How many characters are based on real life pirates? Throughout the One Piece series, several pirates seem to be based upon real life pirates. Some of which are quite obvious

Like Blackbeard & Whitebeard. These names combined would be the real name of Blackbeard, Edward Teach.

And some are a bit less obvious, but still well known

Like Roronoa Zoro based on: François l'Olonnais.

Now my question is:

Are there more pirates in One Piece named after, or based upon real life pirates?

Here is a list of known references to actual pirates used in One Piece (most of which are just borrows names) as mentioned on various sources:

Alvida - Awilda

Bartolomeo - Bartholomew Roberts "Black Bart"

Basil Hawkins - John Hawkins

Bellamy - Samuel Bellamy

Blackbeard - Edward Teach "Blackbeard"

Cavendish - Thomas Cavendish:

Charlotte Linlin (Big Mom) - Charlotte Badger

Eustass Kid - William "Captain" Kidd:

Gol D Roger - Olivier Levasseur:

Jewelry Bonney - Anne Bonny

Lafitte - Jean Lafitte:

Roronoa Zoro - François l'Olonnais

Scratchmen Apoo - Chui A-poo:

Silvers Rayleigh - Sir Walter Raleigh:

Thatch - Edward Thatch

Urouge - Oruç Reis

X Drake - Sir Francis Drake:

Yorki - Calico Jack

Zeff - "Red Legs" Greaves

Although these are the references to actual pirates which was intended by Oda, there are also coincidental lookalikes to real life people which has been mentioned in this BuzzOtaku article.


Why was it that Light's father could see Light's lifespan, while Mikami couldn't see it (which allowed him to deduce that Light was Kira)? I was talking with a friend about Death Note and he said that he could't understand one thing:

When Light's father died, he saw Light's lifespan with his Shinigami eyes, so he could "confirm" that Light was not Kira. However, at the end of the story, Mikami looked at Light with his Shinigami eyes and recognized him, because he could not see his lifespan.

Is this actually a slight mistake in the story, or have I missed anything? (It's probably the second one)

In chapter 71, Light was setting up a plan that would prove himself to be innocent of being the killer (Kira); would give the NPA (National Police Agency of Japan) the advantage over Mello; and would keep him safe if Mello would ever get hold of his picture.

In order to kill Mello, he made preparations for a raid to take place at November 10 at 23:59. Almost everybody in Mello's organization would die, but in order to kill Mello himself he needed the help of the NPA. He sent them the Death Note together with Ryuku, making it possibly for one of the NPA members to bargain for the Death Eyes. He had expected Matsuda Touta to do the deal, since it went with his character, but in the end it was his father, Soichiro Yagami, who made the deal with Ryuku. With his father having the Death Eyes, it would be impossible for him to be owner of any Death Note, and therefore, he had relinquished ownership himself, instead of making Misa relinquish ownership over hers. Also he knew it would be dangerous to be the owner of any Death Note, since he knew Jack Neylon aka Kal Snyder had the Death Eyes and it would be as easy for Mello to kill him as it would be for Light to find and kill Kal Snyder. Of course, he was not going to stop being the killer (Kira) soon, so to retain his memories he strapped Misa's Death Note to his body. By doing so, he thought he would be able to kill Mello and prove himself innocent once again for the NPA. He failed to kill Mello through this raid, though.

In chapter 72, you can see that in addition to what I said above, Light also needed Ryuku to be there at the raid, to stop Sidoh from helping the "mafia". He knew Ryuku would be so kind as to harass Sidoh a bit ^^.

In chapter 74, you can see Light holding the Death Note when his father dies. After an owner dies, the ownership will go to the first person that picks up or touches the Death Note, and therefore Light becomes the owner again.

In chapter 81, Misa is ordered to relinquish her ownership to Teru Mikami. At this point there are two human Death Note owners and they are Light and Mikami, and Misa becomes an ordinary housewife. Therefore, Mikami is able to identify Light as the owner of the Death Note and the real "Killer".

For a summary of the Notes' owners the website provided by Maroon is really useful. See here.


Why didn't they take Asuna's NerveGear off? I've recently gone through Sword Art Online and I must say it is by far
one of the greatest anime I've seen.
But there's one thing that bugs me.

After SAO was cleared by Kirito and Asuna was found in ALO, why didn't they just take her NerveGear off? After all, it's ok to die in ALO and the NerveGear shouldn't fry the brain of the user after they die in-game anymore. So Asuna should've been completely fine right?

The problem was that they didn't know what was wrong with Asuna at first and certainly didn't know that she was on ALO, if they did then they probably would have found about Sugou's experiments. even when Yui confirmed she could detect "mommy" up in the tree there was little time before Asuna's and Sugou's wedding. so at that stage Kirito's proof was

a blurry picture which has someone who looks like Asuna, easily explained away by ALO's developer as being a Titania NPC who is apart of the Grand Quest (remember that Oberon's supposed to be waiting at the top and Titania is his wife in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream so it would make sense that Titania would be waiting aswell)
a Navigation Pixie saying that her "mommy" is up in the tree, again could be explained off as a game object's bugged reaction to possible future content given that Kirito's Character is already bugged having it's SAO stats.

given that in the past when the NervGear was removed the player was killed I would think Asuna's parents would err on the side of caution. even if Kirito explained who and what Yui is it, it might be too unreal for them to accept the risk of Asuna's brain getting fried, at least not before the wedding, which I would think Sugou would get called in to give his thoughts, where we know Asuna waking up works against him (remember that she hates him and if she was to wake would call off the wedding).

Now, aside from what I said above, how Sugou could explain away Kirito's evidence that Asuna was trapped in ALO, he also has inside knowledge of the NervGear having not only access to the technology as being the head of Rect Progress but he also worked under Kayaba. He could easily add more worry to Asuna's parents that there could be possible brain damage because of how the NervGear works.

And up until this point there was no indication that the NervGear still wouldn't fry her brain if removed. Clearing SAO only allowed (if not by force) players to log out. While yes, Kirito did die in ALO, this can be argued that Kirito didn't technically die, as his Remain Light was still there and was resurrected by Leafa. One can compare this as being the same as one using the Divine Stone of Returning Soul (resurrect item Kirito got hoping to revive Sachi) while in the Death Game, just with a much longer timer (in ALO it was 10 minutes).


What is the origin of the "Hidden" event in Fairy Tail? In Fairy Tail chapter 269 during the Grand Magic Games arc, there is an event called Hidden.

The participants are transported to different locations inside a giant city.

They have to find an attack each other using either a physical or magical attack.

The participant who successfully lands an attack earns a point, which gets deducted from the attacked participant.

Now comes the tricky part: The city gets filled with clones of the participants, and they will now have to hide between the clones and try to find the original ones. Because if a participant attacks a clone, he or she loses a point.

I find this very similar to multiplayer games such as Assassin's Creed where you have a target hiding between NPCs and you have to guess which one it is based on its behavior (e.g. if he acts in a strange suspicious way).

So is there some origin to this game concept?

The origin is literally impossible to trace. At best, we'll see who implemented this idea first but it could have been thought of a long time ago or done in many things that we don't have knowledge of. Hiro Mashima (the manga-ka) might be able to say where he got this or why he decided on this but its not exactly a rare idea to do this. Its pretty much a simple twist on a "zero sum" kind of game. I'm almost certain that Assassin's Creed was not the first to do this.

Come to think of it, in earlier chapters of Fairy Tail, Mashima used to scribble "Mashima's ramblings" in the gaps or sides of the page. From these "ramblings", we know Hiro Mashima does play video games (and at the very least, owns a PS3). So even if Assasin's Creed multiplayer was not the first to implement this system, there is some offchance that Mashima got the idea from playing that game.


What is the meaning behind the scene where Saki fights a Tainted Cat? In Shinsekai Yori episode 10, Saki encounters a Tainted Cat which attacks her in the neck, but fails to damage her due to a necklace she's wearing. While the cat is biting the necklace, she mumbles some words and after that the cat is killed.

The first impression I had was that she was defending herself. So she probably chanted something related to the way the cat was killed. But re-watching the scene, the cat had blood on its mouth despite not being able to damage Saki. What's the meaning behind this scene? What is Saki mumbling? Did SHE kill the cat or was it somebody else (like Shun)?

I think Saki used her skill - restoring object. She was seen training earlier fixing vases and stuff in school. This ability allowed her to fix the broken necklace (for a while), during the attack and heal herself.

I believe that the point was to strengthen the reference that Saki has the same (unique) ability as Tomiko Asahina and is capable restoring own cells and even their telomeres. This is only made clear later by Tomiko Asahina herself, saying that she plans to make Saki her heir, somewhat base on her ability.


Why are level 0 espers considered espers if they have no powers at all? Supposedly level 0 espers have no powers at all. Are they any different to humans then? Are they supposed to have latent powers or something?

Level 0s have undergone the Power Curriculum Program, so even if someone ranked at Level 0 doesn't happen to exhibit any observable powers, their brains have still been fundamentally rewired. All espers, including Level 0s, are unable to use magic without suffering severe backlash damage because of incompatibility issues.

But it's not necessarily the case that Level 0s have no power at all. Level 0 is described as follows:

  Exceptions aside, cannot be considered completely powerless, but is considered one of the so-called "students that can't keep up at school". Might possess some degree of power, but unable to truly control it.

For instance:

Tsuchimikado Motoharu has a Level 0 Auto-Rebirth ability, which applies a weak membrane over torn blood vessels to stop bleeding. It's a pretty weak ability, all things considered, but it's enough save his life from the backlash damage of using magic.
Akemi has a Level 0 Telepathy ability, and she can levitate a paper cup (barely). At the end of Railgun episode 14, she and her friends remark that their stats have gone up a little, even though their levels haven't changed.
Saten Ruiko has a Level 0 Aero hand ability. This is her System Scan result from Railgun episode 14:

As you can see, it's not all completely zero. There's still some amount of power at Level 0; enough for Saten and her friends to be able to see some improvement, at least.


Why and how did Shiro kill Ganta's classmates? I have watched only anime and Shiro is a mystery to me. It seems like she has two personalities. It happened more than once, she was so nice and suddenly somehow gone crazy, her face changes completely. Even if I'm right and she has some mental disorder, I don't understand her at all.

How did she get out of prison if she is a prisoner and then killed Ganta's classmates?

Was that out of jealousy?

I just don't get it.

The answer to this question is not in the anime.
It's one of the main plot points in the work, and fully explained in the manga. Actually, MOST of what Shiro is is explained in the last chapters of the manga. So, you are NOT supposed to get her from the anime.
Some spoilers ahead.

Shiro is not a prisoner. She is actually a test subject from a research laboratoryy, the reason why the Branches of Sin exist, and the responsible for the earthquake that destroyed Japan. The prison was built later, above the lab she was experimented on, as a facade for the testing on people who developed Branches of Sin after the earthquake.
She escaped the prison simply because there is no real way to contain her at all.

Yes, she killed all of Ganta's classmates out of jealousy.

Extreme spoilers ahead.

In the past, Ganta knew Shiro, because his mother was on of the chief researchers at the laboratory, extremely involved in the inhuman experiments the girl was subjected to.
Gantas cared a lot for Shiro, and she liked him a lot too. They pretended to be each other's hero, "Aceman".
But in one experiment, a broken Shiro decided to kill some researchers to show her control over her developing powers, and Ganta ended up witnessing it. The shock made him forget what he saw, and forget about Shiro. He was then sent away to live in the city.
Some time later, Shiro would cause the earthquake trying to die. She still survived, and Ganta's mother built a system to seal the girl's powers to an extent, so she would not be able to try that again. She also gave the girl a small red stone she had developed in the laboratory. It was a substance that could null Shiro's powers. Ganta's mother then killed herself so no one would be able to deactivate the system and free Shiro's powers.
The years went on, and one day, due to the school's scheduled visit to the prison, Shiro found out that Ganta was living in the city and where he studied. She ran away from the laboratory to find Ganta.
She ends up killing all Ganta's classmantes for jealousy, and inserts the power to null her powers into Ganta, hoping he will then become her hero and save her, by killing her. She wanted to be killed by the boy she loved.


What's the name of the song that played in the last few minutes of episode 13 of Charlotte? It's towards the end of the episode, something about Sinking Ships but I can't find the song.

「君の文字」 Kimi no Moji "Your Glyphs", sung by Kumaki Anri. It ought to be out as part of the OST on 4 Nov 2015.

"Sinking Ships" is the one that starts at around 12:50 into the episode.


Why did Kaoru's hair color change? In the very start of the first episode, Kaoru had Dark blue hair. But after that, her hair color changed to blonde. Why did Kaoru dye her hair?  Does it mean something like a start of a new chapter of her life? What is the significance of this in the story?

During the Marriage/Honeymoon:

At home (and the rest of the episodes):

When they got married, Kaoru's hair was black.
After a while, Kaoru dyed her hair blonde.

In the web comic version, chapter 6 has the story explaining the reason why Kaoru dyed her hair blonde:

Title: Sadako

1st frame: (With impersonations of Sadako) I—am—Sa—da—ko—
2nd frame: Hajime: Uwah~~~ Sadako-tan so moe~~~ I want to lick you all over~~~
3rd frame: (Kaoru is angry)
4th frame: Hajime: Oh? You dyed your hair? (Kaoru is sulking)

I think, Kaoru did a (light) cosplay of Sadako to get Hajime's attention, but he called her Sadako instead of Kaoru, so she got angry and dyed her hair blonde.


How did Edward manage to defeat Father? I remembered watching a battle scene from the 2009 anime titled Fullmetal Alchemist and was puzzled by how Edward Elric managed to throw volley of punches at Father, a homunculus or the dwarf in the flask whom had earlier absorbed an entity and gained the power of God.

Is it because the power of God cannot be controlled and led to Father's defeat, or because the absorbed homunculus or souls are revolting inside Father thereby restricting Father's focus on a battle? How did Elric win this seemingly impossible fight? What happens to Father after vanishing into thin air? Did he return to the flask?

I'm going to answer based on the manga, because I still have not seen the Brotherhood anime. I think this is just fine, as it seems that the anime streamlined the ending a bit.

This is going to be spoilerific, but scarcely more than the question itself, so I'm not putting all of it in spoiler tags.

Let's start at the core of the issue. You say that Father "absorbed" God. This may be a bit of a misnomer. It's more accurate to say that he simply contained God within himself to control its power. And this is the crux of his defeat.

While not explicitly stated, it's obvious that Father needs tremendous amount of energy to contain God. He already had the power of half the people of Xerxes, but his plan was to bolster this power by the souls of all the people of Amestris. However, Hohenheim managed to thwart this part of the plan by forcing the release of these souls right after they were taken.

This weakened Father's grip on God, but not enough for full release yet, although his control over his powers obviously weakened (See chapter 105, pages 32-33). After this, everybody started attacking him. The military, the rebels, Edward, May, and even blinded Roy Mustang. Father deflected all these attacks without even lifting a finger, sometimes even retaliated. However, even though he seemed to be unaffected by all these attacks, they do require energy from him to block. Slowly but surely, his energy reserves diminished to the point that he started to take damage.

This led to even more energy drainage, because now he had to use the energy to rebuild himself. Energy that he desperately needed to contain God. As the battle waged on, it became more and more obvious that God was actively battling against Father to escape. He tried to salvage the situation by absorbing Greed, but this turned against him, because Greed (and as far as I understand, only Greed) betrayed him and caused his limbs to turn fragile. That and the final punches from Edward pushed his energy reserves over the limit, and he no longer had the power to contain God. What happened next is sort of hard to explain, so I'll just refer to Chapter 108, page 21.

After all this, Father, now reduced to Dwarf in the Bottle, found himself in front of The Gate. He had a brief encounter with Truth and was then violently dragged within The Gate, to whatever fate awaited him in there.


Can Shiki kill servants? My question is related to the Nasuverse in general.

I was wondering if Shiki is able to kill Servants using his Chokushi no Magan.

In general, yes, the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception (直死の魔眼, Chokushi no Magan, Mystic Eyes of Direct Death) can kill Servants

  Beings will have different amounts of lines depending on their complexity. Humans will have a countable amount in geometric patterns. The Dead have numerous lines all over their bodies that make their appearance hard to discern. Members of the Phantasmal Species will have very few "parts vulnerable to death." Those without physical bodies like Servants are also able to be killed.

Source - Mystic Eyes of Death Perception: Lines

This comes from the TYPE-MOON Fes. Official Pamphlet 10th Anniversary Q & A Booklet which is citation 14 in the section I linked to

  Q: Since Saber and Gilgamesh have physical bodies in Fate/Stay Night, can Shiki see lines on them? (@LestatDusk)
  A: Not just when they have a physical body, the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are effective even when they're in spiritual bodies. For Shiki [Ryougi], if the opponent can be recognized as "living" (not "life", but "live"), she can see the lines of death. For example, the ghosts in Overlooking View were dead, but they were "living" in the sense that they can interfere with the current world.
  Also, why she didn't succeed against the Sarira in Araya's arm is because it belonged to an enlightened one who achieved "becoming extinguished, alive." To kill it by the lines of death means she has to decipher advanced "lines of death" levels higher than the normal concept of death. But what's sad about bones is that rather than having to do that, they'll turn into ash if you burn them. If you have time to be using Death spells, level up and beat it physically.

Source - Citation Note 14

Of course, whether the user can do it is another thing. In the Q & A quoted above, the answer seems to assume that "Shiki" refers to Ryougi Shiki. If we are talking in terms of Tohno Shiki, then it'll be a bit more difficult due to the migraine he suffers from when he takes off the Mystic Eye Killers glasses Aoko gave him.

  The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are not infallible. The human mind was not meant to perceive death in such a way, and using it is highly taxing on the human brain, causing headaches. In addition, there are multiple levels of perception; in the beginning, Shiki could only see lines on people and objects, then progressed to seeing dots on living things, then dots on inanimate objects. Each step takes the mind further from natural perception, and each step is more damaging to the brain; eventually the stress leads the brain's blood vessels to burst and death for the user.

Soruce - Tohno Shiki: Abilities 5th Paragraph

Ryougi Shiki is not shown to have migraines from the use of her eyes. Also,

  Lastly, the ability to perceive and trace lines or pierce dots does not give the user any added physical capacity to perform the task itself, especially against an unwilling target. [Tohno] Shiki must still get in range, aim, and move his hand by himself, which is not a trivial task against the kind of enemies he faces.

so even with his Mystic Eyes, Tohno Shiki must still be able to stand against a Servant and as mentioned in Ryougi Shiki's page:

  [Ryougi Shiki's] combat ability is only possibly around the level of Ciel, allowing her to manage a defensive fight against a being on the level of a Servant. While still much stronger than [Tohno] Shiki, who holds no hope in even competing with a Servant defensively, it is unknown how her abilities work and the speed with which they take effect should she choose to utilize them. She is noted to be the second strongest being in the Nasuverse when not including Servants, under Arcueid Brunestud and above Primordial Demons.

Source - Ryougi Shiki: Third Personality

Tohno SHIKI/Michael Roa Valdamjong on the other hand, while he has Mystic Eyes, they are not the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception (though he believed they were the same) and he is only cutting the "life" of a person and not the "death", which is what Ryougi and Tohno do.

I should also point out that while the Mystic Eyes can kill a Servant (given the user's own physical skill), not everything can be killed with them.

  The only entity [Tohno] has failed to kill is Night of Wallachia, since it does not exist as an actual being, but instead as a phenomenon that does not "exist" until it occurs. Nasu has also stated that beings such as ORT are immune to Shiki's Eyes, having no concept of "death" in the first place.


Who took care of Naruto when he was young? In episode 350, we see that the Third Hokage took on to take care of Naruto. But towards the beginning of the anime Naruto is seen to be living alone.

Did Naruto live with the Third? If so, why did he leave there?

Third Hokage promised Kushina, when she was dying, that he would take care of Naruto, and he did.

Whole villagers knew that a monster fox was inside Naruto. This news also spread to the other villages. If it weren't for the astute care of the Third Hokage, other villages would have kidnapped Naruto and would have absconded him out of Konoha.

The Third may not have sheltered him at home, but he did keep an eye for Naruto. That is what taking care means.

Besides, Iruka and others were there too. However, the main role was still played by the Third.


How badly damaged was the Sdf-1? How badly damaged was sdf-1 after the final space Battle?
And why was the bridge still visible after IT was supposedly completely destroyed in episode to the stars?  The bridge seemed intact in this episode .
Can anybody please explain this?

If by "final" battle, you mean the battle against Khyron in episode 36th "To the Stars", it was destroyed to the point it became garbage and buried. The bridge wasnt intact after that because the SDF-1 was buried and it doesnt appear anymore.

If by "final" battle you mean the battle were it was almost destroyed in episode 27th "Force of Arms", it was damaged enough that they didnt use it anymore until the last episode, when they partially repaired it for it to fly again, they made it fly once last time again against Khyron who finally destroyed it by making his vessel collision with it.

Something of this info you can see it here:
http://robotech.wikia.com/wiki/To_the_Stars


In the Monogatari series, who is Araragi's true love? Hanekawa, Shinobu, or Senjougahara? I am kinda confused right now because after seeing Kizumonogatari, it seems like Hanekawa was Araragi's first love.
In the Bakemonogatari series, Araragi also turns out to like Senjougahara.
But Shinobu and Araragi also like each other too, right?
So which one is Araragi's true love?

Let's go case by case:

Hanekawa: In Kizu, Araragi sees Hanekawa as a perfect being. Good grades, good ahem assets, being president etc. After talking with her he starts to love her. As for Hanekawa, I am pretty sure she likes Araragi from the start. Now, we already know how imperfect Hanekawa is. Even in the Kizu, she tries to "gain" Araragi by manipulating him (emotion-wise). The "chicken" scene in Kizu 3 is actually about this however because of the fanservice, people tend to miss this. So at the end of Kizu, both are in love with each other.

In Nekomonogatari, Araragi also sees how imperfect Hanekawa is. To understand this, you might want to check out Nekomonogatari Kuro episode 4. In the middle of the episode before fighting, there is a really good exchange between Hanekawa and Araragi. Yes, at that point Hanekawa is talking, not the sawari neko. Again you can understand it better by watching.

Anyways, because of that Araragi loses his interest over Hanekawa. However, Hanekawa still loves Araragi and finally admits that in Nekomonogatari: Shiro. She is rejected by Araragi thus finally Hanekawa can move on. So this is the basic summary of character development for Hanekawa-Araragi love. Now let's talk about Shinobu.

Shinobu: This is always a grey area for me. Because what he did to Shinobu, Araragi always feels bad for her. Shinobu, of course, is really mad about it too (End of Kizu). That is why she never talks in Neko: Kuro and Bake. I think the best place to start our character study is Nisemonogatari episode 4's famous/infamous bath scene. That is the first time we hear her voice (broadcast-wise). I highly recommend you to rewatch this scene. It tells a lot of things. However the basic idea is, "I am not forgiving you nor you should forgive me but let's move on from that". If you think about it, Shinobu had weeks to think over her situation after Kizu. From now on, they kinda became partner in crime. That "I am not forgiving you nor you should forgive me" becomes their base of this relationship.

I have to skip lots of arcs here because I really can't list all of them but because of their character developments through the Monogatari (for example time travel arc), they start to care each other. Actually, the time travel arc in Second Season gives us a good perspective. Even while not talking to Araragi, Shinobu still cares about him. Let's remember the end of Kizumonogatari: "If tomorrow you die, then tomorrow my life will end. If today you live, then today I will live on". Ironically, even Gaen-senpai, she knows everything, couldn't comprehend the reasoning behind their "taking care" relationship in Owari S2. Please also watch that scene.

So in the end, the relationship between Shinobu and Araragi is a complex one. It is not love as we know but they really care each other. Not in a romantic way. Now for the last entry, I don't have a good analysis but I will try to explain my points.

Hitagi: First of all Hitagi really falls in love with Araragi after helping her. That's obvious. This is happening in Bake, after Neko: Kuro, so Araragi isn't in love with Hanekawa. This is kinda my interpretation but I think Araragi falls in love way after they agreed on dating. Maybe it's really true love or maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome but we know for sure that they really love each other at the end of Owari S2. There is no real development I can talk like above however I believe Zoku Owari will give us a good explanation over this.


What's the reason DIO and Jotaro could fly in Stardust Crusaders? When I watched the first season of Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken: Stardust Crusaders, I have never seen Jotaro fly with his stand, but suddenly in season 2 of Stardust Crusaders when Jotaro confronted DIO, he did fly. You could see on this scene, they did fly when they punch each other. Is this a new ability of their stand?

They aren't flying, but rather a consecutive set of "Stand leaps" combined with The World's ability to stop time. This is basically when the stand uses its power to perform a very powerful jump by either jumping or punching walls and the floor. For example, in Jotaro's fight with Dio we see him punch a wall with Star Platinum to propel him in another direction.

The instance where The World and Star Platinum attack each other and both Stand users start to "fly", it is like lots of mini Stand leaps as they propel off each other. The 2 Stands punch each other so fast they begin to rise, because the forces acting on the other are equivalent to Stand leaps.


Why do the Homunculi look the way they do? What is the reason for which the (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood's) homunculi look the way they do? I know they mean to represent the sins from which they were created, but is there a common image in Japanese folklore for them?

Lust is represented as a beautiful, desirable (take Havoc's opionions on this) woman. (And that's the only directly-represented sin I can find amongst the homunculi.)

Gluttony is represented as a fat, all-eating beast. (?)

Greed... ? I mean, the first Greed was an apparently normal human with abilities to cover his skin with diamond-hard layers. (Apart from the "diamond", I can't see how he is "greedy" at all. Not as his appearance, at least.)

Sloth is

   a giant, enormously huge and fast(??) creature.

Wrath is justifiable enough.

   He had a normal human body taken for experiments and had a philosopher's stone inserted. All the souls within him then fought for control, leaving only the one who actually controlled him.

Pride

   is a child????

Envy

   is a huge monster who has the ability to freely change his form around.

Is there a pattern I'm losing here?

This is my understanding of what defines the homunculus physical attributes.

Lust

Beautiful, desirable and a b****. The kind of woman that every man wants to get, but when they are in there, they soon realize that they don't want to be with her.

Gluttony

Fat, lazy, always hungry and quite stupid. Wants the girl but most likely won't get her because of his appearance, which is also why he always hangs around Lust and goes crazy when she is killed by Mustang.

Envy

Her actual form is very ugly. She envies everyone because they look better than her. This is the reason why she can change her appearance at will, as she wants to look better than others.

Greed

Wants everything, has possessions not friends. His ultimate shield is a variation of carbon (diamond). Teeth are jagged like that of a demon.

Wrath

Another word for anger. Uses his rage to fuel his determination and fighting ability, thus making him the ultimate warrior and leader.

Sloth

Large, strong, slow. However, easily bored and would rather not do anything physically taxing. He is also easily agitated hence the battle at the wall.

Pride

Feels he is superior in everything, appearance, abilities. Has a huge ego and will most likely try to kill anybody that makes him feel small. Hence why he is bound to a vessel of a 7-9 year old. Children of about that age are extremely prideful in personality, causing him to be slightly immature and think he is the best.

This is however my own interpretation of why they are like they are physically and personality wise.


Can I skip episodes in Shipudden? Currently, I'm at 52 when Team Kakashi meets Sasuke. I really want to see Naruto in sage mode which is somewhere around 150 episode. So which all episodes (fillers) can I skip?


How does Sweet Mask (A-Class rank 1) plan to stop unworthy heroes from moving to S-Class? Even though it's said by other heroes he should rank up, he refuses as he feels it is his duty to remain in the number one spot of A-Class to prevent the unworthy from becoming S-Class heroes, except for those whom he sees worthy like Genos, fitting Sweet Mask's philosophy about "heroes needs to be beautiful too"

But how does he plan to stop?
Had he not approved of Genos, what power does he have to stop him from climbing to class S.
Isn't that the decicsion for the association?

As mentioned in this answer,

  When heroes are ranked #1 in their class they can choose to stay at the top of their class or start at the bottom of the next class.

There is no other way than being #1 to rank up. Therefore, as long as you are #1, no one in your class except yourself can rank up to the next class.

Sweet Mask is "supposed" to be way too powerful for the A-Class (from what he says, as we never saw him fight), so there is no way anyone in the A-Class would ever be stronger than him. Therefore, no one can take over the first place of A-Class as long as Sweet Mask doesn't rank up.

The only limitation of his system is that he can not decide on who can directly start as a S-Class, as it is only decided on the tests. This is why Sweet Mask could not influence Genos' rank


Why did Itachi poke Sasuke's forehead? From the beginning of the series, even during his last moments, Itachi poked Sasuke's forehead as a way of showing affection and apologizing.

But is that the only reason? Did he perhaps try to transfer some knowledge or memories to Sasuke? Or is it simply unknown?

It has nothing to do with transferring memory or knowledge.

It's a gesture of love from Big Brother (Itachi) to his loving Younger Brother (Sasuke).
That gesture show how much Itachi love Sasuke than anything.


What happened to the Super Peace Busters after Menma's passing? Is it known what happened to the Super Peace Busters after Menma passed away? Did they immediately disband, and immediately stop being friends?

Well, it is no exactly said in the anime but, imagine your best friend just died. Moreover, your best friend just died because of you (they all blamed themselves for what happened). Would you be in the mood to have another get-together? Especially when the get-together is with the same group of friends whom you and your best friend have spent so much time with. It was definitely too painful for each of them. They probably didn't exactly "disband" but just didn't see each other anymore. That's probably why they were still fine with being called the Super Peace Busters and Yukiatsu even calling Jintan "leader". I don't think they stopped being friends either but rather just grew apart. I mean, Yukiatsu and Tsuruko were friends. And Yukiatsu and Anaru were friends. There was a bit of tension between Tsuruko and Anaru (but understandable due to the jealousy and guilt bit and stuff) and Poppo was fine with everybody and Jintan didn't even have the motivation to go to school so it's not really that they hated each other or just stopped being friends. After all, they still probably kept in touch with how Yukiatsu knew that Jintan was registered for the school Anaru joined.


Where did the nickname "Poppo" comes from? We know that all of them have a nickname, but I don't understand Poppo's nickname.

Yadomi Jinta = Jintan
Honma Meiko = Menma
Anjou Naruko = Anaru
Matsuyuki Atsumu = Yukiatsu
Tsurumi Chiriko = Tsuruko
Hisakawa Tetsudou = Poppo??

Does it have something to do with his name in Japanese characters?

After a bit of searching on the Japanese internet, I found an explanation that makes so much sense that it almost must be right. That said, I haven't found official material to back this up,1 so this may yet be incorrect.

Here's the deal: "Tetsudou", written 鉄道, means "railway". "Poppo" (ぽっぽ) is a childish/onomatopoetic word for a steam train (see e.g. the zokugo-dict entry, usage 3 [in Japanese]). So I suppose what would have happened is that the kids would've gone along some sort of chain of word associations and ended up deciding to call the guy "Poppo" because that's related to "Tetsudou".

1 Then again, there may not even be any official material to support this explanation - I think this joke/whatever would be very transparent to people brought up in Japan and so this connection would probably go without saying.


How can Achilles and Astolfo lend Noble Phantasm? Is it explained how Achilles and Astolfo can lend Noble Phantasm? I have only seen the anime so I am not sure if this is covered in the novels but for Charon to ask for a Noble Phantasm would indicate he knew that Achilles could lend Noble Phantasm to anyone or he specifically knew Achilles would run into Astolfo. From a previous question I asked it was indicated that this was a unique circumstance of Achilles being known for lending his Noble Phantasms and Astolfo borrowing Noble Phantasm. Is this a unique interaction between Achilles and Astolfo or is this just a power of Achilles or Astolfo?

In actual legends, Achilles is known for giving away relics (e.g. For Patroclus to impersonate him, lending him his chariot and armor), and Astolfo is known for receiving them in his legend (which is why he has so many different Noble Phantasms, which he collected through his adventures). These circumstances allow the two to transfer and recieve other Noble Phantasm, which would not normally be possible (although there are exceptions, such as Berserker from Fate/Zero).

The anime itself is a poor adaptation, and glosses over or outright changes a lot of context and background information. Therefore a lot of thing the audience should know are left out arbitrarily.


What are the animation studios outside the Tokyo area and why the majority is concentrated in Tokyo? There are very few animation studios outside the Tokyo area, e.g. P.A. Works is based in Nanto, Toyama and Kyoto Animation in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. A large majority of animation studios is in Tokyo.

What are the animation studios outside the Tokyo area and why the majority is concentrated in Tokyo?

What animation studios are located outside the Tokyo area?

Japanese Wikipedia's article on アニメ制作会社 (Animation studios) says:

  92%[1]の制作会社が東京都内、特に大手制作会社の所在地付近に集中しており、地方には少ない。

Translated,

  92%[1] of studios are located in Tokyo Metropolis. In particular, most of them cluster around larger studios. Few are found in rural areas.

Looking through the list given further down on the Wikipedia page, we find that the following studios are not located in Tokyo Metropolis (東京都):

Aomori

Igel-Nest

Fukuoka

Kyushu Animation

Fukushima

Studio Odabu

Kanagawa

Anime ToroToro

Kobe

Anitas-Kobe

Kyoto

Kyoto Animation

Nagano

Sakuraku Create

Okinawa

Jinbun

Osaka

Animation Studio ingres
GoHands
StudioMAT
Studio Muu

Saitama

Ajiado
Mugenkan
studio add Co
Studio Cosmos
Studio Kelmadick

Toyama

P.A.Works

Studios included in the "foreign" and "inactive/bankrupt/etc" sections of the Wikipedia article at the time of writing are not included in the above list. Note also that I generated this list semi-programmatically - I guarantee that every entry on the list above is a non-Tokyo studio, but it is possible there are some other non-Tokyo studios I missed. The report cited for the 92% figure on Wikipedia identifies 14 non-Tokyo studios at the time of its writing (2010), so the 18 I have listed above probably cover those studios fairly well.

Why is the majority concentrated in Tokyo?

The report cited in the Wikipedia article does not, unfortunately, speculate as to why there are so many studios in Tokyo. I would imagine that it is mostly a simple matter of Tokyo being the economic center of Japan, but this is mere speculation on my part, and I have no sources to support this.

Aside: the report mentions a trend of studios moving into more-rural areas as a result of advances in technology, making digital animation and data exchange simpler.


Which episode to start watching One Piece from to see Ace and WhiteBeard getting involved? I want to start watching One Piece again but don't want to start from the beginning. I know most of the beginning where they assemble a crew and fight Arlong, Buggy, Crocodile.

I want to start at a point where all the big badass characters like Ace and WhiteBeard are involved while still knowing what's going on.  Which is the best episode to start from?

It's difficult to give an objective answer, so I'll summarize the arcs to give you an understanding where you should start watching without giving too much spoiler. I'll stick to recurring characters and exclude filler arcs, as I haven't watched those. For the exact episode numbers refer to this page.

If you want to skip to where all the big badass characters like Ace and WhiteBeard are involved you should skip to the Marineford Arc. In that arc you will see an all-out war going down between Whitebeard and the Marines to save Ace. I would recommend you to start at the Sabaody Archipelago Arc though, where a lot of new characters were introduced that will recur in the story. You could skip inbetween arcs if you want. If you would do so, you'd only have missed the introduction of Franky and Brook and the backstory on Robin.

East Blue

  First half of the Straw Hat pirates are introduced.

Romance Dawn Arc:

Introduction of Luffy, Zoro, Coby, Red Hair pirates, (Alvida and Helmeppo).
Luffy rescues Coby and Zoro from the marines.

Orange Town Arc:

Introduction of Nami, Buggy (and his pirates).
Strawhat pirates vs Buggy pirates.

Syrup Village Arc:

Introduction of Usopp, Going Merry, (and Jango).
Strawhat pirates vs Black Cat pirates.

Baratie Arc:

Introduction of Sanji, Mihawk, (Fullbody, Johnny and Yosaku).
Strawhat pirates vs Krieg Pirates.

Arlong Park Arc:

Introduction of Arlong, Hachi, (and Mohmoo).
Backstory on Nami and Strawhat pirates vs Arlong pirates.

Loguetown Arc:

Introduction of Smoker, Tashigi and Dragon.
Luffy will be Pirate King.

Alabasta

  Robin and Chopper join the crew.

Reverse Mountain Arc:

Introduction of Laboon, Crocus and the Rumbar pirates.
Strawhat pirates enter the grand line.

Whiskey Peak Arc:

Introduction of Baroque Works and Vivi.
Zoro vs Baroque Works.

Little Garden Arc:

Introduction of Mr 3 and two giants of Elbaf, Dorry and Brogy.
Strawhat pirates vs Baroque Works.

Drum Island Arc:

Introduction of Chopper.
Strawhat pirates vs king Wapol.

Alabasta Arc:

Introduction of Robin, Mr 2, Mr 1, Crocodile, Ace.
Strawhat pirates vs Baroque Works.

Sky Island

  Introduction of some of those bad-ass characters.

Jaya Arc:

Introduction of Sengoku, Tsuru, Kuma, Doflamingo, Gorosei, Whitebeard pirates, Blackbeard pirates and Noland.
Getting ready to go to Skypiea.

Skypiea Arc:

Introduction of sky islands.
Strawhat pirates vs god Enel and his priests.

Water 7

  Franky joins the crew.

Long Ring Long Land Arc:

Introduction of Aokiji.
Strawhat pirates vs Foxy pirates.

Water 7 Arc:

Introduction of Franky, Sogeking, Thousand Sunny, (Spandam and CP9).
Strawhat pirates vs Franky Family
Luffy vs Usopp
Sanji, Sogeking and Franky vs CP9.

Enies Lobby Arc:

Backstory on Robin and Strawhats learn new battle techniques.
Strawhat pirates vs CP9.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc:

Introduction of Garp and Dadan.
Ace vs Blackbeard.

Thriller Bark

  Brook joins the crew.

Thriller Bark Arc:

Introduction of Brook, Moriah, (Perona, and Lola).
Strawhat pirates vs warlord Moriah
Strawhat pirates vs Kuma.

Summit War

  Shit goes down.

Sabaody Archipelago Arc:

Introduction of Duval, Kizaru, Rayleigh, the Eleven Supernovas, World Nobels, (Fisher Tiger and his Sun pirates).
Strawhat pirates vs Rosy Life Riders.
Eleven Supernovas vs admiral Kizaru and Pacifista.
Strawhat pirates vs admiral Kizaru.

Amazon Lily Arc:

Introduction of Boa Hancock.
Luffy finds out Ace has been imprisoned by the Marines.

Impel Down Arc:

Introduction of Jinbe, Ivankov and Magellan.
Luffy brings chaos to Impel Down prison.

Marineford Arc:

Introduction of Akainu, Blackeard's new crewmembers.
All-out-war of Whitebeard pirates and their allies vs the marines and the shichibukai in order to save Ace from execution.

Post-War Arc:

Introduction of Sabo and Haki.
Backstory on Luffy, Ace and Sabo.
Three year training-timeskip of the Strawhat pirates.

Fishman Island

  A glimps of the new techniques the Strawhats learned during the timeskip.

Return to Sabaody Arc:

Strawhat pirates regroup after their training.

Fishman Island Arc:

Introduction of Shirahoshi, Big Mom and Koala.
Strawhat pirates vs New Fishman Pirates.
Backstory on the Sun pirates.

Pirate Alliance

  Doflamingo doing a lot of sick shit.

Punk Hazard Arc:

Introduction of Dr. Vegapunk, Caesar Clown, Kaido, Kin'emon and Momonosuke.
Strawhat pirates and Heart pirates form an alliance.
Strawhat pirates and Law vs Caesar and the Donquixote pirates.

Dressrosa Arc (ongoing):

Introduction of Tontatta, CP0, Fujitora, Bartolomeo, and A LOT of other characters that might make a recurrence in future arcs.
Strawhat pirates vs Donquixote pirates.


What equipment are made available to the players by Gantz? Before a mission starts, the players are typically issued get a gun, a rifle, and a black suit, but later on, you see that some of the player wielding a blade. What other weapons, suits, or vehicles are made available to the players (including the ones unlocked by the 100-point menu)?

As you said, at the beginning, the players find the following:

Gantz Suit

Provides the wearer with incredible strength, speed, endurance, and the ability to jump very high, as well as land without problems
Provides the hunter with an almost impenetrable protection to his/her body, including the head

Controller

Used to track the targets, displaying the targets as well as fellow team mates on its screen

X-Gun

Fires until it hits something, then explodes inside the target after a delay

X-Shotgun

Meant for longer range, has higher accuracy, and a sniper scope

Y-Gun

Has the same lock-on capabilities of the X-Gun, but rather than fire out an explosive payload, it instead launches three "laser anchors" connected by ropes

Other non-100-point items are:

Gantz Sword

Seen scattered amongst the floor in the same room as the Monobikes
Has an incredibly sharp blade that extends from the hilt without loss of durability

Gantz Bike

Made its first appearance before the start of the Dinosaur mission
A type of monowheel, with a seat for a driver and a rider, its own radar, and the ability to go into stealth mode

100-point items are:

Z-Gun (sometimes referred to by fans as H-Gun)

Applies severe gravitational force in a circular area and forces everything within range of the shot to slam into the ground or be flattened

Hard suit

Is far stronger and much more resistant than the normal Gantz suit
Has a built in X-ray scanner, a beam weapon that fires out of its palms, and sharp swords protruding out from the back of the elbows
Completely conceals the body of the wearer

Flying Gantz Bike

Similar to a Gantz Bike with an added flying ring

Gantz Mech

A building-sized robot controlled by a hunter on a modified flying Gantz bike


Why did Rayquaza get a mega evolution? In the pokemon series, the trio of Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza both gained new powers after mega evolution was discovered, but why did Groudon and Kyogre get a primal form and Rayquaza got a mega, is it possibly because Rayquaza doesn't have a orb?

I've not watched the new Pokemon episodes or played the ORAS Games. So this answer is a culmination of research and not first hand information.

A google search lead me to a reddit where this has been discussed. Why Rayquaza Didn't get a Primal Form. I also read through several forums and blog post that led to "plot" and the "game story". However, one of the comments seemed pretty logical to me.

  It's been stated that Rayquaza went Mega instead of Primal, because Primal means being in an anger driven state, only guided by instinct, which is why the Primals just try to seek for the most power possible while Mega Evolutions completely retain their state of mind.

According to the reddit,

  We know that primal reversion is when Kyogre and Groudon revert to their ancient states in which they had even more massive amounts of power than they do now, but Rayquaza was not like them and had enough power to stop the primal forms even in its normal state. Zinnia provided this information in the Delta Episode while she is explaining the mural to you at the end of the story. She also says that when a large meteorite was going to hit the Earth, Rayquaza gained more power through the bond between it and the ancient people of Hoenn, i.e. mega evolution.

Read the player dialogue with Zinnia to understand more. The story told between floors enumerate this. This also gives insight into the actual Mega Evolution process, i.e. Rayquaza was the first pokemon to Mega-Evolve.

Source : Bulbapedia - Zinnia

  It was humanity's wish that brought about Rayquaza's transformation in the face of the rainbow stone... Yes... A wish... An intangible thing, invisible to the eye. Yet this wish bound people and Pokémon together, enabling the Legendary Pokémon to change its appearance... Doesn't it remind you of something? That's right... It sounds like Mega Evolution, doesn't it?"

TL;DR Rayquaza in itself is more powerful then the 2 Primals who reverted to their ancient form in anger and more power. Rayquaza, however went Mega to save the ancient people of Hoenn from another disaster in a seperate event. BSTs hwoever disagree with this.

Base Stat Totals:
Rayquaza 105/150/90/150/90/95 = 680
Rayquaza-Mega 105/180/100/180/100/115 = 780
Kyogre 100/100/90/150/140/90 = 670
Kyogre-Primal 100/150/90/180/160/90 = 770
Groudon 100/150/140/100/90/90 = 670
Groudon-Primal 100/180/160/150/90/90 = 770


How accurate is the cooking in Food Wars? I'm familiar with some other cooking shows, but not all of them are nearly as experimental as Food Wars. With something like "Yakitate!", being a baker, there's a lot of truth behind the recipes and some of the crazy things Azuma and some of the other bakers did. Not being a chef, I can't tell if some of the cooking/recipes in "Food Wars" actually work like they claim in the show. For example, in a recent episode Soma used some crushed something (I can't remember) as the breading for fried fish, or the use of honey to tenderize meat; how accurate are these things from the show?

Like with Yakitate! Japan, the recipes in the manga are supervised by an actual professional, in this case, chef Yuki Morisaki.

As for the cooking techniques you mentioned, the crushed "something" breading for fish is "kaki no tane" (柿の種), essentially soy-flavored rice crisps made to resemble Japanese persimmon seeds. When crushed there are more or less like breadcrumbs or panko crumbs, the only differ is they have a distinct soy flavor to them. Koromo-age is an actually popular batter frying technique in Japan.

As for honey being a tenderizer, the food science behind it is not very well explained. While cooking with honey is a technique that spans back to the middle-ages, where they did honey-cured ham and baked gammon coated with honey and mustard. I don't believe the proteins are actually broken down by the honey. While honey is said to contain enzymes that help digest both protein and carbohydrates, such as amylase, sucrase, and proteases (a group of enzymes that break down proteins into amino acids), there more of something that helps your body break down the proteins than have an active process in cooking.

You see, honey is extremely hygroscopic, which means it absorbs moisture really well. If you pull water out of a piece of meat, that meat will end up less stiff and seem more floppy, but the collagen and tough tissue aren't actually affected. It's common to find marinades containing honey and vinegar that make meat more tender and supple.

So while the recipes are actually recipes developed by a professional chef, the food science behind them might be a bit questionable. Such things aren't explained well in the anime and manga as the intended audience is supposed to be Japanese. Some terms and techniques are probably more commonly understood to native audience than ones overseas. Such as "A5" meat being pure Wagyu beef from the Kagoshima Prefecture, such a designation does not really exist in other countries.


Picture of a red-haired girl from old (maybe 80s) anime Sometime ago I found the following picture on 9gag or some similar website: it is from an anime (probably broadcast in the 80s or early 90s). It seemed familiar, but I didn't manage to recall the title of the show. (I'm not even sure if I actually used to watch it).

The quality of the picture is not very good, and my attempts to identify the picture using reverse image search failed.

Edit: Most probably the anime is among the ones listed here (unfortunately the page is in Italian) but I didn't manage to recognize the correct one (and moreover I don't know if the list is complete).

This seems to be Tiffany from Robby the rascal, also known as cybot robotchi or in Italian as Robottino. It was originally broadcasted by TV tokyo from 7 october, 1982 till the 29th of June in 1983.

the English version deleted much of the risqué humor that, while not uncommon in children's animation in Japan, would be considered unacceptable by American standards, with the policewoman Sachiko (Sgt. Sally) being the usual target of the fan service-oriented humor. The TV series also aired in its entirety in Italy under the title Robottino ("Little robot"), and some episodes are also available in Spanish as Robotete.

The Image the OP provided also comes from a fan-service scene, which can be seen here


Why does Trafalgar D. Law use 'Ya-や(屋)' suffix while addressing others? Using ~-san, ~-kun, ~-sama while addressing other people is common in Japanese culture.But Law uses ya as suffix while addressing people, like in the nicknames Strawhat-ya for Luffy and Blackleg-ya for Sanji, and in real names Zoro-ya, Nami-ya and Nico-ya.

Ya are translated as Mr. or Miss. in English. But in Japanese adding ya defines someone's profession. It is not that Law does not use ~-san at all, Like with Corazon and sarcastically with Vergo. As stated in this page.

So why does Law use ya rather then ~-san, ~-kun, etc. while addressing others?

From the SBS (質問を募集する, "I'm Taking Questions") question and answer column of volume 62, chapter 609, page 122:

D: Like "Mugiwara-ya", Law-san tends to call people with the "-ya" suffix, but in the case where the person's last name is "Tsuchiya", then does that become "Tsuchiya-ya"? Please tell me Law-san♡ P.N. HeartLoveWoman
O: Mr. Law—they're calling you --! ............. Aw he won't come-. Let me answer instead. A long time ago, around maybe the Edo period--. There was this thing called "Yagō". So if for instance, in the case where there were two Mr. commoners named "Tomekichi-san", things like "Dōgu-ya no Tomekichi" (Tomekichi of the Tool shop) or "Oke-ya no Tomekichi" (Tomekichi of the Bathtub maker); something with "~ya" would be used in place of a last name-. Like how you shout "Tamaya~" at the fireworks or "Nakamuraya" from Kabuki; have you heard of those? In other words, he just goes with the flow. Right, Law-san?
L: Yeah.

"D" denotes the reader (dokusha), "O" denotes Oda, the author, "L" denotes Law.
Essentially it's as as if Law is calling Luffy "Strawhatter" or "Strawhat guy." Like you would refer to a butcher (nikuya) or a baker (panya) by the shop they run. Note that no honorific is applied, so you cannot assume this to be polite. You could say it puts a bit if the distance between the speaker and the one they are speaking to. Much like in a MMO party where someone calls you by your class or your role instead of your character name.


What is with the shift in Total Eclipse after episode 2? I started watching Total Eclipse, which I understand is part of Muv-Luv, but I am unfamiliar with. After episode 2, it seems like the whole tone of the show shifts. Is there some background into what's going on? The first two episodes reminded me a bit of Blue Gender, but after reaching episode 9 it seems like that was totally left behind.

I have not played the visual novels and have not seen any other MuvLuv content, so I can only judge from the anime series. In this series, the two first episodes focus on the background of Yui. You basically witness what she has experienced when she was younger, and then the shift focuses on the 'current day' situation, where Yui is one of the two lead protagonists. Further down the series she reveals some of her background which is consistent with the first two episodes.


The Akimichi Clan Symbol The symbol for the Akimichi clan is:

Does it mean anything in Japanese? If so, what is it?

The symbol comes from the 食 kanji. You can prononces it "uka" and it means food or to eat. You can also prononce it "uke", "ke", "shoku" or "shi", but it gives the kanji almost the same meaning of food or meal.

Hope that helped.


Can a person do the shinigami eye deal without losing half of his lifespan? Let's say, Bob has a death note. He gives up ownership, so that another one with shinigami eyes can tell him his lifespan. Bob is a genius, so he can calculate his death date. He writes his own name in it.

Bob Hyrule, Bradykardie, 2.3.2034.

He set his death date, by killing himself with a disease. Now he makes the shinigami eye deal. Will he die earlier?

This will not work due to the 23 day rule.

How to use XXVII

If you write, die of disease for the cause of death, but only write a specific time of death without the actual name of disease, the human will die from an adequate disease. But the Death Note can only operate within 23 days (in the human calendar). This is called the 23 day rule.

Now lets say the person's lifespan will end in 23 days or less. Then the question could be rephrased as What would happen to a person whose name is written in a DN, but whose lifespan is recalculated to be before the date written in that DN? This could be caused by both the shinigami deal or by indirect influence of other people's deaths by DN. In this case we would again end up at the situation where a person's lifespan is before the date set in the death note and as we know from this answer, it is impossible to increase your lifespan by killing yourself with the death note.
How to use VLII

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.

Therefore I'd assume Bob to die within 11 days and a half.


Why does Rin Nohara have purple stripes on her cheeks? Not much to explain. Why does Rin Nohara have purple stripes on her cheeks?

It's most likely a sign of her clan. Kiba has the red stripes, as does the rest of his family to symbolize clan members. But, it could be just a symbol of her personality or being, as many characters, such as Chouji, Chouza, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Itachi Uchiha, Kankurou, Gaara, etc. have their own, which are shown not to be associated with any of the other members of their clan. So take it two ways, it's either a clan symbol, or just a way of having their own style or their beliefs.


What's the name Hakumen no Mono wanted to be called as? In the anime climax, Hakumen no Mono vaporizes, saying

  My name is not Hakumen.
  The name I wanted to be called is...

What was that name? I don't see any reference anywhere on what that name was.

My theory about its "real name" is, either Towako, the name of hakumen's avatar, maybe Hakumen named its avatar the real name for self-satisfaction? and the second probable name, is kirio/Inasa, as in Kirio Inasa, the boy whom it kidnapped. after the kidnapping, it probably change his name as it likes.

I personally think, Towako is the "Real name".


What did Guy say in his fight vs Madara? If you have seen the English subbed version of Naruto Shippuden, then you probably remember the word "Flow!!!" that Might Guy said just before using Night Guy on Madara. My question is, what does he actually say in Japanese? Using Google Translate, I get "nagare" as the Japanese translation of the word "flow". But it sounds like a one-syllable word in the show.

I think this happened in Naruto Shippuden episode 421.

Here is a clip from YouTube.

Around 1:24 of your clip, Guy says 「積」 seki. This is not really a word, per se, but you can take it to "mean" something like "to accumulate" - it is the same character used in the verb 積もる tsumoru, which means just that.

Then, at 4:14, the thing he says is 「流」 ryuu. Again, this is also not really a word, but it is the same character used in 流れる nagareru, which means "to flow".

According to some random blog I found, Guy apparently says the former utterance to build up chakra, and then the latter utterance to release that same chakra. You probably didn't notice, given the prolonged flashback in between the two utterances.


Is there a connection between the Hyuuga curse mark and Orochimaru's? The Hyuuga family has a curse mark that allows the head family to destroy the brains of members of the branch family. Orochimaru has a curse mark that he puts on Sasuke, as well as other people, that makes the person whose body it is on be much stronger. Is there any connection between these two curse marks?

As far as now, the only connection is that they are all juinjutsu. But their functions are totally different. The curse mark of Hyuuga family is literally a curse (I don't see how much stronger the branch family of Hyuuga is with the curse seal), but the curse seal of Orochimaru has some blessing, and it's created by infusing senjutsu into enzymes extracted from Jugo's body, which grants the seal-bearer the ability of transforming parts of their body (except the fact that they may look uglier), and the bearer's power is indeed stronger when the seal is released.


Why does the Aburame clan cover their eyes? The explanation in Naruto Wikia was not sufficient so I decided to go through the trouble to ask here. :)

Given that the defining traits of an Aburame is to wear something to cover their eyes and to dignify their whole body, why is it that they cover their eyes in the first place? Whilst, the other noble clans like Uchiha and Hyuga never covers theirs? Does covering their eyes boost their power? Or does it have to do with the insects getting on their eyes? Or might it be that their eyes are not presentable or not to be shown to the public?

Any philosophies that might shed light to the importance of protecting the Aburame clan's mysterious eyes?

They do not cover their eyes. They use sunglasses/dim glasses for protection.

Since they are known for having the characteristics of insects, we can assume that they have crepuscular vision and some have nocturnal traits - meaning that they are most active in twilight/low light/night. Their eyes are highly adapted on low light.

Therefore, using their naked eyes are like humans using Night Vision goggles. Just imagine the amount of light they will receive during daylight.

Source: Insect Vision


Where to submit anime idea? If one has come up with an anime manuscript, where or who should you write to if you want to know if the idea is of interest and actually could become something? Or would it be made as a manga first?

Also, can you like "patent" the manuscript, so that if it actually would be of interest to someone, they don't just change half of the content if they felt like it?

First of all, I doubt they'd look at any scripts not written in Japanese. Second of all, I'm rather doubtful you'd have much success simply pitching an idea to a studio as a person outside the industry. There are, however, many venues to get an idea made into an anime, eventually, but these venues require the person who came up with the idea to produce something.

I'm of course talking about creating some sort of light novel, manga, or comic on your own. These things don't even need to be backed by any sort of publishing company. Japan has thriving communities for posting this sort of original creative works online, such as Pixiv. There are quite a few shows now that started life this way: Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii and Rise of a Shield Hero, to name a couple.

If Japan's TV industry is anything like America's, they are mostly disinterested in ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen and can be made or broken by their execution. They are much more interested in some sort of proof of concept that the idea will be successful.

As for preventing changes to your idea, you'd have to make sure to put that in any sort of contract you sign to give them permission to use your work. I would guess that would be extremely difficult to pull off unless your work is proven and popular, such that you have enough power by popularity that your idea is good without changes. I feel like worrying about this though is putting the cart before the horse.


What is this symbol and does it relate to FMA? When I was searching for Fullmetal Alchemist wallpapers this image came up (below).

I was wondering what this symbol is? And does it have any relation to the FMA anime or manga universes?

The image represents a transmutation array, the Grand Arcanum.
A transmutation array is similar to a transmutation circle, and also has the function of allowing for the energy to circulate during a transmutation. They differ, however, in the fact that the runes (drawings) that compose the array may exceed the limits of the circle.

This array is exclusive to the 2003 anime, and is used by Scar to make a philosopher's stone using the souls of the people of Reole.


How did Kakyoin get hit by The World when he was outside of its range? It is stated that The World has an effective range of 10 meters. It is a close-range stand, and we know that if any of the Joestar group entered this range of 10 meters, they would automatically be killed by The World with the power of the time stop. It's why Dio doesn't kill the group immediately when they reach his coffin, and it's also why Dio has to chase them. Even with The World's time stop ability, the group was not in range. However, Kakyoin was near the edge of a 20 meter Emerald Splash, yet he was killed. How did this happen?

The stand has a range of "approximately" ten meters, meaning that Kakyoin could've been just inside the Stands Range (unfortunately for him).

Dio probably knows by eye exactly how far away his enemies are from him and whether or not he'd be able to catch them in The World, so he walks forward until Kakyoin is just in range and then uses The World - otherwise he'd be wasting a perfectly good use.

I think also that Emerald Splash was 20 meters in diameter, not 20 meters straight forward, making it more likely that Dio would've been perfectly in range.


Why did Violet's eyes constrict when Major Gilbert was shot? On the episode in violet evergarden, where Major Gilbert was shown to be shot, Violet's eyes constricted in response. However,  in such a situation,  the sympathetic nervous system should have caused a dilation of the pupillary size instead in response to imminent danger. This is known as the fight or flight response. However, Violet's pupils are seen to be constricting instead. This goes against basic biology.

It's kinda an anime thing...they make the pupil and sometimes even the iris smaller to show that the character is shocked. In anime the eyes are generally bright and big, so I'd guess the motivation here is that dull eyes with more "white" appear more unusual and sinister, probably.

Examples:


Could a koukaku ghoul be fast? I know that Koukaku ghouls are generally slow due to their kagune being heavy hitting armor protruding from below their shoulder blade, but there are other things that factor into how fast a ghoul is, like lower body strength and stuff, right? So couldn't a Koukaku ghoul also be extremely fast? I mean, Kaneki had that heavy hitting centipede Half-Kakuja that was huge, and he was still so fast, he was running on the freaking ceiling! So I think it's possible if they were very strong, and if they had a pretty lightweight kagune, they could be fast, too. However, those are my thoughts on the matter and I would like a second opinion. Actually, it would really make me feel better if I got quite a few opinions on the matter, because I'm mostly going off speculation here.

I think it is just like you said, but this is just an opinion, as i couldn't find any information about this.

But if we take ghouls as humans, a little child would be slower than a man if both were walking with a 30kg backpack just because the man is stronger.

So a ghoul with koukaku should be able to increase is speed, to the point that would be considered fast, but it would be so much harder because it would not only take him to train his speed but also his strength and stamina.

PS: I consider this to be posible because there are no negative effects regarding to koukako (it is just heavy  and extremely robust)


What is the card game the characters play? Throughout the story, the characters often play the card game with each other.

What type of game or games are they plays? What are the rules?

They are playing Daifugo, a Japanese card game (1). The game is known as "Rich Man, Poor Man" in the English version.

The rules are outlined in this Wikipedia article, but to put it succinctly:

There are five special titles for players during the game, ranging from "the grand millionaire" down to "the extreme needy", based on how each player performed in the previous round. For the first round, everyone starts at the middle rank, "the commoner".

Everyone sits according to their title. The "grand millionaire" always shuffles and deals the cards (52) to the players. After the cards have been dealt, there is a period of "taxation" where the "poor" players hand over their strongest cards to the "rich" players and the rich players pass their bad cards back to the poor players.

Daifugo uses tricks, like in Spades or Bridges during play. When players run out of cards, they are out of play for the round. The player with the strongest or the most cards at the end of the round becomes the new "grand millionaire", with the rest of the titles following based on number of cards or remaining cards in hand.

The winner is usually the player who is "the grand millionaire" at the end of the game.


In episode 1 of Hyouka, what was the topic of the essay Houtarou has to rewrite? In episode 1 of Hyouka, Houtarou is forced to stay after school one day to rewrite an essay that he accidentally left at home. What is the essay about?

The full title of the essay (partially obscured in the image above) is:

「入学一ヶ月の実感と今後の抱負」
"My experiences during the first month of school, and my ambitions for the future"

In the essay, he writes about his desire to do his very best to promote culture at his school (via his participation in the classic literature club), adding that this won't interfere with his academic pursuits, as befits a student attending the finest high school in Kamiyama.
Interestingly, when this scene appears in the Kotenbu series (on which Hyouka is based), it appears much later, chronologically (in volume 4), and does not include the text of the essay. His internal monologue in the novel does suggest, however, that he's basically making this up as he goes along to get it over and done with.


How far into the manga did the Kimi ni Todoke anime reach? Since the Kimi ni Todoke manga is still running, and the anime ended in 2011, it's safe to assume that the anime didn't adapt everything. However, I know that a lot of it was adapted reasonably faithfully, and I'd rather avoid rereading things which were part of the anime.

What manga chapter corresponds to the end of the second season of the anime? Also, are there any story arcs which were omitted from the anime up to that point?

The Kimi ni Todoke anime starts at Chapter 1 and covers up to (Vol. 7) Chapter 27 or the first season. The second season technically ends at (Vol. 11) Chapter 43 of the manga, since Chapter 44 is a recap from Kazehaya's point of view. Their first date takes place in Chapter 46, but it's a bit different compared to final scene of Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season.

The anime stays pretty faithful to the manga so nothing major was left out. I believe they ended it here, because there wasn't enough material to adapt to another season. So if you wanted to continue where the 2nd Season left off, you should start with Chapter 44/45.


What's the song playing when the group is discussing what to do while Bisky throws the dodgeball in episode 70? What is the song that is played in episode 70 while the group is discussing what to do and it continues while Bisky throws the dodgeball?

The scene you're talking about starts at 20:13

That song is one of my favorites, its name is : Reason ~ Instrumental

(Yeah it is the instrumental version of the ending 3)

Here is a link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7uXsgsZlps

(The part you're looking for starts at 1:05)

It is also played when Kirua fights Rammot


Why is Kazami Yuuji nicknamed "Juicy Yuuji"? I notice that a fair number of people (e.g. on reddit) refer to Kazami Yuuji (protagonist of Grisaia) as "Juicy Yuuji". Why? What's so juicy about him?

Also: I haven't noticed anybody in the anime (up through episode 4) refer to Yuuji as "juicy" or anything of that sort. Is the "Juicy Yuuji" nickname (or some Japanese equivalent thereof) used in canon (e.g. the visual novel) at some point, or is it purely a fan invention?

In the Visual Novel (not sure about the anime), there is a scene in which Michiru and Makina start a conversation with Yuuji. Specifically, Michiru complains to Yuuji that he is hard to talk to because he gives off a certain aura. She then suggests that they give him a nickname to make him easier to talk to, similar to how Makina calls Michiru "Chiruchiru". Yuuji says that they're free to call him whatever name they like, though he doesn't see any need for a nickname.

Michiru then makes her first proposal for a nickname 「ザ・近寄り難い人」,　which literally means "The person who is difficult to approach", or as the fan-translation says, "Mr. Standoffish man". Neither Makina nor Yuuji is very happy with this name, because it's not exactly easy to say.

They go back to brainstorming, and Makina comes up with the second suggestion: "Juicy-Yuuji". Michiru isn't happy with this; she agrees that it sounds nice, but doesn't see what part of Yuuji is "Juicy".

After this, Yumiko comes by asking them to be quiet. She ends up getting roped into the conversation, and Michiru asks her to come up with more names. She first agrees with "Juicy Yuuji", but then offers as an alternative "Yujiyuji". After Michiru laughs at this, she exits the conversation.

In the VN, Michiru then forces the decision on Yuuji as to which nickname he wants. You have the choice of any of those three.

After that, for the rest of the scene you're referred to by that name. However, Yuuji decides to get back at Michiru by giving her an equally terrible nickname. Eventually he ends up selecting "Mitcher", which Michiru finds to be very unpleasant. He continues on a rampage, giving Sachi, Amane, and Makina the nicknames "Satcher", "Atcher", and "Matcher", until Michiru apologizes and pledges not to use the nickname you chose.

The choice never has any impact on future events in the VN, and none of the main events from that scene come up again in the future as far as I can remember, but I guess this nickname became popular in the fan community.


Are Pluton and Uranus weapons too? During Fishman arc, it was told that there used to be three weapons – Pluton, Uranus, and Poseidon.

We already know Poseidon is Shirahoshi, then what about Pluton and Uranus? And if those are weapons, then are they related to Void Century or way past from that time like Garden of Eden time?

You've answered yourself:

  During Fishman arc, it was told that there used to be three weapons –
  Pluton, Uranus, and Poseidon.

Yes, they are all (ancient) weapons.

The first time an ancient weapon was mentioned was in Alabasta.
Crocodile asked King Cobra where he hid the Poneglyph containing information about Pluton, an ancient weapon.

Later in the show, we get more information about Pluton: It's a warship with the capabilities to conquer the world. The blueprints for this ship were passed down in a line of shipwrights for centuries, until they fell into Tom's hands - the legendary shipwright. Later they're burned by Franky to prevent the World Gov. (Spandam) from building the ship.

The only thing we know about Uranus is that it's an ancient weapon, nothing else.
We could assume its an aircraft or something similar, according to the other weapons.

Poseidon = Mermaid Princess = Underwater
Pluton = Ship = Surface
Uranus = ? = Air?


What things and objects uses Blood Ability in Graveyard floor? I can't seem to find anything besides Snow Whites blood ability which breaks walls and Sleeping Beauties arrow to shoot the button in Graveyard floor. So I want to know if there's anything else besides there blood ability can be used by other members.

The Graveyard is the second Labyrinth. You don't have all the Blood Maidens when you enter, as such not all the Blood Abilities are required to progress through it...

Characters you should have at this story point:

Jack - Mary gun (Used in combat to Purge corruption...Later on will gain various buffs, Mary Reverser)
Alice - Rabbit Hole (Makes a save point and a one way "town portal")
Red Riding Hood - Scissors (Cuts chains on chests, cuts wall hearts, cuts Bamboo walls)
Sleeping Beauty - Bow (Triggers buttons, dispatches dangerous plants, puzzle flame arrows)
Snow White - Explosive (Destroy crumbling walls and topple tree obstacles)
Thumbelina - Shrink (Shrinks key items or shrinks inventory items to change their stats)

So in the graveyard you should find:

Crumbling walls, Wall hearts, Trigger buttons, Flame arrow puzzle, Dangerous plants, Tree obstacles, and also

   Dash (level 5 has a wind wall) not required to complete the chapter.

If you select to explore Temple before Downtown, you only get

   Cinderella a chapter later.

But you can revisit any labyrinth, which means you can blither back into them with any of the Blood Maidens as the game progresses, to either complete higher levels or just for farming.

Other Blood Maidens:

   - Cinderella - Dash (Increased Speed, move against wind walls, run over crumbling floors)

 - Kaguya - Bamboo Defense (Protects versus trap damage and 1st hit nightmare damage)

 - Rapunzel - Hair (Reach objects at a distance or grips overhead rails that move)

 - Hameln - Iron Piccolo (Reaches objects at a greater distance, moves iron floor blocks)

 - Gretel - Bread Crumbs (Short range Teleport)

Graveyard allows access to the following areas as the story progresses:

   City Streets, Tower Base and Downtown

Graveyard can be good for Farming Blood Crystals later on.
A key is required for a locked chest on level 2. By the time you get it, the item is worthless. :o\

If you are part of the Steam community, check out some member guides.


How do mangaka draw the white lines in a black and white manga? How do mangaka draw those white lines which are used to distinguish folds and other indications in the black and white manga?

There are two ways of making white spaces when drawing; it's either by not inking that part, or plainly drawing with white-out. I don't know about the modern manga-kas but the ones working in traditional media use a fountain pen-type to ink. Though the fountain-pen they use normally don't have the ink inside it as the fountain-pens you can buy in normal stores; they have the drawing head and you dip it in ink, or in wite-out if that's the desired effect.

In practice, the white-out is acting like white ink.


What do the black and red scenes mean? In Bakemonogatari, it often happens that suddenly, a red screen with "Red Scene (Aka)" or a black screen with "Black Scene (Kuro)" appears for a short time. (At least these are written in my sub.)

What do they mean? Is there any difference between "Red Scene" and "Black Scene" and why are they used?

Overview
Ah, the Monogatari [color] Scenes. Before we talk about what they mean, let's look at some of them.
First, you've got the two classics: Red Scene...

...and Black Scene.

But wait, there's more! You've got various kinds of White Scene...

...different kinds of Yellow Scene (the second of which is kind of abnormal, with vertical text and a non-[color] background)...

...Lilac Scene...

...Blue Scene...

...Peach Scene...

...Light Green Scene...

...and even Purple Scene.

Note: this collection is not exhaustive - I haven't gotten around to taking screencaps for most of Bake, or for any of Neko Black or Neko White.

So, what do they mean? They aren't present in the light novel series (which isn't surprising - this wouldn't really make sense in running text), so we can't turn to that for information. And unlike all of the text-heavy 2~3-frame screens that Monogatari is so fond of (cf. 1, 2, 3), these screens aren't really being used to compress a lot of information into a small amount of time, either.
Instead, I think it behooves us to examine what is going through Araragi's head (at least for arcs in which he is the narrator) to understand why these scenes appear.

Red and Black Scenes
Let's look at Red Scenes first. The first one is at Bakemonogatari ep01 at 01:49, when Araragi, late for school, is rushing up that huge spiral staircase, right as he first glimpses Senjougahara falling. That's the only one in this episode.
We find a lot more in Nisemonogatari ep11 - when Araragi talks about how he'd die over and over for his sisters; when he first tries to attack Kagenui (while yelling about how having an non-blood-related sister is super-moe); an four times when Kagenui hits him.
In Second Season ep09 (Kabuki ep03), we get another Red Scene when Araragi yells at Oshino (not present) for having given jiangshi-timeline him a different talisman. There's also one when Araragi realizes he must have been killed by Black Hanekawa in that timeline. At the end of the episode, when the realize they're surrounded by jiangshi, there's one more Red Scene. In Second Season ep10 (Kabuki ep03), there's a Red Scene when jiangshi-timeline Kiss-shot appears, and one shortly after that when Araragi is terrified by the way Kiss-shot laughs.

Now, let's look at Black Scenes.
The first appearance of Black Scene occurs at 02:02 of Bakemonogatari ep01, when Araragi notices Senjougahara falling, stops in his tracks, and blinks. We see another Black Scene at 02:05, and again at 02:06 (this time accompanied by that "shutter" sound). After that, we don't see too many Black Scenes in that episode - one when Senjougahara staples him, one a bit after he tells Senjougahara to give him her stationery, and one right after they walk into the ruined cram school.
In general, you see Black Scenes fairly often, typically accompanied by a change in "gaze" - that is, Araragi's focus shifts to a different part of a given scene. It is worth noting that (to the best of my recollection), Black Scenes never separate different scenes.

Based on this evidence, a common inference is that Red or Black Scenes correspond to Araragi blinking. Since the Monogatari series is largely told in the first person (albeit that person is not always Araragi), the idea is that we see what he sees - when he blinks, we see nothing but darkness, since he sees nothing but darkness. This isn't strictly the case (because, of course, Araragi's eyes aren't always the camera), but it generally seems like a good perspective to adopt.
In this framework, then, Black Scenes are just what happens when Araragi blinks (sometimes). What about the Red Scenes, then? Well, pay attention to the fact that they seem to appear when Araragi is excited or under stress or in danger or angry, or whatnot. In other words, we see Red Scene when Araragi blinks while he is under the influence of some strong emotion. So, in that sense, Red Scene is just a particular type of Black Scene.

Red and Black Scenes seem to serve the same purpose even in parts not narrated by Araragi. In Second Season ep12 (Otori ep01), narrated by Nadeko, we see Black Scenes in the first five minutes mostly corresponding to Araragi blinking (with an especially nice one at 04:29). Once we move back to the "present" from the initial flash-forward, we get a number of Black Scenes corresponding to Nadeko blinking.
We also get a Red Scene at 12:04 when she first sees the medusa, startling her, and again at 19:35 when the medusa presents her with an exaggerated version of the horrific things she did to the snakes at the shrine. There doesn't seem to be much of a difference between Red Scenes for Nadeko vs. for Araragi.

Other [color] Scenes
What about the other [color] Scenes? It's difficult to generalize about these since they're so rare. Let me just identify a few examples (from Nise and Kabuki, since those are the only parts I have a full screencap collection of) and put up a few hypotheses.
There are two Yellow Scenes in Nisemonogatari - one in ep10 at 17:32, when Shinobu says something, and one in ep11 at 12:05 while Kagenui is talking (at the beginning of her fight with Araragi). There's also one in Second Season ep08 (Kabuki ep02) during a narration about Hachikuji by Araragi. I'm not seeing any common features here.
There are three White Scenes in Nisemonogatari - one in ep03 at 22:37, when Senjougahara says that Hanekawa called her (this one has cat ears in it); one in ep09 at 22:37 during some throwaway line to Hachikuji; and one in ep11 at 06:00 during a conversation between Koyomi and Tsukihi (right before she says "platinum mad"). In Second Season ep08 (Kabuki ep02), there's one at 16:20, right when Araragi is molesting still-alive Hachikuji in the past. There's also a White Scene in Second Season ep12 (Otori ep01) right after a shot of the medusa.
Here, we do have Hanekawa being "white" (as we learn much about in Neko White), "platinum" being generally "white", and the medusa is "white", too, I guess. I'm not sure how the Hachikuji ones fits in, though.

There are Peach Scenes at 01:53 in Second Season ep08 (Kabuki ep02), when Shinobu is excited to see mini-Araragi; and another one at 21:52 in Second Season ep12 (Otori ep01), when Nadeko agrees to do the medusa a favor.
There are Lilac Scenes at 12:41 in Second Season ep08 (Kabuki ep02), when Araragi responds to Shinobu's question about whether or not he understands what saving Hachikuji means for her; and at 11:05 in Second Season ep12 (Otori ep01), during Nadeko's conversation with Ougi. No idea what the deal is with these two.
We get a Light Green Scene (moegi1 - it's a sort of yellowish-green, sort of like some kinds of freshly-sprouted plants, apparently) at 03:15 in Second Season ep17 (Oni ep01), during a conversation between Hachikuji and Araragi, when Araragi points out that Hachikuji stands out less without her backpack. There's another one at 06:44 in Second Season ep19 (Oni ep03), while Hachikuji is telling Araragi how she was surprised that Araragi didn't abandon her when the darkness came upon them the first time. This might be because the color moegi is associated with youthfulness (mostly of plants, albeit), and Hachikuji is the youngest character in the cast (past-Hanekawa/etc. notwithstanding)
There's a Purple Scene at 02:03 in Second Season ep19 (Oni ep03) shortly after Ononoki walks in on Araragi and Shinobu's conversation. There's another one (accompanied by a "popping" sound) at 11:40 in Second Season ep19 (Oni ep03) just before Araragi starts feeling Hachikuji up while she's asleep. Why are they there? Beats me.

Summary: aside from Red and Black, the other [color] Scenes don't really seem to have much in the way of consistency. They see very little use, especially in Bakemonogatari.

Notes
1 The moe in moegi is the same word as the moe that serves as the origin of the otaku-jargon word "moe" meaning cute/etc.


What is the meaning behind the colors in the episode titles of Kyoukai no Kanata? The episode titles in Kyoukai no Kanata (Beyond the Boundary) are named after a color each. For example "Carmine", "Ultramarine", and "Moonlit Purple". Does anyone know what is the meaning of this?

A list of all the episode titles can be found here in Wikipedia

Several of them are actually explained in the list of Kyoukai no Kanata episodes that the OP links:

Mirai's blood sword is carmine in color, hence "Carmine".
The defeated youmu drops an ultramarine stone, hence "Ultramarine".
The Hollow Shadow causes the moon to glow purple, hence "Purple Moonlight". (This is also an artistic touch we see throughout the series.)
Mitsuki set up chartreuse lanterns in her room as a child when she couldn't go to the festival, hence "Chartreuse Light".
Mitsuki gets splashed with pink liquid that imparts a horrible stench to her, hence "Shocking Pink".
"White World" takes place partially in a snowy world inside Kyoukai no Kanata where Mirai battles it.
In "Black World", a black sphere appears above the city and sucks up all the youmu.

Close inspection of the episodes might reveal more such references.

KyoAni did a similar trick with musically themed episode names in Kanon (e.g. Berceuse of a Baby Fox, A Dangerous Trio, Lieder Ohne Worte of an Elder and Younger Sister; see more). While the general music theme comes from the title of the series (which is related to the musical term canon, as in "Pachelbel's Canon", for instance), the individual titles don't have much to do with their episodes beyond the occasional shallow parallel (e.g. "A Dangerous Trio" focuses on the trio of Yuuichi, Mai, and Sayuri).


Were there more than two Death Notes? I am watching the anime right now and can't understand this part of the plot:
there were two notebooks out of which one had been returned to the Shinigami that came to Ryuk to get his notebook back. That leaves one which was with T as he was doing Kira's killings. Now suddenly that notebook reaches Light Yagami and his team locked in a safe. How did that happen?

There were 4 Deathnotes in the real world. Ryuk has 2, Rem has 1 and another of Rem's friend who died to save Misa. Rem gave that Notebook to Misa.

At the beginning of the story, Ryuk gives his additional notebook to Light. Meanwhile after L's death Light got another notebook which was Rem's since Rem also died.

Mello stole one of the Notebooks for which the shinigami came and is supposedly the one originally dropped by Ryuk to be picked up by Light. This still leaves Rem's notebook in Light's possesion and Misa's with her.

TL;DR Humans in the series use 3 Notebooks. Sidoh's orginal which he took back. Jealous's original which Rem gave to Misa and Rem's Notebook which Light picked up after he/she disintegrated.


Why did Lelouch kill Clovis and not Cornelia? Lelouch killed Clovis as he was leading operations against the resistance, and Cornelia did the same thing. However, Lelouch did not try to kill her despite this. Why? It was even made clear that Clovis had nothing to do with death of Lelouch's mother.

Clovis was killing innocent Elevens not just the resistance/terrorists

  …just as former Viceroy Clovis was punished for ordering the slaughter of countless unarmed Elevens. We cannot stand by and allow such cruelty to be carried out, and so we made him pay for his actions. I will not repudiate battle on a fair and level field, but neither will I tolerate a one-sided massacre of the weak by the strong. The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed! Wherever oppressors abuse their power by attacking those who are powerless, we shall appear again, no matter how mighty or formidable our foe may be!

Source: Wikiquote - Code Geass - The Black Knights (Second Section)

While yes Cornlelia can be brutal like using a Knightmare to gundown the JLF who really stood no chance against one she didn't order innocent people to be killed. both she and Lelouch believe in the principle that "the only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed" and fights on the front lines with her soliders even telling Guilford off when he tells her to keep back.

  During the Battle of Narita, Cornelia leads the attack on the Black Knights along with Dalton and Guilford. Guilford warns her to stay away and she responds by destroying several Burais.

Source: Cornelia li Britannia - Character History - First Season (5th Paragraph)

Clovis on the other hand order innocent people to be slaughtered all the while he hid in his G-1 and even started to beg Lelouch to spare him. Cornlelia would more than likely not beg for her life to be spared, if she was to beg I would dare say it would be to spare her soldiers in exchange for her life

Also Cornlelia was originally assigned to Marianne's Guard before being ordered by Marianne herself to dismiss the guard and the palace's defenses on the day of her death. under Lelouch's Geass Cornlelia revealed she was investigating Marianne's death herself

Finally Lelouch didn't have the time to finish her off anyway. remember that while he was interrogating Cornlelia C.C tells Lelouch that Nunnally is in danger (due to V.V having kidnapped her). Lelouch's first priority is always Nunnally as during the first attack on the Tokyo Settlement he had the Black Knights protect the school because she was there. during the second attack he had Rolo and Sayoko get Nunnally out of Tokyo and broke down when Nunnally was thought to be killed. with Nunnally in danger he abandons the attack on Tokyo and his own vendetta against Britannia so V.V could very have well saved Cornlelia inadvertently


Where does the 'J' in SSJ and SSJ2 come from? In Dragon Ball Z, the abbreviations for Super Saiyan 1 and 2 are SSJ and SSJ2. However, there is no 'j' in Saiyan, so where does this 'j' come from in the abbreviation?

It comes from the Japanese original name for Super Saiyan: 超{スーパー}サイヤ人{じん}, pronounced Sūpā Saiya-jin.

You can read more about it at http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Saiyan.

Jin means "people/person." 'Gaikoku-jin' means foreigners.


What is the correct watching order of Fullmetal Alchemist? I have been recommended to watch Full Metal Alchemist. However, the person who recommended this series to me can't remember the correct order. After googling it, I'm confused as many people have posted different orders.

So what is the correct watching order of Fullmetal Alchemist?

The two continuities
As you may know, there are essentially two versions of the Fullmetal Alchemist anime - the 2003 version, called simply "Fullmetal Alchemist", and the 2009 version, called "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood". The 2003 version deviates from the manga part-way through, while the 2009 version sticks to the manga all the way to the end. For more details, see What's the difference between the FMA and FMA Brotherhood series?.
These two versions are unrelated to each other in the sense that it's not the case that one is a sequel to the other, or anything like that. They're just two separate continuities that happen to start in the same place.
This being the case, it's up to you which one you want to watch first. Some people believe you should watch the 2003 version and then the 2009 version; some people believe the opposite; and yet others believe that you should only watch one and not the other. All these positions have their merits and demerits; perhaps the most typical order is 2003 followed by 2009, if only because that's the order in which they were made.

Within each continuity there are multiple entries. There is a specific order in which these entries within a single continuity should be watched.
Within the 2003 continuity
You should watch in the following order:

Fullmetal Alchemist (the 51-episode 2003 TV series)
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa (a 2005 movie)

The Conqueror of Shamballa is a sequel to the 2003 TV series, so it makes no sense to watch it at any time before finishing the show.
There is also something in the 2003 continuity called Fullmetal Alchemist: Premium Collection. I have never managed to locate a copy of this, but it probably makes the most sense to watch it only after you've completed the 2003 TV series.
Within the 2009 continuity
You should watch in the following order:

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (the 64-episode 2009 TV series)
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos (a 2011 movie)

Unlike The Conqueror of Shamballa, The Sacred Star of Milos isn't a sequel - rather, it's a side-story taking place somewhere around episode 20 of Brotherhood. You could, in principle, watch it at any time after episode 24 of Brotherhood, but I would recommend leaving it until the end of the series anyway.
There are also four half-episode-length specials that accompany Brotherhood. You should watch these after you have finished Brotherhood.


Is Chi's Sweet Home 3D a sequel or a reboot? Is "Chi's Sweet Home 3D" an anime sequel of "Chi's New Address" or is it just a reboot?

Chi's Sweet home is the Prequel to Chi's New address.

Chi's sweet home aired from Mar 31, 2008 till Sep 25, 2008.

Around the same time the following year Chi's new address aired from Mar 30, 2009 till Sep 24, 2009

Source: Chis Sweet Home &  Chis Sweet Home Atarashii Ouchi.