Lupin III: L'unione fa la forza

Lupin the Third, is one of those crews where the charm of the characters does the majority of the heavy lifting in the story department. The main crew of Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, Fujiko and Inspector Zenigata can work together in any situation. This particular adventure is light on Goemon and Jigen but is heavy on Zenigata. He and the new girl, Maria, get the lion's share of the screentime.

The con of having so much time on Zenigata is that there isn't much done with the villain and his evil plan. In fact, let's talk about the story on this one. Because it is all over the place. The main McGuffin consists of two photos which combine to make a map to 22 billion dollars. That right there is a typical Lupin type heist set up. That is then sidetracked by Maria's physic powers. Maria works as a reporter, where Fujiko is working as the editor. Maria's father was a scientist who was mysteriously killed when she was a child. The villain wants her blood in order to create an army of psychic soldiers. He then orchestrates a phony terrorist attack where he is taken hostage... why? He already has the money, girl and PR, what does he have to gain with this fake ninja attack? The villain does this at his amusement park, which by the way has roller coasters designed to murder people. There is a beat where Lupin says they had his DNA, despite them never having a scene where that happened. There's some fake out deaths that don't add up, attempted murders, firing from Interpol and blue roses.

So yeah, the story has a lot of plot points that don't make a lot of sense. But I undeniably had a good time while watching this craziness. I was grinning from ear to ear as this crazy storyline unraveled. Much like Zenigata, anytime I see Lupin III, I'm going to go see it.

I recently watched this on DVD.

And it was flipping awesome! Every minute of this Lupin movie was action packed! The animation is great, the story is great, and even the additional characters are great too.

This is also the first time they have Inspector Zenigata playing a bigger role.

It's all taken place in Tokyo and has a lot to do with this new Aquapolis resort and a young woman named Maria who has a connection with the owner of Aquapolis, Micheal Susuki.

Has all the good stuff you'd expect from a good Lupin TV movie.

i highly recommend this to all the Die-Hard Lupin Fans.

I give this a 8/10.

I had watch the movie in japanese I say it great and I like about it is we get to see more of Inspector Zenigata and other are great too I'am a lupin fan also many other who are will love this movie. Also I hope Funmation will make a english version of it very soon and it will come out on vhs and dvd. 9 of 10

Lupin iii film 17

Out of the Lupin films I seen now this is one of the best. The movie is not one of the funniest unlike someone else said in the reviews, this film is pretty serious but great at that, compared to other Lupins its theme is much darker (cloning, controlled reproduction, dna manipulation). The plot starts simple as the team wants to steal 2 plates that leads to the treasure, but will end up being more than that, which I won't spoil.

The characters all are great, unlike most other films they act separately during the heist which I love. Lupin always sneaks somewhere, Fujiko is seducing, Jigen and Goemon are opening the way.

Zenigata is great, they did him justice. For once of the few films the focus is on him, lots of action, and his sense of justice and love. He ends up collaborating with Lupin discovering a greater enemie for both. For some reason every time they team up is one of the best Zenigata moments.

This is definitely a must watch of the series. The whole theme of this film reminds me of a ps2 hidden gem game "Lupin la morte, Zenigata l'amore". If you liked this film you should look up the game and viceversa, the 2 stories have many common things.

The funniest of all the Lupin III movies I have seen. Endless visual and spoken jokes. And also one of the cheeriest of the movies. Zenigata finally gets to have some sort of warm human relationship outside of his pursuit of Lupin. Plus, Toyko Crisis is well-scored. Thanks to Yuji Ohno again. (I believe that is a cameo of Yuji Ohno playing the piano in the G.H. Nine Jazz Pub) The variety of relationship changes is refreshing and adds to the story. Goeman and Fujiko are teamed up, Zenigata has an attachment, and Fujiko is the apparent leader instead of Lupin. Also, Jigen and Goeman are at their weakest. Jigen has to face his biggest fear, the dentist, and Goeman has been separated from the love of his life, Zantetsuken. The whole franchise benefits and grows from these further explorations of pre-established facets of their personalities, and it's great for laughs in this movie.

I think that in some way, a lot of this movie is about the similarities between Zenigata and Lupin. Like Lupin, there is more to Zenigata than the front most people see. He is not incompetent, he is very astute, as Maria finds out while she tries to keep Zenigata from getting sick on sake. He may be drunk and despondent, but his mind is working and he has noticed the connection between Michael Suzuki and the drivers who caused so much trouble on the highway—a connection a lesser cop might have missed.

I like Maria quite a bit because she's not a worthless dip like some one-movie characters. She's a developed character with motivations or her own, and she stands up for herself and what she wants.

Lupin Tradition: Lupin's underwear during the opening escape sequence, striped boxers.