Lupin the 3rd: Part III 40
Lupin III Part 3 40
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 40

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Lupin discovers that the American lottery is rigged. While the $50 million draw will be legitimate, the $500 million grand prize will not. To that end, Lupin and Jigen, in disguise, make sure that Zenigata gets a ticket after the ticket booth closes. The head of the Lottery Commission, Tony Luckino (Luckyno), gives his henchman a lottery ticket with the guaranteed winning number. Tony then meets with Zenigata to arrange the security for the $500 million in cash.

Zenigata points out the one of the girls Tony hired, Fujiko, is part of Lupin’s gang. At that moment, Fujiko briefs Lupin on the security of the facility. She produces a wine glass so that Lupin can extract Tony’s fingerprint to access the control room of the lottery computer. To that end, Lupin disguises himself as Tony. Although he’s able to gain entrance to the hall leading to the control room, Zenigata suspects him. Lupin doesn’t make it far before setting off traps, ultimately resulting in him falling into a pit that opens on a subway line.

Jigen acts as a janitor while Lupin swaps tickets with the henchman. The henchman reports the theft to Tony. While Zenigata and police take the cash to the stage, Tony heads to the control room. Goemon cuts the power lines, forcing the place to go to generator. Lupin confronts Tony after Tony inputs the henchman’s ticket number. Lupin knows that Tony sent counterfeit money to the stage, leaving the real cash below.

Tony tries to escape, but gets nailed by his own traps. Meanwhile, the drawing happens, revealing that Zenigata and the henchman both have winning tickets. While they argue, Lupin and gang make off with the $500 million.

Thoughts/Review

We actually get a fairly interesting episode in Lupin the 3rd: Part III 40. I’ve heard stories of how McDonald’s “lottery” games and other things like it are rigged. So it was fairly believable that the head of the Lottery Commission would rig his own lottery. The genius of it was the counterfeit money aspect. Since the cash was guarded by Zenigata, and Lupin was after the cash, no one would suspect the commissioner of hiding the actual cash. The only thing I’m not sure of is if Tony planned to betray his henchman.

Regardless, while Lupin going through the traps was ultra cartoony, I did appreciate the fact that he failed in his first attempt. Lupin’s second attempt was much more clever. He already had a ticket. So stealing the rigged ticket and exchanging it for a counterfeit copy of the ticket Lupin owned worked quite well. Lupin then allows Tony to change the number to what Lupin wanted.

I liked that Zenigata suspected Tony was in fact Lupin during Lupin’s attempt to reach the control room. Further, Zenigata informed Tony about Fujiko, whom he’d hired as a lottery babe. I liked that. The writers portrayed Zenigata as smart for a change. At the same time, I found it amusing how Lupin disguised himself as an on the scene reporter to put Zenigata on the hot seat regarding winning the lottery.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 40 was a pretty fun episode. And I loved that Lupin got the prize without some idiotic betrayal from Fujiko.