A bunch of adults playing dress-up
There we were spending a perfectly quiet Valentine’s Day in Washington, D.C. My boyfriend’s enormous group of colleagues had checked out after their work conference and we went upstairs to change for dinner. While we were changing, a dramatic transformation was afoot in the hotel lobby. We hopped in the elevator to head downstairs and when the doors opened, our jaws dropped. There in front of us were hundreds upon hundreds of people all packing into the resort for some sort of convention.
We weren’t sure what was going on or who these people were as we emerged from the elevator. As we wound our way through the crowd toward the front of the hotel, we gathered that the general age range of these conferencegoers was between 15 and 35. They seemed very joyous and polite and generally good-natured. Most smiled and said hello, even as we couldn’t help but stare at them in awe. The one common thread we could discern was that all of them were enjoying playing dress-up as some sort of characters – We just couldn’t figure out who they were.
At dinner later, I mentioned the onslaught of the costumed masses at our hotel, and my friend (who is always up on everything) said it was something called Katsucon. Katsu-what? Once I got home, I did some research and learned that Katsucon is an annual three-day anime convention held each February in D.C. I sort of knew what anime was but looked up the definition anyway and learned that anime is hand-drawn and computer animation originating from or associated with Japan. Think of the Pokemon cartoons, or maybe even think back to the Speed Racer cartoons that aired on television when I was a kid. From what I have seen, many anime characters have a cute, little sort of doe-eyed expression with a gleam in their giant eyes. I’m still unclear as to where the name Katsucon comes from, and the internet isn’t sure either. From what I read, it comes from a Japanese word that has several possible translations.
The convention itself offers music video screenings, an art show, artist alley, charity auction, costume contests, a formal ball, karaoke (of course) and something called cosplay chess. I had to look up that term, too, and learned that cosplay really just means costumed play. So they’re playing adult dress-up. Attendance for this convention one year hit 17,000 people before they capped the number of tickets in subsequent years!
It all looked like great fun, and the attendees were having a ball dressed as cats, superheroes and all sorts of characters. It made me laugh as I remembered being obsessed with Star Wars as a kid and mail ordering an R2D2 necklace. But I’m still not going to a convention dressed as Princess Leia.
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.