A few weeks ago, at students' behest, I showed the movie Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) after school in my room.
They wanted to do it again, this week with The Cat Returns. I made a school announcement that I would be showing the film and "anyone who enjoys anime should plan to come."
The school secretary, who was reading the morning announcements, had never seen the word "anime" before and, after an awkward pause, eventually just skipped to the next word. She and the other secretaries, I heard later, decided they would look it up the definition for a "nime".
They found... a number between eight and ten.
