Lupin the Third Part 6 – 04
Lupin III Part 6 04
ルパン三世 PART6

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Two men, dressed in identical 1920’s gangster suits, enter a pub. The pub is filled with cliched assassin types. The pair sit at the bar and attempt to order dinner. However, dinner won’t be served for a while, so the waitress offers them a range of sandwiches. The two eventually order breakfast sandwiches with fries. After eating, the two continue bantering with the waitress while complaining about the food.

As the other patrons get their guns ready, the duo reveal they are there to kill a Swede named Andre Anderson. The pair aren’t happy their client has overbooked for the assassination. However, they offer to share the loot. The other assassins reject this offer. The pair get the waitress to do a countdown, whereupon she kills the lights. After the shooting is done, only the pair remain. They remove their masks, revealing themselves to be Lupin and Jigen.

In the kitchen, the real cook and waitress are tied and gagged. The fake waitress, who looked like Wendy from Wendy’s, takes off on a scooter to reveal herself to be Fujiko. She heads through London to visit Andre in his rundown flat. He refuses to get up from bed. After a chat, Fujiko reveals she’s there to kill him. Outside the flat, Lupin and Jigen wait as Fujiko show’s up with an ultra rare copy of Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers.

Lupin explains that the book is used as a code cypher. After a long exposition, Lupin wonders how much the CIA will pay for the book. Jigen suggests getting dinner. Lupin agrees, providing it isn’t a sandwich made by Fujiko. The trio pull guns and grin.

Thoughts/Review:

I know some folks are going to enjoy what they deem is the brilliance of Lupin the Third Part 6 – 04. (This is not a slam on them as we all have our different likes/dislikes.) All I saw was a pile of boring, meaningless rubbish.

OSHII Mamoru Does Ernest Hemingway

At the start of Lupin the Third Part 6 – 04, I was fairly confident that the “twins” would turn out to be Jigen and Lupin. The thing is, it took over half the episode before this was revealed. During that time, we are treated to a lot of mindless banter. What I didn’t know, until I did some research, is that this episode is an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers. Now I know why the short story was thrust into our face so hard.

Then I found out this episode was written by OSHII Mamoru. I’m only familiar with the name, thanks to fans of Urusei Yatsura (shout out to my friend Ochan30). Oshii-sensei directed many of the TV episodes of that franchise. Further, he directed two of the Urusei Yatsura movies. The first, Urusei Yatsura: Only You was one I really liked. The other, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, was too surreal (and perhaps too avant-garde) for my tastes.

That said, once I learned these two pieces of information, it made sense that I found this episode to be such rubbish. Maybe if I had ever read Hemingway’s short story, it might have made a difference. But as it was, this didn’t feel much like a Lupin III story. If felt like some of the Lupin characters going through a play. Outside of the code cypher, I doubt this episode has any impact on the series.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, I found Lupin the Third Part 6 – 04 to be a load of mindless rubbish. Oshii-sensei finally got to do a Lupin III episode. If you are a fan of his avant-garde style, you may like the episode. For me, I couldn’t wait for the episode to be over.