Supanova: Brisbane 2013

Greetings Minasan!

It's been quite some time since my last post but I'm back to tell you about my day at the pop culture convention, Supanova. A quick run down for those who don't know about Supanova. It's a pop culture convention that is run in Australia in most major cities including, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and most recently the Gold Coast which is right next to Brisbane. They consist of stores, art galleries, performances and hosts a variety of celebrities. All of which come from various Western mediums such as TV shows, movies, comics etc as well as a large portion being from Japan. I'd say that the larger part of it is Japanese related with a lot of anime stuff, such as figurines, DVDs, models, art books, Cosplay competitions as well as showings of the latest anime. Of all the venues, the Brisbane one is the largest by rank of attendance. We went on the Sunday so I presume it was more packed the Saturday.

Here, we're waiting outside in the line to get in. Fortunately, we didn't get rained on this time! However, it did rain sometime during the day. My friends who rode their motorbikes there weren't impressed!

Up near the building with the glass wall is the entrance.

While outside, we had a run in with the cast from Sailor Moon. The guys were very kirei!

They proved very popular with photographers.

One of the best stores at Supanova is Zombster, From what I can tell, they deal in all legit merchandise and have a massive stock of Gundam models to choose from as well as many figurines and Art Books. Best of all is that their prices are generally quite reasonable. Their store in Toowong is always a pleasure to visit.

We had a run in with one of the imperials patrolling the venue. Fortunately he didn't cause us any trouble. Unfortunately, he wasn't dancing.

A ran into a store my friends and I have visited a few times in the past called Anime Excess. The man running it actually remembered us and we got talking about figure collecting and all the old type of figures he's ordering in for his store. I appreciate this because there's a lot of figurines I've missed out on from older series because I was simply too young to collect them at the time. So it'll be great to see what he gets in stock! He's very friendly and treats returning customers very nicely. :)

Here's some general shots of some of the stores

I purchased a plush Totoro from here last year.

It looks really empty in these photos but I assure you that 99% of the time it's really packed!

 Some very lovely looking and very expensive Ghibli figures.

They have some anime swords here but never Squall's Gun Blade!

While we're on the topic, look at who I ran into! Unfortunately he wasn't selling his.

The Sailor Moon figures are obvious fakes. You can see the Saber figure I purchased (although, this is a different one at a different store)

One thing that bothers me about Supanova is the abundance of bootleg merchandise, particularly figurines. There's a lot of bootlegs mixed in among the official stuff and it makes it hard for people like me to avoid them. Although, a lot of the time they're obviously fake. I'm not sure if it's something Supanova officials care about and don't catch it or if they turn a blind eye in order to keep as many stores attending. In any case, I'd like to see less bootlegs around Supanova. At the very least, if they would at least label them as such that would be very welcome!

After a long weary day, we had a much needed rest on the side of the wrestling rink.

My purchases for the day included, a Studio Ghibli Porco Rosso art book, Asa figurine from Shuffle!, a Saber figurine from Fate Stay/Night, and Rin Tohsaka figurine also from Fate Stay/Night. I also picked up From Up On Poppy Hill by Studio Ghibli on Blu Ray and am looking forward to sitting down and enjoying it. (I still haven't taken off the shrink wrap almost a two months later!)

The highlight of the day was being able to meet Joe Flanigan (I use the word 'meet' lightly as being more of a very brief moment with him). However, I got to see him on 3 separate occasions, the first of which, I got him to sign my Blu Ray box set of Stargate Atlantis which now sits (more so) proudly on a shelf displayed in my room. I also got a photo with him. The final time I saw him was when he signed it for me after he had finished the photo shoot. I'm planning to frame it on the wall along side the photo I got last year with Cliff Simon and Rainbow Sun Franks. While it was great to see him, it wasn't quite as exciting as seeing those two. I think it was the rush of the spontaneity of the whole thing. Here they were, walking off stage right towards me when I just asked if I could get a photo. The rest is history, I think the planned nature of the whole ordeal this time kind of downplayed the whole event. In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed being able to meet Joe Flanigan and hope to meet more of the Stargate cast in future years. Soon after I got my photo, we made our way home.

The Brisbane Supanova is the largest one in Australia by attendance and continues to grow every year. Hence the opening of the Gold Coast Supanova last year in April. It seems as though people can't get enough of it!