Review: Part 6 “Episode 22 ~ My Mother's Documents”
Welcome to our episode review of Lupin III: Part 6!
Our review is from the perspective of a “hardcore” Lupin III fan, who has seen every episode, film, and special the series has had to offer since its animated inception in 1969. The author's perspective on modern anime however, is lacking. When it comes to anime, we exclusively watch Lupin III, so cannot compare it to other shows on the market. Instead, we can only compare it with Lupin media of the past.
Be aware that there are SPOILERS ahead.
Please only read on if you either have seen the episode already, or do not mind learning about important character interactions and pivotal plot points in advance.
Content warning: both this episode and review contains discussion regarding assault, suicide and rape.
“Episode 22 ~ My Mother’s Documents” is the final guest-written episode of Lupin III: Part 6, and is written by acclaimed director Koichi Chigira (Full Metal Panic!, Last Exile, Brave Story).
The plot of the episode ties into the main story arc of the show’s second act. At this point, this sees both Lupin III and Mattea searching for history about and the location of their tutor and mother figure, Tomoe.
Mattea, the once heroine now villain, is a wanted fugitive, and is currently being hunted down by Inspector Zenigata. Lupin appears to be unaware of this fact—and as a result, it is likely the pair will lock horns in a future episode. Mattea’s innocence makes her a dangerous foe—especially for our hero Lupin, who is known to have a soft spot for damsels in distress.
I had high hopes for this episode, as, although I only viewed it once, I adored Last Exile.
At the time, back when I watched it in around 2010, I felt the series had some wonderful animation, fun characters, and an interesting world. The plot kept me interested throughout, and I felt it was one of the better animes I had seen—beside Lupin III, of course!
With that said, I think seeing Koichi Chigira’s name attached to Lupin III set my expectations a little too high. I felt that despite his involvment, My Mother’s Documents retained many of the same problems Part 6 has faced thus far, such as poor pacing and editing. It spends a lot of time building up to a rather messy and confusing pay-off, that just did not work for me.
In episode twenty-two, a young lady named Finn is searching for information on her deceased mother, Mariel. In an effort to do this, Finn treks up to the snowy North, to the place where she was born sixteen years ago.
Unfortunately, Mariel had to leave America and live with friends during the time leading up to Finn’s birth, and ultimately, her death. The reason for this, while not entirely clear, appears to be, trigger warning, assault and rape.
In reading her diary, Finn had discovered that her mother was in love with a boy named Sean, which she had assumed may be her father. The rather horrific truth is unveiled via a phone call logged by Mariel in an audio diary, which not only makes it clear that Allen is likely the girl’s father, but also that the sex was not with her consent.
This results in an argument between the boys, and eventually gun shots can be heard. The pair become murdered in cold blood by a lady with a pistol, who then proceeds to off herself, after saying the line “madam, did I do a good job”? This implies that Tomoe is the one behind the murder, likely raising plenty of questions from the viewer—why were both boys murdered, what could have happened to cause this, and just what is Tomoe’s deal?!
Both Lupin and Mattea, who had been listening in on the audio diaries as Finn has been broadcasting them on Twitter Spaces, show up at the house in which she is staying.
Lupin, in partial disguise, decides to rush in through the front door and ensure young Finn is okay, after hearing her freak out on the Spaces broadcast. In his hand are some flowers, which he decides to leave with the family as a parting gift. These also act as a present for Finn’s sixteenth birthday, which we can assume is the reason as to why she made the trip up North in the first place, as she is now considered old enough to travel alone.
As all of this is happening, Mattea simply watches on from a nearby rooftop, and proclaims that Tomoe has “failed”, after reviewing the footage from the school shooting on her cell phone.
While suspenseful, the climax felt incredibly confusing, and difficult to follow.
If there is something to commend My Mother’s Documents for, it would be the scene in which we see both Lupin and Mattea listening in on the Twitter Space broadcast whilst abroad. This was a part of the episode I did enjoy.
Despite her small following and initial lack of listeners, Finn continues to document her audio logs and time spent up North, just as her mother did in both her written diary and via cassette tape all of those years ago. Broadcasting her findings online, unaware of what the consequences may be, felt like a very sixteen-year-old thing to do, and seeing both Mattea and Lupin enter the chat was a neat moment.
The shots of Mattea waltzing down a railway track, engrossed in the audio logs whilst unaware of oncoming trains, made for a neat shot, and it felt like a clever use of technology without stepping too much into Part 5’s territory.
Speaking of shots like this—the animation as a whole in this episode felt fine. While there were no big action scenes or daring car chases, what it did feature was a noticeable step-up from the episode prior, for example. I do hope this level of animation quality continues on into the finale.
Part 6 is trying to do something twisted and complicated as it approaches the finale, and I find that I am just not invested enough in the story for it to have any effect.
This is mostly down to three things;
One, it does not necessarily feel like Lupin. There are some fun moments peppered in with the gang, but in my eyes, the reason for this comes off as the writers lacking confidence in their work. It simply seems like a way of reminding the audience, that yes, you are still watching Lupin, despite it not feeling like it. The majority of this episode could have been of any other anime, in terms of story, animation style, and even the music (Yuji Ohno’s work has felt woefully underused, this season).
The second reason is down to the pacing of the show as a whole, and in the story episodes themselves. The majority of Part 6 has felt like a hot mess. It has gone from Sherlock Holmes, to one-shots based on classic crime fiction, to Tomoe’s arc, to Mattea’s villain arc, all mixed together and all riddled with further one-shots in-between. This has resulted in so much stopping and starting, it has made the relatively complex story focussed episodes even harder to follow.
Third is the lack of consistency, partially caused by the above, and also suspected to be caused by the regular turnover of staff. One moment, the story is not taking itself seriously, where we see Lupin skating around the streets or confessing his love to a mermaid dressed Fujiko, and the next, we are covering topics such as suicide, assault, and rape. While I appreciate the flexibility of the characters and the Lupin series, the package of Part 6 does not feel compelling or consistent enough to pull this off. It feels as if the show is having an identity crisis, and one like we have never seen before.
I cannot help but look forward to its end, so we can move on from it.
My Mother’s Documents feels like an episode building up to something bigger, and reviewing it as a standalone felt difficult to do.
Rather than think ahead about what Part 6 could do to wrap itself up nicely, instead, I could not help but be reminded of the faults it has experienced thus far. Many of the things I have disliked about this latest season are present in this episode, and while the second act’s plot has certainly been stronger than the first, I am now concerned it may not stick its landing.
Only time will tell, as we are now only a couple of weeks out from the big finale.
