Line #43 Anime/LupinIIIBloodSealEternalMermaid


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3	''Lupin III: Blood Seal ~Eternal Mermaid~'' [[note]]血の刻印〜永遠のMermaid〜 (''Chi no Kokuin - Eien no Māmeido''[[/note]] is the twenty-second MadeForTVMovie in the ''Anime/LupinIII'' anime franchise. It was directed by Teiichi Takiguchi, who went on to be an animation director for ''[[Anime/LupinIIITheItalianAdventure Part 4]]''. The special debuted on December 2, 2011 to a modest viewing audience.
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5	Made to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of ''Lupin III'' on television, the special brought a number of changes to ''Lupin''. The first notable one is the major art style changes to the ''Lupin'' characters; past specials for the last decade had relied on designs largely derived from ''[[Anime/LupinIIIPartII Shin Lupin III]]'', the second TV series. [[Creator/TMSEntertainment TMS]], which was involved with the early days of ''Lupin'', came back to do the animation for ''Blood Seal'', and accordingly the designs were redone to evoke the early years of the [[Anime/LupinIIIPart1 first series]] and the proto-Creator/StudioGhibli designs used in ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''.[[note]] TMS has always been in charge of ''Lupin'' animations. However, after the franchise reboot in 1989, the studio simply acted as producer rather than animating it in-house.[[/note]] Creator/DiscotekMedia announced they were bringing over the special, with a new dub featuring the ''[[Anime/LupinIIIPartII Red Jacket]]'' cast. This makes it the second of the ''Anime/LupinIIIYearlySpecials'' to get a dub outside of Creator/{{Funimation}}'s block, and the first special dubbed since 2005.
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7	The second change was the first major shakeup of the ''Lupin'' cast since Kan'ichi Kurita took over the role of Lupin in ''Anime/FarewellToNostradamus'', following the death of original seiyuu Creator/YasuoYamada. It was announced with this special that the long-time voice actors for Zenigata (Creator/GoroNaya), Fujiko (Creator/EikoMasuyama), and Goemon (Creator/MakioInoue) had retired; they were replaced with Creator/KoichiYamadera, Creator/MiyukiSawashiro, and Creator/DaisukeNamikawa, respectively. This cast change left Creator/KiyoshiKobayashi, the voice of Jigen, as the only original ''Lupin'' voice actor remaining until 2021.
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9	The movie opens with Lupin being ordered at gunpoint by crime boss Toudou to steal a precious gem, the Mermaid's Scale, at an upcoming black market auction. Although he succeeds, things go badly wrong when a bomb goes off shortly after he departs. In addition, a perky and persistent 14 year-old popcorn vendor and would-be thief, Maki, begs Lupin to make her his apprentice in crime. Combined with another gem, the Dragon Scale, owned by the sinister head of a medtech company, a mysterious waif of a girl who seems to defy death, and a treasure that Lupin's own grandfather seemingly failed to steal, the gang becomes tangled in a dark and mysterious plot for the treasure of mythological figure Yao Bikuni... and possibly the secret of immortality itself.
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11	'''Complete spoilers below''' -- don't read further if you don't want to know how this caper turns out!
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13	----
14	!!This TV movie features examples of:
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16	* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Goemon goes about cutting impossible things into tiny pieces with his usual aplomb.
17	* AlcoholicParent: How Maki ends up in a children's home.
18	* ArmsDealer: Himuro, who plans to use the secret of Bikuni's descendants to make immortal soldiers.
19	* BlackBlood: Both Himuro and Kageura.
20	* BlessedWithSuck: How Misa sees her own immortality, while Maki and Himuro thinks it's more like CursedWithAwesome.
21	* BloodlessCarnage: Averted, rather unusually. This is one of the bloodiest entries in the ''Lupin'' franchise, only surpassed by ''Anime/GoemonIshikawasSprayOfBlood''.
22	* BloodMagic: It's there in the title.
23	* BodyHorror: Himuro. The first injection of Bikuni's blood made him HulkOut. The second dose (sucked directly from Bikuni's arm) turned him into a crazed, black-eyed, blood-sucking green behemoth with warts, and by the time he's reached the limit he has turned into a hulking nightmarish monster.
24	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Fujiko switches sides at least four different times.
25	* {{Determinator}}: Lupin. Even after he is hurt, he persists in going after Misa and hunting for clues of Lupin I's theft attempt.
26	* DiscOneFinalBoss: Toudou is ordering Lupin around as the introduction of the movie. She is quickly killed off, though, and the real big bad is shown to be Himuro.
27	* TheDragon: Kageura to Himuro.
28	* DualWielding: Kageura.
29	* FamousAncestor: [[Literature/ArseneLupin Lupin I]] plays a role in the overall plot. In addition, both Misa and Himuro are descended from Yao Bikuni, a famous character in Japanese mythology.
30	* FairWeatherMentor: Lupin to Maki. It's on purpose, though; he doesn't want Maki to turn to a life of crime like him.
31	* FalseInnocenceTrick: Toudou forces Lupin to steal the Mermaid's Scale after revealing a BoundAndGagged Fujiko. As soon as Lupin leaves, Fujiko undoes the ropes and gag, revealing that she was working ''with'' Toudou, and only pretended to be a hostage.
32	* FemmeFatale: Fujiko, as usual.
33	* GenkiGirl: Maki.
34	* HateSink: Himuro is a thoroughly unsympathetic character who experiments on and kills innocent men in attempting to gain the secret of Misa's superactive cells, has no issues with sending {{Mook}}s to their death, uses a fourteen year-old girl as a shield, and wants to profit on bringing immortal soldiers into the world.
35	* HealingFactor: Misa, inherited from her ancestor Bikuni. She loses it at the end of the special when Bikuni finally moves on. Himuro also temporarily gains it after injecting Bikuni's blood into him.
36	* HumanShield: Toudou uses Misa as one against Kageura. He simply runs them ''both'' through.
37	* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Fujiko pulls this on Lupin often. Lupin later reveals he was pretending so he could trick her instead.
38	* IOweYouMyLife: Jigen to Misa after she takes a deflected dagger that would have killed him.
39	* ImmortalitySeeker: Himuro. To the point he is willing to violate his bloodline's role as a guardian.
40	* IWillWaitForYou: Yao Bikuni for Lupin I (as represented by his grandson).
41	* MagneticWeapons: Subverted, Lupin has technological suction cup that allow him to scale on building but he is able to use them as makeshift shields to help avoid getting speared to death.
42	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Lupin has various theories about Yao Bikuni but states that with the island gone, there no way to be sure.
43	* MedicalHorror: Performed by Himuro on Misa and innocent human guinea pigs.
44	* MineralMacGuffin: The Mermaid's Scale and the Dragon Scale gems.
45	* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: Himuro's pond is filled to the brim with crocodiles.
46	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Misa offering to work off the children's home debt for Toudou brings her into contact with the even nastier Himuro.
47	* OneeSama: Misa for Maki.
48	* PowerEchoes: Himuro gets this in the dub (specifically when he takes Yao Bikuni blood).
49	* PsychoSerum: What Bikuni's blood does to Himuro.
50	* RemovingTheHeadOrDestroyingTheBrain: How Goemon and Jigen manage to finish the immortal Himuro off. The [[KillItWithFire lava bath probably helped as well.]]
51	* ShoutOut: Misa's outfit is conspicuously close to Clarisse's casual garb from ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''.
52	* SpyCatsuit: Fujiko spends most of the film in one.
53	* StolenMacGuffinReveal: The gems Fujiko steals from Lupin are quickly found out to be fakes.
54	* SuperSerum: Himuro is trying to develop one. He later finds it in the blood of his ancestor Bikuni.
55	* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Zenigata never stops going after Lupin in this special, but he's also highly suspicious of Himuro and is bound to catch him in the wrong. He later (reluctantly) helps Lupin's gang after Himuro goes crazy.
56	* UnderestimatingBadassery: Himuro does this to Zenigata at first; Zenigata promptly throws the hulked-out Himuro over his shoulder. Himuro does not make that mistake again.
57	* WhipSword: Close enough, Kageura's two katana are extremely flexible, like an urumi sword.
58	* WhoWantsToLiveForever: The view of Yao Bikuni, her lonely spirit trapped in a cave for centuries.
59	* {{Youkai}}: As they leave the island, Lupin speculates that the mutation induced by Bikuni's blood on Himuro may have been the origin of "Youkai" in ancient Japan.
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Context Anime / LupinIIIBloodSealEternalMermaid