What kind of power does the new "Lucy" have? Are the powers demonstrated by Luffy's replacement as Lucy based on a Devil Fruit or Haki?

It might be haki because the way he blocked Jesus Burgess' attack, but he didn't say armament haki, instead used some kind of technique.

He was just using martial arts and haki, many characters fight using haki without saying it. You can tell he's using haki as his hands turn black.


What were the first official English-translated anime and manga? There is a previous question about the first anime and manga ever, but I was wondering when the English-speaking world got introduced to the world of anime and manga.

There were comics in the English-speaking world for ages, but at what point did we decide to try out the comics in the East?

The first signs of manga in the western world came in through magazines - Much like how manga first came to Japan before being compiled into full books.

Occasionally publications would include smaller works or partial translations of a larger manga. Notably (as @krazr has pointed out) Concerned Theatre Japan's second volume, 2nd issue 1971 is a manga special with 3 short works translated.

This issue features Sakura Gaho (Eng. "Sakura Illustrated" - excerpt) Akame (Eng. "Red Eyes" - Part One)," and "Nejishiki" (Eng. "The Stopcock" - Short work)

The first fully independent manga series that was translated into English and published was Barefoot Gen in 1979.

Barefoot Gen is an epic 10 volume manga of the story of a boy during the Atom bombing of Hiroshima. The piece takes many sections from  Keiji Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor. Feeling the work should be spread for the largest impact, a pacifist translation charity Project Gen starting working on translating it into English in 1976.

The first two translations were published in 1979. Unfortunately, it wasn't as successful as first thought and no more volumes were published. It was only in 2004 that the full 10 volumes eventually got fully released (by Last Gasp).

Prior to this, there was a comic adaption of Astroboy redrawn by Americans in 1965. Barefoot Gen retained the original artwork, so is usually considered the first.

Astroboy was the first anime series to be brought overseas, in the same year as it was televised nationally (1963) and much like today - it was seen a definite secondary market to Japan. An earlier 3-part work, Three Tales was released 2 years beforehand in 1961 (A year after it aired in Japan)

Hakujaden was one the first Japanese animation films to make it to the US under the title Panda and the Magic Serpent (and also the first anime movie) in 1961 along with two other titles - Magic Boy (premièred a month earlier) and Alakazam the Great

Additional References

Schoolgirl Milky Crisis: Adventures in the Anime & Manga Trade (Book)
Frederik L Schott (Translator of Astroboy, Barefoot Gen and many other works) 's Site
Anime: A History - Jonathan Clements


Do the Yami Shibai horror stories have any background/reference? Looking for a horror series, I found a new one called Yami Shibai. Each episode is a very short horror ghost story.

I feel like many of the stories in this series are too incomplete, as in, lacking any story/development - it almost seems as if the producer is just making up some random nonsensical stuff in an attempt you scare you off.

But maybe the stories presented do have a background story - like a reference to a well-known ghost story or something.

Some of the stories presented do seem to be somewhat self-contained. For instance, the third episode, "Family Rule", does explain the situation (the adults are offering their own laughter to please an evil spirit), but other stories don't explain what's going on (for instance, the photocopier episode - there's just this ghost haunting a photocopier, but we don't know why, or what for, etc).

Are the Yami Shibai horror stories based on something, or are they just made up for this series?

They might be well-known Japanese stories, but I don't know much about japanese culture so I'm not sure.

ANN writes the following:

  A series of short horror stories based around Japanese myths and urban legends. The series is framed around an old man telling these tales to schoolchildren on a playground using kamishibai, a traditional Japanese storytelling method using paper scrolls.

The same goes for summaries on crunchyroll or other sites.

I guess that stories like "Hair" (the photocopier-one) are just urban-legends, so there isn't much to explain.


Why didn't Naruto help Nagato? When Nagato reanimated everyone who died in the village, Katsuyu was with him.

Couldn't Naruto use Katsuyu to help Nagato, or is it for some other reason?

When Naruto returned to Konoha, Tsunade ordered one of its smaller
  clones to stay in Naruto's pocket and keep him informed of Pain's
  abilities. naruto wikia

First and foremost, Tsunade didn't intend to heal Pain from the start but just wanted to located naruto instead. Even if Katsuyu implied to do, I think smaller clone are smaller in ability like healing and other. Probably, the Katsuyu in Naruto's pocket can't have enough chakra to heal Pain.

  Furthermore, Katsuyu's clones are extremely resistant to high amounts
  of damage, as seen during Invasion of Pain Arc. Katsuyu is also able
  to absorb people into its body, thus protecting them from physical
  impacts like the large-scale Shinra Tensei using its own high
  durability. naruto wikia

Aside from that , Katsuyu seem to absorb physical impacts only and it can't do nothing to chakra overexertion from as far as I watched.


In Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale, how does Asuna know about the boss' healing ability? The final fight against the level 100 boss has two parts to it:

Kirito and his usual group of friends go up against it alone.
Asuna, and everyone else from ALO and GGO join in.

In the 1st half of the battle, Kirito and friends basically get annihilated. In this first part, they observe that the boss will heal itself with a tree and drop of water.

In the 2nd half of the battle where everyone is in, the boss attempts to heal itself again. But Asuna tells everyone to block the drop of water to stop the healing.

Asuna wasn't there yet when the boss first healed itself. She wasn't watching either as she was talking to Yuuna and not in full dive.

How did she know about the move to tell everyone to block it? Is this a plot hole? Or is there an explanation to it?

If Asuna is well-learned (or more likely just because she played ALfheim Online, whose lore fiddles with Norse mythology), she may have known that in Norse mythology, the dew that falls from the tree Yggdrasil carries the power of life. In that case, she must have connected the dots instantly after seeing the tree and the dropping dew, and/or perhaps also after hearing the healing SFX that started playing at the same time.

It is interesting to note that Yggdrasil in ALfheim Online shelters the capital city of the game, and that Asuna was also a hostage at the top of Yggrasil for a whole cour.

From Prose Edda/Gylfaginning, 16:

  An ash I know

  Hight Ygdrasil;

  A high, holy tree

  With white clay sprinkled.

  Thence comes the dews

  That fall in the dales.

  Green forever it stands

  Over Urd's fountain.

  The dew which falls on the earth from this tree men call honey-fall, and it is the food of bees.

From Prose Edda/Gylfaginning, 58:

  In a place called Hodmimer's-hold are concealed two persons during Surt's fire, called Lif and Lifthraser. They feed on the morning dew. From these so numerous a race is descended that they fill the whole world with people, as is here said:

  Lif and Lifthraser
     Will lie hid

  In Hodmimer's-holt.

  The morning dew

  They have for food.

  From them are the races descended.


Why does the Japanese version of Mushrambo/Shinzo start at episode 2? I am currently watching Mushrambo/Shinzo (the Japanese version), and the series starts at episode 2.

The English version of the anime has a different beginning. Why is that?

The English version does things chronologically, blending and splicing a lot of events together that were left as flash backs in the Japanese version into the beginning of the English version. So the Japanese one does kinda start at "episode 2", throwing you directly into the action and getting to the boring bits later, at least to my knowledge.


OST on My Hero Academia season 2 episode 3 around 12:05-12:45 On My Hero Academia season 2 episode 3 from about 12:05 to about 12:45 and maybe longer, there's an OST playing in the background that I can't seem to track down and I could use some help.

What's that song?

Kyōi To No Kōbō / Offense And Defense Of A Threat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwtMpGBBq9I


How does Kimimaro's Kekkei Genkai work? According to the wiki,

  Shikotsumyaku (屍骨脈; Literally meaning "Dead Bone Pulse", Meaning (Viz) "Corpse Bone Chain") is the kekkei genkai of the extinct Kaguya clan, which gave them the ability to  manipulate their own skeletal structure (their osteoblasts and osteoclasts). By infusing their calcium with chakra, they could manipulate the growth and properties of  their bones to their liking.

Now, surely that means that they're working with the base amount of calcium (and other minerals) in their body. The fact that they're able to grow their own bones seems to indicate that they are able to get the calcium (and other minerals) out of their nearby surrounding in some manner. Is this corroborated in the manga?

The last part is just my own speculation. Please do correct me if an alternate explanation exists.

Kimimoro's Kekkai Genkai isn't like Gaara's sand.  Gaara's sand can go underground, smash the rocks, and use the hardened minerals from the local rocks and incorporate them into his sand.  Kimimoro doesn't seem to do this at all, but rather his bones and chakra system is all internal.

I think this is evidenced not by what he does but by what he doesn't do. In his battle with Gaara which is clearly his most pressing battle (since he dies in it) he transforms multiple times, he uses his spine whip, and does a number of other jitsu but never absorbs from his exterior surrounds while Gaara clearly does.


Who has the most informations about the poneglyph? I was wondering who has the most informations about the poneglyph ? like their origin, how they was introducing into the One Piece world, their purpose and their meaning ?

So basically who gathered the most knowledge about it and still alive ?

Roger's Crew.
When Robin discusses the Poneglyphs with Silvers Rayleigh,

Robin spoke up and asked about the Void Century, explaining to Rayleigh her findings from the Poneglyph in Skypiea. Rayleigh replied that he did indeed find out the history of it, but advised that she continue looking for it on her own; he explained that if he told her at present, she would not be prepared for it nor have the strength and resources necessary to truly take advantage of the information.

Apparently, Roger couldn't read the poneglyphs, but could still understand them.

In regards to Roger using the lost Poneglyph script on the Shandoran Belfry, he cryptically stated that Roger could simply hear the voice of all things.

So yeah, they know the true story and what happened in the Void Century. I would wager Robin is the most knowledgeable person after them.


How to explain to my 10 year old niece that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is not a kids show? My 10 year old niece loves watching cartoons, and she has a Netflix kids account for her with all parental controls. But while I was browsing my account, she took notice of the Madoka Magica cover and became quite curious and interested.

Logically for her (and many people who see it for the first time) it shouldn't be a problem because it's a colorful anime with magical girls with cute designs.

How do I explain to her that this one is not like the others in a way that makes sense?

Perhaps by letting them know that in Japan, Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a late night anime, not a children's anime?

Children's anime in Japan is an anime that caters to audience from baby up to middle schooler. Examples are Pretty Cure series (and most of magical girl anime), Doraemon, Hello Kitty, and Pokèmon. The screening times are either morning (weekend) or evening, where children are on their free time (not school time).

Late night anime, on the other hand, tends to cater to audience from teenage to young adult, usually with more serious & in-depth plot, and even violence and sexual topic. Other examples are Cowboy Bebop, Rozen Maiden, and Attack on Titan. The screening time may start as early as 10pm, up to 2am, the time which children should have been sleeping.

For your 10-year-old niece case... I think I can agree with other answers: let her watch it with  parental guidance (though I wish their parents should have known about this anime first), then let her judge the anime by herself.

P.S. Sailor Moon series is also listed as children's anime, and I could argue with myself that the series sometimes also has dark and adult-oriented theme that can only be understood by older viewers, so...

Most of the info was taken from Japanese Wikipedia, not its English counterpart, since it's more descriptive.


Does Saotome Ranma talk like a member of the Yakuza? In Ranma 1/2, it's made obvious that Saotome Ranma speaks in a very casual and informal way...but when I played a particular sound bite for some people who speak Japanese (but who were not familiar with the anime), both of them seemed to think that the sound bite was from someone playing a member of the Yakuza.

Does Ranma really speak with such a provocative accent in general, or did I pick a sound bite that just could happen to sound like that?

(It's probably not critical to the question, but the bit I played, in case you're curious, was from the "Lambada / Ranma da" song off of one of the soundtracks where he says "omee, kawaiku nee n da yo")

I was hoping a native Japanese speaker would answer this question, but it doesn't seem like we have any at the moment so here's my best attempt.

Ranma speaks a bit like a yakuza, but that's not how it's supposed to be interpreted. He does speak very rudely at times, but he's much closer to an average delinquent's (ヤンキー or yankee in Japanese) speech pattern than a yakuza's. The two manners of speaking are somewhat similar, because both of them are rude and disrespectful towards authority, and also somewhat cocky, and indeed Ranma is supposed to come off as rude, cocky, and disrespectful to authority. However, there are definite differences. I'd probably call yakuza-speak a sub-dialect of yankee-speak, but it has a lot of specific properties which Ranma's speech doesn't.

Rather than describing both dialects here, it'll be easier to link to places that have already done so. This blog post describes some basics of yankee speech. Here are a few lessons on yakuza-speak. As you can see, there are similarities, but yakuza-speak goes a whole lot farther in a lot of ways and has its own vocabulary. For instance, yakuza-speak usually has rolled Rs and slurred vowels (rare in yankee-speak), while both have some vowel changes. The difference is actually pretty similar to English. In English, if someone swears a lot and insults everyone all the time, you wouldn't assume they were a gang member, but you'd probably expect gangsters to talk that way, and you probably also would find that person a bit unpleasant even if you didn't think of them as a gangster. In all cases I looked at, Ranma seems to be squarely in the delinquent category, but not really in the yakuza category.

In fact, there's somewhat of a spectrum of delinquents in Japanese culture, with some speaking very similar to yakuza, and others not really fitting into the yankee archetype at all. For instance, the delinquents in Beelzebub often do roll their Rs and slur their vowels, but don't use most of the yakuza vocabulary. Ranma's speech is definitely less aggressive and offensive than that, but still less respectful than how a normal person is expected to speak. On the other end, Clannad's Okazaki Tomoya is a delinquent, but mostly speaks like a normal guy, and doesn't fall into the yankee archetype at all. However, it would be wrong to construe any of these characters as yakuza members unless there's evidence elsewhere. In some cases the more thugish of the delinquents may even be in gangs, but yakuza is different from just ordinary gangs (a better analogy would be the mafia).

However, the show is over 20 years old, and the yankee archetype, which was very popular in the 1980s and early 1990s during a period when action and martial arts shows were very popular, is much less common now. Ordinary Japanese people may not be as accustomed to it as they were at that time, so there's somewhat more room for confusion now. Speech patterns have also evolved quite a bit in that time separating the two dialects more and pushing Ranma further on the delinquent spectrum. Also, when Ranma transforms to a girl, she still speaks the same way, even though women are expected to speak more respectfully in Japanese society, which could lead to further confusion. And finally, the two dialects are definitely close, so some confusion is possible even without all the other factors.

As such, the misunderstanding is understandable, but if a person watched the show from the beginning, they would definitely not get the impression that Ranma is somehow related to the yakuza. Someone listening to the particular clips from the song you showed could easily make that mistake, since Ranma is speaking in an especially angry tone (especially in his female form) at that time and also because there isn't very much dialogue in the first place to make the distinction.

Unfortunately, the only source I have for this other than the above links and number of years of studying Japanese is a 5-minute conversation with one of my Japanese professors about this subject, so it's entirely possible that I'm wrong about some of the above assertions. However, I do think that I'm correct that you aren't supposed to interpret Ranma as speaking like a member of the yakuza, just a particularly rude and cocky teenager.

It's also worth noting somewhere that the average Japanese person's perception of how yakuza speak is pretty different from how they actually speak. Most Japanese people only know the yakuza through yakuza movies, which use a fairly limited subset of yakuza-speech to be easily understandable while still sounding authentic.


Relation between DaCapo III and the first two series I think all DaCapo series might have relation have relation between them . As far as I know from DaCapo I and DaCapo II,

In DaCapo II, Shirakawa Nanana is grandchild of Shirakawa Kotori from DaCapo I.
Asakuar Junichi is grandfather of both Asakuar Otome and Asakura Yume.

Are there any similar relations in DaCapo III and the previous series?

I've only watched the Da Capo III anime (which apparently only adapts the prologue of the original visual novel's story), but that features the characters

   Sakura Yoshino and Minatsu Amakase

from Da Capo II.


What is the "foreign" language that is used in Suisei no Gargantia? In Suisei no Gargantia, Led (and his civilization) speak a different language from the one spoken on Earth.

Depending on the point-of-view, one side speaks Japanese, and the other side speaks the foreign language. Occasionally they switch when the point-of-view shifts to the other side.

Examples:

When Led is talking to Chamber, they speak in Japanese. Dialog coming from everyone else is in the foreign language.
When Pinion confronts Led in the hanger, he and Amy speak Japanese, while Led speak the foreign language.

UTW-Vivid subtitles these as symbols that don't look like any real language.

Obviously, they don't actually switch languages. It's only done to emphasize a language barrier that the characters experience.

But in any case, what is this foreign language that they are speaking?

Is it a real language, or just something made up?

According to this article, the spoken language in Gargantia is basically jumbled German, created by the writer Gen Urobuchi:

According to collaborators on this forum, this is a substitution cipher based on a Roman alphabet, though whether it is based on one language or another is yet to be seen, as there are occurrences of German and English. (Images: typeset substitution key; handwritten substitution key)

For an example in this image:

It say "IGHL," probably for "Inter-Galactic Human League" or something.

If you look closely at the part where they show a wireframe of the mech on the 3D console, you can make out ciphered text like "equilibrium" and "leg" based on the key above.

You can see "wormhole" and "enemy" along with some other words on the map display (image).

The text on the side of the mech's head (image) is a bit different. It seem to be scrambled German.

In cleartext it says:

chtsivor
enles esi hervor buchhand
das enffnero esesdi umsmigre

Which probably comes out to something like:

Vorsicht
Lesen sie hervor handbuch
das oeffnen dieses gremiums

Which is probably not correct grammar, since the usage of "hervor" is incorrect. According to a poster in the forums should actually be something like this:

  "lesen sie das handbuch vor dem oeffnen dieses gremiums"

Essentially it's saying:

  Caution
  Read manual before
  opening this panel

The text on the front of the mech has also been translated (see image).

As a side note, the spoken language seems to be English (see image).

The written and spoken Gargantian language, on the other hand, seems to be romanized Japanese (see images: translated messages, alphabet chart, an alleyway; and see below).

From this site:

  The brown books are the Cosmic Atlas. The green one’s title is Totonyan, which is the name of a Japanese art company who are contracted to draw the backgrounds in Gargantia.

  The cyan one is Satsumakenshi Hayato (in romanized form, in Japanese it’s written as 薩摩剣士隼人), a drama series set in Kagoshima. Yep, someone on staff definitely must be from Kagoshima.

  The magenta one reads Shouyu Tottekure (しょうゆとってくれ, “please give me the soy sauce”), which is apparently a standard example sentence in junior high English textbooks in Japan.

  The red one says Suiyou Dou Deshou (水曜どうでしょう, “Do you like Wednesday?”), a Japanese variety show.

  The blue one reads Red Dwarf, which is likely a reference to the BBC sci-fi franchise.

  The last one is Ryokucha (緑茶, green tea).


Would a fan made universal exstension be allowed to post? So I'm trying to start a manga series, I plan for it to be a extension of Hiroiko Araki's JoJo's Bizzare Adventure. I was wondering if I were to post it on a manga site, would it be allowed or counted as copyright. Because I wanted to do something fan made in the JoJo universe but has nothing to do with what hes made besides the concept of JoJos. I would put credit to him of course but I'm wondering If i could even post it without it being taken down.

For legal questions such as these, it is always good to contact a copyright lawyer in your country. Laws regarding fair use, copyrights and the likes differ per country, and a copyright lawyer should be more than capable of answering your questions. And this answer should not be seen as legal advice.
What you are describing is fan fiction/derivative work, both of which can be considered a subsidiary right under the original copyright, and can be tested as such. Which would require you to obtain a license to produce the work.
However, depending on the studio, producer(s) and authors the creation of such work may be tolerated.
To ensure you are allowed to make such works, it is best to contact their respective legal departments prior to publication anywhere.
Additional you may want to take care in regards to which 'manga' site you upload it to. If condoned to begin with by the legal department(s), a question in regards to your distribution method may be asked. As many manga sites are of an illegal nature (piracy providers), mentioning publication to such would lead to bad blood, if not out right rejection to begin with. You can take a look at Our list of known legal providers as a reference.


Any important information I need to know if I'm skipping the filler episodes of Bleach? I'm watching only the cannon episodes and am on ep. 111. However it seems that I missed a lot during the filler (i.e. the people with Kon.). Is this relevant information or something I should just look past?

Feel free to look past the information given in the filler episodes. In Bleach, some of the filler episodes are original to the anime and some are adapted from the manga. Regardless of the source, crucial information isn't given in these episodes, I promise. If any information is referenced it's unimportant to the main plot and can usually be understood through context. If not, the confusion will be brief and fleeting. (Understanding these few moments is not worth the wasted time on the filler episodes.)

To be more specific to your situation, there aren't that many filler episodes before episode 111 anyway except the Bount Arc. It's mentioned a few times afterwards, but not in a way that will confuse you. (You'll understand through context that they were a group of people that attacked the Soul Society.) Some characters are introduced, like "the people with Kon" but as I'm sure you've noticed, they don't do much. You'll get the gist just by watching the non-filler episodes. Watch out though, as you get further into Bleach, you'll be skipping more and more episodes.


Which side is Yamato on? In Naruto Chapter 677, Yamato reappears again after posing as fighting against the Great Shinobi Alliance and the Kages.

Which side is he on now currently? If he is on Madara's side, why? Was he brainwashed?

It looks like Yamato was unconscious thus his body was being used as a tool by Zetsu like how Obito corpse is being used by black Zetsu.

So Yamato is on the side of the shinobi alliance.


Did Gon know it was Ponzu who died? Let me quote Hunterpedia for a refresher of what happened:

  However, before they get the chance, Zazan's squad detects them and Ponzu is the only one able to escape. When Pokkle was knocked out, she immediately runs for it. Knowing that Pokkle won't be eaten immediately, she rushed to write SOS messages in blood and uses her bees to bring the message to the strongest Hunter nearby--who happens to be Kite. When she finally decided to go back to the border, she is shot and eaten moments later by an officer from Zazan's squad.

When Gon arrived at the scene much later, all that remained was a puddle of blood and cloth and he looked angry.

Did he realize the victim was Ponzu?

During the hunter exam Gon followed Ponzu's scent and he was also aware of her bee breeding ability. so we can assume that he understood from the moment they received the letter.


Doesn't the rule "When two Teigu users battle, one is guaranteed to die" create plot holes? Unmarked Spoilers.

There are several fights in the second half of the anime between Teigu users who both walk away alive after the battle. The rule that was established,

  namely, that if two Teigu users fight each other, one of them is guaranteed to die,

seems to create many plot holes. (The list is of examples and is not supposed to be exhaustive.)

Wave and Tatsumi fight (actually Wave beats Tatsumi)
Leone and Run in the royal palace.
Bols vs Leone and Akame
Kurome vs Leone and Mine

Is this the case, or is there some reason given in the anime that explains this apparent contradiction?

You're being too literal.  You're hearing "when two Teigu users fight, one of them dies" and assuming that this is an infallible statement of an inviolable rule of the universe.  That's silly.  If you consider the actual context of when this statement is made, or just be less literal about it, you'd realize the statement is merely saying "these things can be pretty lethal when used to that end, and similarly for the people who possess them".  In even shorter terms: "they're powerful, dude!"

Consider some similar examples:

"Two men enter, only one man leaves!" ... and then the other one leaves a little later and less happy.

"There can be only one." ... unless we simply resolve to leave each other alone.  Also, are we aliens, or what, because there's probably lots of us if so.

"One ring to rule them all." ... but utterly fail to have any usable power over the majority of those it was supposed to rule.

"The greatest sword ever forged." ... because we have totally measured all swords across all history and agreed upon an uncontroversial and objective measurement of greatness for said swords.  Also we clearly defined what a sword is ahead of time, so this is not an ambiguous statement.

"You pay for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!"

None of these things are literally true and inviolable and any violation of them in a story is not a plot hole.  Indeed, their violation in stories is usually the entire point.  It demonstrates how the characters are not infallible, and the heroes and top-tier villains need to demonstrate how amazing they are by overcoming them.  They are either statements of potent intent (Sauron wanted the ring to rule them all, but Dwarves didn't care and Elves were too savvy and resistant), or statements to underscore the gravity of the situation (the Thunderdome is serious business, so best get amped).

Now, constant violation of the statement can take the edge off of something.  If you routinely find yourself needing far more than the edge of your seat, you will become inured to statements to the contrary.  You may have expected Teigu fights to be routinely deadly and brutal, but if you see several things to the contrary you will start taking the matter less seriously.  This would be a flaw in story structure (or the reader/viewer just being jaded), but not a plot hole.


What character is Mio's doll from? In K-ON!, Ritsu found a doll (belonging to Mio) of an old man who's almost bald with a huge nose.

If I'm not mistaken, it was shown when they were cleaning their club room.

(season 2, episode 2, 4:54)

Who is that old man doll? Was that doll based from a real person or from another anime or just a random creation from K-ON! itself?

This Japanese blog says it's a plush of "ウゴウゴルーガ" (Ugo Ugo Ru-ga).

I'm personally not familiar with the show, but the it strongly resembles おやじむし (Oyajimushi), which I think is an "insect father"? Whatever that means.

Searching further, this blog and this site agree.

Here's a picture of a plush doll that looks virtually identical, except for the nose being quite a bit longer.

And here's a Google search with multiple images for "おやじむし ウゴウゴルーガ" (Oyajimushi Ugo Ugo Ru-ga).

Among the images, there is one image from Amazon showing the manga where this character originates from:

The manga is titled おやじむしの人生 (人生いろいろウゴウゴ・ルーガ).


What is the name of the con trick Ging Freecss uses in HxH (2011) #137? In Episode 137 of Hunter x Hunter during the Chairman Election arc, Ging rigs the election rule choosing process with his own 5 rules. He states his fifth and last rule is a decoy, with the purpose of making his earlier rule points easier to concede to. He cites this is a popular con man trick.

Is this a real con man trick, and if so, what is the equivalent name in our world?

This particular trick is hard to name, because it is so specific to circumstance. It is a form of psychological manipulation which can be categorized as misdirection,[1] diversion,[2] or a confidence trick.[3] However, it falls most directly under the title of "Kansas City Shuffle".[4][5]{note 1}

The trick essentially goes as follows:

  The victim expects to be conned.
  The victim figures out how to avoid a different con, thinking they've avoided the con altogether.
  The victim then ends up being taken by the original, hidden con.

In Ging's case, it's something like this:

  The Zodiacs are expecting that Ging wants to further his goal to become chairman (since he elected himself).
  Because Ging introduced the rule #5 decoy, Pariston and the others talk him out of it, and think they've foiled his plan.
  They don't realize that the con plan was actually rules #1 through #4, and they accept his terms. (Not like they really had a choice—but they are now okay with it.)

However, since the term Kansas City Shuffle is not a common one, I'd file this most closely as a simple diversion. He is introducing something to draw attention away from something else which, at its core, is just plain and simple psychological diversion.

Footnotes

[1] Wikipedia: Misdirection
[2] Wikipedia: Distraction
[3] Wikipedia: Confidence trick
[4] Wikipedia: Kansas City Shuffle
[5] TV Tropes: Kansas City Shuffle

{note 1} The Wikipedia article focuses somewhat on song by that name from 2006. The "scheme" section covers well enough what the basic idea is, but honestly, the TV Tropes article is more clear.


Significance of Aang's left eye and hand lighting up According to the Avatar series, the solar eclipse is when the Fire Nation was at its weakest. Why do Aang's left hand and eye light up? I don't believe he is left handed, so what is the significance?

I haven't evidence for this answer however, I think that it's for illustrate both states of the Avatar Aang:

Aang as a human
Aang in it's Avatar state.


Why is Tokyo Ghoul's second season called √A? As the title says, why is Tokyo Ghoul's second season called √A?

√A ("root A") is a reference to and pun on the Aogiri Tree organization, which is the focus of the second season. "A" is simply the first letter of the organization, and the root is a pun on tree root (since it's the Aogiri Tree).


Why can't Alphonse repair Edward's automail using alchemy? Edward's automail breaks many times during animation, but every time even if Alphonse didn't take any damage they go after Winrey to fix Edward's automail. Now I'm wondering if Alphonse can easily repair a radio or any other mechanical device, why can't he fix Edward's automail? Also, why does neither Edward nor Alphonse try enhancing automail using alchemy?

The first step of alchemy is understanding. That means, understanding the raw materials you are going to use, and how to break them down. It also means to understand the resulting item. You can't make something you don't know anything about.

A radio is a very simple device. It contains little to none electronics, and is rather easy to understand.

An automail on the other hand, is a very complicated piece of engineering. It contains engines, circuit boards etc. Which make it hard for a "simple" alchemist to construct.

If Winry for example were to be an alchemist, she would probably be able to fix automail using alchemy, but even that would only be emergency fixes, and not a full repair.


Does Natsu still have access to his etherious form and can he still use Fire Dragon King Mode? I've kept up with the Fairy Tail lore and I know that Natsu is end. I also know that the series ended with Natsu kind of killed his brother Zeref while also killing Acnologia.

So after everything's said and done, I was wondering at the end of the manga if he could still tap into his etherious form. Also, can he still use Fire Dragon King Mode or did he lose both of them?

Yes. Natsu can tap into his etherious mode, But not whenever. We caught a glimpse at his etherious mode in Fairytail: Dragon's Cry. He was only able to trigger this mode whenever he felt a strong wave of emotion. In the manga series he triggered his etherious mode after seeing (what I can presume as an illusion) of Lucy dying. The anime series hid this mode when future Lucy died (Episode 194-198.) He can also still use his Fire Dragon King Mode, but as he said in the manga, He will use the power given to him by Igneel. He was able to use his mode again without Igneel's power but the results weren't the same. All in All, Yes he can still use both modes, but he needs to obtain that power to activate them by himself (half the way there; already can activate FDKM)


What is the difference between Negima!? and Negima! So I have 2 Negima DVD Collections, one is spelled as Negima! and the other is Negima!? with the latter also having a second DVD called Negima!? Spring and Summer Specials

Both have relatively the same plot summary on the back of the covers, both have the same number of episodes and Anime News Network just says that Negima!? is an alternate retelling. But what exactly is the difference between Negima! and Negima!?

Negima! is a direct adaptation of the original manga. It covers most of the major stories from the manga up through Volume 6, then does an original story for its last few episodes. The stories are done out of order, though; the Library Island arc from Volume 2 is done after the Evangeline arc from Volume 3, and the filler stories are scattered all over the place. The Kyouto story arc is compressed into two episodes (it made up the majority of Volumes 4, 5, and 6 of the manga).

Negima?! is a reimagined version of the story created by Akiyuki Shimbo and Shaft, with the usual weird art style. I like to refer to it as "Pani Poni Negi", because the art and humor are very reminiscent of Shaft's Pani Poni Dash. The story of Negima?! is completely different from the manga, and is more focused on absurd humor and less on action and fanservice. (There is also some action and a decent amount of adventure, but almost no fanservice.) The characters are vaguely similar but also quite different in many ways: Asuna is obsessed with finding a chupacabra, Makie for some reason believes that a frog creature is her father, and Konoka is sarcastic and clever instead of cheerful and ditzy. (But she's sarcastic and clever in a cheerful way.)

The Spring and Summer Specials are OVAs of Negima?! I haven't seen them but according to Wikipedia, the Spring Special is based on Volume 7 of the manga, where Asuna and Negi get in a fight at an island resort, while the Summer Special is an original story about Nodoka.


What is the name of this anime with nekomimi? I have been wondering for a long time which anime this is from.

This isn't from an anime. It's original art by this Pixiv user (warning, may be a bit NSFW) for her FC2 blog (also maybe not safe for work).

The characters in the image are:

Hayami Shizuku (white hair, green eyes)
Hutaba Akane (blonde hair, red eyes)
Hutaba Aoi (blonde hair, blue eyes)
Neko (brown hair)


What did Shouko say to Ishida in the coming of age ceremony that made Ueno jealous? I don't understand what they are saying. Could someone translate this?

Four fingers raised, thumb pulled in is "ke", while full fist means "sa".

Together they are "kesa", which means "this morning".

Shouko is referring to the hardships they had that morning with putting on their kimono, doing their hair, etc. We know Ishida knows about it because Shouko's mother has shown him a picture about the girls getting ready,

so he reacts with "beautiful".

Explanation for the sign he makes :


What's the proper reading order for the manga in the Steins;Gate series? I ended up reading Steins;Gate, but after I had finished it, I wasn't sure which one I should read next. When searching for Steins;Gate cartoons, I found all these different parts and I started reading Bokan no Rellion and it looks like it's the same story, but from a different character's perspective. So what about the other parts? Are they the same story too or are they sequels and is there a specific order I should use to get the most out of the story?

Steins;Gate
Steins;Gate: Bōkan no Rebellion
Steins;Gate: Onshu no Braunian Motion
Steins;Gate: Shijō Saikyō no Slight Fever
Steins;Gate: Hiyoku Renri no Sweets Honey
Steins;Gate: Aishin Meizu no Babel
Steins;Gate!

if you read them in order of publication date, you should be fine.
All of the manga to date (excluding the multi-artist anthologies), listed in order of publication date:

『STEINS; GATE』11/2010~9/2013 (the main storyline)

『STEINS;GATE 亡環のリベリオン』(Rebellion of the Missing Ring) 2/2010~9/2011 (side story, focused on Suzuha in the 0.000000, 0.337187, and 0.409431% World Lines)

『STEINS;GATE 史上最強のスライトフィーバー』 (The World's Strongest Slight Fever) 2/2011~10/2011 (the main storyline, focused on Kurisu)

『しゅたいんず・げーと!』(Steins・Gate!) 3/2011~5/2012 (parody of the main storyline)

『STEINS;GATE DROPS』8/2011~3/2012 (a 4-panel gag comic, the storyline of the comedic Xbox360 fandisc game『STEINS;GATE 比翼恋理のだーりん』[Loving Vows' Darling], set in the 3% World Line)

『STEINS;GATE 星屑のデュプレット』(Stardust Duplet) 8/2011~3/2012 (the storyline of the fandisc, focused on Mayuri)

『STEINS;GATE 比翼恋理のスイーツはにー』 (Loving Vows’ Sweets Honey) 10/2011~3/2012 (the storyline of the fandisc, focused on Kurisu)

『STEINS;GATE 恩讐のブラウニアンモーション』(Braunian Motion of Love and Hate) 4/2012~7/2012 (side story, focused on the past of Mr. Braun)

『STEINS;GATE 比翼恋理のフューチャーはにー』(Loving Vows’ Future Honey) 5/2012~? (the storyline of the fandisc, focused on Suzuha)

『STEINS;GATE もっと比翼恋理のスイーツはにー』(Even More Loving Vows’ Sweets Honey) 6/2012~12/2012 (spin-off from the storyline of the fandisc, about Lab Members going to school)

『STEINS;GATE 変移空間のオクテット』(Variant Space Octet) 6/2012~1/2013 (the storyline of the game of the same name, which is a non-canon crossover with Chaos;Head)

『STEINS;GATE 比翼恋理の+ニャン2 くらいしす☆』(Loving Vows + Meow2 Crisis) 6/2012~1/2013 (the storyline of the fandisc, focused on Feris)

『STEINS;GATE -哀心迷図のバベル-』(Babel of the Grieved Maze) 6/2012~2/2014 (the storyline of the CD drama『STEINS;GATEドラマCDα「哀心迷図のバベル」ダイバージェンス0.571046%』, which is the main storyline focused on Kurisu)

『STEINS;GATE 比翼恋理のスイーツはにーふぁいなる』(Loving Vows’ Sweets Honey Final) 1/2013~6/2013 (sequel to the fandisc storyline manga)

『STEINS;GATE 閉時曲線のエピグラフ』(Epigraph of the Closed Curve) 2/2013~12/2013 (side story, the storyline of the light novel  of the same name, set in winter 2010 in the Beta Attractor Field around the 1.129848 and 1.130205% World Lines)

『劇場版STEINS;GATE 負荷領域のデジャヴ』(Loading Area of Déjà Vu) 5/2013~12/2013 (the storyline of the movie of the same name, set one year after the events of the TV series)

『STEINS;GATE -無限遠点のアークライト-』(Arc Light of the Point of Infinity) 3/2014~present (the storyline of the CD drama 『STEINS;GATEドラマCDβ「無限遠点のアークライト」ダイバージェンス1.130205%』, focused on Mayuri)

『STEINS;GATE 永劫回帰のパンドラ』(Pandora of Eternal Recurrence) 5/2014~present (side story, continuation of Epigraph of the Closed Curve, set in the Beta Attractor Field in 2010)


Attack on Titan Opening Themes I'm having trouble matching the 3 opening themes to Attack on Titan to tracks available to purchase in various digital outlets.

For the avoidance of confusion, I'm looking for the long versions of the three tracks featured on this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKbbMsvyOpo

Thanks to other questions and answers on the site I'm confident that the first one is Guren no Yumiya by Linked Horizon, but while I think the 3rd one should be called Shingeki no Kyojin, I'm struggling to match it to an artist and I'm exactly nowhere with the 2nd one.

As mentioned on Wikipedia, they're the 1st (Guren no Yumiya) and 2nd (Jiyuu no Tsubasa) opening of season 1, and the 1st (Shinzou wo Sasageyo!) opening of season 2, all by Linked Horizon.

Thanks to Aki Tanaka


What would be considered canon in the Pokemon franchise? Usually we would treat the manga as canon for most works, but as most people usually only have watched the animation or played the video games, would in this case the manga still be considered canon over the anime? Or would it be the videogame and manga based on it?

Canon usually refers to the original work rather than the most popular one. As such, I would imagine that the original Japanese manga is canon.

The other mediums can be canon as well; the anime for example is a very important part of the franchise. Stil, the manga would probably still take precedence.

Canon is a very broad term that can be as strict or lenient as the user who uses it, so it's hard to answer this question definitively.


Where is Yui stored in SAO II? We know that Yui was saved in Kirito's NervGear's local memory in the first season of Sword Art Online but in in the second season when Kirito is in Gun Gale Online, when everyone is watching Battle of Bullets Yui is there with everyone else watching it in ALO. she also talks to Asuna on her phone when she heads off to the hospital and in Agil's bar when Kirito sets up the cameras for her.

in all of these cases Kirito isn't using his NervGear and i would suspect it is turned off. so where is Yui now stored? and how is she able to go from this place to ALO, Asuna's Mobile and the cameras in Agil's bar?

According to a Q&A session1 (EX00～Face to Face～) in the third popularity contest held by Kawahara Reki, as Kunori Fumio (his webnovel penname), in 2005:

Her core program routine runs and is stored in the local memory of Kirito's NerveGear and takes up about 3TB.

1 Chinese-translated copy of the Q&A session


Why is Dorami afraid of cockroaches? Doraemon is afraid of mice, because of the trauma robomice caused by eating his ears, but why is Dorami so afraid of cockroaches?

According to various sources, Dorami's dislike of roaches is more along the lines of ordinary people's disgust of the insect species, mostly due to their nature. The original manga never established canon for this and her dislike was retconned into the anime and Doraemon Encyclopedia (ドラえもん百科) after the manga had already been published.

The first appearance of her actually exclaiming her dislike seems to be in the Dorami MiniDora SOS!!! (ドラミちゃん ミニドラSOS!!!) short, which premiered with the Doraemon: Nobita and the Birth of Japan (ドラえもん: のび太の日本誕生) movie in Japan back in March of 1989.

The first appearance of Dorami reacting to a cockroach is in vol. 9, chapter 9 of the original manga, "Urashima Candy." Dorami never states that she hates roaches and only reacts to being surprised by them.


Where did the Haganai and Oreimo cameo appear? It's been a while seen I last watched haganai and oreimo, and I remember there was a cameo role in a certain episode. Problem is, I don't even remember in which of the two anime and season it happened, just that there was a cameo of the main group of characters.

Can someone point out to me where it appeared and what happened in the cameo? Also, was it reciprocated by the other anime in the pair?

From Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Season 1 episode 11 around 04.31

Wikia also mention this cameo


Who is the fastest character in My Hero Academia? My Hero Academia Ultra Analysis book gives 6/6 S+ speed only to All Might and All for One. Even so, characters like Gran Torino and Nomu USJ who could rival them arent listed in the Ultra Analysis book.  Gran Torino in other hand, it's given 6/5 in the Ultra Archive book, just like All Might, but in the anime it seems to be implied All Might is faster than him in the battle with All for One. And for the Nomu USJ there is no data in his speed whatsoever, the only thing we know about his speed is in the battle with All Might.

I can't remember any important character who could rival their speed not listed either in the Ultra Analysis or Ultra Archive books.

Is there any more conclusive details about this?  Who is the fastest character in My Hero Academia?

My guess is that by this time, it's Keigo Takami aka Hawks. His speed is 6/6S acording to the databook and even the other heroes acknowledge him as being the fastest.

This is only considering travel speed, not fast as in reaction time, perception, etc.


Where did the phrase "Gotta catch 'em all" come from? The slogan for Pokémon was "gotta catch 'em all". But I have never heard that when I was watching Pokémon in the Japanese original with Chinese sub. The Japanese phrase was something along the lines of "Pokémon, caught!" (ポケモンゲットだぜー). Another phrase was also "my goal, Pokémon master!" (めざせポケモンマスター ).

Where did the English phrase come from?

Where  does this phrase comes from?

According to Bulbapedia, this phrase is a rough translation from the Japanese games :

  The Japanese equivalent is Get Pokémon! (Japanese: ポケモンゲットだぜー！ Pokémon get da ze~!, also spelt ポケモンＧＥＴだぜー！)

When did the phrase Gotta catch 'em all first appeared?

While the previous answers are correct, it is important to notice that this phrase first appeared on both anime and game.

You can see on the North America's and European's version of the Gameboy game Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue the same phrase :

But which one of the anime or the game came first?

As @DavePhD mentionned in the comments, Gotta catch 'em all is a registered trademark. One of its first registration on June 23, 1998 mentions

  entertainment services, namely, arranging and conducting competitions in the field of playing video games; stage presentations; video game presentations relating to video games; production, presentation, distribution, and syndication of animation, motion picture films, and television programs; and production and presentation of video tapes

which includes both the anime and the game. So we can say that Gotta catch 'em all appeared with the general airing of Pokemon in the United States.

Note that the first episode was broadcasted before the game was released in the United States : the TV Show was aired on September 8, 1998 while the game was first sold on September 28, 19981.

1 Wikipedia links : the first episode and the games


What does Shouko said to Ishida on the bridge in chapter 54? What did Shouko sign to Shouya in Koe No Katachi volume 7, chapter 54?

Note:  the below images are the signs that she used, in the order that they appear (right to left).

So I watched the limited theatrical release today.  While I can't say that I recall anything verbatim, I'll be updating my answer from here.

Shouko says, not signs, in the movie, that

   She believed that if she weren't around anymore, everything would be better, which is what led her to attempt suicide in the first place.

This tears into the heart of the matter:  the immense guilt and discomfort that Shouko feels about the entire situation, which is what led her to make that decision.

Also, this highlights a point in which the film diverges from the manga, so take this with a grain of salt.

While I can't interpret JSL very well, we can infer what happened through the use of context clues a few chapters earlier.

   This happened after Shoya effectively saved Shouko's life, when she attempted to jump off her balcony into the river below.  Recall in an earlier chapter, Shouko and Shoya swapped positions, effectively keeping her on the balcony, and him plummeting to the water below.

From that, what we can infer is...

   Shouko thought that Shoya was dead, and was feeling incredibly remorseful for attempting suicide, and that Shoya had been badly injured due to her actions.  She's frantically apologizing and is grateful that he's alive.


How is hentai anime voicing recorded? With normal anime, all the seiyuu involved are in one room where they step up and talk to the microphone when it is their turn. Both male seiyuu and female seiyuu are present in the same room and might even stand together one next to the other if their characters are having conversation.

However, what about hentai anime? Do they still record it as if it was a normal anime?

According to my research, many sources point to the normal anime approach. It's not really different than a normal anime with occasional ero scenes.

A blog from Pink Pineapple (Japanese, possibly NSFW!) mentioned how the voice recording session for its adult anime, Boy Meets Harem THE ANIMATION (MyAnimeList, possibly NSFW!), was done:

  [...] Even though it's not targeted on purpose, other than the sound director who had to direct the acting, the main character Naoki Shindou's seiyuu and 4 female seiyuu entered the recording booth, surrounding him just like the original work harem situation, and then the voice recording was done (LOL).

(...however, the wording of "not targeted on purpose" and the existence of "recording booth" seem to give a hint that it's not the usual way they do it)

There are also some pictures of the recording studio, although it didn't show the process of the recording (censored images behind links, potentially NSFW!).

Title screen
Scene 1
Scene 2

(Source (Japanese): the site itself is probably not NSFW, but the current topic is NSFW as per above)

Other than that, I could only take some info from Japanese online discussions:

How does seiyuu record their voices in adult anime?

akatsukinops: It's the same as normal anime (everyone stands in front of the mike), even for hentai anime. Well, there's also 1-by-1 recording just like eroge approach.
Actually, a female seiyuu who performed a bed scene in a certain normal anime stated that even though she was quite embarrassed because there was a voice actor beside her and co-actor behind her, she performed it precisely in the end.

How is the mental state of the seiyuu in hentai anime and eroge?

akatsukinops: Here is a comment from a female seiyuu on an H-scene of a normal anime:
1) at the time of recording, she wore a hat until eye level because she was so embarrassed.
2) There was an H partner's male seiyuu just beside her and they recorded the voice together.
3) She could only face the front (the script and the monitor), she couldn't see co-actors (beside) and staffs (behind) totally. (Now she has passed the audition for H-scene and appeared on adult works anonymously/on different name)

How does seiyuu record their voices in H-anime?

comment #9: I'm a (female) seiyuu. Because there are also non-H scenes, they're done just like other (normal) anime, but there are also those who record the voice 1-by-1. When it's the H-scene, each stand in front of their own mike. [...]

While it's not asked, I'll put info about eroge voice recording too.
(Also, it's because I couldn't find much info about the actual hentai anime's voice recording. It got mixed up with AV with seiyuu theme, which I believe is not how they actually do)

As mentioned before, for eroge, it's (almost?) always done alone inside a booth with only a script book and a mic. The reason is, compared to the (hentai) anime, there's no detailed animation timing to be followed.

On an online Q&A Twitter session with a female eroge seiyuu, "Satou Yuki" (Japanese), when she was asked how she recorded the voice, she answered that it was done inside a booth. Answers on Yahoo! Chiebukuro also agree with that.

There's a 1-hour variety show in Japanese about eroge's seiyuu on YouTube. It's rated R-15+ by them but definitely NSFW (occasional explicit graphic & explicit sound). Although there's no caption, it's still worthy to watch since they actually demonstrated how they performed the sound/voice... on a straight face.

Bonus: a compilation video of NG scene when doing eroge voice recording on YouTube (still image and sound only, NSFW: explicit sound). It shows that they don't feel uncomfortable when performing such voice.

My personal conclusion is, whether the scene is H or not, it doesn't seem to seriously obstruct the seiyuu's performance even if there are other people. It's their job, after all.


Why did Sabo eat the Mera Mera no Mi fruit? Does anybody know why Sabo ate the Mera Mera fruit?

I thought Luffy really wanted this fruit because it was the devil's fruit that his brother Ace ate.

Sabo took Luffy's spot in the Colosseum to get the fruit for him.

Sabo never intended to get the fruit for Luffy. When he showed up in this arc, his first words were

"I'm not letting you have the Mera Mera fruit, Strawhat Luffy!"

Sabo always intended to eat it, and Luffy was fine with that. Luffy obviously can't eat it himself, he just wanted someone he liked to have it. He left the colosseum very happy, fully understanding that Sabo was going to eat it. It didn't come out of nowhere at all.


Why not simply "Metal Alchemist"? Why is Edward Elric known as the 'Fullmetal Alchemist' not simply as 'Metal Alchemist'? Is there any reason besides the names sounding better?

I've only watched the 2nd episode of FMA brotherhood.

I don't think there's a reason beyond the "Cool" factor.

はがね (Hagane) translates to "Steel" or "Metal", so I don't see a real reason.

Fullmetal, refers to objects that are completely made of metal, that they aren't hollow or are composed of other, non-metallic materials.


What does the water in the hallway represent in the Erased opening? Most of the shots in Erased its opening are references to events events or cryptic imagery like when Satoru's refers to himself as Grim Reaper that tries to put things back the way they were, but the more he acts the more other people involved suffer (see the last bit in episode 6).

However at around 37 seconds into the opening this shot of a large amount of water in the school shows up. I don't remember this happening in the anime.

What is the meaning of this shot? Does it bear a cryptic message to something in the show?

SPOILERS:

There's no objective answer that I've encountered, however this is my interpretation;

Literal: Satoru being drowned.

Figurative: Satoru's old life being "washed away" after nearly being drowned and losing his memory.


Are the visualizations in the anime from the Light Novels? During Karen Bee in Nisemonogatari I've noticed some weird scenery, one is after Kanbaru and Araragi clean up Kanbaru's room we see there are books stacked outside in small structures.

Another is when Araragi is talking to Senjougahara about Kaiki, Senjougahara seems to be building with the sharpened pencils, at one point when the table is slammed a group of them fly up into the air and land next to Araragi forming a different structure.

And another one is when Karen confronts Kaiki and the walls seems to act as TV screens. at one point when Kaiki is talking about money, on the wall we see coins fall into place forming notes with what looks to be Araragi's face on them.

Now there is a lot  of other strange scenery like this but i am wondering, are these actually described in the Light Novels or are these artistic choices chosen by SHAFT when making the anime? if so is there a statement as to why they made these choices?

I can't speak for those situations in particular I think this is probably an artistic choice by SHAFT. Having interesting things going on in the background makes the long dialogue sections more bearable for viewers and helps break up long sections in the same room.

I'm not up to date with the light novels, but I have reached Kanbaru's story. Here's a translation of the passage where Araragi appears at her house (Suruga Monkey).

  Her futon was left spread out on the floor, clothes (including panties) were strewn all around, as were books of all sort, textbooks, novels and manga, some open and some closed. It almost seemed like her storehouse, with cardboard boxes piled up into mounds in the corners. The worst atrocity was the garbage casually left not in garbage bags but just on a random tatami, or sometimes, to the best of her ability, shoved into the plastic bags from the neighborhood convenience store and then left lying around. Rather, it seemed as though the concept of a container for housing garbage was entirely foreign to the room.
  Even with its expansive 12 tatami space.Not even a single space to start going in from.

  "Sorry that it's a little messy"

While not Nisemonogatari, this is Shaft's depiction of Kanbaru's room in Bakemonogatari:

SHAFT moved the focus from garbage onto books, and expanded the size of the room tremendously (but SHAFT does like to do that with rooms).

Here's a video I found on youtube of a 12 tatami mat room . So it's quite big, but not quite as large as SHAFT depicts. Using some size guides, I worked out that 12 Tatami Mats is roughly 18.36 square metres.

SHAFT also animates kanbaru opening several doors, including one which causes a landfall of books to land on Araragi.

  "I know now's not the time, but can I ask you for a favor."
  "Sure. Say anything you want. I wouldn't refuse a request from you, Araragi-senpai."
  "One hour, actually, half an hour's fine... Just give me some time to clean up this room. And a big garbage bag."
  It's not like I'm a clean freak, I don't really even keep my room that clean, but this was just too horrible, one could even call it cruel. Kanbaru stood and started at me with a puzzled look on her face, as if she didn't even understand what I had just said, however, without any particular reason to refuse, she simply said "OK" and left to get a garbage bag.
  Fast forward.
  I suppose.
  Of course, the disastrous wreckage that was Kanbaru's room wasn't so soft that much could be done about it in a mere half an hour. And in any case, this still being the room of a girl who I didn't know that well, there were areas that I could and couldn't ethically, or rather morally, touch. So, I gathered up the garbage and organized (simply sorted by size, as there weren't even any bookshelves in Kanbaru's room) the various books and magazines in an admittedly random way, cleaning the square room into more of a circle. The room was at least at a state where I could look at it after the futon was folded and stowed in the closet and clothes folded and placed in a corner. At the very least, there was space for Kanbaru and I to sit and face each other.

In the animated version, it shows an area where Kanbaru fit perfectly (implying it was the only free area). Kanbaru and Araragi play in the books throwing them around and jumping into the sea of novels.

So, I'm not sure about those particular cases - but SHAFT does take significant artistic control over the work - adding scenes, emphasizing certain characteristics & generally filling the work out to fit an animated form. As you can see from the passages the novels aren't description-heavy. They are dialogue-heavy though, so I imagine that SHAFT has done these things themselves.


Trying to find DBZ theme It plays on episode 24 at 9:00, been trying to find it for the past half hour and can't maybe someone can help me?

It should be from the original OST (japanese)

The soundtrack which was played for first 199 episodes in DGZ was Cha-La Head-Ha-La by Hironobu Kageyama. Just check. if this is the one you are searching for. The link is right below.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hironobu_Kageyama_-_Cha-La_Head-Cha-La.ogg


Can espers in Mob Psycho 100 create any kind of superhero powers? AFAIK, in Mob Psycho 100, different espers are capable of,

Resistance
Strenghten themselves
Kill ghosts
See ghosts
Flying
Barriers
Electricity
Fire
Making steel hard substances
Levitate things

Can espers in Mob Psycho 100 create any kind of superhero powers or are there things that are known that they can't do?

Can espers in Mob Psycho 100 create any kind of superhero powers or are there things that are known that they can't do? I believe that really depends on the esper himself/herself. This lists all known psychic abilities that espers can possess. If one is creative enough, then an esper can, hypothetically, create his/her own moves and techniques that are unique, based on how he/she applies the known techniques they can do. So, yes, I believe it's possible they can create or replicate techniques similar to superheroes (I am assuming you are referring to comic superheroes like those in DC and Marvel).

As to what they can't do, I cannot recall this ever brought up in the anime but in Volume 10 Chapter 78, it was noted that espers have difficulty performing two simultaneous actions at once, albeit it is not impossible.


Why are Ringo-chan's cheeks always red? In Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, the character Ringo-chan is the Student Council president of the rival all-girls high school. For some reason, though, her cheeks are always red (as pictured below).

At first, I thought they were temporary (situational blushing), but it seems these red marks are always on her cheeks. What are these?

The Blush Sticker trope is usually used to express childish cheerfulness and/or naivety. In Japan, children are typically depicted with round rosy cheeks.

Ringo is a bit of an airhead, or rather naive, like a child... The Sanada North High Student Council gave her the "childish" nickname "Ringo-chan" for a reason.~

The trope most likely originated from manga where often times it would be easier (and less time consuming) to draw ovals indicating "blushes", rather than shading them in.


What makes an object 0.5th generation? In the third arc ("The Ant and the Grasshopper"), the enemy object is described as being "0.5th-generation".

What does that even mean? I thought that the very first object to be built was itself already considered 1st-generation. Is a 0.5th-generation object some sort of subpar imitation or something?

Apparently it's a Generation 0.5 due to the fact it was not properly built, as the level of technology of its country was too low.

  The technology level of the Oceanian military nation is not high enough to actually build a proper Object, thus the codename of Generation 0.5.

It contains several cheap measures in order to keep it even stable enough to move.

  A single main gun is attached to the left side of the sphere. It's a few dozen meters long and reinforced with numerous steel bridge-like wires. It would likely have been fine without them, but there is a risk of the gun damaging itself with its own weight while it's held horizontal for long periods of time. It's a cheap countermeasure that would never have even been considered for a normal Object.

Therefore, since it is a downgraded version of a normal object and built with improper technology, it is called a Generation 0.5.

  The prologue and afterword confirm that the Generation 0.5 was a degraded version of the Information Alliance's Gatling 033. The technology and design were given to the Oceanian military nation by the MIB.


Is the city in which Fruits Basket is set ever identified? Fruits Basket appears to be set in a real Japanese city.
Is it ever explicitly stated which one?
If not, is it possible to deduce which one, or at least which part of Japan it's supposed to be?

(I'm more interested in the answer vis-a-vis the manga, but if there's a clue in the anime, that would be fine too.)

It does not state their location in the anime or the manga. It is however commonly believed that Fruits Basket takes place in a more rural area of Tokyo Japan.


Was Madara tricked by Hashirama when he absorbed the latter's senjutsu? Madara paralyses Hashirama with chakra rods. He then proceeds to absorb his Senjutsu. He mocks Hashirama and says that his chakra is meagre and easy to control.

However, we all know that Hashirama is no idiot when it comes to war. Did Hashirama restrain his Senjutsu chakra somehow and fool Madara, or was Madara saying the truth?

Like you've said, Hashirama is no idiot when it comes to war. The case is exactly same for Madara. Madara was a genius at manipulation, tactics, and logical thinking.

Senjutsu chakra is highly potent if a user doesn't know how to handle. But this is Madara we're talking about and not an inexperienced Genin.

  Senjutsu practitioners learn to draw the energy of nature inside of them, blending it with their own chakra.

Since Senjutsu chakra is therefore mixed with the user's own chakra. So there is no way to separate it and/or hide/seal it away within a person's body.

And moreover, Madara had Hashirama's cells, welcoming the Senjutsu chakra into his body. Which explains how it readily accepted his body. Moreover, Madara was able to decode it within seconds, and figure out the working of it, hence the comment about belittling Senjutsu chakra.

Even if Hashirama tried to fool Madara, I'm sure he would have realized it within moments. But there was no mentioning about it by either of them.


Is Brook able to drown? It is known that the Yomi Yomi no Mi fruit will only revive its user once, and also that Devil Fruit users can't swim, so I was wondering... What would happen if Brook falls into the ocean? I mean, even if he's alive, as a skeleton he has no lungs, so he should just be unable to go back to the surface, shouldn't he?

He's just a skeleton obviously, so he's not really breathing, however, when his body gets drowned slowly by the sea water, his strength begins to fade away (Chapter 493, page 7):

And from this scene, I imagine if he falls into the ocean, like all Devil Fruit users, he will be powerless and be unable to resurface unless helped.


Why so many anime these days end prematurely? I'm not sure why there is a 12-13 episode trend going on, I've watched plenty of good anime especially this season, they just end prematurely. 12-13 episodes don't really feel like a season, more like half a season. and almost all of them had no issues with source material

(ironically some anime that I watched that lacked LN or WN and were based on video games or visual novels had more episodes 24-50)

types of anime I came across:

has source material, WN, LN, even Manga, for some reason instead of just increasing the anime episodes, tries to fit as much as possible into those 12 episodes, ends up with a mess i.e. arifureta shokugyou de sekai
has source material, for some reason, instead of beneficially using those 12-13 episodes, chooses to progress the story very slowly and throw in some fillers, which leaves the anime ending prematurely

(I have to explain this a bit further, series like overlord season 2, maou sama retry, opm season 2, death march, they end so prematurely that's it's very unfulfilling for the audience, the problem is the fact that most of these shows are not going to be one piece nor are they consistence, they go on 1-2 year break, then they might not even get picked up later. we've seen it happen with some other successful animes in the past 2013-2014)

Seeing 'these days' in the question makes me feel old already... this has been the case for quite a while now.

The short answer

Simply because it's been that way for a while now, and the industry has settled their practices to go along with the broadcasters schedules to maximize profit.

The long answer

Note: A lot of my input here is based simply off years of watching anime and the industry, these are my personal observations dotted with editorial input I have also seen through the years.

A good insight into how the volume of production of anime has been handled over the years comes from Justin Sevakis' (now defunct) ANN Q&A corner Answerman back from 2013 and again in 2016 (thanks ahiijny)

  Scott asks:
  Something I've noticed recently is it seems it's much, much more common to see shows being only one cour or split-cour rather than two or more cours compared to like a decade or so. Why is that?

  Back when most anime was actually aired during human waking hours and TV networks actually paid for the honor of broadcasting them, TV anime was beholden to its sponsor. This was often a toy company, or a candy company, or even a record label. The sponsor would commit a large sum of money up front to produce the show, and the anime producer would make it, often integrating that company's products into the show itself.

  This way of doing business, where all that money was guaranteed up front, was very slow to react to market forces. Sponsors wanted to get their branding out for as long a period as possible, so naturally they'd want to back a long-running show that would stand the test of time. But if the show bombed, and it often did, the lead time for making anime was so long that work had already started on the second or even third seasons before everyone realized they had a big ol' dud on their hands. The sponsor might want to pull out and stop wasting their money, but with so much of the work already done, they'd still have to pay to finish months worth of anime that nobody would watch. It was a huge waste of money.

  Now that late-night anime is the norm, the TV networks treat the shows like infomercials, and production committees making them are mostly interested in selling DVDs and character goods. Since most TV anime are now essentially glorified OAV series, the producers no longer feel the need to plan for a show to be ridiculously long without knowing if it'll be a hit. So this way, they plan shows a season at a time, wait for them to air, and see if they hit. If they hit, THEN they'll do a second and third season. It's just a whole lot less wasteful that way.

This still holds true today. Nowadays, these sponsors' shapes are in the form of fidget spinning evil masterminds production committees and the schedules much more tightly controlled by having networks be part of them. A lot of anime nowadays is produced this way ever since the start of the millenium. Your Arifureta example is made by a committee composed of Overlap (Mixed Media planning and publishing), Hakuhodo DY Music and Pictures (Production and distribution), FuRyu (Games and multimedia content), AT-X (Broadcaster), Sony Music Solutions (Sound), Tora no Ana (Retailer), Bandai Namco Arts (Animation) and Bushiroad (Promotional items, etc.) Things in parenthesis are just an educated quick guess on what each party would bring to the table.

Why production committees? In a word: diversification. Anime in itself isn't a recipe for profit, so bearing the risk of investment between a bunch of companies is better if a title flops. Also having companies that specialize in many different things like music, toy making, casting, etc brings expertise from many areas when coming together to make what they like to call a "Media Project". This model has its pros and cons, but it tends to favor the committee. Sakuga blog has a nice write-up about it.

Now that we know this, back to lengths of cours for series.

What production in cours brings to the table is mostly stability and risk reduction. If Arifureta is truly a flop, economically, the committee will probably cut their losses and not renew the project for more mixed media projects and move on. Trying to dedicate resources for a long standing series with a high risk factor would be silly on a economical standpoint.

But some companies have works that they have faith in their potential or enough monetary backing to make series that are longer than 1 cour. For example, Kodansha had quite some faith in Tensura last year to make it a back-to-back 2-cour series with enough leftover content for another season in 2020 if it did well. From what I've seen, it certainly did.
Overlord, One Punch Man, etc. are in a similar boat, and dividing it into cours gives the committees flexibility to either drop anime that's doing bad or simply continue making more with some time in between to recoup and restart media campaigns, give animators time, plan events, etc.

Of course there are other factors that could affect the length of anime like how some commenters mentioned supply and demand, waiting to catch up to source material or even legal issues, but I think the committee/cour structure is the main reason for this.


Is there a difference between Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Kai and Dragon Ball Z Kai? After doing a little research, I saw that Dragon Ball Z Kai and Dragon Ball Kai are the same and that they are just remakes of Dragon Ball Z. Is this correct?

I know that Dragon Ball Z has around 300 episodes and that Dragon Ball Z Kai and Dragon Ball Kai stop after the stage with cell around 100 episodes. So which one is better for watching with an English dub?

Since there can't be one particular answer to this question and others can only give you their opinions, I will say Dragon Ball Z original is much better than Kai and I liked the old voices more than the new ones in the dub version.

The other thing is Dragon Ball Z Kai does not have any fillers. I have watched both, and I even thought that losing all the fillers would be a great thing, but I mostly found it frustrating. Some of Gohan's more awesome rage moments were shortened and worse yet the battles just were not as exciting.


What BGM is playing in Iron-Blooded Orphans season 2 episode 16&23? In Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Episode 41 (or Season 2 Episode 16) - "Natural for a Human", there is an insert song/BGM playing at 20:22, but the main theme of the song starts around 22:57.
The same song plays in Season 2 Episode 23, starting at 19:02 until 19:57.
What is this song?

Our Home, the 17th track of Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphan OST II album.  YouTube link


Is there more than 1 type of light novel in the Spice and Wolf series? I've always thought there is only 1 type of light novel for this series (which is translated to other languages).
But I saw on Amazon that they are offering to sell 3 types of the same light novel.

You can see that below the title section, where it says "See all 3 formats and editions". After that, you need to press the arrow on the left side to see all the 3 novels.

I'm wondering what are the differences between them.

These are just the different cover release versions. At one point, Yen Press was printing these with a slipcover case on them that shows a more "appealing cover" for the Americanized audience. However, not everyone liked this. They're not available anymore and were a limited print only, so the versions Amazon has listed are the normal and slip covered version (plus the one they fulfill, the none slip cover one.)

You can find the original press release here.

I actually own some of these, although I usually display the original Japanese covers as I prefer them. I've attached some photos so you can get a good idea of how they look in real life.

I hope this helps.


What is the music that plays when Shirley is testing out the headphones? There's this song in Code Geass I really like. It plays when Lelouch partially erases Shirley's memories in R1 and when Shirley is testing out the headphones in maybe episode 3 in R2 (at around the 18 minutes mark). Can someone please tell me its name?

According to this reddit thread the song is Masquerade

The vocals, lyrics and composition seem to be all done by Kuroishi Hitomi

It's a great song, it's a shame they seem to have all been taken down off of youtube. If you want a physical copy, Masquerade is the 13th track on this album.


What's the song usually used on the most intense parts and most cool parts in Eureka Seven? I'm looking for a specific song from the soundtrack of Eureka Seven, but I'm having a hard time finding it.

The song plays usually during the most intense parts and most cool parts of the show, like when something whimsical happens. The song has vocals and is very smooth to the ears.

An example is in episode 6, a song with a really nice guitar riff and vocal around 14:16 minutes in. It's like J-rock.

I think the song you are looking for is Storywriter. It's the main theme of Eureka Seven. You can find it on youtube very easily by searching "Storywriter". Don't hesitate to go further in the song because the beginning can be misleading.


Curfew in Academy City In A Certain Scientific Railgun, it's mentioned several times that there is a curfew for students in Academy City. Why is this so? Can someone explain to me please.

Some schools within the city are like most boarding school have curfew's for their students. Tokiwadai being a prestigious all girls school has a particularly strict one, reasoning being girls shouldn't be out late. Not all schools have them it seems. Judgement act is similar authority as prefects for people and students within the city.


Ranma 1/2 Season 7, Ep. 151, The Kuno Sibling Scandal - Score Adorable, goofy song.
Could someone tell me what the song is at around 7:04, where Kuno Tatewaki jumps Ranma to reclaim his album of girl-Ranma pics, on the bridge with Kodachi? It's hilarious.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLnwCZuYCnE

Thanks in advance.

Found it!

34:03 -35:46 Kenji Kawai - Come Back Here! [Chuugoku Nekonron Daikessen! Okite Yaburi No Geki]

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvSHGaoP43c


Can hunters change their specialization through training? How did characters in Hunter x Hunter got their specialization or affinity? It is said that the specialization or affinity is based on the potential the characters got during their birth. Can they change the specialization or affinity they have just by thinking or training? But if they can, how can they train something they don't have? Like if they can't shoot the aura out, how will they get the specialization of shooting the aura by training?

Also, how come Franklin can shoot aura from his hands when he was born with human hands? How did Chrollo acquire spell stealing when there is no one to train with at the city of wasteland?

Can hunters change their specialization through training? No, they can't, simple as that. The manga also doesn't show that they can (I've read up to the Succession Contest arc). I also have yet to see a Nen user who has an affinity on one aura that changed it via training, showing that currently, it is impossible to change Nen affinity via training. Nen users only have a single affinity towards one of the six aura types.

As explained by Kurapika in Volume 12, Chapter 108, if, for example, a Conjurer tries to learn abilities other than his/her own affinity or own type, the maximum level of skill or mastery he/she can attain on these other skills (Emission, Manipulation, etc) would be lower compared to when using skills as a Conjurer. This means that a Nen user who is a Conjurer can still use abilities outside of Conjuration but with lesser strength and effectiveness. Shown below is Kurapika's maximum level of mastery on all aura types.

Kurapika, however, is one of the exceptions. He can change his affinity when his eyes become scarlet, as shown in Volume 9 Chapter 83, so he becomes a Specialist from being originally a Conjurer, making him able to access all six Nen aura types. Thus, someone can change affinity by being born as a Kurta, which has the scarlet eyes. Then again, like having an affinity towards a certain Nen type, this is not achievable through training or via other means but by being born with it. If I recall correctly, Kurapika was the only one shown in the manga like this.

How come Franklin can shoot aura from his hands when he was born with human hands? His hands are human. I have no idea where you got the assumption that his hands are anything other than human. His fingertips was the only thing he cut (Volume 9 Chapter 76) up to the distal phalanges. This, as noted in the wiki,

  ...was not required...but since self-imposed limitations can greatly enhance Nen abilities, the power of each bullet increased dramatically

He is only shooting aura from his fingertips. His hand is not mechanical or hollow and this would be pointless since the aura is from the body, not from a storage in the hand. Frank just chose to emit it in his fingertips rather than in other parts of the body.

How did Chrollo acquire spell stealing when there is no one to train with at the city of wasteland? Again, I have no idea where you got the information that no one lives in Meteor City. There are people there, that is where the Phantom Troupe originated, but they only don't exist in any official records. That doesn't mean they also, physically, do not exist. As to how Chrollo acquired his ability, that was never discussed in the manga.


What are the red waves around fighters? In the anime Baki the Grappler, there are several scenes in the 1st and 2nd season when there is a bit of a staredown and these reddish waves emanate from their bodies when two characters are about to fight.

What are these red waves?

After reading the manga, I have determined that this is the artist's way of depicting each fighter's aura or bloodlust.

It's not for a specific fighter or occasion and appears constantly throughout the anime and manga.


Who did Sue cosplay as in Genshiken Nidaime episode 9? Who did Sue cosplay as in Genshiken Nidaime episode 9? It looks a bit like Canaria from Rozen Maiden, except the doll doesn't have a crown.

The outfit is almost identical to one of the outfits of Meruru (or, more properly, Princess Merururinsu Rede Arls), the titular character of the popular JRPG Atelier Meruru. Here's a comparison of the two.

Sue (ignore the fact that the background is stitched together):

Meruru in her Alchemist costume:

I don't think I need to point out the similarities, but in particular the design of the skirt, the straps on the front of the dress, the wand, the bow on the neck, the crown, the hair style, and the flowers on the outfit are all the same.

In addition, it seems that Sue's dialogue of the episode references Meruru, so there's no doubt that this is who Sue was cosplaying as.


Language of the elf-like people? This anime is still fairly new so I may be jumping the gun a bit, but in the episodes so far the people living in the world that the protagonist Toyohisa was transported to don't appear to speak Japanese.

Now my assumption may be off as I am not a fluent speaker, but as a third semester Japanese minor I usually can pick up on some words, phrases and contexts without looking at the subtitles.

When the elves speak there is a clear change in tone, pitch and pronunciation of words.

Are they speaking a different language entirely? Or just some sort of abbreviated form?

The language is officially called "Orte", based on "Orte Empire".
In the original manga, it appears only in written form with Japanese translation (no transliteration/spoken form). The character looks like a random scribble (and even like this...), but later was thought to be a modified Japanese hiragana & katakana.

Transliteration:
げきぶ
どりふたあず
がくにを
もしわれ
さんどうする
のならゆみ
をとりやを
つがえ
From 佐とさん's Twitter

When Drifters got animated, Kouta Hirano (the author) didn't think about it at all. He mentioned it on the Twitter,

The incoherent character that I wrote randomly on the spot, known as Orte language, was adjusted to be a fictional Latin-based language by the anime staffs. I can only say sorry while dogeza-ing with my head thrusting the ground.

Seiichi Shirato, a setting researcher for Drifters, also mentioned about the difficulty in dialog speech due to Orte language. From his interview,

What's the most memorable impression when doing researches for Drifters?
The problematic one is about the dialog speech. Regarding the Orte language that is spoken by the elfs, there's a conversation to just reverse the Japanese text/dialog. When we tried it, apparently it's still similar to Japanese, thus we created a language based in Europe. There's an idea to modify Latin little by little, but since Scipio (a character in Drifters) speaks Latin, he would find out!

Surprisingly, Orte language seems to have its own language structure. A Japanese blogger tried to analyze the language, though it ended only until episode 3.
Examples:

seda- : stop (verb)
neruc- : kill (verb)
quinacos: what (intransitive)
quinacom: what (transitive)
tu: you (2nd-person pronoun)
hi/hii: he (3rd-person pronoun)


Is Naruto related to Hashirama Senju? Hashirama Senju, the 1st Hokage, married Mito Uzumaki right? So does that make him Naruto's great, great, great grandfather?

Well, both Naruto and Hashirama Senju are reincarnations of Asura. Apart from that, Hashirama could not be Naruto's direct descendant as marrying to Mito Uzumaki does not mean Mito Uzumaki is directly related to Kushina. There might be a slight chance, but the possibilities are endless, assuming the Uzumaki clan is a big clan.


Who created the Grand Priest? In Dragon Ball, the Grand Priest is said to be the father of all the angels. But how about the Grand Priest? Was he created by Xeno or by someone else, or did he just simply always exist?

During the Goku black arc we see zeno destroy all the universes and is just floating in space. My theory is that there is someone that created everything that just has not been  figured out yet. Just like beerus and whis, beerus is the destroyer god and whis is the angel and the attendant for the destroyer. Well the grand priest is the angel to the destroyer god Zeno( who is on a whole other scale from beerus and other destroyers). And Zeno is made to destroy not create, however this is all a theory. And with the new upcoming arks such as the moro ark and the Granola the surviver arc, we may find out


Who is the strongest esper in One Punch Man? In One Punch Man there are several espers. One of them claims to be stronger than Tatsumaki. Is this true? Who is the strongest esper in One Punch Man?

Update: Gyoro Gyoro(Monster who created Orochi, the king of monsters) and described by Tatsumaki as a "Bag of Flesh" was actually as said, a doll controlled by an esper. While that esper goes by the name Psykos, nothing is revealed about her yet in the manga (Much less the anime).

Spoiler from the Webcomics:

  In the Webcomics of One Punch Man (The most original version which is far ahead of the manga) created by the group One, shows the fight between Psykos and Tatsumaki. It is then revealed that Psykos was once a student/part of Fubuki's group and was nearly overpowered by Tatsumaki until the Cadets of the Monster Association attacked Tatsumaki. While defending herself against the Cadets, she didn't realize that Psykos was about to attack her until it was too late. After Tatsumaki was defeated by the surprise attack from Psykos, Fubuki comes in and attacks Psykos, which she comes out of victorious.

In conclusion, we could say that... (Spoilers)

  Fubuki is the strongest because she won against Psykos who defeated the "strongest" esper Tatsumaki, but seeing as Psykos was weakened and Fubuki had focused her training on defense against overwhelming psychic strength, they all were strong in their own ways. Tatsumaki had the overwhelming resistance and raw power to crush enemies, while Psykos and Fubuki used subtle techniques like doll manipulation (Gyoro Gyoro), and scattering the psychic waves respectively. However, as User Gary Andrews 30 pointed out, Tatsumaki was shown to be more powerful in several more instances and Fubuki's simple scattering technique didn't count as power.

Psykos's character page:

   https://onepunchman.fandom.com/wiki/Psykos


How humans became titans? I'm currently only watching the anime. I hardly read the manga but I'm very curious as to how humans become titans. Is it by some kind of drug similar to the one Eren was injected with by his father?

This contains major unmarked spoilers if you've only watched the anime, as will the linked questions.

In Eren's case, it's through a particular serum that his father injected into him just after the fall of Shiganshina, shown in chapter 71 of the manga. This serum was stolen from the true royal family by Eren's father, and is used to allow the subject to turn into a titan. As well as Eren, Rod Reiss is also shown as being able to transform after he has some of the serum:

"...he himself scrounges the fluid off the floor[...]. After ingesting it, he turns into a gigantic Titan considered by Levi and Armin to be bigger than the Colossal Titan."
 Rod Reiss on the SnK Wiki

Certain humans that are also 'titan shifters' seem to have this ability inherently, or at the very least, it hasn't been covered as to where they gained it - this includes the likes of Annie, Reiner and Bertholt.
Additionally, if a titan shifter is eaten, a titan with a human inside will gain the ability to shift between two forms. This is evident in the case of Ymir, discussed in this question.


How could Ichigo purify souls with Zangetsu? In the anime and presumably the manga, we see at least one instance of Ichigo using Zangetsu to purify a soul.  But how is this possible?  Zangetsu is the manifestation of Ichigo's Quincy power, which is known to destroy souls rather than purify them.  How does this work?

There are three reasons why Ichigo can purify Hollows.

Rukia transferred her powers into Ichigo, which would mean that he not only has the ability to see Hollows properly, but also that his general Soul Reaper powers would largely mirror hers.  He wouldn't have inherited any of her abilities, but the situation would be no different than him being a Soul Reaper trainee sent on assignment in the real world, fighting and purifying Hollows.
Ichigo has these powers innately with him, given that

   his father was the former 10th squadron's captain, and that would make him also half-Soul Reaper and half-Quincy.

This means that, at a miniumum, any previously awakened powers were only limited in capacity, but not directly impacted.
Quincies make use of bows and arrows (and sometimes other implements) made exclusively from their Spirit Pressure, which have the direct effect of destroying a Hollow and upsetting the balance.  Only a Soul Slayer could effectively destroy Hollows.


Was all the source material from the Zetsuen no Tempest manga adapted into the anime? Was all the source material from the Zetsuen no Tempest manga adapted into the anime? I could check myself but I'd rather avoid spoilers.

According to Baka-Updates:

Starts at Volume 1, Chapter 1
Ends at Chapter 44 with some differences

Manga has 50 chapters and additional materials (Guidebook)


Chakra nature of Tailed Beasts As we all know that Kurama's chakra is of the healing nature type. This is known from many mentions about it in the wiki page of Naruto Uzumaki.

My question is, what is the nature type of the chakra of the other Tailed beasts?

Note: This is my thinking why there should have been a nature type to each of the tailed beasts.

As we all know that when Rikudō Sennin was about to die, he split his powers among his two sons (the older son inherited his powerful chakra and spiritual energy, and the younger son inherited his powerful life force and physical energy). Similarly, when creating the nine tailed beasts from the Shinju, he must have split the chakra based on their nature so that each tailed beast had a unique natured chakra.

Any insight on this would be very much welcomed.

A few facts first:

Kurama's chakra isn't healing type. Minato sealed Yang-Kurama in Naruto, which resulted in the chakra Kurama gave him to be Yang oriented. This adds the healing properties to that chakra.
Not all tailed beasts have a known nature, but some do.

So the natures:

Shukaku - Wind, evident by the Drilling Air Bullet he fired at Gamabunta.
Matatabi - Fire, evident by the fireball she fired at Hidan and Kakuzu when they battled her.
Isobu - Water, obvious.
Son Goku - Lava (Earth and Fire), evident by multiple lava techniques reanimated Roshi used while in Jinchuuriki form.
Kokuo - Not revealed. His Jinchuuriki was said to use the Steam element (Fire and Water)
Saiken - Not revealed. His Jinchuuriki uses Water element and specializes in bubbles. Saiken himself was shown to be able to spit acid.
Chomei - Not revealed. Not much was revealed about its Jinchuuriki too.
Gyuuki - Not revealed, but presumed Lightning. His Jinchuuriki uses Lightning.
Kurama - Not revealed, but presumed Yin-Yang. His Jinchuuriki was shown to have remarkable stamina and healing properties, which suggest Yang nature which is compatible with the half of Kurama he had. The other half's chakra was not explained thoroughly.
Last but not least

   Shinju (God Tree; Juubi) - Natural Energy and Yin-Yang. Evident by the techniques Obito uses after becoming its Jinchuuriki, as well as what was revealed in the manga.


Are Awakened Zoan users able to change form? We have been introduced to 5 characters (all Impel Down Jailers) with "Awakened" Zoan Devil Fruits. Minotaurus is the most famous of them. A normal Zoan fruit allows the user to transform between Natural (normally human), Animal (based on the devil fruit type), and Hybrid forms.  I can't, however, remember any of the "Mino" guards in any form besides a exageratedly strong version of the Hybrid one.

At the time I thought "Awakened" meant that the fruit was always active so they were stuck as partially animals (as well as give the strengths Crocodile mentioned).  With Doflamingo's Paramecia fruit, however, awakening appears to just unlock new abilities.  This made me doubt my previous understanding.  Wiki doesn't help and I don't have time to rewatch everything.

Do we know whether Awakened Zoan Devil Fruit users retain the ability to transform into multiple forms?

If the answer to this is "Oda hasn't told us yet", that is sufficient.

I don't believe Oda has told us yet, and with how nebulous the definition of what makes for an "awakened" devil fruit user is, without canon stating one way or another there's not really any way we can solidly theorize a yes or no. I would presume that they would retain their ability to transform back and forth because that would make Chopper kind of lame if it didn't (but he'd be a pretty good golfer, because he'd lose all of his points [insert rimshot]), but again, without canon describing it we can't say definitively one way or another.


Four people excluded from the kill list of Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath In Overlord Season 3 Episode 12, Ainz decides to use the baby goats (Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath) to show his power to the other countries.

  Begin pursuit, my adorable baby goats!

  That's right. There are three... No, four people that you must not kill. Do not hurt those select four!

Who are these people? And why are they excluded from the killing list?

I only know of 3. Not 100% certain, but based on speculation and supporting evidence.

First:

As evidenced by Ainz propositioning Gazef to join him as his subordinate, it can be assumed that he is 1 of the 4 people because he wants Gazef to join him.

Second:

This one is based on speculation, but presumably the second person is King Ramposa III. The goal is to annex the Re-Estize Kingdom. The country would fall into ruin and chaos if the king were to die at Katze Plains, especially with the disappearance (death) of Prince Barbro, and would hinder Nazarick's ability to take over the country.

Third: Spoiler Alert

   At this point in the story, Princess Renner is already in contact and working with Demiurge and Nazarick. She has asked them not to kill Climb.

Fourth Possibilities:

Uncertain. Anybody is free to comment who they think the fourth person is.

Brain: He has met Shalltear and Sebas. While Shalltear didn't even recognize him, maybe Sebas mentioned him to Ainz after the events with the Eight Fingers. Seems unlikely Ainz would see any value in Brain's life as of this moment, but possible.

Marquis Raeven:
A high ranking noble who currently supports Prince Zanac's claim to the throne. Spoiler Alert.

   As we know, Princess Renner is working with Demiurge and Nazarick, and she is currently working with Prince Zanac, though more likely she is manipulating him, so that he can wed Renner to Climb once he claims the throne. As one of Zanac's most powerful supporters, perhaps Renner asked Ainz to also not kill him, so not to reduce Prince Zanac's influence in the kingdom. Possible, but seems unlikely given that after the events at Katze Plains, Raeven was so traumatized that he abandoned his post and returned to private territory.