Streaming: HIDIVE
Episodes: 25
Source: Original story: part of a long-running franchise
Episode Summary: One morning in London, Lord Faulkner returns to his place of business as usual. As he enters his office, he removes a poster from the wall, rolls it up, and slides it into a hidden compartment in his cane before returning to the front door. Later that day, as he’s about to leave a café, Faulkner finds himself surrounded by the police with their guns drawn. They’re on to him – he’s not actually Lord Faulkner, who’s already been detained for questioning at Scotland Yard. This Lord Faulkner is actually French spy Albert d’Andresy in disguise, whose plan to steal this poster was thwarted by none other than Sherlock Holmes himself.
As Albert tries to make an escape and ends up shot in the shoulder, he’s approached by none other than Lupin the Third, in town to steal the very poster that Albert briefly had his hands on. As they leave the city center Albert reveals some details regarding a longstanding situation with an entity called the Raven. Meanwhile, Holmes and Lily, his adopted daughter (and wannabe assistant) deal with an explosion at Scotland Yard and its aftermath. As Lupin returns meet up with Fujiko, he also crosses paths with Holmes. As it turns out, the two seem to have a history together – one that involves Lily.
Impressions: This certainly is the season of returning favorites, huh?
My experience with Lupin the Third started the same was as many other anime fans – watching Castle of Cagliostro and wanting to know more about the characters – where they came from, what their stories were, and where I could watch the TV series (at the time, nowhere officially). The thing about Lupin is that, in a sense, there really isn’t that much to know about the characters, at least in terms of their emotional development. They’re the sort of entities who exist as archetypes and whose relationships with one-another don’t change much. The real pleasure of something like Lupin is in knowing those archetypes and watching them play out again and again as they continue to involve themselves in plots both large and small.
Lupin the Third: Part 5 used its plot-focused episodes to step back and examine this in a way that I found fascinating. The story takes place in the modern day and specifically involves social media as a plot device. Lupin and gang, whose thievery techniques are decidedly more analog, struggle somewhat to navigate a technological world in which surveillance is literally a matter of people using hand-held technology (specifically smartphones). The overarching theme of the season is whether someone like Lupin remains relevant in this new world – a question which is asked internally within the narrative, but is implied to extend outside into a world in which a ridiculous number of new anime series are being produced every season and which are decidedly different in feel, look, and tone. The answer reached by that the series (and by extension, the viewer) arrives at is that, yes, absolutely, Lupin is timeless – it changes and morphs to remain appealing whenever it crops up again, whether in movie form or on television (this is my plug for folks to watch the CG movie Lupin the Third: The First, which is great).
This is the mindset in which I approached the first episode of this most recent Lupin incarnation, which not only brings back the franchise’s familiar ensemble cast, but introduces another famous literary character who’s possibly one of the most reinvented characters of all time – Sherlock Holmes. Pitting these two juggernauts against one-another seems almost like a no-brainer, because they seem to inhabit similar spaces within their respective fandoms. And yet… in practice I’m not yet entirely convinced that this is a great idea.
One thing I’ll say about this episode is that, for as excited as I was to watch it, something definitely feels a little bit off about it. Perhaps it’s simply the use of CG during the car chases, which really looks a little bit clunky and threw me out of the action from time-to-time. But that’s the sort of thing I’ve learned to overlook most of the time. No, I think perhaps it’s Lupin himself, who comes across as a bit more sinister than he has in the previous couple of Lupin TV series. I was a big fan of the somewhat melancholy (and by extension, seemingly less actively evil) Lupin of Part 5. While a more “dangerous” Lupin hearkens back to some of the earlier series, and I hate to sound ungrateful for the groundwork those episodes laid, this is 2021 – I don’t know how hungry I am, after a couple of very shitty years, to see a favorite character act like a dick and behave threateningly toward children.
I suppose, much like with Holmes, this is the risk of loaning out a beloved character to people who will then have some freedom to interpret them in various different ways – sometimes you may not always vibe completely with the results.
Pros: I love the setting. I was excited from the moment I heard that this story would take place mainly around London. I really enjoy how the recent Lupin series have leaned into using iconic locations for their stories. This episode continues the franchise’s tradition of really excellent background artwork which give a strong impression of the architecture within city limits and the natural world beyond.
I also appreciate that there’s a minor amount of continuity this season with the return of Albert. While I don’t know how many (if any) other familiar faces may crop up this time around, I like the subtle acknowledgement that these characters exist within a living world and aren’t just plucked out of a void as needed.
Cons: The use of CG to animate most of the cars during the various car chases this episode really feels ill-suited to providing that action with a sense of weight or realism. There are multiple moments where various cars go up on two wheels or whip around corners in ways that feel completely unreal and cartoony. Lupin definitely has its cartoony moments (such as Goemon slicing up a tank), but I don’t believe that’s what they were trying to go for here.
It really bothers me that Lily seems absolutely terrified of Lupin in the final scene of the episode. Like I said, this is simply another interpretation of the character, and one with very little context – we don’t really know the details of Lily or her situation, so it might not be as sinister as it seems at first. Yet, I still found it off-putting.
Content Warnings: Violence, including gun violence (with a non-fatal gunshot wound) and a situation where a bomb is strapped to an individual who then dies from the explosion offscreen. Mild fanservice.
Would I Watch More? – I’m always game for more Lupin. Waiting for this series to come out, I actually started way back at the beginning with Part 1, and I hope to, eventually, watch all of it. It’s definitely quite the task, especially considering Part 2’s length, and all the various movies and such, but I’ll get there. It’s a part of anime canon that has always interested and entertained me; even mediocre Lupin is still pretty good in the grand scheme of things.