SPOILER ALERT: No albatrosses ever appear
YES! I have FOUND it, I have SEEN it, I have GIFed it!
What, you ask? The holy grail of the Lupin III franchise, the hardest thing ever to track down in its original form:
The Miyazaki episode! (Well he made two, the first of which is considered the best and what I'm talking about here) - 'Albatross: Wings of Death'.
Proving once again that entertainment with "OF DEATH" in the title is superior to all others. NO EXCEPTIONS.
You've gotta put yourself into the right frame of mind here:
By 1980, the creative team working on the Lupin III were rapidly running out of ideas, having been called upon to make hundreds of episodes so the families at home could see a new Lupin adventure every week. The plots became crackier and crackier, the animation suffered, stories started contradicting themselves -
- I'm painting an overly bleak picture here for illustration purposes, but still keep in mind that there's A LOT of Lupin episodes and some are great and some are... really not good.
But in comes Hayao Miyazaki on his last stint in television before he's about to move on to movies. He's got fresh ideas and fresh animators and everything is puppies and rainbows.
And so he makes 'Albatross: Wings of Death', i.e. OMG EVERYTHING IS ADORABLE AND BADASS AND PERFECT.
I'm not kidding here, I went gay for this episode from the first scene onwards, because OMG DETAILING:
This is officially my favourite shot from the entire Red Jacket series from now on. I mean, look at how easily Miyazaki portrays the Lupin gang's easygoing domesticity: Socks hanging out to dry, dirty dishes in the sink, beer in the fridge.
Most episodes from the midpoint of the Red Jacket series onwards had animators that only concerned themselves with the actual plot-related art, no doubt to meet deadlines. Seeing something that just adds to the mood or the characterization is a pretty damn rare treat is what I'm getting at here, and the reason why I get so excited at the mere sight of a full ashtray:
Anyway, from there on we get to play a lovely game of Spot The Ideas That Miyazaki Would Later Incorporate Into The Castle of Cagliostro! Such as:
- Lupin and Jigen squabbling over food like the childish dorks they are:
(I love Goemon quietly stealing the rest of the meat, OMG)
- The villains using stick grenades:
(They blew up the SSK! YOU DON'T. FUCK. WITH THE MERCEDES, MAN.)
- Last-minute escapes facilitating antiquated aircrafts:
- And of course Jigen and Lupin making a surprisingly elegant escape in spite of various challenges:
Yeah if you're wondering about the underwear thing, well A) It's a fine old Lupin tradition for Lupin to do all his most epic feats without trousers on (wait that came out wrong), and 2) Well you see we've got Inspector Zenigata and his SWAT team of awesome -
[Exhibit A]
- written as pretty damn competent for once!
Well for the most part.
Man they've got police procedures and everything:
1) APPREHEND THE CRIMINALS.
2) RELIEVE PRISONERS OF WEAPONS AND TOOLS THAT MIGHT BE USED IN POTENTIAL ESCAPE ATTEMPT (and find all kinds of awesome shit in the process).
3) REMIND MEN NOT TO GET TOO EXCITED.
(I'm pretty sure there's something in the Geneva Conventions about how taking away Jigen's hat serves as cruel and unusual punishment)
4) MAKE SURE PRISONERS ARE PROPERLY SUBDUED.
5) WHILE HAVING A NORMAL CONVERSATION WITH PRISONER LIKE YOU'VE BOTH GONE THROUGH THIS A HUNDRED TIMES BEFORE, PROCEED TO RELIEVE PRISONER OF FURTHER HIDDEN GADGETS YOUR TEAM FAILED TO FIND.
I mean gosh this scene is just too funny.
OH YES. PLOT. THERE IS ONE.
There are atom bombs and a really big plane and a lot of smaller planes and a villain that looks more or less exactly like Doctor Robotnik from the Sonic games, but on the whole it's a rescue mission to recover Fujiko, who sadly seems to have lost most of her clothes.
But just when I've begrudgingly come to terms with this episode just bringing us wank-fodder Fujiko once again, the guys (Zenigata and Lupin team up because Miyazaki loves us) goes all Red Baron on us -
- and Fujiko takes advantage of the distraction and just TURNS THE VOLUME UP TO BADASS AND DEFEATS THE MOOKS ALL BY HERSELF.
FUJIKO. LOOK AT YOU KICKING ASS AND SAVING THE DAY, OMG.
NOW THAT'S SEXY.
And oh oh oh, in the midst of the action Zenigata and Jigen totally have a little Moment!
I can't even recall another occurrence when Zenigata and Jigen speak directly to each other, SO WHOA (You'd think they'd share their secrets on how to get their hats to stay on during arial combat, you'd think they were stapled on or something).
And poor Goemon, you were hardly in this episode but at least you were drawn pretty.
And so: All this happens in a mere 30-minute episode. Also there's lots flailing and explosions and badassery and adorableness.
THE END.
Man it's been ages since I made GIFs, I had to update half my GIF-making software. But ah, I reach such a state of zen just making my little movable pictures... (I swear one day I'm going to find a better way to optimize them without indexing the colours. Some day.)
What, you ask? The holy grail of the Lupin III franchise, the hardest thing ever to track down in its original form:
The Miyazaki episode! (Well he made two, the first of which is considered the best and what I'm talking about here) - 'Albatross: Wings of Death'.
Proving once again that entertainment with "OF DEATH" in the title is superior to all others. NO EXCEPTIONS.
You've gotta put yourself into the right frame of mind here:
By 1980, the creative team working on the Lupin III were rapidly running out of ideas, having been called upon to make hundreds of episodes so the families at home could see a new Lupin adventure every week. The plots became crackier and crackier, the animation suffered, stories started contradicting themselves -
- I'm painting an overly bleak picture here for illustration purposes, but still keep in mind that there's A LOT of Lupin episodes and some are great and some are... really not good.
But in comes Hayao Miyazaki on his last stint in television before he's about to move on to movies. He's got fresh ideas and fresh animators and everything is puppies and rainbows.
And so he makes 'Albatross: Wings of Death', i.e. OMG EVERYTHING IS ADORABLE AND BADASS AND PERFECT.
I'm not kidding here, I went gay for this episode from the first scene onwards, because OMG DETAILING:
This is officially my favourite shot from the entire Red Jacket series from now on. I mean, look at how easily Miyazaki portrays the Lupin gang's easygoing domesticity: Socks hanging out to dry, dirty dishes in the sink, beer in the fridge.
Most episodes from the midpoint of the Red Jacket series onwards had animators that only concerned themselves with the actual plot-related art, no doubt to meet deadlines. Seeing something that just adds to the mood or the characterization is a pretty damn rare treat is what I'm getting at here, and the reason why I get so excited at the mere sight of a full ashtray:
Anyway, from there on we get to play a lovely game of Spot The Ideas That Miyazaki Would Later Incorporate Into The Castle of Cagliostro! Such as:
- Lupin and Jigen squabbling over food like the childish dorks they are:
(I love Goemon quietly stealing the rest of the meat, OMG)
- The villains using stick grenades:
(They blew up the SSK! YOU DON'T. FUCK. WITH THE MERCEDES, MAN.)
- Last-minute escapes facilitating antiquated aircrafts:
- And of course Jigen and Lupin making a surprisingly elegant escape in spite of various challenges:
Yeah if you're wondering about the underwear thing, well A) It's a fine old Lupin tradition for Lupin to do all his most epic feats without trousers on (wait that came out wrong), and 2) Well you see we've got Inspector Zenigata and his SWAT team of awesome -
[Exhibit A]
- written as pretty damn competent for once!
Well for the most part.
Man they've got police procedures and everything:
1) APPREHEND THE CRIMINALS.
2) RELIEVE PRISONERS OF WEAPONS AND TOOLS THAT MIGHT BE USED IN POTENTIAL ESCAPE ATTEMPT (and find all kinds of awesome shit in the process).
3) REMIND MEN NOT TO GET TOO EXCITED.
(I'm pretty sure there's something in the Geneva Conventions about how taking away Jigen's hat serves as cruel and unusual punishment)
4) MAKE SURE PRISONERS ARE PROPERLY SUBDUED.
5) WHILE HAVING A NORMAL CONVERSATION WITH PRISONER LIKE YOU'VE BOTH GONE THROUGH THIS A HUNDRED TIMES BEFORE, PROCEED TO RELIEVE PRISONER OF FURTHER HIDDEN GADGETS YOUR TEAM FAILED TO FIND.
I mean gosh this scene is just too funny.
OH YES. PLOT. THERE IS ONE.
There are atom bombs and a really big plane and a lot of smaller planes and a villain that looks more or less exactly like Doctor Robotnik from the Sonic games, but on the whole it's a rescue mission to recover Fujiko, who sadly seems to have lost most of her clothes.
But just when I've begrudgingly come to terms with this episode just bringing us wank-fodder Fujiko once again, the guys (Zenigata and Lupin team up because Miyazaki loves us) goes all Red Baron on us -
- and Fujiko takes advantage of the distraction and just TURNS THE VOLUME UP TO BADASS AND DEFEATS THE MOOKS ALL BY HERSELF.
FUJIKO. LOOK AT YOU KICKING ASS AND SAVING THE DAY, OMG.
NOW THAT'S SEXY.
And oh oh oh, in the midst of the action Zenigata and Jigen totally have a little Moment!
I can't even recall another occurrence when Zenigata and Jigen speak directly to each other, SO WHOA (You'd think they'd share their secrets on how to get their hats to stay on during arial combat, you'd think they were stapled on or something).
And poor Goemon, you were hardly in this episode but at least you were drawn pretty.
And so: All this happens in a mere 30-minute episode. Also there's lots flailing and explosions and badassery and adorableness.
THE END.
Man it's been ages since I made GIFs, I had to update half my GIF-making software. But ah, I reach such a state of zen just making my little movable pictures... (I swear one day I'm going to find a better way to optimize them without indexing the colours. Some day.)