Lupin III/Recap/S2/E23

"Witch of the Fourth-Dimension", with the English title "Auntie Ballistic". Released in 2004 by Geneon on Volume 5: Mission Irresistible.

Inspector Zenigata arrives at Paris police headquarters to investigate the rumor that Lupin has been living in a suburb nearby. While the chief confirms the rumors, he explains that Arsene Lupin I (and by extension, his grandson) are considered a national treasure of sorts, and therefore he cannot go after the master thief. Zenigata leaves, disgusted. After he departs, the chief chuckles in a familiar voice; it is, of course, Lupin himself. Outside, Zenigata rants about the French people's crazy attitude, but he trails off when he spots Fujiko riding in a car with a man who is clearly not Lupin. However, Zenigata remains unconvinced, hijacking a nearby taxi and taking off after the duo until he wrecks that car. Upon which, he hijacks another car and crashes it. And again...

At Lupin's mansion, Lupin is playing a game of chess against a sophisticated robot. Annoyed by being abandoned by Fujiko, he lets his temper get the better of him when he starts losing and ends up in a fight with the robot that ends most destructively. Jigen urges Lupin to calm down, but is interrupted by a phone call from the lady herself. Jigen asks her to hold for a moment and goes to discuss the situation with Goemon, but the two hear Lupin jump out the window after figuring out who was on the phone. Leaping into his car, Lupin happily goes off to meet with his favorite gal. Not even Zenigata or a roadblock can stop him as he heads for a villa that Fujiko rented in Ledgeo, Italy.

Upon ariving at the villa, however, Lupin is greeted by two men firing machine guns and bazookas at him. Lupin manages to survive (though his car nearly doesn't), and ends up crashing what's left into a second story window. He runs for the sound of Fujiko's laughter within, but instead finds a holographic version of her. The curtains in the room draw back to reveal the two men, on either side of a very large older lady.

The woman explains she is Bujiko Mine, Fujiko's aunt, and she used her niece's name and image to get Lupin to come and help her on a little treasure hunt. Bujiko has information about Rommel's treasure of buried gold, hidden somewhere in the Sahara Desert; she naturally needs the master thief to help her find it. Lupin refuses, however, still reeling from his encounter with the curse of the gold mask of King Tut. He tries to escape, but stops when Jigen and Goemon are brought in, captured by Bujiko's men. After sitting through a lecture on the history of the treasure delivered by the holographic Fujiko, Lupin decides it's not so bad after all and sets about decoding the hieroglyphics. After hours of pouring over books, he gets completely frustrated, but can't give up when Fujiko's hologram reveals that if he can't find an answer, Bujiko's men will kill him at dawn. After hours more work, he stumbles across the code at the last minute and goes to report his findings to Bujiko.

The gang, Aunt Bujiko, and her men, travel to a point off of the Tunisian coast. There, Lupin finds undersea ruins referencing the Falcon of Malta, which he uses to calculate the correct location. With Lupin's coordinates and plot, Bujiko decides she no longer needs the thieves and orders them to jump overboard. However, distracted by insults from Jigen and Goemon, Lupin throws a smoke bomb and Goemon cuts the motorboat in half. Their half still working, Lupin and his gang ride off, leaving Bujiko behind on her sinking ship.

The gang makes their way to El-Alamein, the "garden of the devil" and site of where the British forces dug in while fighting Rommel's army. There, they dig a hole amid the ruined tanks and military vehicles, succeeding in finding Rommel's stash of gold bars. That night, however, Bujiko and her men approach Lupin's gang. When she orders her men to take the gold, they fall into a sinkhole, the remains of one of Rommel's old trenches. Without her men to back her, Lupin proposes he, Jigen, Goemon, and Bujiko split the gold four ways. Before Bujiko can agree, Lupin borrows Zantetsuken and makes a few slices at Bujiko. Her hat splits and her face and body fall away to reveal a rather scantily clad Fujiko. She agrees to the split as Lupin, gallant as ever, offers her his jacket against the cold desert air.

This episode features examples of:
"Taxi Driver: Who are you?
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: Goemon cuts a motorboat in half lengthwise. He apparently does it so well the motor still works!
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: Lupin's chess playing robot, which calls him a loser and gets into a fight with him.
 * Berserk Button: Don't call Bujiko ugly. Please, don't.
 * Call Back: A rare one for Shin Lupin III, when Lupin freaks out over the hieroglyphics. They remind him of his encounter with King Tut's curse.
 * Celebrity Impersonator: Zenigata, in a moment of snark:

Zenigata: I'm Jerry Lewis! *hijacks cab*

Taxi Driver: You've lost weight!"

"Robot: Ooo, I'm scared. Come on, ass-deleted, you want a piece of this?"
 * Cough Snark Cough: Zenigata does this twice behind his hat to the police chief.
 * Hero Stole My Bike: Zenigata, although he chooses to stop his targets via gun.
 * Implausible Fencing Powers: Lupin has apparently been taking lessons from Goemon, as he removes Fujiko's disguise without injuring her.
 * Latex Perfection: Lupin of the police chief.
 * Marshmallow Hell: Lupin, though alas for him it is Aunt Bujiko and not Fujiko.
 * Trash Talk: Lupin's chess-playing robot.