The University of California, Davis held the Davis Anime Convention “DAiCon” this past Sunday, April 26. There was no shortage of anime fans, volunteers and cosplay. Overall, the event was booked, busy, and exciting.
Overview of DAiCon
DAiCon is a 100% student-run anime convention. Beginning in 2012, it was originally held on campus at the Memorial Union for two years. The convention was initially revived in 2019, but was canceled the following year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, it’s back for its second year.
I arrived at DAiCon with one of my friends around 11 a.m., an hour after doors opened. Immediately when I walked in, I was greeted by a few exhibitors, the voice actor tables, passed by the gaming setups, and found the artist alley in the back. I peeked in a separate building with the performances and panels, but did not attend either.
Pros
This is a student-run convention by Davis Anime Club (DAC), and it is extremely well-run. The students I had interacted with prior to the convention, as well as on campus, were friendly and helpful. It felt like everyone was excited to have an anime event right on their campus.
Before arriving, DAiCon emailed its attendees to provide free parking on campus. There are very few conventions I have attended that provide free parking on site, so that was an incredible perk before setting foot on UC Davis.
My favorite part of any convention is attending the artist alley, and I was pleasantly surprised that there were many vendors I had not seen before. I typically attend anime events in Sacramento (about 20-30 minutes away), where the biggest Northern California anime event takes place. There were maybe one or two artists that I recognized from those events, and a few of the artists were UC Davis students.
The biggest draw for me to attend this convention was to meet Joshua Waters (Qifrey, Witch Hat Atelier, Miyano, Sasaki and Miyano), who has never come to an anime convention near my city. He was friendly and excited to be at DAiCon; he was talking with me about his experience recording Miyano for Sasaki and Miyano in his dorm room in college. DAiCon volunteers / students managed his line, and they did a great job doing so while also keeping foot traffic flowing.
Cons
The only downside of this convention was the amount of event space. DAC had reached capacity twice throughout the event and had to cap its ticket sales. I found it quite difficult to navigate the artist alley due to the crowd. I attended DAiCon last year, and it felt like the number of attendees doubled or more.
However, this is a common experience I find with most, if not all, conventions, and I accept it to be part of the convention experience. The convention was packed, but it wasn’t nearly as packed compared to other bigger neighboring conventions such as SacAnime. It was wonderful to see the amount of growth the convention had received in only one year of being back.
Overall Thoughts
This convention is the perfect introduction to the world of anime conventions for those who are new or nervous to attend. DAiCon has the foundational elements of a convention: An artist alley, gaming area, panels and voice actors. It’s affordable to attend, put on by students and volunteers who are clearly passionate about anime, and easy to see/do everything in one day.
You may also get a peek into the anime convention experience with a large crowd / packed rooms. This is a traditional element of any anime convention, but on a smaller scale.
Despite the crowd, I was happy to see the high turnout and hard work the students did to put together an event. I look forward to attending DAiCon again and seeing how the event evolves over the years.
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