Orobouros.net @ Katsucon 007

Katsucon 007 was held February 16th through 18th at the Crystal City Hyatt Regency hotel in Arlington, Virginia. Once again, it drew many, many attendees, and was probably an improvement over Katsucon 6, even though that doesn't say much.

My Thoughts on Katsucon Shoutouts Other Katsucon Reports Anime Con reports on Orobouros.net

About the Pictures

All pictures here were taken on my friend's Olympus 360-D digital camera. With two eight megabyte cards at my disposal, I had the oppertunity to take a lot morepictures than I normally do. In total, I took 208 pictures. Some of them are of just random things, but most of the pictures I took are either of costumers or other things that make cons what they are. Actually, many of the pictures on the last few pages are just of some random things that facinated me long enough to pull out the camera.
The pictures are all presented in gallery format. Each of the links below will take you to one of the pages, and from within the pages you can navigate to all the other ones. For some reason I'm afraid a few of the pics got downloaded from the camera out of order, but most of the pictures are in chronological order. And now, a word about use of the pictures on this page...
  • The images are not to be altered in any way with the exception of croping, resizing, rotation, or mirroring.
  • These pictures may not be used for any commercial purpose.
  • If posted elsewhere, I would appriciate a photo credit and/or a link to my website, but this is not required. However, do not claim photo credit yourself.
  • Please do not link to more than a few pictures on my server from any other web page. A few is fine, but keep in mind that will strain my connetion. If I really have that many pictures you'd like to show on your web site, download them to your own server or even better link to my page.
  • If you are the subject of any of these pictures, and would like to be removed from my web site, please contact me and let me know. Your request will be honored in a timely fashon.
  • I reserve the right to revoke your use of my images for any reason at any time.

Generally, if you do want to use the picture in a way I restricted, I'm happy to let you go ahead and do it; all you need to do is ask. I ask these rules mostly for the protection of the people I photographed. I know of too many cases pictures were taken from a web site and altered or used in a way that insulted or was degrading to the subject of the picture, and I wish to have no part of that. This having been said, if you do alter a picture in an ok way, it's fine to inform me after the fact. ^_^
Katsucon Pics 1 Katsucon Pics 2 Katsucon Pics 3 Katsucon Pics 4
Katsucon Pics 5 Katsucon Pics 6 Katsucon Pics 7 Katsucon Pics 8
Katsucon Pics 9 Katsucon Pics 10 Katsucon Pics 11 Katsucon Pics 12
Katsucon Pics 13 Katsucon Pics 14 Katsucon Pics 15 Katsucon Pics 16
Katsucon Pics 17 Katsucon Pics 18 Katsucon Pics 19 Katsucon Pics 20
Katsucon Pics 21 Katsucon Pics 22 Katsucon Pics 23 Katsucon Pics 24
Katsucon Pics 25 Katsucon Pics 26 Katsucon Pics 27 Katsucon Pics 28
Katsucon Pics 29 Katsucon Pics 30 Katsucon Pics 31 Katsucon Pics 32
Katsucon Pics 33 Katsucon Pics 34 Katsucon Pics 35 Katsucon Pics 36

Contact me:
email: gats@genrou.net
AIM: SaberX
ICQ: 55034079

My thoughts...

...on Katsucon

I enjoyed it. I've certainly been to better cons, but that may be why I was able to enjoy Katsu 7. Last year, Katsucon plain and simple sucked. It still had had it's good points, but overall, it just sucked, and there wasn't any way to have fun, either. So this year, I came, expecting a repeat of the previous year. Things hadn't really improved that much, but they were better. I was able to enjoy more of the events, even though as usuall I didn't go to that many of them. Most people had the same feeling about the con that I did, even though a lot of people said Katsu 6 was a bit better for them since they didn't have as much personal things going on at the same time. Well, Katsu 6 was at a far worse time for me personally, so that's probably why I liked 7 better.
Despite the meager programing and other problems, the atmosphere was still pretty nice. For many people, this was their first con since Neko-con 3 or for locals maybe even Otakon last summer. It was good for talking to friends and meeting new people, for just taking it easy, and not having to worry about missing anything. That's probably what the con consisted of for me. Meeting people. So over all, the con was a sucess, whereas I'd say Katsu 6 was a failure. I had my fun, stumbled over no real big problems, and left with a smile on my face.

...on Attendence

HOLY SHIT! is what I've got to say about attendance. Again, since I thought so little of Katsucon 6, I didn't think very many people that I knew would show up. I was in for a very pleasant surprise. Friends I hadn't seen since Otakon came from as far away as Florida, as far as I know. It was really wonderful to see these people again.

...on the Hotel

It's a good hotel, especially for a smaller convention. The con area is split over three floors with elevators and escalators between them, with large waiting areas between the rooms, and a good, logical layout. However, Katsucon has become too big for that hotel. I suppose I'll miss that hotel, if only for nostalgic reasons. One Otakon and three Katsucons have been held in that room, as well as a number of Shore Leaves and other sci-fi and comic conventions I've attended. The rooms are nice, and the hotel has many facilitities needed to entertain con goers.

...on Commuting

What was I thinking!? Well, I know what, I didn't want to waste any money on what I thought was going to be a lame con. I live about 25 minutes from the hotel, which during the very late and early hours is a nice drive though the DC metro area, and I thought I should forgo spending money on a hotel room, and stay at home, where I'd have food and other nice things. Well, I ended up staying at home only Friday night. Saturday night I stayed with my friends. Katsu 7 was going to be a con I spent no money at, but I still ended up with one hundred dollars less than when I came. It was certainly worth it, though, and had I known what commuting entailed, I wouldn't have done it.
In general, I'd advise against commuting to any con you're going to for more than one day. Unless you live rediculously close, don't mind missing out on a lot of the con, are desparatly low on cash, or can find absolutly nobody to room with, just stay at the hotel. That having been said, I'm still going to be commuting to Katsucon and Otakon for the next two years, since I live in baltimore, seven minutes by cab from the Inner Harbour. It's almost walking distance, and with prices at those hotel what they are, i'm thinking it will be a good idea. No getting lost on fricking GW parkway, no parking fees, etc. But just in case, I've still made hotel reservatons, in case I change my mind.

...on Costumes

Attendees really brought out the fabric at this con. There were costumes everywhere. There were all kinds of costumes. There were quite a few very good costumes. I suppose this is in part due to the Katsucon Hall Costume contest, which means you can actually win an award for your hall costume. Even though the system still needs a bit of work, I think it's a great idea. Oh yeah, I won a hall costume award for my Spike Spiegel costume.
I didn't catch quite all of the cosplay, but it looked very good, and ran in a short time, too. My biggest regret is missing the Best-of-Show Angel Sanctuary skit. I saw it on video, and to know what I mean, you have to have seen it.
My favorite female cosplayer was Cat and her Buchi costume from Animal Magnetism. She did a superb job on it, paying attention to all the details, she looked really good in the costume, and on top of that, it was all fuzzy!
My favorite male costumers were Mike and Jason, for their Spike and Jet costumes from Cowboy Bebop. Both costumes were made really well. This was the first costume for Mike, and his craftmanship was top-notch, and the costume was one of the best kind; so good it didn't look like a costume but like what Spike Really wears. And Jason, he gets props for commitment. He grew his beard and shaved his head to look like Jet. The costume itself was really well done and looked very accurate.
As for my costumes, i was really happy to get a lot of great responce to my Spike Spiegel costume. I was lucky enough to find a red rose and a tan trenchcoat, so that helped me stand out from all the other Spikes. I think there were nine or ten in total, including one female Spike!

...on Staff

As anybody who's been to that hotel before, or been at a Katsucon before, knows, the staff isn't much good. However, I do have to say that you can only say this about the staff as a whole. Most of the hotel staff was rude and unaccomidating, and a good deal of the con staff wasn't any better. However, there were several occasions where I have to give my appriciation to the staff. On two occasions we really did need their help, and the were there, and took care of things.

...on JHAC

We gotta work on this... oh boy...

Shoutouts

This is where I just have some comments for the people I had fun with at the con. I can't remember everybody all the time, and shoutouts are spontanious anyways, so don't feel bad if I forgot you. (I will though, if you remind me... ~_~) So check back, I update fairly often. And so, in no particular order...

Links

All contents on this webpage and all images in the gallery are © 2001 Oliver Oberg
email: gats@genrou.net
AIM: SaberX
ICQ: 55034079
All pages and images reside on my server Orobouros.net.
"Um, do you realize you're flashing us?"
"Pfft, I don't care 'bout you guys. Just so long as he [random photographer] doesn't get anything."
"Um, should we feel privaleged or insulted?"