The first thing I notice is how James Bond influence the anime is in it's earlier episodes with it's villains, traps, Femme fatal & adult themes. It has a serious tone with silly moments sprinkled thru out. Which I frequently enjoyed. As the anime goes on it starts to shift it's tone to a more comedic goofy tone dropping the serious tone. Which I was a little disappointed about.
The Episodes for me started off really strong in the beginning being new to the series, getting to know these characters. But I wanna say at Episode 10 the episodes become a hit or a miss. They are either Great (Which I would consider to be one of my favorite episodes) Good or Average. It all depends on the plot of the episode. But I will tell you this all the episodes have entertaining moments.
I do have a couple of negatives one would be how they drop a story line with one of the main character cause the shift of the tone of the show and The villains not being that smart. There a few villains that have out match lupin and his gang.
The Characters
I pretty much like them all. You get to know the characters persona really quick
I always thought Lupin was cool in the other movies that I've seen but watching him in his own series makes the character more interesting. Seeing how he thinks & acts, his likes and dislikes. Other then just jumping into the movies Blindly. Lupin is more psychotic in the earlier episodes. There's a episode with Inspector Zengata that gives a insight on the Zengata and Lupin relationship. It shows you the purpose of the Zengata Character. Which I thought was interesting.
Jigen and Goemon these two characters are pretty one dimension even tho I really like Jigen whenever cracks a joke. Goemon is a character I can't get into so far. He doesn't fit the rest of the characters in the anime, you have two thieves, a gunslinger a Inspector & a Samurai. He seems out of place.
Fujiko Mine has gotten a slight update from the plot film. She doesn't really do much in the early episodes. She's the Femme fatale, Damsel in Distress, Fan service. Who betrays Lupin a lot. Just to say Fujiko Betraying Lupin & Being the Damsel in distress gets old really quick. Before she is given more to do. The Lupin / Fujiko Rivalry trying to one up each other Stealing Valuables is really fun! I love this! For her first official incarnation she's rather cute then hot LMAO. It's gonna be interesting seeing her character design evolve thru the decades.
The first opening theme at first I didn't like. I thought it was repetitive but after a while it grew on me really fast just for them to modify the opening with narration introducing you the characters. Out of the three opening themes the third one has to be my favorite due to it having a little Spanish flavor
You can see some of the influence The anime has had in Takeshi Koike's Redline with the Anime's first opening Lupin running from a hail of bullets. The sequence in Redline introduction Lynchman & Johnny boy has a little sequence that's really similar to the opening. In the first episode of the anime in the race that Lupin has entered the announcer announces one of the racers is driving a Maclaren Which made me think of Sonoshee Maclaren from Redline even tho it could be a mare coincidence.
In conclusion The first Lupin the Third anime series is worth a watching for people who want to get into the franchise to get to know the characters at only 23 episodes.
