By Jade Thornton OMAHA, Neb. – Japanese culture is drawing more fans across Omaha, with events like NebKon and hit anime films bringing people together around art, storytelling and community.
What started as a small local convention in 2004 with about 300 attendees has grown into one of the city’s biggest fan gatherings. NebKon now welcomes nearly 7,900 attendees, 175 staff members and 135 vendors, according to its organizers, while aiming to keep the friendly, close-knit atmosphere it began with.
Omaha’s size helps foster that sense of community, said Aiden Shackelford, a University of Nebraska at Omaha student minoring in Japanese.
“It’s just a large city with a lot of people,” Shackelford said. “And once you get a group of people who have similar interests and that grows, then you’ll find more people and that also just kind of builds up from there.”
Along with conventions, anime movies are also playing a big role in spreading Japanese culture
across the Midwest. The latest Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle film recently
became the highest-grossing international film ever in the U.S., earning more than $128
million at the box office.
That kind of success shows how popular Japanese storytelling has become in the West, said Edwin Alvarez, also a University of Nebraska at Omaha student minoring in Japanese.
“Anime films, you know like the most recent ‘Demon Slayer’ movie, have grossed a lot of money,” Alvarez said. “Hollywood has seen that and I feel like this is a big way to show that anime is overall a good indicator of growth and influence that the West has now.”
For many local fans, Omaha’s growing anime and Japanese culture scene is more than entertainment — it’s a community built on shared interests and creativity.
From NebKon’s packed halls to theaters showing the latest anime blockbusters, Japanese culture continues to find a home in Omaha.
