Lupin no Musume (2019)

Meet the Lupins

Lupin no Musume means daughter of Lupin. The daughter refers to Mikumo Hana, the protagonist and FL of the show. Who’s Lupin? Presumably the dad, Mikumo Takeru, with reference to Arsène Lupin who is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. This is a very appropriate analogy, because Takeru does embody the persona of the iconic French character.

To describe this show, think Ocean’s 11 (12, 13, the whole lot), The Italian Job, The Thieves (HK/SK version), and Mission Impossible series. Add in some forbidden romance theme, musical elements, and voila! Of course the action, violence and seriousness are toned down by 90% while the comedic effect gets turned up by equal measure. Although the tagged genres include Romance-Comedy with Action, I’d also classify a significant portion of this drama as Urban Fantasy.

The Mikumos, also known as the L Clan, is a family of master thieves who specialize in high value heists with the primary aim of relieving the corrupt and evil of their ill-gotten gains in the name of street justice, as befits their motto, “Assist the weak, eliminate the bullies”. They comprise the charming and flamboyant dad, Takeru, the seductive semi-retired cat burglar mum, Etsuko, the anti-social but mostly brilliant (when his inventions do not fail in mid-op!) tech-guy brother, Wataru, the slightly peculiar but hugely adorable grandmother, Matsu, and the founder of the L Clan who makes a grand entrance towards the latter part of the show, the legendary grandfather, Iwao Mikumo. And finally Hana herself, the reluctant 3rd generation cat burglar whose particular skill set is second only to her grandad.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have the Sakurabas, a family comprising generations of law enforcement members. They include the baseball-loving SWAT team leader father, Norikazu, the uptight disciplinarian forensics expert mum, Misako, the equally uptight sister Kaori, and finally we have the ML and Hana’s love interest, the young detective Kazuma. This highly disciplined and structured family unit is made complete with the presence of the samurai-warrior grandad with the Elvis hair do, Kazukazu Sakuraba.

Forbidden love doesn’t get much more forbidden than this, with romance blossoming between the daughter of thieves and the son of police officers. Half the fun of watching this show relates to the family interactions among themselves and between the 2 separate families. The other half is watching the action of the heist being committed. Lupin no Musume unfolds in multiple formats – the serialized romance between the two leads and the episodic story arc of the different heists and villains being tackled by both the Mikumos and Kazuma together with his team.

Fukada Kyoko’s Hana is a mix of polar opposites – from the shy, timid and soft spoken book store attendant to a ferocious badass thief when in action – and she delivers this role to perfection. The charismatic Seto Koji’s version of Kazuma is endearingly adorable and heart-warming. You simply cannot help but root for this lovely couple as their story evolves. Such great chemistry, and many sweet as well as emotional yet tender moments between them.

Aside from the two families, we have really interesting side characters in the form of Enjoji Akira, Maki Eiichi and Emily Hashimoto. Akira is Hana’s childhood buddy who is not only a fantastic dancer and singer (who indulges in absurd but highly entertaining short musical acts with Hana throughout the show) but also a skilled cat burglar himself. He is wonderfully played by Onuki Yusuke who displayed such amazing body control and flexibility during that laser-beam scene in episode 5. Truly epic! Eiichi is Kazuma’s bungling superior at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and played by Kato Ryo. Emily, acted by Kichii Yukino, is Kazuma’s rather eccentric matchmaking partner who doesn’t communicate well with others and resorts to the use of Haiku to express her emotions. Interestingly, she is attracted to Kazuma and scenes of their interactions are really quite amusing.

The OST is a fusion of classical and contemporary music, with theatrical musical score composed for Hana and Akira’s song and dance scenes. Created by the dynamic Japanese duo Face 2 fAKE, certain dramatic moments of the show has been brought alive by this intriguing blend of music. In particular, the transformation routine that the Mikumos (or sometimes Hana herself) go through right before embarking on an op. The couple’s theme song is a shortened composition of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet theme which repeats throughout whenever Hana and Kazuma have their more dramatic scenes together.

All in all, Lupin no Musume has been a fun and easy watch. I personally did not take this drama seriously at all, and purely savoured the entertainment values from the reasonably well choreographed action, slightly OTT mixture of comedy and drama, plus the fantastic all round chemistry between all the main and supporting cast. The villains were more clichéd caricatures but then the angst, if any, was indeed extremely low key. Suspend disbelief, throw logic out the window, and you’ll probably enjoy the entertainment that this show provides (especially seeing how the bad guys earn their “repentance” for all the wrongdoing they’ve committed!).

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