29th September 2018, 10am – 6pm @ The Cloud
Adults $10 / Under 13 $5 / Under 5s Free
History
2018
For the third year in a row Overload was held at the Cloud on Auckland’s waterfront. It has become well established, and has developed a core crew of dedicated volunteers who now have the experience from several years of running Overload, which ensured that everything went smoothly. The three International Special Guests for Overload 2018 were;
Seiji Mizushima, Anime Director, best known for his outstanding work on ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’, ‘Gundam 00’, ‘Expelled from Paradise’ and ‘Beatless’.
Hiromi Igarashi, Voice Actress from Hokkaido who has played characters in many Anime and Games for instance as Aoi Hyoudou in ‘Maid Sama!’ and Anzu Futaba in ‘THE [email protected] CINDERELLA GIRLS’, and
KANAME☆ The big-league Cosplay Star from Chiba, Japan.
The weather for Overload 2018 was excellent. There were more than 110 Artist Tables and, as usual, there was plenty of very high quality work on show. The Cosplay Open Stage, Cosplayers circulating in the melee of keen fans and visitors, and the presence of two Cosplay photo booths, one featuring a ‘Human Transmutation Circle’, kept the cameras clicking all day. The ‘Madfest” Madman Anime Festival held in Melbourne was moved to September 16th 2018, an earlier than usual date, and the 10th Annual Madman National Cosplay Championship Finals were held there. Overload 2018, being held on the 29th September, wasn’t able to host the preliminary round for the 2018 MNCC, so the Preliminary Round for the 2019 11th Annual Madman National Cosplay Championship was held instead. The winners were ‘Team Duct Tape’. The Karaoke competition was sponsored by Sony, Graphic Novel Cafe and Luxury Karaoke Bar, and there was a Japan Candy Box Giveaway.
2017
For 2017, Overload was again held at the Cloud, on Queens Wharf on the 30th of September. The weather was excellent, there was a huge turnout of visitors, a full complement of Artists, and the tables were piled high with wonderful work from the Overload Artist community.
There were three International Special Guests for Overload 2017:
Takuya Sato, an accomplished Animation Director, associated with ‘Steins; Gate’, the WIXOSS series, and many other popular Anime,
Kawano Marina, Anime Singer from Fukuoka, who has “Morning Arch’, the opening theme song for the TV Anime ‘A Channel’ amongst her Anime and Game Song repertoire, and
Ying Tze from Malaysia, a dedicated and talented Cosplayer whose skills extend to all facets of creating her own amazing costumes and makeup.
The Overload Art Competition, again sponsored by Epson NZ and WACOM, featured 24 entries this year, all of high standard and quite challenging for the judges to choose the winners. On the Overload main stage the Isomura Brothers performed a new rendition of Final Fantasy for Violin & Piano, music from main titles of the Final Fantasy series, and later the 9th Annual Madman National Cosplay Championship Preliminary round was held. The First Place winners, Sparky Cosplays, represented NZ and went on to win the finals at ‘Madfest’ Madman Anime Festival on the 4th of November in Melbourne, Australia. The inaugural Overload 2017 Karaoke Competition was sponsored by Luxury Karaoke Bar, Graphic Novel Cafe and Hobby One and was pronounced a great success! There were also colourful Cosplayers circulating amongst the crowd all day, and the Itasha cars display was a focus of interest for local Otaku. Overload 2017 was yet another resounding success.
2016
The Cloud on Auckland’s waterfront was the new setting for Overload 2016, and proved to be an excellent venue. The Guest Artist this year was Yun Kouga, and there were two Guest Cosplay Artists, Reika and A.K.Wirru. Yun Kouga held live drawing and Q&A sessions and an exhibition of her Artwork featured at the event. For the first time the Madman National Cosplay championship preliminary was held at Overload, and the 4Koma competition and Weiß Schwarz Card Tournament were well supported.
2015
Overload 2015 was held at the ASB Stadium Kohimarama. An Art exhibition of work by Overload Guest Artist Noizi Ito was installed at the TePo Gallery at Unitec from the 10th to the 23rd of September. Noizi Ito and the Overload International Guest Cosplay Artist, Yuegene Fay, both attended the main Overload Event on Saturday 26th September to give personal demonstrations of their work and conduct Q&A sessions. There was excellent participation in the Cosplay and Comic competitions, and the new Epson Photo competition and the Hare Hare Yukai Dance competition received plenty of attention.
2014
The art exhibition for 2014 was by yoshitoshi ABe , and was installed at NZSE gallery on 15th of September. On the 2nd of October, ABe held a free manga drawing workshop for students attending NZSE, and invited high school students from all over Auckland.
The Overload main event featured yoshitoshi ABe’s live drawing sessions, a drawing was kindly donated for an auction at the end of event. The cosplay competition was brilliant and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. The anime screenings by Madman were very well attended.
2013
Range Murata was the featured artist this year, with an Art Exhibition and opening night at New Zealand School of Education (NZSE) on the 24th of September. The weather was very bad yet the event was still well attended (130 people). On the following day, we had the premier of Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing- at Media Design School.
As for the main Overload event, we made a move to the new big venue at the ASB Stadium, Kohimarama. We also had our first Cosplay Competition, a Range Murata Art Exhibition at the venue and an art auction of his drawing.
2012
Overload this year featured an internationally celebrated Japanese illustrator; Fuzichoco is an adept at creating unique and beautifully detailed worlds. An Overload related event was held at Unitec Snowhite Gallery from the 3rd to the 28th of September 2012. This was ‘Fuzishiki’, an exhibition of Fuzichoco’s digital artworks. Gallery visitors were enchanted by the digital masterpieces on display.
At the main Overload event, Pullman Hotel, there was Live Drawing and Q&A by Fuzichoco, Comic Competition sponsored by Wacom and massive display of high quality figures, and to top it all off Fuzichoco held a digital drawing Workshop.
Having an internationally famous guest artist generated very positive feedback from social media this year.
2011
The epic continuation of the saga that is Overload resulted in a two day event featuring many guest speakers, local professionals and our first international guest Yuri Inaba; WCS Grand Champion 2009. Artists had been hard at work creating many great pieces for the public to view and buy, while the best singular works were judged in the Art Competition by Ant Sang; designer of Bro’Town, author of Shaolin Burning, his first Graphic Novel. Dylan Horrocks, New Zealand’s first published graphic novel writer/artist, returned with members of the CCNZ. Their experience and industry insight was invaluable for all the artists that had questions for them.
Perhaps your interest was Cosplay, Yuri Inaba, the local games industry, Ant Sang’s entry into Graphic Novels, animation and so on. Our Discussion panels had it covered.
2011 also saw the hard work of the local independent games industry, an encouraging sign in this ever expanding market. With the diversity of talents and interests there was something for everyone at Overload 2011.
“The Best Event Ever!” that is what we heard from visitors, artists & sponsors. We were delighted by the improvement of skills and presentations from new and returning artists. We could see more artists trying to break their limits to achieve their goals. Their efforts are the pride and joy of Overload; inclusive of the committee. The Cosplay café and Dollfie display were the new events for 2010, which drew a lot of attention. Cosplayers were more meticulous with their costumes and involvement of the event. During the night, the “Cosplay Ball” was held on the same venue. The most pleasant surprise was probably the Japanese visitors that were involved in organizing the famous Comiket. They showed interest on Overload, filming and interviewing exhibitors and organizers. We look forward to working with them in the future.
With Overload now established as a yearly event and with an ever growing number of talented artists, 2009 was remembered for the DO band performances. The group who gathered to perform anime songs rocked the entire venue at the Hyatt Hotel not once, but twice. Taking over a year in preparation they wanted to express their passion through music and wanted to give attendees a memory they would not soon forget. The fourth year of Overload also brought with it a need for more space with both the numbers of artists and visitors crowding the allocated space in record time.
Featured Artist: Paolo Alinea
2008
Now in its third year, Overload truly became a “Con” in New Zealand. With more talented artists, both amateur and professional, more retail shops for collectors and excellent cosplayers showing off their creations all day long the event was becoming recognized as New Zealand’s leading Anime and Manga event. The Highlight of 2008 was the Art Competition. Sponsored by Weta Workshop, who provided tremendous prizes for the contestants, the quality of entrants made picking a winner almost impossible.
In 2007 Overload began to expand and started holding extra-special events in addition to the artwork. Such as a small live Anime music Concert and Anime production cell exhibitions. Overload also began to gather more anime fan base events and related industry sponsorship from Graphic Novel Café, the Freelance Animation School, Siren Visual Entertainment and Nuke-Bloodaxe.org. One of the biggest highlights from 2007 was the “Hare Hare Yukai Dance Doujin Overload 2007!” which consisted of a group of anime fans who loved the Anime TV Series “The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi” organizing a dance event, getting most of the attendees to join in!
Overload, previously called Doujin Overload, was born in Auckland’s Premiere Anime specialty store called Graphic Novel Café (GNC). In an effort to Support the local manga artists the owner of GNC, with support from an in-house committee, decided to create an event which would be open to the public and showcase the talents of local amateur artists. The committee was inspired by Comiket in Japan, the world’s largest ‘Doujin’ (Fan made comics, illustrations and games) event. The main goal for the first event was to give an opportunity for local talent to present their ideas through comics and illustrations in the form of Manga and Anime style Artwork.
