Lupin the Third: Part 5

Episode 8

This episode is titled "Who has the black notebook?" which might feel like a puzzling title at first. Lupin has it, of course! Right? Of course we quickly learn that he doesn't, at least not the original. Gaston was copying more priceless artifacts than we thought. This sets a good tone for the whole episode, as a series of two steps forward and three steps back. We get some questions answered, but only with more questions to follow. After a deadly cliffhanger, we're still nowhere close to the end of this arc.

Episode 8 might be even stronger than its predecessor. That was a promising kick-off to a thrilling new arc, but this episode offers more variety. As dark as episode 8 gets, it keeps sprinkling in goofy humor vignettes to keep the tone light. The previous episode had some fun gags, particularly involving the Lupin gang's disguises, but they were more woven into the narrative. This episode spends whole scenes away from the action to give us some good Goemon jokes, as he gradually becomes more involved in the story. I love Goemon, but his nature as a "walking anachronism" (Jigen's words) don't always make him the most relatable character. But who hasn't struggled with opening up their phone after you get out of the shower? Even if it's shifted away from its focus on technology, I'm glad that Lupin III is still having fun with the perils of modern gadgets. Lupin III has always had a good sense of the balance between humor and danger, no matter where its main plot might lead.

We get some more nuggets of information about a mysterious former undercover agent named Jose, now working for Albert's group, and some more showdowns with a masked assailant. This series is great at framing its action sequences, especially in terms of its music. The fast-paced modern jazz of this season's battles remind me of similar music from Cowboy Bebop. Despite its brassiness, this music acts like a more traditional action score, carefully tracking music to character movements and plot twists. Rapid drumrolls punctuate the soundtrack to announce a new adversary, and the result both adds to the suave spy-movie atmosphere of the series and helps the audience anticipate what might happen next.

Camille tells us more about his intentions for the black notebook. He believes it should be made public, which makes sense. Isn't police corruption everyone's business, not just useful for a few thieves and secretive syndicates? Camille wants to wait until the time is right though, so he's hidden it until that day. Unfortunately, Albert's group knows about this bait-and-switch. Because they'll never find the original, their best shot is still Lupin's fake. I'm assuming that we'll learn about the secret location sooner or later, because the show just kind of drops that issue for now. Camille states that Albert's group has accepted that they can't find the original, and Lupin takes this for granted without questioning further. That doesn't make sense from what we've seen of these characters, so there must be a more complicated explanation forthcoming.

Instead, the episode builds to a confrontation with Albert. Along the way, we learn more about his group, including that he might not be the leader after all, but might be working for an even more shadowy character named Guillaume. Lupin also seems unusually eager to go back into Paris and confront this group. He tries to rig his meeting with Albert by using his lover Tickey Pasco against him to switch his gun with a fake. Unfortunately for Lupin, Albert figures him out, and Lupin is left shot and bleeding in the street after their confrontation.

Before we get to that confrontation, let's talk a little about Albert and Tickey. It's always a tricky conversation when it comes to gay villains, since there's a long cinematic history of using queer-coded villains to make LGBT identities seem deviant. Unfortunately, approaching this issue without nuance can make it seem like writers aren't allowed to write gay characters as villains or even morally complicated at all. So I think it's worth pointing out when shows do the "gay villain" thing right, and most of it has to do with framing: is a character's sexuality depicted as part of their villainy, or is it seen as a neutral or even positive character trait? How are their relationships and sexuality depicted relative to heterosexual ones? This is where I think Lupin III avoids "gay villain" clichés with Albert, because his rendezvous with Tickey is depicted the same way as the heterosexual relationships Lupin has manipulated in the past. If anything, Albert and Tickey seem to be in a pretty solid relationship. Beyond that, Lupin only mentions Tickey's "same taste in men" in the same way he would mock an old foe's predictable taste in the same types of women. Part 5 isn't out of the woods yet with this character, but so far so good.

As for that ending, this episode treats Lupin's peril much more convincingly than the last time he "died." The master thief is sincerely caught off guard this time. I'm a little nervous that this show is going back to a well it drank from so recently, but it's good to see a turn like this have more lasting consequences of some kind. It's only the second episode of this arc, but Part 5 is already willing to take chances on Lupin the Third's familiar story beats.

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.