Lupin the 3rd: Part II 12
Lupin III Part 2 12
ルパン三世 – 新シリーズ Ep. 12
Lupin Sansei Shin Series
Lupin III New Series

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, and Fujiko are in France. They see a news piece stating that France is going to gift the last bottle of Bordeaux wine Napoleon ordered for his wife Josephine to the President of the United States. In order to find where the location of the bottle, Lupin sends a note to Zenigata, who’s also in France, announcing his intentions.

The French police scoff at the notion of Lupin stealing the wine, but agree to bring Zenigata along for the ride. Lupin disguises himself as an old, French grape grower and stashes Fujiko, Goemon, and Jigen into wine barrels. After tracking Zenigata to a winery, Lupin manages to get the barrels through security. However, in the giant, wine cellar, they find themselves in Zenigata’s trap.

After escaping, Lupin becomes more determined to get the wine. The French police are happy that the Bordeaux wine is safe and offer Zenigata the honor of escorting the wine to America. Lupin, Jigen, and Fujiko infiltrate the Concord jet, gas everyone, and land the plane in a remote spot of the United States. They leave the unconscious Zenigata with a bottle of cheap stuff.

Zenigata hides the theft from the French, who present it to the President of the United States. At a State dinner, the President opens the wine for his guests, and they find it great. Lupin and crew laugh at the American’s lack of sophistication. However, when they open the old bottle of Bordeaux, they find is has turned bad.

Thoughts/Review

We get a pretty fun episode in Lupin the 3rd: Part II 12. I really appreciate that the writing is fairly smart. For a start, Lupin’s plan to find the winery holding the ultra rare bottle of wine worked for me. Baiting Zenigata to get involved is a logical path to take. Then getting his crew into the winery worked. Heck, the writers made Zenigata and the cops smart enough to test the barrels to see if they actually had wine in them.

But it wasn’t just Lupin who got smart. Zenigata pulled one on Lupin by purposefully going to the wrong winery to spring a trap. I loved that moment. Lupin’s escape of the trap is silly, but I let it slide.

Lupin’s infiltration of the Concord jet worked for me as well. Unlike episode 9, which had a rubbish jet sequence, this time, Lupin and company actually take over a flying jet and land it, making off with the loot.

Finally, the reveal that the Bordeaux wine from the Napoleon era was bad was a nice touch. I did some research and while it is possible that a wine from that era might be drinkable, that’s not the reason to own it. The odds are that the wine will have gone bad after a few decades. So nice touch there.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part II 12 is a fun episode that actually has some intelligent writing for a change. And the characters spoke some random French.