What do you do when you run into a bulletproof guy who seems to generate fire on a whim and float? That’s the basis of this episode, introducing the second villain who will recur in the series, but the first who originated in the manga. Pycal — Paikaru, as he’s known in the comic, I’ll explain this in a second — joined the cast in issue 14 of the manga, so he’s been around for quite some time.
What’s in a name? In the anime, Lupin references multiple times that Pycal’s name sounds like something he could get drunk off of. This makes no sense with Pycal’s English name (which, as far as I’m aware, was decided by TMS, but if anyone wants to correct me on this, let me know), but his Japanese name is Paikaru. It’s another name for the Chinese sorghum liquor, Baijiu.
Anyway, we start with the red-haired dude we’ve never seen before being woken up to be absolutely annihilated by bullets. He falls to the ground, obviously dead…but is he? He opens an eye and gets up, and then: Title, let’s go see what our main cast is doing.
Lupin and Jigen are hanging out at the hideout. Lupin is fishing (one of his regular hobbies; actually it’s something all the boys seem to enjoy), and Jigen is practicing his shooting. Dinner acquired, the men go inside, where Fujiko is singing in the shower (which Jigen thinks sounds horrible). We get a full rear shot of very naked Fujiko, and then it’s the boys preparing dinner, where we learn Lupin is terrified of octopus. This will come up again in Legend of the Gold of Babylon, but oddly is countered in Part Zero’s promotional material, which featured an octopus bento box.
Dinner is about ready to eat when the red-haired dude we saw before comes in and burns everything to shit, including Jigen and Lupin. He’s on the hunt for some slides, and Lupin and Jigen attempt every sort of firearm they have to try to get him to stop, but it’s impossible: he’s completely bulletproof. Also Lupin is really bad at naming guns, almost every single name of the firearms he threatens Pycal with is incorrect.
Fujiko has twisted her way around both Lupin and Pycal, trying to figure out the value of these slides and what exactly they do. Pycal puts on another threat display, there’s a car chase involving a plane, Fujiko is threatened, Jigen does his best to continue being a threat to a bulletproof man (hard to do when your one thing is guns) who can now float.
It’s a bit of a clusterfuck, to be honest, though it follows the manga to some degree (minus all the sex). It also takes aspects from classic spy movies — having to layer slides on top of one another to find the secret formula — and things from not-so-classic-on-American-shores Japanese crime comedies (Pycal’s car, is also seen in the movie Danger Pays, which is fantastic).
Of course, our heroes win, after some close calls, and Pycal plunges to his possible death. He’ll be returning later in the very aptly named Return of Pycal Original Video Animation, and he’ll be seen again in the anniversary special Is Lupin Still Burning…? but that involves time travel so it sorta doesn’t count towards the actual continuity.
Is this episode worth watching? It definitely gives more feel to Lupin, Jigen, and Fujiko’s relationships, which is beneficial this early in the series! Entirely worth a watch.
Nipple Sightings: Pycal, but only once, the rest of the episode he lacks nipples
Does anybody die: Technically Pycal LOOKS like he dies, but he comes back later in the series
Trigger Warnings: Lupin is a bit of a perv to Fujiko, but she hits him with a vase.
Has it been dubbed in English? Yes, it’s available streaming on HIDIVE and on blu-ray.
Personal Rating:
4/8 bullets from a Walther P38. Middle-of-the-road, but a classic spy adventure story crammed into twenty minutes.