Lupin the 3rd: Part III 09
Lupin III Part 3 09
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 09

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Lupin and Fujiko visit Doctor Badwalser regarding Lupin’s athlete’s foot. The doctor says there’s no cure, but if Lupin steals a highly guarded, ultra rare lotus seed, the doctor can clone it and make a cure. A desperate Lupin agrees. Before they leave, Fujiko notices the doctor keeps a sample of Lupin’s skin. Meanwhile, Lupin cannot convince Jigen and Goemon to help him, so he attempts the heist on his own. However, it is a trap set by Zenigata, working with the doctor.

Now a prisoner, Zenigata has a police convey take Lupin to the airport for a flight to Japan. Elsewhere, Fujiko gets her payment from the doctor for setting Lupin up. She decides to leave an electronic bug in the doctor’s office to find out more. After she leaves, the talkative doctor goes to his secret lab to work on making a clone of Lupin. And with the ICPO files on Lupin, the clone can be educated to be as good a thief as Lupin, stealing to make the doctor rich.

Jigen and Goemon execute a plan to spring Lupin from the prison wagon with Fujiko in assist. Back at their hideout, Fujiko confesses her role in this, but claims not to know the full extent of the doctor’s plans. Meanwhile, Zenigata figures Lupin will go back to nail the doctor. His instincts are right, but Lupin manages to keep him at bay by letting him hear phony things they are supposedly doing. By the time Zenigata makes his move, Lupin and crew have escaped, having destroyed the doctor’s cloning research.

Thoughts/Review

Another silly episode in Lupin the 3rd: Part III 09, but still enjoyable somehow.

Cloning Experiments

When Lupin the 3rd: Part III 09 came out in 1984, cloning was still very much a thing of science fiction. And while the cloning elements shown in this episode were certainly science fiction in nature, things weren’t too over the top for me in that regard. The clone of Lupin would have grown like a normal person and have to be educated like a normal person. So no magical, “This clone has all of Lupin’s skills” kind of cloning we sometimes see in science fiction.

Dr. Badwalser (Budweiser) was another story. Sadly, the moment he opened his mouth, I knew he was a villain. After all, TAKIGUCHI Junpei has done several villain roles through the various Lupin III titles, including Mr. X. That aside, the worst part about the character is that even after he’s alone, he has to blather everything. It is a stupid plot contrivance to allow Fujiko to (1) hear how to open the secure door to the doctor’s secret lab and (2) it allowed Fujiko to know all of the doctor’s plans.

The one element of the episode that I really liked was how Zenigata managed to bait Lupin into a trap to arrest him. Sadly, after that, Zenigata becomes rather dumb to allow Lupin and crew time to do the things they wanted to do within the doctor’s lab. I don’t like dumb Zenigata. He should be nearly at Lupin’s level in order to make their relationship more interesting. Otherwise, he just becomes a bumbling, keystone cop.

Finally, Fujiko played an interesting role in the episode. It surprised me to see her with Lupin at the doctor’s office. And her initial reaction to what the doctor didn’t betray the fact that she was initially working with the doctor. So we got to see her play both sides in a logical fashion, and I liked that.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 09 had the unusual plot element of athlete’s foot, and another over the top villain. But I rather liked the con job played on Lupin and the fact that it wasn’t blatantly obvious at the start that Fujiko was manipulating Lupin. As such, I rather enjoyed the episode.