Goemon Ishikawa’s Spray of Blood

Goemon Ishikawa’s Spray of Blood



I couldn’t get a screenshot this week, but I actually saw the above Smoking Fujiko gif just in common usage a bunch of times. And it’s an apt summation of the first half of this special: just a great diversion.

We get a few of plotlines to begin with, centered around a yakuza-backed casino boat. The first has to do with our titular Goemon—he’s been hired as a guard for the leadership. Sitting at the opposite end of the room from most of the other mooks, he seems withdrawn, folded in, with his hair covering his face. One of the best aesthetic choices of the special was to make Goemon so small—he’s shorter than everyone else here, making his skills more remarkable and hinting that his strength isn’t just physical (he’s definitely sculpted here, though), and eventually makes him seem overpowered by his circumstances, uncharacteristically (to long-term viewers) unsure of himself.

That early scenes drag on—it’s hard to be invested in generic yakuza stuff. But as soon as Lupin drops in for classic casino heist we get into the right gear. The gang’s—the gang of three—is all here for some classic Lupin action-adventure. Both Lupin and Goemon come face to face a giant, Paul Bunyan-esque, axe-throwing villain given the improbably lithe alias Hawk. The gang briefly sees Goemon as their paths quickly cross, and then they go their separate ways, fleeing the burning boat.

Then Lupin, Fujiko, and Goemon get to enjoy their loot. It’s a great scene for them—we rarely see them enjoying the fruits of a successful heist—I noted in that it felt very odd to see Lupin actually drink in the family-friendly Part V but it comes naturally here. Hawk interrupts, but shift from a nice little interlude to a great (and grounded) car chase across the coast and mountains is perfect and seemingly effortless.

Eventually Goemon shows up challenges Hawk to a duel and finds himself, if not necessarily physically defeated (Hawk’s axes match Goemon’s sword) certainly psychologically. Zenigata’s on Hawk’s case too, and he’s in fine form here—determined and professional rather than a goof. All’s going well in the first half, but then things take a turn.

They take a dour turn. Things get more serious, which works at first as some of the excitement from the first part carries over, but that diminishes as it goes on. Fujiko disappears. Zenigata’s backgrounded. And Lupin and Jigen, while largely present, are mostly onlookers as Goemon heads to a bunch of improbably scenic places for apparent self-flagellation (figuratively, but honestly wouldn’t be too off in tone). Goemon, as you might expect from his extreme asceticism and indifference to his surroundings, is in fact working his way to an assassin’s equivalent of enlightenment.

That’s the biggest issue with this special. Goemon works well as a foil to Lupin (and Jigen), another voice or an antagonist. Having him carry a story all on his own—and he barely associates with the core gang here—isn’t as easy, but when it works best it’s when his stoic ethic comes into conflict with his very human feelings. There’s a bit of that in the climatic battle with Hawk, but other than that Goemon mostly seems to go further away from that state, to the point where he almost doesn’t seem human at all. It gets harder to be invested—like Lupin and Jigen, we’re just looking on, and the story and look of Goemon’s Spray of Blood gets less involving and drab.

Goemon just doesn’t get removed from humanity, he gets part of his body removed from him. There’s some good animated ultraviolence here to be sure, but in the battle with Hawk there’s a little bit of flaying. Not too much, “just a little” off Goemon’s shoulder and arm, but it completely took me out of the film—even the Renaissance artist Antonio_Pollaiuolo, entranced by human musculature, had the sense to at least imply skin—it’s not gross like it is here. It’s always odd just what tenses your disbelief. I’m very willing to roll with near-magic weapons and anticipatory reflexes. I don’t believe you can recover from losing your skin by putting your arm in a sling (it didn’t help that a lot of the yakuza mooks appeared to have skin grafts too).

In any event it’s a shame Goemon’s Spray of Blood spends almost half its time in a morose mood punctuated by dour, if showy, setpieces. There’s real verve in the beginning—not just in big ways like the car chase but in smaller moments, like something as simple as Lupin talking to Zenigata through the mesh in a police car—it’s not distracting at all, but it’s somehow done well. Lupin, Jigen, Fujiko and Zenigata all live here—Goemon really never comes alive (compare to Jigen’s gravestone, where the progression from mere partner to actual friendship felt natural, and the look correspondingly became brighter as the episode progressed). While it’s implied that Goemon’s joining up with Lupin and Jigen in the end, but there’s no real connection there, nor any hint of one in the previous scenes. That also holds for the audience.

Recommeded?
This episode really is nicely split in two—it’s even presented as two episodes rather that a continuous special. The second half really, really wasn’t to my taste at all. Not at all. I’ve used this same to describe classic Trek and Discovery: while I’ve seen classic Lupin I really dislike, I disliked the second half on Goemon Ishikawa’s Spray of Blood in a wholly new way. You can’t say it doesn’t deliver on its title, though.

But that first half—from the moment when Lupin drops into the casino boat to the halfway marker it is the Platonic ideal of Lupin media—a great heist, nice interaction between the leads, a dangerous villain, and a great car chase. The Koike series of films (and The Woman Called Fujiko Mine that sparked them) is polarizing, but anyone would enjoy this half. The action’s invigorating, but there’s also a hangout feeling that gently draws you in.

I’m used to disconnected tones in Lupin, but never so clearly delineated. Just stop after the first half.


Stray observations
• After a kind of odd interlude with Fujiko Mine as a sort of idealized bride in Part V it’s very refreshing to see her back to fashion-action-plate and cocktease mode.

• So this also turns out to be an anniversary special—released in 2017, paying homage to the 1967 comic debut. And in a lot of ways this series does a great job of staying true to and modernizing both the original’s mood and aesthetic.

• Momochi gets a mention as one of Goemon’s previous masters! There’s another one I didn’t recognize the second one, but looking it up it’s a character from the Red Jacket series.

• The music here and in Jigen’s Gravestone is very unobtrusive—it works as background, sounds right for the retro feel, and frankly after all the Yuji Ohno I’m fine with that. The little Lupin theme is pretty nice, though.

• Just as the Italianate setting lent itself to Italian cars in Jigen’s gravestone (an Alfa sedan for Lupin and Jigen, a Maserati for the villain), here we get a lot of vintage Japanese ones. Lupin’s driving a Datsun 2000, Fujiko (and Hawk after he hotwires it) is riding a classic Honda motorcycle (only could tell from the insignia; I know next to nothing about bikes). I had to (shame) actually look up the others, though—Zenigata and the police were driving Datsuns (not the usual police Toyotas) and a couple of neighborhood guys were driving a Toyota Sports 800. Had I not looked it up I wouldn’t have been able to guess, even if I crawled through every Japanese car model from 1960-75—the animators definitely only drew it from flattering angles.



Next time I’m taking a breather, especially since the second half of this left had such a sour aftertaste. But the next in this series of special, Fujiko Mine’s Lie, will be the next installment