Adelaide Supanova 2024 Report
Hello!!! Yes I still write these lol (it's been a real busy year for me ok i know it's been a while)
Last week I went to my second Supanova convention here in Adelaide! At this point it feels more like an excuse to cosplay more than anything, but I don't think that's a negative thing at all. Cosplaying is something I've always wanted to do, and as of last year it's become a reality, and one of which I find great joy in partaking in. Why wouldn't I snatch up the opportunity to do it as often as I possibly can?
This time around, the theme was Dandadan, and of course I had to go with my extraterrestrial-obsessed guy Okarun! This wasn't the only reason though, my good friend Miku (@remimibanana) was going as the similarly occult-obsessed Momo Ayase, and we of course had to be matching. As the dream team, we have to. It's a legal requirement. Look it up.
Now I'm speaking for myself here, but imo Supanova is probably the least exciting of the local conventions that we have (tied with ComicCon). I just think it caters to a slightly different culture, being that my interests more closely align with Japanese culture such as anime and manga, as well as more broadly games in general, not so much comic books and superheroes and movies and that sort of thing. With that being said, there were no shortage of cosplays that we recognised on the day, and we ourselves were happy to be giving Dandadan the proper representation that it deserved (and CONTINUES to deserve might I add!). Plus idk hanging out as Okarun and Momo just sounds fun like automatically so.
Anyway! Enough yapping let's get into itttttttt
Before the Con
I will start by saying that in terms of cosplay quality this year, I wasn't particularly proud of my Okarun cosplay. It was nothing to write home about I guess, as I alluded to earlier it's been a really, REALLY busy end to my second year of Uni, and alongside working a job, I just did not have the time, energy, or motivation, to go all in with wig styling like I usually do. Sure, Okarun's hair style is pretty basic as it is, which is why I was able to get away with what little styling I did do, but still. Can't help but regret that a little bit, especially alongside the other factor that is my wig cap slipped off on the day! And I wasn't really equipped to properly get it back on or secured. I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but when I got home and looked back at the photos we took to notice that in the majority of them you can see my real hair sticking out the back of the wig, I won't lie and say that I wasn't a little bit disappointed. But hey, that's entirely on me, I have made a note to secure the wig more assuredly (with the help of a billion pins) next time! So in this report you likely won't be seeing very many photos of me, sorry. But hey! The cosplay was by FAR the most comfortable one I've worn yet, like without a doubt. I'm going to wear those pants like casually, seriously they're great. That was a huge win at least!
And can we talk about how great Miku looked as Momo btw??? She was like the splitting image of her (minus the earrings but who caressssss) I could easily see why she was so happy with how her ensemble turned out on the day (despite the difficulties she had actually assembling said ensemble, go check her report for more details on that fun fiasco lol). Heavy relying on her being next to me for people to recognise me as Okarun, considering there's like a hundred other characters who look very similar to Okarun LOL.
(technically the cosplay I ordered was actually for Mob from MP100.........)
Before the convention, however, I got the chance to meet up with an online friend of mine from interstate (@shy-joker)! They were visiting Adelaide for the very first time, also with plans to go to the convention, and (aside from some unfortunate scheduling hiccups) I was going to be able to meet them for the first time in person! We didn't meet at the convention unfortunately, but we did get to meet for dinner the night before, and it was great to meet them! We talked about all manner of things, went and got some food, and went to go check out their hotel room (which was ridiculously high up btw, like actually vertigo-inducing lol). I'm really looking forward to next time we meet (whether that's us going to visit them or them coming back here to visit us—they were a BIG fan of Adelaide so perhaps that's the more likely outcome lmaooo), hopefully we can work out better timing and even cosplay at a convention together in the future! But all in all it was fantastic to meet them!! ^^
The following day was our scheduled convention day. It took all of maybe 30 minutes to get ready, as opposed to the usual hour or more it takes for literally any other cosplay, which was a brilliant and very welcome change. Once I got the work from Miku that she was on the way, I headed over to the station like usual to go and meet her so we could head to the convention together. And that's exactly what happened!
The moment I get to see her fully in her new cosplay for the first time as she leaves the platform and rushes over to me is something that will never get old, I swear. It's a wonderful experience!!
The Convention
The entry to the convention was slightly different to what we were used to, they had moved the entrance to the side as opposed to what we were anticipating from like...basically every single other convention we had been to at these grounds. But that was okay! We wandered around to the side, walked to the front, watched some people get turned back because they went to the wrong entrance, so we not-so-subtly followed them to where they were directed to as being the right entrance to get the wristbands, and eventuallyyyyy we made it in!
The first thing we did, as we normally do, is just walk around the entire con, work out where things are and try to find things that we would be interested in checking out more properly later on. We did find a manga library which was pretty cool! They had probably upwards of 200+ volumes that were donated to the convention for anyone to come and read! I've been REALLY getting into manga over the last couple of years (boasting quite a collection of my own lol) and it was cool to see a lot of manga there that I've already read, but also a lot that I hadn't! But we didn't really have time to sit around reading manga, so we continued onwards.
The artist alley was pretty sizeable! About four or five alleyways all up, filled to the brim with both artists we recognized, and artists we didn't! It's always nice to see the sorts of works people have on display. I was keeping an extra close eye out for anything Guilty Gear related (latest hyperfixation lol), but unfortunately I was not able to spot anything in that regard (or any cosplayers for that matter weh ;;). But regardless there was loads of great stuff! I may have impulsively bought a few more prints than I usually do...
Miku and I also did our tradition of buying each other a print! I got her a Honkai Star Rail print, and she got me the Dandadan print you see above!!! I love it so much I am so happy to own Dandadan merch THANK YOUUUUUUUUU
(I came really close to getting her the same print that would have been hilarious I kinda wish I did LOL)
We also did get photos with some other cosplayers! Not too many this time around, I think personally I was too lacking in soclal energy to ask others for photos lol. But we did get some! Like these two wonderful cosplayers!!
(@/ai_zyu9 as Kangel and @/ztqrrz as Hu Tao on insta)
And another Momo cosplayer!!!
(did not think to ask for socials weh sorryyyyyyy ;;;;)
We headed back outside to get something to eat, because to be honest neither of us had eaten anything that day yet (very not good I knowww), but there were a whole bunch of food trucks which was cool! We settled on getting some crepes, I got a banana and nutella one and it was really really nice! Also sufficiently filling.
I always say I'm not a huge fan of pancakes, just because of how filling they are I can normally only eat like 2 of them whenever I do have them, and I feel like crepes fall under that same designation. But still it tasted really nice. Oh I also got a chocolate marble cookie from another one of the stands, which was alright! (bit too much sugar for me at once though lol.)
That pretty much wrapped up the convention! We were only there for about an hour in all, which is definitely the shortest amount of time we've spent at one of these, but that was okay, because now we had the rest of the day to spend doing whatever we liked! And before we headed back to the city, we decided to make use of Miku's phone tripod to record some videos and take some photos!
Now personally I have a pretty terrible video presence, in that I'm extremely awkward and have not really recorded very many videos before. Additionally, I am very bad at dancing! But none of this mattered in the slightest, because it was a ton of fun just messing around on camera and recording all sorts of videos lol. And hey! We got some pretty good videos in the end, which you can go check out on Miku's TikTok (@/mikudachii)!
Most of it was just recreating other Momo/Okarun videos that other people had made, but that in it of itself was a lot of fun! At one point Miku was just scrolling through sounds that she had saved and it was just Vine sound after Vine sound after Vine sound, which was kind of hilarious lol.
I think we spent close to an hour just recording stuff (yes, the same amount of time we spent at the literal convention itself lol, wonder if that says something), but after this we decided that it was time to move on to our other plans!
Arcade
Once we got back to the city, we beelined to a new arcade that had opened up in the city about a month ago! We've already been a few times now, but we were really excited about the prospect of being able to go to an arcade in cosplay, it sounded like it would not only be a lot of fun, but also it would make for some nice photos with the cool lighting and environments!
Now my favourite thing about the arcades personally is the rhythm games. This one has a pretty good selection, including games like Chunithm (my favourite), Sound Voltex, DDR, MaiMai, and most recently Dancerush (yet to check it out but it's on the cards!). Playing rhythm games in cosplay is fun! But admittedly a little tiring considering the games in this location are in the basement and being in cosplay means you get real warm pretty quickly haha.
While I was playing Chunithm, if Miku wasn't playing Sound Voltex she was just recording random videos in the background which was quite funny.
We also played DDR and MaiMai! And this arcade also has photo booths that we tried to use, but I just happened to run out of tokens on my card and neither of us could be bothered to go back downstairs just to recharge. Besides, we had somewhere else to be! It was time to head over to karaoke!
Karaoke
Last time we went to karaoke we were both WELL AND TRULY deep in the Guilty Gear brainrot, so that's literally all we sang. For two hours. It was glorious.
However I regret to acknowledge that Miku has since fallen out of Guilty Gear brainrot, leaving me in the dust. How dare you. Get back here....please.........don't leave me alone...........................................
Uhhhh anyway this time around I started out with Guilty Gear music, but then later on I decided that it was time to try some other stuff. Meanwhile, Miku was doing some Serbian songs which was amazing!!!
Somehow we ended up doing sad songs which is different from our usual super upbeat songs that we like to do. But that all changed when we closed out the night with The Lonely Island's "Threw It on the Ground" which was a LOT of fun hahaha
This photo makes me laugh where did the lighting go 💀
Two hours never feels like enough whenever we go, and I always wish we could stay for longer every time (and I mean....theoretically we could because they always forget to kick us out, but we are law-abiding patrons of this establishment and leave of our own accord when our time is up like the responsible adults we are lol). But we get to go somewhat often, so it's fine in the end!
And speaking of the end, that pretty much wraps up the day! It was a hell of a lot of fun, as it always is. I'm always so grateful to have the opportunity to cosplay, and to go to a convention, the atmosphere never gets old.
And spending it with Miku makes it so so much more enjoyable, I'll always be grateful to spend more time with her at fun events like this!! Watching her get better and better at cosplay this year has been nothing short of a delight, and I hope I can keep up next year because we have some grandiose, yet VERY exciting plans!!
Thanks for reading!!! See you in 2025!! ^^
