Are half-blooded Saiyans stronger than pure-blooded Saiyans?

According to Wikia

The offspring generally possesses the strength of the Saiyans and develops abilities far more easily than Earthlings.
Hybrid Saiyans possess the potential to become Super Saiyans but it is unclear how many generations can separate a hybrid  from their Saiyan ancestor before the transformation becomes impossible.
It is unclear if these hybrids possess a naturally greater potential than their Saiyan parents. Gohan repeatedly demonstrated a hidden power that, when harnessed, made him more powerful than even Goku or Vegeta, and when he and Goku trained to battle Cell.
It is unclear if Hybrid Saiyans may become Super Saiyan faster than pure-blooded Saiyans. Gohan become Super Saiyan at  the age of 11 (9 in the manga). Trunks and Goten were able to make the transformation to Super Saiyan at a far younger age than their fathers, at the age of 8 and 7 respectively.
Further, it is unknown if quarter Saiyans, such as Pan, have a lesser potential than half Saiyans or pure-blooded Saiyans. Most importantly, Pan doesn't transform into Super Saiyan, or it's simply because it is harder to transform for females.

According to my knowledge

In the series, either Goku, Gohan or Future Trunks said that half-blooded Saiyans can transform into Super Saiyan earlier than pure-blooded Saiyans because they possess the Earthling's rich emotions and feelings. Since turning into Super Saiyan requires to be highly emotional, this makes half-blooded Saiyans transform at a very young age.
I don't think it's because half-blooded, so it's weaker than pure-blooded. For example, Goku passes down his ascendant gene to Gohan, so Gohan has the potential to surpass Goku. It takes training. In Cell Game Saga, Gohan trains in Hyperbolic Time Chamber together with Goku, and he ultimately surpasses Goku. If he trained non-stop like Goku, he might have become Super Saiyan God.
Obviously, the more generations, the lesser the Saiyan's blood in their body. I don't know if that works with Saiyans, but in real life it does. In the 10th generation, or roughly 300 years later, the Hybrid Saiyans will become 1/1024 Saiyan-1023/1024 Human. As you can see, Hybrid Saiyans are not likely to transform into Super Saiyan, but they still possess enhanced strength.
Maybe someday either Bulma or Bulla invents a device that can release the hidden potential, making it easier to turn into Super Saiyan.


What are the steps involved in making a professional manga?

Interesting question... I searched it up on different websites. This how I found out!

Choosing the theme

Before anything is done the theme or story is chosen. An idea is needed - What is the genre? What should the Manga tell the reader? etc.

All these things have to be done at first before the drawing is starting. If an existing anime is converted into a manga it will be easier - because this information is already there.

The Plot

If the general idea of the manga is decided on, it is time to think about the plot. At this step it is important to ensure that the manga does not run outside of the theme and the dimension is observed.

The main events and the story flow is created. The plot is written in a simple form like:

  Little Red Riding Hood is visiting her grandmother who's living in another village
  She's courted by a wolf along the way
  The wolf ran and reached the grandma's house before Little Red Riding Hood
  The wolf ate the old lady, he put on her dress and lying on the bed, waiting for Little Red Riding Hood's arrival
  Little Red Riding Hood arrived and was being tricked by the wolf
  Wolf is ready to eat Little Red Riding Hood, a woodcutter passed by and rushed in for rescue
  The end

This is a very simple plot. A plot for a professional manga is a bit longer and contains much more information. But this is not everything - You would also write down some notes about where these events are happening. Also little side notes are made to remember everything.

Mostly mangakas also write a number at the left side of the plot and mark the page where this part is drawn.

Character Design

Yahoo~ This is the fun part! The story is finished and now we can concentrate on the character design.

Now you make some examples of your characters. Not only what they looks like - it is very important to write down the characteristics of you character also. Age, size, maybe favourite colour - everything is important information.

The clothing is also significant. One design is chosen, based on the character, and this design has to go through the whole manga.

(Although sometimes the characteristics and clothing of a character could change in the course of the story)

For this part you only use pencil and a eraser (and your head). Some like mechanical pencils and some like traditional pencils, it depends on the mangaka.

Storyboard

After that, you can start with the pages. What will they look like? At the beginning you just draw a rough sketch on a paper to get a idea of how it will look.

Then, you draw everything on the actual paper. First you draw the panels, mostly with a ruler. Then the panels get filled with the characters, speech bubbles and a background (place).

At this moment it is not important to draw clean or anything. The clean drawing is made later. The borderline is important also called the bleed (the small frame at the outside of the paper). It is need for the print you should not draw on it. It is also a little bit of a margin so the page looks better.

The sketch is also made with pencil and eraser. Sometimes also special rulers like a French curve are used.

Inking

This is a hard and sometimes irritating process. If you make a mistake you have to redraw the the page again from the sketch on.

At this part the sketch gets "redrawn" but with a clean line and with - mostly black - ink. The artist is drawing over the pencil line and at the end he erease the sketch. Also a little bit of shading is done.

The so called G-Pen is a sign spring. With it you are able to control the size of the line by pressing it harder or softer down on the paper. This is one of the most used sign spring for mangakas.

If you have a coloured manga you only draw the outline without the shadows and dark hair. Later you paint it with alcohol markers. One of the most well known markers are copic markers.

Here a little picture from a image that is drawn with such markers (Letraset markers).

from deviantart drawn by Mistiqarts

A thing that for both is used is white out. It is used for highlights. This could be in a pen or in a bottle and you draw with a brush.

Computer Editing

After the page is inked it gets scanned and edited on a pc. The artist cleans it up with a Photo-editing program. This is mostly made with a tablet. Wacom is a good brand for such tablets.

When the page is clean, patterns are added. These patterns are added for shadows and explosions. The pattern could be crossed lines or dots or whatever.

The software that is used depends on what the mangaka like. There are many different ones. I would guess that Photoshop is one of the most used.

Keep in mind that today some mangas are only drawn on computers without the inking stage. But the pencil sketching is mostly still done.

If you only draw on a pc there is other software used like Manga Studio. With that you are able to design the whole page including the layout and panels. It also has awesome functions to be able to draw in a perspective.

This was the first page.

Print

After you have finished all pages. The whole manga gets printed and published. I will stop here because the way of creating a manga is ending here.

Pictures and most information from mangakasjournal blog. More information from the Manga Workshop and HubPages.


How does Amagiri Ayato get the nickname Murakumo?

Ayato's nickname "Murakumo" was given by Claudia.

This was revealed in the introduction of Ayato's first Phoenix Tournament match.

From the light novel The Asterisk War, Vol. 3, Ch. 2 - The Phoenix,

  “The first two onstage are Ayato Amagiri, Seidoukan Academy’s number one,
  and Julis-Alexia von Riessfeld, number five! Now, Amagiri only rose to the top a
  few weeks ago in a duel against the former top-ranked student! He is a truly
  brand-new star—so new, in fact, we still don’t have much data on him
  ourselves! Ah, although we did hear his nickname Murakumo came from
  Seidoukan’s student council president, Miss Enfield, herself.”

  (Emphasis added)

However, the reason for the nickname itself was not stated anywhere.


In Gintama, why are the Shinsengumi allowed to have swords?

Gintama's setting is mix of fictional inter-galactic universe (which might be depicting foreigner coming to Japan during that era) referencing to actual Japan historical era specifically Bakumatsu period.

  In 1876, samurai were banned from carrying swords. A standing army was
  created, as was a police force. This "sword hunt" was performed for,
  ostensibly, different reasons, and certainly with different methods
  than those of several centuries earlier. Ironically, perhaps, this
  sword hunt put an end to the class system while the earlier ones were
  intended to deepen the distinctions between commoners and nobles.
  Ultimately, however, the result of this sword hunt was the same as the
  results of its predecessors; the hunt ensured that the only weapons
  were in the hands of the ruling government and not available to
  potential dissenters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_hunt

During this time Shinsengumi is the special police force that are there to protect the government. So it's just the same as now where the military and police may carry gun but commoners will need certificate to be able to carry gun legally.


Is Reiko Sakakibara's aunt really her relative?

Reiko Mikami is the younger sister of Ritsuko Sakakibara (mother of Kouichi), so she really is his relative.

   She is the extra because she died once before, which pretty much proves she existed.

Another proof of her being Kouichi's aunt is

   Rei, the parrot she hates, was bought by her father after her death and was named after her.

You can also see her flashbacks from when she was a student in the manga.


Which animation style is used in Kingdom?

The series uses CGI, notably a combination of 3d objects with 2d illustrations (more so in the Second season then in the first). This has been common practice in the industry for a while (both to improve quality and save on labor). Most production use cel shaders or rotoscoping the model to mask the disconnect between the two dimensions.

A notable examples with less distinctions in recent anime are Berserker from Fate/Zero:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7OYPb3fTP0

and the new Code Geass series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOYerOT_Wpc#t=48


In episode 4 of Golden Time is that the same Nana?

Either inspired by or the same character, it seems. Nothing I'm seeing online gives her a name besides "NANA-sempai" in all capitals like the NANA manga.

Note: Romi Park voices the original Nana. The Nana in Golden Time is voiced by Satomi Satou.


Why is alchemy powered by tectonic plates?

Seriously, the most explanation we ever get is this one panel in chapter 67:

If you're wondering how this manages to do transmutations other than earth based ones, remember, the earth isn't the source of the transmutation itself, just the energy used in it. Just the necessary materials (the equivalent exchange) aren't enough to perform a transmutation. You also need the knowlede of how to rearrange the material to its new form (which is why alchemy isn't more widely used) and the energy to actually do the rearranging.

Amestris' alchemy uses the energy in the ground (previously caused by plate tectonics, currently by... Well, let's not spoil it), while earter alkahestry uses natural chi flows.

How?
Never explaned beyond that one panel, since it's not really important to the story.
Cool action and existential philosophy are.


No, it was implanted back to Obito, it's seen when they warp back out, Obito's left eye is back to be his Mangekyo (the eye the Black Zetsu part of him has).


Why didn't Goku choose Android 18 for the tournament instead of Piccolo?

There are many reasons to the answer of this question:

The primary being that as of now, due to having kept up his training, Piccolo is far stronger than Android 18. Also he has more potential than the Androids. They were created by Dr. Gero with the power level they have, whereas Piccolo became this strong due to his training and fusion with Kami, and Nail.
Another reason is that since Goku is of the caring nature, and knowing the training procedure and the time spent, would not want to interfere with the upbringing of Marron.
It can also be said that since Piccolo is Akira's favorite character (read here), he wouldn't want to leave him behind, as a weakling, when his least favorite character, Vegeta (read here), gets such a power boost as SSB.
He doesn't have as much potential as Gohan, who was recommended by Vegeta to be selected into Beerus' team, but Goku said that he's a scholar now, so let him be. And Gotenks, being stronger than Piccolo, has a time limit.

So it's safe to say that Piccolo is the most appropriate person to be on Beerus' team.


What are the transmutation circles in Fullmetal Alchemist based on, if anything?

This site has a note about "Squaring the circle", describing a utilization of circles:

Attributed to Michael Maier, a German alchemist from the 17th century. That gives you the generalized "simple" transmutation circle:

The symbols used in some of the more complex circles are old alchemic symbols or variations of them. I don't know of a complete list of them but some of them can be seen in Annibal Barlet's works or other symbols from the 17th century. The inscriptions themselves seem to mostly come from George Ripley's 12 Gates.


Firstly, C.C. did not kill the Nun. The Nun's intent was to force C.C. to take her Code, and once C.C.'s Geass matured, attacked her to make her do so, and then killed herself. C.C. receives her scar from the Nun, during that altercation.

Presumably, the Nun tried to draw a Geass symbol, but it was done imperfectly.

Presumably, the scar persists because it was one of C.C.'s features before her death, so it doesn't go away completely.


Are Archer's twin blades a bootstrap paradox?

The Archer-EMIYA summoned by Rin is different from Shirou coming from a different timeline where the results of the Holy Grail war were different; the visual novel notes 3 key differences between them:

Archer believed that he could Kill Shirou, thus erasing him from ever becoming a Counter Guardian. If Archer and Shirou were the same he would have known well that he would lose.
Shirou learns Unlimited Blade Works from Archer during the war (in the Unlimited Blade Works route it's helped by a contract with Rin, while in Heaven's Feel it's helped by Archer's own arm). Archer, however, took ten years of training to set the foundations for Unlimited Blade Works and another ten years to reach to the point of being able to use it.
The Shadow caused an undisclosed amount of destruction during the 5th War Archer was involved in. When he first saw it in Heaven's Feel, he put aside his grudge against Shirou and focused on destroying the Shadow as his duty as a Counter Guardian and also in a belief that he could prevent the same destruction again. It's unknown if Archer knew if the Shadow was Sakura or if his twisted life and Counter Guardian ideals (kill one to save many) made him no longer care if destroying The Shadow would result in Sakura's death.

Now, as for Kanshou and Bakuya, they do exist before Archer and Shirou, and their legend remained. However, what they look like was practically lost with the only known description being that Kanshou had a black tortoise shell pattern and Bakuya had a white wave pattern. Their actual shape was derived by Archer himself based on an assumption that they were cast swords common to the time period.

Now, the Projections Archer and Shirou use are inferior to the actual items. With weapons, they need to emulate the experience of that weapon's legends and its history. Shirou just copying "two swords that he admired from a guy he disliked" would make the swords weak, so given time he would probably research the swords and come to the same assumptions as what Archer did, and Archer would have researched the swords as a means to build up his arsenal in Unlimited Blade Works.

Since the true description on their appearance is somewhat lost, Kanshou and Bakuya would be the perfect test weapons on the concept of creating "existing weapons with a new form". This way, even though emulating the experience for the weapons would still make them weaker, being able to improve on them by changing their form and fixing their inherent weaknesses may help them become just as powerful as the originals. I can back this up as I've read somewhere that Archer has modified the design of Kanshou and Bakuya to suit his style so they are more customized.


Does Mr. Braun still have his secret occupation in the beta world line (1%)?

Yes, Yuugo Tennouji (Mr. Braun) still has his secret job in the Beta world line after 1% divergence is obtained.

I base this on the wiki entry, which lists Steins; Gate 0 as its source. Here is what the Wiki says about this:

   When 1% Divergence is obtained, Yuugo is seen running his shop, having apparently never worked for SERN in this world line. But as revealed by Steins;Gate 0, he still works for SERN in the Beta Worldline. Source: Wiki- Yuugo Tennouji

Edit: The anime adaptation of Zero is greenlit, but there is no broadcast date. I haven't read the Visual Novel.

Wiki page for Zero states,

  The Steins;Gate 0 (シュタインズ・ゲート ゼロ Shutainzu Gēto Zero?) anime is an adaptation of a spin-off visual novel by the same name that is being marketed as a "true sequel" visual novel, as opposed to being a fan disc. However, though Zero is part of the main canon, it is narratively not taking place after the true ending of the original story but technically before said ending. Zero is a side story that explores events from the Beta Attractor Field's future that contribute in making the end of the original story possible.


Unfortunately, the simple and short answer is that we do not know who captured the Han and the 5-tails. It could have been anyone of the Akatsuki, including previous unnamed members.
Aside from knowing that the 5-tails has been captured, the only glimpse of information we have on when Han was possibly captured is mentioned by Deidara Naruto Chapter 266. We cannot say for certain which two Jinchuurki Deidara is mentioning here, as we're only shown a handful of tailed beasts being canonically captured. Assuming Han and the 5-tails was one of these two, then his capture was prior to the start of Shippuden


How did Koro-sensei's body change from humanoid to an octopus-like creature?

While in the laboratory, as the experiments were performed his body slowly became almost completely made of tentacle cells. If you look at other tentacle wielding humans like Itona and Kayano, their limbs don't become tentacles normally. This shows that even while still maintaining a mostly human appearance, most of his body was already tentacles just before his escape (Chapter 138)

When he made his escape, his body lost most of his human characteristics and took on the appearance of being full tentacles (still 138), explaining that the tentacles are influenced by the host's emotions. He underwent a grotesque transformation because he felt that he was giving up his humanity and becoming a monster.

Finally, his transformation to yellow occurred after he escaped in 140, underground. This lovable yellow form was because of his emotional change. He desired to be lovable, and he was happy (as demonstrated by the smile and the yellow coloration). He saw himself not as a master assassin human or a killing machine, but as a happy lovable teacher, so the tentacles shifted to accomodate these thoughts,

So, based on what we know about the tentacles, Korosensei's body has the capability to revert to his human appearing form. The tentacles have been shown to simulate a human body before, and they can take any form. However, this transformation is based on an emotional state. That means the user must feel or believe that they are the human they take the appearance of. Korosensei cannot do this because he no longer sees himself as the man that was the world's greatest assassin.


Why were bodies left behind in the past?

As far as I know, it wasn't explained in the anime (though I'm not that sure since I haven't finished Mitsuganae and I haven't read the manga). But I think, it works like this.. (this is purely from my own deductions since I haven't found anything clear on any sites I searched).

If a person send someone to hell by pulling off the red string from the straw doll Enma provided, that someone will immediately be ferried to hell, thus completely disappearing along with the person's body. After that, the sender will gain a mark on his/her chest signifying that his/her soul will go to hell after he/she dies.

So, if a person is sent to hell, that person will disappear, along with his/her body, leaving nothing at all in earth. If a person was a sender, once he/she dies, his/her soul will go to hell, but his/her body will be left on earth. A sender will only completely disappear if he/she was sent by someone else to hell before he/she dies. That, I think, is how it works, in most episodes.

In Episode 13 Purgatory Girl, the two persons you mentioned who died were Fukumoto's wife who committed suicide and Okochi, Fukumoto's friend whom he sent to hell. Fukumoto's wife wasn't sent to hell, she committed suicide. Okochi however was sent to hell. The man (I forgot the name) who was retelling their story indeed said "Okochi died." in the english subtitles but what he said in japanese was "Okochi-kun ga nakunatta.." literally translating it means Okochi-kun disappeared. The man narrating the story didn't mention anything about Okochi's body being found or something like that. And it was shown that Fukumoto who sent Okochi to hell died and his body was left in front of his final artwork.

However, Season 2 Episode 19: Steamy Hell seems to be an exception. It indeed showed the burnt body of a person who was sent to hell instead of having him completely disappear.

I don't know why it was like that in Steamy Hell (probably a plot hole or something) and there is no definite explanation or answer to your question. It can be just assumed that what I've explained above is the general rule and Steamy Hell is the exception to that rule. Or, there is just no rule whatsoever for that. It probably depends on Enma or her boss (the spider) on whether they will leave the person's body on earth or not.


What song plays at 1:21:01 in the movie "Futari no Hero" ("Two Heroes")?


Is it possbile for a ninja to have larger chakra supply by training?

Yes, the chakra supply for each individual can grow through training. But will be limited by genetics.

Let's take a look at what chakra is.

  Chakra is created when two other forms of energy, known collectively as one's "stamina", are molded together. ~ Naruto-wiki

With the first form being Physical energy (身体エネルギー, shintai enerugī) and the second one being Spiritual energy (精神エネルギー, seishin enerugī)

By training ones Physical body and Mental strength, the chakra pool can be increased.

Genetics however does play a mayor role. As some people, such as Naruto for example, just have a very large pool from the get go. And even with a lot of training, somebody like Ino would never be able to reach the same chakra pool size.

This limit is best observed with Rock Lee, as his genetics limited his growth on Spiritual energy, he tries to overcome it through Physical energy.

It is also possible to indirectly improve one's chakra pool, through Chakra control. It does not directly expand the chakra pool itself, but allows for a user to do more with the same amount of chakra.


Who is this man whose face appears randomly?

He is the mangaka's assistant, Maeda-kun.

From the TVTropes page Manga: Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei:

  Fan Disservice: Some fanservice scenes can be a little awkward when they're censored by the face of Maeda-kun, Koji Kumeta's assistant, who sometimes is even facepalming disapprovingly. Shame on you.


Were the 9 tails statues in Naruto legit?

Actually, I think it was a self test for Naruto. Bee was smart, and even though he believed in Naruto (that bump fist thing) he needed to make sure that Naruto wouldn't use that Tailed Beast power for ill purposes. So, he told Naruto to insert his head; if Naruto had hesitated because of those ill-deeds in his mind, Bee would've instantly stopped his training.


What is the exact difference between Fairy Law and Fairy Glitter?

Fairy Law seems to only works on people who are your enemy and is an area of effect type of spell. This spell seems to draw from the user's internal power.

Fairy Glitter seems to be a single target type of spell. This spell seems to draws power from external sources (sun, stars, moon).


How large was the kaioken Goku used against Lord Slug?

In the movie Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug, after Piccolo transfers his energy to Goku, he goes Kaioken times 100 and defeats Lord Slug.A clip indicating the same.


How does Yukihira Soma get into Totsuki Culinary Academy?

Chapter 4 of the manga, when Nakiri is toeing off against Souma after the welcoming ceremonies and we see the headmaster watching them, we get the following flashback page:


Why do people tend to say the Kara no Kyoukai anime "does not exist"?

Kara no Kyoukai, like other Type-Moon series exist in as part of the same multi-verse. While not in  the same universe as Fate or Tsukihime, they exist as an alternate universe, like Fate/Extra and Fate/kaleid liner. The characters could in theory meet one another... if the circumstances are deemed right.

Canaan, however is not part of the this multiverse.


Was Kayano's recovery affected by Heaven's Spear?

Heaven's Spear was only fired once,

  and Koro-Sensei dodged it.

During that period, the students were not there. It was never fired again.

   After the fight where Kayano was mortally wounded, they killed him after he saved her. The manga basically ends there and there was no more follow-up as it was considered resolved.

The students were never hit with the beam.


What's the meaning of "The coffee isn't coffee coffee"?

There's no pun. She is using "coffee-coffee" as a made-up adjective to describe that the coffee she is drinking doesn't have properties of coffee, and as you can tell from her friend's response, it's not standard Japanese (she could've just said something like "This doesn't taste like coffee."). The subtitle uses the phrase as-is, but something more English could be something like "This isn't very coffee."

The gag of this skit is that Girl B drinks and agrees with the fictional word, despite no description of what it means. I feel this isn't supposed to be funny, but more closer to something the viewers can agree to, like when eating out with friends and trying to describe what you just ate/drank, but cannot find the right words for it (thus just saying something like "coffee-coffee").


Any more HxH stories or episodes out there?

The 2011 series covers roughly chapters 1 to 339 of the manga, as documented in this answer by Frosteeze.

Since then, 21 new chapters have been released (as of september 2016, see here or here).

Update: As The Pickle Tickler mentions, "it has been announced that the manga is getting a continuation in 2016, as stated here."

In addition to "The Last Mission", another anime film was released in 2013, "Phantom Rouge".

Other than that, you have the original 1999 series, a set of 30 OVA episodes, and a 1998 short film, "Jump Super Anime Tour 98". None of them include material not covered by the 2011 series, as far as I know.


Yes, he feels pain, but most of the time he tends to enjoy it especially when he fights the captain. See season 2 episode 2 which was named "Futari no Ken'ka Matsuri".


What is the purpose served by cicadas in anime?

In Japan, cicadas are symbolic of summer, and possibly symbolize reincarnation as well, based on summer being the time when the cicada comes out to sing.[1]

As per their role in anime, according to Wikipedia,

The songs of the cicada are often used in Japanese film and television to indicate the scene is taking place in the summer.
  — Cicada, Wikipedia

I do not remember when exactly they appeared in Steins;Gate (nor the other anime), but I would assume that this is simply a reference to a summertime setting.


My understanding of the phrase is that he means:

People who are killed should remain dead

This is in reference to servants - he doesn't like that servants are resurrected souls. They should remain dead.


He refused to be promoted to Admiral several times.

In Chapter 0 (Strong World), he said that he had the freedom to do what he wants that he needed as a Vice Admiral (being the third highest rank in the Marines) and felt being promoted would just require him to do extra things that he had no interest in.


What is this sci-fi anime from the 90s involving a mute main character and lab experiment by some mad corporation?

I think you are looking for Baoh.

Baoh is originally a manga series by Hirohiko Araki, who is best
known as the creator of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It was serialized
in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1984 to 1985 and was adapted into a
50-minute OVA in 1989.

  Plot Summary: Ikurou Hashizawa was a normal boy until he is captured
  by evil scientists who create the ultimate fighter by attaching a
  parasite, named Baoh, to his brain. The mysterious girl Sumire, who has
  psychic powers, frees him and together they work to avoiding being
  captured by those who want to use their powers.

  BAOH (OAV) - Anime News Network

Amazon.com: Baoh (DVD)


According to this, it is indeed based on a real-life technique:

  This technique is based on a real-life ninja art, kawarimi. It was an
  ancient ninja art revolving around misdirection and the split-second
  timing of a switch between a 'body' and a location, or between two or
  more bodies: A technique utilized by ninja in ancient Japan, involving
  the ninja and anything that can be mistaken for them, (such as a dummy
  or a mannequin).

As you mention, it is used by all levels of characters, because it is one of the basic techniques being taught in the Academy.

Now, for the "it seems to fool even the opponents who are well versed in combat" part. This is also similar to the real word. For example, all boxers use pretty much the same punches, yet some of them are much better than others, meaning they also use those punches better (stronger, faster, etc).

That is why a technique performed by a stronger shinobi would also have a stronger effect, so if the opponents are close in power, they can still use this jutsu to distract each other.


Why did headbutting Gaara make Shukaku disintegrate?

I think Gaara just lose control over the chakra flow when Naruto headbutted him. With that, he couldn't keep the jutsu which showed the body of Shukaku.


What is the distribution of nen type users?

No, this is like DNA, you only know that specialists are the rarest and least common,as they explain in the episode "Desire x and x Promise". But the other categories are random. It is assumed that the enhancers are the most common, but there is nothing that says this with real certainty.


What is that word that sounds like "assent" in No Game No Life?

The only word that closely resembles the word you're asking for is "Aschente". It's pronounced more or less like: "A-shen-te".

It means one pledges to the ten 'rules' made, and placed by the one true god Tet of Disboard. They state it at the start of every game that uses the ten rules.

(I've linked more about the ten pledges and such in the link above)


What manga is this magical girl on a plane from?

This manga is Zai x 10 （[罪×10]【じゅうざい】） by Yamauchi Yasunobu, the same author as Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou.

The first 2 chapters and the latest chapters can be read here on Gangan Online (in Japanese).

The scene is from page 3 of chapter 16 Hijacking Arc 2

Below is my own summary of the first 11 chapters. It contains heavy spoiler that will destroy your viewing experience, especially the comedy, so read with care:

   The story is basically about 10 different girls/ladies either involving in or committing 10 different kinds of crimes, where their special powers are shown. Their special powers originate from their ribbons, which were given to them by a mad scientist. The magical girl, who also gets her power from the mad scientist, decides that the mad scientist is the root of all the evil and beats him up. The mad scientist then reveals that there are other girls whom he had modified before, and their power source is their ribbons. Thence, the magical girl goes on a mission to retrieve all of them.


For anime series without source material, can the plot be changed while airing?

I am assuming you are asking about the type of anime that is made by an animation company where the plot and story details are all made by the writers and directing staff.

The straight answer is Yes. The plot can be altered as the series is airing if it was not completed prior to its airing on television or it was affected by external factors.

A famous example would be Pokemon: Best Wishes. Where the plot was altered when the episodes Team Plasma VS Team Rocket had to be put on hold due to the Tohoku 2011 Earthquake. Originally the two episodes would have been crucial to the plot of Pokemon BW, the earthquake forced the production staff to change the plot of the series in order to avoid airing the episodes that depicted earth-shaking scenes. This is a case where the plot was altered due to external resons.

  This episode was originally scheduled to air in Japan on March 17, 2011, but was postponed, along with the original BW024, indefinitely because of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. As of Team Plasma's Pokémon Power Plot!, its events have been removed from continuity. Unlike the only other skipped episodes in Japan, this two-parter was supposed to be important to the overall storyline instead of being a stand-alone episode.

However, these cases are rare and some of the time, the anime is being manufactured as it is airing, so the plot would likely to be undetermined until just a month or later before airing for really late production crew.

A good example would be Neon Genesis Evangelion, where its plot was changed from having 28 angels to just 18, counting the humans. This was mostly due to Anno Hideaki failing to complete scenarios on time, changing plots due to his new experiences as the show was airing which resulted in the production hell of NGE, and its plot change.

  By episode 13 the series began to deviate significantly from the original story, and the initial script was abandoned. The number of Angels was reduced to 17 instead of the original 28, and the writers changed the story's ending, which had originally described the failure of the Human Instrumentality Project after an Angel attack from the moon. Starting with episode 16, the show changed drastically, discarding the grand narrative concerning salvation for a narrative focusing on the individual characters.


Are the peculiar One Piece laughs based on anything?

In One Piece, the laughters are very unique and can be based on personalities or appearances of the said characters.

By giving them different laughs, IMO, gives a sense of their aura and keeps the character entertaining.


What's the name of the music track that plays at 18:28 in Episode 150 of One Piece?

The song is called Shizuka na Ikari (静かな怒り). It is from the One Piece Original Soundtrack Album "Music and Song Collection 4", track number 16.

You can listen to it here.


In Porco Rosso, why does he inspect every round?

He is likely checking ammunition for oil or grease. Oil or grease on the cartridges can produce excessive chamber pressure leading to personal injury or death and/or damage to parts of the gun.


So far there has not been any sign of a fiery attack or his ability to resist it, besides the hot weather. Which seems to cause him a quite extreme fatigue. He also is said to handle hot food pretty badly.


Neither Haku or Zabuza were "killed" in the sense you describe. In the same episode you referenced, they were both temporarily immobilized:

Haku was immobilized by shielding himself in front of Zabuza when attacking was attempting to strike him with Chidori
Zabuza was immobilized after Kakashi successfully hit him with a Chodori.

As they were immobilized, this gave Ensui Nara an opportunity to hold them with the Shadow Bind technique

  After Zabuza cuts through Haku, Ensui told Santa that Kakashi only caught one enemy and immobilised Haku as he regenerated. When Kakashi successfully connected his shadow to Zabuza's, he immediately immobilised him as well.

In this Youtube video, you can see the shadow line holding two shinobi down. This gave another shinobi to use the Cloth Binding Technique to capture them.


Could Oonoki's Dust release disintegrate the Amaterasu?

I don’t think so.

Here we see two particle styles/dust release colliding. This means that this jutsu just like other jutsu can be interfered with by strong enough jutsu. Examples being Rinnegan absorption and other Particle styles. Meaning that if a jutsu has sufficient energy it can deflect the Particle style, just like when Rasengan and Chidori clash over and over throughout the entire series.

So I propose that the Dust release and Amaterasu will also collide with each other. Amaterasu is an highly destructive and highly powerful technique I think it has sufficient power in it to interfere with the Particle Style and either A) overcome it like it does here.

Or B) cause a big explosion like every other jutsu collision. Here’s some “new” evidence from Boruto Next Gen.

Sarada’s Fireball and Mitsuki’s lightning is enough to stop a Particle style so yeah, Amatersu should be able to stop it too.


Asuna

Theory 1: Kayaba kept his words to prevent Asuna from comitting suicide

Before the fight, Kirito had requested Kayaba to prevent from Asuna taking her own life if he was to die, as Asuna threatened to commit suicide if that happened. Quite possibly, Kayaba had set thing up to ensure that if Asuna went to kill herself, she wouldn't actually die, confident that he would win (as he was supposed to be the last boss on the 100th floor).

Otherwise, in my answer to the question Mysticial linked to, I explain there is a time delay before the NervGear kills Kirito in the real world. Seeing as Asuna had in a way killed herself, Kayaba at that point might have prevented Asuna from dying in the real world and put her in the holding area where she met with Kirito later. After all, Kayaba was show to have a level of honor and fairness and probably wanted to hold up his end of the deal. Remember that he paralyzed everyone so no one would get in the duel between him and Kirito, yet he was surprised to see that Asuna was still able to move.

Theory 2: Sugou had been keeping Asuna alive

Another possibility is Sugou Nobuyuki. Asuna being in the holding area may have been a stroke of luck, and Kayaba didn't notice that after SAO was cleared, Sugou prevented 300 players from waking up for his experiments. However, this runs off the theory that Asuna was not just one of the 300, and she was targeted to be isolated and trapped separately.

This is slightly backed up by 2 points:

Sugou did say he was keeping Asuna alive, rather than her father who owned the company, and were more likely to use it to look after his daughter
The wiki about RECT Progress's background says

  RECT Progress Inc. had set the 1st main goal of ALfheim Online to reach the top of the World Tree, but was later found to be impossible to complete. It was revealed that the World Tree's actual purpose was to hold the remaining 300 prisoners from SAO as test subjects in inhumane experiments.

This would indicate that since the release of ALO, Sugou was waiting for SAO to be cleared.

Kirito

As for how Kirito survived, please refer to my answer here. (Originally, this question only addressed Asuna, and I have only noticed that it's been edited to address Kirito as well).


What is the reference behind "...Gold Sakaki or a Silver Sakaki" that Io mentions?

This is in reference to one of Aesop's Fables, "The Honest Woodman."

  The Greek version of the story tells of a woodcutter who accidentally dropped his axe into a river and, because this was his only means of livelihood, sat down and wept. Taking pity on him, the god Hermes (also known as Mercury) dived into the water and returned with a golden axe. "Was this what you had lost?", Hermes asked, but the woodcutter said it was not, and returned the same answer when a silver axe was brought to the surface. Only when his own tool is produced does he claim it. Impressed by his honesty, the god allows him to keep all three. Hearing of the man's good fortune, an envious neighbor threw his own axe into the river and wailed for its return. When Hermes appeared and offered him a golden axe, the man greedily claimed it but was denied both that and the return of his own axe.


How is Petit Eva: Evangelion@School related to Neon Genesis Evangelion?

It's a parody, not related at all to the original story. It just uses the characters and very, very basic personalities.

Basically, it involves chibi (super-deformed) versions of each of the characters attending a school, including Unit-01, Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and others, with Misato as their teacher and Gendo as the principal. (Sachiel and Kaworu make appearances occasionally as well.) There is little to no voice acting (sans a few laughs and screams and whatnot), and it tells silly short stories about the students' antics. (For example, I believe the first episode involves Shinji sharing his sushi lunch with Eva Unit-01, who then shares a battery with Shinji, who eats it in order to not be rude.)

Petit Eva has a manga as well as a 3D OVA (the first episode of which I talked about above). More information can be found on the Evangelion Wiki.


Is there a Naruto manga that goes over kid Kakashi?

Let me help you.

You can read Kakashi Gaiden which covers his backstory when he was a kid. You can watch 119 to 120 of Naruto Shippuden also. I would suggest if you have and interest in Naruto the series and want to see where the characters started and orignated, watch Naruto and then Shippuden.


Do we ever find out about Ash's dad in Pokemon?

No We don't.

According to Wikia,

  From very minor portions of dialogue, it can be assumed that his father started on a journey from Pallet Town much like Ash. Never formally introduced, the identity of his father has always been under heavy speculation. These speculated characters however, have attained no hard evidence that they are in fact related to Ash in any way. In addition to that, during an interview with a storyboard artist for the Anime series, the artist stated that Ash's father is a man who is on his own Pokémon journey as a Trainer's.

Trivia,

  In The Spell of the Unown's commentary, the producers announced that more about him will be revealed in season 5, which eventually turned out to be untrue.


Where does the title "Plastic Neesan" come from?

The title is just referencing the main character Iroe Genma. Due to her status as the head of the model club and a third year high school student the underclassmen call her Nee-san. It is true that Sakamaki and Okamoto are also main characters but in every synopsis of the manga and anime that I read stated something along the lines of:

  Plastic Nee-san is a very short anime that follows a third-year high school girl who
  likes building plastic models and the wacky conversations she has with her fellow club members.


In the main series Death Parade, Decim had spoken on more than one occasion (episodes 7 and 10) of his respect for people who had lived their lives to the fullest (生を全うした人間を尊敬する). It was obvious that Decim considered the young man to be one such person, but what about the old man? The old man cited the reason he must win and leave that place as being

  I've already decided that I'll eat one [pickle] right before I die

and that was exactly what he was last seen doing right before his death. Compare that to the young man's motivation:

  I want to get out of here and apologize to her.

In other words, the young man wanted to do something differently with his life. What good would there be by sending the old man to be reincarnated, if a large chunk of his life could be summarized in 4 seconds in a boring GIF?

Reaching for the sky becomes blocking a ray of sunshine.

Then there was the thrill of being able to beat people up again, the "been a vegetable for the past few years" fraud, the fishy conversation between the old man and Decim, the hiss at 22 minutes and 26 seconds, and the evil grin as mentioned by Quill. Too many dark things about the old man that were only known to Decim.


Why do the Celestial Spirits work for their wizard?

I didn't manage to find any sources that answer this question exactly, but I'm going to speculate about it a little.

My opinion is that the spirits are forced to appear once the wizard acquires the key. The key, as we know, is usually required to open the gate though which the spirit comes from the spirit world. When the gates are opened in the first time, the wizard and the spirit make an agreement (e.g. on which days should the spirit be summoned).

Now, if you look at how do the spirits react when Lucy calls them, you may notice some interesting things. For example, when she summons Aquarius, Aquarius is often disappointed with Lucy, and shortly returns to the spirit word, sometimes refusing to do what Lucy asks for.

One might ask: why in that case would the spirit even appear? If Aquarius is not in the mood, she could as well not appear at all, rather than be summoned and almost instantly go back (after a few insults towards Lucy, that is). That leads us to an assumption that the spirits can not actually refuse to be summoned, and possessing the key almost equals possessing the spirit's contract (they just have no other options).

Some spirits, however, find benefits in working with the wizards, for example, Taurus enjoys being summoned because that way he can observe Lucy's body, which he admires.

In general, most of the spirits become very loyal to Lucy once she acquires their keys, so that is another argument for the assumption that possessing the key forces the spirit to make the contract and work for the wizard.


Is it proven Gogeta is stronger than Beerus?

No it hasn't been proven Gogeta is stronger than Beerus. The only characters who have been proven to be stronger than Beerus are MUI Goku and Limit Breaker Jiren. Firstly, I believe the only character in the series who has the closes idea of how strong Beerus really is would be Whis. Hence, I would mainly be considering statements made by Whis with reference to Beerus's True Power.Whis had said several times that Goku + Vegeta working together would allow them to go toe to toe with Beerus. By Working together, Whis implies fusion. This could mean, Gogeta or Vegito could be potentially strong enough to defeat Beerus or be very relative to him in terms of power at the very least.Another important factor to consider is the time limit for fusion. Considering how powerful Beerus is, the fusion might perhaps not last long enough for Gogeta / Vegito to defeat Beerus.Whis makes another statement in the anime saying that Mastering Ultra Instinct would result in Goku/ Vegeta surpassing Beerus. Whis also says this to Vegeta when he fights Beerus in the manga and loses the fight. This more or less establishes the fact that MUI Goku would be stronger than Beerus.Now with regard to statements made by a few other characters, During the battle with Zamasu, it wasn't Whis but Shin who says that Vegito might be stronger than Beerus. However, I believe the show has demonstrated enough reasons why we shouldn't take Shin's word seriously. For starters, Shin thought SSJG Goku was strong enough to defeat Beerus, he thought SSJB Vegeta was defeating Jiren, Vegeta would struggle against Pui Pui, had no clue of what Ultra Instinct was. The character has been displayed as someone who is very inexperienced and often jumps into conclusions and is in awe of what happens afterwards or is usually corrected or mocked by the Elder Kai about the same. The second comment was made by Goku comparing Broly to Beerus and yes, if that were the case, Beerus would be significantly weaker than a Gogeta or Vegito. While Goku has a much more better notion of how strong an opponent is in comparison to Shin, I believe even he might not know the true extent of Beerus's power. For example, Goku was confident he'd be able to defeat Beerus after attaining the SSJG transformation the first time around, that he was using only 80% of his power(Despite Beerus being significantly more powerful in comparison to that). Even in the case of Jiren, the more and more Jiren began to reveal his true power, Goku was in shock. For example, in Episode 123, when Jiren revealed a fraction of his true power, Goku was in such extreme shock that he dropped from his Super Saiyan Blue form to his base form. Even in case of Frieza, Goku had no idea Frieza was hiding a level of power that high until Frieza revealed his Golden Form to GokuSo in the end, it comes down to whether one thinks Gogeta Blue is as strong as MUI Goku and Limit Breaker Jiren. There is an obvious disagreement between a lot of the fanbase with regard to this and there aren't any statements made in the movie or in Dragon Ball Super to help establish this. However, based on Dragon Ball Heroes at least, MUI Goku was indicated to be more powerful and it being the highest level of power of the MC, it does seem to make sense to me. However, that is up to you to decide.


Can Naruto go into Sage Mode repeatedly by using idle shadow clones?

Every time shadow clones are created, the user's chakra is divided equally among the clones. If a clone creates further shadow clones, that clone's chakra would be evenly distributed among the newly created clones.

According to what Frog Sage Fukusaku explained to Naruto, to enter into sage mode, the user needs to gather natural energy while balancing it with one's chakra. It is difficult to maintain that balance with lower chakra. The user turns into a frog if the natural energy overwhelms the user's chakra. Moreover, if any of the shadow clones turns into a frog, the original user too turns into a frog.

Hence, repeatedly making shadow clones to go into sage mode increases the risk of turning into a frog, and hence, Naruto cannot use this trick practically.


Why is there a censoring sound in episode 6?

The Japanese text there is ま★こ ma*ko, which (to someone who knows Japanese) is obviously a censored form of まんこ manko, which does refer to the female genitalia, as Sukeibe points out.

The key insight here is that manko is in fact vulgar slang for the female genitalia, which is why you will see it censored. The translation "nether regions" fails to capture this vulgarity, I suppose because it's constrained by the rules of word chain (can you think of a vulgar term for the female genitalia that begins with "n" and ends with "s"? I can't...). If a technical/medical term for the female genitalia were used instead (e.g. 女性器 joseiki lit. "female sex organ"), it would probably not have been censored.


Why doesn't Ichigo protect himself from Aizen's power?

Bleach has its share of rather blatant and gaping plot holes, but here are two logical reasons to this question from my perspective:

First Ichigo obliviously plans to finish off Aizen in a one hit kill as he feels that it would be his best chance of winning and goes on with it. He first attempts this in (Refer chapter 388) when Aizen is busy fighting Shinji and the others Ichigo tears into the world with his thoughts racing to cut him down stating that's the only way to defeat him without seeing Aizen's shikai. The initial attack to his blindspot is blocked with kido as Aizen is well aware of being targeted at the back of the neck and Ichigo reveals that he made a split second bad decision without thinking it through.

In fact it momentarily appears to have paid off where he manages to land a slash through Aizen's neck just as Aizen is escaping from Yamamoto Genryusai's last attack (end of which he lost his arm). Refer manga chapter 397 where this happens and initially the timing and execution of the attack seems exemplary, only being undone by Aizen's new found powers after merging with the hogyoku. It could be summarized that Ichigo relied on his one hit kill plan way too much and in the thick of things did not device a plan B in case it failed.
As to why Aizen did not attempt to lure Ichigo into illusion with his Kyoka Suigetsu's release can be attributed to various factors, but primarily

Aizen wanted to be defeated. Aizen's inner (perhaps suicidal) tendency to find a person who could comprehensively defeat him which Ichigo attributes to Aizen's loneliness caused by his incredible power where he was unable to find someone equally powerful as himself. Refer manga chapter 422 where Ichigo discusses with Urahara how he felt Aizen's loneliness on coming to contact with him when Ichigo was fighting on the same level as Aizen.
Another aspect like mentioned in the previous answer is Aizen's visible arrogant and megalomaniac like tendency shortly displayed after he fuses with the hoguoku. He feels that none of the Shinigami or Vizards are a visible threat and in many cases does not even bother to dodge enemy attacks during the battle like in the instance where he fends off Kisuke and Yoroichi.


Where does all the chakra of Edo Tensei shinobi come from?

There is a limited amount of chakra, however, chakra replenishes so fast making it seemingly limitless. Similarly, body regeneration is also fast in Edo Tensei form.

Everyone naturally regenerates chakra. Edo Tensei people regenerate at a faster rate. We know chakra is limited, however, because the Mizukage was drained and tired after using his infinite explosion jutsu - Joki Boi


What's the OST that plays in the last episode of season 3?

Momo Yaoyorozu

From Disc 2 of the Season 3 OST. You can hear it on YouTube here.


In Reincarnated as a Slime, when Myulan is exploring Rimiru city, why did a dragonewt stop to stare at her?

Well about that those races of dragonewt's can sense powers if they focused on they're surroundings so he just found that there was a majin and was thinking maybe that she might be related to the other majin's in the vincity and he saw her confused but not as a threat that would destroy the magic in the surrounding.
For example take the dragonewts leader's sister she wanted to join as an assassin with a majin.
So they might be used to they're vibe and saw her with the same vibe.


Do Noragami anime and manga share the same story line?

Do Noragami anime and manga follow the same storyline?

Yes, mostly.

Noragami Ep 1-9 and beginning of 10 are canon.
Noragami Aragoto Ep 1-6 are canon.

Noragami covered around the first 3 volumes of the manga, which covers the introduction of the 3 main characters.

Where should I start to read after episode 12 of Noragami?

Considering Noragami covers roughly 3 volumes, you could start at chapter 12, the first chapter of volume 4.

The full canon view/reading order as told by blessedyiki's tumblr

Noragami (Ep 1-9 and beginning of 10)
Noragami Aragoto (Ep 1-6 (you might want to read Chapter 23 for the full Kazuma/Ma clan backstory)
Noragami Aragoto Episode 7 right until the opening
Noragami OVA 2
Noragami OVA 1
Noragami Aragoto Episodes 7-13
Chapter 40
Noragami Aragoto OVA 2.


Why is it that everyone brings melons when they are visiting a character in the hospital?

The origin of this is actually in real life.

In Japan, melons are considered to be a rather expensive fruit, and after often given as gifts, specifically when visiting someone in a hospital. I'm not really sure how this particular notion was started, just that it is a common thing nowadays.

In fact, here is a 21,000-yen (~$210) melon:

It would seem that the anime and manga that feature this idea are simply drawing from this part of Japanese culture.


It was never revealed but Senor Pink hinted that she passed away. From One Piece chapter 775 Putting all my love into Lucian

  Senor Pink : The sky isn't looking great today but.. if I go higher, I just might be able to meet Lucian (Russian)

Unless Russian is on Sky Island it sounds like she passed away


Which manga chapter of Natsume Yuujinchou has a mask youkai that possesses people?

Manga chapter 53-54. Anime season 5 (Natsume Yuujinchou Go) episode 4.


What's the name of the song that plays on Naruto episode 172 at 7:28?

Is this the scene where Isarabi attacks Naruto?

It's an unreleased track. There's an unofficial version here, titled "Predicament".


Michiru is a fake blonde, ok. But what about Sachi and Amane's hair colors?

In general blonde hair is thought to be foreign in Japan, Most foreign characters/exchange students usually have stereotypically bright blue eyes and blonde hair.

Young people who dye their hair blonde are generally attempts to be 'cool'/rebelious, and are often delinquents. For this reason it is somewhat meaningful that a character has dyed their hair blonde, as it is a thing that happens occasionally in Japan, whereas other colours are not so daring/meaningful.

See Why are many anime characters blond?

As for the more 'obscure' shades of hair, pink and other hair colours were originally introduced into anime as an easy way to distinguish characters without adding much more detail.

I haven't watched le fruit de la grisaia, but I imagine that it's probably a result of these two occurrences. I have seen Clannad however , and I can confirm Sunohara's hair is dyed blonde as an attempt to be cool (however misguided that attempt may be :P)


Has the popularization of streaming anime changed the anime industry?

There's a really interesting article on Anime News Network that's part of a 3 part feature about the anime economy written in March 2012. There's some interesting notes about streaming in it.

There was a drop-off in DVD/BD sales because in most places outside of Japan, buying the physical media is the only way to watch something for the first time, since the majority of these shows don't air on TV like they do in Japan. Most people who buy physical media usually don't re-watch shows, so once on-demand options started popping up (in the U.S. ADV's Anime Network, which still runs as "The Anime Network"). Fewer people were buying physical media, even in Japan:

  The people buying anime DVDs are now mostly the ones looking to buy a specific show. Now that the logjam of liquidated stuff from 2007 has cleared and several shows from the past have gone out of print, fans are reminded that there's value in having a permanent copy of your own. Publishers are finding ways to boost this collector's value, with books and nice packaging, and ever so slightly bump their prices up. Most people watch the show for free, but the few thousand people who love it enough to collect make the whole venture profitable.

So the trend is leaning away from DVDs and BDs. It's something that's helped by services which provide streaming and on-demand access to anime. As far as the industry changes to make this happen:

  When it came to the actual logistics of delivering the final product, things worked pretty much the same way in 2006 as it did in 1986: the lab assembled the final show onto a broadcast quality videotape. That went to the TV network, and then the lab cut out all the commercial breaks and sent it the duplication plant for home video. And then, when all that was done, the licensor made up some presentation materials and a crappy looking VHS screener copy for overseas publishers to peruse. If they wanted it, the licensor negotiated a deal with them, signed a contract, and then called up the lab again. The lab made a copy of the masters and FedEx-ed them to the publisher. The end. This system was reliable, but extremely expensive and slow -- two things that online streaming, with its razor thin margins and gotta-have-it-now delivery schedule, make completely unacceptable. With episodes sometimes being finished only hours before they air, the only way to do a simulcast is to send the finished video to the streaming service digitally, as a file. But adjusting to a new, all-digital way of doing things has been a steep learning curve for licensors... and an expensive one.

So these shows are being licensed and streamed with ads. The ad money wasn't enough for the licensors so they demaneded a "minimum guarantee"

  And so, licensors have asked those companies to put their money where their mouth is. Now, each anime costs a licensing fee (or "Minimum Guarantee") of $1-2,000 per episode for simulcast internet streaming rights. Which is still not much, but at least it's enough to ensure that the whole endeavor will contribute SOMETHING to the show's profitability.Some licensors are still not convinced simulcasting is worth it. Some don't want to split up ownership of rights -- they don't want to have to deal with Crunchyroll AND Section23 AND Hulu, they want a single company to act as custodian for every line of business for a show, and if that means they miss their chance to simulcast, well, it's clearly not that big of a loss. Other licensors just aren't prepared for the mountain of approvals and other work that suddenly has to be done WHILE the show airs.

In comes subscriptions:

  The $6 or $7 per month that sites like Crunchyroll charge each user every month is way, way more than any viewer can earn for the site by sitting through ads. TV Tokyo recently announced that Crunchyroll had nearly 70,000 paid subscribers. If that number is accurate, that means, at $6.95 per user, that comes to $486,500 in revenue a month -- more than enough to keep the lights on and pay for the less popular shows. Clearly they're not getting rich on that kind of revenue, but if that's truly the sort of numbers they're doing (they wouldn't confirm for us), they're doing OK.Crunchyroll isn't alone in going this route. Hulu is trying to push more of their user base towards their $7-per-month Hulu Plus service, which adds access to shows on game consoles, networked Blu-ray players and smartphones. In Europe, France's Kaze Anime has slowly been developing their subscription service.

As far as how publishers gauge which shows to pick up, it's a little different than before:

  There are a few big problems yet to be sorted out. The first is with discovery: how do you get the non-obsessive fans, the ones who aren't up on each new anime season, to watch these shows? With a dedicated anime-only site like Crunchyroll or Funimation.com, it's pretty hard. The only people going to those sites are the ones who already know what anime is, and are actively seeking it out. Hulu and Netflix are great storefronts to entice new fans, but they're still not ideal marketing tools.Actually, it's almost impossible to do any sort of marketing for a simulcast at all. Since the agreements to simulcast a show aren't hammered out until the week the show starts -- or later -- how does a company start to generate hype for their new product? Unless an anime fan is REALLY engaged -- the sort of fan that reads ANN every day and stays on top of every new release -- a show can slip by completely undetected.

The old way of licensing, there's a time to see how well a show does in Japan, the ratings, some demographic information, and even more recently, a publisher can look at hype within its market about a show that's currently airing in Japan. But when it comes to simulcasting and streaming, you don't have that luxury, so it's a lot harder to pick properties to attempt to license. Different U.S. publishers treat this differently, between Crunchyroll, Sentai, Funimation, etc.

Crunchyroll doesn't have means to distribute and produce physical media like Funimation does, while Funimation often relies on other streaming services to handle it's licenses for streaming. The major change here is that it's harder to gauge which shows to license because it's done before the show even airs in Japan. The upside is that the Japanese property holders don't have the ratings to hold over the heads of potential licenses.

The other thing that article notes is that this is all a work in progress and it's still a very new paradigm for the Japanese studios and rights holders.


What's the song when Bishamon fights in episodes 11 & 12 of Aragoto?

Assuming you mean the music that starts at about 18:18 in episode 11 and 16:25 in episode 12, that is "Distortion" from the Noragami Aragoto OST (disc 1, track 4). Here is a 20-second extract from the beginning of the track.


How old is Winry in Fullmetal Alchemist?

You can check the FMA Wikia

Her year of birth is mentioned as 1899, which is the same as Edward's, although their exact birthdays are never stated. She is 15-16 years old during the course of the manga/anime, and around 18 post-timeskip.

MyAnimeList lists her exact birthday as June 9th, 1899. However, I don't know if there's any credible source for that.


Is is possible that a shooting range is the whole court?

His shooting range isn't the entire court. I haven't watched the anime, but I have read the latest manga and his consistent shooting range is around half court. His statement is probably a bluff in this case.

No one can frequently hit shots from full or half court in basketball, it is simply too far. Most people throw the ball from those distances, because shooting doesn't have enough power to go that far. And throwing the ball means you are just lunging it, without aiming.

EDIT:

If you can hit a shot from full court range, you dont even have to pass in the ball. You can just throw it from there.


You can kill people using photo or video. But getting L picture is not that easy. (Pictures taken from chapter 30)

Later Misa met Light and L together and she knew L real name. Light could ask Misa to kill him or ask her his real name but Misa was arrested short after they parted. But even if Light know his real name he didn't want to do that immediately because Light was very cautious about killing L. (Pictures taken from chapter 19)

He was in deep thought about it but he conclude he couldn't kill L without getting suspected by the police. (click to enlarge picture)

Later when he learn that he's the real L. He still didn't want to kill him and just want to take it slow and find out about everything before taking any action.


What is happening in the "Depth of Field" specials?

In Depth of Field: Phase 6, it is revealed that Rikka and Dekomori are engaged in some sort of role-play thing in the clubroom. They seem to be pretending that the cardboard boxes they wear are mechas.

The preceding episodes of Depth of Field depict the way they imagine their role-play fight to take place.


How does a shadow clone identify itself as shadow clone?

At the beginning of the series, Naruto's Shadow Clones did confuse and fight amongst themselves about who's the original one (before realising that all they had to do was to release the jutsu to figure it out).

I'm guessing that as you get more proficient in the technique, both you and the clones begin to recognize who they are.

  In Naruto's most recent case, the original has Gudoudama behind him, while the clones do not.


I finally managed to dig up the track that I wanted after I listened to a number of Penguindrum-related uploads on SoundCloud; it was listed as "Karei. Sora No Ana Bunshitsu". From some more searching, it appears that this can be found on the bonus CD of vol. 3 of the Blu-Ray. This all indicates that this was probably an original composition.

I'm unfortunately still having trouble figuring out what the original Japanese name of this track is; English websites so-far have only given romaji transcriptions of the title, and searches for "そらのあなぶんしつ" thus far have not yielded any particularly promising results. (It does not help that I don't really know Japanese.)


Who is the woman who talks to young Tooru Amuro/Rei Furuya?

You are talking about episode 771 of the anime (chapter 892 in the manga) The woman was Elena Miyano, the mother of  Shiho Miyano (Ai Haibara) who created the first prototipes of the APTX-4869 for the BO.

Acording to DC world wiki:

  While the true relationship between them has not been revealed yet, We know that they knew each other when Rei was younger. Rei got into many fights and it seems that Elena would bandage him up after the fights. However, one day, Elena had to move and could no longer bandage

Amuro's real name is Rei Furuya and "Rei” (零) means “zero” and that is possibly the reason why he is called zero.


An anime with a female main character with a spiral on her forehead

Could it be Earth Maiden Arjuna (2001)? I have never seen it, but it seems to deal with Earth, so there could be a "universe" theme. There is a modern setting. There is a female protagonist, and the title is based on the her name, Ariyoshi Juna. She has a magatama on her forehead which I think could be mistaken for a spiral.

She also has a superhero form, if that is familiar.

Synopsis from AnimeNfo:

  When Ariyoshi Juna has a bad accident, her spirit turns to light and rises up out of her body into the night sky where she gets a glimpse of Earth a few months in the future. What she sees is the Earth on the brink of total destruction, ruled by the merciless demon forces called the Raajas. Then Chris Hawken hands Juna a power stone and tells her to use it to save the Earth. The power stone gives her the ability to call up an aura suit, that activates and enhances a person's dormant special powers.


What would Light Turner's "Conditional" Entry in the Death Note actually do with the canon rules

If the actual rules from the manga/anime were to be applied, then Mia's death would be certain once her name was written down in the notebook. Looking from the rules from the Death Note wiki,

  The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
  If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
  If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
  After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

So, you can only add the causes and conditions of the death of the person. Essentially, this means you can alter the way a person dies, but not whether a person dies.

If the owner of the Death Note decides to write in a condition anyway, then one of two scenarios might happen:

The condition is ignored entirely and the victim simply dies of a heart attack.
If some part of the conditional clause may be used as a cause or condition for the death of the victim, then it will be applied (provided it is physically possible).

As an example, if Light wrote the following in his Death Note,

  Mia Sutton.
  If she takes the book, she commits suicide by jumping out of the Ferris Wheel.

According to scenario 1, Mia Sutton dies to a heart attack. According to scenario 2, Mia Sutton dies by jumping out of the Ferris Wheel (which is physically possible, since she was in a Ferris Wheel in that scene). I'm not entirely sure which scenario will occur, but I personally lean towards the second one.

As a side note, I actually caught the exact wording Light used for Mia's Sutton. According to the transcript from the same website you posted,

  Mia Sutton is killed when she accepts the Death Note from her
  boyfriend. As the Northwest Ferris Wheel mysteriously collapses... she
  pulls the page with my name on it from the note. And it is ultimately
  consumed by fire. Although her boyfriend lands safely in the water... Mia strikes the shoreline... dying instantly.

Notice Light used the word "when" and not "if" in the conditions for Mia's death, which presumably means he had every intention to kill her. This suggests that the Netflix version also did not allow the use of conditional clauses regarding a person's death.


Since emotions are best expressed through the eyes, they are usually made visible even if the character has bangs or wear glasses. There are exceptions, when the author wants to give the character a mysterious aura, or to hide the character's emotion momentarily. However, the eyes are usually shown regardless when it is necessary to clearly portray the determination of the character.

Being able to see the eyes of a character is important - but why put the hair there in the first place? This is to distinguish characters from each other. Disallowing hair in front of the face limits the amount of hairstyles that can be used. Also, the characters generally face the camera, meaning that they need to be distinguishable from the front too.

Generally, if the hair isn't completely obstructing the eye or eyebrows, it would be fine to leave out the detail on the eye, but it's become the norm in anime so animators probably don't think twice about doing it. It also saves having to worry about the eye looking odd when partially hidden.

In a forum post here, one user suggests an alternative way of drawing such cases, in which the hair gradually becomes translucent as it nears the eyes, so the characters expressions can be seen more naturally.

No Transparency
Transparency
Gradual Translucency


How much did the Highschool DxD anime adapt the light novel?

Season 1: Volumes 1 and 2

Season 2: Volumes 3 and 4

Season 3 episodes 1-9: Volumes 5,6 and 7

Season 3 episodes 10-12: Original

Ovas and Specials: Half of volume 8 and original

The most likely future:

Season 4: Volumes 9 and 10. The way these 2 volumes work it should be this way

I watched the anime and read the light novels.

About your second question yes, it was very well adapted. Season 3 was a mess though so I'd advise you to read it. Just for Koneko it's worth it. It's nice having her fall for Issei and enter mating season. Koneko in the heat is the best Koneko :)


Why was Guts called the Black Swordsman?

Guts was known as the "Swordsman clad in black", which was eventually shortened to "Black Swordsman".

Guts before he got his Berserk Armor.

Guts with his Berserk Armor.

His armor was always black, but the most relevant item was his black cape, which always covered his whole body in black when he wasn't fighting.


Where was Araragi when he helped Tsubasa Tiger?

You didn't miss anything; the Second Season anime never shows us what happened to Koyomi during the time period of Tsubasa Tiger after the end of Shinobu Time.
In the novels, though, there is a Third Season of stories which take place during the same timeframe as the Second Season. The Third Season hasn't been adapted to anime yet, although it may well be in the future, since they made Tsukimonogatari against my expectations.
Suruga Devil is chronologically the last story in the Monogatari series, but the Third Season explains what Ougi's deal is and shows us what was going on behind the scenes during the Second Season, including what happened to Koyomi after Shinobu Time. I haven't read the Third Season novels, but according to the Bakemonogatari wikia, the story Shinobu Mail from Owarimonogatari Volume 2 covers this period. It takes place between Shinobu Time (which was immediately after Mayoi Jiangshi, and also overlapped with Tsubasa Tiger) and Ougi Formula, the first story of Owarimonogatari. You can read a thorough summary of Shinobu Mail on the wikia; I'll just summarize how it bridges the gap between Shinobu Time and the end of Tsubasa Tiger.

 In return for her help during Shinobu Time, Gaen Izuko asks Koyomi to help her deal with an ancient kaii which seems to have a connection to Shinobu. This is why the vampire hunter Episode was in town to meet Tsubasa on the street during Tsubasa Tiger: he was hired by Izuko to help with this job. Izuko also has Koyomi summon Suruga. Suruga meets Koyomi at Eikou Cram School. They have a confrontation with the ancient kaii, which ends when Kako sets fire to the building. Shinobu and Black Hanekawa arrived during Tsubasa Tiger just in time to see the building burning. Shinobu and Black Hanekawa fight a strange creature in the park, after which they get separated. Koyomi and Suruga meet up with Shinobu. It turns out that the ancient kaii in samurai armor is Shinobu's first servant, mentioned in Kizumonogatari. After a climactic confrontation with him, Koyomi sets off with Kokorowatari to save Tsubasa from Kako, leading to the end of Tsubasa Tiger.

So the short answer is that Koyomi was off on a job for Izuko between Shinobu Time and the final scene of Tsubasa Tiger. He was beat up when he rescued Tsubasa because he'd just finished with another battle.


This is a pun using her name (Nico) and the onomatopoeia for "smiling" or ニコニコ(niko niko)
This is why part of the longer line you have included has Egao todokeru/"delivering a smile".

Edit:
After contemplating a bit longer about this, it dawned upon me that another aspect that ties into the smile part of the phrase is the nii ending. In English when taking a picture, photographers usually use a phrase like "Say cheese!", or in my native tongue, "Say whiskey!". They emphasize the ii sound of ee and y to shape the mouth into a smile.

In Japanese, はい、チーズ(Hai, cheese) is standard as well, but to a lesser extent １+１は？ is also used, the answer being 2, or に(Ni). So the nii part also evokes a smile when saying it out loud.


The most prominent example that comes to mind is Pokémon, which has used Ikue Ohtani's voice for Pikachu for almost the entire series.


Why did Rossiu forced the ones who lived underground to come up to the surface?

I would have to check, but I seem to remember that the trigger was 1 million total - it does not matter whether the humans are on the surface or underground, they still count. Keeping humans underground, and under constant attacks from beastmen, had the effect of capping that number.

And as far as I remember, the thinking was that people underground hampered the census efforts, thus preventing Rossiu from estimating correctly how far they were from the limit.


Why is it that almost every anime I watch is about School kids?

My feeling is that Hakase's answer is half-correct. I agree that characters are generally chosen so that the target audience can relate to them. However, I disagree that means that they're necessarily the same age as the target audience. That is to say, people don't necessarily relate best (as a group) to people who are of the same age as them. What people do relate well to are characters who are in a situation that is at least somewhat similar to what they have experienced, but this generally only means that the characters need to be younger than the target audience, not the same age.

To understand this in more depth, we need to know a bit about anime/manga demographics. You may already know this, but I'll write it here for completeness. There are five key demographic groups. The youngest group is called "kodomo", literally meaning "child". The target age range is something like 3-7 years old. It is not typically segregated by gender. The most famous show targeting this group is probably Doraemon, but there are actually a large number of shows aimed at this group. You probably don't watch many of them, though, so I'll ignore it. Next, there are shounen and shoujo, for (respectively) boys and girls. These target school-age children in the range of 8-17 years old or so. Most of the most famous anime are shounen, including Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto. There are some famous shoujo series like Sailor Moon, but fewer than shounen. Above that, there are the seinen and josei groups, targeting (respectively) men and women in the 18-34 age range. By volume, seinen is probably the largest demographic group, but certainly not by viewership. You can probably find more information here in a number of other questions about the relative sizes of these and what counts as what. All the ages quoted are approximate, but they're at least moderately accurate.

These demographic groups aren't as flexible as you might think. Most anime is pigeonholed into one of them. Children's anime typically airs during the daytime and is sponsored by the station directly. Most of these aim to be at least marginally educational. Shounen and shoujo anime mostly airs during primetime hours or in the mornings, when they aren't at school. The successful ones are able to secure some external sponsorship and rely on this as their primary source of revenue. Adult anime usually airs in late night time slots (or on special anime stations), when broadcast restrictions are lessened and stations are willing to sell out their airtime. These are usually not sponsored in any way, and actually have to buy their airtime. They rely on merchandise sales, including DVDs and increased manga sales, to break even, and hence are forced into targeting consumers with enough money to purchase the expensive DVDs (typically approximately 6000 - 8000 yen for 2 or 3 episodes) and merchandise. While it's possible for a show to air at a different time than this would indicate (e.g. shounen shows airing in late night slots), it is much harder for various reasons, so it's not that common.

For now, I'll restrict to the male audiences, which are significantly larger than their female counterparts (and with which I have significantly more experience). Among shounen shows, it's actually rather easy to find examples where school is nowhere to be found or irrelevant. All the famous examples I listed above don't have school settings. On the other hand, many seinen shows are set in schools. My personal feeling is that it's probably more common for seinen shows than shounen to be set in a school. I don't claim to have anything like a representative sample, and it may be that the two rates are actually about equal. But even still, the fact that any seinen shows are set in schools casts doubt on the theory that the characters are meant to be the same age as the viewers, since very few members of the seinen target audience are still in high school (and none would be in middle school or lower). By my very cursory counting of my own (not at all representative list), of 16 seinen shows I'm watching this season 11 are set at least partially in schools, which is far more than can be explained by the age of the target audience alone.

Instead, I think the driving force here is nostalgia. Shounen shows generally try to appeal to younger kids desire to be older and more mature (for which they may use physical strength as a proxy). Hence you see a lot of "adult" characters. By contrast, seinen shows aim to appeal to the desire of adults to return to a more carefree and easy-going lifestyle which they experienced when they were younger. Such shows typically present an idealized depiction of school life. It's a school life very few people actually experienced, but it's at least close enough that it serves the purposes of creating a nostalgic setting on top of which the story and characters can be developed. Of course, making the characters younger means they have more room to develop as well, at least if they are realistic.

There's a second, related reason. It's much easier to appeal to the lowest common denominator than to aim for the middle of the road. Putting the characters in high school is not going to demoralize anyone or make them feel inferior. Most Japanese people go to (and graduate) high school; the graduation rate is approximately 95%, tied for third place worldwide. There's little worry that setting an anime in high school will alienate viewers. On the other hand, Japan's college graduation rate is only about 53%; while that's still very high compared to most other countries, anime producers often won't risk alienating 47% of their audience by setting shows in college. Likewise, setting shows in a workplace environment risks alienating NEETs who are, at least stereotypically, often anime fans, as well as people working in very different kinds of jobs. While some series drop this entirely and aim for a completely unfamiliar setting, this is somewhat more common in shounen series that aim to appeal to the viewer's sense of adventure. Incidentally, for much the same reasons, shounen protagonists aren't the brightest lot either. This is absolutely not to say that anime are never set in workplaces or in colleges (see, for instance, Servant x Service or Golden Time), but it's far less common.

Let's take a case study. One of the most successful anime in history is K-On!, a seinen slice of life series about girls in a high school light music club. The 2009 anime was highly successful and drew a number of readers to the manga, which before that point was relatively unknown. The 2010 sequel concluded the series with four of the five main girls graduating high school and going off to college, while the fifth entered her final year of high school.

At the conclusion of the anime, the manga was basically at the same point. However, as something of a surprise, the manga author did not decide to conclude the manga there. Rather, he decided to continue it with two series. One would focus on the main four girls in college. The other continued the story of the remaining high school student in her last year and promoted two previously minor characters to members of the club.

The reaction to this was almost altogether negative. Most die-hard fans did not want a continuation in college. On various internet fora, comments were made. Some people said things like "I don't want to read about a bunch of college girls when I didn't graduate college". Others said "there is no way this can continue to be believable, as now that they're in college, they'll have to get boyfriends, and would not have the time to be in a band together". People just didn't want to read about a bunch of college-aged adult women sitting around and eating cakes, even when they were quite happy with it when the girls were just a year younger. The high-school part wasn't plagued with the same level of negative commentary, but it didn't do particularly well on its own, having lost many of the good characters. Readership dropped drastically, and the manga concluded just a year later, the mangaka apparently having decided too that continuing any further wasn't worth it.

I'm returning to the female demographics because they provide some interesting contrast. At least stereotypically, many shoujo series are romances, set in school. This is perhaps understandable. In fantasy, action/adventure genre shows which are common among shounen series, the unusual setting is a large part of the appeal. However, for a romance show, the appeal is in the characters, and as a result setting it in a familiar place like a school is probably the best option. Indeed, for most viewers in the target audience, the majority of all of their social interactions would take place at school. As a result, many (probably more than for shounen) shoujo series are set in schools.

However, an interesting thing happens with josei anime. Josei is significantly smaller than any of the other three demographics I've talked about here. It's actually quite difficult for josei shows to be successful. But as a result, josei series are, in many cases, forced to be more experimental. These series often feature adults in the workforce or college students, sometimes in unusual or difficult situations. Josei is known for being particularly drama-based; romance is present, but often just to emphasize the interpersonal conflicts. Some examples of successful josei anime which do this are Usagi Drop and Hachimitsu to Clover. One can find even more experimental works in manga, though very few make it to anime. Thus, if you want to find some anime that is really broadly different from the mainstream shounen/seinen/shoujo stuff, you can probably find josei works which will appeal to you.

So, at the end of the day, yes, school settings are chosen because viewers can relate to them. However, that is not because the viewers are expected to be in school themselves, at least not always. Rather, in many cases, it's because the viewers are expected to have been in schools at some point, and hence can relate. There are few options as broadly applicable as primary/secondary education for that purpose. Such settings also often are chosen to invoke some nostalgic feelings, and because they won't alienate most viewers. While one can find anime which are not set in schools, they're necessarily more experimental as such settings are not as well developed and appeal to smaller viewerships. If course most anime is not meant to be experimental, and even most experimental shows don't experiment with everything, so the majority of shows nowadays are set in schools, but there are exceptions if you look for them.


There were several reasons why the Dragons disappeared at that time and it was revealed in chapter 415.

In the end, the dragons were indeed still alive. They hid themselves inside the dragon slayers' bodies. The reasons behind this were threefold:

The dragons were afraid a new human would become so powerful that he would transform into a dragon, just like Acnologia. To prevent this from happening they went inside their bodies to slow down their power increase.
The second reason was that the dragons were waiting for the right time to defeat Acnologia. Despite this reason clearly being stated by Grandeeney, I have a hard time believing it. Especially since the dragons did not fight Acnologia at all. They just watched Igneel get defeated. If they had attacked together, they might have been able to do more damage I believe.
The third and probably main reason why the dragons all disappeared was that Acnologia used his magic to extract their souls from their bodies. In order to prolong their lives, they retreated their souls (and apparently their bodies too) inside the dragon slayers they had once raised.


What's with the "x" in "Hunter x Hunter" (and other anime/manga)?

I've done some searching about the names like this, and I wasn't able to find any particular explanation. Some people say it's just for style, other argue that the × is another form of "vs" (which kind of makes some sense), or "and" (like &), or "with". (Not to mention that it might also mean "kisses" like in "xoxo" = "hugs and kisses", but that's most likely irrelevant :P)

It's worth noting that it is not uncommon to find odd letters in anime/manga titles (e.g. Lucky ☆ Star - らき☆すた has a star in the name) and even in character names (e.g. Black☆Star from Soul Eater has a star in his name as well). Also the 'x' in "Hunter × Hunter" is not actually the letter 'x', but rather the symbol ×.

So, considering the above, I would personally say that it's just for style.


What's up with Sasazuka always getting sent to stand in the hallway?

The original comic books do not contain any backstory to his getting sent to the hallway (to my best knowledge).  Presumably, the author finds it funny for Sasazuka to be sent in the hallway for nothing, and hopes the readers will do so.


What's the music that plays at the end of ep. 22 of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso?

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

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

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

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


Why was a prequel made instead of an adaptation for Ga-Rei?

Ga-Rei: Zero was released in 2008-10-05. If the marketing and industry people want to work on a 6 month lead time, this puts decision time at 2008-4-01. At that time, the most recent tankōbon release was volume 5 back in 2007-10-26. Also, the mangaka took longer to publish material as the series progressed. See below:

1   05/26/06    days
2   07/26/06    61
3   11/25/06    122
4   04/26/07    152
5   10/26/07    183
6   04/26/08    183

Maybe the manga was popular and they wanted to get that target audience but didn't have a lot confidence in how the current story arc which was still being written would adapt to a 13 episode series they decided to hijack the plot and audience and make their own version of it. It's just speculation though. I did like this series. The first episode had me totally lost after having read the manga though :/


In which Death Note manga chapter does L die?

L dies in chapter 58 named "Feelings Within".


Are there any sources for high resolution (digital) manga?

Hate to write a suggestion in an answer, but too new to comment.

Have you tried crunchyroll? If you pay for their premium membership you're supposed to get HD anime and manga (you can get a manga only subscription).

If you're looking at fan scanlations, some online reader sites downgrade the quality of uploaded chapters in order to make the pages load faster, which will result in jpg artifacting at times as well. If you're looking for higher quality, I suggest grabbing it from the scanlators' sites and/or using their readers if possible.


It could be assumed that every wish is possible, yet Kyubey may lie about a wish being possible since granting a wish will also drain the universe of energy. Kyubey will most likely only grant a wish if the energy outputted from a Magical Girl becoming a Witch is greater than what was needed to grant the wish, indicated when Kyubey sometimes says something like:

  Your wish has conquered entropy

It's assumed that the amount of energy to resurrect someone would be far greater than what would be generated by most Magical Girl/Witch transformations. After all, since Kyubey's race can manipulate souls (ripping them out of bodies and making them into gems), they probably know how much energy would be needed to make one.

The only wish which may in fact be impossible is something that affects the laws of thermodynamics in a way that entropy no longer exists. Otherwise, a Magical Girl like Homura or Oriko who knew about the transformation process probably would have sought out a Magical Girl who could make such a wish. (I'm assuming Oriko knew since she knew of Madoka becoming a witch who would destroy the world and would question Kyubey as to why.)

Of course, to change the laws of thermodynamics, it probably would need someone on Madoka's level to be able to produce enough energy by changing into a witch so strong it would destroy the universe.


Why can't the homunculi perform Alchemy?

In Brotherhood (this does not totally hold true for the 2003 anime, so the reason is somewhat different), in order to perform alchemy, one must have a personal Gate of Truth. This is shown to be evident at the end of the series, when:

   Edward Elric gives up his Gate of Truth in exchange for Alphonse, and can no longer perform alchemy as a result of losing it.

However, manufactured homunculi (i.e. not Wrath or the reborn Greed✝✝) are made up of many souls, since:

   The Philosopher's Stone that composes them is powered by thousands of trapped, living souls. This power is what gives the homunculi their life energy as well as permits use of their regenerative (and other) abilities.

These many souls (generally, there are some exceptions) cannot think or act on their own, and thus the homunculus does not have his own Gate of Truth. This being the case, they cannot perform alchemy.

✝✝ It is possible that Wrath and the reborn Greed, having been born human and later becoming homunculi, could perform alchemy if they sought to do so. However, neither of them have any desire to learn it, and there is no official word one way or another.


Was it really necessary to take such precautions to confine Misa

They did not know it was unnecessary. At that point in time they did not know how she was able to kill. She might have been able to kill by mere touch for all they knew. So to be safe, they confined her. This does not look too inhumane and standard practise to me, considering the situation. Keep in mind that despite her being a cute idol, she was also a serial killer and had murdered their companion Ukita. L was not going to take any chances losing another human life.

After reading chapter 33 again, it seems like L himself never really explained why he confined her this way, other than

  She's suspected of being the second Killer, so it's only logical to restrain her this way.


Since Naruto failed the Genin exam so many times, doesn't that mean he's older than Sasuke and Sakura?

As per this question and the Naruto wikia, Naruto was 12 at the start of the show. The Naruto wikia also lists Sasuke and Sakura as being 12 at the start, which indicates that they're the same age. It's also corroborated by this, which says it got it from the Official Character Stats Book.

As you point out, it's not really clear how that works out, given that he's stated to have failed the exam to become a genin more than once (I'm assuming that's what you're asking about, rather than the Chunin exam, given context). Possibilities for that include either that he started younger or that it's just a timeline mess that they never bothered to deal with. I'm guessing the latter.