Lupin III - Voyage to Danger

November 17th, 2008 by Brack

I’ve had the Funimation Lupin III boxsets for well over a year now, I figured it’s time to sit down and watch them. Most of the first box I had seen before which is partly why I’d not got arround to it. The first in the set is the 1993’s “Orders to Assassinate Lupin” known as Voyage to Danger in this release.

I first saw this back in 2001 at the Liverpool anime convention whose name I’ve forgotten. It may have just been called Animecon. I enjoyed it back then, but watching it 7 years on, it’s severely lacking. It was supposed to be Masaaki Osumi’s return to the character since the first series, but judging from the garbled English on his wikipedia page, the fact Masaharu Okuwaki is also credited and the final results, all did not go to plan. There’s a few scenes here and there that capture that first series magic, for instance the scene the screen shot above comes from, but overall it’s a disappointing film.

To get throught these reviews I’m going to judge them by arbitary criteria.

How much do the characters look like the animators might have seen a Monkey Punch drawing at some point in their lives?

Here’s the thing about a lot of modern Lupin III anime, it doesn’t look a lot like Lupin III. Or at least the guest characters tend not to. Oh and Fujiko often looks off too as various character designers ideas of sexy don’t coincide with Monkey Punch’s.

So how are things here?

Well, Jigen and Zenigata look good. Lupin looks OK. And despite director Osumi’s limited involvement, there are some very Monkey Punch-like poses here and there. Goemon’s design is a little soft. Fujiko’s figure is correct, but both her face and hair look off. Guest characters veer all over the place, tellingly there’s the rare character that looks like it’s been pulled straight out of the original Lupin III series that Osumi worked on, but in general the non-regulars look like they’ve walked in from a Detective Conan episode.

How ludicrous are the capers?

A Lupin film can have plot holes you can fly a plane through as long as there are capers. Fun capers. Ludicrous capers. Oh and crotch boxing gloves are good too. How caper-friendly am I? Well, I am the man who actually liked Oceans 12.

Well here they steal a submarine at one point. And then a nuclear generator by rolling it down a hill. And they use a giant hoover to steal the villain’s cash. But overall it feels a bit lacklustre compared to some of the stories that involve getting their hands on some specific great treasure. Not enough gallavanting around too.

Hold on. It can have an extra point for Lupin’s escape in the missile and the last 2 minutes of the film. I forgot about them.

How much is Goemon involved in the story, rather than just a third act deus ex machina?

OK this is a weird one. Goemon in the hands of bad writers is often like Superman in Justice League stories. His swordsmanship is established as so powerful he could effectively derail poorly written plots. Add his more moral nature compared to the other three leads and you can see why some writers don’t want to deal with him and find ways to sideline him. Or just have him absent until he saves the gang in the third act.

Here he’s pretty much involved from the get go, but then gets left babysitting Zenigata and the nuclear scientist for the second act. But that does involve some excitement and plot with evil Zenigata replacement, Keith. For a story that doesn’t focus solely on Goemon, he fairs well here. He doesn’t even have to be the deus ex machina, someone else gets that job.

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Lupin III: GREEN VS RED

October 11th, 2008 by Brack

“Lupin III is smart and cool.”

Up until 2002 Lupin III films tended to be compared to Castle of Cagliostro, however modern Lupin III projects have been judged against Episode:0 First Contact, the high point of the Kurita Kanichi years. This fortieth anniversary OAV special doesn’t quite reach that film’s heights, but it’s got a lot to recommend it.

The special deals with a surfeit of Lupins and a private militia in possession of a deadly weapon. But more importantly it deals with the idea of a person or character as a meme. Monkey Punch has spoken in the past about wanting Lupin to exist forever, to become an immortal comic character like Batman or Spider-Man. This special deals with that idea, within the world of Lupin III itself.

The pre credit sequence deals with a cook, Yasuo who bears a close resemblence to our hero. Yasuo was of course the name of the original voice of Lupin III, the late Yasuo Yamada. In addition to this callback to the character’s past, the other “guest character” in this special is named Yukiko, after Yukiko Nikaido, the voice of the Fujiko in the 1971 Lupin III TV series.

Then after the opening credits we get Zenigata returning to Japan after chasing fake Lupin IIIs all around the world, before launching into the opening sequence proper (that I swiped those screenshots from here). I recognise enough of the faces from specific Lupin III projects that I’m guessing that they all do. This is one problem I had with watching the OAV, are some things poorly explained or are they assuming a familiarity with the character’s history I don’t have.

And then we are swamped in Lupins. A Lupin is caught shoplifting, and soon, across the world, Lupins are outraged that someone is impersonating them to commit such a minor offence. It’s not long before Tokyo is awash in Fiat 500s and red and green jackets.

Let’s deal with the main problem with this feature up front. It’s about 10-20 minutes too short. There’s 3-4 strands of plot running through the film and only one of them gets the time it deserves. The story of the two fake Lupins on the run (one of whom bears some resemblance to Nabeshin) gets particularly short shrift, and the story of the “Ice Cube” and its commentary on Japanese national paranoia comes to an abrupt halt.

Luckily the main thread about Yasuo is strong, and throughout there are some great animated set pieces and visual touches, the highlight being a rooftop duel between Fiat 500s, in a fully animated black and white recreation of Monkey Punch’s line work.

There’s loads of blink and you’ll miss it references in there. I know I missed the cameo that Detective Conan apparently makes. It definitely feels they made so much effort in including things for fans, that they didn’t leave enough room for all the story.

But don’t let that put you off, the theme of Lupin III being a state of mind rather than a person is a strong one and it’s perfect for a celebratory project such as this.

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The Usual Suspects

October 5th, 2008 by Brack

The awesome opening sequence to Lupin III: Green Vs Red contains THIRTY different Lupin IIIs. And here they all are:


Read the rest of this entry »

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Lupin III: Kiri no Elusive

August 25th, 2007 by Brack

Anime’s Last Of The Summer Wine returns. It’s the 2007 Lupin III special!

Now, I’ve never got around to talking about the ten Lupin films I picked up in the spring, but there was one thing that struck me about them that I will bring up now - the character design.

Too often the non-Lupin Gang characters didn’t look like they belonged in a Lupin III story, which is to say they didn’t really look like Monkey Punch’s work. And worse than that, too often Fujiko Mine didn’t look like a Monkey Punch Fujiko either.

Somewhat annoyingly, the films and TV specials that came out after the stretch that Funimation had the rights to, do have better design, and are, in general, better stories. And Kiri no Elusive continues that trend, albeit with a few annoying faults.

Kiri no Elusive is one of those Lupin III stories with the sci-fi turned up to eleven. By which I mean it involves a time traveller from the 29th century kidnapping Lupin, Jigen, Goemon and Zenigata and dumping them 500 years in the past. The good news is that all the gang looks Monkey Punch-esque, including Fujiko, and the villain is very much a Monkey Punch looking dude too, as is Fujiko’s ancestor they meet in the past.

However, that ancestor is part of the few faults with the show. Rather than being played by Fujiko’s voice actress, the 71 year old Eiko Masuyama, it’s played by an actress (or is it a pop idol?) who has a fairly stilted delivery. With the most of the cast getting on in years the relative lack of Fujiko in this film is slightly worrying.  The 77 year old Goro Naya who plays Zenigata also seems to have relatively low key job to do here.

However, the remainder of the regular cast are still centre stage and do a fine job with a story that starts simple with a tale of warring tribes in ancient Hokkaido, and culminates in an incredibly clever use of time travel to provide a resolution. In fact it’s so clever, I can’t think why I’ve not seen the trick before. Maybe because not many stories cast the time traveller in a story as the villain?

There also seems to more Castle of Cagliostro homages/references than you’d expect in a Lupin III film. While you get loads of references in other anime, Lupin anime themselves tend to avoid homaging, as I guess the comparison would not be flattering. But I think they get away with it here. The animation is of a high standard for a TV production too.

All in all, good fun for Lupin fans, even with some elements missing/downplayed for much of the show, and I think the ending is one of the better endings I’ve seen in a Lupin film.

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