S3E2 - Lupin III Takes the Big Screen: The Mystery of Mamo Review & Analysis

Japanimation Station's Kyoto Vacation

“Wherever he goes, he’ll be chased. That is his destiny.”

In 1978, Lupin the 3rd made the leap to the big screen with his first animated feature film, and while the second Lupin movie, 1979’s Hayao Miyazaki-directed The Castle of Cagliostro, is the more famous film, The Mystery of Mamo is arguably the single piece of Lupin animation that cuts closest to the heart of the character and the tone, humor, and storytelling style that makes Lupin the 3rd so enduring. It’s a globetrotting adventure that takes the audience all around the world, makes fantastic use of all five regular characters, has a wonderfully anarchic sense of humor, and is spectacularly animated from start-to-finish, a virtuosic feat from franchise stalwarts like Yuzo Aoki and Yasuo Otsuka. And it even has a thoughtful thematic core saying something surprisingly profound about Lupin as a character and the way he moves through the world, making for a movie that isn’t just uproariously funny and consistently surprising, but actually kind of poignant. It’s an absolute classic, and one that’s a delight to discuss on today’s episode.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we dive into Lupin’s longest-running and most successful anime, Lupin the 3rd Part II.

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:20

Intro, History, and Review Part 1: 0:01:20 – 0:57:23

Eyecatch Break: 0:57:23 – 0:58:08

Review Part 2: 0:58:08 – 2:26:58

End Theme: 2:26:58 – 2:28:13

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