Naturally, I didn't learn any of this without some help from various sources. Credit goes to the following, in no particular order:

General credits:

And webcomics, just because:

I've picked up a few words and phrases from MegaTokyo, plus it's a good read, especially if you're also into video games. There are also occasional cultural insights, though there are just as many parodies of stereotypes. It helps if you can read "L337"... for some reason, I find "B4K4" highly amusing (and besides, you can't argue with Piroko). And like everyone else, I wonder what's really up with Miho...

 

Not really a credit, but the webcomic El Goonish Shive has numerous references to anime and Japanese (all phonetically romanized, but... Pointy Fork Attack! The corresponding kanji/kana would be 尖っているフォーク攻撃), as well as lots of gender and species transformations, so it's related. And Grace (sample strip) is a very amusing yet very deep character. To give an idea of how weird things can get, one storyline focuses on the attraction of Nanase (a badass Japanese girl with skill in Anime-style martial arts and some sort of magic) to Ellen (the female bisexual duplicate of Nanase's ex-boyfriend Elliot, to whom she felt no physical attraction), while at the same time (in the previous storyline), Elliot (also an Anime-style martial arts expert), his girlfriend Sarah (probably the most normal character), Tedd (he has purple hair, a transformation fetish and the technology to experiment with it, and looks a lot like a girl), and Tedd's girlfriend Grace (cheerful, energetic, and capable of assuming several different forms at will) were all at the movies, but Tedd and Grace had secretly switched forms. And that's not even starting on everyone's convoluted pasts and things like the evil(?) Tedd in another dimension...

 

Another non-credit: The webcomic The Wotch also contains multiple anime/manga references, and it's just as amusing. Where else can you find someone like Anne, the Wotch (like a witch, but not exactly) who specializes in transformation magic and particularly likes to ka-girl guys? There's also James and Irene, who keep getting body-swapped, a science teacher who was magicked into the body and mind of an excitable female Japanese foreign exchange student by Anne's personified Anger and Cheerfulness (respectively), and the obligatory werewolf. Not to mention Jason, who keeps getting girl-ified every time anything strange happens, which is so often he's bought female clothing, and even goes on a date as "Sonja" just to go watch a movie no one else wants to see. And I love how Anne plays video games.

To pick a sample storyline, the Myths and Legends arc has Robin, Anne's friend-but-wants-to-be-more-than-a-friend, trying to do magic himself and accidentally loosing a magical virus on the town. Everyone in town (except a few who are, or seem to be, unaffected for special reasons) becomes some sort of mythical creature, starting with Anne turning into a pixie, Robin into a centaur, and Jason into a redheaded female (of course) satyr. To make things worse, those affected are increasingly subject to the instincts of that creature, which is particularly awkward for Jason. And as if that weren't bad enough, Anne can't do any magic as a pixie except to summon rainstorms...