ルパン三世The Last Job
Rupan Sansei The Last Job
Lupin III: The Last Job

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin pulls off his latest heist, making sure Zenigata is informed for the expected chase, and scores a Buddha statue which supposedly contains the key to a greater secret, the ninja treasure known as Fujin. As the chase goes down on live TV, an attack helicopter filled with armed troops arrives and opens fire. The chopper is from Morgana, someone with ties to the Fuma ninja clan who also wants the treasure. In the subsequent battle, the troops grab the statue from Lupin while stabbing him in the arm with a shuriken. Lupin returns fire but Zenigata gets snared by his handcuffs and ends up caught in the fire from the helicopter and subsequent explosion. A funeral is held, which Lupin attends in secret and afterward, he sees a strange acting dog.

At the devastated scene of the attack, Lupin, Goemon, and Jigen have their own little memorial service of sorts when an unimpressed Fujiko arrives for a bit. Meanwhile, ICPO recalls Investigator Kagurazaka, who’s been undercover as a TV reporter and who covered the chase between Zenigata and Lupin. She makes a stop at a Catholic church in Rome to pick up some ninja weapons that have been imported from Japan. Lupin makes a visit and Kagurazaka reveals that she has shinobi skills and that the strange acting dog is hers and is has some shinobi training. After a lengthy battle, Lupin ends up on the losing end and has to be rescued by Goemon and Jigen.

Morgana has used the statue to uncover the clue and now needs the Kagetora Sword, located at a museum. Disguised as Jacopetti from Interpol, Morgana and his men easily overcome the museum’s security forces but Kagurazaka (Asuka) is there with her dog to thwart him. Morgana proves quite skilled to counter Asuka’s shinobi techniques and ends up being saved by a shot from Jigen. Lupin confronts Morgana, who reveals he has a detonator bracelet that will go off in 10 seconds if he dies. Fujiko arrives and snags the sword from a distance. Lupin tries to tell her about the sheath but she’s not listening. A new fight breaks out and when Goemon accidentally cuts the bracelet, Morgana escapes in the subsequent destruction of the museum.

As Interpol discovers Morgana’s disguise and Asuka’s going rogue on them, Lupin, Goemon, and Jigen follow an icy mountain road to seek Morgana. At Morgana’s hideout, several of his ninja soldiers are sacrificed when they attempt to wear the sacred Fuma samurai armor, leaving it to one (Maya) to successfully put on the armor. Sword Kagetora burns with a red fire and the computers show it to be resonating with the statue, but nothing else. The woman uses the sword to slice the statue, revealing an elongated crystal inside. The ninja dog grabs it and escapes, delivering it to Asuka who also escapes.

Lupin and company make it to town where they have a bit of car trouble. As Jigen fixes it, Asuka arrives, followed by a bunch of Morgana’s ninja. Lupin and company join the chase with Jigen taking out several of the ninja with his gun. However, their route is blocked by the ninja samurai with Sword Kagetora, who uses it to destroy Jigen’s car. Goemon battles the ninja while Jigen, Lupin, and Asuka escape. Another of Morgana’s people awaits them, this time with a giant yo-yo weapon. He is revealed to be Andre, someone Jigen knew from the past. Leaving Jigen to fight Andre, Lupin and Asuka move on. Asuka manages to lose Lupin while Goemon defeats his opponent, destroying the samurai armor and revealing a woman underneath. Andre defeats Jigen, forcing the later to take a dive into icy waters.

Asuka patches herself up and is attacked by two of Morgana’s ninja. She’s saved by the female ninja whom Goemon defeated. The ninja, named Maya, has a talk with Asuka and they are revealed to be allies. As Lupin listens in on their conversation, Asuka’s dog bites him in the rear. blowing his cover. Maya leaves and returns to Morgana’s base of operations, where he immediately confronts her, having learned that Asuka is a member of the Fuma Clan as is Maya. Maya passes Morgana’s test of loyalty and his test to see if she is telling the truth, so he tells her that the killing of Asuka is in her hands.

Interpol puts out a warrant for Asuka and an alert Roman cop spots her despite her disguise. She gets away but is found by a psychotic “bird man” with tremendous skills. Her fight with Bird Man at a stalemate, Lupin arrives and gives her a means of escape. However, Bird Man steals a bus and chases the two on his scooter. After saving some kittens, Lupin and Asuka are in a bad way as Bird Man manages to shred some of Asuka’s clothing and free her from the crystal. However, Fujiko arrives and surprises Bird Man, taking the crystal for herself and making sure Asuka’s dog doesn’t follow.

Fujiko turns the crystal over to Morgana as Asuka and Lupin head out after a quick meal. They infiltrate Morgana’s castle hideout but even with Goemon’s and Jigen’s assistance, Morgana and Fujiko get away, destroying the castle in the process. Lupin reveals he has a copy of the symbol from the laser beams emitted from the crystal in Morgana’s lab, but Morgana has obtained the same information at his new location. Lupin and Asuka head to a Roman ruin where Asuka finds the Kanji symbol of the Fuma clan, whom were co-founded by dissident Romans. Lupin figures out the opening to a secret door and an underground chamber where a painting depicts the creator of the Fujin, Milo Garibaldi, a student of Leonardo da Vinci.

Now that they know they are in the right place, Lupin figures out where the controls to reveal the Fujin are located behind a pillar. He is able to wind the clockwork until a small, Japanese lion statue appears — the Fujin. However, Lupin sets off a trap and is nearly trapped. After escaping, Asuka reports to Maya, who’s been turned into a prisoner at Fujiko’s advice. Morgana sends a lot of his troops to try to find Lupin and Asuka in the ruined city. They allude the aerial patrols but Andre finds them and Jigen takes him out with a big gun. This reveals their location and the three flee. Jigen’s injury proves a problem but Goemon is there to help cover their escape to a small train.

The train ride is cut short when Morgana arrives with an attack helicopter, grabbing Asuka but missing Fujin thanks to the dog. Lupin has the Fujin scanned but only comes up with the symbol on the guardian statue matching Morgana’s head tattoo. Meanwhile, Fujiko calls Goemon to have Lupin come with the Fujin in exchange for the loot at Morgana’s cottage. Meanwhile, Morgana explains to Asuka, Maya, and Fujiko of his connections with the Fuma and that Morgana is actually the name of the society that some of the Roman creators of the Fujin had belonged to before they fled to Japan.

Meanwhile, Zenigata awakes in his coffin and emerges from the grave as two other ICPO officers were coming to pay respects. They take him back to the Roman HQ where Zenigata explains that Asuka used a ninja technique to fake his death. Sensing Lupin nearby, Zenigata discovers the apartment that Lupin used and where the dog Kotaro is still tied up. The dog has Lupin’s cell phone, which Zenigata uses to chase Lupin, who has just stolen an ICPO helicopter to head to where Asuka and Maya are being held.

As a blizzard intensifies, Morgana’s plan to have Asuka activate the Fujin and complete the contract of 100’s of years ago is foiled when she spits a coin into the Fujin after Lupin and company fail to rescue her and Maya. In the chaos that ensues, rematch battles are in the works as Goemon battles Andre, Goemon battles a ton of Morgana’s troops, and Lupin battles Bird Man. Inside Morgana’s island, castle fortress, Fujiko discovers Morgana’s treasure room while Asuka and Maya are still bound to a metal tower. Lupin manages to make it inside but is too late as Morgana informs him and destroys that part of the castle.

Morgana again attempts to obtain a voice sample from Asuka to work the Fujin but despite electrocuting the sisters, they do not scream out. Lupin emerges and is saved from death by Zenigata, who’s just arrived to arrest him and Morgana. Morgana begins electrocuting the sisters again, insuring they are out of reach of rescue. Kotaro wails and his wail activates the Fujin. Fujiko’s arrival with some device on wheels which explodes allows Goemon to cut down the sisters but allows Morgana to escape with the Fujin.

Morgana plans to use the Fujin to destroy his island fortress, but Lupin grabs a rocket pack and goes after him. Goemon and Jigen make sure that Asuka and Maya don’t follow. Lupin makes it to Morgana’s attack helicopter and grabs the Fujin, which is a particle device capable of creating a black hole singularity. The activated device creates a weather phenomenon and deconstructs Morgana and his chopper. However, Lupin gets the device to shut off and returns to Earth safely with only his shoes destroyed. The Fujin is returned to the Fuma and Fujiko takes off with a bunch of loot, only to have Morgana’s plane blow up, forcing her to bail. Meanwhile, Maya has Goemon destroy the Fujin. Zenigata asks Asuka what she wants to do now and she suggests arresting Lupin, which meets with Zenigata’s approval. Thus, a new chase is on.

Thoughts/Review:

I always have a soft spot for Lupin III titles, which is why I try to make room in my schedule to watch them. That said, I don’t think it will be possible for any Lupin III title to match the classic that is Castle of Cagliostro, though The Last Job tries to do so in certain ways.

I’m having a hard time writing thoughts on this episode despite blathering on and on in the summary section. I guess that while I was not bored with this anime, I can’t say that I was all that gripped either, though there were some items of note.

When Zenigata “died,” I knew right then and there that this was a lie. There have been more than a few Lupin III stories where Lupin or Zenigata die and it is of course a lie. Even if the franchise didn’t have a history of this kind of plot device, I think we all know that there’s no way they’d kill any of the core characters of Lupin, Goemon, Jigen, Fujiko, or Zenigata. So therefore, the plot device is a complete fail and made worse by the fact that they actually buried Zenigata. I’m so glad that his need to find a toilet was enough to allow him to escape his coffin and climb through six feet of dirt. *_*

Since I’ve started in the negatives, I’ll stay there and ask, “What the heck was up with the kittens?” Yeah, I’m sure this was supposed to be funny in that Lupin saves a bunch of kittens while in a fight for his life, but as a joke it doesn’t work and if it isn’t a joke, it is completely stupid.

Then there was “Bird Man,” who was only there to provide a hindrance to Lupin and Asuka. Come to think of it, that Andre bloke wasn’t any better but he did provide a means of having someone who could battle Jigen successfully. Bird Man was worse and and just “ugh!”

Lupin episodes are always full of fanciful things and indeed the term “Lupin physics” has been coined to explain some of the amazing things he and his comrades can do at times. That said, the notion that hundreds of years ago, a group of Roman’s with the aide of ninjas in Japan created a device, disguised as a Japanese shisa guardian statue, that is capable of creating some kind of quantum singularity as an ultimate weapon is going beyond credibility. I would have loved it if the Fujin didn’t work, as it didn’t appear to for the longest time . The Fujin not working would have been believable without knowing what it was exactly.

The comedy aspects of the show didn’t make me laugh. There was the running gag about Kotaro biting Lupin in the butt, which was supposed to be funny but never made me laugh.

When the Fuma clan was mentioned, I rather hoped that there would be some mention of Lupin’s previous title (and the only one to have a completely different seiyuu cast) The Fuma Conspiracy. This could have been done in such a way so that fans who’d watched that movie would get the reference but those who hadn’t wouldn’t be at a disadvantage.

Finally on the negative front, the seiyuu for the main cast are really sounding bad at times, especially NAYA Goro, who plays Zenigata. I guess he had throat cancer diagnosed a couple or so years ago and his voice is the worst. As such, I wonder if “The Last Job” is more than just the title of this special, but the last Lupin III episode that will be done. We’ll see.

On the positive side of things, I liked it when Lupin, Goemon, and Jigen had a little memorial for Zenigata in the ruins of the battle they’d had with Morgana’s troops. The memorial in and of itself was a nice touch, but what grabbed me more is that the destruction caused in the aftermath of their fight is shown, something I don’t recall being featured in previous Lupin III outings I’ve done.

I also liked how when Goemon squared off against Morgana, Goemon accomplished what he set out to do but the results weren’t quite as expected.

Speaking of battles, the production team went through a lot of trouble to plan these out as there are many of them and for the most part, they looked pretty good to me.

In the end, this is a beautiful-looking anime with a story that ends up going way over the top. There are some nice action sequences but for the most part, things are pretty much by the numbers. At least all the main characters are given something to do and some have convincing losses (Jigen springs to mind). Still, I wasn’t bored so that’s something good, right?