Lupin the 3rd: Part II 22
Lupin III Part 2 22
ルパン三世 – 新シリーズ Ep. 22
Lupin Sansei Shin Series
Lupin III New Series

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Jigen and Lupin head to a remote mansion/palace. They encounter a drunk young man with a decorative box who confirms they are on the way. As they continue their journey, they encounter three thugs attempting to rape a young woman. Despite Jigen’s protest, Lupin rescues the woman. In gratitude, she takes them to her and her older sister’s residence, which happens to be the mansion they planned to rob of a mysterious treasure.

While Lupin revels with all the young women in the mansion, the blonde little sister pays a visit to her older sister to look at the treasure. The older sister obliges, but then pulls a gun, knowing it is Fujiko in disguise. She drugs Fujiko, then joins the party to seduce and encourage Lupin to drink more. Jigen refuses to participate and leaves, taking a decorative box.

A tiger attacks Jigen. He throws the box, which hits the tiger. The lid opens and a gas escapes, turning the tiger old. Jigen then encounters Goemon and an old man, who was the young, drunk man from earlier. He recounts saving a young woman from a rape gang. Meanwhile, Zenigata gets caught in the same trap and taken to the mansion. The young women ply the two with booze.

Meanwhile, Jigen and Goemon attempt to get to the mansion. They fend off wave after wave of swimsuit babes with guns. In the mansion, Lupin cracks the safe, but apparently triggers the aging gas. As such, they let him leave with a giant chest. However, Lupin leaves a bomb which blows up the mansion, aging the sisters. Lupin shows up with Jigen and Goemon and reveals he’s not old. Further, he rescued Fujiko and dumps the drug used to control women.

Thoughts/Review

We get some mixed fare with Lupin the 3rd: Part II 22. On one hand, the episode is about massive fan service. There’s only Barbie Doll nudity, but there’s a fair amount of open negligee/silk top shots. On the other, there’s a much darker element to the episode.

Manga Adaptation

As I did my research for Lupin the 3rd: Part II 22, I see it is an adaptation of Shin Lupin III Chapter 4. That explains certain oddities with Lupin’s behavior. In the anime, Zenigata and Lupin not only get drunk together, but they also want to get freaky with the ladies…well, within the limits of what a TV anime series will allow. For comedy effect, we’ve seen Lupin attempt to dive onto Fujiko for sex. Here, all they had him do was snuggle, which seems out of character.

However, in the source manga, Lupin did very much engage in sexual activities with women in the mansion, including the older sister. (And there was no Zenigata.) But at the end of his fun, he then remembered he had to do something, upon which “Oneesan” gave him the box filled with the aging gas. Yet all the while the girls thought they had Lupin dancing at the end of their strings, he’d already stolen their treasure and exchanged it for the aging gas.

That feels more like Lupin III. The anime makes it seem like maybe he’s in control, thanks to his desire for the treasure.  The manga makes it clear that he already took care of business, then had his fun, fooling “Oneesan” and the girls in the mansion.

Anime Darkness

Apparently, both the anime and the manga stories are a version of the Japanese folk story, URASHIMA Taro. There, the gift box simply contains Taro’s old age. As long as he doesn’t open it, I guess he won’t age.

In Lupin the 3rd: Part II 22, the reason Oneesan has this gas is more of a mystery. It comes across as if she has a vendetta against men. So she gets them drunk, seduces them, then when they leave, they take a “gift” which is a box filled with the aging gas. Unfortunately, the manga’s motivation for the gas is just as mysterious. However, in the manga, it seems to be more about setting up the gag of hot Oneesan getting old.

That said, the anime adds a ton to the manga story, including all of Fujiko’s stuff. Indeed, Fujiko’s stuff made no sense to me while she was disguised as the little sister (Imouto). The real Imouto was around, so no wonder Fujiko got caught so easily.

However, the dark element came in the form of Oneesan drugging Fujiko so that she’d never want to leave the mansion. That suggests that all of  the other girls in this mansion are addicted to this drug. Further, it apparently makes them desirous of sex, based on what we saw from Fujiko and the other girls. Also, Lupin’s reason for destroying the drug backs this up. Really jacked up situation there. Again, we don’t know the motivation for why Oneesan would do this.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up this review with some final thoughts.

• Zenigata has no real purpose in the episode other than to convince the audience that Lupin is as wasted as Zenigata. Of course it is all a lie. I really dislike the, “Yeah, we showed you stuff, but everything we showed you wasn’t exactly true.”
• Goemon wasn’t in the source manga story. Indeed, Goemon and Jigen battling to get back to the mansion is just filler. However, at least they have purpose.

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part II 22 is full of ecchi fan service. At the same time, it has some serious, dark undertones. However, these dark elements aren’t explored, thus leaving feel unsatisfied at the end.