YMMV / Lupin III: Part II

• Adaptation Displacement: Worldwide, people who know of Lupin III at all are far more likely to be familiar with the "Red Jacket" series than the earlier "Green Jacket" series – which prior to 2012 had only seen official release in Japan and Italy – even fewer have read the original Darker and Edgier manga.
• Bizarro Episode: This series was especially prone to these. Having to release a new episode every week for three years meant they couldn't all be winners. Such as the one where Lupin wants to steal a cat who eats nothing but pencil shavings. Or the one where he decides to go to the moon using a popcorn-powered rocket. Or the one where he steals a diaper so an old lady can write a newspaper article. No, these are not the results of some random generator somewhere.
• Broken Base: Long-time Lupin fans – who got into the franchise back in the 90's with the Streamline dubs of Mamo and Cagliostro – were extremely vocal about their dissatisfaction with the Gag Dub rewrites by Geneon (or more correctly, Phuuz). That some of the most vocal detractors also happened to work as professional reviewers for major websites did not help. Their constant complaining about the dub, coupled with Geneon's ill-advised decision to put the "Hitler's Legacy" episode^note  a.k.a the Market-Based Pun-Based Title "To Be or Nazi Be" Out of Order on the home release after [adult swim] refused to air it, led to the series performing poorly on DVD and Geneon pulling the plug just as the series hit its halfway point. The abrupt cancellation upset many fans (the dub actors themselves among them).
  • Interestingly and ironically, the truly gag-dubby moments decrease significantly after the "first season" – 26 episodes. However, that was the only season [adult swim] aired in its entirety (except for that Nazi episode); they only aired a tiny handful of episodes from the second season and none from the third. Those other 53 episodes, though still funny, are much closer to Woolseyism than Gag Dub. Seasons four to six were never dubbed at all.
• Cant Unhear It: Despite the overall divided opinions on the Geneon dub itself, most English-speaking fans tend to think of its voices for the characters when reading the original manga or other printed content. This is probably also the reason why the actors for said dub are often cast for dubbing other Lupin content so often.
• Complete Monster:
  • Fantoma Mark III, grandson of Fantômas, is a Diabolical Mastermind intent on flooding most of the world and rebuilding civilisation with himself as a ruler. After Lupin beats him in stealing the Punjab Ruby, needed to power the laser with which Fantoma intends to melt the ice, Fantoma kidnaps Fujiko and threatens to kill her unless Lupin gives up the ruby. Going back on his word, Fantoma has them both launched into space and Forced to Watch as he floods the world. Beaten and gravely injured, Fantoma organises a Thieves Race, intending to have Lupin killed, and even placing an Earthquake Machine beneath the stadium, uncaring about the lives of the spectators.
  • "The Yam is Mightier Than the Sword": Sherlock and Al Camone intend to start a war so they can profit. After attacking the Lupin gang with tanks, they hire Fujiko Mine to steal Zantetsuken from Goemon, attaching it to one of their drones to maximize its potential. To start their war, Camone uses the drone to destroy several military bases on both sides of the conflict, with both sides quickly blaming the other and leaving them both flocking to Sherlock's company for extra weapons. Fully intending to continue this pattern until they bleed both countries dry of resources, the two of them gleefully continue using the drone to destroy as much as they possibly can until they're finally defeated.
  • "Games of Chance": Robert is the chief of staff to the corrupt casino mogul Domino, and a key participant in Domino's insurance scam to destroy the artificial island his own casino is on and collect the insurance money; neither one of them cares that a few thousand people are going to die in said casino's destruction. However, Robert goes beyond the original plan when he reveals that he set it up for Domino's daughter Nina to die in the trap. Then, he proceeds to plan on killing Domino himself and Fujiko Mine so that, with Nina dead, he will be the sole beneficiary of the insurance money.
  • "The Bride Came D.O.A.": Wealthy socialite William Huffner is Fujiko Mine's husband and mark to steal his jewels. Huffner, however, is secretly a ruthless Serial Killer who cheerfully murders his wives to preserve their corpses in a twisted form of art and relishes killing the women with his bare hands. To date, Huffner has murdered 99 wives and intends on making Fujiko the 100th, gloating when he corners her to try to kill her and add her to his sick tableau.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Episode 3's plot of Lupin looking for Hitler's secret legacy? Not too funny on paper. The Worthless Treasure Twist of Hitler's stash being embarrassing school reports? Pretty funny. The episode ending as a badly drawn picture morphs into a portrait of Hitler, who winks at the audience? Refuge in Audacity at its best.
• Gateway Series: [adult swim] created a surge of anime fans from the few series they were airing. The Lupin franchise was no exception. Experienced fans have been able to note differences on Lupin opinions based on what another fan's gateway to the franchise was.
• Growing the Beard: Many argue the dubbed episodes did this after the Adult Swim contract expired. Lots of the truly Gag Dub aspects were done away with or replaced with elements that were closer in nature to Woolseyisms.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the tenth episode, "Zenigatacon", Lupin, Jigen and Goemon had impersonated Zenigata at one point. Jigen was voiced by Richard Epcar in the dub. Years later, Richard would voice the real Zenigata in Funimation's dub of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine.
  • "You’re Sapphired!": This episode had Lupin against the Kid Detective Boronco. Many years later Lupin challenged another (and more famous) kid (more or less) detective. And Boronco made a cameo in the sequel, Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: The Movie.
• Nightmare Fuel: See here.
• Woolseyism: Depending on the episode (and on who you ask), Geneon's English dub of "Red Jacket" alternates between this and Gag Dub. After the first season – once [adult swim] decided not to option additional episodes – the infamous out-of-place pop culture references disappear. However, throughout all 79 episodes, the dub was always willing to tweak dialogue to improve the flow or make it better fit Western expectations, or sometimes to add a joke in a line that the Japanese had played straight.
  • Probably one of the best bits of new dialogue was in "Revenge of La Nerd" when Zenigata had chased Lupin into a subway tunnel at night. When a train came by in the original, he just said there wasn't a train this late, and that there was anyway when it came. The dub changes it to this:
  (train can be heard)
  Zenigata: Nah, must have just nodded off for a sec. Probably one of those sex dreams I've read about.
  (train is coming down the tunnel toward him)
  Zenigata: This symbolism's very disturbing!
  • "The Slight Before Christmas" introduces Zenigata eating a baguette and drinking wine, at which points he quips "Body and blood of Jesus? He must have been a hardbody!". The dub changes it to this:
  Zenigata: Cheap glass of wine, bread you can chip your teeth on, and they call this fine eating. No wonder they can't win a war!
  • The entire dub of episode 30 (titled "Morocco Horror Picture Show") makes the Foreign Legion group that kidnaps Lupin and Zenigata into Dirty Commies.
  • Another example is at the end of the infamous "Hitler's Legacy" episode, where Lupin simply complains about said "legacy" being his bad report cards and failed tests. In the dub, he instead complains...
    Lupin: He murders half the world and he's ashamed of this?!
    

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