Lupin March Madness: The Mystery of Mamo and The Castle of Cagliostro

This week we belatedly tackle the first two films in the Lupin canon and they re all timers.

Hi, guys! First off, yikes. I'm so sorry about the delay. I have had a stressful month. Every time I've thought things were calming down, they… Did not. The funny thing is that I have all these newsletters written in advance. All I had to do was log on to substack, format them, and schedule them. But doing that, for some reason, was too much.

So I guess let's get into it a little. For a long time, my life was fine. It wasn't good. It wasn't bad. It was fine. I constructed this on purpose because I didn't want happiness. My life used to be bad. Like maudlin Oscar bait movie bad. And I figured settling for "fine" was the most I could hope for. But I started to take some very out of character risks and the way my brain responded to this was by having extreme days long panic attacks. Any idea of happiness in my life was seen by my brain as a future abusive situation, a future loss, and I panicked. To deal with my panic attacks, I had to keep myself moving from the moment I woke up until I fell I laid down to go to bed. Something as easy as sitting down on the computer seemed like a monumental task.

Conveniently, I was already waiting to see the psychiatrist to get my anti-anxiety meds straightened out and wait listed for therapy, so I wasn't out here floundering on my own. The panic attacks aren't as bad as they were - I mean, I'm typing this in real time so I'm at least calm enough to stop scrubbing my baseboards with a toothbrush to format a substack. As for this newsletter? Well, I'm gonna send out another one in a few days to try to get things back on track. Lupin March Madness might extend into April but we will get through the whole series.

Now on to the newsletter as previously written…

I actually wanted to rewatch both of this week's films and add more to flesh this newsletter out but I am honestly just exhausted mentally and couldn't fit a rewatch in. I'm really sorry! So while the newsletter is brief and relies on video essays to bulk things up, please don't think that reflects on the quality of the world discussed. These are both top notch works and truly worth your time.

Enough about me and my strife! Back to March Madness…

Welcome back to Lupin March Madness! Are you mad yet? I hope not because we are just getting started. This week, we're covering the first two Lupin the Third theatrical movies and Hayao Miyazaki's first ever movie, which is a special treat in itself. I've been excited for this one! 

The Castle of Cagliostro is perhaps Lupin the Third's best known theatrical outing and is incredibly influential on not just modern animation but modern cinema as a whole. Once you see it, you'll suddenly start to draw parallels from Lupin to Indiana Jones, from Lupin to Cars. Both Steven Spielberg and Pixar Pervert John Lassater are huge Lupin Heads! Or at least huge Castle of Cagliostro Heads. And who can blame them? Nearly 45 years later and the franchise still hasn't topped this. In fact, most movies haven't topped this. It is Miyazaki, after all. Cagliostro finds an older Lupin and Jigen - Nearing middle aged in this story - traveling with less jazzy shootouts and more of what would become the classic Ghibli soundtrack with the quintessential Miyazaki blue sky backgrounds. Until, of course, adventure finds them - By way of Princess Clarice running away from her own wedding by way of high speed car chase. If there's one thing Lupin can't resist, it's a beautiful gal in distress. If there's another thing he can't resist, it's a high speed car chase. This ends up kickstarting a grand adventure that helped solidify Lupin Tropes that stick to the franchise like glue today, for better or worse, but in their original form, they are top notch.

Castle of Cagliostro, however, was actually not the first Lupin movie. That honor belongs to the much more adult, much more avant garde Mystery of Mamo, which was briefly available on YouTube starting on January 1st but tragically, guys, I've failed you and didn't get this issue of the list out until after Mystery of Mamo's brief run on YouTube vanished into the internet ether. What I will say is that it, like Cagliostro, is absolutely worth the price to rent. Both of these movies are great fun but in very different ways.

Here, we see Lupin as a man coming to grips with his own mortality. When the film opens, Lupin has… Died. Of course, Zenigata doesn't believe that and he's been tracking the whereabouts of a man he believes to be the real Lupin, prepared to drive a stake through his heart Dracula style to bring his reign of tricks and thieving to an end once and for all. Only, Lupin didn't have anything to do with the man who died that bore his face and DNA. He has no clue what happened and it seems to make him kind of uncomfortable to talk about it.

Elsewhere, Fujiko is pursuing eternal youth, promised to her by a gremlin looking sallow freak named Mamo. Jigen and Goemon are understandably frustrated with Lupin's constant simping for Fujiko and dip for a while. Oh, and Hitler shows up. It is Lupin the Third, after all.

This iteration finds Lupin in his red jacket and is perhaps the last appearance of Lecherous Lupin until the fairly recent Woman Called Fujiko Mine. Here, Lupin is portrayed as equal parts horny on main, lovesick, empty headed, clever and as a silly little guy who always comes out on top. It's a fun watch. This movie really gets the balance of what Lupin needs to function right. I know I've basically sang the praises to Miyazaki's Honorable Lupin to high heaven but inside of you, there are two Lupins. One is a horny little goblin man and one just wants to rescue the damsel in distress. They're both good! And the fact that Mystery of Mamo and Castle of Cagliostro were released back to back prove that.

Next week, we delve into the wild world of the 1980's with Lupin Part 3. But why stop there? Let's keep the fun going and cover Parts 4 and 5 as well! What do I recommend you watch if you'd like to watch along? Pick a couple Part 3 episodes on YouTube, then head over to PlutoTV and Tubi for Part 4, and PlutoTV, Tubi or Hulu for Part 5! Pick and choose, there's not a ton of continuity. Parts 4 and 5 and a few episodes where the arc lasts 3 or 4 episodes but there are a lot of standalones. Nothing here is as good as Cagliostro or Mamo but hey, it's still alright!