New Delhi: In Nagpur, oranges have the GI tag, but anime is slowly taking over as the sleepy town’s identifier. The city’s first anime convention, Orange City Otaku Con, was a feat pulled off by a small local club well before Mumbai, Delhi, or Kolkata could achieve anything similar.

Japan may be the anime capital of the world, but small cities such as Nagpur, Jaipur, and Bhubaneswar are among its top desi outposts. They are recreating anime culture in their own convention halls, gardens, and stadiums.

While the rest of India was still catching up on the ‘Japan craze’, Nagpur was already running its own cosplay convention with a Rs 1 lakh cash prize. It’s not the only non-metro city that has caught the anime train. From Barak Valley in Assam to Ahmedabad, Ranchi to Vijayawada, it’s Tier-

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