Lupin III: The First Review and Analysis 

I made my family watch this movie (they loved it) and halfway thru my mom said: “How is everyone so attractive?”

I think there's something interesting about the fact that this film's script was a derivative of Indiana Jones given that Steven Spielberg has cited Lupin - and specifically the Castle of Cagliostro - as having a major stylistic influence on Indiana Jones in the past and Cagliostro as one of his favorite animated films. it's like an metatextual handshake of pastiche.

gonna enter every room by busting down the door and screaming "LUPIN!!!" now

Desperate for a Lupin III: The Second if only for a) a tighter script and b) the inevitable meeting where they have to figure out what they’d call the third one

One comparison that struck me watching this was Steven Spielberg's Adventures of Tintin, which also skews older than most Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks films. That's also just a fun action-adventure with well-drawn classic characters, but with a fairly weak main plot. That movie also shows why not going motion-capture was a very good idea for a series that's traditionally known from animation. "Lupin NPCs" is a fantastic term

Imagine asking someone to review your movie and then claiming it twice

This movie and "Castle of Cagliostro" were my introduction to the Lupin III franchise, and I've been hooked ever since (and I can absolutely back up what you said about Part 4--that series is way better than people give it credit for). Probably the biggest draw for me is the voice cast, both in Japanese and English. The original anime cast is kind of legendary, especially Yasuo Yamada and Kyoshi Kobayashi, and the Geneon/Pioneer dub cast has such great chemistry and timing. My friend and I maintain that Tony Oliver can make even the weakest English scripts work with the strength of his performance.

this was my first introduction to lupin III and after watching it i IMMEDIATELY watched the castle of cagliostro (cause it was on netflix) and i was officially hooked also sidenote but zenigata is the greatest character in fiction like holy shit him shouting RUUUUPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN gives me life

I feel like I should put this here, that Kiyoshi Kobayashi retired from the role of Jigen in September of 2021. The first episode of Part 6 being his final performance as Jigen, in an episode where Jigen feels like he's gotten too old for this age of technology. He was replaced by Akio Otsuka.

To be fair, a lot of the lupin movie scripts are just kinda eh. It's just "lupin want the treasure! evil organization? Woman!"

Someone else with a deep love of Lupin III stemming from middle school? Hooray! The laser tunnel scene in this movie is my favorite Lupin set piece ever.

About the whole "some lines seem like literal translatons" thing, I also own the The First blu-ray and noticed that there was only one English options for subtitles, presumably for watching subs. It was shocking to me bc I'm usually used to anime dubs changing the dialogue and being a little inaccurate to sub translations so I assumed there'd be sub subtitles and closed captions for the dub, but nope, just one. So there could be a chance they copy-pasted the subs as the dub script so they wouldn't have to make a whole new set of closed captions for a localization, which may explain some of the wack lines/delivery. Thought I'd just share that

Fingers crossed this doesn‘t get claimed again by the time I can get around to watching it

The art style looks amazing. Probably the best CGI movie style ever.

The movie feels like castle of cagliostro and part iv combined

I really loved your take and analysis on this! Lupin the Third: The First has become one of my favorite animated movies and it's nice seeing all the focus on the details and behind the scenes, both good and bad. I definitely believe it's a bit flawed but it was a fun time! Wonderful work on this video!

1st minute: Monkey Punch was a freak

My favorite part is when Lupin say "N@zis lose" would like to wear that as a t shirt at a protest

13:43 NOOOOOOOO HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT ABOUT MURASAKI!? 😭😭😭 SHE'S LITERALLY THE BEST LUPIN GIRL! OK lemme explain why I love her. She's adorable. She's loyal to her friends and especially Goemon. I love the blink-and-you'll-miss-it animation of her sticking her tongue out at Goemon when they're walking up the stairs to the shrine. She's playful and a little cheeky and I think it's really cute. Her voice actress does a good job too I love the energetic yet modest and shy performance she gives the character. She's also pretty smart. She knows about the architecture of her ancestors. She turns on all the torches when they first enter the cave, and is also the one to notice that the fake treasure was a puzzle and found the secret hatch on the floor. I think she's shown to be capable but just physically weak. But she's smart. Not carrying the adventure or anthything special but helping her friends along the way. Even when she inevitably gets captured again and put in danger, she was willing to jump to save Goemon's life instead of being saved by him. She didn't know that Lupin would catch her in the end. It wasn't super flashy or over the top, she just did it. I think Murasaki embraces her simplistic character because it's literally built into who she is as a person. Like, you can call her boring or not memorable, but I think she contributes enough to the story and is a cool bit of lore for my favorite character Goemon. I like to think she's still waiting for him to return to her. She's literally the only good female character that is relevant to Goemon, so I have a lot of bias lol 😆

10:51 I've only heard this guy in other voice roles as sort of gruff older men and hearing this teenage boy voice coming out of the same guy broke my brain.

I didn't really realize how much of a departure Cagliostro was until I read your Lupin twitter threads. It's been QUITE a trip! It's so funny that this movie would suffer from The Smurfs problem (where the movie halts to focus on the boring 'main' character rather than the series regulars) but I'm still excited to see it!

Thank you so much for the "getting into Lupin" list! I saw Cagliostro as a kid and loved it but have never known where to start.

This was a really interesting video! I'm especially thankful for the bit about how to get into the series, as someone who has never watched/read any Lupin.

While I agree that Leticia is kind of boring character, I think her role wasn't to be as charismatic as the gang. In fact, I think she serves three narrative roles: 1)Introduction character for all newbies who don't know anything about the franchise, so that she can ask stupid questions, not understand what is happening and audience can catch up along side her. 2)Straight man to the gang. Out of every characters she is deliberately made to be the most "normal" - "normal" animations, "normal" body proportions, "normal" backstory. This, again, makes it easier for the newcomer to understand what is normal for this world and what is not - and with her here the insanity of the gang becomes even more clear, with Gaemon cutting planes and Jigen being Jigen and all. 3)Dynamic with Lupin. Previous point specifically extends to Lupin, so they are basically perfect comedic duo of "insane man - straight man". Very entertaining dynamic, where Lupin does something over the top and Leticia reacts in very realistic manner, didn't get old throughout the entire movie So yeah, while I get the criticism, I still believe her addition to be right decision. Even if her evil grandpa subplot did drag out quite a lot.

18:56 to me, it's J. David Brimmer who did the voice, and it was place to his voice when you get to know him. And this is like most favorites, I watched the movie.

This movie was really pretty to look at but remained very stylised and kept the lupin III feeling. It's nice to see animated features like this and arcane that aren't necessarily concerned with being hyper-realistic like a pixar film

this got me sooo hyped for ur lupin essay. i feel that ure very fair to the movie and your love for the franchise clearly shows. i hope itll be less annoying to get around the copyright filters next time

Just coming back in here to say: I did watch Bloodspray and *Got-DAYUM* it lives up to its name. I loved every minute of it.

Zenigata March is stuck in my head for three days now, I blame and thank you

I watched this movie both sub and dub. In my opinion, I loved Lupin III series, the movie has Bresson and many characters. I know about how many people watched the series, but....I liked how Lambert was old and I'm just a Lupin fan. It's breaks my heart like that.

The moment I try to find this movie, *I’m gonna simp for all the characters.*

I've been watching your Fake Friends series on a recommendation and just finished part 2. It feels really solid so far so I completely lost my mind seeing you had a Lupin review I've never clicked so fast Also thank you for the Part 4 and the First comparisons. I kept watching the First, wondering why it didn't hit as hard as other Lupin movies while still feeling accurate to the series and you just really laid it out with this review.

It is always nice to listen to a fellow Lupin fan gush about the franchise. Your enthusiasm is infectious. And personally I like part 5 but I have not finished it yet.

I kinda feel the same about the film. Some fo the story and dialogue could've used a rework but the animation and soundtrack are so perfect it naturally feels like another Lupin (plus i commend them for making a better female side character than 90% of the other movies). Have to say tho Part V is my favorite piece of Lupin media and I'm curious why you hate it so much. Its philosophical takes are superb and it puts the characters into situations full of weight that we never see them in. I love Lupin for its craziness too sure but I love it best when they have those rare moments to dive into them more deeply

Guess I gotta watch Lupin now. A clip from the 3d movie was recommended to me and now I'm mad nobody has ever recommend it to me before.

I really love your reviews! I was already going to watch this, but I don't have much of a history with Lupin so I'm glad for the recommendations. Out of all the reviewers I see on youtube I think you do the best at getting viewers interested without having to spoil things. I really appreciate it.

As a German the nazi stuff felt even more insane and I'm honestly not sure what the film makers intentions were? My experience from living in Japan a few years back was that a lot of people had a weird relationship with Hitler and the nazis. Not really liking them, but respecting them? Got a similar vibe from the movie. And also yeah, the name is clearly Geralt and the English translation just fucked up the L/R distinction.

My partner and I watched The First together, and while we were pretty negative to the first half, once the second half rolled around, we were screaming with delight over the action and character moments with the five. The movie is really worth it for watching with your loved ones and the beautiful action and animation, along with a cast that has so much respect for the characters and their history, really makes it worth it.

I'm glad the CG animation turned out as well as it did unlike other movies +cough+ Earwig and the Witch +cough+ where it kinda fell flat

Thank you for showing Koichi Yamadera's Shishi Hokodan. Knowing that Zenigata is also the voice of my favorite character in one of my favorite anime, being Ryoga from Ranma 1/2, makes me very happy!

As always you made a great video! Thank you! As far as I'm concerned, animation wise, this is one of the greats. The character animation is so amazing to me it took me like twice as long to watch your video cause I kept rewinding stuff lol

I remember seeing the trailer with the laser corridor thing and being amazed at the animation. Will definitely have to see when I get a chance! Great video for a Lupin newb, thanks for making it!

Castle of Cagliostro is one of my favourite films, but I never checked anything else out cus the amount of Lupin media always fealt intimidating. Plus the lack of Miyazaki. I'll definitely check this out though, great review! Also, I never realised it was inspired by a French book series until that new French Lupin show with Omar Sy premiered on Netflix. Kind of obvious in hindsight with a name like Lupin lol.

4:08 me when I pass a test perfectly but didn't study

I finally got around to watching this last night, and now this video comes out today. Serendipitous.

I already watched this movie. But I still love seeing Lupin reviews. Now I wanna re-watch Lupin the First and buy the dvd for it. Btw I got into the series and fandom during the pandemic bcs of The First trailer. I knew Lupin couple years ago from that one episode from Part 2 which is parody of Pink Panther. And I later watched Castle of Cagliostro few years ago. I'm so glad I watched the franchise bcs I love seeing how the animation evolve through the decades and beautiful and funny main cast. Also Yuji Ohno's OST is god tier.

Alright, you got me, I'm watching all of Lupin now

I loved this movie, and I know almost nothing about Lupin other than the basics. It's such a fun action movie on its own. Your insight really added to my appreciation!

This explain a whole thought im thinking after being introduce to lupin with the lupin the third the first and when i dived into it im surprised how the adult tone is more excessive than it is in this movie..,also finally someone mention part 5 flaws because for some reason i do have to say i like aprt 4 more

I started the castle one and then really wanted to see the 2019 movie. Over all I like lupin’s character.

Thanks again for recommending that I get back into Lupin. It's been a great help passing the time and maintaining my sanity during quarantine. Zenigata has quickly become one of my all time favorite characters. Great video! I really appreciate your insights into the franchise.

I really enjoyed this review! I fell down the Lupin rabbit hole about 6 months ago now and the First was the second thing I watched after Cagliostro, and those two are really nice intros into the franchise I think :) Although funnily enough, the video "The dub of Lupin III" is what fully sold me on binging as much of it as I could, I really love that dub despite normally preferring subs. It's so inventive and funny, and feels way more natural with the dialogue despite all the changes.

Good review, and I'm right there with you on most of it. I never noticed the stuff about the character designs for Zenigata and Goemon before, so thanks for pointing them out; that was some quite interesting and fun little trivia. I do have one small nitpick: Lupin isn't a shonen series, as those are intended for 12-18 year old teens. Lupin is a seinen, or young adult men series. Although some entries do play kind of like a shonen series, so I can see how that can confuse people.

"Take me away hat daddy" lives rent free in my brain. Thank you for sharing that absolute gem of a comment lmao I quote it all the time 😂🤣

I watched part 4 because of this video and I love it so far!! Definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to watch Lupin media. Their design for Goemon is in my top five character designs of all time

I still haven’t gotten to see this, but this makes me even more excited

Well, time to add another one to my Lupin movie watch list.

I've never watched anything from Lupin but have been aware of it since I was a kid. now I'm actually really interested in getting around to watch it

now that i've successfully watched it let me leave a real comment: great video! i've always meant to get more into lupin. i watched the lupin the third dub when i was much younger (it was on tv somehow???) and i identify with the "feels like i'm getting away with something" vibe

Crazy to watch someone actively put my feelings into words.

Do you think I could take some notes from the writing of Lupin and make a better script for this Lupin movie? Or someone else? Pixar: Don't even think about it Dreamworks: Yeah, we're cool. Lupin: Let's go in deep. Me: I'll just speak, write, and draw honestly and from what I see and hear. I'll only censor what makes sense for the world and characters to want to censor, and that's it. If something sexual happens onscreen, well, you've seen the warnings kiddos, and for you adults there is a purpose to it.

Something about the oldschool anime scores full of those amazing T R U M P E T S just takes me to a happy place. Probably because it reminds me of oldschool Dragonball before the remasters with their updated OSTs. I like them preeeetty much the same but when I hear a similar type of tune to Dragonball with the trumpets blaring, it hits different man, I dunno

The thing about Just watching Goemon's bloodspray is its a part of a Series of Koike's film + The Fujiko series that is building uo to a larger story line that might have Mamo as the big bad villain. So its good to might as well watch that continuity all together.

Evil Leonardo da Vinci is probably the biggest selling point I've had for any of the parts.

I am constantly amazed by how much Lupin as a Person has changed since the original manga. From a murderous rapist and Neo-Nazi to a lovable, good-hearted gentleman thief, often fighting the former. I have no idea with which Lupin I started… but It might have been Mamo. I just remember it was a weird one. And I still wanted to see more! (Edit: It was in fact farewell to Nostradamus, but Mamo was second… so the point still stands) And a good live action Lupin would surely be welcome. The only character I would say potentially to be cast white is Lupin himself, because he is French. Maybe. The Rest most definitely not!!

I agree, Yuji Ohno really delivers what Japanese fusion and jazz is all about which makes it interesting and fun

if I wanted to go through and watch the whole series(mainly the tv stuff, but also some movies), is there anything in the series that I should avoid? or that I should know in advance? like any movies or tv parts I should skip?

At first I was a bit confused why you mentioned Goemon's fiancée as one of the more forgettable side characters. Then, at the end (if I'm understanding correctly) you mentioned you hadn't seen too many of the TV specials (pre Fujiko Mine) and I understood. At least Goemon's fiancée (oh god I can't even remember her name) had a cute design and there is occasionally adorable fanart of her and Goemon which pops up, which is especially nice since Goemon is basically never shown as being affectionate towards anyone (I Am Choosing To Ignore The Legend of Gold of Babylon). There are SO many Lupin NPCs in the TV specials.

your taste in lupin-movies is *chef's kiss*

I feel like the dub for part 2 gave every va so much more freedom, that’s why they all sounded so natural in the part 2 vs in the movie. I feel like it was definitely more scripted, since this movie seemed to hold more weight to it. So the english dub had to be more controlled. Which made it lack in the natural characteristics the va tried so hard to add, but couldn’t. I adore the shows english dubs. They are my favorite in all animes! But seeing the movie lack the ✨pop✨. It was definitely a bummer. I only compare part 2 because that’s all I’ve seen recently. And it’s fresh on my mind.

In a world where every single minute is a reference to somethibg popular to suck money like a roomba, this is a great breath of fresh air.

Finally, another zenigata stan!

i've only ever seen cagliostro, but this looks like a fun series! im glad to see that the newest iteration keeps the weirdness-i feel like the reboot/sequel/adaptation culture we have right now lends itself to blandness for the sake of mass-market appeal, and it gives me hope that at least this time that's not the case.

Yay, my favorite character in the Lupin series is Zenigata too! :D Great analysis of the Lupin the Third: The First movie. I agree that one of its greatest strengths of the movie is its excellent capturing of the main characters' behaviors and personalities, though the story is a bit on the weaker end. I also love your analysis of the overarching theme and appeal of the Lupin series. I think it's that unique mixture of adult context and situations, mixed with the outrageous and fantastical (both in situation and characterization --- i.e. Goemon's sword is able to cut through basically anything with impossible precision; Zenigata's superhuman stamina and strength). Yet at the same time, viewers become aware that the silliness can give way to some emotional moments and turn on a dime into a gritty realism that can reflect pieces of adult life and society: Lupin sometimes gets strapped for cash and has to put up with less or even nothing. People get injured (the opening of Island of Assassins and Bloodspray of Goemon are excellent examples of this) and have to heal or cope with those injuries. Food is important. I often feel like I know what to expect but there's always a tantalizing question of what curveball the series might throw at me. My favorite movie has got to be Crisis in Tokyo followed very closely by Castle of Cagliostro. :)

there are a couple times in this video where the subtitles say "(speaking japanese)" right over the subtitles that translate the japanese in question. might be worth replacing that subtitle with "(speaking japanese) [translation]" or something like that so that deaf/HoH viewers can watch without having to pause

11:53 * ZENIGATA MARCH INTENSIFIES *

Oh gosh, now I need to know where that Koichi Yamadera “pipipi” video is😂 My Spike Spiegel- lovin’ ass is QUAKING

The only reason why I was interested in this movie at first was the fact that Lex Lang plays Goemon in the dub. But my family and I enjoyed this movie! Even though my older brother made us watch it after buying the Blu-Ray Version with tin box (Any Crash fan knows who Lex Lang is. But hes known for voicing Dr. Neo Cortex in the games from Twinsanity onward and also voiced Angelo Katagiri from JJBA DIU)

Lambert: I won't brook being made an ass! I have absolutely no idea what that means.

Glad to see another Zenigata stan. Crisis in Tokyo is my favorite Lupin special for that reason.

Interesting hearing your thoughts! :D

The best way I can put Lupin the Third: The First is Indiana Jones 4 if it was actually good and kept to the OG Indi films. Definitely something to watch or introduce Lupin the third too who likes those movies.

The fact that this channel is dead makes me sad. This is my favorite Lupin video on youtube. I agree with basically every take you have, even the ones that go against the community consensus. Even though I doubt you'll make another video, I'm subbing out of stubbornness.

fact: DiC (originaly stylised as die) did a version. i think it was canned by the law of japan (that does not include nihon terebe)

Getting my view in just in case it gets claimed again. I'm excited to see this just based on your tweets!

Wondering if you've seen either the VS Detective Conan tv special or movie since they're considered part of the Lupin franchise or if you're waiting for a possible dub of them.

So if we wanted to just binge the franchise over a long weekend, is there a particular service that actually has the whole thing? or is it more of an a la carte thing?

Im a big Anime fan and only just discovering Lupin III but where can I stream all of the shows and movies?

babe wake up new strucci dropped

When it comes to Lupin the third, I highly recommending "Green Vs Red" OVA. It`s just a celebration and simultaneously keeps oshi-esuqe avant-garde feeling.

Regarding 20:15, I think that the fact that neither Richard Epcar nor Tony Oliver was the voice director for this dub played a part as well. Usually, one of them (mostly Epcar) does the direction for any Lupin dub. EDIT: Epcar did write the dub script, and he has expressed his preference for staying faithful to the original Japanese material in past projects he's worked behind the scenes on, but yeah, sometimes some changes (in phrasing only) makes it flow better. When watching dubs, my preference is in line with his, but I actually like changes and punched up phrasing and dialogue as long as it's contextually accurate.

This was a really thoughtful review, and thanks for giving us a new take on this amazing movie! (I definitely agree that the plot was very meh overall.) Specifically, your take on translation and literal translation was great! (Especially if we consider how the loosey-goosey Part II's translation was at times.) Also, thank you for emphasising Mystery of Mamo. A lot of Lupin essayists seem to leave it out, despite how ridiculously fun it is. Like you, I never get sick of watching that film or it's weirdly well fleshed out characters, even despite it's reaaallly problematic bits. (Similar to you too, it makes me a bit hesitant to recommend it.) Also, I know you said that the pacing is wonky (which it definitely is), but could it be a way for the writers to make the 'big reveal' even more jarring/funny? The pacing definitely caught me off guard in a good kind of way. But it's such a shame that Mamo hasn't been used more in recent Lupin media (I know there's a cliff hanger with him in Jigen's Gravestone), but I guess maybe it's just best to leave him in that one movie. Will you be doing any kind of essay on Part II/Mystery of Mamo?

The dub of this movie was actually my first time watching anything Lupin related and I thought it was pretty good. I didn’t really notice anything wrong but maybe that’s just because I’m still very new to this franchise. I really loved this movie’s animation, which isn’t easy with CGI. And when I saw who did it, I instantly knew why since the only other time I’d see Marza animate anything was Sonic Unleashed’s opening and to this day, that opening is the greatest opening for a Sonic game, animation-wise

Lmao I never noticed how Jigen spreads his legs like that before 🤣😂 Dude has a bad manspreading habit hahaha what a nice touch 😆👌 One of my favorite details is how they used the cup o' noodles container to make a makeshift microphone amplifier. And right after they ate their lunch in the plane. I just thought it was really true to their ragtag nature, cuz these guys be poor most of the time!

I can't to see this movie. I'm waiting for the Blu-ray release in my country since its impossible to legally watch Lupin media in Ireland. All we have is Cagliostro.

Love your stuff keep it up!

Thank you for the strobe warning!

I just stumbled onto your stuff and it sucks to see you haven't uploaded in a while. Hope you're all g

I never saw Lupin III before this. This is the first movie I rented and watched alone since years, I just had to after finding some scenes on RU-vid. I loved it, but in the subsequent rewatches let's say just I skipped to the better scenes. The main gang was really fun to watch, my favorite was Zenigata

Sadge TMS, looking forwards to the vid!