Listen to a little bit of Yuji Ohno & The Explosion Band’s original soundtrack for the Japanese animation TV series ‘Lupin The Third’ (Satril YP 7072 AX, Japan, 1978)
So, a French Victorian novelist, Maurice Leblanc, writes a serialised story in the magazine “Je Sais Tout” in 1905. The central character is a gentleman thief named Arsène Lupin. It’s a great success and there follow 17 novels and 39 novellas featuring the Gallic equivalent of that rascal A. J. Raffles- another well educated fictional crook created just a few years earlier.
In 1967, the stories fire the imagination of Manga artist Monkey Punch and from this point there ensues over 50 years of representation in comics, live-action films, video games, musicals and nearly 30 animated TV specials. When something is popular in Japan, it seems, it’s really very popular indeed. There are also over forty soundtrack albums relating to the series and, with songs like this, who are we to question such dedication and devotion?
“I’m the one everybody’s waited for,
Scream for me, a romantic modern hero,
They need a hero, somebody they can look up to,
I’m a super hero (you’re a super hero),
I’m a super hero (you’re a super hero),
I’m a super hero (you’re a super hero),
The hero of today. Yay!
Everyone wishes they could be like me,
Smart and cool, handsome, wealthy and so sexy,
They need a hero, somebody who is just like me.”
I don’t think there’s anything left to say.
