True Left

I think I could do it. I’m fine with whatever approach, depending on which approach you think would be best for us to take. I’m willing to try a short clip first

I could hardly do Lupin III Month in the music topic:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/counterculture-era/recommended-music-to-listen-to/msg23301/#msg23301

without over here paying tribute to the mythos itself!



To me, Lupin III belongs strictly in the Counterculture era. Forcing the franchise to continue into the 21st century, and moreover not setting the new material back in the Counterculture era*, but instead actually mostly setting the new material in the ongoing present-day (which requires suspending the characters' aging), has led to its inevitable degradation in quality and meaning. For this reason, I myself ignore the TV series after Part 3. With the TV specials, movies and OVAs it is even more complicated due to overlapping retconning issues (e.g. First Contact), but basically I take less seriously anything beyond the early/mid-2000s at the latest.

(* The exception is Lupin Zero, which is a separate discussion, with even worse retconning issues. )

Other than the above reservations, there are further retconning issues with some Part 1 episodes but not others. So, in my mind, the canonical Lupin III mythos consists of only those Part 1 episodes which are strict causal prerequisites for subsequent stories, followed by Castle of Cagliostro as well as the complete Part 2 and Part 3, and then subsequent movies, TV specials and OVAs, with Part 2 prevailing over anything else in the event of contradiction. I should add that I would not have minded at all if the mythos had wrapped up after Farewell to Nostradamus** (trailer above), which was by far the most intuitive timing (voice actor death) for conclusion. The Lupin gang were inherently mysterious, almost aeonic characters who were meant to one day just vanish into thin air and never be seen again. Had this happened in the 90s, it would have been perfect. Now after decades of delay, they have become so overexposed that it is too late for a final disappearance to work well even if it did happen, but even worse that it continues to not happen.....

(** Note that although produced in 1995, the story occurs in 1999, thus still allowing inclusion of the late 1990s TV Specials, most importantly In Memory of the Walther P-38 which I definitely consider to be essential to the mythos.)_

Part 2 full episodes here:

I read that 2014 Sailor Moon Crystal has story closely followed the original manga by Takeuchi Naoko compared to 90s Sailor Moon. So, I would like you to see if you like the original manga.

Sorry about this. I am Thai and word "manga" is widely used amongst Thai people. In Thailand, woke is still considered to be anti-social behavior.

No. Thai translator companies popularized word "manga" for Japanese comics and "manhwa" for Korean comics.

Continuing from:

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/counterculture-era/recommended-music-to-listen-to/msg25685/#msg25685

I’ve been watching Sailor Moon for the first time, and I really like Usagi’s characterization. She’s lazy, but has a strong sense of justice that compels her to action despite her laziness. I feel like that’s the perfect combination for a hero, because that type of person is much less likely to abuse the power bestowed upon them

Which episode are you on at present?

You are exactly correct about Usagi. She is lazy because if the world was as it should be, then nothing should need to be done, and she is merely behaving as if she were already living in such a world. The problem is fundamentally with the (post-Silver Millennium) world for not being this way in reality, not with her for being lazy. And it takes a personality like hers to restore the Silver Millennium. In Season 3, they make fun of the fact that even after she became Neo-Queen Serenity in the future, she still hasn't learned to write a single kanji:



(Present-day letter for comparison:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPewiV1WoAEyRZc.png )

Of course in Crystal, the idiot writers were oblivious to this point and thus included kanji (plus paragraphing, indentation and polite wording too!) in her letters:



This is why Crystal is utter trash. (Also note Crystal's far more ornate letter paper - yuck!)