NashiCon

NashiCon was an annual three-day anime convention held traditionally during March/April at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Columbia, South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina.^[5] It was the first anime convention in South Carolina and Nashi stands for Nippon Anime Society of Heavenly Imagery.^[2][6]

NashiCon
Status	Inactive
Genre	Anime, Japanese popular culture[1][2]
Venue	DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Columbia, South Carolina
Location(s)	Columbia, South Carolina
Country	United States
Inaugurated	2008
Attendance	2,300 in 2019[3]
Organized by	NASHI (Nippon Animation Society of Heavenly Imagery)[4]

Programming

The convention typically offered an anime viewing room, artists alley, cosplay ball, dance, human board game (OTAKU - Oversized Tangential All-Consuming Kaleidoscopic Universe), panels, table top gaming, and video gaming.^[2][4][7] The Carolina Manga Library evolved out of NashiCon 2013 and provided the convention's manga library in 2014.^[8][9]

History

The first convention held in 2008 attracted 200+ attendees.^[7] They relocated venues to the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in 2012.^[10] NashiCon became a three-day convention in 2015.^[6]

Event History

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests
April 11, 2009	University of South Carolina, Columbia Campus Columbia, South Carolina	200 (est)[11]	Northrup Davis and Thor Thorvaldson, Jr.[11]
April 17–18, 2010	University of South Carolina, Columbia Campus Columbia, South Carolina	400 (est)[12]	Sean McGuinness, Morgan Skye, and Thor Thorvaldson, Jr.[12]
March 19–20, 2011	University of South Carolina, Columbia Campus Columbia, South Carolina	900 (est)[13]	Kittyhawk, Sean McGuinness, Morgan Skye, and Thor Thorvaldson, Jr.[13]
March 31-April 1, 2012	Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Columbia, South Carolina	1,100 (est)[10]	Kittyhawk, Sean McGuinness, Morgan Skye, Spike Spencer, and Thor Thorvaldson, Jr.[10]
April 13–14, 2013	Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Columbia, South Carolina	1,300 (est)[14]	Laugh Out Loud, Sean McGuinness, Mega Ran, and Thor Thorvaldson, Jr.[14]
April 19–20, 2014	Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Columbia, South Carolina	1,800 (est)[15]	Robert Axelrod, Cir9, Laugh Out Loud, Sean McGuinness, Mega Ran, K Murdock, Seraphina, Thor Thorvaldson, Jr., Greg Wicker, and Lisle Wilkerson.[15]
April 17–19, 2015[16]	Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Columbia, South Carolina	2,334[17]	Cir9, Kyle Hebert, Laugh Out Loud, Sean McGuinness, Spike Spencer, and Thor Thorvaldson, Jr.[17]
April 1–3, 2016	Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Columbia, South Carolina	2,500 (est.)	Kittyhawk, Lauren Landa, Tony Oliver, Thor Thorvaldson, Jr., and David Vincent.[18]
March 31 - April 2, 2017	Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Columbia, South Carolina	2,700 (est.)	Kira Buckland, Kyle Hebert, None Like Joshua, Derek Stephen Prince, SkyBlew, and Thor Thorvaldson, Jr.[19]
March 23–25, 2018	Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Columbia, South Carolina	2,700 (est.)	Mega Ran, Erica Mendez, Miku-tan, None Like Joshua, and Lisle Wilkerson.[20]
April 5-7, 2019	Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center Columbia, South Carolina	2,300 (est.)	Chalk Twins, Brittany Lauda, Matt Shipman, and Christopher Wehkamp.[3]
February 14-16, 2020	DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Columbia, South Carolina Columbia, South Carolina		AmaLee, Jād Saxton, and Sarah Wiedenheft.[21]