General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus

Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus (ルパン三世くたばれ!ノストラダムス, Rupan Sansei: Kutabare! Nosutoradamusu) is a 1995 Japanese animated theatrical film based on Monkey Punch's Lupin III manga, in which master thief Arsène Lupin III battles a doomsday cult over a stolen book of Nostradamus prophecies. It was released in Japan on April 22, 1995, runs 97 minutes, and was distributed by Toho.¹^•¹⁰ The film is notable in the franchise's history as the first theatrical Lupin III release in a decade and the first to feature Kanichi Kurita as the voice of Lupin.³

Key fact	Detail
Japanese title	ルパン三世くたばれ!ノストラダムス (Lupin 3 sei, Kutabare Nostradamus); a more literal translation is "Die, Nostradamus!"²^•⁴
Release	April 22, 1995, Japan; distributed by Toho¹
Runtime	97 minutes per TMS Entertainment; some international listings give 1h 40min¹^•⁵
Franchise position	First theatrical Lupin III film since The Legend of the Gold of Babylon (1985)³
Voice-cast milestone	Kanichi Kurita's first film appearance as Lupin III, after the death of longtime voice actor Yasuo Yamada³^•⁶
Key staff	Director Takeshi Shirato; chief director Shunya Ito; music Yuji Ohno; production Tokyo Movie Shinsha and Telecom Animation Film¹
Setting	The year 1999, with a Nostradamus-worshiping cult in the United States²

Spoilers

Plot

The story is set in 1999. An explosion occurs aboard a nuclear submarine, and a new religious movement in the United States, the "Nostradamus Sect," declares that the incident fulfilled its "book of prophecies." Later, a passenger plane carrying a soccer team is hijacked, and Julia, the only daughter of the giant conglomerate the Douglas Foundation, is kidnapped. Lupin and Daisuke Jigen, who happen to be aboard the same aircraft, subdue the hijackers.²

According to Fujiko Mine, who was working as Julia's chaperone, a treasure called the "prophecies of Nostradamus," worth 50 million dollars, is hidden on the top floor of the Foundation's headquarters in Atlanta.² Other summaries describe the same setup from the antagonists' side: the cult and a group of terrorists pursue the original book of Nostradamus owned by Douglas, one of the richest men in America and a man seeking the presidency, and kidnap his daughter to trade her for the book, which he keeps in a vault at the top of his skyscraper.⁵

The adventure ranges widely, with stops in Rio de Janeiro, the Amazon, and Morocco, and includes a prison-escape episode midway through; the climax brings down the world's tallest skyscraper in a sequence of effects animation.⁷

Production

The film was produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha with Telecom Animation Film. Takeshi Shirato is credited as director, Shunya Ito as chief director, and Kazuhide Tomonaga among the storyboard artists; the screenplay is by Hiroshi Kashiwabara and Shunya Ito, and the music is by Yuji Ohno, the franchise's longtime composer.¹^•⁸ The theme song is "Lupin the Third no Theme '89," written and composed by Ohno, and the ending theme, "Ai no Tsuzuki," is performed by Iori Sakagami.¹

Voice cast and the change of Lupin

The film carries the series' regular ensemble: Kanichi Kurita as Lupin III, Kiyoshi Kobayashi as Daisuke Jigen, Makio Inoue as Goemon Ishikawa XIII, Eiko Masuyama as Fujiko Mine, and Gorō Naya as Inspector Koichi Zenigata. Child actress Yumi Adachi voices Julia, with Hōsei Komatsu as Rhisley and Fumi Dan as Maria.¹^•⁵

Kurita's casting marked a generational change in the franchise. Yasuo Yamada, the original voice of Lupin since 1971, died before the film's completion; his last performance in the role was the trailer narration for Farewell to Nostradamus, and Kurita, a comedian whom Yamada had hand-picked as his successor, made his debut as Lupin with this film. Kurita has voiced the character since.⁶^•³

Release and availability

Farewell to Nostradamus was the first Lupin III theatrical release since The Legend of the Gold of Babylon ten years earlier, and Toho handled its distribution as it had the earlier theatrical entries.³^•¹⁰ In later years the film has been difficult to stream legitimately; as of recent listings it is not available on subscription or purchase video-on-demand in the United States, though it can be bought on disc and has aired on Japanese channels such as WOWOW.⁵^•⁹

Reception

Contemporary and retrospective commentary treats the film as a representative, if uneven, installment of the theatrical series. A Letterboxd review describes it as the fifth theatrical Lupin III feature, fast-moving and episodic, with broadly drawn characters and a disjointed plot redeemed by inventive set pieces and an apocalyptic climax.⁷ Aggregated viewer scores sit in the mid-to-high 6s on a 10-point scale, with JustWatch reporting 6.9 from about 1,100 ratings.⁵ Among fans, the film is often noted for its improved visuals over the 1985 Gold of Babylon and for its place in the handover between Yamada and Kurita.⁶

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026