Has Miko Ino's morality been corrupted? In Volume 16, Miko Ino does and says some things that don't seem to match her rigid sense of justice and morality. In Battle 154: Kaguya Shinomiya's Impossible Demand: "A Cowrie a Swallow Gave Birth To," Part 2, Miko Ino offers alcoholic truffles to her classmates at a party, saying,

"If you want to get drunk for real, you can have some of my whiskey-filled truffles."

When asked whether this is legal, Miko Ino replies with a legal loophole,

"The Minors Prohibition Act forbids the serving of alcohol to underage kids. But food isn't forbidden, so it's legal. Plausible deniability. But please don't have too many."

Then, even worse, in Battle 156: Miko Ino Can't Love, Part 2, Miko Ino chastises Ishigami for not engaging in promiscuous activities with someone who might have been drunk (Ino might not have known this) and who was only willing to engage in such activities out of pity for Ishigami (or rather, she didn't want to let him down or hurt him). Miko Ino says,

"How could you be so stupid?! I can't believe you just ran out of the room and abandoned Tsubame! You chose your stupid pride over... Sigh You're beyond help. You must have hurt Tsubame's feelings. You're a man... Why would you get cold feet? You should have considered how she would feel if you rejected her."

What is the best way to understand these events? Is Miko Ino distraught and acting out of character? Has the craziness of the student council eroded her sense of justice? Or is this a matter of cultural difference? Are Japan's mores so different from the ones I'm familiar with in my own culture that it causes these events to seem strange? I suspect there is a difference in mores, but I've seen Ino complain about illicit relationships , so I'm not sure cultural differences can fully explain this.

Due to my own lack of knowledge, I can't speak to the cultural differences in play here (though I do think they're relevant), but there is textual evidence to suggest that Miko Ino is distraught over Ishigami romantically pursuing another girl, which is likely making Ino behave strangely.
Though Miko Ino doesn't acknowledge her feelings to herself, it is implied by other characters and by how she secretly assists Ishigami that she probably has romantic feelings for him. For instance, Ino seems to greatly enjoy Ishigami waiting hand-and-foot on her while her arm is broken.
In Battle 158: Miko Ino Can't Love Part 3, there are many implicit suggestions. While talking to her friends, Miko Ino says,

Hey, I've been wondering... How can I explain this...? I've been trying to figure out... How come... Ishigami came over... afterwards, and...

From the text and from the strange look in her eyes, it seems Miko is confused about her own thoughts and feelings for Ishigami. Onondera's response is

"Well... Now's your chance... to make Ishigami your slave. He needs an outlet for his guilt anyway... so it's a win-win situation for both of you."

To which Miko Ino gives an affirmative response. On the other hand, Ino's friend Kobachi Osaragi sees trouble coming, leaving us with this ominous statement at the end of the chapter:

"Uh-oh. This is a bad strategy. Really bad. This is really bad. Miko is... going to realize it soon."

And this is said against the backdrop of a picture of Ino blushing while holding Ishigami's hand as he helps her up the stairs.
There is some textual evidence of Ino being a bit distraught. In Battle 154: Kaguya Shinomiya's Impossible Demand: "A Cowrie a Swallow Gave Birth To," Part 2, a dismayed and worried Ishigami notes,

"Damn it. She looks desperate for male attention."

Further proof of both Ino being distraught over Ishigami courting someone else and of her having romantic feeling for Ishigami is in the same chapter, when she slurs these words:

Why are you alwaysh... so mean to me? You don't talk like that to anyone elshe... You always, always, always look down on me! I hate you sho much! But you're nice to other people! Be nice to me... like you were at the culture festival... The way you're nice to Tsubame...

Here, she explicitly names Tsubame and indicates jealousy of the way Ishigami treats her compared to Tsubame. This would seem to indicate that she probably likes Ishigami herself, and that she's feeling out of sorts because of Ishigami courting Tsubame.


Why did Marley send titans to Paradis Island in the first place? We see later in the series that the nation of Marley have been turning people into titans and dumping them on the shore of Paradis. But why? King Fritz warned the world that if the citizens of the wall were ever threatened by an outside force he would send the colossus titans inside the walls to flatten the Earth. So why send titans? I assume its a kind of revenge for the great titan war, but why risk the wrath of the king?

High-ranking people in Marley nation such as the Tybur family probably knew about the king's lie. As Willy Tybur admitted knowing this in the episode "Declaration of War" episode 4 of the final season.

Also, the beast titan (the predecessor of Zeke) knew about the oath. I don't remember the manga chapter.

However (perhaps) hiding this secret was used as a tactical strategy to motivate people to attack the island (not everyone is going to buy that " one gazillions years ago their ancestor killed your ancestor so turn them into zombies and lock them behind bars").
So because high-rank people knew about the bluff and hated Eldians for their "sins" and they wanted their resources and the founding titan, they keep harassing the island while used that bluff to motivate people against them at the same time.


How come Yuki Onna turn into a kid? Lord Second Era

As seen in Episode Number 8, during Gyuki's flashback, Yuki Onna can be seen as a woman with both adult facial feature and height.

Lord Third Era (Now, Episode 1-...)

Now, Yuki Onna is as tall as human form of Sandaime and has kid-like facial feature, which is kawai :D.

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?

NOTE: I am asking HOW not WHY

Although unrelated, the reason why she did this might be something like this:

Those are two different Yuki Onna. The one that appears in the first picture is the mother of the one that appears in the second one. If you read the manga, it is explained in further depth there. (Sorry I forgot their names since it was a long time since I read the manga.)


If Brook drown or even touch those Seastone handcuffs, shouldn't he die since the power aren't working anymore? I know that Oda already made something similar happen but could it be a logical flaw? I also know that a similar question has been asked but nobody answered anything relevant to what I wanted to understand.

Not at all.

Being in seawater or exposed to seastone doesn't change the physical make-up of paramecia type devil fruit users it merely incapacitates them as demonstrated when Luffy was immersed in seawater during the Arlong arc, while he was unable to move his neck was still able to stretch allowing Nami to hold his head above water.

By that same token Brook wouldn't be able to make any active use of his abilities but he'd still stay in his undead state.


What anime is this girl with pink hair on a key chain from? I'm wondering what anime this character is from?
She's so cute that I just bought it anyway but I feel silly not knowing if anyone asks me about it. I would be very happy to know.

Thank you!

That keychain is actually Meruru from Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai.

But it's totally understandable to mistaken it as Madoka at first glance.


What happened in the fight between Zoro and Monet? In the Punk Hazard Arc, Zoro has a fight with a logia named Monet. She had the snow snow no mi power. In that fight Zoro defeated Monet not using haki but using some form of fear relating to an animal.

How exactly did zoro defeat Monet using this new ability of his? What this ability of his do? Have we seen the same ability like this being used by someone else?

If you look at the wiki page of Monet, the fight is very clearly explained in there (emphasis mine).

Sanji, Tashigi, and the G-5 Marines suddenly arrive at the Biscuits Room while Monet and Zoro are dueling. The Marines compliment on Monet's beauty, causing her to blush, and hiding her blush with her wings, and buckling her legs, despite the serious situation. After realizing that they are also attempting to get the children, Monet transforms into her demonic body again and attacks the Marines out of fury, biting off a Marine's shoulder. Tashigi then slices her with a Haki-imbued attack, injuring her. She then declares that she will stay and fight Monet.
While Tashigi and Zoro argue, Monet tries to use a sneak attack on Tashigi and gets the upper hand due to her speed. After Tashigi easily dodges her "Snow Rabbits" attack using Soru, Monet opts to blind her with her blizzard and then sinks her teeth into Tashigi's shoulder, trying to tear it off as she did to one of the Marines. However, Tashigi gets a hold of her, making her unable to tear her shoulder off. As Monet starts to bite harder on Tashigi's shoulder, Zoro cuts the harpy in the cheek, making her let go of Tashigi. She is surprised at first because she assumed Zoro would never attack women, but gets outright frozen in fear as she sees the swordsman rush towards her. Monet is then sliced vertically in half by Zoro.
However, Zoro did not imbue Haki into his attack, allowing Monet to survive. Due to realizing what would have happened had he used Haki however, she is left terrified to the point where she can hardly put her body back together. As Zoro walks away, Monet manages to partially reform and attempts to stab him in the back with her ice picks, but Tashigi quickly deals the finishing blow. Monet then falls to the ground, defeated.

Thus to answer your question, How exactly did Zoro defeat Monet using this new ability of his?, there is no new ability/technique which Zoro used against Monet. It was just that Monet was under the belief that Zoro would not attack women (as he was just defending against her and not attacking when trying to save Nami, Robin, and Chopper). But suddenly, when she sees him attack, she's stunned that she was wrong and what would have happened had Zoro used Haki in that attack. That leaves her in a terrified state so much so that she is not able to get a grip of herself for a while.


Yobisute (no honorifics) at the end of Monogatari Series Second Season Episode 24 At the end of the episode Kaiki doesn't use any honorifics...

   ...when speaking with Hanekawa.

This is highly unusual since they have never spoken with each other before. What is the significance of him deciding to use yobisute?

I don't think there's anything unusual about it. You're right that in real life, omitting honorific suffixes (i.e. yobisute) when first meeting someone would be unusual, and may even be considered downright rude. When it comes to anime characters, on the other hand, that just isn't so. Characters will often refer to others in ways that would be considered inappropriate in real life.1
Kaiki, in particular, never uses honorifics, except for senpai for Gaen Izuko (and that, too, is inconsistent). Consider the first time Kaiki refers to Karen by name (in episode 5 of Nisemonogatari; also their first meeting):

KAIKI: どうした？震えているぞ、阿良々木。
KAIKI: What's the matter? You're shaking, Araragi. [no honorific]

And later, when Kaiki first refers to Koyomi by name (in episode 7 of Nisemonogatari; only their second meeting):

KAIKI: …あの元気のいいお嬢さん、お前の妹のことなら、心配することはない、阿良々木。
KAIKI: ...As for that lively girl, your sister - you needn't worry, Araragi. [no honorific]

All said and done, Kaiki's failure to use honorifics when addressing Hanekawa doesn't really mean anything. That's just how Kaiki speaks, and more generally speaking, is how a lot of anime characters speak.

Notes
1 This is why people who learn how to speak Japanese by watching anime often have a skewed sense of what is considered polite in Japanese society - anime characters are often pretty darned rude by real-life standards. This question on Japanese.SE has a bit to say on that topic.


Do the details of these hands with Hebrew letters have any real-life meaning? At the beginning of episode 2 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, we see this drawing of two hands with inscriptions that use Hebrew letters. (Click for larger image.)

This appears to originate from Kabbalah: I found a similar image on the Jewish Virtual Library, where at the very least, the assignment of יה and וה to different hands matches up.

However, I can't figure out if the text in the palm of the hand corresponds to something in real-life, and the letters on the fingers also don't seem to match up with those in the image I found from the Jewish Virtual Library. (It's of course possible that they do, and that I simply have too much difficulty reading them.) I also remember seeing a comment on Reddit saying that some Hebrew text in Fate/zero made no sense at all before, so I'm not discounting the possibility that the anime producers just made something up.

Can someone help shed light on the issue of whether the details of the hands shown in FMA:B have any real-life meaning?

I'm a native Hebrew speaker, and it doesn't really have any meaning. There's also Hebrew in the 4th ending, and there are some real words in there but no actual sentences, so I'm 99% sure that it is incidental. Also the script in the palm of the hands in the picture above is in fact Hebrew, but like someone else has commented the fingers contain random scribbles and Japanese kana (I also speak Japanese lol). The script used in the picture from the Kabbalah is actually the exact same Hebrew font as the one from the other pic, just not the same letters. They use a font that is quite similar to the one used in religious texts.


Why "Father Roberto" but "Father Hiraga"? In Vatican Miracle Examiner, the main characters are often addressed as Fathers Roberto and Hiraga. Thus, Roberto is addressed by his personal name, whereas Hiraga is addressed by his surname. (Hiraga's full name, using English-style ordering, is Josef Kou Hiraga. Josef seems like a name taken upon entering the priesthood.)

Why is there such a discrepancy? What I've seen in the past (e.g. in The Brothers Karamazov) suggests that at the very least, it's not unusual for priests to be addressed as Father + $personal_name, and Hiraga's form of address does not fit that.

It seems this is a highly speculative question.
From research, I found out that the formal way to speak to a priest is  Father + Name + Surname.
Still, as is, those are not mandatory rules, and the priest might prefer to be called a specific way and say so to his congregation.

So, the discrepancy between Father Roberto and Father Hiraga could be because of his personal choice.
Or because people read his name in the japanese order and see Hiraga as the first name.
It also might the decision of the writer to apply japanese adressing etiquette to the way people call the character.

I don't think a definitive in scenario answer will be possible.


Did Kale knock out Goku? In Dragon Ball Super episode 100,

   After Kale went all rage in super saiyajin green "berserker", and after she fired ki blasts in all directions, Goku appeared in base form after being in super saiyajin blue. Though I dont think wee see a ki blast impacting him.

Did Kale knock out Goku? or he transformed back to base form?

He simply transformed back to base form. If he was knocked out or seriously injured he would start being a lot more serious as based on his past actions throughout dragon ball(z/super). Instead when he got back he didn't look injured at all.


Does each Kaioshin have their own God of Destruction? In Dragon Ball Super, it is told that Gods of Destruction and Supreme Kais come in pairs, so if a Supreme Kai dies, Beerus also dies. What about the other Kaioshin? West Kaioshin, North Kaioshin, South Kaioshin , Grand Supreme Kai, Elder Kai, Gowasu, Zamasu, shouldn't they have or get Gods of Destruction?

And what about Kaioshin students who later on become Kaioshins, do they have a God of Destruction when they are born or when they are upgraded to Kaioshins? How does it work?

Supreme Kais are chosen from the regular Kais, for a single universe. One of the 7th Universe's Supreme Kais is the East Supreme Kai. This is process is elaborated in Chapter 16 of Dragon Ball Chou, when Zamasu undergoes training to become the Supreme Kai of the 10th Universe.

There are 12 Gods of Destruction, for each universe. It means that in one universe, there can only be one God Of Destruction.

From the wikia article on Supreme Kai:

  Normally there are three Supreme Kai in each Universe, with two on duty and if one of the Supreme Kai was to die in an accident, then the currently-inactive third Supreme Kai would grow in the Sacred World of the Kai like a plant.

Therefore, each God of Destruction is linked with the Supreme Kais of that universe.

But the article also states that:

  [Supreme Kais] are the Gods of Creation who provide the catalyst for life and planets to be born, as opposed to the Gods of Destruction who destroy life and planets, which maintains the balance of the universe.

This states that a God of Destruction and their Supreme Kais have a yin-yang relationship. One cannot exist without the other.

So the other normal Kai aren't related to the God of Destruction's well being.


What kind of drawing format is this? Pictures with litle box on top left Sometimes I find art like these on Pixiv

Sources:

https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=29538975
https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=51254835
https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=60499300
https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=63393567

The little box on the top left is usually blank and something is written in the square box next to it - sometimes it's the artist name and sometimes it's not. And usually the picture's title starts with 'C' and is followed by a two-digit number, although not always (see links).

What kind of drawing format is this? What's the little box on the top left for? And what's the meaning of 'C..' in the title? And what does the number stand for? Sometimes the title starts with 'C..' but doesn't have the same format, like this.

Note that two of the five links I provided are from pro artists. They are Akio Watanabe, the character designer from the Monogatari Series anime and Shinobu Shinotsuki, the illustrator of the Youjo Senki light novel.

What kind of drawing format is this?

It's a "Circle Cut".

In this context, "Circle" means "Doujinshi circle", and "Cut" means "Cut-out". It's exclusively used in a doujinshi market place such as Comiket, Comitia, etc to be used in the catalog.

The format is:

A little box on the upper-left: Indexing/Stall location (to be explained later)
Text inside the box on the upper-right (or none): Circle's name
The rest of the area: Free image, can be a unique image for identifying the artist, or anything related to the circle's current merchandise

  What's the little box on top left for?

The little box on the top-left is used for Indexing/Stall location. Inside the catalog, there's a list of circle-cuts with their stall location, as shown for example in the Comiket 90 catalog:

Catalog for Comiket 90, date 12 (Friday), East Hall 4-6. Left page showing stall モ43-モ60, right page showing stall ヤ1-ヤ17

For reference, this is the map of Tokyo Big Sight for East Hall 4-6:

Map of Tokyo Big Sight, East Hall 4-6

  And what's the meaning of 'C..' on title? And what does the number stand for?

It's the identification of the n-th Comiket.

As mentioned before, it's used in a doujinshi market like Comiket. Comiket is done 2 times per year (summer & winter) and each event is always identified by its serialization/number, such as Comiket 92 (C92) in this Summer 2017.

Reference:

What the heck is a "Circle Cut"?!
Comiket Event Report Part 2 - Guidelines for Comiket


Why did they break their cups after a toast? In episode 17 when they're about to welcome Satsuki's mother, they're having a toast and slam their cups to the ground. Why did they do it? Does this have anything to do with Japanese culture?

It's from a Russian tradition that went back to Peter the great and now it's done after important toasts.

From the Table-glass wikipedia page:

  A legend says that the first known faceted glass was given as a present to Tsar Peter the Great from a glass-maker called Yefim Smolin, living in Vladimir Oblast. He boasted to Tsar that his glass couldn’t be broken. Tsar Peter liked the present, however, after drinking some alcoholic beverage from it, he said loudly Let the glass be! (Russian: Стакану быть! - literally the glass be), threw the glass on the ground and managed to break it. But Peter didn’t punish the glass-maker, and the production of such glasses continued. According to the legend, people present during this episode misinterpreted the Tsar’s words and thought that Peter called to break the glasses (Russian: Стаканы бить! - literally beat glasses or break glasses), that’s how a tradition of breaking drinkware on certain occasions appeared in Russia. Glasses were broken after especially important toasts or just during the especially cheerful parties. Russian restaurants even held a special prices for breaking the glasses. Breaking of drinkware, or, in wider context, any tableware, is believed in Russia to bring luck and happiness.


What is the point of Jason asking Kaneki to count backwards by 1000-7? What is the point of asking Kaneki the question 1000-7 at several points during his torture?

Is there some character development behind the reason hid did that? Or is it a known method of torture?

2 reasons:

First one being so that Kaneki doesn't go insane
To keep him mentally aware so that he constantly feels pain instead of trying to ignore it. By keeping him mentally engaged it prevents Kaneki from ignoring the constant pain cycle (although he later goes on to say that it helped him keep his mind on something else besides the pain - linking back to bullet 1, keeping him sane)

Source: Chapter 61 page 9 :)


How strong is Hatchiyack in Dragon Ball? IIRC, Hatchiyack in the OVA plan to eradicate the saiyans was able to fight Piccolo, Goku SSJ, Gohan SSJ, Vegeta SSJ and Trunks SSJ? How strong is he supposed to be compared to saiyans now in Dragon Ball Heroes and before in his first appearence?

In the movie, Goku states that he was probably stronger than Broly at full Power (Note: This is with reference to the non-canon iteration of Legendary Super Saiyan Broly).With reference to DBH, in the manga, he is indicated to be stronger than Majin Ozotto. However, in the game, he is indicated to be much stronger and it takes the combined efforts of Majin Ozotto, Future Trunks and Cooler to defeat him


Calm music played after pain destroyed leaf village I have been searching for this music for long time, but couldn't find one, what is the music at time 20.51  when pain destroys the leaf village and everybody are rising after destruction, it's a music like a lady is singing.

This music also played when kaguya first appeard at time 1.30

Name of the song is:
Shippuu Kumikyoku ( Hurricane Suite )

Artist: Yasuharu Takanashi

Album:Naruto Shippuden OST 1
- Track 28 -

  The main problem is that exactly version of the song used in anime (with women vocals) is very hard to find (maybe impossible), but you can try it, if you want, and have time..

I managed to find one, only choir without music, labeled as unreleased soundtrack:
Naruto Shippuuden Unreleased Soundtrack - Hurricane Suite (choir only)


Where can I watch all the Kamisama Kiss episodes, including the OVAs, in either english sub or dub? I was wondering if anyone knows where I can watch all of the Kamisama Kiss episodes online in either english sub or dub?

I'm pretty sure the anime consists of 2 seasons, and then 7 OVA episodes?

Please, I really love this anime, somebody please help me!

Kamisama Kiss has been licensed for streaming by Funimation Entertainment.

Hulu streams 25 episodes (season 1 & 2) in English dubbed and English subbed with Japanese audio.
Funimation Channel (US only) streams 25 episodes (season 1 & 2) in English dubbed and English subbed with Japanese audio.

The OVAs do not seem to be licensed, so there is no way to watch it in English sub/dub legally.


Why are there 2 sources for power levels/skills in My Hero Academia, the Ultra Archive, and the Ultra Analysis? The My Hero Academia wikia list 2 sources for characters power levels/skills, the Ultra Archive and the Ultra Analysis. They have different figures for the same skills of the same characters. Why are there 2 sources for power levels/skills in My Hero Academia, the Ultra Archive, and the Ultra Analysis? Is one of them more canon or official than the other?

The books you are referring to are both official character books. My Hero Academia Official Character Book Ultra Archive is the first book and was released back in 2016. My Hero Academia Official Character Book 2 Ultra Analysis is the second book released this year in 2019.

I would say there are two books to update the information we have on new heroes, villains and/or characters. Looking at their wiki pages, (Ultra Archive, Ultra Analysis) one can see that the second book has new heroes/villains that were not present in the first character guide book.


What are these designs based on? I've noticed a recurring design in anime, manga, and other Japanese art and I'm wondering where it comes from. It's basically a jet-like machine or creature with a pointed head, tufted "ears", long neck, and sharp wings attached to a back-heavy body. Here's some examples:

The Gekko from Eureka Seven:

Latias/Latios from Pokémon:

Chiara Toscana's weapon/vehicle from Shakugan no Shana:

Are these simply coincidences or is it a design trope, similar to something like mecha? Is there more history behind this shape? If you know of any other examples, I'd love to know about them.

As @ʞɹɐzǝɹ and @seijitsu mentioned in the comments, these designs appear to be based on birds. Specifically, the long neck and football-shaped body look like a crane or goose.

The red-crowned crane has a significant place in Japanese and Chinese culture. It figures in the fairy tale Tsuru no Ongaeshi. As txteclipse mentioned in the comments, Japan Airlines even uses the red-crowned crane as its logo; the Wikipedia article says this symbol was chosen by an American branding expert due to the positive image of the crane in Japanese culture and mythology. Given that, it makes sense that Japanese artists would think of using the crane as a basis for imaginary creatures or flying vehicles.

The crane-like design is also unusual in real world aircraft. As you can see from the first image of the goose, the goose's and crane's wings angle forwards; this is replicated in the OP's first image of the Gekko from Eureka 7. Real-world aircraft tend to have a more straight, cylindrical body and wings which angle backwards:

These differences give aircraft based on the crane design a unique, fantastical appearance.

I couldn't track down any species of crane or goose which has tufted "ears" like the Gekko or Latios. Some geese do have tufted feathers, but they seem to be always on the back of the head. However, some bird species, such as the the great horned owl and the juvenile of the house finch, do have such tufted "ear" feathers:

When it comes to designing a fictional creature or aircraft, a design based on the crane's head is a little bit boring to look at. The tufted head feathers also come from real-life birds, but they add visual interest to the head area, without seeming too ridiculous or over-the-top like the head adornments of certain bird species.


Where to watch My Hero Academia: Two Heroes? So I've been searching for a place to watch My Hero Academia: Two Heroes but I can't find any. If anyone has a link to a legal streaming site or knows where to watch it, that would be great. Thanks!

As @Dimitrimx♦ mentioned, there is no site which streams the movie legally yet and as of now, I can't find any news as to when and where it will be possible to stream it online, if ever it will be made available online.

You can, however, opt for Blurays. I was able to find a subbed version on Amazon in case you're interested. Most likely they're also available in other online stores that sell Blurays, if you're looking for other options.


What's the origin of spiral glasses as a Japanese stereotype? I've noticed - and indubitably, others have, too, as noted on this TV Tropes page - that often, whenever a "nerdy" character wears glasses in anime, they have a spiral shape on them. Examples are easy to find, with popular examples including Saori from Oreimo:

In particular, I became curious upon noticing them in Berserk, on Puck's "business" glasses:

I was just wondering, since this trope seems so ubiquitous in Japanese cultures and rare in others - what is the origin of this design? What about the spiral shape is intended to elicit an aura of "geekiness", and what major origins or influences led to its widespread use today?

There was supposedly a time, before innovation introduced plastic lenses, when glasses were made with the bottom of cow milk bottles.

Bottom of a milk bottle manufactured in Hiroshima, Showa 35 (1960)

As you can see, the bottom of the bottle has concentric circles, and the spirals seen in manga basically come from there, and evolved into spirals later.

Basically, the idea of the spirals is to emphasize the fact that the lenses of the glasses worn by a character are overly thick, so they are similar to these old days glasses. Effectively, one of the stereotypes/means to recognize otakus in late 90s in Japan was their thick-lens glasses.

There is also the idea that spirals are associated to another trope of being dizzy, basically a negative emotion that can be attached to the negative stereotypes surrounding otaku.

This trope is so strong that it's literally called "bottle's bottom glasses" in Japanese (瓶底眼鏡), and if you google "bottom of cow milk bottle" (牛乳瓶の底), you will see countless glasses results, as many opticians use the trope as their business' name.


What are the cats watching? So I came across the following picture in chat. What anime are the cats watching?

Even cats love anime.

The anime the cats are watching is Black Butler

(Extract from the linked wikipedia page)

The series follows Ciel Phantomhive, the thirteen-year-old head of the Phantomhive noble family and the business-savvy owner of the Funtom company, a toy manufacturer.
Ciel has formed a demonic contract with Sebastian Michaelis. In return, when Sebastian has helped Ciel finish all of his tasks, including avenging his parents' deaths, Sebastian will be allowed to consume Ciel's soul.
It was announced in July 2008 that an anime adaption, directed by Toshiya Shinohara and produced by A-1 Pictures, was expected.
It premiered in October 2008, and has since ended with 24 episodes. The second season aired in 2010 spanning 12 episodes with two new main characters, Alois Trancy and Claude Faustus.
The series has been licensed by Yen Press in North America and published in Yen Plus' August 2009 issue for the magazine's first anniversary.


What was the first anime that used a split-cour format? Split-cour airing format is a noticeable trend in the anime industry recently. Unlike most multi-season shows that are aired two or more seasons in succession, split-cour shows have a break in between that usually lasts 3 months (1-cour). However, these cours are produced  as a single product over the course of several months, not two separate anime, per se. For more information on cours and split-cours, this question might help.

Recent examples of anime that followed this format are:

Space Dandy - Winter 2014 [break: Spring] Summer 2014
Hitsugi no Chaika - Spring 2014 [break: Summer] Fall 2014
Aldnoah.Zero - Summer 2014 [break: Fall] Winter 2015
Tokyo Ghoul - Summer 2014 [break: Fall] Winter 2015

Some upcoming anime that are announced to be split-cour are Durararax2, F/SN UBW, and the Grisaia VN franchise, though I'm not really sure. Anyway, as the title states: I want to know what was the first anime that used this format of having a 3-month break in between cour/s.

Based on an AniDB search (details below), I'd wage that first such series was Fate/Zero. It started airing on 02.10.2011, had 1 cour break after episode 13 on 25.12.2011, resumed on 06.04.2012 and finished on 24.06.2012.

I ran an advanced search based on following criteria:

( ) characters in title (AniDB marks cours by putting year date in
parentheses)
must be a TV Series
between 10 and 28 episodes (your definition, as I understand it, requires "regular" cour formats)
first episode already aired

Because of deficiencies in AniDB search engine, I could not specify several useful indicators, such as sequel-prequel relation. So I sorted results by air date and examined each individually.

There are older series that aired with a split, but you requested it to be exactly 1 cour (3 months) long. Notably, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is described by Wikipedia as having been planned from start to end before airing:

  The staff, consisting of over 300 people, spent roughly two years planning the series.

However, the split took 2 cours, from 29.03.2008 to 05.10.2008. If not for the 3 months condition, I'd say that this was indeed first series to air in split-cour format.

Another case is Major, which also had longer split (from 10.06.2006 to 06.01.2007) yet aired before Gundam 00. However, at the time of airing, it was not a "finished product" but ongoing adaptation of still unfinished manga.


What happened to the other Eternian Astrisk Users? In Bravely Second while you end up meeting with most of the Eternian Astrisk Users, seeing what happened to them years after the events of the previous game.

However i have noticed some of them are missing mainly

Vincent S. Court - The Spirit Master
Victoria F. Stein - The Anarchist
Sage Yulyana - The Conjuour
Lester DeRosso - The Vampire
Doctor Qada - The Salve-Maker

Now on the one hand Lester DeRosso may no longer exists because he gave up his life to stop Lord Ouroboros's regeneration however there is only 1 Lord Ouroboros and there are multiple Luxendarc which means only 1 Lester DeRosso sacrificed himself.

With Sage Yulyana in a sidequest in Bravely Second if you side with Mephilia Venus and defeat Nobutsuna Kamiizumi she says something about how Sage Yulyana may no longer be of the world after fighting a Ba'al (i assume it was Diamante) however it is hinted that it was Sage Yulyana who told Ominus Crow about Femto Flare being a weapon to stop a Ba'al and in the past no one knew about Ba'als until Diamante decimated the moon and crashed on Luxendarc

So i am wondering what has happened to the other Eternian Astrisk Users1

1: to be honest i could give a crap about Doctor Qada but for completion sake i have added him

Unmarked spoilers for Bravely Default and Bravely Second below.

Not accounting for the alternate reality versions, of which there are several for each character, this is the status of each of the listed characters by the time of Bravely Second:

Victor S. Court - killed by the party in Eternian Central Command back in Bravely Default (you listed Vincent S. Court, which is actually Victor's father. Vincent was killed by Victoria before the events of Bravely Default)
Victoria F. Stein - killed by the party in Eternian Central Command back in Bravely Default, along with Victor.
Sage Yulyana - killed in the battle with the Ba'al, Diamante. He managed to seal Diamante into the Kustra Archipelago before he died.
Lester DeRosso - disappeared from Luxendarc. This one is slightly more vague. The DeRosso we see sacrifice himself against Ouroboros in Bravely Default is the one from that "final world" and not from the original world that the characters originate from. After the events of Bravely Default, the original DeRosso helped Yulyana hide the weapons that Yulyana had previously stolen from the Crystal Orthodoxy (the OP weapons in the blue chests, if you played the game) in small pocket dimensions under Centro Keep and Mount Karka. He vanished after that, no longer being found in Vampire Castle (occupied by Yōko) nor anywhere else in Luxendarc.
Qada - killed by Kamiizumi. He intended to overthrow the Duchy after being defeated by the party in Bravely Default, but was overheard and struck down by Kamiizumi. According to the wiki, his ghost remained there, and was unaware that he had been killed.


Why was Yamakan replaced by Takemoto as director of Lucky Star? When Lucky Star began airing, the show's director was Yamamoto Yutaka ("Yamakan", as he is often referred to). However, after 4 episodes, he was taken off the project and replaced by Takemoto Yasuhiro (one of Kyoto Animation's longer-time directors), who went on to direct the remainder of the show.

What happened? This is the only time in KyoAni's history (since they started being a main production studio in 2003, anyway) that a show's director has been changed midway. Kind of weird, huh?

I'm aware of the general belief - that Yamakan's direction of the first four episodes was so bad that they had no choice but to get rid of him - but I'm looking for specifics, preferably from the mouths of the people involved.

The official reason given has been a very vague "He has not yet reached a level required of a director."

  「らき☆すた」監督の山本寛は、監督において、まだ、その域に達していない

Because of that, people assume because the 4 episodes he produced for Lucky Star were of such poor quality, he was sacked. That said, no one else has been fired from KyoAni or AniDo in this manner ever since, so the situation left many puzzled.

Shortly after his firing, people speculated he was fired for sexual harassment instead, especially after an anonymous person claiming to be staff posted that he had stalked her several times. Nothing was directly confirmed, but his behavior after getting fired didn't help in this either. During production for Wake Up, Girls!, he harassed the female seiyuu (who were of high-school age at the time) to the point she had to tell him to cut it out. He's also criticized the #MeToo movement, claiming he would proudly continue to tease/harass women.

Just recently, an anime adaption of a light novel got canceled for racism against Chinese being prominent in the story. Yamakan complained it was the end of anime and stated in his blog that he also has racist views.

Generally, bad director or not, he's consistently proven himself to not be a good person, and it's highly likely that him "not being ready to be a director" was just the nicest way KyoAni could put it as their reason for firing him.


Can a person killed by Death Soul Reaper be brought back to life through Reanimation? While fighting Orochimaru, Sandaime Hokage Hiruzen stated that a person killed by Death Soul Reaper Jutsu will have his soul imprisoned in the Soul Reaper's body for eternity and will be restless there. How can they be reanimated then? And in the event that they are reanimated, what will happen when they are released from reanimation? Will they go back to the Soul Reaper or will they rest in peace?

Yes and no!

The Death Soul Reaper Jutsu (aka Dead Demon Consuming Seal) (aka Shiki Fūjin) is a sealing technique. While the soul is sealed with the Death Gods belly, it can not be resurrected using Impure World Resurrection.

However, like most sealing jutsu shown in the series, there is a way to release the seal. This is done by the using the using the releasing jutsu along with a particular mask from the Uzumaki clan. After the soul is released, it is possible to revive them using Impure World Resurection as shown by Orochimaru when he revived all the previous Hokage and his arms after the Third Hokage had sealed them using Dead Demon Consuming Seal.

source:
http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Dead_Demon_Consuming_Seal:_Release


What's the difference between Rank 1 through Rank 3 investigators? I really don't see a difference between investigators of different ranks, whether it's power, personality, weapon type/weapon shape, or knowledge.

Would you please describe the concept of ranks to me?

In a nutshell, investigators of different ranks hold different weapons and have more skill in fighting. The rank determines an Investigators' level of responsibility in the CCG, access to high-risk missions and high-rated targets. In addition, the rank also determines the salary of the investigator and it also shows different factors of experience they may have gone through.
There are two types of investigators:

Junior Rank Investigator
Senior Rank investigator

Junior Ranks have 3 stages in their careers:

Rank 3: Ghoul investigators here have a special case in their career, and are made investigators without any formal training in the academy.
Rank 2: Everybody without the special cases start here after graduating the academy.
Rank 1: Your highest rank as a Junior Investigator. You've seen some stuff, you've been through the fieldwork, but your still not at the peak of your career.

Now we move on to the Senior Investigators. There are once again three types.

First Class Investigators:
The lowest rank to be considered a Senior Rank Investigator. Most investigators reach this rank later in their careers. Senior Rank Investigators are responsible for training a junior rank investigator. It is basically very difficult to move up the ladder from here on.

Associate Special Class:
This rank is the second highest rank and it is achieved by a small percent of First Class investigators. Responsibilities include overseeing wards as necessary.

Special Class:
This rank is the highest rank. Typically, they are the strongest of all investigators. These guys command operations and will oversee their wards daily as part of their responsibility.

For example, Kureo Mado has something called a Quinque weapon. It's like the spine petal thing. Kureo is a first class investigator. Kureo is very experienced and takes Koutarou Amon as his partner.
Reference: Ghoul Investigator


What causes the androids to realize their sentience? In the series, it's hinted that something in the cafe Time of Eve causes the robots to develop or realize human-like sentience, even outside of the cafe.

While it's implied that they always had sentience, but was suppressed, as seen in the THX story arc. What caused their sentience to manifest and overcome such suppression?

Was it something that they've always had and something in the cafe "triggered" it (like removing a limiter), or was something added to their programming?

I believe they are sentient right from the beginning. You cannot have non-sentient android do daily work, because it would be highly inefficient at it. The thing is their freedom is severely limited by rules imposed on them by humans and how humans behave towards them.

The cafe simply removes these limitations, allowing them to behave naturally.


What does Mikasa mean by "It's happening again" in the 2nd episode? At the beginning of the 2nd episode after Eren and Mikasa are saved, the blond army guy pulls them forward, and Mikasa holds her head, has a flashback, and says "It's happening again".

What does she mean by this?

After I rewatched the episode, I can firmly answer your question but be advised for there are spoilers in my answer.

When she has that flashback,

   she remembers how her family was murdered and she was thinking that she remained alone, until Eren saved her and she became part of his family. When Eren's mother dies, Mikasa experiences the same feeling of losing someone dear as she felt when her family was murdered. This is why she says "It's happening again..", because she lost a part of her family again.


OST from Tokyo Ghoul:re Episode 2 around 20:40 On Tokyo Ghoul:re episode 2, there's a song around 20:40.

I already tried SoundHound but no dice.

What is the song title?

Well the OST hasn't been released yet so we don't know the song name + band but I've found a youtube upload of it:
Youtube

  Soundtrack : Yamada Yutaka / やまだ 豊


Has the world in One Piece's world map been fully defined? From what I understand, Nami became a straw hat pirate to draw a map of the whole world. Doing so forces the implication that the whole world hasn't been traversed yet, in spite of the claims of Gol D. Roger the King of Pirates.

This leads me to believe that there is still a part of the world untraveled by any pirate. Because if there wasn't, then there wouldn't be a driving goal behind her character development.

So, can we really trust the current layout of the One Piece world? Or, has Oda made any announcements or claims that the world of One Piece as we know it is complete in its design?

One Piece world I think is more or less explored.

What Nami's dream is not to explore the unknown reaches of the world, but rather to map them.

She wants to draw a map of the world which includes all the 5 oceans, redline and maybe even the sky islands.

The reason why finding the one piece is important for her is because the One Piece is supposed to be in Raftel.

Though Gol D Roger and his crew have visited it, the location of the Raftel is unknown to the world and is not charted yet.

So Nami's dream is to draw a map of the world which has everything including the location of Raftel, Sky islands and all the other places for which proper maps do not exist.


Is there a meaning/message behind Akira? Is there some hidden meaning/message in Akira?

Does it have something to do with the scars left in the Japanese by the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? And ultimately...

   is Akira the A-Bomb?

Or is there another deeper meaning than the one depicted in the movie?

The manga is far more informative than the movie. The movie seemed to adapt the first two and the last volumes for its content, without really bothering to explain anything about who characters were and where they came from.

The manga, begins with a nuclear blast that destroy Tokyo and triggers World War III.

   It turns out that it wasn't a bomb, but Akira that caused the blast. Much of the plot of the first half of the manga concerns attempts by the military-industrial complex to contain the power of Akira. The central plot device involved an experiment to create weaponized "psychic" children through neuro-surgery and pharmaceutical regimens. Akira was an experiment gone dangerously awry and the child is now kept deep underground (under Neo-Tokyo's Olympic Stadium) within a sort of giant high-tech freezer.

I believe that there is a taboo on overtly discussing the bomb that speaks to a mediation between repression and remembrance. The memory of a nuclear attack on one's own nation is a bit too vivid of a tragedy for many to face directly. The author makes very good use of  allegories to present a nuclear holocaust through a shounen type of juvenile and imaginative storytelling. This way, a Japanese reader might be able to be drawn into a subject that would otherwise provoke repulsion, or at least unease and anxiety.


What is the relationship between Neon Genesis Evangelion and RahXephon? I have watched both Neon Genesis Evangelion and RahXephon. Since they have the same story and the same structure, I think that RahXephon is a copy of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

What is the actual relationship between Neon Genesis Evangelion and RahXephon?

The creator of RahXephon, Yutaka Izubuchi, admits to having heavily used Brave Raideen as the influence for RahXephon. There's a really great interview of both Izubuchi and Anno (creator of Evangelion) that's really revealing about the influences between the two. Relevant quote:

  Mr. Izubuchi said before that "Eva" was Combattler [Chōdenji Robo Combattler V] and RahXephon was Brave Raideen, didn't you?

If you read the entire interview, it never insinuates that there was any copying of Evangelion in Rahxephon. Instead, these are two contemporaries who believe they are equals that have both been influenced by the same shows, like Mazinger, Combattler V, Tokusatsu, Gowapper 5, etc.

Eventhough they never directly admit it, I'm sure there's some amount of influence that Evangelion had on Rahxephon, intended or not, simply because Evangelion was an incredibly influential show, at a time when it seemed anime in general was stagnating. So everything that came after that, for better or worse, could have had some influence from Evangelion.

With Rahxephon in particular, your mileage may vary on how similar the shows really are. If you've seen Brave Raideen, you'll instantly realize that the show is pretty much a modern spin of that old show, while a lot of that spin could be argued to be influenced by Evangelion. There's some people who believe it's a blatant rip-off, but Izubuchi doesn't say that it is, and Anno doesn't seem to think the similarities are even worth mentioning.


How many Fairy Tail members went missing from the guild during the timeskip? Contains spoilers for fans who have not reached the timeskip.

The story takes a seven year timeskip at the end of the Tenrou Island arc. Members who went to the Tenrou Island to participate in the S-rank exam go missing. With the 8 exam participants and their respective partners, the 3 examiners, Master Makarov, and Laxus, that would be 21 members. Is this calculation correct?

At the end of the Tenrou Island arc,

   Acnologia sinks the Tenrou Island along with all the people on it.

Mest Gryder, one of the eight exam participants, is actually a Magic Council member, and he left the island earlier anyway.
Gray's partner, Loke/Leo, returned to the spirit world earlier.
Wendy and Gajeel took their Exceed partners, Carla and Pantherlily respectively, to the Tenrou Island.
Laxus was not a member at this time, since he had been expelled and Makarov refused to readmit him.

Taking all the above into account, altogether 20 Fairy Tail members (and Laxus) were missing from the guild during the timeskip.

List of members (clockwise in the human circle they formed, starting from Lucy and excluding Laxus):

Lucy Heartfilia
Natsu Dragneel
Erza Scarlet
Cana Alberona
Gildarts Clive
Levy McGarden
Gajeel Redfox
Wendy Marvel
Carla
Happy
Pantherlily
Makarov
Bickslow
Freed Justine
Evergreen
Elfman Strauss
Mirajane Strauss
Lisanna Strauss
Juvia Lockser
Gray Fullbuster


How long can you manipulate a person with a Death Note? If you write die of disease with a specific disease's name and the person's time of death, there must be a sufficient amount of time for the disease to progress. If the set time is too tight, the victim will die of a heart attack after 6 minutes and 40 seconds after completing the Death Note.

Let's say Y has a Death Note. He also has Shinigami Eyes, and because he's a genius he can read in Shinigami time. So he wants to kill Z.

He writes:

  Z, bradykardie, dies of bradykardie at 11:59 on this date: 25.07.2062. Till he dies, he will always do whatever the person he knows as A tells him to do.

(Yes, Z is destined to die at the mentioned date.)

(A won't die, since he already wrote his own name in his Death Note.)

Would this work?

This would not work, because you can only manipulate a person for a maximum of 23 days with the Death Note. This is therefore straightforwardly called the 23 day rule.

As the 27th rule of the Death Note states:

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

As mentioned by Laiseran in the comments, there is indeed one exception to this rule. Although not directly relevant to your example, the 23 day rule can indeed be bypassed. If you write down a specific disease as the cause of death, but do not specify a specific time of death, the time of death will be unknown to the writer. The time of death will never be after the day that the victim's lifespan would run out, but if enough time remained, the Death Note will give the disease time to take effect. Since it might take more than 23 days for the specific disease to take effect, the human might thus be controlled longer than 23 days.

As the 28th rule of the Death Note states:

  If you write die of disease like before with a specific disease's name, but without a specific time, if it takes more than 24 days for the human to die the 23 day rule will not take effect and the human will die at an adequate time depending on the disease.


Who is stronger Jiren or Broly? Some people say Jiren is stronger than Broly, while some people say Broly is stronger than Jiren. Usually, in Dragon Ball, the next enemy is stronger. However, this pattern was changed in Dragon Ball Super as Beerus is stronger than most of the antagonists that came after. So who is stronger of the two?

Dragon ball generally follows a pattern where the antagonist tends to be > than or around the level of the protagonist. If you go back to Dragon Ball Z, Super Buu is stronger than Kid Buu and Buuhan and Butenks are way stronger than Super Buu. However, Kid Buu was the final antagonist. The antagonist's power is generally adjusted to be comparable to the protagonist they are fighting. Since Ultimate Gohan is stronger than Super Saiyan 3 Goku, they had him fight Super Buu. Same goes for Vegito, who fought the strongest iteration of Buu. Just like you said, despite Beerus being stronger than the rest of the antagonists after, they did use a greater amount of power against Goku and co.However, after watching the movie, I personally believe there is sufficient reason to believe that Jiren might be stronger( At least the version of him where he releases his dormant power). There are several reasons why I believe this to be true:The Tournament of Power lays emphasis on the fact that Goku surpasses the Gods and manages to overcome Jiren. This was constantly laid emphasis on during the course of the tournament while he was Master UI. Jiren was able to go toe to toe with this iteration of Goku and also come out on Top in terms of raw power. When the trailers and initial summary of the movie first came out, it was stated that Goku was almost reaching the level of a God and Vegeta was catching up(This makes sense considering the fact that it was established at the end of DBS that Goku does not have access to Ultra Instinct anymore).Broly as a Super Saiyan was no doubt stronger than Super Saiyan Blue Goku and Vegeta. However, there isn't a long enough fight to determine the exact difference. Goku and Vegeta would have definitely grown stronger compared to the T.O.P. However, they were using forms 20 times stronger against Jiren who was nowhere near full power while fighting these two. Also, Golden Frieza managed to last against an agitated Broly who was looking to kill. He barely lasted for a second against Jiren who took him out with a glare and a single punchIn the tournament of power, it was more or less implied that the only way to defeat Jiren was for Goku to master Ultra Instinct. If Goku and Vegeta could've defeated Jiren with fusion, it would break the entire plot and the entire struggle against Jiren wouldn't make sense. This is because Vegeta had absolutely no problem working with Goku and doing everything to win. It was stated that Fusion was allowed and they both saw a potara fused a character a while back. Not even Whis or anyone stated Goku and Vegeta would be able to win this fight fused. So I do believe Jiren at the time was stronger than Vegito, hence Gogeta(Definitely when he releases his dormant power). SSJ Broly had a disadvantage against SSJ Gogeta. LSSJ Broly could barely hold his own against SSJB Gogeta.Finally, at the end of the movie, Goku compares Broly's power to that of Beerus. However, Goku and Vegeta mentioned that Jiren was the strongest they ever faced when they fought him, implying Jiren was > Beerus.(Goku says a suppressed Jiren's punch was the strongest he's ever faced, Vegeta says he hasn't felt a level of energy like this before). V-Jump magazine had an article where Beerus comments that Goku has surpassed him after achieving UI, which you can see here. In the Battle of Gods arc, SSJG Goku was said to be stronger than Vegito. If you compare the difference between SSJ3 and SSJG, the power is significant indeed. However, the difference in power is a lot less if you were to compare SSJB + Kaioken * 20 To UI Omen, the difference in power is a lot more significant and Mastered Ultra Instinct is substantially stronger than the two. Since the potara multiplier is fixed, I believe MUI Goku would still be strongerIn conclusion, the next arc of the manga states that Goku was still attempting to master UI as he tells Vegeta that he hasn't been able to tap into the transformation even once after the tournament of power. So if the series were to resume, Goku might most likely tap into this form against a stronger Antagonist that even Jiren and Broly. There is promotional material with regard to Broly's strength claiming how he is one of the strongest and they say his level of destruction might be greater than that of a God of Destruction. The source for this can be seen here. However, there is no legitimate valid source indicating Broly to be stronger than Jiren. DBS did something new in the series by having Goku achieve two transformations in 1 arc and at the end of the arc, not be able to tap into it anymore. I think this on its own is sufficient evidence as to how Over Powered this iteration of Goku is and why the plot decided to take this transformation away before bringing characters even stronger. Plus, Whis's training is mainly focused on making them achieve the form. If Goku did achieve it, he would technically have completed Whis's training which is necessarily not the case based on the beginning of the movie.


Why is Elizabeth's last name "Greenhough-Smith"? Elizabeth Greenhough-Smith is the daughter of Julian Smith (i.e. Loser) and Sophia Tyler.

Who is "Greenhough", and why does Elizabeth have her name, rather than, say, her mother's?

His full name isn't Julian Smith, it's Julian Tyler Smith, so I assume Greenhough is Sophia's maiden name.

His name tag reveals that he has Tyler on his name:

I'm pretty sure his name was shown as "Julian Tyler Smith" at some point on either the manga or anime, but I can't remember when.


Kyoukai no Rinne background music I'm searching for the music of an anime.

The anime is "Kyoukai no Rinne".

The background music comes from episode 1 from 12:15 to 12:32.

It's Track 02 Ningen... Mitai na ~Rinne no Theme from the Kyoukai no RINNE original sound track.


Why does Puck refer to Emilia as 'My Daughter'? In episode 15, Puck referred to Emilia as his Daughter.

Why is this? A few thoughts I have come up with to explain the reasoning come down to:

They have a relationship like Father/Daughter. (In my opinion they do not have this, they seem more like best friends than this.)
Puck IS her father. (Again, this seems convoluted to me, as it is stated that Puck is a Spirit.
the 'Daughter' terminology is code for something else, Emilia likely having something like this for Puck too.

It is also said by Puck in episode 18 something along the lines of "In accordance with my contract, I shall now destroy the world".

When asked why, the answer given was "Emilia is my entire reason for existing. There is no reason for me to exist in a world without her."

This shows some kind of deeper bond between them, deeper than I can think.

What exactly is their relationship?

Puck is a spirit contracted to Emilia.
His identity was revealed during the royal election speech,
where during her speech (which was shortened in the anime) Roswaal provoked Subaru to instigate a few of the elders and the knights for her being a half-elf with silver hair.
Puck, sensing danger and Emilia's distraught, appeared and threatened to freeze the whole court.
The elder stopped his ruckus after seeing and recognizing who Puck was: one of the Four Great Spirits (in term of being old and powerful), the Beast of
the end of the Eternally Frozen Land who was created to destroy the world (there are many biblical comparisons in the series, the title basically makes him a comparison to the four horseman of the apocalypse).
A few years before the series began, Puck found a young Emilia and decided to stop his intended plan in destroying the world and care for her by making a pact/contract with her. Thus accidentally stopping the world destruction by him.
For seven years, Puck cared for Emilia like a father, choosing her clothing, hairstyle, speech and manners like a father would. The 7am-5pm appearance was also just part of the contract, as you can see in episode 18 that he appears at night.
The death of Emilia causes Puck to continue what he is destined to do: to destroy the world, knowing, however, that Reinhardt the current master swordsman will end him if not the Royal Protector Dragon, Volcanica.


According to ONE, who would win in a fight between Tatsumaki and Mob? While browsing through tvtropes, I found the following thing:

  The Verse: ONE has implied this and One-Punch Man share a verse (He was asked and answered a question on who would win between Mob and Tatsumaki from said series).

Emphasis mine.

Unfortunately, tvtropes does not elaborate on this any further. There are no links or sources pointing to the discussion mentioned, and now I am very curious to know what answer ONE gave.

According to ONE, if Tatsumaki and Mob were to fight, who would win?

In the One Punch Man Wiki at the Tatsumaki page, it is stated :

  ONE has said that Tatsumaki is stronger than 100% Mob, the protagonist of ONE's other work, Mob Psycho 100, but against ???% Mob, there's no answer.

Still according to One Punch Man Wiki, ONE said this during  his Niconico interview.


What song is playing when Junko demonstrates the brainwashing technique from the anime? In Danganronpa 3 - Despair Arc - episode 8, Junko comes back and kicks Mikan away, which makes her extremely excited. Junko demonstrates to Ryota how she used the techniques she learned from his anime to brainwash Mikan. Ryota tries to run, but Junko threatens to make his classmates participate in the next killing game if he doesn't do what she says.

What song is playing in the background?

The song seems to be the execution music from Super Dangan Ronpa 2.


Does the Spice and Wolf anime follow the same events as the manga I've been thinking about whether or not I should start getting the Spice and Wolf manga, or to wait to see if there is a season 3 to the anime. So I am wondering, does the anime closely follow the events in the manga or does it diverge at some point and become more original?

EDIT: Logan M has stated that the anime is sourced from the light novels rather than the manga, so now the initial question is slightly different, I want to know how much difference there is between the manga and the anime.

Both manga and anime generally follow the novels well, but there are differences between them:

The two seasons of the anime adapt volumes 1,2,3 and 5 of the novels, skipping volume 4.
The manga does not skip volume 4, but has yet to catch up with the anime.

Personally, I would suggest you to take a look at everything, it's all awesome :P


In Toriko, what animal's skin does Atom show Terry, Kiss and Quinn? In chapter 319 page 3, "Kaka" (Atom in disguise) shows Terry, Kiss, and Quinn a piece of skin or fur of an animal that makes the three scared. What is this skin?

Unknown creature's skin: ATOM possesses a mysterious piece of skin that appears to have belonged to a creature of tremendous power and vicious bloodthirsty ferocity. Just showing this little piece of skin could invoke paralyzing fear in the hearts of Terry, Kiss, and Quinn.

Taken from Toriko Wikia.

So, it seems never to be resolved from what kind of creature this skin was.


What is this manga where a girl is told that she's never been seen only as a friend? This picture is really cute so I want to know what manga this is so please help me thank you for your consideration.

The manga that this image is from is called Houkago x Ponytail. It is in the second chapter and in page 29. A quick Google search will show this as the source, although you may need to dig a bit deeper.


How can one tell if Nappa has become a Super Saiyan? We can identify Super Saiyans by the change in the colour of their hair.
With Nappa being bald, how could we identify he has become a Super Saiyan? Is it only by the increase in power?

It's not only by hair.

As you can see, the eyebrows and eye color changes as well. So you'll be able to tell.


What's the name of Kuchiki Rukia's real parents? In Bleach, Kuchiki Rukia is said to be nurtured by the Kuchiki family. Can anyone tell me the names of her real parent?

As Memor-X said

  i don't think it's stated, the wikia's earliest point in Rukia's history is her and Hisana arriving in Rukon 150 ago which would mean they died together, since it doesn't state that they came with their parents (given Hisana was finding it hard to care for Rukia and live in Rukon) chnaces are their parents died long before and during the Soul Society Arc Horiuchi Hironari says it's rare to be reunited with family members who died earlier which tends to generate family groups by those who die later

Rukia being an orphan is an integral point of her (and Renji's) back story, fitting into the general desperation and poverty of the Rukon district.

As such, her parents have never been identified and most likely never will.


What was changed into an immortal object? In the first arc of Sword Art Online (episode 14, ~9:40), the boss whom Kirito fights activates something in a system console, and then a notice is displayed: "Chaged[sic] into Immortal Object".

However, this message does not seem to make sense. Despite Kirito's request,

   Asuna is slain by a one-hit KO as she attempts to defend him, and Kirito is consequently killed as well. His remaining consciousness then gives one more blow to Heathcliff, who dies. Thus, it is clear that none of these three characters was given immortal status.

Was this an error, in that the message was supposed to refer to this boss removing his own immortality? If not, what exactly did this message signify?

As you say yourself:

  Was this an error, in that the message was supposed to refer to this boss removing his own immortality? If not, what exactly did this message signify?

While googling, I came across some posts on a forum which seems to say that it is a wrongly translated message and that it should say something like: "immortality status changed".
I'm not sure if it's accurate but it seems to tell the exact same thing.


A guitar riff playing in episode 80 and 85 of My Hero Academia season 4 In My Hero Academia season 4 episode 80 at around 3:05, there's a guitar riff playing. The same riff is also playing in episode 85.

What is this OST?

Maybe this is Sorezore no Mokuhyou (Spotify link)  by Yuki Hayashi, the 5th track in Boku no Hero Academia Season 2 OST album.


How did Rukia become an unwitting carrier of the Hogyoku and executor of pre-planned events? There is great contrast: Aizen managed to insert it without Rukia knowing. later, he stated that extraction would be fatal (but it did not actually kill Rukia).

How did Aizen insert it into Rukia? And what are the plans he did so that she will be in a dangerous situation with Ichigo?

Aizen does not insert the Hōgyoku into Rukia's body. The deed was actually done by Urahara Kisuke when he makes a deal with a powerless Rukia for a human gigai into which he places the Hōgyoku for safety and secrecy.

Rukia by coincidence happens to patrol Karakura town on the day the hollow attacks Kurosaki family, the Hōgyoku belonging to Kisuke is hidden in the gigai which he gives after she transfers her powers to Ichigo; until then she can sense reiatsu and it was because of sensing Ichigo's reiatsu that she initially entered the Kurosaki residence as a shinigami. However after using the (Kisuke provided) Hōgyoku contained gigai to stay in human world, she realizes that her shinigami powers are not recovering fast enough. Aizen merely

Aizen likely orchestrates the hollow attack on Kurosaki family likely believing this would cause Kisuke, who until then hidden in the shadows would make a move for the safekeeping of the Hōgyoku. And rightly Kisuke makes an appearance offering Rukia a deal on the gigai to use for the stay in human world.

   Also to be noted that the entire birth of Ichigo is a causality of Aizen's earlier experimentation and he mentions that he has been monitoring Ichigo for a long time

As for the extraction, Aizen merely assumes/contemplates that it would be of fatal consequence and expresses surprise when that is not the case. In general Aizen's knowledge on Hōgyoku and even that of Kisuke is not complete as they only succeed in creating an incomplete one at best both of which Aizen would later merge and use.


Tanegashima important? I've noticed that Robotics;Notes, Captain Earth, and Aldnoah.Zero all prominently feature Tanegashima (city in Japan). Are these series tied together in some way or is this just coincidence? (kind of like how Tokyo and Kyushu are featured in a lot of anime)

Tanegashima island is prominently featured, most probably due to the fact that:

The headquarters of JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Tanegashima Space Center spaceport is located at the southeastern end of the island.

About Tanegashima Space Center:

The Tanegashima Space Center (種子島宇宙センター Tanegashima Uchū Sentā) (TNSC) is a Japanese space development facility. It is located on Tanegashima, an island located 115 km south of Kyushu. It was established in 1969 when the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) was formed, and is now run by JAXA.
The activities that take place at TNSC include assembly, testing, launching and tracking of satellites, as well as rocket engine firing tests. It is Japan's largest space development center.

Tanegashima Space Center is featured not only in the 3 anime as mentioned in the question, but also in:

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest
Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald (Mossdeep Space Center is based on TNSC)
5 Centimeters Per Second (features a rocket launch from TNSC)


Why did the man steal the protagonist's lump? In the 1929 anime Kobu Tori, The protagonist has his facial deformation taken away by the tengu for being good entertainment and a welcome guest.

When the antagonist follows in his footsteps, he goes to the tengu also to get rid of the lump on his own face.

Kobu Tori is a silent film, so I wasn't able to translate the dialogue and I don't understand why does the antagonist steals the protagonist's lump

Is it to return it to him? To sell it?

According to Wikipedia:

  An old man has a lump or tumor on his face. In the mountains he encounters a band of tengu making merry and joins their dancing. He pleases them so much that they want him to join them the next night, and offer a gift for him. In addition, they take the lump off his face, thinking that he will want it back and therefore have to join them the next night. An unpleasant neighbor, who also has a lump, hears of the old man's good fortune and attempts to repeat it, and steal the gift. The tengu, however, simply give him the first lump in addition to his own, because they are disgusted by his bad dancing, and because he tried to steal the gift.

The mean old man doesn't want to steal it, he wants to get rid of it like the protagonist did.


How did Jora get inside of the birdcage? We know that nobody can enter or exit the birdcage without being cut, so how did Jora get inside the birdcage?

Giolla was in the birdcage since its erection.

In episode 656 of One Piece, Trafalgar Law has Giolla as a hostage.

After Law realized that Doffy would have sacrificed Giolla if necessary and thus holding her hostage held no benefit, he decided to release her. She tried to stay but Doffy told her to leave so she ran back to Dressrosa.

The birdcage was not surrounding Dressrosa until episode 680.


Did All for one give his ability to Tomura? In My Hero Academia, after the Showdown between All for One and all might, One for all is finally defeated.

But when he was arrested, All for One said the words :

  As a teacher, I win, as my pupil is ready. (paraphrasing)

While it most certainly concerns the growth of Tomura, both as a leader, and as a villain, I am left wondering if it implied something more.

Did All for One pass on his ability to Tomura, the same All Might passed his ability to Izuku ?

We already know that All for One is able to give and take other's ability at will, I don't think it would be far fetched to think that this could apply to All for One itself.

On a story viewpoint, it would make Tomura a much stronger foe, and make him even more of a parallel to Izuku.

So, did Tomura inherit from All for One ? (is there any specification, from Canon, or author, hinting or stating that he did/did not ?)

As of right now, he wasn't given a quirks by all for one.
I'm sure of it because of the characteristics of nomu. All might says that the people who got quirks from all for one lost the ability to talk (later in the 4th season, endeavor fought a speaking nomu, but at the time when all might defeated all for one, it wasn't possible). Shigaraki can still talk. So, we can be sure for now that he is not given any quirks. There's a chance this might go upside down in future though.


How accurate is the World Map in The Irregular at Magic High School? In the monologue (at the beginning of episode 1) you may have remembered a world map being displayed. The funny thing was that they got East and West Europe wrong as seen in the images below. How accurate are the borders?

Did anyone notice this?

The map definitely isn't accurate (at least in that it doesn't depict quite a number of current borders correctly). For one thing, as you noted, Europe hasn't been depicted well, though it does seem that the part west of Germany is alright. However, the Czech Republic's border with Slovakia is gone, and it seems that the border with Austria is also missing. The Romania-Hungary border is also gone

When you look at South Asia though, the borders are also wrong. While the India-Pakistan border seems ok, the borders with Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan aren't there. There are a couple smaller issues with Central Asia.

I initially thought that this might be a 1900's map because of the European borders, but the North-South Korea division still seems to be there (which didn't exist at the time of Austria-Hungary), and the India-Pakistan border shouldn't have existed at the time - so as far as I can tell, this isn't supposed to be a replica of a map at some point in time in actual history.

Summary: a number of borders here and there have been omitted. I'm not as familiar with the geography of Africa and South/Latin America, but for starters, the Algerian-Tunisian border has also disappeared in this map. But there are definitely a number of noticeable errors with Central/South Asia and with Europe. So this map really isn't that accurate, even if for a lot of the "unaffected" countries it's drawn reasonably well.


What is the name of the song that is played during Frieza's regeneration in Dragon Ball Z : Resurrection F? I saw Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F today in the theatre, and right around the point where Frieza is put in the regeneration machine, a song starts playing. I would categorize the song in the heavy metal genre, and I heard Frieza's name several times in the lyrics as well.

I would like to know the name of this song and the band who played it, as it sounded pretty awesome, but I didn't have enough time to stick around for the credits to see who it was.

The song you are looking for is titled 'F' and is performed by Maximum the Hormone.


Old anime movie. White birds representing death I apologize in advance for the lack of details. This is an anime movie which I've watched a long time ago on TV, and I've only seen the ending. I remember a scene in which there was a man and woman talking, and one of them betrayed the other and shot them.

The animation style resembles something from the Lensman era, so I'm thinking '80s or early '90s. I distinctively remember it due to the fact that it was one of the first animations, if not movies in general, that had important non-villain characters dying.

Anyway, the one detail I distinctively remember is that every time a person died, it was depicted as a white bird flying away, as if the person's soul was going to heaven.

At the end, there was a guy lying down, leaning on a rock, apparently dying, possibly regretting something he had done, or a choice he made. He was looking at the sky, and then you see a white bird flying away, implying he had died. The bird then joined a whole bunch of other white birds, implying something about his choice having caused a lot of people to die, or something to that extent. It was all very symbolic, but I was young, and started watching it near the end, so I could only just barely follow.

I also think it was possibly sci-fi, but not 100% sure.

Anyway, while I realize it's a long-shot, I would like to know if anyone has a clue what movie it was, so maybe I can watch it again from the start, and actually get it this time.

There are some similarities with Windaria

  The mountainous kingdom of Paro and the coastal city-state of Itha had been at peace for over a century. They would have remained that way but for the ambitions of Paro's power-hungry king. Paro invaded Itha, despite the love between Jill, Paro's prince, and Ahanas, Itha's princess. Caught between duty and emotion, the star-crossed lovers were forced to fight a war to its bitter conclusion. Isu was a simple farmer from the neutral village of Saki, but he saved Itha from being destroyed by a spy from Paro, and found himself hungering for wealth and glory that the Ithan monarchy could provide. Agents from Paro made him an offer to fulfill his wishes, and he left his wife Marin behind in what would turn into a battlefield between the two kingdoms.

As stated on its TVTropes page:

  In this story, the soul takes the form of a bird of red light, and flies off to a mysterious airship over the ocean.

Hence, there is the connection between bird and death, but the color of the birds doesn't match.
The final scene is similar to what you described. The main character felt that he had betrayed his own town by abandoning his fiancée. He regretted what he had done and decided to come back, but what he saw was only desolation. Eventually, he met his fiancée, but after a brief talk, he realized that she was only her ghost, who then took the form of a bird and flew away.
This can be the scene with a man and a woman talking: she killed him and then committed suicide.


Is Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Light novel concluded? I could only find until volume 12 and I read somewhere that volume 13 and 14 will be the conclusion. I would like to know if it's already released. Please help

Gagaga Bunko, the publisher of Oregairu light novel made a tweet on 28 Sept 2017 (Japanese):

  【俺ガイル１２】ちなみに、先日のイベントのステージにサプライズ出演された渡航先生より「俺ガイル12巻は終章の上、中、下巻の上巻に当たる」「中、下巻にあたる13巻と14巻は同時くらいに発売」との発表があり、現在制作進行です！！お楽しみに！！！！！（☆）

To put it simply, volume 12 is the 1st part of the 3-part final chapter, and volume 13 & 14 ―the 2nd and 3rd part― will be published almost at the same time.

However, as of current writing, volumes 13 & 14 haven't been published.


What kind of sword did Assassin use? I'm on episode 7 of Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works, where Assassin has shown up. From what I have read, his sword is a long katana, but it doesn't have a tsuba (hand guard). As far as I know about katana, they can have shirasaya (mountings without tsuba), but they weren't used for battle. Was the sword just a katana that they didn't bother to put a tsuba on for stylistic reasons, or was it actually a different kind of sword?

An exact solution is not traceable... The closest katana is a Nodachi (大太刀) without a Tsuba 鍔 (Handguard) and with a blue/light yellow decorated Tsuka 柄 (Hilt).

Image from Sakura no kuni.

As you mentioned in your question it could also be a shirasaya 白鞘.

A Shirasaya actually contains two plain wooden parts. The Saya さや (Scabbard) and the Tsuka. These parts are used to store a katana blade and prevent it from corroding.

The Shirasaya Tsuka is actually not made to be used in combat because of the missing Tsuba 鍔 (Hand guard). I also do not think that a storage tsuba is fixed strong enough to the blade to use it for fighting.

Image (Sakura Shirasaya) by Bahr3DCG from DeviantART.

Furthermore there is also a Shikomizue 仕込み杖 that general also do not have a tsuba.

A Shikomizue is actually a sword hidden in a stick. Propose of such a stick is to hide the sword from the public because it was not allowed to openly carry a sword.

Image (Shikomizue Katana) by bernardfokke from DeviantART.

In addition they are mostly decorated because it should look nice and unobtrusively like the tsuka of Monohoshizao.

Anyway it is rather be a Nodachi because of length and it is also slightly curved. Just without a hand guard.


How many Pokémon has Misty caught? What Pokémon did she catch and how many? I tried to search but I couldn’t find it. I found this website while looking for what Pokémon Ash has found, and since I found it I thought that I could find Misty’s Pokémon  as well.

Current Pokemon on her team:

Goldeen (Belongs to Cerulean Gym.)

Staryu (Belongs to Cerulean Gym.)

Starmie (Belongs to Cerulean Gym.)

Horsea (Caught in Kanto.)

Psyduck (Accidentally caught in Kanto.)

Politoed (Evolved from Poliwhirl, which evolved from Poliwag, caught in the Orange Islands.)

Corsola (Caught in Johto.)

Gyarados (Obtained in Cerulean Gym.)

Dewgong (Evolved from Seel, belongs to Cerulean Gym.)

Luvdisc (Obtained in Cerulean.)

Azurill (Hatched from Egg given from Tracey.)

Released Pokemon:

Togetic (Evolved from Togepi, hatched from Egg found in Kanto.)

Source: MAL


What's the music that plays at the end of ep. 22 of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso? What's the music that plays at the end of ep. 22 of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, when Arima is reading Kaori's letter?

I saw this anime a long time ago and want listen this music now, but I can't find it.

The piece is called "31 - Kimi ga Iru"
It is in the OST album for the anime, Disc 1.

Followed by "05 - Kirameki ~Kousei to Kaori no Ensou Ver.~" from the ED single "Kirameki" album.

So basically it starts off as Kimi ga Iru, then Kirameki chimes in.

The piece before that is "17 - Kouiu Kimochi wo Nante Itta Kana" if you're interested.


Is the Nyaboron ending song a real one, or just made for concept? I was watching "Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo" again. In episode 12, when the game "Nyaboron" ended, it plays a song. Is that song available anywhere, or just made for concept of anime?

SSs

Ep12 @ 13:32

It was purpose-composed for the anime, so it's not "real", per se. Nonetheless, you can find the full version of it (4:00 in length), titled "Utsukushiki Ai no Hoshi yo, Eien ni" as track #5 on the anime's second soundtrack. 13:32 into the episode corresponds to about 0:15 into the song.

Here's a Youtube link (which could go down at any time): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycmL6Mrpo30#t=13m25s.


What is the paper at Saki's desk in From the New World about? I've been wondering this for ages:

At the end of From the New World, Saki has this piece of paper on her desk. Below you can see it (and somebody translated them to Spanish).

Apparently these are names, and some of them are followed by a number. Unfortunately I don't recognise any of those names so I'm not sure what is this paper about.

At first I guessed it was some sort of deceased people list (numbers representing their age?). However the fourth name reads "New Yuubari", so it sounds like a place rather than somebody... but it lacks a number, so it could actually be a headline, as in "the following people died at New Yuubari" - same thing for "Shinamoto", which makes sense - but then the first three names lack a headline.

So I'm not sure - what is this paper?

These are all place names. 町 is a marker for a town/block/neighborhood/district or road/street.

夕張 can be pronounced "yuubari." The translators were probably trying to simply the names as if they were actual place names. E.g. "New Amsterdam."

The story is primarily set is 神栖66町 (Kamisu 66th District), there are 8 other districts:

「夕張新生町」（北海道）, Yuubari New District (Hokkaidou region)
「白石71町」（東北）, Shiroishi 71th District (Touhoku region)
「胎内84町」（北陸）, Tainai 84th District (Hokuriku region)
「小海95町」（中部）, Koumi 95th District (Chuubu region)
「精華59町」（関西）, Seika 59th District (Kansai region)
「石見銀山町」（中国）, Iwami Ginzan (Silver Mine) District (Chuugoku region)
「四万十町」（四国）, Shimanto District (Shikoku region)
「西海77町」（九州）, Saikai 77th District (Kyushu region)

These are all named after real life locations, including Kamisu.


What was Aizen's plan? In Bleach, Aizen had an incredibly complicated plan that seemed to span decades and that involved a lot of people he had no control over doing what he wanted them to do? I found it pretty difficult to follow what was going on in terms of what exactly his plan was. Can someone summarize it for me?

Aizen wanted to create the Ouken, the key that opens the door to the Soul King who rules Soul Society.  In order to be able to keep increasing his power he wanted to merge the powers of Hollows and Soul Reapers, this was his experiment with the Visoreds.  Aizen had made his own version of the Hogyoku to do this but it was incomplete, he merged it with the one Urahara made and with that he had the finished one that allowed him to increase his power and become the ultimate being.  Aizen said himself that only Urahara was the only intellectual challenge he might have had.

Remember though that Aizen had his hypnotic power that allowed him to control many of those within Soul Society, those he did not control he tricked.  He was able to get many to do his bidding, knowingly or not, only Ichigo was not under his control since he had never seen the sword release.

Ichigo made a statement after killing Aizen that Aizen was so powerful that having no equal he felt there was no one to challenge him and was somewhat lonely; the part about crossing swords where all Ichigo felt was lonliness.  It's possible to look at this as the only one who could be a challenge to Aizen was the Soul King, so creating the Ouken using Karkura Town would allow him to open the gateway to where the Soul King lived and possibly fight him and find an equal.


Are other pirates than the strawhats able to find raftel? For now we know you need the four road porneglpyh to get the location of raftel.

Big Mom has one of them.
Another one is held by Kaido.
The third one is on the moving island Zou.
The location of the last is unknown.

So we could say Big Mom and Kaido have 1/4 information about the location of raftel. And we assume the don't share this information among each other. So they are pretty far from finding this island.

Ruffys crew is the only known to know 2 road porneglpyh (made a copy of Big Mom's and the one on Zou), so he has 2/4 of the information.

So Ruffys crew is at moment in the best position to find raftel. But: even if an other crew had all the road porneglpyh, they can't read them. How are they supposed to get the information that is written on these stones? Is Nico Robin the only way to get the location of raftel?

According to the plot, Nico Robin is hinted to be the only person alive that can read Poneglyphs. This is why the World Government declares her to be a high priority target. Source from Wikia

That being said, we've seen two other potential ways for Poneglyphs to be deciphered:

The Voice Of All Things is what Roger used to understand the Poneglyphs and reach Raftel. It is known to be an extremely rare ability, but we have already seen a couple of other characters exhibit it, including Luffy. However, the purpose of this ability isn't to read poneglyphs and even those with it may not be able to use it in the same way.
The Three Eyed Tribe is supposedly able to decipher Phoneglyphs with their third eye. This is why Big Mom had a daughter, Pudding, with a member of the tribe. However, it isn't clear if she will be able to activate this power, since she is a mixed type. We don't really have information on other members of this race, but considering what the World Government did to Ohara, it is possible the three eyes may no longer be around.

So the answer to your question is yes, based on the information we have so far, Robin is the only one who can decipher them. Hence it might be true that only the Strawhats can figure it out in the end. However, other pirates can always use underhanded means to get this information from her.


How do Ichijou and the rest of the students have powers? In Episode 1, it is explained that after the incident 10 years ago, breast-feeding children received supernatural powers which they can use to combat phantoms. Generally, babies are breast-fed for 12 months, so babies with powers should be 11 years old or younger. However, the main characters are in high school, which puts them well over this age specification. How did they get their powers?

Maybe you heard or read wrongly but it clearly says over a decade ago, which places it to be 10-19 years, so the maximum age would be 18 considering a 10 month gestation period for the child and maybe even older if the child was already born during the outbreak.


How did Heathcliff manipulate Kirito and Asuna back to the battlefield? Did Heathcliff use Yui (which was possible because he was Kayaba after all) or did he rely entirely on asking them for help with the final boss raid?

In episode 1x11, Asuna and Kirito ask for a leave of absence from the Knights of the Blood Oath. Surprisingly Heathcliff agrees. He then says, "I'm positive you won't stay away from the battlefield for long." This clearly foreshadows he'll manipulate them into coming back.

How did he do so?

Yui only appeared during a sidestory in the second light novel so we can say that she didn't play a role in their decision.
Basically Heathcliff knew that Kirito and Asuna felt a responsibility for clearing the game seeing how they were some of the strongest players.

  Asuna then suddenly removed her smile and muttered:
  “Up until now, I had only fought on the upper floors. I had
  completely forgotten that there were people who lived normal lives…”
  “I don’t mean that we’re special; but since we’re on a high enough
  level to fight on the front lines, I suppose it also means that we have an
  obligation to them.”
  “…I had never thought about it like that… I always felt that
  becoming stronger was just a way to survive.”
  “I think that a lot of people are going to be counting on you from
  now on. Of course, that includes me.”
  “…except with my personality, hearing these kind of expectations
  only makes me want to run away.”
  “Oh you.”
  As Asuna pouted in dissatisfaction, I stroked her hair and hoped
  for this life to continue for a while longer. For Nishida and the other
  players, we have to return to the front lines at some point. But at least
  for now-
  Based on the messages that Agil and Klein had sent me, I knew
  that they were having a hard time trying to clear the seventy-fifth floor.

He did guilt-trip them a bit with his message:

  That night, we received a message from Heathcliff, requesting us
  to take part in fighting the seventy-fifth floor boss.
  ...
  Seeing as we had temporarily left the guild, we could decline the
  request. But the last line of the message, that “some people had already
  died,” laid heavily on our minds.

Both excerpts are from the first light novel Aincrad (translations by Baka-Tsuki).


What if you wrote "eaten by a gigantic sea-snake" in the Death Note? I was wondering, suppose that I wrote in a Death Note,

  Person A in day x, month y, year z, hour h, minute i, second j, eaten by a gigantic sea-snake.

  A goes to the middle of the sea for diving. There, when he dives, a gigantic sea monster swallows him whole.

Is this kind of death possible? If so, wouldn't that make the Death Note the greatest scientific tool ever? I mean, it could be used to verify the existence of aliens too.

I'll attempt an answer.

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this per se, given the Death Note rules as I remember them. If sea monsters (or aliens) existed, this would be hypothetically fine as long as the conditions for such scenarios coming into play (e.g. A's journey to the sea doesn't take 24 days, or A doesn't have to fly from Urumqi to the Atlantic Ocean in an hour) are appropriate and possible. However, we run into some problems.

Obviously if sea monsters exist where A goes diving and the biology of sea monsters allows them to swallow A, we're fine. But how about aliens? What if, as I mentioned, it takes more than 23 days for them to arrive on earth?

If the aliens show up and kill A, or if the sea monster swallows him, we have proof of those things existing. But if A just dies of a heart attack, we don't know what we've "proved" or disproved. For example:

Maybe aliens (or whatever) don't exist.
Maybe it's impossible, at least at the moment, for aliens to show up and kill A within 23 days, because they don't have the appropriate technology.
With kaine's comment - maybe the mathematician simply isn't capable of solving the Riemann hypothesis that quickly for whatever reason.

So if we get a "positive" result, we're good. But if we get a negative one, we probably won't know why exactly such a result occurred, and in that sense this technique doesn't quite work (or rather, it wouldn't be as useful as one might imagine).