First Contact with Episode 0 - The Virtues of the Soft Reboot
Please note that this essay includes spoilers for the 2002 television special, Lupin III: Episode 0 ~ First Contact! We recommend that you only read on if you are already familiar with the plot, or do not mind reading spoilers in advance of seeing it.
With a franchise as old and varied as Lupin the Third, different challenges arise to keep people’s interest, as times and audiences change. Some executives will simply modernise the setting while still trying to stay true to the characters, while others will retcon storylines, in an effort to make things feel fresh. Some will even start again from scratch… purists be damned!
Lupin the Third never really had to face such drastic modifications to remain popular, thanks to its simple yet very malleable core concept. However, different producers have taken their shot at one particular trick to keep Lupin fresh; the origin story.
Inherited from popular literature and comic books, the origin story explains how a main character or the main narrative came about. It stems from the very human need of knowing how and why things are the way they are, or why people act the way they do. Interestingly, origin stories are rarely published first. Even the original Arsène Lupin didn’t get his origin told before 1924 in The Countess of Cagliostro, a whopping 17 years after his first appearance!
La Comtesse de Cagliostro was first published in 1924, and while the prequel story lacks gyrocopters and building hopping, it does include a magic mirror with riddles to solve!
This strategy sometimes leads to multiple retcons. Bill Finger was famous for his tendency to redefine the origins of super-heroes, adding layer upon layer. As successive writers and artists go on to work on the same title, they add their own part of the puzzle, sometimes making origin stories as convoluted as regular ones. To avoid the inevitable confusion, “zero issues” are sometimes published as a way to help the audience catch up, and clean up, blotted narratives.
That’s where the 2002 released Lupin the Third TV special comes in. At the time, the anime franchise was celebrating its 30th birthday, and 13 years had passed since the specials started airing on TV almost every year. More than a generation had gone by since we were asked the question “Is Lupin burning… ?!” in 1971. It’s undoubtable that a new audience would have benefited from an easy gateway into Lupin, without, of course, risking losing the established fanbase.
It was a tall order for writer Shoji Yonemura. While not a franchise veteran, Yonemura already got to work on Lupin, as he wrote the scripts of The Pursuit of Harimao’s Treasure (1995) and the screenplay for Island of Assassins (1997). His understanding of the characters shows, as he understood their dynamic was the series’ main appeal. Therefore, to play upon this series strength, a good base for a soft reboot is surely to tell the story of how the gang formed. It is a safe choice, and one that has also been used many times by Western properties.
Satoshi Hirayama, who worked on Lupin since 1990, handled the character design, making his best impression of Takeo Kitahara’s mid-Part 2 designs. The decision to harken back to this iconic design made sense for an anniversary special. The red jacket series remained the most popular iteration of the character, lasted the longest, and was also being localised more than any of the other series at the time. Hirayama would remain a regular participant, handling the designs for most of the mid to late 2000’s specials, as well as the Detective Conan crossovers and some OVAs. He is responsible for the “marshmallow head” era of Lupin, which some fans are not particularly fond of.
For First Contact, setting the story in New York also goes to show TMS’ awareness of the Lupin characters growing popularity in the West. With Lupin the Third being one of their most Western-looking anime series, it made the decision all the more logical. The metropolitan landscape also helped establishing a sense of spectacle that the event needs.
But, what about the narrative structure? That is where the source of First Contact’s greatest strength comes in. The story takes place in New York City, and is mostly told in flashbacks from Jigen’s perspective to a young, inquisitive journalist. A story within a story. Already we understand that what we are about to see is but a recollection, a subjective point of view from a possibly unreliable narrator. That last suspicion would turn out to be right, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Russian doll narration is almost as old as time and was used to great effect from Joseph Conrad to Orson Welles, or Akira Kurosawa. It often suffers the flaw of showing events that the narrator did not attend to and First Contact is no different. Again, the ending might give an explanation. Having Jigen as the narrator gives an extra-flair of Noir, and his choice of words reflects the vibe of that genre.
Soon into the special, we understand that the most important relationship in the franchise’s eyes is between Lupin and Jigen. From enemies, to colleagues, to friends - their dynamic is shown time and again as the series’ rock. In a memorable, and slightly suggestive scene, Lupin lights Jigen’s cigarette before swearing to take that hat off of his head. And with that promise, lifted from The Mystery of Mamo (1978), the fates of the two men are sealed. One needs the other, as Lupin expands Jigen’s horizons, and Jigen keeps Lupin on his toes. A perfect Ying and Yang.
The relationships between Lupin and the other characters are also explored, with Zenigata becoming his new main adversary, and Fujiko filling the role of the ambivalent paramour. The special gives Fujiko some emotional weight, with her boyfriend, Brad, getting killed, and Lupin swearing revenge. That particular cliché is also very popular when it comes to building a team. Marvel fans will remember Colson’s sacrifice in the Avengers (2012) as a fairly recent example.
Inspector Zenigata is allowed to be less of a buffoon and more of an overzealous idealist, still sometimes clumsy, but also highly skilled. His enthusiasm and strict principles clash with local cop and series newcomer George McFly’s cynicism, until he gets his faith in justice renewed, thanks to Zenigata’s resilience. It is hard not to see this as an homage to buddy cup movies, another very Western subgenre.
Lupin acts as the core that binds all the other characters, as their individual goals converge towards him. Zenigata was originally gunning to arrest Fujiko, justifying his arrival in America, but becomes interested in Lupin’s heist. Goemon is looking for the sword worthy of his training, which Galvez, Jigen’s boss, is also after, etc. Similar interests make people come together, and that lesson is rarely forgotten in team building narratives.
The TV special works as a sort of “greatest hits”. When Lupin and Jigen meet, we get a Dezaki-like Harmony Cell. The Clam of Hermes, the story’s McGuffin, turns out to be the formula to Goemon’s blade, just like in the original manga and episodes of Part 1. Goemon and Lupin’s chase sequence is also a remake of a familiar scene from the first TV series. George McFly is modelled after the old Akechi Kogoro, from both the manga and pilot film, and is voiced by Ichiro Nagai, who also performed the role of Zenigata’s chief throughout Part 1. A random goon arrested by Zenigata is designed after an android from a chapter of the original manga. Galvez’ physique is very reminiscent of Part 1’s many dick-headed villains. In the opening, Lupin reloads his Walther with his mouth like in Part 1. The list goes on and on.
The Dezaki-like Harmony Cell is a favourite of ours at Lupin Central, and it’s often shown up in Lupin works over the years - featuring in Part 3, television specials like this, and most recently in Part 6!
Not only does this pot-pourri please older fans by celebrating the series’ history, but it also introduces new ones to key-elements of the Lupin formula. It is also a clue in the direction of the special’s final twist. As it turns out, it wasn’t Jigen telling the story, but Lupin in disguise! For as far as the viewer knows, the whole story may have been one large fib, much to the young journalist’s dismay, explaining why the tale takes place in New York as well as the neat and tidy narrative on how the gang met. Perhaps even the use of certain tropes and clichés could pass as Lupin’s own tastes in storytelling.
One final scene of Lupin’s gang successfully retrieving the Clam of Hermes from the National Bank might suggest there was a kernel of truth, but having Lupin making up a new origin to his own franchise is the perfect way of selling this reboot, as well as poking fun at the whole practice. Meta-commentary is part of Lupin’s DNA since the very beginning, when Lupin would often break the fourth wall.
While some viewers might see this as a cop out, it is a reminder of another basic truth of the franchise: canon is for fools. Events stick or don’t, origins change, time periods vary, but one constant remains: the characters themselves. Just as nothing in Lupin’s tale contradicts this basic conceit, the special itself should not be seen as a hard reboot, but rather a nice repackaging to new viewers who needed an introduction, and old fans who needed a reminder of why they love this franchise. One that doesn’t take itself too seriously and will happily end a story on a joke.
First Contact’s formula would ultimately instruct how the producers would handle the franchise in the years to come. As the 2010’s began, A Woman Named Fujiko Mine (2012) served as much as a prequel than as a spin-off, using similar tactics as First Contact but with Fujiko as the one uniting the cast.
Takeshi Koike would re-use the cigarette scene as a sign of friendship between Lupin and Jigen in Daisuke Jigen’s Gravestone (2014). Part 6 ~ Episode Zero ~ The Times (2021) acted as a send-off to Jigen’s late voice actor, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, also exploring the characters’ relationships and why they endure. More recently, Lupin Zero (2022) went further back in time with a teenage Lupin struggling with his heritage, with Jigen once again becoming his most important friend.
Lupin is not allowed to end or experience a complete rebirth.
Sequels like the cancelled Lupin the 8th series didn’t come through. Neither wave nor particle, Lupin the Third is never truly still yet never truly moves forward. The characters will always remain, however, as endearing as ever.
For them and for us, there will always be new beginnings, new occasions to make first contact with a certain monkey-faced thief.
- Guillaume Babey
If you would like to hear more from Guillaume, why not tune in to Sideburns and Cigarettes, a podcast in which he and friends of the website, Drew, Natalie, Chris, and Emma, help host. If you’re looking to jump in - since you have just read the article on the subject - why not listen along to their review of Episode 0 ~ First Contact?
