#like it's not perfect but it's a very good lupin iii movie

[morporkian-cryptid]

I feel like the fandom is sleeping on the 2023 live-action Jigen Daisuke movie.

Do you want to see Jigen very confidently state "I can't stand kids, they irritate me", then five minutes later proceed to lay his entire life down for a traumatized little girl?

Do you want to watch him wreck a bunch of assassin's shits with only his bare hands and a table?

Do you want to see some actual real-life badass fight scenes that we never see in the anime because it would cost a fortune to animate?

Do you want to watch Jigen actually get his time to shine and show off not only badass gun fighting skills but also brilliant strategy?

Do you want to see a very gay florist who for some reason isn't in fact Lupin in disguise?

Do you want to see a kickass old lady gunsmith who for all intents and purposes has basically adopted Jigen?

Do you want to watch him fight back actual tears on TWO (2) separate occasions?

Do you want to see him fully adopt a child like seriously I cannot stress enough how wholesome his relationship with Oto is I actually melted into a puddle of feels several times

Then WATCH THE MOVIE PLEASE I promise it's really good!

Also Tetsuji Tamayama is very very handsome

Bonus: adorable gay-ass florist whom I am 100% convinced is Lupin in disguise

"...what just happened??"

Anyway. Movie good. You want to watch it. Reblog. (pssst I have a link 👀)

[kaleen-art]

Lupin Movie Marathon Analysis #1

The Mystery of Mamo (Lupin VS. The Clone)

Lupin III: The Mystery of Mamo has been a long standing favorite Lupin movie of mine. When I originally watched it, I couldn’t stand it due to its adult content, but since then, I have not only grown to like it, but I think it’s one of my favorite pieces of Lupin media, period. However, it had been a long time since I watched the full movie by myself, so I decided to put on the Blu-ray and watch it again.

Mamo has always been a movie with a lot of complex themes I like to explore, but I noticed something new this time, as well as coming to new conclusions about previous realizations. So join me in my lengthy analysis/report on Mamo, the most insane masterpiece of a film ever made.

At face value Mamo is just a stupid silly Part 2-like romp. Released in 1978, it reflects a trend amongst Lupin media at the time to be closer to the original manga and Masaaki Osumi’s Part 1 work in tone. For this movie, they even got back a significant portion of the early Part 1 staff in order to bring back this grittier, less bubbly Lupin. His characterization here is notably close to the original manga. But where Mamo succeeds (and Part 2 fails, in my opinion) is the fact that there is depth to Lupin’s character. Unlike Part 2 which has very little stakes, we see Lupin pushed to his absolute limit as the film breaks him down as a person. In a way, the movie is a sort of character study on him. But in order to study Lupin as a person, we have to see how the people around him are affected by, and affect him. Primarily, Fujiko Mine.

Fujiko’s characterization in this movie is perfect. This movie captures something I find a majority of Lupin fails to understand. Fujiko is exactly like Lupin. She is just as calculated and manipulative as him, Lupin just has more practical skill in place of where Fujiko utilizes her beauty to get the things she wants. They don’t even listen to their partners in crime (Lupin with Jigen and Goemon, Fujiko with Mamo) as they lust after each other (while secretly planning to deceive them). They are both horrible people, and therefore are made for each other. The movie drives this point home when Lupin even says him and Fujiko are bound together and can’t be separated, to Mamo. But there’s another character Lupin is bound to.

Zenigata, as he usually does, serves as Lupin’s foil. While Mamo is the actual villain of the movie, Zenigata is always there behind Lupin. In a way, he’s kind of a parallel to Fujiko, because he’s the only other one who never leaves Lupin’s side. And as Delaney Jordan denotes in her amazing video essay on Mamo, in Lupin’s subconscious, the only people who appear are Zenigata and Fujiko. They are the only ones who truly stand to challenge him in comparison to his other partners, which is why he subconsciously holds them in such high esteem. To analogize it, Jigen and Goemon are there to catch Lupin when he falls, while Fujiko and Zenigata are the ones who pushed him off.

On the topic of Jigen and Goemon, they are also very important characters to Lupin in this movie, but in a way, they both serve the same plot purpose. They both act as a sort of conscience to Lupin, keeping him in check throughout the movie, and judging his actions. That is up until they leave (which is very unexpected, especially at the time when the movie came out. If you had been watching the weekly Part 2, it was common to hear Jigen and Goemon bitch about Fujiko, but to see them pushed so far to the limit that they abandon Lupin? It was plain unusual to see.) It’s not until they’re both away from Lupin that we get to see the true side of Lupin. One without refrain. And that’s a good thing for him, because that’s the only Lupin that could go against Mamo.

Mamo is a particularly interesting villain because he’s almost like the anti-Lupin. As one of my friends (@curleyclown) described it, Mamo is an unstoppable force to Lupin’s immovable object. While Mamo is constantly growing more and more intelligent and trying to change time itself, Lupin is a stubborn person opposed to change. And that might be Mamo’s most prevalent theme. The main cast’s refusal to change. The characters don’t grow or change as people, they don’t mature, they end the movie the exact same people they were when it started. And though Mamo tried to influence them through his actions, likely knowing Fujiko would pull Lupin, Jigen and Goemon apart, he was unsuccessful because these characters just aren’t capable of growth. Lupin even remarks this himself about Jigen when twice in the movie, once in the beginning and once near the end, he calls Jigen a unchanging classic. Even a line that seems just like a throwaway joke has depth in this film.

Another thing I love is the movie’s emphasis on Lupin’s subconscious. When Mamo enters the mind of Lupin, he’s stunned by Lupin not dreaming, but later on in the film, when Jigen is arguing with Lupin, Lupin says he had his dream stolen from him, and Jigen asks if he's referring to Fujiko. This is genius. The reason Mamo couldn’t see Lupin’s dream was because Mamo had taken it from him. This might be one of my favorite parts in the whole movie.

My favorite part about the theming in the movie though are the biblical parts. Mamo’s claim to be God isn’t just said through dialogue, the movie continually showcases this visually. Behind Mamo in this shot (see first image below paragraph) is Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Man”, which showcases God creating Adam, the first man. Many people have remarked that you can see the silhouette of a brain in the background shapes behind God (see second image below paragraph), and when Mamo reveals his true form at the end of the movie– (see third image below paragraph) Do you see what I’m getting at? It’s brilliant foreshadowing.

Furthermore, Mamo compares him and Fujiko to Adam and Eve many times which, as said in the Streamline dub, makes Lupin the snake.

Overall, The Mystery of Mamo has a really engaging plot with really good character writing and themimg. But it’s not just that I love about Mamo. The art is gorgeous, and in my opinion, is better than Cagliostro. While Cagliostro has smoother animation, Mamo’s limited animation works really well with the manga inspired artstyle, making it more distinctive, and because they saved time and money by using less character animation, they were able to put more into other aspects of the movie. The movie’s camera shots are really well done and always have a really interesting perspective to them. Additionally the meshing-together of live action materials and animation (such as the scene with Fujiko overlaid on top of a ton of breasts) is really unique, especially for its time. My final note is about the scene where Goemon chops Flinch’s head in 3 and the frame literally gets chopped. It is jaw-droppingly awesome and always impresses my friends when I show them the movie.

The music is also really good. It’s nothing too remarkable as a lot of the music is in Part 2, but its placement in the movie is very nice and I especially love some of the timed cues. The music cue in the scene where Lupin clicks on Fujiko’s nipple (that’s a sentence, alright) is hilarious to me. 

Now we get to another really long section. The voice acting. The voice acting in the Japanese version is absolutely fantastic, all the voice actors deliver a really great performance and you can just hear the psychoticness in Yasuo Yamada’s Lupin. Kou Nishimura’s Mamo is very distinctive and very fitting for the character. And of course the rest of the cast, as usual, deliver a great performance. But of course, I can’t mention Mamo and voice acting while not discussing the 4 English dubs.

Toho’s dub’s script is actually quite decent and it’s a competent dub given it was made in 1979 but the voice acting is rough and because it hasn’t been well preserved, the audio quality isn’t great. Overall, it’s a 5/10.

I adore Streamline’s dub. The script is accurate while simultaneously maintaining really good flow. The voice actors are also amazing and I love Bob Bergen’s performance as Lupin, as well as Edie Mirman’s Fujiko. They both have that perfect energy for their characters and I love their performances. Steve Bulen’s Jigen is also great, my friend (@theshmeepking) always describes him as sounding like a “weed dealer”. Ardwight Chamberlain’s Goemon and David Povall’s Zenigata are also fantastic. Overall, my favorite dub of the movie, 9/10. I just wish it maintained Lupin’s line about Fujiko being his dream. 

Manga’s dub is overall forgettable and the script is littered with out of place cursing. It’s an adult movie, sure, but it just feels tonally inappropriate in my opinion. Voice acting is decent, though I find Bill Dufris’s Lupin a little grating. Audio quality is better than Toho but still rough. Overall, I give it a Dyslexic Zenigata/10 (Zenigata actually says he’s dyslexic, I’m not kidding.)

And then we have the ever-popular Geneon dub. I don’t particularly care for the modern Tony Oliver cast, but I will say, their performances in this aren’t bad even if I don’t personally care for the voices. I find Michelle Ruff’s Fujiko a little unfitting for her depiction in Mamo though. My main problem is the script that deviates way too much from the Japanese original and adds in a ton of unfitting jokes. It’s a fine dub if you’re watching the movie as a fun “turn your brain off” romp, but personally, I don’t think it’s a good adaptation of the original Japanese version.

On that note, that’s about all my collected thoughts on The Mystery of Mamo. This is definitely one of my favorite Lupin films, and maybe just films in general. I don’t have much more to say, but overall I give it a solid 9.5/10. I'd like to give a special shoutout to Delaney Jordan, whose video essay on Mamo was a huge inspiration not only for this, but for my passion for Lupin analyses in general. I'd also like to thank @curleyclown and @eva-of-the-sea for reading my WIPs for this essay. And finally, join Cagliostro Central, the Lupin server I co-own. I usually post the WIPs in question there.

I hope you enjoyed reading this ramble-analysis! I’m doing a Lupin movie marathon, so next up is The Castle of Cagliostro! Stay tuned.

[headcanon-territory]

Lupin III movies/media and their respective side character/npc girl rating - excuse for rambling -⭐️

~order of when I watched it~

• The First : 10/10

>Sexy people movie

>still one of my biggest favorites

>This movie is strong with its characterization and interactions

>Everybody in this movie you guys have my phone number

>look I get it we have Sweet boy Lupin but girl you did not need to feel the need to save the nazi

>I kinda just skipped the scenes that are not involving lupgang I'm sorry Latitia

>why why are we now feeling bad for her nazi grandpa why why are we here

>the rating is perfect for the animation sorry guys

NPC girl: 7/10 - Latitia is fun when she's interacting with Lupgang she works well with them despite being so normal,, unless if it's her solo scenes especially with her grandfather

• Castle Of Cagliostro: 10/10

>peak lupin

>second movie so immediatly went from sexy people doing crimes to Hayao Miyazaki telling you to sit down and rethink life

>is there anything else to say cause many of video essays represents what j think of this movie

>STOP MILKING THIS MOVIE

>I got weirdly hyped when I realize that ending was the scene that Marisa stole that precious thing referenced

>I need more zenigata and lupin moments with how this movie does it

NPC girl: 9/10 - Clarisse is the prototype sure but the tone of this movie helps her stand in and not awkward with the cast most of the time

- I also feel emotions like I cared for this girl in comparison to Latitia

•Prison of the Past: 10/10

>I had a blast

>Zenigata and Yata are the best here sad that Yata's character didn't transition into part 6 apparently

>First introduction to Yata though that I seen clips of him in Part 5 prior

>cute robot heehee

>Harvey stardew valley why are you here

>Yata beating up lupin and going apeshit with no intentions to be will always be my favorite

>rewatched for comfort from nostradamus' Zenigata

NPC girl: B - Florensa was that her name?? Didn't care, that fighting scene was good tho

•Tokyo Crisis - 9/10

>Fun Movie

>Alot alot of Zenigata in this I'm happy

>we can excuse Goemon getting nerfed the shit he has to go through is funny

>Fun artstyle

NPC girl: 8/10 - what the fuck was the plot with the villain using her egg cells about I forgot

She slayed tho, casually has psychic powers that rocks

•Detective Conan vs Lupin III [the second one] - 5/10

>watch this one for the scenes with Jigen and Conan only

>I do not care about that idol boy and his manager what are you guys doing

>the fujiko bath scene with Ai is.. eugh../neg

>also this one is one of the movies with creepy lupin uh oh

No NPC girl but the crossover experience?: 4/10 get that idol boy OUTTA HERE

•Blood Seal ~ Eternal Maid: 9/10

>refreshing characterization after watching the Case Closed crossover oh my god

>Cute Fujilup in this

>Plot fun kinda died down when the little girl dropped the "I wanna be a thief" Plot for her sister

>still good tho nonetheless

>GRANDPA LUPIN DESIGN HERE WOAH??

>Especially its depicting a young Arsene Lupin and its funny on how sweet he is compared to our grandpap Lupin in Lupin Zero where he straight up ripped a woman's tooth

NPC girl: 9/10 what I mentioned earlier deducted a point but she is very fun in the first half of the movie I do care for her and her sister. Love all these little kids wanting to become Lupin

•Fuma Conspiracy: 9/10

>I need to rewatch this

>Was Goemon young when he met Murasaki in her young girl school uniform 😧..

>Weirdly I didn't feel like there was that much Goemon despite being a Goemon movie

>One of the best Fujiko Designs woah

>I don't care that it tries to replicate The cagliostro feel it was still a great movie

>the budget issues tho sheesh

NPC girl: 8/10 - Murasaki is cute I really don't mind;; after she got rescued it's like she dosent matter anymore but not in a bad way I do enjoy her company. Again with the change of tone she fits in [but I dont like the implication with her and Goemon from earlier]

•Farewell to Nostradamus: 10/10

>I love this movie fuck you

>I can excuse the absolute butchery they did to Zenigata because of how crazy this movie is

>still I need mental recuperation for that

>weirdly this and fuma are up on YouTube and these guys has good animation but why are they left up there??

>I do love this Lupin even though he's not that different from other movies but this specific version of Lupin is my fav

NPC girl: - 10/10 JULIA SOLOS I love her she dgaf most of the time either of how she has been under her parents protection and had fun after everything and she wants to be Lupin III?? EVEN SHE AND LUPIN ARE TRYING TO BUY A CANEO FOR SERGEO?? STOP THATS SO CUTE

-also she and Lupin gets along because of being kids born from rich families that wants freedom and fun

Bonus: Tagalog Dub

>This one is more funny than the sub but hey who loves themselves with pinoy humor

>Lupin gives Goemon and Jigen nicknames [Goemskis and Jigs] and i love it

>Lupin in my boiling blood is half Filipino with all my heart that i would die on this hill

>They removed the pedophile lines from Julia only because her first encounter with Lupin was changed from "You like little girls" to "You like dolls?" Probably for cultural reasons

>and other scenes calling Lupin a pedophile is changed to "The guy that looks like a monkey"

>Zenigata when he finally saw lupin after he's mistaken as dead added "Lupin, buhay ka pala, UNGOY KA!" ["Lupin you're actually alive you monkey!"]

>Lupin's first time seeing goemon "And lalaking sakam! Na walang hilig sa Chika babes!" [It's the Lonely/Greedy not interested to chicks and babes!"]

>Would it be funny if you decide watching the lupin tagalog dubs because you're a big Englishira

>I'm unironically calling Lupin by <Lu-Pin> not <Lu-Pon> because of this

•Green vs Red: 9.5/10

>Sometimes I'm watching a psychological horror movie

>and that thought came to mind when Green Lupin was panicking inside the car when red lupin came in

>and when Goemon couldn't handle that his friend's face is everywhere by people trying to impersonate him??

>and the "real" Lupin spying on everyone in the beginning sounding so depressed as he spies on zenigata??

>this shit was surreal I love it

>jigen was hot Grabbing on that helicopter wait whatt

>goemon tied up whaattt

>Serious sexy zenigata whattt

>this movie left me with emotions I think I'm supposed to rethink life

•Lupin III vs Cat's Eye: 8/10

>oh boy that artstyle is so limited to what it can do

>I have not watch Cat's Eye I didn't dig into any summary of Cat's Eye I immediatly jump in

>they cool tho

>I like Ai

>Lupin blowing a kiss to Zeni and Grabbing Jigen by the ass you kidding me

>Lupin gets injured so bad but not for drama intensity but to nerf him he's fucking blind for half the movie

>Goemon our mann he knew that burger hoe was badddd

>GOEMON YOUR SWORD

>YOU GUYS ARE INTIMIDATING A MAN IN THE PARIS CATACOMBS

>TWO MOVIES IN A ROW WITH THE NAZIS INTO THE PLOT

>Zhongli why are you talking to Lupin

>Lupin's voice is also low for majority of the scenes because of how tired he is.... stop the car,, I had to watch dub for the difference of Tony Oliver's performance

>It's alright but Kanichi's voice has some.. effect on me

>I need more lupin getting fucked up maybe I should go watch part 6 idgaf [I did]

>all of my screenshots of this movie is lupgang being very bloody and sexy

>crossover experience: 7/10 and I didn't got to be properly introduced with Cat's Eye

•Operation: Return the Treasure: 8.5/10

>A fun one

>Everybody really did shine here huh

>ESPECIALLY GOEMON WHO;

-ok the first minutes he's in already witness his benefactors murdered

-reunites with the gang and first thing done is trick him into giving back the treasure and get chased down after

-Gets arrested

-Got shot by the shoulder

-bleeding in an alleyway

-Got slammed by the door

-stabbed that crazy bitch clean despite that the blood was censored even though he wasn't censored also getting stabbed and shot?? Or is the zantutsken just like that

>Movie's a win when they have a good Fujiko

>Last act has pretty visuals

>shits gonna turn to the diamond castle from barbie

Npc girl: 2/10 why why are you can you exist nowhere we don't need a few shots of you admiring the scenery of that tower

Even the crazy bitch Is cooler than you

☆~Woohooo! I'm kinda new to Binge watching Lupin despite getting into the fandom 2 years back

Now last thing to note is that I'm scared facing the most harsher Lupin entries with the Lupin similar to Manga Lupin because the Lupin that was formed by Miyazaki in cagliostro then balancing him in movies like Nostradamus is my comfort,;,

[crime-in-the-hov-lane]

Did someone say polycule relationship conspiracy board chart? :D

OKAY! It took me long enough to get around to this, but here is my

~LUPIN III POLYCULE CONSPIRACY BOARD MASTER DOCUMENT~

here are my very extensive personal feelings about how the relationships in the Lupin polygang. Something I really love about reading Lupin as a poly show is that it’s a great representation of a polyamorous relationship that isn’t just everyone dating everyone else in a big cuddle pile (tho that's great too), but it's actually a really complex network and everyone’s relationship with everyone else has all this complicated specificity to it and I love that. So here's some thoughts on that specificity.

Note: this is not necessarily my idealized version of all these relationships, but this the interpretation of canon I find most compelling. I have more aspirational ideas about how the romantic relationships between Lupin III characters could be, and I sometimes write the relationships more like that in my fic. But I actually kinda like the idea of the characters in Lupin as messy people who aren’t perfect at communication, and also do have some 1970s ideas and baggage about polyamory and queerness even as they’re being poly and queer. They’re figuring it out, and that’s what I love them for!

In my mind, the lupgang polycule is basically a square like:

Lupin ----- Jigen

|                    |

|                    |

Fujiko ---- Goemon

And here’s some more deets on my specific ideas about each relationship:

Lupin/Jigen

These guys are just...super solid. Just best friends who are in love with each other. I like to read fic where these two get together, but in my mind, they got together way before the start of canon and have just been basically married forever. They sometimes have kinda married-couple bickering and, tbh, they are both not the best at communication, but they care so much about each other and this point their relationship is just rock solid. I don’t really see them being big on labels other than “partner” but like, “partner” means everything to them. The intro segment of Castle of Cagliostro is the bit of canon which comes closest to how I ship them. (Side note, god bless Miyazaki for taking the entire 5 minute credit scroll of that movie to just establish that Lupin and Jigen love each other. I love that those scenes do absolutely zero to advance the plot except for to establish that these guys love each other’s company and I am so happy that he recognizes how important to the series that is).

I think for a long time, Jigen was kinda in awe of Lupin who had just totally swept him off his feet, not only with his heist skills, but is humor and his good-naturedness and his confidence that crime could actually be something artful and gleeful, and not like the selfish, violent, untrusting mafia world Jigen was used to. But over time, they’ve gotten very comfy with each other, and Jigen is now the single person most capable of seeing through Lupin’s bullshit and calling him on it. The two of them are huge on physical touch. Lupin’s huge on verbal affection, and Jigen isn’t as much, and comes off as more gruff, especially in public, but he’s actually very traditional and sentimental sometimes (like the kinda guy who takes saying “I love you” very seriously) The two of them are just huge goobers together. Idk I have less to say about this one than the other ones, but just like….#goals.

Fujiko/Lupin

This is a tough ship for me ‘cause I do really love a possible interpretation of it, but so much of Lupin’s behavior towards Fujiko in canon is so...euuuuughhhh that shipping this involves a lot of ignoring the worst of that for me. A lotta people have also pointed out that Fujiko is written in this kinda unrealiztic male-fantasy way that most women don’t really act where she’s always being a tease – but I actually kinda find it compelling to try and figure out a realistic motivation for her to act like that, so here’s my take:

Fujiko and Lupin are basically exes who still have a lotta mutal attraction and sexual tension (I’m largely going off of what Fujiko says about their relationship in The Castle of Cagliostro since I think it’s one of the only times in canon that you see her characterize that relationship). They sometimes get back together briefly, but it’s always complicated, but they're always still flirting. At some point in the past, pre-canon, they were actually seriously an item, probably because they started as rivals who were trying to seduce each other because of ulterior motives, but then they actually ended up falling for each other (I consider the account in Episode Zero of what that relationship was like to be pretty canon) I think from Lupin’s side, that basically happened because he’s a total simp, and from Fujiko’s side, Lupin was a kinda unexpected break from the totally shitty guys she seduces, and she was caught off guard to realize that she was actually getting romantically attracted to this guy– which scared her a lot, since she’s usually used to seducing underworld bosses and millionaires that she just has zero respect for and has zero qualms about betraying, but Lupin was actually fun to be around and seemed to have morals and principles and she didn’t know what do with that, especially since he is still kind of sleazy. I think Fujiko isn’t really sure if she’s actually sexually attracted to Lupin or not – she really likes that he’s into her, and it’s important to her to have the romantic affection of someone she thinks is genuinely a decent person (I think Fujiko does have an insecurity sometimes that only totally sleezebag men like her and that she won't ever be able to settle down with someone nice), but she’s maybe not actually that sexually attracted to him, or, at least, it’s complicated. (I think that also, the two of them were also really not sexually compatible - I like the read that Fujiko is either ace or has a lotta trauma about sex, and despite really enjoying seducing guys and wielding her sexuality as a weapon, she very rarely actually wants to have sex, and that's something Fujiko couldn’t really openly communicate about especially in the context of their kinda messy trying-to-seduce-each-other kinda situation, so that was always a bit tense between them). So ultimately, Fujiko ended up dumping him (read: betraying him, probably) to get a little distance. Their current arrangement (they flirt, Lupin simps for her, she betrays him, they very occasionally get together, but more frequently, try to play each other) actually is more comfortable for both of them. For Fujiko, it lets her flirt and enjoy Lupin’s company while keeping the distance that she needs (and she does tend to run a bit hot and cold about the relationship, sometimes feeling like she can get a bit more intimate and sometimes feeling like “I need to get out” and using betraying Lupin just to prove she can as a kinda pressure valve for that). Despite all the backstabbing, she does genuinely care about Lupin’s wellbeing, and doesn’t throw stuff at him that she thinks he can’t take. And I think Lupin is actually just fine with this – he recognizes that this is what Fujiko needs to feel comfortable with intimacy, and that’s alright with him. Also, he’s a weirdo and enjoys the challenge and the unpredictability – the two of them were too good as rivals to really be able to settled down and date like normal people anyways. But at this point, they’re actually very comfortable with each other and know each other very well, and, though you’d never guess it from the way they act towards each other, they do care deeply about each other – as friends, and as something more than that.

Goemon/Fujiko

I wrote about this a bit before, but basically, I think these two both have a totally different side from what we see in most of canon and are very tender around each other. If you asked him, Goemon might call Fujiko his girlfriend, but only if you asked him a lot of times, and he’d still blush a lot. (Fujiko would probably just give you a mysterious wink). I think the two of them like that their relationship is simple and that they can relax around each other – maybe at the beginning, they played a tiny bit of intrigue song and dance, where Goemon leaned into his white knight stuff and Fujiko leaned into her femme fatale stuff, but mostly at this point they like that they don’t have to put on masks around each other. Fujiko sees through Goemon’s tough guy posturing so he can let some of that down around her, and Goemon’s like the one morally non-complicated, genuine nice guy that Fujiko’s ever dated. (I think it also helps that she’s totally certain is attracted to her even when she’s not performing her whole femme-fatale thing – she loves Lupin, but she knows that he is totally into that high-heels and catsuits shit and it means she feels a certain amount of pressure to perform it, wheras Goemon really is a relax-in-sweatpants-around-him guy) I actually don’t think their relationship is that sexual, since both of them have a lotta hangups about sex (or at least, sex with folks of the opposite gender) – but Fujiko still does really enjoy making Goemon blush, especially when they’re around the rest of the gang. I think the bit where they sort of get together in the 3rd episode of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine is pretty canon on this relationship.

Jigen/Goemon

They’re boyfriends – I imagine their relationship as a lot more quiet and stoic though, without a lot of labels. They do a lotta dumb Masculine Bonding Stuff. These guys definitely fuck, in a no-nonsense kinda way. They’re probably both more in love with each other than they’ll often admit to each other. Their relationship is built on a lot of mutual admiration for each other – it’s cool to have someone else who understands their level of serious dedication to their craft. (They’re of course also a little competitive with each other, in a flirty way) They both take refuge in the other one being a sort of Responsible Adult in the gang, and having someone they can just enjoy peace and quiet and escape from Heterosexual Bullshit with. For Jigen, I think Goemon has like, a lot of the traits that he was attracted to in a lot of his hitman exes, except Goemon is actually good for him, unlike those dudes – but a lot of things about the relationship feel more easy and familiar for him, whereas Lupin can be kinda an enigma sometimes. I think Goemon is fascinated by how Jigen has a lot of the same seriousness and discipline that he does, but also is so off the rails in completely different ways from him. They both take each other’s word very seriously. They’ve also both got this very particular sense of humor which no one else in the gang gets, and they crack each other up. But they’re also both completely ridiculous and very prideful people, so when they fight they feud way more and get huffier with each other than everyone else. I think Tokyo Crisis is the most canon example of how I imagine these two interacting.

Crossways relationships:

Jigen&Fujiko

They fight a lot, but they’re friends. Early on, when Jigen didn’t really get Fujiko and Lupin’s whole thing, and when he was newer to the being poly thing, I think he was actually often grouchy at Fujiko because he was jealous, and because he was worried that she’s hurt Lupin. But as they’ve gotten to know each other and he’s come to realize that Lupin and Fujiko are just Like This and that Lupin actually likes it this way, they’ve warmed up to each other, and they still argue but they are much less serious about it - it's just kinda how they do.

Lupin&Goemon

Lupin really wants it to happen. It’s never going to happen (Lupin is, in general, wants this to be a “we all have threesomes with each other all the time” polycyle, and...only very occasionally succeeds) But they are good buddies and are genuinely quite impressed with and fascinated by each other.

Not included here: any of the Lupin Gang/Zenigata relationships ‘cause we don’t have time to unpack that right now. Maybe send me another ask that I’ll take two months to respond to, haha. My general read tho is that both Lupin and Zenigata are in love with each other, and literally everyone except for Lupin knows this, because that is the scenario I find funniest.

[i-watch-too-many-movies]

5 Favorite First Viewings of July 2021

Quick note: Hi everyone, I'm back, things have honestly been getting better for me, and I'm glad to be on this site full of cinephiles, people that are too horny, and cinephiles that are too horny. I'll be more active on here. But anyway, let's talk about some movies.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) (dir. Russ Meyer)

CW: Abortion mention

What a picture. What a gorgeous, sexy, horrifying slice of what Hollywood and star life can do to a bunch of bright-eyed young people looking for success. Also is a critique of how macho nature can ruin friendships and romantic relationships with total ease. I was obsessed with the scene transitions, like Pet pouring pancake mix onto a plate after the abortion scene, or Kelly singing after someone screams before their murder in the opening scene.

Great, campy flick with exceptional music too.

Deep Cover (1992) (dir. Bill Duke)

Laurence Fishburne plays Russell Stevens, a Cincinnati police officer who hopes to do well by the community, to make a difference. He’s traumatized by the death of his substance-abusing father, and wants to make sure that he can help the people of his own town. He goes undercover on assignment as a drug dealer, where his boss orders him to take down the kingpin. Stevens realizes the police’s own failings while on assignment. The racist abuse he takes from Agent Carver, and the realization that the police department is protecting drug kingpins like Gallegos and Barbossa. Giving drugs to Black kids and Latinx kids so there will be less of them. The cops are no different than the drug kingpins looking to make filthy amounts of money.

Fishburne’s performance is excellent, as Stevens feels he has to maintain a stone face so he doesn’t get caught by Jason or Barbossa or any of his cronies, but also he maintains a stone face to try and hide his emotion, his trauma. But when he gets pissed, Fishburne acts it beautifully, as is when he has to deliver a funny quip to counter Jason’s douchebaggery. And the production design, holy fuck, the sets and the lighting.

A perfect neo-noir for the HW Bush years, arguably one of the most timeless commentaries on the era, as well as the police as a whole.

Fast Five (2011) (dir. Justin Lin)

I was torn between including this or Furious 7, but I ultimately went with Fast Five because it felt like an important turning point in the series, it's a great heist film, and it reached the same chaotic highs and genuinely excellent filmmaking that I had been waiting for since 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift.

Fast Five opens where Fast & 4ious left off. Dom is hauled away to prison on a bus. Mia and Brian drive in their high-tech cars and knock the bus over, helping Dom escape. The title drops. Fast Five. It’s such an intense yet short action scene, and dropping the title immediately after it lets the viewer know that this movie is not fucking around. It’s arguably gonna be more intense and insane than the previous one.

And it is. The filmmakers made the decision to use a lot more practical stunt work for the film, and as a result, it leads to, so far, the best action in the entire series, since 2 Fast and Tokyo Drift. It’s not just how it’s shot or edited, it’s the geography of the locations, the rooftop chase echoes the rooftop chase of Jackie Chan’s masterwork Police Story, particularly the way each character bounces from top to top.

And of course, there’s the silliest moment in the movie, the one that matches the intensity and kineticism of a film like 2 Fast, which is driving the Reyes’ bank vault throughout the street, getting chased by corrupt cops.

I know we make fun of Vin Diesel for saying “family” all the time in these films, but there’s a reason we remember him saying all of these impassioned monologues. Because he’s unbelievably sincere, and has so much love in his heart for every single person in the room. Anytime he delivers a speech to any of them, it’s genuinely heartwarming.

This is the film that finally shows La Familia in their best environment, which is working together, in a movie genre that allows them to work together, which is a heist film. And a great one at that.

Last Days (2005) (dir. Gus Van Sant)

CW: Mention of suicide

Several films have been made about legendary rock artist Kurt Cobain, and for good reason. He is one of the most tragic figures in rock and roll. A tortured genius who has written and performed classic song after classic song with his band Nirvana. He was called the voice of a generation, and helped change the face of mainstream alternative rock music as we know it. But with that fame, and all of those expectations came a worsening depression and further drug abuse, and his eventual death. But most of the films about Kurt Cobain ask one question which gets under my skin way too much:

“Who REEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY killed Kurt Cobain?”

It was him. He did. And it’s okay, I’m sad too. Thinking that Kurt Cobain was murdered is completely ignoring the depression that he faced. And despite Last Days being more inspired by the death of Cobain rather than actually about it, it feels much more honest than the conspiracy documentaries on his death, wanting to leech off of his dead body.

This is the last installment of Gus Van Sant’s “Death Trilogy”, the previous two installments being Gerry (2001), and Elephant (2003). While I have not seen Gerry, I have seen Elephant though, and love that film for its minimalist, raw nature, and its boldness for not romanticizing the school shooter or the lives they had taken. Last Days falls into that trap once, as I don’t agree with the shot of Blake’s soul climbing up a ladder, that always struck me as cheesy in a film that is anything but.

Last Days is similar to Elephant in terms of the way it is filmed. Its usage of long takes, and still shots of characters doing various things, such as Blake playing his guitar behind a drum set. The way these moments are shot is similar to a Chantal Akerman film, particularly Jeanne Dielman. Where the acts of the mundane are the stars of the film. Blake wanders around an empty house, and the viewer can feel the pain, not just through Michael Pitt’s acting, but from the house itself. Its decay, its paint peeling from the walls, from the soft glow of the lamp that lights his face.

I say this is the most honest film about Kurt Cobain, because, despite the characters technically being fictional (the main character who looks, walks, and acts like Cobain is named Blake), this film focuses on the mental state of a person before they eventually take their own life. They’re still working, still making music, still trying to talk to friends and bandmates, but the depression lingers on. Not once does this film try to make you believe that someone else killed him, because you can see the signs of his own suicide taking place just through the film’s excellent cinematography by Harris Savides, showing his mental state only growing worse through the production design.

And it’s empathetic with him. There’s no judgement for leaving rehab, there’s no finger-wagging at him or the people he was with, there’s just a silent prayer at the end of the film, hoping that he is in a better place than he was.

Sometimes you don’t need to show every event that led you to where you are, all you can show is the moment, which also makes this better than most biopics as well, as it never feels messy or muddled, just showing one moment of Blake/Kurt’s life.

I really loved this film, and I’ll be writing about it in full soon.

The Village (2004) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

The Cracked.com/Channel Awesome audience stuck in 2012 will tell you that this was the beginning of the end for Shyamalan. That this was when people stopped taking him seriously, that this was when he became more of a punchline because of his twist endings.

But why?

The Village was released in 2004, deep in the Bush administration, during the early stages of the Iraq War. The leaders of the time were talking about imaginary boogeymen, terrorists that would attack the civilians if they could. Because of 9/11, politicians could get away with these false ideas with the majority of Americans fully believing them. The boogeymen in The Village are “The People We Don’t Speak Of”, monsters attracted by the color red. Yet we find out that they are all costumes made by the Elders of the land, designed to prevent people from going outside the land. They rule by fear disguised as love. They’ve gone through their own traumas through the deaths of their family members, but they’ve decided to completely abandon the lives that they’ve had and have their children living lies.

9/11 impacted American life by teaching citizens to live primarily by fear, to not trust anyone but their own people. And yet, post-9/11, all that increased was not “coming together”, but hate crimes against South Asian people. The rage white Americans had felt led to conservative politicians pushing fear-mongering agendas, and said white Americans blindly accepted. The outside world was progressing, but too many people were fine with living with further conservative politics only regressing American life further and further back, all for the illusion of safety. Meanwhile, the only threats to them were not the brown citizens outside of America they were so afraid of, but the white elders, the white politicians.

The Village explores these fears so eloquently, all while having a terrifying atmosphere, an enchanting score, and brilliant sound design. I enjoyed this movie very much.

Other viewings I enjoyed:

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) (dir. Mike Judge) (re-watch)

Blow Out (1981) (dir. Brian de Palma) (re-watch)

Clueless (1995) (dir. Amy Heckerling) (re-watch)

Furious 7 (2015) (dir. James Wan)

The Long Goodbye (1973) (dir. Robert Altman)

Lupin III: The First (2019) (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)

Unbreakable (2000) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan) (re-watch)

Velvet Goldmine (1998) (dir. Todd Haynes)

The Visit (2015) (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

[doubleddenden]

i have watched so many movies lately that i cannot really hope to begin a full review for them for the two people that bother reading them

so instead here's a bunch of short ones. Personal opinions, don't @ me. this is not meant to be taken too seriously. i just like to record my thoughts for later viewing down the road and maybe give a little nudge for friends to watch something i'm watching.

Belle (anime movie):

Beautiful in concept, a little shaky in execution, the ending felt a little too open, but it does give a decent amount of food for thought towards the perception of others, ourselves, internet culture, and society at large. This is also sort of the third in the unofficial trilogy of Mamoru Hasoda reinventing the internet, with the first two being the Digimon Movie (specifically Our War Game) and Summer Wars. 10/10 singing though and 10/10 art direction, 7/10 plot though. Verdict: Watch it, but don't expect to be completely satisfied, and try not to fall too deep into tropes. Do be careful with it as it does have somewhat triggering bits for certain people.

Lupin III the First the Movie:

I was afraid the 3d would ruin it, but it's actually very fun, super stylistic, and I think a fun homage to both Lupin III and Indiana Jones movies and the like. The hyper realistic backgrounds and semi hyper realistic but still cartoonish characters actually work really well, and the action- dare I say- is actually better than the anime. Its not entirely perfect, but its fun enough. I think the only thing it suffers from is that plot sort of happens in convenience to the characters- typical Lupin style though. Still fun, and I actually think it's better than a lot of the Lupin content I've seen in a long wile. 8/10, Jigen is hot in this one wtf

Dragon Ball Super Super Hero:

The movie itself is kinda eh and the 3d looks like a cheaper ArcSys cutscene, but there is heart and fun moments in the movie. Just don't go in expecting 10/10 story telling because the plot is an easy 6. The fights are pretty neat though, the new stuff is cool, and timeline placement is unique for the series. Anything more would spoil things, but its actually pretty funny in unexpected ways. 7/10 Piccolo is the best Uncle Dadpa

One Piece Film Z:

Really fun, and the writing and character design is very consistent with the series as I've been watching so far (i'm keeping up with the Toonami broadcast). Fight scenes are great, art is great, and the rest is about what you expect from One Piece- the added benefit is that the arc is condensed into a movie and doesn't take 5 years to finish. 8/10, Robin rocks hot pants.

One Piece Strong World:

Somehow this movie has even BETTER art direction and world building than Z, and the fight scenes are gorgeous. The plot is kinda eh but I was too distracted by cool monsters and explosions. It's got the art direction of an actual One Piece arc characterwise but the plot of a decent filler arc in a generic anime. I think it might have been better as a game tbh. 8/10 Nami rocks the booty shorts

Blue Exorcist The Movie:

I never really got far in the anime because I couldn't really stand the glasses brother and his buzz kill kind of holier than thou personality, but the world design is still fucking gorgeous, and the movie character Usamaro is adorable. It lacks traditional shounen fight scenes for the most part but makes up for it with chaotic fights against gigantic demons and some pleasant fun bonding time with a little demon boy. What I hate is that the higher ups frame all the good that's done as bad because it inconveniences them in the slightest despite the people Ren and his friend with thick thighs help by just doing the right thing. But the city looks cozy, the food delicious, and the friends kinda wholesome. 7/10, not bad, kinda wanna watch the anime, I just want Usamaro to be happy

I do recommend each of these just for fun. Obviously I'm missing context for some of the anime movies but I'm just here to be entertained, not think too hard

if you have movies you think i'd like, gimme suggestions. I'd prefer something anime based and I'm not really looking for anything too gorey, scary, or the like. I like comedies, shounen type stuff, action, adventure, that kind of stuff.

and again, this is just for fun

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

1) Ouran drama was better I expected it to be considering that the anime was my first one and therefore has a special place in my heart. Watched it for Ryusei Ryo and did not regret it. (but do NOT watch the movie unless you want to grit your teeth at what SHOULD be a very emotional scene but isn't because it's done in very emotionless English. Doesn't add to the plot either.)

2) What did you like/dislike between the two Hana Kimis? I personally liked '11 Sano better than '07, but '07 Nakatsu gave me terrible second lead syndrome while '11 wasn't quite my cup of tea. I thought both Nambas were good (both Kamen Riders!), while the '11 Kayashima stole my heart. I don't quite understand the choice to make the '11 one a school that's closing and yet somehow she gets accepted? I did like '11 more than I expected and that's all you can ask for sometimes though.

3) I'm rewatching the original and find it funny that the Dorm 1 main lackey and the Dorm 3 main lackey are both IXAs, and that both Hana Kimis had a toku person on their school board. I also think it would be very funny if that was just GokaiSilver's high school and that's why being in the Gokaiger's means he's ready for anything.

1. Just watched the first two episodes and I like it so far! It's much more cartoony than Hana-Kimi, but sometimes that's fun. I am mostly here for Yamamoto and the Takagis (although Hikaru and Kaoru's whole shtick is a little...weird). I love how vague Haruhi is about gender.

2. In general I would say that I liked the 2007 version of Hana-Kimi better. The "school is about to be closed" plot in the 2011 version kind of stressed me out, and there were some other things added in that I wasn't super comfortable with (like, they could have gone with something besides an attempted assault for drama in that one episode). The 2011 show also felt much faster-paced, in a way that seemed weird--the 2007 show was measured and took its time.

Regarding casting: both Nanbas were good, but Mizushima is slightly dreamier to me. The Nakatsus were kind of interchangeably charming. Yamamoto as Kayashima in the 2007 version was perfect, I liked the 2011 Kayashima fine but he was a little too down-to-earth for a comedy psychic, whereas Yamamoto excels at playing the exact kind of dippy weirdo I like. Both Drs Umeda were fantastic and I am uselessly in love with them. I was really put off by Sato Yuki's Kagurazaka at first, he seemed much nastier than the 2007 version, but I really came around on him, in part because Sato's so cute. The one point where I'm firmly in the 2011 camp is, as I think I was saying the other day, Oscar--Kyo is very fun in the 2007 version, and I love him because he's Isshu, but his Oscar is...kinda mean. Whereas Tokuyama, besides being a top-flight babe, is less mean and more just bitchy, and I like his outfits better.

I like the 2007 Sano better because I am in love with Oguri Shun. He played Lupin III in the live-action film and he has permanent 3 mouth, he's perfect.

The Mizukis were also interchangeable for me, like the Nakatsus, but I love them both so much.

3. Personally I have to wonder if they went out of their way when casting the 2011 show to specifically have two members of the Kabuto cast again, since the 2007 version had two.

[cross-d-a]

Pass the happy!💖 When you get this, reply with 5 things that make you happy and send this to the last 10 people in your notifications!

(I have decided that Discord notifs count because I love you dearly and wanna hear what makes you happy)

HELLO!!!! I love you and I kinda really needed this and I think you know that so thank you!!!!! I love and appreciate you SO MUCH!!

Also I've literally been thinking about this post for two hours and so I'm not gonna stick to just five- I'm gonna list MORE than that because I wanna remind myself that there are many wonderful things in the world to be happy about and also PICS!! I'm adding PICS bc I CAN!!!!!!!!!

under the cut bc it gets LONG! :)

1) YOU make me happy, Sierra!!!!!!! Also @s1utspeare and @vishcount and of course my bff @haru-tl !!! You guys are so fucking incredible and talented and AMAZING!!!! I love you all SO MUCH!!! You always make my day!!! And all the dmbj peeps!!! I am so lucky to know so many wonderful people!!!!

2) as long as we're on the subject of people- I absolutely can't leave out my coworkers!!! Literally some of the best people I've ever met in my life. I have so much fun with them. I can always count on them making me laugh.

Like today, we were talking about this reptile house a few towns away and my manager was telling us about their cool anaconda exhibit where you can crawl under the glass tank and watch them eat and she mentioned their teeth being scary. So I googled Anaconda Teeth and went WOAH THEY'RE COOL and our Resident Snake Expert came over and went actually that pic is from the movie Anaconda. And then he helped me find Real Pics and the teeth were even COOLER. I left the Google search up on the work computer and a couple hours when I was on lunch I heard Mike exclaim: "I had NO idea that ANACONDAS had TEETH!!!!!!" Which?? MIKE?? WHAT??? Hahaha everyone burst into laughter :)

3) my cat BOOTS makes me happy!! He's always asking for belly scritches and he drools when he's happy. Here's a pic bc I adore him:

4) my new baby boy So Mun from The Uncanny Counter makes me VERY happy!!!!! He's just- the Sweetest Boy to have ever Baby'd!!! I adore his little crinkly-eyed smile and curly hair!!! He's just so GOOD it makes me cry!! Also!! Disabled rep!!!!! LOVE HIM!!!!! Look at his lil' FACE:

and bc he is Unfortunately Very Hot in his mourning outfit:

adding this too bc LOOK AT THAT ADORABLE SMILE I wanna SCREAM

5) my Pangzi necklace makes me happy!!! I have an Iron Triangle matching set, but the Pangzi one I first put on bc of Brigid's Pangzi chapter for Swiftly Tilting and then I kinda just- never took it off haha. It's just so pretty and makes me feel like I've got a bit of Pangzi with me at all times. I love that man SO much and if I can be even a fraction of how wonderful he is, then I can die happy

6) the smell of the sea makes me happy!!! It makes me feel refreshed and relaxed! I live by Puget Sound and on very lucky days I can smell it at my house! Tonight was a lucky night! I came home and it smelled like the seashore, so I kept my window open as I folded laundry :)

7) my new collection of Kpop CDs makes me happy!! It's entirely bc of Vish's influence and I LOVE her for it!!! The packaging is just so pretty and I always love being able to hold things that give me Good Feelings in my hands :)

8) since we're on the subject of COLLECTIONS, I love to collect things!! And one collection of things that makes me happy are my books!! I have- too many. Working in a bookstore makes it too easy to buy them! But seeing the bright spines on my shelves gives me delight. I particularly really like my queer manga collection!! I've got four whole shelves of it! :) I'd offer a pic but I'm too tired to go upstairs, haha but I love the art and the representation 🌈

9) I ALSO really love all the figures I collect! Seeing characters that I love on a daily basis makes me happy. I usually decorate my bookshelves with them. One set that makes me particularly happy are my Pingxie ones. They look like they're getting married and it delights me:

10) another purchase that is entirely bc of Vish (I ADORE you!!) is my Chimmy blanket!! He's just so adorable and bright and coming home every day to see him waiting on my bed makes me very happy

11) yet another bright yellow thing that makes me happy is my dmbj Xiao Ge coaster!! It's so sparkly and fun AND it's a friendship coaster I share with Sierra!! We've got a matching set, babe!! I love you!! Let's just shake them around and be distracted by the sparkles forever!!

12) coming back to work from my weekend to find a bunch of manga to shelve always makes me very happy!!! Buying/pricing/shelving manga is my favourite thing to do at work! I love seeing familiar and new titles!

And it's interesting to see how prices can change if it goes out of print! Sometimes every single book in a series but ONE is the same price. Like last month we had a series where like/ volume 8 was worth $250 vs the regular $7.99 for the rest of them. And someone BOUGHT IT!! Things like that can happen randomly. It can be bc it was a smaller printing for that particular volume. OR something special happens in it (new character appearance/fan favourite story arc/BOOBS), so more ppl want to keep it which means it's harder to come by (and then sellers raise their prices BC it's difficult to come by). You usually see the collectible value go up for out of print BL or older series like Aria or Lupin III. Not everything that's out of print is collectible, but it's always interesting when it is :)

13) DAY6's The Book of Us: Gravity has graciously given me a big serotonin boost the last couple days!! It's just- I dunno! Uplifting! Catchy! Full of energy! :)

14) similarly, I've been listening to Close Your Eyes by Isaac Hong almost exclusively for like- five days now! It's from The Uncanny Counter and it makes me very happy! It's very emotional and just reminds me of my baby boy So Mun :)

15) sunshine makes me happy!! I'm at that point in the year where I don't want rain anymore, just sun! So it's always nice having my windows open at home with the sun shining through. Or the back doors at work propped open while we go about our day. It's almost impossible to feel sad when you get to bask in the warmth of the sun and smell the nice fresh air

16) finding weird random books at work makes me happy! It's so fun seeing the kinds of things people read! And sometimes you find cool ephemera in the things people sell to us that they don't want back. Like- look at this pic from an older fortune-telling birthday book I found. She is 1000% Drowning Him and I love that for her :)

17) reading manga makes me happy. There are just so many wonderful and ridiculous series out there. There really is nothing "too weird to publish" in the manga world. I was reminded of this the other day when I discovered a series about a girl who timetravels and finds out that her soulmate is a Neanderthal. You can literally find a series about ANYTHING in the manga world and I love that about it. There's no limit to the imagination and there's something for everyone :)

18) when I'm in the mood, writing and drawing make me happy. There's just something about creating that really just- fills the soul :)

19) making playlists makes me happy!! I love having playlists for characters and relationships and fics and even specific fic chapters or moods or going to sleep! (And rec playlists! Like Vish's :) ) It's just- so satisfying having the Perfect Playlist on hand! Plus it's fun actually making them- like figuring out the mood/lyrics and what they fit into :) I listen to music almost constantly, so this is essential! :)

So thank you Sierra!! It was nice to remind myself about a lot of different things that bring joy to my life!! I love and adore you SO MUCH 💖💖💖

[morporkian-cryptid]

“I strictly keep to my calling cards, and challenge myself with increasingly difficult heists… But what comes after that? What am I trying to get ahold of? What if the name Lupin is a curse passed down through the generations…”

(Blood Seal of the Eternal Mermaid)

I had a discussion the other day with @mad-man-with-a-book, about Green vs Red and the weight of Lupin’s name and family legacy. Which ended up turning into a full-fledged headcanon and character psycho-analysis, so I thought I’d type it up and post it.

The movie Green vs Red low-key suggests that there never was a “real” Lupin, ie that the first Lupin III before all the impostors was never even related to Arsène Lupin in the first place, but chose to take that name and the reputation that’s linked to it (kinda like Netflix’s Lupin series). While I like the idea, I still prefer the interpretation where Lupin actually is Arsène Lupin’s grandson, because there’s a lot of angst and drama with the weight of a family legacy. And as we all know, I love angst and drama.

For clarity’s sake, and to avoid repeating “Lupin” all the damn time, I’m gonna call Lupin I “Ichisei”, Lupin II “Nisei” and Lupin III “Sansei”.

By the time the anime takes place, Sansei has entirely accepted and made his the legacy of the Lupin name, and the responsibility that goes with it. But he still didn’t entirely choose it, it kind of got dumped on him without him asking. Of course he could have refused, he technically wasn’t obligated to participate in the race for the title of Lupin III; but as the grandson and direct descendant of Ichisei, there must have been a pressure and expectations on him that were way stronger than on other members of the family (then again, we don’t know how many grandchildren Ichisei has, according to the manga he was about as horny as Sansei, and Albert d’Andrésy could very well have the same relation to Ichisei as Sansei… but I digress).

Personally, but that’s just a headcanon, I think Nisei was a good thief but nowhere near the level of Ichisei, and that’s part of what pushes Sansei to outdo himself so much. We know very little about Nisei, but apparently according to the manga he was an absolute dickhead, and I’ve kind of latched onto the idea that he was awful and Sansei hates him, while also being forced to admire him because of his legacy. (I don’t know precisely how shitty a father, but I’m picturing very shitty.)

As a kid, Sansei admired his father just as much as his grandfather, because although Nisei couldn’t hold a candle to Ichisei, he was still a damn good thief by the underworld’s standards; and more importantly, he was a Lupin. Except Sansei didn’t like his father, because he was a dickhead. So, to free himself from that admiration for a father he despised, he had to surpass him, and become more worthy of the Lupin name than him. To be able to hate him in peace.

“Look, Dad, I’m better than you, I no longer have to admire you despite having always hated you.”

Regarding GvsR, I think that if Sansei was some random dude born in another family (but still the same person, with the same personality), he could have admired Arsène Lupin Ichisei and decided to take him as a model to become a thief, and eventually take his name once he felt worthy of it (which, knowing Sansei and his huge ego, probably happened very early on). That would have been an entirely free decision, a choice he made to follow in his idol’s footsteps.

Whereas if Sansei really is Ichisei’s grandson, he carries the weight on his legacy on his shoulders. The choices he has are: 1) follow the path traced for him by his family and become a (more or less talented) thief, 2) say fuck it and abandon his legacy because the pressure is too high, or 3) stick it to his father by deciding to be even better than the man whose shadow he grow up in, to free himself from that pressure; conforming himself to his family’s expectations while surpassing them, shattering them, to prove that they were wrong and he’s better than all of them.

His only way to free himself from his family’s expectation is to either abandon the way of the thief – something he is incapable of resolving to do because that would be a failure in his own eyes – or becoming the best damn thief his family has ever produced. To be free he has to conform himself to his family’s expectations. And honestly, I find that way more interesting than a random (genius, but random) dude who takes the name of Lupin and appropriates by choice the reputation of Arsène Lupin Ichisei.

Additionally, I like the idea that Nisei is dead, or completely out of the game and in prison forever, by the time Sansei gets his title. The concept of a dead father who you can’t prove yourself to anymore is also an interesting aspect to explore.

(a good Nisei is a dead Nisei.)

For context, I typed this whole-ass dissertation about the weight of the Lupin legacy and the lore and psychology of Lupin III into my friend’s inbox, all the while drawing a shitpost about the LoopGang’s collective braincell. This is a perfect summary of the dichotomy of this anime.

While I’m here, random headcanon: Sansei’s a trans guy, and while he was born with the last name Lupin, calling himself Arsène was his own choice.

PLEASE if you have thoughts on this, don't hesitate to add on!

[skinks]

hi!!! what are your favourite movies? like actually good ones but also any trashy comfort movies? is IT (2017) one of them?

Hello!! IT (2017) IS ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THEM oh man, thank you for this, I love talking about movies!!!! This is possibly the most difficult question you could have asked me. Apologies for how absolutely off the rails this got, I just... love movies so much lmao

I’ve said this before, but opening night of IT ch1 was the best cinema experience I’ve ever had, I’m so glad I got to see it with a fully packed audience who were all laughing and screaming together the whole way through. I’m a huge fan of... everything ch1 was doing, the 80s nostalgia, the summer-coming-of-age themes, the solid ghost train funhouse JOY of the Pennywise performance and scares, the washed-out cinematography, the tiny background details to make everything that much more eerie, the kids’ ACTING?!

Like, a lot of the time I find child actors can be really awkward and stilted to watch, but I remember leaving the cinema really impressed by JDG and Sophia Lillis in particular. I liked that they were all allowed to be little shitheads with potty mouths, it felt like a callback to 80s movies like The Lost Boys or Stand By Me. The whole thing worked to make me really care about what happened to the kids (even if I do still have issues with how they handled Mike. I understand even ch1 had limitations with juggling so many characters, but still). I saw it another 2 times in the cinema and have rewatched it at least, I dunno, 7-10 more times since then?

Add to all of that the retroactive CANON R+E baby pining subplot? I just love it, as if that wasn’t obvious by now given my Whole Blog. It’s a really special movie to me!

Anyway!! Ok, the main handful of movies I rewatch all the fucking time are:

Back to the Future, The Lost Boys, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Jaws, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Ocean’s 11, POTC 1, The Dark Knight, Inception, Die Hard, LOTR trilogy, Snatch, The Nice Guys, Logan Lucky, Mad Max Fury Road, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing, Tomb Raider (2018)...

Those are the easily consumable ones that I’ve seen so many times I don’t really have to concentrate or think about them, but I really love them and unfortunately often KEEP rewatching them instead of new stuff. It would take too long to go into why I love all these movies so much because I could write the same amount as I already did for ITCH1, and everyone already knows why those movies are good, so, lol.

I think I’m gonna have to subdivide and categorise this whole post because there are too many separate criteria for... goOD MOVIES, AUUHH 😩

Okay so first off, HORROR MOVIES? I’m especially in love with Re-Animator (1985) and its sequel Bride of Re-Animator, they’re such good examples of camp and batshit 80s practical effects, and also EXTREMELY funny. I’m actually just gonna post my list of my fave horror movies that I do actually keep on my phone at all times lmao. These are in no particular order:

Wholeheartedly recommend every one of these. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was watching Hereditary in the cinema, hoo boy. Mother! by Aronofsky is one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had (and I actually saw it on the same day I saw IT ch1 for the first time!! That was a fun day)

Psycho (1960) and The Fly from 1986 should also be on there but I couldn’t fit them in the screenshot.

I’m a HUGE fan of a ton of martial arts movies too, like Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, Ip Man, The Raid movies, John Wick 3 is my fave of the trilogy, Drive from 1997 with Mark Dacascos is incredible, SPL 2, Ong-Bak, Operation Condor, Project A, Iron Monkey, and Zatoichi (2003) are some favourites.

My favourite Tarantino is Reservoir Dogs, fave Coen brothers are Raising Arizona, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and O Brother Where Art Thou. Love some old-timey colour correction and weird offbeat dialogue. I also love Goodfellas!!! And Donnie Brasco! And The Firm, I’m so easy for any good crime/law/gangster/heist procedural like that, especially if they’re from the 80s or 90s in a super dated way.

Fave Disney movie is Tarzan, favourite Ghibli movies are Spirited Away and Lupin III. I remember watching Spirited Away during a thunderstorm one time and it being.... god! Transcendent! Favourite Pixar movie is The Incredibles (the first one. ALSO the documentary “The Pixar Story” is great and well worth a watch, it’s very comforting for some reason) and my favourite Dreamworks movies are HTTYD1 and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron.

I tend to watch more anime movies than tv shows, so stuff like Akira, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Journey to Agartha, and my ultimate fave anime is Sword of the Stranger (2008). The climactic fight in that movie is fucking stunning and should be counted in “bests fights” lists right alongside anything live action

Also if we’re talking animated movies another hearty favourite is Rango, and a Belgian stop-motion (which at one time I considered my favourite movie ever) called Panique Au Village (2009) which is one of the funniest movies ever made imo.

As for TRASHY movies, I’m not sure if that’s the right word for how I feel about these ones but.. dumb/silly/slightly guilty pleasure movies? Ones that I feel need some kind of justification lmfao

Troy - something u must know about me is that I’m a giant slut for the Assassin’s Creed franchise, so if a movie smashes historical and mythological nonsense together with fun costumes and sword fights, I’m gonna enjoy myself. Even if they should have made Achilles and Patroclus gay. Other movies in this vein are King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and Immortals (2011)

Gods of Egypt - I know all the reasons this movie is whitewashed bullshit. But it was already bullshit with giant Anubis mecha and giant snakes and bad acting and ridiculous CGI and frankly I had a blast at the cinema (my friend who I forced to come with me did not have a blast. Sorry H***)

Avatar - yes, the one with the big blue people. This movie gets a lot of flack nowadays but I really do enjoy it just for the spectacle. The full CGI world technology was so new at the time and I love to wallow in the visuals and daydream about riding a cool dragon around in the jungle

George of the Jungle - I’ll defend this movie to the death ok this movie shaped me as a person, it is fucking hilarious and Brendan Fraser is the himbo to end all himbos. It’s perfect. The song Dela is perfect. I still want to write a reddie AU about it. It’s one of the best movies ever made and I’m not being ironic

Set It Up - I KNOW this is a dumb Netflix original romcom but consider this; it was funny and the leads had great chemistry. I got butterflies. I once watched it and then literally immediately set it back to the start so I could watch it again

The Brady Bunch Movie - when people talk about great satires or parodies you will see them bring up the same movies over and over again, Blazing Saddles, This Is Spinal Tap etc, but they never talk about The Brady Bunch Movie from 1995 for some reason, which they should. It is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and every time i watch it somehow it gets funnier

Some more general favourites that I do still love but don’t rewatch as often, and don’t wanna go into more detail about are:

Moon (2009), Crna Mačka Beli Mačor, The Sixth Sense, Parasite, The Handmaiden, Tremors, Wet Hot American Summer, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For the Wilderpeople, The Secret of My Success (I love kitschy 80s movies, is that obvious by now), The Green Mile, When Harry Met Sally, Rear Window, The Odd Couple, Breaking Away, Pan’s Labyrinth, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Eagle, Gladiator, The Artist, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, Call Me By Your Name, Master and Commander, Pacific Rim, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Legend (1985), Emma. (2020), Flash Gordon, Trolljegeren, Hross í Oss, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, WarGames, District 9, Ajeossi (2010), Tracks (2013), Sightseers, Mud (2012), Pitch Black, Four Lions, Shaun of the Dead, Starship Troopers, The Truman Show, Withnail & I....... Jesus Christ ok I need to stop

NOTABLE EXTREME FAVOURITES that I didn’t include in the regular rewatch list because they’re too heavy/not as well known/require more attention.:

Thin Red Line (1998), Badlands (1973) both dir. Terrence Malick

Malick’s brand of dreamy impressionistic filmmaking is something I find really appealing, both of these movies are gorgeous and unusual and poignant and, in the case of Thin Red Line at least, have a lot of things to say about a lot of rough subjects. I don’t totally understand all those things sometimes, but a theme with a lot of my favourite movies is that I’ll be more likely to love something long-term if it raises unanswered questions, or is surreal/esoteric etc. Plus the cinematography is incredible, and I wish there was a way to get Jim Caviezel’s narration from The Thin Red Line as an audiobook because it’s very poetic and soothing.

Let the Bullets Fly (2010) dir. Jiang Wen

This movie is WILD, it’s so much fun. It’s sprawling and intricate and epic and smart and really fucking funny, it! Has! Everything! A gang of very tolerant outlaws!! Jiang Wen’s beautiful broad chest!!! Chow Yun Fat absolutely DECIMATING the scenery, and the two of them outsmarting each other in order to gain control of a small Chinese town!!! Plus it’s long, but it packs so much nonsense and intrigue that it goes by really fast. Wow what a flick

A Field in England (2013) dir. Ben Wheatley

I know I included this in my horror list but aaaaahhh ahhhh Wheatley is one of my favourite directors (he also made Sightseers, and is directing the Tomb Raider sequel which makes me absolutely rabid.) This is a surreal black-and-white psychological horror black comedy set in the English Civil War about some deserters who may or may not meet the Devil in a field. People eat mushrooms. It’s bonkers. I love being blasted in the face with imagery that I don’t understand

Mandy (2018) dir. Panos Cosmatos

Speaking of being blasted in the face!!!!! This movie... I saw it in the cinema and I can’t even begin to explain the experience, but I’ll try. My favourite review site described it like this:

“...somewhere between a prog album cover come to life and a metal album cover come to life, and subscribes to both genre's artistic tendency towards maximalism: what it ends up being is basically naught else but two glorious hours of being pounded by bold colors...”

So, prog and metal are my two favourite genres of music. This movie opens with the quote “When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock and roll me when I'm dead.” and then a King Crimson song, it is SURREAL to the nth degree, it’s violent and bizarre and Nic Cage forges a giant silver axe to destroy demonic bikers and there is a CHAINSAW DUEL. A galaxy swirls above a quarry. Multiple animated horror nightmare sequences. At one point a man says “you exude a cosmic darkness” and releases a live tiger. At another point Cage says, in a digitally deepened voice, “The psychotic drowns where the mystic swims. You’re drowning. I’m swimming.” and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for two years

Paper Moon (1973) dir. Peter Bogdanovich

Really fantastic movie set in the Great Depression (and also in black & white) about a conman and a little kid who may or may not be his daughter, running cons across the Midwest. It’s beautifully shot, so sharp and sweet and the progression of their dynamic is really well done because they’re played by an IRL father and daughter. Tatum O’Neal was NINE YEARS OLD and she’s so amazing in this movie she’s actually the youngest person to win a competitive category Oscar. I keep trying to get people to watch this fbdjfjdbf it’s wonderful

Alpha (2018) dir. Albert Hughes

THIS MOVIE IS A VICTIM OF BAD MARKETING ok, the trailers made it look like some twee crappy sentimental Boy And His Dog Adventure, plus it had voiceovers in American-accented english? That’s a total disservice to one of the coolest things about this film; the fact that they got a linguist to construct an entirely original Neolithic language that all the characters speak for the entire runtime. And yes, it is eventually a Boy And His Wolf adventure, but it’s COOL and fairly brutal, and it has some really incredible cinematography. The landscapes are so strange and barren and alien, you really get the sense that this is an ancient world we no longer have any connection to. And it’s also about like, the birth of dog & human companionship sooo it’s perfect.

Free Solo (2018) dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

The Free Climbing Documentary. I loved climbing as a kid, I love outdoor sports, and I love movies that elicit a physical reaction in me, whether that’s horny, scared, real laughter, overwhelming shivers, or in the case of Free Solo - HORRIBLE SWEATING TENSION. Like, I knew about Alex Honnold beforehand because of this adventure film festival I go to every year and I followed him on IG so obviously I knew he lived, but the actual climb itself was torture. My hands sweat every time I see it!! It’s incredible, such a cool look into generally what the human body can do, and more specifically, why Honnold’s psychology and life means he’s so well suited to free soloing. It’s such an exercise in getting to know an individual and get invested in them, before they attempt something very potentially fatal.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) dir. Ang Lee

I can’t even talk about this. When I was around 13 I snuck downstairs to watch this on TV at 11pm in secret, and my life was forever changed. I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t seen Brokeback at the age I did. I seriously can’t talk about this or I’ll write an even longer essay than this already is

God’s Own Country (2017) dir. Francis Lee

The antidote to Brokeback Mountain, I’m so glad I managed to see this one in the cinema too. It makes me cry every time, as someone who’s spent years working on a cold British farm with sheep it was very realistic, which is expected since Lee grew up on a farm in Yorkshire. I love that this movie isn’t really about being closeted, but about being so emotionally repressed and self-loathing that the main character finds it so hard to accept love. Or that he deserves to be loved. The cinnamontographies.... lordt... but also the intimacy and sex scenes are fucking searing wow who hasn’t seen this movie by now. 10 stars. 20 stars!!!

Tomboy (2011) dir. Céline Sciamma

I saw this years ago but I’ve never forgotten it, it cut so deep. It’s from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire and it’s about a gnc kid struggling with gender and misogyny and homophobia in a really raw, scrappy way, it reminded me very much of my own... childhood... ahh the central performance is amazing for such a young age. I haven’t seen Portrait yet but I feel like if you went nuts for that, you should definitely check this out, it’s lovely.

Donnie Darko (2001) dir. Richard Kelly

EVERY TIME I WATCH THIS MOVIE I UNDERSTAND LESS AND LESS and that’s what I love so much about it. I love surreal movies, I love time-fuckery and stuff about altered perception etc etc and Donnie Darko scratches all my itches. I wish I could find a way to figure out an IT AU for it, because I know it would work! Somehow! Plus it’s got the subdued 80s nostalgia and I found it at an age when I was really starting to explore movies and music and the soundtrack FUCKS.

Offside (2006) dir. Jafar Panahi

I wish more people knew about this!!! It’s an Iranian film about a disparate group of women and girls who are football fans and want to watch Iran’s qualifying match for the World Cup, but women aren’t allowed into the stadium, so they all get thrown into the Stadium Jail together? They don’t know each other beforehand, but it’s about their changing relationships with each other and the guards and just, their defiance alongside hearing the match from the outside and WOW it’s so lively. Great dialogue and very funny, and such a different kind of story from anything you usually see from Hollywood.

The Fall (2006) dir. Tarsem Singh

This movie... I guess it’s the ideal. This is the platonic ideal of a film for me, it has fantasy, magical realism, glorious visuals, amazing score and costumes and production design and a really interesting, heartbreaking relationship at the core of it. I don’t know why so many of my favourite films feature incredibly raw performances by child actors but this is another one, Catinca Untaru barely knew any English and improvised so much because of that, and it’s fascinating to watch! Also the dynamic with Lee Pace is one of my favourites, where a kid forms a friendship with a guardian figure who isn’t their parent, but the guardian grows to really care for them by the end. It’s like Paper Moon in that sense. What is there to even say about this movie, it’s pure magic joy tempered and countered by genuine gutwrenching emotional conflict in the real world, it’s also ABOUT old moviemaking, in a way, and it’s stunning to look at!

Mad Max Fury Road (2015) dir. George Miller

I know I included this in my “most rewatched” section but it deserves its own thing. We all know why this movie is fucking incredible. I remember clutching my armrests in the cinema and feeling like my skeleton was being blasted back into the seat behind me and tbh that is the high I’m constantly chasing when I go to see any movie. What a fucking gift this film is

Théo et Hugo dans le Même Bateau (2016) dir. Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau

I only found this movie last year and it became an instant favourite. Initially I was just curious because I’d never seen a movie with unsimulated sex before, but it’s so much more than the 18 minute gay sex club orgy it opens with. No, not more than, AS WELL AS. The orgy is important because this movie is so candid and frank about sex and HIV treatment in the modern day, it was eye-opening. Another thing that really got me is that I’d never seen a real-time film before. It’s literally an hour and a half in the lives of these two men, their intense connection and conversation and conflict in the middle of the night in Paris, with some really nice night photography and just!!! Wow!!! AMAZING CHEMISTRY between the actors. This is such a gem if you’re comfortable with explicit sexual content.

Ok. This is already over 3k but film is obviously one of my ridiculous passions and I can and do talk about it for hours. I’ve been reading magazines about it for years, listening to podcasts and reading review blogs and recently, watching video essays on YouTube because the whole process is so interesting to me and I want to learn more!!

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of valuing form over narrative. The idea that story can often come second to the deeper physical experience and emotional reaction that’s created by using ALL the elements of filmmaking and not just The Story, y’know? Whether that’s editing, shot composition, colour, the sound mix, the actors, how it should all be used to heighten the emotional state the script wants you to feel. And so, I think for a few years now this approach has been influencing the types of films I really, really love.

I think I love surreality and mind-bending magical realism in films specifically because the filmmakers have to use all those different tools to convey things that can be way too metaphysical for just... a script? I’m always chasing that physical response; if a movie can make me stop thinking “I wonder what it was like to set up that shot” and instead overwhelm that suspension of disbelief, if I can be terrified or woozy or crying for whatever reason, that’s what I’m looking for. That’s why I watch so many fuckin movies, and why I’ll always remember nights like seeing IT (2017) for giving me another favourite.

Thank you again for this question, I didn’t mean to go so overboard. Also there’s no way to do a readmore on tumblr mobile so apologies to anyone’s dashboard 😬

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: How I Got Into Sakuga

Kaiba, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa

  If you’re an anime fan, you’re likely an animation fan in general. But how do you know when an animation is “good”? How do you learn to identify an animator by only what you see, or tell when their drawings are better than usual?

  English-speaking anime fans have adopted sakuga as a general catch-all term for exceptional animation. While the word sakuga itself means “animation,” in this context, sakuga has come to mean something very specific: Not just animation that looks cool, but the deliberate handiwork of specific animators with specific artistic aspirations. For example, a single-animator project might have a lot of “sakuga shots” because it has a personal, highly-refined style. Meanwhile, a television series might have an entire team of varying specialists for a larger narrative. Some of this might be attributed to specific key animators, while some might be credited to an entire studio — transformation sequences, explosive missiles, robots — that’s all fair game to be called sakuga. But how do you really know if what you’re looking at really is this so-called “sakuga?”

  Like most art, it’s almost entirely subjective. Here’s my story.

Project A-ko, a high-energy 1986 OVA series best remembered for its exceptional animation staff

(Image via Retrocrush)

  All’s Fair in Love and War Games

  When I was a kid, I got my hands on the English-dubbed Digimon: The Movie on VHS. This notorious release was a three-part recut of Mamoru Hosoda’s Digimon OVAs released from 1999 to 2000, heavily featuring his second film Digimon Adventure: Our War Game. Of course, I didn’t experience this package as a “Hosoda anime” at the time. Besides the inspired inclusion of Barenaked Ladies’ "One Week" to the soundtrack, I strongly associate these films with Hosoda’s signature interpretation of Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru’s original Digimon Adventure character designs. Compared to the Toei-produced television series, these renditions of the Digi-Destined are charmingly off-model and move with awkward intention, like actual kids up against terrifying monsters.

  In a sense, that’s what most people mean by sakuga — animation that makes us lean in and notice traits about the world and characters that can’t be communicated otherwise. Sakuga, in particular, places special emphasis on an individual animator’s keyframes, or the drawings used as a basis for in-between frames during movement. That’s what I mean by the phrase “Hosoda anime.” If you watch Summer Wars or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time enough times, anyone will notice a stylistic palette of idiosyncrasies.

    Digimon Adventure “Home Away From Home” directed by Mamoru Hosoda

(Image via Hulu)

  An Emerging Style

  When I got older and realized there was more anime than what was on cable, I kept returning to “flat” style animation with films like Tatsuo Satō’s 2001 Cat Soup and Shōji Kawamori’s 1996 Spring and Chaos. Around this time, contemporary artist Takashi Murakami also began developing his own “superflat” style (coined in his 2000 book Superflat and later in Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture) we’ll return to. Once I got a taste for the experimental, I never turned back.

  But back to Hosoda. Less focused on the details of models and more fixated on a “flat” or fluid style of movement, the key animation in Hosoda’s films makes body language a priority. This is perhaps the best thing about good sakuga — its potential to express deep emotion even under production constraints. My favorite example comes from the first Digimon short film Hosoda directed, the simply titled Digimon Adventure from 1999.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Directed by Masaaki Yuasa

  Originally conceived as a standalone for Bandai’s then-new Digital Monsters virtual pet toys, this version of Digimon is less loud, more atmospheric — and sincerely preoccupied with the question: “How would little kids actually handle a giant monster of their own?” The result is an unforgettable shot of Kairi, Tai’s little sister desperately blowing her whistle, stopping to catch her breath, then spitting and coughing in an attempt to calm down their newly evolved kaiju Greymon friend. 

  For the television series, Hosoda directed the episode “Home Away From,” depicting the two siblings clinging to each other as the other slowly drifts back to the Digital World. In both scenes, characters don’t constantly move, but only act when necessary via careful manipulation of the frames. This technique not only makes everything seem more “realistic,” but also acts as a visual cue for the anxiety Tai and Kairi feel. In other words, painstakingly controlled animation serves both form and function, especially when you’re selling an emotional climax of another kid-meets-monster plot.

Tomorrow’s Joe, 1980 film adaptation of the 1970 TV anime series directed by Osamu Dezaki

(Image via Retrocrush)

  A Little History Lesson

  After Digimon, Hosoda and Nakatsuru collaborated on films like Summer Wars and the Takashi Murakami-inspired pop art short Superflat Monogram. Hosoda is no doubt inescapable to sakuga fans today thanks to the ubiquity of his feature films. Still, Hosoda obviously wasn’t the first sakuga animator. Animators like Yasuo Ōtsuka, known for his cinematic work in a pre-Ghibli era of anime film with Toei, documented the growth ‘60s and ‘70s of Japan’s animation industry in his 2013 book Sakuga Asemamire. When the demand for films lowered in favor of anime television during that era, animators took risks. Classics of the era like Tiger Mask and Tomorrow's Joe literally held no punches, and Osamu Tezuka’s own Mushi Productions dove headfirst into experimental adult films. Animators, and especially keyframe animators, had creative control. In this perfect storm, the advent of sakuga was inevitable.

  Everyman Ken Kubo is taught the ways of eighties anime in Otaku no Video

(Image via Retrocrush)  

Why Bother With Sakuga?  

In 2013, animation aficionado Sean Bires and company hosted an informational panel titled “Sakuga: The Animation of Anime” at Anime Central Chicago. Uploaded to YouTube that same year, this panel informed my younger self’s understanding of not just the “how” of sakuga, but the “why” it even needed to exist in anyone’s vocabulary. Accessible, meticulously researched, and full of visual references, Sean’s two-hour panel-lecture does the heavy lifting of contextualizing anime not just through a historical lens, but within the broader project of expanding cinematic techniques. This primer might sound heady, but considering the popularity of Masaaki Yuasa’s series like Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, and references to animator Ichirō Itano’s “Itano circus” missiles in American cartoons like DuckTales, it’s hard to say sakuga isn't relevant. Nowadays, it's practically a trope to parody one of Dezaki's most iconic shots. Supplemented by a rich community of blogs and forums, it couldn’t be easier to learn about animators like Yasuo Ōtsuka or the early days of Toei if you want a bigger picture. Blogs like Ben Ettinger’s Anipages and the aptly named Sakuga Blog are a good place to start, not to mention dozens of dedicated galleries of anime production and art books published by studios themselves. Now couldn’t be a better time to vicariously live your art school dreams through anime masterworks.

  Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, a 1989 film featuring animation by Yasuo Ōtsuka best known for his work on the Lupin III franchise  

Sakuga Is For Everyone  

Fans have always been obsessed with the technicalities of animation, even if they weren't artists. As early as 2007, uncut dubbed collector box sets for Naruto came with annotated booklets of episode storyboards. More recently, critically-acclaimed series like Shirobako further explicated this love for animation as a team effort — people love attaching other people to art. In contrast, psychological horror series like Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent features an episode about an anime studio’s production going terribly wrong. Not to mention the endlessly self-referential Otaku no Video Gainax OVA and its depiction of zealous sakuga otaku. Anime fans adore watching anime be born over and over. It’s that simple.     

Digimon Adventure “Home Away From Home” directed by Mamoru Hosoda

(Image via Hulu)

Today, I’d comfortably call some shots from Hosoda Digimon films great sakuga. But Koromon is still weird. Sorry.   The love for sakuga isn’t a contest to one-up fans on production trivia or terminology. It’s about taking the time to appreciate the fact that anime is ultimately a collaborative artistic endeavor. From tracing back the lineage of animators like Yoshinori Kanada to Kill la Kill, to appreciating the visual sugar rush of Project A-Ko alongside slow-paced Ghibli films, “getting into sakuga” isn't a passive effort, nor a waste of time. Besides, wouldn't it be fun understanding how your favorite animator achieved your favorite scene? The phrase "labor of love" is cliché, but maybe that’s a good synonym for what role sakuga inevitably plays for artists and fans alike — work that brings you joy, no matter how you cut it.   Who is your favorite animator? When did you get into sakuga? Let us know in the comments below!

      Blake P. is a weekly columnist for Crunchyroll Features. His twitter is @_dispossessed. His bylines include Fanbyte, VRV, Unwinnable, and more. He actually doesn't hate Koromon.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Blake Planty

[metalandmagi]

Summer 2020 Anime Worth Watching!

Apparently it’s time for the summer anime season, even though it feels like time is meaningless at this point. But somehow, there are still new shows coming out, so if you’re looking for something to watch when you’re stuck at home, here’s a list of the first impressions I got from this season. I don’t really know if it’s going to be worth it, considering how the spring season delayed so much, but here we are. 

As always, not all of these are available on Crunchyroll, but I’ll put a * next to the ones that are.

And if you’re looking for a bit more variety, I have lists for 2019 and the rest of this year’s seasons too...because remember when there was good anime being released instead of just everything being an ecchi or a second season?

2019 master list

My master list for every season of 2020 anime

New Shows!

*The God of High School: An over the top action anime consisting of one big tournament arc! It follows a group of teenagers competing in the epic “god of high school” martial arts tournament to determine the best fighter in the country. Following in the footsteps of Tower of God, this is the newest “crunchyroll original” that is being adapted from a South Korean webcomic. You can tell from the first episode that this will be a spectacle with crazy characters and lots of wild action and humor!

Great Pretender: When a Japanese con man pickpockets the wrong person, he ends up hopping on a plane to Los Angeles and getting wrapped up in a scheme with a sassy Frenchman named Laurent...who basically runs the mafia. There’s humor, there’s plot, there’s great characters, and it’s kinda gay. It’s an exciting original anime from studio Wit, so the animation is bursting with character, and both the music and the general vibe remind me a lot of Baccano or even Lupin III. And since it takes place in America with several foreign characters, there's hilarious English and accent shenanigans abound! The bad news is it’s still in Netflix jail, so if you want to watch it legally you’re kinda stuck for now. 

Japan Sinks 2020: A giant earthquake hits Japan, and a family must cope with the mayhem together. Because what the hell else could possibly go wrong this year? This is a new series (based on a novel) made by Masaaki Yuasa, the guy behind Ride Your Wave and Walk On Girl, if that tells you anything about the style of this anime. I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far, but I heard it goes from being a gripping realistic disaster series to a balls to the wall adventure. To be honest, disaster shows/movies freak me out, and this one is pretty devastating so far, which is a testament to how well it's made. But I appreciate that they include glimmers of hope when they’re needed. The best moments are the quiet ones that focus on the actual people and the narration that juxtaposes the time periods. There’s so much atmosphere, and the music really enhances the experience. And it’s all out on Netflix now, with a dub and a sub!

Deca-Dence: When humanity has been pushed to the edge of extinction by monsters called the Gadoll, the rest of civilization is forced to live in enormous mobile fortresses and send groups out to battle the unknown monsters. So basically like Mortal Engines but the fortresses can turn themselves into giant fists and punch the monsters. We follow a girl named Natsume who wants to be one of the soldiers who fight the Gadoll, but she is constantly rejected because of her prosthetic arm. So she ends up with five years of cleaning duty supervised by a stern but mysterious badass named Kaburagi. I honestly don’t care at all about the plot of the anime, because for me the characters are what drives everything, and these character dynamics are great. I’m not going to say it’s the most original story, but I think it’s fun so far. 

*Rent-a-Girlfriend: A typical harem/romance anime that follows the world’s most annoying protagonist named Kazuya. After Kazuya is dumped by his first girlfriend, he seeks out a rental girlfriend out of self pity….BECAUSE APPARENTLY THAT’S A REAL SERVICE THAT EXISTS IN JAPAN?! Like you can actually rent moms/dads/girlfriends/boyfriends and so on. Anyway, his fake girlfriend is the picture of anime waifu perfection...until Kazuya starts being his typical asshole self and she reveals her true nature of being an absolute sass master who don’t take no shit from no boring ass main character. Shenanigans happen and the two of them end up having to pretend they are in a real relationship. And I’m just calling it now...Kazuya’s grandma is the real best girl of the series. If you want a harem that’s actually funny and doesn’t mind roasting the protagonist, give this one a shot. Although I wish this were just a straight up romance instead of a harem because there is no way in hell that any girl, let alone more than one would want actually to date this guy. 

Next Seasons and Continuations!

*Fruits Basket 2019 (Season 2): Thank goodness Fruits Basket wasn’t delayed or cancelled last season because sometimes I feel like it was the only thing getting me through the spring. I’ve ranted about how good it is enough by now. If it can’t brighten your year, then nothing will. Just watch it if you haven’t already. 

*Re:ZERO-Starting Life in Another World (Season 2): Subaru is still trapped in another world, and he’s still as angsty as ever, but that’s not going to stop him from constantly putting himself through hell when he keeps dying horribly every time he needs to reset the timeline! There are mysterious new villains, nobody knows who Rem is (again) and I think there’s a plot somewhere under all the suffer porn. Seriously though, this show is pretty cool (even if I was two years late to the party). It’s one of the most interesting isekai anime I’ve ever seen, and it feels like it’s acting as a deconstruction of the genre, kinda like how Madoka Magica is for magical girl anime...both shows certainly have enough crying. The story is weird but interesting, the world building is cool, the villains (and sometimes the heroes) are batshit crazy to watch, and I like its moments of humor. 

No Guns Life (season 2): The story of Juzo, the hard boiled detective who plays by his own rules continues in the second season of No Guns Life. In case you missed the first season, this is a mystery/action anime that feels like an old noir film had a cyberpunk baby. There’s underground conspiracies, there’s interesting side characters, and...oh yeah the main character has a gun for a head. That’s right. we came to see a bara detective with a literal gun for a face, but we stayed for the world building and mysterious plots!

*Fire Force (Season 2): I’m going to be honest here, I really didn’t know if I should include this one or not. I have a major love hate relationship with Fire Force, but I figured there may be other people out there who would like it more than I do. So in case you missed the first season, this show follows a group of firefighters who puts out fires caused by spontaneous combustion using a mixture of guns and super powers. It was created by Atsushi Ōkubo, aka the guy who made Soul Eater. So it’s bound to be amazing right?

Not necessarily. Strap in for this one lads. 

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed with this show overall. Its main characters just aren’t that interesting most of the time, it can’t decide on what kind of show it wants to be, and so much of it just dragged for a good part of the series. I don’t know if it was a problem of pacing or if the plot was just that uninteresting for a while. The first couple episodes set up a very unique plot, filled with intriguing moral dilemmas. And then it proceeded to abandon everything interesting in favor of badly timed fan-service. It just couldn’t strike the balance that Soul Eater had between its humor and its sincerity. If they wanted to make an ecchi show, they should have just made one instead of inserting the same overplayed scenarios into every episode. I don’t care if a show has fan-service as long as it fits the tone, or if it only has certain episodes dedicated to playing up the humor. But Fire Force has a habit of just inserting it wherever it wants regardless of what’s actually happening in the episode. Also, some of the humor revolves around one of the main female characters who has a really messed up self image because she’s slightly more muscular, and not a tiny delicate flower like some of the other girls. Not going to pretend that doesn’t bug me. 

But that doesn’t mean there is nothing good about it! If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t have finished the first season, and I wouldn’t be including this one. So far, the second season has actually been funny because it made the first episode more like filler, instead of cramming in too much plot all at once. And to the surprise of no one, the animation is absolutely god tier. I wish it was being used for something other than clumsy fan-service, but it’s still really something to see. The world building is super creative and 100% my aesthetic, and there were a couple side characters I really loved later in the series (Benimaru). And I did like the twists and turns the series took later in the season when it actually focused on the conspiracy behind the fire force and the cult. When it follows the mysteries it sets up, it’s more fun to watch. Who would have thought? 

TLDR: There’s good stuff and there’s bad stuff. This show is really something you have to watch for yourself to decide if it’s going to be worth it. I’m going to at least try the second season, because I want to see where this goes, but it’s on thin ice. 

Honorable Mentions

Isekai edition! Both of these came out last season, but I hadn’t mentioned them when I made my spring list. But they’re both getting dubs now so I’m still counting them.

*My Next Life as a Villainess- All Routes Lead to Doom!: A twist on the isekai genre where our main protagonist wakes up as a character in her favorite otome game...only to find that she’s actually the bitchy rival side character who ends up either dead or exiled in every route of the game. So naturally she does everything she can to prevent this by becoming a sweet and caring supporting character...who inadvertently makes every single other character in the game fall in love with her. I ignored this show for the first few episodes because I need another isekai in the world like I need a hole in the head, but after hearing everyone rave about it, I caught up with it in no time. It’s a fun take on the otome game tropes, and it manages to be funny and sweet while not committing to any particular pairing.

*Ascendance of a Bookworm (Season 2): That’s right, it’s another isekai where an adult is reincarnated into the body of a child in a fantasy world. But this time, it’s a nerdy girl whose entire purpose in life revolves around reading books (can relate). However, when our main character Mine is thrust into this fantasy world, she quickly realizes that this particular fantasy setting is a little too...medieval  for her tastes...meaning a family of commoners like hers would have no clue how to read and books are only meant for rich people or the church. So of course Mine has to figure out how to either get her hands on some books or make them herself. This is a super cute show that I waited a long time to finally watch, and since the second season is finally being dubbed I wanted to shout it out. It’s just a wholesome isekai version of Dr. Stone. There’s no real action, but it’s a relaxing watch if nothing else. 

Well, there you have it. Hopefully nothing else gets delayed or cancelled because it’s pretty slim pickings as it is. And before anyone asks, I didn’t include GIBIATE because I thought it was a massive disappointment that somehow made a time travel horror anime plot boring. There’s also My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu, but it’s been 5 years since I watched the other seasons and don’t remember anything about it. But there’s that too in case anyone is a fan of the series and didn’t know it got another season. 

See you next season…if the world is still here by then?

[golden-saga-imagines]

Hey! Wondering if I could request an imagine with the main 4 and their opinions on valentine's day and if they'd do anything with their s/o on that day???

Yes, of course! I hope you like these headcanons. Enjoy! 💕 💕

LUPIN

💰 You know he had pointed this day in the calendar months ago, therefore, he’s eager to celebrate it. Really he doesn’t think is an important date in itself, just only an excuse for stay with you, the most time possible. For loving you only how he does it. So, Lupin loves Valentine’s Day especially if he spends the time with you.

💰 Lupin adore loving you stupidly and exaggeratedly.

💰 Yesterday, you find a note in your study which says: “Get ready to be stole tomorrow by the famous thief Lupin III”. You laugh, you’re delight and wait nervous and excited to the next day. The next morning, when you go to water the garden someone grabs you from the back and he gives you a fright. Is Lupin. He wears a tuxedo with a pink tie.

💰 In the morning, Lupin takes you to the aquarium to see marine creatures. You get dumbfounded when an enormous shark across the aquarium. Lupin gets you to feed the dolphins (and also the piranhas, but this is less legal). The security guard finds you and you have to run away.

💰 Later, he invites you an Italian restaurant, where the food is tasty. You have a conversation with him very pleasant, you talk about everything a little and your projects of future. While this lunch, Lupin gifts you a beautiful earrings, they’re make of sapphire and diamond. They are especially beautiful.  

💰 Later, when the sun falls, Lupin takes you at wine tasting in private vineyard, you’re very excited because you never have gone to one. But, when you’re done, you’re pretty drunk, you have to do a break to continue with the journey.

💰 Lupin cooks the dinner, he cooks your favourite recipes, in this time you drink water, still you feel the vapours of alcohol in your mind and you’re bit sleepy. After the dessert, Lupin’s favourite part is coming.

💰 You only have to caress his neck with your finger for Lupin jump over you, he is already naked, Lupin devour you to kisses. He’s euphoric. And before you realize it, you’re in the bed, with his hands in your skin and you sigh his name.

 JIGEN

🥃 He’s old for this shit. Especially when his heart has been broken so many times. He tell you actively and passively that he will not celebrate this. But, oh boi, you know he wil. Not the same way of Lupin, but yes by his own form.

🥃 Jigen will run away all day of Lupin, before he mocks of the gunman. Jigen takes you to lunch at some beautiful place, where there aren’t many people, he makes sure to sit in a private space. You’re very happy because you hadn’t expect that. Is a quiet place, cosy and comfortable.

🥃 Sometimes, Jigen takes your hand while he’s talking. Upon leaving the restaurant, Jigen kisses you.

🥃 Later, you return at his safe house. Jigen turn on the radio and search classical music, his favourite, for calm both you. When you’re sitting in the sofa, you listen a beautiful and slow song, you stand up, you place in front of Jigen. He looks you confused and raise an eyebrow that hide under the shadow of his hat. You smiles him and make a reverence, reach out your hand and he takes it.

🥃 You get him out dancing.

🥃 Jigen gifts you a beautiful half smile, the takes off his hat and his jacket. He takes your hand and caresses your waist, you rest your head in his chest. Jigen dance slow against you, the dance doesn’t coincide with the song, but you don’t care, you’re so focus in Jigen that not even you realize it. The dance is comfortable and intimate. He touches his forehead with yours and smiles you while he swings.

🥃 When the song ends he kisses you while you sink your fingers between his hairs.

 GOEMON

🎐 He doesn’t understand the point of Valentine’s Day. That is to say, he loves you all and each days of the year. What’s so especial this day? He doesn’t loves you more only because it’s February 14th. Nevertheless, he accepts the chocolates if you gift it him (because he loves the chocolate).

🎐 If you want to do some special, Goemon won’t refuse to do it, he loves see your eyes shine of happiness. He smiles when looks you, his smiles are so beautiful. If you want go out, he takes you a Japanese restaurant, it’s really good. A real one. Where the food aren’t only cheap sushi. He’s very pleased and proud that you like this place.

🎐 After eating, he takes a park, where some cherry trees and almond trees have already bloomed. Goemon walks with you, he likes it because is an activity similar to meditation, you provide him calm and harmony, for this he loves you so many. He isn’t a fan of PDA, just thinking about it, his ears colours of red. But, for this special day, he takes your hand while you’re walking. And he will kisses you if you’re alone, especially if you’re under the cherry trees. Goemon loves the way how look you smile between the pink of the flowers.

🎐 Later, he takes you to hot springs. For your disappointment there aren’t mixed pools. Anyway, you enjoy very much, there’s a perfect atmosphere and you see the cherry trees which surrounded the pools. When you get out, Goemon waits you in the door of women, he accompanies you until your bedroom, where there’s a great banquet: sushi, okonomiyaki, yakitori, monjayaki and dorayakis and dangos. You dinner so fast and finally you sleep with Goemon.

 ZENIGATA

🚔 Actually Zenigata thinks Valentine’s Day isn’t so special, but he knows this day is important for you, therefore, Koichi doesn’t have any problem with that. Nevertheless, it’s possible he forget it because he has a lot of work. But when he remembers it, he will fix it right now, he is the inspector who almost catching Lupin III, he’s intelligent and quick.

🚔 When Zenigata sees you in the door of police station he realizes to what day is today. He pretends he remember that, and he gives thanks to his past himself to have booked an appointment in a restaurant for today. It’s a Arabian restaurant, he knows you love this food, you will die for the hummus, especially for the aubergine. Zenigata prefers Japanese food, but this is good too.

🚔 The restaurant is very nice, you sit in some cushions in front of Zenigata, between both there is a low table of wood, you’re surrounded of lattices. Is a private place, you like the atmosphere. The food smell good and taste better.

🚔 Later you walk through the streets, in a moment Zenigata disappears and he buy an orange rose of wood, but it smell like one; when you want to realize it he stay at your side. When you arrive your home, Koichi hands you the flower, you kiss his cheek and give him thanks. This rose never will wither.

🚔 This afternoon, you stay in the sofa watching your favourite movie with Zenigata, he rest his arm in your shoulder and his temple in your head, he loves how your hair smell. You cuddle with him. When the night appears, Zenigata cook the dinner with you, although he’s a bit clumsy in the kitchen, Koichi manages to do a great work. The dinner smells tasty.

🚔 After the dinner, you drink hot chocolate in the sofa with a blanket cover you while Zenigata kisses you and tells you how loves you.

 Ari  🌿

[deltaengineering]

Imagine there was a summer 2020 anime season

Sorry I bailed on the season impressions, it just got depressing. Though that does mean I actually watched only decent and up shows this season.

No Guns Life

Well, “decent” is somewhat debatable. No Guns Life is still nothing but its key visual voiced by Junichi Suwabe. But it’s a very cool key visual, and a very cool voice actor. The noir mood, when present, delivers - the long and short of it is that every scene with saxophone music is good. I didn’t feel the rest much though, because I just can’t bring myself to care about Tetsuro, or Mary’s brother, or fucking Pepper of all people. And a lot of the season, including the climax, sure did revolve around them a lot, huh. Not to mention that there is of course nothing that could be considered an ending, but I knew that already. And I knew the rest of the problems already too, to be honest, so I’m hardly disappointed. Everything about Juzo, character development, flashbacks, having a gun for a head, etc, was still good. 6/10

Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater

Well guess the fuck what, Doga Kobo made a Kiraralike about fishing. 6/10

Okay, okay, fine. Breakwater is well above average for this kind of show (better than Koisuru Asteroid if nothing else), but it’s still not outstanding or even memorable - It’s not as good as Yuru Camp, and that’s not mentioning examples I think are actually significantly better than Yuru Camp. On the other hand, it does nothing wrong (drunk teacher character probably gets the closest, but it doesn’t amount to a whole problem) and several things right, such as, yes, being chill and unexciting. So it’s better than expected, but the score doesn’t change. 6/10

Deca-Dence

Hey, Deca-Dence is cool. Not the most innovative, but a nice mashup of action anime things with some cool visual flair. It’s pretty fun! Even if everything related to the tankers (including Natsume) eventually turns out to be nothing but a prop for Kabu’s development. Oh and the monster CG is fucking terrible, so I can’t call it a feast for the eyes. But yeah, fine seasonal consumption anime.

Of course that’s not the story with this property though. D-D is fine, good even, but it was hyped up to nauseating levels because the creative team Mob Psycho 100 and other overrated nonsense was involved. I don’t want to talk about MP100 yet again but D-D looks nowhere near as good, not does the writing stink as much. The point of this isn’t MP100 anyway, but that this review is dedicated to the people who convinced themselves that D-D was amazing before they ever saw a frame of it, continued to call it amazing when it continued to not be, then fantasized about it was the most savage takedown of capitalism since Das Kapital when the best it had to offer was some generic “authoritarianism bad, yo” takes (not wrong, but also something so tepid that even noted thematic tire fire Darling in the Franxx managed to do it), and finally docked it half a point from perfection when the ending wasn’t at all about the thing the show never was about in the first place. A moderately clever, mostly good looking, generally entertaining anime with an insufferable fanbase. 7/10

Appare-Ranman

So here’s where we get to the real good stuff. Appare-Ranman has low to moderate ambition (the idea here is to be goofy and fun first and foremost), but the execution is ace - especially the writing, which is essentially perfect for what it wants to do and introduces just enough realness on the edges to not turn into a complete frivolity. Once you get used to the character designs (which are definitely an acquired taste, but I can’t say they don’t fit the show), it’s smooth cruising. The pacing is on point as well, turns out that there’s something to the idea of writing an original TV show in a way that perfectly fits its episodic presentation. And yes, Kenjiro Tsuda completely obliterates the scenery in the role of mild-mannered, low-key gentleman racer Richard Riesman, which seems oddly outside of his wheelhouse but okay. 8/10

Great Pretender

Now this is a hard followup to write, because most of what’s rad about Appare-Ranman is also rad about Great Pretender. Except GP is just, on average, even better at it, and it features a more interesting conceit and more ambition to boot. I love how it looks (yes, really), I love the character designs, and I love me some heist movies. This is the closest we ever got to a real Cowboy Bebop of this generation, and by that I mean that it’s another instance of “Lupin III, with some contemporary updates, and what if we just make every episode good”. There’s still some problems that keep it from being excellent, but it’s mostly minor things and not core issues -  things like the occasional overuse of insert songs. Or that the villains are set up as being more than just a bit too evil for how lighthearted everything always plays out in the end (this matters less than you’d think because it doesn’t lead to whiplash, it’s very gradual). And yes, more ambitious than Appare-Ranman, but hardly very ambitious on an absolute scale. In the end, all of those are fridge problems – something that lowers the score when I gots me thinkin’ trousers on, but not much of anything that dampens the enjoyment in the moment. In fact, it’s better than Kaguya S2 so  fall season will have to try unusually hard to keep this from AOTY. 8.49998/10

[paunchsalazar]

hey!! bro ur my number #1 source for lupin III content so can I ask like how in the hell I go about watching all the series / movies / etc for it in order??? I’m really pumped for the live action so I wanna at least dip into all the other stuff. thanking ya kindly //tips hat

hello!!! what an honor!! oh my… ok I’m so sorry in advance… I’ve gotten a few similar asks and I started writing out a list and it was getting over 1500 words long so I had to try to chill out…so…

LUPIN III CRASH COURSE

I’m sorry that this is so long.. and consider I cut it down! but here is my intro because I know this franchise is huge and confusing!! (I’ve had multiple instances of friends being like ‘I tried to find that Lupin thing you like but I could only find the third one?’) 

I kind of liken it to Scooby Doo? it stretches some 60 years and has been handled by many different writers, directors, and animators across very different eras? most important to know! the order doesn’t really matter and things aren’t really sequential (save for where the three most recent shows) so you can jump in and explore whatever seems compelling! it’s overwhelming because there is so much but also nice because there’s something for everybody! if you like fun and pure, edgy, etc. etc. 

feel free to disregard everything coming… I will say my personal priority order is

- Castle of Cagliostro

- some episode of part 2

- part IV, ideally all of it! there’s filler but it’s hard to know which ones

- part I (or some episodes of it? up to you!)

- Fuma Conspiracy

- part V 

- part III (it’s great too!! just not as sequential as IV and V)

- First Contact… truly indulgent but its so cute!

(below I broke down a little about each and my favorite episodes, where to find them, etc. and there’s so much more but just doing everything below is a whole lot)

TV (All the shows except for The Woman Called Fujiko Mine are on Crunchyroll!)

Part 1 (1971) - crunchyroll!

The beginnings kind of a weird feeling because the first half was directed with one vision vs. the second half being co-directed by Takahata and Miyazaki, there’s a shift in Lupin’s personality and most significantly they sought to shed his ‘sense of apathy’ and make him more of a hero? something that’s echoed later on! honestly, I don’t think the transition is as dramatic as some people find it? but it does shift across the episodes and end on a sweet note!

truly they all have something to enjoy but I made note of 

episodes 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 23 

for some reason? really really suggest watching the last episode! but get a bit of the first and second half beforehand!

Part II/Red Jacket (1977-80) - 155 episodes - on crunchyroll dubbed and subbed

there are a lot so I tried to narrow it down to a few of my favorites/ particularly noteworthy ones? I bolded my absolute favorites! I’m sure I missed a few but save for a few two-episode arcs you can jump in anywhere and it’ll be fine.

episodes 1-79 are dubbed on Crunchyroll! In my personal opinion the script makes it worth it!! there are a bunch of non-dubbed episodes anyway if you want to get a feel for both

(these episode titles are often hilarious, misleading, and/or horribly embarrassing?)

1 - ‘The Return of Lupin the Third’ - just a good starting point!

5 - ‘Will the Leaning Tower of Pisa Be Standing?’

6 - ‘Tutankhamen’s 3,000-Year-Old Curse’

7 - ‘Venetian Super Express’ - I want to say this is a cute little road trip episode? it’s been so long

9 - ‘Steal the FIle M123’ - this dub… madness. very strange Christopher Walken impression for absolutely no reason?

10 - ‘Bet on the Monaco Grand Prix’

15 - ‘Crude Reproduction, Perfect Frame’ - Lupin keeps committing strange and uncharacteristic crimes, but he has no memory of doing so!

29 - ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ - Lupin has some mysterious Levitation Technique and everyone is after it 

32 - ‘Lupin the Interred’ A famed hitman is after Lupin!

34 - ‘But Your Brother Was Such A Nice Guy’ - this episode is one of the zaniest ones and that’s saying a lot… Vampires? Jesus? Really really funny moments though especially in the dub

42 - ‘Cruisin’ in Drag’ Lupin infiltrates the ship of a wealthy bachelor disguised as a woman 

45 - ‘Diamonds and Minx’ kind of a mess of people stealing from each other? 

46 - ‘The Island of Dr. Derange’

57 - ‘Alter-Ego Maniac’ - Inspector Zenigata goes criminal

62 - ‘Church of the Poison Mind’ - Jigen and Goemon stumble into a religious cult

69 - ‘Zenigata Getcha Into My Life’ - this title is awful but this episode is great. 

78 - ‘Ice, Robot’ - an inventor has made a machine that can cry diamonds!

79 - ‘Baton Death March’ 

81 - ‘Fujiko, Men are a Sorry Lot!” - Fujiko gets engaged to a Prince, the rest of the gang goes after the monarchy’s Golden Bell

96 - ‘Lupin’s Gourmet World’ tbh this is a vore episode but there are some great gang moments here and a really fun third act

99 - ‘Fighting Jigen’ - first anime episode (I think like in history? but I could’ve misread) in stereo! And I believe the first to air of the TMS staff’s work, you can tell because the style shifts to a more Miyazaki/Cagliostro look and this will keep happening for the rest of the show

101 - ‘Fervent Love at Versailles’ - a crossover episode with Rose of Versailles! 

103 - ‘The Wolf Looked at an Angel’ - Goemon is an angel I can say little else

104 - ‘The Most Dangerous Golden Bed’ - debut of perhaps the best opening! I love this episode?? so much?

112 - ‘Danger! Goemon’ 

122 - ‘An Unusual End to an Expedition for Napoleon’s Treasure’ 

143 - ‘The Miami Bank’ 

145 - ‘Wings of Death: Albatross’ - ah yes, one of the famed Miyazaki-directed episode, truly so worth it

151 - ‘To Arrest Lupin, the Mission at the Highway’ - another not exactly Miyazaki episode but a lot of the people he trained? They depart from the part 2 style(s) again but its a good bit of fun all around! Really lovely character animation

152 - ‘Jigen and the Hatless Pistol’ - Jigen loses his hat and thus his ability to shoot

155 - ‘Thieves Love the Peace/Farewell, Dear Lupin’ - the finale episode! Miyazaki-directed as well, and just beautiful 

Part III (1984) - 50 episodes - crunchyroll!

I’m still very early in this one so I can’t say much yet! But it gets a bad rep? Perhaps for being more inconsistent stylistically and a bit on the zanier end! But I really like it!! these drawings are such a blast! I think each bit has its merits and this one is no exception. Plus with all their freedom animation-wise they can do a lot of fun stuff!

The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (2012) - 13 episodes - on kissanime for certain and I think animetake?

this is the most dramatic departure from the rest of the shows/films/specials. Fujiko Mine is the star of this part! It definitely has less obviously plot-important episodes but it’s one narrative from start to finish. I must note that it’s by far Lupin’s edgiest, I think it’d be safe to deem this part as R-Rated. There’s sex, violence, sexual violence, abuse, bodily mutilation, obsession… a gay character who gets a pretty tragic fate (at first I was excited by the very existence of an LGBT+ character but he really goes through the wringer and never gets a resolution.. I don’t want to spoil). This is probably Lupin at his ickiest? I do like Jigen’s personality here! And his dynamic with Fujiko, but it’s a lot more disjointed than the other parts. She meets each of them separately and towards the end, Lupin and Jigen interact more but there’s barely a time when they’re all together. That’s not meant to be a deterrent but personally, I’m a sucker for their friendship and love them as a group so it’s a bit of a bummer. Sequential plot-wise though! This one is definitely captivating, a bit disturbing, and there is a plot-twist that really got me. The villain design is really cool too!

Part IV (2015) - 26 episodes - on crunchyroll, also dubbed on Funimation

This part is narrative-based and sequential! It still has some more standalone episodes but there’s definitely an overarching story throughout! I think they’re all worth watching and might leave little important bits that’ll be confusing later on. Essentially this part takes place in Italy for the most part and starts with Lupin getting married to a multi-millionaire heiress/model/celebrity who wants to get into the thief business. This one feels like a good combination of old and new, it’s not quite as silly as the earlier parts can be, but it’s full of nostalgia while still feeling original. I really had a good time!

This dub isn’t bad but!! It comes with a different opening and soundtrack, I guess Lupin’s pretty big in Italy and perhaps there were licensing issues? I’m not sure? But it’s a bit of a bummer to be without the Yuji Ohno soundtrack. The alternate opening feels more like a collection of stills and footage found throughout the show? It’s not horrible, just different! Regardless, the Part IV Japanese OP (vs. the Italian/US one) is worth a watch!

Part V (2018, airing on Adult Swim right now, summer 2019!) - 23 episodes 

I’m actually not done with this part but its good fun! more directly tied to part iv then the others are to each other. It’s more sequential as well with a few sub-arcs and since it fell on the franchise’s anniversary it has callback episodes with Lupin in various jackets in various tones. Interesting Lupin characterization here… he seems… sadder, wistful? and we get hints of Lupin lore! Lots of fanservice but… I love it! I still think they could’ve pushed it more? it feels somehow more reserved than part IV in some ways, which is already different from the 70s and 80s, but it’s got a lot of lovely moments!!

Films/TV Specials

From 1989 to 2011 they had a special every year!! So much!

Castle of Cagliostro (1979) - Available on Netflix! 

perhaps the best-known piece of media in the Lupin franchise? And rightly so. This film is Hayao Miyazaki’s directing debut and a blast from start to finish! This characterization of Lupin is definitely Miyazaki’s more than Monkey Punch’s but that seems to be the strange nature of the Lupin franchise! I could really go on forever… please watch it!

The Fuma Conspiracy (1987) - 

perhaps harder to find, but it’s on Kissanime! Goemon is getting married but before the ceremony is over the bride is taken by the Fuma ninja clan and the gang helps him to get her back as well as learn the story of a family heirloom? Really great stuff from everybody! Adorable Zenigata, the fluffiest and most handsome Goemon, cute Jigen, Fujiko, and Lupin interactions, a really really incredible car chase! Even with Cagliostro’s fame, this one has got some serious pizzazz

Episode 0: The First Contact (2002) - on Kissanime as well! 

A journalist asks Jigen how he met Lupin III, this is probably my favorite TV special? And features one of my favorite opening scenes in the whole franchise. The instrumental!! Perhaps each member of the gang at their purest, whatever that means, really great moments between everybody and peak Lupin and Jigen meeting and somehow signing up to be life partners

[thotyssey]

On Point With: DJ Ten Yards

Sam Branman, the DJ third of Brooklyn nightlife monster trio Str8 to DVD, is also churning out some of the skimpiest and most fashionable Speedos on the planet (among other things). Thotyssey tries to keep up with Ten Yards!

Thotyssey: DJ, hello! Thanks for chatting with us today! First of all, OMG YOU GOT HIT BY A CAR!? How exactly did this happen, and how are you?

DJ Ten Yards: It was super fucking annoying. I was actually on my way to Annie Mae, which is Laè D Boi’s party (currently first Sundays at The Rosemont) I’m the resident DJ / video curator for, and I was literally crossing the street one block from my house and a fucking pickup truck hit me from behind! I’m mostly okay--my left arm got banged up and I’m doing PT to get that back to full fighting strength. They also destroyed my laptop! The truck actually sped off after hitting me, but I found it thanks to some nosy neighbors, and I’m starting legal proceedings. I obviously didn’t make it to the party, and went to the ER instead.

Does this bring home how terrible the world and it's people can be?

I mean, everyone who saw me get hit were super nice and helpful! I’m not letting one asshole who can’t drive ruin my worldview. even if it did jack my arm up.

That's the spirit! Will you still be making it to DragCon, if that's something you were planning to do?

Absolutely! I’m lucky in that I am able to work on jewelry and I’ve been preparing for it for months, so I have a lot of apparel no one’s seen yet ready to go! I’m at table C31, and I’m there all weekend (except Saturday morning because there’s no way I’m going directly from Str8 to DVD to DragCon, which starts at 9. My husband Erik can work that alone.)

Between your designs and your DJ’ing, there's lots to talk about, so we better start right at the beginning. Where's your hometown, and what came first: fashion or music?

I grew up mostly in Olive Bridge, NY, but I just say I’m from Woodstock because it’s the closest landmark that people who aren’t from there know. Fashion came first! I loved dressing up as a child, and I started sewing what mostly resembled actual clothing when I was 18. I had decided to go to college for photography, not fashion. But I’m a big nerd, so I’d do a few cosplay projects to wear at the anime conventions I went to every summer.

Who were you cosplaying as?

My first actual cosplay was Hirai Ken from the “Pop Star” video. There’s three of him in different colored jumpsuits, and I could sort of do the hair he has in the red one! I also did a very loose Tommy February6 (we share a birthday!), invented a fake Japanese band with friends, and Ray Watts from KMFDM / PIG / Schwein. I still wear the shirt I made for that, but the jumpsuit was sacrificed last year to become Beltane ribbons, and the others just languish in my clothing labyrinth.

And when did DJing come into the picture?

I’ve always wanted to be musical, but I’m not. I tried to learn instruments, to learn how to write music. I was briefly sort of in a band or two (I even have album credits). I am, however, a collector and very opinionated... so I can DJ! My friend DJ A-Ron’s DJing partner moved away, and he offered to show me the ropes. We did a few gigs together at Nowhere back in 2013, and I struck out on my own DJing for a few now-defunct parties around Manhattan and Brooklyn. I didn’t start the drag-DJ gig until Qhrist With a Q and Sherry Poppins asked me to do what was then 1-900-HOT-GLUE two years ago!

You met Qhrist in a nerdy chat room, right?

Yep! Eightish years ago? I helped convince Qhrist to go to Purchase, too.

Good for you! What was the rationale at the time behind creating HOT GLUE, which is now STR8 to DVD?

At the beginning, I was just helping out! They wanted to make a space for themselves and the other performers coming out of Purchase, like Maxxx Pleasure, Lindsay Blowhan, and Jenn D'Role, and I was along for the ride. I didn’t initially do any production work besides promo, letting Qhrist and Sherry stay at my place, and making sure I had everyone’s music at first. But now we all do booking / coming up with names. I’ve been the one finding our newbie performers all year long, and I convinced them to change the name to STR8 to DVD.

This has become a hugely popular night, enough so to warrant a recent move from monthly Mondays to Fridays! What have been some memorable moments for you from STR8?

Every single one of Qhrist and Sherry’s stupid, perfect, beautiful, unrehearsed duets. They’re so good together that people don’t realize how unrehearsed they are. When Sherry was still getting ready at my house with Qhris, they might listen to the song once or twice to get the words down, but that’s it! 

I’m also very fond of our massively overbooked Halloween show last year, when we all kept booking people and forgetting until it was too late. We wound up with 9 performers and 13 actual numbers. It was perfect. Half of them involved food, because we’re gross and live in Brooklyn.

That reminds me, I hear that pasta and fake blood were factors in a perilous Bushwig this summer!

I fully missed all of the mess, because of where my booth was at Bushswag! I couldn’t see shit. I made sure to see the performers I’d made clothes for, and my personal legends like Charlene, Untitled, Ragamuffin, Tyler Ashley, and Chutney Spears with that fucking snake.

Gurl, that snake! So STR8 is turning 2 this Friday at Gold Sounds ... what's in store for the anniversary?

STUPIDITY! I’m glad we’re leaning into being irredeemable and canceled. Qhrist already has to redo the flyer because one performer canceled, we forgot we booked one performer, and Lindsay Blowhan is coming all the way up from Virginia for it, and we should probably have her perform? I guess? It’s not like she’s Sherry’s daughter and performed at our first, like, six shows or anything. 

We’ve got Sandy Devastation who made her debut at STR8 to DVD, Papusa Smear who made their debut with us, and Kaey Kiel, a nice cabaret singer and journalist from Berlin who doesn’t deserve to deal with any of this! She’s staying with my husband and her dream is to perform in New York, so we’re making all her dreams come true.

Another monthly (third Saturdays, in this case) you've been DJing, Emi Grate's “A+: The Asian Revue,” has also recently had it's own (1st) anniversary, and has moved to The Monster in the West Village. What has it been like, being a part of that?

It’s super fun! Emi is so fucking on top of every detail. She sends out a multi-page email with every piece of information you could ever want, she has the lineup a month in advance sometimes, and the show is at a reasonable hour! Never underestimate how great it is to leave the gig at 10pm and still be able to go out afterwards... or even just go home, have dinner, and go to bed. Because of the way Gold Sounds is set up, I don’t actually do much DJ work if there aren’t drag queens on stage. But with A+ (and Annie Mae), I spend a significant amount of time actually DJing. That’s always fun. For both those shows, I play exclusively Jpop and Kpop (and would happily take suggestions for fun pop and dance music from throughout Asia! A cute boy suggested some Hindi pop songs at the most recent A+)

And the next “Annie Mae” is October 7 at the Rosemont! That's a super geeky celebration of genre fan culture that Laé D. Boi produces. That must be right up your ally!

It is! I always choose anime movies or TV shows to screen during the party on top of DJing! This month the theme is Studio Ghibli, so I think I’m gonna be playing Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and either Pompoko or Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro. I’m pretty sure Sherry Poppins will bring one of her swords, too.

So, your Ten Yards clothing line is all the rage! The sexy and colorful speedos are especially in demand! How did this come about?

I wanted to make bathing suits--made a few for myself. And then it felt like suddenly people started asking me to make them suits, and now here I am! A local bathing suit mogul. It’s been over four years, and all it took was saying “Sure, I can do that.” and then figuring it out.

How long does it take you to make a speedo now?

My first few took time, but I’m a fucking wizard now. Obviously with my arm it’s hard right now, but I can make a speedo from start to finish in about 35 minutes. Jockstraps are 27 minutes if I go at full speed!

And now you’re bringing us jewelry as well!

You can thank my mom for the jewelry! She made it all in the 80’s and early 90’s. I’m just the refurbishing squad. I’m actually photographing it right now, so I have a record of it, because most of it’s totally unique and once it is gone, it’s gone.

And much-belated congratulations on having your Fashions nominated for a Brooklyn Nightlife Award a few months back.

It was amazing to be nominated, and I knew I would lose to Florence or Diego because they’re both powerhouses! Luckily, Florence moved to Manhattan, so I have an entire year to snatch that brick from Diego’s beautiful and talented hands.

Another thing to congratulate you on: being happily married! That may sound trite, but finding true love in the nightlife biz is damn hard. What’s your secret?

So, part of it is that we don’t live together, so I’m usually not disturbing him when I come home at 4am. And when we have problems, we talk it out! Erik’s also a lovely angel who supports me no matter what. He helps out whenever I have to sell shit, and buys fabric and zippers even if it makes him nervous. But he has a day job, so he’s only been able to come to three of my gigs in the five and a half years we’ve been together.

I also wasn’t working in nightlife when we met! That probably helps, too. He’s been there every step of the way as I’ve made the switch into nightlife and fashion design.

Okay, do you have anything else you wanna plug or discuss before I ask the closer?

Nah, just a schedule recap for people who get lost in my rambling! STR8 To DVD: CANCELED is at Gold Sounds (44 Wilson Ave) on 9/28, we have shows at Midnight, and it costs $5-10. I’ll be at table C31 during DragCon (that’s the 28-30th at the Javits, ugh), Annie Mae: Ghibli is at The Rosemont on 10/07, and is free, I’ll be there at 10:30 to start the movies! See you there!

Finally: who would you really love to see in one of your speedos?

Anyone who wants a pair! But I wouldn’t say no to some Instagram thots with 30k+ followers, so long as they tag me.

Thanks, Ten!

Check Thotyssey’s calendar for DJ Ten Yards’ upcoming gigs, and follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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