Lupin the 3rd Case Files

The details of one man's desire to watch all of Lupin the 3rd

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Part 2: Episodes 41-45

This batch has two good episodes, two episodes I didn’t like, and one I was kind of indifferent on. The perfect example of middling. I at least enjoyed most of the concepts for each heist, they’re definitely creative. Let’s see what Lupin makes it out with this time...

Heroes and Vixens

Target: Potion of Awakening

I liked this episode, it has Lupin, Jigen and Goemon each individually going off to search for some esoteric treasure for a woman named Kaguya. Lupin seeks the tears of a yeti, Jigen looks for the scale of a mermaid, and Goemon chases a dragon’s liver. I find it really funny that all three of these creatures just exist in Lupin’s universe no questions asked, especially the dragon. Anyway they get the ingredients and find out it’s for a potion so a princess can awaken her lover. Lupin gets nothing out of it other than good karma.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 but some good karma

Cruisin’ in Drag

Target: Floating Museum

In this episode Lupin dresses in drag and gold digs a thief in order to get his museum he keeps on a boat. This has the funny plot of Lupin taking Fujiko’s role as the “femme fatale” for once. I expected this episode to be a bit more problematic than it was, it was surprisingly tame. As for the museum, Lupin manages to steal it after getting married to the guy. The museum in the opening seconds of the episode is valued at $50 million.

Lupin’s Reward: $50 million

Jumpin’ the Bones

Target: Peking Man’s Bones

I dozed off a bit in this episode, so I had a hard time following what was going on. From what I gathered, Lupin was after the bones of Peking Man and some woman knew the whereabouts of it. There’s no value for the bones, and it’s revealed at the end that the bones are gone anyway. I don’t have much else to say about this episode, it was kind of boring in my opinion.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Lion, Cheatin’ and Stealin’

Target: Sleeping Lion

Hey wait a minute we’ve done the golden lion thing already! Lupin and Jigen hatch a plan to steal an armored vehicle that’s transporting a golden lion statue. However they can’t crack the armored truck, and get into a time crunch when they discover Zenigata is in there and losing oxygen. This was a pretty funny episode, especially with the sheep and Lupin escaping in the kangeroos. Anyway, we already calculated how much a golden lion statue would be worth in The Gold of Babylon, coming out to about  $3,941,086. We’re going to go with that for this episode as well.

Lupin’s Reward: $3,941,086

Diamonds and Minx

Target: Assortment of Jewels

This episode has Lupin targeted by a zombie(?) assassin after the gang pilfers some jewels from a guy. I don’t like this episode because a cat is mercilessly killed by the assassin in cold blood and I do not like that. Lupin debates which gem he’s going to give Fujiko and which he’s going to give to another girl he’s seeing. While doing so, Fujiko comes and steals all of them. After beating the assassin, Jigen and Goemon get their revenge of Fujiko and steal the jewels back. Because I don’t want to come up with a made up number for how much they stole (since it’s never made clear) I’m going to say Jigen and Goemon only stole back their share of the jewels. I know I don’t normally count shares between the group, but this time I’m going to for simplicity’s sake.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

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I’ve been out of town for a few days dealing with a personal matter. I’m gonna try and start back up tomorrow night. We’re nearing the end of the English Dub of Part 2 and I’m gonna be sad to see it go.

Also Episode 4 of Part 6 was so good. Mamoru Oshii is godlike, he absolutely killed it.

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Your dedication to watching and detailing near-every piece of Lupin III media is very impressive, thank you for posting your thoughts and summaries! :)

Thank you, I'm glad people are enjoying it!

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Part 2: Episodes 36-40

I’ll be honest and say I zoned out during a few of these episodes. They weren’t quite as funny or engaging as some of the previous ones have been. That being said it was cool to see the Fuma clan return, and the chicken episode was pretty funny. It definitely feels like by this point they’ve hit a stride and a formula for how many of these episodes go, but give them enough variation to not feel too formulaic if that makes sense. Anyway, the gang manage to make off with a healthy amount of treasure in this batch of episodes.

The Riddle of Tsukikage Castle

Target: Tsukikagemaru

The Fuma Clan returns! Always nice to see recurring elements. In this episode the gang go to Tsukikage Castle to try and solve a riddle and obtain the treasures hidden away. Meanwhile they’re pursued by Fuma ninja. The gang end up tricking the Fuma clan and unlock the secret treasure, but only make it out with the Tsukikagemaru, the sword that Goemon was after in the first place. It’s solely for Goemon so I’m going to say Lupin gets nothing here.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Khan Job

Target: Ghengis Khan’s Treasure

This episode rewrites history and says Ghengis Khan was actually Yoshitsune Minamoto, two historical figures. Before Yoshitsune left Japan he left a massive treasure at the bottom of a lake. The gang pursue the treasure but ultimately find themselves in a bank? I was a bit confused as to how this happened, but so were the characters so I guess it was intentional. The gang make out with three potato sacks of gold bars. I can’t calculate how many gold bars can fit in a random potato sack so we’re going to go with a previous measurement involving fitting gold in a briefcase. Remember a few posts ago where we talked about that, we determined a briefcase could hold  $44,266,370 in gold bars. Three of those equals $132,799,110.

Lupin’s Reward: $132,799,110

Happy Betrayals to You

Target: Antarctic Star

In this episode, Fujiko joins interpol in chasing Lupin but secretly it’s all to get to a jewel called the Antarctic Star. This episode was kind of boring to be honest, I glazed over a good part of it. I don’t remember if the value was mentioned in the english dub but the subbed version says it’s worth “several billion yen.” Several is generally more than 2 or 3 of something, so we’re going to say it’s 4 billion yen, which is roughly $40 million.

Lupin’s Reward: $40 million

Pretty Cluckin’ Insane

Target: Smuggled Diamonds

The treasure in this episode is a bit goofy. Basically the villain is smuggling diamonds to Hong Kong via chickens, having them lay eggs with the diamonds in them. I’m pretty sure that’s not how eggs work but I’m not going to get picky I guess. Anyway, Lupin, Jigen and Goemon hatch a plan to get the diamonds but are betrayed by Fujiko at the end, giving them alligator eggs instead. Fujiko makes it off with the stolen diamonds, Lupin instead gets baby alligators.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 but a basket of baby alligators

Payload

Target: $900 million in diamonds

I love it when they make my job easy and just tell us straight up how much the treasure is worth. I’m going to be honest I zoned out a bit during this episode and don’t really understand why the cops were trying to load these diamonds onto a missile. There was a lot of weird decisions in this episode like giving the victim a pet tiger and then just writing it out of the story part way through. Well, the gang manage to get the diamonds out in this episode and it’s implied they successfully make off with them. 

Lupin’s Reward: $900 million

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Part 2: Episodes 31-35

These episodes feel reminiscent of some Hannah-Barbara cartoons I used to watch as a kid, particularly Scooby-Doo. In fact I feel like Lupin would fit right in with the likes of them, which is probably why Lupin the 8th got piloted in the west for kids. I can kinda see the appeal these episodes had that might’ve gotten the attention of western tv execs. 

Twins Pique

Target: 2 Billion Krone

Lupin tries to steal a treasure from a pair of dueling twins who are out to kill each other. He tries to play them both and almost gets the treasure but gets screwed at the last minute because of the tattoo artist. I’m not familiar with krones, but apparently 2 billion of them is worth about 237 million USD. Lupin ultimately gets nothing out of it, which he would have had he done the job he was supposed to so it’s all on him.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Lupin the Interred

Target: None

Another episode without a treasure. In this one, Lupin is being targeted by an assassin that goes by the name Puma. Lupin comes up with this elaborate way to fake his death and reveal Puma’s face so that he can come back and kill him himself. We get to see some rather touching reactions from Jigen, Goemon and Zenigata while they think Lupin is dead. I should’ve kept count of how many times Lupin fakes his death or is presumed dead.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 but he gets to live

A Rumble Royal

Target: Orion’s Crown and $13 million

This is a pretty good episode where the gang try to play a seller and a buyer against each other at an auction for this special crown. The buyer wants to buy it for $13 million, so we’re going to value the crown at that. Lupin wants to steal both the crown and the money (after some inspiration from Fujiko). Ultimately Lupin gets betrayed by Fujiko at the end who ends up losing both the crown and the money in the ocean thanks to a pursuing Zenigata.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

But your Brother was Such a Nice Guy

Target: Statue of Mary

This is a funny episode where we learn that Jesus had a twin sister who was also a vampire, Lupin supposedly gets turned into a vampire, and then the vampire holds a party for Lupin. Seeing the gang deal with funny folklore about vampires is pretty great, especially Jigen’s insistence on using garlic. The statue doesn’t play that big of a role, the focus is more on the vampire lady and Lupin’s turn. Lupin gets the statue back but returns it to a church since he figured her brother would prefer it that way.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 but possibly Jesus’s favor

Gorilla Tactics

Target: Black Pearl

So the target in this episode is technically the Black Pearl but it becomes more these jewels that Lupin stupidly gives to Fujiko and gets stolen instead. It’s a pretty funny episode as the gang supposedly get outsmarted by gorillas, it’s very Scooby-Doo. I actually got a little mad this episode with Fujiko, much like Jigen, as Fujiko not only costs the gang to lose the Black Pearl they were after, but the jewels they used as bait as well that was basically already theirs’. So in short, Lupin loses money this episode but we’re not going to count that, he just gets $0.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 and the loss of some of his treasure

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Part 2: Episodes 26-30

With episode 26, this marks the end of season 1 and continues on into season 2. Essentially it marks the end of the first half of the first year of Lupin III Part 2′s run. So far its been pretty good with only a few stinkers here and there. This batch of episodes continues to be mostly good but we have two that I didn’t particularly like.

To Be or Nazi Be

Target: Hitler’s Legacy

This was supposed to be the third episode but because of its nazi subject matter it didn’t air in the US and was later made episode 26 instead. Cartoon Network was rather sensitive on the subject matter. Anyway the gang tries to coerce the location of Hitler’s treasures out of one of his nazi generals. It takes some production but he eventually reveals it unwittingly. When the gang finds it, it happens to be Hitler’s report cards. “The man murders half the world and THIS is what he’s ashamed of?” was a great line I must say.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 but knowledge he’s smarter than Hitler

The Little Princess of Darkness

Target: Princess Stamp

I didn’t particularly care for this episode. In this one, Lupin gets harassed by a little girl who really wants the stamp he stole, said to make its owner a princess. It’s not clear why Lupin stole it other than it being really rare, I guess he wants to give it to Fujiko. Anyway the kid ends up almost outsmarting him, but Lupin gives it up in the end to the little girl. 

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Revenge of La Nerd

Target: The Money from all the Paris Banks

This is a pretty big heist as Lupin attempts to simultaneously steal the money from all the banks in Paris. He’s tracked by Melon Ganimard, the granddaughter of Inspector Ganimard, Arsene Lupin I’s greatest rival. This episode is a bit confusing as we see Melon working with the police, but the end of the episode it implies that it was Fujiko all along despite a few scenes of Fujiko and Melon interacting with each other. I had a hard time following it. Anyway the heist is successful but Lupin ends up pinky-swearing giving it to Fujiko by accident so he gets nothing.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Fry Me to the Moon

Target: None

This was a hilarious episode. I loved it. Its focus is more on this one-off guy who is with Fujiko as they try to figure out how Lupin and Jigen can now suddenly levitate. Fujiko is offered 50 million francs (not sure if it’s Swiss francs or old French francs). Anyway there’s no real treasure for Lupin in this episode and he gets swindled out of his big bubble blower at the end. Sad end.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 and he loses his bubble blower

Morocco Horror Picture Show

Target: None

Another episode without a treasure. In this episode, Lupin and Zenigata are kidnapped and forced to join a rebellion. They’re very much not into it and attempt to escape, leading to an extended chase sequence that lasts about half the episode. Much like the toy missile episode, the chase sort of overstays its welcome. It also has a lot of unfortunate middle eastern depictions that I don’t think are very politically correct these days. Overall the episode was kind of a dud.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

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Part 2: Episodes 21-25

This batch of episodes is mostly good. The only episode I didn’t really like was the land-shark one with the dumb toy missiles that overstay their welcome. I have to say I really appreciated the call back in Auntie Ballistic to the King Tut episode with Lupin being afraid of hieroglyphics. I always love when it rewards you for watching all the episodes before, even in an episodic series like Part 2. Lupin makes it out with one big prize this time around, but it’s enough for all of them.

Lupin in Paradise

Target: Secret Alcohol?

Lupin spends his time surrounded by naked women while Jigen and Goemon are salty old men and fight a bunch of amazons. Lupin is trying to get the treasure from this place but it’s never really clear what it is. It implies it’s the alcohol they had been drinking in the palace, but it’s not quite clear. Lupin decides it’s dangerous and just gets rid of it.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Auntie Ballistic

Target: Erwin Rommel’s Lost Treasure

We get to meet Fujiko’s aunt who is less hot but more of a firecracker. She coerces Lupin to go after the treasure of a nazi field marshal named Erwin Rommel. Lupin is reluctant to go at first because the clue leading to the treasure is in hieroglyphics and he’s still scarred from the King Tut incident (I enjoyed this callback). He eventually goes and betrays Fujiko’s aunt. They dig up the treasure which is enough gold to fill up a front loader. I found a front loader that can lift 21,700 kg. The average weight of a gold brick is 12.4 kg, which is 400 troy ounces. The loader can carry 1,750 bricks which comes out to 700,000 troy ounces. I can find the exact price of gold on the day this episode aired! The grand total came out to $129,640,000. Quite a successful haul!

Lupin’s Reward: $129,640,000

Rats to You

Target: First Robbery Competition Award

This is a funny episode as it involves Goemon teaming up with an annoying rat character to try and rob the metropolitan police department of an award that went to Lupin I. The award ends up being a book that detailed the how the police operated back in Lupin I’s day, but was ultimately useless to them now. It’s a funny episode and pretty Goemon centric so I liked it a lot. Sadly Lupin doesn’t get anything of worth in this episode.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Lair of the Land-Shark

Target: None

This is another prison break episode but it’s kind of boring to be honest. The concept starts out good with the gang needing to break out Fujiko then it gets dumb with the warden’s toy missiles. The missiles would be funny but we spend more than half of the episode’s runtime running away from them. It starts out funny but it gets old really fast. Ultimately there’s no treasure, but the gang rescues Fujiko and the asshole warden gets what’s coming to him. Even Zenigata leaves this episode happy.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Shot Through the Heart

Target: None

Another episode without a treasure. This one focuses on Jigen as he falls for a woman and gets burned. No wonder the poor guy is a misogynist, he can’t catch a break. The villain sets up Lupin and Jigen to fight each other which is always fun, but the two catch on and play mutual destruction with fake bullets. I find this to be very cool that they’ve been partners for so long they have a way to fake killing each other with relative ease. Ultimately the bad guy gets sent over a cliff in his car. No body gets anything, just a broken heart for Jigen.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 and Jigen’s broken heart

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Part 2: Episodes 16-20

These episodes were a bit weaker if I’m being honest but still not bad. There’s a tribute episode to the Pink Panther which is pretty funny, and a good Goemon-centric episode to tie up this batch. But do they make it out with any treasure? Let’s see...

Sheik-Down

Target: $100 million

This episode has Lupin go up against someone claiming to be the third Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence is threatening the local government to blow up all their oil rigs unless they pay $100 million. Lupin catches wind of it and goes to intercept it. Ultimately the man claiming to be Lawrence was a fake, and the money gets blown up.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

My Birthday Pursuit

Target: The Black Panther

Here we have a tribute to the Pink Panther film series. I wasn’t aware it was as influential in Japan, so this was pretty neat. Lupin almost steals the Black Panther, an emerald where you can supposedly witness a black panther when held up against the light, but an alarm goes off and he stores it in a statue. Shenanigans ensue and the statue gets hauled off to a nudist colony. The antagonist of the episode tricks Lupin into believing the gem is ruined after it falls into a pool. However he instead uses it to seduce Fujiko but it ultimately gets lost anyway.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

A Safe Bet

Target: None

This episode doesn’t really have a target. Lupin breaks through a number of safes in the episode but we never see what it is he stole. The main conflict is between him and a safemaker and the safemaker’s son. It’s not a bad episode but the lack of treasure made me zone out a bit during it, sadly.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Hell Toupee

Target: None

Another episode without a treasure. Lupin ends up pissing off not-Hitler by humiliating him a rally while trying to steal a ruby. The episode is basically a big escape episode where Lupin and Fujiko are trapped by not-Hitler’s army while Jigen and Goemon try to rescue them. The interactions between Jigen and Goemon were golden, but the rest of the episode was a bit weak in my opinion. They make it out, but with no treasure.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

The Last Mastery

Target: Iga Scroll of Mastery

The focus of this episode is on Goemon as one of his fellow students kills their master shortly before Goemon inherits this scroll of mastery or something like that. The focus is primarily on this conflict as Goemon continues to chase down the killer, and the treasure is only briefly mentioned in the beginning and then at the end when they get the other half of the scroll. It creates a map and leads them to a treasure which is only valuable to Goemon as a final lesson. They all laugh about it, but make no money.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 but a good laugh

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Part 2: Episodes 11-15

This batch of episodes was pretty good and even included a Christmas episode. I really enjoyed the Wine episode, as well as the cursed gem one. It’s always cool to see a nice spread of episodes. Anyway, here’s the treasure featured in these episodes.

The Sleight Before Christmas

Target: Bordeaux from Napoleon’s Time

France wants to gift the United States with a bottle of very rare Bordeaux wine from the time period that Napoleon ruled. This episode has some fun shenanigans and it’s a cool treasure. The big twist at the end is that the shitty wine apparently tastes better than the treasure.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 and some shitty wine

I Left My Mind in San Francisco

Target: Synthetic Diamond and Film Describing its Creation

The main focus of this episode is Lupin chasing Zenigata, reversing their normal roles. However the background of the episode is that Zenigata has some film in his tooth that describes the process of creating these very good synthetic diamonds. The gang also steals one of the examples. The film is ultimately lost which Lupin believes is a good thing, as he feared it would’ve tanked the market on diamonds. The example diamond is still kept, though. I think I’ve already compared a diamond to the Hope Diamond before but it’s one of the largest out there, so I’m going to say it was worth about $250 million.

Lupin’s Reward: $250 million

Curse of the Jumbo Juju

Target: Baseball-sized Ruby

In this episode, Fujiko gets cursed by this baseball-sized ruby after it’s bequeathed to her by a man she was conning. Lupin and the gang decide to travel to Haiti to return the ruby to its original place, hoping to break the curse. The gang succeeds and breaks the curse off Fujiko, though Zenigata unintentionally brings it back. The last shot is of them fleeing from the ruby and the birds that chase them.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

The Case of the Risible Dirigible

Target: Dracula’s Tear

This is a funny episode where Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon disguise themselves as detectives joining this rich guy on his blimp in an attempt to catch Lupin. We get to see the three of them act like bafoons while Zenigata tries to actually solve the case. With Fujiko’s help, the gang manage to pry the gem out of the rich guy’s eye socket, but she flees with it insinuating that she’s betraying them yet again.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Crude Reproduction, Perfect Frame

Target: None

We don’t really have a target this episode. It’s mostly the fake Lupin committing crimes and framing the real Lupin for all of it. We get to see a few items get stolen including a 50 carat diamond, but supposedly only the fake Lupin makes off with it. This episode is essentially just the villain gaslighting Lupin into thinking he’s got split personalities, it’s pretty fucked up. Fortunately Lupin wins in the end, but gets nothing out of it.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

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Part 2: Episodes 6-10

Another batch of really funny episodes. The King Tut episode and the Steal the File episode with the not-Christopher Walken voice had me in absolute stitches. This is Part 2 at its best to be honest, I loved it.

Cursed Case Scenario

Target: King Tut’s Mask

This episode focuses on the mask found in King Tut’s tomb. It ends up cursing Lupin causing him to go crazy and think he’s possessed by the spirit of the Pharoh. For all we know he actually is. The gang end up returning the mask to the museum where they stole it to try and end the curse, successfully. Lupin makes it out with a few days of amnesia, but nothing else.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Disorient Express

Target: Stolen Jewels and Paintings

This episode was a bit weak to be honest. Lupin and Fujiko try to steal some jewels from a private car on a train. The villain loses it and dies with the train as it crashes into a ravine. Lupin absconds with some jewels but not even enough to cover the semi-truck they rented. This article goes over the cost of semi-trucks, and we’re going to assume they bought a pre-owned one as getting it new seems like a waste of money so at best they made it out with about $140,000.

Lupin’s Reward: $140,000

Now Museum, Now You Don’t

Target: Original Ukiyo-e

In this episode the gang try to help a dying man with his last wish of collecting a bunch of original ukiyo-e paintings. I don’t know much about the paintings themselves, just for the sake of transparency. It’s all a ruse to get Lupin to steal a painting of Ishikawa Goemon the first so that Fujiko may sell it to another person. I couldn’t find the actual value of an original ukiyo-e painting, so I’m going with the cheap option here which is Fujiko pays who she think is the actor $10,000. Lupin takes that and the original painting, so I’m going to value it at $10k, meaning he gets away with $20k. It’s probably worth a lot more than that but I can’t find any article that explains the value of one.

Lupin’s Reward: $20,000

ZenigataCon

Target: Police File from Scotland Yard

This episode was hilarious. Lupin gets coerced into stealing a document from Scotland Yard. The gang all disguise themselves as Zenigata and sneak into the police precinct. Lupin successfully gets the file and almost blows up in the process. The value in the file is only to Lupin’s blackmailer and is worth nothing to Lupin himself.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Who’s Vroomin’ Who?

Target: Winnings from a F1 Race

This episode harkens back to Is Lupin Burning. Lupin gets into financial trouble after gambling away all his money and gets coerced into entering a Formula 1 race under a sponsor. Lupin then steals the money from the sponsor and blows the race. He’s successful but ends up blowing away the winnings at another casino, showing he never learned his lesson. 

Lupin’s Reward: $0

This was a good batch of episodes. I don’t really have much to say about them other than I’m excited to watch the rest.

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Part 2: Episodes 1-5

I’ve been looking forward to starting Part 2 since starting this blog. It holds a lot of fond memories even if I didn’t get to watch too much of it back in the Adult Swim days. Regardless these first few episodes were miles better than Part 1, but I wonder how much of that has to do with the stellar english dub cast. In particular the Nessie episode feels like a lot of liberties were taken with the translation that just make it funnier, but having not seen these episodes in Japanese it’s hard to tell. Anyway, here’s the targets for this batch of episodes.

The Return of Lupin the 3rd

Target: None

This episode is a sequel to episode 1 of Part 1 (Is Lupin Burning?). Mr.X comes back as a big cyborg villain and tries to kill the gang on a big luxury cruise ship. There’s no treasure in this episode and it’s more about the gang escaping Mr.X’s assassination attempts. It’s a funny episode, with a good call back to Part 1. Though once again I must insist on how much I hate the trope of the villain turning into a big dumb video game boss. 

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Buns, Guns, and Fun in the Sun

Target: Soccer Bets and Jesus Christ statue from Rio de Janeiro

The target in this episode is the cash from a big soccer match. They estimate ticket sales and bets will be about 750 million yen, roughly $7.5 million. They come up with this crazy plan to get caught and imprisoned and then sneak out to carry out the heist. Things don’t go as planned and they try to make off with the money, but ultimately it’s all lost. They do manage to make off with the Jesus Christ statue however. According to wikipedia the statue cost $3.6 million to build. As such I’m going to count that toward what they made off with, though it’s doubtful they found a buyer for it.

Lupin’s Reward: $3.6 million

50 Ways to Leave Your 50-Foot Lover

Target: Loch Ness Monster

Lupin isn’t necessarily trying to steal Nessie in this episode, in fact they’re more trying to help it escape from the nutjob that’s trying to capture it. With Fujiko’s singing and some help from Goemon, they manage to rescue the monster and return it to its home.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Gold Smuggling 101

Target: Car made of gold

This is a good episode as it’s primarily about the gang trying to make off with a swiss bank’s gold deposit. With the (surprise) villain’s help, they melt the gold into a car and paint it to try and escape pursuit. The villain betrays them and almost makes it off with the gold. Pops gets in the way and Fujiko ends up accidentally driving it into the ocean where it’s lost.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Shaky Pisa

Target: Ransom for the Leaning Tower of Pisa

In this episode the villain is using an earthquake machine to hold the Leaning Tower of Pisa hostage, threatening to destroy it if the ransom isn’t paid. Thanks to Lupin and Zenigata’s interference, the first ransom of 1 billion lira is lost and gets upped to 2 billion lira. Lira is a discontinued currency in Italy. I can’t find how much 2 billion lira was worth back in 1977, but it’s worth about $1.2 million now. Ultimately it gets lost and the gang make it out with nothing.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

I absolutely loved these episodes, they were a blast to sit through. Watching 5 episodes of Part 1 was a slog at worst, and a bit of a chore at best. I’m happy to say I blew through these episodes easily and am ready to get back into it. I’m watching these episodes on Crunchyroll, but I noticed the usual episode 3, Hitler’s Legacy, is actually episode 26 of there. I’m not sure why that’s the case, I can’t find any real reasoning for it. Just thought I’d point it out.

I’m eager to get to the next batch of episodes, which I will do tomorrow night.

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The Elusiveness of the Fog

Target: Time Machine

Lupin and the gang time travel back 500 years into a warring period between two clans. I expected a lot of time travel shenanigans but honestly thought it ended up pretty tame. Outside of the warriors gawking at Jigen and Zenigata’s guns, no one else really questions that the gang are from another time period. I found that to be a bit weird, but not enough to distract me too much. Overall I think this special was pretty alright.

This is essentially a reimagining of the Time Traveler episode of Part 1, except instead of Kyouske Mamoh just relentlessly hounding Lupin and the gang pettily, the gang instead gets transported through time. So instead of the normal tv special we get a bit of a period piece as the gang maneuver in this new time period.

It feels like there’s a lot going on in this story. You’ve got the main plot with Mamoh and Lupin, then the treasure hunt and Goemon wanting to protect the queen, the queen wanting to establish peace with the other clan, Fujiko’s ancestor doing her own thing, and the young boy that helps them out having a grudge against the Northern clan’s councilor for killing his dad. This special is busy. That being said, none of it felt particularly compelling. I wouldn’t call any of the plot threads bad per se, but they weren’t necessarily good either.

The gang spends most of the special trying to solve this riddle and find this treasure, but the treasure is very obviously the time machine and you can figure it out pretty quickly. It’s hardly a twist to be honest. So the whole search for this other treasure just feels like they’re wasting time.

Mamoh is at least a pretty good villain. His motivation is hilariously petty, while also having a hint of big dumb supervillain as he wants to have the only time machine. He’s a lot more menacing than Pycal was in his big return, and I respect that. He manages to be a threat while also being a bit of an idiot, and I find that to be an entertaining combination.

I’d also like to mention the animation and art style. The animation is whatever, it’s about what I would expect from this time period. The art style however was much better than I was expecting. It definitely felt like they found a good style that worked with digital animation and stuck to it, which I greatly appreciate. It’s not unpleasant to look at, unlike Angel’s Tactics.

So the treasure ends up being the time machine like I said. Obviously a time machine would be a priceless machine. Lupin and the gang make it back to their time with the time machine but they end up destroying it because the door was busted. Can’t have them going around time stealing treasures from different time periods.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

I’d say this was a pretty middling special all things considered. It has some good elements but none of it came together to make a really good special like Blood Seal of the Eternal Mermaid. It’s a bit of a shame but at the same time considering the time period this came out, I’m not surprised. Still, it’s leagues better than Return of Pycal.

Next up we move on to Part 2. I’ve been looking forward to revisiting this series since I started this blog and I’m eager to begin. I’ll be watching the dub for as long as it’s available as the entire thing was never completely dubbed, sadly. 

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Return of Pycal

Target: Celestial Crystals

This OVA is a great example of overindulgence when it comes to CGI. The art style itself isn’t that bad for an early 2000′s entry, but the CGI is incredibly jarring and all over the place. Not to mention a plot that’s just kind of not great.

It’s a shame because Pycal was one of the more memorable villains in Part 1 and I was kind of looking forward to seeing him again. The OVA starts off pretty good with a heist at a big dinner party, but then just gets weird as Lupin dresses up like a clown and torments Pycal disguised as Zenigata. Unlike in Part 1, Lupin never quite feels like he’s at a disadvantage, whereas in his first encounter he’s constantly caught off guard.

The plot is also just not very good. Lupin is trying to get these crystals because he can, but Pycal also wants them but it’s not clear why. The climax is a battle of the bands between Pycal and some old Greek man that has been showing up a bunch. And then it just kind of ends with Lupin shooting down Pycal into the ocean. When it ended I was left just asking “Wait what? That’s it?”

The animation is also just not very good. There’s a lot of points where it just goes into a powerpoint presentation, or if it doesn’t it goes into full CGI instead. There’s also a really weird winamp effect that gets shown off during the climax. It was like watching a windows media player visual.

Once again this entry has an issue where it insists on having all the characters without much for them to do. Goemon is challenging a bunch of people to duels in Greece for no explained reason, Fujiko is just being Fujiko, and Jigen spends the entire OVA with allergies. Aside from Lupin they don’t really have anything to do.

The treasure for the OVA is 7 crystals called the Celestial Crystals. It’s not clear why Lupin wants them, or even why Pycal wants them. They each have etchings in them that equate to musical notation that promotes healing I think? There’s no real value to them, though Lupin makes it out with a damaged one. Good for him, I guess?

Lupin’s Reward: $0 but one damaged crystal

Return of Pycal was not very good. It’s such a shame when Pycal was one of the more interesting and memorable villains of Part 1. I would’ve loved to have enjoyed this, but the vague plot and lack of threat from Pycal makes this just another Lupin OVA. If I had to give it one compliment, I’d have to say at least it’s short so I didn’t have to spend an hour and a half watching this train wreck. 

Next up is Elusiveness of Fog. All I know about it is that it features Mamoh from Part 1, the time traveler, though I believe it’s more of a reimagining of that episode instead of a continuation. Here’s hoping it’s not nearly as bad as Pycal was.

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Lupin the 3rd Part 1

Final Thoughts

Part 1 is a roller coaster of quality ranging from boring to really good. There’s a troubled production history with the show’s original director getting pushed out and A Productions (featuring the legendary Hayao Miyazaki) taking over in his place. It results in a messy production, but one that has a lot of charm.

I feel like the show is at its weakest in the first few episodes, pretty much everything before Goemon joins the gang in episode 7. It features no heists and is just Lupin facing off against the villain of the week. I don’t mind a villain of the week format, but there’s little context for them, without any heist or crime behind Lupin’s motivations. From what I understand these episodes follow the manga but I don’t find that to be a particularly good thing in this case.

Once A Productions starts getting involved the episodes begin to get much better. In fact I’d say episodes 7-16 are very strong and had me pretty hooked. The later episodes kind of sunk in quality but they were particularly bad except for the computer episode. If I had to choose a standout episode it has to be 14, the Emerald’s Secret where Lupin and Fujiko try to steal an emerald from a hollywood star. 

I’ve mentioned this in other posts, but I feel like part 1 does a good job of this, is only using the members when they’re necessary. You’ll get a few instances of Goemon just kind of being there, but for the most part the show is willing to put characters away for a while and have episodes focus on just Lupin or Lupin and only one of his companions. I would’ve liked to see an episode or two with just Lupin and Goemon without Jigen and Fujiko, but that’s fine.

There’s a good classic spread of heists as well. You’ve got plenty of jewelry heists as well as money jobs, but you get the occasional treasure hunt as well. Probably the most unique is Target the Cash Counterfeiter in which the gang go after a counterfeiter. This would obviously be reused in concept in Castle of Cagliostro, but we don’t get to see it as often and it’s a unique target to say the least. There’s also the really funny golden bust in Let’s Catch Lupin and Go to Europe. It’s so stupid looking it cracks me up.

It’s also refreshing to hear the original cast for the first time in a while. I’m used to the more modern cast but it’s cool hearing the original again along with them sounding much younger. It’s hard to believe Jigen’s actor has been the same since Part 1 all the way to Prison of the Past, Part 5 and The First. 

Overall I had a pretty positive experience with part 1. I think part of that is its short length. I don’t know if I could take watching 50 episodes of it, but it’s still pretty good in places, and not terrible in others. The show would take a rather big shift in tone when Part 2 came out to a much more comical show. 

If I had one big thing to complain about with part 1, and it’s a big one, it’s that I absolutely hate the music of it. Obviously Yuji Ohno’s soundtrack is legendary for Lupin and the theme is iconic, I knew it would be sorely missed since it doesn’t appear until part 2. However I can’t stress how much I cannot stand the really weird sounding soundtrack of part 1. It just sounds out of place, and I don’t know if that’s because I’m so used to Ohno-san’s work or if it’s just weird in general. Regardless it will not be missed.

With part 1 wrapped up that means I can watch the two entries I’ve saved for after it: Return of the Magician and Elusiveness of Fog. Pycal was an interesting foe in episode 2 so it’ll be cool to see him come back. Elusiveness of Fog sounds more like a reimagining of the episode Beware of the Time Machine. We’ll see how they turn out. I’m looking forward to part 2 as it’s what got me into the franchise in the first place.

Next up is Return of the Magician.

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Part 1: Episodes 21-23

The final three episodes of part 1. This one features two episodes that get expanded on in future installments, one being Castle of Cagliostro and the other being Bye Bye Lady Liberty. There’s a lot of prototyping to be seen in these episodes.

Rescue the Tomboy!

Target: Rie

This episode doesn’t have a treasure. Instead Lupin rescues the daughter of one of his dad’s associates. We get a pretty exciting train chase and many scenes that would become reused in Castle of Cagliostro so overall it’s a pretty good episode. Sadly Lupin gets nothing out of it other than being an accused kidnapper.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

The First-Move-Wins Computer Operation

Target: 800 million yen

This episode has two heists and is somehow still pretty weak. The idea that a computer can predict Lupin’s movements was reused in Bye Bye Lady Liberty and it’s just as ridiculous here as it was there. The first heist is for 800 million yen (roughly $8 million) and sadly ends in failure with Jigen and Goemon arrested. The second heist is breaking the two of them out of prison. Lupin at least succeeds in the second one.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

The Great Golden Showdown!

Target: 10 billion yen worth of gold coins

The final episode of part 1 and it has quite the high price tag. It’s also got some very good animation for its time. Lupin and the gang go after a horde of gold coins that was discovered by some excavators that is estimated to be worth up to 10 billion yen, roughly $100 million. Zenigata is particularly persistent in this episode and the gang almost gets away with it until the very last moment when Zenigata crashes a boat into them, causing all the money to be lost.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

These last few episodes were alright. I feel like the show was strongest in the middle when A Productions first took over. It would’ve been nice to end on Lupin getting away with $100 million but I guess it makes more sense for him to not succeed and is in line with the formula more often than not. I’m going to do a final post on Part 1, then move on to Return of the Magician.

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Regarding Part 6...

I’ll be watching it as it airs but won’t be doing any posts for it for now. I’ve still gotta get through Parts 1-5 for the blog first. I considered doing them as they aired but decided to wait until I reach them. I’m hoping by the time I finish Part 5, Part 6 will be over but that may not be likely. If that’s the case I’ll simply do the posts for them when the series ends.

I’ve already watched the first episode and I’m a fan of Sherlock Holmes. I’m eager to see more about Lupin’s relationship with him. This may work out in the long run as Part 6 seems like a much more of a continued narrative unlike the previous parts’ more episodic natures. 

Regardless I’m excited for Part 6 and look forward to seeing how much treasure Lupin fails to steal.

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Part 1: Episodes 16-20

We get to see a few episodes here pertaining to Lupin and his grandfather, the great Arsene Lupin. The episode with him facing the grandson of his grandfather’s nemesis was particularly good. At this point all episodes are being done by A Productions and feels particularly more Lupin than the first batch. However it feels like more of the same but we do get to see some of Lupin’s most iconic techniques used for the first time such as the Lupin Mob and vacuuming the jewels.

Operation Jewelry Snatch

Target: Smuggled Jewels

The target of this episode is a bunch of smuggled jewels. Lupin gets them rather easily, but fails to escape with them after Fujiko betrays him once again. In the beginning of the episode Lupin says it’s “3 billion worth of jewels” but doesn’t specify if he means USD or Japanese Yen. I’m leaning toward yen since most of part 1 seems to take place in Japan. So in USD it would be about 30 million. Again though, Lupin fails to make it out with any of it.

Lupin’s Reward: $0

Lupin Caught in a Trap

Target: 3 billion yen

This episode is about the villain ransoming Lupin, Jigen and Fujiko’s lives for 3 billion yen, 1 billion per each person. The gang decides to steal from the Japanese mint (it has some other name in the episode that’s fake according to the liner notes). They manage to escape with the money and pay off the ransomers, but Lupin blows up the money, their car, and to make matters worse altered the bills so they were useless anyway. Lupin comes out on top even if he didn’t make any money.

Keep an Eye on the Beauty Contest

Target: Stolen Artwork

In this episode the gang impersonates a tv crew filming a beauty contest that’s actually a stolen art sale. We see many famous pieces of art for sale including the Mona Lisa. Lupin manages to make it out with the art but stitches it all into a sail for a boat. I’m pretty sure that ruins the art pieces so I’m guessing this one was just for the spectacle.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 but a fancy sail

Which of the Third Generation Will Win?

Target: Arsene Lupin’s Costume and Many French Treasures

One of my biggest fears was running into a situation like this while watching Lupin where they just gather a bunch of treasure and skedaddle. Lupin makes it out with all the treasures in the museum and it’s never stated how much they are, what all they are, and what their value is. So for this blog I’m going to compare it to the French Crown Jewels being stolen which apparently happened. According to this article, the heist stole over 12 million livre worth in jewels, but we’re going to go with the full value of 23 million livre. I had some trouble finding out how much livre are worth, but found this article which simply states 1 livre is 80 francs. Doing some math work and that estimates the value of the heist to be approximately  $1,997,583,120, which we’ll round up to $2 billion.

Lupin’s Reward: $2 billion + his grandpa’s signature outfit

Catch the Phony Lupin

Target: The Thieves’ Rulebook

Another episode centered on Lupin’s relationship with his grandfather. This village houses a book written by the great Arsene Lupin with rules on how to be a thief. Lupin wants it back for sentimental reasons, and partly to get revenge on this island that’s been using his name to steal treasures all over the world. The book has no value other than its sentiment to Lupin. Lupin manages to make it out with it, but drops it into the ocean at the very last scene.

Lupin’s Reward: $0 and a wet book

Another batch of fine episodes, though I think I preferred the last batch more. Regardless there’s only three episodes left so I’m ready for this particular part to be done with.