"The Great Detectives Take to the Sky"note with the English title of "The Case of the Risible Dirigible".
Somewhere in Europe, inside a gloomy castle, an elderly nobleman, Count Gabriel XIII, is writing a letter to Lupin III, complimenting the thief for his skills while challenging him to take Gabriel’s family heirloom: the precious gem known as “Dracula’s Tear”. Furthermore, the challenge will take place on Gabriel’s own blimp, the Hindenburg, during his first flight from Germany to the U.S., carrying four world-famous detectives aboard: Sherlock Homes the Third, from England, private detective Philip Archer from America, Kindani Kousuke from Japan and, of course, Lupin’s long time nemesis Zenigata. Upon completing the letter, the wheelchair-bound Count calls for his hunchbacked butler and check the humongous blimp where the challenge will take place, claiming that he will show everyone the skills and intelligence of German people by capturing Lupin on that blimp.
Fast forward to the day of departure, the detectives arrive one by one to the Hindenburg, last of them is Zenigata, who nearly gets his feet crushed in the blimp’s closing mechanism. Aboard, the three detective chats about the location while Zenigata questions their chances of capturing Lupin when the butler announces that dinner is ready: during the meal they notice that the Count hasn’t appeared yet when suddenly they’re greeted by an unseen voice and a black out, but the three guests are able to find out the source of the voice and shoot it down. Count Gabriel appears, satisfied with their skills and explains to the four detectives that he hid Dracula’s Tear in his own eye socket, hidden behind a special glass monocle that cuts the light out: what’s more, at midnight a special lid made from unbreakable plastic will cover the gemstone, making its recover impossible. All they have to do is to keep watch until midnight, as Lupin will try his move before that. While the group relaxes at Sherlock’s violin performance, Zenigata suddenly spots a series of balloons forming the sentence “Lupin the III is Here!” and gives the alarm, with Count Gabriel inviting everyone to his private room for the final showdown with the thief. In the room, the nobleman is wearing an iron mask, reasoning that not even Lupin could, in the short remaining time, remove the mask and pry Dracula’s Tear from the socket in front of four top class detectives. With such preparations, the group waits for Lupin’s arrival when suddenly a pistol shot throws the room into pitch-black darkness. When the lights are on again, Zenigata finds Gabriel seemingly dead, the gemstone missing from his eye!
The policeman quickly accuses the other three detectives of being guilty, but Archer retorts that, as far as they know, he could be the culprit. However, Sherlock quickly discovers that Gabriel’s “corpse” is actually a puppet, and the real Count appears from a hidden passage, saying that now he knows for certain that Lupin’s on the blimp and shows a video record revealing Sherlock, Kousuke and Archer working together to remove Gabriel’s helmet and gem during the blackout, unaware that Gabriel was switched place with a puppet just in time. The three detectives (Lupin, along with Jigen and Goemon) unmask themselves but Lupin reveals that they already took Dracula’s Tear: it turns out that they did it while Gabriel was half-asleep due to Sherlock’s violin, and that Fujiko was there too, disguised as the butler, and now she’s flying away with the stone. As the thieves tries to make their getaway though, unbreakable steel shutters block the windows of the Hindenburg and the Count makes his escape through plane, telling them that now that Lupin’s trapped the blimp will fly to Greenland, where the gang will be arrested. Lupin’s efforts to stop the machine are useless, but seeing the real butler (freed earlier by Zenigata) he has an idea and decides to have a talk with the real detectives, tied up in a room.
In Greenland, a massive police force is waiting for the Hindenburg along with cameramen and journalists. The blimp is promptly stormed and soon enough the thieves are carried away, still in disguise, while Gabriel openly weeps upon seeing his lifework complete. However Zenigata, chained to the window, appears, screaming that Lupin’s group got away! In fact, the detectives taken into custody were the real ones, who agreed to work with Lupin and co in order to not lose reputation with the press. As a final gift, Lupin presses a button and activates the explosive rounds left on the blimp, destroying the Hindenburg. A singed Zenigata emerges from the smoke, still bent on capturing Lupin as he chases the van in the distance.
This episode contains examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Subverted for once, not even Goemon's Zantetsuken can slice through the blimb's special shutters.
- The Alcoholic: Philip Archer is introduced drinking copious amounts of alcohol in a bar.
- All Germans Are Nazis: In the original dub, the speaker concludes his speech about the departure of the Hindenburg with a heartfell "Long live Count Gabriel! Heil Hitler!!"
- All Psychology Is Freudian: Mentioned by Sherlock, who claims that, according to Freud, man's dream of flying is some sort of complex sexual metaphor.
- Captain Obvious: Sherlock Holmes in the English dub becomes one, stating silly obvieties at every point.
- Country Mouse: Kindani Kousuke comes from rural Japan, rides a second hand bicycle to the airport and acts clumslily, clearly not at home in the gigantic, modern blimp.
- Crazy-Prepared: Count Gabriel took a large amount of countermeasures against theft, including a special resin lid which will seal the eyesocket hiding the gemstone, wearing a massive iron mask to protect said eye and having made preparations to turn the blimp into an impromptu flying prison for Lupin and co.
- Cutting the Knot: Lupin and his gang do this for once, striking before actually sending the message to Zenigata.
- Demoted to Extra: Fujiko only has a brief cameo (if you exclude her butler disguise) and is not seen for most of the episode.
- Eagleland: Philip Archer is boorish and very direct, is a good gunsman and likes drinking hard stuff.
- Enemy Mine: In the very end, the detectives go along with Lupin's plan to safeguard their reputation.
- Expy: Kindani Kosuke is a parody of the detective Kindaichi, created by author Yokomizo Seishi.
- Eye Scream: Count Gabriel's already missing an eye, so he hid Dracula's Tear inside his empty eye-socket. At midnight, a special lid made from a plastic resin will form and make the gemstone unaccessible to all without killing the count.
- Genius Ditz: Kindani Kousuke is very clumsy and dirty, but he's a top-notch detective all the same.
- Hardboiled Detective: Philip Archer is a parody of one, acting though, drinking liquor and claiming that people like Gabriel always have sordid pasts behind.
- Implausible Fencing Powers: Like you know, slicing a steel helmet off a person's head without cutting up said head.
- Latex Perfection: In a staggering example, buxom, lovely Fujiko as the Count's horrible, hunchback butler. Also, Lupin's gang as the three detectives and, in the end, as the members of the Interpol who went to arrest them.
- Lorre Lookalike: Gabriel’s butler is voiced with a Peter Lorre impression in the English dub, what with Lorre’s association with The Igor type characters.
- Mugged for Disguise: What happened to the three detectives, and what allows Lupin's gang to escape in the end.
- Out-Gambitted: The entire plot was actually an excuse for Gabriel's real plan: to have Lupin trapped on an unescapable dirigible aimed for Greenland, so that he can be caught and arrested, crowning Gabriel's lifework. Too bad he too's outsmarted by Lupin at the last second.
