Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon’s Blood Spray

Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon’s Blood Spray

Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon's Blood Spray anime movie cover art
Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon’s Blood Spray

Overview

Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon’s Blood Spray (Lupin the IIIrd: Chikemuri no Ishikawa Goemon / LUPIN THE IIIRD 血煙の石川五ェ門) is the third and final movie in the Lupin the IIIrd trilogy which also includes Fujiko’s Lie and Jigen’s Gravestone. Or at least it’s the third and final one I’ve watched.

Originally I was told that the chronological order was Fujiko’s Lie, Jigen’s Gravestone, then Goemon’s Blood Spray. However, after watching them all, I’m pretty sure Goemon’s Blood Spray comes first, or at least before Jigen’s Gravestone.

In Jigen’s Gravestone, we see the antagonist from Goemon’s Blood Spray briefly, and Lupin and Jigen recognize him. However, that didn’t really affect my viewing experience because the movies tell separate stories which are only loosely related.

And aside from the antagonist having a cameo in one of the other movies, this one is the most unrelated of them all. Of course, that largely has to do with the fact that it focuses on Goemon, who doesn’t appear in either of the other movies. He also barely made an appearance in the other Lupin movie I’ve seen, The Castle of Cagliostro.

There were also some other minor differences which set this movie apart from the other two in the trilogy, such as Fujiko having a different hair color and style. She almost didn’t seem like the same Fujiko from the other two movies — and this was the first of the three in which she wasn’t nude.

Unfortunately, despite this movie having the most action of the three, I actually found it to be the worst one. As I’ll discuss, the antagonist was clearly the least interesting of them all. And I didn’t really like how Lupin was basically a passenger along for the ride in this one.

Bermuda Ghost

The main antagonist of Goemon’s Blood Spray is a man who goes by the name Hawk, but is also referred to as the Bermuda Ghost. I think he’s called Hawk because it’s a bird of prey and he’s an assassin, but he got the nickname Bermuda Ghost because he was supposedly killed in Bermuda.

That last point is where Hawk’s supernatural ability comes into play. We don’t know how he came to possess this ability exactly, but I assume he was created with it by the same organization behind Binkam and Yael (who didn’t really have a supernatural ability other than looking like a zombie).

Hawk (the Bermuda Ghost) from the anime movie Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon's Blood Spray
Hawk (the Bermuda Ghost)

Hawk’s ability allows him to shrug off massive amounts of force and heat. In Bermuda he survived a carpet bombing, we saw him survive a turbine explosion in a ship, and he even survived falling off a cliff. However, unlike with Binkam, Hawk’s ability is never attempted to be explained.

We also have no idea why he has steel teeth. That’s just a thing he has. Perhaps his resistance to force and heat didn’t apply to his teeth, so he lost them all and replaced them with something as sturdy as the rest of his body.

So, Hawk has a few things about him which make him the worst antagonist of the three. He has an ability, but it’s not really explained and it’s not all that interesting anyway. He’s a lumberjack cowboy. And he just generally looks pretty stupid.

It really felt like Hawk was written too specifically to be the antagonist for Goemon. Goemon is the epitome of the Japanese stereotype, and Hawk is the epitome of the American stereotype. Also, because Hawk’s body is as strong as steel, they got to set up the whole idea that Goemon can cut through steel, which is a classic samurai trope.

Goemon’s Resolve

As I mentioned, Lupin takes a back seat in this movie compared to his role in the other two. He’s around for the entire thing, but the movie really focuses on the fact that Goemon wants to defend his honor by defeating Hawk without their fight being interfered with.

In Fujiko’s Lie, Lupin (and Jigen) were constantly rescuing Fujiko or otherwise distracting Binkam while she protected Gene (Jean?). And in Jigen’s Gravestone, Lupin was helping Jigen take down Yael. But in Goemon’s Blood Spray, Lupin and Jigen just kind of run away and watch.

They would get involved, but they know that Goemon doesn’t want them to. And in this way, although the movie is about Goemon, I felt that his resolve to do everything on his own made the movie a bit worse.

Goemon Ishikawa XIII from the anime movie Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon's Blood Spray
Goemon Ishikawa XIII

While I love sword wielding characters in anime, and Goemon definitely had some nice sword action towards the end of the movie, he’s surprisingly not my favorite of Lupin’s group. I think he might actually be at the bottom for me, below Jigen, Fujiko, and Lupin himself.

There was also that “training” montage part of the movie in which Goemon just got beat up by everything. I can’t say that really made me see him as a cool character, especially when he got bodied by that log at the waterfall.

But I guess it was confirmed that Goemon is the strongest member of Lupin’s group, so there’s that. We know he can cut bullets in half, so Jigen and Lupin can’t do anything to him (and Lupin says Goemon will kill them if they intervene). And I’m pretty sure Goemon wouldn’t get seduced by Fujiko either.

Conclusion

In the end, Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon’s Blood Spray is a 7/10 for me. It was a good movie with some good animation and fight choreography, but it just wasn’t as good as the previous two overall.

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2 Replies to “Lupin the IIIrd: Goemon’s Blood Spray”

  1. Didn’t Hawk show up as a cameo in “Fujiko’s Lie”?

    That would explain why this movie should be considered the final one chronologically and “Fujiko’s Lie” the first one.

    1. When Hawk showed up in Fujiko’s Lie, Lupin and Jigen already knew who he was, which is why this one comes before Fujiko’s Lie.

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