Hello folks and greetings for Day 3 of
Anime Picks Week. Scatterbrained me almost did an extensive blog on
the ins and outs of City Hunter forgetting... I have already done
that. Thankfully my brilliant and lovely girlfriend pointed that out
along with me and I decided the best course of action is to find an
anime that combines humor with a fair degree of action, heist and
police evasion. I speak none other than the thief extraordinaire, the
convincing conman, the rascally rogue. This is Lupin the 3rd.
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| Damn, that girl on the elliptical is really going to it. |
Based on the Manga of Kazuhiko
Kato (a.k.a. Monkey Punch) this series
follows the insane heists and general shenanigans of one master thief
Arsene Lupin the third, grandson of fictional character Arsene Lupin
the gentleman thief and detective of the Maurice Leblanc
novels. That character was sort of a doppelganger of Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle's own Sherlock Holmes. Complicated, ain't it?
With that in mind, let us discuss the
man of the hour and his gang of misfit professionals. With his
announcements to rub it in the authorities via calling card to the
owners of said gorgeous treasures Lupin knows when to ask for the aid
of his trusted accomplices. His closest partner and fellow schemer,
Daisuke Jigen, an marksman of unparalleled standing, normally these two
pull a fair amount of jobs as a two-man crew but every so often then
find need for a few more boots on the ground. Enter Goemon Ishikawa
the 13th, a swords-master whose blade can literally cut
through anything and his precision is second to none and last but
certainly not least, the full-figured femme fatale Fujiko Mine, whose
eagerness to help, coupled by her stunning looks tends to blind Lupin
as she may scoop up the score for herself.
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| Femme Fatale? Moi? |
With his patented red jacket, white
slacks, black shirt and yellow tie, Lupin strikes a pose of a
carefree fellow looking to make his next pinch through his own unique
planning and execution. Imagine crossing the Saint with James Bond
and adding a level of Peter Cooke for humor and you get the general
idea. Guess that would make Fujiko the Bond Girl. Hmm.
Aside from their fun and games of
plundering, destruction of private property and mass insanity, one
man is assigned to bring our curious quartet in, Inspector Zenigata
of INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization)
who time and time again has been bluffed, thwarted, bamboozled and
more or less baffled at the crime in progress let alone how Lupin
plans to escape his capture. Seriously though, Zenigata must have a
huge ulcer or acid reflux from all the paperwork and stress Lupin
creates. He eats food on the go, constantly screaming at fellow
authority figures and overall has a bit of an attitude problem
towards his superiors.
And now a few facts of the existence of
this series. Back in 1967, the Lupin III manga was created in Weekly
Manga Action creating a franchise that scored four different
anime TV series, at least two live-action movies, CD soundtracks,
multiple video games and even a musical. Suck it, Spiderman!
That being said, our franchise bounced
from over 10 different companies arguing over the rights to both the
original Japanese release and the English dubbed series. Tokyopop
acquired the rights to the original Manga and later a second series
as well. Funimation Entertainment bought up the rights for
several of the TV specials and the films while yet another company
Geneon got their mitts on the dubbed 79 episodes and worked a
broadcast contract with Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. And last of
all, Discotek Media fully licensed the entire first TV series
and the first live-action movie giving them access to several of the
other Lupin titles including some previously released for VHS, DVD
and now Blu-Ray. Bet Kazuhiko
Kato never
saw this playing out the way it did.
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| Still more popular than Pokemon! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! |
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