Reaction & Review | Lupin the 3rd: Voyage to Danger

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we continue this marathon by next checking out another entry that came out in 1993. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: Voyage to Danger".

Now, as much as I'd like to tell you guys anything I know about this movie, I unfortunately can't, because I know jack all about it. Which is kind of a double-edged sword here because, on one hand, unlike the last couple of weeks where I knew a few things about a couple of the previous films, I'm back to having almost no information to work with when it comes to this movie.

That being said, since I am going into this film completely blind, it makes this series more interesting for me, since I can go into this film with fresh eyes, and I can give you my honest thoughts about it as I'm watching the movie. So with all said, I'm gonna find out if this movie is gonna continue the positive trend I have had with these particular movies. And the only way I'm gonna find out where this one stands among the others 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: Voyage to Danger".

8 minutes later

So, guys, you know how I mentioned in some of my past reviews that Zenigata hasn't really done much in the movies I've covered so far? Well, this time, he's actually been taken off the Lupin case and is being replaced by some mercenary named Keith. And I guess, despite being depressingly drunk, Zenigata's now joined up with Lupin and Jigen. That is actually rather interesting, and I'm curious to see where they go with this premise.

4 minutes later

So, Lupin, Jigen, and Zenigata, are hiding inside a box of crates, and they're being loaded inside a nuclear submarine. And while all of this is going on, Zenigata and Lupin are exchanging words with each other rather loudly, I might add. Are you telling me that the people loading the crates in the submarine don't hear them chattering at all?! I mean, I would've expected at least *one* of them hearing them talking, but nope, apparently, they're too stupid to even notice that. I'm sorry, guys, I just find that a little bit strange, you know what I mean?

18 minutes later

All right, I have a bit of a dumb question here, but I'm curious if Lupin even noticed the scar on Jigen's cheek? I'm curious, because it's something that I think Lupin would've probably noticed by now. That, or Jigen is just really good at hiding it. I don't know, but it's just something that I was thinking about.

11 minutes later

OK, that's sorta new. I've never seen bazooka's that can fire grappling hook's of sorts that can pull submarines. Then again, now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I *have* seen it at least once before. But still, it's at least something unique to me.

12 minutes later

So, upon blasting open a locked door, Fujiko runs into *another* locked door, only this time it's made of metal. Well, I gotta give John some credit. At least he sorta thinks ahead a little bit with his security.

19 minutes later

So, the way Goemon survived from being "killed" was that he used the sword to stop the force of Keith's knife being thrown just enough, even though he still got stabbed in the heart area. I'm not even gonna question how that's physically possible, but I will say that was *really* impressive nonetheless.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: Voyage to Danger". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. So...where to start with this one? Well, I'd like to say that I am impressed by the quality of these movies. Even though the ones that I have been mostly covering were mostly released in the mid-90's, they still have a great amount of quality to them, despite the nearly yearly releases that they had in-between each other.

Now, why don't we actually start things off proper by talking about the movie itself here. I'm first gonna start with writing. And I want to start by making a bit of a correction on my part. You see, earlier, when I was bringing up the fact that Zenigata hadn't done much in the previous Lupin films, with an exception or two, I was really looking forward to seeing how much of a role he was going to play here, now that he's on Lupin's side in this movie. And while he does a few things here, I felt like they didn't really go the extra mile with him. The most that we get out of this is that he's been chasing Lupin for 20 years now and the fact that they've gotten older. Which is, admittedly, an interesting thing to bring up, but beyond that, they don't really explore anything further than that. He's just a part of the gang now that he was taken off the Lupin case and being replaced by a mercenary named Keith, who is set kill not only Lupin, but also his posse, Jigen, Goemon, and Fujiko.

And since I just mentioned the former, I do want to talk about the character that this movie focuses on more, which is Jigen. And the reason why he gets more of the development here is through another character named Karen. And it's revealed here that her father was killed 10 years ago by him, which sets up some sort of grudge against him. Now what's interesting about the whole thing is that, even though Jigen does recognize who she is, he seems rather chill with the whole thing, and he completely understands why she wants to kill him. I mean, again, she saw him kill his father when she was just a kid. I think anyone in that situation would feel the same way if they met their's fathers killer, unless they don't remember them at all. Which adds a bit more layer to both characters. Yeah, it's kinda disappointing that Zenigata doesn't get much more of a role here, but if it means giving Jigen some screen time, then I'm totally fine with it. Because, I really like Jigen, and any chance that he gets more time to shine is awesome to me.

Now, as for the story itself, it's honestly kind of an interesting twist. Because usually, whenever there's a special treasure involved, Lupin's right on it. But in this case, it's not really treasure that they're after this time. Instead, there's a weapons smuggling operation called Shot Shell, that needs to be shut down. Which also ties into why Zenigata is joining up with Lupin to begin with. Because if he succeeds at this, then he gets his old job back. But that's not to say that there isn't anything in it for Lupin and the gang. See, while there is no actual treasure here for them to steal, there *is* a lot of money that they have stashed away somewhere. And the money comes from all of the weapons that Shot Shell has sold off. So that's another reason why they're all in this together. And that's another thing that I've noticed from this movie is that everyone here, minus Karen, feels like a cohesive unit. Which is interesting, because when I compare it to "The Mystery of Mamo", it felt like everyone butted heads over each other over something, mostly Fujiko-oh, my bad "Margo". But here, everybody is mostly buddy-buddy with each other, even Zenigata, as much as he's not in the film as much as he should be. And, mind you, this isn't a bad thing at all. In fact, it's great. It's probably the first film I've seen in a long time where everyone here feels like they're great comrades. So, that definitely adds a lot to the characters in this movie.

Overall, guys, the writing here is very strong, for the most part. Tonally speaking, it tries to go for a slightly more darker story, but, like with a couple of other films I've reviewed in this marathon, it does know when to have fun with itself. So, it's not like it tried to shift it's tone completely to one side or the other. It knew what it wanted to be and stuck with it, which is totally cool. Now, what about the acting? Well, like I've done throughout this entire marathon, I've been watching the English dub for these movies. However, this time, unlike the past couple of films that had a different dub cast, we are back to Funimation dubbing this movie. So naturally, you have the talent pool of voice actors reprising their roles for this movie. People like Sonny Strait as Lupin, Christopher Sabat as Jigen, and Meredith McCoy as Fujiko to name several examples. Those people, along with everyone else here, turns in a fantastic showing. And it's mostly to be expected, when it comes to Funimation's dub cast. So, I have nothing else to say about them without sounding a like a broken record other than that the acting here is great.

Animation is also really good, too. For a movie released in the 90's, it's looks great. Now admittedly, since the movie's going for a slightly more darker tone with it's story, the color palettes compliment this by adding some darker shading to some areas of the movie, mainly for stuff like when it's night or some dark rooms. It might not sound like much of anything, but it is still a nice touch here. The color palettes for everything else is great, as it's obviously not limited to some of the darker areas of the film. And the animation is also great, too. Like I mentioned earlier, the quality in these movies has always looked really good, mostly when it comes to the animation, and this one is obviously no different. So yeah, the animation is definitely a big highlight here.

Sound-mixing here is really good. The music here is also really good, too. And going back to the Jigen sideplot here, there's a couple of times where the music will play a small guitar instrumental, and I can't help but feel that it sounds like something that you would hear from a Western movie. And if I had to be specific, I would say that it felt like a Western from the 1970's. And it's a really good piece, too. Now admittedly, this movie's score isn't the best all-around, but it is still good, as it is composed by Yuji Ohno again. So yeah, the music here is still good, just not as great-sounding as other films I've heard in these movies so far.

So with all that in mind, when it comes down to it, can I recommend "Lupin the 3rd: Voyage to Danger"? Definitely. I can totally recommend this film to you guys, especially if you're a fan of the series. The story here is really good, the characters here are very likable, and the animation and music definitely still holds up. Now, as for myself, personally speaking, I would say, when compared to all of the other Lupin films I've covered this marathon, I would say that this is probably my second favorite of the bunch, first being "Dead or Alive", however, I still have 3 more films to cover for this marathon. Something else might come up, but setting that aside, this movie is still really good. And it will definitely fit along with the other Lupin films I have so far in my ever-growing DVD collection. Now...since I kinda mentioned it a little while ago, I think I'm gonna go and watch a Western film. I think I might just go watch something like "For a Few Dollars More". It's been a long time since I last watched that movie, so I'm gonna go do that next once I get done with this review.

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 later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm taking a look at the next entry in this marathon that came out in 1978. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo".

Now, out of all the films I've covered in this marathon up till this point, this movie has one of the more interesting production histories to it. For starters, this movie, according to what I've heard from both fans and critics, is apparently one of the most polarizing films in Lupin's entire history. I'll get more into why in just a moment, but I should also mention that this movie is the very first full length feature film ever made by TMS. Which is really interesting, because most of the stuff I've seen from them is around the late 90's with "Animaniacs" and "Batman: The Animated Series", to the early 2000's with "Sonic X", and then the 2010's with "Lupin the 3rd" Part's IV and V. So getting a chance to watch something that predates all that, with what's also the first feature length film in their catalog, is honestly really cool.

Now, what exactly makes this movie so polarizing, you might be wondering? Well, it mainly has to do with a very unique feature that caught my eye when I bought this movie on DVD. You see, this movie, and I am not kidding when I tell you guys this, has a grand total...of 4 English dubs! Yes, this movie was dubbed at least 4 times, and it was all done through different studios, obviously. Now it's not just the fact that this movie has 4 English dubs, but according to what little information I found, apparently, all 4 versions of the movie have different dialogue alterations to them. Which is interesting to me, because usually, most animes that I know of usually get at least one re-dub. But it makes me even more curious now as to how and why this movie, in particular, was given 4 different dubs, all of which are very different from each other.

Now, before I tell you guys which dub I'm gonna be covering for this review, I'm first gonna go over all the dubs that this movie went through. The first dub was produced by a now defunct studio known as Frontier Enterprises. Now, I've looked up what this studio has produced beforehand and, to be honest, there's not much I can really say about them. The most notable works for me was when they were dubbing some rather early Godzilla movies. And of the three that they dubbed, the only one I can confirm that I've seen is "Destroy All Monsters". But aside from that, everything else is mostly obscure stuff to me.

Now the second dub of this movie was produced by Streamline Pictures. And Streamline was one of the founding fathers of bringing anime over into the U.S. from the late 80's to mid 90's. And unlike Frontier Enterprises, I have seen quite a few things that that was dubbed by Streamline. Things such as "Robot Carnival" and "Wicked City" as a couple of examples. I'm not gonna count "My Neighbor Totoro" or "Kiki's Delivery Service" because I never watched their dubs of those movies. I was first exposed to the Disney dubs of those movies, though I honestly would love to see how Streamline dubbed them, assuming copies of those movies are still around.

But anyway, setting that aside, the third dub was made by Manga Video UK, also known as Manga Entertainment, who later got rebranded into what is currently known as Crunchyroll. I've never used Crunchyroll before, and the only things I've heard about them are their shady business practices. However, I'm gonna leave that aside and I'll tell you guys that, pre-Crunchyroll, Manga Entertainment were also pioneers in distributing anime to the U.S. One of those being "R.O.D. Read Or Die". Which I covered for this series, and spoiler alert, if you haven't read my review of that thing yet, it's an amazing OVA and I would highly recommend it.

Now setting that aside, the last dub that produced this movie was a company known as Phuuz Entertainment. Now, the stuff that I was able to find them that they produced was not much, aside from, like, a couple of obscure cartoons, and even the first 100 episodes or so of the 2nd "Lupin the 3rd" series. And speaking of which, the other thing that I know about this dub is that it has the current dubbing cast for the series. I'm talking about Tony Oliver as Lupin and Michelle Ruff as Fujiko as examples. So, at least on that end, I know that the acting for that dub is going to be really good.

So now, it begs the question: Which dub am I gonna be covering? Well, I could cover the latter here, because, like I said, I really like the current dubbing cast for "Lupin the 3rd". But in this case, I've decided for myself that, since this is my first time watching this movie, I want to see how they handled it the *first* time around. Yes, I'm gonna be covering the Frontier dub of the movie because I really want to see if the first time around is any good. I don't know if it will be, or if it was worth it to be re-dubbed again later on. I won't know for sure, so I may as well finally stop stalling and see what I'm getting myself into here. So with that *overly* long introduction out of the way, it is time to kick back, relax, and check out "Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo".

3 minutes later

You know, guys, if I could, I would love to have a bat para-glider for myself. Granted, I would probably have to get over my fear of heights first, but still, I would love to have something like that for myself, you know what I mean?

8 minutes later

OK, that's really cool. I like how, despite the fact that one of the tires has been slashed off, Lupin is able to ride a motorcycle on a tightrope like that. That is really creative and awesome at the same time.

3 minutes later

Wait, so in this movie, Fujiko is called "Margo" here? O...K, granted, I'm sure this is probably just for this dub, but honestly, I find that name change really kinda odd. I'm sure I'll probably get use to it later on, but still, it's just very odd to change her name like that, you know?

14 minutes later

All right, I have an obvious question here, but I still want to ask it anyway. So, up till this point, Lupin and the gang have been chased by a helicopter through the sewers, a giant ass trailer truck, and now they're being bombarded with missiles from a plane. And the one question I have in my mind is why are they being targeted? My only guess is that they want the stone that Margo was after. But still, it all just seems a little overboard to me to use all this firepower on them like this. But maybe that's just me.

12 minutes later

By the way, guys, I probably should've mentioned this early on, but Goemon in this movie is not called Goemon, he's just known as the "samurai". And no, I'm not joking about that either, that's literally what he's called in this movie. That is honestly even more stupid than changing Fujiko's name to something else, I'm just gonna say that right now.

7 minutes later

You know, out of all the things I was expecting from this movie, Lupin doing the Nazi salute while shouting "Heil Hitler" was definitely not one of those things. Granted, I'm pretty sure it was just a robot version of Hitler or something, but still, *definitely* not what I was expecting.

13 minutes later

So, Lupin's subconscious consists of boobs, Zenigata, Margo, and uh...some kind of food. Not totally sure what it's suppose to be, but still, you learn something new everyday.

9 minutes later

Whoa, hold on a second here! So, Zenigata-oh, my bad "Scott", has a daughter, according to the police commissioner. That's...new information I didn't even know about until now. Hell, come to think, I don't think that was *ever* brought up before! At least, with my experience watching this series anyway. Again, you really do learn something new everyday, don't ya?

8 minutes later

Did I seriously just see an ad where Lupin is hanging out with the Justice League? That is awesome in many ways that I didn't think were possible, guys.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Wow, um...where to even begin here? Well, first off, I'm gonna make a clarification, just in case somebody might ask this of me. No, I am not gonna be reviewing the other dubs of this movie because, one, I would just be reacting to the same thing again, and I don't want to bore you guys by doing a thing like that. And two, any movie I cover for this series will be covered only once. Now if there's an exception here and there, I'll let you guys know when I cover it, but all in all, I'm not gonna waste the time by reviewing the same movie again under a different dub.

And right off the bat, I, once again, have to change my usual protocol, like I did with "The Fuma Conspiracy" last week, and start with the English dub. And before I talk about the acting for the dub itself, I do want to start with the name changes for certain characters first. Now, as I mentioned way early on, I talked about how each version of this movie's dub had different alterations with their dialogue. And this movie, at least with the name changes for our main characters, is definitely prevalent here. The only exception to the name changes is Lupin himself, since his name stays the same. However, every other characters name gets changed. For starters, Fujiko in this movie is called Margo. Zenigata is actually named Scott here. I honestly don't remember what name Jigen was suppose to have in this dub. I *think* his name was supposed to be Ben, but I could be totally wrong there. And Goemon is just referred to as the "samurai". Which is still really fucking lazy, because you could've easily come up with any sort of name for him, but for some reason, the writers didn't do that here.

Now, my theory as to why most of these names were changed was probably because they wanted it to feel more...American, I guess. Maybe it's because they thought viewers in the U.S. wouldn't be able to pronounce their actual names, so they went with something more normal. Now, I know a lot of people would be turned off by these name changes, and I could easily understand why. However, as someone who's grown up watching anime dubs intended for children that also did this sort of thing, this isn't something that bothers me too much. And the reason why it doesn't bother me as much is because unlike "The Fuma Conspiracy", where they basically just flip-flopped on how certain names should be pronounced, this one at least stuck with the names that they were given. Mind you, it's definitely something that you're gonna have to get use to, if you decide to end up watching this dub of the movie, but I still think it's worth checking out, if at least just once. Now I'm sure the other dubs might've given them their proper names, but for this dub, I'm willing to give it a pass here.

Having said that, what about the dub itself? How does it hold up nearly 4 and half decades later? Um...well, it definitely has aged a little bit. However, I honestly think this dub ranges on fitting into the laughable category. Because, I'm gonna tell you, guys, a lot of the acting in this English dub is just laughably stupid. Now granted, like I already hinted at, it's not exactly a good dub, but then again, I've also heard far worse dubs that came out during that time, so it's something that you have to take for what it's worth. The acting itself ranges on being very hammy and kinda over the top. I feel as though, at times, that the actors, when they were recording their lines for this movie, might've gotten a little too close to the mic. Because you can hear how loud the muffles come out whenever someone is yelling out their lines, such as the case with Zenigata/Scott's voice actor. He kinda has a bit of a bad habit of yelling his lines a lot. Which, to be fair, he also did that in "The Fuma Conspiracy", but I feel like it's a little bit worse here, audio wise. So, guys, to make it simple for some of you, the acting here is far from good, but it's definitely really funny, especially when it's unintentional. Which is what this movie ended up aiming for.

So, now that I've gotten the acting out of the way, let's talk about the writing for this movie. And the writing for this movie is definitely strong, at least for a first feature length Lupin movie. Now I'm not gonna say that the writing here is amazing or great, but as a first effort, it definitely does have some substance here. And, in a way, feels like something of an origin story for Lupin. Which, given that this is the first movie in a long line-up of Lupin movies, does make some sense. That aside, there are some things here that feel unexplained, even it's minor stuff, such as the mention that Zenigata/Scott has a daughter. That comes right out of nowhere and is never brought up ever again. Now, it's possible that she could be in any of the other Lupin films in the future, but still, it does brings a whole new layer of potential to his character, had that been more explored here. But as is, it just seems like a random thing to drop here.

While I'm kinda already talking about characters, I will go ahead and state that our villain, Mamo, is probably one of the better written villains I've seen in quite a while in the Lupin series. At least, when compared to most of the other villains I've seen in this marathon up till this point. He essentially has the immortal powers of Vandal Savage from DC Comics while also trying to obtain the true power of immortality, since the way he's been working on it hasn't exactly reached perfection yet. And he also wants to give it to Margo to give her true beauty forever. And in Margo's case, similar to what I mentioned earlier, it almost seems like an origin story for her, too. Though obviously, that's not really the case, since she and Lupin do still know each other at this point.

And while I'm sorta on the subject, there is one thing I noticed that seemed a little bit odd to me. Mainly, Goemon (I'm not calling him "the samurai". Fuck that) sounds rather misogynistic towards Margo. Which, I don't know if he ever acted like that towards her in any of the older series, but to me, it just comes off as really weird and off-putting. Especially when you consider that he almost ends up getting married in "The Fuma Conspiracy". The only reason I can think of as to why he might act like this is because he feels that she's untrustworthy and that she might end up stabbing Lupin in the back. Which, even then, it's still really strange for Goemon to be even acting like this at all. Now, I don't know, *maybe* he acted like that in one of the older series, but again, it just doesn't seem right to me that he would ever act like that towards Margo.

So, as a whole, the writing here, while not exactly great, is still strong enough to where it's able to stand on it's own merits. And speaking of which, the animation here is really good, especially for the standards of 1978. And considering that this was TMS's first outing in the Lupin franchise, it definitely leaves a great first impression. The color palettes here are used very well, and the animation here is really solid. They didn't really cut any corners here when it comes to the animation in this movie. And I'm glad to see TMS didn't cheap out here.

Sound-mix here honestly could've been a little better. And again, it sorta ties into what I talked about earlier when I was discussing this English dub. In which, some of the actors sounded like they were speaking too close to the microphone when giving out their lines. It kinda hurts the audio quality a little bit here. Also, there's a couple of scenes in this movie, mainly any scene with Lupin and Margo, where there's a loud noise going on, and the audio will overlap any dialogue given out from either one of the two characters. Now, it could be possible that this only affects this certain dub. I don't know. When I eventually get around to watching this again on my own time, I'm gonna see if the other dubs have this sort of issue or not. But as is, in the case with this dub, it could've fine-tuned a little better.

Music, though, I will say is rather good. Similar to this being TMS's first Lupin film, this was also the first film that Yuji Ohno composed the music here. And while, of course, I've heard ton better from Ohno, it's still really good, especially for a first outing from this composer.

So, with all that said, can I recommend "Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo"? Yes, I most certainly can. Now, I have to stress that I'm certainly recommending the film to you guys. I'm not totally sure about the dub itself, though. Like I said earlier, the name changes are definitely gonna be jarring to a lot of fans, plus the acting has definitely aged a bit. Mind you, like I said earlier, it's not the worst dub I've ever heard, but it's still not exactly good either. Thankfully, there are other options for the English dub you could check out, if you're curious, or if you're not a dub fan at all, you could always watch it with the Japanese audio with English subtitles, too. As for myself, I definitely really enjoyed this one. While it's certainly flawed in some areas, it's certainly not enough to bring it down either. Especially since there are 3 other English dubs on here for me to experiment with. So, I'll be watching this one again very soon. In the meantime, though, I'm gonna find something else to watch. And you know, I still think back to that awesome little reference where Lupin was hanging out with the Justice League. So, I'm gonna go and watch and the sequel film to "Justice League War" and check out "Justice League: Throne of Atlantis". That one, too, is a really awesome movie, so I'm gonna go do that next once I get done with this review.

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

Reaction & Review | Lupin the 3rd: The Fuma Conspiracy

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon", here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering the next film in this marathon that came out in 1987. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: The Fuma Conspiracy".

Now, unlike the previous films I've covered for this marathon, I actually do know something about this movie. And by that, I mean I really only know two things about it. The first thing I know about this movie is that this one is centered around Goemon. Which is honestly rather interesting because I do like Goemon as a character, and I really want to see more of him doing something, other than than just being a badass samurai. Not that there's anything wrong with the latter, of course, but still, I am really curious to see what they do with Goemon here.

Now the second thing I know about this movie is that it's one of the shortest films I've covered so far in this marathon. See, this film's runtime is only 73 minutes long, and I'm not sure if that's gonna help the film at all or be a detriment to it. Because, usually, the other Lupin films that I've seen usually run at about 90 minutes, sometimes a little longer than that. But with this film having a much shorter runtime than those, I'm curious to know if this film is gonna benefit from that short runtime or not.

So really, guys, I don't know what to expect from this film, beyond the little information that I know about it. I'm hoping for it to be really good, but I won't know that for sure unless 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 Fuma Conspiracy".

5 minutes later

Well, guys, I am gonna say this much. Even though the dub here is a little bit questionable so far, I am gonna say that the music is still really good. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but this opening song here is really good. I really wish I had more to say about the story itself, but then again, we just started the movie. So, I'm hoping for the best here.

5 minutes later

OK, this is already starting to bother me a bit, and I was hoping I wouldn't have to comment on it until later, but I need to ask this. Why is Lupin's name being pronounced as "Rupin"? I'm asking this, because it seems like almost nobody in this movie can make up their minds on how Lupin's name is suppose to be pronounced. I'm hoping, maybe, that this issue will either get fixed later on, or I'm somehow gonna get use to to this very odd pronunciation of his name, but I'm not sure if either one of those things is gonna happen or not.

12 minutes later

So, let me see if I understand this. Goemon's fiance, who we all thought to be kidnapped by ninjas known as the Fuma clan, was actually kidnapped by backup from the police in order to catch Lupin. Um...I have a *lot* of questions about this. However, I feel like if I asked them now, they would hurt my head quite a bit. So instead, I'll save them for later once I eventually review this thing.

12 minutes later

You know what, guys, as much as I can complain that the story is sort of a mess and the dialogue is still rather questionable, I am gonna say that this car chase here, while chaotic, is honestly really cool to witness. So yeah, I can at least say that much so far.

18 minutes later

By the way, guys, I should've mentioned this earlier, but Goemon's name is also being mis-pronounced as "Gweimon" for some reason. Again, I'm gonna get more into this a little later, but I just wanted to let you guys know now because these pronunciations are really starting to bother me more and more as the movie progresses.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: The Fuma Conspiracy". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Wow, um...where to even start here? Well, I suppose I can answer this question first. Does this movie benefit from having a short runtime? For the most part, I'm willing to say yes. While the film itself is certainly flawed, I can at least say that it certainly made the best out of it's situation, what with it being a 73 minute runtime and everything.

So now, let's talk about the rest of the movie. I want to start off with something that I normally would save for later, but seeing as how it's still fresh in my mind, I have to start off with the acting here. And before I delve into the performances itself, I need to talk about how character names are mis-pronounced here. And the two names that are gonna stand out the most are Lupin and Goemon, because their names suffer the most identity crisis through the entire film. And I'm not kidding about that either, because it seems like, when the actors were given their lines, the director, or writer of this dub, forgot to tell the actors on how their characters names are supposed to be pronounced, because they constantly go back and forth a lot throughout this movie. With Lupin, he has it the worst. because just about every actor almost pronounces his name as "Rupin". Almost as if the actors were speaking broken English.

And Goemon almost has the same problem, too, because, like I said, his name is being pronounced as "Gweimon" for some odd reasoning. When I hear that kind of name, I immediately think of the Digimon known as Greymon, if Greymon's name was spoken from a child who has a lisp problem. Now, this wouldn't be too much of an issue if he was *only* pronounced as "Gweimon" throughout the entire movie. However, that's is *not* the case here, because there are a few characters, namely his girlfriend and sensei, who actually do call him "Goemon" a few times in this movie. And it's just so jarring to listen to, because if you're a fan of the "Lupin the 3rd" series and you're used to hearing how these names are actually pronounced, then you're gonna have a bit of a hard time with the pronunciation of these characters names in this movie. Now surprisingly, almost every other establishing character's name is pronounced perfectly fine. But with Lupin and Goemon, it's an identity crisis with these two, and I'm mostly gonna put the blame on the direction here, rather than the acting on that one.

But that's not to say that the acting here isn't flawed. Believe me, it is *heavily* flawed. Now, as you might've surmised, I did watch the English dub, and I'm gonna tell you that the dub here isn't really that great. The acting in this dub feels very uneven for just about all of the characters. The only one who has any sort of consistency is Zenigata's voice actor, but that's only because, most of the time, he just has to yell his lines. Everyone else, though, not so much. Fujiko sounds very one note here, and doesn't have a whole lot of range in her voice. Jigen, I honestly couldn't really gauge it very well enough to form a thought about it. The worst thing I could say about it is that it just didn't feel very natural to me, but that's really about it. Lupin sounds like he has the voice of an Asian guy who doesn't know if he's suppose to be speaking either English or Japanese. And Goemon's actor is easily the weakest actor of the entire cast because his performance in this thing sounds very wooden and, at times, felt like he was directionless on how he should be delivering his lines. Now again, I am gonna blame the latter for that on the direction of this dub. But still, that doesn't excuse the rest of his acting feeling very weak here.

So yeah, on a whole, the acting in this dub is just not really that good. It's not the worst dub I've come across, obviously, but in the case of the "Lupin the 3rd", it is probably the weakest dub of the entire series. At least, so far, anyway. But with that said, what about the actual writing itself? Well, honestly, the writing here is just OK. In terms of working in all of the tropes involving Lupin the 3rd, it does it's job well enough in working that all in with it's short runtime. As for the story itself, well, as I mentioned earlier, this one is supposed to be centered around Goemon, and I was really curious to see what they were going to do with him in this movie. Well, simply put, he was about to get married to his fiance, however, she gets kidnapped by a group of ninjas known as the Fuma clan. Well, actually, they were after a special kind of vase that Goemon's master has been holding. But since Goemon and the others were able to hold them off briefly, they ended up kidnapping his fiance instead. And so, basically, if he wants his fiance back, then he has to trade the vase for it, to which his master denies him, because according to him, it cannot be traded no matter what. Though that idea gets thrown out the window later on, when Lupin secretly unlocks the vault to the case and steals it to find out more about the vase's true nature of it's value. A slight spoiler here, the vase  actually contains a map of where the real treasure is located. And as for the treasure itself is something that I won't spoil here. Not that there's much left to spoil about it, but still.

So yeah, like I said, it's pretty much a standard Lupin adventure, even though the focus is more on Goemon here rather than the titled character. However, there are certain things about the writing that just doesn't make very much sense in context. The biggest example of this is when we're first introduced to Detective Zenigata, who retired from his position as a detective to become a monk. Why is this? Well, it was told through a brief flashback where Lupin "died" after a boat exploded, leaving the detective in shock. When exactly did this kind of thing happen, I don't know. I have no idea if this happened in a previous movie or any of the older series, because this movie didn't really provide any sort of context beyond that. So to anyone who might be watching this movie for the first time, and you've not seen anything related to "Lupin the 3rd" prior to this movie, then you're just gonna be left completely in the dark as to how exactly that all happened. Now, of course, when Zenigata gets the news that Lupin is actually alive again, he goes back to his old ways and is on the hunt for Lupin again. But still, that whole scene just felt really weird and off-putting to me.

While I'm on the subject, I may as well talk about the characters here. Aside from the already established ones, the only new one I wanted to mention is Goemon's fiance, who goes by the name of Murasaki. And to be perfectly honest with you guys, she's one of the most blandest characters I've seen so far in any Lupin movie to date. Now, to be fair, Murasaki does have something resembling a backstory in how she and Goemon first met and became infatuated with each other. But in terms of her personality, it is boring as shit. She has nothing much going for her, other than being used as kidnapping foil for our plot. Granted, she's not entirely a damsel in distress type of character, but I honestly couldn't remember much of anything she did in this movie, besides helping Goemon get to where the actual treasure is at. And as for our establishing characters, barring Detective Zenigata, well, really, there's not much to say here about them that's changed, and that unfortunately includes Goemon. Which is kinda sad, considering that this movie is centered around him, and I was hoping they'd do more with his character here. But alas, that doesn't really happen.

So yeah, guys, writing in this movie is definitely one of the weaker aspects here. Mind you, now, I'm in no way saying that it's bad or anything, but I seriously can't say that it's great either. It sorta leans on being below average. Which, even then, the movie is still very watchable, despite the flaws of the writing and all. In fact, almost everything else I'm gonna mention from this point forth are nothing but positives. The animation here is great. For 1987, this animation still holds up really well. The color palettes here are great, as is the animation itself. The two biggest standouts of the entire movie are the car chase sequence, which, in my opinion, is the biggest highlight of entire film, and also during a bit where any of the characters are covered with hallucination gas, as you get to experience some really creepy, yet really creative body horror as well. It's great stuff, and it's enough for me to recommend that you check out this movie, if just for the animation alone.

Sound-mix here is also mixed very well, and the music is fantastic, too. It has more of a Japanese feeling to it, which makes sense given where this movie is taking place in. But still, the score here is great, as is the rest of the music.

So, with all that said, guys, am I able to recommend "Lupin the 3rd: The Fuma Conspiracy"? Honestly...yes. Now granted, while this film is definitely on the weaker side of the series, it's still definitely worth watching, especially if you're a fan of the series. Now whether it's just a once-over or if it's worth watch multiple times is something I can't say for everyone else. For myself, I might still give this another watch, but I might watch the Japanese version of this thing the next go around, because, like I said, the dub here is definitely not that great, plus the pronunciation of certain names is what's stopping me from immediately rewatching it. Now who knows, maybe I'll watch it again with the dub if I'm *really* bored, but it's certainly not gonna happen anytime soon. But otherwise, guys, I can still recommend it enough for any fan who hasn't seen the film yet. For myself, it's definitely the weakest of the entire series so far, but even at it's weakest, I can still say that I had some fun with it. Now...I think I'm gonna go and watch something different. Seeing as how that scene I talked about earlier involving the body horror and all, I think I'm gonna go and rewatch my copy of "Wicked City". Why not? It's been a little while since I've last seen it so I think I'm gonna go and do that next.

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 later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Lupin the 3rd: Dead or Alive

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering the next film in this marathon that came out in 1996. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: Dead or Alive".

Now, I would love to tell you anything that I know about this movie, but sadly, I don't know very much about it, aside from it being another Lupin movie. The only thing that I've noticed, just judging from the cover art, is that the art-style looks vastly different, compared to the other Lupin movies that I've seen before. Which is interesting, even though it was still made by TMS. Now mind you, I'm not saying that it's a bad thing or anything, it's just something that I happened to notice is all.

So, setting aside that, I know nothing about the plot to this movie, nor have I seen any trailers or clips from it either. So, in other words, I'm going into this one 100% blind here. I'm hoping it's gonna be just as good as the other two Lupin films that I've seen prior to this one. But the only way I'm gonna find out for sure 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: Dead or Alive".

5 minutes later

OK, so...this warden, well, fake warden I should say, just did a prison break releasing four other guys. And the reason why I say the warden was fake was because it was actually Lupin in disguise. Mind you, there's no context as to why Lupin released these guys at all, but it does leave me rather curious. So, I'm hoping the movie will provide that context.

17 minutes later

So, that buoy that Jigen managed to pull off turned out to be a hidden plane...interesting. Not totally sure how capable that actually is, but I will say that it is creative.

8 minutes later

OK, this shot here that I'm seeing, for whatever reasoning, has Jigen's hair completely white, as if he grew really old. I don't know, *maybe* it was trying to reflect the lighting of the fire going on in the background, but still, it just seemed a little bit weird to me, you know?

6 minutes later

Guys, I know that this is probably a moot point to bring up, but the music in this movie is really good. I'm really digging the score here. But then again, it's "Lupin the 3rd", and it would be sort of a crime if the music in this series turned out to be horrible. Which, thankfully, it still hasn't.

11 minutes later

OK, so we finally got some sort of explanation as to why Lupin, at the beginning, busted those guys out of prison. The main reason being is he wanted information about "Drifting Island", the island that Lupin and the gang were on to look for some treasure. At *least* they explained that much. Granted, I don't know why they are talking to only *one* of the former prisoners, and not the whole lot that they busted out. But still, at least they explained why Lupin busted them out of prison. So, I'll take what I can get out of this.

20 minutes later

You know, guys, I am gonna say that while Zenigata seems to be a lot less over-the-top in this movie than the previous ones, I'm still kinda surprised, and not, by the fact that he didn't pick up on Lupin's strange silence earlier from when he apprehended him. I guess, maybe, perhaps that Zenigata is still one step behind Lupin's 4-D chess, you know what I mean?

1 minute later

O...K, well that got...surprisingly dark rather quickly. Never thought I'd see a beheading like that before, but, well, I got to see it. And yeah, that totally caught me off guard.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: Dead or Alive". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. So...where to start with this one? Well, I am gonna say that, so far anyway, this is the best Lupin film I've covered this marathon. Now again, it's not gonna compare to something like "The Castle of Cagliostro". But then again, that movie's on a whole different level of awesome. That aside, it is a really great movie on it's own standards. So, I'm not gonna complain on whether or not it's better than certain others, because all that matters to me is whether or not the film was entertaining. And it most certainly is.

So, let me go ahead and start this review off proper by first talking about the writing. More specifically, I actually want to talk about the movie's tone, first and foremost. Now, way back when I reviewed "The Secret of Harimao's Treasure", I mentioned my experience with "Lupin the 3rd" at the time. In which, I had only seen "The Castle of Cagliostro" and "Lupin the 3rd": Part's IV and V. And on the latter, I said that I enjoyed both series very much. However, the one thing that stopped both those series from being great was that, at least for me, the final arc's for both Part's IV and V tried way too hard on being dark in tone. Not that the series was ever dark beforehand, but I didn't really like how those arcs approached the way it set it's tone during those final arcs. Which is what kinda sullied it a little bit from two really enjoyable series. Now mind you, it's been quite a number of years since I last watched both those series when they last aired on Toonami, so perhaps maybe if I ever viewed those series again on DVD at some point, my opinion on those could ultimately change. But, as it stands, I still didn't like the tonal shift on when and how the series went dark on their last arcs.

Which now brings me to talking about this movie again. And the reason why I brought up all that to you guys is that this movie has, quite possibly, one of the better examples on how to properly balance it's tone. You see, while this movie has a somewhat darker approach to it's tone here, it doesn't completely overshadow the insane, goofy, over-the-top action that this series is mostly known for. It knows when to be serious and when it wants to have fun with itself. And mind you, the story here is kinda complex, but it really is easy to follow, as long as you're able to connect the dots in your head. And if you're somehow not able to, then another viewing of it doesn't hurt either, because while it was simple for me to follow the entire story, it is possible that others may not. So I'm not gonna insult anyone for not grasping the whole story of this movie on their first go around. That said, I will say that there is a twist near the end that, while I won't spoil what it is, it could leave you asking a bunch of questions about it until the movie answers it itself. So, you just have to take that for what it's worth. It really is something you're either gonna like or not. Myself, personally speaking, I'm kinda split on it. But it didn't really stop me from enjoying this movie as a whole. So, again, it's just something that you're gonna have to interpret for yourself, really.

All of our characters have tons of depth. The best one has to go to Ole, who is a new character in this movie that has a really strong arc. Where she starts off working for the enemy, to being rescued by Lupin, to her discovering about her missing boyfriend being discovered alive after 2 years. It's a really good arc, and it easily makes her the best character in the entire movie. And as for our establishing characters, most of them are very likable and have tons of personality. The only one of the bunch that has the least amount of screen time is Fujiko, who, when in comparison with the previous movie that I covered for this series, doesn't have a whole lot of screen time here. The same could also be said for Detective Zenigata. However, I will say that, when compared to the previous two movies that I covered in this marathon, he actually does manage to get the 1-Up on Lupin a couple of times here. Where in the previous movies, he was essentially just there for the sake of being a foil in catching Lupin. Here, it's the same shtick, but at least he's not just a worthless comic relief character like he was in "The Secret of Twilight Gemini" and "The Columbus Files". So, at least it's something of an improvement here.

But overall, guys, the writing here is really strong. It's probably some of the strongest I've seen since watching "The Castle of Cagliostro". Again, it's not as good writing as that film had it, but it's still really good as a standalone movie. And as for the acting, well, once again, I am watching the English dub here. And for the 3rd straight time in a row, it was dubbed by Funimation. So naturally, you have the talent pool of actors from that studio reprising the roles for our established characters. Sonny Strait, once again, nails it as Lupin and I'm starting to grow more used to him voicing the character. The only bit of acting that I thought was a bit weak was any time characters had to put on some rather goofy accents. And, of course, when I mean characters, I mean like background characters and such that have to put on accents, which is suppose to be whatever country the movie's taking place in. Now admittedly, I don't really know what country this movie is suppose to take place in, but I will say that the accents are kinda silly and somewhat stupid at the same time. Mind you, now, it's not even all that bad, it's just something that I felt like I needed to mention, just in case there's someone out there who's somehow real picky with accents. Don't really know who that would be, honestly, but there is that *slight*, slight chance. But anyway, the acting here is perfectly fine for the cast here.

Animation, I do want to talk about a bit. Now, first of all, I will say that the animation here is really good, but I do want to comment on something that I brought up at the start of this thing, which was the art-style. The art-style in this movie is very different compared to the other two movies I covered in this marathon. It seems to be, well...not so much realistic per se, but more so down to Earth. Meaning that this movie's animation doesn't seem to be going for as many over-the-top action scenes, though they still do exist in this movie. Especially the beginning of the film, where most of that was definitely there with the prison break scene. But for the most part, it seems to play itself out as a standard action movie. Which there's nothing wrong with that. At least, to me, there isn't. So, while the art-style may be different, just about all of the tropes involving "Lupin the 3rd" are still here. Which is great to see. So yeah, the art-style is great, as is the color palettes and the overall animation as a whole.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music here is fantastic. In fact, honestly, listening to the score in this movie sorta reminds me of another anime series that had awesome music, which is "Cowboy Bebop". The score in this movie reminds me of that, and it works tremendously. It has the perfect vibe to it, and it never really goes away. It's gonna stick with you from the opening title screen, all the way to the end credits. But again, we are talking about "Lupin the 3rd" here, and it would be considered a crime if the music ended up sucking at all. But otherwise, guys, the music here is great.

And with all that said, can I recommend "Lupin the 3rd: Dead or Alive"? Oh yes, certainly, guys. This movie is really good. While the art-style has changed a bit here and the story is a little more complex than previous entries, it's still really entertaining. And once more, if you are a fan of the "Lupin the 3rd" series, and you haven't had a chance to see this one yet, by all means, check it out. It is definitely worth your time. And as for myself, I was pleasantly surprised by it. I wanted it to be really good, and part of me was thinking that it was gonna be just OK. But thankfully, it surpassed that level to a point where I really enjoyed it immensely. I, of course, will be adding it to the ever growing collection of "Lupin the 3rd" movies that I already own. I'm hoping the rest of the marathon is gonna be like that, but we'll just have to wait and see for now. In the meantime, I think I'm gonna go and watch another action movie. Perhaps maybe I'll pop in my copy of "Rambo III", since I rewatched the first two movies already. So, why not go for number 3? I might as well, seeing as how this movie got me in the mood to watch another action film.

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

Reaction & Review | Lupin the 3rd: The Columbus Files

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're continuing the marathon with the next entry that came out in 1999. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: The Columbus Files".

Now I probably should've mentioned this beforehand last week, but I'm not reviewing these movies in any particular order. For example, I'm not reviewing them from earliest to latest. And there's two reasons as to why. The first reason is that almost all of these movies have no connection with each other. A majority of them are just standalone films. So, you can watch these in, pretty much, any order you want. The second reason being simply because I just find that to be a waste of time anyways. I'm gonna review them in the order that I want, regardless of what year they came out in.

So, now that I've gotten that little quibble out of the way, let's actually get into tonight's movie. And much like with last week's film, I don't know a thing about it. But then again, like I also mentioned at the start of this marathon, I'm going into almost all of these movies as blind as possible. Which is the nice thing about me doing this series, since I'm going into them with fresh eyes and all.

Now, I'm hoping for this thing to be just as good as "The Secret of Twilight Gemini" was, if not even better. But the only way I'm gonna find out for sure 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 Columbus Files".

2 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all things I was expecting from this movie this early on, seeing Lupin in lingerie is definitely *not* one of them. OK granted, it's just a bodysuit of Fujiko, but still, that just comes off weirdly creepy, even for one of Lupin's disguises.

17 minutes later

Well, lesson learned. If the engine on your boat stops working, just karate chop it, like how Goemon did, and it'll be up and running again. I never would've known that, but hey, at least it's something to keep in mind the next time I ever step foot on a boat like that.

12 minutes later

OK, you know what? I am gonna give Lupin this much, at least he knows when to hold back when he needs to. Still though, what he attempted to do just a moment ago, just...what the fuck, man? I know that, before, you didn't want to believe that Fujiko's memories are gone, but still, you could've handled that situation a little bit better, you know?

2 minutes later

OK, I know Goemon's sword is capable of cutting down a lot of things, but I didn't know that he could cut down buildings just like that as well. Mind you, it was sorta cool, but still, it wasn't something I was exactly expecting is all.

9 minutes later

OK, well, I just learned something else about Lupin. Apparently, he also has a rocket based shoe on his foot. *Never* would've known that at all. But honestly, I would love to have something like that for myself. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

19 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm both surprised and not at the same about Nazalloff's disguise. I probably should've picked up on it the first time he did his fucking laugh, but now that I'm seeing him unravel his disguise, I'm kinda surprised that he was able to hold off on it for this long before Lupin caught on to his act. Still though, it sorta caught be off guard a bit.

8 minutes later

So, this Columbus Egg has the power to control the weather. Which also means creating cyclones and typhoons that can destroy islands and other major cities around the world. Gotta say, that certainly is a reason to want to get a hold of that egg. Though it makes me wonder what else Fujiko knows about it from her hidden memories, since she wasn't captured and all. I'm really curious about that know, since Nazalloff was ordered to capture both her and Rosaria, but didn't. I gotta say though, I'm really intrigued to see how else this movies plays out.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: The Columbus Files". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well...where to start with this one? Well, I can say that this movie, at least to me, is, indeed, very good. In fact, I would even say it's better than "The Secret of Twilight Gemini". Mainly because, there's more stuff going on in this film than the other one. Now mind you, the film does have a couple of problems, but for the most part, it is mostly minor stuff, which I'll cover in just a moment.

For now, though, let's go ahead and start off this review by first going over the writing. The writing in this movie is certainly really interesting. There's this treasure that's found within something called the Columbus Files, which is something that Fujiko has been looking into for a very long time. And in those files, there's something mentioning about an egg that is the main treasure that Christopher Columbus himself found while he was on his voyage, which is what Fujiko is after. Though shortly in the beginning, however, they are being chased down by a guy named Nazalloff, who also wants the same thing. Now it's around here is where Fujiko starts to play a big part of this movie because, shortly before the prologue ends, she ends up falling off a cliff before Lupin can save her. Which is where we find out a little later that she lost all her memories, which includes what she knows about the Columbus Files. Because right before she ended up giving it up to Nazalloff, she ends up burning the files, but says to Lupin that she has it all memorized in her mind. So now, it's pretty much all on her as Lupin and the gang try to defend her from Nazalloff while she tries to regain her memories.

So, storywise, there's a lot more going on here and it does leave you interested to see whether or not Fujiko can regain her memories. Not just because there's a treasure that only she knows the secrets about, but also because she's a beloved character of the series as well. While I'm on the subject, most of our characters here are rather likable and well developed. The only one that I would say is not very likable is Nazalloff, mostly because he's just a creepy scumbag who, not only has an annoying laugh, but also has a huge boner for Fujiko as well. Which I believe was the intention, because he's really fucking scummy. But as for other new characters, the only ones that I can mention are Rosaria and her father. More so Rosaria, because she's looking for her father, and, well, slight spoiler here, he's the main villain in all this, as he's looking to get control of the Columbus Egg for his own ambitions of controlling the world. There's also a couple of other things about it as well, which I'm not gonna mention in this review, but the core aspect about it is that the bad guy wants it to control the world. It's pretty basic stuff, really.

Which then brings me back to both Lupin and Fujiko. Now because Fujiko has lost her memories, we do get more of an interaction between the two characters. Now, beyond the one scene that I'm gonna mention in a second here, I will say that the chemistry between these two is great. The depth between the two is more explored here, with Fujiko losing her memories, and how Lupin sees her as someone who he wants to protect. It's great stuff. Now granted, I know some fans of the series won't like the fact that Fujiko seems more helpless here as a damsel rather than a sexy badass that she is, but I still feel like it works well enough here for it to be overlooked. That being said, however, there is one scene that I wanted to mention. See, there's a scene in this movie where Lupin is talking to Fujiko alone in a room, as he's trying to find a way to get her to remember her memories. And at one point, he even goes so far as to take his pants off and goes for a rather, well...predatory approach in trying to make love to her. Which, for some people, could be seen as a huge turnoff, because it's a rather unusual thing for Lupin to do, especially with Fujiko's current condition and all. Which, I will admit, is kinda fucked up. But I will say, in some defense of him, that he does end up holding back and goes back to comforting her in his own way. That said, I still believe he could've handled the situation a little bit more differently.

Now, beyond that one scene, the rest of the writing here is still really good. The action scenes are really cool, even if some of them are a little bit over-the-top, especially a couple involving Goemon, such as him cutting down a fucking building with one slice of his sword. But then again, "Lupin the 3rd" has always had a lot of over-the-top action scenes, so I suppose this is just par for the course with this series. Now as for the acting, well, it is dubbed over by Funimation's voice actors once again. And I will say that I'm actually getting more use to Sonny Strait voicing Lupin himself. He certainly has the range for the character, and the script he's working with is definitely giving him more to work with. Which is great, honestly. The only character's voice that I'm sorta split on is Goemon. I'm not sure what it is, but there's something about it that I'm not 100% sure on. Maybe it's because he tries to sound badass in his somewhat raspy voice, but something about that is not entirely clicking with me. It just feels kinda off here. Now, mind you, the acting from him isn't entirely bad, but it is something that you're either gonna get use to, or you're gonna end up not liking it. It really is gonna lean to either one of those things for you. For me, I'm still not totally sure how to really feel about it. Perhaps maybe I'll get use to it if that same voice is used for any of the other films I'll cover for this marathon, but who knows?

Anyway, setting aside my feelings on Goemon's dub acting, the rest of the acting is still really good, as is to be expected from Funimation's actors. So, nothing much else to say about it, really. Now as with the animation, it's really good, too. And in comparison to the previous film I covered, which was "The Secret of Twilight Gemini", it feels less cheap than how that movie did. That being said, it is still somewhat on the dated side of things, being as how this released during the late 90's. But then again, I actually do prefer this kind of animation over the clean, digital art that is used for a lot of anime nowadays. But that's neither here nor there. I can't guarantee that for everyone else, of course, but still. As with this movie though, the art-style is really good, as is the animation, along with the color palettes. So yeah, animation here is rather good for it's time.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. And the music here is also really good, too. But then again, it is done by the great Yuji Ohno, who has done music for almost everything else involving "Lupin the 3rd". Mind you, it's not the best I've heard, but it is nowhere near the worst. And even by it's weakest, it's still really fucking good. So yeah, the music here is great.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Lupin the 3rd: The Columbus Files"? Yes, I most certainly can. It really is a solid entry in the Lupin series, and it's one that I'm most certainly gonna revisit again on my own time. And if you, yourself, are a fan of the series, and have not gotten a chance to check this one out yet, go ahead and find it somewhere. Whether it's online, or it's somewhere on DVD or Blu-ray, go ahead and check it out. You'll most certainly have a great time with it, regardless of the film's minor flaws. So now, with all that being said, I'm gonna go and watch something else. Probably a 007 movie. Don't know which one, yet, but I'll probably revisit something like "Goldeneye" or "Moonraker". Maybe the latter option, since it was the very first one I ever watched with my Dad. So, that's what I'm gonna go do next once I get done typing up this review.

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 later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Twilight Gemini

 

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Oh boy, guys, I am really excited about this marathon that I'm about to start here! And yes, I am doing another themed marathon right after finishing my previous "Tales of the Longbox" marathon. And this marathon is gonna be dedicated solely to movies centered on the "Lupin the 3rd". Now, I've always wanted to do this particular marathon ever since I covered "The Secret of Harimao's Treasure" several years ago. And I decided for myself that I wasn't gonna cover any more Lupin movies until I had enough for a marathon. Well thankfully, I bided my time long enough, and it's finally paid off now that I'm pulling the trigger on this marathon.

And it's perfect timing, too. Because, not only is this a brand new theme marathon that I'm doing, it's also the 250th episode of Reaction & Review. Which is awesome to hit that milestone. So, yeah, I totally picked the right moment to do this whole thing. And we're gonna kick this marathon off with one of the first movies I ever bought in preparation for this marathon. It came out in 1996. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Twilight Gemini".

Now, you're gonna hear me say this a lot throughout most of this entire marathon. I don't know a thing about this movie. And I literally do mean that. I know almost jack all about it. Now, there will be a couple of exceptions to all this much later on, but for now, I just want to focus on tonight's movie. And the only thing I actually know about it is, well, it's a movie about Lupin the 3rd, and there's some sort of treasure involved that he and his friends go after.

Beyond that, I know nothing else about it. I'm going into most of these movies as blind as I can, because I really don't want to be spoiled by any of them. I'm hoping this one will start off on a high note for this marathon. But the only way I'll know that for sure 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 Secret of Twilight Gemini".

14 minutes later

So, this cult-looking group here that we just saw a moment ago, well, I'm now getting a second look at them as they're all together. And for some reason, their attire almost looks identical to the Klu-Klux-Klan. No seriously, guys, their robes are nearly similar to the KKK. Only difference being that they're not being dressed by white dudes, they're all Moroccan. Just felt like I wanted point that out since it's the first thing that came to my mind by just looking at them.

4 minutes later

You know, guys, I think this might be one of the closest times Lupin has ever gotten to doing it with Fujiko. Unfortunately for him, though, and probably Fujiko as well, he ditches her at the last moment so that he could get away from the Russian lady and her forces. At least, I *think* she's Russian. I could be totally wrong there. I'm not the best with deciphering accents.

14 minutes later

OK, guys, you know what? I will say that this flashback sequence is sorta unique, in the way that it's being played out as a silent film, even though there is a narrator speaking through the whole thing. Granted, I'm not totally sure why they couldn't get any voiceovers to do this segment instead, seeing as how you have a speaking narrator and all, but honestly, I'm not gonna complain about it too much. It's just something I wanted to mention is all.

6 minutes later

OK, that has got to be one of the fakest mustaches I've seen in a long time. And considering that it's a Lupin disguise, I'm surprised Zenigata or any of the officials near him are not picking up on this act quicker. I'm just saying, guys, that disguise probably would've looked better, had he not gotten stuck with that incredibly fake mustache. But perhaps that's just me.

9 minutes later

So I just learned something new today. I learned that Goemon can apparently play the flute. I never would've known that. I honestly thought it was just a background piece at first, but then I saw him play it, and I learned that he could do something other than meditate. You really learn something new everyday, don't ya?

11 minutes later

Guys, I just wanted to say right now that the music in this movie is great. Granted, that's a not a huge surprise, considering "Lupin the 3rd" has always had great music. But it's still worth mentioning, because it never fails to sound awesome.

8 minutes later

So, instead of leaving Laura in the quicksand like she told him to do, he decides to jump in with her because he's kind of an idiot that way. Dude, I know it's a girl and all, but you could've found a different way to save her before she drowns in quicksand. Then again, I've thankfully never been anywhere near quicksand myself, so I probably wouldn't know what to do with a straight mind myself in that situation. Either way, it was still kind of stupid of him to do that.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Twilight Gemini". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well, I can start off by saying that I'm definitely gonna be in for a fun couple of months here with this marathon. This movie was pretty good. Now mind you, it's certainly not as good as the other 2 films I've seen in this series, such as "The Castle of Cagliostro" and "The Secret of Harimao's Treasure". But on it's own standards, it's a really entertaining film. And that, to me, is what I care most about in movies is if they're entertaining. And this one definitely fits that mold really well.

So, let's go ahead and start this review off proper by first going into the writing. The writing here is pretty good for the most part. Essentially, there's this treasure in Morocco that can only be opened by a gem called the "Twilight". And as you can guess, it's pretty much a key to that treasure that Lupin gets from an old man who wants him to go find it. Now there is a particular reason as to why he chose Lupin to go find it, other than the fact that he, himself, can't do it anymore, as he's very sick. And from the moment that Lupin lands in Morocco, he has to contend with other groups such as the Geltic's, which is the group that Laura, a supporting character, is a part of. The Secret Society, which is the group that has the KKK robes on them. And, of course, you have Detective Zenigata, who, of course, is after Lupin himself to arrest him. Which, for those of you who have no knowledge of "Lupin the 3rd", he's pretty much the Wile E. Coyote of the series. Mind you, I'm not saying that as an insult. It's just more of an observation as I am typing this.

So, the story here is pretty basic for the most part. It's really not too hard to follow. Though admittedly, it is pretty predictable. Like, when you first hear about the story involving the origins of the "Twilight" key and how it relates to Laura, you can pretty much guess everything else about her. And also, I should mention that there's another character in this movie that's also a part of the Secret Society that is after Lupin, since he has the "Twilight" key and that they want it to restore the Geltic's to their former glory. One of the members, who doesn't wear any ropes, basically looks like a woman, but it's confirmed that he's really a guy. Yeah, it's one of those androgynous characters that sorta threw me off a bit. But yeah, he's only here to kill Lupin, while at the same, also tangles with Goemon, who apparently knows him and wants to kill him. Yeah, that's never really expanded upon in the film, so it's just something that apparently exists just for the sake of existing.

While I'm kind of on the subject here, most of our characters here are establishing characters that you see from the "Lupin the 3rd" TV series and movies. I haven't read any of the comic strips, so I can't say anything about that one. But I will say that the characters are mostly likable. Mind you, characters like Goemon and Jigen, for example, have very short screen time here. So they're not in the movie for very long. Fujiko, on the other hand, definitely has more screen time, and it's also here that I need to mention that this movie has quite a lot of nudity here. There are several scenes here where you get to see Fujiko's boobs hanging out. And it's quite honestly surprising to me, because, I don't think I've *ever* seen this much nudity in a "Lupin" anything ever. The closest to anything like that would be if Fujiko is a wearing a swimsuit. But other than that, most of that was rather tame in comparison to this film. Then again, the version I have on DVD does advertise itself as it being the "Uncut" feature. Which makes me believe that this movie was probably aired on TV and they had to censor the boobs and all. Mind you, that's mostly just a guess from me, but it is something that I wanted to bring up because it's just something I noticed as I was watching it.

But otherwise, guys, the writing here, despite it being kinda predictable, is still pretty good here enough to where you could overlook some of the flaws the movie has with it's story. Now as for the acting, I'm going by what I watched from the English dub. And the dub here is pretty good for the most part. It was dubbed by Funimation, and they usually do a pretty good job with their dubs. This one is no exception. The one I have to give the most credit for is Sonny Strait as Lupin. When I first heard it here in this movie, it sounded a little bit off to me. And the main reason why I say that is because I'm mostly use to hearing Tony Oliver voicing Lupin more. That said, though, Sonny does do a good enough job to where he can match the characteristics of how Lupin is portrayed here. And the rest of the acting is pretty solid, too. But again, the actors from Funimation usually do a really good job with their voice work, so it's not too much of a surprise from me, honestly.

Animation here is mostly really good. This movie, along with most of the other Lupin films that I'm gonna be covering for this marathon, was made by TMS. Most of the time, their animations look great, especially when it comes to "Lupin the 3rd". But admittedly, this one does feel a little bit on the cheap side. Not terrible, mind you, but when you compare it to everything else that they've made that has Lupin's name on it, this one does feel a little bit on the unpolished side of things. The scene I mentioned earlier involving the flashback hits the worst of these notes, because most of the time, the animation there feels like they were cutting some corners when it comes to any of the characters running. That said, I don't know if that was done intentionally for the flashback sequence, or if it was just a budget issue. Either way, though, the animation for this movie could've been a little better with some polish here and there. But otherwise, the animation here is still really good in most of the other areas here. The color palettes are great, too, as everything is very colorful here. So yeah, animation, minus a few mishaps here and there, is pretty solid.

Sound-mix here is mixed very well. The music here is also really good, too. While it's not as memorable as other songs from the previous two Lupin films that I've seen, it's still really good to listen to. Both in score and in soundtrack.

So ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Twilight Gemini"? Most certainly, yes. This movie, while certainly flawed in certain areas, is still very entertaining. And I would totally recommend it to anyone who is a fan of "Lupin the 3rd". Now as for first timers getting into the series, I would say go watch something like "The Castle of Cagliostro", as that, in my opinion, is a great starting point for any newcomers to the series. But as for everyone else who is a fan, if you haven't seen this film yet, go ahead and check it out. It's definitely worth your time, and is very entertaining to watch. I would say that this movie borders on being a popcorn flick, where it's just there to have fun and knows it. So yeah, again, I can totally recommend this film to you guys, especially if you're a fan of "Lupin the 3rd". Now, as for myself, well...seeing as how I mentioned "The Castle of Cagliostro" just a moment ago, I'm gonna go ahead and watch that movie next, because it's, so far anyway, the best Lupin movie I've ever seen. So, I'm gonna go and do that next once I get done with this review.

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

Reaction & Review | Batman: The Movie

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're closing out this edition of "Tales of the Longbox" with a movie that I've been really curious about for a long time. The movie came out in 1966. That movie is "Batman: The Movie".

Oh yes, guys, this is the film that I've been really anticipating the most out of this entire marathon. Which is funny to say, considering that I haven't really covered a lot of DC Comics films throughout most of this marathon, outside of that "Wonder Woman" animated movie. And while I will admit that I had thought about switching the placement of this movie with "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie", I ultimately stuck to my guns here and decide to end the marathon with this movie instead.

Now, for those of you unaware, this movie is based off the Batman series from the 60's starring Adam West. Now while I haven't seen any episodes from that show, I am aware of certain aspects from it, such as it being a campy, goofy comedy series rather than the straight-up dark and serious stories we have with the Dark Knight today. And while I do enjoy some of the serious aspects of Batman, I'm also somebody who really enjoys campy humor, as long it's done properly. And considering that this film is based off the Adam West series, I think this will cover all of that perfectly.

So, I'm really looking forward to seeing how all of this will play out. I'm hoping for it to be amazing, but I would also be shocked if this thing somehow, someway, ends up sucking hard! I have a feeling that it won't, but you never know with this series. Really, guys, the only way I'm gonna find out 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 "Batman: The Movie".

4 minutes later

So, apparently there exists a Bat Copter at the airport for anytime Batman and Robin need it. I gotta say, that Bat Copter looks really fucking cool. Hell, now that I'm looking at it more, I kinda want one of those of my own. Whether it's the real thing or even just a model of the copter would be perfectly fine with me, either way.

2 minutes later

OK...I love how when they drop the "Bat Ladder", there is a *literal* tag on it at the bottom, telling you that it's a Bat Ladder. Holy shit, that is so stupid, and yet so lovably awesome at the same time! That is just fucking hilarious as shit, guys.

4 minutes later

Wait, so that shark really did explode after being sprayed with the "shark repellent bat spray"?! OK...well, I've now learned that shark repellent bat spray is fucking deadly as shit. You learn something new everyday.

12 minutes later

Oh my god...there's a *literal* penguin submarine, and it even has little webbed feet acting as the rotors! I am *loving* this movie, guys, more and more with each passing minute. This is just amazing!

18 minutes later

I'm sorry, guys, if I'm not saying a whole lot right now, I'm really just kinda getting sucked into the story here. I'm really enjoying it so far and I'm hoping it stays this way throughout the remainder of it.

6 minutes later

OK, you know what? Out of all the vehicles I've seen so far in this movie, these, uh...parasol-looking vehicles, I guess, are probably the goofiest thing I've seen so far in this film. Mind you, it's funny as hell, but still, did you *really* need that many for all of the villains to ride on? Just something to ponder a little bit/ on, you know what I mean?

12 minutes later

So, this new weapon is able to turn people into literal ashes...O...K. Granted, it is really creative. Odd, and kinda morbid, but still, I gotta give some points for creativity.

18 minutes later

Once more, guys, I'm awfully sorry that I haven't been really saying very much. I know I should be commenting more on the movie itself. But I honestly have been so enamored with the movie that I just want to see where it's going to go next.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Batman: The Movie". And, uh...wow, what a film indeed. Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Sorry, guys, I had to take a moment away from my laptop here to digest everything I had experienced for myself. I know, for some people, that may not seem like I took a little time away for myself, but, then again, this is the kinda thing I have to work with when writing reviews rather than doing a video of them.

But anyway, let's talk about this movie, shall we? Now, I don't want to be those kinds of people who reminisce on how movies were made back in the day are so much *better* than how movies are made today. Because honestly, that isn't really fair to all modern movies. There have been some good ones out there. Granted, I haven't really seen a whole lot of them, but I do know that they exist. You just have to look for them yourself instead of just calling everything "slop" or "cape shit" online for the sake of bitching. That being said, I will say that this movie does something, at least when compared to other superhero films in the last few years, that I don't see very much of anymore. It knows how to have fun with itself. And, unlike certain superhero films where they are going through extensive reshoots and rewrites to their movies, this film knew what it wanted to be right from the word go, and it stuck by it all the way through. Which is something that, again, I don't see a whole lot of superhero films, let alone certain big blockbuster movies do anymore. And I think that more recent movies should take a cue on how this film was able to have fun with itself, while also knowing what it wants to be, rather than trying to rewrite and reshoot everything just for the sake of it.

Now, with all that out of the way, I should probably get back on track here and actually talk about the movie itself. I'm gonna start with the writing. And honestly, guys, the story in this movie is absolutely ridiculous. But then again, seeing as how this movie is pretty much an extended episode of the Adam West "Batman" series, it's to be expected. Now again, I know I have never seen any episodes of the show before, but I'm also aware that this series has been referenced in other movies and TV shows of the like, so I have a better grasp of it thanks to that, and also having seen this movie. As for the writing itself, well, it's more of just Batman and Robin trying to stop our villains consisting of Penguin, Joker, Riddler, and Catwoman from taking over the world. And that's the best way to simplify it. And you may have noticed that I didn't really react a whole lot to the film, other than the beginning bits of it. I was really invested into what was going on in the movie that if I tried to explain every bit of detail about the story, I would be spoiling it for you guys. Now granted, there really isn't much of a plot here, but I still feel like not spoiling any of it for you guys. Because I feel like this is one of those movies that you have to experience for yourself to show how overly ridiculous and fun this movie truly is.

That said, however, I will say that while the story here is completely ridiculous, it's not overly stupid either. There are some threads of logic here that make some level of sense. For example, Penguin has disguised himself as a pirate captain that they kidnapped way early on in the film, and is trying to gain access to the Batcave to find out where it's location is. Batman and Robin easily discover that it's just Penguin being a terrible disguiser, but they still go through with it anyway. But, instead of just blindly following Penguin's suggestion, they actually have a can of sleep bat spray to keep him knocked out, so that way, Penguin won't know where the Batcave actually is. And also, when they reach the cave, long after they knock out Penguin, they also wake him up by using "wake spray" to wake him up. Yes, seriously, that is an actual thing that Batman and Robin apparently have. But still, though, it actually does make some level of sense, since they already saw through Penguin's disguise and are taking extra precautions before going through with it. The only bit that I would say is sorta weak is how Bruce didn't discover that Kitka was easily Catwoman in disguise. Though honestly, I would just chalk that bit of logic up as a case of Superman Syndrome in this case.

As for the characters, well, it's obvious that all of these characters are from the Adam West series. So naturally, all of them are goofy and over-the-top, as is the tradition of it being from a campy series. I do want to mention the villains, though, for a moment. Because, I noticed something peculiar about one of them. Now again, the villains in this movie range from Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman. And of all the villains in this movie, Joker is the one who feels like he has less of a presence here, unlike the other villains. Which is interesting, because when I think about how over-exposed he has been within the last number of years or so, him being just one of the gang is actually a really refreshing take on him, because I'm one of those people that is just sick and tired of the Joker entirely. So him taking a back seat here in this movie is honestly a *huge* breath of fresh air here. Now oddly enough, the one villain who gets the most screen time here is Catwoman. Which makes sense, considering the amount of time she spends with Bruce in this movie. Penguin feels like a second in command of the crew, while Riddler is there to give out his riddles through a missile. And no, I'm not kidding about that either. That's how he is able to give out his riddles while Batman and Robin try to solve them. It's incredibly stupid, but still very charming at the same time.

And that's one of the best words I can describe this movie's writing. It is so filled to the brim with campy charm that I loved every moment of it. Nothing about this movie feels boring. In fact, after watching this, I really want to see if I can track down the series on DVD at some point, because this movie was just so good to where I want to see *more* of it! That's how good this movie's writing is. And to top it all off, the acting here is also fantastic. I'm talking everyone from Adam West, to Burt Ward, to Cesar Romero, to Burgess Meredith, to Frank Gorshin, and to Lee Meriwether as Catwoman. All of these actors are great here, and I'm even going to include all of the supporting cast members that didn't have as big of a presence in this movie as the others did. All of them turned in fantastic showings. If I had to nitpick at all, I would say that Burt Ward's holy-insert pun here could possibly annoy some people. But honestly, that's not really enough for me to ding on his performance here. All of the acting here is great, and again, considering that they were reprising their roles from the show into this movie is certainly a huge treat here.

Special effects are the one thing that could potentially turn some people away from this movie. I say this, because a lot of the effects in this movie are on the cheaper side. For example, the shark that is biting onto Batman's leg is totally fake as shit, and the fight sequences are laughable at best. But I also have to remember that this movie is, again, apart of a TV show that was pretty much living on a low budget to begin with. And for those people who haven't seen it, if you're someone who has never seen anything related to the Adam West series, then it's possible that you may be turned off by these cheap effects. However, as someone who's into these sorts of films to begin with, I love it. Everything about this movie looks cheap, but it's also very charming, and I could tell that there was a lot of thought and love put into this movie. I got a huge laugh out of that submarine that looks like a penguin, and the fact that they even gave the rotors webbed feet is such a nice attention detail that even I wouldn't have thought of something like that. It's really cool to see that in action, plus all of the Bat vehicles are really cool, too. Same with the costuming. All of these costumes are great and iconic. Guys, special effects in this movie, while on the cheaper side, are great for the standards of the 60's show.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting is also really good. Sound-mix is also mixed fine. The score is great. In fact, looking at the credits, the music was done by Nelson Riddle. He's also the same person who did the score for one of my favorite John Wayne movies called "El Dorado". So yeah, I can tell you guys that the score here is fantastic just based on that alone.

And ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Batman: The Movie"? Well, what do you think? Absolutely, guys, you bet your ass I can recommend this movie. This film is, quite possibly, one of the best superhero films I've ever seen. It really is that awesome. It's also really funny, too. But then again, we're talking about a movie that's based off a really campy TV show, so that's sort of a moot point. But yeah, guys, this film is fantastic. It may even rival some of my other favorite Batman movies that I've seen and own on DVD and VHS. I'll probably have to rewatch some of them to give my full assessment on it, but either way, this movie is going to have a *very* happy spot on my DVD shelf next to them. Hell, I may even watch it again at some point very soon. Although now that I think about it, I kinda want to see if I can track own the series on DVD somewhere. It shouldn't be too hard to find, possibly for cheap. So, I'm gonna go see if it's running online somewhere for a cheap price. If not, then I can just wait and buy the series at one of my local video stores. But yeah, guys, I can totally recommend this film to both fans of Batman and comic book movies in general. The movie is absolutely amazing, and I can't wait to watch it again soon.

And so, we come to the close of this year's "Tales of the Longbox" marathon. And speaking of marathon's, the next one is right around the corner. Where in it, I'll be taking a look at a group of movies dedicated to Lupin The 3rd. Oh my god, I seriously cannot wait for that one. But until then, guys, take care, and I'll see you all later. Peace.