Anime TL;DR
Review
Lupin the 3rd Movie (1979): The Castle of Cagliostro
ルパン三世 カリオストロの城 (Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro no Shiro)
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Character design
Music
Plot
Visual
World building
Character development
Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro (Japanese: ルパン三世 カリオストロの城 Hepburn: Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro no Shiro) is a 1979 Japanese animated action-adventure comedy film co-written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki as his feature film debut.
The animation is beautiful for the late 70’s era, and remind me a bit of Laputa in some parts. The colors are vibrant and give off the impression it’s more colorful than real life. The art style is very goofy, as this is the norm for the time.
The mellow theme song “Honoo no Takaramono” by Bobby is beautiful and haunting. this song reminds me of Porco Rosso’s ending theme, which I also love.
This is the world of Lupin, where physic doesn’t have to make sense. For example, a car driving up a cliff. You need to suspense your disbelief to fully enjoy any Lupin’s anime.
The Lupin movie has a charm to its goofiness that’s endearing. I enjoy the anime throughout and wasn’t put off by it’s dated style. As a Hayao Miyazaki’s film, you can see elements from this anime that will be better refined in his later works.
I recommend this movie to the fan of light-hearted crime comedy. Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro contains graphic violence, smoking and alcohol consumption, and suggestive themes/dialogs. Intended for young adults.
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In the early days, when Saitama started out as a weak hero, he didn’t have much money, and so, in order to keep clothed, he relied on a nearby tailor to fix his clothes as they got damaged in fights. One day, when the tailor got extorted by yakuza, Saitama decided to step in to help him.
The story takes place in the fictional metropolis of City Z, Japan. The world is full of strange monsters that mysteriously appear and cause many disasters. Saitama is a super powerful hero who easily defeats the monsters and other villains with one punch. However, after becoming too strong, Saitama has become bored with his powers and is always trying to find stronger opponents who can fight him.
On his adventures, he meets new friends, enemies, and his own disciple, the cyborg Genos, and also joins the Hero Association in order to gain fame for all of his actions to prevent evil. Despite defeating many strong monsters that even the Hero Association’s top heroes are unable to defeat, Saitama struggles to gain respect. Most people discriminate him due to his plain physical appearance and some accuse him of being a counterfeit hero. Only a small number of individuals recognize his incredible talent and humility towards others.
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Photo by Nicolas LB, Jon Flobrant, and Yvette de Wit on Unsplash.
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