Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Lupin the 3rd Part 6
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Brack
 Posts: 281 Location: UK |
|
||
|
The miniature train & eccentric nobleman setup reminded me of The Gravediggers, an early Emma Peel episode of The Avengers.
Crazy to think that given that he was writing for what seemed like every anime TV show in the 60s and 70s, that this was Masaki Tsuji's first Lupin III episode at 89 years old. However he does have the Stray Dog Lupine novels under his belt, a canine homage of Mikeneko Holmes (which is in turn a feline homage to Sherlock Holmes). And the pair would eventually meet in 1991. |
|||
|
|||
|
BBally
Posts: 84 Location: UK |
|
||
|
Seems for episode 3, guest writer Masaki Tsuji has drawn inspiration from the American crime fiction series of novels/short stories Ellery Queen, by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee
|
|||
|
|||
|
BBally
Posts: 84 Location: UK |
|
||
|
Just seen this week's episode of Lupin III Part 6, which was written by Mamuro Oshii
To be honest, I felt a bit disappointed. I feel it would've worked better as a TV special as I felt the pace went along too fast. I guess I was expecting too much from a script written by Mamuro Oshii, who tends to go out there in his works. Obviously, he couldn't do that plan he had for the canceled Lupin III film he was originally set to direct but I kind of expected something a bit more of an "Oshii" touch. |
|||
|
|||
penguintruth
 Posts: 8462 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
||
|
I enjoyed this week's episode, and its myriad of Hemingway references, though it was a little convoluted towards the end. Certainly better than anything Oshii's done in a few decades (remember Innocence? Yuck!). We even got a Not Duke Togo cameo.
Next week looks to be the first part of at least a two-parter, but nothing Sherlock-related. I wish they'd return to that. |
|||
|
|||
Spike Terra
 Subscriber Posts: 359 Location: Maryland |
|
||
|
Quick Note before anyone reads this post: I have nothing personally against Mamoru Oshii as either a writer or a director. There are plenty of reasons why people love his work and I want affirm that all of their feelings are valid. What follows after this is me just venting my issues about this episode.
Now I loved the first two episodes of Part VI, I thought episode 3 was a fun return to older styles of Lupin and I thought this episode was terrible. That's mostly because I can't stand Oshii's writing style. I find that the more recent works of his (the only thing I have seen in recent memory was Vlad Love) rely entirely on references and everything else from the characters to the plot progression feels secondary and most of the time tertiary. I'm sure "The Killers" is a really good story because Hemingway is really good author. The problem is the dialogue in the diner scene goes on too long and also goes nowhere, it's 12 minutes of three people talking about Oshii's personal interests and recreating scenes from the short story. The fight scene afterwards is brief, minimal and only really exists to shove in several action movie references. I know there was build up to this action scene, but for me that process is superseded by the fact that I feel no tension in this scene. Most of the characters in the cafe are nameless goons and the characters I do care about, don't give a shit about any of the potential danger that they are in. Now let's skip to the end, it's revealed that the treasure for this episode is a code book that the CIA wants destroyed. Now anyone here can correct me if I'm wrong but does this book have any value at this point? No one wants to buy it off Andre and him trying to sell it, tipped off the CIA to hire multiple assassins to kill him. Now maybe Lupin wanted get the book to piss off the CIA for fun or maybe he'd be able to find a seller who could hide it's existence and sell it to any other foreign government. I could probably come up with several other reasons for why Lupin is here but it's pointless to dwell on this matter. My real issue comes from Lupin's surprise for Fujiko not murdering Anderson over a book. Like was Lupin's intention to kill this guy for the good Ole U S of A? Why? Like I've never seen Lupin be an assassin before, he tends to not kill the people he steals from unless its self defense or there a really evil bastard. I know this is a minor hang up in the grand scheme of things but this just bothered me. I'm looking forward to the next episode though. |
|||
|
|||
|
jdnation
Posts: 2007 |
|
||
|
I liked the Oshii episode. I don't believe the scene was meant to be incredibly tense as it was also very humorous and you obviously knew that was Lupin and Jigen a few minutes in. The real mystery was what everyone was doing there in the first place, and whether or not the waitress was legit or not. So the scene was more like a tense levity. The humor being along the lines of VladLove, where Oshii shows his love of film and literary references, but whereas VladLove breaks the 4th wall, for this episode it was naturally implemented through the dialogue. It gets expositionary at the end with an infodump, but overall an intriguing episode, make me wonder how much of what where the episode weaves in and out between fact and fiction lies. It's nice that the Lupin series can switch things up every now and then. Very fun!
|
|||
|
|||
|
Gilles Poitras
Posts: 476 Location: Oakland California |
|
||
|
While this episode has references to Edogawa Rampo's first novel Gold Mask the original novel, available in English, has a character named Fujiko who plays an interesting role.
https://www.kurodahan.com/wp/e/catalog/9784909473066.html The same press also published Black Lizard and other volumes by Rampo. |
|||
|
|||
|
BBally
Posts: 84 Location: UK |
|
||
|
Checked the wikipedia on Taku Ashibe, the writer of this two parter. He does seem to like writing crossovers in his mystery novels, he did an Arsene Lupin vs Sherlock Holmes story and previously used Akechi Kogoro in a number of his stories, two of them being crossovers with another classic Japanese detective character Kosuke Kindaichi
|
|||
|
|||
|
penguintruth
Posts: 8462 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
||
|
In my many years as a Lupin III fan, rarely have I viewed an episode as irredeemably terrible as the latest one. It was a complete convoluted mess, with completely pointless plot twists and a complete ruination of the build up from the first part in this two-parter. The Showa Era setting is entirely wasted on this pile of shit storyline. I wonder why Akechi Kogoro was even in this thing, he was barely a factor in it. He may have had three lines the entire two-parter. They even ruined the same-sex coupling aspect from Part 1. This was a garbage episode.
Fortunately, we'll be returning to Lupin vs Holmes next week. If it's as bad as this episode, I'm going to consider dropping this show entirely. |
|||
|
|||
|
BBally
Posts: 84 Location: UK |
|
||
|
This was a fun two parter, which was basically a love letter to classic Japanese pulp stories and part of Ashibe's tendency to crossover characters like Akechi Kogorō and Arsene Lupin.
|
|||
|
|||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11407 |
|
||
|
I mostly enjoyed these episodes, but the ending was so silly it reminded me of a story I wrote in the 5th grade about some amazing, awesome, sparkly, ethereal bird I had seen, and after a page or so, I had no idea how to end it, so chalked it all up to sunlight refraction.
 What makes it worse is that Lupin's writers apparently knew that's where they were going all along, and still went there, instead of thinking up something cool. Like, it wasn't even a last minute kludge - they chose to do this ending.
|
|||
|
|||
|
penguintruth
Posts: 8462 Location: Penguinopolis |
|
||
|
This latest episode was a huge improvement from the previous pile of garbage. We finally return to London and the Holmes storyline, we find out what happened to Watson and what Lily witnessed, the mystery of the Raven group deepens, and we even get a new player on the form of “the Professor”. It was great seeing Lupin’s attitude towards what was best for Lily. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.
|
|||
|
|||
|
Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11407 |
|
||
|
Ok, up front I liked the episode because Jigen is cool. But I don't like it so much if I think about it in more realistic terms.
Like, why is it acceptable to put a different child in the same peril? Because he's a boy? Because Lily's memories are more valuable than this boy's life? I gotta wonder about the headmaster who happily signed on to this scheme. And then there's the whole suggestion that Jigen has just planted a seed in this kid's psyche about how cool being a hitman would be... So is his partner now the Gun of Jigen? 
|
|||
|
|||
|
BBally
Posts: 84 Location: UK |
|
||
|
Todays episode was a nice filler.
Next week is Mamoru Oshii's redemption episode And looks like he's using his canceled Lupin movie as the episodes plot. Even lupin says "Is this fiction or reality", which part of the concept of Oshii's script for that movie. |
|||
|
|||
VampireNaomi
 Posts: 146 |
|
||
|
The review for episodes 11-12 more or less described my exact feelings about the finale. Some great scenes and the mystery was resolved in a way that didn't leave me with too many unanswered questions, but once you look at the story as a whole, a lot of initially cool/interesting moments start feeling like they don't fit or serve a purpose.
I hope the second half will have better pacing, and I'm very intrigued by the concepts that the second PV was teasing, but I'm trying to keep my expectations in check. Any time this franchise gets me excited about some new idea, they end up not examining it anywhere as deeply as I'd like or even brush it aside. |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group