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What was the first iyashikei series?
This essay on Reddit gives a pretty good definition for iyashikei:

Iyashikei means “healing-type” and the genre’s works reflect this meaning. Iyashikei aims to heal the viewer through delivering a sense of relaxation and catharsis. This is accomplished through a tranquil – though not necessarily happy – in-show experience which allows the viewer to calm their mind and relax by focusing more on the emotional experience than on the intellectual.

The essay gives several examples of iyashikei shows, including Aria, K-On, Mushishi, and Non Non Biyori.
In my meager explorations of Japanese literature, I've noticed a peaceful and sometimes pensive feeling similar to the tone of many iyashikei, especially in the poetry. It seems that iyashikei is a genre with pretty deep roots in Japanese culture, so I'd expect it to take off early on in anime.
I'm curious what the earliest iyashikei anime or manga was. The earliest I knew of was Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, from 1994; the Reddit essay mentions the Studio Ghibli film Only Yesterday, from 1991. Are there any earlier? Given my hypothesis that iyashikei came from a longstanding and uniquely Japanese cultural perspective, it seems like there should have been.
Series this old wouldn't have been identified as iyashikei at the time (even Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou and Only Yesterday seem to predate the term), but if modern fans would identify it as iyashikei or something similar, it's potentially an answer.

Perhaps the concept is old, but the word "iyashikei" itself is apparently only attested back to 1999, or so claims Japanese Wikipedia. The claim seems plausible; the earliest occurrences in BCCWJ are from 2001. ("Iyashikei" is a straightforward compound word with compositional meaning, but simply does not seem to have been used until relatively recently.)

@senshin Yeah, I should have been more clear; I meant what we would identify today as an iyashikei series. It needn't have been called that at the time. I don't think (and your research agrees with my impression) that anyone at the time called Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou an iyashikei series; that label was attached in retrospect. If that condition requires a more rigorous definition of iyashikei, I'll try to provide one.

does that mean Ecchi and Hentai is Iyashikei ?

(This was originally going to be a comment, but I'm going to go ahead and make this an answer and explain why I'm not sure it is possible to effectively answer this question. I could well be convinced otherwise, though!)
Unlike obscenity, you don't know (old) iyashikei when you see it
So, here's the problem, as I see it. iyashikei is one of those things that is characterized less by the content of a work and more by the effect of that work upon its audience.
Today, content creators have a well-worn library of narrative approaches that they can use to make their work iyashikei (e.g. "cute girls doing cute things"), and so we can look at a present-day work and see how it uses these approaches to effectively "heal" the audience. Alternatively, we can look at how a work comports itself relative to "canonically" iyashikei works that it discourses with, like Aria and so forth.
But when we look at works that predate the iyashikei "canon" and its associated library of approaches, how do we effectively evaluate whether a work is or is not iyashikei? Based on how it makes you feel, I guess.1
 But that doesn't help us come up with a good answer to "which was the first?". That's the issue - it's simply rather difficult to say what is or is not iyashikei the further into the past you go.
For example:
I strongly disagree with the reddit user's claim that Only Yesterday is iyashikei.
While it is, on the whole, a calm and relaxing movie, and happens to employ some of the narrative trappings common to modern iyashikei works (wistfulness for rural Japan, in particular), it pairs these elements with decidedly un-healing bits, like the various mishaps Taeko experiences during her childhood, and the obstacles she faces in her budding relationship with Toshio. It is a beautiful slice of Japanese life, but is it healing? No, at least not to me.
If we lifted Only Yesterday out of 1991 and released it for the first time in 2016, would we call it iyashikei? I don't think so. It is not, in my view, substantially in discourse with the modern "iyashikei canon".
Why is iyashikei a Thing, anyway?
There's something of an argument that the crystallization of iyashikei in the late 90s as a Thing (throughout Japanese media; not just in the otaku realm) is a direct response to the trouble Japan was experiencing at the time - the bubble had just burst, and Japan was really reeling for the first time since World War II. This explanation is pretty reductive, and it'd be silly to claim that the economy is the only (or even primary) cause, but it seems uncontroversial that Japan's national woes at the time did contribute to the reification of iyashikei.
Taken out of its context as a response to the Japanese zeitgeist of the 90s, does it even make sense to talk about iyashikei? I'm not sure that it does.
A long, rambling footnote
1 This is not to say that it is always impossible to identify a work as having a quality that was only effectively delinated after the work's creation.
Take, for example, the realm of gothic fiction. When Walpole wrote The Castle of Otranto, he wrote the first gothic novel, even though he could not have known that, since the idea of gothic fiction as a distinct thing did not come about until some years later. But we can nonetheless distinctly see that Otranto is a gothic novel (never mind the fact that the whole genre is named for Otranto to begin with), because there are specific narrative trappings that characterize gothic fiction (spooky castles, fantastic romances, etc.), and Otranto exhibits them.
But iyashikei works are not characterized by their narrative in this same way. Where, on the one hand, you have the (admittedly large) cluster of "cute girls doing cute things" anime, you also have "man has mystical encounters with spiritual entities" (Natsume Yuujinchou, Mushishi) and "parenting is great" (Usagi Drop, timeskip notwithstanding) and "shibe does shibe things" (Itoshi no Muco) and "whatever Glasslip is" (Glasslip), and I don't know how to identify a coherent commonality among all these things besides "they make me feel fuzzy inside".

This isn't the answer I was expecting, but it makes a lot of sense, and I now realize I overlooked a lot of things when I posited a connection between Japanese literature and iyashikei. The point about The Castle of Otranto is well taken; I definitely intended "iyashikei" in the extended sense, not some restricted sense where it's equivalent to "cute girls doing cute things", so you're correct to point out that the content varies widely, and the commonality is more about a style and a mood than anything concrete.

I haven't seen Only Yesterday, but it's interesting to me that Aria and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou supplement their idyllic settings with backstories that indicate hardship in the past, especially in light of the idea that the genre was a reaction to the economic and social problems in Japan of the 1990s and early 2000s. To me, some part of the healing nature of these shows comes from this underlying theme that hardships will pass and things will get better. And, had I thought about this more deeply before I posted, I would have realized that...

...the "healing" concepts in Aria and Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou are actually pretty Western, and don't show an obvious influence from Japanese literature the way some of these other shows do.

I've thought some more, and I'm not 100% convinced that it's impossible to identity older works as "proto iyashikei". (I'm only about 65% convinced.) But I do agree that, if it is possible, it would require both a ton of massively subjective definitional judgement calls, and a critical framework that would take dozens, if not hundreds, of pages worth of floaty, abstract language to flesh out. So it's well outside the scope of an SE answer, and I'm accepting this answer in recognition of that.


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Are items that are gained during evolution part of the Pokemon?
Pokemon such as Mankey and Abra gain items after evolution. Primeape has metal rings around its wrists and ankles, and Kadabra gets a spoon. What I'm confused about is that Braixen gains an item during evolution as well, the stick on its tail, but in the anime it is shown that Serena's Braixen broke her stick and found a replacement afterwards. So are the items gained during evolution part of the Pokemon? If not, does it count as a held item?

The items were most likely not intended by the developers to be a part of the Pokémon, but rather, a part of the Pokémon's design. For instance, the entry on Braixen from the Pokémon X game is:

It has a twig stuck in its tail. With friction from its tail fur, it sets the twig on fire and launches into battle.

Source: http://serebii.net/pokedex-xy/654.shtml
So, do all Braixen have twigs? Yes, they do, but this is just because it is a game, and that is how Braixen was designed. And the anime reflects the designs in the games, and sometimes the anime tries to give some reasoning as to why the Pokémon have these items.  But is this twig a part of Braixen? No. As evident by the Pokédex entry, the twig is just something that is stuck in its tail for whatever reason. It is also evident in the anime because they were able to replace it when it was broken in the episode Mending a Broken Spirit!  (Japanese episode title: A Broken Twig: A Broken Heart! Braixen's Strong Feelings!!)
Edit: If we reference Pokédex entries, we see that they tell a narrative that's a little different from what we see in the games and in the anime. For instance, from Braixen's entry, I think the narrative is trying to say the twig in it's tail is just a twig it picked up on a stroll through a forest. If we look at what actually happens in the game and anime though, the twig magically appear as soon as Fennekin evolves. The point I'm trying to make is that there is a lot of hand-waving going on when a Pokémon evolves.
If you'll also recall in the first season of the Pokémon anime, Ash's Caterpie did not evolve in the same manner as all subsequent Pokémon. To become Metapod, it encased itself in a cocoon using string shot, and to become Butterfree, it broke the shell. This means of evolution makes more sense, but it wouldn't be feasible to come up with a unique means of evolution for every Pokémon. I suspect that the white glow method was adopted from the games as a convenience since so many Pokémon were going to evolve during the series and it introduced this inconsistency with items appearing out of nowhere.

i have edited the question, the edit was, does the item count as a hold item

@Dragon well, hold item in anime and games is kinda different. In the games when abra evolved into kadabra it's shown with spoon, but not gained the spoon as it's hold item after evolution.

So it doesn't count or am i just comparing apples and oranges

I think it only makes sense to ask about held items when in reference to the games. Only video games make a distinction between an item that is part of a character's sprite/model and an item that can be equipped and inventoried. And obviously, the games don't classify Braixen's twig as a held item.

source: Stack Exchange

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

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Third time Katsuragi went to Dezini Park?
In chapter 105 of TWGOK, Katsuragi mentions that it was his third time that month coming to Dezini Park, a parody of Disney World, in Narusawa City, when he goes with Haqua. I remember that he went once before with Elsee to try and cheer her up, but when was the other time that he went?

I don't blame you for missing it; it took me about half an hour of hunting through the chapters and summaries on the Wikia to figure out that this was Keima's first visit to Dezeni Sea:

This comes from Chapter 20; it's one panel of a montage of places that Keima and Kusunoki went on their date. It's the only glimpse we get of Dezeni Sea; we aren't even told its name at this point. The wikia points it out in its summary of Chapter 103:

In Desney Sea, Keima mentions that it's his second time coming here after a date with Kusunoki.

We can see this is Dezeni Sea by comparing it to these panels from Chapter 103, when Keima goes with Elsie:

We can see the same castle in the background and the same teacup ride (the teacups even have the same pattern on them).
Then in Chapter 105, Keima goes with Haqua (and Tenri/Diana) and remarks this is his third time.
Keima also goes to Dezeni Sea a couple times after Chapter 105, notably in Chapter 142,

 with Yui, during the Goddess Arc, when he discovers that she's housing
 the Goddess Mars.

i found the answer too, except it took me an extra 2 hours

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


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Why is shonen manga's goriness these days abundant?
So I just read The Promised Neverland and the goriness is kinda jarring for me (and it's in Weekly Shonen Jump). It's a not alone there, actually. HxH has its own share of goriness. Shingeki no Kyojin is also formally a shonen title even though I personally treat it as a seinen. And there are other similar titles too many to mention here.
So what's the matter with the Japanese audience? Do they tolerate such level of violence (even though it's only fictional) especially for the kids? Isn't it kinda messed up to prematurely expose them to such vulgar things?

I haven't seen firsthand proof that shounen manga are getting more violent, but let's say it's true. It does happen; popular media seem to follow weird cycles where the average level of violence rises steadily for a while, until you get to peak violence, and then there's a violence recession and things calm down for a while. In American film, the major peak was in the 1960s–1980s with movies like Night of the Living Dead and Cannibal Holocaust. In anime, peak violence was achieved in the 1970s and 1980s with titles like MD Geist, Violence Jack, Wicked City, and Urotsukidouji. It's entirely possible that anime is headed for another violence apex. It does seem like Western media might be heading that way too; the most popular Western works are violent stories like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.
These violence apexes have complex cultural and production causes at their roots. For instance, OVAs were an extremely common format for anime in the 1980s. Since OVAs are direct to video, they catch a lot less heat from censors than stuff that broadcasts on TV where anyone can see it, and it's probably no coincidence that many of the extremely violent anime of the 1980s were OVAs. In the West, cable TV and streaming have made it easier to get violent shows out there.
You could write whole books about the cultural side of this (and I'm sure someone has), but I lack the expertise to go into it too deeply. But there are a few social trends that seem to correlate with increasing violence in popular media:

Widespread societal cynicism. This was true of America after 9/11; Saw came out in 2003, and Hostel came out in 2005. This was also true of America in the later years of the Cold War; Cannibal Holocaust came out in 1980.
Widespread influence of militaristic groups. This was also true of America after 9/11, and in the 1970s and 1980s. In modern Japan, there has been a rising trend towards militarism; you can see the effect of this in anime like GATE, which glorifies the JSDF. The JSDF even tried to use moe as a recruiting tool in the same way that the US military uses first-person shooters.
Fear of military, cultural, or economic invasion by enemies. True of America in the late Cold War and after 9/11, and also true of modern Japan, which fears the rise of China as an economic and military power.

So it does seem plausible to me that newer shounen manga is more violent than older material. But let's keep in mind that older shounen manga isn't necessarily as clean and wholesome as we remember. I haven't read The Promised Wonderland or Hunter x Hunter, but even the older stuff that I have read got pretty violent at times. Yu Yu Hakusho in particular had some pretty graphic sequences (and it's probably no coincidence that Hunter x Hunter is also violent, since they share an author). Rurouni Kenshin started out bloodless but got pretty graphic towards the middle of the Kyouto arc. Naruto and One Piece both have their moments. Even Dragon Ball Z featured Frieza getting cut straight in half during his final battle with Goku. I recall some fairly bloody scenes from what little I read of Saint Seiya. Even Yugioh, which definitely aims for the younger side of the 8-18 age group, had some scenes that were at least brutal if not actually gory. For that matter, shoujo has also historically been pretty violent—X and Ayashi no Ceres are hardly sugar, spice, and everything nice.
As to the last point, the audience for shounen manga is not uniformly young children. The most common audience is boys from eight to eighteen years old, though shounen manga is also often enjoyed by men, and women and girls as well. But even if we restrict ourselves to ages 8 to 18, it's not that shocking for boys ages 15 to 18 to be watching or reading extremely violent material. In the US, movies rated R are recommended for people 17 and older, but growing up, I didn't know a single person who waited until 17 to see an R-rated movie. I saw violent R-rated movies like Blade Runner and Aliens when I was 9 and 10. I've known kids who saw gore porn garbage like Saw and Hostel when they were 7 and 8 years old. I found that excessively young for such violent material, but I don't find anything particularly shocking about a fourteen-year-old potentially reading or watching Attack on Titan, at least as far as the violence is concerned. Also, keep in mind that Attack on Titan is a bit of an anomaly: Isayama pitched it to Shounen Jump, who passed on it because they felt it was too mature. It was snapped up by Shounen Magazine. Anecdotally, I've always found that Shounen Magazine manga of all genres have more sophisticated writing than Shounen Jump manga, so they probably lean to an older audience anyway.

So the point is shonen isn't necessarily for kids only?

@DaNoob That isn't the main point of my answer, but it is something to remember when judging the content: that although there may be 8 year olds reading Shounen Jump, there may also be 18 year olds reading it.


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Why is Hikari's nickname "Pikari"?
In Episode 1 of Amanchu!, Hikari states that her nickname is Pikari. In the English subtitles, she offers this explanation

Hikari: Due to my overly peppy nature, people in junior high called me "Peppy Hikari", "Peppykari", and finally just "Pikari".

Where does this name come from in the original Japanese?

I think it might have something to do with the word for lightning strike "pikkari".

take the p from peppy and ikari from hikari and you get pikari maybe

@Dragon That was the explanation in English. I'm looking for the explanation in the original Japanese.

In Japanese, Pikari (ぴかり) is one of the numerous mimetic words of the language, meaning "in a flash"/"sparklingly"/"brilliantly", mostly associated with thunder and lightning. (Also, Hikari itself means "light", but I don't really know if it's related or not.)
Given the energetic and cheerful nature of Hikari, it's a fitting nickname.
Some references :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sound_symbolism
http://jisho.org/word/%E3%81%B4%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8A

Also, Hikari in Hiragana is written as ひかり while Pikari is ぴかり. The only difference is that Pikari uses the small o (forgot what it is called) on the top right corner of the hi (ひ) character.

Yes, it's basically the same letter with a diacritic (it's called a handakuten if I'm not mistaken) to indicate that the H becomes a P.

I figured that Hikari meaning "light" was a reference to Aria; Akari also means "light", and Hikari and Akari look similar and play similar roles in the story.


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What is with kimono that makes Japanese guys to fall for the girls in many anime?
I've been watching lots of anime series and in lots of them the guy realizes that he loves the girl when he sees her in a kimono specially for the festivals. Just this last week it was both in ReLIFE and Twin Star Exorcists. Just what is with that?

Replace "kimono" with "evening gown" or an equivalently high-prestige garment as appropriate to your culture of choice and this will seem less peculiar.

@senshin thanks for the reply. It never worked like that for me so I didn't notice, but certainly you have a solid point.

Just a small correction: guys do not simply fall for the girl when he sees her in kimono/yukata; his love was built up and the kimono/yukata just sorta delivers the final blow.
The kimono is a traditional Japanese clothing, it shows elegance and beauty to the people wearing it. It is a formal garment that can be worn to weddings, etc.
For teenagers, they don't get the chance to wear something fancy often, and the kimono is something fancy which the teens can wear once or twice a year. Because it's rare to see people wearing kimonos, it excites people psychologically. It's sorta like finding a shiny Pokemon, all it is is a different color with a low chance of encountering and people treat it like gold. It's the same with this, because of its rarity, it enhances the beauty of the girls wearing it.
Like I already said, this will only work if the guy has some feelings towards the girl. If a random guy saw a random girl wearing kimono, he might feel attracted but wouldn't fall for the girl. And the trope can work with other fancy garment as well, such as a wedding dress (they go to a park where the girl tries on a wedding dress) in some anime, or a qipao (Chinese dress) depending on the anime. Most of the time it's a kimono because it's easy to relate to and it's in Japan.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a few cases of "guy being stunned seeing girl in kimono" where there wasn't such a set-up, including in Sketchbook ~full Color'S~ where the guy in question was her brother, although at least in that case the setup was immediately turned into a "but she's still the same person underneath" gag.

It's a similar trope to one you see in Western media, where the normally un-feminine (or dorky, or nerdy, or otherwise not stereotypically attractive) female character dresses up for some kind of fancy party - if the characters are school age, then it's frequently a prom. So they ditch the t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, don a dress and heels, swap the glasses for contacts, maybe put on makeup and get their hair done, and then become the belle of the ball and make the male protagonist swoon.
A kimono (or yukata, since a lot of these scenes take place at festivals in the warmer half of the year) is a very traditional dress, and it's associated with elegance given its fabric (often silk) and intricate patterns. In addition, when wearing one, women will often put their hair up, maybe put on a little makeup, and wear geta which are elevated sandals, which have an effect on the wearer's height and posture similar to wearing high heels.


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What kind of luck are Hanako and Botan getting in the opening?
In the opening sequence of Anne-Happy, Hanako and Botan are both shown holding omikuji, those little papers that Japanese people draw at shinto shrines that forecast their luck.

I know that omikuji have different types and levels of luck, and given that the theme of the series is unlucky moe girls, I assume Hanako and Botan are both getting bad luck. But just how bad is it? Which exact classes of omikuji did they draw?

Neither of them are traditional omikuji results. Hanako has "hazure", which translates roughly as "miss" or "fail". Botan's is "sune", which I can't find a useful meaning for. "Sune" is Japanese for shin, or leg, and the only other meaning I can find is in reference to being a shin-biting bug, which is slang for being a mooch, which doesn't seem to fit.
EDIT: In episode 3, Botan does shout out "sune!" when her shin cracks, although she also breaks about three other bones in the same episode so I'm not sure why the shin would be singled out.

I haven't watched this, but would it make sense if "sune" were the stem of 拗ねる【すねる】?

Not really, but that did lead me to 拗ね者, a perverse individual, cynic or misanthrope, which is a little closer. All of the students in this class have ridiculously bad luck in some form - Hanako loves animals but they don't exactly love her back, and Botan is accident-prone to the point where she is an expert at bandaging herself. She also acts quite creepy at times, which I don't think is quite the same as 拗ね者 but is the best theory I have so far.


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Where can I pick up the World Trigger manga after watching the anime?
I am guessing that the anime is ended by the way it looks on Crunchyroll's Episode 73 - "To The Future" of World Trigger.
If anyone has seen the anime and read the manga, if the anime is indeed cancelled, where would i pick up the story in the Manga?

The author had a severe illness that caused the manga to go on Hiatus 3 months ago. Japan is starting a rebroadcast of the series, so it may be coming back soon.

correction, it's been over a year. Last official word was 3 months ago that it is still on hiatus.

According to BakaUpdates the anime starts at chapter 1 and ends at chapter 122 of the manga.
https://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=92323


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What is that "Oh yeah!" gesture that anime characters do called?
Often in anime, I've noticed a gesture is done when a character remembers a previous event of theirs, or something comes to mind. One hand is made into a fist, of which the bottom of it will fall flat onto their palm of the other hand, sometimes followed by a quip or phrase such as "Hold on!" or "That's it!" indicating they have realized new means.
I'm not sure else how to refer to the hand gesture, and that's my question. What is this hand gesture called? I had tried looking up some gif images of it for reference to add to a group joke, but had no luck with getting the right name for it or finding anything relevant.

This seems more like a Japanese culture question than an anime question. It seems like the gesture (if not the meaning) that you're referring to is on page 19: https://www.scribd.com/doc/46165206/70-Japanese-Gestures. The trope is referred to here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PalmFistTap

It called 合点 (Gatten). Google image search
It's pretty common gesture in Japan (and other countries)
I do it in real life too.
Also there is TV show called "gatten" that describe something and guest did gatten it.
Do you gatten to this answer?

I did in fact gatten


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What is Mike's rank in the Survey Corps?
I'm making this big fanfiction book, and I need some help regarding Military Ranks in the Survey Corps. Here's my question:

Erwin is the Commander
Levi is the Corporal
Hanji/Hange is the Major,

What is Mike's position? I have an OC named Daniella and she is the Lieutenant Colonel. I want to know Mike's position so Daniella and Mike won't have the same position.

Using that format, he would be Major Mike Zacharius. And, you could use those ranks if you really wanted to, but they are not a correct translation of the actual ranking structure within the Survey Corps.
In the Survey Corps, you'll find Commander Erwin Smith oversaw four squads and each squad has a Squad Leader (you can think of this as Squad Commander), a senior team leader, several team leaders, and so on. You can find the basic chain of command within each squad  here.
We know the four Squad Leaders (Section/Squad Commanders), are:

Levi Ackerman, Captain of the Survey Corps, Special Operations Squad Leader (Vol 6, Chapter 23, 4)
Mike Zacharius, Squad Leader of the Survey Corps (Vol 5, Chapter 19, 32)
Zoe Hange, Squad Leader of the Survey Corps (Vol 5, Chapter 19, 31)
Dita Ness, Squad Leader of the Survey Corps (Vol 5, Chapter 22, 174)

Now, the way the Survey Corps is laid out, the Squad Leaders are all of equivalent rank. That is to say, Levi Ackerman, Mike Zacharius, Zoe Hange, and Dita Ness are all technically second-in-command because neither is higher in rank than the other. I believe this equal-in-rank structure was implemented because each squad is technically its own division. Proof that Levi was not next in line is evident in Chapter 57 of the manga when:

Zoe is chosen by Commander Erwin as his replacement upon death.

But, there are some inconsistencies. The manga and the subbed version of the anime both agree that Mike's official title is Squad Leader but in the dub he has been referred to as Major Mike Zacharius. I think this is where things got lost in translation, because there are no appropriate modern-day equivalents for Squad Leader or Section Commander and so that's what we ended up with.
If you wanted to use a more modern-day ranking structure and still maintain the same titles from the dub, you could use the following structure wherein the Corporal, although by definition is higher than Major, is actually equivalent in rank to Major. Then, and only then, would you have a somewhat accurate representation using a current military ranking structure (although, not sure where you're from, but Commander and Corporal don't actually co-exist in the same military branch).

Commander: Erwin Smith
Corporal/Major (again, being of equal rank): Levi Ackerman, Zoe Hange, Dita Ness, Mike Zacharius

But, in case you decide to go with the ranking system in the manga, it goes something more like this:

Commander: Erwin Smith
Squad Leaders: Captain Levi Ackerman, Mike Zacharius, Zoe Hange, Dita Ness
Senior Team Leaders
Team Leaders
Soldiers, Military Personnel

Super basic diagram attached in case my description was confusing.


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Will the destruction of future Universe 7 affect other timelines in 20 years?
In the Black Goku arc, the future Universe 7 was destroyed by Zeno. Since Beerus said something along the lines of if a god changes an event in a timeline then it changes in all the others, does that mean that in 20 years the current Universe 7 will be destroyed?

Not likely.
Beerus was the one that was sure that killing Zamasu was going to change future Universe 7, and it didn't change at all. So even if the destruction is done by Future Zeno it doesn't look like it would change things, specially considering that any timeline that's created makes him "less omnipotent", as all timeline counterparts of Zenos are supposed to be as strong as him.

In Dragon Ball, when a person travels in time it creates alternative timelines/ realities. So what Beerus destroyed was an alternative timeline/reality, which has no effect in the current timeline of universe 7 therefore the current timeline wont be destroyed in the future.
http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Alternate_timeline


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Why is the series called "Amaama to Inazuma"?
The English title of the series Sweetness and Lightning is a pun on the idiom "sweetness and light".
The original Japanese title is Amaama to Inazuma (甘々と稲妻). I wanted to find out if there was a similar pun behind the Japanese title, so I started by looking up the words and was surprised to find that it's basically a literal translation of the English title: amaama means "sweet" or "sugary" and is the character 甘 (sweet) repeated, and inazuma means "lightning".
Without some kind of pun or joke behind it similar to the one in English, the Japanese title seems like sort of a strange combination of words to hit upon. It's such a direct equivalent to the English title that it almost looks like the English title was conceived of first and then translated back into Japanese, but that doesn't make sense because if the original author Gido Amagakure had come up with the English title, that would probably just be the title, since so many anime are named in English already.
I'm curious if there are any linguistic reasons to pick the Japanese title. I'm not asking for thematic reasons; the title is thematically appropriate in both languages, even without the pun. I'm asking why there was such a suitable pun in the English version that apparently didn't exist in the Japanese title, and whether the Japanese version also contains some pun or reference that I've missed. Was the fact that it translates so well into English just a massive coincidence? Is there something more to the Japanese title that I'm not seeing?

Wait, are you assuming that the English title came first?

@Makoto I don't think that actually happened, but a priori it sort of looks like the author could have come up with the title in English and then translated it into Japanese, because the English title just seems to roll out so neatly with the pun and all. Another way to look at my question is, if there's no pun in Japanese similar to the one in English, then why, out of all the titles in the world, would the author have picked this one? It was difficult to explain my reasoning, and I can see that passage was confusing, so I'll try to reword it.

just pointing out that japanese title kinda rhymes

One interpretation of the title can be:
甘々ちゃんといなくなった妻
[稲妻]{いなつま} is basically a play on words for いなくなった妻, more or less "the wife that's no longer there". Implying that someone is widowed.
甘々ちゃん however is a bit more complex.
It can be interpreted as 甘な甘ちゃん. The expression here is a bit multifaceted, so I will try to break it down.
While 甘い does mean sweet, but it has other meaning out side of food. When used to describe a person, it can also mean naive.
Someone who is referred to as an 甘ちゃん can be described as a "soft" or "naive" person. Adding 甘い to describe someone who is an 甘ちゃん reinforces the naive stereotype. The nuiance here is a bit negative,implying that this person is a clueless (naive) idiot.
One can imply that the title refers to Inuzuma-sensei, being a very soft spoken, yet clueless single parent raising a daughter, who not only doesn't know how to cook, but doesn't know to to take care of Tsumugi (in place of his late wife).
You could imply that the alternate meaning to "sweetness and lighting" to be "the naive widow".

However, if you refer to the author's afterword in vol.1 of the manga,

Despite many alternate interpretations of the title, the title is intended to be something warm and fuzzy that appeals to the 5 senses, nothing more than that.

Accepting this answer since it has all the hard evidence I think we're likely to ever get, and a pretty good theory alongside it.

I wrote a bit about Amaama to Inazuma names, including my take on why this is a marvelous title, here: http://kyradesuyo.wordpress.com/2016/07/24/kouhei-tsumugi-and-kotori-onamae-wa
The part about the title itself is by the end.
TLDR: 甘い(ama.i) is also often used to describe Naivety and Inazuma uses kanjis related to Rice and Wife, both tying very well into the whole premise of the story.

Thanks for your answer, that's a really interesting theory! +1 from me.

Please consider quoting the relevant part of your post. Link only answers don't make for good answers due to the possibility of linkrot.

I quite like your take on the show title (though, as @кяαzєя mentions, it would be good if you could excerpt the relevant parts into this post), but I feel you may be reading a bit too much into the character names here.


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Song from final episode of Your Lie in April
I've just finished Your Lie in April and the last song at the last part of the episode, not the duet or the performance, when kaori says I love you multiple times, a song is played in the background and when watching the dub the lyrics appear at the top of the screen, I can't for the life of me find that songs name, could anyone help? I like the song and am desperate to know the title and artist. Thanks

I cannot comment in previous answer (low reputation) but Conman is correct

http://shigatsu-wa-kimi-no-uso.wikia.com/wiki/Kirameki
Kirameki (Kousei & Kaori Performance Ver.)  | Ver.) キラメキ ～公生とかをりの演奏 Ver.～

I haven't got the episode in front of me to confirm, but I'm pretty sure you're talking about "Kirameki (Kaori and Kousei version)", a piano/violin duet version of the first ending theme. Here is a YouTube version you can check against.

I've done a quick check: it's definitely some version of the ED, although I wasn't invested enough into this to check if it's indeed a piano/violin duet.


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Why is the American version of the manga split into three parts?
I'm trying to read the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga at the moment and I realized, that it was seemingly split into three (?) parts:

Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist
Yu-Gi-Oh! ???

What is the third part of the manga? Why was it split up in such a fashion? I can imagine that they wanted to separate out all the "Duel Cards" parts, because that's what the kids were most likely interested in, but still? Why leave out the last 100 (or so) chapters?

If you are referring to Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World then according to Wikipedia

Viz released the first volume of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga up to the end of the Monster World arc under its original title. Starting from the last chapter of the seventh Japanese volume, the Duelist Kingdom, Dungeon Dice Monsters, and Battle City arcs are released under the title Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist, while the Memory World arc was released as Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World.

Source: Yu-Gi-Oh! - Manga (Second Paragraph)
What this means is that the Viz Media release using the original name Yu-Gi-Oh! finishes at Millenium Enemy 10: The Last Die Roll which is Chapter 59 of Volume 7 of the Manga in Japan (according to the chapter list on Wikipedia). Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist starts from the next chapter and continues to the end of Volume 31 and Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World is the final Arc which starts at Volume 32 and finishes the at the end
As for why? it seems to be a decision by Viz Media. while i don't know for sure i would suspect that it was because in the beginning there was several games portrayed in the manga with Magic & Wizards only appearing a couple of times in the first seven volumes. at the start of the Duelist Kingdom Arc Magic & Wizards returned and became the main game that the series focused on (with the exception of Dungeon Dice Monsters). the Memory World Arc however focused on a Table Top RPG (the precursor to Magic & Wizards)
So the first Viz Media release Yu-Gi-Oh! featured multiple games. after that Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist focused mainly on Magic & Wizards while Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World focused on a entire different game
Viz Media however has also been re-releasing the series as a 3-in-1 edition as the currently listed volumes of it (as of 23/08/2017) have covers from Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist and Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium World


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Why does everything suddenly change at the end of episode 8, "Happy Family Planning", of "Paranoia Agent"?
All throughout episode 8 of Paranoia Agent, "Happy Family Planning", we see the main characters for that episode trying to kill themselves and failing in slapstick-y fashion, over and over. Then the oldest of the three, Fuyubachi, starts to take a pill, suddenly seems to be having an attack of whatever the pills are supposed to ward off, it seems like he might die...
... except he doesn't, and then it seems like everything just ... becomes okay.  They're still talking about committing suicide, but they seem like they've actually decided to just enjoy life instead.
What's going on?

The strong reaction Fuyubachi has in the parking lot isn't because he's having an attack with no medication to take for it...

 ... it's because he's finally realized, he and the other two are dead.  It's a sunny day, and everyone else in the park is casting a shadow; the three of them are not.  Earlier in the episode, one of their suicide attempts succeeded in bringing about their deaths, but they didn't know it, and continued trying to kill themselves.

There are clues beforehand that such a thing is possible...

 Namely, the man they saw who jumped in front of the train, and whom Zebra then saw walking out of the crowd.  Everyone's reactions to the death indicate that it left him in a horrible state - so bad that our three protagonists decide that even if they want to die, they don't want to do it in a way that leaves you looking like that.

 Yet the man Zebra sees is moving under his own power, and while he's bloody, and complaining about how it hurts, it's nothing like the utter mangling one would expect.  More to the point, no one else in the crowd seems to see the man.  He is a ghost, who only thinks he's still alive - and the only reason Zebra sees him, presumably, is because Zebra is also a ghost.

If you re-watch the episode knowing what Fuyubachi realizes at the end...

 It seems that our protagonists must have died in the building that was being demolished.  When Zebra and Fuyubachi run away from Kamome, not wanting her to die along with them, they have shadows; when they are going to the train station, they cast no shadows on the ground, but a passing bike rider casts a very visible shadow.

 Ironically, it means that their deaths probably weren't even a result of their suicide attempts, except indirectly.  Fuyubachi and Zebra both take pills and try to inhale the carbon monoxide inside the building, but Kamome shows up later than that, and still dies; it suggests that they were killed when the building was demolished with them inside, something they didn't plan for.

It also explains the reactions they get from others...

 ... which is mostly not being noticed at all, because the living can't see them.  The exceptions are:

 Shounen Bat (Lil' Slugger), who can see them but is presumably a little freaked that dead people are begging him to kill them, and ...

 The teenage girls at the end, who are shocked because Fuyubachi, Zebra and Kamome's photobombing turned the picture they took into a "ghost photo".

Wow… How did I not notice all of that?

He realizes they are dead. If you notice, he keeps popping one last pill. Zebra the gay guy eat several pills, but nothing happens to him. Both inhale smoke but they are still alive. However, the 3 of them died when the building collapse.
Zebra sees the train jumper coming out bloody, but other people are staring in the direction of the rail. When they are in the bathhouse already, in bed, Zebra said "did you say something", a man runs screaming. That's because they are a ghost.
Little slugger or the boy of the golden bat is not real. It is a mere representation of the solution of what afflicting you. In Japan, they said when people commit suicide they are stuck in eternity pursuing their goal. They are going around thinking they fail to commit suicide when in reality they are dead.
In real-life Japan, there are internet forums where people bra e meet for the purpose of suicide. Welcome to the NHK mentions forum suicide groups. The girl chooses suicide instead of being alone because her parents work and don't even pay attention to her.
The old guy carries a bag of candy that is given to children. That represents his children, can be that he doesn't have a relationship with them or he was abandoned by his children. Zebra is gay, probably his lover left him and that's why he is choosing suicide. It is really sad especially when Japan is the second with highest rate suicide compared to the rest of the world.


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What does the ending mean?
At the end of First Squad,

 The ghosts attack the Russian army to steal this artifact (can't remember what it was) but at the last moment, they change their attack. It looks like me the whole attack was a decoy, but for what? The movie ends soon after, without telling the whole story.

So what happened?


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Why is the "drinking milk" trope so prevalent in anime?
Repeatedly I see that people in animes drink milk, often after bathing. Females tend to say that it helps to grow their chest. Is that true? But also male characters sometimes drink it, like Kurozuma Watarufrom.

Image from thedreamingotaku. Sanae Dekomori from Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai in episode 5.
What is the meaning behind the drinking milk trope, what do people gain from it and why is it shown so often in anime?

It's healthy for you and builds bone structure. also stops you ending up like Edward Elric (who hates drinking milk)

This probably largely comes from the fact that, unlike in the USA or Canada, in Japan you can get milk from vending machines fairly reliably. It's a really common beverage, both in vanilla and flavored forms. (And since you mentioned bathing, I'll point out that public bath houses all have milk available either in the change room or lobby.)

This is such a bizarre question. Why do people drink milk? Why do people drink anything?

@senshin You are right! I edited my question. I hope it is better now...

@キルア and by "both in vanilla and flavored forms", I suppose you mean "unflavored and flavored", not "vanilla-flavored and other-flavored", right?

@Mindwin Yes. Colloquial "vanilla" (unaltered).

There's probably no one answer for why they drink milk in general, but as far as the bathing, it's considered a traditional drink in Japanese public bath houses after a soak:

There is usually a refreshment cooler here where customers can self-serve and pay the attendant. Milk drinks are traditional favorites and sometimes there is ice cream.

Most places don't know how the tradition started but it's been around for a long time and some people say that milk drinks (not just plain milk but also milk+coffee) taste particularly good after a hot bath.

Because to slow spoiling, milk tends to be cooled, and unlike plain water, it contains enough minerals to replace those lost in sweat.

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


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About the industry: How much does it cost to license a manga outside of Japan?
Today I'd like to know what kind of proposition one has to make to a Japanese publisher to have a go at distributing a title in a certain country (outside of Japan).
This article told me how things work in the industry and I pretty much understand that to get a deal, you need sales forecasts, a  distribution channel, a printer … ready to work for you. And you need to be able to tell the Japanese publisher how much he’s going to make throughout the coming months by trusting you to distribute his manga.
What I can’t seem to find though, is what a serious or standardized proposition in the industry is. I mean, what are the rules?! Are there rules stating that no matter what, a certain percentage of your margins should go to the Japanese publisher? Are there predefined sales volumes under which you won’t get a deal? Has anyone here actually seen such a contract? Where can one get his/her hands on one? What about digital distribution?
If any of you can point me in the right direction, tell me who I should ask this to, or highlight existing documentation, I would be absolutely delighted.

I have cleared the comments on this thread. This question is on-topic on [anime.se]. What is off-topic is the subject of actually making your own anime/manga (as in, graphic design, animation, etc). Licensing questions are perfectly on-topic.

can you clarify your question a bit more - currently it seems like you are asking several

Like the title says: How much does it cost to license a manga outside of Japan?

The price of licencing a manga/anime varies widely and are set by the distributor or publisher.
(All prices that follows are in US Dollar, and from 2013.)
Jinki:Extend cost only $91,000 to license while Kurau Phantom Memory cost $960,000.
Some studios have very relaxed licencing policies, some even aim to make their product to go truely global.
Simulcast internet streaming rights can be less expensive, with prices around $1,000-$2,000 an episode.
About $3,000 for a few volumes of a pretty low key series. Not the whole series.
Licensing includes the original Japanese company to agree for you to publish it in your region but also encompasses royalty.
That means a certain percent of the title’s price (In U.S. that would be the MSRP), that ranges from the 7% to 8%, minus tax. And a G.M. (Guaranteed Minimum).
Let’s suppose the manga in question is sold at $9.99, since the tax is 8% then the royalty is calculated in 9.1908.
That means that a contract with 7% would pay 0.70 cents per issue, again assuming it’s a $9.99 book. And rounding it up, since the 7% of $9.99 isn’t exactly .70.
I don't really know how many volumes any of the titles in the U.S. market prints so I don’t know an estimate of the GM for the US, but in Spain that would be between 1,000 euros (7% royalty with a GM of 2,000 printed books) and a max of 1,730 (8% and 3,000).
As I said, those are the numbers for the average title, series like “Naruto”, “BLEACH” or “Death Note” have higher GMs but that´s not important since this kind of titles sell well anywhere.

Granted, there might be inside deals, longterm agreements and other things weighing in on that, but I have no chance of having any insight to that. And even if I did, I'm pretty sure a NDA would prevent me from discussing it.


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Why couldn't Goku use the Nimbus to rescue the Ox King from the fire?
At the end of Dragon Ball, when the Ox King was trapped, Goku flew into the fire on the Nimbus and had an extended conversation with the Ox King. Goku's previous demonstrations of strength also implied that he would have no problem lifting and holding on to the Ox King.
I did not read the manga, I only watched the anime. Is any specific reason given or implied why Goku could not have grabbed the Ox King at that time and carried him (either on the cloud or hanging onto him if Ox King could not fit or ride) out of the flames to buy himself and Chi Chi extra time to find a way to extinguish the flames?

I'm not 100% sure (hence the comment) but I think it's because Ox King did not have a pure heart and wouldn't be able to ride the nimbus (remember that Ox King killed some people who tried to steal treasures when his mountain was surrounded by flames out of greed for keeping his riches). Moreover, I don't recall this scene being in the manga, so it's probably a filler.

@user13068 Thanks; I was thinking Goku could just grab him and carry him, even if he could not ride (even if he did have a pure heart it would be a bit crowded given his size!). I clarified. I also suspect filler.

It was most probably because Ox King did not have a pure heart, and so would not have been able to ride the Nimbus. Evidence for this is seen during the first meeting of Goku and Ox King, when rumors that Ox King murdered those who approached his castle for treasures (out of greed, of course) was confirmed by him when he admits his wrongdoings in front of Master Roshi.
Anyways, it is filler content and not part of the original manga, so no "official" explanation exists.

I didn't think the Ox King could ride the Nimbus, I had imagined Goku just grabbing him and carrying him the distance. But I didn't realize this was anime-only filler, which answers the question well enough for me (and also might explain why I found those episodes barely watchable; I've been searching for reasons to justify their premise). Thanks!


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Piecing together the premise of Aldnoah.Zero, link between Mars/Moon/Earth
I'm a little confused about some details of the premise of Aldnoah.Zero, particularly why the Orbital Knights waited 15 years without attacking, why they needed an excuse, and who is on Mars vs. the Moon. I'm about halfway through season 2, I was patient waiting for clues to be revealed but the series changed focus to Inaho vs. Slaine and the save-the-princess quest.
First of all, my understanding is: In 1999 Mars attacked Earth by sending the Orbital Knights and a bunch of other soldiers through the Hypergate on the moon. Yadda yadda, the Hypergate exploded, taking most of the moon with it. Now the folks who were sent from Mars are stuck here with no way back, presumably because Mars is out of range for normal travel. They can still, however, communicate with home, so they at least maintain contact.
That means:

The war stopped because the resulting devastation from the moon's explosion caused a huge number of losses on both sides (Saazbaum, for example, lost his significant other).
The Orbital Knights and the remaining original Mars army are stuck here, so they dug in on the remains of the moon and built bases there and throughout the debris belt.
The emperor is on Mars (we know this for certain because Slaine comments about being on VERS during his unauthorized use of the audience chamber to warn the emperor).

So my first question is, is my understanding above correct? My remaining confusion is based on that understanding.
The things that I don't understand, then, are:

Why were the Orbital Knights waiting for an excuse to attack Earth? Why assassinate Asseylum in the first place? The knights have both motivation and superior fire power, what stopped them from just... invading with no excuse?

The only possible theory I have is the emperor didn't endorse it. But why would these guys care? They're trapped without the Hypergate. They have no hope of returning home nor do they seem to ever attempt to find a way home or even care. The emperor can't touch them from Mars (and the threat of taking their Aldnoah drives isn't valid, we've already seen that once they are activated they don't need any more interaction from people with the Aldnoah factor unless they need to be re-activated, and we know there's at least 2 princesses and 1 terran that can do this, and the princesses can pass on the factor through kisses and blood or something, even unwillingly). It just seems reasonable to me that people in this situation, especially people desiring the Earth's resources so badly and trapped on the Earth/Moon, would go for it out of desperation if nothing else. It doesn't seem feasible for an entire army + 37 orbital knights to sit by and twiddle their thumbs in this situation waiting for some excuse (which they orchestrated themselves with the assassination plot conspiracy).
If you have the moral deficit necessary to conspire to assassinate your own princess as an excuse to attack, it doesn't seem so far-fetched to just skip the conspiracy effort and go for the attack.

How did the princess even get to Earth? The OK are isolated due to lack of Hypergate. So she couldn't have been sent to Earth after the fact. She must have at least been there since 1999. She's obviously pretty young, she couldn't have been more than a newborn or toddler in '99. This means the emperor sent his newborn grand-daughter to Earth during the first war? That doesn't make any sense. What was she doing there and how did she get there?
Why were the Orbital Knights hanging out on the moon in the first place?

It seems as if it would have been a much more reasonable strategy for the knights and the Mars army to just go down to Earth and live there, or at least build a base on the surface (shouldn't be a problem with their vastly superior strength). We know their primary drive is lust for the Earth's resources (secondary drive is that they're just grossed out by terrans). The more power-hungry ones could just as easily dominate after going down to Earth.
"Because Martians would never be accepted" isn't a great excuse for this. Inaho or Rayet or somebody early on even remarked on the fact that nobody can tell them apart unless they reveal themselves, since they're all human. There's no test for it. There's no way to tell. There were even Martian spies on Earth, a key point in the assassination plot. The Mars army and the knights could have blended in seamlessly.

Where are the Mars army soldiers coming from? I assume that the only soldiers available are the ones originally sent 15 years ago, as Mars can't send more soldiers in without a Hypergate. So either they're making babies (but all would be 15 years or younger at this point) or the Mars soldiers are a finite resource and nobody seems to be concerned about this. They must have just sent a lot of soldiers the first time through? None of the Orbital Knights seem to be concerned at all about the survival of their bloodlines, so either the situation is already resolved (their families are with them and they're having kids) or they just... forgot?

For that matter, how are they getting ammunition, supplies, and the materials needed to construct a moon base? Well, that's not a real question, I'm willing to let that one slide...

Anyways, it's very likely that I missed something in one of the episodes, and that's actually primarily what I'm looking for here. I am enjoying this series but in order to do so I have to set aside my questions about the fundamental premise, because otherwise nothing that's happening here seems to have any justification.
So the main thing I'm looking for is clarity on how the knights go to where they are and why they behaved the way they did in that 15 year gap, as well as what the princess is doing there. That is, some clarity on what remains of the link between Mars and the trapped Orbital Knights and army.

One critical error : Travel between Mars and Earth is possible. Sometime between destruction of Gate and start of the series, Mars developed a way of travel using spaceships. This is shown in 2nd season. Its just that scale of that travel is more limited than what was possible with Gate. Details : http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/19815/do-people-still-travel-to-and-from-vers-after-heavens-fall

re: #1 - not all of the knights are bloodthirsty maniacs. Cruhteo, for example, attacked Earth only because he genuinely believed Asseylum had been assassinated by Terrans; and Mazuurek in particular was a very reasonable person who almost certainly wouldn't have attacked if not for the assassination. Saazbaum probably needed to stage the assassination himself to unite the other knights against Earth. Saazbaum's castle alone, while formidable, very likely wouldn't be able to single-handedly win a war against the UE.

@Euphoric Ah! Thanks. I missed that in the opening few seconds, and actually just got to the point in season 2 where Klancain traveled from Mars. This undercuts a lot of my other confusion and answers a ton of questions.

@senshin That makes sense; so it was more about getting all the knights on board (which getting the emperor's support just happened to help with). I wonder why the non-aggressive knights were still hanging out on the moon though after 15 years, instead of returning home permanently. Even if they didn't have the ship capacity to get everybody back to Mars at once, I'd imagine they'd start trickling them back instead of leaving them on the field. Unless they stayed as some sort of occupation force, but that'd be conjecture, I don't recall that ever being mentioned.

@JasonC I'm going to have to do some research to answer this question correctly, but I seem to remember there being some side material that explains that the reason the knights didn't return to Mars was that the emperor didn't let them return because Mars couldn't support that many additional people? I might be making that up, though; don't take me at my word.

First of all, to clear up some misunderstandings

The martians were able to travel from mars to earth. It just takes a long time. That is how the Princess Asseyleum and Count Klancain were able to come to earth. (Thanks to Euphoric for the source)
The end of the war was due to the destruction of the hypergate. The war was intended to be waged with constant support from mars. The destruction of the hypergate means the termination of the supply line. The lack of supplies probably lead to the end of the war.
Viscountess Orlane and Count Saazbaum was sent as the advance scout to test the Terran's resistance to an invasion. At Tanegashima, during the advance scout, the hypergate was destroyed leading to the death of Orlane when the moon's fragments fall onto earth.

Why were the Orbital Knights waiting for an excuse to attack Earth?
First of all, not all of the orbital knights want to attack earth just to kill. Count Mazuurek for example is merely curious about earth as his name resembles some folk song. He attacks earth because everyone else is attacking and even when he did, he didnt use destructive means.
Count Cruhteo is another example. He only attacked because Asseyleum was killed by terrans, being loyal to the royal family.
Second of all, in episode 10 of the first season, Saazbaum explained to Slane that martians were running out of resources as the population grew. Its second leader Emperor Gillzeria created a industrial revolution and ignored the suffering of the people. He then directed the people's rage at the Terrans with their bountiful resources. This is the reason why the Orbital Knights were there in the first place.
From these evidence, we can come to the following conjecture: There are two important factions within the Orbital Knights (This speaks only of the knights and not their followers):

Those who had losses and wanted revenge (Count Saazbaum)
Those who were loyal to the royal family (Count Cruhteo)

Here are a list of some summarized motivations that the Orbital Knights would want to invade earth

Curiosity (Mazuurek)
Revenge for losses in the war (Saazbaum)
Superiority of martians (Cruhteo N1 , Keteratesse N2 and Femieanne and many others)

Conclusion:
The story did not mention any other Orbital Knights on the side of Saazbaum. Thus, the majority of the knights are either loyal to the royal family or just following the actions of others. They did not attack earth until the death of Asseyleum because the royal family did not endorse it. Saazbaum plotted Asseyleum's death to create a reason for loyalist to attack "Revenge for the royal family". The rest of the Orbital Knights just followed suit.
The reason for not attacking on your own would be obvious. If Asseyleum wasnt killed, she would be the rallying the Orbital Knights to stop the one loner that attacked on his own. It could turn out to be a civil war.
Notes:
N1 - Cruhteo and many others didnt attack because he was loyal to the royal family and the royal family didnt endorse it.
N2 - Keteratesse was seen in S01E02 saying "Swear Allegiance of be annihilated" which is indication of his superiority.

How did the princess even get to Earth?
Travel was possible between mars and earth and thus the princess was able to come to earth.

Why were the Orbital Knights hanging out on the moon in the first place?
The orbital knights didnt build a base on earth because they were loyal to the royal family and the royal family didnt want to invade earth. This is probably also because of some treaty between the Martians and the Terrans (You would sign one of these after a war wont you?) If any of the power hungry ones were to do it out of line, the other loyal Orbital Knights would be there to stop him.
As for why they didnt blend in, they did infact blend in. The key to Asseylum's assassination was the presence of martians on earth. The fact that Rayet lived her life on earth indicates that they were there for quite some time living the life of Terrans, blending in, given the promise that they will be accepted back as Martians once they killed Asseyleum.

Where are the Mars army soldiers coming from? (Also resources)
Most of the battles were fought by Kataphrakts piloted by Knights and Counts. The presence of advanced technologies mean that not many lives were lost in battles. Not many scenes of the anime show actual martian infantry marching down the streets of earth.
As for the resources they use to build the moon base and wage the second war, it probably came from the moon. The moon's surface composition by weight is 20 percent silicon, 19 percent magnesium, 10 percent iron, 3 percent aluminum and the rest is other resources. Considering that they had landing castles which should have basic technology to construct and repair itself, they could have used that technology to construct a moon base using the raw materials on the moon.

Addressing the question of how the knights got to the where they are...
The war started because the second leader Emperor Gillzeria brainwashed the martian population that Earth was their enemy. The first war plotted under Gillzeria's rule and after the destruction of the hypergate, they stayed around instead of going back to the barren wastelands of mars.
The princess's presence on earth was as a symbol of peace, a first step in the negotiation for trade and cooperation.


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Trouble following Akai squad vs Gauna 487
I'm having some trouble following the battle of the Akai squad vs Gauna 487 at the end of Knights of Sidonia episode 3 (which I am clearly overanalyzing). I've replayed the scene like five times and cannot figure out how or when Aoki is killed, and I can't follow Momose and Midorikawa's demise.
Something about the animation and visual similarity between characters (as well as similar voices for the men) is making it difficult for me. The only way I could really tell who was who was the unit numbers on their helmets (001: Akai, 002: Momose, 003: Aoki, 004: Midorikawa).
So from what I can tell (Netflix timestamps), I've bolded the parts that I wouldn't mind some clarification on:

19:44 Akai and Momose go in together, Momose gets grabbed.
19:59 Akai slices off the tentacle, saving her. In a heavy-handed sequence, everybody immediately yells "Akai!" an Akai apologizes, although I'm not sure how everybody knew he was about to die, because from the shot he looked safe and nothing had grabbed him yet. 9 seconds of wondering what he just apologized for follows, until...
20:08 Akai gets grabbed and is soon killed; we see him being pulled in in the following scene.
20:46 We see confirmation on control room screen that Akai is out and Momose is injured (presumably from when she initially got grabbed, but it didn't look like she took any damage?).
20:54 Aoki is told to take command and leave Momose, to which he responds "but Momose is...", but I can't figure out what he means by that or why he was told to leave her at that point or where she even was, because we haven't seen Momose do anything yet, really.
21:19 Aoki says "I'm going in" (I had to pause to read the 003 on his arm to confirm) and closes in on the Gauna, instructing Midorikawa to support fire
21:32 Momose goes flying past (about two frames, needed to pause to catch it and didn't even see this until like the third time I watched it) and Midorikawa yells "stooooop!". Momose goes into full blind rage mode.
21:57 Momose gets too close, takes a hit, we hear buckling metal. She is knocked back quickly. Presumably this is what ultimately kills her (she may or may not randomly explode later).
22:07 We see either Aoki or Midorikawa go after her and immediately deduce it is Midorikawa because we see 003/Aoki tell him to stick to the mission.
22:09 Immediately we see Aoki's view of some tentacles coming at him. Then the camera switches and we don't see anything else. Somebody yells during the exterior shot of Midorikawa, but can't tell if it's Aoki or Midorikawa.
22:12 Midorikawa grabs Momose as he flies past then soon after loses his grip and clearly dies as he is impaled by a tentacle.
22:25 Somebody explodes but I can't tell who or why. This part doesn't make any sense to me because:

Ok, so from 22:12 Momose is further from the Gauna than Midorikawa.
Midorikawa grabs her. Now they are together.
His grip slips and it looks like he throws her further because when he is impaled, he is clearly closer to the Gauna than she is.
Exterior shot we see the person closest to the Gauna explode, unprompted (I didn't see any tentacles?), which is where Midorikawa was like a second earlier.
But then we see that it wasn't Midorikawa, because we have an interior shot of him floating through space, blood-covered and dead. So somehow him and Momose switched places then she mysteriously exploded? Or perhaps it was Aoki that exploded? But he should be pretty far away (and I guess dead) now. Anyways Momose is definitely presumed dead.
Adding to this, I later noticed that the explosion didn't appear to be anybody in the squad (see edit below the line below).

I think the final state is: Akai is captured/eaten/absorbed/whatever by the Gauna. Midorikawa is dead and floating through space. One of Momose/Aoki is presumably floating through space too and the other exploded (not sure who; update: see below, somehow neither of them exploded).
The whole scene is a little eyebrow-raising because the mistakes they made and tactics they used didn't seem to agree with the build-up of their skill and confidence to this point (although on the other hand none of them had fought a Gauna before and maybe highlighting their break-down and the contrast with their hyped up skill here was the point). They went down pretty easily.
So, questions:

Did I get all that right?
How did everybody (including Akai himself) know Akai was going to die 10 seconds later?
What was going on when Aoki was told to leave Momose behind?
When did Aoki actually die?
Who/what exploded?

I admit I'm overthinking this (and at this point I've spent about 40 minutes dwelling on a 3 minute scene where the only thing that's really significant about it is that it's chaotic and everybody dies), but this is the culmination of my frustration so far at having a really hard time keeping track of who is who (doesn't help that there's like, clones everywhere; at least I assume they're clones - either that or the animators are really struggling to differentiate the characters).

Update: OK, so two new data points that make this even more confusing.
First of all I just noticed that we briefly, for like a half second at around 22:31, see Momose floating through space (interior shot, this happens right before we see Midorikawa's interior shot):

We know this is Momose because if you look at the arm band it ends in "02", and if you look at the status display it's missing 002 (I noticed everybody's status display displays everybody but themselves). (This also re-raises the question of how Momose died; at this point only decompression seems plausible except their skin-suits are airtight)
So now it seems clear that Aoki was the one that exploded (although how he got so close to Momose/Midorikawa I have no idea), until...
We see this map in the control room at the start of the next episode:

So we see 001 (Akai) near the Gauna, which we already knew, and 003 (Aoki) as well. Momose and Midorikawa are not on the map, not even on the more zoomed out views in that same scene. But we know Momose and Midorikawa are both floating through space, we saw them directly after the last battle.
So that rules out Aoki exploding as well, which raises the question, what was that explosion at 22:25 in episode 3? Ahhh!

+1; this kind of "over"-analysis is exactly the sort of question I'd like to see more of on this site. If only I had watched this show so I could attempt an answer.

Episode 4 answers your question. Momose was captured by Gauna. Akai came to save her, cutting the tentacle. However, this exposes him to Gauna's attack, which pierced his Gardes, killing him. Akai know this, and the fact that he won't be able to avoid the attack, which is why he said sorry to Momose. The Gauna then holds Akai's Gardes with its tentacles.
Gardes no 3, Aoki, then assume command and hold the Kabizashi. The plan was for him to pierce the Gauna while no 4, Midorikawa, tear open the protective layers. What was going on when they were told to leave Momose was probably Aoki taking the floating Kabizashi left by Akai. Momose, however, came from behind the two and charged head on towards the Gauna, screaming towards the Gauna to let Akai go. The Gauna easily repelled Momose, slamming her gardes with its tentacle, causing her to go into cardiac arrest due to the shock.
Midorikawa went chasing after Momose who was thrown away. Because of this, Aoki turned his attention away from the Gauna. The Gauna used this to attack them. Aoki got killed by the Gauna. The tentacles then went after Midorikawa pierced his Gardes from behind, killing him. So Aoki was killed before Midorikawa.
When Akai's gardes was pierced, it didn't explode. As shown when Momose charged head in, the Gauna hold Gardes no 1 with its tentacles. Since Midorikawa died from the same cause, it can be assumed that his gardes too didn't explode.
How do they know that Akai is dead? The Gardes is equipped with heartbeat monitor. This status is available to both Sidonia and the pilots. Seeing that Akai's Gardes was pierced and that he no longer has heartbeat, it doesn't take genius to know that Akai is dead.
As for the explosion, I'd say that it was not the sound of anyone exploding, it is just a sound effect before the ED song.


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To do a 'Unison Raid', do you have to have the same type of magic?
In Fairy Tail, does it matter what type of magic two wizards use in order to perform a unison raid? Okay, I understand the Gray and Juvia have done unison raids before, but both of their magics have the same concept just in different forms. But let's say someone like Natsu, or anyone with a type of Lost Magic (dragon slayers) were to perform a unison raid with Mirajane, for example.
Specifically, my friend is writing a fanfiction on Fairy Tail, where the main character is a dragon slayer, and she also has another certain magic that was passed down from her mother, a type of lost magic (a musical magic, where if the character sings or plays any instrument, the sound waves attack the opponent, and because of the whole thing with the

Dragon Slayers with their dragons being inside of them, and making
  antibodies so they wouldn't turn into dragons, (somehow) turned into
  her forms that she can use for this lost magic, that's are crazy
  powerful.

My friend isn't really sure if she can perform a unison raid with Mirajane, because they both sing, because Mira doesn't have this lost magic. So is this possible?
(Sorry if it's really long)

The definition of Unison Raid is

An extremely powerful ability that allows two Mages to unite two kinds of Magic similar in nature together, thereby creating an even stronger attack.

The Wikia page listed Unison Raid that has been performed in the series. We have:

Lucy (Aquarius) + Juvia = Water + Water
Gray + Juvia = Ice + Water
Wendy + Lucy (Scorpio) = Wind + Sand
String + Rogue = Light + Shadow

All of the elements that they use doesn't go against one another. In video games usually Light and Dark/Shadow are opposite elements, but in nature, whenever there is light, there is darkness/shadow. So in nature they are not opposites and in fact are quite similar.
Now, there is a problem with what you stated in your question. Mirajane doesn't use song magic. Her magic is a Take Over (transformation) magic. When Mira sings, she sings normally, not with magic, so you can't Unison Raid that.
Is it possible to Unison Raid 2 song magics? Yes, it is. But both mages needs to match the frequency of their song so that the resulting sound wave doesn't cancel each other out. So if the first mage use a song magic that results in the following sound wave (a sine wave),

Then the second mage's song magic must create a sound wave that have the same frequency (same position of hills and valleys). They may have a different amplitude (height and depth of the hills and valleys), it doesn't matter.
However, if the second mage failed to make a sound wave of the same frequency, let's say that he created a cosine sound wave, then the resulting Unison Raid wouldn't be as strong, if it can be called a Unison Raid that is. It is even worse if he created a -sine wave. They will cancel each other out.
For comparison:
Not very synced

Cancels one another

Perfectly synced

First of all, comments are not for saying thank you. Second, if an answer answers your question, then rather than saying thank you, you accept it as the correct answer. Also if an answer is useful, you up vote it. Welcome to Anime Stack Exchange.

I would be willing to bet the ideas here for Song Magic Unison Raid probably apply almost identical to all kinds of Unison Raid, differences being simply how they are Synchronized. Though just raw synchronized attacks of magic would require none of this, but of course are easier and less powerful.


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Since when Gowther become one of Ten Commandments?
I know that Gowther is one of Seven Deadly Sins, but in later manga, it is revealed that he also one of Ten Commandments.
So, since when he is become one of them? Did he join Ten Commandments after or before he join in Seven Deadly Sins?

I don't know which part that could be spoiler for anime, because the next season of this anime still upcoming event. So, feel free to add spoiler tags.

I'm not aware of any other material out there, but from what I know of the manga, this part is still unanswered and will probably be answered in the upcoming chapters once we know more of the ten commands, their relation to meliodas and the history of the war in general.

@ton.yeung two old dudes...?

The whole point of the reveal was that Gowther was a Ten commandment, but specifics about which commandment he was, as well as when he was one and how he lost that power have not been revealed yet.

It has already been 3 thousand years with respect to the current events when the 10 Commandments fought for their race and were defeated and sealed away. Meliodas himself being a demon was definitely involved and witnessed it all. He has been alive all these thousands of years.
The Seven Deadly Sins were formed much more recently. The Seven Deadly Sins were an independent group of knights serving the Kingdom of Liones. So it is obvious that they have been around for a while but only during the time of Liones.
Gowther was recently revealed to be a doll created by a great magician. Meliodas is a demon. King is a fairy. Diane is a Giant and Ban is an immortal. Those explain why they have such long life spans. But the true nature of Escanor and Merlin has not been revealed yet.
Still, the Kingdom of Liones was probably founded much later after the 10 Commandments were defeated. The back stories of some of the characters have been revealed before they joined The Seven Deadly Sins. Ban and Diane for instance. They have been shown to be in their younger years living in pretty much the same timeline as the current one with no demons. So it is safe to assume that The Seven Deadly Sins were created fairly recently as compared the thousands of years.
Gowther is revealed to be "Gowther the Selfless" of the 10 Commandments. He lost his memories because of his selflessness. By the time he joined the Sins, he had no memories of his past. That means he must have been a part of the 10 Commandments before he had joined the Sins.
It is unclear though whether he was part of the 10 Commandments back when they were defeated 3 thousand years ago or became a part of them afterwards like Fraudrin. If Gowther was a part of the 10 commandments back then, then Meliodas probably knows about him and hasn't revealed the truth to anyone thus far.
UPDATE:
Some of Gowther's past was revealed to King and Diane by Gloxinia, the former fairy king and Dolor, the former giant king. Gowther himself was a part of the 10 commandments long before the war between the clans even started. However, he had been imprisoned by the Demon King. The Gowther we know is just a doll created by the real Gowther, released into the real world to be his eyes and ears.

Well in the last episode, he says, "I am Gowther of the seven deadly sins, sparkle." Then right after that he says, "I am Gowther of selflessness of the ten commandments, sparkle." So yes, he is, I believe his commandment is if you are selfless, you lose your memory.
That was the last words in season 3, so it left us on a major cliffhanger.
Really, Gowther is the name of a demon mage that was recognized about 500 years before the Holy War. He unwillingly became a part of the ten commandments.
But currently, Gowther has been out of commission for a while now, so they simply put Fraudrin in as a substitute for the real Gowther. Fraudrin has no real commandment, and was seen in the anime with the doll Gowther, as the doll Gowther tells Fraudrin that Melodis has betrayed the demon race.(And Fraudrin was freaking out)
The Doll Gowther was created to be the eyes and ears for the mage Gowther as he regained his power, but I have a feeling the doll Gowther has a mind of it's own.
There is no evidence on this next theory, but i believe that the whole reason Gowther joined The Seven deadly Sins was to weaken their forces so the demon Gowther could reach Meliodis quicker.
So the answer to your question is... He became one of the Ten Commandments well before the Holy War(Demon Gowther). So the doll Gowther is only a vessel for him to see what's happening, so the Doll Gowther joined the seven deadly sins, as the demon did not, So the Gowther that is a doll is more of a tool to the Ten Commandments.(I really hope this helped you out. Bye now!)


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Is Bentham really dead?
I know that Bentham sacrificed himself to save Luffy so that he can escape from Impel Down.
He disguised as Magellan to open the gates for Luffy, but later the real Magellan came and it seems like the two fight each other (not in screen).
My friends believed that he's dead at that fight. But when I read this, it is stated that he's currently become the new queen of Newkama Land.

Bentham, alias Mr. 2 Bon Kurei, is a former officer agent of Baroque
  Works and an okama (a Japanese slang term for a transvestite). While
  he was once an enemy of Luffy's as a part of the Baroque Works, the
  two became quick friends, leading Bon Kurei to sacrifice himself for
  Luffy both at Alabasta and later at Impel Down.
  He is currently the new Queen of Newkama Land.

So I want to know, is Bentham or Bon Kurei dead or alive after Impel Down arc? If he alive, have he shown in comics ar anime after Impel Down arc?

@MaskedMan Oops... Didn't read that.

The purpose of marking duplicates is not to admonish the asker, but to help them find their answer quickly. :)

@MaskedMan yup, maybe I really need to read more before asking. And you're fast to show me the answer :D

I've seen this chapter cover that shows Mr.2 Bon Kurei is alive and is the new Queen of Newkama Land, so most probably he/she survived after Luffy left him in Impel Down. And aside from this I haven't read or seen him in any chapters after the Impel Down arc.


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Is there an in-universe explanation for how eye transplanting works?
How can the characters in Naruto just have their eyes taken out nonchalantly, seemingly without pain and without regards for infection or damage? If I took out my eyeballs and put them back in, I can't guarantee that I would regain my eyesight. Shisui must've overdosed in painkillers.
Is there any in-universe explanation for how this works?

Because Anime and Ninja.

Because Magic

Comparing Ninja World(Anime) with real world is pointless.

I don't see how this is too broad. As someone who knows nothing at all about Naruto, I think it's reasonable to ask if there is any in-universe explanation for how this works, and I made some edits to make it explicit. The answer could be "There is no in-universe explanation, it just happens"—that's perfectly valid. It doesn't seem like a bad question to me.

Why the downvotes? I just want to know if there is a plausible explanation for it. Maybe it was mentioned somewhere in the manga or one of the episodes that I didn't catch on. Or it was implicit. Is that too much to ask to a site that is about helping others?

There is no in-universe reason. Ninjas have higher pain tolerance than most people and in anime, it's exponentially increased. Why? Because, it's fiction. Although I didn't downvote, I assume it's because of the preposterous nature of the question as the answer is obvious. Eye removals aren't the only disturbing thing that happens in the ninja world.

I removed the phrase, "or is it just one of those things that can only happen in anime?" so that it won't sound like comparison betwen RL and anime, which I suspect is why you got down-vote and close flags.

IIRC, the first eye transplantation ever shown in Naruto is when Kakashi got his Sharingan from dying Obito. At that time Rin was there to perform the transplantation and she was a medical ninja. Considering Obito's condition (he was crushed by a rock) I'd say that it doesn't hurt for him to have his eyes taken, because the damage he received would have made him numb to further pain. Was it hurts for Kakashi? Maybe. One thing for sure is that Rin was there to perform the surgery and being a medical ninja, she would've ensured that the transplantation is done as hygiene as possible. Kakashi was then shown to be able to use his newly transplanted eye possibly because Rin used medical ninjutsu to heal the area around his eyes, while also reconnecting the nerves to the eyeball using chakra. As mentioned during Sakura's training under Tsunade, medical ninjutsu works by using chakra to control the regrow of cells, thus healing the wounds.
The next one shown to have the eye transplantation was Uchiha Sasuke, but that was done in a hideout with Karin (a medical ninja) there. Karin is an experienced medical ninja, having worked under Orochimaru for years, thus doing something like Rin, and in a better environment should be easy for her.
And then we have Uzumaki Nagato. He got his Rinnegan from Uchiha Madara. Since Madara himself was the one who did the transplantation, and since Nagato is an Uzumaki, who is known to have a huge life-force, there should be no problem whatsoever with the transplantation.
Lastly, we also have the case where Black Zetsu took Rinnegan from Obito. Does it hurts? Yes, as seen from the pain Obito was in when Black Zetsu took the eye. Uchiha Madara then installed the eye, but with no help from other people and he just put the eyeball and puff, it's working like normal. The reason it is possible is that at that time Madara already have the Senju DNA, which enables him to have an accelerated healing, something that Tsunade noted to have been a trait of his late grandfather, Senju Hashirama, which is also the inspiration for her to develop medical ninjutsu in the first place.
So yeah, there is an in-universe explanation on how the eye transplantation works. Note that there is an inconsistency between Kakashi and Sasuke's case. Kakashi was able to use the eyes immediately but Sasuke wasn't able to despite being in a better condition.

Don't forget the time when Madara snatched out Kakashi's Mangekyou eye to use Kamui.

How about the time when Shisui lost his eye to Danzo and gave his other eye to Itachi?

When Shizui took out his eye it might not hurt badly because he is already in pain from having the other taken by Danzo. Itachi didn't transplant the eye into himself though. He use it as apart of the crow genjutsu.

@EroSennin same point as Madara taking Rinnegan from Obito, Senju DNA.

Sasuke got the EMS during his transplantation, so the delay before he was healed was due to that, while kakashi got a basic sharingan. Ninja are also quite tough, so indeed in some cases there is a bunch of pain, but they frequently deal with alot of pain in fights, so they have to be able to take it and be ready for another attack asap.

When a ninja takes their eyeballs out, it's hurts. There's no pain killer or anything that stops it from hurting.
Like the fight between Sasuke and Itachi, Itachi used Genjutsu and took out Sasuke's eye, he screamed in pain. Afterwards he put it in a container with some sort of liquid that stops it from getting contaminated.
In an episode Sakura is learning healing jutsus, she healed a bunny with a broken leg and the bunny could run again straight after, she then healed an almost dead fish and it could swim again. Tsunade can revive herself by unlocking the diamond on her forehead, but shortens her lifespan.
These just shows how powerful healing jutsus are. If they can do that, they can definitely heal and transplant an eye. Even in modern life, there are eye transplant surgery.

The jutsu Itachi used on Sasuke was a genjutsu. He didn't take his eyes for real.

@AyaseEri yes i forgot to put that, but sasuke still screamed in pain when he took it out.

That pain is arguably from the jutsu itself instead of from taking the eyes out. Thus, it was a pain given by Itachi and not pain from the eyes being gouged out.

@AyaseEri it's arguable but i do agree


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What are the differences between the manga and the anime adaptation of Erased and where does the anime diverge?
As stated in the title, I want to know what the major differences between the manga and the anime adaptation are. From what I've read online, the anime adaptation diverged from the manga. So where does this diversion occur? Does it start from a particular chapter of the manga or has it been taking its own course gradually from the very beginning?

⚠ The answer below contains spoilers.

The manga skipped a chapter which took place before the first Revival in the anime. This chapter concentrates on the bond between Airi and Satoru, when he saves someone's (I won't spoil) life with her help.
When Satoru and his mother meet Airi in the parking lot, in the anime, he uses Revival only once to spot the difference. In the manga, he uses it 3-4 times.
In the scene where his mother is killed, he doesn't meet with the culprit in the hallway. In the manga, he catches a glimpse of him in the garden and pursues him, during which he is seen by the landlady.
The manga narrates the background story of Yashiro, which the anime skipped. The scene in the anime where Satoru decides whether or not to push Hinazuki's mother is altered. In the manga, he has a homemade taser with him.
In the manga, in 2003, when the photographers take pictures of him and Kumi (the leukemia girl), they are stopped by Airi instead of Yashiro, and Satoru recognizes her. Then he falls in coma again for another 2 years (the numeric details may have a 1 year error).
After he can walk, he goes in town and he sees Airi from afar. However, he decides to not talk to her in order to keep her away from the killer.
The end of the anime is dramatically changed. In the manga, the story follows a  bit of a longer period of time after he can walk. He has a strong big brother relationship with Kumi. The ending takes place in a holiday camp for patients who undergo recover such as Satoru and Kumi. There, the death match takes place between Satoru and Yashiro and is more complex as compared to the anime. Sawada and Kenya having a bigger role as well.
In the manga, Hinazuki indicates to Satoru that Misato is alone instead of the glasses boy.
When he was little (younger than the 4th grade), Satoru had a female friend two years older than him, whom he used to play with. When she said that he is her second best male friend (or something of the sort), he goes with a stick to the group where the first "male" was, to remove him from her life, doing nothing in the end. A few days later she goes to a building attracted by something. She comes out with her hands full of pictures for kids when she is called by Satoru. It was another kidnap attempt by Yashiro, stopped unknowingly by Satoru.
The reasons for which his mother stopped being a TV anchor are hinted in the manga. The reason is the fact that the TV station director wanted to have an intimate relationship with her (most likely). She refused, resulting in cuts on her palms (probably obtained when she refused him).
The job of Hiromi Sugita is changed. In the manga, he is a physicist while in the anime, he is a doctor.
The identity of the culprit is more hinted in the manga with more small panels concentrated on his reactions on Satoru's and his friends' actions and dialogues in the school grounds (about saving the victims).
In the last showdown scene, Yashiro intends to kill Satoru and himself on a bridge set on fire. Satoru escapes and Kenya and Sawada save Yashiro's life, an event present only in the manga.
In the anime, it is skipped that Yuuki went to continental Asia and married a woman from there (her and their son having black skin are visible for a few seconds in the last episode of the anime and in the manga as well).
In those 15 years, in the manga, Yashiro kidnapped and killed around 15-30 other children, leaving some clues for Kenya and Sawada which led to him. He is charged for those murders in the manga. On the other hand, in the anime these crimes are not mentioned and he is only charged with attempted murder  of Satoru.

There may be other changes which I didn't notice or forgot. The changes were less visible in the first half of the anime and were more prominent in the second half of the show, due to the anime having a short amount of screen time left to portray all of the manga content.

Can you expand on #8? I don't recall the glasses boy being particular estranged in the anime.

@MaxLi  It is been a while but I'll try. The person that indicates the fact that Misato is alone, is in the anime the glasses boy(Hiromi Sugita if I recall corectly and after rereading my answer, the one that Hinazuki will mary) and in the manga is Hinazuki herself. After rereading your comment I got it. What I wanted to say was that in the manga the fact that Misato is missing is indicated by Hinazuki and in the anime by Hiromi.I didn't mean to say that Misato was alone instead of the glasses boy as one of the differences. I hope this helps and if you have other wuestions feel free to ask me.

Hiromi was not the glasses boy, Hiromi was the girly boy. Anyway, thanks! It's a shame how Erased (imo) died down in the second half, but with a spinoff in the works, hopefully the Erased universe will be broadened.

@MaxLi  Yeah he wore glasses and that is why I called him that but you are right. Are you talking about a spinoff anime or manga? I know that there is a only Gaiden manga(which I have read)

I heard news of a Gaiden manga, and that's all. :( I really think it didn't live up to the hype, but at least the first 5 episodes will live on forever in my heart as what it could have been


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Is the Mangekyou Sharingan capable of controlling only the Kyuubi or all the Tailed Beasts?
This is a picture taken from Naruto manga chapter 385.

Is Mangekyou Sharingan capable of controlling only the Kyuubi or is it also able to control the other tailed beasts?
Also, how does Sasuke come to know the nature of the Mangekyou Sharingan?

Considering that the Nine Tails is (supposedly) the strongest of all the Tailed Beasts, it would be logical to assume that the MS is capable of controlling the other Beasts too. But not all at once.

@EroSɘnnin is there any reason why Sasuke mentions the kyuubi in particular?

Again, it could be because Kyuubi is the most powerful beast among the others. Afterall, Madara had sought after the Kyuubi and not any of the others.

The Wikia says that the MS was capable of controlling all the Tailed Beasts.

The Mangekyō Sharingan has been noted to wield the power to control over the tailed beasts, but only Madara and Obito, have achieved this feat. Sasuke at first also used his Sharingan to suppress a small amount of Kurama's chakra within Naruto's subconscious.

The MS is gained when a user of the Sharingan witness the death of someone close to them.

It is initially awakened by the trauma suffered from witnessing the death of someone close to the user.

Sasuke got his Mangekyo Sharingan after Itachi's death.

Sasuke Uchiha awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan after the death of his older brother

Also as a side note, Sasuke is able to use the Rinnegan to control all the Tailed Beasts at once.

Sasuke could use his Rinnegan to put all nine tailed beasts under his control with just a glance


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How old is Himura Kenshin?
In the anime, Kenshin appears to be about 17 (at least to my western, Caucasian eyes).  Consider that the revolution was 10 years in the past, and it must have taken years during the war for him to develop his skills and reputation as Battosai the Man-Slayer.  At a minimum, I think he's got to be 31, and that is if he got started in the revolution while still a mid-teen.

A simple google search returns the following:

Age
28 (about 33 end of series)

Source: http://kenshin.wikia.com/wiki/Himura_Kenshin

Thanks.  I had checked the Wikipedia article for the series, but not that of Kenshin himself.  Both the Wikia and Wikipedia links state that he was originally going to be 30 or older, but the publisher thought that was too old for a manga aimed at teenage audience.  Answer accepted.

Kenshin was born June 20th, 1849.
Sold into slavery at age 6 (1855)
Trained until his departure at age 14 (1864) when he began his Hitokiri days, obtained the first vertical Half of his trademark scar.
By 1868 he abandoned his assassin role for guerilla swordsman duty protecting Imperial officials.
1869 Boshin War Ends (Kenshin Age 20)
Proliferates his wandering days for nearly a decade til he arrives in Tokyo in early 1878 (Age 28)
OVA: reflections: 5 years later, dies at age 33 of unknown disease (Presumably either Leprosy or Meningococcal disease)

Thank you for detailed answer.  After 4 years, forgot I asked this.