Arsene Lupin III

Arséne Lupin III (ルパン三世, Rupan Sansei) is the protagonist in the Studio Ghibli film The Castle of Cagliostro

Arsene Lupin III appears at the beginning of the film when he and Jigen are running from the Monte Carlo Casino with bags of stolen money. He finds the money to be counterfeit and tracks it to the source: the country of Cagliostro. On the way there, he tells Jigen than the castle is a death trap and no one entering it has ever returned; even he barely made it out alive when he tried.

Personality
Unlike his sociopathic manga counterpart, Lupin is a mischievous but easy-going gentleman thief, with particular emphasis on the "gentleman". While he steals, he mainly does it for the thrill of it, and just to prove he can. While he can be intimidating, he has a warm and friendly side to him. In The Castle of Cagliostro, he's older, wiser, and regrets his actions of his past, seeing his young self as a "punk" and a "greenhorn".

His chivalry is a quality that carries over from the anime; he has a weakness for a pretty girl in distress. But while he's a self-admitted womanizer, he views Clarisse as the same little girl he knew years ago.

He can be a little accident-prone and has a tendency to say "Ay-yi-yi" whenever things go wrong.

He can be incredibly stubborn. When he's recuperating from his wounds, he literally bites off more than he can chew and ends up nearly sick from indigestion.

Appearance
Lupin is tall and skinny with neatly styled short black hair that never falls out of place, and large black eyes. Despite the fact that he's older than he is in the series, he has the same boyish appearance as before. He wears the outfit he wore in the first anime: a green jacket, a black shirt and pants and a yellow tie.

Abilities
Physically, Lupin is a man of average strength, but he can throw a surprisingly good punch. He is incredibly flexible and fast, and his manual dexterity is catlike in precision and quickness. Despite his average strength, he's able to jump impossible lengths and cling to the tower Clarisse is held captive in.

His talent in the art of disguise borders on the superhuman, with him being able to flawlessly impersonate any man or woman in face, voice and costume after minimal observation of them. At one point in the film, he enters the castle by impersonating his favorite person: Inspector Zenigata. Incredibly, he's able to do this without needing a latex mask.

Later in the film he perfectly impersonates the Archbishop.

Lupin has a near-endless array of skills, including forgery, as shown when he makes a copy of the ring to taunt the Count with.

Jigen
Lupin and Jigen are an inseparable pair who know each other inside out. They spend time casually chatting and playfully teasing each other, but they spend most of the film separated, as Lupin got pulled into the castle's waterworks while Jigen stayed behind and provided backup with his Magnum and an anti-tank rifle.

Zenigata
Lupin loves Zenigata like the bumbling but well-meaning uncle he never had. Though he uses Zenigata as a pawn in his plan, he treats him with magnanimity, and views him as a friend in the direst situations.

Clarisse
Unlike with most other women, Lupin sees Clarisse as the same little girl who saved him years ago, and is indebted to her and treats her with respect. At the end, when Clarisse embraces Lupin and tells him she wants to run away and become a thief, he becomes uncomfortable. Believing he's become a bad influence on her, he refuses to embrace her back, instead tenderly kissing her on the head before taking his leave.

Fujiko
Although Lupin and Fujiko have a past, their relationship is not as much in focus as in other entries in the franchise. Although Lupin treats Fujiko with affection, he's very hands-off around her and lets her do her work while he goes to save Clarisse. He does, however, show interest when he sees her riding off with the counterfeit plates she retrieved from the raid and asks if they can be friends.

Trivia

 * Due to copyright disputes with Maurice LeBlanc's estate, he was known as "Wolf" in the Streamline dub.
 * In the manga, Lupin was a cold-blooded murderer who forced himself on any woman he wanted. His personality was softened in the anime, where he only (mostly) killed in self-defense and was a hapless womaniser, but was in general a good person at heart and protected the vulnerable. Essentially, in the anime he was a goofier version of Sean Connery's Bond.
 * In the early stages of The Castle of Cagliostro 's development, Miyazaki did a sketch of what he thought Lupin would look like in his early middle age. This was rejected in favor of Lupin's regular design, and so the thief simply ended up looking younger than he actually was.

Name
Lupin's name is taken from the famous thief Arsene Lupin of Maurice Leblanc's novels. "Arsène" means "male, virile", befitting a man with a healthy sex drive.

Quotes
"Arséne: Clarisse... Don't talk stupid. Do you want to go back into the darkness again? You've come out into the sun at last. Hey... your life begins now. Don't become filthy like me. I'll tell you what - if you're ever in trouble, I'll fly straight to you no matter when, even if I'm on the other side of the world."