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Arsène Lupin III (ルパン三世 Rupan Sansei) is a fictional character introduced by Monkey Punch in Weekly Manga Action on August 10, 1967. According to its creator, Lupin is the grandson of Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin. He's the world's number one thief. Often in his adventures, he will take it upon himself and his colleagues, Daisuke Jigen and Goemon Ishikawa XIII, to foil other criminals engaged in more violent crimes. On the outside child-like, flighty, perhaps even "goofy" in behavior, his surface facade overcoats a brilliant imagination and a thorough knowledge of a hundred varying sciences. Forever extemporizing and reevaluating, Lupin has been responsible for heists no right minded individual would believe possible. While he has been arrested and thrown in jail on a number of occasions, he has always managed to escape. He has a fondness for fancy gadgets from time to time. His infatuation with Fujiko Mine is perhaps his most significant weakness, as it lands him in undesirable situations most of the time.
[edit] PersonalityWhile Lupin is a thief, he will go to great lengths to right injustice. While he sees nothing wrong with his chosen profession, he reminds anyone who asks that the people from whom he steals are people who can take the loss, and that there are worse people than he in this world. He also shows a chivalrous streak that compels him to help those less fortunate than he (especially attractive women). Furthermore, Lupin often takes it upon himself and his gang to stop criminals engaged in more violent crimes and leave them for Zenigata to arrest. He fancies himself a ladies' man, although his actual success with women is erratic. In Monkey Punch's original manga, Lupin is very much the ladies' man, though Fujiko is frequently beyond his grasp. His abilities with the opposite sex tend to fluctuate with the writer. When not seeking fortune from his adventures, Lupin unwinds by a variety of pastimes. His most-witnessed hobbies are fishing, nightclubbing, gambling, being part of cafe society, and dating beautiful women. He's a connoisseur of international food and wine, drinks liquor, enjoys beer, tea, and coffee. He also smokes cigarettes and occasionally cigars and kreteks; his preferred cigarette brand is Gitanes. Lupin is a celebrated race car driver, competing in several international events when time allows. He's also a skilled sleight of hand artist who loves to befuddle his opponents with various gimmicks: i.e., a cigarette which explodes into confetti, a gun with a spring-loaded boxing glove that clobbers the shooter, and bubble gum that becomes plastique after brief chewing. Even though his gang's loyalty has been an issue, with Fujiko willing to betray and cohort Goemon promising to eventually kill him, Lupin will still drop everything to come to their aid in a helpless moment; further the team would rather face torture than to betray Lupin (or he betray them) to a third party. In all, Lupin can best be defined as an intelligent guy with a child's fun-loving demeanor, laughing and quipping in the face of opposition with a handy trick always available to maintain an upper hand. [edit] SkillsPhysically, Lupin is a man of average strength, but he can throw a surprisingly good punch. He is incredibly flexible and fast, and his manual dexterity is cat-like in precision and quickness, honed by years of stealth and subterfuge. His talent in the art of disguise borders on the superhuman, with him able to flawlessly impersonate any man or woman in face, voice and costume, sometimes in mere seconds. His skinny body enables him to easily impersonate heavier subjects by padding disguises, usually filling them with gadgets and surprises in the process. He can even perfectly imitate voices. His favorite disguise has always been that of his archnemesis, Inspector Koichi Zenigata, which incenses Zenigata to no end. Another of Lupin's abilities is his encyclopedic knowledge of various topics, like history (both general and the hidden history of crime), the different sciences, languages (he is fluent in virtually every major language), etc. He also shows amazing intuition and awareness of his surroundings. Lupin favors the Walther P-38. He is shown to be an excellent marksman (although not as good a shot as Jigen), yet typically will not kill unless his life or the life of a loved one is threatened. Lupin is a talented stunt driver, stunt motorcyclist and flight pilot. His favorite automobiles seem to be the Mercedes Benz SSK (he apparently has many since several SSK's have been destroyed during his encounters) and a souped up 1957 Fiat 500, most famously seen in The Castle of Cagliostro. Lupin is a formidable escape artist, capable of cracking any safe or freeing himself from shackles in moments. While totally composed during a heist, Lupin tends to become panicky when his life is on the line. Upon facing imminent death, he may squeal and plead for mercy in ways most comical, stretching and disfiguring his face like in a Tex Avery cartoon. [edit] OriginsLupin's ethnic origins haven't been specified; he admits being French like his grandfather, but apparently lives in Japan. Inspector Zenigata often calls him Japanese and Lupin himself once called himself "half-Japanese, half-French" (2nd series, episode 118); whether this means he's biracial or instead a Japanophile European (or a Europhile Japanese man, for that matter) has yet to be made clear. That he's been seen praying in Shinto/Buddhist fashion and other times crossing himself like a Catholic further confuses the issue. Inspector Zenigata has referred to Lupin, Jigen and Goemon as a group of "Japanese Criminals." Whether this reference is based on nationality or physical description/ethnicity is uncertain. However, none of the characters ever question Zenigata labeling Lupin as Japanese. In the first TV series, episode 13 ("Beware The Time Machine!"), Lupin tricks Mamo Kyosuke by dressing as a Japanese peasant and acting as though they are in feudal Japan. Lupin specifically states to Mamo that the ancestor whose face he most resembles was Japanese. When Mamo "meets" this ancestor (Lupin in disguise), Lupin states that he would like to marry some girl by the name of Marianne Lupin from France someday. This statement implies that Lupin was either aware of the family's history stemming from a Japanese ancestor marrying a French woman of the Lupin family and is using that information to further convince Mamo that he has gone back in time OR it could be Lupin making up something which is untrue to confuse Mamo. The fact however that Lupin stated his face most resembles a specific ancestor who happened to be Japanese suggests that Lupin does have a somewhat Asian appearance. As in most manga/anime, the character is drawn with ambiguous features, leaving both his ethnicity and nationality a mystery. Lupin typically wears a trademark coiffure, with hair plastered flat on his head with a v-shaped bang above the eyes and elongated sideburns. He has a propensity for loud fashion, usually topped off with a flat colored jacket. In each of the three television versions of Lupin III, the hero's jacket is a different color: green for series one, red on the more-widely-viewed second version, and pink on the lesser seen third series. In most anime features and OVA's the red jacket is the standard, due perhaps to the international popularity of the second series. Curiously, Lupin is often depicted as cross-eyed, although this seems more a comical flourish than a characteristic. It should also be noted that drawn stylization in anime is not often intended to show race. Anime characters are neither drawn with "European" features or predominately "Japanese" features. Lupin speaks often of both his famous grandfather and his father, both of whom were thieves. He's forever quoting his grandfather's advice and has attempted to complete heists attempted by his family but were unable for whatever reason to finish. (Although Lupin the third's grandfather was the famous Arsene Lupin of French fiction, only minor references to the relationship have been brought up in the anime, primarily due to hostile reaction from the estate of the author Maurice Leblanc). [edit] Other MediaLupin appears in Sega Naomi arcade games called Lupin III The Shooting and Lupin III The Typing. He can be chosen as a playable character by using player 1 side. In the song Touch The Sky by Kanye West featuring Lupe Fiasco, Lupe mentions Lupin III in the line
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