*PART 1 REVIEW* - *8/10* *(Dubbed)*
the thing i don't like about the treatment of Lupin the Third on here is that all the shows are compiled into one and I can't review each show individually, so I'' just have to make due and make multiple reviews on this one compiled page.
This isn't actually the first time I've seen this, back last April, I watched it subbed because i wanted to binge the whole franchise, but the more i thought about it it became more of a pipe dream because I was already doing my Scooby-Doo marathon at the same time and doing two at once would be to much, so I stopped when I started to watch the first few episodes of Part 2. I finished the Scooby-Doo franchise by new years and i wanted to restart my "Lupin-a-thon". To change it up on rewatch, i watched the new dub that came out last year and I think I like the show better on rewatch. The dub itself is really good, even if it clashed with the crusty old soundtrack a tiny bit
Well. it was great. I'm kinda surprised how much this shoe just works for me this time around. The characters are just beyond charming in their own ways. Lupin is such a fun lead and I always love watching all his brilliant schemes come to throughition while also being a joy to watch. Jigen is the weakest character out of the main 5, but not a bad one by any means, he is a real character with a fun personality, but i feel like his expert gunman skills are barely used at all through part 1. I like Fujiko quite a bit, Her manipulative and seductive nature was enjoyable and I liked seeing Lupin constantly simp for her and usually falls into her manipulation, but the show really liked her being in very precarious situations where shes constantly being being show as the sexual appeal of the show and not much else, but fortunately they phased some of that out towards the later half of the series and we could enjoy her character more. Goemon is cool as heck, I love seeing this somewhat enemy eventually become an alley for the Lupin Gang and used his insane skills to help with fun heists. You could question why a samurai would be help Lupin be a thief, but it makes total sense because the people he look up to in his life his master and "girlfriend" didn't really care for him and Lupin was the first real alley to him, so it makes sense from that standpoint. Zenigata is probably the funniest character in the whole shoe. I just can't help but be entertained by this desperate Inspector dedicating hos whole life just capturing this one dude and it's so good. I am jealous of his comedic timing sometimes, *especially* for episode 23, which he was hilarious and it still holds up 50 years later.
some of the aspects I want to praise is it's animation. I mean by modern standards, it doesn't look amazing, but for 1971 TV standards, it goes over and beyond. I mean this was made when Scooby-Doo just debuted and Disney Animation were still making movies like "Aristocats" and "Robin Hood" and this little show from Japan that came out on a weekly basis is more expressive and lively than any of those products I listed previously. And the quality honestly never drops and I can't really call any of these episodes bad, that said, I do still have problems. Like for instance, it's tone. The show has a mix between serious episodes with high stakes and not so serious episodes with fun heists. Both of them work on their own, but as a whole, it just clashes too hard and there's not really an overall consistent tone. I can't stress enough that both of these tones work, it's just putting these wildly different tones together creates tonal whiplash. Having a fun and quirky heist in one episode and then immediately follow that up something extremely serious makes for a confusing and muddled tone. But as individual episodes, I liked both equally. I liked seeing those really serious, especially Episode 9 and 11, becasue those episodes really Lupin's true character. Lupin is a thief, not a murderer. He kills people, yes, but those are always people from rival gangs who want to kill him and never innocent people or police. Like he puts himself out there to save Fujiko in a really desperate situation because he does really care for her outside of the usual flirtatious manner. and that especially goes for episode 11, where Lupin is put into a situation where a random girl's life at stake and he does want to save her regardless if he even knows her, which does a lot about his character. You could make the argument that he tied up a bunch of girls in suitcases in episode 18, but he only did that to frame other bad dudes and he probably wouldn't of even done that if he wasn't absolutely sure that Inspector Zenigata would get involved. He's a Phantom Thief with a , not a murderer and that's something I can respect. The more fun episodes that *Studio Ghibli founders* Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata directed are delights, they don't have that as much substance compared to the mature Masaaki Ōsumi episodes, but they they can be really fun, especially episodes like 13, 15, and 23 of course. a problem I have with it's western release is the titles of the episodes, there not pure translations and I hate it, but it's not the show's fault. the best example of this is with Episode 21's title "Rescue the Shrewish Girl" was changed to "Rescue the Tomboy!" or "Rescue of the Stubborn Tomboy"!for English audiences. I don't know about you, but the words "Shrewish" and "Tomboy" do not mean the same thing and the word "Tomboy" doesn't fit the description of the girl that Lupin rescues and "Shrewish" fits her perfectly and the girl isn't boyish, so I don't really get the thought process of that name change. And I'm at it, the villain in Episode 21 is a bit one note, and English title doesn't really fit regardless of how funny it may be, but Lupin slapping her in the face was based because she is a bit annoying and too oblivious to an extent.
Well, that's Part 1! I'm glad I rewatched it because it only got better and it was only 23 episodes, so it wasn't even a chore to get through it all. It definitely has it's growing pains to work out and overall muddled tone, but it was a really great watch that still holds up 50 years later and I can't wait to watch more of this enjoyable franchise
Best Episode: Episode 11 "When the Seventh Bridge Falls"
Weakest Episode: Episode 16 "Operation: Jewelry Snatch"(but still a good episode)
*PART 2 REVIEW* - *7/10* *(1-79;145/155 Dubbed)*
*(80-144;146-154 Subbed)*
This review has been a loooooooong time coming, This was the biggest roadblock trying to watch all the Lupin the Third media. I really want to get to the TV Specials and I especially want to get to all the 2010s Lupin media, but I'm not at the 2010s yet, but I know I'll get to those eventually. Like watching Lupin: Part 2 had almost became a daily routine for almost 2 months, THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!! From March 8th to April 30, I grinded this show so much. Like I knew the longer I procrastinated on it, the longer it would be to actually move on from it, so I just sucked it up and I got really impatient about it because I wanted to get it over with. I'm making it sound like I hated this show, which I don't at all, this is an very entertaining show, it's just mild frustrating from a binging standpoint and not the quality of the show itself
On the point of it's quality, it's shocking by how consistent it is throughout over 150 episodes. Sure, they're were a few episodes I didn't like, but that's the key word, *"few"*. The episode I consider to be at the bottom of the barrel of this show isn't something I genuinely hate, it's just one where the butt of the joke wears super thin and isn't funny or charming, it's just lame. That's super impressive taking into account it's overall length and the fact that it's one of the longest shows I've seen in it's entirety with the other ones currently being TMNT (1987) and TMNT (2003). The tonal problems I had with Part 1 aren't present in Part 2, and for the most part it's the same tone throughout with the only exceptions being the two Miyazaki episodes which I already talked about them thoroughly on Lettorboxd under "Lupin the Third: Greatest Capers" if your interested. The tone is a lot more lighthearted and fun compared to Part 1's more mature and thought out plot lines. Part 2 pulls back on the amount of gun violence and killing, but it's still present, just not as much as Part 1. What *is* here, though, is an absurd amount of exposed breasts shots. Yeah, this show is obsessed with boobs and 99.9% of the time it's just there because they just could and it doesn't add anything expect fan-service. Lupin is *way* more perverted in this show than he was in Part 1 and while, yes, the original manga was way more darker than Part 1 and had plenty of nudity in it, the subject matter fits with the overall mature tone of the manga. With Part 2's more lighthearted nature, it comes off as immature and it makes me feel I'm back in Middle School again where everybody that this kind of stuff was cool which it really wasn't. It's obnoxious whenever it just up and ruins a potentially good episode, but I guess at some point I stop caring. The characters are different *enough* for me to reiterate my thoughts on them. Lupin is a really fun and energetic lead with his energetic and playful nature being a lot more prevalant in this show than it was in Part 1 with, again, because of the less serious tone. Fujiko is still pretty much the same from Part 1, but she's a lot more often paired up with the Lupin Gang despite Jigen and Goemon's constant protest against that, but Lupin is too much of a simp to listen, only for Lupin to keep getting double crossed by Fujiko and those episodes usually have 1 of 4 endings. Lupin wins, Fujiko wins, everybody wins, or nobody wins. Lupin is the most common while the Fujiko winning is the least common. Goemon is more or less the same character as Part 1, but more restricted on what he actually cuts with his sword, and you'd be hard pressed to find a moment where he actually cuts someone in half in this show. Jigen is a lot more cooler than he was in Part 1, they use his sharpshooting skills way more than Part 1 and he actually has episodes from his perspective and I'd argue that the Jigen episodes some of the most compelling with the a some of the Goemon episodes a behind them. Zenigata is honestly peak-Zenigata in this show. The more lighthearted tone actually works in his favor and he's so enjoyable in this one.
The animation is obviously an improvement over Part 1 and it's kind of impressive for this to be released on a weekly basis. I like Part 2's more timeless jazzy soundtrack while Part 1's soundtrack is a lot more 70s, but both fit each individual's style. Most of the episodes fall under the 7/10 range, while compared to Part 1 where the amount of good and great episodes were equally balance with no real bad episode to speak of. Part 2 is a lot more hit or miss. A hand full of episodes are great, a whole bunch as just good with not a lot to talk about them, some are just okay, and the very few that I think that are mediocre, but like I said at the beginning of this review, it's impressive how consistent the quality it is despite a few hiccups along the road
You'd expect for me to have a lot more to say about the show after 155 episodes, but there's not usually to much to say about episodic series because it's not story driven, it's just "The heist of the week" kinda thing and that's perfectly fine. But I guess I'll talk about the dub
The dub of *half* of this show might just slap harder than the actual than the actual show itself. Tony Oliver is the perfect English iteration of Lupin encompassing all his goofy charm and can get serious whenever to story needs him too. Richard Epcar is also my favorite English Jigen because he perfectly recaptures Kiyoshi Kobayashi's original performance in English forms with his own to charm. Lex Lang is like my definitive English Goemon while Michelle Ruff is my definitive Fujiko *PERIOD*. Yeah, I think I'm seeing a trend with this specific voice cast. Dan Lorge is a bit of a weird one. Like yeah he is great as Zenigata, but this alongside the Geneon dub of Mystery of Mamo are the only Lupin projects he was apart of I think I might prefer Doug Erholtz's performance a bit more making him my favorite English Zenigata. But this dub doesn't get hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube *just* because of the great cast, it gets watched because of the tweaks to the script to add an extra modern flair and some pop culture references. And this is an extreme rarity where these kinds of changes *unironically* work. It genuinely adds so much charm and memorability to the original source material. They could of just adapted scripts as is without any changes, but it wouldn't be the time. If you want to watch the show, watch the dub because you be missing something if you didn't. The dub is hilarious with a great voice cast and it knows when it have more dramatic beats when it needs to. I'm sad that only *half* of the show was dub because Geneon lost the rights to keep going, but I'm more than glad that we get at least half the show like this.
That's really it, sure I have thoughts on individual episodes, but I don't wanna drag out this review longer than it needs to be because I want to watch Lupin: Part 3 by tomorrow, so see yeah my Lupin: Part 3 review
Best Episode: Episode 155 "Farewell, My Beloved Lupin"
Worst Episode: Episode 42 "Lupin Has Become a Bride"
Also to end this review on a funny note, in Episode 42, Lupin never officially divorces Onabes, meaning that he is still the shipping magnate's "wife". So Lupin canonically has a husband
*PART 3 REVIEW* - *7/10* *(Subbed)*
Compared to the 2 month period that took me to watch Lupin: Part II, which took me about 2 months, it only really took 9 days to watch all 50 episodes of this show, which compared to the length of Part II, is a breath of fresh air because I didn't feel like it was getting tedious. Note, this is the only mainline Lupin show that does not have a dub made in any capacity which, yeah, it is kinda ironic that the show that uses Western culture so much _never_ actually received an official English localization. I'd love to see the Tony Oliver cast eventually dub this, but watching the sub wasn't too bad.
I was fully going into this show expecting it just to be okay because I felt that it wouldn't be saying much in the franchise compared to Part I and Part II, and while that is true to an extent, but it surprised me by actually being good. I don't think it's as dramatically driven as Part I or as funny and unpredictable as Part II, but what it does is very good. I heard this was considered the black sheep of the Lupin shows and I didn't see that at first, but the more I watch through the show, I think it's because it doesn't have that much of a personality. Part I and Part II have personality, but this show is kinda... more of the same and I don't want to bash on it too hard because a lot of the individual episodes are good, but the question "What separates it from the rest of the pack?" Well, the best I could come up with is towards the later half of the show, they phased out a lot of the mature aspects (like the breasts shots) and now use wacky, slapstick animation which I actually quite like. It's basically Part 1's tonal identity problems all over again, but slightly less egregious. Some episodes can get really goofy and I usually like those episodes. Overall the quality is somewhat consistent throughout, which is mostly in that 7/10 area, but there aren't a lot of great episodes. The only episodes I would give that 8/10 to are Episodes 6, 30, and 37. 'cause those episodes say "Hey, let's actually try to tell a compelling story with these characters while also being very enjoyable". What I noticed is that there's a noticeable lack of specific character-driven episodes. There are a few Jigen episodes and a tiny bit of Goemon episodes, but there aren't as many as Lupin: Part II. There's not a lot to talk about with the characters because they're mostly just the same as Part II, except for the slight design changes. The early episodes have this more "realistic humanoid" style which I'm not too big on, and of course, the aforementioned wacky, silly style that I actually am a fan of. The only character designs that are worth talking about are Jigen's and Zenigata's. Jigen in the "realistic humanoid" style I don't really like. They take away the fact that his hat goes over his eyes which takes away from his defining design feature that tells you what kind of character he is IMP, but they give him the hat droop back in the "wacky, goofy, silly" style. I also really like Zenigata's design in this show, which only really rivals his Mystery of Mamo's design (Pre-Part III), but I don't exactly have much to say after that. I guess thinking about it as a whole, there’s just not a lot calling me back to this as much as Part I or Part II and while the majority of episodes are solid as is, not much really stuck with me in the long run.
I mean... yeah, I don't have that much to say about it overall because it's not story-driven, it's episodic. It's surprisingly good for what it is, but it obviously is the weakest out of the original three shows
Now I have WHOOOOOOOLE lot of Movies, TV Specials, OVAs, and Spin-offs before I watch Part IV
