Lupin III: Goodbye Partner

kokuborou★ 7

As expected from each Lupin special it doesn't disappoint you in terms of enjoyment and characters. As you know and are familiar in each special there is a focus on a certain main character were they present another side of him rather than the usual one that we are used to see. In this special the focus is on Jigen and we are shown a more human side of him rather than his cold personality and gun skill as a hitman. The special does a good job at exposing some surprising traits of the main characters especially Fujiko during her piano recital performance or Lupintrying to adapt his thief skills using modern technology (computers), Goemon being behind times but always helpful with his Zanketsu for Lupin's gang and finally the unyielding determination of Zenigata to catch Lupin. The story is the same, someone gives a challenge to our main character Lupin to steal something impossible at first glance but using his magic and craftiness he manages to exceed expectations and provide a lot of enjoyment in making the impossible possible. Praise worthy is how well the main 4 characters work with each other to achieve their initial goal and the plot twists who raise the hurdle for the story. While there a lot themes the main problem that this special has is that it fails to execute a main theme and we have a mess. Another problem is the villain who this time has some shit reasons for his actions and a childish ambition (world domination). Nevertheless these two factors don't ruin the enjoyment and emotions that this movie deliver especially through it's catchy music and knowledge about the world of classical music .The visuals are great, and for that thank you TMS, there are still talented people out there who can hand draw a plane and not use cheap cgi like most modern shows abuse of it. The grills are great and their personality and charisma always makes me love them especially when they help our main character Lupin who is all the time finding himself in a dire situation. So for the usual Lupin fans i recommend you watch this movie you will be not disappointed and for those who are new to these series start with the old specials from the 90's to get a little hold and knowledge on how Lupin and his gang does his stuff! Bye Bye!

AnimeObasan★ 3

This movie had a LOT of problems... SETTING: I don’t really understand the setting. Traditionally, Lupin has traveled all over the world instead of sticking to one location. Real places and real people have always been used and expanded on; for instance, da Vinci was made into a psychic super villain once. However, in this movie we have scenes in places like Area 61 and Las Vegas Arizona. In other words, very slightly off. We also had a Snowden knockoff for some reason (he’s in the movie for all of 30 seconds). And on top of that, the evil Big Bad is named Emilika. She’s supposedto be Chopin’s sister, Emilia, but it sounds so similar to how America is pronounced in Japanese, that it’s hard NOT to think that this isn’t some poorly veiled jab at America. Everyone seems over the top mean, cruel, and stupid. You have characters thinking attack drones are delivering pizza, texting while driving, and just being completely oblivious. The president is a self-centered, greedy woman whose solution to a problem is to bomb it. At one point Lupin openly complains about America using brute force. And it’s all set in America. Frankly, the movie seemed passively aggressively hostile towards America. SOUND: Typical great voice acting and jazz music! However, the addition of Chopin as a main piece seemed random. ART: I love Lupin art because it’s so atypical anime style. There’s a lot of heavy Western influence, especially in some of the 70s and 80s Lupin anime. This is not one of them. This one fully embraces its Japanese origins while still placing the anime mostly in America, which just came across as culturally odd and somewhat discordant. The 3D animation, specifically EVERY SINGLE TIME someone played a piano, was absolutely terrible and jarringly different from the rest of the art style. Some animations were cute, some shots were typical Lupin flavor, while others felt overly done and unnecessary just for the sake of the shot, as if the director and art coordinators got in an argument about the reasoning behind a scene and ended with, “Just do it for the Gram!” STORY: All Lupin III franchise specials and movies have a pretty specific formula. And that formula has worked since the 1960s, most of the time. This is one of those rare times it didn’t work. It’s like the production team just didn’t understand Lupin. They sat down and thought, “Ok, we need a teenage girl in danger. We need Fujiko to betray Lupin and side with a bad guy, but turns out she’s probably on his side and being selfish, or IS SHE?!?! We need a possible break up between Lupin and his partners. Don’t forget Zenigata! Give him some ridiculous mini subplot. And make sure the Big Bad wants to do something EXTRA EVIL that might actually be magic, but is also something Lupin would steal, ok?” I was disappointed in this one for a lot of reasons. (1) The Lupin franchise has been traditionally hard to detail the timeline, canon, and even character backgrounds. But this one will just make your head hurt in the first 5 minutes. We have Area 61, Las Vegas Arizona, etc. But very specific on piano details. Things that are wrong just for the sake of confusion. I’m still unclear on Jigen’s subplot and Zenigata’s minor entanglement. (2) There was too much going on. I’m still not sure what happened. Just overall too much happened. (3) There are many different Lupin anime, OVAs, specials, movies, live action, absolutely everything. Heck I just found a Lupin board game at a flea market, and I have the PS2 game. That said, the franchise has struggled with what it wants to be. In one, you have a goofy Zenigata who walks around yelling “crap crap crap!” While in another he’s the epitome of overly dedicated, straight laced cop, and in yet another he’s hooking up with Fujiko and acting a bit shady. Some of those can pass for PG-13 easily while others are a hard R. The original manga series had a very dark Lupin, definitely not innocent and pc. This movie though?? It seemed like it was trying to pass itself as PG. No smoking from the Good Guys. No blood. No deaths. When someone did die, you saw it in silhouette. Surprise! Everyone that’s a Good Guy is Completely Pure and Innocent. And honestly that’s not what Lupin is, so ruins a bit of the enjoyment.