in the middle of nowhere. . .

Our editor spent one hot weekend in the middle of the California desert, taking pictures of cosplayers and generally having a relaxing weekend away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Read on as he reminisces about the good ol' days of the convention, and how it has changed.

In the year 2000, a small group of anime fans descended on a tiny hotel set in the middle of the California desert, looking for something different. Tired of the large conventions that had grown to sizes enormous, fans came to Lancaster, CA, in hopes of finding something different. What they discovered was a little convention, where the pace was far from the hectic nature of a convention like Anime Expo or Otakon. Instead, fans discovered the convention to be unusually relaxing. Panels were few, events were held next to a pool on the hotel properties, and the rooms were decently roomy and more importantly, cheap.

Two years later, the size of Ani-Magic has increased somewhat. While still at the same venue, and sporting some of the same feel that made the first Ani-Magic special (things such as the windows on the rooms being decorated - a trend that started with a simple sign put out by the "Bishounen Protection Agency" with a hanging Multi UFO Catcher doll during the first year of the con, and the events by the pool, which still claims victims each convention), the convention has grown into something much more interesting. Revell Walker, the chair of the convention, proclaimed it to be a true convention for cosplayers, and based on the many cosplayers that were running around, his claim does hold some merit. While in the first year, the convention was held against Anime Weekend Atlanta, and so could not draw the guests that would be best, now the convention is held against an open weekend, meaning that guests such as American voice actors could attend the convention without fear of missing fans.

Ani-Magic has grown to become a sort of jewel in the rough. In the middle of the desert and the harsh California sun (which even in October has a habit of bringing the temperature of the area up to a nice warm point) lies this anime oasis wherein one can find a small yet thriving anime convention, with retailers, oh-so-many cosplayers, and a laid-back attitude. And while not everything about the convention is all happy and great or organized, people come to have fun in spite of the problems.

[ The Setting ]

Ani-Magic is made mostly by where it is situated. Held in Lancaster, a good hour's drive away from the hustle and bustle of Downtown Los Angeles, Ani-Magic makes use of the fact that its location will cut away a lot of the large crowds that may otherwise plague a convention situated in a large metropolitan area, such as Anime Expo in the Los Angeles metro area. Accessible by only a few large highways that are placed for the commuters who chose to live far away from the city to take advantage of excellent pricing in housing, Ani-Magic has the advantage of feeling like a rural con, despite its still somewhat close proximity to the 2nd largest metropolitan area in the United States.

The venue, the Antelope Valley Best Western & Conference Center, where Ani-Magic has been held all 3 years, is a small hotel that probably serves most of its time as a quaint business getaway. One finds that getting from point A to point B on the grounds takes a minimum of time (I never found myself travelling more than maybe 3 minutes to get to any one single event/location, and that was when I was being slow). The nice and convenient poolside stage where many of the main events of the convention are held gives the con part of its laid back attitude. One could grab a lawnchair from around the pool and sit and watch many of the convention's events; definitely the best seats of the house.

With inexpensive room rates (the rooms ran about $70/night for up to 4 guests, and this included such lovely amenities as a full breakfast), the convention lends itself to the con-goer on a budget (presuming, of course, that they can afford the gas to get up there).

[ The Cosplayers ]

Most important to the convention always seems to be the large number of cosplayers who show up to Ani-Magic. Both Tristen Citrine and Sailor Jamboree have been attendees to the convention for all 3 years (this last year, Citrine actually took the initiative to head up the masquerade coordination - a difficult position for any con staff). And while in the first year, the number of cosplayers may have been relatively small, this year, it almost seemed as if maybe 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 were in costume at some point or another.

Of course, the quality of the cosplayers at these conventions has been growing year to year, and Ani-Magic held to this trend. Within the walls of the Best Western, one could find costumes ranging from a near-perfect Misato complete with Pen^2, to a Chop Chop Master Onion of PaRappa fame, to a large number of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts cosplayers (their numbers seem to dominate virtually any anime con attended), vast numbers of Chii, an actual cosplayer of the convention's mascot, Akiyume, and even a Gundam Nataku suit.

The large numbers of cosplayers made for some interesting happenings during the con. For example, Ani-Magic 2002 was the first con to hold a crossplay fashion show, where everyone who came up on stage had to be cosplaying a character of the opposite sex (unsurprisingly, the event was dominated by females who crossplayed as male characters, though there was the guy dressed up as Yuna from Final Fantasy X and the guy who wore a Chii cosplayer's wig and panties, presumably because the Chii dragged him into it ^_^). The happenings were definitely interesting because of the many cosplayers who chose to participate in the events.

[ The Retailers ]

Unfortunately, this is one point where the convention falls shy of what would be considered the mark of a strong and good convention. While we will not count the fact that the retail space for the convention is small against them (small con, small dealers' hall - what should you expect), what was distressing was the large number of retailers selling bootleg merchandise, including R0 DVDs illegally imported from Asia, and many sellers selling bootleg CDs (most disturbing was the fact that in checking out at least 4-5 dealers in the dealers' room, I do not believe any one of them were selling the genuine Japanese CDs- they all appeared to have the same Taiwanese knockoffs).

The only positive counteraction to this was the fact that at least the convention held a very successful (at least, in my eyes) anime swap meet event. Instead of giving the attendees only one small swap meet on the morning of the first day of the convention, the planners instead decided to just give one long swap meet on the second day (the main day) of the convention. There, many goods could be found and bought and sold.

While the presence of such a large number of bootleg sellers was a bit disheartening to say the least, this is a point that the convention can try to improve on (though I have my doubts, since the con chair himself has made it a point on several occasions to not completely renounce these goods). We can hope that next year, there will be someone selling genuine goods in the dealers' room (it is always nice to be able to go in and buy a real CD from an honest importer). And, at the very least, the organizers will know that the formula they used for the swap meet worked.

[ The Events ]

The trade-off of having a con with a relaxed pace is that at times, the convention seems to forget to think through some of the events that need to happen. This lack of planning seemed to show through in many of the events that were held during the convention (with the notable exceptions being the masquerade, which was very well planned, as well as the opening ceremonies and cosplay karaoke events). Several of the panels and events were cancelled, especially on the last day of the convention. Of particularly interesting note was the fact that the Anime Music Video contest was effectively scrapped at the last minute (putting an appropriate end to what has seemed to be a bad year for AMVs, as the mahou shounen might say).

It was a bit disturbing that a large number of events did not seem to go off when they were planned to go off. The schedule printed in the booklet was often horrendously off from the actual times of the events, if they ended up being held at all. And while the programming staff made a valiant effort to try to post the updated schedules around the convention, they turned out to be unusually difficult to find at times. Of course, considering that many of the panels were not even set in stone a mere month before the convention started, it should come as no surprise that there appeared to be little/no coordination for the events.

Some of the venue choices for some of the events could also be brought into question. For example, I would like to know whose idea it was to hold the dance in the front Vision Room of the hotel, versus holding it in the room that the video game room was in this year. The dance floor was smaller than years past, and the large speakers were way too powerful for such a small floor. The video game room also turned out to have perhaps a bit too much space for its use. The obvious solution would have been to switch the two venues around, but obviously some kink in the programming did not allow for that.

[ The unknown elements (behind-the-scenes) ]

Some of the most interesting parts of the convention may have come not from what all the attendees could see, but much of what could not be seen. And while there is no hard evidence of any happenings behind the scenes, and instead only heresay and conjecture, one could still sense by the way that parts of the con were run that there was some definite strife and lack of communication amongst the staff. However, this is not a problem unique to Ani-Magic. Things like this happen when you work with a volunteer staff trying to pull an event like Ani-Magic off but finding out that running an anime convention is no cakewalk. Staff problems plague virtually every anime convention run.

Again, I will not come down to the level of a common scandal hunter looking to paint everything in a bad light. However, one can always hope that the next convention will bring a stronger sense of unity amongst the staff. This applies to pretty much every anime convention in existence.

[ Final Thoughts ]

I had actually come up to Ani-Magic with few expectations. After all, who can go up to a convention where the most hectic thing on the schedule is a laid-back masquerade and expect something really interesting and crazy to happen. And while the con certainly has its share of problems, it was still relatively easy to enjoy the convention in spite of them. Ani-Magic is quite a different convention from Anime Expo or Fanime. However, the differences for the most part tended to make the convention a pleasing experience.

It was a nice way to kill a weekend that would otherwise have been spent hunting down random computer parts, dropping in to the library to catch another anime event (it was the only source of serious conflict for the event - it was the cause of Taliesin Jeffe's delayed arrival to Ani-Magic), and otherwise sitting around doing nothing.

Ani-Magic has plans to come back in both 2003 and 2004 (2004 would mark Ani-Magic's 5th occasion, which is likely to be a joyous celebration). And while the convention has its problems, my October would not be complete without a visit to this crown jewel of the desert.

—jason