The gang is back for its 40th Aniversery according to Japanator and Topless Robot the Translation of the title is called Lupin the Third: The Woman Named Fujiko Mine.The question is Fujiko going to show her boobs in this?
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/03/the_new_lupin_the_3rd_anime_trailer_stole_all_the.php
Never watched Lupin before....so yeah, it gonna take more than just mindless solving clue/puzzle to hook me up on this...something like T&A
Also cassablanca is being re-released in theaters too to commemorate its aniversary
baronight said:
Never watched Lupin before....so yeah, it gonna take more than just mindless solving clue/puzzle to hook me up on this...something like T&A
You should watch the old Miyazaki directed episodes. They're pretty good (though one episode is a remake of an old Superman cartoon with the robots he eventually used for Laputa).
Peter Barton said:
You should watch the old Miyazaki directed episodes. They're pretty good (though one episode is a remake of an old Superman cartoon with the robots he eventually used for Laputa).
He should watch the movie Castle of Cagliostro too! It's also Miyazaki directed and he won't need prior knowledge of the show to enjoy it. It's one of my favorites.
nEveR.Fly_ said:
He should watch the movie Castle of Cagliostro too! It's also Miyazaki directed and he won't need prior knowledge of the show to enjoy it. It's one of my favorites.
Depending on where he lives he can watch it right now:
*(This was written as of watching episodes 1-7)*
I would like to say beforehand that this is the first time I am watching a Lupin III Anime at all. Except for a random episode of the 70's tv series that was on Adult Swim when I was really young,I have never watched any of the tv series, the specials, or the movies when I was younger. That doesn't mean I have never heard of Lupin III or it's characters however, they are major icons in the world of Anime and even someone with no experience in the franchise can understand that. Even though I had no prior experience with the franchise, I was excited for the series as I viewed it as my chance to formally get into the franchise. And even as of seven episodes in I am very glad I took that chance.
First things first are the visuals. They are incredibly awesome and very avant garde in just how stylized they are. A big part of why I like the visuals so much is because of how cartoony and stylized they are, which matches the slightly absurd and very much larger than life feel of the show in general. Though because of how stylized the visuals are, I can understand if people don't like it because they feel it's "too much" or something similar. But I myself love them, so I thank Takeshi Koike for the outstanding feast for the eyes this show it.
Next up is the music, which I also love to death (anytime Shinichiro Watanabe is involved in the making of an Anime, I always like the music, even if I am not a fan of the content proper). I love both the OP and ED. The OP, New Wuthering Heights is particularly interesting as it is really more of a monologue with a musical accompaniment. None the less I do quite like it as the instrumentation is very nice with just the right touch of ominousness that does get the heart racing. As for the monologue there are some really nice lines like the intro of "Stop everything you are doing. Let your heart race and look at me." as well as cheesy lines like "a prison of sexyness..." The ED, Duty Friend, is actually a proper song with sung vocals and I love it as well. The instrumentation is very cool and smooth with vocals that are just as much so. Just as well, I love the visuals of both the OP and ED, and all parts of them, fanservice and non-fanservice. This Anime definitely takes care of my Jazz fix.
Both music and visuals form very big reasons why I like the Anime, but that does not mean I think the content proper is poor. I do like this Anime's variant on Lupin III himself (I believe this is "Green Jacket Lupin" as it were). He has just the right balance of flightiness and silliness combined with a very quick wit and a scary level of competence when the time calls for it, as well as a high level of lust as well. I like that there is a certain level of moral ambiguity in Lupin but it doesn't ever seem like he's actually a bad/evil guy. Though speaking of moral ambiguity, let's talk of the main character herself, Fujiko Mine. I read off of TV Tropes that out of all the characters, Fujiko is the one who varies the most depending on which form of Lupin III you are watching. And I suppose because of that, she was not exactly what I was expecting. She is far more morally ambiguous than I expected, a true Chaotic Neutral who at times is even more questionable than that. She is also far more willing to use sex to get what she wants than I thought. She also seems to have a supreme indifference to anything that is not riches or treasure (or she'll try to cover up her indifference with a faked interest or her feminine wiles). I think this can all just be chalked up to my lack of experience with the character of Fujiko Mine and Lupin III in general, so I just didn't know what to expect. I think that these character traits are both a bane and a boon. Her willingness to sleep around somewhat cheapens her reputation as a thief somewhat, until one remembers that she is portrayed as being a master of disguise and having quite an accurate trigger finger. Her interest in only treasure as well as her capriciousness makes her seem a bit shallow, but the show is cryptic enough that it makes it seem like there is something else to her personality beyond that. And finally, her moral ambiguity makes her hard to trust and to sympathize with (at least to me), but it makes for a character you don't want to stop watching because I want to find out just how far is she willing to go. Fujiko's character in this series doesn't really make me like her per say, but it does make her intensely interesting and it makes me want to keep watching.
Goemon Ishikawa is more or less how I imagined him to be, both stoic and badass, though there is not much more to say about him. I had no idea what Daisuke Jigen was supposed to be like, but I think he is cool as well and I like the little rivalry he had with Lupin. Zenigata is more serious and competent than I expected, but I like that change as it makes him feel like a more credible threat. Though I think the biggest threat on the show is Oscar, who is a new character if I am not mistaken. He seems to be quite into Zenigata, for whatever reason I am not sure why he is (or why anyone would be attracted to Zenigata). He is scarily competent as shown in the Maria-sama ga Miteru episode, but I am not a fan of him as he seems to have an active disgust of anyone that is not Zenigata (and especially Fujiko). I say he is in big need of a comeuppance, but only time will tell.
Though one thing I do like is the tone, style, and nature of the show as a whole. It plays this balance between a grandiose and wacky "big-caper" sensibility with some serious and drama-laden plotlines. And for the most part, it works out pretty well. Thank you Mari Okada for putting on your A-game for this (as opposed to BRS TV or Hanasaku Iroha). And yeah there is a certain degree of melodrama here and there, but I say it works pretty well.
As for the plotlines themselves, I feel that most of them are quite nice. They have a nice amount of tension and action as well, and are in general pretty solid. However, as with any episodic Anime there are strong episodes and there are weak episodes. I feel that the ones with Lupin and Fujiko are the strongest, with the 1st episode and the one about the jeweled Opera mask being particular favorites, and the one about the "Carib (Cuban)" Revolution being the weakest. The ones with Jigen are quite nice as well.
Though on the whole, this is one of my favorites this season along with Jormungand and Acchi Kocchi (though my favorites of the previous season, Ano Natsu and Nisemonogatari trump all of them with ease to me). I find Lupin III: A Woman Named Fujiko Mine to be quite enjoyable.
What does Shinichiro Watanabe have to do with Lupin?
Nabeshin dresses like Lupin.
Also:
Chief Director Work
Lupin III: Da Capo of Love: Fujiko's Unlucky Days / The Columbus Files (1999)
Peter Barton said:
What does Shinichiro Watanabe have to do with Lupin?
He is involved in the making of this particular series of Lupin. He is listed as the "Music Producer" on ANN.
VillainousHanacha said:
He is involved in the making of this particular series of Lupin. He is listed as the "Music Producer" on ANN.
Cool.
aneko said:
Nabeshin dresses like Lupin.Also:
Chief Director Work
Lupin III: Da Capo of Love: Fujiko's Unlucky Days / The Columbus Files (1999)
You got the wrong director.
Shinichiro Watanabe: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=774
Shinichi Watanabe: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=512
Good catch. <.<
I guess now that the show is over I suppose a follow up is due.
I maintain most of what I said earlier, however what I had reservations about was the latter half of the show. We started to learn more about Count Almeida and the Fraulein Eule cult, and I think it was at this point that the show became weaker for me.
Once the show started with it's overarching plot and became infested with owls, it became a little too trippy for my tastes. The show was always somewhat surreal, but it was surreal in an over the top fashion, a bigger, grander, and more exaggerated reality, a life so dynamic that you wished you had it. When we got fully into the Count Almeida plot it was the serious, doubt the very ground you stand on type of surreal, and I felt that this was at odds with the mood set up by the series when it was more "Caper of the Week" as it were. I was not fond of the show's shift in tone, and that was one of the factors that weakened it for me.
Also in the show's first half, I was never in doubt of Fujiko's capabilities to get herself into trouble and out of it without a scratch. In the latter half, that feeling came under scrutiny at times. I get that they wanted to show that even someone capable could experience distress, but there's a limit to how much it should be done, especially to a character like Fujiko. This is a woman of mystery, who thinks nothing of using others for personal benefit and who either has a plan, or is in the process of thinking one up. It felt odd for someone to be consistently haunting someone like her, to be using the person who constantly uses others, especially because Fujiko is portrayed as being a very larger than life figure. It was in the latter half where I think they were trying too hard to make Fujiko "deep" as it were. They had a good thing going with the beginning as well.
Also what really baffled me about the show was the finale proper. It was a total twist from absolutely nowhere, an increadibly blatant Deus Ex Machina. Not to mention it was a lead up to an eventual denial, as the show was built around the premise of finding out about the woman of mystery that is Fujiko Mine, and as per the twist all the things shown that were thought to be of Fujiko's childhood were not really her memories, but fake ones implanted by Count Almeida's stand-in whilst the Count himself was dead all along. In the end Fujiko shakes off her implanted memories as the fakes they are and we the viewer are none the wiser about Fujiko's actual past. Though perhaps in retrospect, maybe it's better that the history which was presented as Fujiko's was fake. Part of her alure is the mystery of her person and persona. It's a slight unknown factor which makes her even more appealing. Knowing about her history and her life before being a thief would kind of ruin the beauty of the Facade as it were, the mystery itself is inherently desirable about her and us knowing more would reduce Fujiko's appeal. The twist ending does have that upside, but that does not change the fact that the twist ending came at the 11th hour and completely out of left field.
However at the end of the day, this was still my first Lupin III experience and I have to ask myself, am I happy for it? I would have to say that yes, I definitely am. The show's first half is still an excellent watch, Lupin himself was a delight on screen from start to finish, the art style was absurdly good looking, and it did a good job of showing a world that was both ours yet not, a bigger and grander world that was increadibly exciting. The show started to try a little too hard to be surreal and dark by the end, forgetting what made it so appealing in the process, the handling of Fujiko's character was questionable, and Lupin's gang never fully takes shape by the end having only requited Jigen (This one I'll admit is more of a pet peeve). However a show like this is more about the ride itself than the destination in my opinion. Because of how it handled itself in the latter half, I can no longer count it as one of my favorites of the Spring season which would be Acchi Kocchi, Jormungand and either AKB0048 or Hyouka. However Lupin III: A Woman Named Fujiko Mine at it's highest points was an absolute blast to watch that I wouldn't have missed for anything, and I am glad that I did not pass this show up.
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