In episode 22 of season 2, Shuukan Shounen Janpu editors Hattori Akira and Miura Goro have a meeting with Mashiro Moritaka and Takagi Akito (the mangaka team known as Ashirogi Muto) to discuss what their next manga series will be like.

In this scene, Hattori gives the following explanation of 「シリアスの笑い」(shiriasu no warai [「笑い」 can be translated as "humor", "comedy", or "comic"; the literal meaning of the kanji is "laugh" but it is used to refer to comedy acts]):

Foremost, the mangaka Hiromaru Kazuya's series 『ラッコ11号』 (Rakko
11-gou = Otter #11) is given as the primary example.  It has a serious, realistic setting.  In one chapter,
an otter was made fun of on TV, and then the
main character (who is an otter himself) rammed a truck into the
station building and pulled out the victim otter to rescue him from
his oppressors. The storyline is dealing with serious themes
(bullying, vengeance) and the tone is serious as well, but when the
truck slams into the side of the building, Miura agreed with
Hattori's assessment, and reported that it made him laugh. In other
words, the reader of the chapter probably strongly wants the otters
to get back at the humans, and the main character's very earnest,
dramatic way of doing so induces a feeling of "Yessss!" so the reader
ends up laughing (perhaps partly in relief, partly at the
ludicrousness of an otter barreling into a building).
Hattori points out that Hiramaru was not doing 「笑いを取る」 (warai wo toru
= trying to get a laugh). Mashiro concurs that 「いいえ、真剣に書いてると思います」(Iie, shinken ni kaiteru to omoimasu = No, I
think he was really writing it in all seriousness/earnestness).
Hattori contrasts Hiramaru's「シリアスの笑い」 with Ashirogi Muto's prior gag
manga series 『走れ!大発タント』(Hashire! Daihatsu Tanto = Run! Daihatsu
Tanto), which was written with 「呆けて笑わそうと考えている」 (bokete warawasou to
kangaetieru = the mind-set of dumbing-down to make people laugh) and
Hattori deems it 「もったいない」 (mottainai = too bad/a waste). Rather than
being enjoyable to write, that method made Takagi feel 「苦しかった」 (kurushikatta = it
was painful) and made Mushiro feel 「あまり…」 (amari...[tanoshikunakatta]
= it wasn't really [fun]).
Hattori also contrasts 「シリアスの笑い」 with Ashirogi Muto's prior series
『この世は金と知恵と見た目』 (Kono Yo ha Kane to Chie to Mitame = This World is
All About Money and Intelligence and Appearance) and with Iwase Aiko
and Niizuma  Eiji's series 『+ NATURAL』, which are both categorized as
「シリアス」 (serious) but 「笑いが一切もない」 (warai ga issai mo nai = there's
not a speck of humor [in them]). A 「シリアスの笑い」 would be received by
readers as just as serious in tone as those series, yet manages to
bring some irony or makes the reader lighten up for a moment.
Hattori explains that Ashirogi Muto's 「シリアスの笑い」 would combine
「高木くんが作る笑い」 (Takagi-kun ga tsukuru warai = the kind of humor
Takagi-kun can create) with 「真城くんのシリアスの絵！」 (Mushiro-kun no shiriasu no
e! = Mushiro-kun's serious artwork!), resulting in a 「シリアスの笑い」 that
only Ashirogi Muto could pull off.

The manga that fulfills Hattori's description of 「シリアスの笑い」 is Ashirogi Muto's subsequently published series, 『PCP -完全犯罪党-』 (PCP -Kanzen Hanzai Tou- = Perfect Crime Party).


What are Rimuru's power in the manga or web novel?

SlimeViscous Organism: As a Slime, Rimuru is a monster that doesn't need to breathe, sleep or eat, as he can survive only on the magicules in the atmosphere.

Intrinsic Skills: As a Slime, Rimuru has the species-specific Skills of Absorb, Dissolve, and Self-Regeneration. These are later fused into Unique Skill Predator to create Extra Skill Ultraspeed Regeneration.

Absorb and Dissolve: Slime-species intrinsic Skills that are inferior versions of Unique Skills Predator and Glutton.
Self-Regeneration: Allows the user to regenerate from injuries which include regenerating lost limbs. An inferior version of Extra
Skill Ultraspeed Regeneration.

Demon SlimeDemonic Viscous Spirit Body: As a Demon Slime all his bodily attributes are greatly enhanced. He can freely change between a material and a spiritual body.

Intrinsic skills: As a Demon Slime, Rimuru has the species-specific skills of Infinite Regeneration, Control Magic, Multilayer Barrier, Universal Detect, Universal Shapeshift, Demon Lord’s Haki, Enhanced Replication, Spatial Motion, Darkflame Lightning, and Universal Thread.

Infinite Regeneration: Enhanced version of Extra Skill Ultraspeed Regeneration. Works even quicker than its previous
version and can now even regenerate from having the Spiritual Body
shattered.
Control Magic: Same as its Extra Skill version, but further enhanced.
Multilayer Barrier: Same as its Extra Skill version, but further enhanced.
Universal Detect: Multi-purpose Sense-Skill that contains the effects of other Sense-Skills like Magic Sense, Sense Heat Source,
Sense Soundwave, and Keen Smell.
Universal Shapeshift: Same as its Extra Skill version, but further enhanced.
Demon Lord's Haki: A Skill that enhances a magic-based creature's Monster Aura. Needs to be at least on the level of a
Demon Lord Breed to acquire. This Skill is a composite of several
other Skills like Coercion and Magic Aura, among others. It causes
Fear and can even cause instant death to those who can't resist it.
Enhanced Replication Improved version of Replication. Capable of being used as an incarnation medium for True Dragons.
Spatial Motion: Same as its Extra Skill version, but further enhanced.
Darkflame Lightning: Enhanced version of combined Extra Skills Dark Flame and Dark Thunder.
Universal Thread: Enhanced version of Sticky-Steel Thread.

These are just physical aspects, there are far more powers than I can list, check out the wiki

source: https://tensura.fandom.com/wiki/Rimuru_Tempest/Abilities_and_Gears


His appearance changed because he was so terrified.  The idea was that he was so scared of the beings they were exposed to that his hair went white and he rapidly lost weight.

Stress can cause rapid weight and hair loss. I don't know if hair turning white from fear is real but it is a common belief (see crash test dummy's MMM). That is what you are seeing exaggerated here.  What you are supposed to note as remarkable is how he continues to aid the group and stick with it even though he is so debilitated.  He is more scared but somehow the bravest GD person there.


What has been added and/or changed in the 2 Gurren Lagann movies compared to TV series?

The first movie (Gurren-hen or Childhood's End) is basically a recap of the first half of the tv series, similarly the second movie (Lagann-hen or The Lights in the Sky Are Stars) covers the second half.

There is around 20 minutes of new material in the first film and a bit more in the second film - primarily added in the final battle

The only changes in plot were that

   Makken doesn't die

&

   The Gurren Lagann evolves to an even higher stage, becoming Dai Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which is even larger than galaxies!

There's an overall improvement in the animation quality, noticeably making battle scenes more thrilling.

also seemingly Yoko's breasts are slightly bigger in the movies ref.


Where did the Skinship Grope trope come from?

As the member of the Manga & Illustration Society student club at a Japanese national university, I have seen young Japanese women involved in sub-culture perform this joking action in public in real life.  I have seen it done in a small group of female friends while staying at an onsen ryokan (traditional inn at a hot spring), in the midst of a large group of male & female college students, and my husband saw it done by girls in a booth sitting in a bar-type restaurant. Sometimes it is either asked ("Can I touch your breasts?" and the person answers "No" or "I don't have any breasts to begin with"), or threatened ("I'm gonna touch your breasts!") but if the person protests, the threat is not followed through, or she might only threaten playfully and then not go through with it of her own volition. In all cases, the girls have been fully clothed (I have not witnessed a case in an onsen [hot spring] itself or otherwise nude context where the Japanese and Korean phrase "skinship" might be applicable).

Culturally, it is indeed considered okay and acceptable behavior, and does not imply that that the girl/s involved are lesbians.  It seems to be a sort of compliment, i.e. false hitting-on (a true lesbian could engage in such banter/activity without ever coming out since the purportedly straight girls do it too).  I heard one female college sophomore give her name, grade, major, and "I love breasts" as her entire self-introduction to the group (a mixed gathering of males and females) at the start of the academic year. Of course, the context matters: young women would not do this at formal functions, when professors are present, etc. Young Japanese can throw out the phrase 「セクハラ」(seku-hara, short for "sexual harassment") in these cases, but it does not bear the severity and criminal meaning of the English phrase and is not necessarily unwelcome by the person being hit on.

So in anime, this is not simply unrealistic fan service for male viewers, but rather is a practice among real-life young Japanese women who do not do it for the sake of the enjoyment of men.  As a non-Japanese, of course this is rather surprising the first time you see it happen.

Culturally, bathing at an onsen or sento does not generally lend itself toward any sensual content; most women there either avoid eye contact with others, just don't look down (focus on the other person's face), or look at the scenery or wall painting instead of at the friend sitting next to you. People who normally wear glasses cannot see clearly while in the onsen anyway. You can go with your family, relatives, friends, co-workers, and/or acquaintances, or alone and no one expects to be looked at uncomfortably. The very fact that everyone is naked and no one cares or is weirded out or shy about it makes it easy for the average Japanese to enjoy and truly relax.


As someone who's only ever watched the anime series, and someone who's actually consulted some outside help to better explain this, I can reasonably answer:
No.
It isn't uncommon for two girls or two women to hold some kind of affection or level of respect for one another in some capacity.  From my sources, to suggest that they would consider "making babies" with each other implies an opinion that this woman is indeed attractive.
However - and this is a point my source thoroughly stressed - this does not, in any way, imply any form of sexual orientation.
Further to this, given the interactions that Yuuki had with Asuna throughout Mother's Rosario, my impression is that Yuuki held admiration, respect, and love - the kind of love that you'd get from a close family member.  The rivalry between her and Kirito can be seen as more friendly than her trying to one-up Kirito in an effort to win Asuna over.
I also sense a level of admiration and respect from Yuuki of Asuna, given that

 Yuuki is terminally ill and can't really explore the world, which prompted Kazuto to develop technical equipment to allow her to see the world in which she previously existed in, with Asuna's help.  This helped her gain more closure with her situation and, in my assessment, feels more like something an older sister would take on.

With that, I can safely and reasonably conclude that there's no implication whatsoever of Yuuki's sexual orientation.  Respect or admiration of someone who seems awesome from their perspective seems more plausible.
Oh, and don't read too deeply into what fanart depicts.  Give 'em an inch and they'll run to Jupiter with one or two fleeting glances.


How is each saiyan transformation/form achieved?

TransformationsSuper Saiyan: Any Saiyan with a sufficient amount of S-Cells and increase their battle power, they gain more S-Cells. Once the Saiyan attains enough S-Cells, a feeling of strong anger or sadness can trigger the Super Saiyan transformation. After the transformation is attained once, they can transform into it any time by focusing their energy into their back to make it tingle. Saiyans with a very high amount of S-Cells can do the transformation without requiring a trigger.Super Saiyan 2: There are multiple ways to attain this transformation. Firstly, a Saiyan must be strong enough to generate a lot more energy compared to the Super Saiyan form. The first way to attain this transformation is when the Saiyan experiences a powerful emotional upheaval, much like the Super Saiyan transformation, but to a greater extent. The second way is through harsh training. The third way is out of instinct from a desperate need such as when someone's life is at stake. Finally, the fourth method is for the Saiyan to feel out the tingly feeling in their back. The power output emitted by this form is greatly increased.Super Saiyan 3: This form is obtained generally after harsh training and usually under out of the norm circumstances. Goku was able to achieve this form while he was dead and training in the other world. Goten and Trunks managed to achieve it only during fusion. It's basically a transformation that increases the amount of ki utilised.Important Fact: Akira Toriyama stated in the Saikyō Jump's June 2014 Interview that the SSJ2 and SSJ3 transformations are nothing more than powered up variants of the SSJ transformation. Hence you could potentially surpass the power of SSJ3 or SSJ2 while using the SSJ transformation by either training or through rage like in the case of Future Trunks and Vegeta. Although Trunks's Transformation is referred to as Super Saiyan Rage or Super Saiyan anger, it's basically a powered up variation of SSJ2 which was caused because of rage.

Hence to answer your question, there isn't necessarily a regular Super Saiyan transformation which can only be attained by either rage alone or training, it can be attained in both ways.However, the Super Saiyan God transformation can only be attained via the ritual and not by anger. (Based of the manga), training vigorously with a Deity and practicing extensive Ki control could also help you attain this transformation as we see Vegeta use the same against Goku Black in the Manga. The Super Saiyan Blue, on the other hand, can also only be attained by training vigorously and absorbing the ki of a god and then transforming into a Super Saiyan. Super Saiyan Rose is basically the Super Saiyan Blue transformation when done by an actual deity (Zamasu). Apart from the God transformation, all the regular Super Saiyan transformations can be attained through training, rage or even when you are in a life or death situation. Based on the recent episode, we see Vegeta reach a level beyond Super Saiyan Blue without actual training but while feeling a strong urge to protect someone(Keep up his promise made to Cabba), which could be compared to Gohan attaining the SSJ2 transformation when Cell the Baby Cells were beating up the Z fighters. So if you possess God ki and can use the transformations, attaining a level beyond through rage and emotion like the Super Saiyan transformations seems plausible.

Source: dragonball.wikia.com


What is the other goal Zoro mentions in the Alabasta arc?

You're right. Zoro second goal is to make Luffy the King of Pirates. This has been demonstrated by him many times in the form of his loyalty

Here are a few instances where this has been demonstrated. As the One Piece Wiki puts it:

  Zoro seems to have the most respect for Luffy and this deep respect has been demonstrated on various occasions. For instance, he was willing to throw away his dreams and ambitions for Luffy's during the appearance of Kuma in the Thriller Bark Arc without the slightest hesitation.

  When he was almost on the verge of death from his wound from "Hawk-Eyes" Mihawk in the Baratie Arc he tearfully vowed to Luffy that he would never lose again, asking if it was alright with him as Pirate King.

You can watch the scene here

  This respect is not only for Luffy as a person, but also because of his position as captain. When Luffy learned that Usopp was planning on returning to the crew during their time in Water 7 and was immediately ready to welcome him back, Zoro made it clear that a crew member who fought against their captain should not be forgiven so easily. Zoro explained to the others that one should respect their captain unconditionally and he would quit as well if Luffy allowed someone to walk all over him like Usopp, who wanted to rejoin without even apologizing for his actions. When Luffy was distraught after having to defeat Usopp, Zoro reminded him that those hard decisions are part of being captain, and that he can not lose himself. He reminds Luffy that if he wavers, the crew has no one else they can trust.

He gives the said speech here

I couldn't find this scene:

  During the Long Ring Long Island Arc after winning the Davy Back Fight contest against the Foxy Pirates, Zoro implied of never becoming a pirate if it weren't for Luffy and commented that he'd have no point in being one if he had ever left the ship.

Finally, there's this:

  In Chapter 597 he begged Dracule Mihawk to train him (despite it not being honorable) in order to become stronger for Luffy, his captain.  Mihawk comments that in order to make the request Zoro must have found something more valuable than his ambition


What is this symbol called which is used to denote "II" in the second season of "The Quintessential Quintuplets"?

No, you're right, that is absolutely the double integral sign. There's a trend of indicating follow-on seasons of shows with indicators like random punctuation marks or letters (see, e.g. this question about Nisekoi: or this one about Dragon Ball Z), and this is almost normal by comparison since it does actually look a bit like a stylised II rather than, for example, adding an apostrophe or a random letter.
It's also vaguely relevant to the show itself - since Uesugi was brought on to tutor the five girls in subjects such as mathematics, which potentially includes a little bit of calculus.


Is the book "Anyone Can Easily PK" by Punitto Moe real, or does it only exist in Overlord?

After looking through multiple book sites and also just typing in the author it seems that it is only a fictional work for the series. Reading the character bio for Punitto Moe it states:

  He created the basics of "Anyone Can Easily PK" for Ainz Ooal Gown which includes taking drastic measures to learn as much information about the target player as possible when doing Player Kills, as well as maintaining a constant discretion from the target player.


How can I easily find all languages a show has been dubbed into?

Translating web pages automatically with Google Translate°

This would mean that I would have to check (and be able to read) each […] page in each potentially interesting language.

Google Translate goes a long way in helping that.  Although unfortunately its translations of Asian languages can still be tricky to understand.
If you use the Google Chrome browser, it should automatically offer to translate foreign pages (but does not consistently do so for me).
If you want to test that, here's the Cantonese Wikipedia page for Pretty Cure:
https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Precure!
If you use another browser, e.g. Mozilla Firefox, or Chrome doesn't offer the translation by itself:
Put this before the URL to translate:                               https://translate.google.com/translate?&u=
Example: https://translate.google.com/translate?&u=https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Precure!

° Sorry this is not an answer to the question, but I find it so important, that I wanted it to be more visible.  (And then I ended up writing more than would fit into a comment.)  If the community objects, I will move this to a comment.
In relation to the question, the translation enables you to apply the useful approach, suggested by the asker, of consulting the anime's page on the Wikipedia(s) of your desired dub language(s).  (Or opening foreign Google results.)


Though it's not explicitly stated either way (imagine in a series, if they were to mention that they broke the fourth-wall; that's some serious meta fourth-wall-breaking), the general consensus in the fan kingdom is that this is an instance of the 4th wall being broken.

As you mentioned, chihayaburu (千早振る) a makurakotoba meaning "wild"[1] or "vigorous power"[2], which can be synonymous with "impassioned" or "frenzied". So, in English, it's not unlikely that the word "frenzied" could be (loosely) considered the title.

As I mentioned, though, there are several unofficial sources (some fans, some not) mentioning this (sudden) break in the fourth wall.[3][4][5][6] So, based on the closeness of the words, and the fan/community reaction to it, this seems to be a "breaking the fourth wall" scenario.


Why did Major Kusanagi wear a particular extreme outfit on episode 14?

(Upon review I've determined that the source provided is insufficient to support my answer. I'm currently investigating sources to come up with a more appropriate answer.)

Her body is a mass production "pleasure model" so that she blends into (I assume 'shady') environments in the city. That's why she wears sexy clothes so often, to fit her cover.

Source: Masamune Shirow via Joseph Christopher Schaub

http://schaublog.com/Writing/KusanagisBody.pdf (pg.94) [last retrieved 10/24/17]

  For his part, Shirow provides a very practical explanation for
  Kusanagi's body in the author's notes which accompany his manga. He writes:

    Major Kusanagi is deliberately designed to look like a mass-production model so she won't be too conspicuous. In reality, her electrical and mechanical system is made of ultra-sophisticated materials unobtainable on the civilian market. If she appeared too expensive, she might be suddenly waylaid on a dark street some night, hacked up, and hauled off to be sold. (1995: 103)

  His mention of Kusanagi's body as 'a mass-production model' no doubt provides the seeds for Oshii's foregrounding of her commodity status in the film, but the critique is certainly amped up a notch by Oshii.

I've also included the author's citation:

  For all references to Shirow's version of Ghost in the Shell, the source I follow is the graphic novel. Masamune Shirow, Ghost in the Shell, trans. Frederik Schodt and Toren Smith, (Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics, 1995)


Mostly it's because Luffy always spent their money on food. Almost after every major battle Mugiwara Pirate always have a party and use almost every food they have. This will leave them with no food so they spent their money on food in the next town. For once they won a jackpot. They got 300mil belly. But it was used for their new ship, Thousands Sunny.

The other crew are not so loyal but they also spent a good sum of money. Nami on clothes, Robin and Chopper on book, Sanji on ingredients, and Ussop on miscellaneous stuff. (We know they did on Logue town and Water 7)


Is Souma Yukihara the 9th seat after defeating Akira Hayama?

Shokugeki rules elicit that the conditions of winning and losing should be set beforehand. Souma Passes if he wins, gets expelled if he loses. Hayama gets nothing if he wins/loses. Though he had a deal with Azami to be expelled.

So, No. Souma is NOT a member of Elite 10.

   In fact  in the next chapter he discusses that if he, Megumi and Aldini, grab the Elite 10 seats. They have a chance of reversing Center's expulsion.

As discussed in the related question,

  Each side must lay out their "compensation", or something they must give up if they were to lose the challenge. Both sides must agree that the compensation of the duel equate with each other.

Source: Wiki: Shokugeki

This is established pretty early when Souma challenges Isshiki for his 7th seat earlier!


Why couldn't Dante create a Philosophers Stone by herself?

The reason she couldn't is simply because of the risk. Unmarked spoilers follow.

Recall that, during their first attempt to create a Philosopher's Stone, Hohenheim was nearly killed by the process. In order to keep Hohenheim from dying, Dante used alchemy to fix his soul to another body.

Because of this risk, Dante knew that, in order to create another Philosopher's Stone, she needed a way to survive the process. That meant that she either needed someone else who would complete the process—so that she would not die—or someone who could save her after the process was complete.

Since alchemists of the aforementioned skill levels are rare, and those who possess such abilities would likely not have helped a suspicious old lady (or young lady, by the end of FMA), Dante needed (and trusted) only Hohenheim to help her complete the process.


How many races exist in Nanatsu no Taizai?

There are a variety of races in the story although the most prominent are the ones who played a large role in the first holy war 3000 years prior to the story. It is mentioned by Merlin in chapter 182 each of the sins hails from a different tribe and that was interesting since aside from Diane they all mostly appear human. So far in the manga (I've never watched the anime), as of chapter 334 there appear to be:

Humans

The most common race on earth possessing average lifespan, magical prowess, etc. Nothing of note aside from the fact that most of the world is under human control in the story. Escanor is the human member of the sins

Giants

Towering humanoids with an affinity to the earth and can commune with it through dance in a unique magic called Creation, strong like their size would imply and much longer lived than humans, Diane of the sins is one of them

Fairies

Beings whom resemble children with wings for their entire extended lifespans, they possess various magical abilities such as flight, transformation and the ability to sense pure intentions, King (Harlequin) of the sins is their leader

Goddesses

Angelic beings with incredible power whom oppose the demon clan. Can be distinguished by their feathery wings and light/healing magic, they sealed the demon clan away 3000 years ago and renounced their physical forms and thus their ability to affect the world. Elizabeth was a goddess initially but was cursed to reincarnate as a human and die for eternity (she got better)

Demons

Another ancient race of powerful beings who have 7 hearts and... demonic appearances. Opposed the goddess clan until 3000 years ago when they lose the first holy war and are sealed away. They possess the ability to consume souls, use magic with a darkness attribute and can usually fly. Meliodas the leader of the sins is a demon who usually suppresses his nice face tattoos.

Aside from the "5 races" commonly mentioned there exist many races who've been seen in lesser degrees:

Beastmen

Beings who resemble humans with bestial traits although they are discriminated against by humans, apparently there are many kinds but the only ones to hail from this race as I recall are Zhivago, Ban's father figure and Zhivago's son, Therion who are werefoxes (Ch 139). In Zhivago's case he seems to be able to take on human form at will but is faster and stronger in his true form

Vampires

Pale bloodsuckers who draw strength from moonlight, they are not demons but were subservient to them before rebelling prior to the end of the holy war. The demon king ordered Zeldris to exterminate them but Zeldris, unwilling to do so instead seals them away, they awaken 12 year prior to the story (Vampires of Edinburgh) and are mostly killed by the sins. Gelda, Zeldris' love interest is one of their royalty

Celestials

Descendants of the Goddess clan who have the same feathery wings but are not as powerful. They're from the movie (Prisoners of the sky) which I have not seen

Merlin's race

The loli witch of the sins who idolized goddess Elizabeth 3000 years ago and uses transformation magic to not look 10. She hails from Belialuin a place famous for its wizards which did not take sides during the first holy war. She and her father are of a yet unnamed race (if we continue with the 1 sin per race thing) although manga spoilers if not caught up

   the next arc seems like it will feature the currently dead Arthur which will probably also clear up some of the mystery around Merlin

I'm unclear as to what qualifies as an intelligent species since one of the main characters is an enchanted doll and another's race doesn't generally get counted as intelligent, either way a few technicalities

Enchanted doll

Long ago one of the 10 commandments was imprisoned by refusing to fight in the first holy war, this demon, Gowther made an enchanted doll to be his conduit to the world. This doll, also named Gowther outlives his creator and eventually joins the sins, he's basically human unless disenchanted at which point he resembles a mannequin

Immortal

Ban was born and is currently human but during his initial tenure with the sins he had already drank from the fountain of youth and become immortal, most will still consider him human but whoever said 1 sin per race I guess didn't.

(Talking) Pig

Hawk, his brother Wild and his mother share the ability to carry conversation with other sentient beings. Wild states the brothers were born in purgatory (Ch 270) which may or may not explain their ability to speak but as far as the story goes no explanation has been given as to why pigs can talk.


What race are Emperor Pilaf and Garlic Jr.?

Garlic Jr. is a Makyan ( natives of the Makyo Star) not a Albino Namekian. Albino Namekian are still presumed all dead. For Emperor Pilaf nothing much is know, we can assume him as earthling like other animal looking people.

Other Known Makyans

Cinnamon
Garlic
Ginger
Herb
Jasmine
Mustard
Nicky
Salt
Sansho
Spice
Vinegar


I don't think it is because Zoro cannot cut the cage that he is trying to push it back. In chapter 270 he was in a similar situation, where he was trapped by the White Cage during the Ordeal of Iron. At that time he says it is completely unnecessary to trap him, because he is not going to run away. Now, with the birdcage, the situation is similar in the sense that he has no intention of running away. Cutting the birdcage or running away, will not benefit anyone with Doflamingo still around. He will try to kill anyone present at the island, with or without the birdcage.

Zoro knows this and knows that the person that will defeat Doflamingo is Luffy, but he does not know how much more time Luffy will need. Therefore to buy Luffy as much time as he can and to prevent as much casualties as he can, he tries to block the cage, instead of cutting it. We have no clue what would happen if he cuts the cage and it will probably require much needed energy, which will probably just go to waste by cutting the cage over and over again, because we all know Doflamingo will keep putting it up again and again.

Now as to your question whether the birdcage is indestructible, that has not yet been revealed up until the latest chapter 787. Other than a few unknown pirates and the meteor from Fujitora, there has not been a single person that has actually tried to attack the cage, not now, nor in the flash-back. Therefore it is hard to say how strong the strings actually are.


My opinion is that from what country the studio originates from has that language, and let us say a Japinese movie is going to be dubbed. Well, they aren't going to redo everything or it wouldn't be the same... So they change the voices and the ending maybe because of the intro. If it stays in the Japanese language, maybe it shows where it originates and they add the subtitles so some viewers know what the song is saying.


Does Luffy have "Gomu Gomu no Jet Yari"?

In the anime: Gomu Gomu no Jet Lance was used against Blueno and was a Gear 2 attack.  Note that Lance is similar to a Spear which is what Yari refers to.

Gomu Gomu no Jet Spear was used after the timeskip against Monet as a Gear 2 version.

I am not aware of a Gear 3 version.

This is all from the wiki.


Which philosophers have influenced Death Note?

It doesn't seem to have been spun from an actual person in history or a piece of writing. From an interview with the creator of Death Note Tsugumi Ohba he says this:

  There was nothing in particular. I started thinking of some ideas and
  while these ideas were still floating in the back of my mind, I got
  more ideas to fill up detailed plots like the rules and the god of
  death and so on. Eventually, I thought there was enough material for a
  good story to tell.

Since Death Note is centered around Gods of Death or Shinigami and since there are many urban legends on Shinigami in Japan and lets not mention that Shinigamis are very commonly known about in Japan, it is safe to assume that these may have influenced or helped influence the creation of Death Note, although if there were any actual people in history or a piece of writing that influenced Death Note, then these origins are yet unknown.

and also

  No, there was nothing that I strongly wished to express.
  The basic underlying idea was that “Humans are not immortals and once they are dead, they do not come back alive again”. This is to indirectly say that we should all treasure the present and live our lives to the fullest.

From the text above, this gives some more of an insight as to what also helped influence Death Note (which would have been his own personal thoughts). Refer to sentence highlighted in bold.

In conclusion Death Note was not inspired by any philosophers (people or a writing), since in the comment that was what you were looking for.

Bibliography for reference

http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=21396363

This should help if you want to review my answer, compare it with other sources or to verify that information is correct.


Have the crew of the Bebop ever been paid for a bounty?

Yes.

Episode 8:They catch a group of thieves trying to steal a spaceship.Episode 10:(It's never actually explicitly said if they got the money for this one. The guy was caught despite him probably going to get off with a self-defense plea.)Episode 15: They technically collect a very small bounty at the end of thisEpisode 16: It was never stated as to whether they received anything for helping out with stopping the prison shop. However, if you were to assume they did.Episode 22: They do end up catching the teddy bear bomber here.


What would have happened if Dende could have made new Dragon Balls?

It would take longer, but they would appear eventually. Humans would keep on wishing for stuff, adding to the negative energy stored in the balls. So I guess they could renew the balls from time to time, preventing the negative energy from building up, but where would the energy go and what would happen to the balls? The negative energy is still around, so I think even if the balls would be renewed over and over again, the cumulative negative energy would eventually make the seven dragons appear. I think it was Earth's destiny for it to happen. We should all be happy that at that exact time, Goku was coincidentally strong enough to defeat them. Imagine what would have happened if he was still only a boy.


What does it mean when an anime character has small eyes?

According to TV Tropes the physical trait of "eyes always shut" is commonly used for the "wise guy" character type, in which case they'd be referred to as "kitsune No me," or in English, "fox eyes"/ "shifty eyes."
Depending on the way they are drawn the eyes can represent anything from serenity, dignity, smugness, humor, indifference or even someone trying to fake any of those.


Why doesn't Chopper return to reindeer form when unconscious?

Welcome to Anime&Mange SE @floweringdusk,
Chopper doesn't change form because the "little" form he is in is the one that he is accustomed to the most.
On the other hand, losing consciousness or falling in water doesn't stop the DF powers. In sea water, DF users gradually lose their ability to move and are extremly weak thus they are called "a hammer" in regards to swimming.
If you remember, after the fight between Luffy and Rob Lucci (think chapter 427) when Lucci is knocked out but still regains his leopard form regardless.


In One Piece, why is the pirate 'king' above the four 'emperors'?

Is it simply because Oda had not planned for the Yonkou when OP has begun Serialization?

I don't think this is the case. Knowing how Oda generally works, with all his foreshadowing, I am pretty sure the Yonkou were not an afterthought. (69 chapters between Luffy's 'I will be Pirate King' and Arlong Park is not really a long period of time for OP.)
@Taladris put it well in the comments. Much of it has to do with the fact that the Four Emperors simply are more like literal emperors, controlling large empires and so on. Also important to note the sort of quasi-bureaucratic connotation that the term holds. Not saying that negotiations occur between them, but the Yonkou form one very vital pillar of the Three Great Powers, which has been crucial to the balance of power in the current world (and is something that the heads of the World Government worry much over).
On the other hand, Roger was an absolute wild 'un who surpassed all of his contemporaries through his astounding feats, such as discovering the final island on the Grand Line. There simply wasn't anyone with equal footing (keep in mind, we are not talking about power levels and strength/calibre here, but rather in terms  of accomplishments, which was mostly what permeated to the far corners of the world; there was no one comparable). Moreover, his epithet 'Pirate King' wasn't conferred to him by the World Government or some other authority figure. It was a unanimous recognition of his greatness by the world as a whole and especially among the commonfolk, a vast majority of which all had dreams of their own and were deeply moved and inspired by Roger's adventures. Thus, to the better part of the world Roger was an idol and hero, one who had reached the zenith. There was no question of 'above'.
I don't have evidence but I am pretty sure 'Four Emperors' was propagated not by layfolk but rather by one of the authority figures (Marines?). That's why 'Pirate King' is a much more colloquial and endearing term than 'Four Emperors' which seems to be more bureaucratic, and why 'king' and 'emperor' are not measured on the same scale in this case. 'Four Emperors' does not evoke the same emotions in people's hearts that 'Pirate King (Gol D. Roger)' does!
It was not an issue of deciding who the next Pirate King was--the four did not decide to settle on a collective epithet instead of aiming to be the greatest among themselves, and more importantly, I don't think they gave themselves the title.


Was it ever revealed how Aimer lost her voice?

She sang too much, to the point of abusing and damaging her vocal cords.

Her official profile on Sony Music Entertainment Japan mentioned this

  15歳の頃、歌唱による喉の酷使が原因で、突如声が出なくなるアクシデントに見舞われる。

  At the age of 15, she underwent a sudden voice loss accident due to overusing her throat from singing.

This was also mentioned in her interview with natalie music (Japanese)

  ──「15歳のころ、喉に異変をきたし」という記述が公式プロフィールにありますが、[...]
  ── The description "at the age of 15, an accident to the throat happened" is written on the official profile though, [...]

  歌の歌いすぎが原因でした。[...]
  The cause was too much singing.

However, more detail was in her interview with BARKS (Japanese) about her 1st album, "Sleepless Nights", especially on the song "夜行列車～nothing to lose～" (Yakou Ressha-, Night Train-)

  ――で、今回、これまでのシングル曲全曲に加えて、新曲が3曲入っていますけど、「夜行列車～nothing to lose～」は、Aimerさんのアーティストとしての出発点を感じさせる内容になってますよね。これは実話？
  ――Then, this time, in addition to the inclusion of all the singles until now, there were 3 new songs, but the substance in "Yakou Ressha~nothing to lose~" feels like the starting point for Aimer as an artist. Is this a true story?

  Aimer：基本的に歌詞は、自分の体験もちりばめながら一つの物語を書くようなイメージで書いています。なので、この曲もそういう感じですね。
  Aimer: Basically, I wrote the lyric that includes my experience, with an image to write a single story. Therefore, this song is also like that.

  ――“さよなら　夜の教室/ここで私は声を失した”というフレーズがとても印象的でした。
  ―― The phrase "goodbye　night classroom / here I lost my voice" was very impressive.

  Aimer：ああ……声が出なくなってしまったというのは実体験なんです。私は常に音楽が流れているような家で育って、物心つく前から歌うのが好きな子供で、気づいたら歌手になりたいと思っていたんですね。で、いつも一人で歌っていたんですけど。15歳の時、朝起きたら突然声が出なくなっていたんです。それで、声帯を診る専門の耳鼻咽喉科に行ったら「とにかくしゃべらないでください」って、沈黙療法というのを勧められて、そこから半年間ずっとしゃべらずにいて……。
  Aimer: Ah... the voice loss was a real experience. Because I was grown up in a family that constantly playing songs, being a kid who likes singing before reaching the age of discretion, and when I realized, I thought I wanted to be a singer. I was always singing alone, though. At the age of 15, when I woke up in the morning, I suddenly lost my voice. After that, when visiting vocal cords specialist in a department of otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat), they said "in any case, please don't speak" and recommending a silent treatment, since then I didn't speak for 6 months at all...


How does Tomura Shigaraki's power not disintegrate his shoes?

This is purely speculation, but socks with holes in them.

Shigaraki's power only triggers if he touches the target with all five fingers/toes on one hand/foot.

So he could have special socks with holes for one or more toes.  Some toes touch the shoe, the others the sock, so neither decays.


Is Himawari's Gentle Fist more powerful than the average Hyuga's

No; there's two things going on here, and one is a well-known thing if you've ever been a parent or near a young child.

The first thing that's going on is that Himawari was able to subconsiously activate the Byakugan out of anger.  This is not contested at all; she's seen with tears in her eyes as it activates due to her favorite stuffed animal being torn up.

The second thing is that, well...little children do not know how to control what strength they have, which can result in both surprise and significant pain at the point of attack.  This could be innocuous like a quick slap to the face; this could be worse like being kicked in the bread basket or lower.

The main thing at play here is that the fact that Himawari is so young and that Tenketsu is such a potent taijutsu that it caught both Naruto and Kurama so thoroughly off-guard it knocked them out.


Why didn't anyone find the explosion tags hidden in Konoha earlier?

One has to take a few things into consideration there.

Explosive tags do have only a bit of chakra compared to the chakra of the average Ninja. Thus with Ninjas all around......it is as if you are not looking for the tree with the eagle sitting upon it while walking through a forest. Even with their Byakugan active there were just so many chakra signatures.....stronger even that if they didn't look exactly for a low signature such as from a tag....they wouldn't really have noticed it.
The tags were not active at the time being. Thus the chakra was inactive and thus "stagnant". Which means that there was maybe a very small chakra signature to see for a Hyuga and others who can feel chakra.....but it didn't do anything. As we know every human produces chakra too. So again it could be explained by just noting that if there is something small that does nothing (a bee sitting on a flower) while you are passing others near you (wasps flying around you) you are not going to really put any conscious notice to the small bee.
As we know time and again from the series the Byakugan is not infallible. There seem even to be seals that can block their usage. The best example being Naruto himself. If he did not ACTIVELY use the kyubis chakra (aka let it out of the seal).......no Hyuga even noticed something different about him (compared to others that is). Sadly it is not 100% clear if that is the nature of seals in general or if there are special seals which makes chakra that is not actively set free/used invisible to Hyugas (which is more plausible, as the Hyugas then later on in the episode the OP mentioned find the tags).

All in all it is plausible that the hyugas did not see the tags (small, static chakra while big moving chakra sources are all around them).

The only thing that baffled me about the episode is thus not that it was not noticed.....it was more the MASS of tags he had. As we know they are not THAT cheap to buy/manufacture.  Thus he almost used a stockpile that must have been worth a kages yearly income (or more). And also how he got them into the city unnoticed. That much paper probably WOULD have been noticed by someone.
But as far as I'm aware there was no reference in that one episode to how he managed to do these two things.


Non-independent stores in the UK that sell manga

I would suggest checking if you have a local forbidden planet, they have locations all over the UK and always had a wide selection available; their website is here http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/

I found most book stores generally have a small manga/anime section. Depending on what exactly you are looking for you may do better looking online, the best site in my experience is http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ which returns over 100,000 hits when I search just on the word manga.

There are many other online options which you can find using a search engine.

I hope this helps.


How do I figure out the contents of doujinshi?

It might be a simple matter of H-service, so what matters the most is the art. Something like storyline is trivial in most of the H-works in Japan as I would say. That's why, the business focuses only on gaining money.


Why does Sasuke still have the Rinnegan?

Well, we have seen several instances where even losing Six Paths Power still makes one stronger than most, as described by Kakashi after he obtained Obito's power.  I don't remember the exact chapter, but right after he awakened Sharingan in his natural eyes from Obito transferring his power, Kakashi says something along the lines of the eyes being stronger after Obito played host to the Ten Tails.  One could also argue that having the completed chakra of the Six Paths was only a requirement to awaken the Rinnegan, not keeping it.  However, I must stick with whatever facts that I can see and those are thus;  but first.

Spoiler warning, just in case you haven't read past chapter 690 as mentioned in the OP's question.

   In chapter 696, after Kaguya was defeated and the Six Paths Yin and Yang symbols had returned to Hagoromo, we witness the final fight between Naruto and Sasuke at the Valley of the End. In this fight, Sasuke was still wielding his Rinnegan, but more importantly for the evidence involved, Naruto was still using Six Paths Sage Mode. That being said, it leaves little room for interpretation that the two of them must still have Six Paths Chakra of their own.

 Now the room we do have for speculation comes here where we must decide whether they still have these powers, because
 A. When Hagoromo regained the seals on his hands, they were just the seals for the Six Paths Chibaku Tensei and nothing more. Or
 B. Even though Hagoromo took his powers back, having been exposed to the Six Paths chakra has awakened their natural ability to use it, since Sasuke and Naruto were the reincarnated Indra and Asura respectively. After all, Madara was able to awaken the Rinnegan by introducing Hashirama's cells into his own body unknowingly, which means introducing Asura's chakra into himself. After it was integrated, he didn't have to continuously inject Hashi's cells to keep the Rinnegan.


There are no monsters on Floor 18 however they can come from floors above or below Floor 18.
The question was answered on a subreddit-

From just the anime's perspective, the dungeon is perceived as a living being. It is also said earlier in ep. 10 or so that the dungeon hates gods. Right after Hestia channels that divine power, the dungeon starts to shake and the Regenerative Goliath drops down from what looks like the floor above. It appears to be a much stronger, powered up version of the Goliath that spawns on level 17, which just happens to be the floor above.
From just the anime, it would appear to be the dungeon reacting to the presence of gods by spawning a powered-up version of the Goliath and dropping it straight onto where it detected the gods.

Source


In the manga, what piece is Chiaki playing at the beginning?

This is the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 1, which is not the concerto being played in the anime. Examining the section where the piano begins to play, we can see a correspondence between the orchestral reduction (as shown in a piano part) and the bars of top line shown in the manga. The lower line corresponds to the opening of the piano part, although a couple notes at the very beginning are missing.

For comparison, here is the relevant section of the piano part. The orchestral part (i.e. the first line) is marked with yellow brackets; the piano (i.e. the second) with blue. (Note that the score Chiaki is using has a different format from the one I found; his includes the orchestral reduction even when the piano is playing, and the reduction occupies a separate line.)


They didn't mention anything like this in manga but lets just assume that he has more than one camera. At the first time Sengoku found Eiken's camera inside the plane, it was white.

First camera

And the second camera, when Sengoku met Eiken, it was black.

Second camera

So I think the one that Eiken left on the plane is the first camera, later on he only use the second camera for the rest of manga.

They also mentioned it on wiki

  Considering his first camera was blown up during the plane which he left behind, it is suggested he has more than one camera, as well as numerous batteries on hand.


I'm sure someone can give a better answer than mine, since I have not read or watched the series.

Dog's circle is not a Japanese phrase. Looking at the Japanese wiki article, it mentions an Inu no Kai (犬の会), or Gathering of Dogs.  It says it is a drinking club of youkai that would rush to Natsume like a dog for whatever reason he calls them, therefore the "dog" name.

I am assuming the "gathering" part of the title was translated as "circle", which I don't think is a very good translation.  Circle is used in Japanese to refer to clubs, like an "anime club", but does not translate over well back to English in that same sense.  I think the name should've been capitalized to make it clear it's a proper noun. Still, if they're throwing a term like that around, I would assume it was explained somewhere in the series.


What does “Khorosho” mean?

It's Russian: хорошо.

I don't know Russian, so I can't claim to know how Russian speakers understand the word "khorosho", but I can tell you how Japanese speakers presume Russian speakers understand it. The Japanese understanding of "khorosho" is as an interjection used to express roughly "Wow!" or "Great!" or perhaps "OK." (cf. one, two, three). This appears to differ somewhat from how the word is understood by Russian speakers.

Understood as a fairly generic interjection, one can see why Eli/Alisa might have used it in the various contexts you point out in your question.

  And why wouldn't it be translated in the English subtitles?

I imagine it would've gone untranslated because it's a foreign word to Japanese viewers, too.

Aside - for reasons that are not clear to me, "khorosho" appears to be Japan's favorite Russian word. The Japanese destroyer Hibiki was surrendered to the Soviets post-war (and renamed Verniy). Thus, Hibiki in Kantai Collection also frequently says "khorosho", because apparently that's just a thing that [Japanese people think] Russians do.


Was Mitsuki deceived into being friends with Boruto?

Fundamentally, You could argue that he did, but probably not in the way the question implies. Mitsuki is a clone, so in that regards he is more or less human. His emotions are going to be derived from Orichimaru's personality, especially his younger self, and how he was raised. In that regard, Orochimaru did do the activity to make him think for himself, erasing his memory on failure. As a side effect, Mitsuki's emotions are fairly low in intensity.

Orochimaru then used the success of that activity to point Mitsuki to Boruto. With that, Mitsuki was nearly blank shell emotion wise, as shown by his general lack of strong emotions. He was only allowed to leave once he matured enough to think for himself, and then he was sent to Boruto. Most likely, that is the only real "designed" part of Mitsuki's emotions, that Orochimaru forced him to mature and then gave him a "sun" as they are so called in the Naruto universe. Mitsuki in turn becoming friendly to Boruto is his own thing.

It could be the case though that this all came about because of unseen manipulation by Orochimaru. Mitsuki is a clone, yet is also a lot more kindhearted than Orochimaru, which could mean there is some manipulation to tone down that apathetic/evil nature. It could also be though that was more Nuture than Nature, so In truth there is no full and clear answer, in the Manga, Anime, or any other source. The Anime will probably give some answer in a few episodes though, as its fairly clear Mitsuki wants to answer that very question himself before he returns to the Leaf. This is Anime only though as far as I know.

TL;DR :
There is some manipulation as shown by the experiment Orochimaru did, but that was one to teach Mitsuki to think for himself. There is also the fact that he was pointed to Boruto, but that is more priming than design. Mitsuki is mostly a clone of Orochimaru, so he is at least mostly human and has his own emotions, so it was still mostly his own choice to be friends. That leaves one unknown, if he was engineered/designed to be like he is emotionally or not, which could count, but is unknown. Regardless, Mitsuki was free to make his own decisions after he passed the test, and he chose to checkout this person whos picture he was given (Boruto). He wasn't forced, tricked, or deceived into anything beyond meeting him.


Is there an out-of-universe reason for the Gundam series mech head designs?

According to Kunio Okawara, the mecha designer for the series:

  "I also put the form of the chonmage, which is a form of Japanese traditional haircut worn by men, and kabuto, which is a type of helmet first used by ancient Japanese warriors, into the design of Gundam. They are my inspirations that are concealed behind the creation of Gundam."


Does Eren have to be in contact with a titan with royal blood or an eldian with royal blood to activate his founding titan commanding powers?

According to the latest manga episode it is said that he has to be in contact with a royal blood to activate his power of founding titans and they also proved this when they recalled how the very first time eren was able to control titans, that was when he hit diana(his stepmother,a royal blood) and that time he wasn't in this titan form.
So from this we can say that he just had to be in contact with the royal blood to activate the power of titan


Why is Patry so powerful, if he isnt the true elf leader?

I don't think you can call him so powerful.  As an elf, he is more powerful than human; we all know that.
He is powerful because of 3 main reasons:

ELF POWER
William Vengeance body
four-leaf clover grimoire

We all about elves magic power so no discussion.
He got the most powerful human body of William Vengeance who ranked just after wizard king in clover kingdom magic night rankings(all the clover people recognize him as next wizard king), I think this is the main reason. All those elves who got magic knight squad captain bodies are powerful.
we all know the four-leaf clover grimoire considered the most powerful.


Well my friend to be honest, Mashashi messed up a little at the end of Naruto series, no offense but as a long term Naruto fan I feel that. This is one case he won't be able to fix.

The other case is remember 16 years ago before Naruto was born when Obito tried to capture the nine tails at that point, Kakashi seem to be a little kid  but 4th Hokage fight with a full grown Obito at that point.

Anyway my possible solution to your answer is that someone rescued him and helped him regaining some of his chakra and use Doton jutsu. Unbalance rubber may have been fallen short after Kakashi and the others left.


What is the difference between Hero Killer Stain and Hero Hunter Garou?

Even though both the character are Hero antagonist, still there is quite a difference between these two.

Hero Killer: Stain aka Chizome Akagur

  Stain is a cold, unforgiving man with a sense of duty to cleanse society of false heroes. He believes that those who work as Heroes to collect income are unworthy of being called the name and only All Might is a true hero. Due to his strong ideology, he took it upon himself to become Hero Killer: Stain to stain his own hands with blood to purge fake heroes and change the current society.

His reason for killing is his extremist views about the ideal Heroes of Society.

Hero Hunter Garou

  Garou is introduced as an evil character with a hatred for heroes and has a confident, vindictive characterization. Garou hates the popular, as he believes the popular will always win in the end. This is because as a child, he had no friends and the popular children at school enjoyed abusing him both physically and verbally, particularly a boy named Tacchan. They forced him to play Heroes, where Tacchan ("Justice Man") would beat up Garou ("the monster"). Garou noticed how everyone liked Tacchan but hated him. After watching his life repeat over and over again on the Justice Man TV show, he grew a distaste of heroes in general and believed that in the end, the majority will always want him ("the monster") dead.

Garou's reason for Hero Hunting are his terrible childhood experiences, that made him a villain today.

Common Grounds

Stain

  In spite of his extremist views and beliefs, Stain does have genuine ideals about Heroism which he stands by firmly. He does not hesitate to save people he deems worthy of being called Heroes, does not like killing without reason, and will even give advice to his enemies. He seems to acknowledge that what he is doing is morally wrong, but believes that in order for society to be put on the right path, someone must be what he is, indicating he sees himself as somewhat of a martyr.

Garou

  Garou is a villain and considered evil by most, he possesses a sense of morality: he fights heroes in a way without killing them, but he is okay with others killing heroes.

Referred from -

Chizome Akaguro - My Hero Academia Wiki
Garou - One Punch Man Wiki


What character/series did this person on Heroes of Cosplay cosplay as?

The characters are from the game "The Last Story" for the Wii. It's an RPG made by Hironobu Sakaguchi.


Just recently re-saw the arc so it's pretty fresh.  He knew because Pouf had him call Pitou to tell her that Killua killed her.  It struck him as a weird request at the time, but when he was racking his brain for the right answer, he started connecting all the dots and realized she was the keyword in all of it.

He most likely figured out Komugi was the right name because he put the following things together:

The King is looking for something.
King wants to know what Pouf is hiding.
Pouf used Welkin to lie to another Royal guard.
Pouf lied about the enemy killing a person named Komugi who was in the enemies' possession
Royal guards are incapable of being un-loyal to the King.
Ikalgo/Palm believes they have something the King will definitely trade for.


What animals and confections are each of the characters?

All of them seems to be portmanteau which combines the name of some kind of food (reflected in the shape/features of their bodies) and the name or sound made by some animal (reflected in the shape/features of their heads).

ローニャ (ro-nya): ロールケーキ/Swiss roll + ニャ/にゃ (Onomatopoeia for cat)
どーにゃつ (do-nyatsu): ドーナツ/Donut + ニャ/にゃ (Onomatopoeia for cat)
The name is written in Hiragana. For comparison purpose, ドーナツ in Hiragana is どーなつ.
ベーガル (be-garu): ベーグル/Bagel + (Unknown)
クマカロン (kumacaron): クマ（熊）/Bear + マカロン/Macaron1
1 Not to be confused with Macaroon.
バームクーガー (ba-muku-ga-): バウムクーヘン/Baumkuchen + ピューマ（クーガー2）/Cougar
2 In the disambiguation page, クーガー is a different name for ピューマ; ピューマ (Puma) seems to be more commonly used in Japanese.
もるどーにゃつ (morudo-nyatsu): Mold/モルド3 + ドーナツ/Donut + ニャ/にゃ (Onomatopoeia for cat)
3 モルド is more of a transcription of the English word "Mold", rather than a loan word.
ちくわぶた (chikuwabuta): ちくわぶ（竹輪麩）4/Chikuwabu + ぶた（豚）/Pig
4 Not to be confused with ちくわ（竹輪）/Chikuwa. Quoting from Wikipedia page of Chikuwabu: "Chikuwabu is often confused with the fish-based chikuwa, as they are similar in shape and name and are both common ingredients in oden. However, unlike chikuwa, chikuwabu is rarely eaten on its own."
メンチワワ (menchiwawa): メンチカツ5/Menchi-katsu + チワワ/Chihuahua
5 I linked to Menchi-katsu (ground meat cutlet), since it resembles the illustration best. メンチ (menchi) is a phonetically modified version of the word "mince" in English.
コロッケン (korokken): コロッケ6/Korokke + ケン（犬）/Dog
6 Not to be confused with クロケット/Croquette, although コロッケ/Korokke is a dish originates from クロケット/Croquette.

Although not in the pictures in the question, there is also マチュマロ (machumaro), translated as marshmallow mouse, which made an appearance in chapter 3. However, the mice seem to be the only characters in the manga whose bodies don't resemble some kind of food.

マチュマロ (machumaro): マシュマロ/Marshmallow + チュウ (Onomatopoeia for mouse)

Source: http://donyatsu.jp/wp-content/themes/donyatsu/characters/img/characterimg12.gif

As the story progresses, more characters are introduced:

ウシフォン (ushifon): ウシ（牛）/Cow + シフォン/Chiffon cake

Source: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/magazine/yg/introduction/donyatsu/img/character12.jpg
まっちゃん (macchan): まっちゃ（抹茶）/Matcha
According to the official website, it seems to be a Matcha Donut Cat.

Source: http://donyatsu.jp/wp-content/themes/donyatsu/characters/img/characterimg8.gif
マルモチーター (marumochi-ta-): まるもち（丸餅）/Marumochi (lit. Round Mochi) + チーター/Cheetah

Source: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/magazine/yg/introduction/donyatsu/img/character16.jpg

Marumochi is grilled before consumption, as seen in the picture below:

Source: http://www.ic-net.or.jp/home/ds-chizu/graphic/marumochimein2.jpg)
This explains the square pattern on its body.


What "additional voices" did Alison Viktorin voice in Fullmetal Alchemist?

IMDb is mistaken in that Alison Viktorin is "known for" Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. As was stated in the comments. IMDb simply sees that Viktorin did voice work for Brotherhood, sees that Brotherhood is a very famous title, and assumes that she is well-known for her work in it.

This is quite contrary to the truth, though. Viktorin is credited only as "additional voices" in one episode: episode 43. I've seen the episode a few times, and can confirm that there are only four places where a non-credited voice (i.e. one outside the named cast in the credits) is heard (excluding obviously male voices):

Two children laughing and playing (2:35)
Child grabbing Yoki's hair (3:03)
Baby tugging on sleeve (10:14)
Unintelligible chattering and whispering (11:01)

Though I can't tell which one of these four instances Viktorin actually voices, all four are very minor roles that are hardly worthy of mention.


Who is the first Oppai Loli ever featured in anime and manga?

Note: this answer uses the term "loli" as defined by Japanese anime fans: it's either age-related or appearance-related (AniOta), or to the extension of either childlike face, short height, no waist, loli voice, or even deformed (pixiv).

Hestia is probably the first character that's called ロリ巨乳 (LOLI kyonyuu, big-breasted loli) in-universe, which is a famous term characterizing her physical trait, but there were many oppai loli before her.

Here are articles on AniOta Wiki (Japanese), Nico Nico Pedia (Japanese) and pixiv dictionary (Japanese) that list oppai loli characters with their traits. Here is a Google Sheets made by me for compiling a list of oppai loli characters based on those sources.

Based on AniOta Wiki, Nico Nico Pedia, pixiv Dictionary (+ some YouTube videos), Saori Kido, a 13-year old girl from Saint Seiya (December 1985) is the earliest oppai loli character.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia


The language is officially called "Orte", based on "Orte Empire".
In the original manga, it appears only in written form with Japanese translation (no transliteration/spoken form). The character looks like a random scribble (and even like this...), but later was thought to be a modified Japanese hiragana & katakana.

Transliteration:
げきぶ
どりふたあず
がくにを
もしわれ
さんどうする
のならゆみ
をとりやを
つがえ
From 佐とさん's Twitter

When Drifters got animated, Kouta Hirano (the author) didn't think about it at all. He mentioned it on the Twitter,

The incoherent character that I wrote randomly on the spot, known as Orte language, was adjusted to be a fictional Latin-based language by the anime staffs. I can only say sorry while dogeza-ing with my head thrusting the ground.

Seiichi Shirato, a setting researcher for Drifters, also mentioned about the difficulty in dialog speech due to Orte language. From his interview,

What's the most memorable impression when doing researches for Drifters?
The problematic one is about the dialog speech. Regarding the Orte language that is spoken by the elfs, there's a conversation to just reverse the Japanese text/dialog. When we tried it, apparently it's still similar to Japanese, thus we created a language based in Europe. There's an idea to modify Latin little by little, but since Scipio (a character in Drifters) speaks Latin, he would find out!

Surprisingly, Orte language seems to have its own language structure. A Japanese blogger tried to analyze the language, though it ended only until episode 3.
Examples:

seda- : stop (verb)
neruc- : kill (verb)
quinacos: what (intransitive)
quinacom: what (transitive)
tu: you (2nd-person pronoun)
hi/hii: he (3rd-person pronoun)


Do Bardock and King Vegeta make appearances in Otherworld?

Anime and GT series make a lot of confusion with its fillers, but in the manga, Piccolo explains water-clear to Vegeta.

Evil souls are cleaned, their memories wiped, and then reincarnated.

Both King Vegeta and Bardock, although heroic, are clearly evil, so they are impossible to visit.

Goku never shows interest for knowing about his father. He was raised by humans, and he consider his adoptive grandfather as his true ancestor.

Please, also notice that HFIL is an invention of the American dub, which you should avoid if you are really interested in Dragonball canon. Where Goku goes is called the Other World, and what is written on the otherworld's demons' shirts is "HELL".


Are there real life counterparts to the characters in the anime?

Oh boy, this is going to be a big answer eventually. There's a lot more than I have here so far, but I need to go back and rewatch some of the episodes to re-find some of the references. I'll continue to update this answer every so often as I rewatch the show.

I don't know that there is an "official credible reference" (in fact, I suspect that there is not and never will be such a thing because of how Japanese media tends to pussyfoot around references to real-life people/media/etc.), but some of the references to real-life people are incredibly transparent if you know who they're referencing.

Miyamori and her four friends don't have real-life counterparts, but many of the other characters most definitely do. Here are some of the ones I'm aware of.

So, first off, Shirobako director Kinoshita Seiichi looks a lot like real-life director Mizushima Seiji (and their given names are eerily similar). I'm told that the director of Shirobako (coincidentally named Mizushima Tsutomu) is buddies with Mizushima Seiji, hence his appearing in the show as the director.

The three Exodus lead voice actors - Nakaharu Mei (Akane), Kayana Mui (Alpine), and Itou Suzuka (Aya) - are voiced by real-life voice actors Nakahara Mai, Kayano Ai, and Itou Shizuka.

And, of course, veteran director Kanno Mitsuaki, the man behind Avangelion, is none other than the master, Anno Hideaki.


What type of Logia can defeat a Haki user?

There is no such thing as a Devil's Fruit that automatically beats a Haki user.  The use of Haki is to be able to make contact with a Logia type fruit user.  This allows for a "fair" fight (in the sense that one person isn't inherently untouchable).  However, there is no fruit that negates the power of Haki (or at least among the fruits that have been revealed).


How do they imbue their weapons with Haki?

Only Color of Armaments can be given to a weapon. Since weapon is non-living, Color of Observation and Conqueror's Haki cannot be provided. Weapons can be thought of like an extension of one's limbs (although not mentioned in OP, this is usually the case in most manga). Color of Armaments provides an extra layer of hard protection from external injury to one's body. With sufficient practice, it can be used as weapon to attack. Since weapons are an extension of one's body, weapons are given armament protection to make them more lethal.

Also, Rayleigh did mention that Color of Armaments can be imbued with a weapon for more impact. But how it is done has not been explained properly.


How are games in the School Days franchise linked?

I made a small diagram to show the order the games came out:

School Days is the main & first game in the series. It was remade in School Days HQ with updated graphics and additional uncensored scenes.
Summer Days takes place during the same time period, but in an alternate universe. The story is told from the perspective of Setsuna Kiyoura. It was remade as Shiny Days and an English translation of this has been announced recently. The original Shiny Days came bundled with bonus games Ahoge Battle and Strip Battle Days which haven't been confirmed/unconfirmed by JASTUSA yet whether they will be in the English version or not.

Cross Days is a story that takes place at the same time as School Days, but with a different cast. There is no English version yet, although there was a trial CD at one stage.
Island Days is a VN/Tower Defence Game, where weapons picked up in the main story line are used to defend yourself during the tower-defence stage. It seems to just be a spin-off unplaced in time.
Alternative Versions
As of writing, only School days has an animated version, but Summer Days and Cross Days have small manga adaptions - An anthology and a two-volume series respectively. There are light novels of all three games.
There doesn't seem to be much secondary merchandise for Island Days.


Why does Zangetsu transform back into shikai mode when cutting Yhwach in half?

Before the final battle, Yhwach has absorbed Mimihagi, the right arm of the soul king, which governs stagnation (around 619). This means that Mimihagi is present during the final battle.

There are two mysteries within the final battle: how did Ichigo actually defeat Yhwach, when Yhwach could simply future shatter the sword, and why did Ichigo's sword regress to his original Shikai? The answer to both is Mimihagi. And we must answer the first before we can answer the second.

Mimihagi does not ever appear within Yhwach's future visions. We see Yhwach freaking out in 617 when Mimihagi intervenes. This makes sense: Yhwach can see the future, not the past.

After the Almighty fully activates, Yhwach's visions do not fail. Yet during the final battle, he gets shot by Uryu and cut by Ichigo. Obviously, he didn't foresee these events since they proved fatal. From what we know, we can deduce that Mimihagi is interfering with the powers of the Almighty. Yhwach cannot see visions involving Mimihagi, and since he absorbed Mimihagi, the Almighty will not behave perfectly when used on situations that he is in.

Before he is shot, Yhwach attempts to envelop the Soul Society in darkness. However, the power of Quincies isn't darkness. They wield weapons made of literal light. In employing Mimihagi's power so recklessly, he weakened the influence of the Almighty, allowing Uryu to fully disable it.

Now the answer to your question:

When Yhwach reached out his hand enshrouded in darkness to shatter Ichigo's blade, he accidentally employed the wrong power. He couldn't use the Almighty's power in that situation, so he inadvertently used Mimihagi. But Mimihagi doesn't destroy, it stagnates, it regresses. So instead of shattering Ichigo's blade, Yhwach forced it to return to the original form


What is the meaning of these lines in the opening of Elfen Lied?

To give you some context, this song is sung in Latin and "Kyrie" is the a common prayer in Christian liturgy. "Kyrie eleison" pretty much equates to "lord, have mercy".
If you look at some translations of these lyrics we see the two lines in question roughly translated as:

Lord, spring of goodness.
Lord, heavenly fire, have mercy.

So to answer your question, this prayer is a fixed expression praising the Lord.
In the Christian context, these words are not "just air" and have history and meaning. In the context of Elfen Lied, the connection is more tenuous.


Is the Degenerate skill name used as a noun or a verb?

Some minor spoilers ahead.

I think it is a noun. Its other name is 'Deviant', which is used as a noun or an adjective. Furthermore, it was noted in the wiki that

  The kanji for Deviant translate to both Shapeshifter and Deviant (Degenerate or Pervert)

which

   is where the pun comes from when Rimuru teases the spirit of Shizue inside him at a comedic panel of the manga at the end of the chapter.

From these two translations, it is also used as a noun.

Degenerate, according to Wikipedia, is someone who has fallen from a previous state whereas deviant is something that departs from the norm. The skill releases properties inherent to the target, which is quiet similar to what happens when one becomes a degenerate or if someone becomes a deviant.


What anime features robot armor and reference to "Dell Power"

I haven't watched the anime personally, however I came across this anime before and the synopsis fits your discription.
I believe the anime you are looking for is:
 Delpower X Bakuhatsu Miracle Genki!

Synopsis

  Manami is your typical schoolgirl, despite the odd machines her grandfather is always building. One day, though, an odd evil robot comes to attack Minami's school, and commits the ultimate offense of threatening her friends... and ruining her lunch. Now, she will stop at nothing to return order to the world in her grandpa's newest creation: the mecha Del Power X.

ANN also describes the loss of her bento:

  Hanegi Manami is a junior high school girl with unusual relatives, to say the least. Her grandfather's passion is building unusual things and has just had his latest concoction delivered to their doorstep. The mecha known as Del Power X. With a driver seat specially designed for Manami, its powers are rivaled by no other. Unfortunately, her grandfather's rival Von Getsueru and a plethora of other people are determined to prove that fact wrong, regardless of who is in the pilot`s seat, Manami must fight for love, pride, and above all else, the loss of her precious bento.

Both describe the "old man" as the grandfather who builds stuff, and also made the mecha in question and the girl being upset about her lost lunch. The obvious reference is, of course, "Delpower" probably because it is homophonic to "Dell power" which would be an understandable association.


Is it possible to have a girl reincarnate of Asura and Indra?

There isn't any mention of any other incarnates in the manga. It's entirely possible since it's simply chakra reincarnating to a different body, however it's unprovable.

Purely Theoretically: It does seem as though, from what we've seen and what we know of Asura and Indra, that all of his reincarnations would be descendants of them. Indra and his two known reincarnations (Madara and Sasuke) all have been Uchiha (descendants of Indra) and have had the Sharingan. Asura and his two known reincarnations (Hashirama and Naruto) are Senju and Uzumaki, descendants of Asura's clan. This may be because their decedents share similar chakra (Uchiha have the Sharingan, and Uzumaki/Senju have incredible chakra control and chakra reserves). Theoretically, as long as they're a member of one of these clans they can be a reincarnation.


Why aren't people leaving Hellsalem's Lot?

It's just like in real life. At first, the danger to be something new, creates fear and survival measures are sought. But, with the passage of time, it becomes normal. Within the same manga / anime they express that Leo now see everything in a natural way because he have already got used to the daily life of the city.


Why did Cartoon Network never air the last four episodes of Zoids: Chaotic Century?

The Final Battle aired on 2002 May 2nd and almost a year later The Ancient Memory (1) aired on 2003 January 4th with the other three episodes. It is possible that Cartoon Network did air the last four episodes, or that it was Network 10/TV3 in Australia/New Zealand, respectively.

There was definitely some sort of discrepancy that prevented Zoids: Chaotic Century from being shown from start to finish. Sadly, the only people who can answer this question are those that worked at Cartoon Network at the time.


Why is creating massive water spouts/flames/rock formations/gusts of wind a sign of mastery?

The episode you seem to be referencing is Book 2 Chapter 1: The Avatar State, when Avatar Roku's spirit gives Aang a crash course in the meaning of the avatar state. We get a quick demonstration of the power of the avatar state when we see it invoked by Avatar Kuruk to bend a gigantic wave, Avatar YangChen to cause a gale force gust, the fire nation avatar before YangChen to cause a volcano to erupt, etc.

Technically, you would be right to say anyone who has mastered bending their native element could create such feats. I don't believe the term bending master has ever been formally defined in the show, though evidently it implies great skill in bending. Whether that implies the ability to bend X massive amount of the element at once or perform an incredibly intricate move is not said and there is no hard cutoff. It evidently is opposite that of a novice, though, who'd be getting a feel for the fundamentals by pushing/pulling their first ripple of water or generating a small puff of flame, so it makes sense a demonstration of how much of an element could be bent at once is a signal of mastery.

The thing is that like the martial arts, the bending is based in proficiency that gets better with experience and time. People continuously get better with practice but those skills do not necessarily scale linearly; e.g. bend rock -> bend bigger rock, Bumi at the ripe age of 112 has the ability to earthbend by tilting his head.

Mastery is more or less just a sign of proficiency or title of respect and there is no upper cap on it. Eventually a waterbender may achieve the skill needed to bend a wave like Kuruk, but the skill being demonstrated in the scene is the ability to tap into, as Roku says, skills, powers and experiences of all past lives of the Avatar. The ability to use skills yet to be learned from scrolls yet to be read in one's current lifetime.

It is nice that the scale of the feats shown to Aang are greater than any single feat by a non-Avatar otherwise, but the true special quirk of the Avatar is not the mastery of one's own bending element. The thing that any random bender cannot do but the Avatar can is bend more than one element. Kuruk is shown bending a massive wave, but could have just as easily bent a gale force wind or a giant fissure because we see previous Avatars doing so.

I've only watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, never Legend of Korra, and am not familiar with most of the comics that exist around the series, perhaps a better answer is given elsewhere.


Is there any hint in the Manga that Riko will meet the rest of the white whistles?

To your question specifically, the answer is no.

In the latest chapter (47) and the current arc in general there are many hints regarding to white whistles users. In chapter 47 we learned a very important pice of information that possibly tie to them.


Why is harem a common theme in manga/anime?

The target audience of "harem" shows is adolescent males - teenage boys. The main character is usually a male high school or cram school student, who is awkward around girls - someone the target audience can relate to, as they are in the same phase of their lives, struggling with love. (Who hasn't?)

Adolescent males have always been a large part of the audience for anime; shows featuring giant robots appeal to the same group. So it's a trope that appeals to the traditional audience.

I'm not sure why we don't seem to have "harem series" in superhero comics, as it could be successful for the same reason. One reason could be that the iconic superheroes like Superman and Batman are already mature, at an age where they are more confident around females, and also expected to behave more maturely than the protagonists of harem series.


Is "Devilman: Crybaby" related to the 90's or the older Devilman series?

Yes

Devilman Crybaby roughly follows the plot of the original devilman manga (1972) which started the Devilman Franchise where there are sequels, prequels, remakes, new plot lines, crossovers ect... Essentially a continual flow of new content from the 70's to date, see the above link for details on which series fit where.

EDIT: Just commenting on the other answer saying No. My answer was really intended to respond to the title of those works being related where it seems you are responding specifically to if OP should watch something else first. While I agree Devilman Crybaby stands on its own as a story and there is no content that is necessary to see before or after watching... There are plenty of story connections to be found other works such as the manga titled "Devilman Shin" and "Devilman Lady" which are official sequels, or the prequel "Demon Knight"


Why did the shinobi become weaker with every generation?

One reason that can explain this is the need for 'power' or 'skills' decreased over time. Whenever there was raging destruction and war, powerful shinobi emerged to sustain the survival of their respective clans. After Hashirama and Madara established the leaf village, peace and prosperity spread everywhere, as more peaceful villages emerged. This was explained in one of the recent manga chapters : people took the truce between the most powerful clans as an example and decided to take a break from war. With no raging battles or major wars, the need for highly skilled shinobi declined and people started exploring other professions.

My guess is that Rikudo Senin was born with certain special skills and trained unimaginably hard in his generation to overcome the terror of the ten tails.

This also explains why Naruto and Sasuke have trained so extensively on the way to become the most powerful of their generation. The experiments of Orichimaru in reviving the dead, the Akatsuki's goals and conflicting views of Naruto and Sasuke were indicators of a potential major war coming up!


Why was the hidden mist called the village of the Bloody Mist?

Kirigakure, the Village Hidden in the Mist, is know as Bloody Mist Village due to the cruel nature of their academy’s graduation exam. In order for their academy student to graduate, they had to fight to the death and only those who survived would move on to being a shinobi.

Village of the Bloody Mist
Over time, the village became infamously known as the "Village of the Bloody Mist" (血霧の里, Chigiri no Sato) for a cruel reason — in the Kirigakure Academy, students wishing to graduate (only members of the lowest caste in the novel)had to fight to the death, and only those who survived could advance to the ranks of the ninja

However, this gradation method was eventually discontinued after Zabuza slaughtered an entire graduating year of students

The Academy's graduation methods were discontinued after Zabuza Momochi, not yet a student himself, killed an entire year's graduating class


Who created the iconic character designs for the KyoAni look of K-On & Tamako Market?

Nowadays, seems like that style has just been hardwired into KyoAni since the character designer for K-On! and Tamako Market, Horiguchi Yukiko, has already left the studio.
Going through a brief history of KyoAni's character designers:
DISCLAIMER: I'll be skipping the Munto movie series and the anime it spawned as it's pretty much the same deal as AIR in terms of staff. Also, many more people than those I'll be mentioning have formed part of the animation department of KyoAni, but I'll be focusing on those that got at any point in time credited as Character Designer or Chief Animation Director.
Their first big solo anime seems to be Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (2003), inheriting the franchise from GONZO, bringing back the first season Character Designer and Animation Director Horiuchi Osamu. He'd reprise these roles for FMP Season 2 in 2005, but that's the last of him with KyoAni. He's just here for historic reference, I don't think he had that much influence in the KyoAni style.
In between the FMP seasons, they made AIR (2005), an adaptation of a KEY Visual Novel (get used to this), by the hand of Character Designer and Chief Animation Director Aratani Tomoe. Of note here are Ikeda Kazumi and Ikeda Shoko taking over as Animation Directors for certain episodes; and also being Key Animators alongside Nishiya Futoshi and Horiguchi Yukiko. You could call this the early stage of KyoAni's style.
In comes 2006 with The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, now with Ikeda Shoko as Character Designer and Animation Director. This time, Nishiya and Horiguchi got to direct some episodes themselves along Aratani and Ikeda Kazumi, they all worked in Key Animation as well.
Later that year, they all worked on Kanon (2006), a new adaptation of yet another Key VN, this time with Ikeda Kazumi as Character Designer and Chief Animation Director (CAD). The rest of the team mentioned earlier also worked as individual episodes Animation Directors and on Key Animation.
Spring 2007 brings us our star. Horiguchi Yukiko gets to be Character Designer and CAD for Lucky Star. Same as before, we get all our familiar faces working on Animation Direction or Key Animation, with a new addition: Kadowaki Miku on Key Animation. Lucky Star (and the first season of Haruhi to some extent) seems to me to be the middle point between the KEY adaptation style and the later KyoAni style, I believe working on this, adapting the 4-koma chibi style of the manga, helped cement Horiguchi's style for later works.
Later that year, Ikeda Kazumi is back helming Clannad, again with a KEY adaptation. The regular team is at it again, but this is the second to last work with KyoAni for Aratani, and since her last work was the finale for the Munto series which I said I won't be expanding upon, this is the last we'll see of her in this overview. I believe she had an important role in nurturing the talents in KyoAni through her work in AIR and Munto. Clannad After Story in 2008 continued with the same staff sans Aratani and is to this day the most beautifully crafted of any KEY VN adaptation ever made.
2009 was a big year for KyoAni. First with 2 Haruhi ONA series with Nishiya at the helm, followed by K-On! with designs by Horiguchi Yukiko (and Kadowaki gets a role as Assistant Animation Director for ep 12) with her style now in its full glory, and Haruhi Season 2 with Ikeda back as Character Designer but with Nishiya as CAD (and Kadowaki as a full-on Animation Director herself for episodes 7 and 13). This is the year that pretty much set in stone the artstyle that you're looking for. It can be clearly seen how Horiguchi's style had permeated into the rest of the team with Haruhi S2, where you could see in some episodes more similarities between it and K-On! than with the first season, same deal with the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya movie in 2010 (Also, K-On! S2 also aired on 2010).
In 2011, Nishiya is back as Character Designer and CAD for Nichijou, and then back to Horiguchi with the K-On! Movie. The Ikeda siblings seemingly left temporarily, as they had no participation in the K-On! Movie.
Now, it's 2012, we start with Hyouka, with Nishiya back at the head, with a more... let's say elegant (?) style, while still resembling Horiguchi's, this is what will become what I like to call late KyoAni style. Later that year, Ikeda Kazumi is back leading Chuu2Koi, and here is where you can see how much of an impact Horiguchi had made. Despite her not having any role as Key Animator, nor directing animation in any episodes, you can clearly see that her style from K-On! is all over the place.
Horiguchi is finally back in 2013 with Tamako Market, her last TV anime with KyoAni. That same year, Free (Nishiya) and Kyoukai no Kanata (Kadowaki's debut as Character Designer and CAD, and also Takase Akiko joined as Key Animator) further develop the late KyoAni style into what we see nowadays. Chuu2Koi S2 brings back the softer style even without Horiguchi, and the last we see of this pure Horiguchi style from KyoAni will be 2014's Tamako Love Story.
After her leaving KyoAni, seems like she's been working on the mixed media idol project "22/7" which had an anime last year (the idol project seems to have started on 2016 tho), and the Graphinica movie "Hello World" from 2019. She was also the illustrator for the Kokoro Connect light novels. Those would be closest chances if you want more of her undiluted style.
KyoAni on the other hand went on to develop its style with Amagi Brilliant Park in 2014 (Kadowaki). The Ikeda siblings seem to be the ones that were most influenced by Horiguchi, Hibike! Euphonium in 2015 (Ikeda Shoko's comeback) and Musaigen Phantom World in 2016 (Ikeda Kazumi) have a much closer style to Tamako Market than other later works of KyoAni. But Nishiya clears the way to the late style with 2016's masterpiece Koe no Katachi and culminating with Takase Akiko's debut as Character Designer in 2018's Violet Evergarden (in between these 2 it was mostly sequels and spin-offs from Free and Euphonium).
What was the point of this overly long explanation instead of just saying "Horiguchi Yukiko"? Because I believe that the style in KyoAni's work is not simply one person's work. Even though the biggest influence comes from Horiguchi Yukiko, the current state of the style was made possible through KyoAni's own work ethos and a lot of work from Nishiya and Kadowaki who developed the style after Horiguchi's departure. Them alternating character designers and animation directors helped nurture new talent and create a style of their own that wasn't just a single person's but the studio's as a whole.
And about the arson incident, unfortunately it took the live of Nishiya Futoshi, may he rest in peace.


Why are some of the names written in the Latin alphabet in Hunter x Hunter?

Most writing in HUNTER x HUNTER is in a syllabary, rather than an alphabet, that correlates exactly to the syllabary of the Japanese written language (hiragana and katakana).  A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables which make up words; a symbol in a syllabary is called a "syllabogram."  (In contrast, an alphabet is comprised of letters.)

Romaji is the application of the Latin script to write the Japanese language, not the Latin script itself. In romaji, 「キルア」 would be written as Kirua.  Romaji does not include the letter "L."

Thus, these scans you provide show a language that is most likely English, based on the inclusion of the English word "To."  It appears that "Killua" is the intended English spelling of 「キルア」.

The syllabary is the primary written language of the HUNTER x HUNTER world and is therefore used on official documents, etc. but it is not the only language that exists in that entire world. Since キルキゾルデイック's useful answer was unfortunately deleted from this SE, I will also add here キルキゾルデイック's answer that Leorio's cell phone, the Beatle 07, boasts a translation tool that can translate over 200 languages. If a person never or rarely comes across other languages in the HUNTER x HUNTER world, a translation app would not be a useful feature that customers would fork out 200,000 Jenny for; that this is valued as a feature of the phone implies that it can be very normal to come across written languages other than the syllabary.

Although there is no stated reason for the inclusion of English specifically in the HUNTER x HUNTER world, the world includes linguistic elements that are shared with or based on our real world, which make up at least a portion of the 200+ languages that are stated to exist.  Just as if you visit Japan and see that most documents and signage are printed in the official language (Japanese), that does not preclude any Japanese person from writing something in English, or French, or Arabic, if they so desire at any given time; the person writing does not need to provide a specific rationale for this to be considered normal behavior.  In the same way, the HUNTER x HUNTER syllabary is what we see most often in that world, but since it is not the only language which exists in that world, any character at any given time can opt to write in another language that exists in that world, according to his/her personal preference.

For an example of the HUNTER x HUNTER world unapologetically employing English and other languages from our world, ヨークシンシティ (Yooku Shin Shiti = York New City)'s name is based on New York City, in a combination of the Japanese katakana pronunciation of "York" (ヨーク), the native Japanese word for "new" which is 「新」(shin), and the Japanese katakana pronunciation of "city" (シティ).

As another example, the character ハンゾー (Hanzo) is from the 国家 (kokka = nation) of ジャポン (Japon), which is clearly based on Japan, since he is the only one who knows how to make 寿司 (sushi) in the ハンター試験 (Hunter Exam) and he bears a ninja motif. "Japon" is an exonym for the nation of Japan.  An exonym is the name of an ethnic group and where they live, which is applied to them by outsiders (in contrast to endonyms, which are the names used by the group itself, such as 「日本」[nihon], 「日本（にっぽん）」[nippon], 「大和」[yamato], and「和」[wa]). The English word "Japonism" comes from this exonym.

As a third example, Gon's primary attack is ジャジャン拳 (Jajanken), which relies heavily on the Japanese words employed in the Japanese version of the originally Chinese game じゃんけん (Janken, known as "Rock-Paper-Scissors" in English). The game starts with the phrase 「最初はグー」("saisho ha 'guu,'" meaning "first comes 'rock'"), which is necessary for Gon to say aloud in order to power up. He uses the Japanese words 「グー」(guu, which correlates to 「石」 [ishi = rock]),「チー」(chii, which correlates to 「鋏」[choki = scissors]), and「パー」(paa, which correlates to 「紙」 [kami = paper]) to vary his attack.

As a fourth example, Netero wears a baseball tee with the Japanese or Chinese word 「心」 (kokoro) on it.  Some characters, including Netero, have names with origins in languages from our world (his first name is アイザック [Isaac], the katakana pronunciation of the English pronunciation of the Hebrew name יִצְחָק [Yitzchaq], which means "he laughs").

Thus, this case is not out-of-place according to the worldbuilding that the mangaka, Togashi Yoshihirou, crafted.  Rather, it fits with his precedent of including spoken and written languages other than the syllabary in the HUNTER x HUNTER world.


Was it ever stated canonically that Itachi was already dying when he fought Sasuke?

Tobi mentioned that Itachi was sick with a disease, and was taking medicine for it to extend his life. This happened right after the battle for Sasuke when he woke up. Tobi told him the truth about Itachi at that time, and the disease and illness was a part of it.

The Wiki notes it on the last line of his Background section, and references Chapter 401:

  At some point, Itachi contracted a terminal illness. He kept himself alive through the years with medicine and sheer willpower so that he could live long enough to die by Sasuke's hand.

And it also notes that Itachi's death was actually due to the illness, that the fight between them weakened him enough that he couldn't resist it much longer. That does explain why he lived through Sasuke's Kirin, but then coughed up blood and was unable to do anything else but walk and maintain Susanoo for a minute, and then gave up after saying his last words.

Edit: He did also have enough strength to implant one cast of Amaterasu to go off when he saw a Sharingan (possibly Tobi's specifically, but that was never clarified), which was triggered right before the truth was revealed.


When should I watch The New Captain, Shusuke Amagai Arc?

I haven't seen past there yet but from my understanding the next arc after that continues on from after Ichigo's fight with Grimmjow in Las Noches as indicated by wikipedia

  The episodes' plot continues to follow Ichigo Kurosaki's and his friends' battle against the Espada, the strongest of former Soul Reaper Captain Sōsuke Aizen's army, to rescue Orihime Inoue.

Source: Wikipedia - Bleach (Season 10)

also i do recall in the first episode of Season 9 the narration says the follow events occur before the sneak entry into Hueco Mundo. there is also some evidence to indicate that this is before then mainly that Chad and Rukia aren't thought to have been killed as it is implied near to the end of Season 9.

Ofcause being filler it's not canon and the contradicting evidence is with Chad and Uryu who were actually still training before the sneak entry yet they show to have their new powers which were only revealed after they entered Hueco Mundo (remember that Chad was being trained by Kisuke and Kisuke snuck Uryu out of the training room he was in when he expected Ichigo to defy the Soul Society and rescue Orihime)

Ignoring this contradiction one can assume that it takes place before Orihime was kidnapped but after Ichigo started training with the Visord (due to him being able to Hollowfy)