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Is there any connection between Otonashi and the first NPC?
In episode 12, the Mysterious Boy (who is probably the first NPC) explained to Yuri that there was a boy from a long time ago who loved another girl who left him alone in this world. Thus he lost his grip on sanity, and created some sort of "requirements" to this world (the main one being to not allow love to spread). But the Mysterious Boy also told her that his chances of meeting her again are better than 0.
Based on this question, it is assumed that Otonashi didn't have regrets so he did passed on. But I beg to differ on that, because we can also assume Otonashi DID have regrets right after Kanade left him even when he begged for her to stay with him.
It's all based on assumption really, but could it be that the first NPC was actually Otonashi himself in some way?

So far, I have not seen undeniable evidence for or against this theory. The Mysterious Boy is just an AI. You probably meant The Programmer instead of the first NPC.

@GaoWeiwei According to the English DUB, The Mysterious Boy said the first NPC he is the The Programmer...

I still haven't gotten my head wrapped around the ending, but the creator of Angel Beats!, Jun Maeda, has purportedly said in an interview:

It was no use being there by himself, so I believe he also left the world after that. Besides, he was rewarded. It wasn’t a bad life. It wouldn’t be like Otonashi for him to stay. He’s a forward-thinker…looking towards his next life.

So it seems that Otonashi eventually passed on without regrets.
Otonashi is undoubtedly portrayed as a parallel of the Programmer, but it is not known whether he will end up turning himself into an NPC like the Programmer had done, because the anime didn't give us a clear and definitive answer, and neither did Jun Maeda in the interview.
I guess it's really up to you to decide on what you believe in.

what about the epilogue where Otonashi v2 reached to Kanade v2 ?

@NamikazeSheena I believe that epilogue is the result of Otonashi having successfully left the Afterlife World, the "Good/True End". But don't forget the Another Epilogue, where we are not so sure if Otonashi won't stay indefinitely in the Afterlife World, like a "Normal/Bad End".

Theoretically, no. It's true that Kanade arrived before Otonashi and Otonashi died in the real world before Kanade (because Otonashi's heart went to Kanade), but I think this question never received a response from Key.

Theories are backed by facts.

If Otonashi was related to first NPC, then should arrive afterlife before Kanade. But she arrives first for some reason (ep1).
Maybe, Otonashi arrives, then leave afterworld, and dies a second time on real world...?

The Mysterious Boy, aka the AI, was created by the Programmer as the first NPC in the Afterlife. The Programmer's details match that of Otonashi's with striking similarities. Let's not forget that alongside the original ending of Angel Beats, Key issued another epilogue, aptly titled "Another Epilogue". In this, the main focus is another person that's arrived in the Afterlife, and he is surrounded by quiet, obedient NPCs. After challenging the reality of the Afterlife School, he is talked to by the Student Council President,

 the Otonashi in an alternate timeline, who hasn't moved on yet,

and he is told that if he has any question about the world that they both live in that he should come down to the Student Council room. However, as

 Otonashi heads back to the Student Council room, a girl can be heard saying, "There's a rumor that he's waiting for someone."

So therefore, it's entirely possible that

 Otonashi is waiting for Kanade, and that this timestream somehow loops. Otonashi goes crazy waiting for Kanade, who has an infinitesimally small chance of reappearing in the Afterlife, but still, better than zero.

He turns himself into an NPC to be able to withstand the long wait, and creates the AI, or the "Mysterious Boy" to be able to maintain the requirements of the Afterlife, not allowing love to manifest, therefore possibly saving future arrivals from the pain that he has been exposed to. This may be why he creates Angel Player, because he knows that if Kanade reappears, then she'll know how to use it, and maybe program it to move him back from his NPC state. The members of the SSS arrive after this. Then, at the time of Episode 1, the timestream loops, causing

 Otonashi to revert back from an NPC.

Forgetting everything that's happened to him, the events continue their course the same way they did before,

 causing the timeline to repeat over and over and over.

Any thoughts? This seems pretty far-fetched, but it's out there now.


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Who is this Aogiri member (a girl on redhood) in the anime adaptation?
I want to ask who she really is. All I know is that she is member of Aogiri.

"What will be her purposed on the life of Kaneki ?" - This is a question that can only be answered by speculation. If you want to ask only about the character, that's probably fine. You should also specify manga or anime, since the two have diverged significantly.

Uhm , is it okey if i add that question ?"Her purposed?"

Because it's about a future event (something not yet released), it would likely be considered primarily opinion-based.

Since it is future based i won't ask for that "purpose". Thanks again .

According to Tokyo Ghoul Wiki, her name is Eto. As a ghoul, she is known as the

One-Eyed Owl,

and her human name is

Sen Takatsuki.

She is also an executive member of the Aogiri Tree.

Rather substantial spoilers below.

The "girl with the red hood" that you refer to is a "one eyed ghoul", meaning that they only have one Kakugan or shining eye where as a normal ghoul would have two. Eto is the only natural (she was born to a ghoul father (Yoshimura) and human mother (Ukina)) one eyed ghoul that we know about as of yet. The other one eyed ghouls that we know of are Ken Kaneki and Kurona and Nashiro Yasuhisa, all of whom became ghouls after operations rather than naturally. It is said that one eyed ghouls can become much more powerful than their two eyed counter parts. Eto is also one of a few ghouls known as "kakuja", a ghoul that commits cannibalism and develops a full bodied armour that they are able to activate similarly to their kagune. To many, including the CCG, she is known as the one eyed owl. Eto is a high ranking member in the ghoul organisation Aogiri Tree and arguably the most powerful. While she is living in the human world, she goes by the name Sen Takatsuki, a notable author.

You will be able to read all about her on the wikia, hope this helped!

source: Stack Exchange

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Why can't Sasuke use Tsukuyomi even after implanting Itachi's eyes?
The manga makes it plenty clear that Sasuke can/does not use Tsukuyomi. Both his eyes have powers related to Amaterasu only. But why? Madara and Kakashi could use Kamui using Obito's eyes and Danzo could use KotoAmatsukami using Shisui's eyes. Then why not Sasuke? We have seen that during fight with Kabuto, he uses ordinary sharingan genjutsu on Itachi when freeing him from Kabuto's sound genjutsu.
Does this mean that once you achieve your own MS powers, implanting someone else's eyes does not grant you their power but just give you EMS?
Does the eye transplant work differently for non-Uchihas, as in they just gain the original eye power?
But this still does not explain Madara's using Kamui.
Edit: People seem to be confused about the fact that Sasuke can NOT use Tsukuyomi. Here is the detailed answer I wrote: https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/15018/9123
Here is a Tsukuyomi wiki that clearly states the only user is Uchiha Itachi

Have fun reading this hope it clears your doubt

He can use Tsukuyomi after implanting Itachi's eyes :)

@krikara He can not. See my answer to this question.

@Sarenya See my answer there.

@AmanSingh You can't really use the wikia page as proof. Look at the answer that was marked correct. Additionally, if you receive eyes from a person, you can use the same jutsus his eyes used (ie Danzou using Shisui's eye). Just because they don't explicitly say Sasuke used Tsukuyomi doesn't mean he hasn't. You also totally discounted the Bee fight because you said it was the "only time it happens". Even if Sasuke only used it once, he still used it.

@krikara The answer that was marked correct, is wrong. Anyway, I am not relying on the wiki. I have provided sufficient proof in my answer (which I suspect you haven't read completely). In the Bee fight, Sasuke still didn't have Itachi's eyes, and also, a black and white background doesn't mean Tsukuyomi. The eye Sasuke used for thi supposed "Tsukuyomi" is used for Amaterasu's shape manipulation (E.g Kagutsuchi), as seen in Kaguya fight. BTW, the wikia is maintained and cross checked by many more independent editors than here, with far more textual references.

How to know if certain Sasuke genjutsu is not Tsukuyomi. Such on the last ride he used a genjutsu on sakura. That seem to look like a Tsukuyomi.

@AmanSingh I've read your post; you try to reason that Sasuke is just using a normal genjutsu as opposed to Tsukuyomi. In any case, Sasuke can use Tsukuyomi because he received Itachi's eyes. When you receive eyes, you receive the inherent ocular powers as well. This occurs with all eye transfers in Naruto, whether it is Sharingan or Rinnegan.

@krikara You are arguing the conclusion as a premise. We have never seen an Uchiha, having a mangekyou, take his brother's mangekyou and gain the brother's powers. If we knew what Madara and Izuna's powers were, we could have concluded one way or the other. But here, the use of Tsukuyomi by Sasuke itself is in debate, seeing he has never used Tsukuyomi (that too is debatable it seems).

@Sarenya Not all genjutsu is Tsukuyomi. Tsukuyomi manipulates time length in victim's experience of the genjustu, like Itachi did with Kakashi and Sasuke. Attack on Sakura was almost instantaneous, and similar to Itachi's paralysing genjutsu he used on Orochimaru. Even the genjutsu used on the bijuu wasn't named Tsukuyomi by anyone; not by Rikudo, not by Sasuke, not even by the bijuu themselves. It was just called a "glance"

@krikara But since no one has ever seen Sasuke either in manga or in anime ever cast a genjutsu that controls the perception of victim's time in his genjutsu (which is the signature of Tsukuyomi), nor seen him utter the words "Tsukuyomi" with reference to ANY of his genjutsu, it is very unreasonable for anyone to assume that he has ever used Tsukuyomi.

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Why have they been delaying Kizumonogatari for so long?
Kizumonogatari is a movie based on a story of the same name in Monogatari Series light novel, which is part of First Season before Nisemonogatari. I don't even remember when it was supposed to air, probably two or three years ago. After the delay, they kept producing other stories in Monogatari Series like Monogatari Series: Second Season, Hanamonogatari and Tsukimonogatari.
Why did they put it off for so long? If it was because of production issue, like Hanamonogatari, why did they keep producing another Monogatari Series but not Kizumonogatari?

There's no doubt to the popularity of the Monogatari series that fans are clamoring for Kizu, but since it was delayed by production AND the immense popularity of Madoka Magika, what's probably happening now is that Kizumonogatari is likely being planned to be released towards the end of the franchises finale, as a reflective issue.
No source for info, just an observation and estimation. Tsukimonogatari marks the beginning of the end of the series, the final arc so it should be within this year that we hear news about it.


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Are titan's other weakness the underground?
They do seem to become less active at night or if deprived of sunlight, and so it may be possible they draw their primary source of energy from the sun. Annie refused to go underground. There also seems to be types of wall titans.
It seems to me that titans are scared of underground and need of sunlight make them weak to underground. Is this true and if so why doesn't the humans try to colonize underground?

Note: Annie didn't want to go underground because she would be trapped down there.  If she tried to go titan she would be stuck and easily killed.  If she stayed human she would be arrested.

why doesn't the humans try to colonize underground? - Would you want to live underground when a group of Titans could walk overhead and demolish your entire city with one jump?

There is no evidence to suggest that being underground/confined spaces can actually be a weakness for Titans. However there isn't any evidence supporting the contrary as well.
A definite strategic disadvantage of underground transformation is obvious (due to the restricted space for movement and the lack of visibility).
However in the corresponding chapter, you would do well to notice that the Titan smashes the tunnel from outside, all too easily. So underground colonization is a definite NO.
There is also no hard evidence on whether sunlight is a primary source of power for Titans. If that were the case, then Annie's transformation in the forest would have degenerated (no/minimal sunlight there).
Also (as suggested by @mirroroftruth), the use of forests is mainly because of the better 3D maneuver environment. However from my perception, undergrounds are just as bad an environment for 3D maneuvers, as they may be for Titans.

then Annie's transformation in the forest would have degenerated (no/minimal sunlight there). There are many titans who comes to devour the Annie Titan's body when she lets out a roar, so the light in the forest seems to be sufficient for the Titans to operate normally.

@nhahtdh Even despite that, from chapter 38, we have clear evidence that titans can move around in the dark just fine and not just Titan Shifters, but regular titans as well.

The main weakness is the back part on the neck that what I want to say. Underground is not exactly weakness. How I want to compare is Levi fighting with Titan on plain ground without tree and building.
Why lead Titan to forest or underground ? Because they loose their power. No The main reason is full utilization of 3D maneuver gear. They are confined and they can't use their full potential and give benefit to Scouting Legion to use their 3D maneuver gear.
If you read answer and all the comment you would get the knowledge why Annie refused to go underground.
For the case of sunlight I can't confirm that sunlight give extra power or not but night means less visibility which apply for both human and titan. In Chapter 38 Castle Utgard there is night scene and Titan attack castle at night. But in Chapter 34 Warriors Dance face of Titan inside wall is covered so that daylight won't reach the titan.

 Ymir turn into Titan at night to protect her friend from other Titan and to fulfill the promised made with Krista

And for underground colonization, it is bad idea the reason is as キルア says in the comment.

Would you want to live underground when a group of Titans could walk overhead and demolish your entire city with one jump?

I think the titans choose not to move around at night because if you read attack on titan before the fall recent chapters you'll see how when kuklo went to test the prototype for the 3-D maneuver gear he was still attacked by 3 titans they probably can only see when they're right on you but I think in the dark they can actually rely on smell and hearing which is how they attacked kuklo


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What was the first anime that used a split-cour format?
Split-cour airing format is a noticeable trend in the anime industry recently. Unlike most multi-season shows that are aired two or more seasons in succession, split-cour shows have a break in between that usually lasts 3 months (1-cour). However, these cours are produced  as a single product over the course of several months, not two separate anime, per se. For more information on cours and split-cours, this question might help.
Recent examples of anime that followed this format are:

Space Dandy - Winter 2014 [break: Spring] Summer 2014
Hitsugi no Chaika - Spring 2014 [break: Summer] Fall 2014
Aldnoah.Zero - Summer 2014 [break: Fall] Winter 2015
Tokyo Ghoul - Summer 2014 [break: Fall] Winter 2015

Some upcoming anime that are announced to be split-cour are Durararax2, F/SN UBW, and the Grisaia VN franchise, though I'm not really sure. Anyway, as the title states: I want to know what was the first anime that used this format of having a 3-month break in between cour/s.

I'm not sure about the latter three I mentioned since I'm not yet following them, so can anyone verify? Also, feel free to add more notable series that used the format if you think more people will recognize them than my examples.

Based on an AniDB search (details below), I'd wage that first such series was Fate/Zero. It started airing on 02.10.2011, had 1 cour break after episode 13 on 25.12.2011, resumed on 06.04.2012 and finished on 24.06.2012.
I ran an advanced search based on following criteria:

( ) characters in title (AniDB marks cours by putting year date in
parentheses)
must be a TV Series
between 10 and 28 episodes (your definition, as I understand it, requires "regular" cour formats)
first episode already aired

Because of deficiencies in AniDB search engine, I could not specify several useful indicators, such as sequel-prequel relation. So I sorted results by air date and examined each individually.
There are older series that aired with a split, but you requested it to be exactly 1 cour (3 months) long. Notably, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is described by Wikipedia as having been planned from start to end before airing:

The staff, consisting of over 300 people, spent roughly two years planning the series.

However, the split took 2 cours, from 29.03.2008 to 05.10.2008. If not for the 3 months condition, I'd say that this was indeed first series to air in split-cour format.
Another case is Major, which also had longer split (from 10.06.2006 to 06.01.2007) yet aired before Gundam 00. However, at the time of airing, it was not a "finished product" but ongoing adaptation of still unfinished manga.

Thank you for your detailed and well-researched answer, +1! (I'll wait for a while before accepting as there might be other contenders).MSG 00 and Major may be a valid answer as well since I just basically based the 3-month rule by the question linked above. There may or may not be an explicit rule for the length of the split, though I'd guess 3-cours is the limit.

@senshin It doesn't find 1st cour of splitted series, because it retains original name (without year date in parentheses) and it is exactly how I wanted it. It does capture 2nd (and eventually later) cours, and 2nd cour of Valvrave is on page 4 in results linked in my answer. It also captures sequels with same title and some non-splitted series which use parentheses in title, hence why I looked briefly into each result.

@Red Oh, you're right, my bad.

White Album was technically a split cour, way back in 2009


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What are the reasons for producing short-form anime?
Short-form anime (or tanpen anime, see Is there official terminology for anime series that run less than the standard length?) are relatively common, with at least a few each season.
It seems strange to me that this would be a worthwhile investment for studios. Sure, the production costs will be lower, but there are certain overheads that aren't going to scale with cost, and their DVD sales will surely be lower. So it seems like a losing deal for studios.
Why, from a production standpoint, would studios decide to produce short-form anime over a full-length TV series?

One reason that shows may be very short is so that studios can try some experimental works that production companies would be hesitant to release as a full series. One example of this is  Lychee Light Club which took a vastly different approach to the anime than they did with the manga. Characters were chibified and humourous rather than the disturbing horror depicted in the manga. Such a change was likely to spark various backlashes from hardcore fans if it were a full length show

Often shows like this have a much lower production quality and would be ignored by the viewers if they ran the full length of a show: like Line Offline Salaryman or Naked Wolves which are very low budget.

The short time slot gives a lot of opportunity to be largely non-committal to plot and shows tend to be more episodic than sequential. Take for example Tonari no Seki Kun which simply takes place solely at the back of a classroom with a similar plot each episode

Most of the short-form Anime that I've seen are comedies that have little to no character development. So it would be quite difficult to find enough content to "fill up" an entire full-length episode. It's the sort of thing where you sit down laugh for a few minutes and leave.
From another angle, the cost reduction of producing short form Anime is probably even lower than you'd expect.
A lot of short form Anime retain the standard 90-second OP and ED. Since each episode is already short to begin with, 3 minutes becomes a significant portion of the episode to get "for free" - thus even less content needs to be produced.

While the actual reasons and circumstances my vary, usually short-length anime series are created for the following reasons (or combination of them):

The adapted content does not have enough content to be adapted to a full length season
The studio is pretty new to the industry (even if it's founded and made by industry vets, they've yet to prove themselves to the mass). This can be seen with series like Studio Trigger's Inferno Cop.
A studio is trying something new or drastically different from their norm

Shorts have also been a way for the industry to showcase their work like manga authors and light novel writers to do with oneshots and short stories, respectively.

Anime festivals have some restrictions regarding the length of the animation. There are usually multiple short films shown, so to fit in more works in a 2-3 hour event schedule, in case of Tokyo Anime Awards Festival 2015 it has to be under 30 minutes.

The work applied must be a 30 min. Or shorter animation film unreleased in Japan whose copyright is owned by the director, producer or applicant. Note short animation films produced mainly for the purpose of advertisement or promotion of any corporation or organization are not accepted. Also note short animation films having already been commercially released in Japan for a certain continuing period are not accepted; however, those submitted just to film festivals or screened only at graduation shows are not deemed as “commercially released”.

It can allow a studio a more relaxed production schedule, for a full-length production, like for example Yama no Susume S2 or Kurmajo-san. This could actually result in similar or increased quality, while keeping additional costs down. Production of a 20-minute episode every 2 weeks rather than every week seems to be a more natural pace, as is apparent in the growing number of split-cour series (series that are spread over multiple seasons) and some series, like Sailor Moon, which broadcast on 2-week intervals. Having half-length or shorter episodes serves a similar purpose.
Some examples of shows that have not been able to keep the animation quality up throughout, are "Ore, Twintails ni Narimasu" and "Rail Wars!".

Short form anime has several advantages for creators and studios

They allow writers to be more "daring" with their story, short forms can contain stories and ideas that will not work on full episodes.
Short forms generally do operate on a lower budgets than their "full-fledged" big brothers. While it's true that there are some costs that don't scale, there are also many of those who do.
Short forms allows for potentially higher quality episode due to its short length.
Short forms can squeeze between the larger shows, allowing studios and channels to fill in gaps in precious air time.

Bottom line, it probably does pay off. Studios wouldn't have done it if it didn't. Short forms led to many great works that gained a lot of popularity and views.

Short anime usually aren't very popular and since they aren't very
popular the budget tends to be smaller. Even though I said the budget
tends to be smaller, that might be part of the producers plan, the
smaller the budget is, the more profit they'll make of it.
Another circumstance might be because there isn't enough material for
a normal length season. [This one is rare. Short anime are most of
the times kept as short anime, and full length anime are most of the
times kept as full length anime]
Short anime are also used to promote certain entities, like train stations, cities, Japanese "idols", shops, etc.
The most common case might be that the producers realized that the story being used isn't going to make profit (or not enough profit) and decided to use a short anime adaptation, managing the story to get adapted while still making enough profit off it.
Another circumstance is when the studio is new to the industry and doesn't have much money or sponsors. They usually make an adaptation in order to promote their studio as well, just using a small budget, affordable to the studio.
Shorts are a good opportunity to promote a manga story.

Not very popular?  Some of the more recent ones have had multiple seasons, which of a direct testament to its popularity.

@Makoto As you can read above, I mentioned "usually", "usually" != "always".


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Why was the framerate so low in the first episode of Sidonia?
I only watched the first episode of Knights of Sidonia, and the main reason I dropped it was that the CG ran at an unbearably low framerate. I just took another look at it, and it looks like most of it past the opening sequence was "on threes".
I can understand why it's rare for anime to do hand-drawn animation (besides pans/etc) on ones - it takes a lot of work!
But I can't comprehend why this would happen with Sidonia - it was 100% CG! It seems like cranking the framerate up to twos or ones would just be a matter of changing a setting in whatever tool they were using to render the CG. Last year's "Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio" was full-CG too, and it didn't have this problem...
Do we know why the CG framerate was so low? Was it production issues, or an artistic choice, or...? (Side question: did it get better in later episodes and/or on the BD?)

Is that from a certain fansubs or the original BR release? Could be the problem with the converter if it is the first.

@SakuraiTomoki I am referring to the original TV airing. It is not possible that this is a downstream video conversion issue, since backgrounds and so forth still run at 24 fps just fine.

A related discussion on Japanese Yahoo! Answer (not posted as an answer since there's no official reason, also the FPS gets better since ep.3)


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Does Sidonia no Kishi's 256 frame formation have scientific advantages?
In episode five or six of Sidonia no Kishi, Tanikaze and Shizuka were rescued by their fellow knights against orders of the captain. The rescuers adopted a 256 Gardes formation traveling to and from the protagonist's location. Is the scientific reason behind this peculiar formation explained anywhere in the series (because I can't recall)?

Their formation was a perfect circle when they traveled to Tanikaze's location but was uneven as they carried his frame, hence balance might be out of the answer. This formation was also used later in the series when they were going to attack the massive Gauna (as the picture shows). They used all 256 for the formation but still, the mission-grouping were in 128 frames per objective.
I don't think this question is a duplicate of this question because I'm asking for the scientific explanation of the formation. I'm also aware this question may be put on hold or closed as too speculative, but it's an interesting thing to ask if the explanation is in the series anyway.
I believe krazer's explanation to the question above (as ton.yeung comments below) is on spot after a little research. However, what I really want to know is the benefits in having everyone in one giant ring when they could create two 128-frame rings that would've been apt on the later event I mentioned. They could even have 64 4-frame rings that might cover a greater area in the long run (or not). Does it save energy, minimize danger, or perhaps guarantee a lesser chance of being lost in space?

Having studied orbital dynamics and aerospace engineering, I can simplify your answer down for you.
Let's just say 1 mech exhibits a mass of about 5 units. However, the engine can lift up to 10 units, so in a 2-mech clasp formation:
(2x10)-(2x5)=10 units
This means that they effectively double the output of their engines.
So, the thrust of a 256-unit clasp formation, and let's also include the weight of one broken mech:
(256x10)-(257x5)=1275 units
This would give them an extremely long range compared to the distance only 2 or 4 mechs could fly.
To answer your question as to how they would balance it, simply cut the engine of 1 or 2 other mechs in strategic locations
This may just sound like I'm saying they can lift more, but the point is the amount of thrust generated exceeds the thrust needed to lift all of the units' mass, thus translating to more speed and range
Hope this clears it up for ya!

One could also comment on stability.  Having 256 human and garde (automated) systems dealing with 1/256th to overall stability might be better than having 2 humans+gardes each dealing with half.

There appears to be a lot of confusion in the answers provided thus far...
What we care about here is rate of acceleration.
Acceleration = force / mass
(AKA thrust to mass ratio)
The thrust to mass ratio for 1 unit is identical to n number of combined units (256 or otherwise).
Therefore there is no acceleration advantage to combining units.
Example:
Assuming a single guard has a thrust of 10 and a mass of 1 then:
10 units of thrust divided by 1 unit of mass gives a 10/1 thrust/mass ratio.
2560 units of thrust divided by 256 units of mass gives the same 10/1 thrust/mass ratio.
There simply is no advantage with regards to raw acceleration performance nor maximum speed (assuming the vacuum of space of course).
There are also no special relativistic considerations since the units do not ever accelerate to anywhere near the speed of light.
On the flip side, combining multiple units together would have major structural disadvantages with regards to high-rate manoeuvring outside the axial line of thrust - that is, the circle would want to tear itself apart in turns...
Additionally, from a tactical perspective, it makes no sense to maintain tight formation if the potential of a surprise attack is a possibility.
w/ regards to carrying a wounded or damaged mech home, that would be advantageous as the broken mech would just be extra mass for the formation to carry - which would limit the acceleration of the group as a whole but might get the broken unit home...

I'm not 100% sure about the intent of the original question.  I know what mine was and what caused me to go looking for an answer, is "within the framework of K.o.S., what are the advantages of the large clasp formations?".  Clearly, using classical physics there is no particular reason why a 256 clasp formation would have any benefit for speed or range other than some of the minor items touched on in this thread (ie communalization of resources, distribution of tow loads, possibly control, distribution of weaknesses, etc.).  So if the original question was about how realistic physics applies to the situation, there's your answer.  Also, for whoever answered that balance doesn't matter in space, that's not true at all.  Any unbalanced load would quickly cause rotations on all unbalanced axes, which would immediately cause either a need for a course correction or an extreme error in course.  Clearly what would be required would be a course correction and that requires thrust, which would significantly reduce their range.  An unbalanced thrust (load) in space is extremely inefficient and a lot of work is done to ensure symmetry of thrust in realistic physical situations.
  As for my original question, it appears that within the physics of K.o.S., there are these fictional particles called Heigus particles which have different properties than described for any particle in normal physics.  According to the description above from the wiki, the Heigus engines work much better when used together, clearly balance is still of primary concern, but equally clear is that the physics of K.o.S. Can not be adequately described using our rudimentary knowledge of Heigus physics :-)
  The next question for me is, "is it described in more detail in further or other K.o.S. Episodes or manga?"  Would be very interested to know the answer to that if anyone has input as I have not read the manga.

Only thing i could think up to justify it, was if the individual units burned a lot of energy by stabilizing their flight pattern. With the placement of the propulsion unit high on the back and a bit backward, the main source of propulsion is way behind the center of mass, which makes for a rather erratic flight pattern without having a lot of stabilization thrust.  So assuming that a lot of energy is burned for the sake of stabilization via other thrusters, then having units join together spreads out the sources of propulsion, and also stabilization, while the center of mass would stay in the center of the formation (depending on how tightly they’re holding hands, which i assume is meant to be rigidly locked)
If that’s the case, then virtually all if the energy that was previously being used to stabilize the flight is now being used purely for thrust.
Although, If that’s the case, i don’t see how a 256 unit formation would have much advantage over a 48 unit formation, any difference would be slight.

The first thing you need to realize is that there is no gravity in space, so the formation doesn't make any difference in terms of balance. What the formation does is allowing all the guard ships to see each other and use minimal energy to reach a much higher propulsion. When you take gravity and air resistance out of the equation, such formation is one that makes the most sense in the series. Plus, in my own opinion, even though it's never mentioned in the manga or anime, I believe when the clasp formation is completed, one or two primary pilots control the thruster output of all connected ships. It's not to far-fetched to believe so with their technology, as they probably have a computer auto-piloting.
Quote from Sidonia - Sidonia no Kishi Wiki :

Guardians are immensely fast and can multiply their speed by gathering in a clasp formation. By linking their Heigus engines together, they can reach significant fractions of the speed of light, as shown when Sidonia is engaging the Gauna around the Lem system.

Please add references to support your claim. Currently, I don't find your answer very convincing.

@nhahtdh I'm a bit skeptical as well. The larger the mass of the object, the more energy you'll need to propel it, even in open space without gravity and air resistance. So effectively, the formation would still need the same or more energy per unit in order to propel the entire unit to the necessary speed they're shooting for.

My guess is that the formation is rather for accuracy of the destination. At their distance, even being a fraction off in any direction could shoot them off course for their destination if they're traveling at high speeds.

That isn't a problem though since they should be able to easily correct their course. In any sense it's just a simple ready for battle formation for the units since it doesn't really seem to have any practical advantage.

Nitpick: Its a common misconception that there is no gravity in space. Gravity is everywhere in the universe and everything causes a gravitational force. In the deep of space with no large celestial objects nearby, gravity is really weak and can be easily overcome (esp with large engines). It may seem pedantic, but "no gravity in space" just isn't true.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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What is the difference between Lost Technica 《秘奥義【ロスト・テクニカ】》 and Last Crest 《魔道極法【ラスト・クレスト】》?
The terms Lost Technica 《秘奥義【ロスト・テクニカ】》 and Last Crest 《魔道極法【ラスト・クレスト】》 are quite ambiguous, since they are usually mentioned together with the explanation for being a member of Trinity Seven.
In chapter 17, both terms are used one after another near the end of the chapter. This is from just before Liese activated her trump card.

"To be a Trinity Seven means that you've acquired the Lost Technica in your particular archive."  - Liese [Japanese version]

When Liese activated her trump card, and Sora (the human form of Astil grimoire), warned Arata about the magic being used.

"This is Avaritia's Lost Technica, the Last Crest ..." - Sora
"That's right. It's Baal Peor" - Liese

Then in chapter 19, the condition to be part of Trinity Seven is reiterated, but this time with Last Crest in place of Lost Technica:

"The Trinity Seven are the top class magi of each of the seven deadly sins, right?" - Arata
"Correct. We are the ones who have mastered the Last Crest of each archive" - Lilith [Japanese version]

I have two questions regarding these two ambiguous terms:

What is the difference between them?

Regardless whether they refer to different concept or not, does Lost Technica implies Last Crest and vice versa?

(Please back up your answer with primary sources, rather than secondary sources like Wikipedia or Wikia. You can use them as starting point, though).


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How long was Saber waiting for Shirou after she died?
Regarding the question that was asked before:
Do Emiya Shirou and Arturia ever meet again after Fate/stay night?

In the Visual Novel of Fate Stay/Night Realta Nua once you have seen all 5 endings a new ending appears accessible from the title screen call -Last Episode-, this is in 2 parts, a Monologue of the Fate Route and a second part where Arturia is hearing from Merlin about a miracle achievable by 2 people, one who "wait endlessly" and one who "pursue endlessly", eventfully the pursuer will stop when they reach the waiter.
What Merlin is referring to is Arturia waiting and Shirou pursueing, eventually Shirou reaches Avalon where Arturia is sleeping and the 2 finally reunite, it's not entirely sure how long it took Shirou to reach Avalon however considering that Avalon transcends all magic including the 5 Magics it must have taken an eternity for Shirou to reach.

Obviously if it took them an eternity to meet, it's common sense that it never happened.
So my theory is that there are two options for this occasion:

The author's definition of eternity is something different from what is known to the public.
That it was some sort of an inside joke to troll the audience who desperately want to see them reunite.

Is there any official statement about how long eternity is according to the Fate Stay/Night series?
Are there even any clues on which to base some sort of speculation on the matter?
Or maybe the light novel perhaps mentions something about it.
I really want to know how much Saber had to suffer in order to finally meet with Shirou.
(IMO after all she's been through, she has suffered quite enough already).

Avalon is

the domain of fairies... the unreachable utopia that Arthur dreamed of and was said to have gone to after her death.

In the Fate Route, after Saber vanished and returned to her own time, we see a shot of Arturia and Bedivere. It's assumed that from Arturia's line

I think I will sleep much longer this time...

that this occurs after Bedivere third and final attempt to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, as in the previous two attempts, when he was ordered to return the sword, he lied about returning it, knowing that by doing so Arturia would have died. So Arturia died and went to Avalon. Given it's a utopia I don't think Saber would be suffering.
Now Shiro is shown at the end of -Last Episode- to be hugging Arturia and he wa wearing the shroud Archer wore (though now in a different style), so they did meet up. This is why -Last Episode- is seen as the True End of the Fate Route, because Shiro and Arturia are finally together in the end. However, because Avalon transcends all magic, including the 5 Magics, of which The Fifth's domain is suspected to be time travel (but Touko says The Second governs time travel, so I am assuming that Avalon transcends time, or at least out conception of time), so despite the fact that Arturia died long in the past before Shiro was even born, we can't be totally sure that she waited the same equivalent amount of time for Shirou to even be born.
Shiro may have died to before being reunited, or he may have extended his life as some Magi do (without becoming a Dead Apostle). There's a series of H Dojinshin (fan made) which would assume that little time has passed since the time Shiro went to bring Arturia back. (One set has him and Arturia have sex in Avalon when they reunited, while in the next set, they are back in Fuyuki living together with Rin and Sakura visiting).
To my knowledge, it's not indicated how Shiro got to Avalon since we only know the conditions of the Miracle Shiro and Arturia achieved. I used eternity as a means to indicate an immeasurable amount of time, since given Shiro's Magecraft abilities, had he developed something to allow him to reach Avalon, it would have taken him a hell lot of time. After all, the ultimate ambition of every Magi is to reach the root, which can take generations to complete, since it took that long for the Tohsaka's to get close to properly using the Second Magic.

If you consider Saber to wait for Shiro as a suffer(because she loves him), Then I think 'eternity' is a hell lot of suffering...

@HashiramaSenju true, this is just wild speculation but i would assume she would have to wait at least 10 years since it was 10 years after the 5th War the Mage's Association and the El-Melloi/Tohsaka Supporters fought over the Greater Grail and there's nothing to say Shiro was involved or not (it says the conflict was on the same magnitude as the Grail War and i assume Shrio's ideals would get him involved if he was there). maybe she just waited 10 year but if your waiting for someone you love to come for you that can feel like eternity

Is there any sort of reference to that in the light novel?
(I didn't read it, but feel free to reveal spoilers)

@HashiramaSenju the waiting at least 10 years is just speculation based off from this and Shiro's personality. as i said in my answer to my knowledge it's not indicated how long they waited/pursue and the only mention of this miracle is in -Last Episode-


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Is Ar no Surge related to Ar Tonelico?
In the description for Ar no Surge: Ode to an Unborn Star, it talks about how song and music are used as magic and for character development.

AR Nosurge Ode To An Unborn Star PS3 is a Fantasy, Sci-fi, '7 Dimension' RPG, that takes place in a world where music and song can create magic.
[...]
Ar Nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star has a unique character development system that focuses more on the bonds/ relationships between the main characters than their success in missions and battles, as the player's party grows stronger if the characters have a closer relationship.

Source: Ozgameshop
Now, this sounds much like the Ar Tonelico series, which talks about how music is used as magic and how you need to develop the character's relationships with one another to develop their strength. Also, both games were developed by Gust.
This makes me wondering: Are the 2 games are related story-wise? If they are, when does Ar no Surge: Ode to an Unborn Star occur in relation to Ar Tonelico?

Ar no Surge is a prequel to Ar Tonelico, based on wikipedia

Warning, some spoilers for Ar Nosurge are below:
Ar Nosurge is set in the same universe as Ar Tonelico, but not on the same planet as Ar Tonelico (mostly, two of the main characters do visit Ar Ciel, the planet in Ar Tonelico). It is also a prequel to Ar Tonelico (the plot of Ar Nosurge takes place around 700 to 800 years before Ar Tonelico).
Despite being set on a different 'planet', there is a major story link between the two, as it deals with the origin of the Teru tribe in Ar Tonelico. You also meet a major character from Ar Tonelico in Ar Nosurge.

Ar nosurge takes place roughly 735 years before Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia, going by the clues the game leaves and the information revealed from the official setting encyclopedias.


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Which one has the "Telepathic Kiss" power: Hana or Daichi?
In the ending of the series, Daichi kisses Hana, and Puck is surprised to see they are doing a telepathic kiss between them.
Since that power works both ways, it's hard to pinpoint who has the power (because it is activated even if unwilling).
So, which one of the lovey doveys has the telepathic kiss power? Hana or Daichi?
Hana is biologically engineered from the Planetary Gears' royalty DNA, so she might be the one.
Daichi has just prestige-classed into "Badass Protagonist" because the stakes were raised and he had to beat the final boss alone. If he could learn how to teleport his Mecha in such a short time, why not?
And please back your answer with sources, if possible. Lets keep it the least subjective possible.

P.S.: In advance, I apologize for any time lost visiting TvTropes. Always mouse over links before clicking away.

IMO it was Daichi, because Hana was under control of Puck, and Daichi made the move.

Well, earlier in the series, Hana was worried about Daichi kissing her. She said something along the lines of "I was worried you'd hate the real me". Thus, she knows that the kiss between them would be telepathic. We can assume from this that She is the one with said power.
and as for Stevebot's answer, the Planetary gears Princess was under control of a mind-transfer machine when she was telepathic-kissed, and saw her foster mother's evil intentions. So telepathic kiss works despite mind-control


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How long does Devil Fruit take to re-spawn after the death of user?
After the death of Devil Fruit (DF) user, the DF re-spawns. This has been explained. After the death of Ace, Mera Mera no Mi re-spawned as shown in chapter 701.
Marshall D. Teach, user of the Yami Yami no Mi fruit, stole the power of the Gura Gura no Mi from White Beard after he died. It is explained that it does not re-spawn as soon as the user dies.
So how much time does it take to re-spawn and how long does the power of DF remain inside the user after he/she dies?

The only proof we have seen so far, indicates that the ability re-spawns immediately, as can be seen when Smiley died during the Punk Hazard arc.

Marshall D. Teach isn't a good counter-example as he probably didn't use the conventional way to obtain his second devil fruit power. He must have used his powers to obtain the power instead of just eating it. I believe that he used his powers to trap the spirit before it could be reborn. I believe he absorbed the devil, the moment it got out of Whitebeard's body and before it could travel to the nearest fruit in order to be reborn.
The fact that Caeser deliberately put a sack of apples near the location he would kill Salamander indicates that he was aware of the fact that it would re-spawn immediately. If it wouldn't, there wouldn't be any point in putting a bunch of apples in the sleigh near Smiley. And even if it was just a major coincidence that the apples were there, it still shows that the Salamander fruit demon was reborn the instant Smiley died.
I don't think it is a well known fact though. Otherwise the Marines would have put a fruit similar to the fire fruit nearby Marineford to keep that awesome power within the Marines. Or maybe they did and Doflamingo stole the fruit in the end. We can only speculate on how Doflamingo got the Fire fruit, as it hasn't been revealed and I doubt it will be revealed further down the series.

"He absorbed the devil, the moment it got out of Whitebeard's body and before it could travel to the nearest fruit in order to be reborn." when is this mention?

@ShinobuOshino It wasn't, that's how I assume it went down. The spirit needed to leave the body before it could travel to the nearest fruit and with Blackbeard's ability I assumed he sucked the spirit in before it could get too far. Nothing really has been said or seen about the reincarnation of fruits, except for the Salamander fruit.

I suggest you to add that on your answer, for now it looks like it's really happen. Even if it is, there's no canon proof for now.

@PeterRaeves When a Devil Fruit user dies, their ability is reborn into another fruit of the same kind. This suggest not immediately but availability of fruit of same kind.

@mirroroftruth Grammatically it says "When" = "At that time" and the second part of the sentence is in the present tense. So that sentence says "At the time a user dies, the ability is reborn", not later nor at any other time. If it could also be any other time it would say "the fruit will be reborn" in the future tense. Proof can be seen with the Salamander fruit, which indeed is reborn at the exact same moment. The earthquake fruit was transferred at the time of death. There hasn't been any counter-example so far in the manga that would proof the statement wrong.

"At the time a user dies, the ability is reborn" then Gura Gura no Mi should have reborn as soon as White Beard died and Black beard should not have it. Because there was certain time lapse, at least more time than reborn of smiley's ability after death of smiley.

Nice point with Ace and the marine but did the marines know what "same kind" was needed to incarnate the fire fruit?


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What is the reference being made by saying "I did this at a serious seminar once"?
In Osananajimi wa Daitouryou, there is a comedy scene between the main character, Hondo Jun'ichirou, and Ell. The conversation goes like this:

Ell: A small test. It is a simple CPU inspection. I know.
Ell earnestly nodded, then pulled a mechanical pencil out from her pen case and faced the desk. She then muttered a single sentence.
Ell: Ah, I did this at a serious seminar once.
Jun'ichirou: What are you blurting out all of a sudden!?
Ell: It is a simulation. I heard that your test score will go up if you announce it in this manner.
Jun'ichirou: Where are you getting that information from...?
Ell: From 7ch.

This is a screenshot of the same scene in Japanese for reference purpose:

What is the reference being made when Ell said "I did this at a serious seminar once"?

Out of curiosity, roughly when did this scene occur? I vaguely remember it, but it's been years since I read this so I have no clue where.

@LoganM: Shortly after the very first bomb scene during the common part.

The 進研ゼミ (Shinkenzemi) is a one of the most famous distance learning service for minors in Japan.
'真剣' and '進研', both read as 'shinken.'
'真剣' meaning "seriousness"
'ゼミ' is short for "seminar."
'進' means "progress/advancement".
'研' means "sharpen/polish/study."
This is a parody that use similar sounding Japanese characters.

あ、これ進研ゼミでやったことがある
I did this at the Shinkenzemi once.

Much like McDonald's and MacRonald's in English.

for the children Not sure about "children" - I just saw an article about this service being offered for high school students.

Sorry, under 20 years old person is called child in Japan. I think this standards or lows are difference of the countries.

I apologize that my words were not enough.
'I did this at the Shinkenzemi once'. This is a copy of the Shinkenzemi for elementary school.

I have undeleted your answer, as it does provide an answer to the question. I take it that your concern was that you might have said something wrong (due to the language barrier), or not enough, and that is why you deleted it. However, the answer seems fine to me, and it even has some votes, which means the community also approves of your answer :)

The reason are the language and the culture barrier. I'd like to explain about the 'child' in Japan, but I have no skill to say suitable English X( So, I deleted it to avoid the misunderstanding. Are there this community has the way to undelete? I'd like to know how to perfection delete.

@oden There's nothing wrong with your answer. If you have a problem with word/grammar choices between Japanese and English, I will try to help you as best as I can. For an example I believe the word "minor" (未成年者) is more appropriate than "children" in this context.

@ɹǝzɐɹʞ Thank you very much! I did not know the work 'minor'.

@nhahtdh I'm sorry about my poor English X(

@oden you shouldn't that your English is poor, it's still developing, keep at it and you'll get it in no time. (◕‿-)b

@ɹǝzɐɹʞ Oooohhhh! Your English is more understandable than my English for me! Why!

@oden You can always visit our chat room if you need some help! All users are welcome. Also, regarding the undeletion, only moderators and trusted users can do that.

@JNat You can undelete your own messages.


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What does the Death Note consider as "original lifespan"?
I was reading this question and it got me thinking about what a person's "original lifespan" really was.
Does the original lifespan mean the amount of time a person has from birth to death, ultimately caused by old age (e.g. the longest a person could live barring abnormal health problems or unusual circumstances (e.g. murders, accidents))?
What if the person contracts a lethal disease? Surely it would shorten their lifespan, but would it affect their original lifespan?
So, take for example:
John has a lifespan of 93 years (as seen through Shinigami eyes). He works for the CIA, though, and at one point comes into contact with a high dose of radiation from a nuclear device. Doctors tell him he only has a couple days to live.
In this case, John's lifespan has been shortened from 93 years to 2 days. If he writes his own name in the Death Note, set to die from a different disease that takes years and years to develop, would he have effectively beaten radiation poisoning?
Note that the 23-day rule (XVII) would not apply here thanks to rule XVIII.

Only the Death Note can change a person's lifespan. Therefore John will not come in contact with high radiation, he might not even be able to become a CIA member, since they probably wont live 93 years.

@PeterRaeves I'm not sure what you mean. John becoming CIA/being exposed to radiation are things that already have happened and have nothing to do with the Death Note. If your statement "Only the Death Note can change a person's lifespan" were true, that means everyone would die from old age, and never from disease (etc) unless specifically written as the cause of death in the Death Note.

Misa's time of death, as mentioned in the answers, is a clear indication that a person's time of death is predetermined. Exactly how it happens, and the life they lead up until then, is not singled out as determined. However, to suppose that the time of death was preordained, only to be usurped by happenstance, seems silly. His time of death is at age 93, and is only shown to be alterable by a death note. Your hypothetical is either in clear conflict with the basic principles, or is a fanfic that is supposing mechanics never indicated or established in the source.

http://anime.stackexchange.com/a/11424/8024 The first part of this answer seems otherwise germane.

@zibadawatimmy Hmm... just to clarify my understanding of your comment: if a Shinigami sees that a perfectly healthy, newborn baby only has a lifespan of a few days, does that mean the baby absolutely will die within a few days, presumably due to some external cause (e.g. a car accident; not counting the Death Note)? I was under the impression that one's lifespan was as defined as in the question, hence my confusion. If you can provide more sources (e.g. quotes/events from the manga) in addition to Misa's, please elevate this to an answer.

@erpmine My understanding is the same as timmy. Your lifespan is predetermined at birth, but the way you live your life until that moment is not predetermined. So yes, the healthy baby will die of an external cause, eg car accident. Unless, by some coincidence, the driver of that car was killed by use of the Death Note. At that point a bunch (or maybe even all of them) of lifespans are recalculated, but the Death Gods, still only see the original lifespans.

The original lifespan is the time you are supposed to have alive at the moment of birth, unless someone, Shinigami or human, use their Death Note on you, or you make a deal with a Shinigami shortening your lifespan, or a Shinigami sacrifices themself to allow you to live incrementing your lifespan.

What if the person contracts a lethal disease?

Once you spent your lifespan you will die, the reasons of death doesn't matter. If you contract a disease you will live until your lifespan allows you to live.
To illustrate this, Amane Misa was supposed to die when the fan attacked her. Gelus knew her life will end, and decided to intervene. Since her lifespan was spent and she didn't die when she was supposed to, Gelus dies transferring his lifespan to Misa, hence she no longer lives with her "original lifespan" but the shinigami's.

would he have effectively beaten radiation poisoning?

He could be died because a indirect effect of the use of the Death Note, which caused him to be affected of radiation poisoning, as can be seen in this other answer, but if there isn't Death Note involved, no matter what he should die when their lifespan exhaust, so he could just get lucky and not being poisoned or something happened before hand that prevented him from being poisoned.

Can you clarify your last sentence, "One way or another he may avoid radiation poisoning since it will cut short his lifespan"? Did you mean that he'll die from radiation poisoning regardless of what's written in the Death Note (where the time of death is beyond two days' time)? If someone wrote him to die in 1 week from a heart attack, he would still die in two days of radiation?

Also, can you provide a source (e.g. one or more of the known Death Note rules) which support your answer?

I think you are missing the point of "Death Gods". The "original lifespan" of a human is the amount of time they have from birth to death. And I think it is already decided from before!
The only way it would change would be any type if interaction with a death god/death note being introduced to the situation.
So if he got affected by radiation, and were to die, this would have been taken into account in your original lifespan! (As long as the radiation situation was not introduced by someone with a death note or a death god!

Okay, let's say I have a Death Note. Now, another Death Note owner wants to kill me.
Let's say to save my life, I write my own name in the Death Note with bradykardie as a cause of death. I will over 23 days. And when my lifespan ends I will die of bradykardie. So, that means, if no Death Note is involved that CIA Agent won't die, because he isn't supposed to die then. But if he writes his own name in the Death Note, with a disease as a cause of death, he will die of that disease when his lifespan ends.

The CIA agent is already dying of radiation (no Death Note involved). I'm asking: if he uses the Death Note to write that he will die of another disease (that takes longer to develop than 2 days), will he die from the radiation, or will he die from the disease? Also, please support your answer with a source.

The original lifespan can only be shorten by a death note. But let's say, he is destined to die of radiation, he will die of radiation, because the death note can't prolong the life of someone.


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Is it ever stated who the disappearing applicant was?
In episode 3 of Hunter x Hunter, Beans welcomes Gon as the 405th applicant to the exam. Later, Satotz states that there will be 404 participants in Phase One.

We know that Hisoka... uh... disarmed one of the applicants, however the "all 404" wording is still suspicious to me. (The "404" is not a translation error; however, the "All 404" may be.)
Was Satotz referring to the "disarmed" applicant, did he make a mistake in his headcount, or is there something else in play that I'm missing?

405 entered the test. 1 was injured. So the 404 was correct. The hunter test is one of survival and cunning etc. the one Hisoka "Disarmed" could not continue with both arms gone.
Essentially he failed the test when he bumped into Hisoka and not apologizing. Perhaps if he had sensed his surroundings a little better, like a real hunter, the 404 would have been a 405.


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Why is there no official character song for Homura and Mami?
Madoka has a character song titled "See You Tomorrow" (またあした, Mata Ashita) while Sayaka and Kyoko have a duet song titled "And I'm Home".
I just found out that Homura and Mami don't have a character song (from this Puella Magi wiki page) like Madoka, Sayaka, and Kyoko do. Are there any character songs for Homura and Mami? If there aren't, why didn't they make one for them?
Added to clarify, by character song I mean

A song whose vocals are credited to the character or characters singing the song.

as per this question What is a “character song”?

You could associate Magia with Homura since it's the most played track when Walpurgisnacht is about and Homura's goal (pre Ultimate Madoka) is it's destruction (Walpurgisnacht normally being the cause of Madoka becoming a Magical Girl)

I heard that too, but why they don't make any official song for them?

probably because Magia wasn't sung by her seiyuu, the songs listed on the Wiki were sung by Madoka's, Kyoko's and Syayka's seiyuu, though this falls short as to answering your question which is why i've posted comments

No, but really consider this: Homura's character is too serious for a song. Mami… I don't know, maybe just nothing to sing about.

@user1306322 Homura maybe too series but what about Moemura?(Pre-Anime timeline), also with Mami she doesn't seem to have much to sing about because she isn't given much screen time in the anime as she dies early on or has a bout of insanity in a flashback. she only has a bit of a bigger role in Rebellion (but still, duet with Nagisa?)

Thought: Connect (the OP) is basically a character song for Homura if you think about it.

@senshin explain, i've always thought of it as an unofficial one for Madoka cause we see much more of her in the OP while Homura appears in like only 2 scenes and it also hints at the wish she made (the short where she's laying down withy a cat), given this is the TV Version i'm talking about which we see an Op which is very misleading anyway, i haven't seen what's on the PSP with the Game Installation Version

Yep, it's a late answer...

TL;DR Version
Character Songs

Madoka Kaname: Mata Ashita
Homura Akemi: Connect
Mami Tomoe: Credens Justitiam
Sayaka Miki and Kyoko Sakura : And I'm Home

I would attribute Credens Justitiam track as being Mami's character song.
The Connect track is Homura Akemi's character song.
Indeed, this is not obvious, because it shows Madoka Kaname throughout the video; This is actually the perspective of Homura in the original universe, before she wished to become a magical girl. She had watched her friends(Madoka, Sayaka and Mami) protecting the city from familiars and witches as magical girls.
(Remember that Kyoko was introduced into the story only when Mami died...)
This is what consists of the video content of the opening Connect track.
The lyrics actually convey Homura's thoughts after she has lived through multiple time-lines and conveys that she will never hesitate to protect Madoka...
Also notice that it is played at the end of episode 12, supporting the fact that it is Homura's character song.
Credits to users senshin and Secret Evil Radio for their thoughts!

there's a more recent song, Mebius Ash, sung by Chiwa Saito, so that's Homura's character song, i guess. released in the same album is Stairs, a duet song sung by  Kaori Mizuhashi and Ai Nonaka, but thats the only song that could count as Mami's character song.
source: https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Madoka_Magica_Soundtrack#Ultimate_Best (it says "An album released on August 8th, 2017, containing songs from the anime, the movies, and several songs that only appeared in the Pachinko and Pachislot games." so while the album itself was released in 2017, maybe whatever those are released prior to that?)
(also this has gotta be the worlds latest answer, i came along this while trying to find out if Mami had a character song lol)


text:
Clarification on clan formation?
On what basis were the clans formed in naruto?
The blood siblings Indra and Ashura are from different clans (Uchiha & Senju respectively)., whereas other siblings, e.g. Itachi and Sasuke are from the same clan (Uchiha).
The first shinobi who got chakra was Kaguya. So, technically whoever posesses chakra should've inherited it from her. In that case, all should be from the same clan.
Now, here's my long time doubt. How is it decided that Naruto is from the Uzumaki clan when his father is from the Namikaze family and has no clan?
Is a person's clan decided based on the abilities of the person? If yes, how is their ability evaluated right after they are born?

Is this asking how the clan-belonging is decided? or is this asking how the clans formed?

I guess the question covers both.

@Vogel612 Thanks for fixing the question. Is there a namikaze clan ? I doubt that part. Check this

As a competing answer to the one of @MadaraUchiha, here's my take.
The clan belonging is solved quite easily. The clan-belonging is given through the generations maternally.
This means what decides the clan is not the father, but the mother. In Naruto's case that is Kushina Uzumaki
Other than that, the naruto-wiki gives some nice information:

A clan (一族, Ichizoku; Literally meaning "family"), in the loosest
  sense of the term, refers to a family or group of shinobi who form a
  basic unit of a shinobi village. Majority of these clans were mercenary military forces even before the First Shinobi World War. [...] Membership in a clan is usually determined by blood relations and genetics, which is vital in the usage of kekkei genkai and secret techniques. [...]  While clans may be composed of many individuals and extended families, many clans mentioned and seen in the series were somewhat limited to a nuclear family.
Highlighting by me

It seems that the most clans seen, are just the mentioned nuclear families. This leads to the assumption, that one line of family that somewhen declared itself a clan is a clan. Some family lines had more offspring, and some had less. for example the Hyuuga-clan has multiple branch families, who are subordinate to the main family. The Uchiha clan on the other hand seems to just be loosely organized.
Some clans seem to have a definitive familiy head (Hyuuga, Akimichi, Nara). Other clans are not organized (Uchiha, Uzumaki, Inuzuka, [...]).
Clans mostly differ in chakra affinity and Kekkei Genkai, as well as battle style. In fact that seems to be the only thing shared in a clan. This Chakra affinity seems to be genetic, so that you are rather born into a clan than "join" it. It seems that not every person has his / her own clan, most prominent examples are probably Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy.

So son of Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata should be Hyuuga Boruto, instead of Uzumaki Boruto, huh? Same with Uzumaki Himawari.

This answer is wrong. It was stated that Naruto's name was changed to Uzumaki so that enemies of the 4th Hokage wouldn't go after Naruto

@JohnD [citation needed]? Also that's a pretty implausible reason, in-universe

All humans came from the same ancestor ("Adam"), does that make us all family? Technically it does. Realistically, so much time had passed that no one looks at it that way.
This is the same. Based on the latest chapter, it indeed seems as though Hagoromo was the ancestor of the Uchiha and Senju clans, while Hamura (at least based on his eyes in the picture) was the ancestor of the Hyuuga clan.
That makes them all one big happy family, except that this history is long forgotten, and no one views it like that anymore.
As for clan ownership, Naruto belongs to the Uzumaki clan because his mother was from the Uzumaki clan. The Uzumaki is a subclan of the Senju, which is related to the Uchiha. Does that make Naruto an Uchiha? Not really.
Clan ownership is determined by birth, not ability.

I dont agree. Consider the adam's example. Adam and eve would've got children and grand children etc. A group of people among them could've migrated to different place. After several decades, they could've forgotten their baseline and formed different clans. This is a long process. How come direct blood brothers are from different clans ?

Because each of them inherited different prowesses. They divided themselves from one another, and ended up being separated. The stone monument was the only thing that remained as history from that time. Also, shouldn't you know your own grandchildren? What kind of a grandma are you?

Lol, my grandchildren have forgotten their root and fighting with each other. That's why I am taking their chakra back. However two kids are trying to stop me, and you call them heroes?? Ridiculous :P

@KaguyaOtsutsuki I am tempted to upvote your question, solely for the fact that you killed our mod...

Also: assuming that "Adam" actually existed and we didn't evolve from amobea (though we would just all come from amobea no. [..] and the point remains) ;) But I think that would be better fit for [christianity.se], [islam.se] or [skeptics.se]

@All Dont get distracted by adam example. Question is only about naruto :)

Didn't Kaguya come from another planet? So, all humans aren't related to her :) Also, how has no one mentioned that the sage of 6 paths gave normal people the ability to wield chakra?

All humans are not descendants of Kaguya.
Only a small amount are and they are all most all extinct i.e Uchiha, Uzumaki, Senju, Hyuga, Kaguya clans.

IIRC, it is not explicitly stated if you get your clan name based off the father and mother. But typically the wife would take the husbands name, for instance Hinata Uzumaki.
If you go by the principle that the wife will take the husbands name, which does not happen on a few rare occasions, it is just common sense that you'd get the fathers name, as the mother married into the clan. However, Minato is of Namikaze and Kushina is of Uzumaki, yet Naruto is named Uzumaki. Kushina never took Minato's last name because Minato had tons of enemies that sought his life and if Naruto was named Namikaze, it'd make those same people go after Naruto. Naruto wasn't named Namikaze because that would have put him in danger.
Now, for your second question.
It is correct that all chakra started from Kaguya Otsutsuki, but that does not mean that everyone should be related to her. Remember, when Kaguya had Hagoromo and Hamura, the chakra was accidentally inherited into them. Kaguya tried taking it back which eventually lead to her being sealed by Hagoromo and Hamura. Hagoromo saw chakra as not a weapon, but a power that can link everyone's soul and hearts, leading all to love each other.
Hagoromo saw chakra as a power that would bring people together, and did so by giving others chakra that did not directly inherit it from his mother, Kaguya. Because of this, clans like the Aburame and Inuzuka are most likely descendants of those Hagoromo passed chakra onto. Remember that once Hagoromo passed chakra onto others it would now become an inherited power.
Uzumaki, Senju, Uchiha, Hyuga, and Kaguya clan are all descendants of the Otsutsuki, more specifically Kaguya, and other clans such as the Inuzuka are most likely descendants of those Hagoromo passed chakra onto.


text:
Why is there consistent seasonal variability in the quality of anime?
Recall that the anime industry produces TV anime according to a 4-season schedule: winter (Jan-Mar), spring (Apr-Jun), summer (Jul-Sep), and fall (Oct-Dec).
Since at least 2010 (and perhaps even before than that), there have been consistent differences in the average quality1 of anime released in each season.2 The details are open to argument, but most commentators will agree that spring is consistently the best season of anime in any given year, while winter is the worst.3 My personal impression is that on average, spring > fall > summer > winter.
It is not surprising that seasonal trends would exist - in Hollywood, for example, all the big "blockbusters" come out in the summer, and it seems that January and February are off-months for the industry (or so this article claims).
The real question, though, is why? What is it about winter that makes it the dumping ground for lousy anime? What is it about spring that gets the anime industry to put out good content?

1 When I talk about "quality" here, I'm basically talking about Rotten Tomatoes ratings - an aggregate of opinions from critical reviewers and ordinary consumers. Quality may not be objectively measurable, but quality-as-perceived-by-the-consumer certainly is. Technical merits of the production (e.g. sakuga, sound direction, etc.) are important in this context only insofar as they factor into the "Rotten Tomatoes ratings" here.
2 For ease, let's restrict ourselves to thinking about anime that run for one year or less (so no Naruto, Bleach, Yugimanz, etc.), and treat anime as belonging exclusively to the season in which they began airing (so e.g. all of Shingeki no Kyojin counts as a spring anime).
3 I can substantiate this claim if need be, both by reference to user ratings on sites like MAL and by reference to more subjective impressions by commentators who know a thing or two about anime. That said, I'm sure those of you who have a finger on the pulse of the anime-osphere probably have more or less the same impression.

i can only think of 2 factors which could have some sort of effect, the Christmas Hangover (where everyone is out of money having splurged during Christmas), during this time people could take extended holidays, and there's the end of the financial year (Tax Time!) however i don't know how that effects the production of anime (no knowledge of tax law in Japan)

could the fact that 'Golden Week' is in springtime have anything to do with it? Maybe more holiday time = more anime watching time.

Potentially also due to lack of budget? During winter allot of the time slots get filled with season bound series and movies. So Getting a good timeslot will be more expensive, although a little bit dependant on the channel it gets broadcasted on.

This question seems really subjective. When you are talking of the quality, do you mean the quality of the drawings, animation, sound and the constistency of it all? That could be an objective question, but as you are referencing MAL ratings I don't think that's what you're talking about.

@KirKill I have added a clarification as footnote 1 in the post. Does that help?

A best anime for the best time deal? Best time being holiday season, but aligning with school schedules, right? Sounds like target marketing 101. [Insert obligatory springtime of youth pitch to assert cultural attention to the literal atmosphere of things, i.e. the weather]

I was going to agree with you jogging off recent memory however taking a look at upcoming anime for the rest of the year I can't say I agree one season is stronger than another. Here are a few examples for the rest of the year: Akame ga Kill!, Hanamonogatari, Space Dandy 2, Sword Art Online, Fate Stay/Night remake, Psycho Pass 2, Durarara 2, Evangelion 4.0, Log Horizon 2, new Gundam series. There are plenty of other great looking titles too though I can't say I know them well enough to know whether they will be successful or not.
I feel like this is all just a subject of opinion really, though this does seem to be the season for romance anime however, cant recall there being this much of it before.
Last winter did seem to have an unusual amount of mediocre anime though. I only watched a few things last season (winter) other than ongoing shows that were still running from the previous season.

I don't think we can answer this question just by cherry-picking the good series from upcoming seasons. For example - winter 2011 was probably the worst season in recent years (competing against winter 2012 and winter 2013 for that title...), but it also featured one of the most critically-acclaimed anime of the past decade: Madoka Magica.


text:
What happens in the end of The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi?
I was watching The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, and the scene when Asakura attack Kyon is rather confusing. So this is what happens:

After Kyon has a mental struggle with himself, when he was about to shoot normal-Nagato with the device that android-Nagato gave to him, he suddenly got attacked by Asakura. She stabbed him twice, and when Asakura was about to kill him, suddenly Nagato (perhaps the android one?) saved him. And when he was about to lose consciousness, young and old Asahina come. And then someone (perhaps future Kyon?) comes. After that he loses consciousness.
Later, he woke up at the hospital with Koizumi. And when Kyon asked what happen, he said he fell down the stairs at school. But Kyon seems to know what really happened before.

If I have to guess, this is what I think happened:

After Kyon recovers from his injury, he, Asahina, and android-Nagato travel back to the past, and save the past Kyon after he got stabbed, and Nagato alters some memories about the incident so Koizumi didn't know anything about it, and they travel back to the current time.

If that's what happened, why he didn't save himself back then before he got stabbed? What's the point of giving an antidote for Nagato to Kyon? And why did Nagato give false memories about the incident to Koizumi? What exactly happened here?

I think that the reason future-Kyon only saves past-Kyon after he's stabbed is so that the timeline is self-consistent. You see similar logic at work in Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody. (That said, I haven't read any of the LNs, so I could be totally wrong.)

 You are exactly right. Thats what happens in future novels. Why didn't he save himself? Because Kyon is dangerously genre-savy. And he know that breaking the stable time loop might lead to more and worse problems. So he doesn't do anything other than what he himself saw doing himself.


text:
Does Natsu have an known actual age?
Whilst looking around the Fairy Tail tag, I was looking again at a question here asked by Shinobu, I finally decided to pop the question "How old is Natsu". I thought it would have been revealed further on in the series, but from the looks of it they haven't although the ages of Lucy, Erza and Gray have been revealed which is as follows

Lucy- 17yrs
Erza- 19yrs
Gray- 18yrs

Has an age ever been given in the mangas to how old Natsu is?

it was mentioned in comment that his age haven't revealed yet in series, and it's Shinobu, by the way.

These links contain theories behind his age although no definite age has been revealed yet:
http://www.fairytailbase.com/threads/natsus-real-age-theory.14666/
yet.http://www.fairytailbase.com/threads/the-real-age-for-dragon-slayers.11268/

The comments of the question you linked states that the age of Natsu and Gajeel are unkown sofar

@Dimitrimx- I thought if i asked it now there might have been an update in the manga since the question that i linked was asked on Feb 21.

related to Why can't Natsu and Gajeel go through Freed's runes?. If we could answer this question we could answer the other. As for know Natsu and Gajeel's age is still unknown. Wendy's age is confirmed to be 12 though.

Well, in chapter 436 it is revealed that, ...

 Natsu is about 400 years old. Give a few years between the flashback  and his birth and take seven years during the time-skip. He was born 400 years ago as the younger brother of Zeref. He died soon thereafter, but his body was kept intact by Zeref during all those years. The body Natsu is using in the current time-line is the exact same as that of Zeref's younger brother. More can be read at this related question about how this all came to be.

I've never seen it mentioned, specifically, but we can get close to a minimum age.
July 7, X777 is when the dragons disappeared.  Since Natsu was trained by Igneel, he must have been born before this date, presumably several years before to allow time for training and such.  If Natsu had been born the day before, he would be about 14.
During the Fighting Festival arc, the Battle of Fairy Tail specifically, Natsu, Gajeel, and Makarov are trapped by Freed's enchantment, suggesting that Natsu must be older than 80 at this point.
The Edolas arc sees the return of Gildarts after 3 year absence, suggesting the Battle of Fairy Tail was less than 3 years prior to this.  Since there is no minimum time that passed, there is not much help to us here.
In the X971 arc we know 7 years have passed, so Natsu must be at least 87 by this point.
Beyond that, I'm not sure how much time is passing between each event.
Speculation
I do have a theory that would make sense of why Natsu is so old when physically he looks young:

Natsu and the other Dragon Slayers are actually their respective dragons.  For example, Natsu is actually Igneel.

So that means Natsu was 74 when he was dating Lisanna back in X778?

@PeterRaeves In his defense, he does not old he is and his physical appearance seems young.

Per your speculation,  igneel is inherently different from natsu. Having natsu revealed to actually be igneel would effectively be killing natsu. Igneel being sealled inside of natsu, however,... believable.

I don't see how Igneel is actually Natsu in this case. Why then did we get a scene depicting Igneel otherwise as an actual dragon? Why would Grandine contact her Edolas counterpart to teach Wendy advanced magic?

@Thebluefish Originally they were all Dragons, but because of some currently unknown event, they have memory issues and are transformed into the human characters we see.

I still don't see how that would explain them showing Igneel at the same timeline as Natsu. It also doesn't explain Grandine explicitly contacting her Edolas counterpart to teach Wendy advanced techniques. If they were transformed into their human counterparts, then these events could not happen. It is more reasonable to believe that the dragons exist elsewhere as the current story depicts them.

@Thebluefish I've not reached the second example you gave, but the first could just be Natsu's memories mashing together in his confusion.  Again, just a speculation which is probably not going to be true.

Well i guess now it's safe to say that that's not the case

@kaine It's interesting to see, that /spoiler/ this is almost exactly what happened. Igneel was indeed sealed within Natsu.

It is safe to assume that something inseparable from Natsu (his magic, a sealed dragon, previous sealling like the 7 years thing) could have also kept him from passing through the enchantment. Ergo, the 80 years seal cannot nessesarily be used to develop a lower bound for his age.  In addition, he doesn't truely age when sealed away for 7 years. (Lucy was far too... developed... to be 10 when she joined Fairy Tail).
For a lower bound of his body's age, we have to note that he remembers Ingeel.  Most first memories a child has are from 5 to 10 years of age (i'm the latter).  Their first clear memories are definitly around 10 years old.  Assuming Natsu must have been at least that old when Igneel disappeared, means that in year X784 (when the series starts) Natsu would be roughly 17 years old by this specific means of estimating his age.  This puts him around the same age as the others which makes sense. If he lived much longer than that, (living time) he would remember having lived much longer than that and would likely look like he had lived much longer than that.
I don't, however, believe his timeline is that simple.  Zeref seem to remember him which means he should be several hundred years old.  The dragon slayers all seem to have indeterminate ages that may be easily over 80 years old (as shown by the previously mentioned enchantment).
So define living time as time he is conscious and sealed time as time he did not age.  Total age is living age+sealed age.
We do not know his age (living or sealled) as it is not yet revealled.   His living age is roughly 17-19 years old close to other main characters. This seems to be the measure used to define Lucy and the other's ages in the question. His total age is at least 24 as he was sealled for at least 7 years.  His total age, however, as no upper bound and there is evidence that he (or part of him) could be several hundred years old. The discrepency between living and total age, however, all seems to be time sealled away by some yet undefined means.

According to the wiki the starting year is estimated using the year stated in manga Chapter 106 page 9 to describe the battle of fairy tail and indications by Lucy that she had been there less than 1 year as she hadn't seen the previous years "S" class qualification.

Wendy was only 5 years old when she parted with her dragon and she still remembers bits of her, so I don't think you could use memories as an indicator for age.

Fair point, I stated that the ages of first memories are between 5 and 10 and that it varys between people. I also stressed that the method only provides an estimate. My main point was to stress that age in Fairy Tail is not so simple and 17-19 for his living age is much more realistic than the 14 and 87 in the other answers which both pretend he aged when sealed away for 7 years. Both of the other answers assume he could have left Igneel before he was 1 year old which is obviously absurd.

(Note that I also assume that Wendy's 12 years old is living age as well.  She may or may not have the other interesting age confusion that Natsu and Gajeel have.)

I totally agree, that I don't agree with the other answers. Lucy is born in 767, so she would have been 24 by now if she would supposedly have aged. We have also seen Natsu as a child with his father and not just as an infant, so he must have been like you said around 10 when they parted. And don't get me started on him being 80 lol. I don't want to imagine a 74 yo Natsu playing house with Lisanna. That's just wrong.

@Kaine, dude, I didn't say he is 14. I said he is at least 14. He surely is older than that. I agree with you about Zeref, though. I forgot about him mentioning Natsu :P. It is possible that like you said, Natsu was sealed when he was child, so he can be considered older than 80 (approx. 400 years old as Zeref is).

@tendou_kishi you said that is the only thing we can know for sure and it certainky isnt. my main issue with your answer is you say he aged over the sealled years which is inherently wrong and means you are only saying he could be 7! That is nonsensical and not an answer with any value. Nevertheless I gave you your one vote because you had dates that are useful to me.

July 7, x777 The Dragons disappeared
Natsu joined Fairy Tail in x777
Currently it is x791 in Fairy Tail world

From this it can be concluded that Natsu is at least 14 years old. That is the only thing we can know for sure. But as to how old he really is, there is no definite answer. The Battle of Fairy Tail suggest that he might be older than 80 years old, but it was never mentioned explicitly that he is.

Well it is hard determine the age as the dragon slayers have come from 400 years in the past.Technically Natsu is about 417-419 years old

Please expand your answer if you have something to add that isn't mentioned in other answers. Also include sources.

Natsu couldn't be 14 because he didn't meet Igneel when he was born. When Igneel found Natsu alone in the woods, Natsu was able to walk properly, which means that he had to be around 7. Igneel left when Natsu was around 12 and spent around 5/6 years in Fairy Tail, not counting the years he skipped in the Eclipse. Hence, Natsu is currently around 17 or 18.

All the current Dragon Slayers who were raised by Dragons have there parent Dragon inside them. That's why it seems like they are more than 80 years old.
Natsu is older than Wendy, but younger than Erza, so his age would range from 14-17. I'm leaning more towards the older side.

Gildarts returned from "Century quest". That means he was gone for 100 years, but he was with Natsu when he was little... so I think that in their time 100 years are maybe 3-5 years in real life. So... They are maybe several hundred years old but they just don't age as quickly as in real life...
It would make sense - the age of dragons was 400 years ago so if 100 years = ~4 years then Natsu is around 16 + time before he met Igneel so around 17-20 years old in our world. Or like 500 years old in Fairy Tail universe!
Or... maybe they just count years in different way. Maybe "one year" is for example 50 days long. So 365 days are 7 years not 1 or something... that's why they put for example X780 year. That X is a number that changes not in 1000 years but faster.
Hope you liked my theory :)

I am pretty sure Gildhearts failed the quest after only three years

I would assume that Natsu is around the age of 17-18, because when he was fighting Gray and when he joined Fairy Tail, he looked about the same age, as I don't think that all the time travel with Eclipse would have affected it, however, if they had the 7 year gap, so technically Lucy would be about 24, but I think that we can say he is around the same age.
Also, it wouldn't make sense that he is 70 something, because, yes, the age of dragons was around 400 years ago, but when the training is shown, he is the only one there, not to mention the fact that Dragon slaying is a lost magic, and is quite rare. Before the phantom lord incident, he didn't know that other dragon slayers existed, and as a boy he didn't know how to read and write, so he was quite clueless, surely in 70 years, he would have learn things!
In conclusion, if Guildarts left when he was 70/80 in a child form, and returned 3 years later, he was in the state we see him now, considering that Erza and the others grew at the same rate.

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text:
What is the longest battle in anime?
So happys comment actually trigged my curiosity.

Uhm, yeah, but they didn't need to change the series title to Bleach Shippuden owing to fillers. As for Bleach, I found the filler arcs, Fake Shinigami Arc and Zanpakuto Rebellion Arc, better than the main arcs. The two Damsel in Distress arcs, one each for Rukia and Orihime, dragged on for too long. Even the "level 3" battles, like the one between Ishida and Cirucci dragged on for something like 10 episodes. –  Happy Dec 5 '13 at 14:12  - Has the Naruto Anime deviated from the Manga

There are allot of series out there that hold long/stretched battles, such as Bleach, Naruto, Dragon ball. But which series currently holds the record for longest battle? And I am not talking about in battle speeches. I am talking about actually fighting screen time, and the amount of episodes it is stretched over.

So I suppose DBZ (Frieza vs. Goku & Company) is out then, since about 12 episodes of that is just pure conversation...

This might be hard to determine and will always have a possibility to change, making the old answer obsolete.

@kuwaly. Yes it will take some research. And the chance it changes is there. But I dont think this will change very often.

Is this a broad question?

@MiharuDante That definitely not.. It's rather specific at that...

The issue with this question is that (in principle) one must have knowledge of all anime ever created in order to correctly answer it. (In my opinion, it's also trivial and uninteresting, but that's no reason to close a question.)

@senshin All anime created? I don't usually see fights in romance anime, and when they are there they don't usually last longer then a few frames. Excludes quite a few, but yeah you would need a general knowledge of most action related animes.

Here's the full battle VS Freeza battle in it's entirety.

How would you even define "fighting screen time" and "episodes it is stretched over"? most of the time it starts to just recap and "next time" if they are stalling for time, and cut back and forth between different scenes - also, what defines a battle?

Erm......definition of battle:  " 1.
a hostile encounter or engagement between opposing military forces:////Subdefinition of clash between two people.   Lets call a fight between two people a duel, just to make things easier.     There are lots of long winded duels in anime.....but for me to think of battles, I have to include all the Macross/Gundam/Votoms battles, which some of them take place over a few episodes.


text:
What is the "Malicious Trap" in Watanagashi-hen?
The manga to Watanagashi-hen (2nd question arc) ends with these words from the author (original in Japanese, translated):

About Watanagashi-hen
Malicious Trap
Watanagashi-hen, the second part following after Onikakushi-hen's scenario, focuses on explaining in greater detail about the events in Hinamizawa. Still following the once famous detective novels' style, Watanagashi-hen is the scenario that the original author himself likes the best in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
Noted as even more malicious than Onikakushi-hen, Watanagashi-hen is actually the mildest scenario in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Still, as it has been noted, there was a malicious trap by which once caught, the victim would be in great peril. Moreover, even the victim himself wouldn't notice that he had been caught in the trap.
Please confirm that in Watanagashi-hen's solution arc, Meakashi-hen.
...If by any chance did you know about being tricked into the trap... congratulations! You have enjoyed Watanagashi-hen to the fullest (LOL).
(Emphasis mine)

What is the malicious trap mentioned there?

As it has been mentioned by the author himself, the "Malicious Trap" is exposed in the solution arc, Meakashi-hen.
A Japanese reader also asked about this on Japanese Yahoo! Answers, with additional questions that might give you hints about it.

Shion and Mion are messing up my mind... whether "Shion appearing as Mion" is a lie or not, it is very confusing. On the following cases, which girl:

was working at Angel Mort in the opening,
tortured Keiichi,
was being jailed,
stabbed Keiichi,
fell from the balcony?

If your answer is

 1. Shion
 2. Shion
 3. Mion
 4. Shion
 5. Shion

then, "congratulations! You have enjoyed Watanagashi-hen to the fullest (LOL)."
Which then, it's clear that the malicious trap in this arc is that

 Shion and Mion were switching place.

Spoiler for more details regarding the answer to above question (or as explained in Meakashi-hen):

 1. The one who is working at Angel Mort is always Shion.
 2. The one who tortured Keiichi was Shion. Since Shion was impersonating Mion, it's hard to know if you only see Watanagashi-hen.
 3. The one who was being jailed was Mion. After that, Mion fell into the well and died because of Shion.
 4. The one who stabbed Keiichi was Shion. After she ran away from the underground ritual place through the well and went back to her mansion, her Hinamizawa Syndrome worsen and reached the end stage of level 5 (the worst stage) making her insane. She climbed down the balcony, went to Keiichi's house, then stabbed Keiichi when he went outside to meet her.
 5. The one who fell from the balcony was Shion. After she stabbed Keiichi, she went back to her mansion through the same balcony. While she was climbing up, her hands slipped and she fell down to her death.