A man turns into a panda. The women of the world disappear and are replaced by marionettes. A local temple god runs off to try to be a rock musician.
Almost anything can happen in anime, the Japanese art form best known to many Americans for the likes of Pokemon," "Sailor Moon" and the film "Spirited Away." The medium has its own conventions, from the trope of the giant robot to the magical girlfriend genre. Now, university classes across the country are studying anime and Japanese comics, known as manga.