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Now I believe I am allowed to say I am a fan of the Lupin III franchise. I love the characters, the comedy, the unrealistic gadgets, the fight sequences, the music, and on occasion the villains.

However, in this particular special left a sour taste in my mouth.The question is; why?

It's hard to think of how they achieved this with the main cast of the show, since I love watching all four of them, but in this only Lupin is used correctly and he can't save it no matter how hard he tries. Seriously, he tries so hard ... to save something in this special.

*SPOILERS*
The opening scene is reassuring enough with a classic game of wit and tease between Lupin and his dear Fujiko-chan after just stealing 'an entire Swiss bank', boggles the mind I know. Obviously there's 1 item Fujiko was after and this is the title mentioned 'Columbus file', which is the only document locating the mystical 'Columbus Egg'. This is where things start to head down hill, literally.

A five second countdown might as well appear on screen the instant Lupin sets his eye on the file, and his hill top mansion is promptly blown to bits. Events transpire which destroy the file, leaving Fujiko (whom apparantly memorised it in the 2 minutes she had it) both as the bad guys' one and only target and missing. Yeah, that's new, but wait it gets even more original! She reappears in the special's leading original charater, Rosaria's, house with amnesia! Oh boy.

Now you know why Fujiko is not Fujiko during this escapade, but lets move away from spoilers and onto the other characters:

Jiigen; the fastest gunslinger in the world, often capable of shooting numerous enemies before they've even reached for their holsters, and he does nothing. Nothing at all. The only memorable things Jiigen does is to have a joke Yaoi scene with Goemon, and drive the escape vehicle! Jiigen's an awesome character and more than capable of kicking ass without anyone's help, but in this he might as well just stay in the car.

Goemon; the ultimate swordmaster, capable of cutting through pretty much anything...wait I stand corrected, make that, absolutely anything. His abilites are completely overused, including the running gag that he's able to hit broken machinery and get it to run. This complaint is opitmised toward the end where he LITERALLY CUTS A TORNADO! I can believe that Goemon has superhuman sword skills, like cutting rock or even entire builings, but the wind?

Zenigata, easily my favourite character of all Lupin II's cast, a comedic gold mine of dogged determination and bad luck. Is completely underused and as result his normally hilarious attempts to capture Lupin are reduced to idiotic annoyances. Moving swiftly on.

Rosaria, one word: coincidence. Her entire motivation and backstory are centred around the Columbus Egg, and then Fujiko, the only possible key to finding the egg shows up in her house. Otherwise she's fairly consistent, but no-one who will be remembered.

Next, in contrast, is someone you will remember (espcially if you watch the Japan version of One Piece) Nazarov. Intially introduced as a disembodied high pitch scratchy voice with an annoying laugh, he is the special's recurring henchman character. And what design & personaily do they go for?... It's just Lupin in his green jacket. Not kidding either; he looks similar, he's just as much of a jackass, pervert and cross dresser. The only difference to Lupin (other than Lupin's charisma and brains) is he has less experience. Even Zenigata mixes them up at the end. Why can't writers understand that cloning your hero and turning the clone evil doesn't necessarily a good villain make? Overall he's just annoying.

Finally at the Boss. He has no name as I recall, but his evil plans involve a made up energy called 'Orgone Energy', which happens to cure heart disease and cancer, and yet, it also controls tornados and turns people into the Hulk. Anime science, ladies & gentlemen, anime science, and believe me that's not all of it. Back to 'The Boss', his motivations intially seem morale until he's revealed to be the pure evil as all head villains must be, but this plot twist is handled poorly and I was left apathetic when I could tell I was supposed to care.

Now, I've gone on and on about what's wrong with this special. So what's right with it?

One, the music. It's Lupin III on top form with another catchy improvised version of the theme and more often than not good music direction within the special.

Two, Lupin. He's used properly and his actions are easily believable as the his own. However, one character, whether be the lead or not, can't save poor overall writing.

Three, the acting. Not any real bad performances, but Nazarov's voice sounds wrong to me when not coming from a psychopathic clown.

Four, the art. Can't complain here.

That's about all I can think of really, there's the odd good joke, but the charm and comedic grace I associate with Lupin III is absent.

In summary of this boring ass (completely bias) rant. The special is not a chore to watch but also it's not an enjoyment. Lupin III can, has and should do better.

Thanks for reading, sdde

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS* (I did try but it's hard not to: the episode's very good)
Let's start with the story: it's not the best but it keeps you watching intently. The main reason it achieves this is simply that it is the recollection of how the gang all first met, including Zenigata! My main criticism is the contradiction with previous episodes, or rather the re telling of events at a different time and place. The main example is Goemon, in the original series he meets Lupin with intention of killing him and they have a cool battle of wits resulting in them being friends. What happens here ... is not very disimilar or worse, in fact it's better than the original portayal, but since I'd watched the original series before this it just stuck in my head. However, these slight contradictions with the series from the seventies are easily forgivable just after watching the scene in which Jigen and Lupin first meet. Yet, the New York setting just doesn't seem appropriate (I don't know why, because really it should be a perfect setting).
The interactions between the characters is highly enjoyable especially Jigen and Lupin, whom have rivalry that just seems to make me grin. This is even more so near the end when the two establish their friendship, particualrly with Lupin's promise to Jigen.The two's actions also reveal the origns of Lupin's famous car.
The actions of Zenigata are as usual hilarious but for different reasons: HE WINS FOR ONCE! I know I shouldn't say spoilers but if you're a Zenigata fan you need to see the scene where he beats up an entire bad New York neighbourhood. Plus a there is very good look into why Zenigata becomes so hard headed in his pursuit of Lupin. A nice little additive is that initially Lupin wasn't the reason he was in New York, I'll let you guess who he was there to catch.As usual Lupin is set on stealing a certain item that is owned and guarded by scary people (including Jigen) and sought after those as crafty as himself (i.e. Fujiko).
The action sequences are very impressive, particularly for the retelling of Goemon meeting Lupin, and the artwork is flawless for the style chosen. I've just grown attcached to the old feel of both the first and second TV series animations.
There several intersting plot devices to keep one hooked for the story and numerous awesome action sequences to serve the same purpose, however the crowning jewel is the ending. Summed up it is Lupin being Lupin at his best and it just makes you want to smile, and spend hours listening to the great jazz edition of the tradmark theme music, while watching Lupin and co outwit Zenigata and everyone else by three steps.

Opinions of this series will vary significantly depending on the views of the one watching it. However, I seriously recommend this series to anyone who wants to be shocked at the end. You don't see it coming, not even if you're good at predicting hard to predict plot twists.
It starts off innocently enough with the explanation of high school crush trend, where a person takes a picture of their crush with their cell phone and if the crush doesn't find out the person will have their affection returned by the end of the year.
The main character is a male, Makoto, without someone ... to explain hormones and love to him, but he is innocent enough to begin with, except for the fact his crush is the girl with the largest breasts in school. Pretty much purely for that reason. The rest of the cast, besides his friend Taisuke whom openly expresses his desire to get laid, are all female most of whom seem to be very interested in Makoto. This is due to his history as a kind and caring person
The series goes through a progressive evolution of showing how terrible teenage love and lust can be and the horrors it causes. Obviously as a result the series does focus both the girls and boys eyeing each other up so just be prepared.
*WARNING PROBABLE SPOILERS*
The main plot revolves around Makoto, his intitial crush Kotonoha and his classmate Sekai. It starts out sweet but quickly becomes a demonstration of how women compete amongst themselves for a man and how the man only thinks and cares about one thing: sex.
Neither gender attains the moral high ground since the girls basically give Makoto what he wants because they want him. He becomes expectant of it as a result after initially being against the idea of cheating, but it's impossible to say he doesn't choose to be unfaithful. The girls let him be unloyal even despite their continuous campaigns to shut down competitors. Makoto loses any remaining moral standing later on through his actions with dealing with Kotonoha and Sekai at the end of the series especially when you consider what had happened up to that point.
The ending is surprisng to say the least but one that defintely has an element of realism in the sense that love can be a very dangerous thing.
As stated opinion will vary on attitude to the subject of teenage love and lust, but in my opinion I'm glad I watched because the ending just made me scream: "WHAT IN THE NAME LUCIFER!?"

The instant I heard the title "Afro Samurai" I knew I had to see this series, and the fact that Samuel L. Jackson plays the main character only raised my expectations. My expectations were met.
To start (extremely) positive the animation is pristene and the direction of battle is executed exceptionally well with the animation style. Granted it the cliche blood physics are kept, but it is used to great effect during both battle and character development.
My one criticism of the story is the not so original main character motivation of revenge and the reason for it. However, the character, or rather ... characters, formed from this origin is far from predictable. As well as the underlying plot is not very imaginitive but what is seen on the surface is pure gold.
The main character(s) is pretty much unbeatable: silent type, vengance driven, efficient killing machine samurai played by Samuel L. Jackson with an afro (black), and a loud mouth, weed smoking, counterpart also played by Samuel L.Jackson with an opposite afro (white). The villains are very unique and give new meanings to: never-ending supply, creepy, robotic ninjas, gunslayer, and insane teddy bears. Their motivation is not unique i.e revenge or power but still the story behind the explained is rather moving.
One more, and final criticism I make, is sound during battle. I don't know why but I prefer to be able to tell which sound goes to what action to the extents that I think I'm supposed to. Yet, with this the awesome sound track as well as fast paced cool fighting sequences threw me off a bit.
It's fair to say I really enjoy watching this series, because I do and I watch each action and blood filled episode with a feeling of great anticipation.