×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (TV).


Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4595
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 11:22 pm Reply with quote
Because I just can't seem to get in the habit of going to the Funimation video site to watch stuff every week I ended up forgetting to watch an episode last month. Then I decided this might be a good idea and that I would just wait and watch these last weeks, which looked to be ditching the episodic route and heading towards a big story, and watch it all at once. Which I just did. I'm calling it an excellent decision. Watching these last 5 episodes in one go presented a great single story that I'm so glad I didn't break up with week long breaks. It really ended up delivering a honestly awesome tale of grand psychological torture featuring a psychotic character I actually thought had real substance (instead of the usual generic evil), especially when the full truth came out. And as to this wild "origin story," in the end I'm glad that spoiler[it all turned out to be an elaborate, and awesome, lie... when it comes to the real Fujiko. It allowed to see a different side to our Fujiko without actually changing who she really was. After this story there really is no reason why the franchise can't return to some of its primetime ready wacky hijinks, the story doesn't actually contradict anything since.]

Ultimately I feel it turned out to be an "excellent" ride. You got some stylish episodic adventurers but just aboiut when you were getting as little tired of that format you found that most of it did connect in a grander way. The characters were darker versions of themselves but mostly stayed true to what you know.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Surrender Artist



Joined: 01 May 2011
Posts: 3264
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 6:18 am Reply with quote
Pardon me for raising this thread, but since the first and second in the series have been mentioned elsewhere to good reception when this series is at issue, I thought that it would be worthwhile to let people know that Violence Jill has posted the third part of her analysis of the series. (Be wary of her links... they lead to, oh I'll just be cliché, 'interesting' places... that should not be seen outside of the privacy of a darkened room) I think that hers is an exceptionally interesting perspective.

Suffice it to say that I enjoyed this series a lot and the ending went from seeming to be a slightly baffling frustration to feeling almost perfect as I thought about it more. This was a remarkable series in its narrative, thematic and stylistic ambitions. I think that it might not have been a perfect success, but it will nonetheless very remarkable. I think that Sayo Yamamoto is a significant talent and I really hope that we don't need to wait another four years for her next work.

I wonder if the production committee is pleased with the performance of the series. I could imagine that they were surprised by what they got for their Lupin III anniversary series.


Last edited by Surrender Artist on Fri Mar 14, 2014 9:18 pm; edited 2 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Pixelationist



Joined: 12 Jun 2012
Posts: 111
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 12:33 pm Reply with quote
Surrender Artist wrote:
Pardon me for raising this thread, but since the first and second in the series have been mentioned elsewhere to good reception when this series is at issue, I thought that it would be worthwhile to let people know that Violence Jill has posted the third part of her analysis of the series. (If you're at work or a public library... well she's a avowed fujoshi with a name inspired by a Go Nagai character... you do the math... there's corn... and not for eatin'... or consensual use...) I think that hers is an exceptionally interesting perspective.

Suffice it to say that I enjoyed this series a lot and the ending went from seeming to be a slightly baffling frustration to feeling almost perfect as I thought about it more. This was a remarkable series in its narrative, thematic and stylistic ambitions. I think that it might not have been a perfect success, but it will nonetheless very remarkable. I think that Sayo Yamamoto is a significant talent and I really hope that we don't need to wait another four years for her next work.

I wonder if the production committee is pleased with the performance of the series. I could imagine that they were surprised by what they got for their Lupin III anniversary series.


I dropped this show at some point but this has renewed my interest. Thanks!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yamata no orochi



Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 137
PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 9:48 pm Reply with quote
So Dave over at Colony Drop wrote a pretty spot-on review of Fujiko Mine. I've been struggling to nail down my feelings about the show, but I think "great ideas and style, inconsistent execution, occasional moments of brilliance" is pretty much it.

In some ways, it's a whole lot smarter and more interesting than I think people are giving it credit for. It riffs on everything from film noir to old-school shoujo to gothic romance tropes (as Violence Jill pointed out in her brilliant articles) and does so intellegently. But at least for me, it was just one of those cases where the pieces for a fantastic show were all there, but they just failed to come together correctly.

Chief writer Mari Okada obviously shot for the moon here, and while the ambitions of everyone on staff are pretty admirable I still think they came up short. I think the ending is what really spells out the experience for me. spoiler[The idea that Fujiko's entire "tragic past" was fabricated was fascinating! And a brilliant take-that at the viewers, too, given that they themselves live viscerally through Fujiko's adventures just like the antagonists did. But the final episode? A monologue, delivered by the villains, detailing their failed master plan. That wasn't even clever. It was just exposition, delivered in the laziest possible way. This was the case way too often in Fujiko--that genuinely clever ideas were undermined or even ruined by sloppy execution.]

That's not saying that the show wasn't capable of greatness, because it was! Or that it it isn't worth watching, or that its ambitions of being truly "adult" entertainment are hilariously unfounded. I definitely think that Fujiko Mine deserves kudos for trying something different, and sometimes even succeeding. And if these people ever try their hands at another Lupin show in the same vein, or something else entirely, I'll definitely want to check it out. Maybe they'll get it right the second time around.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Surrender Artist



Joined: 01 May 2011
Posts: 3264
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
PostPosted: Wed Oct 03, 2012 7:58 pm Reply with quote
Sorry to be Resurrection Artist, but I think that this is worth posting here.

The Fandom Post has very recently posted two panel reports from Anime Fest 2012 that pertain to Lupin III ~The Woman Called Fujiko Mine~.

First, a panel from Dai Satō about anime screenwriting using the third episode of the series, the one that introduced Goemon, an example. It's very interesting and answers some questions that I've had about how writing for anime works. He draws an analogy to preparing the score for an orchestra, with the director being the conductor and the storyboard artists the musicians. He also ends with a heartwarming plea to non-Japanese not to give up on their dreams of working in anime* and a few answers to questions.

Second, a combined report on two panels, one featuring just Sayo Yamamoto and the other featuring an exchange questions between Sayo Yamamoto and Dai Satō.

Her answers in the first panel make it clear that Lupin III ~The Woman Called Fujiko Mine~ was very much her baby and intended to be for an adult audience. Much the same was true of Michiko e Hatchin.

Perhaps the most interesting answer from the first panel:

Quote:
Q. What is your personal opinion of Fujiko Mine?

Do you mean, as a character? It’s a good question, and one I get asked all of the time as director. When I was growing up watching Fujiko in the original series of Lupin, I always watched her with anticipation of when she was going to take off her clothes.


The second panel is more interesting. I was surprised to learn that Sayo Yamamoto got some of her first work in animation from none other than Satoshi Kon, who is also one of the few people to have seen her animated student film about samurai. (I want that as a special feature some day) She has very warm regard for Shinichirō Watanabe, which Dai Satō shares. She sought Takeshi Koike and Mari Okada out for Lupin III ~The Woman Called Fujiko Mine~, not sure if she'd be able to get either, especially as Mari Okada is evidently regarded as the top writer in anime.

The way that certain illustrious names (Satoshi Kon, Takeshi Koikie, Mari Okada, Dai Satō, Sayo Yamamoto and Shinichirō Watanabe) seem to cluster is interesting. I was half surprised that Masāki Yuasa didn't show up anywhere.

I'm glad that somebody reported thoroughly on these panels and I really hope that we don't have to wait another five years for more from Sayo Yamamoto. (It'd be totally boss if shows up at Otakon next year; that would get me over my fretful equivocation over whether to go or not real quick)

*This is awfully, sweet, though probably not practical and I must wonder if the rest of the industry is so open-minded.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Page 7 of 7

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group