Lupin III: Hemingway Paper no Nazo

This special is sort of an interesting ones of the ones I've seen, its definitely got a lot of the Lupin special-tisms that are a part of every special. Jigem having some mysterious connection to the plot from his past, Fujiko being the girl of one of the bad guys. Alrhough not everything here is super formulatic

First Goemon isn't here randomly for no reason, he has some reason to be here instead of just showing up. He wants to cut up this box the papers are in. Why can't he cut it? Its never explained and only really exists so they can't get the papers ... immediately, he even cuts it accidentally in the end. Weird

Zenigata and the LOW (Lupin Original Woman) of this movie has a great design, her curls are drawn great, but nothing to do, and she barely does anything active, shes not even part of the climax. The Hemingway Papers, while a neat treasure, would fit another special better, especially one where the main villians have nukes already and don't use them. And Zenigata doesn't even see Lupin until the credits roll. While the LOW has something to do, Zenigata does not matter, he can be easily written out and nothing would change at all, he shares like one line not about Lupin to another character.

Overall though while Zenigata is pointless in this movie, the characters that do get shine do a lot, they're pretty active in their plans, and feel pretty independent which is cool. It feels like a classic romp where everyone comes together to get the treasure and I do appreciate that. Lupin fans will enjoy this as each characters gets their moment (as long as you dont mind Zenigata's shafting) and new fans will get an above average Lupin special that gets the characters right, in exchange for a forgettable LOW, which is what compels most to watch the specials. A comfortable 6/10, not the best tv special, but honestly a fair introduction to the series, (minus Zenigata).

Good movie. Great suspense. And a deadly treasure.

The cast have all gathered to this island. But their motives are each different.
Lupin wants a secret treasure.
Fujiko is being a traitorous seductress as usual. But atleast its towards the bad guys and not her friends.
Jigen wants revenge.
Goemon wants to prove the power of his sword.
Zenigata wants to capture Lupin. Unfortunately he doesnt get to do anything in this movie other than just be there.

And in the middle of it all are 2 military forces fighting for power.
... Also in the middle is the unbreakable "Pandora's box".

Its a fun entertaining movie. With great characters. And great action.
The main cast are excellently written.

Another wacky zappy Lupin adventure where everything is really serious and deep rooted in really serious stuff, but Lupin and the gang come and mess up everything for everyone!

You know how we get introduced to a past relation to Jigen the person wants to kill him and he's strangely cool about it sometimes? It's one of those. You know how Goemon can randomly show up for any reason, and rarely is it about a job? It's not one of those. Goemon has actually been hired by the side opposing the group that hired Jigen. They handling it in very convincing ways, and they have each ... other's back when it's time to make a run for it.

Lupin a lot of his goofy self, but it's not so easy to get the others to help him, like it usually is. Lupin is being presented with a real challenge to get people on his side in this one. I liked he didn't get his way so easily, and he even got pushed aside some.

Character development woman (cdw) seemed like she had a lot to say, but didn't get to say it. She didn't much to do, and left everything up to the gang. honestly, her story was pretty wiped up by the time they got there, and she had a mostly "retired" mind set about what was going on.

Fujiko was great in this one! She jumped into action and had everyone's backs! she didn't have a side plot in this one, but I'm ok with that.

I wouldn't recommend this to Lupin fans because of how dry cdw was. I would recommend this to new anime fans, and anime new comers.