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What exactly is the "Ritual of The Divine Tree"?
In the anime, it is shown that Kaguya regularly sends people to the Divine Tree for this "ritual" and those people somehow die.
So what exactly happens to them? I thought the Infinite Tsukuyomi was supposed to make people dream in their ideal world... Then how do people who go there for the ritual end up dead, whereas the ones who were first caught in it (King Tenji and others) live in their ideal worlds?

They live in their ideal worlds but while that's happening the tree is turning them into white Zetsus and I think somewhere in that process their brains turn to mush killing them. Thats where they got the army of Zetsus in the first place (by sacrificing people with the ritual turning them into Zetsus).

If I remember correctly, kaguya came to earth to build up an army of white zetsus in order to fight the villains who appear on Boruto the movie, (Momoshiki and Kinshiki) although it is never shown how the ritual could possibly take place. Lord Tenji and the others lived in their ideal world because Kaguya cast the infinite tsukuyomi upon them. And again when Madara casts it everybody lives in their ideal world. But during the backstory of Hagoromo and Hamura, it just shows a line of people heading towards the divine tree. The divine tree is basically the ten tails, so maybe it has a more crude way of performing the infinite tsukuyomi if Kaguya does not.


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What's the song that plays at 13:31 in Kanon episode 18?
The song is a remake of Pure Snows, I think. I don't know for sure if it is that one but it is some remake that they did. I can't find it though.

The song are from 『Kanon・Airピアノアレンジアルバム 'Re-feel'』. You can see it at http://key.soundslabel.com/discography.html, CD KSLA-0010.
These disk have the piano only version of Pure Snows, who it's the song used on these episode. All the disk are piano versions from some know songs from Orito Shinji.
But, it isn't also the "real" song, because, the song on the anime are extracted from these one, but are a bit mixed parts. For example, at minute 15:00 of the episode, the songs "changed" to a piano version of Little Fragments song, from CD KSLA-0003, with name 『Kanon arrange best album 'recollections'』.

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Does the author or publisher decide a character design?
If it comes to light novels there are always some pictures that show a new character or scene. But when it comes to a character, who decides the design? For example, if I were an author and my work gets a publisher, then they would hire an illustrator. So when it comes to the design of a character (let's take character as a simple example) will the publisher decide that her hair is short and red or will the author decide that she has long, black hair? Also feel free to tell me some other example like maybe the illustrator can choose the design. :)

I only remember one case where the author didn't really have detailed description on their characters, and was surprised (in positive way) when the illustrator used their imagination to draw them, but unfortunately, I can't remember this case... on the other hand, most writers (in this case, author?) usually have description of their characters appearance, whether it's just a rough one, or overly-detailed one.

Fun fact: The character designs for Near and Mello from Death Note were originally supposed to be the other way around, but the editor accidentally wrote the wrong names accompanying the designs. By the time Obata figured out that the switch had happened, it'd be kind of awkward to go and say that the labels were incorrect, so he just went with it.

Mainly the illustrator does.
Basically writers are not involved in design. But he or she can tell the hope to the editor.
It is an example of making a light novel.

An author write up the novel.
The author passes it to the editor. (Perhaps they will talk about what the author wishes at this time, like illustrator desired by the author, places of illustation and so on.)
the editor orders illustrations for a illustrator.
Then he tell the illustrator the atmosphere of the work, distinctive features of charactors like age, hair hength, shape of weapon, chest shape, etc...)
The editor reads the novel before ordering of course. So the content of the novel and the illustration rarely differ.
the illustrator sends rough sketches to the editor.
And the editor shows them to the author.
Then the author and editor modify sentences and the illustrator completes the illustrations, the publisher promotes the release date of the novel.

For answers, I referred to the remarks of an actual writer.(Written in Japanese.)
He says that "It is often better for the editor and illustrator not to speak to the design."
Many writers respect the illustrator. And it seems that they trust work of the editor and illustrator.

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How can Itachi's genjutsu act on Mecha-Naruto "Robot"?
In Episode 336, Itachi was seen to apply his genjutsu on Mecha-Naruto.
But Mecha-Naruto is a robot which does not have a brain but memory chip.
As it is a robot (which does not have any chakra), its battle techniques could not be copied by Kakashi's Sharingan.

Wikia-Genjutsu mentions that genjutsu can only occur by manipulation of chakra of the brain.
Then how does Itachi put genjutsu on a memory chip of a robot?

Lol you actually bothered to watch the fillers

How do you distinguish a filler episode from normal one? @Jeffery Tang

If it's WAY off of the other episodes, then it's a filler. Otherwise it's a canon episode. But here's this: http://www.animefillerlist.com/shows/naruto-shippuden it's helpful.

@Swastik this website is your friend: http://www.animefillerlist.com/shows/naruto-shippuden

Assuming it's like Mecha-Naruto in the game it's mind is actually a crystal from space and not a memory chip.

However, does this crystal have chakra? If not,then how does it get manipulated by genjutsu?  @IG_42

I don't know it's a bleeding space brain crystal and I traded in the game.

Mecha-naruto can absorb and contain chakra. This could mean that he has some kind of a chakra system. he also has a eight-trigrams seal in order to seal kurama and this confirms the previous statement. This chakra would in turn be used by his chip for its functioning similar to how the brain uses electric signals flowing through the nervous system.
The chip could be thought of a mechanical brain that uses chakra(it can sense chakra too!)and gives you all reasons why itachi could use genjutsu on mecha naruto.

Well, when Mecha Naruto went berserk, he was discovered by Akatsuki the next day and brought to Pain, who modified it.
Maybe he put in a chakra network, or something involving chakra, that allowed the Akatsuki to easily control Mecha Naruto. Maybe that's how Itachi placed Mecha Naruto under a genjutsu.

The answer for this is that this episode was filler. Chances are since the episode is a filler, Mecha Naruto is affected because fillers are very different from the anime's plot and/or logic itself.

Just saying it's non-canonical and doesn't make sense doesn't really answer the question in my opinion. Rather, one should try to make sense of that specific episode, even if its logic lies outside the main series. And in this case, Mecha Naruto appears in the video games, and IG_42 indicated in the comments there could be an answer there.


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What did cause the war between Marleyans and Eldians?
I'm finding answers for my book. It's about a war between Marleyans and Eldians but it did not tell in the manga what caused the war so I was looking for some help.

for someone who doesnt read the manga, i sure got implicitly spoiled.

Major manga spoilers below!

 After obtaining power of Titans, eldians started massive ethnic cleansing, and marlians became one of the victims of this act, naturally inflicting massive hatred towards eldians.

Source


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Will the Androids in Universe 7 be disqualified?
Hey I was wondering if Androids 17 & 18 will get Universe 7 disqualified because they are not only modified humans but weapons all together. Since Frost was a modified being, he almost got disqualified in the Universe 6 Tournament Arc. 17 & 18 are made to be weapons! They could be erased, killed or replaced. Thoughts?

wasnt frost disqualified because he used a weapon/gadget when that was forbidden? Aside from that androids usually count as beings in dbz

First off, by 19 don't you mean 17? 19 was the clown like Android that Vegeta destroyed. also At the start of the Majin Saga if i recall right Krillin said (responding to Goku how Krillin and 18 could have a baby) that 18 and 17 were originally human and they just had their Android Parts removed (they were more Cyborgs than Androids)

Frost case was different because in episode 91 it was shown that frost's needles were not part of his body and were weapons. But in the androids case, all of it is part of its body. Therefore they won,t be disqualified.

First your question is wrong as it should be C17, C18 and not C19. The comments answer your question well, but still I will answer. According to Dragon Ball wiki:

Androids (人造人間, Jinzōningen; lit. "Artificial Human") are robotic/cyborg humans, most of which were created by the evil scientist Dr. Gero. Most of the androids are said to have unlimited energy and eternal life .

To be more specific, both 17 and 18 were human-based cyborgs, not purely artificial constructs like 16 and 19 were. In the original Japanese version of the manga and anime, they are referred to as "jinzou-ningen", or "artificial person", which is a catch-all term for cyborgs and androids alike. In English dub it got lost and all 4 got named as Androids.
So Androids in DBZ are actually better characterized as cyborgs, which are human beings enhanced with bio organic components to increase their strength and such. So technically, They are still human, just mechanically enhanced with bio organic components, so technically not weapons, thus giving them the ability to have children. I believe their alternative name in the manga is "C 17/18" meaning "Cyborg 17/18."

As we know Android 18 has a baby with Kuririn which proves she is partial human (humanoid).
Another interesting fact is that Android 17 also has a family of his own and has one kid and two adopted kids.
In an interview:

Interviewer: Where’d Artificial Human No. 17 go after the Cell arc, and what did he do?
Akira Toriyama: He works in the wildlife preserve area of a gigantic royal nature park, as an outstanding guard who doesn’t hold back against poachers.
It’s an ideal job for No. 17, who loves to be on his own and isn’t big on cooperating with others; since he’s so good at his job, he takes in a high salary. He’s married to a zoologist; they have one child and two adopted children, and live happily in an isolated house inside the nature park.

He went and met No. 18 and Kuririn one time, but didn’t talk about what he’d been up to, maybe because he considers such a wholesome lifestyle embarrassing.
Coming to the Frost scenario.
Frost was disqualified because he used a weapon (poisonous nail) which wasn't part of his body.
For Androids, it's just their natural body.
By the way Androids usually count as beings in DBZ.
Also, Mosco The God of Destruction of Universe 3 looks like a robot or android.

Watch the episode on 28/5/17. Everything must be clear now as Universe 3 are getting robots to enter the Tournament Of Power.
Mortals: All beings who don't have a godly status (divine) are mortals.
Furthermore there are 2 type of divine beings:

Born Naturally Divine: e.g. Supreme Kais, Angels, Zen-Oh, etc.
Mortals Turned Divine: e.g. God Of Destructions, Gods of other realms and sections where god is a position granted by capability not birth right.

For example:

Even Dende isn't a mortal, he is a God (Guardian Of Earth).
Don't confuse this with Godly-ki Or God-ki. Both are different, even mortals like Goku and Vegeta can have Godly-ki through training with Whis or SSG ritual.
OR
If Goku becomes a God Of Destruction and Beerus steps down then Goku would be a god and Beerus would again turn to a mortal.

This is from Dragon Ball wika:

The Gods of Destruction (破壊神, Hakaishin; Literal meaning "Destruction God"), also known as Destroyers, are beings who destroy planets, as opposed to the Supreme Kais, the Gods of Creation, who create and fill planets with life, in order to maintain the balance of the universe. Along with the Kais, they rule and oversee the formerly eighteen, currently twelve universes, with each universe having its own destroyer. Unlike the Angels and the Supreme Kais, whom they work alongside and with, and who are all are both and each members of their own species, both being naturally divine, the Gods of Destruction vary widely in species, with none sharing theirs, except for Beerus and Champa, who are twins, and are mortal-turned-divine individuals from naturally mortal species.

Yes its true that a god of destruction is a robot or robot-like but this is a tournament between MORTALS of all the universes not angels or gods of destruction. and like you said they have eternal life,so this stops them from being mortal. the ruels of the tournament of power are; no flying losers, by ring-outs, and no weapons. They were made and altered for the sole purpose of killing goku. they werent made to fight fair they were made to put goku at a disadvantage. they are not naturally occurring beings and this means they are not mortal. their very cells have been modified as weapons.

Did you watch today's episode everything must be clear now as universe 3 is having robots enter the tournament of Power


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Do shadow clones copy user's injury?
There are several instances where injured Naruto used shadow clones:

While fighting with Kabuto, Kabuto severed the muscle and tendon of Naruto. Later, when Naruto used a shadow clone to make Rasengan, did the shadow clone have the same injury as Naruto?
After the final fight with Sasuke (i.e. after defeating Kaguya), were the shadow clones of Naruto missing their right arms [before being treated by First Hokage, Hashirama's cells]?

Apart from these two, even thoroughly exhausted Kakashi used shadow clones after defeating Zabuza. Were these shadow clones injured?

It depends on what you mean by injury. Typically when a clone receives an injury - as in being struck with an attack - they will dissipate (there are a few cases where this is not true) and will put a lot of stress on the user. You read more information on Does the original jutsu user feel anything when a shadow clone is dispersed forcefully?
Now this is what happens in reverse. According to this Shadow Clone Technique wiki page, Shadow Clones will replicate the user at the time the jutsu is cast.

The clones will be created in roughly the same condition as the original, meaning that previous injuries, such as cuts and scrapes, will appear on the clones.

The clones themselves are not actually injured, but have the appearance of being injured if the user is injured when the jutsu is cast.
As you stated, Kakashi used the jutsu after his battle with Zabuza. You can see this in this YouTube video, where the clones were summoned with torn and bloody vests.

*The clones themselves are not,per-say injured *  Can you back-up your statement with definite proof and source.@Wondercricket

What I believe is that if a clone didn't look like the one whom summoned it, it can't be called a clone, right? Say if you were Naruto and you recieved a huge gash on your stomach, if you did the shadow clone jutsu and they didn't have the wound, then the enemy would easily be able to tell which one is real and which is fake. At least that's what I believe.

If the Shadow clone is injured then it is useless for using it for offense and defense. Then what's the point of creating injured Shadow clone?    @Otaku101

Since shadow clones are a remote mass of chakra essentially and their form is dependent on the ninjutsu user's ability to manipulate it, I suspect that any injury a clone may have would be due to their own injuries accrued during battler or the ninjutsu caster's inability to create a perfect form.

I believe that shadow clones or just clones in general just look like the original castor at the time of casting. Like if naruto got a knife to the hand the clone would have the wound but be able to use the hand. What would be the point of naruto summoning clones that were just as injured as he is.

From what I have seen in the anime, the shadow clones reflect the mental image that the user has in mind. I'm inferring this from the fact that Naruto has sometimes transformed the clones into other things that suit his fight situation.
For example, against Pain, Naruto changed all the clones into stones.
I believe if and only if the Jutsu caster creates an almost perfect copy of the original user, he can use the clones to confuse the enemy. I mean what's the point of creating a shadow clone if the original can be distinguished based on the injuries that he has sustained in the battle ?
Also, I think the injuries of the user appear on the clones but not necessarily weaken the clone. The clones are weakened only based on the amount chakra the user has at that time. Since shadow cloning is merely the dividing of chakra into clones.


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What are the sealing techniques used to contain the Tailed Beasts?
When Naruto was asked by Killer Bee: "What is the sealing technique use to contain the Nine-Tails?", Naruto said that it is the "Four Element Seal". In return, Killer Bee said that the sealing technique used to contain the Eight-Tails is the "Iron Fist Seal". Now I want to know what are the other sealing techniques to contain the other Tailed Beast.
So far we have the following:
Nine-Tails:  Four Element
Eight-Tails: Iron Fist

P.S.: I added a bounty for an answer that makes extended research about this question.

Adding a bounty doesn't really matter, because there is nothing mentioned in the manga. So unless someone makes them up, that's the two you'll have for some time.

Even though there is nothing mentioned in the manga, I want answers like from @Happy that done extensive research on the question. However, you can still answer the question if the "unreleased episodes" mention anything about these sealing techniques.

This answer is based upon events up to Chapter 644.
Following techniques have been used for sealing Tailed Beasts.

Hakke no Fūin Shiki (Eight Trigrams Sealing Style) used by Namikaze Minato to seal yang-Kurama (Kyuubi) into infant Naruto (and yin-Kurama into himself).
Tekkō Fūin (Iron Armour Seal) used to seal Gyūki (Hachibi) into Bee (and Fukai, the previous Hachibi jinchuriki).
Fūinjutsu: Genryū Kyūfūjin (Sealing Technique: Phantom Dragons Nine Consuming Seals) used by Akatsuki members to (extract and) seal their captured bijū into the Gedō Mazō.
Unnamed Fūinjutsu used by Chiyo to attach Shukaku (Ichibi) to Gaara's unborn body. The same technique was presumably used to attach Shukaku to the previous two jinchuriki.
Ten-tails sealing technique used by Uchiha Obito to seal the Juubi into himself.
Undisclosed Fūinjutsu used by Uchiha Obito to reseal various bijū into their resurrected former jinchuriki.
Kohaku no Jōhei bijū fūin (Amber Purifying Pot Tailed-beast sealing) used by the Third Raikage to seal Hachibi into the Kohaku no Jōhei.

Other jinchurikis probably got their bijūs through one of the above techniques, or other as yet undisclosed techniques.
There is not much evidence, direct or circumstantial, to suggest any kind of "compatibility requirement" between a bijū and its sealing technique, or in other words, it sounds plausible that a bijū could be sealed using more than one technique, and the same sealing technique could be used to seal various bijū (as seen in the above examples).

Very good answer! Glad to see you're still alive :)

Indeed a good answer, but still my curiosity don't satisfy. Nevertheless, you deserve to have the bounty than the other answer since you clearly done extensive research. But before I award the bounty, can you give reference to your answer specially the sealing technique used by the Third Raikage to seal Hachibi into the Kohaku no Jōhei.
PS: I never knew about Amber Purifying Pot Tailed-beast sealing so thanks for that.

Sure, I will add the references shortly. By the way, I have added about as much information as is currently available (I think). To satisfy your curiosity further, you will have to contact Kishimoto-sama. :)

Also, I don't know if it is possible to award the bounty before the time runs out, but I recommend waiting till the time is up, as you might get an even better answer!

If i am not wrong Minato used two kind of sealings.

There is no specific sealing technique for each tailed beast. In the battle with killer B, B stated that the Iron Fist seal is of a lower quality that the Four Element seal. B was simply questioning the quality of Naruto's seal. B also stated that Naruto's seal was a lot more durable when compared to the Iron Fist seal.
B's seal is of a lower quality and is therefor easier to break. In the anime it appeared that the Five Element Unseal was strong enough to break B's seal. Naruto's seal is of a higher quality so it is harder to break but it is also much harder to create.
It does not really matter which seal you use as long as it is strong enough to seal the Tailed  Beast.

but that wasn't his question. He wants to know (as do I) if the sealing techniques for the other tailed beasts and jinchuriki have been mentioned in the manga. Would be an interresting study.. :)


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How can Sebastian use "I am a butler and a devil" so casually?
To my ears, the Japanese means:

I am an akuma (demon), and a shitsuji (butler).

I guess it must have a pun meaning, too. On one occasion, a bad guy cried out "a-a-akuma?", but that's the exception: everybody seems cool after hearing it. How can Sebastian say this so casually?

Yeah, it's a pun. When read

悪魔で執事ですから
  akuma de shitsuji desu kara

It means

I'm a devil and a butler, you see.

Whereas, when read as the identical-sounding

飽くまで執事ですから
  aku made shitsuji desu kara

It means

I'm a butler through and through, you see.

This pun (aku made vs. akuma de) is a relatively common one in Japanese. For an example of a second-order pun of this variety, see the omake at the end of episode 26 of Yowamushi Pedal:

The fellow on the right was transformed from being a sheep to a (human) butler, and so instead of saying aku made shitsuji desu kara "I'm a butler through and through", he says aku made hitsuji desu kara "I'm a sheep through and through" (butler = shitsuji, sheep = hitsuji; cf. What do the sheep dolls represent in Mayo Chiki?).

Additional note: the aku in the two examples are homophones that mean different things. The aku in my first example is 悪, which means "evil". The aku in my second example is 飽く, which is a verb meaning "to grow tired of" (you see its more common synonym 飽きる = akiru more often).
The compound construction aku made (飽くまで) means "until I grow tired of ~" when viewed as two different words, and means "completely" or "thoroughly" when viewed as a fixed idiomatic compound (this latter usage is standard; analyzing it as a verb+まで is not).
The official English translation by Funimation aptly captures the meaning and magnitude of this pun by translating it as "You see, I'm merely one hell of a butler." This reflects both his demonic nature as well as his skills as a servant using a common English expression that has more or less the same meaning.

Whats the literal meaning of "aku made"? I believe "aku" still means "evil", but its not a red flag

@aitchnyu They're homophones that mean different things. The aku in my first example is 悪, which means "evil". The aku in my second example is 飽く, which is a verb meaning "to grow tired of". The compound construction aku made (飽くまで) means "until I grow tired of ~" when viewed as two different words, and means "completely" or "thoroughly" when viewed as a fixed idiomatic compound.

Now I notice "akumade" in all anime I watch, even when the subtitles are not faithful. Awesome answer!


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What series does Index-tan refer to?
In the first episode of the Index-tan specials of Toaru Majutsu no Index, Index-tan sits on Touma's head and eats bread. They talk about how she references something and then she explains that if you don't understand the reference, you should buy the Shakugan ** *****-***-DVDs.

(It's German)
What does Index-tan refer to?

She is referring to Shakugan no Shana, a series by the same producer of Index. Here's MAL's blurb on the series:

He had thought his normal days would last forever, until they were ended abruptly by an encounter with a girl with red hair and eyes. He named her Shana.
  Not long after he enters high school, Sakai Yuji’s normal days come to an end. He sees something bizarre on his way home: people are frozen in a strange fire, and a monster that looks like a large doll is attacking them. Just when he's about to be killed, a girl in a dark cloak wielding a large sword appears, and slices the monster in half. Although Yuji survives the strange encounter, the girl informs him of a desolate truth: " 'You' don't exist anymore."
  She calls herself a Flame Haze who hunts "Guze no Tomogara"; intruders from another world. She explains to him that he is a "Torch", a substitute of Yuji whose “existence” has already been devoured. She also told him that he is a special Torch, "Mystes", which contains a precious item in it. When he looks at his chest, he sees within himself a faint flame, just as she said.
  It is in this way that his eternal struggle alongside the girl begins.

More specifically, she's most likely referring to the Shakugan no Shana-tan specials, given the number of * in the subs, and the fact that these are the Index-tan specials.

Well, based on the *s in the subs, it's more likely the Shakugan no Shana-tan specials.

I had considered the number of * in the subs too, but the specials don't have "tan" in their name. So, most likely, it's really pointing toward Shakugan no Shana III. That would fit the number of * there. However, since I was unsure as to which series of the franchise it was referring to, I just put there the name of the franchise itself.

But they do have -tan in the title... http://blog-imgs-31-origin.fc2.com/s/h/i/shige0819/20070403214019.jpg Since this took place in Index-tan, I think it's quite likely it's referring to the -tan counterpart in the Shana franchise.

The link you provided is dead.

http://shakugan.wikia.com/wiki/Shakugan_no_Shana-tan
yeah, it seems to be shakugan no shana-tan on multiple different sites.


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What is the first transforming/morphing mobile suit/robot in anime?
I have watched all the Mobile Suit Gundam series and many other transforming robot genre series, but I want to know which is the first series that started the transforming/morphing mobile suit/robot genre in anime.
Here, transforming/morphing is changing from aircraft/armour to humanoid/creature form or any other forms.

Welcome to Anime & Manga SE Charles. Please consider to expand your question i.e. clarifying what type of robots you're talking about.

I think this may be a duplicate of http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/3828/1734

also this one... http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/3629/1734

Super robots and morphing mobile suit are different fwik. If OP expands this question I cannot see a reason to close or mark as duplicate.

@ Here what i mean by transforming/morphing is changing from aircraft/armour to humanoid/creature form or any other forms

I'm going to assume that you mean a giant robot that transforms into something else, usually a vehicle. If that's the case then you have two candidates depending on how further you want to specify them.
Brave Raideen was released in 1975 and it featured a giant robot that transformed into a bird shaped rocket ship.

Getter Robo was first released in 1974 and it featured three space ships that combined into a three different giant robots.

An honorable mention goes to Ambassador Magma which was first released in 1966. The titular character changed into a rocket ship, although there was no transforming mehcanism shown, so I (personally) wouldn't include him.


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What is the difference between Judgment and Anti-skill?
Both these organizations seem to keep coming up in Railgun/Index, but it's never explained what the difference is. Both of them seem to be some kind of police force. At first I thought Judgment was the "students" whereas Anti-skill was everyone else, but the way Judgment is being used as some kind of swat team when the plot demands it makes that seem strange.


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What is the battle music for Ace vs Aokiji?
I want to know what is battle music that plays during the Ace and Aokiji clash. Can anyone provide me a link to the OST?

For the uninformed, which episode are you referring to?

Is the OST From Movie 7: Karakuri's Castle's Mecha Giant Soldier
the Duel of Zoro VS General Maji.
Here's the YouTube Link:
Movie 7 OST


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Is there a way to kill Brook?
Is there any possibility of Brook dying?

I mean, you can't really kill him, because his soul always comes back.
Do you have to destroy his bones? But if I remember right, the Samurai on Thriller Bark broke a part of his skull. But now it healed, so is there no way that Brook can die?

I'm pretty sure that he would drown in the sea. Even though that he has no lungs. Yohohoho!

Doesn't the fact he has no lungs disprove that? Unless is there another reason it would work?

@ToshinouKyouko Devil fruit, any form that eating devil fruit will drown in sea

Throwing him in water. Every devil fruit user losses their ability in water and drowns.

But Brook has nu lungs. So he would just life forever under water?

but his power is to move his soul out of his skeleton so his soul may die

i agree with you, he can't move his soul, because he loose this ability under water, but it don't mean his soul dies...

ya you are right, his skeleton should be broked under water with time that may be the only way under water because his soul is linked to his body after skeleton broked away his soul might die

yeah, this could be. if he were still a normal human we couldn't discuss about this, but to kill a skeleton...
maybe he is immortal xD

You made a mistake in thinking his soul could come back as many times as it pleases. A Yomi Yomi no Mi user can only be resurrected once. He does seem immortal as we have seen him be beheaded and damaged several times, from which he had healed back by drinking calcium rich drinks such as milk. The only two possibilities there are to killing him is by either submerging him into water or by crushing his entire body forcing the soul to leave the body. This would indeed make him quite immortal.
How many times does the Yomi Yomi no Mi resurrect the soul?
The wiki page on the Yomi Yomi no Mi states:

The major strength of the fruit, as demonstrated by Brook, is that it gives its user another life after dying once before.

The wiki page on Brook states:

While he was still alive, Brook ate the Yomi Yomi no Mi, a Paramecia-class Devil Fruit. Should the user of this fruit die, it allows them the one-time opportunity to return to life.

Will the soul be able to come back regardless of the state of the user's body?
The wiki page on the Yomi Yomi no Mi states:

After death, the user continues to exist in whatever state they were revived as and can even go as far as to grant a form of "immortality" that lasts until the user suffers a second death. This of course is negated if the user's cause of death was drowning, and their body remains in the water, or if their body is completely destroyed.

What will kill a Yomi Yomi no Mi Devil Fruit user?
The wiki page on Brook states:

One advantage is that because he is just comprised of light weighted bones, he can use his speed and light weight to run across water, but, like all Devil Fruit users, he can still drown when submerged.

The wiki page on the Yomi Yomi no Mi states:

After death, the user continues to exist in whatever state they were revived as and can even go as far as to grant a form of "immortality" that lasts until the user suffers a second death. This of course is negated if the user's cause of death was drowning, and their body remains in the water, or if their body is completely destroyed.

What will not kill a Yomi Yomi no Mi Devil Fruit user?
The wiki page on Brook states:

He has also proven that calcium (such as in milk) will rapidly heal any damaged bones.

If the user's bones are only partially destroyed, he will be able to regenerate them through consumption of calcium. Eg This was seen after Brook fought Ryuma and was severely damaged.

The wiki page on the Yomi Yomi no Mi states:

As long as his bones are not hurt any attacks will not go to his core like when Zeo beheaded Brook, his soul managed to repair it and connect his bones together again.

Thank you, your answers are always great and very informative.  thx

Brook can be killed, but it's not overly easy. Busoshoku haki lets you strike the true body of a devil fruit user, which would allow you to hit whatever he's possessing with a haki-infused axe and strike his soul.
So yeah, he is killable, but only if you have sufficient haki and strength.

This is just speculation, as it hasn't been stated in the show so I didn't include it in my answer, but my understanding is that if you literally ground Brook's bones to dust he would still be alive, as he is now just his soul, which happens to be possessing his bones.

According to the Wiki for the Yomi-Yomi no Mi, the person who eats it revives once. So Brook can still just as easily be killed, as he will not revive again.

yeah once, but how do you kill a sceleton? :'D

It was mentioned in the anime that if you smash his spine really good he will die. Can't look for prooflink right now. At fishmen island as far as I remember, during the fight...

If you want to degenerate his bones, acid is your best bet, especially HCl as it attacks calcium, you can try on a piece of chalk or some chicken bone.
And don't let him touch any milk in the process as it may regenerate him.
So, maybe any kind of food that is not calcium friendly can help, such as cassava or some very sour fruits.

Killing brook might be nearly impossible. The methods normally used for killing devil fruit users might not apply to him because,

He's too light to drown and he has no lungs. So even if someone submerges him into the sea, he'll just lie there but wont die as he doesn't suffocate.
His soul returned to him after his body decomposes completely and the only thing left of his body are bones. So you'll need to completely destroy his body until nothing is left.

Had his soul returned to him when he still had his body and organs, It would be possible to kill him. Even submerging him underwater might had killed him as he would have lungs and lose his breath(The soul would attach to his living body which can be killed).
But now his soul is attached to his bones and will stay within them until they are completely obliterated.
You can think of him as darth nihilius of one piece.


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What were Alluka's first three wishes from Killua (after reunion)?
It is stated that Alluka made 3 wishes, but I counted 4 of them. Which of the ones I counted is discarded? What are the 3 wishes exactly?
1) "Die."

2) "Wake up."

3) "Play Shiritori with me."

4) "Pat my head."

But they count the wishes as 3 only.

Remember that when Alluka requests something, she can't force it to happen. Like when they Alluka was a kid, and wanted something, she couldn't force the other person to do it. They simply fulfilled her request, whenever they could (except when Alluka's parents forbade them from doing so).
Killua and Alluka definitely played shiritori together, and when Alluka said "wake up," this was a request he fulfilled, since he was "sleeping". Lastly, we definitely saw Killua pat her head.
It seems that the family observed that Killua did not grant Alluka her request of, "Die." He simply said, "Okay, sure," pretended to die, and made her laugh in the process. But he did not actually do anything to harm himself. This allowed them to think that exactly three requests had been performed.

Note: In reality, the reason that the requests work this way is explained in a very convoluted and expository manner in episode 146.
From what I can understand, there is a difference between when Alluka makes a request and when Something makes a request. The two are different, and "wishes" can only be fulfilled by actualizing requests from Something. However, the initial "wish" we see Killua make is not a "wish", it's a "command", so it doesn't count as a wish. Confused? Good, me too.

So in reality, since Killua was with Alluka, he was not in any danger of receiving requests. (I feel like this contradicts earlier flashbacks, but that's just a matter of Togashi's writing being, er... poor.)
However, since the original question is about why the Zoldyck family thought it was three requests, the above answer remains true. (Edited a small bit to reflect this.)

The wishes weren't wishes from the wish granting side of Alluka, or Nanika as Killua calls her (as Killua calls him a girl, I will refer to him as such).
It is stated in the manga that Alluka is made of two different distinct personalities: Alluka, the normal girl, and Nanika, the wish granting one. Alluka comes up when Nanika is sleeping. Nanika sleeps after a) before she starts asking someone wishes after she's granted a wish, b) if the person she is asking wishes too leaves her sight before she can complete her wishes or c) after Nanika heals something and tires herself out. I think this would come under a), that this is still Alluka asking Killua to do things as a normal sibling would. Nanika's first wish, which could have come up at any moment is the fingernails that comes later on.
Therefore, how many of 'wishes' she asks during this scene does not matter. What does matter is how the watching family interprets them.
Killua didn't actually die when he was told to die, so that could be discarded. The second possibility is that the second 'wish' isn't a wish because in the Japanese manga it is said in a very different style to the other 'wishes'. It could be that if the Zoldycks were to realise that Alluka didn't want Killua to actually die, the second 'wish' of waking up could be thought of as an extension to playing dead.
Killua doesn't want his family to know that he can command Alluka, so pretends that the 'wishes' he has been set by Alluka are actual wishes from Nanika.
Of course, it could easily be a mistake on Togashi's part.

Both answer are pretty good but there are still some missing point. Killua explained in the later episodes that there are 2 things the family doesn't know, and the unknown will keep Killua from being control by his needle brother who will surely abuses the power/wishes from Nanika.
The first unknown from the family perspective is that Alluka calls Killua "brother", and Nanika calls Killua "Killua".
The second unknown from the family perspective is that Killua can issue "command" to Nanika with no constraints (later episode explain Nanika just want praise from Killua).
If his Needle brother does not fully know all the rules applied to Killua with regards to Nanika, its pointless to control Killua against his will. Hence, Killua has every reasons to misguide his family to keep the rules as secretive as he can.
From my understanding, regarding to why the family thinks there are 3 request from others seems to simply because they are not Killua. Then the awfulness of the request has to do the the nature of the last wish. Also Killua explained that Nanika never request awful things after healing (Nanika simply needs pat on the head and rests after any acts of healing).
Here are key points to notice from the moment that killua meets Alluka in the isolated room, to Nanika healing Tsubone's left hand.

The last wish granted from Nanika is a computer from the fat brother.
When Killua meet Alluka, all the "request" are from Alluka (not Nanika). Hence they aren't request at all, its just Killua and Alluka hanging out.
The real requests after the computer wishes are the finger nails from Tsubone.
After healing Tsubone, Alluka/Nanika "requests" pat on the head and needed to rest.

Trivia:

Killua issued a two clauses commands to leave home seems to be some specific writing for viewers to distinguish if Killua and Alluka/Nanika leave home accordingly.
Killua and Alluka/Nanika know each others existence since they are little child playing in the yard, and child Killua witness how child alluka/Nanika healed a bird.
Killua stated that only the people who wishes are cursed, NOT Alluka/Nanika.
Alluka call Nanika a "she", Killua did the same. But the family called Alluka/Nanika a "he".
Killua still seems to be unsure about relationship with Nankia even though he knows everything between the three of them (killua, alluka and nanika).


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How did Zatch lose his memory?
In the series Zatch Bell, Zatch is sent to earth from his world along with a bunch of others. But when he gets there he has no memory where he came from. The person who finds him reads from a spell book and makes Zatch shoot lightning from his mouth.
There is a whole bunch of times when he his fighting the others like him and he slowly starts to learn about what he is and where he is from. But why is it that, out of all of the others, Zatch loses his memory and doesn't know why he is there or where he came from?

Zatch lost his memories after he had already arrived on Earth. He was defeated by another mamodo, who decided to erase Zatch's memories instead of destroying his spellbook.

 The mamodo is named Zeno, and he is revealed to be Zatch's twin brother.

 As for his motivation: Zeno had a painful childhood, enduring brutal training on a daily basis. He grew up separately from Zatch, and believed that Zatch was living an easy, enjoyable life elsewhere. Not only that, but Zatch had inherited their father's great power, "Baou" (Zatch's 4th spell).

 For these reasons, Zeno was extremely resentful of Zatch, and came to believe that Zatch was the reason his own life was so terrible.

 Once they were on Earth, Zeno sought out Zatch and defeated him. Zeno decided to leave Zatch's spellbook alone, because destroying Zatch's spellbook would just send him back to their world, where he imagined Zatch would be living happily.

 Instead, he stole Zatch's memories, so that Zatch would be forced to wander around, confused and alone, being constantly attacked with no idea why.

 Later in the manga, Zeno accidentally looks at the memories he stole from Zatch. He realizes that Zatch's life was also painful, having suffered greatly at the hands of an abusive stepmother. Zeno regrets giving Zatch amnesia, and apologizes to him.

The circumstances of Zatch's amnesia are revealed in the chapter "Stolen Memories" (Volume 5, Chapter 48).


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Exactly when did Madara come back to life after his defeat by Hashirama?
I know that Madara used Transcription Seal: Izanagi to fake his death and came back to life after a while. What was the trigger for this jutsu (Izanagi)? If it was his death, immediately he would've come back to life after death and Hashirama would've noticed it.
It is mentioned that he had used this jutsu on his own right eye. How come a dead person's eye is a trigger for his own revival? As I understand, there won't be any movement/thought from a dead person.

Izanagi is a technique which is able to rewrite history. You take an event that wasn't favorable to you and make it into nothing more than a dream.
He set up Izanagi beforehand to be trigger a few hours after his death. Even though he was already dead, the technique still activated (Much like Itachi sealed his own Amaterasu into Sasuke's eye, and it activated even though Itachi already died).
Once Izanagi was activated, Madara's death was cancelled.

Itachi's scenario was different than Madara's . In itachi's case, the trigger was alive(Sasuke's Sharingan). Also, It was an event based trigger. But in Madara's case, it was a timely trigger like a 'Time Bomb'. That too the trigger was already dead. Is that even allowed ?

Also @KaguyaOtsutsuki, apparently, it is :)

But it was said that in order to control the time freely of izanagi one must have Hashirama cells yes Madara did bite hashiramas arm but he still didn’t implant the cells into his body


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What is the unit of power level in the Dragon Ball series and how is it measured?
Throughout almost the entire series, all characters in the Dragon Ball series keep on talking about sensing each other's powers from great distances and all. They even compare each other's power levels just by observing each other.
So my questions are:

What is the unit of power level? For example, weight is measured in the unit kilogram.
How is each unit of such a power measured?
Since the story revolves around Earthlings, is it possible (in the wildest of dreams) for humans to devise a way to measure power levels?

with the third one i thought Bulma already made something based off the Scouters

would be great if i get a feedback or a vote. thx

@BBallBoy Sorry for my delayed response as I got caught up with work.

I'm sure a Geiger Counter will explode.. Ooopss.

There are actually two measurements, the one from scouters and the one Babadi uses.  The second one seems to be a higher scale.

I think the unit of the Power Level is Ki. I would like to give you the link to the wiki:

The Power Level (戦闘力, Sentō Ryoku; literally "combat power" or "fighting strength"),
  referred to as Battle Point/Battle Power (BP) in video games, is a
  concept found in the Dragon Ball franchise created by Akira Toriyama.
  It is first introduced in Dragon Ball, where Goku as a kid learns to
  sense ki after drinking the Ultra Divine Water, although the Z
  Fighters are able to detect power levels via the ki sensing ability
  eventually.

It's not clear how they measure the power, or at least I couldn't find something...
That's right, Bulma got one of the scouters, so I think it shouldn't be a problem for her to copy it.

And if you want to know which character has which Power Level, see this list of Power Levels.

it's over 9000 Ki ?

@SeptianPrimadewa watch the second Link ;)

Units of power are somewhat of a rough indicator of how strong a person is in that point in time.  Although at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, in the Vegeta and Frieza arcs, power level is considered the only thing that matters. We later see in the Cell arc with Vegeta and Trunks with their alternate SSJ 2 form (The really buff one) that power level only measures strength and not speed.
So later on in the series power level just becomes somewhat of a joke when Goku and all the others have power levels of 100 000+ that it really just doesn't matter what your power level is.
Also, the creator of DBZ says that power levels often lie, because they don't show hidden power or potential.
Like in the fist couple episodes where Gohan has a super pathetic power level that just skyrockets when he gets mad.

This isn't official, but I looked into this, and this was the most reasonable conclusion I could make:
The Equation for Power Output f(x) with Power Level x is:
f(x) = 0.25x^2 * (x+1)^2
f(x) = The Power Output in PLU
x = The Power Level
To find the value of 1 PLU (Power Level Unit), we can use the fact that Freeza destroyed Namek, and if we assume Namek's binding energy is the same as Earth's, we get about 224 x 10^30 Joules. Freeza powered up for 6813 to 6846 frames, and since the framerate is 30 fps, the time is anywhere from 227.1 seconds to 228.2 seconds. Based on the equation presented, a power level of 60,000,000 comes to 3.24 x 10^30. This means the value of 1 Power Level Unit is 12357457/40659859 Watts, or about 0.304 Watts.
This equation makes the farmer's power level of 5 equal to 68.4 Watts, and also gives the following Power Levels:
GE90 Jet Engine = 177
Space Shuttle = 626
Saturn V Rocket = 1,215
Strongest Laser Ever Built (ELI) = 40,276
The Sun = 8,420,000
Keep in mind that these do not increase linearly, so 50% of a power level of 100 is not 50, its about 84.
Also, I found Mr. Satan's Power Level:
Mr. Satan pulls buses in the cell saga. In my research, I found a similar bus with a mass 12000 kg and a length of 772 cm. There are 4 buses, so he pulled a mass of 48000 kg a distance of 3088 cm. He did this in 1129 frames, or about 37.6 seconds, and as the total work done is 14,535,808.896 Joules, the average power was about 387 kW. This puts Mr. Satan's power level at 43.
Sources:
Calculator Used: https://web2.0calc.com/
Bus: https://www.siemens.com/press/pool/de/events/2013/infrastructure-cities/2013-05-uitp/background-ebus-wiener-linien-e.pdf
Episode 97, in which Freeza destroys Namek

Considering that Vegeta didn't sense the genkidama hold by Kuririn, we can assume that Ki is not necessarily Battle Power.  Gohan also only noticed the Genkidama after seeing how huge it was in the sky.

There is a second unit of power in Dragon Ball which is "kili". Only 3 power levels in that unit are given,
Yakon: 800 kili
Goku Super Saiyan: 3000 kili
Dabura: 4000 kili
List of power levels
After a second thought I have to disagree now that the main unit of power in Dragon Ball is ki. Ki roughly translates to a type of energy. So that would be like saying "energy" is an unit of energy, when Joule for example is, but energy isnt.  I would say the unit of power they read in scouters is unknown, and it's an unit to measure ki, but it isnt ki, just as joule is an unit to measure energy, but the unit isnt "energy".
Also the definition of an unit of energy is  a fixed amount of energy that is needed to perform certain task, in the case of the real joule for example, is the amount of work done by a force of a newton per meter in the same direction, when calory is the amount of heat needed to elevate the temperature of one gram of water in one degree Celsius, so, in other words, an unit of ki would have to be a fixed amount of ki with a particular different name to ki.


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Saiyan Power Levels?
I was wondering how was Gohan so much stronger as a normal Saiyan than Goku was as SS3 when he fought Buu. Is there not like a power level to reach the next SSJ form?

Power level example:

10,000 to reach SS1
100,000 to reach SS2
etc.

Why couldn't Gohan reach SS3 already?
Or he could fight as SS2 at least?
Maybe I have to rewrite my question again:
If you read the list below,

SS1 is always at about 25,000,000
SS2 is always at about 49,000,000

If Gohan with the Mystic Sword is as strong as Goku was as SS3, there wouldn't be any difference in their strength when he would transform into SS3?

I think I remember reading some time ago that they also have to be a pure blooded saiyan (which Gohan wasn't) to become super-saiyan 3. But this may have been pure fan speculation

@user2716766 thanks for this info, i will follow this clue :)

@user2716766 he doesn't have to be pure blooded, in later episodes, Gohan transforms in SSJ3. By the way, Goten is also not pure blooded and reaches SSJ3.

I think i found a possible answer:
I found this in the DB Wiki .

As Goku, Supreme Kai, and Kibito observe what is happening down on
  Earth, Gohan grows increasingly impatient as Old Kai reads and laughs
  at comics instead of unlocking his power. Gohan soon loses his
  patience and angrily powers up, displaying an amazing power that
  illuminates the Supreme Kai planet. However, amazed at realizing that
  some of his power really was unlocked, Gohan apologizes to Old Kai,
  and resumes the ritual. After some time, the ritual is finally
  completed and Gohan is told to power up like he does for the Super
  Saiyan transformation; however, when he does, his appearance does not
  change, but his power and strength gain an awesome increase. Gohan
  says goodbye to Supreme Kai, Old Kai, and his father Goku and is
  transported back to Earth by Kibito. Before Kibito transports back to
  the Supreme Kai planet, Gohan asks for the clothes reminiscent of his
  father's, to which Kibito happily complies. Kibito wishes Gohan good
  luck and transports back to the Supreme Kai planet. With his power
  finally released and the fate of the world now in his hands, Gohan
  flies off to confront the new Majin Buu: Super Buu.

So it seems when Gohan get "Mystic Gohan", even though he increased his Power his appearance didn't change. So he coulnd't transform in any other Saiyan form than the normal form, but still getting stronger.

Saiyan Power Levels - check this link out.
It states the power level every character have during a specific battle.
Majin Buu Saga

Fat Buu: 45,000,000
  Majin Buu: 80,000,000
  Good Buu: 55,000,000
  Bad Buu: 65,000,000
  Super Buu: 70,000,000
  Ultimate Buu: 50,000,000
  Majin Gotenks Buu: 90,000,000
  Majin Vegito Buu: 100,000,000
  Goku: 5,000,000
  Goku (Super Saiyan): 27,000,000
  Goku (Super Saiyan 2): 49,500,000
  Goku (Super Saiyan 3): 79,999,999
  Goku (Genki-dama): 100,000,000
  Piccolo: 26,000,000
  Gohan: 3,000,000
  Gohan (Super Saiyan): 25,000,000
  Gohan (with the Z sword): 53,000,000
  Goten: 1,500,000
  Goten (Super Saiyan): 10,000,000
  Trunks: 1,500,000
  Trunks (Super Saiyan): 10,000,000
  Gotenks: 3,000,000
  Gotenks (Super Saiyan): 20,000,000
  Gotenks (Super saiyan 3): 75,000,000
  Vegeta: 5,000,000
  Vegeta (Super Saiyan): 26,500,000
  Vegeta (Super Saiyan 2): 49,000,000
  Vegito: 10,000,000
  Vegito (Super Saiyan): 53,000,000
  Vegito (Super Saiyan 2): 99,500,000

thank you very much, but that doesn't answer my question. also it doesn't show, how Gohan (3'000'000) could beat Buu (55'000'000)...

Seems a bit ambiguous, but it was Gohan with the Z-Sword ot Mystic Gohan that fought Buu.

ok so it would be Goahn (53'000'000) against Buu (65'000'000)?

The chart is just an estimate, I would take it with a grain of salt. Though the import thing here is that Super Saiyan, SS2, etc... Are based relatively off their non-SS form.

To add to this, imho Gohan in mystic form is as strong as SS3 (I think Gotenks SS3 himself said so...).. There are lots of other disparities... Piccolo for 1 is stronger than SS Goku... So these levels are just an estimate.

I am curious about Vegetto Super Saiyan 2? I remember him becoming Super saiyan but when does he go the next level?

@Dredd good question, from what I remember after fusing into Vegetto they just went from normal to "Super Vegetto"

@Yaje good answer, but I question how accurate the source is. Although I doubt there is any canon source that would state the exact/approximate power levels of everyone from DBZ anyway, so +1

In all honesty, I would not reference this site for power levels as it's inaccurate.  A perfect example is that it makes the claim that Frieza was more powerful than Broly and that Goku could not defeat Frieza in his base form by the time of the latest movie, which is absolutely inaccurate.  Another is that Gohan is weaker then Buu in his ultimate form, another falsity.  Gohan outclassed Buu and Goku in every way at this point in time.

That is a non canon reference sheet, and does not include Freiza, who was estimated at 1 million in only his second form, and over 100 million at 100% in his final form, which using these numbers means he is stronger than everyone on that list.

As we saw more recently in Dragon Ball Super, Gohan in mystic form isnt the same as Gohan in base form. Once he got rusty, to reach mystic form he had to power up to super saiyan and super saiyan 2 first, to finally reach the mystic form transformation, which looks very similar to base form with the sole difference that he has a bang and more spiky hair.
Gohan turns mystic again - Dragon Ball Super

The first Super Saiyan transformation occurs when a Saiyan who has
  reached a very high level of power loses himself in a fit of rage.[22]
  However, the transformation must be triggered in response to a great
  need, an example being in Goku's case to defeat Frieza. While physical
  change is not too drastic apart from a slight increase in muscle
  mass,[23][24] the power output increase is colossal; the form is said
  to multiply the Saiyan's power by 50x times its normal amount[22] (in
  the Dragon Ball Z: The Anime Adventure Game, the multiplier for the
  form is 2.5x the user's normal amount of power). When Goku utilises
  the Super Saiyan form against General Rilldo in Dragon Ball GT, Rilldo
  states that Goku's power has increased a hundredfold.

Source: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Saiyan

Welcome to Anime and manga, Could you explain your answer a bit in terms of relevance to the question rather than a copy and paste job from a wiki


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What's the name of One Piece's principal character?
In the Brazilian subtitle, he was first called as Ruffy, but in the half of Enies Lobby/Water 7 Saga he started being called as Luffy, so I'm interested in knowing what is his name.

His name is Luffy.  You better know his name when he becomes King of the Pirates!
We have discussed the difference with regard to pronounciation on this site before.

Note that I answered this rather than marked it as a duplicate because this question is about spelling, not pronounciation.  It is not, therefore, a true duplicate.


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Where does the Heaven's Lost Property anime split from the manga?
I finished the anime and now I want to read the manga, but what chapter should I start from so that I don't have to reread the same content again?

For the benefit of future readers, we prefer not to delete good questions that have good answers (like this one), but we can dissociate you from the question so that it isn't linked to your account. Would you like us to do that?

Read from the chapter where Ikaros and Delta fought Chaos. It differs starting from there. Update the chapter number later.
EDIT: Chapter 31. In the anime, Ikaros was thrown out from the water by her weaponry system. In the manga, she was saved by Astrea.


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What is the chronological order of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni?
I want to know what is (if there is any) the chronological order for this variety series if I'm going to watch it from the start:

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku: Outbreak
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei

If there is more that I didn't mention, please add it also if necessary.

Diagram from AniSearch. Click to enlarge!
If I am not wrong now and I interpreted the diagram the right way the viewing order of the anime series should be like this. The bold text is the main story!
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (05.04.2006)
Shared Universe

Umineko no Naku Koro ni (02.06.2009)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Uraneko (23.10.2009)
Ookamikakushi (08.01.2010)

Side Story

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira (21.06.2011)

Side Story

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku: Outbreak (15.08.2013)

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (06.06.2007)
Side Story

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gaiden: Nekogoroshi-hen (02.08.2007)

Other

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai: Ura Higu (21.09.2007)

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei (25.02.2009)


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What anime is this white angel costume from?
My friend found this costume, which she's seen before but can't find where it's from.

It's an outfit worn by Panty from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt


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What happens when a Contractor fails to pay their remuneration?
What happens when a Contractor fails to pay their remuneration? Do they lose their ability or what?

Although this payment can be delayed, especially in the midst of
  combat, it is ultimately unavoidable. It is unknown what happens to a
  Contractor that fails to pay his obeisance, although Amagiri has
  stated that Contractors who fail to do so seemingly 'melt like butter'
  when depriving a captured November 11 of his remuneration.

Taken from: http://darkerthanblack.wikia.com/wiki/Obeisance
(It was also a pretty easy google search)


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What is the power of Rinnegan?
I have just started to watch the Naruto Shippuden series. I saw the fight of Pain, but I can't understand the power of Rinnegan. Can anyone explain the power of Rinnegan?

Explaining to you the powers of Rinnegan might contain spoilers.=)

I recommend that you wait until the anime explains it all.
Anyway, spoiler alert!
Well it's not just one power, it's a set of powers combined together.

Master all five basic nature transformations and the capacity to use any technique.
The Rinnegan allows the user to see chakra.
Rinnegan's field of vision can be multiple due to animated body's or summons.
Grants the ability to summon and control the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
Creating corporeal shadows which are only visible to the Rinnegan.
Shift spaces within a certain range.
Control over life and death.
Transmit their chakra to black receivers as well as manifest the chakra chains (to control Tailed Beast or use a dead body as a host).
Planet creation.
Six Paths Technique.

Six Paths Technique can be divided into 6 (just like its name lol :) )

Deva Path—can be used to attract and repel targets.
Asura Path—can clad the user in mechanised armour and grant them various weapons.
Human Path—can read minds, at the cost of ripping out the victim's soul.
Animal Path—can summon various creatures.
Preta Path—can absorb any chakra-based ninjutsu and even from a person's body.
Naraka Path—can summon the King of Hell, which can be used for interrogation and restoration.

Answer is based on Anime & Manga and the naruto.wikia.com.
For more info, see naruto.wikia.com.


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Why was the ending to the Arrancar arc, and thereby Aizen's character conclusion, so brief?
I started watching Bleach, probably a month ago, and quickly found it to be quite interesting.
However, there is something I just don't get, which is the reason for being.
As far as I remember, almost every villain that Ichigo came across and defeated, at least the fairly important ones, had a background story.
(Disappointingly, Ulquiorra, my favorite Espada, had no such background while most of the other Espada had a "beginning" story.)
But when it comes to Aizen, he was from the very beginning just someone who had twice the amount of Reiatsu compared to a Captain level.
Don't get me wrong, I thought Aizen was awesome.
He commands such awe, attention and fear, and you can tell that from the Shinigami protecting the Karakura Town.
But from what I got he simply wanted more power,
to destroy the Soul King and in turn destroy Soul Society.
And what happens after that?
He obviously finds Hollows insignificant, and he hates the Shinigami yet we don't know why.
I'm not sure if many people feel the same way as I do, that there just wasn't enough backstory as to why Aizen is.
In the end all we got was some speculation from Ichigo, which doesn't really make sense by the way, about how Aizen felt lonely because no one matched his power.
So to find an equal, Aizen groomed Ichigo's powers. But the funny thing is Aizen, according to Ichigo's speculation, sought more power in the meantime by subjugating the Hougyoku to his will.
If he had so much power, and he felt lonely simply because he outclassed all the others, why not find a way to suppress if not completely get rid of his powers akin to Zaraki's eyepatch?
Ichigo also speculated that maybe Aizen let go of his sword willingly, but in Room 46 he didn't look like someone who gave up his sword "willingly".
The "explanation" that we get from Ichigo sounds rather similar to what the author gave us about Jin Kariya. But there was a reason for Jin's motives and considering his backstory the explanation for his defeat does make sense.
But Aizen... I just don't get it.
Can anyone give me a satisfactory answer?

I don't know if you already read it, but try reading the "Official Character Book 3 UNMASKED", it shows a part of Ulquiorra's past. It may clarify a little the beginning of this character for you ^^.

This question doesn't seem to be asking what the title says at all. It seems to be more about Aizen's motivations.

I think the whole thing will be explained in the manga. I haven't caught up yet completely but last I saw

 it looked like stuff's gonna go down with the soul king so I expect they'll explain more regarding that.Also at the start of the current arc they briefly showed Aizen being locked away almost as if they were hinting you should keep him in mind. I think it's gonna go deeper.

Interesting. I haven't read the manga yet. Sounds promising so I will schedule sometime to see it. Thanks!

Aizen had two conflicting goals. One was to become even more powerful and destroy the Soul King, and the other was to find someone who was his equal. He's a multi-faceted character.
From Bleach episode 310 Ichigo says to Urahara,

When I battled Aizen, I finally had enough power to feel his sword. And I could tell you with certainty that there was nothing but loneliness in that weapon.

Ichigo states this with certainty, so this whole speech doesn't come off as some idle speculation you can dismiss offhandedly. Ichigo goes on to say that Aizen was isolated because of his power and was looking for an equal, but that he probably gave up. Keep in mind that he was pursuing his hollowification research long before Ichigo was around. Naturally, he would have been more focused on the goal he thought he could achieve: gaining more power and destroying the Soul King. When, in the process of his hollowification experiments, he discovered Ichigo's unusual case, he became interested and decided to pursue his other goal at the same time by grooming Ichigo into a powerful entity.
Ichigo also states that there must have been times Aizen must have wanted to go back to being a simple soul reaper. Even so, I very much doubt that trying to get rid of his power would have been something Aizen would have pursued. You have to keep in mind his other personality traits: he's manipulative, driven, calculating, and conceited. His loneliness is something he keeps locked up deep in his heart. He'd definitely rather have someone rise up to his level rather than to weaken himself (it's the same with Zaraki, too).
In episode 309, Aizen briefly talks about the Soul King with Urahara as he's being sealed away.

Aizen: With your great intellect, why don't you take independent action? Why in the world is it that you choose to subjugate yourself to that thing?

Aizen shows a very deep hatred of the Soul King and the current state of the Soul Society. He says only losers talk about the way the world is and winners should talk about the way the world should be. I think this shows his motivation for wanting to kill the Soul King.
I've only read up to volume 68 in the manga, but I've seen that Aizen will continue being in the story, so more of his backstory and motivations may be explained in later volumes.

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


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Who is this character being cosplayed in Japan Expo 2014?
This is a snapshot from JAPAN EXPO 2014. I don't know the character, so does anyone know who this character is? Here is the source video.

This is Aion cosplay, those wings she wearing are Hyperion Wings.
She's (Of') part of a French cosplay group called "Les Cosplayeuses Emplumées."


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How did Saber become more linked to lions than dragons?
We know Saber's real identity is King Arthur (Artoria Pendragon) and that she is linked to dragons through Merlin's sorcery:

Saber was born with the Magical Energy of a Dragon, shown by the "Pendragon" name, as Uther ordered Merlin to grant his successor the Factor of the Dragon (竜の因子, Ryū no Inshi). She is the holder of the Element of the Red Dragon who carries the blood and very magical power of a phantasm in a human body, granting her a heart and unique Magic Circuits that transcend what can be achieved by normal humans and magi. Agravain claims that Artoria is not the incarnation of the Dragon; but rather, that her heart is a single Dragon. Thus, Saber's Magic Circuits are called a Magic Core, which is fundamentally different from those of a normal magus.

However, it seems that Saber is linked more to lions than dragons:

Though she once felt more linked to Dragons due to her unique birth, she came to enjoy lions after taking care of a lion cub for a month at some point in her life. She claims that it is not that she "likes" them, but rather the happiness she experienced as he became attached to her brought forth a bond with them. The lion cub in her past was very energetic, often biting or scratching, but she wished to be able to stay with him until the end. She has had feelings for lions since then and remembers these fond memories while holding stuffed lions. Shirou, seeing the memory of her rubbing her cheek against the lion, comments on it being a special time where she truly looks like a girl her age.

If I do an image search on Danbooru with the tags saber lion rating:general status:active, I obtain 53 results, which is much higher than the 6 results that I obtain if I search with the tags saber dragon rating:general status:active.
A glance through the images reveals that, in addition to the stuffed lion in the original Fate/stay night, there are also Saber Lion, the Unit Lion race car that appears in Carnival Phantasm and a grown lion often found to also accompany Gilgamesh and Iskander.
It does not appear that Saber taking a liking to lions is central to the plot, so why the stronger association of Saber with lions than good old dragons?
Was it ever revealed (e.g. in an interview) why Kinoko Nasu chose to portray Saber more as a Lioness than a Dragon Lady?

The Lion reference can be dated back to her childhood. it's not mentioned on her page but Sir Kay's section. Sir Kay is the son of Sir Ector who Merlin left Arturia in the care of, that makes him Arturia's step brother though she had thought of him as her real brother (despite knowing the truth).

Once while attending to her while she was sick, she told him that she would like to have a dream of a lion running on a grass field. He fashioned a poorly carved wooden lion that looked like a combination between a dog and a cat, and left it by her bedside. When she thanked him and told him that she had a pleasant dream of a young lion, Kay was shocked as he intended to make a decrepit old lion that would have been unable to hurt a rat. He had been worried that the lion might pounce on her in her dreams.

so while she is linked to Dragons, Lions was apart of her upbringing as the brother she loved carved her a lion when she was sick which most likely became a very cherished possession of hers and it's probably a subconscious thing of Arturia's extending from this. not entirely sure as to why she wanted to dream about a lion in the first place
I'm not sure as to how much of an impact this trait of Arturia's is on the story. Saber Lion is a parody much like how Magical Amber and other Magical Girls in the Nasuverse is a parody of Magical Girls. as far as i know it's not stated if the original Arthurian Legend depicts lions in the context of a connection with Arthur (the Pendragon Coat of arms normally depicts, as one would expect, dragons. According to Wikipedia Sir Tristran's earliest attributed coat of arms had lions however Kay's Lion would predate this) or if any derived works do or even which legend Kinoko Nasu may have used as a basis for Arturia
If i was to fashion a guess it is probably to make a more unique Arthurian Legend. Mordred is practically Incest from the most bizarre method, Nero, Frankenstien and Great Holy Grail War Jack are all women and most of the Hassan-i-Sabbah are described as not having faces at all so quite possibly while they all have a base real life legend Kinoko Nasu alters them slightly to have a bit for freedom in developing their backgrounds and legends to suit his needs.


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What is intended by a spiral on a character's finger and what is the origin of this trope?
I am sure many of you have come across this trope in some anime/manga, where a character gives a thumbs up with an imprinted spiral.

The imprinted spiral, in addition to looking like a fingerprint, is probably also meant to be a simplified representation of a hanamaru:

which basically has the same meaning as a thumbs up, or "good job".
The focus of this question, however, is on the spiral that appears on the index finger.

In the two examples shown above, the characters were obviously not showing approval, so the idea of the spiral being a simplified hanamaru is out.
Someone has asked the same question here:

Spirals. Just spirals. Apparently there are "spirals of depression" and "spirals of happiness?" I think I heard the depression spirals are meant to represent "sad spirits/ghosts" or something like that? But if the character has spirals on her cheeks, she's happy. If there's a spiral on her finger when she points at you, she's being triumphant or prideful. Can anyone clear this up? :3

Is there any source to that statement in bold (emphasis mine)?
My question is: what is the intended effect of the spiral on a character's index finger, and where did this trope originate from?

its finger print

That's what I thought at first, but why do they appear mostly in comedies? And in some anime, they are moving as well (?) What kind of effect is it trying to create? And anyone feel free to edit the title because I probably haven't worded it as I would like to.

With the image you have posted it's almost as if Chidori is pressing her finger against the screen and telling the audience to "Go! Now!"

I think the idea is to create an extreme close up of the finger, meant to portray the idea that they mean business. Showing the fingerprint is a way of saying "wow, we're up CLOSE!"

This also happens when characters give a thumbs-up sometimes; see http://media.animevice.com/uploads/1/12141/490423-konata.jpg.

As mentioned before, it's a fingerprint.
Usually the spiral only appears when the character's finger/thumb is close to the screen. The reason for this is simply to add detail to something which is taking up a lot of the screen. Look at the image without the spiral:

Because the finger takes up a lot of the screen it's harder to focus on when it's all the same colour. The inclusion of the fingerprint helps break up that space - even if it is a basic design.
The reason it's a spiral is for simplicity's sake. Fingerprints are very intricate and are more trouble that it's worth, unless perhaps the entire animation is ridiculously detailed - otherwise you would get a sharp jarring contrast between the foreground and background:

Obviously, this is exaggerated, but I imagine half-hearted attempts would also look out of place.

If there's a spiral on her finger when she points at you, she's being triumphant or prideful.

I don't think there's any real evidence to suggest this. This design is used in many situations, often when a character is angry.
TL;DR - It's to break up the area on the finger without going into much detail

This is a plausible argument, but I really need to watch more anime and identify more scenes with this "trope" to really appreciate it and clear my doubt of possible counterexamples that can not be overlooked.

Yup. Fingerprint. The idea is that the character is shoving their finger in the face of someone and the screen is showing the point of view of the other person also used when characters are breaking the 4th wall and pointing at the viewer.

OK so this trope is named finger spiral, or guruguru-shimon, and this page agrees with you that it is fingerprint and doesn't mean anything in particular, though it does provide an out of place example in the "Other Shapes" section.


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Was Lilium written or composed solely for Elfen Lied?
Elfen Lied's opening, Lilium, is a symphony sung in Latin.
Was it written/composed just for Elfen Lied (like for example, the opening songs for Pokemon)?

Good question! I always wonder whether Lilium and Bratja (from FMA) were composed exclusively to Elfen Lied and FMA, respectivelly.

The answer is yes.
According to the pamphlet included in the Elfen Lied OST, the melody of Lilium just surfaced to MOKA, the two-person musician group who was appointed the music producer staff of the Elfen Lied anime TV production team, when they looked at Elfen Lied from a certain perspective: it's not that Lucy wants to be born special — what she desires, the mundane happiness, that which appears to be easily obtainable is in fact obtainable by only a small handful of people.

望んで特別に生まれたわけじゃない、欲しいものは簡単に手に入りそうでほんの一握りの人しか手に入れられないであろう、ありふれた幸せ……そんな角度からこの『エルフェンリート』を感じた時に、メインテーマである「LILIUM」の祈るような旋律が浮かびました。

MOKA later included rearrangements of Lilium in Ryugu Genka, Shinra Soloist, Felix Culpa and LILIUM MOKA☆ Produce Mixed Chorus.

As is almost always the case with anime music, Lilium was composed just for Elfen Lied. KONISHI Kayo and KONDO Yukio collectively handled the composition, arrangement, and lyricwriting (and also did the rest of the soundtrack).

I don't know about Elfen Lied in particular, but I feel the answer in general is actually no.  While songs are frequently "written for the anime" in the sense that the musician is often requested to write a song that will be used as the anime's opening, at the same time they are usually not "composed solely" for the show.  The songs are intentionally written with generic-ish lyrics most of the time, with the idea that if it has appeal outside the anime, even people who do not watch will buy it, and they are using the anime as a vehicle for extra exposure for the group and the song.

@Kai I mean, sure, but that's not what the question was asking, as far as I can tell. Yeah, the music is often also commercialized separately from the anime, but it's still composed for the anime as opposed to being pre-existing music that gets glommed on.

Lilium was inspired by the poem 'Elfenlied' which is in the Manga, written by Eduard Mörike, and later adapted to a Lied by Hugo Wolf.

Do you have something to back this up? I've read "Elfenlied" before, and it's  somewhat different in tone and content from "Lilium".

Nope I don't think so guys.. maybe the music was composed solely for Elfen lied but the words (lyrics) are taken from the bible and other catholic prayers..
Like chapters of the bible Psalms and James and a prayer of the Holy Mary..
as the peeps before me have said yes the two yukio and kayo composed it but they themselves have said they have taken the words from the places which I mentioned above..

But just because words in the lyrics are borrowed from other places doesn't make something an unoriginal piece of music.


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How to start the .hack series and its viewing order?
As the questions suggest: how do I start and what is the preferred order?
It would be appreciated if one would also identify which anime/film/OVA has a main story. Additionally the timeline of which anime goes where would be appreciated as well.

I just want to expand on Toshinou Kyouko's answer (since i was beaten to answering it, thank you stupid timezones).
While the question asked about the Anime there are some things to note as the asker is also asking about the "main story" and in Toshinou's Answer comments on not wanting to "skip any of the storyline"

.hack//Legend of the Twilight is not canon, the Manga by the same name is mainly because of how Zefie's first appearance is in it (she does not appear in the anime, instead we get a fragment of Morganna Mode Gone)
.hack//G.U Trilogy is not canon while the game it's based off from is. .hack//G.U Returner and .hack//Quantum follow from the game and there is one major point that is different between the game and the movie

 Ovan is brought back by Haseo in .hack//G.U Trilogy. in the games he is still a Lost One after having used The Rebirth and Reiko Saeki AKA Shamrock is searching for him in .hack//Quantum (she mentions looking for someone).

Also a huge chunk of the main plot of the series is told in the games (.hack Part 1 - 4, .hack//G.U Vol. 1 - 3, .hack//G.U Last Recode), .hack is set between the second last and last episodes of .hack//SIGN with .hack//Liminality occuring at the same time

 when Helba forcefully shuts down The World's serves just as Tsukasa and party are about to face Skieth is shortly before when the games start. the last episode with everyone having a party in Net Slum we see Kite and BlackRose along with how Tsukasa mistakes Mia as Macha because Mia is Macha in a new PC (with little to no memories).  in .hack//Liminality's last episode we hear mentions of the .hackers final battle with Morganna Mode Gone and Corbenik, in fact the server they set up is the same server that Helba mentions went down during the fight

while .hack//G.U is set between .hack//ROOTS and .hack//G.U Returner

 the intro scene of .hack//G.U Vol. 1 Rebirth shows Haseo's fight with the PKers and his fight with Azure Flame Kite which initializes him back to Level 1. .hack//G.U Returner shows Haseo's Xth Form and the AIDA infected Chim Chim explains how the AIDA aren't by nature violent and were influenced by Tri-Edge

Also, there is .hack//Terminal Disk, while not an anime series it is a collection of videos which came on a DVD with the pre-order of .hack//G.U Vol. 1 Rebirth and also included with .hack//G.U Last Recoded, the re-release of .hack//G.U with a new 4th Chapter set after the 3rd Volume.
it follows Reiko Saeki's brother, Jun Bansyoya as he explains the events of the previous games (including how Sora/Haseo/Ryou Misaki was freed from Skeith), of Project G.U (which he was a member of), the R.A Program and the Nature of Cubia which lead him to separate Tavos from Project G.U Originally, particularly revealing insight into Jyotaro Amagi who we see in .hack//Quantum

 and how he was responsible with the CC Corp Fire and he destroyed Mai from the original games/last episode of .hack//SIGN, which lead to Elk/Endrance/Kaoru Ichinose to see an AIDA as Mia and become inflected

also Jun mentions he met Zefie during the final hours Players got to spend time in The World before The World:R2 replaced it (wiping all PC Data). Zefie hints at as to why Aura suddenly disappeared before the events of .Hack//ROOTS before returning to her

Wow! Thanks so much for the detailed explanation! Next time i should have just waited a day or 2 for potential better answers to pop up before selecting one.

@DarkDestry Toshinou Kyouko's answer does provide details with the anime/film/ova which is what you asked for however you do talk about the storyline and i assumed you didn't know of the games and that .hack//Legend of the Twilight's Manga was so different so rather than stealing Toshinou's answer i'd just link back and add the stuff on the rest

@DarkDestry you can change to accept this one if you want, I don't mind :)

@ToshinouKyouko Didnt notice i can actually change :P Both are so useful tho. Though i think this is more informative. Thanks for answering anyways!

The release order of .hack is:

.hack//Sign
.hack//Liminality [OVA]
.hack//Legend of Twilight (Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu)
.hack//Gift [OVA]
.hack//Roots
.hack//G.U. Trilogy [Movie]
.hack//G.U. Returner [OVA]
.hack//Quantum [OVA]
.hack//Sekai no Mukou ni [Movie]

If you want to watch each story at a time, I would suggest:

.hack//Sign
.hack//Liminality

Because they share the same storyline. Then,

.hack//Legend of Twilight
.hack//Gift

As Gift is a side story to the other three you have now watched.
At this stage there are two distinct storylines you can pick from:
1:

.hack//Roots
.hack//G.U. Trilogy [Movie]
.hack//G.U. Returner [OVA]

2:

.hack//Quantum
.hack//Sekai no Mukou ni [Movie]

Finally, pick the story you didn't choose to watch in the last choice

Here's a flowchart from AniDB:

Just a note. The Graph to me is incorrect, yes .hack//Quantum has the same setting but it should be connected to .hack//G.U Returner like how .hack//ROOTS is connected to .hack//SIGN


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Which chapter corresponds to episode 381 of Naruto Shippuden?
I want to start reading the Naruto manga, but I would rather start reading from the last episode that was aired (currently episode 381). Do you know which chapter that episode (episode 381) would be?

I know this isn't related to the current question but if you haven't noticed your ID Request has been deleted and it seems you forgot something when you made it

Yeah, I thought I had added the pic but it seems I hadn't, but i don't even remember what pic it was so I'm just going to leave the question deleted

That would be around Chapter 646: God tree.


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Why is "Puella Magi" equivalent to "Mahou Shoujo"?
From my understanding, Mahou Shoujo = Magical Girl as the latter is normally used when turning the Japanese title to English, i.e.

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha = Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
Sasami: Mahō Shōjo Club = Sasami: Magical Girls Club
Mahou Shoujo Lalabel = Lalabel the Magic Girl

Now, I understand one of the themes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica is Magical Girl, and its Japanese name is Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. I am wondering how did Mahou Shoujo become Puella Magi?

I think it's just Latin for "Magical girl" or "Girl magician" or something similar. Probably someone more knowledgeable than me can confirm this.

@LoganM yes it is, but why they use "Puella Magi" instead of just "Mahou Shoujo". Some of their song also use latin tho.

@OshinoShinobu I don't think any of the songs use real Latin. Some of them use "Kajiura-go", Kajiura Yuki's made up language which sounds like a mixture of Latin and Japanese. As for why they use "Puella Magi", I doubt there's a great answer to that, but I believe that subtitle has been present since the first PVs for the series, so it's not invented by localisation companies, but was decided by the production studio. Using Latin for the subtitle of a Japanese series doesn't seem a lot stranger than English or German or French to me.

The romanized title is not meant to be an English translation at all. It is not half Latin + half English; it is all Latin from start to finish: Puella Magi Madoka Magica. So we shouldn't read the "Madoka Magica" as if it were English and then wonder at why "Puella Magi" is not English. "Madoka" is the main character's name (鹿目 まどか), so that word is a native Japanese word. "Magica" is clearly not Japanese or English; it is also Latin. So 3 out of the 4 words are Latin, and the Japanese word is a person's name, so it would naturally be written "Madoka" in romanized letters when in an all-Latin phrase.
According to the Puella Magi wiki, "Puella Magi" in Latin translates to "girl [form] of the sorcerer" in English. As this was the translation decided by the Japanese company, it is possible that they did not consult anyone fluent in Latin in order to translate "mahou shoujo" as accurately as possible (we often see Engrish in anime [such as 「それでも世界は美しい」(Soredemo Sekai ha Utsukushii), which was officially written in English as "Still world is Beautiful" instead of a literal fluent translation like "Even So, The World is Beautiful"]; there is no reason that they would necessarily do better with Latin).
The wiki author makes an alternate hypothesis, saying "If interpreted a different way, 'the sorcerer's girl', it implies that the girls are being used - which they are, by Kyubey," but since we do know the meaning of "mahou shoujo" due to its use in the many, many magical girls series that Madoka is parodying, we can conclude that it does not in this case have a unique meaning of girls being used. The series is not a mahou shoujo series proper (it is a parody of the genre and is targeted at male viewers, whereas real mahou shoujo are a subset within shoujo, meaning they are targeted at an audience of young girls and if there is a manga origin or adaption, it runs in a shoujo manga magazine), so for it to use the standard style and meaning of a mahou shoujo series best serves its intent at parody.

I'm not super-fluent in Latin, but I find that translation "girl [form] of sorcerer" pretty torturous. Magi looks to me like a genitive of magus (magician or sorcerer), and as far as I know, Latin and the Romance languages use genitives a lot to translate forms like mahou shoujo where you have two nouns stuck together, which isn't really a possible construction in Latin grammar. So it seems like puella magi is a fairly natural way to translate mahou shoujo. But +1 from me overall. (By the way, maybe they should have used "Madoca" like Negima does.)

@Torisuda, puella magi is a torturous translation of mahou shoujo. You're right that Latin most often uses the genitive case to bind 2 nouns together, except we're not dealing with 2 nouns here, it's a noun and an adjective ("magical girl")! So the natural translation is puella magica - the entire title correctly translated is "Puella Madoka Magica" or "Madoka, Puella Magica" (i.e., Madoka the magical girl). Why they felt they couldn't use the straightforward approach I don't know, perhaps it was to preserve the four-word title of the Japanese version (tho that makes little sense)


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What did the Sailor Moon reference mean?
In episode 5 - Ami Kawashima, after Taiga's encounter with Ami after school, Ryuji goes into Taiga's apartment later that evening to find out why she hasn't come down to have tea. He finds Taiga curled up in her blankets complaining about being short.
At one point she talks about Sailor Mercury's name but I don't really understand this. It could be because I grew up with the American English dub of Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury's real name was Amy in that.
So I am wondering, what is Taiga talking about Sailor Mercury's and Ami's names and why is it a good thing they're similar? (In comparison to her other advantages mentioned, being taller and Kitamura's childhood friend.)

Looks like the linked YouTube video is unavailable... consider mentioning the timestamp instead to future-proof it.

Kawashima Ami, introduced in the 5th episode of Toradora!, has the same given name (first name) as Sailor Mercury's civilian form; not only is the name the same pronunciation, but they share the same kanji (Chinese characters).
川嶋 亜美 (Kawashima Ami)
水野 亜美 (Mizuno Ami)
「川嶋」means "river" + "island," and「水野」means "water" + "field," so both have a water theme and sound refreshing.
「亜美」is harder to translate, since「亜」is never used alone (it can have a meaning of "sub-" but that is not the intended meaning here). 「美」means beautiful, so it is a very well-liked kanji for girls' names and is highly-respected.
逢坂 大河 (Aisaka Taiga), in contrast, does not connote lovely images in the same way.「逢」means "meeting" or "rendezvous" and 「坂」 means "slope" or "hill." 「大河」does have a water image, since it means "large river," but it also has general associations in Japanse culture which do not conjure up the image of refreshing water, such as 「大河ドラマ」(taiga dorama), which are dramatic TV series set in a historical period, and the phrase「大河小説」(taiga shosetsu), meaning a sequence of novels that carry over a theme, a.k.a. roman-fleuve. 「大」is not a terribly common kanji for girls' names since it means "big" or "large" (it does have positive meanings, like in combinations for "great" or "serious"). Although the main Japanese word for "tiger" is 「トラ」(tora),「タイガー」(taigaa) is also possible (especially for names of sports teams such as the 「阪神タイガース」 [Hanshin Taigaasu]), so her nickname may be a play on words.
Mizuno Ami and Sailor Mercury (ranked separately) have consistently placed high in character popularity polls. She beat all other female anime characters for the #1 spot in Animage magazine's May 1993 poll, so she is well-known for being intelligent (with a genius IQ), enduringly popular with male otaku, and generally well-liked. She is not considered tall (among the original five sailor soldiers, Sailor Jupiter is known as being the tall one, but she is later shorter comparatively to some of the outer solar system soldiers and Starlights).

In the Japanese version of sailor moon, Sailor Mercury's name was Ami Mizuno. Sailor Mercury is reputed for being highly intelligent and outside of crime fighting, she's very studious.
As to why Taiga is jealous of that - She's complaining about her own height and "weird name" (It's not very common, and spurs her nickname of the "palmtop tiger"), and envies Ami's tallness and name, which she shares with a well-known and respected role model for many young girls.
I think this is mostly for comparisons sake, rather than Ami being a particularly honourable name.


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What is this bluish "9" thing and why is it embedded in Juna's and Susano-Oh's forehead?
As opposed to being worn as a pendant or something?

What is this thing?
The bead that looks like a "9" or a comma is called a magatama.
Magatama appeared in prehistoric Japan (approximately ca. 1,000 BC to the 6th century AD) and were made of primitive stone and earthen materials in the early period, but by the end of the Kofun period were made almost exclusively of jade.

It is not known why magatama look the way they are.
They may be fashioned after animal fangs or the shape of fetuses.
Moreover, they look like a part of the taijitu, which is also shown in the first episode of Arjuna:

In anime and manga, characters named or modeled after Susanoo, god of the sea and storms, almost always possess a magatama.
For example, Susanoo in Akame ga Kill! has the Yasakani no Magatama, one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan that represents benevolence, on his chest:

The connection between magatama and Susanoo can be found in Japanese mythology: Susanoo received five hundred magatama from Tamanoya no mikoto, or Ame-no-Futodama-no-mikoto, the jewel-making deity, and presented them to his sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu, when he went to heaven.
Why is it embedded in the forehead?
As the Akame ga Kill! example has shown, the magatama need not be embedded in the forehead.
In fact, in an extreme example found in Blue Seed, eight magatama are embedded in various body parts of Mamoru Kusanagi: four in the chest, two in the knees, and another two in the back of his hands.
As far as I know, it is never explained why the magatama is embedded in Juna's and Susano-Oh's forehead and not in a different body part of theirs.
I suspect that it is purely an artistic decision, and because the forehead is the commonest place for the third eye, which, like the magatama, is a source of mystical powers.
Charon Styx made a good point that the reason why the magatama is embedded in the forehead, rather than worn as a pendant, is to show the characters' divinity: that they have innate noble responsibilities and divine powers that can not be taken away from them.

Magatama (勾玉?), less frequently (曲玉), are curved, comma-shaped beads
  that appeared in prehistoric Japan from the Final Jōmon period through
  the Kofun period, approximately ca. 1,000 BC to the 6th century AD.The
  beads, also described as jewels, were made of primitive stone and
  earthen materials in the early period, but by the end of the Kofun
  period were made almost exclusively of jade. Magatama originally
  served as decorative jewelry, but by the end of the Kofun period
  functioned as ceremonial and religious objects. Archaeological
  evidence suggests that magatama were produced in specific areas of
  Japan and were widely dispersed through the entirety of the Japanese
  archipelago by trade routes.
The Kojiki and Nihon shoki, completed in the 8th century, have
  numerous references to magatama. They appear in the early in the first
  chapter of the Nihon shoki, which largely describes the mythology of
  Japan. Susanoo, god of the sea and storms, received five hundred
  magatama from Tamanoya no mikoto, or Ame-no-Futodama-no-mikoto, the
  jewel-making deity. Susanoo went to heaven and presented them to his
  sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu, who bit off successive parts of the
  magatama, and blew them away to create other deities. Tamanoya no
  mikoto remains the kami god of magatama, glasses, and cameras.
In the legend Amaterasu later shuts herself in a cave.
  Ama-no-Koyane-no-mikoto hung magatama, among other objects, on a five
  hundred-branch sakaki tree, to successfully lure Amaterasu from the
  cave.
In the year 58, in the reign of the Emperor Suinin, the Nihon shoki
  records that a dog kills and disembowels a mujina, a type of badger,
  and a magatama was discovered in its stomach. This magatama was
  presented to Suinin, who enshrined it at Isonokami Shrine, where it is
  said to presently reside. A similar practice is described again in the
  Nihon shoki during the reign of the Emperor Chūai. Chūai made an
  inspection trip to the Tsukushi, or Kyūshū, and was presented with an
  enormous sakaki tree hung with magatama as well as other sacred
  objects.

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