天下制覇

I don’t remember Lupin being quite so hard on the ears.

Impressions:

I’m not sure if my memory is just way off, or if the VAs are finally just showing their age… or maybe all of them got throat cancer in the last few months, but I seriously don’t remember the voice acting being this bad in the last couple TV specials. Zenigata especially sounds like he was gargling rocks while reading off a set of index cards inbetween body shots off a cheap hooker. Lupin wasn’t too much better, but at least he got a little better as things progressed. Tossing bloody Hirano as SUPER AWESOME NINJA into the mix did not help on that front. Damn harpy.

Anyway, this one starts out with Lupin stealing some widget as usual until the chase is interrupted by a masked opera group that doesn’t know the meaning of the word overkill, who snatches the widget away from him and ‘kills’ Zenigata. Yeah… right. From there, it was essentially just Lupin vs Fujiko vs Asuka vs the Illuminati for various artifacts to unlock the secret of Fuujin the ultimate Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. It’s not exactly the most creative Lupin plot there has ever been. Every Lupin plot basically boils down to Steal widget, Kidnap Girl, ????, Profit.

I do wish this had been a little better animated. There was a lot of action, and they clearly spent effort choreographing it out, somewhere in the production, things just clearly didn’t quite come together. It was especially bad during some of the slow motion parts where you could easily see the dropped frames, but for the most part, it was all very well done and probably, minute for minute, the most action packed thing I’ve watched in months, if not the last year. Barely 5 minutes would pass before we’d be tossed into another chase scene or some other bizarre ninja would show up after the magic crystal. I’ll grant, some of it was beyond ridiculous, especially Andre, the Yoyo Ninja, and Asuka’s super amazing ninja dog, but it is Lupin. I just wish the animation had been a bit more fluid.

Even outside of the Lupin franchise though, this was really very good from start to finish and easily the best of the Lupin specials of the past few years. If you have any interest at all in the franchise, or even just action shows in general, I strongly recommend giving it a watch. It’s well worth your time, even if you do have to suffer through quite a few VAs long past their prime and at least one VA that will probably never have one.