Lupin III: Twilight Gemini no Himitsu

The Secret of Twilight Gemini is a nice Lupin special.

Lupin sets off for Morocco, looking for a legendary treasure. His only clue is an interesting jewel that an old man gave him. It's a nice different location for Lupin, with the desert and that hot exotic feel.

One interesting thing about this movie is that Jigen has a much smaller role than usual, generally being in a different place than Lupin. On one hand their classic dynamic together is missed, but it is a change of pace. Plus, this way, Lupin can focus on the ladies...

Fujiko rules in this. Throughout the entire feature she is seducing ... Lupin, and us viewers. Then there's Lara, the damsel of this particular tale, and she's quite likable. This one has more nudity than any other Lupin anime, which is a fun distinction to have.

There's a very entertaining effeminate ninja guy who's the best villain in this, and naturally he has some great fighting with Goemon, as well as some fun scenes with Fujiko. Inspector Zenigata of course is also on a warpath here, in fine form.

Pretty much, this is a smooth ride with Lupin. The plot is average and there are some slow spots, but all in all this movie is a real pleasure. Enjoy.

Up to this point, Lupin and the gang may have run stale featuring pretty much yearly releases to this date. Once the original series was over and the amazing movie in Castle of Cagliostro, Lupin featuring in a good or even decent movie has been a tough ride. Luckily, The Secret of Twilight Gemini and its’ B-movie plot is a sight long awaited for in the Lupin franchise featuring likeable characters, good action and adventure, well written, and of course comedy with a little fan-service thrown in.

Twilight Gemini takes quite some inspiration from Cagliostro from a family heirloom leading to a massive hidden treasure (Cagliostro ... was a ring, Gemini is a diamond) to the crazy strange controversial enemy group that is also hot on the trail. Though still not nearly as good as Cagliostro, Twilight Gemini is very enjoyable.

Lupin and this story take a bit to get moving, but the solid treasure hunt adventure more than makes up for that. The usual crew remains separate for most of the film, but this also gives Lupin more time with the ladies such as Fujiko and new babe Lara. Usual and not so new action scenes are ever so present and in this sense, is fairly bland for Lupin. The cult and political conspiracy written into the story gives the viewer a sense of uneasiness which makes this enemy especially evil. Towards the end, it is unfortunate that several plot holes appear leaving this Lupin adventure on a bit of a sour note.

While the sound and voice acting, both Japanese and dub do the series justice, this doesn’t make up for a sub-par animation job. Studio TMS was one of the top studios of the time, so bland colors and awkward moving animation scenes leads to a low budget assumption.

Twilight Gemini is the best Lupin movie since Cagliostro but a mature fan-service setting (not for children) and sub-par animation with too many ending plot holes leaves this great Lupin adventure downgraded to only a good Lupin movie.

No magic in this story, and it the gang is doing what they usually do without going out of the realm of their characters. Character development woman got a lot of play but seemed more important than she was sometimes. Very basic Lupin fun for the people that are already familiar with the gang's usual antics.

As much as I enjoyed this, I take off points for queer coding. There's a non-binary villain that gets called some derogatory terms. In all of Lupin not a lot of non-binary or non-heterosexual people appear, but it seems that when they do they have to be villainous. Taking off ... points from the whole Lupin franchise for that.

I wouldn't suggest this to anyone.