History Franchise / LupinIII

* CatchPhrase: Zenigata and Goemon each have a catchphrase that they are known for speaking at least OnceAnEpisode.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: an enforced example of this trope.

* BleachedUnderpants: The franchise plays with this trope.
** The work Monkey Punch did for "Playboy School" should be easy to guess ([[Magazine/{{Playboy}} for reference]]). And the original ''Lupin'' manga wasn't much cleaner.
** The ''Anime/LupinIIIPart1'' series was cleaner (but still {{Seinen}}-oriented), and the Anime/LupinIIIYearlySpecials are much LighterAndSofter. But ''Anime/LupinIIITheWomanCalledFujikoMine'' was made HotterAndSexier as well as DarkerAndEdgier, in order to align closer to the original manga style.

* ''Series/InspectorZenigata'' - a side series focusing on Inspector Zenigata

** This trope is subverted at the beginning of the MadeForTVMovie ''Anime/LupinIIISevenDaysRhapsody''. The special starts with, as with every special, a successful heist (this time, taking the money off the hands of some rich men during a horse race), but it turns out to be a flashforward as part of Lupin explaining the plan to Jigen one week before the heist will take place. The "Seven Days" the two of them are waiting for. Then, at the end of the special, [[spoiler: a DoubleSubversion takes place, as Lupin gets to the tracks, but the horse race was cancelled due to weather conditions.]]

* WayPastTheExpirationDate: In one ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'' episode, Lupin steals a two-century-old bottle of rare French wine that was laid down by Napoleon, and was to be given as a gift to the President of the United States, swapping it out with a cheap bottle of store-bought wine. After a successful heist, Lupin watches the president drinking the cheap wine and calling it "remarkable" on TV. The gang then laugh to themselves, and try a glass of the real wine... but find that it hadn't been aged properly and turned to vinegar.
* WeaponsBreakingWeapons: Happens regularly whenever Goemon disarms enemies with ''[[AbsurdlySharpBlade Nagareboshi/Zantetsuken]]'', ranging from other swords to guns to ''tanks''.

* CoolGuns: Except for [[{{Samurai}} Goemon]], each character has their preference.
** [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CoolGuns/Revolvers Revolvers]]: Jigen loves his "Magnum".
** [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CoolGuns/Handguns Handguns]]: Lupin carries a Walther P-38.
** Fujiko has the Browning M1910.
** [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CoolGuns/Handguns Handguns]]: Inspector Zenigata carries the Colt .45

Lupin III (Japanese: ルパン三世) is a direct descendant of the titular GentlemanThief of ''Literature/ArseneLupin'', VillainProtagonist of a series of French novels by Maurice [=LeBlanc=]. Like his famous grandfather, he's a cunning, dame-crazy master thief who's never been caught.

* WeaponsBreakingWeapons: Happens regularly whenever Goemon disarms enemies with ''[[AbsurdlySharpBlde Nagareboshi/Zantetsuken]]'', ranging from other swords to guns to ''tanks''.

He is also the titular character of a LongRunner franchise from UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. In 1965, a young manga artist named Kazuhiko Katō was offered a three-month manga contract, with the goal of telling stories to an adult male audience, by the editor of ''Playboy School''. The "catch" was that Katō would use the pen name of "Monkey Punch". The series, ''Manga/LupinIII'', made its debut on August 10th 1967 in the magazine ''Weekly Manga Action''. It went on to become an extremely popular and successful media franchise, spawning incarnations in pretty much every medium we cover here on Website/TVTropes. [[note]] For the media we cover that Lupin doesn't yet exist in? Just wait; he'll be there soon![[/note]]

The stories are characterized by their zany plots and high-energy action scenes. The series balances crude humor, extreme action and high-tempo heists with ease. The main appeal of the franchise is in its versatility and consistency. Lupin and his crew have done a number of insane things during their time together, from stopping mysterious cults, to uncovering ancient civilizations, to fighting assassins, and so on. Often, Lupin will have to pull an EnemyMine with Zenigata to fight against someone who is ''truly'' evil. This flexibility with plot and content means that Lupin can be put into any kind of story and do well. At the same time, Lupin and friends remain remarkably consistent across all the dozens of films, TV shows and manga they star in, giving the series a level of accessibility few Long Runners can dream of. The audience can always count on Lupin, Jigen, Goemon, Fujiko and Zenigata to act like themselves, even when the topics diverge into hardcore drama or meta-commentary MindScrew. All of this adds up to a franchise that can really be about anything, which is only fitting for a GentlemanThief who sets out to steal whatever he wants.

* AttractiveBentGender: Cross dressing is a staple of the Lupin III franchise, and usually played straight for spying, stealing, and escaping rather than as a gag... unless it's Zenigata dressing up, who is the manliest looking of the main five characters.

* BavarianFireDrill: Lupin usually combines this with LatexPerfection to get the cops that were chasing him to go the wrong way.

* BrosBeforeHoes: This is something Jigen and Goemon staunchly believe in that Lupin does not share. Red Jacket Lupin is especially adverse to this, often being distracted by an attractive woman or Fujiko once again wanting him to do something.

* TheCon: Lupin III is both a gentleman thief and a conman. Think of him as a eastern version of Bugs Bunny.
* CartwrightCurse: Any love interest for Jigen, Goemon, or Zenigata will die or never be seen again. The same applies for any love interests Lupin and Fujiko have other than eachother, which is also doomed to fail every time they aim for a relationship bump.

*** Goemon was introduced as an assassin hired to kill Lupin. For awhile, ''he'' had TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou excuse for protecting Lupin from other enemies. Some form of this is kept whenever his OriginsEpisode is.

** ''Anime/LupinIIIVsDetectiveConan'', a crossover movie with... you guessed it ''Manga/CaseClosed''. Not only works, but also feels like a remake of ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''. Go figure. Happens again with ''Anime/LupinIIIVsDetectiveConanTheMovie''.

* DenserAndWackier: The art style of the Anime/LupinIIIPartIII series is this to the rest of the franchise. It says something when a character who is known for being just this side of possible evokes an "are they smoking something?" feel. While the plots are no weirder than in the past, the new 1980's style of drawing the characters makes a lot of fans give up before the character designs become more consistent later in the show.

** Lupin is a MasterOfDisguise and does this often. Either disguising himself as a female ally (such as FemmeFatale Fujiko), someone the target knows to get close to the loot, or to fool security at a venue he's about to hit. It has backfired on him on at least one occasion, when the man he was planning on robbing fell in love and proposed to Lupin. The inevitable reveal of Lupin being a man after getting robbed did not dissuade him.

* DubPronunciationChange: Italian dubs of the franchise always pronounced Lupin as "Loo-pehn" instead of "Loo-pahn", and Goemon as "Ghe-mon". Fujiko's last name Mine has been pronounced for years as the English word, reverting to the Japanese pronounce only from [[Anime/LupinIIITheWomanCalledFujikoMine her own series]] onwards.

* EasyComeEasyGo: The gang doesn't have to worry about Status Quo when it comes to their financial situation; they can be living in an expensive hotel one episode, and living in a trailer the next. But Lupin and his crew still have the uncanny tendency to lose a lot of big scores minutes after they get it, or have it turn out to be something they're better off not getting their hands on. As Lupin is a kleptomaniac of titanic proportions, all he does is shrug it off and seek the next heist.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: The titular Lupin may be [[VillainProtagonist a thief]] but he's a ''GentlemanThief'', and 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 [[WeHelpTheHelpless to help those less fortunate than he is]] ([[ChivalrousPervert 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 the SympatheticInspectorAntagonist (Inspector Zenigata) to arrest.

** Red Jacket series often features women in see-though negligee or nudists. Funny enough, it's completely inconsistent on whether or not there will be nipples.

** When Lupin in in his boxers, it's not always played for comedy. When all three of them are stripped down, it's never for comedy and Fujiko will usually not be in those episodes.

** For a seinen anime made in the 70s, there is a surprising amount of bromance; the kind preferred by women.
* ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics: The theme song actually has lyrics, but the version traditionally used is a TitleThemeTune. For a while Creator/AdultSwim aired Red Jacket's season 2 opening that used the lyrics.

** Lupin III fights along with Jigen and Goemon, both were former enemies that made the HeelFaceTurn and now they battle together. The difference is that Jigen is more a FriendlyRival for Lupin, while Goemon was more of an AntiVillain who simply hasn't carried out his assasination yet.
* HighDiveEscape: While they accidently drive off cliffs all the time, they also do it intentionally several times to get away from cops or other crooks hot on their tail.

*** The first happens, near the beginning, where he disguises himself as one of Zenigata's men in an attempt to slip past the inspector (which Zenigata doesn't fall for).
*** The other happens about halfway through the film, when he disguises himself as a police officer to infiltrate Morocco's police HQ to [[spoiler:dig up information on Galoux]], which leads to a run-in with Fujiko and [[spoiler:a night of SexWithTheEx.]]

** In one of the episodes of the original ''Anime/LupinIIIPart1'' TV series, the Tokyo police department gets a supercomputer that is programmed to predict Lupin's every move. It does so extremely successfully, until Lupin realizes the way to beat it is to throw out all his plans and act completely on a whim.

* InfernalRetaliation: One of the story elements consistent across the franchise is Lupin's encounter with Goemon. The [[Manga/LupinIII manga]], the [[Anime/LupinIIIPart1 Green Jacket series]] and ''[[Anime/LupinIIIEpisode0FirstContact Episode 0]]'' all feature Lupin throwing a special chemical onto the samurai that bursts into flames when it comes into contact with the air. Not content to let Lupin get away with this, Goemon tosses a rope at Lupin, which carries the flames over to light him on fire as well. As it's ''Lupin'', they recover.

--> '''Lupin:''' "You gotta tug harder!"

** During ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro'', for Clarisse's sake, Lupin tries to be a [[KnightInShiningArmour Thief In A Stylin' Suit]]. When Lupin tells Jigen and Goemon about being "wild and crazy" in his past, their silence can suggest that Lupin may have been talking about ''last week''. At the end of the movie, she hugs him tight and begs to become a thief and leave Cagliostro with him. Lupin visibly trembles before he pushes her away gently.

** While it might be easy for Western Audiences to just look at the original manga or 70's-era anime and just call this franchise "old", there's a lot more going on. In Japan, this franchise has effectively ''never ended''. There are many people working in the anime industry that have never known a single day where Lupin wasn't around. Even if TMS were to stop making their Lupin products, the sheer number of people still referencing Lupin would keep the characters in Japanese Pop Culture for ''years''.
* LongRunnerTechMarchesOn: No one in this series has aged, but the technology of any given Lupin series or movie will always reflects the decade it was made in. 2002's ''Episode 0: First Contact'' is supposed to take place before 1971's "Green Jacket" series, but features computers of the late 90s or early 2000s. Funny enough, younger viewers might see the Firebee drones and walkie-talkies in the late 70s Red Jacket series and mistake them for modern quadcoptors and old cell phones.
** Lupin Part V made a plot point out of pitting an old school thief of the 60's against the ubiquitous nature of social media of the '20's.

* MagicFromTechnology: The villain Pycal, who was impervious to bullets and fire, could walk on air, and shoot fire from his fingertips. Lupin found a way to replicate these tricks. [[spoiler:He walked on air via carefully placed glass panes, shot fire from his fingertips with a small, hidden flamethrower and was impervious thanks to a hard liquid chemical that shielded his body when covered by the liquid.]] When the villain was revisited in the {{OVA}} ''Anime/ReturnOfTheMagician'', he received upgrades in power, and was seeking a collection of crystals that were able to use vibrations/sounds to do whatever he wanted. Naturally, Lupin also has his eyes on them, and the two fight over who gets to collect all of them.
* TheMasochismTango: Like Jigen, Lupin believes that women are all chronic backstabbers, but unlike Jigen, he thinks it's part of their charm, and that seems to be one of his biggest turn-ons when it comes to Fujiko Mine, who betrays him using an unpredictable variety of ways, including pretending to be a hostage while actually being the ringleader. Lupin should know better after the fifth or fiftieth betrayal, but he goes with her plans every time. He's not against stabbing her in the back once in awhile either, and even while they were dating, they were both emotionally and physically unfaithful.

* MoodWhiplash: ''Lupin III'' experiences a lot of ToneShift. Monkey Punch would intersperse an attempted rape scene PlayedForLaughs with a young women [[PlayedForDrama begging that same character for protection]]. A fan of {{Bathos}}.

* MundaneUtility: Like all swords, ''Zantetsuken'' was created for the purpose of killing (Or in the hands of a talented swordsman like Goemon, causing a quick, clean and painless death). Goemon instead uses it to cut other weapons, armor, objects, and even ''clothes''. However, he is always the first to express his distaste of cutting a [[CatchPhrase "worthless object"]] when he does so.

** Part 5 is one of the few entries in the franchise to explicitly maintain some sense of continuity with past installments. The first episode shows pictures of characters from Part 4 like Rebecca, Nyx and Holmes, as well as Clarisse from ''The Castle of Cagliostro''.

* RatedMForManly: Lupin wants you to believe he is the manliest guy you'd ever find. The Manga fits very well; it is full of AuthorAppeal for killing and seducing. LighterAndSofter stories still have an element of this in them, but with DefeatByModesty or BloodlessCarnage. The ''Anime/LupinIIIPart1'' series and ''Anime/LupinIIITheWomanCalledFujikoMine'' series, however, comes closer to the mature tone of the manga.

* StealTheSurroundings: If Lupin the Third can't get the treasure itself, his elaborate scheme frequently becomes stealing what contains the treasure instead. In some variations, he will pretend to steal the container, and when the distracted target goes after him to get it back, it gives him time to double-back and break into the real thing.

** This trope is especially noted towards Zenigata; both characters have mentioned that they have an understood "gentlemen's agreement" that neither will attempt to kill the other, and have saved each other's lives (several times, in fact).
*** On very rare occasions, if Zenigata believes Lupin has broken their agreement and murdered an innocent, he will become dead-serious and aim to kill. One instance was in a [[Anime/LupinIIIPartIII "Pink Jacket"]] episode where Zenigata ''thought'' he saw Lupin execute a young girl whom Zenigata had befriended.

*** Jigen tends to shoot people in the hand, but also has the highest direct kill count in the franchise. He claims he doesn't shoot women… except when he does.
*** Fujiko has the second highest direct kill count and her Green Jacket backstory has her as being part of an assassination gang before meeting Lupin.
*** Lupin says he's not a murderer, but he has indirectly killed many rivals, and won't think twice about killing in self defense. One of his most common methods for killing enemies is to send their cars over cliffs and drown them, which Jigen has also done. Lupin filled Lavina's getaway bubble with hydrogen gas that could asphyxiate her or explode. People have burned or been crushed by buildings he's destroyed.

* TrouserSpace: Lupin likes to hide some of his back-up gadgets in his boxers. Sometimes, his boxers ''are'' the back-up gadget.

* VillainousRescue: Zenigata has a hard head. He can take a good beating & get himself out of perilous situations. But once in awhile, the Lupin Gang will stop being chased by him just long enough to rescue him.
* WayPastTheExpirationDate: In one ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'' episode, Lupin steals a two century old bottle of rare French wine that was laid down by Napoleon, and was to be given as a gift to the President of the United States, swapping it out with a cheap bottle of store bought wine. After a successful heist, Lupin watches the president drinking the cheap wine and calling it "remarkable" on TV. The gang then laugh to themselves, and try a glass of the real wine... but find that it hadn't been aged properly and turned to vinegar.
* WhatAPieceOfJunk: Lupin owns a Fiat 500 (as famously seen in ''Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro''). It ''seems'' to be a wimpy little subcompact car, but it's actually a heavily modified vehicle that can go seriously fast, run up near-vertical cliff faces and survive grenade blasts.
* WhiteAndGreyMorality: While the titular character and his gang are criminals, they wouldn't do anything really heinous, so even at their worst, the crew are {{Anti Villain}}s. Their antagonist, Inspector Zenigata, is a HeroAntagonist, and their relationship can be described as an almost friendly rivalry, rather than confrontation between criminals and law-enforcement. Whenever a serious bad guy comes up, Lupin and Zenigata usually ally against him, though they always resume their antics when the alliance is no longer needed.

* TheMasochismTango: Like Jigen, Lupin believes that women are all chronic backstabbers, but unlike Jigen, he thinks it's part of their charm, and that seems to be one of his biggest turn-ons when it comes to Fujiko Mine, who betrays him using an unpredictable variety of ways, including pretending to be a hostage while actually being the ringleader. Lupin should know better after the fifth or fiftieth betrayal, but he goes with her plans every time. He's not against stabbing her in the back once in awhile either, and even while they were dating, they were both emotionally and physically unfaithful.

* ComicBookTime: These characters have been around since 1967 and haven't aged a day, which is fine since the franchise runs on NegativeContinuity. However, Lupin's grandfather is still canonically Literature/ArseneLupin, who was born in 1874. [[note]] This is ''just'' this side of possible (if we assume his grandfather and father were both well into middle age when they had children, and that Lupin himself is in his forties, though he certainly doesn't look it). But it gets a little less plausible every year. Either one of the Lupins stole the secret to the Fountain of Youth at some point… he should be [[LightNovel/AriaTheScarletAmmo Lupin IV]] or V by now… or Arsène Sr. is a RefugeeFromTime.[[/note]]