Lupin the Third Part 6 – 09
Lupin III Part 6 09
ルパン三世 PART6

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin receives an invitation to an underground auction in London, containing rare pieces from the pirate Zeke’s treasures. His target is a rare kokeshi doll, which only an old woman and her granddaughter are interested in. He allows them to win the bid, then takes a look at the doll after the auction. However, Zenigata arrives, so Lupin flees. Fujiko shows up, offering to help the old woman and granddaughter.

A little later, Lupin returns the doll to the old woman. Jigen is confused by Lupin’s actions. However, Lupin has what he wanted — a map hidden in the doll to reveal the location of the Jet-Black Diamond. Fujiko steals said map and escapes.

Sometime later in Brazil, Fujiko is looking for the Jet-Black Diamond. She again runs into the old lady and granddaughter. Fujiko gives the old lady a bugged watch, but the old lady manages to plant a bug on Fujiko. Meanwhile, Jigen and Goemon arrive in Brazil as Lupin is stuck in London. Elsewhere at hotel, the granddaughter discovers her grandmother does NOT need a wheelchair and is in fact quite spry.

The two set out to find the treasure, but are waylaid by thugs. Fujiko helps them, but discovers she’s been somewhat duped by the old lady. The old lady speaks of her older sister, who became the lover of the pirate Zeke. At the site of the treasure, a drone with Lupin’s image appears.  He reveals what he knows, impressing the old lady. She takes the two dolls and sets them up as a memorial for her sister and Zeke.

Fujiko is displeased, but finds a buried crate. However, it is filled with black pepper, which had been named Jet-Black Diamond due to how precious is was a century ago.

Thoughts/Review:

Although this was a somewhat interesting story, Lupin the Third Part 6 – 09 kinda meanders a lot and has pointless events happen ’cause “reasons”. And apparently, the Age of Sail was in full effect in the 1920s.

Meandering Story

I had to watch Lupin the Third Part 6 – 09 a couple of times in order to try to figure out what exactly it was that put me off the episode. After pondering things a while, I realized that the story meandered quite a bit. And it meandered looking for plot twists.

The first plot twist is the standard, Lupin unmasking. Nothing new there, nor in the fact that Lupin had Zenigata show up ’cause “reasons”. Then Lupin returns the doll he technically stole, which is kind of a twist, but meaningless. I did like how Lupin’s actions here confused Jigen. Afterward, Fujiko steals the treasure documents/maps from Lupin. Again, Jigen is confuse by Lupin’s “who cares” attitude.

Then the action shifts to Brazil, where for some reason, Goemon shows up at a dock, riding a giant squid, which he then slays. How’s that for a twist? After that, he just hangs out on a boat with Jigen eating potato chips. Why? So that Jigen can have someone to spout off plot points to.

Of course you have the obvious, double twist of Fujiko and the old lady planting bugs on each other. Then the old lady is revealed to not be wheelchair bound. In fact, despite being nearly 100, she can easily kick arse. And then we have the magical tree that lights up and blooms every 75 years. Then the old lady reveals she’s not after treasure, but setting up a memorial for her sister. And finally, Fujiko discovers the treasure is black pepper. Ugh.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

As is the normal any more, I’m insanely behind at work, so let me wrap up my review of Lupin the Third Part 6 – 09 with some final thoughts.

• While this episode appears to be set in modern times (the drone), I can promise you that in 1920, there were no pirates sailing the Atlantic on old, wooden frigates or other ships of the line. But that’s what this episode wants us to believe — 100 years ago, a pirate named Zeke sailed his wooden pirate ship and captured tons of treasure.
• I already mentioned Goemon’s mostly pointless appearance. Zenigata was similarly pointless. All he did was just show up and have a failed chase scene.
• Fujiko is operating as an independent in this episode. That’s not an issue and I kinda liked how she got played. Beyond that, Fujiko’s role seemed to be to show off how big her chest is.

In the end, Lupin the Third Part 6 – 09 is a meandering episode, that has a somewhat interesting tale in it, but which is poorly executed.