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Why do Japanese live-action adaptations appear to have extremely similar artistic direction to their manga/anime source material?
It is possible that my premise is extremely flawed, but I have noticed in recent times that there are quite a few live-action adaptations of Japanese anime or manga that look very similar in visual style to their source material. For example, I recently saw a trailer for the Japanese film Parasyte, which is based on a manga. Many of the scenes from the trailer look identical to parts of the manga, and the appearance of the parasites is identical to the original artwork. I also saw the movie trailer for Attack on Titan and the titans in the film look identical to those in the manga and anime. There are quite a few other examples that I've encountered that I cannot list right now.
In Hollywood, even when animated material is adapted to live-action, usually the artistic direction is quite distinct between the two. Some of Marvel's latest superhero movies borrow a lot from their comic book material, but even then their visual style is quite distinct from the "comic book" look. The film adaptation of Watchmen was extremely similar in both plot and artistic direction to the graphic novel and it was critically panned for this, which leads me to believe that it is somehow deemed unacceptable to do this for Western graphic novels.
Is there a reason why the live-action adaptations of manga are so close in appearance/artistic direction? Or is it just my limited experience?

Reason may be success of Kenshin and failure of Dragon Ball

My two cents: If you hadn't written your 2nd paragraph, I would have guessed that a cartoon written in a certain culture, from and for the citizens of a specific country would match a movie written by  and for the same country's citizens (Eg: Kenshin, Lovely Complex, Spiderman, Superman). The actors would probably find it easier to relate to the cartoon characters. While if people from other cultures start interpreting cartoons, a lot will obviously be lost in (cultural) translation.This does not mean the live action movies will always turn out good if it is (Eg: Death Note, Amazing Spiderman)

I probably have not watched enough live-action drama TV series and film adaptions of manga to verify whether or not they do, for the most part, bear extremely similar artistic direction to their manga/anime source material; however, this is not surprising if it is indeed the case.
The reason it is not surprising is that Japanese culture values sticking with tradition and establishing traditions. This is why their traditional arts such as tea ceremony, ikebana, kimono manufacture, and sumi-e painting are not interested in "innovation" but rather pride themselves in remaining unchanged in technique and materials/tools.
Most Japanese companies follow a tradition of doing things procedurally as they have been done up until now; they are generally averse to streamlining, experimenting, and risk-taking (this is the launching point for the plot of the TV drama 「フリーター、家を買う。」 [Part-Time Worker Buys a House]: Take Seiji quits his job after only 3 months because his company will not allow any newbies to suggest improvements to make operations more efficient).
The Takarazuka Revue all-female theatre company has adapted a number of manga titles into stage musicals. Once they create choreography for the musical, it becomes tradition and every single performance of the same show must be danced using the exact same choreography as the first production. A prime example is Versailles no Bara, which has, arguably, very out-dated, over-dramatic and poorly-choreography dances and battle scenes from the very first production in 1974, but despite adapting the manga into a variety of perspectives (i.e. Oscar and Andre version, Oscar version, Andre version, Fersen and Marie Antoinette version, Girodelle version, Alain version, Bernard version, etc.), no dance moves can be revised for the revivals (when the company stages the show again for a new run with a new cast).
In this vein, for live-action adaptions of manga to attempt to replicate with live actors the scenes and "camera angles" that the mangaka made and which the fans already love matches Japanese tradition. Another way to think of it is loyalty. Japan has a solid history of respect for doujinshi and other doujin works, so if you want to take someone else's work and adapt it liberally, you are free to do that (some professional mangaka do draw doujinshi of manga by others); if you want to make an official adaption, it makes sense to be true to it and meet fan expectations and hopes.
Another aspect of Japanese culture is the concept of accuracy, meticulousness, and painstaking attention to fine details. Although Japan does not invent as many products as some other countries do, they have a tendency to take someone else's invention and greatly improve upon it in small details (for example, the automobile) and have thus gained a global reputation for quality technology. This penchant for aiming for precision and correctness would also lend itself to depicting a beloved work as respectfully and exactly as possible.

I think this post goes into great details about how the people behind the work affect how it's done, which is a rather plausible reason. Though I can't help but wondering - is there any in-industry reason why it is done so?

It's easier for comics to change the theme and style in movies as compared to manga. The superhero comics generally are based upon one really strong character or group. These characters can do anything and fight any evil, so it leaves a lot open to artistic interpretation.
On the other hand, manga are generally made in idea of the story. All the artistic interpretation goes into the drawing of it, therefore, if you change the setting, then it feels like a very different story.
Of course, there are exceptions. Dragon Ball, for example, can take place anywhere, which is why Hollywood thought it was a good idea to make a live-action. Granted the result was awful, but given enough love and care, I do think Dragon Ball could be on par with a lot of the recent superhero movies.
However, if you change the appearance of Kenshin for example, then to many of the fans, the character wouldn't be Kenshin anymore. They could've gone even further, by making a prequel of Kenshin, but the manga already generally defines the character. To stay with Kenshin's example, the manga gives a complete profile who Kenshin is, along with his past, present and future.
Evidently, the same goes for Shingeki no Kyojin. They could change the appearances of the titans. However, since they're described in detail in the manga, as well as the entire atmosphere and even the characters, changing their appearances would be like changing the manga and people generally disapprove.
It's going to be interesting how Ghost in the Shell (2017) live action adaptation is going to turn out though. To me, it already smells like failure, but who knows. They might amaze us.

Rurouni Kenshin is a manga that has been liberally adapted: the TV anime had a entire season of filler (the Christian arc), the OAV series re-wrote a completely different ending of the story, and the live-action films changed Kenshin's hair color and texture (the first film brings Enishi into the first story arc, the second film generally follows the Kyoto arc, and the third film adds a large perentage of original content, such as a Kenshin/Shishio/Saitou/Aoshi battle).

I would assume they're trying to be as visually accurate as possible since they miss the mark just about everywhere else.


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Is Matsutarou imitating a famous Japanese enka singer?
In the opening song matsutarou sings along with Reika. They're both dressed in traditional kimono.

Matsutarou has these weird pink things on  the side of his head though. The only thing I can think of is that he's impersonating someone and it's possibly an imitation of that singer's hair? That doesn't really explain why it is pink though.
Does anyone know what the pink strands are?

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What does this (possibly Japanese) graffiti say?
In the Elfen Lied special episode 10.5, there was a scene where Nana is standing next to a wall where bearing this graffiti:

I don't know if is important or not, but the writing is so noticeable that I would like to know: what's written there?

I can't read Japanese well enough to give a definite answer, but this graffiti doesn't look like it's made of Japanese characters.

I don't know the context, but the yellow part just looks like a stylized "WASH", while the bottom looks like "PARNZIK" (a name?). Regardless, it is not Japanese.

The subtitle text is in German and translates to, "exactly it is their fault." Not sure if it's just the Op's sub-preference... If not then that could be related to the context of the graffiti.

OP, with the prominent use of the German language throughout the anime, it may be graffiti that is in German. With that said, it would be nice if any native or fluent German speakers can let us know their thoughts, as I too would like to know any significance of this.

Actually, the graffitis have been there at the beach all along since episode 1. If you rotate the image 180 degrees, the word reads like "Asian". "Asian Wash"? LOL, and I just noticed that in the OVA episode, Kouta is wearing a shirt with a ⑨ on it. Baka Kouta.

@Why_SE_bulling_new_users What I was wondering is was if the German subs were part of the video itself or your sub preference. If it wasn't your sub preference then it might have to do with the graffiti...

I've made my comment into an answer.
Actually, the graffiti has been there at the beach all along since episode 1. As people have pointed out, the yellow part could be a stylized "wash".

If you rotate the image 180 degrees, it now reads like "Asian" (and the signature-like part "RMdVd").

Now, no racism or anything, just making an observation. There is a term in Urban Dictionary (I know, it's written by random people) that is exactly this: Asian Wash(ed), which means

Some one of non-asian decent who is highly confused and believes they were born into the wrong race and are truly asian. They obssess over the people, food, and language.

I won't even try to claim that it defines those (Asian) humans/Diclonii who wants to live as (Asian) Diclonii/humans. It might just be what is written in the graffiti, which could be anything, right?
Likewise, I won't try to claim that the symbol on Kouta's shirt defines who he is. But it is the baka symbol, right?

This does not look like Japanese (kanji, hiragana, or katakana). The closest you could get to Japanese would be by flipping the final ‘letter’ on the top line horizontally to get 「ツ」(tsu) or a「レ」 (re) plus a 「"」(tenten) and reading the final 2 ‘letters’ on the bottom line as「水」(mizu), but 1) since the rest of the lettering does not match anything in Japanese, that would be illogical to do, 2) the chance of mixing katakana with kanji is low, and 3) “re” is never paired with a “tenten.”
If we take it to be the alphabet, you can come up with a backwards “N”+“USH,” OR possibly “WASH,” OR you could interpret the final letter as an “L.”  However, none of those explain the two vertical dashes on the right side. The bottom line could be either “PARNZIK” OR “PNRNZIK.”
The artist would not expect the Japanese audience to be able to decipher the lettering of the graffiti in this scene. Students in Japanese schools learn to read and write English letters in a certain, standardized, clean form, and get tripped up if they see the letters in an unconventional form. In general, they do not develop individual handwriting for writing in English. Thus, this graffiti was not meant to convey any particular message to the viewer and is not necessary for understanding the plot.
As an aside, in real life, many examples of graffiti are not written in letters/spellings that allow outsiders to read them.  It may be that this is what the artist was going for, either 1) for realism or 2) for the ability to avoid coming up with an actual message for background art.

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How does "The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan" relate to the Haruhi Suzumiya series?
MAL's page on The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan lists it as a spin-off for both The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009).
How exactly does the new series relate to the others?
Where does it fall into the timeline?
Or is it completely independent aside from using the same characters - in which case, can it be watched without previously having watched any of the older series?

The show's existence is in itself a spoiler for The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, so anyone who hasn't seen the movie/read the book yet has been warned.
Yuki-chan is a spinoff anime based on a manga that began in 2009. The series is written by the original author of the Haruhi series, Nagaru Tanigawa, and takes place in the alternate universe created during the events of Disappearance, in which the members of the SOS Brigade are simply normal humans, and the SOS Brigade doesn't even exist.
The spin-off focuses more on the day-to-day interactions between the characters than the original series, and follows the titular Yuki-chan as she attempts to pursue Kyon, on whom she has a crush. As the series progresses, Yuki-chan develops a friendship with Kyon as she attempts to confess to him, which leads me to believe that the series is non-canon, as the following conversation takes place in Disappearance shortly after Kyon finds himself in the alternate universe (around 3:17 in the link):

"Nagato, tell me ... do you know ... who I am?"
"I do. [...] I know that you're a student in class 5. I see you every now and then. But I don't know any more than that."

The spin-off can't take place before the events of Disappearance because Disappearance Yuki only knows Kyon from when he helped her get a library card, and it can't take place afterward because

Nagato had actually used her powers to rewrite the world and take away all supernatural elements surrounding Haruhi, not just create an alternate universe, and she reverts the change at the end of the story, erasing Disappearance Yuki and the rest of the Disappearance SOS Brigade from existence.

The series is thus probably non-canon, and doesn't fit into any specific place in the timeline.
Its plot is basically separated from that of the original series, so it can be watched independently with almost full plot comprehension. However, enjoyment of the characters and their actions might requires familiarity with the source material because the much of the show's appeal stems from gap moe, in which a perceived difference or contradiction in a person's behavior or action (i.e. "gap") is found to be cute or attractive. Yuki-chan lets viewers see the normally stoic Nagato express her feelings as a normal, shy girl, and without this contrast the show turns into another "cute girls doing cute things" anime - not that there's anything wrong with those.

Not sure about the non-canon part, but anyway, the series (story) is written by the author of the main series himself.

@nhahtdh Yuki-chan was written by Puyo, not Nagaru Tanigawa.

Here's my theory but it contains spoilers of "The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi" so proceed with caution.

 Perhaps "Disappearance of Nagato Yuki" is a parallel universe to the main series. Here's why: remember how Nagato gave Kyon a choice between the changed world and the original world? It was only because of that choice that allowed Kyon to fix everything to what it was again. However, what if that choice wasn't given to him? What if Nagato decided not to give Kyon the choice of reverting everything back to the original world? This TV series is the result.

I think that it's not canon and it's more of a what-if spin off where they go for what if the guy went for that girl instead or what if this event didn't happen. I've seen that in a lot of animes, sometimes it's in one ova episode and sometimes it's in 3 or more. I can put a few down like Rumbling Hearts and the Clannad series.
The reason I think this is cause in disappearance of Haruhi, Haruhi wasn't acting like her usually crazy self and was way more calm because of the change but in Yuki Haruhi is a little more crazy than even the original show. So I think it's more of a what-if thing. Forget the name of the category but there's a name for it. All I remember there the word red in the name. Also, Yuki herself is completely different too and we also forgot about Ryoko she was the same in the movie a crazy killer and kills Kyon (kind of). But in the disappearance of Yuki she's more like a normal girl who likes people and is Kyon's friend.
well everythin is completely different to the movie like how characters are and their friendships that wasn't in the movie kyon remembered and was terrified of Ryoko and Ryoko still acted like in the show with no empathy yet in this one she has empathy and is friends with kyon thats what gave me my theory

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How does the Steins;Gate phone microwave work?
The operation of the phone microwave in Steins;Gate is confusing me. I finished episode 9, and I don't fully understand how it works; except that it allows texts to be sent in the past, 1 second on timer = 1 hour in reality, and that messages can only be sent during 12pm-6pm.
Can someone explain the rest of the microwaves' operation?
1) the bananas turning green, and why the first green batch wouldn't transport?
2) why did Mayuri's chicken tenders burn? can food be cooked like normal, or is their microwave permanently modified?
3) why a phone is hooked up to the microwave, what is the significance in connecting it, and why is it no longer needed in future episodes?
4) in reference to question 3, what type of connection was the phone connected by? USB?
5) why does the timer always seem to be set to 120?
6) what do the orange numerals above the timer numerals mean?
7) how is data sent? how are objects sent?
8) what is the cause of the electrical discharge? and why does it appear at different intervals?
9) is there significance behind the rotation of the microwave table? does clockwise move time forward, and vice versa?
10) how is a modern day text message able to be routed to a 90s pager?
11) what is the large flat radio device sitting on top of the microwave, and what is its purpose?
12) what the heck is a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)? the landlord wears clothing with CRT related phrases on them

Can you shorten down your list of questions into a single question, or the main things you want to know? Currently it's hard for an answer to answer all of your questions in detail because there's so many

Realistically, you have nine complete questions here: 1&2, 3&4, 5, 6, 7&10, 8, 9, and 11. Question 12 is Googleable. Having nine questions here precludes a lot of possibilities for people who can answer eight or less of them.

I will leave out anything that is related to further in the anime.
1- they went green because they entered the blackhole that was created, but were spat out again in the same place as no "space/time coordinates were sent (ie a phonenumber)
3- as far I can tell it is always needed up until Okabe does something "different".
4- it is in a dock stand probably hard wired manually into the circuitry on the microwave
5- lazy animation
6- date time
8- PLOT
Quite easily, as long as they know the phonenumber as pagers worked alot like texts do these days.
12 - Cathode ray tubes is what Old Televisions used to create images, I wont go into any detail so google this.

You can use the spoiler tags >! in the editor if you would like to reference the other items


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In Deadman Wonderland, is the Red Man is supposed to be Ganta's childhood hero, Ace Man?
I watched Deadman Wonderland about two months ago, when I started I watched the first episode on Adult Swim. I saw the Red Man kill Ganta's classmates and other episode Shiro was passed out in dark basement with this older gentle man.
As soon Shiro wake up it wasn’t her, she was a different person and she grabs this outfit that look like the Red Man’s clothes. Later on of the season it was Ganta’s flashback he had a figure look like Red Man also.
Who is the red man? Aceman ? Shiro?

Your question doesn't really make sense to me. The question body doesn't seem to connect to the title.

On the contrary to what Zeor mentioned, I believe that the Ace Man action figure did have some influence on the Wretched Egg and Shiro.
Spoilers

 At 1 minute into Episode 8 of the anime, we see that Shiro dropped down from the ceiling and attacked Azuma Genkaku, and then went on to point out her special move, which is identified to be Ace Man's special move: Ultra Chaos Endorphin Screw, Hadouken-Style Alpha-Wave Version Kick. Then she said, "Ace Man is here."

 When Shiro and Ginta were younger and were living together, Shiro would impersonate Ace Man (as seen in Episode 7 at 10:45). In that scene, Shiro also dropped down onto a dog and said, "Ace Man is on the scene."

In this sense, we can see that it's not simply coincidence that the Wretched Egg looked like Ace Man. The outfit most likely derives from Shiro's personality and her attachment to impersonating Ace Man for Ganta.
Conclusion
Ace Man is the action TV hero Ganta looked up to. Shiro is the Red Man, AKA Wretched Egg, or more precisely, the Wretched Egg is a split personality of Shiro's. The outfit of the Wretched Egg is derived from Shiro's personality where Shiro impersonates Ace Man to act as Ganta's hero.
So yes, Ace Man did have direct correlation to Shiro and the Wretched Egg.

I know this is an old question but for anyone who reads it later.  This is explicitly stated in the begining of episode 11.  Mockingbird also calls Shiro "Wetched Egg" (the name for the Red Guy) and Shiro refers to he alternative identity as "Ace Man".

I don't really get the question.
The fact that there was that Ace Man figure in the flashback doesn't have anything to do the Red Man (or at least that's what I think). Maybe the author decided to do a very similar costume, but for the story, there wasn't a specific inspiration.
I will explain a little better who is the Red Man, major spoilers.

 Shiro is actually the Red Man, as you have mentioned, but it needs some clarification.

 When they were small, Shiro saved Ganta, so she became his "Ace Man". After the experiments and Ganta's departure, Shiro cracked up and developed alternate personalities: the perfect, childish, happy Shiro and the Wretched Egg, who is more mature and filled with hatred (Red Man). Keep in mind that the happy-Shiro isn't the former Shiro.

 Eventually the happy-Shiro and the Wretched Egg fuse together.

I believe that Shiro is not the Red Man. I have many reasons why. In one of the episodes where Shiro was fighting the old man, you can see the man has branch of sin like the Red Man, and which you can see he gets the blood from his chest. If you look closely, you can see an empty hole there, the hole is the shape of a crystal but the crystal is missing.
I have a theory: you don't see a crystal because he's the Red Man. In an episode before them fighting, you can hear the person in control of all of that say that the Red Man was their secret weapon and they weren't ready to use him. In the end of the episode, you can see a little bit of the Red Man. The old man has been there for years, you can tell. He is as good as the Red Man. He has no crystal because he put it inside of Ganta. I will be posting pictures for evidence.
I have another theory: at the same time I think that Shiro is the Red Man. I think she did all that and got him to Deadman Wonderland so he could be her ace man, so she could be his hero. In the flashback, you see she breaks Ganta's ace man toy, so I think she did all that so she could make up for it by saving him.

I think Shiro is The Red Man, because all times The Red Man has appeared Shiro wasn't there. When Gunta arrives to Deadman Wonderland Shiro was waiting for him. When that robot tried to identify her it said UNKNOWN. Also, when she was in the tower, it exploded just like the classroom. At the final attack of episode 12 you see Gunta and Shiro with the same markings like they're connected somehow.
And when Shiro loses it her grin is similar to the Red Man's. Finally, at the end of episode 12 you hear Shiro singing the same song she song when Gunta arrives and he said that's the song he heard before his friends got murdered.


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Brain flour and fairies
At the end of Jintai's specials we find out that Watashi seems to have permanently lost some of  her brain flour. The number on the fairy spoon was 322 at the beginning and it ended up being 280. Extreme reduction of that number makes Watashi smaller and more simple-minded. At a very low value she started looking like a fairy and her speech became very simplified.

Does this mean that people can become fairies by reducing their brain flour levels? Can fairies become normal people if they eat some of those cookies made from the brain flour? Is this why they always crave sweets?
Also, Watashi looked like a very hard studying girl in the later episodes where her school life is shown. Did the loss of brain flour affected her intellectual capability enough to notice?

Watashi does not seems to be a fairy after being brain reduced : the fairies are known to be at least as much intelligent as the regular humans, while Watashi is way more stupid than an average human after reducing her floor level

Novel Vol9 have answer for that.


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Why were no Naruto movies released in India?
I am a big fan of Naruto. I recently found that numbers of Naruto movies were released in Japan as well as in the USA, but not a single one was released in India. What's the reason for this?

The answer could be region specific. The Indian support towards anime is comparatively low with respect to USA and Japan. This question would depend on statistics based region. But there's DVDs being released.

Not only India, but they are not released in many other countries, too. You can also compare in IMDb: for The Last: Naruto the Movie, it was not released in UK, Switzerland, Malaysia, etc, but Western animation does cover those countries as well.
Anime are not as popular as American animations globally, not everybody knows about it.
For the case of Naruto, even its anime series is not regular in India. They come in India with a good delay time. On the other hand, American animated series come on time in India and few even come with regional languages, too, such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, etc. Anime like Dragon Ball and Naruto are few of the most famous anime in India, but still their telecast order is not comfortable. They always stop telecasting in middle without any future release news.
So releasing Naruto films in India will be a big risk, as people might not even be up-to-date with Naruto universe. Even manga is not much popular in India, I have not even seen any famous manga in popular book stores.
This even raises the use of illegal means of entertainment, too. And illegal site brought the anime and manga sooner than regular release.
So as a whole, I will say India has not been considered as a big anime market yet, that's why famous anime movies never make into big release in India. At best they get television broadcast few years later and sometimes not even make into India.


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Where can I read Bleach legally?
I live in Norway. Is there a site where I can read Bleach online legally? I have tried to look, but I have not found a suitable site yet.

Take a look at this post. http://meta.anime.stackexchange.com/questions/922/how-can-i-tell-if-a-site-is-legal/923#923

Check out this site.  I believe they sell electronic subscriptions to WSJ for about $25 per year.  http://shonenjump.viz.com/  They even sent me a promotional paper comic once.  I believe it had a chapter from Naruto gaiden.  For the record, I live in the US, but It's online, so It might be available in norway too

you might find this post useful: http://anime.stackexchange.com/a/25961/6481

Do you know where  I can read the latest chapters online? Yes the latest chapters, I cannot seem to get WSJ subscribtion here(after my attempts)

You can buy digital version of Bleach on a per-volume basis.
According to Viz Media's site, digital versions should be avaible from:

Amazon
Google Play
Nook
iBooks
VizManga

I'm not sure about the region restrictions of these though, as you are living in Norway - Viz may not have the licensing rights for the regions (They usually prioritize the US first). You may have to import physical books if noone owns the licensing rights.

Do you know where  I can read the latest chapters online?

@rufaelJ.O I believe VizManga is an online reader


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What's with the huge supernova-like explosions in anime?
Why do they tend to occur so often in anime?
I'm not really a fan nor knowledgeable, but just curious is there any background behind this.
Here are some examples of what I mean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3swylpHp8gs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9N-BuufhyU

it would be great if you could give an example of what exactly you mean

It would also be best if you justify your claim of "often". Most of the anime I watch have no explosions.

@ToshinouKyouko edited to include examples

This question is manifestly silly. It boils down to "explosions look cool"; everything else in the answers that have been given so far is fluff to pad out this simple fact.

Why explosions in general are popular:
It's not much of a mystery & it mostly comes down to two things:

Budget - it's cheaper to animate an explosion of a building than destroy a set in a movie.

Genres - The most popular anime are usually shounen & action based. Predictably, explosions are something that that audience likes. You won't find many explosions in the romance genres. Western action film love explosions too.

The blinding light of large explosions:

I would say it's a safe guess that this is inspired by a nuclear explosion. The gif below is captured with a good camera, but many clips of nuclear explosion have intensely bright light that the camera cannot record properly - resulting in an almost whiter-than-white colour.

Time comes, and this tremendous flash out there is so bright that I duck, and I see this purple splotch on the floor of the truck. I said, "That's not it. That's an after-image." So I look back up, and I see this white light changing into yellow and then into orange. Clouds form and disappear again--from the compression and expansion of the shock wave.
Finally, a big ball of orange, the center that was so bright, becomes a ball of orange that starts to rise and billow a little bit and get a little black around the edges, and then you see it's a big ball of smoke with flashes on the inside, with the heat of the fire going outwards.
All this took about one minute. It was a series from bright to dark, and I had seen it. I am about the only guy who actually looked at the damn thing--the first Trinity test. Everybody else had dark glasses, and the people at six miles couldn't see it because they were all told to lie on the floor. I'm probably the only guy who saw it with the human eye.
Finally, after about a minute and a half, there's suddenly a tremendous noise--BANG, and then a rumble, like thunder-- and that's what convinced me. Nobody had said a word during this whole thing. We were all just watching quietly. But this sound released everybody--released me particularly because the solidity of the sound at that distance meant that it had really worked.
The man standing next to me said, "What's that?"
I said, "That was the Bomb."

Extract from Richard Feynman, American physicist's biography
Obviously Japan has been influenced a lot from nuclear weaponry after the bombings of Nagasaki & Hiroshima in WW2. Because of this it finds itself in a lot of Japanese works. In fact, one of the first manga to be translated to english was Barefoot Gen - a survivor's tale from the Hiroshima bombings.
Nuclear energy's intense devastation is also immense power and it's one of the most powerful representations an artist could use to show the strength of an explosion/character.
Many successful works have used this technique, including Dragonball Z, Akira, etc and because of this, their usage has grown even further.
'Star' Explosions
Attempt 3 at trying to understand what your question means - this time I presume you mean the star-like explosions that are in your videos.

Studio Gainax has these effects as a sort of signature, originally appearing in the very successful Neon Genesis Evangellion.  Evangellion has many religious references - including their cross-shaped explosions.

Since then, the studio's work has used these often as explosions. Studio Trigger, which was founded by gainax ex-employees also use the feature a lot - see Kill la Kill for example.
Gainax is responsible for modern usage from their own usage of the explosion type - However, Space Opera was a popular genre in the 80s, causing many shows to be set in space - and also be action-packed, leading to many explosions - some of which being supernova-like. Gundam for instance is one particular show of note from this period.
Further reading

There are countless resources on the WW2 bombings
I recommend looking at the TVTropes Page on Fade to
White - which is often how the trope is used.
Space Opera genre on TVTropes

I meant Supernova explosion, not nuclear explosion. I thought you can't understand Supernova other than Supernove... Funny. Check this out, perhaps it will help to understand: https://youtu.be/3swylpHp8gs?t=28 . And this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova

I am describing bright-light explosions - not just ones on the ground, but in the air too, as a sphere. maybe I should have had a gif of that too.  It's possible I just haven't seen this type of explosion much

yeah, but that does not address the question.

@Zloj what about now? perhaps if you edit your question to be more specific (stills rather than videos) it would be easier for users to answer

It already says supernova-like. How much more specific can one be about supernova explosion than saying supernova explosion?...

While your question is poorly qualified and given no bounds, it is probably false. However, in the interest of answering the question, we shall assume you are talking about the subset of Shounen/Action anime.
I'd like to expand @ToshinouKyouko's points of Budget and Genre and include  several other considerations for your question.

Default subject matter for the genre
The default subject matter for Shounen is fighting. When fighting,
something is bound to give. Explosions are therefore commonplace,
especially when the main concept of the show is a super power, mecha,
or magic, etc. All these tend to use some kind of power or powerful
weapon to destroy the opponent.
Solution for elimination
It is a "clean" solution for killing an opponent. There is no
blood/gore and          there are no corpses to clean up. Note that
the default audience for the genre tends to be younger. There is no
problem with having less questionable methods especially if the
audience may be squeamish or if they are considering censorship
issues. Either way it is the most basic and clean solution, to make
them disappear.
Power Creep
As the story goes on, enemies get more powerful, and so does our
hero. The easiest way of showing that when they fight is increasingly
bigger explosions. The fact that our hero is stronger, means that he
should be able to make a bigger Fireball, for example. A bigger
fireball makes a bigger explosion as it stands to reason, does it
not? The stronger enemy would also be capable of such feats of the
same scale, and clashing with them would of course yield an explosion
that is at least twice as big! This can be easily observed from anime
where the fights can destroy worlds.
Anime as a medium
Anime is freeform storytelling. They are able to achieve more things
than a traditional movie would because they can. Anime just need to
animate something out and it exists. Movies are increasingly moving
towards a lot of CG scenes because of this. Even explosions are
getting done in CG more often too. Because it is so free, so unbound,
they can do whatever they want. In the case of Shounen, this results
in explosions, even on a scale of universes, if they so choose.
Popularity of explosions
Of course one cannot exclude the fact that their target audience may
simply love seeing an explosion. Fireworks are simply popular, some
even like to see stuff explode in real life. It is also popular for
movies. If it is so popular, why not include it in anime, from the
previous point, they can do it better. They can control the look and
the size and make it however their audience may like it. I'm sure as
a shounen anime watcher, perhaps nothing could please them more
having the "bad guy" blow up and destroyed.

Everything except Popularity of explosions can be removed and then the answer will probably explain one possible reason.

I don't understand what you mean. Why aren't the rest reasons?

@Tyhja He's just being snarky, ignore.


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Is there any correlation between the CPU and CPU candidates' oppai sizes like there is with KanColle?
Hyperdimension Neptunia is an anime that is based on the console war. Its characters are based on the game consoles, namely, Sony Playstation, Microsoft XBox, Nintendo Wii, and the scrapped Sega Neptune.
Now, moving on to Kantai Collection for a while. Like Hyperdimension Neptunia, KanColle is based on real thing. Whereas Hyperdimension Neptunia is based on consoles, KanColle is based on warships. In Kantai Collection, there is a correlation between the size of the girl's oppai and the ship's displacement as shown in the following chart taken from its Wikia page.

Now, as we know, the CPU and CPU candidates in Hyperdimension Neptunia, all has varying oppai dimension. Question is, is there any correlationship between the oppai's dimension and the based console's attribute like KanColle has?

I don't believe there is an official reason for why their bust sizes varies. However, there is a correlation to the CPU bust sizes and the targeted demographic of their respective consoles or at least the kind of games associated with the console.
For example, the target demographic for the Wii is "everyone." This means that the games for the console have to be playable for kids. It has to be family friendly. Nintendo's collection of games, such as Pokemon and Mario, are also family-friendly. This explains why Rom and Ram are kids themselves and why Blanc is an A cup size. They are shown off as much younger than the other goddesses.
For Noire, the target demographic is a "younger audience," or at least it was years after its original release. This explains why she's in the middle of sort. Plus, the top games for the consoles include mature games such as Call of Duty and more family-friendly games such as Little Big Planet.
For Vert, because the top-selling games feature more mature games such as Gears of War or Halo, it makes sense why she has the biggest bust. The games are for a more older audience and so it makes sense that her bust is more matured than the others'.
I can't explain why Neptune's bust is the way they are as the console she is based on is fictional. It could be that the dramatic increase in bust size indicates how her console's demographic would vary.
This same theory doesn't hold well for the characters based on publishers and developers, however. IF has made games not suitable for everyone and she has an A cup size. Perhaps their bust size is irrelevant as their characters are based off the characters from the games published or developed by their respective company.

Blanc, Rom, and Ram are lolis. How are lolis be "family friendly"?

@SakuraiTomoko I'm not saying they are. I'm saying because the games on the console targets everyone, they have to be family friendly and thus, they have to be friendly to kids. And because of that, it might seem like Nintendo games are targeted towards kids. Lolis are or at least looks like kids.

I don't think there's a correlation, based on the fact that bust sizes change when in HDD form. Sometimes dramatically. Neptunia herself upgrades from a modest A to an E cup when she transforms into Purple Heart.
Before :

After:

That being said, I don't know much about the series as I'm only playing the first game.
Maybe someone else has more knowledge than me and can also answer. Here's a spreadsheetable list of some of the character's bust sizes for any other answer's research.

The original 4 CPU's cup sizes are likely based on RAM sizes for their respective consoles.
Xbox 360 had 512MB of unified ram, while PS3 had 256 each of video and system ram (often giving the false impression to gamers of "half as much as Xbox"), Wii had a relatively pitiful 88MB ram. Neptune...doesn't exist as a console so it's hard to say here.
So, have F/G cups for Vert/Green Heart (the most), C/C cups for Noire/Black Heart ("half" of Xbox), and A/A cups for Blanc/White Heart (almost nothing compared to Xbox). We have A/E for Neptune who...doesn't have anything to map to. All cup size info taken from the measurements in the HDN1 visual guide.
After the first game cup size doesn't correlate to anything in particular beyond character stereotypes (cute "loli" plutia vs big "sexy dominatrix" iris heart). The series' interpretations of console -> character has changed a lot over the years (see the change from French color names to...fairly random names for the candidates to direct planet names for the non-Nepgear Planeptune candidates).
Cupsize change isn't a constant matter either. Only Neptune, Plutia and Peashy get significantly larger (Peashy seems to be an entirely gaming-unrelated joke, "the smallest one becomes the biggest"), Vert, Blanc and Uzume get noticeably but not impressively larger, Noire and Nepgear stay about the same, and Uni actually shrinks (a reference to the PSP Slim in all likelihood). Cup size change seems basically random and was probably the designer (Tsunako's) preference, especially beyond the first 4 CPUs..


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Sources for Christian themes and motifs in Naruto?
Compared to some of its contemporary shounen titles, Naruto draws heavily on a variety of religious and mythological sources to inform its narrative, themes and cosmology. Kishimoto's use of explicit Hindu, Buddhist and Shinto motifs has already been discussed in a number of places. Common elements identified include deity names for jutsu, shamanic activities such as obtaining the eyes of others to 'see' as they do, making pacts with animal and other nature spirits, summoning 'demons' such as Susanoo, etc (Shinto, heavily associated with the Uchiha clan); Jimmu Tenno motifs for both Rikodu Sanin and later Naruto himself, such as his magatama and staff of 6 rings, manifestation of Gedo Mazu upon a lotus, etc (Buddhist, heavily associated with the Senjuu/Uzumaki clans); chakra, the 6 lokas (worlds) and 6 components of the bhavachakra corresponding to the 6 paths of Pein and referenced with the Rikodu Sanin as well, the Garuda, Jashin religion (apparently influenced by the Thug cult) and the battle between Indra and the Ashuras, complete with spiky hair imagery for his protagonist (and to a lesser extent the antagonist) frequently associated with ashuras (who are known for great rage and passion) - probably derived from Toriyama's Dragonball, a major influence on Kishimoto (Hindu, many elements absorbed into Mahayana Buddhist culture).
However, relatively little work has been done examining Christian influences to date, though some have already pointed out elsewhere that there seem to be a number of Christian references appearing, especially towards the end of manga/anime series, for example:

Kaguya, a woman who ate forbidden fruit from a powerful tree and brought powerful but potentially evil forces into the world (chakra from the chakra tree) (Eve);
two of her descendants who were "brothers" (Asura/Indra then Naruto/Sasuke) fighting each other (Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau);
Sasuke, a betrayer who turned his back on his best friend for personal gain (Judas), yet Naruto repeatedly attempts to win him back, even to the extent of proclaiming his willingness to die in the effort (Jesus, the good shepherd); this eventually works and Sasuke repents and seeks forgiveness for his behavior (prodigal son);
Naruto as a messiah figure who was prophesied (by the Toad Sage) to save the world (plus his 'Christ the Redeemer' poses on high points, e.g. chap. 245);
Naruto as the new Sage, who was the progenitor of the ninja world (Jesus as the new Adam);
wooden memorial crosses marking the graves of Zabuza and Haku;
frequency of resurrection jutsu (by Pein, Madara, Kabuto etc), even mass resurrections of the dead;
Adam Barkman has suggested the use of crucifixion motifs (presumably referring to Kakashi's tortue by Itachi and/or the rongusodo ninja ato: waiya haritsuke jutsu) as having Christian significance.

The heavy use of religous and mythological themes at the heart of Naruto, suggests that these may not be coincidental parallels. (This does not necessarily suggest that these examples were exclusively derived from Christian sources, e.g. the cosmic conflict between Naruto/Sasuke could be influenced by the primordial 'brotherly' conflicts in both Hinduism (Indra vs the Ashuras) and Christianity (Cain vs Abel) simultaneously.)
One potential source for such themes could be Kishimoto's favorite movie The Matrix, known to be a source of some artistic inspiration as well (The Art of Naruto: Uzumaki, 2007), which is filled with many overt Christian themes and images.
Is anyone aware of other sources that discuss Christian influences and sources on the text, e.g. interviews with Kishimoto, academic texts, discussion groups, etc?

Is it not true of any complex narrative that one can draw similarities to other complex narratives, even when no such intent exists?

The only allusion which seems possible is the consumption of the Fruit.  To say that the rest are reaching is a severe understatement.

I've never seen anything with Kishimoto talking about Christianity at all. He has said that he has taken some of the other stuff like Susanoo from religions, but these specific Christian imagery—never. I wouldn't put it past him, though, because he has used all the other religious allegory.

I'd say that Kishimoto draws a lot from Christianity and other religions. It's not just similar stories by chance. The events you list from Naruto are almost the exact events that happened in the Bible. That's not just chance, nor is it surprising. Almost all elements and events in Naruto are influenced by outside forces. So, it's not surprising that the more supernatural seeming events would be influenced by religion.
I'd also like to add that, although Kishimoto hasn't gone into full detail on all of the influences of Naruto, Christianity seems to be well-known in Japan, considering its influences in other anime and manga. The stories from the Bible are probably known by a large number of Japanese people. Especially the more important ones like the forbidden fruit, which has been referenced numerous times in other anime.
Here are some interesting subtle influences of Christianity in Naruto:

Danzo Shimura originally went by the nickname Kanzo when originally meeting with the Akatsuki, which appears to be a nod to Kanzo Uchimura, a protestant and creator of the Nonchurch Movement. Kinda like a rebel among religious bodies at the time, who often got fired because of his beliefs and practices.

Mifune is based on Toshiro Mifune, a famous Christian actor.

Sasuke is not only similar to Judas, but Obito called him Judas in the manga, just before he became the Jinchuriki of the Juubi.

There's been evidence of Christianity's influence on Naruto before, but that latter example seems to act more as proof than evidence.


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How much of the manga does the Death Note musical cover?
How much of the DEATH NOTE manga does the Frank Wildhorn theatrical musical cover? (More info in English is here.)
(I gather that the Korean production is a translation of the same script rather than content different from the Japanese production, but if it differs, I'd like to know what part of the manga the Japanese staging covers as well as what part of the manga the Korean version covers.)

After doing a quick google search, it looks like the English and Japanese musical adaptations center on the initial episodes in the series..


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Which is the manga series with the highest number of volumes?
There are some famous manga like One Piece have 77 volumes and are still ongoing or Naruto which has 72 volumes.
Which manga series is the one with the highest number of volumes ?

Related topic: How long is the longest running anime series? and Are there any other Guinness world record holders?

As described in Wikipedia the manga Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo (Kochikame) is the manga series illustrated by Osamu Akimoto with the highest number of volumes and ended on September 17, 2016 in the 42nd issue of the year, in commemoration of Kochikame's 40th anniversary. It was continuously serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since September 1976 with 1960 chapters collected into 200 tankōbon volumes.


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Why do anime and manga use the same faces?

Many shows use the same face template throughout.  Why do they use this?

I've edited your question to remove the mis-match. If you think that it's changed what you want to say, feel free to add it back in - but please add some more information linking it to the question

(not a true answer so not listing it as such, but check here to read: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OnlySixFaces )

This is a matter of artistic style and a branding strategy.
As a prime example: Studio Ghibli films are arguably the highest-quality anime produced. They painstakingly aim for realism in the movements of characters and objects and the backgrounds are lush and extremely detailed.
The balance of light and shadow accurately matches real life, and every cell is intentionally still hand-painted in the studio to preserve the high quality (Roger Ebert's interview with Miyazaki Hayao reports, "Miyazaki, who is suspicious of computers, personally draws thousands of frames by hand. 'We take [handmade] cell animation and digitize it in order to enrich the visual look, but everything starts with the human hand drawing. And the color standard is dictated by the background. We don't make up a color on the computer'").
Not only do the Japanese think so, but Studio Ghibli's work has been internationally acclaimed for its impeccable quality. Without any interest in a computer-generated template, Studio Ghibli uses the same face character designs over and over.

There are four main points:

Studio Ghibli doesn't do this because they are lazy, cutting corners in the production process, or not creative enough. Similar and even nearly-identical faces are not a result of mangaka and animators feeling limited by their mediums, as if a wider variation in facial design would be too hard for them to pull off, or not worth bothering with. Studio Ghibli has never been interested in trading a drop in quality in exchange for a time-saving measure. Though many anime studios now animate by computer, the tradition of crafting and amply using a trademark facial design for multiple characters predates the technological possibility of mixing-and-matching hairstyles onto a basic "doll" head, and did not arise in the art form in order to make that the standard once animation software could be invented.
The character designer is a prominent position in an anime's staff roster, as some character designers, such as Tadano Kazuko and Nobuteru Yuuki, draw such recognizable faces that the designer can be billed as a feature of the series. Character design is all done in pre-production (before the animators start painting cells), so increased/decreased variation in the character design does not create a large impact on the production schedule once animating begins, unless the character's costume is extremely detailed. Once the designs are established, the character designer draws official settei (設定, meaning "materials") sheets which show the character from various angles and includes notes for the animators about details not to overlook. These usually utilize very clean lines, though some character designers distribute sketchy ones. The settei are photocopied and each animator receives one copy for reference while animating, so that the character designer's intent is realized even across a large number of animator staff.

Each mangaka or character designer has a style that he/she personally likes. It may get honed over the course of the beginning of her career, but once he/she captures his/her Ideal, the artist becomes a pro at making it consistent. Unless it is a rare manga or anime in which that character designer does not intend to draw attractive-looking characters, it stands to reason that the design perceived as most attractive will be used time and again. This may mean the same face for nearly all female protagonists, the same face for nearly all male love interests, and the same face for amicable, friendly men. As an example, Takeuchi Naoko can be counted on for consistency.

Only one of these blue-haired girls is Sailor Mercury:

Chiba Mamoru (Tuxedo Kamen) and his dead ringers from other series:

Tenou Haruka (Sailor Uranus) and dopplegangers:

Branding (also known as Visual Identity, Brand Management, or Corporate Design), is very important in successful marketing. Mangaka and character designers who provide immediately recognizable faces grant fans the ability to know in an instant that this is a title they are interested in, and whenever they hear an announcement that the same creator is starting a new series, they can know exactly what to expect. Studio Ghibli has crafted simple character designs that strike a chord, make the protagonist easily likable, and garner sentimentality from the viewers. This strategy ensures repeat consumers more than if they changed up the character design from film to film. A good example of strong branding that evolved from the time of her debut is Yazawa Ai:

early work →
middle period →
distinct branding →

Although many mangaka and anime character designers do this type of branding very well, it should be noted that this is not specific to manga and anime, but can be seen in other mediums in other countries.
For example, even while Disney intentionally adds hints of traditional cultural art styles into its films (eye shapes for Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Megara), facial design for Disney protagonists is, for the most part, easily recognizable as being Disney, regardless of the ethnicity of the characters.

Disney women of color:

Give more examples like Bleach,Naruto and Fairy Tail

Padding with images of series that bear 1)  less uniformity across characters within the series and 2) less distinct facial design than Studio Ghibli and Yazawa Ai would be redundant rather than adding anything substantial to competently answering the question, "Why do anime and manga use the same faces?"

As a heads-up: the second (?) image that's supposed to resemble Mamoru seems to be giving me an "image hosted by Tripod" message instead of the actual image.

@Maroon, thanks! How odd, it was showing up for me linked from the PQ Angels site hosted on Tripod. I've downloaded it from that site and then re-uploaded it here.

I always appreciate your willingness to go outside anime and connect it to other forms of media, as you do here with your Disney example.

I'm afraid I can't quite agree with one of your points. If you removed the hair and unique clothing of each one of those Disney characters, I think I'd still be able to identify each and every one. They do have a similar style, but I was surprised how each face had a unique quality I could identify. With anime, I might be able to tell the artist, the sex, and the general age, but it's pretty rare that I'd be able to identify different characters of the same sex and age with their hair and unique clothing removed within the same anime show. Great answer nonetheless.

Relevant TV Tropes page.
It's easier for animators to keep one face pattern and differentiate through other features that are unique to that character - hair colour, hair design, eyes, etc.
The love-live girls are a good example of this. They're very unique at first, but their faces are mostly similar designs.

Some benefits of keeping the same face is that the animators only have to learn that single type of face, meaning less time redrawing as they should be very used to it.
Also, in certain scenes characters may be switched out for others if the director decides it. This means that only the hair / peripherals would have to be changed - rather than the entire body. Even if they are somewhat different - changing a the colour of an eye is a matter of a simple image tool's slider. It also means that facial features can be mostly left alone if there is a significant rush for release. Your first image is a good example of this.
Anime also is a medium that has gone through years of refinement. If you watch a show about schoolgirls - there's a certain subset of design that this will fall into - you aren't going to get gritty speedlines and heavily shaded faces unless in the case of a gag.
Combine this with the artist's particular style which is an important feature for first-glance recognition - and the fact that anime characters are significantly less detailed than real-life humans, means that a lot of characters can look the same.

This is what has lead to all the crazy pink, purple, blue hair colours that are so common (and presumed natural) in anime.
Why do many characters tend to have crazy hair colors and styles?
In summary: Character designs are limited in several ways, so animators prefer to spend time on other parts of anime characters instead

Because they produce like 100 anime every year or something. They have to be fast at it and we all know how the Asian market is low when it comes to quality. Sure thing Studio Ghibli and other studios that make movies (like the Vampire Hunter D) can do wonders, they choose not to when it comes to mass production.
Effectively, the different characters rely heavily on the hair and little bit on eye colour and/or shape. Especially filler characters that might not really play a huge role will have the generic anime face with some average hairstyle.
This is also why in anime all characters wear one and one single outfit ONLY throughout the whole series. Give them a different clothing and they turn into a different character.
For example, there was an episode in Sailor Moon where Sailor Venus had pigtails on purpose to pretend she is Sailor Moon to distract the enemy from the real Sailor Moon, she was identical in every aspect and the only thing that made her different was the length of the pigtails since Sailor Moon has knee hair length while Venus hip length hair.
At some point, they will have used all possible hairstyle, hair colour, and outfit combinations and they will have to upgrade in style.

Western cartoons also tend to have a continuation throughout the series, you won't see them change the hairstyle or clothing too much, but many times they portray the hair and clothing and face more realistically different than the typical anime face with spiky otaku hairstyle with glasses or not.

Everyone can relate to.
The more basic a face looks, or the less it looks like anyone in particular, the more relateable it will be.
You might notice in many series (especially within the Shounen genre) this trope really only applies to the main cast, where sameface will be applied equally regardless of race. If a villain is supposed to be cute, or sympathetic in some way, they will be granted sameface.
However, more and more distinguishing features will be added the more a character is to be viewed as either unimportant or an unredeemable bastard.
Other examples of breaking the trope include trying to visually push a character trope.
For example, the tiny but relateable girl will be given less of a nose than the other main cast, or the strong guy of the bunch will have a more defined nose or squared shin tip, but they will both have generally the same structure.

Because it's easier honestly. Japanese have a thing  people can't stand out or be too individualistic. That's why I love seeing realistic interpretation of anime character in fanart or 3D animation like Final Fantasy


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Is mentioning the word Porygon illegal?
I watched this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T9pHWEmQVrw and he said "porygon" I thought porygon was banned so pokemon couldn't use it becouse of the seizure incident.
Yes, I know porygon are in some of the games but those are the games and not the anime.
Why did the guy say "porygon" in the episode!? I thought it was banned from the anime forever but not the games

The episode in which it appeared was banned for giving children seizures. They didn't ban it from appearing or being mentioned.

No. It is definitely not illegal to say the word Porygon. You can also say Porygon2 and Poryzon-Z!
The debut of Porygon in the TV series episode EP038 resulted in a large population of children watching it to have epileptic seizures.
Unfortunately, the mistakes by the EP038 animators has lead to the digital Pokémon to not feature again in any episodes. It's only appearance, along with Porygon2, is in the Movie: Kyurem vs the sword of justice. But it has appeared in Manga and Games very frequently.
In fact, a third stage evolution of Porygon was added much later in generation 4: Porygon Z.


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How was the first anime made?
Anime production nowadays is now pretty much complicated and technologically advanced.
I'm curious as to how was anime production back then back in the old days when it was still obscure?

The very first anime (see more) - Katsudō Shashin was sketched onto a celluloid strip using a kappa-ban for a Magic Lantern, adjusted for continuous play.

(Arthur Mee and Holland Thompson, eds. The Book of Knowledge (New York, NY: The Grolier Society, 1912))
Previously, the magic lantern had been occasionally been used to tell stories, but none in a fluid manner like Katsudo Shashin. It's claim to be the 'first anime' is still debated due to many things, including its length.

The basic principle of the Magic lantern is magnification through a convex lens. This meant however, that slides were put in upside down in order to be projected at the correct orientation.
The origins of the Magic lantern are estimated to lie in the 17th century,
Whilst Magic Lanterns fell out of use, celluloid sheets continued to be used for many years, until they were eventually replaced by digital methods.

I unfortunately couldn't find a photo of a kappa-ban, because of the streamer ruining my search results

These links give details about the history of anime production
Few quotes from links are given
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime#History

Japanese animation began in the early 20th century, when Japanese filmmakers experimented with the animation techniques also pioneered in France, Germany, the United States and Russia.
      The success of The Walt Disney Company's 1937 feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs profoundly influenced many Japanese animators. In the 1960s, manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation techniques to reduce costs and to limit the number of frames in productions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anime

Few complete animations made during the beginnings of Japanese animation have survived. The reasons vary, but many are of commercial nature. After the clips had their run, reels (being property of the cinemas) were sold to smaller cinemas in the country and then disassembled and sold as strips or single frames.
      A 3-second film loop tentatively titled Katsudō Shashin was likely produced between 1907 and 1911 and discovered in Kyoto in July 2005. It consists of fifty frames stenciled directly onto a strip of celluloid.

Its said that the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake destroyed most of the works.


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MM!'s Age Rating?
I have a few friends who are pretty curious about this show, as it's one of my favorites. However, my friends might not be able to handle some explicit stuff, and I haven't seen it in a while. Anything that you know of that would bypass the US pg-13 standard? I am aware of the cursing, but any sexual content that I may have missed?

According to MAL, it's PG13

That's the Japanese rating.

@SShadowespio Japan doesn't use MPAA ratings like "PG-13". Their system is G/12+/15+/18+.

@SShadowespio US doesn't use PG13 for TV either. Why are you comparing it to PG13 instead of TV14?

If your friends are at all likely to be offended by sexual content beyond a US MPAA PG-13 rating, you should not show them MM. Memor-X points out in the comments that Right-Stuf lists the show as 17+ and Sentai Filmworks rates it TV-MA, and it's not hard to see why. This is a show about a masochist who derives pleasure from being tormented by beautiful women. Many of the other characters also have fetishes and tics that go beyond what you would see in an MPAA PG-13: there's a sadist, a voyeur, a lolicon, an aggressive quasi-rapey lesbian, a transvestite, and the main character's mother and sister, who both fantasize about being romantically involved with him despite being related by blood. And if that's too subtle, there's plenty of nudity, aroused moaning, and other sexually suggestive imagery, pretty much all of it involving underage characters. (Not drastically underage; the main characters are all in high school, so they're around 16. It's not exactly child porn. But it is yet another reason why I wouldn't show this series to just anyone. And Mio and Noa both look young.)
Ask yourself if you want to sit there with your friends while they watch a girl hold another girl helpless and grope and strip her as she blushes and moans, saying things like "Tell me you like it. You like it, don't you?" Ask yourself if you want to have to explain to them why the main character's sister just stripped down to her panties and jumped on top of him. Think about how much you would relish the looks on their faces when they find out what a lolicon is.
It's easy for we fans to get used to these things and forget that it's shocking for a lot of people. It might just seem like wacky fun to us, but to a normal American, this is some screwed up abnormal stuff. Unless your friends are already hardcore otaku who eat this stuff for breakfast (not people who've been into Naruto for years and recently watched Attack on Titan), I would just stop even mentioning this show. Don't show it to them. If you think they might be open to this kind of sexual free-for-all but you're not sure, show them something like Love Hina or maybe To-Love-Ru first just to gauge their reaction.

Your answer is geart in how it explains the content and how it's not PG-13 however i think you still miss the mark. rather than write an answer myself RightStuf lists the Age Rating for the BluRay as 17+, there is also a shot of the back of the cover which lists TV MA which matches what Sentai Filmworks lists aswell

@Memor-X You're right, the OP did ask for an age rating. I incorporated your links into my answer.


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Is there a canon explanation as to why Naruto still likes Sakura?
What characteristic of Sakura makes Naruto like her? She was very useless in the original Naruto, and she is in love with Sasuke. Not to mention, she did not have anything traumatic in her childhood, unlike Hinata, who actually liked Naruto from the beginning.
Also Naruto nearly unleashed the nine tails for Hinata, but still said Sakura was sort of his girlfriend.
Did I miss something here? What did Sakura do to get Naruto to like her? I am only looking for canon answers.

There's no explaining love~ <3

Childhood love? I'm afraid that there won't be a definitive answer for this.

Just like how Minato was attracted to some crazy hellish woman, Naruto follows suit :D

Same as asking, why does Naruto hasn't given up on Sasuke. :P

This is purely subjective.

I was just curious if there was a cannon answer

@ToshinouKyouko I believe my  question has been reworded to fit the rules

Cool, I'm afraid it'll take more than just me to reopen the question though. It'll need some reopen votes

Last I read in the Manga, Naruto took Hinata by the hand while engulfed in Kurama's chakra. I haven't read the rest, what did I miss? (I don't care about spoilers)

she did not have anything traumatic in her childhood, unlike Hinata, who actually liked Naruto from the beginning. The structure of this sentence seems to suggest that liking Naruto was a "trauma" for Hinata. :D

Naruto loves and desires Sakura because she is an average ninja girl. Naruto wants all the leaf village to look up to him and select him as Hokage one day for one reason--- so that he will be accepted and respected by the leaf village. Everyone must accept the Hokage, and most will respect the Hokage.
Therefore, a goal/milestone along that path of becoming Hokage is to get the most average ninja in his grade to "believe in him". If he can convince the average leaf ninja to accept him, he will have achieved his life long goal of being accepted by the leaf village, rather than ostracised. This is the original drive behind his crush on Sakura and his desire for her to love him.
Afterward, there is all the mutual experiences and mutual bonding from being in the same teams together through so much stress and trying times.

I don't think there can be a canon answer to this because it is not something shown/talked about in either the manga or anime. However, when you were young what did your crushes do to get you to have a crush  on them? I know in my case, almost nothing. They just had to be attractive. My guess that is true for Naruto as well.

But at 16 he still hasn't changed? And it doesn't answer why he would chose Sakura over Hinata

Like @Mrpineapple said, there is no expaining love.. Similar to your question I could ask why does Sakura love Sasuke, who is a missing nin, and have never done anything towards Sakura to command love. In comparision to Sasuke-Sakura pair, i would say Sakura-Naruto is better, as Sakura is not a missing nin. :)

Ok. Just wondering if I missed anything

He liked Sakura for years, she wasn't a bad girl or anything and she'd be willing to die for Naruto as well. How many people fall for others just because they liked you? While Hinata liked him, she really wasn't that close to him. She was willing to die for him, but so were most of the Leaf. He really seemed to love Sakura even though she might not like him, so if he really cared for her, then it'd make no sense for him to quickly get over her. Naruto isn't fickle, and Hinata wasn't really his type (he seems to like the tsundere and girl with back bone; if Hinata did have that back bone in the beginning, then she wouldn't have fallen for Naruto because the only reason she fell for Naruto was cause he was a fellow loser, except unlike her, he never gave up).
Also as a child, Sakura was ostracized (like Naruto but not to nearly the same extent) for something outside of her power and then was rescued by one person showing kindness to her and befriending her.
Another reason for Naruto to still like Sakura is because she will try almost anything to protect him. While her fake confession was mean, she did it to protect him, and she was willing to try and kill Sasuke when he joined Akatsuki (an organization that wanted to kill Naruto).
While she couldn't kill Sasuke, it didn't exactly have to mean that she still liked him; it could just be because she liked him for 5 years and then he became a part of her family (Team 7) so she couldn't kill him because of who he used to be (before Itachi mind raped him a 2nd time, he was actually a pretty good kid, though he was anti-social). So Naruto might feel that he still has a chance.
There could be a lot of reasons for Naruto to like Sakura and pick her over Hinata. These are a few I could think of. It's not like anything I'm shipping is possible anyways.


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Why does the drawing style in manga or anime often change when a character is displaying big emotions?
I find it kind of weird since a sophisticated drawing style suddenly becomes very cartoonish/simplistic. It's like a break. And the features of the face change. I noticed this in a couple of series now

can u give some examples as to what your referring to! :)

If you have access to Scott McCloud's Making Comics manga section you can read a long essay on this.
To sum it up, Japanese comic's drawing is much more subjective than their traditional European and American counterparts. Where those put emphasis on character poses and their location on the scene, manga highlight the feelings told on facial and body expressions.
Japanese comics are usually purposely unrealistic in this style, even when the manga is realistic, serious and everyday themed. When a character is having intense feelings, his eyes sparkles, when he is shaken by bad news a thunder appears behind him and his eyes and pupils vary in size depending on the emotion.
Continuing with this tradition, the super deformed (SD) style was introduced in mangas and quickly adopted. Characters' expressions are exaggerated, the body shrinks and the head is enormous, normally expressing some intense emotion (probably anger, but many others). This is used even in serious comics, usually as a comic relief.
Why? It must be understood in the previously mentioned subjectivity of manga and anime. It has no story meaning (even if the character picks a big hammer), the change of body proportions don't happen in reality, it only counts as the expressed feeling.
Note that even when the manga or anime don't use SD style, the style, the body proportions and the face are usually somewhat flexible and subject of emotions (instead of super-deformed they are just deformed). Compare to many other forms of subjectivity, like the one dealing with time or distance.


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How many Tasogare Otome x Amnesia manga chapters covered by anime?
I don't want to read the full manga, but I've seen that the manga ended after the anime did. So, I think that the anime won't give the full story.
How many chapters were covered by the anime?


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What are the remaining phenomena Heartseed places on the club members?
The anime & OVAs of Kokoro Connect only cover up to the light novel "Kokoro Connect - Michi Random"
But there are several other novels:

Kokoro Connect Clip Time
Kokoro Connect Nise Random
Kokoro Connect Yume Random
Kokoro Connect Step Time
Kokoro Connect Asu Random (volume 1)
Kokoro Connect Asu Random (volume 2)
Kokoro Connect Precious Time

The Wikipedia page mentions other phenomena, such as "Perspective Dreamland", but this seems to be roughly translated and I have no idea what it entails.
What phenomena were not covered by the anime, but feature in the Light Novels?
As an optional side question, Does the manga cover any more phenomena further than the anime?

The anime stops at Michi Random, so the ones that are left over are:
(mostly taken from The Kokoro Connect Wikia
The question obviously can't be answered without any spoilers, so just a small warning

Illusion Projection (Nise Random)

Grants the user the ability to take on the appearance of anyone. The illusion is just that, a superficial projection rather than a biological change, and the image projected is only seen by the five original members of the StuCS and can only be used on them.

Forced Termination (Nise Random)

Automatically activates in response to two or more people experiencing a paradox as a result of a phenomenon, for example, if two or more people observe the same Illusion Projection at the same time. The ensuing paradox will cause the observers to have their memories reset to before ever encountering Heartseed. Another trigger for this phenomenon is if there is a risk in deteriorating mental state or injury,

Dream Perception (Yume Random)

Allows the club members to perceive the desires, thoughts, and hopes of others which can be summed up as a "dream". The members can only see the "dreams" of people outside of the StuCS and only of people associated with Yamaboshi High; This power activates randomly and somewhat relative to the physical distance between them

Record Deletion (Asu Random I)

Automatically activates during the aftermath of a phenomenon that has ended. All people involved, including Heartseeds, will have all their memories regarding the phenomenon wiped clean. The Cultural Research Club is the only known group to resist this phenomenon, having managed to retain their memories for almost two years. Record Deletion typically kicks in a few weeks after a phenomenon has ended.

Isolation Dimension (Asu Random I)

As its name implies, is an alternate dimension that isolates certain individuals from the normal world. Physically, the dimension looks no different from the norm, but the people in the dimension are completely cut off from those outside of it. In the Isolation Dimension, the Heartseeds can cause their phenomenons without worrying about any detrimental effects on the outside world. As described in Asu Random, it is similar to a laboratory for the Heartseeds to do experimentation

Several Unnamed Phenomenons (Asu Random II)

A Group of Girls From Inaba's Class: One member of the group is randomly made invisible to the other members. The victim cannot be detected by any of the other members' five senses. However, people outside of the group can still acknowledge the target.
Gym Group: While the phenomenon is in effect, one member suddenly perceives the other members as frightful, hostile enemies.
Ishikawa Daisuke, Watase Shingo, Setouchi Kaoru, Nakayama Mariko: This phenomenon forces each member's likes and dislikes to change in unpredictable ways. For example, Mariko suddenly liked Watase and became affectionate towards him despite being in a relationship with Ishikawa. The emotions that are forced onto them are so strong that it can change their behaviour and even make them do things they normally wouldn't do.
Jazz Band Club: At random times, this phenomenon will force a member to tell a lie even if they don't want to.
Student Council Executives: Fujishima and the rest of the council experienced a random change in "roles". For example, Fujishima is leader of the Executives, but, when the phenomenon is occurring, she might become the subordinate, following whatever someone else is saying and not voicing an opinion at all.

Parallel World (Asu Random II)

Similar to the Isolation Dimension , all Phenomena have been erased from the StuCS's memories and everyone continued living as if those events never transpired. Things that happen during this phenomen and its results are remembered after it is over and remain.  This phenomenon is a "what if" scenario Heartseed wanted to see.

There's also a non-canon phenomenon - Future Predictions that featured in the PSP game:

given the power to foresee a prediction of that will happen to a fellow member of the group. They will only see an image and must use the clues in the image to decipher the meaning of the prediction. When the phenomenon activates and which member the prediction is about is completely random. How far into the future the prediction is is also random.


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What exactly is the yellow thing that plue has?
In this picture off Plue from the Rave Master wiki, it's stated to be a horn/nose.

But what exactly is that yellow thing? Is it a nose or a horn? If it's nose, can Plue smell with that?

why not both? he can smell and stab people with that

Judging by the position where the "yellow thing" is located it looks more like a nose. Horn's are located either on the forehead or on top of the head. Plue is not a fighting type, rather a pet type, so don't think it'll be using its "nose" for drilling into enemies.

I always thought Plue was inspired by a dog getting an ice cream cone stuck on its nose, hence the cold shakes & horn/nose referencing together but I could be entirely crazy so ignore this comment.

Most site, even Rave wiki always refer it as a nose due to its position that like a nose. But actually it's not both, it looks like horn, and the position is more like nose but it's the weapon that only Plue has

Just like that picture says, even Hiro Mashima not sure what it is. (or he just didn't want to tell us)


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Do gangster-themed Madoka subtitles really exist?
I've often come across gangster-themed Madoka subtitled screenshots, but I haven't been able to find any solid evidence that they exist. Sometimes the characters are referred to as Swagdoka and Homubro instead of their actual names Madoka and Homura
The images below are sample of these gangster subtitles, and are in differing scenes throughout the show.

I'm not asking for any links, I was just wondering if these subtitles actually exist or if it's mostly internet rumours and only some scenes have been 'gangster-ized'.

afta sum googlin' it's become apparent dat dis here fakesub consist of popular separate phrases changed a lil' bit to fit the context of the anime.

So, after a while of researching this, it appears that someone had taken a subtitle file and run it through Gizoogle's Translation site.
Gizoogle is a parody of Google based off of Snoop Dogg's lingo
What this does is translates sentences such as:

Madoka and Homura are best witch friends forever.

into Gangsta slang:

Madoka n' Homura is dopest witch playaz forever n' shit.

The subtitles have not been published online, whoever created them merely posted screenshots. But if you had an original subtitle file, you could replicate it easily enough by using the same process.


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Are 3DCG-based animes cheaper to produce?
I've been noticing that CG in anime has becoming more popular. Recently, I've watched several shows that have almost fully 3D animation.
Arpeggio of Blue Steel and Knights of Sidonia:

I've also noticed it appearing to smaller effect in parts of other shows, such as Girls Und Panzer, when the focus is not directly on the characters:

It seems that primarily mechanical objects are done with 3D technologies as the measurements are exact. This doesn't surprise me, but human characters are notoriously hard to do with computer graphics - see the Uncanny Valley . For this reason I would have thought making 3d anime characters (who don't even have normal human proportions) would be expensive to do right.
Is the reason anime companies are starting to use this technique more for characters, that it has become cheaper to implement? Or is there another reason for this slowly increasing popularity?

It boils down to less labor and material costs. Artistic talent is not always readily available, so using CG allow a production to better allocate their resources.

3D modelling and rendering is often faster than drawing each frame, since all the 3D models can be reused and the 2D animation frames must be redrawn from various angles. Unless you're a cheapskate show that reuses the same poses and facial expressions over and over. This isn't a problem with 3D animation, since most of what it takes to do a different look is to change camera angle and rotate model's limbs.
It's supposed to be faster than 2D, but it may actually be more expensive, in theory. Can't say for sure, as I haven't seen the actual cost comparison.

I guess the more you use it, the more value you get out of it

I think that most of the success of 3D comes from the ability to change shots without having to completely redo the scene

I don't know if 3DCG is cheaper, but we can compare differences in 2D and 3D process to identify possible savings.
First, lots of the anime creation process is same. Directing, writing, character design, screenplay, dubbing, marketing are all same. So there are no savings there.
Second, 3DCG has bigger up-front cost, because you have to create the 3D models. This is especially problematic for characters, if it is main focus of the show. It is less a problem for mechanical stuff and backgrounds, because they are easier to model and many shows already use 3D for those.
Third, the animation. Animating mechanical things is easy because you have low number of moving parts and their order of freedom is low. Humanoids on the other hand are hard to animate and even harder if you want the movement to seem natural. And the complexity goes up as character interact between each other and environment.
So if the show is primarily animating mechanical things moving around then there is big chance of saving some money. If the show is about characters and their interaction, then I guess there is no much saving and the primary purpose of using 3DCG is to maintain consistency.

I don't know what makes you think that mechanical things have a "low number of moving parts".  Now, granted, it's far easier to set up driven keys in any system that supports rigging (2D or 3D) than animating by hand, but you still have all the parts - tank treads, for instance, have a lot of individual treads, but those are usually constrained to follow a path (and drive off the same control as the bogeys and drive sprockets).  Depending on the actual model, though, a mechanical item may have far more individual moving parts than a human.

@Clockwork-Muse It is more about degree of freedom of individual joints than count of moving parts. Usually, mechanical parts have low degree of freedom in their joints (eg 2-3). Humans on the other hand have high degree of freedom in many of heir joints (shoulder has 6 DoF). Some nice examples are in http://www.udel.edu/PT/current/PHYT622/2007/jointmovements.ppt Also, in humanoids, you need to be careful with skin, because algorithms can produces some weird artifacts if you are not. This does not apply to mechanical things.

3D Rendered Models can be more expensive as you have to render the models, this can take time depending on which Shading and Lighting Algorithms you use, by adding more computers you can get more work done however the upkeep starts to increase aswell.
The advantage to using 3d in an entire series is that you can reuse models to remain consistency, and also you can make the animation look more impressive using particle effects, shadows and lighting in a way you can do with 2d.
However with 3D is that the more real it looks, the more out of place thing can be when you try and add the common Anime Tropes like facial expressions of even the proportions used. alot of the time i tend to notice variations of Cell-Shading used in anime because Cell-Shading tends to create a more "cartoon-y" look which separates the animation from realism.


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Is this Monogatari opening a take on another artists' style?
During the opening song 'Kogarashi Sentiment' (The fourth opening in Monogatari Season 2), the video continually switches from one art style (the normal Monogatari type art), to another one (which seems like a dated art style).
Is this a homage to another artist/company who would be known for this style?
The style seems quite familiar, but that could just be the dated feel of the art.

The OP is not a parody of one series per say, but reminiscent the stereotypes of 80s/90s anime themes in general.
Kindaichi Case Files
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjIXE-YWMHM
Cardcaptor Sakura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQjCFvaNwJQ
Escaflowne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbhcChdCAUk
One of the most notable parts (with the hat flying off) somewhat resembles Kimagure Orange Road and/or the Ranma 1/2 OAV OP "Love Panic" (Koi da! Panikku):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=777YtDfbnYI
Some sequences are a bit reminiscent of the Golden Boy OP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47Hg0QIo1x8


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Was there ever a Pokemon game based off the Orange Islands?
Did they ever release a Pokemon game dealing with the Orange Island League?
I was thinking and I remembered that each Pokemon anime series followed the same route as the games as far as getting the badges, but I wanted to know if they ever released a Pokemon game that dealt with Ash's adventures in the Orange Islands.
If they did what is the name of the game? If they didn't, why not?

There is no game located in the Orange Islands. Perhaps the closest game would be Fire Red/Leaf Green where the player could explore Sevii Islands. There are arguments that this was inspired by the Orange Islands, but I haven't found any proof.
There have been player modded games fitting in with the Orange Islands - Example, but no official release. Reference
According to this answer on another site, the Orange Island plot was half-hearted and this probably meant that there was no real push for a related game on that end.

There are no official games made by Nintendo about the Orange Islands. Some romhacks have been made/are under construction about them though.:
Pokemon Orange Islands (Complete)
https://forum.silphco.io/threads/pokemon-orange-islands.69/
Pokemon Orange
https://forum.silphco.io/threads/pokemon-orange-hoty-2017.67/
Pokemon Naranja:
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=54546

I think it's more plausible that there was no game made because  there was no real idea how many pokemon there was at the time(150 kanto, 250 jhoto). also there was only four gym leaders each with diffrent obstacles to go through the challenges would be to hard to mimic on the gameboy though it would be easy and fun on the ds. The other factor that puzzles me is the orange league champion Drake uses a dragonite, drake is the same name they used in the kanto games and the jhoto games he is the charater you face after the elite four and he records you and your pokemon just as they did for ash after he defeated the orange league champion. In red blue yellow is known as chapion in jhoto he is also known as the dragon master. HE wears a pokeball around his neck just video game drake meaning that they must be the same person. So in a way they even though they don't have orange island gym leaders they still have the chapion drake which makes the game partly related to orange island. Though everything is just speculations And no one will no for sure but what we know is that the longer they continue to air Pokemon the more fans will become confused.

By the end of the first season, Pokemon: Gold and Silver (Johto games) was still unreleased so the anime had to create a filler arc involving the GS ball and the Orange League to stall time. The Pokemon anime is based on the games and therefore could not go straight ahead and do the Johto saga if the game it's based on isn't released yet.
The Orange Islands is probably loosely based on the Sevii Islands from FireRed and LeafGreen but still debatable.

The Orange Islands could not be based on the Sevii Islands from FR/LG, since those games released only on 2004.

There is one game on Orange Islands. The name of the game is Pokemon Naranj.

It's a hack ROM made by fan, though


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How was the Dai-Gurren improved in episode 12?
In Gurren Lagann, Episode 12, The group take a break on the beach as the Dai-Gurren has to undergo some changes so that it can become sea-worthy.

In the picture we can see that it's been given a kayak-like paddle, but the ship never seems to use it throughout the episode. Presumably it's just for fun.
What actual improvements did the ship go under that set them back?
Is the paddle actually used (perhaps in the manga)?

The pre-episode 12 Dai-Gurren:

In addition to the paddle, the Dai-Gurren was equipped with flippers on its "feet" which can be seen in the original image.
Reference Link
When Adiane attacks with the Dai-Gunkai, Kittan tries to fight back and dives into the water, but realizes that his Gunman isn't suited for underwater combat, as the cockpit starts letting water in.
Assuming that the machines are similar, there must have been some adjustments made to the Dai-Gurren's hull to make sure that it wouldn't let in water. Perhaps it drew from the regenerative abilities of Gurren Lagann, allowing it to seal itself.


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Is Black Rock Shooter the only anime soundtrack that features vocaloid singers?
Black Rock Shooter's opening theme is sung by Miku Hatsune.
Are there any other anime soundtracks that incorporate a vocaloid singer (or a similar synthesized voice program) such as Miku?

Anime-Planet have vocaloid tag and there are bunch of anime with that tag. But I can't be sure if that means those anime feature vocaloid singer or something else related to vocaloid

It's probably going to be pretty rare for anime soundtracks to be featured with a Vocaloid singer, since the talent tie-ins and money for making anime want to promote their in-house talent so they want to use their own (live) singers. You can see a lot of famous vocaloid producers get hired for their music but instead of the vocaloid voice track, they use in-house talent for the voice:

ryo(supercell) gets hired by Sony Music to make Bakemonogatari's ED, "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari", but sung by Yanagi Nagi
kz(livetunes) gets hired by Sony Music to produce the song "Irony" for Oreimo, but sung by ClariS
Toku-P had one of his existing Vocaloid songs "Color" used for the Freezing OP, but sung by MARiA
40mP also had one of his Vocaloid songs "Evidence" used for one of the Fairy Tail OPs, but sung by DaisyxDaisy

source

COLOR by Vocaloid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sepKvSW-64 (not sure if it is original?)

Supercell does some music in Guilty Crown too seemingly

Jon Lin's answer is good, so I don't think I have anything to add in that direction. As he says, using Vocaloid singers for songs of full-length anime (rather than animated music videos) is rather uncommon. It sometimes happens that a Vocaloid singer will be used in early stages of production, but by the time they are ready to release the song it's usually done by a live singer, which is generally more profitable.
I only know of two instances of Vocaloids being used other than in the Black Rock Shooter shows (which you mentioned). Both of these were atypical.
The ending of episode 13 of Akikan! (the final episode) used Miku (as Mikkuchu Juuchu). However, each episode of Akikan! had the same song (Koisora Recycling) sung in a different arrangement by Nomiko, sometimes with guest artists, so Miku wasn't really the focus.
Meguriau Sekai, a 15-minute low-budget independent anime, has an insert song by Miku called Wish: Kutsuhimo o Musunde. I was not able to find this song anywhere, though if you can find the anime it plays from 12:00 until the end. This was very likely done to keep costs low. The anime only has one voice actor, and licensing a professional musician would probably have been beyond their budget.
I searched for any other anime with Vocaloid songs, but I was not able to find any for the top 10 or so most popular Vocaloids. If there are any others, they are low-budget independent productions like Meguriau Sekai, since a high budget show using Vocaloid songs would probably be notable enough that it would be documented in many places.

Paprika, a 2006 anime movie, has a theme song called "The Girl in Byakkoya" by Susumu Hirasawa which was sung by Vocaloid LOLA.
It's considered as the first anime movie to use Vocaloid in its OST.

The last track, "The Girl in Byakkoya", features three spoken lines in Vietnamese. The soundtrack is significant for being the first made for a film to use a Vocaloid (using the Lola voicebank) for some vocals.
From Wikipedia article of Paprika

You can listen to the song and download it freely on Susumu's official website.

Episode 6 of Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui was sung by Miku, but it's kinda sad that it was only for an episode. And it seems like it wasn't even an original song, I think, but just a cover. Not sure, though.

Black Rock Shooter, in fact isnt the only OP sung by Hatsune Miku. Heat Haze Days, from Mekaku City Actors is also sung by Miku.

I guess the reason is because Mekaku City is a project based on Vocaloid, named Kagerou Project

-1. While the original song is sung by Miku, the song in the anime is sung by Shouichi Taguchi. Please take note that the question is asking for anime soundtrack specifically

An I'm sorry, I must have misread it.