Lupin the Third Part 5 – 17
Lupin III Part 5 17
ルパン三世 PART5

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin is summoned by the elderly Countess Maunbassant to solve the mystery of who murdered her husband three years ago. If he succeeds, she will give Lupin a jade ring he has repeatedly failed to steal. There are three suspects, whom the Countess has invited to her castle. The first is Frederik Autorett, a sommelier. The second is the count’s nephew, Allan Dubois. The final is Pierre Schmidt, a former security firm exec. All three have reasons that they’d want to see the count dead.

All three sit at a table along with the Countess, Lupin, who’s disguised as a detective named Barnett, and the maid Marie. As the Countess lays out how she will unmask the killer, the lights go out in the room and the Countess is shot. Before dying, she tells Lupin that the castle is sealed and he has until dawn to find the killer and get his prize. Lupin works through the clues with Marie, eventually uncovering that Allan has a twin he smuggled into the castle. Because of this, Allan was able to have an alibi for the murder. Lupin takes the ring and returns it to the dead Countess. He then gives his cluebook to Marie.

Thoughts/Review:

Lupin the Third Part 5 – 17 not only takes us back to the Green Jacket era, but it also introduced another alias of the original French Arsène Lupin — Jim Barnett.

The Who Done It

I have to admit, I’ve never been a fan of the “who done it” stories. That’s probably why Detective Conan never appealed to me, outside of the two crossovers that series had with Lupin III. Heck, I’m not even a fan of crime stories. When I go on vacation, I’m subjected to seeing some ’cause the rest of my family seem to love crime stories.

Nevertheless, as crime stories go, this one bored me. Outside of finding Marie cute, there wasn’t anything that I found that compelling. It wasn’t like there were actual clues for me to follow. It was more of Lupin investigating while Marie pumped him with information. Then Lupin does tons of exposition to come up with, “Allan had a twin!” ?

Not sure why the Countess allowed herself to be killed as part of her plan. In fact, none of it really made sense. Allan’s twin kills the Countess from a hidden location, but that still leaves Allan as a suspect (except Lupin, who could see through everything and arrive at the truth).

Jim Barnett

Maurice Leblanc is the creator of the original Arsène Lupin short stories and then novels. While his Lupin novels were wildly popular, Monsieur Leblanc wanted to write other stuff. One of his attempts to break away from the Lupin stuff was to create a series of detective novels with the lead being Jim Barnett. However, because of public demands, Jim Barnett eventually became one of Lupin’s aliases where Lupin was doing detective work instead of theft.

With that bit of history in mind, although Lupin the Third Part 5 – 17 may not have done anything for me, I do appreciate the nod to the original French materials that inspired the original Monkey Punch manga.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

OK, time to wrap up this review of Lupin the Third Part 5 – 17.

• The original Green Jacket Lupin III series was done in the early 70s. So on one hand, it was neat seeing some 70s-style tech being used. Believe it or not, facial recognition technology was invented in the 60’s.
• DNA testing wasn’t started until the mid 80s, though DNA research was going on in the 70s. I think the writers were pushing things here.
• I liked how the episode use of the instrumental version of Honoo no Takaramono, the theme song of Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro.

In the end, Lupin the Third Part 5 – 17 may not have been my cup of tea in terms of story, but it was a nice tribute to the Green Jacket series. Also, I liked the nods to Castle of Cagliostro and the original Maurice Leblanc works.