ANI-MOVIES, *Lupin The 3rd: The Mystery Of Mamo

Aside from having a whopping five different dubs, The Mystery Of Mamo was the first anime movie of the classic Lupin The 3rd. Also titled The Secret Of Mamo, Lupin's first animated theatrical release based on the 60s manga came out in 1978 after the bizarre but equally funny Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy live-action film. This movie came out during the second Lupin anime TV series that most Americans will recognize as being the same one that first premiered on Adult Swim. Monkey Punch's manga was a big hit as was the original TV series, so there was already enough hype behind it. Soji Yoshikawa had the rare chance as director of this movie when he's regularly an animator and scriptwriter. The film itself was animated by long-time running studio TMS, and this was their first feature-length production, even though the movie made the characters look more like Monkey Punch's original designs. The movie has had several English releases, including one from Streamline Pictures, Manga Entertainment, and of course the segments used in the jumbled together old laser disc arcade game Cliff Hanger. The dub most Americans would be familiar with is the one currently available on most streaming services that was recently put on Blu-ray by Discotek Media featuring dub veteran Tony Oliver as Lupin.

The story begins with Lupin getting hanged and the ever-diligent Inspector Zenigata sets out to see if he's really dead. Turned out that the real Lupin, the world's greatest thief, is alive and goes on a hunt for the legendary Philosopher's Stone inside an Egyptian pyramid all for the chance to roll in the sheets with the sexy Fujiko. The curvy cat burglar is working for the mysterious figure of Mamo who wants the stone to find the key to immortality. The diminutive mastermind sends his assassins out to capture Lupin and his gang of sharpshooter Jigen and modern-day samurai Goemon. Lupin and his gang break up over his infatuation with Fujiko, and the femme fatale kidnaps Lupin and takes him to Mamo's Carribean island. The US Army attacks Mamo's base while Lupin escapes and reunites with Jigen, but only to go to Mamo's other secret base. He learns that Mamo is really a gigantic brain that's been alive for thousands of years and use short humanoid clones to interact with other mortals. Lupin thwarts Mamo's plans for a nuclear war and destroys his huge brain as it launches itself in to space.

Lupin The 3rd: The Mystery Of Mamo had several different titles, but that was done in retrospect as it was the first anime movie of the franchise. The film has a very surrealistic approach to it with some bizarre visual aesthetics, and it followed the more aggressive and sexaholic motif of the original Lupin manga. This has been the center of great discord among longtime Lupin fans as more people had become more accustomed to the slightly nobler Lupin that was done in Lupin The 3rd: Part 2. The deeper sci-fi elements the plot employed work in contrast to that of the Lupin TV series of the time that were used more in Lupin The 3rd: Part 1 TV series. There are also things that never get brought up again like Zenigata's daughter and the US government's involvement. The Mystery Of Mamo has some rough animation in it which was bumped up in budget for the first Lupin anime movie, but still very attractive in a way that TMS champions at. This is a captivating romp with a fantastic release by Discotek Media featuring all four English dubs, not including Cliff Hanger, and the Streamline dub has some overlooked talent in it including Robert Axelrod as Mamo. If you're just catching this on streaming, the Geneon dub is good enough, but you might want to invest in the Discotek Blu-ray.