Doujin Overload 2009
Posted by Zeb in Anime & Manga, Events on Jul 26th, 2009 | 27 commentsI’ve spent all day today trying to decide how best to describe my experience at Doujin Overload 2009, and I guess I should start out with what I enjoyed.
Don’t let the above statement scare you. I enjoyed the event for the most part, and if not for these few issues I had, it could have been just as good as last year’s event.
I digress…
The day started out beautifully, but cold. Nothing at all like the atrocious stormy weather we had last year. Auckland City wasn’t terribly busy at 8.30AM on a Saturday morning, and after paying for parking I hiked up the hill to the Hyatt Hotel carrying the two figures I had been asked to bring, to display on the figure exhibition table. My Abel Nightroad and Esther Blanchett figures from the anime/manga Trinity Blood.
Set up was already in full swing, and it looked like most artists had already arrived. After leaving the figures in the careful hands of the volunteers and friends at the figure exhibition table, I went back to my car to grab my camera… and got snap happy. 
One of the things I love about events is being there to watch the set up. Seeing how all the displays, tables, exhibitions etc. come to life. It’s part of the “life” of the event. The blood, the flow. Watching the artists carefully consider how to organise their tables; watching the organisers running around sorting things out. People who attend these events usually miss out on this side of things, which is a shame… because sometimes they can’t appreciate what goes into making an event a success.
Doujin Overload Figure Exhibition Setup.
At 9:30AM the doors opened to the public, and the fun began.
Wandering around, I took photos and checked out the work on display. This year I was being a bit more strict in terms of what purchases I made…
1. I would only buy original, pen to paper art. Not prints or books.
2. No pity buys.
Unfortunately not many artists were really selling originals, but many were offering commissioned “on the day” sketches, some that I took up. The art that was for sale was varied in quality and price, and admittedly I was surprised at some of the things I saw for sale. Yes, a lot of fan art, but also art that was heavily influenced by popular manga-ka/circles, so much to the point where I am quite positive some of the art was almost an exact copy. Not the sort of thing I wanted to buy (and couldn’t in the end considering the price asked.)
My rule of only buying originals was sorely put to the test when I came upto the Hiyaku Studio table though *sighs* and even though I resisted purchasing their new book, I regretted it later when I discovered they had completely sold out! Pictures of my art haul are below. 
I was gifted art by the adorably cute and fun Michelle and Rebecca, who btw turned out to be the friendliest and “easiest to chat with artists” (that I found, personally.)
Michelle & Rebecca, really nice gals!
The figure exhibition table had a great selection of figures, and I am so glad they asked around for donations to the table because the variety and range really appealled to me this time around. They even had three Dollfies! I remember first reading about these on a Danny Choo blog post, and thinking “neat, but not my thing” but seeing them in real life, all I can say is wow… thank god they are so expensive though; cause I could seriously see myself getting into them. *blushes.*
Stunning Dream Dollfies.
After taking a break I checked out the art competition entries. Not too sure what was happening this year with the competition. In previous years there were rules in terms of what was allowed and wasn’t, but this year’s felt a bit hap-hazard. Regardless, there were some nice pieces, the following of which really stood out for me.
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Nadea showed up at mid-day and after lunch with Alex & Edmund, we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, chatting with friends and artists, and also picking up my varied commissions. Talk about pain in the neck. I completely forgot some of the commissions I had done. *sighs* Need to organise with these artists to get the art mailed or dropped off at the GNC.
Ok… onto the not so happy stuff… and really, these things are minor and only applicable to me. I am sure they weren’t issues for others so please, when you read what follows, don’t take offence.
Doujin Overload to me has always been about the art, the artists and the people that enjoy it.
The fringe extras like a band, the figures and the cosplayers are nice, but they are not what I go to Doujin Overload for. Which is why, yesterday, the sheer number of cosplayers just seriously bugged me. Don’t get me wrong, individually most of them were pretty cool, and there were some amazing costumes on display… but as a collective, they got annoying, fast.
The noise, the squealing, the amount of space they took up… it felt like sometimes the artists got drowned out, lost, by the cacophany created by so many excited cosplayers. By the afternoon they were sprawled in the corridor outside the event room, and within the event room where ever there was free wall space available. I tripped on quite a few legs trying to make my way around a particularly tight spot… and by that point the event room was packed.
I got the impression that the NZ Cosplay Ball was timed to co-incide with Doujin Overload, to make it more worthwhile for people to come up to Auckland… i.e. two in one with Doujin Overload and the ball. Nice idea, but the execution needs work I think.
Again, let me stress, I have nothing against cosplayers.
There was a girl cosplaying as Kanu-Unchou from Ikki Tousen, and she is definitely my favourite of all the cosplayers I saw. I am hugely annoyed I wasn’t able to get a photo of her, her glaive was awesome!
Secondly, last year ruined me I think, because this year I just wasn’t too… wowed by the art I saw for sale. Lots of new artists, lots of great talent, but personally, for my tastes, there was really little that popped! for me. I was so pleased to discover that Des was selling original art. Although I missed out on buying his circle’s artbook, I was able to buy original art from the book, and last year’s artbook.
Some of the most beautiful artwork I got this year, was actually gifted to me… specifically from Des, DancingFeather and Paolo Alinea (who unfortunately for me was not exhibiting this year.) Other artists that really stood out (again, personal opinion) were Kestin Stewart, Syn, Aiki and her table partner.
You can see even more photos from Doujin Overload 2009
by visiting the Doujin Overload 2009 Gallery.
p.s. if you would like larger copies of some of the photos in the
gallery, please contact me direct. Full credit to me must be given!
The following are photos of my haul this year.
Angel & Mermaid by Aiki, Kim & Shego by Kestin Stewart and Geisha by Vefalasiel/Jettwolfgang.
Sketch work by Michelle aka Fatalis-unus.
Mermaid by SilentSeraphim, Chibi Zeb by Helen, Chibi Angel and Mermaid by Kylie.
Angel Boy by Michelle, Devil Girl by Rebecca, Devil Girl by Syn and Mermaid by DancingFeather.
Gift art by Rebecca, Michelle, DancingFeather and Des.
Mermaid by Syn, Mermaid by ???, gorgeously beautiful women by Des.
Gift art from Paolo Alinea.
Links to artists listed above:
Michelle – fatalis-unus.deviantart.com
Rebecca – rebecca13.deviantart.com
Aiki – aiki-ame.deviantart.com
Kestin Stewart – kestinstewart.deviantart.com
Vefalasiel – vefalasiel.deviantart.com
Jettwolfgang – jettwolfgang.deviantart.com
SilentSeraphim – silentseraphim.deviantart.com
Kylie – sunchildkate.deviantart.com
Syn – syntheticality.deviantart.com
DancingFeather – flynn-the-cat.deviantart.com
Des – jakuu.deviantart.com
Paolo Alinea – artofalinea.deviantart.com
… and a few others whose names I either don’t know, or can’t find a site for.
Other people’s accounts of the event, some with photos:
Matthew Cheshire – Official DO:09 Photographer
Zmallet
Lunadea
Michelle
Rebecca
Kylie
Hinoame
Anthony – huge photo album
Kamairie – with link off to photoz
Amirah
ACG Addicted – some nice figure photos
Aurellion
Lastly, for some light hearted humour, take a gander at the DO:09 Caption This! thread on the GNC forums, and give it a go yourself!
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27 Responses to “Doujin Overload 2009”
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About Me
I drew the mermaid in the 3rd swag photo.
@SilentSeraphim
w00t! Thanks and updated!
Ooooooooh, it all looks so good!
I went to the craft fair today, and was so unimpressed today. Sometimes i think a *really* good fair can make good fairs seem less, you know?
@Bekki
Oh boy do I know! And I guess it’s also not fair to let my expectations mar what was actually a good event; but hey, we are entitled to our opinions… people just need to remember to not take things so seriously!
I think it was a pretty nice event. The cosplayers didn’t really bother me either. I thought some of them were quite charming.
@Zeb
Hopefully next time things will pop for you 
I don’t think you can ever have our expectations *not* affect your opinion on things. That’s just part of being people
@astrobunny
Yes some of them were, others needed to remember that they weren’t the only ones using the space they were in.
@Bekki
From what I have been hearing, they’ll go BOOM! next year for me!
@Zeb
Hooray!! And it’ll be all the better for not being wowed this year
There was even less art that appealed to me. This is not a criticism but I won’t buy art that doesn’t appeal even if it looks good. Except for one artist whose work IMO was the best in show.
So you missed out on some stuff? Oh opportunity cost…
@Lesserbeing
Ooohh care to share who that artist was?
And yeah, as much as I would have loved to have purchased something from everyone, I just couldn’t afford it. That and from past events, I found myself with prints n’ such that I really didn’t know what to do with. Original art I can store properly and enjoy, prints, not so much since they tend to usually focus on the popular series of the time. Plus this year seemed to be heavily shounen-ai based, which does NOT appeal to me!
As for oppurtunities missed, really only stuff from Hiyaku Studio, and Eachy-Peachy.
Its quite sad that there isn’t as much catering for moe-kei like us
What is moe-kei?
@Zeb
Artists handle is Selphiroth.
@Lesserbeing
People who love moe 2D girls
Like your recap..
I’ll be getting my photos put online sometime soon. Tomorrow possibly (or tonight, depending on how I feel when I get back from the movies)
good good.
hopefully the next event will be even better. hiyaku is definitely reworking our gameplan for next year to provide some better stock for all the good people =)
@astrobunny
In defence of the event, previous years has seen plenty of it; which is why it was nice to see something different this year.
@Lesserbeing
Aaahhh don’t think I saw them; then again there were some artists I kinda skipped past cause all I saw was printed matter.
@Kirsty
Hope you enjoy the movie tonight, but please to be getting those photos up SOON!
@Des
Can that game plan also include re-prints of this year’s artbook? Please, pretty please? @_@
*glomps you again for da PRETTY*
Haha, about our gameplan… thing is, if what we’re planning for next year goes as well as we hope, you might wanna just save up a bit for the next artbook
I won’t go into detail since we wanna build up the hype when the time is right.. but, at the same time, i can’t promise you anything just now (cos we don’t know what might happen between now and the next DO). Please don’t set any expectations just yet, in case something does set us off track (like it did this year); but, if all does go according to plan, people shouldn’t miss the old artbook when we come to present our next one.
So incredibly glad that it wasn’t stormy like last year! I was amazed at how quiet it was in the city – obviously everyone was inside enjoying DO.
Great to see you’ve been putting that camera to good use!
Finally managed to get my own event review up online, if you’re interested.
http://aurellion.deviantart.com
Now to investigate gravatars…
I think the cosplayers/hyperactivity thing is largely an age factor, to be entirely honest… Many of the people in cosplay on saturday were of the highly excitable ‘teenybopper’ age group, and those were the ones that were too OTT. As for people sitting around floors – given that there actually was a lobby area around the corner, I agree that this wasn’t really appropriate. Personally I reckon that the staff should have been moving people sitting on the floor along – like they do at geddon, which seems to work quite well. I don’t really think I can comment on the Ball though, having not been. XD
@Des
Ok… thats just… MEAN!
Teasing me by saying that but not giving me enough DETAIL. ARGH! XD
And you should know me by now… it’s a collector thing *mutters about her artbook habits*
GOTTA HAVE EM ALL.
@Jen
Ooohh I’ll be linking for future reference, thanks for that!
Also don’t know why but for some reason your posts came through as spam @_@ Which shouldn’t be the case as I know I’ve pre-approved you and your email address in the past… hrrmmm must investigate.
GET GRAVATAR. Don’t be a part of the avatarless masses
@Jess
yeah it was mostly the younguns (gawd I am so old!) that were being a pain, but hey, first timers, over excitement, I can understand all that. I’ve already spoken with one committee member about it on an “un-official” capacity but will be emailing in detail later this week, cause you are right, the event organisers should have had more of a say.
Hey Jess
Can’t comment on the ball as I didn’t attend (didn’t even know about it until a day before!) but from what I have been reading on the Cosplay NZ forums, it was a blast.
ZEB ZEB ZEB.
Okay, this is a bit of a mess with your commission, but, eh, I could not find you by the time I finished the mermaid. At all. Tried to email you but I might have used the wrong address. I stayed until I got booted out, which completely confirmed the whole “he who hastes phails at speed*” thing because I, eh, misplaced my commission as I hurried to “have to get out”. Am currently emailing the hotel, the backpacker AND the good folks at GNC, but the likelihood of retrieving it looks grimmer and grimmer by the day.
Consider I really don’t like leaving things hanging and not meeting up a promise, I would love to Copic you another one. Just to let you know, so I could mosey.
XD
_
*Not the actual quote I’m suuuuure
@Selphiroth
Heya
Yes yours was one of the commissions I forgot to collect, and I am so SO sorry about that. The intention was to pack up my figures and dump them in the car before going back to the Hyatt, but my friend’s car got towed and I didn’t want to leave her (we ended up going to Ponsonby to get it back.)
Hence why I didn’t come back like the guys said I would be.
Right now don’t stress about the commission, DO really knocked me out $$$-wise and I won’t be able to pay for it til next month. I am still keen to commission you, but I say lets wait.
p.s. got your email, just haven’t replied to it (and quite a few others I NEED to reply to… gaaahh!)
BTW check out this guy’s Urd BJD!
http://mariust2007.deviantart.com/art/Urd-in-bed-at-Dragoncon-105485750
@astrobunny
Oh I see, people who like that kind of thing.
@Lesserbeing
ZOMG… HAWT @_@
[...] move, the areas were that packed with people. I’m not complaining though… unlike last year we didn’t have so much of an issue with cosplayers hogging every available space, and most [...]