The wait for the arrival of the Barbadian pop culture convention just got a little bit longer. But don’t despair Animekon fans and faithful, it’s only been pushed by a week. In a departure from its usual end of August occurrence, the next edition of the convention will this year be held on September 2nd and 3rd at the home of Animekon; the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre in Two Mile Hill, St. Michael.
The convention – which caters to fans of video games, films, TV, books, comics, anime and cosplay – has seen exponential growth in it’s eight years of operation and has expanded to include a cosplay catamaran cruise, which precedes the convention, an after party and a Geekcation package for convention goers outside of Barbados.
Aside from its annual cosplay competition – which is undoubtedly its main event – it hosts the Trivia Kon, Karaoke Kon, Ramen Eating and Sally Up Challenge competitions, as well as panels with local creatives and entrepreneurs and international guests (whom have included Yaya Han, Phil Lamarr, Kelly Hu, D-Piddy, Kamui Cosplay, Maki Roll, Princess Mentality, Christian Howard, Meagan Marie, Junkers Cosplay, Tim Waggoner, Long Island Joe and Jayem Sison).
The themes for this year’s convention and those which will follow in 2018 and 2019 were announced on September 9th of last year, in a video which can be viewed below. To learn more about Animekon, visit their website and their Facebook page and watch the after movie from last year’s convention below.
https://www.facebook.com/AnimeKonBarbados/videos/1076375945791229/
would have preferred to see Evil Mayor Renard instead of Being Haunted By Ghost Meisner Renard, with Nick and the rest of Team Grimm simultaneously trying to stop him and Black Claw from taking over Portland (Is Black Claw even still a threat? Do the writers remember they exist?) while investigating the stick.
a disturbing visitation from Ghost Meisner – in which the deceased member of the resistance shows Renard five dead versions of himself lying in his kitchen – Renard decides to do get rid of him. Renard has him extracted from his person with a spirit vaccum and Ghost Meisner apparently possess the pawn shop owner who facilitated the extraction. Meisner knocks out Renard and he wakes up in an empty version of the pawn shop, himself and Ghost Meisner the only occupants.
didn’t do much besides investigate the cicada wesen. A wesen that is effectively immortal and lives buried underground for seven years, resurfacing for one day in order to find a thick and beautiful woman for him to consume when he goes back underground.
I missed something or the writers never explicitly stated that Juliette was living in the tunnels until now. Previously it seemed like she just snuck in there to examine the stick, not that she’d taken up residence. Nor did they illustrate that she was unable to leave or give a sense of how long she was down there. And if she had been there the entire time, wouldn’t Diana have been sensing her since she moved into the loft? If so, why has she only now mentioned it to Adalind?
in the latest of late apologies, Adalind apologised to Eve/Juliette for everything she’s done to her. This moment failed to resonate with me because the second it happened my immediate thought was that the time for said apology had long since passed. It was also random and didn’t feel earned, narratively speaking; there was no arc exploring their changing relationship and coming to accept one another and Eve/Juliette forgiving her. It just happened.
Frank catch a break? I hate that Bonnie and the others tried to pin everything that Annalise was being investigated for on Frank. Yes he volunteered as tribute, but he’s one of them. I understand that he messed up in a major way and is no one’s favourite person right now, but I feel like as much as they are trying to get Annalise out of jail, they should be trying to free him as well.
being said, although I know that ADA Atwood is just doing her job there seems to be something deeply personal about her pursuit of Annalise. She was right in not believing Frank, she was right in asking for more time to find evidence against Annalise when the detectives said they have enough to charge Frank and to let her go and she is right about everything. But I don’t like her at all. Her motivation feels to me to be less about executing justice and more about a vendetta.
was very apprehensive when Annalise asked Jasmine to give her the razor. I didn’t think she was going to kill herself; she hasn’t hit rock bottom yet or reached the pinnacle of despair. I didn’t expect her to cut off her weave, though. I loved that later on we saw her with the spiral cornrows that the tracks were sown into. It’s such a powerful image when Viola Davis strips down on the show.
defense of Annalise to the university President was shocking because she is not her biggest fan and makes no attempts to hide it. I like the initiative she’s taking to protect everyone and that she’s taking care of Laurel and being there for her. It’s a much softer side to Michaela that we haven’t gotten to see much of until now, if at all.
the beginning of the episode I was having a hard time embracing Cryus as the mastermind behind Frankie’s murder. There really wasn’t anything as yet that was convincing evidence of his guilt. In fact, there wasn’t any evidence at all. But I did not want to believe that Liv was wrong, especially when she felt so strongly.
I’m not convinced that Nelson is the killer either. The conviction with which he proclaimed his innocence was very persuasive. I’m not ruling him out entirely; just because he said he didn’t do it doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. There is a ton of evidence against him and it lines up perfectly. Perhaps too perfectly. The evidence does feel somewhat fabricated.
really don’t like what Abby did by enlisting Jake to intimidate Nelson into confessing. I can’t and don’t trust his confession at all because of that. I know that she’s just doing her job and I do like to see her throw around her power, but she was just infuriating in that moment.
second Liv gave Mellie that look as she was gushing about how in love with him she was, it was clear that Liv was gearing up to do what needed to be done; break them up. That lecture she gave Mellie about Marcus’ apparent opportunistic ways was a test. And Mellie failed. The joy Mellie was feeling was clouding her judgement. We knew, Liv knew and Mellie knew that getting involved with Marcus would not do her career any favours
announcement was made at the challenge, which was yet another dance related one. Tanisha Scott, the choreographer behind Drake’s “Hotline Bling” video, taught the girls a routine which they would use later in their music video shoot. The remaining girls and the eliminated girls were split into two squads and had to compete within their respective group for the role of squad leader. Squad A consisted of the remaining girls and Squad B was made up of the eliminated girls.
A did better as a group than Squad B. Paige looked like a peppy cheerleader and not a fierce model, but because she was the only dancer, she did execute the choreography very well. Marissa just failed with the dancing; she did not recover from earlier in the practice. Courtney did quite well with the dancing and was not as stiff as she had been in the last dance challenge, but she looked a little awkward. It was clear that she was trying and the effort paid off. Tatiana and Cody looked pretty good from what little of them was shown. I wish there had been a wider shot of Coryanne so we could have seen what she was doing.
the girls from Squad B whose performances we were shown, Binta was going hard but looked very stiff, Tash looked a bit uncoordinated and like she lacked rhythm but gave a lot of energy and Giah was a little awkward but she was very cute.
ditched the cheerleader and brought the model; she looked amazing. Tatiana, surprisingly, did not look good; she was stiff and robotic and lost her face. Coryanne’s dancing looked like she was hitting the moves too hard, but her shot at the end looked great. Marissa was low energy and looked absent; she didn’t perform at all. Courtney was stiff but, as always, gave good face; she looked strong and the effort she put in showed. India’s face was stunning but the dancing…not so much; she too was stiff, but the styling on her was awesome. We could not see Cody’s face at all! She did work the hat well as Law said and I agreed with Ashley about her shoulder. There was so much blocking of her face going on.
channelled Grace Jones flawlessly. Her face was strong and she looked like a bad ass. Her dancing could have been better but everything else made up for it. Kyle still cannot dance. Her face could have been better but it wasn’t particularly bad. Justine was just okay. Perhaps if she had had more time with th choreography she could have done better. She looked beautiful, though. Binta’s dancing was even worse than Kyle’s. I felt awkward watching her and I did not like her face at all. Cherish was trying way too hard to be sexy. She missed the mark by a mile and looked like a drunken fool. I was underwhelmed by Krislian, but the styling looked very good on her. Giah really impressed me; she looked beautiful and has always been beautiful but she never put anything behind it. This time she did. It was not as much as she could have but it was enough to impress.
would have called Paige first instead of India. Paige was the whole package whereas India was only very good with her face. No surprise that Marissa went home and Tasha re-entered the competition; Marissa seemed to have checked out and Tash was by far the best performer of the eliminated girls. Her return, though, I don’t see boding well for Cody. I think that Cody will lose her confidence.
Courtney made a bit of a fuss about heir cutting board and got into it with some of the other girls, Coryanne decided that she had had enough of Courtney’s attitude and behaviour and would speak up about it. They were both being a little annoying to be honest. They were being a tad petty and mean in the interviews that intercut their conversation. But I applaud them for not resorting to shouting at each other as is usual.
and Binta didn’t do much of anything. After hearing the idea for the story they wanted to tell – they were lesbian lovers – I didn’t really get a feel for that from what was shown. They didn’t exactly pull it off and they were a little boring. There is a reason no one was in their room when Law, Philip and Drew stopped by.
looked like she was in her element; like a woman who was used to the life of luxury (and she kind of is). She looked beautiful in the gown and she gave a very good performance. Tatiana pretty much literally faded into the background. In just about the only shot that she was in as they were executing the challenge, she was standing behind Coryanne and was in soft focus. We didn’t really get to see her.
and Cody were stunning and fierce. Their facial expressions and their posing was on point. The acting was cringe-worthy, though, since Marissa cannot act. Aside from that, they did very well and were my favourites. I myself did not mind their shouting but Courtney and India did.
themselves were mediocre at best and didn’t do anything; not with their faces and not with their posing. They were very “blah.” Courtney lying on the bed was rather confusing because no one can see the clothing if she is lying down.
becoming very apparent just how much Nick screwed up Renard’s life when he transformed into Renard and gave up being mayor and just how far reaching the consequences of his actions could be. Not that I think Nick cares, to be honest, or even realises for that matter. Renard’s reckoning is coming and it seems to be coming pretty fast.
the brighter side of Renard’s life, he still has Diana and got to spend some father-daughter time with her in this episode. It was sweet and all but was ruined by Renard actively teaching Diana to hate Nick. He knows exactly what he’s doing here beyond just creating strife and making sure he as an ally (and superweapon). It’s no coincidence, I think, that they discussed Diana using him to kill Bonaparte as well.
as I suspected it would, the stick has started to turn on Eve/Juliette. She is the only person on the team currently trying to find out more about it and get to the bottom of what it is, what it does and where it came from. She just happened to enter the tunnels at the precise moment Nick was expressing his love for Adalind, of course. She must really be doing a good job of hiding the re-emergence of her emotions since Trubel was the only one who noticed.
to the monster of the week, it was one of the ugliest wesen we have ever seen. It was quite obvious that his motivation for kidnapping baby Auggie was to prevent a future tragedy of which the child would be the perpetrator. I wasn’t expecting that el Cuegle actually ate them considering the somewhat “noble” reasoning behind his actions. Kill the baby, sure, but not eat it. Maybe even try to raise it so it doesn’t have that future. In a “Would you kill baby Hitler?” kind of way.