Lupin the Third Part 5 – 10
Lupin III Part 5 10
ルパン三世 PART5

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Albert gets the info on José from Guillaume, so he and Lupin head to Jose’s castle hideout. On the way, they are beset by armed people. However, Jigen and Goemon come in. Goemon joins Lupin while Jigen foils the militant pursuers.  When they arrive at Jose’s castle hideout, Chlo is waiting for them. Goemon jumps off the car to deal with her, while Lupin and Albert make their way in. They meet fierce resistance, but are eventually able to make their way into the castle unharmed.

Revenant shows up, so Lupin deals with this masked assassin, telling Albert to go on. After a fierce fight, Lupin is able to cause Revenant to fall into an iron maiden, where he slams it closed, killing the assassin. Meanwhile, Albert encounters the bandaged, “kid” assassin Araignée, but manages to kill the assassin and assume the girl voice to fool José. Lupin arrives to confront José, but ends up getting electrocuted. José thinks he’s won, but Albert shoots him, mortally wounding him.

Lupin gets the black book and saves Albert before José explodes himself. Albert is not happy with the situation, especially since Lupin has the black book and won’t give it up. He has Lupin drive him to the bridge, where he gives Lupin his car and walks away. Albert is smug as he reveals he has the black book, only to discover that he stole a fake one from Lupin. Meanwhile, Lupin and Jigen are in their new residence, where Lupin reveals that he returned the black book to Gaston.

Thoughts/Review:

And so Lupin the Third Part 5 – 10 comes to a bloody end, ending an arc about French politics that I never really cared about.

Bloody Violence

One thing that surprised me in Lupin the Third Part 5 – 10 is how bloody it was. In the previous episode, there was danger for our heroes, but there was also a wink and a nod as Lupin and Jigen were enjoyed the danger. Typically, this is about what we expect in a Lupin III title. There may be some deaths and even some blood, but it is usually softened with the fun action-adventure and some comedic moments.

That’s not the case with Lupin the Third Part 5 – 10. When the DGSE contract killers came after Lupin and Albert, Goemon got on the roof of one of the vehicles and stabbed the driver in the head. That was quite a shock to me as I expected Goemon to cut open the roof, then force them to crash, but not be killed.

Again, Goemon got brutal, this time with the freaky Chlo. He also got to show off his skills at coming up with a strategy to deal with her. When he removed two of her steel (?) fingernails, I didn’t think anything of it. Yet for him to allow himself to be disarmed, thus avoiding Chlo’s death blow, then use her fingernails as darts to put out her eyes, that was brutal. When Goemon then grabbed his sword, I thought he would behead her, samurai style. But he sliced her in half at the gut, allowing her to have final words.

Then there was Lupin’s fight with Revenant, which ended up with her being “embraced” by the iron maiden, to an obvious bloody conclusion. (I couldn’t help but think about the Doctor Who episode The King’s Demons when I saw the iron maiden.)

And then Albert put out Araignée good eye and left her (? — could be a boy since Araignée used masculine “boku” for “I”), then had Araignée strung up by wires, bleeding and apparently dead. Brutal.

All For What?

With Lupin the Third Part 5 – 10 ending this story arc, I found myself thinking, “So what was the point of this arc?” In the previous arc, the point was to save Ami (whom I miss). Here, I didn’t care about the stupid French politics. Had Lupin some designs on making some serious bank with the black book, then maybe there would have been a point and that would have been interesting to me.

Instead, we get some retconned background for Lupin in the form of Albert. Again, I didn’t care a rat’s rear about Albert. The only interesting element was that there could have been a family connection between Albert and Lupin, which is a fan theory, based on Albert’s family name. But the writers don’t explore this aspect, nor do they explore the notion they touched on, that Lupin III might be a title.

While this arc was certainly much more violent and bloody (among other things), and the threats much more credible, even if still somewhat clownish in appearance, at the end of the day, I don’t think it is that memorable of an arc. It came off to me as a story that tried to have purpose, but failed.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

OK, time to wrap up my review of Lupin the Third Part 5 – 10.

• I’m actually shocked that Fujiko’s only “appearance” was Lupin in disguise.
• Further, I’m more shocked that Zenigata didn’t even get a cameo here.
• As I said before, I miss Ami. And I still miss Rebecca.
• Looks like Red Jacket Lupin (from Lupin III Part 2) is back next episode, probably as a nod to that aspect of the franchise.

In the end, Lupin the Third Part 5 – 10 was quite bloody and brutally violent. Although it is nice to have villains that are a credible threat, ultimately, I found this arc to be less than desirable.