in summary...

Aldo puts forth his thoughts about moving to Valencia, and the changes it has brought.

Well, the Autumn dream has once again come and gone. This year brought a new location, a bigger area, and places to eat within walking distance. This year, Ani-Magic was held at the Hyatt Valencia/ Santa Clarita Convention Center, just a hop skip and a jump away from Six Flags Magic Mountain. It was a beautiful location, as the various staff pictures taken there are testament to.

This year, we gained locations for pictures and vast spaces, but we lost a little something. To me at least, it appears we lost a bit of the close-knit feelings that were there with the smaller location. We lost the window decoration tradition that had originated way back in Ani-Magic's first year, and we lost the poolside stage that would invariably lead to one person or another taking a dunk in the pool for prizes or from jeering. But we kept the Sunday morning Pixie Stick decorating of an attendees hair which was brought forth three years ago. And we definitely didn't lose the cosplayers.

Cosplayers were at the con in full force. The weather has gotten cooler, and as such it allows for a lot more people to put on those extravagant costumes that they normally wouldn't at Anime Expo because of the heat. Cosplay.com also made their annual trek out to the con, which with Ani-Magic's loss of overblown club meeting mantle, has now allowed the convention to receive a new mantle, "the cosplay con".

As per usual, nothing really started on time, except the dealers hall. It actually opened on time. Too bad most of the people who could have taken advantage of the Akiyume club card privileges were still stuck in the pre-registration line. It almost appears as if the at-con registration line went by faster than the pre-reg line did, which should not be.

Up until six hours before it, there was talk of the dance being cancelled because of some local ordinances and curfew. Luckily, it still went off. The Masquerade had many good skits, though some were marred by audio problems, and one mis-step resulted in a fall. It also included a half-time show with Maiyu, and USA Musume.

A lot of pictures were taken by everyone on staff that went, as is proof in the galleries. And as stated before, the Hyatt Valencia gave us large open spaces and beautiful manicured gardens that made picture taking and framing a task that was happily taken up.

So we lost some traditions, but kept some others. The con gained beautiful flowers, and trampled all over the grass of the Topiary Garden which this writer is sure will give us a new rule to follow next year. But it was still fun and relaxing, and as I like to say, "If a rule isn't made because of something you did, you haven't been having fun."

—aldo