Lupin III: The First (2020)
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Lupin III: The First Movie Review
Lupin III: The First is a 2020 animated adventure film directed by Takashi Yamazaki and distributed by Toho. It’s a slight, but very charming flick.
Lupin III goes on a grand adventure to uncover the secrets of the Bresson Diary, which is tied to the legacy of his famous grandfather. Like all Lupin III features, the storyline overall isn’t all that sophisticated nor is it particularly well written. Yes, the whole diary and the Nazi background were intriguing, but the SF elements in the third act were overwhelming as effects and high-tech don’t quite fit in with this franchise in my opinion, but understandably this section will appeal more to modern audiences.
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The movie is quite adventurous at times and the humor is terrific. Some of the lines cracked me up and the character interactions are highly amusing throughout. The problem here lies in the pacing, which is all over the place. Some parts of the movie are adventurous, slower and very engaging, but others are rushed and way too action-heavy. The action could have been even longer, so I am not complaining all too much about the length, but the quality of it as it was too cartoony and far from exciting. The best parts of the movie are the location-based adventure set pieces and those made it very appealing.
The characters are a mixed bag. The main personalities are terrific, but the more supporting players needed more work. They laid the foundation for strong characterization with each person being different and having their signature weapon or personality, but they should have gone further into developing them more. The focus is way too extensive on just a couple of characters with others suffering as a result.
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Inspector Koichi Zenigata is one of those rushed characters. He is goofy and fun, but underrealized. Fujiko Mine isn’t just there to be extremely hot with her huge cleavage, but there is not that much to her besides her looks. Jigen and Goemon are both so much fun, but once again their development is shortened.
The villains are pretty solid, though clearly cartoony and over-the-top, but serviceable. Gerard is one-note, but pretty imposing, and Lambert has a great arc with her granddaughter that ended on a very moving note. Speaking of Laetitia, she’s terrific and by far the best member of this team. Her story is superbly realized, it is easy to care about her and her relationship with Lupin is great in that it wasn’t romantic, but just friendly. I loved that. Lupin himself is your regular Lupin – a capable thief, but also a goofy idiot. His shenanigans are very entertaining to follow and his interactions with others are the highlights, especially with the villains where he made fun of them brilliantly.
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Lupin III: The First for the first time introduced CGI to this franchise to mostly okay results. The backgrounds are so polished and stunning, though lacking artistically speaking, but they even resembled genuine live-action environments. The character designs are also okay, though a bit plastic in facial animation. Overall, the end product looked better than expected, but the score is arguably much more classical in its sixties and seventies, Bond-esque influences. The movie is at the end of the day not all that inferior to Miyazaki’s ‘Castle of Cagliostro’.
