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To call Lupin The 3rd important is a severe understatement, it's influenced many anime. Pretty much any western style anime about a bunch of crazy characters going on adventures and getting into trouble owes something to Lupin The 3rd but that does that mean it's still relevant? It's still popular in Japan sure but with how many stagnant specials and how silly it can be, The franchise was started to get pretty stale, it definitely needed a change of pace to keep things interesting.

The result was to change Lupin from a cartoony comedy to a gritty Film Noir and to have the main character ... not be Lupin but Fujiko Mine and with a great team behind this as well, it had alot going for it but did it pay off or was Lupin just grandpa anime? This answer is most certainly Yes, this thief still get some tricks up his sleeves. They took something goofy and fun and made it something far deeper than that.

Analysis of The Themes and Ideas:
Lupin The 3rd has always been a rebellious anime but it was more literal in the sense that it's about a thief stealing and making fools out of the police but here it's more metaphorical. Everything about this show is contradictory to the norms of what we think anime should be like.

It's was made in 2012 but feels like the 70s, it's a Japanese product that has a very western look and feel to it, most anime fans are use to serial shows while this is mostly episodic, Fujiko Mine herself is a different main character than you would expect to see in an anime, you just don't see many femme fatales as the lead in anime but the show isn't just different for the sake of it, it all fits into the story. You might ask why don't they modernize Lupin the 3rd and make the characters look more modern but that would be missing the point entirely, they're not characters of our time, that's just not who they are.

The whole show is about social outcasts and people's idea of how you should or shouldn't act. It's essentially a "Be yourself" kinda story but done in the least cliche way possible.

Lupin is completely care free, he steals whatever he wants, acts however he wants, whatever Lupin does you can trust him to be him and he's completely at peace with himself in that regard with no regrets. He's the embodiment of what a part of the characters aspire to be: free.

Jigen's the kinda man who probably would've been better off in 1940s New York/Chicago or in the wild west with his gun skills, taking sides of gangs not knowing who or what he should be fighting for if for anything.

Goemon in this anime is not just here because samurai are cool and every action anime set in modern day has to have a samurai like how he use to be, he's a man with a code from a long line of samurai who lives in a time where nobody appreciate his kind anymore

Fujiko herself is someone trying to be free of a past, a past forced upon her by others who want her in their image. She tries to repeal that by showering herself with treasures.

The antagonists represents the societal norms in some way. Either being part of the authority or being controlled by one. Zenigata who was originally the goofy clumsy grump from the other animes has turned into a much more hard-boiled tough guy, he's definitely different from what was done before, he's not always likable but hearing what he says later on in the series, it comes across like maybe he use to be that grump that we all know and love but somewhere along the way, because he wanted to get to the top and be respected so much that he lost his soul and honor to get there. Oscar is completely obedient to Zenigata and is closer to what you would think an anime main character to be like: He's young, androgynous, good looking guy and he's gay which is even better for female anime fans but the only downside really is that he's kinda off his bonkers. The main villains here that are the owl people are all about control, they all dress alike, talk alike and want people to dress, act, and think how they want them to, everything about them is very orderly, they are everything our main characters hate

Story: 9
Much like Cowboy Bebop, this is an episodic series with an overarching story-line and much like Cowboy Bebop, the stand alone episodes play into the themes of the overarching story-line. Almost every episode is about someone trying to control the fate of others or someone trying to break free and stand up for what they want. I also love that there's not a whole lot of action, there's action certainly but there's only action when there needs to be. It's a show that relies on good storytelling and amazing atmosphere to keep you hooked than cheap thrills. Not every episode is a homerun but the overall package is fantastic.

Like I've said the show is done in a much more Film Noir way than in as other Lupin animes (that were more like Oceans 11 meets Spy vs Spy) with lots of deep blacks, people falling in and out of love, death, corruption, and of course the classic Femme Fatale, it's all great stuff. Frank Miller wishes he could do a Film Noir about sexuality and visuals as good as this

Some have complained about alot of the nudity in this show and that is something to keep in mind when you watch this, I don't mind because that's just part of Fujiko's character. She uses sex as a weapon and really she seems to feel more alive and like her true self when she's nude than when she's in clothes which again that would play a big part of the idea of not being what other people think you should be. You might think that I'm looking for excuses to defend fanservice but consider that the writer and director of this anime are both women, I think it's safe to say that there's more to it than that especially since the director Sayo Yamamoto is the same woman who gave us Michiko To Hatchin, it's clear from that alone that she knows how to do female characters (she is a woman after all).

If there was one complaint I would have with the story (and it's a minor one) is that it does become a little hard to fellow towards the ending, there's alot of explaining going on and it can be hard to keep track of especially if you're watching it with subtitles but aside from that I have no real problems with the story and I do love the atmosphere and feel of the last 3 or so episodes, it has a very Pierrot Le Fou from Cowboy Bebop vibe to the whole thing.

Visuals and Animation: 10
The animation I will admit isn't always the best. Sometimes it looks great but there are moments where it can be pretty stiff but to me, you can forgive alot in the animation department (which isn't even that bad anyway) if you have the art to back it up and man that's where the visuals truly stand out. One thing I think makes Sayo Yamamoto stand out is that unlike other anime directors that have made western style animes, she doesn't seem to take her inspirations from much American source material where as alot of western style anime have a very American feel to them. She doesn't do that, Michiko To Hatchin had a very City of God brazialian feel to it and A Woman Called Fujiko Mine has much more European feel than American.

That's the best way I can describe to you the imagery of this show without just plain showing you because my god this is seriously one of the most beautiful looking animes I've ever seen. I've said Film Noir alot but even that doesn't quite sum up up how this show looks, you can take a snap shot of almost any scene in this anime display it in an art museum, it's just that great to look it, it's very abstract. If the music in Cowboy Bebop is considered a character in that show than that same would have to go with the art of this show. Much like the show itself, the art style feels very familiar but is very fresh at the same time.

Characters: 10
I've dived into what these characters are about but how are their personalities themselves? It's Lupin The 3rd, in other words I love these characters just like I've always have.

Lupin is as funny, clever, and is as much of a jack ass as he always is and I love him for it.

Jigen is just as bad ass as ever if not more so here and continues to be my favorite character of the entire franchise.

Goemon is done best here than I've ever seen him done before, like I said before there wasn't much to him in other entries of the franchise outside of just being a bad ass samurai, here there's alot more to him than that.

Fujiko makes a good anti hero, she's certainly not boring and thankfully she never does that "woe is me, feel sorry for me" crap. She never becomes a flat out good person but there's a tiny part of her that thinks maybe she could but it just never works out that way, I like characters like that.

This Zenigata like I said certainly an interesting take on the character, I do miss the old one because he was funny and I felt sorry for him but that Zenigata wouldn't have worked here in this gritty stylized crime anime and Oscar... Oscar's just a creep, sure there's an episode where they get into his back story but the conclusion to all that makes me pity him more than feel sorry for him.

Other than Oscar, they're classic Lupin characters with a twist. There's a reason why these characters have been around for so long and why people continue to cosplay as them to this day cause they're just so damn likeable and cool

Sound: 10
It seems to me that any anime with an western flare to it is gonna sound better in English (Anything Shinchiro Watanabe, Trigun, Baccano!, Black Lagoon, Panty and Stocking, Hellsing Ultimate) and here is no exception because while the Japanese version is good. The funimation dub is fantastic and everyone is cast perfected (Also watching it dubbed makes the ending easier to fellow). Ever since the Pioneer dub of Lupin iii Part 2 Michelle Ruff has proven to me that she is Fujiko and while I miss Tony Oliver especially when Fujiko and Lupin were talking, Sonny Strait plays a great Lupin in his own right. Christopher Sabat when he did Jigen in the past I felt sounded too forced with his tough guy voice but he had finally perfected the character, he gives a smoothness to the role while still sounding like a bad ass and Mike McFarland does a good job as Goemon, keeping his voice stoic without being a bore. Richard Epcar does a great job with giving just the right tone with making Zenigata sound tough, he really does sound like he could stand up to guys like Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum (although I found it so weird that Richard has played Jigen, Goemon, and now Zenigata. How odd is that to have played have of the Lupin The Third cast now?)

The music was produced by Shinichiro Watanabe and composed by Naruyoshi Kikuchi and while not quite as memorable as Yuji Ohno's music. It certainly does sound cool and it gets the job done, makes you feel like you're watching a slick but gritty crime movie. One of my favorite pieces isn't really music, it plays during a flashback of Fujiko's child hood and it's these weird electronic sounds, it's very unsettling

Enjoyment: 10
It's been a while since I've seen not only an anime with hard boiled film noir elements but it's been a while since I've seen anything Lupin this good since Episode 0: First Contact and the 2nd Tv series of Lupin The 3rd. This was exactly what the series needed. It's quite ironic that a reboot (for lack of a better word) of such an old franchise is one of the freshest animes I've seen in a long time. Sure, I've mentioned some problems here and there but they're so minor that who cares anyway and yeah this certainly isn't going to appeal to everyone (Hell, it even took me a little while for this anime to grown on me) but that just makes it more special to me. I don't want something to appeal to everyone, you try doing that and you appeal to nobody. You gotta have you mind set and tell the story you wanna tell and that's exactly what they did here. I can't give this more than the overall rating I'm about to give it

Overall: 10

Meet Ryuko Matoi, a high-schooler with a giant ass half of a pair of scissors who is out to take revenge for her dead father at... a highschool. To find the people responsible while fighting the Elite Four: The toughest mostly deadly group in the world with their leader, Satsuki Kiryuin the head of the school and of this city! At first Ryuko fails but with the help of her friend Mako and the secret weapon of her father, Senketsu: A talking super powered school uniform that turns into a battle stripper outfit (it happens). She'll be able to right wrongs in this chaotic world ... and avenge her father.

"I'm sad that I lack the talent to make this shit up" - JonTron

Lets not beat around the bushes, this is one of the silliest, most ridiculous things I've ever seen in my life and since I've seen Fooly Cooly, Panty And Stocking With Gaterbelt, Redline, Space Dandy and a good chunk of hentai, that's REALLY saying something. I shouldn't be surprised since this is from the same people who made Gurren Lagann and Panty and Stocking but they still managed to find a way.

Now after reading that synopsis I wrote, you'd assume this is a sort of a parody of everything silly about anime from battle type shounen to magical girl shows and you'd be right... kinda.

Much like it's older brother "Gurren Lagann", Kill la Kill is a testosterone fueled, over the top, action anime that's more about the passion than making any sense. It's fun, funny, the music's great, and the characters are likeable and enjoyable. Ryuko is a pretty dumb but hard working girl, always fighting to protect her friends, making comebacks to her enemies and even when she does screws up and make stupid mistakes (and she does) she'll acknowledge her mistakes and comes back on top. Satsuki is a no nonsense kinda woman, she knows exactly she wants and how to get it and she kicks all kinds of ass and even when she's defeated and broken down, do any threats phase her, fuck no! and Mako... she's just delightful. She's completely unpredictable, you never know what she's going to do next, you just know that Mako will be Mako, I haven't had this much fun with a crazy random girl in anime since Edward from Cowboy Bebop, if you don't like Mako, you have no soul and you hate fun.

and that's what this show is: fun. Sure the animation's not very good but they do a decent job cutting corners and only use the really bad animation for comedy moments because the fight scenes between Ryuko and Satsuki are very impressive (for the most part) and since Trigger's a new company without Gainax to back up their animation, I won't hold that against them

and sure this anime and it's characters are cliche as hell but hey at least the characters embrace the stereotypes they are (unlike most anime these days) but aside from that, everything about the show is incredible enjoyable. Is it as good as Gurren Lagann? No, definitely not but even a lesser version of Gurren Lagann is still good and the show seems like a funny satire of everything stupid about anime. Well that's what it seems to be about at first but like Gurren Lagann this show also has a second half and this is where my main problem with the show occurs.

You see with a premise like this, it would be impossible to take a show like this completely seriously. Yes, Gurren Lagann was ridiculous too but that was more in it's execution, the actual story part itself doesn't seem TOO dumb. Read the summary I wrote on Kill la Kill and tell that doesn't sound like a comedy and at first that seems to be what Kill la Kill is but when the second part comes along, it becomes harder for me to tell if I'm suppose to take this seriously or not.

There's a scene where one of the Elite Four shows off his powers before he fights Ryuko and she thinks she's got him figured out (that happens alot when bad guys in anime stupidly show off their powers and explain how they work and they act surprised when the hero figures out their powers) but he's got another trick up his sleeve and ask her did she really think he was stupid enough to do that without a back up plan, that sounds like satire to me but then some of the fight scenes aren't very well animated and are drawn out, are they like that because alot of shounen animes have fight scenes that are like that or is it just a drawn out and poorly animated fight scene? Is Ragyo is the way she is because there are some many villains with a superiority complex that wanna take over the world or is she just a lame villain?

It's stuff like this that takes me out of the show a bit because I can't tell if I'm suppose to take this seriously in anyway or if it's just a farse. Take Panty and Stocking for example, love it or hate it, it makes no attempt to hide what it is, a parody of American cartoons like Cartoon Network/Adult Swim kinda stuff and it never strays away from that. This is the reason why Kill la Kill is my least favorite of these 3 shows because it doesn't have the freshness of Gurren Lagann nor does it have the consistency of Panty and Stocking.

Normally these problems would ruin a show for me but because I love these characters so much and I was still enjoying myself that I guess I didn't care, I still stuck with it but I will say that if the second half was more like the first half then this show would've been an easy 9 for me.

It was never going to be a 10 because Kill la Kill from the get go suffer too much from what I like to call "Younger Sibling Syndrome". Samurai Champloo has a bit of that too but Samurai Champloo still had it's own style, feel, and atmosphere. It wasn't just Cowboy Bebop with swords, it had it's own identity. It's impossible for me to look at Kill La Kill as anything other a female version of Gurren Lagann set in high school. It just doesn't have the originality of it's older brother (and TTGL overall had better characters, too) and that is going to hurt it but if you love Gurren Lagann and you're hungry for another show like it, this should definitely feed your appetite, if you hated Gurren Lagann, I can't see how this is going to win you over.

As for my thoughts on the fanservice and if this show truly represents female empowerment? When it comes to talking about anime, I could care less about fanservice. When I criticize or even talk about an anime I have bigger fish to fry and I can't say much on the female empowerment stuff because I'm not a woman, so I can't speak for that, however considering that there are so many female fans of this show and cosplayers of these characters and girls who look up to these characters, I think it's safe to say that the show succeeded at what it was trying to do in that regard

So that's Kill la Kill. It maybe sloppy, it may not make any sense but it's heart is in the right place. Love Gurren Lagann, be sure to check this out. Just don't expect it to be the savior of anime because it's not although it is better than most modern anime (not like that's saying much)