A dream convention of mine finally realized! Katsucon took me 1000 miles away from home, almost a year of planning, and hundreds of dollars to get to! Here’s an overview of how it went and some of my overall opinions.
Photo by Psinu Photography
Katsucon was a very new experience for me, it was my first time flying to a convention, first time at an east coast con, and first time doing such large costumes. Thankfully I was able to pack everything with the help of stealing Tristan’s extra checked bag and flying went SUPER smooth on the way there. Thank you based Southwest.
him
le canned water
Check in also went super fast and we were soon in our room getting ready to wander the hotel and pick up our badges. We got in the badge line earlier than registration begin and were in line for about 1.5 hours. There wasn’t too much going on Thursday after we got our badges so we just walked around and eventually ended up going to CVS where we ran into Michael and Veronica buying cans of Chef Boyardee. We all turned in fairly early (around midnight?).
badge line + friday shooting looks
Friday morning I got up fairly early to do makeup for Elphelt then threw on my kigu to go shoot. My first one was with Michelin (Miyuchi Cosplay) who won my photoshoot giveaway on facebook. :) She cosplayed Midare from Touken Ranbu which I’m not very familiar with but she looked super cute!
Right after that I shot with Selena as Ophelia from Fire Emblem Fates! I also got to meet Mandy who assisted in cape tossing and was also cosplaying from Fates. They (and all the other Friday Fates cosplayers) both looked so good I wish I was cosplaying Camilla on Friday too rip. 2nd pic also featuring Krista as Kinu!
I had a few hours until my next shoot so I went to the Jojo gathering and snapped this pic of Tristan and @nailbats as Big Joe and Small Joe...too cute.
I wish I would have taken more hall shots while I was out and about with my camera but I found it really hard to approach people because it seemed like everyone was already doing a private shoot or pulled off to the side by someone else for hall shots. I was really intimidated but I did at least grab this one of a beautiful Yuugiri cosplayer (Sirena).
Also Michael grabbed this pic of me kickin m’leg at some point.
I stuck around a bit for the gathering and then went back to the room to steam my Elphelt dress. I had some time to kill before my next shoot still so Jordan and I walked around a bit and ended up stumbling upon the crazy crowd waiting for the dealers room to open and also the Steven Universe shoot which was neat. After that I met up with Ally who was cosplaying Marie from Splatoon. I really like how the pictures from this shoot came out especially the ones we took at the cafe/restaurant area in the hotel that they let us shoot at. :)
After we wrapped up I ran back up to the room to drink some Capri Sun (courtesy of my Lunchables that I got at CVS the night before) before heading back down to do my last shoot with Gail. She had managed to snipe a spot in the gazebo so we got to do a few shots there!
AND THEN I WAS FINISHED SHOOTING WOOOO!!! I enjoyed all my shoots but by this time (a little past 2pm) I was really antsy to get into cosplay and hit the floor.
I got into Elphelt and walked around with Tristan for some time. I got stopped for a TON of pictures and it was very overwhelming but I was also very flattered that people wanted photos of me. More on this later. Oh I should mention a child Yuna cosplayer wanted a picture with me and I hope to find it one day because she was too cute... but for now here’s a pic with a qt Eli (kikicosplays@insta)
I also got filmed for this CMV, the shots look so cool!
We ended up walking around outside a bit since I was super warm in Elphelt and I snapped this photo of Tristan which I think looks real cool (tm).
After heading back inside, we decided to take a look at the artist alley and did a walk through there. El probably wasn’t the greatest choice since it’s harder to move in but we made it through and I got to see my wife lucidsky and she said I’m one of her favorite cosplayers that she sees at cons. ;; What a kind lady...and so talented....Her.
Shot of Jordan from Friday to break up text.
Hung around the gazebo area until my shoot at 5:20p with Don Dolce Photography. We ended up shooting outside because of crowds which was totally fine by me because it was getting really hot for me again haha. Shooting with Don was super fun and I can’t wait to see the photos!
We shot for around an hour and then I ended up running into Jude, Kat, and Tristan and began my journey to kill every Matsu.
I was EXHAUSTED of being in costume at this point so after discussing food plans I went back up to the room to change. I snapped this mirror pic before going back into kigu mode haha.
I stayed in the room and chilled until the food came. I would like to thank New York Pizza for saving our lives this weekend with their Pizza+Wings+Fries+Drinks deal for a low low price of $24.99...the real MVPS in a place where affordable eatery is dead.
I feel like this is where a lot of prime time shitposting and vlogging happened but everything is truly a blur. There was a lot of zooming in on things and fancy footwork all around. Oh also we took a moment to get some pictures of Hannah’s Neon cosplay. While we were searching for a place with light I also ran into Emre and grabbed this shot of her Eli cosplay. :)
The vlog essentially sums up the rest of the night (will be posted later). Tristan, Jordan, and I also made our way to the game room and played some pop n’ music which was fun! I wish you didn’t have to wait so long to play otherwise I’d be turnin up for way too long (like at Youma where they have 2 set ups and there’s like NO LINE...).
Ended up turning in around 2am which isn’t bad unless you gotta wake up at 7am like me because you are a fool who planned a 9am Elphelt shoot. I ended up sleeping a little past my alarm but got up around 7:30am and managed to make it down in time to my shoot with HM Photography. I LOVE her work and we managed to shoot in the gazebo a bit since it was so early and not as busy so I’m really excited to see those photos as well.
I hung around a bit and got more photos taken as I waited to meet up with Andrew aka Vontography. He has been one of my favorite photographers for a long time so it was really great getting to shoot with him! At one point during our shoot this family stopped and they all wanted photos with me LOL I’m not sure what they were saying as I think they were speaking Tagalog but hopefully all good things.
Photo by Jimmy Zhu
After I finished my morning shoots, I headed back up to the room but not before grabbing this elevator pic of my costume hahaha. It was nice being on the 12th floor because that was the highest floor the elevator I took most of the weekend went to and it was usually empty by the time I got up there.
After getting upstairs I threw off my wig and bolero and plopped right down on the bed. Tristan made a CVS run so imagine me sitting in my Elphelt dress eating flaming hot cheetos for almost an hour haha. Soon enough I realized I should change into Camilla and that marks the beginning of the worst part of my con lmao.
Getting into Camilla is pretty difficult and I was trying to do it while sitting down between a wall and the bed for privacy reasons. This was proving difficult as I couldn’t get anything on properly but also wasn’t willing to stand up because I’m super uncomfortable being exposed in front of other people. So I kinda just...sat there and started crying to myself lol. I was so stressed out and uncomfortable that I took everything off and just sat in bed in my matsu sweater and let it out while trying (and failing) to be quiet about it. Sorry to everyone in the room for how awkward that was but the famed Fire Alarm 2k16 saved my damn life as Jordan and Tristan evacuated. Hannah and I decided to stay because we are not ruled by fear and took some quality footage for the con vlog.
ANYWAYS Hannah got into Linkle and left while my dumb ass stopped crying and changed into Camilla in peace in the empty room. I only wore her for like 30 minutes which is too bad because I realized after I actually really like how it turned out but I was just so stressed out and sad I wanted to get outta there pretty fast.
MY PRECIOUS BELKA (@MIYUKI.LU ON INSTA) WHO WAS THE #1 OTHER FATES COSPLAYER I WANTED TO RUN INTO...I’M SO GLAD...
also yay Elise! Too bad I looked like a damn fool in this pic.
I clunked my way over to the Fire Emblem shoot which was ending at this point, I didn’t get to hop in on any photos which is sad because I was REALLY looking forward to this shoot but I at least got to run into some other FE friends and hop in on one of their group selfies.
As I said I didn’t wear her for long but she was well received and I’m very happy with how it came out. I can’t thank Amanda enough for creating most of the armor pieces as well as Kathryn for the fabric pieces and Jen for helping me assemble everything and fill in all the gaps (reforming my torso piece, attachments, repainting, leg pieces, etc.). I will for sure be wearing her again in the future so your hard work isn’t put to waste!
After taking some mirror selfies to prove Camilla existed at Katsu, Tristan helped me pull my boots off my body and I got into my Smexy Osomatsu cosplay..by that I mean my sweater, soccer shorts, and thigh highs because I was sick of being in costume. I was gonna wear Fubuki from OPM but my feet needed a break and I can always wear her at Naka instead. Still glad I brought it because my friend Allyson borrowed it for a shoot, hopefully it went well!
THANK GOD FOR BEING COMFORTABLE AND WEARING NORMAL SHOES. Tristan, Jordan, and I hit up the dealers room for a while which was real big but we didn’t buy anything (I never really buy merch at cons but I like looking). We found sad Kak, some really cool official Jojo posters from poster man ($85 each so no buy there rip), and a balding Ky Kiske figure.
After that we made another round of the artist alley and all made some purchases! This Yotsuba charm is the only thing I got but I LOVE HER MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER... she will protect my camera from now on. If you know/are the artist please let me know so I can credit you I forgot to take your card!
Now that the dealers and artist halls had been conquered, we were ready for dinner and turned to New York Pizza once again to save our life. We got the same deal but this time...TWO OF EM. It was lit. At this point I was enjoying not being in costume a lot but I COULDN’T CUCK MICHAEL ONCE AGAIN (I’m still sorry about Naka 2015 lol) so I changed into Shichimiya to match with his Yuuta and Veronicas Rikka.
Definitely not the best looking costume on me but it was fun costume to mess around in! Tristan, Jordan, and I headed to the game room once again where I told Michael and Veronica to meet up with us. It took a while for them to come down but we passed the time playing some more Pop n’ Music.
Eventually they showed up and ALTHOUGH I DID NOT KNOW IT AT THE TIME, THEY HAD JUST GOTTEN ENGAGED!! WOOO!!! Congrats to both of you. Jordan had already gone back up to the room at this point but yay Chuni group!
We played some of this Touhou fighting game, some more Pop n’ Music, and Just Dance! Michael asked the dude setting it up to record us which I was very against but the footage is actually pretty cute haha. We played What Does The Fox Say..the Campfire version because it’s the best dance in the game. No shame.
Michael’s phone is a potato.
Tristan and I also got to play this game where you send red beams back and forth to each other and if the other player misses you get a point...that’s a poor explanation but it was REALLY fun I wish I played a few more rounds but here’s a pic of the game.
Eventually we decided to head back up to the room but first we actually ran into Kat, Jude, and Hannah hanging out with some others in the gazebo area. Oh and while we were walking there an Eli cosplayer in a trash can got really excited about my cosplay and took a picture. Thanks trash can Eli you were really nice.
Anyways Jude also grabbed this picture of our group dabbing. I learned I actually really hate dabbing as a photo pose and this is the only time I did it all weekend. It feels unnatural to hold it for so long but I suppose this pic is pretty lit.
We hung around with the squad for a little while but eventually headed up. Not before grabbing this selfie in the gazebo though!! This was around 3am and you see that in the back?! PEOPLE WERE STILL SHOOTING...LIKE A REAL SHOOT..WITH SAKIZOU COSPLAYS...GO FUCKING HARD!!!!!!!!
I wasn’t super tired when we got back so I packed up all of my stuff so I wouldn’t have to in the morning..seriously if you are a con goer please pack up your stuff Saturday night for your own sake it makes check out SO SMOOTH and your Sunday morning dead inside self will thank you for it.
Not too much happened Sunday, I wasn’t cosplaying and mostly just sat in the lobby with our luggage after checking out as people made last minute artist alley runs. The line to check your luggage into the hotel went all the way to the elevators at one point so I wasn’t trying to fuck with that. Sat and chatted with Jordan and Jihatsu for quite a while which was nice because I don’t think I’ve ever actually had a real conversation with Jihatsu before this haha, he’s really cool...confirmed.
Got on our shuttle back to the airport but THE CONS NOT OVER YET. At the airport we ran into Michael and Veronica again as they had a flight not long after ours. They also had Valentine’s Day props and candies out that you could take photos with lol thank you Southwest.
Had some issues with half of us not being checked into the flight but we got it sorted out and were on our way to Milwaukee. I passed the FUCK out on that plane ride despite usually not being able to sleep well in planes especially when sitting in the middle. Katsucon killed me. In the Milwaukee airport we ate some famous white and yellow Wisconsin airport cheese. These fuckers also dabbed in cheese hats while blocking a lady from getting to her flight.
After making it back to Kansas city and boarding the shuttle back to where our cars were parked, the Nebraska kids hit one final dab after saying our goodbyes. These pictures could not possibly be worse.
I spent the night in Lawrence and drove back to good ol Iowa the next morning. I had never been so exhausted in my life than that night we got back. I imagine that’s what being hungover is like and it was miserable and I think I’m still kind of sick actually but we livin. Got mad school work and other shit to do now but we livin.
OVERALL...
I had a great time at Katsucon, it was honestly a TON of fun and I will consider going back next year. I’ve got some onions though and I’ll try to explain them the best I can.
If I come back next year I would: (+ extra photos bc heavy text)
1) Wear less complicated costumes
I have no way of saying this without it sounding like a humble brag but being stopped so much for photos was stressful and overwhelming for me. I know some people strive for this but being in Elphelt made it IMPOSSIBLE for me to do anything with my friends. I appreciate everyone who took my photo but I’m not someone who needs that much spotlight and I’d rather be able to do things comfortably than be fixing my costume every two seconds and squeezing through tight areas with a huge dress.
Related to this, I feel like a lot of people feel the opposite. That you need a fancy or attention grabbing costume to enjoy Katsu. I kind of got that vibe too because it seems a lot of costumes are overlooked and people only care about the really over the top ones which makes me sad. Having no pictures of me taken doesn’t REALLY matter but it’d be disheartening, so I’ll have to try some kind of place in the middle.
One of Jordan’s coords from the weekend.
2) Take more hallway photos AND PHONE PICS!!
I wanted to take a bunch this year and hand out a lot of my business cards but..I handed out one...LMAO. People are shooting EVERYWHERE at Katsu it’s hard to tell if it’s a private shoot or if someone just pulled them to the side to take pictures so I was very intimidated to ask people for photos. As for phone pics that had more to do with my costumes making it hard to take more fun photos/selfies with people.
Kamui is Rubyfia
3) Talk to more people
One of the coolest things about Katsu is how many new people there are to meet, especially if you’re not from around the area like me. There are plenty of people that I know online that I saw and said nothing to because I was nervous, or talked to for 2 minutes and then left because I didn’t want to be annoying. It’s a bad mindset to have and I really regret not interacting with more people during this con. If I did this to you please don’t take offence I’m just...a fool...who is scared...pls be my friend and make me take a pic with you for the memories because I’m real bad at this.
No this is Ichimatsu.
4) PLAN LESS EARLY SHIT / SHIT IN GENERAL
I honestly don’t know how people can bring so many costumes and shoot so much at cons. It’s exhausting and I can’t stand being in front of the camera that much you guys are much stronger than me. I also need to stop planning things so early at cons. Sure, I wake up around 7am every day but that doesn’t mean I can do it during a convention when I’m getting very little sleep and am tired from being in costume/doing more than I would day to day at home.
shit last pic but I’m runnin out and this is the closest thing to a squad pic I have even though Hannah is missing..
PHEW if you’ve made it this far you are truly too powerful. Thanks for listening to me rant and I hope you enjoyed the photos!
My completed Camilla cosplay at Katsucon!! I wore her for less than 30 minutes but ran into some AMAZING fates cosplayers...so worth the stress. Not sure if they have tumblrs but instagrams are Dark Blood Kamui: @ rubyfia Belka: @ miyuki.lu
My experience with Laura AKA Cauldron of Mischief Cosplay!
Under the cut is a review of my commission from Laura aka Cauldron of Mischief Cosplay. :)
I first contacted Laura on September 12th 2015 asking if she was considering selling her Elphelt Valentine (Guilty Gear XRD) cosplay or if she would do a commission of another one. She got back to me the same day with a quote for the commission.
With the price in mind, I contacted her again on the 21st asking about further details (payment plans and some adjustments to the costume that I wanted done differently than her own). We worked out all the details that same day and I got 1/2 of the total cost sent as a down-payment. I was very impressed at her timeliness in responding and how detailed each message was so I knew exactly what I was getting.
In the next few days, I got my measurements sent and she placed an order for the materials needed. She stated that the materials would get to her around late October-early November and she would be able to start then and still hit my deadline of 'mid January' (materials were from overseas so they took some time to ship).
Before the materials arrived, I pestered her with various questions about her own costume as I was trying to figure out what changes I wanted to make with mine. She was very nice and helpful the whole time but responses were slower for some time for personal reasons. This did not hinder the commission process though!
Laura sent me some early progress pictures of the fabrics and some of the costume accessories on November 6th 2015. I probably bugged her a little too much for photos but she never seemed annoyed nor was she ever rude to me. :) More photos of various pieces trickled in during the next few months.
As the deadline approached, responses were still fast but there was a slight delay on getting photos. This was due to her busy schedule and how much time she was spending working on my commission! Now I am reassured that everything was going smoothly but at the time I was a tiny bit worried. She reassured me everything was still going on track though so I waited patiently for more photos later.
Although I did not get photos of the bulk of the costume until pretty late in the process, the photos that she did take were lovely! She did a great job of showing different angles and explaining through text how each part worked, was attached, or how it was supposed to be worn.
The costume was shipped to me on January 25th 2016, my deadline was 'mid January' so this was a tiny bit late but not by much! Because she is from the UK and I am in the USA, she had to spend a couple days packaging everything safely and getting shipping estimates overseas. She sent me photos of how everything was packaged as well so I would know if customs had moved anything around.
The costume arrived to me on January 27th so the shipping was SUPER FAST. DHL and UPS been on their game lately..seriously UK to US in TWO DAYS (this had to go through customs twice!) is so crazy!! Anyways onto receiving the costume!
The costume came all in tact and everything was extremely safe (wrapped in bubble wrap, taped closed, padding all around the interior of the box, etc). I am in LOVE with this costume and it fits me nearly perfectly which is incredible! I had a few bumps with a couple items, first being the shoes were a bit too small but this was my own mistake as I got a half size smaller than my actual size. Not sure if the size conversion chart I read was wrong or I was just out of it when I sent her my shoe size but this was all on me! Due to the shoes being small, the foam tore a bit while I was putting it on but it's nothing some glue can't fix. The other problem was the gem placement on the gloves again this was a tiny problem and Laura offered to make and send me some new ones!
Here are a few photos of the costume on me. Sorry they are not great as I don't have a lot of space to take full body photos in my room and this dress is REALLY BIG.
Despite it being such an intricate costume, I was able to get it on by myself and everything attaches on and sits very nicely. Example: the bouquet attaches by a loop and velcro on the back of the dress and does not feel like it's going to fall off at all, definitely one of my favorite parts of the costume!
Overall, my experience working with Laura was wonderful from start to finish! She is one of the nicest and quick to respond commissioners I have ever worked with and EXTREMELY helpful throughout the entire process. If you have a project you are looking for a commissioner for, I would definitely recommend shooting her a message for a quote. I also want to state she didn't ask me to write a review or anything I just enjoyed the experience and love the costume so much that I wanted to write about it because I am very very particular about commissioners and hopefully this will be helpful to someone out there!
So, I was in Mcdonalds just using the wi-fi when this lady walked in. Her hair was dyed so I could tell that she was an SJW. There were only men in the line at Mcdonalds and she walked pass all of them and said, “This is the 21st century, feminism allows me to do this to cis-het white men like you.” and then she cackled evilly. She then asked the cashier to make her one McCake, and also to give her a discount because of the wage gap (not real btw). When the cashier told her that Mcdolands doesn’t make cakes she just gave him an evil glaire and said, “This is just like Anita said. Yet another cis-het mansplaining away free food. This is going straight on tumblr and twitter. I hope you enjoy having your entire life censored, shitlord.”
That’s when I couldn’t take it anymore. I walked straight up to the woman, got right in her face, and yelled THE CAKE IS A LIE! The entire mcdonalds gasped… and then they started applauding. That’s when I realized, that everyone in that mcdonalds had been a gamer. The SJW was beside herself and stumbled out of the mcdolmnalds, falling into a puddle of water and sullying her Steven Universe jorts. The cashier started crying out of joy and handed me $100 straight from the cash register. He also said I’m allowed to get free nuggets for the rest of my life.
It turned out that he was the son of the CEO of Mcdonalds. Also, I just asked him to marry me. You might have heard of him, his name is Albert Einstein Jr.
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