Lupin III: Kutabare! Nostradamus

Before we start, a few words concerning my relationship with the Lupin franchise: I haven't yet dug in any series, since the episodic format doesn't easily appeal to me. Instead, I picked the option of movies and specials. My impressions remain mixed, as some works simply manage to draw out more qualities of the franchise's kooky charm. Nonetheless, a major strength is the lack of an overarching plot; excluding the trilogy of movies related to the Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna series, one can watch in any order they desire. On to the review! [1. Visual production...] Rivaling the quality of Cagliostro, this movie had nothing to envy. Its strongestaspect is the backgrounds: whether a cityscape in the USA, the carnival in Rio de Janeiro or a vivid rainforest by the Amazon River, they are brim with details. Also, the palette of colors is smooth to the eye and natural-looking. Animation is consistent and smooth for both stunts and fights. Among my favourite sequences occur while a structure collapses, with dutiful care in depicting the crumbling building and the people falling or running away from the debris. Further impressing was the clever cinematography in certain sequences. An example is a skyscraper elevator scene: as it ascends, the viewer is treated to an outside view of an part of the cityscape, steadily revealing more and more layers of city blocks. [2. Audio production...] The music fits with the adventurous and old-school feel of Lupin III, featuring upbeat jazz soundtracks. The ending song is notable as a soothing ballad fitting, contrasting well with the rest of the OST. The sound direction is decent, with both sound effects and voice acting maintaining a consistent quality to them. [3. Story and characters...] Despite its start, the plot takes more of an action thriller approach, shown by including themes of political conspiracy and terrorism. After the kidnapping occurs, the gang is going back-and-forth to the USA and Brazil in order to uncover the conspiracy and save the victim, overcoming obstacle after obstacle. Transitions between settings and scenes were glued together so well that I lost track of time at times. As for the conclusion? Fitting for a typical Lupin work, but also delivered a great relief after the previously intense thriller. There is not much to say for the main cast, of whom Zenigata was of particular interest. We are treated to two neat facets of his personality: his occasional inventiveness and insight on how much he values his archrival. The villains are fitting for their roles as crafty and ruthless antagonists willing to use any means. My only character-related complaint is about an introduction in the middle; a certain character (related to Lupin) is introduced hastily and disposed in a way that makes his relationship with Lupin fall flat.

Originally released in 1995 I had the (mis)fortune of getting a copy of the 2003 Funimation Dub on DVD from a local shop for super cheap. Frankly, thats the biggest problem with the version I watched. The dub is terrible, characters have 0 emotional range and a lot of scenes that would have worked better quite or with sound effects are just filled with poorly dubbed in grunting that never ever stops. Why not watch the subbed version? Cause the Japanese audio is in mono only. And as much crap as I give the dub, I can't stand mono. Overall the writing is okay, the characters don't needmuch depth to work but I feel we spend too much time watching Lupin tote around a child so fans of the other members of his gang are going to be a bit disappointed. (I think Goemon my personal fave gets about 3 lines in the whole film) The animation is fantastic, the original 1995 release must have looked stunning. Unfortunately when Funimation put it on DVD the film reel they used to digitize it had numerous scratches and burn marks. All of which remain throughout. I realize it sounds like I'm really ragging on this and I guess I am, but the best part of a Lupin flick is the comedy and by god they delivered here. Almost every joke landed and the slapstick is still topnotch as always. While I feel other films in the franchise are better overall, if your a fan like me you'll enjoy this one.

[THIS WAS WRITTEN RIGHT AFTER WATCHING IT AND ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACC. KEEPING THIS HERE FOR AN ARCHIVE] Farewell to Nostradamus is done and like Ik I say “this is the strangest lupin movie yet” every time I watch one of these but genuinely this one takes the crown out of all the weird ones I’ve seen yet. Shits literally about some aum shinrikyo cult and some guy tryna run for US president and at the final leg of the movie the huge skyscraper tower the president guy built fucking explodes in an extremely devastating way that it felt almost 9/11-y even tho it wasmade BEFORE 9/11 (THE VERY BEGINNING OF FHE MOVIE HAD A PLANE HIJACKING TOO IRONICALLY ENOUGH 💀💀💀). The plot was batshit insane. ASIDE FROM THAT helloooook the animation??????? Felt like I was watching some Warner bros cartoon the entire time and in a good way. There was even a quick tiny toons-y cameo somewhere in the movie too which was really fun to see, which also confirms that one of the Warner bros outsourcing studios worked on this. Literally every scene moved so nicely. I’m so used to lupin movies animations being more grounded in reality, so this was really cool and makes me wish more of the franchise could’ve been done in this kinda style. Apparently the studio behind this one was so exhausted and overworked they FLAT OUT REFUSED TO DO ANY MORE LUPIN FOR OVER 10 YEARS. I DONT BLAME GHEM. Oh and I’d like to say the backgrounds in this movie r OFF THE CHARTS. UNREAL ASS SHOTS CONSTANTLY. Plot wise this one was weak but literally every other aspect carried it above and beyond easily. I recommend this one to anyone who wants to shut their brain off and get hypnotized by fun animation. This one is hard to rank but I guess my thoughts as of rn put this one at 9/10. I think my rating system is severely flawed bc i keep giving every movie high scores but :) yknow [this was written right after watching it. easy 10/10 actually]

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