It wasn’t my first time at a convention overseas, nor was it my first time cosplaying out of the country, but 3 weeks ago I flew Australia with a few friends and attended SMASH for the first time.
SMASH! (Sydney Manga and Anime Show) is an annual Japanese pop-culture event that’s been organised for quite awhile now. It’s usually held at ICC Sydney (The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre) and this year it was held on 13th and 14th July (Sat and Sun). I’ve heard about it and wanted to go for it for a number of years now, but finally got the chance to this year!!!
2 friends and I planned for a trip to Sydney for the convention, then stayed a week after for a holiday. We were joined by another friend from Singapore who stayed there longer too. In all honestly, the trip definitely would not have happened had we not made several really amazing Australian friends who housed us, took us around and introduced us to so many things while we were there. It’s pretty darn awesome how we all met through our mutual interests of cosplay and weeb stuff.
I was so busy running around that weekend I didn’t take many photos of the con grounds, but I’ve got other photos and waaaaaay too much to gush about /o\
*Note: Extremely word-heavy post with many photos.
The convention grounds were spread out over 3 floors: The main hall floor, then 2 floors (one below, one above) with a few rooms for karaoke, anime screenings and other panels. Besides stuff going on at the main stage, there was also a music stage, art stage and meeting rooms that programmes were happening at all at the same time. The problem was that a few panels that I was interested in clashed in timing and I had to choose one over the other OTL You can take a look at the map of the convention here and the convention schedule here if they still have it on their website.
With how many panels I wanted to catch in addition to other con things like browsing the artist alley and hanging out with friends, I had to make a schedule for myself… and try very hard to stick to it OTL
On Saturday I got to catch panels of:
• Seiyuu Abe Atsushi. I’m not a fan of the guy, but I did recognise his name. It took me awhile to find the main stage because I suck and couldn’t read the hall map correctly OTL Turned up a little late to his panel and missed a little of his live-dub demos argh! There were more later on though, phew. Abe’s the voice of Toma Kamijio in the Toaru Index/Railgun series, Kukai Soma in Shugo Chara and Moritaka Mashiro in Bakuman, to name a few. To be honest I couldn’t remember much about his panel, but I remember it seeming like he did more live-dubbing during his panel that I’m usually used to. I’m not sure if it’s just my imagination, but I got the feeling like we got to hear more of the seiyuu in their various characters much more than what I usually hear during panels in my country. That was nice.
• Seiyuu Orikasa Fumiko (Voice of Riza Hawkeye in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Satsuki Momoi in Kuroko no Basuke etc.) and Director Mizushima Seiji (Director of Shaman King, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gundam 00 etc.).
This was one of the panels I absolutely needed to go for. I was interested in a few of SMASH’s guests, but Mizushima’s name slapped me in the face when I found out he was going to be a guest!! I was alright with missing most others, but I definitely needed to go for at least one of Director Mizushima Seiji’s panels throughout the con.
The topic of Fullmetal Alchemist was discussed (since Mizushima was a director on it while Fumiko was the voice of Riza Hawkeye in Brotherhood). I won’t go into more detail, but they talked about the seiyuu change between FMA and FMA Brotherhood. Mizushima also mentioned about how he and the production team had to come up with an original ending for FMA because the anime series had been planned to finish before the actual manga. Besides FMA, Mizushima shared some things about Gundam 00 and how he was outsourced, then given relatively free reign to work on it however he liked. It was an eye-opening interview and I’m really happy I got to hear so much behind-the-scenes info on 2 anime series I’m a huge fan of.
• Crossdressing for Cosplay. This panel was held in one of the smaller rooms on a floor above the main hall and organised by a group of cosplayers. Unlike Singapore events (I guess due to the lack of space and organisational power?), outside parties (pretty much anyone) could apply to hold panels during the con. The applications would then be approved by the organising commitee — pretty much like applying for an artist booth I guess? Decided to attend this in support of a friend who was one of the 6 speakers who organised it. It was about an hour long and they spoke on stuff like makeup differences, binding (for female to male), hiding your junk (for male to female), some posing and other similar tips. I personally didn’t learn much besides the pain of how hard it is to hide junk for cosplay, but it was funny listening to a few of them on the topic. It was a different experience being the one listening to something like this instead of being the one speaking. I used to plan similar mini tutorial sessions with friends heading my school’s cosplay club 🙂 It brought back fond memories.
• Swallowtail Butler Operata. The last programme I attended wasn’t a panel, but a performance. Everything in Australia closes early, and that was pretty much the same for their cons. After 4pm the con started winding down and it was the last programme timeslots for the day. If you’re not familiar with the Swallowtail Butler Cafe, it’s a very well-known butler cafe in Japan and very difficult to book a reservation for. These Swallowtail Butlers have a performance group that sing and dance and they were guesting at SMASH. I honestly wanted to see how they look like and was disappointed when I found out their actual panel ‘talking about the cafe’ was happening the next day, but their performance was actually pretty entertaining. I ended up enjoying myself much more than I thought.
The con experience definitely wouldn’t have been complete without dragging costumes from home all the way to Sydney to cosplay for the convention, haha!
Tsurune (top>bottom, left>right)
Takigawa Masaki: Ikki
Takehaya Seiya: Nana
Yamanouchi Ryōhei: Jin
Narumiya Minato: Shanehh
Kisaragi Nanao: Chika
Onogi Kaito: Mukuroma
Fujiwara Shū: Puffy
Sugawara Manji: Killua
Sugawara Senichi: Kise
Tsurune – In Kyūdō, its the sound of the string during release.
P: Alan Chen
It was pretty darn awesome that the 9 of us managed to coordinate this group between Singapore and Sydney. We wanted to plan a cosplay together during the con, but it needed to be simple and something all of us — 4 in Singapore, 5 in Sydney — had an interest (or could have an interest) in, which is how we settled on Tsurune. It was my first time meeting Kise and Chika in real life too XD Was COLD — arctic winds blew that day on top of Sydney winter and standing outside in a hakama with barely any layers was BAD — but entirely worth it. Thank you guys so much for making this happen! ❤
Here are some photos of other cosplayers I took photos of on Day 1. If you happen to know the name and/or page of the cosplayers below that I didn’t mention the name of or link, please tell me.
taionia and reimicho08
Didn’t have time to walk through the main hall much, but I’m glad I saw this Kimetsu no Yaiba (officially translated as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba) booth and stopped for photos. I’m REALLY into the series and with the anime that started last season, I’m glad it’s getting so much attention!
The only music artist I was interested in hearing that was guesting for SMASH this year was just DJ kz(livetune) so I didn’t bother considering going for the anisong concert at all. It was just as well though because I think if I did go for it, I’d probably drop dead from exhaustion. Even when the event ended a little earlier than what I’m used to in Singapore, I go through cons with confidence in my adrenaline, but it does take a toll on my body. Not to mention, this was just Day 1. We had to prepare for the next day too, haha!
I spent a majority of the night before bed ironing costumes.
Nic ironing services
Before we headed down to con on Sunday, we had a mini shoot in the beautiful park opposite our extremely kind host’s place.
Jin as Sugimoto and our extremely kind host, Cath, helping as a photographer as well.
Freeloading cosplayer housemates during this Sydney trip, HAHA /o\
I ran off with ‘frequent panel-partner’ Jin for a panel as soon as we got into the hall /o\
Thinking back now, because my con plans changed last minute (more on that in a bit), I only caught one panel on Sunday:
• Seiyuu Toriumi Kosuke. I’d got to the con late and missed Mizushima Seiji’s panel before this, but managed to make it for Toriumi. His voice is frigging sexy /o\ The latest role I heard him in was as Naze Turbine in Gundam Iron-blooded Orphans. His other roles include characters like Hajime Saito from Hakuoki, Ajima Cecil from Uta no Prince-sama, Guido Mista from JoJo Vento Aureo and Iori Junpei from Persona 3. We learnt a number of things about Toriumi during the panel, the biggest thing being that he really loves his wine. It was also pretty different how besides the general interview and live-dubbing segments, a game was played with the seiyuu on stage in which he’d be asked several random questions. An example of one that was asked was, “If you had a stand, what would be its name and power?” Those were pretty stupid and fun XD It was honestly such a blessing being able to hear Toriumi speak so much with his beautiful voice.
The biggest blessing and highlight of my time at SMASH 2019 though, would have to be my experience with Director Mizushima Seiji:
As if learning lots of cool stuff about some of my childhood anime wasn’t cool enough, during Day 1 when I was waiting for the Crossplayer panel to start, he walking past me in the hallway and I didn’t even realise until Jin pointed to him walking away. I got so nervous and was rooted to the spot but Jin pushed me into running after him to ask for a photo /o\
WAHHHHH I THOUGHT I COULD DIE HAPPY AFTER DAY 1. BUT IT GETS BETTER.
I missed Mizushima’s 2nd panel on Day 2, and originally didn’t consider getting a sign because I figured I wouldn’t have made it early enough to get tickets. But when I checked, they still had free tickets for his signing available. Decided to drop all later panel plans and went to line up immediately. When it was my turn, I thanked him for taking a photo with me yesterday and he remembered and mentioned about how I was cosplaying a different character today. He recognised my Golden Kamuy cosplay and ASKED FOR A PHOTO and then commented HE WAS GOING TO SEND IT TO NANBA HITOSHI-SAN. NANBA HITOSHI IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE GOLDEN KAMUY ANIME. HOLY SHIT, I WAS INTERNALLY FREAKING OUT but had to gather up my stuff and leave in a decently-controlled manner.
After I calmed down I realised that my GK Tsukishima cosplay is on my cosplay card and I should’ve just given him my card OTL Then Jin decided to get a sign too after I spazzed to him so he slipped Mizushima-san my coscard w a photo of my GK cosplay during his turn.
I honestly don’t care if Mizushima-san never shows the photo he took to anyone or tossed the card away immediately, I still got to take a photo with, get a sign, and interact with an anime director whose works I’m a fan of, who acknowledged my cosplay in the (personally) best ever way possible. The MVP of this magical experience was definitely Jin, who shoved me along when I didn’t have the presence of mind to.
After the signing experience I was high strung and missed the Swallowtail Butler panel, then Kugimiya Rie’s panel that I planned to go for in the small meeting room was entirely full so couldn’t manage to get into that either. That… pretty much summed up all my panel experiences for the weekend. With the little extra free time, I walked through the hall some and managed to go through half of the artist booths, woohoo! Threw some money, then went to spend time with my cosplay team for photos 🙂
Golden Kamuy (left>right)
Tsukishima Hajime: Killua
Tanigaki Genjirou: Torrin
Otonoshin Koito monkey that I’m honestly quite proud of making X))
Tsurumi Tokushiro: Puffy
Sugimoto Saichi: Jin
P: Puff and her pink selfie stick
We took lots of stupid photos together and it was hella fun. I’m really glad I got to cosplay Golden Kamuy with these guys at SMASH. We’ll never feel this comfortable in this layered-costume in Singapore’s year-round heat OTL This plan was a 3 from Singapore, 1 from Brisbane effort, haha! Special thank you to Torrin who I haven’t seen in 4 years, but flew down to Sydney for SMASH and was willing to join us as Tanigaki /o\ Thank you and love the 4 of you very very much ❤
Here are some photos of other cosplayers I took photos of on Day 2. If you happen to know the name and/or page of these cosplayers below that I didn’t mention the name of or link, please tell me.
I actually… didn’t spend as much as I thought I would’ve. It’s probably because I didn’t have much time to explore the hall in the first place OTL It was real nice meeting a few Golden Kamuy fans though, when I did have time to go round on the 2nd day 🙂 I’m also extremely glad to have found a Captive Prince fanart zine because this is one fandom I’ll never be able to find merch of in Singapore. Ever.
Con loot
When I returned from Sydney, quite a number of friends asked me how attending SMASH was. I didn’t think I had a lot to say at the time and condensed a lot of my thoughts into a few sentences when speaking. But as usual, when I type it out here, it suddenly becomes some sort of essay -_- That mini-essay will be going into a post of its own because I’ve already rambled so much more than enough here.
It wasn’t my first time at a convention overseas, nor was it my first time cosplaying out of the country, but it was my first time with such an all-encompassing experience at an overseas event. I chalk it up to feeling comfortable enough to do what I usually do at a local con, with really good friends to experience it with, in addition to the community and atmosphere I got a taste of over there.
I’m sorry this ended up becoming a long-ass post, but I think I need to come to terms with the fact that event posts on my blog are personal recounts on my experience at a convention for my own benefit as well. In a few years I might re-read these again and remember how much energy I had, haha!
If you did actually go through this all the way to the end, or even just scrolled down fast to see all the photos, thank you for going through this 🙂 This is probably the longest post I’ve had on Manga, my life. thus far. It’s just not enough to express in words but I tried to. My experience at SMASH 2019 was so much damn fun and I hope with all my heart I get the chance to visit again sometime.
Manga, my life. 
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