Customer Reviews

Lupin the 3rd: the Fuma Conspiracy

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The fuma conspiracy was one of the first movie with Lupin the third and his gang. Goemon is about to get married, is bride is kidnapped and the adventure unfolds.
The movie is nice, though I do not think it is as imaginative as 'The castle of cagliostro', as visually beautiful as 'the secret of mamo' or as hectic as, let's say, 'farewell to nostradamus' where Lupin went from Brazil to the USA to some mysterious island (which looked a lot like the island in 'the island of assassins'), and again to Brazil and the USA.
the Fuma conspiracy is all set in Japan. It's about finding a treasure (as was 'dead or alive') as much as it is about rescuing Goemon's bride.
The characters are less convincing than usual: Goemon goes from being a confident soon-husand-to-be to being a guy who's nervous and insecure around women (as he was in castle of cagliostro). Zenigata and Jigen are a bit flat. Fujilo is neither the unreliable (yet loving) woman that can be seen in the secret of mamo nor in the nostradamus movie nor the relatively loyal member of the gang that can be seen in 'missed by a dollar'. But the major problem is with Lupin. He is not as central as he should be and was in other movies, he's not supersmart, heroic, appealing villain of most Lupin movies nor the sweeter character designed by Miyazaki in Cagliostro. He is there, but never displays his usual genius.
So while the movie is worth watching anyway, it is not as good as it could have been

Lupin (aka The Wolf) is a master thief and master gadjeteer. He's stolen precious items from all over the world with his two friends Gingen, master sharp shooter and Goyman, the last of the true Samurai. Goyman is about to marry the only girl who can shake him from his stoic nature. The ceremony is almost complete when the Ninja warriors of the Fuma clan intrude to seal the bride and her dowery. What follows is an adventure on an Indiana Jones scale taking the group from railyards to lost under world cities.

This is good animae and very enjoyable. The only Lupin/Rupan title I recommend more is Castle Cagliostro. This film is a great litmus paper for you to find out if you love Lupan or not. I certainly do.

This is a very entertaining movie with quite a bit of action and just a teeny bit of plot holes that can be overlooked. The ninjas involved seem a bit silly but anything to get Goemon showing off his mad swordsman skills is well worth it. This is much more a Goemon feature than a (L)upin one so this is a definite buy for all Goemon fans.

The animation is very good and incredibly smooth for something I come to expect from non-traditional animation. The action is fast and exciting that has most of the cast running throughout the entire movie. Even when they get to the booby trap ridden cavern near the end of the film, they rarely take their time to be cautious instead opting to look cool by running as fast as they can through traps.

Although violence is not something I'm very interested in, I was kind of wanting more of it. First of all, throughout the entire movie Jigen is without his gun and only serves as a driver (during fairly neat car chases, mind you) for most of the movie. I think (L)upin pulled out his gun once but I can't remember if he used it at all. Also, I'm not sure if its only the english dialouge version .... :D), but there isn't any blood in the movie either. Not like no blood ruined the movie, mind you, but you come to expect at least a little trickle of blood to come out when a ninja takes a hit from a sword to the belly.

The English dub voices are... well, if the movie wasn't as entertaining as it was I would have turned it off in 10 minutes into the movie. And this is coming from a dub fan. (L)upin's voice is surprisingly like that of the Pioneer's dub but without the polish or the acting skills; although the actor, to his credit, does do better as the movie goes along. Goemon's voice isn't bad but it sounds like it would have been more comfortable belonging to Japanese Guy #2 instead of a main character. Fujiko's voice is... well, it reminded me of Gadget from Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers. Take that as you will. While Jigen's voice (easily the worst) sounds like a guy swallowed a blender while it was still on, the rest of the voice cast is easily forgivable and/or forgetable.

if you love lupin u will love this movie! its one of the older ones, not made by the same american company as the others but is still awesome. even if you have never seen or heard of lupin the third i still think you would like this movie. action, adventure, and a few laughs along the way will keep you watching.

This is deffinetly a treat for the Lupin fans. It delivers great action and fun as well as superb animation. My only gripe were the actors used for it. Lupin (or Rupan as he's called in this) sounds like he sat on his keys, Zenigata sounds constapated, Jigen just sounds horrible (sounded like the actor was trying to rip off the style of whoever did his voice in the Manga release of Cagliostro) while Goemon and Fujiko have more fitting (yet lame) voices. I hope that Streamline or Manga redo this one with thier actors, but I'd still recommend it for any fan of the Lupin series.