Lupin the IIIrd: Fujiko Mine's Lie': A classic anime franchise goes back to rudiments Last month, Japan lost a cultural giant. April 11 visually perceived the passing of Kazuhiko Kato — better kenned by the pen name Monkey Punch — the engenderer of “Lupin the Third.” The manga, about a playboy purloiner descended from fictional French gentleman purloiner Arsene Lupin, debuted in 1967 and has been a pop-culture staple since. Over the years, anime and other spinoffs have transformed Kato’s edgy, adult-oriented “Lupin” into a family-amicable franchise. But every so often, a project course rectifies, bringing back the pristine manga’s sense of peril and sultriness. That’s the case with the pristine video series “Lupin the IIIrd,” helmed by Takeshi Koike, maybe anime’s coolest director. Each episode of the series, relinquished to theaters then video every couple of years, centers around a different character in Lupin’s orbit. This time, it’s his long-time love interest and ultim