HomeAnimeSupanova Brisbane - Summary

Supanova Brisbane – Summary

-

Supanova Brisbane - Summary 1

As you most probably know, the first of the years Supanova events have taken place in Brisbane, with my live..ish blog going up a post under this. I would now like to take the time to summarize my experience of the day. Sadly, when I got home every single photograph I took has been distorted and blurred so sadly, all my photos are useless, so please put up with this wall of text.

First up, the ride up to the RNA Showgrounds from the Gold Coast was definitely an experience. Barely anyone was wearing cosplay until we hit around Hellensvale when suddenly cosplayers came from all over the place. This definately made the ride a real lot of fun, and also in turned, made the quiet ride home very boring and slow….. We arrived approximately 5-10 minutes before the opening of the event, and thanks to the media pass Supanova kindly provided, I was able to enter straight away however my brother and my folks (Who decided they wanted to see the hype and go and see the Doctor Who / Twilight related hours) went to the queue to purchase their tickets…. it was so busy that it took something like an hour – hour and a half and by that time they opened up another entrance. I have never been to an event like this before so I don’t know if this is reasonable, but I cannot say the queuing areas were satisfactory and coud have done with a bit more order. 

Supanova Brisbane - Summary 2Anyway entering in I was taken back by the number of stores there were from local stores such as Anime Shuuken (Hi Guys!), King’s Comics and Gametraders (Honestly I was surprised there was no Minotaur), Stores I had never heard of such as Miss Pixie and Neo-Tokyo , to publishers such as Madman and Siren Visual and other miscellaneous groups. After spending an hour getting acquainted with the layout I decided to blow whatever money I had on me just so I could pull myself away from the addictiveness of shopping (Psst, I am a sort of Shop-a-holic). I first found some rather cute Umineko dolls (By Banpresto) being sold at either PININ or Neo-Tokyo (Sorry, I am not good at remembering store names), and bought the Ushiromiya Maria one of that – I now wish I bought the Beato one which I saw after the purchase….

I also bought some random badges (Including The World Ends With You Badges – All 310 for $300 if you are interested…) and bookmarks from the artists section, got some $5 DVD’s from another area, hassled Eric from Siren Visual and walked away with some miniture wall-posters and then finally went to Transreality Simulations where I found a very cheap copy of Tea Society of a Witch, a sort of visual novel on DVD….. Now… why did I get this title?:

  1. Witches = Mystery = Umineko
  2. Tea Society = Tea Party.. something that has been going around Australian politics recently.

Okay, the real reason is I have a thing for bonus artbooks… but shoosh.

After the shopping, finally found my way out of the exhibition hall and made it to a sort of intersection with many different routes to take. I finally got my first glimpse of the cosplay scene with a pokemon group comprising of Jessie, James, Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny (The old designs, not the blegh new ones). The quality of the cosplay in my opinion was very high…. It was interesting to see how the young and the old could both enjoy cosplay. There were many primary-school kids running around in Japanese school uniforms, costumes off kiddy animes such as Card Captors and all that and one that I think may have been based off Puella Magi Madoka Magica but somehow I have my doubts on that. Reversing it, a lot of older people were getting into it as well, mostly in a lot more serious anime series… not that I can name any right now. Of course, talking the cake would be the young adult majority populace, pulling off everything from Gothic Lolita, Naruto, Umineko, Vocaloid and my personal favorite…, Shizuo and Izaya from Durarara!!, including one group with an included mini vending machine!.

Getting off that, I wandered around for a bit and finally came across the Madman Anime Theater, which must have been placed in some sort of eatery as there were signs for pro-meat everywhere. I watched Black Butler for an hour after finding the crowd at the Cosplay Chess to be too big to get a good look in. Never watched Black Butler before but I must now consider getting it. After this, the the Siren Visual panel was held which sadly was shortened due to the lack of the new announcement, post-poned by the issues in Japan, but we still learnt several things:

  1. They will no longer be releasing hentai products “AWWWWW!”
  2. They may consider Video on Demand in the Future
  3. If a noitamina anime is dubbed in English, they will most probably release it over here (Their example was Tatami Galaxy).

Supanova Brisbane - Summary 3After this, I completely forgot about the Anime Trivia (I was melting under the heat) and went around taking now blurred photographs of some of the cosplayers… did I say there were some really good ones? I then joined the queue to watch the Cosplay National Championships and then the issue with the RNA Showgrounds really showed itself…. there were big delays in getting everything set up it seems, and we were all left out their overtime, in the sun, melting…. Not Fun! So I socialised with a few of the other people around the area, tried to get into touch with some friends…. none who were kind enough to have their mobiles on them….. and play the waiting game.

The only decent image I took ——–>

The Madman Cosplay Championships take place between 6 groups or people with the best on offer. The first group by far had the most impressive costumes and were based off the Digimon franchise (Either Adventures 2 or Frontier…).

The second group was based off the Shino Promise ending of .hack//G.U… an event that is very brief in the game itself. As a .hack fan I appreciated it, but I am not sure if its appeal would cater to those outside of the .hack Fandom. The fourth group was basically what I assume to be a summary of Black Rock Shooter going through several different costumes in the short period and I thought was rather neat.

I have no idea what the third cosplay group was based on but they did a rather interesting job. Same as group five who had lazers and group 6 who had a rather interesting concept behind it. I didn’t stay for the winner announcement however I do have a feeling Group 1 would have one…. their costumes were by far the most creative.

That is all I got to see in Supanova, I live a fair way away so staying out any longer would have had me lost in the city at night. But I can say that it was an overall enjoyable experience. Here are my Pros and Cons of Supanova Brisbane.

Pros

  • There were many stores and they had a lot of good stock!
  • Focused on many demographics, so not just anime fans but fans of sci-fi etc.
  • Cosplay! Need I say more?
  • The host for the Madman Cosplay Nationals – He was PAAFEKUTO!

Cons

  • Event Clashes were very evident with events such as Anime Trivia clashing with Siren Visuals Panel, and both of them clashing with the Cosplay Chess…..
  • The location isn’t something that was well suited for the amount of people there were…… I will however be interested to see where they place the Gold Coast  one next year….. *Fingers Crossed the Convention Center*
  • Queues for the Cosplay Events….. ARGH!
  • The location of the Dominos stall was right near the main stairwell…. would have been a bit further in so as to not disturb the flow of traffic.

But you know what, even with the few cons I had a real blast and I am saddened that I cannot make it to the Sunday event. If you want to see what is on today, check out the timetable:

Don’t forget that Melbourne Supanova is on next weekend and the events in Perth and Sydney are on in June!

A day pass costs $25 at the door or $23.80 online, whilst a 3 day pass costs $49.50 online or $60 at the door.

Either way, if you are a fan of anime, manga, gaming or anything that would fall under “Pop Culture” get your rears into gear and get to your nearest Supanova! As expected, all titles recieved during the event will be added to the review roster.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Advertisment

Recent Posts