Is Tier Halibel's Ola Azul similar to Ichigo's Getsuga Tenshou?

Ola Azul can enhance the user's sword strikes, while the regular Getsuga Tensho cannot.

The Ola Azul is a technique exclusive to Harribel, since it is created by pooling reiatsu within her blade's empty space. This concentrated reiatsu can either be shot as a short-blade shaped projectile, or kept within the blade to increase Harribel's striking strength. When used in melee combat, Ola Azul has been shown as a ribbon of light increasing the width and range of Harribel's attacks :

On the other hand, the Getsuga Tensho is a concentration of reiatsu which is released by the tip of the user's blade. It cannot be kept around the blade to increase the user's striking strength ; the sole exception are Tensa Zangetsu's Getsuga Tensho. In essence, the power of Tensa Zangetsu is to "compress" Ichigo's reiatsu around himself, drastically increasing his strength and speed (as commented in Chapter 163, pages 19-20). This aspect partly manifests as the black robes donned by Ichigo. Tensa Zangetsu can "capture" a Getsuga Tensho when released and wrap it around Ichigo's blade to increase striking strength.

In effect, they are not hugely different techniques ; but the creation method is quite different and sets them apart.


In the Dressrosa Arc, why doesn't Luffy use Gear Second to quickly reach Doflamingo?

He isn't really running endlessly. He is taking the shortest route towards Doflamingo every time. In the palace, he did not take any detours and barged straight into the castle, going straight for Doflamingo. Then later, when the palace was relocated, again, just jumped straight down into the city, running straight towards Doflamingo again. Remember how he originally went over the stone statue, as he thought it would be a short-cut, the same with the well. There was no instance where he just endlessly ran about.

In short, it would not make much sense to use up your stamina even before the game started. Imagine Marouane Fellaini, imagine him having an important football match in a few hours, would it make sense for him the give it all he has got and run towards to stadium to get there faster? It wouldn't, because the run is not important at all and he would not be able to last until the end of the match to his full extend. The same would happen to Luffy. Luffy is well aware of the fact that he will need every last bit of energy he has got to take down Doflamingo.

Additionally, as explained here, what happens with Gear 2, is that Luffy is drugging himself, by making his heart pump his blood around much faster. Originally it was introduced as a major drawback as it would eat away at his life, since his heart would have to pump at abnormal rates. Assuming that it is still true to some extend, it would not really make sense to shorten your life for no aparent reason. Keep in mind that at those times, nobody was in real imminent danger and there was no real need for him to get to Doflamingo asap.

On top of that, Luffy was never running alone. There was always someone slower with him (Eg: Zoro, kinemon, Violla, Law, Soldier, etc), so if he would just run off alone, he would basically leave his friends behind, unable to protect them. So by going together, he does not put pressure on his heart, is able to protect his friends and can have some fun along the way.


Where does the Kyuubi inside Naruto exist?

The place that we see is within Naruto's subconsciousness and its as a result of the Eight Tetragram pattern which is the sealing formula used by Minato to seal the Nine tails within Naruto.

  According to the Wiki, When Naruto wants to speak to the Nine-Tails, he enters a subconscious plane that resembles an underground complex, with pipes running along the ceiling and various hallways. The floor is flooded with a shallow layer of water; the Nine-Tails' growing influence over Naruto is sometimes depicted as the water level rising.


It really is confusing, and there is conflict as to what is really happens. I think our best guide is the story itself. For this answer I will be using the anime as a guide. Lastly, please note that this discussion pertains only to Super Saiyan itself, and not Ascended Saiyan, or SS3/4.

Now, Goku himself says, when training Gohan, that it does indeed come from a need, and if needed you can create that need. Though, I'll have to check with the original Japanese, because perhaps this wasn't the best word to use in translation? Considering that he also notes that the pain of loss as an important factor, this leads me to believe that perhaps it is more of an emotional thrust than a direct need per se.

Either way, in my humble opinion you need a mixture of the two (need and power-level.) If I'm not mistaken, no one is shown doing it without both factors.

Examples:

Goku

Spent much time training in 100x gravity, which undoubtedly boosted his power-level way up.
He was pushed over the edge by an emotional trust. (The ruthless death of his friend.)

Vegeta

Out of pride he spends his time in training trying to become a Super Saiyan, just like Goku, including some time in 450x gravity.
Out of anger, jealousy, and pride he is pushed over the edge.

Gohan

Spent much time training with his father in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
He is pushed over the edge by the distraught he feels at the idea of failing his friends.

Now, this is only valid in the act of becoming a Super Saiyan. Later on, once a Saiyan has learned how to control it better, the emotional thrust is lessened (if not removed altogether.) In addition, when higher forms of Super Saiyan are considered, the emotional barrier is lessened even more so, and the emphasis is placed more on power-level, and perhaps skills.

As for other Super Saiyans whose original transformations are not explicitly shown, I leave that up to pure speculation. At least we have three good cases to base our claims on; perhaps the rest just belongs in the imagination.


Do we ever get to see any official S-rank missions in action (Naruto series)?

From the Wikia itself

  S-rank - assigned to experienced jōnin and concern state-level confidential matters. Examples are assassinating VIPs, and transporting highly classified documents. The reward for an S-rank mission is more than a million ryō.

  "S-rank" is also a designation given to extremely powerful missing-nin, earning them a place in their village of origin's Bingo Book. The organisation Akatsuki was stated to be comprised mostly of S-rank criminals.

Keeping this in mind we can list down plenty of missions undertaken which would've been classed as S-Rank. Thus off the top of my head the following missions should've been S-Rank even if explicitly not told so.

Retrieval of Gaara: Clearly a S-Rank mission with Team Kakashi and
Team Guy taking on Akatsuki members Diedera and Sasori
The hunt for unnamed Akatsuki - Hidan and Kakuzu. Several squads of
capable Jonin and Chunin were chosen for this S-Rank (not mentioned
explicitly)

   This mission led to death of a Senior Jonin Asuma.

Hunt of Hidan and Kakuzu: Shikamaru's planned mission to kill Hidan
and Kakuzu. Not official, but Tsunade allowed Kakashi to go along.
The hunt for Sasuke: Nearly all the original 12 Genin, kakashi,
Yamato etc. hunt for Sasuke. Sasuke is a S-Rank missing Nin, even if
Leaf doesn't consider it. Again not explicit.

Edit: - Interception of Akatsuki spy may have been S-Rank, but I feel it would most probably be a A-rank. Even though they fought Orochimaru
 - The unofficial S-Rank mission given by Kakashi to Shikamaru, Naruto
   and Sakura (With Pakkun): Follow Sasuke and Stop the Sand Genins. Might've been A-Ranked. Pardon my memory. Putting in the Edit box for now.

Wiki also adds,

  These missions are exclusively assigned to highly skilled jōnin or large squads of ninja
  This is true for almost all these missions.

Source: Narutopedia's link on S-Rank


Are there any of the same spirits in Fairy Tail?

Celestial Spirits in Fairy Tail are generally broken down into Gold and Silver Keys.

For the Gold Keys, there is only one of each spirit, mapped to only one Gold Key. During Lucy's battle against Angel, it was shown that duplicating a key and summoning a Gold Spirit actually desummons them from their current summoner and resummons them under the new summoner, suggesting that indeed there is only one of each.

For the Silver Keys, there are likely multiples of each spirit. Nikola (e.g. Plue) is the most cited example of a family of spirits. In the anime, Caelum is also shown to be owned by multiple summoners at the same time, though this does not constitute canon material as the appearance was in a filler arc.


Why didn't the entire village know Naruto was Minato's son?

While I don't like posting speculative answers, upon plenty of time and thought I think this is the best I can think of. Expanding on my comment on the question, I'll try to logically conclude why many didn't relate the boy Naruto with the son of Hokage.

We see the scale of invasion pretty early in the episode and see it
was a sudden war worse than the attack by the Sand/Sound villages.
The strategy of saving the villagers probably resulted from the
Nine-Tailed Fox Attack. The knowledge of Jinchuriki is SECRET
information and wasn't revealed to anyone but the Hokage and top-tier Anbu.
Hence, while plenty of people had seen Kushina pregnant,
no one knew the significance of the birth (even Minato didn't know).
The sudden death of the Fourth and his wife naturally led people to
conclude the worst. We also know that some Anbu and the Third's wife died
as well. When so many people die together, how can they assume a new
born baby survive?
We know of at least two orphans from the Nine-Tailed attack. Iruka and
    Naruto. (I believe Kurenai's parents died too, but not sure if it was
    filler). When the Third Hokage retook the position, the village was
    turmoil, and plenty of rehab efforts were made, including for orphan
    children whose parents had died. Uzumaki Village is extinct, but
    there may have been several wandering clans in the Land of Fire (not the
    village), who may have visited the village. And Naruto may've been
    thought to be the son of guests who unfortunately died in the attack.
    The nature of the Third's kindness is well known and no one would question
    his interest in the kid of a guest of the village who died because
    of the failure.
The Hokage's family are treated as special in village. Tsunade (the First's
granddaughter), Asuma (ran away from home to escape the shadow of
Hokage's son), Konohamaru (Honorable Grandson + Special Tutor) and
even Boruto (Konohamaru would naturally take him in). Everyone likes
them. Treats them with respect. In Naruto's case only the shadow of
fear lingered, and it didn't change. If he were "special" why didn't
anybody intervene? This created the vicious circle of some people
staying away because of the fear that being the Fourth's son makes him
a target (Kakashi), some jounin let him be (Shikaku), some actively
shunned him. This shunning gradually increased and seeped into the
kids as well. No one expects a village oddball to be that of Hokage
heritage.
The most important point is hiding in plain sight. Naruto isn't
the first nor the last to use this technique for hiding the true
nature of main character. Superman is a prime example. People don't
expect "special" people to live among the common! What they don't
expect they just don't see it. This is true in real life as well.


Song played at Noragami Aragoto episode 12 19:00

It's the 11th song on the Noragami Aragoto soundtrack Footsteps. The portion we hear during that scene starts at minute 1:17 and crescendos around 2:00 when Yato uses Sekki.


Why do people's names change in Tower of God?

Name changes could be for a few different reasons. Most of the time, however, the English spelling differs because two different translators just decide to spell it differently.

In Korean, there is no Z sound. There is only a J sound, so words with the J sound like Jahad might be translated into Zahard depending on the translator's interpretation. As for the additional R in the name, that is really up for interpretation as well because English soft A sounds can be spelled like that. In this case, Zahard and Jahad will produce the same sound in Korean despite the English spelling differences. The spelling difference was only due to translator interpretations.

As for the Lahel to Rachel, this is a somewhat different case. Lahel is actually how the name sounds phonetically (pronounced lie-yell). Rachel is the English conversion of the name. It is like how the name Steven is Etienne in French. Lahel in Korean translates to Rachel in English.


In DanMachi's universe, Argonaut is the name of the story of a boy who wants to be a hero, according to the conversation between the Loki familiar members from 17:16 in episode 8:

Bell: This is my adventure. I want to be... I want to be a hero!
Tiona (Tione?): Like the Argonaut...
Finn: It's the story of a boy who wants to be a hero, yeah.
Tiona/Tione: I liked that story, too.

However, that is not its first mention in the story. Argonaut appeared as early as episode 5 as part of the visual, when Bell was answering the question posed by the grimoire, as to what he sought from magic (the image corresponds to the bold line):

Bell: What do I seek from magic?
Bell: The woman who's faster than anyone, like a lightning bolt... I want to catch up to her.
Bell: Is that all?
Bell: If it were possible... I'd like to be a hero. Like in the fairy tales I read when I was a kid. A hero they'd be satisfied with.
Bell: You're such a child.
Bell: I'm sorry. But that's who I am!
Bell: That's who I am!

While the alphabets are distorted, it still bears a lot of similarities to English alphabet, especially A, R, U, T.
I don't know whether the light novel reveals the name of the fairy tale in this scene, though.
The fact that Bell attained the skill Argonaut, which is named after the story of a boy who wants to be hero, signifies his strong desire to become a hero, which is the meaning of the kanji in the title of episode 8 [英雄願望]{Argonaut}.


Why didn't Izuku's mom ask about his quirk?

I can think of a few possible reasons why this would have happened.

Izuku's mother assumed that he developed his ability at some point, but chose not to use it often due to its side effects. In this case, she may not have mentioned it, realizing it may be a sensitive subject.
Izuku has a very close relationship with his mother, and people with these types of relationships can often tell a lot more about each other than most. His mother likely sense that, for whatever reason, he didn't want to talk about his quirk, and decided not to press the issue.
She asked Izuku offscreen, and he deflected her question somehow; which would end up resulting in the same effect as 1. or 2.


A black metal song in episode 41 of My Hero Academia

From what I can gather, the only artist mentioned in the end credits is Miwa. After hours of searching all I could come up with was this video of her doing a metal cover. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eVHPqmgvrE It sounds close, but Im not 100% sold on it. But it does prove she can sing that style so perhaps its a new song by her. If that is the case we will have to wait for the OST.


Aomine being dark-skinned is to show that he used to play street basketball a lot. Unlike indoor basketball, where the players are not subject to direct sunlight, street basketball is played outdoor. Since Aomine used to play street basketball a lot, which can be seen from his playing style, his skin got darker. Also notice that although his skin is dark, he is not as dark-skinned as Papa "Otou-san" Mbaye.


There was never any real hole in Obito's chest. It was a genjutsu, as shown in Chapter 636.

The genjutsu was activated right from the moment Obito pierced himself into Kakashi's Raikiri. Kakashi realises the genjutsu after a while, asks Obito to drop the act and fight for real.


What are the differences between the Broken Blade films and series?

The most significant difference is that the TV series includes, in episode 10, an important battle from the manga of Girge and the Spartans. Otherwise, the TV series is just a generally better edited version of the films with the following (non-exhaustive) changes:

The order of some scenes during the negotiation in the first film were rearranged for a better and more linear flow.
Scenes like a passer-by remarking on Sigyn's blushing face (first film) and the monologues of newly appointed Mileni Team members (fourth film) were removed.
A short TV special is included in the Blu-ray Box release of the TV series, because Nike died differently than in the films.
Some scenes were played in like 1.25x speed, especially those from the sixth film.
Music was added, changed or delayed for the scenes after Cleo shot at Rygart (third film), when Cleo was changing clothes for the sleeping Sigyn (fourth film), and when Girge appeared on a cliff and smirked before diving off to attack Nike (fourth film), respectively.
New OP and ED songs and animations.

Originally, a spinoff OVA centering around the past of the Golem Delphine and its mysterious creation was planned, but sadly it had been cancelled.


Do the symbols that appear in the OP of Sasami-san@Ganbaranai mean anything?

The characters look very similar to Jindai moji (Encyclopedia of Shinto link) (Japanese Wikipedia link).

(Image taken from Talk:Jindai moji page on Wikipedia)

These characters are theorized to have been Japan's character system before Chinese characters were introduced.

If I go through that table for the first image you show and match the characters (with help from the matching done by the article that @senshin posted), that gives me

ツ(tsu) ヰ(wi)  ヲ(wo)  ソ(so) マ(ma) ？     カ(ka) 〜      エ(e)
ノ(no)  ゴ(go)  ト(to)  ハ(ha) ア(a)  ク(ku) テ(te) ロ(ro)  コ(ko)
エ(r)   タ(ta)  ナ(na)  ソ(so) ル(ru) イ(i)  ア(a)  シ(shi) サ(sa)
サ(sa)  メ(me)  ゴ(go)  ハ(ha) ク(ku) ロ(ro) フ(fu) ツ(tsu) ヲ(wo)
リ(ri)  ヰ(wi)  ソ(so)  ？     〜     ミ(mi) ス(su) ウ(u)   ガ(gu)

My Japanese is not very strong, but I don't get any relevant results when looking any consecutive substrings of those characters up on Jisho (a Japanese-English online dictionary) or Google Translate.

I don't believe that the characters have any special meaning here.


Because he wanted to finish Aizen for good.

  Aizen still had the Hogyoku, and even after Ichigo's attack with Final Getsuga, he was able to regenerate (chapter 421), while Ichigo lost all of his powers due to that very attack.

Even Urahara states (later in the same chapter), that it is "nearly impossible" to kill Aizen while

   he is merged with Hogyoku. WHen Ichigo loses his powers, you can see Aizen getting up, ready to finish Ichigo off. At that moment, neither of them knows about what Urahara has done, and Ichigo is surprised and shocked by the fact that his opponent is still alive after his (Ichigo's) most powerful technique. After that, Hogyoku finally rejects Aizen, and Urahara's seal activates, basically saving powerless Ichigo.

So I'd say Ichigo had to use it because he saw it as the only way of truly defeating Aizen.


Is there a season two of Diabolik Lovers?

As stated in the link that @nhahtdh provided above:

The official Twitter account for the anime of Rejet's Diabolik Lovers video games for women announced on Monday that a second season of the anime has been green-lit.

The mentioned Tweet is as follows (emphasis added):

【お知らせ】アニメ「DIABOLIK LOVERS」第２期の制作が決定！ 逆巻兄弟はもちろん、無神兄弟も登場！ 続報をお楽しみに☆
みなさま、応援よろしくお願い致します！！

The bolded text above roughly translates as:

[Announcement] The second season of the Diabolik Lovers anime has been set! The Sakamaki brothers, of course, and the Mukami brothers as well, will make an appearance.

No airing date nor other details have been announced as of April 14, 2015.


What anime is this GIF of a man in a suit running down the stairs from?

That's Tobari Durandal Kumohira from Nabari no Ou.


Why did L not prevent the report of Kira's tests in the police database if he already concluded he must have had access to such information?

Probably because a public statement is different than a closed one.
Preventing these informations from leaking into medias would avoid "indirect bragging" from Kira (by the intermediate of the police), and avoid depreciating the police's image as well.
Then, maybe L knew that Kira would see this note, and be provoked by L contradicting his image. Since ep2, we know that Light is really aware of his image as Kira.


Who wrote the passage on the Poneglyph at Skypiea?

It seems that we finally know. Oda revealed in chapter 818 that...

  ...it was most likely Lord Kouzuki Oden that wrote down that passage. The Poneglyph were created by the Kouzuki clan and it was confirmed that Lord Oden was able to read the language and write on the stones.

 Later it was revealed that he himself had travelled with the former Pirate King, Roger. So chances are that he travelled along with Roger to Skypiea and wrote that additional paragraph.


Which episodes of the Naruto anime are core plot and which are filler?

The Naruto anime is broken up into two "Series". The first is Naruto, which covers events up until the 3 year time jump in the manga. The second is Naruto: Shippūden, which starts after that jump and continues onwards. Both series have a fair share of anime exclusive plots, so here's the breakdown of Anime exclusive plots:

Naruto

Ep 26: "Special Report: Live From the Forest of Death" - Summary Episode
Ep 102 - 106: "Land of Tea" Arc
Ep 136 - 219-ish (This is where they let the Manga truck along a lot)

Ep 136 - 141: "Land of Rice Fields" Arc
Ep 142 - 147: "Mizuki Strikes Back" Arc
Ep 148 - 151: "Search for the Bikōchū" Arc
Ep 152 - 157: "Curry of Life" Arc
Ep 158: "Follow My Lead! The Great Survival Challenge"
Ep 159 & 160: "Bounty Hunter" Arc
Ep 161: "The Appearance of Strange Visitors"
Ep 162 - 167: "Land of Birds" Arc
Ep 168: "Remembrance: The Lost Page"
Ep 169 - 173: "Land of Sea" Arc
Ep 174: "Impossible! Celebrity Ninja Art: Money Style Jutsu!"
Ep 175 & 176: "Imposter" Arc
Ep 177: "Please, Mr. Postman!"
Ep 178 - 183: "Hoshigakure" Arc
Ep 184: "Kiba's Long Day"
Ep 185: "A Legend from the Hidden Leaf: The Onbaa!"
Ep 186: "Laughing Shino"
Ep 187 - 191: "Land of Vegetables" Arc
Ep 192: "Ino Screams! Chubby Paradise!"
Ep 193: "Viva Dojo Challenge! Youth is All About Passion!"
Ep 194: "The Mysterious Curse of the Haunted Castle"
Ep 195 & 196: "Third Giant Beast" Arc
Ep 197 - 201: "Trap Master" Arc
Ep 202: "The Top 5 Ninja Battles!" Recap Episode
Ep 203 - 207: "Kurama Clan" Arc
Ep 208: "The Supposed Sealed Ability"
Ep 209 - 212: "Shinobazu" Arc
Ep 213 - 215: "Menma" Arc
Ep 216 - 219/20: "Ultimate Weapon" Arc - Note that 220 is part of this arc, but also includes some canon when

   Naruto and Jiraiya leave the village for training, and others begin training as well

Naruto: Shippūden

Ep 54 - 71: "Twelve Guardians Ninja" Arc
Ep 90 - 112: "Three Tails" Arc
Ep 144 - 151: "Tsuchigumo Kinjutsu" Arc
Ep 176 - 196: "Konoha History" Arc
Ep 222 - 242: "Adventures at Sea" Arc
Ep 290 - 295: "Chikara" Arc 500 Episodes (total) celebration
Ep 303 - 320: From the "Shinobi World War" Arc
Ep 327: "Nine-Tails"
Ep 347-361: "Shadow of the ANBU" arc
Ep 376 - 377: "Mecha Naruto" arc
Ep 386: "I'm Always Watching"
Ep 388: "My First Friend"
Ep 389-390: "Hanabi Flashback"
Ep 394-423: "Chunin Exam" arc
Ep 416: "The Formation of Team Minato"
Ep 417: "You’ll Be My Backup"
Ep 419: "Papa's Youth"
Ep 422-423: "Konohamaru's training" arc

Also of note is the Kakashi backstory "Kakashi Gaiden" is shown in the Shippūden (Ep 119 - 120), which is out of order as to how it appeared in the Manga (Chp 239 - 244). In the manga, it was between what became the first and second series (the time jump).

Additionally, none of the movies are based on Manga plots.

Source for most of this information was the Naruto Wiki. "Shadow of ANBU" info from Naruto HQ


I am not completely sure, as I have not read the manga but from watching the anime, people who have the titan power inherit the memories of their predecessors. I think they only have the memories of their immediate predecessor, as they never showed Eren to look back past Grisha's memories. When Grisha had slaughtered the Reiss family, Eren was not born. However, he inherited all of Grisha's memories because Eren got the Attack Titan from Grisha. When Eren was having flashbacks of Grisha's memories, he had no clue about why Grisha was doing this. He had not been to the basement under their house with all the information yet. So to him, he saw his father murdering a whole family with unclear intent.


Why didn't Orochimaru use the Edo-tensei in the Konoha Arc?

Orochimaru was not perfect at using edo-tensei .He was only able to call third kazekage that too failed.So I think he preferred not using edo-tensei.

Even kabuto took a lot of time after Orochimaru's death to perfect in using it.


(Edit) For anime:

In 2001, animation accounted for 7% of the Japanese film market, above the 4.6% market share for live-action works. The popularity and success of anime is seen through the profitability of the DVD market, contributing nearly 70% of total sales.

Also,

The anime market for the United States was worth approximately $2.74 billion in 2009.

In Japan in 2011, the DVD and Blu-Ray sales were approximately $250.6 million for DVD and $381.7 million for Blu-Ray (according to here).
From this:

In 2006, overseas sales of Japanese anime hit ¥16.8 billion but that has since plunged due to sluggish sales of DVDs — a direct result of pirated videos online and video-on-demand services. In 2011, global sales were a mere ¥8.55 billion. (¥16.8 billion=~$139 million, ¥8.55 billion=~$70 million)

Obviously, there are some discrepancies in these numbers, as the US market cannot be higher than the total overseas market. However, the US market number is likely accounting for television and possibly toys, while the overseas numbers are likely just sales.
This gives the North American sales numbers.
Overall, it will be nearly impossible to determine the distribution. The Japanese numbers are the highest, but because much of anime is watched (often illegally) online, it is difficult to determine where people are watching from.
The manga market may be a good representation of the anime market distribution.
Japan has the biggest market for manga.
From this and this:
In Europe, France used to consist of about 50% of the manga market, with 1/3 of the comic market in France being made up of manga (2003 numbers). In 2011, their percentage of the European manga market dropped to about 40%.

According to the Japan External Trade Organization, sales of manga reached $212.6 million within France and Germany alone in 2006.
France represents about 50% of the European market and is the second worldwide market, behind Japan.

Germany's comic market is made up 70-75% of manga.
Manga is not very popular in Russia. In general, comics aren't very popular in Russia as a whole. The spread of anime has, however, helped to increase the popularity of manga.
In Thailand, there is manga, but it is primarily bootlegged.
According to this,

...by 2008, the U.S. and Canadian manga market generated $175 million in annual sales.

You can also look at the list of manga distributors to see a general range of number of distributors, though that doesn't give the amount of distribution in a country.
From this:

Annual manga sales in Japan are about $5 billion, he said, whereas American manga sales are $120 million and Europe and the Middle East combined make $250 million.


Is Atomic Samurai speed in the same level of Flashy Flash?

I can give at best a partial answer.  The part I can give are the databook pages concerning Atomic Samurai and Flashy Flash:

Their statblocks are nearly identical, and the one stat they have a max rating in is the same.  According to a post in a gamefaqs thread the stats listed in order are

(Tairyoku)Physical strength/Stamina
(Chiryoku)Intelligence
(Seigi-kan)Sense of Justice
(Jikyu-ryoku)Endurance
(Shunpatsu Ryoku)Instantaneous Force/Speed
(Ninki)Popularity
(Jiiseki)Success/actual Results
(hero-specific ability rating)

I've bolded the one stat they both have at maximum.

However, these are not objective stat blocks, they are stat blocks from the perspective of the Heroes Association (or possibly Genos, as there's a Saitama stat block later that's specifically from Genos's perspective).  King, for example, has max stats in every single category, which we know to not be objectively accurate.


Where does Kyoko get those delicious looking apples?

The conversation between Kyoko and Sayaka in the church strongly implies that Kyoko does in fact steal the apples and that she knows that it's wrong.

The dead give-away for this is towards the end of the conversation. (ep 7, roughly 13:45 including OP)

Sayaka asks Kyoko where she got the apples. Where she got the money from.
Kyoko looks down at the apple and flinches. She does not answer.
Kyoko then lashes out at Sayaka in apparent defense of her actions.

That's exactly the kind of reaction someone would get when they are caught doing something
illegal/criminal.

In short, episode 7 paints a dark picture of Kyoko and her past. She's basically in "survival mode". So even though she knows that stealing is wrong, she still needs to eat. Without money or any other support, her only option is to steal and make the most of what she has. This is also why she gets angry at Sayaka when Sayaka throws the apple on the ground calling it a "waste".


Are Rou and Ban related in any way or their similarities are just pure coincidence?

According to the anime, and from inferences, it doesn't seem so. It's possibly just a coincidence, as we never see anyone related to Rou in the series.


Since the story is still continuing, even would-be plot holes can be patched over later. The only real hiccup that comes to mind is an art issue:

In Chapter 619 the four past Hokages are revived with the 4th Hokage's signature coat rocking the flames on bottom.

But in Chapter 630, the 4th Hokage arrives on the battlefield with coat in full flow with missing flames.


What was Emiru doing during the 1 year timeskip?

Nothing official but my take on it:

Deep down she knew that she is still not able to run a relationship. Thus she decided to leave entirely. However, Kido kinda decided to gamble rather than losing her forever. He gave one year time period for her to improve her personality and think about all that happened. You could say "Well she can do that while being with Kido" however that's wrong. She is so obsessive about Kido and rotten inside thus being with her would defeat the entire purpose of "I want to be a better person."

In the end, it worked out.


Why wasn't a Uchiha asked to control the Nine Tails during its attack?

As for the Uchiha, the nine tails was already being controlled by Tobi at the time, so I doubt anyone would be able to control him on top of that.

Not to mention, the Uchiha weren't exactly trusted at the time, following the Second Hokage's rule.

As for the three sannin, it wasn't explained anywhere, but it isn't hard to imagine them being at a remote mission and out of the village.


Who writes the plot for filler episodes in an anime?

Specialized or experienced writers, and the original manga writers can all work the manga into a plot for an episode, but why pay them to write a new scene where nothing interesting happens.

Generally 'filler' is made by cheap writers. As mentioned in the comments, there are often conflict because the filler writers are paid less and so put less effort into background work. Unlike lead writers, filler writers wont always be provided with reference material for things to include or avoid.

Basically, if it is irrelevant to the season's story line, has no effect on character development, you have someone who works for less write it. Although, filler scenes with no dialogue and no interaction, like someone taking an uneventful walk down a straight road requires no script at all.

As for who decides, whoever decides on the main plot will probably view the filler storyboard before it gets scripted.


Trope where objects are physically harmed and receive giant bumps?

The giant head-bump thing is common in other anime (and media, at least in East Asia), and is used to indicate an injury to the head, as you've stated. For instance, a Chinese search for "撞头" on Google Image (literally "hitting head [on something]") gives images such as this one, which don't seem to be connected to any anime:

I am pretty sure I have seen this in other anime before (e.g. Keroro), but I'm having trouble locating similar screen-caps. In a sense, it has become something of a "convention", the same way sweat-drops are kind of a "convention", which explains the usage here.

Thus, the Naruto extension of this to inanimate objects appears to simply be an extension of this trope -- the objects have been "injured", and so like the heads of these individuals, swollen, overly stylized bumps form on them.

TV Tropes calls the head case a "cranial eruption". However, any searches for the term don't produce many results beyond sites like TV Tropes (and some similar site), and this small anime wikia doesn't seem to have a listing for the trope, despite it being a fairly prevalent thing. (Conversely, it doesn't have "ahoge".) So it seems that there's no real, generally accepted English term for this trope.


What ruleset is used for the Prefecture and National tournaments?

It's been two years since this question was posted, but since there's been no answer so far and a lot has happened since then, I thought I might have some fun and see what I could find.

Parts with * means that it happened outside of a tournament, e.g. at a training camp. For references I'm using the Saki and Achiga-hen mangas/animes only.

Basic yaku/han rules

Kuitan (open tanyao): Yes

Ippatsu (one-shot): Yes
Dora: Red (four), ura, kan, kan-ura
Sanrenkou/Suurenkou (3 or 4 consecutive triplets): No (Ch. 52 Saki)

Scoring rules

No-ten penalty: Yes
Tobi (going bust): Negative score, not zero (Ch. 42 Kana)

Koromo, being the sadistic loli she is, purposely cheapens her hand to drop Kana's score to exactly zero.

Tiebreaker after score: First dealership (Achiga Ch. 20 Awai)

Awai ignores a potential sanbaiman since it would make her tie in points with Shizuno, and because Shizuno's dealership was earlier Awai would end up behind.

Uma/oka (bonus points based on final placements): No (Ch. 11)
Double wind pair: 4 fu (Ch. 47 Saki)

Saki gets a 1 han 110 fu, which is only possible with this rule due to 102 fu being rounded up. For rules where this is 2 fu, it would be stuck at 100 fu.

Yakuman rules

Robbing a closed kan for kokushi: Yes (Ch. 36 Saki)

Saki avoids calling kan on a set of wests, being suspicious of Yumi's kokushi (which was 1-shanten at the time).

Double yakuman: No (Ch. 43, Ch. 51 Kana)

Hisa explains that there are no double yakumans in "this year's rules", so the rules most likely change from year to year.

Allowed yakuman: Either mentioned, attempted or actually won

Riichi tsumo toitoi Suuankou/Four closed triplets (Ch. 3 Saki*, Ch. 20 Kaori, Ch. 51 Kana, Ch. 125)
Kazoe-yakuman/Counted yakuman (Ch. 44 Kana, Ch. 52 Saki, Achiga Ch. 20 Himeko)
Kokushi musou/Thirteen orphans (Ch. 4 Saki*, Ch. 42, Ch. 48 Kana, Ch. 53 Yumi, Ch. 125, Ch. 140 Yukiko, Anime Ep. 21 Kaori)
Chinroutou/All terminals (Ch. 68 Hiroe)
Shousuushi/Little four winds (Ch. 56 Hatsumi, Ch. 89 Hatsumi)
Daisuushi/Big four winds (Ch. 125)
Tsuuiisou/All honours (Ch. 125)
Daisangen/Big three dragons (Ch. 13 Mai, Achiga Ch. 15 Takami)
Tenhou/Win on first dealer draw (Ch. 71)
Chiihou/Win on first non-dealer draw (Achiga Ch. 19 Awai)
Ryuuiisou/All green (Ch. 58 Kaori*)
(Possibly more)

General play rules

Daiminkan pao/sekinin barai (responsible for open kan rinshan): Yes (Ch. 52 Saki)
Temporary furiten: Yes (Achiga Ch. 6 Shizuno)

Shizuno could only win on 1-sou with a 2-3 wait, but could not ron in one of the rounds due to a 4-sou played earlier that round. Later she ignores a ron off one player in order to win off another.

Taahai (penalty for having too many tiles): Yes (Ch. 62 Maho*)

In the training camp Maho reaches to draw a tile even though she's dealer before the first discard.

Empty riichi: Yes, and counts as tenpai on draw (Ch. 27 Hisa)
Furiten riichi: Yes (Ch. 137 Yukiko, Anime Ep. 21 Mihoko)

Yukiko draws her winning closed 2-man but contemplates a furiten riichi to gain more points. Mihoko actually pulls off a furiten riichi against Hisa in the individuals, and wins with it.

Calling pon on a tile you just discarded: Yes (Achiga Ch. 8, Teru)
Dealer can extend leadership after last round: Yes (Achiga Ch. 10 Teru)
Going west (extra round added if no player gets at least 30000): Yes (Anime Ep. 21)

Halfway through Ep. 21 Mutsuki explains how Nanpo was able to make a comeback once it entered the south round, despite it being a tonpuusen (east-only game). Note that no round is added if the top player ends on exactly 30000, as Saki did in Ep. 22.

Draw condition rules

Kyuushuu kyuuhai (starting hand has 9+ terminals/honours): Yes (Ch. 140 Yukiko)

Yukiko says that "normally, one would abort the round" (普段なら流すところだけど), which suggests that she has the option to do so.

Suufontsu renda (all players discard same wind tile on first round): Yes (Ch. 73 Yuuki)

Yuuki reaches tenpai on the first round, but is forced to abandon it since it would require discarding a west, drawing the round.

(Possibly more)

Tournament room

People allowed: The four players only (Ch. 11)

Presumably this refers to the competing schools only, since tournament staff are seen in the room later in the same chapter.

Mobile phones: No point since they won't get any signal (Ch. 11)
Stuffed toys: Yes
Food: Yes
Taking off shoes and socks: Yes
Singing: Yes (Ch. 125 Choe)

The commentators go on to explain that this is allowed in European championships, but not for pro tournaments in Japan (interhigh is okay).

Throwing a tile into the air then slamming it down: Nobody complained (Ch. 25 Hisa)
Playing with tiles face down: Yes (Ch. 141 Megan)
Playing left-handed: Yes (Ch. 138 Yukiko, discussed in Ch. 142)

Other rules

Practice games for prefectural winners: Only against other non-prefectural winners (Achiga Ch. 3)

Similar rules seem to apply to the individual tournament (Achiga Ch. 7)

Vanguard for team tournaments: Must be Japanese (Ch. 108)

This rule was recently changed, since up until now Rinkai had all five members being foreign (Ch. 106).


Why Saitama was so poorly promoted after he defeated this insanely powerful enemy?

In short, Saitama is the opposite of King: King gets credit he shouldn't get, while Saitama doesn't get credit he should.  The latest chapter of the webcomic involves Flashy Flash and makes things pretty clear: Flashy Flash thinks that Garou had been "weakened" by fighting with the S-class members, and so that diminishes Saitama's accomplishment. While Flashy Flash acknowledges Saitama's speed and power as "top class", and that he's far stronger than he appears, he seems convinced that he was still reliant on Garou being "weakened".

That's been the recurring story behind Saitama's advancement within the association: people assume that he's just piggybacking on the efforts of S-class heroes, as there have often been one or more such present in his fights. Sea King had Genos and several A-class and lower heroes. Saitama even encouraged people to think of him as a vulture after this so that they'd think better of other heroes. The meteor involved Genos and Metal Knight, and Bang was also present. Genos (and I think Metal Knight, too) got a promotion within S-class over the meteor, despite having been wholly ineffective. Boros had most of the S-class involved, and no one even witnessed what Saitama did there. And Garou and the Monster Association also involves much of the S-class heroes.


What's this vocal piece in the beginning of episode 18?

The lyrics are clearly from the song  Adieu (lyric: Brian Richy, singer: Emily Bindiger):

  Been a fool, been a clown
  Lost my way from up and down
  And I know, yes, I know
  And I see in your eyes that you really weren't surprised at me
  At all
  Not at all
  And I know by your smile
  It's you

However the singer in episode 18 is male and I haven't managed to find who he is yet.


Jonathan is a popular name in the west, but it actually originated from the middle east, that is, Israel. The first Jonathan recorded in history is the son of King Saul, first king of the Kingdom of Israel. It was recorded in the Christian Bible, a name that means "YHWH has given", with YHWH is the name of the Hebrew God.

Mar is even more Arabic as it is an honorary title in East Syriac meaning 'my lord'.

Like Hakase said in his comment, Jonathan Mar is of Arabic origin. Seeing that his name is actually from middle east, Hebrew and Syriac, it further reinforces that he is of Arabic or middle-eastern ethnicity.

You can read more about Jonathan and Mar in Wikipedia.


How did the people in the Naruto Universe forget about their history?

Naruto/Naruto Shippuden is mainly focused on the tale of the gutsy, unpredictable, strong willed protagonist ninja Naruto. Everything that relates to him is shown in the story.

Of course, the sage of Six Paths taught people the Jutsu. An art of fighting to protect themselves or the weak to retain humanity on earth. The human race were then able to use Justsu to at least fight against beasts/animals (for example, the ten-tails which attacked)

People later started to misuse Jutsu, stemming from their hunger for power and wealth.

The history prior to Rikudō Sennin is not important to Naruto's story so it is not mentioned anywhere. That doesn't mean that the people have forgotten everything.


At that time, it was still not clear exactly how many new episodes will be in the Porori Arc and I believe they are just referring to the possibility of Porori Arc being a full cour of Gintama like the Enchousen instead of just a couple of extras like Aizome Kaori.


Riddim is a band in Korea with Yoo Mi as the lead singer. They don't seem to be very popular as Google hardly returns any English results for them. And after doing a quick search of Korea's Billboard top 100, I don't see them anywhere meaning they aren't the mainstream, radio type of band.

Riddim is the band that performs Orange Marmalade's OST. If you read Orange Marmalade from the Naver site, the music starts playing as you read some pages of certain chapters.

Here is a live video of them performing Kara's song Mister.

Lastly, this is one of the cool songs Ma Ri sings in chapter 60 :D

www.myspace.com/bandriddim
club.cyworld.com/bandriddim


As far as I know, Rinnosuke Morichika is the only male character that is significant to the plot. He's the main character of the Curiosities of Lotus Asia (official) story compilation, which focuses on his life as the proprietor of Kourindou, a store that sells antiquities from the Outside World.

Reimu Hakurei, Marisa Kirisame, Youmu Konpaku, Remilia Scarlet, Yukari Yakumo, Sakuya Izayoi and many other Touhou characters are mentioned in those stories, which is why I'd say it's relevant.

You could also count Youki Konpaku (Youmu's predecessor at Hakugyokurou) and Marisa's father as other important male characters, but I don't recall those characters ever being developed. They were mentioned in order to develop Youmu and Marisa's characters.

Edit: If you want an extensive list of male gods/human/humanoid characters and you don't care whether they're relevant or not:

Bishamonten: an actual god in Buddhist mythology, worshipped by Byakuren Hijiri
The Two Gateguards of the Lunar Capital
Iwakasa: one of the guys who was told to dispose of the Hourai Elixir
Lord Tsukuyomi: founder of the Lunar Capital
Mizue no Uranoshimako
Myouren Hijiri: Byakuren's brother
Shirou Sendai: a man who brought good fortune to every business he would visit, mentioned in Wild and Horned Hermit
Taisui Xingjun: tried to cause a disaster to Gensokyo in a dream Hong Meiling had
Tenma: chief of the Tengu at Youkai Mountain
Unshou: a mysterious fisherman who appears in Wild and Horned Hermit


Not sure if you're counting with Durarara x2, but as far as I remember, there's at least on scene less appropriate to see in public ( with public, I mean not covered ). It's not anything showing off, but rather some actions between two characters.


What's this manga with a woman with body image issues?

I think you're probably looking for Shibou to Iu Na no Fuku o Kite ("In the Clothes Called Fat"). This manga has a protagonist who is overweight and can't manage to control her weight at the beginning. The scenes you describe of her coworkers and her boyfriend happen in this. Her boyfriend's name is also Saito, matching your description. In order to try to keep from breaking up with her boyfriend of 8 years, she develops an eating disorder, which leads to further complications. The main focus is her psychology and self-esteem issues, as well as the issues facing some of the other characters.

The manga was published in 1997, and spans 15 chapters total (collected in 1 volume). The English version was published very recently by Vertical.


Can a ninja learn a jutsu that lies outside of their own alignment?

It is not impossible, but it is rather difficult to do so. All Jounin level ninjas have to master more than two elements. Kakashi can perform 3 different element jutsu: Lightning, Fire, Earth. Yamato can do Earth and Water. Sasuke can do Lightning and Fire.

Even if someone has a natural inclination towards one element (Sasuke towards Fire), they can still perform other elemental jutsu (Sasuke can perform Chidori, a Lightning Release).


Which are the five manga series that are based off the Toaru Majutsu no Index franchise?

The list of manga series page on the Toaru wikia may be helpful. Going strictly by chronological order by date of first publication, the manga order would be:

Railgun (Feb 2007)
Index (Apr 2007)
Endymion (Feb 2013)
Index-san (Sep 2013)
Accelerator (Dec 2013)
Heavy (Feb 2015)
Idol-sama (Oct 2015)
Astral Buddy (Apr 2017)
Virtual-On (Dec 2017)

All the Toaru manga series can be divided into several different categories:

Main series: These contain canon storylines. I bolded the main series titles in the list above. The Index manga is an adaptation of the original light novels. Railgun, Accelerator, and Astral Buddy are original storylines written by Kamachi Kazuma.
4-koma series: Fun silly spinoff manga, similar to what Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth is for Naruto or what Haruhi-chan is for Haruhi Suzumiya. This includes Toaru Majutsu no Index-san and Toaru Idol no Accelerator-sama.
Special stories: One-off stories. Usually short, usually for an anniversary event or something like that. Endymion is canon, but I'm not sure about the others.
Anthology manga: Sort of like a doujinshi collection, except it's official. Content is non-canon. Lots of different mangaka come together and contribute a one-shot to the anthology. (This happens with lots of other series, too).


Why does Nemo call himself the last of the Atlanteans?

From what I can tell, you are correct in saying that Nemo is technically not the last of the Atlantians. The most logical reason that I can think of for him saying it is that he was the last person to grow up and experience the Atlantian traditions and society. Because Nadia grew up as an orphan who didn't know her background, she didn't have experience with that society. The society was gone, so Nemo was the last person who would experience that society.


In the Fourth Shinobi War, we discover that you can get hurt by your own chakra.

The best example is Naruto versus the Third Raikage.


In which chapter did Tincanpy grow hair?

This happened in volume 16, chapter 159. There was a bottle of hair tonic which caused different effects. Below is a scan of the page where it takes place.


Is there any significance to the "shiki" most Otsutsuki have in their names?

The characters mentioned are all based on Japanese folklore. The original names of the folklore characters are Momotaro, Kintaro, Urashima Taro, and Issun Kotaro. -Taro is just a common way to end boy's names, similar to -maru. In Naruto, the characters were named by taking the first two syllables and add -shiki to the end. The exact significance of -shiki in Naruto is still unknown, if there is any (There are several meanings of -shiki in Japanese depending on context, but I don't what is the context in Naruto). Some of the Otsutsuki mythological references are pretty obscure, so it is hard to know.
Also, there is also a theory proposed by a redditor that the -shiki suffix us given only to the main members of the Otsutsuki clan.
Source:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Boruto/comments/ich72h/why_does_almost_every_otsusuki_has_shiki_in_their/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Naruto/comments/e0an6d/theory_the_shiki_names_are_only_given_to_members/


What would be considered canon in the Pokemon franchise?

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

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

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


Can female Claymores give birth to babies for their husbands?

I think probably not.

This answer contains manga spoilers (further than the anime)

In chapter 15, Teresa is ambushed by bandits who wish to rape her. She opens her clothes to reveal something hideous to the men who then back off.

Later on we see a body with a large scar down her middle. Presumably this is related to what Teresa has shown the bandits - as she implied that it was a trait shared by claymores.

Ref

The scars are presumably a mark of their bodies transformation with youma flesh, and being so thorough it wouldn't surprise me if wombs as other normal organs were missing.

At one stage, there is an awakened being that has captured claymores and wants them to awaken - presumably unable to breed its own spawn. As awakened beings are ex-claymores, their anatomy is going to be roughly similar.


There are actually multiple reasons for this.

According to Manga, Sarada's eye condition was explained as an illness as a child, post which she had to wear glasses. I can't find the exact panel, but Narutopedia kind of corroborates this. She has perfect vision while activating the Sharingan, while her vision is no better or worse

  During her father's absence from the village while gathering information on Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, she became ill with a high fever and afterwards, began wearing glasses, which unknown to her were a gift from Karin. Sarada Uchiha: Narutopedia

Sharingan enhances her vision, but only while activated and the normal vision is just like everyone else.

However, the real reason is out-of-universe. It was Design Aesthetic, plain and simple. Kishimoto felt like giving her glasses, so he gave them to her.

  Interviewer: How is Sarada? [Or what about Sarada? T/N: In the context of design.]
  Kishimoto: Rather than cuteness, I wanted to project a slightly dark but strong hearted sense to Sarada. In my head, she is like a girl version of Sasuke. However, as it would be scary to have a Sasuke-like girl, I gave Sarada elements of Sakura as well. Although spectacled people are commonly given the image of “cute without glasses”, in Sarada’s case I aimed to make her cute even with her glasses on. Her clothes have a sense of Sakura, don’t they? Kishimoto Interview Excerpt


Who is this girl stuffing food in her face, and what show is it from?

I think this is maybe from Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou.

  Yukino Miyazawa is a Japanese high school freshman who is the envy of classmates for her good grades and immaculate appearance. However, her "perfect" exterior is a façade, a charade she maintains to win praise. In the privacy of her own home, she is spoiled, stubborn, a slob, and studies relentlessly and obsessively to maintain her grades. On entering high school, she is knocked from her position at the top of the class by Soichiro Arima, a handsome young man whose very existence Yukino considers a threat to the praise on which she thrives, and she vows to destroy him.

Seems like this could be it.

Edit: I am absolutely sure this is it as I found another image from the series. The scene occurs during episode 11.


Why so many anime these days end prematurely?

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

The short answer

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

The long answer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


What is the true meaning of this phrase in Dragon Ball Super episode 80?

Yesterday in Episode 81 it was revealed that there will be 80 participants (10 per 8 universes) so 4 universes won't enter the tournament. This is most likely the 4 exempt universes, so the first option seems to be right: "exempt" means that they don't have to enter.


Does super saiyan god Vegeta exist in the anime series continuity?

While the anime & manga share a few differences like those you mentioned, the main plot and storyline are essentially the same. I believe the movie is definitely a continuation of the anime and the manga might perhaps have its own adaptation of the Broly arc after.If you watch the trailer, it is clearly established that the movie is set after the Tournament of Power. Hence, we know for a fact that it is a sequel to the series.In the end of the trailer where Goku seems to be battle damaged and Broly is transforming into his Legendary Super Saiyan form, we see Goku powerup in Super Saiyan Blue. However, in the manga, Goku's strongest form is Mastered Super Saiyan Blue. This transformation does not have any aura and wouldn't be as appealing visually. There is really no reason why Vegeta cannot use the Super Saiyan God Transformation. The Super Saiyan Blue (SSGSS), is essentially a combination of Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan. Hence,  the anime could still have Vegeta use the transformation without any difficulty.The Manga & the Anime essentially have the exact same storyline like I said earlier. In a DBS manga interview with Toyataro and Toriyama, he did comment on Supervising Toyataro's ideas on Super Saiyan God Vegeta which indicates that he clearly isn't opposed to it. The story for the movie is again being written by Toriyama. Hence, I think it is fair to assume that with regard to transformations and few manga/anime exclusives, the anime exclusives will be adapted in the upcoming movie.


How do anime productions arrange for artists to do the end card illustrations?

There isn't just 1 reason, but could be several:

Plot Compression: this could be either a cause or a consequence. They compress the plot too much and they get forced to "fill" the extra seconds of air time.
Partneship / Sponsorship: Some partner or sponsor could ask for extra time of the anime air time (Squarenix in FMA comes to mind) at the end of the episode or after the opening. This could also branch to promotion of other works of the same or different production house or some artist (as Logan commented).
Promotional products: they could use this time to promote any "collections" product for hardcore fans or another version of the same franchise (like the Anime promoting the new Manga or L/N).

Any other reason is a mix of the previous three, but these are the main possible causes.


Which heroes in One Punch Man defeated dragon-level monsters?

Bang defeated

   Melzargard.

Child Emperor defeated

   Phoenix Man.

Other than that, Saitama defeated

   some of the villains here.


Why is Yukihira Soma not famous at Tōtsuki Culinary Academy?

I have not read the entire manga, but I read that Soma's father was formerly known as Saiba Jōichirō. It is not the same last name as Yukihira Soma, so this may be a reason why people don't know that they are father and son.

Source: Jōichirō Yukihira on Shokugeki no Souma wiki.


How could Chihiro tell which pigs were her parents?

Because Haku told her, but also because she knew what was important.

When Chihiro is faced with the Yubaba's final challenge, she is told she gets one chance to find her parents. Haku has explained the rules of the challenge to her, but also told her that Yubaba doesn't want to let her go - and so presumably has told her that Yubaba is likely to cheat, and not include Chihiro's parents among the pigs she is told to pick from.

When Chihiro tells Yubaba that her parents aren't there, that's the correct answer. This shows that Yubaba did indeed cheat, but also it shows that Chihiro learnt what Yubaba didn't - when Zeniba took away Boh (the baby), Haku told Yubaba "You still haven’t noticed that something precious to you has been replaced." and her first reaction was to look at the pile of gold she had gotten from No Face, before realising that what she thought was Boh was a trick. In comparison, by the end of the film Chihiro has learnt how important her family is, and even in their transformations should would be able to recognise them amongst the other pigs if they were really there.


Is it known which titans follow in power to the Founding Titan?

It is noted that the Founding Titan is the strongest one.
It isn't known in the manga/anime how the Titans are ranked, but statistics do exist for certain titans.
Colussus Titan Statistics spoilers below

Power 11/10
Speed 3/10
Size 11/10
Elusiveness 10/10
Threat 10/10

Armored Titan Statistics spoilers below

Power 8/10
Speed 6/10
Hardness 11/10
Machoness 10/10
Legend 10/10

Female Titan Statistics spoilers below

Power 6/10
Speed 8/10
Hardness 10/10
Combat 11/10
Sexiness 10/10

Beast Titan Statistics spoilers below

Power 7/10
Speed 5/10
Ruthless 8/10
Smart 11/10
Wildness 10/10


Theory # 1: The entertainment
As It is  known that The shinigami don’t normally drop their deathnote in the human world but living forever is certainly getting old for them. The one’s who do it have some motives and one of them can be entertainment. To make it fair, the “half-Life” rule was made. Instead of giving shinigami eyes away, they might might what a person to become more insane after losing literally a huge portion of their life.
 OR, They want to keep the fun going. Giving a person Shinigami eyes as a last option when their host is against the walls. This wouldn’t be Fun at all without such High stakes.

Theory #2: The Power Struggle
As the name suggest, the shinigami eyes belong to the Shinigami. This wasn’t stated in the series, but it is quite possible that it takes a Toll on Shinigami to give shinigami eyes to their unfortunate friend. After-all they are sharing their own power with someone else. OR, this rule is to stop someone from killing all Humanity. One with the shinigami eyes for so long might kill people at much faster rate than usual. It is easy to lift a weight, but you can only keep it in the air for a limited time. Shinigami might find it difficult to some exent to share their own eyes and it is possible that they can maintain it for a limited number of years. If they take the entire lifespan of a person, they’ll have again find someone else to use the deathnote, which is an unnecessary hassle.

(whenever i do  better theories, i’ll add them Here.)


If Maika and Kaho work in the morning, when do they go to the school?

I've watched a bunch of episodes from the anime and it was never explained why.

In fact, here are some possibilities that I could think of:

They may have left school for work after dropping in for attendance, like how you have guessed.
It may not have been morning. Sometimes in Japan, it is quite common to say "Good morning" when you get to work, regardless of what the actual time of the day is.


What is the hand gesture Itachi does when calling Sasuke to him?

Itachi is flicking his fingers towards himself, not outwards (which would be shooing away someone), which was why Sasuke came over to him. It's called the Beckoning sign and it varies by country.
It's also not just an Itachi thing - it's a common gesture in Japan to call someone over to you. I believe it's a different gesture compared to Western countries hence the confusion, which is understandable since I also thought it was how the Western countries do it. Here's a video demonstrating the gesture: https://youtu.be/iBcQFBuj2Os
It's interesting to note that the 'come here' gestures of some English-speaking countries are considered rude in some Eastern countries and is even a ground for arrest in one country.
Some resources about hand gestures:

https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/english-in-the-real-world/hand-gestures/
https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-body-language/


Why does Tanjiro's Nichirin Blade is Black?

Color of Nichirin blade, till now, is shown to have not much significance apart from manifesting differently based on the owners. Urokodaki was surprised as Black is a rare color and there's been few users with it, hence the saying emerged that those with black blade won't go far.

Haganezuka implied that family lineage also impacts the color of blade, here's what's been revealed in the manga which could explain the black color:

   Tanjiro's ancestors Sumiyoshi and Suyako were acquainted with the Breath of the Sun user, also it's been implied that the Dance of Fire God passed down in Kamado family has some relation with the orignal breath the Breath of Sun.

In chapter 113 in Tanjiro's inherited memories he sees Suyako talking to the Sun Breath user about his sword, mentioning that a Samurai's sword changes from Obsidian Black to Red only when he fights. Tanjiro assumed that the Breath of Sun user used a technique to change the color of his sword, Tanjiro obtained the same effects thanks to nezuko's blood, his sword changed color to a burning red and he gained explosive battle strength. The black color may be due to his lineage or due to learning the dance of fire god (if learning breaths have any impact on it)


In Sparks Liner High, could Avalon have saved Shirou?

I don't believe so. According to the Wikia a Head Shot will still kill Avalon's holder

The holder of the scabbard is granted potent healing, allowing for critical and fatal wound to be rapidly repaired to restore the wielder's health. Minor injuries are restored easily, and even large missing portions of the body and destroyed vital organs like the heart can quickly be restored at the critical moment before death. Targeting anything other than the holder's head in order to destroy their brain is futile, requiring for a decisive strike to be landed in order to cause any true damage.

Source: Avalon (3rd Paragraph)
So it's possible that the damage the brain is still too much for Avalon. thinking on when this Bad End could occur i can only think of 2 times Shirou fought Saber in Heaven's Feel and the only time i can think of in which Shirou's brain could be destroyed because of a fight would be in the caverns where the Greater Grail is located. even if Shiou's brain did heal it would still be a Bad End because it would probably take too long for Shirou to be ok to stop Angra Mainyu being born and saving Sakura and Rin.
Now while i havn't seen that Bad End if Saber died in it then Avalon only works to a limited level using the residual magical energy it has, if she is still alive Shirou doesn't have the near True Immortality it provides because while a Contract with Saber isn't required to use Avalon's power it is for the immortality and it's Sakura who has this Contract for the most part of Heaven's Feel

The contract between Saber and a Master isn't a requirement to use Avalon's abilities, but having one will provide the user the true benefit of limited immortality by allowing it to obtain magical energy from Saber and fully utilize its effects according to the contract.
...
Avalon's effects are less potent for those without the contract, allowing its regenerative abilities to be used only while Saber is close enough to provide magical energy to it.

Source: Avalon - Master's Noble Phantasm


What does the epitaph on Alexander Row's tombstone say?

A quick search in wikia tells me that:

Alex's epitaph, "Κοιμάστε αιώνια," means "eternal rest" in Greek.

http://lastexile.wikia.com/wiki/Alexander_Row


Why did barragan turn against Aizen before he dies?

He decided to take on the one who cost his pride than his life. He was initially the God-King of Heuco mundo and the arrogant overlord of all hollows until Aizen with Gin and Tousen made his entry and dethroned him from Las Noches with a display of his Shikai. Barragan had merely been reduced to being a henchman of a renegade shinigami from that of a king of hollows which hurt him deeply and towards his last breath decided to take out Aizen who had brought him this dishonor.


Help me remember this movie that isn't Spirited Away

Here is a guess, it doesn't fit exactly - but hopefully the fuzziness is to blame for that.

I looked through all the old Ghibli works, but didn't find anything that seemed to match up. However, there was one show that some of the larger names from Ghibli worked on before Ghibli was created. This show was Chie The Brat or Jarinko Chie. This was back in 1981, but it could have taken a while to be translated and localised for English speakers - placing it roughly mid 80s.

Chie is a hardworker at home, but she's not without her brattiness - Flicking through the first few minutes of the show, she takes a cut of the family's earning and keeps it for herself:

She eventually leaves on an adventure after her school-life is disrupted by her relatives, who barge in and embarrass both the teacher and herself.

She then takes the money she has stored away and travels into the city. There she finds a woman she treats like her mother (whom she embraces occasionally) and rides rollercoasters, paddles boats, and other adventure-y things.

And as for the spirit/animal - there are some talking cats which maybe are what you remembered. The two cats are both from Chie's home village and have a large fight in a graveyard near the conclusion of the show.

Again, this only loosely fits the description you've offered - but it's the best I could find.


Does Tsunemori still try to catch Kougami at the end of the movie?

I don't think Ginoza will go after Kougami. He's finally found his place at the PBS, taking care of his team and being a detective, in much the same manner his father was. Also, unlike Tsunemori who is adamant about bringing Kougami in, despite knowing that he'd be locked up for the rest of his life, if not killed outright by Sybil (which is rather intriguing, and hints at an obsession not unlike Kougami's with Makishima), Ginoza seems to be okay with Kougami gone. For him it really was goodbye, and if anything, he wants to help Tsunemori let go too.

When Tsunemori sent Ginoza to find Kougami, she showed Ginoza how much she trusted him - not only with upholding the law, but with looking after her. So Ginoza shouldered the burden of letting Kougami go (thus living with the consequences) and of standing by Tsunemori as she deals with him being gone - again. When he's telling her about Kougami, he's telling her the truth as he sees it. First of all, Kougami got Tsunemori in trouble and endagered her life - again. Secondly, Kougami has changed - he's become harder, more driven and more nonchalant about the ideals he had held first as an inspector and then as an enforcer under Tsunemori's lead.

Thirdly, as Ginoza has finally been able to relax into his true self and open up to others, he has come to care for Tsunemori, love her even. She is precious to him - she treats the enforcers with respect and empathy, she never wavers in her sense of duty, her desire to make society better and safer. She can continue doing the job he couldn't, is stronger than him that way. He would shoulder any burden to help her - even let Kougami get away, thus allowing her to avoid the consequences of bringing him in (having to discipline him, see him locked up or be executed, losing the link she has to Kougami's spirit which helps her maintain her own sanity in troubling times - which I'm sure Ginoza has guessed). When he tells her that Kougami is not worth her attention anymore, Tsunemori picks up on the way he cares for her and wants her to be happy and free.

She also voices what she must have realised long before that final moment in the movie - that Ginoza hasn't changed, meaning that he is still here, not just for the society governed by Sybil and the team of Division 1, but for her - in a way Kougami isn't and hasn't been ever since his obsession with Makishima gained new momentum in season 1. She also lets him know that she has always thought highly of him, even back when he was a stuck-up inspector who gave her a hard time. Back then, he had also sought to keep her safe by telling her to maintain distance from Kougami. And they smile in mutual understanding, caring about and for each other.

I don't think Tsunemori will ever let go of Kougami entirely, since he's helped her grow as a person and a detective, but as she is mindful of her duties and priorities, she will not actively seek him out unless he's connected to an active case.


What caused the shift in the world after the climax of the show?

What could possibly cause the shift in currency?

During Kimimaro and Mikuni duel Takedasaki spreads rumors to cause the Japanese Yen to become useless thus is's exchange rate with Midas money shrink, this causes the Midas money to appear in Japan to everyone, even some of the bills are half Midas. This was done to weaken Mikuni in his Deals.

The Bank of Midas closes as Japan's Yen has no worth so it can't continue trading, C passes though Japan as it has no worth and allowing Kimimaro to deal the final punch to win the Deal and reverse the Printing Press, returning all the Midas Money back to the bank and getting Japan and it's people's future back.

Japan's economy is rebuilt as since the Yen is useless it adopts the US Dollar, it's believed that also reality has shifted like always to make it so that everything that transpired (C, the falling value of the Yen, discovery of the Midas Money in the Yen) never occurred, this is different from Singapore as it just went bankrupt because it had no mney left while Japan had money, it just was useless. This occurs while Kimimaro is speaking to Midas himself.

Was anything revealed about the motives of Masakaki and/or the Midas bank?

The Masakaki's motives are the protection of their financial districts which is why the Japanese one gets annoyed when the US is able to push C back to Japan.

When Kimimaro wakes up in reality he notices the changes, include where he and Hanabi are total strangers now. The Japanese Masakaki appears apologizing about Hanabi and presents him with a card from the Bank of Midas telling him that the Financial District will always exist, as long as there are futures left to take and if he wants to use the card he can revive the Japanese Final District by calling for Masakaki.

Midas on the other hand, he seems to just put the financial districts out there, allowing people to use them however they see fit well making sure they knew the price was to gain all this money which can be used for anything

As for your question about some grand mastermind, unless there was some group behind C actually occurring there is none, The Starling Guild know about the first instance of C and the effects the Bank of Midas had on reality and was trying to mitigate the damage done, in a sense they were masterminding mostly every Deal to reduce damage, however when C started Mikuni got to rash and was about to do the exact opposite of what he had started the Starling Guild to do.

As for C itself, it seems to be a financial collapse which can ripple though global markets, it's more something that ca occur in reality normally but it's effects are more devastating because C originates and affects the financial districts which in turn affect reality


Which chapters of the anime show Sakura learning/using the Byakugou no jutsu?

In Naruto Shippuuden, episode 408, The cursed puppet(noroi no ningyou) is the episode from 2 minute to 5 minute time period, where Tsunade teaches Sakura about byakugou no jutsu.

As commented by Wondercricket, episode 408 is a filler.


What is this series featuring a boy that gets a calling card and ends up fighting in another dimension?

This sounds like it might be Psyren, though I don't remember any cyborgs in that manga. Synopsis from MAL:

  Yoshina Ageha is a high school student who offers to help people with their problems for 10,000 yen. He'll take care of your stalkers, find your lost animal, whatever you want. One day when he's heading home, a nearby pay phone rings, and he picks it up. The only thing he hears however is his own voice echoing. After finding a mysterious card with the word 'Psyren' printed on it, his life suddenly changes as he is drawn into a crazy new world.


Before I answer your question, I'll briefly elaborate on the overlord species. Overlord is the highest race of undead who primarily have the appearance of skeletons.  Just like other undead species, the overlord class  is the final form of both the skeleton mage and Elder Lich class (most undead would have to gain enough levels to evolve through up to that point). However even within the overlord race, there are different levels.

According to the wiki: "Momonga has an Overlord racial level of five." Even though we aren't told exactly how many levels are within the overlord class. It makes sense to say that the higher the level within the overlord race, the more powerful the individual overlord. I'm guessing this makes Ainz Oal Gown pretty special when compared to the typical average overlord (more like the 5 overlords that guard the nazarick grand  library, there is big difference between them and momonga in terms of power level and abilities). This could explain why he has characteristics of the 3 different types of overlords.

So to answer your question, Momonga is not an ordinary Overlord, his superiority in level among the overlord race probably gives him the advantage of being an overlord with abilities similar to all 3 types. ( He also has dark wisdom, allowing him to learn spells that he probably couldn't. This cheat ability makes him nearly invisible because we don't know for sure which specific spells he learnt from the dark wisdom ability) I hope that answers your question.


Why were the Chidori and Rasengan ever regarded as powerful jutsu?

The point of Rasengan and Chidori is not just to make contact, but POWERFUL contact.

A kunai can never penetrate Gaara's shield or any other strong defences, but Rasengan and Chidori can. Oodama Rasengan and Rasenshiriken are on even greater levels because their damages are astronomical.

In the fight with Kakuzu, before Naruto came, it was incredibly hard for the others to stall out Kakuzu, let alone finish him. But with Rasenshuriken, the destructibility penetrated and annihilated his charkra system in cellular level. I don't think you can do that with a kunai.

The power of the Rasengan and Chidori is not limited to just "making contact". Charkra nature manipulation and shape manipulation comes into great meaning at this point: Sasuke can turn his Chidori into mini needles, arrows, sword (with adjustable length), and stream. Naruto can fuse his Sage charkra style into the Rasenshuriken to make it a flying disk of destruction. This can't be accomplished with a simple kunai.


How did the events at the end of Cage of Eden occur?

It is never explained in the manga how they get

   to the future.

When they describe the incident, it looks like a wormhole that caused a big disruption in time.

  In physics, an Einstein-Rosen Bridge (or wormhole) is a hypothetical topological feature of spacetime that would be, fundamentally, a "shortcut" through spacetime.[ref]


In the final phase of the Hunter Exam, why does Killua act the way he does?

There are a few factors in play, but the most prevalent reason is Illumi's control over Killua. It's possible you underestimate just how much of an influence Illumi exerts—shown both in this episode, and elaborated on in episode 94.

Suffice it to say, Illumi basically raised Killua to be a killer, and thus has had years and years of exposure to Killua to manipulate how he thinks and behaves. Through his aura and manipulative skills (and other methods, revealed in episode 94), he was essentially able to convince Killua that he was not worthy of love or friendship, and that all he was meant to  be was a perfectly honed killing machine.

Essentially, this reversal of psychology drove Killua into an unstable state, unearthing his urge to kill and forcing him to act upon it again. At that point, he had been driven to believe he was just a killer, had failed to protect Gon, and he'd never be a Hunter—why would he care what happened anymore?

(As a side note, it also ensured both that he wouldn't have to fight Leorio, and that Leorio would become a Hunter. So bonus points to Killua for that.)


What is the name of anime about warrior that has to collect crystal sword, ball, mirror?

There is an anime that fits your description. It's called Master Mosquiton 99. The third episode takes place in egypt. In this episode at least one sphinx comes to life. It's also about defeating a boss in every episode and collecting treasure that has magic powers. It originally aired from 1997 to 1998.

http://en.anisearch.com/anime/2030,master-mosquiton-99


Tokyo Ghoul:re is the sequel manga to Tokyo Ghoul. The Tokyo Ghoul manga ended in September of 2014 and was adapted into the first 2 seasons of the anime, though the second season, Root A, greatly diverged from the manga with significant differences but still attempted to have the same major events as the manga.

You can read about possibilities of why they did so in this question (be wary of spoilers in all the links here): Why did Tokyo Ghoul √A completely deviate from the manga? and for more details on the differences, you can read my answer or this post on reddit asking about the same thing.

Both the anime and the manga ended with spoiler:

   the ambiguous death of Ken Kaneki at the hands of Kishou Arima (as in he is believed dead, but it's not fully confirmed, though in the manga it leaned significantly heavier on the dead side with multiple holes in his head)

Tokyo Ghoul:re picked up 2 years after the events that ended Tokyo Ghoul. It's about Hiase Sasaki, a ghoul investigator and leader of the Q's squad, currently low ranking investigators that underwent a very special surgery. It follows Hiase, his squad, and his superior/supervisor Akira Mado (daughter of the investigator that was Amon's superior and partner investigator in the beginning of the series), and shortly after all that begins expanding on stuff from the original manga, as well as filling in the 2-year gap.


How could someone with Magic wield the Anti-magic weapons?

From recent manga all of this has been answered.

Three swords already have the ability we see today with the exception of anti magic. That is the Demon slayer sword already had the ability to cut and deflect magic when Licht was the owner of this grimoire. (This is why Licht was able to cut the storm in which Tetia the princess was stuck.) Similarly the Demon dweller sword already had the power to absorb surrounding people and the owner magic spells and release it as flying slash and to glow after it has absorbed certain amount of magic and the Demon destroyer sword other than able to cut magic and spells. It also already had the ability to absorb and remove the effect of spells.

So anyone with magic would have been able to wield them. This is why they were present in a four leaf grimoire because of its tremendous strength and also before this grimoire became five leaf grimoire these swords were shiny. It is after the grimoire became a five leaf grimoire and housed a demon that they became dark and shady and were able to absorb anti magic from the grimoire in which the demon resides.


Why Recovery Girl never cured All Might injuries?

As Recovery Girl explained her quirk only accelerates a person's natural healing rate with a proportional cost to their own energy.

So since Deku's bones could heal over time her quirk could make them heal faster, but you wouldn't expect a person to be able heal having a good few major internal organs crushed over any length of time so Recovery Girl can't repair All Might's injuries.


No. according to MangaUpdates it as not been officially licensed in English nor is there any unofficial translations so the series is only available in Japanese


Are high school and middle school students not allowed to use a backpack?

Short Answer

To answer your question: some schools specify bags students use, while others don't; it varies.

Long Answer

Like uniforms, bags are also specified by schools, which means the level of strictness varies from school to school. Some schools allow students to bring whatever bag they choose, while others will require students to buy from a specified maker, so that all bags have the school emblem.

While the hand-carried bags often seen in anime were once the main type of bag, most schools today use a 2-way or 3-way bag, that allows for multiple ways of carrying: by hand, diagonally over one shoulder, or on the the back. Also note that some schools use different colors for male and female students.

It should also be noted that the "backpacks" you are mentioning in Yuru Yuri and Nichijou are not backpacks in the broad sense (which would be リュックサック (rucksack) in Japanese), but ランドセル "randoseru" or "ransel", which are backpacks specifically for elementary school students. Wearing one above that age would definitely look odd to the a Japanese person.

Even when use is permitted, backpacks aren't always the first choice. While backpacks hold a lot, spread the weight between the shoulders, and allow for free use of both hands, they also have demerits, such as having to remove the backpack to access it, being unwieldy in tight spaces like trains, and making the back sweaty, especially in the summer.

Because this school-specified bag rule is common knowledge to the average Japanese viewer, any explanation is omitted in the work. So when an average viewer sees that everyone has the same bag, he/she would automatically assume that the school in this anime specifies the bag to use, and when another anime has different bags, then he/she would automatically assume this anime's school has no such regulation.

Wikipedia reference

Bag maker reference


What does Guts have in his left arm and when did he get it?

This arm is never explained in the 1997 version of the anime. The arm is a prosthetic arm with a few abilities, most notably the cannon. It was made by Rickert after the events of the Eclipse. I don't think it is ever mentioned what the arm is made of but I believe it was made using various materials. Guts can not move his fingers of the arm, and the hand has a magnet to hold his sword. He can however, move his fingers when he goes into his berserker state, but that is a result of the Berserker armor, not himself or the arms functionality.

I haven't seen the new Berserk anime yet, only the golden age movies, so I don't know if they elaborate on the arm in the new anime. The golden age movies ends just after the Eclipse, before Guts gets the new arm. I would assume they would elaborate on this in the new anime at some point, in a flashback or something.


Did the Hachibi lose a tooth in Chapter 654?

Hachibi actually lost that tooth earlier in the battle against the Juubi. (Chapter 615)

At that time, Bee launched himself at the Juubi in his Hachibi form, and aimed a Bijuu Dama (Tailed Beast Bomb) at the Juubi's mouth. He exploded the Bijuu Dama inside the Juubi's mouth causing it great pain, but the Hachibi also took some damage, losing a tooth and yet another horn.

Hachibi about to attack the Juubi, still has its tooth intact

Hachibi enters the Juubi's mouth with a Bijuu Dama

Hachibi has lost a tooth and a horn after the attack


As you can see, the interior coloring of the cafe changes too. We could assume that they're moving together to a new place every now and then, or that the cafe decorator is currently working 400% with customers still in the cafe. Senjougahara also changes her "disguises" between scenes. We can assume they have enough money to afford all that, and are changing between their meetings.

But what's really going on is probably just Shaft doing a comedy thing with changing decorations to somewhat lighten up the mood of a very serious discussion between Kaiki and Hitagi.


Where can I legally read manga online in Germany?

All though there are not a lot subscription based sites like Crunchyroll, The following sites do offer a broad variety of digital manga editions, which should have a lot less geo limitations. Which streaming sites like Crunchyroll do tend to have

Bookwalker
Kodanasha
Comicwalker
Viz
Amazon

Considering that breaking the terms of service is not necessarily illegal. You could also buy yourself a VPN, and read the manga from a region where it is available, making it a semi-legal solution as well.


How do the 3 sannin know about using Five Elements Seal on Naruto?

Apparently so. It's possible that other people were able to use the seal (for instance, Kushina, who was a sealing expert, or the Second and First Hokages, who knew advanced sealing techniques, but passed away).

It's possible that they referred to only living shinobi for that purpose (it makes sense, because they were trying to figure out who unsealed it).

I believe the technique was passed down to (or invented by) the Third, and he in turn taught it to his disciples.

Note that Minato never used the Five Element Seal.


Who was Chrono waving to at the wedding?

That's Melchior, one of the three gurus.

You might remember him from the Millenial Fair, where he sells some starter gear at the beginning of the game. Later on, he helps Chrono and the gang to reforge the Masamune. He also plays a part in the Antiquity storyline.

The Chronopedia also mentions his appearance in the ending:

  Melchior appears in the ending after you defeat Lavos. Melchior comes to Crono, and Marle's wedding with a bottle. Crono and Marle notice him because they wave back.


How does Sweet Mask (A-Class rank 1) plan to stop unworthy heroes from moving to S-Class?

As mentioned in this answer,

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

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

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

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


Two words: Plot armor.

All jokes aside, this is never really explained.  It is touched upon, however, in the anime during the non-canon Bount filler arc.  The three special mod-souls created by Urahara to help Ichigo regain the power of his bankai, all used their own custom made Gigai.  Once again, this arc is non-canon and so are the characters.

This one may never have a satisfactory answer.


Why do Ran and Heiji wear the same clothes?

It was a coincidence, but it served as a plot point to showcase Ran's personality: when Kazuha accused her of purposely wearing the same clothes as Heiji, she replied by removing her shirt even though she was sitting in a car in a public space.


How did Hiruzen Sarutobi summon enma when he was a reanimation?

I can recall two instances where Shinobi who are under the influence of Impure World Reincarnation are shown to bleed while when performing a justu that requires blood or causes them to bleed.

While those reincarnated by Impure World Reincarnation do not bleed, it would appear reincarnated Shinobi do bleed as long as the injury is self applied (speculative and don't have a reference, somebody correct me if I am wrong on this).

The first instance is the Summoning Justu

  Reincarnated bodies do not bleed, except in those cases where blood is needed to perform the Summoning Technique

This is in reference to Naruto Chapter 548, when we see the reincarnated 2nd Mizukage biting his thumb to perform the Summoning Justu against the Allied Shinobi Forces

The second instance is using the Mangekyou Sharingan

  Other side-effects may still manifest, as when Itachi Uchiha's eyes bleed from using his Mangekyō Sharingan, but he is not inhibited by it.

This is in reference to Naruto Chapter 550, when Naruto and Killer B are fighting against the reincarnated Nagato and Itachi. Itachi uses the Mangekyō Sharingan, causing his eyes to bleed


Which song plays at 18:00 in episode 4 season 3 of Boku No Hero Academia?

I think this is what you are looking for.


In Gingitsune episode 11, they mention something called Misogi, what is it?

Misogi is a Japanese mountain ascetic practice of ritual purification. This may be undertaken through [...] standing under waterfalls, or other methods. - Wikipedia

This practice can also be seen in other Anime, like Sailor Moon episode 105.


What is the difference between the ending in the anime and in The End of Evangelion?

First the history of the endings.
Gainax studio went through a huge financial crisis near the ending of evangelion. They decided to end the series anyway, and went for a low-budget ending (the episodes 24-25).

The television series takes a very avant-garde approach and focuses on a first-person psychological account of the instrumentality process from the perspective of its main characters (primarily Shinji Ikari). ref

The fanbase reaction was brutal. From death threats to graffiti, hatemail and the likes. Anno's take on that:

On Evangelion's last two episodes , which upset many fans...
ANNO: I have no problem with them. If there's a problem, it's all with you guys. Too bad.
(emphasis given because of verbal cue given by Anno himself during the interview

Later they decided to do the feature animation "The end of evangelion", retelling the ending.
You have to take in mind that Anno's style of storytelling is very fluid. He would only work on a new episode when the previous was finished:

Toshio Okada: But--the last scenes were never fixed. When I talked to Mr. Anno a month ago, he said he couldn't decide the ending until the time came. ref

Anno comments on the development of the series:

Hideaki Anno: “The development of Evangelion gives me the feeling of a ‘Live’ concert. Whatever the story or the development of the characters, I made them without a plan. During the production, whether listening to various opinions or analysing my own state of mind, I kept questioning myself. I got the concepts from this personal stocktaking [self-assessment]. At first I had intended to make a simple work featuring robots.
But even when the main scene became a high school, it did not differ compared to other productions in the same style. At this point, I did not really think of creating a character with two faces, two identities: one shown at school, and the other inside the organization he belongs to [Nerv]. The impression of ‘Live’ concert that gives me the birth of Eva, was the team joining me in developing it, in the manner of an improvisation: someone plays the guitar and, in response, the drums and bass are added. The performance ended with the TV broadcasting ending. We only started working on the next script once the previous one was done. ref

So they made the film with the new ending, re-telling the story from another perspective. Some classify the first ending as the personal instrumentality inside Shinji's mind, the other as the external instrumentality.
Anno, in the best "death of the author fashion", said (and I am sorry I couldn't find the source) that the "true" ending lies with the viewer. When he started to make the new movies (the rebuild of evangelion), he is simply telling another evangelion story. Like folklore, the true story is nowhere to be found, all of them are true, depending only on the viewer's impression.

Hideaki Anno:
”Eva" is a story that repeats.
It is a story where the main character witnesses many horrors with his own eyes, but still tries to stand up again.
It is a story of will; a story of moving forward, if only just a little.
It is a story of fear, where someone who must face indefinite solitude fears reaching out to others, but still wants to try.
We hope that you look forward to the 4 new retellings of this story.ref

So the truth is that the real ending is all / any of them. The interpretation of what you saw on the screen is intentionally left open.


What will happen to the tailed beast if the jinchuruki is killed?

After a period of time the tailed beast will revive, so they will survive the death of the host.

  However, it is revealed that the tailed beasts can actually survive their jinchūriki's deaths, with the only consequence being that it will take time for them to revive without a host.

Source: Narutopedia - in the second paragraph of that section.