Lupin III/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Manga!Lupin not only regularly scores with Fujiko but is an outright rapist whose capers can be anywhere in the moral alignment and committed for any reason; Anime!Lupin is an unsuccessful Handsome Lech whose crimes tend to be either harmless or against AssholeVictims; and Cagliostro!Lupin a Chivalrous Pervert securely on the side of good (because he's trying to redeem himself)
  • • A number of fans have interpreted Lupin as autistic. See Diagnosed by the Audience below.
  • Does Zenigata care about Lupin or view him as a challenge?
  • Is Jigen a misogynist or merely afraid of getting hurt?

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: The green jacket series is FINALLY coming to our shores next year. And who better to do the job than Discotek?
  • A new anime series starring Fujiko is airing in April. Over 20 years since the Pink Jacket series ended!
    • What's more, Takeshi Koike will be doing the character designs and the style will be more in line with Monkey Punch's original manga.
• Antagonist in Mourning: In Mystery of the Fuma Clan, Zenigata has actually quit his job and become a Buddhist monk because he believes Lupin to be dead. When asked why, he says that if he prays enough, Lupin may be reincarnated as a law-abiding man. Possibly a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming. The most well-known moment is in Episode 32 of Part 2 where Lupin faked his death. Zenigata is incredulous at first, but then is fooled when Lupin doesn't respond, and Zenigata vows revenge on the assassin, although he was arrested before he could do anything; unknown to him, Lupin was basically sound asleep, but nobody, except Fujiko who was good at keeping secrets, could know that.
  • And in "The Last Job", when Zenigata is presumed dead (he was knocked out by ninjas) Lupin spends a moment or two looking depressed before going off to do his thing again.
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The opening motorcycle chase sequence from The Legend of the Gold of Babylon gets a big "WTF" from a lot of first-time viewers, although it explains Lupin's fatigue when he arrives back at the hotel.
• Crosses the Line Twice: In the manga chapter 'The Dream Sequence', Lupin keeps having a dream-within-a-dream sequence where a woman keeps ripping her skin off, revealing a skeleton underneath. He wakes from the dream in what is supposedly reality. As he prepares to have sex with Fujiko Mine, she tears her skin off, which would be horrifying if not for the "fuck this shit" expression Lupin gives the audience.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Has its own page.
• Diagnosed By The Audience: Fangirls, cisgender and otherwise, like to diagnose all four male characters as autistic.
  • Lupin will sometimes infodump about history, he shows some lack of awareness of others' feelings and he is described by Tomoe as having a "unique thought pattern". He will sometimes stim when stress or deep in thought. Some episodes show him hyperfocusing on a task. His special interest is the Third Reich.
  • Jigen's special interest is guns, his character filibuster in Part 2 Episode 66 comes off as infodumping, he gets uncomfortable with physical contact and can't shoot unless he wears a specific kind of hat. He also has hardly any social life except with the three or four people he's comfortable with.
  • Goemon shows no facial expression unless he feels like it, likes being with a group but will also wander off on his own and will refuse to eat anything other than Japanese food. He sometimes has moments of being curt or socially inappropriate.
  • Zenigata has a one-track mind, has moments of difficulty with social situations, has meltdowns in moments of extreme stress and sometimes stims with his hat. Furthermore, despite his rebellious spirit, he can be a stickler for the rules. In Part 2 Episode 30 he refuses to escape the prison the revolutionaries are holding him in despite the fact that he might get killed, because that's not what cops do.
• Die for Our Ship: Fujiko suffers this at the hands of fangirls sometimes.
• Discontinuity: Both the producers and some of the fans would like to ignore the pink-jacket era (consisting of the third anime series and Legend of the Gold of Babylon) altogether.

• Estrogen Brigade / Periphery Demographic: Despite the series clearly being a seinen, the sometimes unintentional Ho Yay moments between the lead males in the anime entries manage to attract a growing female fanbase.
• Fridge Brilliance: In Part 5, Lupin reveals his face is a mask, but of course, even though it's framed in shadow, it's exactly like the mask. This means in The Mystery of Mamo, Mamo was telling the truth and he is the original Lupin, because the late clone was proof that Lupin's face is not a mask.
  • In The Castle of Cagliostro, we're not shown who treated Lupin's wound, though we have an idea of who did: Jigen. As a retired gangster, Jigen is an expert at treating bullet wounds, as we see in Part 2 Episode 129 when he removes a bullet from Sandra's leg.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In the English dub of Part 2 Episode 24, Lupin comments that Goemon's partnership with Ratboy Jirokichi is "like Gwyneth Paltrow and Larry Flynt". Over a decade later, Paltrow would buy one of Flynt's sex stores.
• Italians Love Lupin III
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: In Part 2 Episode 139, while Dr. Changer is a mad scientist who switches Lupin's body with Mr. Steel's without his permission, Lupin's attitude towards Zenigata trapped in the same body is worse. Not necessarily evil, but definitely careless, unempathetic and self-centered. Even when the Inspector has a few days to live, Lupin acts flippant.
• Jerkass Woobie: All five main characters.
  • Lupin is a criminal with as high a body count as James Bond, but he was raised in a dysfunctional family. He also struggles with the guilt of the many bad things he's done. He feels pressure to live up to the legacy of his grandfather, who, in the Leblanc stories, also put pressure on himself to be perfect. You also have to feel bad for him. He's been cursed, poisoned, shot and knocked out innumerable times.
  • Jigen is a former mob hitman, he's has even less apprehension about killing people than Lupin does, and is anti-social. However, at heart all he has ever wanted was a friend. Without Lupin, he feels lost or anxious.
  • Goemon is an antisocial swordsman. Although he is the most moral of the main cast, he still steals and was raised as an assassin. But he had a rough, abusive childhood. Like Lupin, he feels pressured to live up to the legacy of his ancestors.
  • Fujiko is a careless sociopath, but she's also the only woman in a gang of men and doesn't get the respect she deserves.
  • Zenigata is abrasive, rude and can have a cruel streak, but he's put-upon by his superiors, needlessly suffers while pursuing Lupin and doesn't give himself a chance at a domestic life. Like Lupin and Goemon, he lives in the shadow of his famous ancestor and feels pressure to be the greatest policeman ever.
• Les Yay: It is a seinen, after all. A fairly light amount but it is there such as in the Columbus Files where Fujiko woke up in a bed belonging to a young woman by the name of Rosaria. After Rosaria explained to Fujiko about that Rosaria brought her here after she found Fujiko's unconscious body nearby but jokingly reassured her that "she didn't do anything to her". The episodes where they contain cults of scantly clad curvy women can occasionally give that vibe as well. Expecially when one of them try to seduce Fujiko... only to punch her in the stomach very hard when she refuse and point a gun at her.
• Macekre/TheyJustDidntCare:
  • The Cliff Hanger laserdisc game, made using footage from The Castle of Cagliostro and Mystery of Mamo.
  • The Carl Macek dub of Castle of Cagliostro contains one of Macek's most infamously cheesy "translations": when Goemon slices off Lupin's burning clothing, "Once again I've cut a worthless object" becomes

Goemon: Should've worn an asbestos suit.

• Memetic Mutation:
  • A minor meme within the English fandom is Goemon's "QUICK, TAKE MY HAND!" from the English dub of Nostradamus.
  • Also, from Episode 0: First Contact, Zenigata tries to order a HAMBAAEEEGAAAHHHH!
• Memetic Outfit:
  • Lupin's jacket comes in three different colors; fans actually refer to series and movies by which color he's wearing.
  • The red jacket in particualar is the most recognized and often the most refrenced, often serving as a sort of shorthand Shout-Out to the series itself.
• MST3K Mantra:
  • Having been in the hands of so many directors and writers throughout its 40+ year history, any real continuity between the films, TV episodes, and TV specials is pretty much nil, other than the most basic aspects of the characters and plot.
  • Even the original manga has this issue; Monkey Punch was known to set up stories in one chapter, only for him to abandon them completely by the next one, with not even a reference in the new story to what had happened before.
  • Hell, his original plan was to have "Fujiko Mine" be the name of every woman in the series. This resulted in Fujiko having no fewer than four origin stories within the first few volumes. Monkey Punch eventually got just as confused as everyone else and decided to just make Fujiko a single character.
• MoralEventHorizon: In Part 2 episode 151, Lupin crosses a line with a Near Rape Experience. After saving Fujiko from the police, the two make off with a shipment of diamonds and he tries to make out with her. After she makes it clear that she's not in the mood for sex, he almost pins her down.
• Nightmare Fuel: In Goodbye Lady Liberty, the scene where Fujiko is forced into a possession ritual by the Three Masons sect might make your skin crawl.
  • In Part 2 Episode 151, after Fujiko rebuffs his advances, Lupin pins her down and leers at her, with the diamonds beneath them casting a glow on his face. In spite of all his moments of kindness and heroism, Lupin is just a pushy pervert.
• Shout-Out: Almost every Lupin TV special or movie since the early '90s has involved some sort of homage or reference to Castle of Cagliostro or, in rarer cases, the Miyazaki Lupin III TV episodes—featuring similar situations or plot elements, derivative chase sequences, re-uses of title music, or recycled vehicle designs. Green vs. Red is a particularly egregious example—given that its entire raison d'être is to be referential to every single incarnation of Lupin that came before, spotting the references is practically a Drinking Game.