Lupin the 3rd:The Secret of Mamo

Lupin the 3rd:The Secret of Mamo is an anime, or Japanese animation, movie. It introduces the master thief, Lupin the 3rd, and his team. Jigen is the skilled gunman, Goemon is the master swordsman, and Fujiko is the femme fatale, who may or may not be double-crossing the guys at any given moment. Zenigata, an inspector from Interpol dogs Lupin's every step, hoping to bring him in. But Zenigata is the least of his problems when a power-hungry little man steals Fujiko and seems bent on destroying the entire world.

Lupin the 3rd is a cultural icon in Japan. Introduced in a series of comics, this gentleman thief and his group of cohorts have been the subject of three television series resulting in at least 200 episodes, and a series of movies and television specials. While the first television episodes appeared in the 70s, Lupin is still greatly popular today.

To understand my thoughts on The Secret of Mamo, I think it is important to provide a little background on my Lupin experience. I was first introduced to the world of Lupin the 3rd when Cartoon Network played episodes from one of the television series late at night. At first I was put off by the animation. It was done in such a style that it was obviously a cartoon from the 60s or 70s. While I'm sure there were some fine cartoons produced during that era, but I've watched enough bad Hannah-Barbera cartons from the time that it made me wary.

However, one night when nothing else was on, I gave it a try, and I was pleasantly surprised. The show was funny, if not downright hilarious at times, and the plots involved some of the craziest schemes imaginable. I was hooked.

So it was only natural that I would want to check out the Lupin the 3rd movies available. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Like far too many movies based on anime series, they lost more of the fun and interesting things that drew me in to begin with. They were too dramatic, there were fewer crazy schemes, and worst of all, these movies distributed by different companies used completely different voice actors to dub each production, so I wasn't even hearing the voices I was used to.

So The Secret of Mamo automatically receives a favorable reaction from me because it was translated and dubbed by the same production company as the television series featured on Cartoon Network. Here were the Lupin, Fujiko, Goemon, Jigen, and Zenigata I was used to.

The movie was also created during the production of the 70s television series, so it matched its spirit in many ways. The movie's theme song was a variation on the television series theme song. The background music also copied or at the very least mirrored the television show's funky beats. The animation quality was higher because it was a movie, but it still had a distinctive old school look.

Even with all these touches, though, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. Some moments felt dragged out just to fill up time. In fact, there was a scene that felt like the climax of the movie, but then I looked at the time, and realized the movie still had 40 minutes left, and I had no idea how they were going to fill the rest of the time. The jokes and outrageous plots weren't nearly as abundant as they were in the series. I'm not sorry I watched it, but if I want to spend 100 minutes with Lupin in the near future, I think I'll choose to watch four or five episodes of the television series instead of just one movie.

While I was drawn to the movie because I was already a fan of Lupin the 3rd, I don't think it's necessary to have seen any of the Lupin television show to enjoy the movie. The characters aren't directly introduced in the movie; they're already working together, or not working together in the case of Fujiko, but their relationships aren't so complex that you couldn't pick up on them easily. In fact, maybe someone who wasn't already a fan of Lupin would appreciate it a bit more than I did because they wouldn't be looking for it to match anything else. They could evaluate it on its own merits.