#and naturally I am not the audience best suited to dissect that lol

[vaguely-concerned]

I just watched green vs red, and I'm just going to assume that that was all a real fucked up fever dream slash identity crisis lupin went through after hitting his head so hard he saw metatextuality for a hot second b/c frankly that's how it makes most sense for me haha (which would make jigen towards the end telling him he's got no earthly idea what he's on about but he'll still stay to watch it all rather sweet). it certainly has the feel and structure of a nightmare more than anything and it explains the... alleged plot lol. like that weird weapons contractor dude who brainuploaded himself into his tiny son and who is then blown up and never mentioned again? ssssshh this is like... symbolic and shit for lupin's ambivalence about taking on the family legacy. the disorientation of disguised selves and the rest of the crew going 'lmao we don't care which one is the real one, whatever'? ooof some identity issues getting aired there rather than commenting on how those relationships actually work in real life. (even outside of that I specifically find the idea that lupin thinks jigen only sticks around because he's fun -- because no one else comes up with these wild ideas but if they did or if lupin wasn't fun for a while, jigen would leave -- quite fascinating)

(this reading would also say some very sweet things about how lupin thinks about zenigata, because the dear inspector is ON IT in this one! it would also say some way less nice things about how he sees fujiko tho because wow. she sure was there for all of two minutes and did nothing all that time wasn't she)

if I don't do this reading I suspect I would so fundamentally disagree with so much of the philosophical core of what they're trying to say that I'd have to gnaw my own leg off in frustration. some real neat experimental animation to watch while I was bleeding out from the stump, though, I guess.

(btw when you think it can't get any weirder the credits are like 'did you enjoy all the lupins running about? because here are two jigens too for good measure. is this more or less canon than the rest of this thing? ahaha. enjoy your mindscrew'

I forgive this movie everything just because of the excellent jigen floof honestly it was the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen -- full on murder 'give me back our samurai or god have mercy on your soul' mode, but then his hair is so fluffy fhasdfk)

another way I could try to explain it: this one very neatly showed off all the ways you can do lupin as a character that I *don't* like or respond to, which was admittedly quite interesting and useful! (I'm not sure I liked, agreed with or even enjoyed this OVA (I was honestly bored in several places), but it also doesn't feel like it was a waste to experience, if you see what I mean). TL;DR I like to imagine goemon and jigen worriedly hovering over lupin when he finally groans and blinks awake like 'hey bro are you ok???? damn they rung your bell like that fella in notre dame back there u good????' and he murmurs 'have you ever had the terrible feeling of looking at your past selves and realizing it was just... you. that whole time, it was just you.' before he snaps out of it properly like 'wow boys that was a weird one even for me let's go' as they help him up