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Reviews of Manga by Monkey Punch
Lupin III: Mystery of Mamo, books 1 and 2
If you've seen the movie, you know what to expect of this color manga
volume. If you haven't seen it, you should, and you shouldn't. 'Mamo'
is a classic English-dub, with some great dialog. It's also one of the
worst Lupin movies made (bad artwork, bad story, silly premise.)
The film book is also bad. Some of the panels are out of sequence,
some are simply missing, and the dialog seems incomplete.
I got books 1 and 2 just to see whether the original dialog matched
that of the English dub (it looks like the English translation was very
liberal at times, in both books. The lines that people really like in
the movie dub don't show up in these books.) Overall, there's no real
good reason for getting these books. Unless you're a completist, like
me.
[No ISBN number, Action Comics 50113-11, 690 yen, published in 1980.]
[No ISBN number, Action Comics 50113-17, 690 yen, published in 1980.]
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Lupin III: The Original Manga, Volume 10
Those of you lucky enough to have gone to the right Anime cons
may have had the chance to meet Monkey Punch, creator of Lupin III,
and Pinky Punky. The rest of you will just have to suffer in
ignorance.
The early Lupin manga is nothing like the TV serieses (serii,) or
movies. The character designs are much cruder, reminiscent of the old
Mad Magazine. The stories are more limited (usually to Lupin either
trying to steal something, or get laid,) and MUCH more violent and lewd.
Very rarely does Lupin get to spend time with a female partner in the
anime versions, but in the manga he gets laid every few episodes.
The manga version of Zenigata is a much more wilely, but ill-lucked,
adversary, and the manga version of Fujiko is also pretty randy. So,
you may find that the manga doesn't fit your conception of the Great
Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, and/or Fujiko.
Which is ok. The world is big enough to hold all KINDS of
people...
In volume ten, Lupin starts out looking for a great treasure, and
constantly falling into traps (that almost kill him.) A weird old man
gives our hero some background on the tunnel system that Lupin is trying
to negotiate, and later, Jigen and Goemon show up to grab their share of
the loot. Eventually, they make it to the end of the caverns, and
locate a huge pile of gold. But....
Later chapters include a man whose hobby consists of putting objects
in bottles (he wants to add Lupin to his collection;) A master of
disguise, and his psychiatrist-partner, who impersonates Lupin and, with
the aid of a lot of trick film, plans on framing Lupin as a
shape-changing, insane murderer; A room occupied by Fujiko and a rich
friend, designed to prevent Lupin and gang from getting in (instead,
he's lured out of the room when Lupin decides to cheat at Mahjongg in a
room across the alley); and a concert conductor whose music incites the
audience to try to kill Lupin and his sidekicks.
The last story, at least, has been turned into a TV episode, with a
number of significant changes to the story (plus, the sex sequence in
the bathtub had been excised -- for you hentai out there, Lupin indeed
does score in this chapter, with the aid of the conductor's
music.)
Recommendation: Overall, I prefer Pinky Punky, with it's looser art
style, and raunchier characters. But, the Lupin stories have lots of
nice twists, and the pacing is very fast. It does help being able to
read Japanese, as a lot of the funnier humor is in the dialog.
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Pinky Punky
I came across this one at a used bookstore in Takadanobaba, Japan.
The artwork is crude, and has lots of dark, heavy lines; just like the
early Lupin III manga. Monkey Punch was greatly influenced by 1960's
Mad magazine, and some of the work of Sergio Aregonnes. If you don't
mind a bit of risque humor, and some very silly ideas, you'll like this
book.
A freelance investigator, Jun Jun, uses her mind as well as her body
to solve various cases, although her main antagonist is the murderous
rapist/inventor, Dr. Necra. JJ gets into all kinds of traps and
dangerous situations that force her to happily take her clothes off.
But she always figures out some way to collect from her clients (payment
can be either money, clothes, cars, houses, or all of the above.) One
of my favorite gimmicks in this manga is a kevlar flyswatter used for
knocking bullets out of the air. And, the final story, a send-up of
Sherlock Holmes, is in keeping with the tradition established by the author
of the original Lupin, Maurice LeBlanc.
This one-shot book is a must-read if you can find it.
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Time Agent
Created in 1977, Time Agent starts out with a Japanese man named
Toda suddenly getting kidnapped by himself. Toda the Kidnapper takes a
lot of time demonstrating to Toda the Kidnappee that they are one and
the same person. The difference being that the kidnapper had come back
in time by 3 years to grab himself and take himself back to the future.
Actually, to take the Future Toda's place in the office.
Thus goes Monkey Punch's other work -- Time Agent. This
collection of short stories is in the same art style as Pinky Punky and
the early Lupin III. It is just as silly and raunchy as the other
titles, and just as much fun to read.
After getting used to being in the future, Toda misuses the time
machine (disguised to look like a tall filing cabinet) to hop back in
time for a mammoth burger. In one story, he has to go 50 years into the
past and kidnap 6 babies -- to prevent Earth from destroying itself in
1983.
In another story, Toda and his female assistant travel to ancient Edo to
track down a cyclops that is causing problems in that era. However, the
cyclops turns out to be a space alien that had just gotten lost on
Earth. Toda receives a gift from the alien -- a trick arm that he can
put over his penis, and which allows him to give his female assistant
some TERRIFIC sex.
This book is definitely a great collector's item. And, if the price is
right, I will sell it to the appropriate fan of Monkey Punch's
work.
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You can contact me at: riemann96@yahoo.com
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