English Dub Season Review: Lupin the Third Part IV

Lupin, the anime that doesn’t give a fuck.

Look, 26 episodes does a lot of different things to people. Lupin the Third Part IV premiered in July of 2017 and we’re just NOW getting a chance to do the season review. Most anime on planet Earth has lulls with the select few reaching the quality heights of say a My Hero Academia and Lupin the Third Part IV was brilliant. However, it’s a non-conventional series that actually works better without some of the things we long for in other series like long arcs and character development. Instead, Lupin is a series anyone can jump into at any given time without worry that they are missing out on crazy important plot details that may have arisen earlier in the show’s run and instead you get the same satisfaction from watching Lupin as you would old-school American cartoons like Tom & Jerry or Wile E. Coyote.

Lupin’s underlying premise revolves around our titular character trekking across various parts of Europe running away from Inspector Zenigata all the while having his way with any particular security systems or measures put in place so that he can get his hands on something rare or shiny or ancient that’s worth a bunch of money with usually no resolve as to whether or not Lupin cashes in. Remember in Dark Knight when Alfred gave that whole speech about the guy in Birmingham stealing rubies and just throwing them away because he got bored? Lupin fits that mold, but his personality is way more friendly and funny and dripping with snark that is Tony Oliver’s performance. And, for my money, Oliver is my preferred Lupin English Dubbed voice.

For fans of other Lupin exploits, you’ll get to see shades of your preferred era in Part IV. Lupin’s personality is best derived from Hayao Miyazaki’s Cagliostro where yes he robs shit, but typically never keeps it. I think the Leonardo Da Vinci/Inception arc wouldn’t be TOO crazy for Lupin’s run from The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, and the fantastically produced action/chase scenes are dripping of the eighties series.

As mentioned before, Lupin worked best this season when it wasn’t trying to take things too seriously in terms of premise. The highest scoring episodes were the ones that were rather self-contained and this could not have been more obvious than in the episode “To Hear You Sing Again” which might have not only been the best episode of the Lupin season but maybe the best thing I’ve seen on Adult Swim all of last year. Other high scoring episodes that should probably be required watching by you would include “Until the Full Moon Passes”, “Lupin’s Day Off”, “The Murdering Marionette”, and others, but “To Hear You Sing Again” was by far the best example of the producers’ vast talents in storytelling and weaving a tale that might have been good enough for me for a feature-length film. So good.

For die-hard followers of Lupin’s exploits, season four was very strong. For casual anime fans, Lupin fits best because it’s a series that viewers can just have a ball with and not worry about whether or not the arc with Leonardo Da Vinci makes any sense…it doesn’t….but who cares? But, I do implore everyone to check out the “To Hear You Sing Again” episode, that one alone is worth getting into all walks of Lupin, of which there are many, and it appears, there will be more.