Reaction & Review | Lupin the 3rd: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 1995. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure".

Now, I want to start by saying that I got into "Lupin the 3rd" when "Lupin the 3rd: Part IV" first aired on Toonami a few years ago. I watched that series from start to finish and I loved it. I really enjoyed that show, even though the last arc was a bit weak. And then later on, Toonami aired "Lupin the 3rd: Part V", and I really enjoyed that, too. Again, minus the last arc where it tried way too hard to be dark. But overall, I enjoy the "Lupin the 3rd" series as a whole. And since watching part's 4 and 5, I was able to find a scant few episodes of "Lupin the 3rd: Part 2" that are available on TMS's YouTube channel. TMS, for those unaware, are responsible for creating some of the most memorable cartoon shows for children such as "Batman: The Animated Series", "Animaniacs", "Sonic X", and many other shows and movies that are too many to count.

I also know that they have made many TV shows and movies involving "Lupin the 3rd". Tonight's movie is one of those, as well. Now, I have seen only one movie with Lupin's name on it. That movie being "The Castle of Cagliostro", which I thought was an amazing movie. And similar to the two television series I watched on Toonami, I've always wanted to watch more movies involving Lupin. And tonight, I finally get my chance. Now, as for this movie, the only thing I know about it is it's basic plot, where Lupin and the gang are after a treasure that is worth 8 billion dollars. And that's totally fine, because that's really all you need for a plot involving "Lupin the 3rd".

I really want this thing to be as good, if not better than "The Castle of Cagliostro". But the only way I'm gonna know how good this movie can possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Lupin the 3rd: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure".

4 minutes later

Well, guys...I just saw Goemon being a badass as he cut the ice underneath all of the police cars, which caused them all to drown. That was certainly awesome.

1 minute later

Oh, and by the way, one thing that's always been consistent with "Lupin the 3rd" is that the music, including this movie, is amazing. I think I'm really going to enjoy this movie, guys.

11 minutes later

OK, I have a bit of a stupid question here. So Archer has this picture of the three statues that leads to Harimao's treasure. Which, in turn, would help him pay off his 7 billion pound debt. Does he always carry that picture of the three statues with him, on the off chance that something might go wrong? Is that always just like a last resort for him in case he needs to pay off a huge debt? I totally understand that what I'm asking is trivial, and stupid, but I just felt like asking, you know?

15 minutes later

OK, I know this is a trivial thing to be bitching about, but I keep hearing Lupin's name being pronounced as Lu-pen. And I know that's how it isn't pronounced, because it's always been pronounced as Lu-pon. At least, that's what I've always been hearing since I started watching "Lupin the 3rd." Again, guys, I totally get that it's a trivial thing to be bitching about, and, so far, the movie's been really good, but the pronunciation of Lupin's name in this thing has just been bugging me slightly. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

17 minutes later

You know, guys, I just noticed this. Lupin, in this movie, is written a lot more as a womanizing thief than he usually is. It's not really a negative on the character itself, but I was not expecting Lupin to be this much of a womanizer, you know?

9 minutes later

So the way that Lupin, and the others, got passed this checkpoint was to hand out magazines that feature nude women on the front cover to the Russian soldiers. At least, I think they're Russian. I could be totally wrong about their accents. I will say it was an effective plan. I, myself, would've never came up with that idea. But hey, at least it worked.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Well, I can definitely say that the movie is really solid. Now, do I think it's as good as "The Castle of Cagliostro"? No. This thing is nowhere near as good as "The Castle of Cagliostro". That's because "The Castle of Cagliostro" was written a tad better. And because I really liked that movie so much, this movie would have to go out of it's way to try and be as good as that movie. But rather than me gushing about how good "The Castle of Cagliostro" was, let's talk about this movie. Let's talk about "The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure".

The writing here is really strong, for the most part. Because a lot of it is what you would expect when you're working with a story involving "Lupin the 3rd." It's, mostly, a light-hearted comedy/action movie. In fact, I think it's one of the better light-hearted comedy/action movies that I have seen in a long time. One of the reasons why it works is because of it's tone. Because, for the most part, it doesn't take itself too seriously. And that's one of the biggest issues I had when I was watching "Lupin the 3rd: Part V" is that the final arc for that series, and I'm not gonna spoil what that arc was about, but it focused itself on just becoming darker with it's tone for each episode. And it really took me out of it, because while "Lupin the 3rd" does have it's dark moments, it doesn't overshadow everything else with what it was originally suppose to be. And this movie was able to show you that you don't need to become dark for the sake of being dark. It does have one dark moment in the movie, and that's towards end of the film, but it was still able to keep itself within it's light-hearted tone throughout most of the movie.

As for the story itself, we have this 8 billion dollar treasure known as Harimao's treasure. And the reason why it's so important is because Archer is close to being bankrupt. And the reason why is because a monorail train underground, that belonged to Archer, gets destroyed, and tons of people were killed in it. And even with his massive fortune, he's not able to pay it off. Except, he offers a solution by searching for Harimao's treasure, which conveniently, has more than enough to pay off his debt. And because it's a movie involving Lupin, he's also after the treasure because...well, that's his nature as a thief to steal it. However, later on in the film, he, his comrade Jigen, and Archer, end up working together so that they can split the treasure 70%/30% once they uncover it. Now, because this is a movie involving "Lupin the 3rd", we have a bunch of recurring characters such as Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon. We also have Fujiko, who is Lupin's love interest. Except, in this movie, he doesn't really focus his attention much on Fujiko. That would go to Diana, who is Archer's granddaughter. I'll get more into that a bit. And then we have Detective Zenigata, who's sole purpose is catching and arresting Lupin. However, in this movie, Zenigata is completely wasted here. Because when he's not trying to catch Lupin, he's more focused on trying to cook noodles. And that happens a few times throughout the movie. The only time that he plays any kind of important role is when he finds one of the statues that is responsible for unlocking Harimao's treasure, and he uses it as a way to cover the noodles that he's trying to cook. And he really doesn't play that much of a role once the statue is taken away from him, and just ends up being a comic relief character. And, to me, that just comes off as a bit lazy. Now, I'm not gonna sit here and say that none of it is terrible, but it sort of makes Zenigata look like an afterthought, and he's only in the movie for the sake of being in the movie.

So, beyond Zenigata's role in the film, I do have a couple of gripes when it comes to the writing in this movie. And both of those gripes involve Lupin himself. The first one has to do with how Lupin's name is pronounced. Throughout the entire movie, Lupin is pronounced as Lu-pen. And that kinda bothered me throughout, like, the first half of the movie, because I know that the character's name is pronounced Lu-pon. And for whatever reason, at no time, does this movie ever pronounce his name as Lu-pon. And this is kind of important because I happen to remember watching Lupin the 3rd: Part's IV and Part V on Toonami, and I always remembered his name being pronounced as Lu-pon. Hell, even when I watched "The Castle of Cagliostro", they even pronounced his name as Lu-pon. I don't know why this movie decided to pronounce his name as Lu-pen. It just doesn't sound right, to me. Now, I don't know if this was an issue with the dub, or if that's how Funimation, the company that dubbed this movie, thought that's how his name was pronounced. But, either way, it just seemed really off to me because I've been hearing how Lupin's named was pronounced for so long, that just hearing it being pronounced as Lu-pen, was kinda, sorta, bugging me throughout most of the movie. Now admittedly, I did get use to it as the movie went on, but still, it was something that I felt needed to be brought up. The other issue involving Lupin has to do with his characterization in this movie. Now, for about 95% of the film, his character is written like how he mostly is. However, the other 5% is a little bit off-putting, and this is going to involve the character of Diana. In almost every scene in this movie where Lupin and Diana share screen-time together, Lupin is hitting on Diana. Now, that doesn't really bother me, because I have seen moments in Part's IV and Part V where he's hitting on other women in those series. However, in this movie, Lupin does this a little too much. And it gets to a point where it becomes really old, really quick. In fact, I haven't seen womanizing done this much since I watched "City Hunter" back during "Tales of the Longbox". The thing about that is that "City Hunter" was self aware of what it was trying to be. In this movie, when Lupin is hitting on Diana, it's done so much that, not only does it get old, but it kinda makes Lupin a little bit unlikable. And I'd never thought I would say that about a movie involving "Lupin the 3rd". Now before anyone gets the idea, I am not a feminist. Never have been. Never will be. I'm just saying that the movie could've dialed it back a bit with it's constant running joke of Lupin hitting on Archer's granddaughter.

Now beyond those minor issues, the writing here is still really good. And you're going to be sucked into this movie because of it's well written humor and awesome-looking action scenes. Now, with all that said, let's get to the acting. I opted to watch the English dub for this movie. And, for the most part, the acting in this dub is really solid. But then again, this movie was dubbed by Funimation. And Funimation usually does a really good job with it's casting choices. I do, however, need to comment on one particular voice actress. And it's whoever voiced Diana. Because, Diana is suppose to be supporting a British accent. Yet, at times, it seems as though her accent keeps disappearing. So you would have a few moments where you will either hear a normal English accent, or you will hear her British accent. Now, it's not too noticeable, because the actress was able to keep it consistent throughout most of movie, but it is sort of noticeable with the few times that her British accent wants to disappear on her. There are also a few extras that put on some noticeable fake British accents, but, as I said, they're mostly extras like random people in a large crowd. And since they're barely in the movie, it's not going to pull you out of the film, unless you're some weirdo who demands that people have the correct accents for certain characters. Overall, guys, the acting in this dub is really solid. Granted, I still wish they pronounced Lupin's name correctly, but again, it's a trivial thing to be bitching about, so I'm just gonna leave it as is.

Animation in this movie is great. But again, this is from TMS. And TMS usually does some great animation, aside from that god awful "Hunchback of Notre Dame" sequel. The art style is reminiscent to what you would see if you watched "Lupin the 3rd: Part IV" and Part V. It's not as clean-looking as those shows are, but it's still really solid for mid 90's hand-drawn animation. So overall, guys, the animation is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, highlight of this movie.

Sound-mix here is really good. The music is great. The score in this movie was composed by Yuji Ohno, who has done a ton of music work for "Lupin the 3rd". And it fits the tone with this movie. There's one particular moment, however, that kinda made me smile when came to the music. It's during one of the early scenes of the movie as Archer is showing Fujiko his life's work as a former thief. And in one particular moment, there is a piece of music that plays that is a dead on soundalike of the 007 theme song. And it is one of the best soundalikes to the 007 theme that you will hear in a long time. I understand that it is a minor thing, but that one moment made me giddy, because I am a huge fan of James Bond. And just hearing that soundalike made that whole scene even better. In fact, I remember reading a blurb on the back of the DVD case where it says "Lupin even out-Bonds James Bond himself when it comes to action, intrigue, and all-around coolness." And that blurb was from Anime Invasion. And while I, personally, wouldn't go that far, it certainly can be seen that way to others. In fact, if you are a fan of the James Bond movies, I think this movie would be perfect, if you're looking for a really good action movie to watch.

On that note, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Lupin the 3rd: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure"? Oh, definitely. This movie is awesome. As I said, if you're looking for a solid action movie, then this movie will be right up your alley. If you're a fan of "Lupin the 3rd", I would instantly recommend it, provided you haven't seen it yet. However...could I recommend this as your first experience with "Lupin the 3rd"? I'm not totally sure. Because, as I mentioned before when I talked about Lupin's characterization in this movie, it could be seen as a bit distracting, and some would think that this is how the character of Lupin is like. However, I assure you that it isn't, and I can attest to that. If you want to start with anything involving "Lupin the 3rd", I would, personally, say start with "Lupin the 3rd: Part IV". Or if you want to start with something earlier, you can find episodes of "Lupin the 3rd: Part 2" on TMS's YouTube channel. Or, if you're looking for a Lupin movie to start out with, the best I could recommend is "The Castle of Cagliostro", because it was the first film involving Lupin that I did see. Speaking of which, I'm probably gonna go watch "The Castle of Cagliostro" as soon as I'm done putting this review together. And as for this movie, not only is it going to have a happy spot on my DVD shelf, but it makes me even more interested to watch more films with "Lupin the 3rd". But for now, I'm just gonna go re-watch "The Castle of Cagliostro", because I love that movie so much.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.