Lupin III: Kutabare! Nostradamus

There isn't much to differentiate this movie from the rest of the series in terms of originallity. However, this particular movie is the only one I know of where the main female of the movie is a kid. This forces Lupin to be a gentleman around her since he can't act his usual lecherous self in front of a little girl. All in all, the art is good, the storyline decent, and the characters work well together. A worthy movie in a long line of Lupin the 3rd titles.

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 strongest ... aspect 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.

If you'd ask me whether or not I'd recommend this movie, I'd say "No". And if you ask me why:

A short answer would be: IT'S BORING. Go watch Cagliostro no Shiro or Lupin III The First. They're much, much better Lupin movies.

A long answer would be: There's nothing unique in this film. It looks like a failed attempt to market the series to a 90s western audience.

If you watched your share of Lupin, you might see that it's somewhat simillar in structure to Hergé's Tin Tin: A big mystery is placed on our protagonists' lap, which they slowly uncover it while outwitting villanous groups trying ... to shut them down, and end up screwing up said villains plans as "heroes of justice" along the way. Difference being the focus on the actions of mainly 3 characters in Lupin (Lupin, Fujiko and the main villain), instead of the usual 2 in Tin Tin (Tin Tin and the villain), with other characters used as seemed fit. Both have a blend of mystery and action, with the latter always being treated more as a puzzle for the main characters, as they're usually outnumbered.

Now, Nostradamus doesn't have a mystery. Everything is pretty much revealed on the first couple of minutes. Which is ok, it's trying to be more action focused. Except the action sucks. They either bruteforce their way into the obstacles in a complete non-Phanton Thief style, or have such absurd solutions that most of the time makes no sense:
Example: There's a scene where Lupin, after fleeing a prison island, is climbing a ladder on a moving helicopter while some armed guys are shoting both him and the heli. Those guys manage to hit Lupin's arm, making him fall into the sea, where a swarm of sharks instantly appears. Afraid of going above water and getting shot again, he GRABS one of the sharks, and it CARRIES him unscathed to safe land. Not to mention those armed guys had no reason to be at that island and they were only pursuing Lupin at that moment for a secret message he got that was created AFTER they arrived on the island. A lot of times the characters just happen to be at the right time and the right place, almost never taking decisions on their own and instead being dragged along by others.

It's either like this or just severely underwhelming, using a lot of "convenient technology" like a "memory to video converter", a lockpick + walkie talkie spy tooth, fake eye taken as a memento that happens to be the key to the coffer, etc...To make things worse, the animation and sound design falls flat. No impact, no comedy, no tension and no excitement.

Not helped by the empty husks that are the characters. No love put into them. The voice actors did an "OK" job to say the least, but the lines aren't enough to bring them to life. They have no personality, as if the writers saw the basic description of each of them and never tried to go beyond it. There's no character development. The motivation for both main characters and villains are pathetic and/or underexplained.

There's also an excessive use of guns and death, which is very out of tone for the series and for the film itself. All engages with the villains involve either guns or time bombs, making them very repetitive. Only at the end they try something a bit more unique with the bombs, and that's just saying they didn't just put it on the ground or at someone's hand, but it still is just timed bombs.

It's not even a mediocre movie, it's just plain boring and bad.

Let it play on the TV as background noise for you to sleep.