Lupin the Third PART4 15 Review
Lupin the Third (2015) episode 15
Lupin III / ルパン三世

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin has stolen the diamond known as Cleopatra’s Soul, which as he tells Jigen, has a history of easily changing owners. On cue, Lupin loses the diamond when Zenigata shows up. It ends up in the backpack of a teen on a moped, so Lupin gives chase, ending up at a local high school. Conning his way into the place as a substitute teacher named Pierre, Lupin starts the task of finding the student who’s backpack the diamond landed in. Elsewhere in the school, the vice principle and three other teachers, including a science teacher, are building a bomb and need a diamond to complete it. Lupin is introduced to these teachers, unaware of their plot. He eventually finds the student with the right backpack, but he doesn’t have the diamond as one of the other teachers (Mario) found it and brought it to complete the bomb.

Lupin discovers the teachers have the diamond, so he sends them his calling card as Lupin. When shows up, they are shocked that Pierre is Lupin, but show themselves to be feckless in dealing with him. They explain how they are building a bomb to kill a thug mafia boss, who’s demanding a massive sum of money for an accident, or he will have them killed. Lupin scolds them for not turning the diamond into cash, but takes his prize. The teachers are confronted by the thug mafia folks, who are going to execute them for not paying up the money, using one of their students. After the student refuses, the cowardly Mario defends him from a beating. Before the mafia can execute them all, Lupin uses Jigen’s sniper skills to stop the execution, having arranged for Zenigata to arrive on the scene expecting Lupin, but finding the mafia thugs instead. Lupin tosses the diamond into the water as “fake,” where it ultimately ends up in Fujiko’s possession.

Thoughts/Review:

To date, the new Lupin III series has been good to very, very good. Unfortunately with Lupin the Third PART4 15, we get the weakest episode to date.

Lupin infiltrating a high school and causing the principal to gush over Lupin’s Harvard degree was kind of amusing, even if far fetched. Some folks have an inflated view of what a Harvard education means and what it can do.

The whole plot with the teachers building a bomb didn’t work that well for me. These are supposed to be teachers, but they all are portrayed as pretty stupid. No wonder that school was being overrun by thugs. That being said, making the teachers so stupid made them hard to relate to as people in genuine fear for their life.

Then there’s the cliched moment where Mario saves his student from a beating after it is revealed that at some earlier time, he’d left that same student to take a beating. Yeah, whatever.

Lupin deciding to have Jigen save the teachers, followed by his arranging for Zenigata to arrive on the scene wasn’t a surprise to me. It is kinda like Lupin to do such a thing.

I also wasn’t surprised that Lupin ended up tossing this valuable diamond into the water for finicky reason, although I’m then thinking, “So, I guess your money problems are over so that you can afford to toss such a valuable stone?”

Finally, in order to give Fujiko a cameo, we get to see her on a yacht as a dolphin leaps up, having somehow obtained this diamond, all so it can deposit it in Fujiko’s bikini cleavage. I know Lupin has a lot of things that stretch suspension of disbelief, but this had me rolling my eyes.

In the end, Lupin the Third PART4 15 is an episode that isn’t terribly interesting, and downright boring at times. Here’s hoping the next episode gets us back to good stories.