Katsucon 11

February 18-20, 2005

Marriott Crystal Gateway & Sheraton Crystal City - Arlington, VA

 

About a mile from Washington Regan Airport (or one metro stop from the airport) where when you land you see constant water then out of no where is the runway, lies two hotels called the Marriott Crystal Gateway (not to be mixed up with Marriott Crystal City a couple of blocks away) and the Sheraton Crystal City, these two hotel hosts Katsucon 2005.  The Marriott housed the main events room, two programming rooms, dealer's room, card gaming, operations, security, and medical.  Then there's the Sheraton operating on the second floor with three video rooms, video gaming room, art show, a workshop room, and then on the third floor are the game shows.  Sounds confusing? Most attendees at the convention seemed to be trying to navigate through the world of Pac-Man, Katsucon style.  About the myth with the Marriott and Sheraton connecting via underground mall, is a false statement, the only way between the two hotels was to walk outside, possibly jaywalk across some busy street, then get inside of the other hotel before you catch a cold.

Aside from the hotel, there were a lot of people attending this convention, getting their taste of the Katsucon life.  Of course there was the significant large dealer's room with the significant long line for it constantly outside of the doors, the main events room which can house a lot of people (and they needed it), then the other rooms were minor, since they were in the Sheraton.  Some of the main events were of course the cosplay, which again like a lot of convention, decent but worth going to, and a concert played by Psycho le Cemu, which rocked the convention with their JRock.  

One of the problems with the convention were the constant long lines in cramped hallways, waiting for the local fire chief to blow fire on the convention.  With the long lines, in front of the line for the dealer's room, there was the Artist Alley.  The alley included, of course the artists, and other conventions promoting potential attendees.  The artist alley would constantly be packed with people making it almost impossible to move from one end of the hall to the other. 

Over in the Sheraton there was the video game room which it took up the majority of the second floor.  At the entrance and the middle of the second floor where constant construction making people feel awkward about the convention. 

There was now doubt of the amount of lavish costumes the cosplayers wore.  It would seem people have taken cosplay seriously within Katsucon, observing the quality and hearing the amount of time put into just one costume.  There's also no doubt about the amount of Naruto cosplayer attending the convention, taking up most of the space available in the hotel, it would to seem everywhere you go, there's a 100% chance you would see them, even down in the underground mall getting some grub to eat.  The photo shoot for the Naruto gathering seemed rather massive compared to even last year's Otakon Naruto gathering.  What started as a meet in a little indoor room, lead to fire hazard and congestion in the halls and rooms where photographers had to stand on top pf tables to even get a shot of the HUGE group.  Eventually the entire Naruto gathering had move outdoors in front of the hotel.  Even then there it was still a large crowd, and the only way for anyone to get a photo of the entire group was to have a wide angle lens and position yourself on the streets of Arlington. Walking in to the streets called attention of Katsucon staff, as they tried to regulate the photoshoot it seems, which was a bit odd, considering most of the photographers seemed to be old enough to walk into the street without holding mommy's hand.

There were Guest of Honors which varied between America and Japan.  The Guest of Honors who came to Katsucon were, Tesu Inaba (Comic artist), Range Murata (Illustrator), Greg Ayres (Voice Actor), Johnny Bosch (Adam in Power Rangers/Voice Actor), Richard Cox (Voice Actor/Actor), Toshi Yoshida (Producer), Fred Perry (Writer), Monica Rial (Voice Actress), Studio Tavicat (Comic artist), Mike Sinterniklaas (NYAV post), Janyse Jaud (Voice Actress), Trish Ledoux (Video producer), Lea Hernandez (Comic artist), and Kyle Herbert (Voice Actor).

As far as in the crowd, the convention made itself look like a mini Otakon with everyone everywhere in the convention.  It was hard to find anyone or anything for the fact of the crowd, and trying to get to an event proved sometimes frustrating in find the back of the line.

Katsucon will once again migrate to another location inside of Washington, DC at the four star Omni Shoreham hotel. It's really difficult to say what Katsucon is, but it's virtually a big convention with the life of a small convention, so it felt like the convention was somewhat mindless.  Hopefully next year's Katsucon will improve, keeping a lot of their attendees.

-Quadrain.com Staff