Lupin's Great South Pole North Pole Adventure note , also released in English as "Lupin's North Pole-South Pole Adventures". Original air date of June 18, 1979.
Lupin is relaxing in the swimming pool of his latest mansion showing off a large statue of himself, holding the world on the crooked finger. However, Fujiko is quick to point out two mistakes: not only the poles on the globe are inverted, but also, for some strange reason, the Italian peninsula is reversed and colored red. When Lupin asks what’s wrong if the poles are switched, Fujiko points out that the penguins will be confused, as they only live in the South Pole. Lupin takes her seriously and makes a promise: he’ll rectify things… by carrying penguins to the North Pole so that they’ll inhabit both places. Fujiko is perplexed and suspects that he may be up to something else. Later on, that day, she’s shown entering a building bearing the symbol of the red boot.
Meanwhile, Lupin, along with Jigen and Goemon, flights to the South Pole with a massive carrier blimp to start his project, and soon makes contact with the local penguins, unaware that one of them is Zenigata under disguise, having been tipped off by Fujiko. Nevertheless, the group manages to collect the penguins while evading Zenigata and start their flight to the North Pole. Around the same time, Fujiko is shown on a submarine sailing the frozen Artic depths, owned by the fascist group known as the Red Travelers, who seeks a secret treasure hidden in the North Pole and claim that a French thief like Lupin has no right to lay his hands on him. In fact, as Lupin is flying north, he reveals to his companions that indeed there’s a secret treasure hidden in the Artic: the Crown of the Pope, hidden there a long time ago by Mussolini along with the Duce’s secret treasure. While the penguins were an extra, the Crown is the real target of this heist. After parachuting the birds from the plane, Lupin starts seeking the treasure, but is soon interrupted first by Zenigata and later by the appearance of the Red Travelers’ submarine, which proceeds to shoot Lupin down.
Unable to counterattack, the thief looks doomed when suddenly the attack is interrupted by the penguins, which proceed to chase away the soldiers, leaving Fujiko and their leader alone on the submarine. With the aircraft destroyed, its main body now slides down an icy mountain like a giant sled with Lupin on it, and tears a hole in the Red Travelers’ submarine, causing it to explode. In the blast, Fujiko is tossed on Lupin’s improvised sled, which eventually crashes into an ice cavern where Lupin thinks the treasure is hidden. With Zenigata chasing after them, Lupin and Fujiko soon stumble into an empty chest, and later into one containing a pair of boots, Mussolini’s treasure; after being forced to hide, Zenigata finds the boots and, not knowing what they are, wears them to fend off the cold… and is apparently possessed by Mussolini’s ghost as he proceeds to march out of the cave wielding an Italian flag. As Lupin and Fujiko look on stunned, they find out that the crown was already found by one of the penguins, which are now parading around the place with the polar bears, and the thief gets frozen while trying to recover the precious crown from the sea.
This episode contains examples of:
- Chekhov's Gun: The penguins, obviously enough.
- Fascist Italy: The main villains, the Red Travelers, are remnants of Fascists still looking for the Duce's treasure. Ironically enough, their main color is Red, despite being traditionally known for being "Black" as opposed to communist red.
- Harmless Villain: The Red Travelers are easily routed by... penguins.... yeah...
- Human Popsicle: What happens to Lupin at the very end of the episode.
- Lighter and Softer: This episode is far more light-hearted compared to the others, and has a whimsical plot as well.
- Shown Their Work: The leader of the Red Travelers express contempt for Lupin's french origins, which is true since there's some underground rivalry and mutual antagonism between France and Italy.
- Take That!: The villains are Italian fascists who are routed by.... penguins, of all things.
- Visual Pun: The crown is stolen by an emperor penguin.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: Half true: while the Pope's crown really is there in a cavern, Mussolini's treasure are just a pair of boots - ones which apparently allow his ghost to possess whoever wears them.
