Lupin the Third Part 5 – 13
Lupin III Part 5 13
ルパン三世 PART5

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ami writes to Zenigata, briefing him on her school life and her inability to make friends because she’s a hacker. Meanwhile, Lupin sets his sights on getting a gem known as the Bloody Teardrop. The current owner is Princess Dolma Padar, who’s another “weirdo” at Ami’s boarding school, whom Ami befriends. Meanwhile at the school, Fujiko gets a job there as a teacher in order to steal the same gem. However, a terrorist group named Whales of Liberation take over the school, hoping to ransom off the wealthy girls who attend this facility.

Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon try to come to the school, but are turned around by a fake road crew. As such, they make an attempt to sneak in. Fujiko puts her own plans into action as Ami is bound and gagged as they realize she’s a famous hacker. Ami tries to seduce her guard, but has to be helped by Fujiko. Fujiko comes to an agreement with Ami, then sets her seduction plan in motion. She comes mostly undressed to where the terrorist leader is having the girls record ransom videos, claiming she’s an undercover Padar bodyguard for the princess.

Ami watches from a safe location and kills the lights at Fujiko’s signal. Fujiko has marked all of the terrorist with a phosphorus substance, allowing her to shoot them all dead, save for a terrorist boy who is wounded. Fujiko tells Princess Dolma the truth of her identity. Meanwhile, Lupin and company kill the terrorists guarding the rest of the girls in the auditorium. Back with Fujiko, one of the teachers reveals himself to be McGuire from the CIA’s Special Activities Division. McGuire grabs Dolma, telling her they have to save Padar while outside, a helicopter with armed personnel hovers.

Thoughts/Review:

Well, Lupin the Third Part 5 – 13 makes me happy just by having Ami back. Plus, of all the stories so far, this one has gripped me right from the start.

Ami’s School Life

While I get that the writers want Ami to be a fish out of water at her boarding school. However, I’m not sure why Ami being a hacker should be a turnoff for the other girls at the school who reached out to her. Maybe its because I’m a guy, but in my mind, if someone was a hacker, I’d be thinking, “Maybe they can help make my grades a bit better.” 😛

Conveniently, Ami manages to befriend the one girl central to the plot of this new story arc. Again, the writers do something strange to make Princess Dolma a weirdo, like having her shoot crows with a bow, or cooking a meal over a campfire on the school grounds. I get they wanted to make Dolma an outsider for Ami to naturally befriend, but in my mind, a princess from some country around India or Pakistan who’s attending an exclusive boarding school isn’t going to be a weirdo like that.

Fujiko-sensei

Fujiko properly returns to the series after being ignored in the previous story arc. I laughed when I saw she was posing as a teacher in Ami’s school. We last saw Fujiko do this in the Lupin III: A Woman Called MINE Fujiko series (episode 6), though that series has nothing to do with the current Lupin the Third Part 5 series as far as I know.

That said, we got to see Fujiko doing what she does best — use her smarts first, sexiness second. One of the things I’ve hated about many of the Lupin III specials and OVAs (and movies) was that Fujiko just used sex to get what she wanted. In Lupin the Third Part 5 – 13, we get to see Fujiko thinking on her feet after the terrorist attack. Yes, she still used sexual allure to distract her opponents, but it was done as part of a strategy, after she’d cooked up that phosphorous agent to “paint” her targets with.

I rather enjoyed that Fujiko had two lessons to teach Ami. One was about the motives of the terrorists. The other was advising Ami to not be in a hurry to grow up, after witnessing Ami attempt to seduce her guard. Fujiko may not know Ami’s horrific history with illegal porn operations, but nonetheless, her words were true. In a way, I got the sense that deep down, Fujiko laments the loss of her own innocence and how she uses sex as a weapon in her arsenal.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Well, I guess I should wrap this review of Lupin the Third Part 5 – 13 up since I’m behind. (Man, any more, I’m so tired from work, I just don’t have the drive to write a blog post, even though I want to. I end up just mindlessly scrolling through Twitter like a moron.)

• Zenigata also returns to this story arc. Glad to see him back in action, even if it was only an extended cameo this time.
• I got the feeling that Lupin and company were in Italy at the start of the episode. Could be wrong there, but that was the feeling. Hope Rebecca returns.
• When the blonde male teacher at the school turned out to be from the CIA’s Special Activities Division, I kinda chuckled as I recalled the first chapter of UQ Holder. I actually expected something like this as I guess this kind of trope isn’t uncommon. (Harry Potter now springs to mind.)

In the end, Lupin the Third Part 5 – 13 turned out to be quite enjoyable and started a story arc that really has my attention. I just hope the rest of the arc continues to be as good.