#I haven't seen him as Richard III yet so I don't know if that would go in Evil But Make It Camp or Awful for Literally No Reason

[voluptuarian]

Whenever I've heard discussion about Vincent Price's career, it's generally just been talk about his villain roles-- however, having watched more of his stuff now I feel like that's doing him an in injustice so here's an overview of some of the myriad Vincent Price Types™️

Charming but Otherwise Useless Playboy

His Kind of Woman

Laura

Life Is Hard for a Goth

The Tomb of Ligeia

The House of Usher

Just a Silly Little Guy

The Black Cat

The Raven

Evil But Make It Camp

The Masque of the Red Death

House on Haunted Hill

The Great Mouse Detective

House of Wax

I Am So Awful for Literally No Reason

Witchfinder General

Cry of the Banshee

The Haunted Palace

The Pit and the Pendulum

Man Who has Suffered More than Jesus

The Pit and the Pendulum

Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

[maryellencarter]

So your posts on the movie got me to watch Lupin III The First, and now I’m interested but have no idea where to start with watching more. What would you suggest for a newbie?

Oh my god, I only got into this fandom less than a month ago myself, I just don't do anything in moderation. ^_^ So this is going to be basically a "what all is out there" summary with a little bit about what I've seen so far, and I'd really appreciate it if the rest of the fandom would chime in with opinions / corrections. Short version, I started with Part 4 and it was pretty good? Part 2, also good if you're into the more batshit sort of Scooby-Doo type plots.

Major difference to be aware of between "The First" and most other entries in the canon: Lupin is usually a *lot* more of a perv, especially in the older stuff. Trying to get into Fujiko's pants is generally his main motivation alongside stealing stuff, and he has no sense of boundaries whatsoever. Him being completely uninterested in Laetitia that way is not exactly OOC but definitely not something you should rely on.

To start off with, there are five and a half "parts" of the Lupin III anime show so far (Part 6 is still airing right now), plus a ton of movies and TV specials and "OVAs". This is my first anime fandom actually, so I haven't entirely figured out the differences between those things, I just think of them as there's the TV show and there's the longer more standalone stuff.

The "parts" or versions of the TV show are mostly distinguished by the art styles, and especially by what color jacket Lupin wears.

Part 1: Green Jacket. Made around 1970ish? and looks it. Subtitled only (so far -- there's something going on with a dub for it that I'm not entirely clear on). Sets up the basic relationships including Goemon's introduction, has some really tasty emotional stuff (Jigen sobbing over the first time Lupin fakes his death onscreen still gets me), but the art style is crusty enough and the quality erratic enough that I wouldn't recommend jumping straight there from "The First".

Part 2: Red Jacket. Made around 1979ish. The first 80 episodes were dubbed in the early 2000s by the same main cast (except Zenigata) as the people who did the English dub of "The First", referred to in shorthand as the Epcar cast, since Richard Epcar (who voices Jigen) both voice-directed and wrote that English dub, as well as writing the English dub script for "The First". I really liked extremely competent Zenigata from "The First", so I'm not enjoying extremely bumbling Zenigata in Red Jacket as much, but the character relationships are solid -- you get a lot of the found family polycule aspect as well as Jigen's unquestioning loyalty to Lupin, which are both just barely hinted at in "The First". It's pretty wacky a lot of the time, with vampires, telepathy, mummy-mask possession, and what-all have you. There's barely any continuity but plenty of shenanigans and like 150 episodes to choose from. This is the part I'm working through right now. If you're looking for "baseline" classic Lupin III anime, this is it.

Part 3: Pink Jacket. Made in the 1980s, haven't seen any of it yet. I've heard it's significantly more cracky than Red Jacket, which has got to be an achievement.

"The Woman Called Fujiko Mine": Not sure when it was made but I know it fits here. Totally different art style, very dark and adult in both looks and content, visually inspired by Frank Miller apparently. Extremely pointy Jigen with the weird hatband comes from this or one of the three movie-type-things made in the same style, called collectively "koike Lupin".

Part 4: Made in 2015. Parts 4/5/6 are all "Blue Jacket" Lupin. Dubbed by the Epcar cast, again. I've seen all 26 episodes of part 4, it's a lot more like a modern TV show or anime, which makes sense because it is one. Pretty arc-focused with some standalone episodes. Much more consistent animation. The English version I saw has a theme song not by Yuji Ohno (as I understand it), which is a travesty but there you go. Fun, interesting, I enjoyed it. Lots of good character interaction and a badass Zenigata.

Part 5: Like 2018ish. I haven't actually seen any of Part 5 yet except one episode, but as I understand it, it's also set in 2018ish, featuring a lot of arc stuff about social media, surveillance, and so forth. Extremely competent Zenigata. Extremely competent everybody, really, as far as I've picked up.

Part 6: Still airing, so I'm really spotty on what's going on because I don't do open canons. Visually similar to parts 4 and 5.

Castle of Cagliostro: No idea when it was made. Apparently the first movie Hayao Miyazaki directed. Very pretty, very very soft, not very rowdy. If you're looking for "the least pervy Lupin III ever rescues a princess and everybody looks about twelve except Jigen", this is the movie for you. Features a delightful Zenigata truce -- if you liked the Laetitia and Zenigata content in "The First", you might try this. I've only seen the subbed version, so I can't speak to the dub quality.

"Is Lupin Still Burning?" -- 50th anniversary special. You need to have seen several backstory episodes of Green Jacket to get the full effect. However, with that caveat, MANY MANY FEELS, absolutely worth it. Lupin gets bounced through time, being put into positions where he alters his own history and fucks up his friends' lives. All of the found family feels, ALL OF THEM, I could probably pull together a non-spoilery list of What You Should See First if you're interested. Also there's a fucking amazing slightly AU Jigen/Zenigata fanfic based on the part right before the ending, which I just cannot say enough good things about, that thing is fucking Art.

(Look, disabled homeless Jigen was always going to hit me right in the feels for personal reasons, okay? ANYWAY.)

Uh. I don't think I've actually seen anything else yet, only gifsets. Hey fandom, any recommendations for "if you liked this aspect of The First, watch this"?