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Why do the Celestial Spirits work for their wizard?
What is the reason why the Celestial Spirits work for their wizards (such as Lucy)? I understand that they have a contract, but why do they get into the contract at all? I could not think of anything they gain from the contract.

if you think about it, its kinda the same as Pokemon...

I didn't manage to find any sources that answer this question exactly, but I'm going to speculate about it a little.
My opinion is that the spirits are forced to appear once the wizard acquires the key. The key, as we know, is usually required to open the gate though which the spirit comes from the spirit world. When the gates are opened in the first time, the wizard and the spirit make an agreement (e.g. on which days should the spirit be summoned).
Now, if you look at how do the spirits react when Lucy calls them, you may notice some interesting things. For example, when she summons Aquarius, Aquarius is often disappointed with Lucy, and shortly returns to the spirit word, sometimes refusing to do what Lucy asks for.
One might ask: why in that case would the spirit even appear? If Aquarius is not in the mood, she could as well not appear at all, rather than be summoned and almost instantly go back (after a few insults towards Lucy, that is). That leads us to an assumption that the spirits can not actually refuse to be summoned, and possessing the key almost equals possessing the spirit's contract (they just have no other options).
Some spirits, however, find benefits in working with the wizards, for example, Taurus enjoys being summoned because that way he can observe Lucy's body, which he admires.
In general, most of the spirits become very loyal to Lucy once she acquires their keys, so that is another argument for the assumption that possessing the key forces the spirit to make the contract and work for the wizard.

That's a good analysis. Though it still leaves the question of why they are forced to obey their master. As you said, there is no source as of now. Maybe they will explain that sometime later in the story.

The answer has it all. Why the spirits are forced to obey their master? Because the master has the key, obviously. And why the keys work? It's magic. ;)

Nice example! Taurus->Lucy's body->Find Benifit (!!!)
LOL!

This sounds quite right if you think about Aries who was almost forced to stay in the human world for a week, until Leo intervened.

As ytg says, the master has the key so they obey them, they still aren't bound to do whatever the master says, as can seen with loke, he refuses to listen to his master when aries gets hurt

In the episode where the Spirit King appeared because Lucy exclaimed that she would change the rules of the spirit world, he said that the spirits and humans had an agreement together. That "agreement" can mean the contract between the spirit and the wizard, or it can mean that something happened between the humans (probably wizards) and the spirits which made the spirits be indebted to the humans, therefore, they pay it with their services to the human.

This may not completely answer your question, but spirits are born to help their "masters" and carry out orders. Whether they listen to the wizard or not depends on the spirit's personality. For example Aquarius would usually go right back to the spirit world after being called. But other spirits that have more loyalty towards Lucy would stay by her side.

source: Stack Exchange

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How does GunBuster become Dix-Neuf?
At the risk of going into anime physics, how does GunBuster become Dix-Neuf?
My understanding of the series is that GunBuster, the first Buster Machine ever created, was used in the final battle of GunBuster to drop off its Degeneracy Generator. It then limped back to Earth and appeared 15,000 years later
Then in DieBuster timeline you eventually figure out that Dix-Neuf, a Buster Machine with a number in the teens, has been slowly upgraded and rebuilt over a long period of time and is missing its own Degeneracy Generator. Because of that I assumed that Dix-Neuf and GunBuster are the same.
However, how did GunBuster become Dix-Neuf if GunBuster is still floating in space? What's the connection between the two machines?

Here's some more.
Krazer's answer was almost right in general but Sizzler series never had numbers because they were mass-produced types. According to comics version, Buster Machine No.4+5 is called Great Gunbuster.

The image above is prototype of gunbusterII. and...Here's Great Gunbuster.

Rumour has it that Buster machine No.6 is buster corps but since it's not official so I can't guarantee it. And finally, we know what is No.7.
 Plus, I heard another rumour that sizzler black has been rebuilt after escape from jupiter bomb and...became Dix-Neuf. Supporting references? Sizzler black lost its left arm in the Bomb and there's a comment that Dix-Neuf's left arm was artificial from old times. However, it is also non-official opinion, not believable.

Here is a breakdown of the Buster Machines in Gunbuster:

Buster Machine No. 1 = Noriko's Buster Machine
Buster Machine No. 2 = Kazumi's Buster Machine
Buster Machine No. 1 + 2 = Gunbuster
Buster Machine No. 3 = Blackhole Bomb ("Jupiter-in-a-can")
Buster Machine No. 4, 5 and 6 = Sizzler Black, White, Silver (mass-produced prototypes)
Buster Machine No. 7 =

 Nono!

If you compare the original Gunbuster to Dix-Neuf, the "new" buster machines are fairly weak compared to the old ones and considerably smaller than the original Gunbuster as well.
Take note that the original machine had a full-height hatch in the side of its hand. Nono appears to be roughly as tall as Dix-Neuf's hand is wide. If Dix-Neuf and the original Gunbuster are built on similar proportions, the original would be at least two to three times the size of Dix-Neuf, not to mention considerably more powerful since it could dispatch a large number of space monsters similar to the "variable gravity well."
It's never referenced how old Dix-Neuf is, but it has an original Buster Machine cockpit, a set of the Top uniform, and is Degeneration Reactor compatible. The greatest difference between the traditional Buster Machines and the TOPLESS Buster Machines are their power sources (to bend the laws of physics). Traditional Buster Machines have a Degeneration Reactor, each with an output greater than the Sun. TOPLESS Buster Machines are powered by their TOPLESS.

 By grabbing a Degenerating Reactor from a Buster Corp unit, Dix-Neuf becomes Buster Machine No. 19, so it never was the original Gunbuster.

Never thought of the height, Gunbuster is huge. Thanks for the answer

I think the short answer is that this is a red herring. Dix-Neuf isn't the original Gunbuster, and the reveal is after the time-skip when the original finally gets back to Earth.
An un-sourced explanation from an /a/ thread says this:

All the old Buster Machines including Dix-Neuf were built with degeneracy generator, but the former humanity removed it to bury the technology as they branded it to be too powerful. Future generation replaced them with Topless cockpits (Topless being the power-source instead of the generator) and new production of Buster Machines aren't made for the said generators, so only the old generation ones can use them.

So Dix-Neuf is just an old Buster machine that had its generator ripped out. Seems to make sense. Guess now I have to rewatch Diebuster (just finished with Gubuster an hour ago)

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Why does Abel Nightroad's hair stick up?
In Trinity Blood, Abel Nightroad's hair sticks up when he is in vampire form. Is there any reason given either in-canon or by one of the creators?

Because when people change forms it's popular to give them spiky hair. Ala DBZ.

No in-canon reason given, but apparently it should have something to do with the nanomachines activation. You should check the original Sunao Yoshida's novels to say if it's something that appears only in the anime for a stylistic reason.

Yes, like everyone mentioned above. This is more of a visual effect to give the viewer the sense of change in the character during that specific sequence. =)

I have read the Sunao Yoshida's novels and there is no information regarding why he gets the spiky hair. Looking in the internet I have found no interviews of Sunao Yoshida talking about it, so the only thing I can say it is just something stylish to the electric discharges he is able to do when he transforms.


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How does Yuka stealing Narumi's Alice take away his ability to love?
In Gakuen Alice, Yuka Azumi stole Narumi's Alice when she was running away. Consequently, he lost all ability to love her or anyone else. How does this work?

When Narumi used his pheromones to make her love him. That made her lose control of her Alice, which had the result that not only Narumi's Alice was stolen, but his love-feelings, too. It seems that the Pheromone-Alice is connected to the emotions, and an out-of-control-stealing-Alice steals more than it's supposed to. If Yuka had retained control, Narumi would still have his ability to love.


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How does the Elementary School Principal get away with so much?
In Gakuen Alice, the Elementary School Principal is involved with a lot of things that seem to be illegal, including

the death of Mikan's father.

Is it ever said in the manga how he can get away with that? Why doesn't anyone (including the government) stop him or at least try to prosecute him?

Everything I found is this:

He is known to cause countless chaos to the academy without leaving enough proof for his actions, which explains why he has never been punished.

Source: http://gakuenalice.wikia.com/wiki/Kuonji


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Why was Akira naked in the first episode of Eden of the East?
Why was Akira naked in the beginning of Eden of the East?
Supposedly it was revealed later on in the series. However, I wasn't able to pick it up despite having watched it through in depth.
Could someone provide a summary?

There's a few theories in this forum thread, but it doesn't appear that anyone actually knows why...

A couple of theories on that.

He was trying to remove anything that could be used to identify him, which is why he erased his memories as well.
He was going to be in front of the white house holding a gun and not knowing who he is, the nakedness was to add on to making himself look insane.


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In Highschool of the Dead, how long does it take for a person to become one of 'them' (a zombie)?
In the anime and manga of Highschool of the Dead, the world is going through a pandemic of a lethal disease which kills a person, makes them rise from the dead, and seek to eat their own kind - infecting the persons the devour with the disease.
In the first episode,

 When Hisashi is bitten by one of 'them', he has a wound for a long time. It takes more than 2 hours for him to finally die.

During the first 9 minutes of episode 3 or 4, there are annotations on the bottom of the screen stating the time of the events that occurred. When we see the scene with Takashi, Hisashi and Rei are running through the school trying to make it through to the roof - you can easily see

 the wound on Hisashi's arm - which is a bite mark that made him infected, and death inescapable. He coughs and splutters blood, and it takes him from around 1:00 PM to 3:05PM to die.

However, later in the series, you can see that those bitten can also become 'them' instantaneously. For instance,

 in episode 6 or 7, we see a swarm of 'them' trying to attack the police at the first bridge. A live woman is amongst the crowd pleading to be saved and protected, with her daughter 'alive' in her arms. But the daughter rises as one of 'them' and bites her Mother. For a brief second, you see the Mother in shock - and then only seconds later she turns into one of 'them'.

Is there any real way to tell how long it takes for a live person to turn into 'them'?

If anything, it's probably the severity of the bite. Otherwise, it's whatever the producers chose to make the show flow better.

I was thinking that. That 'anime magic' I suppose :P. Hisashi's bite was small, if I remember. Whereas perhaps the other victims had large bites, which sped up the process. Hm...

Could it some pathogen whose initial quantity is proportional to the severity of the bite? This pathogen would eventually cause 'death' and then reanimation.

It's most reasonable to suspect the severity of the bite.
When Hisashi was attacked, he had a layer of clothing protecting him. So it's safe to say that the bite didn't get very deep penetration. Hence why he was able to last the entire episode (several hours)?

Oh the other hand, Tejima-sensei from earlier in the first episode took a large bite directly on his naked arm. He was zombified almost instantly (under 1 minute).

I hope these images aren't too graphic. I can pull them if need be.

Like any other disease, the length of the incubation period is dependent on several facts:

The localization. A bite in the neck may kill you faster than a bite in your foot.
The severity. As @Mysticial pointed out, Hisashi was protected by clothes, while Tejima was bitten directly.
The time the zombie is infected. If the zombie is only infected 2 seconds, there might be less viruses transferred with one bite, than by a zombie who is infected since several days.
The immune system. Like with any other disease, an ill person will pass the incubation period faster. If you're absolute healthy, you may have more time.


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Is Hyouge Mono historically accurate?
The anime and manga, Hyouge Mono, is set in the Sengoku era and follows tea related items. I can see that in general the events of the era seem to be more or less accurate, and all the wacky outfits probably aren't accurate (or are they?), but I'm wondering about the tea related aspect of the series.
Did the warlords of the time (especially Oda Nobunaga) have tea masters and treasure master crafted tea-ware in any way like they're portrayed in Hyouge Mono? Are any of the crafted items, at least the ones with proper names, real items from the period?

Most iconic figures in Japanese history seems to be historically accurate, except for Sasuke (though he seems to be based on Furuta Oribe), Senno, and many of the supporting cast. The use of firearms and Atakebune warships seem to be accurate portrayals of the Sengoku period.

All characters on the show are based on historical figures. Furuta Sasuke is in fact Furuta Oribe but he will only change his name later in life.
Same goes for Sen no Soeki who will become famous under the name of Sen no Rikyu.

You may want to improve your answer by providing links to some things you claim to be true. See @кяαzєя 's comment as an example of a good answer.

Tea bowls and items are real names.
There are records of those. As you can see in Hyouge mono, there was an tea economy rose by tea masters and samurai lords.
Lord Hisahide Matsunaga who blew up with hiragumo kettle in manga and anime, in fact blew up with hiragumo in the top of the castle.
Nobunaga really wanted it, too.
There isn't a record of that Oribe took the broken lid of the kettle though.
So the events appear in the manga or anime are accurate but some scenes Oribe with other samurai lords (especially enemy ones) are more fictional.
Clothes are very exaggerated but Nobunaga really liked western clothes (from Portugal).
In my opinion the author does it deliberately because exaggeration is more suited to Oribe's aesthetic sense.
Later his name remains in style of tea bowls as Oribe ware.

While you attempt to answer the question, you provide no sources. You say there are records of the items, yet you provide none. You say the events are accurate, maybe providing some references of examples to specific events would be useful as an answer.


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Why is there a 14th Noah?
This question could contain spoilers.
In Chapter 187, it was stated that after the Millennium Earl was killed, the remaining twelve Noahs repopulated the world - That means that there were only 13 Noahs. However, Nea Walker is referred to as "The 14th Noah". Where did he came from?

Maybe he wasn't counted as a Noah because he was disowned

@ChetterHummin: But that was around 7000 years later ...

Ah, my bad :) I haven't seen the series. Just read the wiki...

If you count Bondomus (Jasdero/Devit) as one apostle/person, then Nea (the so-called "14th") is the 13th apostle.

@Krazer: In chapter 187, Jasdero and Devit were counted as two apostles, if I'm not mistaken

@looper They are listed as two apostles in the CharaGray character book, too~

Unanswered in the manga as of now, but it is entirely possible that there are 14 Noah and the Earl only mentions 13 (including himself) because the 14th apparently dislikes the Earl, as he wants to dethrone him and take his place. Chapter 218 hints that a "Mana D. Campbell" may be responsible for the existence of the 14th, although i can´t really call the Earl in his current state of mind a reliable source.

It could be possible that the Millennium Earl was trying to hide the existence of the 14th Noah from the others for as long as possible, as until they found out about Allen, I don't recall any of them mentioning anything about the 14th, and they couldn't sense him yet as he wasn't awakened.
However, it's always possible that it could've been an error in translation, but I doubt it, as the official versions are, well, official.

Well, if the Millenium Earl was killed leaving the present 12 Noah remaining, I'll assume that one of these 12 is the new Millenium Earl. This new Millenium Earl states that in total there were only 13, and it should only be 13 by what I've seen in the anime and manga.
So my guess is the 14th Noah, Nea, is the reincarnation of the 1st Millenium Earl, the one that was killed by the other Noah, and for that reason he came back in another form as the 14th so he can kill the Millenium Earl and take his place back as head of the family.
Really silly answer, just guessing.


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What is the idea for exchanging Alice stones for engagement based on?
In Gakuen Alice, if two people exchange Alice stones that they created, it can act as the equivalent of an engagement or promise. Is this based on any specific Japanese tradition? If not, what is it based off of?

I believe this is exchange is a mix of different marriage traditions, the oathing stone and the traditions of engagement rings.
The part about the stones is probably based on an old Scottish tradition with Celtic roots.
The Oathing Stone is an old Scottish tradition where the bride and groom place their hands upon a stone while saying their wedding vows. This ritual tradition is thought to be the best way to express your solemn promise in physical form. The idea is derived from the ancient Celtic custom of setting an oath in stone.
The Scottish believe that an oath given near stone or water, being strong natural elements, make the vows much more binding. Traditionally during the reading of the bride and groom's wedding vows, they hold an oathing stone in their hands, believing that holding the stone during the reading of the vows casts them into the stone.
It's similar to the more modern version of the unity candle or sand ceremony.
The exchange is very similar to the exchange of rings that is prevalent is modern culture.
In Nordic traditions, the bride-to-be and groom-to-be exchange and were engagement rings. The Victorians exchanged "regards" with their rings.
Together this exchange probably symbolizes a literal exchange of vows.


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What settings/characters/events portrayed in Samurai Champloo are based in real events?
Samurai Champloo is supposed to take place at a fictional version of Japan in the Edo period. However, some settings/characters/events seem to be based in real events (the case of the Shimabara Rebellion is one of them).
What are the settings/characters/events portrayed in Samurai Champloo that are based in real-world events? And how historically accurate are they?

According to this wiki,

The show relies on factual events of Edo-era Japan, such as the Shimabara Rebellion ("Unholy Union;" "Evanescent Encounter, Part I"), Dutch exclusivity in an era in which an edict restricted Japanese foreign relations ("Stranger Searching"), Ukiyo-e paintings ("Artistic Anarchy"), and fictionalized versions of real-life Edo personalities like Mariya Enshirou and Miyamoto Musashi ("Elegy of Entrapment, Verse 2").

However, there are a number of things within the show that are not historically accurate, such as "bandits behaving like 'gangstas'". There is also a large amount of hip hop culture within the show, which is not contemporary to the period.
Also, according to Wikipedia:

The exact placement within world history is questionable, however, and is likely somewhat distorted by artistic license. For instance, the appearance of a six shooter in the episode of Misguided Miscreants Part I suggests that the story takes place after 1814, which is when that style of weapon was first invented, yet in the episode Stranger Searching it is explicitly stated that trade relations between Japan and the Dutch East India Company exist, the latter of which went defunct in 1798.

Six shooter:

In show:


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What happened to Lala in To LOVE-Ru Darkness?
I'm embarrassed to admit to watching this show. But this question has been bothering me for some time.
Lala is pretty much the main character in the series. She is the typical "primary" female in this genre of harem Anime.
Lala was the main character for the first two seasons: "To LOVE-Ru" and "Motto To LOVE-Ru".
However, in season 3 (To LOVE-Ru Darkness) Lala suddenly disappears from the stage and is no longer the main character. Instead Momo (Lala's sister) becomes the primary female character.
Why is this? What influenced the author to pull Lala from center stage and replace her with Momo?

My guess is that it has something to do with why To LOVE-Ru manga stopped serialization.

Just to back up my comment: http://forums.mangafox.me/threads/98009-possible-reasons-why-they-made-a-rushed-and-the-ending-suck./page2

I've heard some 2nd/3rd hand info about something to do with the guy's wife complaining that Lala was based off of her. But I'm looking for a more concrete answer with references if possible.

There is another person saying that Haruna, not Lala is based off of his wife. If I'm sure, I'd post as answer already...

Note: this answer may contain minor spoilers.

Instead Momo (Lala's sister) becomes the primary female character.
  What influenced the author to pull Lala from center stage and replace her with Momo?

I don't know how far along the anime is, but that's not entirely correct. Momo becomes a more important character than she was in previous TLR instances, but I think that's mainly for amusement / The Harem Plan™. And Lala isn't entirely dead yet. Why she isn't as prominent anymore? I have no real answer to that, but my guess is that her specific story is over and maybe the author just got tired of her. :)
Also, let's look at the name of the anime (and manga): To LOVE-Ru Darkness.
And whose name contains "Darkness" again? Right, Konjiki no Yami, aka Golden Darkness.
It becomes apparent pretty fast that she's the new main heroine, as the story revolves around her origin, her purpose, and friends / foes she has out in the universe.
A particular example would be Mea,

 who is an artificial "transforming weapon" just like Yami,

and her mysterious master.
We also finally get to know Yami's mother. It's hard to see where exactly TLR:D is going yet, but it's not your average ecchi fanservice manga / anime anymore.

Yeah, Yami is definitely more prominent in TLR Darkness Anime. But she's still nothing compared to Momo - who literally trolls Rito for the entire series.

@Mysticial: The anime must be far removed from the manga if that's the case. The beginning of the manga may focus on her quite a bit, but that changes and she's on par right now with Yami I'd say. Also, Momo doesn't troll Rito. ;)

Well, the restart really marks a change in direction. There is a plot backing the story now, on which the author can slowly advance on the plot while providing fanservices.

I think it's another story of this movie talk about MoMo, NaNa instead of LaLa. MoMo wanted to make Rito Fall in love with she by her Harem plan because she thinks however married MoMo instead of LaLa, Rito still become the greatest man in the universe. And this story might discover about the mystery girl, Mea. Everyone wanted to find who is Mea's master and her relationship with Yami. About another things, I have no idea. So if there is some thing wrong, please support me because this just my things about this. Thank you.

I can think of two reasons:
1)lala makes it hard to develop in relationship because of her child-like nature
2)the other reason is that THE HAREM PLAN of momo is necessary for the development of Yami who is the main focus.

Do you have evidence for your claims?


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What was the apocalypse that preceeded Sora no Woto?
The series Sora no Woto was based in a post-apocalyptic world that significantly reduced the technological capability of mankind. (Takemikazuchi spider tanks -> mundane tanks)
Then entire show focuses on events after the apocalypse, with only a glimpse of flash-backs to earlier events during the apocalypse. But for the most part, the apocalypse itself is largely shrouded.

Are there any details about:

What the apocalypse was?
How did it happen?
What did the pre-apocalyptic world look like?

Some speculation on this is at http://soranowoto.wikia.com/wiki/Speculation

I'm still learning english, but this is what I understood.

The apocalypse is related to the legend that Yumina describes in chapter 12. It could have been the great war against one angel (it appears on chapter 7 partially, you could see black wings in the windows- this happens when Felicia remember her past).
The enemy was extremely strong, even a takemikazuchi was not enough to fight against the "angel". I am not sure if it´s an alien or maybe advanced technology from that time. The "angel" uses a laser to destroy a city.
The world look likes today, some buildings without great technology, the only remarkable thing was takemikazuchi. Chapter 7 has more details.

From what I understood after watching this series:
The world has been mostly destroyed by a war. We don't really know if it is a war between humans or between humans and aliens.
The world of sora no woto seems to be destroyed between 2000-2010, because of several allusions to this era during the anime.
We don't know much because I suspect this series was supposed to be part of a bigger multiverse.
One hypothesis is that this series has a tie-in with occult gakuin as they were two series from the same anime no chikara TV block. Basically, the story of occult gakuin is about someone from the future that comes back in the past to avoid the apocalypse that happened in his time period.


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What is Yuuki's relation to Kaname?
In Vampire Knight, the familial relationship between Yuuki and Kaname is relatively confusing. Can someone explain it?

Kaname is the founder of the Kuran family, and he was reawakened by Rido Kuran. After being reawakened, he was raised as the son of Haruka and Juri, who are Yuuki's parents. To summarize, Kaname is Yuuki's ancestor, though he was raised (after being reawakened) as her brother.
Yuuki was also born to be Kaname's wife, following the Kuran tradition of pureblood siblings intermarrying.
Cited from the Wikipedia article, which cites manga chapters.

should point out that Kaname was originally Haruka and Juri Son but Rido sacrificed him to awaken Lord Kaname. For Lord Kaname to suppress his blood lust from eons of slumber (and being woken in an incomplete state) and killing the Kuran Family he reverted to a child state.


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When is damage "permanent" in Accel World?
Within the accelerated world, when someone gets damaged or injured (even severely), they fully recover after leaving and re-entering the accelerated realm. (If you are killed you also come back normally.)
For example:

Taku cuts off Haruyuki's arm. (ep 5)
Niko's left arm is ripped off when Yellow Radio's minions tear apart her fortress. (ep 11)

Both of these injuries (a loss of an entire limb) are serious injuries that can't be recovered in battle.* However, when they leave and re-enter the accelerated world, they are fully recovered.
*Barring Chiyuri's time-reversal ability.

But there are at least two instances of when damage is not reversed upon re-entering the accelerated world:

Kuroyukihime amputates Fuuko's legs - hence the wheelchair. (described in ep 16)
Noumi steals Haruyuki's wings. (ep 15)

So what determines whether damage is healed?
Furthermore, how does Chiyuri's time-reversal ability play into this?

It seems not to be some kind of "rule", but aspect of specific stronger abilities/avatars:

it was explicitly said that Black Lotus avatar inflicts permanent damage with her blades
"steal" ability wouldn't be much of a steal without permanent aspect to it

I don't think it was explored (in anime at least) if there are ways to purposely achieve it (from leveling up would be logical) or as other aspects of avatars some people just happen to have it.

Could you cite where it is explicitly said that Kuroyukihime inflict permanent damage with per blades? Furthermore, she slices up quite a few avatars in the show. Certainly not all of those can be permanent no? That would imply that any kill she gets is permanent.

I don't have anime on hand to try look up precise quotes. Looking online I see that commonly used phrasing is along the lines of "parts cut off from avatar by her stay off" so likely it doesn't apply to kills. At the very least it was strongly implied that Sky Raker asked her to cut of her avatar's legs because it was only [available] way to do it permanently.

Dusk Taker (Nuomi) ability Demonic Commander can't be considered a ability that deals some kind of "permanent damage" but more like "ability transfer" or "ability taker", for that reason Demonic Commander doesn't deal any damage, and while my memory about the Anime is hazy, I'm pretty sure that the HP bar of Silver Crow (Haruyuki) didn't decreased and that left Haruyuki puzzled at first when Nuomi used such ability. It couldn't be classified as damage hence it's not healed, but restored with the Lime Bell (Chiyuri) ability Citron Call that reverses the status of the avatar/object.
About Sky Rakker (Fuuko) legs is not until latter in the history that this is explained, so this is considered spoiler from the Light Novel (unless the anime decides not to follow the history, this is what happens):

 Black Lotus (Kuroyukihime) didn't used a normal ability but the Incarnated System to cut Sky Rakker legs. This produces a overwriting of Fuuko avatar that whenever she appears in Territory Battles or the Unlimited Field, her legs are not present. This becomes more evident when they try to use Citron Call to restore Sky Rakker legs but it doesn't works since the overwriting of the Incarnated System is stronger than any ability.

It appears that Haruyuki's wings act almost like an item, similar to the Gale Thruster, but untradeable. Noumi's special move allowed him to transfer this item to himself. It is noted in the show that Fuuko's legs are now artificial in the real world, implying that Kuroyukihime physically amputated them in the real world.


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What are all the aspects of the Love Live TV series that were voted on by fans?
On the ANN article announcing Love Live's TV series, they report the following: (emphasis is my own)

The anime studio Sunrise, the music label Lantis, and ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G Magazine developed Love Live! School idol project as a self-described "ultimate user-participation project" which lets its fans vote on the future of the fictional idol characters. Online mobile phone polls have determined different aspects of the idols, such as hairstyles and costumes.

Obviously the article says "hairstyles and costumes" but I assume that's just two of the things voted on.
A perfect answer would contain screenshots of all of the polls, but if all you can find is the winning results (character X should wear twintails, character Y should be shy, character Z should be the main character, etc.) then that would be much appreciated too.

The polls seem to decide quite a bit of the series, sans plot. Unfortunately, not all of them were broadcast well (at least, in English or otherwise easily found). As you mentioned, characters' hairstyles, costumes, and appearance were voted upon. I was unable to find these specific polls and their results. In particular, it does not appear that the actual poll pages are available anymore.
In addition to the character attributes, though, names of the group and the mini units were decided through polls, and there are frequent (and still ongoing) popularity polls. Some polls are used to determine character order in media such as music videos.
Dengeki G's magazine is the medium through which (most of) the polls are hosted. They, and their results, were printed in the various issues of the magazine, and conducted through their mobile site.

(Note: All magazines are published two months in the future. Here, I've used the actual month of publication, rather than the "issue date".)
The first through fourth popularity polls ran as follows:

First popularity poll: Announced July 2010, ran from 15th-31st August.
Second popularity poll: Announced December 2010 (could not find poll run dates).
Third popularity poll: Announced July 2011, ran from 24th August to sometime in September.
Fourth popularity poll: Announced January 2012, ran from 15th February to 10th March. The results (#1 Kotori Minami, #2 Niko Yazawa, #3 Maki Nishikino) were published shortly after.

The naming polls were early in the publications, following the first popularity vote:

First idol group name vote: Ran from September to October 2010. After its success, five of the best names were chosen to be voted upon again.
Second idol group name vote: Ran from 31st October 2010 until January. The winning name, "μ's" (muse), is announced.
Three Units vote: Announced January 2011 (could not find poll run dates). The running unit names (Printemps, BiBi, and Lily White) were announced in February.

The popularity votes (or "general elections") were polls done for all the heroines of the show and were done by mobile phone site via Dengeki G's mobile site. I could not find the issue date for the 5th popularity vote, but it is ongoing at Love Live!'s official website, and will decide the central character of the 6th single music video.
Here is small publication of one of the results:

As for the rest of the polls' results, most of them can be found on the Japanese Wikipedia for μ's
and Aquors (screenshot here; they do not appear to be readily available anywhere in English).

While this answer is clearly not complete, it does contain a lot of relevant information and may prove to be useful to those searching for a more complete answer. Hence I'm awarding my bounty to it even though it doesn't technically meet the requirements.


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Why can't all Level Ds drink blood from blood capsules?
In Vampire Knight, some Level Ds, vampires who were turned by other vampires, are unable to metabolize blood created from blood tablets (synthetic blood created by the Night Class). That is said clearly in the story, but is it ever explained?

It could very well be genetic. In the manga, it's shown that Zero has been using Blood Tablets since Rido's destruction, there are 2 things which occurred around the time of Rido's destruction:

He drank Ichiru's blood, thus becoming the "complete" hunter he was supposed to be.
He drank Yuki's blood after she was turned back into a Pure-Blood.

We can rule out the second as Yuki's Blood at that time is Kuran blood, which Zero has had before from Kaname. Also, Yuki's blood as a human must have had some link to Kuran Blood as Rido also wanted it to be resurrected. So all that's left is the fact Zero had a genetic flaw since he was only a half-hunter.
In the anime, it only seems to reference that there are others like Zero, but Zero is the only one that I have seen, and I also have yet to seen anyone else in the manga either.

Please check whether my edit changes the meaning of your post. Thanks.

@nhahtdh the last sentence of the first paragraph (before the list) was talking about 2 thing which did happen, how you worded it made it sound like assumptions...tough i could have worded it better so i fixed up up slightly, the rest of your chnages is fine


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What was omitted/skipped from the end of Sakamichi no Apollon?
A friend told me that they crammed two whole volumes of the manga into the final episode of Sakamichi no Apollon (Kids on the Slope) which, obviously, forced some things to be skipped over.
What were some of the main things that were skipped? I don't need every detail, just a concise list is fine.

I'm curious about it too, it will be interesting to check if the series (12 episodes long) was originally planned to be longer.

Missing content
The manga has 9 volumes and one extra volume (titled 'Bonus track').
The "I'm happy Sen is gone" scene with Kaoru failing to convey his feelings to Ritsuko and afterwards telling her that he'll be going to Tokyo is the end of the manga's 8th volume. This scene is at 6 minutes into the anime's last episode.
In short, the following content of manga volumes 9 and Bonus is:

Kaoru leaves to study medicine at a Tokyo university where he rekindles his love with jazz. He kind of makes up with Ritsuko, then finds out she seems to be with another man and cuts all ties. He becomes a doctor at a Kyushu hospital and through a hint by Yurika (who lives with Junichi and later has twins) finds out that Sen became a priest on a nearby island. Sen arrived there after initially having decided to leave everything behind after his sister's accident. Only after realizing how much he loves to work with children does he change his mind. Kaoru meets Ritsuko again many years later, learning she never was in a serious relationship. The manga ends with everyone meeting for a jam session on the island, listened to by Ritsuko who is pregnant with Kaoru's child.

Here's a more detailed breakdown by chapters. For the sake of brevity Ritsuko is R. and Kaoru is K.
Volume 9:

ch41: On graduation day R. ignores K. He keeps thinking about Sen, but tells people that all this will soon be behind him and he will focus on his studies in Tokyo. K. shouts his apology at R.'s window, same as in the anime. The following train scene is slightly less dramatic - they have time to exchange a few words. R.'s dad thinks that Sen might have gone to Tokyo, too.
ch42:  K. is at university in Tokyo. With the student strikes still underway life seems easy going. He meets a girl at a party who invites herself over to his place for the night, but thinking of R. he sends her away again without anything happening. While visiting his mother, she sings Lullaby of Birdland waking old memories in him.
ch43: The strikes end and instead of partying, K. starts playing piano again after joining the jazz club at university and taking on a part-time job in a Shinjuku bar. The stress of both the job and upcoming university exams has K. at a low when he finds a photo of him and Sen in the bag R. gave him on his departure. The note on the back reads To the two idiots. Friendship is for life. Since 1966, and forever.  Inspired by this K. changes his mind and begins asking around at work for Sen. He also finally answers a letter he received from R. in ch42.
ch44: Junichi shows up at K.'s work and promises to help looking out for Sen as well. K. quits his job in favour of his studies but keeps exchanging letters with R. Over time, her's become less frequent and shorter. One day a telephone number is on a postcard from R. Upon calling the number K. is greeted by a man telling him to leave R. alone. K. assumes the obvious. At his grandfather's funeral K. is told the he is expected to inherit the formers hospital and become 'the pillar of the Nishimi family' (implying upcoming marriage interviews). K. sees Seji, who is now a celebrity, in the TV and realizes that unlike Seiji, he hasn't been following his dreams. Shortly after K. looses the photo of him and Sen and fails to find it again. Yurika (Junichi's girlfriend) visits K. in the hospital and gives him the photo of Sen as a priest together with the address on the island.
ch45: We see Sen as a priest in training on the aforementioned island. He seems popular with the kids and islanders. The sound of Moanin' being played on the organ draws him back to the church where he meets K. and they promptly have to run away from the head priest angry at the unauthorized organ usage. After a jump in time we learn that K. turned down the inheritance of the hospital and instead joined a hospital in Kyushu. At Sachiko's wedding (in Sen's church), K. meets R. again and learns that she never really was and certainly isn't in a relationship with the guy on the phone anymore. R. learns that K. isn't going back to Tokyo.

Bonus Track (Volume 10):

Track 1: Yurika is living with Junichi and is having trouble finding a job because she didn't graduate high-school. By chance, she finally finds one in painting sign-boards. While she is increasingly occupied with work, Junichi seems to act  cold and shows that he does not seem to think of a future for him and Yurika. It takes another train station scene with Yurika on the verge of moving out and out of the city for Junichi to admit his feelings.
Track 2: Kouta (one of Sen's brothers), now 14, is shown picking up jazz drumming in the record store's basement. He spends some time with R. who is over around the time of New Year's and they meet the guy who answered the phone when K. called R. back then. He doesn't take No for an answer which leads to an intervention of Kouta, and R. openly admitting to both of them that she still loves K.
Track 3: Backstory of Tsutomu (R.'s dad). He was introduced to Jazz by a guy called Kenji. Kenji often played Jazz with his brother and Tsutomu used to stop to listen to the sound he heard from the street, until Kenji invites him in one day and starts teaching him bass cello. There he also meets Fumi who has an unnamed illness and sneaks away from the hospital to spend time at Kenji's. With the second world war intensifying, Kenji goes off to join the naval band and Tsutomu is drafted for factory work. Kenji dies in the war and Tsutomu spends some hours with Fumi (who is still in the hospital) after not having seen her for a long time. During the following air raid Tsutomu saves Fumi's life but afterwards finds himself devastated by the destruction. To cheer him up she drags the cello to him and he plays solemn notes to gathering survivors amidst the rubble. Opening the record shop is fulfilling the dream Kenji had ('to spread the music of the world to this town and gather musicians to play together every day').
Track 4: Explains what happened to Sen after his sister's accident. Sen is found, almost drowned, by a fisherman. While staying at the latter's place to earn money for traveling on, Sen becomes friends with a younger reclusive orphan. Playing on improvised drums with her and the other kids in the village Sen remembers how much fun he has a around children and decides on his future career. it is initially suggested Sen might have tried to commit suicide by throwing himself into the sea. However, when he leaves the town we learn that he jumped into the water while trying to retrieve the orphan's necklace and passed out in the process.
Track 5: Kaoru, Sen and Junichi all meet up for a Jazz session on the island and learn that Yurika had twins. Sen sees Junichi for the first time since their argument years ago, but seemingly overcame all bad feelings and congratulates the two. Shortly after, Tsutomu and the pregnant Ritsuko arrive as well. The guys start arguing about the instrument the child will pick up, everyone of course vouching for their own, until Ritsuko reconciles the discussions with her suggestions of the saxophone.

Reasons
Concerning chirale's comment, I did not find anything specifically mentioning whether the series was originally planned to be longer. However, be aware that the Bonus Track Manga was announced only in January 2012, while the anime started airing already in April 2012. It is very possible of course, that the people involved were talking to eachother, but depending on how fleshed out the story for the additional Manga was (not) at this time, there probably wasn't enough time to fit it into the Anime as well.
In addition, as can be seen above, there isn't really enough story missing to warrant a second cour and some of the stories from the Bonus Track are rather episodic in nature, and therefore hard to adapt into a coherent episode.


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Does "Those Who Hunt Elves" have a definitive ending?
I know the manga has ended already, and several years after the 2 seasons of anime which didn't have a definitive ending.

 The second season ended with the attempt to send them back to Japan after all of the spell fragments were collected, but both failed and the fragments were scattered again.

Was there a definitive ending in the manga? Or more specifically:

 Did they get sent back to Japan or was the final attempt the last possible one? Or is it like the ending of the anime where they just have to continue to do it all over and over again?

Actually, there where two manga series:

Those Who Hunt Elves that was adapted almost entirely in the two anime seasons, and
Those Who Hunt Elves Returns, years after the ending, with new stories not directly continuing but mostly reusing the same characters for new adventures, but was very short.

Finally (for now) in 2013, the author continued with a new manga, also an "unconnected" continuation, with the same settings and characters but not exactly a sequel since the plots were already closed.
As for the plot that you mention, in the first manga, it was resolved somehow, but keeping the door open for those sequels.


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How does someone become a contractor in Kaze no Stigma?
A contractor is someone who makes a deal with a Spirit Lord and gains a large amount of strength from it. Kazuma became a contractor with the Kaze no Seirei-Ō. Is it ever shown how he becomes the contractor, and is the way that a wind-user becomes a contractor the same as the way that another spirit user becomes a contractor? If there are manga images that explain it, that would be appreciated.

It is never explained how Kazuma became a Contractor, and the process would´ve likely been covered had the writer not died. The best guess I can give is that:

He had incredible magical potential, just not when it comes to fire.
He was in desperate need for the power and made an earnest wish to the Wind Spirit King, catching his interest.


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How do the Noble Families work in Bleach?
In Bleach, there are Four Noble Families of the Soul Society. I know that people can have children in the Soul Society. However, is whether you are a part of the Noble family based on whether you were born into that family in the real world or in the Soul Society? For example, if you are from the original line of the Kuchiki family (in the real world) and you died, would you become part of the Noble Family?

I do not think they went deeper into the noble houses, so I believe there is no current information available about "How to become a noble". All the currently available information on the 4 noble houses can be found here.
There they also state:

The Noble Houses of Soul Society have an unclear role in the culture, social and governmental aspects of that dimensions existence.

Some speculation from my side: I think that they were either appointed by the Soul King or the Central 46. And I also believe the divisions are involved in this.

There is reason to believe that the captaincy of the 6th Division runs in the Kuchiki family, as at least two members, both of them were family heads, have held the title captain and two other known members have been lieutenant and 3rd seat respectively.

This part is just speculation though.


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What language is on the "God's Message" Cube?
In Crystal Triangle, there's an ancient relic in the shape of a cube that's got writing all over it and is referred to as "God's Message".

At first glance, it looks like it's based on Aramaic:

But then when we get a really good look at it, it doesn't look Aramaic at all:

Is this based on any kind of real world language/alphabet (similar to how the writing at the end of the Evangelion opening sequence is based on Angelic Script)? Or is it completely made up?

I have not seen this show, nor have I researched the question, so take this answer with a grain of salt.
At first glance, the inscriptions look like Chinese characters (hanzi) or Japanese characters (kanji) that have been modified a bit to look 'archaic' or chiseled into stone. I've taken the second picture and added in the Chinese characters (in red) that I think some of the etchings are similar to.


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What are the feathers on Rei's neck?
As of episode 7, we know the following:

Rei is somehow connected to the Alones that are attacking the city.
The (unnamed) black bird is able to inflict extreme pain on Rei through those feathers.
Every time Rei fires an arrow at an Alone, she consumes one feather.

Is there anything else that has been revealed? Do these feathers symbolize anything?

Note that the appropriateness of such questions has been covered on this meta post.

As of Episode 7, it's been revealed that it indicates how many Empowering Arrows she can fire and that she only has twelve of these arrows available.


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Why does Yuuki's room change?
During Vampire Knight (the first season) Yuuki shares a room with Yuri. During Vampire Knight Guilty, though, when they are all out for break, Yuuki's room only has one bed in it. Why isn't she staying in the dorm anymore? Where is she staying instead?

I don't have much experience with vampire boarding schools, but it's not uncommon for dorms to change after each semester or each year.

There are a number of guest rooms that Kaien has for guests; I'm quite sure Zero uses one of them himself, and you see one used when Hanabusa stays behind when the Night Class goes off for their break. I'm also quite sure Maria stays in another one after the end of the first season.
The room Yuuki is in, I think is a "special" room saved just for her by Kaien (if his mentality is anything to go by). Keep in mind that Yuri might have left the campus to visit family, so it's quite possible that Yuuki only stayed in the same room with Yuri because she was there, and that the room in which she is seen in Guilty is probably her original room.
But, the reason why she's in there may be related to Kaname.

 Even Shizuka's death was a part of Kaname's plans to draw out the Senate, have them release Rido, and then have Rido killed using Zero. Kaname knew that while he wasn't around, and Yuuki's memories were still repressed, she could become a target since Rido was always targeting her. Remember that Ichiru did try to get Yuuki to drink a vial of blood while she was sleeping, but Hanabusa stopped him; hell, knowing Kaname, he probably knew what Akatsuki said to Hanabusa and knew the exact reason why he stayed and knew that Hanabusa would protect Yuuki for him.


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Was CosPrayers deliberately bad?
If you've seen CosPrayers, you probably remember it as one of the worst anime you've watched. The story made no sense, with many important story elements being cut out entirely. The characters had no personality, terrible acting, and their actions didn't make sense. There was pretty much no explanation for what was happening either. The camera angles were strange. The random fanservice also kills any attempt at a serious tone, but the show seems to be trying to take itself seriously. It's just all-around a bad show. Wikipedia even claims that the show spawned a minor meme "Worse than CosPrayers" to describe incredibly terrible shows.
If that were all, then we could just write off the show as one of anime's great failures, but the abomination continued with Smash Hit! (Hit wo Nerae!) and LOVE♥LOVE?. These series were aired in sequence immediately after CosPrayers and produced by the same people. In them, CosPrayers is a live-action television show, and both shows are about the production of CosPrayers. It is plagued with numerous problems, including poor management, lack of experience of the producers, unsuitable content, and even actresses seducing the screenwriter to try to get more screentime.
If a real show was plagued with so many problems, I imagine the result would be pretty bad. So it's almost understandable why CosPrayers was so bad, especially if it was intended to add to the story of the other two series. However, if that was their goal, I'd imagine that airing CosPrayers last, rather than first of the three, would be the better approach. It's also rather unbelievable that a studio would create a bad show deliberately, since I can't imagine they'd expect to make money off of it. Still, the show seems almost too bad to be true, and some forum posts online claim that it was deliberately made that way to match the other two series better.
Is there any evidence suggesting that CosPrayers was made to be a bad show, and the problems plaguing it were deliberate? Or is this just "fan" speculation?

Hanlon's razor :)

Anything made by m.o.e. (part of Pony Canyon) seems to be varying degrees of bad

Having checked Wikipedia, TVTropes, the official website (via Wayback Machine), and Anime News Network, there was no information on this. Even if the show was deliberately made to be bad, it's likely that the production company wouldn't reveal that fact, so we'd have no way of knowing. Hence, there's probably no definitive answer to this.
However, the sorts of problems in the show aren't the sorts which one would deliberately create if the show was deliberately made to be bad. The show primarily suffers from an incoherent plot, as well as bland characters. But it doesn't seem to be deliberately incoherent; rather, they had no room to fit any plot in the short time that was allotted. This is evidenced by the fact that there are flashbacks to scenes which never took place on camera. Probably there was initially some attempt at a plot, but crucial pieces were cut during production.
It's also notable that the show, while terrible, isn't anywhere near the worst anime ever. If the production team was deliberately trying to make a bad anime, they could have done even worse, e.g. by using worse artwork or adding more plot holes. There's nothing good about Cosprayers, but there's plenty that could still be worse. As Jon Lin noted in the comments, M.O.E. (the studio responsible for Cosprayers) has done plenty of mediocre anime, and Cosprayers could easily just be somewhere on the low tail end of the distribution without being deliberately made to be bad.
Finally, as I noted in the question, it doesn't make any sense why Cosprayers would be aired before Smash Hit! and LOVE♥LOVE? if they were making it deliberately bad. The better strategy from a production point-of-view would be to air it the last of the three.
It's worth noting that at least one guy on the internet agrees with me. This review of Cosprayers discusses whether the show is intentionally bad or not in the final paragraph:

But back to that question of the parody retcon: According to Wikipedia, Smash Hit premiered only a week after CosPrayers ended, so it does seem possible that the producers had planned all along for CosPrayers to be crappy. But if that's the case, they're still complete blockheads. First of all, where's the sense in airing the intentionally sucky show-within-a-show before airing the making-of show that gives it context? Your audience will get bored and/or annoyed and go off to watch something else long before you have a chance to reveal the whole "it was supposed to be crap all along!" twist. And secondly, a crappy work does not automatically get any less crappy just because you made it crappy on purpose. If you sing a song horrendously off-key, it doesn't matter whether you did it because you're tone-deaf or because you're doing it intentionally to make some point — either way, it's still going to make my ears bleed. Being sucky on purpose isn't enough by itself — you have be entertainingly sucky, and preferably also include some satire on the sucky thing that you're imitating. Plus, I don't think CosPrayers is outlandish enough in its suckiness to qualify for the "haha sucky on purpose" crowd. Simply put, it's not bad enough. Despite that "worse than CosPrayers" meme, it's not the worst anime out there, nor is it even the worst I've seen. It's just kind of mediocre and incoherent. It fails even at being legendarily awful.

There are some sources which make the opposite claim, but neither side has any direct evidence. With that in mind, I'm of the opinion that while we can't know for certain, based on the above evidence it's very likely that the show was not intentionally bad.


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How many Fairy Tail members went missing from the guild during the timeskip?
Contains spoilers for fans who have not reached the timeskip.
The story takes a seven year timeskip at the end of the Tenrou Island arc. Members who went to the Tenrou Island to participate in the S-rank exam go missing. With the 8 exam participants and their respective partners, the 3 examiners, Master Makarov, and Laxus, that would be 21 members. Is this calculation correct?

At the end of the Tenrou Island arc,

 Acnologia sinks the Tenrou Island along with all the people on it.

Mest Gryder, one of the eight exam participants, is actually a Magic Council member, and he left the island earlier anyway.
Gray's partner, Loke/Leo, returned to the spirit world earlier.
Wendy and Gajeel took their Exceed partners, Carla and Pantherlily respectively, to the Tenrou Island.
Laxus was not a member at this time, since he had been expelled and Makarov refused to readmit him.

Taking all the above into account, altogether 20 Fairy Tail members (and Laxus) were missing from the guild during the timeskip.
List of members (clockwise in the human circle they formed, starting from Lucy and excluding Laxus):

Lucy Heartfilia
Natsu Dragneel
Erza Scarlet
Cana Alberona
Gildarts Clive
Levy McGarden
Gajeel Redfox
Wendy Marvel
Carla
Happy
Pantherlily
Makarov
Bickslow
Freed Justine
Evergreen
Elfman Strauss
Mirajane Strauss
Lisanna Strauss
Juvia Lockser
Gray Fullbuster

actually wendy and gajeel didn't take carla and panterlily to tenroujima, they came on their own accord because carla had a premonition about a terrible event on tenroujima


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Where did character popularity polls originate?
I know that manga publishers such as Weekly Shonen Jump hold character popularity contests for mangas such as Naruto and Bleach. Where did this originate and why is it done?

It probably has at least a little to do with using them as marketing tools to see what characters are popular among what demographics

I expect it also makes for good feedback for the author to know which characters are working and which aren't. For example, in Negima, Makie Sasaki topped a popularity poll when she hadn't even had a story devoted to her and had never done anything particularly noteworthy. A little while later, there was a story that focused on her. Somehow, Makie was working for the readers, but it probably would have been hard to see that from an author's perspective.

This is such a common marketing strategy that I doubt it has an origin, but as for why it is done, it is to cater to the audience.
In the manga Bakuman, a popularity poll placed a side character named Kazuya Hiramaru in fourth place, immediately afterwards several chapters were devoted to him, which were very popular.
This implies that this practice is equally beneficial, and probably smiled upon by both readers and editors alike.


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What does Kensei Muguruma's bankai do?
His shikai, Tachikaze, is a wind-based zanpakutou that can launch long-range, string-like, blades that slices enemies. But what special abilities does Tekken Tachikaze, Kensei Muguruma's bankai, possess?

It was confirmed in chapter 560, taken from  Bleach Wikia:

It appears to greatly augment his strength, as he is able to create a
  large explosion upon attacking. This is due to the fact that in this
  form the power of his Bankai is transferred to the knuckle blades. The
  bursting power continues to hit his opponent endlessly as long as his
  fists are touching his opponent.

Could you specify what chapter number you're referring to in your answer so that it will be remain understandable to future visitors?

He's referring to the chapter 560.

According to Wikipedia:

Kensei's bankai is named Tekken Tachikaze (鐡拳・断地風?, lit. Iron Fist Earth-Severing Wind). The combat knife transforms into two bladed, bronze knuckle-like weapons known as tiger claws in each hand that are connected by a long fabric-like material that wraps around and up his arms like bandages and form a small arc above his head. Its abilities are unknown.

So it wasn't revealed yet. :/ Thanks kuwaly! +1


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Is there a connection between the Hyuuga curse mark and Orochimaru's?
The Hyuuga family has a curse mark that allows the head family to destroy the brains of members of the branch family. Orochimaru has a curse mark that he puts on Sasuke, as well as other people, that makes the person whose body it is on be much stronger. Is there any connection between these two curse marks?

As far as now, the only connection is that they are all juinjutsu. But their functions are totally different. The curse mark of Hyuuga family is literally a curse (I don't see how much stronger the branch family of Hyuuga is with the curse seal), but the curse seal of Orochimaru has some blessing, and it's created by infusing senjutsu into enzymes extracted from Jugo's body, which grants the seal-bearer the ability of transforming parts of their body (except the fact that they may look uglier), and the bearer's power is indeed stronger when the seal is released.


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What makes a village a "Hidden Village"?
In Naruto, there seem to be villages that are "Hidden Villages" such as Konohagakure no Sato and villages that are not "Hidden Villages" such as Tsuchigumo Village or Tonika Village. What makes a village a "Hidden Village"? Is it that they are run by a Kage, or is there some other reason?

hidden villages are villages that are hidden

No. Read the answer from here: http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/825/why-are-hidden-villages-called-such/834#834. I want to know what distinguishes a village such as Konohagakure no Sato from a village such as Tonika Village.

@kuwaly your answer is also present in that question.

Not really. That question gives a more literal translation while I want to know what the actual difference is in-show (i.e. why Konoha got that specification while other villages didn't).

It is stated on this wiki page, that

Hidden Villages are parts of countries in which the country's ninja reside. Their leaders stand equally with the landlords ruling the countries they are a part of. A Hidden Village maintains its economy by training its citizens to be ninja from a young age and using them as manpower in various missions others would be willing to pay for, from weeding a garden for a single payment to receiving a constant budget from the country it resides in for being soldiers in case the country is involved in a war.

However, the same page lists Tsuchigumo Village and Tonika Village in the list of "hidden villages".
I would speculate that the largest ninja village in the country, the one directly responsible for it's defense, would be called a "hidden village" (i.e. have "village hidden in the " in the name), and the other smaller ones would probably be just "villages", even if they belong to a ninja clan or something.


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How different are the manga and anime versions of Bakuman?
I've been meaning to start watching/reading this series for some time now. However, I am unsure as to what media to choose.
Is there many filler material in the anime?
Does the plot get better explained in the manga?
Or are they absolutely the same? (meaning watching the anime or reading the manga will always leave me with the whole story)
If there are differences, provided that they do not compose an extensive list, please enumerate them.

I've never read the manga personally, but from what I've heard the anime didn't add much (or at least not as much as it could have), but differs mostly in how fast the story progresses (anime is slightly slower paced), and tends to over emphasize certain romantic relationships (at least more than the manga.) But then again, this is all hearsay from Google :P

I've only read a few chapters of the manga, but I thought the reason they made the anime so spread out (~75 episodes over 3 years instead of all at once) was to avoid filler.

One of the differences is about censoring: Why was Shonen Jump called Shonen Jack in Bakuman Anime?

I've only seen the first season of the anime, but based on that I can point out that the manga didn't flesh out Mashiro & Moritaka's works. When they created a new manga the anime would usually show you most of its story, whereas the manga generally only went for a vague overview. I'm not sure how that worked out after they became serialized though.


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Why did headbutting Gaara make Shukaku disintegrate?
When Naruto is fighting Gaara in the invasion of Konoha, Gaara takes on the Perfect Possession form of Shukaku. When Naruto punches Gaara in the face, it wakes him up, breaking the Possum Jutsu and making Shukaku no longer be released. When Naruto headbutts Gaara, however, Shukaku disintegrates. What causes this difference in effect?

I think Gaara just lose control over the chakra flow when Naruto headbutted him. With that, he couldn't keep the jutsu which showed the body of Shukaku.

a strong hit on the head is enough to disorient any person. Specially when Naruto's "knuckle head" hits.. :P Its just like looper says, the hit on the head disoriented Gaara to lose control over his jutsu.

Gaara used the "Feigning Sleep Technique" which allows the Shukaku to fully control his body and unleash its own power. However, Naruto woke Gaara up with the headbutt, which broke Shukaku's control.

No, he woke him up by punching him in the face. He then headbutts him, which causes Shukaku to shatter.


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What is the origin of the curse?
In Fruits Basket, a number of the Sohmas have a "curse" on them that makes them transform into whatever zodiac animal they represent. The current generation was not the first generation, so there must have been some beginning generation and some reason for it to begin. Where/when/why in-canon did this curse begin?

The curse appears to be the result of the Zodiac Legend. It is based on the real Zodiac legend, but a more detailed "true" version is outlined in Volume 22. It's quite long, but I'll post an abridged version here.

Long ago, God found a stray cat, and the two became friends. God was then inspired to send out invitations to other animals, to a banquet, so that he could meet more of them.
Twelve animals showed up (the twelve animals of the Zodiac), as well as the cat. The banquet was fantastic, until the cat collapsed on the floor, his life having finally run out. Not wanting to let go of his friendship with the cat, God forced the cat to drink an elixir of life, giving him immortality. He then had all the other twelve animals drink it as well.
As the cat came to, he told God that he did not want immortality. Everyone was shocked at the cat's rejection of immortality and his acceptance to let his life end. This allowed him to die, but the other animals didn't care, as they felt betrayed and alienated.
Eventually, the other animals were able to die as well, and God was once again left alone. As God's time to live came to an end, he accepted it, because he knew that he would see the other animals again on "the other side".

Seems like a pretty happy ending, but the way the volume tells goes on a bit after this. In particular, it says:

That first...
... promise.
At what point...
... did it become a curse?
When did it change...
... into a burden?

This event appears to be the origin of the Sohma Curse, as each cursed Sohma represents one of the twelve animals (and Kyo is the cat) that met at the banquet.

It is never explained why only the Sohma clan has this curse. The only reference we have to how the curse may have begun is the zodiac story told in the later part of the manga, though it is not very clear how it relates to the Sohma or the current state of the curse.


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What determines what zodiac a person represents?
In Fruits Basket, different characters represent different zodiac symbols that they then turn into when they are hugged by someone of the opposite gender. What determines what zodiac a person represents? Is it the year they are born in? If so, what determines who becomes the cat? Additionally, does that mean that every cursed Sohma is born in a different year (discounting Akito)?

Considering the shock and revulsion Sohma parents are often met with upon finding their child to be of the Zodiac, it is highly probable that it is completely random, or at the very least, nobody has determined a reliable method for predicting it. What we do know from some characters' dialogue is that it is rare for all of the Zodiac to be around at the same time.
From https://fruitsbasket.fandom.com/wiki/Sohma_Curse :

 Shigure has many theories about the weakening state of the curse and has stated throughout the series that he hears the sound of “something breaking”. He also had a feeling that since the current generation is the first time all twelve members of the Zodiac (including the Cat and God) are alive at the same time, the God and the animals are all gathered for the final banquet.

And the year definitely does not determine which Zodiac spirit will be born, because most of the casts' birth years don't match up with their curse.
We also know from the origin story of the curse that the animals are bonded to the god, and they are all bound to reincarnate together. Hence, I don't think this question makes as much sense as it seems. Rather than saying a person determines what Zodiac they get, I think it makes more sense to say that the Zodiac determines (partly) what kind of person they will be, since the Zodiac soul existed first.

 Though since the curse broke and the Zodiac spirits moved on, it can be definitively said that those possessed have independent souls of their own. Still, the point remains: the Zodiac spirits came first, not the Sohmas. They're Zodiac from birth, but the criteria can't be related to the qualities of a person who has not been born.

So, what determines which animal? There is just one qualification, and that is being born in the Sohma family. Everything else is up to chance.

It is never explained what makes some Sohma born with the curse and some not and what animal they represent. The only rules seem to be that only one person can have an animal's the curse at a time and they must be part of the Sohma clan. The current condition where all animals are represented at the same time is rare.
Although some of the years do potentially match up (Ex. Shigure can be year of the dog 1982 and Tohru can be year of the dog as well in 1994, Ox is a year younger than the Rat, the Snake and the Dragon are close together), the year of birth isn't the single determining factor, since the ages don't match for all the zodiac members. (Ex. Momiji is the same age as Hatsuharu and slightly older than Kisa.)

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


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Tomiko's "new exercise" for Saki
Shortly after Tomiko defended Saki in court, Tomiko escorted Saki to the pier where she would set off. Tomiko mentioned that after Saki's return, she would be given a "new exercise" for her Cantus, which allegedly would be more interesting than routine classroom exercises. What was that exercise?

Telomere extension/restoration?

I conjectured that at first, but no more of it was mentioned; would they have at least indicated at the end that Saki could lengthen her lifespan? Otherwise, there is no proof; I am looking for such proof, possibly from the novel.

In the chapter 12 of manga adaptation, it is suggested that telomere restoration is an ability instead of a skill. Not sure how faithful the manga/anime are to the novel, since the manga and anime have quite a number of differences.


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Why couldn't Chiaki go to the future to get more time leaps?
In the 2006 film "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" by Hosoda Mamoru, the protagonist Makoto accidentally uses up all of the time-leaps her friend Chiaki, who is actually a time traveler from the future. He used his remaining time leap to prevent an accident, and thus was unable to return to the future.
However, this seems to have a key plot hole. If he still had one time leap remaining, he could have gone to the future. It's implied that in the future it's not terribly difficult to get such a time travel device or to recharge one. Once he had a sufficient number of time leaps, he could return to the past and prevent the accident. In fact, there wasn't really anything stopping him from doing so immediately after losing the device.
That may not be feasible, for one reason or another, depending on the time travel paradigm used in the movie. However, with my naive and incomplete understanding of how time travel is supposed to work, it seems like it would solve all the problems. It could also just be that Chiaki never thought of that, but that's a rather boring answer.
Is there any explanation for why Chiaki couldn't just go to the future, get another time travel device, and give himself more time leaps?

That's the kind of question I always have after watching a movie involving time travelling...

Maybe because traveling to the future will solve everything that's why he can't. Just a guess. I watched this way back so I don't clearly remember Chiaki's story. Maybe if I have some time, I'm going to rewatch it.

I'm literally over a year late, but, why not?
I just watched the movie. As a good engineer (for better or for worse) I needed to know what had happened at the end of the movie. So I went to the internet and looked for answers. At first, as always, I just assumed everything they say is correct, but then the ideas sank in, and I made my own conclusions, which evidently lack complete information, since the film itself doesn't let you see things I'd need to confirm my interpretation. But here it goes:
Here are the theories I'd like to debunk:

Chiaki convinced the aunt to take care of the painting.
Chiaki couldn't have gone to the future anytime he wanted.
Makoto is the aunt, grown up.
Chiaki wouldn't actually see Makoto in the future.

To do this, we need some basis. Here are some ideas that many people don't consider.

Chiaki never said he had travelled through time both ways. All he says regarding his leaps is that he knew that the painting had records during the period in which the movie is set. Secondly, he stated clearly that "tomorrow" he would return to the future. Here we have a problem, because this might have two reasons.

The first one is that when the count reaches zero, the leaps end (literally physically end) and the user of the time travel goes back to the first jump, since for all we know he was forced to return until he reached 0.
The second one is that in the future they found out that he revealed the secret of time traveling, and he would be forced to return. It is a wild guess, but completely stopping time and now just jumping, as he saw at the crossroads, doesn't seem something that may be done with the charges. That would have meant that Chiaki had one charge to avoid the crash as well as to stop time, which doesn't sound logical, yet is a possibility.

Some people actually mentioned that Makoto didn't see herself in the past. This means that she can't be the aunt given the fact that the logical conclusion from before is that there can't be two of the same person in one reality.
We get an interesting scene that most commenters overlook, which is the one of the jump at the lake. Makoto went back in time and returned! Even a child screamed that he saw the girl disappear and reappear. (Although circumstantial, it supports the point.) This leads up to the idea that for every time travel you do, as we might relate with the movie Inception, at the end of the physical jump, the traveling ends.

Now to the point.

"Chiaki convinced the aunt to take care of the painting."

This can't be true given that Chiaki can't bend the story. For this to be possible, he would have had to convince Witch to take care of the painting. This means that he went to a time before Makoto and did this. He would then have had to return a few years later to convince Makoto to do this. This implies that he went back, returned, back again, and returned. Finally, if history can't be modified, the moment he returned to his time would have reset whatever he did with the aunt. Therefore, that couldn't have happened.

"Chiaki couldn't have gone to the future anytime he wanted."

At the crossroads we get that he would be forced to return to the future. He would be forced. In practical terms, that gives him an "extra" one-way leap. Why else would he worry so much about his forced return? He actually contradicts himself by stating at the crossroads that we would be gone by tomorrow and, during the same stop, saying that he could no longer go back to his time. Here we have to decide which statement is true since they are mutually exclusive if Chiaki never lied. The way I see it, he could jump to the future. (He would be forced back to the future due to the end of the leaps/count 0.)

"Chiaki could have gone to the future anytime he wanted."

Same argument as above, except for the final point.

"Makoto is the aunt, grown up."

Simple and without using a reference to the picture: no double person per reality.

"Chiaki wouldn't actually see Makoto in the future."

I bet this is the one every-fucking-one is waiting to read. Feeling romantic? Well, you're lucky. I can't believe so many persons overlooked this tiny little detail: Makoto has all her jumps restored. Well, that sound great, and this is why this is probably true! First of all, jumps all the way before the books fell on her. Let's say we get a 50/50 of having the device giving her the full count again. Second point: Chiaki gives Makoto time-travelling advice. Sounds promising to me.
Now, this is going to get complicated, but try to follow me, even though I might be wrong. The way Chiaki would go to the future would be by going even further into the past. As confusing as it may sound, going back in time would take him back to the future. Follow this thread, backwards now: the end of the movie, the beginning of the movie, the moment Chiaki leapt into the movie's time, Chiaki's original time. Therefore if he jumps back enough to go to the moment before he went back in time, he'd be back in the future! Time traveling actually goes one way here.
Now, if we want to extrapolate, we find that Chiaki used a hell of a ton of jumps to get to the movie's time. He would have needed to jump from the stratosphere to get to that time, as I see it. He jumped bit by bit until he hit the right time. That explains his single leap left at the end. The way we followed the reasoning here, taking the idea that he could time travel and was stuck when his count hit 0, he would have been able to go back enough to get another time-travelling device.
Being still in the same reality, his jump would eventually end and would find Makoto there. If this doesn't sound good enough for you and believe that Chiaki is not evil, he would go back to the future, get leaps, and go back to Makoto on his timeline, while Makoto on her timeline would eventually see his jump's end and find him again.

In the end, the movie might actually be talking about creating parallel realities, which diverge with every jump, as well as there being separate realities for each person who leaps. The way you take these arguments, which I believe are most of the relevant ones, may lead to take different conclusions.
Either way, I believe that Chiaki got scared or something and dropped the device. The whole thing happened and the guy got stuck in time. Having different leap counts for each person, Makoto returned when he still had count 1. She jumped far enough to get her full count, too. Finally, Chiaki is an asshole for jumping back in time knowing he could have seen the painting, movie-time. Apparently he did disappear, but will eventually end his leap and reappear in Makoto's reality. And she will hate him for being a jerk who instead of waiting for the restoration to be finished, preferred to go to his no-river-no-nature-not-many-people-without-blue-sky time.
Sucker.

Here's my two cents, and it has to do with one of the above theories. Makoto wouldn't have restored her jumps by jumping back in time (it didn't happen throughout the movie). When she regained one, it was simply that Chiaki jumped so far back that he happened to "undo" her last leap by trying to prevent the accident.
My next theory is that Chiaki is from the same era (but that would mean the time leaps would have to have been discovered in that present era...). Reasoning: Everytime Makoto jumped, she returned to the place and state she was at that time (remember all the rolling and falling?). Going off of that idea, (that a person can only return to a point in their past life) Chiaki would have only been able to return to a previous point in his life.
That begs the question: Was Chiaki actually from the same era as Makoto? Maybe they had met in the future. That would explain Chiaki's "I'll be waiting." That is unless Makoto finds a way to travel to the future (which there was absolutely no mention of.)

Chiaki does go back to the future. Chiaki goes back in time to save Kousuke so Makoto did not have to use her last leap saving Kousuke.
Then Makoto goes back even further and prevents most of the movie from happening, meaning Kousuke and the short girl are never in danger, so Chiaki never uses his last leap.
Chiaki trades his last leap to get Makoto one more, then Makoto trades her last leap to get Chiaki one more.
Chiaki then leaves at then end of the movie, going back to his own time (he said earlier he was supposed to do right away but got distracted having fun).
When he goes home he probably will get more leaps, but will not come back to the time in the movie because he does not want to, that why he said goodbye to Makoto.
If he wasn't going back to the future at the end, he would have no reason to leave.

Maybe one can only use on device once in his/her lifetime.
or
Even if its the future and there is a time travelling device, it is highly logical that it has restricted access. What reason would he give? that he wants to just live in those times? I am retty sure nobody would agree to that.
Its been a while since I watched it so it is possible I am forgetting something.
And for all you know, that aunt of hers was actually the girl who comes back in that time and the person she is saving that painting for is Chiaki. The aunt was a bit mysterious saying even she did the time travelling thing you know.

I just happened to be looking for “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” on DVD, since mine was badly damaged, when I came across this site.
After reading everyone’s comments, I came to realize that everyone seems to be missing the same information.
I’d like to help everyone out.
First off, “Auntie Witch” is NOT a future version of Makoto Konno; her name is Kazuko Yoshiyama.
What no one seems to know is that this movie (aka: “Toki o Kakeru Shōjo”), which was written by Satoko Okudera in 2006, is a sequel to a book by the same name written by Yasutaka Tsutsui in 1965.
This movie also has a manga form by Ranmaru Kotone also in 2006, which has an extended ending; with what came after Makoto and Chiaki say their goodbyes.
In the book, after an incident in the science lab, 15 year old Kazuko discovers that she has the ability to time leap.
She tells her two classmates and best friends, Goro Asakura, Kazuo Fukamachi and her science teacher, Mr. Fukushima about it in the hopes that they can help her figure things out.
Later, like Makoto, Kazuko discovers that one of her friends is a time traveler; of course, I’m not going to tell you which one it is. ^-^
This time traveler tells Kazuko that he was born in 2649 and that he came from the year 2660; which would make him 11 years old, though he doesn’t look it, and that he is a university student studying pharmaceutical science.
He explains that chemicals were being developed that could bring out latent abilities in humans; physical, telekinetic and psychological powers.
He explains that he was experimenting with a compound that would allow him to time travel and he got stuck in the past but that he had managed to replicate his work and could now return to his time.
He also explains that the incident in the science lab that exposed her to the compound was his fault and that he never intended for Kazuko to experience all these strange things.
Kazuko asks him to stay but he explains that he couldn’t because time travel confuses history and that there is a law in his time that forbids them from telling people in the past about time travel.
As a result, he explains that he will have to erase Kazuko’s and everyone else’s memories of him.
Kazuko asks him if he would ever return to her time, would she ever see him again and he promised that he would come back and that he would come see her; “when I finished my research, when I succeed in making the potion.”
In the end, even though the time traveler erased Kazuko’s memories, she was able to regain her memories of not only him but everything about time travel and what he told her about the future.
In the movie, it’s not known whether Kazuko really is Makoto’s biological aunt or just a close family friend.
Either way, Kazuko decided to get a job at the Tokyo National Museum and restores old works of art.
It’s clear that she made the same promise to the future that Makoto will make; to preserve history for the sake of the future.
THEORIES
Although Makoto used a device to obtain the ability to time leap, Kazuko had the ability inside her the whole time; a latent ability brought out by the compound.
Since every time Makoto went back her leap counter would decrease, it’s clear that no matter how far back she went she would never get her leaps back.
It is my theory that Kazuko recharged Makoto, giving her one more time leap.
Now, like in the movie, there is a “stopped time” scene in the book; the traveler uses a device to accomplish this feat.
Kazuko makes the comment that time had “stopped” and the traveler corrected her, explaining that they were traveling back in time at the same speed that time is moving forward; this is a sound theory in quantum studies.
Since Chiaki only had one time leap left, it’s logical to assume that he had a similar device with him to use if he needed to.
Or something similar to the “stopped time” device was formulated and the technology was integrated into the time-leaping ability; Makoto would not have this ability, as she only came in contact with the recharge device.
(Quantum Theory: breaking the sound barrier creates a sonic boom, breaking the light barrier slows and/or stops time, breaking the time barrier distorts time; allowing for one to move backward or forward in time.)
I’ve noticed that a lot of people couldn’t understand how Chiaki saved Kousuke and Kaho from being hit by the train when he only had one time leap left.
The answer is simple:
The day after the accident, Makoto was so grief stricken that Chiaki couldn’t bear it and went back in time, using his last leap.
The question is: what time did he go to?
Answer: Kaho hurt her ankle and Kousuke borrowed the bike to take her to his family’s medical clinic and that after leaving the clinic the accident occurred at 4pm.
Chiaki went back in time with the destroyed bike; since in the story, time self-corrects, there was no paradox.
Chiaki went to 4pm and instead of landing at that time he drew in Makoto and took her with him through time to 3:30pm; he made a double leap backward to the moment before he had called Makoto and asked her about time-leaping.
The bike disappears while Kousuke and Kaho were in the clinic, thusly, no bike, no accident and the bike with Chiaki was restored.
Immediately upon landing in the past at 3:30pm, Chiaki used the “stopped time” technology and enveloped himself and Makoto in its time field; like with the bike, time self-corrected and Makoto’s injuries were erased.
In addition, with time held in place, paused, and Makoto in this “stopped time” it allowed her to retain her memory of the accident instead of rewriting it.
Chiaki’s last words: “I’ll be waiting for you” and Makoto’s reply: “I won’t be long. I’ll come running”.
I found that some people were taking these words too literally.
When Chiaki said that he’ll be waiting, he meant that he will look through records to find the things that Makoto had promised to preserve for the future; like the painting.
When Makoto said that she won’t be long and that she’ll come running, she meant that she’ll work hard and do what she can for the sake of the people in the future.
What they said was like someone saying “see you later” instead of “goodbye”, because the finality of it is just too much to bear.
I hope this post makes things clearer for everyone.
See you later.   ^-^

Please revise your post to make it readable, like highlighting important points, citing specific scenes in the movie by indicating approximate time it happened, etc. Try to divide it into parts, with the last paragraph summarizing your answer as this is quite long.

In the end Makoto already has her leaps restored and Chiaka says 'I will be waiting'. To this, Makoto replies 'I will come running'. This refers to one of them time leaping to the baseball scene/part probably to spend more time with each other.

I think Makato restored her time leaping and goes back to the time in the future. And she in the future takes up historic painting restoration profession so that Chiaki of the past (when they were in high school) could come and see the painting he had wanted to see.
In fact Chiaki said that the painting record's were found in that particular era.After that the painting was not found.That means makato was actually aunty witch who time leaped to do the restoration so that chiaki in the future could see it.also she had mentioned that she has done time leaping in past.Also in the movie aunty witch's identity was very little known and she was a mysterious person......she have a very few friends.
She also had shown no anxiety when she heard makato telling about her accident.{because she knows that makato("herself" as i have explained)would not die.(unless she actually is not a witch lol).And that painting is important because it will make chiaki from the future to time leap and he would meet makato}.Makato even in the ending had said that she had found out what she wanted to do in the future but it was a secret...and the profession she would take is restoration of paintings and she would end up being aunty witch in future and chiaki would have came again to meet her and would have give her the time leaps {or somehow she manages to get them to return to the time of her high school life when the painting was there to restore so that makato of the past could meet chiaki and it will be an endless ripple{it may sounds odd but in my opinion if makata of future leaps back to the past then the past makata when she would reach in that time of future makata had made the time leap she would time leap again and it would create an endless ripple}.
I am not sure if Makato would ever meet chiaki in the future but as aunty witch she waits for him and she restores the painting in hope that even if he doesn't meet her in the future she would restore the painting so that the future Chiaki when he would make the time leap would able to meet Makato 'herself'again in the past.
sorry it is long and boring and my English
 is terrible.....


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Why does Yokodera idolize Oscar Wilde?
At many points in the story, Yokodera references Oscar Wilde with a sense of admiration and quotes him fairly frequently. This is done for a variety of reasons, from justifying his own actions to advising others, but in all cases it seems that Yokodera takes Wilde as a sort of role model.

Is it ever explained why he is so influenced by Wilde, to the exclusion of pretty much anyone else?

I didn't really notice the recurrence, can you quote more instances of this?

@nhahtdh I only know of this one instance from the manga (from chapter 12, which is the most recent chapter I've read), but there are several in the light novels. I'll go look and see if I can find others, but it's been a while since I've read them so I don't really remember where, only that he was referenced several times.

It's true Oscar Wilde is referenced quite a few times in this manga. I don't want to spoil anything, but more references to Oscar Wilde will come later than chapter 12 too. I don't think you will find an explanation in the manga itself. However Oscar Wilde was known for being considered as a pervert (but mostly because he was homosexual in times when homosexuality was considered perversion). Maybe the scenarist is somehow a fan of Oscar Wilde?

I don't know if you can cite fansubs (as I don't understand japanese THAT much) but from some subs, they said that Yokodera idolizes Oscar Wilde simply because he thinks he's a pervert - somehow implying that even for someone as intellectual as Wilde can be a pervert (and that there's nothing wrong with it)

The manga never explains why exactly he is so fond of Mr. Wilde. It is possible that he views him as a pervy role model and inspiration, being notorious for his (homo)sexual shenanigans. Yet I don't think this is the main reason, since this is a het ecchi series, which tend to view homosexuality as squick.
It is more likely a reference to the nature of Wilde's works, which Yokodera has almost certainly read, given how often he quotes from them. They tend to focus on similar issues to the ones he's facing: e.g., The Importance of Being Earnest deals with matters of saving face, when to lie and not, the purpose and functions of social graces and hierarchy, and of course, How To Get The Girl! Not to mention the tone is almost always light, irreverent and satirical of his "social betters". All of this mirrors issues within his own life, and so he likely feels Wilde is a kindred spirit. (And not least, he's a very entertaining author to read, and eminently quotable for every occasion!)


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Is Mangirl based off a real story to some degree?
Mangirl is about a group of girls who start up their own manga magazine called Earth Star Entertainment.
While I was looking up some info about the show, I noticed that the original manga was serialized in "Earth Star Entertainment's Comic Earth Star magazine" (Source: Wikipedia). This seems to be a real company with a real website that even shares its logo with the fictional company's logo in the show.

Is any of Mangirl based on anything from the real life Earth Star Entertainment? For example, were the creators of the real life company all females or all amateurs, similar to the characters in the show?

It's pretty difficult to find information about Earth Star Entertainment, but from what I can tell, I don't see any similarities. According to its website, it was established in 2006 and its current director is Masashi Kikuta and the president is K. Makuuchi. Masashi is a man's name, so presumably, Masashi Kikuta is a man. The major affiliated talent for the anime is a woman, but there doesn't seem to be any specific link to anything that you mentioned.