Valentine’s Day took over Katsucon. Cosplayers handed custom fandom themed Valentine’s Day cards to friends. For Saturday, our Editor in Chief went as Nico in her “Mogyutto de…” outfit; perfect for the February 14 holiday. There were many people clogging the Gazebo level; not only to get feed the Gazebo gods, but to take advantage of the marble floors and ornate doors and decoration. This became a traffic problem throughout most of the weekend. However, it didn’t disrupt Katsucon programming.

I Heart 90s Shoujo by Eri Kagami
The first panel we hosted covered 90s shoujo anime. We would like to credit the 90s as the golden age of magical girl anime. We define “shoujo” as anime oriented towards girls made by women. This also included slice of life romantic comedies such as Marmalade Boy and Boys Over Flowers. This was our first time using video to show off the panel; we used opening clips and anime music videos to present various shoujo sub-genres. However, the video card on the laptop lagged during the presentation.

Japanese Tea Ceremony by Eri Kagami
Katsucon has a series of Japanese culture themed workshops, other wise known as JCI (Japanese Culture Institute). These series of workshops invite guest speakers and experts on Japanese culture to do presentations on Japanese clothing, accessories, hobbies (other than anime-related), etc to educate Katsucon attendees. I attended the Japanese Tea Ceremony earlier in the day; this was more of a demonstration than audience participation. Held in the Cherry Blossom Ballroom, the Comiku Girls wore traditional wear and went through steps of a traditional Japanese tea ceremony in the home. They went over different aesthetics in the tea sets and what each meant. Tea ceremonies are more than just sharing a meal with friends, there’s a meticulous method to it!

Fake Marriages, Bell Races, and Adorable Idols: The World of Korean Variety Shows by Eri Kagami
No one can deny that Korean pop culture has grown popular through the past few years. Katsucon celebrates all things Asian and popculture; it’s a convergence of the two. The presentation consisted of showing clips from Korean variety shows ranging from popular K-pop boy bands crossdressing as all girl K-pop groups and vice versa. There were plenty of laughs from the audience and there were also games with the audience.

Eating Well and Cheap at Conventions by Jared
It is rare to see ‘life hack’ panels at conventions, but Katsucon offered a couple of them. This panel was about methods for maximizing the amount of food you have during the convention. There were various tricks for packing, find food, and setting up a room potluck. Since many con goers have trouble with eating properly at a convention thus it was nice to have a panel like this to help people.

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