By skyforbes 
Monkey Punch’s world-famous manga Lupin III began its serialisation in Weekly Manga Action on 10th August 1967, almost sixty years ago. Since then, it’s spawned a megalithic franchise spanning hundreds of TV anime episodes over seven separate series, twenty-seven TV specials, eight movies, plus multiple other OVAs and crossover appearances. Where on Earth is best place for a potential new fan to start? Considering my experience with it at the Scotland Loves Anime film festival in Glasgow on 31st October, definitely not with Takeshi Koike’s The Immortal Bloodline movie. Despite being a mostly entertaining film, it absolutely requires a significant depth of prior knowledge regarding previous franchise entries, both older and newer.
The Immortal Bloodline is Lupin III’s first 2D animated theatrical movie since Dead or Alive (1996), though the CG-animated Lupin III: The First was released in 2019. Back in 2012, director Sayo Yamamoto (Yuri on Ice) and writer Mari Okada (Maquia) teamed up to make Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, a widely acclaimed 13-episode TV series with a deliberately darker tone, intended to emulate the original manga rather than the overall lighter TV shows. (I recently reviewed it as part of this article here.)
Fujiko Mine’s animation director and character designer Takeshi Koike was promoted to director for the four OVA spinoffs that followed over the next thirteen years, and their interlinked stories come to a bombastic conclusion in The Immortal Bloodline. Fujiko Mine was intended as a prequel to the 1971 Lupin III — Part 1 anime, set in the late 1960s, depicting the cast meeting one another for the first time. A little cheekily, Koike very overtly places Immortal Bloodline as a direct prequel to the first Lupin III theatrical movie, 1978 The Secret of Mamo.
Viewers will absolutely get a lot more out of the latest movie if they’ve seen not only the preceding OVAs, but also The Secret of Mamo. During the post-screening Q&A session, director Koike (who attended this UK premiere in person) explained that Mamo is his favourite Lupin III film, and the first five or so episodes of the Lupin III Part 1 TV show were the biggest influence on the preceding OVAs. For The Immortal Bloodline, Koike also employed veteran animator Kazuhide Tomonaga, an artist well-known to the Lupin franchise — it was he who animated Castle of Cagliostro’s iconic car chase sequence. 73-year-old Tomonaga still insists on working with analogue media, making this Lupin movie the first Japanese theatrical release in many years to use non-digital anime techniques.
Accessing the four OAVs — at least in the UK — is a hassle. The first three: Jigen’s Grave Marker, Goemon — A Splash of Blood, and Fujiko’s Lie are only available to rent or buy digitally via the Apple TV+ store. They do each have individual blu-ray releases via Discotek in the US, though. As a bonus, these three OVAs are all airing together at Scotland Loves Anime in Edinburgh in a couple of weeks time, but that doesn’t help anyone who wants to watch the preceding Immortal Bloodline showings!
Sadly, the fourth OVA, Zenigata and the Two Lupins is not available outside of Japan, which is a problem as it acts as a very direct prequel to Immortal Bloodline. Apparently there is a fansub available in the darker corners of the internet, but I’ve heard it uses a terrible machine translation, so is probably best avoided for now. I’ve not seen any of the OVAs yet, as I’ve booked my tickets for the later Edinburgh showing. This does mean I watched Immortal Bloodline more than a little unprepared, which was a shame, but I still found it a mostly enjoyable, if completely insane film, coming as it does from the director of 2009’s REDLINE, also showing at Scotland Loves Anime 2025.
Handily, Immortal Bloodline begins with a fairly lengthy recap that explains the plot of the four OVAs. It seems to be a storyline entirely separate from the Fujiko Mine TV series, so even though I watched it in time to see the film, it didn’t really help. Each OVA looks to have been a standalone story, with minimal links between them, other than the idea that some shadowy mastermind has singled out each of titular gentleman thief Lupin’s friends (sharp-shooter Jigen, samurai Goemon, and femme fatale Fujiko) for attempted assassination. Having failed in his schemes, the mastermind has now lured all four targets to a mysterious island in the Bermuda triangle, and of course the inexhaustible Inspector Zenigata is in tow. You can’t have a Lupin III film without the Javert to his Valjean.
Secret of Mamo viewers will instantly feel a sense of familiarity with Immortal Bloodline, with their shared setting of a mysteriously supernatural island (though not the same island). Lupin and pals’ small aeroplane is shot down by an incredibly skilled sniper, and one by one they abandon poor Lupin, jumping out and leaving him to crash the vehicle. The central quartet spend much of the film separated from one another, as they face varying challenges on different terrain. Creepy zombie-like people populate the island, which is permeated by a toxic mist that Lupin is warned will rob him of his senses, before killing him and his friends within 24 hours of continued exposure. This only seems to affect the characters at times when the meandering plot requires it to.
Returning characters from Jigen’s Grave Marker and Goemon — A Splash of Blood include Jigen’s sniper nemesis Yael Okuzaki, and Goemon’s one-armed opponent Hawk. Their appearances would have been more meaningful had I seen either OVA, but the recap functions passably enough to explain who they are, and why they are such formidable matches for Lupin’s friends. Koike revealed during the Q&A that he’d storyboarded many more scenes for Yael Okuzaki, but they were dropped due to time and structure reasons. The recap also mentions the events of Zenigata and the Two Lupins, in which there appears to be a Lupin impersonator. I was unsure if said impersonator had been definitively dealt with in that story or not (though it looks like he blows himself up), so found myself wondering during the first few minutes of Immortal Bloodline if the Lupin we saw was the original or not. I expect this would have been much clearer had this OVA been available to watch outside of Japan.
Chief enemy and apparent mastermind Muom has weird proportions — overly long arms and a massive forehead; his odd appearance is explained later, though I can’t help but think of him as an overpowered Dragonball Z enemy who wandered into the wrong film. He’s functionally immortal and displays unnatural martial skill, easily outclassing anything Lupin and friends can throw at him. Throughout much of the film, he doesn’t speak any intelligible human language, so he’s always accompanied by creepy little blonde girl, Sarifa, who translates for him. We don’t ever receive a direct explanation of what she is, but with knowledge of the concepts central to The Secret of Mamo, it’s possible to take a guess as to her true nature.
Muom himself is probably the film’s biggest problem. He’s a little too out there (certainly in terms of design) for the usually more grounded Lupin III franchise, and his origin, abilities, and identity swerves the story into incredibly unlikely sci-fi fantasy territory, a point made by an audience member during the Q&A. Koike explained he wanted Lupin and friends to face an enemy they couldn’t easily deal with, hence his completely broken physical skills. He looks so silly though, even if his incredibly strange fighting techniques are awesomely animated. Whoever designed Muom’s assless-chaps outfit probably needs to be shot — his bare butt-cheeks are practically main characters themselves. It’s hard to take him seriously without enough eye-rolling to cause a disabling attack of vertigo.
I don’t want to spoil too much about Immortal Bloodline’s Secret of Mamo’s links, because they’re a fun Easter egg for long term fans. I do kind of want to go back and revisit the film again though (despite only reviewing it a year ago), in view of the way Immortal Bloodline’s ending essentially ties straight into the beginning of the earlier movie. Certain scenes will make no sense to anyone who hasn’t seen it. This lack of accessiblity really limits the film’s audience, and that was obvious from the fairly muted reception it received from the SLA crowd. It’s not helped by a very slow start and some narrative doldrums in the middle. The characters are separated from each other for long periods of time, and as they’re not supposed to know each other very well yet, their interactions are lacking. It’s also not a very funny Lupin III film, with only a couple of moments eliciting muted giggles from the audience.
Far from the version of her we saw fronting her own thirteen episode TV show, here Fujiko Mine is reduced to mere eye candy and a supporting role at most. Early on, she’s stripped naked by creepy cultists and made to dance naked as part of a bizarre ritual. She accomplishes little else of note, other than to act as a pawn to be moved into place for her role in The Secret of Mamo. This is very much not a movie for Fujiko fans (unless they want to see her wearing almost nothing for the entire runtime, but that seems like a betrayal of her character.) My daughter, who accompanied me to the showing, was singularily unimpressed by Fujiko’s lack of agency, clothing, or purpose in The Immortal Bloodline.
Like many other Lupin stories, this is ultimately a daft caper, though with a cinematic sheen. However, in terms of structure and content it’s very different. Lupin’s not engaged in a heist, and for much of the runtime he’s more reactive than active, though that’s somewhat remedied towards the climax. Koike’s indisputable chops as an action director certainly shine through during incredibly smooth and detailed action sequences. The opening aeroplane crash is cool, and of course there’s a high-speed car chase/fight scene that’s very entertaining.
The extended battle aboard a grounded aircraft carrier swarmed by a horde of zombies is very reminiscent of modern Resident Evil games, rather than what one might expect from a Lupin III film. Koike even randomly crams in a dramatic tsunami sequence, while some of the less frenetic moments lean into the more psychedelic aspects of the setting, like the blood-red rivers, strange fauna and flora, and the creepy, pulsating, organic appearance of the island’s interior. As far as I can tell, no explanation is offered for why the island is covered in old weapons of war, like guns, bombs, tanks, and aircraft, which seems like a major oversight. I can’t help thinking my enjoyment of The Immortal Bloodline would have been enhanced with more context, which makes SLA’s decision to screen it before the essential previous OVAs a little frustrating. I imagine most attendees at the film probably hadn’t seen the OVAs either.
I would love if Anime Limited could release all four OVAs and movie as a nice collectors’ edition blu-ray set to sit alonsgside my Woman Called Fujiko Mine box. Perhaps if we’re lucky, they’ll announce they’ve got the UK physical media licence soon. As it is, I’m still glad I got the chance to experience The Immortal Bloodline, even if it feels like watching an anime TV season’s finale without seeing the previous episodes’ buildup. It’s a deeply flawed film that’s saved by some phenomenal action animation, but the plot is all over the place and full of holes only partially fillable with knowledge of the 1978 movie it’s been designed to prequelise.
Muom as a main antagonist is bizarre on so many levels, not all of them good. Takeshi Koike says he’s now finished with Lupin III (though would return if offered the chance). I was privileged to be given an opportunity to interview Koike prior to the screening, the transcript of which will be published on Anime News Network soon, so keep an eye out for that. I’m keen for him to go make something else now, he’s clearly got enough juice to make something properly wild, unconstrained from franchise conventions and expectations.
Lupin the IIIrd: The Immortal Bloodline
Director: Takeshi Koike
Screenplay: Yūya Takahashi
Based on: the manga Lupin the 3rd by Monkey Punch
Character designs: Takeshi Koike
Music: James Shimoji
Production companies : Telecom Animation Film and TMS Entertainment
JP distributor: Toho Next
JP premiere: 27th June 2025
UK distributor: Anime Limited
UK premiere: 31st October 2025
Language: Japanese audio with English subtitles
Runtime: 93 minutes
BBFC rating: 15
