Lupin III: Tokyo Crisis

These boys knew what they were doing. Tokyo Crisis is formulated beautifully to the beats of The Castle of Cagliostro. Lupin seeks a mysterious treasure under the guard of a nefarious aristocrat; glorious chase scenes follow; an innocent damsel is tied up with the mystery; political pressure on the always-resolute Zenigata causes him to despair, yet he pursues his sense of duty outside the law; Fujiko seeks the treasure by her own means; Jigen and Goemon exist as running gags rather than as primary characters. One could accuse it of imitation, but the fate of a long-running franchise is to perpetually tell the same story.The key to keeping it interesting is not in total differentiation, but in the creativity of the action sequences and in the different ways one can play with the distinctive characters. After all, the audience is here for the love of the formula... and for the sheer cool factor. G.K. Chesterton wrote in his first Father Brown mystery, “The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.” Indeed, what would Sherlock Holmes be without a meticulous crime to meticulously unravel? We admire Holmes—or Hercule Poirot, or Philip Marlowe, or Lieutenant Columbo for that matter—for his amazing, complex deductions; but the crime is the sole reason the deduction was either amazing or complex. This was the genius of Leblanc's original Arsene Lupin tales: the reader gets the thrilling creativity straight from the artist, rather than secondhand through the magnifying glass of the sleuth. Tokyo Crisis carries on Leblanc's tradition in its anime ways; fanciful gadgets, amusing disguises, and absurd acrobatics are its raison d'etre—excuse my French. The beauty of animation is that you can bring the most whimsical of schemes to life. Tokyo Crisis has a primary focus on the beloved, bumbling, steadfast Inspector Zenigata. Though his obsession with capturing Lupin carries his relevance to the franchise, his true duty is to the honor and justice of law. The man of wholesome integrity might just seem like a foil to the crooked master thief, if not for their constant teaming up. Though Zenigata favors order and Lupin favors excitement, they both believe in objective justice. One puts aside his institutional loyalties and the other puts aside his debauchery in order to stop the truly dastardly doings from succeeding. However, Tokyo Crisis does end—with a little help from our friends—in the success of law enforcement over the corrupt antagonist. It's a breath of fresh air from recent titles' more cynical conclusions, and a pleasing little win for the frequently disappointed Zenigata. When the perversions, political absurdities, plot holes, and convoluted intrigues of the current Lupin III seasons fatigue you; old specials have a way of recovering one's weary fandom. Tokyo Crisis is a joyful experience that exemplifies everything that makes the Lupin III franchise great. All Lupin fans need to watch it, and can absolutely use it as an introduction for Lupin newbies. Watching The Castle of Cagliostro and following it up with a mediocre anime episode can give the impression that Miyazaki is exceptional and the rest of the franchise is empty of value. Miyazaki certainly is exceptional, but Lupin and co. can do quite well for themselves without him. I'm ready to retract my claim that heroism no longer belongs in the franchise—you just need to do it right. What a lovely reminder that writers can do things right.

This is definitely one of the better Lupin specials! Yay, Zenigata! He gets a plot and it's not ridiculous! The special delivers his traditional buffoonery early on so that he can later be a badass without it detracting from the character history. Which I think is important because with Lupin being a ridiculously amazing thief, his opponent (even if a quarter of the time they end up more friendly than enemies) needs to be top notch too. This one features a lot of Lupin and Zenigata working together, which I have to admit I am a fan of. But don't worry, the dynamics are back tonormal by the end. However, as the special focuses on Lupin and (separately) Zenigata, that doesn't leave much development time for Jigen and Goemon. Jigen...has a toothache. And Goemon...has lost his precious sword. Not much going on there. Although I have to admit, once those two things are resolved it's pretty funny. The art? Much better than I expected, considering it came out of the 90s. Compare it to the Harimao special which came out just 3 years earlier and you'll see a drastic difference. My only complaint is that no matter what the special so long as it's out of the main series, the animators seem to have difficulty animating anything in a style similar to the main characters, which leaves a bad taste in the mouth since they look like they're from different anime than everyone else in the special. The sound? Once again we get the off the wall English dub with completely different pronunciations of the names that were established, for example, for many many episodes in the second series (and even the video game). That really grinds my gears every time I hear names or voice acting that just seems out of place.

This might be the best of the Funimation series lupin films. Characterization is on point the voice acting is actually decent and so is the sound editing. Although it still has the same problems as the rest, its just not as goo as the "classic" films and it was clearly copied from a VHS tape instead of a proper master before being put on DVD. Overall its okay I guess, definitely better than the others in the set that I've watched so far. Oh also Lupin gets to drive a Blue Renault A110 which is far cooler than his usual yellow Fiat 500