Lupin the Third: Part 5

Episode 20

Episode 20 marks the last of the goofy one-off Lupin III episodes before we move into the home stretch. That's right, Ami, Albert, and Enzo are finally returning! But first, we get one of the most delightful installments of this series. Lupin and Zenigata end up on opposite sides for completely different reasons than usual when Zenigata becomes a thief himself! Lupin is back in his red jacket, they're all in Russia, and Part 5 continues to have interesting twists up its sleeves.

When I saw the preview for this episode last week, I spent a lot of time wondering what exactly would get Zenigata to turn to the dark side. The episode's setup gets your gears turning when Lupin mentions that most of the expensive goods in this remote Russian town were stolen by the mob and are being resold. Maybe Zenigata is trying to steal them back and return them to their rightful owners? There are even suggestions of more sinister goings-on, if you know where to look. For example, the "recycled" jewelry store is called Krankenhaus, which is the German word for "hospital". Is there some deeper mystery here? Is Zenigata undercover for Interpol? Is he failing to go after Lupin and his friends because he's got bigger fish to fry?

In fact, the answer is none of those things—rather, it's one of the simplest plot twists in the book: Zenigata has amnesia. He hit his head when a car ran over him, and now he doesn't remember who he is. However, he feels closer to discovering the truth whenever he steals stuff. The thrill is just close enough to his former life to bring his memories back to the tip of his brain, and he knows a lot about how to pull off big heists from years of chasing Lupin. The bigger the target, the better Zenigata feels about his odds of uncovering the truth. The two bandits who "saved" him use him for their own ends, dubbing him "Monety"—meaning "money"—because the dude can't even remember his own name. (Also he's good at earning them lots of money.)

What's frustrating for Lupin is that Zenigata seems to be an even better thief than he is now. It's hilarious, considering how bumbling and ineffective Zenigata can be as a cop, especially where Lupin is concerned. Maybe he should switch careers! That's unlikely to happen, of course, since he's so hell-bent on capturing Lupin, and the gentleman thief is always just barely out of his reach. This episode has a lot of fun with just how closely Zenigata's style of thievery resembles Lupin's. He also dubs himself a "gentleman thief" and releases notes ahead of time warning people of his heists. He even keeps one step ahead of Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon as they go after the same targets over and over. Luckily, his last choice—the famous "Eyes of Romanov" jewels owned by a wealthy man in town—finally puts the two at loggerheads.

Zenigata and Lupin both end up racing outside the house, and something snaps in Zenigata's brain when he accidentally puts the handcuffs on Lupin. He's been here before! But he still doesn't remember everything, just that the name "Lupin" was annoying to him. This whole episode is great if you're a Lupin x Zenigata shipper or just a fan of the series' goofy flirtations with subtext, but this scene really takes things up to 11. Zenigata finally snaps out of it when he watches Lupin run away with the Eyes of the Romanovs in hand. His memory returns when faced with a moment he's seen far too many times before. Hilariously, after Zenigata returns to Interpol, he hears from the local police that they're looking for a "Monety" and suspect Lupin as the culprit! Their thieving styles are just that similar. Zenigata really was seeing Lupin as a mentor all this time—and until that last heist, he even managed to outdo him. Adding to the humor of the whole affair, his Russian bandit friends knew all along who Zenigata really was, because they had his ID badge. They were just having fun with him, since he turned out to be pretty good at this thievery thing.

The only other Lupin characters who show up this week are Jigen and Goemon. They don't do much beyond their usual shtick. Goemon gets to show off some impressive katana work, perhaps the best in Part 5 so far as he cuts through steel multiple times. Jigen mostly teases Lupin and cracks jokes about the whole situation. He also correctly guesses that Lupin came back to this town less out of desire for its hidden riches and more out of concern for Zenigata. Lupin blushes and gets angry about Zenigata besting him, so Jigen is probably right. At the very least, he's in on the shipping jokes about these two.

There's not much more to say about this episode, except how breathtakingly fun it was. It was thrilling to watch the mystery of Zenigata's amnesia unfold as he slowly edged toward the truth. I loved seeing Zenigata and Lupin go head-to-head in a different sort of way than usual, and mostly, I just needed a Zenigata focus episode in Part 5, which has often left our favorite inspector on the sidelines. I'm glad we got such a hilarious one, and let's hope he has a big role in the final arc to come.

Rating: A+

Lupin the Third: Part 5 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a Ph.D. student in musicology, who recently released a book about the music of Cowboy Bebop. You can also follow her on Twitter.