“Leave it to my psychokinesis.” 

The third season of Japanimation Station comes to a close with the jam-packed final installment of The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd! We start by taking a look at Lupin’s first live-action adventure, 1974’s Strange Psychokinetic Strategy. This is one of the earliest Lupin adaptations period, created between the first and second anime before the franchise had become enduringly popular, and it’s a surprisingly creative, if narratively scattershot, madcap comedy, putting Lupin in a white jacket and throwing him into a series of increasingly ludicrous scenarios. Then, Jonathan gives us an exhaustive (maybe even obsessive) guide to the best Lupin the 3rd soundtrack albums and the wide world of Yuji Ohno’s Lupin the 3rd Jazz releases. And finally, Sean and Jonathan play a game drafting all our favorite Lupin characters for a hypothetical heist! 

Thanks so much for listening to Season 3 of Japanimation Station. We’ll see you later this fall for the debut of Season 4, Japanimation Station’s Kyoto Vacation, where we’ll be looking at the output of one of anime’s greatest studios, Kyoto Animation! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Strange Psychokinetic Strategy: 0:01:20 – 1:09:05

Eyecatch Break 1: 1:09:05 – 1:09:38

Jonathan’s Guide to Lupin Music: 1:09:38 – 1:50:51 

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:50:51 – 1:51:22

Season 3 Wrap-up: 1:51:22 – 2:12:21

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:12:21 – 2:12:49

Lupin Family Draft: 2:12:49 – 2:35:17

Season 4 Preview: 2:35:17 – 2:39:49 

End Theme: 2:39:49 – 2:41:04 

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“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

“I guess we do battle tonight, Pops!”

For the penultimate episode of Japanimation Station Season 3, we’re looking at a selection of Lupin the 3rdfilms and specials from the brink of the new millennium! Starting with 1996’s Dead or Alive, a theatrical feature directed by Lupin creator Monkey Punch himself, which sees our favorite thief embroiled in a narratively messy but visually stunning adventure on a very strange island. 1997’s Island of Assassins is a lesser Lupin special, weirdly violent but without any particular bite, while 1998’s Tokyo Crisis is one of our absolute favorites, a Zenigata-led, uproariously funny comedy with fantastic guest performances by Megumi Hayashibara and Kōichi Yamadera. And finally, we end our examination of Lupin the 3rd anime with 2002’s Episode 0: The First Contact, an origin story caper for the entire Lupin gang that sees the franchise taking its early steps into digital animation, with mixed results.   

Enjoy, and come back next week for our season 3 finale, where we’ll be reviewing the 1974 live-action Lupin adaptation, Strange Psychokinetic Strategy, and celebrating all this season’s Lupintic adventures!  

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro: 0:01:20 – 0:15:04

Dead or Alive: 0:15:04 – 1:15:59 

Eyecatch Break 1: 1:15:59 – 1:16:33 

Island of Assassins: 1:16:33 – 1:45:56

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:45:56 – 1:46:18 

Tokyo Crisis: 1:46:18 – 2:32:12 

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:32:12 – 2:32:37

Episode 0 First Contact: 2:32:37 – 3:08:44

End Theme: 3:08:44 – 3:09:59 

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“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

“I can’t just ignore a lovely lady with a big Diamond.”

As Lupin the 3rd rounded the corner of the 1980s into the 1990s, the character and the series was in a period of transition. The 1987 OVA film The Fuma Conspiracy featured some of the franchise’s greatest animation, but also had a completely different voice cast than Japanese fans had come to know and love. The series went back to the tone and style of Part II for the 1989 Osamu Dezaki-directed TV special Bye Bye Lady Liberty, with Yasuo Yamada, the original voice cast, and the red jacket in tow, and it was a huge success, creatively and commercially, kicking off an annual string of feature-length TV specials that continued through 2013, including 1993’s Voyage to Danger, which saw the one-time-only return of Part I director Masaaki Osumi to the franchise. Sadly, Yasuo Yamada grew ill and passed away in 1995, just before the release of the first theatrical film in 10 years, Farewell to Nostradamus, with Kanichi Kurita stepping into those impossibly large shoes as his replacement, and doing such an amazing job that he continues to voice Lupin to this day! We cover all 4 of these feature-length Lupin experiences in today’s episode, analyzing a period where everything is in flux for Lupin III, and the possibilities are endless! 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we look at Lupin’s adventures on the brink of the new millennium with a selection of films and specials from 1996 to 2002 – Dead or Alive, Island of Assassins, Tokyo Crisis and Episode 0: First Contact! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro: 0:01:20 – 0:06:57 

The Fuma Conspiracy: 0:06:57 – 0:49:06

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:49:06 – 0:49:38

Bye Bye Lady Liberty: 0:49:38 – 1:51:46

Eyecatch Break 2: 1:51:46 – 1:52:10

Voyage to Danger: 1:52:10 – 2:35:28

Eyecatch Break 3: 2:35:28 – 2:35:54

Farewell to Nostradamus: 2:35:54 – 3:27:49 

End Theme: 3:27:49 – 3:29:04 

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Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

“Nobody said I’m not in. We’re just out of cognac.” 

With Lupin the 3rd Part III, Lupin officially the enters the 1980s and he’s got a new attitude, a new look, and a new jacket – a pink one! The Pink Jacket Adventures, as this series has come to be known, is one of the weirder and wilder chapters in Lupin history, with Yuzo Aoki leading a talented team of animators to create a take on Lupin that’s both uniquely stylish and highly varied, with character designs shifting from episode to episode and sometimes scene to scene, and the series’ second half employing a particularly cartoon-y, Looney Tunes-esque approach to motion and mayhem. Meanwhile, iconic Japanese New Wave director Seijun Suzuki wrote one of the boldest and most bonkers Lupin episodes of all time, and co-directed The Legend of the Gold of Babylon, the Part III film released in 1985, which we also discuss on today’s show alongside 20 episodes from Part III (see the full list below). It’s one of the most memorable periods for Lupin the 3rd, and also one of the most rewarding. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we look at a transitionary period in the history of Lupin with a selection of films and specials from 1987 to 1995 – The Fuma Conspiracy, Bye-Bye Lady Liberty, Voyage to Danger, and Farewell to Nostradamus!  

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro & History: 0:01:20 – 0:10:44

Lupin VIII: 0:10:44 – 0:22:46

History Continued: 0:22:46 – 0:50:06

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:50:06 – 0:50:38 

Episode-by-episode Review: 0:50:38 – 3:01:47

Eyecatch Break 2: 3:01:47 – 3:02:14

The Legend of the Gold of Babylon: 3:02:14 – 3:52:09 

End Credits: 3:52:09 – 3:53:24

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Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Full list of episodes watched: 

1 - "The Gold Is Beckoning Lupin"

3 - Greetings to Hell’s Angel 

7 - The Man Called Death Gurve 

11 - The Ruby Sheds Bloody Tears

13 - Variations on Getting Carried Away

18 - Showtime Reeks of Death 

23 - Operation: Beirut Mobile Bank Robbery

24 - Sleep Peacefully, Friend

27 - Codename: Star of Alaska

28 - The Star of Alaska is a One-way Ticket to Hell

30 - A Cocktail Named Revenge

31 - A Turnabout, a Comeback, and a Reversal

34 - "Manhattan Crisis"

37 - "Pops Boils over with Rage"

38 - Leticia who Loved Lupin

40 - A Lotto Ticket to Riot

44 - "Our Papa’s a Thief"

46 - Soaring on Scrap Wings

49 - The Day Pops Got Adopted 

50 - "Orders to Destroy the Atomic Sub Ivanov"

“Believe in the power of the thief.” 

Before he left the world of Lupin behind and went off to change the course of anime history forever with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Hayao Miyazaki returned to TMS for a final set of Lupin the 3rd projects that have become iconic anime classics: The 1979 feature film The Castle of Cagliostro, and episodes 145 and 155 of Part II, “Albatross – Wings of Death” and “Farewell, O Dearest Lupin!”, distributed in the US in the 1990s as Lupin III’s Greatest Capers. These were the first pieces of Lupin media commercially available in America, and Cagliostro in particular is the most frequent entry point for Lupin newcomers. While Miyazaki’s more heroic, chivalric vision of the character is a bit of an outlier, there’s a reason Cagliostro has such magnetic appeal, as it’s one of the single greatest animated films ever made, a perfectly paced action adventure fueled by some of the most virtuosic animation to ever grace the silver screen. An influence for all sorts of movies all around the world, it’s a true classic, and so are Miyazaki’s two episodes of Part II, with “Albatross” in particular taking the director’s love of airplanes to astonishing new heights, and setting an impossibly high bar for how good TV animation can be. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we enter the Pink Jacket era and review Lupin the 3rd Part III and the 1985 film The Legend of the Gold of Babylon! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro: 0:01:20 – 0:11:32

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:11:32 – 0:12:03

The Castle of Cagliostro: 0:12:03 – 2:27:07

Eyecatch Break 2: 2:27:07 – 2:27:39

Greatest Capers Episodes: 2:27:39 – 3:16:35

End Theme: 3:16:35 – 3:17:50 

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Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

“Lupin, our manly drama ends today!” 

Airing from 1977 to 1980, the second Lupin the 3rd TV anime – retroactively titled “Part II” – produced a whopping 155 episodes, and with the iconic red jacket and the entire five-person crew (Lupin, Jigen, Fujiko, Goemon, and Zenigata) in tow for every adventure, this is the series that firmly cemented Lupin III as an enduring anime icon, and set the tone for many of his future capers. For today’s episode, we watched a selection of 27 episodes – see the full list below – and experienced a wide range of adventures, from Lupin and company stealing a vintage bottle of wine on Christmas, to Jigen helping a ballerina defect to the West, to ‘Pops’ Zenigata springing a daring trap for Lupin on the highway, to Goemon surviving a shockingly violent bout of torture, to two whole episodes devoted to an extremely surprising (and very funny) alternate history of Jesus Christ himself! Part II is truly a wild ride, with some absolute masterpiece episodes displaying some of the greatest animation in TV history, and almost always providing a big dose of fun. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we review Lupin’s most famous adventure with Hayao Miyazaki’s 1979 classic The Castle of Cagliostro, and look at the two episodes Miyazaki directed for Part II, Albatross – Wings of Death and Farewell, O Dearest Lupin! 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro, History, and Part II Overview: 0:01:20 – 0:57:57 

Eyecatch Break 1: 0:57:57 – 0:58:30 

Episode-by-episode review, part 1: 0:58:30 – 2:22:00 

Eyecatch Break 2: 2:22:00 – 2:22:29 

Episode-by-episode review, part 2: 2:22:29 – 3:45:25

End Theme: 3:45:25 – 3:46:40 

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“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Full list of episodes watched (Japanese title/English title) 

1 - "Lupin the Third's Gallant Appearance" / "The Return of Lupin the 3rd"

12 - "A Gift for the President" / "The Sleight Before Christmas"

13 - "The Great Chase in San Francisco" / "I Left My Mind in San Francisco"

20 - "Cornered Lupin" / "Hell Toupee"

21 - "Goemon's Revenge" / "The Last Mastery"

25 - "Encounter With the Deadly Iron Lizard" / "The Lair of the Land-Shark"

26 - "A Rose and a Pistol" / "Shot Through the Heart"

27 - "Where Did the Cinderella Stamp Go?" / "The Little Princess of Darkness"

30 - "The Wind in Morocco is Hot" / "Morocco Horror Picture Show"

32 - "Lupin Dies Twice" / "Lupin the Interred"

34 - "Lupin Who Turned Into a Vampire" / "But your Brother was Such a Nice Guy"

36 - "Uncover the Secret of Tsukikage Castle" / "The Riddle of Tsukikage Castle"

38 - "The Sweet Trap of ICPO" / "Happy Betrayals to You"

48 - "Lupin Laughs at the Alarm Bell" / "Vault Assault"

57 - "Computer or Lupin?" / "Alter-Ego Maniac"

58 - "The Face of Goodbye at the National Border" / "Gettin' Jigen with It"

66 - "Order: Shoot to Kill!!" / "Beauty and the Deceased"

69 - "The Woman Pops Fell in Love With" / "Zenigata Getcha into My Life"

85 - "The ICPO's Secret Plan" / "The Secret Order of ICPO"

94 - "Lupin vs. Superman" / "Lupin Vs. Superman"

97 - "Find Lupin the First's Treasure" / "Searching for Lupin I's Treasure"

99 - "The Scattered Magnum" / "Fighting Jigen"

112 - "Goemon's Close Call" / "Danger! Goemon"

114 - "The Secret of the First Supper" / "The Secret of the First Supper"

129 - "In Jigen, I Saw the Gentleness of a Man's Soul" / "The Kindness Of Jigen is Seen"

148 - "The Target Is 555 Meters" / "The Target is Five Hundred and Fifty Five Meters Away"

151 - "The Arrest Lupin Highway Operation" / "To Arrest Lupin, the Mission at Highway"

“Wherever he goes, he’ll be chased. That is his destiny.” 

In 1978, Lupin the 3rd made the leap to the big screen with his first animated feature film, and while the second Lupin movie, 1979’s Hayao Miyazaki-directed The Castle of Cagliostro, is the more famous film, The Mystery of Mamo is arguably the single piece of Lupin animation that cuts closest to the heart of the character and the tone, humor, and storytelling style that makes Lupin the 3rd so enduring. It’s a globetrotting adventure that takes the audience all around the world, makes fantastic use of all five regular characters, has a wonderfully anarchic sense of humor, and is spectacularly animated from start-to-finish, a virtuosic feat from franchise stalwarts like Yuzo Aoki and Yasuo Otsuka. And it even has a thoughtful thematic core saying something surprisingly profound about Lupin as a character and the way he moves through the world, making for a movie that isn’t just uproariously funny and consistently surprising, but actually kind of poignant. It’s an absolute classic, and one that’s a delight to discuss on today’s episode. 

Enjoy, and come back next week as we dive into Lupin’s longest-running and most successful anime, Lupin the 3rd Part II. 

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro, History, and Review Part 1: 0:01:20 – 0:57:23 

Eyecatch Break: 0:57:23 – 0:58:08

Review Part 2: 0:58:08 – 2:26:58 

End Theme: 2:26:58 – 2:28:13

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content! 

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Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcast platforms: http://www.weeklystuffpodcast.com

“Welcome to Japanimation Station!” Lyrics by Sean Chapman, Music by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

“I’m a greedy person. There’s so much I want to do with Mom and all of you.” 

Weekly Suit Gundam is back to review the second and final season of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, which brings the story to a close with a rousing, jam-packed set of episodes that’s darker, richer, and more action-filled than the first season. This is the first mainline Gundam series besides Reconguista in G to tell its story in just 2 cours, but that doesn’t mean it’s a thinner or less complicated show, as our super-sized conversation in today’s episode attests to. With so many amazing characters, stellar animation and music, and a story that revisits classic Gundam scenarios and iconography while also challenging and moving beyond them, Witch From Mercury is a show with a lot on its mind, and a lot to break down.  

Enjoy, and be sure to tune in for Japanimation Station Season 3, “The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd,” airing Tuesday nights at 7pm CT on YouTube! 

Subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheWeeklyStuffPodcast

Visit our website and subscribe to Japanimation Station on all podcast platforms: http://japanimationstation.com/

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“Tobe! Gundam” performed by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Band in Shinjuku, Tokyo, February 2016. Originally composed by Takeo Watanabe with lyrics by Rin Iogi and performed by Koh Ikeda. 

“Gundam Stands its Ground” originally composed by Takeo Watanabe & Yushi Matsuyama. “Mobile Suit Gundam” Arcade (1993) arrangement composed by Nadya Doi.