What are the differences between the 2002 and 2006 versions of Kanon? I only watched Kanon (2006) which is made by Kyoto Animation. What are the differences between the 2002 version and the 2006 version of the series?

There are two anime adaptations of Kanon, one from 2002 by Toei Animation with 13 episodes (plus one OVA), and one from 2006 by Kyoto Animation with 24 episodes. Both of them are based on the 1999 visual novel by Key.

The most obvious difference between the two is the artwork. The 2002 version was fairly close to the artwork from the VN. In contrast, the 2006 anime was with KyoAni's own style, which is more similar to their previous anime Air than to the original Kanon artwork. I think most people would say that 2006 has the better animation quality. The soundtracks of the two are understandably also different. In terms of theme songs, the 2006 version used remixed versions the original songs from the VN, while the 2002 version used new songs. The voice actors are the same with the exception of Yuichi and Kuze.

Comparison of Kanon artwork
Left: Nayuki, Right: Aya.
Top row: Visual Novel, Middle Row: 2002 Anime, Bottom Row: 2006 Anime

In terms of plot, there are going to be many small differences. The 2006 one had 11 more episodes than the 2002 one, so understandably there is more content there. Both are very close to the VN, but the 2002 one stripped out a lot of extraneous content and condensed a lot of necessary content (to the point that it created some plot holes). The content that was removed had a lot of comedy, so the 2002 version comes off as more of a drama than the 2006 one. The one difference that I definitely noticed is that Mai's story in the 2002 version was greatly condensed to the point of not making sense, while it's quite well-paced and understandable in the 2006 version. Overall, the big differences are that with the 2002 version, you just don't get as much of the story, and it goes somewhat faster.

I think the advice of most people would be that if you've already watched the 2006 version, there's not a lot of reason to watch the 2002 version. Instead, if you want more Kanon, the better thing to do would be to read the VN.


Why did the show pause in episode 1? In Episode 1 of Konosuba the anime pauses for a moment, just like in a video game. However, this is meant to be an alternate real world.

Why did the show pause like this?

For people watching via an online stream or disk, this made a little less sense as it pauses and then unpauses and it may be a little difficult to understand what happened. However, for viewers watching the broadcast on television it made more sense because this screen was placed just before and after the commercial break. It's merely the art used to transition to commercial.


How powerful was Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan? In Naruto, it's shown that Fugaku has his own Mangekyō Sharingan.

Is there any further information about Fugaku's Mangekyō Sharingan? How powerful are these eyes?

We don't know everything about it, though it's said to have the ability to control the Nine-Tails. It's the same way as how we don't know the abilities of Izuna's Mangekyo Sharingan.


Where can I watch seasons 2 and 3 of Danganronpa? I've just finished watching Danganronpa V1. Where can I watch the other seasons?
I cannot use Funimation.

Hulu and Crunchyroll may have it I'm not exactly sure now though
[1]: https://www.hulu.com/series/danganronpa-the-animation-cea65c1b-85df-43b2-bb88-341e0ec1074b


Did Kale ever turn into super saiyan 2? We have no doubts that universe 6 saiyans Caulifla, Kyabe and Kefura turned super saiyan 2.

But how about Kale? According to these Dragon Ball wikias in English and Spanish she turns in super saiyan 2 in Dragon Ball Super

Kale Super Saiyan 2 Dragon Ball Wikia

Kale Dragon Ball Wikia Spanish

But in the series we never see her having sparks in her aura or someone mentioning she's a super saiyan 2. According to the english wikia this is her when she's in SSJ2

Now the Dragon Ball Wikia arent official sources. Therefore my question is, did Kale ever turned into super saiyan 2 in Dragon Ball Super?

Kale has a power beyond Super Saiyan 2. Her transformations, seem to be a lot different in comparison to Cabba and Caulifla. We know this based on the following reasons:In Episode 92 when Cabba tried to teach Caulifla and Kale to go Super Saiyan. We know the Caulifla in her SSJ form was stronger than Cabba and Kale in her out of control Berserker form at that time, was stronger than SSJ Caulifla and Caulifla had to go SSJ2 to block her attack.In Episode 113-114 SSJ2 Caulifla was initially fighting with Goku until Kale Joined in. When Kale Joined in, she was in perfect sync with Caulifla despite her being SSJ2 (Which is 50 times stronger than SSJ). I believe, Kale's SSJ transformation is different from a regular SSJ transformation and makes her slightly stronger than the average SSJ transformation.After Kale transformed to her mastered LSSJ transformation, she was completely superior in strength to SSJ2 Caulifla. We know this based on 2 reasons. When Goku first turned SSJG, Kale could hold her own against him while Caulifla was completely overwhelmed. So the Mastered LSSJ transformation makes Kale substantially stronger than SSJ3 Goku considering the fact that SSJG is a lot stronger.When Kale and Caulifla fused, Base Kefla was strong enough to easily overwhelm SSJG Goku. This again is because of Kale's superiorty in strength.So to answer your question,  just like Vegeta skipped the SSJ3 transformation and managed to attain an even higher power, Kale more or less did the same. Another Important Piece of Information: Both Kale and Caulifla are very inexperienced fighters compared to Goku/Vegeta and even Cabba. Also, they aren't aware of God Ki and cannot sense how strong it is. This is why, Kale and Caulifla were more amused by SSJ3 over something like SSJG and SSJB which are a lot stronger. Kale by herself is superior to the SSJ3 transformation based on her fight with SSJG goku and tanking that suppressed SSJB Kamehameha.


Did Hiromu Arakawa have any input on the 2003 FMA? The 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime, as we all know, departed significantly plot-wise from the manga. The mangaka for FMA is Hiromu Arakawa. Did she have any input on the plot or production of the 2003 anime, or was it written by other people just based on the manga?

It was directed by Seiji Mizushima, written by Shō Aikawa and co-produced by Bones, Mainichi Broadcasting System and Aniplex. Character designs by Yoshiyuki Itō. During the making of the anime, Arakawa was present in meetings to advise the staff about the world of Fullmetal Alchemist, though she did not write for the television series.

Source:Wikipedia


What was the first anime that uses different ending/opening songs in every episode? After watching a few series I realised that some of them use different opening/ending songs in each episode (e.g. Oreimo). I noticed that it must've been quite expensive to do this, and some other animes like Love Live use the same song sang by different people every episode.

What was the first anime that has done this, and can you list the animes that has done this?

Clarification: If the anime has 12 episodes, there has to be 12 different endings, not less than that.

tl;dr Shōnan Bakusōzoku, an OAV from 1986 with 12 episodes and 12 endings (ended only in 1999).

Intro

I took up Gao WeiWei's suggestion and used ANN's API to create a duplicate of their database and then search for all titles that have as many OPs/EDs as they have episodes. If anyone is interested in the code for this (it's not nice :P) and all results, go here.

Assumptions

I restricted the analysis to titles that have at least 6 episodes. ANN's episode field sometimes contains additional information such as '10 (+2 Specials)' in such a case I only take the first number and ignore the rest. There are no checks for the title or anything like that, if ANN lists an ending twice or if the same ending appears multiple times with different artists, those all count as separate. Most importantly, the relevant date is the start date (because that is less parsing work and because often there is no end date given).

Result for EDs

Below are the results. With the above restrictions, ANN has 30 animes that fit the bill and the oldest of them is Shōnan Bakusōzoku. Note though, that the final episode is from 1999! Among the first few, Iczer Reborn ended in 1991-02-25 already, so maybe that's your winner? See here for the full table.

╔════════════╦══════╦═════╦═════╦═════╦════════════════════════════╗
║  Vintage   ║ Type ║ #EP ║ #OP ║ #ED ║            Name            ║
╠════════════╬══════╬═════╬═════╬═════╬════════════════════════════╣
║ 1986-09-10 ║ OAV  ║  12 ║   3 ║  12 ║ Shōnan Bakusōzoku          ║
║ 1987-02-25 ║ OAV  ║   8 ║   6 ║   8 ║ Bubblegum Crisis           ║
║ 1990-09-25 ║ OAV  ║   6 ║   1 ║   6 ║ Iczer Reborn               ║
║ 1992-06-15 ║ OAV  ║   6 ║   0 ║   6 ║ Blue Girl                  ║
║ 1997-11-25 ║ OAV  ║   6 ║   2 ║   6 ║ Saber Marionette J Again   ║
║ 1999-07-25 ║ OAV  ║   6 ║   3 ║   9 ║ Ten Tokyo Warriors         ║
║ 1999-10-06 ║ TV   ║  12 ║   1 ║  12 ║ Seraphim Call              ║
║ 1999-12-18 ║ OAV  ║   6 ║   7 ║   7 ║ Sakura Wars 2              ║
║ 2002-06-15 ║ OAV  ║   8 ║   8 ║   8 ║ Angelique: Twin Collection ║
║ 2002-10-02 ║ TV   ║  13 ║   1 ║  13 ║ Sister Princess: Re Pure   ║
║ 2003-05-08 ║ TV   ║   6 ║   1 ║   6 ║ Saint Beast                ║
║ 2005-10-21 ║ TV   ║  26 ║   1 ║  26 ║ Mushi-Shi                  ║
...

Huh, more endings than episodes?
You may have noticed, there are titles with more endings than episodes: They can all be considered to have as many endings as episodes. For Ten Tokyo Warriors, Sakura Wars 2 and Heaven's Lost Property those are caused by some kind of inconsistent annotation in ANN. For Akikan! they list an extra ending for a special but don't count the special towards the episodes. Katanagatari got an extra ending for the noitaminA rebroadcast. For Highschool of the Dead  and Maken-Ki! Battling Venus they count the OAV ending towards the anime.

Almost made it
I thought it would be interesting to also check which ones cut it very close. Here's an addtitional list sorted by #EPs/#EDs and then sorted by vintage. I left out all that have a quotient of 1 or less, since we already know those from above. The full list can be found here.

╔═══════╦════════════╦══════╦═════╦═════╦══════════════════════════════╗
║ EP/ED ║  Vintage   ║ Type ║ #EP ║ #ED ║             Name             ║
╠═══════╬════════════╬══════╬═════╬═════╬══════════════════════════════╣
║ ...   ║            ║      ║     ║     ║                              ║
║ 1.04  ║ 2007-04-08 ║ TV   ║  24 ║  23 ║ Lucky Star                   ║
║ 1.09  ║ 2010-07-07 ║ TV   ║  12 ║  11 ║ Strike Witches 2             ║
║ 1.09  ║ 2010-10-01 ║ TV   ║  12 ║  11 ║ Heaven's Lost Property Forte ║
║ 1.11  ║ 2006-02-10 ║ OAV  ║  10 ║   9 ║ Hellsing Ultimate            ║
║ 1.17  ║ 1990-01-26 ║ OAV  ║   7 ║   6 ║ Be-Bop-Highschool            ║
║ 1.2   ║ 1990-06-15 ║ OAV  ║   6 ║   5 ║ Devil Hunter Yohko           ║
...

As ʞɹɐzǝɹ already mentioned Lucky Star should qualify for the previous list, having 24 episodes and endings, but ANN is missing the ED for ep22. And so on, you can already see, this DB isn't perfect either ;)

Overview
Finally, here's a barplot showing the distribution of the number of endings among all animes that fit the assumptions described initially.

Result for OPs

There are only two result for #EPs = #OPs, and those are already shown in the list above (Sakura Wars 2 and Angelique: Twin Collection). The results for #EPs / #OPs are here. OPs are generally not as diverse:

More OPs than EDs and vice versa

As per Gao WeiWei's suggestion: There are 221 animes with #OP > #ED, among those 115 have no endings listed in ANN at all, which is probably a mix of the truth and missing annotations (full list). The other way around, there are 781 animes with #ED > #OP, 82 with no openings at all (full list).

Outro

This is not the definite answer either of course, ANN doens't provide an XML schema, so I might have overlooked something, and even if everything went well in my parsing, we already know they have a different opinion on the number of EDs e.g. for NGE (see GaoWeiwei's answer for that discussion), and there are several errors mentioned above. Answering a different question I realized I should have probably made sure the endings are unique, that doesn't affect the main result here though.


Death Note 23 Day rule? Okay, first read this rule:

  In the Death Note, you cannot set the death date longer than the victim’s original life span. Even if the victim’s death is set in the Death Note beyond his/her original life span, the victim will die before the set time.

So that means if you wrote something like John zeurtö dies peacefully in the year 2315, that wouldn't work because this date is beyond his lifespan. But that would mean, if you wrote a date thats within his actual lifespan, that would work.

But now, there's this 23 day rule.

  The Death Note can only operate within 23 days (in the human calendar). This is called the 23 day rule.

So, could the first example work?

The rules together means the following.

Assume I am dying of a fatal disease and expected to die in 14 days. If I would write that I would die of sexual exhaustion in 21 days, I would still die of the original disease in 14 days before the book can come into effect assuming the cause of death is reasonable.

If I put that someone will die in 24 days of "insert horrific image here", it will not occur as stated.  When I remember that rule tommorrow and write that you will die of the same thing on that date... well... it will not be fun to be you.  If you want to avoid that after reading the death note, I guess you can kill yourself and the deathnote will not stop you as that is the end of your normal lifespan.  Note: you should have brought a pen so you can edit the entry.  That works.


Movie identification: post-apocalyptic setting featuring a genetically engineered forest I saw this movie in 2012 on The Hub (Discovery Channel's kid network).

It takes place after an undefined apocalypse, where the earth is now mostly desert and the moon is shattered into pieces, after being destroyed due to an extremist bombing of a laboratory located there. Now all that is shown remaining on the planet is a human town bordering a jungle-like forest filled with animal-like plant monsters largely hostile to humans. The entire forest is a super-organism led by twin dryad-like beings that the people in the town treat like gods. The water supply of the planet is ever dropping, and the forest is taking most of it leaving the town dry.

Elsewhere, humanity is composed of a military-state in a partially underground base that is hostile to the forest and is also in need of water. The protagonist is a boy from the village who agrees to be turned into superpowered human-plant hybrid by the forest to fight this army, and his hair turns white and his clothing changes to being red and sleeve-less.

This sounds like "Origin: Spirits of the Past" (or Gin-iro no kami no Agito).

From the Wikipedia Link

  Genetic engineering on trees was conducted at a research facility on the Moon to produce trees capable of growing in harsh, arid conditions. The trees gain consciousness, obliterating Earth's civilizations and destroying the Moon. Three hundred years later, Japan is a dystopia covered by the Forest, a huge expanse of sapient trees, and ruled by the tree-like Zruids, which inhabit the planet and control the water supply of both trees and humans. Agito, a geeky young boy, and his father Agashi, as well as his friends Cain and Minka, live in Neutral City, a city carved out of the ruined skyscrapers which acts as both a buffer and a bridge between the Forest and the militaristic nation of Ragna. While the people of Neutral City co-exist peacefully with the trees of the forest, the nation of Ragna aims to destroy the Forest to restore the Earth.

I wasn't aware that it aired on the Discovery channel but it was made in 2006 and licensed by Funimation, and would definitely of have fit the 2012 airing time frame. The description of the movie pretty much matches.

For more info:

Anime News Network
Funimation page


Why didn't Melody (センリツ, Senritsu) enter Greed Island to heal her condition? Why didn't Melody (センリツ, Senritsu) enter Greed Island and use the Angel's Breath (G.I card) to heal all the after effects (her arm, figure etc. etc.) of the Sonata of Darkness that she listened to ?

There's really no indication that Melody even knows that the game exists.
While the Greed Island game is among the easiest "treasures" to acquire in the Hunter x Hunter world (it's ranked in the second lowest difficulty tier, and only because it's so expensive), not every hunter knows ever item that exists. There's really no indication that Melody has ever even heard of Greed Island. Even during the Yorknew City arc, when the auction for a copy of the game in an auction, Melody was busy doing her job as part of Killua's team.
Afterwards Melody wasn't really seen in the story until the Succession Contest arc. I haven't read it yet, but I don't think Greed Island played any part in that any more.
There's also no indication that items inside Greed Island are public knowledge.
Sure, the people playing the game have a pretty good idea what all is in the game (and the people hiring them). But outside the game nobody has mentioned any item that's in there. So, even if Melody had heard about Greed Island, for a rumor or something, there's a good chance that she'd have no idea an item like Angel's Breath would be in there.
Before the details of Greed Island were introduced to us as readers, all characters did seem to consider it as just some regular-ish game. A rare and unique game, but still just a game.
That might kill you for real.


Who was able to resist more punches from Saitama, Boros or Garou? It's known few characteres can resist punches from Saitama when he's half serious (probably only Boros, Garou and Orochi until now)

Who was able to resist more punches from Saitama, Boros or Garou?

Up until now saitama really did not have to do anything at all to beat garou all it took was one really simple shot(not even a punch)
And in manga too there isn't any fight scene between garou and saitama, it's yet to be revealed if garou would be able to endure punches from him or not
And if you  read the manga you would  be aware of the condition of Orochi.
So far boros is the only one who gave a little fight to Saitama


Why doesn't Haibara change her hairstyle? Akai, Jodie, and Vermouth notice the similarity between Haibara and Sherry and I think this is mainly due to her hairstyle which she didn't change after her body shrank.

Why doesn't she change it as a disguise?

I don't think there's in-universe answer regarding this. The reason would be similar with the answer to the question Why do characters always wear the same clothes?

It's so we can recognize her easily with her older self.

Beside, Aoyama is known for using tons of character. Saving one hairstyle means saving one totally different character. Who know if he will use different hairstyle with Haibara's face for new character that intended to be similar to Haibara for plot reasons. (We know he did for Shinichi and Kid)

Beside she did try to disguise her self several times already. Sometimes she use a cap or Conan's glasses


What's Agepoyo and Doyagao? In the last episode of Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, part "High School Boys and Lies", Motoharu asks Yoshitake about different things to which Yoshitake gives absurd replies (with the exception of the last one):

What's "Twitter"?
What's "KY"?
What's "Tsundere"?
What's "Doyagao"?
What's "Agepoyo"?
What's an "MMORPG"?

An example of the absurdity of the answers:

Motoharu: What is Twitter?
Yoshitake: It's Italian food.

I understand all of them except Doyagao and Agepoyo. Tried googling but didn't get it. Can someone explain them simply?

Doya-gao (ドヤ顔) is a slang term for the face made when showing off. Usually they make the recipient irked, though sometimes it is considered cute depending on the situation. It comes from the Kansai dialect version of "dou da「どうだ」", which is "do ya「どや」", a phrase that translates to "How's that?" So, the literal translation would be a "how's that face".  A Google search provides some nice examples.

Age-poyo (あげぽよ) is a slang term used by gals (or kogals), a subculture set of high school girls. The "age" part comes from "age-age (アゲアゲ)", another slang term meaning "in high spirits" or "rockin'".  Basically these terms are used when you're liking something or things are getting exciting. The "poyo" part is an auxiliary suffix that has no meaning. Apparently it was added because it "sounded good".  Note that native Japanese speakers have trouble with understanding this, so I'm not sure if my explanation is 100% accurate. Also, I do believe that the word is dying out since its peak in 2010.


Why are the faces of dead people whited-out in photographs? I've noticed that, in a number of different anime, photographs of people who have died appear with the face whited out, generally by reflections of light. Is there a tradition behind this? Is there a cultural reason for this, or is it just laziness to keep from having to animate a character who would only be drawn once?

I exclude the laziness hypothesis. This is a deliberate omission of a relevant information by the narrator. This is the case of an unreliable narrator that was keeping herself a key fact for narration purposes. These lines about to Agatha Christie's novels from the cited Wikipedia article can apply to this type of trope too:

  the narrator hides essential truths in the text (mainly through evasion, omission, and obfuscation) without ever overtly lying [...] even a first-person narrator might hide essential information and deliberately mislead the reader in order to preserve the surprise ending

The first image you've cited from Fullmetal Alchemist actually doesn't hide all faces. The mother, dead too, is clearly visible in the photo, only the father's face is obfuscated. So the criteria to hide a particular face is not related to the fact that a person is dead but to the role the obfuscated character has in the story.

I.e. in Bakuman the Mashiro's uncle's face is clearly visible at the funeral, because the narrator has interest to inform the reader about why Mashiro is reluctant about being mangaka and, later, to motivate him in front of the reader. In Another, on the contrary, a certain character's face at the funeral is not showed until the author discloses who is dead.


What is the meaning of this 'fox' hand gesture? In chapter 729 of トモちゃんは女の子 (Tomo-chan wa Onna no Ko), two characters are negotiating, while other two do the hand gestures depicted in the following image:

By the Giseigo (Onomatopoeia) used here (コンコン - Kon Kon) I deduce it has to do something with foxes (Foxes being described in Japanese folklore as  very intelligent and cunning). I have seen the same gesturing a couple of times before (I don't remember where) in the approximately same situation (a character leading another by the nose).

What is the meaning, then, of said gesturing? A reliable source or reference would be appreciated.

The origin of it's recent popularity is likely linked to the female metal band Baby Metal which popularized it, potentially as a variation (perhaps accidentally) of the Sign of the Horns (Maloik sign in Japanese). Often referred to in Japanese as キツネサイン or Fox sign. Associations to Shinto shrines and fox masks are present in some of their works, so it might have been capitalized later on as part of their brand.

In the given context, there is likely no deeper meaning besides a cute greeting between girls. Perhaps used like the Peace sign. The sign itself probably predates the band. As it's see used in various places including the WWE, as the "Too Sweet Sign".

It probably not like one of those campaign that catch on via social media for promoting a specific purpose.

The gesture itself predates modern pop culture and can be see in Buddhism or Hinduism as mudras called the Apan or Simhamukha, depending on who you ask.


How was the first anime made? Anime production nowadays is now pretty much complicated and technologically advanced.

I'm curious as to how was anime production back then back in the old days when it was still obscure?

The very first anime (see more) - Katsudō Shashin was sketched onto a celluloid strip using a kappa-ban for a Magic Lantern, adjusted for continuous play.

(Arthur Mee and Holland Thompson, eds. The Book of Knowledge (New York, NY: The Grolier Society, 1912))

Previously, the magic lantern had been occasionally been used to tell stories, but none in a fluid manner like Katsudo Shashin. It's claim to be the 'first anime' is still debated due to many things, including its length.

The basic principle of the Magic lantern is magnification through a convex lens. This meant however, that slides were put in upside down in order to be projected at the correct orientation.

The origins of the Magic lantern are estimated to lie in the 17th century,

Whilst Magic Lanterns fell out of use, celluloid sheets continued to be used for many years, until they were eventually replaced by digital methods.


Is there a specific age timeline in Detective Conan? Do the characters in Detective Conan age according to time? I am asking how the characters age, or if the characters age at all.

No I believe it is one of those shows that has years go by but they remain the same age like Pokemon ash never ages even though he should be 18 now and not 10


Why is the Belial considered a 4th-generation Arm Slave? Why is the Plan-1055 Belial considered a 4th generation Arm Slave while the Plan-1056 Codarl and Plan-1058 Codarl-i Arm Slaves, which were developed from it, considered 3rd generation Arm Slaves?

According to this entry:

  The suit is considered a fourth generation suit, making it more powerful that the Arbalest, even with its Lambda Driver installed. Despite all these advantages the suit has no visible weapons, leaving only its bare hands and the Lambda Driver to destroy its opponents. However, the use of the Lambda Driver is pivotally its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The reliance that the suit has on the Lambda Driver, and not on normal weapons, is a dangerous flaw in its design. The suit needs the Lambda Driver if it is to fly like it does and if anything happens to the device or the wings then that ability is gone. The other weakness is Leonard’s own arrogant attitude towards Sousuke. Leonard never expected Sousuke to acquire a suit to match the strength of Belial until the ARX-8 makes its debut.

The Plan 1056 had an overheating problem that was fixed in the Arm Slave Plan 1058, when they installed an improved heat sink on it.

What makes the Plan 1055 a 4th Gen suit is that the Lambda Driver that it uses and the capacity to fly, this means that the Lambda Driver and the features added to this model are far beyond updated than the versions Plan 1056 and Plan 1058.

Source:
Plan 1058
Plan 1056
Plan 1055


How powerful are Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado now? Right now in Naruto universe, Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado are members of Konoha Council.

They joined the council after Hiruzen becomes The Third Hokage. According to naruto Wiki:

  When Hiruzen became the Third Hokage, Homura and Koharu became his
  councillors. With their years of experience and knowledge and their
  unending effort to make Konohagakure a better place, they eventually
  gained similar respect and social status as the Hokage himself.

But it is known that before that, they're member of Team Tobirama, that also included Sarutobi Hizuren and Tobirama himself. They fought together during the First Shinobi War. So in this time their power could be compared to Hiruzen?

So, How strong are they now? Have they ever fought again after team Tobirama was dissolved?

Both of them were trained along with Hiruzen (the third hokage) by the first and second Hokage (Hashirama and Tobirama) so we can assume them to be quite powerful considering that they participated in the First Shinobi War as well. As of now, they weren't shown in combat at all, not when Kyubi attacked the village or not when Pain eradicated the village. I believe it'll be safe to assume that they have technical skill and experience that they have gained over the years but since unlike lady Chiyo, they don't use puppets or any other tool to help them in combat, they're pretty much off the floor.


Are both Natsu and Igneel known as "The Salamander"? In the anime, Fairy Tail, I know Natsu is well known all around as the Fairy Tail guild's Salamander. However, I've also heard Natsu and Happy refer to Igneel as "The Salamander", specifically in the first episode. Is this a nickname for both of them?

Though IG_42's answer is essentially correct, it is complete.

From memory the conversation went something like this. Very simplistically. [Please edit if somebody has the subs handy :)]

  Lucy: I am a mage, looking to join a guild
  Natsu: I am looking for Salamander, Though he turned out to be human I am looking for a dragon
  Lucy: (All surprised)
  Happy: Salamanders are fire lizard so we thought it might be Igneel

Natsu and Happy are very simple minded. It never occured to Natsu that someone else might be using his moniker to fake people. They heard rumours of Salamander and thought it might relate to Igneel.


What half episode specials follow Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood? I have seen it referenced under a different post that there are four half episode length specials following Brotherhood. I’m in this point of sadness and mass of emotion after finishing the series and just want to see more about their life. Particularly I would like to see Winry and Ed enjoying their relationship as well as see Al. In addition the story never goes to mention what happened to their granny. I’m guessing she died? It seems like she never got to see ed and Al back in their original bodies. I also kind of wonder whether van Holstein died before or after Ed and Al’s reunion with Winry.

The specials are

The Blind Alchemist

  Edward and Alphonse visit an alchemist who supposedly performed a successful Human Transmutation.

Simple People

  After Winry meets Riza, she decides to pierce her ears because it "looks good", while Riza, having seen Winry's hair, grows hers longer for the same very simple reason.

The Tale of Teacher

  A story of Izumi's "alchemy" survival training in the North region.  This is followed by how Izumi first ran into Sig Curtis, possibly in North City.

Yet Another Man's Battlefield

  While in the military academy, Mustang and Hughes befriend an Ishvalan. Unfortunately, they'll soon have to become mortal enemies.

Of them only the second one contains a little bit of content of the relationship between Winry and Ed but it is set before the main events of the series.

  In addition the story never goes to mention what happened to their granny. I’m guessing she died? It seems like she never got to see ed and Al back in their original bodies.

That is not the case. Her wiki entry states that

  She is the sole parental figure of the younger generation to see the arrival of Ed and Winry's children.


What is the song on the title screen of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'? There is a song from the title screen from Resurrection F. I think it is in the Bluray version, but I'm trying to figure out what the name is.

Does anybody know what it is?

The title song for Resurrection 'F' is: "Z no Chikai" (a.k.a "Pledge of Z")
by Norihito Sumitomo.


Why do fansubbed animes have a reminder to not sell their fansubbed product? Why do fansubbed animes have a reminder to not sell their fansubbed product? Sometimes they have the following reminder during the show:

  This is a free fansub: not for sale, rent, or auction

I was wondering why that was necessary. Is it so that they do not get into legal problems? What is the purpose of that reminder?

I think it's a combination of a few factors.

First, there's a sort of ethical code among some fansubbers that dictates that they fansub for "the love of anime" or something to that effect, and that it's improprietous to profit off of fansubbing. I'm not sure how effective a reminder of this sort would be to people who don't subscribe to the same ethical code (i.e. the people at whom this message would be targeted), but there you have it. Sticking a reminder on your fansubs is pretty much a no-cost endeavor, so it's not like it can hurt.

Then, there's the belief that explicitly stating that you do not intend to profit off of your fansubs makes you less liable for copyright infringement. I doubt this has been tested (I don't know of any litigation against fansubbers), but I rather doubt this would be of much value as a legal defense - statutory damages (as opposed to actual damages) are available in USA copyright infringement cases under federal law (and, I imagine, in other jurisdictions as well).

I suspect (but have no evidence) that this is a holdover from the pre-Internet days of fansub distribution when you actually needed to pass around video tapes to get your anime fix. Exchanging physical materials is likely to get you more scrutiny from law enforcement than exchanging digital information, and this relates to my previous point: infringing copyright is bad, but profiting off of infringed copyrights is probably worse, or at least that's the general perception. C. Griffin's answer to this question contains an interesting view on the matter, from the perspective of someone who consumed fansubs in pre-internet times.

Adam Davis also brought up in a comment another point I meant to address - fansubbers don't want other people profiting off of their work - it's kind of a slap in the face. So what's one way to do that? Stick a big "this is not for sale" warning on it, kind of like how a lot of free (gratis) software comes with a notice saying something like "if you paid for this, you should ask for your money back because this is free software".

So here's the problem: basically all fansubbing these days is done with "softsubs" - that is, the subtitles are basically a text file that accompanies a video. It's dead easy to edit these things (particularly using software like Aegisub), so this is probably another reason that you don't see these disclaimers anymore: they're easy to remove. In the pre-softsub days (maybe before 2008~2010 or so? I don't have my chronology down for this very well), subtitling was done by re-encoding the video to have the subtitles ("hardsubs") baked into the video file. Since this is much more difficult to alter, disclaimers would have been more permanent (and hence, useful) back then.

Anyway, I haven't seen a disclaimer of this sort on any fansubs from at least the past five years or so - it's gone the way of the dinosaurs. In the modern fansubbing world, where all exchange of fansubs is electronic and hardsubs are obsolete, these disclaimers serve no actual purpose.

(I have seen this sort of thing on recent manga scanlations, though - but that's a topic for another question. The key difference here, I suspect, is that scanlations are still "hardsubbed", so to speak.)


How did Armin survive after being roasted and blasted away from the Colossal Titan? In Season 3 Part 2 episode 17, We see Armin being roasted By toe Colossal Titan. After He "makes it quick for him" Armin's ODM gear falls off and he is launched, But how in the world did a nearly dead person survive a fall from 60+ meters(he was blasted up) I don't remember anyone saying that they saw him falling and saved him, and when we saw him again there were no broken bones. So how did he survive?

Good question. For me it‘s not really adding up either but I assume someone did catch him because falling from this height while already having your skin burnt off is almost impossible to survive. If he didn‘t fall from like 60 meters it would make a lot more sense. Also I assume that he really was half dead but maybe the most important organs somehow didn‘t take as much damage. It still looks weird next to Erwin who in comparison to Armin wasn‘t really injured. It was probably just convenience for the plot to be honest.

The characters of Attack On Titan in general can take lots of damage as well. I‘ve seen some discussion about how this really hot gas that comes from titans should damage the characters lungs when they inhale it in some scenes and it doesn‘t affect them at all.


Can Zeno really not die? We know that Zeno is an immortal. No matter how old he gets or how badly he is injured, he won't die. However, that's only true because of the indestructible body bestowed upon him by one of the dragons.

We also know that the dragons' powers can be passed on. When Kija, Shin-Ah, and Jae-Ha were born, their predecessors weakened and eventually lost their powers along with their lives. When the first Hakuryuu, Seryuu, and Rokuryuu left Hiryu Castle, they left with their tribes and only in those tribes would the next dragons be born.

Did the dragons pass on their genes along with their powers? If Zeno passes on his genes, would his ability also be passed on so he could finally die?

First of all, I would like to mention that the passing on of the dragon's powers isn't such a simple matter in the first place. I might be wrong but judging from the different dragons' back stories, it is pretty much evident that the passing on of the dragons' powers is not supposed to be genetic. A genetic transfer of powers would mean that a dragon would have to marry someone and bear a child which doesn't seem to be the case in any of the dragons' stories.

Take Shin Ah for instance. His back story revealed that he lived and was trained by a previous Seiryuu who wasn't his father. None of the dragons' back stories gives any sort of hints that might suggest that the dragon's powers only appear in his own lineage. So that proves that the powers aren't transferred genetically. It is more like "magical".

It is shown that when a dragon is grows old, the powers are slowly magically transferred to a younger person who then carries on the previous dragon's will. However, there might be other reasons for a dragon to lose their power which are not so clear yet.

Now as for Zeno, from the information that the Manga has revealed so far, Zeno is immortal and it is not possible for him to transfer his powers. In fact, it is not up to a dragon at all to transfer his own power. It is simply not a matter under his own control. None of the dragons can simply decide for themselves to transfer their power to someone and it is definitely not genetic.

So I would say, that Zeno cannot transfer his power to someone else. And since he is immortal and doesn't grow old, his powers don't need to be transferred to anyone else. His body is simply always good enough to wield the power of the dragon.

There might be another bigger reason behind Zeno's immortality than simply being King Hiryuu's shield. I think it is Zeno's responsibility to unite the four dragons. They might sway from their beliefs or true responsibilities. But it might just be that Zeno was the one destined to always bring together the four dragons. He is the only dragon alive who had actually met King Hiryuu. It might be his responsibility to overlook the new King Hiryuu and guide him and the other three dragons.


Eren's plan in Attack on Titan After watching Attack on Titan I can't find a reason strong enough ( probably cuz I'm dumb ) that made eren desperate to do the rumbling . In fact I find Zeke's plan more sensible . Can anyone explain to me the motivation behind Eren's drastic step ?

The way I see it, Eren was forced to make a choice: It was a choice between carrying out genocide against your friends and all the people against Paradis just to atone for the sins of their ancestors and to appease the world or to save Paradis from everyone else.
The world went through all means to make them suffer for all the years they've lived. In Chapter 100, Willy even encouraged every country to fight against the Eldians on Paradis. Eldians in Marley live in internment zones and were discriminated. Let's think about it for a second: was it fair? They were trying to force the descendants of a race to atone for the sins of their ancestors. The descendants who currently live in Paradis and Marley have done them no wrong. In fact, it was them who kept antagonizing the Eldians (e.g. exiling Eldians as titans, sending Titan shifters to recover the Founder which led to the Wall breach, discriminating Eldians in Marley). Naturally, just as how the rest of the world treats them as the enemy, it's inevitable that some of the Eldians would, given the actions done against them, also treat them as the enemy. It's fair to punish those who've done you wrong but is it fair to punish their descendants as well?
The threat of the titans cannot be denied, yes. They could have tried resolving it peacefully but did they give a chance? No. Even Willy wanted the Eldians in Paradis dead. So, Eren did not make the choice. Rather, he was forced to make the choice because the world chose to see them as an enemy. Personally, I think Eren's response was only natural. They were attacked, they responded in kind.
It's easy to say that what Eren's decision would 'carry on the cycle of hatred' etc. But, when trying to understand a character, I try putting myself in their shoes. If I was Eren, would I choose the world over my family and friends? Would I choose to save strangers who condemn me over people I know who were always with me? Would I really sacrifice myself for the people who tormented me, who brought hell unto my life for a sin I did not even do?


Do I need to catch up on anything before watching Dragon Ball Super? I have watched most of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z up to the culmination of the Frieza arc and bits of other DBZ episodes. I'm passively familiar with the overarching story line/details for some reason, but have not watched much Dragon Ball GT.

Do I need to catch up before jumping into Dragon Ball Super, or does the new show sufficiently explain things if you're not fully up to speed on the franchise?

I skimmed this stack exchange and did not see related questions.

Having watched every Dragon Ball Super episode as they came out, I would say that so long as you have watched at least Dragon Ball Z, you are good. Everything important in Dragon Ball is roughly glanced over or built upon in Dragon Ball Z; the same is true for Dragon Ball Super. Dragon Ball GT is officially not canon material thanks to Super, so it is completely unnecessary.

That being said, at least knowing everything that happened in Dragon Ball Z beyond the Frieza Arc is pretty important. There are numerous very important events that happened in the Android, Cell, and Buu arcs that are quite useful to understand what is going on in Super. The main story of Super is not based on those events though, because Super is about Gods. It will make it very confusing to understand a lot of what they talk about and do. It is not sufficiently explained. Many things can probably be inferred in some way, but I guarantee that almost everyone who is not caught up in Dragon Ball Z will either be confused or spending a lot of time on the wiki and YouTube watching clips, thanks to Super.


Can Logia users be hurt by intangible attacks? After reading chapter 757 I wondered the following:

   Rayleigh explained that objects like your body or other weapons could be imbued with Haki, but what about waves, beams or slashes? After reading the fight between Sabo and admiral Fujitori, it made me wonder if admiral Fujitora would be able to actually hurt Sabo with his power instead of just toying him around. I first thought something similar after seeing Law fight Smoker in Punk Hazard. Law didn't hurt smoker at all, while he sliced up every other person and every object nearby. He had to subdue him by taking his heart and he did so by actually touching him and not by using a long-ranged attack. At first I thought it was because Smoker could block or evade all his slashes, but now I start to think it was because Logia users can't be hit with intangible attacks.

Technically the answer is yes, as any Logia can be hit by any sort of attack if they're in their flesh form, either because they were caught off guard and didn't reflexively transform, or if they wanted to take the hit (for example to shield someone else), or when they are wearing sea stone handcuffs.

I think the answer to the question of whether intangible attacks can hit logia users in general though is no.

Logia users have two ways of evading attacks in general, they can become their element, such as when Crocodlie is hit by bullets and simply becomes sand where the bullets hit and then reforms, or by changing their shape they can avoid the attack, such as when Aokiji opened up a hole in his own chest when Whitebeard stabbed him with a haki infused bisento.

I think the first method suffices for a basic intangible attack, as from what we have seen it is not possible to use haki on an intangible attack.

Sword beams are different, as they look intangible, but other than with Law, who uses his devil fruit, what swordsmen such as Zoro and Mihawk do is swing their sword fast enough to send the air in front of the sword flying at you at very high speeds, and they can transfer haki to the air itself, as when Zoro sliced Monet.

However, proper intangible energy based attack, such as Enel's Lightning, Kizaru's light and possibly Fujitora's gravity have never been shown to have haki infused in them, and Rayleigh's explanation didn't mention this as a possibility.

Also, there are relatively few intangible attacks in One Piece as a whole, some which seem to be such as Ace's hiken are in fact Ace turning his fist into fire, making the fire huge and hitting you with it, so this attack could easily contain haki. Ace's move where he fires fire through his fingers like a gun however, probably could not contain haki.

I don't think it is possible, unless you were to hit them when they are in their flesh form, or with their eleme metal weakness, as the only thing that can normally hit a logia's true body when they are transformed is busoshoku haki.


Does the "flower's name" myth have a real-world basis? In episode 6 of Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki, several stray kittens suddenly turn up at Moe's house, and her family nurses them until they can find a foster home. They also decide to give names to the kittens.

So, Moe suggests they name the kittens after flowers. Hide, her brother, replies that he thinks death comes sooner to those who have a flower's name.

I've never heard this legend before; even Moe seems surprised (replying, "Do they?"). Is this based on a real legend (Japanese or otherwise), or is Hide misinformed?

In the manga, Hide says:

Which roughly translates to "but doesn't that sound a bit untimely?" Which probably refers to the fact that flowers lead short lives. Perhaps drawing indirectly from what Lord Capulet says in Romeo and Juliet?

  "Who said death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field?"

Luckily, the dad suggests:

"Fruit would be better." Perhaps referring to the kittens being young, while keeping with flower subject.


Why didn't Itachi tell Hiruzen (the 3rd Hokage) that Danzo attacked Shisui? So when we see Itachi and Shisui in the past, Shisui is the one who asks the 3rd hokage about trying to divert the Uchiha Coup on his own for which he get's approval by the third Hokage at which Danzo was also present.

When Shisui tried to use genjuitsu on his clan, he's intercepted and attacked by Danzo, surely the hokage didn't approve of that. Shisui was able to tell Itachi of what happened, but why didn't Itachi tell the Hokage about Danzo's betrayal?

This is a speculation, but given that Danzo was the head of ANBU Black ops, it is most likely that they don't leave any trace whatsoever that can be tracked back to Danzo. Thus the only "proof" of Danzo attacking Shisui would be Shisui's own testament and Itachi's second hand testament. And given that Shishui's genjutsu, "koto amatsukami" is a complete hypnosis, who would believe Itachi?

Danzo can just claim that Itachi is under Shisui's genjutsu and that Shisui did that to blacksheep him. Danzo is a high official. Accussations towards him without any proof would result in heavy retaliation. Especially since by that time the Uchiha clan is already suspected of planning a coup.

This, I think, is why Itachi cannot tell Hiruzen. It would not solve anything. It will only smear Shisui's good name.


Name of anime with a substitute hero Here is the story. The hero is a boy who likes a girl that ends up being a witch. When she is in trouble he tries to rescue her but get's beamed to a spaceship by another girl who needs his help. Before he can help her he gets summoned to another planet to fight an overlord dragon who is immune to magic. He then slays the dragon with a ray gun he takes from this spaceship.

Does anyone know the name of this anime?

You're looking for the light novel and manga series, Ore ga Heroine o Tasukesugite Sekai ga Little Mokushiroku!?


What's the name of the song in Naruto Shippuden that plays in episode 203 at 11:22? What's the name of the song in Naruto Shippuden that plays in episode 203 at 11:22? The moment Sasuke created the Susano'o to defend himself from Gaara, Temari, Darui and Kankuro.
https://youtu.be/_JZURm4lh58

The song you refer to is called "Sasuke's Ninja Way" (サスケの忍道, Sasuke no Nindō).
Listen here: https://youtu.be/AastZeIJJDA


What happened to Yukari Yukino in Kimi no Na wa? In the film Kimi no Na wa. (Your Name.), a character from Kotonoha no Niwa (The Garden of Words) appeared as Miyamizu Mitsuha's literature teacher, that is, Yukari Yukino:

So the question is, as per the events that happened in Kimi no Na wa:

   A comet fell on Mitsuha's hometown, killing a third of the people.

Did Yukari Yukino die in those events?

I don't believe Yuki-chan sensei (that's her name in the credits, ユキちゃん先生) died in the Itomori Accident. In the universe where Mitsuha had foreseen the disaster, she recruited the help of her friends, Teshigawara and Sayaka, to try to obviate casualties. Sayaka broadcasted to the townspeople to evacuate to Itomori High School, but was shortly stopped by the arriving school staff, which included Yuki-chan sensei.

This means that Yuki-chan sensei was at or near the school, a place of safety, by around 7:42 pm, one hour before Comet Tiamat would strike. There is little sign that she would head to the festival place within one hour, as she was not dressed in yukata (most women were dressed in yukata at the festival). She would most likely stay for after-school duty for the remaining time.

And to refute Anon's comment, in Kotonoha no Niwa, Yukino actually said at the start of September 2013 that she would go back to her hometown in Shikoku in a week. Moreover, she was later seen teaching a class in Shikoku, and even wrote a letter to Takao dated February 3, 2014. She was definitely not dead, and Takao didn't make any altar for Yukino. All these details entail that Kimi no Na wa and Kotonoha no Niwa couldn't possibly be set in the same universe, even though Yukari Yukino appeared in both movies.


Did Hit grow weaker or did Super Saiyan Blue Goku get way stronger? When Hit and Goku first fought, Hit managed to have the edge on Super Saiyan Blue + Kaioken * 10 Goku.  However, when they had a rematch, Super Saiyan Blue Goku was strong enough to overwhelm Hit and end the match as a Draw. Does this mean Super Saiyan Blue Goku became 10 times stronger after the Goku black arc or did Hit get weaker?

There's a comment misinterpretation made by a lot of people with regard to Hit in terms of power. While Hit is a very strong character and in terms of raw power is only second to Kefla in Universe 6, at the same time, Hit does not have the same level of raw power and toughness displayed by characters like SSJB Goku, SSJB Vegeta, Golden Freiza, and Base Toppo (Note: Jiren is way too strong to be compared to Hit). At the same time, Hit is considered to be a Legendary Assasin who is 1000's of years old and also an experienced Martial artist.Unlike the previous series, Dragon Ball Super has laid emphasis on other factors such as strategy and technique, rather than pure power. One good example for the same is in ROF arc where Golden Freiza has the upper-hand in terms of Raw power but ends up losing to Goku on account of his strategy where he managed to tire Freiza.If you watch the fight between Hit and SSJB Vegeta, Hit clearly overwhelms SSJB Vegeta without even fighting seriously. Base Goku on the other hand, catches Hit off guard and lands a few blows on him and forces him to fight seriously. This obviously doesn't imply Base Goku is stronger than SSJB Vegeta. Goku managed to figure out Hit's timeskip and counter itWhen SSJB Goku began to overwhelm Hit and he powered up, Goku stated that Hit's attacks hadn't become stronger. However, Hit managed to increase the speed of his time skip and made it impossible for Goku to counter.Goku Hence required to use SSJB + Kaioken * 10 to outspeed Hit and knock him out. Before Goku uses his final blow on Hit, Hit stated that he managed to increase the speed of his timeskip again and evade Goku's attack. Hit never really used a powerful attack of his own or took the attack head on and Got back up, like Jiren, Goku, Vegeta, Toppo and Freiza.A part of your questions asks whether Hit got weaker. This is a definite no. We know this as Goku himself stated that Hit was a lot stronger compared to the Hit in the Universe 6 vs 7. This was because he was free to use his assassination techniques which he couldn't use in the Universe 6 vs 7 tournament on account of the rules. In this match, you can see Goku barely lands any attacks on Hit as he mainly uses stealth throughout the course of the fight and hides in a different dimension spawning clones and was landing on heavy blows on Goku(He even landed a punch on Goku which more or less Killed him). Goku on the other hand, managed to end the match as a stalemate landing 1 power Kamehameha by breaking through Hits personal dimension. This shows Goku's raw power being superior to Hit.Even in the tournament of power, when Dyspo managed to counter Hit and land blows on him, Hit was heavily injured. At the same time, Dyspo's punches barely did anything to Goku and even Freiza was barely damaged by Dyspo(Dyspo managed to overwhelm Freiza only because of his speed, not superior in terms of raw power).Hit was completely down after taking a single eye attack from Jiren while Goku had no visible damage and managed to get back up easily and fire a Spirit Bomb at Jiren.Goku did get a lot stronger after the Goku Black arc but no way to conclude whether he got 10 times stronger since power levels do not exist anymore. However, Hit in terms of Raw Power isn't significantly strong. Even Gohan at full power and Android 17 would be able to fight Hit(Solely in terms of Raw Power), based on their performances in the tournament of power. As far as technique and experience goes, Hit is on a whole another level and even the more experienced fighters like Goku and Vegeta would have trouble against Hits special techniques forcing them to use Raw power with a strategy to try to overwhelm Hit(Another good example of the same is where an exhausted Base Goku begins to overwhelm Super Saiyan 2 Caulifla on account of having more experience and being a better Martial Artist).


What's written behind the makeshift club sign? I don't know if you answer these type of questions, but it would help if you could answer this. Japanese schools have signs outside their rooms. For example, there's 資料室 for "resource room". In the first episode of Gakkou Gurashi!, the opening sequence shows a sign that is covered with a piece of paper by the words "学園生活部". This anime is apparently extremely misleading in its content, and I was wondering whether the words behind it were a reference to something in the anime. Do you know if you can figure out what the words might be?

The picture is attached below:

The original sign is 生徒会室 seitokai-shitsu "student council room".

I haven't read the manga, so I can only presume that their club has co-opted what was formerly the student council office as their headquarters for some reason.

(I guess this is something of a tip-off to the episode 1 twist - it's weird that another club would just up and occupy the student council office, after all.)


Is there any hint or official data on how powerful Roshi is after the Saiyan Saga? In Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z saiyan saga, we knew Roshi was the most powerful fighter of the Z fighters at the early time he trained Goku and Krilin, or when he won the tournament, and In Dragon Ball Z we knew he was already weaker than Tien, Yamcha and Krilin when he was measured with the scouter by Bulma. Is there any hint/official data on how powerful Roshi became after that? In Dragon Ball Fukkatsu no F we saw he was able to fight Freezer soldiers with a similar grade of difficulty than Krilin so even if we dont know exactly how strong he is by that point, we know he became stronger since Dragon Ball Z

Master Roshi's power level was 139 back in the Saiyan arc, and also 180 when getting serious as it is stated in the 31th issue of Weekly Jump in 1991.

[Bottom middle]

A slight increase of power level of Master Roshi was stated in the movie pamphlet of the The Tree of Might, which is 350.

[Bottom middle]

In episode 89 of Dragon Ball Super, Goku is impressed that Roshi has been hiding his power for so long. Even Tien with his Four Witches Technique wasn't enough to stop Roshi. He might been using all of his power due to the effect of Yurin's withcraft. In conclusion, Roshi is indeed getting stronger, he is capable of fighting Frieza's soldiers but he will wear out faster compared to other earthling fighters.


How to differentiate Nekomimi from Inumimi? So, how to differentiate Nekomimi from Inumimi? They looks quite similar.

Both words can be summerized with Kemonomimi (獣耳) what just means animal ears.

  Kemonomimi, literally meaning "animal ears", is the concept of drawing
  animals as bishōjo or bishōnen, or having such characters wear animal
  accessories such as ears or tails. Catgirls and catboys are the most
  prolific in this category, although bunnygirls, foxgirls, and dog
  girls are also common. Kemonomimi characters typically appear human
  except for added animal-like qualities.

Quote from Wikipedia.

Nekomimi and Inumimi are some more accurate designation for such designed characters. But there is one essential difference.

The word Nekomimi (猫耳) means "cat-ears" in english. On the other hand you have the word Inumimi (犬耳) what means "dog-ears". And this is pretty much the difference... Nekomimi are styled like cats and Inumimi are styled like dogs.

Traditionally they only wear a headband with the ears of the animal they dress up without a tail or paws.

On this picture you are able to clearly see the difference between this two species. Left a Neko and right a Inu styled girl.

Picture from the nonoshirip blog.

It is not always that easy to find out what is shown at the moment because there are also some Inumimi with pointed ears. But you are also able to recognize them apart by the tail.

As before, Nekomimi have a tail like the tail of a cat. Inumimi more like a dog. Here is a picture with the tail. Again left the Neko and right the Inu styled girl.

Left picture from ZeroChan and right picture from ZeroChan.

Sometimes it is very hard to recognize them apart only by the ears. If you really want to know who is who you need more characteristics than only the ears.

But watch out! There are Kemonomimi that look similar to the cat or even more the dog... A example are Kitsunemimi (狐耳) what means "fox-ears" or Okamimimi (狼耳) what means "wolf-ears".

Left image from ZeroChan and right image from ZeroChan.

You could guess who is who? Left is the fox styled girl and right is the wolf girl. And this is a example where it is actully very hard to find out what Kemonomimi style the character is designed.


When did the trend of powerful slimes come about in Anime? Slimes are commonly known as the weakest creatures, but more and more I'm seeing powerful slimes show up in anime. When did powerful slimes become a thing? Or have they always been a thing and I just haven't seen them around before?
Earliest example I can think of:

Overlord - Solution Epsilon. Anime 2015, novels started in 2010.
Konosuba - Season two finale, Hans. Anime started 2016, Novels
in 2013.
Reincarnated as a Slime - Anime 2018, Novels in 2013.

I'm sure there's plenty others as well.

The trend began when the anime called, “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime” started serialization. This show started in 2018. I don’t know if someone already had an anime that was about powerful slimes before the anime “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime”, but I am sure that they were not as popular as this anime. There are a bunch of anime’s that are about slimes that started after the anime “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime”.
If you want more info, here’s a website that I got all of this info from: https://www.cbr.com/slimes-taking-over-manga-anime/.
I hope this helped


Is Keiko Numata's backstory the same in the anime as it is in the the novel? In the novel, it says that Keiko Numata became an insane crone murderer due to Ikuo's death. However, she commits suicide by biting off her tongue in the novel, while in the anime she is stopped by Chibiki and she is seen to have stab wounds in her back.

I am wondering if her backstory (going insane and all) is the same as it is in the novel - or did something else happen in the anime which relates to her stab wounds?

It would be fair to assume that her background is generally the same. All events leading up to and beyond the point you are referring to suggest the same woeful tale. Maybe it was an accident that occurred in one of her insane fits, or maybe they are scars of a previous attempt to contain her.

One thing is for certain, if you don't want to live anymore, and you want to make a very big mess, bite off your tongue.


Is Princess Snake based on folklore? While watching Dragon Ball Z recently I noticed that the premise of the episode Princess Snake is undoubtedly similar to an episode of Boruto (which I don't think has aired in English yet).

Both episodes feature snakes disguised as attractive and unreasonably hospitable women who plan to prey on their guests. I don't feel like I can explain it well enough, but if you watch both episodes I think you'll understand why I feel like there is probably some well defined cultural context that the writers derived their works from, like a folk legend or a popular work of fiction.

I tried Googling to find out but I only found stuff about snakes with human-female heads and snake-brides. I'm very curious and its really bugging me that I can't figure this out. Does anyone here know if or what the snake-hostess narrative is based on? I imagine that there are other shows that have used the same plot that I'm not aware of.

P.S. From looking on the Naruto Wiki, I think the Boruto episode is #75, but I don't remember for sure.

The archetype is most likely based off the nure-onna from Japanese mythology, that have the head of a woman and body of a snake and is know to be able to shapeshift and prey on people


Why does the use of Haki turn part of your body black? Before the time skip, characters like Garp and the Priest of Sky Island, used Haki to deal damage to Luffy via a blunt attack, which would have been impossible otherwise. Also, Haki was used by both sides during the Summit War. None of these people turned black.

But after the time skip, when Luffy used Haki against Hordy, he partially turned black. And during his fight with Z, they both turned partially black. Is this a special type of Haki? Is there any reason why they change colors and if so why black?

Luffy's Haki ability is called Busoshoku: Koka. Koka means hardening. Luffy's body is made of rubber. Oda is quite clearly referring to hardened rubber, or vulcanized rubber, which is black. (Compare images below)


How does the Devil Fruit user know how to activate their power? For some Paramecia type, to use their power, they must do something with parts of their body.

Just like how Bartholomew must cross his finger to create a barrier, or Foxy must stick his thumb, middle, and ring finger together to create Noro Noro beam.

But how can they know that crossing or sticking three of their fingers will activate their powers?

There seem to be 3 different ways to learn this:

Experimentation

If a user has no idea exactly how his fruit can be used, he can play around with different motions movements or just live his life.  Brook never figured out what his fruit could do until he was already dead.  Hypothetically, Bartolomeo could have lived his life without finding out if he hadn't happened to cross his fingers the right way (assuming that is required).

Reason

Some users have some idea what their fruit is when they eat it. Others only have partial knowledge of their abilities. The Barrier Fruit is based off a children's game. If Bartolomeo knew that he had this fruit, they could have tried to enact that game to see if it worked.  This can be combined with experimentation to improve fruits.  Bartholomew Kuma and Law seem to have decided to try appying their abilities to abstract concepts and studied their ability to learn how to do this.  Other fruits may have simular unusual uses that are never noticed as the users aren't as smart as those two.

Historical Research

Devil Fruits are not single use.  They are reincarnated into a new fruit to be eaten when the user dies.  This means, for instance, that Law knew exactly what fruit he had before he knew how to use it. There are records and second/third hand sources stating what some fruits can do. That is exactly why he knows that you can make someone immortal with it despite having never done so.  For our repeated example, Bartolomeo might know he has to cross his fingers because he could have read that it was required.  This means, of course, that someone else must have learned it by on of the first two methods and there may be other unknown uses.

Final Note

Devil Fruits do not change during the person's life (with Brook as the possible exception).  A Logia fruit does not itself get stronger as the user does but the user can get more creative, more practiced, and more experienced in combat in general. This means that training can't make the fruit itself more powerful or generate new powers that previously were impossible (only undiscovered).


How does the reincarnation thing work exactly? Because, if it’s the same soul basically being reborn over and over…how exactly were Madara and Sasuke able to be alive at the same time?

The official translation uses the word: “vessel”

As Naruto pointed out after the whole reincarnation scenario was presented to him, he was Naruto, and not Asura, which was true. Rather, he was a vessel for Asura, or at least the essence, or the will of Asura. So, he will have the will, and by extension, the same fate as the originals and the reincarnations before him. (although Naruto does break the cycle)

After this, Masashi gets a little bit vague as to what this actually does for our heroes. He implies that the reincarnations are imbued with the power of the originals, although this is never stated outright.

As to how Madara and Sasuke could both be inheritors at the same time, once Madara uses the Rinne Rebirth on himself, he doesn’t actually become a vessel for Indra once again, but rather is already powerful from when he was. As Kabuto stated, he is a copy of when he was in his prime, and that Madara did have the soul of Indra within him. So, even if he wasn’t necessarily a vessel during the war, he was very like his former, vessel self, they don’t both have Indra residing within them.


Where to buy Berserk in digital format? I want to start reading Berserk, but it seems like Dark Horse doesn't have the digital rights for the manga. Anybody know if there's another distributor that has the digital rights for this manga?

(I know you asked for digital, but at least it's available in some form...)

RightStuf started re-printing Berserk: Berserk Manga Gets Reprinting.

You can now buy it form their website: Browse All Berserk Graphic Novels.

  NOTE: The volumes don't display in proper numerical order, make sure to page through the results to find volume #1.


OST/Song on Season 2 Episode 22 of Boku no Hero Academia What is the name of song or OST on Season 2 Episode 22, starting at 20:26 and ending on 20:36?

It is still the ending song, Datte Atashi no Hero or 'Cause You're My Hero', only the instrumental version. To be precise, it starts playing at around 20:14 of the episode (where Yaoyorozu was crying) and ends right before the start of the ending song (the scene showing Deku, Uraraka and Recovery Girl). Here's a direct link to the part of the instrumental where it starts: https://youtu.be/Vz3cEODIlC4?t=35 This spans from 0:35 to 0:48 of the instrumental.


What is the first Pokemon to exist? Which is the first pokemon to have been born or formed or created. Some say it is Archeus. Is it the right answer?

Based on the information on History of the Pokémon world, legends go to say that Arceus is the first Pokémon to exist

In a vortex of complete chaos and nothingness, a single Egg comes into being, which then hatches into Arceus, the first Pokémon in existence

Also, based on the Pokédex entires from Platinum and Heart Gold & Soul Silver

Platinum: It is said to have emerged from an egg in a place where there was nothing, then shaped the world.
Heart Gold/Soul Silver: According to the legends of Sinnoh, this Pokémon emerged from an egg and shaped all there is in this world.

This information is derived from Sinnoh Myths, which is learned from a Hiker at Oreburgh Mine, and then at Canalave's library in Pokémon Platinum after catching Arceus

But it all starts with Arceus, the first. It is known as the Original One.
...
"The Original One breathed alone before the universe came."


What is the song in episode 9 at 5:26? What is the song that starts playing at 5:26 of Fairy Tail episode 9?

As you haven't specified I'll assume you meant episode 9 of the first series.

It's Fairy Tail's take on Can Can, which is part of the Overture of Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach

You can find the whole song here


Where does the phrase ecchi sketchy one touchy come from? In several anime, a character will yell this on despise to something perverted. It even shows up in non anime media like Yakuza Kiwami 2. What’s the origin of this phrase?

My Japanese is not great, but the link supplied by W. Are, https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/エッチスケッチワンタッチ does give an explanation.

Apparently it's a phrase commonly used by school children in the 70's, but it's unknown where exactly the phrase comes from. The page lists several different theories, though my Japanese is not good enough to quite get all of the theories. One is that "touch" is what kids say when playing tag (instead of "tag, you're it"), another is there was a product by the company Glico called one touch curry. But at any rate, it's a phrase that caught on because of the sing-song, rhyming sort of sound to the phrase, and from what I gather from the article, similar to the kid nonsense sayings of western culture, like "circle-circle-dot-dot now I have a cootie shot."


What happens, if the Einzberns don't have a homunculus? In Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero, Irisviel and Iliasviel were used to summon the grail. What would happen, if the Einzberns hadn't created Irisviel in the first place? Could the grail still appear? Would another family need to create a homunculus? Would that even be possible, due to the fact that the grail was first summoned with the use of Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern?

Up until the end of the third Grail War, the vessel for the sought-after Grail, known as the Lesser Grail, was a literally a cup.
According to the Type Moon Wiki:

However, during the events of the third War, it was damaged in battle and the ceremony was interrupted; for that reason, it had to be made as something that could manage itself and take care of itself.
During the Fourth War, Irisviel von Einzbern was a homunculus forged by the Einzbern family to be the physical embodiment of the Lesser Grail.

In other words a Einzbern homunculus has to exist in order to serve as a vessel to connecto the Great Grail, it stores the souls of the heroic spirits after they're killed.
If everything goes according to plan, the Lesser Grail will be able to summon the Great Grail and use the power of the heroic spirits and the Third Magic to create a gateway to the Root. Afterwards, the Grail can technically grant wishes, due to all the leftover prana.


Is Mavis of Fairy Tail really a ghost? She has not shown that she is not a ghost. For example, in one episode she said she had to go to the bathroom and in another episode, she tried to sit down and she fell taking physical damage from the fall.

Major spoilers ahead, be warned. Like suggested by Omry, maybe reading the manga or watching the anime if it closes up, maybe also Fairy Tail Zero, would be better than reading my answer. But anyway here it comes:

   Mavis is, like Zeref, burdened with the Ankhseram Black Magic curse. This happend because she casted the magic "Law" in an incomplete state. The curse's direct effect - immortality - is the reason she didn't mature anymore, afterwards.
 After the death of a guild member (Rita, Makarov's mother), which was most likely caused by the second effect of the curse (the more she cares about life, the more people would die), she fled and wandered around, trying to kill herself by starving.
 After one year Zeref found her, of course still alive because of the curse. They came to love each other (another story), but their kiss caused Zerefs curse to kill Mavis, though she should be immortal.
 But the curse still affected her, so she didn't die completly. Zeref brought her "corpse" to Precht, who sealed it inside the giant Lacryma after noticing there was still magic energy inside the body. And that's the reason she can still interact with the world in her ethereal body.

Edit:
If the question was, whether her "body" is really a ghost, the answer should be yes. Ethereal bodies like her do not exist physically, so it's basically a ghost like we'd normally think of it. She created the body on Tenryou island after the S-Class exam using magic, so she has kinda shown that it's not real.
I don't think she really took phyiscal damage when falling, it's just that she was interacting with the physical world because she liked to. That's pure speculation, though.


Why was Jellal Fernandes blindfolded? In Fairy Tail (2014) episode 70, Jellal was wearing a blindfold and was being guided by Meredy. What is the reason that he was wearing this?

In chapter 369 (episode 240 aka episode 65 (2014)) Jellal crushed his own eyes to prevent himself from falling for Nightmare's illusions. Seeing how he does not have an artificial eye like Erza, he could not find another way to destroy Midnight's illusions.


What is the symbol in Maris the Chojo's hair? From Maris the Chojo:

What is this symbol in her hair and what does it mean?

That's the currency symbol for the Yen, the Japanese currency.

The Wikipedia article you have linked to in your question has this to say:

  Maris' obsession with money is demonstrated by her hair ornaments, in the shape of the symbol for Yen (Japanese money).


Remembering Anime/cartoon from around 10 years ago Okay so I remember normal looking people.

Then a kid who was really weird looking, Like a completely different art style and drawn badly.

He went on adventures I think

I remember him chasing a bra. (But that scene could be mixed up with something else)

Other than that all I remember is that I watched all of it because I remember the seasons started over on tv. I watched it when I was around 6 and I am now 17.

I think it was cartoon network but I'm not sure or maybe fox kids this was in the Uk by the way.

Thanks in adanced

It could potentially be a match for Ranma 1/2

It has a character named Happosi.  He's a step below "one of the main characters", so even though the show doesn't revolve around him, you'll see him often.

He's also not a child, He's actually really old, But It is possible to mistake him for a child because he's really short and he acts like one too.  He does look poorly drawn when compared with the rest of the characters.

This is what he looks like


What are Byakuya's Gokei, Senkei and Shuukei? In addition to his bankai, Byakuya is observed using three techniques:

Gokei

   I think it was in battle with Hitsugaya's Reigai, though I'm not sure

Senkei

   while fighting Ichigo at Rukia's execution

Shūkei

   in the same fight as above

Not only is this the largest number of Zanpakutō abilities that we have seen in one sword (I think), but each one of them seems more powerful than the last (and more powerful than his bankai!).

So what exactly are those three techniques? Why is Byakuya the only one in Bleach to have so many different techniques contained in his Zanpakutō?

They are various forms of his bankai, achieved by arranging the blades in different patterns. His bankai is versatile by nature (being composed of countless tiny blade fragments), and affords him several forms, with varying combination of attack and defense.

Whether a bankai can have multiple forms depends on its nature. Hitsugaya Toshiro and Abarai Renji could also achieve multiple bankai forms with practice/training. The former could mold Hyorinmaru's ice into various forms (like fairy-tail's Gray), while the latter could rearrange Zabimaru's segments. Shinigami such as Komamura, Tousen, or Soifon would likely not have multiple bankai forms due to the nature of their bankai.

By the way, Byakuya is no longer the only known shinigami with multiple bankai forms

   as Yamamoto Shigekuni's bankai has been revealed.

Also, Byakuya's sister, Rukia, has shikai with multiple forms:

   Tsukishiro, Hakuren, Shirafune, and Juhaku


Does the AUG | Akihabara Accept come from an anime? If so, which one? In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive a new skin was released called the Akihabara Accept. The description of the skin is:

  Powerful and accurate, the AUG scoped assault rifle compensates for
  its long reload times with low spread and a high rate of fire. It has
  been decorated with a heat transfer vinyl of an anime magazine cover.

So I'm curious, does this actually come from a real anime magazine cover? Or is this just some custom in-house work by Valve?  On the girl on the butt end of the gun the words "Fazik" are labelled on her uniform; perhaps it's part of the artist or something?

Here's an imgur album with closeups of the skin in question.

Also, as mentioned by Matt, it does not look like it comes from any specific manga or anime and is just some random Japanese anime character put on there by Steam, hoping to get some money from otaku fans alike willing to pay huge amounts of money for just an anime skin.

Based on comments on it at Reddit and steam itself. If it was based on something you would expected steam to promote it as such.


How can fans be used to augment earthbending? On Avatar Kyoshi's page on Avatar Wiki, it is stated that

  Avatar Kyoshi used a pair of fans to enhance her bending.

Also from the Earthbending page,

  Earthbenders have been known to use hammers and fans to augment their
  bending.

How can a pair of fans be used to augment earthbending?

They don't, but Avatar Kyoshi was an Avatar and therefore did not just Earthbend. She is shown using the fans to enhance her Airbending. This is seen when she creates Kyoshi Island and when she defeats the Earth King's guards.

The fans themselves are merely instruments that were used by Kyoshi herself, and later adopted by the Kyoshi warriors. As Suki says when she is teaching Sokka to use them, "Think of the fan as an extension of your arm." She also mentions that "Our technique is about using our opponents force against them" which is similar to the principles around Airbending.

When Kyoshi is show using her bending, she is shown doing so with her fans. They were her weapon of choice, and considering she is the one who taught the first Kyoshi warriors, they are the ones likely to know her reason best. She also was teaching the women these techniques because they were being mistreated by men. The principles of using ones strength against them taught by Airbending is a good principle to teach to people who may be smaller than their attacker.

There is no real evidence to support it "enhanced" her Earthbending in any way other than the fact she was shown Earthbending with the fans in hand. The cited source for the claim is the episode in which she creates Kyoshi Island, and while she is shown using the fans, she also enters the Avatar state to be able to do the high level bending needed to perform the task. The stances she takes are that of a regular Earthbender/Lavabender, and the fans only really come into play when she uses them for her Airbending.

Basically, there is no evidence to support this, though also no evidence to the contrary. It is merely a claim about her use of the fans as a weapon.


What's the connection between Zangetsu and White Ichigo? This contains spoilers up to chapter 112 (not much of a spoiler, but still).

   White Ichigo (a.k.a. Hollow Ichigo) appeared in the Hollowfication process, when Urahara had cruelly thrown Ichigo into a pit, and he is the Hollow part of Ichigo's soul (and power).

Now, take a look at this (this is from chapter 112, right after

  White Ichigo first appears and gets beaten by Ichigo):

It shows not only that Zangetsu is acquainted with White Ichigo, but also is in apparently well relations with him ("sorry to have bothered you"), and is also apparently able to summon and unsummon him ("send me back already").

How and why is Zangetsu (a Zanpakutō!) able to summon the Hollow inside of Ichigo? Shouldn't a Zanpakutō spirit and a Hollow Spirit be natural enemies?

Both White Ichigo and Zangetsu are a part of Ichigo's being or soul. Hence, they can freely communicate with each other. The most important thing about Bleach power-ups is that they follow the basic principle of "know thyself" and thus, Ichigo himself is unaware of their true capabilities until he pays attention to them by training.


How powerful is Homura's shield? In the anime, Homura is only seen using her shield to reset or rewind time until the first time she met Madoka.

Can't she rewind time for a minute, or an hour? If she could do it, I think it would be easier for her to fight against Walpurgisnacht.

And how far is its area of effect? When she was chasing a car, she couldn't stop time, but only a few parts were stopped and she still had to run to catch up to it (if she could stop time, she wouldn't need to hurry).

According to Gen Urobuchi from his interview in Otona Anime Vol. 20:

  The weapon that looks like Homura's shield is actually a sand timer. When the flow of the sand is blocked, time is stopped. And when there is no sand on the upper part of the sand timer and then the timer is reverted, one month's worth of time is turned back. But before that stage is reached, only time stopping is possible. This means the special power of Homura is the ability to manipulate one month's time's worth of sand in the sand timer. As for the time passed and then turned back, since it was not the focus in this work I did not think it through very thoroughly. I think you can say that the world split up and became parallel worlds there.

To sum it up:

Homura cannot rewind time until one month of time has passed after March 16th, the start of her time loop.
Before then, Homura can only stop time and the sand in her sand timer from falling.
Homura cannot rewind short periods of time or go forward in time at all.

Besides time, her shield serves the purpose as a probably infinitely spacious storage for all of her artillery. It should also be noted that her shield is quite fragile and clearly not a defensive tool. It can be broken as seen in Rebellion Story when Sayaka stabs the gear mechanism and renders it unusable. (Then again, this is debatable, as the universe Homura created in her witch world bended many laws of magic from the normal universe.)

To explain her constant time-stopping when she was chasing the truck in Ep. 6, one could speculate that she was trying to conserve her magic by periodically stopping and starting time. Perhaps the truck was moving too quickly for the small (fixed?) period of time Homura had to move after stopping time. Note that the average running speed of a human is 8 mph and the truck was probably moving at about 60 mph, just at the speed limit for trucks on highways in Japan.


Identifying a sword from an anime, possibly from One Piece or Bleach I got it from an anime convention thinking it was the Zoro Shusui for my cousin.

I found a site that appears to be selling this exact sword...and I hate to disappoint you, but they themselves make no reference to any anime.  It is merely a fantasy sword.


who are Stripism a parody of? One of the most popular anime shows in Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed is Stripism. Here's a screenshot of them in-game (in their own game).

Knowing Akiba's Trip and its countless references, I can't think that this isn't a reference to some magical girl series. Unfortunately, I don't know enough magical girl series - and there isn't much info about the girls on the internet.

I'm somewhat inclined to think they're a parody of Pretty Cure because of their vibrant colour scheme, but it's got a load of different series so I'm not sure if they are or not.

At one stage the Akiba's Trip girls cosplay as the characters, so possibly some of that bare skin is fan service on AT's part:

Are the Stripism girls a parody of Pretty Cure? Or any other anime series?

「秋葉少女ストリッピスム」 (Akiba Shoujo Stripism) in Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed is not a parody of Pretty Cure specifically. Pretty Cure is a rather new franchise that started in 2004, which itself draws from mahou shoujo series dating from the 1990s.

Akiba Shoujo Stripism employs the characters from Kodomo no Jikan to blatantly parody the Pretty Rhythm franchise, as the three Stripism character's names are ピンクリズム (Pink Rhythm), ブルーリズム (Blue Rhythm), and イエローリズム (Yellow Rhythm). Pretty Rhythm's earliest incarnation, the Aurora Dream series in 2011, featured three girls in vibrantly-colored costumes; Pretty Rhythm is not mahou shoujo but rather is an idol competition series.

Akiba Shoujo Stripism also parodies the genre of mahou shoujo-mixed-with-sentai (live-action team fighting) which began in 1991 with Sailor Moon: this is clear because the characters are battling in the game, whereas Pretty Rhythm does not contain any fighting, and it looks like the characters attack using magic.

Akiba Shoujo Stripism is not a parody of the majority of mahou shoujo series. Before Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, the long history of mahou shoujo series were usually EITHER one girl who could transform into a magical version of herself (Himitsu no Akko-chan, Mahou no Yousei Persia) OR one magical girl from another world who is temporarily living in our world and uses an Earthling disguise except for when she needs to transform into her true self to use her powers (Majokko Meg-chan, Mahoutsukai Sally, Mahou no Angel Sweet Mint). In both cases, she was not part of a group dressed in vibrantly-colored complimentary costumes. (Magical girls living solely in magical worlds, such as Kero Kero Chime or Akazukin ChaCha, do not technically fall within the genre of mahou shoujo because everyone in their world is magical; a mahou shoujo is a girl with magic powers in a generally non-magical world.) In some cases, a magical girl's identity allowed her to work as an idol (Mahou no Star Magical Emi, Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami, Cyber Idol Mink, Full Moon wo Sagashite), which drew mahou shoujo closer to the ordinary-girl-suddenly-becomes-an-idol sub-genre in shoujo (Idol Densetsu Eriko, Idol Tenshi Youkoso Youko, Chou Kuse ni Narisou and, of course, now Pretty Rhythm and its spin-off, PriPara).

Most of the occasions for which the pre-Sailor Moon magical girls transformed were for day-to-day events, NOT for battling or trying to save the world. At the same time, there was a long history of live-action sentai (team fighting) series, which created the group-dressed-in-vibrant-colors scheme  (a famous example is Power Rangers which is adapted from Kyouryu Sentai Zyuranger). Sailor Moon was the first series ever to combine mahou shoujo with sentai: a colorful team of magical girls trying to save the world. Ensuing mahou shoujo-mixed-with-sentai series, such as Pretty Cure, Tokyo Mew Mew, Ai Tenshi Densetsu Wedding Peach, and Cutey Honey F, are rather obviously Sailor Moon-inspired (if not knock-offs).

Akiba Shoujo Stripism in Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed is a type of parody targeted at adult male viewers (whereas real mahou shoujo are a subset within shoujo, meaning they are targeted at an audience of young girls and if there is a manga origin or adaption, it runs in a shoujo manga magazine).
Puella Magi Madoka Magica is the currently well-known example of this strain of parody for adult males (which, unfortunately, gets referred to as being "mahou shoujo" proper, confusing people on what mahou shoujo is and isn't). Though Madoka Magica has clearly struck a chord for that demographic, it is not the first series-for-male-viewers to adapt the mahou shoujo genre. Cutie Honey was a successful men's version of the mahou shoujo genre (with a stripping theme), but it surprisingly ended up coming full circle by getting adapted into the actually shoujo series Cutie Honey Flash, which was marketed to girls. Project A-ko parodied mahou shoujo back in the 80s and there have been plenty of other shounen parodies since (Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy, Mahoutsukai Tai!, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, etc.).


Is Mirakurun based off any particular anime/manga? Yuru Yuri has a lot of references to a Magical Girl series that Kyōko does alot of successful dōjin of featuring a girl called Mirakurun who Chinatsu looks like.

I am wondering if Mirakurun is actually based off any particular anime/manga or just a generic reference to the Magical Girl genre.

I'm pretty sure Majokko Mirakurun is just a parody of the magical girl genre altogether.

There's often jokes where Mirakurun acts very atypically of a magical-girl as presented in the genre:

Mirakurun blasts Rivalrun into the distance with her 10T "Mirakurun Super Hammer". Which is a trope more commonly seen in shonen anime - a high contrast with shoujo works.

As for gags that may be referencing shows, there's one about the lengthy transformation sequences that we would see in many magical girl shows such as Sailor Moon or Puella Magi Madoka Magica:

Mirakurun also says various lines mid battle that are very typical of these type of shows. This one is remarkably similar to sailor moon's phrase:

It's possible that the writer was inspired by Sailor Moon or similar series, but the gags are too generic to say for certain, and I'm of the opinion that it's just of the genre in general


What kind of illness was Kaori Miyazono suffering from? Does anyone know what kind of illness Kaori Miyazono was suffering from? According to the series' wiki, it is speculated that it was bone marrow failure,

   due to the change in her skin pigmentation and the need for an operation.

In my theory, her disease is Friedreich's Ataxia. Symptons begins between the ages of 5 to 15. Muscle weakness in the arms and legs and loss of coordination are symptons.

It causes heart disorders. In Episode 20, she may be having a severe and painful tachycardia, and a following cardiac arrest. The surgery may be to implant a pacemaker, but another arrest killed her during the surgery.


Why couldn't Minato store the nine tails in a different way? Why couldn't in reality Minato store half of nine tails in Kushina and the other half in Naruto like in the filler ep 432? That way he and Kushina would have lived..

Or better, why couldn't he store the entire nine tails back in Kushina, prevent her from dying and sparing Naruto the trouble of becoming a jinnchuriki?

A lot of these are speculative, but the main thing is that when they protected Naruto, they took critical injuries and likely were not going to live after that. Minato knew the only thing he could have done to properly seal the 9 tails fast enough was the Reaper death seal. The thing is, That will kill the user, as the reaper takes their soul when its released. Orochimaru survived the reaper, but he summoned it using a mask instead of the jutsu, and it still cost him his body. Minato on the other hand, can't do any such thing, so him surviving this encounter is out of the question.

As for Kushina, besides the fact that she was set to die without Kurama, she still dove in-front of his claw, and it pierced her torso in what is likely a fatal injury. Combining such an injury with her weakened body, and its probably next to impossible to save her life. At that point, Both Minato and Kushina are guaranteed going to die, or at least believe so. Sealing Kurama in either of them will probably still lead to their death.

As for why he only sealed Half of Kurama into Naruto, As per This answer, He couldn't seal all of Kurama into Naruto. Minato's Wiki entry notes that it was because Kurama was too powerful to be sealed into a newborn infant.

Edit 1: OP added some concerns in a comment, Responding here:
First, Any time Kurama was resealed in Kushina was filler, and as filler does not need to follow in faith of canon, they could do anything, including contradict the canon content. Second, Kushina even volunteered to have Kurama get resealed inside of her, to drag both of them to death.

  While still weakened, Kushina used her diminished chakra to restrain the Nine-Tails. Despite fearing the trauma would kill her in her current state, Kushina volunteered to have the Nine-Tails sealed back into her body so that it would die with her.

So all in all, Kushina was effectively on deaths door, and had no hope on being saved. She had just spent 10 months pregnant, given birth, had Kurama extracted, and was left in that dying state for up to a few minutes with no medical help. As we found out later on, Naruto survived, but unlike Kushina, he was still healthy, young and strong, and had Sakura, second only to Tsunade in medical prowess, constantly healing him (and help from Hagoromo). So it actually makes sense that he had a solid chance of survival from the resealing. Kushina on the other hand, had several major events drain her power, not including loosing Kurama, so her being strong enough to survive was low at best.

In that respect, He probably could have sealed Kurama back into Kushina, but it most likely would have still left her dead and freed Kurama. A free Kurama would throw the tailed beast balance off, causing war, and Minato did not want to take such a risk when a safe option was available. That safe option, sealing half of kurama into naruto, also had one major benefit in Minatos eye, the fact that he believed Naruto could be the child of prophecy Jiraiya spoke about, and Naruto having access to Kurama's power would greatly help him succeed (that is also brought up in the answer I linked earlier).


What manga is this picture of a melting boy from? I know it's not much to go on, but if you could let me know what manga this is from I'd be much obliged.

It actually was Domestic na Kanojo, as I first thought, to be precise it was taken from chapter 22.

This is the full image:

Synopsis

  Tonight, Natsuo loses his virginity. His partner? Her name is Rui and he just met her today after school. She's the one that brought up this whole situation, stating that she wanted to simply gain the knowledge about sex. She does not want to start a relationship, nor does she care about Natsuo. Afterwards, Natsuo feels guilty for losing his virginity to a girl he doesn't even particularly like. Mostly, it makes him feel like he betrayed his crush to his high school teacher: Hina. A quirky love triangle story unfolds as Natsuo, Rui, and Hina all end up becoming part of the same family!


For how long have humans and vampires coexisted? The timeline in Owari no Seraph is a little bit confusing to me.

When did vampires first come into contact with humans? I was initially under the impression that this happened when the "disease" struck some 5-10 years before the "present" of the show (i.e. "during episode 1") - but if that's the case, where did the vampires come from at that point in time? Given that they have robust, structured, hierarchical societies, it can't be that they just appeared out of nowhere then, could it?

And if the vampires have been around longer than that, where were they, and how is it that a modern human society didn't run into them sooner?

You're correct: the vampires have regenerative abilities and thereby would are essentially able to be immortal, so long as they don't starve to death, get their head destroyed, or get too much exposure to ultra-violet light. Their structured, hierarchical society lived for a very, very long time underground.

During the prequel light novel Owari no Seraph: Ichinose Guren, 16sai no Hametsu, which opens about 10 years prior to when the virus strikes, the vampires were not yet rampant above the surface of the Earth.

The reason they decided to emerge was when the Four Horsemen of John (a.k.a. Horsemen of the Apocalypse) surprisingly arrived in 2012 and started killing humans. The Owari no Seraph Wiki says,

  In response, vampires came into the open and saved as many humans as they could as human livestock out of concern for their drastically diminished food supply.

It is likely that, until that point, vampires preferred to covert travel above ground to snatch individual human prey without alerting humankind to their existence (during that period, it's very reasonable to assume that once in a while a human got tipped off about the existence of a vampire, but it was never accepted as fact by human society at large [chalked up to the level of a report of monsters, ghosts, or UFOs]), but once the humans started dying off at a rapid rate, the vampires reasoned that they could not continue their subtle hunter/gatherer style and needed to turn humans into livestock (a farming style that they could control themselves).