Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. So. . .last year I didn’t get a chance to review anything Lupin. With the pandemic and everything going on I had to change a few things around and unfortunately, I couldn’t find a place to fit in Lupin. That’s why I plan to fix that mistake from last year by taking a look at Lupin the Third: The First. Released in 2019, this was the first Lupin project to air after the sad passing of series creator Monkey Punch aka Kazuhiko Kato. In fact, the movie was dedicated to him as he was always a part of every Lupin project ever made. It was also the first time that the series had ever done a full CGI movie. This actually scared a few people as whenever a series tries to do CGI it usually backfires on them and there have only been a few exceptions where the CGI has been done successfully by Japanese studios. Thankfully, the movie did supposedly well in theatres ranking second behind Frozen 2, received high praise from critics in and out of Japan, and actually won an academy award for best animation in Japan. Let’s see what this movie has to offer, this is Lupin the Third: The First.
So the movie starts in WWII France (where right away you can tell the CGI for this movie is impressive) where a scientist named Bresson entrusts his elaborate diary with an amulet containing a key to his family and their baby daughter. The family escapes just as the Nazis arrive to Bresson’s house where they kill him and pursue the family in a car chase. The car chase ends in a car crash with Bresson’s family dying on impact except for the infant. Luckily, the family ditched the diary during the chase, so the Nazis only have the amulet (and what good is a key if there’s no door?). Cut to years later where the diary has reappeared at a museum honoring the life and work of Bresson. Lupin sends a calling card saying he’s coming to steal it as his grandfather attempted to steal it in the past but failed (leaving a stain on the Lupin name). Lupin comes close to getting the diary only to be foiled at the last second by Zenigata and a young officer. While Zenigata goes after Lupin, the young officer takes the diary where she takes out the guard accompanying her. As she uses the roof to escape, she runs into Lupin who steals the diary from her (I do like how she tries to get it back and Lupin just dances around her) only to get it stolen by Fujiko (woman!). Zenigata soon shows up to catch Lupin and the young officer escapes during the commotion. Lupin gets rescued by Jigen and Goemon where we find out why this diary is so important. It turns out the diary leads to an immense treasure called Eclipse that Nazis want to use to restart their operation. We then cut to the Nazis where we see they’re the remains of Ahnenerbe (which was in fact a real group in the Nazi government. Their job was to promote the racial doctrines enforced by Hitler) being led by a doctor named Lambert and an officer named Gerald. Fujiko arrives with the diary and hands it to them (what the hell Fujiko they’re Nazis! I can understand you handing it over to mob bosses and terrorist groups but Nazis!? Don’t you have any shame?) where Gerald finds the tracker she planted on the diary and detains her. Lambert uses the amulet he stole years ago on the diary where it still won’t open as apparently there’s a second key needed.
Back with Lupin he breaks into the apartment of the young officer who’s name is Laetitia a young archeologist who wants to discover the secret of the Eclipse and is Lambert’s adoptive granddaughter (I’ll give you one guess who her parents were). Lupin reveals he has the second amulet and Laetitia gets told by Lambert to lead Lupin to him and in exchange he’ll pay for her tuition to go to Boston University. Lupin agrees to work with Laetitia and sneak aboard Lambert’s cargo plane to retrieve the diary and unlock it to see that the Eclipse is really a generator that produces infinite energy and the location of the Eclipse is in Mexico. After finding out this information, the Nazis capture Lupin and tie him in the hangar with Fujiko who uses this chance to escape in an old plane all while leaving Lupin behind. Lupin overhears Gerald and Lambert talking where they plan to retrieve the Eclipse and reunite with Hitler who they say is still alive and hiding in South America. Laetitia hears their conversation and discovers that they’re Nazis (wasn’t it obvious when Lambert kept shouting racial comments at Jews?). Gerald knocks her out and orders Lambert to throw her out of the plane but just can’t do it, so Gerald does it for him. Lupin dives to save her where he forgot a parachute as well which means the two are going to fall to their death. Luckily, Fujiko returns to save them (she loves him) as does Jigen and Goemon (well the gang’s all here). Fujiko’s plane and Lupin’s car get destroyed so the gang is stuck in the dessert until Lupin makes a call to Zenigata.
Zenigata rushes on an Interpol plane to finally catch Lupin only to get fooled as Lupin and the others steal his plane. However, Zenigata manages to make it onboard before they got far away (persistent to the end, that man). He hears their story where he believes them and agrees to help them out not because Lupin asked but because Laetitia asked (only goes to show how bad of an influence Lupin is on Zenigata). While refueling on an oil platform, Lupin reveals that Laetitia is actually Bresson’s granddaughter (congratulations, you’re the heiress to one of the greatest archaeological minds ever). Lupin also shows her that he stole back Bresson’s diary and the amulets before jumping out of the plane (nice). We also get a good connection between the two by finding out that the person who made that elaborate lock on Bresson’s diary was none other than Lupin’s grandfather which means that Bresson’s partner this whole time was Lupin’s grandfather (and years later their grandchildren have united and are finishing what they started).
After refueling they head to Mexico where the Nazis have already located the tomb of the Eclipse but can’t get past the first trial (unless they want to cease living). They leave to go after Lupin and the others, and this allows Lupin and the others to enter the tomb and get past the trials (the third trial is where they show off the most). After the third trial, Lambert and Gerald reveal that them leaving was just a ruse to clear the path to the Eclipse (classic villain trick). They take Laetitia, activate the Eclipse (not as big as I thought it would be), load it on their plane, and fly off. Lupin and the others escape and go after them where Jigen and Goemon ground the plane, but Lambert uses the Eclipse to fix the plane up and unleashes a mini blackhole which almost destroys the gang (that’s gonna be a game changer come war time). Lambert goes mad with power denouncing Ahnenerbe and plans to destroy Berlin to show his power to the world. Gerald attacks him and Laetitia uses this chance to reach the Eclipse where Gerald fires a gun at her. To the shock of everyone Lambert protects her as despite using her as just a tool in his plan he came to see her as his own granddaughter. Laetitia manages to program the Eclipse to set a blackhole in the plane ending all of Gerald’s ambitions, but she can’t activate it. Just when Gerald is about to kill her he receives a message from Brazil telling him that Hitler is alive and waiting for him (disgusting). Overjoyed, Gerald flies the plane to their HQ in Brazil and presents the Eclipse as well as Laetitia to Hitler. Hitler and Gerald take the Eclipse for a spin where it gets revealed that Hitler is actually Lupin (obviously). So it turns out that the rumor about Hitler being alive was false. It was started by Interpol to round up any Nazis gullible enough to believe it. Lupin and the others arrived at Ahnenerbe’s HQ before Gerald where they captured everyone and just waited for Gerald to arrive. So we get our final battle between Lupin and Gerald where Lupin creates a blackhole, Gerald, gets sucked in, and Lupin escapes at the last minute. The movie ends with Lupin saying goodbye to Laetitia and her getting accepted into Boston College thanks to Lupin submitting her thesis paper to them.
Final Thoughts
The First is a good addition to the Lupin library and was a good watch. The movie is straightforward and plays it safe not really having many twists and turns in the story, but still manages to keep you entertained. I will say I did like the relationship Lupin and Laetitia had and how they’re connected to each other thanks to their grandfathers. The CGI as I said before is very impressive here. My only minor complaint is that they made the faces of Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon soft. It also lacks a lot of action scenes which is where you can see their limits on the CGI. Other than that I did enjoy the movie a lot and for this being the series’ first journey into CGI I have to say they did a good job.
Final Score
The final score for the First is a 7.5/10. A good movie and worth checking out if you’re a Lupin fan. I don’t know if this was a one-time thing with the CGI but if they choose to do it again I’m all for it as they’ve shown they can pull it off. This was definitely a good shout out to Monkey Punch and letting him and everyone else know that his characters and story will be taken care of. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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