The Woman Called Fujiko Mine is special in many ways. As a fan of Lupin III it stands out as the perfect prequel to Part 1 and a brilliant example of just how serious Lupin can be. For the wider anime audience however it is significant for being Sayo Yamamotos first time with full creative freedom and she appeared to really let loose along with the excellent Mari Okada creating something that really feels unique among the modern anime landscape. On an AudioVisual level the entire show held up outstandingly. A dark and desaturated colour palette mixed with wonderful smooth jazz created a surprisingly serious noir feeling for the show and it further emphasised the creepy nature of certain scenes whenever colour was introduced.https://ur.com/E5QDgmr.png The cinematography kept to a consistently high standardhttps://ur.com/numjHL3.png and helped to exaggerate the sense of endless Sakuga that the animation regularly embodied there was even a fantastic sequence animated my Imaishihttps://gfycat.com/AcidicLivelyAmericanmarten the director of Kill la Kill my point is that the animation was outstanding and really helped to draw to the realistic tone of the series. I mentioned previously that the show presents itself as a prequel to Lupin III Part 1 the first episode was particularly good in this regard as it treats the viewer to Lupins first meeting with Fujiko it acted as brilliant fan service and was executed as very in character for Lupin. The introductory episode treats us to some nice fanservice https://streamable.com/7dvxg and successfully sets the feel for the rest of the series. The rest of the episodes are largely episodic we see everything from Monarchical political plots to Fujiko trying to steal information from Fiadel Kestro huehue to make a profit. What is interesting however is that all of these frankly brilliant stories are geared towards one purpose revealing the identity of Fujiko. We receive flashbacks of her past we see her specifically picking jobs that she fundamentally relates to and all the while Lupin follows her trying to piece everything together. There were plenty of character nuances that I wasnt expecting from the series too Lupin openly explains why he drops calling cards around the place which goes to justify his uncaring attitude towards loss throughout the entire franchise. Furthermore a series original character was introduced with a full character arc in order to enhance Zenigata and lay out what took him to the person he is in the franchise. The last thing I highly appreciated the show doing was avoiding Lupin and Jigen from meeting Goemon properly simply because he joins the gang in Part 1 this felt like a nice nod to fans that had watched the original series. The conclusion of the series was perhaps a tad weaker than the buildup though that does not mean it disappointed. It was a bit more than just a tad melancholy in how it ended. Lupin calling out Fujikochan in the last scene really was a treat though with the classic absolute annihilation of his car while he chased after her a great nod to the ongoing gag throughout he original series. The best way to describe the Fujiko Mine series would be Serious with a small side of goofy. It does retain the silliness of the franchise in very minor doses when appropriate though since this is the first series with Fujiko as the lead it does make sense. New Hero New Tone. Or so to speak. The Woman Called Fujiko Mine truly is a masterpiece everything the cinematography character designs animation and narrative all come together to create something truly special. The series stands out among its peers for its style and general charm and I find myself in a position in which the series is difficult to fault at all.