Katsucon 2008 – Wherz duh snow?

Sub 30 degrees of cold blistering weather, tagged along with snow and ice, were not a part of Katsucon 2008 this year. Instead, what greeted the many con-goers was warm weather with beautiful sun light shining down all weekend. The unusually warm weather was a very big welcome for Katsucon. Beautiful photoshoots without the cosplayers freezing to death is always a big plus for photographers!

An in tradition, parking was near impossible around the area. Metro stop parking and airport parking would have been the better choice because Washington DC is never friendly with parking. On a side note, Katsucon is supposingly moving back to somewhere in Crystal City next year. Nothing against the Omni Sheraton hotel but the location is very difficult plus a change of scenery is always a plus for conventions.

Friday kicked in with a rush of con-goers ready to party the weekend away. The lobby hosted special backdrops for photography and the con staff did a great job keeping the main lobby from being too crowded. Right alongside the mini shop inside, tons of energy drinks were sold for a very reasonably expensive price D: You do pay for the convenience of sugar and caffeine rushes! Have I mentioned how great the weather was outside???

Gaming rooms were full of, well, games. The concept of having classic arcades in one room (ranging from Street Fighter to Virtua Racing!) and console gaming galore in the other room is a formula ftw. It was suprising to see a lack of music games (no IIDX or Pop’n’Music) but Rock Band brought together everyone on the big screen. There was also a lot of sponsoring of the new Nintendo DS game, “Professor Layton and the Curious Village”. I have no clue what the games about but there was a very cool van out front showing clips of the game and several folks riding around in Segways handing out flyers. It was very annoying when they were riding around IN the dealers room but they did grab everyone’s attention.

As the nightfall hits, the bass begins to pump in and the music screaming from the wonderful rave. Except there was a lack of bass… Katsucon’s raves never fail to amaze but this year, it almost seemed like there was no bass in the music and the speakers were very weak. Excellent music to dance and glowstick to! But the lack of intensity in the sound was very disappointing. Did that stop anyone? NO! Everyone still enjoyed raving all night like the troopers they were :thumbsup!: The DJ’s for Katsucon really know their pickings on dance music and deserves the ravers thumbs up.

The masquerade… was full of win! When you see tentacles in any masquerade, how can it be wrong? TENTACLES. Yes, the tentacle monster hentai skit was so well executed and made everyone laugh hard. Then there was “Blame Canada” in which the lovely Ouran twins were Terrance and Phillip. Along with the video that was displayed in the background, the song will now forever be remembered as the skit at Katsucon XD Cowboy Bebop’s re-enactment to Tales of Abyss, all of the skits were on top of their game.

2008’s Katsu was great and hopefully will continue the trend of madness for the rest of the cons this year. 2009’s Katsucon will be a new hotel (or perhaps returning to an old hotel?). Thank you Omni Sheraton for years of monster tentacles, never-ending pirates and ninja’s, difficult parking, and BO fanboys and girls!

The pirates won this year’s dance-off… >_>;

Katsucon 2008 – It’s over

Now that Katsucon is over, the photos are up and the report is getting worked on. Some of the photos are also being worked and and looked over again (whatever time is avaliable).