Virgin must be likely to take up their 6 options on the A380 now the Australia route looks likely to go ahead (only EU approval now required), though there are no plans at the moment to operate the A380 to Japan (sorry, akerosid!).
This aeroplane will succeed for the same reasons that the B747 did: demand for seats is increasing (particularly in the Pacific/Asia regions) faster than airport runway capacity is increasing, therefore more seats are required for each aircraft movement. The A380 may not be pretty, but it makes economic sense -and it's a lot cheaper and more PC to improve terminal and stand capacity than it is to build new runways.