James Shimoji mentions that unreleased Koike Zenigata "work" again
It’s happened again.
Composer of the Lupin IIIRD spin-off films James Shimoji has taken to social media website “X” to lament the lack of information on the long-rumoured Inspector Zenigata themed work from Takeshi Koike. We first heard rumours of future films in the Lupin IIIRD spin-off franchise during a producer interview in 2020 - and it seems not long after that, in 2021, despite no official announcement, James Shimoji returned to score the soundtrack.
Over the years - Shimoji has posted on his social media account alluding to the fact he’s awaiting news of the film - however, seems to have been left in the dark regarding its release. No official announcement has been made, and not long after each time he posts about the film, they end up getting removed (likely deleting them himself).
While we’ve held off from posting about it before - mostly as, to me, it’s felt more like speculation than anything concrete - this time feels significant enough to warrant discussion.
Now removed, Shimoji’s tweet above roughly translates as follows:
And before we even knew it, August is over, and tomorrow is the start of September.
In September three years back, I was composing music for a work starring this person. As you get older, three years flies by, and time seems to go faster.
Three years is a long time when you're a child. It's the entire time you go through middle and high school. You grow at a remarkable rate, but as you get older, time slows down. It's a problem.
It’s clear going by the picture in the tweet - “this person” mentioned - is Inspector Zenigata.
While the character has been a fan favourite for years, his personality in the Lupin IIIRD films is different enough that many fans have clamoured for a film or television series in the Takeshi Koike-verse starring the ICPO inspector. A darker, more hard-boiled show featuring a competent cop Zenigata would be - quite frankly - a dream come true for us. The Blood Spray of Ishikawa Goemon featured a lot more screen-time for the character, and it felt as if he really hit his stride during this film - this was a version of Zenigata we would love to spend more time with.
Unfortunately, the film either appears to be stuck in development - for whatever reason - or has been cancelled. Sharing your frustration is James Shimoji who, at the heart of it all, appears to have composed an entire soundtrack that is yet to see the light of day. As an artist, this must be disappointing - putting your heart and soul into something, only for it to be put on the back burner or binned, will always be disheartening.
As fans of his music, and of the wider Lupin IIIRD franchise however - it’s disappointing we’re still waiting to hear more, years after it was first rumoured. At time of writing, all is quiet on the Lupin front, and it feels as if something big could be on the horizon.
Hopefully TMS and the team behind Lupin IIIRD are just waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger on a Zenigata film, and we’ll be watching it soon enough.
