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^Lol! Won’t lie, I’d be hard pressed to deny envying the guy in that tub! blush1 Gotta say I liked Asuka’s original two piece ensemble better
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1/1962811_10152320112112323_1951867101_n.png " /> I guess I’ll go first. First off, Katsucon 2014 was one of the most enjoyable and exciting cons I’ve attended to date! There were so many things to do, see, and appreciate that I never felt bored or anxious. The Gaylord Convention Center is gorgeous, and practically custom made for anime conventions. The weather was nasty, but my hotel was close enough that I was able to mostly escape the bitter cold and winds. Sadly, the event that dominated my experience was the massive clusterfuck of trying to get to the con, but more on that later. Katsucon is also without a doubt the BEST con for cosplay I have ever had the pleasure of attending. So many fantastic costumes from so many different shows and movies it got numbing at times. Finally, the dealers room was big and had a decent variety, but suffered from the absence of several mainstays, such as the poster and cel dealers (I imagine that they ran into weather related problems, because most every other familiar dealer was at this con). And now for the official Chuck Katsucon roundup!
As I mentioned above, I had a hellish time getting to the con itself. I volunteered to bring a gaggle of undergrads from my school’s anime club in my car, which would have made for a very fun trip if not for the catastrophic car failure I experienced on the way there. I’m not kidding, literally FIVE MINUTES out of town and my car’s transmission just decides to call it a day and shut down entirely. I was forced to call AAA, and due to the lack of room in the tow truck, leave my young wards stranded along the side of the interstate on-ramp waiting for a taxi. Long story short, my car wasn’t going to be repaired any time soon, so we were forced to quick buy train tickets to the nearest AmTrak station and take a cab the rest of the way to the con.* The delay cost a total of 4 hours and meant that we missed all the good panels and were shut out of the dealers room, which led to an annoying turn of events for me later… Anyway, after that though it was a very good con all around.
The first thing that struck me about Katsucon was the cosplay. Oh lord, the cosplay. I thought I had seen the best of the best at the big cons like Otakon, but apparently those are just warmups for Katsucon, because it seemed like every last person in attendance was in high quality cosplay. And the sheer variety of source material was just overwhelming. Only in Katsucon can you find a Colin Baker Dr. Who, a summer themed Rei from NGE, and a scout trooper from Star Wars: RotJ chilling together over some beers. I tried to take pictures of the best examples, or ones from really obscure shows, but the huge number of them simply overwhelmed both me and my phone’s puny battery.
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff178/chucklocker/Katsucon%202014/20140215_180841_zpsrxr1hxqa.jpg
" /> I’ll start with the 300lb Eva Unit in the room. No, literally, this dude was walking around in a 300lb, 10′ tall, fully articulating Eva suit, complete with a speaker in the chest and light up eyes in the head. He was literally wearing stilts and arm extensions, and I couldn’t for the life of me find any seam or panel anywhere on the damn thing. It is without a doubt the most impressive cosplay I have ever seen.
" /> There were an abundance of Sailor Scouts at this con, even by anime con standards (especially Sailor Neptunes for some reason), but I snapped a pic of these two because they did a good job of nailing the the height and bearing of the characters.
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" /> It’s always good to see the classics represented, especially as well as they were here! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single Lodoss cosplayer before, let alone an entire group of amazingly done ones, and who doesn’t like some Outlaw Star cosplayers!?
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" /> There were a HUGE number of FLCL cosplayers running around too, but these were my favorites. The first one had a functioning rip cord in her guitar, and the second were an absolutely spot on rendition of the characters.
" /> I was most thrilled to see at least three separate Space Dandy cosplayers at the con, despite the show only being on the air for barely a month and a half!
" /> I actually met a Star Blazers/Yamato cosplayer for the first time at this con too! He wasn’t cospalying as any particular character, but we both shared a laugh and came to the conclusion that it was probably
THIS
" /> Finally, the absolute greatest cosplay experience at this entire con was running into an AMAZING Ryoko cosplayer! She was really sweet, and very excited to talk to a fellow Tenchi fan! We compared stories of watching the show when we were young, and geeked out over our favorite parts of the show. I gave her the pitch to join up on the forum, but she had actually already visited us multiple times to do research for this cosplay! Shout out to you Victoria, your Ryoko was fantastic, and you made this Tenchi fan’s day!
blush1 Moving on, the next best experience of the con was the AMV contest. I’ve been to a fair number of these things already, so I thought I knew what to expect. Very pretty and well put together AMVs, but few that would actually stick around in my mind for any length of time. Boy how wrong I was. This was the most diverse and highest quality AMV contest I have yet to see! Nearly every single entry was perfectly made and very catchy. I never felt bored or disappointed at any point throughout the nearly 3 hour presentation. The biggest, and most welcome surprise was the inclusion of an entire category devoted to classic anime, which, unsurprisingly, produced several knockout AMVs! I took a picture of my ballot so I wouldn’t forget any of the awesome entries, and because I wanted to share them with all of my AMV loving friends here
" /> Finally, the swag. As I said above, the dealers room was good, but not perfect. As such, my haul this time was pretty small in comparison with other cons, but what I did get was pretty momentous in the large scheme of things.
" /> First off, the pride and joy of my finds, volumes 1, 6, 7, & 9-12 of NNFT! I was so excited to find these! I’d never seen any of them in person before, let alone so many together in one place! The plot thickened, however, when I went to buy them. I asked the guy if he had any more and he told me that he used to have a full set, but someone had bought the rest the night before. A hunch and a little sleuthing led me to discover that Tenchiforum’s very own mistress of mayhem, Mittens, who had sniped me ONCE AGAIN! If my car hadn’t have failed the day before, I in all likely hood would have found them first and would now be the proud owner of the entire first run of the manga I adore so much. Sadly, however, as long as my name is chucklocker I am fated to have the worst possible luck in life…. I’m seriously considering going with an idea Dagon suggested last night in mumble and cosplay as Seina Yamada sometime in the future
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" /> Next up is this super neat vintage Yamato model kit. I’m of course a huge sucker for anything Yamato related at cons, and this was no exception. Sadly, however, it seems that somewhere in its storied life this kit lost a piece or two, as well as the instructions, so chances are it will be a while before it joins the fleet of Yamato models nearing completion in my collection. It’s still a nice find though, so I’m not too disappointed.
" /> These chopsticks signify the exact moment in space and time when I realized I had fallen down the rabbit hole and had become a hopeless Eva otaku. Lol, seriously, I didn’t even think twice about buying these until after the fact, when it hit me all of a sudden. The manga, dvd sets, figurines, art books, and wall scrolls were one thing, but this just crosses a line. Should I feel shame, or regret at where I’ve come in my life? Probably, but I’m too busy looking like a pimp when I chow down on Pad Thai to notice
badass1 Finally, for those interested, here’s a pic of my badge and booklet. The theme this year was pretty nondescript, being the 20th anniversary of the con and all, but they were pretty cool looking I thought.
" /> Well, that about wraps it up for me. Despite the misfortunes I suffered getting there, Katsucon 2014 was a huge success, and I eagerly look forward to going again next year, hopefully with a brand new car and cosplay worthy of the prestige of Katsucon!
*For all the motorheads here (you know who you are), it ended up not being anything actually wrong with the transmission itself, thank God. Unfortunately, it was some stupid electronic circuit that blew out in the computer that caused the problem. Of course, they had to rip the whole goddamn engine apart to get to it, and now I’m out $750. Seriously, if any of you are thinking of buying a Dodge Neon, just don’t. Save yourselves the misery and money and go with a horse drawn carriage instead. It will look better, smell better, ride better, be cheaper in the long run, and be more reliable than a Dodge Neon.
Hear, hear! I support this idea, for the obvious reasons put forward by Who, but also because it would be a great outreach and good faith move for the larger community. It would let more people know about all the cool things left to discover in the Tenchi material, as well as demonstrating some of the great things we’re doing to shed light on them. Because of the special nature of this cast, it probably wouldn’t have to operate like a normal cast, and therefore wouldn’t require the same level of preparation and scheduling normal casts do. I imagine it would be more of a PSA/highlight/interview piece as opposed to the in depth analyses we’ve done to date. The best part is that it could be held at any time without effecting the regular cast lineup and schedule, due to its unique nature. Anyway, that’s my two cents. Either way, it’s about time we got another cast moving down the pipe, and this is as good a cast as any!
