5 Point Discussions – Lupin The III Part V, Ep. 2: “The Lupin Game”

Can the world’s greatest detective figure out a way to avoid a world where everyone’s tracking him down?  Or is he doomed to be captured, bringing an end to the Lupin Game?  Remember, if you like this article and 5 Point Discussions, please share it on Facebook or Twitter! It really helps. And if you’ve got any comments or questions, please hit me up @SageShinigami.

1. Trapped in an airport where there are dozens of people recording their every move, while the cops are closing in, Lupin, Goemon, Jigen, and Ami are forced to try and escape nonetheless. Ami continues making herself useful, guiding the group from the carport then to the nearest empty plane. Lupin breaks into an electric vehicle and just narrowly makes it to a location on the airport holding a helicopter plane. Only…it needs electricity to get started. Obviously, Zenigata cuts the power to the plane’s garage, meaning Lupin’s only means of escape is shut down.
Or at least, that’s how it should have worked. But Lupin uses the electric car to jumpstart the plane, helping them to escape from being arrested. I’m sure someone has done the math on this already, but it feels like there’s no way an electric car’s battery would’ve had enough juice to get a plane going. Unless they stole a freakin’ Tesla, electric cars can barely make it over 100 miles off a full charge. But an escape is an escape.

2. What tends to escape everyone’s notice is Zenigata is actually a great cop.
Case in point: After a bit of downtime at a secluded location, Lupin decides to make his next move. He appears on a boat, boldly bragging about where he is and transmitting it through video. Zenigata’s assistant wants to head out and pick him up, but Zenigata doesn’t even move. He spots a poster in the background of the boat Lupin’s on and immediately recognizes the plan. Lupin’s intending to travel to a country that isn’t under the jurisdiction of their organization.
Zenigata being clever, just not quite clever enough to keep up with Lupin is key in driving the story. If he’s completely incompetent, then the question becomes “why isn’t he replaced”. There were older episodes in which the character is replaced, and things become even easier for Lupin, causing them to put Zenigata back in charge immediately. We don’t seem to be going in that direction, though.  In fact, judging from the next episode preview there’s a good chance Zenigata and Lupin are going to have to team up soon, which should be even better.

3. Lupin the III, a student of human nature. After booking a trip to Bwanda, Lupin figures out a way to shut the game down. Instead of constantly fleeing and giving people a way to win the game, he starts using the Lupin Game as his personal Instagram. He takes photos with tourists and native citizens, he posts videos of him hanging out–he even uploads pics of his meals!
He correctly surmises if he’s no longer hiding, people will lose interest and stop playing the game. Sure enough, after a few days the people trying to find him drop off massively. There’s no fun trying to catch someone aiming to be caught.  It’s a little bit of a bummer seeing the Game is over so quickly, but it’s also probably the best outcome. In reality, Lupin escaping from the entire world watching him was only going to involve more and more impossible situations as time went on. Cutting it off now makes room for the plot to do more without too many implausible developments.

4. After hanging out with Lupin and the gang for a bit too long for her tastes, Ami finally decides to end her association with Lupin after doing Lupin one final favor. But since the world is awful, she runs into a trio of guys in an alley and things start to look like they’re heading down a pretty dark path…until Lupin pops back up.
In what’s easily the coolest Lupin’s ever looked, he takes out the three crooks without even trying, then threatens to murder them if they try this with another girl. Freakin’ boss.
Ami misinterprets Lupin tracking her down as him wanting to have sex with her, which Lupin denies so vehemently it nearly short out my earbuds. It’s pretty clear Lupin cares about her and wants to save her from the Marco Polo organization, but she’s spent so much time trapped with the dregs of humanity she can’t figure it out without being explicitly told. And of course, Lupin’s too “cool” to explain it to her. That’s cute, and it’s nice for once the hardened anti-hero isn’t pretending he doesn’t care about his young charge, even if he is too embarrassed to spell it out.

5. But he’s not given too much time to spell it out, either. Mid conversation they suddenly find themselves under attack from a who’s who of assassins. Marco Polo didn’t take too kindly to Lupin making their game useless, so they’ve switched to a different game: having people bet on Lupin’s death. It’s a way of putting a hit out on someone without doing it, as now assassins can simply make certain he dies on the day they bet on.
Lupin and Ami wind up on the run from multiple potential assailants, but Lupin’s associates don’t have it any easier. Both Goemon and Jigen have to deal with several killers too! One way or another, things are about to get blood next episode…
Lupin III Part V is available for streaming on Crunchyroll.