Arsene Lupin's Legend Continues In Spandex This February 11, 2018

Without Super Hero Time this week, I thought I'd take a bit of a break but I was wrong. Instead, I decided to come up with a wacky post following my reaction to the updates of the upcoming Super Sentai series. My assumption right now is that both Lupin Red and Pato Red may actually be descendants of Lupin and Inspector Ganimard (whose Lupin III part is Detective Zenigata). But what about the Lupin mythos?

The character known as Arsene Lupin is a fictional character by French writer Maurice Le Blanc who was born on November 11, 1864 and died on November 6, 1941. Lupin is portrayed to be a gentleman thief - someone who steals not for material gain but for thrill. Sometimes, such a person is even the act of correcting a moral wrong, stealing wealthy targets and only particular, rare and challenging objects. If Arthur Conan Doyle wrote Sherlock Holmes then Le Blanc wrote a possible rival in Lupin III.

The Arsene Lupin novels may have been very old but the legend lived for decades in one form or another. It was said that Monkey Punch nearly had a lawsuit with Le Blanc's estate but the copyright had somehow long expired (this is just Wikipedia so be careful). Lupin III would have two Manga series - Lupin III and Lupin III: World's Most Wanted. The first ran from August 10, 1967 to May 27, 1969. The second series ran from June 23, 1977 to May 28, 1981. The Anime series was also divided into two seasons. The first one aired from October 24, 1971 up to March 26, 1972. A second season came on October 3, 1977 and ended on October 6, 1980.

There was also the cartoon series from France known as Night Hood which premiered on June, 15, 1996 but only lasted for 22 episodes. Night Hood is not in the same continuity as Lupin III and neither is Detective Zenigata the descendant of Inspector Ganimard. The series also featured the main villain H.R. Karst who is a weapons manufacturer. I remembered watching this cartoon and later comparing it to the much older Lupin III Anime. I had no idea that Lupin III was actually based on a French novel, a Japanese "sequel" was made and that Night Hood's character is actually an alternate version of the first Arsene Lupin.

The idea of actually integrating it into heroes in spandex may make a good comedy. I could imagine it where Patored is actually Zenigata's descendant and Lupin Red is Lupin's descendant. Talk about keeping a grudge for that long. However, they like their ancestors before them end up in scenarios where they both have to team up against a great enemy. The Lupinrangers and Patorangers must put their differences aside if they want to save humanity - though it may end up in several broken alliances. I can't wait to see how Arsene Lupin's story gets integrated into spandex.


Granted, we've got producer Takaaki Utsunomiya involved. He may have thought of the scene from Gokaiger though it would be so six years ago. Remember that scene when Marvelous ran into Jasmine? I still can't forget the moment that Jasmine nearly arrested Marvelous because he's a wanted man. I guess the producer was thinking about what if one Super Sentai was a group of thieves (Lupinranger) and the other group is a group of policemen (Patoranger). I guess they wanted to create a Captain Marvelous 2.0 though it's too early to say that... until we've seen the show in action. Hopefully, both Ryota Ozawa and Mitsuomi Takahashi will guest star as somebody else.

What also entered into my head would be the artifacts left behind the first Arsene Lupin called the Lupin Collection. Are we having Boukenger mixed into it? It's most likely that because those artifacts could either save the world or destroy the world. It's like how the Boukengers must make sure that the Precious don't fall into the wrong hands. In real life, innovation can either bring progress or destruction. Such a wonderful thing as innovation is dangerous in the wrong hands.

It's too early to think how it'll be but I hope it modernizes the legacy of Arsene Lupin one way or another. Should we assume that this story takes place in a super distant future? Let's just wait and see!