Anime / Lupin III: Part 6

Still wheeling, still stealing.

Lupin the Third Part 6 is the, well, sixth numbered entry in the Lupin franchise (The seventh series overall counting The Woman Called Fujiko Mine). Naturally, TMS Entertainment still produces the series, and this time their main studio acts as the primary production studio rather than their subsidiary studio Telecom Animation Film, as was the case with Parts 4 and 5 — they would eventually return to the franchise the following year for the ONA series Lupin Zero. The series' 24-episode run (excluding the special episode 0) is evenly split between two entirely separate storylines:

Lupin The Third VS Holmes (Episodes 1-12): He conquered Italy, he conquered France. So now Lupin turns his sights to the Great Britannia as his adventures lead him to London. As always, he finds himself getting into trouble while pursuing his targets be it from law enforcement, rival thieves, or underground criminal empires that secretly run the ruling government. But of course, he has his trusty (well 1/3 trusty) crew by his side: Daisuke Jigen, Goemon Ishikawa XIII and Fujiko Mine, while likewise having his persistent foe, Inspector Koichi Zenigata, ready and waiting to arrest him first chance he gets. Along for the ride this time is the one and only Sherlock Holmes (Or at least a descendant of his) and his assistant/ward, Lily, who get dragged into his capers as well. For the former, the resulting escapades could just be the thing to shake him from his funk and back into more serious cases in detective work. But danger is around every corner and both sides will have to work together if they wish to survive.

Witch and Gentleman (Episodes 13-24): When Fujiko shows Lupin an auction listing of rare relics from all over the world, Lupin reacts to one in particular: an unknown red diamond that used to belong in his grandfather's tightly secured mansion that has only been successfully robbed once. Determined to retrieve it, he goes to the auction only for it to be robbed by another group of armed women who all look the same. What is the connection to these women, and the woman who was the only one to succesfully rob from the first Lupin?

Oh, and Lupin finally changed his jacket. Welcome back to the Green Jacket era!

The series premiered in October 2021, with a prelude special focusing on Jigen (in honor of longtime voice actor, Kiyoshi Kobayashi, retiring from the role after 50 years playing the character. Akio Ōtsuka has taken over the role starting from episode one).

Like the previous series, the dub of Part 6 aired on Toonami in 2022 shortly after the end of the sub's original broadcast. In a break from the norm, Sentai Filmworks currently holds the license for this series instead of franchise regulars Discotek Media, with the series available to stream on their HIDIVE service and a Blu-Ray release set to come out in January 2023, a few months after the show's conclusion on Toonami.

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Tropes:

• Adaptational Villainy Inspector Lestrade.
• All for Nothing: Everything involving Raven turns out to be false, leaving several people screwed over in the process. The "Treasure" is actually World War II ordnance set to blow up key locations in London if the British government didn't meet the Raven's demands. However, most of the bombs have long since been rendered ineffective due to their fuses and casings deteriorating. As for Raven itself, the organization became decentralized and fragmented as time went on. While this made it hard to capture the entire group, it also meant no one actually talked to each other for important matters like whether or not the organization was even still operational, leaving the few surviving members to carry out orders out of fear of being killed by higher ups that no longer exist.
• Ambiguously Gay: Episode 5 and 6 has Ruriko Shigetomi and Sarantuya. While former officially calls the latter her bodyguard, the sight of them sharing a bottle of champagne and holding hands afterwards while sitting in bed together makes their business trip seem more like a romantic getaway in disguise. Though in the end it's revealed Sarantuya is a guy. The trope still applies to Ruriko, who was unaware and seems disappointed at the reveal.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's hard to tell if Tomoe is actually Lupin's biological mother, if she merely sees him as a useful pawn that she could use to live lavishly and safely, or, whether out of actual care of him or because of how useful he could be, she deluded herself into thinking that she is his mother. Episode 24 leans towards the latter interpretations, but Lupin burning the treasure Tomoe stole from his family vault, which supposedly had links to his origins, leaves it still up in the air.
• Artistic License – Law Enforcement: Ordinary British police do not carry firearms, yet all the cops in London are seen shooting at Lupin (and miserably failing to hit him). It should also be noted that neither MI-6 nor Scotland Yard have the authority to get the British Army to deploy an armored fighting vehicle, let alone have said vehicle fire its main armament in a heavily populated city. This should tip off any viewers who are savvy about British law. Although, as noted elsewhere on the page, this may be a case of Lupin being a Godzilla Threshold.
• Bait-and-Switch: Plenty of this.
  • In episode 4, it looked like Fujiko was going to kill the guy who had the rare book. She fires her gun offscreen, but not at him, since he takes her motor scooter and flees later.
  • In episode 5, Akechi gives Colonel Daidoji a telegram, which claims the clock on the train was just a duplicate to throw Lupin off. As it turns out, the telegram itself was faked, meaning that the police and the Shigetomi security detail had been guarding the real clock the whole time.
  • Episode 6: When it's revealed that the time traveling thing was merely a virtual dimension meant to trick Lupin into giving the passcode to his treasure vault, Lupin enters a passcode. Except that the passcode he entered is the one to target all secret government facilities for a missile strike.
  • Episode 7: we see Zenigata and Yata have some dinner with Inspector Lestrade ending with Zenigata stating he has a feeling Lupin will arrive back in London and gets up from the table. Later Zenigata finds Lupin on a roof leading into the events of the episode. Until it's revealed at the end it's really Holmes disguised as him. The real Zenigata never left the cafe and passed out after having too much to drink.
  • Episode 8: Lily is supposedly in danger after the two Scotland Yard detectives get knocked silly and replaced by Raven operatives. As it turns out, Lupin and Jigen were somehow keeping tabs on the situation and convinced Kenny (the boy who has a crush on Lily) to cross-dress and act as a decoy, thus allowing Lily to go to 221B Baker Street unharmed. The decoy operation isn't revealed until Jigen's final showdown with Brad Roark.
  • Episode 9: the episode leads up to the burial spot of Pirate Zeke's treasure. It is implied that the box that Fujiko unearths has a black diamond in it, but the phrase "black diamond" refers to black pepper, which was a ludicrously expensive commodity almost a century ago.
  • Episode 11: Just as it looks like Holmes is about to restore the stolen poster to its original position, he tears it to shreds. Turns out the poster has nothing to do with the Raven's treasure. It's the Black Drawing Room itself that holds the secret. And the secret was that the room itself was a death trap.
  • Episode 12 turns our whole situation on its head in multiple ways. The MI-6 agent who was spying on Lupin and Holmes is thought to be Watson's killer, but as it were, he didn't kill Watson, and is just a greedy would-be Raven member. Holmes and Lupin get into a nasty fight, and it looks like Holmes gets shot. But the fight itself is staged (probably with a magazine of rubber bullets in Lupin's gun) to get Lestrade exposed as the guy who killed Watson. The dead giveaway for this is deducing the fact that Lestrade recognized Lily's scarf from ten years ago in the previous episode. Lestrade was supposedly elsewhere when the shooting happened. So, great, Lestrade was the bad guy the whole time. Oh, by the way, he is a fringe member of Raven. And Raven is ineffective as an organization owing to its decentralization. And our treasure turned out to be a set of bomb threats that was used to blackmail the British government. The bombs used for the threats have mostly become inert due to old age.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The end of the Lupin III VS Holmes arc. There was no treasure at all, just a long useless ransom threat from an organization that for all intents and purposes stopped existing for decades, meaning no one got what they want and Lestrade killed Watson for nothing. Lestrade kills himself after telling Holmes to tell Lily he's sorry. On the other hand, the legacy of The Raven is no longer a looming threat to anyone, and Lily can finally move on and take her father's position as Holmes' Watson.
  • Episode 15: Mylene leaked the presence of the Tear of Marseilles because she knew it would get Lupin's attention, and therefore Jigen's as well. She wanted to see him one last time before she got married because she still loves him. Afterward, she hands over the Tear to Lupin, who gives it to Jigen. Jigen casually tosses it into the sea to Lupin's horror, grumbling about how he has no time for tears.
  • The end of the Witch and Gentleman storyline. Tomoe's machinations are stopped and the women she brainwashed can now lead their own lives outside her influence (except for Hazel who died). But Lupin did so by reluctantly killing Tomoe, his mother figure, and must live with the guilt that he was indirectly responsible for much of the pain and suffering that happened to some of those women, including the one that he came to care about, Mattea. Plus, Lupin gains the first and maybe only chance to truly learn about himself but decides to destroy it, more interested in living in the present with his comrades instead of being tied down by searching for the past.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands:
  • Holmes shoots Moran's air rifle before Moran can reload, breaking the rifle in half.
  • Holmes shoots Zenigata's pistol out of his hands because Holmes and Lupin were play-acting in order to expose Lestrade as Watson's killer.
  • After Lupin gets brainwashed thanks to Tomoe's manipulations, Jigen shoots his gun out of his hand when he tries to shoot Zenigata.
• Breather Episode: "Welcome to the Island of Bubbles" takes place between Lupin's heists, when the gang get stuck for several days at a sleepy fishing village. Instead, they humor a girl who Thinks Like a Romance Novel while hunting for a supposed legendary fish to pass the time.
• Broken Ace: Sherlock Holmes. Lupin asserts he's the real deal and proper successor of the Holmes name, unlike the pretender (a "Holmes III") in the older anime (episode 97 to be exact). In episode 2, the consulting detective proves smart enough to track Lupin down in a single night and skilled enough to defeat both Goemon and Jigen in a fight. However, an event 10 years ago resulted in the death of his companion, John H. Watson. This caused Holmes to become unwilling to do his usual work, as he now had to care for Lily, Watson's daughter.
• The Bus Came Back: In episodes 5 and 6, Kogoro Akechi makes a return to the franchise having only been seen in both the very first chapter of the manga and the pilot film.
• Call-Back: Episode 12 ends with Fujiko on a motorcycle passing by Lupin's car while showing off a consolation treasure, just like the end of The Castle of Cagliostro.
• Car Chase:
  • Two in the first episode, one involves Lupin saving Albert and having to dodge the law enforcement (who even get the British army to send a heavy armored car after him) and another with Lupin and Fujiko having to lose police cars (including Zenigata's own) while on her bike.
  • In episode 8, we get Raven assassins, over half of whom are disguised as cops, chasing Jigen. He foils them with some clever shooting and aggressive driving.
  • Again, in episode 11. Zenigata chases Lupin, and crashes after making a wrong assumption about Lupin's next move. Turns out Lupin deliberately allowed this chase to happen so he could give his half of the Faulkner poster to Holmes.
• Carnival of Killers: Episode 4 features a batch of assassins coming into a diner to await the arrival of their target said to how a valuable treasure. It's a ploy by Lupin to take out the competition as the treasure is a code book and the assassins were hired by government officials to get it before it fell into the wrong hands.
• Chained to a Railway: Fujiko has this happen to her in the third episode when she's caught trying to steal a valuable train ticket and pretends to swallow it (she palmed the ticket and later hid it under an elephant). The villain decides to have his men tie her head down to the rails of a ride-able miniature railway so that the estate's self-driving train cuts off her head when it passes. For added measure, he has her hair tied down so that when the protagonists find her, Fujiko runs the risk of having her hair cut off to free her. Jigen puts an end to this by shooting a track-side switch, causing the nearby activated points to redirect the train elsewhere.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Albert D'Andresy, Lupin's rival from within French Intelligence who was introduced in Lupin III: Part 5, appears in several episodes, and it's his going after a poster that may contain clues to Raven's treasure that sets off the main plot.
  • Sherlock Holmes III, who did show up in the second season, is mentioned while talking about this show's Sherlock. Lupin dismisses that one as a fake.
  • For Holmes' side: when Colonel Sebastian Moran kills anyone, he does it by sniping people with an air rifle.
• Contrived Coincidence: The Witch and Gentleman arc features many women as central characters over a few men of no consequence, though a few of these are important to the overall plot. And then, it turns out every other woman that wasn't explicitly tied to the arc was in fact related to it due to Tomoe having approached each one of them to recite several phrases in different languages to trigger Lupin's brainwashed state.
• Crazy-Prepared: Tomoe's manipulations in her ploy to hypnotize Lupin into her own personal puppet were wide-reaching to the point that even the characters from the Breather Episodes were relevant, having also been women Tomoe encountered and manipulated with her hypnotism to say certain key phrases to Lupin in the event that they encounter him.
• The Dog Bites Back: It turns out that Mattea's actions throughout the second half were motivated by this. Regaining her memories of Tomoe's brainwashing upon suffering a blow to the head in the thirteenth episode, she decides to use the skills she was taught to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, killing as many of Tomoe's disciples as she can, and going out of her way to track her down and kill her.
• Ear Worm: The Wangtic Securities commercial that keeps playing throughout Episode 17. It keeps annoying and disrupting Lupin and the gang's heist practice to boot. By getting stuck in their heads, it also allows them to coordinate the timing for their heist when their headsets get jammed.
• Entertainingly Wrong: "Welcome to the Island of Bubbles" follows the viewpoint of Muru, a girl who Thinks Like a Romance Novel, and completely misreads Lupin's gang as a love triangle between a demure maiden (Fujiko), a dandy musician (Jigen), a poor astronomer (Goemon), and a Plucky Comic Relief (Lupin). By the end, she discovers that Lupin is the famous thief, but decides Fujiko is likely a spy. The girl isn't that far off...
• Evil Old Folks: By this point, Tomoe's a defenseless old woman, who has no regrets of her mass-hypnotism spree in her bid to gain control over Lupin, and even rants about how she plans to continue with it until Lupin's her mindless puppet.
• Fair-Play Whodunnit: Most of the mysteries in this Lupin series fall under this, except episode 4, which is Homage to a specific story. The clues in the rest are there for the viewer to see before the reveal.
• Fashion Show: The focus of Episode 16 features one at the crux of the action. The catch? Lupin and Fujiko are trying to steal the high-concept clothes during it, but they come across Goemon actually participating as a model!
• Foreshadowing:
  • The diner waitress in Episode 4 tells Lupin and Jigen that they can't order anything more complicated than a sandwich until six o'clock, and when the sandwiches do arrive, they're absolutely terrible. It turns out this is because the "waitress" is Fujiko in disguise the entire time. Fujiko has the real waitress and cook Bound and Gagged in the kitchen, leaving her to fill in for both of them despite her subpar cooking skills, and excusing her not being able to make anything more complicated until the action kicks off.
  • In episode 7, Colonel Moran mentions something about a "professor" before escaping Lupin and Holmes. If you know your Holmes lore, you should know that person of whom he speaks.
• Filler: Several episodes directly unrelated to both arcs are this. However, it's averted for the Witch and Gentleman arc, where each woman Lupin meets was actually approached by Tomoe to say the phrases "Must never forget" or "Always remember" before reciting a sentence from the "Everlasting Love" poem in different languages that led to his eventual brainwashed self.
• Frame-Up: Lupin is framed for murder and terrorism due to an explosion happening where Fujiko was trying to get the other half of a valuable movie poster. Zenigata finds her in the file room and stops her from getting the item. When Fujiko escapes with Lupin, the authorities assume Lupin was behind the bombing.
• Go Out with a Smile: Even when Lupin fatally shoots her, Tomoe dies with a smile on her face, telling him she's proud of him as her son.
• Heist Clash:
  • In part one of "The Imperial City Dreams of Thieves", Lupin, Black Lizard and Colonel Daidoji all infiltrate a museum at the same time to steal a centuries old clock for their own respective reasons.
  • In "The Ghosts of Britain", Eliot, Lupin, Fujiko and Lestrade all infiltrate the location of the fabled Raven's treasure, each party planning to steal it for themselves.
• Hypocritical Humor: In episode 3, Goemon complains about having to take a tandem bike up a steep hill to their meeting point with Lupin, calling it "foolishly outdated". Jigen points out that Goemon has no room to talk about outdated things.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Holmes figures out that Lestrade was the man Lily saw kill her father that night when Lestrade offhandedly mentions the color of the muffler Lily was wearing the night of the murder. Holmes had taken the muffler off of Lily when Lestrade, who was supposed to have been elsewhere, arrived on the scene later. The only way Lestrade could have known that detail is if he had seen Lily earlier that night, something Holmes had initially been led to believe was not the case.
• Interquel: Episode 0 is set between Part 5 and Part 6, with Lupin and Fujiko both sporting their designs from the former series as a Continuity Nod.
• I Owe You My Life: Goemon's motivation for helping Gabby in Episode 16. After he falls in the water during an Arctic training exercise, she pulls him out before he can drown and/or freeze. Even though he doesn't understand anything about fashion, he is determined to pay Gabby back when she asks him to be a model in her upcoming show.
• It's Personal: The heist in episode 13 is this for Lupin, he explains that the particular gem he's after happens to be one of the only things ever stolen from the Lupin clan mansion. Moreover, the thief was supposed to have died years ago, which makes Lupin wonder why the items are reappearing now. Later in the episode, it's revealed that the thief was none other than Lupin's former tutor, a woman named Tomoe who is hinted to have taught him everything he knows about being a thief.
• Know When to Fold Them: In the second episode, Lupin notes he doesn't have enough clues from his half of the poster to pinpoint where the Raven's treasure is. Added that Lupin knows Holmes will instantly track him down after seeing him back in London. Indeed, Holmes manages to find their hideout in a single night, leading to a brief confrontation with the gang as well as a one on one with Lupin. Ultimately Lupin decides to pull out of London for the time being.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Tomoe, an expert hypnotist who spent her life manipulating and ruining the lives of various innocent women in her bid to turn Lupin into her own personal puppet to use as she pleases, is ultimately shot dead by the target of her obsession when she rants about how she plans to keep ruining lives until he's under her total control.
• Legacy Character: Sherlock Holmes is basically a title of sort given to the best detective in the world. Though how the mantle is passed on is yet to be revealed. Whether John H. Watson, Inspector Lestrade, Sebastian Moran and James Moriaty are also this is not discussed.
• Lemming Cops: London Metropolitan Police are apparently this, as they wind up crashing their cars a lot (whether because of their own stupidity or because they fell victim to Jigen's anti-armor missiles early on) when they chase Lupin's Fiat 500. Yatagarasu, Zenigata's partner, averts this with his great driving skills.
• Literal-Minded: In Episode 16, Gabby is frustrated with her new model Goemon and tells him to practice walking the runway a thousand times a day. He takes her instructions seriously, and eventually ends up collapsing during a rehearsal after overdoing it.
• Long Game: Tomoe's plan to make Lupin hers. She does this by hypnotizing countless of women and submitting them under her control. Then from those women, she chooses the ones who are compatible with Lupin's taste or at least a high chance of meeting him and each one of them has a line from the poem that she implanted in Lupin's mind when he was a child. Since they were from different nationalities, it would be less suspicious to decipher but easy to trigger as Lupin is a multilingual.
• Manipulative Bitch: Tomoe is revealed to be this. First off, she's made a living perfecting a hypnotism technique to implant false memories in people, allowing her to create an army of sleeper agents who will do her bidding if she so much as just asks. And later on, it's revealed that in order to reunite with her supposed son Lupin, she used these techniques on various young woman in hopes of having him come across enough of them for him to hear certain key phrases in various languages to activate the brainwashing she afflicted him with while she was teaching him. Even her supposed "death" was pulled off by brainwashing a young maid and forcing her to switch clothes, resulting in the girl being shot in Tomoe's place.
• Mind Screw: Episode 10, "Darwin's Bird" sends Fujiko and viewers on an insane journey. What starts as a commission to steal the Archaeopteryx from the Natural History Museum for a man named Mihail, serving an unnamed lord, winds up as a bizarre trip full of repeating animation, Art Shifts, and the discovery that Fujiko is possibly recovering the fossil of Lucifer after he fell to Earth, on commission from God via Mihail, who is actually the Archangel Michael.
• Mundane Solution: The L System can detect Lupin and his gang instantly regardless of disguises. Lupin's solution? He makes a fake event that invites cosplayers to dress up as them to try robbing the same valuable coin that he's after. Even though the supercomputer can detect their movements, it still needs people to apprehend them. This causes massive confusion for the guards as they can't pinpoint exactly where Lupin's gang is, even with their boss giving exact places to look in the crowd.
• Mythology Gag: Several of the pictures seen in Linfeng's secret Lupin shrine in Episode 17 are taken directly from Lupin III: Part 1's intro sequence.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • In the first episode Lupin saves Albert from being caught by the police, but in the midst of the chase they come across a heavy armored car sent by the British Army to stop them, prompting this reaction from Lupin and Jigen. Given that Jigen blew up a few police cars with anti-armor missiles earlier, the police may have already cried "oh fudge" and requested the armored car because they were now dealing with potential terrorists.
  • Episode 3 has the issue of Fujiko becoming the damsel in distress, making Lupin panic when he realizes what's going on.
  • Episode 5 puts Lupin into this again when he tries to get the loot off the train. He didn't expect a Mongolian caretaker to attack him.
  • In Episode 10, Lupin and Fujiko share one when they realize GOD Himself is asking them to steal a fossilized Lucifer. They end up declining the job.
  • Episode 14: the Mexican Federal Police and Interpol agents freak out when the Elvira gang arrives with infantry-fighting-vehicles, stolen from the military. At least half the cops get killed.
• Old Master: As it turns out, Episode 9's Treasure Hunter Cherry is an elderly woman in a wheelchair being doted on by her great-granddaughter. She's 95 years old, still fit as a fiddle, knows how to fight, and took both Lupin and Fujiko for a ride while baiting them into leading her to her dead sister's treasure.
• Old Shame: An In-Universe example. Only one person has ever successfully stolen from the Lupins: Tomoe, who was basically Lupin III's mentor and the closest thing he ever had to a mother. It's a huge deal for Lupin that he will ignore everything and would focus on the stolen item immediately as it is the only way to restore his family's honor. It is ultimately averted however when the actual thief was a young Lupin himself, but at Tomoe's suggestion.
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: This time around it's Raven, a secret society that emerged after World War II, and whose members are hidden within and dictate British society. Its treasure, whatever it may be, is Lupin's target now. Episode 12 reveals that the organization has long since been disbanded and the few remaining members left are unaware of this, carrying out orders only out of fear of Raven punishing them.
• Once More, with Clarity: Episode 7 goes into what really happened the night Watson died. In previous episodes the audience is led to assume Lupin killed him, but this episode reveals that he died in a struggle with one of the Raven's executioners. Lupin happened to be there chasing after one of the leads and witnessed the whole thing, going to check on Watson afterwards. Lily, whom Watson was driving to a hospital when he saw the executioner, followed after Watson and had the misfortune of seeing Lupin standing over her father's body and assumed he was the killer before fainting from her illness.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Mattea's actions throughout the second half have been dedicated to getting her revenge on Tomoe for manipulating her into being her personal hitwoman as a child. When Lupin ultimately kills their teacher himself, Mattea becomes utterly enraged, stabbing the old lady's corpse before trying to kill Lupin in anger, effectively becoming the Final Boss.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Episode 14. Lupin didn't accept the challenge that Mercedes on robbing a bank, instead biding his time to follow Mercedes and her crew to her hideout. Also, throughout the episode, Lupin is serious and focused on finding answers on what happened to his adoptive mother. He didn't even haggle to Fujiko on the loot, he just wants the jewel that was stolen from his family as it was considered as an Old Shame by Lupin's clan.
  • Episode 23. Zenigata was not interested on arresting Lupin on the spot but instead tries to demand answers from him. Unfortunately, this meeting was also planned by Tomoe to activate Lupin's Trigger Phrase.
• Oral Fixation: Episode 20 features Amelia, a former associate of Fujiko's who is often seen with a lollipop in her mouth. Fujiko makes a comment about her having given up smoking.
• Sequel Hook: The Professor aka Moriarty gave his assistance to Goemon and Jigen, stating that he doesn't want Lupin out of the game as he was essential to plans in the future.
• Sherlock Scan: Holmes, of course. But Lupin isn't far behind.
• Shout-Out: During the first cour, these were themed around famous detectives and hitmen...
  • Sherlock Holmes, for starters, is a primary antagonist to Lupin.
  • In Episode 3, we meet New York City Police Inspector Queen, who is Ellery Queen's father. In addition, the two male characters that help the gang are clearly designed after The Hardy Boys.
  • In Episode 4, we get a dozen hitmen, including expies of El Mariachi, Mark Gor (and other Chow Yun-fat characters) and Duke Todo as patrons in the Diner, with Todo mentioned by name.
  • In episode 5, Kogoro Akechi, the first Japanese Great Detective takes on Lupin a Time Travel story.
    • Doubles as a Mythology Gag; this is Akechi's first appearance in the series since the pilot film! Then he was an old man, now we get to see him in his prime.
  • In Episode 6, we get another classic Japanese detective, the more Hard Boiled Detective Yoshiaki Hongo.
  • In Episode 7, we have Sebastian Moran and mention of a "Professor", both from Holmesian lore.
  • In Episode 12, we finally meet Moriarity, who is a young-looking man with unkempt blonde hair, including bangs. He's apparently an old acquaintance of Lupin.
• Slave Brand: Grayson, the Corrupt Corporate Executive and child trafficker in episode 20, has an obsession with branding his victim with a large "G" to mark them as his "property". In a twist of irony, he ended up marked by his own hot iron during an encounter with Fujiko and Amelia several years ago.
• Snipe Hunt:
  • Holmes tries to keep Lily out of danger by having her deliver a letter to Inspector Lestrade, so that she is away from the dangerous chase that occurs because of Lupin's presence. However, when Lestrade opens the letter, the paper turns out to be blank. Lily gets rather angry about this.
  • The Poster in Faulkner's office ends up being this, being of no actual worth.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Jigen's Smith & Wesson Model 19 Revolver might be powerful enough for instakilling foes, but over the years, wear and tear combined with the high-pressure .357 Magnum cartridges fired from it starts causing cracks in the gun's frame. Replacement parts aren't in good supply for such an old model, so Jigen is forced to use .38 Special rounds, but this bites him back when an assassin who wants him dead manages to survive because of the weaker ammo being unable to penetrate a Kevlar vest. In the end, the gun catastrophically explodes after firing one last Magnum shot and lodges the barrel in the assassin's heart. Luckily, Jigen's dealer is able to find a master gunsmith capable of reforging the revolver anew.
  • The Raven gets hit with this two-fold. While having an extremely valuable piece of treasure may allow the Raven to have financial influence over Britain, it doesn't make sense for one treasure alone to allow them to exert so much influence and fear. Which is why the actual "Treasure" is threatening to blow up key places in London with unexploded WW2 ordinance if their demands aren't met makes more sense and why the British government would be embarrassed if anyone found out. Of course, said threat is useless if no one is around to maintain bombs whose fuses will decay over time. Also, having a decentralized and loosely affiliated group of people may allow them to cut off others who risk the group, but decades of operating like this, not questioning decades-old orders, and most importantly making sure the rest of the group is still around meant the Raven effectively ceased to exist in the mid-90's without their lower ranked members knowing it. The remaining members keep carrying on with their useless duties out of fear for Raven's remaining executioners, causing them to spend most of the arc infighting and further hamstringing their efforts.
  • The difference between Lupin and Mercedes in their methods of thievery amount to what works in the long run. Lupin relies on stealth and trickery against forewarned targets, meaning that while he does make off with lots of valuable items, he isn't (usually) considered a threat to national security in any country he's visiting. Mercedes and her gang terrorize their victims with firepower comparable to a military force, making them armed robbers as opposed to mere thieves; they have to go after much bigger targets than Lupin's gang normally does, in order to make it worthwhile, and they strike at random. Lupin won't be chased around for terrorism, but if Mercedes had continued past episode 14, she would have found herself at the receiving end of some nation's military might.
  • The "L System", a supercomputer that can detect Lupin and his comrades regardless of their disguises instantly still has a Fatal Flaw: It needs electricity to run. The gang just needs to simultaneously to shut off all the power sources but it's easier said than done, since the creator is aware of this fundamental issue and did the best she could to mitigate it.
  • The end of the whole "Lupin-getting-brainwashed-by-Tomoe" thing. Post-hypnotic suggestions can be broken, given the proper conditions. After all, Lupin had built up better relationships to the main cast than to Tomoe over the course of his life. It didn't take too long for the thief to stop thinking of Tomoe as his mother once she came close to ordering him to kill his friends.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • The London Metropolitan Police somehow have been authorized to carry firearms and use them without regards to people who might get hit in the crossfire, plus somebody managed to call in a heavy armored car from the British Army (British police do not have access to armored fighting vehicles with tank guns). But then again, it is Lupin III. As far as we're concerned, his presence may have just crossed the Godzilla Threshold for the police, because Lupin and his gang have gone to ridiculously destructive extremes to escape arrest (especially as Jigen tends to blow stuff up and Goemon literally slices just about every typical arrest method to ribbons).
  • Episode 6 reveals that some government is out to get the Lupin family's treasure vault, and its scientists in one facility cooked up an almost convincing virtual reality to trap Lupin and force him to grant them access to the vault. He turns the situation on its head by giving the scientists a fake passcode, which triggers a bunch of missile silos instead!
  • Episode 7 has Mrs. Hudson, of all people, guarding Lily with a massive sniper rifle, which would be incredibly hard to get in the UK, let alone the rack of various guns that are also in the same room.
  • Episode 8 has Jigen literally blow up his precious revolver in order to kill Brad Roark. The barrel and upper frame of the ruined Smith & Wesson Model 19, launched by Jigen's last overcharged .357 Magnum cartridge, punch through Roark's Kevlar vest and thus stab the guy right through the heart.
  • Episode 11: The Black Drawing Room is actually a death trap. Anyone who lets sunlight in gets blown to bits along with a good chunk of the building.
  • In episodes 13 and 14, the Elvira gang always uses stolen military-grade weapons for its heists. This means that typical police responses won't work.
• Trapped in the Past: Episodes 5 & 6 focus on Lupin suddenly getting transported to 1930s Japan while trying to pilfer a valuable clock and everyone mistaking him for his grandfather, Arsene Lupin going under the alias Gold Mask. Lupin has to figure out how he got there while running into doppelgangers of his gang and Zenigata and also contending with Kogoro Akechi, Japan's first great fictional detective. As it turns out, the time-traveling was merely an illusion cooked up to trick Lupin into giving away the passcode to his family's treasure vault.
• The Unfettered: Scarily, Lupin is this while under Tomoe's hypnotism. When his hypnotism is triggered, he aims to kill Jigen and Goemon without hesitation. He even caused massive accidents by manipulating the stoplights not caring even it injured people just to reach Tomoe.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Lily suffers from this, apparently caused by the trauma of losing her father, John H. Watson. Her memory gradually starts to come back starting in the second episode, with the image of seeing Lupin standing over her father's body.
• Wham Line:
  • At the end of Episode 1 when Lupin catches sight of Holmes and Lily, the latter reacting to him in horror:
  Lupin: Hey Lily, you've grown up.
  • In Episode 11, Mikhail provides one, having disguised himself as Lupin when the real fossil is found:
  Mikhail: Lucifer, there you are child... How could you? You've fallen far from Heaven! (Evil Laugh)
  • Episode 13 ends with one of the biggest ones in the series:
    Jigen: Hey Lupin, does the name Tomoe mean anything to you?
    Lupin: Yeah, the only woman who managed to successfully steal (from the Lupin mansion), and my mother.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Lestrade verbally blasts Holmes for taking Lily to the place her father died and triggering her PTSD. The reveal that Lestrade is actually the one who killed him puts this scene in a different light as it can be assumed that his anger stems from fear that Lily will remember seeing him kill her father.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Episode 4, "The Killers in the Diner", broadly follows Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers". As it turns out, the loot Lupin's gang is after is actually a rare original copy of the story, so Lupin, Jigen, and Fujiko were intentionally recreating parts of the tale In-Universe for laughs.
• The Worf Effect: When Goemon challenges Holmes in Episode 2, Holmes dodges his moves and ends up throwing the samurai easily over one shoulder. Goemon is so befuddled and shamed, he doesn't come back to London until the end of the arc.
• Worthless Treasure Twist:
  • The titular "Jet-Black Diamond" of Episode 9 turns out to be a crate full of pepper. It might have been valuable in the days of the spice trade, but today it's just a generic garnish thanks to better farming techniques. And some box of century old pepper would be useless even as a garnish.
  • The Raven's "treasure" ends up being a bunch of unexploded World War II ordnance from the time of the Blitz. By the 2020s, the explosive payload and the fuses in the bombs have decomposed due to age thus making the bombs worthless as a threat. There never was any monetary value to the treasure at all.
• You Have Failed Me: Lord Faulkner gets this when the shadow organization he serves, Raven, punishes him for failing to prevent the theft of a valuable poster. The Raven operative ties him to a chair with bombs strapped to him. The MI-6 agents arrive just in time to witness the final seconds of the bomb's countdown before it blows up.

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