Anime’s Last Of The Summer Wine returns. It’s the 2007 Lupin III special!
Now, I’ve never got around to talking about the ten Lupin films I picked up in the spring, but there was one thing that struck me about them that I will bring up now – the character design.
Too often the non-Lupin Gang characters didn’t look like they belonged in a Lupin III story, which is to say they didn’t really look like Monkey Punch’s work. And worse than that, too often Fujiko Mine didn’t look like a Monkey Punch Fujiko either.
Somewhat annoyingly, the films and TV specials that came out after the stretch that Funimation had the rights to, do have better design, and are, in general, better stories. And Kiri no Elusive continues that trend, albeit with a few annoying faults.
Kiri no Elusive is one of those Lupin III stories with the sci-fi turned up to eleven. By which I mean it involves a time traveller from the 29th century kidnapping Lupin, Jigen, Goemon and Zenigata and dumping them 500 years in the past. The good news is that all the gang looks Monkey Punch-esque, including Fujiko, and the villain is very much a Monkey Punch looking dude too, as is Fujiko’s ancestor they meet in the past.
However, that ancestor is part of the few faults with the show. Rather than being played by Fujiko’s voice actress, the 71 year old Eiko Masuyama, it’s played by an actress (or is it a pop idol?) who has a fairly stilted delivery. With the most of the cast getting on in years the relative lack of Fujiko in this film is slightly worrying. The 77 year old Goro Naya who plays Zenigata also seems to have relatively low key job to do here.
However, the remainder of the regular cast are still centre stage and do a fine job with a story that starts simple with a tale of warring tribes in ancient Hokkaido, and culminates in an incredibly clever use of time travel to provide a resolution. In fact it’s so clever, I can’t think why I’ve not seen the trick before. Maybe because not many stories cast the time traveller in a story as the villain?
There also seems to more Castle of Cagliostro homages/references than you’d expect in a Lupin III film. While you get loads of references in other anime, Lupin anime themselves tend to avoid homaging, as I guess the comparison would not be flattering. But I think they get away with it here. The animation is of a high standard for a TV production too.
All in all, good fun for Lupin fans, even with some elements missing/downplayed for much of the show, and I think the ending is one of the better endings I’ve seen in a Lupin film.