Lupin the 3rd: Part II 14
Lupin III Part 2 14
ルパン三世 – 新シリーズ Ep. 14
Lupin Sansei Shin Series
Lupin III New Series

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Zenigata sees a profile on a wealthy old man name Howard Heath, who has started dating MINE Fujiko in Jamaica. As such, he gets the Jamaican police to set up checkpoints to try to capture Lupin, whom Zenigata is sure will come to get Fujiko. Sure enough, Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon arrive in country. They manage to elude security and the police.

Lupin, disguised as Howard, pays Fujiko a visit at her luxury suite in Hotel Jamaica. She sees through his disguise, informing him that Howard is currently buying the King of Rubies. The seller warns Howard about a curse, telling him not to admire the ruby on a full moon night. Howard ignores this and is attacked by hummingbirds, becoming ill and dying.

A month later, Fujiko now has possession of the ruby. Despite Lupin’s attempt to save her, she too falls to the curse and is very ill. Jigen shows up, having researched the ruby and curse. He speculates that the was stolen from temple idol, where black magic was practiced. To that end, Lupin “inherits” the ruby from Fujiko to take the curse on himself.

The three guys attempt to return the ruby to the idol with the help of a local. When they return the ruby to the idol, the local reveals himself to be a priest, whom the original Lupin caused to fall in disgrace. With the revenge plot revealed, the priest summons zombies. Lupin destroys the idol, killing the priest and zombies. Later, Zenigata gets the ruby and becomes enthralled.

Thoughts/Review

You know, we get a really interesting episode with Lupin the 3rd: Part II 14. It didn’t start that way with Fujiko in a relationship with a wealthy old man, just to live a life of luxury. And Lupin coming to stop her marrying the old man by stealing from him seemed fine, but nothing too interesting.

That all changed when the cursed ruby came into being. I gotta say, throughout the episode, I expected them to find some technological or other reason to explain the curse. Instead, the writers went all the way with it, including using actual zombies that regenerated after getting sliced or cut. This supernatural element is what made the episode interesting to me.

I kinda feel this episode could have been done in a longer version to really get into the curse and such. As it was, we get a time skip, where Howard dies and somehow Fujiko inherits the ruby. Further, the antagonist setting all of this up to get revenge on the Lupin family comes out of nowhere. With more time, this could have been properly set up and done well.

Finally, I did get a laugh from Lupin deboarding the airliner, pausing, then saying the English word “Title” to prompt the show’s title sequence.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part II 14 ended up being a rather enjoyable, supernatural episode that could have been better if given more time.