Impressions of Part 3 episodes
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PS why couldn't they use any of his previous car designs?
Episode 43: good. The whole thing obviously inspired by the death of Princess Grace of Monaco.
The king is a pretty worthy opponent. Too bad Jigen and Goemon are barely in it - but they'd have solved some of the challenges if they'd been there the whole time.
Episode 43: good. The whole thing obviously inspired by the death of Princess Grace of Monaco.
The king is a pretty worthy opponent. Too bad Jigen and Goemon are barely in it - but they'd have solved some of the challenges if they'd been there the whole time.
Yo, I’ve been watching Part 3 too for a project i’ve been working on so here’s some of my favorites so far.
Episode 25: We are Not Angels
I think we as Lupin fans should make a comprehensive list of the best Zenigata chases. It’s one of the most integral parts of any piece of Lupin media up there with NPC girls and villains. In any case this episode has a great one. Zenigata jumping across cars fueled by wanting knighthood is way better than just sitting in the side of car screaming lupin. The man plot is also good with a funny yet somewhat depressing twist at the end. Fujiko and Goemon being swayed by the children is adorable.
Episode 25: We are Not Angels
I think we as Lupin fans should make a comprehensive list of the best Zenigata chases. It’s one of the most integral parts of any piece of Lupin media up there with NPC girls and villains. In any case this episode has a great one. Zenigata jumping across cars fueled by wanting knighthood is way better than just sitting in the side of car screaming lupin. The man plot is also good with a funny yet somewhat depressing twist at the end. Fujiko and Goemon being swayed by the children is adorable.
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Zenigata's presence is pretty good in episode 2, although... he just wears himself out trying to chase down leads, then HAPPENS to see his former boss & Fujiko in a car. He then follows them (good) but guesses wrong about where the gold is, so it falls to Lupin & the gang to reveal it and call Zenigata at the airport. So, I mean, Zenigata is in it a pretty good amount, but he doesn't exactly cover himself in glory, unfortunately.
at least it’s not part 2 where he’s so incompetent that him secretly being Lupin’s accomplice isn’t so far fetched after all lol. Between episodes 37 and 49 and probably even more i haven’t seen yet they do Pops much better here
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Episode 1 had some serious silliness in it, at least the random telephone shark at the start.
I like tanks, so I decided to watch Episode 6. It's on the more serious side, with a treasure hunt in the middle of a war between a general and guerillas. Jigen's old mentor Gallanco is on the side of... well, therein lies the story.
This one is pretty good. Although, I do find myself questioning whether Jigen being so sentimental is out of character or not.
There's a lot of fine work in these early episodes. It's just that the main characters' design and music are .... less good.
I like tanks, so I decided to watch Episode 6. It's on the more serious side, with a treasure hunt in the middle of a war between a general and guerillas. Jigen's old mentor Gallanco is on the side of... well, therein lies the story.
This one is pretty good. Although, I do find myself questioning whether Jigen being so sentimental is out of character or not.
There's a lot of fine work in these early episodes. It's just that the main characters' design and music are .... less good.
Can’t say for certain but I have good guess for the most interesting reputation.
Episode 13 was directed by Seijun Suzuki a famous live action director responsible for Branded for Kill and Tokyo Drifter. He supervised storyboards for Part 2 and went on to be credited as the director of Legend of the Gold of Babylon though some argue it’s an honorary credit done so that the movie could have a big name attached (though the style of the movie is similarly strange and bizarre once you’ve seen his other works) The episode itself is apparently one of the strangest in the shows history
Episode 13 was directed by Seijun Suzuki a famous live action director responsible for Branded for Kill and Tokyo Drifter. He supervised storyboards for Part 2 and went on to be credited as the director of Legend of the Gold of Babylon though some argue it’s an honorary credit done so that the movie could have a big name attached (though the style of the movie is similarly strange and bizarre once you’ve seen his other works) The episode itself is apparently one of the strangest in the shows history
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I still haven't full cleared Part 3 technically (I have two episodes left to watch)
My feelings on it is: it is a massive mixed bag and a complete acquired taste. My best way of describing it is me excitingly saying to my friends "Let's watch part 3!!!" and upon opening up the listing I'm groaning remembering some of the episodes. Some of my top favorite episodes are from part 3 and its highs are HIGH, while its lows are very low. I do actually really enjoy almost all the different stylizations except for the first style (they're just too handsome, sorry </3)
Some of my personal favorite episodes would be in a lot of the ones in the middle, but theres some at the beginning and near the end too that I enjoy as well.
My feelings on it is: it is a massive mixed bag and a complete acquired taste. My best way of describing it is me excitingly saying to my friends "Let's watch part 3!!!" and upon opening up the listing I'm groaning remembering some of the episodes. Some of my top favorite episodes are from part 3 and its highs are HIGH, while its lows are very low. I do actually really enjoy almost all the different stylizations except for the first style (they're just too handsome, sorry </3)
Some of my personal favorite episodes would be in a lot of the ones in the middle, but theres some at the beginning and near the end too that I enjoy as well.
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My counter-question: any favorite episodes of Part 3? What's the best it has to offer? Doesn't have to be some consensus either, I'll take personal favorites. I have to admit I usually have it on in the background while I'm doing chores or working, and I feel a bit bad that it's been so relegated to a second-screen show for me, so I'd like to go back and rewatch some episodes.
I know episode 18 comes up in some of those discussions, and I do remember that one fairly well. And what's the one where Lupin and Jigen are carrying around their bastard children in baby slings while still walking around in hardhats excavating under some score? I like that one too. I couldn't tell you why other than I think it's funny to make these guys take accountability for their nigh-unending flings even though I know in the episode they're not actually their kids. (Edit: I looked it up, it's episode 44!)
I know episode 18 comes up in some of those discussions, and I do remember that one fairly well. And what's the one where Lupin and Jigen are carrying around their bastard children in baby slings while still walking around in hardhats excavating under some score? I like that one too. I couldn't tell you why other than I think it's funny to make these guys take accountability for their nigh-unending flings even though I know in the episode they're not actually their kids. (Edit: I looked it up, it's episode 44!)
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I really love this part for it's sense of style and self. It's this extremely 80s synth-jazz madness with the coolness of Osumi and the comedy of Part 2. You can tell that they knew what they wanted to make and they had a hell of a time making it. In my opinion it's the platonic ideal of a Lupin show. It's super cool but doesn't take itself too seriously, it's funny but not too wacky to take you out of the stakes, and it has genuine emotion to it.
Part 1 has higher quality episodes across the board because it's shorter, Part 2 is more nostalgic to many and it has a dub, and Part V is my personal favorite piece of Lupin media ever because of how serialized it is. But Part 3 doesn't have the tonal inconsitency of Part 1, it has more ambition with it's episodes than Part 2 usually does and while it might not reach the same highs according to some it's more consistent quality wise, and it isn't as serialized and limited as Part V is. I mostly compare it favorably to Part 2 which I find somewhat dumb at times so it takes Part 2's spot of being the ultimate Lupin comfort show for me. There's too much to binge allowing you to consume it slowly but there's not an insurmountable amount like Part 2 and unlike Part 2 I feel that this particular journey is much more worthwhile.
Sorry for yapping I've been doing a LOT of research into this show and have developed a large appreciation for it as a result. I've always had curiosity towards Part 3 for it's reputation.
As for favorites 44 like Coronado as well as 25 (mentioned well above), 27+28 the alaska duology is really good cold war Lupin stuff which I think is some of the best in the show, episode 30 is considered to be based off of a manga chapter which is half true. Monkey Punch didn't write it but he did draw it. The Manga was called Sexy Lupin III and was written by the Part 3 writers. Anyway the episode itself is a vibe. Episode 40 is a high quality heist but my very favorite episode and probably the best in the series is episode 49 because it's incredible in every way. Competent Zenigata, Lupin and Jigen antics, a fun villain and a clever scheme. It's awesome.
Part 1 has higher quality episodes across the board because it's shorter, Part 2 is more nostalgic to many and it has a dub, and Part V is my personal favorite piece of Lupin media ever because of how serialized it is. But Part 3 doesn't have the tonal inconsitency of Part 1, it has more ambition with it's episodes than Part 2 usually does and while it might not reach the same highs according to some it's more consistent quality wise, and it isn't as serialized and limited as Part V is. I mostly compare it favorably to Part 2 which I find somewhat dumb at times so it takes Part 2's spot of being the ultimate Lupin comfort show for me. There's too much to binge allowing you to consume it slowly but there's not an insurmountable amount like Part 2 and unlike Part 2 I feel that this particular journey is much more worthwhile.
Sorry for yapping I've been doing a LOT of research into this show and have developed a large appreciation for it as a result. I've always had curiosity towards Part 3 for it's reputation.
As for favorites 44 like Coronado as well as 25 (mentioned well above), 27+28 the alaska duology is really good cold war Lupin stuff which I think is some of the best in the show, episode 30 is considered to be based off of a manga chapter which is half true. Monkey Punch didn't write it but he did draw it. The Manga was called Sexy Lupin III and was written by the Part 3 writers. Anyway the episode itself is a vibe. Episode 40 is a high quality heist but my very favorite episode and probably the best in the series is episode 49 because it's incredible in every way. Competent Zenigata, Lupin and Jigen antics, a fun villain and a clever scheme. It's awesome.
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Well... I just watched episode 13. That was by some famous director?!?
You could, it is true, plot an episode of a show in which each scene only relates to the previous and not the rest of the episode. But that doesn't mean the audience is going to go along for the ride. It really seems like that is what the creator was going for. I mean... That might be giving them more credit than they deserve. It might be that they threw together a bunch of ideas while drunk .
And some bits are surprisingly skeezy, like the woman who wants Lupin to kill her because she lost an eye, to Lupin imagining Fujiko in Zenigata's anti-disguise machine.
Ultimately this is a very unsatisfying episode. There are some interesting moments but it doesn't work.
(PS how is this tonally consistent with the other episodes??!?)
You could, it is true, plot an episode of a show in which each scene only relates to the previous and not the rest of the episode. But that doesn't mean the audience is going to go along for the ride. It really seems like that is what the creator was going for. I mean... That might be giving them more credit than they deserve. It might be that they threw together a bunch of ideas while drunk .
And some bits are surprisingly skeezy, like the woman who wants Lupin to kill her because she lost an eye, to Lupin imagining Fujiko in Zenigata's anti-disguise machine.
Ultimately this is a very unsatisfying episode. There are some interesting moments but it doesn't work.
(PS how is this tonally consistent with the other episodes??!?)
It's not tonally consistent you asked for the worst and evidently I delivered lol.
Yeah the guy who wrote it is Seijun Suzuki. He's known for out there yakuza and crime films with 60s pop art style that are apparantly considered cinema in certain circles. They're in the Criterion Collection so that says something. If you don't know what the Criterion Collection is that means you haven't seen the YouTube video essay The Mystery of Mamo will be in the Criterion Collection by Infinite Snow Productions which is undoubtably the best Lupin III video essay I've ever seen. Here's whats funny; The guys "magnum opus" is a film called Branded to Kill a movie about a hitman who is aroused by uh the smell of boiled rice? I think Suzuki is permantly on some sort of drug. Anyway the film got him fired from his company and blacklisted from the japanese film industry for over a decade. Anyway these days the film is considered a countercultural icon and an inspiration to a lot of famous directors and whatnot and it actually inspired the production of a little know show called Lupin III.
(PS I said it was consistent with his other non-lupin movies if that's where the confusion is from the only thing close to this is maybe Legend of the Gold of Babylon but that has a straightforward plot I would know I watched it today)
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I actually really enjoyed episode 13 and it is my fiance's favorite episode from part 3 (he likes the part a little less than I do.) And something I've found going in and reading Shin Lupin after watching part 3, is a number of chapters from it were adapted into episodes! Just a few examples, he first episode is like a collage of different parts of the San Francisco arc, episode 3 is adapted from a chapter that I think did the concept better than the episode (and some of the elements make more sense with that version of Lupin), episode 10 actually changes out who pulls off the heist and I like the episode version more bc they actually include Goemon a little bit more (at the price of sidelining Jigen a bit but honestly I don't mind much bc he's pretty prominent in part 3, and the chapter itself didn't feature Goemon that much even though Goemon is pretty prominent in the manga. Kinda a switcheroo situation.), episode 13 takes two different chapters gags (the hobo glue trap and the disguise machine), episode 30 is an adaptation of a chapter from Sexy Lupin which also was done as a promotional for Part 3 but I like the ending to the episode a little more.
For my personal top favorite episodes would be Episode 10 Treasure Smells Like A Trap (I like the overall dynamic and we get to see some shit the gang does not on a job), Episode 13 Masquerade In Hell (I like surrealism and the episode intruiges me), Episode 26 Ghost of New York (really fun Goemon episode he doesn't get a lot of fun ones in the series), Episodes 27 and 28 Star of Alaska duology (I'm biased bc I like Jigen but also its a fun two-parter to watch that's one of the more serious episodes), Episode 30 A Cocktail Named Revenge (you get a very suave Lupin and its overall a pretty cool episode, includes Fujiko in it unlike the Sexy Lupin chapter which explicitly leaves her out), Episode 38 Leticia Who Loved Lupin (extremely silly episode, there's a dolphin), Episode 44 Our Dad's A Thief (Lupin Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny That He Might Have To Pay Child Support Someday), Episode 45 A Toast to the Con Game (the animation is really fun and overall a goofy episode), and Episode 46 Soaring On Scrap Wings (the animation looks much more similar to part 2 in some designs, its a fun episode that I actually kind of wish was the final episode instead of the Invanov one.)
Theres a lot of other episodes I enjoy but I feel like these ones specifically are pretty fun! Going out of order also can introduce you to the variation of the different art styles of the part as well, so that could either be fun or jarring depending on how you feel about it or which style you prefer. Personally pink jacket is my fav Lupin depiction so I mayhaps be a little biased. I think the biggest enjoyment I have for part 3 is just how. really mid it is. Theres a lot there an theres a lot thats. downright bad. If you look going into a media to analyze its strengths and weaknesses in terms of writing structure and how it ages over time this is the part for you!
For my personal top favorite episodes would be Episode 10 Treasure Smells Like A Trap (I like the overall dynamic and we get to see some shit the gang does not on a job), Episode 13 Masquerade In Hell (I like surrealism and the episode intruiges me), Episode 26 Ghost of New York (really fun Goemon episode he doesn't get a lot of fun ones in the series), Episodes 27 and 28 Star of Alaska duology (I'm biased bc I like Jigen but also its a fun two-parter to watch that's one of the more serious episodes), Episode 30 A Cocktail Named Revenge (you get a very suave Lupin and its overall a pretty cool episode, includes Fujiko in it unlike the Sexy Lupin chapter which explicitly leaves her out), Episode 38 Leticia Who Loved Lupin (extremely silly episode, there's a dolphin), Episode 44 Our Dad's A Thief (Lupin Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny That He Might Have To Pay Child Support Someday), Episode 45 A Toast to the Con Game (the animation is really fun and overall a goofy episode), and Episode 46 Soaring On Scrap Wings (the animation looks much more similar to part 2 in some designs, its a fun episode that I actually kind of wish was the final episode instead of the Invanov one.)
Theres a lot of other episodes I enjoy but I feel like these ones specifically are pretty fun! Going out of order also can introduce you to the variation of the different art styles of the part as well, so that could either be fun or jarring depending on how you feel about it or which style you prefer. Personally pink jacket is my fav Lupin depiction so I mayhaps be a little biased. I think the biggest enjoyment I have for part 3 is just how. really mid it is. Theres a lot there an theres a lot thats. downright bad. If you look going into a media to analyze its strengths and weaknesses in terms of writing structure and how it ages over time this is the part for you!
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You know funnily enough, I was thinking "the glue trap and detection machine are just too silly for Lupin" but when you put them in the context of the MANGA I totally see it. I don't know why that is. Zenigata creating the anti-disguise machine, and Lupin salivating about peeping on Fujiko in it, really do feel like something from the manga, even though I haven't even read that much of the manga. It's something to do with whatever portion of the vibe of Mad Magazine that Monkey Punch brought forward into his manga, I think. Interesting.
PS I do remember episode 44 from watching it before, 10/10 sic annoying children on Lupin
PPS I do know what the Criterion Collection is... I have not see any of Seijun Suzuki's films. As you say, maybe always on some kind of drug? It's interesting that the episode does have a number of interesting scenes in it. Even the scene I derided of the woman asking Lupin to kill her (does that come from manga?) is kind of memorable, as is Lupin stuck on that cross while Fujiko urges on the crowd to throw weapons at him. It's really disjointed though.
PS I do remember episode 44 from watching it before, 10/10 sic annoying children on Lupin
PPS I do know what the Criterion Collection is... I have not see any of Seijun Suzuki's films. As you say, maybe always on some kind of drug? It's interesting that the episode does have a number of interesting scenes in it. Even the scene I derided of the woman asking Lupin to kill her (does that come from manga?) is kind of memorable, as is Lupin stuck on that cross while Fujiko urges on the crowd to throw weapons at him. It's really disjointed though.
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that's a WEIRD episode and from what I've read about the director, he just BE LIKE THAT.
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I have my very biased Lupin recommended watchlist I wrote a few years back, and as a big Part 3 fan I personally really like:
Episode 40 In a Panic over the Treasure
Probably the best Part 3 episode. It's silly and fun and animated really well as long as you don't mind the characters being off-model most of the time, but that's the charm of all of Part 3!
Episode 43 Farewell, Cinderella
A very gay Fujiko episode
Episode 2 Break the Big Trap
A Zenigata centric episode. This is the one I would tell people to watch to get a good feel for the characters, or at least Zenigata. It’s very silly and wacky with good animation.
Episode 25 We are not Angels
Episode 26 The Ghost of New York
Episode 44 Our Papa is a Thief
Episode 49 Pops Was Adopted into the Family
I would highly recommend watching Part 3 start to finish, or at least episodes 22-50. The series does take place primarily in America so some of the background characters are POC and are drawn, um, distastefully. The series was made in 1985 and is extremely 80s if that’s your thing (it’s definitely my jam).
I really love the later half of Part 3, I think there's a lot of charm to it. Again, I'm biased as I really enjoy Yuzo Aoki's work. I'm so here for the silly goofs!
Episode 40 In a Panic over the Treasure
Probably the best Part 3 episode. It's silly and fun and animated really well as long as you don't mind the characters being off-model most of the time, but that's the charm of all of Part 3!
Episode 43 Farewell, Cinderella
A very gay Fujiko episode
Episode 2 Break the Big Trap
A Zenigata centric episode. This is the one I would tell people to watch to get a good feel for the characters, or at least Zenigata. It’s very silly and wacky with good animation.
Episode 25 We are not Angels
Episode 26 The Ghost of New York
Episode 44 Our Papa is a Thief
Episode 49 Pops Was Adopted into the Family
I would highly recommend watching Part 3 start to finish, or at least episodes 22-50. The series does take place primarily in America so some of the background characters are POC and are drawn, um, distastefully. The series was made in 1985 and is extremely 80s if that’s your thing (it’s definitely my jam).
I really love the later half of Part 3, I think there's a lot of charm to it. Again, I'm biased as I really enjoy Yuzo Aoki's work. I'm so here for the silly goofs!