Koike's Lupin the IIIrd / The Immortal Bloodline
Well, here we go, Takeshi Koike’s take on Lupin the IIIrd has finally come to an end with the release of his first full feature-length film since REDLINE. I know, I know, I of all people should be really excited about this, but… the truth is, I just haven’t been over the moon about Koike’s Lupin.
A big part of it is that I’m ambivalent on the premise of Lupin as a whole. I’ve certainly enjoyed parts of the franchise: I haven’t gotten through any of the mainline shows, but Sayo Yamamoto’s Woman Called Fujiko Mine was stellar, and I like Castle of Cagliostro as much as the next guy. It just feels limiting to attach someone as creative as Koike to a setting so grounded in reality. This is a man who can’t help but worldbuild, who reimagines a scifi version of a cigarette pack as a background gag, who’s compelled to hide intricate mechanical designs into inauspicious articles of clothing... and we’re sticking him to a retro spy series?
This isn’t to say Koike doesn’t enjoy it, mind you. It’s no coincidence that every single entry in his Lupin series has at least one car chase – even Immortal Bloodline, which is set entirely on remote Caveman Assassin Island, features Lupin drifting a WWI-era car AND a flashback of Lupin driving a classic cruiser along a winding forest road. Plus, Koike is still Koike. Reminiscent of World Record’s devoted obsession to capturing the rippling muscles of an Olympic sprinter, each Lupin OVA has a sequence clearly driven by Koike’s observational hyperfixation: Goemon’s blade shearing off slices of muscle like cuts from a filet in Blood Spray, for example, or the slow-motion detonations from Zenigata and the Two Lupins, with their shockwaves lifting snow off the branches of nearby trees before the explosion has even spread.
Unfortunately, these highlights notwithstanding, the series is visually defined by its compromises. We have sick hand-drawn car chases, yes, a rarity in this day & age, but every other vehicle is a 3D model. Zenigata showcases gorgeous effects work as mentioned before, but each other entry deploys clunky CG for explosions, waves, and water. The series is chock-full of excellent character animation and designs, then deploys stiff CGI models for background characters (understandable) and mooks (wack). I understand it’s a franchise, and some trade-offs need to be made, but it’s simply not nearly as exciting to me as Koike’s maximalist sicko shit.
The writing… woof. It’s hard for me to focus on anything other than Fujiko here, who can’t seem to go thirty minutes in this series without being stripped naked or sexually assaulted. Now, I understand that Koike’s OVAs aren’t necessarily in the same continuity as Woman Called Fujiko Mine. However, given that the success of that series – widely lauded for its mature take on the franchise and for granting Fujiko more agency and depth – purportedly led to the creation of this OVA series, it’s wild to me how little they seem to have learned from it.
The best part of Daisuke Jigen’s Gravestone, the sick-ass car chase, is constantly broken up by cuts to scenes with Fujiko, who's been stripped naked and covered in oil, as she slips and slides around a glass chamber and tries to avoid being raped / killed by a giant drill-dicked cyborg. Not five minutes after rescuing Fujiko from this, Lupin gropes her as they ride away on a motorcycle. Lies of Fujiko Mine is built around the ‘femme fatale forced to take care of kid’ trope – a premise already handled better by Yamamoto herself in Michiko & Hatchin – and still manages to make it feel sleazy and juvenile with its treatment of Bincam. The Immortal Bloodline doesn’t even have anything for Fujiko to do: despite being specifically invited on the mission by Lupin, the writers just create a flimsy excuse to strip her naked again, then she spends the rest of the movie hanging out in the background wearing an absurdly skimpy and vaguely racist outfit.
Look, Koike didn’t write these movies, so I’m willing to pin this on Yuya Takahashi, who did. All I’m saying is, when we look at the unbroken line of shoehorned pervy shit from Kawajiri to earlier Koike to now, Koike isn’t exactly beating the allegations.
This has turned out largely negative, I guess, but there’s still a lot I like here.
I think the overall pitch of the series is clever for a franchise built around its ensemble cast: each member of the gang gets a spotlight film where they fight their doppelganger. Daisuke is hunted down by another marksman; Goemon is bested by a warrior who's powerful despite his lack of honor; Fujiko is saddled with a charge she can’t seduce while hunted by an assassin who uses coercion tactics like she does; Zenigata is stymied trying to pursue justice in a country whose institutions have none; and Lupin, well, Lupin faces off against a literal body double, just in case you hadn't picked up on the metaphor by that point.
Koike’s directorial penchant for interesting framing and tricky perspectives keeps the series consistently interesting, even in its slower moments. Plus, I love that it still gets dumb and cartoony despite ostensibly being a more adult, ‘hard-boiled’ take, like Goemon using his sword like a paraglider in Immortal Bloodline or this fucking shark.
Plus, credit where it’s due, they let Koike get fairly weird – Immortal Bloodline is a movie whose primary antagonist is an immortal kung-fu neanderthal, and features an assassin with really really hot hands whose combat style is speedwalking up to people and holding them with his hot hot hands, and I have to respect that at least a little bit.
Still, I can’t pretend – my favorite part of The Immortal Bloodline’s release is that it means my boy is finally free after being trapped working in the Lupin mines for over a decade. I’m happy Koike had a stable recurring gig while he was raising his child, now let’s get fucking weird again!!
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