Lupin III: Walther P38

A little better than the previous entry in this box set "Farewell Nostradamus" Be fore warned that this particular movie is A LOT more violent than usual. I gave up counting how many people die after fifteen on screen deaths complete with blood in the first few minutes alone. Not that I dislike violence (I mean just look at my watch list.) More that its a pretty big departure from the usual Lupin tone. Also Goemon still doesn't get to stab anyone, a dude puking out all his blood and collapsing in a massive pool of his own gore is okay but a sword? That's toomuch. It's not even like our heroes don't kill. Lupin straight up shoots a guy in the forehead and Jigen gets to shoot some people too. On a much lighter note this time the DVD version ISN'T ripped from a burnt/scratched film so that's a huge plus but it's still in a pretty poor aspect ratio with lots of compression. Other than that the animation is rock solid, though I think some of the new characters were drawn off model a few times and it looks really distracting. Most of the jokes land and the movie is overall very enjoyable despite the unusually dark tone. The plot is weirdly similar to the last James Bond film "No Time to Die" There's an island that has a lab on it that used to be run by some secret military unit and the main character gets injected with a bio-weapon that forces him to stay on said island. I guess someone is a Lupin fan? There's actually a pretty huge plot hole because that bioweapon is a MAJOR plot element and at the end Lupin just leaves the island with no cure or anything. I wanna say its a plot hole but Lupin also claims to be able to make his own cure? Somehow? I guess? I have no idea. Maybe its a translation issue? Other than that I actually enjoyed this one a fair bit, its still not the best Lupin movie ever (Castle of Cagliostro still holds that honour) but it's definitely good enough if you can find a cheap copy somewhere.

The manner of the more angular and jagged anatomy at times, with very dynamic poses forming tons of craggy silhouettes, made out of oblong quadrilaterals jutting out of each other, reminded me a ton of Street Fighter Alpha: Generations. The fights here are pretty brisk and snappily choreographed, they're probably where the direction was at its slickest. The scenes of Lupin smoothly dodging all of Ellen's attacks and even prodding at her with a broom reminded me a ton of the Cowboy Bebop movie, with the famous Spike janitor scene. There's another of Fujiko being pinned down and having a knife dragged across her chesta lot like Faye by Vincent. But those thin but blocky, bifurcated silhouettes had me totally convinced there had to be some key animator in common between this and Alpha, and after going quite some ways down the list, I finally found my answer in Hiroyuki Imaishi of GAINAX fame. Of course it was him! No wonder I like the style so much. It's kind of most like FLCL out of his works I've seen. This was a pretty cinematic, substantive, melancholic, and stylish 'anime movie,' especially for a TV special, but it's not exactly what I personally look for from a Lupin movie. But it is mayhaps the most Bond-esque one I've seen yet, it feels very much like a "serious production." Its tighter, sharper, very late 90s artstyle, along with the muted cool tones, and its moody and serious presentation, excluding a few too dinky, goofy sound effects on some Zenigata gags, made an experience slightly slightly more akin to like a very Bond-esque episode of Cowboy Bebop or Trigun or something. Albeit with the plot of a non-canon movie for some long running shōnen, like a MHA movie or a Naruto. Or an episode of Conan. It didn't have Lupin's particular brand of swag in its presentation, and there was very little screwball shit and insane plays. This one's like a sweet vanilla milkshake, when Lupin is at my favorite when it's an astonishing, authentic calzone. The Funimation dub was extremely distracting. And I've seen Funi Lupin before. But here, you just can't help but constantly recognize everyone's voices, like okay, why is Lupin Krillin. Sabat's Jigen here is between Zoro and Piccolo, except for this one time he yells and the Vegeta comically jumps out of him. Justin Cook's shrill, grating yells on that wily, white FREAK hit you like a truck, oh that's Yusuke. That's the voice of my GOAT coming out of a disgusting goon. That's gore of my comfort character. I adore how Zenigata is drawn in this one, his faces are so adorable and vivid. Fujiko looked great, yet unfortunately was blonde like Cagliostro. You barely get much of Jigen or Goemon in this one, but Goemon does get some especially funny moments. The plots pretty great, in my opinion. It's a good setting and villain organization. The blood takes some cool shapes, like to see it.

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