What's wrong with Kagura's pronunciation of "ka-wa-wi-i"? This is more of a Japanese language question, but since it's based on goofy anime scene, I thought I'd ask here.
The scene is from episode 88 of Gintama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mBS9-EQbqw
Gin asks Kagura to go to the ladies' room with the other women on a group date and play up his good looks.  Paraphrased into English except for the word "cute," it goes like this:
Gin: "Remember what I told you to say?"
Kagura: "What do you think of the boys?  My favorite is that silver-haired guy.  He's ka-wa-i-i!"
Gin:  "Not like that!  Ka-wa-wi-i!"
Kagura:  "Ka-wa-wi-i!"
Gin:  "No!  Ka-wa-"  (here he chokes on his coffee)
I love this scene, but it's always bugged me that I can't tell what fault Gin is finding with Kagura's delivery that second time.  Their pronunciations sound identical to me, except that maybe Kagura might be adding an n sound to the end of hers.  If so, though, I'd expect Gin to tell her to drop it rather than say the word from the beginning again.
The only other possibility I can think of is that Kagura isn't saying ka-wa-wi-i very enthusiastically; in fact, she looks bored.  But then, Gin says it in a pretty flat voice too.
So is there some sound difference that's inaudible to this non-native speaker?  Or is it something else?

Gin: "Not like that! Ka-wa-wi-i!"
Kagura: "Ka-wa-wi-i!"
Gin: "No! Ka-wa-" (here he chokes on his coffee)

Kagura says Ka-wa-wi-n the second time.

If so, though, I'd expect Gin to tell her to drop it rather than say the word from the beginning again.

No one can tell what the writers want Gin to say instead.


What are the added values of ecchi to a series? A lot of series these days have either some sort of ecchi scene or is made entirely of fan service.

While some use this for comedic moments and others for story purposes. But if I look at the Freezing, I don't see the ecchi bringing any added value.

What do ecchi scenes add to a series, if not for comedic or story purposes?

(Note: I don't have any evidence or sources to back up these claims.)

The most straight-forward reason there is ecchi in some shows is simply because the animators like to draw scantily clad (or naked) girls. You see this in a lot of fan-art or random sketches by some directors, who were once animators (for example: Imaishi).

But a possible added value for ecchi scenes is sort of two fold. These are shows that are usually in the late-late-night time slots and are sometimes on satellite stations, where they can get away with a bit more. This is usually the time slot for some of the more "enthusiastic" fans of anime, the ones who spend lots of money on merchandise and physical media (DVD/BD).

Having this kind of customer base, although much smaller than some of the non-late-night popular shows, means studios are likely to hit certain sales minimums just by pandering to this demographic. Figures (often scantily clad, or with explicit nudity) are sold and the DVD/BD's with promised uncensoring (or even more graphic nudity) are bought up. So it's more or less "Sex Sells".

The added value to the viewer is probably more a matter of taste. If you don't like that kind of stuff, you're probably not going to watch these kinds of shows. Some of these kinds of shows is pure fan service, with none of the ecchi actually playing any role at all in the story or plot (e.g. "Najica", "Agent Aika", "Green Green", etc), and more recently, eventhough it can be argued whether the ecchi really does have to do with story or not, it's tied more closely to the show, where removing it actually devalues the show itself (e.g. "Queen's Blade").

There has even been quite a bit of backlash for these late-night time slot ecchi shows because a lot of them aren't very popular and it can seem that a lot of studios (at least between 2000-2010) sacrificed quality and writing to simply have ecchi and pander toward a small demographic who happens to spend a lot of money.

Just to be clear "fan service" doesn't necessarily have to be ecchi, and it's almost always inconsequential to the story or plot. It's just there to please the viewer (assuming the viewer is into the show). It doesn't add much value to the story/plot and isn't necessarily supposed to.


Where can I watch "Boku no Pico"? I heard from my friend that there is this anime called Boku no Pico and he said it was really nice. However, I can't find it anywhere online.

Is it legally streamed somewhere online?

You can purchase the Boku no Pico dvd bundles on Amazon or eBay. Due to search history at office I will be not providing urls for this.

You can also google streaming services for yaoi hentai that provide the episodes, or simply just google Boku no Pico. Once again due to search history at office I can not provide urls for this. There are plenty of legal streaming services that can be found on google for yaoi hentai. I also recommend looking up the definition of yaoi hentai incase you aren't aware about the meaning.

Incase you are an innocent one, please be advised to watch this while fully being aware that your friendship might be ruined after 5 minutes (if not less). I also do advice not watching this at public places or places with other human beings.

Incase you know what you are looking for... have a good one.


Why are there two different versions of how Luffy ate the Gum-Gum fruit? I am watching "Romance Dawn", a fairly new episode of One Piece, but is just a different version of the original manga idea that was adapted into the first anime series (at least that’s my understanding). It shows Luffy snacking on a Gum-Gum fruit that his grandfather Garp brings home as treasure from a raid as a Peace pirate.

This made me think, and actually visualize a scene where I recalled him eating the fruit in a tavern with Shanks and a bunch of his crew, which I was able to confirm with a quick YouTube search.

So what is going on?

Before One Piece became serialized in 1997, Oda wrote a different version of the first chapter of the series, entitled Romance Dawn, where things happen as per the latest episode, in which Garp is a pirate and feeds Luffy the Gomu Gomu no Mi. This is just a directorial decision to show how Oda envisioned the original start of the story prior to making the change as it is currently in the manga.

The first chapter that was published shows Shanks - the pirate - bring Gomu Gomu no Mi to Monkey D. Luffy's hometown and it is considered the true and intended version of the first chapter of One Piece and it keeps the intended name, Romance Dawn.


Does the mastered super saiyan blue exists in the anime? So since the battle with Zamasu Dragon Ball Super manga introduced the concept of mastered super saiyan blue, which it would be a stronger version of super saiyan blue, I guess similar to as super saiyan full power is a stronger version of super saiyan. Now they've used again in the last manga chapter,

   making Vegita being able to land a punch on Beerus when using it, and getting Beerus to say may be he could be a god of destruction in another universe, but not in this one.

Then, does this concept of the mastered super saiyan blue exists in the anime? People were arguing before than super saiyan god transformation "at will" from Goku only existed in the manga, but now we've seen super saiyan god transformation will appear again in Dragon Ball Super anime episode 104th. Does this mean mastered Super Saiyan Blue will also exist in the anime?

I think the anime isn't going to have a literal "Mastered SSJB" transformation. I think it's fair to assume that both Goku and Vegeta have mastered it to an extent to which it can be considered as Mastered SSJB. We see them being to efficiently use the transformation without much stamina loss. Also, the SSJB transformation is mainly about ki control and we see goku efficiently utilising this while even fighting someone as weak as Krillin. In the tournament of power, we see goku being able to use Kaioken+SSJB a lot more easily without it having any effect on his body now compared to the Universe 6 vs 7 tournament arc. So I think it is fair to assume that at least goku has mastered it. If Goku had to reach the state of UI, he obviously would require perfect ki control and he would have had to use SSJB to it's full extent to survive the spirit bomb.


Did Shichika's father try to kill Nanami? In Episode 7, Nanami seemed to elude that when Shichika killed their father, the 6th Kyoto Ryu, his father was about to kill her, or she already knew that he was planning on killing her.

I am wondering, did Shichika's father try to kill Nanami? And for what reason? (Was it to ease her suffering, or to stop her from becoming more powerful from observing more of the Kyoto Ryu art?)

Also if he did try and kill her, did Shichika kill his father solely to protect Nanami?

Unfortunately it is never explained why Shichika killed his father, however from episode 7, we can get a pretty good guess that it might have been to protect Nanami.
Here is the dialogue from the second fight at 35:00:

Nanami: Do you remember when you killed Father?
Shichika: I guess I do...
Nanami: I haven't thanked you for that yet. But I'm not particularly grateful to you for that, so even now I don't intend to say so. Because I would have been fine with being killed by Father back then. I would have been fine with it. There's no point to me living after all.

What we can gather from this implicitly is that Shichika killed their father in order to protect Nanami, without any request from Nanami, e.g. simply sibling affection. In this sense, this means their father either mentioned that he would eventually have to kill Nanami and thus forced Shichika's hand or he attempted to kill Nanami and thus forced Shichika's hand. So whether or not he mentioned it or attempted it we don't know, however I believe it's most likely the latter due to Nanami's extreme potential.
As for the reason, what we know is that Nanami has the ability Migeika. For this reason in episode 4 Nanami recaps that her and Shichika's father neglected to make Nanami the Yasuri 7th generation family head, because this ability made her too powerful. Since she was too powerful because she could see any ability and learn it instantly, including the Kyotouryuu sword arts, that their father deemed her to be too dangerous with her potential and thus decided to eliminate her.


Do the bodies Orochimaru inhabits change to look like him? Orochimaru takes on host bodies to maintain eternal youth. At least one of the bodies that he has taken on looks similar to him. The eyes, in particular, are very similar to his, as well as the skin tone.

Do the host bodies change to be more similar to his body?

Original body:

Host body

After researching in some wikis in spanish

Orochimaru, Spanish Naruto Wikia

It is said that Orochimaru changes the host body to look similar to his original body. However he can't change the height of the new host.


How does Lelouch manage to contain his Geass? I've recently just finished Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, now I've started R2. As much as I've started to love this, I noticed one little thing that I can't quite put my finger on. (I haven't heard anything in the anime about it either.)

I was led to believe that he was still unable to control his Geass (assumption based on how the first season ended), yet when he's around Milly, Shirley etc., it appears he has it under control?

Am I missing something?

Lelouch obtains eye contacts for his geass eye from CC in episode 3 of R2. It depends on the video, but it happens around the 12-13 minute mark in a flashback.


How does the Grail choose the participants? How does the Grail choose the participants?

We know that the Grail tries to pick people who have some sort of strong desire (when Kotomine asks Tohsaka at the beginning of Fate/Zero).
Do you need to descend from a mage bloodline? Did the murderer guy (the one who got Caster in Fate/Zero) have magical blood?
It seems like you don't need to be aware of the existence of the Holy Grail war (Shirou and the murderer guy were both pretty clueless).
You do seem to need an heroic relic... or do you? When Kotomine was surprisingly chosen in Fate/Zero, did he have one already? What if you lose the relic before the summoning occurs? (In Fate/Zero the participants were already making preparations for years before the summoning).
The Matou were disappointed that Kariya left behind their magical teachings, so they decided to adopt Sakura to prepare her for the next war. When Kariya returns and chooses to fight, he successfully becomes a master. This suggests that there is a way to opt out/in from the war (?)

So how does the Grail pick participants exactly?

The exact way in which the Grail picks Masters is not well-understood, as far as I'm aware. It's a fuzzy process even to the participants themselves.

To try to address your specific questions:

  Do you need to descend from a mage bloodline? Did the murderer guy (the one who got Caster in Fate/Zero) have magical blood?

I'm not sure whether you strictly need to descend from a mage bloodline (this is probably addressed in side materials I haven't read), but Ryuunosuke did have a mage somewhere in his ancestry, and as such, he had a small number of Magic Circuits (this is mentioned in the light novel, but not the anime). The magic tome he had on hand when he murdered that one family right before summoning Caster was apparently something he found in a storehouse belonging to someone in his family.

  It seems like you don't need to be aware of the existence of the Holy Grail war (Shirou and the murderer guy were both pretty clueless).

This is true.

  You do seem to need an heroic relic... or do you? When Kotomine was surprisingly chosen in Fate/Zero, did he have one already? What if you lose the relic before the summoning occurs?

You don't need a relic to be granted Command Spells by the Grail. Having a relic helps with the summoning further down the line, but even then, you don't strictly need a relic. If you don't have a relic, the Grail just gives you a Servant who is "compatible" with you or "similar to" you in some sense.

  The Matou were disappointed that Kariya left behind their magical teachings, so they decided to adopt Sakura to prepare her for the next war. When Kariya returns and chooses to fight, he successfully becomes a master. This suggests that there is a way to opt out/in from the war (?)

Kariya had no guarantee that he would be selected as a Master during the fourth war. He was essentially gambling, hoping that by undergoing the worm treatment, he would be picked by the Grail.

Practically, I get the impression that there are usually few enough mages in the Fuyuki area that most mages in town during a Grail War end up becoming Masters.


How does universe 11 expect to win with their current strategy? In the tournament of power if time is out the universe with more fighters in the arena wins. They have 3 fighters left when other universes have more, for example universe 7 has 7 fighters. They have the most powerful fighter for now, Jiren (Goku might surpass him eventually but for now he doesnt) and 2 other fighters who might be at the level of Vegeta or Freezer.

Now why Jiren is meditating if it's obvious Toppo and Dyspo wont be able to reduce all other universes to 2 or less fighters, universes which includes fighters in their level or above, like Vegeta, Freezer, 17, Gohan, Kale, etc.

How does universe 11 expect to win with their current strategy? is there any way they can win going like this?

I think their best strategy is get Dyspo and Toppo to eliminate all the relatively weaker fighters from different universes, while Jiren eliminates the likes of Goku(with no UI), Vegeta and Frieza and the best time to implement such srategy would be near the end of tournament.


Where did Decim send Chiyuki? To reincarnation or to void? I saw that the mask changed and she just gave in to her wish to come back to live in her last 'test', so I think she was sent to void, but I'm not really sure. Can somebody explain, please?

She went to

   Reincarnation  . This scene happens immediately after her elevator door closes.


Have the crew of the Bebop ever been paid for a bounty? One of the running gags in Cowboy Bebop is that the crew never seems to get paid for their bounty for increasingly outlandish reasons.

Asimov Solensan was killed by his wife
Abdul Hakim was caught by the police
Faye Valentine became a member of the Bebop
Maria Murdock was trapped in hyperspace and was transformed into a primate by her own virus.

With all of these missed bounties, and with all of the times the crew mentions their lack of funding, I'm starting to wonder whether the crew has ever been paid.

Have the crew of the Bebop ever been paid for a bounty?

Yes.

Episode 8:They catch a group of thieves trying to steal a spaceship.Episode 10:(It's never actually explicitly said if they got the money for this one. The guy was caught despite him probably going to get off with a self-defense plea.)Episode 15: They technically collect a very small bounty at the end of thisEpisode 16: It was never stated as to whether they received anything for helping out with stopping the prison shop. However, if you were to assume they did.Episode 22: They do end up catching the teddy bear bomber here.


How did Saki meet Shun near the end of the show? About halfway through the series, I thought Shun had killed himself in order to prevent any further damage to others.

However, in the last few episodes, Saki hears his voice as he gives her some very important advice. In the second to last episode, she even seems to see Shun in front of her. However, he seems to disappear in an instant, and she sees Kiroumaru instead. She later hears his voice once more as he tells her the solution to get rid of Maria and Mamoru's child.

Were these just hallucinations, or was there some supernatural force going on?

Yes, she's hallucinating. The evidence for it at the start of episode 24 is irrefutable.

Why would she be hallucinating?

It safe to say that given what Saki has gone through, she isn't in the best state of mind. With all the death and destruction she's witnessed and experienced, she's probably in some form of denial.

Where does the advice from Shun come from?

Herself actually. Her own subconscious mind.

When you're in such a hypnotic effect, things from deep in the back of your mind can come forward at unusual times. This is the same reason why hypnosis is sometimes used to bring back memories for criminal investigations and why artists can do their greatest works under times of extreme stress.


Why is Suzaku able to see C.C. through the Knightmare? When Zero (Lelouch) asked for a private meeting with Euphemia, there was a scene where Suzaku was able to see C.C. in the cockpit. C.C. was curious how.

She said, "looks like he can see me [...] is it because of what happened in Narita and Kamine?" Then she said, "or is he also? [...] if that's the case"

What does she mean by "is he also?"?

The way Suzaku saw her is also the same as when C.C. was still inside the tank in the pilot episode.

This was never explained in the anime.
According to show staff they originally had plans to elaborate on Suzaku's connection to geass, but that story point eventually got dropped later on.


Are all (or most) of the clips in the DBZ opening theme song from the series episodes? Link to the opening theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4vjJrGeh1c

I can recognize a few clips as being part of the series (e.g. Nappa tearing through the planes).

But the rest I cannot recollect being anywhere in the episodes. Do they appear in any part of any episode? If yes, is there a list connecting them?

Most of those clips are from the movies.
10s-21s;30s-36s : The Tree of Might
21s-30s;36s-38s;41s-45s : The World's Strongest
38s-41s : Dead Zone


Why did Rei abandon Gendo for Shinji? When Gendo tries to merge Adam's Embryo with Rei to start his version of Third Impact, Rei rejects Gendo stating that Shinji needs her from inside EVA Unit 01, and that she is not a puppet of Gendo's any longer. What happened after that is cryptic to me, I'm still trying to piece it together.

Now, Rei knew the reason for her creation, what she was supposed to bring about when all of the Angels were finally defeated, but she outright rejected Gendo, and instead tried to aid Shinji during Third Impact, ultimately denying and overruling her purpose in the grand scheme of things.

What was Rei's reason for abandoning Gendo and aiding Shinji, other than deciding not be a puppet any more? Did Rei abandon Gendo for Shinji, because of Yui's maternal instincts kicking in when Shinji called out for her, seeing that she is a clone of Yui?

Well, to explain Rei's actions, we would need to take a deeper look in multiple aspects of the series, but I can try to give two main reasons.

She warmed up to Shinji during the run of the main series, while realizing the treatment Gendo gave her wasnt real love (she assumed it was, as she had no real contact with human culture).

After Rei II died in episode 23, it's strongly implied she lost all her memories, but her soul was still the same, thus she subconsciously had affections for Shinji and despised Gendo.
In episode 24, she is seem casting an AT field from her own body, a feat of divine level in the series, which implies she is already finding her true place in the world. And this place bring us to the next point:

What is the Third Impact and Instrumentality (you said you are puzzled out): The process discussed by SEELE, Gendo and Fuyu strongly imply that triggering third is more than destroying the world.

It is revealed that Rei is actually the soul of Lilith, goddess from whom humanity came from, just like Kaworu was the soul of Adam, god from whom angels came from, and she is the key to start Third Impact.

When it happens, the one who triggers it, or is in the core of it all, gets to essentially become the god of Earth. SEELE wanted it to cause Instrumentality (the merging of all humans into one "sea of souls"), Gendo wanted it only to see his wife again.

Said position of godhood is strongly implied to be chosen by
Lilith-Rei, and given how bad things were with Gendo, and how she had no one else, the only person she could trust giving all that power was Shinji.

Ultimately, it wasn't a great idea, because Shinji was very suicidal and completely broken at that moment, having lived the death of all his friends and metaphysical rejection by Asuka, he wished for death and instrumentality upon the world.

After a nice chunk of mind-fuck, he seem to regret his actions and tried to undo it, so people can leave if they want.


Why is pornographic anime and manga referred to as "hentai" by non-Japanese sources? And when did it start? If you try to google "hentai definition" most result would define hentai as a Japanese genres of manga and anime with sexually explicit images and plots. But Wikipedia explains it otherwise:

In Japanese, the term describes any type of perverse or bizarre sexual desire or act; it does not represent a genre of work.
Internationally, hentai is a catch-all term to describe a genre of anime and manga pornography.

And from this question we know that the word hentai never means anime porn in Japan.

No, hentai is a typical "英製和語" that has gained a totally different meaning outside of Japan. It never means anime porn in Japan.

From that question, OP mentioned that it was originated from 4chan, but from some comment on that question, the word it self was already in use for Japanese animation porn long before 4chan.
So how come non-Japanese refer to anime and manga pornography as hentai? And when did it start?

As mentioned by Krazer, A Short History of 'Hentai ' by Mark McLelland
provides an excellent in depth analysis of the word's origin.

For people who do not want to read such a lengthy article, its gist is :

Since the Meiji period, the use of the term hentai has had a parallel history in both science and psychology, but the sense that hentai communicates of something being unusual or abnormal comes from the latter.

It was first used in the middle of the Meiji period in the context of the developing science of psychology to describe disorders such as hysteria as well as to refer to paranormal abilities such as telepathy and hypnosis.It had the connotation of something outside or beyond the normal.

Although the term originally circulated only among medical specialists, by 1917 it was being popularised via such journals such as Hentai shinri [Abnormal psychology]. However it did not have any particular sexual connotations in this context. Hentai's sexual reference was to come not through its connection with hentai shinri but through its juxtaposition with another, related term, hentai seiyoku or 'abnormal sexual desires'.

The technical term seiyoku or 'sexual desire' was introduced into Japanese via German sexology which began to be translated by medical doctors such as the army physician and novelist Mori Ōgai from the middle of the Meiji period.The notion of hentai seiyoku or perverse or abnormal sexual desire was popularised via the translation of German sexologist Krafft-Ebing's text Psychopathia Sexualis which was given the Japanese title Hentai seiyoku shinrigaku [The psychology of perverse sexual desires].


How can a death note shorten the lifespan of others? The use of the Death Note in the human world sometimes affects other humans' lives or shortens their original life span, even though their names are not actually written in the Death Note itself. In these cases, no matter the cause, the god of death sees only the original lifespan and not the shortened lifespan.

We saw, that Misas lifespan was shortened because Light was killed by Ryuk. So this means, that you can shorten a persons lifespan with the death note. So let's say, A has a death note and knows that C wants to kill B with a death note. He writes B's name in his death note, thus preventing him from being killed by a death note. So C, can't kill B with a death note anymore. But since the death note can shorten the lifespan of those, whos name isn't written in the death note, C decides to use Y, to set up a trap. C writes:

Y, Car accident. Dies at 12:30, after he produces a deadly poison, which he injects into the food the person he knows as ''B'' eats. After he did this, he will die 9 days later in a car accident.

So, could C shorten B's lifespan in this way, so that he is able to indirectly kill him?

Yes, to the extent of how can you manipulate a person's actions with the DN. (1) (2). But care must be taken not to break the other rules:

In your example, B will die in at most 23 days because A has written B's name in his DN.

But let's assume C wants B dead BEFORE that timeframe.

There is a conflict in the writing C did in the DN:

  Y, Car accident. Dies at 12:30, after he produces a deadly poison, which he injects into the food the person he knows as ''B'' eats. After he did this, he will die 9 days later in a car accident.

C's writing may be in conflict with this rule:

  If the death leads to the death of more than the intended, the person will simply die of a heart attack. This is to ensure that other lives are not influenced. Even though only one name is written in the Death Note, if it influences and causes other humans that are not written in it to die, the victim’s cause of death will be a heart attack

So it can either be considered as a violation of the rule above (and Y will die of heart attack) or work as intended by C.


Why did Dio cut off his head and not regenerate his body? In the first season of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, when Dio falls off a cliff, he cuts off his own head.

Why?

At the end of the season, we see him in Jojo's wedding boat, his head in a container.

Why didn't he regenerate a body during all this time?

Hamon was spreading throughout his body, and if he did not separate himself from his body, Dio Brando would die.

The Hamon that destroyed his body, probably prevented him from regenerating his body. Dio Brando in the final episode of Part 1 says something along the lines of "This is the man who brought me to my current state. Give him [Jonathan Joestar] a swift death." This alludes me to believe that it was because of JoJo's Hamon that Dio Brando is unable to regenerate his own body, and thus wants to take over JoJo's.


Why is there so much reluctant sex in hentai? Multiple authors on the net have pointed out that a lot of the sex in hentai is, or appears to be, non-consensual.
From here: http://magicalgirlproject.tumblr.com/post/91661244454/porno-month-reflections-why-so-much-rape-in

I watched 20 hentai over the course of June/July, and looking back over them all, I’m left with one frustratingly unanswered question:
[WHY IS THERE SO MUCH RAPE IN HENTAI?!?]
Why is rape so ubiquitous in hentai, why is it so inescapable, and why do so many of [these hentai that I've watched] focus exclusively on rape, with maybe one token consensual scene or sometimes none at all? It’d be like if 90% of the porn made in Belgium featured a buttplug scene — it’s weirdly specific and implies there’s some kind of cultural thing going on that I don’t yet understand.

Also, note this: http://www.hongfire.com/forum/showthread.php/431127-Why-does-hentai-have-so-much-violence-rape-towards-women.
A commenter on the first article claims these 'rapes' are not as non-consensual as they seem:

ninfadelagua said: The average porn scene does seem rapey, even if it isn’t extreme (no hitting/scratching/biting) there seems to be a trend of women acting like they are resisting a lot and the men in the porno keep going and prey on them sexually (for hetero porn).

This implies that the 'victim' enjoys the rough sex and is 'resisting' as part of the 'game', sort of like how tsundere pretend to hate the person they actually love.
Which leads to Not If They Enjoyed It Rationalization: which says:

Turns up often in Hentai, Boys Love Genre and Fanfiction. A lot.

In other words, the claim is that this, in some sense, doesn't count as rape because the purported victim enjoyed the experience.

Is this actually what's going on? What is about Japanese culture that makes reluctant sex, which looks non-consensual to Western eyes, so common in hentai?

Note: Some references have been excluded here for PG reasons.

There's a few layers to this question.

Firstly, this isn't a hentai-specific thing. Lots of Japanese non-animated porn contains rape. This is a cultural thing spanning more than just anime.

The main reason as some people have pointed out to you is that it sells. But let's go a little further into why that demand exists.

As you may know, Japan is suffering from increased sexless-ness and has one of the highest sexlessness rates in the world.

  In 2005, Durex, the world’s largest condom maker, conducted a Global Sex Survey (see www.durex.com/en-jp/sexualwellbeingsurvey/documents/gss2005result.pdf) involving 317,000 respondents in 41 countries. The survey found that Japanese had the least sex in the world, at 45 times a year — far less than second-from-bottom Singapore (73 times a year), and even farther from the world average (103 times a year, meaning twice a week).

The reasons of this are many - although there is no agreed consensus on the exact causes. Some of these reasons likely include:

Long Working days
Men and women have quite distinctly seperate social lives
The emergence of pornography
'Herbivore' Men

These cases are amplified by the application of surrounding businesses. Japan has a large sex industry sector - There are more than 12,000 sex-related businesses in Japan with big companies like Hitachi (devices) and many small companies too specializing in particular niches. Many of these are relevant to couple's engagements, but a significant portion of products are made for solo purchases.

Some doll adverts claim you'll never want a girlfriend again.

That's not to say that there isn't a large couple's market - in Japan there are many Love Hotels and S&M Clubs that you can visit with your partner.

On the mention of S&M, Non-standard sexual behaviour is not as taboo as it is in the West (especially America & the UK). Bondage for example is occasionally incorporated into fashion trends and there are many specialized shops for it around the country. There are many other specialized stores and services available for those who seek it. Famously, there are the infamous used underwear vending machines that have created many stories for Western newspapers.

You can also read the rest of my answer about Where the lolicon genre came from which covers that large area of fetishization.

And fetishization isn't a new thing, there are many lewd woodblock paintings from older Japan, such as Diver and Octopuses - a tentacle sex scene from 1 814.

So, non-consensual ( at first :| ) isn't particularly striking as a fetish when seen with all Japan has to offer (More.)

So from the above section we know that the Japanese have a large fetish scene anyway - and that sex rates aren't that high. But that doesn't specifically answer your question - so let's keep going. Bear with me!

Going back to Herbivore Men. These men range from actively shunning women (sometimes preferring 2D women) to being disinterested or resigned to their fate as a single man.

  As of September 2010, 36% of Japanese men between the ages of 16 and 19 perceived themselves in this way. Additionally, two surveys of single men in their 20s and 30s found that 61% and 70%, respectively, considered themselves grass-eating men.

This scarcity of female interaction can often manifest as idolizing women - which can be seen in idol obsession and other aspects of japanese culture. The appeal of rape for herbivore watchers is then in attaining something that is not attainable normally - even if it is played out onscreen rather than in real life. This is a large reason motivation behind many real life rapes aswell. There's a certain unsavory culture in many areas that blame the victim for rape situations - somewhat empathizing with the rapist. These beliefs are also contributory rationale for some rapists. Raping unfortunately isn't always restricted to acted situations on TV however, and Japan has a significant amount of (mostly unreported) rape charges. Unwarranted sexual advances can be seen in the establishment of female only carriages on rail lines after many groping allegations.

And on a more hentai-specific note, I don't know if many people who would willingly do it with a sea monster. Why are tentacles prevalent in anime? is possibly of interest.

Further reading:

Manga Girl Seeks Herbivore Boy: Studying Japanese Gender at Cambridge


Why did Asuka get her right eye injured but Shinji didn't? In the second episode of Evangelion, we can see that Shinji's Eva's right eye is injured by the Third Angel, but nothing happens to his right eye. But when it comes to Asuka's Eva getting her right eye injured by a Lance of Longinus in End of Evangelion, it also injures her right eye. How can this happen?

The Lance of Longinus is not a normal weapon like it mobilized Lilith and it just overpowers Lilith and Adam which are the seeds of life of Angels and humans so I suppose it can harm the pilot if it hits the Eva It has that power and what makes this theory true and the synchronization one wrong is that if it wasnt asuka would be so dead, the harm caused by the other new evas to unit02 is so massive like her guts were out of her


Why didn't Goku and Chi Chi use the Dragon Balls to rescue the Ox King and his castle? At the end of Dragon Ball, when Goku and Chi Chi were questing to find the Bansho Fan to put out the fire trapping the Ox King, it seems as if they could have used the Dragon Balls to do it quickly. More than one year had passed since their previous usage and, as far as I could tell, the balls were not scattered after wishing Krillin and the others back to life (they remained on the ground at the Kame House after the wish).

So, it seems like they could have quickly made a wish to stop the flames and restore the castle. Why did they not do so? I did not read the manga, I only watched the anime. Was there a specific reason that either I missed, or that was perhaps stated in the manga, or was it simply a plot device to fill the last few episodes of the series?

Your assumption about the dragon balls was wrong. They did indeed scatter in chapter 156, right after Shenlon brought everyone back to life. Also seeing the mini saga about the wedding-dress was anime filler to begin with, one could argue that it would be pretty lame to fill it with the gang just using the dragon balls.

Apart from that, it should be noted that getting the dragon balls wasn't as easy as it sounds at that time. Bulma did have the dragon radar, but she would not have been able to retrieve them all on her own as we had seen earlier in the series. And Goku couldn't help her either as he had promised to train at the sanctuary with God for three years. He was stuck there all the way to the tournament.

So when the fire actually happened, it would take Goku less time to get the fan, than to collect all dragon balls. So trying to get the fan first, would be the best choice of action. If he would fail, they could collect the dragon balls as a backup plan anyway.


What's this mecha anime with a robot world championship? Ok, so this was a mecha anime. It was a series. The main story is that there was a boy who, along with his robots (I think they belong to him, also I think some of them were created by his grandpa ) are trying to win some kind of robot world championship. I just remember some scenes, which I am describing below

There is one scene where the boy's grandpa says that he left a sticker inside every robot he created, then one of the robots exclaims "huh! So that sticker is inside me also ?"
In one of the fights, one of the opponent's robots has a cobweb inside, due to which it cant function properly.
Then there is one scene where they go to train, and one of the robots was cutting wood, but the way he was cutting was curious, that he simply tapped the wood and it was cut perfectly (sides were smooth)
The main female character goes to another team, where she is assigned to work on only a limb of the robot. She quits saying that her team is the best( the main character's team ) and that she is returning to it

Please help me find this anime. Really important part of my childhood.

OK I think I am pretty sure the anime you are looking for is Daigunder

POINT 1: The main character is Akira Akebono and his grandfather, Hajime Akebono, is a famous research scientist who created the robots. He is like Ash Ketchum except with robots instead of pokemon. The robot which says ,"I have the sticker inside me too?"  is Daigunder units' human like AI robot called Ryugu, flaming robot warrior.

POINT 2: Coming to the cobweb thing, there is an episode where the robot malfunctions and tries to harm Ryugu even after the battle is over. Akira jumps in (like Ash saving Pikachu or hugging it to death ) and tries to protect Ryugu. I think they get disqualified for a that tourney. But Akira gains Ryugu's trust.

POINT 3: And the robot cutting wood must be Bulion, the blue thrasher. Its just a small scene in training. I don't clearly remember which episode.

POINT 4: The girl in question is Haruka, she at first thinks Akira is a dumb kid (as he really is). But eventually joins this team as a manager.She gets a job at her dream company I guess but instead, joins this team.

check this out for a list of episodes. But all you points come up within 4 to 5 episodes of the series. Hope this helps :D
https://www.google.com/search?q=daigunder+episode&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=daigunder+episodes


What is the song used in Akame ga Kill during the Budou vs Mine fight? In Akame ga Kill, there is a guitar song played in ep 21 Budou vs Mine and I can't seem to find it or any info about it. Does anyone know anything?

It called "Adramelech" just like Budou's Imperial Arm.


How much strong is at least Golden Cooler? In the Super Dragon Ball Heroes manga #2 we see

   Golden Cooler defeats Goku SSJ Berserker who defeated Super Saiyan Blue Vegita (correct me if I'm wrong, this is what I got from the translation of the black and white manga)

How much strong is at least Golden Cooler then?

   Does defeating Goku puts him over Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken x20 (since Goku manages that technique) or since Goku was possessed that shouldnt count? Any other logic or hint or source I'm missing?

With reference to the second chapter of the Manga,Firstly, Goku in his Berserker form didn't technically "Defeat" SSJB Vegeta. Vegeta didn't really go all out or actually attempt to fight Goku. Once Cumber took control of Goku, he immediately attacked Vegeta and then went after Mai.When Fu sees Cooler, he makes a statement claiming that he was weaker than his brother and Frieza has evolved further. This triggers cooler and he ends up transforming to his Golden form and at the same time was also enraged when he began to fight Goku and overwhelm him. So it is fair to assume that he was fighting a lot more seriously.We have seen Vegeta get triggered in a similar fashion multiple times and raise his Ki even furthur when enraged and begins to overwhelm his oppoent. Some examples would be the Final Flash against Perfect Cell, Jiren and even against Toppo. Even in the anime, when Kale attains gets her Bereserker form, she effortlessly walked through SSJB Goku's Kamehameha and grabbed him with ease. Goku at this time wasn't really fighting seriously, just like Vegeta in case of this chapter. Hence, I think it is unfair to conclude Golden Cooler is superior to SSJB Vegeta. We also know that the Golden form has the stamina weakness which Freiza took time to figure out, so in theory, Cooler would also require to adapt to the transformation like Freiza did. Vegeta on the other hand has mastered Super Saiyan Blue in the manga and even managed to break past the limits of Super Saiyan Blue in the anime and ascended to a much higher form. Hence, I think it is unfair to state Golden Cooler is stronger than Vegeta just because of that one battle.I don't understand your logic at to why Golden cooler would be stronger than SSJB + KK*20 Goku on account of defeating Berserker Goku. I believe Kanba's evil power did power up Goku tremendously but not stronger than Super Saiyan Blue Goku. The transformation just made Goku very aggressive  which is why he got the Upper Hand on Vegeta. Considering how Super Saiyan Blue Goku was able to defeat Xeno Goku who is supposedly recognized as the strongest Saiyan in the previous chapters of the Manga, I think it is fair to state Super Saiyan Blue Goku is definitely superior to Berserker Goku and Even Golden Cooler. Vegeta on the other hand is relative to Goku in strength and hence also stronger than Cooler.


Why Dabura is stronger and looks different in Dragon Ball Heroes? In the Dragon Ball Heroes manga, Dabura says he got stronger, and aside of that, he looks different than the Dragon Ball Z Dabura. Why Dabura is stronger and looks different in Dragon Ball Heroes?

In the Dark Demon Real Saga, the Dabura you know off is revived as Dabura: Xeno, which is the character you see here. While in the anime his power has been comparable to that of Cell's, in  DBH, this version of Dabura appears to be significantly much stronger(He appeared to be significantly stronger the second he was revived). Possibly because he is, after all, the king of the Demon Realm, and Dragon Ball Heroes characters are generally significantly stronger in comparison to the main series.Even in Xenoverse 2, in Fu's quest, Dabura appears to be significantly more powerful as he is capable to hold his own against the might of Vegito and with the Old Kai commenting that his strength might be stronger than Buuhan. He managed to achieve this level of strength by absorbing large amounts of damage energy from the changes in time.


Where to read Bleach from after the Ichigo & Aizen fight in the anime? I watched the anime up to the Aizen battle and when Ichigo lost his powers. What chapter in the manga should I read from? (I don't want to watch the rest of the anime).

Actually ended up finding this; in chapter 416, the battle with Aizen ends.


Who are all the girls fawning over Araragi? In the latest Monogatari - Tsukimonogatari there is a cut to an image with many young girls surrounding the protagonist.

The girls in the purple uniforms are from SHAFT's other show Puella Magi Madoka Magica, but who are the other girls?

This answer is going to be a huge disappointment, in all sorts of ways. I genuinely hope that someone comes along and proves this answer wrong somehow.

I don't think the other four girls are references to anything; I think they're just generic middle school girls from Koyomi's hometown.

Look at the two girls on the right:

They seem to be wearing the same school uniform as Nadeko:

And look at the two girls on the left:

They appear to be wearing the uniform of Tsuganoki No. 2 Middle School, Karen-chan and Tsukihi-chan's school:

This seems to suggest that the other four girls are just hypothetical middle school girls of the Fire Sisters' acquaintance, since they attend school in Koyomi's hometown alongside Nadeko, Karen-chan, and Tsukihi-chan. In other words, the thinking behind the scene was not, "Hey, let's fill up this scene with characters from our other works"; it was, "Hey, we've got this scene full of middle school girls, how about we shove in Madoka, Homura, Kyouko, and Sayaka?" (Poor Mami got left out again.)

However, the Madoka girls aren't actually wearing their regular uniforms either. Below we see the Mitakihara Middle School uniform, modeled by the lovely Homura, Sayaka, and Madoka:

Though the ribbon is similar, their regular uniforms clearly don't have a sailor collar. Since the Madoka girls are in different uniforms, the other four girls might still be from other shows, and were put into uniforms from the Monogatari series. As a counter-argument to this, the Mitakihara uniform looks very different from Nadeko's and the Fire Sisters' uniforms; the scene would look unbalanced if the Madoka girls were put into such different-looking uniforms. Also, in the Madoka series, Kyouko doesn't attend school with the others, so it wouldn't have made sense to put her in the Mitakihara uniform. (Mami attends Mitakihara, but she got left out again.) For those reasons, the animators may have decided to give just the Madoka girls different uniforms.

None of these arguments is iron-clad, so it is still possible that the four non-magical girls are from other shows and were put into uniforms from the Monogatari series for this scene. I genuinely hope that there is some more interesting answer than this one.


What anime is this GIF of a man in a suit running down the stairs from? This anime looks kinda cool but I have no idea what it is.  Thanks in advance ^-^

That's Tobari Durandal Kumohira from Nabari no Ou.


Where can I watch The Seven Deadly Sins? I have seen the first 10 episodes of The Seven Deadly Sins, but now I cannot find the rest.

Where else can I watch it?

According to this Crunchyroll Forum Thread Netflix has the exclusive streaming rights.

on the Australian Netflix site it lists:

24 episodes for Season 1 (2014)
4 episodes for Signs of Holy War (2016)
24 episodes for  Revival of the Commandments (2018)


What's the order of Pokémon manga? I found a lot of Pokémon manga. I don't know were to start, so whats the order of it.

There isn't necessarily a correct order to read them as the series consist of multiple alternative timelines.

If its the Pokémon Adventures volumes, you can find the order here.

The original series, Movie Adaptation Series and Game Adaptation Series orders can be found here.


Is the heart a weak point of a Logia user? That Monet could be killed By Caesar Clown by stabbing its heart looks a bit awkward to me.

I mean, when Monet was cut by Zoro she didn't look to be prepared to properly activate its logia power to receive the cut and she still was able to survive and regenerate, so it's safe to assume that he can instinctively react, or that even if she got damage on her brain, she was still able to avoid it by converting into it's logia element, and it's sure worse to have your brain splitted in two than having your heart stabbed.

Maybe Law's powers made her unable to use her logia powers, but it's clear that any cut part that is under Law's power still can react to its owners will as shown with Kinemon's legs.

Then maybe it's that Logia users cannot convert their heart to their logia element, so that would be a weak point they have.

I'm asking about the possibility of logia users not being able to convert their heart into their element, so it would be another weak point they would have apart from being attacked with haki. I mean, they could also be killed, for example, by stabbing them with a sword where their heart would be, no need of haki to do that. I'm giving those facts as a support for this possibility, so I'd like your opinion if that's really a fact, a possibility, or there's something that makes the possibility I'm telling impossible.

Concerning Monet, she was too terrified by Zoro's killing intent to properly defend herself. When she was cut, you could see her struggling to move in an attempt to put herself back together. She can't and is shivering with a scared and confused expression on her face. Logia powers activate on a mental level, much like Paramecia and Zoan, however Logias rely on their subconscious to activate the power in the even of danger. It's why they can still touch things, when not using it. There are cases when a human can be paralyzed with fear, as was the case of Monet.

Now, for Law, that's actually pretty simple. Law's power creates a field into which he can manipulate all matter as he pleases. So while inside the field, Law had separated the hearts from the user and enclosed them in their own space. It's why they seem to be frozen in ice, which is how the effect is shown.


When did BlackStar and Tsubaki swap? In the second episode of Soul Eater, during BlackStar's fight with Mifune BlackStar, Tsubaki used Shadow Star to swap places with BlackStar and disguise herself while BlackStar attacked Mifune's blind spot.

Just before this, Mifune noticed BlackStar (apparently now Tsubaki) is a different person from the way he was breathing. He also commented that BlackStar's eye colour had changed.

So when exactly (episode time) did BlackStar and Tsubaki swap? Was BlackStar's eye color different at that moment or did it change suddenly later? And if it changed later, when was that?

NOTE: I ask this question as every time I re-watch the episode, I'm engrossed in the fight and keep missing it

I doubt there will be evidence to back this up, however when Black Star says "Tsubaki.. Ninja-to mode!" and a burst of smoke appears (around 16:27), is practically the only chance they could switch - and it makes perfect sense.

Within this puff of smoke, Black Star makes his 'escape' to a better position, and instead of Tsubaki changing into Ninja-to form, she becomes the dummy.

I doubt that Mifune saying that his eye colors changed was quite true, or at least can't be verified by the viewers, as Black Star doesn't have colored eyes - just typical black dots. Tsubaki, on the other hand, has the 'other' style of anime-eyes, (which are a shade of blue).

The important part is, however, that when Tsubaki is in Dummy-form, her eyes were the same as Black Star's, as proven when the dummy 'floats away' (it is very clear to see the eyes changing from Blackstar's to Tsubaki's).


Is "Monthly Comic Alive" manga magazine available in English? I know the Japanese version can be found at MediaFactory's official site (Japanese), but I did not see any reference to an English version.

Is Monthly Comic Alive also available in English?

You can buy the Japanese version of Monthly Comic Alive from JList (e.g. here is the April 2015 issue) or Tokyo Otaku Mode (e.g. here is the December 2015 issue). JList used to also sell subscriptions to some of the manga magazines. If you live in a large city you might also have a Japanese bookstore somewhere (e.g. Kinokuniya) that sells the magazine in Japanese.

To my knowledge, there is no English release for Comic Alive; this list of manga magazines published outside Japan has no entry for it. Manga are almost always published in English as tankoubon, outside of Shounen Jump and Yen Plus. Nowadays some sites, like Crunchyroll, simulpublish individual chapters as they come out.

Here's what I would do: figure out which specific few series in Comic Alive you are interested in following. Chances are you don't care about every last series ever published in this magazine, so identify the ones you do care about. Figure out if they have an English language release (Wikipedia and Anime News Network are pretty good for this, but if you're stumped you can post another question here asking about it.)

If there is an English release, it will probably be tankoubon volumes, or maybe simulpub if you're lucky. If you absolutely must follow your chosen series chapter by chapter, every month, and it's not simulpublished, then find scanlations for it. Then either buy the magazine in Japanese, or buy the tankoubon volumes in English when they come out. If you really don't want the books, you can probably donate them to a public library. (Apparently public libraries will even stock Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou nowadays.)

I know it's not a great solution if you were looking to follow more than two or three series, especially if you don't care about the retouched art and better quality paper in the tankoubon. But unless you read Japanese it's about all you can do. Most likely, simulpub will become more popular as more of the Japanese magazines move online, but for now this is what we're stuck with.


Is it common for Japanese otaku fans to create AMVs? AMV is the term for Anime Music Videos, MEP is the term for Multi-Editor Project, and MMV is the term for Manga Music Video. Some notable favorites of mine that I watch mostly come from the YouTube channel [[MDS]] or Mad Desire Studios. I have noticed that a lot of AMVs are usually made by western otaku fans of anime - so generally from people from countries like America etc.

Do Japanese otaku usually create AMVs, MEPs, or MMVs, or is this just common for otaku who come from America?

Note: If you want to see what an AMV typically looks like, then this (Youtube link) will be good to watch and is one of my favourite AMVs.

The very elaborate, meticulously-edited AMVs set to popular music that you see from creators like Nostromo are, as far as I know, mostly the domain of non-Japanese fans. Naturally, I can't prove that there aren't any made by Japanese people, but I've spent my fair share of time bumbling around on Niconico, and haven't seen anything of the sort.

What Japanese fans do create are what they call "MADs" (for more, see this question). Though (many) MADs are derivative fanworks based on anime, they are, for the most part, not at all like the AMVs produced by Western fans. If I had to characterize Japanese MADs, I would point out the following features that distinguish them from non-Japanese AMVs:

The audio tracks of MADs are frequently made by editing the audio of the show from which the clips are drawn
Existing musical pieces (pop songs, whatever) are not used in MADs as frequently as in AMVs
Whereas many AMVs use footage from multiple series, MADs are more likely to use content from just a single series (or, perhaps, audio from one anime and video from another)
AMVs are often strongly identified with their creators (cf. credits footage, etc.) whereas MADs are relatively more "anonymous" in the sense that creators are less wont to plaster their name onto their creations
MADs are typically solo productions (or, at least, the work of few people), whereas MEP AMVs are fairly common.

To get a better flavor for the sorts of things that are typical of MADs, one might like to take a look at the top videos tagged with "mad" on Niconico.

In sum: yes, Japanese fans create audiovisual productions using footage from anime, but no, these productions are not very similar to the AMVs produced by non-Japanese fans.

Many anime conventions in the West incorporate AMV competitions; I suspect that this is one of the major drivers of AMV production in the West. I am not aware of any equivalent competitions in Japan. Also, for English speakers, there's at least one thriving online community for AMV creators: the Org. Again, I am unaware of a Japanese equivalent, beyond general-purpose video sites like Niconico.

(Note: this entire answer is only about the state of AMVs/MADs nowadays - I have no idea what it was like in the past, pre-Youtube/Niconico.)

I had never heard of MMVs prior to reading your question; having looked at a few on Youtube, I think (but am not sure) that these are also uniquely Western. (They also mostly suck, for obvious reasons.)


Carnivores vs Herbivores - What about the guns? In the setting there are humanoid animals and the biggest problem is the instinct of the carnivores as predators. But in the real world the thing that makes the humans the dominating species is their intelligence, mostly because they can make stuff, like guns for example, and animals don't have any chance against guns. The characters also have intelligence and guns, and any other kind of weapons too, so why is the carnivore vs herbivore such a big matter?

I viewed the carnivore vs herbivore as a form of racism in the Beastars universe, as there is even racism against interspecies couples.

Because the carnivores are so different (They have to eat animal based protein to survive, they have built in weaponry [fangs/claws/beaks], are almost always physically stronger and physically imposing, some can see in the dark) these differences are enough to create tension between them and herbivores.

   Pair this with the various killings that always appear to be carnivores preying herbivores, and the fact that there is an illegal market to buy meat and herbivore parts, and now you have a larger problem with how herbivores view carnivores.

It is also extremely likely that the Beastars Universe does not make Guns an "Equalizer" because of gun culture in Japan. Japan makes gun ownership a rigorous process and citizens are essentially encouraged not to own a gun in Japan.

  If Japanese people want to own a gun, they must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and achieve at least 95% accuracy during a shooting-range test. Then they have to pass a mental-health evaluation, which takes place at a hospital, and pass a background check, in which the government digs into their criminal record and interviews friends and family. They can only buy shotguns and air rifles — no handguns — and every three years they must retake the class and initial exam.

  [...] Each prefecture — which ranges in size from half a million people to 12 million, in Tokyo — can operate a maximum of three gun shops; new magazines can only be purchased by trading in empty ones; and when gun owners die, their relatives must surrender the deceased member's firearms.

  [...] Off-duty police aren't allowed to carry firearms, and most encounters with suspects involve some combination of martial arts or striking weapons. When Japanese attacks do turn deadly, they generally involve fatal stabbings.

  From "Japan has almost completely eliminated gun deaths — here's how"
  by Chris Weller

So because most citizens are not encouraged to have guns, the next designation of power is the aformentioned "built in weaponry" of the carnivores.

   The other thing to remember is that so far (in the anime series) we've only seen shady groups that were in power or had power (The Shishi Gumi, or equivalent of the Yakuza or mob) have guns. None of the other animals that were "upstanding citizens" were shown having a gun, with the exception of Rouis when he stole a gun from one of the Shishi Gumi members and used it to attack. This probably means that they got their guns through a black market and are not documented as having any even though everyone knows the mob owns guns.


Why does Akira retain her memories of her experiences as a Selector? In episodes 7 and 8 of Selector Infected Wixoss, Akira calls Ruko and Yuzuki to an abandoned building. Akira shows them the scar that appeared on her face after her third Wixoss loss and tells them that her wish was to destroy Iona. This exchange suggests that Akira retains her memories of her experiences as a Selector.

In contrast, after Hitoe suffers three losses, she does not recognise Ruko and Yuzuki after they find her on the street. Even when she looks at her Wixoss notebook, she is unable to remember Ruko and Yuzuki. This is in accordance with Hanayo's statement that upon three losses, the Selector will lose her memories associated with being a Selector.

With this in mind, why does Akira retain her memories? Perhaps Hanayo's explanation of the loss penalties was incomplete?

This is in accordance with Hanayo's statement that upon three losses, the Selector will lose her memories associated with being a Selector.

That is half true; Hitoe specifically lost her memories of being a Selector. Memory loss is not a consequence of losing three battles; the consequence is that the selector in question's wish becomes corrupted.

For Hitoe specifically, this corruption involved the loss of her memories of her friends and of being a selector (as well as experiencing pain from anything that would remind her of those memories), because her wish was to make friends, and she had already done so via WIXOSS battles.

For Akira, whose wish was for Iona's modelling career to be ruined, the corruption caused her own modelling career to be ruined via a facial scar preventing her from modelling.

Source: WIXOSS wiki


What do the names represent in Koe no Katachi soundtrack? In Disc 1 of Koe no Katachi OST (link to online shop which includes the tracklist), the name of every soundtrack is a 3-letter "word" (except 38. Invention No. 1 C dur), such as "tre", "rev", "lit", etc..

The names seem random to me. What do the names actually represent? The composer won't just put random letters as the names, right?

The 3-letter title was used as an identification code when Ushio (the composer) was composing the music and getting feedback in the movie production. [1]

Although it's a premise of concept-based composition, at first, like my ordinary work, my job was to write a whole song and gave it to them. Since the song would be selected according to the movie scene, I put a 3-letter title as an identification code.

... while it doesn't answer the question at all, that's the very reason why he chose to use it. [1]

Because it's not based on orders, I wanted them to use it without giving any pretext such as "this is the meaning of the song". With that remnant, I also wanted the listener of the soundtrack to have same thought.

However, Ushio explained that it's not random at all. [1]

However, it's not a random 3-letter word. "htb", the 12th song on 1st disc, is another version of "heartbeat" from the 1st song on 2nd disc. The hints are more or less there.

The first and the most important song is "inv". [2]

While Bach's Inventions can be considered as a musical excersise for fingering, at the same time, at that time period, it's also a collection of song to understand the beauty of clavier (i.e. piano) song. After it's understood, it became a base to create such a beautiful clavier song. I thought it's matching with the movie's theme. Therefore, the "Invention" was played along the whole movie. That become the "inv" tracks.
Since "Invention" can be analyzed (separated) into 3-part, I also separated the movie into 3 parts. Each part has its own "Invention". However, "inv" is not a whole "Invention" itself, but it depends on the context of the movie. For example, when somebody said "This scene's "inv" uses only the tone row of "Invention" part 1", I disassembled and rebuilt the song.

(Spoiler ahead: the meaning of the song related to the movie, including the ending)

 After Shouya overcame his guilt in primary school, he created a new way of communication. The story is about "communication practice", so I used musical exercises. The song was based on creating a whole new world when practising the communication. When thinking about it, Bach's Inventions (Inventions and Sinfonias) came to my mind.

 Regarding the ending, when Shouya and Shouko entered the cultural festival, the last-7 measure of "Invention" was played, and that's the first time the whole figure of "Invention" was known. At that time, Shouya's "practice" was over.

The only other title which was explained was "lit" [1]

The last song "lit", which was only played 2 times, means "light". This movie, which is about achieving the light, ended with this song attached.

[1]: Interview after the screening (Japanese)
[2]: Interview on official site (Japanese)


What was the result of Sanji's battle in episode 794? (spoilers) In episode 794,

   Sanji fights his father. We don't see the ending/outcome of the battle, but we do see Sanji and his father after the battle.

Does this get shown later via flashbacks? Sanji had equal footing and/or the upper hand, but their interaction shows that Sanji did not win. What happened?

Sanji lost the battle. I was almost sure but now I've confirmed it.

From the brazilian wiki last sentence (and translated by me):

  Judge stabs one of his soldiers and attacks Sanji with Denji Shaft, that makes an explosion sending the defeated Sanji far away.


Why is Luffy's scar shaped "X"? I know that Luffy got his scar on his chest from Akainu from How did Luffy get the scar on his chest?. As mentioned on the linked question, Luffy got his scar because his chest got burnt by Akainu's magma fist.

In the end, his wound was like a burnt wound, that means his skin was scorched.

When his burnt wound healed, why is his scar shaped like "X" like it was a wound of getting sliced by a sword? I thought the skin that was burnt will leave a scar like a "burnt wound's scar", not a "cut off" scar like that.

Taking the answer Oda gave in SBS 62, we can safely assume that the scar is indeed from Akainu.

If we take a look at some various things, we can come up with a fairly good estimate as to why the scar takes the shape that it does.

Firstly, Luffy most likely took less damage due to the attack being blocked by Jinbe. This means there is a chance that there was less burn damage.

Luffy is made of Rubber, rubber melts before it burns, and with Jinbe taking the a portion of the attack, there is a chance that rather than burn, his skin would have melted, possibly creating points, rather than a round hole.

From here, we know that he received medical treatment fairly quickly. Once the internal damage was rectified, the hole would need to be sewn back together. If we assume that the skin was melted in the way stated above, it's not out of the realm of possibility for Law to have only had the option of stitching it back together in this manner, thus leaving a sort of x shaped scar.

This is the best I can figure, based on speculation.


What's the coordinate ability? I'm on chapter 57 on Attack on Titan, and a "coordinate ability" keeps getting mentioned -- here by Hanji, but also earlier by either Bertholdt or Reiner (who apparently didn't want it to fall into the wrong hands). But what exactly is this coordinate ability?

I skipped a lot of the chapters up to 34 because they were just rehashings of the stuff in the anime, and I skimmed over a lot of the Survey Corps action in the woods, since it was getting too repetitious for me, so it's possible I might just have missed something.

Edit (taken from my comment in the answers): As an explanation to other readers, I was confused about this since at least in English, "coordinate" is pretty ambiguous without any further qualification. (It could be something geographical.) From the way Reiner and Bertholdt were talking about it, it sounded a bit like it could simply be a piece of crucial information that Eren might have in his lost memory.

Moreover, because of how Hanji was describing it merely as a "coordinate ability", it still wasn't clear to me.

Titans can have different types of abilities, like shifting back to human form (aka Titan Shifters), or putting armor on themselves (eg: Armored Titan, Annie hiding the back of her neck, ...). The third ability that was shown, was that of the Coordinate.

The Coordinate ability is basically the ability to control Titans. If the ability is controlled properly it can command all Titans to do whatever you want them to do.

   This is how humans were able to built the walls as sturdy and as big as they are right now.

As far as the story goes, it does not seem to work on Titan Shifters and there is supposed to be only one Titan with the Coordinate ability.

   Although the Beast Titan was shown to have a similar ability.


Why did the Phantom Troupe let Gon and Killua go? In the very first episode of the Greed Island arc, Gon and Killua meet up with two of the Phantom Troupe members while in the auction.

The members say they will no longer hunt our heroes because... something to do with their leader's Nen surviving after death? I watched the episode again, but it doesn't make any sense.

Why is the Phantom Troupe no longer interested in revenge against Gon et al?

Kurapika placed his judgement chain on the Chrollo Lucifer, the Phantom Troupe's leader. The Phantom troupe knows that and that Lucifer is currently seeking the help of a Nen exorcist in order to remove it.

Now why did they let Gon and Kirua go? Well because they want nothing to do with Kurapika anymore! If the person who placed a Nen dies, his Nen becomes much stronger after death, and a much more powerful Nen exorcist would be required in order to remove it. Actually, only a handful of exorcists have the skill to remove the Nen left by a dead user [1]. Or, since Lucifer is at this point weak because deprived of his Nen, he might even die.

The Phantom Troupe knows this and therefore they do not want to have any more direct or indirect interactions with Kurapika. If they were to harm Gon and Killua, Kurapika would surely come seek vengeance once more. If they were to fight off Kurapika, they would have to hold back to make sure he survives the fight. That would be not be an easy feat as Kurapika is not so weak.

[1] Chapter 120, page 13 (not shown here for compactness)

Some of this is explained on page 12 of Chapter 120:


Why do Indra and Ashura reincarnate? The anime tells us that Madara-Hashirama and Naruto-Sasuke are the reincarnations of Indra and Ashura.

Why did they get reincarnated? For fulfilling what purpose?

There is a lot of debate that the reincarnation cycle began because Hagoromo knew that sometime Kaguya would be free of the Planetary Devastation seal, and restart the Divine Tree ritual which would consume human-kind. But that is just in terms of giving the plot a direction.
Scientifically speaking, energy can neither be created nor destroyed. All it can do is transform. Kaguya initially attained massive amounts of chakra/energy due to being a member of the Otsutsuki Clan, and that energy exponentially grew larger after she consumed the Chakra Fruit. When she had kids, which were Hagoromo and Hamura, they inherited part of her energy. After they sealed Kaguya, the only people who wielded destructive energies were Hagoromo and Hamura. But, Hamura left Earth to live on the moon to keep guard on Kaguya, and the older brother Hagoromo stayed on Earth, and then had two kids, Indra and Asura, who also inherited part of their parents energy. They then grew up and became able-bodied adults who could use Hagoromo's power of Ninshu, not Ninjutsu, as Hagoromo said. While Indra retained and focused the power to himself, and used it destructively, Asura, however, used it to help people, thus forming the earliest concept of Yin and Yang. They were beings wielding enormous power and when they died, their chakra/power were transformed into their reincarnates, and like how opposite poles attract, so were the reincarnates drawn towards each other.
It is also evident that Hagoromo could transcned his consciousness over time, as he did with Naruto and Sasuke. It was just that his chakra wasn't being transformed and remained as a silhouette over generations.


Sword Art Online - is Offline season 2 included in the DVD? As seen in this question, there are 18 episodes of Sword Art Offline in total, 9 for each season.

In the DVD product shown here on eBay, the back of the DVD case says it includes seasons 1 and 2 (dub), along with Extra Edition 1-9 (dub) and Offline 1-9 (sub).

I'm wondering if episodes 1-9 of SAO Offline season 2 are included, since the case isn't clear on that.

I would suspect that the DVDs, like the Bluray I own, would normally come with them, however I suspect what you have there on eBay are bootlegs.

Quoting Madman Entertainment:

  How can I help stop DVD Piracy?

  There has been a recent increase in these DVD sets being spotted and these are most certainly not real products but rather an illegal bootleg copy, usually imported from South East Asian countries and contain extremely bad subtitles and are of low quality. Easy signs to tell if they are real or not include:

  Region 0 or All
  Very low disc count for entire series - eg. 26 episodes on 3 DVDs
  Anything with the company logos 'Anime Cartoon', 'AniDVD', AV, 'Manga Cartoon' and other companies with similar names usually linked to crime syndicates as well.
  A web based email address printed on the DVD cover such as addresses ending with @yahoo.com or mail2000.com.tw etc

  Should you come across any of these products do not purchase them and if you feel this isn't right report it to the authorities or to piracy@madman.com.au, please include the store's name and if possible get details of the distributor, the closer we get to the source of the problem, the eaiser it is for us to stop the flow. The Pirate Anime FAQ site also has a lot more useful information regarding these illegal bootleg DVDs as well as other knock off anime merchandise and how you can avoid them. Alternatively you can also report it to the newly setup Anti-piracy task force. Remember the more reports that are reported the more likely something will be done about this problem. Piracy hurts the industry and you can help by spreading the word and reporting these illegitimate practices.

Now the eBay ad is saying that it has 49 episodes + EX + Offline on 3 disks. The Sword Art Online DVD 1 On Rightstuf is 1 out of 4 for just season 1 and it says

  Sword Art Online 1 covers Aincrad Arc Part 1 and contains episodes 1-7

The Bluray I own had 2 Bluray Disks and the 7 episodes were spread across both along with an episode or 2 of Sword Art Offline on each disk. There were 4 Bluray Collectors Editions Each Season and 1 for Sword Art Online EX (which was single disk) so in total there were about 17 disks ((2 x (4 x 2)) + 1). DVDs have a lower capacity than Blurays so they wouldn't use less disks.

Comparing this to what Madman has put on their website this leads me to believe that what you have is a bootleg.

Another problem with the cover is that it doesn't state which DVD Region they are and if you're buying a legit DVD you need to know this so you can either get a DVD Player which plays that region, can be set to be a different region or set to Region 0 which ignores it (that's what my DVD/Bluray Player is set for DVDs. Bluray there is no Region 0).

Also while the eBay ad says

  With Malaysia Government issue Hologram

take this with a grain of salt. I got Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha on eBay which came with Season 1-3 and the 2 movies on 5 disks. It had a Hologram yet the episodes were clearly fan subs someone downloaded and burned onto a disk with whatever art they could find for menu backgrounds (since one used character cutouts but did a poor job removing the white around the character, blurring the edges to try and cover it up).


Why didn't Krillin and Gohan store the Dragon balls in a capsule? I'm watching Dragon Ball Z Kai and never really thought about it - If Bulma was able to pack up her cave back into capsules, why couldn't she put the Dragon ball(s) in the house, then pack up the house?

The resulting capsule would be small enough to cause confusion for anyone who had the dragon radar, as it would be in the vicinity (if it still showed up), but could be hidden in someone's pocket or even swallowed / regurgitated as necessary. It could have even served as a "this radar is on the fritz, we don't have any of the balls to hand over, they're still out there somewhere" excuse if cornered.

Was this simply a case of the characters not thinking to try it or is there something that would prevent the dragon balls from being shrunk down / stored in a capsule? And on that note, could you store a person / animal in a capsule?

I haven't come across a solid answer yet, but http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Capsule might have an explanation.

In the article, they mention that a capsule can't be stored within another capsule (as "the results were catastrophic") so in that regard it is possible for an object to impact a capsule, at least negatively. I then wonder if storing a Dragon ball would negatively impact it, as Colonel Silver in Dragonball said that the balls were unbreakable (and by unbreakable, perhaps unmodifiable and therefore unable to be stored)

It also mentions that "organic corpses" were stored in capsules, but no sapient creatures. To me, this sounds like no "animal testing" has occurred (possibly because a lot of the universe's inhabitants are talking animals and it would be morally / ethically wrong) but I don't know.

So this may be a partial answer, but it'd be nice to have "official" confirmation of why these things haven't taken place before.


Who was the man that Suitengu called Master? In the 1st episode, as Kagura descends, there is an extravagant looking man watching the ceremony. In the 3rd episode, after Kagura and Saiga fall into the water, he shows up behind Suitengo commenting on Saiga's power and attempting to come up with a name for it. Suitengu refers to him as Master ______ (I don't remember his name).

I am wondering who this man was, as it seems he was important enough to be focused on during the ceremony and he knew right away Saiga had become a Euphoric.

Went back, watched the scenes in question. I thought it was the ballet dancer from the 4th episode, would explain why you don't recognize him and why he doesn't play the prominent role you'd expect going forward.
If I'm right that makes him Katsuya Shirogane:

  One of the Euphorics sent by Suitengu to retrieve Kagura from Saiga,
  Katsuya Shirogane possesses the ability to stretch his body into any
  imaginable form (making it at least seem as if his body is made of
  rubber). Known as the Rubber Gimp, he was a ballet dancer who was
  completely obsessed with the flexibility of rubber to the point of
  breaking a young girl's arm for 'being too stiff'. His head was blown
  off by Saiga using a piece of mirror to reflect his camera shot.
  His Japanese voice actor is Takehito Koyasu and his English voice
  actor is J. Michael Tatum. - Wikipedia


Why didn't Naruto and Sasuke feel a disruption in their chakra when Madara and Hashirama were reanimated? Hagoromo stated that, when Indra and Ashura reincarnate, their chakra dwells inside you as well. And its shown that Edo Tensei shinobi regain everything they've lost when reanimated, such as when BOTH Madara and Nagato had a rinnegan. So, Hashirama and Madara should've regained Indra and Ashura's chakra, as when reincarnated it is in you. So, since you regain everything you've lost, Naruto and Sasuke would have had their chakra, as Hashirama and Madara. There'd be two Indra's and two Ashura's, so shouldn't  Naruto and Sasuke felt a disruption in their chakra when Hashirama and Madara got revived?

Yes but no, one because they don't feel a disruption in their chakra, but in general, as long as Naruto or Sasuke had some form of sage mode enabled, then sage mode would allow them to sense a strong appearance of chakra. Naruto would be able to sense all the Kage as well as Sasuke and all the Edo Tensei, ever sense the war ark started... so PLOT HOLE.


Why is Kimihiro Watanuki plagued by youkai and ayakashi? From the start of the series, Watanuki is tormented by them. Is there a reason why they "like" him so much?

It's his smell?
Some related parent (blood relationship)?
Unlucky?

What is the reason?

In the first chapter of the manga, Yuko tells him that spirits are attracted to his blood, eluding of his innate powers.

In chapter 89, the Spider Queen mentions that several factions were fighting over his right eye, because if they make it their's (by eating it) it could multiply their spiritual power several dozen times.

It would seem that Watanuki is so powerful everyone wants a piece of him.


What is the reason behind the law that toys and humans must not visit each others' house? As of the current manga chapter, the mystery behind the toys in Dressrosa has been revealed.

But it is not clear for me the details about the law that does not allow humans to visit a toy's house, and toys to visit a human's house.

What will be the negative effect that made Doflamingo implement that law?

It would create chaos and it might even ruin Doflamingo's scheme. Civilians don't remember their lost loved ones, but the toys remember everything. So you would expect the toys to try and remind their loved ones of who they are as we have seen in chapter 717 when the toy supposedly malfunctioned suffering of  human disease.

Humans might remember their loved ones or might start to dislike the toys, which would disrupt the peaceful kingdom Doflamingo had built. Now imagine if the toys would be able to spend intimate alone time with regular humans, this would mean situations like these would happen more often. This could then go either of two ways, none of which would be beneficial for Doflamingo. Either the human would not recognize their lost loved one and freak out as in chapter 717, creating chaos. Humans might start to loath the toys and possible retaliation might happen. The other possibility is that the human in some way might even remember who the toy was and Doflamingo's schemes would be discovered. So the more control Doflamingo holds on the toys, the less chances he has of being found out.

If toys would be able to visit houses, they would be able to plot schemes to overthrow Doflamingo and possibly kill or harm Sugar, which they would have a real hard time doing if they would be watched constantly. Doflamingo could have trusted Violet's ability to oversee any strange activity, but how would you be able to trust the daughter of the former king with such a big responsibility. And even if he would, she wouldn't be able to oversee every toy at every second of the day. Her powers should be used more usefully elsewhere anyway.

Additionally, if toys were free to go about as they liked, they could travel to other islands and expose Doflamingo's scheme. Keep in mind that they were the only ones aware of Sugar's ability apart from the Donquixote Pirates. I doubt the government would ignore the cry of help of a bunch of toys who claim Doflamingo had made them like this. Especially since coincidentally Doflamingo's island is the only one having living toys. Don't forget that among the toys there are also Government officials, who would know too much about the inner workings of the World Government for it to be just a strange malfunctioning toy, who just happens to know too much.

Toy Soldier

As mentioned by OP in a comment, Toy Soldier has been seen in the private companionship of Rebecca. He was seen training her for the hard future to come to prevent her from being harmed once again. Since this is a special case and since it was only possible by plot armor a great deal of luck, I will make this a separate part of the answer. I want to point out that Doflamingo's level of dictatorial control is so high (and quite praiseworthy to be honest), that it really needed this much of luck for it to work. So now how was the toy soldier possible to break the law?

As we know, every toy is put to a contract by Sugar, right after transformations. The contract states only two simple rules, which can be see in chapter 737 when Cavendish became a soldier.

  I will not bring harm to humans.
  I will bow to the orders of the (Donquixote Pirates') family.

Two simple rules that make the toys unable to disobey any law put out by Doflamingo, which include not entering houses, and going to the toy factory every night. Toy Soldier on the other hand, was the first and only person to become a contract-less toy as Sugar had forgotten to establish the contract as mentioned by Leo in chapter 739. Therefore he could disobey the laws as he pleased. This didn't bring him out of the woods just yet though. He knew Viola had the giro-giro (aka glare-glare) fruit, and he knew she had forgotten about who he was. If he would disobey the law at this point, he would have been caught regardless. That's why in order not to stand out to other humans and especially Viola, he obeyed the laws with the other toys and went to the toy house every night as he mentions in chapter 721. This all lasted until Rebecca was kidnapped.

At this point (still chapter 721) he couldn't just sit back and let it all happen, so he rescued her regardless of the laws. This made him a criminal and a fugitive from that point onwards. Even if he would obey the laws now, he would be hunted down by the police as we have seen when the Strawhats first arrive at the Colosseum in chapter 703. Yet he is too badass to be caught by mere mortals. Doflamingo could have tracked him down, but he probably didn't care or might not even have been aware of the situation. Viola on the other hand, knew well about everything that had gone down, but by now she trusted Toy Soldier and wanted him to keep looking out for her niece Rebecca. She mentioned in chapter 740 that she knew all about him and Rebecca, but that Viola kept it a secret for Doflamingo. It was also from this point onwards that he was seen in the private companionship of Rebecca. It was only after he became a fugitive that he started breaking the laws. He didn't have much choice.

To conclude, Toy Soldier confirms what I wrote as the original answer. Doflamingo wanted to keep his peaceful regime as long as possible and he needed laws for that. The negative effect that made Doflamingo implement that law, was to prevent what Toy Soldier had done from happening. Remember that if it wasn't for Toy Soldier, nobody would have known about Sugar's ability and the toys would never have been freed, because nobody would have known about it. So by Sugar's neglectance her secret got out and he had gathered allies to overthrow Doflamingo.

  It took him 10 years to do so, but here he is back to his human form and riding towards Diamante and Doflamingo to avenge his wife and restore king Riku's honor.


Do family member's escape the Calamity if the student dies? When the Calamity begin, relatives to a student in class 3-3 are also at risk of dying due to the Calamity.

I am wondering, if a student died as a result of the Calamity would their relatives be spared?

It's not sure but, by logic, when a student dies, he is no more a student in class 3-3, so their relatives are safe.

In fact, in the anime, nothing happens to any relative of a dead student.


How did Madara get rid of Sasuke's Amaterasu? Just as soon as Madara was revived, Sasuke used Amaterasu on him, and from the scans, it seemed that his armor and his hair was caught in it. But, the next scans showed that the black flames faded away.

How was he able to do this? He did not have rinnegan to suggest that he absorbed it. If so, how was he able to escape?

It's because of two things:

Madara is still able to absorb Ninjutsu, even without his eyes. Madara has shown this ability several times (Most notably, by absorbing Hashirama's Senjutsu chakra). Madara was shown to use other eye techniques without eyes, such as the Susano'o. So we can assume that those techniques are sort of "awakened" and can be used even without the original requirements.

Madara threw his armor away, which was where most of the fire concentrated. The rest was absorbed by his Preta Path ability.


Why would a studio intentionally mistranslate the title of "Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun"? A new anime started this week called, in English, Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun. I thought the first episode was pretty good, but the title was kind of a turn off.  If I hadn't seen reviews saying it was good, I probably would have skipped it due to the title alone.

Later I found out the title is actually mistranslated.  It should be "Earth-bound" not "toilet-bound".  Yes, the ghost being contacted at a certain toilet stall is part of his backstory, but that is a relatively minor point that didn't need to be in the title, especially if they have to mistranslate it to do so.

Why would the translators of both the manga and anime do this?

While translating 地縛 (jibaku) literally means "earthbound" (land + bind), the 地縛 in the official Japanese title 地縛少年花子くん refers to 地縛霊 (jibakurei), which means "ghost bound to a specific physical location (usu. where death occurred)".
The definition of 地縛霊 from Daijisen (a general-purpose Japanese dictionary) used by Japanese Wikipedia is

自分が死んだことを受け入れられなかったり、自分が死んだことを理解できなかったりして、死亡した時にいた土地や建物などから離れずにいるとされる霊のこと。
A ghost whose exists on a place (e.g. a land, building, etc.) at the time of their death and cannot wander off from there because they do not accept their death or understand why they died.
(Emphasis mine)

As an aside, the English term is "residual haunting" or Stone Tape.
The Japanese title replaced the kanji 霊 (ghost) to 少年 (boy). Thus, the literal translation of it is "Hanako-kun, the boy who is bound (to a certain place)". It actually does not refer to any place at all.
Regarding the official English localization by Yen Press, this is just a guess, but they possibly chose "toilet-bound" due to the origin of the tale and the character's in-universe background. Regarding if "bound" is correct or not (in refer to the anime), the official Japanese title refers to "bound" though.
*地縛 can also be read as jishibari, though it is unrelated to "earthbound" at all. On the other hand, the Japanese never uses 地縛 for "earthbound".


Nostalgia Hit Me - But What Anime Is This That Takes Place In An Alternate World That Is Mostly Deserts? So, nostalgia kind of hit me with a force of a thousand suns and I can't stop my brain from remembering anime I've watched when I was a kid. I've pretty much remembered 90% of what I've seen, but this one anime my brain keeps taunting me with, I just can't recall.

The things I remember about this anime is the fact that kids had been transported to another world. The reason for this I can't remember exactly, but it had to do with searching for a specific type of girl.

I remember a boy and a girl being sucked up in that world. The boy in another part of that alternate world, I think knew kendo since I remember him calling out "men" when he was ordered to plow a field. I also remember a scene which had him stuck in a hole and someone threw his gruel of food in the floor. He still ate it even when it was mixed with the earth so he can keep his strength.

The girl I remember because of her circumstance. She was taken to that alternate world because she was mistaken for the girl people were searching for. I remember her being given to men in their army when they realized she was not. She was traumatized after an encounter with a large bulky army soldier while another soldier seemed to fall in love with her.

There was a desert setting (and I think most of the world was desert?) as I remember the girl wading through sand when she escaped. She was hoping to die there in the desert, but someone found her. Later, she finds that she is pregnant and at the end she meets the man who fell for her. He saved her in the end, but I can't remember how or from what.

I saw this anime in AXN and I think it was either a movie or an OVA (because I can't remember seeing a lot of episodes of it at all). It was in my early years, so it may range from 1998-2004.

Anyway, that's all that I can recall.

It would be much help if anyone can figure out what anime this is.

Now and Then, Here and There

Our protagonist, Shuu, isn't very adept at kendo as he only knows how to charge at his opponent and face them straight on. He accidentally gets transported with Lala-Ru (pictured above) and her pursuers to an alternate world that is mostly deserts. Lala-Ru is much sought after in this desolate world for her powers; previously, Hamdo's soldiers mistook Sara for Lala-Ru and abducted her to this world also. Let's just say Sara has to bear with much hardship and eventually

   bear a child of a rapist.

NTHT is a 13-episode TV series broadcasted in 1999-2000.


What happened to the aliens in Italy? Gantz usually bring back people after they kill all the aliens, but when Kurono's team sent to Italy (chapter 291) Gantz sent them back to Tokyo even when the aliens were still there. So what happen with the aliens in Italy? Did they go away or what?

I didn't watch the anime, so I might be missing something here, or maybe there's some explanation ahead? I have already finished reading the manga, but maybe I missed something.

It was a global mission, seems like that every team arround the world has a limit time to help in the mission. Kurono's team were out of time and living ones were teleport back.


Is a person who wasn't named by his/her parents immune to the Death Note? If a person's parents didn't name him/her, does this make him/her immune to Death Note? What would a Shinigami contractor see looking at this specific person?

By the way, nicknames don't count as real names according to this post.

How to Use: IX

The Death Note will not affect those under 780 days old.

How to Use: XXX

The names you will see with the eye power of a god of death are the names needed to kill that person. You will be able to see the names even if that person isn't registered in the family registration.

The name to be written in the Death Note to kill a person isn't relevant until the person turns 780 days old. Moreover, even if a person changes his name and/or uses aliases multiple times during his life, there's only one name which can kill the person, and it is known to the Shinigami (as well as a human who has the Shinigami eyes).
From this, it appears that for each person, the name which can kill him is decided at a certain point in his life, and then it is never changed. Since the person has to be "killable" on the 781st day of his life, this "christening" (for the purpose of the Death Note) happens before that day.
Further to avoid confusion, this christening is presumably done by the Shinigami King or automatically handled by the Death Note system somehow. Of course, who would go through the trouble of choosing a unique name for every person? Thus, for simplicity, the person's official name is chosen for this purpose.
Most people are given some official name by the time they are 780 days old, so this won't cause a problem. For the rare cases where a person doesn't have a name by that day, the Shinigami King or the Death Note system presumably picks some random name on the 780th day (to satisfy the rule IX/1).
With this arrangement, the Shinigami and humans having the Shinigami eyes know the name required to kill the person. Humans who own the Death Note but do not have the Shinigami eyes cannot kill the person using the Death Note because they don't know the name required to kill him.


What's the difference between Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu? While the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu seems to be taught, the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is sealed, so nobody can learn the jutsu. Does that mean that there's a difference between these jutsus, aside from the number of Kage Bunshin created?

Or, why was the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu sealed away?
If there's no other difference, everybody could use this without reading the sealed scroll.

While the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu seems to be taught, the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is sealed, so nobody can learn the jutsu.

Weeeeellll... not quite! The Naruto Wikia seems to be a bit off on this bit, since the technique that was sealed away was actually the "regular" Kage Bunshin no Jutsu — the technique that's taught is actually the Bunshin no Jutsu.

  Or why was the Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu sealed away?

The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a forbidden jutsu, and that was why it was sealed. Since its "massive version," the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, is just a variation of the same technique, it was also sealed away.
It is forbidden because of the danger it present to its user, since it distributes an equal amount of chakra between all the clones that comes directly from him. This could easily drain the total amount of chakra from a user who has less control over it.

  Does that mean that there's a difference between these jutsus, aside from the number of Kage Bunshin created?
  If there's no other difference, everybody could use this without reading the sealed scroll.

As for differences between it and the normal technique, I'd say that the amount of chakra necessary would be its main difference in terms of execution — the more chakra you have, the more clones you can generate.
However, most people won't use the "massive version" of the jutsu simply because of the danger mentioned in the above section — not many shinobi can use such high amounts of chakra and safely maintain the technique steady.
Adding "Tajuu" in front of it is just something that Naruto does every once in a while (note that he sometimes generates huge amounts of clones even without saying "Tajuu") when he intends to generate a massive amount of clones instead of a "regular" one. You can double check this in the very first chapter, where Naruto reads the scroll and never makes mention of the "massive version" of the technique.


What is the origin of the bubble during sleep trope? A common trope across various anime and manga is the snot bubble trope. I've put an example below:

I can gather what it signifies from the TV Tropes description, but what's the origin of this? Does anybody know where it was first used, or where the inspiration came from?

The origin is, perhaps surprisingly, real life! This does occur among children in Japan and in other countries as well.