Lupin III: Part 6 - Jidai

Kiyoshi Kobayashi is retiring from his role as Daisuke Jigen after 52 years. This episode was an amazing tribute to him and I honestly cried a little. We had a very good participation of the main cast, with the focus on Jigen's life and his point of view on the world around him. It really felt like it was the seiyuu himself saying his goodbyes to the character. I will miss this man a lot since I'm a big fan of the series.

Let’s welcome Akio Ootsuka who is the perfect man to fill in the big shoes with part 6!

I've watched almost all of Lupin III seasons and films over the years and I'm happy that over 50 years since the original Pilot film from 1969 it still gets a lot of love and attention. It really shows what a masterpiece the legendary Monkey Punch came up with.

This Special has two purposes: being an appetizer for the upcoming 6th Season of Lupin III and giving a special send off to Kobayashi Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi has been voicing Jigen ever since the 1969 pilot and this was his last contribution to this legendary franchise. In fact, of the original cast he was the last one standing. ... From this day onwards, every Lupin character will have a different voice actor compared to the original cast.

Because this is a tribute to Kiyoshi, of course this special had to revolve around Jigen's quirks: his old school vibe, his trademark magnum, his refusal to modernise himself and his motivations to still be a part of Lupin's gang after so many adventures, robberies, schemes and so many other shenanigans.

This was very enjoyable, had the good old Lupin III vibe everywhere except on one department: soundtrack. Lupin's classic soundtrack is one of the things that makes the Lupin III franchise what it is and since this is a tribute to Kiyoshi's work as Jigen, it needed to be more present. That's the only thing I would change in this special.

All things considered, it gets a 9/10 from me. A must watch if you're a Lupin III fan.

Happy retirement, Kobayashi Kiyoshi! You'll always be Jigen to me. :)

Temper your expectations, because this isn't exactly the grandiose send-off that it could have been.

Labeled as "Episode 0", this is effectively a special prelude to Part 6 to commemorate the retirement of OG Jigen voice actor Kiyoshi Kobayashi. With the weight of a 50 year history with the character on its shoulders, you'd certainly hope for this production to provide something truly special. Its important to recognize however, that that's simply not what this is. At best, this is a perfectly "okay" Lupin episode that operates as a loose tribute mostly from behind the scenes. There's not necessarily a whole lot wrong with it, ... but I personally feel as if its severely lacking in ambitiousness. I was really hoping that they would go all out for something like this, and aim for something uniquely gripping and sentimental, but its really just a pretty standard character episode with a couple of small nods relating to its underlying meta. The narrative effectively has Jigen considering retiring in-universe, followed by a series of dialogues between him and each main character, reflecting on their dynamics and relationships. It's a cute setup, and there are some fun moments and standout lines that do somewhat cement that sense of history and nostalgic sentimentality, but the fairly basic nature of the episode overall personally left much to be desired. Its also worth noting that the presentation is not especially that strong. This is a pretty massive downgrade compared to Parts 4 and 5 in the visual department, and is a lot more in line with what you'd expect from the generic mediocrity of the TV specials. The designs this time around feel perhaps a bit uninspired, leaning in this weird middle ground between the classic Part 1 designs and their modern counterparts, and the animation and art in particular are pretty wildly inconsistent, typically ranging from average/decent to outright bad. It does have its moments though, with occasional instances of moody lighting/compositing as well as some surprisingly interesting directing and editing moments. If nothing else, at the very least it demonstrates that it has some aesthetic potential, which I can only hope will be amplified in Part 6 proper. The music is about what you'd expect, Yuji Ohno is still pumping out absolute bangers.

Ultimately, it's a perfectly serviceable send-off, but just not much beyond that.