Animation Defenestration: The one with a Fiat 600

 

Title: Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro

What Year?: 1979 (Japanese release)/ 1991 (US dub release)

Classification: Prototype/ Mashup

Rating: That’s Good! (4/4)

 

It’s time for the third review of the first week of the month, and it happens I’ve been working on another project that has required me to plow through a body of material where a foreign-language film with no subtitles was among the more pleasant entries. Needless to say, I’ve been needing something good, and fortunately, I had something on deck I was already meaning to get to. Here is a film that started a career and possibly but a genre on the map, and is a lot of fun in the bargain. Here is The Castle of Cagliostro, an anime where an unapologetic thief is the hero.

Our story begins with our anti-hero and an accomplice or so fleeing the scene of their latest exploit in a Fiat 600 literally full of money, which unfortunately proves to be counterfeit. It’s Lupin the Third, the descendant of a notorious thief before him, with a gang of companions that includes a chain-smoker and a samurai whose sword can cut cars in half. Even they are taken aback when they witness a woman in a wedding dress running from assorted goons (in a Citroen 2CV, no less). Despite their best efforts, the obviously reluctant bride Clarisse is captured and taken back to the castle of her groom, an evil nobleman named Cagliostro. Lupin sets out to free her, even joining up with a nosy lawman. Soon, he discovers that the castle is home to a whole host of schemes, including a counterfeiting complex that made the phony money he ran into before. Only his most madcap scheme will save the damsel- but the real secret is a treasure only she can unlock!

Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro was the second feature-length animated film based on the manga Lupin III, created by the artist known as Monkey Punch. It marked the directorial debut of Hayao Miyazaki, who went on to found Studio Ghibli. The film was produced for 500 million yen, estimated to be equivalent to $2.3 million US. It was considered a box office disappointment in Japan, and received only limited showings at events such as the World Science Fiction Convention in the US. Beginning in 1991, it received theatrical and home video releases in the US with an English dub by Streamline Pictures, with a cast including Bob Bergen as Lupin and JC Henning as Lady Clarisse. The film subsequently became a popular ad well-regarded anime. A second dub was released by Manga Video mainly in the UK, described as more faithful to the original film. A 2015 DVD release included both dubs and the Japanese language version with subtitles. The Japanese version and Bergen dub are available for digital purchase and rental from Amazon.

For my experiences, the main thing I have to say about this one is that anime is one of the things people would probably expect me to like far better than I do. Sure, I’ve seen a good sample of the genre, and that has certainly included ones I like. There was even a time, way back when I first tried animation reviews, when I was sounding off for one or two that I greatly admired and still do. In the end, however, I have found that very few resonate with me as engaging or original (see Lily CAT). To me, the good, bad and what-the-Hell-did-I-just-watch weird usually don’t feel fundamentally different from each other, and the further common denominator is that they tend to deal in ideas and visuals more than character development and emotional involvement. And of course, there are ones that I find to have weight and depth (Tales of Earthsea stands out as perhaps underrated), yet I find them exceptions more than the rule. Eventually, I got to this one, and it stood out as different. It has the madcap action and over-the-top characters of a 1960s cartoon, with none of the allegorical pretensions of a “serious” anime, yet it never quite descends into the realm of magic or superscience. It’s like Tin Tin meets James Bond (why not see my review of Never Say Never Again while you’re at it?), which is really as good a preview as any what you’re in for.

Moving forward, the central reality of this movie is that its hero is quite unique and indeed altogether psychotic. Lupin is not a romanticized “thief with a heart of gold”, but he does have an implied commitment to avoiding fatalities. At the core, he’s really no more or less than an adrenaline junkie chasing a fix, and certainly getting it. The closest he gets to altruism in the course of his normal business is throwing away loot he already knows he can’t use. Things get more complex when he meets Clarisse. He clearly is offended by the idea of another man holding a woman as chattel, without manifesting the more selfish desire to take a well-guarded prize for himself. At the same time, he goes through far too many desperate gambles not to be attracted to her, whatever he may say or want to believe. It may feel a little frustrating to see a relationship that is clearly going nowhere, at least for the present installment. (I have no idea what the later episodes are like.) We get a partial answer with the relatively late appearance of a spunky former associate. He clearly respects her, and might be attracted to her, yet it’s self-evident that he would rather leave her free to find her own adventures than have her follow him. It's a nuanced message that gradually extends to Clarisse, and it still has a progressive note.

The other side is certainly the villain, the lord of Cagliostro. Again, he presents a nuanced and unstereotyped character. He isn’t Megavolt crazy, nor is he merely greedy or flatly sadistic (see the Gobots movie, if anything). What does become clear is that he values his position and the outward compliance of his minions. Again, Clarisse brings out the greater depths of his character. He especially delights in pointing out their shared class and heritage, and he’s never proven wrong in asserting that she is not so far from him. He also certainly does show the drive to possess her for the sake of possession, though the goal of the mysterious treasure obscures just how much of this is personal. His conflicting motives and those of Lupin come to a head in the finale, where he quickly goes out of his way to do his own dirty work. The biggest irony is that he’s competent enough to get as much as he actually wants, until he runs into one of the most impressively gruesome insta-kill Maguffins on record.

Now for the “one scene”, I finally gave in and bought the damn movie for another look at the opening. It all starts with low-key “stealth” music as Lupin and his main accomplice descend from the upper floor of a casino with at least two sacks and capacious overcoats stuffed with money. As the alarms go off and the music gets zipper, they drive away in their yellow Fiat 600 (a car I know well from writing the Exotroopers story), so full of money Lupin literally has to push bills aside to see out the windshield. Meanwhile, a number of shady sedans scramble to give pursuit, only to break down, lose their wheels, or in one puzzling case split in half, something that is replicated later but only by a  character we haven’t seen yet. There’s an implied passage of time, as we see them next on a roadway in daylight. As the thief and his henchman converse, he gives a look of unpleasant surprise as he looks at one of the bills literally under his nose. He tells his right-hand man to dump it, and then explains it’s counterfeit, already hatching another scheme. Still, it does appear that his elusive moral code stops short of spending money he knows is fake. On the other hand, he shows no concern about the consequences for unwary bystanders as he very happily casts money out the window and the sunroof, and finally opens his doors to allow it to pour out. It’s a gloriously psychotic moment that really tells us all we need to know about the characters, truly a demonstration of the best that a genre can do.

In closing, this is one time I don’t really have more to say. This is truly among the very best animated films I have ever reviewed, which are already high enough to start skewing the curve, at least equal to Treasure Planet among others. The one thing left interesting to comment on is that, unlike that film, it never went through any initial misfortunes at the box office. It may not have been an immediate success either commercially or with fans, but that can clearly be put down to the limited availability and appreciation of anime in Western circles. Once those horizons opened up, it’s clear that this film quickly rose right to the top, as it certainly deserved. On top of that, it got at least one decent English dub. So by all means, get it any way you can; you are very unlikely to be disappointed. With that, I’m done for another night.