Lupin III Part III 05
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 05

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin and Jigen are in South Africa to meet with a contact of Lupin’s about a World War II U-Boat filled with with Nazi treasures. Their contact had partnered with one Herman Mueller, but had killed Herman (apparently Herman retained his Nazi ideals and the partner had given up on them now that he is an old man). However, as he is about to give the map to Lupin, a giant condor takes it from him and gives it to a young woman. The partner is killed by a boomerang thrown from a man on a nearby high rock. Jigen tries to shoot the boomerang but it deflects the bullets. When he tries to shoot the man, the man uses the boomerang as a shield. Now it is time for Jigen and Lupin to make a fast retreat.

The woman is running away when she’s stopped by Goemon. She tries to shoot him, but he not only gets rid of the bullets, his sword work shreds her clothing, leaving her nude. She summons the condor to escape and because Goemon is honorable and will not willingly look upon a naked woman, she escapes, which Lupin remarks on once he arrives on scene. At their hideout, Lupin reveals he’d placed a tracking device on the boomerang so that when brother and sister, the children of Herman Mueller, arrive at their destination, Lupin can go there as well. The brother and sister are happy to help one Otto Jergens since he allowed them to get revenge on their father’s killer. However, Otto has a job for them, namely killing Lupin.

The tracking device is discovered by Otto but before he can really do anything, Lupin is already there. The brother attempts to kill Lupin, but when the head rolls off, they discover it was only a life-like mannequin. The head kicks off a gas and Otto tries to escape, only to run into the real Lupin and Jigen. Otto is prepared though and suddenly, Zenigata and a squad of police are there. As far as Zenigata is concerned, Lupin is the #1 criminal. Thus Otto escapes but Zenigata doesn’t have Lupin for long as he too makes an escape from a pile of police officers.

As Lupin tails the siblings, Fujiko is with Otto on his yacht attempting to gain the map in her own way. However, Otto figures her to double-cross him and is prepared for her with the siblings and other henchmen there. Lupin and Jigen arrive on a yellow submarine, which confirms Otto’s belief that Fujiko would have betrayed him. Otto has no use for any of them and has them dumped into a pool of oil but Goemon, carried by the condor, saves them from death as Otto escapes. Once out of the oil, Goemon receives permission to borrow the condor as the gang flies off in a sea plane, tracking where Otto is going.

Otto arrives on an oil platform so Lupin decides to head in by the front door and leave the rest to Goemon. Despite the warning being sounded about Lupin’s arrival, he makes it to the room where Otto is. Otto tries to kill him with a bomb planted in the couch, but Lupin was ready for it and was only singed. Otto agrees to retrieve the map and opens a large safe. However before he can grab a gun, Lupin gives him a warning and shoots one of Otto’s men, hidden behind a curtain, with a tranquilizer dart. Otto pretends to go along, then gets into the safe, revealing that the room is in fact a self-contained chamber which is now at the bottom of the ocean. The safe is also an escape hatch which once he closes, Lupin will be trapped.

Lupin was prepared for this as well, so that when Otto gets into the escape rocket, Goemon has the condor fly him to the spot where Goemon destroys the rocket with his sword. Fujiko then has the office chamber raised from the bottom as Lupin makes her laugh from within the container. The mission completed, Goemon returns the condor to the sister, who gives him a kiss on the lips as thanks for all he’s done. Now Goemon will have to meditate some more.

Thoughts/Review:

Whoa! Otto actually was prepared for the Fujiko double-cross. Kudos to the writers for surprising me there. After all, she’s as infamous as Lupin, yet time after time, she manages to get in cozy with the villain before Lupin arrives on the scene. The one time she did this that was realistic was in Castle of Cagliostro, where she was in disguise not once, but twice.

That condor sure did lose a lot of feathers. Egad! I’m stunned it wasn’t featherless by the time the episode was over.

Funny how Zenigata was just forgotten after Lupin escaped from the dog pile of police officers.

Story-wise, much like the previous episodes, we just have an adventure with no real depth. Still, it was enjoyable all the same.