Lupin III: Missed by a Dollar

This is the first Lupin the 3rd Anime of the New Millennium.

In this one it all has to do with banks, stock markets, and oil companies.

Lupin and his gang are after a a ring that's a key to locating a broach that was pass down by many powerful dictators. It's said to have the power to give you good luck in world domination.

There's this head woman of BOW(Bank of the World) and a group of mercenaries who are also after the same thing Lupin is after. They want the broach so that they can start a new World War that will give the bank company unlimited power of wealth.

From New York to the Caribbean, Missed By a Dollar is yet another great Lupin TV movie.

The humor, action, and thrills are there like in the other Lupin animes.

Missed by a Dollar, from 2000, starts off another fun decade of Lupin in style.

Lupin wants a ring that can lead him to yet another legendary treasure, and so does an evil corporation. Meanwhile, we have a subplot where Lupin tries to help the career of an aspiring jazz singer. And, without giving it away, there's a pretty cool twist later on.

That's the basic outline, but like usual it's all the wackiness that ensues that makes this such a great show. Lupin and partner Jigen have some very snappy dialogue in this one. They talk about their guns as metaphors for women, a lot of great exchanges like that.

Fujiko is fantastic as always, she gets to kill a lot more people with machine guns in this than she often does. In general this one is pretty violent, which is a nice change of pace from some of the more lighthearted specials. Crazy people with guns are out to kill the Lupin gang, and this time around it really does feel urgent.

Inspector Zenigata is great in this, as always he's awesomely hilarious when he gets emotional about Lupin. Goemon is solid as ever, though he doesn't have a particularly stand out role here.

This is the last Lupin feature made with traditional cel animation before they switched to digital I believe, and it has a dark gritty look to it. Very cool soundtrack by Yuji Ohno, a bit more suspenseful sounding than usual here.

All in all, this is some very good Lupin action. If you like Lupin III, you should give this one a watch or two.

One of my favorite Lupins because of the cold ending. (Not ruined here.) The art in this episode isn't very good, and you have to suffer Goeman in his underwear, but the gun jokes with Jigen more than compensate. It's a reasonable story, and it honors tradition. Goeman innocently falls for a religious woman, as he is want to do. Jigen is deeply loyal to Lupin, his partner. And Lupin is a rogue who plays at being silly, but who is in fact very smart and not half the friend he lets people outside of his gang think he is.

If you watch a lot of Lupin you will note that Nabikov is drawn exactly the same way all of the evil sidekicks of the big baddies always are in Lupin movies. Same hair, same clothes, same preference for dual guns.

What's unique about this episode, aside from the great cold ending, is the Fujiko/Lupin relationship. I like the way that Fujiko responds when Lupin rescues the gang in the hearse and reveals his identity. The Fujiko/Lupin relationship is complex and rarely really addressed in the movies, but here you get to see a flicker of real emotion on Fujiko's part there, and then when Cynthia and Lupin deal oil in the office of Lupin's fake company you get to see the way Lupin and Fujiko tolerate and even encourage third wheels.

Lupin III and his crew of Goemon and Jigen are so good at pulling off heists, it really has become routine. If this is your first "Lupin the Third" adventure, it isn't a bad one. It is one of the best at evenly balancing the main characters. Fujiko, Goemon, Jigen and Zenigata all have some time to shine in this adventure. This entry is a good showcase for the character dynamics and how the system works. You just never really fear for the characters. The villainous threat never feels threatening, and the thieving crew is always one step ahead.

The movie has a very vague MacGuffin. It involves a broach that will somehow help people take over the world. What does it do? I don't know, maybe its just lucky. But then the film loses focus and instead gets caught up in oil drilling.

Surprisingly a lot of Bush Era politics in this one. The villains want to start a war, give Afghanistan WMD's and the whole thing is just about oil. They even mention blowing up wall street. The film isn't making a striking political statement, but it is strange how topical Lupin seemed to be.

The characters and action still shine through, but there is nothing new that this entry is bringing to the franchise. In many ways it is close to being a great Lupin adventure, but with so many other adventures already, sadly it is a day late and... a dollar short.

Lupin iii film 21

Set in New York this film is based around actions, auctions, oil and wars for the economy. Can't say I really like the topic as it's less adventurous than the others but the plot is alright.

The characters are always funny especially Jigen with his jokes on women.

What I really like is how cold Lupin is in this particular film. Once he found out the secret location of the treasure he doesn't even care that much since all the fun in solving the mistery is gone. He kisses such a dangerous woman which make her fall in love with him, but in the end she remains with nothing completely destroyed by Lupin morally.