Lupin the Third PART4 04 Review
Lupin the Third (2015) episode 04
Lupin III / ルパン三世

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Jigen has a toothache and is desperate for a hospital.When he’s arrives, his gun is noticed by Doctor Livia, who demands his gun. She tells him she’ll take care of his problem, so he gives up the weapon. Jigen has a smoke outside while he waits, where an old man and patient named Nino offers him his drugs. Jigen declines. Back in the hospital, Jigen discovers a ward filled with Living Dead. Dr. Livia explains that local gang boss Eric Orgiani shoots people up in a non-fatal way when they oppose him. He controls the town and “maintains peace” after confiscating all guns, then charges high protection fees. When Eric hears about Jigen and his gun, he and his goons arrive, but they find no weapon. Nino is discovered missing and believed to have the weapon after his grandson was shot up by Eric. As Jigen had emptied the weapon, Nino can’t kill anyone.

Nino turns up all shot up, so Jigen decides to pay a visit to Eric at his base of operations. Jigen concedes to Eric that the weapon is his, so Eric decides that Jigen must pay the price. Jigen tells Eric’s thugs that they have time to bail. However, since Jigen is unarmed, none of them take him seriously. Meanwhile, Dr. Livia operates to save Nino as Zenigata arrives at a crime scene being investigated by the Italian police. Zenigata deduces that the man being targeted (Jigen) caused Eric’s thugs to shoot each other. Eric was killed by the targeted man shooting a chandelier after Eric tried killing the man. However, Zenigata says it is only speculation and doesn’t give Jigen up. Meanwhile, Jigen pays a final visit to Nino before bailing as Dr. Livia shows up. Jigen joins Lupin, who scolds his friend for not saying goodbye to the female doctor. As the two go to their next job, Lupin tells Jigen he hopes Jigen got what he needed for his toothache.

Thoughts/Review:

Whoa. Since I don’t watch the previews for the next episodes, I didn’t expect this one to be a Jigen episode. However, it ended up being fairly enjoyable, but a fair amount unbelievable near the end.

The episode doesn’t actually state how Eric confiscated all guns in this Italian town, but the gist of things is that in exchange for maintaining the peace, Eric and his thugs own all guns. After that, they can do what they want. It is this very scenario that most gun-owning Americans would never give up their guns.

That aside, the episode shows Eric eating well, but running his gang out of a ruined building. That made no sense to me. He and his bunch own all the guns, so they can take over any home or building they want, not just some abandoned church or office building.

Jigen getting involved in this town’s issues works since Jigen just wants to get his gun back. Plus, the episode made sure that Jigen formed a bond with the old man (Nino) to give him added incentive. I had no problem with that, but then when it came to how Jigen got away from Eric and killed all of his men without a gun, that’s where things became quite a stretch in getting the thugs to shoot each other. However, since this was told from Zenigata’s speculation, the writers have an out to say, “Well, that may not be exactly what happened.”

Speaking of Zenigata, he only gets an extended cameo, but it is a good one. I liked how Zenigata didn’t give up Jigen to the Italian police even though he knew Jigen was involved in the killing of Eric and his gang.

Lupin only gets a brief cameo at the end. I was starting to wonder if he’d show up at all. I loved him scolding Jigen over him not saying farewell to Dr. Livia, who naturally was a babe. (Goemon and Fujiko were missing this episode.)

That being said, I had no problems with how Dr. Livia’s and Jigen’s relationship went. There’s a respect between the two and even a bit of an attraction. However, there’s no forced romance here, which is a good thing. I will admit that I wouldn’t mind seeing Dr. Livia showing up in a future episode and having a date with Jigen. That would be cool.

In the end, I liked having an episode focusing on Jigen and that’s what Lupin the Third PART4 04 did. There’s a bit of weakness in how things get resolved, but I let that pass.