Lupin the 3rd: Part II 23
Lupin III Part 2 23
ルパン三世 – 新シリーズ Ep. 23
Lupin Sansei Shin Series
Lupin III New Series

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Zenigata comes to Paris to report to the head of the Paris police. However, Zenigata is forbidden to arrest Lupin due to Lupin’s connection with France. Dejected, Zenigata leaves, not realizing he had spoken to Lupin in disguise. However, Zenigata decides he will arrest Lupin, even if it causes an international incident. To that end, he attempts to commandeer several vehicles, crashing them all.

Meanwhile, Lupin is frustrated due to Fujiko’s absence and rumored dating of Alain Delon . However, when Fujiko calls him to come to Reggeo, Italy, he immediately does so with the promise of a honeymoon. When he arrives at the mansion there, he’s immediately attacked with a machine gun, then a rocket propelled grenade. Despite this, Lupin still gets into the mansion. He sees Fujiko, but it is just a holographic image from her aunt, Bujiko.

Bujiko wants Lupin to find Nazi General Rommel’s treasure. She has a note with hieroglyphics on it, reminding Lupin of the curse he went under in Egypt. Bujiko has the captured Jigen and Goemon brought in. Hologram Fujiko reveals the hieroglyphic note was written by Rommel’s staff. As such, Lupin gets to work. From time to time, Bujiko turns on the Fujiko hologram to motivate Lupin.

Lupin deciphers things and has Bujiko and her goons take them by boat to map out the treasure location. Bujiko turns on them, so Jigen and Goemon start insulting her. Lupin joins them and the trio get away. They head to Egypt and the site of the Battle of El Alamein. There, they find the gold. That night, Bujiko shows up with her thugs to take the gold, but Lupin fools them. He then cuts Bujiko, revealing Fujiko. They agree to divide the gold four ways.

Thoughts/Review

Lupin the 3rd: Part II 23 has good and bad elements. Starting with the bad, the entire first three minutes with Zenigata were absolutely pointless. His only reason for showing up was just to show up, and that sucks. Well, there was the one weak gag where Lupin drives past him on the highway.

Also on the negative front, Fujiko supposedly dating Alain Delon went no where. Further, disguising herself as her Aunt Bujiko made no sense. Lupin would already do whatever for her. All she had to do was show up, give the explanation about Rommel’s gold in Egypt, then everyone would have set out for it. Instead, we get some convoluted rubbish. Also, how’d Fujiko get an army of mafia working for her?

On the positive front, I loved that this episode acknowledged the events of episode 7. It makes sense to me that if Lupin saw hieroglyphics, he’d remember the traumatic events where he got possessed. So nice touch there!

Finally, the reason Lupin agreed to this was to basically hook up with Fujiko. The end of the episode shows Lupin slowly taking off his jacket as he approaches Fujiko in her underwear. He could be giving it to her as a covering, but the look on his face (and hers) implied that the romantic aspect of their agreement was about to commence. 🤷‍♂️

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part II 23 is a convoluted plot to get Lupin to get a treasure. But he gets the treasure and possibly the girl at the end. And it acknowledges a previous episode, which was lovely.