Lupin III: Angel Tactics Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		4.0

Lupin III: Angel Tactics Blu-ray Movie Review

Lupin III: Angel Tactics is one of the best Lupin feature-film television special produced in the 2000s. The film is the 17^th television special in the long-running franchise. Produced by Hiromichi Oishi (Lupin III: Episode 0 'First Contact', Requiem from the Darkness) and Toshio Nakatani (Lupin III: Crisis in Tokyo, Death Note), Lupin III: Angel Tactics first aired on the Nippon Television Network.

Created by Monkey Punch, Lupin remains an essential anime in both its theatrical and television form. Lupin III: Angel Tactics features animation produced by Tokyo Movie (The Adventures of Gamba, Case Closed). Lupin fans are in for another special treat with this exciting television-special installment.

Inspector Zenigata (Gorō Naya) is still determined to catch master thief Lupin III (Kanichi Kurita). Unlike in past ventures to capture Lupin, Zenigata is now joined by a new ally: Emily O'Brian (Naoko Matsui). Though Zenigata now has someone joining him on the cat-and-mouse chase, Lupin III still manages escape after escape.

The latest mission for Lupin involves stealing the Original Metal from Area 51. Encounters with aliens are imminent. The Area 51 territory has been housing aliens and Lupin is pursuing the treasure of the metal while persevering against Zenigata.  The metal is said to be an extremely rare sample from space.

Can Lupin get the metal, avoid the aliens, and emerge as the victorious hero? It’s not an ordinary mission with aliens in the way. Goemon (Makio Inoue) and Jigen (Kiyoshi Kobayashi) will do what they can to be helpful along the way – even if aliens get in the way this time around.

The trouble doesn’t end there. A group of mysterious women known as the “Bloody Angels” are also after the Original Metal and seek it to help them fight back against the powers of the United States. Perhaps the beautiful Fujiko Mine (Eiko Masuyama) can help with the latest (mis)adventure. The adventure soars with aliens, elite fighters, and more.

The characters lead the film and make the production all the more memorable. Lupin is a great and compelling lead character. Without Lupin, Lupin III: Angel Tactics just wouldn’t be the same. The character of Lupin makes the anime the special creation that it is. The supporting cast is great. Supporting characters add a lot to the film and the journey.

Fujiko Mine remains the counterpoint to Lupin and without her Lupin III: Angel Tactics would lose an abundance of charisma carrying everything in the film to the exciting conclusion of the story. Goemon and Jigen are great friends and allies to Lupin. Without the entire ensemble, the filmmaking wouldn’t be as significant. The team element is something that adds a lot to the film. There is a sort of Mission: Impossible vibe to Lupin III and the ensemble missions and this is well-felt in this entry (with some of the best team-up moments I have seen in any of the Lupin television specials).

The character designs by Satoshi Hirayama (Lupin III: Crisis in Tokyo, Lupin III: the Last Job) are excellent and provide the characters with the right sense of detail – the kind of detail that makes the franchise so successful. These designs certainly have a good amount of artistic merit and achieve an aesthetic that is simultaneously modern in approach and also faithful to the roots of the series and films.

The animation is stunning in Lupin III: Angel Tactics. The animation in the Lupin III: Angel Tactics special is amongst the best in the television film series. The art direction by Takashi Miyano (Lupin III: Crisis in Tokyo, Lupin III: The Secret of Twilight Gemini) is fantastic looking and there is a sense of creativity that shines throughout. There is a sense of artistry in the animation and this adds a great depth to the film.

The chief animation direction by Satoshi Hirayama (Cat's Eye, Lupin III: Elusiveness of the Fog) brings out the best in the animation. Alongside supporting animation directors Eiji Ishimoto (Rent-A-Girlfriend, Strike Witches) and Toshimitsu Kobayashi (If Her Flag Breaks, The Legend of the Legendary Heroes), Lupin III: Angel Tactics achieves an impressive aesthetic. The animators brought their A-game to the production and the filmmaking soars. The animators also managed to do a great job using the creative storyboards of Shigeyuki Miya and Tetsuji Nakamura.

The cinematography by Shingo Shimoyama is a highlight of Lupin III: Angel Tactics. The visual element is terrific. The colors are outstanding and the visual finesse of the filmmaking provides the production an interesting aesthetic that capably showcases the efforts of the animators. A quality cinematographic effort from Shimoyama.

The score composed by Yuji Ohno (Lupin III: Island of Assassins, Lupin III: Missed by a Dollar) helps the filmmaking be the action-packed experience it is. The score is exquisite and composer Ohno provides first-rate music throughout the film. Ohno is no ordinary composer. The legendary composer of the Lupin franchise continues to prove again-and-again their value to the franchise.

The screenplay by Atsushi Maekawa (Digimon Adventure, Dragon Ball Z) is enormous fun and one of the best scripts penned for the television feature-films. The script is entertaining in spades. Maekawa made the most of the concept and wrote a script with so many fun ideas: aliens, fighters, and epic battles. A script with plenty of adventurous elements.

Shigeyuki Miya (Blood Lad, Lupin the 3rd: Green vs Red) brings the script to life in the directors chair. Director Miya created an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride with Lupin III: Angel Tactics. The directing is adventurous, thrilling, and full of spectacle. Miya made a film every-bit as compelling as one of the best Lupin theatrical features. Even as a television-special, the feature-film feels epic in scope and the film is ambitous. There are some visual cues and throwbacks to earlier Lupin films (including even some visual callbacks to The Castle of Cagliostro and I enjoyed these elements very much).

Lupin III: Angel Tactics Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Discotek Media, Lupin III: Angel Tactics is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high-definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The presentation is excellent. Color reproduction looks superb on the release. The clarity on the transfer is excellent and even despite a few source-limitations inherit to anime of the early 2000s period, the art looks well-detailed and the encoding is fantastic. Discotek Media has provided the film with an excellent video presentation.

Lupin III: Angel Tactics Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release is presented in Japanese uncompressed PCM 2.0 stereo (with English subtitles). The release does not provide an English dubbed option. The lossless audio sounds crisp and clear on the release. A fantastic audio presentation. The track is excellent sounding and capably reproduces dialogue and the score. The stereo sound design is more robust and exciting than expected as well. A solid encode by Discotek Media. The only potential drawback to the audio on the release is the lack of an English language dub but purists will want to opt for the original language track anyway. The subtitles are excellent and are free from any egregious spelling or grammatical errors.

Lupin III: Angel Tactics Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Discotek Media has provided the release with an impressive looking o-card slipcover. The slipcover for the release of Lupin III: Angel Tactics features beautiful artwork for the feature-film. The cover-art sleeve underneath the slip provides the same main illustration as featured on the front of the slipcover. I prefer cover art providing alternate/additional artwork to the slipcover art (so one can enjoy having additional key art to see and to enjoy) but the design is still well implemented on the release. The cover-art sleeve also contains interior artwork. Discotek Media continues to impress with these well-designed packages for Lupin fans.

On disc:

TV Commercials (HD, 00:47)

It is a bit unfortunate that the release does not come with a more in-depth supplemental package (especially given how entertaining Lupin III: Angel Tactics is in the Lupin franchise). Several of the Lupin releases from Discotek Media provide a much more expansive and in-depth supplemental package with extensive art galleries, featurettes, and more. By comparison, only getting some TV commercials and a slipcover seems less noteworthy. (It is a pretty nice-looking slipcover, though.)

Lupin III: Angel Tactics Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lupin III: Angel Tactics is one of the best television specials in the franchise. The filmmaking is excellent and there is so much to appreciate about the epic production. Director Shigeyuki Miya (Lupin the 3rd: Green vs Red) provides an entertaining sense of action- packed adventure to the production. The film showcases amazing animation and all of the central characters are given special moments to shine.

The Blu-ray release includes an impressive video and audio presentation. The release also comes with a nice o-card slipcover. Unfortunately, the supplemental package on the release is on the weak side but fans of the Lupin series wanting to own Lupin III: Angel Tactics will be enormously pleased with the quality of the presentation. Highly recommended.