Katsucon 2025 is in the books fellow Otaku & Metalheads!
This year’s convention was pretty significant. Mainly, it was the 30th Katsucon ever, and I didn’t even know about it! I’ve only been coming to the Gaylord since 2020 ironically enough, but in that half-decade the trip from Upstate New York to Maryland is a pilgrimage I gladly take with the friends I go with. Due to the death of a local con I went to for a decade a few years back, this behemoth of a celebration of all things anime & stuff starts the year of just right for me. Did the 30th anniversary of one of the east coast’s biggest conventions kick ass & take name!? Well, sit down, relax, and enjoy my review for Katsucon 2025! Let’s begin!
Good Points
First off, seeing the Gaylord always brings a smile to my face. From having my mind blown all the way back in 2020 upon my first visit, and to now, it always manages to make my eyes widen in awe. On the outside of the building it comes across like a giant fortress, but inside it feels like a completely different world. For anyone who’s never gone, it almost feels like a microcosm of the outside, as there are various little shops that provide a lot of what you need while you’re staying there (Including a FedEX if you can believe it). In the mornings where the sunlight comes in through the windows, it feels like rays of weeby heaven touching your face. At night, it almost feels like a faerie wonderland, as many of the trees in the hotel have lights strewn in them, and they light up when it’s completely dark outside. It really is something to see for first-timers, but for anyone that’s gone for at least 5 years, it’s a beautiful treat.
The cosplay was always a plus for Katsucon, but 2025's display of wearable artistry was particularly on point this year! Low-end cosplay crafted with love, to mid-tier outfits that show off improving talent, to high end pieces of pure art, all levels were on display constantly! I won’t talk too much more, but here’s a tiny sample of what was around this year. Enjoy!
Dealers Room & Artist’s Alley as usual are filled to the brim with so much to look at & buy! Despite one HUGE hiccup with where the artist’s were (Oh boy, I’ll get to that in a bit!), each area was stocked with a variety of merchants & peddlers that had a lot of goods. I was able to purchase a lot of things, including a con shirt (Something that didn’t happen last year, so a mini good point.)! Hell, I even bought a little more from the artists this year when compared to prior outings (Given what happened this year, it felt right, but again.....I’ll get to that in a bit.), and I have no doubt I’ll probably do it again next year.
Panels & events are always fun and varied at Katsucon, and this year was no different. From the AMV contests, to the idol show, there was always something to go to & experience. Though I didn’t go to a lot of panels, the ones I did go in and see were a treat! The Phoenix Wright panel, for example, showed off how wildly inaccurate the laws works in the game when compared to the real world. Meanwhile in the 18+ portion of the programming, the Monster Fuckers panel (I’m not censoring it because the name is funny) was hysterical! Despite a technical hiccup that prevented the panelists from using their computer, everything was a delightful storm of hilarity & horniness. Props to them for carrying on with the show, and I hope they come back next year!
The drive this year was surprisingly pleasant! Normally it takes us a fairly long amount of time to drive down from Upstate New York (Albany to be specific), but this year it took about a good 6 to 7 hours to drive to the Gaylord. Hell, even coming back up was a similar length of time, and the weather was crap throughout Sunday.....except in Maryland where it was just raining & in the low 60s. Pretty weird if you ask me.
Finally, I gotta talk about the pre-reg line this year. I don’t know what the hell was going on: make there was an absolute horde of VIP orders this year, or people were just being super cooperative with the staff, but there was almost next to no line at all when I was there. There were a small number of people, but once they got through, I was up next, and I got out pretty quick as well. Hope things are like this next year!
Okay Points
I put this in the “Bad Points” section of last year’s review, but the transition from cash to card (Credit//Debit & Gift) made my blood boil, since as far as I know they didn’t announce it beforehand. This time around it was still annoying, but the machine that gave out the cards to be used was working on Day 1 instead of being busted for I think Thursday & part of Friday last year. On that factor alone, it moves up to here.
Bad Points
Okay, where to begin!
Let’s start off with a relatively simple one, and that’s the restricting traffic flow around the Gazeebo. I don’t know who’s idea it was to post barricades around it, but that just made going through that area much more restrictive. Sure, it a damn good place for cosplay photoshoots, but even then did ya really need to section off parts of that area. Yeah, I could get through still, but it made so much traffic in that spot, it almost made me considering going down a floor then up a few times!
Next up, I gotta talk about the pipe. Contrary to what a lot of people have memed (Funny as they are), it was a water pipe from the hotel’s kitchen that had grey water, not a sewage pipe with crap in it. It happened to burst in the Artist’s Alley, and while there wasn’t a massive amount of damage, there was enough damage some of the artist’s that the whole alley had to close for the rest of Friday, and open late on Saturday. Now, that’s pretty bad in it’s own right, but apparently people have been telling the hotel for ages that there were issues with the pipes, and the hotel either doesn’t listen or doesn’t care. Give the Katsucon staff credit in this regard: they acted decisively & quickly once the pipe burst, and I hope that whoever was affected got their money back.
Burst pipe rains on KatsuCon attendees and displays at Gaylord National Harbor (WJLA)
Finally, there was the VIP issue. Normally I’d talk about it in full, but here’s a post from the 21+ page (Courtesy of poster Kelvin Bracero) that explains it better than me:
“At the Q&A with the chairs of Katsucon asked about the situation with VIPs. The website STILL CURRENTLY says “front of line privileges” but all we had that for was live events and merchants/dealers. Apparently they were going to send a letter out AFTER you already bought your ticket. But they dropped the ball and didn’t send any out. They emailed last minute on the Thursday of the con.....but the are choosing to follow their policies and not offer any refunds after January.....even though they told us about this change as the con was starting.....this is legitimately false advertising. Paying $100 extra each ticket with my group and then taking away the main perk last minute.”
Final Thoughts & Rating
Katsucon 2025 was fun for me. Warts & all, I enjoyed my time at the Gaylord & interacting with the horde of convention goers. It’s become my go-to convention to start the year off, and with things being the way they are politically here in the United States right now, we all need a slice of heaven in a sea of hell. Hopefully by next year, we can all laugh just a little bit louder. Regardless, I think most of us had a damn good time, and I look forward to what we got in 2026.
Katsucon 2025 gets an 8 to 8.5 out of 10. Artists that got affected by the pipe burst will probably rate their experience 1 to 2 points lower.
And that was my review for Katsucon 2025. With it being 30 years old in 2025, I hope it gets to 60 in 2055, and newer generations will appreciate the maelstrom of insanity that is the Gaylord by then. So, with that out of the way, I got my last no. 4 album review of 2020 coming in soon, and after that, it’s onto no. 3. See you soon!
***
If you’d like to read my review of last year’s Katsucon, click on the link below:
Katsucon 2024
No comments:
Post a Comment