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s50 YEARS OF LUPIN III: The Fuma Conspiracy
Sunday , 6, August 2017 Comics, Fiction, Movies 3 CommentsWell, if it ain’t the smell of villain.–Lupin III In 1987’s direct-to-video movie The Fuma Conspiracy, the utterly unthinkable has happened: Goemon Ishikawa, famed ronin of the underworld, is getting married. The Lupin gang reunites to attend his wedding to Murasaki Suminawa, the daughter of his martial arts instructor. The wedding ceremony is interrupted by ninjas […]
“Believe me, the painting doesn’t do him justice. He’s worse than me.”–Lupin, describing General Headhunter. To keep his nation’s treasury out of the hands of thieves, the king of Zufu moved his nation’s gold reserves to a safe house on Drifting Island. After a coup topples the heads of the king and his son, Prince […]
During the seven centuries between our age and Valerian’s, the International Space Station has been cut loose from Earth orbit after growing to the size of a small moon. Now known as Alpha, “The City of a Thousand Planets”, it drifts through space, an intergalactic hub for humanity and its hundreds of alien neighbors, protected […]
Cult Classic (noun): A movie liked only by a tiny group of unhealthily obsessed fans. Probably garbage, possibly repellent, the reason it failed commercially is usually immediately obvious to anybody who isn’t one of the unhealthily obsessed fans. See The Rocky Horror Picture Show. To be fair, cult classics are not always totally terrible. In […]
One of the stranger entries in the franchise, Lupin III’s 40th anniversary special, the 2008 Green vs. Red, took a risk by not featuring its namesake character at all. Instead, it pitted two of the most iconic versions of Lupin against each other in a fight for the Lupin name, the Green Jacket against the […]
Guest Post by Yakov Merkin: The Dark Side of “Badass” Women
Tuesday , 18, July 2017 Movies 27 CommentsA week or so ago, I saw the official Star Wars Twitter account share a poll, asking which character fans were most excited to see in the upcoming Forces of Destiny series of animated shorts, which, incidentally, reminding me that it even existed—I’d heard a mention of it a while back, but had completely forgotten. […]
Look, it’s really hard to get passionate about just okay stuff. With great stuff, you can tell people “WATCH THIS NOW OR YOU’LL MISS OUT ON THE GREATEST THING EVER!”, and with bad stuff you can tell people “DON’T EVER READ THIS EVER OR YOUR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN WILL BE WEEPING TEARS OF BLOOD THEIR ENTIRE […]
50 YEARS OF LUPIN III: Daisuke Jigen’s Gravestone
Monday , 17, July 2017 Art, Comics, Movies 2 CommentsI owe you a bullet wound, and I’m going to make sure that debt gets paid. – Daisuke Jigen Nine days after Queen Malta’s assassination at a peace concert, a sniper ends Lupin III’s latest jewel heist with a well-placed shot, sending a bullet into Daisuke Jigen’s leg. The thieves crawl away to safety before […]
Friends and neighbors, I’ve come to tell you this: there is discontent stirring across the land. Yea, behold, upon yon Facebooks the cry has gone out: “Why do you hate everything, Warpig? Why do you criticize the things I like?! HAVE YOU NO HEART NOR SOUL?!” (The answer is “No, I don’t.”, as it turns […]
Community is the Abed of TV sitcoms. The Fonz emblematized Happy Days, Scrubs was embodied in the form of JD, MD, but Community’s avatar is the emotionally blind autistic savant of popular culture, Abed Nadir. Like Abed, Community focused more on pop culture than people, and it blighted the show.
Fifty years ago, manga artist Monkey Punch drew up the first issue of what was intended to be a short series to last a couple years. After reading fifteen of Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin stories, Monkey Punch decided to try his hand at his own gentleman thief, updated to the sensibilities of the 1960s, of course. […]
Hollywood is a big old pile of suck, and it’s not all the fault of the usual suspects: lazy writers, crappy directors, and incompetent studio execs. No, the MPAA plays a big part as well. The MPAA—Motion Picture Association of America—is responsible for handing out all the movie ratings you see. They, and they alone, […]