By Samantha Simon
Over 400 anime, comic and fiction fans turned out in their cosplay splendour at the Multipurpose Cultural Centre on Saturday to the first AnuCon event hosted since the end of Covid-19.
AnuCon is a local convention specifically for cosplayers — persons who enjoy dressing up as and portraying their favourite characters, whether they be from cartoons, anime, comics, television shows, books, or even historical or mythological figures.
Dwayne Riley, one of the founders of AnuCon, explained that the event existed as an alternative to fetes and Carnival for people who wanted to dress up and have a good time but did not particularly enjoy Carnival itself, and preferred the style of such events which have become popular internationally, born from conventions such as ComicCon.
Vendors also came out, displaying items catering to fandoms of all kinds, from custom-made cups and jewellery to wood carvings of beloved characters, as well as cakes and cookies adorned with all sorts of fictional animals.
Throughout the day, a number of exciting competitions took place, such as the Saitama Fitness Challenge, based on the popular character Saitama from the anime One Punch Man. The competition, which tested their endurance as to who could perform the most sit-ups, pushups and squats, saw Vaden Browne Jr walking away as the winner.
There was also the quintessential Cosplay competition, pitting costumes against each other to decide who was the best. In the 6 – 12 age category, Mia Titus walked away as Cutest Cosplayer in her adorable Pikachu outfit, set to match her uncle’s Ash Ketchum cosplay.
The 13+ category was dominated by Canice James, who strutted across the stage as Trevor Belmont from Castlevania, which elicited a massive crowd response.
Brothers In Arms also took part in the competitions, hosting an Arm-Wrestling Challenge, which saw Lawrence Richards walk away with the Strong Man title after conquering numerous elimination rounds.
As the evening approached, the highly anticipated Ramen Eating competition took off, with none of the winners from past events being able to defend their crowns.
The title instead was swept up with an impressive lead by Blaire Cornwall, who walked away satisfied to have finally claimed the position of Ramen Queen.
The curtains came down with an Anime Trivia Competition, which pitted two teams of five against one another in three rounds of questions as well as music trivia from popular shows.
The prizes for several of the competitions, as well as the event itself, were mostly sponsored by private sponsors such as Eshane Joseph, Rawle Punter, Anthony Smith, Alvin Edwards, Biko Lewis, Devonique Henry, Karl Harrigan and Sonali Andrews, while corporate sponsors such as WAAC Entertainment, Toy Box, Inter Island Sales & Supply and Hutchinson’s Ltd also assisted in ensuring the event was a success.
At the end, the few remaining cosplayers were left to consider the final results of an Anime Tier list that had been highly debated throughout the event, placing characters of anime old and new against one another to see who came out on top, the results to remain until they can be debated once more at the next AnuCon event.
