by Mitchell Hang

Not much can hold the University of Maryland’s Terrapin Anime Society back, it seems — not even leadership turmoil and a pandemic. 

In January, several executive board members resigned after what they saw as abuse and demanding behavior from their former president, putting the club in limbo for months. 

“The president at the time was a fairly constant source of distress for me,” said senior computer science major Andrew Heller, who served as scheduler until he stepped down. He said that officers told schedulers like himself which anime they were allowed to show and that the schedulers’ choices weren’t good enough.

Lance Morris, who graduated from UMD this year, served as one of the TAS’s schedulers until he resigned alongside Heller.

“I felt quite insulted that [the president] felt that we should have restrictions placed on us because of one show [that we picked],” Morris said. “When I said as much I received no response, no apology, and he refused to back down.”

For his part, former president Nicholas Henrikson said that he and several others were trying to change how the club should be run because not enough people came to the meetings.

“We voted 5-4 in favor of changing things, and the people that didn’t like it resigned in protest,” Henrikson said. “After that they basically left us to pick up the pieces and finish off the rest of the school year.”

Dylan Bails, a junior history major, is now the president of the Terrapin Anime Society. He said he was “disheartened” by the officers’ resignations and said that the Terrapin Anime Society denounces any form of harassment.

The still-lingering pandemic didn’t help the club. Far fewer students showed up to the online meetings than in previous semesters where the club could meet in-person.

“Not being able to hold meetings in a public space [during the pandemic] severely affected the role of the club as a social environment to introduce anime as a group,” Bails said.

This semester, the club is allowed to hold meetings in-person again. The club’s Discord server has doubled in size since the beginning of the semester and people are coming back to the club to watch anime, said vice president Lauren Olivia Nicholson.

“Our numbers are down slightly from their pre-pandemic levels, but the difference isn’t too much,” the junior general biology major said.

The Terrapin Anime Society allows University of Maryland students to come together and enjoy anime. It features six subgroups — called Shounen, Animusic, Vtubers, Bad Anime, Old School and Book Club — that focus on specific anime.  

“Each is entirely different, like Bad Anime is often rowdy where Old School is tame and Shounen is a meeting of good friends where Book Club is a thoughtful discussion of every manga we read,” said Nicholson.

Unlike many other clubs, the Terrapin Anime Society hasn’t posted on its Instagram or Twitter accounts since last year. 

“Currently our social media is operated by one student who works as our webmaster,” Bails said. “While we have considered reviving the [Instagram and Twitter] accounts, our Discord and Terplink both provide all information for club activities.”

Despite the hiccups and inner struggles, the Terrapin Anime Society provides a welcoming environment for anime fans throughout the university to share the shows and movies they love, regardless of their personal backgrounds or identities. 

“It was the place I would go Sunday evening for one last piece of weekend relaxation before the stress of the week began,” Morris said. “I 100% would not have made it through college as well as I did if I hadn’t had Terrapin Anime Society and the friends I made there.”

Bails said he wants to make sure everyone has that experience. He said he was intimidated by UMD’s sheer size when he arrived on campus and found it hard to make friends. The club allowed him to meet many of his current friends. 

“I think if I can make one student feel the same way I did first coming to this club almost 3 years ago, I’d have done my job as president,” he said.

Featured image: “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean” playing on a screen at a Terrapin Anime Society meeting. Photo by Mitchell Hang.