Hello All! Maki here reporting for MusicBox Entertainment! Finally we’re getting around to writing up our con report for Katsucon 2012! The convention was held February 18 - 20 at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort and Convention Center. The location itself is beautiful, and is a playground for cosplayers and photographers alike (more details on that below). This report will be broken down into several parts, including overviews of events, cosplay, location, personal blurbs from Lu and I, shoutouts and our favorite cosplays of the con. Let us begin!
Location
Let us start off by saying the Gaylord and its surroundings are absolutely gorgeous. From the crystaline chandaliers to the sand bar overlooking the harbor, there were tons of places for cosplayers and photographers to make themselves cozy. While many played it safe and stuck to the Gazebo, others explored and adventured out to the docks, or even made use of the “man in the sand” sculpture. Our personal favorite spot was the jungle area which is very unique among all of the regal and elegant settings of the Gaylord. The only drawback would be the lack of inexpensive eateries for the con goers. The least expensive places in the area without going over the bridge are Baja Fresh, Subway and Potbellys. Everything else boasts entrees $25 and up.
Events
The event list was packed however with many things that were either overdone or at odd hours of the day/night. We were able to make it to two of what we thought, were Katsucon’s premiere events; the Maid Cafe and the Symphonic Anime Orchestra.
That Saturday, Luis and our boss and owner of MusicBox Cindy spent a few hours at the Katsucon Maid Cafe which was located in an exclusive wing of the hotel. By 4:00 PM the cafe was packed with cosplayers and other Katsu guests playing games, taking pictures and eating. The menu included traditional Japanese foods and snacks including ramen, dumplings and onigiri. After a short wait, we were seated and one of the bubbly maids came to the table. She was one of the shyer maids since it was her first time but it added to her charm! 
Walking around, I noticed everyone in an upbeat mood which was captured through many of the pictures I took. Overall the experience was very pleasent and I left feeling great and ready to take more pictures!
We closed out our con with a performance from the Symphonic Anime Orchestra. The orchestra was composed of fellow con goers and headed by a quartet of traveling performers. We had a few friends that participated so we were especaially anxious to see what was in store. The orchestra played a medly of popular tunes including the Legend of Zelda theme, Hikari (Kingdom Hearts) and Gravity (Wolf’s Rain). It was amazing to hear how beautiful they sounded and even more astonishing to find out that they had only met each other on the Friday of Katsucon. We were absolutely blown away by the effort and dedication put forth by each member of the orchestra. It was truly a great way to end our con.
Cosplay
One word. Stunnning. It seemed as if everyone brought out their finest costumes just for the Gaylord. Among all of the flowing dresses, amazing armor and big props, we were surprised to see so many quirky and fun costumes. We were also excited to see the many costumes from cartoons that we grew up with (shout out to the guy who cosplayed Max from A Goofy Movie!). Below are our favorite costumes from the con (if small boxes are shown in place of pictures, click for the full sized pictures!).
Luis’ Picks
1) 
Female Joker - Batman series
2) 
Elekid - Pokemon
3) 
Murkrow - Pokemon
Maki’s Picks
1) 
Kyurem - Pokemon
2) 
Excel Excel - Excel Saga
3) 
Bakura - Yu-Gi-Oh!
The rest of our gallery can be found here (click blue link)!
Thanks to everyone who posed for us and made this convention awesome. Most of all thanks for our awesome boss Cindy for continuing to let us do con coverage. Until the next con, Maki and Luis out ^_~!
