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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charmingly corny and manga-ishly sexy entertainment

this is likely my shortest review. i don't remember much about the series, all i remember is i enjoyed this short JDrama series. i think it's a mix bag of corny, funky/wacky, funny, sexy, charming, unique, and entertaining as a whole. it's a pleasant welcome watching this series, and for some reasons or another the series actually stir the creative/imaginative inner part in me. some of the characters are memorable, like that dancing/singing umbrella man, and the grandmother with the unique facial feature (and haircut).

the show is definitely enjoyable if you enjoy characters and stories from manga and comic coming out alive. you just let the overly analytical part of you switch off each episode, and let each episode takes you for a reasonably enjoyable ride. the casts are relatively consistent and in harmony with one another. the show has a sort of wackiness intermingled with partial realism that are all too human. the show also evokes that feeling of corniness, with a mildly alluring danger in-the-corner (predictable) suspense.

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Romeo & Juliet

I think it is hard for me, out of all the different kinds of dramas out there, to find a good jdrama that I really like.
Not saying I didn't like this drama, but I wasn't in love with it.

The things I loved about this drama:

How they plugged in Romeo and Juliet vibes throughout the drama including when they added Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet - Fantasy Overture. I am a sucker for classical music when it is done well. I also really enjoyed the light silly comedy, especially with Hana's over the top family. Her grandma made me jump every time she snuck into a scene, and her mother and father as a pair were super cute. But I would say, my favorite character, and the second lead was Enjoji Akira. I loved how his special skill was breaking out in song and dance and kicking ass. His random impromptu lyrics to the same melody. I believe he was a good fit for Hana, if Hana were to date someone that was a more positive version of herself who understood the meaning of why her family does what they do.

Which leads to the things I didn't like about this drama. Even though everyone was trying to be their most authentic self, and always evolving, Hana seemed to always be at this crossroad of who she wanted to be, and not being able to be that person because she didn't know how to balance who she was born as and who she wanted to be. Instead of finding that balance and trying to understand her family, she always seemed to be stuck on the negatives. I understand that it is such a drama troupe, but at the same time, I feel like she really didn't learn anything at the end of the drama. And Kazuma didn't really do a fantastic job of helping her. Given I know her family didn't interfere, wanting her to learn and understand on her own why the family does what they do. Maybe they will address this in season 2? I just think it is weird for a character who HATES what her family does and thinks it's the worst possible thing you can do and be, she always seems to give in and become the thing she despises when it is convenient. She never seemed to look for alternatives. And then once she finished her mission, she is like, "oh,I'll never do that again. Kazuma, I promise, I will never be that person again," and then what does she do. She does it again. But I do give props to Kazuma, who kind of seems like he doesn't care. He always wants to be on her side because he knows she isn't a bad person, but agrees with her every time she says she doesn't want to be that kind of person.

Even though I did say I really liked the whole Romeo and Juliet concept, I did feel like they were being way too obvious at some points. The whole drama was an obvious Romeo and Juliet retelling, so when they started layering references on top of references, I thought it was a little overkill.

Other than that, I thought it was smart and funny and had a simple and easy plot to follow. Also, I really liked the grandma and grandpa's love story they randomly threw in at the end. It was a little twist of another Romeo and Juliet story; how she found love with someone who loved her regardless and wanted to understand her and the life she was born into and loved.

Excited for season 2, not sure what to expect. Maybe Hana will get over her identity crisis that I believe wasn't solved.

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Family of Thieves vs Family of Cops

Daughter of Lupin was actually my first Asian drama to watch. The story was short, only 11 episodes, but I really liked the plot of the story. It was saddening to see Kazu-kun and Hana suffer like that. I loved the warmth Hana's family had. They might've been thieves, but they were thieves together. Kazu-kun's family was a little too uptight, especially his mom. I honestly felt sad when the show finished. I felt like there HAS to be more to the story. Lo and behold, BOOM, season 2.

Mikumo Hana was so sweet, it was kind of funny that a honest girl like her was in a family of dishonest people. Sakuraba Kazuma was a sweetheart with Hana. I felt like crying and laughing every time he was angry. Anger does not suit him. Enjoji Akira was kind of irrelevant, I didn't see any reason for him to be in the show but it's whatever. The Mikumo family in general was kind of like your typical overrated family. The mom refuses to think she's old, the dad doesn't want the family to be apart, the grandma teaches the grandkids naughty things, and the grandpa barely shows up but ends up being the coolest. The Sakuraba family makes me pray I never get married into a family like that. The mom is too uptight about everything, the dad is bipolar af, and the sister is literally mom's clone. The grandpa made up with Hana's grandparents so that's good.

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..THIEF VS POLICE..

..another series for Kyoko Fukada - I watch her first as a millionaire detective from Fugou Keiji..

..but this time, she's the criminal..

..a funny series for me, every minute is worth it - the family that steals together, steals forever haha..

..well just a pinch of love story for me, still I do love this drama because of the comedy genre..

..the drama also includes fighting scenes and somehow I found it kinda natural act, knowing they do workshop on fighting scene - esp. the finishing attack of Kyoko haha..

..overall, better to watch this guys..

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I finally finished this after so long! I've been busy with University so that's why ;-(
Lupin no Musume was a very fun and quirky drama to watch- I needed a break from all the heavier things in life so this was a relief to me. It was funny, awkward and not so self-aware. I enjoyed it a lot!
The best things were obviously the character. The socially awkward brother and the grandma were THE best characters.
Female and male mains were good too and I was rooting for their relationship.
I did have issues with the parents of both because they were very toxic with their respective children, but I'm glad they could resolve it by the ending.
The fight scenes/the scenes in which the thieves jumped to show up at some place were so weird XD I actually had good laughs from that. Also the ladybug thingy remineded me of the animated show hahaha
Can't wait to watch next season!
9/10.

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First I think this drama was really diffrent First because I have never wathc a drama about FML which all her familyare all thieves which gets in love with mian lead boy that all his family are polices ,but they cn't marry and things hppen

story:at the beggining of the story the main couple don't know each oithers identitites on the 2 ep the girl gets to now that the main lead boy is a police and on ep 6 the boy gets to know that she is a thief,I think the story is very unique and Yh is not that bad the story, the story at the begginig was slow like the first few episodes were quite boring for me but after goes really interesting and then oring and then interesting ,I DON'T REALLY WANT TO SPOIL THIS BUT THE THING IS THAT LIKE IN EP 8 THEY SEPARATE FOR ONE YEAR BUT STILL LOVE EACH OTHER AND BOTH OF THEM ARE GOING TO MARRY ANOTHER PERSON , THE BOY DIDN'T ACTUALLY LOVED THE GIRL THE SAME GOES FR THE MAIN LEAD GIRL BUT TIT WAS OKAY BUT IT WAS ABIT ANNYING BECAUSE LOTS OF THINGS HAPPEN THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE SOMETIMES BUT IT IS JUST A SAMLL DRAMA SO IT WAS OKAY.

acting:I think the acting was not bad not really going to say.

music:well the intru is quite cool so YH

rewatch value:To tell the truth I don't think it has anything to watch again maybe only th clips that are on youtube but apart from that I will not wathc it again.

IN MY OPINION I THINK THIS DRAMA WAS GOOD I MEAN IT ONLY HAS 11 EP SO I WATCH THIS ON A NIGHT WHICH WAS REALLY EASY, I gave it a 7.5 but then I actually reallylike the ending so I gave it a 8 . season 2 comes on the october of this year so Yh I will watch it.

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Hilariously Funny Thieves vs Cops

Another completely biased review from me to you.

How to describe the esthetics here? Kind of like a cross between Get Smart (ancient U.S. series), the old Batman TV series, Austin Powers, and every campy James Bond parody ever made, and all with the typical zany over-the-top Japanese insanity. So much damn fun to watch! And just silly as hell.

The entire extended family of thieves are so stupid funny. The brother is an absolute gem! The way he wears the disguise, or his own version of it, even though he stays behind in his batcave working the computers and the ladybug lol. The parents who are too busy flirting with each other (reminds me of Morticia and Gomez Addams, only with stealing)! The cute little Grandma who is a badass in her own right! And I love Akira and Hana's musical numbers. Yes, really, musical numbers!

The cop's family, down to the dog, are just as silly. And the Grandpa with the bad Elvis wig, wow.

If you need a break from heavy, angst-filled dramas this is a nice light palate cleanser. Turn off the brain, laugh, and enjoy!

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