Lupin III: A Woman Called Mine Fujiko – 13 [END]

I’ve developed a sudden phobia of owls after watching this…

As the spring season ends, so must Lupin III. Thank goodness I abandoned ship and picked up this instead of the dreadful Zetman. I dropped it, and it seems to have caused some mental scarring to anyone else who didn’t do the same. Speaking of traumatic events, it’s time to finally see what the hell is up with Fujiko and her twisted childhood! Because this is the final episode, I’m just going to talk about it without sections so I can easily address the series as a whole. I’m not sure why I am telling you this when you can see this with your own eyes, but okay, it is too late now. The backspace key is too far away…

I feel like this series lead me on a little here. It teased me with lots of action and charm in the first few episodes, hinting at more to come further along the line. I figured the finale would be a huge stage for our top thieves to outdo each other trick after trick in a dazzling comeback that restored Fujiko’s confidence. That wasn’t the case. The finale was a lot of talking owls and not even a hint of Fujiko’s perky breasts to speak of! Not one!

My biggest problems with this series have been that it plays the serious angle too often, when that’s not what it excels at. Lupin III is most enjoyable when it’s about thieves out-tricking each other and going through outrageous lengths to look  glamorous. I liked Fujiko because of her unwavering confidence and blatant sexualization, and I started to lose interest when we were asked to take a character like this seriously. She is sex with two legs, how are we supposed to sympathize with someone we’ve become accustomed to seeing as an unshakeable diva? Even if you roll with the crazy owl plot the anime throws at you, the end result is that she doesn’t even have a dark past anyways. We went through all that to find out that Fujiko was just born as Fujiko. There is no traumatic childhood that explains what she is – the fact of the matter is that she decided to be a slutty cat burglar and she isn’t changing her ways any time soon. It feels like they pulled the rug out under our feet by saying “FOOLED YOU! We pretended she was a deep character with a complicated origin story, but she actually ISN’T!!”.

Who am I? What am I here for? What reason do I have left to live?

LOL JK PARTY HARD

The mixed messages really made for a bit of a lacklustre finale. I wished they had stuck with one message, because I might have gotten used to Fujiko having a sentimental period in her life if they had followed it through properly. I may be a bit bitter because I expected a lot of action and ended up with a ton of talking though. The resolution made sense and it was kind of cool to see that Fujiko wasn’t actually who she thought she was, but it was pretty out there. She controlled that much with her eyes? Her mom didn’t even try to save her afterwards? Tons of people just obeyed this little girl who controlled a corpse with a speaker? Not exactly the most airtight explanation, but I guess it was entertaining.

/p>

If you couldn’t guess by all my complaints about there being no action, my favourite parts of the episode were the little morsels of violence tucked in between that damn owl jabbering her head off. The Jigen versus Goemon fight was short but sweet – particularly because they were hopped up on hallucinogens and kept seeing each other as owls. It was great! I wish they got to fight even more! It had nothing to do with Fujiko, but I really liked the novelty of a samurai in drag with an owl head slicing up bullets (that were shot in an arc) in slow motion. It’s kind of amazing that Jigen is still loyal to Lupin after being left alone in such a dangerous situation. I like how those two have a “bros for life” attitude (even if Lupin’s code is hoes before bros) and Goemon has a healthy crush on Fujiko. It’s a shame the finale focused on a wrinkled crone when the main quartet are such wonderful, vibrant characters.

There was hardly time, but I would have loved to see Oscar do a little…more. I guess I wanted to see him come to his senses because of Zenigata in the typical fashion, perhaps before killing himself in a dramatic fashion. I was excited to see what they’d do with Oscar now that he was a Fujiko clone, but it wasn’t as satisfying as I’d have liked. Why bring him back if he’s just going to harp on the same feelings we knew he had since the beginning? He hates Fujiko and wishes he could be her so that Zenigata would have sex with him, but that’s not possible for him. I’d rather his last moments weren’t setting fire to the building and then vanishing without a trace. I assume he’s still alive (albeit as rabid as a mad dog) and just kind of wandering the wilderness. Not a very conclusive ending for a beloved character such as Oscar. It wasn’t BAD, but it could have been better.

A Not-Woman Called Mine Fujiko

The final few minutes where Fujiko was back to her teasing self was a nice way to end the series off, even if the finale as a whole was a bit stuffy and serious for my liking. Nothing like a feisty broad giving a longing kiss to a phallic object as the credit roll by. Lupin III really had a lot of ups and downs. Some weeks I didn’t know what the hell I was watching, and other weeks I was utterly impressed. It seems like the goal of the show was just all over the place. If it was about explaining Fujiko’s dark past and how she became a thief, why did it NOT explain how she became a thief? All the jumping around from character to character and place to place created the patchwork quilt that is Lupin III: A Woman Called Mine Fujiko. Lots of little pieces that KIND of fit together to make one big picture – but just barely, and the big picture is still a bit blurry. Overall, I’d say I enjoyed this show, although not quite as much as some of this season’s other offerings. I won’t be checking out any more Lupin stuff, but this was a fun little ride while it lasted. Not the best, but definitely worth watching at least the first few episodes of to try out the style. And oh, is it stylish! It definitely gets high marks in the visuals section.

Thanks for following me on this journey through this show! See you next time, but if you have anything on you even remotely resembling an owl I WILL destroy you. Seeya!

 Nothing like a good screw to finish off the day

About Overcooled

A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.