Why does a Devil Fruit's power nullify only if the user is knocked unconscious and not when he sleeps? I have noticed something rather strange: Why do devil fruit users abilities nullify when they are knocked unconscious but not when they fall sleep?

Take Moria for example. Moria had control of all the shadows when Luffy knocked him out, allowing the shadows to escape, so why does sleeping not do the same? Certainly he had to have fallen asleep at some point in time before Luffy had knocked him out.

Same is the case with Sugar. She was scared unconscious by Usopp and all the toys turned back to their human forms. Is there something about being knocked unconscious and falling asleep that is different in the One Piece Universe?

Not all Devil Fruit powers stop working when the user is unconscious.

Luffy was knocked unconscious and nearly drowned during the Arlong arc when he was submerged in Arlong's pool.  Despite this his neck was stretched far enough to give him air.  This was also seen when he was on Amazon Lily.  There... parts... of him were stretched by the tribe while he was unconscious and that is all I'll say on that.

It would appear that if conscious or reflexive control is required to operate the user's power (such as Robin or Crocodile), the power will not work if they are unconscious.  If the power causes a permanent change in the physiology of the user, the ability probably still works while they are unconscious.

Sugar is the perfect example of all of this because her fruit also makes her look very young.  This is not reversed when she is knocked unconscious because that is not consciously controlled.

However, if it were that simple, Moria (or others) could never sleep.  We are forced (whether it makes sense or not) to assume that the limited awareness a person has when asleep keeps some activated powers active.  Specifically, ones that generate some conscious minion.  In Perona's and Sugar's cases though, this obviously doesn't work if they are knocked unconscious.  This makes sense as when someone is unconscious by force or alcohol, they do not dream (until they are mostly recovered) and sometimes lose control of subconsciously controlled faculties (such as bowels or, more seriously, breathing).

All of these rules seem to change fruit to fruit so it is impossible to tell if, say, Law's body switches or Van Decker's marks would revert if they were knocked unconscious.

Please note: Moria did not lose control of his zombies because he was unconscious but because he took all of their shadows into himself at the end of the fight.  He did, however, lose control of the shadows when he was knocked unconscious. Most likely though he would have lost control of zombies in this situation anyways. You didn't make this mistake but I did several times while writing this.


How similar is Hohenheim (FMA) to the real Hohenheim? Hohenheim in FMA is based on a real person also named Hohenheim. How similar are the character from anime and the real person, and how do they diverge?

Hohenheim is named after Paracelsus, a man whose name's last portion (at birth) was "von Hohenheim". Paracelsus practiced medicine, alchemy, and other sciences, much like Hohenheim.

In the vein of alchemy, Paracelsus also had a significant similarity to Hohenheim. He claimed to have made a homunculus out of bodily fluids, as described in De homunculis:

  Let the semen of a man putrefy by itself in a sealed cucurbite with the highest putrefaction of the venter equinus [horse manure] for forty days, or until it begins at last to live, move, and be agitated, which can easily be seen…If now, after this, it be everyday nourished and fed cautiously and prudently with [an] arcanum of human blood…it becomes, thenceforth, a true and living infant, having all the members of a child that is born from a woman, but much smaller.(1)

Though Hohenheim himself did not make a homunculus, he did contribute the blood that created the Homunculus, Dwarf in the Flask.

There appears to be little beyond these similarities. Paracelsus's personality was polar opposite to Hohenheim's, being stubborn and arrogant to say the least. (This was bad enough to earn him anger and distaste from others in his field.) Paracelsus was never a slave, nor did he challenge a great villain, nor did he have kids.

While it's clear that Hohenheim's skills, name, and contributions to alchemy are closely linked with Paracelsus, it's safe to say that little more than that connects him to Hohenheim.


What is the purpose of Zero's tattoo? I've watched the Vampire Knight anime and noticed that Zero has this tattoo on his neck. See below.

In one of the episodes Yuki is given a bracelet that is meant to have a spell on it and told the bracelet can be used to stop Zero. The headmaster holds the bracelet up to Zero's tattoo to show what it does. It appears as if it temporarily paralyses him. The bracelet looks as if it has the same symbol on it as Zero's tattoo.

Was there no purpose to it previously? Or did it have a different purpose?

In another episode when he is struggling with his blood lust the tattoo appears to have changed and got bigger and has veins coming out of it.

This left me wondering: What is the main purpose behind it? Or is there actually no purpose at all.

Zero's Tatoo is ment to repress his urge to drink blood and hopefully delay his decent into a Level E

Zero bears a tattoo, the Hunter's Seal, on the left side of his neck originally used to suppress his vampire side, and later used to tame him.

Soruce: Zero Kiryu - Appearance
you'll notice that the tattoo is on the same side of the neck Zero was clawing at when he was first brought to the Cross Residence as a child after his family was killed. this is also the same place Shizuka Hio bit him (the reason why he was clawing at his neck)
The Wikia page on the tattoo also goes into depth about it

The hunter tattoo has multiple purposes. The tattoo is of the Hunter symbol, which bears similarity to the Cross Academy logo. It can be used to slow the awakening of a human into a vampire, as Kaien Cross advised Zero Kiryu. Zero was able to delay his awakening for four years with its assistance, although he believed it would prevent it.
The primary purpose of such a tattoo is for the taming ceremony. The tattoo is linked via a matching piece of jewellery with a crest of the same symbol on it.
The tattoo can be on various parts of the body, most likely to be at the point where the human was bitten, as this is where Zero has his.The tattoo hurt him because of the vampire who bit Zero.
When Zero thirsts for or drinks blood, the tattoo branches out in the fashion of veins, or it makes Zero's veins glow.

so the Tattoo and the Bracelet Yuki has have the same symbol because

they are meant to be linked
they are both products of the Vampire Hunters thus they bare their symbol

after the "taming ceremony" (where Zero's blood was dropped on the bracelet and paired with the tattoo) Yuki is supposed to to disable Zero when he tries to go after someone's blood but alot of the time we see Yuki allow Zero to drink her blood


Did Archer notice who Rin was when she first summoned him in Unlimited Blade Works? In Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, when Rin had just summoned her servant (Archer) and walked into the room he was in, did he notice Rin straight away as a girl he was in love with or knew? And if so, why didn't he tell her?

Did he notice Rin straight away as a girl he was in love with or knew? No, he did not. It is mentioned here:

  'Archer was fairly close to the Rin from his timeline, though he did not recognize the Rin who summoned him as a Servant until she revealed her name.' This was because Rin messed up the summoning but he regained his memories after hearing her name, though he pretended not to.

Why didn't he tell her?

  Because his goal at that time was to kill Shirou, not to be with the Rin in his timeline. He has nothing to gain or lose by revealing who he was since his only wish at that time was 'to die' and erase his existence.


Why is Kitamura called "Maruo" by Kihara? In the Toradora series, only Kihara seems to address Kitamura as "Maruo". Why is this? Why is she the only one who calls him Maruo? Is "Maruo" the real nickname of Kitamura? Do they have a special relationship or something? Are they childhood friends?

Well, it isn't just Kihara who calls him "Maruo" - many of the girls at school call him that. In the light novel, it's pointed out early in volume 1 that various girls call him "Maruo" to be cutesy. In the anime, we see someone (I can't tell who) calling him "Maruo" in episode 14 near 4:40; and later, around 15:15, NANAKO Kashii refers to him as "Maruo" during a conversation with Kawashima and Kihara

Anyway: the reason he's nicknamed "Maruo" is that he bears a striking(?) resemblance (as Kihara notes in episode 2, around 5:00) to the character MARUO Sueo from the 90s-era show Chibi Maruko-chan:

The resemblance apparently extends beyond the visual - I haven't read/watched Chibi Maruko-chan, but Japanese Wikipedia states that Maruo, like Kitamura, is one of those do-gooder class-president types.

There's no explicit mention of this in the light novel (unsurprising, given how weird Japanese media is about referencing other media - whence cometh MgRonald's), but some scouring of the Japanese internet suggests that the reference is fairly obvious to those who grew up while Chibi Maruko-chan was a popular thing.


Do individuals with the power of Titans posses the ability to time travel through the memories of future wielders of Titan powers? In episode 21 of season 3, Eren Kruger

   who is The Owl (Former Attack Titan), told Grisha to save Mikasa and Armin despite the fact that they were not even born at that time.

How could he

   access the memories of a future Attack Titan?

Is this an ability available to

   all Titan shifters?

If so, then why was Eren Kruger the first to manifest it?

not all titans posses this ability but it is an unique ability to Eren's titan,So therefore anyone with the Eren's titan power can do it.


When was the first usage of 'white light' censorship in anime? As I have been watching anime, I have found that a lot of the more modern shows which contain content not suitable for TV viewing use bright light to censor bodily parts, overly violent/bloody imagery, etc.

When I watch older shows, like Evangellion below, there are also scenes that are inappropriate for viewing, but the shows usually solve this by conveniently placed items or viewing angles.

In some other shows, there are also placeholder images which are sometimes placed on top of the area to be censored, a sort of combination between the two.

But at least these two alternatives are usually slightly humorous and do not feel overly forced, whereas bright light from nowhere usually breaks my immersion with its very unnatural feel.

I find some shows have become unwatchable because of this trend - I dropped Tokyo Ghoul recently to wait for the DVD release, because I couldn't tell what was happening in certain scenes (lack of light in this instance, but same concept).

Where has this trend come from and which anime was first to include it?

TV Tropes has a page on the shadow censorship, which is essentially the same thing. The basic idea comes from overall censorship laws, such as exist in Japan. As this article mentions, a common means of censoring genitals is a "mozaiku" or mosaic, which is pretty much just a pixelization of the area. This page talks about the airbrushing over of female genitalia in pornography magazines.

The white bars (or shadows) seems to be, from what I can tell, attempts to censor genitalia (and sometimes violence/gore) in relatively unobtrusive ways. Shadows and light flares can more easily pass for being just a part of the scene than random people's faces, black bars, blurring, or pixelization. Similar things happen in this, for example, where clouds obscure Naruto's jutsu.

The light flares are also sometimes used to block faces or people, especially in pictures, though that it more of an in-universe censorship (when they're dead or need to be kept a secret, etc.) than censorship because of the law.

As for why not all of them are done in the way that the Neon Genesis Evangelion scene was done, I have two answers. The first is that it is often done for laughs or to add comedic effect, which is not necessarily what is being aimed towards in gory or sexy scenes. The second is that it is not always practical. A lot of work would need to be put in to making some scenes be able to always have something in front of the genitalia or wounds of the character, while light bars, shadows, or clouds are a lot easier.

As for which anime had it first, I currently can't find that, but I thought it would be more helpful to post this at least.


How did no one notice that Rukia's special order was defective? In Episode 6, when Rukia went to replenish her supplies from Kisuke, she asked about her special order in which Kisuke sent Ururu to look for it. After looking at it, Kisuke said that the one Rukia got was the only one he could get as it was hard to get. Later, he finds that the box was marked as defective.

What I don't get is how no one knew it was defective. If Kisuke's supplier marked it as such, firstly wouldn't they have had it destroyed because of Soul Society's orders to destroy Mod Souls? If they ignored the order, then Kisuke should have known because he would have seen the box and opened it, checking what it was because he knew it wasn't Chappy which is what Rukia said she wanted when Ichigo was complaining about it being a duck. If the box wasn't marked as defective before it arrived, then Kisuke must have done it and was fully aware it was defective in the first place.

How did no one notice that Rukia's special order was defective before she came to pick it up?

What I don't get is how no one knew it was defective.

Kisuke Uruhara knew that the container contained Kon.

According to Kon's History entry in Bleach Wikia:

  Kon was one of the last Mod-Souls ever created for Project Spearhead, an operation which made Artificial Souls designed to enhance Human physiology to be placed in dead bodies in order to help the Shinigami fight Hollows. Shortly after his creation the project was deemed inhumane by Soul Society and was shut down, and all of the existing Mod-souls were to be terminated.
  [Manga: Chapter 16 page 15 ]

  Kon, however, made a lucky escape and wound up in the storage room of the Urahara Shop, inside a Soul Candy dispenser. Kisuke Urahara placed the tainted dispenser in a box designated as "poor merchandise" and had intended to dispose of it, but never did. [Manga: Chapter 14 page 3 ]

He knew that the contents of the soul candy dispenser is actually a mod-soul. However, He did not dispose it, maybe because of his nature, being a scientist or so, he might have thought of experimenting on it just like what he did to Ichigo to bring back his powers.

  If the box wasn't marked as defective before it arrived, then Kisuke must have done it and was fully aware it was defective in the first place.

It was, actually...

  When Rukia asks if her order of some Soul Candy has arrived, Kisuke tells Ururu to bring the order from storage. Searching for a box marked "new stuff", she finds a box and brings its contents to Rukia. Urahara later discovers that the box is actually labeled "poor merchandise", and contained Kon. [Manga: Chapter 13 page 10-11, 19 ]

  Jinta asks her to read the writing on the box. When Ururu struggles to pronounce it, Jinta corrects her and tells Ururu that she sold a poor quality item to a customer and starts pulling her hair. Kisuke tells him to stop, saying that it is his fault for not disposing of it.source

Like Ryan said in the comment, it was on a different box. However, because Ururu struggles on reading labels, she accidentally gave the wrong item to Rukia.

Kisuke already knew what was inside: a mod- soul. He admitted it, saying it is his fault for not disposing it.

  How did no one notice that Rukia's special order was defective before she came to pick it up?

They noticed that the item given to Rukia is defective after she came to pick it up. The Order was in fact okay. However, the one who handed the item had a misunderstanding. Because she struggles on reading labels, Ururu mistook the box with a label of "poor merchandise" as the box with a label of "new stuff", which Uruhara ordered her to bring, so it was the one labelled [defective] given to Rukia instead.

  Jinta asks her to read the writing on the box. When Ururu struggles to pronounce it, Jinta corrects her and tells Ururu that she sold a poor quality item to a customer and starts pulling her hair. Kisuke tells him to stop, saying that it is his fault for not disposing of it. Tessai says that regardless of who is at fault, it could be trouble.

  Ururu apologizes to Kisuke, saying that it was her fault and asks him if he is mad. Urahara reaches out to her, causing her to recoil. He places his hand on her head, and tells her that it is no big deal and asks why she is crying. He says that they are a team and not to worry about it, as he will take care of it. Kisuke comforts her as she continues to cry.

  Tessai informs Urahara that they are ready, and the four set out to recover the merchandise, with Ururu carrying her cannon.source


Besides Naruto, Jiraiya and Minato, who else is in contract with Toads? Besides Naruto, Jiraiya and Minato, which people were/are in contract with Toads?

Yes. We don't know who they are, but the Toad contract Naruto signs lists down names, which are more than those 3.

Naruto Chapter 92. Pg 19.


Do I have to read the entire manga series of Magi, or can I start reading where the anime left off? I watched both series of Magi (The Labyrinth of Magic & The Kingdom of Magic) and am eager to see how the series carries out. I found the manga and want to start reading it from where the anime left off, but I know that sometimes the anime leaves things out.

If I start reading the manga from where the anime left off, will I miss anything?

From what I've seen the anime and manga follow almost identical story for Magi. In the end of season 1 they made a few changes in Ali Baba's personality. Some people argue it was a screw up. However, this reddit user sums it up perfectly (Spoilers)

  At the end of the first season of the anime, Alibaba falls into depravity. This event doesn't actually happen in the manga. Aside from that there are no significant differences between the two mediums. People argue that one is better than the other, however they both tell a nearly identical story. Somehow some people think that it messed up Alibaba's character, however it still goes along with his personality. The idea that the anime used to portray his fall was that he couldn't handle that the world was so cruel to let so many others fall to darkness. This goes along with his general portrayal as seen throughout the series where Alibaba does cares deeply about other people. This can be seen as early as the first arc wherein Alibaba decides to save the child who falls into the desert hyacinth despite his previous arrangement with Budel. There are numerous other examples of how Alibaba cares for others, even if they aren't directly affiliated with them throughout the series. The anime only addition simply helped give a seemingly large climax for the series that would have otherwise been underwhelming considering it was the final arc of an anime that may or may not have gotten a sequel.

Source: Reddit : Magi : Anime and Manga differences
Related: Differences between anime and manga versions of Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic


If the Beast titan has similar powers to the founding titan, why do they need the founding titan so desperately? Reiner and Bertolt are desperate to capture "the coordinate", the founding titan. But according to http://attackontitan.wikia.com/wiki/Beast_Titan , the Beast Titan

  "is one of the strongest of all Titans, possessing the ability to
  guide and direct mindless Titans and creating new Titans from common
  Eldians. These abilities are said to be nearly akin to those of the
  Founding Titan"

Then why do people from Marley need so desperately the founding titan? If it's for its abilities to command other Titans, couldnt they use the Beast titan instead for that purpose?

The Marley need the "coordinate" back for two 2 reasons.
*****Do not read if you don't want spoilers from Manga.*****

   1) The Beast Titan's ability is far weaker than the true coordinate. He has that ability due to the bloodline that he inherited from his mother, the same Titan that killed Eren's mother, his father's ex wife. We see the Beast Titan struggle to control certain titans, for instance, when the one survey corpse member he detained in order to find out what 3D maneuver gear was. He had to exert extra control in order to get them to comply. Meanwhile, Eren simply had to touch Zeke's mother's titan form and without knowing what he was doing all the titan's in the vicinity immediately began obeying his wishes to destroy her. Plus they left all the humans alone in the area for an extended period of time, while attacking the armored titan. They remained completely enthralled long enough for the Humans to get away. The Beast Titan is not capable of this at all. 2) The reason Marley never just all out attacked the Eldians behind the walls was due to the threat represented by the coordinate. If they hadn't left them alone the Fritz/Reiss family threatened to release the Titans inside the walls and annihilate all of Marley. Also, since Marley relied on Titans for their military might, they failed to develop other military technologies to the extent other nations (Mid-East Allied Forces) did. The Mid-East Allied Forces developed anti-titan weapons. Marley needs the coordinate to neutralize their enemies behind the wall and maintain their military supremacy over the Mid-East Allied Forces.


Why are the episodes named after literary works? I noticed every episode of Parasyte, with the exception of the last one (which shares the title of the anime, Parasyte), is named after a literary work:

The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
The Devil in the Flesh, Raymond Radiguet
Symposium, Plato
Tangled Hair, Akiko Yosano
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
A Dark Night's Passing, Shiga Naoya
Freezing Point, Ayako Miura
Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche
What Mad Universe, Fredric Brown
The Blue Bird, Maurice Maeterlinck
Heart, Natsume Souseki
Hello Sadness, Françoise Sagan
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
Happy Family, Lu Xun
The Adventure of the Dying Detective, Arthur Conan Doyle
More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sex and Spirit, Clifford Bishop (this is the only one I am unsure of, since no link is available yet on the wikipedia page on the anime, so I had to do some research)
Quiescence and Awakening
Life and Oath

Why do the episode have these works' titles as their own? Were these significant pieces of literature for Parasyte's creator?
Or are the titles somehow related to what happens on each episode? I can see the relation in the first two episodes, the 5th, the 15th and the 20th. But I don't recall precisely what events happened in other episodes, so I can't compare them to the titles (also because I hadn't noticed they were references before).
Also related, and may help to answer the other questions: were these titles chosen solely for the anime or do the chapters (or at least some of them) use them too?

EDIT

I found a post on reddit that says:

  And the name of the first episode, Metamorphosis, is writer Hitoshi Iwaaki's inspiration for the whole series.

There is no source or reference backing that up, though.
Just edited that in so that there's at least somewhere to start looking, if the claim in the post is correct.

EDIT 2

The latest two episodes still aren't referenced in Wikipedia, and I have no idea what work they could be alluding to. If anyone knows what piece of literature they are a reference to, please edit my post accordingly.

Here's a partial answer pertaining to episodes 21-24.

Recall that the Japanese title of the anime is "Kiseijuu - Sei no Kakuritsu", or loosely, "Parasyte - the probability of sei". The title is written in Japanese with sei in katakana, which is a non-semantic syllabary, rather than in kanji. This makes it unclear what the intended meaning of the word sei is, because there are at least 30 different kanji (based on a quick look here) that can be read sei (and hence around the same number of distinct meanings for the word), and it is not possible to infer from context which one is intended.

This ties into the titles of episodes 21-23, which are all pronounced "Sei to Sei" in Japanese, but using different characters for each distinct sei. Specifically, episode 21 has 性 "sex" and 聖 "holy"; episode 22 has 静 "quietness" and 醒 "wakefulness"; and episode 23 has 生 "life" and 誓 "vowing" (生 "life" is the same sei as in "kiseijuu", incidentally).

These three titles constitute a sort of wordplay, in my opinion. This sort of homophone-based wordplay is fairly common in Japanese, since Japanese is a very homophone-rich language, owing mostly to heavy borrowing from Chinese.

I strongly suspect that it is only coincidental that the Japanese translation of the English book "Sex and Spirit" by Clifford Bishop has the same title as episode 21 of the anime (judging from the synopses of the book available, anyway). Given that the book is only a penny on Amazon, the interested reader might like to pick up a copy of it and see if there is, in fact, any thematic relationship with Parasyte.

This being the case, I do not believe that the titles of episodes 21-23 reference literary works, other than coincidentally. And, of course, there's no literary reference in the episode 24 title 寄生獣 kiseijuu "Parasyte" - unless you count a title drop as a literary reference, I guess.


Why did they stop giving dubbed Shippūden episodes on Hulu? I've watched part one and part two of Naruto, but when I came across episode #96 and after, I couldn't find anymore (dub) episodes.

Why did they stop giving dubbed Shippūden episodes on Hulu?

There doesn't seem to be much information online regarding why dubbed Naruto: Shippuden specifically is only partly available on Hulu. However, there is some, as well as some more generic information that can be pieced together.

In a question to Hulu about this very topic on FB from 2015, Hulu responded:

  It's our goal to provide as much content as possible and to keep it
  all on our service as long as we can. However, what content we post
  and how long we're able to keep it on Hulu depends on contractual
  agreements or streaming clearances granted by our content partners.

An announcement from 2016 of an earlier set of Shippuden episodes being posted on Hulu mentions that Viz media had been putting episodes up sporadically.

This fits with what Anime News Network said about this question more generically. ANN gives a good answer, but to summarize it, there was an original reluctance to posting more than a limited number of dubbed episodes online because the idea was that dubbed episodes have a larger base and so can be sold on DVDs and such. Providing them online would thus cut into the profits from DVD sales because people wouldn't need to buy the DVDs and so only a few at most would be put online to get people interested. Now that streaming has become more profitable, that's changed somewhat, but because Hulu and Netflix make content providers jump through hoops, it's often not worth it to go back and reconfigure old dubbed episodes to post.

This goes along also with a 2011 NYT article, where they mention that it can take at least a year for official dubs; if places like Hulu make it so hard for them to post episodes, they make not see it as worth it to post dubs and go through that work again when the subs have been up for 12+ months already.

Tl;dr: They want people to buy DVDs, and it's a pain to post stuff on streaming.


What skills introduced prior to the formal introduction of Haki are Busoshoku Haki based? There are 6 techniques that are the keys to Rokushiki.  Despite a claim in another answer from a well informed user that none of the CP9 members are haki users, several of these techniques seem to be rudimentary forms of Busoshoku Haki.  It seems completely reasonable that the marines would be training them in the use of Haki based skills.

In particular: Tekkai, Rokuogan, and Shigan seem to clearly be Haki based.  There are, however, some points against this including Luffy's reaction to Shigan.

Geppo and Rankyaku could feasibly be viewed as imparting ones willpower/Haki to the air like a projectile.

Only Soru does not seem to fit this but Sanji's simular technique (Blue Walk) was (at least partially) transfered to Nami when his mind was transfered.  By this answer Haki is transferred but not physical strength.

There are several other techniques that, if these are Haki based, would also need to be Haki based such as Sanji's Sky and Blue walks and Zorro's ranged sword attacks.

Finally we address swordsmen. Not covered by the CP9's skill but still seems to be early stages of learning Haki is Zorro's cutting of steel.  His sword would normally not be able to cut something as hard or harder than itself but he learns to impart his willpower to it to make it cut what and only what he wants it to.  This is complemented by an early use of observation haki immediately prior to it in his fight against Mr. 1.

My one question is therefore: Are there any abilities that were shown prior to the introduction of haki on the show (such as the potential examples above) that have either been shown to work by using Busoshoku Haki (knowingly or not) after it's introduction or have been confirmed by canon sources to be Haki?

As I consider it Haki was introduced on Amazon Lily and in the several instances that were observed on the archipelago. The nature of this question invites speculation as I've done above but I would prefer justification in canon.  I understand anime physics don't have to be realistic but this would explain alot.

I will first use your examples to explain Rokushiki and Haki and then give a comparative conclusion using the wiki.

Rokushiki

Rokushiki was mainly explained in chapter 348 and was explained to be pure body strength with every technique. Rob Lucci confirms this after the CP9 had defeated the Strawhats for the first time.

Tekkai

  Our bodies are trained to the point of mimicking an iron shell.

Soru

  It only seems as though I've disappeared. With the explosive power of my legs...

Geppo (See also this question

  (Also with the explosive power of my legs) I can kick the air and float...

Rankyaku

  Nami: They cut the wall with their kicks!?
  Kalifa: If you have the speed to create a kamakaze, then it's possible...

Overall

  We've trained our bodies to great extremes since we were young.

Strawhat crew's attacks

Sanji's sky and blue walk are basically like Geppo. The more power you gain in your legs, the faster you can move. So if you master this technique anyone could do it, as we have seen Sanji do in Nami's body. This could be argued to only have been possible by Sanji somehow imbuing Haki into Nami's legs as she would not have been as powerful to use blue walk. That's why I mentioned that technique is needed also. After being a thief and being on the run for most of her teen years, Nami has the physical potential of using blue and maybe even sky walk, she just didn't learn the technique needed to do so.
Zoro's ranged attacks are basically like Rankyaku. The more speed you can put in your slashes, the bigger the slash gets. Haki can be imbued to make the slash stronger as Law did against Vergo or when Mihawk slashed at Whitebeard (the fact whether Haki was imbued here, is debatable though). Haki can be imbued, but it isn't needed to create ranged slashes as explained with Rankyaku. Mere arm power or slash techniques would be enough.
Zoro cutting steel aka Mr.1
As explained in the following question, Zoro did not use haki in Alabasta

Haki

Haki on the other hand is a pure mental power and it might not even be possible to get it out even with enormous training.

Overall

  Haki is a power that lies dormant in all the world's creatures, but a majority of humans go without noticing this power or perhaps finish their lives failing to ever pull it out, even if they try...

Kenbunshoku Haki

  The ability to sense the opponent's presence even more strongly is haki with the color of observation.

Busoshoku Haki

  This power can also be imbued into weapons (and can thus not be a mere physical trait as you can't train weapons)

Haoshoku Haki

  This color of the conquerer however, cannot be trained and strengthened, even if you are able to control it.

Difference

Therefore to conclude, Rokushiki is not Haki. The result might be similar, but they are fundamentally different. Rokushiki is based on pure physical power, while Haki is based on will power. You could therefore technically have both Rokushiki Tekkai enhancement and Busoshuoku Haki at the same time, although this has not been shown in the series thus far. This is also why Rokushiki can be easily taught by becoming physically stronger, while Haki must be developed by becoming mentally stronger, which isn't as easy to do. Rokushiki will therefore not make the user able to negate Devil Fruit powers and hit Logia users for example.

  Tekkai is similar to Busoshoku Haki, as both reinforce the users body in some way, the difference being that Haki is based on the user's willpower and Tekkai is based on the user's physical power. Also, Tekkai is more inclined to defense and the user exhibits no movement while it is active. In comparison, Busoshoku Haki is capable of both offense and defense.

Source on Tekkai

Other information

If you want to read more about Haki, see the question about the abilities that are transferred when hearts are interchanged between bodies
If you want to read more about Geppo, see the question about how CP9 members and Sanji can run in the air

Usage

Background

  It was used by Garp for the first time against Luffy to bypass his Devil Fruit power and hurt him in Water 7. Later, Sentomaru used a Haki-imbued attack against Luffy, which made the Straw Hats think he was a Devil Fruit user due to their lack of knowledge about the ability. Afterwards, Rayleigh used Haki to stop Kizaru and even touch his Logia body. The first time the Kujas named this ability "Haki", they were shown wielding Haki-imbued arrows. During the Marineford War, Haki was also used many times by marines and pirates alike. It was shown that Haki is very common in the New World, unlike in Paradise where Haki users are fairly rare and almost nobody knows about it. It is later explained by Rayleigh once he begins training Luffy.

Examples

  It can be used to augment the user's own attacks, projected ahead of the user as pure brute force, or imbued in weapons to increase their effectiveness. Any attack enhanced by Busoshoku Haki hits immensely harder than it would normally be without it. The Kuja's Haki-imbued arrows, for example, are capable of penetrating solid stone.
  This type of Haki also has the ability to bypass the powers of a Devil Fruit user, touching the "substantial body" beneath whatever protection the fruit provides, such as the case of body-altering Devil Fruits such as Logia or Paramecia users. However, unlike Kairoseki, it does not negate a user's Devil Fruit powers, allowing them to defend themselves, and continue fighting normally. By the same effect, this Haki can also be used as a higher level of offensive, more so than just bypassing a foe's Devil Fruit powers.
  A heavy concentration (or coating) of this Haki can be used to harden parts of one's body, turning the area black, thus making the user denser and more formidable, and giving their attacks greater power. Although Luffy, the first in the mainstream storyline to demonstrate this effect, named the technique as Busoshoku: Koka (武装色 硬化 Busō-shoku: Kōka?, Color of Armaments: Hardening), no other users except Donquixote Doflamingo, such as Vergo and Smoker referred to this method by such a name.
  Busoshoku Haki works independently of the user's Devil Fruit, as shown when Luffy uses it to enhance his Gear Third attack underwater. This type of Haki may not be equipped to attacks that are not from one's body except for weapons, or anything generated from one's own body (like Kizaru's laser beams, Marco's flames or any other energy/non-solid attacks based on Devil Fruits). So, those who attack with parts of their body can combine their Haki and Devil Fruit powers.

Source on Busoshoku Haki


Are there anime named after a manga, but totally different from it? Lots of manga get an anime adaption, and pretty often the anime's story deviates partly or a lot from the story told in the manga. This usually leads to different endings lacking information, or even giving surplus information as compared to the manga with the same name.

But this also made me wonder: is there also an anime that shares the same name as a manga (it supposedly was based on) but deviates 100% from this the story as told in the manga? So the story in the anime is totally different from the manga, but still shares the same name.

Sorry, this is not manga, but I'd like to mention The Idolmaster.

The original game of The Idolmaster is an arcade game about producing girls as idols.

However, the first anime series Idolmaster: Xenoglossia is a robot anime.
Girls ride big robots named "IDOL".

EDIT: Added some background of my understanding.

Mushi Production

Mushi Production
is one of first animation studios in Japan.
Mushi Production is known for Tetsuwan Atom which is the first Japanese anime series.
Mushi Production was founded by Osamu Tezuka who is "Godfather of Anime" and the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney.
This studio was created by manga/anime creators (animators).

At Mushi Production, animator's opinion was most important and business-side people didn't have a voice.

Lacking business sense, Mushi Production bankrupted in 70's.

Sunrise

Sunrise is a spin-off company from Mushi Production.
The founders of Sunrise knew why Mushi Production failed, so they decided a new policy that have strong business executive members and animators can't poke to the business side.
For example, animators can't become board members of Sunrise.
At Sunrise, it moves in the opposite way: animator's opinion is NOT adopted.

Sunrise had a big success in robot anime.
For example: Gundam,
Code Geass
and My-HiME.

Namco

In 2007, Namco (the game company that created Idolmaster) finished acquiring Sunrise and merged executive members.
In that time, Idolmaster was one of the most successful games by Namco.
The executives gave an order to the animator team that created My-HiME to create an anime version of Idolmaster.
Animators at Sunrise were professionals of robot anime, they weren't fit to make idol anime, but they had a policy. Therefore, they created robot anime that used characters of Idolmaster.


What's the OST that plays in the last episode of season 3? I want to know what's the OST that plays at the 12:56 minute mark when Mirio starts explaining his quirk.

Momo Yaoyorozu

From Disc 2 of the Season 3 OST. You can hear it on YouTube here.


Who is this character in Wagnaria / Working? The character in the image below appears a few times throughout the series.
She looks a bit like Yamada but Yamada is never seen wearing glasses while talking to the rest of the staff.

The image was taken at the 12:10 mark of EP11 but she appears in other episodes as well, although rarely.

that is Maya Matsumoto, the self proclaimed "perfectly normal" member of the staff.

On the 13th episode of the first 2 Seasons she has a speaking role in which in the first season she actually introduces herself. she also has a speaking role in the 3rd episode of Season 3

Also in the Artbook that comes with the Season 2 Premium Edition from NISA you can find her making comments on a number of pages


Can Naruto use Rinnegan techniques if he were to implant it? In the recent episode Naruto mention about releasing Infinite Tsukuyomi to Sasuke. Sasuke replied, "Kakashi can use his eyes to release the jutsu".

Can Naruto use Rinnegan techniques if he were to implant it?

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, Nagato (Pain), who was an Uzumaki, was able to use Rinnegan jutsus. Naruto, who is also an Uzumaki, should also be able to use Rinnegan much like Nagato.


Why does Luffy use Gear Second so much? As mentioned here, Gear Second decreases the user's life span. When he first used Gear Second, it was a really important decision to make since it's side effect is so brutal. But after Enies Lobby Arcs he started using it casually. What changed and made Gear Second from a very risky technique to a casual technique?

The main cause is training, and mastering of the technique.

After the timeskip:

   After training with Rayleigh, Luffy is capable of using Gear Second with specific body parts, activating the technique without using the stance we see in Enies Lobby Arc. This way reducing the strain he imposes on his body, making him able to use it withouth the side-effects, it is even stated in the manga that he could use it on his entire body with only the hungry side-effect.

This only explains why he is able to use Gear Second so many times.
The real reason for using this technique so much is because of the formidable opponents he faces. He needs to be able to match or overcome them.

Sources: Manga, http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Gomu_Gomu_no_Mi/Gear_Second_Techniques


Who's the artist of the Oreimo's Suki Nandamon original edition theme song? I found a video of Ore no Imouto's 9th Ending Suki Nandamon and it says "Original Edition". It is different from the TV version sang by Ayana Taketatsu, the actual version of the ending of Oreimo. But the singer sounds a bit different from Ayana Taketatsu. I don't know if the Original Version and the TV Version have the same artist. So I'm asking, is Ayana Taketatsu the artist of the Original Edition? If not, who is the artist?

As far as I know, the TV broadcast and the DVD have the same version of "Suki nan da mon", sung by Ayana Taketatsu.

The video you linked is a cover of the song by an amateur artist named Misaki Arima. Her name is printed in the info under the video, as well as on the background pic in the video itself; the line 歌：有馬美咲 means "Singer: Arima Misaki". As senshin pointed out, the line 「歌：有馬美咲　★本編は竹達彩菜さん★」 in the details says "this is sung by Arima Misaki, but the original is by ★Taketatsu Ayana★". Arima's Facebook page (which was all I turned up in a Google search of her name) lists Ore Imo as a favorite novel and has the same profile picture as her Youtube profile, which you can see on the video page.

The video itself just claims to be the "Full version", which it is (not the edited TV version of the song). I'm not sure where that commenter got the idea that this was the original version, but, well, you know how commenters can be...

(Actually, I think the commenter probably meant "original-length version".)


Why was Tobi not proactive after all missing nins got recruited for Akatsuki? As far as I know, Tobi didn't come to limelight until Sasori's death (I am talking as per the chronological order of the telly series). He teamed up with Deidara after Sasori's death. He knew Nagato and his team long back but he was not proactive with the organization at the beginning of series.

Why didn't he volunteer himself? Is it because Akatsuki work in pairs and he didn't have anyone? Or was he waiting for the right moment to join with the organization?

Tobi was the brain behind the plan. But he used Nagato to carry out his plan. He exploited Nagato's hatred towards big countries. He was dead as obito for the world. So he wanted to hide and work behind the scene so that he could keep his identity hidden from all before he could collect all bijuus. Also, Land of Rain was always a secretive nation. And Akatsuki already had strong base. It gave him a perfect place to hide himself. But towards the end as more and more akatsuki members died he was forced to come to limelight.


Was there any reference to Shigure's brother before Chapter 545? This chapter came to me as a real shocker. I always thought Shigure was an only child. As the title says, were there any references or perhaps even hints or foreshadowing that Shigure had a brother?

Since he knows Kosaka style, I want to say he's the biological son of her adoptive father, Hachirobe Kosaka. Pretty sure he alluded to his son being dead.


What is the significance of the symbol in Tanaka's eyes? At the end of the Thanatos Report OVA (set after the events of the .hack//Sekai no Mukou ni movie) after Tanaka picks up a certain chip, a symbol appears in his eyes.

What is the significance of this symbol? What does it mean for Tanaka?

That's a "doubleware" crest, meaning that aside from Tokio (from //Link and //Versus) Tanaka is the only other doubleware revealed up until now.

Doubleware humans can withstand Real Digitize themselves within the virtual world without worrying about "Outer Dependency Syndrome," the gradual erosion of their mind and digital body.


How much time did it take Yuu Otosaka to fulfill his promise to Tomori? I just finished watching Charlotte and I'm curious as to whether it is mentioned anywhere how much time it took him to fulfill his promise?

He lost his powers after using it multiple times per rotation so keeping in mind he made the travel back and forth multiple times and to keep increasing his profits it might have taken more than 2+years without the powers if we take into account the time he spent travelling but based on his promise it only took him around 2 years to increase profits and start the school


Did Tanjiro use the lighting breath? At some point in the manga,

   Tanjiro reminds a talking with Zenitsu, where Zenitsu tells himt that for being fast he has to direct his breathing to his legs, or something like that. And then he uses this and becomes faster.

Does this mean Tanjiro used the lighting breath?

Yes he uses the proper breathing technique of lightning and it seems like you're asking if Tanjiro can use the forms of the breath of the lightning, Breathing technique and the forms of the technique is (2) different things so the answer is No.

Learning the proper breathing of the technique doesn't mean you will be able to wield your sword just like the other breath of the lightning users it requires proper training and talent to achieve such thing because by learning the proper breathing you'd just allowed yourself to pinpoint the parts of your body to enhance and perform the forms of the technique properly.


How different are the manga, anime and movie versions of Ajin? Ajin is originally a manga, that has subsequently had a few adaptations into anime. In November 2015, it seems to have been adapted into a movie: Ajin Part 1: Shoudou (Ajin: Demi-Human - Compel). MAL's blurb for the movie reads:

For high schooler Kei—and for at least forty-six others—immortality comes as the nastiest surprise ever.
Sadly for Kei, such a feat doesn't make him a superhero. In the eyes of both the general public and governments, he's a rare specimen who needs to be hunted down and handed over to scientists to be experimented on for life—a demi-human who must die a thousand deaths for the benefit of humanity.

The movie lists two yet unreleased sequels: Ajin Part 2: Shoutotsu, set to be released in May 2016; and Ajin Part 3: Shougeki, set to be released in Seprember 2016. The blurb for these two is the same as the one for the first movie.
The manga was also adapted into an anime series, Ajin, released between January and April 2016 (the Winter 2016 season). This one lists the three movies as "Alternative versions", and its blurb reads:

Where there is life, there is death... or is there? What would you do if you could never die? The possibilities are endless.
Seventeen years ago, the existence of a special species called Ajin was discovered in Africa. They are said to be immortal beings, with several supernatural abilities, that look just like any other human being. Are these Ajin just random phenomena of nature or were they purposely sent to Earth to destroy it?
Since their first discovery, several other Ajin appearances have been reported worldwide. For the majority of citizens though, these creatures are less reality and more of something you see every once in a while in a textbook or on the news. This is how it was for the young protagonist of the series, Kei. That was until a sudden turn of events changed his life forever...
Ajin is a supernatural anime full of complex ideas about life and death, as well as the dark side of human nature. What does it mean to truly be human?

It's not entirely clear to me whether the first movie covers the anime series and the other two are new content, or whether the three movies are supposed to be recaps of the whole series (maybe there are supposed to be three anime seasons of Ajin, and each of the movies recaps one of them?).
What's the relation between the manga, the anime series, and the movies (given that two of the three movies haven't been released yet, that part may be harder to answer)? Are the adaptations faithful to the manga?

I have watched the anime until the very last episode so far, which is the 8th of the second season, while I also keep on reading the manga (it is still on going). First season of Ajin is totally faithful to the manga until the last two episodes, then it just changes a little so it is not a big deal. But this second season is, from the 2 episode and on, super different from the manga. Now, this does not mean anime is not as good as the manga, this second season is very nice indeed, but what happens is that in the manga there were some really interesting parts involving important character backstory. For example,

   Izumi's which was very crude and harrowing but it seems like in the anime they have censored it, which really pissed me off. Then we got Kei Nagai's true feelings towards what is going on around him, which is not clearly shown in anime, and also and the most different thing: they have changed all the main plot.

Everything that happens in the manga that should have been in this second season is not there, the fights, the crazy af plans of Satou, etc. This, however, could be explained because I believe the second season started when this amazing arc in the manga was not over yet, so I guess production decided to just walk the FMA path. But as I said, it is still worth watching it, it is good and adds new stuff:

   we can see some development in Izumi and Tosaki's relationship and we kinda get 1 minute or less of fanservice with cute Nagai blushing.

So yeah basically, first season is completely faithful, second season is not but it still very good.


Tokyo ghoul's Kaneki's change in hair color When Kaneki's hair turned from brown to white, was it because because of the stress ? Or maybe because of his change of heart. A lot of anime and manga use hair-colors to describe someones personality, so maybe it was symbolic like, his hair turned white because he admitted that he has to change his personality.. Does someone know the real reason or?

His hair turned white and nails turned black because of the physical and mental stress (the episodes in which Yamori tortured him)

It is mentioned @Wikia :

  After being tortured by Yamori for a period of ten days, his hair
  became white and his nails turned black due to heavy stress, anxiety,
  and continuous bodily regeneration. This condition is known as Marie
  Antoinette syndrome. It is caused by extreme stress or emotional
  trauma like he had undergone. He also began wearing a form fitting
  black outfit when he had the intention of fighting as a ghoul, both
  for intimidation and practicality.


Where can I read the The Seven Deadly Sins manga online legally? So, I'm watching the anime The Seven Deadly Sins and I'd really love to read the manga, but I can't find it anywhere.

I even looked it up and only found one website, but it only published the recent chapters and deleted the older ones.

Where can I read it legally?

The Seven Deadly Sins is part of Kodansha Comics, which have been made available on Crunchyroll since their manga platform release in 20131,2. Crunchyroll has all the current chapters of this up to date. As of today, that is chapters 1-167.

You can read it on their website at:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/comics/manga/the-seven-deadly-sins/volumes

You'll need a Crunchyroll premium account to read all but the most recent simulpub release. You can use this guest pass if you'd like a free 48 hour trial.

As stated on Wikipedia article for The Seven Deadly Sins the availability is based on your locale:

  As the series is published in Japan, it is also released simultaneously in English digitally by Crunchyroll in over 170 countries.

You should be able to read it there without an issue unless you're in one of the few unsupported countries, e.g. Japan, China, France, Germany and Italy3.


What are the dots inside the eyes when someone uses Sharingan? This was during the fight with Haku, the first time Sasuke's Sharingan showed up in season 1. As you can see, his right eye has two black dots and the left has one.

Kakashi's eye has three dots and this was during a battle with Zabuza, the same season a few episodes earlier before Sasuke's Sharingan showed up when fighting with Haku.

What are the dots inside the eyes when someone uses Sharingan?

These dots are called tomoe.

  When first awakened, each Sharingan usually will have only one tomoe (巴). Through training and continued use, the Sharingan will develop a second tomoe and then, upon full maturation, a third. All the Sharingan's abilities are available to the user from its earliest stage, but with greater development comes greater proficiency with those abilities.

For example during their first fight in the Valley of the End Sasuke was able to easily see Narutos movements after obtaining the third tomoe in one of his eyes, when he couldn't dodge them at all earlier.


Difference Between Limited Edition and Standard Edition I am looking into buying some anime. But when I go on Amazon, there is a Standard and Limited edition for certain shows. But both say they contain 4 discs, though. I watch unboxings on YouTube for the certain series (like Haganai and Haganai: NEXT) and there doesn't seem to be any difference between the two besides a thicker box (which looks cooler on a shelf). Can someone explain this to me? Links, pictures, and examples would be great, thanks!

There is normally an obvious difference between Limited and Started Edition anime normally defined by the content they come with, the actual episodes however aren't different.

Limited Editions of Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 and Tales of the Abyss came with Manga and the first volume of Galaxy Angel on Amazon came with figures, pencil boards and a book.

On RightStuf the first volume of My-Z-HiME came in a special box, not like the one where you have the spins of the disk cases sticking out, this had a lid and also on one side it had the cast printed on a sheet of plastic and was positioned slightly in front of an image of the academy while the other side had Arika's jewel, there's one of it on Amazon. the Zwei OVA came with a shirt and there's one on Amazon (images say it also comes with Pencil boards, i haven't opened by box yet and i missed that note on the box about what was inside)

Puella Magi Maodka Magica on Madman the only bonus was with Volume 1 and was a box to put the other 2 Volumes in, on RightStuf you got the Soundtrack, Cards, Art Book, all glittery and shiny, also there's 2 more Limited Edition Volumes while Madman never went further than a box.

Fate/Zero subbed on RightStuf original came with a Translation book on developer interviews which was missing in the Dubbed Limited Edition.

Sword Art Online on RightStuf, along with the soundtracks, came with limited edition Weiss Schwarz cards. i also remember getting a card in each volume of Fate/Zero dubbed but i can't remember if i did with the subbed (the subbed ones went into storage for safe keeping)

NISA's Premium Editions normally come in a large box with an art book inside however Love Live! School Idol Project has 2 Premium Editions. a standard one and the Concert Set which comes with the OST.

also, NISA will oftern include a bonus item like tear resistant posters (Fusé: Memoirs of a Huntress), Student Council Armbands (YuruYuri Season 2), Ties (Daily Lives of High School Boys) and RightStuf sells NISA stuff though i have yet to get a NISA Premium Edition from them since the PAL Lockout on NISA's store (Hanasaku Iroha the Movie ~ HOME SWEET HOME ~ is going t be the first). it should be noted these bonus items are in even limited supply than the Premium Edition themselves as Arakawa Under the Bridge used to come with a Kappa Mask of Chief however were out of stock by the time i started buying them

Generally a standard edition will just be a normal case with the disk inside, however Hanabee's stranded edition of Nisemonogatari DVDs are like little art books with the DVD inside while RightStuf Limited Editions includes cards, posters, soundtracks, of cause more expensive. it seems to be the same with other Monogatari releases between Hanabee and RightStuf since all the Monogatari DVDs i've brought from Hanabee has been the same book thing and i always notice a better limited edition on RightStuf

Also, Hanabee's Standard Edition of Dusk Maiden on Amnesia came with the soundtrack though i still torrented it after because like most soundtracks ripped from disk, unless you have a net connection you don't get the Meta data (Album Name, Artist, Cover Art etc.)

So as you can see it all depends on the series and where you buy them. Limited/premium editions are normally worth buying because you get something in them you don't get with a standard edition, and great for collectors since they are limited for a reason, but you should always look up both and see exactly what is different and how much more your paying for the extra stuff

NOTE: i can't get any RightStuf Links due to it being blocked at work


Is Toyosato Elementary School open to visitors? K-On! was based on a real-world elementary school in Toyosato. According to this article on Wikipedia, the elementary school moved to a new building in 2004.

Is the old elementary school open year-round to visitors and anime fans?

Yes it's open to public.
The other room of the building is using as office of city.

Some small things if you want to visit.

You need to check schedule, for example 3/1 to 3/18, it was closed.
8:30 to 17:00 on weekday. 9:00 to 17:30 on weekend.
It's free but need to sign-in.
Some people brake the building the city considering to close. be a good otaku.


What connection is there between the Black Rock Shooter anime and PSP game? I've been watching the Black Rock Shooter anime this weekend; I decided to watch it now because I got the PSP game. However, the description of the game says that the world it's set in has only 3 girls left after aliens wiped out humanity, Black and White Rock Shooter being 2 of them.

The anime, however, seems to have no connection to this, so I'm wondering: Are the two linked in any way, or is the only connection between the anime and game the fact that Black Rock Shooter appears in it?

Everything in the Black★Rock Shooter franchise is based on the original concept art by Huke on Pixiv. These were fairly popular, but it really only took off after the supercell song Black★Rock Shooter, which quickly became one of the most popular vocaloid songs to date.

After that point, the franchise essentially split, and all of the following productions are different canons. There has been an OVA and a TV anime, which have similar characters but the plot is rather different. Both of these were criticized by some fans for including lots of content and knew characters which weren't really closely related to the original concept. The game took a more conservative approach by sticking to the action-themed post-apocalyptic mood of the original and only introducing a few new characters. In general, it's safe to say that based on how different the plots of these are, they all take place in different universes.

In addition to those, there have been several other releases, which also generally take place in their own universes. Black-rock chan is a 4-koma manga based on the original concept art. Black★Rock Shooter ~Innocent Soul~ is a manga, again based on the original and in a different universe. There was also a manga and a 4-koma related to the game.

So, to summarize, there is no direct connection between the anime and game, but they are both based on the same original work.


How are backgrounds animated? I'm curious about how they are animated:

Flower petals in the air
Water effects (e.g the intro of The Garden of Words)

Water droplets in pond (00:17 and 1:35)
Reflection of a person walking (01:54)
Sun reflecting off water

Time-lapse (e.g Your Name)

Are backgrounds done frame by frame? Or do they use something like AE?

Technically, everything you list isn't a background in the sense used in traditional hand-drawn animation. A background is a static image, and anything moving is on a separate layer. One shot may have several layers. Flower petals are animated just like characters, for example, on their own layer(s).

I think what you mean are environment shots.

However, this gets more complicated with CGI. The examples you cite of water droplets are made with CGI; they're not hand-drawn (that's partly how the camera can tilt so effectively). Similarly, the reflection is made by taking the hand-drawn animation and placing it on the CGI-based water surface.

The time lapse you show is a trick of reversing the traditional layering. The foreground layer is made up of environmental objects like trees, while the sky is a fully animated layer. Someone's drawing those clouds and that sun, every frame, and it's just being placed on a layer behind the one containing the trees.

If by "AE" you mean After Effects, the Japanese animation industry generally uses software that's been built for specifically for the anime industry, like RETAS Pro. Some are integrated into the workflow, while others are standalone. But if an effect is being generated on the computer, it's generally classified as CGI, like the water droplets, regardless of the tool being used.


Is Akamaru a pet or a comrade? My question is if Akamaru is a pet or a comrade to Kiba. I'm wondering this because he fights alongside Kiba and Kiba treats him like he was another human being (most of the time), but at the same time he also treats him like a pet.

Examples and or clues that he's a pet:

Teaches him tricks
Takes baths with him (not a lot of people do but a lot of little kids do)
Calls him "boy" (Like, "Here boy!")
He was given to Kiba at a very young age by Kiba's mother (something that happens a lot in real life)
They lived together for (you could say) their whole life so they're like family (something that also happens in real life)
They play together (something you will do with a friend or pet)
Kiba cares a lot about Akamaru that he will do anything to protect him (something that a lot of people do for their pets)

The list goes on and on. I've been looking up stuff, but haven't found anything that says he's his pet. It only says he's his partner, comrade, friend, etc.

When I look up, "Kiba and his pet", then go to images, it shows (at least the first couple of pictures) Kiba and Akamaru.

So is Akamaru Kiba's pet or comrade? To better put it, is Akamaru a pet or a comrade to Kiba?

I believe this will depend on how you define a pet and comrade, dictionary.com defines a pet as any domesticated or tamed animal that is kept as a companion and cared for affectionately. And it defines a comrade as a companion who shares one's activities or is a fellow member of an organization/a fellow soldier or member of the armed services.

By the first definition he could be considered a pet, though he is clearly more than that. The entire clan use collaboration techniques with their canine companions, drawing strength from their combined and coordinated techniques; they have a symbiotic relationship on and off the battlefield, protecting each other and playing together, as well as fighting fiercely together.

In the real world hunting dogs are probably the closest comparison we have to the battlefield interactions we see between the Inuzuka clan and their companion animals. Training a hunting dog requires asserting yourself as an alpha in their pack, and maintaining that controlling position constantly. Treating a hunting dog as a pet as well frequently blurs the lines on what behavior is and is not allowed from the animal and can undermine its hunting training.
https://www.southernstates.com/articles/training-hunting-dogs.aspx

In the case of the Inuzuka clan we see more than just a working relationship that leads to optimal performance of hunting dogs. Akamaru makes suggestions during fights. He even bites Kiba in the fight against Sakon and Ukon insisting that they use a risky technique. This clearly indicates that Kiba is not an alpha to be obeyed regardless of circumstances and they have a more equal relationship more akin to sworn brothers.

In conclusion, Akamaru is more than just a pet and its probably most accurate to call them true partners.


Who are the members of Team Jiraiya? I know only Minato Namikaze (The Fourth Hokage). Who are the other two members of Team Jiraiya?

As of right now there is no information disclosed about the other two members of Team Jiraiya.

  This was a genin team led by Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin at some point after he left the Ame Orphans and returned to Konohagakure. Its only known member is Minato Namikaze, who Jiraiya took special interest in. Minato would later become the Fourth Hokage. The names of the other two members, as well as their statuses, are unknown.

However we did actually see one according to the wiki:

  In a flashback that Kushina Uzumaki had, one of Minato's black-haired teammate can be seen sitting behind him at the Academy.


Name of anime which is about a fugitive princess who controls a mecha Okay, so I'm trying so hard but I cannot remember this for the life of me...

It's a movie that's relatively new and probably around 2005-2013
Genre: Mecha
A princess is on the run and controls a mecha
Princess' mother was killed in a coup d'tat
Boy whom she finds has white hair and blue eyes and is a really good fighter
At the end of the movie, there is huge fight with a mega mecha that everyone assumed was a myth
In order to use the mecha, it has to stab you in the throat
It has a sad ending cause both the main characters die

Neppu Kairiku Bushi Road

Sounds a lot like this anime and it is from 2013 but the boy did not die, only the girl did. But that was in the after-credits scene so its possible you did not see it. The robot did stab the girl in the throat and it was considered a myth.

From Wikipedia:

  The story takes place in a time when the world is in the pits of despair after being ravaged by a poison called "shinobi" that came to earth via an asteroid. The people run away to the place called "Kairiku," a place that used to be the bottom of the ocean. Here, the people try and protect themselves against the effects of the poison. In such a world, there was a single light of hope. The "Holy Weapon Giga Road" and the legendary warrior "Yagyuu" are needed in order to counter the effects of the poison. Ame, a princess of a fallen nation, stands up in order to save the world.

Ame: The main girl

  A former princess/priestess of the country Ise.
  Her mother is dead because of a shinobi. She travels with companions and a key to finding a weapon built by men who put an end to the shinobi. She has romantic feelings for Suou. She disappeared in the end.


What are the reference of Heaven's Lost Property to the Greek Mythology? In Heaven's Lost property, there are some obvious references to Greek Mythology, such as Zeus' cannon which is obviously linked to the Greek God Zeus.

What are the references to Sora No Otoshimono in Greek Mythology? Are there any links between the references and the character designs?

This question is intended to be self-answered, but other hints and recommendations are welcome.

Note that the references are sorted alphabetically.
I will use SnO as an abbreviation of Sora No Otoshimono (Heaven's Lost Property's Japanese title).

Aegis

In Sora No Otoshimono, Aegis is a defense system used by Angeloids to protect themselves.
In Greek Mythology, Aegis is a shield made out of animal skin carried by Zeus and Athena.

Alpha, Beta, ...
The Angeloids code name are all greeks letters

Alpha (Ikaros)
Beta (Nymph)
Delta (Astraea)
Epsilon (Chaos)
Gamma (Harpies)
Zeta (Hiyori)
Eta (Seiren)
Theta (Melan)

Oregano is the only angeloid character not code named. This is explained by the fact that she was not designed to be an unique model, but just another medical robot who went out to the human world by accident.
Note that if we follow the order of apparition of the Angeloids, their code names are alphabetically sorted.

Apollon

Ikaros' bow is named Apollon.
It is an obvious reference to the God Apollo. Even though Apollo is known for being the God of Music and Poetry, he also has a golden bow. The bow can cause health or famine, although its main function is that of a regular bow, but with much greater power.
In a similar way, Ikaros' bow is known for having great power, as she could destroy cities and countries with a few arrows.

Artemis

Ikaros has the ability to shoot missiles using Artemis.
Artemis is Apollo's twin sister. She is known as the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and protector of young girls.
She carries a silver bow made to kill without pain, opposed to Apollo's golden bow (see Apollo's reference) which is made to bring great suffering.
The weapon and the divinity are linked on a particular point : Ikaros' Artemis missiles are designed to follow its target until it reaches it. We can link this to Artemis' bow which is made for hunt, therefore for tracking.

Astraea

Astraea is one of the 3 main Angeloid's. She is often represented as dumb.
In Greek Mythology, Astraea, also called Astraia, is the virgin Godess of Justice.
We can link the character and the Godess by the innocence implied by the fact that Astraea, by her virginity, represents innocence, which is represented in Sora No Otoshimono by Astraea's stupidity and innocence.

Chaos

Chaos is the first Angeloid of the second generation.
Chaos, in Greek Mythology, is the first thing that ever existed. More generally, it is often used to represent a gap, a void.
In SnO, Chaos is deeply searching for the meaning of love, and doesn't seem to understand what it means until the very end. This lack of love can be interpreted as a void, linking the character to the mythological notion. One also notices that the SnO Chaos' wings are pretty similar to some representations of the God.

Chrysaor

In SnO, Chrysaor is Astraea's sword. It is referred to as the best weapon ever created for close-combat.
Chrysaor is the son of Poseidon and Medusa. The literal  English translation of his name is "He who has a golden sword".

Harpies

In SnO, Harpies are antagonists. They follow their master's orders until the very end. They are often cruel even though they almost fall in love in the Harpies' arc. They are sent by the Master of the Synapse to kill Ikaros as she had disobeyed her original master.
In Greek Mythology, a Harpy is a winged creature with a human face. They were created by Zeus to go to Earth and punish King Phineus.
Both the mythological creatures and the SnO's characters were sent down as a cruel response to what could be called an offense to the Gods.

Hiyori and Demeter

Demeter is the Goddess of harvest, the cycle of life, death and the seasons.
Hiyori is a reference to this Goddess in some points :

She is doing agricultural work, helping her parents to cultivate vegetables, therefore serving as a link with the agricultural Goddess

Her weapon, Demeter, can manipulate time, just as the greek Demeter would be able to manipulate seasons.

Ikaros, Daedalus and Minos
Those 3 characters are linked by the myth of the Labyrinth and Icarus' wings

Daedalus built the labyrinth for King Minos, who needed it to imprison his wife's son the Minotaur. The story is that Poseidon had given a white bull to Minos so that he might use it as a sacrifice. Instead, Minos kept it for himself; and in revenge, Poseidon made his wife Pasiphaë lust for the bull with the help of Aphrodite, who will later give birth to the Minotaur.
Minos imprisoned Daedalus himself in the labyrinth because he gave Minos's daughter, Ariadne, a clew(or ball of string) in order to help Theseus, the enemy of Minos, to survive the Labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur.
Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers for himself and his son. Daedalus tried his wings first, but before trying to escape the island, he warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea, but to follow his path of flight. Overcome by the giddiness that flying lent him, Icarus soared into the sky, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted the wax. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms, and so Icarus fell into the sea in the area which today bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos.

Hereafter the similar naming of the characters, there are some similarities :

Ikaros has wings, like Icarus
In SnO Daedalus is Ikaros' creator, as in Greek Mythology Daedalus is Icarus' father.
In SnO Daedalus is forced to exile and Ikaros is sealed, as in Greek Mythology Daedalus and Icarus are jailed in the Labyrinth.
Sugata always wishes to fly in order to discover the New World, which is a reference to this myth
A reference to Icarus' fall is made in the final arc :

 In the final arc, Ikaros reveals that she was previously ordered to destroy the Synapse. Even though they managed to control it, a security measure was taken : if Ikaros ever flew back to the Synapse without permission, she would be set on fire.

Here is another approach on Icarus myth which is not verified and mostly based on my deductions :
SnO may be intended as a reversed Icarus myth. The Icarus myth moral is

Humans should never try to achieve the dream of getting at the same level as Gods

And the moral of Sora No Otoshimono is

Because they have everything, Gods are inferior to humans as they, therefore can't dream.

Nymph

Nymph is the second Angeloid to appear.
In Greek Mythology, different from other Goddesses, Nymphs are generally regarded as divine spirits who animate nature, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young nubile maidens who love to dance and sing.
Beta is known for loving nature, birds, and singing. On this points, she is quite similar to the mythological creatures.
What's more, a recurrent joke of Sora No Otoshimono is Nymph's little sized breast. In Greek Mythology, nymphs are sometimes represented in the shape of young maidens, which may explained the low developed secondary sexual characters of Nymph.

Oregano

In SnO, Oregano is one of the medical Angeloids.
In real life, Oregano is a healing plant. In Greek Mythology, the Goddess Aphrodite invented the spice, giving it to man to make his life happier. The word "oregano" is actually derived from the Greek phrase, "joy of the mountains".

Pandora Mode

In SnO, the Pandora Mode is a second state mode of Angeloids where all their capabilities are hugely improved.
In Greek Mythology, Pandora is the first woman ever created.

Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create her. So he did, using water and earth. The Gods endowed her with many gifts: Athena clothed her, Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo gave her musical ability, and Hermes gave her speech.
According to Hesiod, when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus. Pandora opens a jar containing death and many other evils which were released into the world. She hastened to close the container, but all of the contents had escaped except for one thing that lay at the bottom – Elpis (usually translated "hope", though it could also mean "expectation").

I didn't find any relevant link between the Myths and the SnO mode.

Poseidon

In SnO, Poseidon is Minos' weapon.
In Greek Mythology, Poseidon is one of the 12 Gods and is called the "God of the Sea".
He carries a weapon, the Trident.
The Minos' weapon is clearly a reference to Poseidon's trident.
It is funny to mention that in the Myth, Poseidon punished King Minos for keeping a sacrifice for himself (See Ikaros, Daedalus and Minos entry)

Seiren

Seiren appears very shortly in SnO before being killed by Chaos.
Sirens were  beautiful and dangerous creatures who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island.
Seiren is an Angeloid designed for swimming, unlike other Angeloids, who do not float (due to the weight of their wet wings), therefore, serving as a link with Sirens which are always in the sea.

Uranus Queen (Ikaros)

Uranus is the Greek God of the sky. As Ikaros is the most powerful Angeloid ever created, the link is pretty obvious.

Zeus

In SnO, Zeus is a weapon created to protect the Synapse against aggressors.
In Greek Mythology, Zeus is the sky and thunder God, ruling the other Gods.
They are linked as both throw thunderbolts and are in the sky


Is she adult Rika in the final of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai? In the final scene of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, we see how the past of Takano changed when she was a child and eventually her parents don't die, then an adult version of Rika appeared.

What does it mean? Can Rika travel through the ages? Is she another version of Rika?

The final is an alternate ending/fragment, where Takano's parents don't die as a result of the "miracle" born from the combinated wills of Rika and her friends. In the original ending, the miracle occurs instead when Takano shoots at Hanyuu in the mountain forest and misses her shot.

The adult version of Rika is most likely Frederica Bernkastel. Her real nature/identity is often questioned and discussed by fans, most notably those who know the series Umineko no Naku Koro ni by the same author; however, a direct and clear link between the Bernkastel from both series is not established.

From a simple Higurashi point of view, at least, Bernkastel is an entity born from Rika's "mature personality" due to her many reincarnations. It is speculated that while Rika is still in the fragment where she won with her friends and live a peaceful life there, Bernkastel was able to become a separate existence that can freely travel between the different fragments (= alternative realities).


Where does MyAnimeList get their data from? I'm curious as to where/how exactly MyAnimeList gets their data. I understand there are a lot of similar services that let you "Manage watching anime", and I found them to mostly scraping the data they use from MAL (Or previously the MAL API).

AniDB and AniList were some of the larger players I found.

AniDB provides a reference to where the data (I assume) comes from:

So for a random anime I inspected, I was able to see that AniDB has used Wikipedia, MAL, as well as a few Japanese sites.

As for AniList and MAL, I could not find anything relevant.

So, where was/is the root of all the data? Did these services originally scrape from somewhere?

MyAnimeList sources and curates their data manually with the help of their staffs and users.

Their Frequently Asked Questions stated,

  Database Problems

  I can't find a particular anime/manga entry on MAL.
  First of all, make sure the entry meets the Database Guidelines. Foreign productions (e.g. Avatar, Original English Language "manga") and Korean webcomics are not allowed.

  You may also check the recent posts in the removals/merges/denials threads for the entry you are concerned about, to ensure it hasn't been submitted and denied before.
  Anime | Manga | Characters & People

  [...]

  If you still cannot find the entry you are looking for, you may submit it to the database.

  I would like to add a new anime/manga/character/person to the database.
  First make sure that you have gone through the steps above. If you cannot find a denial for the entry and it meets our guidelines, you can add the entry here:
  Add Anime | Add Manga | Add Character | Add People

  A moderator will review your submission and approve or deny it. This may take a while, so please wait patiently.

  I would like to modify a database entry.
  Under the main picture and on the right side of some sections of every entry are "Edit" links. Please use them to submit modifications to be approved. If the edit button does not have the option you would like to submit, please use one of the respective threads:
  Anime DB Modifications | Manga DB Modifications

From a quick search/browse on their forum, they don't seem to use any automation, and their database mods have to manually check and confirm the data before adding the submitted works to the database (which explains the delay).


What is Dr. Kureha's secret? In the Drum Island arc, Dr. Kureha always asks this:

So, what is the secret of her youthfulness? Is it because of her medicine? Her lifestyle? Maybe she found a fountain of youth?

She being a doctor, must have found some medicine which she drinks from her beer bottle.
Also she was the first one to mention the will of D and she knows the actual name of Gol D Roger, shows that she actually must be around 140 years of age.


If Tobi could use the izanagi, which requires both Senju and Uchiha DNA, then why wasn’t he able to awaken the Rinnegan on his own? It was stated by Tobi during his fight with Konan that Izanagi can only be used by those with both the DNA of Senju and Uchiha. We also know this is how the rinnegan is awakened, so why didn’t this happen?

Tobi was not able to awaken the Rinnegan despite having both Uchiha and Senju DNA because he was missing a certain step in the evolution, and that is, the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

   (I slightly explained obito's case in one of my previous answers)

The evolution of the Sharingan involves firstly awakening the Mangekyo, then after a combination with another family members Mangekyo, it evolves to an Eternal mangekyo sharingan, after which adding Senju DNA to the mix awakens the Rinnegan.

Tobi's Sharingan never reached the EMS and so thats why even tho he had combined both Uchiha and Senju DNA, he still was not able to awaken the Rinnegan.


What music is playing in episode 95 of Hunter x Hunter? I've heard this music playing in a lot of episodes but in episode 95 of Hunter x Hunter it plays at 21:19? what music is this?

The music you are searching for is a part of the HunterxHunter OST , Legend Of the Martial Artist , you can find it here.


Why does Betelgeuse freak out at the presence of a "lesser spirit" in episode 22? The moment I'm talking about is episode 22 of the anime when he's possessing the body of a female cult member, and a little red ball comes swirling by.

Is there any additional significance to it that I'm not aware of or just Betelgeuse being crazy?

Watching the next episode makes me better aware of the fact Julius was keeping an eye on Subaru. However I assume there's little Julius/Ia could have done to help (or he would've done that already considering the rather dire lifethreatening situation Subaru was, being crushed into the tree).

After Betelgeuse die he became some sort of quasi spirit himself allowing him to possess those who are spirit compatible or lacking in sanity, in this case the fingers , Subaru and skip by the anime, Julius (The guy got his own issue).

Julius however cannot be possessed due to having six guardian spirits. This did not allow him to choose Julius as a host after the last of the fingers were eliminated but instead tried for the next best thing which is Subaru. if he did tried to possessed Julius. Betelgeuse must fight against the other six spirits and that can cause severe pain to the mind of the host which may cause him to be ejected and die for real.

Subaru to was having the same problem like Betelgeuse but we saw it much clearly, severe headache when the spirit try to cleanse him of Ram illusion

Even when Subaru has IA ,Julius lesser fire spirit to help him Subaru is not the true pact wielder of the spirit making him vulnerable to possession.

But still wanting Julius as a body due to his more powerful body Subaru was taken hostage to try to get Julius to get rid of his pact , not wanting Julius his friend (and himself)  getting possessed and wreaking havoc he ask to be killed by Felix . Felix in turn ruin Subaru Gate causing his blood to boil (see episode 5 death) and Julius tearfully end his life for that loop.


Would Sarada have to kill Boruto to obtain the Mangekyou Sharingan? Say Sarada wants the Mangekyou Sharingan, would this mean she would have to kill Boruto?

She wouldn't have to kill anyone herself, she just needs to go through a traumatic event like seeing someone close to her die e.g. Boruto, Sakura, Sasuke, ...

I'm not sure how Madara got his Mangekyou Sharingan, but he didn't kill his brother himself. Izuna gave his eyes to Madara on his deathbed to awaken the eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

From the Wikia:

  It is initially awakened by the trauma suffered from witnessing the death of someone close to the user. Uchiha has historically misunderstood these criteria as the user needing to be responsible for the person's death, and for that reason, they developed the practice of killing their closest friends in order to gain the Mangekyō Sharingan.


Is the mystic form stronger than SSJ3? We know as a fact that SSJ < SSJ2 < SSJ3 < SSG < SSB . But what about the mystic form that probably Gohan is going to recover? Is there any official info / evidence that shows how strong it is compared to the other forms?

My take on this is that his "mystic" form is just him unleashing all his power without turning into a SSJ which puts some strain on his body / wastes some energy.

Basically even if he could go SSJ3 there is no need for that because he can bring all of that energy out in this "mystic" form without any side effects. So no matter how strong he becomes with this he does not need to transform (regarding the normal Saiyan transformation).

Now regarding the "god" transformation (if he ever reaches it), I'm not sure. Since we have a new kind of ki involved maybe he can not bring that out without transforming into a SSG but that is even more based on speculation.

In the end, Mystic form > all other normal SSJ forms because it enables him to draw out all energy without any side effects.


What is the reference being made by saying "I did this at a serious seminar once"? In Osananajimi wa Daitouryou, there is a comedy scene between the main character, Hondo Jun'ichirou, and Ell. The conversation goes like this:

Ell: A small test. It is a simple CPU inspection. I know.
Ell earnestly nodded, then pulled a mechanical pencil out from her pen case and faced the desk. She then muttered a single sentence.
Ell: Ah, I did this at a serious seminar once.
Jun'ichirou: What are you blurting out all of a sudden!?
Ell: It is a simulation. I heard that your test score will go up if you announce it in this manner.
Jun'ichirou: Where are you getting that information from...?
Ell: From 7ch.

This is a screenshot of the same scene in Japanese for reference purpose:

What is the reference being made when Ell said "I did this at a serious seminar once"?

The 進研ゼミ (Shinkenzemi) is a one of the most famous distance learning service for minors in Japan.

'真剣' and '進研', both read as 'shinken.'

'真剣' meaning "seriousness"

'ゼミ' is short for "seminar."

'進' means "progress/advancement".

'研' means "sharpen/polish/study."

This is a parody that use similar sounding Japanese characters.

  あ、これ進研ゼミでやったことがある

  I did this at the Shinkenzemi once.

Much like McDonald's and MacRonald's in English.


How did the young man take his turn? (spoilers) The sequence of events:

The old man pots the two balls
The younger man attacks him just as they are potted
The old man dies (or is knocked out or something) in the fight
Young man returns to the table and proceeds to pot the rest of his balls

After the old man pots the balls, surely it's still his turn as he scored? Or did the rules of billiards that they were using not necessarily have turns? Or maybe he used the old man's body and made him miss?

Is there any proper answer to this, or is this just a big plot hole that was skipped over?

Sure it was the old man's turn... except he was incapacitated at the time, so he couldn't do anything, which is why the bartender allowed the young man to continue the game. In a normal game of billiards, if a player is knocked out and no one is able to substitute for them, then the game would naturally end. In Death Billiards, however, ending the game was not an option, so the young man decided to take over the old man's turn and finish the game


Is there a Sword Art Online/Accel World crossover? Are there any crossovers of SAO and Accel World? Anime, manga, light-novel, anything?

I saw this image a long time ago somewhere:

And I read about a possible crossover between the two. Does anyone know if it has aired yet or will be? And where I can find the episodes/chapters or find more information?

There is a crossover, but it is still just a Special Chapter called Versus. It is just a fight between Kirito and Silver Crow, caused by a special dive machine. You can read a english version here.

  Kazuto (Kirito) was on a part-time job to test out the 4th generation FullDive machine created by Rath. He was told that other users had seen a ghost and so he was there to check if it was true. During the dive he saw a robotic figure. He instinctively grabbed the sword hung on his back, only to discover that he was his avatar from Sword Art Online, Kirito the Black Swordsman. He looked up and saw a timer, health bar, stamina gauge on both sides of his vision, his login ID "KIRITO" on the left side and his opponent's ID, SILVER CROW, on the right.


Why does Bermuda always address characters as -kun? In the manga of Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (also commonly just "Reborn!" for obvious reasons) after the future and Shimon Arc ends, the Arcabaleno Arc begins and reveals that:

   Bermuda, the arcobaleno of the eighth element of night, bargains with Reborn in Chapter 384-ish to take his life for future generations and use his life to kill Checker Face.

While reading it, I noticed Bermuda calls all characters "-kun"! Since it's obviously a term more for guys, and yet it was used on Chrome and weaker players like Lal Mirch etc., I thought it was a little strange. I don't think it's a translation error either - since 「―くん」is pretty obviously "-kun".

Is there any explanation for this? Is it something to do with his personality?

In this case I believe Bermuda is looking down on all the characters as if they were his subordinates or just addressing in an endearing sense (he is way older than them).

In company or school situations in Japan "-kun" is by superiors when addressing subordinates of both genders. Alternatively "-kun" might also be used as a term of endearment towards the (younger) male characters (similar to "-chan" with females).


Is the description to an anime/manga copyrighted? Suppose if I want to describe an anime for a website, do I need to rewrite it in my own words or can I just copy and paste it with the source stated with the assumption of fair use?
(As in the synopsis / summary of the anime)
Also, what about the cover images, is it the same or I need a license for that as well?

For legal questions such as these, it is always good to contact a copyright lawyer in your country. Laws regarding fair use, copyrights and the likes differ per country, and a copyright lawyer should be more than capable of answering your questions. And this answer should not be seen as legal advice.
As Turamarth points out in the comments, the cover image part is covered in my answer Do websites need to pay for using anime posters on their website?.
In general you are free to summarize and create synopsis. If you do so without quoting the original, in most cases you should be ok. As it is not the plot of a story that the copyright applies to, but the composition/arrangement of words.
However if these summaries do make use of original sources material, they could be tested for fair use, and ultimately considered a derivative work. Which can be considered a subsidiary right under the original copyright. Which would require you to obtain a license.
In regards to the 'copy-pasting' from 'a' source with proper mention of it's origin, you will have to look into the licensing of the particular origin you are copy pasting it from. Usually you can find this information at the footer of a page, or on their legal pages. As an example, wikipedia states the following license on the sword art online wiki page

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Where the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License clearly states you are free to do things with the information under a set of conditions


Are Mr.5 and Miss Valentine still alive? While I'm yet to reach the current parts of the story, a friend told meg that in the Dressrosa Arc, two characters appeared, using the Bomb-Bomb and the Ton-Ton Fruit, the same used by the two former Baroque Works members named in the title.

However, the Wiki has no mention of these cases, making me assume that canonically, either they are not dead or said DF abilities don't appear.

What is the case?

The Ton-Ton no mi was eaten by Machivise.
The Pamu-Pamu no Mi was eaten by Gladius.

The two fruits eaten by Miss Valentine and Mr. 5 are the Kilo-Kilo no mi and Bomu-Bomu no mi respectively.

The Kilo-Kilo no mi and the Ton-Ton no mi are both similar but they have differences:

The Kilo-Kilo no mi allows a user to change their weight from 1 - 10,000 kg. This means the user can decrease their weight below normal as well as increase it up to 10,000 kg.
The Ton-Ton no mi allows a user to increase their weight by presumably any amount

The Bomu-Bomu no mi and the Pamu-Pamu no mi are also indeed similar but have differences, which are noted on the Wikia page for Pamu-Pamu no mi:

  This ability is very similar to the Bomu Bomu no Mi, as they both involve explosions. The main difference is that while Mr. 5 is able to turn himself or any part of him into a bomb, Gladius can cause himself or inorganic objects to swell up and rupture explosively.

Both Miss Valentine and Mr. 5 are believed to be alive at this time.


Why the Survey Corps doesn't find a human body inside normal titan? Hange cut the neck of one titan to explore inside. Why couldn't she find out the main human body inside???

Maybe the main body was hidden quite deep so it was difficult to see. But if it was hidden quite deep, then how can Levi and other soldiers cut down the neck and kill the titan.

Is this a logical flaw in AOT?

The titans you are talking about are generic titans, which are different from Shape-shifting titans. Generic titans transformed permanently into titans. Their human bodies no longer exist. They can't transform back into humans. If you cut their nape, they are dead, once and for all.

This is different than titan shifters such Eren, because when they transform, they build a titan body around their human body. The human body acts as a center of control for the titan body. They can power down, whenever they want. They have inherited the Titan shifting power. That's why, if you cut the nape of a shifter, you'll find the human sitting there. And until you hurt/kill that human, they can transform again.


Did Monet's Yuki-Yuki fruit turn her into a harpy? Did Monet's Yuki Yuki fruit turn her into a harpy or was she part of Caesar's experiments that turned her into a harpy?

It was Law who turned her into a harpy. The Yuki Yuki no Mi had nothing to do with it. Much like the pirates who lost the use of their legs became centaurs, it was Law who turned Monet into a harpy; the only difference is that the change happened willingly in Monet's case; the reasons weren't explained as far as I can remember, but it was most likely to make her stronger.