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Is Fuji-san really that easy to be climbed?
In the second season, episode 6 it is said

by Aoi, who is trying to persuade her mother to let her climb Fuji-san

that ‘Fuji-san is a mountain that even beginners can climb.’
That got me wondering. The mountain is over 3700 m high and to the best of my map-reading knowledge, the valleys surrounding it can’t be too far away from sea level. That means it’s a climb of — let’s be cautious — 3000–m. To a height that can likely cause altitude sickness to untrained persons (and let’s be honest: The girls are pretty untrained, considering which peaks they have climbed so far). All these factors scream out to me that Fuji-san will be anything but an easy climb.
Am I wrong and is the anime right and if so, why?

This is more about real-life mountain climbing than it is Yama no Susume, so it's only really marginally on-topic here. But it turns out that the series itself does a good job of addressing it, and is relatively realistic.
But to address your question, altitude is only one factor in climbing, and far from the most important. Mt. Fuji is an extremely popular tourist destination (one of the most climbed mountains in the world), and as such the trails are well-paved and developed, with many rest stops. The trail isn't particularly steep, and there's no difficult rock-climbing sections; it's basically a hike to the top. In more technical language, the routes to the summit are YDS class 2, which involve little to no technical skill. Endurance (the climb can take over 6 hours) and altitude sickness are really the only major hindrances in climbing Mt. Fuji (other than under-preparedness). Some climbers bring oxygen canisters to combat the altitude sickness, though experienced climbers usually only use these on much higher peaks (in excess of 8 km high). So yes, a beginner in decent shape could do it, though not all will make it to the top.
That isn't to say that it's a cake-walk though. Indeed, the anime shows that this is not a trivial climb. Aoi was somewhat exaggerating her preparedness for it, as we see later:

  During the climb, Aoi develops altitude sickness after reaching the 8th station on the path. Despite trying to go farther, her exhaustion worsens, and she eventually gives up. Kaede stays with her, while Hinata and Kokona make it to the summit before sunrise.

Both in real life and in the show, Mt. Fuji is the kind of mountain a beginner can climb without special techniques or equipment, but it isn't completely trivial and does require some endurance.

As a person who actually climbed Mt Fuji I will add that most people take a bus to lower stations and start from altitude of ~2000m. There are also huts halfway up the mountain so you can divide the climb in two days. The biggest problem for me was not the difficulty of the trail but the temperature. It's popular to climb Fuji at night to see the sunrise from the top but the temperatures at ~3am even in Summer are ridiculously low. My 4 layers of clothing were not enough, I thought I'd freeze.

In 2008 a friend and I climbed Mt. Fuji. We were both in our mid-20's and in reasonable shape. We started from the bottom at a shrine and made it to the fifth station by the end of day 1 and summited by the afternoon of day 2. At the summit, we got caught in a lightning storm and had to descend on the opposite side of the mountain, which took us about another day (including spending the night at another fifth station).
Personally, I laugh whenever people say that climbing Mt. Fuji is easy. Yes, it's more of a hike than a climb, but the route is not paved, the altitude got to us both, and you really must have more than your average suburban endurance to make it up.


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Is Seki Tekko (the red glove with a blood drawing wristband) a part of Senketsu?
Ryuuko uses Seki Tekko, the glove with a wristband to pierce her skin and draw blood that Senketsu needs to transform and give her power. That glove was given to Ryuuko by Aikuro Mikisugi (the teach in pilot shades) in episode 2.

It is colored red and is exactly what  Ryuuko needs to make use of Senketsu effectively. Was it just lying around in the teacher's closet for punishing  bad students and just happened to fit, or did Mikisugi make it specifically for Ryuuko? Where does this glove come from?

This glove is originally a part of Senketsu. If you look carefully at the flashback scene in episode 3 where Mikisugi goes to the burned down Matoi house, in the basement where he finds Senketsu, you can see that the glove is in the left sleeve:

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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What is C2's actual name?
What is the actual name of character c2 in the anime code geass? I would also like to know the name of v2 if that is possible.

@Mindwin Memor-X claimed in his first sentence that it isn't a duplicate. Though, as far as I remember, the name was never mentioned.

@PeterRaeves if Memor-X says so, so be it. About the name, it was mentioned by C.C. to Lelouch in the waterfall cave, but without voice acting (muffled by the waterfall sound). See the answer by Prix http://anime.stackexchange.com/a/13158/2808

Answered here.
It is unknown by design. C2's name is obscured when she tells it to Lelouch in the cave (first sesason, episode 5 to 8 -ish).
Nowhere it is written, and given the producers inclination to secrecy, it won't be revealed.
It is speculated that the name begins with the letter C, but that is all.

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


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What is the reference behind "...Gold Sakaki or a Silver Sakaki" that Io mentions?
In episode 6, Io asks everyone the following question:

Was the Sakaki you dropped in this pool a Gold Sakaki, or a Silver Sakaki?

What is this in reference to?

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

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


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Do the trapped souls in the Reaper/Shinigami suffer?
In the English dub, during the fight between the Third Hokage Sarutobi and Orochimaru in the first Naruto series, Sarutobi says that after using the Reaper Death Seal, the souls trapped in the Reaper are tormented for all eternity.
Does this mean that the souls of the First through Fourth Hokages were suffering from the time they were sealed away until they were released in Naruto Shippuden? Or was this a mistranslation?
When the First through Fourth Hokages were brought back by Orochimaru in Shippuden, they didn't seem like they were being tormented - or rather - it appeared that they had no recollection of their time outside of reality.
So which one is it? I did not watch the sub/Japanese episodes or read the manga from this part of the series.

Not sure about tutoring the trapped soul, but the main purpose of the death reaper would be those whose souls are sealed away by it cannot be reincarnated. Its more towards a permanent seal.
/!\ SPOILER

!However, there is a way to break the seal. The procedure involves invoking the Shinigami using a mask from the Uzumaki Clan's Mask Storage Temple. From there, the act of the deed is potentially fatal as the summoner cuts the Shinigami's stomach to release the trapped souls.

In the manga chapter 124, Sarutobi tells Orochimaru what happens to the souls who are sealed by the Shiki Fujin.

With this jutsu, the one whose soul is sealed will suffer for all eternity in the belly of death, never gaining release. The one who is sealed and the one who performed the seal, their souls will mingle, hating each other and battling the other for all eternity.

This would happen in the normal case, which is when a shinobi uses the Shiki Fujin to seal his enemy's soul along with his own. Naturally, their souls would continue to fight after being sealed inside the Shinigami's stomach.
However, Sarutobi used it to seal his former teachers, Hashirama and Tobirama, who were only fighting him because they were under Orochimaru's Edo Tensei control. After being sealed, there was no reason for them to continue fighting, and hence, when they were released, they don't look like they were suffering or exhausted from battle.
The Fourth Hokage was sealed with the Yin-Kyuubi, and he presumably ended his battle long ago, as described here, so he had no reason to be suffering either.

When Lord Third said those words, he meant that instead of the soul going into its rightful place, it is being trapped inside a demon for eternity. So the soul is never rested peacefully when it is inside the demon. If that is torture, I think all the previous hokage have gone through it.


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Is Sasuke's new dojutsu same as Kaguya's third eye?
SPOILERS AHEAD

 After Hagoromo Otsutsuki gives his Yin chakra to Sasuke, Sasuke develops a new dojutsu in his left eye.

Is this dojutsu the same one as Kaguya and Madara's third eye?

In both cases, the eyes have circles and tomoes in them.

No, Sasuke's dojutsu is different from Kaguya and Madara's third eye.
Sasuke has the Rinnegan while Kaguya and Madara have the Rinne Sharingan.
Both the dojutsu might look similar in design, but they're not.

A side-by-side comparison of the two dojutsu shows that although they have similar circles, the Rinne-Sharingan has nine tomoe whereas Sasuke's Rinnegan has 6 tomoe.
Another visual difference between the two is the color. Later in the manga, their colors were revealed.
  - Madara and Kaguya's Rinne Sharingan is red in color.

  - Sasuke's Rinnegan is purple in color, just like a normal Rinnegan.
Coming to technical terms, the Rinne-Sharingan can be acquired only if the person is the Ten-Tail's jinchuriki. Also, it is seen that the Rinne-Sharingan is activated on the user's forehead as a new eye, unlike how the Rinnegan is attained.
Therefore, it is clear that both the dojutsu are not the same and what Sasuke has is a Rinnegan.

It might be interesting to compare them both against the 10tails' eyes

@Vogel612 the Ten Tails has the Rinne Sharingan on its head.


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Does Rolo's Geass have no Limits?
Rolo has been using his Geass since he was very young and using it beyond limits; for various missions and assasinations again and again. But he never lost control over the Geass like Lelouch and Mao. Also if he had lost control before dying then what would be his situation if he had used it infinitely? Would he stop the time around him forever?

Forever would have been impossible. The weakness to Rolo's time stopping Geass is that it also stops his heart, so he'd die quickly enough from it being in permanent use, which in turn would stop the geass. Same goes for him overusing it. The limit of his geass comes from a sort of body-based time limit (surviving while his heart is stopped) preventing extended use, rather than a limit of the power itself. Below is a quote from this page, which I've spoilered out for plot reasons.

 Its weakness was that it stopped Rolo's heart when used, limiting its activation to short bursts. A large number of people was also more difficult to stop, as Rolo was exhausted after he projected a field encompassing a majority of the school's campus. Finally, this Geass was unable to stop inanimate objects or physical phenomena such as speed and momentum. Rolo ultimately died when he overused his power in a short amount of time.

He cannot stop time forever, mainly because of his heart stops every time he uses it. It takes 4 mins of heart stoppage to kill your brain cells. So the maximum he can stop time is for 4 mins (if he has a tremendous will power) after which he will be dead no matter what.
Weaknesses of Rolo's geass as descibred in Wikipedia:

The weakness of Rolo's Geass is that his heart stops when he uses
  it,[5] limiting its activation to short bursts. The range also
  determines the amount of strain it puts on him.[6] Finally, it is
  unable to stop inanimate objects or physical phenomena such as speed
  and momentum (for example, it cannot stop a clock nor a projectile in
  mid-flight).[1] Although the Geass can work on Jeremiah Gottwald,
  Jeremiah's Geass Canceler automatically activates when that happens:
  limiting the Geass' effect on him to just a few seconds.

As you can see from Wikipedia, he has a bunch of weaknesses. Essentially, everytime he uses it he gets a heart attack, even for a second. We all know what repeated heart attacks can do: they kills some of your heart cardiac walls. It not even a temperory weakness. He essentially trades a part of his lifespan every time he uses it. His geass also cannot stop any inanimate object (unlike Sakura's time card :D).
Hope this helps :D

When he uses his power his heart stops beating!
In other words if he uses his Geass for a long time he dies because his blood stops circulating!


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What if Hashirama had implanted Madara's cells into his body?
During the Fourth Shinobi World War, it is revealed that after losing to Hashirama at the Valley of the End, Madara implanted Hashirama's cells into his wounds

 which led to him awakening the Rinnegan.

Later, it is also revealed that:

 Madara and Hashirama are transmigrants of Indra and Ashura, and one needs both Indra's and Ashura's chakra to awaken the Rinnegan.

If Hashirama had instead implanted Madara's cells into his body, would he also have

 awakened the Rinnegan?

Isn't a sharingan a prerequisite in most cases? Unlike Nagato who was born? like this.

@iKlsR Nagato wasn't born with the Rinnegan. It seems you are not up-to-date with the latest "developments". (I am not saying you should be.)

To answer the question: He would be invincible!

It's not the cells but the eyes he would need to have Rinnengan, this is from Naruto wiki:

Because the Rinnegan was wielded by the Sage of the Six Paths, merging
  the chakra of his two sons, Indra Ōtsutsuki and Asura Ōtsutsuki,
  within one's body brings forth the Sage's chakra, which can evolve
  their Sharingan into the Rinnegan. This was proven when Madara
  Uchiha, Indra's reincarnation at the time, awakened the dōjutsu from
  his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan by infusing the DNA of Hashirama Senju,
  Asura's reincarnation at the time, into his body; however, it did not
  manifest until many years later when he was near death. At some
  point after this, Madara would implant his eyes into Nagato — a young
  boy of Senju lineage.

Also there is a theory from Orochimaru and Kabuto, that says Sharingan came from Rinnegan, so without these eyes no Rinnegan:

They theorised that because the Sharingan originated from the Rinnegan, it
  was possible for the dōjutsu to change into the Rinnegan as part of a
  "natural evolution"

Yeah you nailed it. Rinnegan seemingly needs Indra's chakra, Asura's chakra, and a sharingan.

Should it be "Eternal Mangekyo Sharigan" or a "normal Sharingan" would do?

@KaguyaOtsutsuki it says Sharingan, from the wiki.


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Why are the translations of 邪王真眼 (jaou shingan) so divergent?
In Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai, Rikka refers to herself as 邪王真眼 (Jaou Shingan). Wikipedia says this translates literally to "True Eye of the Evil King".

A while back, I watched a fansub which translated it as 'Tyrant's Eye'. I'm now watching the official Sentai Filmworks translation, which I've so far been pretty underwhelmed by. The official translation uses 'Wicked Lord Shingan', as if jaou is a title and shingan is a name.
Why are these three translations so different? 'Tyrant's Eye' is easy enough to see; the meaning is close to the literal translation, and it sounds better in English. But why is the official translation so far off?  Is there some ambiguity in the original Japanese that makes this hard to translate? Or did the official translators drop the ball?

The Wikipedia translation "True Eye of the Evil King" is a character-for-character translation of 邪 ja "evil", 王 ou "king", 真 shin "true", and 眼 gan "eye". The fansub translation "Tyrant's Eye" is, as you say, a nice localization of that, where we view jaou ~"tyrant" as an attributive modifier for shingan ~"eye".
Sentai's translation appears to proceed along the same lines: they view jaou ~"Wicked Lord" as attributively modifying this thing called shingan (i.e. what property does shingan have? The property of being a wicked lord, of course). And, in fact, if you were presented with the phrase jaou shingan completely devoid of context, Sentai's translation is not obviously wrong - it could well be that shingan is the name of some being who is a wicked lord or somesuch (in Japanese, unlike in English, proper nouns are not always easily distinguished from common nouns, particularly when it comes to edgy chuuni things). Indeed, one might be inclined to translate it this way as a parallel to structurally-similar phrases like 魔王サタン maou satan "demon lord Satan", where, of course, "Satan" is a name (though in this case there is no ambiguity, since サタン "Satan" is obviously a loanword).
But the phrase jaou shingan is not devoid of context. As anyone who has watched the show knows, jaou shingan is what Rikka calls her eye. As such, it strikes me as bizarre to treat shingan as a proper noun rather than translating it as "true eye" or something similar.
I think Sentai screwed the pooch on this one.

When translating, they need to find words that fit the amount of syllables the mouths show. They keep it as accurate as possible while still keeping with the mouth flaps. So even though "Tyrant's Eye" may be the most accurate translation, with the amount of mouth flaps in the anime it may be harder to fit and still make sentences that make sense.

Good point for a dubbed version, but I was watching the subtitled version, so I don't think they translated it weird for the lip flap in this case.


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Did the events of The Different Story Volume 1 occur in all timelines?
Volume 1 of the manga series The Different Story tells a story about Mami and Kyouko before the timeframe of the anime series, when they were partners and Kyouko regarded Mami as a big sister.

(Makes me wish KyoMami was a more popular pairing.)
From the events of Volumes 2 and 3, we can infer that The Different Story is one of the hundred or so timelines that Homura experienced as she was trying to fulfil Madoka's last request, as seen in Episode 10 of the series. But the events of Volume 1 take place before Homura started going back in time. Does that mean that this partnership between Kyouko and Mami happened in every timeline, including the main anime timeline that ends with Madoka becoming Ultimate Madoka?

According to the drama CD that the first volume of Different Story is based on, it is in fact canon to all timelines that Mami and Kyoko met. To quote the wiki,

The timelines diverge on the day when Homura wakes up in the hospital, so events prior to that are unaffected by her resets.

While we don't know the exact date that Mami and Kyoko met (we do know Homura wakes up on the 16th of March), the drama CD does go into detail about the events that lead to Kyoko's father killing the rest of her family before killing himself.
Also, at the end of Episode 4 when talking to Kyubey, Kyoko refers to Mami by her first name only, and according to the wiki,

This was considered a sign that Kyoko and Mami had known each other previously.


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What are these people doing in front of a shrine?
In the beginning of the first episode, we see Haru end up (very briefly) at this shrine in Enoshima, in front of which people are singing some song to some actions. Is there any "meaning" to what these people are doing in from of the shrine (particularly in the real world, and out of Tsuritama-specific context)?

For what it's worth, later, we see Haru and Yuki's classmates sing the same song after Yuki gets shot by Haru's water gun, so at the very least, I'd assume that the song itself might simply be something meaningless outside of this anime-universe, but I don't know enough Japanese culture to come to conclusions I trust.

The lyrics of the song (I think?): http://twishort.com/eYCcc, which I got when searching for 江ノ島　はいの (Enoshima, the place in the anime, and Haino).

In this video, which shows a performance of Kagura/Bugaku (traditional Japanese dance) at Setsubun event, people seem to do the same thing: chanting "Haino" and raising their hands. So the scene in the question could be some kind of Kagura.


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Where did the Skinship Grope trope come from?
We have all seen it often before, that when girls are among themselves, they tend to playfully grope their friend's breasts and it all seems to be okay and accepted behaviour. This trope is thus appropriately called Skinship Grope. I am aware this is used often as fan service and it does mention at the trope page, that one should not try this at home, yet I have had this trope confirmed by friends and TV shows. Therefore it made me wonder where this trope originated from. Did it come from a (at that time) weird manga or did this originate from a cultural difference I am not aware off being a European male myself?

You have friends that do this? Interesting, I always thought it was invented merely as a cheap way to give fan service (like being in an onsen wasn't enough already?)

@mivilar They do as a joke. Almost every girl I asked confirmed this, that's why I got curious as to how this all started.

As the member of the Manga & Illustration Society student club at a Japanese national university, I have seen young Japanese women involved in sub-culture perform this joking action in public in real life.  I have seen it done in a small group of female friends while staying at an onsen ryokan (traditional inn at a hot spring), in the midst of a large group of male & female college students, and my husband saw it done by girls in a booth sitting in a bar-type restaurant. Sometimes it is either asked ("Can I touch your breasts?" and the person answers "No" or "I don't have any breasts to begin with"), or threatened ("I'm gonna touch your breasts!") but if the person protests, the threat is not followed through, or she might only threaten playfully and then not go through with it of her own volition. In all cases, the girls have been fully clothed (I have not witnessed a case in an onsen [hot spring] itself or otherwise nude context where the Japanese and Korean phrase "skinship" might be applicable).
Culturally, it is indeed considered okay and acceptable behavior, and does not imply that that the girl/s involved are lesbians.  It seems to be a sort of compliment, i.e. false hitting-on (a true lesbian could engage in such banter/activity without ever coming out since the purportedly straight girls do it too).  I heard one female college sophomore give her name, grade, major, and "I love breasts" as her entire self-introduction to the group (a mixed gathering of males and females) at the start of the academic year. Of course, the context matters: young women would not do this at formal functions, when professors are present, etc. Young Japanese can throw out the phrase 「セクハラ」(seku-hara, short for "sexual harassment") in these cases, but it does not bear the severity and criminal meaning of the English phrase and is not necessarily unwelcome by the person being hit on.
So in anime, this is not simply unrealistic fan service for male viewers, but rather is a practice among real-life young Japanese women who do not do it for the sake of the enjoyment of men.  As a non-Japanese, of course this is rather surprising the first time you see it happen.
Culturally, bathing at an onsen or sento does not generally lend itself toward any sensual content; most women there either avoid eye contact with others, just don't look down (focus on the other person's face), or look at the scenery or wall painting instead of at the friend sitting next to you. People who normally wear glasses cannot see clearly while in the onsen anyway. You can go with your family, relatives, friends, co-workers, and/or acquaintances, or alone and no one expects to be looked at uncomfortably. The very fact that everyone is naked and no one cares or is weirded out or shy about it makes it easy for the average Japanese to enjoy and truly relax.

+1. Skinship. If I have missed one thing being back in "open"-minded europe it is just that. At least in se-asia people are allowed to show affection (and skinship) without being judged.


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What is Archer's background in Unlimited Blade Works?
I've only seen Ufotable's adaptation of UBW (and the movie too but that was long ago).
It's still not very clear to me what's up with Archer:

He's Shirou from the future. Does he not remember the events of this war? He would also know that Shirou is going to beat him.
How did Shirou die? There is a scene in which a giant glowing ball absorbs Shirou (like some sort of pact), so I assume that's when he became a Heroic Spirit too. Did he die at that point? (so he killed himself)
So Archer wants to kill Shirou because he regrets his decision of becoming a Heroic Spirit? Why does he regret it? Because Kiritsugu was right? (that you have to kill people to save others).
Why does Archer have Rho Aias from the Trojan War?

And finally,

Is this Archer the same Archer from Fate Stay/Night? In other words, is the Archer from the original series also Shirou from the future?

What if the Shirou from FN 2006 is the Archer from FN UBW? Since Archer 2006 died quickly, Shirou 2006 never knew what lies in front of him and that when he became a counter guardian, he was summoned at that UBW route and tries to kill Shirou UBW from doing the same mistake he did.

He's Shirou from the future. Does he not remember the events of this war?

In the version of the war that Archer experienced as a Master, Rin summoned someone else as a servant (still an Archer-class Servant, but we're never told who). Archer has no experience of having met his future-self.
I forget where - maybe it's some kind of side material or maybe it's Last Episode or something - but we are explicitly told that Archer vividly remembers having summoned Saber when he went through the war (this is something that happens in every timeline, because of Avalon). Something to the effect of "even were he to die a thousand times, he would never forgot Saber's radiance" or some similar schlock.
The thing Archer pulls at the beginning where he claims not to remember who he is is initially because Rin genuinely did mess up the summoning, but he regains his memory relatively quickly and maintains the facade of memory loss for some time afterwards.

How did Shirou die?

Archer explicitly mentions in episode 19 or 20 that he was scapegoated by one of the people he saved, and was executed shortly thereafter.

There is a scene in which a giant glowing ball absorbs Shirou (like some sort of pact), so I assume that's when he became a Heroic Spirit too. Did he die at that point? (so he killed himself)

Yes, that's when Archer (then-Shirou) "contracted with the world" (to use the parlance) and became a Counter Guardian. He only died later.

So Archer wants to kill Shirou because he regrets his decision of becoming a Heroic Spirit? Why does he regret it? Because Kiritsugu was right? (that you have to kill people to save others).

Archer regrets having become a Heroic Spirit because he did so by becoming a Counter Guardian (as opposed to by becoming an actual Hero). What this means is that he gets dispatched to situations where mankind is destroying itself. He stops mankind from destroying itself by killing the people who are the cause, generally after they've already done their damage.
Implicitly, this does mean that Kiritsugu was right, though I don't think that Archer is specifically bothered by the mere fact that Kiritsugu was right.

Why does Archer have Rho Aias from the Trojan War?

This is somewhat mysterious. The implication is that Archer must have been dispatched to the Trojan War at some point (in his capacity as a Counter Guardian), where he must have seen Ajax using his shield and copied it.

Is this Archer the same Archer from Fate Stay/Night? In other words, is the Archer from the original series also Shirou from the future?

By "Archer from the original series", do you mean "Archer from the 2006 DEEN anime"? If so, yes - that Archer is also Shirou from the future.

I should point out that -Last Episode- is what occurs after Fate and Shirou wouldn't become Heroic Spirit EMIYA because if he did die he ended up reaching Albion and also the Shroud he got from Ciel isn't made into the coat EMIYA wears (i remember in the CG showing Shirou and Arturia being reunited in -Last Episode- it is much longer, more like a vampire's cloak), i can't remember where it says that "he would never forgot Saber's radiance" but if it was from -Last Episode- then it's Shirou's monologue

I disagree with first paragraph. IMO Archer is Shirou from Fate route (or something close to that). First, he never interacted much with Archer in that route, because he is badly hurt by Saber in their first encounter. And he dies quite early on. At the same time, Shirou keeps his naïve ideal of justice, which is exactly what Archer regrets.

@Euphoric Archer came from none of the routes, and the first paragraph is correct (I've heard some people conjecture that Rin summoned Ajax in his war, and that's where he got Rho Aias, but that's unsupported). Nasu has said as much.  Some fans like to say he came from the "lost Illya route", which is also discredited nonsense.  On the other hand Nasu has also said that Shirou retains at least some chance, even if very small, of becoming Archer-like after every route in which he survives in some form. Even Heaven's Feel.

@Euphoric Yeah, basically what zibadawa timmy said. While I agree that it's certainly conceivable that Archer could have come from the Fate route, the author has explicitly stated otherwise (I'll dredge up a citation if I can find one).

This information isn’t from the F/SN-UBW but rather the Fate/Extra game.
In there almost close to the end of the game you talk to Archer (if he’s your servant) and he tells you that there was a nuclear meltdown that was going to kill tens of thousands of people.
He also says he needed someone to help him with the job. Yet he didn’t ask for help.
So what happens is Archer goes past security and everything and deactivates the melt down alone and manually. But it causes him to die. And become a heroic spirit. (I think that’s the glowing giant ball in the anime.)
Also as for him not knowing the exact past, you can consider him from an alternate future. Because the Throne Of Heroes contains heroic spirits form all times and parallel universes.

AFAIK Archer is a version of Shirou from a very specific timeline. He comes from one of the bad (arguably) ending of the third route of the visual novel, Heaven's Feel(it's the one where the main romance interest is Sakura). I don't remember if this still stands in the anime adaptation


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Why did the clocks move one hour backwards when Rin summoned Archer?
At the beginning of Ufotable's UBW adaptation, on the day Rin was going to summon Archer, the clocks happened to have moved backwards by one hour. She considered that it may have been her father's doing.
Why did the clocks move one hour backwards?

I've been playing the visual novel, and this also seems to happen regardless of which route is taken, since this is in the prologue which comes before any possible path choices.

The explanation is kind of dumb.
The day before Rin summoned Archer, she was rummaging through her father's effects in hopes of finding stuff that would be useful for the summoning. One of the things she found was the box containing the pendant (and, at least per the depiction in UBW 2014, the catalyst for Gilgamesh), protected by a magical MacGuffin that, when activated, makes clocks go wonky and apparently rewind by one hour. She activated the MacGuffin. The clocks rewound in two half-hour increments. She only noticed one of the half-hour increments. The end.
Nasu later stated in an interview (in Complete Material 3) that this was apparently an intentional "test"-of-sorts on Tokiomi's part, the idea being that if she couldn't handle a minor issue like this, she wasn't cut out to be in the war.
This makes no chronological sense, because Tokiomi likely never expected Rin to be in the war in the first place (Tokiomi would have expected the fifth war to take place around 2060 or so, by which time Rin would have had descendants rather more sprightly than she), but there you have it.

Bizarrely enough, I didn't know bit about Gilgamesh, despite watching both the film and current anime adaptation . . .

@Maroon You probably wouldn't notice it unless you've seen Fate/Zero (it's just an amusing callback, really; it doesn't appear in the visual novel). The catalyst for Gilgamesh doesn't appear in the 2010 film, presumably because Fate/Zero hadn't been animated yet, meaning there wouldn't be anything to call back to.

the trick could have also been for any Tohsaka Master, Tokiomi probably had faith that Rin, despite being in her late 60's early 70's (Fate/Stay Night's disclaimer does say that all character depicted having sex are 18 year or older) that she would still be chosen and remember there are skilled Mages who can extend their life without being Dead Apostles (ie Jubstacheit). aside from that Rin would still need to be made aware of it in the chance her daughter/granddaughter/relative was made one

Also in Tokiomi's Wikia Page which has the citation to the Q&A you mention, it says Rin was aware of the clocks change but thought it was 30 minutes and i am quite sure she accounted for those 30 minutes during the summoning (remembering it from when she met with Ayako in the morning at school)

@Memor-X Thanks for catching that error; I edited my answer.


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Trying to find the name of a song/PV from Miku Hatsune
As Miku kind of falls under the purview of the Anime/Manga Realm with her image, and PV's I suppose she belongs here.
The PV for the video started out with miku in a lab, she finds a "scouter" like object which translates alien language allowing her to take control of the spaceship she somehow enters, she then enters a "faster than light" sort of warp and heads to like a space mall, things happen and then she "wakes up" at the desk where she originally was.
I think the technology was like "xeno" something or other.

I found it!
Thanks to people who searched, it took me until page 20, going through Miku's Innocence song, and then a little bit further to find it.
Hatsune Miku "Escape", 3D Music Video in Sci-Fi style
It's called ESCAPE. The "xeno" part referred to "Xenolinguistic".


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How did Rance avoid impregnating anyone?
After the fight with Miki when she transformed into the the Demon Lord, Sill protected Rance by putting herself in front of him, taking the brunt of Miki's attack. She was permanently frozen after that.
It was mentioned that the reason Rance does not risk pregnancy during his sexual escapades is because Sill used a magic spell on him to kill all of his sperm, if I remember correctly. After she was frozen, she wouldn't be able to do this anymore. So how did Rance avoid impregnating anyone after Sill is frozen? Can he use the spell himself?

Originally, Rance had no contraception spell on him, nor did he use any other form of contraception.  He was basically saved by luck and convenience for a long time.
Using the personal timeline for Rance on the Alicesoft wikia, we have the following pregnancy related events for Rance:

GI1013 15 years old

Taught how to interact with girls from the female warrior and learn how to prevent getting a girl pregnant though he mostly ignored these lessons. He was also trained in basic survival techniques and swordsmanship.

GI1015 (= LP0000) 17 years old

One of his victims, a girl in a wealthy family, had an abortion, causing Rance to begin taking birth control into consideration.

LP0001 18 years old

While working as a body guard for a slave trader, he purchased a slave, Sill, from a slave trader.

LP0002 19 years old

Bounded the devil Ferris into his service. With her, he later conceives his first child, Dark Rance.

LP0004 21 years old

Helped Dark Rance rescue Ferris.

This last event is worth saying more about, in particular.  Rance was not aware that Ferris had gotten pregnant and had a child before Dark Rance showed up, nor did he know that there were severe consequences for Ferris as a result.  This is when Rance actually took pregnancy completely seriously, leading him to have Sill place a contraception spell on him.
For the sake of clarity, it may be worth noting that Devil children grow up much faster than human ones.  Dark Rance was somewhere around the equivalent of an 8 year old when he shows up to Rance, despite having been conceived at most two years ago.
At this point we can note he has one child, and impregnated at least one other woman (who ended up having an abortion).  He's not done yet, of course.

LP0005 22 years old

Hotspring trip to JAPAN. Had a chance meeting with Oda Nobunaga, became fast friends, and become the hidden ruler of the Oda House.
Rangi was born.

Yamamoto Rangi is the son of Yamamoto Isoroku and Rance.  As the alicesoft wikia link notes, it is not clearly stated what allowed Isoroku to become impregnated, as Sill and the contraception spell are still active during the time period Isoroku would have had sex with Rance.  In Isoroku's own route, Rance specifically orders Sill to remove the contraception spell so that Isoroku may bear his son (she joined him specifically under the condition that he would give her a son to continue her family line).  However, this is a side route and not the "canonical" route that subsequent games would use.  Nevertheless, Rangi is referenced in subsequent materials, leading to the various conjectures on the wikia about how Rance managed to get her pregnant.  I'll note that Rance also has a son with Isoroku, under the same pretenses, in the What-If game Kichikuou Rance (Savage King Rance).
But Rance is still not done, especially since after his JAPAN trip Sill has been encased in ice and the contraception spell is no longer in effect.

LP0006 23 years old

Incident at Kalar forest. Resulting Rance being cursed by Pastel Kalar.
Reset Kalar was born.

The curse is because Rance raped Pastel Kalar.  Pastel soon after gave birth to Reset Kalar.  Reset is also born to Rance and Pastel in Kichikuou Rance, though in that game the sex was consensual and for the sole purpose of procreation.  Seriously.  Kalars also age much faster than humans.
This is the most recent child Rance has had so far.  It is unclear if he will have more.

He couldn't, even before Sill was frozen Rance had a son.
After Sill was frozen, he got a daughter and at least 2 other women are pregnant with his child.

In Rance X it is implied that Sen-hime, Queen Lia and Magic the Gandhi is pregnant with Rance's child, while Dark Rance, Reset Kalar and Yamamoto Rangi is in Rance Castle.

This could be a good counterexample if there's an introduction/explanation for this conclusion. Consider [edit] the answer and provide some details of why Rance could impregnate them.


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Did this really happen in Kuroko no Basket?
I found this GIF on the internet, and I was kinda shocked. Does anyone know if this was really said in the anime? And if possible if you could tell me the season and episode?

No, that dialog is made up. I saw the BL joke somewhere on the internet and while Kise's ankle/knee did bother him during the game, I'm not sure that shot from the image you posted is even from that game. The entire game is from the 1st season and I think it spans a few episodes:

Episode 23 I'm not mature
Episode 24 Don't Get the Wrong Idea
Episode 25 Our Basketball

that cover the match between Toho Academy (Aomine, from your picture) and Kaijo (Kise).

authors: ก็มาดิ อนิเมะ


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How accurate is the cooking in Food Wars?
I'm familiar with some other cooking shows, but not all of them are nearly as experimental as Food Wars. With something like "Yakitate!", being a baker, there's a lot of truth behind the recipes and some of the crazy things Azuma and some of the other bakers did. Not being a chef, I can't tell if some of the cooking/recipes in "Food Wars" actually work like they claim in the show. For example, in a recent episode Soma used some crushed something (I can't remember) as the breading for fried fish, or the use of honey to tenderize meat; how accurate are these things from the show?

i am unfamiliar with the term "breading" but google searching breaded fried fish and my first result was this. keep in mind also that in real life Heston Blumenthal does do some crazy things such as making a chocolate waterfall which un-mixes itself, editable dirt and in one experiment he created orange flavored flares and set them off inside a chicken or duck in order to infuse it with flavor

The manga has a "food consultant" (Morisaki Yuki), for what it's worth.

Like with Yakitate! Japan, the recipes in the manga are supervised by an actual professional, in this case, chef Yuki Morisaki.
As for the cooking techniques you mentioned, the crushed "something" breading for fish is "kaki no tane" (柿の種), essentially soy-flavored rice crisps made to resemble Japanese persimmon seeds. When crushed there are more or less like breadcrumbs or panko crumbs, the only differ is they have a distinct soy flavor to them. Koromo-age is an actually popular batter frying technique in Japan.
As for honey being a tenderizer, the food science behind it is not very well explained. While cooking with honey is a technique that spans back to the middle-ages, where they did honey-cured ham and baked gammon coated with honey and mustard. I don't believe the proteins are actually broken down by the honey. While honey is said to contain enzymes that help digest both protein and carbohydrates, such as amylase, sucrase, and proteases (a group of enzymes that break down proteins into amino acids), there more of something that helps your body break down the proteins than have an active process in cooking.
You see, honey is extremely hygroscopic, which means it absorbs moisture really well. If you pull water out of a piece of meat, that meat will end up less stiff and seem more floppy, but the collagen and tough tissue aren't actually affected. It's common to find marinades containing honey and vinegar that make meat more tender and supple.
So while the recipes are actually recipes developed by a professional chef, the food science behind them might be a bit questionable. Such things aren't explained well in the anime and manga as the intended audience is supposed to be Japanese. Some terms and techniques are probably more commonly understood to native audience than ones overseas. Such as "A5" meat being pure Wagyu beef from the Kagoshima Prefecture, such a designation does not really exist in other countries.

Besides all the info already mentioned by the top answer and comments, someone tried the kaki no tane breading here:
http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/11/23/we-test-out-a-new-way-to-make-fried-chicken-the-prison-school-way-%E3%80%90rocketkitchen%E3%80%91/
and basically said throw out your old breading.They used it on chicken though, and got the idea from the Prison School manga. It was the google search link that showed up right under yours.
(Just wanted to comment, but wouldn't let me with my new sign up rep)


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How did Sasuke identify that Deidara's "art" uses Earth Style just by looking at his hand seals?
Some shinobi can identify the nature of the technique just by looking at the hand seals . How ?

See here. They mention that some seals are generally associated with some particular Nature Releases.

During Kakashi's test at the inception of Team 7, Sasuke also (mistakenly) identifies the Thousand Years of Pain as a fire seal, causing him to warn Naruto and reveal his location.

Just as @JNat mentioned in the comment,

some seals are generally associated with some particular Nature Releases.

Throughout the entire fight between Deidara and Sasuke, Deidara constantly uses one hand seal, which enables Sasuke to identify the Nature Release.

The hand seal he used was the Snake (巳, Mi) hand seal.

(click on picture for basic hand seals list)
The Snake hand seal is commonly affiliated with Earth Release, and also with Wood Release. In most cases, the hand seals are done with such speeds that the opponent cannot identify any of the seals used. But Sasuke, having the Sharingan, was able to see all of Deidara's hand seals clearly; as he tells during the fight:

"When facing the Sharingan, you really ought to weave your signs out of the line of sight."

A shinobi can thereby deduce what release their opponent is using by carefully observing the hand seals. It is highly useful since it enables the shinobi to determine the enemies weakness and provide counter-jutsu.


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Why does Final Fantasy contain "Final" in the title?
Why does the Final Fantasy franchise of RPGs, anime, manga, etc. contain "Final" in the title?

Is it that the original concept of the first game was intended to portray the ending of a story? Was it derived from in-universe content?
Or is it because the creators did not plan to produce more games, and did not expect that any sequels would be desired?
Or was the inclusion of the word "final" chosen for a completely reason?

I recently read this Destructiod article detailing why Sakaguchi decided to call the game Final Fantasy.
The article states that he wanted to use the abbreviation "FF" because it rolls off the tongue nicely in Japanese.

According to Sakaguchi, the team wanted a title that had a simple abbreviation in the Roman alphabet (FF) and a four-syllable abbreviated Japanese pronunciation ("efu efu"). Because of the setting and style, "fantasy" was an easy choice. "Final" wasn't the first choice of adjective, however.
The initial proposed name was "Fighting Fantasy," but it was already taken by a tabletop game. And so it is, Final Fantasy.
"To be sure, we had our backs to the wall when we were developing Final Fantasy," Sakaguchi said, "but really, anything that started with an F would have been fine for the title."

The Destructoid article links to a Famitsu article (in Japanese) where Sakaguchi says this. The article is dated 24th May 2015.
The article goes on to explain that FF composer Nobuo Uematsu confirms the story of "Final implies it may have been the last game" but that was in a Wired article from six years ago.
This doesn't disprove the original theory that "Final" was the last one. But it's interesting that Sakaguchi doesn't appear bothered about what the first 'F' stood for, but never denied the theory that they made it 'Final' because he was planning on quitting if the game was not successful.

The other answer was very good as well, but this one covers both the swan song aspect and the alliteration aspect with a link in the Destructoid article to the Famitsu Japanese gaming magazine article that quotes Sakaguchi's keynote address at Ritsumeikan University. Excellent work.

Hironobu Sakaguchi, a designer at Square (the company who developed Final Fantasy), was essentially creating what he saw as a magnum opus. After his lack of success with previous Square titles (nearly leading to its bankruptcy), this was his final attempt to live out his fantasy of developing games.
From Wikipedia:

Though often attributed to the company allegedly facing bankruptcy, Sakaguchi explained that the game was his personal last-ditch effort in the game industry and that its title, Final Fantasy, stemmed from his feelings at the time; had the game not sold well, he would have quit the business and gone back to university.

Wikipedia attributes this to another article, with a direct quote:

“The name ‘Final Fantasy’ was a display of my feeling that if this didn’t sell, I was going to quit the games industry and go back to university. I’d have had to repeat a year, so I wouldn’t have had any friends – it really was a ‘final’ situation.”
  — Hironobu Sakaguchi

And what a final attempt it was. It spawned many sequels. The irony.


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What happened to the Sector 6 Plate?
In Final Fantasy VII when infiltrating Shinra H.Q there is a puzzle where one has to complete a model of Midgar, when examining Sector 6 it says that it's being rebuilt.
When Cloud's team eavesdrop on the meeting with President Shinra, Scarlet, Heidegger and Reeves they mention that they are stopping reconstruction of Sector 6 to focus on the Neo Midgar Plan (now that Aerith could lead them to the Promised Land).
This has always confused me as I always thought that Midgar was a completed city and that only the Sector 7 plate was destroyed in the early events of the game. So what happened to the Sector 6 Plate?

I don't know what the writers had in mind for this at the time that scene was written in Final Fantasy VII when it came out in 1997, but the 2004 cell phone game Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- explains how Sector 6 was destroyed. This game was never released in English, so I'm relying on the wikia for this information.
In that game, the player controls a member of the Turks during their conflict with AVALANCHE six years before the start of Final Fantasy VII. AVALANCHE takes in a girl called Felicia who was implanted with a materia by Hojo. The materia was supposed to be able to summon a creature called Zirconiade, but summoning Zirconiade required four support materia, which Hojo didn't know, so he pronounced the experiment a failure and threw Felicia out. She was taken in by AVALANCHE. Fuhito, a scientist for AVALANCHE, figures out that Zirconiade needs the four support materia to be summoned, so the group starts tracking them down in order to summon Zirconiade and destroy all life on the planet.

Zirconiade
At the end of the game, Fuhito manages to summon Zirconiade and the Turks fight it as the final boss. Its destruction creates a massive shockwave which destroys the Sector 6 plate. Six years later, during Final Fantasy VII, much of the Sector 6 slums is still wrecked and full of monsters, but some parts, including the Wall Market, are habitable. It isn't clear from the wikia whether these parts escaped destruction or if they were rebuilt in the intervening years.

Not true. Zirconiade does not destroy the Sector 6 plate. It had already fallen shortly after Midgars construction, far before these events.

@ToadGee Do you have a source for that? The wiki kind of makes it sound like there's more backstory in Final Fantasy VII Remake (which I haven't finished, and which wasn't even out when I wrote this answer). If so, they might have decided to make Before Crisis non-canon, since why be beholden to a 2004 cell phone game with no English release. But do you have a more explicit source?

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


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How many times did Satchii say "Boku Satchii!" throughout the series?
The virtual robots that cleans up outdated space and illegal objects called Satchii, arrive in a similar manner: before they start shooting erasing beams at animate objects like people and virtual pets, they announce "Boku Satchii!" or "I'm Satchii!" (slightly distorted Japanese transliteration of the English word search). How many times, throughout the 26 episodes of anime series, do these robots announce their arrival?

After extracting all subtitle files and looking for the name "Satchii", it looks like there are a total of 120 mentions of their name, and 20 times it's themselves announcing their arrival:
(Click for full size)

As an NLP dabbler, I'm curious: did you find out which ones were the bots referring to themselves just by reading all the lines, or did you have some ultra-cool analysis tool that built a statistical model of self-announcement in the Fansub English language based on Markov chains, with maybe a support vector machine tossed in for good measure, with some k-fold cross validation to ensure the error rate was acceptable? Either way, +1 for a clever question and answer.


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Did Kazuki get a new body?
In the Grisaia no Rakuen, it is revealed at the end of episode 5 that,

 Kasuki is still alive as part of the Thanatos system.

Furthermore in episode 8,

 She gets a body.

Questions are:

Is Kazuki's body in episode 8 her original body at the time of her "death" preserved through the years? Or was it newly grown in a laboratory?
Is there any hard evidence suggesting either?

Kazuki's body doesn't seem to have aged though it may be difficult to tell. Either way, that doesn't give any new information.

A cryopreserved body would retain the original age.
Likewise a body in a vegetative state would continue to age at the normal rate.
A newly grown body can be given an arbitrary look and age.

I'm sure Kazuki herself explains this in one of earlier Rakuen episodes. She survived, found by Ichigaya and was used as part of Thanatos without her consent.

Right, that explains why she's alive in the Thanatos system in the first place. But I don't recall seeing anything about what they did to her body and whether or not it's the same one she "gets back" in episode 8.

Patience, Mysticial. There are at least 5 more episodes to go. The fact they did not expose that does not means it will remain in the dark. Remember that Japanese storytelling is less linear then western(ref needed). They just love flashbacks and late exposition.

begin TL;DR:

 No.

end TL;DR.

When Kazuki was sold to make the Thanatos system, the system creators were faced with a dilemma:

 how to keep the brain alive.

Their original intent was to

 cut off the brain and hook the organ directly to the machinery

But then they would have to deal with a "little" problem:

 they would need to supply nutrients, oxygen, antibodies, leukocytes, and all sorts of stuff to the brain.

That would require additional machinery/technology, but then they realized that

 a human body already does all that, you just have to shove food and oxygen through the mouth and nose.

So they decided to ditch their original plan and

 just hook Kazuki's brain indirectly to the machinery, and keep the body intact in life support fluid (think of Evangelion's LCL).

About Kazuki's body not aging, she was 12/13 years old when the accident happened.

 Her body was not frozen. It was kept in a vegetative-comatose-ish state. In the visual novels, she is very debilitated when rescued by JB, and had to be carried out of Ichigaya by the German blonde.

Also a spoiler of future episodes, so don't read below:

 the hook in her hand (the one she injuried in the bus crash) is fake. Her arm/hand is fine and she thinks she is making a great pun, but Kazuki is running for worst sense of humor in a VN/anime character ever. Who gave her that grappling hand in the suspended animation chamber, it is stuff for another question.

According to wikipedia, females end puberty earlier than males, and reach an adult body earlier too:

Maximal adult height is achieved at an average age of 15 years for an average girl and 18 years for an average boy.

So, we can assume Kazuki grew around two more year's worth since the accident. Her body frame was always petite and she was precocious in several aspects, why not puberty? She was around the same size as Amane during the accident, so maybe her growth spurt had already happened by then.
And to boot:

 She was sexually active since a very tender age. Her favorite food is Yuuji (eden ep.6), nuff said.

Probably that caused her puberty to have an early onset.


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How can I tell if an anime figure is a fake?
I've been warned lots of times to make sure figures aren't fake before buying them. Mostly conventions have strict policies about this with the allowed vendors - but occasionally I see people complaining about one stall selling fake merchandise.
I can usually tell with obvious fakes, but it seems to me that fakes are getting less and less distinctive.
Could someone provide some helpful information about making sure I can avoid fake figures, and stick with the official ones?

See http://www.tokyo15.co.uk/page50.htm. They have a useful guide on identifying fakes.

First,

Check if there is a fan website that catalogues the produced figures for the series you're interested in.
Check the catalogues at MyFigureCollection.net, make an account, and consult collectors there.
Browse the website of the Japanese manufacturer/s that produce the official figures and familiarize yourself with them (even if you don't read Japanese, you can navigate a bit with GoogleTranslate on and just by trial-and-error) and take note of 1) the market price, 2) details of the packaging, and 3) when the figure was released (if it is brand-spanking-new, the chance of bootlegs floating around already is low).
Even if you're standing at a convention booth with a figure package in your hand and wondering, pull out your smartphone/tablet/laptop and do a quick Google search for name-of-figure + manufacturer+name-on-box or model-series-name-on-box + the word "bootleg": do other collectors own this? Have other collectors warned against buying this?

Japanese companies are very unlikely to sell you a bootleg, so if you are concerned about shelling out your hard-earned cash on the real thing, you can have more peace-of-mind if you purchase from a Japanese store, its online website, or its Rakuten online shop. Even if you are buying a used figure from Mandarake, you will know the staff have already inspected and verified it as being, to the best of their knowledge, an authentic figure. Another option is to bid on Yahoo Japan Auctions, where most sellers are Japanese (some are real stores that also have an online auction presence, but many are individuals); since the Japanese generally have a strong ethic regarding honesty about their products, you can also have the piece of mind that virtually none of the sellers are trying to swindle you (I have purchased well over a hundred items from sellers there with no problems. If a seller has any concerns whatsoever about the condition of the product, they will explain this in the item description and/or advise to carefully inspect the uploaded photos; they lean towards cautioning potential bidders not to bid if you have any possible qualms about the item: in all such disclaimers cases for the dozens of items I have won, only 1 of them was actually in poor condition as the seller had mentioned. In all the thousands of auction listings I have perused, I have not come across any bootleg items. This is not to claim that none ever crop up, but there is not as much to worry about as when buying from eBay or at a convention outside of Japan). Most Japanese auction sellers do not personally ship to overseas customers, so if you do not have an address within Japan, you can use a proxy bidding service.
If you are in a situation where you're looking at the figure and you don't have a chance to investigate online before buying (or not):

The first thing to look for (as I assume we are talking about bootlegs that look pretty real, rather than ones where, on first glance, you can tell the quality is shoddy) is any non-Japanese text, such as Chinese, Korean, Thai, etc. While there are figures officially-licensed for production and sales outside of Japan, most bootlegs are also produced outside of Japan. If you see non-Japanese text, be wary.
Next, locate the logo of the series and a copyright (such as the copyright symbol © or the trademark letters "TM"). This might be printed directly on the box, might be embossed into the cardboard of the box, and/or there might be a gold-foil sticker.
Carefully check the font of the lettering. Some official Japanese figure boxes have English on them, but it follows a pattern, so that is a reason to familiarize yourself with what words/phrases/font the manufacturer uses for its printing. Seeing the name of the series or character typed in another font than the company usually uses should be a red flag.
Japanese companies are very meticulous about packaging, so if the box looks like 1) the art doesn't quite line up with the box edges, 2) the art is slightly blurry, and/or 3) the colors are too harsh, it probably is fake. In other words, a bootleg package might be created by taking a digital photograph or scan of the original box and printing a copy, so it might lose crispness in the reproduction process.
Something to be aware of is that Japanese high-quality models (garage kits) are usually sold unpainted (the body comes in pieces that must be assembled and is cream-colored or light gray [paints must be purchased separately]); generally, if you are looking at something that is painted or colored plastic, either 1) it was an unpainted model that someone painted and is selling their painted version (a model painted by someone else is not mint condition, yet it often has a high price tag to pay the artist for their time and skill in painting it for you. This is a valid option of something to buy, but pay attention to whether the paint colors used accurately match the colors from the real series; some artists use their creative license and change details in the paint job), 2) it is a plastic figure produced as such by the company (the plastic sort are usually cheaper in price than the top quality line of models. One type is the posable, jointed limb plastic models. Another type are lower-quality figures marketed toward kids with pricing that parents, rather than serious collectors, would be willing to buy), or 3) it is a bootleg.

As an example, here's a helpful review of a Sailor Saturn figure posted on MyFigureCollection.net and the corresponding article "Identifying SHFiguarts Sailor Moon Series Bootlegs" at the fansite Sailor Moon Collection.
An official figure box (the Toei animation gold sticker, the real logo ["Sailormoon World" is the official logo created for the 20th anniversary merchandise, not one of the original TV series official logos], the copyright info at the bottom edge, standard pattern to the lettering font):

What a garage kit figure looks like pre-painted (cream-colored pieces):

What a garage kit figure looks like after being painted by someone:

To identify for fake goods, sometimes you'll have to check the official website for how the goods actually looks like. This is not always available though as not all company provides pictures of the goods in their website. GOOD SMILE is one of the companies that do. You can check it here.
Basically the fakes are of lower quality. If its sculpting is not perfectly smooth, colors are different from what they are depicted in the anime (even a little difference is a clue), weird joints, cheaper than what is should be (not always since some shops sells their fake goods with the price of the official ones), then it is very likely that it is a fake goods.

Adding ontop of the other points these people have made which I'm going to take from this post How to Spot Bootleg Figurines
Whilst MyFigureCollection is a great place to source these figurines, it's worth noting it's not 100% guaranteed to stop fakes from filtering through, one common issue at Comic & Anime conventions is that stalls which sell official figurines will also sell fake figurines for a much lower price with the illusion that you're getting a discount.
My biggest tips I've read about are the following:

Check the figurines Hair; Hair is typically the easiest way to
determine the quality of a product. If it feels cheap or is easy to bend and morph, you've likely got a bootleg. For Nendoroids, shiny elements in the hair and faceplate are usually a giveaway.
If you can look prior to purchasing, check the underside of the
figurine if the logo looks off or not smooth it's likely a bootleg.


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Is Dal Dal cat ears is just hair accessory?
Is there a reason that no one notice Dal Dal cat ears?
I'm not very familiar with the Korean traditions, but I don't think it's just a hair accessory because sometimes when she get excited she reveal a cat tail.
And I also remember there were some guy who cheer for Moon-Young who has a bear ears, so she couldn't be the only one (isn't?).

The answer comes from the wiki of this manga :

Dal Dal always sports a pair of tiger ears. The tiger ears are
  actually detachable and are pinned to her hair. The author also
  sometimes adds a tail on her.


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Things that aren't explained in the anime
I've watched the anime of Brynhildr in the Darkness, however the story in the manga continues from what I've heard. It seems that some questions at the end are answered in the manga which I haven't read:

Why are the girls alive again in the end, except one of them?
Were they succesfull with creating their own pills?
Is it really impossible for Kuroha Neko to regain her memories?

I haven't watched the anime, so I can only guess at what's happened there so far, but this is what happened in the manga:

Why are the girls alive again in the end, except one of them?

 Because of Hatsuna. Her power grants her immortality and allows her to regenerate infinitely, as long as her Drasil is still in her Harness. Her power even allows her to revive and regenerate someone within 24 hours of their death, at the cost of Hatsuna hanging up and staying in a half melted state until she recovers the next day. She uses this power to save Kasumi who was killed by Valkyria the same day Kotori died.

Were they succesfull with creating their own pills?

 Yes. As a reward for defeating Valkyria, and saving the world by ejecting Kotori, they received the formula for the medecine from Hexenjagd.

Is it really impossible for Kuroha Neko to regain her memories?

 That is currently unknown. We know that Kuroha managed to recover her memories when fighting Valkyria, including the ones from before she became a magic user. That was the only instance where she regained any kind of memory.

Of course, the above answers assume that the anime has been (more or less) faithfully following the manga.

Although the anime does deviate a bit from the manga, the main plot stays the same, so this answer also applies for the anime.

the anime already has 13 episodes, so I guess they were a bit short on time to explain the end by giving a full epilogue...


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Who is Saigo-san?
In Episode 7 of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai Ren, Shinka and her friends are on a school trip in Kagoshima. They see a statue of someone called Saigo-san. One of the friends complains that he doesn't have his dog, and Shinka tells her that he doesn't have a dog in Kagoshima.

Later, they find a dog so they can hold it and take a picture in front of the statue.
Interestingly, Saigo-san appears to have European features. I know that Kagoshima is on the island of Kyushu at the far south of Japan. The south hosted a Dutch enclave for years after the foreigners were expelled from Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate. I assume he's some kind of historical figure, but who is he and what's the deal with the dog?

This seems to be off-topic since it is not anime/manga-specific (as it is currently, it could fit in the History SE. How about adding to the question, "What other anime has he been featured in?"

@seijitsu: In the last discussion, when we brought up this topic again, we don't have a clear consensus on where we draw the line (except that questions without anything to do with anime is out). Personally, I think this question can be on topic, since it asks a question based on a scene in anime.

@seijitsu I thought this would be on-topic since Are the guns in Kenshin historically accurate? was on-topic here. I'm open to making some edits if the question is ultimately deemed off-topic.

@nhahtdh Do you mean the question is on-topic as-is, or could become on-topic with an edit? (The ambiguity of can is getting me.)

@Torisuda: There is no consensus, so I said "can" - it's still on a tie in last discussion. It still has a reference to anime, that's why no one vote to close this yet.

The guns in RK question seems more on-topic since it is, in a sense, asking if the mangaka, Nobuhiro Watsuki, drew real historical guns or came up with his own fictional ones (i.e. manga/anime production). As is, this question can be boiled down to "Who is the historical figure 'Saigo' of whom there's a statue in Kagoshima?" which would be off-topic per "If a question . . . still makes sense removing all references to anime/manga, then it's off topic", and I'd prefer if this required the answer to contain something about anime/manga in it.  ;-)

@seijitsu I see your point--my answer to the Kenshin question did wrap back around to Kenshin at the end. I can't think of a sensible edit (your suggestion would make it sound like a list question to me), so I'll let the community decide. Well, if it be this question's fate to die, then let it die. Alas, poor question, I loved ye not enough to suffer the scorn of the History.SE guys.

This appears to be Saigo Takamori often know as the last samurai - and has a film by that very name about him. He is most famous for his opposition against the Meiji government in the Battle of Shiroyama.

You can see here his very distinctive brow which is apparent in the scene in Chuunibyou too.
He has another statue in Ueno, Tokyo that has a dog beside him, which is probably what they are trying to replicate.

Kagoshima is his hometown, and there's a statue there in his likeness (without a dog):

Great answer as always. His features look much less European in the portrait than in the statue.

he is saigo takamori, most known as the last samurai. he helped imperial army to end tokugawa successfully and gained position in meiji restoration era but ended up lead rebellion (satsuma rebellion) because he thought meiji wanted to end samurai by making law that forbid samurai bring katana in public place and etc.
tom cruise movie "the last samurai" was inspired by saigo takamori. (noted:inspired, that means the movie plot was not based on actual history).
and about the dog, i think nothing special about the dog. none of sources that i read about him talking about his dog at all.

You're right, but an earlier answer covers the same ground as this in significantly greater detail.


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Girls dead monster songs?
I can't find any girlsdemo songs with English sub they are the band from angel beats. Does anyone know a place I can find videos of all the girls dead monster songs with English subtitles?

This site is a great for anime lyrics from pretty much any show you can think of.
Youtube is also a great source. I got a ton of results just by searching "girls dead monster english sub"
I'm not sure that you'll be able to find all of them, but stuff like This is all over youtube.


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Is there a reason for the "Hair of Death" hair style?

I've seen this joke float around various social media sites lately. Is there a particular reason for why characters with this hairstyle - particularly mother figures - seem to die so consistently?
For instance, is it an allusion or symbol that I don't understand?
Alternatively, are there any strong counter examples?

could be just a part of "generic lovable girl" design

This meme seems to be a conflation of two very different things.
First, Hyakuya Akane from Owari no Seraph (the girl on the lower part of the image) does not share the low below-the-shoulder ponytail that the women in the top of the image share; she has a loose braid. Today I was handed this event flyer by a friend (a Japanese college student involved in subculture), which features a girl with a one-sided, front-of-the-shoulder loose braid and long bangs. I mentioned this SE question to her and she said the hairstyle has no association other than looking gentle and seemed incredulous that someone would come up with such an idea.

A loose braid, or two, or a single low ponytail on one side at the neck, or two low/loose pigtails, or are fairly common for contemporary pre-teen/teen girl character designs, since this is a current fashionable style among real-life Japanese pre-teens through college students. So Akane doesn't necessarily fall within a grouping of mother figures or people fated to die any more than the following characters do:

Second, mothers can be given the low ponytail because it is one of a number of soft, gentle hairstyles (contrast this to styles such as a short page-boy clipped cut, or a long past hip-length luxurious cut, or spiky hair). Not all mother characters, but many are portrayed with a nurturing, warm personality. However, plenty of kind mother characters in anime -- both those who die and those who don't -- sport other hairstyles. (Also, the hairstyles in the pictures in the meme are not that strongly similar to one another when you look at the styles of the bangs.)
Third, there are largely no moms in classic literature (a wealth of orphan stories: Heidi, Anna of Green Gables, Tom & Huck, David Copperfield and basically all of the Dickens' boys, little princess Sara, Mary of the secret garden, etc.) or in Disney animation either.  Dads trying to marry off their daughters, yes.  Cute, plump, bumbling dads, yes.  Absentee fathers, yes.  But in many cases, we have orphan protagonists with no parents around at all.  We can feel empathy for the characters whose loved one died and a death can be a strong motivation for characters to resolve to take a stand against evil, but more importantly for drama, for suspense, for excitement: without a mom to take care of them and worry about them and discipline them and tell them which things are too dangerous to do, orphans are freed up to go on adventures.  No questions asked!  No curfew!  If you have an eccentric, sweet little papa or dad who works long hours or lives separately from you, it's also easy to slip out of the house to go on adventures.  Where are the moms?  Well, evil stepmoms are okay, since the caring mom is already dead and safely out of the way for the story to move forward.  A common plot element in stories is that kids only get an adventure if mom is already dead.  So the unfortunate message we get is, motherhood is boring, and mothers make their kids' lives boring. Mothers who exist at the start of a story, irrespective of hairstyle, will often need to be killed off in order for the protagonist to achieve the freedom to do dangerous things that a responsible mom wouldn't stand for.

with the hair styles they kinda have the same, it's that one of the pony tail is over the front of one shoulder rather than have it hanging down their back, for instance Lighting's hair over her left shoulder

@Memor-X, by "they" do you mean the women who have ponytails, or do you mean including Akane's braid over the left shoulder as "kinda" the same as the ponytail style? A low ponytail on the left side or a loose braid or two are fairly common for pre-teen/teen girl character designs in contemporary series, since this is a current fashionable style among real-life Japanese pre-teens through college students (which isn't associated with mothers).

by they I mean all of of them including Akane as while it may be braided she has it over the front of her shoulder like the rest

Good explanation. Honestly I wouldn't pick up on the minute differences in the hairstyles. I'd instinctively group these all together - they look very similar to me at a glance.

Thanks for the comments. Okay, I've edited the answer to, hopefully, better distinguish between Akane's loose braid style as a youthful style as compared to the below-the-shoulder ponytails in the top of the meme.

authors: Милош Миленковић


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What is secret dragon slayer art?
In fairy tail, during the fight between Natsu and Rogue and Sting in the Grand magic games, Natsu finally uses an attack called Crimson lotus exploding flame edge.
He says that it is a secret dragon slayer art. So, what is so secret about this attack?

I can guess that they are called as secret because only Natsu can use those secret attack , As shown here attack like Dragon Roar are pretty similar to other dragon slayer and those secret attack are very powerful comparing to other attack.
Here you can see , Gajeel also have Dragon Slayer's Secret Art like Karma Demon: Iron God Sword. And Wendy also, like Shattering Light: Sky Drill and Milky Way

As you mention, while fighting with Rogue and Sting ,Natsu was playing with them and when he became serious he use his secret attack which is one of the important attack for a Dragon slayer. Which are very powerful, even Laxus and Gildarts had hard time handling that attack.


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Would avoiding Nanika indefinately would stop Nanika's wish granting power?
In Hunter x Hunter, one of the rules of Nanika/Alluka's power is:

If Alluka is making requests from a particular person, they cannot be moved over to another person mid-way. Therefore if that particular person disappears such as concealing themselves, Alluka is unable to make requests to anybody else.

When Tsubone disappeared from Alluka's sight, Nanika was not able to give her wishes. So therefore, if the target of Nanika's wishes is never seen by Alluka/Nanika again, theoretically, would that be able to stop Nanika from using the wish granting powers?
(This does not include Killua's ability to give Nanika 'orders'.)

All evidence thus far supports this understanding but it is clear from the story that not everything about her powers is understood.  For instance, what if the person dies before being given the subsequent requests?  This means, therefore, that would stop her powers unless there are additional rules that have yet to be stated to us.


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Is there an 'angel dance' outside of the Shirobako anime?
In Shirobako episode 16, Ema is caught doing a little dance exercise on the roof.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvlVueWyu18

CrunchyRoll's subtitles call this the 'Angel Dance' exercise. There's no results for that in english, but I was thinking maybe it's an exercise only really known about in Japan. For the most part, Shirobako has solid references to existing things.
Is this dance a real exercise or was it just created for the show?

According to what I read in a forum:

Ema's Angel Exercise is modelled on the real-life Angel Exercise in the 70s.
  Bodybuilder Tsushima Seiji, under the name of Mukimuki Man (Muscular Man), comically did the Angel Exercise in the TV commercial for a sweet made by Morinaga and also in other TV programmes in the late 70s. (Morinaga's mascot is an angel, and the founder of Morinaga & Company Morinaga Taichirō was a Christian and learnt how to make Western-style confectionery in the USA.)

Here's the video of the original Angel Exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpF9V3nQoK4

Please make sure to cite your sources in the future.


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Why aren't Meow and Dandy zombies anymore?
In episode 4 of Space Dandy, Meow, Dandy, and many other people become zombies, after Meow gets bitten by an infected alien. If I'm not mistaken, there's no cure for being a zombie -- all the advice Dandy and Meow get is to change their outlook by eating yoghurt instead of meat and sunbathing, so that they are fermenting instead of rotting. (Whether this logic about zombie biology is true is probably best left to another question.) This reaches the point where since life insurance companies are losing a lot of money to zombies cashing out on their policies, they try in vain to hunt down these zombies (but fail and eventually also become zombies).
Now, everything looks fine in the next episode: Meow, Dandy, and the massive swathes of the population that were zombies in episode 4 are now alive again. Why is this the case? Does Space Dandy largely simply consist of non-cohesive "filler" segments that don't necessarily have to follow each other? Or did some cure for zombification come up?
I haven't read the manga, so perhaps something comes up there.

I haven't seen much of SD, but from what I have seen, most episodes are isolated, and there isn't much continuity between them. If one episode does something crazy and unexplained, that's just how the show is - I wouldn't look at it too seriously.

@Matt: TV Tropes seems to suggest that there's a reason for this, but I'm asking here anyway, since I have no idea how much weight their comments actually hold, and I rather not look up too many spoilers before I finish the entire series.

Have you finished the show? If not, you should do so. All will be explained in good time.

Non-spoilery answer: there's an explanation for this, but you're going to have to wait pretty much until the end of the show to find out what it is. It's not a deus ex machina or anything, though; there are hints dropped along the way, and you may be able to figure it out beforehand.
Here is a fuller answer, which spoils some of the last episode of the show, except sort of not really, since the whole thing is so damned wacky anyway:

 The reason that Space Dandy seems so vignettish is that it takes place across a number of different timelines. When Dandy and crew die in the zombie episode, they're dead and stay dead - in that timeline. When we see them alive and well in the following episode, that's a Dandy-and-crew from a different timeline.

 You see, the Dandy universe (well, multiverse) is one in which the "many-worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics (hey, Everett!) is literally true - there are infinitely many parallel universes, and for the most part they can't interact. However, "cosmic strings" (which are probably somehow unrelated to these things) can reach from one universe into another, and the way in which they do is regulated by some mysterious substance called MEGA-pyonium (which, in Japanese, sounds suspiciously like "bigboobsonium").

 Anyway, for some reason, Dandy is well-endowed with pyonium ("boobsonium"), which is like MEGA-pyonium, except smaller, I guess? Well, not just "some reason"; apparently, the supreme god of the universe (a.k.a. The Narrator) has had his eye on Dandy for some time, and wants Dandy as his successor for after the universe goes through another Big Bang / Big Crunch cycle, and I guess this is why he has all this pyonium? And, uh, yeah, this doesn't actually matter, since Dandy himself can't really interact with his alternate-universe selves (but then again, there's episode 14...). I think Dandy yanking on the cosmic string in episode 1 may have had something to do with it?

 Point of the matter is, there's a lot of universes. And pretty much every episode from 1-25 takes place in a different one. The only time we have any real episode-to-episode continuity is between episodes 25 and 26. In every other case, you can probably safely assume that the Dandy of episode n is a different Dandy from the Dandy of episode n+1.

I should note that I haven't touched the Space Dandy manga; it could be that there are some better explanations in there. (But, given that this is Space Dandy we're talking about, I kinda doubt it.)

The anime conclusion would seem to suggest that it might also be due to Dandy's ability to "freely pass through different dimensions" (as least insofar as it would give some order to the anime, given that I've seen something similar come up on TVTropes), but this mostly covers what I'm looking for.