Lupin III Part III Ep. 03
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 03

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin’s latest target is a castle and to get there, Jigen will fire him out of a cannon. All goes to plan until Lupin is spotted by Flora, the daughter of the man who had owned this castle when he was alive. She wants to be taken by Lupin away from this place, but Lupin isn’t interested in pretty, 15-year old girls, only the treasure. Still, Lupin is forced to take Flora with him when she nearly falls of the roof after following him there. The pair hang-glide down as Flora’s stepmom and the 16th wife of Flora’s father observes with her henchmen.

As she sleeps in their hideout, Jigen refreshed Lupin’s memory as to their mission and the collection of valuable paintings known as the Angel Collection. However, Lupin doesn’t remember a daughter being part of the plan. So, he attempts to scare her off with scary motif around her bed and his own scary talk. She’s not afraid. He goes further by stripping her to her panties and acting like he’ll have his way with her. She invites this, wanting her hero and rescuer to take her. Lupin instead beats a hasty retreat and falls into the water.

The following day, Lupin hits on Fujiko at the beach, untying her bikini top and attempting to cop a feel in her bikini bottom. However, she wasn’t asleep and a gun pointed at Lupin brings the hijinks to an end. She promises that if he brings her the Angel Collection, she’ll pretend to be asleep next time, hinting she’ll allow him to continue what he started. Flora arrives and Fujiko leaves. However, it doesn’t take long before Flora’s step-mother’s henchmen attack. Lupin and Flora escape and Flora, knowing Lupin wants the Angel Collection, tells him that he’ll have to wait three days. As such, he agrees to allow her to tag along with him.

As Flora’s mother plots her next move on board her large, 3-masted sailing ship, Lupin tries to discourage Flora by showing her a life of crime. However, when they go to hold up a small town bank, the bank manager and customers are all excited that the famous thief Lupin would find them worthy of robbing. Even the local police want their picture taken with Lupin. Word of Lupin’s actions gets back to Inspector Zenigata, who’s simply befuddled by Lupin’s actions. Meanwhile Lupin continues to fail in his attempts to make the life of a thief look bad.

Lupin finally decides to send Flora on a supposed mission to a floating bank, which really is Flora’s step-mother’s. Flora tosses Lupin her pendant and rows herself to the ship where she is captured. Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon are leaving when the pendant come open. Stopping, Jigen learns that it contained microfiche with Flora’s medical records, including news that she would die in three months. Those three months were at an end, which is why Flora stated Lupin could have the treasure in three days.

Lupin returns and rescues Flora. However, in the fight to get out, Flora sacrifices herself to allow Lupin to escape. With the villains gone, Lupin returns the body of Flora to the castle, where the walls dissolve to reveal a wall covered with the Angel Collection. For Lupin, it is fitting that Flora should be here, surrounded by angels and flowers. They leave the castle where they meet Fujiko, who wonders where the Angel Collection is. He tells her the angels have gone to heaven, which puzzles Fujiko. Lupin and Jigen take off and Lupin tosses Flora’s pendant in the sea as a final goodbye.

Thoughts/Review:

The story was just so-so until Lupin did the bank robbery, and the manager called him Lupin-sama. I found it funny that the manager thought that being robbed by Lupin would be good for business. Then the whole town getting in on it just had me laugh. However, I didn’t expect the episode to turn so serious with the death of Flora. It was rather sad, and maybe made more so by the laughs earlier.