The Castle of Cagliostro/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Sumi Shimamoto, the seiyuu for Clarice, would go on to voice a number of other iconic Miyazaki characters (in particular, the heroine of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and later Toki from Princess Mononoke), as well as Gin Rei from Giant Robo. She was also the dub voice for Princess Leia in the Star Wars films.
    • On the English side, Goemon is voiced in the Manga Video dub by Richard Epcar, who would later voice Jigen in the Geneon dub of the second Lupin III TV series.
      • Also, Lupin III is voiced by none other than David Hayter in the English dub.
      • Kirk Thornton was in both English dubs... as entirely different characters: Gustav (Streamline), and Count Cagliostro (Manga).
      • Bridget Hoffman is the Manga dub's Clarisse.
  • Shout-Out: Lupin's iconic, yellow Fiat 500 (the car driven in real life by chief animator Yasuo Ohtsuka, as Clarice's Citroen CV was Miyazaki's) has appeared in movies and shows ranging from Cowboy Bebop to the Pixar film series. Thanks to this film, if you see a Fiat in an animated work, there's a good chance it's going to be yellow.
    • Another one, heading safely into the Genius Bonus territory, is the title itself: the original Arsène Lupin books had an encounter with La Dame de Cagliostro. But that means that Clarisse and Lupin are cousins.
    • Miyazaki's confessed admiration for the French animated classic The King and the Mockingbird shows here. From the humongous trap-filled castle to the elaborate elevators, the similarities are staggering.
    • And in fact Cagliostro contains a number of "shout-outs" to Miyazaki's own previous work in the first TV series with Isao Takahata. The plot structure of the movie borrows heavily from one of the TV episodes, and there are a number of callbacks to other episodes as well--anyone who had seen the first series would have had ample reason for nostalgia.
    • Ironically, given its original poor performance at the box office, Cagliostro has become one of the most shouted-out-to properties in subsequent Lupin specials and movies, as people who grew up on Cagliostro themselves get the chance to work on Lupin.
    • If you see a car chase in an animated piece, and it takes place on a mountain road, expect it to basically be a remake this scene.