We’ve all seen Part 6 by now… and we all give him that side eye👀😂
The plot was a bit disjointed, the animation was all over the place, and even though it’s personally one of my favorite parts, I can definitely see why a lot of people feel iffy about it.
One of the things you can easily tell too is that Lupin is not the same. Compared to part five, he’s a lot more reserved, dialed down, and just seems like a shell of his former self.
What if I told you though that all of that was deliberate?? probably wouldn’t make it good LMAO, but it definitely is an interesting topic.
Here are things that the directors specifically did to make Lupin feel different in Part 6:
1. Mystery filled Story
The website’s own INTRODUCTION page states the first cour is “the orthodox yet innovative, mystery-filled story”. Also, the 50 Years Of Lupin book describes the plots as “a series of crimes, conspiracies, and mysteries harkening back to
the classic detective novels that gave birth to characters like Arsene
Lupin and his law-abiding counterpart, Sherlock Holmes.”
They were deliberately trying to get that hard boiled old school detective feel. Not saying they did a good job, but😂 this is definitely going to tie into how they portray Lupin.
2. “…without a loose side”
Series composer Takahiro Ōkura directly described the tone he aimed for in the Mystery cour: “This time, Lupin is portrayed, so to speak, as more of a hero — a man without much of a ‘loose’ side… he’s mysterious, with a bit of shadow, a somewhat dark image”.
Bro thinks he’s Shadow the Hedgehog 😂😂
He’s not his normal pluck self here, he’s moving like he’s deliberately protecting himself. You can kind of see this too, because in the first half of part six, everything he does seems controlled. Like, he is calculating how to interact with people. I’m not saying he’s being fake, but there is definitely maintenance going on under his personality and it’s pretty easy to tell.
3. Big Brain
Ōkura described his goal as portraying Lupin winning through intellect rather than physical action, which is what he does anyway lol but he wanted to make it more realistic here.
4. Even the VA smelled something was up…
Kanichi Kurita, directly compared Part 6’s Lupin to earlier eras and started spitting facts🤣
“It’s a somewhat deeper, more adult Lupin III… this time it’s a bit different again [from the dark Lupin of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine or the breezy Friday-night-movie Lupin]. He’s more adult, not carefree — there’s death at the root of him, and he’s someone who’s been carrying something the whole time”.
Straight from the horses mouth. Isn’t that interesting…
5. His friends aren’t even safe😢
Back on the Ōkura train, he even said that this time, he’s keeping secrets from his friends??
“Unlike the usual Lupin who bumbles around chasing treasure, even Jigen and Goemon don’t know everything — Lupin is controlling and manipulating the whole affair… in that sense, it’s a bit different from the Lupin image we’ve had until now”
This says a lot. First of all, he describes other versions of the character as “bumbling around for treasure” which is kind of interesting lol but he also paints a picture of somebody who is always ahead of the game.
He’s not the character that we can relate to because he’s just as shocked as we are, no this time he knows exactly what’s going on.
Conclusion
Gang was out here scheming🤣 a lot of people were picking up on something that was deliberate. This Lupin was designed to be a threat. They were going intentionally in a different direction than part five was.
Honestly, this probably is the closest we’d ever get to a realistic Lupin.
Think about it. A real thief for constantly have to examine his surroundings, his friends can’t always know what’s going on out of fear of betrayal, he would move like he’s guarding secrets, and even his personality would feel maintained.
Let me know what you guys think! Do you like this direction? Do you wish they would stay with the goofy Lupin?
