Seeing an opportunity during Disney's release schedule of the Studio Ghibli films, Manga Entertainment has remastered and rereleased the first film that Hayao Miyazaki ever directed, The Castle of Cagliostro, in a special edition package. How do I know that Manga is taking advantage of the Disney releases of Miyazaki's films? Because their packaging mimics the Disney packaging, down to the red and yellow sticker put on the cardboard sleeve. Very clever, Manga Entertainment, very clever.

Marketing aside, the new release of The Castle of Cagliostro is definitely worthy of any anime fan's attention, and perhaps even the attention of your regular fan of action/adventure fare, no matter their opinion of animation in general. The story begins with world-famous thief Lupin III and his buddy Jigen knocking over a casino, and finding clues from that heist that lead them to the small European nation of Cagliostro, which is famous in the underworld for its counterfeiting operation. They come seeking treasure, but end up involved in the political machinations of the country and ultimately confront the villain on his wedding day, changing the course of the nation forever.

Lupin must save the fair maiden from the evil mastermind!	Goemon helps the gang against the Count's ninjas. Darn dirty ninjas!

This movie is enjoyable on multiple levels. The remastered film looks gorgeous, with vibrant colors and clean lines. In fact, the actual film looks a little better than the image they put on the cover of the DVD case. And those gorgeous images aid a wonderful plot that is full of nonstop action. In fact, most of the entire film is action sequence after action sequence, with but a handful of slowdowns for plot exposition or the kind of introspective landscape scenes that often appear in Miyazaki films. The director does a very good job of keeping the movie flowing, and maintaining a constant pace. The movie is easy to follow, and the viewer should never get bored, as there is always something entertaining going on.

The character designs are an interesting mix, as the main characters are obviously based on the original designs of Monkey Punch (the artist who wrote and drew the manga series that the movie is based on), but all of the other characters look like the now-standard Miyazaki designs. The Count himself bears some significant resemblance to the villains in Miyazaki's later film, Castle in the Sky, and the princess bears some similarity to Nausicaä, of the film bearing her name. Monkey Punch's designs don't have a lot of extraneous detail to begin with, though, so the differences in the characters on screen aren't dramatic. Miyazaki fans can definitely notice his touch, however.

The reason that this film is called a Special Edition is because Manga Entertainment has put a number of extras on the back of the disc. (Yes, you read that right; the disc is double-sided, rather than there being two separate discs.) Extras include the movie in storyboards (like the Studio Ghibli films released by Disney contained), original theatrical trailers, a few sketches and film stills, and an interview with the animation director, Yasuo Ohtsuka. The extras are fine, but I'm not sure that there is anything "special" about them. The remastered film itself (done in widescreen format, actually) is what makes this release special.

On the audio side, while the original Japanese track is available (in glorious, original mono!), there is also a new English dub done up in 5.1 Dolby surround sound. While not a literal translation of the Japanese original, I found it to be well done and enjoyable, though I could have done without the cursing, which was unnecessary. Purists won't like the English dub, but perhaps they will enjoy the Spanish or French track better. No North-American spoken language was left uncovered in this release, and hopefully that will help the film achieve a wider audience.

All told, the Special Edition of The Castle of Cagliostro is a fine film, and required viewing for Miyazaki fans. Those of you with the earlier version of the film released by Manga Entertainment in 2000 will only want to upgrade if you have a higher-end sound system and a high-definition TV, to make the best use of the remastered English language track and the new 16x9 film transfer. For everyone else, this is a great release of a great film that belongs in any anime fan's collection.