Where does the idea of a Hadouken and Kamehameha come from?

I'm going to talk about the Kamehameha here if I talk about either one of them specifically, because I know more about Dragon Ball than I do about Street Fighter.

The Kamehameha is supposed to be the ultimate attack, in which the user gathers all of their Ki into one point and releases it at once.

Ki, also spelled Chi or Qi, is "life-force" as you mentioned. The idea of ki is one that is pervasive throughout East Asian mythology. It originates from tai-chi. Tai-chi is not just a martial art in the sense that someone brought up in the West like myself might think of it -- that is to say, it doesn't exist just so that you can learn to defend yourself from an assailant. It is a practice that was birthed from Taoism, also spelled as Daoism, which is a very spiritual set of beliefs.

Taoism, as you may know, has as one of its core principles the balance of internal and external force -- yin versus yang. Yin represents the internal force, and yang the external.

In tai-chi, one does learn self-defensive techniques and weapon drills, it's true. However, one also learns to cultivate the yin in one's body. This may be an oversimplification but I believe that defensive and weapons training is considered the cultivation of yang.

To cultivate yin, one learns completely passive techniques, such as breathing and meditation. These are designed to promote overall health and wellness of one's own body. To someone unfamiliar with tai-chi, the exercises might look like aerobics or even just stretching exercises. In mythology, it is believed that masters of such artistry can live for well over a hundred years, or even forever. (hint hint, Master Roshi, although it's explained in the show as him drinking from "The Fountain of Youth" -- that part is a parody of the "eternal martial artist" trope in Asian stories). The breathing and movement techniques are said to keep one's ki in balance, and cultivate untapped potential ki which has not begun to flow in the body yet.

In other words, although a show like Dragon Ball is fantasy, to explain it in real world mythology: Master Roshi became such a master of tai-chi that he can manipulate his ki into an external force directly.

The same principle applies to Ryu. He is supposed to be a master martial artist. To someone familiar with East Asian mythology and tropes, this means that he knows how to manipulate his life energy to make fireballs, to put it simply.


How old was Hinata when she had her children?

Chapter 700 of the manga takes place 15 years after the 4th SWW. During the 4th SWW, Naruto is 17 and Hinata is 16.

So at present, they're 32 and 31 respectively.

Boruto's age is revealed to be 12. There's a confirmed two year age difference between Himawari and Boruto. Therefore Hima is 10 years old.

Since Hinata is 31 years old currently. Therefore, she was 19 when she had Boruto and 21 when she had Himawari.


How can Itachi's genjutsu act on Mecha-Naruto "Robot"?

Mecha-naruto can absorb and contain chakra. This could mean that he has some kind of a chakra system. he also has a eight-trigrams seal in order to seal kurama and this confirms the previous statement. This chakra would in turn be used by his chip for its functioning similar to how the brain uses electric signals flowing through the nervous system.

The chip could be thought of a mechanical brain that uses chakra(it can sense chakra too!)and gives you all reasons why itachi could use genjutsu on mecha naruto.


What is the meaning behind Mana Ryougi's name?

The kanji in Mana's name, 未那, can be read "Mina" or "Mana" depending on how you read the characters (on'yomi vs kun'yomi, or any combination of the two).

The meaning that makes sense to me is that her name is derived from 末那識 (manashiki), Manas-vijnana:

  is the seventh of the eight consciousnesses as taught in Yogacara and Zen Buddhism, the higher consciousness or intuitive consciousness that on the one hand localizes experience through thinking and on the other hand universalizes experience through intuitive perception of the universal mind of alayavijnana. Manas-vijnana, also known as klista-manas-vijnana or simply manas, is not to be confused with manovijnana which is the sixth consciousness.

To put it simply, the name is self-referencing. The meaning of the name implies the ironic pun of the action (thinking). Much like an earnest person named "Ernest", which is an aptronym.

Edit: It has come to my attention that there's another bit of wordplay involved.

The 未 in Mana's name, 未那, refers to things that have yet to happen. The 末那識 uses a different kanji, 末, note that the top and bottom strokes are swapped around. While pronounced the same, their meanings differ significantly.

The latter kanji, 末, refers to the end of something, be it the edges or the end result.

The former is the same character used in the word for future, 未来, while the latter is the same kanji as in 期末, meaning the end of a term or semester.

So it would seem that Kokuto replaced the latter with the former in Mana's name. In other words, replacing a "conclusion" with a "beginning." When you think about it, the double-meaning in itself is pretty clever. Now I know how Shiki (式) felt.


This fictional pentagram is the seal of the Hellsing family. The pentagram on the back of Alucard's (a hellsing character) glove is inscribed: "Hellsing - Hell's Gate arrested - Gott Mit Uns (God With Us) - And shine heaven now." The runes are written in the Trithemian (Thebean) alphabet, and the other symbols are a combination of Japanese, Kanji (or, Chinese), and alchemist symbols.

Source:Wikipedia Link

Two of the five symbols in center, are alchemist symbols. I`m able to recognize symbols for Uranus and Neptune (Neptunus). The other symbols are coming from Japanese (Katakana or Hiragana or Kanji), or Chinese alphabet, but meaning of those symbols exceeds my knowledge, and maybe they are modified to some extension.

   I can`t say with 100% accuracy, but since Uranus and Neptune represent the symbols for Sky/Air (Uranus God of Sky) and Water (Neptune God of Water) the other represent other elements (fire,earth,metal), bottom one highly resembles Japanese kanji symbol for fire.

Translated runes from Thebean script (alphabet), after some corrections should go like this:


Reason for the change in the eye colour of Naruto

I don't think there is an accurate answer for this, but I think he might have been using the Kyuubi's, aka Kurama or Nine Tails, chakra without it taking control over him. He has done this a lot of times in other episodes, but his eyes turn red. What I mean by this is that every time Kyuubi lets Naruto take some of his chakra, Naruto's eyes turn red then (sometimes) Kyuubi's chakra start to surround him. This only happens when Naruto gets taken over by his emotions. Also notice that his whiskers get darker.

Also every time Kyuubi gets mad his eyes reflect on Naruto's. Kyuubi said this happened before when Naruto was in Sage Mode when he was talking with Nagato. He said that he was so mad some of his chakra "accidentally spilt", so his eyes were mixed in with the Sage Mode in Naruto's eyes.

   Before Obito put the other half of Kyuubi back in Naruto (during the war Naruto kinda died, but before that he got to tame Kyuubi), Naruto finished talking to Hagoromo, The Sage of Six Paths, and came back to life than he went to rescue Gui. When he did he turned around to see Madara. His eyes were in Sage Mode but had Kyuubi's eyes mixed in there. (Notice in the anime Naruto's eyes were not red but orange unlike when he was talking to Nagato.)

 In Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring one of the Shins staves Naruto in the stomach. That makes Kyuubi mad, but Naruto tells him to calm down. I'm not sure if his eyes turned red or not because of the manga only being black and white, but I'm going to say they did.

All of the information I gave says that Kyuubi gives Naruto some of his chakra which makes his eyes turn red, but when he was fighting Kakuzu and Hidan he didn't seem mad. But maybe like @Ayase Eri said in the comments the studio could have just messed up and put blue instead of red in his eyes, or they just didn't and it supposed to be like that.


Is it possible to kill people indirectly with the Death Note?

People who name is not written in the note shall not die due someone else that will die due his name being in the Death Note, both rules can be boiled down to that. That is what the If the death leads to the death of more than the intended means. As long as the death of the person leads to someone else dead, or the conditions prior death can cause death to others, they will die of a heart attack.

There's no contradiction, both rules says the same just in different ways.

In the example you made: both will die in such way that nobody else dies. The surgeon will step back of the table and die, the pilot will die when he's not piloting. Of course, this is mere supposition and details could escape.

Light made some experiments trying to kill in such impossible ways (like a Japanese prisoner died in front of Eiffel Tower), those died on hearts attacks.


If you just began watching the series, this answer will be a huge spoiler for you. The information here is from episode 9, so I'd advise you to wait for the episode before reading this.

In episode 9, Ledo got hold of some information from the past in which he learnt about the origins of both the Hideauze and the war between them and mankind.

Spoilers from episode 9 from here onward!

Before Earth's fifth ice age, a group of humans underwent heavy genetic modifications, in order to adapt themselves to space environment, so that they could migrate from Earth. These people were called the Evolvers. The human Evolvers are what became the Hideauze.
There were countries that stood by the Evolvers, and countries that stood against them (the Continental Union). The opposition movement against the Evolvers opened fire against them. From there things escalated into a war between "regular" humans and Hideauze (genetically modified humans), because they both wanted to flee from Earth (using a portal being built by the Continental Union), and saw each other as a threat.
Basically, "regular" humans attacked first, because they saw the genetic modifications the Evolvers underwent as a sort of blasphemy (and were, most likely, afraid of them). However, the war only got to what it is now because the Hideauze saw the portal being built as a threat to them (because they'd be stranded on Earth), and decided to take preemptive action against "regular" humans.

Here's a set of pics from episode 9 (click it to enlarge):


What is this monster collection anime with a kid that has a hammer-like weapon?

You're thinking of Flint the Time Detective.

The series is centered around the adventures of Flint Hammerhead, the "Time Detective", a boy from the prehistoric era who was resurrected from a fossil and became a Time Detective, although his competency as a detective is dubious. Much like Inspector Gadget, much of the heavy thinking is done by Flint's friends, Sarah and Tony Goodman, who accompany him on his adventures. Flint, however, pulled his weight in battle, when he would fight with the aid of his father Rocky Hammerhead, whose partial resurrection left him a sentient, talking rock with a face. Rocky, fashioned into a hammer for Flint, served Flint as both sturdy weapon and adviser, the latter both in and out of battle. Flint's job as a Time Detective was to go back in time and convince time-shifters- cute, collectible creatures - to ally with him to protect the timeline.
In the US, Flint the Time Detective aired from March 5, 2000 until November 5, 2000. The series also aired in the Philippines via GMA 7 and dubbed in Filipino language which rans from late 2000 until mid-2001.


Why does cutting out part of Orochimaru’s soul cause him to lose the use of his arms?

I've just re-watched the scene in the anime where that happened, and it looked to me like the death god was clearly pulling on the part of Orochimaru's spirit that controls his arms(you can see hands at the end).  That just happens to be where the death god was pulling on, and it happens to only have been pulled out to his elbows or so.

Maybe the 3rd drew the arms out on purpose because he deemed that to be the easiest or most effective thing to pull out first in-case he only had to partially do the job.

There's really not much more to it than that.


Why did Goku have a halo when he was fighting Janemba?

The DBZ movies are usually a little odd in terms of the overall continuity. They can usually be stretched to fit, but most don't fit very comfortably in the series as a whole (with the exception of History of Trunks, which is pure continuity) and end up between episodes, in odd parts in the series (like this one), or just don't make a lot of references to timeline.

That said, most of the movies have a "consensus" placement from the fan base, or at least enough to put it in the right location. For this movie, here's what the DBZ wiki has to say on the matter:

  The movies' events occur during the Majin Buu Saga, roughly before the
  Majin Buu conflict reaches its climax with the advent of Super Buu.
  When Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan 3, he says the fight with
  Majin Buu was the only time he had ever been pushed so far. This
  suggests that the Majin Buu Saga happens within this film's
  background. The fat Majin Buu is not seen anywhere, but if Kid Buu has
  been defeated, then both Goku and Vegeta should be alive again. This,
  along with the ability of Goten and Trunks to fuse as Super Saiyans,
  suggest that Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn is set around episode 253,
  where Goten and Trunks successfully use the Fusion technique as Super
  Saiyans for the first time. Additionally, Mr. Satan is not at Majin
  Buu's house in the movie, which is consistent with the fact that he
  left the Majin's house in episode 253 to get dog food for Bee. As
  shown on Videl's watch, the movie takes place on a Saturday, the 16th;
  which is 9 days after the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament (which
  took place on May 7 of Age 774).

  [Source]

Basically, this movie is placed within the Buu saga, while Goku is dead, but after his SSJ3 transformation. As you can see, it "fits" in cannon, but very oddly (in my opinion).

So, why does Goku have a halo? Because he is, temporarily, dead. But he seems to be off and on dead throughout the series, and still manages to save the universe, so it shouldn't be that surprising.


How does Shingo's use of "osu" in this particular dialogue differ from its use elsewhere?

You make an overly broad assumption with this particular word. "Ossu" here is talked about not as a salutation here, but for a deeper more philosophical meaning in general.

Ossu, is made of of two kanji:

[押]{おっ} and [忍]{す}. 押 by itself loosely translates to the action of apply pressure to something, such as pushing. 忍 means endurance or restraint.

The dialogue by the character here breaks down the literal meaning of the word and uses the two kanji as a philosophy of sorts. It's like using the word embodiment of a word as a sort of ambition or goal to live by.

In this case the spirit of Ossu is made up of these two kanji. The meaning here is to apply them meaning of those to your own life and when you use them remember their meaning so that it may carry you further, whenever or wherever you may need it, like a mantra.


How much of the manga did the anime adaptation of The World Is Still Beautiful cover?

It leaves off at chapter 19  so you want to start  on chapter 20.


Did Kirito lie about being the *best* beta tester?

You can think that's a lie, but not totally.

  I made it higher than anyone else during the beta test. The reason I knew the bosses skills is because I fought monsters with katana skills on floors far above us.

There are two possible interpretations of his claim:

Kirito made it to higher floors than anyone else.

This is incorrect, because you cannot go to higher floor without defeating the boss first. And, after you defeat it, everyone else can go to the next floor through the teleport door.
Kirito have more experience than others.

This is probably correct, because from Light Novel Volume 1 - Chapter 2:

   The two months of beta testing were like a dream. At school I thought endlessly of my skill set, equipment, and items. I ran all the way home as soon as school ended and dived till dawn. The beta test ended in the blink of an eye. On the day my character was reset, I felt a sense of loss as if half of my actual self had been cut away.

Because of this, you can assume that Kirito had spent a lot of time on the game,  maybe more than others. Maybe he compiled more floor map information than other players... maybe, he knew more mobs, but he couldn't know mobs or bosses from upper floors. All information which Kirito knew was also available for other beta players if they tried to view it (maybe, but unique quests were unlikely to be made public).

There's no info about boss defeat in beta, but there probably wasn't any boss defeated by Kirito only (but that's my opinion).


What happens if too much is given during a transmutation?

There is no such thing as "giving too much" here. @Becuzz's answer touches on this, but I want to expand on it as well as talk about the human transmutation.
Giving "too much"
Alchemy (in the FMA canon) is basically chemistry. I will assume anyone reading this has not taken much (or any) chemistry in their life, so I'll try to keep it relatively simple.
Imagine you have a lighter filled with benzene. When you light it, and it starts burning, a chemical reaction is taking place, transforming benzene (C6H6) and oxygen (O2), into carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). You can represent this as an equation showing the "amounts" of each compound required.

What happens if you put in 25 of O2 instead of 15? Simple: the 10 remaining O2 will not be used.
Transmutation, while more complex scientifically, obeys the same principle. If we're transmuting a block of lead into gold, we will get an equivalent amount of gold as the lead that we transmuted. Giving "too much" lead will result in either excess gold (if there is enough transmutation energy), or leftover lead (if it is not transmuted). The amount of gold will always be chemically equivalent to the amount of lead consumed in the reaction.
TL;DR: The chemical amount consumed in the reaction will always equal the chemical amount of the product created.
Human transmutation

In the series, the brothers lose something each for trying to give too little during the human transmutation attempt to bring back their mom

This isn't exactly correct. I get what you're trying to say, but it's not quite accurate.
The brothers gave exactly what they needed to get their mother back, right down to the soul data from their own blood. The reason they didn't succeed is because they could not provide her human life to go inside the body they created (which was actually a pretty good attempt for pre-teen prodigy knowledge of human anatomy). Add to that, of course, that God does not permit resurrection of this human life, and you've got a recipe for disaster.
The reason they lose their bodies proper is because they had to pay a toll to go inside the Gate (yes, against their will, as punishment). In the eyes of the beings overseeing this transmutation, the exchange was equivalent:

The materials (carbon, water, etc.) given were consumed and created the blackened beast.
Edward lost his leg and saw some knowledge within the Gate.
Alphonse lost his body and saw a lot of knowledge within the Gate.
Edward lost his arm and brought back Alphonse's soul from beyond the Gate.

In the end, neither too much nor too little was given, and the transmutation obeyed equivalent exchange.
Related reading

When Edward and Alphonse try to transmute their mother, how come they didn't gain anything?
If the "Truth" didn't exist, would that mean that feats such as Human Transmutation would work?


What song is playing during the first encounter with Granzeboma?

It is from the second OST, track 6, titled BafBaf! そんなに燃えるのが…好きかい ("BafBaf! Sonna ni Moeru no ga...Suki Kai?", "BafBaf! Being Fired Up Like This... Don't You Like It?").

The scene in the question starts playing from around 02:28 into the track.

The song was also featured in Gurren Lagann Parallel Works music video #2.


Can gold be transmuted in the Fullmetal Alchemist continuity?

Yes, transmuting gold is possible (at least in the manga). The reason why it's forbidden is stated later in the series: It's forbidden so nobody can destroy the economy by making the gold worthless.

The mass is also conserved, I see no problem there. A ton of coal makes a ton of gold. Equal mass :).

Note: In the first adaption, Ed did not transmutate gold but instead coated the coal in gold. Either it's not possible in the 2003 anime or he didn't want to violate the law. (Thanks to キルア)


Why is Zen Oh Sama destroying universes?

By now the anime has provided a clear answer (though if you're only following the broadcast of the dub you're not quite to it yet):

   The whole tournament and super dragonball wish was a secret test of character.  Wishing back all of the universes was essentially the only correct and allowed wish.  If a selfish wish had been made, they were going to take it as proof that those Universes are, in fact, not worth keeping, and all of them would be destroyed.  But wishing them back would be a testament to the caliber of the denizens of these universes, such that they would be returned and spared.

Oddly, this seems to be a little different in the manga:

   None of the "secret test of character" stuff gets brought up at all.  Seventeen says he wants to wish all the universes back if the super dragonballs can do so, and the Grand Minister confirms that they can. So they're wished back and that's pretty much the end of it. All that's said is that the wish elevated Universe 7's rank by one position.  Which does at least say that such a wish was (highly?) valued, but not nearly at the level it seems to have been in the anime.


If the titan transformation is immediate once a titan eats a shifter, how did Santa Titan not become a shifter when he ate Eren?

The proper requirement to gain the powers of a shifting Titan is to drink the spinal fluid of the Shifter. This is revealed on chapter 65. The "Santa" Titan didn't gain any powers because he ate Eren whole.

   When Eren ate his father, he bit him on the waist, severing the spine and getting access to the fluid. Armin bit Bertholdt on the head.


I also thought about this question and I have to agree that at the moment we can only guess what is the reason behind everything with Sanji.

Here are some facts:

Sanji is the only crew member about whom, we know nothing about (his family and his hometown). We just know he is from the North Blue.
Sanji has a very noble behavior and acts like a gentleman, which could be because of his education.
Sanji calls himself "Mr. Prince" in little garden.

Zoro calls him "Prince of idiots" during the fight with Foxy.
Sanji's following quote is also very suspicious:

Another point is that Sanji mentioned he was born in the North Blue and knew the land "Noland". Additionally, he wore a red-white hat two times (also in his zombie form), which have the same color as the buildings in the Lvneel Kingodm.

And these are just a few clues about Sanji. It seems obvious that Sanji's history must be quite interesting. It's possible that Sanji has some secret information which the Marines need, or he is an aristocrat, or maybe even a World Noble whom they want to get back alive.

Additionally, I remembered this video with lots of speculation about Sanji.
It's  very interesting.
Enjoy.


Which Baccano novels were adapted by the anime?

Book 1: Rolling Bootlegs (1930) - Reasonably faithful but was condensed (also, instead of starting in 2002 with the story being told to a tourist in the Alvaere, it starts in 1935 with Gustav and Carol looking over their information of the events of 1930-1932. And the events happen differently in the novels though the end result is the same, though it does change Firo's character interpretation. In the novels, he's actually a HUGE dick, almost as bad as Dallas, the only people he shows any respect to are his Martillo superiors, his childhood friends, and Ennis and later Czes. Whereas in the anime he's got more of a shonen hero vibe going on). It also left out the fact that the mugger in the first episode was probably the most important character of the 1930 plotline (and his encounter with Firo was moved to 1932, where as in the novel it happens right at the beginning of the 1930 story, just before Firo goes to buy his hat with Maiza). Also Firo's saving of Ennis was MUCH more involved and took approximately 3 hours. He had to make a small sample of the imperfect elixir using Szilard's memories and then use it to reset her default state using his own cells to replace the genetic information Szilard had withdrawn (she is biologically his daughter following her revival).

Book 2: Grand Punk Railroad (1931) - Local Edition - Was mostly faithful but condensed (and left out a somewhat important insight into Ladd's true character). It also cut out Jacuzzi vs the Rail Tracer. It does however make one change, by merging Chane with some aspects of her sister, namely the implied telepathy and conspicuous use of birds in said scenes. Chane herself is a completely normal human, while her sister possesses the above mentioned traits as a result of being used in an experiment using information Huey stole from Szilard's research into creating a true homunculus, as opposed to failures like Ennis.

Book 3: Grand Punk Railroad (1931) - Express Edition - Was reasonably faithful in what was shown but left out about 2/3 of the book, including Rachel's encounter with the corrupt train executive and her final encounter with the Rail Tracer, 97% of Claire's side of the story (the parts it does show are from other people's perspectives and as a result you learn nothing about Claire's personality which makes seeing his true self in the OVAs much more jarring), Lua's story, and Fred the Doctor. Since Jacuzzi never fought the Rail Tracer in the anime, his side of the event showing what happened in the aftermath was also left out.

The out-of-place scene in the first episode (with the blonde girl with the spear) is during the climax of book 6, The Slash - Cloudy to Rainy (1933).

The 1932 plotline was VERY loosely based on the events of book 4, Drugs and Dominoes (1932), but has no resemblance to the source material after about episode 2. Eve searching for her brother was a minor plot point that only served to get her to New York and was resolved immediately on their first visit to the Daily Days. It's pretty much all filler after that, with only the beginning and very end showing any actual resemblance to anything from the book. (It also completely contradicts the source material in several places and merges several characters.)

The OVAs cover about 1/3 of Book 14, Another Punk Railroad (1930-1934), which is mostly a background book to fill in some of the gaps left in the previous books (it is extremely faithful aside from the parts involving Elmer which were actually based on events from book 5. Also Rachel's backstory was supposed to be told in book 3 from her to the rail tracer during their last encounter on the train. And the domino scene is from book 4.). (The train ride Gustav St. Germain asks Carol to remember in the very first episode of the series also happens in book 14). The stinger of the OVAs is the beginning of Book 6, The Slash - Cloudy to Rainy.

The stinger for episode 13 is actually the beginning of Book 5, Children of the Bottle (2001). Most of the content from episode 7 is taken from a flashback arc in Book 5. Rolling Bootleg only gave a VERY abridged version of what happened on the ship and did so immediately at the beginning of the story.

There're also little bits of information taken from books 1-14 that are too numerous or minor to be worth mentioning.

Worth noting, anyone interested in the Novels, DO NOT SKIP ANY OF THEM, even if you've seen the anime. It barely scratches the surface of what the novels actually covered (the anime tried to give each character some screen time, but ended up only really covering about 3-4 with anything resembling depth (Rachel, Jacuzzi, Chane, Czes (sort of...it left out some pretty important stuff though)). The Gandors and Lua especially got shafted despite being named in the opening, despite actually having some very interesting background/stories/character development), in addition to the main plots and answers nearly all the common questions that come up after watching the anime. Also as mentioned, while the end result is usually the same, how they got there is sometimes dramatically different (and IMO, is FAR better done then the anime's attempts at condensing it to fit in 13 episodes. If they'd had 26, it might've worked out better, or just dropped 1932 entirely to free up more time.


Yes, they are connected. Just from Wikipedia about Season 1 (the 2012 series),

  The first season aired in Japan between October 5, 2012 and April 5, 2013, with episodes 1-9 covering the Phantom Blood arc, and episodes 10-26 covering the Battle Tendency arc. The first part follows a young man named Jonathan Joestar who becomes involved in a battle against Dio Brando, who uses the power of a mysterious Stone Mask to become a vampire. The second part takes place fifty years later as Jonathan's grandson, Joseph Joestar, faces up against the Stone Mask's creators, the Pillar Men.

while for Season 2,

  The second season, titled JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, adapts the series third story arc, Stardust Crusaders. Set in 1987, the story follows Joseph's grandson, Jotaro Kujo, and his companions as they seek to defeat DIO, who has placed a curse on his mother, using special abilities known as Stands.

as per the premise,

  JoJo's Bizarre Adventure tells the story of the Joestar family, a family whose various members discover they are destined to take down supernatural foes using powers that they possess. The story is split up into unique parts, each following one member of the Joestar family, who inevitably has a name that can be abbreviated to the titular "JoJo".

you can see that the series are connected directly by the fact that they follow the Joestar family, and Season 1 and 2 are connected beyond that just the bloodline as on the Stardust Crusaders Wikipedia page

   Joseph explains that the sudden appearance of Stands among the Joestar bloodline is caused by the nemesis of his grandfather, Jonathan Joestar: the vampire Dio Brando. Having succeeded in taking Jonathan's body after his assumed demise in the 19th century and resurfacing a few years prior, Dio has awoken his own Stand and recruited Stand-using assassins to kill Jonathan's remaining descendants.


Where are these catgirls originally from?

Cropping the frame out, I found out via IQDB that this is probably from UFO Princess Valkyrie. These cat girls appear to be the Catgirl Maid Squadron, also pictured here, who serve Miss Sanada, another catgirl who is the chief maid for the royal family of Valhalla.

The hair colours and approximate complexions also match up here, and the "maid" designation explains the outfits in the GIF.

UFO Princess Valkyrie, which is also known as UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie follows Kazuto Tokino, who decides to run his grandfathers's bathhouse. Unfortunately, in addition to his lack of skills, an alien princess named Valkyrie from the planet of Valhalla destroys the bathhouse and nearly kills Tokino after she crashes into it. To save him, she kisses him, but in the process, she transfers half her soul to him (which forces her to stay with him) and also becomes an eight-year-old.

The series was originally a manga, although it has also spawned an anime adaptation. (MAL link.)

The exact frame used here is from episode 8 of the second season, a bit more than four minutes in. Earlier, the maids are scolded by Miss Sanada, who refers to them as "Maids A, B, C, and D", refusing to use their real names (which she may have forgotten). Later, when the maids suggest that they take Valkyrie to the mountains themselves, after she is unable to go on a school trip there (because Tokino doesn't go to that school), Sanada praises them, but still refers to them as "Maids A, B, C, and D". This prompts this "You're so mean!" response in the subtitles in the GIF.


What happened to the tomoe in Sasuke's Rinnegan?

The latest manga of Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage, show us that his eye was weakened and that's why he didn't have tomoe in his Rinnegan or why he couldn't activate his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

It was weakened because he tried to open dimensions with his eyes which consumes a lot of chakra, as Obito had tried before he died in the battle with Kaguya.


Can we roughly determine the dates and duration of Otonashi's stay in the Afterlife World?

In the Hell's Kitchen OVA set between episodes 2 and 3, we learned from Yuri's event application form that the deadly picnic took place on May 3.

Furthermore, Yuri allowed for one week of preparation for the picnic prior to the Golden Week. Taking that into account and given that the series of events connecting the first two episodes and the second OVA episode were tightly packed, it is probably safe to say that Otonashi woke up in the Afterlife World sometime around the start of the first term of the Japanese trimester system, maybe even on the first day of the fourth month as an April Fool joke by God.

There is no set date for the Ball Day (球技大会), but with its conditions being similar to the day of the regional game final that would decide if Hinata and his team get to participate in the Summer Koushien, it should be set in late July during the Dog Days, or not, if the anime followed the logic explained in the next paragraph.

Throughout the anime, everyone wore the same winter uniform, unlike in the Angel Beats! Heaven's Door manga where they actually switched to the summer uniform once. As the dates of the seasonal uniform switch in Japan (June 1 and October 1) are strict and almost universal, there is little doubt that the anime didn't show anything that occurred between these two dates.

Following episode 4 and preceding episode 5 is the Stairway to Heaven OVA episode. Otonashi and his comrades organized the Sports Day that normally occurs in September/October. Then by episode 5, the students were taking their second midterm exams in early/mid October per usual.

November largely overlaps with the tenth month of the lunar calendar, the Kannazuki (神無月), or the "Month with/without Gods".

  The 無 character, which normally means "absent" or "there is not", was here probably originally used as ateji, that is used only for the sound "na". In this name the na is actually a possessive particle, so Kaminazuki means "Month of the Gods", not "Month without Gods" (Kaminakizuki), similarly to Minatsuki, the "Month of Water".

Whether God exists or not is still debatable, like how it is with the na in Kannazuki. Interestingly, Naoi proclaimed, in episode 6 during the "Month with/without Gods", that there was no God and that he is God. Maybe God is a Schrödinger's cat in the tenth month of the lunar calendar.

From mid-November to early December is the "rainy season of the Camellia". (The only times it rained in the anime were in episodes 6 and 9.) We saw the blooming Camellias in episode 7:

We also saw Kanade weeding the Chrysanthemums japonense, which typically flower in November annually.

I couldn't pick up any seasonal cue in the later episodes, so I'm less confident with the time of the events happening in episode 8 and onwards. It was not clear how long Kanade stayed in a coma, but could it be that she woke up on or around the day Hatsune died (Christmas Eve)? I couldn't help make this assumption because of the similarities between Kanade and Hatsune.

And then there is Matsushita's mountain training. It is possible, but highly unlikely, especially for a person like Matsushita who is not too fat, to lose 10 kg in a week. Judgment by the eyes (my eyes) tells me that he had lost 20–40 kg by the time he returned from the mountains in episode 12. That equates to a 3–6 weeks minimum time gap between the beginnings of episodes 10 and 12. However, it is far more likely that he was away for longer than that, probably 1–3 months to coincide with the time of the graduation, which is in March. I would wager that the anime ended with the end of the third term in March, excluding the epilogues.


English, Hepburn, English, Hepburn, alternating in OP and ED. Why?

This isn't unheard of and this is actually an older tactic than you may think.  Funimation's dub of Outlaw Star, for example, does the same thing has in the past done the same thing with its opening and ending songs, alternating between English and Hepburn.

For whatever reason, the dub on their site for free users no longer alternates.  Some older DVD releases do, though.

You surmise correctly in that this helps the English speakers follow along with the song, and understand the meaning of the lyrics, too.  The Hepburn addition allows non-native Japanese speakers to at least get a feel for how the words are pronounced.


Why did Kakashi's Sharingan fade after Obito died?

Both Kakashi and Danzou had physically obtained their Sharingan via transplantation.

During the finale of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Madara rips Kakashi's Sharingan and transplants as his left eye (Chapter 674).

Naruto, using Hagaromo's power, creates a normal eye for Kakashi (Chapter 675).

From Naruto Wikia article on Kakashi Hatake, merged plot summary of Chapter 686, 687 and 688 (emphasis mine):

  Prepared to give his life to lend what little assistance he can, Kakashi stands in front of Sasuke to take the attack while Obito does the same for Naruto. Although they are unified in their willingness to die, Obito decides it's too soon for Kakashi and uses Kamui on the attack bound for him, leaving Obito unable to save himself. Obito's body dissolves, but his spirit returns shortly afterwards and inhabits Kakashi. Obito feels that Kakashi will become the next Hokage and wishes to reward him: a temporary moment of having two Mangekyō Sharingan.

Obito gave Kakashi the privilege of having both Sharingan (Mangekyou) temporarily. This was the doing of the spirit of Obito and not the physical self. Hence the Sharingan Kakashi used was spiritually influenced.

Later, when Kaguya is defeated, Obito's spirit leaves Kakashi's side to join the other world. Because of the spirit leaving, the Sharingan also disappears along with it.

Had the Sharingan been physically present, it would have stayed, just like Danzou, the Kotoamatsukami crow and pre-war Kakashi.


According to the official page for the movie, Koe no Katachi will have a home video release on May 17th, 2017.

You will most likely be able to find it available in iTunes and other retailers after this release date.


Which series features the most re-occuring named characters?

The most I could find was Anpanman which is a Guinness World Record Holder for a having cast consisting of 1768 characters introduced over the first 980 episodes of the TV series and the first 20 films. That doesn't include the entire cast, apparently the producer nominated even more characters but they weren't accepted.

Guinness World Records entry.


Why is Adult Gon Freecss' hair so long? Why is Illumi's hair long?

It has been a while but I will try to answer with respect to the discussions held during that period.
First I would like to point a golden rule: Correlation doesn't imply causation. If Adult Gon and Illumi both have long hair it is NOT necessary they have it for the same reason.
Example:
Illumi has long hair because his character design was meant to be that way. He was meant to be introduced as a very creepy, gender-fluid character who could easily dominate the "imperturbable" Killua. The hair design gave author to do a lot of things with Illumi.

You've arrived at the reason for Gon's hair being long correctly, I believe. During Gon's transformation into what Killua considers "How he would appear after years, if not decades, of training", we also notice that his hair has grown absurdly long. This implies how much of time he would need to spend training to improve his Nen Ability.
To end with this is an old image with Illumi's character design (Hair). I'm not sure what does the Japanese text says.

Disclaimer:
Please Note, I know this answer is very opinionated without author notes to back it up. It is drawn from discussions during the original manga release which I have not tracked. In this case its the best answer to the question I could think of.
Feel free to suggest ways to improve or any flaws in the train of thought, I might have missed. I also haven't followed HxH in a long time so any new information is very helpful. Cheers!


Do Naruto and Sasuke lose their powers after the final battle?

In Naruto and the Sage of Six Paths volume 70 chapter 670: He of the Beginning, Naruto and Sasuke meet Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo, aka Sage of Six Paths, in that chapter Hagoromo tells Naruto and Sasuke about his sons Indra and Ashura, his mother Kaguya, Ten Tails, the ninja creed, the chakra fruit, and a couple of other stuff. Then in chapter 671: Naruto and the Sage of Six Paths, Hagoromo talks more about his mother, the tailed beast, the Uchiha Stone Table, the reincarnates, and then after he finishes talking he tells them both to raise their dominant arm. Once they did, he shared his powers with them.

In chapter 690: Ninja History page 194, after Naruto and Sasuke sealed Kaguya away, it shows Naruto and Sasuke's hands without the sun and the moon. Then on the other page, 195, it shows Hagoromo looking at his hands and it shows that he got the sun and the moon back (on his hands). Then he said "They've done it. All that's left is to bring you back!!" (depends on the translation version you got) then he clapped his hands.

So that means Naruto and Sasuke lost Six Paths power before they lost their arms.

To answer the other question. No, Sasuke does not lose his Rinnegan. In Naruto The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring: Uchiha Sarada in chapter 700+6: Without Evolution page 113, it shows Sasuke using Rinnegan. He uses the Rinnegan in other occasions in the same book.

Side note: I think in Naruto The Last Movie Sasuke has the Rinnegan, but I'm not sure if he uses it. And also if you awaken Rinnegan it is yours permanently, so there way no way Sasuke could have lost his Rinnegan. I mean it's like if you awaken the Sharingan.... it won't go away.

Sources:

Naruto volume 70: Naruto and the Sage of Six Paths
Naruto The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring: Uchiha Sarada


A manga about a girl helping demons but can't touch anyone because of it?

I'm quite sure it is Renai Kaidan Sayoko-san.
Synopsis from mangaupdates (emphasis mine):

Sayoko is an incredibly kind, but solitary, young kimono-clad lady who has certain supernatural abilities. She can see ghosts, and she frees them from their places of death by agreeing to let them haunt her instead. As a result, everywhere she goes, she is followed by an army of well-meaning spirits that only she can see. Her weirdness tends to throw any normal people who would have otherwise possibly become her friends.
Inaba is a poor college student who happens to accidentally run over Sayoko with his bicycle.
Sayoko normally is unable to interact with people for long periods of time, because since she is haunted she endangers the health of other people just by being close to them... But for some reason Inaba is completely fine with being around Sayoko even for long periods of time...
.... Just what's going on?

The scene where Inaba runs over Sayoko with his bicycle happens right at the beginning of chapter 1. Sayoko was bleeding from her head, but she was more worried about the boy's well-being than herself.

Also from chapter 1, Sayoko asked Inaba to lead her to the cursed shop where Inaba was supposed to work at but the manager ran away without paying his wages. When she arrived, she had a talk with the panda mascot, who died from a heatstroke. The panda mascot loved the smell of the restaurant, so he stayed and tried to advertise the shop, but every new shop opened there shut down in the end. She let the panda mascot possess her near the end of chapter 1.

The scene where the ghosts (not really demons, they are well-meaning ghosts) teased her about seeing the boy naked is from chapter 2.


EDIT: I have updated the answer to incorporate what was revealed in the segment on dust in Season 2, Episode 4.5
Dust is a natural resource used as an energy source, much like coal or gas but more potent.
It comes in crystal and powdered forms that can vary in colour, potency and effect.
In episode 2, Weiss identifies Fire, Water and Lightning attributed Dust, each having different properties. I think it's safe to assume the last element is Air/Wind.

According to the RWBY Wikia:

Being a form of energy, people are able to use Dust in combat. The use of Dust was how Humans originally defeated the Grimm. When combatants wielding Dust channel large amounts of the energy, complex circles of luminous energized Dust appear, with various shapes and runic incantations manifesting within them. These glyphs focus the energy of the Dust in order to cause large scale elemental phenomena or to defy natural laws.
Dust can also be used in its raw form, which is described as being "elegant, yet destructive" in nature and requiring a certain level of discipline to maintain control over. More archaic uses for Dust as a weapon include weaving it into clothes or directly implanting it into their bodies
Crystalized Dust is also used as ammunition. A prominent example of this is Lie Ren's dual pistols, the StormFlower, which use Schnee Dust Company rounds. Ruby's weapon, Crescent Rose has also been mentioned to use rounds with different kinds of Dust in them.

So Dust is kind of a quasi-realistic way that magic can exist in the RWBY universe, but it's more like fuel for augmenting weapons and existing skills.


Does Trunks know how to fire a Kamehameha?

Trunks has never fired a Kamehameha in any of the canon versions of the series. He does use the attack in GT and also in the case of the movie as you stated. Essentially, the attacks used by the Hybrid Saiyans are generally based on the attacks used by their respective fathers. Which in Trunks' case, is the Galick Gun and Final Flash and Kamehameha in case of the Son Family. I wouldn't necessarily say Trunks' scream was made up by the dub with regard to the movie as you can see  here.


What is the flashback in episode 14 of Ranma referring to?

I think you may instead be referencing episode 15, as this episode introduces Shampoo and has a flashback to the Martial Arts Figure Skating battle, which was originally planned to be air before this episode.

Two episodes were cut from the first season, Wikipedia notes the reason as there being a sensitive feeling of the title and theme of the specifically the first of these episodes (The Abduction of P-Chan), due to many kidnappings happening in Japan during that time.

These episodes were later inserted into season 2, which is where the clips come from.


What is the song playing in episode 100 of Black Clover?

The song you are looking for is "Haruka Mirai (ハルカミライ)" by "Kankaku Piero". It's the 1st OP.


How does the actual tattoo on Sasuke's shoulder should look?

The first one is correct

As you can se on the second image, theres a name on the bottom left corner. The second image is a fan-drawing and not from the anime/manga. The mark is on the left shoulder.

The moment when he got the mark
The moment, when Kakashi was sealing it
The actual sealed mark


Song from Ep 29/ S2 Ep 16 of My Hero Academia starting at 19:21?

This one is:

  English: Your Power
  Japanese: 君の力 (Kimi no chikara)

Its on on the Second OST.

"My Hero Academia (Anime)" 2nd Original Soundtrack
 - Track 22


What is this song played on Hunter x Hunter (2011) Ep.20 around 13:43?

The song playing around the time that illumi is talking to kilua at the timestamp 13:43 is 銀髪の少年 by Yoshihisa Hirano and is on the Hunter x Hunter 2011 Original Soundtrack as well as Spotify at the time of writing this


Which episodes of Fairy Tail season 2 are anime-exclusive?

All Fairy Tail episodes are listed here. The background of the air date indicates what type of episode it is, with yellow indicating anime-exclusive episodes.

At the time of writing (The day after Pi-day 2015), the following episodes were anime-exclusive in Fairy Tail season 2:

All episodes of the Eclipse Celestial Spirits arc (204 to 226). Excluding episodes 219, 220, 222 and 226, which were Omake episodes.


What exactly happened when a person passed on?

In the Angel Beats! universe

The anime didn't tell us much about what happened to the people who passed on, except for the ambiguous scene at the end. There is a chance that the ongoing visual novel will explore this topic a bit. For now, we can only refer to side materials, such as the third drama CD released with the sixth limited edition BD/DVD volume. In the drama CD, everyone reincarnated as a human being with a similar look (except one guy), but not with a similar personality (except a few). They all met in the Afterlife World for the second time after dying again, and they were able to recognize each other and remember their previous lives.

In the Keyverse

SPOILERS ahead for the following series: charlotte, clannad, little-busters and one.

There are recurring themes and concepts that connect together the worlds of Angel Beats!, Charlotte, Clannad, Little Busters! and One. Note that One is generally considered to be part of the Keyverse because

  [m]uch of the staff that created the game later became the founding members of the visual novel brand Key.

In Clannad, there is the Illusionary World:

  This world is later revealed to have been created by Ushio, who died regretting having left her father alone. She therefore became the girl in this world with the hopes of meeting her father again and collecting enough light orbs to make a miracle possible. [...] In theory, the Illusionary World is the after-life; when a person dies they are still connected to the real world, yet they are free to create their own world.

In Little Busters!, there is the Artificial World:

  When the artificial world was created, her wandering soul which still had a lot of regrets and unfulfilled wishes entered the artificial world. [...] [Riki] got involved with Saya so much that her existence caused him to stray away from the other Little Busters members. At some point, Kyousuke realized that he has to make Saya leave as soon as possible in order to come back to the original purpose for the creation of the world[: to make them strong enough to deal with what will happen when they awaken in the real world].

In One, there is the Eternal World:

  The Eternal World is a place similar to the afterlife where a person's "other self" awaits. Anyone can access it, though it is only accessible once one has lost his or her grounding in the real world. It may be necessary to form a pledge with someone in the real world as a guide to the Eternal World, but one's memories surrounding the pledge become vague. A grace period can be granted between when the pledge is made and when someone goes to the Eternal World. Once the process has started, nothing can prevent someone from going to the Eternal World, and returning to the real world is difficult. Someone about to leave to the Eternal World starts to be forgotten approximately one week before going, and the amount of time before someone forgets differs based on how much someone thinks about the person leaving. However, he or she is remembered the moment that person returns. If a strong emotional bond is established in the real world before leaving, a person in the Eternal World can be returned after approximately one year.

In Charlotte, there is The World that is No Longer Here, which is a world where people with superhuman abilities exist, and regrets ensue. Otosaka forms a pledge with Tomori to loot the abilities of everyone in the world in exchange for her love, but eventually loses memories of the world with ability users.

Then recall that the main setting of Angel Beats! is the Afterlife World:

  Despite the numerous enigmas that surround the world, it serves as a sort of second life for teenagers whose lives were filled with despair and pain. They are brought there after they have died and, alongside others, try to live there with fulfilled existences to make up for their pain. After, they disappear as their happiness has been granted. [...] Or, it could be simply said that time does not exist in the Afterlife and teenagers who died with regrets can go there, regardless what time of death or time period said person is.

In summary, all these worlds are for people who have regrets and lost memories surrounding the regrets.

So what happens in the Keyverse when a person "passed on" from one of these worlds? They return to the real world, and in the case of Tomoya in Clannad, he returned to a past point in time after collecting enough light orbs to grant his wish.

Based on the recurring themes and concepts in the Keyverse, this is the sequence of events that unfold after Kanade and Otonashi passed on from the Afterlife World:

They had established a strong emotional bond before leaving to the Afterlife World, which ensured their eventual return to the real world. [One]
They had been helping people achieve happiness by fulfilling their goals, so the light orbs that appear in the OP and in episode 13 granted their wishes and brought them back to a time before the point of no return so they could meet each other and be together. [Clannad]
Since coming to the Afterlife World, Otonashi and Kanade had grown stronger and opened up their heart more, so they would be in better shape when they return to the real world to overcome their tragedies (abdominal injury and heart failure) and change the outcome of the adversities favorably for them. [Little Busters!]
They were able to recognize each other thanks to a song of a certain musician, which they somehow retain the memories of. [Charlotte]

Interestingly, Otonashi Yuzuru (音無 結弦) means "no sound" and "fastened strings", Hatsune (初音), the name of Otonashi's little sister, means "first sound", like the first sound of heart beat of a person long thought to be dead, and Kanade (かなで/奏) means "to play an instrument". Playing the Meaningful Name trope, Kanade "plays" out the tunes of her romantic encounter with an Otonashi whose love string is fastened.


Answering your question to the letter,

  a Geass is created when a code user makes a contract with a human.

The type of Geass and its specific powers are dependent on the Code user, the new Geass user's personality and other specifics that are not discussed in the canon material.

But I feel like your question is not about how Geass powers comes into being, and more in the lines of how the superpowers of the characters (Geass and Code) come into being.

The backstory of the Code users is not revealed in depth. The further back we are shown is the life of C.C. while still mortal when she receives the Geass from the catholic nun.

(screenshot of C.C. and the nun)

While the epoch is not revealed, it is supposed to be in the High Middle Ages, circa XIV century (before the Age of Discovery) if I had to guess (and yes, this paragraph is pure guessing).

The reason I am assuming that C.C. backstory happens before the Age of Discovery is that she was already immortal for quite some time and was with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin during the American revolution (1700'), as shown in a special feature in the DVD release. Remember that in the world of Code Geass, Ben was granted nobility, betrayed Washington, and America was never independent form Britannia.

Since the nun was already immortal and already willing to give up immortality and die, the same state of mind C.C. is when she meets Lelouch, we can assume the nun is at least half a millennia old (around the same "oldness" as C.C. when the series launch).

So the codes should be around for at least a millennia. There is no info as to who the people with code sigils in their foreheads are, or how old the Geass order is. But one can assume that for as long as codes were around, Geass users are too.

(screenshot of the code people)

You could dig the origin of the term Geass (geis) on the internet (Wikipedia), but word of god never discussed this far back in the fictional world.

The timeline of the fictional world is here: world of Code Geass, but it does not go into the powers, only historical facts. Whether Geass was used or not in these events (like geassing Ben Franklin into betraying George Washington), it is not discussed.


Where does Owari no Seraph leave off in the manga?

According to Japanese Wikipedia, Wikia and many Reddit threads (e.g. this), the anime ends at chapter 41 (volume 11).

For the sake of completeness: season 1 ends at chapter 25 and season 2 ends at chapter 41.

However, as it has been mentioned on Reddit and explained on Wikia, the anime adaptation has some differences compared to the original work (manga).


"Deculture" (pronounced de-kult-cha) is a Zentradei expression of shock and surprise. In the early days of the Zentradi/human conflict it was a negative term used often by the Zentradis to denote their shock and disgust at the human-only concepts of culture, music, love and sex. For instance, in the movie Macross: Do You Remember Love? Zentradis reacted with a surprised and disgusted "Yak Deculture!" when they saw a kiss for the first time.

However, since the war ended and Zentradis became assimilated into human culture the meaning of the word started to shift. Zentradis have come to love those very things they used to see as alien and deplorable, so the word "deculture" started to get a more positive connotation of pleasant surprise that is commonly used by non-Zentradis as well. For instance in the series Macross Frontier (set 47 years after the events of Do You Remember Love?) Ranka Lee sings the theme song for the Nyan Cafe:

  Haochii rai rai, Meikuunyan, Nyan-nyan, nyan-nyan Nihao-nyan, Gojyasu! Derishasu! Deculture!!!! (Good Eats, come, come, Pretty Girls too! meow meow meow meow Hello meow Gorgeous! Delicious! Deculture!)

The tone of the song and usage makes it clear that it now means something along the lines of "Awesome!" or "No way!"


Can the two titan powers inside Eren be separated and given to two different people?

If a shifter dies not by getting eaten by a titan, their powers go to a random person. One can therefore presume that if Eren were to die, the two different titans would go to two different people.


Why do some English Dubs leave untranslated Japanese Text?

Dubbing is expensive; subbing is much cheaper to do.  Anime translation companies usually want to dub because they have no shot at getting it aired on TV outside of Japan if there is no dub, so they usually sell the subbed DVDs etc. for about the same amount of money as the dubbed ones, in order for the sales of the subs to to offset the larger cost of dubbing.  Neither dubbing nor subbing requires editing/adding to the artwork (dubs are an audio track; subs are a separate text file that can be overlaid over the art).

In contrast, usually text messages and other text shown in the artwork itself often moves as the "camera" pans; it is not usually static and flat on the screen.  Covering it up would require the company to overlay art that moves: essentially, to animate over the Japanese text with text that can move along with the "camera" panning motion, to avoid scrolling the overlay over the character's fingers, to tilt at the same angle as the cell phone screen is being held at, etc.  In other words, it is a different endeavor than either recording audio or typing up subtitles: one that requires more work which is a different type of work.

If the company has managed to land the series airing on TV in the country they're licensed for release in, the amount of money they expect to make off of it would cause them to be willing to re-animate those text messages.  They would not have a large motivation to add that animating work on top of their dubbing expenses if they do not expect to make a lot of money from the series.  If the text message is read aloud in either the voice of the sender or the voice of the recipient, it does not require the re-animating work for the viewer to understand (assuming the dub script is accurate, which is a whole different can of worms).  Using the dub voice actor they've already hired to orally take care of the viewer getting the gist of the message saves money.

An alternative would be to add a subtitle track which subtitles only the on-screen text messages, book covers, signage, etc. which would be inexpensive to do.  However, when you compare the dub script with the subtitle script from the same company, there are often differences because the dub is 1) attempting to match animated mouth movements and 2) attempting to sound more colloquial (i.e., "What would this character say if this character were talking naturally in English/Chinese/whatever language is being dubbed?" rather than repeating awkwardly in said language a translated phrase that a Japanese person would say in this situation but which a native speaker of said language would never think to say in this situation) as compared to the sub which is more concerned with 1) fitting in the physical space of 1~2 lines of text on the screen at once and 2) just translating more simply (what the character said).  So when the dub and sub scripts do not match, it would cause more confusion to add that sub script they already made into the dub copy, because then the dub actor's voice reading the Japanese text message and the sub at the bottom of the screen would not match.  It is likely that the company doesn't want to make a separate subtitle file for the dub copy unless it is necessary, again to save on costs.


What language is on the "God's Message" Cube?

I have not seen this show, nor have I researched the question, so take this answer with a grain of salt.

At first glance, the inscriptions look like Chinese characters (hanzi) or Japanese characters (kanji) that have been modified a bit to look 'archaic' or chiseled into stone. I've taken the second picture and added in the Chinese characters (in red) that I think some of the etchings are similar to.


Okay from what I understand so far about the whole Magia Erebea is that it can be a way to become immortal. Now within the manga, UQ Holder, we find out that there are varying degrees of immortality and what is suggested that they are not "Complete" because they still need to eat, they can become injured and, to some degree, die.

Spoilers

Negi, on the other hand, uses a Complete form of Magia Erebea, suggesting that he is a complete immortal, having no need to eat, cannot be injured and cannot die in any event and will continue to always  exist.

Now I'm assuming that everyone knows how we eat is a necessity because that allows our bodies energy to do things.

How Magia Erebea could potentially, and this is only in theory, make someone immortal is to continually "flow life, energy or magic" into the user. Now as explained in Negima!, Magia Erebea is a techniques that allows the user to absorb and take in magic. Now it is possible that the user of Magia Erebea can use the magic to sustain their life and the complete version could do so passively without the need of incantation or commands.

Now looking at Eva, she still needs to eat and feed, like all vampires, on blood or more accurately, explained in Negima!, that she feeds on a person's mana. She can still be injured and there is a possibility that she can still die when the time arises. Due to this, it can be said that the Magia Erebea that Eva wields is incomplete because the Magia Erebea has not granted her "Complete" immortality, also Eva still needs to activate it through commands meaning that it's not passive.

I hope that helps but you probably know all of that by now...


Why is that some anime anthology films are cancelled?

Most likely low sales. It's also an OVA so there is no such thing as committing to the episode count like a TV series. They can drop it at any episode if they deem the sales are low.


What is that "Oh yeah!" gesture that anime characters do called?

It called 合点 (Gatten). Google image search

It's pretty common gesture in Japan (and other countries)
I do it in real life too.

Also there is TV show called "gatten" that describe something and guest did gatten it.

Do you gatten to this answer?


What are the numbers in the background in Sae's room?

It's the "cut number." Just like in film, any time the perspective shifts is considered a new "cut" which equates to a numbered frame on the storyboard.

Using the first episode example, the first time the number is shown it reads 091B (cuts that have some obvious close connection might be grouped together as A and B of the same number, though I'm not sure why this particular cut is a B):

091B

These are my guesses for the numbers of the following cuts. Only someone with access to the storyboard could say for sure, but this is probably close enough:

092

093

094

094B Since it's just a close up of the last cut they probably wouldn't bother drawing it again (storyboard drawings would be rough anyway) so they'd just leave a note next to cut 094 to zoom in and add detail, hence cut 094B.

095

096

097

098

099

100

101

102

103

104

105

As you can see, 14 cuts later we see the board again, and it has incremented exactly as expected.

Edit: I think I may have misinterpreted the question. Not sure about the unchanging numbers, but there seems to be at least one theory that the numbers before the X are an encrypted "hidamarisketch" with two digits per letter. If you can break the encryption you might be able to figure out the rest.

The full thing for reference:

963958208
975195648
926748230
8X☆☆☆9428
947295039


Are these people in fantasy costumes from an anime, and if so, what anime?

Well after looking through various useless websites which did not bother to add tags, describe who the ladies were cosplaying in the picture or say anything new about it besides saying numerous times "2010 ChinaJoy Business Cooperation Launched" and "Chinajoy Cosplay Carnival 2009 in Beijing" whilst using imageraider, which proved far more useful than Google Image Search but useless at the same time I found out from a particular site that is linked here which has a discription under the same image saying this:

  A young disguised as cartoon characters pose for photographers during the celebration of Carnival "Chinajoy Cosplay 2009" in Beijing, China. The "cosplay" phenomenon, whose name consists of the English words "costume" ("costume") and "play" ("game"), has its origin in the comics "manga" Japanese and became popular in the 90s. In this particular "costume play", participants not only dress up as their favorite characters (real or imagined), but try to act like them. This hobby is growing significantly in China, as evidenced by the "China Cosplay", which this year celebrates its sixth edition.

From sourcing through lots of websites that I found using this reverse image tool + Google Image Search (again) I don't think this is from an actual anime, but rather made up. If it was from an actual anime I think it would have been tagged/added or mentioned in the description of the image at least on one site. Also I think at least even Google would have found a match too.

Also judging from the description, it seems that you can cos-play as anything. It is also good to note that this is a chinese thing and I am not sure whether anime cosplaying or Japanese anime cosplaying is common in China although I have heard that cosplaying did originate possibly from them.

Another thing is if you just google search "china joy carnival" and watch some YouTube videos it seems they cos-play in almost anything leading to the likelyhood that this cosplay could actually just be imaginative rather than from an actual cosplay of an Japanese anime series.

Finally it says "in this particular costume play". I am pretty sure the translation is correct since the website was in another language (Spanish) and then I translated it with Google Chrome and then double checked with Bing Translator which I think it is pretty accurate as well.

Here is the untranslated text just if you want to check yourself on another translation website. The only translation thats a bit different is google translates the first couple words as they are a bit differently to Bing though.

  Unas jóvenes disfrazadas de personajes de dibujos animados posan para los fotógrafos durante la celebración del carnaval "Chinajoy Cosplay 2009" en Pekín, China. El fenómeno "cosplay", cuyo nombre está formado por los vocablos ingleses "costume" ("disfraz") y "play" ("juego"), tiene su origen en los cómic "manga" japoneses y se popularizó en los años 90. En este particular "juego de disfraces", los participantes no sólo se disfrazan como sus personajes favoritos (reales o imaginarios), sino que intentan actuar como ellos. Esta afición está creciendo de manera significativa en China, como lo demuestra el "China Cosplay", que este año celebra su sexta edición.

I am fairly, 100% certain that this is not a cosplay of an anime based on my scouring of useless websites. xD


What is the scene where Reiner and Bertholdt climb the stairs endlessly refer to?

There's only one scene in the anime that matches your description. In Season 2 Episode 5

   Reiner and Bertolt stand on a stair, trying to fight off a Titan.

  Also, take a look at this:

  It's the same cannon with the spider web on it!


What are the processes involved betwen job submission and rewards?

Okay after doing some research I will try to answer this to the best of my ability. For a disclaimer after a few hours of searching I couldn't find a source that explain the job system in detail.

1. Are jobs submitted to every guild as advertisement or only to a specific Guild?

As we already know that there is a job board in every guild hall that has a listing of jobs that are currently available to mages to complete for compensation. We can assume very important jobs that need attending to immediately are most likely posted through every guild with the idea that enough mages will look at it and someone will accept the job. For smaller jobs with smaller rewards they are most likely categorized by locale. A mage is not going to travel all the way across Fiore for a small reward. These jobs are most likely posted only in the guild closest to the area of request. Another good assumption is that every S-Class, SS-Class, 10 Year, and 100 Year jobs are all posted to every guild hall. The reason being that there are not that many S-Class mages so they would need to be posted throughout every guild hall so the few S-Class mages have a chance to see them.

2. Is every job accepted by guild? And who is responsible for this?

We can assume that not every job is accepted and completed. This is why there are 10 year and a 100 year jobs. As for how jobs are accepted it is a safe bet that the guild will contact either the Mage Council or the patron about the acceptance of the job. For an example if Natsu accepts a job he tells Mirajane and she contacts either of the two about the job being accepted. Once the job has been accepted if there are any other guilds that have the job posted they most likely are contacted to remove the job and keep it removed unless the job does not get competed.

3.Who is responsible for assigning the ranks of the jobs and giving permission to guild members to take the job if requested?

As is known there are multiple tier levels for a mage. They are as follows: Guild Master, S-Class Mage, Mage. As we have seen in the anime there was a special area in the Fairy Tail guild hall that was only accessible for the S-Class mages. This is most likely a first check system in place so that regular mages are not allowed to accept S-Class jobs. It is also very likely that the Magic Council has detailed lists on every Mage in a legal guild and knows exactly how many S-Class mages there are in every guild. Once an S-Class or above job is accepted they probably have to approve it before sending the acceptance to the patron. Communication could possibly be handled by use of Lacrima.

As stated in the wiki the Magic Council: " are responsible for the events caused by Mages." This means that all of the events or jobs that can have mage involvement are constructed by the Magic Council. It would make sense for them to rank the jobs because most of the Council are very powerful mages and should be able to gauge how easily a job can be completed.

4. How does the payment work after the jobs are completed?

Like with most job it doesn't make sense not to assume that after the job has been completed and verified the patron will send the payment to the guild. The guild will them distribute the payment to the mage.

5. What happens when the mission fails?

We see this happen with Gildarts Clive, he undergoes a 100 year job and is unable to complete the job. Like I mentioned earlier if the job is not completed it will go back on the board until the next mage accepts it.

Once again this is not a 100% for sure correct answer to this particular question. I merely put an answer together from research based on the different wiki's and situations from the anime. If I find an actual explanation as to how this works I will modify my answer accordingly.


We are definitely talking about months here, if not year(s).

Lets first take a look at what has to be done to produce a anime to begin with. The image as found washibi's blog will help with that.

Here we can see that there are 4 mayor factors to the production of a anime.

Pre-production (planning)
Script/Scenario writing
in-production
post-production

Pre-Production (1 Week / 2-3 Months)(1)

Pre-Production is usually quite short. It covers obtaining sponsors, planning the costs and who they want to work with, such as the voice actors/artists

Especially bigger studios, whom already have a basic set of people to work with, and money available it will take shorter then for say an upcoming animation studio.

Script/Scenario writing (1-2 days / 1-2 weeks per episode)

Script/scenario planning covers the planning of an episode, here they roughly produce sketches about what scenes should look and feel like, design characters, pick colors, plan dialogues etc.

Often novels or manga are used as a basis for this, reducing the requirements. But for an original anime, or diverging stories the time needed might even go up as far as 1 month per episode, to plan things out in more detail.

The size of the used team is also important to how long this takes in total, as bigger studios will be able to plan several episodes at the same time, as opposed to smaller studios, which will be able to plan 1 or 2 at the time.

In-production (1-2 weeks / episode)

This is the part where all the fancy stuff starts. The process of animation, cleaning rendering and everything relevant to it.

Post-production(+- 1 week / episode)

This is where voice actors start to come in. They will have to record the required audio, add music and sound effects to the scene, and do a final round of editing to clear out some of the left over mistakes.

So a cour takes +- 6 months?

Yep, in the most positive scenario it will take about 6-7 months to create a 'cour' from scratch. And with a bit of bad luck, it can run up to 1~2 years even. Which all depends on the team size, how efficiently they can work together, and how much of the production can be done side by side.

1 week pre-production
2-3 weeks pre-production
+- 12 weeks in-production
+- 12 weeks post-production
thus 27 weeks or ~7 months total


According to the Overlord Wiki, Narberal Gamma's race is:

   a doppleganger battle maid


Is it true that Luffy's mother has been shown in the series?

We don't know. The only thing we know as Toshino mentioned in a comment is that Oda had said we would be very pleased with Volume 45 if we were wondering about his parents. Whether he was referring to his father Dragon alone or both his parents is unknown at this point.
From the SBS of Volume 44 chapter

Reader: Oda-sensei!! I have a serious question. Will you ever draw Luffy's parents? P.N. Mr. Uni, Age 16
Oda: His parents? Well, I think you will be pleased with the next volume. Get excited!

Volume 45 consists of the chapters 431, Fist of Love through 440, First Fist vs Blackbeard. Luffy's father was revealed to the crew in chapter 432 and he was shown to the reader in chapter 440. Whether his mother was beside him in the base or somewhere else in those chapters is unconfirmed.


What happens to the Meister when they complete a Death Scythe?

In the anime, Maka's mom is referenced many times by Maka, who says that she occasionally gets postcards from places her mother has been to. Therefore, I'm assuming that after a Meister makes a Death Scythe, they take on a job like any other person would, or maybe some special mission from Lord Death himself. After all, after the Weapons become Scythes, they go around the world protecting different parts of the world.

This is just a theory. The answer may have been revealed in the manga, but I don't know for certain. I hope this helped a little bit.


What are the steps involved in producing an anime?

There is a really excellent blog post on Washi's blog titled "Anime Production - Detailed Guide to How Anime is Made and the Talent Behind it!" that covers pretty much the entire process that includes references from Studios like I.G., AIC, and Sunrise.

Here's a flowchart from the link that describes the process:

So you have the pre-production and planning phase, which can happen either from an original author or a production company:

  This process depends on who’s pushing for an idea and who is backing it up, it can be animation studios themselves along with sponsors, but many anime are adaptations of manga or light novels, in which case, publishers front costs (including the costs of having it shown on TV stations). The production company (e.g Aniplex) gathers staff, sponsors, and looks at advertisement and merchandise. While many people describe studios as being cheap, only around half the budget is often given to the anime studio, with the rest going to broadcasters and other contributing companies. The broadcast costs are surprisingly high – according to blogger, ghostlightning – at about 50 million yen for a late-night timeslot across 5-7 stations for a 52 episode series. You can see why anime can be an expensive business. For example, Full Metal Alchemist, which had a 6pm Saturday slot had a total budget of 500 million yen (before additional costs).

This part of the processes then becomes mostly planning, designs, and putting together the staff. When it's time to create the first episode, then the prodcution phase starts:

  The first step is to write the episode scripts. Following the episodes synopsis/plans, the full scripts are written, by either one person for the whole series or by several different writers based on the outlines from the overall script supervisor (staff credit: series composition). The scripts are reviewed by the director, producers, and potentially the author of the original work before being finalised (after 3 or 4 drafts, often). The episode director, supervised by the overall director then takes this backbone of the episode and must plan out how it will actually look on screen. While the director has the final say and is involved at production meetings, the episode director has the most hands-on involvement in developing the episode. This stage is expressed as a storyboard (a visual script), and the storyboard marks the beginning of actual animation production.

Storyboarding:

  Often the storyboard is created by the director, this means an episode is truly the vision of that director. But usually, mainly in TV-anime, separate storyboarders are used to actually draw them. This is because storyboards usually take around 3 weeks to do for a normal length TV-anime episode. Art meetings and production meetings are held with the episode director, series director and other staff about the episode should look. Storyboards are drawn on A-4 paper (generally) and contain most of the vital building blocks of an anime – the cut numbers, actor movements, camera movements such as zooming or panning, the dialogue (taken from the screenplay) and the length of each shot (or cut) in terms of seconds and frames (which we’ll explain later). Because the number of drawings available for an episode is often fixed for the sake of budget management, the number of frames is also carefully considered in the storyboards. The storyboards are roughly-drawn and are really the core stage of deciding how an anime will play out. Cuts refer to a single shot of the camera and an average TV-anime episode will usually contain around 300 cuts. More cuts don’t necessarily imply a better quality episode, but it will generally mean more work for the director/storyboarder.

The post then covers the layout and the animation process, then finally, the composition and filming:

  It is commonplace for the frames to be completed on a computer. After they are drawn and checked, they are digitized. Once they are on the computer, they are painted with a specified color palette by painting staff (generally a low paid job). They use the shading lines drawn by the key animators to do the shading colours. This digital equivalent of the ‘ink & paint’ stage of production, which used to be done by hand, has allowed some more interesting visual styles to come through in the colouring, such as the use of gradient shading or even textures. These would have been too difficult to do back in the day. It has also saved considerable time and money in the process. These become the final “cels” that go into the animation.

  Once all the frames are coloured and finished, they can be processed as animation using a specialized software package. “RETAS! PRO” is used for approximately 90% of anime currently aired in Japan (for drawing sometimes too)! Before the use of digital ‘cels’ (digicels), drawings (printed onto cels) were actually filmed over backgrounds. Now, cuts are completed digitally, and the background art can be added on the computer. Initially, when digicel was first being picked up by studios (around about 2000), it had real problems matching the fineness of detail in hand-drawn and painted cels. But nowadays, anime studios have really perfected the digital cel, giving us anime with just as much detail and more vibrant colouring. The digicel age has now streamlined the production process such that repeated cels and clip/recap episodes are basically a thing of the past. Some still prefer the rougher look of pre-2000, but I’ve certainly moved on.

  ...

  After compositing is completed for all the cuts, they have to be to the timing required for broadcast, so that the episode doesn’t lag overtime. With the completion of the editing step, the episode moves out of production and into post-production. I won’t go into much detail on this, but it essentially encompasses adding sound (dubbing), both the music and the voice recordings, and final editing (cutting the episode with space for advertisements). Visual effects may also be added at this late stage too.


The anime is Shirokuma Cafe, about animals and humans in a cafe run by a polar bear named Shirokuma (シロクマ); this penguin character is aptly named "Penguin".


In Naruto, why were women chosen to be Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi?

There have been three known Jinchuriki for Kurama, all from the Uzumaki clan. Mito, Kushina and Naruto.

After Madara and Hashirama's final battle in the Valley of the End, Hashirama realized that Kurama was too dangerous to be walking alone in the world. Mito chose to seal Kyuubi within herself because of her knowledge of Uzumaki clan's Sealing Techniques, Exceptional Chakra and lifeforce, and the fact being close to First Hokage meant that he could control the situation if the seal weakened and Kyuubi went on rampage. Thus Mito was kind of convenient and obvious choice at that time.

Naruto on the otherhand was on the opposite end of spectrum. Minato was against the ropes and realized that the village needed Kyuubi's power to fight the threat posed by supposed Madara Uchiha. Naruto had the Uzumaki blood and sealing only half of Kurama allowed him more control as well.

Thus only Kushina's case was special, since it was deliberated and chosen specifically for being the Jinchuriki. The reasons of this are explained as follows.

Kushina was chosen as the successor towards the twilight years of the clan. Uzumaki clan had almost disintegrated and a suitable successor would be very hard to find. Thus Kushina may have been the ONLY choice!
Mito was a tested host for the Kyuubi and thus Leaf elders may have decided that the next Jinchuriki should be as close to Mito as possible. A special Kunoichi from Uzumaki clan with exceptional chakra? Thats what they were looking for.
Kushina was eventually told why she had to leave her home of Uzushio and go to Konoha; because of her special chakra, she was to be the next jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. This can be the Uzumaki chakra or some other criteria, we don't know. (Source - Naruto chapter 500)
Before the transfer was performed, Mito advised Kushina that love was the only way to tame the Nine-Tails and overcome its hate. Kyuubi was known as the incarnation of hate in the world and thus Mito may have felt that only a Kunoichi could control all the hate inside much more easily then any other ninja.


Can a Death Note Owner be killed with their own Death Note?

There is no rule currently known which prevents any person from killing the owner of a death note under normal circumstances.

The only reasons a death note will not work on a person assuming that the victims name and face are known are:

  the victim is very young
  the victim is very old (124 years old or older)
  the victim is already about to die in the next few seconds
  someone already misspelled the victims name too many times
  the victim's name was written in a second death note simultaneously (victim still will die)
  the victim's name was already written in any death note in a valid way (time of death before end of natural life span).

(Please edit if I missed any.)

I almost always have to note on these questions that the rules available to us about the Death Note are not complete. In fact, the rules themselves state that even the shinigami do not know all of the rules about how a death note works.


How did Ivankov and Inazuma survive Magellan?

The following details are taken directly from the wiki page on Inazuma: (emphasis mine)

  After a brief fight between Luffy and Blackbeard, Inazuma and the others managed to reach Level 3: here, he cut the stairs to level 2, following the instructions of Ivankov, who stayed to battle Magellan. Refusing to follow the other prisoners to Level 1, Inazuma stayed in front of the stairs waiting for Iva, but he was reached instead by Magellan, who easily defeated him with poison.

  Fortunately, Inazuma was picked up by Ivankov. Though both of them were barely alive after being defeated by Magellan's poison, they quickly caught up with the rest of their allies on the top of Impel Down using Iva's Hell Wink to propel them up the prison. Having caught up with the rest of their allies, Inazuma and the rest were not given a moment's rest as Magellan came at them with his most powerful technique. Heeding the advice from Jinbe over the Den Den Mushi, they all hung on to Iva's huge head and using another Hell Wink, blasted their way into the ocean just as Magellan cornered them all at the pier. Though this move seemed foolish due to the waters surrounding Impel Down being a Sea King's nest, they were fortunately saved by a school of whale sharks that Jinbe called for aid.

So yes, they both were defeated by Magellan's poison, and barely escape to the ship. Now, the next section in the page, about the Marineford War states: (emphasis mine)

  Inazuma was treated for his poisons on the escape ship to Marineford. Ivankov decides not to use his healing and tension hormones, claiming that Inazuma is a very important revolutionary and this process shortens the lifespan and may cause various after-effects. Iva decides just to wait until Inazuma is recovered.

  Near the end of the battle at Marineford, Inazuma emerged from Ivankov's hair, having been hiding in it all of the time since the boat crashed into the battle. He then used his Devil Fruit powers to create a walkway to Ace's Execution platform for Luffy.

Similarly, from the page on Ivankov:

  Ivankov revealed he used Healing Hormones and Tension Hormones to save himself from the poison, but he did not want to put Inazuma through the same thing.

So, Iva cures the poisons to ensure Inazuma is out of danger, and then doesn't use the hormones on him. Hence, Inazuma is out of action till the end of the war, and even then doesn't really fight head to head with anyone.


How does binding a soul to an armor suit allow the suit to move?

In each case of a bonded soul, the blood is directly placed against the armor, allowing the iron in the hemoglobin to physically interact with the metal (and presumably any other material it would be bonded with)[1]. This means, basically, that the alchemic procedure allows the soul to interact with the metal as well.

When a blood seal is made, it is connected to a being, and must remain with only that being, as well as it must be connected. That means that if Al loses his arm, he cannot move it; however, if he picks up an iron pipe, he cannot move that at free will either, as it was not bonded to him initially. (Even at one point, he transmutes part of his body and can no longer manipulate it.)

(Note: Alphonse has no eyes lit up in his helmet because the helmet is separated.)

In the Fullmetal Alchemist universe, souls are that which contain a being's personality, thoughts, and memories, which is seen later in the series:

   For example: Kimblee's soul is able to connect with Pride from within; Hohenheim's many souls are spread around the land and are able to think and act with their energy; and Hohenheim was able to speak and interact with the emotions and arguments of every soul within him from the memories that soul kept.

Thus, we can connect the dots: Alphonse's soul is connected to the armor through the blood seal, and is able to act with his full set of memories; thus, Alphonse can use his memories and thoughts to move the armor at will.

The physical strength and agility comes from their ability to not be restrained by inner forces. (Imagine how much faster you could run if your body worked the same, but without bones and muscles weighing you down!) However, all the fighting skill and ability comes from things that soul has learned (both before getting that body, and after).


Will Amaterasu go along with the summoned animal or disappear?

The flames of the Amaterasu are inextinguishable by ordinary means and once any organism is caught in it, they will either have to sacrifice that body part, absorb the  entire Jutsu (if they posses Rinnengan related abilities), or seal the flames away.

In the case of a Snake summon, it could most definitely shed its skin and easily escape the flames of the Amaterasu (which would still be burning the outer skin that it shed). This is evident in the fact that Sasuke was able to escape Itachi's Amaterasu by shedding his skin (a unique ability that he learned from Orochimaru, and Orochimaru learned it in Ryuchi Cave ).

A slug summon like Katsuyu could survive but the damage will be immense, since she's able to rearrange her entire body into smaller slugs, she could detach out the parts that are consumed by the Amaterasu, by turning into a ton of smaller slugs and sacrifice those parts.

Also, If the animal was summoned by a person who posseses the Rinnengan, the summoner could easily absorb the chakra and remove the flames.

As for all other Summoning animals, Unless they have a unique defensive ability to escape the flames, then the Amaterasu will burn it out from existence. Even if the Animal tries to go back to its main habitat, the flames will still continue until nothing exists.


Which characters Midoriya inspired his techniques from?

Well, I would like to add more on that list but that's all. It's true that he observes and takes note but as for now he is still trying to improve Full Cowling.


Do anime studios pre-record their voice actors before animation?

According to Washi's blog post from 2011 titled "Anime Production – Detailed Guide to How Anime is Made and the Talent Behind it!", all of the voice work and sound recording happens in post production. These processes are compiled from studios like Sunrise, Production I.G., AIC, etc.

I've read about certain productions where some animatics (simplified mock-up animation of storyboards) are used with voice acting. Not sure if they actually do recording there or whether it's used as part of the creative process. However, Wikipedia's Voice Acting in Japan notes that:

  A voice actor's role in anime consists of reading the lines before the production is finished. In Japan, the lines are usually performed before the anime has completed. The artist then draws in every expression to the key of the voice actors reading it off. This is the most common way of prerecording in Japan.

But the passage lacks any citation.

Additionally, voice actors are paid for a chunk of work, regardless of the number of lines or how long the session takes, so it's logistically easier to do it all in one go as opposed to being linked closer to the production of the actual animation. When the animation is (mostly) done, the voice acting and sound engineering can all be done in one go.


By number of series, how much of the animation industry is made up by anime?

Counting by "number of series" is rather silly. It has its uses (e.g. it can help answer the question "does Japan produce a wider variety of animated television shows than the rest of the world?"), but it is not a particularly good metric for answering the question "does Japan produce more animated television shows than the rest of the world?".

Anyway, I deem this claim implausible. IMDB lists 1937 TV series tagged with "Animation" from the US from 1960-2015. It lists 2265 TV series with the same search terms from Japan. We get another 557 titles from France; 171 from Germany; and so forth.

While IMDB is probably systematically biased in favor of having more complete data on US shows than Japanese shows, and also does some weird things like listing "Kimba the White Lion" as a US show, I do not think that the numbers we're looking at support the claim that Japan produces 70% of the world's animation by series count. (I would agree that Japan probably does produce at least a plurality of the world's animation by series count, but series count is a lousy metric, so.)

Incidentally, there's also a very nice whitepaper by the MLIT that I happened upon that doesn't answer this exact question but otherwise has very nice data about the anime industry.


What is this dance that characters in Nichijou do during the episode breaks?

As far as I know, it's just an original dancing choreography designed to look endearing, cute and fun. Kids on the streets don't usually perform a dance while playing rock-paper-scissors (or jan-ken-pon).


I'm no expert, but sometimes a member of a gay couple can be called a Bear. This man is usually rugged and macho, and usually hairy.

Wikipedia describes a Teddy Bear as:

  A fully hairy Bear. Chest, back, beard, everything is hairy

So perhaps this is a reference to that, seeing as you mention it occurs significantly often in yaoi?


Is it ever explained why Maya is rejected by the Ocean Agency?

Yes, it is explained and the reason is understandable. Ensure you have finished the series:

  She was rescued by the Ocean Agency once she surfaced in a life pod, approximately 100 years after the Elpida catastrophe. She was resurrected, and unsuccessfully treated by the Ocean Agency psychologists. Her memories were altered with that of a different life, which was done to enable her to function and live her life. Her brother, whom was the only other survivor, surfaced ~60 years earlier and posed as her grandfather, and was not allowed to tell her the truth due to the involved risks and agreements he made to ensure her safety. She was rejected because she was a survivor of the city of Elpida, and the entire catastrophe was covered up, therefore making her a risk to the agency and government.


In chapter 3, it is mentioned that Misaki was learning Aikido.

There are various scenes in the first few chapters that shows Misaki using Aikido moves. For example:

In the middle of chapter 1, Misaki threw a sandbag over her head to clear the way.
At the beginning of chapter 2, Misaki used Aikido on a male student who was half-naked.
In the middle of chapter 3, Misaki used Aikido on the members of the student council who slacked off at the beginning of the chapter.
At the end of chapter 3, Misaki used Aikido on the 2 masochists.