PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
Just to get a detail about this TV-special's title out of the way: no one in the story uses the phrase "Twilight Gemini." But there are a pair of matched diamonds, one of which is called "the Twilight," and thus the two gems are Gemini-like twins.
According to legend, the joined diamonds can open one's way to a great treasure. So this is another "treasure-hunt Lupin," as well as being "adventure-Lupin," since there's not a great emphasis on humor here. More importantly, GEMINI also provides a rare example of "gentleman-Lupin." The master thief does try to steal a kiss from Fujiko, but he doesn't show the "drooling lech" persona of his more goofball exploits. For most of the film, he renders chivalrous aid to Lara, a much younger woman, and doesn't mack on her once.
A quasi-familial connection-- an ailing old man who had some avuncular influence on the master thief's early career-- gives Lupin the Twilight Diamond and tells him that it's one of two keys to a fabulous treasure. This bounty was the accumulated wealth of the "Geltic" people, who for decades have been a scattered people. The Geltic tribe was attacked by treasure-hunters from England and from some made-up nation, and though the invaders couldn't remove the treasure from its impregnable vault, the Gelts lost their holdings.
After getting the diamond, Lupin is cornered by Zenigata and a small army of cops. The thief is inadvertently rescued by a group of uniformed thugs, but their leader, the whip-wielding Sadachiyo, wants the diamond. Lupin escapes these forces as well, but he will meet them again in the Gelts' domain, somewhere in Morocco.
Sadachiyo's thugs are connected to a group of robed conspirators who claim to be seeking a rebirth of the Geltic culture. Coincidentally, Lupin also meets the young female Lara, who's a native of the Geltic tribe and whom Lupin saves from cops. She too wants her people to rise to their former greatness, and she repays Lupin by leading him to her people.
Lupin's gang doesn't have much to do here. Jigen accompanies Lupin to Morocco, but he only has two-three scenes. Fujiko overtakes Lupin, trying to deal herself in, but aside from showing her boobs she also gets short shrift. Goemon isn't even mentioned in the first half, but by sheer coincidence, he shows up just when Lupin needs him. Goemon is hunting not treasure but Sadachiyo, because the latter-- whom in the English translation Goemon calls "he," for all that the character looks like a butch female-- betrayed the samurai ideals both of them had expoused in their training days. Sadachiyo doesn't explain the old grudge, any more than his choice in gender-attire. But since he can slice apart rocks with his whip the way Goemon can with his sword, the viewer will take Goemon's account at face value. Zenigata has assorted comic scenes, but he could have been easily written out with no effect on the plot.
Lupin, who seems more devoted to helping Lara than to finding treasure, eventually sorts out the identity of the cult-leader, and the treasure is unlocked so that the true Gelts can regain their lost prominence. For once the Lupin gang gets no payoff in the end, though sentimental Lara gives Lupin one of the diamonds, and he nobly claims that he'll cherish it, rather than splitting it with his gang.
I omitted some history vis-a-vis Lara's familial relation to the gang-chief who set Lupin on this trail in the first place, but the fine points aren't very significant. GEMINI is formulaic Lupin, not actively bad but generally unimpressive. I rate the film "fair" in mythicity only because the story-trope of Lupin coincidentally helping out marginalized peoples does seem to loom large in various anime productions, though I doubt the trope appeared often, if at all, in the original Monkey Punch manga.
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