Lupin III: The Secret of Twilight Gemini

Up to this point, Lupin and the gang may have run stale featuring pretty much yearly releases to this date. Once the original series was over and the amazing movie in Castle of Cagliostro, Lupin featuring in a good or even decent movie has been a tough ride. Luckily, The Secret of Twilight Gemini and its’ B-movie plot is a sight long awaited for in the Lupin franchise featuring likeable characters, good action and adventure, well written, and of course comedy with a little fan-service thrown in. Twilight Gemini takes quite some inspiration from Cagliostro from a family heirloom leading to a massive hidden treasure (Cagliostrowas a ring, Gemini is a diamond) to the crazy strange controversial enemy group that is also hot on the trail. Though still not nearly as good as Cagliostro, Twilight Gemini is very enjoyable. Lupin and this story take a bit to get moving, but the solid treasure hunt adventure more than makes up for that. The usual crew remains separate for most of the film, but this also gives Lupin more time with the ladies such as Fujiko and new babe Lara. Usual and not so new action scenes are ever so present and in this sense, is fairly bland for Lupin. The cult and political conspiracy written into the story gives the viewer a sense of uneasiness which makes this enemy especially evil. Towards the end, it is unfortunate that several plot holes appear leaving this Lupin adventure on a bit of a sour note. While the sound and voice acting, both Japanese and dub do the series justice, this doesn’t make up for a sub-par animation job. Studio TMS was one of the top studios of the time, so bland colors and awkward moving animation scenes leads to a low budget assumption. Twilight Gemini is the best Lupin movie since Cagliostro but a mature fan-service setting (not for children) and sub-par animation with too many ending plot holes leaves this great Lupin adventure downgraded to only a good Lupin movie.