Lupin the Third: Jigen's Gravestone

BlobbertMcN★ 9

'Lupin the IIIrd: Jigen Daisuke no Bohyou', or 'Jigen Daisuke's Tombstone' - a spinoff of one of my personal favourite anime 'Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Mine Fujiko'. While I certainly didn't see it meeting the same level of quality as the the original, this spin off was certainly still an enjoyable watch. But let me break it down: ~STORY~ The story of Jigen Daisuke's Tombstone is definitely weaker than its original counterpart, even compared to individual episodes - which is certainly a shame. Rather than a focus on Lupin III, as you may have guessed the story is focused more on his hat-tilting, gun-toting friendJigen. Or does it? Jigen is indeed the one in the title, but he seems less interesting than other iterations of himself, and commands less focus (More about that in Characters). Rather the plot revolves around an assassination, the assassin involved and why it happened. But is that even the point? If you couldn't tell, the story, while easy to understand, lacks focus. It sets up a story of politics and assassinations, changes to one of 'who is of greater skill', gets sidetracked by something almost completely unrelated (Pretty much an excuse to get Mine Fujiko naked again - which isn't a spoiler), then wraps it all up with brief mention to previous points. While it does hit the regular Lupin III plot point of Lupin being the smartest guy in a room, I can't help but feel as if it's setting up for sequels by intentionally leaving things unexplained. I guess I just expected more. ~CHARACTERS~ The regular Lupin III cast returns... except my two favourite characters are missing! But oh well, the detective and samurai can be put on hold I suppose. As for the cast that does show up, I have to say I'm a little disappointed. While indeed Lupin, Fujiko and Jigen are all more or less themselves, I can't help but think that Fujiko and Jigen are less capable than they were in the original 'Mine Fujiko' series. To say more is spoilers, but I can't help but think that their skill is arbitrarily reduced to generate conflict. Despite this, there's nothing particularly wrong with any of the main characters personalities - if you liked them before, you'll like them now. The 'villain' however is not too exciting, the writers thinking eccentricity is a replacement for actual character. But if you're into calculated killer type of villain, then I'm sure you'll enjoy him just fine. ~ART~ While the art and the character designs is still very nice to look at (almost identical to the 'Mine Fujiko' series), I have to say that it looks much cleaner than its original counterpart, lacking the same style. Depending on your personal opinion that's either better or worse, but personally I missed the thick chalky shadows of the original. Certainly anything but bad, but it doesn't look quite as impressive as the original. ~SOUND~ Pretty standard for a modern Lupin creation - which means it's quite good. It lacks the breadth of the original 'Mine Fujiko' series, but then again 57 minutes compared to a 13 episode series means you can't have as diverse a soundtrack. Also a little less jazzy, which I missed, but that's just my personal tastes. ~ENJOYMENT~ As I said in the opening, while lacking the same quality as the original, Lupin IIIrd: Jigen Daisuke's Tombstone is still entertaining, as pretty much all Lupin is. It's a short watch, and worth it just to have a bit more quality Lupin. Overall, if this is the first spinoff of many, this first one certainly hasn't reduced my opinion of those to come. I'm excited to see where this is heading, but I hope the story improves. Toodles~

AnimeObasan★ 7

In a movie called "Daisuke Jigen's Tombstone," one might suppose that it would be about, oh, I don't know...Daisuke Jigen. Probably his inevitable death (which will, of course, be fake because he's been kicking since the 60s and do you really think some random movie villain is going to end him?). If you are hoping for a Jigen origin story, you'll find more backstory in many Red Jacket series episodes. Instead of focusing on the titular character (as The Woman Called Fujiko Mine did), this is once again a Lupin adventure. That's, of course, not a bad thing. The Lupin franchise has been going strongwith no end in sight. However, the movie had a strange feel to it. It was very 1970s, but you won't understand why it has such an outdated feel until a certain end scene at which point the Jigen movie now feels like a prequel and the mood makes sense. In other words: go into this short movie (less than an hour) not expecting much, but still leaving satisfied. Ish. STORY: As I said, not much focus on Jigen. I mean, I guess it was titled "Tombstone" and not "Jigen Origin Story," but I expected more from the trailers. I skipped through it before watching it, and found a scene with a woman on stage. I assumed we'd have a detailed backstory about that. Nope. No emotional connection there. And the movie is odd; broken down into two parts. Every single Lupin movie/special has at least one laugh out loud moment, one moment to make you really feel glad you watched it. This movie is so blah it's ridiculous. It's an action movie with very little good action and too many over used (and unsuccessful) story props. HOWEVER! The last 10 minutes will pay off. We get a few good cameos, and one that has me going back to watch the certain movie he or she was in. CHARACTER: As a woman, the only thing I dislike about Monkey Punch's anime and ESPECIALLY the manga, is how much he seems to hate women. They are there to be, either abused, killed off, or romanced. Every single female character in a special is killed off once we've warmed up to the idea of her, or Lupin goes gaga for her, or she's the betraying vixen. Fujiko covers those last two pretty well. This time around, Lupin isn't having any of her B.S. But still, she gets groped, of course, and is nude, of course. The movie takes the rapebait Fujiko trope (and I'm ashamed to admit that's what she is at this point) up a step when Fujiko is set as entertainment for a bunch of pervy old men (picture the club from Speed Grapher) and is almost raped by a giant robot. Really. Horror movie fare, and not something I expected to see in Lupin (despite a good number of his villains being after Fujiko as the norm). All right, enough about Fujiko. Zenigata and Goemon?? Absent from the movie. Entirely absent. And before you whine: 3 second cameos do not count. They count as fanservice, but do not number towards the character count. In the movie, Lupin acts as though he practically owns Jigen -- he's clearly the star of the show, there's no doubt about that. This is a Lupin movie, not a Jigen movie. Even during the end show down, it's all about Lupin looking cool. Oh, and we find out Jigen likes couture. Whoo. So glad we got that backstory out of the way. Not like there's a whole period of his life he spent in America, or his youth, or anything else from his life before Lupin we could have possibly covered in an hour about Jigen, right? Right? ANIMATION: Good, I guess. Steps it up a bit from the Fujiko series while still maintaining the style. The only thing worth mentioning is Lupin's new look. Whether a blue or green jacket, that's debatable as the movie gets a subtle filter that could have shaded the jacket from green to blue (and for the time line laid out, green would make sense). For a few minutes in the movie, Lupin gets a delightful disguise (you know the one -- with the eyepatch). Also, Jigen hasn't looked this good since the Pink Jacket series. As there were only a few characters, they definitely stepped up their allure. SOUND: Where's my jazz?? No Yuji Ohno on this one! Other than that, normal voice acting from the Lupin gang. Nothing worth mentioning. OVERALL: Meh. Watch it because it's as good as watching one long, unimportant episode of Lupin. Watch it because you like mediocore action. Watch it again for the end scenes ^__^