The Times: Lupin as a period piece?
When it comes to long-running franchises, of any kind and medium, you are bound to see divisions among the people who enjoy it.
Fans are prone to nurture a very personal version of the thing they are passionate about, often in the detriment of the franchise’s long history. It is, more often than not, a generational phenomenon. Fans tend to stick with the version they grew up with.
The Lupin III franchise is no exception, and while I cannot speak for the Japanese fanbase, I have met several Western communities, and noticed the differences and general tendencies.
As many discussions start in this day and age, this article was sparked by a Twitter exchange I had with a fellow Lupin III fan. A very polite and respectful one, I must add.
During this discussion, it became clear that my acquaintance preferred Lupin III as a “period piece”, better to be kept in a late 1960s to late 1970s bubble, rather than taking place in our current time. Their arguments, while well-articulated, were mostly based on the visual aspects of the series. The fashion, the sideburns, the gadgets, the pop-cultural references, etc.
All these aspects can become timeless once they are part of the show’s identity. That is what happened with Lupin III. Most of us accept the franchise’s distinct look; not just because it reminds us of a beloved fictional past, but because it is so removed in time and tone from its inspirations that it exists outside of it.
In other words, it’s so old, that it’s new.
As they freely admitted themselves, my friend was looking at the franchise from a nostalgic perspective.
Like most English-speaking fans, they discovered Lupin III with the original Adult Swim run of Part 2 from the early 2000s, with the Geneon dub. They then consumed the rest of the franchise from that point of reference.
This is where the first “issue” comes in. Most Western fans of Lupin III had to go back in time, in a sense, to watch the series. This means that their chronological perception of it is skewered, thinking that Lupin III was always set in some form of past period, at least before the advent of the Internet.
This “retrospective relationship” creates the false assumption that the franchise took place in its own time bubble. This is just like how Batman the Animated Series exists in a fictional period, taking cues from several decades of the 20th century, but still before “our time”.
The truth is, with a few notable exceptions, the vast majority of Lupin III productions took place in the time of their making.
While there is no such thing as a real, tangible “canon”, the Lupin III franchise had a mostly linear relationship with time. One could even say it’s akin to comic book time, where the characters don’t age while still having been around for 50+ years.
So, why do some people, like the friend I mentioned, still have gripes with the franchise taking on more “modern” cues? I think this is because the retrospective relationship sets up a boomerang effect. When a long and storied franchise keeps on going, it will sooner or later catch up with you.
That’s why, when you finish watching the 50+ years of material, still wearing your Adult Swim nostalgia goggles, you might feel a shock when the franchise you loved and followed back for years is releasing a new instalment in your own time period.
While you were having fun being an anime archaeologist, the franchise kept on going with the times, proving its relevance while staying true to its core.
There are faults to this argument of mine, though. The TV specials also took place in the time they were produced, and Western fans watched a lot of them regularly, often using less than legal methods. Still, these fans were watching a Lupin that was “contemporary” to them, and very few were shocked.
I think there are two major reasons for this.
Most TV specials had a relatively removed relationship with the actual state of the world, sometimes simply using it as lore, and sometimes ignoring it altogether.
When it did verge on the topical, it was usually more of a feature of the story rather than an integral part of the narrative, with the possible exception of 1993s Voyage to Danger. It also helped nostalgic viewers that, starting with First Contact in 2002, the TV specials would imitate Part 2’s character designs. The TV specials were, for the most part, a period of creative stagnation and I would not be surprised if the producers decided to harken back to Part 2’s style, as a way of keeping interest.
As for the technology, it was more often than not cartoonishly futuristic. This saw the characters being able to achieve things we, in the real world, could not at the time. This distance with current day technology was so prevalent, that I remember fans being disturbed by Goemon’s smartphone in The Last Job.
Something had changed. Technology had caught up to us. What was once the sole field of sci-fi is now in the palm of our hand, sending nagging notifications about our heart rate, the number of steps we’ve made in a day, or reminding us of an ex-partner’s birthday. This little rectangle, made of precious metals mined from African soil, can now rig elections, enable extortions of all kind, and detonate bombs remotely.
When the Lupin III franchise resumed the episodic TV series format, it took on a slightly more direct approach to its technology, and its sociological consequences. Part 5 in particular put social media, the police state, and Silicon Valley moguls at the centre of its narrative.
I cannot blame the nostalgic Western fans of Lupin III for rejecting this aspect of our world in their anime. For the longest time, they held the image of their favourite franchise as a timeless, reassuring island, sitting within a sea of uncertainty and anxiety over a terrible present, and a very worrying future. It does not change the fact that such retreat into a cozy 70s flavoured blanket is mistaken. The Lupin III franchise has always addressed current issues and anxieties, one way or another.
From young delinquency to cloning, to nanobots, and human experimentations, or even arms dealing, Lupin III used our fears as fuel for parody, slapstick, and as new interesting challenges for our favourite thieves to overcome. Episode 0: The Times of Part 6 directly addresses this issue with Jigen, serving as a standee for the old-fashioned fan confronted with a changing world. It proves, through the support of the whole cast, that he and therefore the franchise as a whole can still work in our current day and age.
Does it mean that I don’t think Lupin III could work as a period piece in the future…?
Of course, it can! We live in the era of the multiple choice Lupin, after all.
The TV series’ are set in current times, but the Koike movies and even the CGI film are period pieces, and they work just as well. You could even say these period pieces are just as relevant to our times, with the neo-Nazi menace of The First, to the wealthy and perverse villains of the Koike-verse.
What matters is not really when the story takes place, but for it to be good and engaging.
Still, we should not ask the franchise to submit to our own sensibilities.
Lupin III has the unique quality of being very malleable. Keeping Lupin in a safe bubble would be a huge disservice, like putting a free spirit into a very small cage. As Part 5’s climax states, whether you enjoyed the series or not, or through whatever our crazy contemporary world might throw at him, Lupin will always get up and win.
Lupin represents something, and this is something that even the technological theocracy we live in has not yet completely destroyed: the indomitable joy of freedom.
— Guillaume Babey
You can follow Guillaume’s adventures on the Internet by visiting the websites and social media accounts listed below!
A huge thanks to Guillaume for providing the written content for this article. I (Lee) cannot wait to read more of his fantastic observations, and listen along to his regular commentary via the Sideburns and Cigarettes podcast. Be sure to give it a listen, if you are yet to do so!
