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jazzy musicYo! As I said in my intro thread, I'm pretty much brand new to the Lupin franchise, but when I tried it last year it hit me like a runaway Fiat - in the best possible way. I feel a bit... out of the Lup (groan) in a fandom where most people had at least some prior experience with Lupin before falling super hard for the series, but hey, fandoms would be super boring if everyone had the exact same experiences with media, wouldn't they? Since I enjoy reading newcomers' thoughts on franchises I love and I bet I'm not the only one, I'm making this thread as a sort of public diary of the Lupin media I've consumed, both to keep track of it for myself and invite discussion if you agree/disagree with my thoughts on anything.
Just a warning, I'm the kind of autistic who can talk about my interests for days, so this is long (nearly 3000 words) - feel free to skim as you like!
If need be I can make do with making the font size smaller.)Part 1: Episodes 1-23 (Japanese with English subs)
I've seen a few guides to getting into Lupin that say "don't start with part 1", which always makes me chuckle because I did start with part 1 - and while I get why people say that, it appealed to me because it's messy and imperfect but sincere, in an age where media has to be polished and fine-tuned to the last frame of animation or line of dialogue to even have a chance at succeeding. As an animation nerd and artist myself I could feel Osumi, Otsuka and later Miyazaki and Takahata's eagerness to create something new and fresh with the limited resources they had, and I'd say they nailed it: the show compensates for its limited animation with dynamic poses, shot compositions and textured lineart. The writing, too, is delightfully unpredictable in a way TV shows rarely are nowadays; Lupin's heists failing more often than not made it all the more satisfying when he did succeed.
My Lupanniversary, as it were, is the 5th of July 2024: the day I finally took my boyfriend Sof's recommendation, sat down and watched the first five episodes of part 1. It wasn't quite love at first sight; episode 1 didn't fully click with me until the very end, when Fujiko revealed she'd been working with Zenigata all along - that moment, and Fujiko's part 1 characterisation in general, were the perfect embodiment of the aforementioned unpredictability, and the start of her becoming my favourite character. It clicked even harder with episode 4 where Lupin's elaborate year-spanning scheme kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, leading to a beautiful ending which wordlessly explained that for him, the real treasure really was the friends he made along the way. Of course episode 5 was the one I'd really been looking forward to since it introduced Sof's favourite character, Goemon, and he didn't disappoint... but the moment when the series truly clicked, and still my favourite scene in part 1, was the ending of episode 7. I knew I'd fallen in love with the series when found myself laughing along with Lupin and Goemon, and I haven't stopped laughing since.
In late July I happened upon this article by Animation Obsessive on the making of part 1, and not only did the timing feel cosmic - like a sign this show and me were meant to be - it clarified that the series is exactly the kind of media I like. Flawed, compromised, overcoming incredible odds to get made at all, but created out of pure love for the medium of animation (and discovered through my love for another person) - despite its rough edges, that love shone through to me clear as day. As the article put it, "This unstable Lupin wasn’t meant to exist, but he was presented without explanation as the real Lupin. And, in a sense, he was"... he is to me, that's for sure.
My Lupanniversary, as it were, is the 5th of July 2024: the day I finally took my boyfriend Sof's recommendation, sat down and watched the first five episodes of part 1. It wasn't quite love at first sight; episode 1 didn't fully click with me until the very end, when Fujiko revealed she'd been working with Zenigata all along - that moment, and Fujiko's part 1 characterisation in general, were the perfect embodiment of the aforementioned unpredictability, and the start of her becoming my favourite character. It clicked even harder with episode 4 where Lupin's elaborate year-spanning scheme kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, leading to a beautiful ending which wordlessly explained that for him, the real treasure really was the friends he made along the way. Of course episode 5 was the one I'd really been looking forward to since it introduced Sof's favourite character, Goemon, and he didn't disappoint... but the moment when the series truly clicked, and still my favourite scene in part 1, was the ending of episode 7. I knew I'd fallen in love with the series when found myself laughing along with Lupin and Goemon, and I haven't stopped laughing since.
In late July I happened upon this article by Animation Obsessive on the making of part 1, and not only did the timing feel cosmic - like a sign this show and me were meant to be - it clarified that the series is exactly the kind of media I like. Flawed, compromised, overcoming incredible odds to get made at all, but created out of pure love for the medium of animation (and discovered through my love for another person) - despite its rough edges, that love shone through to me clear as day. As the article put it, "This unstable Lupin wasn’t meant to exist, but he was presented without explanation as the real Lupin. And, in a sense, he was"... he is to me, that's for sure.
Pilot Film (Cinemascope version; Japanese with English subs)
If you want an idea of how literal-minded I am, I considered starting my Lupin journey with this - but in the end I decided to go with part 1 episode 1 knowing that a pilot usually differs from the main series in some way. I couldn't have been more right about this one - but that's what made it interesting to go back to after seeing all of part 1. I find it interesting that Lupin even has a pilot; I feel like today the manga typically serves a similar "gauge viewer interest and financial viability" purpose as a pilot in Western TV, so this is a nice little time capsule of how the anime industry has changed since 1969.
It's obvious the pilot was aimed at investors rather than general viewing audiences: it's the antithesis of "show, don't tell", with its lengthy, plot-halting (but cool) montages introducing each character. I still had fun watching it as a general viewer, though: it's a fun little bite-sized Lupin story interspersed with the aforementioned montages, and bought to life with absolutely stunning animation I can tell the crew had a blast making, and which is full of the same determined spirit as the best indie and student productions of the 21st century. It's also neat to see ideas for the series that ultimately didn't stick, but were fun for one go: Akechi could've been a fun addition to the series as an aged first-generation literary character among descendents, but it was probably for the best that they decluttered the amount of references a bit. Goemon in his villain arc having a rivalry with Zenigata to be "the one who will kill Lupin" was an utterly fascinating dynamic that would've been fun to see in at least a few episodes of part 1; I wonder if watching the pilot first would've left me wanting more of that and disappointed... but on the other hand, it's hard to imagine Goemon not ending up as the loveable co-protagonist he ultimately became. Rather than dwelling on what-ifs, let's move on to...
It's obvious the pilot was aimed at investors rather than general viewing audiences: it's the antithesis of "show, don't tell", with its lengthy, plot-halting (but cool) montages introducing each character. I still had fun watching it as a general viewer, though: it's a fun little bite-sized Lupin story interspersed with the aforementioned montages, and bought to life with absolutely stunning animation I can tell the crew had a blast making, and which is full of the same determined spirit as the best indie and student productions of the 21st century. It's also neat to see ideas for the series that ultimately didn't stick, but were fun for one go: Akechi could've been a fun addition to the series as an aged first-generation literary character among descendents, but it was probably for the best that they decluttered the amount of references a bit. Goemon in his villain arc having a rivalry with Zenigata to be "the one who will kill Lupin" was an utterly fascinating dynamic that would've been fun to see in at least a few episodes of part 1; I wonder if watching the pilot first would've left me wanting more of that and disappointed... but on the other hand, it's hard to imagine Goemon not ending up as the loveable co-protagonist he ultimately became. Rather than dwelling on what-ifs, let's move on to...
Part 2: Episodes 1-13, 26, 61 (Geneon English dub), 112 (Japanese with English subs), 145 and 155 (Streamline English dub)
I picked up part 2 not long after finishing part 1, in late summer of last year - but after episode 1, I decided to save the rest for later when I realised the timing was perfect to watch each episode on its 47th anniversary (episode 2 on October 10th, episode 3 on October 17th and so on). A fun fact about me is that my answer to the age-old "subs or dubs" question is a resounding "both": I have a habit of watching anime subbed for the first time and dubbed on rewatch (if I like it enough), which I like to call the "two cakes" approach to anime. For Lupin Part 2 specifically, though, I went with the dub because I happened to see this clip compilation on Tumblr and realised it was exactly what I like in an English dub; growing up with Saban's Digimon gave me a taste for dubs that play fast, loose and fun with the source material (Osomatsu-san, or Mr. Osomatsu as the dub calls it, is another perfect example). It turns out both were good decisions, because while I don't dislike part 2 (I wouldn't have the badge on my profile if I did)... remember earlier when I called part 1 “unpredictable”? So far part 2, in contrast, has been very formulaic, with most (though not all) episodes of the first "season" being possible to describe with the same summary: "the gang go to a country to steal a treasure, Zenigata is in that country, they outwit him, they either lose the treasure in their escape or find it wasn't what they expected" (Sof made the observation that Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders did the "globetrotting adventure with villains of the week" formula better, and I couldn't agree more). The dub's extra jokes add some much-needed spice to a somewhat bland meal; enjoying a little piece of it every Thursday is a cosy weekly ritual, but I find it hard to imagine bingewatching part 2 and enjoying it (unless you're multitasking something).
Still, I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or a 155 episode anime by its first 13 episodes: Sof has seen a little more of part 2 than I have, but he also got bored of the weekly formula and skipped ahead to a few later episodes, either randomly or based on their Goemon content (or... Goemontent, if you will). Based on his recommendations I did the same: those episodes were 26, 61 and 112, all of which went down a treat and gave me faith that part 2 will eventually get less formulaic. 26 had some great Jigen and Goemon moments and shook up the formula with Lupin and Jigen's carefully orchestrated duel, and 61 is honestly my favourite of part 2 so far: I love that if the show were even one modicum more serious Goemon would've had a self-worth arc about discovering who he really is outside of Zantetsuken, but only in Lupin would he say "no time for that we gotta go defeat a war criminal with the power of oden" (...well, maybe he would've said that in Osomatsu-san). Also, Fujigoe moments!!! I also adored 112 both for the - ahem - eye candy and for the exploration of Goemon as a character and his bond with Lupin; the ending that (much like that of part 1 episode 4) says without words that Lupin's greatest weakness is his friends already lives rent free in my head.
The last two part 2 episodes I've seen weren't as random: just after Christmas I had about an hour to kill on a car ride to a family gathering, so I downloaded the Streamline dubs of episodes 145 and 155 to my phone. As I said in my introduction thread, I'm really fascinated by the art of dubbing, so I always planned to check out as many different English (and Spanish) dubs of Lupin as possible to compare and contrast the similarities and differences - and boy did the Streamline dub have a lot of both! The thing I found most striking was how similar the majority of the characters sound to the Geneon dub despite the different actors (in particular Zenigata sounds exactly the same to me and it's kind of uncanny); I assume that was a conscious decision the Geneon cast made to carry on the legacy of Streamline's work. ...I did say "the majority of characters" - and then there's friggin' Jigen. The best description I can think of is that Geneon Jigen gives off "your son calls me daddy too" vibes while Streamline Jigen gives "horny people have no rights" vibes, and that's an absolutely perfect example of why dubbing is so fascinating to me (I'm anticipating the Mamo dubs like a fine four-course meal lemme tell ya). The adaptation of the script isn't as joke-laden as Geneon's approach, but then again, what is? I appreciated them not going for the stilted, overly literal approach a lot of modern English anime dubs do; I don't know for sure without watching the subbed versions (which I will eventually), but it felt like Streamline hit a nice sweet spot between funny, natural-sounding dialogue and faithfulness to the original. The only thing that truly bothered me was the inconsistency between "(the) Wolf" and "Loopin" - I completely understand why his name had to be changed, but in execution it felt more like a mistake than two different in-universe aliases for the character. In particular, Maki thanking "Wolf" only for the soundtrack to immediately repeat "Lupin, Lupin, Lupin" was more than a little jarring.
Speaking of which, as for my thoughts on the episodes themselves... maybe I have myself to blame for this for watching the season finale out of order and not getting all the appropriate build-up, but I greatly preferred 145 over 155. I'll come right out and say I'm not the biggest Miyazaki fan; I acknowledge he and Takahata were a big part of why part 1 turned out as charming and memorable as it did, but I respect his films more than I personally like them, simply because I tend to prefer comedy over dramatic fantasy. 145 blended the two very well: it has little touches that remind you it's a Miyazaki work, being basically a dogfight bookended with super detailed food and rolling green hills, but it felt like a quintessentially Lupin adventure dialled up to 11 with higher stakes and fluid animation. 155, on the other hand, felt like an in-name-only Lupin fanfic; it kind of works as a finale in that the "fake Lupin" premise is a test of how well you know the character at that point (I'd seen enough of the show to think to myself "he would not fucking say that"), and in principle I'm glad Lupin as a franchise is like a playground for different creators to enjoy as they please - but at the end of the day, if I wanted a serious and dramatic sci-fi-fantasy adventure, I'd just watch Nausicaä or Laputa. (On that note, I have a confession: I didn't like Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer that much, and if that's a beloved and historically important second movie in a franchise, I'm absolutely terrified I'm not gonna like Cagliostro... but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.)
One last observation: if Streamline were hoping "Albatross: Wings of Death" would introduce more Americans to Lupin, does that make it a... pilot episode??? ...okay, okay, I'll move on to...
Still, I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, or a 155 episode anime by its first 13 episodes: Sof has seen a little more of part 2 than I have, but he also got bored of the weekly formula and skipped ahead to a few later episodes, either randomly or based on their Goemon content (or... Goemontent, if you will). Based on his recommendations I did the same: those episodes were 26, 61 and 112, all of which went down a treat and gave me faith that part 2 will eventually get less formulaic. 26 had some great Jigen and Goemon moments and shook up the formula with Lupin and Jigen's carefully orchestrated duel, and 61 is honestly my favourite of part 2 so far: I love that if the show were even one modicum more serious Goemon would've had a self-worth arc about discovering who he really is outside of Zantetsuken, but only in Lupin would he say "no time for that we gotta go defeat a war criminal with the power of oden" (...well, maybe he would've said that in Osomatsu-san). Also, Fujigoe moments!!! I also adored 112 both for the - ahem - eye candy and for the exploration of Goemon as a character and his bond with Lupin; the ending that (much like that of part 1 episode 4) says without words that Lupin's greatest weakness is his friends already lives rent free in my head.
The last two part 2 episodes I've seen weren't as random: just after Christmas I had about an hour to kill on a car ride to a family gathering, so I downloaded the Streamline dubs of episodes 145 and 155 to my phone. As I said in my introduction thread, I'm really fascinated by the art of dubbing, so I always planned to check out as many different English (and Spanish) dubs of Lupin as possible to compare and contrast the similarities and differences - and boy did the Streamline dub have a lot of both! The thing I found most striking was how similar the majority of the characters sound to the Geneon dub despite the different actors (in particular Zenigata sounds exactly the same to me and it's kind of uncanny); I assume that was a conscious decision the Geneon cast made to carry on the legacy of Streamline's work. ...I did say "the majority of characters" - and then there's friggin' Jigen. The best description I can think of is that Geneon Jigen gives off "your son calls me daddy too" vibes while Streamline Jigen gives "horny people have no rights" vibes, and that's an absolutely perfect example of why dubbing is so fascinating to me (I'm anticipating the Mamo dubs like a fine four-course meal lemme tell ya). The adaptation of the script isn't as joke-laden as Geneon's approach, but then again, what is? I appreciated them not going for the stilted, overly literal approach a lot of modern English anime dubs do; I don't know for sure without watching the subbed versions (which I will eventually), but it felt like Streamline hit a nice sweet spot between funny, natural-sounding dialogue and faithfulness to the original. The only thing that truly bothered me was the inconsistency between "(the) Wolf" and "Loopin" - I completely understand why his name had to be changed, but in execution it felt more like a mistake than two different in-universe aliases for the character. In particular, Maki thanking "Wolf" only for the soundtrack to immediately repeat "Lupin, Lupin, Lupin" was more than a little jarring.
Speaking of which, as for my thoughts on the episodes themselves... maybe I have myself to blame for this for watching the season finale out of order and not getting all the appropriate build-up, but I greatly preferred 145 over 155. I'll come right out and say I'm not the biggest Miyazaki fan; I acknowledge he and Takahata were a big part of why part 1 turned out as charming and memorable as it did, but I respect his films more than I personally like them, simply because I tend to prefer comedy over dramatic fantasy. 145 blended the two very well: it has little touches that remind you it's a Miyazaki work, being basically a dogfight bookended with super detailed food and rolling green hills, but it felt like a quintessentially Lupin adventure dialled up to 11 with higher stakes and fluid animation. 155, on the other hand, felt like an in-name-only Lupin fanfic; it kind of works as a finale in that the "fake Lupin" premise is a test of how well you know the character at that point (I'd seen enough of the show to think to myself "he would not fucking say that"), and in principle I'm glad Lupin as a franchise is like a playground for different creators to enjoy as they please - but at the end of the day, if I wanted a serious and dramatic sci-fi-fantasy adventure, I'd just watch Nausicaä or Laputa. (On that note, I have a confession: I didn't like Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer that much, and if that's a beloved and historically important second movie in a franchise, I'm absolutely terrified I'm not gonna like Cagliostro... but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.)
One last observation: if Streamline were hoping "Albatross: Wings of Death" would introduce more Americans to Lupin, does that make it a... pilot episode??? ...okay, okay, I'll move on to...
Part 3: Episodes 1-21 (Japanese with English subs)
Now this is more like it! I started watching part 3 a few weeks after part 2 - but honestly I wish I'd started sooner because when the first thing I saw after the opening was Lupin answering a phone inside a shark's mouth, I knew I was in for a good time. Unlike part 2 I can happily watch multiple episodes of part 3 in a sitting, which I've been doing quite a bit so I can catch up enough to watch episodes 24 and onward on their 40th anniversary. It's not a perfect show by any means - Fujiko gets kidnapped a bit much for my liking in the early episodes, episodes 3, 12 and 15 had scenes I could've done without and many people before me have pointed out that the designs of some Black background characters are... not ideal - but I did go into Lupin knowing it was a franchise much older than me, so I expected at least a few dated aspects. Part 3 recaptures that experimental spirit I loved about part 1 in both the animation (I'm of the school of thought that doesn't mind and even embraces off-model drawings) and writing (crime bosses who are secretly vampires, relatively sombre war stories, spaceships for rich tourists, ancient lost cities, climaxes set to 80s-as-fuck dance numbers, you name it, part 3 has it). With the success of the franchise already established, and the show apparently no longer shackled (or handcuffed) to featuring Zenigata in every single episode, the stories are free to be even more outlandish and take small detours to show the characters randomly eating, reading, dancing or just enjoying life together, while always keeping up a brisk pace that crams a lot of action into 22 minutes.
And oh, the aesthetics and music are just so *chef's kiss*! Ironically, when I think of the Pink Jacket series I think of the colour blue: the beautiful night skies and cityscapes really make the pastels of the cast's outfits pop. You could play a city pop song over a looping GIF of almost any scene from part 3 and it'd be a match made in heaven - in fact it could be a song from part 3! "Sexy Adventure", "Fairy Night" and "Manhattan Joke" (I haven't seen Gold of Babylon yet but I couldn't resist listening ahead of time) all satisfy my taste for smooth early-to-mid-80s jams. Part 3 as a whole satisfies my taste!
And oh, the aesthetics and music are just so *chef's kiss*! Ironically, when I think of the Pink Jacket series I think of the colour blue: the beautiful night skies and cityscapes really make the pastels of the cast's outfits pop. You could play a city pop song over a looping GIF of almost any scene from part 3 and it'd be a match made in heaven - in fact it could be a song from part 3! "Sexy Adventure", "Fairy Night" and "Manhattan Joke" (I haven't seen Gold of Babylon yet but I couldn't resist listening ahead of time) all satisfy my taste for smooth early-to-mid-80s jams. Part 3 as a whole satisfies my taste!
My favourite episode so far is 11 for its subtly supernatural premise, playful animation and a glimmer of sapphic Fujiko (as a supporter of Women's Wrongs, I also appreciate the high number of female villains compared to part 2), but every episode so far has featured at least one thing that either surprised me, made me laugh, activated my animation nerd neurons - or all three at once. I'm told the animation and character designs are only gonna get zanier, and boy am I looking forward to that!!!
Honourable mentions: these two scenes from Azumanga Daioh (foreshadowing of Fujiko being my fave) and this AMV Sof showed me, which is what motivated me to finally take the plunge into part 1. I have a soft spot for this song because of that... "let me show you're my everything" indeed
OK, we're up to speed on everything I've watched as of posting this! I'll add to this thread as I watch more - I'm particularly looking forward to the movies, specials and OVAs, since there's so many of them and opinions seem to vary a lot. As stated at the top, I'd love to discuss what I've seen so far and compare notes on our Lupin experiences! I have a lot more to get through, so: to be continued... wait wrong series
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Since there's so many TV specials in particular I might as well watch those in a self-indulgent order - and I'm open to recommendations!
Same with part 3 - it seems to be a bit of a "love it or hate it" kinda deal and I see why, but I'm firmly in the "love it" camp because cartoony and silly is my jam.
i would definitely recommend you watch mystery of mamo and castle of cagliostro before you tackle a lot of the newer stuff. there are a lot of references to those two films in other works. and if i may make a personal recommendation....AFTER you watch mamo 1-4 times, you should watch the koike films! lupin the iiird: the movie was just announced to be released later this year, so it would be cool for you to catch up and enjoy the release!
ngl I'm kinda torn on Strange Psychokinetic Strategy because on one hand it sounds super fun, goofy and an important piece of the franchise's history but on the other my expectations are kinda low since there's no Goemon (call me biased if you want... and you'd be right 
) Maybe I'll throw it on while multitasking something?
For easy reference, 
I'll check in again after I've watched my next one!!
At first I chalked that up to them not having the budget for a traditional Japanese wardrobe, a Zantetsuken prop and advanced stunt work... but then they introduced a plot point about the Maccerone family (great name) sending assassins after Lupin and didn't make Goemon one of them? Biggest missed opportunity in the history of cinema!!! Even without my personal bias, the plot and pacing felt a little messy at times: the "Psychokinetic" part of the title just straight up doesn't happen unless you count the codename of the climactic police operation and Lupin and Zenigata boasting of their "psychokinetic powers" (was that a 70s equivalent of "chuunibyou?"), the missing bank note was a Chekhov's Gun that never fired, and the final McGuffin/heist target wasn't even mentioned until the last 20 minutes of the movie! Were they serious?!
) and freed his blade from its ornamentation while in the company of Lupin and Jigen, who actually see him as a person, even in a setting where Goemon's actual allegiance is a bit ambiguous. It could be considered a very mature, subtle take on a "be yourself" moral... with graphic violence and weed. Gore isn't something I actively seek out, but I can handle if if I've been warned beforehand, and this movie gives that warning right there in the title - plus it was cathartic to see Goemon finally cut something besides worthless objects.
Different actors can nail different aspects of the same character - you really see that when so many different actors have tackled characters as multifaceted as the Lupin gang. I was a Digimon nerd as a kid so I had a very similar experience with Epcar as Jigen since I was used to him as Myotismon 
Again, the 90s movie duology disproved my theory that lighter and softer Lupin is automatically more my taste - on reflection that was never really true, since I love the early episodes of part 1 and Bloodspray. Maybe I'm drawn to specific characters (namely Goemon and Fujiko) over specific tones or genres? There's still enough Lupin media out there to find the answer (if there even is one)!
Speaking of whom: Mike McFarland has improved a lot since Dragon of Doom, greatly toning down the gravel of Goemon's voice; in general I got the feeling the Funimation cast had well and truly settled into their roles by the end of their run on the specials, with the Lupin funeral and diner scenes being highlights both story- and voice acting-wise. I hear they all (well, 3/5 of them) improved even more by TWCFM, so I look forward to hearing them at their peak, even if the road to get there was rough as... well, McFarland's Goemon voice.
Here's a small-ish end of May update. I watched my latest TV special in an oddly fitting way: there was another movie night in the zine Discord that Sof and I both joined in with, but he had to leave to deal with IRL stuff partway through and my internet kept cutting out, so we decided to start over and watch it together, just the two of us. I guess you could say we had a...
But what they do have are two exclusive Lupin movies, which I thought I might as well take the chance to watch:
The OP and ED especially are like looking inside a jewellery box - I see where Lupin part 3 gets it! So, how did the Kisugi sisters' encounter with Lupin look through... Kat's eyes? (I just had to.)
Still, I know I'm gonna have a gay old time catching up before the big day - stay tuned 