Student travels to Katsucon; Cosplayer showcases creativity, imagination

 From Friday, Feb. 17 to Sunday, Feb. 19, people traveled far and wide to attend Katsucon, an anime convention held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, MD. Many go to this convention to meet up with friends, cosplay as their favorite characters, and buy or sell merchandise relating to a series.

     According to epiccosplay.com, cosplay is defined as, “the act of dressing in a costume to recreate the appearance of a character from a work of fiction. Popular forms of cosplay involve donning the outfit of popular anime, video games, or comic book characters. Cosplay is not limited to this, however, and can involve non-character specific costumes like maid or school uniforms.”

     Cosplay began in Japan in the 1970s, when “college students would dress up like their favorite manga and anime characters at sci-fi conventions. The term ‘cosplay’ was first used in a June 1983 article by Nobuyuki Takahashi in My Anime magazine,” says Wonderopolis.

     Sophomore Liz O’Brien attended this convention as a cosplayer. O’Brien prepared four cosplays: Raiden Shogun and Scaramouche from the game Genshin Impact, Sigma from Bungo Stray Dogs, and Mimiko from Jujutsu Kaisen. According to O’Brien, their favorite cosplay they did was Scaramouche because, “[they] love his hat, which [they] made, and cosplaying villains is super fun.”

     O’Brien continues, “we spent a lot of money, especially in Artist Alley, but I don’t mind because I love supporting artists. We met voice actor Kaji Tang, who was in Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Bungo Stray Dogs, and more. We also went to a cosplay meetup and just met a lot of other cosplayers.” They added, “My group isn’t a huge ‘going to all the events’ kind of group, but conventions always have all sorts of panels and other events.”

     O’Brien started cosplaying in October of 2021. “My sister wanted to be a Demon Slayer character for Halloween, so I decided I’d match with her. While doing some research into getting the costume, I was introduced to the cosplay community and it looked super fun, so I ended up not just using the costume for Halloween, and I made the sword.”

     O’Brien recommends that people go to a convention at least once, even if they do not want to cosplay. “There’s more to a convention than just the cosplay aspect,” they explain. “In my experience, the conventions I went to all had an Artist Alley where you can buy directly from artists, a vendor hall where you can find all sorts of merchandise from different fandoms, voice actors you can meet, panels, and other events, and there is usually a gaming room.”

     So, if there are students who like to dress up, interact with people, and have a good time with friends, they “should definitely try attending a convention,” says O’Brien.