Lupin III: Tenshi no Tactics – Yume no Kakera wa Koroshi no Kaori

Angel Tactics is an outstanding anime adventure starring those lovable criminals, the Lupin gang. It starts off in fine fashion with Lupin and co. infiltrating Area 51, stealing a potentially alien artifact, and escaping in a UFO for good measure. Much like a classic James Bond opening, it's over the top and a lot of fun, plus here it does tie into the main plot as well. This time the Lupin gang are up against an all female terrorist organization, the Bloody Angels. They want the artifact from Lupin, and it leads to an engaging story with some nice twists. Lupin, his trusty sidekick Jigen, his sexy accompliceFujiko, and his swordsman buddy Goemon all are in top form in this. The fun dynamic between the characters is front and center, and each character has a female terrorist to deal with as well. In Lupin's case, we get an unexpectedly tender story out of it. nnOf course Inspector Zenigata is on their tail, and at one point he even flies a fighter jet equipped with missiles! He has some great one on one scenes with Lupin as well, very effective stuff.nnPretty much, this has everything you can ask for in a Lupin tale. Great comedy, cool action, and some solid drama, starring a classic cast of lovable characters. Done with style, terrific animation, and a very cool jazz soundtrack by Yuji Ohno.nnWithout giving away the story, I'll just say that this is a terrifically done anime that left me very satisfied. Lupin fans or newcomers, check this one out.

Lupin is up against an all-woman terrorist organization. The villain cast is catastrophically badly designed - just everything from their character, features to their motivation is appalling and they're horrendously voice acted to boot. To make matters even worse, someone decided to sprinkle random gore and death scenes on top. This wouldn't be so bad if it was a stylized, properly bizarre Go Nagai kind of movie. But not when it's your regular happy-go-lucky kind of Lupin special! Imagine eating a chocolate cake with rat poison in it and that would still be preferable to watching any minute of this abomination! The only redeeming features arethe wonderful music, somewhat serviceable visuals and the interactions between the main cast, but all of it is wasted on this dumpster fire.