Geek Babble — Another Year, Another Katsucon

It only seems like yesterday since I started attending Katsucon as a mid-winter replacement for Ohayocon. In reality it has been four years and I don’t have a single complaint. During my time in attendance I’ve watched the convention grow tremendously in those few years. Thanks to the venue change to the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor three years ago the convention has only gotten better. This year saw a dramatic increase in the number of special guests, interesting panels and anime to watch. Covering anime conventions for Damage Control is a strange blend of work and vacation. I’m technically on vacation from both of my jobs but I still write about interesting news and events that may take place at the convention. So with the exception of industry panels (as usual FUNimation was the only major company to attend) I spent my time snapping pictures of cosplayers (my gallery of Katsucon pictures can be found here), buying merchandise from the dealer’s room and watching anime. This year was no more or less productive than previous years not counting the fact that I didn’t cosplay myself—which for some reason seems to have disappointed Geoff. Oh well.

When I learned of the announcement of Bandai Entertainment’s decision to cease anime licensing and distribution for titles beyond February 2012 I was pretty shocked. Although Bandai promised to support current series as long as they had the distribution rights I believed it wouldn’t be long before various titles began to go out of print. Better to buy the titles I really wanted sooner than later. So I made a decision to change my shopping habits at Katsucon. All Bandai titles would take priority over other DVD releases with the sole exception of FUNimation’s Ouran High School Host Club which has been out of print for months now. So on the first day of the convention I marched down to the dealer’s room with a single purpose—to find all of the anime series and movies I had been meaning to buy for quite some time now. Season two of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R2, Star Driver, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie were first on my list to buy. Titles such as Blue Exorcist and the rest of Toradora! Could wait.

I found most of what I was looking for although I hit a few walls. I managed to find the only copy of Star Driver both part one and two in the entire dealers room. Unfortunately, the merchant with some of the highest prices at the convention had the DVDs and neither set had a price sticker. Oddly enough, Code Geass R2 and Gundam 00 both had prices. When I went to inquire about the price I found the most of the booth’s staff busy with the police. Apparently there had either been a theft or an attempted theft and the only person who could confirm Star Driver’s price was busy. So I put all of my merchandise back and decided to search at another table. I came across Code Geass, Gundam 00 and even the Cowboy Bebop movie for almost half the price of the first dealer at the second table I tried. The only catch was that they were the individual DVDs bundled together instead of an entire season collection pack and Cowboy Bebop was blu-ray only– but for $70 I was extremely satisfied with my purchases.

The next day the Star Driver DVDs were gone so I settled on parts one and two of Blue Exorcist instead. I then inquired about season two of Haruhi Suzumiya and the movie but I quickly moved on after seeing the price. (Call me cheap but I’m not ready to shell out over $50 for a 14-episode series that gives me eight episodes that essentially repeat the same content.) I ended up buying the Haruhi movie at another table for $10 less. In the end I found nearly everything I wanted in my Bandai DVD hunting quest, save for Star Driver and perhaps season two of Haruhi. Much to my disappointment Ouran High School Host Club was nowhere to be found on DVD—all I can do is wait for a reprinting of that series. At this point I’m debating on saving up and finishing my DVD hunt via Rightstuf instead of waiting until Otakon in late July.

When I wasn’t in the dealer’s room or roaming the main convention area I spent a good deal of this Katsucon catching up on a variety of anime. There were a multitude of series showing in the video rooms. However, I decided to watch the series I brought with me as well as simulcasts on my laptop. I took the opportunity to catch up with Persona 4 The Animation, a friend wanted to watch the final eight episodes of Soul Eater, I watched most of Redline on DVD, some of Summer Wars on blu-ray and parts of Ninja Scroll. I’ll admit, I didn’t get into the latter until I had caught up on Persona 4 that night and decided to join my roommates around the TV. Thanks to being full of junk food and soda I slept through the second half of Redline, the first half of Summer Wars, and a Shin Megami Tensei photo shoot I wanted to attend– much to my tired disappointment. Definitely not my year as far as productivity goes as I struggled to do work while being in vacation mode.

Fortunately, I did attend the FUNimation panel and stood in line early enough to get a decent seat near the front of the room. Regrettably, my view of the projector screen was blocked by a large speaker. Why one was placed on top of the table in front of a projector screen instead of on the floor is still beyond me. Otherwise, the list of new releases were pretty interesting though unsurprising to me, as I’d already written about them for Treasure Hunter. The special announcements were fun and I was glad to
see several of them went beyond just license acquisitions. The Q&A session went well with a lot of reassuring answers to fans’ questions. I was able to ask one FUNimation representative about Ouran High School Host Club a day before the panel, so I had nothing to add.

On the final day of the convention we decided to attend the closing ceremonies before saying goodbye to Katsucon for another year. It turned out to be one of the shortest closing ceremony events I’d ever attended. Instead of being a half-hour to a full hour the event only lasted for about ten minutes. There were less than a hundred people in the room and we were all thanked for attending. We were then told Katsucon would be returning to the Gaylord for another year (and that the resort was more than happy to have us), next year’s convention dates and the rough attendance numbers. Attendance jumped from last year’s 7000 to over 12,000 for 2012. It felt as the number of con-goers had grown drastically over the last year and the numbers confirmed it. A bigger convention means more guests and more events. I am definitely looking forward to next February. Furthermore, it will be fun to chronicle Katsucon’s growth in popularity as it seems to have found a semi-permanent home in National Harbor for the time being.