The One With the Flakey Eastern Cult
Apr. 6th, 2012 12:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tilly_stratford(Do these episodes actually have individual titles? I just don't know. Anyway, The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, episode 1: 'A Master Thief vs. A Female Phantom Thief')
I remember being in Eastern Norway last month when the news of the new Lupin TV series broke, so it's appropriate I've returned and watched the first episode.
So, an after-midnight reaction post based on a hideously compressed stream (darn those people only torrenting gigantic HD video files my rickety old computer can't even play):
IT'S
COMPLETELY
GORGEOUS.
The art is lush and sketchy at the same time, there's textures and scratchy pencil lines and gorgeous understated colour schemes and it's like eating some strange exotic dessert, but with your eyes. The animation, too, is really fluid and bouncy and high-quality (except some mouth issues but I can overlook those), though obviously a lot of it is devoted to bouncing breasts and hands ildly caressing thighs.
Which is to say, the show is very... carnal, but that was to be expected. But somehow... it didn't really bother me this time. It's really sleazy, but the sleazyness fits so goddamn well with the grungy art style, I enjoy it. There's a funky seventies' sexploitation vibe there. And so far, all the Fujiko fanservice (at one point she runs around with nothing but a thong, high heels and a machine gun) has pretty much been on Fujiko's terms, she isn't naked and vulnerable, she's naked and in charge. It might not be a very obvious difference, but if you compare it to the sleazyness of the original manga, there's a distinction there.
Or maybe I'm just patiently tolerating the fanservice scenes while waiting for Lupin to do cool stuff. Oh, and just to properly express my relief:
NO RAPE. NOT EVEN ATTEMPTED RAPE. LEAST OF ALL AT THE HANDS OF OUR HERO LUPIN.
Which is very very good. And something I think many of us were afraid of when we heard the show was going to be heavily based on the original manga.
THIS IS A GOOD TREND AND LET'S HOPE IT LASTS.
So this portrayal of Fujiko is... Fujiko's okay, she's aggressive and mysterious and clever, and that's good. Not much evidence of a personality or backstory yet, but we'll hopefully get to see some of that in future episodes.
Lupin is unpredictable and noir and just a little bit crazy, and it really works for this sort of story. AND IT'S GREAT OVERALL. He switches between Suave Mysterious Mastermind and Swinging On a Rope While Hollering Like a Madman. He's young and stupid and clever and can't stand the thought of boredom. It's a bit Episode 0, and just the kind of Lupin I enjoy the most.
Zenigata is also very Cool and Mysterious and Noir. Well we only saw a little but he looked very badass indeed. The new voice actor works very well for that sort of thing. I am, however, worrying about his new bishounen assistant Oscar. Bishounen in this franchise, oh dear. (Calling it now: Oscar's going to betray Zenigata. Too pretty and mysterious.)
Watching the episode I kept trying on some opinions I'd read, like "This isn't what Lupin III is about" or "This cheapens forty years of stories" and I weighed them over and I thought, "No". Sure, this isn't the sum of this setting and these characters, but I realize I really love that creators feel free to do all sorts of things with them! It's like the manga, it's like Red Jacket, people experiment with these characters in all sorts of genres - one week it's scifi, another romance, another a war story. This time we get a sleazy retro sex spyfi thing, and I'm really excited about seeing how they're gonna explore that!
I just hope they'll manage to keep the balance between Fujiko Nudity and Lupin Doing Stuff in future episodes. This time the latter outweighed the former, and hopefully the writers know that Lupin is the major pull here. Well he is to me. (Also goddamn I can't wait to see Jigen and Goemon!!)
Oh, and story? Yeah, there's a story somewhere in there. It's obviously not important. It adds up, it's good enough for me, but the first episode is pretty much Lupin and Fujiko meet for the first time; Cue explotions and also surfing on a rocket-powered gigantic statue through an island temple. Yes, excellent.
Definitely style over substance, but the first episode was pretty and sleazy and tolerable and if it continues like this, I'll be pleased!
(Also I plan to rewatch it in non-shitty quality ASAP.)
I remember being in Eastern Norway last month when the news of the new Lupin TV series broke, so it's appropriate I've returned and watched the first episode.
So, an after-midnight reaction post based on a hideously compressed stream (darn those people only torrenting gigantic HD video files my rickety old computer can't even play):
IT'S
COMPLETELY
GORGEOUS.
The art is lush and sketchy at the same time, there's textures and scratchy pencil lines and gorgeous understated colour schemes and it's like eating some strange exotic dessert, but with your eyes. The animation, too, is really fluid and bouncy and high-quality (except some mouth issues but I can overlook those), though obviously a lot of it is devoted to bouncing breasts and hands ildly caressing thighs.
Which is to say, the show is very... carnal, but that was to be expected. But somehow... it didn't really bother me this time. It's really sleazy, but the sleazyness fits so goddamn well with the grungy art style, I enjoy it. There's a funky seventies' sexploitation vibe there. And so far, all the Fujiko fanservice (at one point she runs around with nothing but a thong, high heels and a machine gun) has pretty much been on Fujiko's terms, she isn't naked and vulnerable, she's naked and in charge. It might not be a very obvious difference, but if you compare it to the sleazyness of the original manga, there's a distinction there.
Or maybe I'm just patiently tolerating the fanservice scenes while waiting for Lupin to do cool stuff. Oh, and just to properly express my relief:
NO RAPE. NOT EVEN ATTEMPTED RAPE. LEAST OF ALL AT THE HANDS OF OUR HERO LUPIN.
Which is very very good. And something I think many of us were afraid of when we heard the show was going to be heavily based on the original manga.
THIS IS A GOOD TREND AND LET'S HOPE IT LASTS.
So this portrayal of Fujiko is... Fujiko's okay, she's aggressive and mysterious and clever, and that's good. Not much evidence of a personality or backstory yet, but we'll hopefully get to see some of that in future episodes.
Lupin is unpredictable and noir and just a little bit crazy, and it really works for this sort of story. AND IT'S GREAT OVERALL. He switches between Suave Mysterious Mastermind and Swinging On a Rope While Hollering Like a Madman. He's young and stupid and clever and can't stand the thought of boredom. It's a bit Episode 0, and just the kind of Lupin I enjoy the most.
Zenigata is also very Cool and Mysterious and Noir. Well we only saw a little but he looked very badass indeed. The new voice actor works very well for that sort of thing. I am, however, worrying about his new bishounen assistant Oscar. Bishounen in this franchise, oh dear. (Calling it now: Oscar's going to betray Zenigata. Too pretty and mysterious.)
Watching the episode I kept trying on some opinions I'd read, like "This isn't what Lupin III is about" or "This cheapens forty years of stories" and I weighed them over and I thought, "No". Sure, this isn't the sum of this setting and these characters, but I realize I really love that creators feel free to do all sorts of things with them! It's like the manga, it's like Red Jacket, people experiment with these characters in all sorts of genres - one week it's scifi, another romance, another a war story. This time we get a sleazy retro sex spyfi thing, and I'm really excited about seeing how they're gonna explore that!
I just hope they'll manage to keep the balance between Fujiko Nudity and Lupin Doing Stuff in future episodes. This time the latter outweighed the former, and hopefully the writers know that Lupin is the major pull here. Well he is to me. (Also goddamn I can't wait to see Jigen and Goemon!!)
Oh, and story? Yeah, there's a story somewhere in there. It's obviously not important. It adds up, it's good enough for me, but the first episode is pretty much Lupin and Fujiko meet for the first time; Cue explotions and also surfing on a rocket-powered gigantic statue through an island temple. Yes, excellent.
Definitely style over substance, but the first episode was pretty and sleazy and tolerable and if it continues like this, I'll be pleased!
(Also I plan to rewatch it in non-shitty quality ASAP.)
