T5W#445-Top 5 Katsucon 2024 Moments

Another Katsucon has come and gone and like many before it, it was an absolute blast.  There’s just something special about being back in the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center that just makes me feel so at peace and at home.  And there’s so much to see and do in such a small space (compared to other larger places to host a con) that it does live up to its rep as a 3-4 long day party (even longer since I know some extend their stays to the day after Katsu ends, something I might aim to do next year).  Plus all the fun I had this year came with the reminder that next year, 2025, will mark the 10^th Anniversary of my very first Katsucon.  So anything that happened this year, I cant wait to see how much bigger and eventful it can get for next years landmark.  Anyway, enough about the future.  We’re here to talk about the Top 5 Katsucon 2024 Moments aka my traditional post con report here at the Gundam Anime Corner.

 
#5-Being Back in the Gaylord

Don’t get me wrong: I love that I’ve been able to have a room for Katsucon thanks to a good friend of mine.  It’s the reason I’ve been able to go for many years.  This year, however, I got to not only stay in the Gaylord for the first time since 2018, I got my own room…for the first time since…crap Otakon 2016 now that I think about it.  At one point I was even offered to upgrade to one of the highly coveted Atrium Rooms…buuuuut then I saw what the price hike looked like and I decided maybe next year.  Still, the room was just fine and so was having it on the third floor.  This meant I was only one reasonably short flight of steps from the Con at all times.  Would def like to try and have a roommate for next year, even payback my friend for allowing me to room with them in the past. 

 

#4-Life of Cosplay Gets to hold Rose

I first met Life of Cosplay back in 2019 when she cosplayed the TV Version of Supergirl.  Since then I’ve run into her at various smaller Cons.  She’s always a ton of fun and since it’s release in 2021, she’s made Resident Evil Village’s gigantic goddess, Lady Dimetrescu, her signature Cosplay, having done several variants of her over the years (my personal fav is a Darth Dimetrescu she did at Four State Comic Con last year).  During the Resident Evil Photoshoot at Katsu 2024, she appeared alongside others from Village, including a Gender Bent Ethan Winters holding their very own 3 month old Baby Girl.  This little one slept through the whole thing and it was so wild when LoC got to hold her for a few photos.  Not only did Lady D finally get the Child Mother Miranda had been seeking, LoC was so jazzed about being able to hold a baby in this cosplay.  Her reactions are always priceless.
 
For more adventures and Lady D Variants from Life of Cosplay, you can check out her Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/lifeofcosplay/
 

#3-JPop Fashion Show

Over the years I’ve gotten to know some friends who are really into Lolita and Jpop fashions and the creations they come up with are very creative and pretty.  I only caught the back half of this big event at Katsu but what I did see of the Jpop Fashion Show left me very wowed.  The design of the outfits looked very radical and the showcases centered on various themes like Dark Gothic Lolita, Street Fashion and even a Space Age Themed.  The models themselves rocked their looks and one in particular, the moment she walked out on stage I got chills.  I told her when I saw her on the way out of the show that she looked like Grace freaking Jones walking out on the runway as she did.  Personally I cant think of a higher compliment than comparing someone to that legend.

 

#2-Fresh Eyes (and Perspectives) at the Hentai Panels

It’s never an Anime Convention in general without a couple of late night 18+ panels, especially a Hentai one.  Once again, I returned to the panel that first wowed me back in 2015: “That Shouldn’t Fit”.  But I didn’t just attend their Monster Mash Edition, I also went to their “Name that Kink” gameshow the following night.  Both times, I was overjoyed by the laughter, the reactions and even having my own expectations blown away (there’s always something I haven’t seen before to make me go “oh…okWHOOOAAA”.  And at both panels I sat in with strangers who both had interesting perspectives on what we were seeing.  One was very analytical of the craziness on screen, which was different for sure.  Two others, a couple, could even guess the answers to several questions in the game show.  Also, you cant go wrong with participants reading Hentai Manga and dialogue in various voices, the crazier you go, the greater the laughter and I told the moderators in person I wanted to be involved as a participant next year.
 

#1-The Mobile Suit Gundam Photoshoot

When I saw there was a Mobile Suit Gundam Photoshoot on the official schedule, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I mean Gundam is Gundam and I love Gundam.  But it’s certainly not Jujutsu Kaisen or Genshin Impact. Heck I went to a Slayers photoshoot earlier that day and there were only 5 attendees cosplaying 3 characters total.  Frankly I didn’t know what to expect.  But holy crap the turn out was unbelievable.  We had reps from a lot of this franchises history including 0079, 08^th MS Team, Wing, 00, Iron Blooded Orphans and, of course, The Witch from Mercury.  You even had cosplayers as actual Mobile Suits (well one full Gundam and a bunch of Zeon Zakus and Goufs but just their head pieces).  It brought a tear to my eye to see my favorite Anime franchise get so much love and it was definitely one of my favorite moments from the whole weekend.