LUPIN III
Lupin the Third — MANGA POT
“Conceptually Unstable.” Series
Three printed elements reconstruct a character without depicting one.
The cylindrical vase body is mint green PETG — the precise register of the jacket worn by Lupin III in Part I of the original anime series, and the jacket to which the character returns in the films where his empathetic register is most legible. Most notably The Castle of Cagliostro, directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 1979, which Japanese audiences received with initial confusion: Miyazaki had made the normally irreverent Lupin unrecognisably decent. It took years and a re-evaluation for the film to achieve its current canonical status. The green jacket is the signal of that version of the character — the one who operates at the edges of polite society but retains a code.
The second element is a yellow tie, 3D printed, whose surface carries the marks of tyre tracks and liquid splashes. The reference is compressed but recoverable. The yellow Fiat 500 appears first in Part I and achieves its canonical form in The Castle of Cagliostro. Hayao Miyazaki’s first car was a Citroën 2CV; Yasuo Otsuka’s first car was a Fiat 500. Their shared attachment to small European cars introduced the vehicle into the franchise and made it inseparable from the character’s logic of escape. The tyre marks name the speed; the splashes name the irreverence; together they name a freedom that only exists when the road behind you is already gone.
The third element is a light pink printed form in the posture of descent — a mask, falling. Lupin appears masked in a high proportion of his appearances across the franchise. In virtually every such episode, the mask is removed at the moment of recognition. The green jacket is never a disguise. The mask always is.
Inspired by Arsène Lupin III from Lupin III, created by Monkey Punch. This piece is an independent artistic work not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by TMS Entertainment or the Monkey Punch estate.
Material: PETG, PLA. Part of the “Conceptually Unstable.” series — Swiss made, signed and numbered. Limited edition of 99. 2,000 CHF.