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Has someone ate the gum-gum fruit before Luffy?
I know Shanks found it but Devil Fruit do reappear after the person who ate it dies. So is it known if anyone ate the Gum-Gum Fruit before Luffy?

Maybe Gold D Roger ??

Shanks knew about the fruit from the "Devil fruit encyclopedia" (悪魔の実図鑑).
Oda answered this in the SBS Volume 45:

D: Hey, Odacchi! I got a question! About Devil Fruits!! If Kaku and
  Kalifa said they wouldn't know what their Devil Fruit were until they
  ate it, how come Shanks knew what Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Mi was before
  he ate it?? Tell me! Tell me now!! Pleeeease tell me!!! P.N.
  Shirogitsunekko
O: Well, I think I'll eventually get to explaining more about Devil
  Fruits in the main story, but you see, there's a book of Devil Fruits.
  It has info about all kinds of fruit names and abilities, but few of
  the fruit can actually be identified by their shape. In the case of
  the Gomu Gomu no Mi, there was a picture and everything, but for Kaku
  and Kalifa, they were talking about how they wouldn't know until they
  had finally eaten the fruit. That was in Volume 40.

Since it was in the book, we can conclude that someone must have already eaten the fruit before.

Good job; great first answer.  I'd read that but completely forgot!  Now you assume that the only way to know what a particular fruit does is for someone to have eaten it before.  This is not necessarily true.  But yeah, you are probably right.

No we don't. Though the anime and manga have multiple adaptations of how Luffy obtained and ate the fruit the cannon of the franchise does not mention if there was a gum-gum user before Luffy.
A lot of information about Devil Fruits, their origins and purposes slowly unveils through different key characters and details about the story which is why the devil fruit is a key plot device.
Right now I'd go as far as to speculate that we will possibly learn the answer to your question as the poneglyphs are further explored in Luffy's current quest for Rafftel and the struggle against the Yonko.

Why would they say that on the polyeglyphs? It is more likely to be revealed by Shanks or one of his men.

I think because the glyphs hold the lost history someone in that history may have known more about the devil fruits. I think if shanks knew it would have been brought up by now since we've seen him several times.

For me, i think that shanks know about this DF. But it's not a special or something. Oda mentioned that he wants to make luffy a character that will not make the audience bored. So he gave the gomu gomu no mi to him as you can see he can stretch and make fun about his body but at the same time, he can be a battle genius to utilize his DF to full potential in combat. Its 2 in 1. Being a battle genius using DF and haki combined is based on character, Not the fruit itself. Which means that if someone in past already ate this fruit. He/she probably can't do what luffy do with the fruit now. Thats make this fruit not special at all. So the conclusion is, gomu gomu no mi is just a regular fruit but it become a strong fruit because of the user know how to use it properly.

Recent revelations seem to indicate/foreshadow that the Fruit is somehow special. My best guess is that someone important must have had it before, and it might be Joyboy himself. I don't particularly like this theory, and the Gomu-Gomu no mi might be connected to something else entirely, but the consensus among the manga-reading community seems to be that it is definitely special somehow.

Most likely there were many. Some people like to think that it's a special fruit that was once used by someone really strong like Roger himself. I feel like that would've been mentioned already and more importantly I like the idea that Luffy is the first to use his devil fruit in such impressive and innovative ways.

Probably but we do not know.  We have not seen any other reference to someone else with that power. We do not yet know the origin of devil fruits enough to know if new unique standard fruits can naturally form. We do not know if detail where Shanks obtained the fruit.
Shanks was aware of the name of the devil fruit immediately after Luffy ate it.  It is possible he could guess the name of the fruit from it's appearance, from a brief display of Luffy stretching (various ways based on source material), or from some exotic method of obtaining the fruit (aka Vegapunk).  Far more likely, however, he knew the name because someone else once possessed that power.
As with your other question there are fan theories but those are not on topic.  We do not know if I am right and definitely do not know who that person could have been.

By the way, if you can correct me on any of my statements... that would be pretty cool cause I'd like to know the answer to your question too.

Gonna have to watch the anime/read the manga to find out exactly when he said its name vs when luffy stretched, but from what I remember, it definitly seemed like he knew its name before Luffy ate it. If we look at the CP9 2 that ate fruits at Ennies Lobby, their powers were unknown until after eating, which implies its impossible to know what fruit it is until after it is eaten. Since they do reincarnate as a new fruit when the wielder dies, Someone else had to have eaten it first, identifying its name, and then died, at least if Shanks really knew its name first.

@Ryan the anime scene is on YouTube. I rewatched and adjusted the answer. Shanks said the name of the fruit just after Luffy ate it and stretched for the first time. Seemed like he knew what it was.


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What was the first time when Krillin witnessed Kamehameha wave?
I remember watching the episode featuring the World Martial Arts tournament. In this particular episode Krillin was against Jackie Chan (Master Roshi). At a time Krillin kicks off Roshi out of the ring, but he flies back using Kamehameha and Krillin still shocked mutters that according of his knowledge only Goku and Master Roshi know this technique.
But I don't recall any incident in which he saw them performing this technique (or even mentioning).
Is there something I missing?

It's the time where we all first seen the Kamehameha performed by Master Roshi. Still don't remember it? Ox-king asked Master Roshi to put out the fire in his castle, Roshi was intended to use Kamehameha to put out the fire but he destroyed the entire castle instead.

@HappyFace But that time Krillin was not there.

No, you have not missed anything, after recently re-watching this saga in Dragonball and re-reading the manga, it does not show Krillin witnessing the Kamehameha before this point.
For Master Roshi, it seems to be relatively common knowledge amongst enthusiastic martial artists in Dragonball that he can perform the Technique, with comments such as "It was thought that only Master Roshi was capable of this technique" from the commentator during the fight, and so it is reasonable to believe that Krillin knew about this as well, particularly knowing enough about Master Roshi to seek him out for training.
For Goku, I can only guess that Goku demonstrated this technique at some point during the months of training that he had together with Krillin under Master Roshi before the competition; in the anime/manga it doesn't show much of this period other than the beginning and the end of the training, as well as a short montage of the daily training activities in the middle, so there is a lot we don't see.
It's also interesting to note that Krillin doesn't make this comment in the manga.

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Can Naruto use Rinnegan techniques if he were to implant it?
In the recent episode Naruto mention about releasing Infinite Tsukuyomi to Sasuke. Sasuke replied, "Kakashi can use his eyes to release the jutsu".
Can Naruto use Rinnegan techniques if he were to implant it?

I edited your question so that the title matches the question in the body. Feel free to change it back if this is not what you meant.

Short answer, yes.
Long answer, Nagato (Pain), who was an Uzumaki, was able to use Rinnegan jutsus. Naruto, who is also an Uzumaki, should also be able to use Rinnegan much like Nagato.

Naruto would as he is a descendant of ashura by reincarnate lineage. He is also an uzumaki, a distant blood relative of the senju who were the descendants of ashura, and as such he would have a genetic disposition and high chakra disposition toward the sage of six paths techniques, making the rinnegan easier for him to access and use without massive chakra drain.

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Why isn't Gildarts one of the Ten Wizard Saints?
He clearly is powerful. Makarov even said that Jura's (One of the 10 Wizard Saints) power was close to Gildarts, which means that Gildarts is more powerful than Jura.
So why isn't he a wizard saint?  Does he have to do something magnificent?  Or is he just not popular enough?

The Chairman of the Magic Council appoints the wizards to the Ten Wizard Saints. The Magic Council's decisions are not always objectively taken, and sometimes blatantly politically motivated. Many of the Magic Council members have a strong dislike for the Fairy Tail guild. It is likely they did not appoint Gildarts because they did not want two Fairy Tail wizards to hold that title.
Another reason is that Gildarts travels a lot going on long missions, and rarely stays at his own guild for long, while the Magic Council probably did not want such a "nomadic" member on that elite group. Moreover, even if the Magic Council made him that offer, Gildarts himself may have turned it down, seeing how he returned the Fairy Tail guild Master's title saying that he is not suited for it.

It's probably not because he can't be a wizard saint. He just doesn't want to be one. Gildarts does not like positions of influence (he also rejected Guild master title) And as more often said on the internet

He's too lazy to get off his ass and fill in an application form.
  Probably doesn't want it, like he didn't want the guild master title.

Also the title currently does not add up to anything but a famous name. He might not even be able to see the profit of having it

It is just a title, as far as we know, it doesn't offer anything else other than respect from the masses.

I hope this answers your question

Gildarts, Laxus, Mystogan.
Essentially, you need to have your visible and invisible guild members. Gildarts is invisible, or covert. The idea is not to have him in the spotlight, so that he is not targeted, and remains like an Ace up one's sleeve.
Though this anime shows signs of the "never aging" effect, if it were geared more towards progressing over time, we can already tell by how the characters are scripted that Gildarts mode of protecting the guild - or his role in protecting the guild, is by not being in the forefront. That's what Laxus was for. Fairy Tail already has several S-Class wizards also.
It's likely Gildarts was never nominated for or applied for Wizard Saint. It's also likely that there is an exam/test involved just like the Grand Magic games. More importantly, while Gildarts feigns laziness, it's just a masque for him to be able to handle the more underground obligations of keeping Fairy Tail safe.
Notice how he was shown ???name??? that Laxus father was looking for, but Laxus was not. All part of the progression and the plan.

So what you're saying is that he was just never known in the wizard world despite his reputation of destruction, in which Magnolia has to change it's geographical location, or it because he never proved himself to be a Wizard Saint

What I mean is, I doubt you get the title based on reputation, but through a formal process that either Gildarts himself, or Makarov would rather he not go through. The title would grant too much visibility, not just in name but appreance and he could not be covert. Some people may know of him by name, by hearsay but it's not the same as being on a list of the top 10 and being known everywhere.

Nobody would want someone who destroys everything he passes by be called a wizard SAINT. xD He might be strong but reputation-wise, he is just a dirty old skirt chaser who brings literal destruction to those he comes near to.

Gildarts usually would destroy everything in his path by accident. Just look back to the chapter when he comes back to town; they had to rearrange the whole city just to make sure that he did not destroy everything in his path by accidentally tripping or something. Plus, as other have mentioned, Fairy Tail was always known for being a destructive guild.

I believe there is only one reason behind it.
Gildarts is a free spirit and doesn't want to be bounded by the duties of the Ten Wizard Saints.
For him exploring the world and fulfilling the quests is what defines him.
He loved Natsu and other Fairy Tail members and considered them family but still underwent the long SS rank quests because he think he belongs there.
He is kind of like Goku (who believes fighting is what he's meant for and wanders away from his family for that) and Ging Freeches in HunterxHunter.

To add to that response, he turned down being guild leader so he can wonder around without responsibility, so no way he would get into the politics and responsibility of being a wizard saint. Further more not only does he wonder around, half the time no one knows where he is.  Who knows maybe he was even offered the position and turned it down some time in the past. Wouldn't surprise me.

It's just a speculation, but I think that no sane Magic Council member would make somebody a Wizard Saint who just goes around places destroying everything he touches just because he doesn't pay attention and his magic is still active. (Note that Magnolia has Gildarts-shift for the very same reason.)

The council hates Fairy Tail and are responsible for picking the Wizard Saints. There is no reason they would ever pick someone from the guild they hate so much.
Gildarts is lazy as hell and dissapears for years at a time to do 100-Year Quests.
His power is far too destructive.

Makarov? 2. Makarov disappeared for 7 years and he is still a Wizard saint. 3. What about Jellal's powers? Jose's powers? Powers are destructive. Greater powers are even more so.

Jose, Jellal´s clone and Makarov all have control over their powers. If they touch a wall, it´s safe. If Gildarts touches a wall, its gone. His powers are uncontrolable.

It's not his power that is uncontrollable, it's him who doesn't care enough to control his powers.

ဲJellal's clone mean mystogan ???

Maybe we are all wrong, and he is actually the 2nd strongest wizard saint. We don't know who the top two are, and since the third one's identity is unknown, it is possible for the other two to be unknown.
At the Magic Games, the top three were noted as being "not human" in terms of strength, and, if I remember correctly, Gildarts has been called such on several occasions. So, I believe this theory is probable and the reason I say number two is due to the fact you can't have the top dog not face Natsu and/or Laxus.

Gildarts could be a wizard saint. It is possible. Maybe people who read the manga know if he a saint. You never know because the other saints or unknown and in the anime after the s class arc where they return after 7 years he has vanished.

The magic council doesn't know Gildarts power level as shown in s-class magic arc. it was when Lohar know about Bluenote Stinger is fighting fairy tail. he say no one in fairy tail strong enough to defeat him. Then I see that Gildarts is stronger than Makarov.

I guess something special is planned for Gildarts:

To save the guild from Acnologia, Mavis Vermillion herself had to appear, since the guild was not powerful enough. But Gildarts once encountered Acnologia before and survived losing only some of his organs. How did he do it?
He even told Byro of legion that he didn't want the others (guild members & the new Oración Seis) to see what he was really capable of.

So... I guess you get what I'm getting at.

You can't use Byro as reference since the episode he appears in is Anime exclusive.


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How much time will it take me to watch the .hack series?
I'd like to give .hack a go, however I have very limited time in my schedule so I often avoid picking series with too many episodes.
I would like to know :

How much time does it take to watch everything ?
How much time does it take to watch main part of the series?

What is your definition of to much episodes? IIRC, the whole of .hack, including ova's exists of a mere 75 episodes

are you also including the games which bridge the gaps between the last 2 episodes of SIGN (first 4 games) and ROOTS (G.U games)? which ultimately is the bulk of the story of the First Twilight and the AIDA Incident

To watch everything including ova's, movies and the likes would take you 2091 minutes (34.85 hours) spread over 83 epsiodes. This would cover:

.hack roots
.hack//Sign
.hack//Gift
.hack//Unison
.hack//Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu
.hack//Quantum
.hack//Liminality
.hack//G.U. Returner
.hack//G.U. Trilogy
.hack//Intermezzo
.hack//G.U. Trilogy: Parody Mode
.hack//The Movie: Sekai no Mukou ni
.hack//Versus: The Thanatos Report
.hack//Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu: Offline de Aimashou
.hack//Quantum: Sore ike! Bokura no Chimuchimu-chan!!

And if we take a look at How to start the .hack series and its viewing order? we can determine that the only true cannon series are:

.hack//SIGN
.hack//Liminality
.hack//Roots

Which is only 1380 minutes (23 hours) spread over 56 episodes


text:
Where do fans exchange info about anime/manga merchandise for sale?
What are the main websites and forums where fans exchange info about where online to buy anime/manga collectibles from Japan (such as trading offers/requests, current auctions, recommended online shops, wish lists)? In particular, for hunting down/notifying about chances to acquire out-of-print merchandise such as for series which have already ended.
When I used to buy anime/manga collectibles made in Japan about 15 years ago, many fans were on email mailing lists (based on subjects such as shoujo anime, or specific series) where members would, from time to time, post links to trading websites and eBay auctions of interest, or share if they had found a reliable shop or proxy buying/bidding service, but I think this sort of ML is not very popular these days.  Where is the Go To place for most fans to share info about anime/manga merchandise that is currently for sale?  I came across http://myfigurecollection.net/ but I have no idea of whether this is a main site for this kind of interaction or whether there are more popular ones.

myfigurecollection.net is certainly one of the big sites for this kind of thing, though not the only one (see also e.g. http://www.figinstock.com). But I suspect you can find some discussion of merchandise on most large anime fora.

While forums are still great places to find such conversations, mailing lists are bit old in today's age. Personally, I think one of the best forums to browse is MyAnimeList (MAL).
In addition, there are largely three categories of places that anime aficionados frequent when discussing new merchandise to buy (as well as buying it). They are as follows:

Local Stores - Granted, most people do not have the luxury of living in Japan to take advantage of these resources. However, if you do, the best place to find anything anime related in Japan is Akihabara. Of the many I've visited, my personal favorite is the Akiba Culture Zone. Their website is not in English, but it can be found here. Also, here's a picture of the inside:

Conventions and Events - The next best place to find merchandise is at events that are specifically for the anime/manga you are trying to find merchandise for. In America, common events like this are things like Comic-Con. You should peruse your local listings to see if anything nearby your location interests you.
Online Stores - This is the most common place for anime merchandise to be bought and sold. Here's a list of the best online anime stores, with descriptions:

Right Stuf - One of the best sites if you would like to buy actual DVD/BluRay copies of anime or print copies of manga. It's not always the cheapest resource, but it often has the widest selection. In addition, if you time your purchase correctly and know what to look for, you can get massive savings (like 50-90% off).
AmiAmi - This is one (if not the best, but that is subjective) resources for basically any merchandise relating to anime, from posters and wall art to keychains and figurines.
Tokyo Otaku Mode - A great place for beginners. Sometimes it's rather daunting to browse other sites, but I recommend Tokyo Otaku Mode for beginners, because it has a relatively wide selection of well-known animes/mangas, and is not too expensive. However, I think that other sites will offer better deals and wider selections, but you might have to dig.
Mandarake - Mandarake is one of the most well-known otaku centers in Akihabara. I don't recommend this for beginners, but you can find great deals here (as well as great rip-offs).
Crunchyroll Store - I'm assuming most users of this site know what Crunchyroll is, but for those who don't, it's a great manga and anime streaming website. Their store sometimes has great deals, but you can almost always find all the merchandise in the Crunchyroll Store on the other online stores listed here. Sometimes it is easier to read for beginners, because the website is entirely in English.
JBox - Another great site that is more well-known for their novelty items for around the house. If you are looking for adult merchandise, try their 18+ counterpart, J-List.
akadot - More for manga in Japanese only, but great if you speak Japanese.
Hobby Link Japan (HLJ) - Great if you're into figurine collecting or if you like models (especially mecha).
Yesasia - Great for more serious collectors, and they also sell Chinese and Korean goods. You can use this site to find harder to obtain merchandise, but it tends to be a little more expensive.
Amazon - A bit generic, but excellent prices if you can find what you want (good luck).
Ebay - When in doubt, there's always a chance that someone is selling your desired item used on Ebay, but similar to Amazon, it's a bit generic and has a lesser selection. Don't be afraid to dig, you may find a few diamonds in the rough!

This answer is a great list of resources, but the question is not asking for this, rather somewhere/way where this would be discussed/exchanged.

@Matt "Where is the Go To place for most fans to share info about anime/manga merchandise that is currently for sale?" I edited the first paragraph to answer the question more, but the OP's question here asks about places to go to share info about merchandise that is currently for sale. All of these websites relate to that question, as do local stores in Japan and individual events like Comic-Con. See most recent edit.

Thanks for taking a stab at this. My main question is “the main websites and forums where fans exchange info about where online to buy" collectibles. On the old MLs, fans gave heads-ups like "I'm pruning my collection so I’m selling __” or "Just saw __ for sale on Mandarake, grab it now if you've been hunting for it" or "I've had a great experience with these shops” or "My trade list is here" or "I have ___ up on auction right now." This answer provides 1 forum; I took a look at MAL but didn't find a thread on advice for where to buy Japanese collectibles. Where is that area of the forum?

Online shops aren’t places where fans exchange info about where to shop, so far as I'm aware (or please direct me to such threads if you know of some). I live in Japan and have shopped at Mandarake, Nakano Broadway, Akihabara, Animate, etc. but fans don't exchange info in Japanese stores - they shop very quietly. Fans share info at cons/events, which could answer the secondary question “Where is the Go To place for most fans to share info . . . ?" but I think in order for it to be answering the main question, are you saying that the Go To place is cons rather than any website or forum?


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Why can Sailor Pluto be away from the Space-Time Door?
In the classic 90s anime, Sailor Pluto was commissioned by Queen Serenity (mom of Princess Serenity [Sailor Moon's ancient incarnation]) to guard the Space-Time Door, which she is shown doing in the R season, but she is later allowed to leave, and thus shows up with a civilian form (Setsuna) in the S season.  One of the 3 rules given by Queen Serenity was that she could not leave her post at the door.  She does go on to break all of the rules, but according to Wikipedia, Neo-Queen Serenity (future Sailor Moon) gives her permission to leave her post.
But why?  Does the door not need to be guarded anymore?  Is it temporary leave and she will need to return eventually, or is it permanent leave?
In the manga, Sailor Pluto's guarding location might be located outside of time (or is it located inside of the palace in 30th century Crystal Tokyo?), so perhaps she could technically be there as well as have a 20th century civilian incarnation that is at a point inside of time, so she could apparently continue to guard the door while she shows up in S, the SuperS movie, and Sailor Stars (but this is unrelated to why Neo Queen Serenity would excuse her from her post in the classic anime).
In the Sailor Moon Crystal canon, is Sailor Pluto able to and/or permitted to leave her post at the door? Is this aspect identical to the manga version?

I'm stuck now with something similar. In the Dark Moon arc of SMC, it seems to be implied that Sailor Pluto can't leave because someone needs to watch the door; Diana tells Pluto she will replace her and that Pluto should help the Guardians. Diana is back in present day Japan with Chibi-usa in the Death Busters arc, which is when Pluto appears in the present day. But it's possible I might have missed some details here and there, or that some details (similar to those in the answers) have yet to be revealed.

@Maroon I corresponded w/ Kimiski, who has written fanfic involving minute details of the R season. She wrote of the 90s anime, "they never really explain that. Setsuna just tells the girls she came from the future to tell them of the Messiah and pending destruction, but has to work with Neptune and Uranus. . . . I don't think they mention the three rules about guarding the door in the anime (until S when Pluto stops time to let Neptune and Uranus enter the building), I think they just say she has to stay because its her duty- well- I guess her . . .

. . . duty changed in season S. . . loop-holes in the anime . . . There are a lot. . . . I'm pretty sure Pluto never says anymore than it is a taboo, I always assumed she just meant . . . a taboo against the universe and creation, and we're left to assume how she learned about it or who told her (in the manga we can say Queen Serenity, but then who told Queen Serenity? Did someone tell her? Was she just born with that knowledge?).” It sounds like SMC is the same as the 90s anime in that Setsuna & Diana are both in present-day Tokyo at the same time w/o explanation of how the door is safe.

In the Crystal continuity it is unknown as it is a work in progress, and did not progress too much further from Pluto's introduction, so it is unknown for Crystal continuity if she will leave the door or not. There is still no canon material on the matter.
As to why she can leave the door, she has the power to seal off entire worlds out of the fourth dimension (the time dimension)(ref).
Since you need a time-space key to safely navigate fouth dimension, she could secure all keys, lock the access to the place where the keys were stored and leave for a short time.
Probably her leave cannot be defined as permanent or temporary. Since the fourth dimension is outside normal time, she can safely exists in the fourth dimension and outside it:

However, for all intents and purposes, in the manga the technicality of Sailor Pluto existing outside of time means she is able to be reincarnated as a normal woman while still existing back at her post at the Time Gate.(ref)

Sailor Pluto's racial status is also subject of controversy. While Endymion/Tuxedo Mask is from the Earth realm, Usagi/Sailor Moon is from the Silver Millenium race, the other sailor senshi seem to be reincarnated humans, Sailor Pluto is more of a goddess than a human:

She is also stated to be the daughter of Chronos, god of time. (manga act 18, original anime ep. 82).

They made significant changes in Crystal from the original Sailor Moon works (like giving Tuxedo Mask an attack), so I wouldn't expect it to be identical, but to follow closely.
You can compare Crystal and the original making a parallel between the original Yamato series and Yamato 2099 that aired in 2014. They tend to follow the original work closely, but making adaptations and concessions to suit XXI century's scientific and social developments.

should also point out that (at least on Wikipedia) it also mentions Sailor Venus is thought to be a goddess as well (the Goddess of Love)

@Mindwin, Thanks for this helpful answer; I’d be happy to select it as correct if you can add in 1) why is Pluto given permission to leave the door in the 90s anime? I read online that Neo Queen Serenity gave permission; is this true or a fan theory? I tried watching R & S episodes that Pluto is in but I couldn’t find it. And 2) Wikipedia says her post is located outside of time in the manga, but in which chapter is that shown/stated? It looked like Chibi-usa walked right up to Pluto while exploring a remote area of the palace, not that she had to exit her own dimension to meet Pluto. . . .

. . . I also tried looking for this in the manga but didn’t find the source. Would be a great aid if you can help! Also curious: if Pluto can hide the keys and the fourth dimension can’t be entered (i.e. everything is safe while she’s away), why would she have ever needed to guard the door in the first place and have to be lonely for hundreds of years? Is this a plot hole?

She does leave in episode 24 of SMC, after Diana tells her that this is the time to do so (because the other Sailor Guardians are fighting against Black Moon and Chibi-usa is in trouble), and says that she will substitute for her as a guardian. Not sure if she will return anytime soon to the gate though. It sounds like one of the reasons she can't leave is that a gatekeeper is needed, but don't quote me on that.

Uhm Tuxedo Mask getting an attack (smoking bomber) is also canon in the manga or did you mean something else?

In the manga, as she the daughter of the god of time, she has a strong connection to the Space-Time Door and can control it from anywhere. She even used an attack with the Garnet Rod, Dark Dome Close to close the Door from the 20th century. However, she sometimes cannot use this abilities, such as in case of an eclipse - that's why the Dead Moon Circus arrived in time of an eclipse. In Crystal, as it's following the manga, it might be the same.
In the anime, this wasn't explained too much, as Setsuna was a minor character.

You're not thinking fourth-dimensionally. (As Doctor Emmet Brown says).
The Space-Time Door exists outside of the Physical Realm. And as the name says, this door lets the people travel through Time and Space.
I'm sure that as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask can find themselves at the future, Pluto can Stand at the door and in XX century Tokyo at the same time.
Remember that she left the others at the end of the Death Busters Arch, to help rise Hotaru Tomoe after she uses her Death Reborn Revolution Attack and return as a baby.
The episode when she appears in front of Chibi Moon at the middle of Sailor Moon S is the episode when Pluto mentions the permission that Neo Queen Serenity gave her to travel at that time.

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Name Suffixes: Does Yaten (Sailor Star Healer) ever refer to Usagi (Sailor Moon) by her civilian name?
Would Yaten use "Tsukino-san" to indicate his emotional distance from her, or merely "Tsukino" to indicate his penchant to be rude?
Is there any episode in which Yaten Kou (Sailor Star Healer) either directly addresses Tsukino Usagi (Sailor Moon) by her civilian name or refers to her by name when talking to someone else?  I've been searching through all the episodes of Sailor Stars, the 5th season of the Sailor Moon anime, but I cannot find an example.   He clearly calls her "Sailor Moon" when she is in sailor soldier form, but what does he call her as his classmate at school?
Taiki Kou calls Usagi "Tsukino-san" in episode 185. Seiya Kou (Sailor Star Fighter) calls Usagi by the nickname "Odango," and she calls him simply "Seiya," but she calls Yaten "Yaten-kun" and Taiki "Taiki-san;" Taiki calls Mizuno Ami (Sailor Mercury) "Mizuno-kun;" and both Ami and Hino Rei (Sailor Mars) call Seiya "Seiya-kun."

Note that "san," "chan," "kun," and such are usually called "honorifics" in English.


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Which episodes of Sailor Moon Crystal are Ittou Asanuma in?
I believe that Ittou Asanuma's first appearance in Sailor Moon Crystal is in episode 15 when Makoto introduces him to Usagi and friends, that he does not appear in episode 16, and that his famous scene with Makoto from the manga is in episode 17. Is he in any other episodes, or did he only appear in those two 2 episodes?

Given that I don't recall him in the first half of the show (as you've pretty much stated here) back when I was still following the anime, I'll see if I find much whenever I get back to watching it again, if no one else comes up with anything.

I do not recall Asanuma appearing in the first half of the show. It's of course possible he might have appeared earlier as a background object, similar to how the Curtis couple in Fullmetal Alchemist shows up in the background when Winry arrives in Central before they are formally introduced, but there are assuredly no explicit appearances up until episode 15. (If he did show up before then, it would be unsurprising for me -- as someone not that invested into Sailor Moon -- to have missed it, since I would not have known of Asanuma before episode 15.)
Thus:

Episodes 1-14: no explicit appearances
Episode 15: Makoto introduces Asanuma
Episode 16: no appearance except in the preview for 17.
Episode 17: Asanuma asks Makoto about her identity and tells her he wants to protect her.
Episode 18: Asanuma is briefly shown standing in front of a building right before the half-way mark, thinking of Makoto, and then at the fortune-telling meeting being brainwashed along with some other characters (Naru-chan, Sarashina from Rei's school).
Episode 19-25: no appearance: apart from two brief instances where Usagi and some of her friends return to the 20th century, these episodes are entirely set in the 30th century.
Episode 26: short appearance in a still towards the end, after characters return to earth.

thank you so much for this helpful answer! Looking forward to selecting it as correct as soon as you update with the remaining episodes. I love the classic magical girl shows but Sailor Moon Crystal is so poorly-written and poorly-animated that though I tried, I couldn't sit through the whole thing. But I love Asanuma in the manga so I want to watch just the episodes that he's in since he finally got animated (in the classic anime, he only had 1 cameo of knocking on a door). If you're looking for more interesting themes in magical series, try ones from the mid-90s and earlier. (^_~)

@seijitsu: that makes sense; I was wondering about the motivation for the question. I tend to find a lot of magical girl shows too episodic and/or focused on, well, stereotypically "girly" things. (Maybe I'm also too old for Pretty Cute /etc., but I have less problems sitting through Chibi Maruko-chan or Doraemon episodes, and I kind of enjoy watching the live-action Ultraman out of nostalgia, despite never having seriously seen it growing up.) I do rather like Revolutionary Girl Utena though, but it lacks some of the qualities I've grown to expect from "magical girl" shows.

@seijitsu: final update done!


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What's the proper reading order for the Tokimeki Tonight manga?
What's the proper reading order for the Tokimeki Tonight shoujo manga series about a half-vampire, half-werewolf girl written by Ikeno Koi? When should 「ときめきミッドナイト」(Tokimeki Midnight), 「星のゆくえ」(Hoshi no Yukue),  「真壁俊の事情」(Makabe Shun no Jijou), and「江藤望里の駆け落ち」(Etou Moori no Kakeochi) be read in comparison with the main series?
Are there any other prequels, sequels, side stories, or spin-offs that

were published in the tankoubon of another series by the same mangaka (i.e. tacked on as a one-shot at the back of the book)?
ran in Ribon, Cookie, or such sister manga magazines but have not yet been published in tankoubon book form?
were published outside of the Ribon Mascot Comics (RMC) line?

Since you tagged this with the "ribon" tag, are you only concerned about the Ribon published series? Tokimeki Midnight was published in Cookie. So unless you question is specific to Ribon series, or the magazine itself, there's really no need to include the tag.

@ʞɹɐzǝɹ, thanks for letting me know it ran in Cookie. I saw that it's published under Shuueisha's Ribon Mascot Comics (RMC) line. There was no series title tag for this series and since I shouldn't make a meta tag without precedent, I saw that there is a shounen-jump tag and thought a ribon tag would thereby fit with precedent. I'm definitely interested to know which of these ran in RIbon magazine and which didn't.

Tokimeki Tonight Library, an English fan-site contains a really good explanation of all series's publications including prequels, sequels, side stories, and spin-offs. Note that it is also full with spoilers though. (Feel free to use that as a reference when answering, probably I'll answer it when I have time to compile the information)


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How are mangaka affected by Golden Week?
This week, I was talking to friends and congratulating them for having Golden Week, but it turns out that despite it being Golden Week, they have to work their asses off even more than usual, just because it is Golden Week. So it made me wonder what kind of holiday it is and why some (eg: Manga writers) can take a break, while others cannot. What is celebrated on Golden Week and by whom?

I realize I could just read through the wiki, but it having an impact on us readers, I was surprised to see, that this question wasn't around yet.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about Japanese culture and not about anime or manga.

@kuwaly To me personally golden week is manga related because it is the only time I come in contact with it, but if the community agrees I understand.

I think it is a fine question as long as you narrow it down to be relevant to anime and manga. For example, you could expand the point on why you think some manga writers can take a break while others can not, or certain characters work harder than usual during the Golden Week.

@Gao Alright, I'll try to improve the question tonight.

GW is a week or 2 where a string of bank holidays occur (in some years, it does not comprise a week containing back-to-back days off, so people are not able to go on a trip), but the only 1 of these days which is "celebrated" with any customs is Kodomo no Hi (called "Children's Day," but is only Boy's Day in practice). Most Japanese bank holidays are not for pausing to remember something like America's Memorial Day or Labor Day, and are not celebrated with any traditional customs like Christmas or Thanksgiving; they are simply a designated day off from work/school. [continued in next comment]

[continued from previous comment] Japanese holidays that are celebrated with traditional customs are not usually bank holidays (in the same way that Halloween and St. Patrick's Day are celebrated in the West but you don't get the day off from work and the post office is not closed): Setsubun, St. Valentine's Day, Hina Matsuri, Tanabata, etc. 2 of the only Japanese holidays that bear both traditions and are days off from work are New Year's Eve (Oomisoka) and New Year's Day (Oshougatsu).

Alright! This is one question I have asked before and I will give the perspective for manga artists and such.

Golden Week is a week at the end of April and beginning of May. This week has a series of many national holidays strung together.
April 29, May 1 (Mayday), 3 (Memorial Day), 5 (Children's Day) are all holidays. In the previous decade it made no sense for the factory workers to start and stop the plant every alternate day and so the week was announced as Golden Week and observed as holiday.
However the normal offices usually keep the days which are not holidays as working days.
For manga writers, this is not a real holiday as deadlines do not take into account this Golden Week.
Also during this period all the leisure activities spike up. The film industry gets huge revenues during this period and makes major releases during this period (I am from India, people do the same for big festivals here too :D). So manga being a top entertainment source, I assume the mangaka have to work hard to keep deadlines in this week.
So for budding mangakas, this is a crucial time as most new mangas and a whole bunch of releases happen at the same time.

Some fun facts:

It seems that this time of the year is very pleasant and along summer. So people use this as their vacation period and travel a lot.
Even though offices observe working days in between the Golden Week, employees usually use their PTO (aka vacation days) and take the whole week off.
Golden Week is another holiday observed in China, but it's completely different and started in 2000.

SOURCE: Baku-man for giving insight into mangaka's life, my brain for storing some of the info, and google :D

I remember reading something along these lines myself a while back, that it was an entire week of "holiday", but that many people only took a couple of days off. That probably comes from the "dedication to the company" mindset that still permeates the Japanese work ethic. Thank you for elaborating!


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Does Sailor Moon Crystal contain the Black Moon arc of the manga (Pluto and Chibiusa)?
Has it been officially stated anywhere by a representative at the production company whether Sailor Moon Crystal's 26 total episodes cover the Black Moon arc of the manga (Chibiusa, Sailor Pluto, and the Black Moon Clan, equal to season R of the classic anime series)?  Has it been stated anywhere that it only covers the content of the Dark Kingdom arc of the manga (equivalent to the first season of the classic anime)?
Crystal has covered in a mere 8 episodes the equivalent of 33 episodes of the classic anime series which contained 46 episodes total.  In other words, it has covered 72% of the classic anime's first season content within only 31% of Crystal's scheduled episode count. I know that Crystal is based on the original manga, that it is not adapting the classic anime, and that the manga storyline progressed much faster (less filler), but even so, that's a big percentage of the manga's Dark Moon arc to have already shown us in only 8 episodes.
The opening animation sequence does not include any characters introduced in the Black Moon arc, but then again, it could receive a new animation sequence mid-run at the point in time when that manga arc would begin (without a second season needing to occur to herald the story arc shift).

this does sound like Fullmetal Alchemist Brother. in the original 2003 series first meet Marcoh in Episode 14 but in Brotherhood this is in Episode 6, in Botherhood alot of the stuff before Lior and from Lior to Eastern Command is omitted either because it was filler or that we already have seen it (we don't see the Youswell ordeal despite it still being different in the manga and the train incident with Bald did occur in the manga too). if i was to venture a guess i would say that maybe it's the same thing?

@  Toshinou Kyouko, Jon Lin, senshin, user1306322, Danalog: I am confused about why this was put on hold because I did not ask about "unannounced future events."  I only asked whether or not there has already been an official announcement made which someone could point me to: "Has it been stated anywhere..." It is not likely that this sort of info would be found on "anime news sources" but rather in an Japanese magazine interview or website by the company, which someone could be aware of. It could be that the answer is no, no official answer has thus far been made.

I have changed the question title to better reflect that I am inquiring about an official announcement that has already been made by this date, rather than about something which is "only known to the creators of said works" and that will not be announced until some point in the future. Also, I am inquiring about the current series which was set officially at 26 total episodes, not about a future anime release such as "Will Bleach air again?"

I think the revised question title now makes this question useful for people far past the end of the run of the current anime series, in the same way as this questions is useful: http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/3282/how-far-into-the-manga-did-the-kimi-ni-todoke-anime-reach

@seijitsu Sorry, I kind of skimmed your question when casting my close vote. I agree that this question should probably be reopened, and cast a reopen vote accordingly.

Note: I'm not sure if anything had come up by October, since I haven't really followed Sailor Moon beyond watching the biweekly episodes and I don't know Japanese. But some announcement (referred to here) seems to have been made in early November at an anime convention in Tokyo. The fact that there apparently was speculation before this suggests that no announcement had been made before the anime convention. (I found out about this mostly since I'd read about a newly released trailer, and wanted to find some details about it.)

Looking from some recent news sources (e.g this one from November 8), it seems that the second half of SMC will cover the Black Moon arc.
A official trailer was apparently recently released (December 27), and from ANN, we have:

The anime premiered on July 5 and airs on the first and third Saturdays every month. Starting on January 17, the second season includes the story from the original manga's "Black Moon" arc and features Chibi Usa. The Comic Natalie website posted more images from the upcoming episodes.

Initially I was sceptical as to whether this new "season" mentioned in some sources was referring to part of the current SMC or to an altogether new production after this one finishes, but the date given (January 17 next year) implies that it should be within the current production.


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Why do the subtitles say "tetsusaiga" for "tessaiga"?
I've been watching Inuyasha with subtitles and in episode 6 and 7, Inuyasha fights with his brother Sesshomaru about a sword. The English subtitle says "Tetsusaiga" but they're clearly saying "てっさいが". Why are they subtitling it in this way?

This is a mistranslation: there's a small "tsu", which means there should be a double consonant there (てっさいがい - te-s-sa-i-ga). So instead of Tessaiga, they mistranslated to Tetsusaiga, as if the "tsu" (っ) were not a small one.

So they made their translation by reading the script and never bothered watching the show?

They probably mistook the small "tsu" for a big one. Read the first two paragraphs here for a general overview of what I meant. But basically, the big "tsu" is read as "tsu", and the small one is used to denote consonant gemination. So... yeah, they probably didn't hear the word being said, and only went from the transcript.

I don't misunderstand what they did ... I am asking how in their process they completely missed the pronunciation.

What is the source of the sub you watch? I mean the company which translate and distribute the anime.

@nhahtdh I don't know about the OP, but this mistake was in the official US translation by Viz when I watched the show back in 2001, so it's not just something that some scuzzy bootlegging group does.

In fact, the dub actors even pronounced the word with a 't' in it as "Tetsaiga".

@virmaior I don't know what the deal is specifically with Inuyasha, but anime simulcasters in recent times indeed often have to translate off of a script without access to the audio/video until the last minute. Granted, I would think that this is just because of the exigencies of simulcasting, which shouldn't have had any relevance back in the early 2000s...

@Torisuda In that case I'd change my above statment from "this is a mistranslation" to "this may be a mistranslation". I've never watched/read Inuyasha, so I was just going from my (very) basic knowledge of Japanese and the kana posted on the question by the OP.

@JNat Granted, I was watching the dub, and it was over ten years ago, but I don't remember anything from the show that would have helped resolve this question. Until Logan posted his answer, I figured you were probably right that it was a mistranslation; it's less likely with an official translation, but official translators make mistakes too.

The manga does not use a small っ. It may be possible to confuse the character in a horizontal heading (since つ is generally shorter than most kana), but it the vertically-written speech bubbles, it's clear that the furigana read てつさいが.

The reason why the subtitles don't match the dialog is apparently because Viz wanted to be consistent with their earlier translation of the Inuyasha manga. In the manga it's not at all clear that the sword should be named tessaiga (てっさいが) instead of tetsusaiga (てつさいが). It's a made up name whose kanji (鉄砕牙) could be pronounced either way. There's furigana in manga to show the author's intent but it doesn't make the tsu character clearly smaller:

I found the above pictures in a Tumbler post that goes into more details about the mix up.
It seems it wasn't until the release of the anime that Viz had any reason to believe they were wrong, and I guess they decided it would be better to be consistent with their manga translation than the Japanese audio.
(I have to say though that all this makes me wonder if the producers of the anime version were just guessing as well.)

The つ in the left-picture is ambiguous, but the one on the right is clearly not a small つ.  Maybe the subtitles have it correct, and it's whoever wrote the script for the anime audio who got it wrong.

Note that in the traditional typographical convention in Japan they do not use small kana in hurigana.  Consequently if the publisher sticked to this convention you can't tell the author's intention from the hurigana.

The tumbler post argues that the right-hand image says てつさいが because the manga doesn't use small kana in furigana. This is partially true. Small furigana are used, but not always. Smaller writing, especially, never uses them. Larger writing often does, but not consistently. Also, small furigana can be hard to tell from large ones... and sometimes a large kana will be smaller than it should... It does make things confusing. Still, small っs seem to be the easiest of the small kana to distinguish in Inuyasha, and 鉄砕牙 is always written てつさいが, not てっさいが.

While it's tempting to chalk this up to a mistranslation by Viz, as Ross Ridge's answer suggests (and that Viz themselves might even admit to), I think if we take the question as seriously as possible, the answer must be that both names are correct, at least in writing.
The relevant background here is that Inuyasha takes place in the Sengoku period roughly 500 years ago. So Inuyasha's sword's name should be interpreted in the Japanese of the time, not modern Japanese.
On the other hand, the use of っ in Japanese is a relatively modern invention. The earliest known uses of it in this way occurred in the 19th century, and it wasn't standardized until 1947. Prior to this, double consonants in Japanese existed only as common slurs where only the consonant was pronounced. This form of slurring has existed for a long time, likely since the Sengoku period. I suggest reading this Japanese SE question for more information.
So, while 鉄砕牙  would have been written out as 「てつさいが」 in the classical Japanese of the time (or possibly in several other ways, as hiragana themselves were not standardized until 1900 with the removal of hentaigana), it could plausibly be pronounced as either 「てつさいが」 (tetsusaiga)　or 「てっさいが」 (tessaiga) to the modern Japanese ear. But the classical Japanese speaker would have recognized these as the same word. Even this is something of a simplification, as pronunciation of these syllables has shifted over time, but without having audio records of Japanese from that time it's fairly difficult to know exactly what shifts have occurred.
That is to say, while tessaiga and tetsusaiga sound rather different to us, there isn't any distinction between the two in period Japanese writing, in the same way that "sorta" is just a slurred version of "sort of" in English. They're both valid romanizations of the same word, and so they're both really the same name. In some sense, saying that either tessaiga or tetsusaiga is correct is actually historically inaccurate. In modern Japanese, it's clear that they say tessaiga, but that doesn't really mean that tetsusaiga is an incorrect way of writing the name.
I guess the real reason for this confusion is that the text has gone through so many different linguistic steps that it would necessarily end up being somewhat confused. Of course the text is written in modern Japanese, but it's supposed to be a modern interpretation of historical Japanese. In order to romanize it, since there's no way to romanize classical Japanese, it first needs to be converted back into modern Japanese, and then to roumaji (which approximate Japanese pronunciation using latin alphabet characters). But the conversion back to modern Japanese is ambiguous, and so both tessaiga and tetsusaiga could be simultaneously valid.
With all that said, I don't think Inuyasha tries especially hard to stick to historically accurate Japanese, so to some degree this is a moot point. I just wanted to point out that, strictly speaking, in Sengoku-period Japanese, there is no way to differentiate the two words. On the other hand, for practical purposes, one can hear that the anime uses tessaiga for pronunciation and writes てっさいが as the furigana, so presumably this is the more understandable choice in English.

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text:
Is Boogiepop series connected to the Boogie music genre?
Looking up the Oxford dictionary, the definition of "boogie" is:

A style of blues played on the piano with a strong, fast beat.

From Wikipedia it is defined as:

Boogie (sometimes called post-disco) is a rhythm and blues genre of electronic dance music with close ties to the post-disco style

As I am unfamiliar with the genre, I tried a few sample of boogie music. I don't really see it matches the atmosphere of the anime (neither the 2000 nor 2019 adaptation). Boogiepop himself "seems fond of whistling the prelude to Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" which is also not related to boogie genre.
Also I don't see it too related to pop genre either.

Haven't watched this yet and I think you just answered your own question? The only thing I could find was that Boogiepop inspired other manga, anime and/or light novels. I also found in google searches that Boogiepop was inspired by Jojo but I can't verify as to why a certain article says so: https://manga.tokyo/anime-review/1st-episode-anime-impressions-boogiepop-and-others/

Considering the introduction of "When I detect adversity approaching, I float to the surface. That's why I am Boogiepop – phantasmal, like bubbles", I think it's more of this "boogie" (1st definition) which gets "popped" (2nd or 7th definition)... not following the series at all, so I don't know...

I it more likely comes from boogeyman

@AkiTanaka I only watched anime, so that's from the novel? Could you put it as an answer?

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


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Where and when is Trigun Stampede set?
I was watching episode five of Trigun Stampede and then this map came up:

This resembles breakup Pangaea. So I ask:
Where and when is Trigun Stampede set?

According to wiki, it's in the same place and time where original Trigun was set: the planet No Man's Land (or Gunsmoke), in the distant future.

Sometime in the far future on the planet No Man's Land or Gunsmoke. The planet is located in the binary star system Delta Trianguli. The story takes place around 150 years after humans arrived there.

Project SEEDS is a deep space colonization mission in the anime and manga Trigun. The project's principal objective in the Trigun anime is the preservation of the human race after the original Earth's resources had been consumed while in the manga it is hinted that plant usage became widespread so that such catastrophe never took place. The project consists of a fleet of ships intent on the delivery of cold sleeping human populations to planets befitting the existence of life.

Project SEEDS

Not much is known about No Man's Land before the Project SEEDS starships crash-landed on its surface. However, several species of alien animals including sandworms and a group of sentient hive-minded insects lived on the desolate planet before "The Big Fall."

For the next 150 years humanity would struggle to survive in the planet's desolate environment, utilizing plants found in the ruins of the crashed ships for food and water while building cities and towns around them. Over time what would become known as the Seven Cities would be built, making them the cultural and political hubs of the planet.

Gunsmoke


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How much of the manga does the Knights of Sidonia anime cover?
I see there are many more chapters/volumes of Knights of Sidonia than there are episodes. If I were to want to get onto the manga after the anime series finishes, where would I start and are they directly correlated?

According to Manga Updates, the first season of Knights of Sidonia starts at Vol 1, Chap 1 and ends at Vol 6, Chap 26.

For season 2, look on either Tarc's answer or Sebastian_H's answer.

It's not actually that easy to answer. The Anime covers most of the source material pretty closely but not all of it. Some events have been left out or altered. Several events have also been shifted around in the time line.
A perfect example of this is the final battle against Benisuzume (Crimson Hawk Moth). It's pretty much the end of Season 2 of the Anime but in the Manga this fight happens in Volume 9.
However, quite a lot of Volume 10 material also made it into the Anime. In the Anime these events, mostly some social interactions and the like, happen before the fight on Lem 9 while they happen afterwards in the Manga. Other stuff has been left out so the Anime doesn't cover all of Volume 10.
In conclusion the Anime (both seasons) roughly cover the first 10 volumes out of 15, with about 5 volumes per season.
For anyone interested in reading the Manga (as a third seasons has still to be announced) I would definitely recommend reading from the start, even if you know the Anime.
It's what I did and you can spot the differences and what has been left out or changed in comparison.

According to Manga Updates, the second season of Knights of Sidonia seems to end at Chapter 43.

volume 9 chapter 43 ends in the middleish area of season two not the end of it


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Why does damaging something sometimes make it more powerful?
For example, the end-of-season fights in Dragon Ball Z, the fights between the Eva and the Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion. I've noticed it in far more things but these are the most recent in my memory.
When a fight is occurring, the more damage which is done to something, even if it is mechanical,  the more powerful it (sometimes) becomes. That doesn't make any sense to me.
I would prefer an explanation which relates to Japanese culture, if such a thing exists (for example, the reason why anime has a lot of characters / machines with weapons attached to their arms is because the Japanese are of the view that weapons are an extension of the body, not something to be picked up and thrown away like a pistol in an American action movie - that kind of thing). However, any insight at all would be great!

Well in both cases you cited it relates to released energy that was somehow blocked because of the danger of its release.
In Dragon Ball, I remember the scene near the end of the fight with Frieza where Goku tells Gohan something like this: "If the forces inside of me start unleashing, it will destroy this planet. You have to get out".
In Evangelion, we learn that the armor of the Evas are actually blockers to prevent them from going berserk, also hiding the true nature of the Evas, that they are composed more as a human would be, with skin, flesh and organs, than as a robot.

So these two things are common: the released energy that comes from hard, critical situations, near death experiences, and the revealing of the true nature of something, the dark forces inside all of us. I think it could be symbolic of the awakening of the unconscious part of the self.

Brilliant answer! Particularly the reference to dark forces, that's exactly what I was looking for.

So i was thinking about this a bit. We're talking about dark forces and stuff but i think thats only half the picture. If you consider Goku and the super sayan he looks more like an angel, something bright and divine, like a solar deity. The process is still the same, of being hurt, damaged, emotionally distraugh, but results are different, you either get the bright golden divinity and the strengh to opposite evil and tyranny (goku vs frieza) or you embrace the darkness, the eva fight in the picture is absolutelly this, the eva eats the angel after beating him, he becomes darkness, devours it.

In real life, when your muscles get worn and slightly torn up from use, after you rest and recover, they will have grown back stronger.
There's a word for the practice of purposefully wearing down your muscles to cause this phenomenon to happen.  It's called "exercise".
What you're seeing(or at least in DBZ), is an exaggerated version of that.

Do you mean similar to adrenaline? Because the exaggeration (that of muscle growth) would be huge since the process you're talking about is slow. Actually, no, everything is a ridiculous exaggeration in DBZ, what am I saying :D

@BenjaminJB in DBZ, nobody became more powerful because of taking damage until after they had rested.  Yes, they did become more powerful during battle after emotional stress(I.E. exaggerated adrenaline), which might have happened to occur after they had taken damage, but they never got a straight up power boost during battle from taking damage


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How can CP9 members and Sanji run in the air?
How can CP9 members and Sanji(post-timeskip) run and stand in the air? Do they use something like Haki? If not, what kind of techniques do they use? If it is Haki, can Luffy and Zoro run and stand like they do?

Wait, can they STAND in the air?  When did this happen?

The episodes when the Strawhat pirates are going to save Robin at Enies Lobby.

@kaine It actually not stand, more like double jump in old 2D game, they kick the air so fast that it looks like they float in the air

Actually this technique that Sanji uses is called
Sky Walk   it doe not use any haki, he just learned it by training while running everyday increasing his speed making him run in the air.
Wiki states:

This is the aerial version of Blue Walk. Sanji kicks the air to jump higher, giving the appearance of flight. Sanji created this technique during his ordeal in "hell" to escape from the okamas. It was first seen used to escape after being surrounded by the Sea Urchin-Armor Spine Squad, making them hurt themselves. (Vol. 64 Chapter 635 and Episode 555)

As you can see he developed and learned this technique because of his ordeal during the time skip while training in Kamabakka Kingdom. giving him immense speed.

wow what is wrong with my answer? there are a lot of downvoters here.

you down voted me....

boom another donwvote? why????

You don't explain about the people from cp9, also where do you base this information on that it isn't haki?

@Wouter i dont need to explain it, the wiki stated it fine, the wiki is also a crdible source for this. the link of the wiki is on the answer itself

yeah but people come here to expect their question answered and not a link to the wiki, which doesn't explain anything about cp9

As far as I remember, nothing has ever mention about how can Sanji and CP9 do this technique, but it's not haki. None of CP9 members are haki user.
One possible way to do this is they running so fast until they reaching considerable speed that they can put a step mid air, it first happen to Sanji when he was trying to run away from okama every day while training in Kamabakka Kingdom that he reach at a speed when he can do the "Sky Walk".
One other theory is it has the same principal with "Soru". This is one of the six techniques of "Rokushiki" that allows the users to move at extremely high speeds so people can't see with normal eye. It was revealed that the principle of this move was to kick off the ground at least ten times in the blink of an eye.

They are using one of the Rokushiki techniques.

Rokushiki is a special, superhuman martial arts style. In the Viz
Manga and FUNimation dub, they are called the Six Powers
-- One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 37 Chapter 347 (p. 9) and Episode 245, Rob Lucci explains the Rokushiki.

The one they are using is called Geppo

The Geppo allows the users to actually jump off the air itself,
allowing them to stay in the air for much longer than usual. CP9
members can use this technique to cross great distances without ever
touching the ground, or set themselves up for swift, aerial attacks.
-- One Piece Manga and Anime — Vol. 36 Chapter 343 (p. 5-6) and Episode 242, Geppo is first used by disguised Kalifa.

The technique was actually explained when luffy said he saw the kicking the air ten times at immense speed to compress the air under their feet and make it as hard as the ground


text:
What did Hisoka do in the Hunter Exam?
In the first Hunter Exam of the series (Hisoka's second), he was introduced into the series removing another applicant's arms from his body for bumping into him and not apologizing.

What did he actually do? We know Hisoka's abilities are Bungee Gum and Texture Surprise, but they don't explain how the arms are converting into flower petals as seen above.

I highly guess they made that up to convert this scene into a less violent type for the younger-age audience. In the actual manga chapter 5, this was what it looked like:

You can see that the arm is chopped off but with no flower petals whatsoever and judging by the angle, the blood ought to be seen. They probably did not want to reveal that part and instead took it from the side angle by "magically" making the arm disappear.

To merge the censorship and canon together, I think Hisoka used his cards and his super speedy hands to sashimi the guy's arms into petal-shaped flesh flakes, and that is why they are red!
For the fake Hisoka made from smoke that Gon whacks with his fishing pole; I say Hisoka made the shape by using Bungee Gum to hold smoke/steam together and covered it in texture surprise to look like himself.
If we believe it hard enough, it is true!


text:
Is Emilia actually Satella? If so, how and why?
Is Emilia actually Satella? Based on what I've seen so far it looks as if she is her, but how and why are my questions.

Pretty much the same question is asked here: How and why is Emilia connected to Satella (the Witch of Envy) and the Witch Cult?.


text:
What is the significance of Shirogane having 9 kids?
In season 1 episode 6, Shirogane says that he wants to have 9 kids during a psychological test; the same is referenced in season 2 episode 1, when Chika and Shirogane have 9 kids (when playing a game). So what does having 9 kids refer to other than a baseball team?

There are nine fielding positions in baseball. That's part of the joke. What else is there to infer.

@кяαzєя Well, why don't you post as an answer?

In season 1 episode 6, Shirogane was taking a psychological test from Fujiwara:

Imagine there's a cage of pets in front of you. How many kittens can fit in there?

The number given, as explained by Fujiwara, would reveal how many children the test taker subconsciously wants to have. The kitten quiz is obviously a reference to "cats have nine lives".
Then in season 2 episode 1, the student council members were playing a custom board game, and Shirogane and Fujiwara stepped onto the "marriage" and "childbirth" spaces, which resulted in them having nine children in-game. I believe the "having nine children" gag is based on the nine sons of the dragon lore, and incidentally, dragons and cats are symbols of fertility and sexuality, respectively.
I don't know if one could make an additional connection to the imagery of Hou Yi "shooting down" the nine yellow, oval "suns", but his wife, Chang'e, is the Chinese counterpart of Princess Kaguya, our titular character! This doc explores the series' references to the Japanese folklore in more details.
Although both Hou Yi and the nine sons of the dragon originated from Chinese mythology, it's not the first time that Love is War has borrowed Chinese elements in its storytelling, so it's very likely that these are what are referenced in the joke.


text:
What is it about Saki's dream telling her to not help Maria?
After finishing the anime I still had this doubt: after Mamoru and Maria decided to leave and Saki and Satoru stopped searching for them because of the time limit, Saki had a dream/nightmare about a faceless boy who told her that she should not help Maria escape and that Maria should die.
My question is, why did Saki have that dream? Did someone "send" it to her? The dream is never mentioned later. Did the novel add more explanation? I don't mind spoilers from the novel or manga.

why did Saki had that dream? Did someone "send" it to her?

It is suspected that it was sent to her by Shun.
Near the end of the series, the faceless boy begins to manifest again to aid Saki, such as trying to tell her that Messiah isn't a Fiend. The reason why he appears faceless is because Shun's existance was wiped from her memories, which are restored as Saki recalls their last conversation.

Saki begins to have dreams of a faceless child who tells her not to find Mamoru and Maria as they must die.

...

While in midair, she has a flashback of her parting with Shun, but still cannot remember his name or face.

...

On the way, Shun appears to Saki and suggests there is no fiend. ... As [Saki] runs past the dilapidated scene of Tokyo, she is finally able to recall her last conversation with Shun as her lost memories are restored and she sees an image of Shun before her.

Source: Wikipedia - From the New World (novel), Synopsis > Plot > Part II | Media > Anime > Episodes (Episodes 20 & 23)
While Shun had previously killed himself when he became a Karmic Demon, his Cantus was already incredibly powerful before his designation as a Karmic Demon, and it was thought that he could surpass Shisei Kaburagi (Kamisu 66's most power Cantus user). As the limits to Cantus are not truly known (two canti coming in contact with each other can distort space but this is previously forbidden by the Code of Ethics to control Cantus), it is possible that Shun's power allowed a part of him to live on following his death in a non-corporeal form and remerge in Saki's nightmare and during the Queer Rat Rebellion.
I don't believe it's ever explained why Shun would know Mamoru and Maria would die, or why he didn't want them to be saved. One possibility is the dark thoughts that led him to lose control of his powers and have him labeled as a Karmic Demon just manifested as wanting to let 2 of his friends die or as a form of jealousy as Saki was in love with Maria.
Another possibility is that Shun's power may have allowed him to become precognizant and could see the future and Mamoru's and Maria's deaths as necessary for it (eg. if they lived Messiah may not have been raised as they were), and knowing Saki's love for Maria, sent that dream to Saki to dissuade her from trying to find them.

thanks for the answer, i guess the "dark thoughts" makes the most sense to me as an explanation


text:
On what basis does Frieren (Sousou no Frieren) reject the rights of Demons to exist?
Frieren normally has a detached demeanour when it comes to the lives of others, with the sole exception of Demons to whom she sees their total annihilation as a just goal.
The reason she often cites is that Demons are beasts that merely mimic human intelligence to increase their survival. Her point is made all the more clear in the context of the Demon child that was spared by Himmel and others, and was raised alongside a human, to devastating results.
At the same time, humans have learned and reverse-engineered much of their magic from Demons. So Demons clearly have some useful knowledge of their own to give to the world, which was not borne out of mere mimicry.
How can she then not see them as intelligent beings?
Potential Reason 1: They are powerful forces of Nature, but do not understand their own power
One could make an analog comparison to forces of nature in our own world that we as humans seek to understand but ultimately wish to repel: e.g. volcanoes, tornadoes, mosquitos, etc.
Us humans cannot reason with Volcanoes, but we do seek to understand their mechanisms.
However this analog falls apart when we consider that in Frieren's world, Demons can directly communicate with their prey. They are also able to recognize when their spells have been replicated or surpassed by humans. There is no such analog in our natural world for that level of information exchange between Humans and Nature.
Potential Reason 2: Mimicking intelligence is not the same as intelligence
This brings us to the topic of AI. We have these beings that are able to impart knowledge on to us, are able to explain their mechanisms to us, are able to imagine/hallucinate topics, and do it all through some form of mimicry and inference.
Is this not what Demons do, albeit trained by dark forces of nature, and not by humans/elves/dwarves?

Are you sure actually "she sees their total annihilation as a just goal."? Do you remember episode number or volume? As far as I remember, she mentions only that  demons and humans won't coexist (from which it follows annihilating demons is the only way to follow assuming survival of humans).

There's definitely an element of 2) in play: demons are repeatedly shown to use concepts they don't actually understand as part of their emotional manipulation tactics.

The demon child spared by Himmel earned his mercy by pleading for her mother. Later, while dying, she admits that she doesn't know what a "mother" is, only that saying the word causes humans to spare her.
When Lugner approaches Graf Granat with an offer of peace, he's able to convince Granat that he's genuine by claiming that his father was killed in the war between their armies, just like Granat's son was. After Lugner and his assistants leave the room, Linie asks what a father is and Lugner replies, "Who knows?"

However, the main reason for Frieren's crusade against demons has nothing to do with their level of intelligence: it's simply the fact that demons, being a type of monster, are inherently evil and cannot meaningfully coexist with humanity. They can pretend to, as Lugner and the demon child do, but it's never anything more than a ruse so they can further their actual goal of spreading death and destruction to anyone and anything that isn't a demon.

Setting aside the fact that demons are cunning, ruthless, and cruel, they have waged war against all intelligent beings other than themselves. Frieren is an elf, and the team also includes a dwarf. As non-human races, they can coexist peacefully with humans.
So why do demons initiate war? Because they simply want to kill. They are a race that survives by squeezing out the living space of other races, and such behavior inevitably leads to resistance. Unlike elves and dwarves, who have empathy and emotions as intelligent beings, demons are closer to intelligent machines. Magic, to them, is not something they study out of love or subjective will, but more like an instinct. They were born with it, so they do not use their intelligence to contribute to the world but use their hands and feet to kill. The ones who contribute are those who risk their lives to study demon magic, only to resist the brutal race.
You can revisit the Golden Land Arc of Sousou no Frieren. I won't spoil the details, but this arc explains why demons cannot be reformed.

Since you've mentioned MangaGatto in all your answers so far, and linked to it in at least one, I need to ask you a couple of questions. Firstly, are you affiliated with MangaGatto in any way? We require any such affiliations to be disclosed, otherwise your answers could be considered spam. Secondly, does MangaGatto have licenses for the manga it distributes or is it engaging in piracy? We don't tolerate the promotion of piracy on this site.

In addition to the above comment, I removed all references to that site because it's irrelevant to the question anyway.

Freiren rejects the rights of the demons to exist on the basis that they are trying to exterminate humanity. Consider that most ethics systems in use are human-centric, or anthropocentric. I personally don't believe in human-centric ethics, but I'm going to be answering from this perspective. We are dealing with a fantasy world, so there are other races like dwarves and elves, but they are similar enough to humans that we can lump them in with humans. The demons on the other hand are vastly different and even have an instinct to kill humans. As a group, their goal is the extermination of humans. Thus, under anthropocentrism, the demons' lives are not only not worth anything, but also a severe threat to humanity, and thus of negative worth. Removing them is thus justified.
Carrying on, the demons do not have actual intelligence and language comprehension. As per the Fandom Wiki, They are actually just monsters who "only know how to use words without knowing its meaning". Characters in the series, such as Freiren herself, comment on how the demons only use words to deceive and kill humans. She states accurately that it is foolish to try to make peace with demons, as the anime shows us this twice: once in the form of a flashback where a demon child was forgiven for killing a human child and taken in by a village head, only for the demon to kill the village head later. And next when we see how the demon's peace envoy is merely going along with the peace process as a means of tricking the humans into letting down their barrier, so that the demons can slaughter all the humans.
Like monsters, demons bodies dissolve when they die. This suggests they are not alive and sentient in the same sense as humans.
If you think of Chat AI stuff, it can use it's language model to predict what dialogue should be used next in a conversation, but it doesn't understand the conversation in the same way as a human. The demons might be doing something similar to that in order to converse.
Alternatively, we can examine the depth of their understanding of language. As per the sources below, we can examine two levels of understanding: idea and concept. As per the article, idea is merely a "rough mental impression". It's possible the demons understand the idea of words like "father" and "son", and are thus able to use them properly in a sentence, but that they don't actually understand the concept of them, and have no depth of understanding. Thus when asked to explain what a father is, they are unable to.
https://www.trinka.ai/blog/idea-vs-concept-how-are-they-different/
https://www.printmag.com/design-culture/whats-the-difference-between-an-idea-and-a-concept/
https://paperpal.com/blog/academic-writing-guides/language-grammar/idea-vs-concept
https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/8918/what-is-the-difference-between-an-idea-and-a-concept
A similar creature to the demons that must be examined is the perfect clones created by the Spiegel. This creature reads the memories of those who enter it's labyrinth and creates clones that perfectly match the targets' mana and magic techniques. In spite of this, we are explicitly informed that these clones do not have minds, as one mage's hypnosis technique is shown to be completely ineffective.
Spiegel was most likely put into the story as a means of foreshadowing something about the demons. The clones and the demons both lack sentience (though to differing degrees). The fact that the clones are all controlled by Spiegel might suggest that the demons were originally created by some singular, unknown, malicious entity. This could potentially be a deity. Deities have been mentioned in Freiren, though as of now, it is not entirely clear if they actually exist. The entity could also be a mage or some such.
But currently it is difficult to say if this will be the case, or if Spiegel is meant to signal something else. Either way, it is difficult to predict how the story will proceed with the demons.
See also:
https://frieren.fandom.com/wiki/Ecology
https://frieren.fandom.com/wiki/Demon

Some demons are capable of studying and using human magic. They can't just be parroting automatons, to me there's intelligence there.

Answer of Why Freiren Rejects Demons
Why Freiren rejects demons is trivially answered. Her disregard of the demons' lives makes sense given the adverse experiences she's had with them. Additional experiences all have affirmed her beliefs about the demons, as was the case in the flashback with the demon child. And she also studied under a master who similarly hated and wanted to kill demons, due to traumas and transgressions perpetrated against her. Thus, there is nothing inconsistent with Freiren's character with this regard.
Answer of Why Freiren Rejects Demons
The question of why Freiren rejects demons' right to exist is more complicated. First we must establish whether or not the story actually does this.
I think it is apparent that the story does reject demons' right to exist. Just from watching the anime, it is apparent that Freiren is made the voice of the story. She delivers exposition about the demons and her viewpoint is justified by flashbacks and events in the story. She states that demons only use words to deceive. The demon peace envoy is only working to deceive the humans so that they can kill them all.
So, yes, the story does reject the demons. As to why, we can only really guess what the author was thinking, and I don't really think it's answerable. This is just my impression and pure speculation, but I got the feeling that the author was rejecting the trend in anime of having demons be portrayed as misunderstood good guys. Demons have typically been used as unapologetic bad guys with no redeeming features, and the author of Freiren wanted to do that.
Analysis of Logical Inconsistency
Moving on from the answer, the traits of the demons are portrayed inconsistently, with particular dissonance between what the story tells through exposition dialogue and what it shows through the demons' actions and dialogue. I will expand on this thought later, but it suffices to say that this contradiction makes it difficult to assess the demons.
For now, let's examine how the story attempts to dehumanize the demons. There's no doubt that the demons are in conflict with the humans and that they're a threat to humanity, but I found the dehumanization aspect quite contrived. There is no need to try and insist that the demons don't think or use language. In fact, it's rather contradictory because manipulations such as those the demons perform require both an understanding of words and a high degree of emotional intelligence. But let's consider what the story says.
These are three aspects about the demons we need to consider:

The demons have a lack of empathy (and also lack some other emotions humans have).
They don't understand the words they use. They are monsters who use words to deceive. Their minds are vastly different from humans.
They have an instinct to kill humans.

Now, moving on, what the story tells about the demons seems to call into question both their cognitive ability and their language processing ability.
But looking at the demons cognitive and language abilities, it's quite obvious that the story is creating a contradiction by what it tells and what it shows. The story tells us that demons don't understand the words they use, and even has the demons themselves tell us this in the cases of the words "mother" and "father". But what the story shows is that demons use and understand language just the same as humans. Consider these points:

The demon child admits she doesn't know what a mother is. But when Freiren asks her why she calls for her mother despite not having one, the demon child uses language to explain why she does this. So the demon child uses language constructs to explain why she uses a language construct she doesn't understand. In other words, she understands language but also doesn't understand language.
In a confrontational scene with the lord of the city Graf Granat, who is angry about his son being killed by demons, the demon Lugner of the peace delegation looks around the room and then complements how clean it is. He connects visual information and translates them into words. He then says that his own father was killed in the conflict, establishing a line of empathy to the man. Before this point, nobody had mentioned fathers, only a son, so this shows Lugner is able to connect related ideas. This manipulation itself indicates a high degree of understanding of the emotions of humans. When asked afterwards by one of his comrades what a father is, Lugner says "Who can say." This is an idiomatic expression indicating he doesn't know what a father is. Using such an idiomatic expression would be more indicative of an understanding of language.
The magic system in Freiren is based on imagination. The demons hone one magical power through their research. This indicates they have imagination and thus cognitive ability.
The demons have a loose hierarchy and culture based on magical power. We know this is the case because Freiren ruthlessly exploits their respect for magic in order to kill the demons. This happens because demons will always fight fair and square against a mage, due to their respect for magical power. Freiren furthermore gets an edge because the demons' culture means they can't contemplate the idea of someone suppressing their magical power as Frieren does. All this to say, demon culture exists, and this all indicates that the demons have cognitive ability.
Continuing off the previous idea, the demons feel pride for their magical abilities. To feel pride, one must have thoughts and emotions.
The child manipulates sloppily, mainly through sympathy. Lugner demonstrates much more skill in understanding his target's emotional state. His subordinates, younger than him, are less skilled. This difference in social and emotional intelligence between the different age groups of demons shows that social and language skills probably develop with age, the same as in humans.
The demons communicate with each other through language. If they didn't actually understand words, why would they do this? Neither party would get anything out of talking.
At the end of episode 7, Draht's thoughts are directly shown as he contemplates killing Freiren. The thoughts are expressed in language.

In spite of what the story tries to tell us, the demons clearly have cognitive and language processing ability. Every time they speak, they provide more evidence that they can comprehend language. Other media like Made in Abyss and more similarly the "Let the feast begin" cricket guys in the DLC in Dark Souls 3 provide monsters that imitate language more like parrots. The demons in Freiren are obviously not like that. The manipulations done by the child demon could perhaps also be performed by an unintelligent animal, but this is not the case for the adult demons.
The skill at which demons like Lugner manipulate humans indicates cognitive and language ability, as well as the ability to understand the culture and emotions of humans, even if he himself does not feel those same emotions. Trying to impose some kind of intellectual and moral superiority through understanding emotions through empathy and feeling rather than intelligence is just nonsensical. So the demons' understanding of emotions is valid even if they don't feel those emotions.
And it is particularly contrived when the demons become a vehicle for dehumanizing themselves, such as when Lugner agrees with Freiren's assessment and says, "Wild beasts who communicate with lies. It's not an inaccurate description."
Additionally, rationally thinking through what happened with the child demon in the flashback gives us little reason to doubt her explanation for why she does what she does. The mother whose child was killed would obviously never forgive the demon, so the demon's statement with regard to that can only be the truth. It honestly feels like she actually thought that handing over the other child would fix things, which means her main problem is a lack of understanding of human values and culture.

Every day since I came here, I've felt your desire to kill me. But I
just wanted to live in harmony. I figured out a way to make things
right. Here, take this child as a replacement for your offspring. The
one I ate.  [...] Despite my good intentions, unfortunately, it seems
as though I've made another mistake. You've given me no choice. I'm
taking this child hostage.

And for posterity, here's the next conversation, between Freiren and the demon child:

Freiren:  Why call out to a mother? Demons are monsters, and like all monsters, they don't raise their young. Once born, you are
abandoned. You walk this world alone. That makes you ruthless,
solitary creatures. Lone wolves with no concept of what family means.
Explain.
Demon Child: It's simple. That word stops humans. It keeps them from murdering us. Isn't that magical?

Untenable Premise
The premise presented by the story about demons being unable to understand language was unsustainable from the beginning. While it is technically possible to write consistently with regard to it, I would not expect many to be able to do so. Either because the author doesn't know how to be consistent to that (which is hard) or because they don't actually care that much about being consistent to it.
It is much the same as a different premise in Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun. Early on in the work, there is a chapter with his two demon friends where he uses the word "friend" and they don't know what it means, thus establishing that demons don't understand the concept of friendship, and Iruma having to explain it to them. But this premise was unsustainable because of the direction the work wanted to go and what the author wanted to do with the characters and world. Thus, it ends up being contradicted. In fact, it is contradicted in the very chapter in which it appears, because Iruma's grandfather (a demon) uses the word and is thus shown to understand the concept of friendship. And later in the series, the goal of one of Iruma's classmates is to make a lot of friends.
Thus, just like Freiren, the work presents contradictions.
Theme
The overall presentation of the demons in this arc raises a particular theme that some might find grating. By insisting that the demons can never be gotten along with, and that anyone who tries to do so is being deceived, the story says something like, "There are just some groups of people that you can't get along with, and one side has to exterminate the other."
Online Discussion
I assume this question was asked with the online discussion around this question in mind. There's condemnation of the usage of the evil race tropes and such. I don't particularly find what the author wrote offensive. Obnoxious, perhaps. But the story of Freiren is good enough in other regards to disregard this. It's really only the fandom's harassment and sophistry towards those who object to the themes raised that I find offensive.
One of the counterpoints I saw raised to the objections was that the demons don't resemble any real groups of people. But this counterpoint is actually not true. They resemble three groups of people.

Neurodivergent people. The demons are stated to have minds that are vastly different from humans. Neurodivergence is defined as those "whose neurocognitive functioning diverges from dominant societal norms in multiple ways". Neurodivergent individuals includes people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, etc.
Autistic people. The demons have autistic traits such as social communication difficulties, hyperfocus (in the way they focus on one type of spell), autistic special interests (for example, one of the demons is fascinated by humans and studies them), and stereotypical autistic traits such as a lack of empathy. Note that autistic people do not lack empathy, but this misconception unfortunately persists in popular perception. Look up the double empathy problem for more information on that.
People with antisocial personality disorder. This is probably the closest fit to the demons and the most problematic one. The demons essentially only care about killing and are highly intelligent, which are two stereotypical traits that make individuals with antisocial personality disorder seem scarier than they actually are.

Even with all this, I don't think Freiren is particularly egregious or anything. After all, many in the autistic community relate heavily to Freiren. And there is also Übel, who has many antisocial traits.
But on the other hand, I have seen posts online where the Freiren community was being openly dismissive towards the sentiment that Freiren is autistic, and very rude and toxic towards the members of the autistic community that hold this view. This behavior is indeed problematic. If someone relates heavily to a character, we need to be accepting of that.
It's fine to have different interpretations of the story, but try to have meaningful discussions and please remember that you are communicating with fellow human beings. And it is best to listen and learn from others' perspectives rather than gatekeeping and trying to silence their voices.
Further Considerations
From https://www.animefeminist.com/who-is-granted-personhood-frierens-demons-and-the-trouble-with-the-inherently-evil-race-trope/:

Some viewers have used mental health shorthand to describe the demons, calling them “basically sociopaths.” I find this assessment of the demons offensive, and it aligns with some of the issues described above. Sociopathy or Psychopathy—their proper term: Antisocial Personality Disorder—is categorized as a limited capacity for empathy and lacking remorse for hurting others (there’s more to it, but this is the Cliff’s Notes version). This can have degrees of severity and can occur comorbidly with other disorders. But here’s the thing: empathy isn’t morality. It can help guide you to it but it’s not the be all, end all of whether or not someone will be a kind person. Not everyone who hurts you is a sociopath and not all sociopaths are violent. And even a violent sociopath is still a person.
Except, conveniently, a fictional demon is not a person. When traits that exist in real life—be they physical characteristics, cultural practices, behaviors, or mental health conditions—are projected onto fantasy races that are marked as being always and inherently evil, it functions as a way of dehumanizing the very real humans who share those traits. This may not be malicious or even intentional on Frieren’s part, or any other series that does this. Many modern fantasy works inherit the hurtful ideas embedded in these tropes when they borrow and repeatedly use them without examination. However, regardless of intention, this characterization of the demons has a detriment to Frieren’s writing, which otherwise has quite a nuanced and gray morality.

Robot/AI Comparison
The Chinese Room is a thought experiment relevant here, which I learned about through the video game The Turing Test. This might be of interest to people interested in this question, so there's a link to the Wikipedia article. Though as of right now, I don't really see why people think the demons' thought processes are so different from humans' that they're more similar to AI.
A story that raises a similar moral quandary is Bladerunner. I'm not particularly familiar with the story, but I've seen the replicants/androids described as "organic robots" and the only thing seemingly distinguishing them from humans is that they're manufactured and that they have sociopathic tendencies. To me, the fact that they're organic means they've obviously human and I don't get why that's in question. The social quandary of whether people would accept this premise that they're robots or whatever is of more interest to me, because obviously people will accept all sorts of nonsense if it's convenient for themselves and their worldview.
Further Reading
I was skimming these, and they didn't particularly seem helpful, but here they are anyway:
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2011/03/11/study-finds-learning-language-goes-beyond-imitation
https://www.ohbmbrainmappingblog.com/blog/what-language-does-your-dog-speak-how-dog-brains-process-language
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105381192101082X
https://online.hull.ac.uk/blog/what-is-artificial-intelligence-and-how-is-it-different-from-human-intelligence
https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125969902.pdf

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