Lupin the 3rd: Part III 14
Lupin III Part 3 14
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 14

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Zenigata runs an undercover operation to try to nab a kidnapper while officially, the cops deliver the ransom. Lupin, disguised as an old man, steals the ransom and returns it to a blonde woman. She removes the hypnotism she placed on him, then wacks him on the head, knocking him out. Zenigata arrests Lupin for kidnapping the wealthy, elderly Mrs. Alda, and stealing the ransom.

Jigen and Goemon spring Lupin from prison. Although he cannot remember what he did while hypnotized, he does remember the blonde doing it to him. Jigen points Lupin to Fujiko. Meanwhile, Fujiko visits Mrs. Alda to collect, but she has other plans, namely that Fujiko marry her infantile, adult son. Fujiko refuses and is locked in a bedroom.

Meanwhile, Lupin is now aware of everything and bursts in on the son, Ron, having his way with a doll of Fujiko. Mrs. Alda captures Lupin, who’s handed over to Zenigata. Meanwhile, Ron tries to have sex with Fujiko and fails when she kicks him in the balls. Mrs. Alda turns on the TV to show that Lupin will soon be executed.

Fujiko cries over the apparent loss of Lupin. However, Ron reveals himself to be Lupin in disguise, meaning the Lupin they saw taken to the gallows was a hypnotized and disguised Ron. The Zenigata on camera turns out to be Jigen, assisted by Goemon. The gang make off with a massive pile of cash while Fujiko is all loving to Lupin.

Thoughts/Review

If it weren’t for the silliness, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 14 could have been a very dark episode.

Silliness Tinged With Darkness

With hypnotism the subject of Lupin the 3rd: Part III 14, this episode flirted with some dark material. Since hypnotism caused Lupin to do things for three days without his awareness, it could have been used for a lot more. We did see that Ron was hypnotized to think he was Lupin. Obviously, that makes no sense, but that aside, what else could it do? Lupin suggests at the end of the episode, he hypnotized Fujiko to love him.

To that end, when Ron used a doll of Fujiko to do things to, initially, I thought it might be a hypnotized Fujiko. Honestly, I wondered if that’s what the original intent was. But to show a naked Fujiko, I suppose they could only make her a doll. Still, I couldn’t help but think how Ron could have just had his way with Fujiko had he actually hypnotized her. Kinda freaky.

I really didn’t like how Lupin claimed to have hypnotized Fujiko at the end of the episode. Maybe it was done as a joke. I would like to think it was, and that Fujiko expressed her real feelings. But if he was serious, I got problems with that.

Regardless, to help ton down these potential, dark elements, the episode was filled with a lot of silly rubbish. And that’s okay with me.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.

• I know the trial and execution was faked, but I “laughed” at how everyone accepts the notion that Lupin gets arrested, and then gets slated for a public execution in New York hours later.
• Jigen and Goemon have almost nothing to do except play deus ex machina. I’m not a fan of that.
• What happened to Zenigata? He’s there, then he’s gone, replaced with Jigen in disguise.
• I always complain about trash subtitles. I guess the person who’s trashing the Urusei Yatsura subtitles did this ’cause a lot of the “chan” honorifics were changed to “poo” and other nonsense.

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 14 is rather silly and dumb, but there are dark elements that could have gone either way, good or bad.