Arsing Lupin (includes subliminal hazelnuts)

So what's the show called again? 

 

 Conicidentally, I'd just watched The Castle of Cagliostro on Netflix the Thursday before my Crown binge, or not that coincidentally maybe, you be the judge, but Hayao Miyazaki's debut definitely reminded me how much I enjoy a good castle break-in. Checking IMDB to confirm that this was indeed his debut I discovered the film was actually a spin-off from a TV show Miyazaki directed in 1972 called "Lupin the 3rd", so I had a look for some of that, and this compilation of the openings credits is as far as I got. What do you think? I think the second season may feature one of the coolest sequences ever to appear at the beginning of a cartoon: a samurai on the roof a plane in flight briefly unsheathing his sword before showing he's sliced another plane deftly in half. However it also features Lupin kicking a window in to get to a naked woman in bed and literally jumping out of his own clothes before being fended off by boxing glove on a spring, so it also has one of the not-coolest sequences. Subsequent, possibly Miyazaji-less series would clearly encounter problems trying to top it nonetheless: having your samurai slice a whole skyscraper in half,  from the roof,  doesn't ring quite as true, but it's preferable to how cluttered and bloody and brooding and boring the series would later look. The very first series - whose opening lyrics are not great, be warned - employs subliminal imagery of which I've taken screen shots so we can better enjoy the taste of that 1970's' high life being flashed behind the heroine/nameless dancing girl/no idea at our leisure...

 

 and also maybe identify who the hell these guys are.