History Anime / GreenVsRed

Will the Green-Jacket Yasuo replace the Red-Jacket imitator? Is the Red-Jacket an imitator or the original? Will Zenigata finally capture Lupin? WTF, where did that GiantMecha come from???

* GodzillaThreshold: Zenigata pulls his 1911 pistol on Lupin (well, Yasuo / Green Jacket Lupin) for perhaps the first time in franchise history after it's revealed that the Ice Cube (being held in its containment vessel in Yasuo's hand) is weapons-grade plutonium; Zenigata would never actively use lethal force on Lupin, but in this instance, the stakes were way too high.

* ArtShift: The final duel between Green and Red is in primarily black and white, and animated to resemble the style of Monkey Punch's original manga pages.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lupinzergrush_917.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:This is what Zenigata's nightmares look like.]]

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler: Averted. [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Not really a spoiler.]] ]]

** One of the funniest gags is when some Lupin copycats meet and one of them writes "RUPAN" on the wall, and another one questions if he spelt the name wrong. "Rupan" is the typical romanization of the katakana used for "ルパン", and was used to avoid paying the rights to the [=LeBlanc=] estate. Nowadays, the name is usually back-translated correctly because the original Arsene is now a PublicDomainCharacter.

* ArtShift -- The final duel between Green and Red is in primarily black and white, and animated to resemble the style of Monkey Punch's original manga pages.
* AuthorFilibuster -- The Ice Cube being a source of nuclear power is used to condemn the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which seems out of place in a Lupin film until one remembers that Creator/HayaoMiyazaki has a similar anti-war, anti-nuclear stance.
* BattleInTheRain -- The first time Green and Red meet.

* HumongousMecha -- One appears near the end, but it bears absolutely [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment no relevance to the plot]].
* InfantImmortality -- [[spoiler: Averted. [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment Not really a spoiler.]] ]]
* LostInTranslation -- When one of the Lupin-impersonator spray-paints "Rupan" on a wall, and another is asking, "Isn't that wrong?" This is a reference to the MarketBasedTitle "Rupan" that Creator/AnimEigo used on its English-language Lupin III releases. That makes this an ''inverted'' Lost in Translation, given that relatively few Japanese viewers would catch the reference.

* MacGuffin -- The Ice Cube has no real purpose other than getting stolen and being used for the AuthorFilibuster above.
* MeaningfulName -- Yasuo is named after Creator/YasuoYamada, Lupin's most important ''seiyuu'', and Yasuo Ohtsuka, animation director for the animated series. Similarly, Yukiko is named after Fujiko's original voice actress.

* MythologyGag -- Almost everything that happens in ''Green vs. Red'' is a reference to earlier aspects of the franchise. Because the Creators aren't giving us a line-by-line confirmation, we're providing an explanation for each one.

* NonstandardCharacterDesign -- The Lupin impersonators at the beginning are drawn to resemble '''all''' possible incarnations of the character and then some, including the Pink Jacket Lupin, a fat Lupin and [[Creator/ShinichiWatanabe Nabeshin]].
* ProductPlacement --

* RecursiveCanon -- A movie poster for ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'' is one of the many in one of the Lupin's rooms.

* ZergRush -- When hundreds of fake Lupins storm Tokyo to save their fellow copycat from the police.

* AmbiguousCloneEnding -- The "new Lupin" at the end could be either Arséne Lupin or Yasuo, or perhaps another one entirely. The evidence supports all three theories.

* AxCrazy -- Jigen becomes this temporarily after he is attacked by a Nazi!Lupin with a helicopter. I mean, look at this face: 40.media.tumblr.com/1a71e3e6634f7a86664026a85a92cfd3/tumblr_o1six3aJHI1rhk872o2_1280.jpg

* AxCrazy -- Jigen becomes this temporarily after he is attacked by a Nazi!Lupin with a helicopter. I mean, look at this face: [url=https://40.media.tumblr.com/1a71e3e6634f7a86664026a85a92cfd3/tumblr_o1six3aJHI1rhk872o2_1280.jpg][/url]

* AxCrazy -- Jigen becomes this temporarily after he is attacked by a Nazi!Lupin with a helicopter. I mean, look at this face: https://40.media.tumblr.com/1a71e3e6634f7a86664026a85a92cfd3/tumblr_o1six3aJHI1rhk872o2_1280.jpg

* ProductPlacement -- A famous food corporation is featured prominently in four scenes, when the real (?) Lupin and then one of his impersonators are eating some burgers. Hint: it's not [=WcDonalds=].

'''Lupin III: Green Vs. Red''' is an OVA made in 2008 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the {{Long Runn|er}}ing ''Franchise/LupinIII'' franchise. This adaptation is a lot more self-referential than all the others that came before, because it not only provides a huge amount of {{homage}}s, [[ContinuityCavalcade references]] and [[MythologyGag nods]] to almost every previous incarnation of the gentleman thief (including the original manga), but also uses them to reflect on what Lupin has become during the years and if he's still relevant in this day and age. [[MindScrew Possibly]].

* {{Discontinuity}}: While ''Green Vs. Red'' wasn't considered bad, most of the fandom prefers to think of it as being an alternate canon due to how it implies that [[spoiler:Lupin the Third is not a single man, but a title passed down throughout the years. Or that he wants to retire and picked a ramen shop-worker to take his place.]]

* Discontinuity: While ''Green Vs. Red'' wasn't considered bad, most of the fandom prefers to think of it as being an alternate canon due to how it implies that [[spoiler:Lupin the Third is not a single man, but a title passed down throughout the years. Or that he wants to retire and picked a ramen shop-worker to take his place.]]

** The AmbiguousCloneEnding is a reference to ''Anime/MysteryOfMamo'', where it is uncertain if the real Lupin survived to the ending. The character we follow claims not to care at the beginning of the film. The [[BelievingTheirOwnLies self-obsessed Mamo]] tried to MindScrew Lupin as to whether or not he was the real Lupin, too. The end of the film has the Lupin we've been following tell Zenigata he is a clone, and therefore not at fault for the crimes the original committed. Zenigata doesn't care; he must arrest Lupin!

The story starts indeed with the mysterious disappearance of the real Arséne Lupin III, and with many people all around the world claiming to be him, by dressing as him and committing various grand-scale thefts and crimes. One of the impostors, however, is arrested in Tokyo for shoplifting: since he has tarnished the image of Lupin as a master thief, all the Lupin imitators go to the rescue but most of them are promptly arrested by the Japanese police (led by Inspector Zenigata of Interpol) as well. Some of the copycats however are better, among them some that can be considered the "real" Lupin.

Enter Yasuo, a young cook and pickpocket, whose lifelong ambition is to become just like Lupin. This is straining the relationship between him and his girlfriend Yukiko, a news reporter. Yasuo has the chance of his life when a mysterious old librarian, thought to be the most knowledgeable man in all things Lupin, gives him a green jacket and a Walther P38 gun, the symbols of his hero. He then decides to become Lupin by planning a crazy heist: Yasuo wants to steal the "Ice Cube", said to be an extremely valuable diamond, from the "Night Hawks" organization. However, at the same time another Lupin, this time donning a red jacket, is planning to do the same thing with the help of his lifelong partner Daisuke Jigen: this Lupin could be the "real deal", and Yasuo thinks that, if he can outsmart or defeat the guy in the red jacket, he can become the next true Lupin.

Red Jacket and Green Jacket have a duel in the rain, interrupted when a missile strikes the place and seemingly kills Yasuo. He is not dead, in fact Fujiko Mine saved him from the explosion and promised him to cooperate in stealing the Ice Cube. With Fujiko's help, Yasuo breaks into the Night Hawks headquarter and discovers that the helicopter that shot the missile came from Night Hawks, and not only the Ice Cube is actually the prototype of a new source of nuclear power to be used in warfare, but also that Red Jacket Lupin (along with Jigen and Goemon, who destroys the helicopter, piloted by a Nazi-esque Lupin copycat) and Inspector Zenigata are there in the building as well. Red and Zenigata actually let Yasuo escape with the Ice Cube to prevent its further use in future wars.

The question of who will be the next Lupin is still not resolved, so one of the Lupin impersonators sets up a confrontation between Green and Red. The two meet on top of a building and one of them falls down. The OVA ends with one Lupin awakening on an ambulance and escaping right before Zenigata could arrest him, and another one escaping on a car with Jigen, with the police warning of the arrival of a "new Lupin".

* AmbiguousCloneEnding -- The "new Lupin" at the end could be either Arséne Lupin or Yasuo, or perhaps another one entirely. The evidence supports all three theories.
** This could be in itself a reference to ''Recap/MysteryOfMamo'', which dealt with the issue of cloning and Lupin clones.

* MindScrew -- What is ''really'' going on in this film?
* MythologyGag -- Almost everything that happens in ''Green vs. Red'' is a reference to earlier films, TV specials and episodes of the series. Just one example: the car chases in this film are directly lifted from ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'' and ''Anime/TheFumaConspiracy''.
** Even one of the ''covers'' is an example, since it shows Lupin in a green jacket and with bandages on his face, just like the one for ''Castle of Cagliostro'', only this time the bandages cover all of his face.
** One of the funniest is when some Lupin copycats meet and one of them writes "RUPAN" on the wall, and another one tells him he spelt the name wrong. "Rupan" was the name given to the ''Lupin'' series to avoid paying the rights to the Leblanc estate.
* NonstandardCharacterDesign -- The Lupin impersonators at the beginning are drawn to resemble all possible incarnations of the character and then some, including the Pink Jacket Lupin, a fat Lupin and [[Creator/ShinichiWatanabe Nabeshin]].
* ProductPlacement -- A famous food corporation is featured prominently in two scenes, when the real (?) Lupin and then one of his impersonators are eating some burgers. Hint: it's not [=WcDonalds=].

** In one scene the Taito logo appears, but it's not product placement as it's possibly a reference on how Taito made the very first videogame adaptation of Lupin III in 1980. Yes, this film makes nods to ''everything''.
* ZergRush -- When hundreds of fake Lupins storm Tokyo to save their fellow copycat from the police.

'''Lupin III: Green Vs. Red''' is an OVA made in 2008 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the {{LongRunn|er}}ing ''Franchise/LupinIII'' franchise. This adaptation is a lot more self-referential than all the others that came before, because it not only provides a huge amount of {{homage}}s, [[ContinuityCavalcade references]] and [[MythologyGag nods]] to almost every previous incarnation of the gentleman thief (including the original manga), but also uses them to reflect on what Lupin has become during the years and if he's still relevant in this day and age. [[MindScrew Possibly]].