Worm_Death's Blog

Anime Relations: Lupin III: Babylon no Ougon Densetsu

This is certainly an interesting one. For one thing, the dub sound quality is way better, not just in mic quality but also in music and sound effects. Since I watched the dub first, I'll talk about it first.

The dub was really great. First of all, the voice acting was solid, even for the smaller roles. Definitely a step up from the Genon days. I learned that Part 1 Lupin was recorded during COVID-19, so that explains a lot; I no longer wanna harbor any negative feelings for it just because of the uphill battle that had to be worked on. Anyway, now that I see what they can do outside of the Genon early 2000s bubble, it's great work. It sticks a lot closer to the script while still throwing in the occasional new lines. Certainly, Tony Oliver's Lupin is still very distinct from Yasuo Yamada's. I think Tony was one of the strongest voice actors in the movie. Although my one complaint is, as I believe I've said before, he can't really do serious situations all too well. His voice is too silly for serious situations to have some weight. This is only really relevant to the scene where Lupin first sees Rosetta as a young woman.

Honestly, Doug Erholtz really won me over here. My only previous exposure to him was Part 1, and I already said what I thought of it. He does a great job and is clearly passionate. That's what I've heard from both fans and his coworkers, and now that I have a first-hand account, I totally see what they meant. He almost has this kind of New Yorker accent, weirdly enough. He might be Japanese-born and raised, but for an English adaptation, sure, this works. I had no problem with it.

A lot of the side characters were good. I think Marciano's voice suits the character well. Rosetta's voice actor is really charming; I enjoyed her a lot. As useless as Chin and Willy were, I got really excited to hear Chin voiced by Todd Haberkorn, one of my favorite childhood voice actors. However, the ICPO girls have much to be desired. They're really rough. Three of them are voiced by the same woman, one even voiced by Michelle Ruff, and the other plays young Rosetta. And I get they were probably working with a shoestring budget; I'm theorizing this was made specifically with the Bluray release of this movie, so this is probably all Discotek money. I can't imagine they have a ton of extra money, and they can just fling around. I know they try to get things dubbed as much as they can, but yeah, that's a lot of work. The issue I have with the limited voice actors, though, is that it's just white women putting on accents. And it's rough. Especially Saranda since she's supposed to be from Kenya, and yet they make her sound African American, and it's a white woman playing the role. Wow, yikes, no, that's not good. I want to give them all the benefit of the doubt and say this was mainly a financial issue versus laziness to actually hire a black voice actor. Not that any of them are too great; the accents are all really bad and about as stereotypical as they get. They're definitely rough to watch, but luckily, the girls are pretty minor characters, so it's not the worst thing.

Oddly enough, they remove one of the gayest lines in the movie, which is really weird considering this cast since they tend to write dialogue to be 10x gayer. But they removed the lines "It makes me want to give you a kiss" and "Then kiss me!" from Lupin to Zenigata. Crazy stuff. But they just turn Zenigata's line into "Monkey see, monkey do." What a shame.

Despite what I enjoy, I'd still rather watch the sub; I could easily see myself switching off, though. Again, the characters are just way better suited to the multi-talented Japanese actors. The ICPO girls aren't great here either honestly. There are a couple of rough lines, like when Saranda is introduced and, as she dances, she just chants "Kenya." You guys really couldn't be bothered to figure out how to say "hi" in Kenyan? It's really frustrating, but at the very least, they don't put on accents, which makes it worlds easier to watch. Rosetta's voice actor I preferred a lot more. When she sings, it reminds me of how my grandma sang to me as a kid, and it makes me nostalgic.


An old lady wanders into a bar where Lupin just happens to be. He's given a delivery, Zenigata, and a massive motorcycle chase ensues. Once Lupin can cool down, he's visited by the old woman, an acquaintance, Rosetta. She tells Lupin about the gold of Babylon, immediately appealing to his interest. Meanwhile, Zenigata's been taken off the Lupin case for failing to capture him again. He's put in charge of an ICPO beauty contest. Afterward, he's given his position back but has to work alongside all the pageant participants.
Meanwhile, Fujiko is with her new boyfriend and former gang boss, Marciano. Fujiko says she'll only plan on marrying him if he's able to acquire the gold of Babylon. He decides to show her his father's collection. While destroying an old building, his father discovered some old cuneiform tablets from ancient Babylon. She is able to see them firsthand and is amazed. However, Marciano notices Fujiko taking pictures with her necklace, and she reveals herself to be Lupin in disguise. Scanning the tablets, he's able to translate what they say about a god and all the city's gold being used to make a grand treasure. Lupin's up for the task, but he's alone in this. After they leave, Rosetta revisits him. She takes the candelabra from Lupin, and he asks what its significance is. She explains that the Babylonians believed God rode on a comit to reach them every 76 years. She also offhandily mentions her loving relationship with Napoleon before leaving. Lupin doesn't understand how she could be alive for 2,500 years. The new gang boss is busy trying to take out Jigen, but Lupin rallies them together to head to Babylon. The gang goonies attack them on the train, but they make it to Babylon intact. They make it to the excavation site, where they already see Marciano getting started. Lupin launches himself into one of the ruins, full of booby traps. In one of these, he's a beautiful woman who calls herself Rosetta. She tells Lupin that God had her descend onto Earth many, many years ago, and she is reborn every 76 years, stuck in an endless loop. Lupin tries to wake himself from the illusion and finds himself in the center of a big room. He pulls a candle holder down, and it reveals a pure gold griffin statue. This also triggers the collapse of the entire ruins, so he makes a mad dash out. He exits right in front of Marciano's dig site but is luckily lifted up by helicopter before they can take the statue. The rope he clings to is cut down by a boomerang, a ploy by Fujiko to get the statue all to herself.
Meanwhile, the guys are out driving in the desert but certainly aren't alone. The ICPO girls managed to acquire some foreign nation's tanks and chase after the gang. They might be close, but their Jeep is aquatic. Fujiko appears on a speedboat in front of them with the statue, but Kowalski, the gang boss, quickly swipes it. Lupin's not too bothered because he's realized where the really big stash is, New York. They notify Marciano that they're there and get to digging. Lupin and Jigen uncover the giant gold stash. Lupin figured it was buried under Madison Garden Square because the recovered Babylonian tablets were found in a roughly circular pattern. This is the other Tower of Babylon, and as Rosetta described, the comet will pass over it in 76 years. Halley's Comet just so happens to be passing in 25 hours from now. They go back to the bar from the beginning but are targeted again. Lupin runs into Rosetta again, and he tells her where the new Tower of Babel is. She tells him that Fujiko has been captured by the gang, so Lupin rushes over. Threatening Fujiko's life, Lupin throws away his weapons and box of cigars before being tied up with Fujiko and sent down the river. As they are washed away, Fujiko asks him what's going on. He explains that God made the Tower of Babel in Babylon, but as he went to grab it, he dropped it, and it landed in New York, and this is why Halley's Comet travels there now. As Rosetta' stands about it, it sends off a UFO after her, and the entire tower flies into the sky. The gang just manages to scramble on before it's too far. Rosetta reverts back to her original self, and she's finally able to return home. After she ascends, Lupin destroys the candelabra to destroy the entire tower and gold for them all.

Honestly, I'm surprised I ended up enjoying this as much as I did. I never liked this movie since I first watched it, and honestly, outside of a few scenes, I didn't remember this movie well. It's been a year and a half since I first saw it. Unlike even some 24-minute episodes of Lupin, it was able to retain my attention a lot better than those. I never felt the need to go do something else while this was in the background. While not always particularly engaging all the time, I never felt bored. The locations are kept fresh, and there's a lot of really fun action. The plot is a bit... weird, to say the least. But honestly, I followed it pretty closely. Knowing about the production, it makes a lot of sense that there were clearly a lot of writers and propositions for this movie, and they got it to work while still making sense. I feel like it just flows well. I think it helps once they relate a lot of the more magical stuff back to Babylonian mythology. It seems a lot more believable. Call this Ancient Aliens, y'know. The action I found to be really fun. Arguably, the first one with Lupin and Zenigata is the most pointless, but there's just so much energy bursting into the whole time I can't complain. Lupin's had stronger plots, for sure. I only changed my rating of this from a 6 to a 7 out of 10, but I can thoroughly say I enjoyed it. This is a nice change because before, I had basically decided I'd never watch this movie again.


This is a fairly safe plot for Lupin, but there's not a ton I can say for our main guys. They do cool stuff, and I love them just as always.

While small, I want to talk about the weird mini-relationship they tried to force with Chinjao and Goemon. I just think it's pointless. She's good at martial arts and he's good with the blade, and then it's love at first sight, it's just a weird premise. They never even share a sentence with each other after their initial meeting. And yet the second Goemon exists in the scene, Chinjao is calling for him. If you're going to do that, commit or just not at all. Which I would prefer, they had no chemistry.

Speaking of the ICPO girls, I had the most issues with them for fairly obvious reasons. As I already stated, they are just really stereotypical caricatures of different cultures. Wearing stereotypical clothes and all. It made me cringe that the ones meant to seduce Lupin were the two white blonds, and the server is Saranda, in a freaking maid outfit on top of that. It's really bad. This could have served as a fun opportunity for Zenigata to be a bigger force and not just with nameless officers but a real fun cast he could work off of. But no, while they do some honestly important things, they're usually just there and often as comedic relief.

Outside of that, the new characters for this movie are honestly pretty fun and well-written.


I decided not to just throw in every time there was a sakuga moment because duh, it's a movie they'll have the higher budget to do it more consistently, and I don't feel like recording a ton of clips and converting them into gifs. This movie has a lot of great sequences though, like driving into the ear, the gold crumbling, or the ruin being destroyed.

I liked that this movie was a compromise of the new and old Lupin styles. Combining Part 3 with a bit of the past. The pink on grey-blue, on light-blue really works for me, I think it looks great. The other guys are colored more traditionally, but I found it interesting that Jigen seems to constantly change art styles, sometimes looking like Mamo or Caglisotro. However, you'll notice the movie has fairly inconsistent designs. This movie was the reason they decided to get looser with the art style of Part 3, so it makes a lot of sense. I really like the designs here. They really polished the latter half of part 3 designs, so they're way nicer looking. It's honestly not that hard to tell all the individual art styles at play here.

That being said, the amount of black face and just racial incentive depictions of black people are so bad and a major reason why i dislike this movie as much as I do. It's really hard to justify when they race on a giant racist depiction of a black man for the first 10 minutes. I don't know why they decided to do this, but Christ, I'm glad we've all grown out of this and Japan, even if they are unfortunately way later to that realization.




Gay little guys sleeping together



The number of direct monkey connections to Lupin in this movie is beautiful.



Oh, nah, I'm not vibing with this hair at all. Please just give me a slick back, not these poofy bangs. Bro looking like a Beetles member rn 😭




Love these scenes, they remind of something you'd seen from Ghibli. Unrelated, but that water is also colored really pretty.




PLEASE APPRECIATE THESE BACKGROUND PLEEEEASE. DO YOU GUYS SEE HOW MUCH EFFORT HAD TO GO INTO THEM, THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL



Part 2 reference: they are so cute



This is a rather bold interpretation of God, but uh mad respect to Japan that their population of those that believe in this god is like 1% of their population., so we can get stuff like this.



IS THIS REAL CHAT?!? Please, bro, this scares me. If Lupin is actually bald, I don't know how I'll be able to go on knowing I've lived a lie.



I love this scene so much. Seeing Lupin and Fujiko just genuinely love each other is so sweet. And the way the gold leaves these strong beautiful highlights UGH, yeah, this is a good way to end their movie out.


MANHATTAN JOKE, MANHATTAN JOKE. OH YEAAAH BABY!!! One of the absolute best songs to ever come out of Lupin, I love it so much. The entire soundtrack bops. It's certainly found a nicer balance of 70s and 80s, clearly Yuji Ohno has found a bit more of that balance which is great, I very much prefer. They even managed to sneak in Zenigata March and Lupin's theme. They're both great versions, and it's nice to hear Lupin's theme in a Part 3 property. It only takes up one scene, so it's not overbearing as it can often be. The music is just all great!


So again, there are a lot of serious flaws with this movie. The racism and stereotypes are awful and make it hard to watch this movies at parts. But I did find a lot more value this time around in the movie, I genuinely had a good time and would happily rewatch it. Certainly not a movie to start off with because it'll turn most people off, but if you're checking out Lupin give this a watch, I think there's plenty left to still enjoy.

Anime Relations: Lupin III: Cagliostro no Shiro

Ah, finally! We've reached Cagliostro and such a pleasant revisit it was!


Yep, another movie with multiple dubs, yippee... Well, first of all, of course, the Japanese is preferred here, all the voice actors are perfectly cast. The chaotic and fun energy is carried so well. Especially in Kiyoshi Kobayashi, there's just something about the way he portrays Jigen that is just so much fun to me. But that goes without saying, everyone is great, and it will forever be the preferred way to watch this movie

For Streamline's dub, hey, we've seen these guys before! I was really happy with Mamo's voices and here we get the same cast. Honestly, I liked them here more than in Mamo even. Now we get to hear the legendary name "Wolf" appear this time. Hey, better than mispronouncing Lupin. For some reason when I first found out Lupin was renamed Wolf, it bothered me so much, but upon watching it, I was completely fine with it, it's just a nickname sort of thing. I'd prefer him to be called Lupin obviously, but what can ya do? Copyright be like that sometimes.

Bob Burgen does an amazing job just as he did in Mamo, but this movie features a lot more dialogue and Lupin really taking center stage, I felt we got to spend more time with him, and really see how great a voice actor he is.

My one real complaint as fas as voice actors was Jigen's but here he sounds a lot more natural and less New York mobster cartoon character so I enjoyed it. I still like him to have a deeper voice, but it's fine. He seemed more natural with more dialogue so I think he just eased into the role he was meant to play better. Also for some reason, he'd always call Lupin "boss." There's been a few instances where's Jigen's done this across dubs, but they're chums, there's no hierarchical relationship they've got going on. Sure, Lupin takes charge, but Jigen certainly isn't his underling.

Fujiko's voice to me is too deep and doesn't radiate that Fujiko energy. But then again, Fujiko isn't her normal sexy self in this movie, a lot more subdued and tough. So without the background knowledge of her character, I'm sure it's just fine.

Also, somehow someone did not understand that Zenigata's first name isn't "keibu" which translates to "inspector." When Zenigata refers to himself as "Zenigata keibu" He's calling himself Inspector Zenigata, but as they say in this version his name is "Inspector Keibu Zenigata" which I don't know how you go translating and dubbing anime movies and end up with that. Not that it's really important, it's just funny. His first name is only mentioned one time anyway.

Clarisse to me also sounds a bit too old, but it still fits her character, so it was fine. I really like the Count's voice actually. I have some bias for Streamline because they were the original company behind dubbing all the Ghibli movies before Disney got their disgusting little mitts on them. So, when I watch these, the voices of characters remind me of those good old nostalgic days of the original Ghibli dubs, so there's something really nice about these voices.

One weird little change I noticed was a few instances where they added reverb. NOticeably the scene where Lupin gets shot and Clarrise calls his name out, takes away from the scene honestly because it just sounds silly.

But well, overall, it's pretty good. I really enjoyed it and wouldn't mind watching this version again. And I definitely prefer it to the other dub, which only makes me enjoy it more in comparison. It sticks pretty close to the script, and the dialogue that is changed is only made for the English translation to sound more natural so it's fine, but aside from very minor things, it's pretty accurate.

Lastly, the dub from Animaze. I really didn't care for it, especially compared to Streamline. I thought the overall voice acting was shakier, and they added new sound effects, which just is not necessary. And it's great to hear that all the characters' names are pronounced correctly, but for some reason, the way Cagliostro is pronounced is different every time it's said practically

Lupin's voice suits him really well here too, I do really like it. He's even voiced by Solid Snake's voice actor too, which, is one of the coolest things. He's my personal favorite voice actor in this dub.

Jigen, that was not it. I hate how he sounds honestly. Jigen of all characters is the most normal guy and he sounds like this silly gruff guy. It's just not in any way how I'd ever imagine his character. And same with Goemon, his voice is way too deep, and he sounds so detached, it's almost hard to explain.

I feel like Fujiko and Clarisse did have better voice actors, they sounded more their age. And it still had that same effect on me, how Fujiko and Count Cagliostro had that retro Ghibli nostalgia to their voices which I did like.

Zenigata I actually loved to, to me this felt like if you took Goro Naya and turned his voice American. Of course, it's not spot on, but I was surprised at how well he matched his voice, so it was a very enjoyable performance.

Now I know this version had an original and family-friendly version, because for some reason the original dub decided to randomly throw in swearing here and there, which is the version I watched, and it's not as bad as people make it out to be, it's kept to a minimum and it's pretty funny. Anyway, I know somewhere down the road, I'll catch myself watching this again, but definitely not how I'd prefer to watch it. If you want to watch it dubbed, go with Streamline, but the overall best version is, of course, the sub.



Lupin and Jigen make their way out of a casino robbery heist, just to find out their counterfeits, and not just any counterfeits, legendary "Goth dollars" long thought to have stopped printing. It strikes his curiosity, but ya win some, ya lose some. On a nice calm day, while Jigen is fixing a tire, a car with a mysterious girl drives past and another one full of armed men right behind her. They chase after them and decide to help the girl. They make a narrow escape but end up falling off a cliff, knocking out Lupin. The girl she rescues goes to take off her gloves and dab some water on him. Lupin comes to, but she has run, a boat is after her. But she leaves behind her glove, and a ring she wore with a goat emblem on it. Lupin draws his conclusions. Heading to an old abandoned castle, ever since it burned down, killing the prince. Lupin does some reminiscing until Jigen demands he coughs up his weird vagueness. He takes him over to the castle surrounded by a lake, the Castle of Cagliostro. Lupin tells him he suspects they're the ones behind the Goth Dollars, and mentions the history he had, and how he miraculously got out of there. At a tavern that night, Lupin asks the server if the ring was worth anything. She tells him there could be some real value since it's the same emblem shared by the Cagliostro family, specifically the princess, showing a photo of her. Jigen's even more confused now since it's clear Lupin knew this. He decides to send a calling card to Count Caglisotro, telling him he'll be taking his bride. Inspector Zenigata shows up to investigate what Lupin's doing here. The guys call Goemon to cover them while they sneak in through the water system. Suspiciously though, Zenigata is quickly taken off the case and gets dropped, literally. Lupin climbs his way over to where the princess has been locked away in, rather ungracefully. But once he gets to her, he returns the ring and promises to save the princess. And their sweet little scene is shortly ruined, the Count finds him and sends him down to the sewers. The Count demands Clarisse's ring, explaining that when their rings are united under marriage, it will reveal a hidden treasure. However, Lupin kept the real ring so the Count sends some guys to retrieve it from his body. But as we all know, he's fine and even finds Zenigata too. They make a plan to ambush the guys after the ring and slip out of there. While running out, they find the room that houses all the counterfeit dollars. Revealing that they have ruined the economy over hundreds of years, making Zenigata agree to team up with Lupin temporarily. Lupin burns all the money, also giving a signal for Jigen and Goemon, while Zenigata gets evidence of their activity. They charge out and make their way to the autogyro to get the princess. And while they're just about to get out, Lupin's shot. The Count promises to Clarisse that if she gives him the ring, he'll let Lupin and his gang get away, but of course, he's lying, luckily Zenigata swoops by just in time for Fujiko to grab Lupin and climb aboard. But the Count does have the ring now. Zenigata confronts Interpol with the evidence, but they all deny the evidence, Zenigata realizes, they're all just covering up for the Count. Lupin wakes up and sees the dog by him, instantly knowing his name. The gardener from the old castle is curious how he recognizes him, so Lupin explains. 10 years ago, as a young and reckless man, he decides he wants to pull off the biggest heist and steal the Cagliostro fortune. But they get the better of him and lies in the garden, waiting to die, until a small girl finds him. She gives him food and water until he's strong enough to escape. Seeing that ring of her's again brings all the memories back and that's why they've found themselves back here in the first place. It's the day of the wedding now and Clarisse has been put under a curse so she'll have no resistance to the Count. When the ceremony is about to be completed, the ghost of Lupin is revived, but not really, it was a dummy and the actual Lupin was the archbishop in disguise. He makes his way out of there with Clarisse. Fujiko as a newscaster broadcasts the whole thing, including the whole thing about counterfeiting money that Lupin explained to everyone. They run into the clock tower with an epic battle between the Count and Lupin ensuing on the cogs and making their way to the hands of the clock. The Count has Clarisse at sword point, so Lupin tells him, he'll tell him the answer to the riddle in the rings as well as the rings, as long as Clarisse is safe. But the Count just knocks Lupin off and gets the rings and Clarisse, but she jumps off the clock hand with the Count. He knocks her off and inserts the rings in the eyes of the goat located at the top of the clock, but doing so makes the hands strike twelve, crushing him. The tower crumples and the floodgates surrounding the castle open. Revealing the treasure all along was an ancient Roman city, all now belonging to Clarisse. Lupin gives her a proper farewell and sets off again.

Well, definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen. I really, truly love this movie and the craftsmanship Hayao Miyazaki has put into every ounce of it. This really was the perfect beginning of his film career. The story is simple, yet fun and it's just a great experience the whole way through, again, I've watched this movie several times over in one sitting, and I'm not tired of it, I still love and enjoy it. It's nice to see that Miyazaki had full reign to do as he pleased, taking all the ideas he's crafted over the years, working on other projects, and finally allowing those to be expressed. And for someone who described his own movie as the clearance section of his ideas, it's pretty amazing how cohesively it all fits. You can tell this movie was beaming with so many different ideas, and all these little attention to details, that were all thought out too well. I think I've mentioned this before, but something I love so much about all of Miyazaki's works and even himself is his attention to detail, things simply not thought of in any other animation are shown in such great and natural detail. This movie just seems like every inch of it was thought up so well.

But that is to say, this movie does have its issues. And not even directly towards the movie, it alone, by itself is a for sure 10/10 and it always will be. But like a lot of major Lupin fans we can all say, this is not a good Lupin movie. Lupin is characterized completely differently and Jigen and Goemon barely make an impact. And not to mention, due to the great success this movie garnered, everyone and their mom was trying to copy it into the universe of Lupin. Yeah, so this was the true start of the Lupin girl trope. And honestly, it's hard to blame Cagliostro for starting this, Miyazaki never demanded to anyone that a girl be included in every movie since. But because of its influence, everyone wanted to be it. So you get similar plots, a softer side of Lupin's character. Where I would normally recommend Cagliostro to people as an introduction, I've begun to second-guess myself. People learning about Lupin for the first time, are definitely going to get the wrong idea of Lupin's character if they listen to this movie. And as a Lupin fan that can see the multiple sides that this show can offer, then it's fine, but I wouldn't let it shape the opinions of how the entire show and characters operate. But, Miyazaki never intended this to be a Lupin fan's movie, he wanted it to be accessible to all, and so influenced the characters more in the Arsene Lupin novels, where he is much more of a gentleman instead of Monkey Punch's character. Even borrowing the name of Cagliostro and Clarisse from the novels. And with that knowledge, knowing that was Miyazaki's mindset, I respect it. Even if I still won't call it a good Lupin movie, he knew that, and that's okay. As long as it's a masterpiece, that's all that matters.


As I was saying, this is not your typical side of Lupin, and in fact, a side that a lot of people dislike. And I like Lupin with multiple sides, and while I'll always prefer my devilish Lupin to such a heroic one. But despite that, he is just so charming, and there's no getting over that. Like he really stole my heart, just as the movie says. He's just so fun, likable, and charming. I really love him and how Miyazaki had Lupin go through a character arc of some kind, an extremely unheard-of thing. He references part 1's Lupin and how he's grown and matured over these past years. This is a nice way to wrap up Green Jacket Lupin's story. And what I love is that Miyazaki clearly has a deep love and respect for Lupin as it's really helped shape his career. So he reflects his own life back into his work and especially Lupin. Just like him, Miyazaki got his first director's gig under Lupin part 1, a young, new animator given such a massive position and how he's come a long way. He's grown and wanted Lupin to reflect that to send him off properly. This was actually the start of the whole assumption Lupin was the grandson of Arsene Lupin. In the Japanese canon, his name isn't mentioned. But since "san sei" doesn't translate the best into English, he's been aptly named "the Third" instead of what is more closely "third generation." You start to blur the lines over time, so I assumed as much too. But Miyazaki's interpretation of Lupin is far from the glamorous life he typically proceeds to live. As we see, he lives out of his car in the opening, no longer sporting the Benz. But Miyazaki never really thought of Lupin as French, despite the name, but more like a poor kid growing up in the streets of Italy, which also explains the Fiat. To Miyazaki, he radiates a much larger Italian vibe, with only partial Frech and Japanese ones.

I'm going to loop Jigen and Gomeon together since they don't get much screen time, which is a shame for sure. But it's really easy to sense the friendship between all three guys in this movie, there's just such a fun friendly energy between them. I did like all the fun little interactions Lupin and Jigen had with each other at the start of the movie.

I really loved Fujiko in this movie, I love how tough she is. Especially the scene where she broadcasts the news and bashes baddies all at the same time. That was such a good moment. I love how she's just done with Lupin, no femme fatale antics. I've talked about how much I love, again, two different sides of characters. Completely different, but still great all the same.

Miyazaki never lets us down with Zenigata. He gets way more screen time, making him a lot more relevant to the plot. I love this characterization of him and I feel it's more reminiscent of the manga, in that he's just a truly determined man that runs into bad luck, not that he's a clutz. But as we've seen from Part 1, we know how much Miyazaki loves Zenigata, and I need more of that appreciation for the rest of the series. I mean he made the biggest counterfeit operation go public and exposed Interpol for covering up. He's so proud and happy of himself for rubbing it in the face of Interpol too. I love his acting on TV.

Now Clarisse is pretty boring honestly. You compare her to other Lupin girls and sure she's better but it doesn't mean she's heaping with a whole lot of charisma, but simply the fact she does ANYTHING gives her major points. And despite the fact she is boring, Miyazaki has that magical touch that just makes me love her. And again with influence on Lupin girls, it's theorized that this was the start of the "moe" trend. Basically, the appeal for cute girl characters instead of a more mature woman which was really all you'd see before. And, I hate moe, so thanks, Clarisse.

Lastly, Count Cagliostro. He serves as an interesting good villain, but man I hate him. Like this is basically incest with a 17-year-old girl, as Lupin calls him a "lolita-loving Count," so that's more than mildly assuming he's a bad guy. But his motivation serves for a legendary plot.


Hayao Miyazaki's art style is so unique and easily recognized. And where we got to see his influence in part 1, having full reign allowed us to see how he interpreted the characters. And obviously not only is it in the character design, but the way everything is animated, and the iconic imagery we tend to find in Miyazaki's works. It's great to see Lupin receive that.







Aw, and here are some of the most iconic pieces of animation ever conceived. It's so cool to see these as they have been parodied and referenced countless times. Seeing these in the most random of places always makes me smile. It's amazing what just one thing can do to influence so much.



Hey! The origin of "Gokurousan!" its weird to think that before this, Lupin didn't have much for a calling card. It's just so perfectly simple, I love it. (And I'm going to mention the fact that this is the first tattoo I ever got, yes this thing is permanently etched onto my arm)




















And now I bring you to the massive section, where I drool over how amazing all of these images look and that I'm determined to have all of these as my banners one day (I've already done two!!) Seriously though, these images alone are beautiful and capture such calm, peaceful feelings.





Unfortunately, there wasn't enough Jigen, but the first 20 minutes provide us with some sweet, fun moments of these two just being silly together. It's amazing how Miyazaki wrote this so that someone without any Lupin knowledge could watch this and get their dynamic, because you just watch them, and you know they've been good friends for so long.






Here it is!! The legendary car chase was done by Kazuhide Tomonaga, who would later go on to direct Part 4. The scene alone is amazing and brings so much energy and intrigue into the plot. Obviously, the opening to this movie is great, but what I think virtually wraps everyone into the world of this movie is this scene. Tomonaga has this amazing ability to make cars feel like living creatures, and animating them in such a way engages an audience. And this is coming from someone who had basically no prior knowledge of ever drawing cars or how they really operated. When you watch this movie, you're left to assume everyone in change would be an expert, but no, Tomonaga used this as a learning experience and more than killed it. Fun fact: Miyazaki owned the car Clarisse is driving, but hated it because it was constantly breaking down so a common theory is that the car is completely destroyed in this movie to vent his frustrations.






Here's my Jigen appreciation post for this movie, his time was brief but he was a ball of fun. Also here, I don't really mind the hair covering his eyes, mainly because it just wasn't drawn to make him look like he has a really stupid haircut. But yeah, love this guy.










And now I'd like to welcome you to my Lupin appreciation post. The guy just looks so cute and charming in this movie, I love the sweet monkey guy. Also, I'm including Lupin dressed as Zenigata, because, hi, hello Lupin with eyelashes, yes sir. Anyway, I love and appreciate this Lupin so much more after hearing interviews from both Bob Bergen and David Hayter, as they describe their experiences voicing the character, both not even knowing who Lupin was prior to working on Cagliostro. But they had preconceived ideas of how to make the character sound, but just by looking at Lupin and the way he expresses himself, it really shapes how the voice actors became the character they saw on screen while still maintaining their own flavor and interpretation of him. He expresses himself so well he can leave a lasting impact on the voice actors like that and you gotta respect how Lupin really did steal the hearts of everyone.



Cool lil' belt he's got, it's actually like the one Lupin is seen wearing in some Monkey Punch works, so it's cool that Miyazaki was able to slip in some references.




It ain't a Miyazaki movie without the endless inclusion of weird little vehicles. Foreign cars, cute little boats, and strange flying machines are all staples.





Another really fun action scene, with really fun choreography, the energy is great!



Zenigata looks really cool here, very solid I guess, and also looks like crazy buff for some reason. But he looks cool, I think Miyazaki shows his serious side better than virtually all the other interpretations of his character.






Another aspect I love about Miyazaki's works, in general, is how he does water, I love the reflections across the bricks and how he squiggles the line art of characters. It's just awesome to me that even in even in the littlest details, these small things make a world of difference.



Ah the classic, I seriously love this scene, it's just so beautiful in its simplicity. Lupin oozes with charm here and it's just a scene that warms my heart every time. Not to mention that I also really love the colors in this scene, the blues and purples really make for a calming mood.



Another sequence I think is awesome, camera angles are hard, so this being pulled off so smoothly is great. And plus Lupin's all-around cockiness as he doesn't even flinch as he falls, helps.



A bit of a minor thing, but I love the way Clarisse is drawn here, there's something so satisfyingly angular about her posture that I can imagine was fun to draw. A perfect zigzag



Not only in just personality, but I also love the look of Fujiko in this movie, she retains her cuteness and beauty while looking tough which I find really endearing. And although I'm always going to think of Fujiko with brown or red hair before blonde, knowing that Monkey Punch would often draw her with blonde hair, makes me think it's a cool nod back to that. This might not have been Monkey Punch's favorite interpretation of Lupin, but you can tell Miyazaki wanted to still honor it.




Ah! The part 1 references! I love them. And of course, including the iconic run, I love that already by this point it was something of a staple to include. Just really cool. This was the moment where the audience was able to connect the dots on how this was a reflection of Lupin's' character and Miyazaki, how they both grew and matured over the years.



This alone has always made me associate this movie with Halloween for some reason, so because, I watch this every Halloween, it's honestly really fun, you should try it, it surprisingly works!



I LOVE how overly complicated this scene looks and I can only imagine it was a nightmare to do. But yeah I'm a sucker for looking at that stuff, also why I screenshotted the town of Cagliostro earlier, it looks so fun.



Talk about influential scenes, man this part of the movie is awesome. It's crazy to think that lil' ol' me was watching The Great Mouse Detective, so young, so clueless that it was more than inspired by this movie. And it's funny when I watched this for the first time, I made the connection right away, pretty neat. But not only that movie but it's also influenced so much more which is awesome.



Sigh, what a lovely way to end the movie, it really showed how Lupin's matured over the years, it's really nice. Love him.


Well, this is one of the most amazing soundtracks ever. I seriously love this. Something that I feel lacks with basically every other Lupin product is a lack of its own unique sound font, of course, other composers will sound different, but this is strictly speaking about Yuji Ohno. I've spoken profusely about how much I love Yuji Ohno's music and that still stands very strong. As far as the movies, they all sound pretty similar, heck the Theme of Lupin '89 is used for god knows how many TV specials. But this movie has this very specific sound to it, and I love it. It, to me, reflects Lupin's character. A lot of the tracks feel so dissolent and melancholic. Which reflects the serious mood of Lupin. It's honestly hard to explain the feeling I get when I hear the music. Like a content dissatisfaction or a sad isolation. Lupin in this movie is a tired, old version of himself that wanders aimlessly, compared to his younger self. I feel like the music is Lupin's theme for this movie. And again, I'm really happy this movie was made at a time before Theme of Lupin was the definitive intro song. Allowing 炎たからもの or "Fire Treasure" as it would later be translated to, to be the opening theme of this movie, sets this movie apart. Despite the crazy action this movie provides, it is a chill movie, and honestly, probably the most chill movie we're gonna get from Lupin. This movie has the quietest moments out of really any of the movies, and it provides a truly amazing soundtrack, unlike the rest of all Lupin. Fire Treasure will forever be one of my absolutely favorite songs of all time. That's not to mention so many other amazing tracks featured in this movie. And for a complete mood change, the song playing during Jigen and Lupin's brief celebration after stealing the money, I just love it has such a fun vibe. And I wish, it was included on the Spotify soundtrack, sigh.


So, I've glorified and also criticized this movie, and honestly, I could go on and on about what I think of this movie, it's honestly overwhelming to categorize all of my thoughts on this movie. There are so many little things I'd love to talk about but simply don't have the place for it. There are things that I have to say, permanently affected Lupin for the rest of the franchise, not great things either. But it's not his fault he created a product that was absolutely amazing and inspired so many people all across the globe. Miyazaki went into this movie, trying to make it for everyone, and he did just that. I truly appreciate that with Miyazaki being done with the franchise, he threw every idea he had into the movie, to go out on a true bang, while also reflecting on Lupin's character. A proper send-off as he's grown and developed, to become a better person. It's a movie of reflection, much like Miyazaki, and now, this was only his start as a film director, but it truly symbolizes the end of an era for him and the start of a new. The Lupin we get is not our typical Lupin, and not one I'm sure most Lupin fans like as much as the one we've grown accustomed to. But while people will treat the manga as the black sheep of the franchise, I'd treat Cagliostro as the black sheep. But that's okay, I may separate it from the rest of Lupin but that won't stop my enjoyment and charm I have for it. It's amazing to think that Miyazaki will go on to create Studio Ghibli and continue to make hit after hit with his amazing work, and all the influence this movie alone has had on the world of the film industry, how it's been referenced countless times, etc. It's simply great that our little franchise, Lupin III, could reach such an audience and the whole world of film. So, with that, remember to believe in the thief!

Anime Relations: Lupin III: Lupin vs. Fukusei-ningen

Hahahaha yep hahaha I just watched this movie 3 times in a row, I'm ok hahahaha. It's 5:30 am right now. I can literally hear my rooster outside, the sun is up. Guys, I'm okay I swear. This movie had 4 English dubs, only two of which I could find: the Streamline dub (1995) and the Geneon dub (2003). I have no idea where I could see the other two. It'd be interesting to hear Frontier's since it came out in 79, only a year after it was released in Japan. A lot of the names were changed, however. Same with Manga UK (1996) this being the infamous name "Wolf" replacing Lupin's name due to copyright issues. Well, now that I've talked about dubs I didn't watch, I'll talk about the versions I actually did...

First of all the sub is the way to go, just straight up, watch that version. For a movie that is very serious in tone, the Japanese version will obviously have the right tone set. It knows when to joke around while still being serious and keeping you in that mood. That's not to say, the dubs both do a pretty good job at this too, but they both throw in a lot of extra jokes.

Since it came out first, let's start with the Streamline dub. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised about liking it, with my mind just so biased towards the Geneon crew, giving these guys a chance proved good in the end. One unforgivable sin they've committed is saying "loo-pin" instead of "loopawn" that's hard to sit through an hour and 42 minutes of. What's even worse is Super Hero literally plays in this movie, so you can clearly hear the name is pronounced the right way. I simply don't understand how anyone can proceed to mispronounce a name that they can hear with their own ears as something different. You don't need to know Japanese to hear his name is not pronounced like that. I used to be a dirty savage and say "Loopin" too, but guess what, I watched the first 5 seconds of part 1 episode 1, and changed instantly. Mamo's name was mispronounced too by a few characters, including himself. Pronouncing the "Ma" like the ma in "ma'am." At least with Lupin, everyone was pronouncing it wrong, but why are only some actors pronouncing Mamo wrong, don't y'all have a director to correct this stuff? Aside from that surprisingly the rest of the cast did not get butchered. Now as far as the actual voice acting. I really liked these voices surprisingly.
If Tony Oliver wasn't my go-to English Lupin voice, Bob Bergen does a great performance. He's able to convey the charm, silliness, and even sexiness of Lupin's character perfectly.
Jigen on the other hand, was my least favorite voice of the whole cast. I want to chalk more this up to the cast not being familiar with the characters and realizing Jigen is not this New York mobster type of guy that they seemed to go for. They really gave him the sidekick's voice and that's kinda sad. This is nothing on his performance either, he's a good actor, just doesn't fit the role of Jigen.
Goemon was another one I really liked. He's very stoic and softer spoken than what we're used to but I like it. For comparison, he sounds very similar to Samurai Champloo's dub of Jin, to the point I thought that they shared the same voice actor, but I was mistaken. I will say, I think that this voice works only for something like Mystery of Mamo and not as a staple voice for this character. Goemon doesn't do anything silly in this movie and so the voice works, but I really don't know how that would go if he were to do something like that.
Fujiko is the only other one I'm not crazy about, she sounds too old and her voice is too deep most of the time. I understand that a lot of femme fatale characters have that more mature, deeper voice, but that's not Fujiko. Sure, she's a femme fatale, but she's also cute, not just sexy and so a normal tone of voice suits her better. And this is nothing on the performance of the actress, her performance is still great.
Zenigata! He's barely in the movie, but I still gotta bring him up of course. Zenigata's voice is honestly really good (I'll be honest, I prefer him to Doug Erholtz). He's probably the closest thing I've heard to Goro Naya's voice so I appreciate him a lot for that.
Lastly, Mamo, he's my favorite. Just previously mentioned, he's voiced by David Axelrod, that very distinctive voice. I obviously prefer the Japanese voice, but his performance is great, and of the two dubs, is closer to the Japanese as far as the voice.

Another other change I noticed from the Streamline dub was the weird inclusion of new sound effects. They're overlayed over the original sound effects. I don't understand the need to do this, the original sound effects were perfect, no need to include more. And like I mentioned, the dub threw in some new jokes, and one that made me chuckle was Lupin asking if Goemon was dropped by his mother as a baby, and y'know that would explain a lot. In the scene where Zenigata and the air force show up on the island, Zenigata gets mad that they showed up, that it's his turf. He's clearly seen smiling though, so I don't know why they changed this. In the original and Geneon dub, he's happy to see them because he thinks they were sent in as reinforcements to help Zenigata capture Lupin.

Overall, The Streamline dub was a nice surprise and I enjoyed it. Of the two dubs, the acting is definitely way better, BUT I still love the Geneon guys too much. Is this my preferred way to watch? No, but if you're curious give it a shot.

Now the Geneon dub. One of the few movies that they actually got a hold of and I'm grateful they did, I'll take what I can get. This is also the only movie Dan Lorge was around for and it's great to hear him at least show up on the Lupin big screen once. I won't need to go as in-depth as I did with the Streamline dub since we've already been familiarized with this cast for a while now.
And while I think Streamline's Goemon was well suited, Lex Lang will always be my ideal voice for Goemon. The reason why I prefer his voice is that he can be goofy with it, the stoic samurai thing is definitely a persona he puts on and he can snap out of it which leads to a lot of funnier dialogue.
Mamo's voice, I wasn't crazy about. It's definitely menacing but I think it's too deep. I got used to the voice as the movie progressed and if you're just watching this version without the knowledge of what the original or other versions sound like, there's no issue. It's just not quite the voice I want from Mamo. But hey, at least everyone pronounces the names correctly!

Now for my additional notes about the dub changes...Goemon has finally said "I have cut another worthless object" I actually didn't know this was the first time it appeared but that's exciting. Well, the dub changed that line to "an unworthy target defies the weapon" and while I like the original more for posterity's sake, this definitely sounds more natural. And one of my favorite lines from this is when Mamo calls Lupin a vulgarian and he just replies "That's not true, I eat meat," this is why I love the Geneon guys so much. A weird edit I noticed was that they cut off the comic that Stuckey is reading. I assume that was due to copyright issues since it was a bunch of DC heroes surrounding Lupin. But I'll take that over any weird copyright issue with Lupin's name.

One last change about both dubs was the Russian and US president's voices. Of course, both are pretty heavily accented but I think it's funny the Streamline dub just straight up makes him Ronald Regan, and I don't really know why he wasn't the president when this movie came out nor when the dub was produced, but it was stupid so I'll take it. The Geneon dub just gives him a really thick Southern accent and that's funny too. Bless them for not giving characters too many silly and over-the-top accents though, they let this movie be serious when it needed to be.

EDIT: I have finally watched the Toho/Frontier dub, aka the 1979 version. And it's really charming. This by far, is the closest to the original Japanese version, like things that were altered a lot in other dubs were pretty much word for word what the sub said. But it's not without its flaws.

Lupin, oddly enough is the only character that keeps his original name. Which is just weird. But hey, it's pronounced pretty much correctly. Sometimes it's said with a French accent, sometimes it's loo-pan, and then our classic loo-pawn. Still points there, Frontier and Geneon are soloing for that.
Everyone else did not get it so easy. Jigen is Dan Dunn (the origin of which I think is just supposed to sound like the sound "duh-dun," Goemon is freaking "Samurai," Fujiko is Margot, and Zenigata is Edgar Scott. I don't have information on why these names were changed to what they were. I'm making assumptions here, but my theory behind this is it is from 1979. Watching things dubbed from around the same time period, they just didn't care about getting stuff wrong. Which is weird, with how close they stick to the script. My guess is that anime to the Western world is nowhere near as mainstream as it was back then so they made it less of a culture shock to give the characters more Western names. That is just my theory, however.

Now for the voices themselves, I loved them! They really were charming to me, especially Lupin's. Honestly, with every dub cast I've seen everyone seems to nail him perfectly, I love everyone's interpretations of him. One thing I love is that he copies Yasuo Yamada's little sounds, even the "ararara!" he does often. It's really cool honestly. It's made me realize that what Yasuo does, does not need to be exclusive to his interpretation, share the love. Of course, the sounds Yasuo makes complete his package, but again it's a nice addition to see it here as well.
Jigen's voice was my least favorite, he sounded too young and his voice was just too high-pitched. I think he was probably the worst actor out of the main cast as well, not to say he was bad per se, but he had the iffiest lines.
Goemon's voice was a little too deep actually, I actually think that if Goemon and Jigen switched voices it would have matched up better.
Fujiko I loved, she's up there with Lupin as far as the voices. A thing I like about the age of this dub is she does have that 70s sexy woman voice to me. It sounds so distinct from the time, and I like that, it suits her. Since this is what I believe to be the oldest English dub of Lupin, it's really nice to hear the change in her voice compared to her much more modern counterpart actresses. For such an old movie, these voices of the time really lend themselves to the immersion in my opinion.
Zenigata is also pretty good, I do think he has some more shaky lines too, but he's good it works. I like the way he screams a lot. But that's about it, his appearance is brief.
Mamo was great, I really like the voice he had. I think the voices where it isn't so deep suit him better. He should sound like an old evil wise man, and I think a deep voice takes away from that almost. I really liked this version of him, it's good!

I will say, this is probably the least consistent of the dubs I've watched so far, where the majority of the time this dub is great, there are more noticeably shakier lines or weird line reads (probably doesn't help that they were sticking so close to the script, maybe doesn't sound so smooth actually saying it). It's not to the point where I'd call it bad ever, but you'll notice it. I do think that Streamline and Geneon are more consistent, I can't really point out flaws with the acting itself, but that's just me. I watched this version for a movie night with a lot of people, and there were quite a few people that preferred this version to others. I think that's mainly in its accuracy to the script. Streamline and especially Geneon switch it up more and add jokes. It's fun, but if you want the most accurate version, here it is

So verdict, the 3 dubs I watched were good and if you want to watch Mamo dubbed, you have good options. Streamline sticks closer to the original subtitles but the choice of voices is iffier and they pronounce names wrong. The Geneon dub adds even more jokes than the Streamline dub did and is a lot looser with the script. The acting may not be as good, but if you've watched the Geneon/Pioneer/Epcar dub cast before, then these voices are definitely preferred. But Frontier pronounces Lupin's name right, and sticks very, very closely to the script, despite also changing up all the other characters' names. If I had to give you one version to watch obviously watch it subbed, but if I had to give you one version to watch I'd say Frontier. If you want the story as close as you can, that's your best option. My personal favorite is still Geneon just because I've grown so attached to that cast. It's down to preference so if you want to watch it dubbed, I provided a thorough explanation of the pros and cons of both.


SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know I never give a spoiler warning, but seriously, if you have not seen this movie, GO WATCH IT, knowing how this movie plays out seriously ruins the viewing experience.

Lupin is dead. Well, that's what everyone thought, except for Zenigata, and he wasn't wrong to assume he was alive. But even Lupin doesn't know much about the rumors. Well, he's on his way to the pyramids of Egypt to steal the Philosopher's Stone. After a shaky escape, he meets with Fujiko to give it to her. But in exchange, show him a little bit of "gratitude." She only perks up once she sees the stone so Lupin is reluctant to give it to her. She steals it anyway and meets up with a mysterious man whom she gives it to. But before unveiling who he is, he realizes it was a fake. Lupin had replaced it with the original so he sends his henchman, Flinch, after the guys. Doing some research in a small cafe in France, Lupin reads about how for centuries, people from all over the world have sought out the stone for their own power. Jigen and Goemon aren't buying it more just mad they had to go through all that trouble just for Lupin to be willingly throwing it at a girl. The conversation is cut short because a helicopter has come and shoots at them. A car chase through the streets of Paris ensues until they find their way to a sewer. Luckily Goemon is there to cut down the helicopter and the guys make it out. Or so they think, on their way out of the city, Zenigata and the police come chasing after them. And while out in the mountains, a massive truck starts crushing the police cars, their target being Lupin. He's able to shake them, but when they get back to their hideout, it's been completely destroyed, without an ounce of food or water and no weapons. Jigen tells Lupin he's gotta give up Fujiko or him, he can't go on with the way things are. Goemon agrees and Lupin says he'll be through with her. Lupin decides that they'll just have to walk to the ocean which he assures can't be too far, it's only an inch away on the map after all. So the guys make their way across the long, hot, and dry desert. They finally find an old abandoned house where they find canned food and water. The relief doesn't last long, however, because Fujiko shows up. She tells Lupin about how she was tortured, and Lupin just has to help her. The guys tell him to stop, but he can't say no to Fujiko in such a state. But that was the straw that broke the camel's back, Goemon and Jigen leave. After a night of frustration and teasing, Fujiko knocks Lupin out and contacts Mamo to retrieve the two. Jigen decides he can't leave Lupin alone, but when he comes back they're already taking off, but Fujiko does leave behind a note to a clue. Lupin slips out of his poorly protected cage easily and explores the place he's found himself in. Surrounded by colosseums, castles, and tons of trippy M.C. Escher stairs, Lupin does a bit of exploring. He notices a kid running around and chases after it, but finds that lummox of a bodyguard again and gets chased down again. Running through famous paintings and bumping into some famous historical figures. He finally finds himself in front of a large staircase where he hears a harp. Reaching the stairs, he finds Mamo, who asks Lupin if he'd like to live eternally, and he shuts down the offer instantly. All he wants is to know what he did with the stone and how to get out of there, but Mamo isn't going to give him any of that information. Back to Jigen, he's being trailed by the US government, and he and Goemon are apprehended. Taken to their base, a man, Stuckey asks the two what they know about this Mamo character. Which they both know nothing about. Stuckey isn't convinced, they know Lupin is involved in this case so his subordinates must be too. Jigen gives them the note Fujiko left, which only says "WATER," but doesn't know what to do with it. Gordon gets frustrated and flips over the table before he and Stuckey leave. Jigen notices that the note is changing color now that it's landed in their spilled water. It reveals the word "Carib" which he concludes means the Carribean. Butterflies shower Mamo's island and he tells Fujiko he was able to revive this long-extinct species thanks to the Philospher's stone. He also tells Fujiko that Lupin isn't interested in becoming immortal. She tells him not to worry, that just a little bit of time alone with her and he'd be convinced. He receives a call from his lab where they start to share their analysis of stone, that is before Lupin knocks them over the head, grabs the stone, and says he'll be taking off now. Fujiko runs after him and meets up outside the castle. She embraces Lupin and tries to convince him how wonderful it would be if they could stay like this forever. Lupin doesn't mind the whole embracing part but that whole dream quickly ends when Mamo's goons find them again and they have to run away. They find themselves in an elevator that leads all the way back up to Mamo. Lupin says this is all phony that immortality and everything they've seen can't be as it is and he wasn't exactly impressed by the test tube babies. Mamo is surprised that he finds this but tells him that it's his proudest work, something that's accumulated over 10,000 years. And sure enough, he had genuinely cloned all of the world's most famous leaders, artists, philosophers, etc. He gets an alert to intruders, who just so happen to be Jigen, Goemon, and Zenigata. Jigen and Goemon showed up thanks to the note, locating the largest privately owned island in the Carribean which led them here. Mamo is rather disgusted by his brief encounters with Lupin and tells Fujiko he doesn't seem to be worthy of immortality anyway. So Fujiko decides that if he won't be made immortal that she won't either. So Mamo straps Lupin to a chair and puts a machine on his head to uncover his darkest desires: a lot of BOOBS BOOBS BOOBS ZENIGATA BOOBS CANDY(?) BOOBS FUJIKO BOOBS SEX. And somehow Fujiko is surprised by this information. Mamo really decides to convince her by delving into his subconscious but the machine breaks because Lupin's subconscious is simply void. While it's breaking, the US Air Force is breaking down Mamo's castle, and Jigen and Goemon have to come to save the day. Jigen shoots Mamo in the head and they all run out of there. On their way out, Goemon fights off Flinch and though he wins, his Zantsuken breaks off, he feels unworthy to wield it. Jigen tries to get him out of his slump so they can get out of there. They make it out and Zenigata tries to follow but gets in the wrong boat, blowing up. He finally makes it back to shore in Colombia where his chief is waiting. He takes him to a Japanese restaurant and talks about the mission. The chief tries to convince Zenigata to drop the Lupin case, or well he's making him get off the Lupin case. This Mamo guy is way out of their league and with the government getting involved, they no longer have any authority over the case. Zenigata won't take that for an answer and resigns, saying he'll catch him as a private citizen. Lupin's recovered and awake again in a shabby little hideout with Fujiko and Jigen. He asks what happened to Goemon, and Jigen hands him the tip of the Zantsuken. Just then, the three are transported somewhere where Mamo greets them. Tells him that all he's said is real. That he was the first person to ever understand cloning 10,000 years ago and how he has visited and talked to all the most ingenious minds and how he alone has influenced so much of the world's events. He admits to Lupin that he created a clone of him, but was it the clone or the real Lupin that died that day in Transylvania? Lupin won't budge he knows he's the real one and no matter what Mamo had nothing to do with him. They find themselves back in the room, but after noticing the furniture slightly moved and a hole for a gas leak, he knows Mamo's classic trick. Mamo appears in the window, amused at how rational Lupin is being for what clearly can't be explained. He puts Fujiko in a trance and takes her back to his island. Lupin tells him, if he really is a god like he claims to be, show him a real, genuine miracle and not just cheap tricks. And just like that an earthquake starts. Jigen approaches Lupin, who's tinkering away. He tells Lupin not to go back it's not worth it. But nothing will convince Lupin not to go after Fujiko. Lupin simply loves her too much and if Jigen didn't want to come along this job wasn't exactly for the superstitious. Jigen tells him he doesn't believe Mamo is a god or anything, but he's certainly too powerful an opponent this time. Try as he might, Lupin's gone. Sneaking back into the castle he's shot at but quickly gets the better of them. The cloaked figure trying to kill him is none other than a disheveled version of Mamo. The current Mamo explains to Fujiko that cloning isn't without its flaws as it switches back to Lupin. Mamo explains that eventually there are errors in the cells and after so many generations, a bit of that DNA is lost, soon, the clones become clones of clones, and all of what used to be there originally is lost. The old clone of Mamo dies then. And so, if Lupin needed any further convincing not to clone himself, there it was. Fujiko starts to realize that too, she won't really be herself even if she can remain young and beautiful. Mamo escorts her to a room where she can still have a chance of immortality, all she has to do is press a button. But all that's done is make certain doom for Earth as it's now set to be destroyed. Mamo says that they're the only two who will be left alive, like Adam and Eve. That's what he'd like to think if Lupin hadn't shown up. All of a sudden the castle starts to shake too, but that's only because Lupin figured out his little god trick. Mamo had just blown up a power plant, and so all Lupin had to do was blow up the rockets Mamo planned to use to blow up the earth. Mamo takes Fujiko and runs with her. Lupin tries to chase after him but he shoots lasers at him. But then he's reminded of the piece of the Zantetsuken and reflects the laser directly back onto Mamo. He burns to death and his reign of terror can finally come to an end. Or so he thinks. In the ashes, he finds a small metal box and then, the room opens up and a giant brain encased in a glass container appears as the real Mamo. The physical Mamos were just controlled by those boxes but his true consciousness was here. He plans to launch into the far reaches of the galaxy to a place where they've figured out immortality. Lupin stills tries to go after Mamo despite the extreme force pushing Lupin away. He's able to smack and pound at the glass, but that's his last valiant effort. The rocket begins to launch and Fujiko and Lupin have to get out of there quickly. The rocket launches off into outer space. Seems Lupin's efforts weren't wasted because he managed to put the bomb he had made earlier onto the glass. It explodes and drifts slowly toward the sun. Lupin looks for Fujiko in all the rubble but after finding her finds his leg cuffed. Zenigata is here too. But completely ignoring him, Lupin and Fujiko share a moment. Fujiko simply asks for a real, genuine kiss, and they do. But just when they have a true heart-to-heart moment, every country has launched missiles at the island, still thinking the world's about to end. Jigen shows up just in time to give Lupin a lift out of there, but he misses it and Fujiko grabs onto the ladder on the plane instead. With no other options, Zenigata and Lupin can only run away from the explosions behind them.

Wow, that was a long summary, but this is a dense movie. This is Lupin's first animated movie and they hit the ground running that's for sure. This movie is amazing on so many levels. It throws you off with the deep, psychological, and philosophical tone that Lupin's never seen to this extent before, or really ever will see again. Just watching the intro, wasn't exactly expecting to see DNA extraction and fetus development, so already you know this isn't gonna be your normal silly adventure. As someone who's a massive fan of sci-fi and psychological thrillers this ticks all the boxes, and having there be a Lupin movie like that is just awesome. The whole message is amazingly deep and super well conveyed both in the story and the broader meaning being what it means to be alive and where the self begins and ends. Unfortunately, there's a bit of shoehorning in the other characters which leads to scenes that aren't exactly necessary. They may not affect the plot but they're still entertaining so there's never a point in this movie where I felt uninvested. And I watched this movie 3 times in a row so the fact I can still say that with full confidence should tell you, this is a really friggin good movie. This movie wasn't afraid to be weird and different and I'm so glad they didn't hold back. Something I really and truly love about the older days of anime is that things were often more passion projects and just something everyone involved just wanted to make. It leads to things like this. They can get weirder and embrace that and just make what they want and it's turned out great. This will probably be the closest thing we get to a realized version of what the original story of The Legend of the Gold of Babylon was supposed to be. A super meta, sci-fi version of Lupin about what it means to be alive and immortality (which I still want to see happen).


The characters resemble the manga a bit more, slightly more serious, and darker. Lupin's lust for Fujiko has never been greater but this movie is all about them so as to be expected. But Lupin is truly awesome in this movie and has to nail his character for this very reason. Lupin's built his whole life's philosophy around living his life on the edge and not being too concerned about death, just hoping he goes out in a cool way. Immortality is nothing Lupin's ever wanted. You live once, and you take advantage of that and live it to the fullest. But even when people say "I never want this to end" we all know it does, and frankly there's nothing anyone can do forever, just how it is. And Lupin has that figured out. Time limits are a great motivator, so when you've got one in your life, it motivates you to go out there and live your best one. I love Lupin's rational mind throughout the whole movie. As a trickster and scammer himself, all of Mamo's tricks are just, tricks. Lupin is the only man in the world that sees Mamo for less than what he tries to make him be. Never once is he impressed about the clones he's created the massive island that houses all of these revived creations, or his mad genius in figuring out the technology. He sees him as the sham he is, one that can be uncovered and exposed just like any other.

I go back in forth a lot about the inclusion of shoehorned characters, such as Jigen, Goemon, and Zenigata for this movie. Not that they were shoehorned into the plot, but they didn't affect the plot overtly. Sure they served a purpose but it was minor. I'm glad that they kept to the sidelines though for this movie. This was about Lupin and Fujiko and so they weren't needed as much. This is the most frustrated we've seen Jigen and Goemon, they are seriously done with Fujiko this time. I don't blame them, look at the actual crap she dragged those guys through in this movie. But without them, we wouldn't have the conflict over Lupin choosing sides. Some deep conversations are had because of it. Zenigata was basically used as comedic relief, not having any real relevance to the plot, but hey it's Zenigata, you Zenigotta love him! Also, he has a daughter in this movie I guess. Zenigata has mad dad vibes so it's not like it's surprising, but c'mon, you expect me to think that this sad giant man who dreams, eats, breathes, and sleeps Lupin met a woman and had a kid with her? You'd be crazy to get with a guy with Zenigata he's clearly way more obsessed Lupin anyway.

Now for Fujiko, and I'mma bout to get into the nitty gritty about her and Lupin's relationship so strap in. The question is always what does Fujiko really think about Lupin? And that relationship gets explored a lot in this movie. So definitely not a movie for beginners to the series. Fujiko wants to live forever, that matters to her. But she won't do it unless Lupin goes with her. Fujiko really looks on the outside, she doesn't think too deeply. Immortality sounds great on the surface, but look at the outcome of that decision, sure you'd look pretty but you're not even yourself. A husk of what was once you in a distant past. Ironically enough, Lupin lives in the moment and Fujiko thinks about the future, not hard enough but that's what she does. She steals stuff and keeps it so that way she's set later down the line. Lupin steals for the thrill of it. It annoys me when people say Fujiko is just female Lupin because they are not, they have completely different outlooks on life, just have similar means of reaching their different goals. But Fujiko loves Lupin at the end of the day. She's got a weird way of showing it but it's there and honestly, with a guy like Lupin it's not out of the question to show some reservations. The ending where they share a kiss really solidifies that there's true chemistry between them though. Look, I make a lot of jokes about Lupin being gay, but really a lot of it is for jokes. He's bi 100%. Cause he for sure still into guys, I'm just saying.

Mamo instantly is one of the best Lupin villains, straight up. He's a psychopath with a god complex, you're already setting yourself up for an interesting character. I love the dynamic a lot of Lupin villains (the well-written ones anyway) have with Lupin. These guys think they've figured out the secrets to the universe, that they're smarter than anyone else, and that they can rule whatever they want. Then Lupin shows up and says "lol no" and their entire world explodes in front of them. Lupin is one of those great characters who doesn't do what he does because of a sense of pride, or injustice that needs to be squelched. He does what he does because that's what he wants to do, and if someone is raining on that parade, he won't sit idly by and watch it happen. Mamo is opposite to Lupin in so many ways. This dude discovered cloning thousands of years ago and now he's got a god complex, granted that's an impressive feat, but he's also dead now so :/ Also, shout out to Mamo for giving us one of the hardest lines in the history of anything. When looking at Lupin's subconscious and finding it void, he says something along the lines of that you'd either have to be a complete idiot or a god. And that's just about one of the coolest things ever. It feeds into Lupin as a character. He's a genius master thief sometimes and other times he's a complete blithering moron who has the capability to manually make his IQ go to 0. And you never know which one he's more of. Lupin's always been a character no one can quite figure out. We know his extremes but there's an obvious grey area shrouded in mystery to both the writers and the audience. But anyway enough about Lupin. Mamo is a seriously scary guy and though they might just be tricks, his power is still not one any regular person can go up against. His whole outlook on life is corrupted but very interesting. Immortality is a very idealized fantasy, but Mamo didn't realize later down the line you're just cloning clones eventually, who is Mamo and what does it mean to be that person? If you're a clone and only have the DNA of a clone, not of the original body? It's a weird question and one that's interesting to explore. He gets points simply for being the first movie villain and leaving such a lasting impression. It really makes you think about Lupin as a character too.


I love the designs of all these characters, some of my favorite looks the guys have ever received. This is the first time Lupin and Jigen truly have looked very skeletal in appearance which they should that's my preferred way these two should look. Lupin has a bit more meat on him in the manga (sometimes) but simply I prefer him being gangly. This is also the first time Lupin's received the red jacket, yellow tie combo, which would soon become the staple color palette of the TV specials. His shirt is a darker blue so you know it's gonna be serious. As it goes, the shade of Lupin's shirt tells you if a Lupin special will be light-hearted or serious. Goemon definitely looks a bit different but I like the way he's drawn. The character design overall is clearly very influenced by the manga art style (so instant points with me) but Goemon especially. His hair is more of one uniform mass like it is in the manga. They also made him have a sickly greyish-purple skin tone. I don't know why it looks like that, but usually, anyone who's got pigment like that is a corpse. It is interesting that Goemon received the darkest skin pigmentation of the main cast since he's usually the palest and Jigen's the one with the sickly skin tone most times. I like the look it suits him. Still don't really know what's up with the greyish tones though, same with his hair it's very light. But again, that's like the manga as well, his hair was always depicted as lighter than Lupin and Jigen's. Zenigata unfortunately lost his melanin, and he never really gets back (even though it sets him apart more from the other characters and just mixes better with his light tan clothes).

The animation and backgrounds have been seriously upgraded, as to be expected since this was working on a movie budget, but man it all looks amazing. The backgrounds are beautiful seriously, this movie is art.



And that's the third time Lupin's been hanged, I'm keeping count now.






Wanting to highlight some great sakuga moments and just overall super smooth animation.



Geneon was able to change the credits and replace them with English titles, both the credits, text in the movie, and this title. I call it Mystery of Mamo despite the title, this movie has many many titles, but Mystery of Mamo roles off the tongue the best to me.



The movie used a lot of real pictures mixed into the movie it's cool and not something they do a lot.



This is one of my favorite designs of Fujiko she looks really cute and almost reminds me of a far less creepy and more refined version of herself from the pilot.



I have to assume this is a nice homage to the endings of both parts 1 and 2













I love this art style so much, seriously, the amount of crazy, silly, and just downright great expressions this art style allowed for was awesome. Here are my favorites. Another reason why it's reminiscent of the manga is the very exaggerated expressions. Zenigata was great especially, loved every face he made. He was drawn so perfectly, I don't know how to describe it, but he looks so polished in this movie.




The first movie and the trademark chaotic car cash scene are already here. Seriously one of my favorite parts of anything Lupin, these are always such a blast and very creative.



Lupin looks like something right out of part 2 here! Also Jigen silly face











Now it's time to talk about these, for lack of a better word, stunning backgrounds. Seriously, this stuff is beautiful. the artwork of this movie is truly amazing.



This movie does have its funny moments and the way this guy slaps Lupin always makes me laugh, it's so goofy.




Seriously obsessed with the character designs of this movie. In general, all the characters are more angular, but a lot of the background characters especially. I love these scientist guys, they're super boxy and I love that. Something I wish more anime did is have characters with obvious shape language. Obviously, they still have that because that's basic character design 101, but Western cartoons lean into this more, making shape language obvious and these designs are so fun that I wish that was done more explicitly with anime as well.



I'm sorry I had to fit my fujoshi tangent in somewhere. You're telling me that amits all the fantasizing of women the only stand-out thing from that is freaking Zenigata, and he shows up posed like THIS. Yeah alright guys, keep telling yourselves he's straight, you're wrong objectively, but okay.



This is still so odd to me as to why it's here but I love it, it's just cool. I couldn't give a bigger crap about DC honestly, but it's just cool to see these guys together.
But on a story note, it's a really weird inclusion, since it's never even brought up. I feel this leans into this meta side of the story again. Like a Marvel or DC character, he's a comic book character, meant to stand the test of time. But should he? Maybe like them, they seem to produce unsuccessful movie after unsuccessful movie, stopping when the goings are good (I don't know what the quality of DC products was at the time). Even if they were great, in their hay day at the time, the message has become all the more relevant now as that case of crappy sequel after crappy sequel seems to come out. It's sad to see shows and movies we love so much slowly die out into obscurity because they didn't know when to end it, instead of stopping earlier and creating an ending that sends it off in a blaze of glory. It's a terrifying thing, to become obscure. To still exist but not have anyone care or know you do.




Well, this death was haunting. Another reason to watch the sub, he says nothing, makes no sound. Just slowly burns away. It's really creepy but awesome. I love the way it was animated too. The sketchy pen to show the char is great, my heart goes out to the animators that had to keep redrawing that though.



Shout out to any drawing that can make my palms sweat like this did. Seriously impresses me when anyone can pull off such an effect just through art.



And to cap things off, a bit of pookie bear for you. Kind of weird how reminiscent of the Caglistro style he looked.
He doesn't want to see his crush kiss someone else.


Unfortunately, this movie didn't receive a completely new score, which I feel could have added even more to this and set its own tone. Still, the music is great, it's Yuji Ohno after all. A few episodes ago in part 2, we started to hear new tracks. My assumption is that music was intended for the movie but a timing issue happened and so we got to hear some of those tracks on the show first. It does have a music file which I took a listen to. Most of it is a lot of slightly varied versions of part 2 music. But, the "I Am Immortal," what I assume to be Mamo's theme, is simultaneously haunting and beautiful. The only new song that seemed to be ripped straight from part 2 is "Wild Crisis" There are other songs like Dangerous Zone that also make an appearance. It is disappointing that the intro for this movie only plays Theme of Lupin '79 instead of something new. "Lupin Ondo" is great, I really like this song. A bit of a silly way to end your dark movie but I like it too much to complain. It's the kind of music you hear at Japanese festivals and I've always been a fan of that type of music. Ondo literally means "folk song"


We want Lupin to last forever, us Lupin fans anyway. But Lupin should finally end when there's still heart, have him have a beautiful send-off with all the love from creators to fans. This movie leaves you thinking about that. It has a tone about it that no other Lupin media has. It's amazing really. I will forever praise everyone for knocking it out of the park with Lupin's first animated movie. It's a genuine masterpiece. To me, the 70s was the golden era of Lupin content. How ironic to be talking about this. Not that Lupin hasn't made works of art just recently, but it's never had such a great stride that it did during this time. But it's just interesting to me that it was a warning sign of things to come. Don't overstay your welcome. But to me, Lupin's still going strong even if there are a lot of clunkers in the franchise. Until this series can have a beautiful and loving ending to cap it all off, viva Lupin III!

Anime Relations: Lupin III

When I meant I was rewatching everything, I meant EVERYTHING. Here's one of the most insane fever dreams I've ever experienced. That is kind of surprisingly good(?) My feelings are pretty complicated on this one, so I'll explain more in each section.


Strap in everyone... Lupin III is rumored to be alive even after the Lupin empire has crumbled, the one remaining follower is Jigen and he wants to find Lupin in hopes of bringing back the empire. Meanwhile, Lupin's having fun messing around with Fujiko and Zenigata. But Lupin and Jigen unite pretty quickly. Lupin couldn't care less about this whole legacy and just do as he pleases to Jigen's dismay. There the Maccherone gang wants Lupin out of the picture so that they can get their hands on a statue that is said to give people psychokinetic powers. People are sent in to kill or capture Lupin, but he just turns himself in instead. That doesn't last long however when Jigen tells him Fujiko was captured by them after she tried to get it herself. Lupin makes his way to their base and gets out of there by helicopter. The day is saved thanks to Lupin!
This plot... I was trying my best to write this into a cohesive paragraph because man is it all over the place. The plot involving the organization doesn't show up until 50 minutes in, and even then, they just establish that they exist and then go do something else. I guess a lot of this movie was meant to establish the characters, assuming people hadn't read or watched Lupin prior. Even then, scenes just sort of happen and have no connection to anything. BUT, did I still like this movie? Yes, I did, and that's because it knows it's stupid. Lupin was always a silly premise and the movie is aware of that. Seriously, it seems like some of these scenes are from sketch comedy bits or something, the sense of humor is really dry and I love that. I despise live-action remakes of anything, and I will keep saying that till the day I die, however, this is one exception. Maybe it's bias because I love these kinds of movies from the 70s and stuff. I'm just now starting to watch Kamen Rider so I've been on this kick for a while. But I feel like this was made simply to make an insane movie rather than extremely accurate or being a try-hard. Normally I complain about creative liberties taken by the people that make remakes, but Lupin has always been a series I believe should be interpreted from the director's own viewpoint, and not trying to copy the formula. It works here, you have your base characters, a vaguely theft-related plot, and do whatever else you want to pizazz it up.


Lupin is back to his smarmy personality, which I like in moderation, but this was too much in my opinion. There were definitely some scenes I felt uncomfortable watching. Outside of that, his portrayal is pretty good. Wished he could have looked the part more. I know the hairstyle was trendy back then, but that obviously isn't close to Lupin's cut. He mainly wore an all-white outfit, which I guess actually clothes-wise, is fine (still screams of the 70s), but I wish there was more color. His color schemes are so iconic that it would have been nice to see some of that. Lastly, apparently, Lupin is psychic, for some reason. He sort of teleports around and that's like literally it, he doesn't really take advantage of them at all. Jigen's character is pretty cool, I also think his voice suits the character very well. I do have a complaint about the outfit choice again, just isn't what Jigen wears but whatever. I do like that they try to cover Jigen's eyes when they can and the little flap thing he has on the brim is pretty funny. Fujiko I think was pretty good too. She looked the closest to her 2D counterpart. Overall her portrayal as a character is good too, just solid all around. Finally good ol' Pops. He was awesome because it's impossible for that man to not be I guess. He may not look like him really, but the actor I think was actually losing his sanity while playing his character because bro was off the hook. Also seeing another injury in the next scene he's shown was great. We really just watched a man's dive into irreversible insanity but I can't lie and say it was very funny. Unfortunately, that's it for the man cast, because these jerks failed to include Goemon.


So aside from a very few things, the movie is completely live-action, so I'm mainly just going to use this to post my screenshots and make points. Before I do, I just have to say that the cinematography is generally horrible for this, but I don't care. Like I swear every Japanese show and movie I've watched from this time had like the worst cinematography so it's just a part of the charm to me now.



Can't put into words how much I appreciate him saying this. Preach Lupin!!!



Still one of the funniest visuals I've ever seen. Whenever I think of it, I laugh way too much.



Jigen hat flap appreciation post



Literally the only cool shot in the movie



Okay but fr, why does it look like this? Checkered floors, giant random hands in the walls, toilet in the center, that's actually working. I really would love to talk to the person that made them and genuinely ask why.



A part 1 jewelry heist!!



This is the level of stupidity we're dealing with, the villain straight up got a black cat he's petting, truly the most deranged lunatics of our society.



Arguably the weirdest and most random scene in the movie, but the song was fire so it makes up for it.



They're just handing me material on a silver platter now.



Daisuke Jigen: The world's greatest third wheeler


The music is honestly really bad for the most part. Lupin's theme is an actual joke. But again, it all adds to the charm. Little did I know before looking it up for this, but Masaru Sato, the composer, also worked on some of my favorite Godzilla movies, which is awesome. Don't really know what he was doing here though, because man, the theme for Terror of Godzilla goes hard, this soundtrack, does not.


There's a lot to criticize here, but honestly a blast. I could keep watching this movie. But I like watching this movie the same way I watch Godzilla, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Giant Robo, etc, etc. There's so much charm while also being so entertainingly bad. I think I'm so happy that one of my favorite franchises of all time also has a super cheesy 70s movie, that's something I'm always gonna love.