How Miyazaki Redefined the Anti-Hero

Michael corleon Travis Bickle Harry Callahan papey Doyle these are a few of the names that make up the catalog of anti-heroes a model that became more prevalent in film during the 1960s and70s they served as the main protagonists of their respective stories but for all intents and purposes their actions made them out to be villains these characters reflected a Grimm time in the world and specifically in America as the country was enveloped in numerous issues from the war in Vietnam to the upheaval of society in the wake of the civil rights movement and the questioning of authority following the tortous presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon things were not so great in Japan either like America and other Western Nations the country took economic hits due to an oil and energy crisis though Japan had bounced back significantly in their economic growth following World War II the 1970s brought with it St flation though things did not look up for the country efforts were still made to entertain people both on television and in the movie theaters one such property of entertainment was the creation by manga artist kazui Kato known by his pen Nam monkey punch with a cool collected and generally optimistic anti-hero Luben [Music] III Luben II was first developed and released as a manga series in 1965 initially inspired by the fictional French the AR lupon Monkey Punch also took some inspiration from James Bond mainly in his use of gadgets his calm composure in difficult situations and his affinity for women in addition to Lupin Monkey Punch supported him with a strong cast of colleagues and allies lupin's main Ally is daug Ean an expert Marksman with a wide array of weapons another common Ally Goan Ishikawa the 13th is a descendant of respected Samurai whose sword zantetsuken can cut through nearly every object his rival fujii Min is an expert Thief herself and usually has an advantage over lopin thanks to her feminine charms her main interest is in herself meaning that depending on the situation she will either help or hinder Lupin lupin's main antagonist inspector koichi zenigata is a police officer who is constantly trying to find and arrest Lupin the initial mango only lasted for 2 years but the character gained popularity allowing for the creation of an animated series the series titled Lupin the thir part one further grew the popularity of Lupin maintaining much success by the time that Miyazaki was approached to direct a feature film about him the first film The Mystery of mammo had released back in 1978 gonnering much success and popularity mizaki himself was not unfamiliar with the character in fact he and Eau takaha had co-directed some episodes of the television series back in 1971 and 72 under the intense pressure of a 6 to 7mth production schedule mizaki worked hard with his animation staff to deliver the film on time after this difficult production process Miaki finally finished the castle costro which was subsequently released in December of 19 1979 the film opens with Lupin and Jan fleeing from a casino with a humongous amount of stolen money only coming to realize that the money they stole was actually counterfeit Lupin decides that he and jigan will investigate the source of the counterfeit bills so they head to where it is believed the bills are coming from the grand duche of costro as they make their way to the Grand duy the two are passed on the road by a woman in a wedding dress who's being chased by a group of armed thugs they bring Aid to the young woman who turns out to be unconscious in her car Lupin rescues her but after totaling her car and following off a cliff he is knocked [Music] unconscious the woman runs off after being spotted by a boat leaving behind a signant ring coming to Lupin recognizes the emblem on the ring and drives with J to the former royal castle in costro which was destroyed in a fire looking onto the New Castle Lupin recalls once being in costro and narrowly escaping it he also spots in dock the boat that took the young woman hostage it turns out that the castle was run by count kostro region of the country who plans on marrying Clarice the princess of costro and the same woman loping in Chan ran into the count plans to marry her in order to recover the fabled ancient Treasure of Costo for which he needs both his and clarice's ancestral Rings sometime later Lupin finds out about this in a local restaurant as well as the fact that he and jigan are being spied on that night a squad of Assassins attack Lupin and Jan at their in but they escape as they escape Lupin leaves his calling card on the back of jod do the coun Butler and chief assassin who returns to the count after trying to kill him Lupin announces that he is going to steal Clarice overhearing this conversation is fujo who is posing as Clarissa's lady in waiting the next day Lupin summons Goan and tips off inspector zenigata who meets with the c to give him protection Lupin devises a plan to sneak into the castle through the sewers as he and Jan make their way through the waterways Lupin falls into some gears and gets separated from Jan fortunately he makes it into the castle through a fountain while also spotting zenigata disguised as zenigata Lupin lures away the guards and makes his way into the inner parts of the castle while zenigata ends up trapped in the Castle's catacombs the count becomes aware of lupin's presence and allows him to keep pursuing Clarice Lupin meets up with fujo who informs him that Clarice is in the castle tower after a daring jump from the main Castle I mean seriously look at this masterful [Music] jump Lupin makes his way to Clarice and returns her ring bowing to help her to escape however the count catches Lupin and drops him down a trap door into the catacombs retrieving the ring the ring turns out to be a fake however causing the count to send three assassins to retrieve the real one from Lupin in the catacombs Lupin encounters inata and they form a pack to help each other Escape after overpowering the Assassins they escape into a room full of printing presses which turns out to be the source of the counterfeits which costro is used throughout history to form a global Shadow Empire realizing this is zenigata wants to collect evidence to expose the crime but lupid points out they Must Escape The Castle first they start a fire as a distraction and steal the Count's Auto gyro but as they attempt to rescue Clarice Lupin is seriously wounded the count offers to let Lupin go if Clarice offers the ring to him but if not he'll kill him Clarice gives the count her ring but as she approaches him zenigata crashes into the tower allowing Fujiko and Lupin to escape as Lupin recovers from his injuries zenigata tries convincing his superiors at Interpol to prosecute the count for counterfeiting interal fears political repercussions however so they halt the investigation and remove Z from the case Lupin intends to stop the wedding and rescue the princess revealing to his companions that 10 years earlier she had saved his life during an unsuccessful first attempt to find the treasure of kostro fuigo tips off Lupin regarding how to sneak into the castle and forms a plan with zenigata to publicly reveal the counterfeiting operation under the cover of pursuing Lupin the wedding commences as planned with Clarice inhibited by the count but Lupin disrupts the ceremony and makes off with Clarice in both of the Rings to expose the Count's operations zenigata leads fujo posing as a TV reporter to the counts printing facility exposing the country's counterfeiting scheme after a bunch of Shenanigans in the clock tower the count finally Corners Lupin and Clarice on the clock Tower's face Lupin attempts to trade the Rings for clarice's Life by explaining that placing them in the sockets of the Goat Face on the clock will reveal pagalo's treasure the count agrees to the proposition but soon betrays Lupin causing him and C to fall into the castle note he places the Rings into the two sockets which causes the clock arms to converge together and kill the count also giving a bit of a satisfying click the council's moat then drains revealing well preserved ruins of ancient Rome the true Treasure of cagliostro after walking through the ancient ruins Clarice tells Lupin that she doesn't want him to go even expressing her willingness to become a thief like him Lupin gently rejects her and he and his friends Bid Farewell to Clarice with zenigata pursuing Lupin again for the crime of stealing the recent [Music] time Luben II is not an original Miyazaki property despite that he and the animation staff took it upon themselves to move the character into a new Direction recalling working with the source material Miyazaki stated quote I like the energy of this comic Beyond his drawing sense I felt the overwhelming energy and hungry Spirit from the author that is why Lupin theii himself got much of the same characteristics he was not a cool unaffected fellow I believe that he was a reflection of Monkey Punch himself back then we found ourselves in common with his hungry Spirit as anime creators he went on to say that he felt that by the time the first film had come out Luben had run his course and had nowhere to go working on the film however Miyazaki became determined to reinvent the character given that he felt it a challenge to continue with Lupin nonetheless he found a way in making Lupin both intriguing and recognizable in the film Miyazaki keeps many of lupin's trademarks intact like his Playboy attitude and affinity for bondik gadgets but he also presents a more mature side to him one that has never very surprised or overly concerned about the situation he's in this is a Lupin that has as some people have commented grown up under the direction of Miyazaki Lupin also shows a great level of optimism though things were Grim in the world around the time of Lupin there were also glimmers of hope it's important to note that kagra came out around the time that Star Wars was released which subtly ushered in a small albeit strong sense of optimism watching the film I also think that Lupin carries the same sentiment this is in stark contrast to how Lupin had been in the past where he fit in with the mood and attitude of the early' 70s the changes also appeared in The Supporting Cast who also presented more upbeat personalities compared to their former interpretations while not exactly a direct Evolution from Conan kagos does retain the certain elements that make it seem familiar the count is very much like Lepa in both his thirst for power and disregard for most of those who are under them Clarice to is like Lana who holds the key in the case of a ring to the desired end that the antagonist desires Lupin to some degree acts like a grown-up Conan especially in his calm composure in difficult situations the most obvious trademark of Miaki that I observed when watching this was his use of Silence specifically in the scene with the old castle what Miyazaki accomplishes with silence is for the plot to take a bit of a breather though not to the point where the viewer forgets what's happening rather the extended silence allows for the viewer to become more attached to the character or to get inside the character's mind and motivations Miyazaki doesn't always use silence like this but the fact that it is used in this film is something that I believe is key to the rest of his Works despite the connections to Conan and his use of Silence kagal lacks most of Miaki ofly trademarks there is no grand theme about how technology and nature interact the cruelties of war or the magic and youth mystery kagoo sort of exists as part of the loopin Anthology though the film is not an original property from Miyazaki it does share some of the core elements that would become staple trade marks of his later works from what I could gather it has become the most popular of the Lumin films and in some sense gave the character a path forward even to the present day with both Lop in I thir the 1 and Lop in I third part 6 being very well [Music] received going into the 1980s me iaki remained very busy in fact he returned to direct two episodes of the second loopin series lopin the third part two gaining much success from kostro he began to seek out the rights to adapt the comic book Ral but unfortunately he was unsuccessful in his efforts and the adaptation would never see the light of day in between the smaller projects that he worked on Miyazaki also started writing for the magazine animage which allowed him to draw sketches for possible projects by late 1981 Anie maage allowed him to take on a new project one that would fulfill his early earlier dreams in life the ability to create a [Music] [Music] manga you

Channel: Centennial Pictures

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Id: 1M5CX-IeSRc

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2024