English Dub Review: Lupin the Third Part IV “Nonstop Rendezvous”

No planes, but plenty of train and automobiles.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Rebecca watches her last movie and is reminded of the time in which she first met Lupin. Turns out, Rebecca was kidnapped by a stalker guy who was threatening to blow her up on a moving train if she didn’t marry him. As Lupin attempts to drive off to make the save, Zenigata shows up and handcuffs the two together, and during the journey, lose the key, and Lupin’s lunch, in the process. Fortunately, the duo is able to make a truce, get on the train, and stop it in time before the thing derails and then apprehend the suspect. Rebecca gets a note from Lupin to meet at a church where the movie star realizes she’s really in love with the master thief and she wants the whole world to know it.

Our Take

So, the ending perfectly sets up the final three episodes which will see a struggle with Lupin and Rebecca trying to get to each other, but Leonardo Da Vinci is here, so we’ll have that to deal with. Oh yea, and there’s Zenigata still trying to apprehend Lupin and his cronies.

Funimation almost never gets the OVA-disc exclusive episodes, but Toonami does, and in a case like this it really helps a lot because this episode is the glue that helps hold the season together and sets up what should be an entertaining conclusion to the series. And while there were plot holes about this episode (that scene where the terrorist shoots the cuffs off of both Zenigata and Lupin was a bit out of hand) the story-telling is as such that all of the action on the train was mere happenstance for what came from it…the underlying love between Lupin and Rebecca.It’s Looney Tunes with a love story, and we’re all better for it.