| Apr. 27th, 2006 @ 11:53 am Supanova report |
|---|
So. Once again Supanvoa, the closest thing my city has to an anime convention (*), has come and gone. This was its fourth showing in Brisbane. And I went along, of course - how could I not? I've gone every year.
( (*) Slight lie. There is an anime convention starting up in Brisbane this year, after testing the waters last year with a 'mini-convention', but it hasn't had its first proper showing yet.)
Though this year, it seemed to sneak up on me. Even a week before, it didn't really register that, you know, Supanova was about to happen and I'd have to really hustle to get anything organised for it.
Opening Night
New this year was an 'Opening Night' on the Friday night before the main weekend convention. One of the two buildings was open, and there were some events and screenings. It seemed a bit disorganised though, and it started quite late. This was probably because they had... um... I can't remember who it was exactly. The Queensland minister for Information and Communication Technology, maybe? Something like that. Anyway, he came along and gave the opening speech.
On Opening Night, there was an 'anime quiz like thing'. Sean Schemmel and Mike McFarland (English dub actors for Son Goku and Master Roshi in DBZ) picked out teams and people answered three questions.
Right after that there was an Anime Auction for Charity. All proceeds from the auction went to Cyclone Larry relief efforts. Items that were auctioned included a bunch of autographed pencil boards, an autographed region 1 Hellsing DVD (which went for $220! Or was it $240?), and a Michelle figurine from R.O.D. the TV, autographed by Michelle's English voice actress. I saw that figurine and wanted it. The bidding eventually went over my budget, though, and I dropped out.
Tim, the auctioneer, was a very good auctioneer, in that he managed to get the price of items up and up. One very funny tactic he used went as follows: "Hello, you, the guy sitting next to the girl who just bid. Are you her boyfriend? Yes? Excellent. Why don't you bid for $5 extra and give this lovely item to her as a present?"
The guy did.
And then of course there was the Hellsing DVD that went for $240 or thereabouts. Two girls in the front got into a bidding war over it.
After that they showed a fan movie of Star Wars, which I quickly gave up on. I wandered over to the main theatre area.
I managed to catch most of a movie called Boss Beat, which was a short movie made of a 1950s to 1970s Australian superhero(ish) comic. I know nothing of the comic, and the movie was really cheesy, so it didn't make much of a favourable impression. Boss Beat, the title character, is a bit like Batman in that he doesn't seem to have any superpowers. He wears a mask, his hair is in a pompadour, and he's a bit thick. His enemy in the movie was a really cheesy communist villain called Red Menace. Understandable, given the original timeframe, but still...
Finally, I saw the first episode of Le Portraite de Petite Cosette, a gothic lolita anime. It's too weird for me, so I don't think I'll bother picking it up when it comes out here.
Anime Trivia
In 2004 and 2005 I entered the Anime Trivia competition. The team I'm in has a core group of four people, and we seem to do well enough - we even won in 2004. So it is to my eternal shame that the team's name is "Team Dirty Panty Thieves".
You may laugh and point now.
Anyway, this year the main Dirty Panty Thief was not at Supanova, so the team didn't happen. I rocked up to the Anime Trivia anyway, to see how many questions I could answer.
Which was when I discovered one of the announcer's good points. He encouraged everyone not in a team to get together and form teams. And so I found myself, along with three others, in 'Team We-Couldn't-Decide-On-A-Name (kimenai na no chiimu)'. Everyone was able to contribute, we got full points in Round Three (which was supposed to be the hardest round), and ended up coming third overall, which I found absolutely astonishing.
Which is where I have to mention one of the announcer's bad points. Or maybe it was just our team. Thanks to his confusing wording, and taking matters into his own hands (which he shouldn't have), there was a confused mix-up at the beginning of round two that had our team misunderstanding two of the questions. Thus we missed two questions, that, perhaps, we could have gotten.
Still, third is not bad, for a completely impromptu team.
Loot
Remember that Michelle figurine I missed getting at the auction? I found one shortly after doors opened on the Saturday, for half of what the auction one went for. I picked it up as soon as I saw it - no determined bidder was going to get this one over me.
There was also a Mai Shiranui figurine. H_H I kept on trying to talk myself out of it, but eventually I bought that one too.
My main acquisition, though, was all of Card Captor Sakura on DVD. The non-Nelvana, non-hacked, with-Japanese-subtitles version. Now I just need to find the time to watch it... (sigh)
A Yoko Ishida CD, a Maaya Sakamoto CD, and a couple of manga volumes completed the set.
Total cost: Too Much.
In the showbag I got a free 14-day trial version of World of Warcraft. I've always sworn to myself never ever to get onto a MMORPG, because my life and time would disappear in a flash. However, this time I've given in and I'm giving the trial a shot - after all, it's not costing anything, and it's only 14 days of my life that I'll lose.
After a few days, I think I'm finally starting to understand some of what makes WoW so addicting. Which is probably why I'll force myself to give it up in a week and a half when the trial ends.
Cosplay
I did not cosplay this time, though I did think briefly about getting Generic White Ninja out for one last time. The idea was, he'd get up on stage and say something like, "I represent all the generic ninjas that you kill by the hundreds in video games. I have come to this 'convention' of yours to show you that we do not suck. In my time here, I have learned an awesome technique that I shall now show you." At which point he does a Kamehameha. (*)
(*) There's an in-joke here. One of the events of Supanova is a Kamehameha contest. I am not kidding. People get up on stage, do a Kamehameha, and are judged on volume, length, and consistency. If they have a gimmick it can help but relying on just a gimmick means you eventually lose out. Usually a DBZ voice actor is part of the judging.
Eventually I decided against that.
Anyway, back to cosplay stuff. I think my personal highlight was when I saw a Malin cosplayer. (She's a character from the King of Fighters series.) Fighting game characters usually don't get many cosplayers at Supanova. There was also an old-school Kyo Kusanagi, a Ryuji Yamazaki, and a Rock Howard.
There was a group of Bleach cosplayers, but not the huge crowd of Bleach cosplayers I was expecting. Maybe around 10 or so.
You know what, I'll scan my photos of the cosplayers and put them online.
Maybe.
Summer Glau
Summer Glau, actress in Firefly and Serenity, was one of the celebrities there. She had two panels, but due to scheduling I was only able to get along to half of one of them. She didn't have anything special to say or present - she just started answering questions from the audience. Which, um, I can't remember anymore.
Actually, I tell a lie. I can remember one of the questions: "Now that River is not nuts, is that going to affect things in the future if any more of Firefly is made?" Which seemed more like a question for the writers, but Summer attempted to answer anyway, saying that River, despite not being nuts anymore, is still a little odd.
Thoughts on other events/contests
I didn't enter any other events or contests. I keep on meaning to enter the Anime Karaoke, but I'm terribly nervous, because I'm pretty sure my singing is absolutely crap and I haven't sung on stage for at least 15 years. One of these years... maybe...
The Anime Karaoke was fun as always, and was very notable in that it had Ryuji Yamazaki (insane killer extraordinaire) and Rock Howard (angsty emo teenager kid) singing an English Pokemon song. The girl who usually wins the Karaoke won again this year. She can sing *and* she knows how to put on a performance. Most other people just stand there nervously.
I barely even looked at the fanart wall. The lighting on it was a bit iffy, I thought. Also, it was behind some registration desks so you couldn't get up close. This made it very hard to see some of the pieces, especially the pencil ones. I didn't enter anything, due to Supanova sneaking up on me, as mentioned above.
In conclusion
I had fun. I'm just glad I'd applied for leave the following Monday, because I really needed the extra time to recover from the weekend. Oh, and to try out WoW. (Shifty eyes)
EDIT: The things I forgot
There was an awesome Dokuro-chan cosplayer. She even had the Excalibolg mace, and a halo. She was part of a larger Dokuro-chan group. They had a song-and-dance routine to the Dokuro-chan opening theme song when they got up on stage.
In the Madman panel, I found out they're releasing Ah! My Goddess TV! And Mai-Hime! Excellent. The really big news was that they're releasing Gundam Seed Destiny, Eureka 7, and Naruto. I don't know much about Eureka 7. Is it good? |
|  |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}