English Dub Review: Lupin the Third: Part V “Thief and Thief”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

 We begin right where we left off with Lupin and Albert interrogating Guilaume. Both men are showing off how good they are at thieving by shooting at and barely missing the tied up criminal. After only a few minutes, Guilaume breaks like a cheap Champagne flute and gives up everything. He tells them about how Jose has control over the anti-immigration candidate, the DGSE, and most other branches of law enforcement as long as he has possession of the black notebook. He also reveals the location of Jose’s hideout, the information he’s been sitting on this entire time!

Teaming up, the two thieves drive to Jose’s lair. On the way, they reminisce about the time they went to Mexico and Lupin had to save Albert from a half-human, half-tiger monster straight out of an episode of Scooby-Doo. This bit of reverie is to remind everyone that Albert owes Lupin his life.

Outside the hideout, they’re greeted by Chlo, Jose’s iron-jawed emo girl. Not only is this female tough, she can literally chew through metal—also the scenery since she loves to monologue. Unable to best her, they rely on Lupin’s gang. Goemon volunteers to fight her one-on-one while Jigen drives off to take out the remaining DGSE officers. The Goemon and Chlo battle is intense, and almost ends with Chlo eating the samurai’s sword, but he gets the upper hand by blinding her with her own metal fingernails before slicing her in half. Damn, good thing that guy finally answered his phone.

Inside the hideout, all of Jose’s goons go after the two thieves. Lupin and Albert make quick work of them with a combination of bullets and hand grenades. With only two soldiers between them and Jose, they split up. Lupin faces the masked assassin, Revenant, who he finishes off in an iron maiden because Jose’s medieval hideout totally has one of those. Albert takes on Araignee—who’ll always be “Patchy” to me. Likely jealous of Goemon’s suaveness, Albert blinds the poor girl with her own weapon.

Lupin reaches Jose first, gets shocked by his metal hand and is almost killed, but Albert arrives to shoot Jose in the nick of time. This makes them even for Mexico, but then Lupin has to save Albert’s life two seconds later when a bomb in Jose’s jacket explodes.

Luckily, Lupin nicked the notebook before the criminal blew up. Albert asks for the book claiming Lupin has no use for it. Lupin agrees but keeps the book just in case. As the two-part ways—presumably for good—Albert swipes the notebook one final time only to learn it was a fake and completely blank inside.

Piss off, Albert.

 

Our Take

And so we come to the end of another story arc. This one didn’t resonate as much as the previous arc and lacked a feeling of finality. After three weeks of scheming, shady government groups, and political intrigue, it was dissatisfying to have it all end in a physical showdown with Jose.

We were told ad nauseam that nobody dared confront Jose because they were afraid of him leaking the contents of the black notebook. Therefore, I expected to see some sneaky maneuvers from the master thief and his long-lost partner. Instead, they were anything but subtle and bombarded Jose’s hideout with guns blazing. This seemed too simplistic and a tactic the DGSE could’ve executed at any time.

We also didn’t get any proper closure on Albert. Sure he was bested by Lupin at the moment, but the man still essentially runs France. What’s to stop him from getting in Lupin’s hair every week until our hero grows tired enough to hand over the notebook? Also, why isn’t Lupin more upset about Albert trying to kill him? Not only did those two bullets cause him great suffering, but they also bruised his ego in a big way.

Closure aside, this was a relatively entertaining arc and I wouldn’t mind seeing the gang deal with the DGSE or other shady government organizations in the future if they decide to stay in France for a while. That being said, I’d rather not see Albert again. He’s not nearly as intriguing a character as Ami from the season’s first arc. Since Lupin the Third tends to double back on itself as its season’s progress, there are definitely better characters to bring back than Albert. That’s all I’m saying.

I wish Jose’s gang had been given more time to develop before being taken out one by one. However, just like the assassins in the first arc, those ultraviolent ladies weren’t long for this world. Speaking of which, Revenant was a lady, right? I mean, she was never unmasked, so maybe she was a slender man with long hair. As I said, a little character development wouldn’t have hurt.