Lupin the IIIrd: Zenigata to Futari no Lupin

"We're both strays. Free... the only difference is crime or justice, the line is thin."

Following The Woman Called Fujiko Mine storyline, we’re once again blessed with a dark, stylish, and gritty Lupin adaptation. It carries forward that same bold visual flair that made the previous entries from the Koikeverse so memorable. The direction, the color palette, the heavy shadows; it’s all signature Koike, and it works. I genuinely have to give props to TMS and Takeshi Koike for continuing to craft this distinct corner of the Lupin universe.

Watching it was an absolute treat, this is the kind of tone I’ve been missing, it was ... a perfect concoction of absurdity and gravitas, it manages to feel both unhinged, silly and emotionally grounded. Lupin in particular was in his element here; sly, cunning, unpredictable, my man was spitting banger lines left and right like he's some wise philosopher.
Although Zenigata was too op, dude needs a nerf fr.

Since this is a prequel to the new movie, I look forward to watching it and maybe Goemon will finally have some actual screentime.

Peak cinema.

The movie starts off with Zenigata blocking an airport bomb explosion with his briefcase. And survives...

Zenigata is the main character of the movie. But unfortunately its the super cereal Zenigata who i dont find really entertaining.
Lupin and Jigen are there. They exist but they dont really get that much screen time.
Also Fujiko is there. She is there to show her tits. Nothing else.
And at the very end of the movie Gooey Man shows up. And delivers his one and only line in the movie.

The villain is also not interesting. Its a Lupin doppelganger. I feel like the Lupin copycat plot has been done enough times. ... Its just not that interesting here. I dont really know what it adds to the plot.
The movie title translates to "Zenigata and the Two Lupins". But the fact that there are two Lupin is so superfluous I dont even know why its there.

It feels really generic and cliche. You even have a tough soviet female commander with a scar on her face. Thats how by the numbers this is.

It would have been better if this was a story about a mysterious bomber that the main characters needed to uncover. But there isn't much of a mystery here. Everything is made pretty obvious from the start.

This isn't necessarily a bad movie. I just dont know why it needed to exist.

Surprised it's got a decent score, because the ONA kinda sucks. It's unnecessarily gritty and doesn't really fit Lupin's silly vibe. The way characters defy death makes literally zero sense - not in the usual silly Lupin way, but moreso in a "COME ON, THAT IS NOT HOW THAT WORKS!" kinda way. Part of Lupin is that he's supposed to be this unstoppable force, where, even if you THINK you caught him, he was actually just five steps ahead of you. Yet he and Jigen spend the entire episode just getting pathetically manhandled. I know it's just an ONA that's setting up for a movie, ... but I really don't see why it should exist, considering nothing here felt at all reminiscent of Lupin, or felt like it was worth watching.