Lupin the 3rd: Part III 32
Lupin III Part 3 32
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 32

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Lupin allows Zenigata to arrest him to test whether oil tycoon John Decker legitimately wants to hire him to steal the U.S. President’s limo. John’s thug bodyguard easily gets Lupin out of prison. John agrees to pay Lupin $10M for the limo. As such, Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon head to New York City. They rob the Chase Manhattan Bank of its cash. Lupin steals the presidential limo key from a safe deposit box belonging to someone in the Secret Service. The gang use the cash to distract the cops assigned to help Zenigata.

Fujiko breaks her date with a millionaire’s son to pick up Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon. They head to a warehouse, where a truck crashes through. John’s thug gets the key, not knowing Fujiko switched it on him. He reports to his boss and travels to Washington DC. Lupin’s crew travel there as well, taking a tour of the White House. At the Madison Hotel, Fujiko gets a room, only to discover John’s thug waiting for her.

Lupin picks up Fujiko’s dumped rich guy. Jigen discovers John’s thug has Fujiko and plans to assassinate the President. That night, John’s thug disguises himself as Lupin. He easily breaks into the White House, and easily steals the limo. Now the President will be forced to go on a trip without his limo. Lupin sends a taunting letter to Zenigata so that the cop arrives at John’s thug’s room. John and his thug briefly escape, but Jigen and Goemon stop them.

After Zenigata arrests John and his thug, Fujiko steals the keys to the President’s limo. She intends to sell it to the guy she ditched. However, he already paid Lupin for the car, leaving Fujiko frustrated.

Thoughts/Review

There are good works of fiction. There are bad works of fiction. At the same time, there are good Lupin III episodes. There are bad Lupin III episodes. And then there’s Lupin the 3rd: Part III 32, which is amazingly, laughably stupid and bad. Apparently, the Japanese think it is amazingly easy to just break into the White House. Even in the 80s, that would not be the case.

Further, the whole assassination plot hinged on stealing the President’s limo. Obviously, there’s more than one. AND, if someone were to breach security to steal ALL the limos, the President wouldn’t be traveling in a normal vehicle so someone could assassinate him. And then the Secret Service kept the limo key in a civilian bank? Good grief. I think what sets this bunch of stupidity beyond normal stupidity is the injection of real world elements where there’s zero chance of anything happening the way the episode stated.

Next up is the fake car key. Fujiko only learned of Lupin’s scheme after his plan was already in action. She had no time to make a perfect replica of the key (with key chain), but because the plot required it, well, she happened to have it when she needed it. 🙄

Dropping back to the beginning of the episode, Lupin’s test for John didn’t make sense either. Lupin let’s Zenigata arrest him just so John can have a thug easily break him out of prison? And plot conveniently, Zenigata gets drunk and passes out. Ugh. Its all so laughably stupid.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of Lupin the 3rd: Part III 32 with some final thoughts.

• While the episode named the President as “Logan”, the character design clearly depicted the man as Ronald Reagan.
• Thinking about about laughably stupid, it just boggles my mind that the Japanese thought a bunch of cops would take the stolen monies Jigen dumped on them. Heck, the writers even have Zenigata lamenting he didn’t steal some cash so he could afford a better hotel.
• Jigen and Goemon don’t get much to do in this episode.

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 32 is just laughable stupid.