Lupin III: The Secret of Mamo Anime Movie Review

Those whom have watched only Castle of Cagliostro previously are in for a bit of a shock…

Despite his worldwide popularity, Japanese mangaka Monkey Punch’s mischievous, horny and greedy anti-hero Lupin the Third has never really caught on in the UK. The supposed grandson of French novelist Maurice LeBlanc’s gentleman thief Arsene Lupin, Lupin III’s English-language releases have often been hindered by copyright restrictions, such as needing to rename the main character “Wolf”, which is at least true to the Latin root of his actual name. Only Hayao Miyazaki’s 1979 movie version Castle of Cagliostro gained any kind of recognition here, which is a shame, as Miyazaki’s Lupin III is an outlier in terms of tone and content compared to much of the franchise.

Due to the relative paucity of easily-available Lupin III content here, until recently I’d never watched much, apart from a few scattered episodes of TV series Part IV and Part V on streaming. Back in the 1990s, the sadly-missed Manga Entertainment and long-defunct Western Connection released a few movies and TV specials between them on VHS tape, only some of which graduated to the DVD age. Of Lupin III’s seven theatrical movies, only three are available on disc in the UK — The Secret of Mamo (Manga Entertainment), The Castle of Cagliostro (Studio Canal), and most recent CG-animated prequel movie Lupin III: The First (Anime Limited). Tellingly, both Mamo and Cagliostro are out of print. In 1995, OVA The Fuma Conspiracy, and movie The Gold of Babylon each got a PAL VHS from Western Connection, but that company dissolved before DVDs existed. Television specials The Pursuit of Harimao’s Treasure and The Secret of Twilight Gemini each got DVD releases from Funimation via MVM, both long out of print, while Bye Bye Lady Liberty received a 1996 UK VHS from Manga Entertainment, but no DVD.

This is the version I’m reviewing today.

UK boutique anime licensor Anime Limited is currently the place to go for Lupin III TV anime — they keep four separate series in print: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (the original Manga Entertainment release is long gone), Part IV (dub and sub sold separately, for reasons), Part V, and Part VI. They promise, at some point, to physically release the three OVAs associated with the Fujiko Mine series — Jigen’s Grave Marker, Goemon — A Splash of Blood, and Fujiko’s Lie — though at least they’re available to rent or buy on iTunes, along with 2019 TV special Goodby Partner and Castle of Cagliostro. Cagliostro also streams on Amazon Prime Video, along with ONA Lupin the 3rd vs. Cat’s Eye. Although this does all sound like a lot of Lupin, in the US every single Lupin III TV series (running to over 200 episodes unavailable here), OVA/ONA(7), TV special (27), and movie(7) is available physically, or on streaming. I’ll probably continue to wade through what’s available here, though I’m not sure if I’m willing to invest in importing vast numbers of US blu-rays and DVDs though!

My first ever exposure to Lupin III

In terms of Lupin III manga in English, the first attempt to localise it was in the mid-late 1990’s in UK manga magazine Manga Mania, which featured only three chapters of Shin Lupin III as an experiment by publisher Manga Entertainment into translating their own manga. Previously, Manga Mania filled its pages with Reprints of Epic Comics’ Akira, plus various Dark Horse and Viz series. Tokyopop translated every volume of Shin Lupin III in the early 2000s — I don’t ever recall seeing copies on UK bookstore shelves though. Most recently, Seven Seas released a couple of very nice hardback “best-of” Lupin III volumes that are definitely worth picking up.

Jigen, Lupin, and Goemon as they appear in Lupin III Part 1 (1971)

While the Lupin III manga began in the 1960s and is most certainly a product of its time (in a good way!), it was in the 1970s that Lupin’s star really began to rise. Following a pilot episode in 1969, 1971’s 23-episode Lupin III Part I is notable for featuring many installments directed by both Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. This series featured a green-jacket-wearing Lupin, like in Miyazaki’s Castle of Cagliostro. 1977’s Lupin III Part II ran for 155 episodes, featuring a red-jacketed Lupin, a design utilised in Secret of Mamo. As Secret of Mamo was made during Part II’s production, staff responsible for Part I were hired, with the intention of making a movie far closer to Monkey Punch’s more edgy, darker manga than what had been possible to broadcast on TV. What resulted was a stark contrast to Miyazaki and Takahata’s more light-hearted and family-friendly TV episodes and subsequent 1979 Castle of Cagliostro movie.

Lupin doesn’t normally look this sinister, does he?

Secret of Mamo starts as it means to go on, with an opening scene of Lupin — apparently — being hanged for his multiple crimes. A disturbed (heartbroken?) Inspector Zenigata refuses to believe his nemesis is gone and hunts down Lupin’s body, which he finds Dracula-style in a coffin in a creepy gothic castle. Obviously nothing is as it seems, and when the fake body explodes, the real Lupin taunts Zenigata as he mounts a bat-wing-shaped hang glider and makes his escape. It’s a suitably insane introduction to a bat-shit crazy film. While there is an overall plot, it’s mostly an excuse to move the characters from one loosely-connected set-piece to the next, the structure is freewheeling and tangential.

Airborne escape.

This is illustrated by the next sequence, seemingly completely unrelated, of Lupin and his closest collaborator Jigen (whose eyes are perpetually hidden beneath the brim of his hat) as they infiltrate the Great Pyramid of Giza in order to steal a small, unassuming grey rock. With Zenigata in tow, this is a great piece of slapstick comedy as Lupin and Jigen desperately mount an audacious escape involving motorcycling through the tomb and then down the outside of the pyramid. I particularly like the weird contraptions they use to evade the laserbeams within the pyramid. (Also… pyramids had laser security in the 1970s?)

Fujiko’s first appearance in the film…

Femme Fatale Fujiko Mine makes the first of many appearances as it seems Lupin stole the small stone from the pyramid on her behalf. Their relationship is tumltous in this film, with Lupin rabidly slavering over her body, while she feigns disinterest in him. This Lupin isn’t only motivated by thievery, he’s an inveterate horndog — and the camera certainly frames Fujiko through Lupin’s lecherous gaze — even when he’s not there. We get a completely superflous shower scene (where are all the Cagliostro shower scenes, Miyazaki you coward?), and the first of many cameo appearances from Fujiko’s nipples.

The director is ceretainly having a moment in this torture scene…

I guess Mamo must have used up all of animation cel nipple pink paint #36 so that they had none left for Cagliostro. That can surely be the only explanation for the later film’s complete absence of Fujiko nipple. From their prominence in this movie, it would seem that they’re a central aspect of the entire Lupin III mythos. Later on we’re granted privy to the internal workings of Lupin’s twisted psyche, confirming that inside his mind, it’s Fujiko nipples all the way down. While Fujiko is the sole female character, and therefore the sole focus of female body objectification, she isn’t a mere empty damsel in distress… most of the time. She has her own goals, only some of which align with Lupin’s. While it’s obvious that she really does care for him, her self-preservation instincts take highest precedence.

Smoo-ooch

While Lupin’s horniness directed towards Fujiko frequently causes him to take leave of his senses (as angrily identified by both Jigen and Goemon during a big argument in the first half of the film), it’s more ambiguous as to whether Fujiko returns those more carnal feelings towards Lupin at all. At one point she does take the lead in kissing him (and then permitting him to fondle her bare nipple!), but something always gets in the way, and then she runs away from him again… Poor Lupin, I suppose. Their relationship is mostly played for laughs, exemplifying the trope of an over-interested man doggedly pursuing a dismissive woman who uses just enough of her wiles to keep him engaged.

Mamo’s a freaky-looking chap.

Various misadventures eventually bring Lupin to the main antagonist Mamo’s secret Caribbean island base. Mamo has some kind of vague plan involving cloning famous geniuses, then nuking the rest of the world, and repopulating it with himself as the new Adam and Fujiko as the new Eve. Fujiko doesn’t seem nearly as horrified with Mamo’s creepy old man/shrunken child aesthetic as she should be. I can kind of see in him where Katsuhiro Otomo might have got the idea for his aged child psychic characters in Akira. Anyway, he’s essentially a more insane James Bond Villain, in a film that’s like a Bond movie on acid.

Giorgio de Chirico

Paul Devaux (I think!)

Salvador Dali

More Dali!

Momo’s lair features multiple allusions to classical art, with a wonderful scene that finds Lupin running through famous pieces from artists like Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dali, and Paul Delvaux. This demented sequence made me laugh out loud — I love these kind of bizarre animated non-sequiturs — they remind me of some of the better, weirder Looney Tunes shorts. Lupin also randomly runs into clones of Napoleon and Hitler — somewhat disturbingly crying out “Mein Fuhrer!” and Nazi-saluting the latter. (To be fair, the reason Lupin tends to favour driving a Mercedes-Benz SSK is because it was Hitler’s favourite car. Miyazaki later changed this to a Fiat 500 in Cagliostrio though…)

Lupin makes a new friend… Um…

Let’s just say Secret of Mamo isn’t the most politically correct light entertainment… Hitler’s atrocities pale in comparison to Mamo’s plans for the world, however, and as his base finds itself rained down upon by US missiles in what seems like an explosive finale… only an hour has passed, leaving another forty minutes. Obviously, the island base isn’t Mamo’s true seat of operations, which is in the South American country of Colombia, which also eventually explodes… but not after Mamo’s bizarre secret identity is revealed, Lupin is crucified and tortured, an enormous immortal brain in a rocket is blasted into space, and everyone is almost incinerated by yet more missiles. Yeah, Secret of Mamo is a lot, and I kind of love it, probably more than Cagliostro.

Time for a look into Lupin’s mind… It’s about as degenerate as you might expect.

Secret of Mamo is animated Lupin III with the restraints removed. It’s not “nice”, it’s not “family entertainment”. It’s violent, crass, sexually charged, and its plot is unhinged. With stylised, skinny, angular character designs much closer to the original manga, it looks very unsual too. The artists and director clearly had an absolute blast making this. Secret of Mamo had four English dubs, initially one for Japanese airlines that was never released domestically, a 1995 US NTSC VHS dub from Streamline Pictures, a 1996 UK PAL VHS dub from Manga Entertainment, and finally a Pioneer Entertainment dub for DVD in 2003. Manga Entertainment used Pioneer’s version for their UK DVD release. It stars prominent voice actors like Tony Oliver, Michelle Ruff, and Richard Epcar, and overall is pretty decent. At least this version correctly names the protagonist as “Lupin”. Discotek’s recent US disc releases contain all four dubs.

That’s probably not a good sign…

Bizarrely, Secret of Mamo’s director Soji Yoshikawa is also mainly known for Kirby: Right Back at ya!, a show featuring significantly fewer nipples, though it’s bizarre enough in its own way. While I enjoyed Secret of Mamo more, I can definitely see why many others may prefer the slightly less deranged Castle of Cagliostro. Mamo’s story structure is all over the place, and the later sci-fi elements do seem out of place and stretch credulity way past breaking point. I perceive that as a natural development of an already bonkers movie, and I suggest potential viewers merely run with it, and allow Secret of Mamo’s irrepressible daftness to wash over them. I wonder if any other Lupin III anime can possibly live up to this? At some point I’ll probably be back to find out…

Maybe one day Inspector Zenigata will catch his man…

Lupin the Third: The Secret of Mamo Director: Soji Yoshikawa Screenplay: Atsushi Yamatoya amd Soji Yoshikawa Based on: Lupin III (manga) by Monkey Punch Music: Yuji Ohno Studio: Tokyo Movie Shinsha JP distributor: Toho JP theatrical release: 16th December 1978 UK distributor: Manga Entertainment UK PAL VHS release: 8th July 1996 UK DVD release: 4th August 2008 Languages: Japanese audio with English subtitles, English audio Runtime: 102 minutes BBFC rating: 15

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