I just realized the Fujiko Mine show was written by a woman and the follow up thingies were all by a man and yeah that does explain a lot actually.
Cause I madly hate the episode where Zenigata gets with Fujiko but other than that it was an amazing series which was quiet, dark and subtle.
Gravestone has a lot of similar touches but also that one scene…. And yeah the spin off has nudity but it’s really one of the few if not the only times where the nudity in the franchise feels empowering to women rather than like fan service and is what Fujiko’s character should be about.
Like making the show feels bad realistic makes Lupin’s treatment of Fujiko feel way worse than when it was a Looney Tunes show.
The point of that episode is to demonstrate how the people around Fujiko treat her as nothing but an obstacle and a sexual object. Zenigata does both, he treats her as a way to get to Lupin because he knows Lupin is interested in her. She's an attractive woman who is sexually empowered (at this point of the story), and to the average person that just reads as " a slut who will fuck her way to the top." Fujiko doesn't care what he thinks of her, so she's okay with letting him (and everyone else) think that she's a whore.
I think what you're doing is fronting your disgust with how a character you like, that you see as pure and good, is being written in a way you don't like. This is a normal growing experience as a Lupin fan lol.
Also there are plenty of times especially during Red Jacket where Zenigata has targeted Fujiko to use as bait to capture Lupin. The tone in twcfm is more grounded, but its not that much different, Zenigata's perception of Fujiko hasn't really changed between twcfm and everything else (aside from when lupin has complete tonal shifts)
These were thoughts I had after rewatching that episode, they might be useful:
