Reaction & Review | Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're closing out this marathon with something rather unique. I say this, because it's the very first film of it's kind. At least, when it comes to "Lupin the 3rd". Tonight's movie came out in 1974. That movie is "Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy".

Yes, guys, believe it or not, this is the very first live-action adaptation of "Lupin the 3rd". And what's even more fascinating about this film is the time period of which it was released. You see, unlike nowadays, where live-action adaptations of cartoons, comic books, or video games is a little bit more common nowadays, this was released during a time where that kind of thing didn't really happen very much, if at all. Now admittedly, it's possible that I could be mistaken there. But I'm mostly positive that it didn't happen very much back then.

Now as for the movie itself, I know almost nothing about it, other than the fact that it's the first live-action adaptation of "Lupin the 3rd". That said, I'm really curious to see if this thing is any good at all. And I'm also curious to see how they're gonna be able to adapt something with the limitations of film-making at the time. In which, I mean how they're gonna be able to work without something like CG as an example. I don't know how they're gonna pull it off, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, 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 III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy".

4 minutes later

So, the way Lupin here decided to distract the police was to tell them that a naked woman died somewhere just so he could steal one of their motorbikes in order to pursue this girl, who's in a police bus, mind you, and I'm going to assume it's suppose to be Fujiko. Well...I will say that it's certainly a unique way to get the police away from their active duties, I guess.

5 minutes later

Well, guys, I just learned something new today. Not only does Fujiko possess a playing card that represents the ace of spades, the card's also strong enough to cut off a tree branch from on high, too. Never would've known either one of those things about her, but hey, at *least* I learned something new about her, and that's the most important thing. am I right?

8 minutes later

So, guys, I just got to see Lupin's origin story, about how he was raised at a church his whole childhood...and apparently, he was a troublemaker from the day he was born. I mean, that probably shouldn't be too shocking. But considering that he snatched one of the nun's panties and actually smoked as a child at 5 years old, perhaps maybe I learned a little *too* much about him, if that makes any sense at all.

8 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm *really* liking how they're handling the comedy in this scene here, in which they're just fast-forwarding the footage via "Benny Hill". It really is kind of impressive, I gotta say.

15 minutes later

Wait, how does Fujiko know who Jigen is, let alone even knowing on where he was going to find them? Because, if I recall correctly, they have *never* met at anytime during the film. My only guess is that Lupin might've told her that he was in on the plan to steal the diamonds, but even that seems like a stretch because Jigen has never worked with Lupin at any point in this movie. I'm a little curious about that, and I have no idea if they're even going to address that, if at all.

10 minutes later

So, let me see if I understand this. The head of Maccherone, whom we don't actually see, says that Lupin is still alive, and as along he's still around he will one day be a threat to them. So, what's his response? He wants to his followers to kill Jigen, who is the sole follower of the "Lupin Empire". OK...but what about Lupin himself? Are they just going to leave him alive? And if so...why? Why target Jigen at all if you're not gonna go after the guy who *literally* has 'Lupin' in his name? I'm kinda curious about this, because this plan doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me.

5 minutes later

O...K...this is the *oddest* sex scene I've seen in a movie in a long time. Mind you, the way it's being portrayed is really creative and kind of funny, but it's *definitely* the strangest thing I've seen this entire movie so far.

2 minutes later

And now we have a musical number for...some reason. I will say the song here is pretty decent. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but this song here isn't too bad, honestly.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy". And since there's no ending credits, the film just brings me back to the DVD menu screen. So, I'm gonna go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Good lord, where oh where do I even begin here...? Well, I suppose I can start by answering this question. How well does this movie hold up as it being the first live-action Lupin movie? Honestly, it wound up really surprising me a bit. I really wasn't expecting much from it to be honest with you guys. But this movie ended up surprising me in a rather positive way. I'm really impressed by how it turned out.

So, why don't we go ahead and start things off here, as I usually do with most of these reviews, by first discussing the writing. Now, one thing I have make note of, first and foremost, to you guys is that this movie is a straight-up action comedy. Now, being that this is "Lupin the 3rd" we're dealing with here, it's to be expected. However, this movie is, again, a pure comedy to it's fullest. This movie almost never takes itself seriously. In fact, it's very identical to when I reviewed the live-action "City Hunter" film a couple of years ago, where that thing was also a straight-up comedy action/adventure film. However, I feel like this film did it better because, unlike "City Hunter" where I had no knowledge of it's anime or manga counterpart, I have a bit more knowledge with "Lupin the 3rd" seeing as how I've watched a lot more media involving him, whether it be from his TV shows or movies. And this film pretty much nails the comedy down to a tee.

Now, what exactly does this film do for it's humor? Well, a lot of the jokes in this movie mostly rely on visual gags, physical and sexual humor. And I'm gonna tell you guys, a lot of the visual gags in this movie are *very* creative, and very hilarious at times as well. The first joke I got a laugh out of was when they sped up the footage as if the characters are running really fast. Which granted, it's not entirely new, but I still got a laugh out of that. There's also a joke in this movie that combines both the visual gag and sexual humor of this movie. Now, it's gonna be very hard for me to describe this one to you guys without spoiling what the joke is. But the best way I can probably say about it is that it's something that I don't think that I, myself, would *ever* come up with. It's a really creative visual gag, and if you really want to know what I'm talking about, you'd have to watch this movie for yourself because I would not be able to do it justice if I was able to describe it to you guys. It really is creative. Now, whether it makes you laugh or not is something I can't guarantee, but you cannot deny it's creativity at the very least.

Now, I could go on and on about all of the jokes in this movie, such as a couple of 4th wall breaking moments and that rather odd musical number I briefly mentioned earlier, however, I feel like, overall, they handled the comedy very well here. It is essentially a live-action cartoon that, for the most part, they handle that aspect very well. Now granted, not every joke is going to land perfectly, obviously. However, I still think they did a very good job on handling the comedy in this movie.

As for the writing itself, that actually is the weakest aspect of the entire movie. It really feels almost plotless, which is rather odd, considering all of the other Lupin movies had something resembling a plot. But this thing really doesn't have much of any plot. Granted, it *does* contain an origin story for Lupin here, and how he ends up meeting Jigen, Fujiko, and Detective Zenigata, but as for like an actual story, it's mostly non-existent. Speaking of which, the title of this film "Strange Psychokinetic Strategy", really doesn't get mentioned very much at all until nearly an hour into the film. And by that point, there's less than 20 minutes left of movie to go. The closest this thing gets mentioned is when there's a statue that contains some special kind of jewels and that the statue itself must be transported to a museum with psychic powers...or something like that. It makes no sense at all. Also, a couple of times in the movie, Lupin and Zenigata mention that they can use psychokinetic powers, but I don't know if that was meant as a joke or not. Unless Lupin's visual gags and 4th wall jokes are his psychokinetic powers, then I don't know what the hell he actually meant by that.

So yeah, like I said, what little story is here makes no sense and it's really just kinda thrown in there for the sake of having a movie. Which is a little bit disappointing, considering this is the first live-action "Lupin the 3rd" movie, I'd thought they go for something a little bit more in terms of plot. But then again, seeing as how this thing was focusing more on the comedy aspect of the film, I can kinda give the shallow story here a pass. The characters themselves are mostly what you'd see from an Lupin film or TV show. The only exception to this is Goemon, because he is not in the film at *all*. Which, I'm not totally certain *why* he was excluded from the movie. I think they could've tried to fit him in this movie in some way. But for whatever reason, they chose not to include him here. The characterization on the other characters is, like I said, mostly spot on. Now mind you, I have no idea if it's accurate at all to the manga or not. But judging from what I saw here, it seems like they got the characters right, for the most part.

So, to sum this up, the writing here in this movie is, by far, the weakest out of any Lupin film I've ever seen. What makes up for it, though, is the comedy, as it really does hold the movie together. And combined with the characters, they really do enhance it very well. Now, before I get into the acting here, I do need to let you guys know that this movie does not have an English dub. The only version you get is it's original Japanese version along with it's English subtitles. So, I have to go by off what was given here from it's live-action actors. And the acting here is great. Everybody turns in a fantastic showing, from Lupin being a womanizing thief to Zenigata hamming up his lines whenever he gets angry, all of the acting here works perfectly. They all try to match up the craziness of what goes on this movie, what with it being the jokes or non-existent story, and they do a great job at it.

There isn't a whole lot of special effects here. I mean, there's a shot of blood, but it's very brief. The physical comedy involving this one shot with Zenigata as he gets flattened like a dummy was pretty cool. But aside from that, guys, the special effects in this movie are sorta barren. I mean, there's also a shot of some electricity, but like with the blood, it's very brief as well. So yeah, the special effects are nothing to write home about.

Camerawork in this movie is really good. Like I mentioned before, they do speed up the footage a couple of times in the style of "Benny Hill". Though if I had to be honest, it looks to be sped up faster than how "Benny Hill" did it. But still, it was pretty funny in how they utilized that footage. Lighting here is lit really well. The sound-mix here is also mixed well. There is one thing that I wanted to comment on, and it started to irritate me a bit. See, there's this one piano music that plays, and when you first hear it, it's pretty much like a comedy piece, and it was OK to listen to at first. But then they repeat that same music at least 6 or 7 times more! Now, I unfortunately didn't keep count on it, so I may be exaggerating those numbers a bit. But I swear that track started to get on my nerves really quickly, because I kept hearing that same tune! The rest of the music here is perfectly fine, even for a movie that wasn't composed by Yuji Ohno this time. Although in complete fairness, this was several years before "The Mystery of Mamo", so it makes sense. Still though, the music here is pretty good, though that one piano music gets rather old, really quickly.

So ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy"? Yes, I most certainly can. While the writing is definitely the weakest element of the film, what holds it afloat is the comedy. It's really funny and creative, and the performances here definitely make the film even better. If you're curious to find out how a live-action "Lupin the 3rd" movie would turn out, then go ahead and check this thing out. It is most certainly worth, at least, a single viewing. I can also recommend it to any fan of the Lupin series, especially if you haven't seen it yet, whether it's on DVD or Blu-ray, or even online somewhere. And as for myself, well, once more, I'm rather surprised how this thing turned out. I'm definitely gonna be holding onto this movie along with all of the other Lupin films that I've covered throughout this entire marathon. It certainly is a really interesting, and really cool movie. Now...seeing as how I mentioned the live-action "City Hunter" movie earlier when comparing this movie to that one, I'm gonna go watch that one again, because it has been a little while since my previous viewing of it. So yeah, that's what I'm gonna go do next after I get done with this review.

And with that, guys, we finally come to the close of "Lupin the Marathon" for Reaction & Review. I'm kinda bummed that this marathon has finished. But on the bright side, I'm happy to say that all of the movies in this marathon turned out to be a huge success. And I'm definitely proud of that. So until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Lupin the 3rd: Island of Assassins

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we continue this marathon by taking a look at another entry that came out in 1997. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: Island of Assassins".

And unfortunately, there's not really a whole lot of information that I can give you guys about this one, because I know literally nothing about it. The only thing that I can tell you is that it's another Lupin movie. And...that's about it. Now, similar to a couple of other movies in this marathon, in which I knew nothing about them, it gives me the advantage, in which I can go into this movie as blind as possible and I can give you my full thoughts as I watch it, and then review it afterwards.

So, while I may not know anything about this one in particular, I'm gonna find out if this one is any good. I'm pretty sure it will be, considering that just about every other movie I've covered in this marathon has been rather good so far. I'm curious, though, where this one is going to rank amongst them. And the only way I'm gonna that find out 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: Island of Assassins".

5 minutes later

OK...so, we're starting off pretty dark here. Though the one thing that leaves me puzzled is that Lupin, apparently, might've had a flashback, I guess, to someone pushing him out of the helicopter. And I'm guessing, maybe, this is the same person that also shot Zenigata a moment ago. I'm curious to see where this is all going, because right now, all I'm getting is more questions rather than answers.

6 minutes later

Well, guys, I just learned something new today. Even when Zenigata's at death's door, apparently, if you mention Lupin's name around his presence, he will come back to life instantly. Honestly, I don't find that to be really shocking. But still, you do learn something about the man everyday, don't ya?

8 minutes later

OK, I have a really dumb question here, and I know it has nothing to do with the movie itself, but I have to ask this. Why is Fujiko's hair blond here? I'm not judging or anything, it's just so odd to see her with this sort of hair color. The only other time that I saw her hair color like that was when I was watching "The Castle of Cagliostro". And even then, I had no idea why she was a blond there. Again, I totally understand that it's all trivial and stupid, but it's just something that I kinda wanted to point out, you know what I mean?

18 minutes later

So, from what I'm getting here, the leader of these Tarantula's, Gordo, is receiving orders on who to target and assassinate, which is how I'm guessing Lupin is going to carry out these orders, seeing as how he's marked with the spider tattoo and all. And essentially, this group that's giving out these orders to Gordo is basically something resembling the New World Order. At least, that's what I'm getting at here from that scene, anyways. And I gotta say...this is definitely not what I was expecting from a movie like this. Mind you, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just...different, really.

13 minutes later

OK, hold up, I just thought of something here. So earlier, the Doc was able to cure his poison with the antidote, which essentially removed the spider tattoo from his hand. Isn't he just basically risking his own self out here by being exposed to the other members who aren't a part of the resistance group like he is? Because, if one of the Tarantula's notices that his spider tattoo is gone from his hand that he's basically fucked here? I'm just saying that, perhaps, maybe the Doc shouldn't expose himself so easily and *not* risk getting caught by the Tarantula's that work for Gordo. But perhaps that's just me.

19 minutes later

Well, this has certainly gotten...darker than I imagined it to be. Granted, "Lupin the 3rd" has always had some dark moments here and there, but this one's definitely ramped it up to a tee. Holy shit...

The Review

OK, well, that ending was rather bittersweet. Not totally sure how to feel about that, honestly. Well, anyway, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: Island of Assassins". I'm gonna shut the movie off here...OK. So, where to begin here...? Well, you know what, even though that ending was a little bittersweet for my tastes, I'm not gonna let that ruin the film for me. Because honestly, the movie is still rather enjoyable. It's certainly nowhere near as good as the other films I've seen for this marathon so far, but it's certainly not the weakest either. It's just...different is all.

And on that note, I want to start things off by talking about the writing here. Now, since I just mentioned that this film feels different here, I need to start off by talking about how the film is set up here. You see, for a good portion of this movie, it's mostly set around this island, where a group of assassins known as the Tarantulas reside over. And it's not exactly by choice either, because, you see, the spider tattoos that they have on their bodies mostly act as a controlled poison. And the reason why I say it's controlled is because the island itself is filled with a type of gas that acts as a safe zone from the poison. And as long as you're on this island, the poison won't up and kill you. I'll get more into this in a second, but I should let you guys know, again, that a good portion of this movie is set around this island. And because of that, the pacing of this movie sorta drags a bit because the story just grinds to a halt, and it just kinda stays that way until Lupin's mission has to start soon after he gets the spider tattoo on his arm. Which is definitely an issue, especially to those who just want the story to go somewhere.

While I'm still talking about the setting for this movie, I want to mention something that could be seen as a potential deal breaker to some people who are fans of the Lupin series. And as a fan myself, I feel the need to address that here. See, whenever I think of "Lupin the 3rd", aside from the characters, I would usually envision the different locations that Lupin and the gang would visit in order to find whatever treasure they are looking for. Which brings me back to the island setting for this movie because, since a good portion of the movie is set on the island itself, there's not much traveling going on in this movie until a little halfway into the film itself. Like I mentioned a little earlier, the film feels very different, but it's not entirely a bad difference. And they still have the usual tropes such as their being hidden treasure, which is just gold in this movie, but the layout is totally different when compared to previous Lupin movies that came before this one.

And speaking of which, let's get into the next thing that feels different about this movie, which is it's tone. Tonally speaking, the film is much darker than it's previous outings. In fact, it's quite possibly the darkest film in the entire series, both tonally and art direction. However, I'll get to the latter later when I talk about the animation. But anyway, yeah, the tone for this movie is definitely much darker than it has been beforehand. Now, to be fair, it still does have the usual Lupin tropes, and it does enough to where it's not completely pitch black. However, it is still very different, at least in terms of it's tone. But it's not entirely a bad thing either. I'm perfectly OK with a Lupin movie having a darker tone with itself as long as it's handled properly. And it's certainly handled a lot better here unlike the last arcs of Part's IV and V, where they tried too hard to be as dark as possible. Because at least with this movie, it knew what kind of story it wanted to tell and how they wanted to convey it in it's own way. And I appreciate that kind of effort tremendously.

Now, setting aside the tone of this movie, let's get into the characters. When it comes to our recurring cast, a lot of them, unfortunately, feel like they're just playing second fiddle here. None of them have any real standout moments in this film. Even with someone like Fujiko, who also ended up getting the spider tattoo, is kinda played as straightforward. Though in fairness, since she is on the island, she's not in any danger of the poison affecting her. The only closest bit is with Detective Zenigata, who ends up getting shot at near the beginning of the movie. Though it's not really saying much, since most of his screen time is just him bickering with his new partner Detective Flanagan. And as you might've guessed, it's mainly just comic relief. And in most cases, I would say it's fucking pointless. However, seeing as how this movie is working with a darker tone in this movie, it's not as bad as it could be. So, I'm willing to give it a slight pass here. The only other character who's even worth mentioning is Ellen. Ellen, in this movie, has the most character development of the bunch, seeing as how she's a member of the Tarantulas, and you do end up caring about her enduring struggles in the group while trying to find her own freedom away from them. It's the only bit of character depth you get out of this movie and it's really good stuff, too.

Now, beyond all that, the writing in this movie is mostly pretty good. Now, when I say it's pretty good, I'm in no way saying that the movie is great or anything. Like I mentioned earlier, it's definitely not as strongly written as, say, "Dead or Alive" or "Farewell to Nostradamus", but it's certainly better than something like "The Fuma Conspiracy". Which, to me, is still the weakest film in the entirety of "Lupin the 3rd". So yeah, this movie is a little bit above average at best. That being said, I will say that the acting here is still really good. Once more, the movie was dubbed by Funimation. And naturally, you have the same talent of voice actors providing the roles for these characters. And without sounding like a broken record, they naturally do a really good job with their respective roles. So yeah, I can't really say anything more than what I've already said about the Funimation dub cast for these movies.

Before I talk about talk the animation, I actually want to start with something I don't normally ever comment on very much, which would the film's color palette. Now earlier, I mentioned that this movie was going in a darker direction in both tone and art direction. And in the case of the latter, this is something that I need to mention here. Now, like I've mentioned beforehand, most of this movie is taking place on the island. And the island itself is mostly filled with dark, murky colors. Which makes sense, given that this movie is taking place on a mysterious abandoned island of sorts that is filled with a special type of gas. However, I should let you guys know now that if you ever get a chance to watch this movie, get use to seeing a lot of these murky colors, because that's what you're gonna be seeing throughout a majority of this movie. It's not gonna be as colorful as other Lupin films have been beforehand and probably afterwards, too. I wouldn't know about that yet, seeing as how I haven't seen any of the films that came out after the 90's. But with that said, the animation here is still really good, as is the art-style, which is very similar to "Dead or Alive", which is another plus in my book.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music here is also pretty good, too, as is the case with Yuji Ohno. And the ending song that plays during the ending credits sounds beautiful. Mind you, I only listened to a bit of it before shutting the movie off, seeing as how the rules of Reaction & Review are once I see credits, I shut off the movie. But still, it sounded really good. So yeah, music here is great.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Lupin the 3rd: Island of Assassins"? For the most part, yes. As long as you know what you're getting yourself into here. If you're not really a fan of the darker based stories centering around "Lupin the 3rd", then it's possible that you may not like this one as much as others. However, seeing as how I've seen a good handful of these movies, and knowing what darker elements are added into those films, it doesn't really bother me as much. Now again, I don't think it's as good as other some of the other movies I've seen in this marathon, but it's also not the weakest either. It's just a little bit in the middle for me. But still, I'll definitely be rewatching it again at some point, and I'll also be adding it to my ever growing collection of "Lupin the 3rd" movies I already own on DVD already. Now...with that said, I'm gonna go and watch something else. I think, maybe, I'll go and rewatch something a little bit more light-hearted. I think I'm gonna go watch my copy of "Mirai". I haven't watched that one in quite a while, so I'm gonna go and do that next after 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: Farewell to Nostradamus

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Lupin the Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we continue this marathon by taking a look at another movie that came out in 1995. That movie is "Lupin the 3rd: Farewell to Nostradamus".

Now, generally speaking, I have really enjoyed all of the movies that I've covered for this marathon. Even though I thought there were a couple of weak films here and there, I still really enjoyed watching them, and I'll probably still end up watching those on my own time at some point.

So, why am I bringing this up to you guys now? Well, it sorta has to do with tonight's movie. Now, it isn't so much that I've heard negative things about it. It's actually quite the opposite here. See, most fans of "Lupin the 3rd" would site 3 movies in particular as instant recommendations. Those 3 movies are "The Castle of Cagliostro", "Tokyo Crisis", and "Farewell to Nostradamus". I've already mentioned numerous times how much I love "The Castle of Cagliostro". I've not seen "Tokyo Crisis", because I don't own a copy of it. And this film, well, I'm gonna be covering tonight, because again, this is one of those movies in Lupin's filmography that a lot of people say is amazing.

So, I'm probably gonna be in for a real treat here. However, it could also be one of those cases where a movie gets so hyped up as something amazing, and it turns out that it's just either OK, or it really, totally sucks. Now, I don't really think this one is going to suck, because again, I've enjoyed every Lupin film so far that I've seen, but there *is* that slight possibility that it could be over-hyped. I'm still hoping for it to be really good, but I won't know for sure how good this movie can possibly be unless I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it is time to kick back, relax, and check out "Lupin the 3rd: Farewell to Nostradamus".

3 minutes later

You know, guys, out of all the things I was expecting from this movie, seeing Detective Zenigata dressed in drag was definitely *not* one of them. I know that the movie's just started and everything, but that right there is already gonna be hard to top. But we'll just have to wait and see what other surprises this movie has in store for me.

4 minutes later

So, not only was the plane that Zenigata thought that Lupin was in turned out to be a decoy, but the device that Lupin himself was using just a moment ago turned out to be the plane's control. Well...it's definitely creative, though the device itself almost looked like a larger version of a Game & Watch. I don't know why I thought of that, but I'm kinda happy that I got to reference it in someway.

1 minute later

Little Girl: That mean man is following me. I think he's a pedophile!

Well...damn! I've heard Lupin being accused of many things, but him being called a pedophile is definitely a first from my understanding.

16 minutes later

So, let me see if I understand this. Julia, the little girl I briefly mentioned earlier, has been kidnapped, and she'll only be returned safely to her parents if her father drops out of the presidential race within 3 weeks. And yet, despite Julia being kidnapped, she seems to be doing rather well for herself and doesn't seem to be worried whatsoever. I'm gonna tell you, guys, if I were in Julia's position, I would be freaking the fuck out for being held hostage, especially for 3 weeks. That just seems like massive overkill to hold someone's kid hostage for that long. At least, it does, to me anyway.

17 minutes later

OK, I have a big question here, and I'm really curious this. So, first of all, kind of a spoiler here, Lupin's famous uncle is dead. And Lupin, along Zenigata and Lupin's dead uncle, are escaping Execution Island. And the thing that boggles my mind is how the hell is Lupin is gonna revive his uncle from the dead? I ask this because, earlier in the film, Lupin's uncle had something important to tell Lupin and that he wanted to tell him at midnight specifically. But, due to some electro-shock therapy, he ended up dying. And I have no idea how long his uncle's been dead now, but I would imagine it's been *maybe* 5 minutes or so. Maybe longer than that. At that point, I would think it's a little too late to bring the guy back from the dead. But again, I am really curious as to how Lupin's actually gonna pull that off. Just asking for the sake of curiosity is all.

2 minute later

OK, never mind. Lupin's *not* gonna attempt to bring his uncle back from the dead. Apparently, there was a glass eye attached to his head that probably has some really important information for Lupin. So, my mistake, I sorta jumped the gun there. I kinda figured Lupin wouldn't be able to do something as outlandish as that, but still, the thought just sorta came to me.

9 minutes later

OK, you know what? I was gonna let this slide until later, but for the second time in this series, Fujiko has lost her memories. And I don't remember when that even happened in this movie. I'm *really* trying to remember, but nothing's coming to me. Now, who knows? Maybe the film will have some kind of explanation for that here, but it just seems really odd to me to see her having amnesia again, you know what I mean?

30 seconds later

And, once again, this movie already goes and answers something that was bugging me. So, apparently, the bracelet Fujiko was wearing was somehow able to suppress her memories. I'm not totally sure how that works, but hey, at least the movie explained that much. It's kinda of a stupid explanation, but still, it's an explanation nonetheless.

15 minutes later

So, not only do these bracelets suppress someone's memories, but they can also be controlled like mindless zombies. You really do learn something new everyday, don't ya?

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lupin the 3rd: Farewell to Nostradamus".  Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Holy moly, where do I begin here...? Well, I might as well address this first. I normally don't like it when somebody overhypes a movie, TV show, etc. Because, when somebody does that sorta thing, I usually lose interest in ever watching it. And part of me feared that this movie was going to fall victim of being one of those over-hyped movies. Well, after finally getting a chance to watch it, I can certainly say that this movie most definitely lives up to it's awesomeness. I really did enjoy this film immensely. 

So, why don't we kick things off proper here and first talk about the writing. Now, if I had to come up with a term on how to describe this movie, I would say that it's chaotic, but still mostly controlled. I say this, because this movie crams in a *lot* of material here. And when I say it's a lot of material, I mean that you could honestly fit this story into an arc for one of the Lupin series and call it a day. I mean, there's stuff involving the book of prophecy, to Julia, to Lupin's uncle, and Lupin's little adventure in the amazon forest. There's a lot here, and that's not even covering half of what goes in this movie. But even so, the movie is still very consistent with it's story and action scenes, to where it's mostly engaging and easy to follow. And mind you, the movie's only about an hour and 40 minutes long. However, the writers did a great job here of filling in a lot of content while also being very engaging at the same time.

Now that's not to say that everything here, in terms of writing, is perfect. And a lot of that is gonna come from our characters. Now, I should clarify, first and foremost, that not it's all of them. It's mainly the new characters that are sort of a mixed bag here. To start with, the villains are probably the weakest part of the entire movie. There's really nothing about them that's in any way memorable, and I couldn't really even remember most of their names. The one name that I remembered hearing was Chris, which was all of twice. And he's the guy who mostly does the harder work, in which he kidnaps Julia a couple of times, because she's apparently the only one who can open the vault at her father's company, which is also where the book of prophecy is being held at. But even then, he is so fucking forgettable as a villain. In fact, I've noticed throughout most of this marathon that I've been doing is that the villains for these particular movies are incredibly forgetful. The only one I can make an exception to is Mamo, the villain from the very first movie. And that's because he actually had something resembling a personality. But this movie, along with most of the other movies I covered for this marathon, doesn't have anything like that. Which is really disappointing to say.

As with our characters, well, most of them are pretty much what you come to expect, when it comes to "Lupin the 3rd". And I'm mostly referring to our recurring cast. Most of them don't go through any real developments. The closest to that is when Lupin tries to get close to his uncle, who's serving life in prison on Execution Island for when he tried to break into the vault that Lupin is currently trying to get into himself, but you really don't see much of an interaction between the two other than that. I kinda thought, you know, being that Lupin was going to meet his famous uncle in prison, maybe they would share some kind of moment between the two. But aside from, maybe, on how they way part ways, not much else comes from it. There's a moment between Lupin and Fujiko that plays out almost similarly to how it did in "The Columbus Files", though it's a shortened version of it. If you want to know what I mean, well, I explain that in my review for that movie.

Now, the only other character that's worth mentioning is Julia, the little kid. Now earlier, I brought up a point on how, after she first gets kidnapped, she's shown on video to her parents, and she seemed to be in a rather happy mood rather than being worried about not seeing her parents again. Well, it's explained later on in a scene with her and Fujiko that her parents are only in it with their money and politics, and that she'll be happy to remain with Fujiko as long as she gets to go on another adventure. Which is a sweet thing for her to say, however, you don't really get that kind of connection between the two very much, even though Fujiko was originally hired as a tutor by her parents. The most interaction Julia gets is with Lupin, who mainly calls him a pedophile multiple times. Which, the first time, it is rather surprising from someone like her. However, like I said, she repeats that multiple times to him, and it can get kinda old after a while. So, it's just something that you have to take for what it's worth when it comes to her. In terms of child characters, she's definitely not as annoying as I sorta feared she was going to be. Which isn't saying much, mind you, but at least she's definitely useful in this movie.

So, despite me nitpicking a little bit, the writing here is still really strong. And with a lot going on in this movie, these kinds of problems aren't really going to affect the movie overall as long you try not to think about them for too long. And really, they shouldn't. Because it's just more of what could've been rather than being huge problems anyways. So, again, writing here is really good overall. And speaking of which, the acting here is also very good, too. Once more, it has the dubbing cast from Funimation, and they do a really good job here. The only new one I can actually mention is Julia's dub actress, who goes by the name of Laura Bailey. And for those who don't know, Laura Bailey is mostly known for voicing Rise Kujikawa from "Persona 4". And I recognized her voice almost immediately in this movie, because that was the exact voice she gave for Julia in this movie. And that's not even a knock on her acting, since she was voicing a little girl, it works perfectly fine here. So yeah, much like I've already complimented in the past, the acting from the Funimation dub cast here is just as good as it was in most of the previous movies that they've done here.

Animation here is great. Now, I've already used this comment before many times already with these particular movies, but for something that came out in 1995. This is great stuff. Color palettes here are great, and the animation itself flows very smoothly. And what's interesting about this is that, even though this movie came out in 95, there is no CG involved here. Which is impressive to me, because this was around a time where more animated movies, mainly in the U.S. at the time, started to experiment CG into their animated films. But this movie proves, at least to me, that you don't always need CG in order to improve your movie. Everything in this film is hand-drawn and it is beautiful to look at. Nothing here is cheap or recycled, which is definitely another plus for me. So yeah, the animation here is fantastic.

Sound-mix here is mixed perfectly fine. And the score here is great, too, as is the case whenever you have Yuji Ohno doing a Lupin movie. Now again, it's not the best score I've heard, but by it's own standards, it's still really fucking good. But then again, considering how good the music has been for all of the Lupin movies I've covered in this marathon so far, it would be considered a crime if any of the music in these movies sucked balls. So, thankfully that still hasn't happened yet, at least in my case anyway.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Lupin the 3rd: Farewell to Nostradamus"? Oh absolutely, guys. This movie is damn near fantastic. Again, as long as you don't think too hard about the little things that could've been added to make this thing better, it's still amazing enough to where it can stand on it's own feet. Now, on the off chance anyone might ask this, how I would rank this movie along with the other Lupin films that I've seen and enjoyed. Well, while I wouldn't exactly put this one at the top of my list, I would say that if I were making a top 5 list of my Lupin movies, I would definitely put this one in the top 5 at the very least. Where exactly, I don't know yet. But overall, guys, this movie is great. And if you, yourself, are a fan of the Lupin series, and you haven't had a chance to see this one yet, go ahead and check it out. Now, I am aware that this particular movie is out of print on DVD and Blu-ray, so it *might* be a little bit more harder to find than others, but I assure you it's worth checking out. I was lucky to find a copy of this movie at one of my local video stores for about $15. And it's worth every cent. At least, to me it is. And if you can find it online for free somewhere, go ahead and check it out there, too. It is an awesome movie. Now...I'm gonna go and find a different movie to watch. Perhaps maybe I'll watch something like "Kiki's Delivery Service". I haven't seen that in a little while, so I'm gonna go watch 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: 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.