History Anime / TheCastleofCagliostro

''Castle of Cagliostro'' is famous for being Miyazaki's first film, but a couple of its scenes achieved their own fame. The car chase at the beginning of the film was allegedly praised by StevenSpielberg as one of the greatest car chases ever set to film, and he's alleged to have called ''Cagliostro'' one of the greatest adventure movies of all time. The other famous scene is the climactic battle-and-chase in Cagliostro's clock tower, a scene at least [[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries two groups]] [[TheGreatMouseDetective of American animators]] have paid direct {{homage}} to.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Two deaths via clock--one of the Count's Mooks and [[spoiler: the Count himself]]--are signified only by sound.

* KatanasAreJustBetter: Jigen's bullets bounce off the EliteMooks -- but Goemon's sword doesn't. Fans of the series know Goemon's sword is a one-of-a-kind katana possessing a super-sharp edge.

* TheXOfY

Once Lupin and Jigen cross the border, they find themselves trying to rescue a girl in a wedding dress from a groupd of armed mooks trying to capture her. The girl is Clarisse, daughter of Cagliostro's late ruling Grand Duke, and she is betrothed to the regent and Count of Cagliostro, whose side of the Cagliostro family line oversees and perpetuates the nation's dirty business. When the two families are reunited, a legend says they will unlock the secret of Cagliostro's lost treasure, which the Count desperately wants. Jigen figures something else is up when he notices Lupin's familiarity with Cagliostro's landmarks, Clarisse, and her mysterious ring…

* AntiHero: While Lupin's place on the sliding scale is hard to pin down on the best of days, in ''Cagliostro'', he falls firmly into Type II. While he's as gleefully enthusiastic about the caper as usual, he shows more interest in protecting Clarice (choosing to save her even before he recognises her) and even lets the girl go for her own good.

* TheDulcineaEffect
* TheKingdom: The Dukes were the official rulers and kept up a good front, but the Count's family line was responsible for carrying out the DirtyBusiness.
* TheProphecy: The words inscribed on Clarisse's [[MacGuffin ring]] by her ancestor, Gotoh, is a key part of the plot: "Light will rejoin shadow and live again."
* TheStoic: Goemon as usual. In one scene Jigen huddles under a blanket, complaining about the cold. Goemon just stands there, completely unbothered.

* DirtyOldMan: Lupin accuses Count Cagliostro one, but it's questionable if he had any feelings for Clarisse at all.

Footage from this film (as well as ''The Mystery Of Mamo'') was used in the laser disc arcade game ''Cliff Hanger''.

The first full-length feature film directed and largely written by HayaoMiyazaki (pre-Ghibli), 1979's ''The Castle of Cagliostro'' is a stand-alone entry in the LongRunner anime franchise ''LupinIII''. (Tropes and characters not specific to the movie can be found on the series page.)

As the movie opens, Lupin and Jigen have pulled off a successful casino heist and are fleeing in their car up to their necks in cash -- until Lupin realizes that the cash is all counterfeit, and extremely well made at that. The legendary "Goat Bills", as they're called, inspire the duo to pay a visit to the tiny European nation of Cagliostro (long rumored to be the bills' source) for their next heist.

Barely after they cross the border, however, they find themselves in a car chase trying to rescue a girl in a wedding dress from the armed mooks trying to capture her. The girl is Clarisse, daughter of Cagliostro's late ruling Grand Duke, and she is betrothed to the regent and Count of Cagliostro, whose side of the Cagliostro family line oversees and perpetuates the nation's dirty business. There's a legend that says when the two families are reunited, they will unlock the secret of Cagliostro's lost treasure -- which the Count desperately wants. There's also the fact that Lupin is suspiciously familiar with Cagliostro's landmarks, the girl he tried to rescue, and her mysterious ring...

Certain things are, of course, inevitable: Lupin will try to steal the girl, the treasure, the source of the Goat Bills, and whatever else he thinks he can get away with; Fujiko will be in the castle trying to steal one or more of those items as well; the Count will be a formidable villain; and Inspector Zenigata will still be trying to hunt Lupin down (though he may get more than he bargained for).

Besides being Miyazaki's first film, ''Castle of Cagliostro'' is especially famous for a couple of its scenes. The car chase at the beginning of the film was allegedly praised by StevenSpielberg as one of the greatest car chases ever set to film; similarly, he's alleged to have called ''Cagliostro'' one of the greatest adventure movies of all time. The other famous scene is the climactic battle-and-chase in Cagliostro's clock tower, a scene at least [[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries two groups]] [[TheGreatMouseDetective of American animators]] have paid direct {{homage}} to.

Footage from this film (as well as ''MysteryOfMamo'') was used in the laser disc arcade game ''Cliff Hanger''.

!!This film features examples of:

* ActorAllusion: In the Manga Entertainment dub, Lupin is voiced by [[MetalGearSolid David Hayter]]; in the film, Lupin carefully sneaks into the enemy's base to rescue a hostage.
* AllThatGlitters: [[spoiler: Cagliostro's lost treasure is a partial example -- the Roman ruins' enormous value is purely cultural, but the international attention they'll likely receive from tourists and academics should be extremely useful for Clarisse and her country.]]
* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Lampshaded in the car chase.

* AndTheAdventureContinues: Zenigata & his men are hot on Lupin's heels as they leave the country of Cagliostro, while Fujiko goes ahead with the master plates for the Goat Bills. "The End", but life goes on.
* AntiHero: While Lupin's place on the sliding scale is hard to pin down on the best of days, here he falls firmly into Type II country. While he's as gleefully enthusiastic about the caper as usual, he shows more interest in protecting Clarice, choosing to save her even before he recognises her and even lets the girl go for her own good.

* AsleepForDays: Lupin sleeps for three days after being severely wounded in a fight with the BigBad. He's distressed to find that this is the case, because it means he might be too late to save the day, and demands large amounts of food so he can get his strength back quickly.

* BadBadActing: Zenigata's "we went in for Lupin and look what we found!" on camera.
* BadassDamsel: Clarisse somehow managed to escape from a mansion surrounded by ''lasers'' at the beginning of the movie, participated in a car chase, saved Lupin's life several times by way of shoving him out of the way of gunfire and throwing her body on a gun and knocking it aside, said she was "not really" afraid when they were being peppered with gunfire and shoved the count off the clocktower when she saw her chance. Also, she was willing to learn to be a thief. A lone woman facing a NebulousEvilOrganisation run by a ManipulativeBastard with an army of EliteMooks -- which took Lupin's team and [[TheCavalry an entire army]] of Interpol agents to bring down? As Lupin said, she was a brave girl.

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler: Well, Chekhov's Autogyro.]]

* CounterfeitCash: The Goat Bills, counterfeit bills made so well that they can fool all but the most trained of eyes.
* DamselInDistress: Clarisse.
* DeathTrap: The Count is a big, ''big'' fan. In fact, his security fetish is one of the first things that alerts Zenigata to the fishy goings-on in the castle.

** Inverted; Lupin tells Clarisse to look down so she realizes that screaming and flailing at the strange man while they're hanging several feet in the air by a thin wire is a pretty bad idea.
** Played straight during the clock tower chase. This was because one of Cagliostro's henchmen got [[GoryDiscretionShot crushed between two giant gears below them]].

* EarlyBirdCameo: As Lupin and Jigen drive away from the Casino with their loot, sharp-eyed viewers can spot the top of Goemon's head and the end of his sword in the back seat of the car midst the cash. Do all those cars suddenly falling to bits earlier make sense now?
* EliteMooks: Scary ninja-ish assassins with masks, metal claw gauntlets and armor Jigen can't shoot through without an anti-tank gun.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: The Count.
* FanNickname: Fans sometimes call the BigBad Count Draco due to the ''Cliff Hanger'' game giving him that name.
* GentlemanThief: Actually played straight with Lupin, which may come across as strange because he's... [[ChivalrousPervert well, Lupin]]. [[spoiler:Turns out he's acting like this because he is still grateful that Clarisse saved his life many years ago]]. Jigen actually calls him out on his atypical behavior fairly early in the film.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Count [[spoiler: is crushed by giant clock hands when retrieving the "treasure" of Cagliostro]]

* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Goemon, largely because KatanasAreJustBetter ("this is no ordinary sword", he says). More amusingly, when a wounded Lupin falls into the car from the autogyro, Goemon's sword swipe gets Lupin neatly out of his burning clothes without further scratching Lupin. Other examples are on the page for the Trope.
* ImprovisedWeapon: Lupin uses several, most notably the long-handled spanner he duels the Count with.

* InHarmsWay: The discovery of the counterfeit money that brings Lupin and Jigen to Cagliostro.
* InstantDogend: Jigen's smokes (but not Lupin's).
* KatanasAreJustBetter: Jigen's bullets bounce off the EliteMooks... but Goemon's sword doesn't. Fans of the series will know that it's because Goemon's sword is no ordinary katana. It's a one-of-a-kind sword possessing a super-sharp edge.
* LostWeddingRing: It's also a PlotCoupon and Lupin's got it.
* MalevolentArchitecture: The titular Castle, full of booby traps and a basement of skeletons to show for it.
* MoneyToThrowAway / MoneyToBurn: The Goat Bills; the former happens with the stolen counterfit bills at the beginning of the film, and the latter in the castle at a particular plot point close to the end of the film.
* {{Mooks}}: The normal Cagliostro castle guard, the Interpol troopers.
* MyGreatestSecondChance: Lupin's quest for the Goat Bills.
* MythologyGag: See the Trope page.
* NoOSHACompliance: The clock tower. All those giant exposed gears can't be safety standards compliant.
* ObviouslyEvil: Jodo just does ''not'' look like a good guy.
* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler:Although the Count officially has the two rings and unlocks the treasure, by doing so the Clocktower automatically moves straight to Noon and he gets crushed to death by the minute and hour hands.]]

* RescueRomance: Subverted; Clarisse obviously falls in love with Lupin after the first time he saves her, but even by the end of the movie, he can't be tied down and leaves.
* RockPaperScissors: Lupin and Jigen throw down over who has to change the flat tire on their car. (Note that Jigen's version of "scissors" involves using his thumb and forefinger, like he's miming a pistol.)

* RunawayBride: See DamselInDistress.
* {{Ruritania}}: The Duchy of Cagliostro -- population 3500 and the smallest independent member nation of the UnitedNations.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: The Count, with Interpol and several governments.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Lupin is normally planted pretty firmly on the cynical side, but Miyazaki was having none of that. This can be jarring to viewers who are introduced to him here, then watch his usual JerkAss antics in any of his other movies or series. It's actually acknowledged in the film that he's acting much better behaved than usual, since he has a reason for doing so.
* SmugSnake: Count Cagliostro, perhaps one of the most perfect examples of the trope in all of fiction.
* SoftWater: The castle is built in the middle of a lake, with lots of high towers. No bonus points for guessing what happens.
* StrangeBedfellows: [[spoiler: Lupin and Zenigata call a truce so they can both get out of the castle dungeon alive and Zenigata can go after the Count for the making the Goat Bills.]] Though given how often they work together in ''other'' Lupin titles, perhaps it's not quite so strange after all.
* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Inspector Zenigata, and he's in fine form here. Heavy on the "sympathetic" this time - they start working together as soon as they realize who the real villain is.

* TheKingdom: Only on the surface; the Dukes were the official rulers and kept up a good front, but the Count's line were contracted with the DirtyBusiness.

** The car chase sees Lupin and Jigen's car drives sideways up a vertical cliff, both characters can jump as if they're using WireFu, Lupin tries to swim uphill in a waterfall and ''downward in mid-air'' (after he ran straight down a tower wall!)...
** Lupin's mad long-jump skills on the roofs of the castle. Sure, he must have had a lot of momentum going, but that's just silly.
* TrapDoor: More than one lies within the titular castle. Curiously enough, they all dump their victims in the same vast cistern... and after several centuries of use, it's not a fun place to be.
* UniversalDriversLicense: Lupin has one while Zenigata doesn't. Given that it's Lupin, his is obviously forged.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: The real Archbishop]] is never mentioned again after the groundskeeper [[ShortCutsMakeLongDelays offers to show him an alternate route to the castle.]] One can only assume that Lupin knocked the poor fellow unconscious at that point and left him either locked or [[BoundAndGagged tied up]] somewhere in nothing but his underclothes, instructing the groundskeeper to let him go after everything was taken care of.)

----

* SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Inspector Zenigata, and he's in fine form here.

* CutAndPasteTranslation: The old [[{{Streamlined}} Streamline]] dub of the movie, which has (thankfully) long since passed into obscurity. The MangaEntertainment version is much better. One upside of the Streamline dub is that, until 2006, the 1992 release of the Streamline dub was the only version available in anamorphic widescreen -- on VHS, yet!

Certain things are, of course, inevitable: Lupin will try to steal the girl, the treasure, the source of the Goat Bills, and whatever else he thinks he can get away with; Fujiko will be in the castle trying to steal one or more of those items as well; the Count will be a formidable villain; and InspectorZenigata will still be trying to hunt Lupin down (though he may get more than he bargained for).

* InspectorZenigata: [[TropeNamer But of course]], and he's in fine form here.

** The car chase sees Lupin and Jigen's car drives sideways up a vertical cliff, both characters can jump as if they're using WireFu, Lupin tries to swim uphill in a waterfall and ''downward in mid-air''...

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Somewhat lampshaded in the car chase.
-->'''Jigen''': Which one are we helping?"

As the movie opens, Lupin and Jigen have pulled off a successful casino heist and are fleeing in their car up to their necks in cash - until Lupin realizes that the cash is all counterfeit, and extremely well made at that. The legendary "Goat Bills", as they're called, inspire the duo to pay a visit to the tiny European nation of Cagliostro (long rumored to be the bills' source) for their next heist.

Barely after they cross the border, however, they find themselves in a car chase trying to rescue a girl in a wedding dress from the armed mooks trying to capture her. The girl is Clarisse, daughter of Cagliostro's late ruling Grand Duke, and she is betrothed to the regent and Count of Cagliostro, whose side of the Cagliostro family line oversees and perpetuates the nation's dirty business. There's a legend that says when the two families are reunited, they will unlock the secret of Cagliostro's lost treasure - which the Count desperately wants. There's also the fact that Lupin is suspiciously familiar with Cagliostro's landmarks, the girl he tried to rescue, and her mysterious ring...

* AllThatGlitters: [[spoiler: Cagliostro's lost treasure is a partial example - the Roman ruins' enormous value is purely cultural, but the international attention they'll likely receive from tourists and academics should be extremely useful for Clarisse and her country.]]

* {{Ruritania}}: The Duchy of Cagliostro - population 3500 and the smallest independent member nation of the UnitedNations.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cagliostro_br.jpg

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse?: [[spoiler: The real Archbishop]] is never mentioned again after the groundskeeper [[ShortCutsMakeLongDelays offers to show him an alternate route to the castle.]] One can only assume that Lupin knocked the poor fellow unconscious at that point and left him either locked or [[BoundAndGagged tied up]] somewhere in nothing but his underclothes, instructing the groundskeeper to let him go after everything was taken care of.)