Lupin the Third

*PART 3 REVIEW* - *7/10* *(Subbed)* Compared to the 2 month period that took me to watch Lupin: Part II, which took me about 2 months, it only really took 9 days to watch all 50 episodes of this show, which compared to the length of Part II, is a breath of fresh air because I didn't feel like it was getting tedious. Note, this is the only mainline Lupin show that does not have a dub made in any capacity which, yeah, it is kinda ironic that the show that uses Western culture so much _never_ actually received an official English localization. I'd love to see the Tony Oliver cast eventually dub this, but watching the sub wasn't too bad. I was fully going into this show expecting it just to be okay because I felt that it wouldn't be saying much in the franchise compared to Part I and Part II, and while that is true to an extent, but it surprised me by actually being good. I don't think it's as dramatically driven as Part I or as funny and unpredictable as Part II, but what it does is very good. I heard this was considered the black sheep of the Lupin shows and I didn't see that at first, but the more I watch through the show, I think it's because it doesn't have that much of a personality. Part I and Part II have personality, but this show is kinda... more of the same and I don't want to bash on it too hard because a lot of the individual episodes are good, but the question "What separates it from the rest of the pack?" Well, the best I could come up with is towards the later half of the show, they phased out a lot of the mature aspects (like the breasts shots) and now use wacky, slapstick animation which I actually quite like. It's basically Part 1's tonal identity problems all over again, but slightly less egregious. Some episodes can get really goofy and I usually like those episodes. Overall the quality is somewhat consistent throughout, which is mostly in that 7/10 area, but there aren't a lot of great episodes. The only episodes I would give that 8/10 to are Episodes 6, 30, and 37. 'cause those episodes say "Hey, let's actually try to tell a compelling story with these characters while also being very enjoyable". What I noticed is that there's a noticeable lack of specific character-driven episodes. There are a few Jigen episodes and a tiny bit of Goemon episodes, but there aren't as many as Lupin: Part II. There's not a lot to talk about with the characters because they're mostly just the same as Part II, except for the slight design changes. The early episodes have this more "realistic humanoid" style which I'm not too big on, and of course, the aforementioned wacky, silly style that I actually am a fan of. The only character designs that are worth talking about are Jigen's and Zenigata's. Jigen in the "realistic humanoid" style I don't really like. They take away the fact that his hat goes over his eyes which takes away from his defining design feature that tells you what kind of character he is IMP, but they give him the hat droop back in the "wacky, goofy, silly" style. I also really like Zenigata's design in this show, which only really rivals his Mystery of Mamo's design (Pre-Part III), but I don't exactly have much to say after that. I guess thinking about it as a whole, there’s just not a lot calling me back to this as much as Part I or Part II and while the majority of episodes are solid as is, not much really stuck with me in the long run. I mean... yeah, I don't have that much to say about it overall because it's not story-driven, it's episodic. It's surprisingly good for what it is, but it obviously is the weakest out of the original three shows Now I have WHOOOOOOOLE lot of Movies, TV Specials, OVAs, and Spin-offs before I watch Part IV