14 “The Emerald’s Secret” & 15 “Let’s Catch Lupin & Go to Eu
Jul 3, 2015 4:45:27 GMT -5
Douay-Rheims-Challoner and moimoi like this
Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on Jul 3, 2015 4:45:27 GMT -5
14 The Emerald’s Secret
Have you ever watched through a series and just completely zoned out on an episode—either you were busy doing something else or tired or sick or decided to watch it in the middle of the night because you had insomnia and none of it registered in your memory. One of those things happened (probably the last) to me with “The Emerald’s Secret,” and I’m sorry I did for two reasons.
1. I was wrong about my last post mentioning a several episode gap in Fujiko appearances before she’s given her full character revamp—that actually occurs here.
2. This might be my favorite episode of the series.
I’m very confident we’ve left the transitional period from the harder-edged earlier episodes once and for all—rewatching last week’s not-so-great episodes probably colored my already fragmentary recollection of this one. This episode, like “When the Seventh Bridge Falls,” works largely because it’s done almost entirely on the terms of the new, more all-ages friendly direction of Miyazaki and Takahata (though it still retains some bite). The result is an episode with nary a misstep—or, in the case of Lupin’s fumbling around the enormous yacht, missteps that work in the episode’s favor.
Rather than pulpy caper, the episode plays largely as zany comedy. The yacht setting could just as easily host the climax of a 1930s comedy (indeed, ship settings were reasonably popular—The Lady Eve and Monkey Business come to mind), as do the class dynamics to some degree. The yacht is the setting of a marriage between two members of European nobility—Catherine and Raymond—which is infiltrated by Fujiko and Lupin, with Zenigata in pursuit. Lupin, of course, is posing as nobility, Fujiko as a maid, and Zenigata the gruff merely (or even barely) bourgeois outsider. This is especially fun—Lupin, in disguise, patronizingly calls Zenigata’s dancing “powerful, exciting and innocent!” and Zenigata’s rage at seeing the disguised Lupin exiting the newlyweds’ bedroom—half out of suspicion that the count’s Lupin snooping around for the emerald, half out of disgust at the loose morals of European nobility—is wonderful.
Special mention does need to go to Fujiko’s refashioning, though. It’s been noted in multiple places that Miyazaki seems to have a thing for women in short hair, likely related to something about maturity and independence from sexist standards. Even considering this episode independently of future installments, it’s obvious there’s something truly transformed about Fujiko here and that it’s not just a disguise (after all, it’s happened before). She really does seem like a different person on first entrance. Part of that might be due to her entering into a crowd—canonically (to the extent that it exists in the Lupin franchise) Fujiko’s rather petite, and it shows when she’s in her maid’s outfit, makes her look smaller and more than in previous installments (her bust is also deemphasized). You can tell what she’s up to as soon as she glances around the room, but it’s only when Lupin spots her later that we’re sure it’s her.
More praise needs to be given to the physiognomy on display in this episode. As mentioned in “Everyone Meets Again; The Trump Plan” Miyazaki and Takahata seemed to particularly enjoy drawing Europeans, and that’s on even clearer display here. Raymond is probably the whitest man ever. There’s a lot of caricature in the crowd, with unfortunate globs of fat, lumpy head, and even a toothbrush moustache. Even the portrait in Lady Catherine’s cabin is sporting an eye patch (it’s also an incredibly subtle bit of foreshadowing). Lady Catherine herself, though, is beautiful in a very mid-century Italian actress look. Part of that is the bust, but it’s also her somewhat cat-like eyes. And everyone gets great expressions—as basic as the character designs and animation are, Miyazaki and Takahata wring a lot of expression out of them.
Lady Catherine is also the beautiful, clever woman mentioned in last week’s preview. She does, in a sense, take over some of Fujiko’s duties—she’s the object of Lupin’s affections, be they true or false, as well as the more deceitful female character (she’s also a sort of audience surrogate, enjoying the chase as much as we do). Although I generally like Fujiko’s vampy side, it frees her character to be a legitimate partner-in-crime to Lupin, getting to exchange in banter with Lupin and even physical comedy.
There’s a bit of an edge in some of the humor—no sparks between any of the characters, but innuendos fly around them. Miyazaki and Takahata have managed to change Lupin from a bit of a letch to a flirt whose reach overtakes his grasp—no mean feat. It’s a surprise to hear Lupin to call Catherine “that bitch” in such an otherwise light-hearted romp, but it’s funny-odd. He’s a thief and he’s frustrated—what else is he going to say?
And thieving is a funny business here. The cool aspects of high-stakes theft are mostly absent. Instead of coolly sitting on her motorcycle as chaos unfolds around her, Fujiko’s scrambling behind her lady’s back. Rather than pulling up to dock in a Mercedes SSK Lupin pulls up in a baker’s truck with a cutesy logo (Jigen and Goemon make brief appearances in bakers’ outfits). Lupin infiltrates the wedding in a cake, is nearly Waldo Jeffers’d by a suspicious Zenigata, and after grasping a gem through the cake puts it in his mouth to lick off the frosting (something I’d do).
The plot is very well constructed, very dense and full of interconnected moments, elegantly shifting perspective between Fujiko (arguably the primary protagonist), Lupin, Zenigata and, in first, Lady Catherine, perhaps the most well developed and identifiable of Lupin’s marks so far. I’m not going to go into it—diagramming it out really doesn’t capture its fun. You’ll have to watch it yourself.
Recommended?
Do you have to ask? This is the first of a handful of really flawless Lupin episodes—although in lesser installments I miss the weirdness of Masaaki Ōsumi’s installments, when Miyazaki and Takahata are on their game they can do no wrong. The lightness of touch that makes it feel almost like The Castle of Cagliostro crossed with The Lady Eve.
15 Let’s Catch Lupin & Go to Europe
I knew this moment was coming. Here’s an episode I can’t really say much about. Generally there’s almost always been something weird or culturally telling or behind-the-scenes or suprisingly well done to talk about but here I’m just blank. TV reviewers, how do you deal with the average episode?
I mentioned at one point in Ōsumi’s run (going off of Zack Handlen’s observations about the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation) that approaching the point where we do have an average, watchable episode is a feat in and of itself. And the episode has quite a clever hook, too—in order for Lupin to succeed, Zenigata has to as well. The episode pulls it off with aplomb and…that’s that.
Stray Observations
• “They say the calligrapher can slip his brush and monkeys can fall out of drees.”
• Lupin’s gang is really operating as a cohesive unit here, in keeping with the generally nicer tone of Miyazaki and Takahata’s episodes.
• Fujiko’s hair has lengthened again, which is something I also forgot—I wonder if the airdate order is slightly shuffled from the production order, or if multiple episodes were produced contemporaneously and Miyazaki decided to turn Fujiko’s disguise into her new look.
• She also gets credit for Lupin’s heist, which is nice after spending the entire series arguably being the better thief.
• The episode refers to Zenigata being rewarded for his service by being selected as the Japanese representative at an international police conference. Emphasizing the Europe side of things seems a bit odd since so much of the show seems to take place there, but it sounds better than “Let’s Catch Lupin and Give a Four-Minute Opening Talk at the Plenary Session.”
Recommended?
Yes—while it doesn’t do anything more than a clever heist, that’s clever enough to make this a fun half-hour.
Next week we undertake “Operation Jewel Snatch” and find “Lupin Caught in a Trap.” Depending on time I might also “Keep an Eye on the Beauty Contest” and check out “Which of the Third Generation Will Win,” since if I recall correctly these are all fairly average episodes in the vein of “Let’s Catch Lupin & Go to Europe.”
Have you ever watched through a series and just completely zoned out on an episode—either you were busy doing something else or tired or sick or decided to watch it in the middle of the night because you had insomnia and none of it registered in your memory. One of those things happened (probably the last) to me with “The Emerald’s Secret,” and I’m sorry I did for two reasons.
1. I was wrong about my last post mentioning a several episode gap in Fujiko appearances before she’s given her full character revamp—that actually occurs here.
2. This might be my favorite episode of the series.
I’m very confident we’ve left the transitional period from the harder-edged earlier episodes once and for all—rewatching last week’s not-so-great episodes probably colored my already fragmentary recollection of this one. This episode, like “When the Seventh Bridge Falls,” works largely because it’s done almost entirely on the terms of the new, more all-ages friendly direction of Miyazaki and Takahata (though it still retains some bite). The result is an episode with nary a misstep—or, in the case of Lupin’s fumbling around the enormous yacht, missteps that work in the episode’s favor.
Rather than pulpy caper, the episode plays largely as zany comedy. The yacht setting could just as easily host the climax of a 1930s comedy (indeed, ship settings were reasonably popular—The Lady Eve and Monkey Business come to mind), as do the class dynamics to some degree. The yacht is the setting of a marriage between two members of European nobility—Catherine and Raymond—which is infiltrated by Fujiko and Lupin, with Zenigata in pursuit. Lupin, of course, is posing as nobility, Fujiko as a maid, and Zenigata the gruff merely (or even barely) bourgeois outsider. This is especially fun—Lupin, in disguise, patronizingly calls Zenigata’s dancing “powerful, exciting and innocent!” and Zenigata’s rage at seeing the disguised Lupin exiting the newlyweds’ bedroom—half out of suspicion that the count’s Lupin snooping around for the emerald, half out of disgust at the loose morals of European nobility—is wonderful.
Special mention does need to go to Fujiko’s refashioning, though. It’s been noted in multiple places that Miyazaki seems to have a thing for women in short hair, likely related to something about maturity and independence from sexist standards. Even considering this episode independently of future installments, it’s obvious there’s something truly transformed about Fujiko here and that it’s not just a disguise (after all, it’s happened before). She really does seem like a different person on first entrance. Part of that might be due to her entering into a crowd—canonically (to the extent that it exists in the Lupin franchise) Fujiko’s rather petite, and it shows when she’s in her maid’s outfit, makes her look smaller and more than in previous installments (her bust is also deemphasized). You can tell what she’s up to as soon as she glances around the room, but it’s only when Lupin spots her later that we’re sure it’s her.
More praise needs to be given to the physiognomy on display in this episode. As mentioned in “Everyone Meets Again; The Trump Plan” Miyazaki and Takahata seemed to particularly enjoy drawing Europeans, and that’s on even clearer display here. Raymond is probably the whitest man ever. There’s a lot of caricature in the crowd, with unfortunate globs of fat, lumpy head, and even a toothbrush moustache. Even the portrait in Lady Catherine’s cabin is sporting an eye patch (it’s also an incredibly subtle bit of foreshadowing). Lady Catherine herself, though, is beautiful in a very mid-century Italian actress look. Part of that is the bust, but it’s also her somewhat cat-like eyes. And everyone gets great expressions—as basic as the character designs and animation are, Miyazaki and Takahata wring a lot of expression out of them.
Lady Catherine is also the beautiful, clever woman mentioned in last week’s preview. She does, in a sense, take over some of Fujiko’s duties—she’s the object of Lupin’s affections, be they true or false, as well as the more deceitful female character (she’s also a sort of audience surrogate, enjoying the chase as much as we do). Although I generally like Fujiko’s vampy side, it frees her character to be a legitimate partner-in-crime to Lupin, getting to exchange in banter with Lupin and even physical comedy.
There’s a bit of an edge in some of the humor—no sparks between any of the characters, but innuendos fly around them. Miyazaki and Takahata have managed to change Lupin from a bit of a letch to a flirt whose reach overtakes his grasp—no mean feat. It’s a surprise to hear Lupin to call Catherine “that bitch” in such an otherwise light-hearted romp, but it’s funny-odd. He’s a thief and he’s frustrated—what else is he going to say?
And thieving is a funny business here. The cool aspects of high-stakes theft are mostly absent. Instead of coolly sitting on her motorcycle as chaos unfolds around her, Fujiko’s scrambling behind her lady’s back. Rather than pulling up to dock in a Mercedes SSK Lupin pulls up in a baker’s truck with a cutesy logo (Jigen and Goemon make brief appearances in bakers’ outfits). Lupin infiltrates the wedding in a cake, is nearly Waldo Jeffers’d by a suspicious Zenigata, and after grasping a gem through the cake puts it in his mouth to lick off the frosting (something I’d do).
The plot is very well constructed, very dense and full of interconnected moments, elegantly shifting perspective between Fujiko (arguably the primary protagonist), Lupin, Zenigata and, in first, Lady Catherine, perhaps the most well developed and identifiable of Lupin’s marks so far. I’m not going to go into it—diagramming it out really doesn’t capture its fun. You’ll have to watch it yourself.
Recommended?
Do you have to ask? This is the first of a handful of really flawless Lupin episodes—although in lesser installments I miss the weirdness of Masaaki Ōsumi’s installments, when Miyazaki and Takahata are on their game they can do no wrong. The lightness of touch that makes it feel almost like The Castle of Cagliostro crossed with The Lady Eve.
15 Let’s Catch Lupin & Go to Europe
I knew this moment was coming. Here’s an episode I can’t really say much about. Generally there’s almost always been something weird or culturally telling or behind-the-scenes or suprisingly well done to talk about but here I’m just blank. TV reviewers, how do you deal with the average episode?
I mentioned at one point in Ōsumi’s run (going off of Zack Handlen’s observations about the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation) that approaching the point where we do have an average, watchable episode is a feat in and of itself. And the episode has quite a clever hook, too—in order for Lupin to succeed, Zenigata has to as well. The episode pulls it off with aplomb and…that’s that.
Stray Observations
• “They say the calligrapher can slip his brush and monkeys can fall out of drees.”
• Lupin’s gang is really operating as a cohesive unit here, in keeping with the generally nicer tone of Miyazaki and Takahata’s episodes.
• Fujiko’s hair has lengthened again, which is something I also forgot—I wonder if the airdate order is slightly shuffled from the production order, or if multiple episodes were produced contemporaneously and Miyazaki decided to turn Fujiko’s disguise into her new look.
• She also gets credit for Lupin’s heist, which is nice after spending the entire series arguably being the better thief.
• The episode refers to Zenigata being rewarded for his service by being selected as the Japanese representative at an international police conference. Emphasizing the Europe side of things seems a bit odd since so much of the show seems to take place there, but it sounds better than “Let’s Catch Lupin and Give a Four-Minute Opening Talk at the Plenary Session.”
Recommended?
Yes—while it doesn’t do anything more than a clever heist, that’s clever enough to make this a fun half-hour.
Next week we undertake “Operation Jewel Snatch” and find “Lupin Caught in a Trap.” Depending on time I might also “Keep an Eye on the Beauty Contest” and check out “Which of the Third Generation Will Win,” since if I recall correctly these are all fairly average episodes in the vein of “Let’s Catch Lupin & Go to Europe.”
