Lupin the Third PART4 13 Review
Lupin the Third (2015) episode 13
Lupin III / ルパン三世

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin is incarcerated in Italy, but despite Zenigata’s warning, the Italian authorities aren’t concerned about Lupin escaping as they’ve emptied a prison and made Lupin the sole occupant with tons of guards. Lupin makes three attempts at escape, though all three times, Zenigata is prepared for the method of escape. Each time, Zenigata changes things, ultimately having a small vault constructed on a small, rocky island with Zenigata the lone guard. Zenigata refuses to give into the temptation to open the vault door even after Lupin is on a hunger strike and dying. Zenigata can’t understand why none of Lupin’s friends will rescue him. After a long period of time, Lupin appears to die, so Zenigata opens the vault, only to discover it is an elaborate ruse on the part of Lupin to escape. Lupin returns to his comrades while Zenigata has to be rescued some time later.

Thoughts/Review:

This is one of those episodes that is good on a character level, but one that you can’t look too closely at otherwise, lest it fall apart. But I’m going to look anyway. 😉

Lupin III titles always require a high level of suspension of disbelief. After all, Goemon is a samurai who can stop all bullets shot at him, and with his sword, can cut through anything. Jigen is a marksman who can shoot down bullets (at times). Lupin is the master quick change artists, able to mimic other people down to their voices. And no one ever bothers to challenge Fujiko when she snuggles up to some nefarious person in order to use them, despite her long criminal record.

Yet in this episode, there were times where I had trouble suspending my disbelief. For example, while I’m able to come up with a reason in my mind for a free Lupin to be able to have a mask that looks like someone else, how was he able to do this in prison? Unless the priest that came to visit him brought a mask of his own face, how does Lupin impersonate the priest in that one escape attempt?

Then in the vault prison, Lupin is able to create a life-like, anamorphic painting of himself on the floor to fool Zenigata. The episode at least explains how Lupin got his brush, but his paint from food was a bit of a stretch as far as I’m concerned, even if Lupin has the artistic skills to pull off such a painting.

The suspension of disbelief aside, the episode works as a chess match between Zenigata and Lupin. As I’ve stated before, this isn’t the first time that Lupin has been captured by Zenigata and thrown in prison. (As an aside, where was the trial for Lupin?)  In the fourth episode of the first series, Lupin is thrown in jail. He has the shaggy hair and beard there that he has here. A priest came to see him there, and Lupin gets a final cigarette. In fact, there are a ton of parallels from that episode to this one, so I’m quite sure the production team here are making a tribute to that episode.

Unlike in that old episode, here, Zenigata is ready for Lupin’s three escape attempts. He knows how Lupin thinks and how Lupin will do certain things to obtain his goal. So Zenigata comes off as quite competent, which I liked.

On the other hand, Lupin knows Zenigata’s thought processes. As such, Lupin uses this against him, giving Zenigata the escape attempts he knows Zenigata is expecting, all the while setting up the conditions so that the obsessed Zenigata would have the vault constructed to place Lupin in, allowing Lupin to do his thing.

The conversation between the supposedly dying Lupin and Zenigata was good. This is something the franchise has discussed before, but it is still interesting hearing Zenigata admit that his fear after all these years is that with Lupin passing, Zenigata has nothing. It was a nice, touching moment.

What I don’t get is why Zenigata didn’t just live on the yacht that he used to bring Lupin over on (and which was moored at the island) instead of a tent, especially in the dead of winter. Seriously, with the yacht, he would have had somewhere comfortable to sleep and could have more easily prepared meals. I’m not even sure why he’s making meals since the Italian government in charge of the prison would be providing them (or at the very least, the supplies).  But there’s Zenigata with camping cooking equipment, making stuff over a campfire.

It was interesting that Zenigata still had one element of confusion after all this time — why would Lupin throw everything away for Rebecca? Lupin’s answer of “love” is something Zenigata doesn’t really understand for some reason. However, it makes me respect Lupin for doing something for his wife who’s not his wife for no reward expect to help her.

Speaking of Rebecca, initially I didn’t think she’d be in this episode, especially since Zenigata’s initial surveillance didn’t seem to include her. I was glad when she showed up. Unlike the rest of Lupin’s crew, she was the one impatient and wanting to break Lupin out of jail. It made me smile since that was Fujiko in the first TV series episode where Lupin was in jail.

Even though Fujiko waited here, I liked how she was the one the most frustrated that it was taking Lupin so long to break out of jail (and thus making her wait), even having a glass of wine set out for him. Throughout this series, I’ve liked how Fujiko’s feelings for Lupin are greater than they have been for most of the specials, OVAs, and movies that have come out over the last however many years.

Going back to Zenigata, the one thing this episode does is make him look incompetent. Sure, one can point to the fact that he finally arrested Lupin, and that he foiled three attempts by Lupin to escape. But how does Zenigata escape disgrace at ultimately being conned by Lupin? I wonder if the anime will address how Zenigata can be back on the Lupin case after losing him. I kinda doubt it, but we’ll see.

Finally, I see Nyx is calm and with his family again, even amused when Lupin’s escape is reported in the press. MI6 is going to be involved in whatever new arc is set for the new season, and there’s some mystery dude on the loose. Could be interesting.

In the end, this was a good episode, but there are dodgy bits that one has to look the other way for in order for the whole thing to work.