The 10th episode of "Nostalgic Anime Retrospective" is made by "subtracting" the best episodes of the first "Lupin the Third"!

Keisuke Hirota, a middle-aged writer who spent his youth in the bubble economy and will never return, tells the story of such and such an era of Japanese anime from front to back in this "nostalgic anime retrospective," despite his one-time divorce. Speaking of "Lupin the Third," the new series starting in October is the talk of the town. Having watched the second episode, I have to say that while returning to the more mature mood of the first series, the story's plot devices and flavor have a density and popularity that will satisfy viewers in 2015, making it an excellent "TV show" to begin with.

The first series of "Lupin III" from 1971, the year after the World Exposition, was of interest to me. It was the end of the high-growth period, but the Vietnam War was still going on,...... such a year.

Little hands tickling Fujiko

The author, born in 1968, is only 4 years old. She is in the Violet class, the oldest in kindergarten. It was probably during the "reevaluation boom of past anime" at the time of the "Space Battleship Yamato" boom (the movie version was released in 1977) that "Lupin" was re-broadcast and I finally realized how interesting the show was. I think I finally realized how interesting it was.
In the corner of an elementary school classroom, a group of students would gather to whisper, "Did you see Lupin last night? In 1977, a new series, "Lupin the Third," began airing, and I bought a record of the theme song (which cost 100 yen more than the single version of other anime), but I still think Fujiko Mine is sexier in the first series.... ...The best scene in the first episode is the one where she's being cozied up by a myriad of mechanical hands: ...... even a grade schooler could understand that much. I'm in my late 40s, divorced, and now I can understand it even more. Fujiko is not just one character, but an abstract image of an "unreachable woman" for men.

The emptiness of "one chance to escape from prison

I reviewed the first half of the first series, the part called "Okuma Lupin" after the director, Masaaki Okuma. The fourth episode, "The Jailbreak," was the first time I felt "Interesting! I was most impressed by the fourth episode, "One Chance to Break Out of Jail," which I first found "interesting" in elementary school. First of all, there are only a few characters. There is only Lupin, who is trapped in a prison, Zenigata, who watches him, Fujiko, who meddles in order to get Lupin out of jail, and Dimension, who interferes with them. The only setting is the prison. The set-up is simple.

Lupin, who has been in prison for a year with unlimited hair and beard, does not tell even Dimentional, who comes to his rescue disguised as a monk, why he does not break out of prison. He only asks for a cigarette. Finally, on the day of his execution, Lupin suddenly decides to escape from prison. Fujiko thinks that Lupin has been sentenced to death and throws his favorite Walther P38 into the sea (Fujiko is the only one who is not told the truth, which is also good). The Mercedes Benz SSK in which Dimension and Lupin ride heads to the forest where the treasure chest is buried ......, but over the course of a year, the forest has become a dynamite testing ground. One cigarette given to him by Dimension, disguised as a monk. Lupin takes it out and lights it. It is the mercy of Buddha. Lupin and Dimentional laugh in the middle of the wasteland where the dynamite explodes. This feeling of dry emptiness.

Lupin had persevered in prison for a year just to make up for the humiliation of being arrested by Zenigata. Compared to this humiliation, the treasure and Fujiko were unimportant. For Lupin, obsession and aesthetics come first, and lust for color and material things are a bonus. All of this may be just a way to kill time until he dies.

Why is this episode so cool?

As a rule, animation is an expression of "adding on. The motion is created by adding animation to several original drawings, and then color is added to create the image. There is almost no "subtractive" process. In "One Chance to Break Out of Jail," however, Lupin is dressed in a beige prison uniform. The colors are "subtracted" from his usual blue suit and yellow tie. Fujiko tries to break Lupin out of prison, but Dimension gets in the way. The story would be lively if Fujiko were involved, but she is "pulled" from the story again and again. The forest where the treasure chest is buried has been cut down and is also "pulled" out. Everything from the colors to the characters to the setting is minus somewhere. The more we subtract, the more clearly Lupin's invisible aesthetics emerge.

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)