Lupin the Third Part 5 – 03
Lupin III Part 5 03
ルパン三世 PART5

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin flees with Ami to a warehouse-type building. Ami using her hacking skills to activate parts of the vehicle assembly line in the building. This causes chaos and takes out some of the assassins. Lupin steals a car still missing its doors, but Ami gets shot in the arm by the old, hillbilly assassin. Marco Polo believes that Lupin is soon to be done for. Elsewhere, Zenigata gets the latest news from Yata. Zenigata immediately puts in a letter requesting vacation, stating that he is going to take time off in Bwanda.

Lupin and company have holed up in a converted railroad cargo car that is now used as a barber shop. Here, Lupin and Goemon treat Ami’s wound. To distract her from the pain, Ami recounts how she was kidnapped as a child for porn purposes, but when her kidnappers discovered her programming skills, they decided she’d be more valuable to them as a programmer in the dark web. She escaped at 14 to the Twin Towers, and now is with Lupin’s gang.

After Ami falls asleep, Lupin taunts the assassins. Fujiko is on a plane and sees the taunt and is prepared to go in. When Ami wakes up, she hacks into the betting site to discover who’s betting for which day Lupin will die. Lupin uses this to have many of the assassins turn on each other as they have lots of money tied up in the betting pool. Goemon and Jigen mop up stragglers as Ami inquires about Lupin having sex with her, which she’s interested in as she’s a virgin. Lupin turns her down and denies Fujiko is the cause.

Soon, only the old hillbilly leader is left, so Lupin goes out to meet him. Lupin kills the old man, thanks to a hidden piece in his shoe. Ami comes out to join Lupin and observes a jet passing overhead. A figure parachutes out and lands. It is Fujiko, who greets Lupin. Ami hides behind Lupin as he talks to Fujiko. Fujiko reminds him she’d never be the one chasing Lupin. He states the same in reverse. She reminds him that he once stole her at her wedding. Fujiko pulls a gun, stating she should be the one to kill Fujiko.

Thoughts/Review:

The assassins in Lupin the Third Part 5 – 03 are all clown buffoons, but Fujiko comes in at the end of the episode to make things interesting.

Hanna-Barbera Lives

For the most part, it seemed to me that some these assassins sent after Lupin came straight out of some old Hanna-Barbera cartoon or the like. The Lupin III franchise has had its share of somewhat over-the-top villains, but at least they felt like a threat. None of these so-called assassins felt even remotely like a threat. They felt like clowns and buffoons.

I will say that the hillbilly assassin seemed to come right out of a cartoon like Bugs Bunny – Hillbilly Hare, or some cartoon like it.

Although I like Hillbilly Hare a lot more, especially this catchy square dance tune sung by Bugs. 😉

Ami’s Dark Past is Forced

The writers decided to give us some of Ami’s backstory. Naturally, to make us empathize with her more, they gave her a dark past. Unfortunately, presuming the translation and adaptation are correct, the writers end up making a bit of a mess of things. For starters, if some criminal gang is going around kidnapping little kids for the purposes of porn, and at the same time are abusing said kinds in non-sexual ways, there’s no chance that Ami hasn’t had sex. And yet that’s what Ami tells Lupin.

I guess the writers wanted to go dark, but not too dark. However, in my mind, no criminal gang is going to kidnap a bunch of kids for porn, then do a Playboy photo shoot. In my mind, criminals who are going to kidnap kids for porn to sell are going to do hardcore stuff, not softcore stuff. I know there was a line about the kids being purchased, but again, there’s a disconnect between selling kids as sex slaves and using kids in porn productions. At least, my mind can’t reconcile this, and I’m ill trying too.

Finally, I found it convenient that these kidnapping child porn producers leave these kids with computer equipment so that Ami can conveniently write a game for them to play. It is one of those things where the writers needed to explain Ami’s incredible computer skills, but just threw something on the wall as an explanation and hoped it would stick.

Enter Fujiko

With Lupin the Third Part 5 – 03, Fujiko gets an extended cameo, but she shifts from someone passively observing things to being actively involved. Unlike the other clown assassins, Fujiko is a credible threat. I do believe she’d kill Lupin if it resulted in a big payday for her. Further, Lupin has always shown a weakness for Fujiko, which adds to her threat credibility. Granted, she’s obviously not going to get to kill Lupin, but I believe Fujiko would do so.

Also, I find it interesting that when Ami brought up Fujiko, it was in terms of Fujiko not only being an associate of Lupin’s, but also his girlfriend. I think the writers may be setting up a subplot to explore Lupin’s relationship with Fujiko. Lupin says he’s no longer chasing Fujiko, and Fujiko makes the same claim, though she did come to him to apparently kill him after the other assassins were killed. I kinda hope this does get explored, especially since Lupin is still married to Rebecca from the previous series. (And I hope Rebecca returns as well.)

Finally, the writers of the Lupin the Third Part 5 series seem keen on tying this series to previous TV series, specials, OVAs, and movies. When Fujiko mentions Lupin once stole her as a bride, I believe she is talking about the events of Lupin III Part 2 and the episode (#75) entitled Fujiko Doesn’t Look Good in a Bridal Gown (aka: The Bride Came D.O.A., which can be watched on Crunchyroll). I found that to be a pretty cool reference, especially in light of how their relationship has changed since then.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the Third Part 5 – 03 suffers from clownish villains for Lupin and company to overcome. It also tries to give Ami a dark past, but won’t commit to going all the way and comes up with something not very believable. However, Fujiko’s arrival at the end wipes out all of the negative stuff. Game on!