English Dub Review: Lupin the Third: Part V “Her Relationship with Lupin”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

We begin right where we left off with Lupin once again bleeding all over the floor after getting bested by the enemy. This time, the enemy was Princess Dolma who turned on him after he and Ami came such a long way to rescue her. Ami is crushed and frightened. She doesn’t know that Dolma still cares about her very much and is only working with the revolutionists to avoid a civil war. Her good intentions don’t make up for almost killing Lupin, but at least she ordered her goons not to harm Ami.

The CIA officer who rescued her from the staged terrorist attack made a confession during their helicopter ride together. He originally came from a strife-ridden country and relates to the unrest in Padar. Using this revelation, he talked her into working with the revolutionaries well before Lupin arrived in the country. He explained that the people needed a strong figurehead to encourage them to set aside their differences. Dolma agreed to be the rebel’s puppet with the intention of double-crossing them in a number of years, as soon as she becomes powerful enough.

Before the rebels can detain them, Fujiko gasses the palace to save her two colleagues—she also steals the Bloody Teardrop necklace but only because it was close at hand. Using a massive parachute, she flies Ami and Lupin to safety. They proceed to squat in a flophouse, where Fujiko uses her extensive medical knowledge to nurse Lupin back to health. Ami is frustrated that she can’t get in touch with “Underworld” since the revolutionaries blocked the internet.

Meanwhile, the CEO of ShakeHanz is keeping Padar’s king safe aboard his airship. When the rebels notice the monarch missing, they panic. They desperately need the king to peacefully abdicate his throne in favor of his daughter. The old monk in charge of the coup isn’t worried, instead he declares martial law until the king can be found.

The constant, shrieking alarms don’t fare well for our heroes. And when some nosy biddy across the street from the flophouse narcs on them, they’re forced to flee by motorcycle. Fuji drives while Ami protects Lupin in the sidecar. After Ami ices a few soldiers with a hand grenade—which she was ordered to throw by her demanding big sister figure—Fuji evades the military in a nearby forest. When they reach an impassable stretch, the lady thief shoots off the sidecar, leaving Ami and an unconscious Lupin to fend for themselves.

But did she really abandon them, or was it a tactic to protect them? Either way, Lupin, despite his injuries, runs through heavy fire to save a cornered Fujicakes just as the ShakeHanz airship comes crashing to the ground.

“He really loves her,” Ami mumbles to herself amid the carnage.

 

Our Take

This episode will forever be remembered as “the one with the random pirate fantasy in the middle.” Granted, this story explored the depths of Lupin and Fujiko’s relationship, but that little reverie (whether it was based on real events or completely imagined) felt awkwardly out of place. As we know from this season’s “filler” episodes, there are two types of Lupin stories. We’ve got grounded, realistic tales like the Ami and Albert arcs, and then there are completely off-the-wall nonsense episodes. With the inclusion of this hallucination, the two types of episodes meshed and it was not pleasant.

Who is that mysterious man aboard the ShakeHanz airship? The king seems to be comfortable with him, and since the monk and the revolutionaries are deemed the “bad guys” the king is the de facto “good guy.” But I’m not buying this shadowy man’s sincerity. Nobody with that much goatee and such a shifty smile can be noble—not in fiction, anyway.

It’s quite interesting to see the dynamics of Lupin and Fujiko’s relationship from Ami’s point of view. At times, she seems in favor of the relationship, other times she appears jealous, and there are also times where she straight-up despises Ms. Mine. It has to be hard for somebody as young and sheltered as Ami to process her feelings, especially when she’s almost always in peril. And Fuji stripping naked to cuddle up beside Lupin didn’t help matters in the slightest. But in the end, Ami is in favor of love and believes everybody deserves their ideal happy ending—even old, grizzled thieves.

This adventure is just starting to rev up. I’m really hoping this arc doesn’t end next week even though it most likely will. Ami is far too fascinating to lose again, especially now that we’re feeling all the feels that she feels. As I mentioned in previous reviews, the coup plotline is nothing new and is even a little rote, but the characters involved and their interpersonal relationships really propel this narrative above the Albert arc. Plots are secondary in the world of Lupin, and even when they’re interesting and detail-oriented, that’s nothing compared to the characters and their complex relationships.