English Dub Review: Lupin III Part VI “The Mirage Women”

Overview

A bank robbery abroad becomes a family matter when a rival thief reveals a startling connection to Lupin, but tracking her down may provide more questions than answers.

Our Take

As it turns out, the woman who confronted Lupin last episode goes by the name of Mercedes. A female thief who leads a militaristic robbery group that causes trouble in various places. After confirming the safety of Mattea who was hospitalized, Lupin follows Mercedes to Mexico. Just when we have everything figured out last week leaving us hooked with a possible plot twist, the writers once again troll us in the most bizarre way possible. Apparently, Tomoe is not really Lupin’s mother, but rather more of a mentor associated with his infamous grandfather, who was “like a mother” to him. Outside of being half French/Japanese, It still knows how to keep Lupin’s origins a bit vague to a certain degree. And the flower girl Mattea cemented herself in this episode as a likable character in this arc. Hopefully, she has more to do in future episodes.

At first, I thought the multiple Mercedez doppelgangers were the usual Lupin-style disguises, and then it was mentioned that everyone just liked dressing up as her, so I figured they were just styling themselves to look alike, but then it was revealed to be the usual schtick Lupin would cleverly do which was quite fun.

Overall, there was so much to unpack with this episode. When it came out to the action, everything was gripping with the constant one-upping power play between Lupin and Mercedes and kept me guessing the entire time, which is something the show often knows how to do. This was even more intriguing than last week, setting up a larger story. Mercedez ended up revealing some very interesting things going on behind the scenes that raise many questions in regards to what Lupin saw as a child, and now he’s determined to find out what actually happened…