Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy

I thought I was a committed Red Jacket kind of person, but I have an exception now for sure. Almost all the characters are great in this one, even the one-off cute girl character, Murasaki. At the start I thought she was going to be a forgettable, passive Clarisse type and I was completely surprised. She enriches the whole rest of the movie with her presence and her adorable post-rescue outfit (sweater dress and leg warmers!!) Her scenes running around with Goemon evading traps and hunting for clues felt like they were out of a wholesome kids’ adventure movie from the 80s. “I won’t wait foryou, Goemon!” was such a great note for her to finish on. You shouldn’t wait for him, Murasaki. He is definitely 100% not attracted to women. Fujiko was great too! The outburst of girlish excitement and delight she lets out when she sees the treasure struck me as so sincere, I felt like I was seeing a bit of the real Fujiko for maybe the first time. Great moment. I should note here that we usually watch Lupin dubbed at my place. I’m specifically most used to the 2003 Richard Epcar-directed dub, but I warmed up to this cast pretty quick. Fujiko’s voice actress Michele Seidman stood out specifically, I really liked her. Very naturalistic, it's a shame she hasn't worked more. Robin Robertson, who played Lupin, has a subtle regional accent that had him saying treasure sort of like ‘traysure.’ Turns out the actor is from North Carolina! Southern boy Lupin is funny to me the same way Dan Lorge’s strikingly Texan Zenigata is funny. Some weird dubbed name pronunciations: Lupin is Rupan in this one, which is annoying. There also was disagreement between characters on whether Goemon is Gwye-mon or Goya-mown (these are both definitely worse than the Epcar dub’s Goyaman.) The only major character who didn’t give me what I wanted from them was Jigen, which is too bad because he’s usually my favorite. He just had very little going on, which is okay because this was really a Goemon movie. There were some great animation bits in this one! Most of it is animated on twos like your usual TV and direct to video anime, but there’s a fascinating little cut of Murasaki clambering down some rocks that’s on the ones. Her movements are extra fluid for just a few seconds. There’s another cut where a guy is handed a big ceramic vase and he fumbles it a bit because it’s heavier than expected. The vase’s tassels sway as it moves. These are the type of small touches that I treasure, where I can point at the screen and say “Did you see that? They didn’t have to do that! But they did!! Animation!” The big car chase scene is wacky even by Lupin standards. Like 10 cop cars get owned by Jigen driving the yellow Fiat. Down hallways, up and down stairs, through public baths, absolute madness. There’s a sort of first-person shot from somewhere around Jigen’s elbow as he’s driving, like you’re leaning forward from the back seat watching the debris and fruit crates fly past the windscreen. It’s fantastic. Last things: -Zenigata is extra handsome in this one. I can’t explain it, he just is. -The climax of the movie is like 80% straight Goemon being cool. He’s just… he’s so cool.

Honestly a really solid Lupin movie the characters aren't particularly complex, and at times it comes across like samurai movie especially with some of the fight scenes. Also its a much more Goemon focused story so this is pretty much everything I want from a Lupin film. Great score, fantastic if a little dated animation and its just a laughable good time. The plot kinda feels like a bad TTRPG. The gang's at a wedding when *dice roll sound* ninjas attack and now the *dice roll sound* priceless family vase has been stolen! Go get it back! There really isn't any reason for Lupin to be interested in theentire plot other than "other thieves seem to think this is a good idea so there must be something to it" Characterization is hilarious, everyone feels funny and on point. Seeing Zenigata mourn for Lupin was genuinely touching and somehow the writers actually made me ENJOY Fujiko. Mostly cause Lupin seems fully aware of who she is and what she does. I LOVE the action scenes, shot for shot scene for scene the slapstick is on point but what gets me are the samurai fight scenes. I'm a huge fan of westerns and samurai flicks so it is RIGHT up my alley. An absolute joy.

[THIS WAS WRITTEN RIGHT AFTER WATCHING IT AND ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACC. KEEPING THIS HERE FOR AN ARCHIVE] Woah. I can definitely see why ppl suck this movies dick a lot this shit is smooth. Like I could not to tell u what this ones plot was in any meaningful or comprehensive way but I can tell u there isn’t a single bad looking scene in the entire run time of this movie. Every fucking shot is flawlessly animated. The character designs r all wonderful EVEN FUJIKO LOOKS AMAZING AND BETTER THEN MOST OTHER DESIGNS OF HERS zenigata got a buzz cut bald lookthat looks a little funny but it fits him p well tbh. Every single visual element is simply Jaw Dropping. MUSIC ON THE OTHER HAND IS A BIT MORE ON THE STRANGE SIDE bc Tms put their whole fucking pussy in the visuals tryna make cagliostro 2 they literally didn’t have enough money to hire yuji ohno (or get the usual jp cast) so there’s someone else handling the ost this time and NGL I THOUGHT ID NOTICE AND HATE IT BUT I CAME AROUND TO REALLY LIKING THE OST it fits and feels lupin-y! Cant complain at all really!! Another note to touch on is the voice cast. I was ready to be cringing at the shitty old dub line delivery and poor casting but I’m gonna be honest I was shocked by this shit too bc like everyone did a p decent job. Lupins va actually was kinda good and I really liked fujikos voice too; everyone else was kinda off, zenigatas line deliveries were always kinda stilted sounding but like he had the right idea at least. Was jarring hearing them all call him “rupan” too since this was before arsene lupin became public domain. Storywise, shit was generic at best and hard to follow at worst. The fact this one had more of a focus in goemon was cool tho I love goemon centric stories. Regardless I feel like w this movie, u don’t really come in looking for plot I think it’s all just visual neuron stimulation Overall this one was super good and super fun to watch even if the story backseat for the animators to go fucking insane. A solid ass hour and 30 mins of pure eye candy. I give it a nice B+/A