Lupin the 3rd Part 6

Episode 10

There have been plenty of wild one-offs in Lupin's history, but even by the standards of those and Mamoru Oshii, this one's pretty fuckin' weird, right? While episode 10 is already a successful entry on a structural level, being an intriguing story of suspense that keeps us guessing right up to the last minute, the path we and the characters eventually realize it's heading down – and the ultimate revelations of what those final twists are – is so buck-wild that I have to say that judging it on pure success of structure does it a disservice. Basically, if you thought Oshii's previous story being an extended Hemingway homage came off as self-indulgent, just wait until you get a load of this episode.

The thing is, by the standards of an entrant genre episode, it's clear that this Lupin entry is written by an experienced old hand, regardless of the insane truths powering its various plot swerves. I was immediately questioning the true identity of the mysterious 'Mihail' who contracted Fujiko, wondering about who his enigmatic 'lord' could actually be. These are seeds planted that became hilariously obvious with the ultimate reveal, as the doors opened at the climax and I realized, at the same time Fujiko jaw-droppingly did, that the dude was Michael the angel, and his 'lord' was the actual, almighty Lord. A lot of the antics of Part 6 have felt relatively contained, even low-key compared to past recent Lupin offerings, so I suppose Oshii penning a story where Lupin and Fujiko get contracted to pull a heist for literally God is one way to overcorrect.

What helps such an outrageous core concept click as the mysteries get solved is the effective thematic tie-ins referenced in all the dialogue exposited in this episode. It's an Oshii joint, so it's probably not surprising that nearly a full half of the episode is dedicated to characters sitting down to exhaustively discuss and detail the premise. And that incoming rug-pull amusingly contextualizes some of the more side-eye worthy elements that Michael is laying down. Paleontological conspiracy theories can form a compelling narrative if you're already amenable to being swayed by them, wanting to believe that missing-link evidence like the famous London Specimen archaeopteryx was actually a forgery conceived to lend credence to Darwin's theory of evolution. Fujiko herself doesn't seem to pay too much mind to whether she believes Michael's assertions or not, simply acknowledging some of the admittedly standout coincidences at the heart of the discovery and sale of the fossil. But said suspicious angle of writing becomes hilarious with the hindsight that the Actual Almighty was the one asserting this conspiracy theory that Ancient Birds Aren't Real.

But the idea of a discovery like the archaeopteryx fossil being a smokescreen for a much grander scam is lovingly, ridiculously turned on its head for the final revelation: that being the fantastical proposition that said fossil wasn't just a fake for the purposes of proving evolutionary theory, but a cover-up of a genuine discovery that proved the opposite, creationist concept. The world of Lupin is one that's already been proven to be filled with time-travel, ghosts, and whatever the hell was going on in Green vs. Red, so perhaps it's only fair that we buy that God is real here and all evidence of evolution is a big ruse. And in the context of the themes of the overall franchise, it seems amusingly right that the Lord Himself would be scheming to hire the world's greatest thieves as part of His own elaborate cover-up. With that in mind, maybe we shouldn't have been as slack-jawed surprised as Fujiko when she was finally directed to uncover Satan's skeleton in the basement of the British Natural History Museum.

Or did she? Amongst all the other ideas Oshii is grandiosely playing with in this episode, time-loops of various sorts are apparently also being implemented. I quite dig the way the seed of this precedent is planted within our minds as we're watching, the effects of Fujiko's hacked security cam footage eventually bleeding out to affect the routines of the real guards operating by observing them. We're creatures who are beholden to what we observe, after all, and if we can be convinced of the truth of the evolutionary process by some petrified old bird bones, why couldn't some compromised cameras trick us into just repeating the same four seconds over and over? So with that in mind, what does it mean for the vision Fujiko herself apparently loops through from the beginning to the end of this episode? Is it a vision of what is to come if she accepts the job, granted to her by The All-Powerful in a bid to convince her to do so? Or is it merely Fujiko herself running the possibilities in her head to the most escalated conclusion possible with regards to someone bold enough to actually try contracting her and Lupin?

As it so often is with these kinds of stories, the actual answer isn't really the point here. Rather, the takeaway I have with the core idea of this episode connects with the escalating conspiracy theories we follow Michael on throughout it: Someone is always working some sort of angle in these sorts of setups, and if you can't see what that angle will finally be, it probably means it's something far too big for you. That's the lesson that Fujiko must eventually conclude for herself as she runs the mental number represented by the hypothetical case in this episode. We see Jigen nope out immediately from the premise, with Lupin himself seeming to withdraw later as he can't come to comfortable conclusions about the origins of the contract. In that moment, at least as Fujiko is possibly imagining it, Lupin lets her know that there's still time for her to pull out as well. It's a hell of a way to go about ultimately convincing yourself not to take too much of an unknown risk, but it also seems to work, given the conclusion Fujiko delivers at the bookend here: There are some jobs, at least at the most extreme possibility, that would be too big even for the Lupin crew.

It seems like a long way to go for a simple thought experiment on the limitations of Lupin, but the lover of idea-based storytelling in me appreciates it for that ambition. And Oshii's meditative style pulls the concept off in a way that I don't know anybody else could in this case. There is a certain irony to this story seeming to be about tempering your ambitions, accepting at least the most extreme limitations, when its concept and presentation are themselves reaching for the literal heavens. It all but guarantees mixed reactions to what Oshii's putting down here, but I think it's a categorical good for such a wide-ranging franchise as this one to have an odd divisive entry among its more expected crowd-pleasing capers. I liked it, maybe you won't, but you have to admit, even if all it did was make you go "What the hell was that?!", you're definitely going to remember it for provoking that reaction.

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Lupin the 3rd Part 6 is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Chris is a freelance writer who appreciates anime, action figures, and additional ancillary artistry. He can be found staying up way too late posting screencaps on his Twitter.