Rupan vs Fukusei-ningen

Title:Rupan vs Fukusei-ningen
Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo
Lupin III: The Secret of Mamo
Lupin vs. the Clone
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , ,
Notables: INOUE Makio
KOBAYASHI Kiyoshi
MASUYAMA Eiko
NAYA Goro
NISHIMURA Ko
R1 License - Discotek
YAMADA Yasuo
Lupin has been captured and executed and the corpse is confirmed to be in fact Lupin's. However, Zenigata doesn't believe it and at the castle where Lupin's coffin is at, Lupin is in fact alive. He is confused as to how he got there, but leaves Zenigata to steal the "Philosopher's Stone" in Egypt for Fujiko, who's been employed by the mysterious Mamo. He believes that he can obtain true immortality and be a god. Will Lupin, aided by the American military be able to stop Mamo's plan of destruction? Is Lupin the real Lupin or a clone? And what really is Mamo?
[edit] The ↗Lupin III franchise:
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 7 5 6 6 6 Ggultra2764 [series:623#1552]
Being the very first Lupin film, Secret of Mamo is an introduction to the various plot formulas, flaws and cliches you can expect of Lupin and the gang that come along with many later movies, OVAs and TV specials within the franchise. Here, Lupin crosses paths with a mystery man who claims to be immortal as he is after Lupin's latest theft in the form of the Philosopher's Stone. It does start off solid with Lupin and the gang having their roles to play in the adventure with Fujiko double crossing and taking advantage of Lupin for her personal gain, Goemon and Jigen warning Lupin not to bother with Fujiko and the three trying to figure who the mystery man is trying to off them.

However as events progress in the movie, the quality of it starts to tank. The mystery man's a bit of a disappointment in the revelation of who he is and while quite smart, his plans are on the cliched side and he gets beaten by Lupin in the most stupidest of ways. Plus, Jigen and Goemon get conveniently shafted in their roles towards the later half in the film, which becomes a common issue in many later Lupin offerings. Also, do be warned there's a decent amount of nudity in this film compliments of Fujiko and Lupin is quite a horndog in trying to woo her at points.

Beyond that, Secret of Mamo is a rather forgettable film in the Lupin franchise. While not the worst I've seen, it's not one I'd bother hunting down unless you're a diehard Lupin fan.

Last updated Saturday, July 13 2013. Created Saturday, July 13 2013.
Watch 6 7 7 7 7 AstroNerdBoy [series:623#436]

As a story goes, this drifted from somewhat interesting to someone boring to just odd. As such, it was hard to give it a final rating. On the whole, I was entertained and don't mind that I rented it, but there are problems.

First, we have Fujiko reduced to little more than a sexpot and the animators get her nude a few times. On one hand, the story tries to play up the romantic angle with Fujiko while on the other hand making it seem all a bluff for Fujiko to get eternal beauty and youth. Um, OK. Jigen and Goemon start off strong with both strongly warning Lupin about Fujiko. But then Goemon's unbreakable sword gets broken and he's reduced to tears and thus exits well before the movie is over. Ugh! Jigen is OK, but like the rest, he is reduced as a character.

The villian Mamo could have been more. Yeah, he looked like some DBZ reject, but his problems went beyond that. I won't spoil it for you, but his true identity was just awful! And how they got rid of him was just stupid because someone as smart as Mamo supposedly was shouldn't leave himself so exposed, especially if you are planning a trip into space!

As to the Pioneer DVD, the English dub cast is fine, but the English dub script is a hack job, much like the way they treated the first 24 episodes of Return of Lupin III. So it often has little resemblance to the original Japanese script. Supposedly Pioneer will do future Lupin titles better. Here's hoping! The subtitles are readable and that's a start. No honorifics are used though.

Bottom line: Watchable and I don't regret renting it. However, unless you are a Lupin fan, there isn't much here for you.

Last updated Sunday, August 03 2003. Created Saturday, August 02 2003.


Other Sites
NameURL
The Lupin III Encyclopedia http://www.lupinencyclopedia.com/
A really good site for all things Lupin III!

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org