Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The Kon - Day Two

Described in one word: epic. I'm posting this a bit late because I've been so exhausted from the epicness of the weekend that it took time to recover.

The events held on Sunday were certainly more interesting than those of Saturday! I noticed that a few people complained about this on Saturday when they saw the events list for Sunday. I thought it was a strategic move to get people to come out on Sunday. For some reason, the culture here in Barbados is to stay home, kick back and relax on Sundays. And, while that's all nice and well, it shouldn't be the thing that keeps you home from a really cool event. Regardless, due to this fact of Barbadian life, Sunday's numbers, good as they were, didn't seem to be as large as Saturday's. Regardless, Sunday was indeed an excellent day!

There were fewer movies shown and more panel discussions/workshops held with featured speakers like Marshall Candland, a technical director at Industrial Light & Magic who worked on movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, Iron Man and Aliens and Cowboys, as well as some guys from DC Comics! Marshall showed a short presentation of how they created the effects in movies like Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean. I missed out on the panel discussions/workshops with DC unfortunately but I heard they showed some previews of upcoming works. Very cool stuff.

The Kosplay Kompetition was a hit this year! Last year it didn't come off for whatever reason and I was sorely disappointed but this year it happened! I kinda wish I had entered the competition now...but anyway! The winner was a guy cosplaying Cloud, second place went to Lara Croft and third went to Tifa. The only big problem I had with AnimeKon this year was the judging for the cosplay competition! There was a girl who portrayed L from Death Note extremely well and did not get into the top three. As they were using crowd cheers to judge the top 3 and then again for the placement of the top 3, L received louder cheers than Tifa did...by far! Maybe if the competition is to be judged by crowd reaction and cheers, a decibel reader should be used...it's the most fair and accurate way to judge, don't you think?

Then the night ended with a BANG! with an outstanding performance by Standing Penance, a local band who blew the roof off that night! It was a massively high-energy performance that completely blew me away. Loved it. It was what AnimeKon needed to end the entire event...with an EPIC performance.

Huge Thank You's to Melissa and Omar at AnimeKon! You guys really outdid yourselves this year with an impressive comeback from last year's disappointments. All the hard work throughout the past year was certainly not in vain. Of course, there's always room for improvement and so I look forward to next year being bigger and better than this! (No pressure!) But don't worry, after this year, there'll be lots of buzz and hype when next year rolls around.

I've had some amazing times this year but this was, by far, the best weekend of 2011!

4 comments:

Mel said...

thanks Amy!! Noted on the crowd participation! We will have to ensure that happens next year so there are no queries as to who should be in the top 3. FYI we have reached out to L and she will be receiving a prize! we believe in being fair. Next year - more madness!! Thanks for being a part of the team and somehow - school or no school - we hope to have you on board again!!

Amy said...

Oh, that's great news to hear/read! I'm definitely gonna find myself there next year...one way or another...in cosplay! I've already started planning =D

KNL said...

It was indeed a great experience,It was better than last year and I know next year will be better. I hope next year they allow more entries for the cosplay competition and judging is fair based on all criteria.

Mario said...

lol @ the decibel suggestion...i can't say much but i'm glad everyone had fun :)