Lupin III (2015)

Honestly I have never seen any of the previous Lupin the thirds, but I can tell you this anime is absolutely stunning. Something I looked forward to every week, when it was airing.

Story: 9
The anime jumps from its one episode driven story to its overarching italian dream story. I enjoyed every single solo episode, thrilling, exciting, and overall masterpieces for style and the audacity Lupin brings to the table. When Lupin wasn't present, the characters still shined with their own unique personalities. Each episode had a small storyline or mystery to solve, and Lupin pretty much owned the stage every episode he was in. The ... dream story was rather confusing, and takes away from the other episodes, but it still allowed Lupin to shine through with his character so it only brought the score down to a 9.

Art: 10
The womens' hair, oh my god, the colors are amazing. The animation was smooth. Every character had their own distinct art and distinct identity with the art.

Sound: 10
Everything was on point. The soundtrack was classy and reminiscent of Italy. This 4th blue jacket nailed it.

Character: 10
Although sometimes the characters were bound to a certain emotion. Jigen with fear/nervousness, Goemon for his honor, etc... Those emotions were done spectacularly and when they had episodes centered around them. And Lupin himself brought the whole show together, his entire aura was great for the series as a whole.

Enjoyment: 10
You will be laughing or thinking deeply every moment. I loved probably every second of the anime, and sometimes the clever plot twists made you smile at the end of the day.

Overall: 10
Even if you have not watched the previous 100+ Lupin episodes, this Italian arc is a masterpiece on its own.

Yeah, this show is pretty average IMO. The story is alright but I feel it doesn't hold me enough to really gain my attention. Like the stuff they do is interesting and everything, but idk I just feel like it isn't able to keep me like maybe they don't build up the stuff enough or something. I just feel the story is pretty meh, not good, not bad. Art is fine I'm personally not a huge fan of how it looks but it's acceptable I'm not really bothered by it, the sound is fine not much to really say about that. The characters are pretty ... decent I feel they are all pretty distinct and likable in their own ways I like how they all have their different roles to play, but I will say that none of the characters really wow me like they are good just kinda good and not above that. In terms of overall quality, id says this show is like a 6 just because I think the story is good enough to be around there and the characters are pretty decent so I really don't feel bad about saying this. In my personally liking this show id give it like a 5, like I said I like the story and characters well enough but there was just nothing here that really made me love this show it was just kinda average for me.

To open up, this is very different from any other Lupin thing you'll see. I mean that in more bad ways, than good.

They turned Lupin into a know it all that never messes up and can save everyone. There's an unneeded love story with the overblown side character, that doesn't even get that much explained development. She gets some development but there's too much of her that's let in absurdity at the end for it to make sense. She didn't really get any better but it's like she acted like some of the stuff was ok.

Lupin out-shined the other characters, for the most part. Everything ... about what he was doing got more detail than what the other characters where doing. Jigen and Goemon got there own spots. Jigen's was cool, relevant, what you would expect from Jigen. Goemon's was about a girl, and it was weird but ok. You know Goemon falling in love with every women he meets.

Fujiko is the unfortunate case where her spot couldn't be about how cool and skilled she is. It was about how reckless and haphazard she is. She's cool sometimes, but most of the time she only gets away with stuff because she didn't die. It was about Lupin, and how "in-love" they are, even though Fujiko and Lupin's relationship isn't even like that outside of words. We've been looking at these people for a love enough time to know they aren't in love with each other, but they really tried to force that non-existence bond down our throats in this one. They clearly have bond, but it's not that and it shouldn't have to be.

Can't forget those homophobic undertones in a few spots. No one has more homophobic undertones surrounding them than post 80s Fujiko. They still do that "bond between men and women" stuff, which is not only homophobic but can also be considered transphobic. There's also no gay/ trans characters. What's the point of redoing a series to be modern when your storytelling and character designing to still stuck in the heterocentric 70s?

And, I got sick of Italy. In a series, I expect the group to travel, get into all kinds of messes, and all that jolly goodness I've had up until now. This story had narrow plots for very un-narrow characters. With Lupin outshining everyone it wasn't about the team being together, either. I didn't get anything I usually watch Lupin for. I like Lupin goofying up and being in danger. I like it when the others have to save Lupin. I love it when the other characters shine and show off! I love it when character development women ACTUALLY gets character development! I love random travel and adventures! This was a huge disappointment for me!

The only character that didn't disappoint me was Zenigata! He actually surprised me a lot! He hasn't changed at all and I love that they didn't ruin him! I enjoyed going into Zeni's feelings about Lupin and getting to know him as a great cook!

This series also had villains and ended on a central villain that was weird.
The central villain in a Lupin series was some boring, lazy storytelling. They tried really hard to make it good, but it only took Lupin the defeat it, with no help from the others, which was also boring.

At the end, I wouldn't suggest this to anyone. Not just for the homophobic undertones, but lackluster character usage and boring storytelling, with characters that are suppose to be WAY MORE exciting and fast paced.