Katsucon 2023 Recap

By Skywing Knights // May 15, 2023

So Katsucon 2023 happened this past February! And… yes it’s May. But in my defense, my website was getting a facelift. ^^; That said, I hope you check out the new design of the site! I’m so glad to have a newly designed gallery as well as a special section just for the panels I do at conventions. And the latter will make it easier for you to find those notes I always promise! Which, hey, brings me back to Katsucon 2023!

3 New Cosplays!

The main two that I was super happy to debut were Shoto Todoroki (Villain Ver.) from My Hero Academia (僕ののヒーローアカデミア) and Riku from Disney’s Kingdom Hearts III!

On Thursday, I did a My Hero Villain photoshoot offsite, so keep a lookout for a post on those photos coming soon. I only wish I could have worn both of these out and about more.

Enjoy a little sneak peak! <3

I was in Riku all day on Saturday while doing my panels – but that meant I missed a number of other Kingdom Hearts cosplayers that day (such sadness). Hopefully I can wear him to future events though (Riku definitely quickly became one of my favorites due to just how comfy he was!). 😉

I also wore a very casual version of Raven from Teen Titans which was… bizarre?? Haha. I’m so used to going as Starfire (my girl, she’s my favorite female Titan), so it was odd to go as Raven. But I must admit, I love Raven a lot too. Both girls are such wonderful characters. Fun fact, I guess you could say the evil red Raven was my first ever cosplay? Sort of? I made that version of her one year for Halloween while in middle school because I considered it creepy and scary. (No one knew who I was, ah, it was lonely… ^^;)

But yeah, who do you prefer I cosplay as out of the two? (I was surprised when I asked this on Instagram!).

Katsucon 2023 Panels

This year as I alluded to in my previous blog post, I also did 3 panels at Katsucon – a total of 4.5 hours of talking! O.O This was the first time I did 3 panels at one event and it was an incredibly adrenaline inducing exercise. That said – I slept really well the night that followed them all, because believe it or not, they were all on Saturday!

Someone was NOT happy that I was going to be gone all day on Saturday, lol. ^^;

I absolutely have to thank every single one of you who came to my panels and I really hope that you found them helpful if you managed to attend. As many of you know, I really love talking and sharing my knowledge regarding travel in Japan, so these were wonderful opportunities for me to do just that.

(And in case you are looking for those panels, they’ll be online at the following links until May 19th!)

Travel to Japan on Your Budget

The Ultimate Japan Bucket List

Tokyo for the Anime Fan

Giveaway Winners!

Additionally, to thank Katsucon for having me host 3 panels (and in all honesty to give myself an excuse to shop more while in Japan) was the Katsucon Japan Anime Goodie Giveaway. And I was blown away by the amount of participation! And as promised, on Sunday, I was so happy to message and deliver the prizes to the three winners of the Giveaway, who were…!

Once again, I want to congratulate all 3 winners who were so kind and amazing to meet. I hope it made your day and that you had a wonderful rest of your Katsucon! I’d also like to once more thank everyone who participated in the giveaway too. I learned a lot from hosting my first giveaway and I hope to do more in the future. (It really was so fun!) So be sure to keep an eye out for future giveaways coming from me. (Who knows… maybe I’ll host another one for… Otakon?? 😉 )

Since Katsucon 2023

So what have I been up to since Katsucon?

Like I said, I had to work heavily on giving my website a facelift. As I didn’t take a lot of photos at Katsucon (alas, I am not a twin, therefore I had no time!), I don’t really have any new photos that I’ll be sharing from that event. However, I did go to NYC for a weekend with my mother and sister and while there, I did a bit of ‘errands’ in the garment district. I also got to visit with my Japanese Professor too – can you believe it? She retired! Congratulations Sensei! (お疲れ様です、先生！)

(Oh, and I went to the Titanic: The Exhibition event too! That was COOL!).

But now that my website is done, I have a few more projects in the works, including a number of blog posts based on some of what I did in Japan this past December, some old photos I’m going back to working on, and a new cosplay or two as well. (Not to mention, I’m fixing my pup’s dog bed and making her a new raincoat because she doesn’t fit her old one anymore!) Thanks to everyone who went to my panels and took my survey, I’m also working on a new panel that I think will really be of interest to you all too. Finally too, I have a few ‘secret projects’ in the works, which I think you’ll all really like. What are they? Well, follow me here or on social to find out!

A Few More Thank You’s

Again, I want to thank the Katsucon staff for putting on such a fantastic event. Having worked in trade show events myself in the past, I know it’s no easy task. Things fall through the cracks, people don’t listen (both attendees and your teammates at times) and sometimes you want to pull your hair out. But I could tell that the Katsucon leadership really did their best, as they always do. And of course, I have to thank everyone who attended Katsucon. Katsucon attendees are some of the most creative, kind people there are and I loved meeting so many of you this year.

Hoping to see you all again at next year’s Katsucon (or maybe at another event in DC – you tell me!)!