Lupin the Third Part 6 – 14
Lupin III Part 6 14
ルパン三世 PART6

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lupin visits Mattea in the hospital as himself. They talk and he apologizes for getting her involved in his affair. Back at the hideout, Goemon serves dinner, which is another plate of soba. Fujiko shows up and identifies the gang they clashed with as Elvira. Their leader is named Mercedes Camilo, and the gang disguise themselves as her. Further, Fujiko knows their next target in Mexico.

Zenigata, Yato, and Ari take off for Mexico as Zenigata is sure Lupin isn’t letting Elvira get one over on him. Meanwhile, Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon head there as well. Along the way, Lupin reveals that Tomoe isn’t his actual birth mother, but she did train him and other thieves. She even took a bullet for the Lupin. However, she robbed his grandfather’s house and was executed for it. Lupin is determined to get some answers.

Down in Mexico, Zenigata has the targeted bank under tight security. Lupin and company observe from a nearby rooftop. Elvira arrives in armored personal carriers and quickly decimate the police force. A squad hits the back and takes out the police there. After the robbery, Jigen shoots Mercedes’s car with a tracking bug. Fujiko delivers Ari a smart phone with the tracking information.

That evening at their hideout, Mercedes is angry that Lupin didn’t show up. Lupin appears with Goemon. She thinks she has them trapped and kills the lights, but Goemon dispatches most of her gang. Mercedes escapes to head to a safe to get the large red gem. Lupin reveals himself as one of her men. She tries to get the drop on him, but Fujiko has the drop on her.

Mercedes and Lupin chat while Fujiko empties the safe. Lupin has his gem and a note, which lets him know Tomoe is likely alive.

Thoughts/Review:

Since the series hasn’t been as good to me of late, I wasn’t that hot to trot to see Lupin the Third Part 6 – 14. However, the episode ended up being more interesting than I thought, though not without its issues.

Elvira

The Elvira gang seems to be out after the events of Lupin the Third Part 6 – 14. Let me start by saying that though I acknowledge that the Lupin III franchise is full of silly, impossible stuff (“Lupin physics”, Goemon’s sword abilities, Jigen’s gun abilities, Lupin’s disguise abilities), sometimes it still goes a bridge too far. And thus it is with Elvira.

In the previous episode, it seemed like this then unknown gang were all clones of their leader, Mercedes. That was an interesting idea to me. Take some highly skilled criminal with multiple abilities and clone them into a small army. They can be used as pawn sacrifices, which is what happened in the previous episode.

Unfortunately, Elvira is a gang of burly men who apparently have the same body shape as Mercedes. They all have masks with wigs to look like Mercedes. And they somehow talk like Mercedes while in disguise. Not only was it disappointing from a narrative sense, it cheapened Lupin’s already incredible ability to disguise himself (which Jigen also does more frequently, as seen in this episode).

Mercedes vs. Lupin

While Mercedes gang was the low aspect of Lupin the Third Part 6 – 14, I did enjoy the actual conflict between Mercedes and Lupin. Mercedes did the whole Mexican bank job to not only get Lupin out of New York City, but to engage him in a fight. He showed up alright, but he played things smart. He let Zenigata and the cops do the fighting while he and his crew sat back and observed.

Thus when Lupin actually goes after Mercedes in her Mexican hideout, he has things well planned for the multi-twist thing we got. Jigen comes in disguised as Lupin with Goemon there to do the actual slaughter of Elvira folks. (Yeah, the episode does actually say this happened, but it is clear we are to make our own conclusions. And I conclude that he slaughtered them.) Then the real Lupin confronts “Mercedes” with the invisible Fujiko as backup. But then the real Mercedes gets the drop on Lupin, and Fujiko gets the drop on her.

The writers were clearly focused on the twists and such. But I liked that in the end, Lupin is king. And he shows why.

Tomoe

The bait and switch moment came with the reveal in Lupin the Third Part 6 – 14 that Tomoe is not Lupin’s mother. I chuckled at Jigen’s and Goemon’s reactions to all of this. Clearly, the writers know what the audience was thinking and had Jigen say it for us within the episode. I mean, after 50 years, the lore is only now going into how Lupin became the thief he is.

That aside, the issue of Tomoe’s introduction becomes, “Why now?” If she is alive, then why is she apparently going after Lupin? And assuming Mercedes did train with Tomoe, why use her? And why the auction?

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.

• I liked how Lupin visited the flower shop lady in the hospital as himself. He does have a sense of honor and did feel bad for what happened to her.
• The massive pile of soba that Goemon made reminded me of Castle of Cagliostro. Only this time, Lupin isn’t that enthused about eating. In fact, they ate quite normally.
• I like how Fujiko has operated thus far. But then Lupin is paying her off with the loot from the safe, sans the red gem.
• How did Elvira get their hands on military APCs?

In the end, Lupin the Third Part 6 – 14 was more interesting than I thought it would be. We’ll see how things play out from here.