"The Chewing Gum Disguise Operation" note , also released in English as "The Strategy of the Chewing Gum Disguise". Original air date of January 7, 1980.
Lupin meets with his contact Buckingham on Broadway, who sells him a special gum that, after being chewed and blown into a bubble, pops and sticks to the chewer to the perfect disguise. The two celebrate their deal at a nearby night club owned by mobster Gasper. Backstage, Zenigata lies in wait, using Gasper's star attraction, dancing girl Amore, as bait for the womanizing thief. Lupin decides to tempt fate and dance with her, aggravating the jealous gangster to the point Zenigata can barely keep him under control, thus allowing Lupin and Buckingham to get away.
Infuriated, Gasper proceeds to use his contacts in the American military to have them unleash the Army, Navy and Air Force, all gunning for Lupin! The thief after much dodging, manages to escape the onslaught, and Gasper and Zenigata realize sheer force won't do in trying to collect the thief. They send Buckingham to Lupin's hotel room to deliver a message: the gangster wants to meet Lupin at his bar. Lupin decides to go, much to Jigen and Goemon's scoffing, but when he goes into the empty bar he is met with Gasper and a proposal... as in a literal wedding proposal!
After a bit of confusion, it turns out the proposal is from Amore; after dancing with Lupin, she has fallen hard for him and refuses to work for Gasper anymore unless they are married. Perpetual bachelor Lupin is befuddled by her request and flees, but Amore chases after him, threatening to kill herself if he doesn't man up! After saving her, Lupin is relieved to see Zenigata and demands he be arrested. The confused inspector takes Lupin away, and tells the thief how he met Gasper. The man once set up fake marriages for money, but is now trying to go straight by running his bar. Armed with this knowledge, Lupin escapes and calls Gasper, telling the man he will marry Amore.
That night, Lupin and Amore are married in a ceremony that is little more than a farce. Gasper is overjoyed... if Lupin dies now, Amore will acquire all of his property, including his legendary loot, which she and Gasper plan to split after he has Lupin murdered. Lupin is no fool, though, and fires bullets full of gum, provided by Buckingham, into the weapons of Gasper's men. The gum bullets block the barrels and cause the guns to explode in their faces, taking them all out. When Gasper tries to get the rest of the guests in on his plan, Lupin reveals his own surprise: Jigen and Goemon hidden in a giant party decoration, who help Lupin with his bullet blocking. Gasper tries one last card: his military contacts. However, even they refuse to have anything to do with this plan; Lupin has managed to pull a higher rank on them and countermand his orders.
Gasper and Amore try to escape, but Lupin follows them and clogs the tailpipe of their escape car with more gum bullets. It causes an explosion that makes them lose control and crash, they end up escaping in a truck that happens to be driven by Zenigata. Lupin uses one last giant gum ball to turn the truck into a police car. Zenigata drives off with the two would-be matchmakers to the nearest police station. Buckingham takes one last opportunity to use his disguise gum for a sexy strip show with Fujiko, but the real thing spies what's going down and takes him down with a manhole cover.
This episode features examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Averted... why doesn't Goemon use Zantetsuken to cut the guns apart? Because Goemon thinks this whole affair is beneath its purpose.
- Banana in the Tailpipe: In the form of Buckingham's gun bullets; the gum explodes and causes the car to crash when Gasper loses control. A second one in Zenigata's disguise truck turns it into a police car, which delivers the two scammers to jail.
- Bound and Gagged: Zenigata has to do this to Gasper to keep the gangster from seeking revenge on Lupin for flirting with Amore and spoiling the detective's trap.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Anyone who so much makes a move on Gasper's best girl will receive bullets as a present... delivered right from the machine gun.
- Determinator: After Lupin escapes the taxi carrying him and Zenigata, Zenigata headbutts his way through the taxi's metal roof in rage!
- Driven to Suicide: When Lupin refuses to marry her, Amore threatens to shoot herself in the head and hang herself so she can haunt Lupin as a ghost.
- Engrish: Lupin and company are staying at the "Cheep Hotel."
- Eye Scream: After Fujiko turns down his affections, Lupin pulls his eyes out from underneath his sunglasses, and throws them at her, asking if they're the eyes of a liar. Fujiko freaks out and runs away, not seen until the end of the episode. Of course, the eyes are fakes.
- Finger in a Barrel: A variant, where Lupin and Jigen uses bullets made of gum to make the barrels of Gasper's men's machine guns blow up. Goemon also has them, but in the form of throwing darts.
- Full-Body Disguise: The disguise chewing gum can make one of these.
- Genre Savvy: After Lupin allows himself to be arrested, Zenigata puts three pairs of handcuffs on him, and then checks him for a fever to make sure the thief is well.
- Latex Perfection: Well, kind of. Buckingham's gum can make anyone look like anyone else, face, figure, clothes, and all. Try not to think about where the disguise came from.
- Out of Focus: Fujiko, Jigen and Goemon appear briefly in the episode, but have no major bearing on the plot. They pretty much admit they'd rather not be involved in this whole mess.
- Pie in the Face: After Gasper's plan fails, Lupin throws the entire wedding cake at him for good measure.
- Serial Escalation: When he can't catch Lupin with a car and a machine gun, Gasper then goes for tanks. When the tanks fail, he goes for a submarine. When the sub fails... time to call in an air strike!
- Sham Wedding: Gasper has a history of setting them up to scam potential grooms out of money. He and Amore set one up to con Lupin; Lupin, of course, sees it coming a mile away and turns the tables.
- Shout-Out: Zenigata briefly turns into Ironside as a sight gag. Lupin jokingly calls him "Perry Mason" before enacting his escape plan.
- Stalker with a Crush: Amore is apparently impressed by Lupin's boldness and will do anything to be his bride. Anything.
