Lupin the 3rd: Part III 30
Lupin III Part 3 30
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 30

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

A young woman named Sara comes to a lively pub, filled with men. At the bar, Lupin serves her a cocktail called Revenge. He talks about the establishment, and the bullet hole in one of the windows. After some time, their conversation causes Sara to tear up. Lupin takes a phone call from Lupin to let him know the armored car, filled with gold, has Zenigata for an escort. Lupin takes out a box of empty liquor bottles and lets Jigen know the plan running as scheduled.

Back in the pub, Sara confirms to Lupin that she’s in pursuit of a man for revenge. Lupin identifies him as Jack Metousa, the head of a major bank. Sara angrily calls Jack the devil. Lupin already knows that Jack murdered Sara’s father to take over her father’s bank. Lupin invites Sara to return on the following afternoon at 3pm if she wants revenge. Meanwhile, in the sewer below the street in front of the pub, Jigen and Goemon set up camp alongside a portable lift.

The following afternoon, Sara returns to the pub. Jack shows up, after Lupin’s invite. Sara attempts to shoot him, but Lupin causes her to shoot out the window, hitting the armored car convoy and stopping it in front of the pub. From underneath, Goemon cuts open the armored car’s floor so he and Jigen can steal the gold. They then push the lift back up to the road, leaving Zenigata puzzled as to what happened to the gold.

Jack is furious about the theft. Meanwhile, Lupin and Sara join Jigen and Goemon in the sewer where the water is. Jack shows up to turn tables on Lupin’s play, with Fujiko on his side. They escape, but when Jack turns on Fujiko, she abandons him and returns to Lupin. Further, she has video proof of Jack’s villainy. Lupin gives the tape to Zenigata, who arrests Jack. He then gives Sara a key to a safe with half the gold. She leaves it at the now closed pub.

Thoughts/Review

Well, I gotta say that Lupin the 3rd: Part III 30 was a pleasant surprise. On paper, this seems like it should be a boring episode. After all, there’s a lot of talking and not a lot of action. And yet that’s what made things so interesting. And as I found out, the episode is actually adapted from the Sexy Lupin III chapter 2.

Not Your Average Bartender

Right out of the gate, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 30 grabbed me, as we see Lupin playing bartender. The whole first half of the episode is Lupin playing barkeep. Man, I loved it, mainly because this is something new for Lupin. I enjoyed his conversation with Sara.

The second half of the episode shifts gears and Lupin goes from bartender to half bartender, half thief. This is where we get some plot contrivances, starting with the route Zenigata’s convoy took. I can’t fathom why they’d go down some road like that unless the delivery point was near. Second is the gold shipment. Here too, it makes no sense for a convoy like this to travel for as much as 24 hours with no apparent stops. That’s what cargo planes are for.

Lupin’s whole plan revolves around the fact that at roughly 3pm, all the players will be there for his play. Not only that, but he has to get the convoy to stop so that the armored truck is in just the correct position for Goemon to cut it open. And how does this happen? Lupin prevents Sara from shooting Jack, causing her bullet to go out a bullet hole in a window, and strike a police car. And that’s when I was ejected from the episode.

Despite the insane amount of plot contrivances, I still enjoyed watching the episode. It was just so different that the usual stuff depicted in this third TV series.

About the Manga

I was able to take a gander at the manga chapter that Lupin the 3rd: Part III 30 adapted. Zenigata and Fujiko are not in the manga chapter. When Sara (Sailor/Saylor) concedes she’s looking for a man, Lupin closes the bar and has sex with her on the bar. Then they are in some luxury penthouse suite where they have round 2. In the manga, Sara’s father owned a security company, not a bank. The chapter ends with Jigen and Goemon getting away with the gold, and Jack in a stunned, stupor over the heist.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of the episode with some final thoughts.

• I have no idea why the production team felt they needed to focus in on a nice, audio cassette player (probably part of a boom box) with an auto-reverse feature. For those too young to know what that is, later day boom box cassette decks could play both sides of the tape without the need to turn the tape over.
• I got a kick out of Jigen giving Goemon a hamburger to eat rather than onigiri. Goemon acts like he has no clue what to do with the thing.

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 30 was quite a different episode than the usual Lupin III fare. It had a ton of plot contrivances, but at the end of the day, I find I didn’t mind so much. In fact, I rather enjoyed this different kind of adventure.