Lupin III Movie
approx. 1 hour, 40 minutes


This year's Lupin movie, DEAD OR ALIVE, premiered on 20 April, 1996. This movie, while not breaking any barriers in animation, is a good movie for both occasional watchers of anime as well as the LUPIN III fanatic. Following the sign of the times, the film makes use of computer animation (albeit poorly), and maintains good quality animation (relative to recent films) throughout.
The story begins with a daring jailbreak of four prisoners and their benefactor. The chase scene, in the usual Lupin style, defied all known laws of physics, but was very impressive. More than anything else, it provided a taste of things to come as this opening scene doesn't tie into the rest of the film until much later in the story. As the story progresses, it turns out that Lupin and company (Jigen and Goemon) are after a treasure aboard a deadly floating island under the control of the island nation of Zufu. Zufu itself was the victim of a military coup d'etat, in which the Kubikiri Shogun killed the royal family of Zufu and left the nation in ruins. However, rumor has it that the Prince Panishe still survives and is planning a counter-coup in the hopes of restoring the people's freedom and prosperity.

 Lupin kidnaps the daughter of the Shogun for his own reasons, but Inspector Zenigata had reached her first, and put in her place a very capable and very beautiful woman by the name of Orianda, who tries to capture the wily thief but is stopped by an assault on Lupin's hideout by the Shogun's men. Orianda, it turns out, fell in love with Prince Panishe and has been longing for him for quite a while. She also seems to have a very important key to the puzzle of the mysterious floating island. In the meantime, the Shogun has offered a reward for the capture of Lupin -- $1,000,000, dead or alive, and made Inspector Zenigata persona non grata and subject to arrest should he remain on the island. This, plus the start of rebel assaults on the Shogun's military bases gives the whole volatile situation a sense of quiet chaos. Finally, it all comes to a head when everyone gathers on the floating island to unravel the secrets of the deadly floating charnel house once and for all.
The quality of animation, while not of an earth-shaking nature, is rather good, and I would say it is slightly above average. The small amount of CG that was thrown in was at best a poorly-orchestrated afterthought, in my opinion. At some points the effects just didn't seem to be proper with the effect the scene seemed to expresed, and more than likely could have been done better if they had been animated more traditionally. The sound was wonderful, with good music that paced the story and the action well. The plot was rather original as well, with many twists and turns occuring down the line as the story picks up speed and deception upon deception is uncovered.

 One point that I would like to focus on is the abilities of the seiyuu (voice actors). The main characters (Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, Fujiko, Zenigata) were very good at their job, but they've been playing these parts for years, and that they were superb is only natural. The fact that the supporting characters were just as good as Lupin and the gang, however, was the eye opener for me. The producers puled out all the stops on this one by getting the very best even for the supporting roles of this film -- seiyuu who have considerable experience in playing key, emotional roles and constantly hit the ark every time. The voice of Orianda, Takayama Minami, has taken part in popular series like RANMA NIBUNNOICHI (Nabiki), LODOSS-DOO SENKI (Cerise), KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (Kiki), and MEITAN CONAN (Conan) among other parts. The voice of Panishe is Huruya Tooru, who was the voice of Amuro Rei in MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM, and Tuxedo Kamen in the SAILOR MOON series. The list goes on and on. Actually, the amusing part is that the least experienced actor of the entire cast is Lupin himself, but he aquitted himself well despite the fact.
In any case, I do recommend this movie to anyone--even if they aren't seiyuu-followers or Lupin fanatics--for both the voice acting and also for the fact that overall it is an excellent movie with a solid plot.

--Orin Starchaser