I actually have a super extensive writeup from elsewhere… that I've probably already posted in this thread before... but oh well.
The ones I mentioned above are the highlights, at any rate. For the full, sliiightly spoilery person rundown...
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THEATRICAL
Mystery of Mamo- Decent up until the very end with the weird ass strange sci-fi element thats really out of place
Castle of Cagliostro- Miyazaki, AND Lupin, at their very best. In the top five, easily. the atmosphere, villains, teamworks, characterization, action sequences, etc. etc. etc. I think I've bought this movie like, 7 times now for different reasons.
Legend of the Gold of Babylon- Pink jacket, bizarre visuals, and space aliens. One of the really lousy ones.
To Hell with Nostradamus- Skyscraper jewel heist. A decent one. Not bad, but not great.
Dead or Alive- The only movie to have a wallscroll of it, the imagrey decorated my wall for years without me seeing the movie. And then, it turned out to be a bit of a dissapointment when I finally did see it, opening chase scene aside. It involved a crazy totally unfair plot twist that wasn't foreshadowed at all. Meh.
So… of the 5 theatrical fliks, Castle of Cagliostro is the big winner there. Then, there's been 3 OVAs, which I've now seen all three of.
OVA
Fuma Conspiracy- This one was direct to video, and then went to theaters. Kooky. Its Goemon centric, but it has traps of death, plot twists abound, and THE GREATEST CAR CHASE EVER. Such an awesome car chase I ripped it off shot for shot in NHS issue 104. One of my faves.
Return of Pycal- A villain that appeared in one random early episode of the tv show came back for his own movie. (Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the tv show.) As I recall, I really liked this one as I watched it, though I seem to recall the ending felt rushed and I didn't end up loving it, as a result.
Red vs. Green- Celebrating the 40th anniversary. There's a couple loving touches to the history of it all (Lupins that look like every design ever, the cagliostro theme plays ocassionally, other subtle homages that are great for a long time fan) and the premise of a random guy trying to BE Lupin is actually pretty interesting, up until the ending where it becomes clear they were going for something really… dumb.
Fuuma is one of my fave lupin outings, Pycal wasn't bad, and Green vs Red was good till the end. Good track record for the OVAs!
... there's the TV specials. One a year since 1989. I have NOT seen all of them, (have missed most of the recent ones, in fact) and may get them confused due to name changes, (I saw a lot of them as japanese fansubs, and they were renamed when they came stateside) but...
TV SPECIALS
Bye-Bye Liberty Crisis-A decent romp, every character gets to do a little something. Couple fun scenes, and a decent start to the annual tv specials… nothing bad, but but nothing really outstanding or memorable. (And time has made a real fool of the 1989 computer tech.) A perfectly average Lupin caper.
Mystery of the Hemmingway Papers- A really good solid Lupin romp thats true to all the characters. Some very good moments for Jigen, Pops is minimilized. A very good outing, but no particular scene or aspect of it really makes it stand out to put it in the top 5, but pretty good none the less.
Steal Napoleon's Dictionary- A car chase movie, that has NO villain, and dependant almist entirely on Zenigata as the foil. A lot of fun because it gives great insight on both Lupin and Pop's interpreatations of the other. Unfortunately, this one never got a stateside release, so I haven't seen it since it was on bootleg TAPE. Yeesh.
From Russia With Love- The premise whas that the villain Rasputin… was immortal. Except he eventually was killed. I don't remember anything about this one, except that it was overly silly, which is probably telling.
Orders to Assassinate Lupin / Voyage to Danger- Zenigata is taken off the Lupin case, and so then works WITH Lupin, always fun. And Jigen meets a girl. Lots of drama… REALLY Good a first time, but not so much a second.
Burn, Zantetsuken! / Dragon of Doom- Not just a BAD Lupin movie, this is THE bad Lupin movie. The villain's master plan involves making an indestructable airplane that specifically acannot be cut by Goemon. The resolution? Goemon cuts it anyway. Also involved scavenging the Titanic in a lengthy really boring sequence. BAD. Especially so after 9/11 where the baddies plan was to fly an uncuttable airplane with no windows,into buildings. blech
The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure- Nazis make good villains, right? Not when the main one is a crossdresser named "Maphrodite" (sic). Add the nazi title "Herr" in front of it, and you get "Herr Maphrodite". It basically 90 minutes built around one REALLY bad pun. One of the terrible ones.
The Secret of Twilight Gemini- I think Lupin is barely even IN this one. Its a plot that was like, for a different movie that had the Lupin gang inserted into the last act. It was another weak one, one of many in a row, but I honestly don't remember much about it.
In Memory of the Walther P-38 / Island of Assassins- One of the really good ones. Wikipedia disproves what I always thought… that the Cowboy Bebop folks were responsible for this one. The cinematics, music, some of the plot points and visuals, were straight up Bebop. Very cinematic, very cool to watch. Not the funnest Lupin movie, its actually pretty dark, but cool and stylish to look at.
Memories of the Flame: Tokyo Crisis / Crisis in Tokyo- The first Lupin movie I ever saw, so it gets a soft spot for that… it also has a good plot with Zeniata, once again, carrying on despite having no actual police authority. A good one.
Fujiko's Unlucky Days / The Columbus Files- You'd think a movie all about that bitch Fujiko having to suffer would be great... but no, she just sort of gets amnesia. Has a couple great visuals, like Lupin kissing Fujiko through prison bars, which I saw out of context in AMVS and always thought was very sweet... which loses something IN context. Fails to live up to the premise of much Fujiko suffering. Not a bad one, but not a good one either.
$1 Money Wars / Missed by a Dollar- Luin gets killed and everyone grieves. Good material, but the premise dwindles once Lupin is revealed to (not surprisingly) be alive about 10 minutes in and there is still most of the movie to go.
Alcatraz Connection- Another sunken ship one? The wikipedia description isn't ringing any bells, I dunno if I've seen this one or not. I'll assume I haven't.
Episode 0- Awesome and what Lupin is all about. Retelling of the origin, borrows some bits straight out of the green jacket series, all with modern animation and music quality… Very solid.
Operation Return the Treasure: Really fun with a nice twist, where Lupin RETURNS treasures. A really good Lupin romp, but once again, nothing really outstanding or memorable to make it one of the greats, but a solid outing.
And then all the most recent ones, from 2004-2008, I have not seen. Stolen Lupin, And Angel's Tactics, Seven Days Rhapsody, Elusivness of the Fog, and Magic Lamp's Nightmare. I'll have to do something about that....
Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan- Decent outing. More of a Lupin move than a Conan movie, mostly the payoff is in the final sequence when the characters really start interacting.
Lupin III : the Last Job- Zenigata gets killed, and Lupin takes up revenge. Pretty decent, but similar to the earlier film where Lupin "dies", since you just know Zenigata isn't going to STAY dead, it loses something. In spite of that it's pretty good for the portion where that motivation is in place... but it pretty much loses all steam once he's revealed to be alive, which they probably should have held off on until the very end. Has ninjas.
The 2011-2014 films I have not seen. Blood Seal - Eternal Mermaid, Record of Observations of the East - Another Page, Princess of the Breeze - Hidden City in the Sky... and there will also be a second, now theatrical, Lupin vs. Conan film as well.
So... out of 34 movies, ovas, and tv specials, I have seen 24... but I haven't seen 8 of the most recent dozen, that's pretty awful. Of the lot I've seen, 7 of those I really like, 3 are cringe worthy bad, another 6 or 7 were pretty good, and the others weren't bad but weren't memorable in any way either. So thats actually better odds than I've been giving the franchise for a while. Aout a 1 in 3 chance of being really good, and a 1 in 6 chance of being really REALLY bad. About half being mediocre is still allright, long as I had fun along the way I suppose, even if I wasn't thrilled enough to HAVE to watch it again later. And thats not considering the TV series which were, in general, enjoyable most episodes, if only for the fact they only needed to sustatin a plot for 20 minutes so even the stupid stuff got a by with the character interaction. Interesting.
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