How does Zoro's sword technique work? A lot of times, Zoro uses his swords to cut down far away objects without any physical contact. How does that work?

I can't find screenshots but whenever you see blue things travelling from Zoro's swords, those are shockwaves that can cut anything, even buildings.

That's what he does, he sends a sort of shockwave. We obviously know that a human can't pull a sword (or another object) to create such a strong shockwave.

But if you think about it, if you move a wooden stick but towards the ground (as when you hit the ball in golf), you'll cause the air to move following that movement (adding various turbulences) that will affect whatever small is on the ground (e.g. sand).

Zoro's attacks are something similar to that but only much stronger. It's not realistic, but then, almost nothing on One Piece is realistic.


What exactly is a "Nobita face"? After Gankyou in Joshiraku removes her glasses, her eyes change to '3' characters.

Marii then exclaims:

I understand Nobita is a character in Doraemon, but I haven't found any information online either of pictures where Nobita has his glasses off, or any references to a "Nobita face".

Can someone explain this joke further?

From the Doraemon Wikia:

  Nobita's eyes are never drawn consistently. Sometimes they look like the number 3, sometimes they're black beaded, and sometimes, like in the case of the recent movies, they're normal eyes.


Do Akatsuki rings have abilities? Each of Akatsuki's members wear unique rings.
I guess Itachi's one can use genjutsu.

But how about others? Can it be used as ninjutsu or genjutsu abilities?
And why does Zetsu always collect those rings after each one of the members died.

The rings do not have abilities.

They are simply used for the Akatsuki membership, which is why Sasuke's group Taka was never really considered Akatsuki. They might have had the cloaks, but they didn't have the rings and the rings signify a true Akatsuki member.

Also, Orochimaru's ring was never replaced when he left the Akatsuki. There have been 10 Akatsuki rings total as well as 10 members of the group.

Taken from Naruto wikia

  Right thumb: "zero" (零, rei); worn by Pain. Its colour is purplish-grey.

  Right index finger: "blue," "green" (青, ao, shō); worn by Deidara. Its colour is teal.

  Right middle finger: "white" (白, bya); worn by Konan. Its colour is white.

  Right ring finger: "vermilion," "scarlet" (朱, shu); worn by Itachi Uchiha. Its colour is >red.

  Right little finger: "sign of the boar" (亥, gai); worn by Zetsu. Its colour is green.

  Left little finger: "sky," "void" (空, kū); worn by Orochimaru. Its colour is slate blue.

  Left ring finger: "south" (南, nan); worn by Kisame Hoshigaki. Its colour is yellow.

  Left middle finger: "north" (北, hoku); worn by Kakuzu. Its colour is dark green.

  Left index finger: "three" (三, san); worn by Hidan. Its colour is orange.

  Left thumb: "jewel," "ball," also the black king in shogi (玉, gyoku); worn by Sasori and >later by Tobi. Its colour is purple.


What happened to the manga "Me and the Devil Blues"? What happened to the manga "Me and the Devil Blues" by Hiramoto Akira?

On MAL there's no finish date, but it looks like there hasn't been a new chapter in years.

Also, the author has since started a new work.

Did it end? Go on hiatus? Or get cancelled?

According to ja.Wikipedia article about the series, the series had frequent hiatus half-way into the serialization, and it finally got discontinued in April issue in 2008.
Later in September 2010 issue of Monthly Shounen Sirius, in the introduction text to Ago Nashi Gen to Ore Monogatari 『アゴなしゲンとNEMESIS物語』, a new series by the same author, it said that the author was aiming to reach the end of part 1 of OreAku (the shortened name of the series in Japan).
In 2014, it was announced that the series would resume serialization. And in the issue of Young Magazine 3rd which was released on September 5th 2014, 2 chapters of OreAku which were not collected into tankoubon was released, and it was also announced that the 5th volume will be the last volume of the series.
The paragraph on Wikipedia which I take the information from (I don't translate everything here, only the main events):

連載中断と再開
連載途中から頻繁に休載するようになり、2008年4月号を最後に中断した。同年6月号を最後に、巻末にも「『俺と悪魔のブルーズ』は休載いたします」といった文言が掲載されなくなったことから、事実上打ち切り状態になった。 その後、同社『月刊少年シリウス』2010年9月号の同作者『アゴなしゲンとNEMESIS物語』の冒頭において、「現在、平本アキラ氏は『俺悪』の第1部・完を目指し描きだめ中なのです!」という作者近況の一文があり、水面下で執筆が進められているものと見られていた。
そして2014年、同社『ヤングマガジンサード』創刊号にて正式に連載再開が決定した]。9月5日に発売された同号においては単行本未収録分が2話掲載されており、Vol.5から完全新作が最終章として発表されると告知された。


Who are the masters that are being held in jail? In History Strongest Disciple Kenichi, the masters of Ryozanpaku and the One Shadow Nine Fists are about to have an all-out war. They mention that there are 2 masters trapped in a jail and that they won't get out because of their pride. Who are these two masters and in which manga episode where they defeated?

They're talking about:

Alexander Gaidar  and

Diego Carlo, both members of the One Shadow Nine Fists and incarcerated at the "Big Lock". Alexander was defeated in Battle 304 and Diego was defeated in Battle 333.


Luffy as a water balloon We discussed a lot about drowning devil fruit users in a bath - see this question: Can a Devil Fruit user drown in a bathtub?.

So now I remembered the fight between Luffy and Crocodile. To have a chance, Luffy drank a lot of water and was like a water ballon. But why didn't this affect his strength?

Does he have to be surrounded by water?

I think he isn't affected, because technically at that time, he isn't submerged in water, but the water is rather submerged within him. According to the rule, this should be fine. If it wasn't, Devil Fruit Users would always die of thirst or even die from the water within their own body. This type of water could also be considered "moving" water, as it moves constantly with every move you make. The same goes for when Luffy defended Whitebeard against Crocodile at Marineford. At that time he covered himself with water and was still able to move freely, since it would be considered moving water. So unless they are submerged into it, Devil Fruit users can touch water without weakening.

From the Devil Fruit wiki page.

  With this new power comes a weakness: the sea rejects the new Devil Fruit user and they become helpless while submerged in water (or "become a hammer," in Japanese parlance).[2] Oda stated in SBS that Devil Fruit users are susceptible to all types of water, not just seawater. This includes the white sea surrounding Skypiea. He elaborated on this, saying that "moving" water, like rain or waves, does not weaken Devil Fruit users, while standing water does.


How will Gon continue fighting after his fight with Neferpitou? During the Chimera Ants Arc, after Gon fights with Neferpitou,

   Gon lost his Nen.

Will he be able to fight and continue advancing within the Hunter x Hunter Universe?

Without nen, Gon won't be able to fight against Nen users. As was seen in the Heaven's Arena arc, the only way to defend against Nen is with Nen, and without it even relatively weak attacks will kill or cripple you.

At the moment, the story is on an indefinite hiatus, but if it ever gets going properly again, Gon will not be able to fight against Nen users unless somehow he is able to regain his Nen, whether by himself or by someone helping him.

It's obviously a different story, but I think it's similar to how after Ichigo lost his spiritual pressure in Bleach, he was pretty weak for a while until it was restored to him.

Alluka was able to save Gon, and it's definitely possible that either some Hunter has the capability to restore Gon's Nen, or that somewhere in the Dark Continent there will be a way of restoring it.


Have the Rebuild of Evangelion films revealed anything new about the original Evangelion TV series? The Rebuild of Evangelion series of films (3 of which have been released here in the USA) are a sort of reboot/retelling of the Neon Genesis Evangelion story.  As films, they have less time to tell the story and a higher budget, so the style of storytelling is decidedly different from the original TV series.

The original Evangelion has been discussed and analyzed in the many years since its release, and I'm curious whether the new films shed any new light on the original work.

Have the Rebuild films revealed new things about the original Evangelion series?

The 3rd movie is so radically different than the original series that there's probably nothing from it that can be applied to the original series. There are a lot of in-world mechanics that seemed to have changed, for example:

Angels all explode into blood
Souls of the pilot's mothers in their Evas (Eva-05, Eva-02)
Impact mechanics are different, the (near) 3rd Impact being generated by Eva-01 and Rei

   - 4th Impact initiated by 2 spears and a double Eva-13
 - There's a new set of Angels called the "Nemesis series"

Additionally, aside from Misato and Shinji's backstories which seem to be similar enough to the TV series, it's either unclear or outright different (Asuka) for the histories of the other characters.

There could be small arguments made that can be applied to the original TV series. For example, Bardiel is clearly inside the entry plug in the 2nd movie, so one can argue that this can be applied to Bardiel in the TV series which leaves things more vague. Or in the new movies it's revealed that the S-DAT player once belonged to Gendo and Shinji values it because it was his father's. But for the most part, I don't think there's going to be that many new things revealed about the original series thanks to the new movies.


In the opening scene, why does Hiratsuka-sensei get held up by some policemen? I'm talking about this scene where Hiratsuka-sensei gets held up by some policemen.

To the best of knowledge, this scene has not played out in the light novel or the anime.

What is happening in this scene?

Maybe it's because of illegal parking at the bridge. If i remember it correctly, Hiratsuka sensei brought Hikigaya there to talk about the service club, i think it's between ep. 6-8, (because Hikigaya and Yukino had an argument/ misunderstanding) there was a sign that says parking is not allowed at the bridge.


Are the Arakawa anime chapters based off a manga? Each episode has a number of chapters in it, with about 100 in each season.  I think season 1 actually had 105 but season 2 ended with Chapter 200. I am wondering if these chapters are actually based off an Arakawa manga?

There is an Arakawa Under the Bridge manga, and it has a lot of chapters. At the time of writing, the following tankobon volumes exist:

Volume    Chapters
   1        1- 23 (+X)
   2       24- 47 (+X-2)
   3       48- 77 (+X-3)
   4       78-107 (+X-4)
   5      108-136 (+X-5)
   6      137-166 (+X-6)
   7      167-196 (+X-7)
   8      197-225 (+Nakamura Koubou Shutchou-ban, X-8)
   9      226-255 (+X-9)
  10      256-280 (+Shuushoku no Yuusha Recruit, Hige mo Seifuku no Uchi, X-10)
  11      281-301 (+Riku-chan Kinsei Nikki 1, 2, Meikyuu Labyrinth, Tokimeke!! Arakawa Memorial, X-11)
  12      302-325 (+X-12)
  13      326-356 (+Joshi-ryoku Sentai Love East, X-13)


Who was the other person the colossal titan ate? At the beginning of episode 7 of season 2 (episode 32 on Crunchyroll), around 1:48, the colossal titan eats Ymir and one other person.

You can't see their face in any part of the episode.

Given who the colossal titan is, it seems strange to me that he would have eaten someone without a purpose, but only Ymir is seen later.

Eventually, they run off on the armoured titans back and the second person is not with them.

Surely they could not have been digested in the short time the colossal titan was present, and they were swallowed whole.

Later on, when we see them in human form in the giant forest, no one besides Eren and Ymir are with them. Do we know who this person was?

This was an unnamed, unlucky poor individual who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. If you watch this Youtube video, they aren't entirely sure who the Colossal Titan ate either.

It got Ymir!
...
And they got somebody else, too!

Also, while reading this reddit post, people say the Colossal Titan ate him to steal his ODM Gear

Just a random person. They didn't care about the guy, only about stealing his gear.

This is confirmed by seeing the Colossal Titan wearing the ODM gear in it's human form in the scene when they were camping out in the forest


Looking for a magical girl anime episode where the heroine is turned into a baby I'm looking for a particular episode from a magical girl anime, but I don't know the name of that anime. In the episode I'm looking for, the heroine finds a baby, and in order to communicate with it, she uses her powers to turn herself into a baby. However, because babies can't speak very well, she can't pronounce the magical words to change back. Does anyone know which anime this could refer to, and which episode? Thanks in advance.

I know a manga (which has an anime too) where a girl turned herself as a baby, but had difficulty to change back due to the "baby language", but the purpose was not for talking with another baby but for being a replacement until the actual baby is back.

The manga is Hime-chan no Ribbon, in the books, this event happened in a bonus chapter of the volume 9.


Why Levi chose Armin instead of Erwin? So, in episode 55th of Attack on Titan

   When Levi is about to inject Erwin, he hears him say, "professor, how do you know there isnt people on the other side of the walls". Levi reminds that Kenny Ackerman when dying told him that everybody has to be drunk with something. And then he later says he chose Armin because they pushed Erwin to be a demon.

I dont see the relation among all these situations / thoughts. Why Levi chose Armin instead of Erwin?

This is just how I interpret it based on what I know.

In Chapter 72, when Levi and Erwin are talking about the plan to defeat the Beast Titan,
it was revealed that, to quote from the wiki,

  He cared more about discovering the secrets hidden in Eren's basement, and finally proving his father's theories correct, than he did about retaking the lost territory of Wall Maria. His dream of understanding the world was so strong that he confessed to Levi that he considered it more important than the victory of humanity.

Levi was reminded of Kenny Ackerman who, while dying, told him that everybody has to be drunk with something... This is when Levi realizes that what Kenny said applies to Erwin. Erwin was drunk on curiosity to understand the world than to save the people within the walls. If he would choose Erwin, Erwin would prioritize his dreams rather than their goal of saving humanity.

And then he later says he chose Armin because they pushed Erwin to be a demon. Had Erwin's circumstances been different, had his father not been killed and if he was able to pursue his goals of understanding the world without having to worry about being arrested, he would probably have been a researcher or someone other than a soldier. Levi understands that Erwin only wanted to answer the questions he had about the world. It was never really his desire to become a soldier or be handed the position of someone who should save humanity. If he chose Erwin, sure, Erwin's questions would be answered but it would likely doom humanity as Erwin's goal stops at answering his questions and proving his father right. In an episode of the latest season, I seem to recall Levi asking Erwin what happens after they find the truth in the basement, to which Erwin replied 'I don't know'.

Erwin sacrificed many lives for his ambition whereas Armin sacrificed his life with the intent of Eren achieving their ambitions. Armin was willing to give up his life and prioritize humanity's survival so long as Eren, the one he promised to see the sea with, can achieve their dream for the both of them. Erwin, however, was willing to give up the lives of his subordinates in order to achieve his dream, which only is about answering his questions and proving his father right.


Why didn't L check Light's handwriting? Why didn't L check Yagami Light's handwriting and try to match that to the handwriting in the Death Note when he had the notebook?

L had foreseen that the handwriting could be faked. Later in the story, one of Near's subordinates created a fake Death Note containing the names Mikami had written. Mikami didn't notice this since the fake book had "his" writings in it. L, being someone on a greater level than Near, would have thought that Kira might have faked his own handwriting so that just in case the Death Note falls into the SPK's hands, his handwriting won't be used as evidence. Therefore, he didn't even bother trying to check Yagami's handwriting. Also, handwritings are not that distinguishable from one and another. It is very likely for some people to have the same or similar handwriting.

As a side note, we can try to do a similar experiment by showing someone we know our handwriting using our non-dominant hand. I practiced this before and the person didn't notice that it was me writing it, despite knowing my usual handwriting.


What happened to Rukia? It's been a long time since I watched Bleach, but what ever happened to Rukia? Is it true that she vanished or something like that?

The last time she appeared was at manga chapter 604 - REVITALIZE (until now).

As the manga is still ongoing (currently it is at chapter 608), she will keep on appearing at the following chapters.

You heard she vanished because of the final episode of Fake Karakura Town arc: episode 342    "Thank You". Where Ichigo loses his shinigami's power, so he lost the ability to see her in shinigami form, so she "vanishes" from Ichigo's sight.

From this wiki, this is the moment where she "vanish":

  As it becomes harder for Ichigo to see her, Rukia knows this is
  farewell. Mocking Ichigo's sad face, she states she will still be able
  to see him, much to his displeasure. Rukia, disappearing from Ichigo's
  sight completely, leaves through a Senkaimon as Ichigo, bidding
  farewell, thanks her.


Why does season 2 of Gurren Lagann start so differently compared to season 1? Episode 1 of  the second part of season 1 of Gurren Lagann features more political themes than those seen in season one. However from episode two onwards it returns to being more about action.

Is this to do with how they were aired? Was this change enforced, so as to move away from the Mecha stereotype, by a 'higher up' in Gainax...and simply ignored from episode 18 onwards? In western TV, ratings that are seen by executives can influence the show...has something similar happened here?

Why is this?

Your question appears to be premised on a bit of a misunderstanding of how anime in general (and Gurren Lagann in particular) is produced.

The two so-called "seasons" of Gurren Lagann (ep 1-15 vs. Lord Genome, and then ep 17-27 vs. the Anti-Spiral) were not actually discrete seasons. They were aired together as one continuous block of 27 episodes (with episode 16 being a recap of the first arc), from April to September of 2007.1 As such, any changes in theme that you may have perceived immediately following the time-skip cannot have anything to do with there being a break in the show - because there was no break! (Besides the one week for the recap episode, anyway.)

Furthermore, it isn't really possible that any changes in theme could have resulted from public reaction to the first arc of the show (ratings/etc). According to folk wisdom,2 a typical 1-2 cour anime spends over a year in production before it airs, meaning that the vast majority of work (storyboarding, character design, art, etc.) is done by the time the show starts airing. Given the timeframes in question, it isn't feasible for a studio to make significant changes to an anime during a season.

Between seasons, of course, anything is possible - the classic example of this is Code Geass, which saw some major changes in its second season, in part due to a change in its airing time slot. But during a single few-cour season, there are serious limits on how much the studio can change on the fly.3

In sum, whatever changes you may have noticed after the time-skip were almost certainly present because that's how the producers planned for it to be; not because of external factors like viewer opinion or high-level execs or whatnot.

1 Note that a single "cour" of anime will almost never be 15 episodes in length, which is another tip-off that the two "seasons" weren't separate.

2 If you have something better than folk wisdom, please answer this question!

3 Note that none of what I have said applies to super-long-running anime like the big shounens (e.g. Naruto, One Piece, etc.). I don't know anything about what production cycles look like for them, but it's pretty obvious that they have to be running all the phases of production in parallel, meaning that they should be able to react to viewer opinion (though I have no idea whether or not they do, in practice).


Where does the word "Kira" come from, or what does it stand for? Actually, the title is pretty clear. I was wondering and came up with some ideas like that it sounds like "killer" in Japanese. Or does it have a special meaning or anything?

In episode 2, at around 12 minutes, Light explains that the name Kira was taken from the English word "killer".


Why don't official English sites translate the OP/ED? Many (maybe even all) series on Crunchyroll (perhaps Hulu as well) for example have no subtitles for the opening and ending.

Why is this?

This was stated by the Support Manager??(or is that just a forum title) of Crunchyroll:

  This involves getting the rights to the songs that are used as opening
  and endings for each show on the site.

  So not only when licensing new simulcasts would we be going after the
  show but also the opening and ending songs.

  A lot of bands are reluctant to let their songs be licensed as this
  means that the translation presented is -THE- official translation of
  the song.

Source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-803435/so-crunchyroll-why-not-sub-op-and-ed-songs-as-well

He also backs that up at: http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-758633/are-cr-subs-lacking-a-bit

So he does seem to be a staff from Crunchyroll.


Why did Kakashi not kill Hidan? A few episodes after the battle with Hidan and Asuma... :'(. Shikamaru, Ino, Choji and Kakashi set out to find Hidan and Kakuzu. When they find them Shikamaru uses his shadow jutsu to "paralyze" the enemies. So far they can only see just Shikamaru. Why doesn't Kakashi use his new sharingan to completely obliterate hidan while he was frozen?

Please no spoilers as I am only in mid season 2.

THAT IS STRATEGY. When you don't even know a single thing about the enemy, would you go face to face directly? Well, in Shikamaru's case, there must be a person to be the bait, and once they make sure that the enemies are completely immobilized, the plan begins. Unfortunately, Kakuzu freed himself, so the plan failed.
Why did Ino did not use the Mind Body Switch Technique on Kakuzu?
There are several reasons why Ino decided not to use it.
1. If the opponent's will is strong enough, they can force the user to leave their body. Apparently the stronger one has the stronger will.
2. If the user's chakra level is low, the technique will be harder to maintain.
3. If any physical injury is inflicted on the victim's body while the mind link is active, it would cause the user's body to also receive those same injuries. This is a good chance for Hidan to kill her by piercing through one of Kakuzu's hearts, and Kakuzu will still be fine since he has multiple hearts. That is not a good idea to eliminate the target.
Why didn't Choji, Ino and Shikamaru apply Formation Ino–Shika–Chō in the battle to distract Kakuzu while Kakashi was aiming at Hidan with his Mangekyō Sharingan?
1. Kakashi initially having trouble to aim at his target with Kamui properly, he struggled to hit his target. Recall the episode when Kakashi is using Kamui on Deidara. Hidan is shown to be very skilled in melee combat, meaning he could run and jump to dodge Kakashi's aim.
2. It requires some amount of preparation time and has a huge drain on his chakra each time it is performed. If he missed, a huge portion of his chakra is wasted.
3. Kakashi hasn't completely mastered Kamui yet, so at the time transporting an arm was his limit. Don't forget that Hidan is an immortal bastard, decapitation only makes him immobilize. Even though Kakashi was capable to aim at Hidan's head accurately, Kakuzu could reveal his 4 masks with different nature affinity to disturb Kakashi.


What is a Cat's Eye that was referenced in Monogatari Second Season Episode 24 at 08:35? In Monogatari Second Season Episode 24 at 08:35, Kaiki referred to a person as a Cat's Eye. I found a movie, a road marking, and a jewel. Whatever he is referring to, I don't think it exists in western culture. Does anyone know what Kaiki meant when he referred to the person as a Cat's Eye?

As for what the person did in order to be referred to as a Cat's Eye:

   The person was able to slip an envelope into Kaiki's hotel room. Kaiki says that it shouldn't be possible since 1. they shouldn't know where Kaiki is currently staying, and 2. the hotel room is locked.

There's an old manga series called Cat's Eye, which is about a trio of sisters who are art thieves, and hence presumably skillful enough to break into secured places and steal things, or leave things behind, as may be their wont. I assume this is what Kaiki was referencing.

In the manga, "Cat's Eye" is the name by which the sisters collectively identify themselves (as well as the name of the cafe they operate, among other things).


Can anyone in Naruto universe use all five chakra natures? In Naruto, I know Sarutobi Hiruzen can use all the five chakra natures.

Has anyone else ever mastered all five?

According to the Nature Transformation wiki, there are only 5 shinobi who are known to have mastered all 5 chakra elements by raw training and without the assistance of special abilities or tools.

Hashirama Senju
Tobirama Senju
Hiruzen Sarutobi
Orochimaru
Mū


What is Alluka's (Nanika's) gender? In the anime Hunter x Hunter, Alluka Zoldyck is considered as a girl by Killua, shown when they leave their estate and were accompanied by four butlers. Killua shouted to Gotoh and said that he needs a female butler to join them because Alluka is a girl.

However, I am confused because Milluki address Alluka as a brother, in the episode when he wished to Nanika to kill the tourist photographer. He clearly told the the tourist that he was just taking his brothers for a walk. In addition, the Hunter Wiki acknowledged Alluka as a male.

What is Alluka's actual gender?

Actually, the Hunter x Hunter wiki addresses this, and is quite accurate in its assessment, though the references cite the wrong volumes (but correct chapters).

  There is considerable confusion about Alluka's gender. Two of Alluka's brothers, Illumi and Milluki, refer to Alluka as their brother. But Killua, the closest brother of Alluka, specifically states that Alluka is a "girl" and refers to Alluka as his sister multiple times. This inconsistency can be explained by Killua's intimate and understanding bond with Alluka, hence he would know and care that Alluka is mentally female, versus Illumi's cold and dehumanizing attitude towards Alluka. While Alluka is most likely biologically male, Killua's interactions show that Alluka's psyche may be female.

Everyone (except Killua) addresses Alluka by her biological gender, which appears to be male. While she is quite small, she shows no female development.

However, she is very sensitive, gentle, and reserved, and has a very feminine side. Being that Killua is the only one who dares to actually interact with Alluka as a person, he would be the best one to understand that she probably is more feminine inside.

This does seem a bit odd to me; even if someone I knew were closer to "she" in his head, unless they specifically asked, I'd probably still say "he". But perhaps either Alluka did ask this of Killua, or Killua just took it upon himself because he knew Alluka so well.

Unfortunately, since it's never explicitly stated, this is somewhat assumption, but realistically it's the only explanation that makes sense since Killua is the only one to refer to Alluka as female.


Song in episode 14 of Ghost in the shell SAC 2nd gig The song is played right at the beginning of the flashback, when the soldiers are walking through the ruins.

Not sure, but is it, From the Roof Top ~ Somewhere in the Silence (Sniper’s Theme) ?

List of Albums for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Wiki)

Useful links for previewing the ost's,

link 1

link 2

I think YouTube also got most of the OST's from the series but, I am not sure if it is available to your location.


How do people set up sites like MangaReader and MangaFox? Aren't they illegal? How do people set up sites like mangareader.net and mangafox.me? Aren't they illegal?

Just because it's illegal doesn't mean you can't do it.

(You'll probably have a lot of legal headaches and risk going to jail etc - but you can still do it - killing people is also illegal, yet people do it)

Just as how the PirateBay is still around, despite many copyright claimers' objections - these site use loopholes in the law to get around legal restrictions.

Ignoring take-down notices

Usually blatant copyright infringement will have relevant parties emailing take-down notices, but many of these sites will ignore these. The next step for interested parties is to file a law-suit - which many smaller groups do not have the funds to pay for.

Selectively applying takedown notices

Some sites simply take down the particular series that have been claimed against - and no more. Seeing as English companies are the most interested in preventing English copyright infringement, series that haven't been licensed usually get ignored in take-down lists.

Complying with take-down notices, but restarting under a new alias

There are several sites that close down after legal pressure, but then start right back up again under a new alias - this means legal pursuers have to start the process all over again, for presumably the same result.

Hosting tricks

Sometimes these sites will get around copyright laws by hosting their website in a country that has a copyright policy that makes this website legal. I don't know of many examples but I do know the Pirate Bay tried to buy the micronation Sealand.

Not actually Hosting the content

Manga readers sometimes don't actually store the content on their servers - they are simply an interface to someone elses' server and consequently, they try to blame that group if anything is contested. Some countries have enforced ISP-level blockages on some piracy sites to stop infringements in their country.

There are some other tricks they use to avoid getting caught, mostly to do with international differences & ambuguity in law.

I do not recommend you try to set one up yourself. Firstly for your own wellbeing, secondly because in doing so you are taking away from manga artists, who already don't make much money as it is.


In the Fate/Stay Night Visual Novel, why is Rider listed as Chaotic Good? The in-game encyclopedia entry for Rider in Fate/Stay night lists her as chaotic good. This is true regardless of what route you are on and who is her master. However, at several points in the story she is noted as being evil, and it's said that the only reason she (along with a few other servants) could be summoned is because the holy grail was corrupted. These seem to pretty strongly contradict each other.

Am I missing something subtle (maybe a translation issue, or maybe I'm misunderstanding alignment) or is this a mistake by TYPE-MOON and Rider should be listed as evil in the encyclopedia?

Fundamentally, Rider doesn't seem to shy away from evil deeds - most notably her actions at the school. She doesn't perform them with glee, but unlike, say, Saber, she doesn't resist her Master's commands when they lead her in that direction.

I tried to obtain a full transcript of the game to analyze every time she is mentioned as "evil"; however I couldn't find any. The following is from my memory: Most narration is made from the standpoint of another character, usually Emiya Shirou. And you can't blame him, or his compatriots, for labeling Rider as evil; however, most of this is more due to her Master's orders.

  In Heaven's Feel, Rider's true goal is revealed - and it is, in fact, a noble one. All of the previous events are implied to have been because of her loyalty to Sakura - disobeying Zouken or Shinji would have had direct repercussions on her. In fact, Rider is significantly more powerful in Heaven's Feel than in any other path - this is most likely due to a reluctance and half-heartedness when obeying Shinji; in other words, she was faking it and not giving her all in hopes of being defeated.


What is the correct order in reading the Naruto manga series? I just want to know what is the order for reading the Naruto manga, excluding the anime, since there are various ones.

So, what order should I follow in reading them?

If its only the manga series, then the reading order would be according to the release date:

Naruto (72 Volumes)
Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring (1 Volume)
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations (On-going)

A Redditor also posted a chronological order guide including the light novels, movies, side stories, etc. You can check it out here. Not included in that guide are the Itachi Shinden books which details the events leading to and during the Uchiha clan's massacre by Itachi.


Will Amaterasu go along with the summoned animal or disappear? Let's say that some summoned animal is being hit by Amaterasu and the summoning is canceled so that the animal can return to its original dimension.

Will the Amaterasu fire go with the animal to the other dimension and kill it or will the animal be able to escape it by going to its dimension?

The flames of the Amaterasu are inextinguishable by ordinary means and once any organism is caught in it, they will either have to sacrifice that body part, absorb the  entire Jutsu (if they posses Rinnengan related abilities), or seal the flames away.

In the case of a Snake summon, it could most definitely shed its skin and easily escape the flames of the Amaterasu (which would still be burning the outer skin that it shed). This is evident in the fact that Sasuke was able to escape Itachi's Amaterasu by shedding his skin (a unique ability that he learned from Orochimaru, and Orochimaru learned it in Ryuchi Cave ).

A slug summon like Katsuyu could survive but the damage will be immense, since she's able to rearrange her entire body into smaller slugs, she could detach out the parts that are consumed by the Amaterasu, by turning into a ton of smaller slugs and sacrifice those parts.

Also, If the animal was summoned by a person who posseses the Rinnengan, the summoner could easily absorb the chakra and remove the flames.

As for all other Summoning animals, Unless they have a unique defensive ability to escape the flames, then the Amaterasu will burn it out from existence. Even if the Animal tries to go back to its main habitat, the flames will still continue until nothing exists.


Why was Guts called the Black Swordsman? In the Berserk manga, after the carnage at Eclipse, the protagonist Guts repeatedly came to be called as the Black Swordsman by everyone, other than his new friends-cum-comrades. I've read the manga but I couldn't figure out the possible reason for it.

However, I do have some following clues but cannot account them as the primary reason for such.

   1. In the first and the last episode (scene before the ending) of the Berserk anime, Guts skin color was neither white nor dark (like of Casca) but something different.

 2. The color of Guts's outfit excluding the armor was almost black. After the addition of Berserker Armor, everything he wore was black.

As you can see, these reasons are not very convincing. Therefore, I ask the question again:

Why was Guts called the Black Swordsman?

Note: No racial discrimination or apartheid is intended in 1.

Guts was known as the "Swordsman clad in black", which was eventually shortened to "Black Swordsman".

Guts before he got his Berserk Armor.

Guts with his Berserk Armor.

His armor was always black, but the most relevant item was his black cape, which always covered his whole body in black when he wasn't fighting.


Where can I watch Nanatsu no Taizai season 3 online? Where can I watch Nanatsu no Taizai season 3 online legally?

We are awaiting Netflix on that. It's still unclear and they didn't announce a release date. Other than that there is no way to watch it legally afaik.


What did Madoka wish for in the original timeline? I just watched the show - Madoka spends most of it trying to figure out a good wish to make.

One episode shows Homura in presumably the original timeline, where she's just a shy new kid and Madoka is already a magical girl along with Mami, which means Madoka had in fact made a wish in this timeline. Is it ever mentioned what did she wish for?

She wished the cat in the opening (named Amy) to be saved from being run over by a car. This is revealed in the Drama CD 1.

More info about wishes in the series: https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Wish_theories#.E2.9C.94.C2.A0Timeline_1_-_Save_that_cat.21

More info about the Drama CD 1: https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Drama_CD_1


How could the Yamato make it back in time? The Yamato is sent on a trip to Iskendar, 183,000 light years away. Their goal is to reach Iskendar and return to Earth before a year has elapsed. Due to the distance from earth, this will require faster-than-light travel to make it back in time. However, taking into consideration of how fast they are travelling time dilation would cause their return to be thousands of years later, after the invasion has already completed and earth has been terraformed.

How can they make it to their destination and back within their one year deadline?

Time dilation is not an issue here because the Yamato is travelling using warps.

Krazer explained in chat that the Yamato warps work by folding space.

The theory of time dilation applies if you travel at faster-than-light speeds. However, in this case the Yamato is making short jumps or warps through space. The idea is similar to if you had a piece of paper with two points on it. Normally, the shortest path from Point A to Point B is to draw a straight line between the two points. However, one can cheat and fold the piece of paper to make the distance between these two points shorter in 3D space.

This is the same thing the Yamato is doing when it is warping. Since they are not actually travelling at a faster speed, just getting to the destination faster, they can attempt to make it back in time without worrying about time delation.


How does Don Flamingo's fruit production work? I'm new here and I'm wondering what kind of Devil fruits Don Flamingo produced.

Are this Fruits as Strong as normal fruits?
If maybe the fire fruit already exists, can they produce the same fruit another time, so there would be 2 fire fruits?
Can they manipulate which fruits they produce? or is this a random process?

This is still unknown. We still don't have any precise details on how the factory works.
We just know that the Smile are Zoan-type fruits, and that probably they achived these smiles by studying a prototype artifical fruit made by Vegapunk (i.e. the dragon fruit that Momonosuke ate).


Why did garou get orange hair? In the last episode Garou gets orange hair.
 My question is why did Garou his hair color change to orange?

(mostly copying this from an answer I gave to a similar question)

This is just part of how Garou gets progressively more and more jacked up as the arc progresses, but yet he keeps on trucking and getting stronger.  It's really hard not to understate the sheer level of worked-over this guy achieves.  The following happens to him  in chapter 68 of the webcomic, for example, and this is after already having suffered numerous injuries in preceding battles:

   His entire ribcage is fractured by Darkshine, who initially assumes Garou dies from the injuries.

The orange/red you refer to is just blood.  A blood vessel has popped in his eye and he's bled so much that it's staining his hair.  More clearly, you'll notice that immediately before the reveal of his red hair and eye that he still has white hair, and then rapidly wipes his hands in his hair.  He's had a lot of blood on his hands and arms, bleeding notably out of them at least since deflecting Death Gatling's attack; we also see he's still rupturing blood all along his arms when he squares up against Bang.

The animation is slightly misleading after this, as you still see a far shot of him with white hair after this before the close-up reveal, nor does it show any color changes while he's doing it.  I think this was all done for the purpose of the dramatic reveal being a dramatic reveal.  There's no other reason for wiping his hands on his hair other than to transfer blood to his hair, either strictly for a makeshift cleaning of his hands or, more likely, because he knows it serves to make him seem more monstrous.

In the webcomic, by chapter 82 he ends up a full-on horror freak show from the battle damage alone.

   And before he's even resolved his battles with the S-class or started fighting Saitama.

He does later on achieve what appear to be legitimate monster-like transformations, but at this point in the story, if the manga/anime aren't going to seriously alter the nature of his progression, then all you are seeing is the accumulation of (severe) battle damage.


Are all of the Holy Grail War servants based on real heroes? Saber's character in Fate/stay night and Fate/zero is based on the real-life hero King Arthur. Are the other Holy Grail War servants also based on real-life heroes? And if they are, who are those heroes?

For the most part, yes, but there are some exceptions. I assume you haven't read the Fate/stay night visual novel, which answers your question. As such, spoilers for that below.

   Some of the heroes are basically just reinterpretations of people known to have actually existed in the historical record. These are F/z's Rider (Alexander the Great), Caster (Gilles de Rais), Archer (Gilgamesh), Assassin (Hassan-i Sabbah); and F/sn's Assassin (Sasaki Kojirou; or at least, I think the consensus is that he was real) and True Assassin (Hassan-i Sabbah).

 Other heroes are reinterpretations of fictional heroes, or of people of dubious historicity. In the world of Fate, these people are treated as having been actual historical figures who just happen to be known in the modern day through fictional writings. These include F/z's Saber (King Arthur), Lancer (Diarmuid Ua Duibhne), Berserker (Lancelot); and F/sn's Rider (Medusa), Saber (King Arthur again), Lancer (Cú Chulainn), Caster (Medea), and Berserker (Heracles)

 And then you have the one huge exception, which is F/sn's Archer (that is, Rin's servant, not Gilgamesh). F/sn's Archer is actually Emiya Shirou, who is fictional.

 There's also a delicate issue surrounding the various Hassans who are summoned as Assassins - the idea there is that all ordinary Assassins (not including weird exceptions like Sasaki Kojirou) correspond to a leader of the historical Assassin cult. The issue there is that there are basically no records (in the real world) of what the leaders of the cult were like, so their personalities and abilities in the world of Fate are entirely an invention of the authors (Urobuchi Gen and Nasu Kinoko for F/z and F/sn respectively).


What type of weapon is Nnoitra's zanpakuto? In the Espada Arc, Kenpachi fights Nnoitra.I was trying to explain Nnoitra to my friend but I couldn't figure out what kind of weapon it was, is it a scythe or what?

Nnoitra's zanpakuto, Santa Maria, is unique in regards to what type of weapon it is.

Unreleased, it resembles an axe with two crescents or a halberd, with it's edges rotated by 90 degrees.

But due to the placement of the blade edges, it resembles a scythe more so than an axe.

When released, it resembles a scythe:

But note that when he was the 8th-ranked Espada, his weapon resembled a staff with a giant crescent:

Note that it does a similar motif to the Chinese monk's spade (aka Crescent Moon Spade) weapon that's like a halberd.


What happens in the end of The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi? I was watching The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, and the scene when Asakura attack Kyon is rather confusing. So this is what happens:

After Kyon has a mental struggle with himself, when he was about to shoot normal-Nagato with the device that android-Nagato gave to him, he suddenly got attacked by Asakura. She stabbed him twice, and when Asakura was about to kill him, suddenly Nagato (perhaps the android one?) saved him. And when he was about to lose consciousness, young and old Asahina come. And then someone (perhaps future Kyon?) comes. After that he loses consciousness.
Later, he woke up at the hospital with Koizumi. And when Kyon asked what happen, he said he fell down the stairs at school. But Kyon seems to know what really happened before.

If I have to guess, this is what I think happened:

After Kyon recovers from his injury, he, Asahina, and android-Nagato travel back to the past, and save the past Kyon after he got stabbed, and Nagato alters some memories about the incident so Koizumi didn't know anything about it, and they travel back to the current time.

If that's what happened, why he didn't save himself back then before he got stabbed? What's the point of giving an antidote for Nagato to Kyon? And why did Nagato give false memories about the incident to Koizumi? What exactly happened here?

You are exactly right. Thats what happens in future novels. Why didn't he save himself? Because Kyon is dangerously genre-savy. And he know that breaking the stable time loop might lead to more and worse problems. So he doesn't do anything other than what he himself saw doing himself.


Why is Steins;Gate in the Beta Attractor Field? As stated in the Wiki, the Steins;Gate world line is in

   the Beta attractor field. In the Beta attractor field, the final convergent point is World War 3.

However, they prevent

   WW3 by making sure the thesis will be destroyed.

The question is, if Steins Gate is in

   the Beta attractor field, wouldn't it lead to WW3? If WW3 doesn't happen, shouldn't Steins;Gate be in another attractor field?

The Steins;Gate World Line is not in the Beta Attractor Field.

While the final result of the Beta Attractor Field (World Lines 1% to 1.99%) convergence is WW3 which is fought over Makise Kurisu's time travel thesis, Steins;Gate (1.048596%) is the only exception because the thesis is destroyed (and thus time travel doesn't exist in that World Line).

At the beginning of the final chapter of the VN and episode 23 of the anime, Suzuha herself had told Okabe that the Steins;Gate World Line is not bounded by any attractor field.


Why was Luffy never offered a Shichibukai position? I recall that a shichibukai needs to have quite a good bounty, and be very strong. So why was Luffy never offered the position? I mean his second bounty was higher than Crocodile and Hancock, so if we say he offended the World Government in the Enies Lobby arc, then before that, he was eligible, and even afterwards, we can't say he's not eligible; let's not forget Doflamingo threatened tenrybito with revealing some information, and his status was not revoked.

So why not?

First time around when Luffy took down Croc, BB offered to take the position of Shichibukai by presenting the marines with Ace. It was an offer the Marines could not pass up on, so they did not think of any other suitable candidates.

Also, since the credit for taking down Croc was given to Smoker, Luffy was relatively unknown. This further emphasized the reason as to why he was not considered because Shichibukais would generally be selected from feared and notorious pirates.

After the war of best, there were three vacant positions for the Shichibukai. But none of them were offered to Luffy. This is because Luffy by then has declared war against them by burning the flag of WG. He attacked Ennis Lobby, Impel Down and Marineford the three symbols of the Marines, he punched a Celestial Dragon and he rung the Ox bell 16 times which declared the coming of a new age of pirates. All this made Luffy as someone who would be an enemy to the world government not some random pirate like the other Shichibukais who were even though notorious pirates did not directly meddle with the affairs of the World Government.

This is the reason he was not offered the position.

Also considering Luffy, like Ace he would have never accepted that position because that would limit his freedom.


Why don't Vegeta and Goku not getting along most of the times? I mean, after all, they grew up together and one might refer to them as "brothers" (though they are not biologically related), but why is Vegeta always so cruel towards Goku is the maybe underlying reason or story behind I am missing (history) it's just how he is.

I am aware that Vegeta might be extremely competitive at times. But does anyone really knows why the series producers decided to portrait Vegeta as a "semi-villain" or Goku's other enemy (if you may) or maybe something Goku might have done in the past to Vegeta?

They do have common enemies after all.

Vegeta and Goku have a very close relationship. I'd say they share a bond even stronger than what Goku share's with someone like Krillin. They might not be friends that hang out together, laugh and have a normal conversation but they see each other as source of motivation to help better themselves and become stronger, that makes them more ambitious.

It might look as though Vegeta hates Goku but in reality, it's just his personality and the way he is which also brings a comedic aspect to the show. Vegeta has a very cocky and arrogant personality and also him being the Saiyan prince is responsible for the same. He considers his race to be superior to all other beings and he's the kind of guy who likes to assert his dominance over all other beings by using his power. Goku on the other hand, trains purely out of love for combat and doesn't share the same motivations as Vegeta which is one big difference between their personalities.

Vegeta always had a mutual respect for Goku but I recommend you watch the fight between Kid Buu and Goku where Vegeta acknowledges Goku's superiority and has a new found respect for him. Even in Dragon Ball Super, it might appear as though Vegeta doesn't like Goku but if Goku's life were at risk, Vegeta would step in and help him. This is seen when he catches Goku after Beerus knocked him out. Also when Freiza was about to kill him, Vegeta steps in. Even during the tournament of power, we see Vegeta step in to help Goku while he was being attacked by Universe 9.

In simple words, Vegeta is jealous of Goku's strength. He has admitted this a couple of times, although his arrogance and massive ego doesn't want him to accept him being weaker than another saiyan which is why we see him display some form of anger when he sees Goku and not cause he hates him.


In which episode of the F/SN Unlimited Blade Works anime do we see Illya's body Command Seals? I'm looking for a scene like this? What episode, and extra credit for timings as well. Thanks.

The picture you have provided has the art style of a game/visual novel and not that of an anime, especially the background.
This is because the scene is not shown in the anime adaptation of Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, or any of the other anime adaptations of the Fate series, but is from the Visual Novel's First Route: Fate.
Here is a picture of her Magic Circuits without the background along with some information about it:

Illya has unsurpassed potential as a Master amongst all Masters past and present. 70% of her body is composed of Magic Circuits. They are also her Command Spell and show themselves as a red pattern all over her body when she generates magical energy.Source


Canaria's song in Qualidea Code? What is the song that Canaria sings in the Qualidea Code anime? It is also called as the song of healing.

It is titled "TIME TO GO", and is track #21 on the first volume of the OST.


How can the counter guardians die? In UBW Saber said it wouldn't actually do anything for Archer if Shirou died. According to her achieving servant status is transcending time and space. So killing his former in flesh would accomplish nothing.

I agree with her. My reasoning goes beyond that though. The Archer summoned by the Grail is not the true Counter Guardian, just a proxy. Killing him, even with Shiki's MEoDP would only destroy his Grail-granted body.

On another note, do you think there are backups in the throne of heroes? Because that would make them pretty much invincible.

do you think there are backups in the throne of heroes?

There is...so to speak. All Servants summoned from the Throne of Heros are actually copies of the originals.

  Even the Holy Grail lacks the power to summon a true Heroic Spirit, so the process is facilitated by summoning them into one of seven vessels prepared beforehand. The Greater Grail makes a copy using information from the "main body" of the Heroic Spirit, an "emanation", that returns to them as information, in the form of a soul, upon the death of the Servant. Disconnected from the "main body", they are able to know of the actions of the Servant through records, as if reading a book. Due to this, any Heroic Spirit summoned in multiple Holy Grail Wars will lack knowledge of previous summonings. The only exemption is King Arthur due to her unique circumstances.

Source: Servants - Nature (2nd paragraph)

However, you'll note that it says the only exception is King Arthur (Arturia). This is because she isn't a Heroic Spirit yet.

  Before her last breath, she appealed to the world; in exchange for services as a Heroic Spirit, she asked to be given an opportunity seek the Holy Grail to save her country.

Source: Saber (Fate/Stay Night) - Profile - Identity - Downfall (2nd Paragraph)

What this means is that when Arturia is summoned she isn't being summoned from the Throne of Heroes, and instead is being summoned as a part of her deal with the world to seek the Holy Grail. It's for this reason why in the 5th Holy Grail War she had memories of the 4th War.

I can't find anything which indicates that a Counter Guardian is another exception but EMIYA seemed to believe he wasn't a clone.

  Even knowing that the Throne of Heroes was isolated from time and space, Archer desperately came to believe that his only hope of release was to have himself summoned into an era where Shirou Emiya exists and kill his past self, hoping that the double paradox created by Shirou Emiya being killed before having a chance to make the contract with Alaya and that the killing was done by a Shirou Emiya who successfully made the contract with the world would create a time paradox great enough in magnitude that could potentially erase his existence as a Counter Guardian.

Source: Archer - Profile - Identity (4th paragraphg)

Of course, even if EMIYA wasn't a clone, his plan would still fail because he was in another timeline. Even if he killed a past version of himself, this would only deprive that reality of Shirou possibly becoming a Counter Guardian. I recall reading that in the timeline EMIYA came from, the 5th Holy Grail War did not end in any of the ways shown in the visual novel and that EMIYA witnessed The Shadow's destruction which is why in Heaven's Feel he abandons his plan to kill Shirou and instead returns to his former duty as a Counter Guardian in order to destroy The Shadow (which he comments he has seen before).

Also with your comment

  Killing him, even with Shiki's MEoDP would only destroy his Grail-granted body

This is true. However, as I explain in this answer, which Shiki one refers to affects the likelihood of that Shiki being able to kill a Servant. Even when their Mystic Eyes allow them to kill a Servant, in the end it still comes down to combat ability. Tohno Shiki has problems maintaining his because of his migraines, and Ryougi Shiki can maintain an on-par level defensive fight.

  [Ryougi Shiki's] combat ability is only possibly around the level of Ciel, allowing her to manage a defensive fight against a being on the level of a Servant. While still much stronger than [Tohno] Shiki, who holds no hope in even competing with a Servant defensively

the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are only a slight advantage in scoring an instant death blow, the user still has to be able to fight (or atleast get in close) to beliver the attack

But as for "How can the counter guardians die?" outside the Holy Grail War this has yet to be seen since really the only Counter Guardian we see is EMIYA and this is in the form of a Servant.

considering that Counter Guardians are a Counter Force for Ayala, the collective unconsciousness of mankind and the drive for survival, one can assume that if they aren't being copied when they get summoned they can die but my only basis for this is because Counter Guardians were once human and thus do have a concept of death, as opposed to Aristoteles who don't have concepts of damage or death in which the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception wont work

  Beings like Type Mercury and other Ultimate Ones lack the concept of death entirely, so the ability will not affect them under any circumstance.

Source: Mystic Eyes of Death Perception - Workings - Points (3rd paragraph)


How can Toudou Kirin be ranked 1 if Claudia is undefeated? In episode 6, it was shown that Claudia Enfield is the 2nd rank. However, Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld said that Claudia is undefeated.

So, how can Toudou Kirin be ranked 1 if she never defeated Claudia?

I just watched this series a few days ago, Kirin is rank 1 because of overall combat ability being ranked higher due to 2 things:

Kirin is not a strega
Kirin does not use a lux in battle (at least before she fought Ayato)

Because of that, even though Claudia is undefeated, in terms of strength Kirin is viewed as stronger.

This gets discussed in a later episode of season 1, though I'm not sure which one exactly.

Edit

Just to clarify, Kirin does end up getting a lux later in the novel but it isn't shown in either of the anime seasons. She uses a normal katana


Where should I start My Hero Academia manga after season 4? My Hero Academia just finished its fourth season. I wanted to read its manga ahead.
So, where does Season 4 end in the manga so that I can start reading from there?

I did a little research and found that season 4 of My Hero Academia ends at chapter 190 in the manga, so for those who want to read the manga after season 4 ends, start from chapter 191.

Season 5 will probably start from ch.191 onwards.


Why doesn't Pain use other paths when his bodies are killed? During the Naruto vs Pain fight (before Edo Tensei), he has 6 bodies that he controls via Chakra and each body has the power of one path.

When Naruto kills anyone of them, it's stated that he loses usage to that particular power of path until he has another body for that.

My doubt is that since its just bodies controlled by chakra, why doesn't he use the remaining pain to use all the paths?

For example, if the summoning path dies, Why can't he use that path through the Yahiko pain or some other pain?

I don't know for sure but my guess is that Kishimoto did that on purpose because if he didn't Naruto wouldn't have a chance against Pain, so basically it's just his way of making Pain NOT perfect leaving the others with a possibility of revealing his secret(weakness) and getting a chance to fight back (since naruto must win at the end).


Code Geass: Lelouch of the rebellion dvd version differences I am wanting to buy season 1 and 2 of code geass on DVD because its a great show and I have never bought anime before so I was definitely not expecting to find like a million dvd's for this 1 show that had 50 episodes total. I am going through ebay and amazon and am finding a combination of volumes and complete series however it seems that even some of them that have the complete series are different. Some of them have the marking (2011) and some have the marking (Anime Legends) and they have different cover art although they all say the complete first season 3-6 discs episodes 1-26. Is there any real difference when it comes to two dvds that say they are the entire first season with both English and Japanese or is the cover art the only difference?

To my knowledge there shouldn't be too much difference. Japanese originating DVDs will have less-episode per disk but this apparently means the video footage wont be as compressed (though have never had a compassion to confirm this)

When looking on eBay you should be careful of bootlegs where the seller just gets downloaded episodes, burns them to disk, whips up a quick DVD Menu and cover and tries and sells it as legit. This post in Madman's Entainment Knowledge Base can help you sort out the bootlegs from the real ones

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

  Region 0 or All

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

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

Some of my own tips would be

By from official distributors like Madman or RightStuf depending on where you live
if you need to buy from ebay check out the sellers past feedback and look out for any claiming pirated products
pay with Paypal because then if you get a bootleg you can go through paypal to get your money back. if you go though ebay this process is made a bit easier
generally Amazon sells legit products as i havn't gotten bootlegs from there once so if you can buy from them then do so
the average count for episodes per disk is 6-7 in Australia for regular DVDs, i've seen up to 9 episodes on one BluRay (which was Katanagatari from the US), 3 disks for 24 episodes should only work if they are BluRay
Covers can be different depending on their release, first release of Black Cat in Australia had 4 episode/disk in 6 volumes, the second release included all 6 disks in one cover and the cover was that of the reversible one from Volume 1. also Limited Editions may have a different cover. when in doubt google it or post the image up on an anime forum or chat room to get clarification

a cover wont have characters that appear in a different media, my mum one got a complete collection of Fullmetal Alchemist but on the cover of one of them had a couple of characters from the video game

after you buy and receive the anime if you didn't get it from an official distributor you can generally tell right away if the anime was downloaded

if there are subs they wont be in comic sans MS
they wont have any tv network watermarks
they will have the appropriate copyright information and company slash animations before the menu appears (ie. all Hanabee released DVDs/Bluray will have Hanabee's animation, Fate/Zero will have Aniplex and Unfotable. Speed Grapher from Australia will have Madman, Gonzo and i think Funimation's)
generally all episodes will have the Opening and Ending and you will be able to skip these with one button press on the DVD remote (as they are set as a separate scene).


Isn't this Layla Heartfilia's grave? As far as I remember, this is Lucy's mother's grave. Then is the person standing in front of the grave Lucy's brother or is he/she her relative?

Yes, that is Layla Heartfilia's grave and if I remember correctly, that's Anna Heartfilia, her ancestor, standing in front of it.

  She was the teacher of the five Dragon Slayers that were sent to the future in order to eradicate Acnologia.

Everything about her will be revealed in the later part of the story.


Why did Apollo want Bell Cranel for his familia? So Apollo as a result of losing a war game lost his assets, his familia, and was exiled IIRC. Why did he go through to this for Bell Cranel? Why did Apollo want Bell Cranel for his familia?

Based solely on what was shown in the anime, the suggestion that comes from the banquet in episode 1 of DanMachi II is that:

Back when the gods still lived up in their own world, Apollo tried to woo Hestia and she turned him down.
Apollo says he is definitely not still holding a grudge about being turned down.
Everyone knows that Apollo holds grudges forever, and tends to take disproportionate retribution against those who did him wrong.

From that, the assumption is that Apollo is still annoyed that Hestia didn't go out with him, and in response he's waited all this time for Hestia to have something that she loves dearly, so that he can take it from her.


Why is it said that the Tsukihime anime "does not exist"? I've been hearing people talk about how the 2003 Tsukihime anime "does not exist", for example, here and here. I wonder why that is, when the anime had great art and music for its time. On the other hand, I don't hear people saying Studio Deen's Fate/stay night anime does not exist, even though it has had its fair share of criticisms.

So why has the Tsukihime anime acquired this hate? How and when did the saying start to spread, and do the Japanese audiences also echo this phrase online?

It certainly comes from the fans who have played the visual novel (VN) and set the expectation too high for the anime adaptation.

Some background, the original Tsukihime VN was stated as an exceptionally big hit for a doujin game in Japan and drew big attention when an anime adaptation was decided. The VN itself also seemed to receive global recognition. Note that it also consists of multiple endings and many backstories and may take more than 30 hours (according to VNDB) to finish all the routes.

Putting aside opinions, the anime was broadcasted for 12 episodes based on a certain character's route:

   "Arcueid's True End"

However, due to the limitation on episode counts and the staffs having troubles in trying to incorporate all elements from the original source, many unimportant settings were left out. Some settings and characters' personality were also changed partially. Moreover, some voice actors were not experienced in anime voice acting, including Nabatame Hitomi (Arcueid's voice actor) making Tsukihime as the debut in TV anime voice acting. Additionally, all of the voice actors were different compared to the Melty Blood which had been released before the anime.

On the other hand, the manga adaptation following the same anime's route was also released at nearly the same time and was serialized for 7 years. While the story development was interwoven with multiple routes, the manga also integrated some references from Tsukihime Tokuhon and Kagetsu Tohya without feeling out of place and losing the original source's atmosphere. Even words of acclaims from the original author were written on the obi.

Now, back to the fans' opinions, there were many reasons why they didn't want to "acknowledge the existence" of this anime. To summarize it:

   - Plot development: all over the place, slow pace, wrong focus, under-/unexplained details, bizarre use of flashbacks
 - Bad presentation: too many non-subtle dialogs instead of actions
 - Characters: modified personality and roles
 - Visual: too many close-up shots of faces/upper torsos, stiff/stilted/ motionless, unremarkable action scenes
 - Audio: over-the-top sound effects, poor translation & dub

and many concluded that it's okay as a standalone work but terrible as an adaptation.

Interestingly, Japanese fans also didn't want to acknowledge the anime's existence. Most of them assumed the anime as "a dark history" and "there's no anime adaptation". Since they had the same opinion as with the global audiences, it's probably safe to say that it has spread since the original TV broadcast in 2003.

Sources:

Japanese Wikipedia
Reviews: AniTAY, MyAnimeList, the escapist Forum, FinalCrosMayCry's WordPress, anime-planet
Japanese Typemoon Wiki


What's the song when Shiro is dying in the main chapel? In Ninja Resurrection: The Revenge of Jubei (the 1st OVA), there's a song playing near the end when Shiro is dying in the main chapel while being pleasured (reference on YouTube, potentially NSFW).

What's the name of the song?

It's "Banner-Seal of Heterodoxy: The Son of Deus", the 4th track from "Ninja Resurrection (Original Soundtrack)". The preview of the OST can be listened on AllMusic.

According to the OP's comment,

  it's the 4th song from the link you mentioned! Banner-Seal of Heterodoxy: The Son of Deus.


Why did Lancer prepare his Noble Phantasm during his first fight with Archer? In Ufotable's adaptation of Unlimited Blade Works, when Lancer fights Archer for the first time (episode 0), near the end of the battle Lancer begins charging his Gae Bolg, but is later distracted by Shirou.

Later, on episode 5 of the second season, when Lancer fights Archer again, Lancer mentions that he wasn't fighting with his full potential back then because he was under a Command Spell telling him to not kill.

If that is true, then why did Lancer even bother charge his Gae Bolg back then? I imagine that the point of his Noble Phantasm is to finish off his target.

Lancer was specifically ordered to scout out the other masters and determine their Servants' strengths by fighting them to a draw.  He couldn't expect to get a proper measure of Saber or Archer's strength, who were going to some lengths to hide their abilities—indeed, both Saber and Archer were going on about how their "true" weapon could be anything, but they weren't going to bother revealing it—, unless he tried to force their hands.  In a battle between Servants, this pretty much always requires the use of their most powerful Noble Phantasms.  While use of his Noble Phantasm could result in the deaths of either Saber or Archer, it seems likely that either the Command limited the potency of the attack, or that the vagueness of "find out their strengths" allowed him a bit of a loophole against such secretive opponents.  A Command not to kill them would seem likely to interfere with a Noble Phantasm to some extent, perhaps giving the opponent just enough wiggle room to avoid death (but not necessarily a severe injury, such as with Saber).

According to the TypeMoon wikia:

  Contrary to his legendary battle prowess, his fighting in the Fifth Holy Grail War is extremely limited. Fighting several Servants to a draw, he will never start a fight on his own. Even if he gains a full chance to kill an opponent, he is to merely observe and is given no authority to attack. He can only go all out against an opponent during their second encounter due to the Command Spell, so his first true "battle without any binds" is against Archer. Without anything binding him, his strikes are much faster and harder to see than in the previous battle. The only way Archer is able to keep up with him in direct combat compared to the previous fight is due to the experience of previously fighting him.

Recall that Lancer was initially attacking Shirou before Saber had been summoned.  Shirou was simply an outside witness, and by Rin's commentary this was strictly disallowed, and so it was completely natural that Servants would disengage from their own fights to eliminate the witness.  Once Saber is summoned, Lancer backs off and waits for Saber to come to him and force the combat (thought he doesn't seem to have problems with trying to provoke his opponents).  For the preceding fight with Archer, we do not know exactly how it was initiated.  We are introduced to the fight already in progress from Shirou's perspective.


Why don't people utilize the Rinnegan to its fullest? This question contains spoilers for anime viewers and early manga readers.

We've seen Nagato use his Rinnegan to the fullest, using the Rikudo technique (to control 6 bodies)

   As well as by fighting alone, as a reincarnated zombie.

He utilized all 6 paths of the Rinnegan.

   So why don't Obito and Madara? Madara only used the Preta Path, to absorb incoming ninjutsu. Obito only tried to use the Human Path, to try and kill Naruto.

Why don't they use any other realms? Their Rinnegan is supposedly perfect. I can't imagine they're holding back on purpose, the Rinnegan has some pretty scary abilities.

We can be fairly certain Madara is just too strong without using the Rinnegan at all. Although Madara's strength has never been explicitly discussed, we can infer it indirectly through other plot points. Madara fought on par with the Senju Hashirama, who used to have the 9 bijuu as his "pets". Other badass characters have had a lot of trouble dealing with just one.

   It is heavily implied that the battle happened before Madara activated his Rinnegan. During the fourth ninja world war, Madara effortlessly mopped the floor with the five Kages. If Madara did use the Rinnegan, Kishimoto-sensei may have chosen to skip it to retain suspense over its powers.

Obito has only implanted the Rinnegan (and not "earned" it, like Madara). Maybe overusing Rinnegan drains his chakra rapidly (just like overusing Sharingan does to Kakashi), and hence he chose to not use it fully. Alternately, Kishimoto-sensei wants to save it for the climax.

Nagato being able to use it could be because:

   Being from the Uzumaki clan, he naturally has a huge amount of chakra. Madara likely chose him to receive the Rinnegan for that reason. Madara's plan involved getting himself revived through Rinne Tensei. He had to pick someone who could reliably use the Outer Path without passing out.

Another key difference between the three:

   Nagato received his Rinnegan when he was a child, and must have learnt to use the full powers of Rinnegan through years of practice. Madara awakened the Rinnegan shortly before he died, and Obito has had it for only a few weeks at most.


Why does the text of Shino-sensei's math problems look different from normal Japanese? In episode 5 of Boruto, we see Shino-sensei testing Boruto on "Ninja Academy Math" or something along those lines, but when I look closely at the texts, they don't seem like the usual Japanese characters to me.

I admit that my Japanese is not good but from the numerous anime that I have watched, I feel like I can differentiate the more commonly used kanji when I see them. But then I noticed that none of the ones there are distinguishable to me. Does this have to do with Japanese math and numbers?

This is only a partial answer, which I'm posting since it seems too long for a comment: I don't know Japanese well and I haven't followed Boruto at all so don't know about the language used in-universe. However, I have some knowledge of kanji from knowing a modicum of Chinese.

To me, some of this writing looks close enough to recognisable kanji, albeit kanji written quickly and sloppily. (Here are some examples of such handwriting, both in Japanese and Chinese: 1, 2. A web search for messy chinese writing generates some fairly good examples in Chinese. I had less luck trying to find explicitly Japanese examples from a quick search in English. Many of the results that appeared were from foreign language learners, whose bad handwriting probably resulted from lack of familiarity with kanji as a whole.) For instance, I can see something that looks like 解, which would be referring to the solution for the problem, on the left side. I can also see 甲 come up several times, but I don't know what it would be referring to. Some of the writing also appears to be Latin/Greek characters used in maths: Vx written in a cursive style is on one of the top lines of the solution.

I don't know if some of the writing here was drawn as meaningless scribbles, but either way, Japanese maths doesn't use a vastly different set of characters from other fields or languages. [Consider that web searches for terms such as 東大 数学 (tokyo university mathematics) will only generate results that look like a combination of normal maths writing and some Japanese characters.]


Is it possible to cultivate Sharingans? I got into a discussion with this with my brother the other day and I was wondering if this would be a valid way to cultivate and stock up on Sharingans.

We see that Madara/Tobi had an entire laboratory of Sharingans, presumably gathered from the corpses from the Uchiha Massacre. Now, if someone like Kabuto were to reanimate Uchiha, they would be revived back with their own eyes as we saw with Itachi.

Then, would it be possible to remove the reanimated Itachi's eyes and store them for use for a later date? My brother told me that the problem with this theory is that a reanimated body using Kabuto's Endo Tensei would just have body parts that would turn to paper/dust if detached from its body, as we saw from many reanimations who lost their limbs in the war.

But what if Kabuto un-did the Endo Tensei jutsu immediately proceeding taking out the eyes of Itachi. Would the eyes still turn to paper/dust or would they manifest in a physical form? If so, this would allow someone like Kabuto to infinitely cultivate Sharingans by continuously reanimating and un-reanimating an Uchiha, something that could be very powerful when comboed with Izanagi.

If the above is not possible with Kabuto's jutsu, how about with Orochimaru's Endo Tensei - the one he used to revive the First and Second Hogake against the Third Hokage in the first Naruto series? If I recall, Orochimaru's original Endo Tensei didn't make the bodies immortal or turn to paper.

In short not possible.
When madara was called by endo tensei he had his sharingan, even he showed the five kages the power of rinnegan . When he was brought back to alive by Obito, he was blind as his original eyes were given to Pain. This proves that you can't simply use endo tensei to manipulate body parts. Releasing a person from endo tensei simply means he/she is free to move on their own will, just like madara when he managed to release himself from kabuto's control.


Why didn't Killua use Nanika in the Chimera Ant arc? He removed the needle midway through the arc, shouldn't he have remembered Alluka? He could've used her to just kill the threats in the arc and prevent any other deaths.

In theory, he could've use Nanika for anything he wants. But that would give no sense to the anime.

We can ask the same question for Saitama in One Punch Man : "Why didn't he kill Orochi directly, or Garoh, ..."

It is very important to establish consistency in time and geography. When Killua went to NGL, he didn't know anything about what he was going to deal with. He only paid attention to being with his friend Gon.
NGL is far away from their home.

Second point, Killua would never recover from being weak and not able to protect Gon. He's a Hunter, he can't ask for help in such adventures.

Final point and most important, Killua hates the way that Nanika is seen as an object, and not for her human side.
He would never use her for anything exceptional. Gon's case was unique, he was going to die and he knew it, he saw everything.


Why do most Naruto villains end up not just being bad guys to be hated? Is there a reason why almost all Naruto villains end up having very good excuses for becoming villains and start being seen as fighting for a different cause as opposed to just being the bad guys who need to be killed? What I mean by this question is that, why do Naruto "villains" never play the role of the standardized "bad guy", but instead introduce a new and different struggle from their point of view? Instead of having one clear person to hate and criticize their actions, you end up with two very different view points, never a good vs evil kind of situation, but more of a clash of opinions.

because bad guys never own up to their actions but instead try and justify their actions as being just, take this example

bad guy tries to destroy the world

bad guy: humanity has been slowly killing the planet for eons

hero: but that give you no right to destroy it

bad guy: if you saw a man dying from causes beyond his control and there was no hope in saving him, would you not want to end his life and ease his suffering?

hero: and what about all the innocent people living in the world

bad guy: is anyone truly innocent, every human uses technology that harms the planet, they know what they are doing is hurting the planet are doing yet do nothing top change but instead leave it to their leaders to make the change who instead squabble amongst themselves and when one takes the initiative others fear of their separation from the collective and brand them as evil and wage war at them harming the planet more

hero: but humans can change

bad guy: correct but only to save your own skin and never for the sake of the planet that sustains your destructive nature at the cost of it's own health

so in Naruto where the villains explain their actions and it seems as a conflict of opinion it's still just your standardized bad guy trying to explain that his actions are right and the good guy has no right in stopping him


What is the song playing when Kallen is driving towards the convoy holding Suzaku? I've looked everywhere for it for ages, and I can't find it. What's the song in episode 4 of Code Geass (first season) at 12:50, beginning when Kallen is driving towards the convoy? It also plays at 4:35 of episode 11 (also the first season), beginning when Todo speaks to his subordinates.

The song you are looking for is called Outside Road Code Geass. It's the Eight Song in their soundtrack Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.


How did Homura able to return to a past where Madoka isn't already a Magical Girl? I just finished watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica and its movie, Rebellion. And there's something that's been bugging me.

On episode 10, Homura's past was shown, and I will re-iterate it so you can understand my question.

Loop 1:
She was still a timid and shy girl, with her hair tied on braids and with glasses. She was then shown to almost become a victim of a witch if not for Madoka and Mami showing up, saving her as Magical Girls. Fastforward, Madoka and Mami were both killed at the battle of Walpurgisnacht and Homura decided to become a Magical Girl too, with a wish to go back in time when she met Madoka, but this time, she will be the one to protect her.

Loop 2: Time did return to the past and upon introduction of her by the teacher, she showed the Magical Girl's ring immediately to them, making Madoka and Mami surprised that there's a new Magical Girl. Fast forward, on the battle of Walpurgisnacht, she witnesses Madoka turn into a witch and realized that Kyubey has been deceiving all Magical Girls.

Loop 3: Homura went back to time and befriends with them again, so that she can warn them of Kyubey's deceit but to no avail. Until Sayaka became a witch too, and they had no choice but to kill her. Mami killed Kyoko as well then attempted to kill Homura, but was stopped and killed by Madoka. Homura and Madoka fought on the battle of Walpurgisnacht. They were both defeated and their Soul Gems are depleting, but Madoka gave a Grief Seed to Homura's Soul Gem, begging her to go back in time again and keep her from being fooled by Kyubey. Then she asked Homura to kill her before she can become a witch.

Loop 4: This is where Homura was convinced that no one will believe her story of the future and the deception and so she tries to prevent it, making her personality more aloof and cold, but stronger.

What I don't understand now is how Homura was able to go back to past where Madoka isn't a Magical Girl yet. See, on those first 3 loops, Madoka is already a Magical Girl. If her wish has something to do with it (returning to the past being Madoka's protector), she could've returned to Loop 2 with Madoka not yet a Magical Girl. I wouldn't think that Madoka's pleads to Homura has something to do with it on Loop 3 (preventing her to be fooled by Kyubey) since she's already a Magical Girl, thus, have already made her wish.

So, I don't understand how can she return to a changed past with a changed Madoka, cause as far as I know, she's the only character possible of change inside her looping timeline. Or am I wrong? Is there any explanation to this?

This is because the date in which Homura returns to is actually before Madoka contracts with Kyubey

Looking at the Timelines Wiki page we see that it's estimated that Madoka makes the contract a couple of days after Homura would wake up in the hospital.

while the wiki page says that the dates shouldn't be taken as canon we can make the assumption that this is close to being correct as we see in the Hospital on Homura's Calander.

according to the wiki

  The calendar we see in Homura's hospital room reads "leaving hospital" on Wednesday the 16th and "going to school" on Friday the 25th. March has 31 days with the 25th falling on a Friday in 2011, and is the only such month in 2011.

In the 4th Timeline shown in Episode 10 (the timeline after the one Homura shoots Madoka's soul gem at her request) we see Homura appear in Madoka's window warning her while holding a dead Incubator.

at the end of the 3rd Timeline we also get an indication of this in what Madoka asks of Homura

  Madoka: Sorry, I lied. I guess I still have one left.
  Homura: But why?! You should've used it!
  Madoka: It's better this way. I want you to do something that I couldn't do. You can go back in time, right, Homura? You can go back and change everything... so that we don't end up like this...
  Homura: Okay...?
  Madoka: Then save me from being stupid, from getting tricked. Don't let Kyubey fool me again.
  Homura: I swear I'll save you! I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe! I'll come back again and again and again! I'll save you! I swear!

this would indicate that at some point in the third Timeline Homura had told the other girls (or at least Madoka) that she could go back in time, not just freeze it like they would have seen. Madoka also seems to imply that she knows Homura can travel back to a point in time before she made the contract which i would see coming up in the conversation.

Since Homura's return point in the past is always the same, this would indicate that between Homura's release from hospital (when she wakes up) and when she'll transfer to school is when Madoka makes the contract as such in the 4th Timeline and beyond that Homura would intercept any Incubator who would try to trick Madoka


Why is that Gildarts not too involved in guild fights? There are so many situations where the Fairy-tail guild gets into really tough fights and in serious trouble!. Gildarts is extremely strong, how is that he is not very involved in fights??

As said before Gildarts is a class S mage and he is almost always adventuring. For example there was an episode when Gildarts came to the Guild and everyone was doing a party.(I don´t remember in which episode it happened thought). Even if he wanted to join the fight´s he would need some "days" to reach the "battlefield".


Did Pain control the animals from his Summoning jutsu? I'm a fan of Naruto, I wonder if Pain was manipulating his summoned beasts, as I noticed rods in all the animals.
Also, were those animals dead?

Yes!
According to wiki page here
This is a list Pain can summon :

  The Animal Path (畜生道, Chikushōdō) grants a Rinnegan user the ability of summoning various animals and creatures to aid it in battle. These creatures appear to be immortal, as they were killed and later summoned again

  Giant Drill-Beaked Bird
  Giant Multi-Headed Dog
  Giant Snake-Tailed Chameleon
  Giant Panda
  Giant Ox
  Giant Rhino
  Giant Crustacean
  Giant Centipede


What is Nara's Strategy? Before the Allied Shinobi Forces HQ was

   destroyed and scene goes to the Four Hokages with Sasuke, Orochimaru and the others,

was there is a strategy from Nara to be executed. If so, what is this strategy?

As I remember when the scene goes back to the war,

   Naruto and others have difficulty fighting against Madara and Tobi with no any sign of Nara's strategy.

Nara's strategy had four components:

Shinobi Alliance create distractions
Naruto powering shinobi up with chakra
Locking down the Juubi with the Shika Ino Chouji combo
The entire Alliance will attack full force at the Juubi

Naruto comes into communication with Shikaku here, as he shares his great Nara Plan. He also stated that he has told the entire alliance his plan already. However, the entirety of the plan is not revealed to the reader just yet. What they are discussing in this chapter is simply creating the distraction.
http://www.mangainn.com/manga/chapter/95742_naruto-chapter-612/page_9

Phase 2 of the plan begins here as Naruto starts to transfer his chakra to the Shinobi Alliance.
http://www.mangainn.com/manga/chapter/96726_naruto-chapter-615/page_20

Then phase 3 begins. Chouji is the front line tank along with many others. Ino uses her jutsu to take control of Obito and slightly throw off the Juubi's attacks. And Shikamaru and his clan use the shadowbinding technique on the Juubi. Also note that Shikamaru suspects that something may go wrong with this strategy and (in the flashback) Shikaku basically tells Shikamaru he is going to have to make that decision when the time comes.
http://www.mangainn.com/manga/chapter/97954_naruto-chapter-616/page_13

Phase 4 commences and the Alliance begins their attack.
http://www.mangainn.com/manga/chapter/98410_naruto-chapter-617/page_8

That pretty much sums everything up about Nara's strategy. The only problem was that it didn't work. Obito, Madara, and the Juubi are too strong to be taken down by the current Shinobi Alliance. That's when Minato shows up, followed by the other Kages and Sasuke and then everything changes again.

Additional proof Shikaku understood the Kyuubi's chakra transfering ability.
http://www.mangainn.com/manga/chapter/97954_naruto-chapter-616/page_8

Shikaku first learned of it from Kakashi's experience here.
http://www.mangainn.com/manga/chapter/98410_naruto-chapter-617/page_5


How are the characters connected to the original game in Danganronpa:UDG? During Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls we are told that the people selected to be hunted are related to the characters in the original game.

Some of these are relatively straight forward, but it's been a while since I've played the first game so some links are lost on me.

How are the new characters related to the old ones?

A lot of the links can be found if you go on the wiki. The targets were all the most important person to their corresponding character from the first game.
For Example, Hiroko Hagakure is Yasuhiro Hakagure's mother, and Yuta Asahina is Aoi Asahina's brother. But, not all of these figures are human. Celestia Ludenburg's most important person was her cat, and Touko Fukawa's was a bug.


How do they power the fridge in the Going Merry? When the crew (Sanji and Ussop) saw the Arc Maxim powered by Enel's Lightning they were surprised by how the machine worked autonomously without a power source. But then how does the crew power the fridge?

Although nothing related to electricity/fridges is mentioned in text in the Wikia article on Going Merry, you can find the following image there (with a rough Japanese counterpart here):

Presumably, this Water-Drawing Machine is used to power the refrigerator. As pointed out in the comments, all you need is a rotary motion source to use electricity at all times.

Although, the crew stores most of their food in the Storage Room, as indicated by this image:

You may also note that there are 3 orange trees, taken from Bellamere's plantation, which are used as a source of emergency food:


Why are Son Gohan and Son Goten so strong? Why is Son Gohan always so strong?

I mean Son Goku trains all day long, but Gohan studies all day long. So how did he manage to be so strong when Cell or Buu arrived? I mean, both started training when they were kids?

Is it same with Son Goten? I mean Fusion SS3 at this young age, this is quite strong.

Not sure which episodes, but it is explained a few times that each generation of saiyans grows stronger than the previous generation. This is the reason why Frieza feared them as they will eventually get stronger than him. This means if both Goku and Gohan didn't train and were the same age, Gohan would be naturally stronger.  It's the reason Gohan tends to catch up quicker in power levels since he is more naturally gifted.

It is also interesting to note Vegeta is from a more genetically gifted line (royalty was the strongest saiyans) so he would be naturally more powerful than Goku if all conditions were same.  Vegeta also points out to Gohan in buu saga that he has been neglecting his training so he was able to catch up to Gohan's power level when he defeated cell. Goku like you pointed out just trains like a beast even when he is dead so he tends to eventually surpass everyone.


Why didn't Hisoka challenge Razor? Hisoka constantly seeks out powerful opponents to challenge and kill. Razor was acknowledged by the Phantom Troupe to be pretty powerful. Why didn't Hisoka attempt to fight him?

So far (in the anime), the only other fights that Hisoka missed out on were:

Netero -- Hisoka deemed that Netero was leaving himself too vulnerable to attack.
Chimera Ants -- Hisoka was chasing Chrollo.
Chrollo -- Chrollo was cursed and unable to use his Nen abilities.

In the above situations, Hisoka lost the opportunity to fight powerful enemies. For other powerful fighters such as Illumi, Hisoka chose to befriend them temporarily in order to gain something. But in Razor's case, it seems like Hisoka shyed away from the challenge.

Because he is NOT suicidal....

Simply because Hisoka has never challenged anyone that are physically stronger than him despite the fact of it's availability. i.e. Uvogin, Franklin, Silva and Biscuit. People who's raw power are way above his. Therefore his attacks are meaningless unless he has more than just bungee gum in his arsenal. Razor has the same build as the characters I mentioned, and is capable of destructive power well above Hisoka's defenses as well(Shown in their volleyball game). Meaning Hisoka does not have the ability YET to pierce through their defenses, unless he has an extremely hax ability.

Rationale: His fight with these people would look the same as Uvogin's and Kurapica's. Unless he has an ability like Chain Jail, there is just no way he could harm them, because they are physically and nen wise more powerful than he is. If he is stronger or atleast at the same level, then that volleyball(not full power) catch wouldn't have broken his fingers. Imagine what Uvogin's fist would do.

Fight Availability:
Silva - Hisoka can pay the assassin to kill him, and we have a fight.
Buscuit - A dozen opportunities and he does not take it.
Razor - He could've attacked him on the spot after the game.
Franklin - a simple duel between teammates
Uvogin - same reason as Franklin

My thoughts are that Hisoka targets potentially cerebral fights, i.e. people who could give him that must not have that much overwhelming power Chrollo, Killua, Illumi, Ging and Gon.

Also, just to add. Chrollo as evidenced by his fight with the 2 main heads of the Zaoldyecks, did not show any feat basic nen wise that could pierce through Zeno's and Silva's defenses, which is why he used a specialized dagger. Which means in pure combat without Hatsus both he and Hisoka are not in Zeno's and Silva's level and therefore Razor. The only factor that both Zeno and Silva were being careful in their fight with Chrollo is that Chrollo has the advantage of many unknown abilities. Which one of them could possibly be hax, like an ability to put some1 in a cage regardless of their power. Or teleport like we've seen Chrollo did once.