Lupin the Third the RPG?

 

I only this weekend heard that there was an RPG book in the works based on the long running anime Lupin the Third. Since I only recently got into this show (REALLY into it) I wanted to share some thoughts on it. 

I was maybe 15 years old give or take in the mid 80's when I went to a Los Angeles Sci Fi con over a Thanksgiving weekend (Loscon) where I met my first real sweetheart. She was tall, pretty and lithe (much like a certain fem fatale I'm going to discuss a lot in this post), and liked the same pop culture Sci Fi stuff I did. We hung around each other the entire weekend. For a teenager into sci fi, this was the unbelievable weekend to beat them all. She and I would go on to date for almost two years, but at this con we were inseparable. That is my number one memory of that weekend. But the second most memorable was discovering Lupin the Third. 

I didn't know about the character, but it was kind of a hit for both of us. To get away from our friends and spend some sitting close time in the dark we had ducked into a side hall showing Japanimation (what it was called then). The Lupin movie "Castle of Cagliostro" was playing. Now my only experience was with wholesome Japanese shows like Speed Racer, Kimba the White Lion, and Gigantor. But this was something else. With its gunplay, violence, nudity, and sex, it was more like watching something like Heavy Metal, but with all the giggly energy of most Japanese cartoons. It was only a half hour or so that we hung out in there, but we were digging it. Cool, crazy characters and sex. When Lupin reached out and pinched his nude ladies nipple, the castle behind them blowing up as if in reaction to that, we laughed our asses off. 

The uniqueness of it, and my new crush sitting next to me to seal the memory, Lupin was in my mind for the rest of my life though I saw no more of the series. But sometime after that con, a year, maybe two; I was with pals at the local arcade and saw "Cliff Hanger" and lost my shit. I had not seen the show again, but I recognized the characters right away. Lupin was all over the cabinet art of the machine (weirdly with a fat ass). This was the time of Dragons Lair, and apparently a company wanted to do a laserdisc arcade game but didn't have the money. So they licensed a couple of Lupin films to cut up into a laserdisc adventure with horrible English dialogue. I didn't play it much (it seemed very difficult) but I was fascinated. 

Over the years I have no idea why I never watched Lupin video tapes. I'm sure Lupin tapes were at the japaninmation sections of video stores, but there were other things I wanted to rent. I probably would have by the 90's, but I was gaga over anime series like Dragonball and Bubblegum Crisis and spent a lot of times on those. Anyway, with the death of the video store and no regular showing of Lupin anywhere (that I knew) I forgot about him for many years. 

Then I saw recently that Pluto TV, a free multi-channel streaming network had added a Lupin the Third channel! Pluto is known for show-based channels showing up from time to time for a few months (Baywatch channel, James Bond channel, Chef Ramsey channel, etc). So you get used to surprises like this. Long and short? I started watching Lupin. A fucking lot of Lupin. I'd be watching right now if I wasn't typing this. I'm in that zone of having found a new pop culture item I love but have yet to discover everything about it. A hot honeymood period. 

So there have been several mini series since the 70's (its based on a 1960's manga) and movies. And Pluto is showing them all. After even only a couple of episodes you are familiar with Lupin's major cast of characters: 

Arsene Lupin: an internationally infamous master thief. Lupin goes after only the most challenging heists, more often than not giving the athorities clues about when he will strike. Its not about the wealth so much; its about the quest. The game. With a disarming happy-go-lucky personality, Lupin is more hero than villain. His skill sets are vast and astounding. Besides all the abilities required to pull off almost impossible quests (great intellect, technological expertise, physical agility), he is a formidable gunman, hand to hand combatant. Like his allies he seems to be able to operate any form of vehicle, land, sea, or air. A ladies man through and through, Lupin's greatest love is Fujiko Mine (pronounced "meenay"). Fujiko has described him at times as "indestructible" and "immortal," and it seems true. He regular dodges hails of bullets, even from master gunmen. In fact, all the major players of the show seem to be superhuman in their abilities. 

Jigen: Lupins best friend. A former bodyguard and hitman, Jigen is probably the most skilled with firearms on the planet. Usually always carrying a Magnum .44, he has been shown to deflect bullets coming at him with his own well-placed shots. He is an affirmed woman hater, and constantly has to chastise Lupin over his weakness for Fujiko Mine. He is the voice of reason over Lupin's haphazard attitude and actions. 

Goemon: a modern samurai, when not training and meditating he joins Lupin on capers as part of his gang, and enforcer. With his sword he can block bullets, missiles, and can cut cars, helicopters, and even tanks in half with little effort, often from a distance. He has been shown leaping 50 feet and jumping from great heights, so to call him superhuman would be apropos. He doesn't seem to have the wide range of thief skills his partners possess, but those aren't' his bag. He's there as muscle, and powerful muscle it is. 

Fujiko Mine: originally your basic fem fatale, Fujiko quickly evolved into more than just Bond-girl eye candy. She is an international thief as Lupin is, but also compliments that with feminine wiles that get her out of danger as much as it does getting her INTO danger. Fujiko has always been aware of Lupins obsessive love for her (it's obvious to all), and uses it to her great advantage. Often working as part of his gang (depending on the particular series), she often regularly betrays them in order to get the loot for herself, leaving the gang in deathtrap situations, but knowing that there is nobody who can kill Lupin.

 When faced with danger She will often play the part of a crying damsel in distress, but in reality, Fujiko is fearless in most situations and just knows how to manipulate those around her.  Casual sex is never off the table for Fujiko, In all the series she is regularly nude, or at least topless. Shame is not a word in her world. Anything goes. Fujiko has shown that among the others she lacks the most conscious when it comes to killing. While the Lupin gang generally avoids it, Fujiko does what she has to do to get what she wants. 

Zenigata: A Japanese policeman and agent of INTERPOL, he has dedicated his life to capturing Lupin. Highly skilled himself, he is most often portrayed as an oaf, a buffoon for Lupin to antagonize with his escapades. 

There have been several Lupin series since the 70's, each with a differing style. Most do not reflect the gritty style of the original Manga, But the 2012 mini series The Woman Named Fujiko Mine comes closest. This is a departure from the general merry fun of the other series, being more of a psycho-sexual dark drama. Fujiko is the main character over the others here, and it tells the story of how Fujiko met Lupin and the rest of his eventual gang. 

Zenigata is the most different here. Instead of a comic foil, he is a serious detective oozing toxic masculinity. Having captured Fujiko at some point, he makes her have sex with hem in his office as other policemen peep through the keyhole, and enlists her to help him in return from staying off the hangman's noose. Rather than fall for her charms like most men, he calls her a "cheap ride" and a spitoon. But Lupin upon first meeting her is not so taken by her sexuality as his is by her sheer unique existence. A worthy foil and possible lover who is unlike any woman he has ever known. In this series Fujiko's past is also examined, repressed memories of a childhood of physical torture and abuse are coming to the forefront of her mind. But are they real? Are her compulsions for theft and sex a product of abuse, or is there more to it than that? 

This version of the show is my favorite, and anyone wanting to explore it should watch at least a couple of the sillier versions in order to have a blown mind from watching this one. It reminds me very much, in art style and vibe of the old Aeon Flux series. That surely must be an inspiration. 

OK, so how would all this make a game? Personally, I hate games that have you play as known characters from various properties. But the style and vibe of the series is solid. Big capers, highly skilled characters, odd and deadly rivals and foes. Who knows how the planned rpg will pan out, but I would hope character gen would be alot like a point-based supers game like Champions. With a stereotype as a basis. Cat Burgler (like Lupin), Gunman (like Jigen), melee specialist (Goemon), Seductress (guess who?). Other "classes" could include Wiseguy (mafia dude), Pilot, Mad Scientist, etc. Lots of points in one major skill, then spreading around to various other abilities. 

I think there are some fun games to be had with this genre. With a GM who is willing to do a LOT of prep on capers, and players willing to indulge in role play as well as thinking smart with capable characters, there are some great possibilities here. 

Now to go watch more Lupin. I hope Fujiko takes her top off in this episode. Just joking, she takes it off in most episodes...

Oriental Adventures & The Legend of Green Snake

I was going through a box of my older DVD’s last night, and came across my copy of the 1993 Hong Kong film Green Snake. I really love this movie, which I think I originally saw at the WLA revival theater The Nuart in the mid-late 90’s. I don’t know if there is a voice-over English version, but I hope not. The movie is so beautiful to look at (when the sadly terrible special effects are not on screen) and combined with the sing song native language it is almost mesmerizing, and part of the films charm (at least for a Yankee).

Wikipedia describes the film thusly:

Two snake spirits have been training for many centuries to take human form and experience the love, freedom and wisdom that is supposedly only available to humans. White Snake (Joey Wong) is the more experienced one and proceeds to get engaged with local scholar Hsui Xien (Wu Hsing-Kuo), with whom she plans to have a child which would complete her passage into the mortal realm. Green Snake (Maggie Cheung) is the younger and more impulsive of the two sisters and she is not yet quite sure about the benefits of the human world. The two snakes move into their magically created house and start a successful medical practice in the town.

Their enemies are a buffoonish Taoist and an overzealous Buddhist monk Fa Hoi (Vincent Zhao) who make various attempts to banish them from the human world. The monk thinks of himself as a keeper of the natural order of the world and is very prejudiced against spiritual beings seeking to improve themselves. He brings things to a head when he abducts White's husband from the human/spirit mixed marriage into his religious reeducation camp–styled temple.

Anyway, whenever I think of this film I think of Oriental Adventures (applying things that I like to gaming terms was a habit I never managed to fully lose after attaining it in childhood). Around 2003 I was into the second or third year of my gaming semi-retirement when I ran into an old player of mine at a suite party at Loscon in Los Angeles (a very rare sci fi con appearance by me) at around 2am. Lisa was from that period in the mid-90’s when almost all of my players were female and we were mostly doing Call of Cthulhu and Champions. Lisa, pretty high on joy juice, talked about how much she loved the old games, and raved to her fairly new husband about my DM’ing prowess (of course a party at a convention is the perfect place to hear that). It was decided right there that I would be doing up some games for these guys and whoever in the near future. At the husband Jeff’s request I would be doing some Oriental Adventures (something I hadn’t run since around 1990). Current player in my group Terry, who had played with Lisa in most of those 90’s games and was Lisa’s roommate back then, was up for it as well so there we were doing OA on a semi-monthly basis on weekends for awhile.

The movie Green Snake had a heavy influence on many of those games for me. For one thing, Lisa ran a Hengeyokai, and I tweaked that race just a little to match the changelings of Green Snake (animal spirits who spend many years of training and meditation to change into the higher human form). Then there was the super-powered, self-righteous monk of the film who both admires and distrusts the White and Green Snakes, Fa Hoi. I totally ripped-him off to create Tai Seng, a monk who I used as and NPC to guide the players towards various adventures and activities (he was not a prick like the movie version…for the most part).

Anyway, take a look at my favorite scene from the film, where the snakes White and Green make their transformation to beautiful human form on the roof of a tavern during a rainstorm, while a wedding/orgy goes on inside (little nudity so be careful at work). Maybe you’ll get the chance to watch in it’s entirely at some point. If you are going to run OA in the future, I demand you watch it! It might give you some great ideas as well.