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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great addition to the Lupin franchise, March 29, 2005
This review is from: Lupin the 3rd - The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure (DVD)
First, despite what it may say above Hayao Miyazaki absolutely did NOT direct this film in fact his name doesn't appear anywhere in the credits at all. My understanding is that Miyazaki's experience with Lupin III was limited to `The Castle of Cagliostro' and a few television episodes. Still, `The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure' is a darn good Lupin flick.
The Eurotunnel linking Britain and France has been destroyed by terrorists and retired British spy Sir Archer is about to be financially ruined. As underwriter for the Lords of London insurance policy on the Eurotunnel, Sir Archer is now responsible for paying the cost of the damage. With the help of Lupin III, Sir Archer embarks on `The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure' in order to raise the capital to pay the policy and remain disgustingly wealthy. Standing in his way are a group of Neo-Nazi's led by the bizarre Herr Maforditte. Can anyone guess what HER secret might be?
Sir Archer is a pretty blatant homage to James Bond. Although he doesn't resemble Bond they make direct references to films `Goldfinger' and `From Russia With Love'. He even uses a Walther PPK.
`The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure' is one of the better Lupin III movies. The animation is well done and the scripting is great. One of my favorite parts was when Fujiko was trying to sell Goemon's services to Herr Maforditte and the stoic Goemon starts coughing out `more, more' in order to urge up his hourly wage. This kind of subtle humor is what makes the series and clearly the writers of Harimao `get it'. I really don't have any complaints with the movie and highly recommend it for Lupin fans and Anime fans in general.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the few great Lupin features, September 27, 2002
This review is from: Lupin the 3rd - The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure (DVD)
After watching Secret of Twilight Gemini, I thought that this was a trend Lupin TV specials would be following. Boy, was I wrong. Harimao's Treasure is one of the funnest Lupin features I've seen since Castle of Cagliostro. The story has Lupin and the gang off on a treasure hunt for the hidden treasure of Harimao, a renegade of World War 2. Lupin, Jigen and Goemon go searching for the three statues to open it while Fujiko gets some info on the treasure from the owner of the British spy mueseum, accompanied by his grandaughter. These two groups eventually cooperate to find the treasure. Add in some Neo Nazis and you've got one heck of an adventure. The film, in my opinion, was pretty good. It's directed by Osamu Dezaki (Black Jack) and it really shows if you're familiar with his other work. Unlike some of the other features, Lupin's love-interest in this film is one that doesn't quite like him, which makes for some fun antics. One of the funniest gags in this film is that poor Zenigata never actually gets a chance to eat his ramen. That really helps the story. The music reminded me a lot of the original series. Most of the music in the film is dead on in comparison to original series making it all the more appealing to older fans. Goemon doesn't get as much screen time, but he does manage to impress Lupin a couple of times throughout the feature. Fujiko isn't quite as kick-butt in this feature, but that doesn't mean she isn't willing to take some matters into her own hands. Animation-wise, the film is above average when compared to Gemini, so fans should be happy with that. The extras aren't really anything special. Just bios on the characters and English voice actors. The menus work perfectly, but the text is so tiny and blurry, you might not even know what your selecting. The packaging is pretty cool and also includes in insert. Overall, Harimao is a great film I would recommend to World War 2 fans, Bond fans, Dezaki fans and Lupin fans in general. Highly recommended.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good Lupin Movie, December 9, 2002
This review is from: Lupin the 3rd - The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure (DVD)
This movie was done a year before that hideous "Twilight Gemini" and this one is pretty good. Our boys start out with Lupin stealing some monkey statue. It turns out that it along with two other statues are the keys to the Harimao's Treasure. I won't go into the story except to say that it flows fairly nicely. My girl Fujiko is the smart, sexy, and not to be trusted girl from the original TV series and "Castle of Cagliostro". Excellent! She's not the ignorant slut of "Gemini". The only character who suffers is Goemon. For some reason, he needs a job and the money and so he's been hired to help Lupin and company. Why? He was always part of the gang before. I haven't watched the Japanese version yet, so I don't know what liberties have been taken. However, as I looked this episode up on the net, it seems that Goemon is on the road to enlightenment and needs cash! OK, I'll bite. About 1/3 of the way through the film, Goemon disappears and suddenly you think, "Where's Goemon?!" He's gone so suddenly and with no explaination that when you notice it, you wonder if you missed something! But never fear, he'll return, this time hired by Fujiko. Jigen's character is done OK. Nothing great, but his skills are used and he's where he should be -- watching Lupin's back! As for inspector Zenigata, he's mostly a waste here except to pass a nearly endless supply of Japanese ramen noodle (bowls included) jokes. But then getting him into every episode has to be pretty hard since he is never the bad guy. Speaking of jokes, there are some good laughs here. I won't give them away, but I will say to be on the lookout for Lupin's unique parachute storage area! *lol* Classic. As to the DVD itself, we have the English dub which is pretty good. As of this writing, I haven't compared it to the original Japanese so I don't know how many liberties they took with the translations. However, FUNimation will soften some jokes and statements in the name of political correctness. In addition to the English dub, there is the original Japanese version with or without subtitles. Otherwise, that's about it for extras. Bottom line: I enjoyed this movie a lot. There is some brief animated nudity when Lupin gives away some Japanese porn, but that was the end of it. The humor is good, the story is pretty good, and the characters are treated well. Lupin fans: GET THIS DVD! Anime fans: I think you will enjoy this movie.
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