The picnic took place in Passaic River County Park in Chatham, NJ on August 14. The location, while beautiful, proved a little difficult to find, a fact that delayed many of the activities.

The cosplayers that won prizes.

But the activities, when they did start, were great. Cosplayer Tanya did most of the organizing for the picnic. Our hats go off to her for her organizational skills. She managed to find the location, get a facebook group started for the event and organize prizes for a cosplay contest that occurred during the picnic. One of those prizes included a much-coveted copy of the book “Cosplay in America.”

Most of the picnic consisted of unorganized fun though. People who had arrived in groups of two or three quickly mixed and mingled with other cosplayers. Yugioh games and dancing soon broke out, as well as, of course, picture taking.

Cosplayers just hanging around.

All in all, this was a great way to end summer. There were many other events going on this weekend, but we decided to attend this picnic – and we weren’t disappointed that we did! If we are forced to say goodbye to the blissful months of summertime cosplaying, we’re glad we at least got to do it in spectacular style.  Soon the fall season of conventions will start and we hope to see you there!

Over the past weekend there were a lot of people who went to Otakon in Baltimore, MD. But for those who couldn’t make it and were near New York City, there was a new event which took place in SoHo called Ani-Mini-Con.  This new event was brought together by a couple of anime fans named Kim and Alexandra. Using their resources and contacts they were able to put together the event and get use of the  SoHo Gallery for Digital Art as a venue.  Though the location is an art gallery, it also welcomes cultural and entertainment events.

The three-day long schedule was ambitious for a small even just starting up.  On Friday, which we weren’t able to attend, we were told from the attendees of that day that there was a reception and cosplay contest. Afterward, they had fun doing some anime improv during the night and just hung out.

For Saturday they scheduled three panelists and a musical event in the evening.   First up was Misako Rocks! who’s been to many of the other events in the area.  For this event she told her life story as part of a promotion for her new book based on events in her life,  Rock and Roll Love.   She told us how she became interested in America and came over as an exchange student.   Eventually she became an artist and went to Japan to receive the Woman of the Year award 2010 from Nikkei Woman, a Japanese magazine. It’s always great to see how artists grew up.

Next up was Brian Mah. Brian is based out of Washington DC and has worked in both graphic design and animation. He spoke about his work and his time in Japan. He offered advice for those interested in studying or working in Japan. He also spoke about his work as an animator, showing us how animators traditionally worked on animation along with some of the differences between the Japanese and western animation work flows.

Last to talk was Dane Robinson. He spoke about Mr. Bricks, a Heavy Metal Murder Musical, which he worked on the soundtrack for. While not exactly related to anime, it was interesting seeing something completely different. It was mentioned how it might have some similar aspects to Japanese horror films, but we really don’t follow enough of that genre to make a conclusion.

At night, there was a musical performance by Alexandra on the Violin. She spoke about music and how musical pieces are worked into anime.

For Sunday the event was a Victorian, Gothic and Lolita Tea Party featuring the Soho Host Club. They brought in tables to serve tea in more of a host environment. In correspondence before the con, I learned the organizers of the convention also came up with the idea of creating a host group loosely based off the anime Ouran Host Club. Over the weekend all the members were active, being hosts and interacting with everyone. I spoke to one of the gentlemen and said one of the group’s goals is to eventually host at more events.

As a start-up, this event did fairly well. Everyone showed up not knowing what to expect. This event bought in people around the neighborhood and showed them a little about Japanese culture. I do hope in the future the organizers are able work off this experience and have more events. The speakers were excellent and I hope they are able to get more in the future.

AnimeNEXT 2010 celebrated old and new as it brought cosplayers and anime fans back out to Somerset’s Garden State Expo Center(GSEC) for its second time at these facilities.

As in years past, it was brutally hot for this year’s AnimeNEXT. Some took advantage of the hotel pools to alleviate this factor. But many seemed not to care. I have to say I was truly impressed by the many cosplayers sweating it out make their costumes look perfect despite the heat. Fortunately this year it did not rain the whole weekend as with the previous year, which allowed people to walk around more without getting stuck in the mud.

The layout changed and expanded into the Holiday Inn this year, which made the con somewhat better. Starting wiith the GSEC, AnimeNEXT expanded seating for their mini-stage with a better layout overall. The GSEC staff was also prepared this year; they accommodated the guests much better by having their food staff stay later. The Doubletree changed as they expanded the Artists Alley, but they removed one of the large panel rooms to get it done.  They also moved all the video games to the Holiday Inn across the street. Now onto some of the panels and events we attended:

Panels and Events

Uncle Yo

Being in the Northeast area, we’ve seen Uncle Yo perform many, many times. He’s always hilarious, fun and down to earth. But this time Uncle Yo actually got to headline. He was Friday night’s main event.

It was great to see Uncle Yo as a main event. We’ve seen him many times as a side attraction and he’s definitely funny enough to warrant main event-status. The line Friday night was enough to prove this. Hours long, it wrapped around the inside of the con center. The event got a huge attendance.

During the show, Uncle Yo seemed endearingly flattered by being a main event. There’s something really refreshing about a guy who, despite being a main event, hangs around the con and talks and acts like he’s just another one of the nerds. He had the crowd roaring the whole time during his show, especially during his famous “Your Mom” joke (I won’t repeat it here. It’s something you have to experience yourself). At the end, Uncle Yo received a well-deserved standing ovation.

Uncle Yo on stage with a packed house

Iron Cosplay

Though it borrowed its concept from “Iron Chef,” Iron Cosplay wasn’t a cheap knockoff. I have to admit right at the start that my assessment of Iron Cosplay is extremely biased by the fact that my friends participated and won a round of it. That said, if you ever get the chance to participate, I highly recommend it.

From a cosplayer’s point of view there’s something both sacrilegious and hilariously fun about making a costume from tape, scraps and pins in 30 minutes after spending two months carefully crafting a costume for the convention itself.  Even those not participating had a blast though. The host was an impressive improviser. He spent a lot of time interviewing and interacting with the crowd while the teams worked to assemble costumes, keeping everyone entertained until the competition ended.

Iron Cosplay

The Dunk Tank

This year, AnimeNEXT had a charity dunk tank. On Friday outside of the GSEC we walked by a blue tank of water thinking that some party company forgot to pick it up from a previous event.  But we were wrong.

On Saturday, for one dollar you could dunk guests like Greg Ayres and Uncle Yo, or staffers like the con chair and head of security. This was an absolutely fabulous idea. Having an outdoor event (especially one that involves water) is perfect for AnimeNEXT. The expo center has a ton of great outdoor space that is sadly under-used. I really hope AnimeNEXT invests in more outdoor events like this in future years. It was a break from the usual con stuff, a lot of fun and a great way to raise money for a worthy cause.  This year’s cause was Haiti.

Hangry and Angry Fashion Show

AnimeNEXT hosted the Hangry and Angry fashion show. The models were chosen from applicants on the AnimeNEXTwebsite. The designer Gashicon also attended the event. They made creative use of the stage and used the walkway between the rows as their runway. The only bad thing about the event was the lighting. While light is good, light that blinds your audience doesn’t usually go over too well. We have photo coverage of the full event in the photos section.

Hangry and Angry's Designer taking a bow.

Anime Jeopardy

If any of the panels we went to were a little underwhelming, it may have been this one. The hosts didn’t have the answers to the questions, which led to a lot of stalling and confusion between questions, and slowed down the entire game. Perhaps we’re just older fans, but a lot of the questions were based on anime that were way too new for us to know the answers to.

The event was well-attended however, especially for a Sunday panel. And the panelists did a fantastic job of keeping the crowd involved, actually pitting them against the three main contestants to see who knew the most.

Pokemon/Digimon Soccer Game

This event originated on the AnimeNEXT forums, after it occurred at MangaNEXT in 2008 where there were a bunch of Digimon and Pokemon fans in cosplay. The Digimon fans somehow came up with a plan of playing a soccer, then the brilliant idea of challenging the Pokemon fans.

While not an official AnimeNEXT event, the second annual soccer match took place Sunday afternoon, perhaps the hottest and most humid day of the weekend (a fact that had me seriously worrying for some of the cosplayers out there).  Some of the “athletes” played in full cosplay while others had modified uniforms.  Either way both sides had fun.  This may have been my favorite event of the entire weekend. It was a perfect way to end a great convention. What’s better than sitting outside in the shade near a pond on a gorgeous day watching Pokemon play soccer against Digimon? Very few things, if any. In this year’s match, the Digimon and Pokemon teams just couldn’t seem to outdo each other. The match ended 1-1.

Sudowoodo a Pokemon Playing Soccer

Other Observations

AnimeNEXT did have many improvements. They brought in more frequent shuttle service to get to and from area hotels, food and the train station. As mentioned in the beginning, they shuffled around the layout of the con for the better. The staff worked out many of the facility quirks and had better security along with having an external hired security team to help manage parts of the event.

Staff wise there was some changing of the guard happening. Some turned out well while other positions kind of suffered, but being a tight ship they got help and back on their feet. It’s a process the con has to go through and it’s great that they let new people step up in staff positions.

If there is one thing AnimeNEXT has to work on it’s the lines, which they still seem to have no defined plan for. We did not attend the masquerade, partly because the lines were long way before the event even started.

The attendance this year was rumored to be up; taking place later in June allowed more of the student-aged attendees to make it to the event. But with the crowd spread out a bit more it was harder to tell. In our opinion though, growth isn’t everything. As long as the attendance is steady and the people there want to attend the events it’s a good thing. We did run across quite a few people who just showed up at the location socially without buying passes. It’s our hope that AnimeNEXT can keep producing a quality convention to bring in guests and activities that ultimately do entice people to buy a badge.

And to end on a good note: Universal Animation, Inc. the governing organization behind AnimeNEXT, green-lighted MangaNEXT for Halloween 2010. We’ll see you there!

Hi everyone! We just got done with AnimeNext and that coverage will come up soon. But before that we had a bunch of events that we attended in May and June. The photo coverage of those events is already up!

The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens (BBG) had its annual Sakura Matsuri at the beginning of May. This year however the early arrival of warm weather bloomed the cherry blossoms too soon and only a few remnants were left on a the trees by the time of the festival. This year they expanded their anime- and manga-related entertainment. They brought in performers and talent familiar to the local anime/manga circuit such as: Mario Beueno, Uncle Yo and Misako Rocks. The New York Anime Festival and AnimeNext staffs were also around this year.

BBG Sakura Matsuri Main Stage

Cosplayers were part of the attraction this year. Even the local news promotions on TV during the weeks before the event mentioned coming out to see the cosplayers. For the most part the cosplayers were well-behaved. There were a few times security (which was much more present this year than in the past) asked some groups to quiet down. But as long as the anime/manga/cosplay crowd that comes to the BBG continues to respect the festival they’ll be definitely welcomed back. The crowd did love to take photos with cosplayers. On Sunday night the highlight for a group of selected cosplayers was that they had a runway fashion show where they had professionals from “Project Runway” doing their makeup.

The next event was the Cosplay Party 2.0 hosted by the Japan Society. It looks like this could become an annual event. They showed the first “Evangelion” movie in their theater and held a costume contest at night that included more than 40 contestants and prizes from Kinokuniya . While attendance dropped this year, this can be attributed to other nearby cosplay events such as the Steampunk World’s Fair happening the same day. But all in all it was a great get together for the local fans.

Cosplay 2.0 costume judges(left 2) and winners (right 3)

The Kinokuniya bookstore also decided to host their Lolita Day event again this year. The event was crowded as we got there halfway through it. They in brought guests to talk to the crowd. We caught parts of Kesley Hine and Zoh Rothberg giving a talk to the crowd about the business side of clothing and hints of how to run your own lolita brand. After that Bibi hosted a Q&A session with the crowd.

Crowd at Lolita Day listening on

In early June, the 4th annual Japan Day took place in Central Park. It was a display of new and old Japanese culture. Area cosplayers have used this event as an excuse to cosplay. This year there weren’t so many actual cosplayers as there were people dressed up pretending to be ninjas running or wearing yukatas. The closest event they had related to cosplaying was the fashion show where some of the dresses were lolita styled. The clothing makers were various Japanese designers. The fashion event also included a performance by the band GRAMM.

Japan Day crowd

All the photos from the events are in the photo gallery.

The Castle Point Anime Convention (CPAC), run by the Steven’s Institute of Technology Anime Club, welcomed its third year as a public event with beautiful weather and excited attendees.  The pristine weather kept most people outside, leaving the indoor locations less packed than in previous years.  The campus is well-suited for a smaller con and CPAC still has a little room to grow.  Much like in previous years, we believe the increase in attendance is due to the anime club’s advertisement at other cons and word of mouth from previous attendees.  This con continues to show promise; the organizers have definitely learned from previous years’ problems.  For example, the problem of overcrowding the gym that serves as the dealers’ room was solved this year when organizers set up an ordered line and took a headcount of how many people could enter at any time.

There were some slightly odd things that they did with the schedule though.  For the main events, they put their masquerade and hall cosplay in the middle of the day, rather than at night as is customary.  The voice actor guests they brought in hosted the Pokemon and Genshiken panels early in the morning and late in the event, rather than during the afternoon.  But they were able to bring back Uncle Yo for another comedy performance.

Participants of the Cosplay Dating Game getting instructions.

The mix of panels was also off. We wish there was a bit more diversity in panels as there were two zombie panels and three hetalia panels.  On the up side, smaller cons such as CPAC are great places for first time panelists to try out a new ideas.  One such panel was the Super Mario Super panel, which is about the Super Mario Show produced for America.  The panel was introduced during the first CPAC and has had a good run though the local con circuit.

Psychology of Anime
Another highlight among the panels this year was “Psychology of Anime.” The presenter put complex psychological theories in simple terms and then went on to describe why we like anime so much. One reason, we, and the rest of the audience, were dismayed to learn, is simple laziness. He explained that the brain likes to take information in in simple ways, and anime presents simple, easy-to-digest images and stories that our brains eat up. The audience seemed riveted by the panel – very few people left early and most of the attendees got in at least one or two questions. The presenter was remarkably patient in dealing with all the questions; in fact, that was one of the best parts. The audience was encouraged to participate. It was really more of a back and forth than a straight presentation. The panel will also take place at Anime Next this year, and we wouldn’t be surprised if those who attended at CPAC came back for more.

This year was another great production from the CPAC staff.  The addition of the campus police being visible was also very welcome.  Hopefully this year’s increase of fans translates into CPAC being able to bring in out-of-area guests in the future.  But that would me also potentially needing an attendance cap to continue to run this at the school. As for cosplayers, there were plenty of them around.  We were only able to get about half of them into the gallery.  Being on a active school campus, there were some interesting interactions between cosplayers and the students and even people visiting the campus.  For the most part, though, people were friendly and even seemed curious and interested in what was going on.

I-Con returned to Stony Brook University’s campus this year for its 29th convention. This was the first time attending this event for me. By public transportation, it should have been about two hours outside of New York City.  Two hours, that is, unless you miss a train and have to wait for the next one.

When I arrived on location at mid-afternoon most people were already there and were indoors because of the cold weather.  The con layout included multiple buildings spread throughout the Stony Brook campus.   Everything took a bit of walking to get to, so quite a bit of time was taken just going between buildings.

The rest of the team couldn’t make it for panel coverage, so I was only able to get photo coverage of this event for Saturday.  As far as cosplay went, I-Con was a mix of fandoms. You can catch all of that in the photo gallery.

Cosplay Competition Crowd

The only event I attended was the Cosplay Competition, which was filled to capacity.  It was somewhat disorganized in the beginning.  It was a mix of skits and just costume modeling so the crowd was confused when groups simply walked up, did a few poses and walked off instead of performing.   But they had Michele Knotz and Bill Rogers help host the show keeping the crowd upbeat.

Bill Rogers keeping the balcony fired up.

After all the competition skits were presented, they had some exhibition skits and put on all the AMVs to kill time.  Unfortunately the AMVs ran so long that I was unable to stay to see all the cosplay competition winners.  Having missed the train in the morning made me anxious to check the  schedule that evening.   Seeing it was every two hours  it was a mad dash for the 10 p.m. train along with a group of attendees.

I-Con was overall a good convention. Being a multi-fandom convention allows all of the local Long Island residents a chance to get together in one large convention rather than try multiple niche groups meetings.  If you’ve never been to I-Con there’s always I-Con 30 next year.

Springfest a one day anime con run by the Polytechnic Anime Society(PAS). Its a student organization who’s members attend Polytechnic Institute of New York University located in Brooklyn, NY.  While in previous years for Springfest its been a small gathering, but with the influx of anime conventions in the NYC area people are getting the word of any local events and attending them.

As far as I could tell students ran all the panels.   I stopped by the Para Para dancing panel  in which the panelist showed the audience a couple of dance routines and they followed along step by step.

Para Para

Another event was the a fandub anime voice acting where attendees were asked to dub a show being over dramatic.   The crowd packed the room and had  a good time  listening to volunteers who came up to the mic.

Fandubbing Panel

In the gym they setup a game room and in the cafeteria they had a lot of Ramune, and they did sell a lot of Ramune for a drinking contest they were having.

Empty ramune bottles

At night they were able to bring in some musical acts for a concert.  I was not able to attend but they were able to bring some established performers Mai Kawamura and Uzuhi.  They also had Emi who’s been working at getting into anime related performances in the area.

For a mini-con Springfest was good for what they were able to put together. PAS  was able to get some space and bring in the community.  In the Tri-state area getting space and permission to run events like this really aren’t easy to come by.    I hope they can continue to have this event for years to come.

– Update
PAS did have an attendance sign-up so they estimate 600 people walked through the doors throughout the day.

KatSNOWcon! became an unofficial title for Katsucon’s 16th convention.  This year the event was being held in National Harbor, MD, right outside of Washington DC.  The previous weekend DC was sacked with a large snowstorm and the city was literally buried.

KatSNOWcon

The major highways were cleared and the convention was going to be taking place indoors so the event continued as scheduled.  This year Katsucon moved into the Gaylord Resort which is a part of National Harbor, a large complex geared toward conventions and tourism.  The hotel itself is a major part of the location and had a multitude of meeting and hall spaces along with a gorgeous open atrium in the middle that made it look like a little town was placed right inside a building.

But enough with the location.  Like  every con it starts with registration, and this is where many conventions fail.  This was not one of those cases, as the official badges did not arrive in time because of a late FedEx shipment.  The staff worked through this issue immediately by making temporary badges until they arrived.  Also planned even before the snow, they had registration hours on Friday open until midnight so even people arriving late could get badges.  On Saturday the registration line was checked a couple of times in the morning to see how the crowd was being handled.   Surprisingly, the line was minimal the whole time with people being processed quickly.

The next thing after registration that gets checked is the schedule.  Katsucon’s schedule for a midsized con was jam packed from start to finish.   They had panels starting at 6 a.m. and events starting at 2 a.m.

Here’s some coverage of a few panels we attended over the weekend:

Friday
Guests Uncensored (18+)

Ever wondered what your favorite voice actors really did at the convention all weekend? Katsucon attendees 18 years or older got to find out that and much more during Friday night’s guests uncensored panel.

The guests, including Chris and Greg Ayres, let loose at the late-night panel. A lot of what they talked about is better left to the imagination, but what I can say is that all of it was hilarious. This was my first time going to one of these panels, though they are common at conventions, and after checking it out I would highly recommend it to anyone else old enough to attend.

The Ayres brothers in particular were hilarious and kept the entire room laughing late into the night. Chris Ayres told one story about being invited to a small convention where his hotel room was situated in such a seedy district of the city that he backed out, after a hilarious but un-repeatable confrontation with a convention chairperson.

Understandably, no photography or recording was allowed at the panel. As I’ve mentioned, these voice actors were holding nothing back. But there are some stories from that panel that have been burned into my memory for many years to come.

If there was a downside to the panel, it may have been the lack of structure. Guests were coming and going at will, and occasionally bringing up friends from the audience. At the same time, however, the lack of any sort of formality or structure seemed to suit the atmosphere. At one point, Greg Ayres even had to leave to rescue Friday night’s rave after it’s original DJ couldn’t make it (Greg Ayres often DJs for conventions, in addition to being an accomplished voice actor). But even this didn’t ruin the mood or bring the crowd down. All in all, it felt like hanging out with a bunch of friends, sharing hilarious, if x-rated, stories.

Saturday
Cosplay Electronics

When I went to this panel early Saturday morning, I couldn’t have told you the first thing about electronics. But by the time I left I was not only knowledgeable, but excited about getting into lighting effects and applying them to my costumes.

Cosplay Electronics

The panel’s host did an amazing job of explaining seemingly complicated things in such a way that both experts and complete newbies alike could understand. He started with EL-wire, which is a flexible type of wiring that glows brightly, then moved on to LED lights, which are tiny lights that can produce effects like glowing eyes and laser shots.

The best part was that the panelist demonstrated every single step of what he was explaining. We got to watch him strip and rig up EL-wire. We also got to see him string together LED lights. He even provided a cheat sheet with suggestions of where to get materials and helpful reminders.

This was easily one of the best panels I’ve ever gone to. If you ever notice it on a con schedule and have even the slightest interest in adding lighting effects to your costumes, definitely check it out. I never thought I’d have the skill to use things like LEDs, but after this panel, I feel confident that I could tackle a project like that.

Sunday
Geek Comedy Tour

Nothing ends a convention quite as nicely as hours of nerdy jokes. Five comedians from the Geek Comedy Tour were good enough to wake up early Sunday morning to provide just that.

Geek Comedy Tour

Despite the event taking place on Sunday, and before noon, the Geek Comedy Tour drew a line of con-goers that stretched around the hall. Featuring Chris Barylick, Joe Deeley, James Jones, Jimmy Merritt, and Jake Young, the tour is a group of comedians who specialize in a brand of comedy that con-goers in particular can appreciate.

Joe Deeley, who acted as the event’s host, warned the crowd right from the start that the humor involved would normally get the five funny men heckled. At Katsucon, however, jokes about video games and robots earned them constant laughs.

I was lucky enough to be in the front row, where the astounding energy of all five comics was palpable (seriously, how they had that much energy on Sunday morning was amazing in itself). Unfortunately, the event got cut slightly short because of the charity auction occurring in the same room directly after it. That put a damper on the final act, which was a real shame because it was one of the funniest.

Still, the Geek Comedy Tour is definitely worth seeing if it comes to a con near you. You can also check out the guys ahead of time via their Web site: http://geekcomedytour.com/

Besides panels there are other activities that draw people to the convention. The dealer’s room is one of those draws;  it was setup open enough to allow movement with little bottle-necking.  It had some industry booths, regular merchants and artists/craftsmen that were deemed too commercial when they applied for artist’s alley.   The artist’s alley and game room were mixed in together.  The game room was outsourced to  GPX Gaming and this was one of the few game rooms that have actually been pleasant. It was in a wide open area with plenty of air circulation.  The artist alley had a good mix of artists and they did try to keep it geared for the starting artists trying to make themselves known.

Katsucon also had a Maid Cafe.  Coming from the northeast, maid cafes really don’t exist like their inceptions over in Japan because of labor contracts and facility issues.

One of the Head Maids(Left), The cafe early morning (Middle), Customers being hosted (Right)

They were able to transform a sports bar/restaurant into a Maid Cafe. Being able to see one in action and attracting customers was an interesting sight. The maids were able to sit customers down, serve and interact with them.  They also had Yunmao Ayakawa come as a guest to run a workshop for maids.

Which bring us to the large main cosplay event, the masquerade.  The crowd was handled very well and the staff was able to get everyone seated in time for the show to start.  Overall the show was entertaining as there were a little over 20 groups performing.  One skit that did stand out to us as  it was a risky swing dance skit.

Masquerade participant Jeb swinging partner Chrissy around.

As you can see from the photo, the skit participants Jeb and Chrissy were flying around.  The other skits were primarily dance skits ranging from Michael Jackson to a Village People parody on yaoi, with a few dramas and comedies mixed in.

The winners are as follows:

Best Novice : Captain Harlock and Friends presenting Captain Harlock
Best Master : Level Up Cosplay presenting Yaoi YMCA “Operation Disco”
Best Overall : Princeton Society of Fellows in Spiral Energy Engineering presenting Tsubasa Chronicle
Best in Show : Cupcake Cosplay presenting Macross Series

Cupcake Cosplay - Best in Show

If you want more photo coverage of the other presentations please check out the Masquerade Photo Gallery.

Snow Fight

Despite the snow I believe everyone who attended had a good time.  I even caught a glimpse of a snow fight in action and dropped by to take a few photos of it.  The facilities allowed for many cosplayers to snag amazing photo opportunities.  Everyone took advantage of the scenery available.  And despite there being other conventions going on in the hotel, there wasn’t any mention of any trouble between the groups.  From the convention feedback panel, the staff of the Gaylord Hotel (despite of any of the incidents that happened over the weekend) indicated that Katsucon was still very welcome to come the next year.  The only thing visible from Saturday night’s aftermath were a few empty bottles floating in the water.  The facility staff was very diligent in keeping their facilities in top shape.  I do hope everything does work out between Katsucon and the National Harbor area because it was a nice combination.  Without the official attendance numbers out it did seem that the turnout was light and I have faith that they at least broke even from taking on a larger location.   All said and done, may Katsucon 17 next year be another great anime convention.

Please check out the photo gallery we have of Katuscon 16.  And we also have a direct download link.

The first con this year we’ll be attending will be February at Katsucon in Maryland.   With I-Con and the Castle Point Anime Convention lined up after.  So this year will start off to be a busy one.   Hope to see everyone at the cons.

Mario working the conference with Patrick

Next they had a quick break where Mario explained that he was planning to sing but had been sick for the last week.  Instead he did a cosplay changing skit where he changed into various characters including an Uncle Yo cosplay.  After that it lead into their musical performances by Emi and the girl group Promise.  Emi sang a few songs and Promise did their performance.  By the time they were done more people trickled in late so they has around 50+ people show up.

The cosplay contest was next where they had three judges and Patrick being one of them was video conferenced in.  For the judging break Uncle Yo again did his How To Survive A Mecha Attack” act.  I’ve seen it a few times, and the only thing consistent about this act is that he keeps adding new parts and without fail the Judging gets done and try to cut him off.   They brought in Patrick again but this time in a video conference where he was dressed in his signature Goku costume.  Here’s the winner of the contest.

Patrick seeing the contest via webcam

Patrick did a closing talk and the hosts thanked us for showing up.

Patrick Video Conferenced And In Cosplay

When the show was over I wanted to find out how the show came to be and had a quick chat with Mario.  He explained that about three weeks ago he was contacted by the Forbidden Planet that they had been wanting to do an event catered for the anime/manga fanbase.    Once the parties involved had the details worked out he contacted the other performers in the area and planned out this show.   With all the behind the scene work and getting everything organized during the holiday season is definitely impressive.    Everything worked out very well as things within their control ran smoothly.   I hope there will be future shows but only one thing that might hamper future shows if they take place in the Forbidden City is that its a small venue.