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Ah, already in the 90s. I'd say time sure flies but I started this blog series well over a year ago LMAO. Sorry I'm slow y'all. Just as a heads up, this might be my last blog for several months, there's a big anime convention coming up, and I need to not spend my spending money on pretty much anything else. I'll be getting Goro, Zengiata's assistant's signature, so I think I can justify my spending for a Lupin-worthy cause. I'm giving myself a small bit of spending money for anything else, including these Blu-rays/DVDs, but I need to be smart all the same. Thanks for understanding ^^

Remember how I said I was going to watch the dub first then the sub? lol. I didn't actually know this one didn't receive a dub. Mayhaps this is the new dub we were getting teased?? Hmm, food for thought. Maybe this is why I couldn't even find the bluray for this movie, and had to get it as the DVD.


Lupin gets a tip-off that there might be some credence to the theory Ernest Hemingway was killed while recounting a story in the form of a book. His manuscripts are said to lead to a treasure, and the papers are believed to be located on the island of Colcaca. Upon landing, he's immediately sounded by the army since the island is currently in a massive state of civil war. After finding a gun on him, he's pursued until a truck pulls up and asks to be let on. The truck driver allows him to hide and even gives the army a red herring. They pull into a ghost town, and the driver, Maria, seems to be the only resident. After leaving her bar, Lupin sees the Cansano Family, the army Maria had alluded to earlier, ride into town. Amongst the family, he spots Jigen and signals to him. Jigen can't talk for now but plans to explain everything to Lupin later. Cosano comes to the president's place to show off their card, Jigen. Displaying his shooting prowess. Right after, President Carlos had his own card, releasing Goemon to cut up their motorcycles. When placed against each other, they leave their weapons in place of a simple brawl and slap each other out cold. Later that night, the three guys reunite at Maria's Bar as Lupin explains why he's there for the treasure. However, Jigen declines the offer and looks for a man instead. Once Goemon sees the box meant to contain the treasure, he freaks out. Realizing that it's the box said to be the only thing Zantetsuken can't cut. Lupin tells Jigen he's met the guy he's looking for, Mash, and so he celebrates that their goals all seem to line up. However, Jigen and Goemon storm off, still wanting to go solo.
The next morning a plane arrives with more Consano men, including Marces and Fujiko and Crazy Mash as well. Marie leaves early to find the same secret base; ready to snipe Consano but she's soon discovered and taken down. Luckily, Lupin shows up just in time on horse back to knock them all out.
Meanwhile, Cosano and Marces discuss splitting up the fortune after they take over President Carlos's position and Marces only promises to help if he's given his whole art collection to expand his business. Jigen listens in.
They all meet at the bar, and Jigen seems relieved to see they're both doing alright and speaks ominously about the Crazy Mash guy he's been sent to kill. Lupin and Goemon quickly jump up to help, but he refuses. Finding Crazy Mash's hideout but unfortunately falling for a deadly trap. And right before he's about to be shot, Lupin comes in to capture him as well. Jigen and Mash are about to have a standoff before the Casano family pulls up in their tanks. Lupin is able to make an escape, but Jigen isn't so lucky.
Meanwhile, Goemon snoops around President Carlos's place until he eventually finds a hidden room where he runs into Lupin. Lupin asks for his help, but before they can talk, they find the Pandora's Box Goemon's been searching for. Unable to slice the box, Zantetsuken is broken, and the alarm goes off. Defeated and alone, Lupin returns to the bar. Casono's men come by to arrest Maria but make one final request to input Z2Z2 on the jukebox, creating an explosion and a good chance to escape. Maria shows Lupin to a secret hideout credited by the Scorpions and a liberation front created by the residents on the island to help end the war. She explains why they created it, that years ago, people from all over were swarming the island in search of the treasure and eventually destroyed the whole island in order to get it.
Fujiko reunites with Lupin so they can team up together and steal the box. They escape the island to return back to Marces's save where Lupin disguises himself to steal the key to the treasure box. They're almost immediately tailed by Mash and Marces, but Lupin's taking pictures of all the papers. They run off a cliff, where Mash picks them off, takes the treasure, and drops them in the ocean.
Since the Papers have been released, it's a 3-way battle to obtain them. Consano and Carlos have a debate, but it just leads to them planning the time for Jigen and Goemon's deal the next day. Goemon can knock Jigen off the board, but he breaks the entire thing so they can land safely on the railing on the side of the large hole they're in. Since both sides have been betrayed, they shoot at the guys. Lupin rushes in to assist them in their escape. Safe, Lupin reads the manuscripts and finds the treasure, which is somewhere called Mother Womb.
All sides are heading for this Mother Womb. Maria is reluctant to help, knowing that Lupin and the gang are just like the other, wanting to exploit the island. But the gang goes without her nonetheless. The two groups quickly find each other and a massive fight breaks loose. But with all the tank fire, the rocks around crumble, releasing all the built-up rainwater onto them. Allowing the gang to make a getaway.
They enter the Mother Womb cave but the entrance has been sealed off by Hemingway to not stir the beauty. They convince Goemon to cut it. What they find is a room full of uranium. They leave disappointed, knowing harvesting it isn't worth the health risk. As they leave, Mash and his men find them. Jigen shoots Mash in the head, and it's all over. The rainwater starts to make the cave crumble, so they make a mad dash out of there.

Lupin makes his final goodbye to Maria before catching up with the rest of the gang. Goemon is fruitlessly trying to cut the box, and just before giving up, he taps the box with his sword, splitting it right in half. They finally fly back home.

Ah, so this one was pretty disappointing, unfortunately. A mutual friend of mine had even said as we talked about Dezaki's work with Lupin that it's so cool that Dezaki got to direct/storyboard four Lupin movies, and yet only one of them was actually good. I think compared to the other two we're yet to see, this was the highest rated. Why? I don't know. Hopefully, I wasn't right in that assessment. There's a universe where this situation could have worked, but I honestly think that this story could have worked. I've said this multiple times, but I do not like military/war stories in practically any capacity. I think there's ways it can be presented in an interesting way, but a "war film" perse is something I can't get behind. And while this isn't one, it still has many elements of a war movie. It's still the central conflict and that makes for a very interesting story. I honestly think it could have been more interesting if Scorpions had a bigger presence in the movie rather than Marie being the only one left. Having Lupin join her side, they fight together, and then while taking the government and Cosano family on, that's when Lupin finds Goemon and Jigen, and he's thrown into the conflict between them, too. I think it could have been interesting to see them lead more into Jigen and Goemon being on opposite sides. This does present the characters in a unique scenario, but it's almost never touched on, and the two are only forced to fight each other twice. Another thing I could have enjoyed seeing was this just being a race to the treasure. Have the same characters but purely having the shared goal of finding the treasure. That could have been fun as well. It would have streamlined the plot a lot while still retaining the tension between the groups.

I guess that's what sucks, there's a lot of room for improvement and it's pretty easy to make those improvements. With the last special, there was a strong sense of adventure and an easy way to melt all the plot points together. And while, yes, technically, everything in this special exists for a reason (except Zenigata), it just doesn't seem to make a bigger impact. Well, it just plain isn't as good a story. I don't need acid trips, but this also just feels too generic, a nothing story if you will.


As I was just saying above, Goemon and Jigen could have a genuinely interesting conflict. I'm not saying they need to turn on each other, but their issues are resolved really quickly. They constantly go back and forth on this. Will they help Lupin with things? Like is this supposed to bring tension? Because if it is, it feels too forced. It's made really obvious they all want to be on each other's sides but can't. But you can at the same time! When the two are pitted against each other, maybe have them be threatened, someone else's lives are at stack or something. Make this point seem more serious.

Although I do like Jigen and Goemon's attempt to constantly try not to harm each other, The little pseudo-sumo fight at the beginning is fun; it was one of the few times this special got a laugh out of me. I would rather them not be hostile towards each other, never what I wanted. If they could just combine the strong desire to not want to hurt each other with stakes that say they're going to have to, I would have been way more invested in it. Other than that it's just a wasted opportunity.

Everyone has their reason for being here, and well a lot of them are weak. Jigen's here to kill Mash. (Which I don't know for sure but I'm almost leaning on this being a reference to the series M*A*S*H, since it was also about the military and certainly something that I could easily see them referencing. Heck, Yuji Ohno did a cover of the opening song). Anyway, his conflict with Mash seems pretty meh. One time, they were going after a treasure together, and then Mash decided to kill everyone, and only Jigen survived. And that's it. Nothing deeper. I guess that serves as reasonable revenge but I dunno, I just don't feel the stakes. They barely interact, so you can't really get any sense of tension.

I do think it's weird that while Lupin does take a small backseat, he's still seen as the main character. Clearly, a lot more is going on with Jigen and Goemon in this special, so why do we barely get to see any scenes with them by themselves, but we get to spend plenty of scenes of Lupin just lounging around at the bar and sleeping in a horse stable? Like I really don't know why he has the most emphasis placed on him. He's simply just not that as relevant to the plot.

For Fujiko, I don't really mind her minimal appearances, I just feel like her times on screen are solid and move the plots forward. The times when she and Lupin are trying to steal the box away. Those scenes are really solid.

As a whole, I really liked this sense of family the Lupgang has with each other. When trouble calls, they all want to help each other. Fujiko doesn't pull anything against Lupin, she's working together with Lupin, straight up. Lupin comes to Jigen's rescue. Lupin and Goemon jump to help Jigen when he alludes his dangerous mission. There are a lot of examples, and I really enjoyed them. It's just a subtle thing that persists throughout the whole movie. Especially at the bar scenes. They don't do a ton for the plot, but I feel like they do the most for charisma and character interaction.

Now Zenigata. Oh boy, it's here. Zenigata could have been completely written out of the script and NOTHING would have changed. Literally, the only time any of the main characters talk to him is when Jigen gets thrown into the same jail cell as him. Which basically just ads to another joke of him being constantly tortured. They really just beat him up and do nothing else. It's painful to watch; why include him if you're just gonna hurt him, starve him, and throw him in prison? I really, really don't get it. Unfortunately, this is a familiar way we'll be seeing Zenigata from now on.

Since I find every other character too boring to talk about, the last character I'll mention is Maria. Our Lupin Girl of the special. She's definitely one of the better ones. She remains strong, is clearly a much bigger proponent to the conflict, and actually acts on her own. Again, I think she could have been stronger and utilized more if Scoprions hadn't been completely taken out. But I do like that she at least does act on her own. Her going out and trying to snipe Consano is way more than I can say for a vast majority of the others. I still think it's lame that she steals a kiss from Lupin in the end. They don't need to be hostile, just have them give a warm glance at each other, that's all, I'd be satisfied. I don't get the point of forming these relationships, do people actually ship them? When y'know the entire rest of the reestablished cast is already there. Pushing my Fujoshiness aside, there's Fujiko right there and there's some clear chemistry between the two, certainly more so than with Maria. Unless you read it as tsundere. Which I don't see, and also just hate tsundere character tropes.


There isn't much I can say as far as visuals. This had a lot of the same people working on it so it's going to look very similar. A few things of note though. Again thanks to the commentary tracks by Discotek for being my main source of information. Firstly, there was a guest character designer who also worked on Mamo. Maria was designed by him which is fairly obvious when you see the difference in the way her hair is drawn vs Fujiko. But both these guys working on Mamo, I think, helps to make them blend together. I didn't really consider there being a guest character designer until it was mentioned.
The scene where Maria fights off Cosano men, and Lupin pulls up in the horse was animated by legendary Masahiro Ando! Really famous for the action scenes he animates, which is great to see. I've always been a massive fan of his work, a clear master of his craft.

Again, apologies for the screenshots. Although I have the DVD, my DVD player doesn't work anymore so I can't hook it up to my computer with screenshots, so we must deal with the embeds. 😔



I really vibe with this outfit. Lupin in the more casual, loose-fitting clothes and tennis shoes is a cute change.



He looks like Curious George. I love monkey man. He really looks monkish in this movie. His hair is more skin tight so it really gives the appearance. And interesting change considering this is the same character designer.



Maria's design is really strong. Definitely one of the more iconic designs for a Lupin girl. I like this line that runs along the edge of her hair to give it more contour. A unique take, but I love it. I'm also a sucker for pink and green color schemes so that's an instant win in my book.



The backgrounds are gorgeous! The sunsets in this movie are so rich and vibrant especially, but the entire movie looks great. They got some really talented people for the background work, if you look up their team, everyone has a really staked filmography. Specifically, many of them worked on Akira, if that gives you any hint of what talent we're dealing with.



I don't know if I mentioned this last time with Dezaki's staples, but he's known for his splitscreens. This movie utilizes the split screens way more, and they're done better, too. With so many rivalries, they definitely add more tension and drama. Especially with the scene I've screenshotted. Since they're on opposite ends of this board, it really works to do this. They do this several times with Jigen and Goemon alone, and I think that works great.



I know smoking isn't really Goemon's thing, but man if he doesn't look so cool with one.





Honestly of my favorite scenes in the entire movie. It's so goofy but done so well. I love love love the expressions on all the characters faces. Just the perfect amount of humor to cap this special off.


Yuji Ohno is back with another banger OST. Admittedly, I still think Bye-Bye Lady Liberty is better for its jazzier soundtrack, but this one is still great. The more upbeat tracks, especially, seem like great cruising along the beach-type tracks. It has all the vibes. Since '89 will be the representative Theme From Lupin for a while, I won't talk about it much, except that it still rocks. "He's Gone" is one of my favorite songs from the Lupin period, much like Endless Twilight is for more, too. Out of all Lupin songs, which, yes, I have ranked, this is #11. So extremely high up there considering how prolific Yuji Ohno is.
I love how chill it is yet so emotional. Also, this is something I've literally always thought since I first heard that the baseline sounds like something you'd hear at an aquarium. The upbeat vaguely tropical and nautical. It's an extremely nostalgic baseline to me (I know that sounds weird, but I frequented aquariums very often as a kid and now). This is one of the first Lupin songs I completely memorized since the full song includes half the song in English. Anyway, love this song.


So it's unfortunate to step down. I had originally given this a 9/10, but it's more of a 7/10 in retrospect. This was the point in Lupin when I had run through most of the series except the TV specials; having come to this from Part 6 would really shape my perspective. Since we're going from dogshit to a decent movie. I can definitely watch this movie, but if I had to pick a Lupin special to watch, this would not be it. There's enough visual spectacle to enjoy from a technical standpoint. As I mentioned, there's a lot of great talent in this movie, and Dezaki's directing work is great. It's a good note in the history of anime, but again, if I want to watch a Lupin Dezaki flick, Bye-Bye Lady Liberty.

See you all next time, whenever that may be! The latest will be September!