Lupin the 3rd: Part III Review
Lupin III Part 3 Review
ルパン三世 – Part III

I’ve been a fan of Lupin III ever since I watched Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro raw all the way back in 1989 or 1990. Since then, I’ve made it a quest to try to watch as many of the Lupin III anime titles that I can. (The early manga never impressed me.) When I finished the “Green Jacket” first TV series, a blog reader convinced me to jump to Lupin the 3rd: Part III since I had already reviewed the first few episodes. I agreed.

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A Lot of Dumb Stupidity

As I looked through my episode reviews of Lupin the 3rd: Part III, I keep seeing a recurring complaint. So many episodes are just dumb. Others are amazingly stupid. Still others are no point as they meander around to fill time. What makes this worse is that many times, episodes had very interesting concepts. Unfortunately, the writers either were too incompetent to know what to do, or felt the need to just make things moronic “for the kids”.

For example, episode 31 had a really interesting concept. Lupin’s gang is going to con a wealthy man who buys stolen art, and then rob him blind. Fujiko gets cozy with the man, so her seduction is in full play. And yet all the while, this guy playing Fujiko, thus thwarting Lupin. That’s a pretty good start. However, the writers then turn the guy insanely stupid so that Lupin’s gang can literally cut the man’s treasure room from his mansion and haul it away. Give me a break.

Another example are episode 27 and episode 28, which were an unofficial 2-part story. There’s a contrived plot device with the character Barbara, whom Jigen lost in a love triangle with another man. There’s an interesting concept here with the Soviets shooting down an airliner, and Fujiko working with the CIA. Heck, even if contrived, I didn’t mind the romance story invented girl from Jigen’s past.

But then in the second part, the writers didn’t know what to do, so a lot of time is wasted in boring action and stuff. And since Lupin can “magic” himself out of any situation, there are no stakes either. Frankly, that’s a shame.

One Standout Episode

Amidst all of the “okay” to mediocre to rubbish episodes that make up Lupin the 3rd: Part III, there was one standout story. In episode 30, Lupin runs a pub in some fairly large city. A woman comes into the pub. Lupin plays the role of bartender perfectly, eventually getting her to open up. Their conversation should be boring, but it wasn’t. I really liked the dynamic between Lupin and Sara.

Yet here too, the writers do not stick the landing. Lupin’s entire plan revolves around an insane amount of plot contrived coincidences. And that includes Lupin running a pub just so this woman would come in and officially get him on his quest. But because the rest of the episode was really good, I kinda gave it a pass.

I suppose this episode stands out because it was actually adapted from chapter 2 of the short lived Sexy Lupin III manga. And yes, there are some plot contrivances there, but the anime takes them to the next level. But as I said, I gave those a pass ’cause this episode actually stuck with me.

Shifting Art Style

While character designs can change during the course of an anime series, it was much more noticeable in Lupin the 3rd: Part III. The characters have somewhat wider faces at the start.

Then they shift somewhat several episodes in. That shift continues throughout the series. After Lupin and company get narrow faces, Lupin’s chin often changes.

I think Fujiko gets the worst of things. At times, her character design is just awful, even when the others are bad. I didn’t research on the production elements, but I’d guess different teams did different things.

Thoughts/Review

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III isn’t very good. There are entertaining moments to be sure. And as a long time fan of the franchise, I don’t regret watching it. But I wouldn’t recommend this series to anyone who’s not already a fan of Lupin III.