2014

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.

Featured Artists: Jeremiah W. [www.snowwaltz.com] & Anthony Lau [alt-l.deviantart.com]

2010

“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.

Featured Artists: Eddie [www.collateralds.com] & SnowWaltz [www.snowwaltz.com]

2009

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.

Featured Artist: Ethird (Simon Kao) [ethird.deviantart.com]

Overload 2008 featured on Asia Downunder:

2007

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!

Featured Artist: Jianran Pan [ichi-graphics.blogspot.com] & W.L.Wong

2006

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.

Featured Artist: Ethird (Simon Kao) [ethird.deviantart.com]