YMMV / Arsène Lupin

• Adaptation Displacement: Unless you're French, you probably know the name "Lupin" as Lupin III better than the Arsène Lupin stories that inspired it.
  • For that matter, the name "Arsène" may bring to mind an entirely different Phantom Thief.
• Awesome Ego: By all accounts the man should be insufferable, but the reader cheers him on anyway.
• Epileptic Trees: The Arsène Lupin in Night Hood lives in the mid-20th century and is somewhat colder than the early 20th century Lupin from the books. Because of that fans have speculated that Night Hood's Lupin is actually the original Lupin's son, Lupin II and father of Lupin III.
  • If you want to carry this further, Night Hood's Lupin might as well be the grandfather of Aria the Scarlet Ammo's Riko Mine a.k.a. Lupin IV.
  • More recently, Assane Diop has probably become better-known than both.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: If the amount of works directly referencing Lupin is any indication, the original novels and the character are incredibly popular in Japan, even with a bit of Adaptation Displacement going on.
• Magnificent Bastard: Arsène Lupin is a charismatic, suave Gentleman Thief always ready with a gambit and a smile. A brilliant Master of Disguise who performs daring heists while first sending his calling card to alert his marks of his coming, Lupin sometimes relies on his reputation to get his marks to simply surrender their loot. Lupin repeatedly pulls off gambits once a story, always playing the police, his marks and even worse villains than him to secure victory. In some cases, Lupin cases classic misdirection, even escaping from jail in disguise just because he'd promised to escape beforehand, resulting in the police believing he did so and testifying that he could not be Lupin in court. With a brilliant mind, unmatched flourishes of style and even a deep love for those closest to him, Lupin set the stage for many gentleman thieves to follow.
• Older Than They Think: Case Closed fans might be surprised to know that Kaito Kid owes a lot to Lupin. From using the sleight of hand to steal jewelry to his dress code (with the only difference being that Lupin wore black while Kid wears white, and Lupin's cape didn't turn into a glider).

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