Lupin the Third PART4 23 Review
Lupin the Third (2015) episode 23
Lupin III / ルパン三世

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Leonardo Da Vinci hacks into all Italian TV channels to announce his World Harmony plan, including a challenge to Lupin. After that, he sends everyone in Italy to sleep. Lupin wakes to find Da Vinci nearby. Lupin follows him, but notices that no one is reacting. Fujiko, Jigen, Goemon, Zenigata, Nyx, and Rebecca also wake up and find themselves challenged by Da Vinci. Lupin follows his Da Vinci into a church, where he reveals that he understands that he’s still asleep, thanks to his experiences with the Dream of Italy. Da Vinci praises him for figuring things out and tells him that Lupin will be part of the new world. When Lupin wakes for real, he finds Jigen and Goemon asleep, so he goes out to find Da Vinci.

Meanwhile, Jigen, Goemon, Fujiko, Nyx, and Zenigata all defeat their Da Vinci encounters in their minds and wake up. Lupin reaches the real Da Vinci and is again praised for being the first to arrive. However, he has news for Lupin as Rebecca is defeated by the Da Vinci in her mind. Enthralled, she walks up to Da Vinci, where Da Vinci says it will take his mind a little while to completely destroy Rebecca’s. Da Vinci is surprised when Lupin objects to this and Lupin vows to steal Rebecca’s mind back. As such, Lupin races to Da Vinci’s machinery to connect to Rebecca’s mind, where he discovers her memories are being destroyed. Da Vinci decides to enjoy the challenge from Lupin.

Thoughts/Review:

And so we move to the final two episodes of the series, sans the two shown in Italy which Crunchyroll was not allowed to license. (Gotta make more money off the otaku to buy the episodes from the DVDs/BDs.)

The entire Dream of Italy plotline comes back to play with Da Vinci using the concept to launch his plan. It is a pretty audacious plan in that Da Vinci will take over the minds of everyone who does not defeat him in their mind.

It is interesting that Da Vinci was keen on singling out Lupin specifically when he launched his plan. Granted, this is a Lupin III anime, but for story purposes, Da Vinci was clearly looking for a challenge and saw that in Lupin.

It doesn’t surprise me that all of Lupin’s gang survived the mental challenge from Da Vinci. Ditto Nyx. It also doesn’t surprise me that Rebecca fails the challenge (and it was convenient of the anime to not show what challenge she faced) since this gives Lupin a reason to not only save her, but to take down Da Vinci as well.

Now that Lupin is in Rebecca’s mind, we started getting into the surrealism. That will no doubt continue into the next episode. I’m not too keen on surreal stuff, but so far, TMS has done a good job with the series, so I think it might not be too bad.

In the end, Lupin the Third PART4 23 is just setup for the final episode and confrontation between Lupin and Da Vinci to save Rebecca.