Is the girl waiting at the train station in Spirited Away from Grave of the Fireflies? Chihiro was traveling by train to the sixth station in Spirited Away (YouTube video). When the train passed the second station, there was a little girl waiting at the station.

Out of curiosity, I visited Google for some hints and was surprised to see some people say that the little girl's name is Setsuko from Grave of the Fireflies. She was waiting for her older brother.

Is the girl waiting at the train station in Spirited Away, Setsuko from Grave of the Fireflies?

I've tried searching around (in English) for people with this theory: I only managed to find one or two results that mentioned this when searching either for spirited away train station girl or spirited away train station setsuko.

That aside, the girl at the station doesn't obviously look like Setsuko. Setsuko generally looks rather small and (slightly) chubby, in a very childish way. (After all, Setsuko is only four-years-old or so.) This is the case even at the end of the film, where Seita and Setsuko look over Kobe in spirit form: the characters look the same age as they were at their deaths.

Meanwhile, the girl at the train station is somewhat taller and older in appearance. This girl also doesn't have Setsuko's hair (at least not overtly) and isn't wearing the sort of clothes we'd usually associate with Setsuko.

Absent such obvious markers, fan commentary, or any statements (e.g. in the form of art-book trivia) by the producers, I would conclude that this most likely isn't Setsuko.


Who is this ghost from episode 8 of Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou? Episode 8 of Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou features this ghostly character, who is not addressed by name during the episode:

Who is this supposed to be?

From reading the cast credits, I see that this person's name is probably フリーダ ("Frieda"?). Should I know who that is from having watched the anime (not Chuugakkou; the main one, which culminates with the female titan arc)? If not, please please please use spoiler tags - I've been religiously avoiding spoilers for the show for three years now in anticipation of season two, and would rather not break my streak.

You are absolutely right, that is Frieda Reiss, they even said that was Historia's sister in the show so I do not think you can consider it being spoilers anymore the moment you watched that episode. Yes, you would only know who she is if you read further in the manga until where they tried to get Eren to learn hardening.

Frieda is

  The holder of the Coordinate ability before Grisha Yeager and Eren Yeager. She held the ability until Grisha ate her in order to pass the ability onto Eren. After receiving the Coordinate, her personality changed. Due to being a Reiss, she fell under the will of the First King. She suffered from depression and sometimes her behavior changed from her regular self to another much more aggressive. She also thought that humans were all sinners who deserved a punishment.

What Historia said here was "Watashi, okiku nata ra, Onee-chan mitai ni nareru kana?", clearly referencing to the manga's later chapters already at this point by saying that "When I grow up, can I be like you, Older Sister?".


What is the meaning of the text on the hunter license? We know that these symbols have a meaning. Doing the equivalence, we obtain some words in the Japanese language.

What does it mean in English?

It should be something like this in Japanese:

ハンターライセンス
ハンターライセンスカードについて
本カードは 本人以外使用不可能でず
紛失視された際 ライセンスが剥奪される
事はありませんが カードの再発行はどきません

Which would roughly mean

Hunter License
About the Hunter License Card
This card cannot be used by anyone other than the proprietor
In case of loss, the license is revoked

I have some trouble with the last line but it's something about the card not being reissueable.


In Charlotte, when Yuu basically time leaps, does his brother keep his time leap power and does Yuu still have it? In Charlotte, when Yuu basically time leaps, does his brother keep his time leap power, and does Yuu still have it?
Very confusing, I don't think it was explained.

If I have to take a guess Yuu's brother (Shunsuke) did kept his time leap power when Yuu himself time leaped.
The reason for this is because when you perform time leap. The consciousness is transferred to the past self instead of going back in time.
To prove the hypothesis let us take some facts into account and consider a scenario.
Facts :

When Shunsuke time leaped the history would repeat itself if different actions were not taken as to previous attempt.
When an action is taken the future becomes unpredictable, however it does not affect the ability of others

Scenario :
If Yuu didn't change the history when he time leaped the history would have repeated itself where his sister dies and he would eventually meet Shunsuke to take his time leap ability. This means that Shunsuke should have his time leap irrespective of Yuu time leap ability.
Yuu would also have his time leap ability as the user does not loose their ability and it was reference in anime when his eye was slashed.
The reason Shunsuke didn't time leap after Yuu got his time leap because to change the future the history need to repeat itself to the point where a mistake was made else the whole future would be unpredictable. Since Shunsuke didn't know the actions taken by Yuu if he had time leapt there was almost no chance to repeat the exact same history. As it creates a Paradox.
To explain the Paradox we need a timeline. I am considering a hypothetical points on timeline.

Lets consider the point A where Shunsuke usually time leap himself i.e. When Ayumi is 8 years old.
Lets consider the point B where Yuu take Shunsuke time leap ability
Lets consider point C when Yuu time leaps and save Ayumi.

If the history needs to repeat itself for the time leap user, there are now 2 possible futures for Shunsuke where Ayumi dies and where she lives at point C. This paradox was created because Yuu time leaped. If Shunsuke does time leap to point A and reach point C in time it can't be explained whether Yuu would have time leap or not.
I think that should be able to explain it. Anyways this is what I think, do let me know your opinions.


Which Bach piece is Saki Yoshizawa using for her ringtone? During the first part of episode 9 of Boogiepop Phantom, we meet Saki Yoshizawa, a high school student who plays piano. When her cell phone rings while they are on their way to a piano lesson, Saki's kouhai points out that Saki is using "Bach's étude" as her ringtone, and Saki, who is a second year student, replies that it is her "test piece" for "next year."

This appears to also be the piece that plays in the background during the students' piano lesson. (The music starts playing while Saki's kouhai is having her lesson, but given that it is Saki who has to prepare the piece, it is uncertain whether this is what the kouhai is actually playing; the kouhai's responses in the conversation about the ringtone also do not strike me to be those that someone playing the same piece would have.)

I do not remember J.S. Bach to be a composer who wrote "études" for keyboard: Bach did write pedagogical material, but I cannot recall a single piece of his that is labelled as an étude. I also tried searching for bach "étude" site:imslp.org to see if the IMSLP archive had something relevant, but nothing came up.

With this in mind, what is the actual title of the Bach piece that Saki is learning and using for her ringtone? If the piece is part of a multi-movement work, I would also like to know the specific movement that is quoted in Boogiepop Phantom,

This is the A major prelude of Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier; I was able to identify it by inputting the first few beats of the piece into Musipedia. As noted in my question, Bach is not commonly associated with works that are titled as "etudes." However, The Well-Tempered Clavier was written originally as pedagogical material, which might warrant such a casual description.

Moreover, this might be characterized as an "etude" as Bach is often assigned to keyboard students, although the inventions and sinfonias seem much more common.


Why are Bug type attacks effective against Dark type Pokemon? This question actually originated from the games, but it applies to the anime/manga as well.

Water is strong against fire because water can extinguish fire. Electricity is weak against Grass because grass is grounded, which nullifies electricity.

What is the reasoning for Bug to be effective against Dark type?

   And I've already heard about the Malaria in Africa joke, it's not funny!

If I had to guess, it was because of game balance more than logic.

There are only two types that are super-effective against Dark.

Fighting
Bug

Neither of which make much logical sense. But it would be fairly safe to say that Dark would be overpowered if it only had one or no weaknesses.

Another argument to support the game-balance motivation is that bug types would otherwise be considered weak since they are super-effective against few other types.

So in short, they probably needed to keep Dark in check and make Bug more competitive.

This sort of balancing isn't particularly new. Psychic is a good example.

In the first generation of games, Psychic had only one weakness - Bug. Despite ghost also being super-effective against Psychic, there weren't any "real" ghost attacks in generation 1 (and only a couple of bug attacks).

So generation 2 added Dark types to keep Psychics in check.


Is there any clarification from togashi with his new worktime since 2016? Based on this website there is a continously chapter per years for about 10 chapter for every year that mean 1 tankoubon per years. Since when he decide to work only 10 chapter per years ? Is there any clarification from Togashi or Shueisha ?

The autor is suffering from prolonged back pains and hasn't been able to recover.

While the exact reason isn't always stated, Togashi's chronic illness is a well known issue and mostly assumed to be the reason for pretty much all the hiatuses.


What does this symbol represent on this payphone? In the sixth episode of the second season of Darker than Black, Hei hung up a payphone.

On this payphone there is some symbol. They’re supposedly in Russia; however, the Russian currency symbol is ₽. What does this symbol mean? I doubt they would make up a currency since they also reference the CIA and MI6.

Not only is that the symbol for Japanese yen, the phone itself is also something utterly Japanese, a pink public phone:

They're very iconic (somewhat ubiquitous decades ago when you'd see them in shops or restaurants) but also very outdated (They only take 10 yen coins which is not much at all). If there are any still being operated then as something between a curiosity and a "living fossil".

So basically, if that scene is supposed to play in Russia, it's either some sort of joke or the animators were very sloppy, maybe reusing a generic "using a public phone" sequence.


Why didn't Lelouch use the "obey me" order on everyone? In the final episodes of Code Geass R2, Lelouch gave orders like "be my slave" or "obey me". This way, unlike when using the Geass, he can give them orders an unlimited number of times.

(Code Geass Wikia)

So why didn't he use these orders on everyone from the beginning? This way he could've given them orders whenever he wanted!

At the very beginning, right after he got his powers, Lelouch may not have been sure that it was possible to give such powerful orders. This is why, for example, Lelouch ordered a female student from the academy to engrave a cross-mark on a wall every day forever: to determine how long a geass would last. Presumably, he was performing similar experiments that weren't shown to the viewer.

In some cases, Lelouch could be morally conflicted about geassing people. In the last episode of R2, we see him wavering on whether or not to use a geass to command Nunnally to give him the FLEIJA control device. It's possible that he felt the same way about using his geass on other people as well. (Then again, that might just be a special thing for Nunnally.)

Recall now that people are able to reject a geass (at least temporarily) if it is in strong conflict with their morals. Guilford, for example, would probably have found the idea of obeying Zero to be utterly repugnant, and may have resisted the geass to a degree, which could have thrown a wrench in Lelouch's plans. This could be why Lelouch instead geassed Guilford to view him as if he were Cornelia - to circumvent that issue.

There are probably a few other reasons, too, which hopefully other people will be able to come up with in their answers.


When did Obito awaken the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan? Spoilers if you didn't see episode 473 of the anime yet:

   In anime episode 473, Kakashi uses Obito's eyes to create Susanoo. But Obito's eyes were not Eternal Mangekyou. Previously, he had Rinnegan which he has borrowed in addition to one of his own eyes, and that's why he could do lots of stuff.

Note: this is not the same question as the closure says! Eternal Mangekyou is when someone from Uchiha gives his Mangekyou to to someone dear then it becomes eternal and the powers will be activated.

Obito never had the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan. The user does not need the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to use Susanoo according to the wikia - just the Mangekyō Sharingan in both eyes. Once Kakashi gains the power of both of Obito's eyes, it allows him to use Susanoo. Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan increases the power of their abilities and causes the user no negative side effects such as losing vision and bleeding from the eye.

The full body Susano'o is the most powerful form granted by the Mangekyo Sharingan. Kakashi said in episode 437 at 12:53 "Gaining the Six Path's power enhances one's Visual Prowess too". It's most likely that Kakashi was able to use the full body Susano'o since when he gained the pair of his (actually Obito's) Sharingan, he also gained some of the Six Path's power Obito posessed.


Is The Legend of Korra anime? I saw a comment online that stated The Legend of Korra is not anime. I kinda know the argument in that "anime" refers to only Japanese animation, but is that so? The style of this anime, the humour, and everything about it seems extremely anime. I understand that it was written by Americans and animated in Korea.

Is The Legend of Korra seriously not considered anime because of this?

Am I going to have to categorize this into an alternate genre type, so that I can add Archer and Futurama? Is there a genre type for these types of animations like with "shoujo", "shounen", "seinen", and "josei"?

Any animation that is not made by a Japanese production company is not anime, according to the English definition of the term.

To Japanese people in Japanese, the Japanese words 「アニメーション」 and 「アニメ」(animeeshon, shortened to anime) are used to describe any animation, whether made in Japan or made in other countries, such as Disney.

It is important to distinguish between the Japanese word used by Japanese in Japan to describe all animation from all countries, as compared to the English word which is distinct from that in meaning.  The English word only refers to animation that is made by a Japanese production company.  It includes many series which were almost entirely animated in Korea by Koreans, but done so for a Japanese production company. Look in the credits list at the end of many anime TV series and you will see many Korea names; since the company is Japanese, it counts as anime, even if the animating work was largely accomplished by non-Japanese people. If the exact same Korean animators created an animated series produced by a Korean company, it would not be anime according to the English definition of the word.

Korean comics are called manhwa. There are a handful of American publishers that might market a graphic novel to you as "manga made in America," but that is actually an oxymoron. The English word "manga" only refers to comics produced by Japanese publishing companies. Japanese people do not usually use the Japanese word 「漫画」 (manga) to refer to comics from other countries; instead they say 「コミックス」 (komikkusu). Again, you could be a non-Japanese living in Japan and having your comic published in a Japanese manga magazine, and it would be real manga, because of the company, regardless of your own ethnicity. But if you are ethnically-Japanese publishing your comic outside of Japan, it is not manga.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that neither the English word nor the Japanese word contain anything related to art style.  This is also true of words such as shounen, shoujo, seinen, josei, and so on: within each, there is a wide variety of art styles. For example, compare the art style of Kaitou St. Tail to NANA, to Kiko-chan Smile, to Ace wo Nerae, to Zetsuai 1989.  They are all shoujo, but they do not look alike, and there are respective shounen series that look more like one of them than the other.

Shounen, shoujo, seinen, and josei are words that can only be used to refer to sub-genres within Japanese comics and animation; they cannot be applied to animation produced in America or any other countries. Rather than genres proper, they are simply technical groupings of marketing targets: was this series targeted at young adult women, or not? You can promptly tell which type it is by which area of the Japanese bookstore the manga is  in.

According to Energetic Heartbeats,

  What is Shoujo?
  Shoujo (girls') is not a genre itself - it's the marketing strategy. Shoujo simply means that the title was originally marketed to a female audience in Japan. Nothing more than that.
  Shoujo includes its own genres that cannot be found in their original form within the shounen world, including mahou shoujo, shounen ai, yaoi, yuri, and others.
  Shoujo is not limited to only anime and manga. The word is also used for audio dramas and novels. . . . Pretty much any film genre you can think of has been represented in shoujo.

  What is Not Shoujo?
  Shoujo is NOT a type of art style, nor a type of story element. It is not even neccessarily work by a specific creator. For example, the beloved team CLAMP is responsible for outstanding examples of shoujo manga and anime, but has also created shounen manga. What's the difference between the shounen manga and the shoujo manga? The shounen series was serialized in a manga magazine aimed at male readers.


Anime in '90s where the main character transforms into red armor with a magical silver box I can't find my favorite childhood anime that was shown on Cartoon Network back in the '90s.

The characters looked similar to Dragon Ball's, so it was probably a Japanese Toonami show. The hero is a warrior who has a magical silver box which when opens, some kind of a red armor fits on his arms and legs and gives him super fighting powers.

Also, this wasn't a cyborg show or space related show. Plus, the characters were only humans.

I have searched everywhere possible, copied all titles I found into Google Image trying to find an image that would lead me to the name of the anime for 3 days but no success.

Appreciate your help.

It sounds like Saint Seiya (a.k.a. Knights of the Zodiac in NA).


What were the desires that lead to the Euphorics' powers? For some of the characters, it was quite obvious what their desires were:

Saiga's desire to capture life in his camera
Katsuya Shirogane's desire to be as flexible as rubber
Kamiya's desire for food.

However, for others, it's not so obvious:

Father Kanda had the power to control lighting, but it's not clear why.
Ran Yurigaoka's power to make his tattoos come to life seems to conflict with his pride of having perfect skin.

What desire did each of the Euphorics have that allowed their powers to manifest?

As @Hakase has mentioned, Father Kanada's power is likely to be based on his religious beliefs. A lot of religious texts - biblical or no, mention smiting which is usually portrayed as lightning.

As for Ran Yurigaoka's power, A common phrase among tattoo artists is that skin is a canvas . With his obsession with skin, he probably considers it art in a way also - and tattoos a further extension of that.

Most likely though, the character designers simply thought that these powers would be the most impressive for the personas they had, and there wasn't significant deliberating on the preciseness of the connections.


Is it known which titans follow in power to the Founding Titan? In the last episode of the anime, season 3 episode 6, it's stated that the Founding Titan is the most powerful of all titans. Is it known where all or any of the other titans are in the scale of power among them?

It is noted that the Founding Titan is the strongest one.
It isn't known in the manga/anime how the Titans are ranked, but statistics do exist for certain titans.
Colussus Titan Statistics spoilers below

Power 11/10
Speed 3/10
Size 11/10
Elusiveness 10/10
Threat 10/10

Armored Titan Statistics spoilers below

Power 8/10
Speed 6/10
Hardness 11/10
Machoness 10/10
Legend 10/10

Female Titan Statistics spoilers below

Power 6/10
Speed 8/10
Hardness 10/10
Combat 11/10
Sexiness 10/10

Beast Titan Statistics spoilers below

Power 7/10
Speed 5/10
Ruthless 8/10
Smart 11/10
Wildness 10/10


How can Hermes and Riku talk? I don't think they ever explain in the anime how Hermes (the motorcycle) and Riku (the dog) can talk.  There are plenty of talking robots, but they're clearly mechanical entities, while Hermes acts more like a person.  Also, electronic speech does not explain Riku.

Is it ever explained how Hermes and Riku have the power of speech, in the light novels or any other medium?

No, it is not explained.

The novels leave many of these up to the reader's interpretation. It is the same as Hideaki Anno leaving the meaning of the ending of Evangelion open (see Q#6) to the viewer's own thoughts, or in Code Geass, where a shot of the cart rider smiling (displaying some features of Lelouch) was cut out in order to make the ending more open.

Kino's Journey is in a fantasy world where science has taken some leaps and bounds in some directions (and became twisted), with some moments that poke your disbelief to see if its suspended or not (like the "Are you a Knife Merchant" moment with the slavers in [episode not remembered]).

It may be somewhat magical (and TVTropes indeed lists it as "magical realism") but not in the usual sense (no mages or spellcasting), with their larger-than-life characters (like when Shizu uses his sword to block bullets).

Some speculate that they do not talk at all, and that it all happens in Kino's mind (and she could indeed be crazy enough under the nogging). That is a possible interpretion. The series is one of self-discovery after all. Or the suggestion in the Land of Books (that Kino is in a VR simulation) is actually true.

I think there are similarities in the universe of Kino and the Petit Prince. Kino's is grittier, but the mixing of subtle fantasy and realism is there.


Are there more Exceeds and dragon slayers other than the known 4? 100 Exceeds were sent to get the dragon slayers. Happy, Carla, Sting, and Rogue are all Exceeds who abandoned their missions.

What about the other 96 Exceeds who are unnamed, unseen, and out of the picture? Does this mean there are 96+ more dragon slayers in earth land?

There is NO information regarding the said 100 Exceed eggs sent from Extalia, any answer would be speculative as best.

Only information we have on them is that the Exceeds from Edolas are now looking for them. I doubt if we will get any information regarding them either. They were just meant to provide the plot device for the history of Happy and Charla.


Why didn't Utena get involved in the council's duels sooner? In the first episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena, a teacher says "You won't make a fool of me again this semester", which indicates that Utena is not new to the school.  I'm rewatching the show, and my memories of the show assumed she was a transfer student. This made me wonder why she didn't get involved in the mechanizations of the student council sooner. She received the signet ring when she was young, and had been going to that school already.

Was there something special about that semester that triggered Utena's interest in the Rose Bride and the duels?  Is there any information on what happened with regards to the council prior to the start of the show?  Was this the first time Saionji won the duel, and the other council members aren't so abusive towards the Rose Bride, so they didn't attract Utena's attention?

As Gorchestopher H has said

  here is also an element of coming-of-age. She becomes involved because her time has come

this is correct as being one of the reason however,

  Utena becomes involved because of the way the Rose Bride was being treated

This is half-true. Yes Utena protects Anthy but this is because of Utena's role as the "prince" that protects the "princess" Anthy. However remember that it was not Utena that stopped Saionji in the beginning but Touga. Utena however confronts Saionji after his posts up Wakaba's love confession letter to him on the notice board for everyone to see and ridicule. Utena realizes it's Wakaba's letter when she sees her reaction.

Seeing this Utena challenges Saionji but because earlier in the day the Student Council was told by "End of the World" that a new Duelist would be arriving, he assumes she's the new Duelist and moves their duel to the arena. It is in their second duel Utena protect Anthy from being engaged to Saionji and being abused again.

As for why Utena didn't get involved in a previous semester, we can pinpoint everything to Utena getting involved originated in her seeing Anthy. Why Utena only noticed her in this semester seems to relate to Anthy's omnipresence. In the Apocalypse Saga when Micky is talking to his father, his father passes the phone to the woman who will be Mickey's step mother which we hear Anthy speaking and see her Rose Bride Dress, yet Micky does not pick up on this. Also Mikage is tricked into thinking Mamiya is alive and by his side but not only is his appearance completely different but he is dead and it was in fact Anthy. So it's quite possible that along with being omnipresent Anthy can also make it so people do not notice her.


Why can Sailor Pluto be away from the Space-Time Door? In the classic 90s anime, Sailor Pluto was commissioned by Queen Serenity (mom of Princess Serenity [Sailor Moon's ancient incarnation]) to guard the Space-Time Door, which she is shown doing in the R season, but she is later allowed to leave, and thus shows up with a civilian form (Setsuna) in the S season.  One of the 3 rules given by Queen Serenity was that she could not leave her post at the door.  She does go on to break all of the rules, but according to Wikipedia, Neo-Queen Serenity (future Sailor Moon) gives her permission to leave her post.

But why?  Does the door not need to be guarded anymore?  Is it temporary leave and she will need to return eventually, or is it permanent leave?

In the manga, Sailor Pluto's guarding location might be located outside of time (or is it located inside of the palace in 30th century Crystal Tokyo?), so perhaps she could technically be there as well as have a 20th century civilian incarnation that is at a point inside of time, so she could apparently continue to guard the door while she shows up in S, the SuperS movie, and Sailor Stars (but this is unrelated to why Neo Queen Serenity would excuse her from her post in the classic anime).

In the Sailor Moon Crystal canon, is Sailor Pluto able to and/or permitted to leave her post at the door? Is this aspect identical to the manga version?

In the Crystal continuity it is unknown as it is a work in progress, and did not progress too much further from Pluto's introduction, so it is unknown for Crystal continuity if she will leave the door or not. There is still no canon material on the matter.

As to why she can leave the door, she has the power to seal off entire worlds out of the fourth dimension (the time dimension)(ref).

Since you need a time-space key to safely navigate fouth dimension, she could secure all keys, lock the access to the place where the keys were stored and leave for a short time.

Probably her leave cannot be defined as permanent or temporary. Since the fourth dimension is outside normal time, she can safely exists in the fourth dimension and outside it:

  However, for all intents and purposes, in the manga the technicality of Sailor Pluto existing outside of time means she is able to be reincarnated as a normal woman while still existing back at her post at the Time Gate.(ref)

Sailor Pluto's racial status is also subject of controversy. While Endymion/Tuxedo Mask is from the Earth realm, Usagi/Sailor Moon is from the Silver Millenium race, the other sailor senshi seem to be reincarnated humans, Sailor Pluto is more of a goddess than a human:

  She is also stated to be the daughter of Chronos, god of time. (manga act 18, original anime ep. 82).

They made significant changes in Crystal from the original Sailor Moon works (like giving Tuxedo Mask an attack), so I wouldn't expect it to be identical, but to follow closely.

You can compare Crystal and the original making a parallel between the original Yamato series and Yamato 2099 that aired in 2014. They tend to follow the original work closely, but making adaptations and concessions to suit XXI century's scientific and social developments.


Is it proven Gogeta is stronger than Beerus? Commentaries from dragon ball characteres many times tell us which character is stronger than other. But sometimes they seem to be wrong or contradict themselves later. With regards to Beerus, in the Dragon Ball Super manga in the times of the battle with Zamasu, it was said by Wiss if I recall correctly, than Gogeta might be as strong as Beerus. A lot of battles and training happened since that, several zenkais and Goku and Vegeta got stronger. Now in the Dragon Ball Super Broly movie, it was said by Goku that Broly might be even stronger than Beerus. If Broly is equally or stronger than Beerus, Gogeta has to be way stronger than him, since Gogeta showed to be much stronger than Broly. Is this so? Were Wiss and Goku just speculating or are there more clues sustaining the authors intended to assert this?

No it hasn't been proven Gogeta is stronger than Beerus. The only characters who have been proven to be stronger than Beerus are MUI Goku and Limit Breaker Jiren. Firstly, I believe the only character in the series who has the closes idea of how strong Beerus really is would be Whis. Hence, I would mainly be considering statements made by Whis with reference to Beerus's True Power.Whis had said several times that Goku + Vegeta working together would allow them to go toe to toe with Beerus. By Working together, Whis implies fusion. This could mean, Gogeta or Vegito could be potentially strong enough to defeat Beerus or be very relative to him in terms of power at the very least.Another important factor to consider is the time limit for fusion. Considering how powerful Beerus is, the fusion might perhaps not last long enough for Gogeta / Vegito to defeat Beerus.Whis makes another statement in the anime saying that Mastering Ultra Instinct would result in Goku/ Vegeta surpassing Beerus. Whis also says this to Vegeta when he fights Beerus in the manga and loses the fight. This more or less establishes the fact that MUI Goku would be stronger than Beerus.Now with regard to statements made by a few other characters, During the battle with Zamasu, it wasn't Whis but Shin who says that Vegito might be stronger than Beerus. However, I believe the show has demonstrated enough reasons why we shouldn't take Shin's word seriously. For starters, Shin thought SSJG Goku was strong enough to defeat Beerus, he thought SSJB Vegeta was defeating Jiren, Vegeta would struggle against Pui Pui, had no clue of what Ultra Instinct was. The character has been displayed as someone who is very inexperienced and often jumps into conclusions and is in awe of what happens afterwards or is usually corrected or mocked by the Elder Kai about the same. The second comment was made by Goku comparing Broly to Beerus and yes, if that were the case, Beerus would be significantly weaker than a Gogeta or Vegito. While Goku has a much more better notion of how strong an opponent is in comparison to Shin, I believe even he might not know the true extent of Beerus's power. For example, Goku was confident he'd be able to defeat Beerus after attaining the SSJG transformation the first time around, that he was using only 80% of his power(Despite Beerus being significantly more powerful in comparison to that). Even in the case of Jiren, the more and more Jiren began to reveal his true power, Goku was in shock. For example, in Episode 123, when Jiren revealed a fraction of his true power, Goku was in such extreme shock that he dropped from his Super Saiyan Blue form to his base form. Even in case of Frieza, Goku had no idea Frieza was hiding a level of power that high until Frieza revealed his Golden Form to GokuSo in the end, it comes down to whether one thinks Gogeta Blue is as strong as MUI Goku and Limit Breaker Jiren. There is an obvious disagreement between a lot of the fanbase with regard to this and there aren't any statements made in the movie or in Dragon Ball Super to help establish this. However, based on Dragon Ball Heroes at least, MUI Goku was indicated to be more powerful and it being the highest level of power of the MC, it does seem to make sense to me. However, that is up to you to decide.


How much did Netflix contribute, as part of the production committee, for Devilman Crybaby? I watched the first few episodes of Devilman Crybaby on Netflix and the animation was really awesome. I know the series was directed by Masaaki Yuasa, a really good animator and director.

However, I think we can all admit the quality of this show is above average. Netflix was part of the production committee and they certainly made a big contribution to the budget to the studio Science Saru.

I'd like to have sourced data on the total budget of the series and the amount Netflix has given.

Interesting as it may seem, we likely will never know the specifics, due to the reasons кяαzєя♦'s comment already pointed out.

Non the less, I figured, why not try and ask Netflix themselves?

All though it is not much information, we did however pin down the fact that Netflix only pays for exclusive rights and nothing else.
As the support also suggests, it is somewhat of a trade secret.

I haven't personally tried to mail them as support suggested. However I don't think it is likely that a more descriptive/precise price would be mentioned by the pr team.


How can a Pure Titans recover the full body after extended period? It is said that Ymir spent about 60 years in Pure Titan form. It is also said that Pure Titan only have original subject's spine instead of full body like one of Nine (see ref [25] here or search word "spine" if number shifts).

So, how exactly she could recover back to complete human with brain, conciousness and memories while turning into one of Nine? Other transformations explicitly shown or mentioned so far generally only take less than hour between turning human into Pure and upgrading to Nine, so it less of a concern, but 60 years? Shouldn't pretty much of whatever was original Ymir be long lost by then?

There is no specification on the manga or anime about that. But it seems that any "pure" titan as long it gets the spinal fluid of 1/9 titans is able to go back to being a human no matter how long it takes then in their pure titan form. Yet again, all of Ymir's people seem to see the invisible roads or at least the people that turn into one of the  1/9 titans. Time pass different in that place, seems to take years or thousands of years[forever]. Ymir, just mentioned that it was like a never ending nightmare to be in the pure titan form.

Another way of putting it is, all pure titans are female eggs, and the 1/9 are the sperm, when of of the 1/9 titan gets eaten by an egg, it becomes a human, no matter how long it was in that place.


What is the origin of mushrooms growing on a sad person's head? I have seen in a number of series, when a person is sad, they have mushrooms growing out of their head. In Ouran High School Host Club, this happens a number of times to Tamaki when Haruhi rejects him. He often goes and sits in a corner.

The below gif from FMA shows it as well. Where did this trope come from?

I cannot tell you who started it or where it comes from exactly, but it is based on the fact that mushrooms grow in dark and dank places. Exactly the kind of environment depressed characters are visually and mentally put into.

It is mentioned in the Corner of Woe trope:

  Bonus points if you manage to act gloomy enough to attract Ghost Lights or grow mushrooms in your dark, damp corner of woe.


Is Junko Enoshima a masochist? Is she a masochist? Her mental behaviour indicates that she is a masochist by obsessing with despair.

   She killed her sister, lover and classmate.

By performing the above she feels sexual despair pleasure I guess? Does it  mean she's mentally extremely masochistic.

I think she is neither of them, not Sadist nor Masochist (or maybe bother of them at the same time, depends on how we look at it). But she is crazy (I really mean mentally crazy) let me explain to you why.

What junko really loves isn't really hurting or being hurt, what she loves is the feeling of dispair, whether she is the one feeling it or making others feeling it. So if making  someone or herself feel despair goes through hurting them or being hurt, then she won't hesitate to do so. But as I said , she is crazy, because she has a paradox that keeps looping in her mind. The paradox is that she want others to feel despair, but she also wants to feel despair as well, because her feeling despair makes her happy, but the problem is that in order to feel despair, she has to for exemple kill a loved one, but if we think about it if you love someone enough, then you don't kill him, but she would kill just for the sake of that despair. And the worse of all, is that even if you want to punish her for what she has done, you can't, because she would feel joy out of being in despair if you were to punish her. So she is a lost case, a crazy one at it.

So her mind is obcessed with despair not necessarily with masochism or sadism, she is just completely out of her mind.


What is Mai's actual age in Dragon Ball Super? In Dragon Ball, Mai is a member of Pilaf's Gang and was aftering the Dragon Balls ever since Goku was a boy (age 12).

In Dragon Ball Super, Mai appears to be young again and studying with Trunks. At the same time, Goku is already a grandpa.

What is Mai's real age?

She's 10 years old.

Dragon Ball Wikia says

  At some point before May 12th, Age 767, Mai and the other Pilaf Gang members managed to use the Dragon Balls to wish for youth.

In 767, Mai makes a wish, in the same year the androids appear, and Future Trunks follows them back. Present Trunks is one year old.

In 777, Trunks is 11 years old and future Trunks is 31 years old (he's from the year 797).

So if Mai's wish in 767 to be young turned her into a baby she's one year younger than Trunks, who was born in 766, so she would be ten years old in Dragon Ball Super in the year 777.

So in conclusion, Trunks was born in the year 766 year and Mai turned into a baby in the year 767. Current Trunks is 11 years old so Mai is 10 years old.


Is anything known about Saitama's family? I've watched season 1 and 2 of the anime, read part of the manga, read part of the webcomic and watched at least some OVAs (not sure they were all of them). I dont remember anything said or shown about Saitama's family. Is anything known about them? Also , aside of those sources, I know there are audiobooks, that there is an official encyclopedia, and that sometimes the author and the artist answer questions from the fans in an "official" way.

Is anything known about Saitama's family?

To this date, we have no info on Saitama's family. Not even in the webcomic. However, there is a big controversy/theory about this and that is:

Spoiler from manga/webcomic:

   Blast, number 1 hero, being a relative of Saitama. However as I said, this is a fan theory.


Why is katakana used for the onomatopoeia/sounds in the background? In Japanese, katakana is used for loan words/foreign words, but it shows up a lot in backgrounds of manga as what seems to be onomatopoeia. Is this manga-specific, and where did it originate?

The center white katakana on the bottom panel seem to be "fuaaaaa", for instance.

Using onomatopoeia to stress sound effects in literature is not manga-specific or even comic-specific. For example, 1966's Batman TV series or even Nickelodeon's The Fairly OddParents had readily available audio to match their onscreen text with emphasis. But several cultures have their own origins. Tracing back when this particular artistic/literary device caught on would be pretty exhaustive, if even credible at all.


What is the usage of the stones monsters drop? According to the wiki page, adventurers can exchange the gems they collect in the dungeon for money.

  Magic stones are crystal-like stones that are dropped by monsters. The
  stones can be exchanged at the Guild for valis (Orario currency).

  The bigger the stone, the more valis it is worth.

I was wondering, why does the Guild want these crystals? Do they have a use?

According to ja.Wikipedia:

魔石
モンスターの生命力の核にして、冒険者の飯の種。例外なく胸部に存在する。
モンスターを倒して胸の魔石をえぐり出し（アニメでは倒すと肉体が消失して魔石だけが残る）、ギルドで換金するのが冒険者の主な収入源。
魔力が込められており、照明や下水浄化、調理用コンロ、冷蔵庫など、さまざまな道具に用いられる。
胸の魔石を直接攻撃して砕いた場合、モンスターは即死する。

Magic Stones are the core of the monsters' life force, and adventurers' means of living. Without exception, it locates in the monster's chest.
Killing the monsters, gouging the Magic Stones out of their chests (in the anime, the body of the monsters disappear when defeated, leaving their Magic Stones behind), and cashing them in at the guild is the main source of income of the adventurers.
Charged with magic, Magic Stones can be used to create various tools, such as lighting, sewage purification, cooking stove, refrigerator, etc.
Monsters die an instant death if the Magic Stone in their chest is destroyed by a direct attack.

DanMachi Wiki has a bit more details regarding the use of Magic Stones:

Uses

Magic Stone Lamp: A handy and flexible use of the Magic Stone is the production of Magic Stone Lamps. These items give off a dim shine that allows one to see underground or in total darkness. It was once considered as the "century's greatest invention."
Ignition Device: Magic Stones can be used to produce ignition devices.
Freezer: Magic Stones are used in the production of freezers to preserve food.

Volume 1, Chapter 2 is cited as the source of the information above.


What is the reference Kanbara made in episode 4 of Kyoukai no Kanata: Mini Theater special? At 01:53 of episode 4 of Kyoukai no Kanata: Mini Theater special, after Hiroomi said that Mitsuki was his only idol, this conversation happened (transcribed to the best of my ability):

  Kanbara: おい、博臣{ひろおみ}、そろそろやめとけよ。美月{みつき}がＭＫ[５]｛ご｝だぞ。

  Kuriyama: メガ盛｛も｝り 金平ごぼう、　ですか？

  Kanbara: そっ、それ、マジ？

If my guesses are right, Kuriyama mistook MK5 (emu-kei-go) as abbreviation for Megamori (large serving) Kinpira1 Gobou2, which is a Japanese dish.

1 A Japanese style of cooking. ja.Wikipedia. en.Wikipedia.
2 Burdock. ja.Wikipedia. en.Wikipedia.

Image from http://cookpad.com/recipe/1743175

My question is about "MK5" in Kanbara's line. While the line can be generally understood as Mitsuki was getting pissed off at Hiroomi, I don't get what Kanbara is making a reference of by saying "MK5". Any idea?

"MK5" means "maji kireru 5 byoumae" (マジで切れる５秒前), or being on the verge of losing it (really pissed off).


Why did Obito spare Kakashi? During his time of Obito being with Madara, the White Zetsus told him that Rin and "Stupid Kakashi" were in trouble. Obito hurried as fast as he could to get to where Kakashi and Rin where. Once he got there, he saw that Rin was already dead and that Kakashi was the one who killed her. At the same time, Kakashi and Obito awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan which made Kakashi faint and Obito just sad/mad. Obito got so mad he went on a rampage. He killed all the other people that were around Kakashi and Rin. Once he finished, he went to Rin and hugged her. After that, he looked back to see Kakashi who was on the floor.

At that time, Obito had a huge chance of killing Kakashi, but for some reason, he did not want to kill the person who took the love of his life away from him.

Why did Obito spare Kakashi? Why didn't he kill him instead? Did he just feel bad for killing someone who was defenseless, or because he was going to feel bad for killing his old friend? Is there another reason for this, or is there just none?

For Obito, Kakashi was a victim just as Rin was. He didn't blame Kakashi for killing Rin but rather for "letting her die" and not being able to keep his promise. He was aware of the fact Rin had the 3-Tails inside her and chose to die by Kakashi's hand.
Hence, he never resented Kakashi himself but rather the world that created this situation and forced Rin to commit suicide.
In chapter 600 of Naruto, Kakashi asks Obito if he blames him:

Kakashi: Aren't you going to blame me?
Obito: With this insignificant reality, what good will blaming you do?
Obito: I hold no interest in the affairs of this world that's about to disappear.


What are the circumstances of what Obito the Sharingan used against Konan and the Kakashi's Sharingan? Obito lost a Sharingan after using Izanagi against Konan. And now its shown that he gave Mangekyo Sharingan to Kakashi in both his eyes. What's the connection?

If you have seen the fight between Tobi (Obito) and Konan, he actually used his left eye which he had given to Kakashi. So the Sharingan he used for Izanagi was of the other (Uchiha).

Also, Obito gave Kakashi his Sharingan (the right one) and Kakashi already has the left Sharingan, so he has both and talking about Mangekyo, Kakashi has already awakened that power.


Which Mobile Suits from the anime were designed by Hajime Katoki? I love the look of the "Ver. Ka" Master Grade model kits. I know he was the lead designer for V and Endless Waltz. He also worked on 0083, Wing, and G among others.  I would like to know which specific Mobile Suits he designed from the Gundam anime franchises.

Assume you're looking for original designs and no redesigns.

He worked on the Gundam 0083 OVA series, where he designed the famous RX-78 GP03 Dendrobium Orchis mobile weapon.

He also did a lot of work in V Gundam, where he was the main mechanical designer, creating the main mobile suits:

Victory Gundam
V2 Gundam
V2 Assault Buster Gundam

After that, he worked on G Gundam, designing the evil mobile suits.

He also worked on Gundam Wing, doing some some minor mobile suits, but his mostnotable contrtibution is to Gundam Wing Endless Waltz, where he designed all of the mobile suits, and re-designed the Gundams in a more fantastic style, the most famous of which is the XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero Custom


Where can I buy a one-shot manga called 'Prisoner' (written in Katakana)? I have been searching for a one-shot manga called Prisoner since years ago.

The story starts with a salaryman got back home at night and found out his house was really messy. Through the story, the writer leads the readers to believe that the man killed a girl that seemed to be his partner. In the last page, the panel shows a building with only one small window and the bars inside can be seen through it. The ending...

   It makes readers think that the man got in jail for killing the girl. Next, the bars turned out to be mop handles and other cleaning stuff. The plot twist: he is actually a clean freak and never killed the girl. The story is mind-blowing.

I downloaded the manga but can't find where it is sold anywhere. Where can I buy it?

The one-shot is titled プリズナー (purizunaa, Prisoner) by Masakazu Ishiguro.

It was serialized in もっと！ (motto!, More!) vol.7, published in August 2014.

It can be bought on Amazon Japan.

*The magazine is on hiatus since the end of 2014 and there doesn't seem any licensed English translation of it.


Who is the enemy fighting Hatchiyack in Dragon Ball Heroes manga chapter 5? In Dragon Ball Heroes manga Hatchiyack appears and he's fighting an enemy which isnt seen in the anime. Who is he?

The character you seem to be referring to here is Majin Ozotto. You can read more about him here.


Why does Charmander die if his flame goes out? I just found a doodle about how Charmander and Squirtle were getting high, and Squirtle accidentally extinguishes Charmander's flame, and Charmander dies. Is this true? And why does Charmander die if his flame goes out? Is there any explanation about this in the anime?

I did find a Bulbapedia page that said:

  Charmander dies if its flame goes out.

But it didn't explain any further.

According to Charmander article on Bulbapedia:

  A fire burns at the tip of this Pokémon’s slender tail, and has blazed there since Charmander’s birth. The flame can be used as an indication of Charmander's health and mood, burning brightly when the Pokémon is strong, weakly when it is exhausted, wavering when it is happy, and blazing when it is enraged. It is said that Charmander dies if its flame goes out.

Charmander's flame is an indicator to his remaining life force.

So, saying "Charmander dies if its flame goes out" would be like saying "A human dies if he blows his last breath". Dying and having no flame would basically be equivalent statements. So even if Squirtle gets high, squirts all over Charmander's tail and the flame goes out for a second, Charmander wouldn't die and the flame would come out again if he was still healthy.

Having water on his tail will probably cause him a lot of pain and continuously being exposed to this torture could make him faint or die, but it would be because his health would drop and thus the flame would become smaller. Vice-versa, if you could somehow bind a lighter to its tail with infinite gas, Charmander wouldn't become invincible, even though his flame would never die out.


Why do anime production studios keep the rights to anime which they don't plan on continuing? There are a lot of anime that have a first season, but no second season, even though there is enough material to produce another season. There are also a few anime which are dubbed, but only up to a certain point in the series.

So, why do anime companies keep the rights to these anime, instead of passing them on to another company?

For example, here are a few anime which didn't get more seasons:

Mayo Chiki (1 season) - Big cliffhanger
Rosario Vampire (2 seasons) - Another cliffhanger
High School of the Dead (1 season)
The World God Only Knows (3 seasons) - Missed out a lot of content

And some which are dubbed only to a certain point in the series:

Detective Conan (130 episodes) - Stopped due to low ratings
The Familiar of Zero (1 season) - Dubbed no further due to low ratings

There are many more examples. Why are the studios behind these series and dubs reluctant to release the rights to others to continue the series?

Essentially, it all comes down to money.

A lot of series are discontinued simply because the series aren't making enough money - whether that be for the English publishers in the West, or the original publishers in Japan.

Selling the rights of an anime means that they cannot continue to receive any recurring income from the series - even if it isn't that significant. Ongoing income could include licensing the rights to stream the show as part of a package deal to streaming services. For example, a studio licenses a bundle of three shows to CrunchyRoll, when CrunchyRoll really just wants one. [On a side note, this is why there's a load of random movies on Netflix]. Also, if there are new platforms on which to sell their media - such as new online stores or new video systems - studios effectively get another burst of sales, especially if it's digital (much less cost to put the items up for sale).

There isn't a lot of incentive for other companies to buy studio's productions that have proven to be loss-making, especially as the price and the long processes to secure the deal would often be hard to justify. It's a much wiser decision for companies to focus on works that have a solid following.

Every season, the popularity of a show drops as less and less people keep up to date/interested. If a show is profitable in the first season, it doesn't necessarily mean that it can manage with reduced sales the next time round. On the other hand, if the main show is still profitable, they don't really have much reason to sell it either.

It isn't strictly true that shows will never change hands though.

Take Yuru Yuri for example: the third season is going to be animated by TYO Animations, even though the first 2 were animated by Dogakobo. Anime companies tend to be fairly tight-lipped about internal processes and exchanges, so I'm afraid it's quite hard to get more information on why they swapped studios, or the process they had to go through to do it.

There have been several Western examples of "license rescues", which, whilst not explicitly the same as the bare rights (but similar to your dubbing question), allow publication of a discontinued series to continue to be translated. This is quite rare unfortunately - Viz Media explains that they tend to be hard sells. Western companies are similarly tight-lipped, although luckily less so that their Japanese counterparts

Further reading

Anime News Network on U.S. licensing


What's up with the huge iron in FLCL? I think FLCL was a lot of fun, but I also found it really hard to follow sometimes.  For instance, what's up with the huge iron?  It's big, and it ejects steam at least once in the series, and it probably comes from aliens.  But why is it there?  What is it for?

The primary idea of the iron is that it smooths out wrinkles. Toward the end of the series it is revealed the Medical Mechanica is responsible to smoothing out entire worlds, thus rendering them for all intents and reasons Unable to think for themselves.

  Medical Mechanica is an evil corporation in the anime series FLCL. They mass produce "medical" robots, which tend to be very violent. Their buildings are shaped like irons, and release steam at certain parts of the day. There are no entrances or exits to these buildings, so how people get in and out is a mystery. One character describes the strange steam as them "Ironing out the wrinkles in your brain so you can't think." Medical Mechanica also captures an intergalactic space pirate "Atomsk", who one of the main characters has been searching for. Though it is never really explained how, or why. Little is known about Medical Mechanica, and it is implied that they are somehow connected to the government.

The above quote can be found here: Medical Mechanica Villains Wikia Page


Would Naruto awaken the Rinnegan if he takes the Sharingan from Sasuke? The reason I ask this is because I think the only important things to awaken Rinnegan is to have Indra and Ashura's chakra. Someone will say that the requirement is Uchiha and Senju's chakra. However, Obito had both of them, but he didn't awaken the Rinnegan.

Why didn't Obito awaken Rinnegan? Would Naruto awaken the Rinnegan if he takes the Sharingan from Sasuke?

Let's start with the requirements for awakening the Rinnegan. From the Naruto Wikia,

  the Sharingan can be evolved into Rinnegan through combination with Hashirama's DNA.

In the history of the Naruto anime, the only 2 people who have been able to pull such a feat are Madara and Sasuke.  What those 2 have in common is the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan which they awakened from taking their brothers Mangekyous.

Obito on the other hand had a normal Mangekyou Sharingan and that explains why he was unable to evolve his sharingan to the Rinnegan despite having both bloodlines.

So my deduction is: the highest point of the Sharingan (aka the Eternal Mangekyou) plus Hashirama's cell/chakra (or Otsutsuki bloodline which can be gotten from mixing both Senju and Uchiha genes) = The Rinnegan.

Now to the question, in my opinion, if Naruto took Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan and implanted them into his eyes, then he would manifest the Rinnegan. This is because he would meet the requirement for the evolution, which are:

Eternal Mangekyou sharingan
Otsutsuki bloodline (or a mixture of both Senju and Uchiha chakra).

But then again let's be realistic, Naruto would never do that.


Is the Konosuba anime a close adaptation of the light novel? I wanted to watch the anime, so I was wondering if the anime adapted the light novel closely. Did the anime skip something or made changes to the plot?

You can watch the anime without first reading the LN, but there is a lot more stuff after the anime ends. There's not much difference during the anime other than slight changes and some of the jokes in the anime are improvised by the voice actors. The LN and manga go further about the lore and characters more though.


What happens if a hollow eats a mod soul in candy form My brother asked this question to me when I was watching bleach. He said, "What happens if a hollow ate a mod soul, like, when the mod soul is in its candy form, because I know one time Kon was eaten as the stuffed animal and he was spit back out, but if their in their candy form then would the mod soul be able to take over the hollow."
    I didn't know how to answer him because I didn't know myself so, I have to ask What exactly happens when a hollow eats a mod soul in candy form.

We don't know.

During the run of Bleach, in both manga and anime form, the matter of a mod soul being devoured by a Hollow has (surprisingly) never come up in practical discussion.

What we do know of mod souls is that they were manufactured to help combat the Hollow since they outnumbered the Soul Reapers, but that's...about it.  It also doesn't help matters that the operation which brought them into being was shut down, and all of the mod souls were ordered to be destroyed.


What is the origin of the one-horned rabbit so common in fantasy and isekai stories? Dozens of fantasy and isekai stories have the one-horn-rabbit as a staple beginner's monster.

Some examples:

Re:Monster (day 4)
I Said Make My Abilities Average! (ch. 19)
Kenshi o Mezashite Nyūgaku Shitanoni Mahō Tekisei 9999 Nandesukedo!? (web novel ch. 22)
Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de (ch. 23)
Saikyou no Shokugyou wa Yuusha demo Kenja demo naku Kanteishi (Kari) rashii desu yo? (ch. 2)

What is the origin of this monster, and why is it so common?

It's possibly a reference to Bunicorn, an early-stage recurring enemy in Dragon Quest series.

Bunicorns are rabbits with a single horn, parodying the fabled unicorns. They have gray fur, and the horn is often a yellowish brown shade. [...].
As enemies typically encountered at the start of a game, Bunicorns are not particularly strong, though they typically outweigh the likes of Slimes [...].

The creature first appeared on Dragon Quest III in 1988 (Japanese NES release).
Considering that Dragon Quest is really popular in Japan, I think this is the most possible reason for using it as a beginner's monster, as an alternative to Slime.


What happens to Mr 3? As everyone knows that Mr 3 had helped Luffy to release Ace from the Kairoseki handcuffs by using his wax power.
Once they were free, Luffy catches hold of Mr 3 and they move down towards the ground.

As you can see, the three of them in the pic. But what happened to Mr 3 when Luffy and Ace started getting back to the harbour?
Was he captured or killed?
Have I missed something here?

First, I just want to make clear that Mr. 3's ability is wax and not clay. =)

After freeing Ace, he had been taken by other pirates and was ordered to free Marco as well with his ability (since Marco was also handcuffed by Kairoseki).

After the war, he was seen together with Buggy while reading a letter from World Government.


Why isn't Blackbeard dead? It's a known fact that Blackbeard had a fight with Magellan.
Magellan poisoned Blackbeard and all of his crew.

They're seen covered in Magellan's poison after the scene below.

Why aren't they dead and how did they (also) escaped Impel Down?

That's because Shiryu gave them the antidote before joining their crew.

It happen in episode 452 of the anime and in chapter 549 of the manga.


What's the name of the music track that plays at 18:28 in Episode 150 of One Piece? What's the name of the music track that plays at about 18:28 in One Piece Episode 150 (Jaya Arc) when all of Bellamy's people are shocked on hearing about Luffy's and Zoro's real bounties as told by their drunken member?

The song is called Shizuka na Ikari (静かな怒り). It is from the One Piece Original Soundtrack Album "Music and Song Collection 4", track number 16.

You can listen to it here.


Is the painting in Jatoro's room a reference to an existing work? During Chapter 5: Absolute Despair Girls in Danganronpa: Ultra Despair girls, we get to visit Jatoro's room.

I noticed a painting there that seemed like it could be a reference or an existing work.

Is this an original painting, or is it an existing work - or a reference to one?

This is a take on Woman with a Parasol, turned to the left by painter Claude Monet. Although in this version the woman has pink hair - possibly referring to Junko Enoshima or Kotoko Utsugi.

I'd say it's more likely to be Junko because:

   Firstly the hair length is similar to Junkos, Also Jataro confesses to Komaru and Toko that Junko was the only person who had ever shown him affection and love. It's also implied he has a childlike crush on her.

The original painting is of Alice Hoschedé

   who was later to become Monet's wife. Possibly a desire of Jotaro's brought out in his painting.

She was one of Monet's favourite models.

Reference


Analysis of target demographic? This question will seem a bit weird so I'll give a bit of background.

I like to view anime that follow a specific genre and target audience.

So naturally when a new title pops up on here, MAL, from friends or whatever I promptly Google it to see if it's something I'd like or not.

Is there a way to infer a target audience from analyzing the content of the first episode?

What I mean is if there are tell tale signs of each genre (ex. Supernatural, romance, sports) and demographic(ex. Shonen, seinen, shojo, josei etc.) that seasoned anime fans look for that allow you to know the genre and demographic without prior research?

If there is a viewing style or technique involved I'd like to know it.

There are a couple of clues that I can think of are a good indicators that indicate the probable demographics of a anime series. The first is the use of furigana, which indicates the target demographics is probably young, and the second is the target demographics of the magazine that the source manga was original published in. The later obviously only applies to series derived from printed manga, but that's still most anime.

Furigana are those small Japanese characters that can appear over kanji characters in order to provide their pronunciation to readers who might not be familiar with the kanji or there use in that context. They can appear even works targeted at adults if the kanji is very unusual or the author's intended pronunciation is non-standard, but mainly the appear in works targeted to children. I'm not entirely sure what age the cut off is, but a show targeted at younger teens is probably going to use furigana while a show targeted at older teens probably won't. Apparently this has changed over time and current works targeted at teens are more likely to use furigana than older works with the same demographics.

In an anime show the place to look for furigana is things like the titles, eye catches, subtitled opening or closing song lyrics and any Japanese subtitles of foreign language dialog. The credits won't normally have furigana, being essentially aimed at adults working in the industry.

For example despite the fact the characters in Wooser's Hand to Mouth Life all look they were designed by Sanrio, the lack of any furigana in the show's title screen suggests an older target demographic:

This is supported by the fact the show originally aired on TV in Japan at 1:35 AM in the morning.

While anime series often try to target a broader audience than the original source material (if any) that their based on they rarely try to target a completely different demographic. In the case of anime series based on printed manga it's usually not too hard to find out what magazine the manga was originally published in. Most manga magazines have a entry on the English Wikipedia which gives the target demographic of that magazine. Sure it requires a bit "previous research" but it usually requires no more work than finding the Wikipedia page for the anime and clicking one or two times.

As far as genre does I don't think it possible to come with any good rules to determine the genre of a show by watching it. Sure it's not hard to categorize a show after viewing 15 minutes of it, but codifying that process would be well beyond what can be answered here and not all the useful. Genres are basically just piles we place shows in order to provide some sort of organization. They're sections in a video store. A show has to go on some shelf, but not every store is going to make the same determinations of where. And at the edges it's not always possible to say whether a given categorization was right or wrong.

Another problem complicating determining genres is that Western genres are often different the Japanese genres, and anime fandom has created its own genres distinct from either. For example "slice-of-life" is an anime genre that doesn't have direct translation into Japanese and differs the older Western meaning.


Which Master was spying on Rin? In Fate/Stay Night, in the 2nd Day of the Prologue, Rin takes Archer to the Fuyuki Park where the 4th Holy Grail War ended. While they are there, Rin's Command Spell acts up and because Archer can't sense any Servant, they figure out that another Master is spying on Rin.

Just using logic, I could assume it's not...

... Caster, as while she is the Master of Assassin, she is also a Servant and Archer sensed no Servants.
... Bazett, as Kotomine had told Rin that 6 of the 7 Masters are ready. While it's revealed in Fate/Hollow Ataraxia that she was Lancer's original Master, at this point, I could assume he had already attacked and stolen her Command Spells
... Shinji, as the day before Rin didn't detect the Bounded Field at the school, but the day after she does, which means while she was away from school, Shinji and/or Rider would have been setting it up then.
... Shirou, as he wasn't a Master at that point.

So that would leave Ilya or Kotomine. However, I can't be sure if Sakura had created the Book of the False Attendant at this point, or if Kotomine was actually doing his own recon, so I am wondering if there is any source indicating which Master was spying on Rin and Archer at this point?

Caster is the only viable person to be able to use such an underhanded method, via her Far Sight (i.e., her crystal ball).

Shinji is incompetent to the point where he can't even provide his servant with prana, much less do basic magecraft.

Bazett is no longer in the picture by this time do to a certain priest.

Illya has no reason to, because she has Berserker.

It's not Kirei because he is the mediator, so the identities of all the masters would be known to him sooner or later, because all the masters are expected to report in to him.

Only assasin is capable of spying,  but the Assassin of this Grail War is confined to a shrine on a mountain...


In Deadman Wonderland, is the Red Man is supposed to be Ganta's childhood hero, Ace Man? I watched Deadman Wonderland about two months ago, when I started I watched the first episode on Adult Swim. I saw the Red Man kill Ganta's classmates and other episode Shiro was passed out in dark basement with this older gentle man.

As soon Shiro wake up it wasn’t her, she was a different person and she grabs this outfit that look like the Red Man’s clothes. Later on of the season it was Ganta’s flashback he had a figure look like Red Man also.

Who is the red man? Aceman ? Shiro?

On the contrary to what Zeor mentioned, I believe that the Ace Man action figure did have some influence on the Wretched Egg and Shiro.

Spoilers

   At 1 minute into Episode 8 of the anime, we see that Shiro dropped down from the ceiling and attacked Azuma Genkaku, and then went on to point out her special move, which is identified to be Ace Man's special move: Ultra Chaos Endorphin Screw, Hadouken-Style Alpha-Wave Version Kick. Then she said, "Ace Man is here."

 When Shiro and Ginta were younger and were living together, Shiro would impersonate Ace Man (as seen in Episode 7 at 10:45). In that scene, Shiro also dropped down onto a dog and said, "Ace Man is on the scene."

In this sense, we can see that it's not simply coincidence that the Wretched Egg looked like Ace Man. The outfit most likely derives from Shiro's personality and her attachment to impersonating Ace Man for Ganta.

Conclusion

Ace Man is the action TV hero Ganta looked up to. Shiro is the Red Man, AKA Wretched Egg, or more precisely, the Wretched Egg is a split personality of Shiro's. The outfit of the Wretched Egg is derived from Shiro's personality where Shiro impersonates Ace Man to act as Ganta's hero.

So yes, Ace Man did have direct correlation to Shiro and the Wretched Egg.


Why does text in anime read horizontally? It is my understanding that Japanese text is written top-to-bottom.  I think the Japanese manga also follow this format:

That was a quick Google search so not even sure it is real.

However, watching Anime, I've noticed that the text seems to be horizontal.  Why is that?

Japanese can be written either horizontally or vertically. Vertical writing is known as tategaki (縦書き) and is notably used in manga. When writing vertically, columns of text are read top-to-bottom, right-to-left, which is why manga panels are also read this way. Horizontal writing is called yokogaki (横書き) and is written left-to-right, top-to-bottom exactly as English text is. There's also an obsolete form, migi yokogaki (右横書き), which is read horizontally but right-to-left; this is only used in a couple of series for stylistic reasons. The orientation of the characters in all of these styles of writing is the same.

Both styles can be found in anime. I think it is probably true that horizontal writing is more common than vertical writing, but it depends on the format of the writing. In general, horizontal writing is the more modern style, which was adopted during the Meiji era to conform to western styles of writing. Traditionally Japanese is written vertically (this tradition originates in China as do most Japanese linguistic traditions). The Meiji era is also when the Japanese language was really standardized (before that it was basically a collection of regional dialects), so naturally this was a time when a lot of changes were made to the language and partial adoption of horizontal writing is just one of them.

In terms of usage, vertical writing is used in newspapers, novels, calligraphy, and manga, while horizontal writing is used for academic writing, computer text, and many other everyday tasks. The text you see in anime is usually fairly representative of what direction it would typically be written in Japan. Likewise, in manga, text other than dialogue (e.g. on signs) often appears both horizontally and vertically. For anime, when there is flashing text on the screen not part of any signs (e.g. in Bakemonogatari), these are more frequently horizontal, probably because television screens are oriented horizontally (landscape), but there are examples of vertical writing in such cases as well.

Here's an example from Monogatari Series Second Season (episode 7) with both tategaki and migi yokogaki writing. The sign on the left is written vertically, while the ones on the right is horizontal but right-to-left.

Here's an example of flashing text from the same episode, written with ordinary yokogaki (left-to-right) writing:


Why wasn't Naruto adopted? Why wasn't naruto adopted when he was young, I mean if he is by himself, the 9 tails power might come out without anyone realizing. If he had a family unit, he would have been able to control his loneliness and therefore maybe helping him control his 9 tails power better.

The general stigma of Naruto having the 9-tails made people fear him. It's a core point of his character development and central to the story of how he travels the path of deliquent ninja - Hokage and the villages strongest.

In reality it would make sense for him to be adopted but in actuality it would ruin the plot entirely.


Biologically speaking, is it true that there are no parasites in Parasyte? Watching the anime "Parasyte - the maxim" I can't really see any of the organisms shown as real parasites, from a biological/ecological viewpoint.

Can any of the different kinds of alien parasytes shown be classified as a bona fide parasite?

I will use "parasite" (lower case, with an "i") to refer to the ecological relationship, and "Parasyte" (upper case, with an "y") to refer to the manga creatures.

From Wikipedia on parasitism:

  Parasitism is a non-mutual symbiotic relationship between species, where one species, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. (...) Unlike predators, parasites typically do not kill their host (...)

Then, on decapitation:

  This form of injury invariably results in death (...)

So, on the three kinds of Parasytes:

The ones that "eat" the brain and take over the head, they already killed their hosts upon infection. So they are not parasites because they first kill the host, then inhabit the corpse. Parasitism is a kind of symbiosis, meaning that both organisms must be alive.

From Livescience:

  A person is considered brain-dead when he or she no longer has any neurological activity in the brain or brain stem — meaning no electrical impulses are being sent between brain cells.

The head of those bodies is the Parasyte, the original human head long gone, consumed by the Parasyte larvae. So there is no ecological relationship between living organisms. The Parasyte simply took over the corpse of the human they killed. Such is the case when a Parasyte changes bodies too, like when

   Shinichi's mom is beheaded by the car crash Parasyte, because it needed a female body to inhabit.

We can then infer that these head-Parasytes are not parasites. The relationship between them is called Metabiosis.

The co-inhabiting Parasytes, like Migi and Joe, they are really either mutualist symbiotes because the Parasyte provides his host with augmented abilities and protection from a predator (other Parasytes), and even if we think of a co-inhabiting Parasyte that stays dormant on his host, it would still be a case of phoresis or inquilinism commensalism.

The human in the case of a commensalist symbiote would not be harmed or hindered, because the Parasyte emulates the body part it "ate" and the commensalist Parasytes are not too eager to kill their host since their primary drive is survival, and as Migi states, without eating the brain they do not know how to control a whole human body.

The colony Parasytes, like

   Miki and Gotou

are a colony of same-species organisms mimicking a human body. They are also not parasites.

From the bullet points above, we can say that none of the Parasytes shown in the manga or the anime (so far) are not really parasites.


Does Midorima's shooting ability have a name? Akashi → Emperor Eye
Kise → Perfect Copy
Aomine → Formless Shot (among others)
Murasakibara → Thor's Hammer
Midorima → ???

Does Midorima's ability to shoot 3-pointers from anywhere on the court have a super-cool name like the special techniques of the rest of the Generation of Miracles?

There's a few frames in the last OP of season 3 that say "Sky Direct 3P Shoot" in green text, which I suppose sounds kind of like a description of Midorima's technique, but I don't recall having heard that in the anime. (It's also the only move name in that OP I can't match up to a player, for what it's worth.)

Well, in the manga, his skill is also hardly mentioned, and when he does it, he is "shooting" and mostly translated as "Midorima's super long 3-pointer/shooting" or some variation. There wasn't a special name for it.

The wikia lists it as:

  Talent:High Projectile ThreePerfect Accuracy Unlimited Range

Source: http://kurokonobasuke.wikia.com/wiki/Shintar%C5%8D_Midorima

So I guess there really isn't a "special" name for his move. Just a super long 3 pointer.


Who are these characters? I received 2 anime figure at a yard sale. Can anyone help me identify who they are.

Thanks a bunch

Those are Asahina Mikuru from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya:

and Mari Makinami Illustrious from Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance:


How old is Kei Matoba? In the Cop Craft wikia it's mentioned Tilarna is 18 years old. How about Kei Matoba? Is it mentioned in the light novel how old is he?

His age is never explicitly revealed, nor has the current year or date of the in-series world ever explicitly mentioned or revealed.

We have his birthday as June 18th, 1993. We know he was part of a peace keeping mission about 10 years from the start of the series and that the gates opened about 15 years ago.

If we assume it's the current year (2019), with touch screen phones et al, 2019-1993 = 26. Kei was 16 when he did his peacekeeping excursion.

By looks alone, we can maybe assume him to be mid/late 20s to mid 30s, the average age range of hard-boiled detective character archetypes.

No date is explicitly depicted in the anime thus far it seems. Not even on the porno magazines.

Because the anime changes the ages, Tilarna is 20 Earth years old in the novels, it's unsure what else has changed in regards to the original source vs the anime.


What is meant by "finished with a super 'DAH'"? In chapter 196 of Beelzebub, after beating Nasubi, Oga buried Nasubi's doppelgangers into the ceiling, as shown in the image below.

Is there a meaning in the position of the bodies (with the reference of "super DAH")? Or is it just meant to be random?

The corpses form the Katakana character "ダ", which is pronounced as "Da".


Why are the majority of characters named after car manufacturers? Most of the character's last name comes from a car manufacturer. Acura is a luxury car manufacturer under Honda. Gaz is a Russian car manufacturer. There are others like this such as Trabant, Lancia, Arbath, Dodge, Calloway, etc.

Has the author given his reason for this naming convention?

Sakaki Ichiro (aka the author) used a distinctive naming scheme in his other work Scrapped Princess as well, but there the characters were named after firearms / guns instead (its wiki page even has a section about that).

So it may very well just be that he likes to have his character names be a reference to something. :)


What happened to Masaki's family? In Bleach, Ichigo's mother Masaki

  was a quincy and was living with Uryuu's father, Ryuken Ishida as a teenager.

She was the last of the Kurosaki line. What happened to her family? How did they die?

It hasn't been told in manga yet. We can only speculate.

The Great Quincy War can't be the reason as it happened 200 years ago. We can safely presume they died of natural causes and also they were Echt Quincies (pure-blooded Quincies who refuse to marry and mate with anyone but a pure-blooded Quincy and who were almost extinct after the Great Purge).


Why did Fatima not wear any clothes? In Chain Chronicle, Fatima, one of the Three Sages, didn't wear any clothes as shown below. I tried to reread the part one, chapter three, story two about the Three Sages but they never really tell the reason.

  Dilma

  [ Fatima has a reason for dressing as she does, so don't bother her about it ]

Was it ever explained anywhere? Maybe from side story or her character story? She's available on Japanese version

Because she is a witch. There's a lore that says witch maintaining her magical power by avoiding anything that touch her body (yes, including clothes).

From developer commentary (taken from SEGA NETWORKSの全て - 2013.12.9)

(Image courtesy of an anonymous Chain Chronicle Japanese Wiki user No.76956554)

  ファティマは魔女という存在の象徴として用意しています。
  そのため、女性の魔法使いはたくさんいても、魔女という称号を持っているのは彼女だけなんです。
  それから魔女というのは、生まれたままの姿から体を一切いじらないことで魔力を保つという話がありまして。
  そんな話をしていたら、HACCANさんから全裸のラフが来たんです。
  服を着ているものもあったのですが、魔女のバックボーンを生かす究極だなと思ったので、この姿に決定しちゃいました。

  I prepared Fatima as a symbol of witch's existential.
  For that reason, even though there are many female magic users, Fatima is the only one bearing a title of 'witch'.
  After that, regarding the witch itself, there's a story about them maintaining their magical power by avoiding anything that touch their body.
  With that background, there's a rough draft of her naked coming from HACCAN (the artist).
  There's also one with clothes on, but since I needed to specially make use of witch's backbone(?), I decided to use this (naked) one.

  (Translated by myself, feel free to improve it)

Reference: Golden Witch Fatima - Chain Chronicle Japanese Wiki


What is this manga about a high school class that turns into a kingdom? It starts with a group of high schoolers in a room being made into a kingdom, where each day a new king or queen is chosen, along with two nobles and the rest as commoners, the nobles and commoners have to obey all that the king or queen of the days demands, commoners also have to obey the nobles.

Does anyone know what this manga is?

I believe it is Oukoku Game.

Synopsis from mangaupdates (emphasis mine):

At the end of Meiji Restoration, a girl saint was crucified and burnt alive under persecution.
A century later, Katori and six childhood friends are summoned to her world beyond the nirvana, where they receive the Great Commission: Build a kingdom, and make disciples of all nations.
At every midnight, each of them are randomly given a role out of King/Queen, Noble, and Peasants. As the lowly must obey a higher-up in the hierarchy, can they fight and defeat other nations to conquer the world--before infighting brought up by their own hidden desires breaks them apart?


What's the deal with Roronoa Zoro's eye after the timeskip? I'm up to date in the One Piece anime but not in the manga, is there any information about Zoro's closed eye? Can't he open it because of his scar there, or maybe he is hiding his real power withholding his one eye closed? How did he get his scar? Maybe in a final training fight with Mihawk?
Is there any information about his scar on his eye?

Still, nothing has been revealed if Zoro has some special power in his eye due to which he's keeping it closed. All that's been shown till now is that the scar has greatly injured his eye due to which he cannot open it. The wiki says the same thing:

During and after the two-year timeskip, Zoro gains a new scar running down over his left eye, which is now implied to be critically injured as it is always closed.

Yet, Eichiiro sensei hasn't really revealed all of the Strawhat Crew's power, so we can't say anything. So for now, we have only this much information about his eye. Nothing has been shown on how he got it.


Who caused Rize to die? In the first episode, someone threw the crane in order to kill Rize, however that also prompted in having to save Kaneki from totally being devoured/killed .

That was the point from where everything basically took off.

Was the fall of crane just a coincidence or was it deliberately caused by someone in an attempt to kill Rize and if so, who could have it been?

In the Manga near the very end Tokyo ghoul, Kaneki remembers the incident, and it was shown that

   The Ghoul Group called the clowns did it as One of them, Souta, was there.

The specific incident summary on the Wiki confirms this.

The reasons why are not clear yet in TG:RE, as there are several groups that could have been the reason why it happened, or it could have been spur of the moment.


Need help identifying this manga- large guy helps out schoolgirl I remember reading a fairly new manga a while back where the main protagonist is a large guy on the wrestling team, who is actually really sweet and doesn't like to see girls get hurt. He rescues a girl from being groped on the subway (I'm pretty sure this is what happened), and she bakes him cookies and wants to be friends. He likes her, but assumes she actually is interested in his popular friend (who always rejects girls) and keeps inviting him along when she asks to hang out. It seems like the girl actually did like the main guy and not the good-looking friend, but he doesn't realize.

Does anyone know what this manga is called? Did it get cancelled?

The title you're looking for is probably Ore Monogatari. Your description of the story is quite close to the synopsis of the manga, with both the big guy premise and the popular friend.

From MyAnimeList

  Tsuyoshi Takeo is a freshman in high school. (Both estimates) Weight: 120kg, Height: 2 meters. He spends his days peacefully with his super-popular-with-girls, yet insensitive childhood friend, Sunagawa. One morning, on the train to school, Takeo saves a girl, Yamato, from being molested by a pervert. Could this be the beginning of spring for Takeo?

References

MAL
Wikipedia


Are floors 76-100 still untouched? At the end of the Aincrad arc, Kirito faced Skull Reaper (boss of the floor) and found out that the Guild Master of the Knights of the Blood was the GM himself. After beating him, Aincrad was destroyed and floors 76-100 were still untouched.

At the end of the Fairy Dance arc, Kirito restores Aincrad so the people can explore it again.

I waiting for the story about floors 76-100, as well as the Ruby Palace (100th floor), but there has been nothing so far. Now that Kirito has begun exploring GGO (Gun Gale Online), are floors 76-100 still untouched?

Still untouched in canon.  In the non-canon games Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment, Kirito and the others had to continue through the upper floors and the Ruby Palace.

It was established within canon that the floors of New Aincrad are being released 10 floors at a time.  The Mother's Rosario story arc begins with the update that opened floors 21-30 to begin clearing, notable because Kirito and Asuna wanted to reclaim their cabin on floor 22.  Since nothing has been said beyond Mother's Rosario, it is safe to say the upper floors still have not been released.


An anime about a samurai who has extended canines There's an anime I used to watch about 7 years ago on animax.
I cannot recall it's name.
Some information:

It was about a samurai.
He wore a red dress that covered his full body and draped from his arms.
He has extended canines.
He sports a long grey (or white) hair.
He says something (rather yells) that changes his look or something like that.
He has a hot girlfriend. ;)
He had an enormous sword.More specifically, a sabre.
2 or 3 seasons of this anime aired. There were a couple of movies too.
I remember Animax dedicating a whole weekend to this anime.

If anyone can give me any suggestions, it'd be appreciable. :)

I believe the anime you are looking for is Inuyasha. The anime has lots of episodes, aired on Animax, and he has fangs, red drapes and shouts.

Fangs, Check

Sabre kind of Gigantic Sword, Check

And long red drapes, Check

The only problem is that his girlfriend does not look that hot to me.


What is the soundtrack that plays in Tokyo Ghoul root A, episode 9? What is the soundtrack that plays at 19:45 to 22:22 of Tokyo Ghoul root A Episode 9?

If you are talking about the fight scene of Kaneki and Amon the song's name is Glassy Sky  from Donna Burke : link


Which of Usopp's lies have not come true? A running gag in One Piece is that Usopp's lies eventually turn out to be true (with some minor modifications such as his age). For instance, he discovered giant goldfish, pirates came (though they don't find out), and the existence of an island of dwarves. I fully expect every significant lie he says from the beginning of the story to come true in some (likely absurd) way at some point in the story.

I want to know the lies which are yet to come true. Currently, I am only aware that he lied about a medicine that can cure any disease. His claims to be captain could potentially count, but he has been acknowledged by the title "Captain Usopp".

What other lies are left that have not yet come true?

I'm using the youtube link OP provided in one of the comments to answer this question.

Basically the lies that haven't come true according to this video are:

(Conqueror's) Haki.
Having 8000 followers.
Medicine that cures all diseases
Brave warrior of the sea
King usopp from hell
Beating ten giant shadows
Assisting in bringing down a bombman
Descendant of Noland
Being born on sniper island.

Personally I believe three of them have been verified in recent chapters though.

  - Haki could be considered as truth as he indeed unlocked (Observation) Haki and  he will most likely not discover Conqueror's Haki.
- Law's DF could be considered the medicine that cures all diseases as he could cure fatal diseases as lead poisoning and could even cure the terminal illness called death...
- Assisting in bringing down a bombman is probably referring to the fact that he sniped Sugar the second time bringing down the giant toys that were aiding.

For completeness, here are the lies that have been confirmed according to the same video:

Pirates came to Syrup village (Black Cat Pirates)
Saved a whale from North Blue (Laboon)
Fought a huge goldfish with poop as large as islands (The goldfish at Little Garden killed by Brogy and Dorry. The same goldfish had pooped the island called nanimonai)
"Honestly, I know I'm a man amoung men, but you can't fall in love with me, girl. Not my fault if you get burned." (Basically what Sanji told the Okama)
A big condor, flying through the skies (The big condors Chopper met during the time-skip. Usopp rode one during the reunion)
Abominable snowman (Rock and Scotch, the Yeti Cool brothers)
A beautiful female swordmaster that brought a lot of meat (Rebecca buying Luffy three bentos at the Colosseum)
A huge mole inside the mansion (Miss Merry Christmas from Barocque Works)
During Syrup village arc, they pretend to chase "Cerberus", while chasing a regular dog (Usopp met a real Cerberus at Thriller Bark)
They also pretend to capture a dragon (The Straw Hat Pirates actually capture (eat) a dragon on Punk Hazard)
Country of dwarves (Tontatta country)
Legendary hero Usoland (God Usopp)


Why does Violet Evergarden seem to have a habit of biting things? I don't mean just the times when she bit the gloves to pull them off her hands, which may be done easier than with her prosthetic hands, but also these two moments:

After she received a puppy doll from Hodgins, she held it with her mouth. When asked why she chose the puppy doll, she replied she was called "Gilbert's dog" by Gilbert's brother, which may be interpreted as an apt nickname for her biting-like-a-dog behavior.
After Gilbert's brooch was bought back from the black market by Hodgins and returned to Violet, she again held it with her mouth while lying on her bed at night.

I found a discussion on Reddit, in which one redditor said

  From what I understand it's because Violet's hand can't grip hard enough to put the glove on properly so she used her teeth instead.

I don't completely agree. After all, Violet performed a rear wrist lock on a customer, so she can grip hard enough.

Another viewpoint is that Violet did it because

  she lacks feeling in her hands, but she still has feeling in her mouth.

This seem more plausible, but I still think she could feel more by touching with her cheek, which she did initially with the puppy doll.

Is there a better explanation to this curious behavior of Violet-chan?

She has trouble writing with a pen and in the second episode we see her adjusting her fingers to type better. This means that her prosthetics are not perfect.

I disagree with point 1, it's much more likely that it refers to her following Gilbert around and obeying him like a loyal dog rather than anything biting related.

For point 2 it is very likely the feeling related reason.


In Chimera Arc, why weren't the people infected by the bomb? In Chimera Arc, why weren't the people that stood in front of the castle infected

   when Shaiapouf died because of the Rose-Bomb? He lay a long time next to the paralyzed people.

It's just an hypothesis, but, based on what is shown in the manga, the situation of these people was different than

   the ones we know that died by the radioactive poisoning:

About...

   The King and the Royal Guard: Meruem took the direct impact of the Rose Bomb; Pouf and Yupi were in the center of the explosion soon after, taking the full impact of radiation:

About

   Komugi: she stayed in direct physical contact with the King for many and many hours, maybe days (for what I remember, it's not precisely stated how much time they passed together). She even touched the hands of the King:

About common people:

   By comparison, common people had not this level of direct contact with the poisoned characters (at least they were not touching them), and only some were near the corpses of the Royal Guard:

However, as @eha1234 said in the comments, it's very possible that some people died by radiation, but, since a lot of people died for many reasons, maybe these death were not specified among the total. So, maybe the correct answer is that these people were, in fact, infected, maybe not as strong as the characters in question, due to reasons mentioned above.

   And, was stated in Chapter 318, 46,613 people had a deterioration of their condition and died after being liberated from Pouf's hypnotic abilities


What powers did Gol D. Roger possess? I am a big fan of the One Piece manga. I just started watching the anime (completed 3 seasons).

I was wondering: What powers did the Pirate King Gol D. Roger possess?

Is there any chapter/episode which reveals his powers? Or is there any theory about it?

There has not been any information about the Gol D Roger power. Though there are some episode where part of Gol D. Roger are connected but information about him is very low. Main information about him are about family member, some crew, cause of death, very few information about his treasure One Piece but information of power has not been revealed. There are some more information about him in this wiki page.

As the story is progressing lots of thing are untold or unknown which may be revealed in future.


What is up with all those broken trees in the blue forest? There is a "blue forest" sort of place in Nausicaa where trees are broken in a very peculiar way. Normally trees break apart along the growth rings, and not strictly across like seen in this image:

Some trees look like someone cut those pieces. From the movie we can understand that the trees are dead, but how did they end up in this particular state?

In the series the "Forest of Decay" grows above the petrified remains of ancient trees. Dialogue from the anime and manga suggest that the toxins from the immense pollution humanity caused in the past are absorbed by the plants while water and sand are filtered through the remains of the petrified wood and become purified, which is why the wells that people made have clean soil and water.

The petrified trees seems to be in part inspired by the natural process of petrified wood, a special type of fossilization.

  the result of a tree or tree-like plants having completely transitioned to stone by the process of permineralization. All the organic materials have been replaced with minerals (mostly a silicate, such as quartz), while retaining the original structure of the stem tissue

The actual process of petrification and filtering were or touched upon in the anime or manga. However in the manga it's inferred to be part of the artificially process ancient the humans created to clean up the miasma over time.