overblown anime club meeting (the other side)

Ani-Magic is nothing like the other anime conventions I go to each year. Ani-Magic tends to be very laid back. Perhaps, the con is a bit too laid back. I got a lot of rest at the convention this year because, well, there’s simply nothing to do, for the most part. This year’s convention had some very good and some very bad points to it.

[ the good ]

One of the better parts of the convention is the large number of cosplayers that go to the con. The con had less than 1000 attendees this year, but it still had a lot of very good cosplayers around (I especially noticed a lot of Chii ^_^). The amount of fanservice at this con… Well, let’s just say that there was a lot of it.

The con mood is also less rushed than most cons. See, everything was only a 5-minute walk at most, meaning it was easy to take time getting around the convention to enjoy.

The price was low, seeing that I only spent $35 for my part of the room and that for the price the room came with breakfast. The pass was an okay price, though I think that $40 at the door is a bit on the high side for a con like that.

The dealers’ room was small, but that was all right, seeing that this isn’t the con I go to for buying stuff at, at any rate. The swap meet this year was very well done. I really liked it. The hours were better and the fact that it was on Saturday helped as well.

The video game room was well-run, running over 23 hours a day (with only one hour a day to clean up), with a decent number of video games set up. The masquerade started on time, and ran very well. The cosplay karaoke event was also cool. I also thought that the crossplay fashion show was a lot of fun. The dance was also cool. Those were the good points of Ani-Magic.

[ the bad ]

Now, we get around to the bad parts about Ani-Magic.

The way that everything was poorly organized and run was just plain bad. I think (I am not sure) that only about half the panels scheduled were actually held during the con. Both the Anime Music Video panel and the Anime Music Video Contest were not held at all! The schedules to see what time events were being held at were nowhere to be seen. The video rooms were also the same way. No one had any idea what was going to be show, or if anything was going to be shown at all. The lack of information on just about everything was just bad.

For the most part, there was simply nothing to do during the day. On the last day of the convention, pretty much nothing at all was going on. Ani-Magic felt very much more like a 2-day convention, with a half-day on Friday and a half-day on Sunday.

[ verdict ]

I had fun at this con, but there are a lot of things that con could and should improve on by the next time that the con is held.

That’s all I really have to say about this overblown anime club meeting that was Ani-Magic 2002. Until next time, this is the lazy member of i360.com, wishing you all a good day and hopes that you see a lot of fanservice of your trips to anime conventions

—jeff