DoKomi 2022!
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been fortunate enough to spend some time in Germany with my partner. Whilst there, we ate lots of good food and drank plenty of delicious German beer—but also, we were able to visit the DoKomi convention in Düsseldorf!
DoKomi is one of Germany’s biggest convention for all things Japan— welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. It features anime, manga, physical media, video games, sweets, cosplay, and so much more. This was my first time at the event, and I spent time helping my partner sell her artwork down in the artists’ alley, which was packed with amazing work from so many talented artists!
In terms of Lupin, there were a few Blu-rays on sale. Kazé Entertainments recent TV special box set, along with the Lupin the IIIRD films and The First were all present in the vendors’ hall. It was fantastic to see the series making a recent splash in Germany, after running on MTV all those years ago.
But most importantly, for the first time ever after helping run Lupin Central for almost a decade now, I was able to meet up with two friends of the site—Luca and Luka!
Luca (pictured on the left above) is a talented, budding artist, and has been a big help over the years, creating incredible artwork for both the site and our Redbubble page. More recently, Luca has been sharing his work on a personal Lupin comic book project, named King of Thieves, which features the gang pulling off daring heists across a different global location per issue.
It was a pleasure to meet Luca, and we chatted for well over an hour, playing some Ridge Racer Type 4 in the gaming section and sharing opinions on our favourite Lupin media.
You can follow Luca’s captivating work on Lupin III: King of Thieves over on Tumblr here.
Then, later on Sunday, friend of the site Luka popped by—and in full Lupin cosplay, no less!
Luka was an absolute gent, and also a pleasure to talk to. Despite not quite getting the suit jacket in time, his cosplay impressed, including a weighted Walter P-33 and an engraved tie pin, with Lupin’s initials featuring proudly on it!
While there were a lot of amazing costumes on show, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a lack of Lupin cosplay at the event over the weekend. It was amazing to see Luka representing our favourite thief, and also the fan base as we chatted over the series, Better Call Saul, the Yakuza games, and much more!
I feel incredibly fortunate to have spent some time in Germany, and attend the convention, but moreso having the opportunity to meet up with two like-minded Lupin fans. I have always felt the Lupin community to be a very welcoming, nice one, and meeting with Luca and Luka reinforced these thoughts. Hopefully we can meet up again next year—thank you both for a delightful time, and for coming to say “hello”!
Have you met up with any other Lupin III fans, in or outside of conventions? Have you been to DoKomi before, or any similar venues? Let us know in a comment below!
