Lupin the Third Part 5 – 08
Lupin III Part 5 08
ルパン三世 PART5

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin and Jigen visit Gaston’s grave, where they are surprised by an old acquaintance of Gaston’s. Lupin causes the old man to reveal he has a photographic memory, thus confirming that the man is Camille Bardot, a former investigator. The pub they are at receives a call from someone who sounds like Gaston. Lupin takes the call, but correctly determines that the man is actually Albert. After the call, the pub comes under heavy attack from an assassin named Jose, along with other assassins.

Lupin tries phoning Goemon for help, but Goemon can’t work his smart phone. The eventually wrecks as Jose Revenant continues his assault, using custom tonfas that also act as shotguns. Jose Revenant beats back Lupin, keeps Goemon at bay, then exchanges fire with Camille. Jose Revenant takes the hit and falls off the cliff while Camille has taken a full shotgun blast. That night, Camille passes info onto Lupin about the black book from the painting, then dies.

Lupin and Jigen get a pickup truck and disguise themselves as farmers as they enter Paris, which has checkpoints looking for them. Lupin disguises himself as a woman at the place Albert is in charge of. There he learns Albert’s boyfriend is a cameraman named Tickey Pasco. Jigen and Goemon return to their hideout as Goemon attempts to find them. Meanwhile, Lupin sends Albert a message and has Tickey swap Albert’s gun. Albert comes to the hotel requested by Lupin, where he gets a message to come to the Ponte de Terre-Neuve (Newfoundland Bridge).

Albert goes to the bridge, where and unhappy Lupin meets him. Lupin has the black book Albert wants. He mocks Albert for his attitude about not wanting to get dirty, so Albert pulls the gun on Lupin. Albert fires, and to Lupin’s surprise, he’s gut shot. He mocks Lupin over his failed attempt to make Albert defenseless and shoots him again. Albert mocks Lupin and explains why he didn’t kill him. Lupin tries to blow up Albert’s car, but Albert has removed the bomb, which explodes harmlessly in the water. Lupin then passes out.

Thoughts/Review:

Lupin the Third Part 5 – 08 certainly had a major surprise in store. And yet, I’m not sure how I feel about this arc.

A New Assassin

Another weirdo assassin shows up in Lupin the Third Part 5 – 08. However, unlike the laughable assassins in the first story arc, this one comes off as a credible threat despite looking like a Carmen Sandiego reject, only with blonde hair and a mask. Having custom shotgun tonfas was rather interesting. Not sure how practical it is, but it looked cool.

I’m not sure that I buy that Jose Revenant is dead though. Earlier, Jose Revenant seemed to have some kind of body armor, so why would Camille get lucky in his shot? Also, Jose Revenant didn’t fall off the cliff naturally. It was like he purposefully went over the guardrail. And we don’t know how far of a drop it was. And since Lupin and Jigen were more concerned about Camille, they didn’t bother to look for Jose Revenant.

Note: I was under the impression that “Carmen Sandiego” was Jose, base on how the episode played out. However, blog reader Nellie pointed out that this was not the case. And the next episode had the assassin identified as Revenant. So sorry for the confusion and thanks to Nellie!

Albert d’Andrésy

The surprise of Lupin the Third Part 5 – 08 is how Albert managed to thwart Lupin at every turn. Normally, Lupin has the upper hand in every encounter. He usually has planned moves several turns ahead, then has a Plan B, C, and D in reserve. As such, Lupin arranges for Albert’s gun to be swapped, but Albert was prepared to be betrayed by his partner. Lupin planted a bomb on Albert’s car, but Albert was prepared for that as well. So Albert knows Lupin better than any opponent Lupin has ever faced, but why?

I know that in the original French novels featuring Arsène Lupin, Lupin III’s grandfather, Lupin’s Great Grandmother’s maiden name was d’Andrésy. It may not mean anything, or it may mean something. I did some limited looking, and when this episode originally aired, some folks think that Albert could be a cousin of Lupin’s and have genes required to counter Lupin. I can go along with that theory. We’ll see if it is true or not.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

I lost a couple of days that I had planned to work on blogging, so let me wrap up my blathering on Lupin the Third Part 5 – 08.

• Still no Ami around, but I suppose she won’t be. Really disappointed there. And though I doubt it happens, it would be cool if Rebecca showed up upon learning Lupin got shot.
• No Fujiko and shockingly, still no Zenigata.
• Goemon comes in for some silly comedy moments involving his being unable to use modern technology. I didn’t laugh, but that’s just me.
• Lupin’s disguise abilities have always been somewhat over the top at times, but it was tolerable. His disguising himself as women is really a bridge too far for me.

In the end, Lupin the Third Part 5 – 08 was an interesting, action-filled episode with a very surprising twist at the end. Despite this, I still find myself lukewarm to this story arc.