Rupan Sansei: Harimao no Zaiho wo oe!!

This movie was done a year before that hideous "Twilight Gemini" and this one is pretty good. Our boys start out with Lupin stealing some monkey statue. It turns out that it along with two other statues are the keys to the Harimao's Treasure.

I won't go into the story except to say that it flows fairly nicely. My girl Fujiko is the smart, sexy, and not to be trusted girl from the original TV series and "Castle of Cagliostro". Excellent! She's not the ignorant slut of "Gemini". The only character who suffers is Goemon. For some reason, he needs a job and the money and so he's been hired to help Lupin and company. Why? He was always part of the gang before. I haven't watched the Japanese version yet, so I don't know what liberties have been taken. However, as I looked this episode up on the net, it seems that Goemon is on the road to enlightenment and needs cash! OK, I'll bite.

About 1/3 of the way through the film, Goemon disappears and suddenly you think, "Where's Goemon?!" He's gone so suddenly and with no explaination that when you notice it, you wonder if you missed something! But never fear, he'll return, this time hired by Fujiko. Jigen's character is done OK. Nothing great, but his skills are used and he's where he should be -- watching Lupin's back! As for inspector Zenigata, he's mostly a waste here except to pass a nearly endless supply of Japanese ramen noodle (bowls included) jokes. But then getting him into every episode has to be pretty hard since he is never the bad guy.

Speaking of jokes, there are some good laughs here. I won't give them away, but I will say to be on the lookout for Lupin's unique parachute storage area! *lol* Classic.

As to the DVD itself, we have the English dub which is pretty good. As of this writing, I haven't compared it to the original Japanese so I don't know how many liberties they took with the translations. However, FUNimation will soften some jokes and statements in the name of political correctness. In addition to the English dub, there is the original Japanese version with or without subtitles. The subtitles contain full Japanese honorifics, which I always approve of.Otherwise, that's about it for extras.

Bottom line: I enjoyed this movie a lot. There is some brief animated nudity when Lupin gives away some Japanese porn, but tha the end of it. The humor is good, the story is pretty good, and the characters are treated well. Lupin fans: GET THIS DVD! Anime fans: I think you will enjoy this movie.

Last updated Wednesday, March 29 2006.