Well well well… seems like there was more of a method to all this madness.
We find out in this episode that the “Court of Owls” was behind that first, seemingly-one-off adventure with the drug cult, and I suspect we’ll find out that most (if not all) the other, seemingly-one-off affairs were just parts of a bigger puzzle. At the moment, it looks like that puzzle is some Wolverine-like secret origin for Ms. Mine, revealing her to be some semi-amnesiac, quasi-superhuman creation of this nefarious cabal of mutants.
At least, that’s what it’s looking like. Things get very TWIN PEAKS on Lupin as he tries to navigate this Caroll-esque funhouse where nothing is ever as it seems. Got to respect the man for maintaining his signature sarcasm throughout the craziness, applying a sharper sort of dream logic to his dealing with the ghostly doppelganger of Fujiko’s younger self, in particular. You get the sense that it's been honed by years of dealing with every other sort of craziness.
Actually, that’s a “trope” I’ve always found a little irksome in most adventure serials like this - - when you’ve seen a hero overcome some of the most fantastical obstacles, it’s harder to believe that he'd have a hard time wrapping his head around some smoke and mirrors.
Getting back to Ms. Mine and her origin, I suspect that this is the part where the show’s radical reinterpretation of the LUPIN III gets especially radical. I’ve gotten the sense that, by the end, THE WOMAN CALLED FUJIKO MINE will have brought more to the brand than just an edgy art style and swapping of character focuses. Again, it seems like the crew’s going to push the characters into areas they’ve never been allowed to go into during any previous iteration of the show.
Watch this episode, "Ghost Town" here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here. Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
