Change History

Nov. 10, 1995 -- Created the first true HTML version of this file.
Mar. 31, 1996 -- Added icons and Seiyu List.
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Introduction

Back in 1992, Comic Souris started printing the color comics based on the original Lupin III TV episodes. These are of the "first season" Lupin, or "the Blue Suit Lupin" (ie. -- Lupin's first wardrobe on the show consisted of: a blue suit jacket, green pants, yellow tie, and black shirt.) The Lupin III: The First TV Series Encyclopedia CD-ROM confirms that the order of the TV episodes and the order they are printed in the volumes are the same. Each volume contains 2 episodes, and I am including the episode number with the episode title, and manga volume number.

Below, I have reviewed the stories that are in the manga volumes I was able to locate. The remaining episodes have short summaries based on the information given in the Encyclopedia CD-ROM.
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Seiyu List

The below list of Japanese voice actors came from the list that had been maintained by Hitoshi Doi.


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Lupin III, vol. 1: Castle of Cagliostro

This is actually a 3-book set taken from the movie Castle of Cagliostro. Since there are 23 TV episodes, and only 12 books, one of the episodes -- The Predictive Computer's Tactics has been omitted from the color TV manga collection.
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Episode 1

Lupin III, vol. 2: Lupin is Burning...?!

Over all, the production values in the manga are above average in vol. 2. Since the pictures are taken from the TV show, there's not much to say about the artwork. Basically, this LOOKS like a color comic book. The colors could be a little more vibrant, but that's not a major problem. If you liked the early Lupin series, you'll like this book. There is fighting, death, implied sex, and a panel or two of Fujiko's exposed breasts.

The episode starts out with Lupin entering a car race, and intervening before one mechanic can tamper with the engine of Lupin's race car. We quickly learn that the crime syndicate known as Scorpion is putting on the race just to kill Lupin -- all of the racers, pit crew, and support staff are Scorpion agents. All, that is, except for the police inspector that is also shown in flash-back: Zenigata. Zenigata has entered the race to capture Lupin.

On a hillside, a distance from the race course, Daisuke Jigen is sitting with a radio, keeping in contact with Lupin and Mine Fujiko (Lupin calls her "his lover.") Meanwhile, Fujiko has infiltrated Scorpion's Hotel Miracle, only to be swiftly caught and fastened down to a "tickle board." The head of Scorpion describes his plan: along the race course, there are various traps (oil spills, piles of lumber,) awaiting Lupin. His death will be filmed by the many cameras set up along the way. And, when Lupin dies, so will Fujiko. However, while they're waiting, the leader rips open Fujiko's blouse, and starts the little plastic hands of the tickle board to do their work.

Lupin knows about the traps, though, and he switches places with Jigen during the race, to sneak into the hotel while the baddies think that he is still in his car. Disguised as a plumber, Lupin breaks lots of pipes to flood the basement, and then runs some high voltage wires out to the room where the enemy is watching the TV monitors. Everyone but the leader is electrocuted, and the leader gets shot by one of his own men. Lupin and Fujiko escape, and Lupin re-enters the race to dispose of the remaining Scorpion men. The leader makes it to the race course, and dies thinking that Lupin has been blown up.

It looks like Zenigata is going to come up completely empty-handed, until Fujiko knocks out Jigen, and tells Zenigata how Lupin had faked his alibi with Zenigata as one of the witnesses. In return, Zenigata rips up Fujiko's arrest warrant, and handcuffs Lupin and Jigen. Apologizing to Lupin, Fujiko drives off. Zenigata happily drags Lupin to jail; but, what we see is Zenigata dragging the wreckage of a racecar, tied to his handcuffs.

Lupin pops his head up from the backseat of Fujiko's car, and uses one of the little plastic hands to play with Fujiko's hair. The scene fades out as Fujiko protests Lupin's sexual advances.
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Episode 2

Lupin III, vol. 2: The Man They Call a Magician

In The Man They Call A Magician, a man named Piker gets riddled with machinegun fire from some shadowy agents. Later, on Lupin's estate, Jigen is practicing with his pistol, and Lupin is catching fish for supper. Inside, Fujiko is taking a shower. Lupin fixes supper, and comments (in a flashback) on how he and Jigen had just rescued Fujiko from a house fire. Jigen holds up an octopus (which reappears throughout the episode, for no explained reason,) and gets Lupin recoiling in horror. But, Lupin's carefully planned supper is destroyed when Piker enters the house and kidnaps Fujiko. Piker shoots flame from his fingertip, and takes "combat magnum" bullet rounds to the head without flinching. Apparently, he is an invincible demon.

Lupin and Jigen go to the scene of the house fire, while Piker tortures Fujiko and asks her where the "photos" are. Fujiko pretends to want to have sex with Piker, then pulls out a derringer and shoots the man pointblank -- again, no effect. At Fujiko's burned-out house, the two heroes don't find anything interesting. Then, Jigen discovers 3 film slides hidden in the dashboard of Lupin's car at the same time that Fujiko confesses to Piker.

Lupin studies the slides, but they make no sense to him. Piker returns to Lupin's house, and withstands a grenade blast, and a bazooka round. Piker then sets fire to some furniture with his finger. He also walks on air as Lupin drives away to escape. The last blast of flame destroys Lupin's car, but he and Jigen do get away. Back at his hideout, Piker reads the note that Fujiko left behind, when she slipped out of her ropes.

Jigen is sleeping on the couch, when Lupin comes into the room to show him how the trick with the fire is done. Jigen's pants are extinguished, and Lupin states that Piker has a tube running from a concealed gas can, to his fingertip; it's a small flamethrower. As for walking on air, that's just a very strong sheet of glass that had been rigged in place beforehand. But, they still don't know what the slides are for. At this point, Fujiko shows up, and moves the glass sheet. Lupin discovers this by climbing out the window to grab his lover, and tumbles to the ground. In a daze, he realizes that the slides are three parts of one picture -- made complete by viewing all three at one time. Lupin wants to confront Piker, and Fujiko leaves after reluctantly telling him to be careful.

In his hideout, Piker is awakened by a taped message from Fujiko, stating that Piker is a fake, and Lupin is the strongest man in the world. Piker takes the challenge, and uses a small prop plane to fly over Lupin's car, and drops down on top of the roof. Piker gets into the backseat of the speeding car, and asks where the film is. Lupin answers that it's in his pocket. Piker replies that it can stay there, and shoots Lupin in the back of the head. Lupin's car goes over a cliff, and Piker jumps out before it splashes into the deep water below. Lupin hallucinates Fujiko as a mermaid that tells him goodbye before swimming off; Jigen standing outside the door, saying that Fujiko is a dangerous woman; and an octopus. The octopus turns out to be a rope, and Jigen hauls Lupin to the surface, to safety. When Piker returns to his hideout, Lupin is already there waiting for him. Piker sets Lupin on fire, but it has no effect. Lupin then tells us that the slides contain the formula for a chemical compound that can protect its user from strong impacts and fire. Lupin and Piker get into a fire duel, and Piker loses. The villian uses the trapdoor in the floor of his cabin to reach a rope to climb down to the river raging several hundred feet below them (Piker is living in a cabin attached to the top of a cliff, next to a waterfall.) But, the fire burns through the rope, and Piker is believed to fall to his death.

Back at Lupin's house, Jigen is target practicing again, and Fujiko is seducing Lupin just to get at the formula. However, the slides were destroyed in the fire duel, and Lupin deliberately forgot the formula as well. So, Fujiko bops Lupin on the head with a vase, and leaves. Lupin tries to chase after her, and runs into the sheet of glass again. However, Lupin is philosophical about it all, as the scene fades to black.
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Episode 3

Lupin III, vol. 3: Farewell, Lovable Magic Woman

Not as much to say about this volume. The artwork is average, and the stories are straightforward mind candy.

In Farewell, Lupin goes to an island in search of a scientist who has developed a powerful explosive from the petals of a flower that grows only on this island. Along the way, he falls for the scientist's daughter, Linda, and afoul of the assassin's group -- "Killer In Killers." Lupin gets caught, and KIK's leader, Starn, offers him a chance to join the group. But, Lupin prefers to escape by tying Starn up and impersonating him. KIK wants the flowers to make a bomb devastating enough to make them a world power, and Lupin just wants Linda. Fujiko makes a deal with Linda to ship some of the flowers off the island, but her plane is shot down by KIK.

As KIK starts digging up the flower patch, Lupin sprays it down with gasoline and torches it. However, Linda is actually a byproduct of the flowers, and she dies as well (with the help of a bullet from her father.) KIK shoots and kills the scientist, leaving Starn and Lupin to face each other. At this point (supposedly, the island is at danger from the burning flowers) the only way off the island is via a submerged submarine missile that Lupin learned about from the scientist. Starn intercepts Lupin on the sub, but gets coldcocked by Fujiko. Fujiko also wants to use the missile, but warns that it won't go more than 100 meters with two people aboard. She makes a show of sacrificing herself for Lupin, but smuggles herself aboard, anyway. The missile launches, (probably killing Starn) and goes less than 100 meters. The story ends with the main three sailing on a raft in the ocean, trailing a SOS signal. Jigen is complaining about Fujiko being a dangerous woman (right now, she is getting all the shade from their jackets,) and Lupin tells him to quit complaining.
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Episode 4

Lupin III, vol. 3: One Chance For a Prison Break

One Chance for a Prison Break is a bit unusual in that Lupin gets imprisoned for murder, and Zenigata does his best to have Lupin hang. We start out with Lupin uncovering a cache of gold coins, (and apparently trying to kill three guards,) when Zenigata steps in. Jigen and Fujiko airlift the money box to safety, but Lupin is caught. Fujiko then keeps trying to free Lupin, but Jigen keeps stopping her. Jigen knows that Lupin has a plan, but no clue as to what it is.

However, Lupin goes to jail, and is sentenced to death at the end of one year. He is stripped down, and straitjacketed. And, for the next year, he drives Zenigata crazy by claiming that Lupin has escaped and disguised himself as one of the guards. As time runs out, Zenigata and Jigen are getting really worried. All this time, one Buddhist priest has been visiting Lupin, so Jigen decides to take the priest's place on the final day, to sneak in a gun to give to Lupin. But, Lupin turns him down, indicating that this is a one-man showdown between him and Zenigata. Jigen leaves (after getting a last cigarette from Zenigata to give to Lupin.) With 20 minutes left until the execution, Lupin reveals that while MOST of his gimmicks were taken from him, he had used the time to let his index fingernail grow and become sharp enough to cut through the straitjacket, and to shave with. Zenigata interrupts him halfway through the shave, but Lupin keeps acting crazy. When the time comes, Lupin overpowers his guard, and slips out of the cell. The guard is taken off to be executed, loudly proclaiming that he's not Lupin. Lupin gives himself away to Zenigata, but panicks the cop by asking who it is that is about to be fried. Zenigata runs to stop the execution, and Lupin just walks out the front gate in the guard's uniform.

Fujiko, thinking about Lupin's sad demise, throws his prized Walther P-38 into the ocean. Jigen is happy to see Lupin, but dismayed to learn that the forest where he buried the loot a year ago has become a blasting site. One explosion sends the gold coins into the air, and across the landscape. Lupin lights up another last cigarette, and he and Jigen laugh over the situation.
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Episode 5

Lupin III, vol. 4: 13th Generation Goemon is Here

The artwork remains consistent in Goemon. It's interesting to see the introduction of Goemon as an assassin.

The story in Goemon is quite straight-forward. One day, while practicing his chops against automated hatchet-throwing machines, Ishigawa Goemon is approached by two men claiming to be talent scouts from Hollywood, searching for actors to appear in a samurai movie. These are obviously Lupin and Jigen, speaking in katakana-English. Goemon notices that Jigen is packing a gun, and challenges the man to shoot him. Goemon stops the bullets by cutting them in two, and letting them drop to the ground at his feet.

Lupin and Goemon go inside the house to drink tea. Lupin asks about this great sword, and Goemon replies that it has a long history (apparently having been forged from the metal of an meteor.) The only threat to the sword, and which is Goemon's next target, is Lupin III. Whose face Goemon has not yet seen. Lupin is a bit shaken by this, and even more concerned to discover that Goemon's current girlfriend is Fujiko. Before the woman can blurt out his name, Lupin yells out that he's just seen the real Lupin standing outside. Goemon rushes out, but stands just outside the door and listens to Lupin interrogate Fujiko. With his cover blown, Jigen and Lupin try to escape. Goemon catches up to them and Lupin sprays him with a liquid that bursts into flames on exposure to air. Goemon withstands the heat long enough to snare Lupin with a rope coated by the liquid.

Later, nursing his wounds, Lupin listens to Jigen describe a very well-known assassin named Momochi no Jijii (Old man Momochi.) Turns out that Momochi's prize pupil is Goemon, and is also his next target. Goemon himself is the 13th generation of a family of samurai. Momochi next shows up in Goemon's home (fails in his attack on Goemon,) and berates the man for his slackness. Momochi also describes Lupin as a sex fiend who has molested Fujiko. Meanwhile, Fujiko shows up at Lupin's hideout, and claims that she was held as a captive by the sex-mad Goemon (her portrayal of Goemon is funny.) Enraged, Lupin and Goemon are tricked into meeting each other outside Goemon's home later that night. They accuse each other of being sex perverts. However, Momochi uses this opportunity to try to kill both of them with mortar rounds.

Thinking that he has succeeded, Momochi meets with Fujiko and tearfully describes Goemon's and Lupin's fates at each other's hands. He adds that as a crowning touch to his career, he's offed his greatest competition and can now retire. As a payoff, he gives his accomplice a huge diamond. However, Goemon had been tipped off, and is currently hiding under the floor, with his sword pointed at the old man's butt. Momochi finishes by stating that he'd been getting his assignments from an "assassination computer," that had named Lupin as a target. Goemon reveals that he is still alive, and Momochi evades the sword, taking Fujiko hostage. He escapes outside, ditching the woman, to a hot air balloon. Goemon watches Momochi escape, only to be shot down by Lupin's behind-the-back trick shot. Momochi dies in the fall, and Goemon leaps into Lupin's car to finish his assignment. Lupin drives onto the freeway, and the two of them fight it out on the roofs of various vehicles. Lupin tries shooting the fire liquid from an orca-shaped water pistol, but this time Goemon uses his sword to fan the stuff back to the gas tanker Lupin is standing on. The tanker explodes, and lots of cars get smashed up. The destruction is recorded by Fujiko, and played back on TV. Lupin watches this, cursing the fact that Fujiko keeps taking the treasure and everything from him. The story ends with Goemon cutting a tree in two (while not harming the butterfly perched on top of it,) and vowing to defeat Lupin when they next meet.
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