Lupin the 3rd: Part III 12
Lupin III Part 3 12
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 12

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Lupin steals a painting from the Balutun Gallery. It is an image of a young woman Lupin’s grandfather loved. However, at his hideout, Lupin discovers the painting is a forgery. Fujiko arrives to state many paintings at the gallery are fakes. Lupin figures he knows the painter, so he, Jigen, and Goemon head to a desert country to the secret and weird Balutun Mansion. Using a kite, Lupin infiltrates from one of the towers.

Elsewhere in the mansion, Balutun reinforces his hold on forger George by threatening George’s adult daughter, Sofie. Meanwhile, Lupin triggers the mansion alarms. While the guards hunt for the intruder, Lupin pays a visit to Sofie, whom he knew as a kid. Lupin attempts an escape, but Balutun’s lead henchmen catches him. Further, Zenigata shows up and arrests Lupin.

Back at the mansion, Balutun gloats over Sofie. However, she threatens to kill herself if she’s not allowed to see her father alone. Balutun agrees. Sofie greets her father, then reveals that this is Lupin. Zenigata arrested Sofie, disguised as Lupin. Meanwhile, Balutun and his henchmen attempt to stop Lupin from fleeing with George. Zenigata returns to arrest everyone. However, Jigen and Goemon use a helicopter to remove the top area of the tower they are in, including the painting Lupin wants.

After making their escape, a cop demands Lupin show his license for the illegally parked truck. The cop is Fujiko in disguise. She drives off, promising to give Lupin the painting he wanted, but she’s taking the rest. Lupin says goodbye to Sofie and George before Jigen picks him up to pursue Fujiko.

Thoughts/Review

I gotta say, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 12 is a step down from some of the previous episodes I’ve recently watched. For a start, everyone is just dumb, including Lupin when the plot requires it. Zenigata probably gets the worst of this. He comes bumbling in with his, “I gotta arrest Lupin” and thus can’t see the bleeding obvious of the real criminal act going on. I don’t like it when the plot demands people get stupid in order for X to happen. The only smart one was the chief henchman, who sniffed out Lupin in disguise as his boss.

I won’t even discuss the stupidity of stealing the top part of an entire tower, just to get all of the paintings there.

I’ve always hated that Lupin can impersonate women perfectly. Lupin’s identity switching already stretches credulity, but him becoming Sofie, and Sofie becoming him is beyond a stretch. I was pretty sure Lupin pulled off this kind of switch when Sofie was recaptured. I kept hoping for something different, but alas, no such luck.

Finally, there’s the Baltan/Balutun name issue. The episode clearly showed the gallery’s name was Balutun. But for some reason, the official English subtitles changed this to Baltan. 🙄

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 12 was a dumb episode, mainly because everyone got dumb when the plot demanded it. Oh well. Can’t win them all.