How much of Teekyuu is actually about Tennis or the Tennis club?

Agh, I didn't read the question fully. The following answers the question for the anime series - not the manga:

Not much. It's hard to definitively say how much, but let's give it a go based on the CrunchyRoll descriptions. Because they're so short, they're pretty comprehensive of what happens.

This will be a reasonably loose attempt at collation - the actual times they play an entire game is much less.

Season 1 (5/12):

Teaching Yuri how to play tennis is harder than herding cats. YES
Takamiya Nasuna has returned to play tennis, but first they have to harvest the court. YES
Bando Marimo means well, but she has a soul of an old man… a perverted old man
Kanae has invited the club to her house... things get awkward from here.
All jokes aside, Nasuno decides to get serious and play at her full strength! YES
The girls enjoy a day at the pool by themselves.
The club needs new members! YES
Nasuno wants to create something "special" for her father's birthday.
Marimo gets a... job?
The showers at school are broken so the club visit the public baths.
Let’s go to a festival!
The club is finally back to practicing but when they lose their only ball… YES

Season 2 (4/12):

The four members of tennis club are asked to help with a bean throwing event by Kanae's cousin, who works at a nursery school. Concerned the children are frightened of her, Marimo receives advice from the principal, but...
Kondo-san from the newspaper clubs asks to interview the tennis club. Can the excited upperclassmen properly show off the activities of the tennis club?! YES
At Nasuno's suggestion, the four girls go on an overnight trip together. However, as expected, there's something strange about the method of transportation and lodging arranged by Nasuno...
After finishing practice on their overnight trip and recharging themselves in the bath, the four girls hold a hot springs table tennis tournament. How will the gradually escalating battle end? YES
On the final day of their trip, the tourist spot the manager told the girls about turns out to be a silver mine! And what event occurs on the bus on their way home...?
When Nasuno suddenly declares she wants a pet, she and the other members head to the pet store where they find unbelievable animals!
The day of the sports festival has arrived. Having entered a club relay race, the members come together to try to win, but...
When Kanae becomes upset over her short stature, Nasuno takes her to a ranch. Will milking a cow make her taller!?
One day, the four girls take on the base ball club with their right to use the tennis court on the line. Certain character appears to fill their roster, turning it into a white hot battle! YES
At the bottom of the first inning with bases loaded and two outs, batter Kanae breaks out a certain pose! And finally, the conclusion! YES
One night, a mysterious flying object crash lands at Marimo's house. From the dazzlingly bright light appears an alien who calls himself "Tomalin!"
Kanae and Yuri go to an udon restaurant with coupons they received from Kondo-san. However, there's nothing ordinary about this udon restaurant!

Season 3 (3/12):

Nasuno-senpai takes everyone skiing. On what kind of course did the four skiing beginners end up?!
When it starts pouring rain, everyone seeks shelter at Kanae's house. On their way home, Kanae is struck by a bolt of lightning and uses her superpower "Kana Kana Wave"...
Nasuno is saved from a group of seemingly terrifying hooligans by a high school student named Yota. However, another group of assassins appears!
At the suggestion of a long-haired Nasuno and short-haired Kanae, Yuri accompanies them to a salon. What NEW hairstyles does she see during her trip?!
The group heads to the shrine for their first visit of the New Year. After drinking some amazake, Yuri runs out of control and things turn dire!?
Nasuno's bakery is 300 million yen in debt?! The girls try coming up with a new menu for the reconstruction of the store, but...
A story of Yuri as a third year middle school student. After making it into Kameido High School, Yuri tries to join the tennis team, but... YES
When Kanae's strings break the gang heads to a tennis supply store. The store stocks nothing but unusual strings. Which strings will Kanae choose? YES
Yuri encounters the lingering spirit of her uncle at his funeral. Somehow her uncle takes control of her body, and...
While Marimo is playing games at home, she is suddenly sucked into the game world through her TV. Will Marimo make it safely back to her own world?
The national tennis tournament has begun! What secret strategy does Kanae use against the formidable Usagikame High?! YES
The fearsome final exams are approaching. The girls gather at Kanae's house to study.

There is 7 seasons of this and also 11 tankobans - so I think I will stop before I waste my entire evening - but I think it's clear that the majority ( > 50% ) of time is spent on non-tennis-related items.


Pirates are pirates. If they see a chance, they will take it. Also Kaido could have gained much with Whitebeard's death.

According to the Wikia article about the Yonkou (sorry, I couldn't find the chapter where they actually say this):

  [...] the Yonko stuck in a deadlock situation [...]

Ideally Whitebeard's death would have given Kaido the advantage he needed to advance in the New World and eventually become the Pirate King. He just didn't expect Shanks to help out Whitebeard, or Blackbeard to be so swift taking his place and becoming a Yonkou maintaining their deadlock.


Why change an anime series into a recap movie?

It definitely has the potential to be profitable. Otherwise, why would they do it?

Movie adaptions for a successful series have two benefits.

Avid fans will watch it, even if it is just a giant recap
People who don't want to invest 26 episodes' time into the series will watch it

The latter is especially true as more casual viewers will have heard the name before from the shows' popularity and decide to get up to speed with it through the movie.

Of course, every instance is different and there may be series that flunked dramatically or performed exceedingly well.

In the case of live-action adaptions like Death Note, the audience spreads a lot wider and can be marketed to people who wouldn't go near anime usually.

I can't find any sales figures but I'm pretty sure it's a good investment for popular shows, but every venture is unique.

Whether it's necessary is up to your personal opinion.


What is the name of the soundtrack when Madara was absorbing chakra from Hashirama?

Found. It's called "The Allied Shinobi" and should be a part of Naruto Shippuden OST 3.
Below is a sample of the song, not the full thing, and you should notice the same parts as from your link https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=7&v=G_H7hMRc-Nc&feature=youtu.be


The fight you mention happens in episode 315. Hijikata slashes at Oboro's lower right abdomen and Kondo cuts at his left arm, and we see Oboro fall down. These are not necessarily fatal wounds, plus if you add the fact the Oboro has some of Utsuro's immortal blood inside him, it's actually probable that Oboro survived after that fight. He only dies later on in his final fight with Takasugi.


How can Karen have so much power that she breaks pillars and causes so much destruction?

You have to keep in mind that the story is never ever told to us by an omnipotent narrator. Depending on the chapter (or episodes/arcs in the animated series), a different character tells us his story. Koyomi Araragi is the character that is narrating the story most of the time, so what you read/see/hear will almost always be from his point of view.

To give you an example of that, look at how Koyomi lets us see Kanbaru Suruga's room: full of books to the point where it looks more like a pool of books than anything else. Of course, Kanbaru's room isn't really that abnormal, she's just a girl with a lot of books in her room, probably just piled up in a corner next to her bed and desk. But from Koyomi's point of view, these piles of books in the corner are so representative of Kanbaru's room that the way he'd tell us how her room looks like is "It's a room full of books".

The same principle applies to Karen: she isn't really that powerful, but she's probably the strongest person Koyomi has ever seen. Add to that the fact that he has been bullied multiple times by his sisters and you get the image of a super-strong, destructive being.

Don't believe everything you see in these series. Keep in mind that any character can lie to you and twist the story at will.


How did Gammon solve the puzzle in episode 2?

I ended up writing a descriptive model for it in IDP, letting the solvability prover from our univeristy prove whether a solution can be found. The fastest solution it could come up with was one finishing the game in 48 steps (see below). Therefore the problem is indeed solvable. My first answer though, saying Gammon cheated, was indeed incorrect. It was only after he had solved the puzzle, that the system was sabotaged and made Kaito cheat to save their lives.

I numbered the cars from top to bottom and left to right as in the following picture.

The solution is written in the form Move(t,cid,d) with t being the step number in the solution, cid being the car identifier and d being the distance the car travels during that time step. d is positive when driving up or to the right and d is negative when driving down or to the left.

Move = {
    1,9,1; 2,4,2; 3,2,1; 4,1,-1; 5,6,-3;
    6,7,1; 7,9,1; 8,3,3; 9,7,-2; 10,6,1;
    11,1,1; 12,2,-1; 13,5,3; 14,2,1; 15,1,-1;
    16,6,-1; 17,7,2; 18,8,2; 19,10,-4; 20,8,-2;
    21,7,-1; 22,6,1; 23,1,1; 24,2,-1; 25,5,-3;
    26,2,2; 27,1,-1; 28,6,-1; 29,7,1; 30,3,-3;
    31,7,-1; 32,6,1; 33,1,1; 34,2,-2; 35,4,-2;
    36,9,-4; 37,4,2; 38,2,1; 39,1,-1; 40,6,-1;
    41,7,1; 42,3,3; 43,7,-1; 44,6,3; 45,1,1;
    46,2,-1; 47,5,4;
}


People should be wary of those who quote which author?

From episode 16 - The Gates Of Judgement (at around 16:10), Shogo Makishima said:

  Justice is subject to dispute; might is easily recognized and is not disputed. So we cannot give might to justice,

In return, Shinya Kogami replied:

  I have long since learned, as a measure of elementary hygiene, to be on guard when anyone quotes Pascal.

So the answer is Blaise Pascal.

By the way, Kogami's reply is actually a quote from Toward a Philosophy of History by José Ortega y Gasset.


Each girl has a different situation. Girls' ages are around 13…16 years old, and they are still in school, so it's natural for them to be living with their parents. We don't know if students from all walks of life are able to attend the kind of school the girls go to, so we'll have to work with other info.

Madoka and Sayaka live with their parents in comfortable enough conditions.

About Sayaka:

  She describes herself as having been born "petit bourgeois," which is French for "petty bourgeois." [Hakase's note: "petit" is French for "small/little" afaik and I'm not sure about possible negative connotation of "petty", perhaps it's a mistranslation?] This would mean that her family is at least from the middle class, but is by no means from the upper class (despite the fact that, if Japan has even less living space in the future than it does now, her family's apartment is far larger than a normal middle-class family could afford). (from Puella Magi wiki)

Homura's family and financial situation we don't know anything about. Except that she might not be having any second thoughts about stealing money from people, as she moves through timelines, collecting weapons from all sorts of armory caches, as wee see in later episodes.

  She appears to live by herself.

Mami has no relatives left, and she's living in an apartment on the money she inherited from her dead parents.

  "There are also no mentions of unrelated legal tutors appointed by law."

Kyouko has to break into hotels and bathhouses and steal food, as we learn from early episodes of anime.

  article indicates that Kyoko gets her monetary income by breaking and busting ATM machines, she uses the stolen money to buy food and pay rent on expensive hotel rooms. (her wiki page)


Why does Father (the Dwarf in the Flask) want to be a perfect being?

... had the power to do what he want...

Actually, this is not true. You're suggesting that he has the things he wants already (control of the country, great alchemical power, and so on). But the reality is, Father wants much more than this.
Father's true motive is, in fact, to be free from the laws of the universe. Because of his upbringing being sealed in the flask, he grew a need to constantly free himself from things he perceived as bounds.
This motive is stated on the Fullmetal Alchemist Wiki:

When confronted by Hohenheim about this, Father reveals that the seven Homunculi were only created so he would become a perfect being. Ultimately, in his final moments, Father's motivation is revealed to be freedom from the laws of the universe itself.

And is backed by various quotes from the series, including the following:

何ものにも縛られず自由に広い世界に
[I wanted to live] in this vast world without anything being able to hold [me] back!
  — Father, Brotherhood episode 63, 6:20

In his mind, not only were the people of Amestris (and the world) holding him back, but the physical laws of the world were binding him. Just as he formed his inferiority complex while restricted to the flask, he also felt that the world was restricting him from obtaining the freedom he wanted.
In order for him to feel this freedom, he had to discard and surpass the laws of the universe; in turn, he had to absorb and control that which created him: 'God'. This is why he wanted to become the "perfect being".


Who is the character in this picture with Yotsuba and Totoro?

She's from Hare+Guu, or "The Jungle Was Always Sunny, Then Came Guu".

It was originally a serialized manga that was then adapted into a 26 episode anime TV series as well as several OVAs.

She's one of the main characters and her name is "Guu".

Here's some more information about the characters, and specifically, about Guu:

  Guu's stomach is a world filled with buildings, hundred legged cats, and a nice young couple of lovers that have been trapped there for ages (but apparently don't mind their predicament). Other than Haré, no character seems to be aware of Guu's strange nature (or for that matter the bizarre circumstances surrounding everything else in the series). The weird events that occur because of her are only ever acknowledged by Haré. Everyone who is eaten by Guu, only to be spat out later (excluding Haré) dismisses what happened as "sleeping" (occasionally, dreaming about Guu's Stomach world). Haré even dismisses his first time in Guu's Stomach but is quickly proved wrong. There are other strange things Guu can do, which defy the laws of physics, logic, and reality, such as (but not limited to) teleport, time travel, warp reality, superhuman strength, elongate her body parts, breathe underwater, cause people to switch bodies, read minds, cause disco music to play suddenly, switch her face (from a cute face to a completely plain face), transform into a giant kaiju monster version of herself, and incite mental breakdowns in Haré, though the latter is more of a talent than an actual power. She apparently has more than one stomach and cares enough about the people and creatures she swallows to keep dangerous things away from the area she keeps her 'guests'. Despite all this, Guu actually cares for some of Hare's personal problems, and often gives him advice with profound sayings- a lot of her powers are used to make Hare learn a lesson. At the end of the manga, Guu leads Hare to her birthplace in a dream (and refuses to let him go further, saying it would be an one-way trip for him), and it's strongly implied that Guu's birthplace is somewhere between life and death, and that she's some kind of physical god. Guu disappears the next morning, releasing the people in her stomach (who turn up in a TV shows about missing people suddenly reappear) and erasing everybody's memories of her, except Hare's. Six years later, Hare spots Guu's smirk on his newborn daughter's face, and realizes she might be a reincarnation of Guu.


The only explanation I can find is on bleach.wikia.com, which says:

  One never gets hungry (if she or he doesn't have spiritual powers) and aging is slowed to a great extent, with lifespans of 2000 or more years not being unheard of, though such ages are limited to Shinigami or other Soul Society dwellers with high spiritual power.

There is also an explanation on http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Headscratchers/BleachSoulSociety that essentially says that it is really inconsistent within the show and that there are a number of different theories, including that characters age inversely proportional to the amount of spiritual power that they use and that at some point aging just stops.

To summarize, there doesn't seem to be a clear explanation in-universe, but the aging is slower than usual, with much longer life-spans than regular humans.


How did the lolicon genre begin in anime/manga?

Appears to have started in the 1970's, but over time the definition got a little cloudy and changed from being pedophilia to more of an obsession. There was also controversy similar to violence in video games linked to violence in real life, where one party suggested that lolicon could fuel sex crimes toward children, while the other party maintained that if anything it decreased the chances by letting people live out their fantasies through manga/anime.

There is a lot of referenced material here.

  Lolicon (ロリコン?), also romanised as lolikon or rorikon,is a Japanese portmanteau of the phrase "Lolita complex". In Japan, the term describes an attraction to underage girls (whether prepubescent, pubescent, or post-pubescent)or an individual with such an attraction. It is also commonly used when referring to lolicon manga or lolicon anime, a genre of manga and anime wherein childlike female characters are often depicted in an "erotic-cute" manner (also known as ero kawaii), in an art style reminiscent of the shōjo manga (girls' comics) style. Outside Japan, "lolicon" is in less common usage and usually refers to the genre.
  The phrase is a reference to Vladimir Nabokov's book Lolita, in which a middle-aged man becomes sexually obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl. It was first used in Japan in the 1970s and quickly became used to describe erotic dojinshi (amateur comics) portrayals of young girls.
  Laws have been enacted in various countries, including in Japan, which regulate explicit content featuring children or childlike characters. Parent and citizens groups in Japan have organized to work toward stronger controls and stricter laws governing lolicon manga and other similar media. Critics say that the lolicon genre contributes to actual sexual abuse of children, while others say that there is no evidence for this claim. Studies of lolicon fans state that lolicon fans are attracted to an aesthetic of cuteness rather than the age of the characters, and that collecting lolicon represents a disconnect from society


What is the name of the soundtrack playing in One Piece episode 527 when Sanji cries on Fishman Island?

It's called Resort Island from One Piece Movie 6 OST.


The Third Tower has no maintenance droids, as they were rendered obsolete with the creation and deployment of the two Harvestasya AIs, as they do the same functions that the maintenance droids do in the other Towers.


Why does season 2 of Gurren Lagann start so differently compared to season 1?

Your question appears to be premised on a bit of a misunderstanding of how anime in general (and Gurren Lagann in particular) is produced.

The two so-called "seasons" of Gurren Lagann (ep 1-15 vs. Lord Genome, and then ep 17-27 vs. the Anti-Spiral) were not actually discrete seasons. They were aired together as one continuous block of 27 episodes (with episode 16 being a recap of the first arc), from April to September of 2007.1 As such, any changes in theme that you may have perceived immediately following the time-skip cannot have anything to do with there being a break in the show - because there was no break! (Besides the one week for the recap episode, anyway.)

Furthermore, it isn't really possible that any changes in theme could have resulted from public reaction to the first arc of the show (ratings/etc). According to folk wisdom,2 a typical 1-2 cour anime spends over a year in production before it airs, meaning that the vast majority of work (storyboarding, character design, art, etc.) is done by the time the show starts airing. Given the timeframes in question, it isn't feasible for a studio to make significant changes to an anime during a season.

Between seasons, of course, anything is possible - the classic example of this is Code Geass, which saw some major changes in its second season, in part due to a change in its airing time slot. But during a single few-cour season, there are serious limits on how much the studio can change on the fly.3

In sum, whatever changes you may have noticed after the time-skip were almost certainly present because that's how the producers planned for it to be; not because of external factors like viewer opinion or high-level execs or whatnot.

1 Note that a single "cour" of anime will almost never be 15 episodes in length, which is another tip-off that the two "seasons" weren't separate.

2 If you have something better than folk wisdom, please answer this question!

3 Note that none of what I have said applies to super-long-running anime like the big shounens (e.g. Naruto, One Piece, etc.). I don't know anything about what production cycles look like for them, but it's pretty obvious that they have to be running all the phases of production in parallel, meaning that they should be able to react to viewer opinion (though I have no idea whether or not they do, in practice).


Is there such thing as a "Host Club" from Ouran High School Host Club?

In Japan, a "host" (ホスト hosuto) is a male worker at a club whose job is to entertain a female clientele. The clubs at which hosts work are called "host clubs". Host clubs (and their cross-gender counterparts, hostess clubs) are not really found outside Japan or places with a large Japanese diaspora as far as I know, so it isn't surprising that you wouldn't have heard of them. See the Wikipedia article "Host and hostess clubs" for more details.

Having never actually been to a host club, I'm not in the best position to evaluate the one depicted in Ouran, but based on my secondhand understanding, the Ouran Host Club is sort of a less-seedy version of what you'd see at an actual host club.

That said, I'd bet you any amount of money that no actual high school in Japan (or anywhere else for that matter) has a host club. The very idea of a school allowing minors to do something of that sort is ludicrous, which is part of what makes Ouran so funny.


"-desushi" mean "becase" and "and".

Let's take a look at a few quotes from episode 5 for example.

  ふぉぉぉ！燃える展開です!!
  ちよりはバーニングチョリソーですしー!!

Wow! This is a burning development!! Because Chiyori is Burning Chorizo!!

  るぅ子さんがやらないなら私がやります
  ちよりがやりたいですしー！

If Ruuko doesn't play, I'll play.
Because Chiyori want to play!

The word "-desushi" itself is normal Japanese.
But the overusing "-desushi" is part of slang of young people.

In this anime, "-desushi" is used for accent of character like "-nyo".


Why is Midoriya's power so low according to the official character book?

Official character book only covers between Chapters 1 to 88. This is where All Might and other heroes assault the League of Villains to save Bakugo.

So if you consider fights that Midoriya was in, until there, I think you can see the pattern. Midoriya usually breaks his bones while fighting. Yes, there are some fights where he doesn't, but not that much. The fight between him and Muscular is a good example.

Even if you defeat someone that is so powerful but destroy yourself in the process, that makes you a liability. You defeated one big guy, good. But if a low-tier villain can one-shot you after that fight, could you really call yourself that powerful?
Only a handful of people know that Midoriya inherited One for All. To others, he is not super powerful. The Tournament Arc is a good example of it. How many pro heroes were willing to recruit him?


How does Kaito Kid know the true identity of Conan in the 3rd movie?

Kid just stumbled the phone conversation accidentally Conan had with Agasa. And there he finds the phone conversation pretty weird for a kid. The way Conan talks on the phone is not like an elementary grader. And confirms it even further from the way he deduce things from the murder case and why he knows and understands high-level infos - Kid got it all with just few clues.

You are looking for Boy Shinichi's Adventure Chapters 570-573, Episodes 472-473.


Calm music played after pain destroyed leaf village

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

Artist: Yasuharu Takanashi

Album:Naruto Shippuden OST 1
- Track 28 -

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

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


Who is Onihime talking about in this scene? Is it a 4th wall joke?

The subtitles in the screenshot are not exactly accurate. Onihime warns that 「各方面」(kaku houmen = all sides, from every quarter) will get 「うるさい」 (urusai = noisy, loud, possibly cause a ruckus). It seems that Enki is threatening to rape Karin (from Enki's perspective, it would be heaven, but since Karin is protesting 「いやぁ！やめて！」[iyaa! yamete!], that would constitute as non-consensual). Therefore, Onihime warns that everyone would get noisy if Enki went through with it - meaning that either 1) Karin's 「仲間」(nakama = comrades, friends) will be indignant about it once they find out, 2) viewers will object with a loud complaint, or 3) the hentai viewers will make some other sort of noise... Her next line recommends for Karin to pray that her nakama will arrive soon, so it is very possible that kaku houmen refers to them.

It doesn't look like Enki's eyes are looking directly at the camera in the next shot, but rather at Onihime, so no, she does not break the fourth wall.
In summary, Onihime rather than Enki might break the fourth wall by alluding to viewers, but it is not clear enough that she is not referring to an objection by in-canon characters.


Why could Kakashi and Obito move while Naruto, Sasuke and even Kaguya couldn't?

Many have mentioned the plothole part, however this seems to be a case of using a writing device to

   1. Give Obito a heroic death 2. Absolve Obito of his crimes 3. Allow Kakshi to be cool by completing his Sharingan

In Universe Explanation:
This is the explanation written on the Wiki, a typical case of Eleventh Hour Superpower

  Obito returns Sasuke and Sakura to the dimension where Naruto and Kakashi are. He watches as Naruto and Sasuke fight Kaguya, their combined powers the only ones capable of stopping her. Aware of this, Kaguya relocates them to a dimension with powerful gravity and pins Naruto and Sasuke down while she attacks with All-Killing Ash Bones. Obito and Kakashi, empowered by a shared memory of their past friendship, place themselves in front of Naruto and Sasuke as shields. Because his odyssey began by saving Kakashi from death by a boulder, Obito decides he must now end things by saving Kakashi's life again: he uses his left eye to teleport the attack aimed at Kakashi away, allowing the attack directed at him to connect. Obito's body begins to crumble and there is nothing anyone can do to save him. He warns Kakashi that he will not be around to save him a third time and places his faith for a better world in Naruto before dying with a smile.

This can be compared to a final push, the rush of adrenaline. Obito and Kakashi pushed themselves to the limit figuring they would die, while Naruto/Sasuke were still hoping to escape the Gravity pull so that they could continue fighting.


Why didn't Ross' broken bracelet cause suspicion?

There's a few reasons it couldn't be a cause for suspicion:
The bracelet isn't a handcuff, there's no reason to expect it not to get damaged as a person flails around while getting incinerated especially while the bracelet is more flexible due to high temperatures. Note that Mustang (episode 18) effortlessly cuts an entire chain link in half with a wire sniper. This reinforces the notion that the bracelet isn't that strong. It also tells us that the chain was intentionally prepared. When you cut a single chain link in half, the two halves fall off, leaving complete circles on either end. Look at the picture you posted. The loose end appears to be pried open instead of cut. Mustang would have had to do that on purpose, meaning that Mustang made a conscious effort to make it less suspicious, which is consistent with him separately incinerating the bracelet before wrapping it around the arm.

Furthermore there is no initial cause for suspicion. Like any good trick its most successful when no one knows it happened. The body is accounted for, the dental records match, the bracelets there, and the lone witness collaborates it. No one starts with an unidentifiable body, a form of identification, and a DNA match and assumes that its an elaborate conspiracy involving the coroner. Even if a few other details at the crime scene are highly suspicious, no one questions the identity of the corpse.


First off, Sonju doesn't need to eat humans to retain his intelligence and humanoid appearance. But to explain why is somewhat of a spoiler:

 His traveling companion Mujika, is the Evil-Blooded. Rather than explain myself, I'll quote the wiki: "Mujika is a special demon who retains the characteristics and sapience of humans without requiring to consume them. Other demons who ingest a drop of her blood gain the same abilities and are also able to spread this unique body composition to other demons."

Mujika and Sonju both follow a religion that forbids them to eat farm-raised humans. Thus, Sonju thinks it would be okay to hunt humans born in the wild, and this is something he wants to do.
I haven't seen the anime yet, which I think may tell a different story from what I've gleaned, but I've read the manga up to volume seventeen. From what I've seen, Sonju seems quite loyal to Mujika (and for good reason given her ability). Though it may be his private wish to hunt humans again, he might listen to orders from Mujika if it is her wish to help the children escape to the human world. I can't say this definitively though.
For the last point: If I understand correctly, I think the promise makes it forbidden for the demons to attack the Ratri clan, and any humans from the other world. I could be wrong. I'll try to verify this at a later time.


How could "this character" come back to life without becoming a Vampire at the end of Stardust Crusaders?

No hard facts are given on this one (at least none translated that I was able to find).

But a common theory is Hamon.  Joseph was a naturally gifted Hamon user.  So the theory is that the blood started to turn Joseph into a vampire, but his natural Hamon purified it at the same time, so he was restored to life as a normal human (or as normal as Joestar can ever be).

Also, DIO had only consumed Joseph's blood an hour earlier, so the blood may have still counted more as Joseph's than anything else.

But most importantly, Jojos in general runs on Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny.  You shouldn't try to apply to much logic to it.


Can Chopper's rumble ball be used on other Devil Fruit users?

While it doesn't look like anyone else has tried the rumble ball that Chopper created yet, modifying your devil fruit power through science is possible.

The One Piece Wikia on the rumble ball has it written:

  Through his development of the Rumble Ball, Chopper is the first Devil Fruit user to artificially augment his Devil Fruit powers. However Chopper is not the only one to do so, as Caesar Clown (by his own admission) used his chemical and scientific expertise to artificially augment the Gasu Gasu no Mi to grant himself new offensive abilities.

While the Wikia also implies that the Rumble Ball can enhance any Zoan type, I have not seen this evidenced by anyone else's use in canon sources.


Is it usual in anime/manga/japanese to use ブツ as onomatopoeia of mumbling?

ブツブツ or ぶつぶつ (the same word, just in katakana vs hiragana) is a standard Japanese onomatopoeia for mumbling, muttering, or grumbling to oneself. This list of Japanese onomatopoeia includes ぶつぶつ in it, along with many other onomatopoeia that show up in manga.


In Attack on Titan, Chapter 95, pages 16-17 we find out that the 9th Titan-Shifter is the

  War Hammer Titan, which is currently in possession of the Tybur family who currently resides in Marley. We also find out that the War Hammer titan is not used for warfare and has never been used against any enemy state (of Marley). It is important to note that the Tybur family was the first family of titan-shifters to rebel against King Fritz in the Great Titan War and they carry a lot of political clout.

In Chapter 101, the identity of the 9th Titan-Shifter was revealed to be

  Willy Tybur's sister.


Who is the third person who listens to Shen Xiu's lesson

this is a spoiler answer. The third person is number three ranking in the ye family who is in charge of assassination. The character will be reveal in a plot when eliminating the Shen family


What happens to Ichika after the fated summer ends?

at the end of the last episode kaito's sister returns and brings a Bolivian sweater for ichika but kaito tell her she had to return to to her own country as her transfer had ended we then see remon at mib headquarters with the plans for the interstellar ship and rinon is there with her if you watch till the end of the credits,one year later some students are watching the old class members student film and it shows ichika wearing the Bolivian sweater with some revealing dialog.


Is Dekomori meant to say "desu" or "death"?

I think it's clear that she's saying both.

On the one hand, her uses of "desu" (the Japanese copula, sort of like English "be") are all as part of syntactically-acceptable sentences. But she uses the word a fair bit more than a typical speaker of Japanese would, often using it in constructions where a typical speaker would more likely omit it or choose a different locution.

On the other hand, the curious way she stresses the word whenever she says it suggests that she's "punning" it with English "death", which is also written "desu" in Japanese. Further, if you look at the lyrics for her character songs ("DoomsDay's Dogma" from "Kagayaki no Fantastic Stage" and "Dark Death Decoration" from "Dark Iris Musical Grammar"), you'll note that her uses of "desu" are written in katakana (デス). The most common use of katakana is to represent loanwords. (I also note that "DoomsDay's Dogma" reveals a strong preoccupation with English words beginning with the letter "D", the most obvious of which [in this context] is "death".)

Obviously, this pun-like-thing doesn't work in English, so if you're subtitling her speech, a generous dollop of "death" in her speech is a reasonable workaround.


With two cubes, you don't have enough sides (total 12) to give both cubes numbers 0-9.

Instead, each cube has its own numbers (there may be other permutations that work, too):

One cube (A) will have 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6.
The other (B) will have 0, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8.

Then each date is represented by how the cubes are used:

01-03: Cube A is 0, followed by cube B.
04-06: Cube B is 0, followed by cube A.
07-08: Cube A is 0, followed by cube B.
09: Cube B is 0, followed by cube A, on 6, upside-down.
10-13: Cube A is 1, followed by cube B.
14-16: Cube B is 1, followed by cube A.
17-18: Cube A is 1, followed by cube B.
19: Cube B is 1, followed by cube A, on 6, upside-down.
20-23: Cube A is 2, followed by cube B.
24-26: Cube B is 2, followed by cube A.
27-28: Cube A is 2, followed by cube B.
29: Cube B is 2, followed by cube A, on 6, upside-down.
30-31: Cube B is 3, followed by cube A.

And before you ask, no, I've never seen one of these, and thus I really have no citation. But given the fact that the cubes look like they can go in either order (since they have numbers on the side, they should come completely free), this seems like the most logical solution.


After the Colossus Titan (Bertholdt) fell on both of them, the Armored Titan (Reiner) bit Eren's Titan form in the neck. That was how he got Eren out from his Titan form.


What is the difference between Judgment and Anti-skill?

Judgement is a term used to refer to Academy City's student-based disciplinary committee. They are composed of students of varying grade levels and power, and along with Anti-Skill, they are tasked to maintain peace-and-order within the school system. Judgment members can be recognized by the armbands they wear over their right sleeves, which are green with white stripes and which have a shield symbol.
Anti-skill is the term used to refer to Academy City's police and security forces. Unlike Judgment, members of Anti-Skill are ordinary adults who work in the city. One is essentially a volunteer when they join Anti-Skill, and as such is not paid to do Anti-Skill work; however, the city compensates for Anti-Skill members' help in the experiment by giving them various gifts and privileges
It is often assigned to situations that members of Judgment are unable or not allowed to handle, such as engaging terrorists, handling hostage situations, or stabilizing dangerous areas. Judgment is often assigned to assist Anti-Skill in these cases by evacuating civilians or handling crowd control as well as dealing with rogue espers who abuse their powers. It is also shown to assist Judgment with meager work such as directing traffic, helping lost people, and enforcing curfew, and can also be hired for events. Anti-Skill members are also tasked in training Judgment recruits.
Moreover, it is also their duty to keep watch of Judgment, and vice-versa. It is a checks and balances system that should prevent prevent internal corruption in the two organizations

Source: http://toarumajutsunoindex.wikia.com


How does Madara have Rinnegan in both eyes?

In the first case, Madara had a blind eye due to the Izanagi he used. But the eyesight was restored when the Rinnegan formed in both the eyes. This is because it is a characteristic quality of the Rinnegan. The wikia articles on Rinnegan and Uchiha Madara supports it:

  However, Madara's Sharingan did not become Rinnegan until decades later, at the end of his natural lifespan; this also seemingly restored the eyesight lost from his use of Izanagi.

Madara Uchiha:

  It was not until decades later, towards the end of Madara's natural life, that the cells had any effect, awakening the Rinnegan (in the process restoring his right eye).

So therefore, formation of Rinnegan completely heals the eyes.

When the Edo Tensei was used, he was revived at the prime stage of his life, along with enhancements. That explains him having having both the eyes.

Lastly, when he breaks out of the Edo Tensei, his Edo Tensei Rinnegan eyes are still intact. But after being brought back to life by the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique, his fake Rinnegan eyes turn into dust. He fights without eyes for a while. White Zetsu brings him one of his original eyes, and later on, he steals away his original eye from Obito.


The piano piece played near the end of episode 3 of K: Return of Kings

The song is entitled K Return of Kings - Showdown. You can listen to the music on YouTube.


Job request in Fairy Tail untouched for hundreds of episodes

As kuwaly said, it is the infamous "picture" of the Loch Ness Monster. I'm sure there is no real meaning to it, simply that it is a long-running joke in the anime. The reason they used the Loch Ness monster is likely because in real life many people visit the Scottish Highlands, specifically lake Loch Ness to try and find/prove the Loch Ness Monster. The reason they have continued to re-use the request is because, just like in real life no one has "found" the Loch Ness Monster, and because it's just a funny Easter egg that you would only notice if you payed very close attention.

Although the infamous hoax image seems to be backwards/flipped in the anime.

Similar Easter Eggs using the Loch Ness monster can be seen in these examples:

The video game Hitman: Absolution
Google Maps

Hope this helps!


Are the martial art techniques in Kenichi real?

Check this for a list of the martial arts used in Kenichi.

Some of the martial arts are of course just fictional or adapted, like Nyakwondo (a combination of cat moves and Tae Kwon Do) and even Furinji's own style. However, majority of the martial arts in the manga/anime is still legitimate and--based on personal experience as a former wrestling competitor in university days--relatively accurate.

Also, I won't rightly consider "fake" some of the variations, as martial arts in real life are mostly just variation of one another. Kung Fu alone is credited for inspiring at least a couple of major styles, and die-hard practitioners and fans alike will call fake on these other inspired arts. However, I must admit that Kenichi deserves an amazing suspension of disbelief with some of them.

Also, a bit out-of-topic:

   I personally find it amusing that you're a karate practitioner and you don't know prior to Kenichi about Pencak Silat when it's one of the most murderous martial arts in the world. While most martial arts are developed in defense, the likes of Muay Thai, Muay Boran, and Pencak Silat are meant to utterly disable, maim, and outright kill opponents.

 Granted, Silat is a huge discipline, but the Pencak variant is the recognized national martial art of Indonesia and it's been shown to be highly effective (a movie even had tons of people using it, including the "regular" street mook), not to mention Hayato Furinji himself had some issues with the art's complexity.


How different are the anime and manga versions of Akame Ga Kill?

I have made a comparison of the anime and manga of Akame ga KILL! and included suggestion on where to pick up the manga if you know the series by watching the anime.

Basically, if you don't want to read too much overlapping content, start reading from chapter 39. The previous chapter (chapter 38) covers the fight between Mine and Seryu, which corresponds to episode 19.

There are many differences between the anime and manga from that point on. The Wild Hunt arc (from chapter 44 to chapter 48) in the manga introduces several new characters, some of which play important roles in the overall storyline beyond their arc.

Since the anime skips this arc, the fates of several characters were changed:

   Run was severely injured in chapter 48 after he defeated Champ, who was the perpetrator behind the massacre of Run's students back in his village. Before Run died, Kurome stabbed him with Yatsufusa and made him her puppet. He was alive and well at the end of the anime, though.
 Bols' wife and daughter was brutally murdered by Wild Hunt for their amusement in chapter 46. They stayed alive at the end of the anime and were seen distributing ration.
 In the manga, Suzuka - one of the Four Rakshasa Demons - actually survived from Tatsumi's attempt to crush her by destroying the whole building. She is assumed dead in the anime.

Therefore, although you might encounter some similar scenes in some of the chapters, it is best if you read from chapter 39 to understand the context in later chapters.

Apart from the main chapters, there are several extra chapters which are not adapted in the anime:

Volume 5 - (Unnamed Special Chapter)
Volume 8 - Extra Chapter (33.5) "Kill the Reminiscences" (追憶を斬る Tsuioku o Kiru)
Extra Chapter (7.5). "Kill the Blackness" (暗黒を斬る Ankoku o Kiru)
Extra Chapter (6.5). "Kill the Mad Swordman" (剣鬼を斬る Kenki o Kiru)

And if you are interested, you might want to read Akame ga KILL! Zero, which tells the background story of several characters in the series.


Why does Jushiro Ukitake have an item from Yoruichi's clan?

I know this is old, and I don't know if anyone thought of that before, but what if there were two conspiracies ongoing at the same time during that arc? The first one, of course, Aizen's, and the second one involving Ukitake, Kyoraku and Yoruichi.

Think about it, what the hell was Yoruichi doing in Soul Society before training Ichigo? I think that she went to Ukitake and Kyoraku and let them in on the plan to stop Rukia's execution. This involved Yoruichi going to her clan's arsenal where she got the shield, and Ichigo's flying cape. She gave Ukitake the shield (how else could he get his hands on a powerful Shihoin artifact like that?). My guess is that Ukitake was on board with it from the beginning, but Kyokaru was on the fence, hence why he was still not sure of what to do hours before the execution.

Perhaps even Unohana was on board with it because once the execution was stopped by Ichigo, Yoruichi, Ukitake and Shunsui, she leaves and goes to Central 46 where Aizen is. I'm not saying she knew about it, but perhaps Ukitake and Yoruichi also contacted her, noticing how odd Central 46 had been behaving. For instance, that type of execution was reserved to captains, yet they decided to use it on Rukia, despite her not even being a lieutenant. Not only that, but they also ordered the execution to happen sooner, and denied Ukitake's request to cancel the execution, all giving credit to Yoruichi's story.


I'm not sure an in-universe answer is ever directly stated. If there is one, it would probably be in one of the Doctor Thunderland segments at the end of each volume. I only have volumes 14, 15, and 16 at present, but if I get the chance, I'll review the others.

That being said, I can think of a reason that the Gaichuu would be named after alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is a depressant. This means it slows down your body and brain. The wikipedia page for alcohol lists lethargy as a possible symptom for drinking alcohol. This is similar to a battle with a Gaichuu: A letter bee will fire off fragments of their heart to defeat it. The weariness they experience would be comparable to the effects depressants cause. They would both cause some loss of feeling and thinking. The wikipedia page for depressants lists one of the effects of depressants as being memory impairment, similar to how a bee could lose memories if they fire their shindan too much. Firing too many shindans and drinking too much alcohol can also both cause loss of consciousness.

So, letter bees might have seen the similarity between battling gaichuu and battling alcohol and named the gaichuu accordingly.

I'd like to point out a relevant passage from Dr. Thunderland at the end of volume 16:

  To be honest, in the last volume I prudently resolved to stop sulking about my continued failure to appear in this story. But before I knew it I found myself drowning my sorrow in booze from the stress of being prudent. I'd get up in the morning and have breakfast and beer. At noon it was lunch and draft beer. My afternoon snack was a tequila. With dinner I'd have wine and sake. After dinner I'd have shochu and a whiskey nightcap. After using the bathroom I did shots of alcohol hand sanitizer... Incidentally, I lose my memory when I drink too much. I hypothesize that the drinking is causing my brain to shrink. I wonder if it's something like What-chamacallit for Algernon. But they do say, "Ignorance is bliss." Still, my life has been a mess lately. I wonder why. Oh, right, because of the drinking... heh heh heh...

Here, Dr. Thunderland specifically mentions the memory-loss properties of alcohol. And from an out of universe perspective, Dr. Thunderland's article conveys that the author has some kind of interest in alcoholic beverages and drunkenness (the references to different kinds of alcohol are particularly interesting). I admit it might be a little presumptuous for me to assume so since drunken characters are a common gag.


Dr. Stone: How Senku could have made gunpowder without guano?

In Ch. 8 when they make the gunpowder Senku already had a bag of potassium nitrate (saltpeter) prepared which he says he prepared long in advance. Remember, before Senku and Taiju brought back the petrified Tsukasa and heard his cull the herd ramblings they had a monopoly on the cave with the nitric acid which gave Senku ample time to make the useful chemical saltpeter. Besides its use as a component of gunpowder which was certainly one of Senku's considerations potassium nitrate is a good fertilizer in case they wanted to plant some crops and one of the easier chemical oxidizers for him to make.

As to why he didn't try for a different explosive is not explicit but TNT would not have been a viable alternative for a myriad of reasons. I'm mostly reading off wikipedia for this but the first step is to nitrate toluene in the presence of nitric and sulfuric acid, while they have some nitric acid they do not obtain sulfuric acid until much later as the process for making sulfuric acid isn't something they had the tools to do. Both of those chemicals are very dangerous and they don't yet possess glassware to store them safely. TNT also started out as yellow dye, people of ages past were not really dumb and really dead though as TNT is incredibly stable in standard conditions which is one of its most important features. To detonate it you need some sort of blasting cap which is itself a small explosive and at that point you'd probably just want a different explosive. Gun cotton is similar as it can be made using plant fibers and nitric acid but is very unstable in that form and in its proper form also requires sulfuric acid. They theoretically could have made something else that involves none of sulfuric acid, oil or better containers but gunpowder is stable and powerful enough for the limited time and resources they had


I haven't seen the anime yet, but in the game's version of events the survivors  who are living in the outside world are the general public who have fallen into despair (and somehow gained monokuma heads)

You can see them rioting in the image above, and it wouldn't be a wild stretch of the imagination to say that they were probably looting stores also. [note the broken window at the very right] which is where they could get themselves provisions and other necessities.

The academy was sealed off by the students themselves so that they would not succumb to the miserable world outside.

At the end of the game, the students mention that there are people out there who are still clinging onto remnants of hope, and that they will go out, meet them and join forces. But as far as I can tell, it's just conjecture on their part.


In the manga, how did Asako contact Ushio from within the sea serpent?

In both the manga and anime, Tatsuya had a precious gift from his mother.  In the anime, it was referred to as a toy phone.  In the manga, it was a functioning walkie talkie (referred to as transceiver in the English translation).  There just happened to be someone on the beach with another transceiver who was listening on the right channel.  Asako's call for help was heard by Ushio.

What I found difficult to understand is why Asako's plea was even needed as part of the plot.  The sea-protector yokai had already informed Ushio that Tora needed his help and had been swallowed by a giant serpent.  That could have been sufficient cause for Ushio to help.


Why haven't the 2nd generation Digi-destined (excluding Hikari and Takeru) aged?

Great question. I'm not sure, but I can pose a few plausible theories:

the supposed battle between Alphamon and the four Digimon 02 cast happened a while before the story of Digimon Tri and the original Digidestined all moved on
the producers don't want to spoil what they look like at an older age, so they used such footage
it's just a bunch of silhouettes, so we can't be sure if they aged or not

If you've watched the second and third movie, you'd know that the disguised version of Ichijouji Ken by Gennai looks taller and more grown up. Of course, I know that you asked this question before even the second movie was released. But hopefully, the next few movies will answer instead of create more questions.


When did the transition from standard definition (4:3) to widescreen (16:9) for television anime happen?

According to user Zalis on the MyAnimeList forums, one of the first instances of widescreen anime was Betterman (1999). However, because it isn't one of the better known shows, it often gets overlooked and Vandread (2000) is often accredited with the first.

The cinema is often the first place for the widescreen transition of visual media, and early animated (and non-animated) films were sometimes shown in widescsreen at the cinema, and later reshaped for broadcast/dvd. The earliest example I could find for this was Magic Boy (1960~) This was  2.40:1 rather than 16:9 though. You can see the difference between the aspect ratios below:

I don't think there are any specific points in time that we can point to where there was a definite switch - just as the transition to digital happened, but the full transition seems to be almost done in 2006-2008, when 4:3 anime became minimal and even the larger series like One Piece, Naruto, etc switched over.

References:

Anime & Manga - Wikipress.
AnimeNation - Ask John


Video Identification - Boy, Girl Two Pianos

The video title is "A Kiss Goodnight" by Dragon/Roy (youtube) and the anime is Nodame Cantabile. The two characters you see playing the piano are Shinichi Chiaki (male) and Megumi Noda (female).


SAO first started as story for writing competition. But it was too long, so author didn't enter the competition and instead published it on the web. After that, it gained lot of popularity so author continued. This implies he never planned to write more. Also, it is said he was quite young and it was his first work. It was later on turned into light novels.

It began with SAO part with first chapter being introduction and how they got stuck in game. Then next chapter skips 2 year forward and how Kirito clears the game.

The next chapters are side stories, that happen chronologically somewhere in those 2 years.

After that comes ALO and the rest.

So it is obvious there wont be any continuity, because author never wanted to write such a story. And like Ikzer said, he is rewriting/retconing the story with SAO:Progressive


When Fu was captured by the Akatsuki, her death shortly followed after the extraction of the tailed beast within her.

  Fū was subsequently captured, and had her tailed beast extracted from her body and sealed within the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, resulting in her death


Is the Persona 5 manga considered canon?

Granted that the content is not that much different from the game (aside from some dialog and translation).

Unless someone can prove otherwise, I do believe that the manga will be considered cannon but with the game as the original source of the material.


What is this bluish "9" thing and why is it embedded in Juna's and Susano-Oh's forehead?

Magatama (勾玉?), less frequently (曲玉), are curved, comma-shaped beads
  that appeared in prehistoric Japan from the Final Jōmon period through
  the Kofun period, approximately ca. 1,000 BC to the 6th century AD.The
  beads, also described as jewels, were made of primitive stone and
  earthen materials in the early period, but by the end of the Kofun
  period were made almost exclusively of jade. Magatama originally
  served as decorative jewelry, but by the end of the Kofun period
  functioned as ceremonial and religious objects. Archaeological
  evidence suggests that magatama were produced in specific areas of
  Japan and were widely dispersed through the entirety of the Japanese
  archipelago by trade routes.

  The Kojiki and Nihon shoki, completed in the 8th century, have
  numerous references to magatama. They appear in the early in the first
  chapter of the Nihon shoki, which largely describes the mythology of
  Japan. Susanoo, god of the sea and storms, received five hundred
  magatama from Tamanoya no mikoto, or Ame-no-Futodama-no-mikoto, the
  jewel-making deity. Susanoo went to heaven and presented them to his
  sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu, who bit off successive parts of the
  magatama, and blew them away to create other deities. Tamanoya no
  mikoto remains the kami god of magatama, glasses, and cameras.

  In the legend Amaterasu later shuts herself in a cave.
  Ama-no-Koyane-no-mikoto hung magatama, among other objects, on a five
  hundred-branch sakaki tree, to successfully lure Amaterasu from the
  cave.

  In the year 58, in the reign of the Emperor Suinin, the Nihon shoki
  records that a dog kills and disembowels a mujina, a type of badger,
  and a magatama was discovered in its stomach. This magatama was
  presented to Suinin, who enshrined it at Isonokami Shrine, where it is
  said to presently reside. A similar practice is described again in the
  Nihon shoki during the reign of the Emperor Chūai. Chūai made an
  inspection trip to the Tsukushi, or Kyūshū, and was presented with an
  enormous sakaki tree hung with magatama as well as other sacred
  objects.

Source: Wikipedia

I believe that the Magatama in the anime is attached to the forehead/characters instead of a pendant is to show the character's divinity


What is this song from Ep 111 13:35 of Hunter x Hunter?


Did Shichika's father try to kill Nanami?

Unfortunately it is never explained why Shichika killed his father, however from episode 7, we can get a pretty good guess that it might have been to protect Nanami.
Here is the dialogue from the second fight at 35:00:

Nanami: Do you remember when you killed Father?
Shichika: I guess I do...
Nanami: I haven't thanked you for that yet. But I'm not particularly grateful to you for that, so even now I don't intend to say so. Because I would have been fine with being killed by Father back then. I would have been fine with it. There's no point to me living after all.

What we can gather from this implicitly is that Shichika killed their father in order to protect Nanami, without any request from Nanami, e.g. simply sibling affection. In this sense, this means their father either mentioned that he would eventually have to kill Nanami and thus forced Shichika's hand or he attempted to kill Nanami and thus forced Shichika's hand. So whether or not he mentioned it or attempted it we don't know, however I believe it's most likely the latter due to Nanami's extreme potential.
As for the reason, what we know is that Nanami has the ability Migeika. For this reason in episode 4 Nanami recaps that her and Shichika's father neglected to make Nanami the Yasuri 7th generation family head, because this ability made her too powerful. Since she was too powerful because she could see any ability and learn it instantly, including the Kyotouryuu sword arts, that their father deemed her to be too dangerous with her potential and thus decided to eliminate her.


Was running into people with toast in your mouth already a cliche by Evangelion's time (1995-96)?

Yes. It has been around for a long time...long before Evangelion.

It's hard to track down any real info, but I ran across a reddit page that pointed me in the right direction.

As it stands, it looks like the earliest instances of the 'running late to school with a slice of toast in your mouth' grew from 'running late to school with a roll in your mouth' that I could find a first confirmed instance as far back as 1968 in the manga "Patty's First Love." Some suspect that it was pulled from some 1950s Soap Opera, originally.

At any rate, that page went on to talk about how the book "Even a Monkey can Draw Manga" that was published 1990 to 1991 or so (4 to 5 years prior to Evangelion) considered the 'running late to school with a piece of toast in your mouth and crashing into someone' such a cliche that it parodied it on this page

So, I'd say that's pretty darn conclusive...it is definitely significantly older than Evangelion, and was already a running joke to the level of parody by that time.


Why was Polnareff able to see stands when he didn't have one?

I have two explanations why this is the case:

Although Silver Chariot has gone Berserk, it's still his Stand

First of all, although he can't control Silver Chariot Requiem anymore doesn't mean it's not his Stand anymore. In the flashback where Polnareff first found out about what happens when Silver Chariot has the Stand-Arrow, we can see that after taking the Arrow from Silver Chariot Requiem away again, the Stand transforms back into it's former normal self. So I'd say that even in the case of Polnareff not being able to control his Requiem-Stand anymore, he still is a Stand-User. Also, the reason why he was able to pick the Arrow up was because his Stand was already active and the effect of the Arrow (your Stand attacking you) still happens as we can see with Silver Chariot Requiem running towards him after picking up the Arrow.

Polnareff took over the Turtle's Stand

The second case why he can still see Stands is because the Turtle (aka. Coco Jumbo) was a Stand-User and Polnareff's soul got transferred into the Turtle. At the end we also see that Coco Jumbo's Stand "Mr. President" is still active because we see Trish getting transferred inside the Turtle just like before the Silver Chariot Requiem incident. I'm guessing that Polnareff just took over the Turtle's Stand which is definitely plausible in certain cases.

Part 6 Spoiler:

   Obtaining someone else's Stand in addition to your own is possible in some special cases like we see with Emporio being able to use Weather Report in addition to Burning down the House at the end of Stone Ocean

So although it isn't explicitly stated in the anime/manga, Polnareff still certainly is a Stand-User.


You can buy digital version of Bleach on a per-volume basis.

According to Viz Media's site, digital versions should be avaible from:

Amazon
Google Play
Nook
iBooks
VizManga

I'm not sure about the region restrictions of these though, as you are living in Norway - Viz may not have the licensing rights for the regions (They usually prioritize the US first). You may have to import physical books if noone owns the licensing rights.


I don't know about how she does have time to study, but it's mentioned in the first chapter that she was just admitted to an all-girls college in the past april


Why do lots of anime titles have ☆ in them?

TVTropes calls adding non-pronounceable characters to a works title a "Lucky Charms Title" and as you can see from the example list, it is not a purely Japanese phenomenon. However, the Japanese are generally more adventurous with this. An explanation could be that because of the huge amount of Kanji the Japanese written language contains, being suddenly confronted with a character you can not immediately identify is not as jarring for a Japanese reader as it is for a Western reader.

Why is the Unicode character WHITE STAR (☆) so popular? Because it is a natural eye-catcher. When looking at a list of works, like a TV program for example, the ☆ character immediately stands out, even among the huge number of characters the Japanese language is using.

By the way: Official releases in English often drop the lucky charms from the title. Amazon sells Lucky☆Star and Puni Puni☆Poemy sans ☆'s (although the star usually still appears as a decorative element in the lettering on the cover to reproduce the original typography as faithfully as possible).


Origins and information about the song "Kokoronashi"

This is a original Vocaloid song featuring GUMI, with music and lyrics by Chouchou-P, 心做し (same name).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SkNrZnoK5w


Why did they stop giving dubbed Shippūden episodes on Hulu?

There doesn't seem to be much information online regarding why dubbed Naruto: Shippuden specifically is only partly available on Hulu. However, there is some, as well as some more generic information that can be pieced together.

In a question to Hulu about this very topic on FB from 2015, Hulu responded:

  It's our goal to provide as much content as possible and to keep it
  all on our service as long as we can. However, what content we post
  and how long we're able to keep it on Hulu depends on contractual
  agreements or streaming clearances granted by our content partners.

An announcement from 2016 of an earlier set of Shippuden episodes being posted on Hulu mentions that Viz media had been putting episodes up sporadically.

This fits with what Anime News Network said about this question more generically. ANN gives a good answer, but to summarize it, there was an original reluctance to posting more than a limited number of dubbed episodes online because the idea was that dubbed episodes have a larger base and so can be sold on DVDs and such. Providing them online would thus cut into the profits from DVD sales because people wouldn't need to buy the DVDs and so only a few at most would be put online to get people interested. Now that streaming has become more profitable, that's changed somewhat, but because Hulu and Netflix make content providers jump through hoops, it's often not worth it to go back and reconfigure old dubbed episodes to post.

This goes along also with a 2011 NYT article, where they mention that it can take at least a year for official dubs; if places like Hulu make it so hard for them to post episodes, they make not see it as worth it to post dubs and go through that work again when the subs have been up for 12+ months already.

Tl;dr: They want people to buy DVDs, and it's a pain to post stuff on streaming.


Are the Kara no Kyoukai movies based off chapters from one book or seperate books?

From the Type-Moon Wiki the chapters of the light novel are:

Chapter 1 – Overlooking the Scenery (俯瞰風景, Fukan Fuukei) Thanatos
Chapter 2 – Murder Speculation (Part 1) (殺人考察(前), Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen)) …and nothing heart.
Chapter 3 – Remaining Sense of Pain (痛覚残留, Tsuukaku Zanryuu) ever cry, never life.
Chapter 4 – The Hollow Shrine (伽藍の洞, Garan no Dou) garan-no-dou.
Intermission - Kirie/Fujino (境界式, Kyoukai Shiki)
Chapter 5 – Paradox Spiral (矛盾螺旋, Mujun Rasen) Paradox Paradigm.
Chapter 6 – Oblivion Recorder (忘却録音, Boukyaku Rokuon) Fairy Tale.
Intermission - Lio (境界式, Kyoukai Shiki)
Chapter 7 – Murder Speculation (Part 2) (殺人考察(後), Satsujin Kousatsu (Go)) …not nothing heart.
Boundary of Emptiness (空の境界, Kara no Kyoukai)
Future Gospel (未来福音, Mirai Fukuin) recalled out summer
Final Record (終末録音, Shuumatsu Rokuon) the Garden of Oblivion

And the animated films:

2007-12-01 (Japan, Part 1 - Fukan Fuukei) (same as Chapter 1 of novel)
2007-12-29 (Japan, Part 2 - Satsujin Kousatsu) (same as Chapter 2 of novel)
2008-01-26 (Japan, Part 3 - Tsuukaku Zanryuu) (same as Chapter 3 of novel)
2008-05-24 (Japan, Part 4 - Garan no Dou) (same as Chapter 4 of novel)
2008-08-16 (Japan, Part 5 - Mujun Rasen) (same as Chapter 5 of novel)
2008-12-20 (Japan, Part 6 - Boukyaku Rokuon) (same as Chapter 6 of novel)
2009-08-08 (Japan, Part 7 - Satsujin Kousatsu [conclusion]) (same as Chapter 7 of novel)

So the movies' chapters refer to the same chapters from the light novel.


Are the districts inside the walls 'Elodia'?

yes the walls are built inside paradi island where king fritz of elodia had run away after the Mare won the war against titans. I think this wall is supposed to serve as protection against Mare but the chapter havent explained it yet.


Where did Cecianiah Corabelle come from?

I believe her first name is white: Cilla
and 2nd name is snow:
Chan,
Chilali,
Chilam,

The reason I believe so is episode 11 when he says her name 3 times then Kallen comes and he says: "Snow is white white snow is pretty". You hear 2 drops of water  and her famous quote  talks about snow and white.  So my conclusion is her name should have white, snow, pretty (snow  white) (white snow)

And I believe it's white snow because I don't think the author will name her snow white.


Why does the use of Haki turn part of your body black?

Luffy's Haki ability is called Busoshoku: Koka. Koka means hardening. Luffy's body is made of rubber. Oda is quite clearly referring to hardened rubber, or vulcanized rubber, which is black. (Compare images below)


She got her weapon from Madoka.

This is a question for Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica writer) at a Nitro+ Q&A Panel

Q: Did Homura get her weapon from Madoka?

   A: The weapon Homura got filled the hole that Madoka left when she couldn't use the bow anymore. [Note: I'm not sure if I got this right, maybe someone who still remembers the details of Madoka's ending properly could fill me in with the details of this]


UPDATE! This was confirmed in chapter 634.

Actually, based on the patterns on his body and face, I'd say that it's actually Gamakichi.

It's consistent with what this page on NarutoWiki says, although I don't know how reliable a source that is.


From One Piece Wikia:

  His strength is also said to be equal to the Chief Warden Magellan. However, since Magellan's work hours are limited by his diarrhea, Shiliew was considered more dangerous. Despite this, Magellan was still able to suppress Shiliew and place him in a cell in Level 6.

So you are right about their strength. But I could imagine that they trapped him, or Magellan asked an Admiral for support.

About their strength: I believe Shiryu has no chance against Magellan, because of his Venom-Venom Fruit. He just has to hit him a few times, or maybe just once to poison him and that would be Shiryu's end.


Why were Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp surprised when they saw the Dragon from Punk Hazard?

Their surprise stems from the fact that the Warship Island Arc is a filler arc. As One Piece wiki says:

  It is the first story arc of the series not to be based on any content from the manga by Eiichiro Oda, making it the first filler arc.

Another reason might be the fact that they had encountered a dragon (if you count it as one) only once before, and didn't expect to meet one on Punk Hazard.


Do Sea Kings know about happenings in the world and how?

The short answer is: as for now (chapter 967), there is no concrete answer to your question in the manga.

If we look a bit more deeply into the chapters and try to interpret the information given, then it gets obvious that some form of communication occurs between Sea Kings and "human beings" (including life forms not necessarily called humans in the manga such as fish-men).

It is being said that the antic weapon Poseidon gets reborn every (few) 100 years in the form of a mermaid princess and will lead the Sea Kings (chapters 648, 650, 967). This stands on the poneglyphs that are at least 800 years old so around 8 people were able to directly communicate with the Sea Kings (but not necessarily doing so) like princess Shirahoshi did.

It was shown that Gol D. Roger and possibly Luffy can hear their voice too (chapter 648 and 967). Though this did not lead to a conversation, they may be able to converse.  Roger was also able to hear other "voices" such as the one of the golden bell in Skypiea/Shandora and Zunesha's in Zou.  Oden and later Luffy and Momonosuke were able to feel respectively hear Zunesha's voice too.  Mononosuke is so far the only one that was shown to talk directly to Zunesha (chapter 821) so he might be able to talk to Sea Kings too.  That's an indirect way the Sea Kings could get informed about the whereabouts of the world.

The Sea Kings know about the history of Poseidon so either a person told them or - if this story actually originates from ancient Sea Kings and not from humans - they must have told someone for this story to be transmitted in the form of poneglyphs among humans.

Finally, Sea Kings go to the surface from time to time, even close to islands (chapters 101 and 319 for example), so they might get information about what happens on land on their own, looking around and bringing these information back to other Sea Kings.  From the level of communication they show in chapter 648, one can safely assume that they are smart enough to understand whatever human activity they can observe.


Basically, Harlock activates the detonators each time and he dies, and logan is replacing him. At this point if you didn't understood, logan is harlock. Although this time, he did not activate the detonators by seeing logan (his younger self) eager for life and merelly having the same dream harlock once had for earth and humanity. At this point, he's steping back in command allowing logan to lead arcadia and the crew. That's why you see 2 of them in the end, and that's why the crew revived and the dark matter came back.

The movie gave you a big hint at the start by saying:
"Far, far in the future... Or perhaps, the distant past..."

Hope it solved the trouble you had with the ending.


Why do some sources prefix "BOFURI" to the English title of "Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu"?

"BōFuri"「防振り」 is the official abbreviation of the title in Japanese.

It is taken from the Japanese title 「痛いのは嫌なので防御力に極振りしたいと思います。」, which reads "Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu".

Related: Is there a name for the abbreviated (usually three syllable) title?


If mastered enough, could Haoshoku Haki destroy a large piece of land, maybe crack an island in half at most? (One Piece)

We have no way to answer that because we have not been told by oda if that is possible and we have not seen anything on that level the closest we have seen is when shanks cracked a part of whitebeard ship.


Does the AGV drug give permanent or temporary superhuman healing habilities?

It is once off, the effect doesn't last very long.
In the 1st light novel when Sumire gives him the drug it is stated that there are five vials, if it didn't wear off then there would have been no need to give him more than a single vial (or even inject him ahead of time, although there is the minor side effect of the drug turning users into Gastrea)

He instantly caught what she threw into his chest. There were five small syringes connected together like bells. Inside each was a red liquid, and a cap was on each needle. "That’s my going away present," she said. "It’s something I made while researching Gastrea. You know what I’m talking about when I say it’s the AGV test drug?"
Kanzaki, Shiden. Black Bullet, Vol. 1: Those Who Would Be Gods (p. 132). Yen Press. Kindle Edition.

.

It was the AGV test drug, a drug Sumire created while studying Gastrea that made a human’s regenerative abilities go through the roof. This dramatic effect could even overcome the inhibiting effect of Varanium. If it weren’t for the side effect that twenty percent of the test subjects became Gastrea, Sumire would be so famous that her name would be in textbooks.
Kanzaki, Shiden. Black Bullet, Vol. 1: Those Who Would Be Gods (p. 180). Yen Press. Kindle Edition.

Below is an extract from the 5th Light novel after Rentaro was injured, which clearly indicate that the quick healing capabilities had long ago worn off, otherwise he would have simply healed on his own several pages before

 The gruesome sight almost made him groan. It was no longer bleeding, but the wound was still a blaze of pain.
 "Hey, how did you stop the blood?"
 "I stuck a hot frying pan against it."

 Kanzaki, Shiden. Black Bullet, Vol. 5 (light novel): Rentaro Satomi, Fugitive (Kindle Locations 2128-2129). Yen Press. Kindle Edition.


Is there enough evidence to conclude Hans is a fake brave?

Spoilers ahead, read if you really want to know. I came to Japan for a business trip last week. So, I went and bought all 6 volumes of Rokka no Yusha and started reading though them while slacking on the job, starting Volume 6 today. Therefore, this time, I will put in a brief explanation of each volume and prove each Brave's innocence one by one, then prove Adlet is guilty and Hans is innocent. However, the assumption is that there is only one fake in the Seven existing now.

Volume 1: Nashetania Arc

  Watch the anime.

Volume 2: Mora's Daughter Arc (Not really called this but I cannot think of a better name)

  In this volume, it is revealed that Tgurneu has held Mora's daughter hostage through getting one of his Kyoma minions which is a parasitic worm to build a nest in Shenilla's chest. Through a letter he forged with the Saint of Medicine, Toulo Maynes's handwriting, he invited Mora to an alley to discuss the conditions for Shenilla's release. Mora brought along the Saint of Words, Marmanna Keynes and also called out to the Saint of Salt, Weylynn Coteau, but she did not make it in time. Without Weylynn, the two saints and Tgurneu started the discussion. In the end, they made deals which cannot be overturned as Marmanna's powers forced them to follow the contract or they die. The important deals are as follow:

  Tgurneu was to never lie to Mora or he would die.
  Tgurneu would command the worm in Shenilla's chest to commit suicide if he was killed or Mora killed one of the other Braves.
  If Mora died before she killed another brave or if Tgurneu did not die at the same time, Shenilla would die.

  These deals forced Mora to undergo severe training and implanting a Volcano crystal in her chest as the last resort to kill Tgurneu. She also trained Rolonia Manchetta, the Saint of Fresh Blood to be able to revive the dead by letting her test her abilities of blood control on Mora as she was implanted with the crystal. Then they tested her abilities to revive someone on a dying old man. This is Mora's Plan B, where she would kill a Brave, then revive him again.

  A lot of things happened and Tgurneu, while using the body of the three-winged Kyoma, told a lie to Mora, saying she was the seventh Brave. Tgurneu then escaped through Mora's barrier in a jellyfish Kyoma in order to hide that his host had died due to the lie. This lie caused Mora to switch to Plan B as she believed she was the seventh. Mora knocked out Fremy and Chamo and his them in the cave in the barrier of the Saint of the Single Flower. She then used her power of echo to call for Adlet and Rolonia to head to the cave and asked Goldof and Hans to chase after Fremy, whom she lied that Fremy ran away leading them to a group of Kyoma under her command sent by Tgurneu.However, Hans went instead of Adlet as he saw through Mora's plans. Then, Hans and Mora fought, Mora slit Hans's throat with his knife, killing him. Then she asked Rolonia to revive him as she had trained her.

  When Hans died, Adlet realised a petal disappeared from his hand, this is the piece of evidence that proves Hans's innocence. Later, Adlet also proved Mora's innocence by proving that Tgurneu was merely using the three-winged Kyoma as a host and only the host died due to the lie. The point is if Mora was fake, the host would have lived. Adlet also revealed Tgurneu was a fig-like Kyouma as his spray had revealed through spraying it on a piece of the fig fruit that the host ate in their encounter when they all entered the Wailing Demon Territory. Furthermore, the author revealed this to us by saying Tgurneu was in a new host in front of the corpse of the three-winged Kyoma.

  Therefore, in this volume, Mora and Hans were proven innocent.

Volume 3: Nashetania's arm loss arc (Also not really called this but I think its funny)

  In this volume, we will prove Goldof and Chamo are real Braves. In this arc, Tgurneu and Dozzu have cooperated in order to kill off Chamo. In truth, it was a plan by Nashetania to use Tgurneu to save themselves from Cargikk, then use the Braves to then save themselves again from Tgurneu. Of course, Tgurneu betrayed them. They did so by getting Nashetania to activate the Blade Gem she implanted in Chamo's stomach though the use of Dozzu during a duel they had a few years back. Goldof's helmet, which is a Sacred Instrument, known as the Helmet of Truth, created by a Saint of Words activated as Nashetania was captured by Tgurneu and held captive in Dark Specialist No. 26's stomach, hidden in a lava area within a 1km radius of Chamo in order to keep the Blade Gem activated. Nashetania got her left arm amputated by Tgurneu in order to attach it to a monkey Kyoma to leak her blood to deceive the Braves into thinking they are chasing the real Nashetania as he tries to buy time until 3 hours passes in order to kill Chamo with the Blade Gem. Goldof hears Nashetania's cries for help and heads to rescue her whilst the other Braves try to kill him as they now think he is possibly the seventh. However, Tgurneu, in a new body, approaches Adlet, Rolonia and Fremy to ask for a truce and cooperate until Nashetania is killed. Of course, they questioned him and tried to kill him after they got information out of him. In this conversation, he claimed that Goldof is not his seventh Brave as his Brave is trying to save Chamo, not Nashetania.

  Not important stuff occured and Goldof found out Nashetania was held captive by Tgurneu after Dozzu hinted to him of No. 26's ability, which is similar to Nashetania's hiding ability. He found her in the lava area and stole a Saint's needle from Adlet and used it to kill No. 26 to save Nashetania during the scuffle with Adlet, Rolonia and Fremy at the lava area.

  Important things to take away:

  Tgurneu made a deal with Dozzu to respectively not harm Nashetania and Fremy.
  Goldof is a real Brave as Tgurneu was toying with him and even told him tons of truth such as the deal Cargikk, Dozzu and him made 200 years ago.
  Chamo is a real brave as both Dozzu and Tgurneu tried to get rid of her and they were clearly trying.

Volume 4: Fremy's mother is an ant arc (I cannot stop laughing about this.)

  Raina Milan, Adlet's best friend is the main character of this arc, though Rolonia is also proven innocent in this arc. Most of the details about this arc can be obtained by reading Raina and Nia Grasta's character biography on the wikia. Therefore, the important point is that Rolonia, Hans and Adlet learnt Fremy was the Black Barren Flower and Adlet kept this fact from the other Braves until the next volume and only revealed the existence of the Sacred Instrument and its functions. Rolonia proved her innocence by really trying to save the corpse soldiers and nearly died due to her naivety. In the final chapter of this volume, it was revealed that Fremy's mother was an ant and was ordered to raise Fremy with love, but it ended up really loving Fremy and continued raising Fremy's dog, waiting for Fremy's return. This contradicts what Fremy said in the first volume but this is cleared up in the fifth volume so I will explain it later. Not much to take away in this volume so I will just move on to Volume 5.

Volume 5: Adlet is fake arc.

  In this volume, they explore the Temple of Fate that was built by Tgurneu, here they discover the functions of the Black Barren Flower through deciphering the Holy Words carved onto the floor around the mummified body of the Saint of the Single Flower. Here is where they discover that the Crest of the seventh was created using the powers of the Saint of the Single Flower and hence would mean killing the seventh may prove disastrous. Fremy also figured out she is the Black Barren Flower by remembering that she went into the temple and saw the Saint of the Single Flower before. This led to a split between the Braves, where Adlet wanted to keep Fremy alive while the rest wanted her dead, even Fremy wished to commit suicide. This caused Adlet to cooperate Dark Specialist No. 30, who also thought Adlet was the seventh as he was the only one trying to protect Fremy, who would drive them all to death by draining the powers of the Crests. He ordered No. 30 to try and kill Fremy with full force and to swallow a Light Gem that has a secondary functions and find a way to get it to the other Braves somehow, like vomiting it out after being hit or get himself cut up. This is due to him telling a lie that he saw a message to not kill Fremy in one of the rooms in the temple. Of course, Hans saw through the lie when Adlet told it and started the chase in the temple a few chapters ago. The point is that Adlet managed to trick Mora, Nashetania, Rolonia and Fremy into believing Hans was the seventh and it was unwise to kill Fremy to stop the Black Barren Flower as it has a more disastrous secondary function if Fremy was killed. Hans and Chamo split from the other as they believed that Adlet was fake. Goldof also believed so but stayed behind to protect Nashetania.

  In the last chapter, a flashback to a chat between the three-winged Kyoma and Tgurneu revealed Adlet was the fake and Tgurneu had the power to incite love in someone. Tgurneu used this power to cause the Saint of the Single Flower to fall in love with him, persuading her to give the seventh Crest to him to be given to Adlet. He also used this power to make Adlet fall in love with Fremy in order to ensure he would protect her at all costs. This is due to his belief of, wait for it "LOVE IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING THERE IS!".

Volume 6: Tgurneu's death arc

  In this arc, Adlet discovers he is fake through Tgurneu taking out a petal from his body. This petal contains a message from the Saint of the Single Flower which is played to Adlet through his Crest despite Tgurneu being 2km away from his location. Only a part of the message was played but it goes like this: "Warrior of a thousands years from now, I hereby bestow you the Seventh Crest to...". Tgurneu only allowed the message to be played up until here. Through this, Adlet himself realised he was the seventh. Fremy also became a hostage of Tgurneu through him activating a tumour implanted in her chest. This tumour is special in that if Tgurneu was killed, Fremy dies too, he activated it from a distance by stabbing himself with his own vine. He also relayed a message to Adlet, saying that unless he killed the other Braves, the one he loves will die. After this, he switched his plans to help Tgurneu kill everyone but Fremy. He also wanted her to return to the Kyoma since the army have been shouting for Fremy to go back to them.

  Chamo and Hans appeared in Chapter 3 to stop the Braves. Here, Hans enacts his plan of pretending he was the seventh to lure out Adlet to negotiate a deal with him as he guessed that Adlet was doing everything to protect Fremy and not really on Tgurneu's side. Chamo was unaware of the plans and Hans also stole Chamo's surveillance Juuma in order to use it later. He wounds Chamo in order to pretend he was the seventh and throws knives at Adlet, these knives had messaged written on them to lure Adlet away from the others using a lie that he can kill Fremy through using Chamo. His plan after disabling Adlet and questioning him is: Adlet will lie to Tgurneu that Hans has been neutralised, then tell Tgurneu a fake plan as a cover for his real plan to kill Tgurneu, this plan was the plan that Adlet came up with in Chapter 1, which was to set the forest on fire and get a cheetah Kyouma to report back to Tgurneu after Dark specialist 24, which is what I would like to call "The Telephone Kyouma" has been eliminated, thus leading the Braves to him. But, instead of killing Tgurneu, now they will capture him, thus preventing Fremy's death due to Tgurneu's death. Then, out of the blue, Tgurneu appeared as Adlet was deciding whether to use Hans's plan, using the Book of truth to discover that Hans was lying about being able to kill Fremy.

  In Chapter 4, we discover that Tgurneu desires, he craves to see people in pain because of love. His lust for this has pushed him to create the perfect pair to see these emotions on people's faces. The pair being: the girl that wishes to be loved, Fremy. The boy that has an unbreakable heart to love her, Adlet. Due to his greed to see these emotions, he did not want to come up with more effective strategies to kill the Braves, but just wanted to see Fremy and Adlet suffer. This chapter really is just Tgurneu sadistically torturing Adlet by telling him the reason that he loves Fremy is because of him loving inducing powers, not out of his own heart. Adlet despairs after hearing this and despite Hans's pleas towards him while Hans himself was getting chased around by 40 Kyouma, he was unresponsive Hans also lost his Juuma that he wanted to release to call for Chamo's help (it got stabbed by Adlet's needle and was then tied up by Tgurneu). Fremy, on the other hand enacted a plan to get rid of the tumour in her chest. She would pretend to betray the Braves and purposely get her heart gouged out by Rolonia so that Dark Specialist 14 would heal her, thus ridding her of the tumour. But of course, 14 knows about the tumour and he believes that it cannot be simply 'healed away' as it integrates with the cellular structure of the host. The twist is, Fremy's mother evolved in a way that allowed her to rid Fremy of the tumour after her heart was regenerated. This was done by always rubbing Fremy's chest when she raised her. Adlet, however, was an idiot, after he heard Fremy's fake betrayal through 24, he believed it and told Tgurneu the real plans. Bright side: he found out Fremy loves him. Dark side: he fell into despair after learning that even Atro Spiker was manipulated by him, to groom Adlet into the strongest man to protect Fremy. This causes Adlet to enter an unresponsive state and want to be killed as he had betrayed everyone.

  Chapter 5, Dark Specialist 13 uses his Poison Gas attack (pokemon reference by me). He produced toxins that was washed into the underground drainage system of the ruins and used his 'little babies' to vaporise the water and unleash the gas onto above ground. Adlet was swallowed by a Hippopotamus Kyouma so that later, Tgurneu can release control over him and get him to kill Fremy, for him to achieve a higher form of ecstasy by looking at the despair that Fremy will display for him. In order to counter the poison gas, Mora collapses the ground below her, killing 13. After regaining his will to fight though the message:"I will definitely make you happy!" engraved on a gunpowder lattice given to him by Fremy, Adlet punched his way out of the Kyouma's stomach and heard Mora's echo message of Fremy has been saved. He looks at Tgurneu and intends to kill Tgurneu after knowing that Fremy will no longer be bound to him. He thought: "Dawn is coming, when the sun rises, One shall stand. One shall fall." That is obviously not what the book said, but it is what it intended to say.

  Chapter 6, Adlet and Hans cooperate and try their best to not get mauled by the Kyouma. Chamo senses something is amiss and discovers one of the message knives Hans threw to Adlet in Chapter 3, and managed to reason that Hans did not really try to kill her when he wounded her. Mora and Goldof are trying to regroup on the battlefield after Mora exhausted herself to kill 13. Rolonia and Nashetania held off the Kyouma while Fremy headed to Adlet. In this battle in some ruins, Adlet, Chamo, Fremy, Hans, Dozzu face off against Tgurneu and Dark Specialist 1, the Kyouma that is made up of forty Kyoumas and 1 leader bird-type Kyouma that Tgurneu inhabited. This Kyouma is the strongest Dark Specialist as it practically allowed Tgurneu to be in 40 places at once and coordinate the perfect attacks. After a game of cat and mouse, Adlet figured out that Tgurneu was controlling all the Kyouma they were battling simultaneously. Thus, he tricked Tgurneu into looking at him by confessing his love to Fremy as he realised that vision is not shared by the Kyouma despite them being controlled by Tgurneu. Adlet charged at Tgurneu but got impaled by Tgurneu. However, he instead spit his blood into 1's mouth, this caused 1 to drop to the ground and roll in pain. Adlet had stabbed himself with the Saint's needle and made his blood poisonous to Kyouma. Fremy shot 1 and forced Tgurneu out of 1. Adlet grabbed Tgurneu while his underlings tried to save him. Adlet was saddened that the thing that groomed him to be the Strongest in the World was such a pitiful existence and said: "I am not your toy as you had claimed! You existed for me. In order for me to meet Fremy, you were let to live by me!" Tgurneu, who believed that love was meant to be trampled by him, desperately wanted to reject the fact that he was defeated by Adlet's love, wanted to mentally wound Adlet and Fremy before Adlet killed him. He used the Book of Truth on himself and said to Fremy: "Your mother truly loved you!". To Adlet he whispered: "Your sister was killed by Fremy.". After Adlet killed Tgurneu, six shots of light flew out of Fremy's crest, one landing each on Chamo, Hans, Mora, Rolonia, Nashetania, Goldof. Only Adlet did not receive this as his seventh crest is very special and did not have its power stolen by the Black Barren Flower, unlike Nashetania's crest, which is a real crest but from the 2nd generation. Adlet passed out after killing Tgurneu and woke up later with the Braves discussing what to do with him as they now have to face Cargikk, who was originally oppressed by Tgurneu and did not attack them. Adlet, released from Tgurneu's control, no longer loved Fremy and returned to the man that wanted revenge on the Kyouma and nothing else.

  Epilogue: Cargikk wanders through the burnt forest that the Braves faced Tgurneu's army. He roared in despair and apologised to his fallen comrades, expressing his regret in not being able to save them. Meanwhile, the mummified body of the Saint of the Single Flower is released from her chains, presumably by her own powers as the chains just came undone without being touched. She teleported to the roof of the Temple of Fate from Volume 5 and get carried away by a bird Kyouma. She got carried to the Majin, a mud puddle. The mud puddle sprouted tentacles and devoured the Kyouma and slowly dragged the Saint of the Single Flower into itself. As it dragged the Saint, it grew beautiful lips and gratefully said Maon, do not worry, Adlet will bring the Seventh crest made for me and save me. Maon is the name of the Saint.

Finally all done, to be honest this is not a very good series. I originally bought and read it just to prove to krikara that Adlet was the fake and Hans was a real Brave. After proving that, I had lost all drive to finish Volume 6. However, to my surprise, Volume 6 was the best of all 6 volumes and I may consider buying Volume 7 when it is released. Overall rating 5/10, passable read.


Anime with a prince and a servant chased by zombies who meet an immortal woman

It is Kurozuka:

  The series begins in 12th century Japan and centers on Kuro, a character based loosely on the legendary Japanese swordsman Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Kuro and his servant, Benkei, meet a beautiful and mysterious woman named Kuromitsu while on the run from Kuro's elder brother, who seeks his life. Kuromitsu and Kuro fall in love, but he soon discovers that she harbors a terrible secret: she is a vampiric immortal. Following an attack by his pursuers, Kuro is badly injured and must imbibe Kuromitsu's blood to save his own life. Kuro is then betrayed and attacked by Benkei, who has been subverted by a shadowy organization called the Red Army, and Kuro's head is severed, which interferes with his transformation into a fully immortal being. [...]


Where do the two GATE animated series arrive with respect to the novel and the manga?

Okay, as for where things line up. As was mentioned in the comments, the Manga skips over things that were in the books and pulls in side stories from later books...and the anime skips over things that were in the manga. But here are a few 'line-up' points. I'm going to leave out exact details of what happens in those respective points so as not to spoil anything, but you should be able to put things together from there.

As it stands, the anime is actually further along in the story than the manga...so as of posting this, if you don't want to spoil the manga, stop watching at Episode 18 (Season 2, Episode 6). So, here are where things line up.

Book 1 -- Anime Episodes 1-10 -- Manga Chapters 1-24

Book 2 -- Anime Episodes 11-17 -- Manga Chapters 25-46(ish)

Book 3 -- Anime Episodes 18-current (should end at Ep 24) -- Manga Chapters 47-Current

There are a total of 10 books out there. Books 1-5 are the "Main Story" and books 6-9 are side stories focusing on a single one of the girls that surround Itami. Book 6 focuses on Pina, 7 on Rory, 8 on Tuka, and 9 on Lelei. Books 1 through 9 occur in chronological order. Book 10 is a collection of side stories that occur at differing points throughout books 1-9. Book 10 included the story that occurs in the manga but not in the anime where...

   Lelei falls ill on the way to Rondel; and Yao, Itami, and Rory end up battling undead and a minotaur to get the cure for her

Book 9 is intended to segue into a 'Season 2' series of books (not yet released) that will return the focus back to Itami to progress the main story.

Assuming you are talking about the true battle with the Fire Dragon...you are presently at the equivalent of Episode 17 (S2, ep5).


Have any successful manga artists picked up their skill without schooling?

From what I could find...

Tite Kubo, creator of Bleach only went to high school and he only started to take art seriously around age 17.
Hiro Mashima, creator of Fairy Tail also didn't have any formal art training.
Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of Kenshin.
Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy.
Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece (who was also a college dropout).

And there are many others but if you check around you can see that anyone doing anything in anime today was largely self taught. Most people only go to school to learn the theory and get a degree or certification. Having a degree makes you more likely to get a job in certain industries. (I suppose)

Truth be told, most of them went to art school but before you jump to assumptions, have you ever heard the term in college, 'you read for your degree'. If you haven't it means that simply going to school isn't enough, you have to go the extra mile and do the work. Artists like Akira Toriyama and Kishimoto were drawing years before that. Granted that might make you feel dismayed when starting but with determination anyone can do it. Like all skills, natural or not, they have to be nurtured.

  ..You have to be confident to draw..

As it relates to everything, not just art and anime, we as humans like to base what we want to do on the success of others but that can only get you so far when starting out. Just try something for yourself, its nice to have influences but If you plan to take it seriously you will have to be original amongst other things. I leave you with this comic.