What is Tsumugi's gender? What is Tsumugi's gender? I know that she is created from Hoshijiro's placenta and shares the same seiyuu, but does that also means that they are of the same gender? Was there any evidence that shows that Tsumugi is a female?

I know that Nagate is in love with Tsumugi as Tsumugi was born from placenta Hoshijiro, but since IRL same gender relationship do exist, I don't think this can be used to prove that Tsumugi is a female.

Shiraui Tsumugi is a 融合個体 (yuugou kotai, meaning "fusion individual organism") created with the intent of serving as a biological weapon (生体兵器 = seitaiheiki). As such, Ochiai's intent as to whether Tsumugi has a sex and/or gender is unknown.

“Sex” and “gender” bear disparate meanings (though many people accidentally conflate these words). In the technical distinction, “sex” is a neutral word referring solely to physiology including differences in reproductive organs, brain chemistry, and hormones, whereas “gender” refers to cultural constructions/assumptions about what personality traits and behaviors best suit (or are innately connected to) a particular biological anatomy. It is not clear whether or not Tsumugi subscribes to a belief in gender essentialism or what "her" specific concept of "female gender" would include and not include. Tsumugi does not seem to have any focus on or concerns regarding gender identity. However, the creators have implied that Tsumugi identifies as female through the following aspects:

Tsumugi was given a female seiyuu (voice actor) and speaks in feminine Japanese rather than masculine Japanese (more details on Japanese gendered language can be found here at Tofugu)
Tsumugi's mannerisms culturally align closer to the gender norms of Japanese girls and women than to 1) Japanese men or to 2) Shinatose Izana's mannerisms which were intentionally written as gender-ambiguous (since Izana is intersex)
Tsumugi's bodily form features what looks like the shape of a very fluttery dress
Tsumugi likes Nagate from the get-go, which could imply that Tsumugi possesses memories of Hoshijiro, who was both biologically female and mentally identified as female

Tsumugi's sex is unknown (whether or not the body has any female anatomy and could reproduce in kind). Gauna are not understood to bear distinct bodily organs, but on the other hand, Gauna placenta are able to replicate a functioning human uterus. In real life, even plants can reproduce and are labeled in science as “male” or “female,” or even “male” and “female” parts on the very same individual plant, without needing to reproduce by sexual intercourse of the human kind (using the words “male” and “female” for these plant parts makes their reproduction easier to describe). On the other hand, some humans cannot naturally reproduce (infertile, or use in vitro fertilization), but no one is unwilling to call them “male” or “female” due to that limitation
alone, since that is not what verifies whether or not they are indeed male or female (biologically and in identity). So even without organs it is possible that Tsumugi could be biologically female in addition to identifying as female in gender. Interestingly, Tsumugi's tentacle (触手 = shokushu) arguably looks rather phallic, but it does not seem to be perceived this way by the other characters.


Is this picture migate no gokui with kaioken? Some months ago appeared an official preview picture of Goku's new form. It looked just like migate no gokui, but not only with grey aura but also red. Is this picture Goku using migate no gokui with kaioken on top of it?

The form seen in the picture is called "Ultra Instinct" in English which indeed is Migatte no Gokui, something that even the gods have difficulty with to attain. This was shown in the last episode of DBS (episode 110).

Based on what I read in the wiki (link below) and what Whis said during the episode, it is when your body responds without your brain having to progress the impulse. This is a state of the body which isnt based on ki. That's why they detected no ki during the fight. Going by that logic it is possible to attain this state while maintaining a SS form, or maybe even a SSG form. It is possible that Goku used Kaioken in the picture since his aura is indeed red. His hair style also seems to be from a non SS form, otherwise I'd suggest that it could also be the SSG form.

So based on the aura color the only option left is Kaioken in combination with Ultra Instinct.

Wiki source: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Ultra_Instinct_%22Omen%22


Why Did Anko get so fat? Alert: This post contains spoilers. If you are not up-to-date to Naruto's manga, don't read it.

   In the last chapter of Naruto, Anko appears as Chouchou's sensei:

She was always in good shape during the entire series.

Is there a reason she got this fat? Is this some kind of a joke made by Masashi Kishimoto?

Source - deviantart

This may be the reason... too many dangos.

As seen in the image above, during the Chunin Exam, Anko consumed four times the amount of calories an adult female needs in one day. If this is typical in her diet she would likely be unable to burn all those calories every day, which would lead to weight gain.


How can Lelouch use his geass on so many people? One of the rules is, that he has to make direct eye contact. Yet he's able to geass about twenty people at the same time in Episode 1 from Season 2. He even is able to do it later, too. So how can he do this?

On the Code Geass Wikia it says

  Lelouch's Geass manifests itself as "the power of absolute obedience," which allows him to plant commands within a person's mind upon direct eye contact.

Source: Geass - Canonical Geass - Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion (Anime)- Lelouch vi Britannia's Geass

while yes it does say it works upon direct eye contact it doesn't necessary say that both parties need to make direct eye contact.

i believe that Lelouch's Geass works similar to Superman's Heat Vision

  So how focused is Superman's heat vision? Not very, under most circumstances. Most often, it's depicted as a rapidly widening cone, starting at eye-width but growing to several feet across by the time it reaches the opponent, even at close range.

with Lelouch's Geass it expands out and through obstructing this "widening cone" with his Zero helmet he can focus it slightly to one person. from there he should realistically be able to see his target's eyes even if his vision isn't focused on them

My evidence showing Lelouch alone just need to be able to see his target's eyes is in Season 2: Turn 15 - C's World when Lelouch goes to order Charles to kill himself by having the Shinkirō release mirrors and using one mirror bounce his Geass around to target Charles without Charles being able to target him which his Geass too needed eye contact.

this way the Geass expands outwards but the power is reflected to the next mirror and continues reflecting until it reaches Charles as since Lelouch could see Charles eyes in the mirrors then his Geass has to be able to reflect back the opposite way as indicated by how light is reflected1

this would also explain why the United Federation of Nations' counter measure to his Geass was to trap him in an isolated room and display him on a monitor.

my evidence as to Lelouch not needing to focus on the target eyes is when his Geass went out of control while talking to Euphie. it's just my personal interpretation but i do not believe Lelouch was focusing on Euphie's eyes but her face as he was more or less allowing Euphie to win and amend his plans to fit with her own and he was joking about Euphie how he could order her to "kill the Japanese", however he could realistically look into her eyes at any point while looking at her face

While one can argue "Lelouch's power went out of control then so he can no longer focus it" lets remember that his geass was out of control in Season 2: Turn 15 - C's World and when he first gained his power he ordered a group of soldiers to kill themselves and i seem to remember there was times where he would open up one part of his Zero Helmet to use his Geass

1: to put it simply, when you look at a red cube it isn't red it's absorbing every other color of light except red which is being reflected back to our eyes. so if Lelouch can see the purple on Charles's clothes in the mirrors then that means the purple light being reflected from Charles's clothes to the mirrors and then to Lelouch's eyes


How did Yuno become alive again? As we all know, Yuno died and Yuki became god and became frustrated after that.

But at the end of that episode, Yuki's diary changes and says that

  Yuno comes to see me

and then someone shouts

  yukki!!

and then Two started to re-shape World Two.

My question is that

How did Yuno become alive again?
Is this an indication of a second season?

In Redial, the Yuno is the Yuno of the third timeline, she inherited the memories of the Yuno from the first timeline. This is explained by Deus that despite the alteration of the third timeline by God Yuki, the persistence of Yuno towards Yuki transcended the timelines.

Combined with the calling of Murmur and that odd feeling she had (love for Yuki), she arrived and freed Murmur, obtaining first timeline's Yuno's memories from Murmur 1.


An animation featuring two chibis wearing tiger and dragon costumes duking it out I came across a few clips of this a few days ago, but I didn't attempt a reverse search because it was in .webm form, which I haven't had much luck reverse searching through Google.

The animation seemed to feature two main characters: a girl with short hair wearing cat ears, and a glassed girl wearing a dragon suit who appeared to be the enemy. The latter might have also worn braids. The dragon suit led me to believe that the first girl was supposed to represent a tiger, what with various elements of Japanese mythology representing them as rivals.

The tiger-girl may have had some sort of transformation sequence before the fight.

The dragon-girl could control ice, which put their fight heavily in her favor, since she and the tiger-girl were fighting in an area that was frozen over and covered in snow and icicles.

Throughout the scene, the tiger-girl attempted (mostly in vain) to land blows on her opponent while dodging the icicles her opponent broke off from the surroundings and shot at her.

At one point, the tiger-girl managed to dodge a volley of icicles and take advantage of an opening in the dragon-girl's defense to leap into the air and try to claw at her, which was shown through silhouette. Time slowed down for a moment as she flew through the air, and then it returned to normal as another wave of icicles seemingly impaled her in midair from all directions, kind of like this:

The camera then changed angles out of silhouette to show that the tiger-girl hadn't been stabbed - she was only trapped and tangled in the interlocking icicles as she attempted to break free.

That's about all I could remember. The animation looked very smooth and polished. At one point, something shattered, sending beautifully animated ice shards flying. Both characters were super-deformed/chibi.

I used "animation" and not "anime" in describing it, because I am not sure if it was just some independent video or an actual series. I tried searching various combinations of relevant keywords on Google, like "3d", "icicles", "chibi", etc., but most of what I got was mediocre DeviantArt and drawing tutorials.

It is Etotama, an anime currently airing this season (Spring 2015).

Synopsis from MAL:

  The anime's story revolves around Nya-tan, the cat of Chinese astrology who wants to become a member of the Chinese zodiac. [...] She meets Takeru Tendo, a high school student who lives alone in Akihabara, and becomes a freeloader at his house. Little by little, she gets closer to her goal.

The anime's setting is built upon this folk story, which explains the origin of the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac via a story about a race between the animals to become part of the zodiac. The Cat in variations of this folk story were always tricked by the Rat in one way or another and missed its chance to become part of the zodiac.

The scene you describe is from the second half of episode 1, where Nya-tan (Cat) and Doratan (Dragon) brawled out with each other to give Nya-tan the setting of "a tragic heroine who's shocked because the Dragon Eto-musume she thought was a friend ended up being a traitor".

A screenshot from around 16:33 of episode 1, showing both the Cat and the Dragon.

A screenshot from around 17:52 of episode 1, showing the Cat being restrained by multiple icicles.


In Law vs Doflamingo, why didn't Law swap Doflamingo's soul? In One Piece, Law can easily swap two people's soul, but he didn't use it when fighting with Doflamingo. Let's say if he swapped Nami and Doflamingo's soul, it would so easy for him to defeat him that way.

Why didn't Law swap Doflamingo's soul to make the fight easier?

In Chapter 690 of the manga, Law is facing off against Vergo, while at the same time talking to Doflamingo. When Vergo shows off his full body Armament Haki, Doflamingo states to Law that "Even your severing powers can do nothing to the strength of his Haki!"

This strongly implies that Armament Haki is able to offer some level of resistance against the effects of certain Devil Fruit powers, Law's being one of them. It is reasonable to assume that Doflamingo's proficiency with Haki is better than Law's, therefore he had increased resistance against Law's powers, such as the soul-switching ability.


Where do Naruto's movies fall between episodes (I want to know the certain number of episodes that must be watch before each movie I would like to know a certain number of episodes before attending each movie. I have seen similar questions, but they do not answer my question.

Naruto Movies:
Movie 1 ("Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow"): after Naruto learns Rasengan.
Movie 2 ("Legend of the Stone of Gelel"): after Tsunade becomes Hokage.
Movie 3 ("Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom"): after Sasuke escaped Konaha.
Naruto Shippuden Movies
Movie 1 ("Naruto Shippuden the Movie"): after Naruto returns to Konaha.
Movie 2 ("Bonds") & 3 ("The Will of Fire"): after Naruto meets Sasuke at Orochimaru's hideout.
Movie 4 ("The Lost Tower"): after Naruto learns Rasenshuriken.
Movie 5 ("Blood Prison"): after Naruto learns Sage mode and defeats Pain.
Movie 6 ("Road to Ninja"): before the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Movie 7 ("The Last"): after the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Boruto Movie(s):
Boruto ("Boruto"): after Naruto becomes Hokage.
Feel free to edit if I made a mistake!


Would Super Dragon Ball grant these wish? In dragon ball super, the super shenron can grant any wish with no limitation and much more powerful than reguler shenron. But, I wonder if he can grant wish if for example someone want to be more powerful than zeno, or any other too big wish. What do you think?

Dragon Balls can't grant wishes that are more powerful than their creators (Link about Shenron and Porunga stating this but it applies to all Dragon Ball dragons)

http://ultradragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Shenron

http://ultradragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Porunga

And in Dragon Ball Super it is stated than nobody is more poweful than Zeno, so no, he couldnt grant a wish to be more powerful than Zeno

"Zen-Oh is the most powerful character in the entire Dragon Ball franchise"

http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Zen-Oh


Why did Taeko's father hit her? Taeko (as a child) complains about not having a nice handbag and refuses to go out to dinner with the rest of the family. When she realises that they are willing to go without her, she bursts out the door after them - regretting the tantrum she just had.

Once she leaves the front door, her father hits her for seeing her come out the house with no shoes.

She recalls that this was the first time, and the only time, that her father had hit her.

I realise that she was being bratty, but what was so bad about leaving the house without shoes on (compared to having a selfish tantrum about handbags)? Is it a cultural thing?

This is an impactful yet controversial scene that baffles even the Japanese viewers. In chapter 22 of the original, semi-autobiographical manga that the Ghibli film is based on, the author speculates that Taeko's father physically punished Taeko because she was not acting in line with his principle of raising a dignified (read of higher class) daughter. This is because in post-war Japan, including the time of Taeko's childhood in 1966, barefootedness (outside of house) was commonly associated with poverty. (Cf. the classic manga Barefoot Gen by Hiroshima survivor Keiji Nakazawa that is also a testimony to the living conditions of the impoverished people.) Whether Taeko was acting selfish or bratty probably was of no concern to her father.

  原作コミック（岡本蛍・作 刀根夕子・画）の２２話「ワガママ」には

  「ひょっとして父は・・・タエ子のワガママにいまさら腹を立てたのではなかったかもしれないはだしで飛び出すというそのみっともなさ あさましさに激怒したのではなかったろうか ワガママでもいい 凛々しく育ってほしい・・・それが父の美学だったのかもしれない」

Quoted from http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q13117211068.

On a side note, はだし教育 (hadashi kyouiku, Barefoot Education) is generally well-received these days, so I don't think that children leaving the house without shoes on would incur that kind of penalty anymore.

Inspired by a post-viewing reflection article (in Japanese, a good read), I think the scene of Taeko running out of the house in barefoot prompted the recall of the original inferiority feeling by the father and was treated as an attack on his feeling of superiority that was his defense mechanism. It is all based on assumptions really, but could it be that the father was once poor and worked his way up to the middle-upper class? Was his sumptuous lifestyle (e.g. buying the then rare and expensive pineapple and not finish eating it) an overcompensation for his earlier days? The relevant parts in the Wikipedia articles (emphasis by me):

  Superiority complex is a psychological defense mechanism in which a person's feelings of superiority counter or conceal his or her feelings of inferiority. [...] [I]f we inquire into a superiority complex and study its continuity, we can always find a more or less hidden inferiority [feeling] complex.

  [Inferiority complex] is often subconscious, and is thought to drive afflicted individuals to overcompensate, resulting either in spectacular achievement or extreme asocial behavior. [...] A secondary inferiority feeling relates to an adult's experience of being unable to reach a subconscious, fictional final goal of subjective security and success to compensate for the inferiority feelings. The perceived distance from that goal would lead to a negative/depressed feeling that could then prompt the recall of the original inferiority feeling; this composite of inferiority feelings could be experienced as overwhelming.

The inner workings of human beings are really complex, as this example in the film has shown, with many viewers, myself included, still begging for an explanation of the motives behind the father's action. There may never be a definitive answer.


Why did Warren need to invent communication lacrimas? When members of fairy tail were traveling to defend magic council members they were communicating through lacrimas to the guild, and during the Phantom Lord arc Mira used a lacrima to contact Laxus, so why did they need to "invent" what were basically cell phones when they already had lacrimas to communicate over long distances.

A reason could be that the usual Lacrima crystal, which is shaped like a crystal ball, looks a bit bulky.

Why did they need to "invent" what were basically cell phones when they already had lacrimas to communicate over long distances? The Miniature Communication Lacrima invented by Warren which, as you pointed out, is shaped like cell phones are much smaller in size but has the same functionality. This makes it easier to carry around.


Song Identification Request, Touhou? Does anyone know the name of this song?  I think the base song is from Touhou?  But I can't remember from which game it is.

I really just need the original song name and I could probably find this particular arrangement, but it'd be great if the circle who made this arrangement was given as well.

Here's the song.

As Gao indicated, the BGM corresponds to （BGM：【DiGiTAL WiNG】Paranoia）as indicated in the video description.

The original song is Koishi Komeiji's Theme - Hartmann's Youkai Girl


In "Unlimited Blade Works", why did the servants choose to fade away rather than staying in the real world? In the ending of Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, Saber and Archer chose to fade away rather than staying in the real world with Rin and Shirou.

This is one of the most confusing things for me to understand. I just can't get a grasp on this and have searched and thought about it for very long.

Why did they choose to fade away?

Because they can't stay in the world without a Master and the Holy Grail.

in the Visual Novel for the Unlimited Blade Works route, in the Good Ending Saber remains in the world through her contract with Rin, however Rin notes that it's a hassle to keep Saber in the world because the Holy Grail is no longer providing support.

  It is possible to remain materialized as a normal familiar after the Holy Grail War ends, but it greatly increases the cost without active support from the Grail. Rin Tohsaka, a superior magus, has no issue in providing for Saber's upkeep, Noble Phantasm usage, and Shirou Emiya's Reality Marble at the same time during the Holy Grail War, but in-turn requires the majority of her energy and Shirou's help in keeping Saber materialized after it ends in Unlimited Blade Works.

Source: Servant > Nature > Upkeep (Last Paragraph)

for Archer, because he has the Independent Action Class Skill he can remain without a Master when normally a Masterless Servant fades away too. he became Masterless after Caster was defeated as Caster's Rule Breaker severed the contract between him and Rin (apart of his plan to go after Shirou) and Shirou did not kill him during their fight

Gilgamesh has this same ability but it's on a higher level that Archer's and was also boosted unnaturally by the Black Mud from the Grail thus allowing him to continue to be materialised after the 4th war and into the 5th with Kotomine using the Orphans from the resulting fire from the 4th war as a way to replenish Gilgamesh's energy (Shirou discovers this in the Fate Route)

Also both Saber and Archer felt they were no longer needed and leaving everything to Rin. in Saber's case it was simply not having a role in Shirou's life while Archer it was trusting that Rin would stop Shirou walking down the same path that he walked


Why do people keep comparing Shinji to Yesod? Several analyses of Shinji Ikari's character compare him to Yesod.

Now Wikipedia has this on Yesod:

  Yesod (Hebrew: יסוד "foundation") is a sephirah in the kabbalistic Tree of Life. Yesod is the sephirah below Hod and Netzach, and above Malkuth (the kingdom). It can be seen as the vehicle, from one thing or condition to another (the power of connection).

I read some more on that, and I really didn't get it.

What is this connection / what traits does Shinji have in common with this sephirah? What symbolism does the MC of Eva have, in this context? Is it intended by the canon, or is it just an interpretation of the material?

I'm a native Hebrew speaker, and "Yesod" (יסוד) literally means foundation or an element (like the table of elements). I'm not an expert when it come to Judaism (FYI that's because not all Jews are religious, Judaism is also a nationality), but in the Kabbalah Yesod is one the ten "Sfirot" (plural, ספירות). "Sfira" (singular, ספירה) literally means a count or to count, and in the kabbalah the Sephirot are the ten different ways or levels in which god 'reveals' itself in our world.

The Wikipedia page on the subject is much clearer in Hebrew than in English, so don't feel bad for not understanding it. It uses a ton of religious terms that even I do not recognize...

If you're wondering how does all of this relate to Shinji, beats me idk, maybe it is a reference to something else in the bible that I don't have the time to explain, but in short it could mean that Shinji is influenced by god and possesses some of his powers.

I do find it hard to believe that a Japanese writer/director would know all of this, and if they do then wow. The writers and director of the series do seem to be very knowledgeable, though.

I hope that answered your question!


Does this tweet really exist that indicates that Attack on Titan is about to end? I've stumbled across this comment about chapter 105 (in 2018):

  You know SnK will be finished soon, right? Isayama said on twitter a while ago that he wants to end it this year..

I want to know if that is true, i.e. if there is such evidence from Twitter. I couldn't find it myself.

Note that this is not asking if or if not the manga is about to end, that would be future event and off-topic. I'm asking if the Twitter post mentioned in the quote really exists.

Hajime Isayama has mentioned a few times about ending the Attack on Titan series, but there's no official statement about ending it in 2018.
One of the earliest was in 2013 when he discussed the series with another mangaka Hiroki Endo in November issue of a martial arts magazine Gong, he stated that the manga would end in 20 volumes. (Anime News Network)

Attack on Titan creator Hajime Isayama revealed that he aims to complete his manga in 20 book volumes.

Next year in 2014, in October issue of a literary magazine Da Vinci, Isayama was interviewed and stated that he initially planned to end the series in 16 volumes, 3 years since then. (Anime News Network)

In the interview, Isayama said that he initially estimated that he would end the manga after about 16 volumes, but extended his plans to properly depict the emotional narrative and the growing number of characters.
Isayama then added he personally wants to end the manga in about three more years.

Meanwhile, in the same year, the editor of Attack on Titan Shintaro Kawakubo was interviewed by University of Tokyo Newspaper, and he stated that the serialization was slated to end in 3-4 years. (Anime News Network)

In the interview, he discusses the popularity of the series, "The serialization is slated to end in three to four years, but Attack on Titan is a work that will be passed down from generation to generation for a decade — no, five decades."

Fast forward to 2017, in August issue of Bessatsu Shonen magazine, an interview with him stated the connection between The Marley arc and the ending. (Fuku-shuu's Tumblr, spoiler warning).

Now that the series is smoothly moving along, tell us your thoughts as you move towards the final chapter.
Isayama: The Marley arc has finally begun. I've been especially attentive towards my readers' opinions towards Shingeki no Kyojin. Many fans have been supportive, and this series has undergone much growth itself. So now I feel a great responsibility to conclude the story properly.

[...]

If Marley Arc is progressing as you had originally visualized, then the ending of the whole story…?
Although I'm progressing towards the ending that had been set before, my approach towards the ending itself has changed from the original plans. Because now I feel responsible towards the reader. I originally wanted to illustrate something similar to the film "The Mist."

Continuing in 2017, Isayama's last blog entry in December 2017 mentioned the celebration of the 100th chapter, and the ending came as soon as possible. (Suniuz' Tumblr, spoiler warning)

And then, thanks to everyone, SnK series reached 100 chapters this year. Thank you very much for reading until now! I wish you can follow this manga until the end of its story, which will come as soon as possible!
By the way, I was often asked about something like "didn't the editor's office say the story had been stretched?"
I know there is an impression like that, but to me, in fact, I don't think particularly in that way. If you ask me whether it is true, I'd rather say "if it gets stretched, isn't it very bad to the whole sense of completeness of the story?" I fear things like that will happen.
Same as other people, I also think it better to keep the length short… Although this is what I have in my mind, when I actually implement the ideas appropriately, the story gets inevitably long…"
(the quote was modified to incorporate the intended meaning from the author's typo on "calling" vs "reading")

Lastly, in March 2018, there's an autograph with Q&A session in Oyama. When he was asked about the series ending, he answered with "no specific ending date". (SnK News, spoiler warning)

On SnK's Manga's Ending Date: "Have you decided on when to finish this series? Have you ever considered timing its completion with the Tokyo Olympics (In 2020) somehow?"
Isayama: "I'm now working on the manga without any decision about the ending date. But [Kawakubo and my] shared idea is to finish it quickly. Five years ago, we decided to finish the series in three years (Isayama and Kawakubo laugh together)."

Apparently, there's a spoiler discussion on Reddit on October 2017 (predate the Q&A session in 2018) discussing whether the series would end in September 2018 or not. However, most of them were only speculations from existing interview and no official statement.

The predicted end to the series has been extended so many times already. Right now Isayama said that the expected end of the series is around September 2018, and I just don't see this happening.


Was Erza's nickname 'Titania' inspired by Shakespeare? I read on Fanpop that the name Titania comes from a Shakespearean play called A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In this play, it happens to be that Titania is queen of fairies. Did the creators of Fairy Tail happen to get inspiration from Shakespeare's plays and was that how Erza got the nickname 'Titania'? Also did they use this play as an inspiration for the name of the anime Fairy Tail?

Note: I came across this when I was trying to find out why Erza had the nickname Titania? I did a Google search but didn't find out any solid answers besides...

  She's the strongest mage in the guild, and that's how she earned the nickname Titania.

To sum it up, I am not asking how she got the nickname in the show, but how the producers came up with the nickname. What was their inspiration for the nickname Titania.

Please refrain from saying:

She got her nickname from being the strongest in the guild
The producers came up with that nickname because she is strong

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania is the Queen of the fairies.

Since Erza is widely known as the strongest female mage of Fairy Tail, she has been given the nickname Titania.


Is "A re yo u o ver the re" a kind of hypnosis? "anata wa soko ni imasu ka" (Are you there?)

... seems like this "magic spell" works over the radio, which the Festums have to decode and hack into.

I have always wondered if this could be a kind of hypnosis. If so, the Festums are more human like than I think.

The short answer is no, its not hypnosis - its essentially the Festums trying to find/communicate with humans. The long answer is, it has a double meaning in the show.

First of all, the most direct reason that particular phrase and voice is used is that Festums originally found out about humanity by encountering a voyager like probe - on the probe was a recording of a woman asking this question (where it was meant to be 'Is there anyone out there?' question). The Festums did not understand humanity at all and just echoed that exact recording back when trying to find humans to "save". You can see a framed copy of this record hanging up in the UN leader's office in a few scenes in Exodus.

Second, it's important to understand that Festums, at least in the first season, did not understand humanity at all. (In the movie, they learned a little... which made the situation for humanity even worse, not better). Festums do not exist in the same way that humans do. They do not understand the concept of existence as humans do. They perceive the human's state of existence as an irregularity that needs to be saved from. As they understand so little, the question becomes very literal - they are asking "Do you exist?" - and if someone answers, the Festums become fully aware of the existence of the human that answered and try to "save" them by assimilating them.

This question really is the core of the show's setting. These two races are so alien to each other that this strange roundabout question is the only way they could initially even communicate, and both sides think the other is in a horrific, incomprehensible situation. Humans see assimilation to non-existence as basically death, and Festums see human's existence as something they need to be saved from. Most of the main cast want to establish meaningful communication with the Festums, but at this point, it is unclear if it is even possible, at least without fundamentally changing the nature of the Festums or humans.


Why was the ending to the Arrancar arc so brief? I started watching Bleach probably a month ago and quickly found it to be quite interesting. But there are some things I just don't get.

For example Aizen... I thought Aizen was awesome. He commands such awe, attention and fear and you can tell that from the Shinigami's protecting Karakura town.

But I don't get is reason for being.

As far as I remember, every villain that Ichigo came across and defeated - at least the fairly important ones had a background story.

To digress Grimmjow, Barragan, No 1 and 3, 5 (+ Neliora) Espada's etc.. had a "beginning".

Disappointingly, Ulquiorra (my favorite Espada - btw) had none.

Kaname had a reason for being. Even Gin - also another disappointment imo - had a beginning, despite its vagueness.

But back to Aizen - from the very beginning he was just someone that had twice the amount of reiatsu when compared to a Captain level.

From what I got he simply wanted more power. To destroy the soul king and in turn destroy
Soul Society.

But what happens after that? He obviously finds Hollows insignificant, he hates the Shinigami but we don't know why.

I'm not sure if many people feel the same way but there just wasn't enough back story as to why Aizen is.

In the end all we got was some speculation from Ichigo - that doesn't really make sense btw - about how Aizen felt lonely because no one matched his power.

So to find an equal Aizen groomed Ichigo's powers, but the funny thing is Aizen, according to Ichigo's speculation in the meantime sought more power by subjugating the Hogyouku to his will.

If he had so much power, and he felt lonely simply because he outclassed all others, why not find a way to suppress if not completely get rid of his powers akin to Zaraki's eyepatch?

Ichigo speculates that maybe Aizen let go of his sword willingly, but in Room 46 he doesn't look like someone that gave up his sword "willingly".

The "explanation" that we get from Ichigo sounds rather similar to what the author gave us about Jin Kariya. But there was a reason for Jin's motive and considering his back story the explanation for his defeat does make sense.

But Aizen... I just don't get it.

If anyone can make sense of my question, can you give me a satisfactory answer? :P

I think the whole thing will be explained in the manga. I haven't caught up yet completely but last I saw

   it looked like stuff's gonna go down with the soul king so I expect they'll explain more regarding that.Also at the start of the current arc they briefly showed Aizen being locked away almost as if they were hinting you should keep him in mind. I think it's gonna go deeper.


Why Kaidou cant die? In his appearances of manga , kaidou is shown to jump down from sorajima and still live. The mystery still remains that he doesnt die even after doing this?
why is this so ? Mythical fruit users don't die, is it the case ?

Is he similarto charlotte linlin who also doesnt die even after suffering from many things ?

It's not that Kaido can not die, it's that he's so strong and so powerful that it's not enough to kill him.

That's why he has the title of The Strongest Creature in the world.

Also, there is a theory that Kaido is actually a creation of Dr. Vegapunk and his body is made of steel, giving him immense strength.


What is the ODM gear's range The ODM has a limited range. There is a limit on how long it can propel two hooks. Or just one, depending on what the user decides. But I do know there is a ton on inconsistencies, or there may not be, because the Scouts rarely grapple to the max, just to what's closest. right now this one is of Mikasa or Hange grappling to take out the Armored Titans eyes with thunder spears. What is the total range of the ODM gear?

We can try to use mathematics here for a bit, which is definitely not a threatening way to start this answer.

This is a Mikasa figurine standing basically straight up, according to the wiki she is 176 cm tall (I'll do an imperial conversion of my final answer), in the picture she is 532 pixels tall, and the wire spools are 32 pixels in diameter, meaning the spools have a diameter of roughly 11 centimeters.
That feels a bit small to me, let's round that up to 20 centimeters and chalk the different measurement up to foreshortening.

The steel wire is coiled up inside of these circular containers, and here's where we'll get really mathy. I'm talking integral calculation mathy.

We're not going to bother with that though, instead we'll use this handy website that has a tool where you can just input the values.

It needs some values though, tape thickness (or in our case steel wire thickness) and the internal diameter of the spool/roll.
The above diagram suggests a tiny inner diameter, just a small gear, so let's estimate that at 1cm, and the wire thickness also at 1cm.

Let's insert those values (multiplied by 10 because millimeters are expected):

That's a range of just over three meters (or 10.29 feet), clearly wrong considering what we've seen in the show. Our estimates for internal diameter and wire thickness were already very generous though, and we "rounded up" the external diameter to 20cm.

Basically, the small drums we see can't realistically house the amount of cable we're seeing on the show. (Sorry)

But there's also no official source that specifies a maximum range I could find (otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with all of this, I assure you).

Maybe have a look at the longest shot they make in the show/manga and assume that that's about the furthest range? Though it might be hard to gauge the actual distance
(I don't recall any specific grappling shot falling short of its intended target (due to range), that would obviously be a far more helpful piece of information though.)


Why does the color of the Kazekage's garb change? In the beginning of Naruto, the Kazekage wears blue clothing:

When Gaara becomes Kazekage, the color changes to green:

Is this ever explained, either by the show or by one of the creators?

As of episode 305 of Naruto: Shippuden, this does not appear to have any official word, either by the creators or in the story.

It seems that, for some reason, the garb was initially portrayed as blue in the anime. However, the official cover of volume 49 of the manga portrays it as green (the Kazekage is in the top left here, of course):

As you can see, the Mizukage should be the one who has the blue garb; this appears to be an error in the anime. However, as you noticed, it was corrected in Naruto: Shippuden episode 199 and forward.[Naruto Wiki]


Is Doflamingo really dead in chapter 743? Kyros appears to have killed Doflamingo in chapter 743. Is he really dead? I want Doflamingo to die, but he can't just die so quickly. There should be a fight between Doflamingo and Luffy.

Doflamingo-sama is alive and well, as expected.

In chapter 744, we can see his head saying

  Fufufu... You guys really got me good. I'm head over heels in shock.

While in chapter 745, we can see that there are in fact two Doflamingos. The left one is the headless Doflamingo whose head Kyros severed, while the right one is (probably) the real Doflamingo.

Later in chapter 745, we can see Violet explaining what was going on.

  It appears to be a marionette made of string!

Basically, since Doflamingo ate the String Fruit, he has become a string human. He can manipulate strings to the extent that he can create a marionette duplicate of himself and move it around as if it were him. It was this marionette that Kyros had severed the head of, not Doflamingo's real head. Therefore, he is still very much alive and completely unharmed

   at that point at least.


Will it be explained what is going on in the "Kara no Kyoukai" anime movie series? So I recently watched the first movie in the Kara no Kyoukai series, but it just started without any explanation whatsoever. For the people that have seen the whole movie series, will they explain what is going on and why stuff is happening?

Well, yes (...mostly). It wouldn't be a particularly good series if it didn't.

The big thing to note is that the movies aren't in chronological order - movie #1 is set after some of the later ones. It starts in medias res, in other words.

If you really want to find out what the chronological order is, see the answers to this question: How do I watch Kara no Kyoukai?. But I wouldn't recommend it - each movie tells you where in the timeline it falls, so you can piece it together yourself as you watch.

In the spoiler block below, I list some mysterious aspects of movie #1 that are explained later. I do not list the actual explanations, so this is only lightly spoilery.

   What's the deal with Shiki's left arm? Who is the girl with Touko at the end? Why can Shiki kill ghosts? How do Shiki, Touko, and Kokutou all know each other? Why does Fujou Kirie have those supernatural abilities? What's all that magico-babble about "records"?

There are, however, some things that won't make sense even after you've seen the entire series (7 movies + epilogue). This is a mostly because Kara no Kyoukai is set in the so-called "Nasuverse", a near-legendarium written primarily by Nasu Kinoko (the author of Kara no Kyoukai). There are some details in Kara no Kyoukai that only make sense in the context of other works in the Nasuverse. That's a whole 'nother rabbit hole for you to delve into if you like what you see in Kara no Kyoukai.


What are all of Rin's cats that have names? Of all the cats that have names, which cat is given which name (provide a picture or a description of its features)? How did Rin come up with these names?

Rin names her cats after famous people.

These are the ones I know of (collected from TVTropes, the Little Busters! Wiki, Wikipedia, and other sources):

Dorj (a nickname of Asashōryū Akinori):

Gates (Bill Gates): Unknown appearance.
Fabre (Jean-Henri Fabre): A rather chubby cat.
Einstein (Albert Einstein): Unknown appearance.
Lennon (John Lennon), on the right:

Tezuka (Osamu Tezuka): A shiny, blue (female) cat.
Schumacher (Michael Schumacher): Unknown appearance.
Hitler (Adolf Hitler): A spotted cat.
Audrey (Audrey Hepburn, I think): Unknown appearance.
Jackie (Jackie Chan): Unknown appearance.
Aristotle (no first name): Unknown appearance.
Isoroku (Isoroku Yamamoto): A small, grey kitten.
Cobain (Kurt Cobain): Unknown appearance.
Fedor (Fedor Emelianenko): Unknown appearance.
Hokusai (Katsushika Hokusai): Unknown appearance.
Yusaku, or Matsuda (Yusaku Matsuda): Unknown appearance.

However, you will notice how many are labelled "unknown" above; these are ones whose appearance I'm unsure of. These appear to be all of the cats she's named, but as she does not always name them directly or identify which one is which, determining their actual appearance is not always possible*.

* If I discover more appearances, I will add them upon discovery.


Is this ring merchandise with a red seal and gold "忍" emblem exist in Naruto? This is a ring with a red seal and gold "忍" emblem.

I don't know whether this type of ring is in Naruto.

Who wears it? Is it a knockoff?

This is a ring made in the style of the Akatsuki rings. However such designs are merely inspired and have little to no bearing to the Naruto franchise itself.

I will not post links to any online vendors, but you will find many like it from various vendors if you do a cursory Google search for something like "shinobi symbol ring." If you add Naruto to the query you might get more franchise relevant.


Why do many visual novels contain erotic content? After watching/reading anime and manga, I recently started going into visual novels. One thing that struck me was the fact that erotic content (aka H-scenes) seems to be quite common in the world of visual novels. Examples: Fate/stay night, Muv-Luv Alternative, G-senjou no Maou. Can anyone explain this higher prevalence of erotic content in visual novels, as compared to anime and manga?

Because visual novels are spinoff of eroge games. According to wikipedia:

The eroge game (or H-game, hentai game) are introduced into the market (no pun intended) in the 1980's as a means to attract users to the (game maker) company computer platform.

In 1992 the dating sim / love simulators were born, when a company designed the game so the player had to win the affection of the character before gaining access to the H-scenes.

The first use of the term visual novel is in 1996, and from there the erotic material became optional, with the introduction of the all ages versions of the visual novels.

But still adhering to tradition, the visual novels of today still have the H content, though not every one.

Refer to the wikipedia article to more in-depth historical facts, including game titles and company names.


What kind of demon is in "My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's"? In the manga My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's, the English translation refers to a "Demon Kingdom" and a "Demon King". Based on the wording in the original Japanese, which of the Japanese variations of "demon" are they referencing?
Do they use a foreign loan word, or are they referring to a specific type of demon out of Japanese folklore, such as a yokai or an oni?

As noted in @AkiTanaka's comment, the word translated as "Demon" in this manga is "ma" (魔), or "maō" (魔王) for Demon King and "mazoku" (魔族) when discussing the demon kingdom.
I haven't personally read the Manga, but you can tell by comparing these panels from the first chapter:

So no, the "demons" to which they're referring aren't a particular type of being from Japanese mythology, like "youkai" or "oni", but rather a more general term for evil spirits/beings often used in generic Fantasy settings.
It's the same "ma" used in "akuma" (悪魔), which you may have also seen in many Manga and Anime, and is often aligned with more Western/foreign notions of "demons" and "devils".
See e.g. this answer for some nuances of how of these various terms differ.


Why does Hashirama Senju possess such huge and terrifying chakra? In the past three Naruto manga chapters (chapters 621~623), the story goes like this: child days of both Hashirama and Madara, and he (Hashirama) is just like every others in Naruto: a normal human being. But when Orochimaru revived all four Hokage in front of Sasuke, Hashirama raises his chakra level to threaten Tobirama, as it would crack all the walls nearby or maybe the entire basement (chapter 620). How could have Hashirama acquired this kind of power (chakra)?

When Naruto had gone to Mount Myoboku for his senjutsu training, Lord Fukasaku had mentioned

  only those who already possess "extreme chakra levels" can utilise
  natural energy to invoke senjutsu

Source

Now we also know, Kakashi mentioned Naruto having large reserves of chakra (excluding the Nine tail's chakra). And this is the reason why Naruto could complete the Sage training and enter Sage mode, thereby giving him access to a larger amount of chakra.

The same goes for Jiraya, as he had completed the Sage mode training, and could enter the sage mode himself.

Thus we can assume, once in a while kids are born with higher reserves of chakra.

The same can be assumed in case of the first Hokage and Kisame, they could have been born with a large reserve of chakra.

Reason for assuming this is, First Hokage could enter the sage mode himself, and as for Kisame, we know the sword of his, Samehada would only attach himself to a ninja with good reserves of chakra. (Since the eight tails had more chakra and a more "delicious" one samehada switched allegiance and joined Bee).

In case of Naruto, Jiraya and First Hokage, their sage mode gave them access to a larger pool of chakra thus making them more powerful. On the other hand, Kisame could get access to a larger amount of chakra with the help of Samehada, that would "eat" the chakra of enemies and supply to Kisame.

Nothing much have been mentioned about the third Raikage, so I can't provide any proof to support my speculations.


In Law vs Doflamingo, why didn't Law use ROOM? In One Piece, Law's ROOM ability is a very strong technique, and he can use it to slice whatever he wants.

Why didn't he use it when fighting against Doflamingo to slice him to pieces?

Law did use his Ope Ope no Mi. In chapter 729, Law has his room up and tries to slash Doflamingo, but unless he can actually get a hit in, the room isn't going to do him much good.

The second time (chapter 724) that Law used his ability on Doflamingo, he could have tried to get a sneak attack in, but that would have been insane. If he would have slashed at this point, it would probably have been a suicide. He would potentially hit Sanji since he couldn't move anymore, he could end up falling in the ocean and Doflamingo would still have been able to attack Sanji with his whip because the slash wouldn't have stopped him from doing so.

So, Law basically didn't have a good opportunity to set up his room and have time to get a clean slash in with his sword. Also, don't forget that Law's slash would only slice the body, but not actually damage it and since Doflamingo uses strings, he could just get his body part back to re-attach it.

   With the upcoming fight from next week or the week after, he might still end up slicing Doflamingo.


Who is the character on Suguru's shirt? In Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!, Suguru is an otaku with an anime character on his shirt underneath his uniform:

I feel like this character is familiar, but all attempts to identify her have failed, so I'm now leaning towards the belief that she's just a made-up character drawn in a typical moe style.

Is this a real character from some other source, or is it just a generic-looking moe character? Note that in the anime version, the character on his shirt looks slightly different, so in case they are actually different, this question is asking about the visual novel appearance above.

It's possible that it may be Yume Kuonji, the pink haired girl from Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de, the other visual novel from MinatoSoft, the maker of Majikoi. There's a lot of various character designs and the character on the T-Shirt could just be a stylized version of Yume. It's hard to tell from the screenshot above, but you can see in the other screen shot the ahoge, single strand of pink hair that's part of Yume's design.


Who are these bunny girls from Gurren Lagann referencing? I stumbled over this scene from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (EP6) again and realized it contains a lot more references than I initially realized.

The bunny girls seem to reference characters from other Gainax shows. I recgonize some of them as listed below, but for some I have no idea. I'm also not sure which ones are references at all and which ones are just generic; maybe I labelled too many. The labels are consistent over all pictures.

Nono (Diebuster)
Asuka (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Lal'C (Diebuster)
Mahoro (Mahoromatic) thanks ʞɹɐzǝɹ and Jon Lin
Rei (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Probably Anna (He is my master) thanks Jon Lin
Aki (Abenobashi) thanks ʞɹɐzǝɹ and Jon Lin
Reiko (Gunbuster) thanks Jon Lin
Jung (Gunbuster)
?
Misato (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Maybe Owner (Ebichu) or Yukino (His and Her Circumstances) thanks Jon Lin
A second Jung?
Maybe Izumi (He is my master) or Miyuki (Mahoromatic) thanks Jon Lin

4 is Mahoro Ando from Mahoromatic
6, Anna Kurauchi (He is my Master) is the only prominent GAINAX character I know with that color hair and hairstyle
7 is Aki from Abenobashi
8 is Reiko Kashiwara from Gunbuster
10 ???
12 possibly the "Owner" from Ebichu or Yukino from His and Her Circumstances because she sometimes wears her hair that way
14 possibly Sakura Miyuki from Mahoromatic?

Most likely they're just random girls as there's really nothing that can accurately identify them like clothing or eye color.


How did the Third know Yamato's name? I was just rewatching episode 426, and at 10:54, Sarutobi (the Third) called Yamato by his name. That name was assigned by Tsunade after the Third's death. How did he come to know his name?

In - universe reason : Tsunade did gave him the name Yamato but it was never implied that Anbu codename can't be reused. Maybe she used his old name and third knows it.

Out-of Universe reason : Kishimoto must have forgot it due to complex nature of story, this kind of mistake are not that uncommon in any series and anime just followed manga and kept it that way.


Is there any more meaning to Ren's name? In 'Nana', Nana(the singer) has a tattoo of a lotus flower on her arm.

The lotus flower shares the same Kanji as 'Ren' , Nana's boyfriend.

Flowers are used quite a bit in symbolism in media, Is there any further significance to this choice of flower aside from the similar names?

As @j__m mentioned, There's probably no more meaning to the name 'Ren' than meets the eye, but reading into it, Lotus flowers can symbolize several things that could be linked to their relationship:

The Egyptians believed the lotus was a symbol of Rebirth, Life and Death

   In the final chapters of the manga, Their relationship is cut short by Ren's sudden death

Buddhism associates the flower with loyalty and faithfullness

   Even though they separate, Ren and Nana return to each other. Ren's lock necklace is a symbol of loyalty also.

Also, Red lotus flowers can be a symbol of love and harmony

Ref1 Ref2


How did the birds come back to life when Envy arrived? After Cornello had been eaten by Gluttony, the townspeople search for him but find a lot of dead birds. Envy arrives as Cornello and passes off a miracle and claims that the Cornello who had been "conning" everyone was sent by the devil while "he" was out of town. The miracle he performs is bringing the birds back to life, but out of everyone's view in the sky the birds explode.

Now I can understand how it's possible if alchemy was used, however, none the homunculi can use Alchemy except for Wrath, because:

   His arm and leg belong to Ed, and as such can create an array with them since "the truth" was engraved into Ed's body and he had only lost one limb at that time.

So I am wondering, how did those birds come back to life?

EDIT: I'm referring to the original (first produced).

Envy has the ability to transform its body into whatever form. BUT, its original form was that which resembles a lizard with a mane made out of the souls which were inside its Stone. (Reference: Manga) Each philosopher stone contains a countless amount of souls. The only logical explanation is that it cut one of those souls off and made it into a bird. But souls that are cut from the main body cannot exist for long ((Similar to when a Homunculus's arm is cut off, the arm disappears but a new one is regenerated) otherwise the world would be filled with infinite number of severed, unidentified limbs...)

Being that Envy's true form is that of an animal, this also mean that it can transform itself into animal. Envy can also make its arms into things like swords or other shard blunt objects. (Weapons)

This question might also be something unanswerable, because...

The original FMA did NOT follow the manga. I will say it again. DID NOT FOLLOW THE MANGA. So basically after the Elric brother's mom died, the director metaphorically walks off the side walk across the street and at times in the middle of the road, but most of the time he's swimming in the river next to the side walk.

So it's not that hard to believe that this might just be something completely thought up in the moment in order to fill a gap in the story. FMA:BH follows the Manga.


In what order should I read the Touhou Project manga? After a little online search, I've found the following list, compiled from wikia and wiki (excluding the two short stories and including the two comics in the Artbooks section), of official Touhou Project manga related to ZUN's scenarios:

Eastern and Little Nature Deity
Strange and Bright Nature Deity
Oriental Sacred Place
Extra of the Wind
Memorizable Gensokyo
Silent Sinner in Blue
Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth
Wild and Horned Hermit
Forbidden Scrollery

In what order should I start reading these manga?

I heavily recommend reading the manga in release order, taking into consideration the release dates and plots of the official games. Most of the manga are standalone (with some exceptions) in the same way that the games are standalone to an extent, but keeping everything in line with game release dates will allow for better understanding of the plot context.

Note that the manga focusing on the three fairies are directly associated with the Great Fairy Wars game, and note that Kasen did not have her first appearance in a game until WaHH had been going on for quite a while.

In general however, feel free to read them in any order (aside from the ones that are direct sequels, etc). Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth for example is entirely made up of separate comics, and as long as you are familiar with the dynamic of the characters, it is an enjoyable experience.


What does the "teehee" expression mean? I'm sure most of you know this phrase, what does it mean? Does it represent stupidity cutey thing that they do? What makes this phrase so popular?

The head punching and tongue sticking out makes me think the "teehee" is a translation of てへぺろ ("tehepero"), which has a literal meaning of "teehee tongue-sticking-out". It actually has a recent history as a word in its own right: this blog post and this crunchyroll news article have some information about it.

Basically, it's the word that goes with teehee+punching head+tongue sticking out, and the meaning is primarily focused on definition 3) that Omega posted - it sweeps under the rug a mistake or ignorance of the speaker with a playful gesture. A Japanese source for this meaning is this scan of an article about tehepero being Japanese neologism of the year, although the expression is likely related to peko-chan (see What is the origin of this facial expression with one's tongue sticking out?).


What does this Death Note rule regarding visual acuity mean? This is the rule in question, (listed under the Death Note Wiki as "How to Use: XXI"):

  "Those with the eye power of the god of death will have the eyesight of over 3.6 in the human measurement, regardless of their original eyesight."

So, what are the numbers referring to? 3.6 what? I googled Visual Acuity, and I'm guessing those with death god eyes can see over 3 and a half times further than normal humans? 3.6 times to be exact.

I never read the manga, or saw the Japanese version, so I ask this question to confirm it with perhaps something someone read.

3.6 in Japanese measurement is the equivalent of 72/20 in American measurement.
That's considered to be Excellent eyesight.

It's not that you see 3.6 times further, you are able to distinguish, 3.6 times more detail in the image you get (read, 3.6 times smaller details).


Why does Last Order state her name twice? I understand that the regular clones speak in third person from the answer here. But Last Order actually has emotions, so there is no reason to speak in third person or repeating her name over twice. What is the true reasoning behind Misaka wa Misaka wa ...?

Is there a canonical answer for this?

To understand why she speaks like this, we need to understand the grammatical rule for "wa" in Japanese. I'll admit that I do not understand Japanese fluently and I am a beginner, if anything, but let's take a look at what it can mean. For reference:

http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa051301a.htm

The first one implies that the "wa" is a subject marker and she using herself as the subject. She has emotions unlike her sister clones and her having emotions mean that she can feel a variety of human characteristics. What I'm saying is that it is possible she repeats her name in this manner to draw attention to herself, to show that childish selfish characteristic. And we can see that she sometimes has no consideration about what other people feel, like how she (seemingly) unintentionally refers to Yomikawa as an old woman in one the bathroom/shower scene. Although this can be explained as her being playful, but I believe this still reflects her childish selfish nature, not that she's actually incapable of feeling empathy.

"Wa" can apparently be used as emphasis for the subject at hand, so this gives more credence  to my theory. From my reference:

"Beside being a topic marker, "wa" is used to show contrast or to emphasize the subject."

Although I can be wrong on this one.

"Wa" as a contrast does not work well as it does not explain much.

So it may be that she repeats herself in this manner to grab and draw attention to herself much like a child would. Aside from her being just a child, perhaps she does this to distinguish herself from the other clones.


Why is the anime of Akame ga Kill so different from the manga? I haven't read the manga of Akame ga Kill, but I have read that it is really different from the anime.  They even skipped 10 chapter of the manga completely.  Why did they decide to do that?  Was it because the show has to be done in a short amount of episodes or something else?

I come with an answer from Polymanga 2015 in Switzerland when the author was there. You can verify it here: Polymanga 2015

The following question was asked and the author answered:

  At the beginning of the anime, the manga was already written but in the end the anime exceeded the manga. That's the reason why I want to change the story because the people who had already seen the anime know the end and they will find the manga boring.

It's not his words exactly (I don't remember exactly) but it's the general idea of what he wanted to say.

And after that, he adds:

  The end of the anime was fantastic. But the end of the manga will be more fantastic.

For the ones who didn't see the end, let's go see it;)


Why do the subtitles say "tetsusaiga" for "tessaiga"? I've been watching Inuyasha with subtitles and in episode 6 and 7, Inuyasha fights with his brother Sesshomaru about a sword. The English subtitle says "Tetsusaiga" but they're clearly saying "てっさいが". Why are they subtitling it in this way?

While it's tempting to chalk this up to a mistranslation by Viz, as Ross Ridge's answer suggests (and that Viz themselves might even admit to), I think if we take the question as seriously as possible, the answer must be that both names are correct, at least in writing.

The relevant background here is that Inuyasha takes place in the Sengoku period roughly 500 years ago. So Inuyasha's sword's name should be interpreted in the Japanese of the time, not modern Japanese.

On the other hand, the use of っ in Japanese is a relatively modern invention. The earliest known uses of it in this way occurred in the 19th century, and it wasn't standardized until 1947. Prior to this, double consonants in Japanese existed only as common slurs where only the consonant was pronounced. This form of slurring has existed for a long time, likely since the Sengoku period. I suggest reading this Japanese SE question for more information.

So, while 鉄砕牙  would have been written out as 「てつさいが」 in the classical Japanese of the time (or possibly in several other ways, as hiragana themselves were not standardized until 1900 with the removal of hentaigana), it could plausibly be pronounced as either 「てつさいが」 (tetsusaiga)　or 「てっさいが」 (tessaiga) to the modern Japanese ear. But the classical Japanese speaker would have recognized these as the same word. Even this is something of a simplification, as pronunciation of these syllables has shifted over time, but without having audio records of Japanese from that time it's fairly difficult to know exactly what shifts have occurred.

That is to say, while tessaiga and tetsusaiga sound rather different to us, there isn't any distinction between the two in period Japanese writing, in the same way that "sorta" is just a slurred version of "sort of" in English. They're both valid romanizations of the same word, and so they're both really the same name. In some sense, saying that either tessaiga or tetsusaiga is correct is actually historically inaccurate. In modern Japanese, it's clear that they say tessaiga, but that doesn't really mean that tetsusaiga is an incorrect way of writing the name.

I guess the real reason for this confusion is that the text has gone through so many different linguistic steps that it would necessarily end up being somewhat confused. Of course the text is written in modern Japanese, but it's supposed to be a modern interpretation of historical Japanese. In order to romanize it, since there's no way to romanize classical Japanese, it first needs to be converted back into modern Japanese, and then to roumaji (which approximate Japanese pronunciation using latin alphabet characters). But the conversion back to modern Japanese is ambiguous, and so both tessaiga and tetsusaiga could be simultaneously valid.

With all that said, I don't think Inuyasha tries especially hard to stick to historically accurate Japanese, so to some degree this is a moot point. I just wanted to point out that, strictly speaking, in Sengoku-period Japanese, there is no way to differentiate the two words. On the other hand, for practical purposes, one can hear that the anime uses tessaiga for pronunciation and writes てっさいが as the furigana, so presumably this is the more understandable choice in English.


What is the name of the song that plays at ~7:25 in Episode 18 of Try? I've listened through the OST for Gundam Build Fighters Try (ala YouTube), to find this particular song sequence. However, none of the tracks have this bgm, nor seem like an original of the bgm. Does someone know what other bgm track this could be from?

It's in Episode 18, and starts at around 7:25 (Just after Sekai breaks out of an energy net).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcyas4ux6ho

Jumped the Gun(dam) here. Show finished Airing 4/2015, and looked for OST around then. OST was released in Dec-2014. However in 2015, a Second OST was released. Found the track: "New Dimension Overlord Flow".
Interesting that the 2nd OST isn't listed on Gundam Wikia.


Difference between emission and conjuring Alright I've basically finished the existing manga and anime and I'm still confused. What's the difference between an emitter and a conjurer? What can each do that the other can't?

Emmiters are Nen users who are adept at separating their Auras from their bodies and using it for a variety of functions. Some examples being Leorio (who could emit his aura into creating a warmhole for carrying attacks). Emitters are also capable of transforming the separated Aura to look like certain shapes and objects. Pokkle for example, (renowned for using his Nen to take the shape of bow and arrow which he could use for offense).

While Conjurers on the other hand, have the ability to create physical objects using Aura. More adept Conjurers can even create laws and principles which are affixed to the object manifested from their Aura. An example being Kurapika's conjured "Dowsing chains" which were created with a principle of detecting lies and Aura.


Is Asta speaking a specific dialect? In Black Clover, at least in the anime, Asta frequently shortens します (shimasu) into しゃす (shasu). Is that supposed to be indicative of an accent or dialect, or is there some other reason for him to do that?

In short, he is speaking colloquially in slang, not ant dialect in particular.

For an example: ナシャス。

オナシャス (onashyasu) means お願いします (onegaishimasu, lit. please)。
「お願いします (onegaishimasu)」

→「おねがいしゃす (onegaishyasu)」

→「おねいしゃす (oneishyasu)」

→「オネシャス (ONESHIYASU)」

→「オナシャス (ONASHIYASU)」

This is like shortening "please" to "pls" or "plx".

This speech pattern is suppose to outline how crudely (or uncouthly) Asta speaks, in contrast to the rest of the other Knights.


In Monogatari, why is the boy with the reverse jagirinawa still alive? When Nadeko had the curse on her, she was almost going to be killed by it and it had only been a short time since she received the curse. Since the curse was removed, reversed, and was given to the boy, hasn't the curse had many months to kill him?

Because Jagirinawa tried to kill Nadeko when the ritual was performed, there are 2 snakes on her body. The ritual of removal can be done only for one snake, the ritual is not strong enough to remove 2. So Araragi forcefully removed the rest, but was not strong enough and was stopped by Kanbaru by letting it go. Nadeko only have the pain from the curse, the boy didn't die because he's not doing the removal ritual and have no two curse in his body. So if the curse returns back to the boy, he only gets the pain.


Why are school swimsuits with name tags such a popular item in otaku subculture? How did it get so popular in otaku subculture?

What is the name of the proper name for name tag that's commonly found on female school swimwear? Sometimes it just says the name, sometimes just the class number, and other times both. What significance does it play both in-universe and in real life?

What is it called?

There doesn't seem to be a separate name for that kind of school swimsuit, but the the part with name and class written on it can be called either ゼッケン (zekken, literally meaning cloth) or 名札 (nafuda, literally meaning name tag).

Why is it popular?

I don't think there's a definitive or objective way to answer why school swimsuits are so popular in anime, but here are translations of some of the possibilities mentioned in various answers to a very similar Yahoo Chiebukuro question:

It's easier to draw everyone in school swimsuits than to make up a swimsuit design for each character
They make the character seem younger, inferior, and/or weaker
They expose some skin and show off a character's body while still seeming immature
It's moe (see related question: What does 'moe' mean?)
They have a simple design which is appealing
Lolicons prefer school swimsuits, and it's easier to please all of lolicons with school swimsuits than to attempt to please all the other groups with widely varying preferences

What is its purpose?

From the Japanese Wikipedia article for gym uniforms, which typically also include the same patch with a student's name:

  In order to manage students and in the event of an accident while
  exercising, the student's name, class, attendance number (similar to
  an ID number), etc. are filled out on a white cloth name tag that is
  sewn or embroidered onto the clothing.

There was no relevant information in the article specifically for school swimsuits which is why I used the article for gym uniforms in general.


What happened to Kaiki in Monogatari Series? We saw at the end of Monogatari Second Season that

  Kaiki is apparently killed by one of the boys (or girls?, I do not remember very well) he scammed.

If I followed the storyline correctly, this happens just after the events that involved Nadeko, but before the graduation of Araragi and Senjōgahara.

Then, on Hanamonogatari, which is after the graduation of Araragi and Senjōgahara,

  Kaiki is still alive and kicking, and without any evidence of the beating that he received.

Am I missing something in the storyline?

  Because he should be dead by the beating that he received. Why he is not?

To sum it up pretty simply,

   Kaiki lived from his attack. How he lived, and what he's been up to after that point, we don't really know.

Chronologically, Hanamonogatari is the last story in the entire Monogatari series. So, what we see there is about all we get, unfortunately.

Edit (7 April 2016): It seems there is now a "fourth season" of Monogatari novels. I don't personally know yet where these novels fall chronologically, but it's possible that more information about what happened to Kaiki could be contained in these novels.


Where can I watch Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale? Sword Art Online the movie Ordinal Scale has already been released according to Wikipedia, but I can't find it anywhere. So where can I watch and download legally.

You can't, the only place you can see it at the moment is in a theatre, as it hasn't been released on disc yet. Once it releases on disc, you can then either buy it from a shop or use a legal streaming service like Netflix if it gets released there. TV channel also play anime sometimes, so you might be able to find it there too soon.


Who is this white-haired girl figurine wearing a black-and-white grid skirt? What anime is this character from? Or what is their name?

It is a Nendoroid of Miss Monochrome, see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Monochrome, which was an original character that was a 3D virtual singer, though she has since appeared in her own anime also named Miss Monochrome.


Manga/Anime of two female secret/military agents featuring countless upskirt moments I remember an anime that was broadcasted somewhere between 2002 and 2006 on the German MTV.
It was about two female agents if I remember correctly that were members of some secret/military organization.

The most noticeable part is the countless upskirts and bra flashes the series showed, never anything more revealing.

One of the two females is rather small and both mainly use simple handguns in combat. Can someone help me find the animes name?

edit

writing these details down, bopped a title to my head.. Noir.. But I'm not quite sure yet and I can't verify that right now, as I am in the office.

Could it be Agent Aika? It features the main character (older woman) Aika and her partner Rion. There's a lot of fan service, especially panty shots and bra shots. It was released as an OVA in 1997 but was aired on several German TV channels.

The character designs practically make it impossible not to see panties

More info:

Anime News Network
Wikipedia
MyAnime List
Agent Aika Wikia


Why is Boruto's Dojutsu different? Usually most Dojutsu Kekkkai Genkai come in pairs. What I mean by this is, the Sharingan, Rinnengan, Byakugan and even Tensengan usually always come in pairs (for both eyes) but then Boruto only awakened his Jogan in just one eye.

Is there a solid explanation for this? or is it synonymous to how Sasuke only awakened his Rinnegan in only one eye?

Sasuke did not awaken his Rinnegan himself.It was given to him by Hagoromo,he had no such "choice" of awakening only one Rinnegan.It was Hagoromo's decision to give him only one Rinnegan to avoid it's misuse which Madara had done.

Coming to Boruto's Jougan,it's just a very rare case of Byakugan that was triggered probably because of Naruto's enormous chakra.He awakened it only in one eye,not two,the explanation for which is not very clear.


How many quirks can one have? Through out the series so far we have seen several ways people can manifest multiple quirks. Such as Todo, which has Fire and Ice powers or Noumus power to steal quirks, allowing for multiple quirks, all though only 1 can be used at the time.

We also know that Nana had her own quirk, and still could receive One for All. Making it a case of literally 2 quirks in 1 body.

But is there a limitation known to how many quirks can be fused into 1 body/person?

The manga has an answer to this question - and it was mentioned already in the anime:

   The quirk All for One allows its holder to steal as many quirks as they want, as well as forcibly give those quirks to others (this is how the Nomus have been created).

   No limit has ever been mentioned, though having many quirks given to most people will cause a mental breakdown (explaining why Nomus act as mindless beasts).


Which are the classes of Ghouls? In season 2 of Tokyo Ghoul at least a couple of times is mentioned classes of Ghouls. In one chapter one person talks about "Ghouls from class C to SS" IIRC. Which are all the classes of Ghouls?

Rating starts from C and goes on to SSS. However, classes not only meant to show how powerful the ghoul is but it's more like a "how many and which class investigator we must send" measurement.

If you want to see who fall into what classes you can visit here.


Is Aogiri looking for Kaneki now that he's with the CCG? Haise Sasaki is Kaneki, and Kaneki's been gone for almost four years, yet Aogiri doesn't seem the least bit concerned about it, despite him being one of their captains. Do they think Kaneki's dead? I mean, Kaneki has disappeared without a trace and they do nothing to try and find him. What's more, if they thought the CCG had him, why not try to get him back? It's not like he's just an expendable henchman, he a freaking captain and he's a SS ranked ghoul! So even if they were just using him, that's plenty reason enough to go rescue him. Not to mention that he knows too much to just let the CCG have him. Am I just overthinking this, because it makes no sense.

During the Owl Suppression operation, the battle resulted in heavy losses on both sides. Many of the investigators were wounded or killed, and about 99% of the Ghouls were exterminated in the 20th ward. So both sides were still recovering from the loss and the missing investigators / ghouls were declared dead, missing in action, or captured.

According to wiki

  While it was reported that no prisoners were taken, Ken Kaneki was taken into custody

Because of this contradiction in reporting, it seems that the higher up's in the CCG seem to have some plans for Kaneki (mainly Arima since he took responsibility for Kaneki).

Also, Aogiri members weren't given orders by any higher ranked member (they mainly are Eto, Tatara and Noro) to go search for Kaneki (or save him if they knew he was captured by the CCG).

Maybe the CCG plans using him to exterminate the Ghouls, maybe he is acting as a spy for Aogiri inside the CCG. Due to these possible theories, it seems like Kaneki is a part of some bigger plot. Thus you might not be overthinking, there could be a bigger game being played behind the scenes which you might have to wait for the anime to reveal.

If you are excited and cannot wait that long, then these spoilers are for you!

   At an unspecified point, Arima found and defeated Eto Yoshimura at her shrine hide-out. Rather than simply kill the infamous One-Eyed Owl, he questioned her about her motivations and learned of her desire to change the world. Interested in her ideals, Arima spared her life and allegedly began to conspire in secret with her.

also,

   During one confrontation, Eto revealed her hatred for the world, criticizing its state, and saying the ghoul who killed Arima would be the hope for her entire race, while the latter smiled at her. They formed a plan to groom someone who would be competent enough to bear the title of the One-Eyed King.

so connecting the dots,

   As the story moves on, both Arima and Eto finally find that someone. Someone who could change the state of the world, someone who understands both the Humans and the Ghouls, someone who has a place in both of the worlds - Kaneki is a perfect match for this role. Thus Eto and Arima help Kaneki to become stronger. Kaneki in the end becomes competent and trusted enough to hold the title of One-Eyed King.


Fate/stay night. Why is Saber called a King and not a Queen? Can anyone explain why Saber is called a "King" and not a "Queen"?
It's obvious that she is a female and the proper title for a regal female is "Queen".

from bit and pieces of my answer here

Merlin's prophecy never stated that the King had to be a boy

  Merlin, an Human/Incubus Hyrbid and a powerful Magus, had prophesied that their next child would be Uther's successor as king and Uther believed this. However when Arturia was born Uther despaired as she was born a girl, not a boy. in those times a King could not make a child that was not male his successor even if she was fated to one day become a king. Merlin was delighted because the sex of the child had never mattered

Arturia was raised as a boy

  Kay could tell that Arturia would grow up to be a beauty woman but his father told him to guide her like she was his brother and decided to treat her in that manner, though he did not believe it would be kept secret.

her gender was meant to be a secret

  While being raised by Ector Merlin also visited teaching Arturia and acting as a sort of foster father figure to her. he also also revealed Arturia's gender to Kay making him swear to secrecy.

Arturia was made into a Psudo-male by Merlin

  during this time Arturia had to deal with the problem of being able to produce an heir. to "help" Merlin used his magecraft to make Arturia into a pseudo-male capable of producing sperm for an unknown duration of time.

so for the most part while Merlin never said that the child would be a boy effort was made to make it seem as if Arturia was one because of the age she was in. after all the fact that gender wasn't mention makes it perfectly fine that in another timeline King Arthur is male with no change to the prophecy

Also in the Visual Novel Shirou notes the legend of King Arthur is ambiguous who Arthur was saying that one legend suggested that Arthur was actually a group of people. so her legend isn't perfectly clear anyway compared to the stories that are out there.

there is also Arturia's own opinion about herself

in both Studio Deen's anime and the Visual Novel there is a scene where Shirou walks in on Arturia having a bath in which she expresses that she doesn't have the body of a girl and later on when Arturia and Shirou go out into town they get into a fight where Shirou gets angry at Arturia not seeing her own femininity while Arturia argues that her femininity is pointless for a Servant and King.


How far can the sharingan go? The Sharingan makes the user able to follow the target better, which shortens the reaction time of the user. Does the Sharingan make your mind think faster as well?
If it doesn't, the users mind should not be able to keep up with what the Sharingan is able to see. If the mind becomes faster, then the user would become a super genius.

Or is there simply no logic at all?

Naruto has recently learned the flash ability from his father Minato. When someone uses flash are they teleporting or just moving really fast?

Additionally, could any form of the Sharingan "keep up" visually with the "flash ability" of either Naruto or Minato?

Sharingan by no means makes the bearer any smarter. Sharingan enables its bearer to:

See chakra of someone, but not the chakra points
See motions in greater detail making it feels like slow-motioned
Perform genjutsu better
Do sharingan specific jutsu, like Amaterasu, Izanagi, Izanami, etc.

The logic behind it is that normally humans don't use the maximal capacity of their brain, only about 10% if I'm not mistaken. In using the 2nd ability, Sharingan utilize more of the brain to do image processing, but not anything else. As for ability 1, 3 and 4, it's just that Sharingan is like a prerequisite to do so, just like a mere 160 cm basketball player would not be able to do slam dunk unless he have an ultra strong foot muscles. Sharingan is like that, only instead of foot, it's the eyes. Therefore, though Sharingan enables such feats I mentioned above, it doesn't make the user any smarter.

As for Naruto, as far as I know, Naruto is just moving very fast. His fast movement is different than that of Minato. Minato uses Space and Time Jutsu. That means Minato is not moving, he is teleporting. That's why he needs his kunai as marker.

Sharingan would not be able to keep up with it when he's on the teleportation, but when he shows up, it can.


What does the print on Franky's shirt mean? Cropped from Chapter 804, page 16

The print on Franky's shirt reads something like "I☀HT". I Googled about it and nothing came up. Also, I have checked the One Piece Wikia page and it doesn't have any details about the logo. What does it mean and does it have any significance?

Some comment here suggests that the sun is a reference to the rising sun, so "AM", as in "in the morning"/"Ante Meridian". It then becomes "I AM HT". HT would be the acronym of 変態 (HenTai) or pervert.

So that would mean the T-shirt is actually subtly saying "I am a pervert".


Does Killua have a crush on Gon? Watching the latest 3 episodes of Hunter X Hunter 2011 ( 114 - 116) I started to wonder. Does Killua have a crush on Gon? Or am I just mis interpretating his text lines?

Short answer: There is little or no canonical love from either Killua or Gon toward the other. If any kind of love is to be clearly deduced, it should be regarded as platonic or brotherly.

Longer answer: From childhood, Killua was deprived of the experience of having friends. He met Canary, a guardian of the Zoldyck estate, and wished to be her friend, but she disciplined herself to not have any personal feelings for her employers (Killua included).

Fast-forward to the Hunter Exam, and Killua meets Gon, quickly discovering that he wants a friendly relationship with him (attempting to sever the ties to his former life as an assassin). In this case, you have to understand that Killua doesn't know how to behave around friends. He does his best to be himself, but he doesn't want to push Gon away. Even in a relationship as simple (to you and me) as friendship, Killua doesn't know how to manage his feelings.

As a result, personally, I would say that Killua just shares a really, really strong best-friend relationship with Gon, and feels a personal need to protect Gon, which can appear romantic at times. Gon, being the nutty lil' boy he is, also tends to express his friendship in odd ways...

Now, taking all this into consideration... It doesn't honestly seem like there is any romantic relationship between them (though the mangaka seems to have thrown in a few choice lines to tease fans with).

In the latest episodes you mention, Killua does have some very odd lines.

He states that if he asks Gon what he means by "Let's go!", then he "won't be able to go back." This sounds a bit lovey at first, but I think Killua is honestly more worried about Gon, almost like a brother might be. He understands the rage Gon holds within, and is deeply worried that Gon might be headed down a spiral of destruction. With good reason:

Sadly, though, asking about something like that could almost seem like a betrayal; remember that Killua doesn't want to do anything that would endanger his friendship with Gon.

So while I think it's important to recognize that there is no canonical love in play (at least in the anime, I haven't read past the manga's equivalent of episode 115), I think their relationship is designed in such a way to make us ask this kind of question. Their relationship is far from simple, and that's probably one of the things that makes it so compelling.


What is the meaning of the title of Fruits Basket? The title of "Fruits Basket" seems to imply that there is some basket with fruits in it which is somehow relevant to the story. However, I imagine that a story about a literal basket of fruits would not be very interesting.

What is the significance of the title? Is it referencing a literal basket of fruits or is it symbolizing something else?

The Fruits Basket is a game where a player is assigned to one fruit (any fruit as long as it is a fruit). Tohru was assigned by her friends to be the onigiri (rice ball, which obviously isn't a fruit), so she was left sitting alone because onigiri won't be called since onigiri isn't a fruit. It is also a metaphor on how Tohru can't belong to the Souma family as an onigiri won't belong to a Fruits Basket. Reference here.


How did Chino's grandfather end up as a rabbit? From the first episode of Gochuumon wa Usagi desuka? (Is the order a rabbit?) Chino's grandfather was depicted as a rabbit (very questionable since he didn't look like a rabbit, but the anime says so, so let's call him a rabbit). However, considering that both Chino's father and Chino are normal humans, and that the writer who often comes to Chino's cafe (Rabbit House) used to chat with the first owner (Chino's grandfather), there must be a time where he was a normal human. Otherwise, the writer lady would have noticed it was him when she saw the rabbit. Also since the rabbit has no arms (at least the first season doesn't show it having arms), and considering his size, he wouldn't be able to pour coffee. Has it been explained somewhere (anime and manga) why Chino's grandfather turned into a rabbit?

Note: I haven't watched the second season. Please carefully put spoilers if they come up.

On the wiki, it says:

  Tippy is the owner of Rabbit House. In other words, he is Chino's grandfather, but he somehow has a female rabbit body. Nobody revealed why, but Chino refrained that her real grandfather already passed away, and yet Tippy already kept in the Rabbit House since the beginning.

Answerable questions:

Tippy is probably based on a thick and fluffy English Angora Rabbit.

Tippy was indeed a human before he passed away.


Why is it that cursed children are all female? In the first episode of Black Bullet, it was said in the narration that all cursed children are girls. Has this been explained why in the light novel? Are the boys instantly turned into gastrea when infected by the virus or what? As far as I can tell from the 13 episodes of the anime, it wasn't explained.

I can't say for sure if or when this is mentioned in the light novel, but the manga certainly covers it more explicitly.

In some cases, the Gastrea virus can enter the mouth of a pregnant woman, and this can lead to the birth of a 'Cursed Child'

Additionally, when Rentaro talks with the old man looking after the cursed children outside of the city, the following exchange takes place, which sheds a bit more light on why the cursed children are all female:

Simply said, once the Gastrea virus enters a mother and infects a fertilised egg, the virus itself will force the child to become female, in addition to receiving the other common traits, such as red eyes. If an embryo is already past the point where cells have begun to be specialised and it's sex has been decided, the Gastrea virus will simply infect the child just as it would with any other human.


What are Type A and Type B viewers? I keep hearing the terms Type A viewers and Type B viewers in discussions and chat.

What do they mean? What is a Type A viewer and what is a Type B?

These terms are used a bit inconsistently, but what I'm answering here should be fairly uniform across a lot of the English-speaking community. I can't tell where the terms originated, but it might be an analogy to blood types, which are important in Japanese culture. It could also be a reference to Type A and B personality theory.

Type A

Type A fans are mostly interested in story. They choose anime because they think the story is interesting and the environment is immersive. The characters exist to drive the story, but their own characteristics are less important than the story. Many don't like the trend towards moe anime over the past decade (see What does 'moe' mean?). They tend to be fans of genres like action, mystery, and drama. They often watch longer or older shows.

Shows that might appeal to Type A fans include Monster, Serial Experiments Lain, Eden of the East, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Type B

Type B fans are mostly interested in the characters. They view the story as a way to explore the lives of the characters, rather than interesting in-and-of itself, and it can become a distraction if it is too complicated. Moe anime are primarily targeted at this group of viewers. They tend to be fans of genres like comedy and slice-of-life, and tend to watch shorter and more recent shows.

Shows that might appeal to Type B fans include K-On, Highschool of the Dead, Strike Witches, and A Certain Magical Index.

There are some major omissions from this categorization, and it's hard to say that anyone is actually one or the other type. Even most people who self-identify as one or the other type will still watch and enjoy a good show that doesn't match their type.

It's also worth noting that some people like to add the criterion of fanservice, and say that Type B fans like shows with more fanservice. I am not doing so here because this is often disputed by type B fans themselves.


Where can I watch the Shuuen no Shiori (Bookmark of Demise) music videos? Preferably with English Subs. The YouTube videos either don't have the audio due to copyright or don't have English Subs.  I bumped into the project randomly and wanted to listen to the songs and watch the videos but only YouTube video show up on Google.

I'm not sure where you'll find a version with English subs (there aren't any "official" subs, at minimum), but you can find the ones that have music videos on 150P's Niconico account.

Kodoku no Kakurenbo (alternate)
Nisemono Chuuihou (alternate)
Kanzen Hanzai Love Letter (alternate)
Saru Mane Isutori Game (alternate)
Arikitari Heroes (alternate)
Makeinu Shijou Shugi (alternate)
Shuuen no Shiori (alternate)

If you don't have an account on Niconico and don't want to make one, use the alternate links instead. No guarantees that those links won't crap out at some point, though.


What are the nationalities of the magic weapons? It's obvious that the magic weapons that Nanoha and the rest wield have different nationalities, as Rising Heart speaks English, but Hayate's Knight's weapons don't.

I am wondering: what are the nationalities of the weapons based on?

There is no official answer to the reason for speaking a different language. But, the language is tied into the magic system that the device uses.

There are:

English for Mid-Childa devices
German for the Ancient-Belkan devices
Japanese for Unison devices

Unison devices are the devices that merge with their master to increase the combat capabilities, such as Reinforce and Agito. The devices that are up for the debate are the Modern-Belkan devices, such as Strada (Erio) using German, while Mach Caliber (Subaru) uses English.

My personal opinion would be that Modern-Belkan devices capable of transforming form would use German (Strada), while others do not (Mach Caliber).


Would the City Hunter manga not be exported anymore? I've read the city hunter manga, which has about 193 chapters. But there are only 136 chapters available in my country. Did they stop translation and distribution of the rest of the chapters in foreign countries?

City Hunter on Wikipedia says there are 35 Volumes to the series originally running in Japan from 1985 to 1991/1992.

on the List of Chapters the final volume came out in April 1992 however chapter information stops at Volume 26 with Chapter 137 saying "(incomplete)" and with the inconsistent number of chapters per volume it's hard to extrapolate how many chapters there was by Volume 35. this relates to the Japanese release

the English Release appears to have more chapters per volume with Volume 5 ending at Chapter 44 - Gambling Queen, however judging by the names of chapters in the English version it appears some of the Japanese Chapters were split, such as Volume 4: Chapter 15 - A Lame Teacher in the Japanese version appears to match with the English Version's Chapters 29-31 - The Wacky Professor Part 1-3. As there are no ISBN numbers for the English Version after Volume 5 one can assume there are no Legal English versions released beyond Volume 5.

On City Hunter's Wikipedia Page, inside the right side info box under English publisher it says

  NA
  Gutsoon! Entertainment (incomplete, defunct)

looking at Gutsoon! Entertainment's Wikipedia Page it says

  On March 15, 2004, Gutsoon! announced that they will be placing their Rajin Comics brand on hiatus. Raijin Comics ceased publication with its July 2004 issue (issue #46) and the Raijin Graphic Novels line was subsequently cancelled as well.

this is also confirmed on City Hunter's Wikipedia Page

  Attempts were made to license the series for the American comic market during the 1980s; however, Hojo insisted the manga should be released in the right-to-left format. In 2002 Coamix created an American subsidiary, Gutsoon! Entertainment. City Hunter was a flagship title in their Raijin Comics Anthology. Raijin switched from a weekly format to a monthly format before being cancelled after 46 issues.

In these magazine serializations in Japan a Manga Series is generally released a chapter at a time in each issue so the 44 Chapters of the English Version run close to the 46 Issues of Raijin Comics

As for other countries there doesn't seem to be any data for their release however the Wikipedia page may only be detailing the original Japanese release and English because it itself is in English as Anime News Network list other countries that the manga series has been published in, however as i don't know any other languages getting data from another Language's Wikipedia will be a bit harder.

From the data we have on Wikipedia for City Hunter we can say that only up to Volume 5: Chapter 22 - The Game's Queen was officially localized in English as Chapter 44 - Gambling Queen. any other chapters in english that are floating around on the internet i would suspect to be scanlations.

scanlation status is not on topic here on Anime and Manga as such you probably wont find any information here as to any announcement by the scanlation circle why they have stopped, however possible reasons could be due to

Lack of access to the Raw Japanese Manga
Lack of Staff (scanlation circles shouldn't be profiting so the staff only works when they have the time)
Being told to stop by the publishers/mangaka (has happened if i recall, just not sure on the title)
Just a lack of interest in the series, this can be combined with Lack of Staff as Staff can leave individually when they lack interest.