Lupin the 3rd: Part II 27
Lupin III Part 2 27
ルパン三世 – 新シリーズ Ep. 27
Lupin Sansei Shin Series
Lupin III New Series

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

A little girl named Alice is at an exhibit where the rare and supposedly magical postage stamp called Cinderella Shadow is on display. Lupin and Fujiko start a panic while Goemon “frees” the stamp. Alice is unfazed by this and wants the stamp. Thus Lupin feels obligated to take her with them on the helicopter when they flee. Likewise at their getaway car, Alice comes with them.

Lupin isn’t thrilled to be addressed as “Ojisan” rather than “Oniisan.” He attempts to explain that the stamp now belongs to him. Alice counters by saying that if she steals it from him, it will be hers. She tries to get Jigen “Ojisan” to agree with her. Fujiko finds this cute until Alice calls her “Obasan” rather than “Oneesan.” However, when they get to a police checkpoint, Alice rids herself of Fujiko by claiming Fujiko saw the stamp thieves fleeing in another direction.

At a rural town in Kansas, Lupin and Jigen rob a bank to pay Alice. However, she wants the stamp. Zenigata comes in on the case, stunned that Lupin resorted to bank robbery or kidnapping. Lupin and Jigen try to ditch Alice at a phone booth, but she’s one step ahead of them, causing Lupin’s car to get totaled. Since Alice called her parents as Lupin asked, Zenigata shows up with lots of cops, forcing the trio to flee to a nearby park

As Lupin tries to sneak out in disguise with Alice, who’s also in disguise, Alice gets Zenigata to force Lupin to give her the pendant where he’s stashed the stamp. Alice then rats him out. Fleeing to a nearby amusement park, Lupin plays along but eventually insists Alice give him the pendent. She claims to have lost it. Lupin foils Zenigata, but then realizes Alice must have put the stamp in the mail. Later, Alice gets the letter from herself with the stamp, only Lupin has added a letter as well, telling her to keep the stamp safe for him.

Thoughts/Review

Oh man. Lupin the 3rd: Part II 27 has to be one of the most adorable, charming, and heart warming episodes to come from this franchise. I really loved Alice. She’s a precocious little girl and takes advantage of Lupin’s soft heart. Thus she’s able to stick to him despite his attempts to ditch her. Sure, there was a moment or two where if you look too hard, you can question how she did “X” or “Y”, but she’s so adorable, it is easy to let it slide.

I also loved how she manipulated things so that she got the “magical” Cinderella Stamp she had her eyes on. Once she learned Lupin was afraid of Zenigata, that was it. And the way she “lost” the stamp was pretty brilliant as well.

That said, the writers of this episode were clever enough to make it so that a child does not completely outwit an adult, especially one of Lupin’s intelligence. He realized she mailed it to herself, but intercepted the letter to replace it with his own. However, I loved that he gave her the stamp to “hold” for him. That was just lovely icing on the cake for me.

The episode does get a bit surreal for a time when Lupin chases Alice through the amusement park. The episode clearly dives into Disney’s Alice in Wonderland movie as well as other Disney animated movies like Dumbo and Cinderella. I’ll be honest and admit that I hoped this would be some real event that happened because of the stamp. However, it is more likely this was Alice’s imagination as Lupin pursued her.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part II 27 was a lovely episode where an adorable and precocious girl named Alice locks horns with Lupin to get a rare stamp. I loved it!