Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Jun 21, 2024 3:16:23 GMT -5
The Last Job
While Dragon of Doom was the last full-length outing for original Lupin actor Yasuo Yamada, Fujiko’s original actor, three other classic cast members—Eiko Masuyama (1969), Makio Inoue (1977), and Gorō Naya (1969) as Fujiko, Goemon, and Zenigata (Naya actually voiced Goemon in 1969 before switching to Zenigata in 1970), retired in 2010 with the appropriately-named The Last Job. Was it a fitting goodbye?
After the opening chase, this question was replaced in my mind by “is this actually a Lupin film?” There wasn’t just a lot of emphasis on guest characters but perhaps an expectation of familiarity. Is this some kind crossover? In fact our big guest characters: the young police detective/Ninja clan heiress Asuka, her ninja-dog Kotarou, the Italian magus-supervillain Morgana, and his massive steel yo-yo spinning mook André—are all Lupin characters…technically. They’re recurring villains from Lupin H and Lupin M Neo manga series, which I’d never heard of until pausing The Last Job in confusion and diving into research. No one, neither professional nor fan, has translated them. This isn’t promising.
It’s not unusual for manga guest characters to appear in animation, but those were typically from the original, Monkey Punch-authored series, not later sequels. What makes The Last Job even odder, though, is it’s not a manga story adaptation. It’s a sequel—we’re supposed to be familiar with these people because we’re supposed to have already been reading their story. The assumption of familiarity (already, I think, a big assumption, even for the Japanese audience in 2010) isn’t quite the main issue, though. It’s the assumption that familiarity will translate into investment.
That’s a massive leap, especially when Asuka’s effectively displacing all of our leads: Jigen and Goemon are injured, Fujiko doesn’t have much of a role, Zenigata spends most of the special in a ninja sleep trance, and Lupin’s reduced to occasional sidekick. Asuka has neither much personality beyond “protagonist” nor decades of accumulated goodwill yet she’s always at center.
Just how she’s at center matters too. Specifically, this is easily the most leering piece of Lupin media I’ve seen. The few near-nipple-reveals of Asuka (once she’s electrocuted and its main effect is to tear her shirt!) are feigned innocent anime girl titilation at its most obvious (it would have been better if they had gone for actual nudity, honestly). Even setting aside the women characters’ designs we see a fair number of camera angles that feel like they were inspired by a banned subreddit, tilted up from ground- or lap-level, as well as a few nearly-static shots featuring the women’s unnatural profiles. Even bring Kotarou the ninja-dog gets into the “fun,” licking Fujiko’s one of Fujiko’s butt cheeks, which then spends some seconds jiggling freely up and down. I can expect some sexual objectification from Lupin, but it’s usually more of the old Bond film or Playboy cartoon variety. I certainly didn’t sign up for this.
I really do not like Kotarou. It is a real feat to get me to dislike even a fictional dog. Kotarou is obsessed with asses—mostly biting rather than licking—and we get extended sequences of him of doing it again and again and again. He also, in a scene that’s a metonym special as a whole, pisses on Lupin’s face. Eventually Kotarou also gets (non-fatally) electrocuted by a metal net, and while I dislike the dog it’s not at that level. I’m used to, and often enjoy, tonal disjoints in Lupin but again, it’s usually not like this.
It’s a real relief when the more recognizably Lupin-style archaeological quest aspects emerge and Lupin gets to momentarily take the lead. Morgana’s revealed to be the heir to a Renaissance-era Italian secret society that linked up with Japanese mountain bandits to become the first of the Fuma ninjas. The various mystical artifacts are in fact high-tech devices built by an acolyte of Leonardo—at one point Morgana casually says “16th century Roman scientists were very much capable of inventing a laser device” like that’s common knowledge. This is a mix of good and so-bad-it’s-good Lupin batshit, though, and it’s so good to finally see Lupin finagle his way around Leonardesque clockwork booby traps. Sure Kotarou’s jaws are there to clamp down on audience enjoyment, but it’s good to actually watch Lupin at work in a Lupin special, even if only briefly.
Take away the Asuka, Morgana, and their hangers-on and you are left with a fairly familiar set of devices. While I won’t argue that many of the Lupin-centric story elements of The Last Job are fairly derivative, one of the many strange things about The Last Job is that it might be more borrowed from than borrowing. In 2015 Part IV would run with the high tech/occult Leonardo aspect. Even more striking is that the big climatic maguffin, in The Last Job is a miniature black hole, very close to the miniature black hole of 2019’s Lupin III: The First.
The First also has Lupin drawn into a young woman’s story, but it’s handled differently. The First’s Laetitia and Lupin are partners on the same journey, whereas Lupin and co. are clearly along for the ride on Asuka’s story. Though Asuka’s put on the sidelines in the big action finale—someone has to hang out with her shirt ripped open—Lupin is functionally still working for her, if only because his action is otherwise unmotivated. They try for a philosophical point tying into the franchise’s longevity, something along the lines of him working along his own plans that will never be finished, but that’s pretty weak. Lupin’s only there because he has to be there.
Given that Lupin’s been reduced to a guest in his own special, how do the retiring leads fare? Fujiko’s role is a pretty bad and blah set of Part II-era Fujiko clichés, so she fares poorly. Zenigata spends most of the special in a sleep-trance and when he wakes we get jokes about how might shit himself in the coffin. Despite that, though, Zenigata comes across pretty well. He’s valued at the ICPO and his absence is felt, and while he doesn’t do much post-awakening he still demonstrates his doggedness and effectiveness.
Goemon (and Jigen) are injured early on so spend more of the special on the sidelines than usual, but as with last week I enjoyed Makio Inoue’s understated, serious-but-emotionally-aware voice here. I don’t think much of the mythos around the ninja clan here but it’s nice to see Goemon interact with it, telling one of them her aura’s unwell and such (Goemon, who starts out the special with words of mystic foreboding, is the only one who really knew what was up). Thank goodness for these small moments, because that’s all The Last Job offers its audience.
Goemon and Jigen also establish the good recurring joke-motif of The Last Job, getting submerged in saltwater for “purification,” intentionally or not. The creative team could have done with such a ritual before writing this, and you’ll feel the need for one after watching.
Recommended
Absolutely not, this is the worst installment of Lupin I’ve seen. It has some redeeming qualities but they’re completely swamped out by the degree and volume of bad ones.
Stray observations
• I think this special has one of the few instances in Lupin of guns actually being hot after they’re fired.
• I couldn’t figure out what Jigen’s car was. It’s one of the few Japanese cars to be featured in Lupin, a 1960s Mitsubishi Colt 600. I can see how it’s a good fit for Jigen—a small-displacement, rear-engined midcentury Japanese car instead of one of Lupin’s European ones, and it shares a name with a firearms company to boot (sedan pun). I really dislike Mitsubishis, though, so The Last Job even fails for me on the automotive front.
While Dragon of Doom was the last full-length outing for original Lupin actor Yasuo Yamada, Fujiko’s original actor, three other classic cast members—Eiko Masuyama (1969), Makio Inoue (1977), and Gorō Naya (1969) as Fujiko, Goemon, and Zenigata (Naya actually voiced Goemon in 1969 before switching to Zenigata in 1970), retired in 2010 with the appropriately-named The Last Job. Was it a fitting goodbye?
After the opening chase, this question was replaced in my mind by “is this actually a Lupin film?” There wasn’t just a lot of emphasis on guest characters but perhaps an expectation of familiarity. Is this some kind crossover? In fact our big guest characters: the young police detective/Ninja clan heiress Asuka, her ninja-dog Kotarou, the Italian magus-supervillain Morgana, and his massive steel yo-yo spinning mook André—are all Lupin characters…technically. They’re recurring villains from Lupin H and Lupin M Neo manga series, which I’d never heard of until pausing The Last Job in confusion and diving into research. No one, neither professional nor fan, has translated them. This isn’t promising.
It’s not unusual for manga guest characters to appear in animation, but those were typically from the original, Monkey Punch-authored series, not later sequels. What makes The Last Job even odder, though, is it’s not a manga story adaptation. It’s a sequel—we’re supposed to be familiar with these people because we’re supposed to have already been reading their story. The assumption of familiarity (already, I think, a big assumption, even for the Japanese audience in 2010) isn’t quite the main issue, though. It’s the assumption that familiarity will translate into investment.
That’s a massive leap, especially when Asuka’s effectively displacing all of our leads: Jigen and Goemon are injured, Fujiko doesn’t have much of a role, Zenigata spends most of the special in a ninja sleep trance, and Lupin’s reduced to occasional sidekick. Asuka has neither much personality beyond “protagonist” nor decades of accumulated goodwill yet she’s always at center.
Just how she’s at center matters too. Specifically, this is easily the most leering piece of Lupin media I’ve seen. The few near-nipple-reveals of Asuka (once she’s electrocuted and its main effect is to tear her shirt!) are feigned innocent anime girl titilation at its most obvious (it would have been better if they had gone for actual nudity, honestly). Even setting aside the women characters’ designs we see a fair number of camera angles that feel like they were inspired by a banned subreddit, tilted up from ground- or lap-level, as well as a few nearly-static shots featuring the women’s unnatural profiles. Even bring Kotarou the ninja-dog gets into the “fun,” licking Fujiko’s one of Fujiko’s butt cheeks, which then spends some seconds jiggling freely up and down. I can expect some sexual objectification from Lupin, but it’s usually more of the old Bond film or Playboy cartoon variety. I certainly didn’t sign up for this.
I really do not like Kotarou. It is a real feat to get me to dislike even a fictional dog. Kotarou is obsessed with asses—mostly biting rather than licking—and we get extended sequences of him of doing it again and again and again. He also, in a scene that’s a metonym special as a whole, pisses on Lupin’s face. Eventually Kotarou also gets (non-fatally) electrocuted by a metal net, and while I dislike the dog it’s not at that level. I’m used to, and often enjoy, tonal disjoints in Lupin but again, it’s usually not like this.
It’s a real relief when the more recognizably Lupin-style archaeological quest aspects emerge and Lupin gets to momentarily take the lead. Morgana’s revealed to be the heir to a Renaissance-era Italian secret society that linked up with Japanese mountain bandits to become the first of the Fuma ninjas. The various mystical artifacts are in fact high-tech devices built by an acolyte of Leonardo—at one point Morgana casually says “16th century Roman scientists were very much capable of inventing a laser device” like that’s common knowledge. This is a mix of good and so-bad-it’s-good Lupin batshit, though, and it’s so good to finally see Lupin finagle his way around Leonardesque clockwork booby traps. Sure Kotarou’s jaws are there to clamp down on audience enjoyment, but it’s good to actually watch Lupin at work in a Lupin special, even if only briefly.
Take away the Asuka, Morgana, and their hangers-on and you are left with a fairly familiar set of devices. While I won’t argue that many of the Lupin-centric story elements of The Last Job are fairly derivative, one of the many strange things about The Last Job is that it might be more borrowed from than borrowing. In 2015 Part IV would run with the high tech/occult Leonardo aspect. Even more striking is that the big climatic maguffin, in The Last Job is a miniature black hole, very close to the miniature black hole of 2019’s Lupin III: The First.
The First also has Lupin drawn into a young woman’s story, but it’s handled differently. The First’s Laetitia and Lupin are partners on the same journey, whereas Lupin and co. are clearly along for the ride on Asuka’s story. Though Asuka’s put on the sidelines in the big action finale—someone has to hang out with her shirt ripped open—Lupin is functionally still working for her, if only because his action is otherwise unmotivated. They try for a philosophical point tying into the franchise’s longevity, something along the lines of him working along his own plans that will never be finished, but that’s pretty weak. Lupin’s only there because he has to be there.
Given that Lupin’s been reduced to a guest in his own special, how do the retiring leads fare? Fujiko’s role is a pretty bad and blah set of Part II-era Fujiko clichés, so she fares poorly. Zenigata spends most of the special in a sleep-trance and when he wakes we get jokes about how might shit himself in the coffin. Despite that, though, Zenigata comes across pretty well. He’s valued at the ICPO and his absence is felt, and while he doesn’t do much post-awakening he still demonstrates his doggedness and effectiveness.
Goemon (and Jigen) are injured early on so spend more of the special on the sidelines than usual, but as with last week I enjoyed Makio Inoue’s understated, serious-but-emotionally-aware voice here. I don’t think much of the mythos around the ninja clan here but it’s nice to see Goemon interact with it, telling one of them her aura’s unwell and such (Goemon, who starts out the special with words of mystic foreboding, is the only one who really knew what was up). Thank goodness for these small moments, because that’s all The Last Job offers its audience.
Goemon and Jigen also establish the good recurring joke-motif of The Last Job, getting submerged in saltwater for “purification,” intentionally or not. The creative team could have done with such a ritual before writing this, and you’ll feel the need for one after watching.
Recommended
Absolutely not, this is the worst installment of Lupin I’ve seen. It has some redeeming qualities but they’re completely swamped out by the degree and volume of bad ones.
Stray observations
• I think this special has one of the few instances in Lupin of guns actually being hot after they’re fired.
• I couldn’t figure out what Jigen’s car was. It’s one of the few Japanese cars to be featured in Lupin, a 1960s Mitsubishi Colt 600. I can see how it’s a good fit for Jigen—a small-displacement, rear-engined midcentury Japanese car instead of one of Lupin’s European ones, and it shares a name with a firearms company to boot (sedan pun). I really dislike Mitsubishis, though, so The Last Job even fails for me on the automotive front.
