Hamanaka Town festival information - 2019
This year’s Hamanaka Lupin III festival is due to take place throughout the month of September.
If you are not familiar with the yearly event, Lupin fans from across Japan and around the globe come together to meet in Kazuhiko Katō’s place of birth, Hamanaka. The small town is located in Kushiro Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan, and is well known for its good fishing spots and seaside views.
TMS and NTV support the event to official capacity, often meaning special guests such as voice actors, series directors and producers are in attendance. It is also a place for people to experience the various works of the Lupin franchise - with the Kiritappu festival theatre having previously aired never seen episodes of Part IV and reruns of existing films and specials.
Hamanaka Town also features a small museum dedicated to Monkey Punch and Lupin himself. This stocks shirts, bags and many more items for purchase - as evidenced above!
In light of his recent passing, the festival this year (2019) is a Monkey Punch special. Special guests will be in attendance, along with a museum collection, related cinema showings, and more.
The recent Takeshi Koike film Fujiko Mine’s Lie will be running in the town cinema from the 1st of August to the 29th of September. There will also be a gallery of Monkey Punch goodies running from the end of August to the end of September, which features artwork, models, figurines and merchandise (such as zippo lighters) from the series.
The above three images are taken from eastplain.com and Tadatti-1.
Kanichi Kurita, Lupin’s current Japanese voice actor will be attending and presenting on stage between 11am - 12pm on the 15th of September. Tickets currently going on sale for the price of 700 yen.
More information on this years event can be found on the official website. If you are thinking of booking tickets, these can be purchased on the Hamanaka festivals website.
