LUPIN the Third ～峰不二子という女～
LUPIN the Third – MINE Fujiko to Iu Onna Episode 12
Lupin III: A Woman Called MINE Fujiko – 12

A seemingly disgraced Zenigata leaves his workplace and heads to a cafe, where he finds and cuffs Fujiko. In his police car, she speaks of a recent string of female kidnappings, all connected by owl paraphernalia, meaning Luis Yew Armeid’s involvement. Zenigata agrees to partner with Fujiko, and she leads him to Glaucus Park, a strange theme park.  An owl-man asks them for tickets, and Zenigata just happens to have two. He and Fujiko make their way to the House of Fujiko boat ride, where Fujiko’s life is laid out. Fujiko tells Zenigata some of the things, but as the ride goes on, she starts to panic and fire her weapon at dolls of herself, forcing Zenigata to get her off the owl boat and through another door.

Meanwhile, Lupin convinces Jigen to come to the same theme park, where they too are challenged for tickets. Lupin pulls two from Jigen’s hat, which surprises Jigen. He explains to Jigen how Count Armeid hired him, and how his research revealed there couldn’t be a MINE Fujiko. They confront an owl man on a roller coaster track, where the owl-man wants Lupin to kill Fujiko. The ride takes the owl-man away as Jigen and Lupin give chase. Lupin informs Jigen that Count Armeid has been controlling everything, including their respective meetings of Fujiko.  After catching the owl-man and conversing with him, he escapes into the water below. Lupin then remembers the prediction that today is Fujiko’s death day.

Meanwhile, a captive Goemon is stripped and dressed up like Fujiko, but he manages to take out the owl-men and escape, killing power to parts of the park in the process.  Elsewhere, Fujiko is shooting adult dolls of herself when she and Zenigata are beset upon by topless women who resemble Fujiko.  Zenigata prevents Fujiko from killing them. One of them attacks Fujiko, causing Zenigata to grab the person. He immediately knows this to be Oscar, so he sends Fujiko out into the darkened park while he confronts Oscar.  Fujiko makes it to the palace, where she climbs the stairs to the door where Count Armeid awaits. The owl-Count orders Fujiko to sit in his lap or be punished, causing her to cry for forgiveness from her “papa.”

Man, another trippy, LSD-induced episode. *_*  Well, the series is set in the 60’s so…

The “It’s a Small World” clone called House of MINE Fujiko was the weirdest of the lot.  Some insane count who “loves” Fujiko spends untold amounts of money to a theme park with a ride dedicated to Fujiko, to say nothing of him watching her whole life?  Too weird.

I liked how Jigen and Lupin were teamed up again, even if Jigen was reluctant to go on this mission for Fujiko.  Why this freaky count would want Jigen involved with Fujiko is still a mystery though.

The episode provided me a good laugh when Goemon was forced into a Fujiko outfit, complete with wig. Why he wouldn’t stop and remove such accoutrements, I don’t know, but it was still amusing.

While I had thought Oscar to be dead, I ended up not being surprised when he showed back up, again dressed as Fujiko.  I guess we’ll see how that aspect ends next episode.

With only one more episode, I suspect we won’t get all the answers I want as the series creators try to be clever and thought provoking, with plenty of artsy-fartsy style to dazzle most folks.  We’ll see though.