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English-English term for "Shōjo manga"
Is there a standardised English-English (as opposed to English that borrows words willy-nilly from Japanese) term for Shōjo manga (少女マンガ) used when describing it to people not familiar with manga and anime or the Japanese language?
One person suggested "girl-oriented manga", but that sounds ambiguous, because it sounds like it's talking about manga with lots of girls in it, as opposed to manga whose target audience is girls.

Unfortunately, I don't think we really have a term for this. Keep in mind there's a vast cultural gap between Japan and English-speaking countries, so our terminology doesn't exactly overlap.
If you're talking about movies, chick flick can come reasonably close. The demographics aren't a perfect match-up, and there are certain elements you might expect from chick flicks not always seen in shōjo media, but it's the closest the average English speaker can get.
My best suggestion is to go with the descriptive route: (Japanese) comic targeted at females, mostly preteen or younger.
Wikipedia's article on shōjo manga suggests the following:

As shōjo literally means "girl" in Japanese, the equivalent of the western usage will generally include the term: girls' manga (少女漫画 shōjo manga), or anime for girls (少女向けアニメ shōjo-muke anime).

As a reminder, it is proper etiquette to explain why you downvoted on an answer or a question. Please don't downvote simply because you disagree.

I downvoted because this answer 1) incorrectly claims the target readers of shoujo are "mostly teenaged" (see virmaior's accurate comments on ʞɹɐzǝɹ♦'s answer to this question), and 2) states that "chick flick" is "reasonably close" to the meaning of shoujo, but that term bears connotations about the type of content (see the Cambridge English dictionary entry) whereas shoujo does not (shoujo boasts all manner of genres, from sci-fi to horror to gag comic strips).

@seijitsu Vote as you like, but I'll give a brief rebuttal: (1) virmaior's comments about target readers are not accurate. While Ribon is now targeted at elementary to middle schoolers, it was formerly for girls all the way to high school age (while still classified as shoujo); the other two he mentions typically run an upper age of 15, and the JP article for Ciao mentions that it has also been considered to target those in girls' high schools. (2) I disagree with your source; Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, and Collins English all define it as "a film aimed at or appealing to women".

@キルア, thanks for the response! True, shoujo magazines were previously aimed at a wider age range than they are now. But if you compare the current Ciao official website design and content of its titles with those of magazines for teens from the same publisher, like Flowers, you can see that it targets younger readers. As virmaior noted, magazines for young girls sell more, so contemporary shoujo targets younger readers more than older ones. The magazines can claim an upper age of 15, and it’s not that high schoolers couldn't...

buy Ciao/Nakayoshi/Ribon, but I've not heard of this among all the Japanese teens/women I've asked; those loyal to Ciao said they lost interest by jr. high. I buy Ribon monthly but I’ve never seen a teen or adult buying or tachimi (stand-and-read) these magazines besides me (if I did, I’d try to make friends, that’s how rare it’d be!). The Cambridge dictionary I linked defined "about relationships, love, etc. that attracts mainly women,” and while "aimed at or appealing to women" is a closer meaning to shoujo, josei has been the term since the 90s, pushing the general image of shoujo younger

@seijitsu While I think there is still a sizable demographic of shoujo between 13-15, I've shifted the demographic spectrum in my answer slightly. I've retained the term chick flick since, while chick flicks generally employ certain tropes, they are not requisite in the genre.

I am not going to downvote, because I think the conclusion ("Japanese manga targeted towards girls") is fine, but I share @seijitsu 's criticism that "chick flick" is a poor translation (of animated content) because of the additional connotations. (And well, it's probably shoujo films exist, given the results I've gotten for a quick search for pretty cure films.)

Never mind, I did down vote, for the reasons I described above.

@Maroon as キルア explained, while it is a poor translation of the term, it is the closest we have in the English language to it. He also adjusted the demographics slightly to fit the definition more. If you disagree, please explain more as the OP has provided his rebuttals to the arguments above. Also note that "chick flick" in this context is not meant to be derogatory.

@Frosteeze: It really just boils down to the sense that chick flicks, are catered more towards preteens or older. In terms of content or target, I could see chick flicks at not just being about romance (examples abound), but combining the age connotations and the sense that the content should be relatively "light" (not how I would characterize, say, Utena), I rather just say "Japanese X targeted towards girls" for accuracy.

I've updated the answer somewhat to reflect the disparity between chick flick and shōjo, but I maintain that it's about as accurate of a term as you'll find in the English language.

I'm sure the other people that answered are much more informed than myself, but I just wanted to say that back in 2000, Tokyopop was putting out 'Americanized' shojo manga (they changed the left-to-right format over to right-to-left, they changed character names to English names, and they often changed names of Japanese food or places to American food or places), and they put them out under a line of books they called 'Chix Comix'.
These versions were pretty much forgotten when the better ones came out later, but since they did introduce a lot of people to manga, I heard some women and girls still refer to shojo as 'chick's comics' for a few years after. Just thought I'd mention that.

That's an interesting point, but at least in part already mentioned in seijitsu's answer. Maybe it would be better suited as an edit to that answer?

Ah, yeah, for some reason that comment didn't come up before //0// I must not have clicked 'show all', or something. Now I just feel dumb. I guess my comment still works as an 'abridged' version though?

Since people are upvoting it and noone is complaining, I guess it's fine, yes ;)

The OP's question was, "Is there a standardised . . . term" but this answer simply mentions the TokyoPop phrase which, I had posited in my answer, did not become a standard phrase used in the industry or in the fandom. If you want to argue that it is or ought to be the standardized phrase, please supply some argument for that position. If you don't think it is or should be the standardized phrase, this doesn't seem to be attempting to answer the OP's question...  ;-)

Is there a standardised English-English (as opposed to English that borrows words willy-nilly from Japanese) term for Shōjo manga (少女マンガ) used when describing it to people not familiar with manga and anime or the Japanese language?
No, there is not a standardised English-English term for Shōjo manga.
However:

There is a succinct, accurate, and accepted English-only way to describe Shōjo manga in to people not familiar with manga, anime, or the Japanese language.
There is a standardised term for Shōjo manga but it is comprised of loanwords which were not borrowed "willy-nilly."

How to Describe to Those Unfamiliar with Anime/Manga
Although shoujo can still be used to refer to manga targeted at Japanese female teens and women, the accurate way since the 1990s to describe shoujo manga to those unfamiliar with anime/manga has been a descriptive phrase:
Japanese comics published in magazines that have a target readership of elementary school girls.
Matt Thorn, one of the world's shoujo manga experts and professor in the Faculty of Manga at Kyoto Seika University, acknowledges in his article What Shôjo Manga Are and Are Not:

For most Japanese below the age of fifty, such categories as shôjo ("girls") manga and shônen ("boys'") manga require no definition or clarification. They are as plain as the nose on your face. But to outsiders, it seems, the categories are perplexing, and therefore a little explanation is required. Most people seem to think that shôjo manga are distinguished by certain features of content and style. For example: the eyes are unusually large (even by manga standards); flowers and bubbles are often seen floating in the background; they are romances; or they invariably have a female protagonist. I've seen fans debate these fine points on English-language message boards for ten years or more, and when I intervene and offer my own two cents (based on 15 years of studying shôjo manga, their readers, their creators, their editors, their publishers, and their retailers), participants are usually disappointed. This is probably because, after they have plumbed the depths of style and content ad nauseam, I simply tell them that shôjo manga are manga published in shôjo magazines (as defined by their publishers), and shônen manga are manga published in shônen manga magazines (likewise defined by publishers).
I'm sorry, but that's really all there is to it. Naturally, there will be certain leanings in one genre or the other, since they are geared at different sexes, but just as you will find sci-fi shôjo manga, you will also find romantic shônen manga.

Matt Thorn is not alone in this definition: others well-respected in establishing the global fandom of shoujo content concur, including the following figures:

Sato Yasuyuki of GENERAL RESOURCES ON MAHOU SHOUJO ANIME (formerly at https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://whistler.cs.ucla.edu/~yasuyuki/www/mahou/genres.html)
Barbara of The Technogirls, The Shoujo Anime Club, and Shoujo Anime Club Mailing List which gathered together the well-known shoujo fan community during the 90s (definition provided here):

SHOUJO: Manga or Anime which was originally marketed to girls or ladies. The content is superfluous -- it is the marketing intent, not the content, which determines whether a feature is shoujo or shounen.

Dave Endresak, founder of KASHA a.k.a. Kawaii Shoujo, Anonymous (formerly at members.aol.com/AiTenshi/kasha) and the Tenshi-tachi mailing list
Gamera (a.k.a. Mikage) of Temple of Yokyun and Wasabi Anime San Diego's Anime Club (formerly at http://mail.mahoushoujo.com/~mikage/resources)
dioptase of Energetic Heartbeats:

Shoujo (girls') is not a genre itself - it's the marketing strategy. Shoujo simply means that the title was originally marketed to a female audience in Japan. Nothing more than that. Shoujo includes its own genres that cannot be found in their original form within the shounen world, including mahou shoujo, shounen ai, yaoi, yuri, and others. . . . It is not even neccessarily work by a specific creator. For example, the beloved team CLAMP is responsible for outstanding examples of shoujo manga and anime, but has also created shounen manga. What's the difference between the shounen manga and the shoujo manga? The shounen series was serialized in a manga magazine aimed at male readers.

Zahara of Zahara's Shoujo Manga Page (formerly at http://www.swb.de/~zahara/shoujo/shoujo.html)

What is shoujo? "Shoujo manga" is the term used to classify those manga published in magazines oriented towards girls and young women ^^ This genre encloses a pretty wide variety of genres in itself; the all-famous "magical girl" genre is typical of the shoujo, and so are themes like sport-girls' life, romance, grown-up stories, etc. ^^

Emiko of Emi-chan's Ribon

Shoujo - Literally, "young girl". It is usually descriptive of a certain genre of comics/manga. Shoujo manga is comics for young girls.

The Standardised English Term
It may sound confusing, but there is a standard English term that was not chosen "willy-nilly."  Actually, the standard term is... "shojo manga", which is now a valid English phrase.
Both "shojo" and "manga" are actually English words just as much as "kamikaze" or "skosh" are legitimate words in the English language (that were derived from Japanese words). You can play the word "manga" or pluralize it as "mangas" in the official rules of Scrabble, which are rooted in the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Note that the English-language word "manga" has a different meaning from the Japanese word. The Japanese word 「漫画」 (manga) can refer to all comics from any countries/cultures (i.e. including American comics), whereas the English word definition specifies that manga are Japanese comics.
The Oxford Dictionary defines it as:

shojo: A genre of Japanese comics and animated films aimed primarily at a young female audience, typically characterized by an intense focus on personal and romantic relationships

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as:

shojo: manga intended primarily for girls

Both use the spelling "shojo," rather than shoujo or shôjo or shōjo.
Demographics: Who Shoujo Manga is Aimed At
Matt Thorn recounts that

Strictly speaking, the term shôjo manga refers only to those manga geared explicitly at girls below the age of eighteen, but as often as not it is used as I use it in this article, to refer to all female-oriented manga. . . .

however,

Manga magazines geared at adult women also began to appear in the 1980s

and so

[T]he first successful manga targeting adult women were labeled as "ladies' comics," and these comics quickly acquired a stigma that fans of shôjo manga did not want to be associated with. . . . It wasn't really until the 1990s that sophisticated and intellectually stimulating manga for women began to really get a foothold in the manga industry in Japan. . . . [We] call them josei-muke ("woman-oriented") or josei ("women's") manga.

We see here that the term shoujo previously described a wider target age range than it generally does now. Since josei has been the term for women’s manga since the 90s, that addition to the terminology has pushed the general image of shoujo to a younger age range than it encompassed up to and during the emergence of josei. Furthermore, the older the average Japanese grows, the less manga he/she reads (see the “Have the Japanese created genres to meet the interests of those who consume anime and manga (which if I'm not mistaken, is a far larger amount than Americans who consume comics and cartoons)?” part of this answer starting from the “Unlike in many parts of the world…” bullet point for demographic info). As virmaior first noted here in his comment on a deleted answer, magazines for young girls sell more than those for older girls/teens/women, so contemporary shoujo targets younger readers more than older ones.
Evidence that the targeted age range for most shoujo manga is young elementary school age can be taken from:

the age of the real-life models shown the photos on pages about fashion/hair/make-up or modeling next month’s advertised furoku. In the big three  magazines (Ribon, Nakayoshi, and Ciao), they are always preteens.
the age of the male idol groups featured on pages containing news or interviews with idols -- in the big three these are usually the ones comprised of younger boys such as Ya-Ya-yah and Sexy Zone.
the type of furoku [freebies] included with magazine issues. In Ribon, Nakayoshi, and Ciao, the bulk of furoku can only be used by little kids: a Japanese high schooler couldn’t be caught dead wearing them. The furoku produced in recent years have increasingly become "kiddie" items.
the types of commercials that air during shoujo anime. If they are advertising children's sneakers, Barbie-style fashion dolls, and eye drops for swimming at the kiddie pool, you can know the target readership of the manga that this anime was adapted from is young girls rather than teens.
the fact that only 1) young kid characters, 2) very childish characters, and 3) hardcore otaku characters in anime/manga are ever shown reading a manga magazine. Tsukino Usagi in Sailor Moon and Gouda Takeo in Ore!! Monogatari are shown with manga magazines in their bedrooms, because it shows that these characters have the mental age of an elementary school kid despite being high school freshmen. Manga magazines aren't found in the bedrooms of mature and average teen characters, just as most real-life Japanese teen girls do not read manga.

Pitfalls in Referring to Shoujo Manga as Chick Lit
In キルア's answer and the comments to it, the term "chick flick" is posited as "the closest the average English speaker can get" to an equivalent term. Rather than posting further comment there about his rationale, I will append some cautions for this approach here:

the slang term "chick" is offensive/disliked by some women who consider it derogatory or disrespectful, whereas the word "shoujo" isn't slang and doesn't bear any negative or controversial connotations.
the term "chick" refers to women, not usually to young girls, whereas "shoujo" refers to girls rather than to grown woman. Accordingly, chick flicks are targeted more at adult women than they are at young girls, whereas shoujo manga is targeted more at young girls than at adult women.
the term "chick flick" is not applied to non-Japanese animation targeted at girls (such as My Little Pony, Powerpuff Girls, Dora the Explorer, Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, and Disney Fairies) nor to live-action films targeted at girls (such as Ramona and Beezus, What a Girl Wants, Matilda, Harriet the Spy, The Secret Garden, and the American Girls franchise). If there is a term that describes these, it might be appropriate for shoujo manga.
the term "chick flick" refers to films. Since shoujo manga is a print medium rather than film, "chick lit" or "chix comix" come closer to it than "chick flick" does.
American feminist film critic Molly Haskell describes chick flicks as "sing[ing] a different tune" from the "women's pictures" of the 1950s and are "more defiant and upbeat, post-modern and post-feminist." In contrast, shoujo manga is a marketing strategy that has nothing to do with the content of the stories, which encompass every literary genre, and many are not-at-all feminist or post-feminist.
chick flicks are associated heavily with light romance plots. The Cambridge Dictionary defines "chick flick" as "about relationships, love, etc. that attracts mainly women.” Wikipedia says "a film genre mainly dealing with love and romance," "'chick-flick' is typically used only in reference to films that are heavy with emotion or contain themes that are relationship-based," "most films that are considered chick-flicks are lighthearted," and "generally held in popular culture as having formulaic, paint-by-numbers plot lines and characters." While many shoujo manga do feature relationships, there are plenty more which are about anything under the sun other than an angsty young woman in a love triangle. A few examples are the sci-fi classic Terra he... and tons of works written by the venerated Moto Hagio, such as her manga about Siamese twins, her manga about a man trapped in a room as a science experiment, 11nin Iru! (They Were Eleven: a space academy entrance exam mystery), Poo no Ichizoku (The Family of Poe: a serious story about a vampire family), to name only a few. Even shoujo manga stories that include romance can make it take quite a backseat and not figure as a main plot element; for example, Glass no Kamen, Attack No. 1, and Magic Knight Rayearth. These are all a far cry from the best-known staples of chick flicks (i.e. Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bridget Jones Diary, The Notebook, and Twilight).
If we consider "chix comix" as a better substitute than "chick flick," we come to the following problems:
this was a term coined by TokyoPop for their shoujo manga translations but it did not catch on in the industry. Do a Google search for the term and not much comes up.
no one uses this term to refer to non-Japanese girl-targeted comics such as Persepolis, Anya’s Ghost, Castle Waiting, Jem and the Holograms, W.I.T.C.H., Winx Club, Marvel's Barbie, or Disney Princess comics. As some of these are award-winning literature, to call them "chick"-anything sounds not only misleading but rude.
If we consider "chick lit" as a better substitute:
renowned classics of world literature targeted at female readers are not customarily referred to as "chick lit." Shoujo manga includes esteemed award-winning literary classics which deserve the same respect.
chick lit is a genre that emerged in the late 1990s, whereas shoujo manga has been developing a vast variety of literary genres since the 1950s.
while "Chick lit typically features a female protagonist whose womanhood is heavily thematized in the plot," the arena of shoujo manga includes many series which do not dwell on the protagonist's womanhood at all and, in fact, there are plenty of titles which feature a male protagonist --- not only the massive corpus of boy's love manga, but even mainstream shoujo titles such as Ore!! Monogatari, D・N・Angel, Tokyo Babylon, and Cowboy Bebop (yes, the Cowboy Bebop manga is shoujo).
chick lit remains subject to harsh feminist literary criticism as the bulk of its titles feature a white, upper-class protagonist. Shoujo manga's critics and their criticisms are wholly different.

In conclusion, the terms "chick flick" and "chick lit" often evoke connotations that are more harmful than helpful in succinctly and clearly describing what shoujo manga is. "Japanese comics published in magazines that have a target readership of elementary school girls" is admittedly a bit longer rolling off the tongue but is a more neutral way to describe shoujo manga using only English words without the risk of accidentally inserting misrepresentative associations that are untrue of shoujo manga.

Correct or not, the OP is asking for a equivalent or near equivalent term in English to explain to people who don't know anything about Japanese terms. You might want to size down the assertion that the term shojo manga is English (since it doesn't quite answer the question), and/or move the English term/explanation you suggest to the top.

@nhahtdh, thanks for the formatting suggestion! I moved the definition to the top & added headings instead of arguing for it first & then summarizing. Since the OP asked both "Is there a standardised English-English . . . term" and about how to describe shoujo "to people not familiar with manga and anime," I wanted to include answers to both: that yes, there is a standard English term; however, Thorn noted that the standard term on its own doesn't help people who're unfamiliar with anime/manga at all, and so I also provided a concise yet accurate English phrase explaining what it is. (^_~)

I've received some upvotes but also some downvotes. As Frosteeze reminded here yesterday, it's proper SE etiquette to explain why you downvoted an answer or a question: which part of this answer is inaccurate and needs to be fixed?

I downvoted for the same reason as nhahtdh. OP asked for the English equivalent of shojo manga, without using Japanese loanwords, which you did not provide. In SE it is also etiquette to not needlessly spam and upvote similar comments instead, which I did.

@Peter Raeves From the start, I did provide the English equivalent without including any Japanese loanwords, which is in bold text: "Japanese comics published in magazines that have a target readership of elementary school girls." Is there a better way to make clear that this is the equivalent? As nhahtdh noted, I had provided an "English term/explanation" which should be relocated from the bottom (as a summary) to the top (I moved it up per the suggestion). Looking at キルア's selected answer for an equivalent, it relies upon inclusion of loanwords: “manga targeted at females . . .” and

. . . “girl’s manga, or anime for girls,” in which the words "manga" and "anime" are the sort of loanwords that the OP requested avoiding for talking with someone unfamiliar with those terms (if you take those out of キルア's answer, you are left with only “targeted at females . . .” & "girls' ... or ... for girls" which does not describe what it is that’s being targeted at girls. Not to mention that films and anime don’t describe shoujo manga, which was the requested phrase). Please let me know how my answer needs to be fixed since it already provides an English-only equivalent phrase. Thanks!

OP asked "Is there a English term for shojo manga?" and you said as your 1st sentence, "Yes, there is, it is shojo manga"... I fail to see how that is not using any loanwords... Eric replied that "Chick flick", or thus "chick comic" in this case, would be the closest equivalent, to which I seem to agree, because shojo manga is (imo) a comic (manga) for chicks (shojo). While your answer would be great if OP had asked "how to explain shojo manga", I don't know what advice I could give you on the current answer to the current question. Maybe somebody else could help you out. Sorry about that.

After reading your edit, I started getting confused as to what makes something shonen vs shojo in Japan. Take One Piece for example. It is now classified as Shonen. To me that makes much sense, because it has action, adventure, no romance, a boy protagonist, big boobs, pervert comments, blood, death, explosions, loyalty, robots etc. Things boys like to read about. Now if Oda would have published this in a shojo magazine instead, then it would automatically have been classified as a shojo manga? Because as you say, content is not related to the genre?

I think the section "The Standardised English Term" should just be removed outright - or at least the assertion that "the term is shoujo manga", since it only serves to distract readers from your point - your post can do without that assertion at all. I believe the OP is asking for something that you would put in an English-English dictionary like what you quote from Merriam Webster - a term or a short explanation that would explain shoujo manga to someone who first comes across it. (As for the rest, I think you are going too far on your expansion - it may well belong on a different question)

@Peter Raeves yes, by george, you've got it! If ONE PIECE had been selected by editors to publish in a shoujo magazine exactly as it is, it'd be shoujo. Many shoujo do feature action, adventure, no romance, a boy protagonist, big boobs, pervert comments, blood, death, explosions, loyalty, and/or robots, as these are things that girls also like to read about (of those, you may be least likely to come across perverted comments in shoujo, but that exists too: Patalliro!, HIGH SCORE). See Cowboy Bebop link in my answer for more

@Maroon, thanks for the helpful edit! Also forgot to mention to Peter Raeves some great shoujo examples of large breasts, perverted comments, leering, blood, death, explosions, action, and adventure: Majokko Megu-chan (see link for details about its fan service, naughtiness, etc.) and Cutie Honey Flash!

Would agree that there's probably a tad bit too much expansion here, but I wouldn't feel comfortable making any extensive edits (given that this isn't my post / I'm not working as an editor here, etc.). @PeterRaeves: tbh I feel like a lot of categorizations don't make much sense unless approached from such an angle -- e.g. there's nothing obviously "gendered" to me about Aku no Hana (which is shonen) -- although things then appear ridiculously arbitrary.

@seijitsu It is quite counter intuitive to think a comic is targeted towards a demographic just cos the publisher says so, regardless of the content, art or whatever, so here will be my last question. When you say "if OP was selected by a shojo magazine editor", are you really telling me there is no selection criteria? Just anything that sells would be fine? Sorry for being a slow learner :p, but assuming the answer is yes, I think I'll stop filtering on shonen from now on and check out some of the popular shonen, seinen and josei comics as they will be similar as you say.

As an amateur linguist I agree with 'the standard term is... "shojo manga", which is now a valid English phrase.' Languages borrow words from other languages because they do not have a word for the concept the borrowed word represents. We anime fans borrowed "shoujo" because it was a single, perfectly good word that encapsulated "Japanese comics targeted at girls and young women". In English, it's a technical term, like "heteroscedasticity" or "pointillism" or "agglutinative".

There's no five-letter word of Germanic origin for "heteroscedasticity"; if someone doesn't know that word, it has to be explained, probably at great length. That said, I'm surprised this topic generated so much controversy.


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For how long have humans and vampires coexisted?
The timeline in Owari no Seraph is a little bit confusing to me.
When did vampires first come into contact with humans? I was initially under the impression that this happened when the "disease" struck some 5-10 years before the "present" of the show (i.e. "during episode 1") - but if that's the case, where did the vampires come from at that point in time? Given that they have robust, structured, hierarchical societies, it can't be that they just appeared out of nowhere then, could it?
And if the vampires have been around longer than that, where were they, and how is it that a modern human society didn't run into them sooner?

You're correct: the vampires have regenerative abilities and thereby would are essentially able to be immortal, so long as they don't starve to death, get their head destroyed, or get too much exposure to ultra-violet light. Their structured, hierarchical society lived for a very, very long time underground.
During the prequel light novel Owari no Seraph: Ichinose Guren, 16sai no Hametsu, which opens about 10 years prior to when the virus strikes, the vampires were not yet rampant above the surface of the Earth.
The reason they decided to emerge was when the Four Horsemen of John (a.k.a. Horsemen of the Apocalypse) surprisingly arrived in 2012 and started killing humans. The Owari no Seraph Wiki says,

In response, vampires came into the open and saved as many humans as they could as human livestock out of concern for their drastically diminished food supply.

It is likely that, until that point, vampires preferred to covert travel above ground to snatch individual human prey without alerting humankind to their existence (during that period, it's very reasonable to assume that once in a while a human got tipped off about the existence of a vampire, but it was never accepted as fact by human society at large [chalked up to the level of a report of monsters, ghosts, or UFOs]), but once the humans started dying off at a rapid rate, the vampires reasoned that they could not continue their subtle hunter/gatherer style and needed to turn humans into livestock (a farming style that they could control themselves).

Ah, I see. So the sudden appearance of the horsemen (and, simultaneously, the virus) is what forced the vampires into open conflict with  humankind. Cool beans.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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What is this 'Japanese Secret Police' Furuya Rei is in? Are they a real police division?
Conan mentioned that he probably worked for the Japanese Secret Police, but who are they exactly? Under what jurisdiction of Japanese law enforcement are they under? Are they like MI5 or something?

Furuya Rei is a member of 「黒の組織」(kuro no soshiki = the black organization). I don't know what chapter or episode you are referring to, so I cannot verify the original Japanese for "Japanese secret police" used there, but:
Yes, in real life there was a Japanese secret police along the same lines of Nazi Germany's Gestapo and the Soviet Union's KGB. It likewise carried out human rights abuses and crimes against humanity, such as experimentation on live prisoners of war and other individuals, and biological warfare (see also Japan’s Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem And Torture In Wartime Asia by Mark Felton).
It was called the Kempeitai. There was also a navy branch called the Tokubetsu Keisatsutai. In addition, the Tokubetsu Koutou Keisatsu conducted domestic criminal investigation of civilians suspected of being anti-war or dangerous and counter-espionage functions, and punished perceived offenders with torture.
However, all three were abolished by the Allied Powers in 1945, so it is not possible that Furuya Rei was a member, since he is only 29 years old in the Meitantei Conan series. Japan does not have a post-WWII secret service. It is likely that what is being translated as "Japanese secret police" is either 1) the Kouanchousachou a.k.a. the Public Security Intelligence Agency established under the Ministry of Justice in 1952, which "is tasked with internal security and espionage against threats to Japanese national security" and "has ties to several foreign intelligence as security agencies, including the CIA, FBI, MI6, and Mossad, with several PSIA agents having been invited to train with the CIA under its Intelligence Analysis Course," or 2) one of the types of special police in Japan.

Conan mention the name of the police just before we saw Akai for the first time after his death. Conan and Bourbon are investigating on a attempted murder. The target was Bourbon's client. The FBI is here, because the victim is also Jodie's friend. And Bourbon mocks the FBI, want them to leave Japan (in the French version he said "When did you leave my Japan ?" or something like that).
Scarlett arc, I think. And later, I think there is information that the Police is called, in French, PSB. When I googled that that give the Tokyo Metropolitan : Tokyo Metropolitan Police Public Security Bureau

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Can I watch Gintama' (2015) if I haven't watched previous seasons?
I want to watch this new season but It will be my very first time with Gintama, so... Maybe should I start from the beginning?

Well, there's nothing stopping you from watching the newer episodes :)
Gintama is mainly episodic (as in, not much ongoing connection from episode to episode) so it's probably okay to do so. You might miss out a few references to past episodes though.
Of course, if you want to enjoy it fully I'd recommend you start from the very beginning.

I'd start from the beginning as well, you miss out on a lot of character introductions otherwise


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Which of the character quirks are based on real life, and which are purely fictional?
In the Kancolle anime (and presumably the game as well), several characters have little quirks that make them more memorable and unique. Some of these appear to be based on the factual history of the warships they resemble, but others I'm not so sure on.
For example, the character Kongou often uses English phrases sporadically in her sentences, and in her introduction to Fubuki she mentions she was "born in England [and] raised in Japan". The real life battleship that was the first of the Kongou class was indeed originally constructed in England, which makes me believe that the quirks of this character are a reference to the history of the warship.
So, which of the following are jokes based on fact, and which are simply made up, or carried over from the browser game?

Yuudachi's 'Poi'
Shimakaze's speed
Shimakaze having 3 'Rensouhou-chans' rather than turrets attached to her body like the other girls
Sendai's love of night battles
Naka's claim of being the one idol of the fleet
Akagi's (and Yamato's) huge appetite
Fubuki being unable to sail properly at the anime's beginning
Akatsuki's obsession with being 'ladylike', Ikazuchi's phrases about relying on her, Hibiki's 'khorosho', and Inazuma's 'nano desu'
Atago's 'pan paka pa~n' (ta-da!)
The poor relationship between carrier groups 1 and 5
All sister ships have a close relationship, but is the especially close relationship between Kitakami and Ooichi significant?
Ashigara and the other Myoukou class ships taking up positions as teachers in the fleet

I've tried to include links to evidence for most of them. If I've missed any major historical references made in the anime, please mention those in an answer as well.

This is all I've been able to find:
Yuudachi

~poi
According to the Kancolle Wikia and a few other sources, ~poi can roughly be translated as 'supposedly', 'seems like', 'perhaps' - all words of uncertainty.

The main reason behind Yuudachi's speech pattern is because no one actually had a clear record of what she actually accomplished in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
It was technically a huge mess during the fight and no one actually knew what was happening. Even though Yuudachi did wreak havoc in the battle, there are other ships who also claimed the kills.
Since her battle records were unclear and involved a lot of guess work from naval historians from both sides after the war, the game version of Yuudachi landed with the "poi" catchphrase just to reflect that little piece of history. (You can see from her introduction line that she wasn't so sure of her battle result in Guadalcanal either.)

The Guadalcanal Campaign was fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 in and around the island of Guadalcanal in World War II. It was the first major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.
The Yuudachi was disabled on the night of 12-13 of November, 1942 and the crew made some makeshift sails out of white hammocks. This was mistaken by the Americans to be a flag of surrender causing much confusion as they were still fighting back.
It seems that the Yuudachi is surrounded with a lot of confusion and vagueness which I image is what poi is referring to.
Naka

I can't see anything related to idol culture in Naka's history, but it did go through a repetitive change in leadership and was at the Battle of the Java Sea which had the most amount of ships taking part in battle since 1916.
So possibly there's been some parallels drawn between that and the larger idol groups like AKB48. (She does reference the group in some of her game lines)
Shimakaze

There are two Japanese destroyer Shimakazes, the one built in 1942 was enormously powerful and one of the fastest destroyers in the world: her designed speed was 39 knots (72 km/h; 45 mph), but on trials she made 40.9 knots (75.7 km/h; 47.1 mph). The 1920 ships were also record-breakingly fast for their time.
The ship does have 3 powerful twin-turrets. I'm not sure why they are separated from her body though. They did seem to be very powerful - perhaps the original designer thought they deserved their own characters.
Sendai

There's not much information about the Sendai light cruiser, but its most famous naval battle was when it attacked Malaya as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War (according to Imperial Japanese Navy Light Cruisers 1941-45, Mark Stille) at 23:45 on 7th December 1941 under the cover of darkness. Presumably, that's why she loves night battles.
Fubuki

Again, not much relevant information here. However, there were some accusations that the Fubuki destroyer accidentally sunk a Japanese minesweeper and four transports - perhaps as an anime girl that makes her clumsy? (It is now thought that the ship Mogami was the culprit) [Mark Stille again]
Akatsuki

I couldn't find anything that was lady-like about this ship.
Hibiki

Her tendency to include Russian words in her speech (not just "khorosho", as seen in the game) is a reference to the fact that she was turned over to the Soviet Union as a prize of war in 1947, and placed in service with the Soviet Navy under the name Verniy (Russian: Верный "Faithful"). She was renamed again in 1948 as Dekabrist (Russian: Декабрист "Decembrist"). She was retired from service in 1953.
In the game, on her second remodel (Kai Ni), her name is changed to Верный/Verniy, and her hat is changed to a white hat with a star and hammer-and-sickle symbol, which are references to the Soviet Flag.

Ashigara & the other Myoukou class ships

Again, I think this is a seniority thing, Ashigara was one of the very first 10,000 Tonne ships produced by any nation, according to All the World’s Fighting Ships 1902-1920. The Myoko cruisers were also built fairly early.
Another question asking about seniority in Kancolle: Do seniority relations among the fleet girls have any basis in properties of the actual ships?
Carrier Divisions 1 and 5

While the reason for the dislike isn't mentioned explicitly, on the Kancolle wiki page for Kaga, this excerpt can be found under Quotes > 'Battle start':

Quote: 五航戦の子なんかと一緒にしないで。
English translation: Don't put me together with 5th Carrier Division's kids.
Historical note: By "kids" she refers to their air wings rather than the 5th Division's ships themselves; historically 1st Carrier Div's crew looked down upon 5th Div's (Shoukaku and Zuikaku) as they were newly grouped during the early stage of WW2.

Additionally, the ships originally in Carrier Division 5 (Zuikaku and Shoukaku) along with the light carrier Zuihou were moved into Carrier Division 1 after Kaga and Akagi were sunk.
Yamato
Yamato Hotel and Yamato huge appetite

I couldn't find anything related to Akagi huge appetite but as Sakurai Tomoko mentioned on comment Yamato were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed and she has a high fuel consumption which explain her huge appetite.
It is mentioned on wiki, Yamato was once dubbed "Hotel Yamato" by the Japanese cruiser and destroyer crews. The battleship spent only a single day away from Truk between her arrival in August 1942 and her departure on 8 May 1943.

She remained here (Truk) throughout the Guadalcanal Campaign because of a lack of 460 mm ammunition suitable for shore bombardment, uncharted seas around Guadalcanal, and her high fuel consumption

Mamiya

Mamiya is often seen to runs a cafe in the naval district. In real life, Mamiya was a food supply ship of the Imperial Japanese Navy and was in service from 1920s-1940s.
Ryuujou

Unlike most aircraft carrier, her small figure look different than the likes of Kaga or Akagi. She's totally flat on top and use a scrolls instead of bow.
In real life, Ryuukou was classified as light aircraft carrier. She was the only light aircraft carrier of her type to be completed by Japan. She was small and lightly built compared to other aircraft carrier.
Tenryuu and Tatsuta

Known for using a melee weapon, both Tenryuu and Tatsuta are unique compared with other kanmusu who mostly only use their guns (with an exception for aircraft carrier). In real life, both ship were renovated with a modified bow superstructure, replacing the canvas sides of the bridge with steel plate. The bridge was then further reinforced with steel plate as protection against shrapnel.
Their weapon also look similar to their bow:

nano makes the speech more feminine, though only Inazuma use them. As for Hibiki, she was given to Russia and converted into a Russian ship, so she uses Russian in her speech - this is explained on KanColle wiki.

I have made this answer community wiki - so feel free to edit if you have any more info

About Naka, it is possible that it actually is from her name. Naka in Japanese means center and in an idol group, the center is the leader of the group (like in Love Live). That might be why.

About Yamato's huge appetite, it was because she was the biggest ship made during her time. Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Yamato, She and her sister ship, Musashi, were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing 72,800 tonnes at full load and armed with nine 46 cm (18.1 inch) 45 Caliber Type 94 main guns. Such weight would mean that she requires the most energy to move compared to the other Japanese ships.

Akagi's rather large appetite comes from the game. In the early stages of the game there was a bug that caused her to consume an obscene amount of resources when resupplying


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Why were Nagato's Six Paths those people who Jiraiya had randomly encountered in his journeys?
I find it really odd and confusing that the six paths were all people Jiraiya had encountered randomly in his journeys. Jiraiya recognized them all during that last fight and they were all there in his chronicles.
One or two guys being the same can be thought of as a coincidence, but all six of them?

I don't think a canonical reason has ever been explicitly spelled out, but the following seems the most logical to me:

Jiraiya is an old, well-traveled, highly skilled ninja.  It makes sense that he would have encountered a large number of people and built up a sizable number of memories about many of them.
Having been taught and rescued by Jiraiya, Nagato (aka Pain) would have had ample chances to build up a certain familiarity or even obsession with him: Jiraiya likely related a lot of stories to him, including the various people he had met.  So Pain is likely to have at least a second-hand association with these people, and may have had an inherent interest in those meaningfully associated to Jiraiya.
Nagato had to witness the deaths of his friends and comrades even after Jiraiya left.  Feeling that they could have been prevented if Jiraiya had stayed with them, he blames Jiraiya and wishes to inflict the same misery upon him.  In other words, he wishes to shove the ignominious deaths of Jiraiya's comrades in his face.
Nagato has a keen awareness that Jiraiya is one of the most powerful ninjas around, and expects him to be one of the biggest problems to deal with.  As such, anything that will put him mentally off-balance will be a major benefit.  He knows that Jiraiya is emotional and cares about his comrades, so what better way than to make him fight them (or their bodies, at least)?  As I recall, this worked for a brief period of time.  At the end of the fight, Nagato says that if Jiraiya had just figured out the secret of the Six Paths of Pain earlier he would have won.  So it's possible that even a matter of a few seconds spent in surprise or uncertainty about fighting (the bodies of) his comrades made exactly that difference: if he had remained calm and collected the entire time he may have figured things out sooner.

The first two points do seem to make some sense but I don't think Nagato was really holding a grudge against Jiraiya for leaving them. It is obvious that he still respected him. It was just that he had lost all hope and wanted to achieve his goal no matter what.
Secondly, the people from his previous encounters. They were familiar but not comrades. It doesn't matter much to JIraiya what happens to them.


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In Love Live episode 6, what were the results of each member in karaoke/dance?
I can't read the kanji, but I'm interested in what each member's score was.

Their Karaoke Score/Dance Result (the names in the note are their surnames):

Yazawa Niko （矢澤 にこ）: 94/A
Kousaka Honoka （高坂 穂乃果）: 92/A
Minami Kotori （南 ことり）: 90/B
Sonoda Umi （園田 海未）: 93/A
Nishikino Maki （西木野 真姫）: 98/B
Koizumi Hanayo （小泉 花陽）: 96/C
Hoshizora Rin （星空 凛）: 91/AA


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How much do the live-action Nana films cover?
I've seen bits and pieces of the Nana films before, and I'm thinking of watching them again for the nostalgia kick. I am aware that there is also an anime adaptation of the manga, which I assume does not cover the entirety of the manga. (The anime ran in 2006, and the manga last published in 2009.)
I've been recommended the anime before (albeit by a friend who had somewhat different taste in this sort of thing), so on the off-chance I end up wanting to watch the anime or read the manga after seeing the film: how much of the manga do the live-action films cover? Are there any major changes to plot or characters that I should be aware of?

The live action goes up to episode 19 of the anime series, which in turn is shorter than the manga (only goes up to the 12th volume out of 21).
There's a lot of plot and relationship changes that happen in the future chapters, rather than spoil them here you should read to find out :D
Unfortunately, the manga does not have a conclusion just yet as it was put on hiatus in June 2009 when Yazawa became ill. So just be aware that there is a lot of loose ends in the current final chapters


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How come Archer was still around?
In UBW, Gilgamesh kills Archer. How come he's still around at the ending when he helps Shirou?

Turns out, Gilgamesh doesn't actually kill Archer. Yes, he skewers him with multiple weapons, but that apparently isn't enough to off him. When you see Archer disappear after being skewered, that's him changing to spirit form, rather than him dying and dematerializing altogether.
Kind of an unsatisfying explanation, but it is what it is.


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How did maids get popular in anime?
Nowadays, maids are basically a moe stereotype. Otaku characters like Sakurasou no Petto na Kanojou's Ryuunosuke Akasaka, Lucky Star's Konata Izumi, and the Genshiken gang all love maids. Even K-On's Sawako Yamanaka, who isn't an otaku, puts the Light Music Club girls in maid outfits.

For a while, every single show that came out had a maid character, and several shows focused wholly or in part on maids, who may or may not also be androids (e.g. Hanaukyou Maid Tai, Hand Maid May, He is My Master, Koharu Biyori, Mahoromatic).

It was shockingly difficult to find a SFW picture from Koharu Biyori.
Even shows that didn't have maids were affected: Digi Carat's Dejiko wore a costume which looked rather like a maid outfit, even though she was not a maid, but rather a clerk in an anime store (and actually an alien princess).

My perception was that this all started sometime around 2001, but I never saw how; it just seemed like one day I was surrounded by maids. (Not that it bothered me to be surrounded by maids.) How did this get started? Was there a single show or a few shows that started the maid craze? Or was it always there, and I just never noticed?

Most of this is a summary of the paper Maid in Japan:
An Ethnographic Account of Alternative Intimacy by Patrick W. Galbraith (author of 'the otaku encyclopaedia')

The first maid costume in Japanese popular culture came from the erotic anime series Cream Lemon, part 11: Black Cat Mansion in 1986. (Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan's Database Animals, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009, p. 42.)

It's worth reading the full paper as it's quite interesting.
Galbraith mentions that they maid cafés may have evolved from hostess clubs, but with the new 'moe' and cute appeal that was starting to gain momentum in the 1970s
A game that specifically had maid cafés in it was Welcome to Pia Carrot!! and is usually tied to the start of this trend. Furthermore, the first maid café to be set up was in 1998 , as a special event for the game.

The first permanent café Cure Maid Café was set up in 2001 and in the years between then and 2011 a massive 386 cafés were set up (although the majority have closed, there still remains many today)
See also:
How did the lolicon genre begin in anime/manga? (as it is similarly motivated by cuteness)

Galbraith's paper was very informative, though it did get me all depressed about the state of my life after I saw too much of myself in his description of the maid cafes' regular clientele  :-> Thanks for the link and another great answer.


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Why do all Marine Vice Admirals (and higher ranking officers) put their coats as capes?

Garp

The Vice Admirals

The Admirals

ex-Fleet Admiral Sengoku

Why are the coats always worn as capes? Is there an in-universe explanation as to why the Marines wear it in that way? The only character who I remember seeing, wearing a coat as it should be worn, is Gol D. Roger.

Related TVtrope

I saw WB and RH doing this.

The question is then applicable for them too then.

There has been no in-universe explanation as to why the Marines wear the coats over their shoulders.
The only in-universe information regarding those coats is that they are supposedly held up by the Marine officers' beliefs in Justice. As long as the Marine in question believes in the justice of the Marines or World Government, the coat will not fall! ... is what Oda said in SBS Volume 61, Chapter 596

Reader: You know the coat that all those commissioned Marine officers wear on their backs? The one that says "Justice". That thing never falls of no matter how much the guy wearing it moves, but how does it stay on? A snap stopper? Or maybe super glue? My husband says "it's rubber" (making it a circle and passing it through another circle). P.N. Koteni-
Oda: Too bad, nothing is on there. That is a coat that has "Justice" on the back. It never falls off, because to them, Justice never "falls"!! As long as that feeling stays in their hearts, THE COAT WILL NEVER FALL!!!

The out-universe explanation is described by the TV trope CoatCape linked in the comment by mivilar. It states that military leaders (and delinquents aka pirates) often wear their coat as a cape to show how cool the character is. The coat will never fall off despite the situation. The Trope also explains not to confuse the (Marines') Coat-Cape with (Mihawk's) Badass-Longcoat or the Coat-over-the-shoulder.

Sometimes, to show how cool a character is (or just how broad his shoulders are), all he has to do is wear his coat like a cape, as in not bothering to put his arms through the sleeves. This is often a trait of Japanese Delinquents or military leaders.
Don't expect them to slip or fall off, even up against powerful winds, explosions and any amount of running, jumping and acrobatics, unless it's for dramatic reasons.
Compare Coat Over the Shoulder. Not to be confused with Badass Longcoat, which often resembles a cape but is worn normally.

So its a major cool factor and is held in place by the Marine's belief in justice. But then, what about Whitebeard?

@EroSɘnnin The cool factor remains, but Oda would probably say something as "As long as he believes in himself it will stay on" or "The power of his heart will let it stay on". In this case, if Ace was wearing on, it might have fallen off, as he had given up during the Marineford war, but that's just my guess

+1 great answer! I realized that that SBS answer can also work as a foreshadowing of when Luffy and allies finally defeat the World Government: Marine capes fall!!!

I think according to Oda "Justice never falls".
It's just to show that so long as they believe and keep fighting, that coat won't fall, because justice doesn't.
But then again, Gol D. Roger and Whitebeard wore their coats that way for the "cool" factor, but theirs didn't have justice on it!

This is the same answer as the one above, but with much less details.

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What happened to the third iteration of Yuki?
In the Redial conclusion to Future Diary, we see the 3rd iteration of Yuno living a normal life in the 3rd reality after the incident caused by the original Yuno and the 2nd Yuki saved her family's future. She has no recollection of Yuki at all in this world, even though she knows she is missing some very important memories.
This is almost identical to the state Yuki is in while trapped in the "ideal" world created for him by the original Yuno. However, she purposely removed herself from that false world, so it makes sense that Yuki can't even recall her name.
So what happened to the third iteration of Yuki that meant the 3rd Yuno couldn't remember him? He isn't seen at all in the final episode, so I'm confused as to what occurred in that regard. 1st Yuno wouldn't have had a reason to kill him as she wished to "try again" in that timeline, and Yuki, of course, wouldn't want to kill his own self.
Is there an explanation as to what happened to the 3rd timeline's Yuki?
And if he did still exist in that iteration, why can't the corresponding Yuno remember his identity at all?

In episode 26 from around 17:25 third world and all the diary holder are shown one by one. Everybody are living happy life. At19:50 Yuno is shown with her friend in some restaurant and she sees Yukiteru outside with his family and the girl Moe Wakaba. He is the 3rd universe Yuki. Looking from those clip, Yuki is happy with his family and Moe Wakaba.
Here is the YouTube video.

I thought she said she finally got the courage to speak to Yuki when they had that survey, which implies she had feelings for him before that event. I don't see why she wouldn't still end up with Yuki in the third iteration.

Welcome to [anime.se]. Could you provide the source where she said that?

So here's how me and my partner made it make sense....
We see 3rd Yukki with his fam and gf through the window as Yuno sits in the restaurant. That's the ONLY time we see 3rd Yuki.
We figure it's because when the school got trashed in the battle, all the kids got sent to different schools. Yuno ends up at school with Hinata and company, and Yuki ends up at a different school. That's why they never meet.
Because in this 3rd world, the timeline changed and Yuno never killed her parents. In the 2nd world (the one we watched all series) Yuno attached to Yuki AFTER she killed them, when they were last in class working on essays. None of this ever happened in world 3, so Yuno and Yuki never met.

The 3rd iteration of Yuki and Yuno would've never met because she only approached him after she'd killed her parents and was looking for someone to cling to. Since that never happened, she didn't have feelings for him like the 1st Universe Yuno. The only reason she had memories was because of MurMur feeding her messages from inside the cage.

There actually is a 27th episode. No, actually it's more like a special showing what happened after ep26. There they explain what happened to 3rd world Yuno ("Future Diary: Redial")

Try not to contradict yourself when giving answers. You could just stick to the information relevant to the topic of the question :)


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How does Koro-sensei fly?
I am latest in the manga chapter. So I know the history behind Koro-sensei. But I wonder how can he fly? I mean, I know he is super fast. But being fast doesn't mean you can fly. And he don't have any psychic or esper powers to levitate or fly.
He may be fast to run in the air or something like that. But when he is flying he is not upright, he is laying down like super man.
He may also use his tentacles as propulsion, but as seen whenever he is flying it seems his tentacles are just there.

How Koro-sensei can fly has never been mentioned in the manga or the anime, so I can only explain it based on my inferences from the manga.
Koro-sensei has been referred to as an octopus on multiple occasions in the anime and the manga (eg episode 10 at around 10:40 in the anime).
So it is fair to assume that Koro-sensei's body behaves like an octopus.
When you read about the locomotive system in octopi and the like, it's a jet propulsion system that they use to move around in water. Koro-sensei should be able to use similar methods in the air. As all his cells are tentacles1 and he can freely control his tentacles2, Koro-sensei should be able to fly with a jet propulsion system like the octopus.

1 Chapter 140, page 14.
2 Chapter 137, page 17.

That seems logical. It kind of like he is "swimming" in the air.


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What is a Slay Vega?
In the manga, Chise is referred to as being a "Slay Vega." In Japanese it's 夜の愛し仔（スレイ・ベガ）, "Beloved Child of the Night."

What does this term mean? What is the significance of this?

It would seem the scanlators use the term "Slay Vega," while the official Seven Seas release uses the term "Sleigh Beggy." While the former certain sounds cooler, the latter seems to be more correct. Acording to Manx lore "Sleigh Beggy" (or rather Sleih Beggey in the Manx language, meaning "little people." The equivalent of "fairy" in English.) is a term used to describe a type of fairy that originally inhabited the Isle of Man.

On Seven Seas' Tumblr blog, they mention the significance being:

For Chise, this term is used to describe her being a type of extraordinary individual, and not being an actual fairy. So while the scanlator's intended meaning for "Slay Vega" may have been "dearest child of the night," it's actual meaning to English speakers is "to kill a star."
To this extent, we are of one mind in that the usage of Sleigh Beggy is in line with the manga-ka’s intended vision for this amazing series. Hopefully this clears up any confusion or misconceptions our readers had.

Sleigh Vega is correct. Everything is about her being the lone star. Sleigh Beggy is a very interesting Manx spirit, but she isn't a spirit, she's an actual human girl, so the Sleigh Beggy translation is altogether incorrect.


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Why do Chimera Ants seem to remember only one past life?
Some Chimera Ants remember parts, or all, of their life before they were eaten by the Queen.

By eating other creatures, a Chimera Ant queen can impart the characteristics of ingested creatures onto the next generation of Chimera Ants it gives birth to.

Chimera ants are shown to have characteristics that are from two, sometimes more (in the case of Rammot, a combination of human, rabbit and shrike) It is shown that not only human past lives can be remembered, because in Chapter 197 of the manga, Leol remembers being a lion.
However, the chimera ants that remember their past life seem to only remember one. Is it only possible for them to remember one? Why would this be? If they can remember more, why is this never shown?

From what I read/seen in the anime/manga is that they remember the memories associated with strong emotions. I.E Colt has a strong sense of protection because in his human life he was dead set on protecting his little sister. These emotions probably cause the memories to take precedence over others. There are how ever small instances that show both sides can be remembered. There is a conversation between Killua and Ikalgo, in where Ikalgo recalls his time as an octopus and always envied the graceful squid. Later when Ikalgo is with Welfin in the control room after shooting Welfin in the legs Ikalgo makes him speak of his human memories. This conversation jogs Ikalgo's memory and he starts to remember some of his past human memories as well.


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Can you manipulate a person using an alias with the death note?
So. Let's say John has a death note. Now there's a killer on the run, and John doesn't know his name and face. Now he writes the name of a criminal in his death note, to indirectly catch the killer. He writes:
Bob Zorto gets stabbed to death, at 12:30, by the serial killer, who uses the alias ''Shadow Killer''.
Could that actually work?

Also related, related and related.

No, this would not work.
In chapter 45 page 17, we see how L tells us that nicknames would not work and the cause of death would turn into an heart attack. The exact quote for reference was:

It is not possible to have "Make Amane Misa talk about L and then kill her", and it would turn into a heart attack since "L" is a nickname.


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What was the first anime-styled Visual Novel?
I enjoy reading about old anime and manga, but I don't know too much about the history of anime in the gaming industry. And I have been wondering what the first visual novel from Japan was.
More specifically, one featuring anime-style characters (rather than a Visual Novel in a different style). I've searched myself, but I haven't found any reliable source that gives me an answer. Perhaps some japanese-based resources would prove more useful.
What was the first/earliest-known visual novel to feature anime-styled characters?

You should clarify your question a bit more. The visual part of visual novels assume that there has always been a visual component (meaning it will resemble anime during that time) accompany to the novel's words. The style of "anime" has changed quite a bit. What we consider anime now can barely be distinguishable from "anime" of the past due to various factors such as, talent, labor technology, trends, and ideals. Many eroges qualify as visual novels, not the inverse. Are you looking to include or exclude eroges from your question?

@krazer eroges are fine, by anime-style I don't nessicarily mean games that look like modern anime - I realise early artwork is quite different, I just specified it as there are vns that are clearly not animated and I don't want to include them

I spent a few hours diving. Here are the shiniest pearls I hence doth bequeath thee:

Lolita was the first anime-styled visual novel, as asked.
The Portopia Serial Murder Case was the first visual novel, but I argue that its visual style deliberately mimicked US games of the era.
Taking the question a little differently for extra style points: Dragon Knight was the first VN game with an anime adaptation.

Juicy details follow:
Lolita (Yakyuken) (orig. 「ロリイタ （野球拳）」)
This eroge from developer PSK was published in 1982 or 1983 (sources disagree). It is the oldest game tracked by vndb. The title screen art is distinctly in an anime/manga style:

And so is the gameplay. Here's a screenshot (thanks user Cor 13 at Moby Games):

The game is basically a video-game version of yakyuken; strip rock-paper-scissors, against the computer. Winning reduces the girl's clothing until she's naked, at which point the police arrive and arrest the player character. (Yes, seriously.)
Here's a gameplay video. The video description credits it as the "first anime game", but does not explain the reasons for that title.
The story is pretty thin, and so are the visuals (also literally), but I would argue that there's still a story there and that it's undeniably visual.
The Portopia Serial Murder Case (orig. 「ポートピア連続殺人事件」)
If the facts one day surface, and Lolita actually was released later, this game, developed by Yuji Horii in June 1983 for the NEC PC-6001, would be next in line. Though it is historically very important, its visual style may disqualify it for the specific honour of being the first anime-styled VN.
The game involves solving mysteries by interacting with items, characters and the game world, and Retro Gamer (in issue 85) asserts that it “defined the visual novel genre; it was the first from which all subsequent titles followed”. Those are big words.
However, the cover clearly isn't in an anime style (ⓒ Square Enix nowadays, from Wikipedia):

The in-game graphics were so limited it's hard to tell, but based on a gameplay video (thanks YouTube user cokescrew) the style isn't obviously approximating anime either:

Retro Gamer magazine interviewed the game's developer Yuji Horii in issue 35. I found a copy, and sure enough he explains the game's origin story:

I read an article in a PC magazine about a US genre called ‘adventure games’, which allowed players to read stories on their PCs. We still didn't have them in Japan, and I took it upon myself to make one. [...]

That scarcity is perhaps the reason I couldn't find other old Japanese VNs or text-adventures. The quote does clearly point Portopia's intended genre more at text adventure than visual novel though, and suggests its main influence was western games, casting doubt on its eligibility for the specific honour in question.
Dragon Knight
If we take the question extremely firmly, to mean that there must be a corresponding anime of that visual novel, then based on Wikipedia's list of anime based on video games, the oldest is this 1989 eroge/RPG by developer Elf still in business! with a 1991 hentai OVA adaptation of the same name.
Here's the game's cover art (ⓒ NEC Avenue Ltd. & Elf; thanks vndb):

Greetings from Game Development SE! ♥

Welcome to Anime & Manga SE!


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Why does Team Rocket always try to catch Pikachu?
Very surprised this question has not been asked yet.
In almost every single episode, at least from the first season all the way through to the Unova region, Team Rocket is trying to catch Pikachu to give him to Giovanni. Why do they do this? They often cite reasoning that this Pikachu is special somehow, but is that actually true? Nobody else really talks about how awesome Pikachu is, and he certainly doesn't seem to win very often.
I'm looking for any kind of answer, in-universe, out-of-universe, thematic, humourous, etc.
I have a theory I will post below but wonder if this community could come up with a better answer.

The answers below are very creative, but I really think it just comes down to wanting to keep Team Rocket on the show. If they gave up on Pikachu, they'd have no reason to keep following Ash around. And humor, I guess; lots of kids' shows have villains that get defeated in every episode for the laughs.

At the end of the second episode of the anime (Team Rocket's first appearance), Pikachu generates a large explosion which renders Team Rocket flying into outer space. Shocker (pun intended).
The next time we meet Team Rocket (next episode, again, shocker) they tell our friends the following:

The only Pikachu we want is that one.
We're only looking for the rarest, most valuable Pokémon in the world, kid.
And that special Pikachu is just the kind of Pokémon we need.

As portrayed later in the series, this Team Rocket trio does not have a good standing with Giovanni (anymore) so they try to get him the best Pokémon they can find to make up for it, which they believe is Pikachu.

Most of that bad standing is I think because they keep wasting time and money with bad plans like pursuing a single pikachu. How many robots were wrecked because of their plans?

It was my understanding this was their own money, not from Team Rocket. In any case, that's a loophole that is not addressed in the series, likewise they have a new Meowth balloon almost every episode, in how many places can you buy them and why does nobody else fly in them if they're so readily available?

They plainly say several times that they get money from Team Rocket, at least some of the time

I believe it's implied at one point that they're related or something to Giovanni, and so he can't really punish them, so he just tries to get them out of the way of his real plans. Probably the beginning of Hoenn. Could be completely making this up though

There are multiple reasons (and theories. People won't give up with Pokémon theories & creepy pasta) of why Team Rocket would like to get Ash's Pikachu.
1) In ep65 "The Battle Of The Badge" in Season One, it revealed that the boss asked them to, by team rocket saying to the Jovani "It's even rarer than the Pikachu you want so much". the question remaining is what makes Ash's Pikachu so rare and special?

In the Season one episode "Ash Catches a Pokémon," when Team Rocket was trying to steal Pikachu, Meowth accidentally says that Ash's Pikachu's power exceeds the power level he would possess as a Raichu (the evolved version of Pikachu).

As said in the wiki, as an example. (I'll try to update the post with a video link).
Which can be interpreted as

Ash's Pikachu has got more power than a regular Raichu

As you can see in the different seasons of Pokémon, Ash's Pikachu is dunking asses. If you compare it to a regular Pikachu from one of the games, the difference in stats is ridiculous. I mean like... really?
What's more, Pikachu is one of the few Pokémon Ash didn't abandon (I mean.. C'mon, he left Charizard, who in the world would be insane enough to do this? What do you mean, Pokémon have feelings too?), so Ash spent many years training him.
So we can assume that, even if Ash was one of the most incompetent trainers,  Pikachu should be around level 100, giving the Team Rocket another good reason to try to catch him.
2) Another way to see it (not proven at all, just my personal opinion) is that, more than being stupid, Team Rocket is incredibly stubborn, as proven by the hundreds of tries of catching Pikachu. They spent years trying to catch Pikachu, what would be the sense of all this time of their lives if they stopped now? They prefer to keep spending their time trying to catch this Pikachu rather than admitting they lost years of their lives for nothing.
TL;DR : Pikachu OP & Team Rocket stupid

If Pikachu started in clean state, by now it would have very bad EV (more physical stats than special? Ugh, Ash should have his license revoked). Even with godly IV it will be weak, making it useful only for breeding more pikas. Considering how each season seems to reset its level (and wipes Ash memory) it would max at about lvl 50 (when it learns Thunder) and then starts again (poor Ditto).

Maybe Pikachu grinded in secret when Ash was sleeping in order to get good EV? But you raise a good point here.

I don't like it when people compare the anime to the games. The anime obviously isn't a level-based RPG. There are so many differences we should treat them as two different universes.

Yet the anime takes its roots from the game. What's more, even if I use comparison with the game, you can make the same in the anime. "Pikachu should be around level 100" -> "Pikachu is really experienced concerning the fights", etc.

Unless I'm wrong, Pikachu loses way more often than he wins. It is all completely based on whatever the plot demands at any given time. There is no concept at all of Pikachu being a "high level" in fact I only remember this being mentioned of other pokemon, very few times. Are EVs mentioned? I feel like maybe they are... Good point though about Giovanni telling them to catch Pikachu

@Nacht In 8th episode (1998) there is trainer doing what seems like EV training using Macho Brace, although that item appeared in game later (2002, third generation, together with current form of EV). Anime creators had insight in future of game series (eg. Ho-oh appearing in anime before its game was released) so it could be intended as sneak-peak. (Thankfully to all remakes gen I-II can be left alone in its cave of imbalanced gameplay ;p)

Pikachu doesn't win often, you're right, but when he does, it's in a quite "powerful" way.

@Ikaros I'm not a huge fan of your answer, but if you set your first answer in bold at the top: "Giovanni asked them to", I'll accept it.

Short answer: This is Team Rocket's version of "following your dreams"
The only answer I've been able to come up with is a thematic one. The Pokemon anime, as with much Bishōnen anime is all about the idea of fulfilling your dreams and never giving up (being the most important part of Japanese Spirit). Ash has his dream of being the best Pokemon Trainer, Misty her dream of being a great Water-type trainer, Brock his dream about being a great breeder. None of these characters could give up on this dream or it would break the theme of the series.
If you had to pick a "dream" for Jesse, James and Meowth I think it would be to catch Ash's Pikachu. It kind of made sense in the first episode because Pikachu happened to win, but over the series as a whole, Pikachu doesn't seem especially powerful. But it doesn't really matter - Team Rocket could not give up on this dream of catching Pikachu, even though they are the antagonists, because it would break one of the central themes of the show: not giving up on your dreams.
I can't think of any satisfying in-universe logical reason for Team Rocket to continue pursuing Pikachu. There's not really any need to manufacture one, but I'm looking forward to other possible answers that might have thought of something I haven't.

This is answered in the very first episode that Team Rocket shows up in (the second episode in the series).  In it, Team Rocket (Jessie, James and Meowth) arrive at the Pokémon center that Ash and Misty are at - Pikachu is recovering from the events of the previous episode.
At first, Team Rocket has no interest whatsoever in Ash's Pikachu, and are only really interested in taking all of the infirmed pokemon, disregarding his one ordinary Pikachu completely.
However, when Pikachu recovers, and with the help of several other Pikachu at the Pokémon Center, Pikachu manages to defeat Team Rocket in a single attack.
After this catastrophic failure, Team Rocket (Jessie, James and Meowth, not the group as a whole) determines that Ash's Pikachu must be "special", and resolve to catch it for their boss.
So to sum up, the reasons that Jessie, James, and Meowth want Ash's Pikachu so badly are:
1: It beat them badly with a seemingly impossible level of power.
2: They want to give that "special" Pikachu to their boss.

I think that team rocket is always trying to catch ash's pikachu, because team rocket, as long as ash and his pals, haven't aged for just about 20 darn years, for the sake of the franchise. They've been with ash in the anime the most, so they've also then seen ash's pikachu countless times, and often times, getting into the 'were blasting off again!' phrase. It's only natural that they'd want to capture pikachu, because they want pikachu's amazing power for themselves. How ever, they always fail to capture pika, and I'd like to sorta see a episode where rocket finally catches pikachu.
Hope this helps
- Matt


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How can Hitoe touch Ruuko?
During the events of Selector Infected Wixoss, it is revealed that when a Selector loses 3 battles...

 her wish is reversed. Hitoe, who wished to make friends, would therefore be unable to touch any potential or current friend without suffering from intense pain. She would also be unable to remember her friends or read any diary entry about them.

Interestingly, the very first episode of Selector Spread Wixoss shows Hitoe touching Ruuko without showing any signs of pain.
How is that possible?

FTR Hitoe also touches Ruko in the last episode of Selector Infected Wixoss without any obvious signs of pain, after she reveals to Ruko and Yuzuki that she regained her memories and appreciated their friendship.

It is likely that by obtaining a new deck containing an LRIG, the mental effects of losing three battles are not an issue anymore.
This is based on the reasoning that Akira was physically scarred, with her mental scarring coming from the physical and Ulith, whereas Hitoe was mentally scarred - it is also possible (this, by the way, is just an assumption) that her pain was not actually real, and only something her mind created. Knowing Mari Okada's work, this could be quite possible.
Assuming it is a physical issue, she did recognise that she had friends before, as well, and remembering that Yuzuki and Ruko were her friends may have broken the barrier that stopped them from becoming so when Akira beat her in the first season.


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Why did the skinned chickens fear the camera?
It might be too much to ask for logic from this series, but maybe there is an answer somewhere.
In Episode 2 of Humanity has Declined, the narrator discovers that the board of directors of the factory producing weird items is a bunch of chickens that were butchered, plucked, and prepared for eating in Episode 1. They somehow came to life and gained intelligence and the ability to speak by making weird honking sounds. (The narrator can get overly literal subtitles of their language using a pair of universal translator glasses provided by her fairy companion.)

The butchered chickens manage to trap the narrator in a cage and declare their intent to erase her memory with drugs and leave her somewhere far away to watch as they complete their insidious plan to destroy the ailing human society. However, the narrator's silent assistant enters and starts taking pictures of the chickens with his camera. For some reason, this terrifies them, and they run away. Several of them fall into the factory equipment and become food during the ensuing chase; the remaining group clusters against a seaside cliff and leaps into the sea rather than face the camera, while "Ave Maria" plays.
Pretty much everything about this episode is worthy of a big question mark, but I found it most puzzling that the chickens feared the camera so much that they leapt to their deaths rather than face it. (Yes, really, that was the part I found most puzzling.) Why were they so afraid of the camera?

I'm not sure but it might be because they didn't want their 'real forms' photographed - i need to rewatch the episode to be sure

@ToshinouKyouko That does make sense since it was pretty clear they were trying to hide their identities. I just watched it last night and I don't remember that being said directly, but the overwhelming weirdness was pretty distracting, so I may have missed a clue.

I was correct in my earlier comment - The skinned chickens don't want to be revealed to humankind so they avoid being photographed.
This is revealed in the first dialogue with the chickens:

If they knew of their existance, humanity could easily overpower them because of the chickens' feeble bodies. Hence they try to avoid the assistant.

Don't worry, the main character missed it too:

Yeah, between all the blurring of subtitles and complaining the narrator was doing during that scene, plus the dazed feeling I got from seeing something that weird on screen, it was hard to follow the nuance of the conversation. Thanks for your answer, +1.


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Why does Chris take the form of a rabbit?
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha - ViVid Vivio's Intelligent Device Sacred Heart, AKA Chris, takes the form of a rabbit in Standby Mode while most other characters go something they can wear (ie. Nanoha's Rasing Heart necklace, Erio's Strada wrist watch, Shamal's Klarwind rings, Fate's Bardiche grove).
Why is this?

The reason why Chris (Sacred Heart) take the form of a rabbit in Standby Mode is most likely because the rabbit form is based off from a present Vivio got when she was young, something very precious to her.
In Episode 13 of StrikerS when Vivio is being treated after being rescued by the Riot Force 6 Forwards Nanoha buys a white rabbit she saw in the hall and returns to Vivio's room placing it by her pillow.
Later in the episode Vivio is seen crying when Nanoha goes to leave to learn of the reason why Riot Force 6 was created. when Fate approaches Vivio to calm her down she picks up Vivio's rabbit, while she talks you'll notice that as Fate moves the rabbit around Vivio's follows it with her head.
you'll also notice that the 2 look very similar (albeit the glow on the cheeks)

Left: Vivio in Strikers holding her rabbit toy.
Right: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid Poster with Vivio and Chris
i would suspect the rabbit has the same kind of sentimental value as Nanoha's and Fate's hair ribbons they traded to one another at the very end of the first season, but later on for a grown woman to be carrying a rabbit toy would seem strange1 so making it her device's Standby Mode preserves it's spot in Vivio's life and thus keeping the memory of Nanoha close to her no matter how far they be apart
1: Vita carrying the rabbit Hayate brought her isn't strange because Vita will still look like a child


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What happens if there is no relic in a summoning?
In Unlimited Blade Works, we eventually learn that Archer was summoned as Rin had a relic associated with him (i.e. the pendant Shiro keeps). In the recent anime adaptation, there is also some statement to the effect of "a relic is required to summon a servant".
Similar sentiment is expressed in the Fate route of the visual novel. On the last day, Saber tells Shiro that he must have been able to summon her as a result of having had Excalibur's sheath embedded in him (similar to how it was embedded in Irisviel in Fate/Zero):

To summon a heroic spirit, one needs a symbol connected with that spirit.

This seems in line with the other summonings we see, such as Waver's use of a cloak to summon Iskandar and the trouble the Einsberns take to retrieve the sheath so that Kiritsugu summons a good servant. Finally, some remark Lord El Melloi makes about having to find a relic last minute suggests that a relic is always required.
Is this ("a relic is always required for a successful summoning") correct? If so, did Rin have anything she knew to be a relic when she summoned Archer? (I feel like she didn't, but if a relic is required, I would have assumed that she'd be aware of this, as a reasonably competent magus.)

Briefly: a relic is not always required. For example, Ryuunosuke had no relic. He had to get a Caster since that was the only class left, but the reason he got his specific Caster (Gilles de Rais) was that that specific Caster was very much like him (i.e. a goddamned psychopath). See also: http://anime.stackexchange.com/a/20536/

@senshin dam sometimes that "one new comment" can really hide itself. you more or less answered it before i was finished

@senshin Bluebeard's summoning is a little unclear.  Ryuunosuke had a necronomicon-like spell tome, apparently with some legitimate magical ability to it, when he (inadvertently) performed the summoning.  I've always understood this as meaning that the tome provided a tenuous connection to anyone that had occult/Cthulhu-esque connections.  It then used personality comparison to pull Bluebeard as the best choice.  This would be similar to Sakura's catalyst being described as a week connection to many possibilities, with personality traits then selecting Medusa.

A catalyst is not required, but most Magi prepare for one because they have been preparing to partake in the Holy Grail War for years.

Most Masters will prepare a catalyst with which to summon their desired Heroic Spirit, but it is not absolutely necessary. Without a specific artifact, the Grail will, rather than base it on their power, chose a Servant based upon similarities to the summoner's own nature.

Source: Servant - Summoning
This coincides with Gilles de Rais' summoning in the 4th Holy Grail War:

His Master was Ryuunosuke Uryuu, a serial killer who unwittingly performed a successful summoning ritual using the blood of a murdered family. Ryuunosuke lacked a cataylst so the Grail chose a servant with the closest personality to Ryuunosuke. He first introduces himself to his Master as Bluebeard.

Source: Caster (Fate/Zero) - Role
You can see a list of all the the heroes who are known to have been summoned with a catalyst in the Catalyst section of the Servant page, and you'll notice that not only Gilles is missing.
You'll also notice that the mirror used to summon Medusa was a weak catalyst, so Sakura's similar personality helped summoning Medusa:

Mirror dug up from a temple in Eritrea, an item with ties to an old Earth goddess of Greece. It is noted to have been a weak catalyst to Medusa, so Sakura Matou's similar personality plays a role in the summoning.

This makes sense, but how would Archer and Saber's comments be explained then?

@Maroon well unlike other Servants Arturia can remember the events of the past war as she isn't a copy. since both times her Sheath was used as a catalyst she could come up with that given that she didn't know Ryuunosuke used nothing to summon Gilles and it's not like Masters are going to reveal their catalyst to an enemy for fear it may reveal their Servant's Identity. also with Rin i don't remember there being any mention of her having prepared a catalyst, just the optimum time for her magic and having saved it up in order to try and summon Saber (didn't matter who Saber was)

@Memor-X A catalyst is used in Archer's summoning, it's just in reverse.  We learn that Rin possesses a large ruby-like jewel pendant that she stores mana in, and she tries using that stored energy to force a powerful summon (if I remember correctly, but it's not terribly important if she didn't).  This gem would come to carry great meaning for he-who-would-become-Archer.  In actual fact it is Archer's copy of the jewel that acts as the catalyst, establishing a link to his summoner, rather than the usual way: a catalyst connecting the summoner to the Heroic Spirit.

@Maroon As far as their comments go, these must always be taken with a grain of salt in the Type Moon universe/multiverse.  They are fallible and have their own interests.  The short way to understand it is that the whole Type Moon universe is composed of a large assortment of conceptual rules and truths, all of which can be subverted, altered, and poorly understood.  Think about many of the servant abilities and summonings and this should make sense: Lancer in Zero was summoned by breaking the summoning rules; Lancer in FSN reversed cause/effect; etc.

@zibadawatimmy oh i known that about EIMYA's Catalyst but Rin didn't knowingly prepare one which would be another indication that one does not need a catalyst. when no Servant appeared her first thought wasn't "maybe i needed a catalyst" it was her realizing her timing was off, then Archer destroy's her living

@zibadawatimmy also how did Lancer in Fate/Zero break the Summoning Rules? to my understanding he was summoned correctly but the contract was altered so that it was someone else aside from his Master who provided Prana

@Memor-X The summoning is supposed to connect to a single person: it gives command seals to and connects for mana support from the same person (the summoner).  Kayneth manipulated the system to seperate these two things: he got the commands, Sola Ui became the mana support.  The Rule of the Greater Grail System was "one master, one servant", roughly, and he overcame that.  He boasted about how he overcame the rules of the system for his (perceived) advantage in the LN.

@zibadawatimmy i wouldn't say that would be a rule breach (if there was such a thing) otherwise the Edelfelt sisters in the 3rd war also cheated by using their Sorcery Trait to summon 2 Sabers. also if i remember right Rin or Arturia tells Shirou that a Servant can get energy elsewhere if their Master is insufficient such as devouring human souls which is what Medea was doing (though she was stopping short from killing people). in Kayneth's example he's quite a skilled Magus so delegating someone else to handle the Prana Supply so he has the edge in a Master VS Master fight.

anyway, any "rule" is more of a guideline. the one rule that's strictly followed is the Mage's Association rule about revealing the existence of Magecraft to the general public.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


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Why is Super Sonico famous?
The first thing that comes to mind when you think of Super Sonico is probably her large * ahem * assets.

Super sonico is all over the internet and has many fan-service wallpapers, figures, etc.
What is Super Sonico actually famous for?
I know she's a mascot for a gaming company, but is it purely the appeal of her chest that has gained her the massive fan following?

I've wondered this too. The Wikipedia article makes it sound like it's just because of the huge amount of marketing that Nitroplus poured into making the character popular. It seems like the rise of Nitroplus itself, after the massive popularity of Gen Urobuchi works like Fate/Zero and Madoka, probably also helped Super Sonico's rise to fame. (Personally, when it comes to fake-famous mascot characters, I prefer Miss Monochrome.)

because Boobs . . .

I did a little more research after writing my initial comment, though it was pretty hard to find good information on this topic in English. What I present below is my own theory, compiled from my own interpretation of the evidence.
Super Sonico isn't the mascot of just any gaming company; she's the mascot of Nitroplus, the visual novel cooperative which gave Gen Urobuchi his break into the visual novel world in 2000 when he wrote the scenario for their first game, Phantom of Inferno.1 Urobuchi later went on to work on the Fate/Zero novels and anime, and to become one of the Magica Quartet group that created Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Nitroplus was also involved in the creation of the Science Adventure visual novels, Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, and Robotics;Notes, alongside another company called 5pb. These are hugely popular works among otaku, and their rise seems to have triggered the rise of Super Sonico by association.
Various sources, including TV Tropes, give me the impression that Nitroplus's breakthrough work was 2003's Saya no Uta, another Urobuchi project. In 2004, Urobuchi was invited by Kinoko Nasu to coauthor the Fate/Zero light novels, which were released in 2006 and 2007 according to Madoka Wiki. In 2011, Urobuchi worked on the Fate/Zero anime and also became part of Magica Quartet and developed the story for Puella Magi Madoka Magica. By 2012, Urobuchi was likely a household name among otaku due to his involvement in these massive hits. His involvement with Nitroplus probably caused a massive boost in popularity for their work. Also, the Chaos;Head/Steins;Gate/Robotics;Notes series began in 2008 with the initial release of Chaos;Head, and seems to have been fairly popular—it's certainly had enough manga and anime adaptations that it can't have been a total failure, though I'm not familiar with the series myself. All of this means that Nitroplus was just starting to hit the scene in a big way around 2011. This was the year Urobuchi took off,
and also the year that the Steins;Gate anime came out. (There had previously been a Chaos;Head anime.)
Now, 2011 also seems to be the year that Super Sonico really hit the scene in a big way. Super Sonico was created by Nitroplus's Tsuji Santa in 2006 for their annual music festival, Nitro Super Sonico, according to the Super Sonico Wiki and Wikipedia. However, as far as I can tell, the Super Sonico merchandising rocket really took off starting around 2011. According to Wikipedia, 2011 marked the release of the first Super Sonico album, GALAXY ONE. 2011 is also the year the majority of Super Sonico singles were released (there was one single released in 2010, and another song which was introduced at 2010 Summer Comiket but not released as a single until 2011. The rest of her singles and albums are clustered in 2011 and 2012). The first Super Sonico manga, Super Sonico SoniKoma, and the Super Sonico visual novel, SoniComi, also came out in 2011.
The manga and visual novel seem to have been the start of a massive marketing blitz by Nitroplus to get Super Sonico on as many screens as possible. 2014 saw Super Sonico: The Animation, which likely introduced the character to Western audiences when it ran on Crunchyroll. There was also a second Super Sonico game, this time for 3DS, in 2014. Super Sonico made cameo appearances in tons of other games and is slated to appear in even more.
So the chain of events suggests that Super Sonico became famous at the same time that Nitroplus did, and that since then, Nitroplus has intentionally put effort into maintaining her popularity by releasing tie-in merchandise and getting her cameos in other media. It makes sense from Nitroplus's perspective to spend money on this: otaku are known to become enamored of mascot-type characters (the Digi Carat gang, Hatsune Miku, Kantai Collection, Touhou, Miss Monochrome) and spend money on games, albums, toys, phone cards, pencil boards, dakimakura covers, and manga spinoffs featuring the characters, so Super Sonico is a direct revenue source for the company. But as the company's mascot, Super Sonico also increases Nitroplus's profile in a way that even a superstar like Urobuchi can't do. She's like Nitroplus's equivalent to the McDonald's golden arches, or the Disney Mickey Mouse head. Every Super Sonico dakimakura cover, every Super Sonico doujinshi, every piece of Super Sonico fanart, is an advertisement for Nitroplus. Every person who stumbles on a Super Sonico doujinshi without knowing the character, and decides to look into her origin, is another potential buyer for Nitroplus's products—not just the Super Sonico products, but also their other products like Saya no Uta and Chaos;Head. I suspect that her popularity is going to wane soon, now that she's advertising train stations and beer. However, for now, she seems to be an important part of Nitroplus's marketing strategy.
(Now we just need the Super Sonico vs. Miss Monochrome Battle of the Mascots rhythm game/manga/anime/visual novel, continuing the epic battle between big boobs and average boobs which has played out across countless anime.)
Notes
1: The Madoka wiki article on Urobuchi claims Phantom of Inferno came out in 2001, but Wikipedia and TV Tropes agree on 2000 (February 25th, 2000 according to Wikipedia).

Ah, interesting. So it sounds like it all started after her first album. Didn't realise she sang :o

@ToshinouKyouko I think the manga and visual novel were big factors too, but the album seems to have been the earthquake that set off the tsunami of Super Sonico marketing in 2011. There was a gravure book and a radio show in that year too, which I didn't have time for in my answer. (I learned way more than I wanted to know about Super Sonico as I was researching this answer (and I still prefer Miss Monochrome!) but I had fun writing it.)

Small correction, the M arc of McDonalds is not their mascot. Their mascot is the clown with red nose and curly hair, Ronald McDonalds.

Technically speaking, Phantom of Inferno came out in the year 1999 as a PC game, that was ported over to DVD in February of 2000, and had several other editions made on DVD up until approximately 2002. But hey, the fandom is small, and mistakes do occur when something is old enough to be 20 years old. Source - my own obsessive research and the copyright year on the Phantom of Inferno DVD I own.


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Why didn't Zoro use his Bandana in dressrosa arc?
Not only has he not used his bandana against Pica but is hardly shown wearing it on the arm.. I can't recall if he even had it on the arm.. He usually wears it to defeat the enemies but this time.. Why the exception? Is it because it doesn't look good on the suit he was wearing? If it was the reason it would be the stupidest reason ever! I Might be missing something.. Maybe..

Are you talking about anime or manga , i have not watched anime but in manga he have used it to defeat pica

Spoiler alert @mirroroftruth :P

@pap the whowl question is a spoiler. ;P

@pap can't be help , question is not clear , talking about anime or manga

Talking about manga

He put it on, right before he executed his Tactics No. 5 and wore it during his last attack on Pica. He just did not need it before this. It was only when Pica started attacking King Riku and Usopp that he needed to be serious and defeat Pica before there were any casualties.
It was not shown explicitly but he put it up at the last page of chapter 777, when he decides to go with plan E (aka plane, seeing he decides to fly through the sky. Sorry for the lame pun, could not help it.) From this point until he defeats Pica he wears his bandana. This is the only time we can see him wear it during the Dressrosa Arc.
As for where he put the bandana during the rest of the arc, it seems like he indeed hid it somewhere beneath his suit, because I can't seem to find a single panel where it was shown.

He took the bandana off at the beginning of chapter 779 after his plan(e) was successful.

Ok! That part skipped my head in excitement