English Dub Review: Lupin the Third Part IV “A Requiem for Assassins”

This episode of Lupin starts off with a bang – and quite a few of them!  Zora the infamous assassin is still alive! This episode focuses on Goemon’s personal story. Before we dive into the main plot, we’re treated to a back story regarding Goemon’s past and just how dangerous of a target Zora is.

Leopoldo Fago has hired 12 of the world’s best assassins to take out Samuel Decale, the President of the Republic of Dalia, and one of the evilest dictators in the entire world. The toughest part of this assassination is taking out Decale’s elite bodyguard, Zora the Sniper, a man capable of killing his targets from a distance of one kilometer with his Winchester M70. Nothing is known about Zora other than he is a man who rarely appears in public and visits his home town once a year. The assassins plan accordingly. The 12 man team lies in wait for Zora to visit his home in Serimu, an oasis town in Africa. However, as they wait for their Zora to arrive, shots ring out and the assassins start falling one by one. The bullets fly and Goemon shows off some of his supreme swordsmanships as he is able to cut and deflect the bullets being shot at him with ease. He even cuts a bullet perfectly in half before it hits one of the younger assassins, a girl named Belladonna. Goemon even manages to assassinate Decale, literally slicing him and his car into two perfectly symmetrical pieces. Already, this is easily the most action packed episode of Lupin this season… and I’m loving every minute of it!

As Goemon and Belladonna, reminisce on their past mission, they see Fago giving a speech in broad daylight, making himself an easy target for Zora. Fago seems oblivious to Zora’s existence. Goemon heads off to the project location they assume Zora is going to shoot from while Belladonna heads to meet Romeo, another assassin from their 12 man team. Just as Belladonna reaches Romeo, a shot rings out and blood splatters everywhere as the bullet passes through Romeo’s skull. Goemon and Belladonna search his body and discover that he had a picture in his jacket pocket of what seemed to be Zoras hideout.

The two head on the train towards the hideout. Goemon breaks in and sees an aged Zora sitting in a wheelchair. Goemon realizes that Zora is in such terrible condition that there is no way that he could’ve taken the shots. At the same time, a bullet pierces Zora’s skull, killing the legendary sniper. Also, he realizes that Belladonna is the one who assassinated all the other assassins. Goemon confronts the young woman, telling her that she is just being used by Fago while Belladonna refuses to accept that as a fact. She explains that Fago gave her an opportunity to live by taking her off the streets when she was just an orphan and owes it to him to do his bidding. She warns Goemon to never show his face again as she butts Goemon with her gun, knocking him out. Belladonna returns to Fago, who congratulates her on her well-done job and proceeds to grope her. She declines his advances so he starts to beat her. At the same time, Fago’s security system goes off. They have been intruded… by a samurai!

Goemon cuts through the bodyguards with ease, dodging bullets and cutting through doors with ease. He even deflects every bullet shot at him by a gating gun. He takes out the shooter and then confronts Fago and Belladonna on the roof, where it is revealed that Fago implanted a bomb inside Belladonna’s heart. In a surprising turn of events, Belladonna shots Fago in the chest and pushes the button on the detonator.  Goemon was too late to stop her from doing so, but a samurai is a man of his word and he pinky promised Belladonna on their initial encounter that he would protect her no matter what, even if he died in the process. He lines up his sword with her chest, aiming to make such a precise cut that he remove the bomb from her heart without killing her. He lunges forward and she is impaled on his sword. We zoom out and see the explosion from a distance.

Lupin and the gang are sitting in their car, attempting to come up with a plan to flee the area. Due to Fago’s assassination, there are checkpoints all around the area. A young boy rides up on a bicycle and they ask him for help, which he responds to by saying he’ll help them out if Lupin pinky promises to not hurt him. Just then Inspector Zenigata shows up in hot pursuit of Lupin and the gang. Goemon and Jigen flee in their car as Goemon draws his sword, using an Iai technique to cut the air in front of him with such force, that the wind from his blade cuts each vehicle in the entire squad of patrol cars in half before jumping out of the scene and on to the top of Lupin’s getaway car.

First of all, I have to say that this is the episode of Lupin I have been waiting for. I still remember when Goemon cut a falling star in half in one of the first episodes of Lupin I ever saw. To keep it short, Goemon Ishikawa XIII is one HELL of a swordsman and could probably hold his own against just about any anime swordsman from Afro Samurai, to Kenshin Himura as well as Jin and Mugen from Samurai Champloo. As mentioned earlier, this entire episode was action packed from beginning to end, and rarely was there a break in the action. Goemon has always been a bit of mysterious character, as well as very serious. He is a samurai after all. Granted, this wasn’t your typical Lupin episode, there was no thievery or trickery involved at all, only a game of death being played by assassins. During this installment of Lupin IV, on more than one occasion Goemon has been left out of the episode completely – a major disappointment for me. Well finally, my dude got his time to shine, and I was literally on the edge of my seat the entire time. With that being said, the one thing that was missing was the crazy tricks of Lupin and the gang as they steal things. But hey, you can’t everything into one episode, can you? I also thought it was interesting to see the sentimental side of Goemon, as he made pinky promises and fulfilled his word to his friends. He is a true samurai to the core. Even though this episode was awesome, I do wish that the plot had been a tiny more complex than what it was. Even still, I was very entertained by it all and can’t wait for the next episode, as I still question pertaining this season’s big treasure, “The Italian Dream”. I don’t want this season of Lupin to end, but hopefully, those questions will be answered soon.