Lupin the 3rd: Part II 03
Lupin III Part 2 03
ルパン三世 – 新シリーズ Ep. 03
Lupin Sansei Shin Series
Lupin III New Series

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Lupin’s latest scheme is to spring the elderly Kräusen Genhart (Kreuzen Genhardt) out of East Berlin. Kräusen had been an aide of Hitler’s and supposedly knows where Hitler’s legacy is. As they make their plans, Zenigata shows up in West Berlin on a tip about Lupin. However, he also acts like a tourist to the annoyance of his liaison.

On a tour bus, Zenigata spots Lupin and company ahead at the East German checkpoint. The East German police are not interested in Zenigata’s police credentials and nearly kill him for not following their instructions. Meanwhile, Lupin spots the elderly Kräusen. They knock him out, then use hang gliders to try to sail over the Berlin Wall. Lupin carries Kräusen, so naturally, his glider nearly gets shot down.

In West Berlin, Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, and Fujiko try different methods to get the old man to talk. Jigen believes the old man genuinely has forgotten. As such, Lupin pays for a movie set and actors to recreate the last days of World War II. Lupin disguises himself as Hitler while Fujiko disguises herself as Eva Braun. They dress the old man in a German military uniform.

This works as Kräusen confirms to Hitler the location of the legacy. However, unbeknownst to Lupin, Zenigata was aware of this production and made sure all the actors were West Berlin police. Despite this, Lupin and crew escape, where they find a sunken U-boat with the legacy. Unfortunately, it was a case with Hitler’s report cards and such.

Thoughts/Review

We get a rather silly episode in Lupin the 3rd: Part II 03. As someone who lived through the cold war years, I laughed at how easily Lupin’s party entered East Berlin with FOUR hang gliders (needing to be put together). The writers use Zenigata’s hysteria as cover for Lupin, but I just didn’t buy it.

Regardless, their escape from East Berlin was implausible. A few years after this episode aired, a single person did attempt to escape East Berlin on a hang glider. They were not successful. And frankly, Lupin’s gang should have all been killed, especially once the guards were made aware of the escape. Again, the writers try to give cover by having Jigen shoot spotlights, but as before, I didn’t buy it.

The whole legacy twist was also silly. I was 100% sure that whatever Lupin found, it wouldn’t be treasure. Basically, this episode felt like the writers wanted to do an episode set in East Berlin and West Berlin, then crafted a story around that.

Finally, the last layer of silliness is how this episode’s treatment in the West. Apparently, Pioneer refused to put the episode out on DVD. Geneon did put it out on re-release, but only after they moved it from episode 3 to episode 26. Cartoon Network wouldn’t air the episode. And the English dubs had the actors talking over the Hitler speech flashbacks, let someone be offended. 🙄 Discotek’s release has it in the correct place, as does the current Amazon Prime entry.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part II 03 is a silly, dumb, but harmless episode. (With some pointless nudity at the start.) The fact that Western publishers were so fearful of it adds to the silliness.