Lupin The Third: Part 5

Title:Lupin The Third: Part 5
Lupin III: Part 5
ルパン三世 PART5
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Original Concept - Monkey Punch
In the new series, Lupin III will travel to France — the home of his grandfather and namesake, Maurice Leblanc's master thief character Arsène Lupin. There, Lupin must not only deal with a member of the French government, but he must also deal with thieving in the age of social media.
(Summary Courtesy of MyAnimeList.net & AstroNerdBoy)


Series premiered on April 4, 2018.
Animated by Telecom Animation Film.
[edit] The ↗Lupin III franchise:
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 8 9 8 8 8 AstroNerdBoy [series:3499#436]
"Lupin the Third Part 5" continues TMS's venture into good Lupin territories of storytelling. This time, Lupin and company are operating out of France. For this adventure, the Lupin rescues a young teen hacker girl who'd been kidnapped for pornography purposes at a young age. Then Lupin becomes involved in an adventure featuring a member of the French government who can easily go head-to-head with Lupin. Then Lupin attempts to steal a gem in country of Padar, only to become involved in a CIA plot. And finally, Lupin has to deal with how social media impacts his thieving.

Unlike the "Part 4" series, the writers of "Part 5" decided to do a few multi-episode stories, broken apart by single episode tributes to "Lupin III" of old. As such, we are treated to "lost" Lupin adventures when he wore the red jacket, the green jacket, and even the pink jacket. The really neat thing here is that for each of these tribute episodes, TMS made sure to set the adventure during the time frame that said adventure would have taken, were it part of the "Part 1", "Part 2", or "Part 3" series. TMS even went so far in episode 6 as to change the art, animation, and character designs to better match the pink jacket era.

The tributes to Lupin III don't stop there. Starting immediately from the first episode, we are shown that the "Part 5" series is the direct sequel to "Part 4" by us seeing a glimpse of Rebecca on the screen (she was a star of "Part 4"). And then the writers even show us a clip from "Lupin III Castle of Cagliostro" as part of mysterious people doing research on Lupin's history. Throughout the "Part 5" series, there are numerous nods to previous series. Indeed, quite a number of characters from the past get cameos in episodes. And this is done in a way that not only services the fans, but also services the story at hand.

The most compelling part of "Lupin the Third Part 5" is how self aware it is. The Lupin III source manga started in 1967! A lot has changed in the 51+ years since. As such, the writers take a look at the franchise and ask if there's a place for "Lupin III" in the modern age? Fortunately, TMS indicates that they will continue to do Lupin III titles for as long as they are able.

Bottom line: "Lupin the Third Part 5" is a good TV series, with a few good stories, culminating in one fantastic story. While you don't have to have ever watched a "Lupin III" title before to enjoy this series, the more of "Lupin III" that you've watched, the more you'll enjoy the "Part 5" series.

Last updated Friday, January 11 2019. Created Friday, January 11 2019.
Buy 8 8 8 7 8 9 Ggultra2764 [series:3499#1552]
This latest installment of the Lupin III franchise adds some new elements to Lupin's thieving adventures that helps freshen up the now 50 year old franchise. First, it explores Lupin dealing with the challenges of modern technology such as the Internet and smartphones. This adds some new challenges for Lupin to deal with as technological elements like hackers, webcams, drones, and social media serve to complicate Lupin's crimes in the modern era. Yet in spite of this and unlike his companions who feel overwhelmed by the changing times at points, Lupin is shown to be quite adaptable in changing technologies and gains a new companion in the form of teen hacker Ami who aids him at a number of points throughout Lupin III: Part V.

The second element that helps make this series a unique one in the Lupin III franchise is that it actually takes time to exploring the relationship dynamics with the members of Lupin's gang. This is quite different from many past installments of Lupin III that mostly focused either on Lupin's thievery, dealing with a worst enemy threat, lusting for Fujiko, or evading Zenigata. With the challenges everyone faces from changing technologies, the members of the gang also come to question what sort of bonds they each have with one another in their connection with Lupin, this especially getting some interesting perspective with Lupin and Fujiko's neverending on and off relationship with one another. This new focus helps to add some new dimension to these characters since older anime fans would mostly identify them from the standard character types they exhibited from past installments of the Lupin III franchise.

In regards of plotting, Lupin Part V is mostly similar to Lupin Part IV in that it features ongoing plot developments throughout its entire series run. This series is divided up into several arcs where Lupin and his gang are challenged in some form with whatever big adventure they are involved in revolving the mentioned themes above, carrying a solid balance of serious and amusing moments throughout each arc. With the 24-episode run time, each character has enough time to get their own spotlight of focus throughout the series, this even including series character Ami who gets a fair amount of development throughout the series as she breaks out of her introverted shell. Outside of the series arcs, Lupin: Part V also has the occasional episodes serving as buffer between arcs that have the tone of the episode be similar to that from past Lupin III TV anime, serving as a homage of sorts to past Lupin III works as long-time fans of the franchise can pick up on what series is being portrayed through the color of Lupin's jacket.

Overall, I was quite entertained with what this latest addition to the Lupin III franchise had to offer. It added in some new story elements that helped freshen up the franchise's typical story formula, while retaining the ongoing story developments offered from Part IV and having the occasional episode serving as a homage to past Lupin anime. If you've been a longtime fan of the Lupin franchise, this is a definite recommendation I would suggest you try to watch at some point.

Last updated Tuesday, September 18 2018. Created Tuesday, September 18 2018.

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Official Japanese Series Web Site https://lupin-pt5.com/

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