Lupin III is a name familiar to anime fans worldwide, but not all of them would know what exactly the name entails. I, for one, have been interested in Lupin III for who knows how long, but felt intimidated by how large a franchise it has grown into throughout the last five decades. After a few years of being confused, I finally got an accessible introduction in the form of Lupin Zero.

Billed as the story of Lupin III in his youth, specifically his high school days, the six-episode ONA series starts with Lupin's meeting with his soon-to-be partner-in-crime, Jigen, and their first love, Yoko, who would play a more important role during the final two episodes. Lupin is shown to be a young and very talented con man, standing at the intersection of two different ways of life, as represented by his father, Lupin II, and his grandfather, the great Arsene Lupin. His interactions with the delinquent student, Jigen, who turns out to be much more than a delinquent, would trigger a great change in their lives—one that would mark a long-lasting friendship forged through life and death.

The characters presented in the series have a tendency to be one-note, especially the side characters. For example, Lupin II is a cool thief-dad, Shinobu is a hot awesome bodyguard-maid, Grandpa Lupin is a cunning master thief, and so on. Even so, it works well to keep the focus on Lupin and Jigen's character development. Speaking of cool, don't get me started on how cool Jigen is. He might not be the most charismatic guy compared to what you might see in other anime but, oh boy, the manchild in me screamed how much would have wanted a cool friend like him in my high school days. Pairing him with mischievous Lupin makes a good comedy duo reminiscent of classic buddy cop movies.

I have to give two thumbs up to the series' visuals, as it hits me hard with nostalgia. I used to watch Casshern and Time Bokan when I was still a toddler. The retro visuals also fits well with the 1960s setting. I also can't forget about some of the wacky cartoonish action sequences that add a good amount of flavor to the setting, although they might not be for everyone. The action scenes, while stylish and over-the-top, have a hint of realism during the serious parts of the story. They range from a high school student gunning a railway to change a train's route, running through Looney Tunes dungeons, and even one occasion where the boys hijack a ship mounted with atomic artillery weapon occupied by an armed revolutionary group. Awesome? Yes, of course.

The lack of overarching plot does mean that the storytelling is not the best aspect. For example, the episode where Lupin tries to hijack a whisky-smuggling pipeline and connect it to his secret base in school feels like a filler episode in a six-episode series. It's also super messy with how it handles comedy, conflict. Yet despite being a short series, we still get a colorful cast of distinctly designed characters, an almost fulfilling adolescent story, a compelling friendship story, a few great action set pieces, and, most importantly, a cool dad plus a very cool best friend. A few lulls here and there can be forgiven.

Overall, Lupin Zero is a very enjoyable series on its own. I would recommend this to my friends in a heartbeat. It also does a great job of making me want to continue diving deeper into Lupin III's world more than ever. I am hoping that Lupin and Jigen stay best friends in their adult life.