Arsene Lupin III is the descendent of the original
Arsene Lupin. His blood line has been renowned for
burgling some of the most valuable locales in the world. In order to further his exploits, he created a gang with
Daisuke Jigen,
Goemon Ishikawa, and
Fujiko Mine. While he is an expert
thief, Lupin can be easily distracted by a beautiful woman. In addition to avoiding the original owner of whatever he is stealing, Lupin must contend with Inspector
Koichi Zenigata of
Interpol. Their constant run-ins gave birth to Zenigata’s nick name of “tott-san” or “pops.”
Most of Lupin’s schemes don’t go as planned, but that’s where his
insane luck comes in. He can fall from a 35th story window, and catch himself on a ledge with just his foot. Having parachute
boxer shorts doesn’t hurt either. Lupin’s gun of choice is the
Walther P-38, which he generally does not use, as most of his problems call for extremely quick thinking, or a
hasty retreat. In fact, his motto is “Attack like a hawk, then escape like the wind.”
In general, Lupin has an irritating voice, and a
smarmy demeanor. This does not keep him from getting the girl, but it also grants him a healthy slap in the face. Lupin’s
seiyuu include Taichirou Hirokawa, Yasuo Yamada, Toshio Furukawa and Kanichi Kurita. The Series
Lupin III was created by
Monkey Punch.
There have been a multitude of movies and TV specials about Lupin as well as 3 TV seasons. The vintage of the episode can be determined by the color of Lupin’s jacket, green for pre-second TV series and red for after. Interestingly enough,
Nabeshin from
Excel Saga dresses in the same red jacket, as an obvious parody/homage to the classic character. He’s done a lot in the past 30 years, from fighting
cross dressing nazi’s to crazed quarter chucking
ninja henchmen, and he always did it with style.