Which anime's female character was the most famous across the internet in 2015? Which anime's female character was the most famous across the internet from JAN-2015 to MARCH-2016 (Winter 2015 to Spring 2016)?

For clarification purpose:

My question is focused on data such as polls, internet page hits, imageboard posts or any other method that proves to be accurate. (Meaning: This is not a opinion based question. If you want to leave a opinion do so in the comments.)

As an example, when the TV Show "Amagi Brilliant Park" aired, the main character Isuzu Sento was all over the internet, with several doujinshis, fan-made images, and uses of this character in anime sites.

Further exemplifying: Suzumiya Haruhi (SHnY), Hatsune Miku (idol), Asuna (SAO), Mikasa (SnK) are used a lot over the internet and all are easily recognized faces, and this is what I'm looking for, but from the latest year only.

What I want this for: I'm making an app which will use the female character.

There are a few different ways of interpreting your question. Interpretation #1 is "among all characters who appeared in anime from Jan 2015 to Mar 2016, which of them is most popular on the internet by metrics X, Y, and Z". Interpretation #2 is "among all characters who appeared in anime from Jan 2015 to Mar 2016, which of them is most popular on the internet as a consequence of their appearing in the anime by metrics X, Y, and Z". Interpretation #2 is considerably more difficult to measure, but it may be more relevant to you.

It also matters whether by "the internet" you mean "all of the internet" or "the English-speaking internet", because Japanese viewers tend to have systematically different tastes than non-Japanese viewers.

#1 / all

Under interpretation #1 and "all of the internet", the answer almost surely has to be someone from Kantai Collection, which is the biggest thing since sliced Touhou. Take your pick from Shimakaze (an early character who achieved high popularity and has maintained it since); Fubuki (brought to prominence by the anime); Kashima (the newest high-popularity character from the franchise); or any number of other shipgirls. (I think Shimakaze wins by most metrics, including pixiv illustrations - 24000 as of now; this pixiv poll from 2014 by a large margin; etc. But she did have a considerable head start, being ship #10.)

#1 / English

Under interpretation #1 and "the English-speaking internet", sites like MAL are good places to look.

On MAL, the top-ranking female characters from anime that aired during the time period in question are Senjougahara Hitagi (Monogatari), Suzumiya Haruhi (via Nagato Yuki-chan), Saber (Fate), and Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail).
On Anime-Planet (which I think skews to a more casual demographic than MAL), the list is Erza Scarlet, Hyuuga Hinata (Naruto), Suzumiya Haruhi, and Lucy Heartfilia (Fairy Tail).
AniDB is a bit more difficult to work with since they have ratings rather than just "likes", but the toppers by raw rating (without adjusting for confidence based on number of ratings) are Miyauchi Renge (Non Non Biyori, twice!), Kongou (KanColle), Cure Beat (PreCure), and Cure Moonlight (PreCure)

#2 / all

Under interpretation #2 and "all of the internet", the answer may not be someone from KanColle, because the anime, while still very popular, was not quite as ridiculously popular as the game on which it is based.

Idol shows are another common source of super-popular female characters. Within the time period under consideration, Love Live! and Idolmaster both aired, and both of these shows derive more of their popularity from TV than KanColle does. I know that Love Live! has (had) periodic character polls, but I can't find many of them at the moment. Here's one from Jan 2016 ish which has Nico at the top (see, Japan has weird taste), and another one from back in 2013 that has Maki at the top (okay, not that weird). No idea whether Idolmaster does them too.

Other than that, I don't have any good data, but my impression is that the various female leads from Saekano, Fate, Oregairu, and Monogatari are also potential contenders under this interpretation.

#2 / English

For the English-speaking internet, interpretations #1 and #2 are actualyl mostly the same, since most of the English-speaking internet's exposure to "otaku culture" is through anime, with virtually no non-anime media achieving prominence anywhere near the most popular anime. (Contrast Japan, where KanColle, the game, is very much a thing.)

Perhaps the key exceptions are a select few visual novels like Fate/stay night and Muv-Luv; and wildly popular manga like One Punch Man and Shingeki no Kyojin (though these things pretty much always get anime adaptations eventually). But I'm not aware of any non-anime properties like this during the time period under consideration, so I expect no real difference between interpretations #1 and #2.

Miscellaneous notes

One other well-known source for this kind of thing is Newtype magazine's monthly character polls. But I warn you in advance, their polls skew in very strange ways. For example, Kira Yamato is almost perpetually ranked, despite not having been on TV since 2005. Anyway, I found most of these for the time period in question, and it turns out that Saber tops about half the polls and places in the top 3 in the rest.

My personal take

If you choose to include KanColle, I think the obvious answer is Shimakaze, or possibly Kongou, given that you want a character with high recognizability in the vein of Haruhi/Asuna/Mikasa/etc.

If you choose to exclude KanColle, which may also be reasonable depending on your target audience, I would recommend a character from Monogatari, which has had 7 years to stew in the minds of people, yet is still putting out new animated content. Senjougahara is probably the most recognizable of them, but Shinobu/Kiss-Shot is more topical, given that Kizumonogatari is literally happening this year. The other reasonable option I see is Tatsumaki from One Punch Man, too, given the broad popularity of that show with English-speaking audiences.

Alternatively, you could just use Mikasa. Jiyuu no Tsubasa (recap movie #2) did premiere in June 2015, after all.


Is there an explanation behind the hidden blue Exceed/cat? In Fairy Tail Episode 144 (Despair Unleashed), approximately 7 minutes and 42 seconds into it, a blue Exceed/cat can be seen hidden between the rocks in the background.

In the image I took below you can see between Happy and Panther Lily the blue Exceed/cat.

This is not addressed this during the episode and the characters in the scene do not mention anything about it.

Is there ever an actual explanation behind this? Or is it some type of Easter egg?

It's just an easter egg, they seem to appear in every episode. They're no part of the plot in any way.

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/fairy-tail/answers/show/538421/episode-39-what-thing

Example: http://i.imgur.com/Otr4Kba.png

In earlier episodes they showed a still image of every easter egg animal  in the episode with the relevant at the end of the episode


What's the reason Yuji Itadori has superhuman strength before being able to handle cursed energy? Before eating Sukuna's finger, and before being able to use cursed energy, Yuji Itadori is shown to have "superhuman strength" and "superhuman physical abilities", making him able to throw a lead ball with enough force to to bend a soccer goalpost.  He's also said to be able to run 50 meters in 3 seconds, which would be a world record if true. What's the reason for this?
What's the reason Yuji Itadori has superhuman strength before being able to handle cursed energy?

As far as I know, it hasn't been confirmed yet.
But tbh I'm just an anime watcher, my theory would be that it has to do something with Sakuna in general.  Maybe his parents had some deal with him, which could also explain why he is such a good vessel.


What novel's introduction was Shiori imitating? In episode 6 of the third season (or chapter 147) of The World God Only Knows, Shiori starts writing her story but scraps the introduction she wrote because it was imitating some other novel.
Does anyone know what novel she was referring to?
Here's a screenshot of what she wrote:

This roughly translates to:

I'm a cross-dressing man
My name is Katsuragi

I believe this is a reference to the novel "I am a Cat" (吾輩は猫である, Wagahai wa neko dearu) by author Natsume Souseki. It's opening sentences are the following:

  吾輩は猫である。名前はまだ無い。

which, translated into English, is:

  I am a cat. I don't yet have a name.

The reference is more apparent if we compare the two in Japanese. The grammatical structure of the sentences is very similar:

TWGOK:

  吾輩は 女装男 である。名前は 桂木

I am a cat:

  吾輩は 猫 である。名前は まだ無い。

All the words other than the nouns are the same. The use of 吾輩 (wagahai) for "I", である (dearu) as a sentence-ending phrase would both be strange in modern writing. In addition, the general structure of the two sentences are similar enough that this is almost certainly not a coincidence.

The novel is very popular in Japan, being Natsume's first major literary work and one of his top three most read (the other two are Kokoro and Botchan), and Natsume himself being in all likelihood the most important writer in Japanese history. It would not be strange at all for it to be referenced here.


Who are these soldiers from Rider's Ionioi Hetairoi? In Fate/Zero, there are some soldiers from Rider's Ionioi Hetairoi that look somewhat important. All of them are heroes so they probably a named hero as well. Who are they? Do they have any name?

In short, we don't know who they are, although there is some evidence on who the black-haired adjutant might be.

The Seven Warriors

Ionioi Hetairoi means "The Companions of Ionia", so I would expect some, if not all, of these important-looking soldiers to be Alexander's bodyguards, which

  consisted of seven men, drawn from the Macedonian nobility, who also acted as high-ranking military officers, holding command positions such as general or chiliarch.

In fact, included in Sound Drama Fate/Zero Vol.2 "The Orgy of Kings" is this image (with some text edited out) of Iskander, and around him, seven men whose designs stand out from the crowds in the back:

But here's the problem: none of Alexander the Great's bodyguards were much older than his master, so who is that old man wearing a turban? Furthermore, six of these outstanding men are easily recognized as having appeared in the Fate/Zero anime, so if the seventh one, the guy in the middle wearing a black armor, has also appeared in the anime, he is most likely Mithrenes, who is not a Somatophylax. So it seems futile to try to match them to the Somatophylakes.

Designations by Fans

Immediately after the airing of episode 11 of Fate/Zero, someone, possibly from 2chan, posted this fan-annotated image that names these important-looking people:

From left to right, top to bottom: Eumenes, Parmenion, Hephaestion and Ptolemy.

It's actually quite an educated guess. Eumenes was known for his loyalty to his master and his role as the private secretary of Alexander. In this sense, it can be said that Eumenes and Waver are quite similar.

Parmenion was an experienced general who killed to ensure Alexander's succession to the throne was a smooth one. Being Alexander's second in command and also 40-50 years older than him puts Parmenion as the number one candidate to the identity of the man in turban.

Hephaestion's and Ptolemy's names are on there probably just because they are more well-known.

Eumenes in Fate Derivative Works

But "Hephaestion" does actually make an appearance in Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, and she has this to say about Lord El-Melloi II:

  「ケチ。せせこましい。暗くて偏屈。寝起きが悪い。黴びた書物ばかり読んでる。卑屈なくせに傲慢。さも苦労人でございって顔をしてるくせに、終わってみれば一番事態を搔き回してる。どうだ、全部当たってるだろう」

  「気に入らない。まったく気に入らない。そんな偏屈な顔はエウメネスで見飽きてるというのに、この時代でも見せられるのか」

I can't provide a faithful translation, but she's basically saying she hates to see that perverse, arrogant and miserly face of Lord El-Melloi II even though she has seen enough of them already from Eumenes.

Also, in Fate/Grand Order, if you have both Zhuge Liang (Lord El-Melloi II) and Iskander as your Servants, then talking to a Bond Lvl 5 Iskander in My Room will trigger Dialogue 4:

  Hm? You have a strategist with a stern countenance. I’d like to see him compete with with Eumenes- Ah, he’s still an immature youth on the inside. How amusing it would be if he met Hephaestion!

These two derivative works seem to corroborate the fact that Eumenes gives off the same vibe or even the same look as an adult Waver, and we have one such person in Ionioi Hetairoi!

Eumenes or Waver?

We don't know, and for all we know, Eumenes might just be one possible future of Waver. After all, time warping is not an alien concept in the Fate universe.

Nicknames in Sensha Otoko

It's regrettable to say that we aren't able to identify the subjects in question with confidence. But if nicknames satisfy you, these are what they're called in Sensha Otoko:

Other Remarks

The design of "Erect Member" is really peculiar: he seems to be wearing a paludamentum and a helmet with a Sphinx on it (absent in the one-shot manga).
Why is the world of Ionioi Hetairoi a desert with no cavalries but only foot companions? The simplest explanation is that to draw horses and sceneries more complex than sand dunes is to create more work for the animators. However, I can't help but think that it is depicting Alexander's feat of crossing the Gedrosia desert, of which one theory argues

  was an attempt to punish his men for their refusal to continue eastward at the Hyphasis River.

Most animals perished in this sixty-day death march. Iskander's final fight with Gilgamesh, where his Ionioi Hetairoi got destroyed by Enuma Elish and he hears the sound of the ocean upon his death, resonates with a passage in this article:

  The horses soon began to succumb to the heat, so he left most of his party behind and rode off with only five men. At last they found the sea, and scraping away the shingle on the beach came upon fresh, clear water.


Why does Akane support Sybil? I had a few questions in mind. Akane is someone who strongly believes in justice and she doesn't cross the line even she could. She knows Sybil is not the perfect system and lots of people do suffer from injustice because of it. So why support it then even when she has had the chances to destroy it?

I mean how bad can it get without Sybil. It might be difficult for the society without Sybil but if the rest of the world can live without it, then why not the Japanese?

There are several opinions on this matter discussed in the anime, and I believe one of them makes the most sense. The fact that the society living under the law of Sybil has already formed certain behavioral patterns makes it very hard to safely oppose the system.

Remember how people start freaking out at the very thought that their criminal rating could go up? How they become extremely nervous at the sight of a criminal activity or something that may look like it. Imagine if they learned that somebody is trying to oppose Sybil, how they would react. This would certainly cause a lot of trouble and quite possibly lots of people killed because of how the Sybil system works.

So the safer solution is to change the way it works gradually from within, by changing the basic principles of how it judges people. Akane can't single-handedly destroy the Sybil system, and because she has such a strong sense of justice, she knows it would not be right to risk more innocent people's lives than she has to, so she doesn't really have a lot of choice.


Where is Maria's "Double Contract" referenced? I read somewhere that Maria has a "double contract" with her Symphogear.

I searched on the TV episodes, but found nothing. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she can wield two different gears (Gungnir and Airgetlam).

So a few questions:

What is this "Double Contract" exactly?
Why is it special?
Where in canonical material is it talked about?

What you're looking for is GX Zesshoushinai 4, segment 9 「ガングニール、再び４」 "Gungnir, Once Again 4".

Segment 7 ("Gungnir, Once Again 2", two segments prior) is set during the events of episode 4 - Chris watches from SONG headquarters as Maria fends off Garie using Hibiki's Gungnir. This leads her to idly wonder whether she, too, could use other people's gears. Chris imagines up some wonderful things:

In segment 8 ("Gungnir, Once Again 3"), Chris brings this idea up with Tsubasa -or, at least, she tries to, before being shot down. (Tsubasa, too, once had the same idea, it seems.)

This brings us to segment 9. Tsubasa explains to Chris about how only certain relics will respond to any given person's song, and that in general, a person's song will match only one relic. Maria's "double contract" (she says, using the loan phrase ダブル・コントラクト daburu kontorakuto) is an exceptionally rare exception to this general principle.

As you surmise, this has to do with Maria's affinity with both Gungnir and Airgetlam, and is special simply because it's so rare. Why can Maria pull it off? Who knows - no explanation is given. I don't recall any of the keywords having anything to say about this state of affairs.

To wrap up this segment, we get a peek into Tsubasa's imagination:


Reincarnated as a Slime -- Are the alphabets in the end credits real? The end credits for the anime series That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime have a unique trait which I am trying to understand.  Here is a capture from the end credits of episode 2:

(The end credits of episode 1 are actually the opening credits which had not been played up until the end. The opening credits are entirely in Japanese except with an overlay of the series' English title.)

The image captures a transition between the first alphabet shown and the second.  Each of the first two alphabets lasts for less than a second, when finally Japanese shows up for a few seconds.  Originally I thought the first language was Thai or Georgian or some similar-appearing language.  Now that I have done the screen capture, I'm pretty sure that neither of the first two are real writing systems.  Are they?

If not, is there some in game reason to show the credits in three alphabets? I get that theirs is a multicultural world, but so is ours, and we typically stick to one language in credits.

(I guess I should qualify that.  A number of different anime series will show multiple languages during the credits, but not transition between them.  If a Korean staff is being credited, that portion will be in Korean, If Filipino staff then that portion will be in English or Spanish, etc.)

Looks like an original alphabet, possibly based on runic alphabet. However, it is a complete alphabet with known transliteration.

解読マリィ@happymaryheart tweeted his work on the complete transliteration of the alphabet.

Based on transliteration samples he tweeted, it's basically either:

English words, or
Romanization of Japanese words

As for why the credits are shown in three alphabets... it's actually only shown in two alphabets: this runic alphabet and Japanese/English. The runes are shown for the first time, then they shrink before being replaced by the original words.

As for why it's done this way... I haven't done any researches for this, but I'd speculate on artistic impression, or perhaps it's actually the only alphabet in their universe...


How is there a McDonalds in Weathering with You? In anime, usually the name shows up "WcDonalds" or "EcDonalds" or the like, presumably to avoid trademark issues.
But in Weathering with You, I noticed that McDonalds and the "M" logo show up unmodified. Did they somehow manage to secure the rights to show the logo in the film? How?

According to an interview (credits to reddit for the source) with the author, Makoto Shinkai asked for permission to use McDonalds within his works. After some time, his request was granted.

You feature McDonald’s at one point. Did you want to convey the city in an almost photo-real way?
MAKOTO SHINKAI: I wasn’t aiming for photo-realism, but I did want the audience to recognise the places and recognise that this Tokyo is the place where they live. For global corporations like McDonald’s, there are actually a lot of restrictions about featuring them in animation. You need permission, for example, if you want to draw their logo. I approached McDonald’s Japan and asked them if I could feature McDonald’s in my film, because I thought it was essential as part of the real Tokyo that I wanted to show. They initially refused because there is a gun in the film, but I went back several times and I eventually managed to convince them.


What "thing" were Taiga and Ryuuji talking about in Episode 1? So, this is something I am wondering but I don't remember if this was ever explained. At the start of Toradora, both Taiga and Ryuuji talk about something that's hidden and about how if somebody sees it, they would want to see it again and that someday, somebody would find it.

But what is that thing they are talking about? If it's explained in an episode then please tell me which episode, or please explain it here.

The "something" is referred to love. Only, person who can see it are the whole bunch of people wanted to have it. because that's the way its meant to be. its what said at start and end of the super duper series. However, somehow it links to the conversation ryuji had with kushieda , about the ghost and UFOs on the beach house.As, Kushieda wanted to see how ghost looks like. It might be referred to the love we have for those who surround us. as in case of Taiga and Ryuji, the whole time the thought themselves as friends and never realised that was the love which don't let them move away from each other.And at last only they were able to see it as they both craved for it for their life. Both of them missed the love from their family. and found each other.
the ending was very satisfying and letting me down too. As Kushieda and Ami chan, both developed the feeling of love and affection to Ryuji. While kushieda thought taiga needed him more and she was feeling guilty of being trying to steal Ryuji from her if she confesses her love towards ryuji while, Ami was the most mature girl in the school , who believed that Ryuji and Taiga both love each other. And she can't have Ryuji because trying will only give her pain just like Kushieda.
The biggest sacrifice was made by Kushieda, she was betrayed by both his love and Best friend. While, I felt super bad for Ami too as she was badmouthing like taiga but she is always helpful to both Ryuji and Taiga. Honestly, Kushieda able to confess her feelings to both ryuji and Taiga in end episode - Confession. But Ami never able too, she only kept it to herself. And that was very painful.
Don't wait for Season 2, as the story was never meant for next season. Its complete on its own.Also, don't forget to watch the real ending after the finishing song in the series.


Who is it that killed Zephyr's crew and then became a warlord? So I just watched the One Piece Movie - The Battle of Z and it left me wondering who it was that killed Zephyr's crew (while he was in the Navy) and then became a warlord? It says he was a devil fruit user and that is why he acquired that weapon on/as his arm to take out all the devil fruit users he could.

Does it get explained anywhere in the manga? Any helpful information would be appreciated!

The Warlord who killed Zephyr's crew is not named even in the current chapter of the manga.

Nevertheless, it was stated that the pirate who killed Zephyr's crew became a warlord during the timeskip. Therefore, there are only three possibilities: Trafalgar Law, Buggy and the currently unnamed warlord. However, it it also not yet revealed whether the unnamed warlord is a devil fruit user.


How can Rock Lee stand on water? According to what I have seen, Rock lee isn't able to use ninjutsu nor genjutsu. However, it was shown that he can walk on water. Isn't walking on water a part of chakra control which he isn't able to perform? If he can control chakra then why not perform ninjutsu (doesn't need to be good at it, but at-least perform it.)

Also I am unable to understand how can he open the inner gates of chakra if chakra control is a problem for him?

Chakra Control

There are three things about Chakra Control.

Power Manipulation

This is my own term. It refers to how much Chakra you mold upon performing a jutsu. Quoting Wikia,

  In order to have good chakra control, a ninja should only mould as much chakra as they need to perform a given ability. If they mould more chakra than is needed, the excess chakra is wasted and they will tire out faster from its loss. If they don't mould enough chakra, a technique will not be performed effectively, if at all, likely creating problems in a combat situation.

Shape Manipulation

  Shape transformation deals with controlling the form, movement, and potency of chakra.

Nature Manipulation

  Nature transformation deals with changing the physical properties of chakra into an element. There is also the nature transformation of Yin and Yang, which deals with changing the ratio of spiritual and physical energies within chakra.

Rock Lee

What Rock Lee was incapable of is the last two, Shape Manipulation and Nature Manipulation. Most Ninjutsu requires at least one of these two. For example, Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu) requires both shape manipulation (to make it into ball) and nature manipulation to give fire element to the jutsu. Rasengan requires shape manipulation to make it into ball shape, although in a whole different level than Goukakyu no Jutsu. Chidori requires nature manipulation to add lightning element to the jutsu.

It has been consistently shown that Rock Lee was unable to perform the last two in that he was never shown to use any jutsu that requires them. He, however, was shown to be able to perform Power Manipulation. This is evident in his use of the 8 Gates which requires him to flow chakra to various spots in his body.

Standing on water requires Power Manipulation, that is, creating enough chakra to cover his feet palms to keep him afloat. It doesn't require shape nor nature manipulation, thus explains how Rock Lee can stand on water.


What dance is Araragi dancing? As Koyomi gets ready to make his sister a boiling hot bath in episode 1 of Tsukimonogatari, he does a little dance:

It seems familiar - is it a reference to another series?

I'm pretty sure this is just supposed to be Tsukihi's schtick from her OP in Nisemonogatari (Platinum Disco).


Where is Yoruichi's Zanpakuto? Since the beginning, we see Yoroichi does not wield a Zanpakuto, but isn't it strange? Isn't she a Shinigami and the Zanpakuto is so important for them?

It's true that she has her own fighting style, but like Soi Fon, she has the same fighting style, but uses a Zanpakuto.

There was some flashback moments when we saw younger Yoroichi wielding a Zanpakuto:

I imagine she had Shikai/Bankai to become a Captain, so she should be stronger if she uses it in a fight. Maybe she has lost it or something?

There are many THEORIES as to what happened to her Zanpakuto. I'm not sure if I can ANSWER your question as definitely as you'd like, but I can list some possible answers. It's up to you to find the one that you believe most plausible. Or we can wait til old Tite Kubo gives us the answer.

She gave it up when she left the Soul Society.

Yoruichi is a part of a very honorable family, so it's almost possible that she would leave her Zanpakuto to symbolize the fact that she's leaving the Seireitei.
However, a Zanpakuto is a partnership. It's doubtful that somebody could just leave their partner, especially if their Zanpakuto is an animate object. Also, why would she have to give up something that important?

It was stolen.

It's not impossible to believe that after a particularly long bout with some Hollow, or another Soul Reaper, it was taken as a trophy. Or even destroyed?
However, Yoruichi is an extremely amazing fighter. She couldn't have lost unless she fought something on the level of the Espada.

She keeps it with her, but sees no point in using it.

This is what I believe. That she just has it set aside and is waiting for an opportune moment to use it.
However, why wouldn't she have used it by now??? You would think, with all the amazing enemies that have been introduced, she would've pulled it out by now.
Also, the only reasons she wouldn't use it is if

It is too weak to make a difference in battle and she sees no point in using it
Or, it is too STRONG and she cannot properly control it
Or, she had a falling out with it, and she's not allowed to use it.

Those are just some theories. I believe she wouldn't have gotten rid of it. I think she would've done what Kisuke did. Personally, I think we'll see it one day, along with her Bankai. Sorry that I couldn't answer your question.


What anime is this image of a girl caressing a skeleton from? I found this picture on a fansub website, and it did not have any reference to the name of the anime to which it belongs.

Does anyone know where it is from?

The image is related to the anime Dusk Maiden of Amnesia (or Tasogare Otome x Amnesia), which aired in 2012 and had a manga running from 2009-2013. The character in it, Kanoe Yuuko, is a ghost haunting an old school, who can only be seen by a few other people, namely Niiya Teiichi and Kanoe Kirie.

Here's wikipedia's plot summary:

  The story revolves around a first-year middle school student, Teiichi Niiya who had just enrolled at Seikyou Private Academy. When he gets lost in one of the school's old buildings, he meets a girl named Yuko Kanoe who reveals herself as a ghost with no memories. Teiichi then decides to investigate her death by looking through the school's seven mysteries revolving around her. Throughout the story, Teiichi and Yuko discover the truth about these ghost stories and help those who are troubled.

The image seems to be an edited version of this image, which (as best I can tell) is official promo art. This image has also been used for a wall scroll. A rotated and cropped version was used as the album cover for the single Choir Jail, the OP of the anime.


Is Ash technically the Pokemon Champion of Alola like Steven? In Pokémon Sun Moon anime, now that Pokémon League Champion is Ash and there are no Elite Four, does this make Ash the Pokemon Champion of Alola?

Yes, Ash is now considered a Pokemon champion of Alola like Steven.
However, Ash already was a 'champion' before becoming the champion of Alola, the champion of Orange Islands.

However his victory on Orange Islands is often disregarded due to the unconventional 5 gym battles without Elite Four, a Champion, or a Conference.

As mentioned on the Pokemon fan Wiki the following is required to become a champion

  A Pokémon Champion is a trainer who has beaten a region's Gym Leaders (in Alola's case, all 7 trials and totem Pokemon), Elite Four, and the previous Champion.


What is this paper fan used by some student council president/senior member called? In many anime, a student council president or senior member uses essentially a paper 'fan' to discipline others.  Kind of looks like a paper that has been folded up.

Is it really a fan of some sort or something different? Does it has a specific name (in Japanese)?

That'd be a Harisen, a paper fan used extensively in manzai comedy by the tsukkomi to smack the bokke's funny antics. I guess it just bleeded into anime for its comedic factor.


When will the Kizumonogatari movie air? From what I have read, Kizumonogatari is a prequel for Bakemonogatari, and the movie is reported to be scheduled for fall 2013.

However, Monogatari Series: Second Season was just released this summer (2013), and is still ongoing, so I thought this movie might not be released (again) this fall.

Have they delayed it again?

This answer is outdated. See Senshins answer.

There is currently no release date for Kizumonogatari. It was listed for Fall 2013, but was removed, so there's no official release date yet.

Source: ANN - Kizumonogatari Film Briefly Listed for Fall (dated 2013-07-31)


How are weapons formed? I will try to make this brief. I know Soul Eater ended ages ago and I just started watching it. I'm at season 3. I'm just curious about how they become weapons? I know that one is born as a weapon, but what happens physically? I might be overthinking it, but I am just curious.

The so called weapons are a artificial race, created due to inhumane human/witch experimentation. We do not know how the actual physical transformation happens. Nor how the experimentation ultimatetly led to this race
These experiments known to create these weapons was originally discovered by Eibon and Death, whilst trying to find a way to create peace between the humans and the witches. Due to the inhumane practices required to create such demon weapons they decided to lock the exact steps away.
But as you learn later on in the story as well. Arachnid, with her spiders, managed to obtain this information, and started her own experimentation. Ultimatly leading to the race currently known as Demon Weapons

The ´weapons´ Race, as a social construct, is a group of people who share similar and distinct physical characteristics
This particular race came to be 800 years before the start of the series, during the time Eibon and Death sought a way to create peace between humans and witches.
Inspired by the Great Old one (Excalibur) they decided to start human experimentation to create something similar. They managed to find out that by killing a witch and extracting a soul they could create a demon weapon.
Due to the inhumanity they sealed away the instructions for doing so. Yet Arachne using her spiders managed to oversee this, and started her own experimentation. Leading her to combining a weapon, and a witches soul. This concluded in a new 'race' now known as the 'demon weapons' or weapons for short. Or as we known them, the humans transforming into weapons. - SE Wiki


What was the working title of Kimi no Na wa? Here is some early concept art for Kimi no Na wa.

The working title is given in the top-left corner of this image. What was the title?

(This question has been gleefully lifted from reddit.)

The title is 「夢と知りせば」 Yume to shiriseba, which one might translate as "Had I known it was a dream".

To appreciate the significance of this title, one should know that this is part of a tanka by Ono no Komachi, a Heian-era poet. In Japanese, the text is:

  思ひつつ
  寝ればや人の
  見えつらむ
  夢と知りせば
  覚めざらましを

There are many scholarly translations of this poem; here is Donald Keene's version:

  Thinking about him
  I slept, only to have him
  Appear before me―
  Had I known it was a dream
  I should never have wakened.

Shinkai mentions this poem as an inspiration in this interview:

  その未来の物語を小野小町の和歌『思ひつつ寝ればや人の見えつらむ　夢と知りせば覚めざらましを』（訳：あの人のことを思いながら眠りについたから夢に出てきたのであろうか。夢と知っていたなら目を覚まさなかったものを）を引っ掛かりとして、アニメーションのフィールドの中で描く事が出来ると思いました。

As a side note, the text beneath the working title reads ―男女とりかえばや物語 - roughly, "boy and girl Torikaebaya Monogatari". The Torikaebaya Monogatari ("The Changelings") is another Heian-era work, about a boy and girl who each behave as members of the opposite gender. That's basically what Kimi no Na wa is, after all, except with full-on body-swapping.


How does Hōō Maniwa regain his left arm? When we are first introduced to Hōō Maniwa, he cuts off his own left arm to prove his intent.  I expected it to come back, and about halfway through episode 8, we see it has returned.  Although, that may not be a bird-like appendage, but may be some other kind of animal.

How does Hōō Maniwa regain his left arm?

This is because it a transplanted arm

  Ninpō: Danzaien - This technique allows Hōō to decapitate anyone with a swing of his arm, as shown when he severs his own left arm to form an alliance with Togame, though he regains the use of said lost arm shortly after from Kawauso Maniwa's corpse. This ability was originally called Namagoroshi by the Aioi Clan, the ninja clan murdered by the Maniwa.

Source: Hōō > Maniwa > Abilities (second dot point)

now looking at Kawauso Maniwa we can see that he would more likely fit that arm

and going by what is described for Volume 6

  He is willingly killed by Hōō Maniwa in order to maintain the alliance between the Maniwa Ninja Corps and Togame.

this gives Hōō the perfect opportunity to get a new arm. also it's been a while since I've seen the series but if i recall correctly Hōō shows to have Kawauso's Kiroku Tadori Ninpō as being the reason why

   Hōō is possessed by Kiki Shikizaki, a result of the Kiroku Tadori Ninpō being used on Dokutō Mekki


Why does Abel Nightroad's hair stick up? In Trinity Blood, Abel Nightroad's hair sticks up when he is in vampire form. Is there any reason given either in-canon or by one of the creators?

I have read the Sunao Yoshida's novels and there is no information regarding why he gets the spiky hair. Looking in the internet I have found no interviews of Sunao Yoshida talking about it, so the only thing I can say it is just something stylish to the electric discharges he is able to do when he transforms.


Where does Devil May Cry fit in? In the anime Devil May Cry, in one episode, Trish and Lady encounter one another and both already know Dante (who has to stop them from killing one another).

Trish first met Dante in Devil May Cry and Lady in Devil May Cry 3. In Devil May Cry 4, both seem to be in it from what I have read, but neither appear in Devil May Cry 2 before Dante is trapped in the Demon World.

So I am wondering, when does the Devil May Cry anime occur with respect to the timeline of the series?

The basic answer is "it doesn't" - the anime was not canon to the games. The games' timeline is:

3: Dante is young, hasn't started his agency yet, we meet Virgil as a human (well, half human), he meets Lady.

1: Dante meets Trish and we learn Virgil became Nelo Angelo.

4: Both Lady and Trish are in this.

2: Dante becomes trapped in the underworld and we never learn what happened after because they did a stupid reboot instead of a sequel for DMC 5. These events are not mentioned in other games so it is the final game in the timeline. There are no official canon works that make reference to what happened after.

In the anime he knows both Lady and Trish so it is set after 3 and 1 and before 2. It could be before or after 4 but I would guess before since the anime was made before the game however there's no real answer because, as I said, the anime is not canon to the games.

I don't have links or anything because this is just from my memory - I owned all games (sold my copy of DMC 5) including the DMC 3 Special Edition (where you get to play through Virgil's story), two novels, and have the whole anime on my hard drive and have watched all episodes at least twice.


What happens in the end of the Tokyo Ravens anime? Harutora's attempt to resurrect Natsume supposedly succeeded, but Saotome Suzu, who had helped to perform the ritual, told the other characters over the phone that it technically was a success.

In the end, we see how Natsume is resting in a bed inside a brightly sunlit room with a window open. Harutora says he'll be looking forward to see her and disappears. It's not clear whether he was real or not, and whether the whole room is some metaphor of sorts, considering the "astrology" stuff in the previous episode.

What's really going on in the end of the anime?

This is still unclear in the anime. As of the time of writing, there are 11 volumes of light novel and the anime adaptation has covered up to volume 9 (titled to The DarkSky).
From volume 9 chapter 5 (emphasis mine):

Was it a dream? She wasn't sure. Her fuzzy brain still wasn't working well. The sheets completely covered Natsume, and everything was unclear, so she couldn't make a normal judgment.
Natsume softly touched her lips with her fingers. The sensation lingering there was inexplicably fresh, clear, and real. Natsume's face reddened and she buried her face in the covers again.

He is real. The incident did happen but we are not sure where. Resurrection was successful but there may other thing needed to be done for Natsume to live in real world.
The technical success Suzu was talking about is explained more clearly in volume 10 chapter 3:

 "Yes. I won't hide it any longer. My name is Tsuchimikado Natsume. I was adopted by the Tsuchimikado main family not long after birth and was raised as the next family head. Tsuchimikado Harutora is my childhood friend."

 "Also...... It's true that I'm a dead person. Last summer, I was resurrected from death. ......No, I was just awakened, and right now I'm still barely maintaining my current state."

In the future, there may be an OVA for the remaining part of LN which may go into detail on it.


How do souls age in Soul Society? How do souls age in Soul Society?

   People cannot die of old age resulting in the Captain Commander keeping his position for a thousand years.

There are some souls who look like kids and some who are adults.  In the manga, the makers flashbacked into the past of the Captian Commander showing that he had black hair instead of looking like what he was then.  Also, when Ichigo left the Precipice World he aged what looked like a couple years.

So how do souls age in Bleach?

The only explanation I can find is on bleach.wikia.com, which says:

  One never gets hungry (if she or he doesn't have spiritual powers) and aging is slowed to a great extent, with lifespans of 2000 or more years not being unheard of, though such ages are limited to Shinigami or other Soul Society dwellers with high spiritual power.

There is also an explanation on http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Headscratchers/BleachSoulSociety that essentially says that it is really inconsistent within the show and that there are a number of different theories, including that characters age inversely proportional to the amount of spiritual power that they use and that at some point aging just stops.

To summarize, there doesn't seem to be a clear explanation in-universe, but the aging is slower than usual, with much longer life-spans than regular humans.


What all abilities are transferred when hearts are interchanged between bodies? Law's Ope-Ope No Mi gives him the ability to switch the hearts between 2 bodies. This is actually transferring the mind of a person to the other and vice versa.

So the question here is, which of the below abilities of the person are transferred along with the mind to the target body?

Strength (Physical and Mental)
Devil Fruit Power
Haki using Ability

It'd be nice if specific incidents/instances can citied along with each of the pointers for reference as it would be easy to visualize and co-relate them with the answer.

Strength (Physical)
A body's physical strength is not defined by its heart, but by the actual body. Therefore it is not switched, as we can see when Nami (in Franky's body) wants to beat Sanji (in Nami's body) again. Nami should not be able to even tickle Sanji, but if she would have hit him again in chapter 663, Nami's body might have been severely injured.

Strength (Mental)
Mental strength on the other hand, does come from the heart as we can see Sanji do extraordinary things with Nami's body. Things she would physically be capable of, but not mentally. Like when Sanji blue walks his way to safety after rescuing Kin'emon's torso in chapter 672.

Devil Fruit Power
Devil Fruit Powers become part of the body after eaten, so the same can be said as with actual physical strength. For example, it was Luffy's complete body that became rubber and not his mind. Which was proven on multiple occasions. Oars couldn't use any rubber attacks on his own after he obtained Luffy's shadow. Tashigi could turn her body into smoke after her mind got switched with smoker's and Franky could still change Chopper's animal forms. With the last example, I would also like to point out that this is also a good example where mental strength is not switched, since Franky could not control Chopper's final form, while Chopper could, as seen on Fishman Island. I'm not saying Chopper is stronger than Franky perse, I'm saying that if mental strength and thus experience would have been transferred he would have been able to control the monster.

Haki
Haki obviously also gets switched, since this literally means willpower. So if the will gets switched, so will it's power. This can be seen when Sanji activaly uses Kenbunshoku Haki to locate Kin'emon's torso.

Kenbunshoku Haki is Sanji's speciality concerning Haki. When helping Kin'emon recover his torso from within the lake on Punk Hazard, Sanji actively used Kenbunshoku Haki in order to locate the samurai's torso within the dark water.

Source
Summary

In the case of switched "souls", Devil Fruit powers are maintained within the original body, while voices and other abilities, such as Haki, go along with the switched mind/soul, as seen when Sanji used his Kenbunshoku Haki in Nami's body, due to Haki originating from the individual's spirit.

Source
Physical heart vs Mind
It should be noted that Law only switches the mind and not their actual physical hearts. This can be seen when he switches Tashigi and Smoke's mind, while holding Smoker's physical heart in his hand in chapter 663.

 Otherwhise it would have been chaos if Caesar would have put Law's heart inside himself at Dressrosa, becoming Law.


Is Kurapika the only person who has 2 types of Nen? So according to the 2011 anime, persons can use different types of Nen to different levels of effectivity. But Kurapika is type Conjuration when he's normal, and type specialization when he's mad and his eyes turn into scarlet. Is he the only one who has this? Is Kurapika the only person who has 2 types of Nen?

When Kurapika is being taught about Nen, his teacher states that 1% of conjurers and manipulators also develop Specialist abilities. This means that Conjurer/Specialists and Manipulator/Specialists exist, but are extremely rare.

It is also worth noting that Emperor Time is a specialist ability that, while active, gives Kurapika 100% proficiency in all 6 types of Nen, at the cost of using 1 hour of his lifespan for each second it is active.

It is entirely reasonable that someone else may have a similar ability, such as a specialist who can change their Nen type each morning, giving them access to a Hatsu associated with that Nen type, or a Specialist who gave themself access to another Nen type with their Hatsu. Obviously, these would require appropriate limitations, but such is the core nature of the Nen system.


How does wind chakra amplify water style? So in Naruto, wind chakra is strong against electric and weak against fire as it amplifies the fire.

But at the same time, when naruto does the Toad-water-pistol collaboration ninjutsu with the frogs, his wind style amplifies water style..how is that possible?

Doesn't wind style amplify fire? Then how come its amplifying water too? Wind and water aren't related in the chakra relation circle thing..

Weakness has nothing to do with whether or not two elements amplify each other. It has to do more with the fact that both chakra natures are coming from the same side (either the same person or allies).

Some elements' weaknesses work by the "stronger" element canceling out the "weaker" one (e.g. water canceling out fire). Others work by the "weaker" amplifying the "stronger" one (e.g. lightning amplifying water, wind amplifying fire).

However, if one person (kekkei genkai/two chakra natures) or two allies (cooperation jutsu) are using a technique, the chakra will generally combine to create a stronger technique (because energy will be released even if two elements cancel each other). For example, ice style = water + wind, and vapor style = water + fire. This is similar in that Naruto's wind style is augmenting the impact force of the water via a cooperation jutsu.


Why Moro's power draining dont work in Majin Buu? Moro's power draining made him able to defeat Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta. But in the fight with Majin Buu there isnt any sign they are working at all. Why Moro's power draining dont work in Majin Buu?

Majin Buu used the Supreme Kaioshin's magic to defend himself against Moro's power drain.

As explained in Dragon Ball Super's chapters 48 - 49, a team of Galactic Patrol hypno-therapists managed to awaken the dormant consciousness of the Supreme Kaioshin within Good Buu. (As a reminder, Good Buu is called as such because the Supreme Kaioshin's appearance and personality influence him).

Majin Buu is now able to swap his consciousness with the Supreme Kaioshin's at any time. The Supreme Kaioshin already fought against Moro and developed several magical countermeasures, which notably protect him from Moro's power drain.


What was Valkyrie referring to when Seiya stopped her from saying it in episode 9 of Shinchou Yuusha? I just watched Shinchou Yuusha episode 9 and there was a point where Valkyrie was referring to something like "you will worn out..." and then "I see so you've already caught on".

What was she referring to? The manga is a lot behind the anime, and I can't get a physical copy of the light novel in where I live, and can't find this answered in any discussion threads.

I don't mind the spoilers at all, since someone who searches this exact thing is looking for spoilers in the first place.

Perhaps Valkyrie is not a god (maybe demi) and therefore Seiya should be able to use her techniques. I came to this conclusion because I did not see any of the other gods bleed before. I could be wrong though since I did not bother to double check the previous episodes.


Was "Snow Rondo" all a dream or was there something more to it? Near the end of the second OVA series (Patlabor: New Files), in the episode titled "Snow Rondo" (episode 14). At the end, Asuma Shinohara says it's not a dream and there are hints that it wasn't a dream, but also bits to indicate that didn't happen either.

Can anyone explain what exactly happened?

The OVA stated that the two timelines are real,

In the past Sinohara walked the girl (Yukie Kashima) in the snow, he liked her but he didn't say anything, maybe because he didn't have the courage to do so.

The first timeline is when Sinohara met her at the class reunion.
They had a good time together and they both liked each other.
When finally Sinohara tried to say something  she stopped him and said good bye.
In this timeline we all know that she is some kind of spirit.

The second timeline is when Sinohara wakes up again, and he hasn't gone to the class reunion.  Although he didn't see her again, he got the clue that his experience was real. The proof is the postcard he got in the second coat. And he knew what Noa get for him before she even told him.

It's a love story, the spirit just wanted to say goodbye for the last time before she went to a place far away, and this is the most romantic and fun way she could ever done that without making him scared or sad.

ps: it will help you if you watch Groundhog Day, the movie made on 1993.
It has looping time, different from "Snow Rondo" but essentially the same.


Origin of Black Saints Clothes I wonder if there is any explanation in the anime or manga about the origin of the Black Phoenix Army and Black Saints clothes, since they are not constellations (as far as I know).

The origin of the Black Saints (暗黒聖闘士) was revealed in the data book Saint Seiya Cosmo Special published in 1988 (and re-edited in 2001), but it's canonicity is debatable. While it was aproved by Kurumada himself at some point, it wasn't directly written by him, and was published during the middle of the Poseidon arc weekly release, so there's plenty of later retconning that has some contradictions to what's shown on this data book. I don't think there's a full translation of said databook, but there's quite a few summaries around the internet, the one I'll be taking most info from is this one, while the introduction is only in Spanish, the actual content of the summaries are mostly both in Spanish and English, though there are some pieces that are exclusively on Spanish.

Around the time the Gigantomachia took place, the Continent of Mu (where the Saints Cloths were made) sank to the depths of the Pacific Ocean, with it, the knowledge of the crafting techniques along with the lives of the alchemists that created the Cloths were lost. But circa 1500 AD, an island was discovered by alchemists rebel to the Sanctuary that was apparently what remained of the Continent of Mu and was called Death Queen Island, there they started working on creating new Cloths, but since the knowledge was lost by the ages they could only craft imitations of existing ones, the most copied one being the Phoenix Cloth, the only real Sacred Cloth that still remained on that island and the strongest Bronze Cloth ever made. While their power could not compare to the originals, they were still powerful enough to be a worrying issue to the Sanctuary, especially since the warriors that claimed them were not Saints, but the warriors who were denied Saint status for they only gained a superficial understanding of the Cosmo and rebelled against the Sanctuary. As such, the island was sealed by the Sanctuary, and a keeper sent to guard the island and supress the Black Saints. By the time of the original Saint Seiya series, this keeper was Guilty, Ikki's master and Esmeralda's foster father. When Ikki killed him and broke his mask, the seal was broken and the Black Saints released


What are the characteristics of a "tsundere"? Although this question might be a naive thing to ask, I believe that I would get an much detailed answer to this question keeping in mind all my simple questions answered wonderfully by people in the past. I read the wiki page on Tsundere but there's not much, I understand the broad definition where a person has a combative attitude towards a particular protagonist in any anime. What I am looking for, is an all-encompassing criteria/concept of a 'tsundere' and the highlights of their social behavior.

From  KnowYourMeme

  The word tsundere is a portmanteau of the japanese terms tsun-tsun (turning away in disgust) and dere-dere (lovey-dovey feelings).

Typically tsundere characters are characters who aren't honest with themselves about loving another character. They'll often say things like;

"It's not as if it I did that for you, dummy - don't get the wrong idea!"

"It could have been anyone else, it's just because you were there"

Etc.

Generally, its obvious they have feelings for someone - they're just too shy to admit it, so they cover it up with insults, physical attacks or making it seem that something isn't a big deal (even though they really think it is - like an indirect kiss for example)

When closer friends point it out, they'll often blush and stutter:

"W..what?! There's no way I could love J-Jony, where d-did you get that crazy idea from!?"


Is there a significance in the names of the artificial spirits? Each of the Rozen Maiden Dolls has an artificial spirit. Since there is so much in this series that has a deeper meaning of some sort (episode titles and doll names jump to mind) I’m assuming that their names will also have a deeper meaning — especially since there are names such as Pizzicato (Kanaria’s artificial spirit) that are clearly not Japanese at all.

The only one that partially makes sense to me though, is Berrybell, Hina-Ichigo’s artificial spirit which fits into the general word-cloud strawberry. What significance is behind the names of the other dolls’ artificial spirits?

This is a community wiki starting point of an answer. Feel free to either contribute to this or append your own answer.

Shinku’s artificial spirit is Hollie. This could be connected to Ilex (e.g. Ilex aquifolium), the prickly plant with the red berries.
Hina-Ichigo’s artificial spirit is Berrybell. Potentially a connection of a ringing bell and a (straw)berry.
Kanaria’s artificial spirit is Pizzicato. This is a violin playing technique also referred to as plucking — fitting with the general violin/music theme of Kanaria.
Souseiseki’s artificial spirit is Lempicka. This has the same spelling as the Polish art deco painter Tamara Łempicka, although the katakana spelling of the spirit implies a different pronunciation. I don’t know if a connection exists.
…


Which chapters are left out during in the anime of Attack on Titan? I've recently started reading the Attack On Titan manga. I started from chapter 35 and skipped over 1-34 because that's where the anime left off and I already watched it.

I just want to know which chapters I should go back and read without having to reread all of them (because I'm lazy and I know I'll lose interest if I do)

I have read from the beginning. From what I remember, the anime didn't leave much out if anything at all. It just stopped at a really bad point. The main difference is that the manga did not progress linearly and employed a lot of flashbacks.


What's Arthur power level when he uses the Excalibur sword? In season 3 of Nanatsu no Taizai anime, by using the Excalibur sword, Arthur was able to face the strongest demons, Chandler, Cusack, Zeldris and Meliodas individually. But when he didnt have it he was a weakling compared to them.

What's Arthur power level when he uses the Excalibur sword?

Excalibur is the legendary sword believed to hold ultimate power, which can only be wielded fully by its true master. Whomever wields this sword will becomes near invincible. However, those who use it and are not destined for it, will be corrupted and ultimately destroyed by an all-consuming lust for power.

In the legends, Exalibur was given to King Arthur by the first Lady of the Lake. After the death of King Arthur, Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the lake. A hand then rose from the water and took it into the lake. Another legend says Excalibur was drawn from a stone by Arthur to prove his royalty.


Could Evil containment wave defeat Jiren? We already saw

  Vegita break out of the bottle when he was sealed with Mafuba.

So it is not a definite technique to get rid of powerful foe.
My question is that, can Jiren be sealed even for a moment so they can toss him out of the field? Or is he simply too powerful to be effected by Mafuba?

Master Roshi freed Vegeta from the container by direction his "missed" attack towards the container. Vegeta was in his super saiyan blue form, but was able to get free after master roshi broke the seal from outside. Meaning it is strong enough to at least hold a super saiyan god captive.

We also know that Zamasu was only able to break free because Goku forgot the seals for the container. Zamasu was strong enough to kill all the gods. This basically means that someone stronger than the gods can be sealed as well when sealed properly.

So to sum it up, yes Jiren can be sealed. Mafuba has no limits as it forces an entity into the container. The only way to get out of it is by breaking the seal.

Click here for more info about the Mafuba.


Which episode is this scene when Lan Wangji smiles at Wei Wuxian on the roof? I was watching this MV of Mo Dao Zu Shi and the part on 5:08-5:19 when Lan Wangji smiles at Wei Wuxian on the roof is what I haven't seen in the Anime/Donghua.

Where is this clip from?

Here: https://v.qq.com/x/cover/k4mutekomtrdbux/c00266t1cjf.html

It's from Episode 0 —— SPECIAL WELFARE(Means it's a Cornetto advertising).


Why do their eyes pop out? If seen this in several series now. When your blowing on something really hard, your eyes come popping out. Is this some sort of symbolism?

This is a common trope, not specific to anime. It can be seen in a lot of western cartoons.

The increased air pressure, that is created when blowing very hard, creates a force pushing outwards from your breathing cavities and connected airways. Technically, mouth, nose, ears and eyes share the same complicated pathway, so you could blow your eyes out, if you try hard. The trope in question is just an exaggerated example of it.


What race is Big Mom? Big Mom is massive, but she is not a Giant, so what is she? Is it possible that her family is same as her?

In Addition: I think the human show above is not there real parent, maybe Linlin is adopted by them

She is a normal human. In Chapter 866, her parents are shown. They do not share her enormous size.


What happened to this character creating this phenomenom? So, in part 3, we see that Old Joseph tells his grandson, Jotaro Kujo (our protagonist), that

 stands were created by DIO's reawakening.

But in part 4, we see that

 Koichi gets struck by a stand arrow, giving him the stand called Echoes.

These objects were created by

 a meteorite that struck earth https://jojo.fandom.com/wiki/Bow_and_Arrow

This caused

 stand arrows to appear, that were given to a young Diavolo

So did they both influence stands, or was it just one of them?

(spoilers for DIO's Diary, Vento Aureo, Phantom Blood, and StarDust Crusaders)
Joseph never said that the stands were created or summoned directly through DIO's awakening, however he did say that ONLY the Joestar bloodline's stands stemmed from him, as he is indirectly a part of it by stealing Jonathan's body, in DIO's Diary: OverHeaven, he explains that when he awakened from his 100 year sleep, he met Enya, who shot him with the arrow, thus giving him, Joseph, Jotaro, and Holly stands. Everything that was said in Vento Aureo and Diamond is Unbreakable, is true, and stands never stemmed directly from DIO or Jonathan.


What is the recommended order for watching "Barakamon" and "Handa-kun"? Barakamon was a highly rated Slice of Life Comedic show from Summer 2014 (Which I never got around to picking up). Handa-Kun aired much more recently (Summer 2016), but is described as a prequel to the original.

Is it required that I watch Barakamon before watching Handa-Kun? Are there any references in Handa-Kun that may spoil Barakamon?

TLDR: watch whichever you feel like watching.

You can actually watch it in any order. Having seen both of them, except for the same protagonist they don't have any link between them.

Handa-kun is an anime in which the protagonist is a high school student. This one leans highly towards comedy than a slice of life. But it's definitely fun to watch.

Barakamon is more the typical slice of life anime with bits and pieces of comedy, it has a sense of purpose unlike Handa-kun which is just everyday events. Here Handa-kun is grown-up and is trying to find some inspiration.


Was anything past volume 7 ever released in English? I'm referring to the manga Satisfaction Guaranteed by Ryo Saenagi. I came across this manga quite a few years ago, and really loved it!  I bought the first 7 volumes in English, which are distributed by Tokyopop. When I was finished reading them I tried to find volume 8 on Amazon, but didn't have any luck.  I searched and found that, in Japanese, nine volumes were released to complete the series.  But I couldn't find them in English anywhere.

I come back to this problem every couple of years and do a search in hope that something has changed, but I still can never find volumes 8 or 9.  Does anyone have any idea what happened to this manga?  If it really was never released in English beyond volume 7, as seems to be the case, then it seems the best I could hope for is to buy the volumes in Japanese and find a translation somewhere on the internet. If anyone knows where I can find such a thing, I'd greatly appreciate it.

As @Krazer mentioned above, Satisfaction Guaranteed was one of the projects that Tokyopop was publishing. However, in 2011, the company was shut down, and the publishing of the project went along with it.

Wikipedia cites volume 7 as being the last (English) release as of July 31, 2010. According to AnimeNewsNetwork, there is a theoretical volume 8 in English; however, that information was posted prior to the suggested release date of the volume, and it appears to have never come to fruition.

So it does seem that volume 7 is the last official English version. You'll probably have better luck looking for a Chinese or Japanese version (even English fan translations past volume 3 appear to be scarce*).

* Unfortunately, we cannot link to scanlations or online readers for legal reasons.


In Reincarnated as a Slime, what are the approximate distances between locations, aka the scale of the map? Below is a map of the world in which Reincarnated as a Slime happens but there isn't any indication of the scale of the map. Are there any indications of distances between locations with which estimates could be derived? For example, could one estimate distances based on the time it took Rimuru to get to Dwargon?

This might not be approximate but I'll mention it anyways. Before rimuru tempest showed up it might have taken them the time stamp of:

Dwargon - 2 Months
Beast Nation - 5 Months
Demon Lord Milim's Place - Fastest pace - 8-9 Months Slowest Pace - 11 Months
Holy Reuben Empire - Fastest pace - 10 Months Slowest Pace - 12-13 Months
Kingdom of Ingrasia - Fastest pace - 7 Months Slowest Pace - 9 Months
Barren Lands - Fastest pace - 13 Months Slowest Pace - 15 Months

Again this is not approximate but hope it eases the minds.


How closely does the Saiunkoku Monogatari anime series follow the light novels? I know that Saiunkoku Monogatari is based on a series of light novels. How closely does the anime (both seasons) follow the original series? What are its main points of deviation?

Attention! Spoilers!

   Are there differences between the novels and the anime? In a word, yes. I try to note these in the summaries. In the first season, the differences are relatively minor. Some minor subplots have been eliminated, or switched around, and some scenes added or subtracted. In the second season, although the major events and plotlines remain the same, some of the foreshadowing for later events has been cut. For this reason, I advise you to read the summaries from volume 9-10 on, if you are interested in understanding the post anime events. I have also tried to do translations of scenes that were altered or entirely cut from the anime which change our understanding of the characters and political situation.

Source: https://saiun.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/frequently-asked-questions-about-saiunkoku/


What sparked the trend of slightly long dark-haired loner-ish protagonists in light novels? For example, Issei in Highschool DxD isn't really the most popular guy, without many other friends who are guys. Basara of Shinmai isn't shown with a lot of his friends either. Oregairu's protagonist is the most lonesome protagonist ever. Kirito of SAO does not have a social life outside of video games. I'm sure you guys could think of some more examples.

Why does Japan's light novel industry think the most relatable character is a social outcast? It's kind of a harsh commentary on their target audience, if so, although possibly not completely wrong.

Let's analyze this using protagonist of some Japanese light novels. Let's start with those you mentioned in the question. I'm excluding Basara of Shinmai since I don't watch the anime nor read the LN. I don't know him enough to talk about him. Also to be noted that I only write based on LNs that I have read, and I write their names using the natural writing order, not the Englished version.

Let me say beforehand, loner is not the same as social outcast.

Analysis

Example Cases

High School DxD - Hyoudo Issei

Even at the start of the LN, Hyoudo Issei was depicted not as a loner. He has 2 close friends, Matsuda and Motohama, who are both as perverted as he is.
Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy ga Machigatteiru (Oregairu) - Hachigaya Hachiman

He started the story as a loner. But, it was later revealed that he actually have 1 close (enough) friend, Zaimokuza Yoshiteru.
Sword Art Online - Kirigaya Kazuto (Kirito)

At the start of the LN, no friends of Kirito was mentioned. The story started with Kirito login in into the game, Sword Art Online where he met Klein and then was trapped along with other 6,000 players in a death game.
Oda Nobuna no Yabou - Sagara Yoshiharu

No friend of him was mentioned since he was sent into the other world mysteriously. But in the other world, he quickly befriends old man Tokichiro. He also befriends other characters as the story progress on.
Tokyo Ravens - Tsuchimikado Harutora

Harutora has a childhood friend who is also his cousin, Tsuchimikado Natsumi. He was also childhood friends with Kurahashi Kyouko, a distance relative. At the start of the story he was friends with Hokuto and Ato Touji.
Infinite Stratos - Orimura Ichika

No friends prior to him attending IS Academy was mentioned at the start of the story. However, it was later revealed that he actually has one close friend, Gotanda Dan. He also gets along with Dan's little sister, Gotanda Ran. He is also friends with Huang Lingyin and Shinonono Houki prior to the start of the story.
Date a Live - Itsuka Shidou

Itsuka Shido has one close friend, Tonomachi Hiroto.
Madan no Ou to Vanadis - Tigrevurmud Vorn

The only known friend of Tigre prior to the start of the story is his childhood friend and maid, Titta.
Rokka no Yuusha - Adlet Mayer

Adlet has no friends prior to the start of the story.
Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai (Haganai) - Hasegawa Kodaka

Kodaka has 1 close friend prior to the start of the story, Taka.

Loner

Okay, I think this much is enough for examples. Let's start analyzing them. Of the ten examples I give there,

2 person starts the story with 3 friends, Orimura Ichika, and Tsuchimikado Harutora.
1 person starts the story with 2 friends, Hyoudo Issei.
4 person starts the story with 1 friends, Hachigaya Hachiman, Itsuka Shidou, Tigrevurmud Vorn, and Hasegawa Kodaka
3 person starts the story with 0 friends, Kirito, Sagara Yoshiharu, and Adlet Mayer.

I count Tsuchimikado Harutora as a person with 3 friends (Tsuchimikado Natsumi, Ato Touji, and Hokuto) as Kurahashi Kyouko was no longer his friend at the start of the story since he forget about her.

Merriam Webster defined loner as a person who is often alone or who likes to be alone. Dictionary.com defined it as a person who is or prefers to be alone, especially one who avoids the company of others. Wikipedia defined it as a person who avoids or does not actively seek human interaction.

The only one who really fit the definitions above is Hachigaya Hachiman. The other doesn't avoid company of others.

If we go with Merrriam Webster's first part of the definition, then Adlet, Kirito, and Kodaka also can be called loner. However, there are circumstances behind their lonerism.

Adlet was training in a secluded area where there are only him and his master. It was shown in the story that Adlet doesn't avoid social interactions.

Kirito's school friends was not depicted in the story because they have no relevance to the story. Kirito later was alone

   since he took the blame after the boss killed some of the front liners and was called Beater. he did this to protect the other Beta Testers.

There is a circumstance behind him being alone.

Kodaka doesn't avoid company of others, in fact he longed for the company of others. It's just that his hair color makes him mistaken as being a yankee.

Orimura Ichika, Hyoudo Issei, Itsuka Shidou, and Tigrevurmud Vorn can't be called loner since they clearly have friends and they also doesn't avoid social interactions. While Sagara Yoshiharu doesn't start with friends, his behavior doesn't suggest that he is a loner.

Out of the 10 examples, only 1 was a true loner, that is 10%.

Social Outcast

Does them being a loner also means that they are outcast? Merriam Webster defined outcast as someone who is not accepted by other people. Dictionary.com defined it as a person who is rejected or cast out, as from home or society. Wikipedia defined it as someone who is rejected or 'cast out', as from home or society, or in some way excluded, looked down upon, or ignored.

Hyoudo Issei can be called as outcast since the rest of the school perceived him as insect due to his perversion. Hachiman was also avoided and looked down upon due to his sarcastic behavior and dead fish eyes which makes people who converse with him feel uncomfortable. Hasegawa was avoided since they are scared of him as they think he is a yankee due to his blond hair which they think was dyed.

The rest was not avoided or looked down upon. There was nothing in the anime or light novel that suggests that they are a social outcast. Tigrevurmud Vorn was looked down but only by noble of higher status (greater political and military power) than him, Zion Thernadier. The rest, including Eleonora Viltaria, which boast greater military and political power, much like Zion Thernadier if not greater due to her status as a Vanadis, doesn't look down upon him. Adlet was looked down upon by only by some, due to his background. Most however, see him in good light since he is one of the chosen heroes.

So, out of 10, we have 3 pure outcast, that is 30%. While this is not a majority, it is quite a significant number. Why do we have this many social outcast protagonists? In Issei's case, he is a social outcast due to his open perversion, so his personality is the problem here. It is to be expected that he is a social outcast since he is so perverted. Hachiman and Hasegawa are the only ones looked down purely due to their looks. So it's really only 2 of 10 social outcast. Not that much considering the amount of samples.

Why do we have these social outcast protagonists? I think the main reason is that because having a social outcast protagonist helps in making the reader immersed in the story. Such protagonist invokes empathy from the reader, regardless of whether the reader was a social outcast himself or not, but is especially true if the reader was. An immersed reader will continue to read the story as they want to find out what happens, thus such protagonist helps making the book sells.

Hair

Of those 10, Orimura Ichika, Hyoudo Issei, Hachigaya Hachiman, Kirigaya Kazuto, and Sagara Yoshiharu are the ones with dark hairs. Dark as in black or dark brown. Tigrevurmud Vorn, Itsuka Shidou, and Adlet Mayer has light colored hair of red, blue and red respectively. Hasegawa Kodaka is in-between since his hair is actually blond but a dark blond. Tsuchimikado Harutora's hair is mainly light but he has black hair near his ears.

Of the 10 examples 5 has dark hair, that is 50% of the samples. Those who have dark hairs are all of Japanese ethnicity. Of those 5, Orimura Ichika, Hachigaya Hachiman, and Kirito are the ones with black hair. Hyoudo Issei and Sagara Yoshiharu's hair are dark brown. Dark brown hair is actually quite common among Asians.

Tigrevurmud Vorn, and Adlet Mayer was not Japanese. Japan doesn't even exist in their world. Itsuka Shidou, Tsuchimikado Harutora, and Hasegawa Kodaka are Japanese with light colored hair. In the case of Hasegawa Kodaka, his dark blond hair color is part of the plot. It was due to his father being a Japanese (with black hair) and his mother being a western with blond hair as he mentioned when he said that he is jealous of Kobato being born with pure blond hair and that she doesn't look like a Japanese unlike him. Shidou and Harutora has such hair color even when they were kids.

Blond however, is a color that people in real life also has. Shidou is the only Japanese with unnatural hair color. So, out of the 8, 7 has hair color that exists in real life. Only 2 has blond hair, which is not what most Japanese was born with. Thus, we can say that most of the protagonist with dark hair is because that is what most Japanese was born with.

Other Media

Now, let's analysis how western media protagonists are. I'll just mention some.

Harry Potter of the Harry Potter series was a loner if we go by Merriam Websters' first definition of loner. He was also an outcast since befriending him means becoming enemy of the class bully, who happens to be his cousin, Dudley Dursley.

Bella Swan of Twilight series was also has friends prior to the start of the story, Angela Weber, and Jessica Stanley.

Batman is mostly a loner with his friend being Superman and that was after the story start, not prior to the story. He is also in friendly relationship with Robin, his sidekick.

Wolverine's friend before he joins the X-Men was his brother, Sabertooth. He is outcast as far the the humans is concerned since they fear him for being a mutant, that is if they found out about it.

Heathcliff of Wuthering Height was a loner and an outcast. He pretty much dislikes the company of others with the exception of Catherine who he is in love with. He is also an outcast due to his dark skin and origin.

I'm not saying that protagonist of western media are more loner and outcast than Japanese LN protagonists since clearly I didn't give enough examples. My point here is that this is not unique to Japanese LN protagonists. Such type of protagonist exists even in the 19th century when Wuthering Heights was published,

Conclusion

We can't really say that there is a trend of loner main protagonist in light novels. While we have quite a significant number of outcast main protagonists, it is not the majority. Like I said in the beginning, loner is not the same as social outcast. Only 10% of the example protagonists are loner, but 30%, that is 3 times, are social outcast. Social outcast protagonist invokes empathy from the reader which helps making them immersed in the story.

In comparison to other media, LN protagonists are actually not that unique. Loner & outcast protagonist is not exclusive to LN since like the example I give above, many protagonist of famous stories are loner and outcast.

In regards of hair color, it can be said that their dark hair color is due to the fact that most of Japanese was born with that, thus giving a dark hair color helps keeping it believable that the main character is a Japanese just like their name suggests.


What is the song playing in My Hero Academia season 3 episode 19 at about 7:25? What is the name of the song playing in My Hero Academia season 3 episode 19 at about 7:25?

Mysterious - Soundtrack from My Hero Academia season 1

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BuBZVTG4pU


What is this manga of a girl running a boarding house for aliens? I can't remember the name of a manga series that featured a human girl running a boarding house for aliens as they adjust to human lives. The aliens wore human bodies, and there was one male alien in a woman's body.

I believe the protagonist had black hair that was short or tied back. I think it came out in late 1990s-early 2000s.

It was slice of life, seinen, I think.

I found it finally. It's a Korean Manhwa called Safe Again Today.

Synopsis:

  Choi Sera houses displaced aliens in her home, where they all pretend to be UFO fanatics in order to explain their eccentricities. Sera's job is to teach these aliens how to live in human society—not that difficult on the surface, as they ostensibly look like humans (except for the three fingers on each hand thing). They look normal, and they can communicate with earthlings via a translator that looks like a hearing aid, but can they act normal? The answer to that is a resounding no. Watch as Sera tries to school the emotionless twins, Seunghyun and Seungmin (really clones) on dating (with disasterous results), tries to keep Hyunwoo out of trouble, and keep them all from being taken away by the UN alien hunter who's on to them.


Horror anime about vampires hunted down by humans Hello :) so I saw only part of it a while back and so I only know a little bit about it.

It was definitely on the horror side - there were humans vs vampires and (I dont know if it was for just that episode or if it was the entire series) but the humans were the ones hunting down the vampires. The vampires weren't evil and were just regular humans, but the humans were rude.

The scene I saw went something like this:
Some vampires are crawling through a narrow tunnel (head to butt) trying to escape the humans - they are obviously panicked and some are crying. Then one by one, the humans begin to rip them out of the tunnel. Pretty gruesome. After they rip them all out, you can see a massacre of bodies around as a large man comes up to one of the vampires (Who is burning, if I remember correctly because of the sun) and he says something that makes it evident that his son was killed by a vampire and then he kills her and the rest of the humans around him console him.

I'm afraid that is all I know, any help would be extremely appreciated! <3

It sounds like Shiki:

  When citizens of a secluded village begin dying off in alarming numbers, the sole hospital's head doctor tries desperately to save his patients—but his efforts are in vain. Entire families are wiped out while others desert their homes. All hell breaks loose as the villagers discover their loved ones' corpses are rising from the grave with an insatiable thirst for human blood. Who is safe when the urge to kill in order to survive blurs the line between man and monster?

It is pretty gruesome especially in showing humans killing vampires
In the beginning of the series vampires kills humans without letting them realize they were actually killed (they just considered theirs as unexplained deaths)... When humans realize the existence of vampires they begin to hunt them down.
I think the scene you described is taken from Episode 20.5: here is a clip from that episode.


Is Ichigo technically dead? When Ichigo is being trained by Kisuke his second lesson involves Ichigo's Chain of Fate being cut, and in order for him to avoid becoming a Hollow he has to become a Soul Reaper.

After he gets out of the pit he was stuck in now with his own Soul Reaper Powers, Kisuke then begins his third lesson which is a fight. Between the start of the second lesson and the end of the third lesson there doesn't seem to be a point where they repair Ichigo's Chain of Fate (if it's even possible).

So is Ichigo technically dead because his Chain of Fate was cut?

I would say yes.

It does not interfere with the "not letting the main character die" rule, because the main part of the story plays in the world of the dead (soul society).

So I ask if the concept of "death and alive" even does apply to bleach? He might be dead ever since he first became a Shinigami or, as you described, as soon as his chain got destroyed.

As for the time he is in his body and interacts with the world of the living, he might just go back into his body or as other Shinigami enter a Gigai (artificial body).

I sadly have no prove for this claim, it is my theory.


Will Boruto be able to awaken Byakugan? As Himawari was able to awaken Byakugan, is it possible that Boruto will also be able to use it?

I am in doubt because, if we take the Uchiha family as an example, then every member of their family has the ability to use Sharingan. I would guess this also applies to the Byakugan users.

Sasuke's child Sarada also awakened her Sharingan even though Sakura was not a Sharingan user.

So in that case, is it possible that Boruto will be able to use the Byakugan in the future? If not, then does it have something to do with genes?

From trivia here, it is stated that Masashi Khisimoto forgot to give Byakugan to Boruto and Himawari.

  Boruto and Himawari Uzumaki, despite being children of Hinata Hyūga,
  do not have the characteristic white eyes inherited by Hyūga
  descendants.  According to Masashi Kishimoto, he simply forgot to give
  it to them.

Later he corrected this. But so far, only Himawari has Byakugan.

  Kishimoto later corrected his mistake for Himawari by giving her the
  Byakugan in the Zai no Sho's special chapter The Day Naruto Became
  Hokage.  While activated, her eyes take on the normal characteristics
  of the dōjutsu. When not in use, she has her original blue eyes.


Who are the twins in Episode 1 of Durarara!!x2 Shou? At first, I didn't notice this part because I was too focused on Celty and Shinra's "lovey-dovey upgrade", until my friend told me about this part...

They are making something weird, or should we call it a weapon - right there on the table?

What I want to ask is, are they assassins? Or do they have another identity besides being obsessed with Yuhei-sama ?

They're Orihara Izaya's little sisters,
 Mairu and
Kukuri

They appeared in the special in the first season.


What is the idea for exchanging Alice stones for engagement based on? In Gakuen Alice, if two people exchange Alice stones that they created, it can act as the equivalent of an engagement or promise. Is this based on any specific Japanese tradition? If not, what is it based off of?

I believe this is exchange is a mix of different marriage traditions, the oathing stone and the traditions of engagement rings.

The part about the stones is probably based on an old Scottish tradition with Celtic roots.

The Oathing Stone is an old Scottish tradition where the bride and groom place their hands upon a stone while saying their wedding vows. This ritual tradition is thought to be the best way to express your solemn promise in physical form. The idea is derived from the ancient Celtic custom of setting an oath in stone.

The Scottish believe that an oath given near stone or water, being strong natural elements, make the vows much more binding. Traditionally during the reading of the bride and groom's wedding vows, they hold an oathing stone in their hands, believing that holding the stone during the reading of the vows casts them into the stone.

It's similar to the more modern version of the unity candle or sand ceremony.

The exchange is very similar to the exchange of rings that is prevalent is modern culture.

In Nordic traditions, the bride-to-be and groom-to-be exchange and were engagement rings. The Victorians exchanged "regards" with their rings.

Together this exchange probably symbolizes a literal exchange of vows.


Who are the Baby-looking villains attacking universe 6? In episode 7 of the Dragon Ball Heroes anime, Baby-looking villains

   attack Hit, Cabba, Kale and Caulifla

Who are they? are they from the same race of Baby?

They are Oren and Kamin and are main antagonists of the "Universal Conflict Saga". The characters have been referred to as twin artificial life forms (Source). They share the appeareance of a Neo Machine Mutant Tuffle(Source)(Source).


Can only men pass on the will of D.? So I was wondering how the will of D. is passed on. We have seen three cases where the will of D. was shown to be passed on and they were all from generation to generation by birth. Luffy got it from Dragon, Dragon got it from Garp and Ace got it from Roger (and Rouge?). In each case the will was passed on along with the last name. Now this made me wonder. Is it merely in a name? Or is there more to it?

Ace would probably be the best example. He chose to go through life using his mother's name Portgas D. Now what if Ace's mother would not have been a carrier, would Ace have not have had the will of D because of his name? Or what if Ace's mother married some other guy who didn't have the will of D, would she be unable to pass it on, because children are given their fathers name? This sounds pretty sexist to me, so it made me wonder whether just having the right surname is enough for someone to have the will of D or if there is some other way to become a D or to pass on the will of D?

If there isn't, the will of D will probably die out pretty soon...

OK, this is a hard question and not much is released about it till now.

Here's a short summary:

There are multiple characters in the One Piece universe with the letter D in their name:

Monkey D. Luffy, Monkey D. Garp, Monkey D. Dragon, Gol D. Roger, Trafalgar D. Water Law, Marshall D. Teach, Portgas D. Rouge and more.

In the Wiki, I found this:

  Whitebeard noted that killing the bloodline of a D does not put out the flames that they (a person carrying the "D") carry and someone else simply will pick it up one day

So there, the "D" is linked to someone's name and not to the bloodline itself. So this would mean, you can't wipe out the will of "D". It will appear somewhere else in some other family.

Law said:

  What's the Dark King thinking this time? The Will of the D. will almost certainly call up a storm again

and also the Gorosei mentions:

  "D" means danger

So we can say this question is not surely answerable right now. But I'm quite sure this "D" is not just about bloodline. I agree that in the Monkey family the will is given to the next generation, but I don't think it's just about the blood, it's more than that.

Update: I also found a pretty interesting where "the will of D" could mean "the will to die". Reddit

  Gol D. Roger, gave himself in the arms of death to inspire a new generation of pirates. Portgas D. Ace, fought for the honor of his captain and died saving his brother.
  Let's take a look at Marshall D. Teach. While fighting with Whitebeard he showed clear signs that he feared death. Minutes later we get a speech from Whitebeard telling us that he was not the man Roger is waiting for, and that he was also not a true D.*

You can find this in chapter 576.

At this point, Whitebeard speaks also about the "bloodline" and not just about the name. And you also never know how correctly translated this mangas are.
I know its not a clear answer, but maybe you found some aspects which helps you.


Did the "Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka?" anime cut content from the novels? As not so long ago the anime adaptation of the Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka? novel ended we were left with quite an open ending

My questions are the following: did the anime left some important content out (its normal to skip some as it can't be all adapted) and if so, how much? Furthermore, if I plan to read the novels, should I start from the beginning (if the anime skipped some parts) or start where the anime ended (if you could provide that information too I'd be very grateful)?

According to Japanese Wikipedia, the anime partly covers up to the 3rd volume of the light novel.
AniComiMan (Japanese), a blog that provides spoiler for the light novel prefaced it with

Those who want to know the part that was not included in the anime, because in my opinion there is a big difference, it'd be good to read the original light novel.

A review by Inquisitr (warning: the site included speculation to season 2's material) stated,

Overall, the anime adaptation of the Suka Suka light novel is good and does not sacrifice pacing, although various scenes were rearranged and shortened. Anime usually has to skim over certain details and world building is discarded to fit the source material within 12 episodes. The biggest change from the light novel is that the anime

 neglects to reveal the true identity of the First Beast,

but author Kareno probably retconned that spoiler from Volume 1 on purpose since it really didn't make sense to have that revelation so early. A certain beast is not introduced at all in the anime and this character is

  critical to Volumes 4 and 5.

There's also little differences. For example, in World End Episode 11 the characters find a girl encased in crystal. [In the light novel...]

 Willem activates his "spell vision," an ability never used in the anime, to analyze the curse and the narrative gives more details about the hex's abilities. The book also has a long discussion between him and Grick about the state of the girl and whether it’s possible to resurrect her like what was done with Willem. When Chtholly becomes entranced by the crystal, Willem literally has to plunge his hand into her chest, collapsing her lungs, in order to disrupt her magic flow and return her to normal.

That's just one minor scene, which gives you an idea of how much content the anime skips over. As you can see, it's worth reading the light novels even if you've watched the anime.
(Emphasis mine)

Also, the Japanese's impressions on episode 6 (= end of volume 2) are more-or-less: those who have read the light novel were more emotionally moved than those who only watched the anime since the anime skipped a lot/the pace was too quick.


What happened at the end of Code Geass R2? I believe I may have missed something.

At the end, Lelouch...

   died at the hands of his childhood friend, Suzaku, who was masquerading as Zero. But when did Lelouch order Suzaku, as Zero, to kill him (Lelouch)?

This was all part or Lelouch's Zero Requiem plan.

   The plan involved focusing all of the world's hatred onto the tyrannical Emperor of the world (Lelouch) and killing him, as part of their plan for world peace.

Suzaku agreed to ally with Lelouch after the Tokyo Settlement incident with the F.L.E.I.J.A., specifically after his one-sided conversation with Jeremiah Gottwald.

   The only Geass order Lelouch gave Suzaku was the order to "live" on. (During the event on Shikinejima Island where he is ordered to kill Lelouch, who was Zero at the time)


What's up with the name "Zerozaki Hitoshiki"? Inspired by this question asking about the Fire Sisters' boyfriends' ridiculous names, here's another question about the bizarre names that Nisio Isin assigns his characters.

I'm trying to find any hidden meanings in the name "Zerozaki Hitoshiki (零崎 人識)" that relate to his character or part in the story. This character is from the Zaregoto series. The character is a knife-wielding serial killer whom the narrator meets in the second novel and describes as his own mirror image. His name is so ridiculous that even other characters in the book find it ridiculous. I looked up the kanji and the first kanji can be read as "rei", which has a meaning related to "zero". The second kanji is the same kanji that appears in common spellings of the names "Yamazaki" and "Kanzaki". The rest of it just puzzles me. I'm wondering if there are more hidden meanings that relate in some way to his personality or his part in the story.

As @ʞɹɐzǝɹ mentions, the kanji 零 can be read as ぜろ ("zero") and has the meaning "null" or "cipher", as well as "overflow" (as in the word こぼれる). 崎 can be read as さき ("saki") which can become "zaki" under rendaku. It's the same kanji we see in common spellings of the names "Yamazaki" and "Kanzaki" (山崎 and 神崎). I believe this might be to make the word sound more like a real name, like adding Mc- or -son to English words ("Grumpy McSnarlson").

人識 ("Hitoshiki"), the character's given name, is written with the kanji for "person" (hito) and "know" (識) (also seen in the word shiru). Again, I believe the 識 character is just to make the name sound more like a name. The fact that he kills people may lend some significance to the 人 kanji.


Identification of the soundtrack that plays just before the ending of Naruto Episode 5? What is the name of the soundtrack that plays just before the end of episode 5 of Naruto: 'You Failed! Kakashi's Final Decision'?

It plays after the guitar solo and right before the ending credits play. It starts when Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke realize they have just passed their teamwork test to become Ninjas. Naruto was tied to a tree trunk, Sakura and Sasuke were eating and decided to share their lunch with Naruto.

The songs name is "Victory" from Naruto OST 1.  https://youtu.be/Ls0IE8uPp4g