English Dub Review: Lupin the Third Part IV “The Zapping Operation”

Authentic pizza is the best – Lupin the Third

Spoilers Below

This episode delves into the private life of Justin, aka MI6 Agent Nyx. It seems as if not all is going well at home. His daughter Bridgett is obsessed with the superstar Rebecca and she gets angry when he advises her to not seek an autograph from the megastar. She even goes so far as to accuse Nyx of pretending to be a good father. Ouch…. On a chance encounter, she encounters Rebecca in a public bathroom. She asks for an autograph, yet Rebecca instead chooses to doodle on her bookbag and leave. Dang Rebecca, all the girl wanted was an autograph from her favorite celebrity and you couldn’t even do that? Smooth. But not as smooth as accidentally leaving behind her makeup bag. Bridgette takes the bag and searches for Rebecca and subsequently gets kidnapped by two men. Those guys don’t know it but they just made one of the biggest mistakes of their life. I’m thinking Agent Nyx is going to pull a Liam Neeson from “TAKEN” and go crazy getting his daughter back.

Meanwhile, Lupin and Jigen pull off a pretty rewarding diamond heist. Faithful as ever Zenigata is hot on their trail! He chases the two through the back alleys until the duo escapes in a car they decide to borrow. If I’m not mistaken it’s the same car that Bridgette is in the trunk of. Wow… this isn’t good for Lupin, Jigen or the two thugs involved in the kidnapping, but at least Bridgette is in safe hands.

Meanwhile agent Nyx heads into the red-light district of town to infiltrate a prostitution ring. As he browses through the selection of “available girls” he sees a picture of his daughter. Immediately he starts throwing punches and takes out every bad guy in the room before sticking his gun in the face of the thug who seems to be in charge and demanding the whereabouts of his daughter. Concurrently, Lupin and Jigen find out they are transporting more than just their cache of diamonds when they find Bridgette tied up in the trunk of their car. Lupin frees Bridgette from her bonds and explains he’s a thief, not a kidnapper. Jigen lets it slip that Lupin is Rebecca’s husband and Bridgette immediately starts obsessing over Lupin.

Meanwhile Nyx has gone rogue in an attempt to reclaim his daughter. He must have a tracking device on her somewhere because he rolls up on Lupin and Jigen, ski-mask on and gun blazing. For a concerned father he doesn’t seem too concerned about his daughter possibly being accidentally shot, but then again, this is an enraged father doing whatever it takes to get his daughter back. Due to him having his ski-mask on, Bridgette thinks he is a kidnapper. As they unknowingly lead Nyx on a foot-chase, they coincidentally run into Rebecca, who actually DOES have a tracking device in her make up bag. Lupin and Rebecca exchange a few words, only to be interrupted by bullets pinging off the roof of the exotic sports car that Rebecca drives. Lupin, Jigen, and Bridgette take off, while Rob, Rebecca’s security agent, pulls out a machine gun and starts shooting at Nyx.

Now I’m going to call it here, but I think that Lupin will figure out that Nyx is their pursuer due to Nyx’s extraordinary ability to “echolocate” those he is after. Nyx does exactly this and sets off after the fleeing trio once again, who have taken to hiding in an abandoned warehouse. Lo and behold, upon confrontation, Lupin immediately figures out Nyx’s masked identity after witnessing him nearly shoot Jigen who was hiding behind cover. Lupin surrenders but before Nyx can reclaim his daughter, Rebecca shows up and ushers Bridgette into her car. Great. Things just keep getting mixed up today, don’t they? Nyx rushes outside and runs into Rebecca, who happened to stay behind, probably in order to chat with Lupin. However, she chooses the wrong words to say to Nyx after he confronts her about kidnapping his daughter and he goes into a rage, nearly shooting Rebecca until Lupin intervenes. Luckily, Jigen figures out the situation and de-escalates things. It turns out that Rebecca sent Bridgette on a fully sponsored shopping trip. Agent Nyx breathes a sigh of relief and everything turns out fine as the three parties go their separate ways.

As our heroes relax, they start to think about one thing… what is the “Dream of Italy”?

Mix-up after mix up took place this plot, but if you have been keeping up with the series at all, this episode may have been somewhat predictable. That being said, that tiny flaw did not make this episode less enjoyable by any means. While this was basically Lupin’s version of “TAKEN”, it was still enthralling down to the last minute. We were offered an interesting insight into the private life of Agent Nyx, whose real name may or may not be Justin (you know how secret agents are) that added quite some depth to his character. I found it extremely interesting that Mi6 has a special “B-Team” devoted just to preventing Nyx from getting out of control. I have a feeling that if Nyx had snapped, that he would be nearly unstoppable and leave nothing but a bloodbath and trail of corpses in wake of getting his daughter back. Is this standard procedure for all Mi6 agents if they happen to go rogue or just Nyx? Little Bridgette really has no idea how much her daddy loves her and what he would do to ensure her safety. While she had what turned out to be a fun and exciting afternoon, Nyx almost threw away his entire career and possibly his life. I’m pretty sure that ordeal was no good for Agent Nyx’s blood pressure. Also, I found it extremely hilarious when Rob pulled out his machine gun and started firing round after round at Nyx. Hahaha, where did that gun come from?! And who knew Rob was such a badass!? More importantly, this episode raised a very important question… what is “The Dream of Italy”? The kidnappers talked about it, Rebecca seems to know something about it from her youth, Lupin thinks it a treasure, and Mi6 will go so far as to eradicate anyone who has the intelligence of it. And so the plot thickens…