Please help identify this anime or OVA from 14 years ago about magic OK this is a long shot as I only remember two scenes. It's just stuck with me and I would be very interested in finding out what anime it was. I saw it about 14 (maybe 15) years ago and I don't know if it was new then or not (probably not anime was never a big thing in the UK back then). I think I saw it on the Bravo channel but I'm guessing as it was the only channel willing to show anime that had anything remotely interesting (other channels had heavily edited Kiddy stuff).

The first scene I remember was a stand-off from two wizards (or magic users). One was an old man on the ground, I think he had white hair. He was facing an evil wizard who was levitating some distance away (yet they could hear other as they always seem to do in anime). The old wizard shot some kind of magic arrow that he seemed very certain would kill this evil wizard but the evil wizard blocked it with the palm of his hand which was in a white glove with an up-side-down pentagram. The old wizard clutched then clutched his heart, bleeding as if struck by the arrow (which was still in the evil wizard's hand who seemed unaffected by this), shocked at what had happened, and then fell down, presumably dead. The old wizard laughed.

The other scene was of some woman, supposedly important but I can't remember why - I think the evil wizard wanted her for something? She was writhing in pain on the floor. It's daylight and they'd in a meadow or plains (short grass and where she rolled there was just dirt). She stops writhing but continues shaking and starts wretching, heaving. Suddenly something pokes out from her mouth and starts coming out of her, it ends up being a giant white-pink maggot which promptly wriggles away. She survives the ordeal and lays there shaking, recovering. There's a voice over of two men who I think were with her but not showing at the time. One is younger asking what happened and one is older (possibly the old wizard I mentioned earlier) explained she gave birth to a maggot and this was due to dark magic. Oddly, neither seem surprised by the fact there is a maggot almost the size of an adult human or concerned that the maggot might become a giant fly (which are annoying pests when tiny and swattable - a giant fly is just... Ick).

From the haziness of my memory I am not sure what kind of setting it is. The clothing is all simple but also something you'd expect in older Japan - robes and basic plain cloth type. I don't recall the buildings but I think it is pre-machine times so I don't think there's cars or guns.

The animation style has that older grittier texture to it which all the older anime seem to have - something between Violence Jack and CyberCity Oeda 808. I think it was a movie/OVA rather than a series but I may be mistaken. I get the impression it was a "not for kids" kind of anime (even though I was a kid at the time) but I'm guessing on that because back then those were the only ones I watched (except for Vampire Princess Miyu) and because it was an 'after 10pm watershed' thing.

I don't really have much more detail than this I am sorry but it stayed with me and can't seem to find it when I do my searches. If you could help at all it would be appreciated. If you solve this you will have my undying gratitude and I'd even give you my last rolo if I actually ate those.

This sounds like Doomed Megalopolis.

(From Wikipedia):

  Doomed Megalopolis (帝都物語 Teito Monogatari?) is a supernatural/dark fantasy anime. It is an adaptation of the historical fantasy novel Teito Monogatari by Hiroshi Aramata. The anime is darker, more violent and sexualized than any previous adaptations of the novel; an artistic decision probably inspired by the financial success of the OVA Legend of the Overfiend. Like its live-action predecessor, Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis, the anime is only an adaptation of the first 1/3rd (the first four books) of the original novel.

  It was released by Toei in 1991 as a 4-part OVA. In 1995, ADV Films gained the rights to the anime and released it on a four-volume cassette series in the US, under the title Doomed Megalopolis. In 2001, ADV re-released the entire series on a 2-Disc DVD edition. However, this release did not have the original Japanese soundtrack or any special features. Eventually, ADV gathered the rights to the original Japanese voices, and in 2003, re-released an enhanced version entitled Doomed Megalopolis: Special Edition, wherein the Japanese language option was available and bonus features, such as interviews and documentaries were added.[

It's around the right time frame, though it's not listed under the programs broadcasted by Bravo.

The main antagonist is an evil wizard with white gloves with a pentagram on it, and in the beginning of the movie, he blocks the arrow:

The start of the movie has this old guy:

There's also this scene:

More info:

My Anime List
Wikipedia
Anime News Network


Why is Nyanko-sensei a round, chubby cat? Nyanko-sensei is supposedly a very powerful youkai named "Madara," but he takes the form of a round, chubby cat.

What is the significance of this form? Did he purposely choose this appearance? Why/Why not?

Why does Takashi call Madara by the name "Nyanko-sensei?"

What is the significance of this form?

   It's not simply a round, chubby cat, it's a Maneki-neko (lit. beckoning cat). Maneki-neko is a common figurine in Japan. Shops have it displayed to beckons customers and wish bringing more fortune in.

Did he purposely choose this appearance?

   Yes and No.

 Nyankon-sensei was sealed in Maneki-neko for a long time before Takashi release it by accident, it ordinary takes on the shape and just be that way.

 Ordinary people can see it when it is in the Maneki-neko form but not in the original Madara form. Still, we don't know if Nyankon-sensei like its form so much or on other purposes.

Why does Takashi call Madara by the name "Nyanko-sensei?"

   Nyankon-sensei requests Takashi to call him sensei and as an exchange, it becomes his bodyguard.

Wikipedia actually has a well-written article about the anime & manga including characters background, in case you want more details.


How much of the manga did the Arslan Senki anime cover? I finished watching Arslan Senki and am wondering:

How much of the manga did it cover?
Are there any differences between the manga and the anime?

I’m a great fan of Arslan Senki and read the novels in Japanese twice. Sorry it’s been almost 2 years since you posted your question, but I will answer all your doubts.

The anime took the art style from the second manga adaptation when telling the story of the novels. The anime character designs belong to Shingo Ogiso as well.
The story itself was quickly taken directly from the novels as the only source as the anime caught up with the manga.

There were 19 chapters published when the anime started running (5th April) and also when it ended (27th September).

https://bookstore.yahoo.co.jp/shoshi-417773/

https://bookstore.yahoo.co.jp/shoshi-522005/

The first link corresponds to volume 3, which includes chapters 11-19 and was published in Japan on February 9, 2015.

The second link corresponds to volume 4, which includes chapters 20-27 and was released in Japan on October 9, 2015. It is important to note that the anime had already ended before this date though.

Just so that you know, episode 9 from the anime covers up to chapter 19 from the manga, and episode 10 covers up to chapter 23. So it would be something like that more or less.

After that point, episodes 10-25 from season 1 as well as all episodes from season 2 could not take the manga’s adaptation into account while adapting the novels as there was no manga to begin with.
The manga’s pace is incredibly slow. Even now, 2018, it still hasn’t started dealing with what season 2 covered (the latest manga Chapter 57 is adapting the last part from novel 3, whereas the anime’s season 1 covers novels 1- 4).

I’ll explain this later in more detail, but the manga’s adaptation is faithful and respectful to the novel source material. The anime’s adaptation not so much.

The difference between the manga and the novels is minimal. The manga adapts the novels in a consistent and faithful way. The anime, however, is less faithful. Yet again, I’ll explain this later.

Now, these are the 2 issues that the OP has. I’ll explain all of them:

  How much of the manga did it cover?

  Are there any differences between the manga and the anime?

Those questions are answered in these points. I'm adding a few more details for context as well.

1. What should I read?

Arslan Senki is a Japanese novel series written by Yoshiki Tanaka. There are sixteen novels written between 1986 and 2017. A manga adaptation by Chisato Nakamura started running in 1990 and finished running in 1996. It had an original ending as it caught up with the novels. Because of its popularity, a second manga adaptation illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa debuted in 2013. An anime adaptation was made in 2015.

The novels are praised as a masterpiece in Japan, which is the reason they received adaptations in the first place and people kept up with them for 31 years. I would very strongly advise you to read the novels over every Arslan Senki adaptation.
However, there is no official translation as of now, and not much content has been fan-translated for the past 31 years. So… if you don’t know Japanese, I recommend you read the second manga. It is the most faithful adaptation you’ll find, and it’s in English.

2. Where should I start?

Depends on what you want to do and your situation.

-If you’ve just watched the anime and you want to read the novels (as I said, they’re regarded as a masterpiece) I would advise you to start from the very beginning. The novels are very long and complicated, so starting from the very first volume is the best option.

-If you can’t read the novels for language reasons and want to read the manga instead, I would advise you to start from chapter 19. The differences between manga and anime increase after chapter 19-20 (end of episode 9) and keep increasing ever since (for example, chapter 29 doesn’t exist in the anime).

-If you’ve read the manga and want to delve into the novels, you can start where you left off on the manga. Unlike the anime, the manga follows the original material quite faithfully.
To further help you understand the overall situation, I’m also going to tell you what the current situation is.
2.2 Current situation
The very first season of the anime covers novels 1-4. The anime caught up with the manga when only 3 manga volumes had been published. Those 3 manga volumes cover the first novel.
The second anime season covers the last part of novel 4 (as in the novel, Andragoras's escape from the dungeon is written before the funeral in St. Emmanuel) as well as novels 5 and 6.

The manga currently has 57 chapters and is now in the middle of novel 3’s last chapter where Sam reunited with Kubard and convinced him to fight for Hilmes and it is just before Arslan circulated the manifesto all around Pars.
As you can see, the manga has already covered (as of March 2018) half the novels seasons 1 and 2 from anime did. It took almost 5 years though.

3. Would I miss anything if I start where the anime ended?

You would most certainly do. The anime starts making more changes from the original novel source material after episode 10 from season 1, so I would suggest you start reading from chapter 19 or 20 (start of episode 10). This is obvious, but when the anime makes changes while adapting the novels, it also deviates from the manga’s faithful adaptation.

4. Are the manga and anime adaptations faithful to the original source material? Are there any differences between the manga and the anime?

Anime: It has added quite a few scenes. Some of them seem to be very important, but don’t exist in the novels. For example:

The fact that Arslan saves Daryun from Arzang, the sorcerer, just before reaching Peshawar Fortress
The fact that Bahman gets killed by Hilmes
*The fight between Daryun and Hilmes at the end of season 1
*The fact that Bodin's men take the sacred sword Ruknabad
*The fact that Hilmes gets Ruknabad. In the novels, no one can take the sword except the chosen one who will take over the will of Kay Khosrow, the ancient great King.

And lack, among others, the following events from the novels:

The fact that Narsus defeats and kills Arzang. They even skipped Narsus saving Alfarid for the 2nd time, which made Alfarid fall in love with Narsus.
The fact that Daryun apologizes to Gieve for considering him an untrustworthy person. This event takes place after knowing that Gieve had saved Arslan.
The fact that Hilmes murders Kishward's very loyal subordinate and Azrael's brother.
Hilmes valuing Zandeh’s skill of gathering information by using his men.
The fact that Bahman accompanies Arslan to Sindhura and fighting bravery as a marzban.
The fact that Bahman dies in Sindhura
The fact that Salima, daughter of Mahendra, lets Rajendra arrest Gadhevi, who is Salima's husband.
The fact that a sorcerer tries to steal the secret letter of Bahman and Narsus cuts off his arm.
The fact that Andragoras tells the secret of Hilmes's birth to Sam.
*The fact that Daryun captures Etoile before the battle in St. Emmanuel.
*The fact that Merlain and Kubard defeat a Lusitanian troop together.
*The fact that Jimsa and Zaravant escape from Andragoras's forces and they start searching Arslan together.
*The fact that Zandeh throws Ruknabad into a crack in the ground, and pursuades Hilmes to once forget about it at the time when Ruknabad refused Hilmes and made a large earthquake hit.

("*" refers to scenes from parts of the story that have yet to be reached in the manga as it’s still behind the anime)

Whereas in the manga, all the events I remember that were added are just (Note: this list should be quite decent. Unlike the previous 2 ones, here I made a big effort to gather all the differences I remember having noticed when I read the manga):

The first chapter (which was also in the anime)
One short fight between Arslan and Kharlan (which was also in the anime). I wouldn’t really call it a fight, but in the novels Arslan and Kharlan don’t have that short crossing of blades before Kharlan fights Daryun.
The fact that Etoile hands a small religious book to Arslan close to a river and the conversation with his companions about it (the anime added the act of giving the Bible, though under different conditions and there was no chat about it between Arslan’s companions when they go to Hodir’s castle)
The sentence “one in one hundred million” used by Daryun (I think the anime used it once during the first half of season 1) as well as Arslan’s famous word “delicious” when referring to delicious food (the novels also use that word, but it’s more frequent in the manga. The anime used the word as well).
Farangis usually dresses like a man in the novels, whereas in the manga there’s fan service. The anime took the manga’s character designs, so obviously it includes such fan service.
The fact that Elam has a memory of Narsus praising his cooking skill
The fact that Kishward already has a wife and a son, whereas in the novels his wife and son appear much later.
When Daryun reveals Arslan identity to him, Daryun holds his hand. The revelation part is the same, but them holding hands at sunset is new.
The fact that Montferrart's brother is among Bodin's soldiers who were killed by Hilmes when Lusitanian soldiers were fighting over the sacred flag. In the novels, he wasn’t present there.
Jaswant (this character debuts in chapter 43 of the manga) sees Narsus painting, whereas in the novel it’s not described that she takes a glance at his painting.
The fact that the story of how Daryun got hold of his polearm is more detailed in the manga.
In one of the latest chapters of the manga (+55), Hilme’s secret is more explained than in the novels.

And not much content from the novels has been cut down. Obviously, the novels will have more details, but the important events are told faithfully, and the stuff that gets removed is the kind that is unnecessary and overdetailed for a manga (the manga format is quite different from that of a novel). To name a few examples of the events that the manga didn’t include while adapting the novels:

Once Vahriz asks Daryun what his impression of Arslan's features is at Atropatene, there is a line that Daryun says ("He  has a handsome features. I guess young ladies all over the capital city will talk about him in two or three years, but uncle...") right before Vahriz tells him that he was actually asking which one of the prince’s parents looks more similar to him. That line I quoted is not included in the manga.
The reason why Narsu’s father died is because he fell down the stairs right before he was about to leave his land and help Andragoras. This led Narsus to go to the capital city and made him famous for the first time as a tactician.
Amidst the sorcerers who have served the master sorcerer, Gundhi  frequently appears in the underground room to receive instructions. In case you don’t remember it, he is the one with an incomplete mask that doesn’t cover the right side).
The fact that Narsus has been rumored to have love affairs while working at court. Furthermore, Daryun has fallen in love with the princess of Serica. (Just 2 months ago, the author mentioned they are no longer a couple**)
When Daryun fights with Bahadul in Sindhura, Daryun gets bitten by a jackal and he chops the jackal's head and even makes its eyes come out.
About Pars legends, there exists a deep tradition of not eating sheep brain. Nevertheless, right when Arslan and his friends are in Sindhura, they inadvertently eat it in the food they’re given. It is stated that Daryun loses his appetite after that, yet Farangis is fine.

** Refers to an event that Tanaka has stated to have happened, but it doesn’t appear in his novels. He tends to do this sometimes, and his words/messages add new canon material not mentioned in the novels themselves (sometimes these new details/facts said by Tanaka are actually included in the second manga’s adaptation). This time it was mentioned on 18th January 2018, where we get to know that situation I explained before and exactly how it happens. If you google  31年目のヤシャスィーン you can see it on nico video website, but you need to have an official account and it’s raw Japanese as no English subtitles exist. In that conference he also mentions unimportant stuff like the fact that he had already decided the ending even before the second half of the novels had started, that while writing dialogues he says them out loud to make sure it doesn’t sound weird, that Daryun is dressed in black because he was reading the historical and psychological novel The red and the Black…

Also, the manga has more violent scenes that are in the novels but the anime skipped, like:

The fact that faKishward makes one of Sindhuran’s soldier swing his boss's head from his neck.

  Conclusions: The anime changes and skips events a lot, whereas the
  manga sometimes adds an element/detail to the story rather than change it.
  The manga adds very little, and when it does it is unimportant stuff,
  it doesn’t remove much content and it doesn’t change things,
  making the manga a good adaptation of the novels. The scenes and even
  dialogues have been following Tanaka’s original work.


Was it necessary for the Kais to let Gohan's energy be drained for Buu? I'm confused as to why Supreme Kai paralyzed Gohan for his energy to be drained.

Couldn't they have just eliminated Babidi so that Buu wouldn't be resurrected?

If I remember correctly the reason was because the Kai didn't know where Babidi was hiding. He used Gohan as bait, and then was able to follow Babidi's henchman back to the wizard's ship. If he hadn't done that, who knows how the story would have unfolded from there.

Also, it wasn't just Gohan's energy that restored Majin Buu, but also energy taken from the fights within Babidi's ship.

Knowing the characters of the Saiyan Z-fighters, they wouldn't have stopped Buu from resurrecting anyway. They would just want to fight him.


Two-armed Shanks after he saves Luffy As a One Piece fan who doesn't read the manga I must ask this:

In this flashback when Ace meets Shanks, Ace says:

  "My brother was always talking about you as his lifesaver"

As you are aware, Shanks lost his arm when he saved Luffy. However, at 0:43 you can clearly see both of his arms.

Does this happen in the manga or is it just an animation mistake?

The meeting between Ace and Shanks does happen in the manga, but according to the One Piece Wiki on Episode 461 where this happens, Shanks having two arms appears to be an error in the animation.

Personally, I do agree that it was an animation fail, since it was long after Shanks saved Luffy.


What is the most popular demographic? I know that, in general, the higher-ranked manga tend to be shounen, such as One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto (based generally, I think, on readership). Is there anything showing general demographic popularity, such as the overall popularity of shounen vs. shoujo vs. seinen vs. josei, based on something like readership? If so, is shounen still the most popular? How do the other ones rank in relation to each other?

This is a bit hard to measure, but shounen is clearly the top demographic group. Popularity is usually measured by magazine circulation. The difficulty in this is that there is a lot of overlap of readers, and also that different demographic groups read widely different amounts of manga. For instance, a young reader in the target audience of shounen magazines is likely to subscribe to only one or two magazines, while older readers might subscribe to many. Thus, total circulation numbers for the older demographic groups tend to be higher relative to the number of readers.

Here are some statistics from 2010 for the circulation numbers of various Japanese magazines from the Japanese Manga Publishers Association. By demographic, the results are the following:

╔═════════════════╦══════════════╦═════════════╗
║   Demographic   ║ Top Magazine ║ Total       ║
║                 ║ Circulation  ║ Circulation ║
╠═════════════════╬══════════════╬═════════════╣
║ shounen (boys)  ║    2,876,459 ║   8,344,534 ║
║ seinen  (men)   ║      807,871 ║   7,624,811 ║
║ shoujo  (girls) ║      745,455 ║   2,803,230 ║
║ josei   (women) ║      162,917 ║   2,364,666 ║
╚═════════════════╩══════════════╩═════════════╝

It's pretty clear based on this that shounen is the most popular, followed by seinen. Shoujo is less popular than seinen, but the numbers are similar for the top magazines, suggesting that the fanbases are somewhat similar in size. Josei is less popular than the others. However, in terms of total sales, seinen is almost the same level as shounen, and josei is almost the same level as shoujo, suggesting about equal market shares.

Admittedly, the demographic listed for the magazines is not perfect. However, I think the above is a pretty fair representation of roughly what the sizes are of each of the four main demographic groups. Also, this data is from 2010, so the current data could have changed a bit, but not enough to change the conclusions. I used 2010 data because it was easily available in English and formatted in a way that made calculating totals easy, but more recent data is available through JMPA's website if you follow the link above.


Why did Subaru suggest to run away with Rem? In episode 18, Subaru gives up on basically everything and suggests to Rem that they run away to live a happy life in another country. However, he knows that...

   they will all die if he doesn't prevent Emilia's death.

I know that Subaru has suffered a lot at this point and he's broken and hopeless, but surely he would know he would only get three days of happiness AT BEST before he dies again and starts over again. So why did he even think this was an option?

He said that because he was emotionally tired. He was confident that he couldn't do anything more than what he has done so far. At the moment, he didn't want to accept that he was going to die again and again, so he just wanted a little moment of relax with someone who really cares about him, in this case Rem.


Are Den Den Mushis conscious? In One Piece there are some snail-like creatures that

  ..have the ability to communicate with each other telepathically through
  radio waves. The people in One Piece world take advantage of this
  ability by attaching buttons and receivers to them. Den Den Mushi thus
  take the place of telephones and other similar machines in the world
  of One Piece.

I have never seen one moving about freely. Are they fully conscious of their surroundings, could they move freely if they wanted to? Or do once they become tamed and personalized they just become fully fledged telephones?

There is only one sort of moving Den Den Mushi.
The only place where you see then is in the Tenth movie

Self-Propelled Visual Den Den Mushi
Shiki has a variant of the Visual Den Den Mushi called the
Self-Propelled Visual Den Den Mushi (自走式映像転送電伝虫 Jisō-shiki Eizō Tensō
Den-den Mushi?). As the name implies they are able to move and look
around. They also appear to be close to the same size as the larger
variant of the Visual Den Den Mushi and have attachments that allow
them to project what they can see to a monitor.

The Den Den mushi are normal snails untill people attach the phones to them.
This is taken from SBS 41(Q&A with author)

D: In Chapter 367, Sanji-kun destroys the Den Den Mushi. That's so
mean!!! The Den Den Mushi didn't do anything wrong! Even a Den Den
Mushi would cry if that happened to it! It cries when it hurts! It
cries because its heart hurts even more than its body! So let's
apologize to it, shall we? P.N. Naoko
O: Oh, well, you see... OK, I
admit, I may have created that impression, but it's okay. On the right
is a wild Den Den Mushi. It has the ability to communicate with its
species through radio (thought) waves. Humans attach buttons and
receivers to them so they can contact specific other Den Den Mushi.
So, you can destroy the receiver without hurting the Den Den Mushi.


Is there any significance to character names in Elfen Lied? Is there any significance to the character names in Elfen Lied, particularly with regards to the more important characters? With some characters, there's a clear "meaning" - e.g. Nana, who was also known as "Number 7" at the research facility. Could other character names e.g. "Lucy" be allusions to something, or perhaps in some other way meaningful given the plot?

Although this is never confirmed it does fit the plot in a way

Lucy's name closely resembles Lucifer considering that Lucy is the evil alter-ego it would be one of the most fitting.

Another possibility would be that the name is related to St. Lucy/Lucia, but this is a pretty far fetched theory.

  They threatened to drag her off to a brothel if she did not renounce her Christian beliefs, but were unable to move her, even with a thousand men and fifty oxen pulling. So they stacked materials for a fire around her instead and set light to it, but she would not stop speaking, insisting that her death would lessen the fear of it for other Christians and bring grief to non-believers. One of the soldiers stuck a spear through her throat to stop these denouncements, but to no effect. Soon afterwards, the Roman consulate in charge was hauled off to Rome on charges of theft from the state and beheaded. Saint Lucy was able to die only when she was given the Christian sacrament source

Edit
Re-reading the related question What's the significance of the 'w' finger position in Elfen Lied? I think the st Lucy/Lucia theory is less far fetched then I thought myself. Elfen Lied seems to be pretty Christian influenced.


What manga/webtoon was the author referring to in his notes on chapter 113 of The Gamer? In the author's notes in the last chapter (113) of The Gamer, he is talking about a webtoon that is apparently very similar, and I assume a lot of people have asked them if they got anything to do with it, which they deny.

Can anyone tell me what webtoon they mean?

They could be taking about DICE not 100% sure though.

DICE = What if you can restart your life with a different setting just like a game? DONG TAE always get bullied by his classmates, but TAE BIN, sits right next to him, is handsome and popular at school; and now, TAE BIN suggests DONG TAE to play a little game.

Thanks,
Pyrotek


Why didn't Marcel or Frieda Reiss transform when being eaten? Ymir became an intelligent titan when she ate Marcel without his consent. Grisha Jaeger inherited the founding titan's power when he ate Frieda Reiss, without her consent.

But when a random no-name Titan ate Eren Jaeger...  well that's when Eren Jaeger transformed into a Titan for the first time, inside the titan that ate him.

My question is...  why didn't Marcel and why didn't Frieda transform after they were eaten?

Maybe Marcel had his legs eaten off, first (I don't remember), and his body was unable to transform because it was recovering, but then, when Reiner Braun had a sword through his neck he was able to transform into a Titan, no problem.

Similarly, Frieda might have been exhausted from her fight with Grisha, but when Eren was exhausted after training with his newly enhanced armor ability he was still able to transform, albeit to a smaller Titan.

Any ideas or is this a plot hole?

For Marcel, this is mostly my interpretation. Because of the situation and their lack of experience in exploring Paradis, Marcel most likely panicked and was unable to transform. He only had time to push Reiner out of the way and had no time to react. He was also feeling guilty during that time when he revealed that Reiner was enlisted not because of his skills but because he (Marcel) wanted to save his brother. This could have also distracted him and clouded his judgement.

As for Frieda, she lacked experience and was severely injured. As mentioned here,

  If a human emerges from their Titan form and receives severe injury, this person cannot transform into a Titan again until said injuries have healed.

Given that Grisha bit her out of her Titan form, as seen in Chapter 63, that would have caused serious or fatal injuries even before she would be swallowed and since she already made a prior transformation, she cannot do so again unless her injuries would heal but it was too late.


Who is this mystery girl with blue hair? In Captain Earth, there is a girl that appears only in two occasions during the series, when Daichi gets his Livlaster, and at the ending.

She is featured in the opening, so at first I confused her with Setsuna, but the hairstyle was different (huge giveaway they were not the same person).

So who is this ex-machina-lady? (huge spoiler if I had to explain why the ex-machina part)

Some speculation in the talk page for Hana Mutou put her as the human form of the Space Squirrel Pitz, the incarnation of the Livlaster, or something otherwise.

Since that is just speculation, I would like to rule that source out. Can anyone point another source to her bio?

The fact is, we don't have a clue from the series. Our best guess is the Livlaster.

Reason 1 - They were confirmed to be living things with a will, but we never really "met" them. We met the machines, but not them, which is odd.

Reason 2 - Her color style is the same as Daichi's Livlaster, so there is reasonable evidence to make the connection.

Reason 3 - She was first seen when he got the Livlaster. She is only seen with Daichi during critical moments for him. So she and he are connected.

The next best option is Pitz, but we never gave a corresponding figure for the other squirrel. However, this is probably the second best theory based on the evidence. Following that theory is a new character (like a planetary gear) to intro into a season 2. We have no reason to suspect this, but hey, we don't know. Lastly is Daichi's mom. He lives with his uncle, his dad died, so we have a missing mom figure. Maybe there's some backstory?


Name of the song in episode 293 of Bleach when Suì-Fēng attacked Aizen In episode 293 of Bleach, there's a song playing when Suì-Fēng attacked Aizen with Shunpo (clones) and Nigeki Kessatsu (Death in Two Steps).

What is the name of the song?

It is probably Senna by Shiro Sagisu from album Memories of nobody


What is the tune played when the Strawhats stand against the CP9 in Enies Lobby? In Episode 274 (Answer Us, Robin! The Outcries of the Straw Hat Crew!!), the Strawhat Pirates assemble on the roof of the Court House. They then walk towards the Tower of Justice to join Luffy, and stand against the CP9 members, who are standing in the balcony of the Tower of Justice.

The tune played at the time sounds quite inspiring and feels great to hear. This tune runs from about 20:45 to 21:45 of the episode. Could someone please tell me the name of this tune?

It's "I'm Here With You, Too," the same as Track #23 from Sixth Movie's OST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov9LMCtTgqo


What happened to Hide after he died I didn't read the tokyo ghoul manga, but I was wondering what happened to Hide after he died. Cause in Tokyo Ghoul re Hide comes back to life, and when I looked it up on google it said Hide let Kaneki eat some of his face to regain his strength at the end of season 2 of Tokyo Ghoul. So did Hide come back to life as a ghoul or did he just never die.

Already answered in comments by @W. Are

Hide never died. The anime deviated from the manga and the scene where Kaneki was carrying Hide never happened in the manga. My suggestion: if you have time, read the manga (starting from Tokyo Ghoul). I tried watching the anime, too but dropped it while on Tokyo Ghoul: re. It was confusing and the manga cleared up everything.

Yes, he had never died, but lost/damaged his vocal organ since kaneki ate part of his face to regain some strength to fight. This thing doesn't actually affect the anime, so i don't think it's spoiler.

Answered this only, since it still shows 0 answers, though @W. Are already answered in comments, nor i could comment there to ask him post this answer.


End of Naruto original series I just finished the last episode of Naruto on Netflix it was the episode where Naruto went out on a journey with Jiraiya. what episode should I watch next? Do I go straight into shippuden

Well, like you said, you just finished Naruto. There isn't something in between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden so, it's time you get into Shippuden.
Additionally, I recommend watching Naruto by skipping fillers, except for the ones where they show the past.


What is the name and where can I find the manga of Ore-sama Kingdom? I watched the ONA of Ore-sama Kingdom, and I know the English name for it, but when I try to look for the manga, it doesn't show. My older sister knows the name but she forgot recently, which makes me also think that it's not Ore-sama Kingdom, that it's another name or another title. I've been dying to read this manga for a long time but never found it.

Ore-sama Kingdom description:
A manga artist (she creates manga books) named Nono transfers to a new school to find 3 handsome "kings" who find out her secret of creating manga books, even though she's still very young (and in high school).

The name of the manga is the same title as the OVA. It is called Oresama Kingdom (オレ様キングダム, Kings of My Love). There is currently no English distributor for the manga nor is there an official English translation of it and the Japanese magazines publishing the series are Chuchu and Ciao.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_of_My_Love


Are All Might and Midoriya equally strong when they use One for All 100%? Even though Midoriya can't use One for All without breaking his body, if both Midoriya and All Might use One for All 100% in their primes, are they supposed to be equally strong? Does their particular body influence how much strong each one are or by having One for All they are about the same? Does the manga give some light about this?

As @Ero Sɘnnin stated OfA stockpiles however with the latest chapters of manga we have to consider one more thing.

Manga spoilers:

   In the latest chapters in his dream, Izuku sees the first user of OfA, brother of AfO user, and some event that happened at that era. However at the end first user of OfA talks with Izuku. That never happened to All Might and this is stated in anime and manga. After waking up his hands starts to glow. I think that was a power-up so he is definitely becoming stronger and will suppress All Might.

Not the mention of he calling himself "Greatest hero" in the first episode.


All possible fusions/absorbtions and their multipliers Potara fusion, fusion dance etc. The dragon ball universe knows many fusion types from which some are considered an absorbtion such as Buu and Cell consuming some to become stronger. Information on those do count as well for the answer I am seeking as it is mainly about the power multiplier and not the 2 minds controlling 1 body thing. I want to know all the fusions (or absorbtions) to have a nice list from strongest to weakest based on the multiplier.

So what I would like to know is which fusions are available and what their power multiplier is. For example I know that Namekian fusion is x7 (based on Piccolo x Nail) and Potara fusion about A x B.

I am not going to state any actual multipliers, but I think I can try to create a list of different kinds of fusions and why one form of fusion is stronger than the other. I'm going to take into consideration, the Namekian fusion, The fusions when Cell/Buu absorb another character, the fusion dance and obviously the potara fusion. In terms of power, I believe the correct order would be The Potara fusion: The potara earrings are worn by the Supreme Kais, the supreme ruler of the universe and its something which is not possessed by any mortal. It was stated by the Elder Kai himself that the Potara fusion was stronger than the fusion dance. As for the kind of fusion where a character is absorbed, the potara fusion is still superior to the same. This can be explained by going back to the Buu Saga in Dragon Ball Z. Ultimate Gohan was the strongest unfused character than and a lot stronger than Super Buu. Super Buu was a lot stronger than SSJ3 Goku. The SSJ3 transformation is undoubtadly a lot superior to the SSJ2 transformation and Vegeta in his SSJ2 state(Without majin) was slightly weaker than Goku. With the potara fusion, Base Vegito was able to fight Super Buu with ultimate Gohan like it was nothing. Even the recent Dragon Ball Super episodes where Kefla reached new heights managing to rival the power of SSJB + Kaioken Goku and possibly even surpassing it, indicate how powerful the potara fusion is. The Fusion Dance: It has already been confirmed that the Potara fusion is superior to the fusion dance, however, I believe the fusion dance is superior to the kind of fusion where a character is absorbed. Since Gogeta is not considered canon, I'm only going to use Gotenks to prove my point here. Firstly, we know for a fact that Base Goten and Trunks were no where as strong as Base Goku, Vegeta or yet alone Gohan(Who was rusty at that point in time). Fat Majin Buu was considered to be one of the strongest characters at that point in time and the only character who was capable of defeating it was SSJ3 Goku which is a 400 times base multiplier. Once Evil Buu absorbed the fat majin Buu, he was a lot superior to SSJ3 Goku. We've seen android 18 being able to fight trunks and goten together while they were using SSJ during the tournament.  Even after training in the HTC, it's obvious that base trunks and goten were no where close to base goku, gohan or vegeta in power. However, Base Gotenks was a lot stronger than Base Goku such that SSJ3 Gotenks was equal to super Buu in strength. We haven't seen such a massive power increase by just absorption. If you go back to the cell saga, Cell absorbed Android 17 and 18 and let's say the two of them were as strong as Super Namekian Picollo(After he fused with Kami). However, Goku in his Mastered SSJ state, just a (50 times multiplier) was able to put up a decent fight against cell.Absorbtion based fusion / Namekian Fusion: Based on power levels from the earlier seasons,
we know for a fact that the namekian fusion is (Namek A+Namek B)*7.09.
The absorbtion based fusion seems to be of this nature with a very low multiplier, or probably only of an (A+B) nature. My proof for the latter would again be based on the the fight between Buuhan(Super Buu+Ultimate Gohan) and Vegito. Super Buu was a lot stronger than 400 time's Goku's base strength. And Ultimate Gohan was a lot superior to Super Buu's strength. Even if the potara fusion is an incredibly high multiplier,
 compared to the absorption based fusion, there is no way possible for Base Vegito's power to be comparable to Buuhan's if there was a higher multiplier incase of the absorption based fusion. We know after Kibito and Shin fused, (Just before Goku went back to earth to assist Gohan fight Super Buu), the old Kai stated that Kibito was still a lot weaker than Buutenks. So the potara fusion multiplier is not astronomically high which would only imply that the absorption based fusion has a low multiplier which is why Buuhan was completely dominated by Vegito. With regard to whether the Absorption based fusion or the Namekian based fusion being stronger, we can't really say with a certainty. This is because, we would be comparing Picollo to the likes of Buu and Cell(Who were technically the strongest characters in their respective arcs, until they were surpassed by the Saiyans). Also the characters who were absorbed were a lot stronger than the characters picollo fused with, so I don't think there is sufficient information to distinguish the two


Does Fate/Strange Fake take place in the same timeline as any of the Fate/Stay Night routes? One of the hardest things to wrap my head around in the Nasuverse has been what events belong to what timeline, this is just one example of that.

It seems like F/SF isn't contradicted by anything that happened in the F/SN timeline (that is if you consider the unusual 'rules' of the Fake Grail War to be permissible in the same universe as the normal Fuyuki GW).

So, is it more or less the same timeline? If not, does it belong to any other timelines(like the KnK one for example)?

From the afterword of the first volume:

  I suspect many Fate fans are wondering, "This is set after the
  original Fate, but which route's future is it?" I hate to say this,
  but, "It's a fake, so it follows a mystery route." I'll leave the rest
  to your imaginations. In the extra chapter, the two "Observers" leaf
  through a lot of pages. You can assume that the "world's route"
  changes with each of those pages.

FSF is set in a parallel world, some years* after the Fifth Holy Grail War, as constant references are made to it: Shirou is obliquely mentionned as a creator of relics, Francesca Prelati took the mud of the corrupted Grail for her own purposes, etc.

*By my own estimation, maybe 2008. It was the year the April Fool's one-shot version of FSF came out in, but Flat Escardos's age is also an hint: in FSF and in El-Melloi Case Files, he is respectively 19 and 15, and El-Melloi Case Files take place during the year of the Fifth Holy Grail War, meaning 2004.


Are Rou and Ban related in any way or their similarities are just pure coincidence? In Season 3 of the anime King meets Rou, and he confuses with Ban because they look almost identical. The Nanatsu no Taizai wikia states:

Rou looks nearly identical to Ban, except with a neater haircut and a fringe that reaches his right eye.

Rou
Later Rou meets Meliodas and he greets him with a "handshake" identical to the one Meliodas does with Ban. But when you are about to think Ban is the reincarnation of Rou, the story shows Rou reincarnated in Oslo.
How are all their similarities possible then?
Are Rou and Ban related in any way or their similarities are just pure coincidence?

According to the anime, and from inferences, it doesn't seem so. It's possibly just a coincidence, as we never see anyone related to Rou in the series.


Have any successful manga artists picked up their skill without schooling? Asking as a person who knows very little about drawing but has some experience and is interested in drawing manga. Is natural artistic talent necessary if someone wants to become a good anime and manga artist or has anyone done it based on raw effort and or determination?

Along that same note, have there been any current or past manga artists that have derived success based on only what they taught themselves without any formal training?

In a nutshell, I'm basically asking how important nature versus nurture is to art in general as it pertains to manga and looking for examples of such.

From what I could find...

Tite Kubo, creator of Bleach only went to high school and he only started to take art seriously around age 17.
Hiro Mashima, creator of Fairy Tail also didn't have any formal art training.
Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of Kenshin.
Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy.
Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece (who was also a college dropout).

And there are many others but if you check around you can see that anyone doing anything in anime today was largely self taught. Most people only go to school to learn the theory and get a degree or certification. Having a degree makes you more likely to get a job in certain industries. (I suppose)

Truth be told, most of them went to art school but before you jump to assumptions, have you ever heard the term in college, 'you read for your degree'. If you haven't it means that simply going to school isn't enough, you have to go the extra mile and do the work. Artists like Akira Toriyama and Kishimoto were drawing years before that. Granted that might make you feel dismayed when starting but with determination anyone can do it. Like all skills, natural or not, they have to be nurtured.

  ..You have to be confident to draw..

As it relates to everything, not just art and anime, we as humans like to base what we want to do on the success of others but that can only get you so far when starting out. Just try something for yourself, its nice to have influences but If you plan to take it seriously you will have to be original amongst other things. I leave you with this comic.


Why, in the dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, were the Earthbound Gods renamed the Earthbound Immortals? In the original series, the Egyptian gods remained as they were, and later in the very same series a set of cards is called the Nordic gods; what makes the Earthbound Gods so different?

I don't really follow Yu-Gi-Oh anymore, but I think this can be explained on purely linguistic grounds.

Leaving Obelisk (and "Slifer") aside for a moment, Ra and Osiris take as their namesakes beings that we, in English, call gods. Ra is "an Egyptian god" because he was worshipped by the Egyptian people, and the same is true of Osiris. So we call their Yu-Gi-Oh counterparts "the Egyptian god cards".

Likewise, we conceptualize Loki, Odin, and Thor as "Norse gods" because they were worshipped by pre-Christian North Germanic peoples, and so we call their Yu-Gi-Oh counterparts "the Nordic god cards".

But do we call the figures drawn in the Nazca lines "gods"? No, we do not. Perhaps the Nazca people who created them did worship them (though it's difficult to tell, given that they produced no texts), but we - the target audience - think of them as "just" a spider or a bird or a tree, not as targets of worship. It would, in my opinion, be weird to use the word "god" to describe the Yu-Gi-Oh versions of these Nazca figures. I suspect that whoever made this translation decision followed a similar line of thought.

I hardly think this has anything to do with censorship. If they cared about not offending monotheists, well, that boat sailed long ago.

(It is perhaps worth noting that though the Japanese word 神 kami is typically translated as "god", there isn't a one-to-one equivalence here. The English word is heavily colored by the Christian sense of capital-G God, while the Japanese word is colored by indigenous worship practices that treat a wider variety of entities as kami. Just because the Japanese name of the Nazca figures is 地縛神 jibakushin, that doesn't mean that the "correct" translation of it must involve the word "god".)


What is the name of the song in Tokyo Ghoul season 2 episode 1? In Tokyo Ghoul: Root A episode 1, there's a song between 0:00-1:07. I know it may be a unique thing just for that scene but if there's a full song, I'd love to know.

That song is from Tokyo Ghoul Root A OST Disk 2 and it is called AMON.

You can hear it here.

PS: You can identify the song better if you jump to 1:50.


Are anime more popular in terms of viewership and revenue than Western cartoons? I was wondering if anime are more popular than Western cartoons - in terms of viewership and revenue - as I couldn't find any information on this.

I don't think there has been any significantly large survey on this. What about manga vs comics?

No. Up until now Japanese anime have never been in the popular spotlight compared to works for Western animation. Anime can be described as a "pulpy" format, often cheaply made, heavily-formulated, low critical respect and scrutiny. Though what makes anime unique is it's meta-genre. There are a lot of ideas in it's story templates the that are not typically seen or are non-existent in Western media culture.
Animation in the West
A lot of Western animation companies, like Disney for an example, don't just treat their works as a product, but as a brand. The better their brand looks to consumers, the better marketability the company will have with related works and products (they spend a lot on PR, marketing, lawyers, focus groups, etc, to ensure this). There's a lot of oversight involved is western animation, in order to ensure a better quality product, which typically drives up the cost of production. Of course, this all to ensure that their product is a successful as possible, in order to make obscene amounts of cash.
Animation in the East
While there is a ever growing community of anime fans out there, who like anime for one reason or another (e.g., characters vs. story), but few people typically care about the specifics of anime. In anime, the stakeholders are more concerned about the overall final product than any given piece of it, the product hits the main selling points of the formula (e.g., fighting, boobs, robot, X-dere character, harem cast, etc.), it's good to go. With anime there's a general lack of oversight, which typically leads to low expectations of the audience and from them as well. However the pulpy aspect of Anime allows authors a much higher level of freedom as they are free to explored new ideas, as long as they meet the initial criteria of the stakeholders.
On Popular Culture
This pulpiness is the same as what webcomics (modern comic book heroes starred in this pulpy format) and indie games are to us in these modern times. There are tons of these all around, most of it is forgettable, but occasionally there's that polished gem that can really good interesting, funny, charming and/or inventive stuff (e.g. Azumanga Daioh, Serial Experiments Lain, Baccano!). There's a lot of opportunities to fail, learn, and innovate, but at the same time the barriers for entry are lower and turnover is usually higher compared to similar works of western animation.
Viewership and revenue are often a by-product of the popularity of a given brand. Just like really popular mainstream movies or games will always make a profit, no matter how good or bad it might be (e.g., the Call of Duty series, the new Transformers movies). Western animation has built a brand image and following through it's popularity, and in order to sustain it's overwhelming popularity, there's a lot of scrutiny from both the audience and stakeholder to maintain a certain image and status within popular culture. We don't typically see this with anime, so it gives us an idea that anime specifically is not really up there in the mainstream.
Nowadays we see a lot of people on TV and the Internet proclaiming themselves to be "geeks" openly (whether they are or not is another thing), so there's not a whole lot to be said about anime and the otaku subculture. One can say they are a gamer ("I'm a huge gamer") or a TV show/movie ("I'm a big Disney/Pixar/Spongebob/Avatar fan"), but there are very few people come out about anime. This leads us to believe that anime hasn't reach the tipping point where it can be considered acceptable, like the other forms of western animation.


How does the One piece Bounty system work? Right from the beginning of One piece, we see luffy and his crew keep getting a bounty increase everytime something big happens and this leaves a lot of room for pondering; especially on how these bounties are thought up and agreed on.

I understand that Pirates who are deemed to be dangerous by the Marines are awarded bounties but my question is how the bounty system actually works in relation to the media. Do the Marines kinda depend on information from newspaper media outlets to increase or award a bounty? (or is the other way round; that they only use newspaper and the media for getting the bounties out). Is the Bounty based more on popularity within the media?

Also, what warrants a decrease/withdrawal in Bounty? I know it has never technically happened but is it ideally possble?

My last question is how a pirate with a bounty can actually turn in another pirate for their bounty, are there any set restrictions on awarding Bounties?

You can find a lot of information on the wikia page for Bounties. I'd suggest you read through it for specifics, but I've quoted the important bits from it below.

The assignment of bounties:

  Normally, a bounty is issued by a government official or by the Marines. The idea is to tempt others into aiding the capture of the criminal so they can be brought to justice quickly.

As for the value of the bounty:

  The amount of a bounty is determined in response to the perceived threat level of the criminal in question; the greater the threat to the world, the greater the bounty. In the eyes of a pirate, high bounties are thus usually seen as a sign of strength. After all, having been assigned a bounty means that the World Government as well as the Marines acknowledge the threat of the person to whom it is assigned.

As you can see, this becomes pretty subjective, and can lead to inaccurate bounties. And we've seen this happen plenty of times, where an initially low bounty was later increased due to a proper assessment of the threat level. A clear example is Chopper, who still has a low bounty of 100 because his monster form is thought to be another being entirely.

We've also seen in Arlong's case that he was bribing the local marines to suppress his true threat level, and was relatively free to do acts of piracy despite having an active bounty.

One should also keep in mind the influence of the World Government on this, because they could assign a high bounty simply because of threat to them, rather than to civilians. This is the case with Nico Robin's initial bounty as a kid, and the actions taken against Ohara.

My theory on the relation with media is that it goes both ways. In the cases where Marines were present at the incident, their testimonies would be used to determine the new bounty. In other cases, they may find out the events later through the media, and update their bounties based on the gravity of the incident. (For example, what happens in Wholecake Island arc). There doesn't seem to be any proper confirmation of the system though.

Of course, it is certain that the media is used to circulate the bounties once they're set, since we've seen the 'News Coo' being the source of pirates learning about new bounties.

What warrants a decrease in bounty?

  Bounties, once issued, are usually only retracted when the criminal is captured, killed, or is known to have otherwise died. A change in lifestyle will not affect the bounty. A bounty can last for over a hundred years if the criminal is not proven to be dead.

So the only viable way for a living pirate to have their bounty waived seems to be becoming a Shichibukai or their underling:

  Aside from death or capture, bounties may be retracted if the criminal can prove themselves an asset to either the Marines or World Government. This is the case with the Shichibukai, who are considered allies of the World Government and have their bounties retracted; this extends to any criminal serving as a subordinate to the Shichibukai, such as Caesar Clown.

An interesting point the wiki mentions is the existence of a court of law:

  A bounty may be removed by a court of law, as Jango's was during his mini-series. Jango's case was further aided by the pleas of the Marine Fullbody during the case. This later allowed him to enlist in the Marines under the command of Hina.

A last case wherein bounty isn't reduced, but the criminals aren't captured, is when they are made slaves. Since their bounties are active, they can still be captured once freed from slavery though.

Can a pirate with bounty turn in another pirate?

We don't have enough incidents regarding this to generalize, but it stands to reason that normal pirates cannot. As mentioned before, Shichibukai are considered allies of the Marines, so they may be permitted to despite being pirates.

In addition, turning in pirates is one way to prove oneself an ally of the Marines. We've seen two cases of this - Blackbeard and Trafalgar Law.

Blackbeard captures and turns over Ace, in order to be made into a Shichibukai. However, he didn't have much of a name then, and it is unclear whether he had a bounty.

Law on the other hand, is a better example. He had a 200,000,000 bounty when he was introduced as a rookie on Sabaody (Chapter 498). He then becomes a Shichibukai during the time skip, and his new bounty is revealed to be 440,000,000 (Chapter 659). He achieves the status by delivering the hearts of a hundred pirates to the Marine HQ. Considering how bounties are "Dead or Alive", I'd say this counts as turning them in. After the events of Dressarosa arc, he's no longer a Shichibukai and his bounty is increased to 500,000,000 (Chapter 801), while making him wanted by the Marines again.

So I'd say the most logical explanation is that one needs to be have allied / neutral access to the Marines. This could be because they're already a  Shichibukai, or because they are negotiating to become one, or because they have a backdoor through corrupt Marine officials (like what Arlong did).

At the end of the day, if one has an active, non-frozen bounty, then the rules imply that Marines would capture them. So it is unlikely that pirates would turn in other pirates as a normal act.


Can universe 6 saiyans turn into Oozaru? In universe 7 saiyans need a tale to turn into Oozarus. How about universe 6 saiyans? Do they have this transformation? Can Kyabe, Kale, Caulifla, kefura turn into Oozaru?

Saiyan's from Universe 6 do not possess tails on account of the evolution process in their Universe. Cabba has no idea of it in the anime when Goku questions Cabba with regard to the same. Also, in the Manga Cabba knew of the tails and how they evolved past itSo technically, they wouldn't be able to turn into Oozaru


What is the Independence Day that Inoue Marina has been tweeting about lately? Lately Inoue Marina has been tweeting about Independence Day. For example 2018-02-05 she tweeted,

  独立記念日全公演全て終了！
  今回は女子2人が交互にストーリーテラーとなっていく構成でかなりの集中力を要しましたが大変にやり甲斐のあるものでした。回を追う毎にキャスト皆の絆が深まって行って、とても素敵な空気感の中で幕を降ろす事が出来ました。
  来て下さった皆様、有難うございました！ https://t.co/CMlzcoSb7B

2018-02-04 she tweeted

  独立記念日1回目終わりました〜！
  あと2回！集中していきます！

and

  本日は砂岡事務所プロデュースリーディング公演、「独立記念日vol.2」です！ なんか今雪降ってきてビビってます。おそらくすぐ止むと思いますが。
  いらっしゃる皆様、お気をつけて！

2018-01-23

  砂岡事務所プロデュースリーディング公演『独立記念日』Vol.2の稽古が行われました。
  石川由依ちゃんと井上ってそれどこの進…というのは冗談として一緒に出演するのが由依ちゃんなのでめっちゃリラックスして臨んでおります。
  男性キャストの代永ウィング、福井貴一さんも滅茶滅茶素敵です！ https://t.co/Z1W6hVYdak

What is this "Independence Day" thing is about? Is it a Live movie? Does this means that she will become an drama actress now?

独立記念日 (Dokuritsu Kinenbi, Independence Anniversary*) is a live reading event produced by 砂岡事務所プロデュース (Sunaoka Creative Artist Agency, official website (Japanese)).

A short introduction on "what is a live reading?", it's a live staged reading event where voice actors and actresses read a story script live in front of audiences, or to put it simply, live audio drama. Live Read is one of such internationally-acclaimed events that can be found on Wikipedia.

Back to Dokuritsu Kinenbi, it's a 2-day live reading event which took places on Saturday and Sunday. There were 5 scripts: 2 scripts on the first day and 3 scripts on the second day. Each script consisted of 4 casts and took around 75~80 minutes without breaks. As it could be inferred from the tweet, it has been produced 2 times (as of Feb 2018):

Dokuritsu Kinenbi: 12-13 Aug 2017 (official site (Japanese))
Dokuritsu Kinenbi vol.2: 3-4 Feb 2018 (official site (Japanese))

This is how the stage for vol.2 looks like

From Sunaoka Jimusho's official Twitter account

*The English name is taken from these Facebook posts: Ishikawa Kaito and Hanae Natsuki


Is the proverb "When a man steps out of the gate, he faces seven enemies" a real one? Recently I watched again the Kenichi anime, and I went several times through this proverb.
"When a man steps out of the gate, he faces seven enemies"  (e.g. episode 5)
Looks like a legitimate proverb, but trying to find its origin or references, I got nothing at all.
So I was wondering if somebody could have some references or sources about this proverb.
Thank you in advance. :-)

The proverb is real, although spoken differently.
In episode 5 of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Miu said the following proverb,

男子門口を出れば七人の敵あり (danshi kadoguchi wo dereba shichinin no teki ari)
A young man, if he steps out of the gateway, there are seven enemies (lit.)

The more known proverbs are:

男は敷居を跨げば七人の敵あり (otoko wa shiki'i wo matageba shichinin no teki ari)
男子家を出ずれば七人の敵あり (danshi ie wo izureba shichinin no teki ari)
男子門を出ずれば七人の敵あり (danshi mon wo izureba shichinin no teki ari)

which its interpretation is more about

A man has many competitors, if man comes out to society.

This can refer to education, career, and similar situations (basically: people are competing with each other outside; always be on your guard and do not open a chance to be used by others)
One of the earliest references is on Kunio Kishida's essay Nihonjin to wa? (1951) (Japanese), but no specific origin is known.

昔から、「人を見たら泥棒と思え」だの、「男子外にいずれば七人の敵あり」だの、とにかく、人間と人間との関係を、おのずから相親しむべきものとせず、かえって、互いに心の許せぬもの、油断をすれば隙に乗ぜられるもの、という風に教えているのである
Since a long time ago, there were sayings like "if you see a man, think of him as a robber", "if a young man goes outside, there are seven enemies", anyway, it is told that people should not be familiar with each other naturally, rather, they are unforgivable to each other, and if they are not careful, an opportunity can be taken.


Is it possible that Goku is more powerful than Beerus in Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form? In DBZ: Battle of Gods, Goku became Super Saiyan God and he makes Beerus use upto 70% of his energy. So, is it possible for Goku to defeat Beerus in his Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan form?

There is no clear answer.
But according to the Wikia article on SSGSS:

  The form exceedingly surpasses its predecessor, Super Saiyan God, and
  all of the other Saiyan forms.

This source also mentions that SSGSS will appear in Dragon Ball Super, so there might be a chance, but we can't be sure unless we watch Dragon Ball Super..


How was Orochimaru able to jump bodies? During the attack on the Leaf Village by the Sand and Sound Ninja, Orochimaru revealed he had learned the Jutsu that allowed him to jump bodies and thus achieve a form of immortality. during their fight Hiruzen Sarutobi used the Reaper Death Seal Jutsu to seal away Orochimaru's arms and thus taking away his Jutsu.
Near to the end of Naruto before the Time Jump to Shippuden, Orochimaru tried waiting for Sasuke to reach him but in the end had to jump to another body but according to this answer

 Orochimaru regained his arms during the 4th Shinobi War, well into Shippuden

so if Orochimari couldn't use Jutsu before the time skip into Shippuden, how was he able to jump bodies?

Despite the Reaper Death Seal immobilizing Orochimaru's arms, he could still perform justu that did not require hand signs.

[...] Though the act undid most of the damage caused by the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, it still left Orochimaru incapable of using techniques requiring hand seals.

Orochimaru was able to jump bodies because the justu required does not require handle signs. How it is performed is not shown until much later in the Shippuden series, which is detailed below with a spoiler

 To perform this technique, Orochimaru reveals his true form: a gigantic white snake composed of smaller white snakes, by abandoning his current host's body. Orochimaru then swallows the new host and takes him or her to a separate, mental plane where he envelops the mind of his victim. The snake body then dies and falls apart, and Orochimaru's soul dominates the body
 Living Corpse Reincarnation


What happened to Retsu's doll at the clothing shop? In the Hunter X Hunter: Phantom Rouge movie, what happened to Retsu's doll when she activates it after Gon and Killua step out to talk? We never see anyone exit the shop after Gon and Killua. Did she swap places with her doll?

She mentions she "left her doll in the shop for safekeeping;" what exactly happened here? How did she catch up to Gon and Killua in the alley?

I finally got around to watching this and here is my theory on what exactly happened to the doll. After Retsu gets her dress Killua asks her to give Gon and him the location that she believes to be where the Pairo doll is that contains Kurapika's eyes. After a small argument Killua asks Gon for a moment alone so they walk outside to the alley. Before the even leave the store Retsu uses the Soul
Doll ability. According to the HxH wikia a brief description states:

  The ability to make a doll copy of a person that the target is strongly thinking about. Conditions in performing Soul Doll are :
  Omokage's doll must be adjacent to the target while that person is thinking of someone. When the doll is adjacent to the target, it will turn into the person that the target is thinking about. The real person of whom the doll is based cannot feel or notice this (without actually being there). ref(Omokage Abilities)

During the brief exchange with Gon, Killua has the ever present flashback of Illumi telling him that he will betray his freinds. After Retz comes out and addresses them in the alley they leave, the scene zooms back into the alley and we see a purplish aura that grows into a humanoid shadow.

So my theory is since Retsu can manipulate her doll without strings she sent it after Gon and Killua in the alley and once the Soul Doll ability was activated it caught on to Killua's thinking of Illumi and once they left the alley it transformed into the Illumi doll that we see later on in the movie.


What are the paintings in the Anti-Angel Headquarters and what do they mean? Here is a partial list available on Wikia. What do the ever-changing paintings mean and how are they connected to the episode's or the overall plot? For example:

   In the OP of Episode 4, hung on the side wall is the painting with the kanji [鎮魂歌]【ちんこんか】, which means requiem. The painting alludes to both the album Requiem for Innocence by Sad Machine that has a profound influence on Masami Iwasawa and her disappearance at the end of Episode 3.

Directions with respect to Yuri's perspective, where the front is facing the entrance. For the sake of completeness, I also include the paintings that are fixed across episodes.

All episodes

Front: School song of the Heaven Academy. The song lyrics reproduced below reference this yahoo answer and this wiki page.

  校歌

  緑豊かに広がる丘に
  光輝く我らが母校
  大いなる大地と
  天のかけ橋
  真実を知る時天に登らん

  心のままに戒めなくは
  かけ[●●●●●●●●●]【し希望にひるがえる】
  千里離れた空を思へば
  遠く忘れし思いはいづこ
  真実を知る時天に登らん

  光あふれる月の夜
  耳をすまして聞き入れば
  天使の歌声高らかに
  思いを胸に登る[●]【時】
  真実を知る時天に登らん

  天上学園

Back: Portraits of all past principals of the Heaven Academy. The portrait of the current principal has been replaced by Yuri's.

Left: During the operation meetings, the banner of the SSS Brigade is hanged on this side of the wall.

Right: Smiley face painting. Unknown artist.

Episode 1

Front: [危]【き】 — Danger.

Left: テトラポット — Tetrapod, a tetrahedral concrete structure used as armour unit on breakwaters.

Right: [南紀]【なんき】みかん — Tangerine from Nanki, Mie Prefecture.

Note: Jun Maeda, the original creator of Angel Beats!, is from Mie.

Episode 2

Front: [毒]【どく】 — Poison. I believe it's intended to invoke the expression 「お気の毒に」, meaning "my condolences", as said by Angel about Hinata in episode 5. By Jun's arrangement or by coincidence, Hinata was forced into sacrifice in an arithmetic progression of episode number 2, 5 and 8.

Left: [悦]【えつ】 — Rejoicing.

Right: [松阪牛]【まつさかうし】 — Matsusaka beef, another food product from Mie.

Episode 3

Front: [嫁]【よめ】 — Wife; bride; (one's) daughter-in-law. Don't know if this has anything to do with 俺の嫁 〜あなただけの花嫁〜 or not. 俺の嫁 is a love adventure game released in the same year as Angel Beats! and sharing some of the voice actors (Emiri Katou, Kana Asumi, Eri Kitamura and Kana Hanazawa).

Left: [諭吉]【ゆきち】 — Yukichi Fukuzawa, the guy on the 10,000 yen banknote. Yukichi is the nickname of Yuuki Hashimoto from the 2010 eroge 恋色空模様 who is also voiced by Harumi Sakurai (Yurippe's voice actor). Moreover, "Farewell, Yukichi" (「さらば諭吉」) is the defining quote of Kyousuke Natsume from Little Busters!, another visual novel written by Jun Maeda.

Right: マニア — Mania, i.e. Takeyama.

Episode 4

Right (OP): [鎮魂歌]【ちんこんか】 — Requiem. Its significance has already been explained in the question.

Front: [脇]【わき】 — Supporting role; the second stanza of a renga. Yui changed her role in the band from support to lead after Iwasawa left the Afterlife World. At this point in time, the story has also entered its second phase in the hokku→waki→daisan→ageku renga structure or the introduction→development→twist→conclusion Kishoutenketsu structure.

Left: (Not shown).

Right: [逆鱗]【げきりん】 —  A scale grown upside-down below the chin of a dragon that will anger the dragon when touched; imperial wrath. Yuri's underlings incurred her wrath by failing their mission of defeating Angel's team in the baseball tournament. There is also the angered dragon conjured up in Otonashi's mind in episode 7.

Episode 5

Front: [謎]【なぞ】 — Enigma; mystery, i.e. Ayato Naoi in this episode. If you turn up the volume just after Yuri throws her second tantrum, you can also hear a 'mysterious' voice saying "what's with her?" (「なんだこいつ」). This is documented under the 謎の声 section here.

Left: コテンパン — Black and blue (e.g. beaten ...), i.e. Angel and Hinata in this episode.

Right: バミューダ — Bermuda.

Episode 6

Front: [乙]【おつ】 — Second; the latter; strange. Describes Ayato Naoi well in this episode.

Left: (Not shown).

Right: [猫大陸]【ねこたいりく】 — Continent of cats. Presumably the same painting appears again in the second panel on page 4, chapter 30 of Angel Beats! The 4-koma: Our War Front March Song:

In this panel, Yusa is explaining the term "marriage hunting" (婚活) to Hinata. The true meaning of 猫大陸 still eludes me, but if I were to fashion a guess, it would at least be somewhat related to marriage hunting, which reminds me of the missed opportunity in this episode for Otonashi to do, I mean, to become closer to Kanade, and the fact that the 'marriage hunting' was initiated by Naoi on behalf of Otonashi, too!

Episode 7

Front: プラ — Recycling symbol used in Japan for plastic.

Left: [濃厚]【のうこう】 — Rich (in flavor, color, smell, etc.) and strong; very likely; passionate and hot.

Right: ●(●)ック? (Not legible).

Episode 8

Front: (Not shown).

Left: (Not shown).

Right: (Not shown).

Episode 9

Front: ♨ — Icon for hot springs.

Left: [部族]【ぶぞく】 — Tribe; clan.

Right: マグロ? (Not fully shown) — Tuna.

Episode 10

Front: (Not shown).

Left: ●ロス? (Not legible).

Right: [赤福]【あかふく】 — [赤福餅]【あかふくもち】, wagashi of Akafuku shop, Ise City, Mie Prefecture.

Episode 11

Front: (Not shown).

Left: (Not fully shown).

Right: [極上]【ごくじょう】 — First-rate; best.

Episode 12

Front: [心]【こころ】 — Heart. Lots and lots of hearts on the computer screens.

Left: (Not shown).

Right: [土]【ど】● (Not fully shown).

Episode 13

Front: [魂友]【こんゆう】 — Spiritual friend.

Left: (Not shown).

Right: (Not shown).

Special: Another Epilogue

Front: (Not shown).

Left: (Not legible).

Right: [東]【とう】●? (Not legible). It would make more sense if the character is [転]【てん】, though, as that means "altering pronunciation or meaning".

OVA 1: Stairway to Heaven

Front: (Happy face).

Left: (Teeth-gritting face).

Right: (Happy face).

OVA 2: Hell's Kitchen

Front: [再]【さい】 — Again.

Left: ボンレス — Boneless.

Right: [久々]【ひさびさ】 — (in a) long time; long time (ago). It's been almost 5 years since the last Angel Beats! episode was released.


What is the jokes in regards to Dragonball Character names? While watching the Co-Optional Podcast (Episode 209. after 1:47:50 when it says "anime thing"), when talking about Dragonball Fighters and how Broly and Bardock were the only 2 confirmed to be being released in future TotalBiscuit said that the names sounded like vegetables. in response Dodger said that the names of Saiyans were supposed to be vegetable puns like how the names of Bumla's family were jokes on underwear.

I admit Broly sorta sound like like Brocoli but not sure how Bardock is a joke on a vegetable, nor how Nappa or Goku (or even Kakarot) are jokes either (Gohan might since i know Gohan is sometimes used in Japanese for "food")

So what are these jokes/puns and are they categorized/themed as Dodger said?

The puns are in japanese.
Nappa is a japanese term for greens in general.
Kakarot is carrot.
Bardock is a japanese root vegetable "Burdock".

For a full list Origins of character names

And yes, they are categorized as she said.


How many girls does the main character conquer? In the manga The World God Only Knows, how many girls does the main character actually conquer after all 268 chapters?

13 - 18, depending on what you count as a conquest.

The wiki front page lists 18 girls as “captured targets”.

Thirteen girls were “conquered” according to the initial setup: there was a hole in their hearts, Keima romanced them, the hole was filled and the Loose Soul left to be captured by Elsie in her bottle.

Ayumi Takahara
Mio Aoyama
Kanon Nakagawa
Shiori Shiomiya
Kusunoki Kasuga
Chihiro Kosaka
Jun Nagase
Tsukiyo Kujo
Minami Ikoma
Sumire Uemoto
Nanaka Haibara
Yui Goidou
Hinoki Kasuga

As for the rest:

Tenri Ayukawa was never really “conquered”. She was already in love with Keima, and she never had a Loose Soul; she was pursued by mistake by Nora and Ryou. She was the host of the goddess Diana from her first appearance.
Rieko Hinaga had a Loose Soul in her, but Keima didn’t romance her; Elsie convinced it to leave because Rieko was too old to have children.
Akari Kurakawa is actually the demon Rimyuel, and never succumbs to Keima’s romantic advances.
Urara Shiratori does get romanced by Keima, but there’s no Loose Soul involved. The Jupiter Sisters story arc at the end of the manga where she appears has a completely different plot structure.
Kaori Yuuzaki is more of a villain who Keima defeats than a “conquest target”.

Five of the “conquered” girls were “reconquered” during the Goddesses Arc to bring out their hosted goddess:

Kanon Nakagawa, host of Apollo
Tsukiyo Kujo, host of Vulcan
Shiori Shiomiya, host of Minerva
Yui Goidou, host of Mars
Ayumi Takahara, host of Mercury

Though Kanon comes straight to Keima, so there wasn’t much effort there.

Keima also “reconquers” Chihiro because he isn’t sure whether she or Ayumi is the host of Mercury. While doing this, he discovers that Chihiro had already fallen in love with him on her own, even before the first “conquest”.

Haqua, Chihiro, Tenri, and Diana fall in love with Keima without any effort on his part, so these don’t quite count as “conquests” either. Nor would Elsie’s sisterly feelings of devotion.

So the final count is:

13 unambiguous “conquests”
1 Loose Soul exorcism without a romantic “conquest” (Rieko)
1 romantic “conquest” without a Loose Soul exorcism (Urara)
1 attempted romantic “conquest” which failed, of a wrongfully chosen target (Akari)
5 “reconquests” to awaken a goddess
4 girls who fall in love with Keima on their own accord
1 girl who develops feelings of sisterly devotion towards Keima on her own accord.


Is there an out-of-universe reason for the Gundam series mech head designs? As I watch the shows I am constantly noticing the patterns in the head designs of the mobile suits.

Any true Gundam, or otherwise important mech, will always have two eyes and usually the V horns.
Any generic suit, or one belonging to a more shallow villain, will only have one eye.

Is this any kind of cultural reference?

EDIT

In Unicorn characters say that a mech becomes a Gundam when the horn opens into a V.  As if the V horns are something very specific.

According to Kunio Okawara, the mecha designer for the series:

  "I also put the form of the chonmage, which is a form of Japanese traditional haircut worn by men, and kabuto, which is a type of helmet first used by ancient Japanese warriors, into the design of Gundam. They are my inspirations that are concealed behind the creation of Gundam."


What is the song when Karma was introduced for the first time in episode 2? In the beginning of the 1st episode of season 1, there is a soundtrack playing in the background that gives off sort of calm and mysterious vibe.

Usually, if I encounter an interesting music theme, I am able to find the author of the composition or even the OST itself with enough persistence and searching. However, this one has been a real struggle for me, probably the hardest one to find so far. None of the known methods of identifying music names were crowned with success in the instance with this piece of music, so I really would like to know if anyone knows something about it.

Also, this OST was played at the very end of the 2nd episode of season 1, when Karma was introduced to the audience for the first time.

I have provided a link below to the video of what the soundtrack sounds like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX18JNa91-Q

I really would appreciate if anyone could point me in the right direction because I don't know what else to do to get the answer at this stage.

I find the fact that this particular soundtrack is not listed anywhere quite interesting too. I have scouted various databases along with other forums, but to no avail. If I eventually discover the name of the OST,  I will post it her.


Why did the Queen kill Ciel's relatives? In the anime, Black Butler, while sitting inside the Eiffel Tower, the Queen finally admits to Ciel that she was the one responsible for the death of

   his parents.

Why did she kill them, exactly?

We find out later that

   his parents even knew the Queen may be coming for them,

but why?

Actually this is not the case and is a common example of where the plot falls apart between cannon and filler.

This is a long answer and took a lot of editing, but try to stay with me and feel free to comment if anything doesn't make sense. First, I will explain why your question doesn't have an answer, then I will explain why.

First off,

  The reason why the queen killed Ciel's parents

This is unknown because it is never truly revealed in the anime. In the battle it is alluded to that the queen perceived Phantomhive household as a threat to the throne and had them exterminated. As to why they became such a threat is left unclear.

Secondly,

  Why is this unanswerable?

The contract that Ciel has with Sebastian pertains specifically until Ciel satisfies his revenge. So once that enemy is listed and the conflict is resolved, the plot would end theoretically. As you probably already know, the manga for this series is still being written by Yana Toboso so naturally the main villain has yet to be revealed and we are still learning the history of Vincent's past bit by bit as Ciel goes through his adventures in service to the crown.

The concept of the queen being the killer of Ciel's parents was only explored in the anime and IMHO was a fantastic plot twist to keep the anime below 25 episodes and very enjoyable, but...

The black butler anime is only partially canon.

The deaths of Ciel's parents have yet to even be explored in the manga. For this reason (among several other inconsistencies with the manga), the anime has several plot holes. If you watch the first season to completion and then watch Book of Circus or Book of Murder (both of which are canon), then the plot clearly falls apart.

Black Butler II and everything that happened in the latter half of the anime is not canon.

Black Butler contains the following arcs, more details can be read about them here:

Kidnapping
Jack the Ripper (also called the Madame Red arc)
Houndsworth (anime only, non-canon)
Shard of Hope (anime only)
Curry Contest
Noah's Ark Circus (manga only, adopted later in the Book of Circus OVA)
Haunted Castle (anime only)
Book of Doomsday (anime only)
Conspiracy and Revenge (anime only, death of the queen and end of the anime)
Phantomhive Manor Murderds (manga only, later adopted in Book Of Murder OVA)
Luxury Liner (manga only)
Public School (manga only)
Emerald Witch (manga only)
Blue Cult (manga only, and current arc at chapter 117 released June 2016)
Black Butler II doesn't have a place in the storyline as of yet, but will be added at the end here because it does exist.

So a prime example of this is that if the queen was killed in Conspiracy and Revenge, why is Ciel still taking a mission from her in Public School which clearly occurred after?

So to sum all of this up, the manga does not support the fact that the queen killed the parents of Ciel. So if the anime did not fully flesh out why that happened then there is no answer.

PS: I can list the more major plot differences anime-wise and manga-wise, but it will take me time to look up arc names and whatnot so this answer will be getting edited.

PPS: Finally finished all my major edits. Anything else beyond this will be for style and added clarity.


Why did Kuroshitsuji II use new characters and plot? The second anime of Kuroshitsuji, Kuroshitsuji II, featured brand new characters including main characters Alois Trancy and Claude Faustus. The main characters of the original series, Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis, are still involved in the main plot, but the show isn't exactly focused on them.

Alois and Claude don't seem to appear in the Kuroshitsuji manga.

Is there any official discussion of why the second season of the anime created completely new main characters and a completely new plot?

This is how Toboso explained the matter in her journal:

  When the second season was announced on January 31st last winter, she received tremendous numbers of messages from the fans. The majority of the messages were criticisms against the absence of Ciel and Sebastian from the second season. "How dare you desert the fans, who have been waiting for the two?" "If you don't have affections for your characters, you don't deserve to be the author!" She and the producers had expected the bitter reactions because they intensionally hid Ciel and Sebastian from the announcement. In the first season, director Shinohara chose to bring the revenge of Ciel to an end and Toboso had approved it. The overwhelming enthusiasm of the fans had given the green light to the second season after that. Toboso asked the producers not to reset the finale of the first season. To meet two conflicting conditions: "We must not revive Ciel easily" versus "We want to show the two once again", she had been vigorously working on the scenario for half a year with other staff. In conclusion, they had created a new rival pair, Alois and Claude. With an intension of showing them "big" and dominant, Alois and Claude were placed in the main of the key illustrations and the trailer and Sakurai Takahiro and Mizuki Nana were assigned to them. Toboso said that the aim of the tricky announcement will be understood if you watch the series to the end.

Read more at http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=243708#FkjdSTxGYWPL8y1l.99


Is it explained why Satoshi cannot create art? In D.N.Angel, Satoshi can copy any art that he sees but not create art of his own. Is this because he was not raised by his family (the Hikari family)? Is some other reason given, either by the manga or by the author?

As far as I know, it wasn't mentioned either in the anime or manga. But having him raised by his adoptive father Kei Hiwatari instead by the Hikari family themselves probably was the main reason. He probably lacked training from his ancestors so he can only create a copy of an artwork, and cannot create an artwork of his own.


Why Al's had lost all his body and Ed's lost just his arm? A question that bothered me every time I'm watching FMA\FMAB, it is clear that one body & soul had to be paid (plus arm), but why Al's and not Ed's? anytime I asked myself that I told myself that it happened to be that way, but it could be the opposite and Ed's body & soul to be taken and there's no special reason to that.

And that is my point, is there a reason or it really happens to be that way for no reason at all (except the author reasons of course ...).

What Truth takes is not arbitrary, but ironic; it takes something symbolic of what the alchemist who opened the gate desired. This is explained by Father in Chapter 102 of the manga (found in Volume 25), and is summarized by the FMA Wiki as:

  Father discusses the irony behind the works of the 'Truth', who took Ed's way to 'stand by himself' and his 'only family', Al's body so he 'cannot feel the mother's warmth as he craved', Izumi's 'capacity to nurture the seed of life' and, now, with Mustang, coming full circle, 'depriving the man who had a grand vision to save his country of his eyesight, denying him to see what his beloved nation will become'.

As Brotherhood follows the manga, the reason stands there as well; in the 2003 anime, the reasoning may be similar, but likely exists simply because it was done in the manga, and the reasoning had not yet been revealed there.

Within your question, there is a false assumption, that "one body & soul" can be traded for another human life; human transmutation is not possible, and nothing was taken as any sort of equivalent exchange. Al's body was taken as the price of opening the gate, as was Ed's leg (his arm was not part of this exchange), Izumi's organs/reproductive system, and Mustang's eyes.

Furthermore, Al's soul was never part of the price. It was not taken by Truth; only his body was taken. It's shown within Brotherhood and the manga that Al's soul was what animated the failed human transmutation; it was the nearest thing close to a human (the chemical composition was correct) that shared a blood link to him. As the failed transmutation could not survive long term, Ed gave his arm not as part of the initial transmutation, but to force Al's soul onto the nearest human-shaped object and bind it before it was lost.


Do we ever see the Senshi de-transform? The henshin (or, transformation) sequences in Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon are legendary for being awesome, but do we ever see them change back into their civilian identities?

I'm requesting either video links, screencaptures, or panels from the manga for this one, because I'd like to see the scenes myself! Examples from both the anime and the manga would be appreciated.

In episode 45 of the dub, Sailor Moon is forcibly de-transformed at ~11:44. When it does, she "ribbons" back to her civilian clothes.

In episode 108 of the dub, we see Sailor Uranus de-transforms (at ~21:12), willingly, by going nude briefly before she appears in her civilian clothes.

In the manga. it looks like they use the transformation pen to de-transform a la ribbons.

So it seems they typically get surrounded by ribbons again and revert back to their civilian clothes.


Why is "Uso Da!" used in Higurashi? I haven't heard  "Uso Da!" used to mean "Liar!" in any other anime from what I can remember, and when I type the phrase into google, it seems to exclusively be a Higurashi thing. Why is this?  If it were just a dramatic word that's not really used in real conversation, which is common for media, I'd expect to hear it more elsewhere in other anime too. I'd love to hear exactly why uso da seems exclusive to Higurashi, thank you ^^

だ is really just there for emphasis, and would likely be there for emphasis in any other media or show.
From the article:

The most basic functions of だ are to mark nouns and な-adjectives as positive (true), and present tense (relevant to now or the future). だ is not used with word types that have their own way of telling us their tense or whether or not they’re true, such as verbs and い-adjectives.

So if you heard someone say　"嘘{うそ}だ！", phonetically it's no different than if someone said, "You liar!"
As with natural speech, there is always nuance in how people speak certain phrases.  This example is no different, and the real answer as to why this form is used over others is a bit beyond my completely non-native understanding to assist you with.
I do hope that this can give you some enlightenment as to why it is the way it is, though.


Why was Danzo after Shisui eyes? This has been bugging me for a while. I'm very interested in Shisui's story of his life, but the real question is why was Donzo after his eye? Was it because of his sharingan? and "how is Donzo supposed to use this"?

Shisui was one of the few members in the clan's history that was able to awaken the Mangekyō Sharingan. It granted him access to a very powerful genjutsu, a unique technique noted to be of the highest caliber, Kotomatsukami. This technique allowed him to enter a person's mind and manipulate him or her by creating false experiences and illusions making it seem as though they were doing things of their own free will. The victim wouldn't be able to notice that they were being manipulated.This Mangekyō Sharingan  are noted to be the "heavenly eyes that see the truth of creation without obstruction". Hence Danzo was after Shisou's eyes.Source


Where exactly is Kadath In Shikkoku no Sharnoth -What a Beautiful Tomorrow-, there are multiple references to a place known as Kadath, in Act 9 - Sharnoth of the Darkest Black there are references to Inganock particularly when Robin Funnel is talking to Howard Phillips that he should consider being a "Runner" and makes reference to a bird she knew who was a runner (obviously referring to Ati's partner David), Howard replies that he's not familiar which the occupation but he had heard that it's a Kadathian occupation.

I know that when Seikyou is referenced it refers to known locations of earth as London, New York, France and Germany are bringing in Seikyou, also in Sekien no Inganock -What a Beautiful People- in the chapter where Gii fights one of the spawn if the Blood Tree Youki, Gii comments that John Doe's name is a Seikyouan name for "no one", that John's belief in God is a Seikyouan faith and in parts of the story refers to stuff as being originated from Seikyou like Sandwitches.

Whenever travel to Kadath is mentioned they always talk about airships however it also uses the same term to mention travel to Germany and Rome is done by airship as well but never described what these airships look like or their capabilities, considering the Engine Technology that's used throughout the series it wouldn't be surprising if these airships could also travel space (Inganock was made to be totally independent using Engines to manufacture food and the Street Knight, Crack Chrome was almost entirely made of Engines, there are also references to Engine Humans much like Moran),

so i am wondering, is Kadath a fictional continent on Earth or is it a separate world and if so is it dimensional or another planet

Kadath is another world loosely based on the Dream-world from a series of HP Lovecraft short stories. It's the world in which Souten no Celenaria, Sekien no Inganock, and Hikari no Valusia take place and the origin of the steam-based technologies seen within the series.

I don't know the specifics as I have not played Celenaria, but from what I understand it's a parallel world that is connected to Earth/Seikyou via a portal in the North Pole, hence only being accessible by airships, and being an apparently dangerous journey.

As for the level of technology, I don't believe they have space travel, but Kadath is where airships were invented, and they do have floating fortresses and other higher technology marvels, especially after the Infinite Mist around Inganock cleared, and the breakthoughs of the Phenomenon Equation Experiment were shared, allowing development of crack engines and other technologies based on the Equation.