What actually is modern magic, and how does it work? The opening to the anime starts out with a monologue from Tatsuya explaining that magic, once a product of fantasy and the imagination, has actually been synthesised into a modern technology during the 21st century.

However, during the show's entirety, there is no concise explanation of magic, or any of its core concepts. Certain spells have a rough description before they're activated, but the fundamentals are never covered, or not at a depth where a desirable understanding of the phenomenon of magic is attainable. Additionally, the spin off series Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei – Yoku Wakaru Mahouka! only has one episode that covers how magic works, and the information there is pretty sparse.

So how does modern magic work? What does a CAD really do? What are Psions, CADs and an Eidos, and how do they influence each other to give the result we see in the series?

TL;DR is at the end

What's a magician?
A magician (or magic technician, or magic practitioner) is someone with a ‘magic calculation area’ in their brain. This is a subconscious region of the mind that allows the manipulation of Psions and subsequent construction of magic sequences to alter a target's corresponding Eidos in a certain way. All this will now be explained in more detail.

What's an Eidos?
First of all, magic is an easier concept to consider if you think of things in two separate planes or dimensions:

The physical plane. This is the world as you can perceive it, reality. This is technically no different to the real-life world you and me are both in right now.

The information dimension. This is a representation of the aforementioned reality, but not as we know it. Each entity in the physical plane (brick, desk, chair, person) is an information body (or Eidos) that is represented in the information dimension as, funnily enough, information.

The two, while different, are inherently linked. Anything that occurs in the physical plane will affect the corresponding Eidos in the information dimension, and vice-versa.
This is, at the most basic level, how magic works. By overwriting the information of an Eidos in the information dimension, those changes are passed through to the physical plane, and affect the target in reality.
Stack Exchange itself does a good job of representing this.
When you begin typing a question or answer, you see two boxes - the markdown box, which is where you edit the text, and a post box which shows what everyone else sees. If you imagine the markdown box as the information dimension, and the post as reality, it’s fairly straightforward to see how magic works - if you edit the text in the markdown box (the target’s Eidos in the information dimension), the post itself (the target in reality) changes to suit the edit you made.

So how does magic reach an Eidos?
Magic doesn't travel through the physical plane, but instead acts directly on the Eidos itself in the information dimension. As long as the coordinates of an information body are known, a magician can influence it with magic.
Hence, magic isn't confined by physical distance.
Think of something like a walkie-talkie - even though the broadcaster isn't directly next to the recipient, they can still be heard, as the emitted radio signal is referencing a specific point in the distance (the other radio). While magic is intrinsically different (radio waves travel through the physical plane, and so have range), some of the concepts are similar.
Additionally, as magic affects the Eidos of a target directly, physical barriers are not barriers to magic - if the coordinates of an information body are known to the magician, he can target them through the information dimension. Having said this, it’s a rare case that magic can be cast through a physical barrier - while magic is cast through the information dimension, a target still has to be identified in the physical plane. As such, magicians are still restricted by the limits of the human body, and so are bound in distance, and nearly always by need of visual confirmation. While all magicians by definition can access the information dimension to cast their spells, this doesn't mean they can use it as a medium for finding targets.
Only Tatsuya can actually "see" in the information dimension and therefore bypass physical barriers at will.

What are Psions?
So, so far we know that each real life entity has a corresponding information body in the information dimension, and that information body can be affected by magic to alter its state in reality.
But, just how does that happen?
In the information dimension, things aren't constructed from base elements like in the real world. Instead, each Eidos is made from a perfectly organised series of Psions, which compile to exactly represent its corresponding physical entity, albeit in information form.
Psions (or thought particles) are the particle manifestation of intention and thought, and are an information element that records cognizance. As they exist in the information dimension, they are substance-less, and are more of a psychic phenomenon, but they are fundamental to altering Eidos - as well as being the building blocks of each information body, Psions are also the tool that alters them.
Each person has a ‘Psion count’, which is, in simple terms, the number of Psions they have at their disposal. Having said that, while everyone has a Psion count, only magicians can manipulate their Psions to cast magic.
Each person’s Psion count is different, and this directly affects their ability to cast magic. While most spells only require a small number of Psions to cast, continual casting will begin to drain the caster’s Psions, and eventually lead to exhaustion. At the present day when the show is set, advances in CAD (see below) technology have improved Psion efficiency, meaning it is no longer as large of a limiting factor in magical capability, but exhaustion from overuse of magic is still a threat to the modern day magician. Naturally, skilled magicians are more adept at Psion manipulation, and get more out of their Psions than an unskilled magic practitioner. Additionally, certain spells physically cannot be cast without a large enough Psion count at the magician’s disposal.

What's a CAD?
To cast magic, a magician will manipulate his or her Psions in such a way that causes them to overwrite a particular Eidos in the information dimension.
However, the process of casting spells without an aid is very time-consuming, as many steps must be taken to correctly construct a magic sequence. As such, almost all modern magic users will speed up this process through the use of something called a CAD:
CADs (Casting Assistant Devices) are frequently mentioned throughout the series (often in tandem with Psions) and are arguably the most useful tool in any magician’s arsenal, allowing the processing of all the necessary components for magic in a single moment. To begin with, there are three main kinds of CAD:

General CADs: General CADs are the tool for magicians that cover all bases. Being able to store up to 99 activation sequences, a magician equipped with a general CAD will likely always be able to adapt to the situation, with the potential for many options at their fingertips. Due to the ability to cast a larger variety and number of spells, a general-type CAD will place a larger burden on the user, who will have to make more manual adjustments for each spell to be effective.

Specialised CADs: Specialised CADs are inferior to general CADs in that they can only store up to 9 activation sequences, but they far exceed the latter when it comes to spellcasting. With less capacity for storing magic activation sequences, specialised CADs instead have subsystems that reduce the strain of casting on the magician, enabling them to invoke magic at much faster rate. Due to the narrowed nature of specialised CADs, they are often specialised according to specific kinds of magic as well. For instance, combat magics will often have specialised CADs in the shape of handguns , which  incorporate auxiliary aiming systems into the ‘barrel’ portion of the CAD. This allows coordinate data to be inputted during magic invocation, making casting easier for the magician, as they have fewer variables to define manually.

Weaponised Integrated CADs: Weaponised Integrated CADs take the form of weapons like a swords or clubs, and are even more specialised than a specialised CAD, being able to hold only one activation sequence. This means they're limited to only a single spell. Due to the activation sequence limit, magic written into the CAD usually involves improving the power of the weapon itself, with blades usually receiving improved cutting power, shields with empowered defensive abilities, and so on.

In all varieties, CADs can come in all shapes and sizes to best suit the magician using it. Another thing that remains the same between both varieties is how the CAD works. Absorbing Psions from the user, the CADs ‘Psion Information Aide’ (software) transmits them into the chosen activation sequence. The activation sequence is then absorbed from the CAD into the magician's magic calculation area, where it is translated into a magic sequence.
Step by step, that goes something like this:

The magician taps into their Psion count, and inputs Psions into the CAD. Think of this as refilling a mechanical pencil. The Psions, like the 'lead', are what will fuel the changes that the user wishes to make.

The CADs hardware converts the inputted Psion signals into electric signals, and uses them to produce a collection of ‘electronic magic’—the activation sequence. Think of this as using a cookie cutter on dough - the final product isn't produced yet, but it has taken form. All that's required is for the user to make some final steps, whether that's baking cookies, or making a magic sequence.

The activation sequence sent back into the caster as electrical signals along the nervous system into the magic calculation area of the magician’s brain.

The magician infuses Psion particles inherent in their body into the activation sequence that’s just been output from the CAD. Now in the user’s brain, the activation sequence is expanded, and any necessary parameters not already defined by the CAD are input.

The magic sequence is now complete. Once all the correct variables are set by the magician, the conjured information can be used (cast) to overwrite the target Eidos in the information dimension. Spell complete!

As a final note on CADs:
As the activation sequence is absorbed from the CAD into the magician's magic calculation area, there is a direct link between the users CAD and brain. As such, it’s important that the CAD in use is correctly adjusted to suit the magician in question. While a well tuned CAD leads to faster invocation times and higher casting efficiency, a poorly configured one can have harsh repercussions as severe as mental scarring and hallucinations.

In summation (TL;DR):

Modern magic is simply the overwriting of an information body through the use of a magic sequence.
There are two planes – one physical and one information

The physical plane is the real world as we all perceive it
The information dimension is a representation of that world where each entity has a corresponding information body

Magic is not the ‘flinging’ of spells through the physical plane, but the precise overwriting of a target’s data in the information dimension
Each information body (Eidos) is composed of thought particles called Psions
Magic sequences used to overwrite information bodies are also composed of Psions
Only those that have a ‘magic calculation area’ in their brain can manipulate Psions to cast magic
Casting spells with a CAD takes the following rough pattern:

Caster > Psion signals inserted into CAD > Electrical signals within CAD to activate the activation sequence > Activation sequence sent back to caster > Construction of the magic sequence > Spell output

Sources:

Eidos on the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Wiki
Psions on the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Wiki
CAD on the Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Wiki
The Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei light novels
The Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei anime series
Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Yoku Wakaru Mahouka! - A short spin off series of ~4 minute episodes lightly covering some of the topics seen in the show


What is the origin of the trope where a person lays on the ground with their "soul" coming out of their mouth? So I was re-reading the Fullmetal Alchemist series recently. I noticed this scene below with the man presumably on the verge of death with I presume to be his "soul" coming out of his mouth. I was wondering what the origin of this trope is, since I have often seen this in other mangas and animes.

This is a sample of the Giving Up the Ghost tropes The term itself actually originates from the King James Version of the Bible

  when Jesus was on the cross, His last words were
  "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last." (New International Version)
  The King James Version of 1611, however, gave it the contemporary wording
  "... and having said thus, he gave up the ghost." source

The trope is a spinoff version of the western version Winged Soul Flies Off At Death. The western version got first used in 1948 in a western animation

  The 1948 short "Back Alley Oproar" with Sylvester and Elmer Fudd. Sylvester insists on singing when Fudd wants to sleep, and Sylvester eventually ends up on a cloud, complete with halo and wings.

as for the giving up the Ghost trope I am not certain when it first occured.


Who was the first seiyuu? Early anime was silent, but as technology got better voice actors or seiyuu were introduced.

Do we know who the first seiyuu was? or at least the first one that there is evidence of?

The first seiyuus that were credited in an anime were Furukawa Roppa and Sawa Ranko. They voiced characters in Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka (The World of Power and Women). Unfortunatly, this anime was lost in time and there are no copies still available.

The Seiyuus - who were highly reputed names at the time (Furukawa as a famous comedian, Sawa as a highly reputed film actor) , as the idea of purely voice acting was not yet a reality. These names helped to drag in audiences to the short film feature.

The characters that the voice actors played. Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka was praised by many, and went on to be listed as the "Best of the Best" in the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival.

References:

Chikara to Onna no Yo no Naka Wikipedia Page
Anime: A History by Jonathan Clements


What does "It will restart in issue #1" mean? The last page of Naruto Ch. 655 says,

  "Next week the series takes a break. It will restart in issue #1."

I don't understand what issue #1 means. Could someone kindly explain?

Issue#1 is the Weekly Shonen Jump issue to be released in the week of Nov. 25, 2013.1 Naruto Chapter 656 would be available in that week, which I guess, is the main motivation for your question.

A literal translation, with absence of context, such as the one below may have led to a misinterpretation that Naruto is taking a break till end of 2013. It is actually taking only a one week break.

Weekly Shonen Jump, as the name suggests, numbers its issues by weeks, from 1 to 52. The issue which carried Naruto Chapter 655 was issue #51, released in the week of Nov. 11, 2013.

1. Due to time zone difference and other reasons, different readers may get chapter translations on different days of the week. Hence, referring to the week by its Monday date to avoid confusion.


What kind of flavour do Devil Fruits have? In the One Piece world, there are so many Devil Fruits having different shapes.
I'm a little bit curious about the flavour of Devil Fruits: Is it different from one to another?

If I'm not mistaken, there's a fruit that resembles Banana or Apple. Do they taste same as their real counterparts?

Is the taste of the Devil Fruits ever mentioned in the Anime or Manga?

Devil fruits taste awful.

This is evidenced by the few occurences we've seen where a fruit has been eaten.

When Law eats his fruit (episode 706):

And when Kaku eats Ushi Ushi no Mi Model: Giraffe and Kalifa eats the Awa Awa no Mi during the Water 7 Arc (Episode 271):

During the same scene Jabra was trying to convince them not to eat it by saying that it tasted like crap:

Based off the several examples of people eating it and saying it taste like crap I can definitely answer your question of how they taste with: Unlike their normal-fruit counterparts, they taste awful.


Why did Saber choose to return to her original timeline in Fate/stay night (Saber route) anime? Just finished Fate/stay night (Saber route).

I'm wondering why Saber chose to return to her original timeline only to give up and die, rather than stay with Shirou. Is it because of the consequences of leaving the Holy Grail undestroyed (what's wrong with leaving it alone, anyway?) or because she returned to fight, only to decide to give up as she returned?

I don't remember the exact details from the anime adaptation, but in the original Visual Novel, Shirou gets tempted by Kirei into using the power of the Grail to change his past, but he refuses, choosing to stay on the path he's chosen. His resolve makes Saber rethink her wish, and ends up accepting her past. Also, the grail was tainted by Angra Mainiu, it had to be destroyed. It could NOT grant proper wishes, it'd twist any wish and manifest it as destruction.


Is it common for a writer to write for more than one demographic? CLAMP writes for more than one demographic of manga--Cardcaptor Sakura is shoujo while Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is shounen and xxxHolic is seinen.

Masashi Kishimoto, the author of Naruto, however, has only written for Weekly Shōnen Jump, implying that he has only written shounen.

Is it common for writers/writing groups to do what CLAMP does and write for more than one demographic or is it more common for them to do what Masashi Kishimoto does?

It is common for an author to experiment with different genres, art, and media. But at the same time, it's also common that the same author uses different names for different demographics.

You should distinguish between the writer and the pen name he/she uses, and between individual authors and groups. CLAMP is a collective and they're changing its components periodically. On the other hand, Masashi Kishimoto is an individual author (that it doesn't mean that he hasn't any assistant).

Pseudonyms are common in this industry where we can have an individual author Sumomo Yumeka writing yaoi with this name, seinen manga using the pseudonym Mizu Sahara, and writing shoujo manga as Sahara Keita. Any pen name is clearly associated with a single demographic in this case, but the author herself actually write for different demographics. It is the same with Ken Akamatsu (shounen) aka Awa Mizuno (hentai doujinshi), so it seems that where publishing constraints are very different, authors can use a pen name to differentiate their works.

Collectives and circles like CLAMP seems to explore different genres/demographics more freely with the same name, probably because the authority is shared among the members and the collective nature of the name is clear to readers.


Where is this scene originate from in Episode 5 of nichijou? What is this thing that Mio's cloud refers to?

And what does this text on the screen mean (The text on the screen, it's like an old Japanese font-style) ?

  "15:40  1-Q in front of the podium"

Based from the word "sunk", is that like boat or something ?

Relevant video on Youtube, check at 0:39.

In this scene Mio is being referred to as a boat that exploded, or was hit by a bomb (of embarrassment :P) and sunk. The image intended as a visual pun based off the combination of:
a mushroom cloud (from explosion) + Mio's head/signature blue hair

The text on the screen furthers this as it refers to the time and location Mio was sunk in a similar way that one might talk about a ships time and location when it was sunk.


What is One Piece doing to keep it one chapter/episode? Depending on how condensed the plot is in a manga, the number of episodes that come out annually will be affected. For example, Haikyuu!! had 25 episodes per season for the first two seasons, and since it has almost caught up, there will probably be 10-12 episodes per year from now on each covering 4-5 chapters, as 50 episodes got them to about chapter 150, if they want to stay at pace with the manga.

In an action-based manga where a lot of the scenes are fighting scenes, it becomes pretty hard to lengthen a chapter time-wise. What are specific time-filling techniques One Piece using to keep the chapter-to-episode ratio at 1:1?

The One Piece manga and anime aren't in a 1:1 ratio. The distance beetween them even shifts around. The second arc took place between the 8th and 24th chapters in the manga, while the same in the anime took place between the 4th and 8th episode.

The main reason why the anime is this slow are the fillers. They help the manga "catch a breath" and sneak in couple chapters. (side note: This is still no excuse for fillers in the middle of an arc though).

Oda likes to put in a few filler episodes after every arc or when there's a new movie out.

With these however, there's still a very big chance that the anime will eventually reach the manga. If this happens, there are 4 possibilities:

They stop airing one-piece for a year so the manga catches up.
They start airing the episodes every 2 weeks.
They do what Game of Thrones will do / did and continue with a separate story line.
They start writing the story for the anime and make the manga based on that.


Why is there an extreme amount of censoring in Jojo (Stardust Crusaders) on Crunchyroll? There seems to be an extreme amount of censoring in Stardust Crusaders (black shadows, etc) compared to other anime or even the previous 2 seasons.

Examples:

Smoking
Cut body parts
Big wounds (eye stab, etc.)

I don't really understand. If perhaps the smoking thing is because Jojo is underage, Sanji smoked since "day 1" of One Piece (he was in his teens). The wounds I don't understand either, as some other anime don't censor large wounds (like Fate/Zero, which I watched while it was airing on TV).

Example of censorship in Stardust Crusaders:

Example of Jojo season 1 no censoring on huge wound:

I'm watching on Crunchyroll if it matters. Sometimes it's so bad I can't even tell what happened in the scene. Why is this? If there are any laws causing this, what laws and what do the laws say?

Edit: See @senshin's answer for the correct answer. This answer addresses the question assuming the version on Crunchyroll was the same as before. I will keep this here for general reasons as to why the series may have been censored on TV.

I don't have a definitive answer, but I can offer some guesses:

This season may have aired on TV earlier than usual so harsher censorship rules could have applied (I don't think this one is likely, but it's a possibility)
In the past few years censorship laws have been enforced more and more strictly. In July 2013 (before Stardust Crusaders) There was a big push for more self-censorship after a series of arrests in Core Magazine. Also broadcasters will send back episodes if they do not meet their expectations of censoring. These then have to be edited at short notice to be fit to broadcast.
With regards to smoking, The Japan Society of Smoking Control may have filed a complaint. They have been known to do so with other anime series, such as Nana Ref
Other groups may have complained about Jojo's content - In 2008 Jojo was under fire for having Dio reading the Qur'an and containing fighting scenes played out ontop of, and destroying, mosques. Ref - These scenes had to be redrawn.
The animators may have seen what way other shows were going and used them as a guideline for what to censor and what not to. It is true that Japan has been stricter on censorship over the last 10 years, and that the market is also moving towards a censored TV / Uncensored DVD setup.

I would imagine it's primarily broadcaster standards that dictate what Jojo can and cannot show. Stardust Crusaders was also on more Japanese TV networks than its prequel so it had more vendors to satisfactorily censor for.


Where to watch .hack legally? I watched .hack//Quantum on Netflix and loved it.  I would like to watch the rest of the .hack shows as well, but they seem to not be on Netflix or Crunchyroll.  Is there anywhere else I can stream them from legally?

i'm not sure on watching the series online but you can buy .hack//SIGN, .hack//Legend of the Twilight and .hack//ROOTS on Madman. .hack//G.U. Trilogy can be brought from Hanabee but it pales in comparison to the game in my opinion. all of these are Australian so they are in Region 4 but you should be able to find them on your local distribution site(s) but it wont be a problem if you have a region free player.

.hack//Terminal Disk is a special that came with .hack//G.U Pre-orders which details the events between the last episode of .hack//SIGN (After the Game) and the first episode of .hack//ROOTS (before the .hack//G.U games) but ignores most of what happens in .hack//Legend of the Twilight, recapping the original games, Aura's disappearance, Project G.U, the R.A Program which destroyed most of The World and the start of The World:R2. i did have a playlist of them on youtube but the videos have been deleted

.hack//Liminality came with the original .hack Games but i didn't get the final episode when i got the last game so i had to download it, each episode follows in line with the game it was released, the last episode being set during the final battle (the server Helba set up to help combat Corbenik).

.hack//Gift should be included with the .hack//Sign fatpack i linked to likewise with .hack//G.U. Returner with .hack//ROOTS. gift is a weird OVA but Returner is like the last episode of SIGN where it concludes the games.

the .hack//G.U games have Online Jack in the game aswell along with a number of 4Koma episodes along with i think a couple of episode of .hack//ROOTS (never watched them since i had them on DVD)

i have no information on .hack//The Movie or Thanatos Report however according to your wikipedia link both are with .hack//Versus game, the first one being hybrid with the game while the second one being unlocked from gameplay much like Online Jack.

SIGN, LotT and ROOTS are a bit old (over a decade) and quite sure was before the concept of streaming videos so i'm not sure where you could view them. VIZ Media or Aniplex might have them i'm not sure as i tend opt for owning the DVDs and wtahcing them in my own time.


In terms of sales, how popular was Sword Art Online II? A pretty straight forward question, what were the sales and/or projected sales of Sword Art Online season two?  How popular was it compared to season one, which was really popular?

According to NewType, Sword Art Online II Volume I Blu-Ray DVD sales ranks 5th in the charts. Volume II sales are still ongoing. In total and as of this post, the average sales ranks 4th when compared to other anime DVDs/BDs sales with a total of about 20,000 sales.

Source for NewType(bottom middle-column): http://i.imgur.com/Qx6KWY0.jpg

Average Sales: http://www.someanithing.com/1045


Did Whitebeard know where the One Piece is located? Whitebeard and Gol D. Roger were friends, they were shown chatting with each other, Roger even told Whitebeard that his name really is Gol D. Roger and not Gold Roger. Whitebeard said before his death that the One Piece is real, did he know that from Roger? And did he know where the One Piece is?

All we know about it is from Chapter 576 (Episode 485) just in the scene you mentioned:

  In a flashback Roger offered Whitebeard to reveals him how to reach Raftel (the supposed location of One Piece), but he replied he was not interested in going there.

So Whitebeard had the opportunity to know where One Piece but his reply to Roger's offer we don't know if he was told the location or not. The One Piece was probably the object of their conversation right before Roger's offer (It seems that Roger has just finished to talk about his adventure): so it seems that Whitebeard was told about One Piece directly by Roger, even if it was never shown explicitly.


How do familiars get created? After eating a few humans ― approximately four or five according to
  Kyoko in episode 5 ― they will grow into witches themselves.

  familiars are "projections of the magical girl's heart before she became a witch".

When a magical girl falls into despair, her soul gem turns into a grief seed, which makes her a witch. What does "projections of the magical girl's heart" mean? Does it mean a magical girl can become more than one witch? Also, how does this affect the universal entropy?

When a magical girl falls into despair, her soul gem turns into a grief seed, which makes her a witch.

Sounds about right. Fun times all round! Good old 'Dokes.

  What does "projections of the magical girl's heart" mean?

Madoka is quite meta in it's Magic sometimes. Consider Wishes, which just break all laws ever, by Kyuubey's word. The exact mechanics beetween Witches and Familiars aren't touched on much beyond they're some kind of life cycle, but we can infer some things.

"Projections of the magical girl's heart before she became a witch." Since that's a one-way trip, witches would seem to have a finite pool of experience to base Familiars on.
Witches maintain barriers to protect themselves and entrap victims.
Familiars are a division of a Witch's essence who, after consuming several humans will grow into a Witch with their own barrier.

Witches seem to be creatures of emotion, given that they're born from grief, and their very appearance is a complex cocktail of the Girl's emotions, desires and fears. This makes the line about "projections of the heart" make more sense.

I imagine the process to be something like this.

Magical Girl becomes a Witch. Her appearance and powers are defined by her experiences prior.
Witch feels one of her remembered emotions in her essence
The emotion is so strong it is "divided out of the essence" and becomes it's own, autonomous being with it's own essence, based on that emotion.
Feeding on humans develops the familiar into a Witch somehow, at which point it can erect it's own barrier and become truly autonomous.

And an example:

Charlotte is a Witch. Her Magical Girl self loved cheese.
Charlotte wants cheese.
Charlotte really wants cheese.
Charlotte wants cheese so hard, that a little bit of "WANT CHEESE" pushes out of "her", subdivides from her essence and drops off.
Naturally it's entirely "WANT CHEESE" and is thus single-minded and weak.
It consumes a person. This somehow grows it's essence a little. It's a little smarter and stronger.
Repeat this until it's grown enough to handle a barrier. At this point, it can leave the vicinity of it's "parent" safely and can protect itself as a fully grown Witch.

Although, this does raise the question: Does every familiar bother hunting and killing people? How fast is their growth rate? The Witches in the series never seem to handle more than 10-20 people at once, maximum, so it may not be that viable, considering the Witch must need feeding too. Food for thought. (haha)

  Does it mean a magical girl can become more than one witch?

By the logic we've been presented with, I can see no reason why not. Though, there's no mention of whether a Familiar grows into it's parent Witch, or something else. It does raise questions about "Witch Farming" as a viable tactic though.

Kyouko's "Wait around until they become Witches" seems a very passive route. Why not directly feed your Familiars humans if you really don't care? Looks like the goodness of a girl's heart is the only thing keeping us safe. Fitting, non?

Note:

From discussion in the comments, it's become clear that we don't really know if Familiar!Witches actually drop Grief Seeds apart from these lines from Kyouko

  "You just have to wait until it eats four or five people and becomes a witch. That way, you'll be able to get a Grief Seed from it. Why would you want to slaughter the chicken before it lays any eggs?"

Yes, Kyouko thinks they do, but we never actually see it happen. Thus, it makes the next section only relevant if they do. If they don't, everything's fine and there's no imbalance in the first place, so potato-patato.

  Also, how does this affect the universal entropy?

The same way the rest of the series does, this doesn't necessarily change anything.

Initially thinking about this, yes, I got a little freaked if you could potentially get fifteen witches where you had one, and that'd definitely throw something somewhere down the line off.

But when you get down to it, there are a few points of information we can use.

Magical Girls have been around for a looooong time. Consider the historical ones we see for sure. In fact, Kyuubey flat out states we'd still be in caves without his kind, so that kind of dates them. Though, if you trust his word is another matter entirely.
Only with "The Most Powerful Witch" will Incubators have offset Entropy for any reasonable amount, and she was ludicrously powerful. I won't reason about it here for plot's sake but she's a complete fluke is my point.

So, threading this together.

If Magical Girls have been around for a long time and only now, with this completely, universally, OP Witch, will we actually make a dent, we can infer that the Entropy paid back for a "normal" witch isn't actually that much. Kyuubey can harp on about his "tremendous amount of energy" all he wants, but from the looks of things they aren't really doing a whole lot.

The way Kyuubey treats the girls, even apart from his alien detachedness, would suggest that they're disposable to him. And they are, because this entire scheme is ultra-long-term. He has a quota to reach, yes. But his deadline is literally the death of the Universe. A girl here or there, a few witches, it doesn't matter. Thousands, millions, now they might matter. But the impact of the average individual Girl or Witch doesn't seem to. Thank you for making me logic out this horrifying new revelation, I really enjoyed it. :)

Thus:

Normal Witches are worthless in the grand scheme of things, since we've been fighting them for years and Kyuubey makes no mention of progress.
Entropy would need many multiples of the time Magical Girls have been around to even begin to be repaid.
So you can have ten, fifteen witches from one girl and it's still chump change.

And yes, this means there are ten, fifteen Witches in the locality now. But all Kyuubey has to do to rebalance the teams is lie to three, four little girls. And we all know how good he is at that!


How was Kanbaru's contract made void? I just finished episode 8 of the Bakemonogatari series, and I'm slightly confused about how Kanbaru was saved. If I'm not mistaken, Oshino states that there are two ways to save Kanbaru:

Cutting off her arm
Somehow making the contract with the rainy devil unachievable and void

Clearly the second option was taken, but I'm not sure how the appearance of Senjougahara and her subsequent actions made the contract void. It seems clear to me that the "voidness" of the contract stems from the fact that Kanbaru wasn't able to actually permanently kill Araragi. However, I'm not quite sure how doing so would violate the terms of her contract in light of Senjouhara's comment to the effect of "I would kill you if you killed Araragi". Is this simply because there are also some other "terms" to the contract (e.g. Kanbaru has to be alive) or is this perhaps because both her "conscious" (to be with Senjougahara) and "unconscious" (to kill Araragi) wishes have to be taken into account?

One way to explain this would be that it's impossible for the Rainy Devil (possessed Kanbaru) to kill Araragi, and so the contract is automatically impossible to complete. Had the Rainy Devil known that, it wouldn't've agreed with such condition. But because it seems too simple and there are many things hinting that this wasn't the deal breaker, here's another way to explain this:

The whole deal with the Rainy Devil is that it's a devious creature and will try to fulfill its owner's wish as deviously as possible. Remember how the first time Kanbaru wished to be faster than her classmates? Rainy Devil beat 'em up so they couldn't compete. Now guess what Kanbaru wished for concerning Senjougahara.

Because Kanbaru wished to be close friends with Hitagi and then suddenly Araragi appeared on the horizon, becoming Hitagi's boyfriend, the Rainy Devil decided that in order to gain Senjougahara's love (and let's not forget exactly how much Kanbaru prefers girls over boys), Araragi would have to be removed from the picture. By death, of course, because it's Rainy Devil.

So after Senjougahara waltzed in on Rainy Devil and Araragi's one-sided battle and explained that if Koyomi were to die, she'd never stop until Kanbaru, who caused all this, was dead, which would make Kanbaru's wish to become close friends with Senjougahara impossible to be fullfilled by killing Koyomi.


Wouldn't Yuta destroy the world every time he takes a bath? Yuta Iridatsu has a strange power:

  If Yūta sees a girl's panties twice in a row, the Earth will be destroyed by a meteor.[1]

But also

    Yūta is biologically female [1]

Meaning that he

   always was a boy inside a girls' body for a long time, ever since the accident when they escaped the lab.

Assuming he kept proper hygiene (else the other tenants would've kicked him out a long time ago) and

   Meika seems to be the only one that knows Yuta is biologically female - until she reveals the fact to the other tenants before the new year.

Wouldn't Yuta have caused the meteor to strike several times already?

Since it is an original anime series, there is little canon material outside the videos themselves.

So lets attempt to delve into Yuuta's psyche using another strongly male-self-identifed character: Ranma Saotome.

Ranma could change back into a boys' body, but nowhere in the whole series he got turned on by his own female body. There were times when he was embarassed, but even when male and female Ranma got separated, there were no chemistry between them, at least from the male side. (chapter ref pending).

We can also bring the panty fanservice that is abundant in shonen titles.

  These factors all come into play for the Japanese panty fetish. First, panties were long associated with the risque. Not only do they cover up desirable bits, but they also have a strong association with high-class prostitution. Second, panties tend to reflect a lady’s personal tastes in fabric, lace, and design. They also have connotations of wealth since originally only the wealthy could afford such luxuries. Finally, the up-skirt shot originated from when women were adapting to the less constrictive Western styles and developing feelings of shame with underwear exposure. These associations merged into the panty fetish and fan service we see in Japanese culture and anime today. (ref)

Also, Yuuta uses boxers. Maybe it gets a little loose in the front, but lets assume he is used to it.

In ep9 flashback at 15:30, Narugino and Yuuta stumble onto each other on the front porch, causing Yuuta's bag to burst open. Narugino accidentally grabs one of Yuuta's boxers.

So, from these arguments:

Yuuta is not turned on by his own female body
Yuuta has a panty fetish. We can safely assume he is more turned on by a pretty (or daring!) panty than naked female genitalia.
Yuuta does not uses female underwear. We can also consider that Chiyoko's (Narugino original body) teen body is underdeveloped, and he does not need a bra, or uses other ways of holding/hiding the breasts.

We can then add the final statement: When he returns to his body in ep7, Chiranosuke (the ghost cat) tells him that if his Uberfy goes overboard in his spirit form, the physical body (possessed by another timeline's Yuuta) dies.

So, if he bathes on his physical body, he would only drop unconscious from over Uberfy-ing if he did Uberfy from his own female body (we showed he wouldn't).

Also there is the issue if viewing the same thing twice in a short time counts as two viewings. Every time he blew up he had seen two separate sets of panties.


Which volume of novel or chapter of manga should I read next in Chrome Shelled Regios? I finished watching Chrome Shelled Regios a while ago. I'm  now planning to read the light novel or manga. Having watched the anime, which volume (of the light novel) or chapter (of the manga) should I start at?

As Krazer notes in his comment, the anime adapts the novel up to volume 7, chapter 2. So you should start from chapter 3. There are 24 volumes in all.


How did Toru and Koji pass the entrance exam in My Hero Academia? I have seen some comments and speculations about the robot having an off switch or whatever. But I want to know if there is any source material or comment from the author on how they managed to pass the exam.

I have only seen the actual author's comment on Mineta:

But I was wondering if there are author notes for the other characters.

A partial answer for Toru Hagakure and an unsupported thought for Koji Koda. Bottom line is we don't know, but we can make some pretty good guesses.

As with Mineta's case, it is pretty straightforward to score points. As mentioned in the author notes you've provided,

  And remember that the rules of the Entrance Exam was to immobilize or render the villain-bots unable to function anymore, not necessarily destroy them.

IIRC, there was a switch off button on the Villain Bots, which Hagakure used to disable them and hence pass the entrance exam. Will try to find the source.

Also, her quirk is more than transparency/invisibility and is some sort of light manipulation as seen in the Provisional Hero Licences Arc, where she

   blinded a group of participants using the light from Aoyama's Laser.

Now, Koji can talk to animals and order/request them to help. In a city setting, while it may be tough, I think he would communicate with animals such as rats/birds to help him immobilize the Villain Bots. Birds attacking sensors or rats eating through the wires.

Another thing that we may be missing is Rescue Points. Each individual's overall score is unknown, but we do know that everyone but Bakuro (Only Destroyed) and Midoriya (Only Rescue Points) scored a combination of both points. Since both these individuals are shown to be very "nice", I'd assume they got their fair number of rescue points.


How did the "S" quincy heal his eardrums? The "S" quincy has the special ability to fully recover from damage after hearing the cheers of his followers.

However, how did he recover from his wounds after destroying his eardrums in his fight with the Captain of the 3rd Division?

He receives the benefits of the cheering even though he could not hear the cheers of James as seen in this page, this page, and this page.


Who was Meruem in his human life? It is said Chimera Ants made from humans keep some of the characteristics from their human life. Do we have any hint about Meruem's human identity ?

I believe that because his birth was fueled by so many humans it is impossible to say that he was born from any particular one despite clearly having human DNA and features. This is similar to the way Youipi was born from a magical beast. The King, as he explains in his fight with Netero is instead the culmination of his entire species' evolution.


Is their a difference between Rurouni Kenshin & Samurai X? I was told there was a difference between Rurouni Kenshin & Samurai X but I've only seen Rurouni Kenshin. Are they really different and if so can you explain how?

No, there isn't. It called a localisation editing.

  Localisation is an essential process in releasing anime outside of Japan. It can cover a range of different processes depending on the individual title and the desired result. At its most basic level, the localisation process is responsible for deciding on romanised character and term names, as well as episode titles


What did Archer learn first, The Sword or Archery? The Archer from the Fate:SN series is both a great archer and a great sword/knife user. Since he's Archer, you would think that he was an archer first.
However, I have been told that apparently,

  Archer is the future Shiro.

Since this character learnt swords first why was he the archer and not an Assasin, a Sabre or something else. What did the Archer learn first, the Sword or the bow?

since Shiro started to use swords first

That is incorrect.

This is not clear neither from the anime nor from the VN, but Shiro is highly skilled in archery way before the story starts. This is why he is hanging around archery range early in the story.

Somewhere I read that Shiro was so good, he had to put effort into actually missing the target. He stopped practicing archery because he was bored of succeeding while putting no effort into it.

It was only after Holy Grail War started that he began to actually use swords and copying Archer's style.


What is this leg accessory that Noelle wears? In Black Clover: Quartet Knight, Noelle wears an accessory on her legs.

What is that clothing thing on her legs called?

Aren't those just called leg warmers? Other characters like Hinamori Amu (Shugo Chara), Kagamine Rin and Len (Vocaloid), and Rock Lee (Naruto) are known to wear them.


Is this "trope" intentional in Haikyuu? In Haikyuu, one will find scenes in which characters' faces affects the wires of net i.e the wires of the net fades out where the faces coincides. This is somewhat making the animation unrealistic. Is this intentional? Did the author intentionally faded out the wires? What advantages is it serving? For context, see this picture:

Yes this is done by the animators on purpose I believe. It's so the viewers can see the full extent of the facial expressions of the person behind the net. This actually happens very often in Haikyuu. If you notice the net isn't faded out over his whole head it's just faded out over his face. This makes sense because his hair doesn't really matter to the context or anything, but his facial expressions can tell us a lot. I don't think this makes it that unrealistic.


Why did the Grail try to grab Gilgamesh instead of Shinji? In UBW, when Rin removes Shinji from the Grail, the Grail attempts to take him back (with little hands). Then it grows a massive hand, but instead of going for Shinji, it goes for Gilgamesh to replace its core. Why didn't the hand try to retake Shinji, if he was much closer than Gilgamesh?

One could argue that Gilgamesh would be much more fit to be the Grail's core, but I'm not sure if that's explicitly mentioned or not. Besides, Shinji's body was doing the job just fine I think.

I'll offer a few reasonable-sounding hypotheses.  Some of which I can support, but others I can't.  Maybe one of us can then find some evidence to either support or dismiss the others afterwards and thus post a more solid answer.

The grail is acting instinctively.  It goes after Rin/Shinji first because they're closest.  But then it gets attacked by Archer, and decides those two must be too dangerous.  It then moves to the next closest target: Gilgamesh.
After the Lesser Grail is destroyed, its targets are now limited to things it has a connection to.  Gil, being a nearby servant with a physical body produced by the mud, is the only option left.  Thus, even though it got curb stomped the first time around, its only choice for survival is to go after Gil.  It may also be aware that Gil is weakened and injured, and so expects less of a problem.
Shinji's body wasn't really doing "just fine".  Rin remarks that the giant fleshy mass is a result of Shinji being too poor a vessel to really contain the Grail.  He was only "just good enough" to get the ball rolling.  We know in the HF route that vessel there has no real problems containing the grail.
On the second attempt, Gil admonishes the grail for apparently not being aware that a servant can't serve as its core.  In particular, this would mean that Gil is actually not suited to be the core at all.  This could be more evidence of the grail's instinctual behavior: it is either too stupid to have reasoned behavior, or it is so desperate that it's willing to gamble that it can make it work somehow (or buy itself time to find a real solution).


How could someone with Magic wield the Anti-magic weapons? The Witch Queen told Asta and his friends a bit about the history of the elves in Black Clover Episode 65. She stated that the elves possessed great magical abilities and were so strong that many of them were her equal in terms of magical strength (and she is very prideful; for her to admit that says a lot.)

What is really baffling me thou is when she stated that the leader of the elves was the former wielder of the Anti-Magic weapons that Asta currently uses, which subsequently blew Asta's mind and mine too!

How is it possible if people with Magic can't wield them?
We know that the only reason that Asta can use those swords is because he was born without magic and hence the sword does not weaken him. However, the leader of the elves possessed strong magical powers and yet he could still wield the Anti magic weapons. Even the Wizard King admitted that only people without Magic could wield those weapons. Are there any exceptional rules to how the Anti magic weapons work?

From recent manga all of this has been answered.

Three swords already have the ability we see today with the exception of anti magic. That is the Demon slayer sword already had the ability to cut and deflect magic when Licht was the owner of this grimoire. (This is why Licht was able to cut the storm in which Tetia the princess was stuck.) Similarly the Demon dweller sword already had the power to absorb surrounding people and the owner magic spells and release it as flying slash and to glow after it has absorbed certain amount of magic and the Demon destroyer sword other than able to cut magic and spells. It also already had the ability to absorb and remove the effect of spells.

So anyone with magic would have been able to wield them. This is why they were present in a four leaf grimoire because of its tremendous strength and also before this grimoire became five leaf grimoire these swords were shiny. It is after the grimoire became a five leaf grimoire and housed a demon that they became dark and shady and were able to absorb anti magic from the grimoire in which the demon resides.


Where is Sanji in this currently ongoing Dressrosa fight? Sanji appeared in the starting of the Dressrosa arc and fought with Doflamingo for a short span.

However, I haven't seen him in any of the ongoing Dressrosa fights (I mean he should have been there to defeat the executives or family of Doflamingo).

Or have I missed something in between?

Right now Sanji is amidst the fight with the Big Mom Pirates along with Nami, Chopper, Brook, and Kinemon's son Momonosuke. Then they were heading to where the Trafalgar's nakama were supposed to meet at Zou. Big Mom's pirates were after Caesar which was alsp with them. He was requested by Franky not to allow those Big Mom Pirates close to Dressrosa or else the Tontattas' efforts will be wasted (it doesn't seems to be logical enough to me though) and Sanji was granted the permission to annihilate Big Mom Pirates as Luffy has already challenged her. Here is the link showing Sanji group leaving for Zou.

I guess in the background the fight is still going on.

Edits and Updates:
This answer has heavy spoilers. Otakus who don't read manga are advised not to read the spoiler...

    The manga has completed the Dressrosa arc! And then in Chapter 795, it appears that Sanji and his team has left the Big Mom Pirates, as shown:   And from the background of the manga it appears they have already reached Zou. They escaped from Big Mom Pirates maybe because they (Big Mom Pirates) would’ve proved too much for Sanji and others. (It's an assumption. Nothing is specified canonically).

 Then in Chapter 801 the raise in the Bounty of the Straw Hat crew specified that Sanji was wanted alive!:   which may imply Sanji is an important personnel that the government needs!

 Now the latest Chapter 806 says Sanji is not present at Zou but in some trouble! Here:   Since Oda-Sensei is known for his cliff-hangers, this last page determines that Sanji was somehow overpowered and taken ALIVE. The Jack Pirate is strongly suspected to have taken Sanji! He might have taken Sanji for some personal gains from the Marines or to become a Shichibukai (like how Trafalgar Law did as mentioned in 6th line of 7th paragraph) since Doflamingo is no more a Shichibukai and a seat is vacant! These are just my HYPOTHESIS and where Sanji might currently be can only be declared by Oda-Sensei in the next few upcoming chapters!


Who is this woman called Hikari? I've read this manga called Sasurai Emanon (a.k.a. Emanon's Wanderings) about a girl who possesses all her ancestors' memories.

In some of the first few chapters a characters called Hikari made her appearance: she seems to be an acquaintance of the main character, but at a certain point (Chapter 7) there is this conversation:

It suggest that Hikari is some sort of time traveler, but it has never been explained and after this moment the character never appears in the story again.

The story seems to follow some series of novels: does the author explain something more about this character in these novels (or somewhere else)?

Hikari also appears in author's other work: Omoide Emanon (or Memories of Emanon), a collection of short stories (not the manga version, which only tells about chapter Omoide Emanon, not the rest). In fact, she appeared for the first time there.

She appears in chapter Ashibiki Daydream, which takes place in 1994. The synopsis by a Japanese reader (you can skip this and read the next spoiler block for Hikari's identity directly):

   Year 1994. There's a girl who suddenly appeared in front of Akira's room. After some time, they were living together in Akira's place. One day, Akira saw a girl who seems to be in same generation with Hikari. Her name was Emanon. After some days relying and be relied upon her, Hikari disappeared in front of Akira. Her traces of living in Akira's place also disappeared totally. When Akira was walking alone through a street back in 6-year university period, Akira realized there's no one who could remember Hikari. When Akira visited her hometown in a mountainous village, Akira met Emanon.

From another short review by Japanese reader:

   [...] Emanon told Akira about Hikari's secret. Hikari was a girl who had power to time-leap. Emanon have met her up to 1.2 trillion years ago.


Why is (action-adventure) anime so focused on teenagers? I've been a fan of anime since Star Blazers in my childhood, but... I wonder about an overused cliche in anime action-adventure series: teenage prodigy heroes.

For example, the most popular action-based anime (as opposed to comedy or relationship-based) currently on Netflix and Hulu (as well as StackExchange tag frequency): Attack on Titan, Black Butler, Bleach, Death Note, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, Knights of Sidonia, Naruto, One Piece, Sword Art Online. All of them feature unusually capable teens as the lead protagonists. Adults are supporting characters, or entirely absent.

Certainly there are exceptions (Samurai Champloo, etc), and this trope is also seen in the US (e.g. Adventure Time, Avatar, Young Justice, etc) but it's a matter of degree. Non-child heroes are not a rarity in western animation (Avengers, Batman, Tranformers, etc).

Is this a real thing in Japanese culture, and if so what does it mean? Or is it just a USA-based artifact of marketing (i.e. this particular subgenre is actively emphasized for translation) or audience (i.e. non-child anime is just as common but has less active fans)?

Action/Adventure anime is typically catagorized under shounen - which means adolescent males.
People like other people who are like themselves. In this case, adolescent males empathize and therefore like shows about other adolescent males being heroes.

The "exceptions" you listed are typically listed under seinen, which don't target just young people.

As for the difference, there are plenty of novels written for young adults featuring teen heroes, just look at Hunger Games or the slew of vampire books or harry potter. You just see so much more of it in Japan because there are so much more teenagers reading manga, reading novels, and watching anime.

Please see these questions for more information - What are the differences between types of anime? or Why is most anime centered on fighting?


Law regarding doujinshi Doujinshi, as defined on Wikipedia, are self-published works. While not all doujinshi are derived from other manga, they mostly are, like the many Touhou and Naruto doujins. The works that they are derived from are mainly those with copyrights, meaning that the characters depicted in those original works are also protected and thus cannot be used without consent of the copyright holders. However, as we can see from Yuru Yuri, Oreimo and the Comiket in real life, doujinshi are sold in Comiket. When they are derived from other works and sold, it means that their use is for commercial purpose, which would be very likely prohibited by the copyright holders. Yet, they keep selling doujinshi in every Comiket and the police ain't doing anything about it.

Thus my question: what is the law behind doujinshi? Does every doujinshi sold in Comiket have a written consent from the copyright holders? Or is it the case that by labeling their works as doujinshi, they are exempted from the copyright law? What about the R-18+ doujinshi?

To understand the Japanese law, you need to learn the idea of "Antragsdelikt" (親告罪, shinkokuzai).
This means if copyright holder doesn't complain about the doujinshi, it's not illegal.

Most publishers in Japan don't prohibit doujinshi (at least explicitly), thus it's not illegal. It's because many commercial manga authors also create doujinshi, and publishers hire manga author from Comiket, so both are in same ecosystem. If publishers prohibit doujinshi, it also "kills" manga authors.

Some mangas like UQ Holder! or Knights of Sidonia" were marked explicitly to allow doujinshi.

Symbol of Doujin Mark License, courtesy of Wikipedia

Many 18+ game makers like Key, Alice or Nitroplus have explicit permit to create doujinshi based on their game. In this case, doujinshi is totally legal.

But when a publisher starts to complain about it, doujinshi will become illegal. For example, there is a doujinshi that titled "The last episode of Doraemon". The original author of Doraemon died before writing the last episode and no one knows the story of the official last episode. The doujinshi contains a fake last episode. In this case, the publisher of Doraemon complained and the author of the doujinshi stopped distributing it.

The future of doujinshi is not clear. If Japan join to the TPP, it will enforce US style copyright system to Japan. Many doujinshi authors are afraid that it means the end of doujinshi world.


What differentiates manga from other comics? What is a characteristic attribute relating to the visual aspect for a manga, differential to western comics like from DC or Marvel? For example the way they draw the eyes. In mangas they are much more complex and they look not even real.

Are there other clear attributes like that? And why is it common to draw them like "unreal" persons in Japan?

One thing I noted for sure is that Manga usually is not drawn in the same style they use for X-Men, Batman, Superman (DC Comics or Marvel).

Muscles
They tend to be drawn slimmer & less muscular. When they are drawn muscularly, the muscles tends to have more packs (not sure what's that called) than that in American comics. A simple comparison is between Goku of Dragon Ball and Superman. Goku has more packs than Superman.

Hair
Also, Manga character hair tends to be spikey, while American comics are not. For example Tony Stark of Iron Man and Natsu Dragneel of Fairy Tail.

Eyes
Manga tends to draw the characters with big, round eyes. This is especially true in girls manga (shoujo manga).

Expressions
Well, American manga don't draw jaw-dripping expressions like manga do, or panic character having >.< eyes.

Sound Effects
Another this is that effects in American comics are usually drawn inside a spikey bubble, while in manga, they are usually just written in big hiragana or katakana letter.


How did Moegi acquire the Wood release Wood release is the kekkai genkai of the Senju clan (originally the God trees sacred ability and also the Otsutsuki clans Kekkai Genkai), however, Moegi is able to do it by combining Water and earth style. Does this mean being able to combine 2 elements can allow anyone to use an advanced element?  We know Orochimaru used to perform experiments on merging Hashirama's cells with small children but Sarutobi Hiruzren (the Third Hokage) put an end to it.

Moegi did not have the wood style ability while she was younger plus the experiments that Orochimaru did with Hashirama's DNA were destroyed earlier in the series. So how did Moegi suddenly become able to use it at adulthood?

One thing before i answer the question: wood style is not the senju clans bloodline. in order for it to be a clans bloodline, multiple people in said clan would have to be able to use it. i believe that hashirama was able to use wood style due to being the reincarntion of asura. asura is an otsutsuki and as we found out, the otsutsuki clan can use wood style. as for how moegi can use it i believe that she is capable of using yin-yang release and combine it together with her water style and earth style thus creating wood stlye. now before you say i'm wrong think about this: hagoromo was able to CREATE life by utilizing yin-yang release. also, yin release creates form from nothing while yang release creates life, combine those two and you have a living life form. this is just my theory. hope this helped :)
Edit: genjutsu uses yin release, Outer Path's ability uses yang release, Creation of All Things utilizes yin-yang release, using both imagination to make the Tailed-Beasts bodies while at the same time gives life to forms without any. 670 page 17, 449 page 1-3


Why did the Sound and Sand villages want to destroy the Leaf Village? I want to know why did the Sound and Sand Villages want to destroy the Leaf Village? Also, later on, how had the Sand and Leaf Villages made up with each other?

It's been a while since I watched Naruto. But I believe it was because of the following reasons. If you haven't already gone through the whole arc, then these might be spoilers for you up ahead.

   Orochimaru obviously had a personal grudge against the Hidden Leaf village and the Third Hokage who was also his former mentor. And it was him who put an end to his secret experiments back when he was still a leaf shinobi. He continues his quest for immortality and wanted to destroy the village for his personal reasons. He managed to compel the Fourth Kazekage for assistance in destroying the hidden leaf. The Sand village was suffering badly economically and the Fourth Kazekage saw it as an opportunity to improve their economic condition by taking over the Hidden Leaf and also severely weakening the Leaf Shnobi forces, thereby naturally creating more opportunities for the Sand shinobi to get hired for missions. Orochimaru however, betrayed the fourth Kazekage and killed him. He himself then posed as the Kazekage at the Chunin exams to successfully infiltrate the Leaf village.

For the next part of the question:

   The sand village's already financially weak state got worse when they realized that the Kazekage had been murdered and their team including their trump card, Gaara had been defeated. Although they emerged victoriuos after a great loss, the Leaf village still let the Sand village off even after they had tried to destroy them, mostly because it had been Orochimaru who had been pulling the strings. Gaara was brought back to his senses after going on a rampage. The Sand village owed the Leaf. And Gaara himself owed a personal debt to Naruto for stopping him and making him see things clearly. When they heard about the Leaf crisis when Sasuke abandoned the village and there were no Jounin level ninjas available, the Sand village dispatched Gaara's squad to assist to settle their debt and also extend a hand for a Sand-Leaf alliance. I am not entirely sure about this but I think it was Tsunade who managed to get the Sand village to assist in the situation.


When does the Heroes Rising movie take place? The movie is showing in theaters now and I've read that there are some spoilers from the manga even if you're caught up to the series.

Is it known when this movie takes place?

The movie takes places some time after the ending of the 4th Season of BnHA, sometime in the winter season (but the action is placed on a tropical island). It is also said that possibly the events that take place only happen in the movie.

From the interview with the movie director:

  Nagasaki: "Yes, we did use an element that was originally planned in
  the manga's last battle and used it towards the end of the movie.[...]
  Besides, Horikoshi-sensei told us "I'll create an even better ending
  anyway, so it's all good".

So it's not really an actual spoiler for the manga readers, more that the movie adapted some of Horikoshi's previous ideas for the ending of the manga.


When was it first shown that Shanks was in XXX's crew? At which point was it shown that Shanks and Buggy were in Gol D. Roger's crew?

I searched the One Piece Wikia and it was not clear. My friend is in Alabasta arc and I am afraid of spoiling. I don't know if this was already shown...

There have been many subtle hints about Shanks and Roger connections throughout the story. Afaik, it was first confirmed to the Straw Hats in the Sabaody Archipelago Arc. They meet the Vice Captain of Roger Pirates "Dark King" Silvers Rayleigh, who talks about Shanks and Buggy being apprentices as part of Roger's Crew.

However, there have been many hints thrown around throughout the series about this. Here in the Buggy's Arc we see Rayleigh telling off Buggy and Shanks

The actual confirmation of the Hat was much later. We know that Shanks gave Luffy the Strawhat, but it was Roger's was confirmed much later, post time-skip.


How strong did Neia Baraja become, and what caused it? So in Volume 13 of the light novel in Overlord, (spoilers)

   it's clear that Neia gets stronger, however I'm not sure just how strong she becomes. For example, during the archery training, she manages to get perfect shots but indicates that she was not able to do so previously. Moreover, the first time she used the Heavy Recover spell, she was able to only use it once before running out of mana, but later she displays the ability to use it multiple times. If one were to compare her to the ranking system used by adventurers (copper, iron, bronze, etc., adamantite), where would she rank?

Also

   I'm a bit confused on how the leveling system works in the New World. Ainz mentions that he is unable to increase his levels and XP by killing off over 100,000 soldiers in the battle with the Re-Estize Kingdom, so how can Neia get stronger?

About Neia:

   During Volume 12, she only had levels as Squire and Archer. Squire is a special class that can have its levels converted into any other. After being resurrected and "converting" to the Ainz Cult, her levels as Squire turned into Paladin Lv. 2, Evangelist Lv. 2 and Founder Lv. 4, while her Archer class turned into Sacred Archer Lv. 3. Being overall Lv. 9, she'd be a low-middle-tier adventurer. Gazef Stronoff was judged by Ainz to be around Lv. 30, and he was considered to be stronger than the Blue Rose members, except maybe for Evil Eye. Her Archer class getting upgraded is probably the reason her aim got better (along with the Bow she got from Ainz), and her new Paladin class (and probably Evangelist and Founder) gave her some proficiency with healing magic, which is why she got better at using the Heavy Recover spell.

And about leveling

   Ainz mentions that HE didn't gain any EXP from killing all those soldiers, but he doesn't know if it was because their levels were too low and he couldn't gain EXP from them or if there's another reason. We really don't know much about how leveling works in the New World, which is why Ainz was having that Death Knight train alongside Hamusuke, he wanted to know if Yggdrassil monsters/NPCs can learn Martial Arts or train in new classes; but so far, only Hamusuke was shown to be able to learn Martial Arts.


What's the song that plays in season 1 episode 11 at 16:33 Does anyone know the song that plays in season 1 episode 11 at 16:33 where bakugo reassures kirishima that his classmates will be ok?

Do you mean after Bakugo reassures Kirishima that "if the enemies are small fries like these, then they will be alright"? The song played after that scene is called "Hero A". I hope this is the one you are looking for.


What ruleset is used for the Prefecture and National tournaments? Riichi mahjong has a number of different variants in terms of rules, scoring, allowed hands, etc., even at the pro level in real life. Most of these rarely come into play, but when they do they can have a big impact on the game. In the Saki anime, the rules they are playing with are sometimes referenced (for instance, no multiple yakuman, robbing a closed kan for kokushi musou is allowed, and pao is applied for rinshan kaihou).

However, a lot of the other, more mundane rules aren't shown in the anime (e.g. whether a player may call for a redeal if they start with a lot of terminals and honors, the validity of open tanyao hands, whether renhou, shiisanpuutā/shiisuupuutā are allowed, etc.). Is there any official word on what ruleset is being used for these tournaments?

It's been two years since this question was posted, but since there's been no answer so far and a lot has happened since then, I thought I might have some fun and see what I could find.

Parts with * means that it happened outside of a tournament, e.g. at a training camp. For references I'm using the Saki and Achiga-hen mangas/animes only.

Basic yaku/han rules

Kuitan (open tanyao): Yes

Ippatsu (one-shot): Yes
Dora: Red (four), ura, kan, kan-ura
Sanrenkou/Suurenkou (3 or 4 consecutive triplets): No (Ch. 52 Saki)

Scoring rules

No-ten penalty: Yes
Tobi (going bust): Negative score, not zero (Ch. 42 Kana)

Koromo, being the sadistic loli she is, purposely cheapens her hand to drop Kana's score to exactly zero.

Tiebreaker after score: First dealership (Achiga Ch. 20 Awai)

Awai ignores a potential sanbaiman since it would make her tie in points with Shizuno, and because Shizuno's dealership was earlier Awai would end up behind.

Uma/oka (bonus points based on final placements): No (Ch. 11)
Double wind pair: 4 fu (Ch. 47 Saki)

Saki gets a 1 han 110 fu, which is only possible with this rule due to 102 fu being rounded up. For rules where this is 2 fu, it would be stuck at 100 fu.

Yakuman rules

Robbing a closed kan for kokushi: Yes (Ch. 36 Saki)

Saki avoids calling kan on a set of wests, being suspicious of Yumi's kokushi (which was 1-shanten at the time).

Double yakuman: No (Ch. 43, Ch. 51 Kana)

Hisa explains that there are no double yakumans in "this year's rules", so the rules most likely change from year to year.

Allowed yakuman: Either mentioned, attempted or actually won

Riichi tsumo toitoi Suuankou/Four closed triplets (Ch. 3 Saki*, Ch. 20 Kaori, Ch. 51 Kana, Ch. 125)
Kazoe-yakuman/Counted yakuman (Ch. 44 Kana, Ch. 52 Saki, Achiga Ch. 20 Himeko)
Kokushi musou/Thirteen orphans (Ch. 4 Saki*, Ch. 42, Ch. 48 Kana, Ch. 53 Yumi, Ch. 125, Ch. 140 Yukiko, Anime Ep. 21 Kaori)
Chinroutou/All terminals (Ch. 68 Hiroe)
Shousuushi/Little four winds (Ch. 56 Hatsumi, Ch. 89 Hatsumi)
Daisuushi/Big four winds (Ch. 125)
Tsuuiisou/All honours (Ch. 125)
Daisangen/Big three dragons (Ch. 13 Mai, Achiga Ch. 15 Takami)
Tenhou/Win on first dealer draw (Ch. 71)
Chiihou/Win on first non-dealer draw (Achiga Ch. 19 Awai)
Ryuuiisou/All green (Ch. 58 Kaori*)
(Possibly more)

General play rules

Daiminkan pao/sekinin barai (responsible for open kan rinshan): Yes (Ch. 52 Saki)
Temporary furiten: Yes (Achiga Ch. 6 Shizuno)

Shizuno could only win on 1-sou with a 2-3 wait, but could not ron in one of the rounds due to a 4-sou played earlier that round. Later she ignores a ron off one player in order to win off another.

Taahai (penalty for having too many tiles): Yes (Ch. 62 Maho*)

In the training camp Maho reaches to draw a tile even though she's dealer before the first discard.

Empty riichi: Yes, and counts as tenpai on draw (Ch. 27 Hisa)
Furiten riichi: Yes (Ch. 137 Yukiko, Anime Ep. 21 Mihoko)

Yukiko draws her winning closed 2-man but contemplates a furiten riichi to gain more points. Mihoko actually pulls off a furiten riichi against Hisa in the individuals, and wins with it.

Calling pon on a tile you just discarded: Yes (Achiga Ch. 8, Teru)
Dealer can extend leadership after last round: Yes (Achiga Ch. 10 Teru)
Going west (extra round added if no player gets at least 30000): Yes (Anime Ep. 21)

Halfway through Ep. 21 Mutsuki explains how Nanpo was able to make a comeback once it entered the south round, despite it being a tonpuusen (east-only game). Note that no round is added if the top player ends on exactly 30000, as Saki did in Ep. 22.

Draw condition rules

Kyuushuu kyuuhai (starting hand has 9+ terminals/honours): Yes (Ch. 140 Yukiko)

Yukiko says that "normally, one would abort the round" (普段なら流すところだけど), which suggests that she has the option to do so.

Suufontsu renda (all players discard same wind tile on first round): Yes (Ch. 73 Yuuki)

Yuuki reaches tenpai on the first round, but is forced to abandon it since it would require discarding a west, drawing the round.

(Possibly more)

Tournament room

People allowed: The four players only (Ch. 11)

Presumably this refers to the competing schools only, since tournament staff are seen in the room later in the same chapter.

Mobile phones: No point since they won't get any signal (Ch. 11)
Stuffed toys: Yes
Food: Yes
Taking off shoes and socks: Yes
Singing: Yes (Ch. 125 Choe)

The commentators go on to explain that this is allowed in European championships, but not for pro tournaments in Japan (interhigh is okay).

Throwing a tile into the air then slamming it down: Nobody complained (Ch. 25 Hisa)
Playing with tiles face down: Yes (Ch. 141 Megan)
Playing left-handed: Yes (Ch. 138 Yukiko, discussed in Ch. 142)

Other rules

Practice games for prefectural winners: Only against other non-prefectural winners (Achiga Ch. 3)

Similar rules seem to apply to the individual tournament (Achiga Ch. 7)

Vanguard for team tournaments: Must be Japanese (Ch. 108)

This rule was recently changed, since up until now Rinkai had all five members being foreign (Ch. 106).


When is Miss Monochrome's birthday? Title says it all. When is Miss Monochrome's birthday? Wikipedia only said that she first appeared in Horie Yui's concert in 2012 but mentioned nothing of her birthday.

Out of universe, I couldn't find anything except the Girlfriend Beta wiki page that senshin mentioned, which puts down her age and birthday as "???".

In the universe of the anime series, Miss Monochrome's birthday/activation date is probably unknown as well. As we see in Episode 9 of Series I, Miss Monochrome was created by an advanced human civilization that existed before the beginning of known prehistory. This civilization was wiped out by aliens in a human hunt.

After the death of her rival, a past-life version of Kikuko, Miss Monochrome sits at one spot and waits until her memories fade and her battery goes out and she disappears. Life evolves again on Earth, and millions of years later, she is reactivated by a pair of medieval Japanese villagers who luckily have an AA battery to put in her power stand.

The important part here is "her memory faded". Miss Monochrome would not remember her own birthday / activation date anymore, and anyone else who might have known died over 100 million years ago. Even if she did remember, it would be in the calendar system of the ancient civilization. If Miss Monochrome didn't know how to translate this into the Gregorian Calendar, no one would be able to, and I somehow don't think that learning the inner workings of the calendar was high on her list of priorities, even before she became brain-damaged.


Could a person do the shinigami deal without losing half his lifespan? Quick question, if you trade half of your life for shinigami eyes and it happens to save your life, would you lose only half of the time you would have lived, or would you somehow lose half of the life that you would actually live since the eyes saved your life?

Bad example:

1 and 2 in a room
2 has 1's name and is about to write his name down in his Death Note
1 doesnt have 2's name and can't write his down in his Death Note
1 would only have about 30 seconds to live
1 Trades half of his life for Shinigami eyes
1 Writes 2's name down without him knowing and before he writes 1's name down.

Would 1 have 30(-15) seconds to live, or x(÷2)? And there's always the possibility of having his full life and only losing 15 seconds, x(-15).

There are a few things wrong with your theory:

Death by Death Note doesn't count in the user's lifespan. Even if you have 80 more years to live, if I write your name down now you die 30 seconds later.
A Death Note will not work on someone with 12 minutes or less left to live. According to How to Use: XXIX.

So no, the user would lose half of his original lifespan. The only way to extend a lifespan is to get a Shinigami to die for you.


What's the music from Naruto Shippuden in episode 175/500 What is the name of the song in episode 175, in which the naruto ends a prayer at Jiraya's grave?
And this song also appears in episode 500, when the naruto asks Iruka to be his father at his wedding?

''Guts to never give up'' or ''Jiraiya's death theme''
source


Should the name of the main character in "Fate Kaleid Liner" be "Illya" or "Ilya"? As the title says, I'm looking for the correct way of spelling her name. Additionally, it would also be appreciated if the general translation for names is explained.

Both "Ilya" and "Illya" are official spellings of her nickname. "Ilya" is used on the TYPE-MOON's official website and in the fan translation of the game, but "Illya" tends to be used elsewhere, especially in merchandise.

Illyasviel von Einzbern Wikia Page: Citation 3


Sources for Christian themes and motifs in Naruto? Compared to some of its contemporary shounen titles, Naruto draws heavily on a variety of religious and mythological sources to inform its narrative, themes and cosmology. Kishimoto's use of explicit Hindu, Buddhist and Shinto motifs has already been discussed in a number of places. Common elements identified include deity names for jutsu, shamanic activities such as obtaining the eyes of others to 'see' as they do, making pacts with animal and other nature spirits, summoning 'demons' such as Susanoo, etc (Shinto, heavily associated with the Uchiha clan); Jimmu Tenno motifs for both Rikodu Sanin and later Naruto himself, such as his magatama and staff of 6 rings, manifestation of Gedo Mazu upon a lotus, etc (Buddhist, heavily associated with the Senjuu/Uzumaki clans); chakra, the 6 lokas (worlds) and 6 components of the bhavachakra corresponding to the 6 paths of Pein and referenced with the Rikodu Sanin as well, the Garuda, Jashin religion (apparently influenced by the Thug cult) and the battle between Indra and the Ashuras, complete with spiky hair imagery for his protagonist (and to a lesser extent the antagonist) frequently associated with ashuras (who are known for great rage and passion) - probably derived from Toriyama's Dragonball, a major influence on Kishimoto (Hindu, many elements absorbed into Mahayana Buddhist culture).

However, relatively little work has been done examining Christian influences to date, though some have already pointed out elsewhere that there seem to be a number of Christian references appearing, especially towards the end of manga/anime series, for example:

Kaguya, a woman who ate forbidden fruit from a powerful tree and brought powerful but potentially evil forces into the world (chakra from the chakra tree) (Eve);
two of her descendants who were "brothers" (Asura/Indra then Naruto/Sasuke) fighting each other (Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau);
Sasuke, a betrayer who turned his back on his best friend for personal gain (Judas), yet Naruto repeatedly attempts to win him back, even to the extent of proclaiming his willingness to die in the effort (Jesus, the good shepherd); this eventually works and Sasuke repents and seeks forgiveness for his behavior (prodigal son);
Naruto as a messiah figure who was prophesied (by the Toad Sage) to save the world (plus his 'Christ the Redeemer' poses on high points, e.g. chap. 245);
Naruto as the new Sage, who was the progenitor of the ninja world (Jesus as the new Adam);
wooden memorial crosses marking the graves of Zabuza and Haku;
frequency of resurrection jutsu (by Pein, Madara, Kabuto etc), even mass resurrections of the dead;
Adam Barkman has suggested the use of crucifixion motifs (presumably referring to Kakashi's tortue by Itachi and/or the rongusodo ninja ato: waiya haritsuke jutsu) as having Christian significance.

The heavy use of religous and mythological themes at the heart of Naruto, suggests that these may not be coincidental parallels. (This does not necessarily suggest that these examples were exclusively derived from Christian sources, e.g. the cosmic conflict between Naruto/Sasuke could be influenced by the primordial 'brotherly' conflicts in both Hinduism (Indra vs the Ashuras) and Christianity (Cain vs Abel) simultaneously.)

One potential source for such themes could be Kishimoto's favorite movie The Matrix, known to be a source of some artistic inspiration as well (The Art of Naruto: Uzumaki, 2007), which is filled with many overt Christian themes and images.

Is anyone aware of other sources that discuss Christian influences and sources on the text, e.g. interviews with Kishimoto, academic texts, discussion groups, etc?

I'd say that Kishimoto draws a lot from Christianity and other religions. It's not just similar stories by chance. The events you list from Naruto are almost the exact events that happened in the Bible. That's not just chance, nor is it surprising. Almost all elements and events in Naruto are influenced by outside forces. So, it's not surprising that the more supernatural seeming events would be influenced by religion.

I'd also like to add that, although Kishimoto hasn't went into full detail on all of the influences of Naruto, Christianity seems to be well known in Japan, considering it's influences in other anime and manga. The stories from the Bible are probably known by a large number of Japanese people. Especially the more important ones like the forbidden fruit, which has been referenced numerous times in other anime.

Here are some interesting subtle influences of Christianity in Naruto:

Danzo Shimura originally went by the nickname Kanzo when originally meeting with the Akatsuki, which appears to be a nod to Kanzo Uchimura, a protestant and creator of the Nonchurch Movement. Kinda like a rebel among religious bodies at the time, who often got fired because of his beliefs and practices.
Mifune is based off Toshiro Mifune a famous Christian actor. (I'd link to it, but I don't have enough reputation for more than 2)
Sasuke is not only similar to Judas, but Obito CALLED him Judas in the manga, just before he became the Jinchuriki of the Juubi.

There's been evidence of Christianity's influence on Naruto before, but that latter example seems to act more as proof than evidence.

I feel like many people downvoted this simply because they didn't want it to be true, but Naruto takes influences from Christianity, and that shouldn't be thought of a bad thing. The influence of Christianity can make for some really cool narration if it's not Americanized propaganda (because everything here appears to be nothing but propaganda of some kind). Take Final Fantasy 7 as an example of this fact.


Which is the timeline where Vegeks Xeno appear? I was reading the Super Dragon Ball Heroes manga and it was more or less similar to the anime until chapter #3. There,

   Vegeta fights with Cell and after defeats him, he's attacked by a "demon god", knocking him out and forcing Trunks to use potara rings to fuse with him into Vegeks Xeno

Which is the timeline where this Vegeks Xeno appear?

It is an alternate timeline of the Age 767. This is basically the year when all the events involving the Androids and the Cell Games take place.


What happens when a seiyuu cannot continue working on a production? Voice acting is one of the many things that can make an anime movie, OVA or TV series successful or not, and some seiyuu gain their own followings or are treated like idols.

What happens if, say, a major character's seiyuu has an accident, dies or quits before the production is finished?

Has this ever happened, and if so, what were the consequences, measures taken, and reaction from fans to those measures?

This happens occasionally. The most recent example that I can think of is when Kawaragi Shiho, the seiyuu of Nishizono Mio from Little Busters!, got pregnant. In fact, this is very recent, as she just gave birth last Friday (December 7th). Of course Mio isn't the main character, but she's not a minor character either.

In this case, they just replaced her (with Tatsumi Yuiko). That's about the only real option they have most of the time. Unless the problem is only for a very short duration, the entire show is not going to be delayed for one seiyuu. If it happens well in advance and the character is pretty important, they can probably work around it. Gotou Yuuko (seiyuu for Hiro from Hidamari Sketch), who was on hiatus for a while this year for health reasons but is back now in Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb, is a good example of this. However, this is a pretty atypical situation, and the other shows she was in mostly got replacements.

In the end, unless the character is crucially important, it's very likely that they'll get a replacement, since it's pretty much the only realistic option. If something like this happens for a popular character in the off-season, it can also affect the possibility of sequels (e.g. most shows with Aya Hirano leads probably aren't in the sequel market). It usually doesn't hurt the seiyuu's career too much if it occurs for good reasons e.g. health, but some impact is inevitable.


is Tina Sprout an initiator and a mechanical soldier? In the subbed episodes of Black Bullet I'm watching, if rightly translated, they seem to say Tina Sprout is a mechanical soldier? is this so? Why an initiator who already has superhuman habilities (enhaced strenght, speed, recovery, etc.) would need mechanical parts?

Yes, Tina Sprout is both a Cursed Child (Initiator) and a mechanical soldier.

Initiator inquiry into Tina Sprout’s name. Her IP rank is 98. She’s an owl Initiator and one of the enhanced NEXT soldiers. I saw her specs, and her numbers are terrifying. Enju will be killed!”
Kanzaki, Shiden. Black Bullet, Vol. 2: Against a Perfect Sniper (p. 125). Yen Press. Kindle Edition.

Why? It makes her the perfect sniper and assassin. Her mechanical implants allow her to make extraordinary shots that she would not be capable of even with her Initiator powers by providing her control over her body and mechanical systems like Shenfield (or automated guns for attacking) that can feed information directly to her brain

This was Tina Sprout, and just like Rentaro, she had a sniper rifle loaded and ready, ignoring said “Big Brother” as she kept a watchful eye down her scope. The Bits that formed part of her aiming system flitted at regular intervals between her and the target Gastrea. Those were the infantry of sorts for her Shenfield, a thought-driven interface that, like so many buoys strewn across the sea, transmitted wind speeds and other pertinent sniper information directly into her brain.
Kanzaki, Shiden. Black Bullet, Vol. 5 (light novel): Rentaro Satomi, Fugitive (Kindle Locations 257-260). Yen Press. Kindle Edition.

.

“The man in the video used an advanced version of that. With a neurochip implanted in his brain, he can control a number of devices with just his thoughts. Those Bits are like scouts. They have precise observation instruments installed, and they send information about the location of the target, including its coordinates, temperature, humidity, angle, and wind speed, wirelessly to the brain of the operator. That’s why that man could shoot through the targets blindfolded. Of course, the surgery the sniper underwent was not just for this. “I have heard that shaking hands are also a great enemy to snipers. It is likely that a metal balancer was implanted in the body to completely shut down any movement to the hand from heartbeats or breathing. Putting something like that in is a piece of cake for someone like me or Ain. Rentaro, do you understand what this means?”
Kanzaki, Shiden. Black Bullet, Vol. 2: Against a Perfect Sniper (pp. 145-146). Yen Press. Kindle Edition.

As for the reason for the NEXT project, it can be gleaned from this passage.

“Rentaro, let’s do a simple calculation that even you can understand. Let’s assume that my New Humanity Creation Project and Ain’s NEXT have the same amount of hidden power. If we subtract the abilities of a mechanized soldier from you and that assassin, what do we have left? The unsurpassable wall between a human and an Initiator. Can a human beat a gorilla? Think about it carefully. Rentaro, just stay on the sidelines this time. There’s no need for you to take any more risks than you already have.”
Kanzaki, Shiden. Black Bullet, Vol. 2: Against a Perfect Sniper (p. 147). Yen Press. Kindle Edition.

The strength of a Cursed Child far exceed that of a regular human and the ability of an enhanced (mechanized) Cursed Child is superior to anything else


Is Guilty Crown on DVD in the USA, UK, or Australia? I've was checking out on Anime News Network to see if Guilty Crown has been released outside Japan:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=13001

According to the page above, Madman should have it. But, when I search for it, I only get 2 episodes from their screening room. When I search eBay, I only get Japanese imports and nothing from the United States or the UK.

Has Guilty Crown been released at all on DVD, or is it only available through streaming?

It has been released in the U.S., but I don't think there's any information available regarding the other two countries.

For the US, the show was licensed by Funimation. Wikipedia claims that the anime was planned to be released in 2012, but I'm fairly certain this did not happen. The release seems to have actually happened in August 2013. It's currently listed in Funimation's store in two DVD+Bluray combo packs. Other online stores including Amazon also carry it.

In the UK, the series was licensed by Manga Entertainment. It was listed as "planned for release in April [2013]", but their website still doesn't list the series in their list of titles. As such, it's pretty safe to conclude that no release has been made yet. Their Q2 release schedule also doesn't mention Guilty crown, so it may be delayed or cancelled.

For Australia, as you said the licensing organization is Madman Entertainment. I've looked through their website, but a search for "Guilty Crown" only brings up streams of the first 2 episodes. It is not listed on their release schedule nor on their full catalog. Also, the only news I could find regarding this was an announcement that the series would be streamed, but no announcements of plans for a home release. This suggests that they don't have any plans to do so, and likely have not bought the rights for a home release.

So, as of now, there is only a home video release in the U.S.. It's still quite possible that the UK will have releases of the series in the fairly near future. Australia is less likely to get a release anytime soon.


Do Sugar's powers nullify other devil fruits? It's been awhile since I read the Dressrossa Arc, so it might be in there (but I skimmed it and didn't see this specifically mentioned), but I was wondering: does Sugar turning someone into a toy make that person unable to use their devil fruit? Not to, like, hurt someone (since she basically uses the 3 Laws of Robotics) but in general/for day-to-day things?

It's hard to say. Hypothetically, a toy could still hold a devil fruit power since Dr. Vegapunk made it possible to give items devil fruit powers. However, the only Devil Fruit holder turned into a toy was Robin. Robin is seen very little as a toy: just right after she becomes one and the following episode (episodes are manga, but she is seen just as much in the anime). If Robin could use her power, her arms would likely be weak toy arms, so she never even tries to use it. This ultimately means we can't yet know the answer for certain and as far as I know, nobody has asked Oda. Both answers are equally likely.


Where is Aizen after the Quincies wreak havoc in Seireitei? Where is Aizen Sousuke after the Quincies wreak havoc in Seireitei? Last time he was seen, he was meeting the Quincy king, Ywach, and Ywach mentioned that during the short meeting, Aizen used his power on him. Does this means that Aizen has escaped? Did Ywach set him loose?

Aizen was sealed. It was revealed in chapter 617.

   He was released by Captain Kyouraku in chapter 617. Kyouraku himself didn't mean to release him completely, but somehow he is. It wasn't clear who destroyed the initial seals as Kyouraku used only the key to unseal Aizen's mouth. It was probably Yhwach who did that as Yhwach himself stated during his fight with Yamamoto Head Captain that he met Aizen.


How was Shoto Todoroki able to resist One for All? Something that I dont understand from My Hero Academia it's something characters which supposedly have average resistance (because their quirks arent about resistance) are able to resist One for All. For example, Shoto in it's battle with Midoriya (and wasnt this One for All 100%?) How was Shoto Todoroki able to resist One for All?

The answer is basically given in chapter 22 of the manga. When Midoria tells All Might that he managed to hit Nomu without breaking his arm, they come to the conclusion that Midoria subconsciously limited his power output to avoid causing lethal harm to other humans. Mostly possible, that during his fight with Todoroki, he has limited his power in the same way.


Why don't Bertolt and Reiner break the city walls? It's noted throughout the anime that there are titans that live within the walls and are what have been stopping the regular titans from being able to break into the city. Bertolt can kick walls down as he proves multiple times, Annie can even destroy the walls and she's the weakest of the special titans.

So why haven't Bertolt and Reiner broken down all of the walls up to this point?

The main reason is that wall is very thick, due to

   titans inside the wall

according to chapter 33 of manga.

Female Specie was able to breach outer layer, but to completely bust through wall, you need to get through inner layer.

Armored Titan and Colossus are focused on gates for same reasons - gates are weakest part of walls formation.


What is the proper romanization of the wolf-girl's name? There is a debate between fans as to the romanization of the name of the wolf-girl character in Spice and Wolf.

Some claim it should be romanized as Holo, whilst others say Horo.

Is there official word on which is correct?

According to Yen Press (the English publisher of the Spice and Wolf novels), they were instructed by the Japanese licensor to use "Holo".

Source:  This comment at Yenpress.com

There was also a scene in the anime, season 2 episode 4, showing a hand-written letter that included "Holo".

Poor writing, but I think it's obvious that it's an L not an R.


What does the LED on the NerveGear mean? I've noticed that all the various NerveGear iterations in Sword Art Online have three LED's on the left side, labeled POW, WAN, and BLK.

I think it's safe to say that POW is the power, and WAN is the internet connection.  What is BLK?

There is nothing confirmed as of now, however we can see that the most applicable name to give according to online discussions is Brain LinK (BLK)

The blinking may suggest a weak link or solid colored a firm connection and so on.


Where was Kurapika while Gon was dying? Title says it all. Kurapika was completely absent while Gon was almost dead. In the anime, it showed one flashback to Kurapika sitting on a chair, but thats all. Was this explained at all?

Kurapika was throwing a funeral for his dead family/clan members of the eyes he recovered and who knows what kind of stuff he went through to get them.
Also the condition Gon put himself in could make him even more depressed as Gon much sacrificed his life to get revenge especially when Gon was trying to stop Kurapika from being a killer that someone as pure hearted as Gon can even become a monster. Killua was upset since he couldn't fight Neferpitou with him side by side. Now imagine Kurapika who had no clue about the Ant's existance and what those two were going through and him being with them could of possibly prevented all the events till now from happening.
Also Gon partially got the idea of making a severe vow from Kurapika.
Basically a friend he made after being alone for so long went down the same path as him.