A long ass Lupin the III post
I'm a huge fan of Lupin the Third, (he's in 2 of my icons for cryin out loud) my friends should all know this. Since, oh, 1999 or so? I bought like the entire manga, a bunch of soundtracks, have the entire first tv series, large chunks of the second tv series, and MANY of the theatrical movies/annual tv specials, and its just in general one of my perennial favorite anime licenses, along with Slayers and One Piece and Dragonball. I haven't seen *everything*, there's just sooo much of it, a new movie in Japan every year, and thats been the case for like 30 years, plus 20 years of random tv stuff and theatricals before it. Just, impossible to see it all, especially stateside where a lot of it just isnt licensed.
The problem of course, with that much material, over that long, means different writers and directors have taken stabs at it over the years, with wildly different takes on what a Lupin film should be, and wildly different levels of talent. As a result, there's have been a few FANTASTIC Lupin movie, a few decent-meh ones, and some that are really, really, REALLY awful. In general its been about a 1 in 3 chance of it being great, decent, or bad.
Good Lupin movie makes me happy.
And for those wondering what my list looks like...
well, its kinda useless since names change between switching countries and half the ones I really like aren't available stateside and whatnot, but still...
THEATRICAL
Mystery of Mamo- Decent up until the very end with the giant brain
***Castle of Cagliostro- Miyazaki, AND Lupin, at their very best. In the top five, easily. the atmosphere, villains, teamworks, characterization, action sequences, etc. etc. etc. I think I've bought this movie like, 7 times now for different reasons.
Legend of the Gold of Babylon- Pink jacket, bizarre visuals, and space aliens. One of the really lousy ones.
To Hell with Nostradamus- Skyscraper jewel heist. A decent one. Not bad, but not great.
Dead or Alive- The only movie to have a wallscroll of it, the imagrey decorated my wall for years without me seeing the movie. And then, it turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment when I finally did see it, opening chase scene aside. It involved a crazy totally unfair plot twist that wasn't foreshadowed at all. Meh.
Lupin vs Conan II- If the first filmm was more a Lupin film with a Conan cameo, this was the opposite. Solid opening and some decent gags but overall the whole thing didn't really hold me. made me want to watch more Conan though.
Live Action- It's... live action?
Lupin vs. Conan Theatrical-
Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone-
The Blood Spray of Goemon-
Fujiko's Lie
OVA
***Fuma Conspiracy- This one was direct to video, and then went to theaters. Kooky. Its Goemon centric, but it has traps of death, plot twists abound, and THE GREATEST CAR CHASE EVER. Such an awesome car chase I ripped it off shot for shot in NHS issue 104. One of my faves.
Return of Pycal- A villain that appeared in one random early episode of the tv show came back for his own movie. (Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the tv show.) As I recall, I really liked this one as I watched it, though I seem to recall the ending felt rushed and I didn't end up loving it, as a result.
Red vs. Green- Celebrating the 40th anniversary. There's a couple loving touches to the history of it all (Lupins that look like every design ever, the cagliostro theme in places, lots of little homage touches) and the premise of a random guy trying to BE Lupin is actually pretty interesting, up until the end where they reveal where they were going with this.
Is Lupin Still Burning
TV SPECIALS
Bye-Bye Liberty Crisis-A decent romp, every character gets to do a little something. Does everything right, hits all the proper notes. Couple fun scenes, and a decent start to the annual tv specials... nothing bad, but... nothing really outstanding or memorable. (Though time has made a real fool of the 1989 computer tech.) A perfectly average Lupin caper, but it has an annoying little kid, a reeeally obvious plot twist, and the evil magical cult is pushing it as far as villains go, even for Lupin... and it just lacks a little something.
Mystery of the Hemmingway Papers- A really good solid Lupin romp thats true to all the characters. Some very good moments for Jigen, Pops is minimilized. A very good outing, but no particular scene or aspect of it really makes it stand out to put it in the top 5, but pretty good none the less.
***Steal Napoleon's Dictionary- A car chase movie, that has NO villain, and dependent almost entirely on Zenigata as the foil. A lot of fun because it gives great insight on both Lupin and Pop's interpreatations of the other.
From Russia With Love- The premise whas that the villain Rasputin... was immortal. Except he eventually was killed. I don't remember anything about this one, except that it was overly silly, which is probably telling.
***Orders to Assassinate Lupin / Voyage to Danger- Zenigata is taken off the Lupin case, and so then works WITH Lupin, always fun. And Jigen meets a girl. I think this is the movie where EVERYBODY gets killed one by one, oh so dramatically, only to show they all survived. REALLY Good a first time, but not so much a second.
Burn, Zantetsuken! / Dragon of Doom- Not just a BAD Lupin movie, this is THE bad Lupin movie. The villain's master plan involves making an indestructable airplane that specifically acannot be cut by Goemon. The resolution? Goemon cuts it anyway. Also involved scavenging the Titanic in a lengthy really borin sequence. BAD. Especialyl so after 9/11 where the baddies plan was to fly an uncuttable airplane with no windows,into buildings. blech
The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure- Nazis make good villains, right? Not when the main one is a cross-dresser named "Maphrodite" (sic). Add the nazi title "Herr" in front of it, and you get "Herr Maphrodite". It basically 90 minutes built around eventually getting to one REALLY bad pun. One of the terrible ones.
The Secret of Twilight Gemini- I think Lupin is barely even IN this one. Its a plot that was like, for a different movie that had the Lupin gang inserted. It was another weak one, one of many in a row, but I honestly dont remember much about it.
***In Memory of the Walther P-38 / Island of Assassins- One of the really good ones. Wikipedia disproves what I always thought... that the Cowboy Bebop folks were responsible for this one. The cinematics, music, some of the plot points and visuals, were straight up Bebop. Very cinematic, very cool to watch. Not the funnest Lupin movie, but cool to look at.
***Memories of the Flame: Tokyo Crisis / Crisis in Tokyo- The first Lupin movie I ever saw, so it gets a soft spot for that... it also has a good plot with Zenigata, once again, carrying on despite having no actual police authority. Also includes Jigen's toothache bit. I don't know that it'd be in my personal top five, but it IS really good... and Aaron's favorite.
Fujiko's Unlucky Days / The Columbus Files- You'd think a movie all about that bitch Fujiko having to suffer would be great... but no, she just sort of gets amnesia. Has a couple great visuals, like Lupin kissing Fujiko through prison bars, which I saw out of context in AMVS and always thought was very sweet... which loses something IN context. Fails to live up to the premise of much Fujiko suffering. Not a bad one, but not a good one either.
$1 Money Wars / Missed by a Dollar- Lupin gets killed and everyone grieves. Good material, but the premise dwindles once Lupin is revealed to be alive 10 minutes in (as you knew he had to be) and there is still most of the movie to go.
Alcatraz Connection- A fun outing, with a decent monorail chase scene (but nowhere near as good as Cagliostro or Fuuma's) with a real classy and stylish english version of the opening theme, that had a lot of really good Lupin/Pops moments. Good scheme within a scheme, Pops was at the top of his game, and a truly substantial evil villain plot involving the mafia, presidential elections, and enough villains to go around for the entire cast... but the run time shortchanged a few of those elements, or their wrap up, down to about a minute when they could have been stories all their own. things. The JFK assassination tie in was a little unnecessary. With another 20 minutes or so it mighta been one of the greats... but as is it's only pretty solid outing that mostly just left me wanting more... though maybe that means its great?
***Episode 0- Great retelling of the origin, awesome animation and music, good comedy, drama, action scenes, great showing from the entire cast (as their "first" outing!) and even slides in some of the scenes straight from the original Goemon episode from episode 5 of the green jacket series! Everything Lupin is about. Awesome stuff.
Operation Return the Treasure- Really fun with a nice twist, where Lupin RETURNS treasures. A really good Lupin romp, but once again, nothing really outstanding or memorable beyond the premise to make it one of the greats, but a solid outing.
Stolen Lupin-A servicible outing with a few good caper bits. Didn't do anything bad, but didn't do anything really memorable or interesting either. Another perfectly standard Lupin caper. Had a lot of promise with the young girl with the butterfly tattoo that wanted to imitate Lupin, and "The Lupin Collection" but neither really paid off.
Angel's Tactics-A bunch of women, one each matched a Lupin gang member (thief, gunner, swordswoman and androgynous one) chase the gang. A passable outing till about 2/3 through when each of the women dies one by one right as they develop interesting backstories, and the remaining villains go extra over the top switching from androgynous oto a full ballgown and umbrella right out of a suit, an army of female ninjas from commandos, a nerd to psycho bitch, Fujiko more useless than usual and yet ANOTHER evil Zenigata partner. Falls from average to not-good in the last act, but some good Lupin/Pops stuff holds it together. Not the worst, but not good either.
Seven Days Rhapsody- Really good opening ten minute sequence, but after that buisness as usual. Young girl that needs help and crushes on Lupin by the end, diamond fakery, a big villain plan that involves blackmailing the president, etc. A decent outing,and the usual gang at odds on different missions that eventually overlap, with Goemon's trademark line no less than 3 times, but no amazingly memorable moments or sequences.
Elusivness of the Fog- Lupin timetravelling. Bleh, that's like having Lupin and aliens, its just dumb. Bland villain that started out okay, and with a Fujiko stand-in for Fujiko, and some really obvious "hey, that was my ancestor!" setups without doing anything interesting with it... just... bleh. Pops was used horribly, Lupin was unable to fairly solve the main mystery of the plot, and neither Jigen or Goemon did anything memorable. Mighta been an okay actual historical, or with Geomon teaming with Goemon the first, or historical Zenigata that used Zeni coins or something but no. All a waste. A change of pace is cool, but... not when it's timetravel to 500 years ago. Was pretty bored by this one. Not insultingly bad like the absolute worst movies, but its definitely bottom tier that I won't watch again.
Magic Lamp's Nightmare- Following the stupidity of Lupin time travelling, we get Lupin stealing Aladdin's lamp and getting a wish from a genie. Thankfully its not as dumb as the premise seems because of course its actually a tech thing... but it then leads into them trying to do a Memento thing with Lupin constantly losing his memory and waking up 12 hours later with no idea what happened and it doesn't work. It's also over the top cartoony comedy and iffy direction Meh.
Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan- Decent outing. More of a Lupin move than a Conan movie, and the two crews don't interact all that much... mostly the payoff is in the final sequence when the characters really start interacting and Conan does his usual "knock the inspector unconscious" bit on Zenigata... and it doesn't quite work.
Lupin III : the Last Job- Zenigata gets killed, and Lupin takes up revenge. Pretty decent, but much like the earlier film where Lupin dies, since you just *know* Zenigata isn't going to STAY dead, it loses something. Actually, it pretty much loses all steam once he's revealed to be alive, which they probably should have held off on until the *very* end. has ninjas.
Blood Seal - Eternal Mermaid- Lupin helps a 14 year old girl recue her immortal mermaid sister. Animation was good, couple of okay but not great set pieces, pretty standard fare. Nothing bad, but nothing that demands repeat viewings either. Someone wanted to write about a girl and her immortal sister and sort of crammed a Lupin plot around it. Franchise has high fantasy/sci-fi plenty often but it still feels weird when it goes as extreme as it did here.
Record of Observations of the East - Another Page- Eh. A perfectly mediocre outing. Nothing outlandish and bad about it, it went through the motions, but it brought nothing to the table. Was bored the whole time. Goemon had a lengthy subplot COMPLETELY seperate from the main plot for the whole film and it was really weird when they finally came together.And the character designs being Detective Conan style (in a movie that wasn't a crossover) was just... weird. the great flaw of just being boring.
Princess of the Breeze - Hidden City in the Sky- A really solid outing! Gorgeous animation (especially the backgrounds), good humor that made em chuckle several times, some nice chase scenes (albeit cgi heavy with the vehicles), decent action, and a fantastic secondary cast of new side characters, which sort of made up for the usual leads being pushed to the back.. It didn't have much to do for the crew, and the villain was pretty forgettable, (nothing is ever going to match the chase from Fuma Conpiracy) so its not going to rank among the all time greats, but its probably the best Lupin film I've seen in a while.
Goodbye Partner- Decent though nothing really stood out. The entire ending sequence with teh super computer blowing missiles out of the sky and being reliant on Fujiko playing jazz piano was a bit much. Jegen has a daughter? That's weird. AndI was wierded out the entire movie that the villain looked like internet reviewer Suede.
Prison of the Past
3 out of 4 OvA
26 out of 27 TV movies
5 out of 11 theatrical
My GOOD list, in short...
Castle of Cagliostro
Fuma Conspiracy
Episode 0
Napoleon's Dictionary
Walther p-38/Island of Assassins
Princess of the Breeze
Alcatraz Connection
Tokyo Crisis
Voyage to Danger
The REALLY BAD list
Gold of Babylon (Aliens? Really?)
Burn, Zantetsuken! / Dragon of Doom (Uncuttable airplane gets cut!)
The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure (Herr Maphrodite)
From Russia with Love (Rasputin? I think he killed people with his toungue or something)
THEATRICAL
1978-Mystery of Mamo-**
1979-Castle of Cagliostro-*****
1985-Legend of Gold of Babylon- *
1995-To Hell with Nostradamus-***
1996-Dead or Alive-**
2013- Lupin vs Conan II **
2014- Lupin live action film haven't seen
2014- Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone haven't seen
2017- The Blood Spray of Goemon- haven't seen
2019- Fujiko Mine's Lie- haven't seen
2019- Lupin the First (cgi) haven't seen
OVA
1987-Fuma Conspiracy-*****
2002-Return of Pycal-***
2008-Red vs. Green-** (bad ending)
2012- Lupin Family Lineup haven't seen
2018- Is Lupin Still Burninghaven't seen
TV SPECIALS
1989- Bye-Bye Liberty Crisis-**
1990- Mystery of the Hemmingway Papers- ****
1991- Steal Napoleon's Dictionary-*****
1992- From Russia With Love- *
1993- Orders to Assassinate Lupin / Voyage to Danger-***
1994- Zantetsuken! / Dragon of Doom- *
1995- The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure-*
1996- The Secret of Twilight Gemini-*
1997- In Memory of the Walther P-38 / Island of Assassins- *****
1998- Tokyo Crisis- *****
1999- Fujiko's Unlucky Days / The Columbus Files- **
2000- $1 Money Wars / Missed by a Dollar-**
2001- Alcatraz Connection -****
2002- Episode 0- *****
2003- Operation Return the Treasure- ****
2004- Stolen Lupin- ***
2005- Angel's Tactics- **
2006- Seven Days Rhapsody- ***
2007- Elusiveness of the Fog- *
2008- Sweet Lost Night ~Magic Lamp's Nightmare Premonition-**
2009- Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan- ***
2010- The Last Job-***
2011- Blood Seal - Eternal Mermaid- ***
2012- Record of Observations of the East - Another Page- **
2013- Princess of the Breeze - Hidden City in the Sky- ****
2016- Italian Game -rehash of series 4
2019- Goodbye Partner- ***
2019- Prison of the Past haven't seen
The problem of course, with that much material, over that long, means different writers and directors have taken stabs at it over the years, with wildly different takes on what a Lupin film should be, and wildly different levels of talent. As a result, there's have been a few FANTASTIC Lupin movie, a few decent-meh ones, and some that are really, really, REALLY awful. In general its been about a 1 in 3 chance of it being great, decent, or bad.
Good Lupin movie makes me happy.
And for those wondering what my list looks like...
well, its kinda useless since names change between switching countries and half the ones I really like aren't available stateside and whatnot, but still...
THEATRICAL
Mystery of Mamo- Decent up until the very end with the giant brain
***Castle of Cagliostro- Miyazaki, AND Lupin, at their very best. In the top five, easily. the atmosphere, villains, teamworks, characterization, action sequences, etc. etc. etc. I think I've bought this movie like, 7 times now for different reasons.
Legend of the Gold of Babylon- Pink jacket, bizarre visuals, and space aliens. One of the really lousy ones.
To Hell with Nostradamus- Skyscraper jewel heist. A decent one. Not bad, but not great.
Dead or Alive- The only movie to have a wallscroll of it, the imagrey decorated my wall for years without me seeing the movie. And then, it turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment when I finally did see it, opening chase scene aside. It involved a crazy totally unfair plot twist that wasn't foreshadowed at all. Meh.
Lupin vs Conan II- If the first filmm was more a Lupin film with a Conan cameo, this was the opposite. Solid opening and some decent gags but overall the whole thing didn't really hold me. made me want to watch more Conan though.
Live Action- It's... live action?
Lupin vs. Conan Theatrical-
Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone-
The Blood Spray of Goemon-
Fujiko's Lie
OVA
***Fuma Conspiracy- This one was direct to video, and then went to theaters. Kooky. Its Goemon centric, but it has traps of death, plot twists abound, and THE GREATEST CAR CHASE EVER. Such an awesome car chase I ripped it off shot for shot in NHS issue 104. One of my faves.
Return of Pycal- A villain that appeared in one random early episode of the tv show came back for his own movie. (Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the tv show.) As I recall, I really liked this one as I watched it, though I seem to recall the ending felt rushed and I didn't end up loving it, as a result.
Red vs. Green- Celebrating the 40th anniversary. There's a couple loving touches to the history of it all (Lupins that look like every design ever, the cagliostro theme in places, lots of little homage touches) and the premise of a random guy trying to BE Lupin is actually pretty interesting, up until the end where they reveal where they were going with this.
Is Lupin Still Burning
TV SPECIALS
Bye-Bye Liberty Crisis-A decent romp, every character gets to do a little something. Does everything right, hits all the proper notes. Couple fun scenes, and a decent start to the annual tv specials... nothing bad, but... nothing really outstanding or memorable. (Though time has made a real fool of the 1989 computer tech.) A perfectly average Lupin caper, but it has an annoying little kid, a reeeally obvious plot twist, and the evil magical cult is pushing it as far as villains go, even for Lupin... and it just lacks a little something.
Mystery of the Hemmingway Papers- A really good solid Lupin romp thats true to all the characters. Some very good moments for Jigen, Pops is minimilized. A very good outing, but no particular scene or aspect of it really makes it stand out to put it in the top 5, but pretty good none the less.
***Steal Napoleon's Dictionary- A car chase movie, that has NO villain, and dependent almost entirely on Zenigata as the foil. A lot of fun because it gives great insight on both Lupin and Pop's interpreatations of the other.
From Russia With Love- The premise whas that the villain Rasputin... was immortal. Except he eventually was killed. I don't remember anything about this one, except that it was overly silly, which is probably telling.
***Orders to Assassinate Lupin / Voyage to Danger- Zenigata is taken off the Lupin case, and so then works WITH Lupin, always fun. And Jigen meets a girl. I think this is the movie where EVERYBODY gets killed one by one, oh so dramatically, only to show they all survived. REALLY Good a first time, but not so much a second.
Burn, Zantetsuken! / Dragon of Doom- Not just a BAD Lupin movie, this is THE bad Lupin movie. The villain's master plan involves making an indestructable airplane that specifically acannot be cut by Goemon. The resolution? Goemon cuts it anyway. Also involved scavenging the Titanic in a lengthy really borin sequence. BAD. Especialyl so after 9/11 where the baddies plan was to fly an uncuttable airplane with no windows,into buildings. blech
The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure- Nazis make good villains, right? Not when the main one is a cross-dresser named "Maphrodite" (sic). Add the nazi title "Herr" in front of it, and you get "Herr Maphrodite". It basically 90 minutes built around eventually getting to one REALLY bad pun. One of the terrible ones.
The Secret of Twilight Gemini- I think Lupin is barely even IN this one. Its a plot that was like, for a different movie that had the Lupin gang inserted. It was another weak one, one of many in a row, but I honestly dont remember much about it.
***In Memory of the Walther P-38 / Island of Assassins- One of the really good ones. Wikipedia disproves what I always thought... that the Cowboy Bebop folks were responsible for this one. The cinematics, music, some of the plot points and visuals, were straight up Bebop. Very cinematic, very cool to watch. Not the funnest Lupin movie, but cool to look at.
***Memories of the Flame: Tokyo Crisis / Crisis in Tokyo- The first Lupin movie I ever saw, so it gets a soft spot for that... it also has a good plot with Zenigata, once again, carrying on despite having no actual police authority. Also includes Jigen's toothache bit. I don't know that it'd be in my personal top five, but it IS really good... and Aaron's favorite.
Fujiko's Unlucky Days / The Columbus Files- You'd think a movie all about that bitch Fujiko having to suffer would be great... but no, she just sort of gets amnesia. Has a couple great visuals, like Lupin kissing Fujiko through prison bars, which I saw out of context in AMVS and always thought was very sweet... which loses something IN context. Fails to live up to the premise of much Fujiko suffering. Not a bad one, but not a good one either.
$1 Money Wars / Missed by a Dollar- Lupin gets killed and everyone grieves. Good material, but the premise dwindles once Lupin is revealed to be alive 10 minutes in (as you knew he had to be) and there is still most of the movie to go.
Alcatraz Connection- A fun outing, with a decent monorail chase scene (but nowhere near as good as Cagliostro or Fuuma's) with a real classy and stylish english version of the opening theme, that had a lot of really good Lupin/Pops moments. Good scheme within a scheme, Pops was at the top of his game, and a truly substantial evil villain plot involving the mafia, presidential elections, and enough villains to go around for the entire cast... but the run time shortchanged a few of those elements, or their wrap up, down to about a minute when they could have been stories all their own. things. The JFK assassination tie in was a little unnecessary. With another 20 minutes or so it mighta been one of the greats... but as is it's only pretty solid outing that mostly just left me wanting more... though maybe that means its great?
***Episode 0- Great retelling of the origin, awesome animation and music, good comedy, drama, action scenes, great showing from the entire cast (as their "first" outing!) and even slides in some of the scenes straight from the original Goemon episode from episode 5 of the green jacket series! Everything Lupin is about. Awesome stuff.
Operation Return the Treasure- Really fun with a nice twist, where Lupin RETURNS treasures. A really good Lupin romp, but once again, nothing really outstanding or memorable beyond the premise to make it one of the greats, but a solid outing.
Stolen Lupin-A servicible outing with a few good caper bits. Didn't do anything bad, but didn't do anything really memorable or interesting either. Another perfectly standard Lupin caper. Had a lot of promise with the young girl with the butterfly tattoo that wanted to imitate Lupin, and "The Lupin Collection" but neither really paid off.
Angel's Tactics-A bunch of women, one each matched a Lupin gang member (thief, gunner, swordswoman and androgynous one) chase the gang. A passable outing till about 2/3 through when each of the women dies one by one right as they develop interesting backstories, and the remaining villains go extra over the top switching from androgynous oto a full ballgown and umbrella right out of a suit, an army of female ninjas from commandos, a nerd to psycho bitch, Fujiko more useless than usual and yet ANOTHER evil Zenigata partner. Falls from average to not-good in the last act, but some good Lupin/Pops stuff holds it together. Not the worst, but not good either.
Seven Days Rhapsody- Really good opening ten minute sequence, but after that buisness as usual. Young girl that needs help and crushes on Lupin by the end, diamond fakery, a big villain plan that involves blackmailing the president, etc. A decent outing,and the usual gang at odds on different missions that eventually overlap, with Goemon's trademark line no less than 3 times, but no amazingly memorable moments or sequences.
Elusivness of the Fog- Lupin timetravelling. Bleh, that's like having Lupin and aliens, its just dumb. Bland villain that started out okay, and with a Fujiko stand-in for Fujiko, and some really obvious "hey, that was my ancestor!" setups without doing anything interesting with it... just... bleh. Pops was used horribly, Lupin was unable to fairly solve the main mystery of the plot, and neither Jigen or Goemon did anything memorable. Mighta been an okay actual historical, or with Geomon teaming with Goemon the first, or historical Zenigata that used Zeni coins or something but no. All a waste. A change of pace is cool, but... not when it's timetravel to 500 years ago. Was pretty bored by this one. Not insultingly bad like the absolute worst movies, but its definitely bottom tier that I won't watch again.
Magic Lamp's Nightmare- Following the stupidity of Lupin time travelling, we get Lupin stealing Aladdin's lamp and getting a wish from a genie. Thankfully its not as dumb as the premise seems because of course its actually a tech thing... but it then leads into them trying to do a Memento thing with Lupin constantly losing his memory and waking up 12 hours later with no idea what happened and it doesn't work. It's also over the top cartoony comedy and iffy direction Meh.
Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan- Decent outing. More of a Lupin move than a Conan movie, and the two crews don't interact all that much... mostly the payoff is in the final sequence when the characters really start interacting and Conan does his usual "knock the inspector unconscious" bit on Zenigata... and it doesn't quite work.
Lupin III : the Last Job- Zenigata gets killed, and Lupin takes up revenge. Pretty decent, but much like the earlier film where Lupin dies, since you just *know* Zenigata isn't going to STAY dead, it loses something. Actually, it pretty much loses all steam once he's revealed to be alive, which they probably should have held off on until the *very* end. has ninjas.
Blood Seal - Eternal Mermaid- Lupin helps a 14 year old girl recue her immortal mermaid sister. Animation was good, couple of okay but not great set pieces, pretty standard fare. Nothing bad, but nothing that demands repeat viewings either. Someone wanted to write about a girl and her immortal sister and sort of crammed a Lupin plot around it. Franchise has high fantasy/sci-fi plenty often but it still feels weird when it goes as extreme as it did here.
Record of Observations of the East - Another Page- Eh. A perfectly mediocre outing. Nothing outlandish and bad about it, it went through the motions, but it brought nothing to the table. Was bored the whole time. Goemon had a lengthy subplot COMPLETELY seperate from the main plot for the whole film and it was really weird when they finally came together.And the character designs being Detective Conan style (in a movie that wasn't a crossover) was just... weird. the great flaw of just being boring.
Princess of the Breeze - Hidden City in the Sky- A really solid outing! Gorgeous animation (especially the backgrounds), good humor that made em chuckle several times, some nice chase scenes (albeit cgi heavy with the vehicles), decent action, and a fantastic secondary cast of new side characters, which sort of made up for the usual leads being pushed to the back.. It didn't have much to do for the crew, and the villain was pretty forgettable, (nothing is ever going to match the chase from Fuma Conpiracy) so its not going to rank among the all time greats, but its probably the best Lupin film I've seen in a while.
Goodbye Partner- Decent though nothing really stood out. The entire ending sequence with teh super computer blowing missiles out of the sky and being reliant on Fujiko playing jazz piano was a bit much. Jegen has a daughter? That's weird. AndI was wierded out the entire movie that the villain looked like internet reviewer Suede.
Prison of the Past
3 out of 4 OvA
26 out of 27 TV movies
5 out of 11 theatrical
My GOOD list, in short...
Castle of Cagliostro
Fuma Conspiracy
Episode 0
Napoleon's Dictionary
Walther p-38/Island of Assassins
Princess of the Breeze
Alcatraz Connection
Tokyo Crisis
Voyage to Danger
The REALLY BAD list
Gold of Babylon (Aliens? Really?)
Burn, Zantetsuken! / Dragon of Doom (Uncuttable airplane gets cut!)
The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure (Herr Maphrodite)
From Russia with Love (Rasputin? I think he killed people with his toungue or something)
THEATRICAL
1978-Mystery of Mamo-**
1979-Castle of Cagliostro-*****
1985-Legend of Gold of Babylon- *
1995-To Hell with Nostradamus-***
1996-Dead or Alive-**
2013- Lupin vs Conan II **
2014- Lupin live action film haven't seen
2014- Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone haven't seen
2017- The Blood Spray of Goemon- haven't seen
2019- Fujiko Mine's Lie- haven't seen
2019- Lupin the First (cgi) haven't seen
OVA
1987-Fuma Conspiracy-*****
2002-Return of Pycal-***
2008-Red vs. Green-** (bad ending)
2012- Lupin Family Lineup haven't seen
2018- Is Lupin Still Burninghaven't seen
TV SPECIALS
1989- Bye-Bye Liberty Crisis-**
1990- Mystery of the Hemmingway Papers- ****
1991- Steal Napoleon's Dictionary-*****
1992- From Russia With Love- *
1993- Orders to Assassinate Lupin / Voyage to Danger-***
1994- Zantetsuken! / Dragon of Doom- *
1995- The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure-*
1996- The Secret of Twilight Gemini-*
1997- In Memory of the Walther P-38 / Island of Assassins- *****
1998- Tokyo Crisis- *****
1999- Fujiko's Unlucky Days / The Columbus Files- **
2000- $1 Money Wars / Missed by a Dollar-**
2001- Alcatraz Connection -****
2002- Episode 0- *****
2003- Operation Return the Treasure- ****
2004- Stolen Lupin- ***
2005- Angel's Tactics- **
2006- Seven Days Rhapsody- ***
2007- Elusiveness of the Fog- *
2008- Sweet Lost Night ~Magic Lamp's Nightmare Premonition-**
2009- Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan- ***
2010- The Last Job-***
2011- Blood Seal - Eternal Mermaid- ***
2012- Record of Observations of the East - Another Page- **
2013- Princess of the Breeze - Hidden City in the Sky- ****
2016- Italian Game -rehash of series 4
2019- Goodbye Partner- ***
2019- Prison of the Past haven't seen