This years’ Katsucon was held on Valentine’s Day weekend just three weeks after Magfest. This years theme was Japanese horror while 2026 will focus on the apocalypse. There were quite a few Junji Ito and other themed cosplays to tie in this year. It was also the 30th anniversary.
Some of the top listed video highlights on YouTube this year are coming from mineralblu, Justin Pineda, and Patrick Goelz.
This year had a lot of guests including Abby Trott, Bill Butts, Carrie Keranen, Chris Hackney, Suzie Yeung, Sarah Wiedenheft, Yaya Han, and more. Because there were so many, and some were part of the same anime, schedules were too tight to allow for interviews.
A lot of celebrity cosplayers were amongst the crowd too, including Yaya Han. Stella Chu, Holly Wolf, Jessica Nigri, and others dressed up as Edea, Luna Snow, Princess Peach, and more.
Over the weekend, kitchen gray water flooded into Artist Alley, and a video of the incident went viral falsely claiming it was sewage. Some profited off of it, making merchandise called Scatsucon.
The arcade is small at Katsucon and tucked away down one of the upper top hallways. It has DDR, Tekken, and a few other games, and you have to leave your bag at the door.
Volunteers were more strict about tripods this year than previous ones, saying it was a hotel policy. Three weeks prior though, the same photographers had tripods set up all over for Magfest. Volunteers also yelled at attendees for lingering too long in hallways or sitting in halls, or being too near the gazebo (there were sometimes multiple scheduled photo shoots at the gazebo area). Many Reddit posts also suggested deescalation training for volunteers and staff.
This year was a colder one, so attendees, so many attendees stayed inside compared to 2023’s 70F warm spell when the cherry blossoms were blooming. The Gaylord bio dome gets dry so Redditors suggest bringing humidifiers to reduce dry nasal passages, bring lots of water, cash for the Dealers Room (bad WiFi), take vitamins a week prior, arrive at parking garages early, order con food including the cafe online, use the guidebook, and use the local CVS.