UMD anime club hosts first anime, video game convention since 2017
By Jose Gonzalez
For The Diamondback
Hundreds of University of Maryland students and community members in colorful cosplay of their favorite anime and video game characters filled the Stamp Student Union Atrium and Prince George’s Room on Sunday for the university’s first Kamecon convention since 2017.
The Terrapin Anime Society hosted the free, day-long convention to celebrate Japanese animation culture. The club collaborated with several other student organizations, including UMCP Gaming, the XR Club and Paints and Shells, to offer multiple activities.
“We had 25 volunteers in total, not including our E-board exec members,” Kyle Goh, president of the Terrapin Anime Society, said. “So in total, 35 people helping out.”
The convention had 39 tables set up for vendors to sell various anime merchandise. Guests played video games, such as Mario Kart and Dance Dance Revolution, competed in a cosplay contest, which had five winners, and watched a concert featuring alumni of this university.
Kamecon was first held at this university in 2016, said Goh.
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“After the [Kamecon] founder left, they had no one to run it,” the sophomore immersive media design major said. “The anime club tried to have it again during 2019-ish, but that was when COVID happened to hit, so they weren’t able to do that.”
Local cosplayer, Dunkin with Nike, said some of their favorite parts about the convention were seeing the artists’ work and other guests’ cosplays.“I mostly enjoy sharing the joy of the fandoms that you like, or finding joy in other people’s fandoms,” Nike, who cosplayed as Jane Doe from Zenless Zone Zero, said. “You might learn more about either them as an artist, them as a cosplayer or even learn something new about a fandom that might get you interested in watching or reading it.”
Garrette Tsang, a junior information science major, said the variety of vendors at the convention was his favorite part.
“I was definitely surprised, because I haven’t been to a formal convention,” Tsang said.
He said the convention’s vendor scene reminded him of malls that contain many anime and manga-related shops with “the sheer variety of goods it had to offer.”
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“It even had some indie artists come out, set up their own tables, selling some merch that they drew themselves,” Tsang said.
Junior computer science major Grace Chen said it was cool for an anime convention to be held in College Park because they are usually held in larger cities like Washington, D.C.
Chen added she enjoys conventions like Kamecon because of the community aspect.
“You can’t really go running around like, ‘I love anime,’” she said. “But this is like, all anime lovers are here.”
Derrick Eberlein, an alum of this university, said he attended the convention to support a friend who was performing at the event. He added that the artist alley, where artists displayed their work, was “surprisingly really good” for a smaller convention.
Goh said the event went smoothly and blew away his and the other organizers’ expectations.
“The turnout was probably the biggest thing,” Goh said. “Over 700 attendees was honestly insane, because we were expecting for around, like, 200 to 300, but luckily everything went smoothly.”
