R.I.P. Monkey Punch

R.I.P. Monkey Punch

Punch's legacy and influence on animation is perhaps a lot bigger than the manga he famously worked on if people considered how much talent was being harvested in the 70s and 80s during the development of the Lupin III franchise.

The series revealed some of the best names in the history of animation. It helped set the stage for anime in the 80s in terms of animation quality, character development, and overall filmmaking. The manga might've done better as an animation series where the characters each had expressions that were more easily read than comic panels cutting between each action.

And, this attention to detail always seemed to remain consistent and loyal throughout it's history, even when the franchise would adopt to new styles between directors or animation houses. I might go as far as to say that with the release of Miyazaki's Castle of Cagliostro, more and more animation filmmakers recognized the more westernized approach of executing a story in character animation since there were more and more anime productions that began introducing an autuerism into it's pipeline. i.e. Oshii, Otomo, Takahata all notorious animators leading this wave during the Golden Age.