So, what possessed Kazuhiko Kato (pen name Monkey Punch which he will henceforth be referred to as) to create this character? The first idea that probably came to your head was he was a fan of Maurice Le Blanc’s Novellas. But no, he had only glanced through a Japanese Language version of one short story collection. He wasn’t approached by Le Blanc’s estate to do a sequel, Japanese copyright law is very relaxed when it comes to fan work. He was simply hired to do some pages and short stories for a new anthology called “Weekly Manga Action” aimed at mature readers. Assuming that such a series would only last 6 issues, he decided to go full tilt satirising how violent western media was in particular the James Bond novels.
Lupin in his early appearances is far from the Gentleman thief he would become. Actually, he wasn’t even a thief, he was an assassin and a total bastard. The original manga run would introduce the core supporting cast to the series, so now is as good a time as any to introduce them (in the order they first appeared in Lupin the 3rd).
Inspector Zenigata, originally Heiji Zenigata the 7th or as Lupin calls him “Pops”. Debuting in the very first Lupin the 3rd story “The Arrest of Lupin the 3rd”. Monkey Punch once described him as the Tom to Lupin’s Jerry. Zenigata comes from a long line of police officers, descendants of the original Heiji Zenigata who starred in Japanese pulp novels set in the Edo period. Later renamed to avoid confusion to Koichi Zenigata. He’s a straight laced by-the-book police officer for Interpol determined to catch Lupin. He’s also been driven mad from the years of chasing Lupin.
Fujiko Mine, you can’t have a James Bond parody without the Bond-girl. Of course she has a pun for a name, Fuji being the Japanese for mountain and Komine being breasts (So she’s basically called “Big Tits”). Fujiko is a rival thief to Lupin, his love interest and member of his gang. Her hobbies include; making Lupin jump through hoops for her affection, convincing Lupin to steal things as “presents” for her and stealing Lupin’s treasure. All while Lupin has been “pricked by the thorn of her indifference”. They have an entirely unhealthy relationship, and different reasons to steal. Lupin steals for the challenge and thrill while Fuji-Cakes is entirely materialistic.
Daisuke Jigen, is Lupin’s bodyguard and the closest thing he has to a friend. Everything about Jigen is designed to contrast Lupin. Lupin is Romantic, Jigen is cynical, Lupin dresses in flashy colours, Jigen only wears Black and blue. Lupin is wild, goofy and impulsive, Jigen is stoic. A former (and now blacklisted) mafia bodyguard, he is also “the world’s best shot” with his Magnum.
Goemon Ishikawa is the last of the main cast to appear. He is the 13th in a dynasty of samurais and starts off as an antagonist to Lupin the 3rd being Fujiko’s ex-boyfriend. Goemon’s master ordered him to kill Lupin in a duel to prove that he truly is “the most dangerous man alive” (his master believing this to be Lupin). Lupin was told by Fujiko that Goemon was a rapist and a sadist so out of chivalry he agreed to duel Goemon. In the Duel Lupin used every trick he could and won, since then Goemon to restore his honour must be the one to kill Lupin. So until they duel again Goemon has to keep him alive or he can never regain his honour.
In 1966 Masaaki Osumo, sent around a 10 minute pitch pilot to every network in Japan. The pitch pilot had been unseen by the public until 2013, and serves as a good introduction to all the Lupin characters. The series went unproduced until 1971, in the meantime Osumo had made his controversial entry into the Moomin series, the one with random gun play (a version that Moomins creator Tove Jansonn ordered to be destroyed and has never been rerun). Osumo now proved he had sensibilities unsuitable for children’s television but still being an animation director, they had to make his series about a thief. The network would soon regret this because his full pilot “Is Lupin Burning..?” would feature Lupin winning a formula one race against criminals but also mercilessly machine gunning down the members of Scorpion without a 2nd thought. Between pilots Lupin’s jacket changed colour, in Monkey Punches manga Lupin wore a Red Jacket with a yellow tie and Black shirt but for the ongoing series his jacket became green. Two theories have been formed to explain this change; Osumo wore a green jacket and wanted to be Lupin or Japanese TV’s made anything red blurry. With the excessive levels of sex and violence Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata were added to the series as directors (but Osumo was fired for refusal to comply).
Miyazaki tried to emphasise the gentleman in Gentleman Thief and Takahata wanted to emphasise the Arsene Lupin in Lupin the 3rd. Ironically Takahata’s episodes are less historically relevant to Lupin the 3rd’s history because he focused more on his legacy as the grandson of the Gentleman Burglar, this is because TMS would try and get their series internationally known, but French copyright would hinder them from doing this until Arsene Lupin became a public domain character.
When Osumo was removed from the series, Takahata and Miyazaki created certain rules to make Lupin a sympathetic character:
1. Lupin has to earn what he’s stolen, (so he either steals from criminals or is awarded a prize for doing a good deed or can’t keep what he’s stolen).
2. Lupin is a thief not a murderer.
3. Lupin doesn’t hurt or steal from nice people.
4. Lupin will always save someone in trouble.
Despite the revamp, Lupin the 3rd would be cancelled after 23 episodes. But Toho (yes the Godzilla people) would make a live action feature film based on the Manga called “The Strange Psychokinetic Strategy”. The inspiration for the film seems to be trying to capitalise on Peter Sellar’s Pink Panther films, but edgier because it was the first film Toho ever made with a sex scene albeit heavily censored (the manga would use the same way to censor sex scenes and was homaged in the Woman called Fujiko Mine series much later). It also visually looks nothing like Lupin the 3rd, I know in the 1970’s converting manga pages to live action would only be feasible with the budget of Richard Donner’s Superman but Lupin is in a white suit and has traded his Walther P-38 for a Walther PK.
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How does a series return from the dead, well if I knew I’d be a TV necromancer. Maybe Monkey Punch’s return to the manga after a hiatus. But thankfully Lupin came back with a new outfit (Red Jacket, Purple tie, Blue Shirt, Grey Trousers) and produced some of the most beloved of his run. The Part 2 Television series lasted 177 episodes, it’s easily the most watchable Lupin as it’s almost all one part stories, but due to the 22 minute runtime you tend to only get one twist per episode. The Music also got a huge upgrade, from the often hilariously bad stuff of Part 1 (seriously there's a song that’s used towards the end of the episode that consists of a guy saying “This guy Lupin, He’s a cool guy, but ya know he like gets sad sometimes”). Now with Yuji Ohno as composer, Lupin is scored by bombastic cool jazz (sounds contradictory I know). Each character has their own little theme and these would continue to be used from the Japanese Percussion for Goemon, or the “Zenigata March” or Lupin’s two themes Superhero (which is similar to the shows opening theme) that in one episode Lupin sings a version of all with lyrics about how cool he is and a romantic theme (also used as the closing music). Perhaps due to the sheer scope of the 177 episodes it has more supernatural elements than any other, whereas part 1 had possibly cursed artefacts (like the Joker’s deck of cards) and villains who created technology to fake having super powers like (Pycal the magician). Part 2 features Vampires (one of whom is Jesus’ little brother), The Loch Ness Monster, Ancient Egyptian curses (although that could’ve just been a ruse by Lupin), Yeti’s, Mermaids and Dragons (those last 3 were all in the one episode). There were still plots with strange technology like the infamously bad Ice Robot episode or Lupin vs Superman. But Miyazaki’s rules still applied, one of my favourite examples of karmic justice happening to Lupin is when he steals wine from the President of the USA only to find out it tastes horrible.
While Part 2 was being aired on Japanese TV Lupin the 3rd had his first two animated theatrical films, the first being Lupin vs The Clone (later redubbed The Mystery of Mamo or Secret of Mamo depending on the distributor, this film has Lupin in his original Manga colours (Red Jacket and the rest the same as Part 1). Possibly because of the Animerama trilogy this outing for Lupin got to be his sexiest and most violent adventure yet. In total contrast to Mamo, Miyazaki returned to directing Lupin the 3rd and made The Castle of Cagliostro. Lupin returns to his Part 1 colours to tell a story about an older, more mature Lupin. Lupin is at his most heroic and least selfish as he tries to stop a counterfeiter with aspirations of ruling a country from marrying a 13 year old girl. Miyazaki would also direct the last episodes of Part 2, Flight of the Albatross and Farewell my beloved Lupin where a Lupin in disguise as Zenigata tries to stop a bunch of criminals from destroying a city.
This’ll sound like a tangent at first but it’s important. Dragon’s Lair was a popular arcade machine, and when anything’s popular you’re going to get copycats. Stern Electronics wanted to copy to make their version of Dragon’s Lair but they didn’t want to spend the money to get new animation. They first tried to get the licence for Thunderbirds but Gerry Anderson declined, so they went to TMS Entertainment and used footage from Secret of Mamo and Castle of Cagliostro. Of course they couldn’t use the name Arsene Lupin in 1983 it was still owned by Le Blanc’s estate, so Lupin the 3rd became “Cliff Hanger”. The name was inspired by both the trope of a Cliff Hanger and the footage from Mamo of Lupin’s clone being hung (this was used as the death animation). With the film rights going to Sylvester Stallone, TMS thought they had a way into the US animation market but realising that Adult animation in the US was even more of a novelty than it was in Japan they couldn’t rework the series to be Cliff Hanger, a new series had to be made. So a pilot was made called Lupin the 8th for Japan and Cliff Hanger for the rest of the world. A new futuristic Lupin, this descendent of the Lupin family is no longer a thief but a private detective. Working with descendents of the other Lupin gang members who all conveniently have the same names just +5 at the end. My biggest question for this spin off is why is Fujiko Mine the 5th, the annoying little sister of Lupin the 8th. But alas the series was deemed too violent for US kids (so TMS made Inspector Gadget instead) and not sexy and violent enough for the Lupin the 3rd crowd (so part 3 happened).
What can I say about Part 3, well you know how your mother said “if you can’t say anything nice”. Well if you want to follow that advice skip this section. Hoo-boy, well the nicest thing I can say is Yuji Ohno did the score, and that only slightly contributes to the total sensory overload that is Part 3. I genuinely think it was made out of gags too silly or violent for Inspector Gadget, not to mention the use of sticks of dynamite and anvils.The Colour palette consists of the finest pastels contrasting against the brightest neon colours your retinas can recognise. All the characters are in clashing colours even if it doesn’t fit, Jigen’s Orange shirt is an abomination. Lupin is apparently a shapeshifter as he changes between 3 forms on the fly (named Romantic, Goofy and Serious Lupin) whilst wearing a Pink Jacket, Orange tie and Teal shirt. Zenigata is now a bumbling oaf whose emotionally unstable crying at everything. He didn’t escape the clashing colours either but his faded green overcoat with a dark blue suit and red shirt almost works. Goemon and Fujiko are also there and mostly wearing pink. Part 3 was initially successful but has since gone on to be reviled by humanity, also the plots are all like Part 2’s Ice Robot or Lupin trying to marry Fujiko.
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Part 3 of course had a tie-in movie, The Legend of Gold Babylon. Thankfully the colours have been toned down, so now you notice how angular and badly proportioned the characters are. Especially with the sub-plot of Zenigata teaming up with the contestants from Interpol’s beauty pageant (who are all national stereotypes more befitting a carry on film). The main plot of the film is something about aliens being gods to the Babylonians and making a pyramid of gold… It's as bad as it sounds. In a moment of clarity the film has Jigen say “Gods or Aliens I have a hard time believing in either one”. To anyone interested in this film Lupin wears a pink jacket, blue tie, black shirt and trousers.
After the backlash to Part 3 the next theatrical film would attempt to course correct; copying the designs as closely as they could to The Castle of Cagliostro, The Fuma Conspiracy would try and be a spiritual successor to that film. The film is divisive to western and eastern fans, because the all the roles being recast (it’s the only piece of Lupin media that Kiyoshi Kobayashi wouldn’t voice Jigen in), but Western fans used to the cast changing every time aren’t bothered by this (in fact the only western dub of it is the Rupan dub).
The next film would be Farewell to Nostradamus (although I prefer the alternate name “Die, Die Nostradamus). At this point Lupin the 3rd would have an annual TV special and a couple more theatrical movies. The most notable thing about the film Lupin the 3rd Dead or Alive is it was directed by Monkey Punch himself (because nobody else was available). So because the animated specials can easily blur into one another let me introduce Lupin the 3rd Plot bingo.
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Vladimir Propp Russian folklorist came up with 31 narratemes after analysing old fables, he noticed than one of 31 things always happens in a story and any number beyond 1 of his narratemes could happen in a story… but I say Lupin the 3rd has his own set, by saying this I’m not diminishing the series, but let’s have some fun with this:
Zenigata will attempt to arrest the Lupin gang as an opening set piece. Often employing an army of Interpol cops to catch them. (Bonus if Lupin says this is part of his plan).
Zenigata has a meeting at Interpol headquarters, where his superiors will chastise him for having not caught Lupin. (Bonus if a new police officer is assigned to the Lupin case).
The Lupin gang will have a gourmet banquet (usually juxtaposed with Zenigata eating a Ramen cup or the gang letter in the story eating Ramen cups).
Fujiko appears with either a new beau or using an alias and working undercover in a profession eg. Babysitter or News reporter (often in league with the villain).
Lupin reveals that what they’ve stolen is either worthless or is actually needed to find a greater treasure and that treasure was either sought after or owned by “Alexander the Great, Napoleon or Hitler”, always one of those 3.
Jigen will refuse to partake in the heist if Fujiko is involved only to change his mind right when Lupin is in danger.
Goemon will slice something in half and then say the target is unworthy of the blade.
The Villain(s) will hire assassins to kill Lupin.
The Villain(s) hold Fujiko hostage.
Lupin fakes his death.
Lupin’s plan looks like it’s falling apart then he does his “Smug-git laugh” and it turns out this was his plan all along.
One of the Lupin gang will be in disguise (their favourite disguises are each other or Inspector Zenigata).
Fujiko betrays the Villain.
Lupin disarms a Nuclear device.
Lupin explains the Villain's grand scheme (Bonus if Lupin says “there’s just one thing I don’t get”).
Villain monologue.
Either Lupin or Goemon have a duel with the Villain.
Lupin failed to steal any treasure but Fujiko did (and she won’t share).
Zenigata arrests the Villain as Lupin taunts old Pops.
I think I’m contractually obligated to mention the OVA Green vs Red. A new young imposter Lupin appears after the real Lupin has disappeared for a few years. The new imposter Lupin is cockier and less moral than his older Red Jacketed inspiration. The young pick-pocket is trained by a mysterious mentor implied to be Lupin the First, and the OVA ends with the Green Jacketed doppelganger replacing the original. This OVA is rarely spoken of, because it seems intent on solving a discrepancy of the material but ends up creating a series of bigger problems. Sure Part 1 Lupin is more thief than gentleman, but Miyazaki had Green Jacket Lupin in Castle of Cagliostro, also Green Jacket is Part 1, Red Jacket is Part 2. Part 2 opens with the Lupin Gang reforming, it’s forgotten because it’s easier than trying to make it fit into the canon only causes more headaches, a noble failure.
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What’s not a failure is the 2012 limited series the Woman called Fujiko Mine. Sure it’s a prequel but it doesn’t stand on the toes of Part 1. The series tells the first time Fujiko met Lupin, Jigen, Goemon and Inspector Zenigata. It’s also the first piece of Lupin media directed by a woman and she becomes the focal character instead of Lupin. Lupin and Goemon never meet to keep the canon straight but it does tell the first time Lupin and Jigen teamed up. The series manages to balance individual episodes (a couple of which being adaptations of Monkey Punch’s manga) with a series long overarching plot (which does dominate the later episodes). The overarching plot is about a weird Owl-cult obsessed with Fujiko. The regular Lupin characters are portrayed differently to their regular series counterparts, except Jigen, Jigen is Jigen no matter who's framing the story. Lupin is more unstable, bouncing from devious mastermind to comedic buffoon even quicker than normal; he's also a lot more possessive of Fujiko, often treating her more like another piece of his collection. Goemon is now a shy schoolboy with a crush and then there’s Zenigata. Now I would say this is “the Lupin the 3rd” franchise’s version of “The Long Halloween” but Miyazaki is never allowed to watch this to see what Sayo Yamato (the series director) did to his favourite character. Zenigata is a corrupt cop, a misogynist, violent and cruel. He sees nothing wrong with cheating on his wife with a cheap floozy like Fujiko because “she’d be a cheap thrill and a quick ride”. We also have a new character Oska as Zenigata’s junior cop who's deeply in love with him and has a burning hatred of Fujiko. He hates Fujiko so much that he’ll cross-dress to frame her. I'm sorry to say Japan is still a very homophobic country (enter with caution). But it’s nice to see Lupin get dark, gritty, full of noir and a series long mystery is exactly what each season of the show needs. The Woman called Fujiko Mine would get 3 more spin-off movies with the same art style; Daisuke Jigen’s Gravestone, The Blood Spray of Goemon Ichikawa and Fujiko Mine’s Lie.
Lupin the 3rd after the series aired on Netflix (jp) got a theatrical short. It consists entirely of the character’s unmasking each other. Monkey Punch would also return to Animation directing to do some OVA specials that retell the stories of Part 1, these include Is Lupin Burning and Return of the Magician.
New Lupin series, new jacket colour, this time light blue. Part 4 is set in Italy because the Lupin the 3rd Franchise is popular in Italy. The problem with Part 4 is it doesn’t really update Lupin, he’s still doing the same old heists but with a new Fujiko, while the old one is still around. The new characters introduced are Rebecca (the aforementioned new Fujiko) Lupin’s wife and thinly veiled parody of Paris Hilton, narratively she does everything Fujiko does but more annoyingly and Paris Hiltony. The other new character is a clone of Leonardo Da Vinci who wants to take over the world.
Part 5 does what Part 4 needed to do, Lupin the 3rd is now tech savvy with all new gadgets. His enemies are technocrats, aspiring world conquerors and the dark web. It’s probably the most fan servicey Lupin series (not that way, one of the OVA’s has a literal sex scene between Lupin and Fujiko) with 4 main arcs and flashback episodes. The first one has Lupin taking down the online Crime Syndicate “Marco Polo”, using Social Media and VR. This story arc introduces the new character Ami Enu, as a riff on the trope of Lupin saving princesses who fall in love with him. She’s a skilled Hacker (more skilled than the just adept Lupin) and has a backstory so tragic it’s probably best not to discuss. The same Arc introduced Goro Yatagarasu, a cop partner for Zenigata, he exists mostly for narrative persons (the cops need exposition sometimes too). The 2nd Arc has Lupin take on his own Mycroft Holmes, Albert. A former rival now trying to rule his own country (France) from the shadows. The 3rd Arc has Lupin steal a country from the CIA and the last Arc has Lupin fight a version of Facebook that threatens all the world’s freedoms. All the main arcs have Lupin in his blue jacket while the flashbacks are their respective jacket colour for the era they’re pastiching/parodying.
Part 6 or Green Jacket 2 has two main arcs with stand alone episodes sprinkled throughout. The two arcs this time have names “Lupin vs Holmes” and “Gentleman and Witch”. Sherlock Holmes the 3rd previously appeared in Part 2 but as a purely comedic character or as a disguise for Lupin. The version in Part 6 is the BBC series version played by Benedict Cumberbatch, but nicer. This arc actually subverts the usual Lupin the 3rd story structure, normally they spend their time setting up how bad his antagonist is, this time they spend that time showing how much nicer and better Sherlock Holmes is. This arc also reeks of back door pilot, for a new anime with Sherlock the Holmes solving mysteries with Lily Watson. They even do a Marvel style post credit scene to set up James Moriarty. The other arc has Lupin in a game of 4D Chess with his former mentor and possible mother.
Of course Lupin is still going so I expect to have to update this in a year with Part 7. Judging by the Geographical pattern (4 Italy, 5 France, 6 The UK), set mostly in the USA with Lupin’s antagonist being thinly veiled versions of The Big Bang Theory and Batman characters.
The most recent series is a prequel Lupin the Zero. It’s about Lupin as a boy and has him being friends with Jigen, so we’re now verging on a multiverse of Lupin the 3rd.
Now onto what I’ll call the Love and Theft of Lupin the 3rd. The series is clearly very influential to other anime creators, the 3 leads in Cowboy Bebop are basically a more serious Lupin, a friendlier Jigen and a less busty Fujiko. It’s also one of the first Seinen animes to become popular, not to mention it was worked on by Miyazaki who would found Studio Ghibli (and is often called the Japanese Walt Disney).
The stranger part of Lupin the 3rd’s legacy (which I’ve deliberately avoided talking about) is the amount it either parallels western media or gets plagiarised. The most famous example is Disney’s Basil the Great Mouse Detective which recreates the clock tower fight from Castle of Cagliostro nearly perfectly. The Dreamworks movie The Bad Guys, the director cited Miyazaki’s Castle of Cagliostro as an influence and recreated an entire chase scene from The Fuma Conspiracy. Lastly I think this one is purely coincidence but in 2012 both the woman called Fujiko Mine and Scott Snyder’s run on Batman had conspiracies revolving around an Owl Cult.
But Who is Lupin the Third? This is one of the central mysteries of the series. Any backstory he gives has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. The main one that he is the Grandson of Arsene Lupin doesn’t really work as the original Arsene Lupin was an effeminate germaphobe (and more than hinted at as Gay). When this backstory is expanded on in Lupin the Third his grandfather is a sadist with a harem. Part 5 also makes it clear that the name Lupin the Third is a title and this does make sense as Arsene Lupin was a nom de plume (Maurice Le Blanc actually coined this phrase). Interpol’s file for Lupin the 3rd says “Place of Birth Unknown” and because of anime art style we can’t actually tell if he’s of European or Asian ancestry.
Lupin’s motives and moral code are often left as a mystery to the audience as well, but the answer to that has been hiding in plain sight. He’s an Anarchist, I’m not giving him that title glibbly or as a strawman as when it gets applied to the Joker. I’m saying it earnestly, he is an Anarchist he steals from the rich and crime syndicates, he does it for the challenge not for his own wealth. He also values his freedom and the freedom of others over any item (in the Fuma Conspiracy he says “no object has more value than a person’s life”). He’s the 20/21st Century version of the Dandy Highwayman, he is an archetypal Byronic hero. He lives outside of society, but tragically needs what he rebels against to live his lifestyle. He needs to be rich and engage with capitalism to engage in his decadent lifestyle of drinking, chasing women and driving fast cars. He embodies what he hates which is why he’s so destructive and has such a death-wish.
So why has Lupin the 3rd failed to steal the west? One reason has to be the Le Blanc estate and his grandpa not being public domain until the 2000’s but anime wasn’t a big export before that. Sure, there were some but it was never referred to as anime in casual conversation, I remember in 2001 people calling it Japanimation. I think there are two main reasons, one is that it’s not overtly a genre. The most successful Seinen anime outside of Japan is either really Sci-Fi or has Ninjas and Samurai as the focus while Lupin the 3rd is more like an R Rated Duck Tales. The other would be the post Gamergate Anime fandom is more Right-wing leaning, and with Lupin the 3rd you sympathise with the criminal not the cop. The other factor of these Right-wing fans is they claim “plot twists are bad writing” and Lupin the Third is nothing but plot twists. Some episodes are just giant games of Calvin-ball.
