Lupin III: Fuuma Ichizoku no Inbou

Honestly a really solid Lupin movie

the characters aren't particularly complex, and at times it comes across like samurai movie especially with some of the fight scenes.

Also its a much more Goemon focused story so this is pretty much everything I want from a Lupin film.
Great score, fantastic if a little dated animation and its just a laughable good time.

The plot kinda feels like a bad TTRPG. The gang's at a wedding when *dice roll sound* ninjas attack and now the *dice roll sound* priceless family vase has been stolen! Go get it back!
There really isn't any reason for Lupin to be interested in the ... entire plot other than "other thieves seem to think this is a good idea so there must be something to it"

Characterization is hilarious, everyone feels funny and on point. Seeing Zenigata mourn for Lupin was genuinely touching and somehow the writers actually made me ENJOY Fujiko. Mostly cause Lupin seems fully aware of who she is and what she does.

I LOVE the action scenes, shot for shot scene for scene the slapstick is on point but what gets me are the samurai fight scenes. I'm a huge fan of westerns and samurai flicks so it is RIGHT up my alley. An absolute joy.

Underrated gem among the Lupin III series. Don't pass it up.

Bad stuff first: Plot-wise, this is a pretty average Lupin movie, it's got the standard cast of forgettable side-characters, a very straightforward quest for treasure, and a generic villain with generic evil motives. There's a bit of awkward pacing too, with really fun action sequences being separated by sequences of characters literally just walking around a cave. If you've seen Castle of Cagliostro, then this will come off as a weaker retelling of the same ideas.

Audio here is below average, unfortunately. The soundtrack doesn't have any memorable tunes, and a lot of it feels kind ... of inappropriately silly, rather than cool. The typical voice cast isn't here either, but that didn't bother me, personally.

Fortunately, this movie more than makes up for what it lacks by being the best looking entry in the series. This movie is made up entirely of jaw dropping car chases, intense fight choreography, and solid character acting. There were no corners cut here, you get to see every building fall apart in full detail, and it's incredible. I especially loved the chase scene in the middle of the movie. There's a lot of really good visual gags too; for example, when Zenigata's cars are run over by a train, you see his officers all crammed into one car chasing after Lupin.

This movie's setting is also good. A lot of Lupin movies take place in "Somewhere - Europe", rather than any specific locations, but the town in this movie has a lot of memorable set-pieces, and you can things about the setting while watching (it's got a lot of trains, for example). It's not quite as distinct as Cagliostro, but it's still good. Would've been better if less of it took place in a cave though.

[THIS WAS WRITTEN RIGHT AFTER WATCHING IT AND ON MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACC. KEEPING THIS HERE FOR AN ARCHIVE]
Woah. I can definitely see why ppl suck this movies dick a lot this shit is smooth. Like I could not to tell u what this ones plot was in any meaningful or comprehensive way but I can tell u there isn’t a single bad looking scene in the entire run time of this movie. Every fucking shot is flawlessly animated. The character designs r all wonderful EVEN FUJIKO LOOKS AMAZING AND BETTER THEN MOST OTHER DESIGNS OF HERS zenigata got a buzz cut bald look ... that looks a little funny but it fits him p well tbh. Every single visual element is simply Jaw Dropping. MUSIC ON THE OTHER HAND IS A BIT MORE ON THE STRANGE SIDE bc Tms put their whole fucking pussy in the visuals tryna make cagliostro 2 they literally didn’t have enough money to hire yuji ohno (or get the usual jp cast) so there’s someone else handling the ost this time and NGL I THOUGHT ID NOTICE AND HATE IT BUT I CAME AROUND TO REALLY LIKING THE OST it fits and feels lupin-y! Cant complain at all really!!
Another note to touch on is the voice cast. I was ready to be cringing at the shitty old dub line delivery and poor casting but I’m gonna be honest I was shocked by this shit too bc like everyone did a p decent job. Lupins va actually was kinda good and I really liked fujikos voice too; everyone else was kinda off, zenigatas line deliveries were always kinda stilted sounding but like he had the right idea at least. Was jarring hearing them all call him “rupan” too since this was before arsene lupin became public domain.
Storywise, shit was generic at best and hard to follow at worst. The fact this one had more of a focus in goemon was cool tho I love goemon centric stories. Regardless I feel like w this movie, u don’t really come in looking for plot I think it’s all just visual neuron stimulation
Overall this one was super good and super fun to watch even if the story backseat for the animators to go fucking insane. A solid ass hour and 30 mins of pure eye candy. I give it a nice B+/A

Lupin III: Fuuma Ichizoku no Inbou film, is really carries Lupin's spirit and vitality from adventure and chase scenes, movement and playfulness, by great production, especially in terms of animation, for which there are many animators led by Kazuhide Tomonaga as an animation director, With long experience and rare talent, who has previously worked on many distinguished scenes such as his many scenes with Miyazaki, Especially in the animation of the chaser scenee that Kazuhide Tomonaga mastered it, as we have seen in his great work in the famous Miyazaki Lupin film, and honestly The chase scenes here are certainly one of the ... best I've ever seen for their abundance, quality, smooth movement, and uniqueness of movement.
Also, Yasuo Otsuka supervised and checked all the motion frames in the movie, so yeah, I'm very satisfied with what I saw here.

But when it comes to talking about the story, the film has a simple one, and follows the adventure of finding the treasure of a Japanese clan that Goemon contacts them through their granddaughter who was about to marry him before the Foma clan ruining the whole thing during one of their relentless missions of trying to find the hidden treasure.

Although the script is actually good and enjoyable, but it follows the same main recurring elements in Lupin's films, but within a good short duration for the film, with a good writing for the main characters and dealing with (I mean lupin team) but weak for the original film characters.

As for my direction, the movie doesn't really have anything to distinguish it to the point that it could be considered an OVA episode as it was intended to be, But the positive side is the impact of Miyazaki's style on the film.
Other than that there is the location design which was relatively good especially since we didn't have the best experience because of the Intermediate level of the backgrounds, and the Directing creativity and Storyboard..