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What was the moral of Sasuke and Orochimaru's arcs across the Naruto series? Was there any?
So Naruto Gaiden has concluded, and it featured both Sasuke and Orochimaru in his latest iteration. Which again raises the question, what exactly was the moral of the story for these two?
The Naruto series excelled at emphasizing certain moral behaviors to its readers/viewers: e.g., with hard work, determination, self-confidence, and a will to succeed, even a loser or social outcast can reach the top; love and understanding each other on a deeper level can solve any problem and bring out all you're actually capable of; kindness and compassion towards wild 'Beasts' can lead to positive results; it's important never to abandon your friends and family; etc etc. All very good, solid shounen values!
So what do the lives of Sasuke and Orochimaru teach us (if anything) from their character arcs? By the end of Shipuden neither has really repented or shown remorse for their bad behavior (simple "sorries" do not cut it), both have done horrible things (murder, hideous human experimentation, etc) for which they are never punished (Sasuke is pardoned, Orochimaru's 'imprisonment' in Gaiden is pretty milquetoast, and he's even allowed to continue researching with his assistants!), and it is implied that they got a free pass for the simple reason that they joined forces with the Shinobi Alliance to destroy a common threat that was even worse (and one which was against their own interests to see succeed anyway!). Even then, Sasuke attempted to hijack things at the last minute and take over the world, only relenting when he was soundly defeated (i.e., he stopped when it was no longer possible for him to achieve his ends!). Yet both are still allowed to do pretty much whatever they please for the next decade or two. So what are we to make of all this? Do whatever you want and if you have powerful enough friends, you can get away with it, and keep on doing whatever you want?

Second chances? Sausake got it and he turned good again.

Does it need a moral?  Sasuke is, at his heart, a foil for Naruto.  Naruto shows how an outcast with little apparent potential finds strength by learning from others around him.  Sasuke is revered and is fantastically talented from birth.  He, nevertheless, seeks power by rejecting those around him an plunging into the alien. This is not moral tale but a investigation into character's and motives. One good thing about Naruto is that every villian is evaluated to determine why they become this way.  One bad thing is this always earns them redemption and they become viewed as good.

All true! Yet 1) shonen’s obsessed with teaching lessons, at least the editors are! 2) Oro./Kabuto/U. clan sure felt like they were building up to some arc! Eg, Senjuu have "will of fire", U. clan is its "foil", as you said, with "nindo of hate"; Naruto hypes forgiveness; frequent Redemption Arcs, Gaara/Kurama/Pein, suggests the same'll occur here too. 3) N.'s 3 major goals were: Hokage, redeem/return Sasuke & win Sakura. Up to 699 he's on track to Hokage, Sasuke takes an atonement journey, & N. and Sakura no longer have to chase him or fight wars & are free to develop their relationship

Then 700 reverses it! Eg Oro, a primordial evil (orochi in Kojiki or snake in Eden), story suggests he’ll be killed or reunite with his old team. No! Both are sort-of redeemed, neither return to live in K., neither atone much etc. So of N.'s 3 goals, he achieved 1, sort-of achieved 2, and totally failed 3! S. achieved his 1st goal as avenger, but did little for his 2nd (relates to my question, whether S.’s serious about restoring his clan http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/24153/is-sasuke-serious-about-rebuilding-the-uchiha-clan). While perhpas not a moral, subtext's very cynical

Pretty sure you're right and that Orochimaru's life teaches us that you can be a magical Mengele and get away with it.  The round-up for both Sasuke and Orochimaru's life basically ends with everyone going "Eh, guess they were eating a Milky Way or something. Not like all of those lost lives and violated morals are worth anything to anyone."  Come to think of it, Mengele himself basically got away with it.  But by hiding, not by everyone just suddenly not giving a damn for no good reason.

Though walking the line about the possibility of this being opinion based, I feel we can answer the question based on the good ol' "Shounen Virtues" you aptly described. Let me know if you want to expand/limit the answer.
The main two according to me are:

No one is completely bad. However in the darkness you may be, you always have that small little goodness inside of you. Be it Anti-Villains, Not Evil but Misunderstood or another common Trope. Other examples include  Zabuza, Haku, Kimimaro, Itachi, Kisame, Nagato, Konan, and Obito. This also goes very nicely with the Whole Yin-Yang symbolism.
Everyone deserves forgivness/second chances. There is nothing you can do that can/should/will not be forgiven. True redemption however takes sacrifice. I really liked the panel where Orochimaru saves Tsunade's life and then they talk about Jiraiya's death. Sasuke undertakes a journey of self discorvery post the events of 4th Great Ninja war. This is a true Shounen value in the sense because if they regret their past actions they are excused.

Other small values I feel were discussed are

Morality of Revenge - Sasuke's journey from Itachi to hidden leaf and finally for World Domination. Also subverted by Naruto by forgiving Pain. Shikamaru meanwhile is still laughing at Hidan
Bonds of Student and Teacher - Fights between 3rd Hokage and Orochimaru, Jiraiya and Pain, Kakashi and Sasuke, 4th Hokage and Obito we see recurring instances of Sensei's love.

Not really, it was just to show what the hell Sasuke was doing with Orchimaru, and how Sasuke obtains the powers he does. Naruto is kind of a split story between Naruto and Sasuke. But we see Naruto's side more often than Sasuke's.


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In Terraformars, how was the transformation medicine classified by?
For insect bases, syringes are used as the medicine while other transformations require different medicine. What about the other types of transformations? How did they consume the medicine?

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Why make filler episodes?
The general rule seems to be that filler is made when an anime is being produced faster than the manga. The thing I just can't seem to figure out is

How an entire freaking episode takes longer to produce than a manga which practically only equals a story board.
Why would they start producing random filler rather than just overtaking the manga with their own story.

I mean, is this some Japanese cultural thing where a lot of credit is given to the author of the manga and he isn't allowed to collaborate with others to speed up production or is this a cultural thing where Japanese actually like those fillers or what? After all, there are a lot of economic incentives not to produce filler episodes as they tend to irritate fans a lot and still cost a lot to produce.

Possibly relevant?

1 - Because a manga is usually drawn by only the mangaka and perhaps a few assistants, whereas an anime is drawn by tens or hundreds of animators. 2 - Because then you end up with things like the FMA 2003 series or HxH 1999, after which point the fans want to see the actual manga story turned into an anime (Brotherhood or HxH 2011).

@ton.yeung Closely related questions have always been fine as a single question on SE. And regarding loaded questions, that's indeed a valid observation, do you also have any point perchance? Lastly, Maroon wasn't implying that it's a duplicate, just that it's relevant (as can be seen when you actually read the answers on the other post).

@Killua That's indeed how it is@1, but why was the thing I was trying to figure out. If you send a couple of guys from the anime production to the manga production you will overall get better quality for the same amount of money.

@ton.yeung Well, writing a complex filler arc takes a lot of time to write as well... I mean, it would then still from an economic point of view make more sense to send the same writer to help out the mangaka. Or even more sensible to just have the mangaka focus on the story 100% and have others do the production work.

@ton.yeung Also in addition to what I wrote before: I listed two things I do not comprehend, my question is what kind of cultural thing (singular) causes those things. There is just one core question, but multiple aspects.

Chrno Crusade had its own ending, as the anime had overtaken the manga. Quite honestly, the anime ending was awful and no better than any other random filler. At least a filler you can skip.

TL;DR - It's because financially, it pays off for longer, more popular anime series. It allows them to retain broadcasting slot, as well as sponsors and advertisers, by sacrificing a bit of quality.

First, it needs to be pointed out that many anime don't have filler. Filler episodes are only common in long-running popular anime such as One Piece, Naruto, or Bleach. This is because of the particular profit model they have. These long-running shows make a profit through sponsorships and advertisements. In contrast, shorter works, especially late night anime, only make a profit through sales of blu-rays and other merchandise. Hence, for long-running shows, the quality of individual episodes is somewhat less of a concern.
Given that the episodes need to be around 20 minutes long (excluding OP and ED sequences) and air once a week to fit into TV programming schedules, the anime almost always needs to go faster than the manga. Hence, there are essentially 3 options for what to do. Most commonly, they will just add a few irrelevant "filler" episodes occasionally. This does tend to make viewers unhappy if they're too common, but production studios have determined that viewers are less likely to stop watching if fillers air than if the anime just takes a break.
Another option is to take a break whenever the anime gets close to the manga. This is the strategy Gintama takes as well as most late-night anime that are popular enough to be adapted fully (e.g. To Love-Ru). It results in higher quality, but it's harder to keep sponsorships and TV slots when the show airs infrequently, and viewers may drop it during the break. One Piece has done this at times and aired fillers at other times. The third option is to abandon the manga entirely and write an original story. Some works that did this are Fullmetal Alchemist (the original), Hayate no Gotoku (1st season), Hunter x Hunter (original) and Soul Eater. This used to be much more popular, especially in the 1990s, but it makes it more difficult to continue the anime and fans usually aren't happy with the changes, so these days it's become very uncommon. Notice that 3 of these 4 ended up needing to be rebooted or have large retcons to have anime continuations, and the fourth hasn't been despite a large following simply because of the difficulties involved.
So, to put it simply, these long-running shows have filler because that's their best option to keep their TV slots, sponsors, and viewers. It does cost a bit of quality, but that's acceptable for highly popular shows like this where quality is somewhat less of a concern.

As for why they can't just speed up the manga production to accommodate the anime, that wouldn't really be feasible. Manga production is mostly done by a single mangaka with an editor and sometimes one or more assistants, while a single anime episode may have dozens of animators working on it. In the case of popular works, essentially everything that can possibly be is left to the assistants. Apart from splitting up story and artwork, there isn't much that could be done to speed up the process, and few mangaka want to do that (though it has been done in some cases). Furthermore, managaka are already ridiculously overworked; the rate at which manga is produced right now is basically as fast as it can possibly be produced. To get rid of fillers, production would need to be sped up significantly (roughly 50-100% faster for most works), and it's hard to imagine any way to do that.
In addition, it wouldn't really help the manga to be produced faster. Most of these manga are released in weekly magazines which contain a chapter of several works. If production was sped up drastically, this would mean fewer works could be included in a single issue. It's likely that this wouldn't really increase revenue, since these works typically target younger children and adolescents without a large amount of disposable income, but it would drastically increase the production costs per series. Given that the manga and anime are produced by two completely different companies, that relatively few manga ever get adapted to anime, and that the manga is often more profitable than the anime, there's really no reason (and no realistic way) to speed up the manga just for the sake of eliminating anime fillers.

I really like the concrete answers as far as specific anime/manga that did it X way, and I am curious if you could provide any examples for where the manga production was split by story/artwork

@user2813274 Most of the works by Clamp do so. To Love-Ru also comes to mind, as do Death Note and Bakuman (both by the same pair). I'm sure there's more examples, but it's rather uncommon. It's perhaps most common for spin-off series; for example, Saki Achiga-hen was written by the author of the main series Saki, but had a separate illustrator.

Logan's answer covers most of the relevant points, but I also want to add that in many cases, one chapter of manga is not enough story to fill one episode of anime. You often need two or even three chapters of manga to have enough story for an anime episode. So it wouldn't be enough to just produce the manga one chapter ahead of where the anime story is; you'd have to get two or three chapters ahead. This isn't possible for the reasons Logan described.
Anime series choose different ways of dealing with this problem. This depends a lot on the particular series:

In the Dragon Ball Z anime, there were a lot of extra clashes and inconclusive exchanges of blows than in the manga, which filled up time so the story could progress more slowly. While this sometimes grew tiresome, it was generally a low-impact way to stretch out a manga chapter so it would take an entire episode.
Full Metal Alchemist, on the other hand, had a much tighter sense of continuity, so the story couldn't be slowed down without damaging it. The earlier stories mostly played out just like in the manga; later, the 2003 anime took its own path. Some other series do this in a small way; for example, Aria did an original story early on that introduced several of the main characters, where in the manga these characters were introduced in separate stories.
Series which are more episodic, like Yuru Yuri, will sometimes combine multiple manga chapters into a single anime episode; in these cases, the manga itself typically contained what could be called "filler", stories which can be moved around in time without affecting the continuity, so the anime producers slot them in as needed.

Creating original filler material is another way of solving this problem. It works reasonably well when you have a show with a fairly strong sense of continuity, meaning the episodes can't be stretched, combined, or swapped, and you don't want to do an entirely new story. Logan's answer gives other reasons why the staff might choose this method.

To give more perspective on a character or event that wasn't able in the written work. Not all characters have time to develop or exist in the book. For instance we know that the Bleach has 13 Squads but only in the anime do we really get know the background of characters that is meaningless to the plot. This question stem from  book vs TV.
There's will always be more details (qualified in words) on average in books compared to on TV. Though there will always be more details (qualified in images) on average on TV compared to Books. Simply this means that these Two separate have a different purpose, one is display visual perspective while other is two display written perspective.
The translation of media and purpose allows more freedom on the priority of the perspective. In the Book a Fight scene may take fight chapters( Ex. Shura's Wrath) while the Tv may online give it half an episode ( 15mins). Of course, this decisions on perceptive can affect the continuity of the series leading to the negative feelings of "filler episodes.

authors: Альбина Рутц

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Which sign language is being used in the Gangsta anime?
In the anime, Nicolas cannot speak properly due to his disability. He has to use sign language in order to communicate with others. Is the sign-language used in the anime authentic? Which sign language is used if it is?

The sign language used in the anime is the Japanese Sign Language. For example:

Means "thank you (ありがとう) in JSL. The ITEC website, which teaches JSL to English speakers, details how to make this sign:

The left hand is held palm-down in front of the chest, fingers
  pointing to the right with the open right hand's blade edge touching
  the back of the left hand, fingers pointing toward the interlocutor.
  The left hand's position is held, while the right hand is lifted to
  chin height.

One thing to keep in mind is that the setting implies that the characters are all speaking English or some kind of European language. The language used in the newspaper and currency for example, is English. The sign language used in the anime is authentic, but it may not be consistent with the setting of the anime itself.

Are you basing your conclusion that they speak JSL on this single sign? Isn't it possible that other sign languages use the same sign too?

@senshin it's possible.


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When do the events of Prince de la Bun take place?
In one of the anecdotes in McDull, Prince de la Bun, McDull makes a comment (a bit after 19 minutes) about how his single mother takes J.K. Rowling's success as encouragement for her to continue recounting her stories. Thus, the "present day" portion of the film must have occurred after the first Harry Potter book was published (so at the earliest, post-1997). The mention of 两文三语 (an oft-used phrase by the Hong Kong government) approximately six minutes in corroborates this (at least per my reading of this Chinese Wikipedia article). Moreover, we see at 1:04:48 that the grave plot Mrs. Mak has reserved has a mobile phone number on its sign, which might push the date even later.
What I'm having trouble figuring out is what years the portions of the film that concern Mrs. Mak's younger years where she interacts with McDull's father (McBing) correspond to. I might expect the section that comes before McBing meets with  Mrs. Mak to have a looser correspondence to actual history, since it's more overtly fantasy, but the portion I'm concerned with seems to explicitly take place in some older version of Hong Kong.

About nine minutes in, there is old footage of workers at a factory (with Mrs. Mak's face superimposed on one of the worker's, as this is meant to be a recollection of her younger years), but I can't identify the year of it.
After 47:00, we see the destruction of a floating restaurant, but I'm unsure if this is supposed to correspond to anything. The boat is still burning when McBing leaves Mrs. Mak, so it would appear that the entire sequence (between him meeting up with her and him leaving) is supposed to take place within a short period of time. (Then again, maybe this is just a fantasy element?)
There are some posters on the walls (of celebrities I don't recognise) after 47:30.
At 49:23, we see a member of the police stand atop a raised platform to direct traffic. From what I am aware of, this practice was definitely gone by the 2000's in Hong Kong, and I don't think it was used much (if at all) in the 1990's.
At 50:49, McBing pays the fortune teller with a bunch of colonial one-dollar notes. Wikipedia tells me that 1 HKD notes were phased out in 1960. (That this is used at all and that there is a copy of The Little Prince on the shelf at 55:45 indicates that this should be post-WWII.)

Is there a consistent sense of when this period corresponds to, if at all? I'm starting to get the impression that some of the evidence may even be contradictory: if McDull is still in kindergarten in the "present day" period (see 2:05) and his father is really McBing, it would be odd for McBing to have left before 1990 (which would seem at odds with some of the other details). But it occurs to me that I might just be too unfamiliar with the historical context to judge properly, so I am looking for confirmation.

Note: I'm assuming that this is on-topic per this, and I'm largely writing this to "test the waters" to see how much people might know about non-Japanese works.

I myself am highly ignorant of Chinese and Korean work, but I've seen id requests looking for what seem like pretty obscure Korean manhwa get answers, so I hope there's also someone around here who knows something about Chinese work, and can give you an answer for this question.


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How are Rikka's and Shichimiya's powers being affected?
In the second season of "Love, Chunibyou and and other Delusions", Rikka's powers start weakening in the 9th episode. I don't get what's going on. Their powers are supposed to be imaginary. Then how is it possible for something imaginary to weaken unless the person imagines them to be weakening themselves. Rikka doesn't really have any reason to imagine that and apparently, from her reactions, she doesn't like it. Then what's causing it and why is it happening?
Furthermore, Shichimiya also tells Rikka about what once happened to her and that she decided to keep her powers and remain the magical devil girl. Does that mean that if she had fallen in love with Yuuta back then, her powers would have disappeared?
What do their powers have to do with Yuuta?

I tought that imaginary powers were like imaginary friends.
Once you got something more interesting and/or more important, the delusions started to become unecessary.
But for real answer, I guess we would need word of god.

Yeah but Rikka's chunibyou personality is really important to her. She didn't want to lose her powers. And she actually went through to strengthen them once more because she really needed them. I doubt if her chunibyou is any less important than love.

I think it was not really a conscious decision.
Rikka usedthe delusions to cope with life in mostly every aspect, but her feeling for Yuuta made her more confortable and satisfied with reality, she had less need for the delusions.
And yet, she needed the delusions, she was accostumed to them, so she didn't want to lose them.
I guess something similar happened to Shichimiya. Had she accepted her love back then, she might have let go of all the delusions and started a more conventional school life.
But again, that's only my view  on the anime.
Now I really want some word of god on this...

Love seems to be the only reason for it all. Both Shichimiya and Rikka were in similar situations when that happened. But I don't see how their imagination gets affected. I like your reasoning but I think I will wait till I get a more satisfactory answer.

Rikka's imaginary "powers" are a reflection of how she perceives herself. The events of the series had begun to make her question whether it was time for her to "grow up" and give up on chuuni games; this internal doubt "manifested" itself as "weakened" powers.

I like the explanation. The part about it being as a result of the feeling that she had to grow up kind of makes sense. But what do you think about Shichimiya? She was able to retain her powers or something like that about she got over Yuuta. Doesn't that hint like it has something to do with love?

That is a great point. Something to remember, though, is that their powers are 100% imaginary. Rikka and Shichimiya probably have slightly different ways of thinking about love, and this would probably be reflected in their "powers" (which they often make up/append on the fly).

First let's go back to why they develop the "power" in the first place. Rikka developed her power after she witnessed Yuuta in action as Dark Flame Master from the balcony of her sister, Takanashi Touka's room. Why do she develop such power? Because she was lonely. She was very close to her father and her father's sudden death (because Touka and her mother didn't inform her beforehand as they thought she was too young) caused a great shock to her. She can't accept his death and thus, seeing Yuuta's power, she developed her own where her goal is to find the Unseen Horizon which she believe is the place where she can meet her father again.
She then fall in love with Yuuta, the one that she idolized. However, at that time Yuuta was no longer Dark Flame Master. Yuuta has accepted reality and is living in it despite his power coming back occasionally (and accidentally). Rikka realized that Yuuta wanted her to stop being a chuunibyou (happened in the 2nd season of the anime). This caused her to waver between the chuunibyou way of live and the real world and that manifest in her power growing weaker. Her love for him caused her power to grow weaker since Yuuta expected her to be 'normal'.
As for Shichimiya, I don't know why her power got weaker when she fell in love with Yuuta since it was only mentioned briefly in the anime and I don't read the light novel.

Yeah well your answer is partly right but I really don't think that Yuuta wanted Rikka to be normal anymore in the second season. He accepts her chuunibyou personality at the end of the first season and their "pact" is proof that Yuuta totally accepts her chuunibyou. It's obvious when confronted by Nibutani, Yuuta tells her that he likes Rikka the way she is. Rikka was the one of made the pact herself. There is no way Yuuta wanted her to be normal. And Rikka knew that too. If that was the case, Rikka would have stayed normal like in the first season.

It would have been 100x better if she just showed signs of growing up and giving up that childish act she had going on, it’s really weird watching a 17-18 years-old act like some kind of edgy chunibyou. I understand if she was still in elementary or middle school or even a high school freshman but after that, it just seems like that person might have a mental disability of some sort because that isn’t normal.
I believe the whole reason she acts that way is mainly because she wants to cover up her feelings of what had happened to her family. By putting on this act of some edgy devil girl with “powers”, it would have been a happier ending if she threw it all aside and decided to give up that act and see life for what it really is.

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Has the creator been interviewed about when the Attack on Titan story takes place?
Lots of speculations have been made as to the time frame and location using clues from within the manga and animation.....but why not just ask the series creator if he gave it much thought or is the story just a mishmash of past and future technologies. I'm sure much Japanese writing has been done on this topic that hasn't been translated.....or perhaps, we Westerners are more concerned about this than we should be.

Closely related: When and where does Attack on Titan take place?

I always thought of it as a futuristic collapsed society type theme. They were forced to build walls and revert back to medieval society but they focused their technology on their ODM gear to combat the titans. There is reference to the past (our current real life time). Perhaps the biggest supporting evidence of this was episode 6 where Misaka's kidnappers are talking about her race and they state:
"she's exotic. what they used to call an Oriental.You know about all that right? back when there used to be different breeds of people, a bunch of them from the far east came scrambling here for safety. the old perverts in the capital really go for that sort of thing. this little beauty's going to fetch a mint at auction. it's great business. she's the last of her kind. all the rest of her people died out."
hope that helps. the year that it starts out on is 845 so the yearly calendar reset for some important reason, but it hasn't revealed a lot about the history yet (just that the titans appeared over 100 years ago.) As far as location goes it's safe to assume that it is probably German. accounting for the kidnapper's claim that there is currently only one race and we have names like:
-Yaeger (german for hunter)
-Arlert is old german anglo-saxon, and Armin's wiki page trivia section states that "The name 'Armin' may have multiple meanings, either from an old German word meaning "whole", or "Herman", meaning "soldier"". http://shingekinokyojin.wikia.com/wiki/Armin_Arlert
-Erwin - Derived from the Germanic name Hariwini, composed of the elements hari "army" and win "friend".
Add it all up with a lot of blonde hair (Armin, Reiner, Nanaba, Christa, Annie, Erwin, etc) and it seems that they were leaning toward a German-oriented character base with names that are literal puns toward the fact that they are soldiers.


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Is there enough evidence to conclude Hans is a fake brave?
Hans initially accused Adlet of being the fake to escape suspicion.
Then when Adlet returned, he deliberately let him live in order to maintain his alibi. Because of this, Adlet no longer suspected Hans, which worked out according to his plan.
However, Nachetanya still suspected Hans, and pointed out his inconsistencies. Is it safe to say Hans is a fake brave or at least a potential fake brave? Is there any evidence proving his innocence?

I'm currently on the fifth volume of Rokka no Yuusha. It seems like Hans is likely to be a fake based on the story clues while Chamot is possibly a fake, but highly unlikely.

Usually in this kind of series, the one that is most unlikely is the one that is fake. Remember Ichimaru Gin from Bleach and Enoshima Junko from Danganronpa? Gin is actually aiming to kill Aizen (the main evil) while Junko who was presumably dead, actually faked her death and is the main antagonist. Using the same logic, Hans might actually be a real brave.

@SakuraiTomoko Hmm who are the most unlikely people? Adlet and Maura?

I'd say Adlet is out since he is the main protagonist and his background story has already been laid out. Gin and Junko didn't have his background story laid out until near the end. I personally suspected Maura, though I have no proof whatsoever.

I'd say Adlet is in the mix specifically because he's the main protagonist; he's the only one with any real 'plot asymmetry', any meta-reason that it should be him and not someone else. He also seems to have gotten 'demon-touched' quite distinctly while in jail in the first episode. This is not to suggest that Adlet knows he's the fake, but he's still my leading candidate for actually being the fake (though caveat: I'm presently an ep behind).

I would go with Maura. Everyone is trying to find out how could someone get in without breaking the seal, but everyone is ignoring that Maura has the key... Sorry, I don't have enough points to add as a comment...

My guess for the fake would be Nachetanya. Since Adlet is the main char I'm sure he can't be the fake. Hans is equal to Adlet in terms of skill, so he would make a suitable hero himself. then there's Maura and Chamot, Since Chamot is the strongest Saint she seems a legit hero and with Maura overseeing her, she must have alot of skill herself since Chamot respects her enough to obey her. Flamie has been nothing but honest so far and her skill seems pretty high. That just leaves goldof and Nachetanya for me. Nahctanya herself said Goldov is stronger than her tho.. so that leaves her as the fake.

@ChenOrihara Also recall that Nachetanya was trying to protect Adlet. Assuming that the fake's goal is to kill multiple braves, she wouldn't want Adlet to die alone, or else it will prove he wasn't a fake after he died :) I'm applying this same reasoning to Hans, which indicates he is potentially a fake.

You have to cite an episode in order to limit the scope of the question. otherwise, since this is an airing series, the possible answers could change in validity.

@Mindwin Citing an episode might possibly be spoiling the series, which I have been trying to avoid. Right now, I'm just looking for evidence that disproves the possibility of Hans being a fake brave by logical contradiction.

Spoilers ahead, read if you really want to know. I came to Japan for a business trip last week. So, I went and bought all 6 volumes of Rokka no Yusha and started reading though them while slacking on the job, starting Volume 6 today. Therefore, this time, I will put in a brief explanation of each volume and prove each Brave's innocence one by one, then prove Adlet is guilty and Hans is innocent. However, the assumption is that there is only one fake in the Seven existing now.
Volume 1: Nashetania Arc

Watch the anime.

Volume 2: Mora's Daughter Arc (Not really called this but I cannot think of a better name)

In this volume, it is revealed that Tgurneu has held Mora's daughter hostage through getting one of his Kyoma minions which is a parasitic worm to build a nest in Shenilla's chest. Through a letter he forged with the Saint of Medicine, Toulo Maynes's handwriting, he invited Mora to an alley to discuss the conditions for Shenilla's release. Mora brought along the Saint of Words, Marmanna Keynes and also called out to the Saint of Salt, Weylynn Coteau, but she did not make it in time. Without Weylynn, the two saints and Tgurneu started the discussion. In the end, they made deals which cannot be overturned as Marmanna's powers forced them to follow the contract or they die. The important deals are as follow:

Tgurneu was to never lie to Mora or he would die.
Tgurneu would command the worm in Shenilla's chest to commit suicide if he was killed or Mora killed one of the other Braves.
If Mora died before she killed another brave or if Tgurneu did not die at the same time, Shenilla would die.

These deals forced Mora to undergo severe training and implanting a Volcano crystal in her chest as the last resort to kill Tgurneu. She also trained Rolonia Manchetta, the Saint of Fresh Blood to be able to revive the dead by letting her test her abilities of blood control on Mora as she was implanted with the crystal. Then they tested her abilities to revive someone on a dying old man. This is Mora's Plan B, where she would kill a Brave, then revive him again.
A lot of things happened and Tgurneu, while using the body of the three-winged Kyoma, told a lie to Mora, saying she was the seventh Brave. Tgurneu then escaped through Mora's barrier in a jellyfish Kyoma in order to hide that his host had died due to the lie. This lie caused Mora to switch to Plan B as she believed she was the seventh. Mora knocked out Fremy and Chamo and his them in the cave in the barrier of the Saint of the Single Flower. She then used her power of echo to call for Adlet and Rolonia to head to the cave and asked Goldof and Hans to chase after Fremy, whom she lied that Fremy ran away leading them to a group of Kyoma under her command sent by Tgurneu.However, Hans went instead of Adlet as he saw through Mora's plans. Then, Hans and Mora fought, Mora slit Hans's throat with his knife, killing him. Then she asked Rolonia to revive him as she had trained her.
When Hans died, Adlet realised a petal disappeared from his hand, this is the piece of evidence that proves Hans's innocence. Later, Adlet also proved Mora's innocence by proving that Tgurneu was merely using the three-winged Kyoma as a host and only the host died due to the lie. The point is if Mora was fake, the host would have lived. Adlet also revealed Tgurneu was a fig-like Kyouma as his spray had revealed through spraying it on a piece of the fig fruit that the host ate in their encounter when they all entered the Wailing Demon Territory. Furthermore, the author revealed this to us by saying Tgurneu was in a new host in front of the corpse of the three-winged Kyoma.
Therefore, in this volume, Mora and Hans were proven innocent.

Volume 3: Nashetania's arm loss arc (Also not really called this but I think its funny)

In this volume, we will prove Goldof and Chamo are real Braves. In this arc, Tgurneu and Dozzu have cooperated in order to kill off Chamo. In truth, it was a plan by Nashetania to use Tgurneu to save themselves from Cargikk, then use the Braves to then save themselves again from Tgurneu. Of course, Tgurneu betrayed them. They did so by getting Nashetania to activate the Blade Gem she implanted in Chamo's stomach though the use of Dozzu during a duel they had a few years back. Goldof's helmet, which is a Sacred Instrument, known as the Helmet of Truth, created by a Saint of Words activated as Nashetania was captured by Tgurneu and held captive in Dark Specialist No. 26's stomach, hidden in a lava area within a 1km radius of Chamo in order to keep the Blade Gem activated. Nashetania got her left arm amputated by Tgurneu in order to attach it to a monkey Kyoma to leak her blood to deceive the Braves into thinking they are chasing the real Nashetania as he tries to buy time until 3 hours passes in order to kill Chamo with the Blade Gem. Goldof hears Nashetania's cries for help and heads to rescue her whilst the other Braves try to kill him as they now think he is possibly the seventh. However, Tgurneu, in a new body, approaches Adlet, Rolonia and Fremy to ask for a truce and cooperate until Nashetania is killed. Of course, they questioned him and tried to kill him after they got information out of him. In this conversation, he claimed that Goldof is not his seventh Brave as his Brave is trying to save Chamo, not Nashetania.
Not important stuff occured and Goldof found out Nashetania was held captive by Tgurneu after Dozzu hinted to him of No. 26's ability, which is similar to Nashetania's hiding ability. He found her in the lava area and stole a Saint's needle from Adlet and used it to kill No. 26 to save Nashetania during the scuffle with Adlet, Rolonia and Fremy at the lava area.
Important things to take away:

Tgurneu made a deal with Dozzu to respectively not harm Nashetania and Fremy.
Goldof is a real Brave as Tgurneu was toying with him and even told him tons of truth such as the deal Cargikk, Dozzu and him made 200 years ago.
Chamo is a real brave as both Dozzu and Tgurneu tried to get rid of her and they were clearly trying.

Volume 4: Fremy's mother is an ant arc (I cannot stop laughing about this.)

Raina Milan, Adlet's best friend is the main character of this arc, though Rolonia is also proven innocent in this arc. Most of the details about this arc can be obtained by reading Raina and Nia Grasta's character biography on the wikia. Therefore, the important point is that Rolonia, Hans and Adlet learnt Fremy was the Black Barren Flower and Adlet kept this fact from the other Braves until the next volume and only revealed the existence of the Sacred Instrument and its functions. Rolonia proved her innocence by really trying to save the corpse soldiers and nearly died due to her naivety. In the final chapter of this volume, it was revealed that Fremy's mother was an ant and was ordered to raise Fremy with love, but it ended up really loving Fremy and continued raising Fremy's dog, waiting for Fremy's return. This contradicts what Fremy said in the first volume but this is cleared up in the fifth volume so I will explain it later. Not much to take away in this volume so I will just move on to Volume 5.

Volume 5: Adlet is fake arc.

In this volume, they explore the Temple of Fate that was built by Tgurneu, here they discover the functions of the Black Barren Flower through deciphering the Holy Words carved onto the floor around the mummified body of the Saint of the Single Flower. Here is where they discover that the Crest of the seventh was created using the powers of the Saint of the Single Flower and hence would mean killing the seventh may prove disastrous. Fremy also figured out she is the Black Barren Flower by remembering that she went into the temple and saw the Saint of the Single Flower before. This led to a split between the Braves, where Adlet wanted to keep Fremy alive while the rest wanted her dead, even Fremy wished to commit suicide. This caused Adlet to cooperate Dark Specialist No. 30, who also thought Adlet was the seventh as he was the only one trying to protect Fremy, who would drive them all to death by draining the powers of the Crests. He ordered No. 30 to try and kill Fremy with full force and to swallow a Light Gem that has a secondary functions and find a way to get it to the other Braves somehow, like vomiting it out after being hit or get himself cut up. This is due to him telling a lie that he saw a message to not kill Fremy in one of the rooms in the temple. Of course, Hans saw through the lie when Adlet told it and started the chase in the temple a few chapters ago. The point is that Adlet managed to trick Mora, Nashetania, Rolonia and Fremy into believing Hans was the seventh and it was unwise to kill Fremy to stop the Black Barren Flower as it has a more disastrous secondary function if Fremy was killed. Hans and Chamo split from the other as they believed that Adlet was fake. Goldof also believed so but stayed behind to protect Nashetania.
In the last chapter, a flashback to a chat between the three-winged Kyoma and Tgurneu revealed Adlet was the fake and Tgurneu had the power to incite love in someone. Tgurneu used this power to cause the Saint of the Single Flower to fall in love with him, persuading her to give the seventh Crest to him to be given to Adlet. He also used this power to make Adlet fall in love with Fremy in order to ensure he would protect her at all costs. This is due to his belief of, wait for it "LOVE IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING THERE IS!".

Volume 6: Tgurneu's death arc

In this arc, Adlet discovers he is fake through Tgurneu taking out a petal from his body. This petal contains a message from the Saint of the Single Flower which is played to Adlet through his Crest despite Tgurneu being 2km away from his location. Only a part of the message was played but it goes like this: "Warrior of a thousands years from now, I hereby bestow you the Seventh Crest to...". Tgurneu only allowed the message to be played up until here. Through this, Adlet himself realised he was the seventh. Fremy also became a hostage of Tgurneu through him activating a tumour implanted in her chest. This tumour is special in that if Tgurneu was killed, Fremy dies too, he activated it from a distance by stabbing himself with his own vine. He also relayed a message to Adlet, saying that unless he killed the other Braves, the one he loves will die. After this, he switched his plans to help Tgurneu kill everyone but Fremy. He also wanted her to return to the Kyoma since the army have been shouting for Fremy to go back to them.
Chamo and Hans appeared in Chapter 3 to stop the Braves. Here, Hans enacts his plan of pretending he was the seventh to lure out Adlet to negotiate a deal with him as he guessed that Adlet was doing everything to protect Fremy and not really on Tgurneu's side. Chamo was unaware of the plans and Hans also stole Chamo's surveillance Juuma in order to use it later. He wounds Chamo in order to pretend he was the seventh and throws knives at Adlet, these knives had messaged written on them to lure Adlet away from the others using a lie that he can kill Fremy through using Chamo. His plan after disabling Adlet and questioning him is: Adlet will lie to Tgurneu that Hans has been neutralised, then tell Tgurneu a fake plan as a cover for his real plan to kill Tgurneu, this plan was the plan that Adlet came up with in Chapter 1, which was to set the forest on fire and get a cheetah Kyouma to report back to Tgurneu after Dark specialist 24, which is what I would like to call "The Telephone Kyouma" has been eliminated, thus leading the Braves to him. But, instead of killing Tgurneu, now they will capture him, thus preventing Fremy's death due to Tgurneu's death. Then, out of the blue, Tgurneu appeared as Adlet was deciding whether to use Hans's plan, using the Book of truth to discover that Hans was lying about being able to kill Fremy.
In Chapter 4, we discover that Tgurneu desires, he craves to see people in pain because of love. His lust for this has pushed him to create the perfect pair to see these emotions on people's faces. The pair being: the girl that wishes to be loved, Fremy. The boy that has an unbreakable heart to love her, Adlet. Due to his greed to see these emotions, he did not want to come up with more effective strategies to kill the Braves, but just wanted to see Fremy and Adlet suffer. This chapter really is just Tgurneu sadistically torturing Adlet by telling him the reason that he loves Fremy is because of him loving inducing powers, not out of his own heart. Adlet despairs after hearing this and despite Hans's pleas towards him while Hans himself was getting chased around by 40 Kyouma, he was unresponsive Hans also lost his Juuma that he wanted to release to call for Chamo's help (it got stabbed by Adlet's needle and was then tied up by Tgurneu). Fremy, on the other hand enacted a plan to get rid of the tumour in her chest. She would pretend to betray the Braves and purposely get her heart gouged out by Rolonia so that Dark Specialist 14 would heal her, thus ridding her of the tumour. But of course, 14 knows about the tumour and he believes that it cannot be simply 'healed away' as it integrates with the cellular structure of the host. The twist is, Fremy's mother evolved in a way that allowed her to rid Fremy of the tumour after her heart was regenerated. This was done by always rubbing Fremy's chest when she raised her. Adlet, however, was an idiot, after he heard Fremy's fake betrayal through 24, he believed it and told Tgurneu the real plans. Bright side: he found out Fremy loves him. Dark side: he fell into despair after learning that even Atro Spiker was manipulated by him, to groom Adlet into the strongest man to protect Fremy. This causes Adlet to enter an unresponsive state and want to be killed as he had betrayed everyone.
Chapter 5, Dark Specialist 13 uses his Poison Gas attack (pokemon reference by me). He produced toxins that was washed into the underground drainage system of the ruins and used his 'little babies' to vaporise the water and unleash the gas onto above ground. Adlet was swallowed by a Hippopotamus Kyouma so that later, Tgurneu can release control over him and get him to kill Fremy, for him to achieve a higher form of ecstasy by looking at the despair that Fremy will display for him. In order to counter the poison gas, Mora collapses the ground below her, killing 13. After regaining his will to fight though the message:"I will definitely make you happy!" engraved on a gunpowder lattice given to him by Fremy, Adlet punched his way out of the Kyouma's stomach and heard Mora's echo message of Fremy has been saved. He looks at Tgurneu and intends to kill Tgurneu after knowing that Fremy will no longer be bound to him. He thought: "Dawn is coming, when the sun rises, One shall stand. One shall fall." That is obviously not what the book said, but it is what it intended to say.
Chapter 6, Adlet and Hans cooperate and try their best to not get mauled by the Kyouma. Chamo senses something is amiss and discovers one of the message knives Hans threw to Adlet in Chapter 3, and managed to reason that Hans did not really try to kill her when he wounded her. Mora and Goldof are trying to regroup on the battlefield after Mora exhausted herself to kill 13. Rolonia and Nashetania held off the Kyouma while Fremy headed to Adlet. In this battle in some ruins, Adlet, Chamo, Fremy, Hans, Dozzu face off against Tgurneu and Dark Specialist 1, the Kyouma that is made up of forty Kyoumas and 1 leader bird-type Kyouma that Tgurneu inhabited. This Kyouma is the strongest Dark Specialist as it practically allowed Tgurneu to be in 40 places at once and coordinate the perfect attacks. After a game of cat and mouse, Adlet figured out that Tgurneu was controlling all the Kyouma they were battling simultaneously. Thus, he tricked Tgurneu into looking at him by confessing his love to Fremy as he realised that vision is not shared by the Kyouma despite them being controlled by Tgurneu. Adlet charged at Tgurneu but got impaled by Tgurneu. However, he instead spit his blood into 1's mouth, this caused 1 to drop to the ground and roll in pain. Adlet had stabbed himself with the Saint's needle and made his blood poisonous to Kyouma. Fremy shot 1 and forced Tgurneu out of 1. Adlet grabbed Tgurneu while his underlings tried to save him. Adlet was saddened that the thing that groomed him to be the Strongest in the World was such a pitiful existence and said: "I am not your toy as you had claimed! You existed for me. In order for me to meet Fremy, you were let to live by me!" Tgurneu, who believed that love was meant to be trampled by him, desperately wanted to reject the fact that he was defeated by Adlet's love, wanted to mentally wound Adlet and Fremy before Adlet killed him. He used the Book of Truth on himself and said to Fremy: "Your mother truly loved you!". To Adlet he whispered: "Your sister was killed by Fremy.". After Adlet killed Tgurneu, six shots of light flew out of Fremy's crest, one landing each on Chamo, Hans, Mora, Rolonia, Nashetania, Goldof. Only Adlet did not receive this as his seventh crest is very special and did not have its power stolen by the Black Barren Flower, unlike Nashetania's crest, which is a real crest but from the 2nd generation. Adlet passed out after killing Tgurneu and woke up later with the Braves discussing what to do with him as they now have to face Cargikk, who was originally oppressed by Tgurneu and did not attack them. Adlet, released from Tgurneu's control, no longer loved Fremy and returned to the man that wanted revenge on the Kyouma and nothing else.
Epilogue: Cargikk wanders through the burnt forest that the Braves faced Tgurneu's army. He roared in despair and apologised to his fallen comrades, expressing his regret in not being able to save them. Meanwhile, the mummified body of the Saint of the Single Flower is released from her chains, presumably by her own powers as the chains just came undone without being touched. She teleported to the roof of the Temple of Fate from Volume 5 and get carried away by a bird Kyouma. She got carried to the Majin, a mud puddle. The mud puddle sprouted tentacles and devoured the Kyouma and slowly dragged the Saint of the Single Flower into itself. As it dragged the Saint, it grew beautiful lips and gratefully said Maon, do not worry, Adlet will bring the Seventh crest made for me and save me. Maon is the name of the Saint.

Finally all done, to be honest this is not a very good series. I originally bought and read it just to prove to krikara that Adlet was the fake and Hans was a real Brave. After proving that, I had lost all drive to finish Volume 6. However, to my surprise, Volume 6 was the best of all 6 volumes and I may consider buying Volume 7 when it is released. Overall rating 5/10, passable read.

@Michael McQuade Thank you for that edit and also thanks for showing me how to do the thing to block out spoilers.

Not a problem! If you want to read more about that you can check out: http://anime.stackexchange.com/editing-help

Which volume is your very last statement from?

There is a flaw in your answer though. No one knows how the crest responds to a fake brave as stated in novel and here http://rokkanoyuusha.wikia.com/wiki/Crest_of_Six_Flowers. So we must prove the answer. Can you provide more explanation behind your fake brave?

Due do Adlet having not died yet, there is actually no way of telling how it would respond as the wikia says. The only thing we know is that Tgurneu created the crest from the Saint's powers and Adlet is a fake. But it would be safe to assume that since it is still a fake crest, a petal would not disappear. However, your question is whether Hans is fake and I think I have fully answered that by proving he is a real Brave.

I read the novels and I don't see where it says Adlet is a fake brave. Wiki says it right at the top of Adlet's page, but then gives no more information regarding that matter. I guess I'm looking for more of an explanation about how Adlet is fake because nothing has indicated that yet.

Then maybe it would be more adequate to modify your question to whether Adlet is the fake Brave or ask a new question about Adlet since right now you are asking about Hans.

Okay I'm currently caught up with the latest volume. Both supporting claims from your answer are wrong. It seems like the Wiki contains misleading information. If we assume Adlet is a fake brave, then yes, we can say by default Hans is not a fake, however, there is nothing indicating Adlet is indeed a fake.

Like I said before, you are talking about Hans, not Adlet. Thus, there is no point in proving that Adlet is real since there are still other braves that may be fake. Therefore, I believe the answer to your question is not about proving Adlet's innocence, but instead Hans's.

The question asked if there was enough evidence to prove Hans is a fake brave. All your evidence is wrong.Therefore you have not proved Hans' innocence.

@krikara , are you happy with this explanation and answer now?

@AstralSea You've got the different volumes in block quotes: is this your own information or did you cite it from somewhere? If it is your own I think it would look better if we made each section a header using # and then separated the sections with lines ---.

@u人ʘ‿‿ ʘ人u Thanks for that, totally forgot about updating this after I finished the book a few months back. I guess I procrastinated until memory loss.

@u人ʘ‿‿ ʘ人u Thanks for your advice on formatting, I have bolded the titles, hope that makes it easier to read, Feel free to edit it if the format displeases you. Thanks for helping me find a way to spend my boring holiday by reminding me of this.

@krikara I have finished the summary for Volume 6, now I hope that you are truly satisfied knowing that Hans was a real Brave and Adlet is the fake.

In light of the recently aired anime episode it's easy to say that the 7th brave is:

 Nachetanya. Her objective is to have humans and fiends live together in a state of absolute peace.

More info can be found in either the first volume of the light novels, or on the wikia

Your facts in your answer are correct, however it does not answer the question. Also, the finale revealed something new, which makes the question relevant.


text:
Are the events in this manga panel happening simultaneously?
I know manga is usually read right to left, top to bottom, but this panel confuses me a bit.

The guy on the right looks all annoyed and "!" first, and then we have the blonde sliding in like 'are you guys on a date too?', but chronologically isn't this a contradiction? Shouldn't we have seen the main character ask his question first and then spiky guy's reaction?
Or is this panel showing things simultaneously?
If someone could show me in what direction/chronology I'm supposed to read/understand this, it'd really help.

Which chapter do you get this panel from?

tankoban no. 28, chapter 247

Could it be that Naruto does his 「ズイ！」first, which alarms Shikamaru before Naruto follows up with the question?

I think @HotelCalifornia has nailed it here, it lines up with the height idea too, since it's partially out of the frame.

This would be a personal answer based on my own experiences: in cases like these I interpret the height of the speech bubble as order. The left bubble is higher up than the right one, so that happens first. There's nothing stopping the right one to be placed higher up, as it wouldn't hide any important details or anything in the art. Therefore I would read the bubbles in this panel left to right.
The following image is from http://shadow.randomfandom.com/gh/styles.htm and shows reading order. Look at number 4 and 5, that's how I interpret the two speech bubbles in your example.

The 7/8 thing is a bit confusing without reading the site's explanation.  Otherwise, yes (+1), height is important.  A simple reason being: if it was strictly right-to-left, then the first person to speak will always have to be on the right side of the panel, which may disrupt the desired scene.  Especially so panel-to-panel (if people talk in different orders each panel they'll be constantly moving around each other!), but even within the same panel it'd feel a bit unnatural and forced.

I would add something about the drawing including shikimaru's reaction even though it what naruto said happened in the same panel, as that seems to be the point of the question.

@zibadawatimmy Yes, the picture is from a style guide for a group that translates manga. I only intended to show the 4th and 5th text fields to show that the left one is before the right one because of height (as an answer to the question). The 7/8 thing surely looks confusing without any explanation.

@MichaelMcQuade Manga and comics would be twice as long if reactions wouldn't happen in the same panels as the text or action invoking said reaction. But yeah, I maybe should've stated that the panel drawings is a scene that includes both dialogue and following reaction. Just like a still frame from a movie (where reactions doesn't wait until all the dialogue is done).


text:
How was Amalgam planning to achieve their ultimate goal?
In the FMP light novels, the ultimate plan of the Big Bad Leonard Testarossa and the organization he heads, Amalgam, is to

remake the entire world into one more to their liking, along similar lines to other anime villains such as Seele, Madara, etc. To that end they take over Merida Island and install a system built by Kaname.

How exactly were they planning on achieving this?

How exactly Amalgam's technology was supposed to rewrite history and change the world is unclear to me. From what I can make out, it somehow involved time displacement that was related to the Whispereds' abilities (i.e. they were telepathically receiving information from the future).


text:
When Kyoko overloaded her soul gem to kill Sayaka's witch form, did Kyoko then also become a witch?
When Kyoko overloaded her soul gem to kill Sayaka's witch form, does Kyoko then also become a witch? Or since she overloaded her soul gem, does she just die "normally?" If the latter is true, then why don't all magical girls just overload their gems before they become completely tainted, that way they don't become witches?

Transcluded from http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/25701/

When Kyoko overloaded her soul gem to kill Sayaka's witch form, does Kyoko then also become a witch? Or since she overloaded her soul gem, does she just die "normally?"

Kyouko didn't become a witch, since she died in battle, rather than suffering a blackening of her Soul Gem.

If the latter is true, then why don't all magical girls just overload their gems before they become completely tainted, that way they don't become witches?

Well, if they knew that they would become witches upon having their gems completely tainted, I'm sure many would opt to make sure they die "naturally" rather than risk becoming witches. This is exactly the "solution" Mami opts for in episode 10's timeline 3, where, shortly after seeing Sayaka turn into a witch, she kills Kyouko by destroying her Soul Gem, and is about to do the same to Homura.
But there's the whole problem. Nobody (among the cast) knows this until they see Sayaka turn into a witch in timeline 3, and Homura doesn't tell anybody about this in the main timeline, so everybody else (including Sayaka) lacks this knowledge in the main timeline, too. I'm sure they figure they'll just die when their Soul Gems turn completely black (which is, in fact, what happens once the Law of Cycles is in effect), which means they have no reason to opt to kill themselves beforehand.
And, keep in mind what we know about how magical girls generally operate (from the show, but moreso from The Different Story) - magical girls usually work solo. The large number of magical girls working together that we see in the show is highly unusual. Consider the outcome: this means that nobody ever finds out that magical girls turn into witches when their Soul Gems blacken - if a magical girl, alone by herself, turns into a witch, who notices? Who's going to survive to tell the next generation of magical girls about the dangers of blackening their Soul Gems?

should add that Homura did try and warn everyone in the 3rd Timeline (after seeing Madoka transform in the previous one if i recall) yet the girls dismissed it with Sayaka go so far as thinking Homura was making it up and it was a trick by Kyoko. after that Homura realized there's no point to trying to warn them. also in other manga which was proably released after this answer there are Magical Girls who do know the truth

If they killed themselves, there would be nobody left to kill the witches. If they kill all the witches and then kill themselves that way, there could be a world with no witches. They would want to keep some alive to guard and tell new magical girls about that.
Not that it's relevant anyway, cause they weren't close to killing all witches, and the witches give birth to more witches.


text:
Does "Arcus Cultus Aegeas" mean anything?
on Fate's Wikia page it states her

personal incantation for the set-up of Bardiche is "Arcus Cultus Aegeas" (アルカス・クルタス・エイギアス Arukasu Kurutasu Eigiasu)

Seeing as the phrase is written in Katakana, my understanding on Japanese is that Katakana is generally used for either names of non-native words
also alot of the names in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha are derived from cars such as the Ferrari Testarossa, Nissan Presea, Nissan Teana or the Subaru Car Manufacture, not to mention Bardiche is the name of a polearm that was used in medieval and renaissance Europe, especially in Eastern Europe and Russia.
So i am wondering if "Arcus Cultus Aegeas" has any other meaning to it, or if it's just some made up aria for Fate to use.

I don't really have much interest in nanoha, but the three words you're asking for seem to be Latin or Greek. However seeing as either is pretty much non existent in my language list, I'm unable to tell you what they mean. Also I don't wish to apply google translate for obvious reasons. The one word I do recognize from greek myhtology is Aegeas, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegeus

Latin. Arcus stands for bow (or arc), cultus is referring to cultist movement and Aegeas can refer to the greek hero or the greek main island itself. interestingly the first 2 words are latin and the second is greek.


text:
When did the transition from standard definition (4:3) to widescreen (16:9) for television anime happen?
Modern television anime is produced at an aspect ratio of 16:9 - widescreen/HD. But in the past, television anime was more often produced at an aspect ratio of 4:3 - standard definition.
When did the transition from 4:3 to 16:9 for television anime happen?
Now, it's not too difficult to find isolated examples to get a sense for when the switchover was in progress. For example, Ouran High School Host Club, from spring 2006, was produced at 4:3, while Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, from summer 2005, was produced at 16:9. Clearly, the transition was under way by 2005, but not complete by 2006. And I'm fairly confident that by 2011, all television anime were in 16:9 (Ninja Slayer notwithstanding).
But what I'm looking for is a more holistic view of how this transition happened. Who were the major players? Can we identify a clear starting date for the transition? And so forth.

Keep in mind that during the transition you'd get a 4:3 version for TV while the DVD release would be in 16:9. Or you could get either version on DVD.

According to user Zalis on the MyAnimeList forums, one of the first instances of widescreen anime was Betterman (1999). However, because it isn't one of the better known shows, it often gets overlooked and Vandread (2000) is often accredited with the first.
The cinema is often the first place for the widescreen transition of visual media, and early animated (and non-animated) films were sometimes shown in widescsreen at the cinema, and later reshaped for broadcast/dvd. The earliest example I could find for this was Magic Boy (1960~) This was  2.40:1 rather than 16:9 though. You can see the difference between the aspect ratios below:

I don't think there are any specific points in time that we can point to where there was a definite switch - just as the transition to digital happened, but the full transition seems to have been almost completed in 2006-2008, when 4:3 anime was rare and the larger series like One Piece, Naruto, etc. had all switched over.
References:

Anime & Manga - Wikipress.
AnimeNation - Ask John

I think the information from Zalis is incorrect. From everything I've seen of this show, it looks like the DVD release is 16:9 (actually 1.85:1), but the top and bottom were cropped off in a way that a lot of important information is lost. Not sure how this aired in 1999, but I don't think it was originally widescreen just based on how each scene was shot.

I got confirmation Betterman was 4:3 from the description on this old Best Buy product page for the DVD: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/betterman-vol-2-metamorphosis-dvd/4700489.p?skuId=4700489
I'd question Vandread being the same way. Some release was 16:9 cropped, and people just assumed it was widescreen.

Thanks @Sawtaytoes. I've updated the post.

Sorry to have to update this again. I asked some eBay sellers whom had similar looking DVD cases to that Best Buy listing, and those were all anamorphic widescreen (not 4:3). Looking through the Blu-ray release's Amazon Japan reviews, the horrible Google Translations seem to say something about it being cropped from the DVD release. I don't have enough information to know other than that Best Buy listing and the possibility of true 4:3 DVDs.


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What is a "character song"?
I have heard of these things called "character songs", but I don't know what they are. Is a "character song" just like a theme song for a character? Can you give me some examples of character songs?
(This question is inspired by this reddit thread, where a good half of the participants seem not to get what a character song is, despite OP providing an explanation.)

Some questions having to do with character songs: http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/8549/, http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/12837/

Is a "character song" just like a theme song for a character?

No!
A "character song" is emphatically not the same thing as a "theme song". While there is probably no clear definition of what constitutes a "theme song", the term "character song" has a straightforward definition. That is: a "character song" is a song whose vocals are credited to the character or characters singing the song.
Typically, this means that the song is sung "in-character" - by reading the lyrics of the song, we ought to be able to glean something about the character.

Can you give me some examples of character songs?

Sure thing, person asking this question!
"Inside Identity", the ending for the first season of Chu2Koi, is a character song. Why? Because it is credited to "Black Raison d'Etre", which is a fictional group consisting of four characters from the show (Rikka, Nibutani, Dekomori, and Kumin).
But not all character songs are used as openings/endings. Some are used in-show, as insert songs. For example, "Fuwa Fuwa Time", performed by the characters in K-ON!, is a character song that is used as an insert song in some of the episodes.
Still others will never appear in their corresponding anime at all, instead being released as bonus goodies for sale. See, for instance, "you", credited to Kasumigaoka Utaha from Saekano, which never appeared in the anime.
Character songs need not be original to the anime they are used in. For example, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" is a character song in K-ON!, since it is credited to the characters. Yet, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" is not original to K-ON! - rather, it is a popular folk song in Japan. Nonetheless, since it is credited to the characters in K-ON!, it is a character song in that context.

Okay, so what isn't a character song?

I'm glad you asked!
Consider "Synchrogazer", which is the opening for the first season of Symphogear. It is sung by Mizuki Nana, who voices the character Kazanari Tsubasa in the show. But it is not a character song, since the song is credited to Mizuki Nana (the real human), rather than to Kazanari Tsubasa (the fictional character).
Another common misconception is that vocal theme songs may, in general, be called character songs. For example, a common belief is that "Before my body is dry" (a.k.a. "DON'T LOSE YOUR WAY") from Kill La Kill is a character song for Matoi Ryuuko. Certainly, it plays whenever Ryuuko does something awesome - but is it really a character song? No! The vocals are credited not to Ryuuko, but rather to Kobayashi Mika (who doesn't voice Ryuuko, anyway).

Well, gosh, that's a lot of information. Is there anything else I should know?

Why, yes, there is.
One potential point of confusion is the notion of an "image song". In some cases, "image song" and "character song" are used interchangeably, as in this K-ON!! album.
However, in other cases, "image song" has a distinct meaning. Like a character song, an "image song" (in this sense) is a song that is meant to evoke a "sense" of a particular character. Unlike a character song, however, an image song is not sung by the character, and hence is not "in-character". Instead, the image song is merely evocative of the character. Image songs in this sense may either be sung by a different vocalist (as with this Steins;Gate album, on which "Yakusoku no Paradigm" is an image song for Makise Kurisu), or be altogether non-vocal (as with this Accel World album, on which "re-Incarnate" is an image song for Arita Haruyuki).
The Tokyo Ravens album "Reincarnation" is another example that's full of image songs in the latter sense, with vocals credited to Kurosaki Maon (who does not play any of the characters in the show).
I find that image songs (in the latter sense) are relatively rare as tie-ins to anime. They do appear rather frequently as tie-ins to visual novels, though. I'm not sure why.

I don't consider Tsubasa o Kudasai character song, even put into the context of the series. While it's indeed sung by the characters, it does not enable us "to glean something about the character."

do songs by soul king brook qualify as a character song? although i dont know to whom they are credited to.

Somehow agree to nhahtdh... I guess it's more like a cover song than character song. Otherwise, Cha-La Head-Cha-La is (possible) Konata's character song. Or alternative question: when a character performs a cover of a song, is it considered as character song?

Slayers (especially Try) has a bunch of image songs that are mostly sung by the same vocalist who plays the character.

@nhahtdh I'm not sure I agree. While the lyrical content of the song may not tell us anything, the way they perform it can tell us something, as can the fact that they chose to perform it in the first place. (Granted, "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" in K-ON is not the best example of this, but I think the principle is still correct.)


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Who are the basis for the characters in Shikkoku no Sharnoth
Looking at VNDB's character page for Shikkoku no Sharnoth ~What a Beautiful Tomorrow~ some of the characters have under their Role section, either "Based on a Real Person" or "Based on a Fictional Person"
Character's like Sherlock and Churchill i get who their basis is just from their name's. Mary's basis is revealed at the end when she signs the book she finished writing with the pen name Agatha Christie (though it's mentioned a number of times at the start that she's a writer if that wasn't a bug enough clue)
but there are character's like Charlotte Brontë who are based off real characters who i don't recognize while there are characters like Sebastian Moran who are based off fictional character who i am interested in knowing if they fictional basis is any different with how they are presented in Shikkoku no Sharnoth
So i am asking for a List of all the characters of Shikkoku no Sharnoth ~What a Beautiful Tomorrow~ who have a Based on a ______ Person tag and who their character basis is. completion wise also include obvious characters like Sherlock and Churchill

I haven't played this game, but I recognize a few of the references.

Mary Clarissia Christie is a reference to mystery novelist Agatha Christie.
Angelica Derleth may be a reference to horror writer August Derleth, who wrote stories set in HP Lovecraft's fictional universe.
Bram Stoker is the author of Dracula.
Charlotte Brontë is named for the author of Jane Eyre.
Colonel Sebastian Moran was a character in the Sherlock Holmes universe. He was the henchman of Holmes's nemesis, Professor Moriarty, and an expert marksman; in "The Adventure of the Empty House", he tries to shoot Holmes.
Elly Beinhorn was a German aviator. She would have been a child in 1905, when the game takes place; her period of activity was in the 1930s.
Henry Irving was an English stage actor which Wikipedia claims was the inspiration for the character of Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel.
Josef Čapek was a Czech painter and brother of Karl Čapek, the playwright who introduced the word "robot". According to Wikipedia, Josef invented the word "robot".
Winston Churchill was British Prime Minister during World War II.
Baron Munchausen is, according to Wikipedia, "a fictional German nobleman in literature and film, loosely based on a real baron, Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen".
George Lestrade is based on Inspector Lestrade, a police officer from the Sherlock Holmes stories who acts as one of Holmes's contacts with the police force.
Heinz Heger was the penname of the author of the book The Men With the Pink Triangle, which is about the experience of homosexuals in concentration camps under the Nazis.
Howard Philips is probably a reference to horror author HP Lovecraft, whose full name was Howard Philips Lovecraft. He is the author of "Call of Chthulu" and "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath". Lovecraft's Wikipedia article also makes this claim, without citation.
Keynes may be a reference to economist John Maynard Keynes.
Marie Hudson may be a reference to Mrs. Hudson, the landlady of 221B Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes and James Watson resided.
Sherlock Holmes is the famous fictional detective.
Arthur Conan Doyle is the author who created Sherlock Holmes.


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What about Yukihira Soma's mother?
I don't recall his mother being mentioned so far in the anime. Is there any info on her status/location?

Isn't she dead?

Well, she've just appeared in chapter 311. No doubt, her appreance is inherited by her son, Soma. However, there is no part of the chapter which tell if she is alive or not.

In the end of chapter 1 of the manga is the only time I know she is mentioned (or more like shown in a picture).

In the fifth season of the anime, Soma's mother's name is revealed as Yukihira Tamako, and her status is deceased. She's the reason why Joichiro stopped traveling so much and came home - he had to take care of Soma and the family restaurant.
The wiki also provides some information regarding her debut in the series:

Manga:

Manga debut: chapter 311

Anime:

First mention: Episode 74
Cameo: Episode 76
Full appearance: Episode 83


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A plothole in Death Note The Last Name?
I just noticed something. So in death note the last name, L got the death note, after he watched Misa killing criminals with the death note. He then replaced her death note with a fake one. But here's the problem. L said, that they made fake news that the criminals Misa ''killed'' died, but Misa should've seen that they were still alive, because a rule in the death note states, that a person who's dead, doesn't have a name or a lifespan above their head in a picture.
Rule XXXIX:
Humans that have traded for the eye power of a god of death cannot see the name or life span of humans who have already passed away by looking at their photos.

Fake doesn't necessarily mean not convincing.  Remember, by this time L knew that there were more than one and that the second had an ability that the first did not have.  L knew this and arranged the fake information but also used dead bodies.  He even went to the trouble to find people with the same name.  L actually uses that same tactic twice in the series.

did i missed something? because i never saw him using that tactic twice.

same name as the people who died? really? been awhile since I've seen the movies

Spoiler alert:

 Something similar happens in the Death Note 2015 series.

The explanation there might help answer your question. Elaboration:

 Mikami also fell for fake news. Misa didn't check the faces likely. She just read the news that this or that person died.

Been a while since I've seen the movies. I'm guessing based on the above.

Currently as it stand this Answer does not answer the question. to avoid down-votes i highly suggest you expand on what you are referring to. you have demonstrated that you know to use spoilers so you can use those to hide spoiler information, however keep in mind that the question is addressing Death Note 2: The Last Name


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Does the winner of the election become king immediately?
Does the winner of the election become king immediately? Or do they merely become heir apparent, to succeed Souichirou when he retires/dies?
I ask, because in episode 12,

 we learn that Shuu has won the election. Was the ceremony at the end of episode 12 a proper coronation for him? Or was it just a "congratulations, you're the heir, now wait a few decades" type of thing? From the way Souichirou spoke to him, I couldn't quite tell which it was.


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How could Otosaka Yuu remember his imprisonment if it happened in another timeline?
During the live show by ZHIEND, Otosaka Yuu remembers his time as a guinea pig in the research facility, where he helps his brother jump back in time.
The thing is, we later learn that his brother jumped back countless times (separating the guinea pig timeline from the current timeline even further).
How could Yuu have those memories?

Unfortunately, the answer to that is that there isn't an answer.  In episode 11, Yuu himself asks this question to Shunsuke and Dr. Tsutsumiuchi.
This happens at 4:54 as seen below:

Some argument over this same topic took place on the MyAnimeList forums here.
In summary, that thread has a few different ideas on how it could have happened but no concrete evidence since the show didn't provide any. If you recall, throughout the series there were several hints of two of them remembering they had a brother. His memories finally returned when he was listening to the live performance of the song incidentally named "Trigger". This was supposedly the first time he had heard it, but he could remember listening to it in the other timeline.
Another theory from that thread is that Sala had an ability to restore people's mind with her voice, as she did with Nao's brother, and upon hearing her live performance his memories returned; however, this is unlikely because he previously heard her sing in the hospital room and was unaffected.
As the final episode has now been aired, it is clear that this will be left open as a plothole with viewers left to interpret it as they please.

Sara Shane is an adult, she should not have an ability.

The song Sara Shane wrote for Yuu, "Trigger" is the same song from the timeline where nearly everyone were being imprisoned and perished.  This was not the only time that things were noticed to be off by Yuu.  It is mentioned several times that there was a void that he either could not figure out.  His experiences coupled with the time that passes and then the introduction of that song that aligned with the timeline of that memory, "Trigger"ed him to regain all of his memories.

The "void" that Yuu couldn't figure out probably corresponds to his memories of Shun from the same timeline that were erased by Maedomari. It's pretty easy to accept that Maedomari's memory-erasure abilities weren't perfect - the sticking point is the memories he should never have had in the first place (of the facility/etc), since they were from a different timeline.

@senshin We'll call it... Reading Steiner..

As mentioned in Michael McQuade's answer, I think that she does have that power. It's just that she can give people their memories only if she sings for that specific person. What it means that she knew that Yuu was in the crowd and sang for him specifically and he was affected.

Hi, maybe she does have that power, but is there any evidence that "she can give people their memories only if she sings for that specific person"?


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Why is Bleach called what it is?
The anime Bleach has to do with soul reapers and stuff, but not actually Bleach. So, I'm not getting why it's called Bleach. Mind explaining, anyone?


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Why do Maeda Jun productions so frequently feature baseball?
Things by Maeda Jun feature baseball. A lot.
Episode 1 of Clannad: After Story is a baseball episode, and there's a fair bit of baseball elsewhere in both seasons of Clannad. Episode 4 of Charlotte is a baseball episode. Episode 4 of Angel Beats! is a baseball episode, and the whole Hinata/Yui thing later in the show is also rife with baseball. Little Busters! is brimming with baseball. I'm told that Rewrite (the VN) also has baseball in it. Dunno about Air or Kanon, but I'd be surprised if they were devoid of baseball.
I know baseball is big in Japan, and I know that Maeda's work is formulaic to a degree (ever seen the Maeda Jun bingo board?), but this goes beyond that. Why does Maeda Jun put baseball in so many of his works? (I've heard that Key has some sort of sponsorship deal with a baseball team. Is this true? If so, that'd explain it.)

The anime of Air and Kanon by KyoAni actually are baseball-free. The VNs may have contained baseball somewhere, but I suspect the baseball obsession started with Clannad.

The two reasons I can come up with is that Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan, and therefore is a common troupe in anime and Maeda Jun just uses it a lot, in order to provide a filler and some comedy in a show.
The second reason is advertisement for Yokohama DeNA BayStars, where they collaborate on the baseball episodes, where some characters are based on or named after the DeNA team members. But, I can only be sure for that for Charlotte, not the other anime you have mentioned.

This entire anime is done in collaboration with DeNA Baystars, which is a baseball team in Yokohama, Japan. The characters are even named after the team members.

The advertising for a real team probably came up because Maeda was already known to include baseball in all his work. I would say it's a symptom, not a cause.

Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan, especially HS Baseball or the "Koshien tourney" so it isn't that much of a surprise in some animes if Baseball is shown... Dunno bout this though but in Clannad, I think Jun Maeda still isn't that much into Baseball yet, the main character there plays or was a previous basketball player and the other blonde dude was a soccer player, I think. In season one, probably, there was a basketball tournament that took place in that first show which indicates that Jun Maeda was probably a basketball fan or watcher before but then shifted his focus to Baseball... After watching the Baseball episode in Clannad after story, I think that's the time Maeda's interest and passion for the game of Baseball blossomed... and that goes on and on now after seeing Angel Beats, Little Busters and now Charlotte having such well put Baseball scenes.


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Is the fictional script in Comet Lucifer decipherable?
Comet Lucifer features a fictional script that is used whenever text is shown. For example:

Is the script decipherable? If so, how?

It is indeed decipherable - the script appears to be a straightforward substitution cipher for English written in the Latin alphabet. But I would hesitate to even call it a "cipher". The script in Comet Lucifer is less like the script in Rokka no Yuusha, where decipherment is a genuine challenge, and more like what Akagami no Shirayukihime uses. That is, it's basically English written in a very exotic font. (Well, Akagami sometimes uses romanized Japanese rather than English, but the idea is the same.)
Consider this image from episode 1:

The headline on the left reads "Garden Indigo". If you squint right, you can see how the script really is just a hyper-stylized variant of uppercase Latin glyphs. And, as corroboration, recall that one of the military folks said "Garden Indigo" later in the episode.
Likewise, consider this image from episode 1:

What do these look like? "Wanted" posters, of course. And if you look hard enough, you'll see that the top line of the poster on the right looks a lot like a stylized version of the word "WANTED". If you look at the second line beneath the girl's picture on the same poster, you can match up the glyphs from "WANTED" to see that this says "-EWA-D". Fill in the blanks - which are both the same - and we conclude that this says "REWARD".
We don't have enough text as of episode 1 to construct a full translation table, but the general principle here is straightforward.


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Why are Kakyoin and Polnareff so pleased about knowing the same hand signals?
In episode 24 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Polnareff takes advantage of a dangerous situation to show off his knowledge of hand signals. A video of this can be found here.
Kakyoin recognises the hand signal as meaning "Your underwear is showing", which greatly pleases Polnareff. The two of them share some kind of elaborate handshake to mark the occasion, the eyes of both characters being darkened (which, as far as I understand, usually indicates seriousness).
What on Earth is going on here? Why do Kakyoin and Polnareff know this, why is Polnareff so pleased and why do they share an elaborate hand shake afterwards?

I haven't seen the video, but I think it's more of them being pleased about "Your panties are showing", and their handshake signifies their camaraderie (in perverseness).

@nhahtdh In the video, the only people nearby are JoJo, Jotaro, Avdol, and of course Kakyoin and Polnareff - none of whoms underwear is showing. He does it to show off his knowledge of the hand signal, not as a practical application of it.

i always thought Polnareff was charading the phrase "I see London, I see France, I see someone's underpants"
Because the triangle-shaped hand signal can mean the Eiffel Tower, and he makes binocular hands as well just my opinion thought it was funny

Polnareff knows this by virtue of him being Polnareff.
Combining the individual gestures and their 'translations' makes the sentence that it does.
Pan (Japanese sound for clapping) + 2 (two) + ok (maru) + seeing something (mieru) = pan-tsu (underwear) + maru (entire) + mieru (can see)
Only Kakyoin is able to decipher what he's trying to say, since NO ONE ELSE chimes in, and they both share a bonding moment. That bonding moment is the amazing handshake, and their eyes darken to reflect the solemnity of the bro-ment.

So the handshake is just an awesome, improvised handshake, and nothing more?

Yep. Is it cool? Hell yeah it is. @DrRDizzle

It's also a reference to another manga series called Dr. Slump, where another character does the same hand signal. So it could be a bro moment where Polnareff is basically going "Whoa, you got that reference? Yeeeesss, we read the same comic!"
It might also be worth noting that France loves manga, so it would make sense that Polnareff had read Dr. Slump.

i mean, it could work, but it's not really that.
pretty cool tho


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How deep do the parallels with "The Lady who Loved Insects" run?
Episode 1 of Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru is titled 「骨愛ずる姫君」, translated by Crunchyroll as "The Princess who Loves Bones". To the Japanese reader, this is clearly derivative of 「虫愛ずる姫君」 "The Lady who Loved Insects", an apparently famous narrative from the Tsutsumi Chūnagon Monogatari, a Heian-era collection.
Do the parallels between Sakurako-san (either episode 1 or beyond) and "The Lady who Loved Insects" run any deeper than just the title?
(I, like you, have read the Wikipedia article; my hope is that answerers will have read "The Lady who Loved Insects" or at least have more than a passing familiarity with it.)


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Why did the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime change the dueling boxes/tables used in Duelist Kingdom to large platforms?
The Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist manga series depicted the duels during the Duelist Kingdom arc with the players sitting at dueling tables that were surrounded by a box which projected holographic images of the battles, whereas the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series depict Duelist Kingdom duels on the large field-sized platforms where the players stood a very large distance apart.
Is there any reason why the anime producers decided to make such a noticeable (but non-impactful) change to the way the duels took place?

Maybe a conversation like: "Sitting down looks boring, how can we make it look cooler?" "Let's make it way bigger, and have them standing on pedestals!" I think we can only speculate.

Later on card games were played on motorcycles. I guess for a similar reason

Sitting down in an enclosed box that displays holograms of a small size doesn't spruce up the intense battle scenes that the manga wants to convey to the audience. Also sketching huge monsters as holograms in manga comics is difficult keeping in mind that the dueling field needs to showcase both the monsters and the duelists. It would take up a large space on the page.
Also when the anime was being created, the emphasis was made to make duels more interactive than just showing monsters screaming. Like monsters could now be launched from canons, Gaia the Fierce Knight could now gallop and much more.

The biggest most likely reason is that the Yu-Gi-Oh series was actually heavily based on the manga back in 1998-1999. The show lasted 27 episodes. However in 2000, Nihon Ad Systems and Studio Gallop did a second adaptation taking the anime down a different path, tying it in with the trading card game. Since they were tying it in with the card game and that the target market was children they probably thought that it was a fun and inventive way to experience the duels in the show similar to how you would experience a real duel in real life.


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Why were people raised as food in Gundam: G Reconguista?
I'm catching up on Gundam: G Reconguista and they keep talking about Kuntala.  The brief discriptions so far were that they are lower class citizens and that they used to be raised as food.
Cannibalism? For serious?  Humans would make the worst stock.  You'd have to wait 16 years to get a decent amount of anything to eat.  Cows mature in less than 5 (2ish maybe?), and sheep and goats are fast to raise.  And they eat grass, which is usually everywhere.
I found a blurb on a Gundam wiki, and a reddit thread asking similar questions, but not much for answers.

Why were people being raised as food?
If such a people were freed from bondage, how and why are they still second class citizens and discriminated against?

i haven't seen the series but if it's similar to Soylent Green then the people being raised just need not know and then they can an "accident" when it's time to harvest when they are older

I'm under the impression that the people were explicitly raised to be eaten, and therefore didn't know they were going to be eaten because they were ignorant.  However, the general populace knew of what was going on.

"And they eat grass, which is usually everywhere." well, according to Wikia on Regild Century, "the surviving people of Earth clustered around an area in the Amazon (the last green place on the planet at the time)", so it will be difficult to raise enough livestocks to feed existing people? Also, Kuntala themselves are used as "substitute food" in case of food crisis.


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Are "Guren no Tsuki" and "Honoo no Kokuin" set in the same continuity?
The first animated Garo series, Honoo no Kokuin is set in some sort of medieval Iberian-looking place. The second animated series, Guren no Tsuki, is set in c. 10th-century mid-late Heian Japan. (We can pinpoint this fairly well, since one of the nobles in the palace in episode 1 is identified as real-life person Fujiwara no Michinaga, who lived c. 966-1028 CE).
Now, there's likely going to be no overlap of characters (aside from non-humans like Zaruba and Garm), since these two shows appear to be far apart in time (I'd peg Honoo no Kokuin as being closer to the 14th century or so). But, in the first place, are these two series even set in the same continuity?
(If so, that would mean that Raikou would have to be some distant relative of León, which would be quite an interesting state of affairs.)

Guren no Tsuki (Garo Animation 2) so Eastern and locate in Japan
Honoo no Kokuin (Garo Animation 1) so Western & locate in somewhere not Japan or Eastern Country
Number doesn't tell about sequel, it telling about second production


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What is the seventh clan?
In the first season of K, we're introduced to the red, blue, and colorless clans early on, and later on are told about the silver and gold clans. In the movie, we come to know of the green clan.
But there are seven clans, and that only amounts to six. What is the color (or non-color?) of the seventh clan?

From the first to last clans, they are White Rice Party, Tokijikuin, Homra, Scepter 4, Jungle, Cathedral, and Colorless. Cathedral was COMPLETELY destroyed in the kagutsu crater incident, therefore the only one in the series that has any resemblance to the powers of the Gray clan, is the Gray King Seigo Ootori. (Tenkei Iwafune) And any sort of information given on Cathedral is little to null on even the Wikipedia, other than the interesting insignia of their clan.

actually it is the Grey clan.
silver, gold, green, red, blue, colorless, and grey. as Tenkei Iwafune is the 6th King, The Grey king.

i think it is the brown clan.
because in the chamber slates at Mihashira tower you see the colors of the 6 known clans and the brown color
http://k-project.wikia.com/wiki/Mihashira_Tower?file=Dresden_Slate_Room.png

it seems like it is grey

The first season is an introduction to the Silver, Gold, Red, Blue and Colorless clans and only mentions the Green clan. The movie K: Missing Kings introduced the Green clan, and the second season K: Return of Kings finally introduces the Grey Clan, a clan devastated by the Kagutsu Crater Incident. The only surviving member was the Grey King Seigo Ootori, which rescued the Green King and went into hiding, until the Green Kings plan to steal the Slate finally came.


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Why did Shun want Maria to die?
Before the second Time Skip after Maria and Mamoru fled Saki had a dream about a faceless boy who said Maria had to die.
According to the Wikia this faceless boy was Shun

After his death, he appears in her dreams as a faceless person, as his name has been forgotten by her and the rest of Group 1

Source: Saki Watanabe/Relationships - Main Characters - Shun
Considering that even if Missiah's apparent age on the wikia is out by 2-3 years there was no way Maria was already carring Mamoru's baby when Saki had that dream.
So why did Shun want Maria to die? She was one of his friends and also Saki's beloved. as a Karmic Demon could he also see the future and Missiah's birth?


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Is hand draw animation fading?

3D animation could be dominating the anime industry as Knights of Sidonia(pictured above)is one of animes first 3d television series.So does this mean hand drawn animation is gradually fading?

Worth a read: http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/8273/are-3dcg-based-animes-cheaper-to-produce

No, I don't believe so. 3D Animation is not preferred over the drawn-out 2d. 3D is something totally different than anime & cartoon's drawn-out look. When they do work hand in hand, like in Ghilbi films, that's good.
Japan's method of animating is quite outdated. They are one of the only still using cels. The act of drawing out each frame on a cel (Cels, are material that can be drawn upon & stacked for an animation effect). Then digitized on to computers to be colored & shaded. Sometimes will still see coloring by hand. Mostly for celebration reasons or special occasions e.g: Little Witch Academia.
Although that could all just be done on computers, they choose not to do it. I'm assuming transition period would affect everyone "now". Though it would be great for the future.

If they continue to use the hand drawn method then why don't they do it by they digital means instead of using pencil and paper?

@user18661 From the specials where they showed Detective Conan being made they did use digital pens and the such, if that's what you mean.

@MichaelMcQuade but its not widely used,if they can digitally color and shade the character why don't they do it digitally by tablet then using pencil and paper to animate?

They don't use paper. They use cels. Cels is this type of material. Like I spoke about, above. Cels, are commonly used because they stack upon each other and build frames. Which directions & chief animators can look over quickly. Instead of going towards computers and checking tabs, etc. It is best if they just did all of that on digital format. However, transitions would cost a lot of money & power. As anime is such a volatile media. It`s hard to handle, such a change.