Maniac is a character of Lupin the 3rd Part 2.
History[]
Maniac is a famous billionaire and when he really likes something, he won't give it up no matter what. According to Daisuke Jigen, he is a "greedy bastard".
At a auction house in France, Maniac was bidding for an unique golden butterfly that came from South Africa and made a bid of 1 million francs. Lupin III then bidded 2 million francs however Maniac up the bid to 5 million. The auctioneer reminded that to only make a bid if they are able to pay for it, Maniac responded as his henchmen have briefcases full of money open. Lupin increased the bid to 6 million however an out of character Fujiko Mine says that it is just a butterfly. There was a bidding war between Lupin and Maniac, first to 6.5 million then to 7 million, 7.5 million then to 8 million then to 9 million. Lupin gave his final bid at 9,990,000 francs causing Maniac to whisper to his henchmen, they gathered spare change as he declared 9,999,999 francs. Since Lupin, Jigen and Goemon Ishikawa XIII had no extra change to push it to 10 million francs, Maniac won the bid.
On his private jet with the golden butterfly, Maniac is with Fujiko as he wanted to make love with her but she asks him why the butterfly is expensive. He says that it is the only one that has been caught and asks why is she willing to betray Lupin. Fujiko says that she has more needs than a normal woman and loves people with money, he compared her beauty to a butterfly and she giggled. Maniac mentions that a butterfly goes from flower to flower but Fujiko wants his fortune. He told her that he is more interested in money, he knows where Lupin is heading thanks to Fujiko telling him and that the butterfly is worth more than 50 million francs but not one franc to Fujiko.
Maniac mentions that 20 years ago, there was a golden butterfly that was on top of a gianatic golden rock that was only seen once. Fujiko knew that it was a gold searching butterfly but he thought that he was the only one who knew the secret. He then trapped Fujiko in glass and ejected her off the plane.
In South Africa, Maniac and his hired mercenaries had destroyed trees and killed animals in pursuit of the golden butterfly using explosives and bulldozing the area to leave a path. He also hired some of his henchmen using helicopters to gather butterflies and put them in a large net. What was left was a wasteland. This had made Lupin mad as he believed no thief should do those actions. Maniac was using the golden butterfly to find the rock of gold as it was located near a mountain that disappeared from the maps since its discovery.
As Maniac was leading his mercenaries, he believed in not letting the butterfly get away. To make sure that Maniac achieves his goal, one of his mercenaries had planted a tracker on the butterfly and the other mercenary had a radar saying that the reception is good. The mercenary had let go of the butterfly releasing it from its cage and flew. One of the mercenaries was Koichi Zenigata in disguise and mentioned that Maniac plans to kill Lupin, he noticed that there were lots of butterflies. Lupin grabbed hold of Zenigata and put him to sleep, taking his place and also put one of the mercenaries to sleep with Jigen taking his place.
Maniac had noticed that there were too many butterflies as they were watching him, he grabbed a flamethrower from one of the mercenaries and burnt some of the butterflies to death. Then he gave the flamethrower back and continued walking. Along with Lupin, Jigen and Goemon, he walked on an unusual purple bridge and he gasped as he found the golden rock with the golden butterfly flying towards it. One of the mercenaries caught the butterfly with the net and Maniac ordered him to kill it however a flock of butterflies retaliated and started to attack him. His mercenaries were burning the butterflies and they ran with Maniac to the golden rock.
After finding the rock, he hugged it while the butterflies were burning away. Lupin had enough and despite Jigen holding him back, he fired from his machine gun to disarm the flamethrowers. Maniac says that he didn't expect Lupin to be a nature loving person and says that he will die in the fire along with the butterflies. His mercenaries fired at Lupin, Jigen and Goemon however they ran away to the woods. One of his mercenaries called for backup and sent tanks causing Lupin, Jigen and Goemon to run back while they were firing at them. Lupin ordered Fujiko to come and in a helicopter fired rockets from a rocket launcher destroying the tanks. The rest of the tanks were dealt with by Jigen, Goemon and Lupin, the latter unable to take it out the first time hid behind a rock and used a grenade.
Maniac started to get worried and ordered his mercenary for backup such as more tanks while sending a fighter plane to deal with Fujiko. The golden butterfly ordered the butterflies to take out the plane by crashing it into a cliff, Maniac was surprised by what happened. He wants his revenge and ran away. Maniac along with his mercenaries ran back towards the bridge however the bridge was actually a flock of butterflies and as they flew away, they fell into the river. It is unknown whether he is still alive.