Lupin III series notes

Since Lupin III comes from manga and anime series, a lot of these notes will apply to them, too.

Who's who

• Arsène Lupin III (アルセーヌ・ルパン三世): The world's most competent thief, and the protagonist of the series.
• Daisuke Jigen (次元 大介): Lupin's gunman; an excellent sharpshooter.
• Goemon Ishikawa (石川 五右ェ門): Another one of Lupin's henchmen. The world's best swordsman with the world's best sword.
• Fujiko Mine (峰 不二子): Lupin's love (or lust) interest. She sometimes works with Lupin and the gang, but often works separately, and at times even betrays Lupin.
• Inspector Zenigata (銭形警部): Lupin's arch-nemesis. An extremely competent cop when it comes to everything that isn't Lupin -- and totally inept when it comes to Lupin himself. Lupin sees him as an affectionate rival, whereas Zenigata generally sees Lupin as the scum of the earth, often calling him 貴様.

More information can be found at Wikipedia's article on Lupin III.

Lupin's use of language

Tottsan

Lupin often refers to Zenigata as とっつぁん (typically translated as "Pops" in official media). This is a contraction of ととさん, itself baby talk for 父さん (とうさん）.

Jigen's use of language

Jigen generally uses ねえ instead of ない, おめえ instead of おまえ, etc., which makes him sound more coarse and unrefined.

Goemon's use of language

Goemon, being a samurai, tends to use language that imitates Classical Japanese, which is vaguely comparable to a modern knight using "thee" and "thou" in English.

Goemon generally uses ぬ in place of ない to negate a verb. For example, 食べぬ instead of 食べない; 知らぬ instead of 知らない; etc. Note, however, that the negative of する is せぬ rather than しぬ (しぬ would likely be understood as 死ぬ).

Goemon refers to himself as 拙者 (せっしゃ) rather than e.g. 私.