Over this past weekend I went to my first anime convention EVER. Not only was it one of the funnest weekends ever, but for the first time on zotaku I get to make my very first loots post! I’ll touch on my experience with the convention first!

During the last week leading up to the convention my area of the world had not one… but TWO blizzards in only a matter of days. We were very worried that it would be physically impossible to drive to the convention which was being held close to Washington DC. To make matters worse I’ve was deathly ill all week, and the hours spent breaking my back shoveling snow didn’t help. Luckily thanks to the effort of a kind stranger with ginormous bull dozer I was able to dig myself out, and my fellow Otaku-ish friends somehow managed to make the long drive there alive.

The convention was held in possibly the nicest Hotel I’ve ever stayed at. It was huge and elegant like, maybe not the most suitable place for an anime convention, but definitely comfortable. There were pretty chandeliers, and a miniature town in the middle of the hotel with indoor fountain shows and streams. It was very pretty =3

View from my elevators of the center of the Hotel… You can see a river and tons of snow outside.

Cute Indoor stream was cute =3

They really need to give more of warning when these things shoot! I got wet because of the fountain.

The Katsucon even had most of the first three floor designated for Anime related panels, Merchant and art rooms, Movie theaters, Cosplay shoots, concerts, and dances. The Hotel was pretty much swamped with cosplayers, which I unfortunately didn’t get any good pictures of. (I kept forgetting my camera in my room, and when I had my camera it was either night, or there were no good cosplayers around). Kuroshitsuji, Umi Neko no Naku Koro ni, Hetalia Axis Powers, and Hatsune miku seemed to be the most popular cosplays this year. I lost track after a while how many Ciels I saw. Even though this was my first time at a con I didn’t suffer from severe culture shock like some people thought I would xD! Unfortunately the innocent business men and women staying in the hotel looked very frightened.

There weren’t too many panels I was really interested in going to. I managed to make it to a Hetalia Axis Powers Panel since I love hetalia so much. It was pretty hilarious, but since I barely sleeped over the weekend all I can remember now is Russia looked like he was going to rape a Kenshin Himura cosplayer. After the hetalia panel said Kenshin danced the Can Can with Jesus who was orchestrating a magical water show =D

I was most impressed by the Merchant and artist rooms. I had never seen so much anime related stuff in one place! Unfortunately most of it was a bit out of my price range, but I did end up splurging on a few things.

First off I bought several of these Miniature Hetalia figures.

I ended up with Two Italies, Two Japans, and a Great Britain. I was hoping to get Germany and Russia as well, maybe even France, but it looks like I was unlucky when picking- They were in closed random boxes. I got each one for $4 dollars, though most vendors were charging $10-15 for each one; that is just unbelievable since they’re not that well made. Italy ended up being my favorite one. Between his funny ohage, and his pizza and white flag, he is the most detailed one. Japan I wasn’t too fond of, which made me sad when I ended up with two. At least one will be donated to friends that were too busy to accompany me to Katsucon.

I also got FIVE VizBig Volumes of Rurouni Kenshin. Each volume has 3 normal size volumes, so basically I got 15 volumes. I’m not really a big fan of the big volumes, which I will explain below, but I basically got 15 volumes for the price of 5 normal volumes, so I won’t complain too much.

The flash on my camera just wasn’t cooperating at all at this point. Really not a fan of the cover art! But its on the inside that counts!

Chibi Kenshin is as tall as the manga volumes are wide xD. I also have a normal volume up there to contrast the width of the big volume.

As you can see they’re much larger than the normal volumes, but they’re also a good inch taller as well, so they don’t line up on my shelf perfect. I also don’t think the covers are as pretty as the normal volumes.  The actual covers (as seen above) are also pretty dull in contrast with the origenal volume covers. The originals had much more detailed artwork as well as splashes of beautiful Japanese designs. The big volumes’ covers also are much more focused on Kenshin, while out of the first 6 original volumes I own, only one features Kenshin as the sole character on the cover. The large books are more efficient if I want to read on the go though since they are much longer.  As of right now I’m only missing a few more early volumes, and a few more end volumes. After that I will have finally completed my Rurouni Kenshin Collection! =3

My last two random things I got were a Kenshin keychain- Who popped up in several of my pictures above. I only bought it because it was cheap and the only Kenshin related merchandise at the entire convention. I also bought this cute red pouch because I tend to be a sucker for pretty and shiny things… Maybe it will be Italy’s new home =D

If I regret anything from this convention it is that I didn’t buy any of the artwork from artist ally. I tend to be very picky and critical of anime related art work, but even I had to admit that there were many talented artists at this convention, and some of their work was very cheap. Maybe next time ^.^