In the first episode of the latest Lupin III series, Lupin travels to France, the land his grandfather came from, to hack into the dark web data centre of an underground drugs & weapons market called Marco Polo, rescue the hacker genius imprisoned there and steal all their bitcoin, so in revenge they turn him into a meme game and:
In case you worried Lupin would be a bit anachronistic in the modern digital world. Like everybody else I came to Lupin through The Castle of Cagliostro, which on rewatch recently turned out to be half a proper Lupin adventure, awkwardly welded to half a Miyazaki Hayao movie. The original tv series came out in 1971, three years before I was born and this is the fifth instalment, the most recent one coming out in 2015, set in Italy. There have also been several more movies, an annual television special and multiple crossovers with Detective Conan. As this one is set in France, we get a Frenchified version of the classic Lupin III opening theme:
This first episode was rather tasty. Which may be expected from the first episode of a new Lupin series, showing off Lupin and pals for new audiences and old fans alike, culminating in a set piece caper and inevitable chase scene. But the quieter moments looked good too and there was a real sense of place to the episode. This felt like the real France (though romanticised) in more ways than just having an accordion playing during the opening. It helps that the backgrounds are utterly gorgeous too:
I really like the direction the Lupin series have gone in by setting each series in another country. The previous series made full use from being set in Italy and I hope the same goes for this one. With this strong an opening episode my expectations are high. One things both series have also in common apart from their foreign setting is the introduction of a new female foil for Lupin. In Part IV it was Rebecca Rossellini, heiress and businesswoman who was love interest, partner in crime and friendly rival all at the same time. Here it’s this woman:
She’s Ami, the hacker Lupin set out to “steal” and her introduction is perhaps the best scene in the episode. We only get glimpses of her moving through the fog, until Lupin (in disguise) hugs her and claims to be her father, which she immedaiately sees through as she pulls her gun on him. Now, because this is Lupin, she does pull her gun out of her panties, not wearing anything other than that and a shirt and that particularly sequence is suspiciously well animated. One of those things you either like or put up with when watching Lupin. Personally I don’t mind this sort of fanservice here because it fits with Lupin’s brand of blokey escapist fantasy. And while an Ami or a Fujiko might be there as lust object, they at least always have agency.
No Comments