BN'K ON TOUR: THE REVIEWS

For many nerds, their first interaction with a major fandom from Japan was the American counterpart to the Tokusatsu Super Sentai TV series, Power Rangers. High-flying fighters, crazy acrobatics, wild monsters, and epic battles with tons of flames kept many kids and adults alike glued to their television sets as their favorite colorful, shiny spandex-clad defenders fought off the forces of evil with their top-notch martial arts skills, cheesy clapbacks, and signature moves. As a lifelong Power Rangers fan, I always enjoy the opportunity to interact with the fandom. For the most part, outside of digital spaces, I never really get the chance to enjoy Power Rangers at conventions aside from a few of the actors making appearances and a cosplayer showing their love for the franchise. That is, until November 14th-16th, 2025, at the SeaWorld DoubleTree in Orlando, Florida. RangerStop Orlando 2025 was a full celebration of everything Power Rangers hosted by true Power Ranger fans. From star-st...

Orlando, Florida, is home to some of the coolest things in the world. From Disney World and Universal Studios to the world's largest Checkers and now even the world's largest HMart, Orlando is certainly one of the coolest tourist destinations. However, could it also be the world's next fashion destination? That's the question I asked myself as I attended the area's first-ever Decora Meet & Swap. Hosted by the delightfully colorful Glo ( Glopop.exe ) and her friends, Cayla Joy and Winter Kero , in collaboration with the supremely talented folks of Goblin Market, an organization known for its creative art markets and events, their brilliant minds worked together to bring forth Orlando's first-ever decora fashion meet-up event. The event was filled with color, joy, and activities for enthusiasts and decora fashionistas alike, with the spectacular Cybr.grl as the special guest of the event. After attending, I was brimming with giddiness I haven't been abl...

 As fandom events continue to grow in the United States, Florida, especially the Central Florida area, has seen an increase in pop-culture events. For years, if you stayed in Orlando or the greater Orlando area, you could expect a few showcases a year. Anime Day Orlando in the spring and fall, MegaCon Orlando in the early summer, now early spring, Mystic Con in the late spring, and the popular Christmas-themed Holiday Matsuri in the winter. However, a new convention has decided to throw its hat in the ring of Central Florida conventions, taking over a portion of the west wing of the Orange County Convention Center from August 8th to the 10th, 2025. That convention was Animate! Orlando . This convention is by no means a humble operation; it’s a part of the larger GalaxyCon conglomerate, which hosts around 16 shows each year in cities all across the US. The Animate show series currently has four cities it tours in, including Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh, North Carolina. According ...

As someone who has been attending cons since 2013, I’ve seen the shift in convention culture. Conventions that once filled small hotel meeting rooms or community centers now take over convention centers and multiple hotels, growing to feature larger talent, sponsors, exhibitor halls, and venues. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is very different from the conventions of previous decades, and I’m a sucker for the conventions of that era. Smaller, cozier events where everyone knows each other, and yet each year you discover something new. You get to watch your friends and community grow, and there's something nostalgic and endearing about it all.  I haven’t felt this way about a convention in a long time, but that’s what this year's Anime Festival of Orlando (AFO) felt like. It felt like home. I've been going to AFO for nearly a decade, and I’ve seen the event change and grow over the years, but these last two years feel like a renaissance for the convention, as AFO...

Maid Cafes are one of my favorite anime convention experiences. The puffy maid costumes, the cute theatrics, and the adorable maids and butlers never cease to bring me joy, even though I’ve attended around 30 or so cafe experiences. What keeps me addicted and coming back to maid cafes isn’t just the kawaiiness of it all; it's the personality and joy displayed by the maids and staff, and no other cafe experience does it quite like Sweet Tooth Maid Cafe. I’ve talked about my experience at this cafe before, and for this year at Anime Festival of Orlando, the experience was largely the same, or so I thought. The Sweet Tooth maids were determined to expand their offering this year, providing a new cafe experience in addition to their traditional cafe services, as well as adding new maids. If you love cozy pajama parties with cute aesthetics, Sweet Tooth’s newest experience was their evening PJ party hosted on Saturday night. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this experience myself, ...

As long-time Florida residents and lifelong otakus, there is no event that we look for year after year other than Holiday Matsuri. Holiday Matsuri also known as “Holmat” is a yearly celebration of anime, otaku culture, and East Asian media all decked out in fancy holiday decor. Holmat has been a central Florida staple for nearly two decades attracting cosplayers, creators, guests, gamers, and anime connoisseurs; each year expanding and growing into an event that rivals large events such as MegaCon Orlando, MomoCon, and Anime Weekend Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. For several years now, BN’K on Tour has had the privilege to provide coverage and report on all of the amazing things that event has done, and in 2024 we were privileged to be invited back to provide coverage once again. If you’ve been following our coverage of this event over the years, you’ll know that 2023 was a particularly testy year for Holmat, with large changes to dates, an extremely serious health situation, and visible...