Review: LUPIN III

 It's time once more for Old-School Month here on the Manga Test Drive (even if it's a little later than usual), and we're starting with one of the most iconic manga to come out of the 1960s.

LUPIN III (Rupan Sansei), by Monkey Punch.  First published in 1967 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

Lupin the Third is a legendary thief, always able to sneak his way into the most secure locations.  With his right-hand man Jigen at his side, Lupin travels the world while stealing treasure and the hearts of beautiful women, all the while evading the ever-vigilant Inspector Zenigata.

PLOT:

If you're used to the Lupin the Third franchise as it exists today, going back to read the original manga will be a little bit of a shock.  Most of his iconic gang isn't present in this first volume.  Sure, Jigen shows up after a few chapters and Zenigata is present from the start, but Fujiko Mine is basically a work-in-progress and the guy that looks like Goemon goes by a different name and dies midway through.  Then there's Lupin himself, who is far more rough around the edges than the wacky gentleman thief that most anime viewers would come to be familiar with.  Even the genre is a work in progress, considering that Lupin spends most of his time fighting gangsters and It is fascinating to watch these characters take a clearer shape with each new chapter, but it can be a little confusing early on.

That rough and ready attitude permeates the whole volume, which its fitting with its origins in both the pulpy crime novels of the era and the gekiga movement.  People are killed heartlessly on the regular and any woman who appears (whether she's Fujiko or not) is going to get sexually assaulted.  Hell, Monkey Punch hadn't even entirely settled on Yet that grittiness is paired with a weirdly wacky, bawdy sense of humor.  It all coalesces into an odd yet unique vibe, and that more than anything is what sticks with you after reading this volume.

ART:

Lupin III was also unique among its gekika peers by virtue of its influences.  The introduction of the volume outright states that one of Monkey Punch's biggest influences was the MAD Magazine artist Sergio Aragones.  That influence is visible practically everywhere you look in this book.  The men are all knees and elbows with gangly limbs and goony faces with big chins, while the ladies are all basically the same vampy bombshell.  The whole comic has a loose, scribbly quality that matches that gritty yet goofy tone shockingly well.  It also has shockingly well-drawn backgrounds, which does a lot as far as giving Lupin's adventures an exotic, luxurious air.  It's just a shame that it's been crammed into tankobon-sized pages.  The panels would have been small even when they were magazine-sized; in this form they are downright cramped.

PRESENTATION:

The translation (by Toshi Yokoyama) and adaptation (by Matt Yamashita) is a mixed bag.  For the most part it reads fine, but there are inconsistencies that should have been caught by a more attentive (or less overworked) editor.  At the very least, they could have sorted out amongst themselves whether it's supposed to be "Fujiko" or "Fugiko" Mine, as they bounce back and forth between the two in the chapters where she appears.

ART:

Established Lupin fans and those curious to experience the lighter side of 1960s gekiga will likely find interest in seeing where the franchise began.  On the other hand, newcomers might get confused by Monkey Punch working out his cast and their characters as he works and would likely get more enjoyment and consistency from the curated collections from later arcs that were released not long after Monkey Punch's passing.

This manga was published by Tokyopop.  This series is complete in Japan with 14 volumes available.  All 14 were released and are currently out of print.