Lupin the 3rd: Part III 17
Lupin III Part 3 17
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 17

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Fujiko wants Lupin to steal a large pile of gold bars for her birthday. In return, Fujiko promises to marry him. As such, Lupin has a volleyball droid that penetrates the place with the vault and uses sleeping gas to put Zenigata and police to sleep. Lupin uses a computer to remote control the droid, which he has break into the vault and steal the gold. Further, the ball grows to “eat” all the gold and escape.

The awakened Zenigata and police give chase, so Lupin has the droid change into a balloon to escape. Fujiko comes to Lupin’s hideout, where Lupin wheels out a giant cake. Inside the cake are the gold bullion. Fujiko says she’ll marry Lupin. However, she drugs his drink and steals the gold in a helicopter.

Fujiko lays out the gold bars as a floor in her hideout and celebrates. However, Lupin is there. The two go back and forth trying to con each other. They are interrupted when Zenigata arrives with Lupin’s ball droid. The droid “eats” the pair and takes them to jail. Zenigata already knows their marriage conversation. As such, Lupin activates a transmitter and gets Zenigata to agree to allow Fujiko and Lupin to marry in a big church on the following day.

Jigen and Goemon get the message. During the wedding ceremony, Zenigata gets a report that Lupin stole the gold. He discovers that somehow, the Lupin and Fujiko are dummies. She he and his police leave. However, Fujiko and Lupin are under the dummy masks with Jigen and Goemon there. They steal the gold again, but again, Fujiko betrays them. As she attempts to escape, she’s trapped by Zenigata.

Thoughts/Review

There’s “Lupin physics”, and then there’s “we can do whatever we want to tell the story.” The latter is where Lupin the 3rd: Part III 17 falls. The ball droid, which predated a certain sequel Star Wars trilogy, was a “whatever the plot needs is what the ball can do.” Somehow, Lupin is able to perfectly see from the ball’s perspective. Somehow, it manages to grow and grow until it can “consume” a ton of gold. And then it can move fairly easily after that, including flying on a balloon.

Fujiko’s betrayal is expected. It really is a shame ’cause stories would be much more interesting if you can’t predict things. So Fujiko telling Lupin she’ll marry him is just an eye-rolling thing. That said, I’m glad Lupin was prepared for her initial betrayal. But he was unprepared for her second betrayal. But she got hers in the end, which is fine. I would have preferred more actual romance between them instead of the predictable rubbish we get.

Finally, where the smeg did the helicopter come from that Fujiko used to steal the gold from Lupin? Jigen and Goemon didn’t bring it. Lupin didn’t bring it. The bloody thing wasn’t outside when Fujiko arrived. And yet when she leaves, there it is. Whatever.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 17 is just mediocre stuff where the writers just do whatever and expect the audience to just roll with it, no matter how predictable or stupid.