By Mark Valdes, Staff Writer
LEGACY: The Legacy of the series Lupin the Third is so charming and familiar that it makes fans of the series excited to see it made into a movie.
Lupin the Third or Lupin III is a series created by Kazuhiko Kato, aka “Monkey Punch”, that dates all the way back to 1967 with it’s first content being a manga (a Japanese comic book) appearing in Weekly Manga Action. Lupin the Third Part 1 was later brought into the anime world in 1971 and gave life to a plethora of content bearing the name “Lupin” including an anime series, several TV specials, and countless movies.
Lupin himself is a petty thief who wants to maintain the image that his father and grandfather built for the Lupin name. Despite Lupin’s personality has gone through a lot of changes but traces of his old personality can still be found in each Lupin series. Lupin often hangs around his crew of thieves which consists of Daisuke Jigen, a very skilled gunslinger, and Goemon Ishikawa, a very deadly samurai. Throughout the series, the three deal with Fujiko Mine, a woman who loves to steal like Lupin and Inspector Zenigata, a detective trying to stop the thieves. The detective’s greatest goal is to catch Lupin and put him behind bars, but Lupin always manages to slip away which makes for goofy scenes with the two constantly competing with each other.
There are a lot of films about Lupin the Third, the most recent of which was “Lupin The Third: The First”. Lupin the Third: The First’s main cast of characters are Lupin III , Daisuke Jigen, Goemon Ishikawa, Fujiko Mine, Zengigata, and a new character named Laetitia who appears exclusively in this movie. Besides the exception of Laetitia, the rest of the cast are recurring characters who feel like old acquaintances.
The movie begins in a flashback during World War 2 with Lupin’s grandpa, father, and mother trying to hide a book from the Nazi army. Quickly after, it leads to a car chase that ends in a bad crash. That takes us to the late 1960’s, where the same book that the family was trying to hide all those years ago is being shown off to a crowd in a museum. The museum guards are alerted that a man by the name of Lupin III is after the book. The museum decides to lock it away, unaware that Lupin is one step ahead. Unfortunately for Lupin, a female guard quickly catches on to his plan, but as it turns out, that same guard was planning on stealing the book as well. When the situation looks like Lupin has been bested, it turns out that, thanks to the fake guard’s lack of thieving experience, Lupin was able to steal the book back. Lupin seemingly escapes with the book, but it gets stolen away by Fujiko Mine and Lupin is left to deal with the police who are accompanied by Lupin’s favorite person to see, Inspector Zenigata.
This movie is action packed and filled with comedy that is sure to keep you entertained for the full hour and a half. Lupin as a character still keeps his goofy personality and his cunning attitude, making this truly feel like a movie from the main series. The movie also has an amazing Jazz soundtrack that will make you snap your fingers to the beat. The main 5 characters in the movie actually also have meaningful and humorous interactions with real feelings behind them, which can’t be said for a lot of movies in our time where teammates act like complete strangers.It’s refreshing to see a movie that treats the characters as if they all share an end goal.
“Lupin the Third: the First” was previously released in Japan in 2019, but never officially hit the US movie theaters. It has been announced that the English dub version of the movie will come to us on October 18, 2020. If you would rather hear the original Japanese voices accompanied by subtitles, you can read the subtitled version of the movie which will come to theaters on October 21. I highly recommend this movie as well as the series of Lupin the Third if you love comedy mixed in with amazing visuals. Give the movie a try and you will get your money’s worth!