For the fans of anime and manga, the name Jigen Daisuke immediately draw a lot of attention. The gun master sidekick (or rather partner) of Lupin III is always present and adds touches of cynical humor.

Tetsuji Tamayama was back as Jigen Daisuke, 9 years after the first live action film of Lupin The 3rd (2014).

Tamayama played Jigen as age appropriate older and more grounded. Inspired by one of the anime story where Jigen damaged his gun, this film explored a more emotional journey rather than gun fight after gun fight.

The story brought 1 traumatic little girl, 1 old retired female gun smith, 1 notorious cold hearted girl boss mafia, 1 shadowy knife fighter, 1 damaged battle magnum and 1 Jigen Daisuke.

Of course there gun fights, it wouldn't be titled Jigen Daisuke if this movie didn't have several gun fights. Despite having cool gunfights, I do believe it could be far better by dropping 2 cameos of old partner.

JIGEN DAISUKE is apparently a spin-off from the live action LUPIN THE III movie from 2014 which I haven't seen. I'm aware that the characters came to life in a '60s manga, but the only adaptation I know is the decent Ghibli version, THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO. Anyway, this one features Lupin's sharpshooter sidekick in a solo adventure which sees him arriving in a small town to get his gun fixed. It turns out that the place is run by a drug empire led by a sadistic wheelchair-bound villain, so the scene is set for the usual showdown. Sadly, this is pitiful stuff: it goes on forever, the action scenes are pretty poor, and the script full of endless, mindless chit-chat. No thanks!

This film ended up being way better than I had expected. As the title implies, this movie is entirely focused on Jigen. None of the other main characters from the Lupin III franchise make an appearance here, and considering the subject matter, that was probably for the better.

The gist is that Jigen's magnum breaks, so he seeks out a gunsmith named Yaguchi to fix it, and in doing so he winds up standing in the way of a huge criminal empire run by a literal mass child murderer. Jigen becomes a sort of father figure to a young girl named Oto, who is targeted by the aforementioned criminal organization. Thats about all I can summarize without going into spoilers.

This movie is seriously dark; possibly the darkest Lupin movie ever produced. Despite that, for every scene of shocking brutality, theres an equal amount of levity and heart.

Jigen, Oto, and Yaguchi have an interesting found-family dynamic that hasn't really been explored well in other Lupin media. Oto is mute as a result of trauma, so Jigen has to figure out how to communicate with her, and ends up growing closer to Oto in a parental way. We also get to see Jigen lose his composure in a very serious setting. Normally, Jigen losing his cool would be played for comedy, but here its dead serious, and its conveyed to the audience brilliantly.

There are some problems though. I think the movie could probably be cut down by 20 minutes without losing much. Some scenes drag on way too long. The VFX is also somewhat wonky; theres some bad face warping effects and noticeably out of place glass simulations, but otherwise it wasn't too bad looking.

The fight choreography is great, and theres some really creative action sequences that feel reminiscent of other Lupin III media.

I'm not sure what else to say about this film. Its not the best movie in the franchise, but it is probably the darkest and one of the emotional ones though. If you're a Lupin fan, you'll most likely appreciate this movie. Even if you aren't familiar with the series, this is a standalone entry that doesn't rely on any other shows, movies, or specials?