#i love the idea though i fuck with noir so hard you don't understand

[andtheyreonfire]

did the tierlist i've seen people talking about :3c you can find the link to it right here

[the-golden-ghost]

Hey!! I notice from your reblogs that you’re a fan of Lupin III—I’ve been meaning to get into that, but I’m not sure where to start. I know there’s a manga that dates back a long time and several different series of the anime and a lot of other merch… Where would you recommend I start? And is there anything you can tell me about the franchise as a newcomer?? Thanks so much!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA welcome to the fandom, it's always exciting getting asks like this!

So, a Very Brief Synopsis of Lupin III to start with:

It follows the adventures of the titular Lupin III, a world-renowned thief, and his gang as they go on adventures, skirt the law, and try to steal every treasure known to man. It's a very character-driven show and it also follows the rule of Status Quo Is God so once you have a base idea of who everyone is you can almost watch anything and understand it. Here they all are:

Lupin III: Grandson of Arsène Lupin, a character created by Maurice Leblanc. He's kind of a parody of the "gentleman thief" trope in that rather than being Suave and Brilliant he's kind of a clown and a moron, and rather than being romantic and gentlemanly he's generally kind of horndog and a womanizer. Depictions vary, sometimes he is honestly a bit more morally upright and gentlemanly, other times he's very much not. Can best be summarized as "bastard monkey man who you will hate but also love"

Daisuke Jigen: Lupin's right-hand man. The World's Best Gunslinger and a (barely) functioning alcoholic. Parody of the "lone cowboy/jaded noir protagonist" trope. Despite seeming like the Dark and Brooding one of the group he clowns around with Lupin constantly, would die to protect any of his friends and is the MOST loyal motherfucker there is.

Goemon Ishikawa XIII: Descendant of a samurai of legend (who might have actually been a real guy??? I'm not up on my Japanese folklore) Goemon is the youngest of the team and Lupin's left-hand man. He's not around as often as Jigen since he's got his own life going on, but he's nevertheless important. He's a play on the traditional Samurai Protagonist in that he's supposed to be honorable, brave, humble, loyal, and self-sacrificing. He tries to be all these things but he actually fucking sucks at it and is kind of an arrogant asshole who sticks around for the thrill of Looking Cool And Stealing Shit. He IS cool though. Basically he seems to be the Innocent and Morally Upright one on the surface. He's not. In very early installments (Part 1 pretty much, and a couple of specials) he was actually a bad guy sent to assassinate Lupin. He ended up joining the team instead, though, but occasionally it's referenced.

Fujiko Mine: THE femme fatale of all time, she's Lupin's longtime girlfriend and also his most deadly rival. Her trope is actually played straight for the most part, mostly due to the show (especially in the older installments) being pretty sexist and not writing her all that well, but she's nevertheless the smartest of the group and most successful at what she does. Sometimes she's on Lupin's team, sometimes she's their enemy, 90% of the time she backstabs them and tries to murder them. It's all in good fun, though.

Koichi Zenigata: Basically he's just Inspector Javert in the modern day. He's a cop who wants to arrest Lupin and ONLY wants Lupin. His personality ranges from "hard-boiled cop with no outstanding traits" to "bumbling moron who actually has a good heart" depending on the installment but the main things you need to know about him are what I mentioned up there.

Now you can watch everything!

Good Starting Points:

Part 1: The Show That Started It All. I've heard this one takes a few episodes to get into but once it does it's marvelous. Well-written and generally well-animated, with some of the best character designs. It kinda sets the tone of the show and is largely considered Required Viewing even if you don't start here.

Part 2: The "Classic" Series. I will warn that this one has over 150 episodes, but they're all standalone so you can skip around at all. Also not contingent on Part 1 in any way. MUCH sillier in tone than Part 1 and it gets WEIRD at times but god is it funny and the characters are fantastic. I also highly recommend the dub for this one, if you can find it.

Lupin III: The First: This is the CGI movie! It came out a few years ago and it's BRILLIANT, animation-wise. Just beautiful. The plot is a little generic but it's in my opinion a great entry point for that very reason; it doesn't require a lot of thinking or any prior knowledge, you can just Vibe. My one critique is that it's very Lupin-focused and the other characters don't get a lot of screentime, but I'd still count this one as my #1 suggestion in terms of entry points.

The Castle of Cagliostro: The Iconic Miyazaki Movie and one of THE films of all time. This one is also a brilliant entry point; it's beautiful, it's rich, it's deep, it's a hell of a movie. The only thing is I almost feel that you get a better sense of the movie itself if you want it after familiarizing yourself with the franchise. But don't get me wrong - DEFINITELY works as an entry point and will make you love the titular Lupin, so there's that. (Also required viewing whether you watch it first or not)

Other Series:

Part 3: Goofball Series made in the 80s. Standalone. Very silly and fun. Possibly sillier than Part 2 even? The animation is wild and unique. Not super popular (I haven't seen it) but looks like a good time.

Part 4: Modern series. Darker and more serious in tone than any of the prior installments. This one could also work as an entry point I guess, but the vibes are pretty different. It's also not really standalone in the sense that you need to watch the episodes in order and I guess can't skip around?

Part 5: Another modern series, plays off of Part 4 so not watchable unless you've seen that. And from what I've heard, not worth watching. Apparently the writing is fairly subpar and they kept the dark n' serious tone but didn't DO anything with it. They also tried to make a timeline out of a series that shouldn't have a timeline, and apparently handled some really serious topics that they should not have tried to handle. I haven't seen this one admittedly but I've heard enough to warn me away from it.

Part 6: This one's currently airing. It's... a murder mystery, still dark, still not standalone. You'd need to watch 4 and 5 to watch this one. I don't know yet if it's good or not. Seems better than Part 5 but not as good as any of the others.

There's also about twenty billion OVAs and specials. I won't list them all but they range in tone from "literally what the fuck was that" to "that was kinda odd but wild and fun" to "this was outstanding and I'd gladly watch a million things just like it"

(Most of them fall in the first and second categories)

Finally, not to put you off, but I will warn that as a long-running franchise it's sadly not uncommon to see Outdated Bad Shit pop up. Like there's a fair share of sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. It sucks, and you can definitely avoid the more wildly offensive installments by finding a viewer guide, but yeah, I do need to put that out there so you're prepared. It's... a show from the early 70s, and it shows it sometimes. The more modern installments tend to be better (about that, at least) but it's something to keep in mind.

I'd also suggest looking up plot synopses or a viewer guide before watching the films and specials since some of those can get VERY dark, thematically and content-wise. Most are not. The average rating for the show is PG-13 I'd say, but there's a handful of Rogue Dark Specials that if you're not prepared might be a little surprising.

(For example, do NOT start the series with a movie called Goemon's Bloodspray. I've heard of people doing that and as the name suggests, There's Gore In There!)

(But yeah. MOST are not at all like that. But... read plot synopses anyway ^^; )

That's all I got! I hope you have fun if you decide to jump in and join us! It's a wild series all around, but it's a lot of fun too! :D