Katsucon was definitely a different experience compared to my first ever convention experience. I was only able to Saturday since I was commuting to the National Harbor opposed to those who stayed at the hotel at the Harbor.
Katsucon is an annual three-day anime convention held during February at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. It is traditionally held in February over Presidents Day weekend and is held/was held in locations around D.C. Metropolitan Area (which is great for me since I'm from the area).
This convention, like other, offers an array of events and activities such as an art show, artist alley, costume contests, dealers room, formal ball, a maid cafe, masquerade, musical performances, panels, workshops, video gaming, etc. One of my favorite is the Japanese Culture Programming, which I think is unique to Katsucon due to it's array and informative panels on Japanese culture.
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| Artist Alley |
I went to two panels + a Kimono photoshoot during Katsucon 2017, though I wished I could've gone to more but I only attended on Saturday. The first panel I attended was "Anime's Culinary World with Captain Food Science" that was hosted by Captain Food Science(@FatedSoulBlake). His presentation about basic Japanese cuisine and mixing in anime was great, plus he had some great comedy lines in between. He also gave away food related manga and candy DIY kits for those who gave questions during the Q&A sessions.
Another panel I attended later in the day was "Cool Japan: The Panel" hosted by JCI teacher Charles Dunbar. I'm going to be honest, I didn't enjoy it as I thought I would. It's just the topic wasn't as interesting and I didn't watch any of the anime mentioned so I didn't really get the jokes said. I enjoyed the history though so I got something good out of this panel.
In between the two panels, I attended a Kimono/Yukata photoshoot, which needed to be reserved ahead of time. I've never been to a photoshoot of any sorts so I was kinda clueless but the experience was amazing, probably the highlight of Katsucon 2017. Kuniko and the other nice ladies were very great at picking the color combo for the Yukata robe and obi sash. I had lots of fun doing poses with a Japanese umbrella and they were very fun to work with. About two weeks after Katsucon, I got my HD photos from the photoshoot.
The maid cafe was the last thing I did at Katsucon at around 6pm on Saturday, I went along with my 3 other friends. It's actually my first experience at a convention maid cafe, my friend and I actually wanted to go during Anime USA but didn't get there in time on Sunday. We were assigned a butler for our maid cafe experience. He was really nice and kept us entertained as we wait for our meal. They had board games available for a dollar for us to play with, which we chose Jinga.
I ordered the chicken katsu with a chocolate bear cake. It's was not the best food out there especially for what it costed but it's for the experience. Right before leaving, we took a group photo with him, which I think costed another dollar but he was nice to have it done for free.
That was the end of my Katsucon experience, though my friends stayed later for the Katsucon rave/party. I'll be honest, I'm still trying to get used to the convention experience and so in my opinion Katsucon was crowded compared to my first anime convention experience. I think as I attend more anime convention and get good at planning everything, I'll enjoy it even more. Katsucon already announced it's dates for next year, February 16th-18th, 2018, though I'm sure it wouldn't be as warm as it was during this year's Katsucon.
Check out some awesome and hilarious cosplayers from Pokemon to Overwatch down below.
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