From episode 6 of the new series of Lupin III, just behind Fujiko there.

The new series of Lupin III is an interesting beast in that it’s come not actually all that long after the previous instalment, and whilst that one was predominantly focused on Lupins antics in Italy, this one is supposedly focusing itself on France… not that it’d be that particularly obvious thus far beyond the accordion rendition of the classic Lupin theme. Tonally, it feels like it’s splitting the difference a little between Part 4 and the somewhat rougher edge of, say, Part 1. At the same time, though, it’s seems to be suggesting that any tonal interpretation of Lupin III, or just any interpretation of Lupin III in general, is valid, by doing things the franchise hasn’t frequently done in the past, like explicitly referencing Castle of Cagliostro as being a thing that actually happened. Or, I guess, anything outside of the current series as a thing that actually happened.

To point, though, this weeks episode diverged from what the series has being doing thus far with a homage to the Pink Jacket Lupin instalments, mainly the Lupin III Part 3 TV show. I have to admit, this is a completely blind-spot in my own Lupin knowledge – I’ve seen most of the original Part 1 TV show, I’ve seen enough of Part 2 to have a feel for it, but I’ve not actually seen any of the Part 3 TV show or the Gold of Babylon movie (I’ll probably end up picking up the BD of that one at some point, anyway). Whilst it was fun as being something different, I suspect a lot of the specifics of the appeal were lost on me a smidgen.

Otherwise, for as throwback as this is, the actual previous arc of the show was rather delightfully modern – by which I mean, whilst it’s still kind of behind what some of the childrens cartoons are doing a little, it embraces a whole bunch of ripped-from-the-headlines stuff as Lupin goes after a group of nefarious dark-web types by stealing all their crypto-currency, only for them to turn the tables by deploying Twitter and the power of social-media against him. It’s fun stuff, if you’ve not been keeping up with it, aside from maybe the somewhat unnecessary feeling CSE-based background for one of the new characters.

(On an entirely unrelated, airing-today kind of thing, though – this weeks Last Period is in the form of a documentary about the lead character plummeting into gacha hell. Whilst I feel like the show, whilst effortlessly charming, isn’t necessarily hitting as well as it could in the specifics of some of it’s execution, it’s maybe the wildest mobage adaptation since maybe Sengoku Collection in terms of doing weird stuff like this. I mean, it’s got nothing on that episode of SenColle where Michael Moore films a documentary about the dangers of time-displaced female-versions of Sengoku warlords living in modern-day Japan, it does somehow have a Higurashi cross-over episode…

Anyway, time to try and be awake at 2am so I can try to book AX Aqours tickets…)