Lupin the Third: Part III 41
Lupin III Part 3 41
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 41
Summary/SPOILER Summary
Lupin learns about a pending coup in a Caribbean country (?). So Jigen disguises himself as the coup leader, Colonel Arnold. He makes the real colonel unconscious so that Lupin and Goemon can enter and steal the current dictator's treasure during the chaotic coup. A woman enters the elevator with the disguised Jigen and shoots him. Meanwhile, Lupin and Goemon discover that the current leader has died of poisoning. Furthermore, his secret vault is empty.
Lupin and Goemon escape, assuming Jigen is fine. The coup continues and destroys the presidential palace. Colonel Arnold actually imposes martial law and wants to arrest the president's secretary, Domingo. Fujiko, posing as a reporter, tries to interview Arnold, who fires her. Meanwhile, an injured Jigen goes to a bar where a woman is. She becomes extremely worried when Colonel Arnold shows up.
When the colonel leaves, she attempts to shoot him. Jigen has to come to her rescue but Goemon bails them both out. At an abandoned church, Jigen learns that Ann (Anita) is from Czechoslovakia. She wants to return home despite what the Soviets have done to it. Jigen assumes that Domingo is Ann's partner. So Jigen tells her to go back to the bar.
At the same time, Arnold captures Domingo. He refuses to tell them where he hid the stolen treasure. Zenigata interrupts the execution, allowing Lupin's group to rescue Domingo. However, Domingo escapes to an old fighter bomber. Lupin follows in an old fighter plane. Goemon cuts off the bombs filled with treasure. Ann realizes she cannot return home, while Lupin's group boards a cruise ship headed somewhere.
Thoughts/Reviews
Rub. Lupin the 3rd: Part III 41 is a classic case of writers starting with a great premise, then falling into the abyss because they don't know what to do with it.
Great start
I have to say, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 41 grabbed me right at the gate when this mysterious girl shot the disguised Jigen. Then Goemon and Lupin found out that the treasure they were after was gone. Plus there was a coup d'etat going on. Not only that, the injured Jigen was cut off from Lupin and Goemon. So this episode had a really good start.
The episode continues to be interesting when Jigen finds Ann (or Anita) in the bar. While she can't figure out why the man she shot seems unharmed, she shoots him again. She fails and has to be rescued by Jigen, but that's cool too. Plus, I like that Goemon has to save Jigen and Ann. Yes, he's a deus ex machina, but that fits canon.
This allows Ann to reveal why she did this. I really like that her motive is not revenge. After the Soviets killed her parents and she fled Czechoslovakia. Years later, she wants to go home. Domingo offers her a way to do this if she kills the leader of the coup. So, I can easily believe that a desperate person could be convinced to kill a leader of a coup.
Fall off the cliff
After such a good start, Lupin the Third: Part III 41 fell off a cliff when Zenigata appeared. Somehow, Zenigata not only appeared at a military facility but also interrupted the execution just because of “Lupin”. So instead of coming up with a clever way (using methods Lupin III Instead of Lupin saving Domingo, the writers turned to cartoon farce again, using the old conflict between Lupin and Zenigata.
The next level of writerly failure is Domingo’s escape. Apparently, Colonel Arnold didn’t feel it was important to secure the capital’s airport. So Domingo was able to stash all this treasure inside a couple of bombs strapped to an old prop fighter bomber. We don’t know how he did it, but oh well. The airport should have been secured.
What really got me hooked on the episode was what happened next. Assuming Domingo always abandoned Ann, there would be no proper resolution to what happened to him. After Goemon cuts the plane and drops the bomb, we see Domingo parachute out. I suppose he doesn't matter. However, Ann is very important to me. So why would Jigen abandon her? She was there at the airport. Why not take her with him?
Then there's Lupin's escape. We don't even know that they got the treasure. I guess that's what happened because the next time we see Lupin's gang is on a luxury cruise ship. But how did that happen? No cruise ship would dock in a war-torn country. And with martial law in place, it seems like Lupin's gang would have a hard time escaping, especially with a treasure.
Final thoughts and conclusions
Final, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 41 started strong but ended disastrously.
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