Okaaaaaay, here we go! I have a soft spot for part 1 episode 1 because it was my introduction to Lupin, which I know makes me an outlier in the fandom - in fact until I saw Jojo's post above I thought I was the only one
@Soffos, who recommended it to me, might also count but he'd at least seen Cagliostro years ago. Here's the story of how we both into Lupin in meme form:
Since we wouldn't have got into Lupin without the Latin Spanish dub (and because I could do with more Spanish listening practice), that's the dub I'll be watching - I've seen episodes 5 and 7 in Spanish before, but this'll be my first time watching this dub from start to finish and I look forward to it because it's... well,
really friggin' good!
It has a much more comedic feel than the original Japanese version, though unlike part 2's English dub the humour comes more from the
way the actors read their lines than actual changes to the script (though it does take a few liberties). The performances and adaptation have a ton of personality to them: there are so many fun little touches like Aramis (Lupin) disguised as a plumber adopting a more nasal tone and
Zuñiga (Zenigata)'s frustrated growls of "ñe ñe ñe", and I think this version of the series always being on the silly side will make the tonal shift in the middle of part 1 feel more natural. This dub also has my personal favourite approach to the legal issue with the Lupin name: Lupin's full name is "Aramis Lupán", with his friends (and Zuñiga) referring to him by his first name while Mr. X uses his last name. Avoiding the wrath of the copyright gods, conveying character relationships and still having the constant use of "Lupin" in the background music still make sense? That's a smart solution worthy of Aramis himself! The script is rather coy about where the show is set, even beyond the changed character names, which isn't that unusual for a dub produced in 1997: Mr. X claims the Hida Speedway is "the biggest in the East" and that it cost "a thousand million dollars" to build, and Aramis alerts Julián (Jigen) to "Inspector Zuñiga of the Metropolitan Police." The Metropolitan Police of where, exactly? I guess it's not the end of the world if some of the dub's humour is unintentional. I do like the choices of names that match the first and last letters of "Jigen" and "Zenigata" - but it starts getting wacky when you hear that Aramis and Zuñiga's ancestors were named "Armando Lupán" and "Arron Zuñiga". I guess you can infer from the context that they're a famous thief and detective, respectively - as I did when watching the episode in Japanese a year and a half ago.
Speaking of which... as an introduction, "Is Lupin Burning?" certainly throws you in at the deep end (like Lupin did to the Scorpions, d'oh ho ho). I remember thinking "I'm definitely not the target audience for this" when Lupin started listing off the famous racecar drivers and their models of cars, and "I'm no prude, but in the
first episode? Really?" during the tickle torture scene. But then I remembered: I'm a big fan of Osomatsu-san, which also had a weird, somewhat controversial first episode that assumes the viewer knows the obscure-in-the-West 1960s show it's based on, and this episode did a similarly good job of grabbing my attention. Some of that was shock value, but I also found myself captivated by the limited-but-smart animation, which favours dynamic shot compositions and richly textured lineart over a high frame count, and the approach of establishing Lupin's in-universe power and influence before actually showing him stealing anything. Mr. X effectively tells both the Scorpions and the viewer "this is Lupin: you may not know him yet, but he's kind of a big deal, and we want him gone"... which makes their total defeat at the end all the more shocking (in a good way) to modern viewers who are used to anime with recurring antagonists. There's also the excellent twist with Fujiko at the end, which was what really hooked me to keep watching, and something I only noticed on rewatch: Zenigata's line "freedom is the greatest treasure a man has". For such a messy, imperfect first episode, it's impressive that they stated the theme of the series so confidently! Even if some people advise against starting with this episode, it worked on me, a little
too well in fact - just look at the hundreds of thousands of words about Lupin III I've written on this very site
favorite moments of mine are the cute "it's fate" zenigata monologue, lupin hammering away at the plumbing, and the way he gets flustered by fujiko's kiss after she betrays him. i also loooooove the music and sound effects in part 1. when lupin and jigen swap places on the racetrack and the music is replaced by a ticking clock is *chef's kiss* to me.
I love the scene of Lupin chaotically smashing pipes. Gremlin levels at max.
His little kisses to the crowd while he's holding the trophy absolutely crack me up.
THIS THIS THIIIIIIS the characterisations in part 1 are so good, especially Lupin: just the right mix of edginess and gremlin energy
I love its sound design too, Osumi really used every trick at his disposal (much like Lupin would) to make the action impactful. I look forward to seeing and hearing more examples as the rewatch continues!!!
, voiced to perfection by Leonardo Araujo in the dub: