For general tropes associated with the regular cast, you can find their page here: Lupin III.
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Lupin III
Japanese: Kanichi Kurita
The titular protagonist, Lupin is in Zufu to steal the treasure of Drifting Island.- Clothing Damage: During the final conflict against the Nanomachines and General Headhunter, Lupin's shirt/tie are ripped, leaving his chest exposed.
- In the first encounter with the Nanomachines, they tear off the rear of his pants and underpants, exposing his buttocks.
- Cover Identity Anomaly: Olèander is able to see through Lupin's disguise because of how it felt to kiss Pannish. In the Dub, Lupin jokes he needs more practice. In the Sub, it is because Pannish never smoked. She doesn't seem upset about the disguise, and continues to work with him afterwards.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Lupin is hiding his identity during much of his time in Zufu. Disguised as the dead Prince Pannish.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Lupin demonstrates this skill by using a knife to hit the primer, which fired the bullet at General Headhunter's head.
- Latex Perfection: Lupin's disguises in this movie are as skillful as ever! Even fooling a computer security program to the point it even appears he got the finger-prints right.
- Mr. Exposition: For the first half of the movie, Lupin has to explain what's going on to Jigen so that the audience is aware of what's going on with the plot and what treasure the gang is after.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Lupin's escapes from Zenigata all occur off-screen. Including an example where he switches places in less than a minute while being tied to a bed.
- Playful Hacker: Lupin is able to hack into computer servers without leaving any trace, and due to his criminal tendencies, should be called The Cracker, but his hacking skills are never used to steal electronic money, or ruin people's identity. His hacking is for information only, and he steals with his offline skills, not his online talents.
Jigen
Japanese: Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Lupin's ally, and gunman partner.- Latex Perfection: Lupin dresses him up as the dead Pannish so that Lupin can appear to be in two places at once.
- Out of Focus: Like Goemon, Jigen does very little in this film, serving mostly as The Watson for Lupin.
- The Watson: Jigen is asking Lupin questions about details that the laid-back ex-gangster is finally concerned with, now that he's actually on the mission.
Goemon
Japanese: Makio Inoue
The enigmatic samurai is following Lupin very silently in this film. It must be for training.- Catchphrase: Possibly the only movie where Goemon never utters his traditional phrase, "Once more, I have cut a worthless object". Instead, Goemon is silent.
- Fundoshi: Goemon snuck up to the guard's river outpost by swimming. When the last guard turns around, he sees Goemon in nothing but a loincloth and strips of cloth around his abs.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: When Goemon sliced the phone in half, it was either before the cop picked up the handset (in which case, the handset is miraculously uncut), or he waited until after the cop was between him and the handset (in which case, the cop was miraculously uncut).
- Out of Focus: As usual, Goemon is used for very little of the plot.
Fujiko
Japanese: Eiko Masuyama
The classy gal is as forthright and dedicated as ever. She offers Lupin a 70-30 split (she gets 70) for the rest of the information she got from Headhunter's computer.- Clothing Damage: Our introduction to Fujiko in this film is an interesting mix of tropes, primarily expressed through this one. She walks into an arena in a cloak covering herself, hiding her face in shadow. General Headhunter removes it by throwing boomerang-knives that circle her and destroy her cloak before her fight, as in The Coats Are Off.
- She-Fu: Fujiko demonstrates a lot of gymnastic ability in the arena. It isn't gratuitous, either, her actions allow her to put her entire body into her attacks, a necessary move to defeat her opponent, who is twice her size!
Inspector Zenigata
Japanese: Gorō Naya
The dedicated Inspector is plodding along after Lupin as usual. If the phone had reached the basement, Lupin might have actually been jailed.- Victory Is Boring: Averted Trope, Zenigata actually captures Lupin, and instead of bemoaning a lack of goals after his success, he starts telling Lupin about what his retirement goals are, including his memoirs!
General Headhunter - Spoilers Warning!
Japanese: Banjou Ginga
Bill Townsley (English), Gilbert Lévy (as Général Kubikari, in French)
The current ruler of Zufu, General Headhunter took over after the deaths of the royal family.- Bad Boss: Demonstrates this by typically putting out "Wanted: Dead or Alive" bounties on anyone he dislikes, and choosing to Shoot the Messenger who brings him bad news. Even not working directly for him doesn't seem to help, because he rules a small country, and the citizens get excessively taxed.
- Blade Enthusiast: Headhunter doesn't specialize in any specific type of knife. He has a broad collection of blades, including a few swords and spears. Not to mention his office is covered with weapons including his desk drawers just filled with more knives. It almost seems like he is pulling them out of his body.
- Fisher King: Not magical in nature, but the complaints of taxism, the bank of television monitors, and the nation's history of being state-of-the art in nanotechnology, all point to the country suffering severely under General Headhunter's leadership.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A Discussed Trope in General Headhunter's case, and not as a stright example. Lupin mentions it after Headhunter has been revealed to be made of nanomachines, and since the nanomachines are made of gold, Headhunter's heart is literally gold. But his isn't nice. The entire movie can be viewed as a way to set up a terrible pun.
- Names to Run Away From: A Mix and Match example, he holds the highest military personell title, and goes only by the name Head-hunter.note Demonstrations of General Headhunter's threat come from his ability to personally decapitate a man with one swipe of his knife. And he likes to carry around knives.
- Not Quite Dead: At the end, when Lupin's gang leave to go their separate ways, General Headhunter burst into Lupin's hideout to make one final attempt on his life... and finds Lupin ready for him with the nanomachine controller and the deactivation program active. Because the General isn't really human, so shooting him in the head isn't fatal. It doesn't end well for the General.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When the General is facing Lupin in the climax, Lupin shoots him in the head. Afterwards, the General reappears, and Lupin tricks him into being connected to the nanomachine deactivation program. Then he's shot by Lupin, Jigen, and Fujiko. As he's slowly rearing back for an attack, Goemon attacks him, and the General dissolves into gold.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Headhunter isn't the cold-hearted iron dictator he appears to be. He is actually a robot generated by the nanomachines he was attempting to take control of.
Crisis
Japanese: Nachi Nozawa
Chris Patton (English), Thierry Kazazian (French)
Crisis is in charge of the National Police for Zufu, and acts as General Headhunter's second-in-command.- Half the Man He Used to Be: Crisis is cut in half by Drifting Island's defenses. It's... not a survivable encounter.
- The Heavy: Crisis is head of the national police, he leads the army in trying to kill Lupin, and he uses informants and undercover officers to find criminals in Zufu. His role as Olèander's superior makes it natural for him to interact with her on a regular basis. If not for Crisis, General Headhunter wouldn't have gone to Drifting Island when the revolutionaries attacked.
Olèander
Japanese: Minami Takayama
Colleen Clinkenbeard (English), Caroline Mozzone (French)
- Childhood Friend Romance: Implied to be a childhood friend to Pannish, she wears a locket around her neck with a picture of the two of them together. He died two years ago, and it's left Olèander romantically devastated.
- Combat Stilettos: When not on the job she wears high-heeled shoes that are quite a literal example: when she stomped a mugger's leg, the heel pierced it and drew blood.
- Girl of the Week: Female lead that Lupin becomes romantically interested in. She decides to remain in Zufu instead of leaving with Lupin's gang.
- Meaningful Name: Olèander's name is a Discussed Trope. Lupin suggests that she is beautiful and honest. Olèander suggests that she is dangerous and deadly. note
Prince Pannish - Spoilers Warning!
Japanese: Tōru Furuya
Sonny Strait (English), Adrien Solis (French)
Prince Pannish is the son of the previous King of Zufu. During the coup d'etat, the King supposedly killed Pannish, which is why General Headhunter killed the king, and took command of the country. Two years later, Pannish appears on television, announcing his intent to lead a revolution against Headhunter and avenge his father's death!- Childhood Friend Romance: Implied to be a childhood friend to Olèander, she wears a locket around her neck with a picture of the two of them. After "coming back from the dead", Pannish seems to have forgotten their relationship.
- Dead All Along: The entire time that Pannish is on-screen, it is either Lupin, or Jigen. General Headhunter truly succeeded in having Pannish killed before the movie ever begins.
- Rebel Leader: Pannish has organized the rebels to overthrow the military dictatorship.
- Reluctant Ruler: Doesn't have a problem with helping the rebellion, but isn't interested in being leader after the revolt. No one even seems to try convincing him to stay in Zufu. Also a Justified Trope, because it isn't really the prince. Lupin the Third is merely putting on an act to fool people, and won't be staying after the adventure.
- Warrior Prince: Pannish has organized the rebellion and leads by example. General Headhunter sees him firing RPGs at the palace.
- The Wise Prince: A warrior instead of Martial Pacifist, Pannish is fighting not to reclaim his throne, but to free the people of Zufu from the oppressive military dictatorship of General Headhunter.
Emerah
Japanese: Chisa Yokoyama
Colleen Clinkenbeard (English), Sasha Supera (French)
Introduced as the daughter of General Headhunter, her father is actually the scientist behind the creation of the nanomachines. She's kept alive because her father told Headhunter that she knew the secret to Drifting Island.- Rebellious Princess: The mechanic tells Lupin that Emerah is Headhunter's daughter, and she's trying to escape her father. The trope is then subverted in multiple ways.
- Lupin, the protagonist, rescues her from the castle tower... except that was actually Oleander, and Lupin never meets her.
- Fujiko learns that Emerah isn't actually his daughter; her desire to escape is because Headhunter would probably kill her when he learns that she doesn't know the secret to Drifting Island.
- While she does escape, she doesn't become a Love Interest or Action Girl, or even "learn how the other classes live". Her escape is the end of her story. Even the fact that Headhunter is actually a robot constructed by the nanomachines her father developed, making him more akin to her "brother" or "nephew" in an odd way, never goes addressed.
"Spanky"
Japanese: Shigeru Chiba
Chris Rager (English)
Imprisoned because he served the previous king of Zufu as an advisor, "Spanky" is never given a name within the movie. The only thing he has left, after getting broken out of jail by Lupin, is drinking.- Chekhov's Gunman: The blonde man that is rescued in the opening prison scene? It turns out he was the dead King's advisor. Lupin busted him out of prison to pump him for information on Drifting Island.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Directly named "Spanky" several times, but only by the overly-familiar Lupin, who might just be keeping his name a secret, since Spanky is an escaped criminal.
The Mechanic
Japanese: (filed under additional voices)
Chris Rager (English)
- Accent Adaptation: The mechanic's accent in the dub is a mix of Asian accent stereotypes. He still speaks correct English, so there isn't any implication that the mechanic is incapable of speaking English, just that he has an accent.
