Review: Part 6 “Episode 20 ~ Two Terrible Ladies”
Welcome to our episode review of Lupin III: Part 6!
Our review is from the perspective of a “hardcore” Lupin III fan, who has seen every episode, film, and special the series has had to offer since its animated inception in 1969. The author's perspective on anime however, is lacking. When it comes to anime, we mostly watch Lupin III, so any information on other anime is from friends who know way more about anime than we do. We personally are most comfortable with comparing it with Lupin media of the past.
Be aware that there are SPOILERS ahead.
Please only read on if you either have seen the episode already, or do not mind learning about important character interactions and pivotal plot points in advance.
Current best theory for what is being eaten here: Dario Calabria’s suggestion of salt potatoes, an Upstate New York dish…though they are in Manhattan
Content Warning: This episode contains mentions (no visuals) of human trafficking and child abuse, as well as on-screen depictions of unusual (but not bloody/gory) torture methods.
“Episode 20 ~ Two Terrible Ladies” of Lupin III: Part 6 is guest-written by Ayumi Shimo, who has also written TV crime drama, Sentai shows and movies, and stage productions! It’s always refreshing (and unusual) to have a woman at the writer’s desk of Lupin III, and it’s a shame it’s a rarity, but in an episode where our favorite femme fatale is in the starring role it couldn’t be more appropriate.
We open on Fujiko Mine in a boutique, trying on a slinky red dress with a row of others by the mirror, on a video chat with Lupin discussing their plans for a fancy date that night.
Lupin, who promises Fujiko the world while getting dressed himself, is also working on hacking a major player on the dark web called Invisible. He must’ve picked up from tips from Ami in Part 5 because his tech skills have improved considerably in TV specials and series since (though, he’s been shown hacking things as far back as 1989’s Bye Bye, Lady Liberty)!
While Lupin is putting on his pants, Fujiko is tackled by a sprightly young woman with a heart on her cheek. Her name is Amelia, and she and Fujiko used to work together. This is an extremely rare thing; the last time I can recall us getting a glimpse of any lady friends from Fujiko’s past was in Part 3 (Episode 43, Farewell Cinderella). Fujiko is rightfully hesitant — the last job she and Amelia worked on together ended badly. In fact, according to Fujiko, almost all jobs they worked together went wrong somehow.
(Fujiko seems to have a type, I’m just saying.)
Amelia apologizes, over and over, and the two ladies discuss the possibility of doing another heist together. We get a few flashbacks to the mentioned previous failed heist: a massive IT company with a secret room fully of records of shady deals and a CEO who looks like he walked straight out of Tech Bro Supervillain Headquarters.
He has a very punchable face.
I absolutely love the character design of the main five (and Yata) for Part 6, but I will admit: all the side characters and antagonists and whatever the heck Sherlock was supposed to be (what’s the proper name for the other main character in a crossover special? Deuteragonist?) all look kind of the same. Supervillain Grayson reminds me a lot of Roy Forest from Goodbye Partner, who was also a billionaire tech bro, and he also looks a fair amount like Sherlock from the first half of this season. All had the same character designer. I know it’s modern (and technically much scarier) to have villains who could walk amongst you without you realizing it, but I also sort of wish for the Dick Tracy-esque weirdly-shaped bad guys of the original manga and the first three parts of Lupin III (and a little bit in The Woman Called Fujiko Mine and the Takeshi Koike movies).
Anyway, enough ranting! Via flashback, we learn about Amelia’s thieving ways: unlike Fujiko, she tends to persuade people into giving her things via compliments, as well as being cute and non-threatening. We meet Grayson, whose AI that runs the room that Fujiko and Amelia broke into is super secure. He’s got a thing for branding, apparently — actual physical branding, with an iron, like you’d do to a cow — but fortunately Amelia is stronger than she looks, and she and Fujiko escape successfully. Grayson learns branding hurts when he gets the iron directly to the face (it’s his own fault, though good luck convincing him on that). After the odd expression on Amelia’s face when they going through the files, Fujiko is left wondering about her partner in crime, but the two ladies part ways without a good-bye.
Back to the present, we get a very cute road trip montage, some passive implications to Fujiko’s bisexuality (another under-appreciated aspect of her character that is actually reasonably canon to the show), and explanations for the current heist: there’s a big cult on the rise, the Church of Ayon, with a mysterious and very rich leader who wears a necklace that’s worth hundreds of millions. He also wears a mask that covers the top half of his face. Certainly he’s just being super mysterious, absolutely no massive facial scars or anything. Amelia has already joined the church, so the duo is headed to Atlas Island…dressed as nuns, of course.
(All of the masculine members of the church seem to be outfitted in either capirotes — those conical robes/hats, similar to the wedding in Castle of Cagliostro — or bird-like plague doctor masks.)
Not surprisingly, the leader of the cult is Grayson, and he’s still really mad about the whole “destroying his face” thing.
Ignoring that he…just doesn’t seem to have an eye socket on the left side of his face anymore (where did it go???), and also that eyepatches make you look awesome and badass, Grayson honestly seems like the kind of guy who would be okay with his own logo burned into his face. He’s apparently egotistical in a different way, though, and very happy to have Fujiko Mine in his possession.
Despite the massive betrayal her partner in crime just pulled on her, Fujiko is calm as she’s strapped spread eagle to a table in Grayson’s fiery dungeon. Surrounded by a guillotine, iron maiden (not the band), and dozens of other methods of torture hanging on the wall (this is not the first torture room in a castle we’ve seen in recent Lupin III history; there was one in Part 5) our femme fatale hero is amazingly mellow…though admittedly, it is not her first time in a situation like this. Grayson gives Amelia the desired necklace, and Amelia leaves the villain with the lady trapped.
I cannot tell if this is a reference to Part 1, Episode 1, or not. Part 6 has made a lot of very quiet, offhand references to Part 1 episodes.
After a few threats from the bad guy, including a new version of his apparently trademark branding iron, we soon see the reason for Fujiko’s calmness: this was all going according to plan. There was no betrayal, she and Amelia had planned the entire thing, and hey, look, Lupin’s here!
Remember Lupin?
The titular gentleman thief, who had been pouty about Fujiko standing him up for their fancy date, has learned (thanks to Fujiko), that the dark web hive of scum and villainy he’d been trying to hack, Invisible, had their servers on Atlas Island. Grayson’s tech company, mentioned in the flashback, had simply changed methods, and had continued contributing money to things like child labor and human trafficking. We learn that Amelia’s got a reason to want revenge, but Fujiko knew, and gladly played along to help her…well, she refuses to call her a friend, but that’s Fujiko for you.
Lupin takes Grayson for everything he’s worth, Grayson suffers a proper Disney Villain-style death by the hands of that security AI system, and the trio of thieves hop on a boat to get out of there. We learn one of the reasons Fujiko decided to be a hero, and though friends have said “Waaaaaaaitaminute” at the reveal that Fujiko knew Amelia was pregnant, if you pay attention throughout the episode there are hints to it. Not to mention, the very passive hint in the first episode of the second half of Part 6, where we see a brief flash of her and her partner in their New York City apartment.
This was a solid episode! As mentioned earlier, we don’t get a whole lot of main character backstory ever, and the second half of Part 6 seems to be entirely okay with exploring bits of not only Lupin’s past, but Jigen’s and Fujiko’s as well. “Two Terrible Ladies” felt like it could have been one of the side plots in a Lupin III television special, especially considering the cult — a favorite player of so many Lupin III shows, specials, and movies. The story was simple enough that it still had room to breathe in the space it was given, though, so major props to Ayumi Shimo for somehow successfully trimming down a plot line of what could have been a 90-minute special into a 20-minute TV show!
As with the rest of Part 6, the animation quality is iffy at best: for once, the main mode of transportation isn’t 3D animated…but the background around it often is, making the car and its passengers look very flat in a scene or two. Main characters are periodically off-model — no one can decide how noses look from the side this season — and at one point Fujiko’s eyes are completely the wrong color. But this has been steady for this season, and it is something you get used to after a couple viewings.
The eye color thing is a rare very obvious mistake that I hope will get fixed when this comes to home media. Fujiko’s beautiful brown eyes are one of her trademarks!
Like almost all of the one-off episodes in Part 6, “Two Terrible Ladies” can be watched without knowledge of the current arc’s ongoing plot. As mentioned, it’s set up a lot like a special: even if you didn’t know what Fujiko did for a living, you learn pretty quickly.
And the ending is entirely adorable, finally proving that the crew behind Lupin III can, in fact, animate a baby that is actually cute.
Fujiko isn’t too pleased to be called “Daddy” though.
