupin is definitely one of them, and fans of the series want to know: Is it based on the anime?

It really doesn't come as a surprise whenever a popular movie or TV show happens to be based on an intellectual property that's already existed. In fact, artists have been borrowing or straight up copying one another for a very, very long time. Just ask William Shakespeare about his penchant for "lifting" material and plotlines for all of his plays. Seriously, every single one of the playwright's works existed in some other form, except for The Tempest.

So is Lupin, the show about a high-class thief who is also a master of disguise (it can only help with stealing)? There just so happens to be a popular anime/manga that debuted in 1977 called Lupin the Third that is also about a "gentleman thief" as well. So do the two of them have any sort of connection with one another?

No, they do not. Netflix's Lupin is based on the works of author Maurice LeBlanc, which first debuted in the French magazine Je Sais Tout on July 15, 1905. So there's a strong case to be made that the anime took some inspiration from the early works of LeBlanc and then put them in anime form.

You're probably better off going to the Latin definition of the word than heading to Google translate to figure this one out because it doesn't really make any sense. The French to English translation for "Lupin" according to google is just "Lupine."

And what does "Lupine" mean you may ask? Well the first definition that comes up is: "a plant of the pea family with deeply divided leaves and tall colorful tapering spikes of flowers."

But the latin root for the word is "Wolf," which is probably who the master thief is actually named after, which totally makes sense. First: Wolves are known to skulk, stalk, and prey on living things. But there's something also undeniably cool and elegant about these creatures, kind of like the thief himself.

Currently, there are only 10 episodes of Lupin that range from 42 to 53 minutes in length on Netflix. While Omar Sy has a ton of French credits to his name and is a well-known and respected actor in the country, he's not necessarily a household name globally (at least he wasn't before the debut of the Netflix series). In spite of that, Lupin ended up becoming the second highest viewed Netflix original series on the platform.

The streaming giant announced some 70 million subscribers watched the show in the first month of its debut, and that's only 6 million shy of the numbers that The Witcher, which was led by bonafide international movie star Henry Cavill (the man played Superman for crying out loud).

This probably made Netflix's decision to give the go ahead on five more episodes for part 2 a no-brainer.

It certainly seems like it's pretty much a done deal that there will be more episodes of Lupin coming out. If you haven't seen it, you can check the series out on Netflix now. Just don't ask me for my account details; steal them from your ex instead.