For a decade or so, anime -- a high-quality, sci-fi Japanese cartoon film -- has been a college phenomenon, with computer clubs spinning off or turning into Japanimation fan clubs and increasingly Net-savvy students putting up Web sites and sharing still shots from videos.

It's a fair bet the collegiate visionaries are about to get a lot of company. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, the distribution arm of Disney, recently acquired a library of Japanimation created by a man often hailed as ''the Walt Disney of Japan,'' Hiyao Miyazaki.

Eight already completed Miyazaki films will head into the home-video market, and one currently in production, ''Minonoke Hime (Monster Princess),'' will get a theatrical release this summer. And once that happens, could films with a grittier take, like Mamoru Oshii's ''Ghost in the Shell,'' be far behind?

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