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Why did Madara suddenly turn into Kaguya?
In chapter 678, why did Madara suddenly turn into Kaguya? Was this all planned from beginning?

Spoilers ahead!

 When Black Zetsu impaled Madara, he transfered Kaguya's will into Madara. By this process, Kaguya was revived by using Madara's body as the host vessel. And yes, it was planned from beginning by Zetsu.

Black Zetsu's history:

 He was created by Kaguya and served only her. He acted as if he was Madara's creation, so he could facilitate the revival of his "mother", aka Kaguya. To do this, he planned the activation of Infinite Tsukuyomi by influencing Madara and the Akatsuki.

Further reading: Kaguya Ōtsutsuki

Black Zetsu is a shapeless manifestation of Kaguya's will, created before she was sealed by Hagoromo and Hamura. It planned to manipulate Indra Otsutsuki and his descendants to one day wield the Rinnegan and activate the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
Once Madara activated the Infinite Tsukuyomi and trapped everyones chakra inside the God Tree, Black Zetsu then stabbed Madara while he was sapped of his chakra, and uses his Ten Tail Jinchuriki body and combined his will to create a pseudo Kaguya.

Madara was used as a middle for Kaguya’s revival as black Zetsu was an creation of Kaguya  then sought revenge after Hagoromo And Hamura Sealed Kaguya.
Black Zetsu Manipulated Indra into fighting his own brother and then there was a clan created called the Uchiha’s and Madara was an Uchiha therefore he was an perfect suiting for Zetsu’s plan and was tricked into believing that black Zetsu was helping him but found out when he had absorbed the victim Shinobi’s chakra who were affected by the Infinite Tsukuyomi
And then was tricked by Zetsu by getting pierced by black zetsu and then being used as a middle for Kaguya’s Revival.


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Where can I get the sheet music for the song Crescent Moon Dance?
I hope this is not too off-topic, but I recently watched Hibike! Euphonium (Sound! Euphonium), and I was wondering if anybody knows where I can find sheet music for the piece that they play in the competition. Specifically, I'm looking for Crescent Moon Dance by Namie Horikawa (I don't know if this is an alias or not). I play the trumpet, and I really wanted to try out Kousaka's solo. If anybody could help me out, that would be appreciated!

When I was in Japan I saw them on a cover of a japanese brass magazine called Brass. There's a possibility it could be in that issue

Included with the BD/DVD release? https://twitter.com/VandaHirosaki/status/599149966670438401/photo/1

According to the official website, the official sheet music for Crescent Moon Dance 「三日月の舞」 was given as extra on purchase of the Volume 1 of BD/DVD at certain stores in Japan1. Unfortunately, Volume 1 already went on sale on Jun 17, 2015.
Likewise, the sheet music for the opening 「DREAM SOLISTER」 and the ending 「Tutti」 will be given as extra on purchase of BD/DVD Volume 2 and 3 respectively.
1 The stores as listed on official website: 玉光堂、バンダレコード・ライオン堂、ＪＥＵＧＩＡ、十字屋CROSS、新星堂、山野楽器、ヤマハミュージックリテイリング
The advertisement, as posted by one of the stores on Twitter, inviting people to reserve a copy of the BD/DVD for the sheet music:

Thanks. It's too bad they only released it with the DVD, but hopefully I can find a copy.

@user2950265: It's not really included with the BD/DVD - like how limited version is more expensive and comes with more stuffs. It's a first come first serve, store-specific extra. Some stores I listed above also give out the music sheet if you buy the BD/DVD from their online shop (though I don't know if any is still available).

There are multiple fan transcriptions/arrangements of the piece available on MuseScore:

Crescent Moon Dance from Hibike! Euphonium v1.1 | Last updated 03/07/2016,  Maelic

Crescent Moon Dance, Matthew LeFebvre (Updated version of the above)

Crescent Moon Dance [Simple band], Leonardo Pereira (edited version of above)
Crescent Moon Dance, Musicmaker3000 (edited version of above)

Crescent Moon Dance (with extended oboe solo!), French Horn Nerd
crescent moon dance, fullgames
Crescent Moon Dance, Tenors3
Crescent Moon Dance, GaussFrigate (Digitization/transcription of original score)
Crescent Moon Dance, Little Mozart

Crescent Moon Dance, Aidan Chang (arranged for brass band)
Crescent Moon Dance - Tuba Euphonium Quartet, MeTheDwarfpro

Crescent Moon Dance Trumpet Solo, chuazd

According to the Hibike Euphonium wiki:

As of 2016, the sheet music has been released for purchase by Japanese wind ensembles, and is gaining recognition as a legitimate piece of wind repertoire in the country.

So, if you have contacts in the Japanese orchestral/wind band scores world, you should be able to purchase a copy.

Crescent Moon Dance 「三日月の舞」 trumpet solo, as transcribed by Skye van Duuren on YouTube:

The same answer has already been posted...

@Alagaros: No, my answer doesn't cover fan transcription.

I know I'm super duper late to this thread and you probably have found this info already, but since this thread is one of the top google results for "crescent moon dance" I thought I would reply here.
The sheet music is available for purchase at Print Gakufu. Use Chrome to translate the page (it is all in Japanese). They block any non-Japanese credit cards through their integrated credit card payment service, however the payment service Rakuten is accepted. Rakuten will allow you to use any credit card to make the payment.
IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE OF JAPAN YOU MUST USE RAKUTEN TO PAY FOR SHEET MUSIC FROM PRINT GAKUFU!!!

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Why are "traps" and "genderbending" so common in anime and manga compared to Western media?
It seems to me that anime and manga has tropes like "traps" and even characters that change gender quite frequently, especially in comparison to Western series, which seem to have characters more consistently within "the binary." In particular, I'm thinking of shows like Ranma 1/2, Maria Holic, Ouran High School Host Club.
I am under the impression that Japanese culture is quite conservative, so this doesn't make much sense to me. I would expect a conservative culture to create series that aren't so liberal with gender related themes.
Is there a reason for this? Or am I somehow biased? Are there strong counterexamples to my observation?

Japanese culture is quite conservative - What is "conservative" to one society is not necessarily conservative to another society. There isn't really any reason to expect Japanese conservatism and, say, Euro-American conservatism to line up on all issues.

@senshin good point, well said.

You may find the paper The Politics of Androgyny in Japan: Sexuality and Subversion in the Theater and Beyond to be relevant. It discusses some aspects of gender blurring in Japanese society. I haven't read it all as it's not my cup of tea, and it's not precisely what you're asking about here, but I do think it's related. You can find it online if you do a search for the title.

As to your last point about counterexamples, some Western media has definitely touched on these themes. Shakespeare, for starters: Twelfth Night is about a woman who disguises herself as a boy, somewhat like Ouran's Haruhi or Mariya Holic's Shizu. But I do think some of  the Japanese examples have a particular character to them, not shared by most of the Western examples I can think of, which makes this a worthwhile question to ask. (E.g. I can't think of any Western example that takes things in quite the same direction that Haganai does with Yukimura...)

Related: http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/3520/6166.

I think Euphoric's answer is just one piece of the puzzle. It's a more direct answer to the question in the title, but, to my mind, not quite complete. I'm not equipped to piece together the whole thing, but I'll try to contribute what I can.
Japanese culture seems to have been fascinated with gender themes all the way back to its very beginning. Shinto mythology apparently features a transgender deity called Ishi Kore Dome no Kami, and some of the creation myths incorporated homosexual themes. Source.
Japanese kabuki theater originally had both male and female actors, but starting in the 1630s, the Tokugawa shogunate banned women from appearing on stage due to the increasingly erotic nature of the plays, so male actors began playing all female roles. (Kabuki, "Transition to yarō-kabuki"). An all-female theater group called the Takarazuka Revue was established in 1913; women play men's roles in their productions, somewhat like the common anime trope of a class putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet or Sleeping Beauty with a boyish-looking girl playing the male lead and a girlish-looking girl playing the female lead. In more modern times, visual kei street fashion often emphasizes an androgynous look for men and women. The Wikipedia page on Bishounen discusses more about both historic and modern aspects of how Japanese culture views androgyny and gender blurring.
So Japanese culture already had a long-established tradition around gender issues. I believe the prevalence of traps and genderbending in anime is a modern expression of this tradition. As Euphoric says, because anime and manga are drawn, they are beyond the bounds of the physical. They don't need to find an actor who's a little androgynous and dress up that actor to accentuate those features. Anime and manga can actually just draw a girl and say it's a boy, or draw a boy and call it a girl.
As to the last point about potential cultural bias, it does seem that Japanese culture deals with these themes in a unique way, though similar themes are not unheard of in the West. The situation with kabuki during the Tokugawa period, where all parts were played by male actors, is similar to the situation in England during Shakespeare's time: female actors, though not officially banned, were highly uncommon. Young boys often played female roles. (Wikipedia, Boy player). This makes Twelfth Night and other plays with cross-dressing a sort of triple-layered metafictional joke: at the time Twelfth Night was first produced, Elizabethan audiences would have seen a boy playing a woman who was in disguise as a boy.
There are also modern Western works where men disguise themselves as women or vice versa, e.g. Mrs. Doubtfire, Ladybugs. (Whatever you think of their quality, they do exist.) In Neil Gaiman's Marvel 1602, Jean Grey disguises herself as a boy, as does Arya Stark in George R.R. Martin's A Clash of Kings.
However, I hesitate to call any of these "counterexamples" to the premise of this question. Aside from Shakespeare, the Western works I mentioned don't really use this device to explore gender issues. They might, just a little, in a small way, but mostly, it's just for comedy or for practical reasons, like blending in with an all-male mercenary troupe. Ranma 1/2 is also mostly comedic, but other such anime and manga actually explore gender issues at some depth. Traps like Haganai's Yukimura, Mariya Holic's Mariya, and Otoboku's Mizuho are designed to be attractive to heterosexual male viewers, while also provoking a feeling of confusion or discomfort. That discomfort can be capitalized on for comedy, as it is in Haganai and Mariya Holic, but this method is very different from the way Mrs. Doubtfire creates comedy.
There are highbrow works of literature and film which explore gender issues in the same way that these anime and manga do. But the anime and manga examples are not highbrow; they are relatively popular, and created for normal readers and viewers, not for literary critics. Haganai and Otoboku are even aimed at a young, male audience, not an audience known for its openness to discussing gender issues. It does seem that Japan has a unique tradition around gender issues in fiction, and the modern use of traps and gender-bending in anime and manga is a modern continuation of that tradition.

Great answer! This makes me want to work on this concept for a research paper in the future...

@moegamisama Thanks! It's a very interesting topic, and I think it would make for a great research paper. I found papers that focus on visual kei or the theater and mention anime in passing, but none that focus specifically on anime and manga.

Just to give an example of "draw a girl and say it's a boy" → Yuri na Watashi to Akuma na Kanojo (?), and "draw a boy and call it a girl" → Aoharu x Kikanjuu.

I believe it is most related to "draw a girl, call it a boy" meme.
First, in anime, manga and others, it is extremely easy to distinguish between males and females; Simply because they have different styles. Also, to audience the attraction to characters is often based on this style and not on actual biology of characters.
In real life, it is often hard to find an androgynous male that would be able to properly pose as a girl, unless lots of effort was put into dress or makeup. But in drawn media, it is extremely easy to just draw a character in girly style and call it a boy. For anyone watching it could be just normal girl and as such, there is still attraction as if it was a girl. The fact that it has a penis is usually only explored in ero-doujinshi. For all purposes, such characters can be regarded as girls with no ill effects.
I have yet to see a "trap" character that would be liked as such while having obviously male styling. Unless it was for fujoshis.

in Western media this applies too though, and you don't see much of it (although granted, it is mainly targetted at a young audience and non-binary gender exposure is rare at this age in the West)

I don't think this answer hits all the reasons that "traps" are more common, but it certainly hits what appears to be one of the major ones: the nature of animation as an artistic medium. +1. Looking at other Japanese non-animated media like J-dramas for comparison would probably be a useful next step.

Fast forward to Fall 2016, and with all the gender issues occurring in the USA, it is clear the West is not quite ready for mainstream media with more genderbending >.<   which is a pity, because it's fun.

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Which series is this girl getting robbed and tied up from?
I have seen this picture online quite a lot lately, and I have been wondering which series it comes from. I tried searching but did not find any results.

This is a original piece of art (pixiv) made by 柳田史太 (NSFW) This piece of art is said to be based on
Tezuka Rin, from the katawa shoujo series

After a simple reverse image search only came up with allot of 9gag/reddit and similar results. I decided to first identify the character, after some cropping. And a few failed search results I came to know that the character was based of Tezuka Rin, from the katawa shoujo series
Shortly after with a bit help of comments given on both 9gag and reddit I managed to find out that it was a original piece of art made by NSFW pixiv artist: 柳田史太 or as she is also known Humitan
The image is based on a simple word joke Hand-Tie(hentai). And also seems to be a word play, as "rob" and "Tie a Knot" is said to be pronounced in the same way. (can't confirm this as I don't speak the language)
I also seen some messages floating around that the image has been featured in manga order a few years back. But so far I have not been able to find it in there.

Tie is 結ぶ musubu, and rob is 盗む nusumu.

That would make the -te forms musunde and nusunde, which sound even more alike.


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Where in K-ON! does the second panel of this image of Azusa come from?
I know that the image is of Azusa from K-ON, but I don't know where it is from exactly. I don't think it was in the original anime?
I'm referring to the second panel of this image [NSFW]

I don't think this was put in the original anime

lol of course not
It's fanart by an artist named くまもとこ / "kuma motoko" who used to be on pixiv but has since deleted his/her account. Some remnants of his/her art, not including the Azusa picture (but including a different picture from the same set), can be seen on Twitpic (NSFW).

And I expected it to be a hentai doujinshi :(. My dreams are crushed.


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Why is the Female Titan after Eren?
As shown in episode 17, the Female Titan is after Eren, looking for him in the formation outside the walls. Why is the Female Titan after Eren?

Because he hold the power , Coordinate

So Annie wanted to eat Eren and gain that power. As Eren gained this power by eaten his father ? @mirroroftruth

@tenten We don't know yet. She might be working for someone. Iirc the beast titan mentioned her in the last chapter, so they (Bertolt, Reiner, Annie, Beast Titan, and maybe more) might all be in on some major scheme to overthrow humanity, but we don't know yet.

i don't know the main reason to capture Eren because she failed , but the reason may be different, Reiner did caputer him but did not eat him.

This answer contains major unmarked spoilers if you've only seen the anime.

As you've seen in the series, certain titans have abilities, such as Annie's ability to harden certain points during combat, or the Armored Titan's ability to harden his entire body to smash through solid structures.
Eren too has an ability like this, and given the nature of the world, it's very valuable to control. It's called the 'Coordinate Ability', and has three separate sub-abilities currently revealed - Eren, however, has currently only demonstrated the first:

First and most noticeable of all, the Coordinate power grants the user the ability to control the Titans at will and make them follow virtually any order. [Ch. 50 (p. 35-44)]
Secondly, the Coordinate allows the user to erase or modify the memory of a single person or even those of entire countries if they are skilled enough. [Ch. 63 (p. 8), Ch. 64 (p. 37-38)]
Finally, the power allows the user to inherit the lost memories of mankind and those of the previous users, giving them omniscient-like knowledge about the world, such as the reason the Titans exist and how the Walls were created. [Ch. 64 (p. 39-42)]
Coordinate on the SnK Wiki

Furthermore, there is an answer to another question here which gives some more information on the ability itself.
The Titan Shifters that infiltrated the walls (Annie, Reiner, Bertolt) have the goal of finding and acquiring the coordinate ability, and this is the reason why Eren is kidnapped by the latter two around chapter 45.
Assuming a second kidnap ends successfully, it is unsure what the other shifters would do with Eren. Due to the fact they haven't attempted to gain his ability through eating him already, instead but opted for kidnap, it's likely that they'd prefer to keep Eren alive and attempt to either persuade or coerce him into cooperation with their cause. What plans they have for the coordinate ability after this point is also unrevealed at this time.

You should definitely add a spoiler header. So much information from manga :)

I wish this answer were footnoted so that I could go and check the information. How do you know about this coordinate ability? Do you think the story of Attack on Titan has been mapped out from the beginning or is the writer just making it up as he goes along?

nhahtdh added footnotes for you. Also, the coordinate ability is explained in the comics and will be coming in the cartoons next year.


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What's the difference between Rank 1 through Rank 3 investigators?
I really don't see a difference between investigators of different ranks, whether it's power, personality, weapon type/weapon shape, or knowledge.
Would you please describe the concept of ranks to me?

In a nutshell, investigators of different ranks hold different weapons and have more skill in fighting. The rank determines an Investigators' level of responsibility in the CCG, access to high-risk missions and high-rated targets. In addition, the rank also determines the salary of the investigator and it also shows different factors of experience they may have gone through.
There are two types of investigators:

Junior Rank Investigator
Senior Rank investigator

Junior Ranks have 3 stages in their careers:

Rank 3: Ghoul investigators here have a special case in their career, and are made investigators without any formal training in the academy.
Rank 2: Everybody without the special cases start here after graduating the academy.
Rank 1: Your highest rank as a Junior Investigator. You've seen some stuff, you've been through the fieldwork, but your still not at the peak of your career.

Now we move on to the Senior Investigators. There are once again three types.

First Class Investigators:
The lowest rank to be considered a Senior Rank Investigator. Most investigators reach this rank later in their careers. Senior Rank Investigators are responsible for training a junior rank investigator. It is basically very difficult to move up the ladder from here on.

Associate Special Class:
This rank is the second highest rank and it is achieved by a small percent of First Class investigators. Responsibilities include overseeing wards as necessary.

Special Class:
This rank is the highest rank. Typically, they are the strongest of all investigators. These guys command operations and will oversee their wards daily as part of their responsibility.

For example, Kureo Mado has something called a Quinque weapon. It's like the spine petal thing. Kureo is a first class investigator. Kureo is very experienced and takes Koutarou Amon as his partner.
Reference: Ghoul Investigator


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What's the name of the violin score played by Shaiapouf when Meruem is born?
In the episode where the Chimera Ant King Meruem is born, Shaiapouf plays some vigorous music with his violin. I want to know the name of the song he played.

In episode 91 The Strong × And × The Weak, King Meruem is born. After his birth, he goes to the top of the ant hill where Shaiapouf plays a song titled In the Palace ~ Lamentoso.
This particular song can be found on the Hunter × Hunter (2011) Original Soundtrack 3 as track number 10.


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Why did Ainz tell Aura not to set her alarm on her watch at 19:19 and 7:21?
I came across this in the Trivia section of Bukubukuchagama on Overlord Wiki:

Giving the watch with her voice to Aura, Ainz told her not to set an alarm at 19:19 or 7:21. These numbers can be read as a sexual word in Japanese wordplay. It seems that she recorded her voice for an H-Game at that alarm.

Since I don't know Japanese, I am curious to know how they are read.

As a comment pointed out in the wiki page you provided, the words which the numbers represent seem to be a common thing in hentai games.
For 19:19:

 In Japanese when reading the time, or a string of numbers, it is often read as if each number is separate, for example, "One Nine One Nine". Doing this with 19:19 sounds a bit like "Iku, Iku" which translates to "I'm cumming, I'm cumming!".

For 7:21:

 Thanks to ʞɹɐzǝɹ's comment we now know that it sounds a bit like "Onanī" which translates into "onanism" which is a synonym for "masturbation".

These are instances of Goroawase word play in Japanese, which takes advantage of the readings of digits to encode meaning in a string of numbers.

19:19 down, now waiting for the 7:21 mystery to be solved...

@LePikastache It's probably something similar.

even if it's something similar, I'm still curious about how it is pronounced in Japanese that makes it a perverted sentence from Hentai Games

０７：２１＝ オナニー.

Additional note: this is called 'goroawase' in Japanese. Searching that term should give more examples, though not as explicit as these two :)

Now I can die in peace with this mystery solved

In addition to Alagaros' answer, I'll try to explain it from another perspective.
As explained in Wikipedia, Kanji is adapted from Chinese letters (Hanzi). Originally, Hanzi was written based on the shape of the represented object but then undergoes evolution with the passage of time. For example this.
Such a language habit is then evolving into using the existing characters to represent things. This is especially common with younger people (source: my Chinese lecturer). Think of it like the westerners using symbol characters to form smileys :D :P.
Now, the time 19:19 and 7:21 if written in kanji would be 一九一九 and 七二一 respectively.
一九 represents a kneeling person and a Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon (alias to keep this relatively Safe For Work). And 七二一 represents either a big Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon or a Neo Armstrong Cyclone Jet Armstrong Cannon and a manko.

I don't believe this sort of word play is intended, nor interpreted this way.


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Where can I find Magical Taruruuto-kun?
I'm looking for a manga called Magical Taruruuto-kun, but I can't find any book or DVD, just Famicom games.
Can somebody help me?

Since this is material from 1990 the only way you can acquire it is second hand. I found plenty of offers for the Famicon games and manga on Ebay.

Thank you, I have misspelled my sentence I would say that I have just founded games

well, take a look at this seems like I did have luck

authors: ّپرویز سلطان نژاد


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What is the English translation of the letter (written in Japanese) in Anohana: The Movie?
So I began watching Anohana: The Movie after completing the series. In the movie, there's this scene where Anaru is writing a letter to Menma. Unfortunately, the contents of the letter are left untranslated. Can someone please tell me what Anaru wrote in the letter?
Here is the screenshot of the letter:

The very last part says "I like Jintan". I don't know enough Japanese to get the rest.

roughly last two line, from when... from when, i....  like jintan

Transcript:

めんまに[謝]{あやま}りたいから、お[願]{ねが}い[叶]{かな}えようって[思]{おも}ってた
  I want to apologize to Menma, so I think my wish has been granted.
いつからか... いつからか、[私]{わたし}...　じんたいが[好]{す}き
  Since when... Since (who knows) when... I fell in love with Jintai.

いつからか means “since some time or another; since who-knows-when”, but I am not very sure how to put it to make it sound natural in English.


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In the Berserk anime, what was Guts's interpretation of Casca's "woman issue" in episode 11?
Back in Episode 11 of the Berserk anime, Casca and Guts fell from a high cliff into a river. Later, Guts found Casca suffering from high fever, so he decided to warm her body. While undressing her, he saw something (as I saw) like blood flowing down (I couldn't understand from where), then he said:

Now I understand. Must be hard, being a woman

What did Guts mean when he said that?
I don't think she was having periods, but then what else could it be specific only to a woman.

Why do you believe it's not menstrual blood? Everything seems to point to it. (Although to be fair, increase in body temperature seems to be later in the cycle, during ovulation). I haven't seen the anime, so maybe I'm missing something. In case anyone is interested this is the scene in question.

The reason I thought for once but didn't consider periods as the reason is because in the scene at 19:32, something like blood was shown flowing down in zig-zag(forgot the correct term) way, but the source of the blood wasn't a sexual organ of course (as I interpreted the scene) . Even if I consider it was a sexual organ, it certainly can't create a flow path the way it was shown in anime.

If you read the manga and watch the second film it's much clearer that she has her period and that it's menstrual blood.
The anime couldn't show sexual organs which is why it's so vague. I didn't understand when I first watched the anime either.
Hope that helps!

Correct! I forgot to answer my own question but thanks that you did that. Here are the pics (censored of course!) from manga: 1) The first hint of periods when she was in battlefield, 2) Menstrual blood found when Guts undressed her.

This panel hints that she was having menstrual cramps before the battle started. She is complaining about them happening while clutching her abdomen.
The entire chapter (and the next several chapters) are full of references about her health and discussion about a woman's place on the battlefield. She was clearly menstruating.

Yes, I did realize this fact later when I read the manga. Thanks for the answer though, since it would help other readers.


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Was Urahara's Bankai ever revealed or hinted at?
I used to watch and read Bleach before, but I stopped following the series after the defeat of Aizen.
Urahara's Bankai is a mystery to me, and since I'm no longer updated, I don't know if there's more to tell on Urahara's abilities.
Has there been an update on what we know about Urahara since Aizen's defeat?

As far as I remember it was never revealed: Urahara just said that his bankai was not suited for training (Urahara told that to Renji while he was training with Ichigo)

It is offical as noted by the answer by louis, Bleach chapter 664, released today, revealed his bankai on the last page, so we know what it looks like, but not its powers.

In chapter 664, Urahara was finally forced to use his Bankai. This happens on the final page of the chapter.
It summons a giant person:

In Chapter 665,

 Urahara reveals that his Bankai has the power to restructure anything it touches:

As can be seen in the above picture where his eyes are being stitched up, Urahara is also able to utilize this ability on himself to heal wounds. Considering the ability of his Bankai, it's easy to understand why he didn't use it to train Chad when Chad needed to fight against a Bankai.

Answer changed to this one. Please update this when the next chapter goes out! :)
Thanks.

Will do! @MarkGabriel

so it's like unohana bankai on steroid ?

@NamikazeSheena I actually think it looks eerily like Unohana in one of the panels.  And what the heck her bankai did is still rather unclear.

As of yet, Urahara's Bankai has never been revealed. We know that he is capable of it, but he has never actually used it on-panel.
Back when Ichigo was still working to attain his Bankai (Chapter 132), Yoruichi informed Ichigo that Urahara gained his Bankai using the same training method, and did it in three days.
Later (Chapter 224) Sado comes to him for training. Urahara tells Sado that he needs to train against a Bankai in order to improve. He then assigns Sado to train with Renji, saying that his own Bankai was not suitable for training. This implies that his Bankai is either absurdly lethal, or may not be a combat-focused weapon (like how Unohana's Shikai is a flying ray medevac thing).

I remember when the Espada first arrive and Orihime and Chad fought them Urahara used his Zanpakutō and when he said "Sing, Benihime" it could dissipate the fired Cero at point blank range which as Love states, is far more dangerous than one fired from a distance, i think that's a testament on just how powerful Benihime can be


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What was the Night Class living on (and for how long) before creating the blood tablets?
What exactly was the Night Class living on (and for how long) before creating the blood tablets? They obviously lived on campus while working on the tablets, and the Night Class has been at the academy for at least 4 years when the anime started.
So, wouldn't it be kind of dangerous to have them living that close to the humans with NOTHING to help them with their hunger for blood?

Blood Drives and blood banks possibly.

Most likely each other. we see later on that Vampires can survive on each other's blood such as when Kaname was drinking from Ruka (while Yuuki was peaking though the door) and later when Rido was resurrected he was feeding off Vampires too1. Also i seem to recall some moments between Senri and Rima when one of them was cut and the other drank from the cut.
However keep in mind that the Vampires of the Night Class aren't Level E's so they have a bit more self control. also one of the duties of the Guardians is to make sure that Night Class Students aren't feeding on Day Class Students who sneak out at night.
in the worse case scenario Kaname, as a Pureblood, can force their obeisance to not drink human blood. also remember that the Night Class is meant to be the foundation for coexistence between Vampires and Humans, as such not only are there school rules against drinking human blood (as Yuuki mentions to Maria) but also Kaname and Kaien would make sure that the only Vampires they admit to the school would be ones who can tolerate not drinking human blood, which at the beginning would be Vampires who would want the Blood Tablets to be successful

1: i suspect they were normal Vampires as some of the women seemed to be wanting Rido to drink their blood rather than wanting to drink his blood


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Do the specials of the manga Zetsuen no Tempest continue the story after the end of the manga? Are Yoshino and Hakaze going to end up together?
Unfortunately, the English translations of the manga ends in chapter 37 and I can't read Japanese. I already know that the end of the anime differs from the storyline of the manga, since Yoshino and Hakaze end up together in the anime.
After reading some comments about the final chapter of the manga, it seems that they didn't end up together. I also heard that Yoshino rejected her in the nicest way because he thought her feelings for him would dwindle down as time goes by, and he didn't deserve her. However, Hakaze said he was the only man for her and she wouldn't give up on him.
That's why I've looked through the 6 special chapters with the hope of some hints that they do end up together in the near future, but I wasn't able to interpret something just by seeing the pictures.
Do these specials or even one of them continue the story after the end of the manga (chapter 44) and are there any hints Yoshino and Hakaze could end up together?

I have removed the links to illegal content (pointing to the end of chapter 44). I confirm with you that it's exactly what you have read about the final chapter (44) of the manga.

Oh ok, thanks. I didn't know raw-Mangas are illegal, but if i think about it now, it makes sense since it's untreated i think.

Actually, except for a few legal sites (e.g. Japanese publisher website, Crunchyroll, ...), most manga reading sites violate copyright and are illegal, whether the manga are translated or not. On our site, feel free to refer to the chapter number and the page number, but not linking directly to websites which host illegal content. Sites which index manga/anime/etc. are also fine.

The end of chapter 6 of the extra story shows that Yoshino starts to open up to Hakaze while he was walking her home after her job (Mahiro suggested him to do so).
On their way, he says to Hakaze, if she has a boyfriend one day she should introduce him to Yoshino and he'll be happy for her from the bottom of his heart. But Hakaze replies that those things don't make her feel better at all.
Then Yoshino suggests holding hands as its dark and late and she might get lost. Hakaze refuses and says that it only applies to kids. Yoshino tells her that he can't walk as confident as Mahiro, but if there is a one in a million chance that he could get lost, he wants to hold her hand. Then both of them intertwine their fingers and walk together.
Thus, I think it's indicated that they will end up together.


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Why does Hayate have to cover herself when she enters and leaves Saint's Church?
In the scene where Hayate goes to visit Carin after the formation of Riot Force 6 (episode 5 or 6 of StrikerS), when she enters Carin's office, she is seen wearing a shawl, the same kind shown to be worn by people outside moments before. However, when the two are talking, Hayate has taken it off.
When an alert about Gadget Drones' attack comes in, she is seen putting it back on in a hurry before she leaves. Why does she need to wear it outside Carim's office?

It is probably customary, just like it is a custom in some Christian churches that a woman is expected to cover her head when entering a church building, especially during the services.
The Sankt Kaiser Church is modeled after Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular. It also has an autonomous area on Mid-Childa; compare the Vatican city state. (There even exists a counterpart of the Turin shroud.)


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How many years did Natsu train with Igneel?
He was just a child when he joined Fairy Tail. When did Igneel decide to train Natsu and for how long?

the exact time is very hard to find. As timeline of fairy tail is very complected. but it was before time travel i.e 400yrs ago, so may be 1-2 years, coz igneel also didn't had time and power to stay long, you might find some information here

We are shown both his appearance with Erza, Grey and Lisanna as children so it can't be very long that he trains under Igneel. His appearance with Igneel and with the group are very close, if I remember, practically the same.  At a maximum, I would suggest 3 years but I don't think it would be less than a single year. It's theorized that Natsu was around 8-9 and then Natsu was 11-12 when he joined Fairy Tail.  We don't know for sure though.
Sources:

https://fairytail.fandom.com/wiki/Igneel
https://fairytail.fandom.com/wiki/The_400_Year_Plan
https://fairytail.fandom.com/wiki/Natsu_Dragneel
https://fairytail.fandom.com/wiki/Fairy_Tail_%28Guild%29

Not much of a spoiler, but thanks. I'm guessing it was that long since he never really remembered Igneel's face. :)

We are never told Natsu's biological age and even if we were it would never make sense:

First generation dragon slayers do not age past adulthood and it is doubtful the stopping of aging happens all at once. (Acnologia is very young)
He has time traveled, been in suspended animation and even dead for awhile. Time is probably very fluid from his perspective.
He is even less human than the other dragon slayers so maybe he did not age properly(its suggested he was weaker than Gray as a kid but slightly stronger in his teens IE his power doesn't grow at the same rate as others).

For these reasons guessing his actual biological age is a shot in the dark(early dawn at best but VERY early). Yes, it is probably 16-21 but that is a wide range and could still be wrong for the reasons above. We do not know and unless a character/writer strait up says it (which seems unlikely) we are not going to be able to figure it out.

Don’t forget that at the beginning of Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry, Natsu looks about 4 and is shown with Igneel in a cave, though I’m not sure if this is how they met or not. Then further on, it shows Natsu looking about 11 or 12 in the rain, staring at the ground sometime after Igneel left. And that is when he meets gramps and later joins Fairy Tail.


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Does "Root A" follow the fact about Takatsuki and the One-Eyed Owl?
In Root A, Takatsuki does seem to be fascinated by Kaneki's name, but,

 I didn't at all expect her to be the One-Eyed Owl.

I just looked her up on the Wikia and it says that

 she is the One Eyed-Owl as well as the horror novelist.

Is this true only in the manga or is it also true in Root A?

Yes, it's shown clearly in the anime that

 Sen Takatsuki is the One-Eyed Owl.

They started giving hints about it in first half of the episodes in Season 2.

Season 2 Episode 1

 Kaneki joins Aogiri and is welcomed by this girl named Eto

Eto seems to like Kaneki

Season 2 Episode 2

 Later on in the next episode, Eto removes her bandages and smiles while taking Kaneki's name

Season 2 Episode 3

 In the next episode, we see this author Takatsuki and she smiles the same way as Eto while hearing Kaneki's name - Can safely infer that Takatsuki is actually Eto

Season 2 Episode 7

 The same smile pattern after hearing Kaneki's story from Hinami. Takatsuki is Eto confirmed!!

Season 2 Episode 11

 I think you missed this part. It was shown after the ED theme in Season 2 episode 11. It clearly shows that Takatsuki is the 2nd Owl, and the only daughter of Yoshimura (who is also called non-killing owl)

She seems very interested in Kaneki, so it seems very likely right away that she's someone in Aogiri. Moreover, it grows more and more suspicious as the season continues, especially when you notice that when she interviews Shinohara and Juuzou, she tries multiple times to ask about whether it would be possible to create a ghoul via the transplantation of organs and seems much too interested in the subject for comfort.
Her interest in the subject makes sense if

 she is the one-eyed owl, because as a half-ghoul, the one-eyed owl would try to dig into the past of another half-ghoul (i.e. Eyepatch), were one to show up. One-eyed owl would naturally be interested in the subject of half-ghouls, meaning Takatsuki fits the bill perfectly.

I think you missed the scenes after ED theme of Season 2 episode 11


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At the start of 6th Spice and Wolf light novel, what's up with the discrepancy between “like” and “love”?
Note: Please no spoilers beyond the start of the 6th novel.

At the very end of the 5th Spice and Wolf novel, Lawrence says "I like you".

Love is never once used by Lawrence toward Holo so far in the story. I even ran the search function to check the PDF, I'm certain.
Yet, in the next book, at the very start, on the same day that the previous novel left off, Holo teases Lawrence about saying "I love you".

The best I can tell, the author meant to write "love" in the previous novel, or else my PDF copy is simply wrong.
What's the explanation behind this?
I'm afraid to do a Google search on the topic since I'm only starting the 6th novel and searching "love" in regards to a romance that I'm 6 of 17 books through is just begging to run into all sorts of spoilers.

actually Japanese Light Novels are perfectly on-topic here so the disclaimer isn't entirely needed

@Memor-X thanks! That's good news, I wasn't expecting the question to find an answer on the other site. For anyone who takes issue with this being cross-posted onto literature.se, I'd assume leave it posted there since someone was kind enough to make a Spice and Wolf tag there on my behalf, but if it becomes and issue, I'll close that one and keep this one open.

or else my PDF copy is simply wrong. Do you have the Yen On (Yen Press) translations or are we talking about a fan translated version?

@Dimitrimx The first edition of volume 5 dated December 2011 has the same wording. I'm not sure if there has been a new revision or not.

Apparently, the same word 好き is used in both instances in Japanese version of the light novel.
Quoting the same lines from Page 345 of Spice and Wolf 5 (emphasis mine):

それでも、ロレンスはホロを抱きしめて、そして。
  「俺は、お前が好きなんだ」
  それから、右頬に軽く口づけをした。

Quoting the same line from Page 29 of Spice and Wolf 6 (emphasis mine):

「わっちゃあ嬉しかった。そう。ぬしがわっちを好きじゃと言ってくれて。じゃからー」

Regardless of whether "like" or "love" is the correct translation, the same word should have been used in both places, since Holo was simply quoting Lawrence's confession to her the night before.


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How is rabb.it allowed to stream anime?
We know that there are a whole bunch of anime streaming websites that are in fact illegal because they don't own the licenses to the anime they stream.
However, in a number of anime chat rooms/servers, one feature they announce is streaming sessions through rabb.it, particularly (at the time of writing this) if you go to the animation page you see Case Closed, Pokemon X/Y, Assassination Classroom and Naruto.
Why is rabb.it allowed to stream anime? I don't think they have the licences to those series.

I feel like this question belongs on law.se. That said, the answers here are pretty good.

I'm going to preface this with a note that I've just looked a little into rabb.it's model, so my understanding will be imperfect. However, it looks like it's built around a particular interpretation of the laws that allows for a certain amount of wiggle room.
First off, it is definitely legal for you to get a few friends to come over to your house and join you in watching, for example, My Hero Academia on Crunchyroll. It is definitely not legal for you to book a local cinema and sell 100 tickets for people to watch you stream the same show on the big screen. Somewhere between the two is a legal grey area that would earn two teams of lawyers a decent amount of money to chart. So rabb.it offers what is essentially a virtual version of the former - you can get about 20 people into the room watching the show together and sharing the experience.
It also looks like they use a peer-to-peer client, which means that none of the streamed content ever goes to their server. This helps protect them from the kind of issues Youtube has, although it's not a perfect protection (before torrents, there were a few major P2P clients for sharing content that got shut down because they weren't considered to be doing enough to protect against sharing copyrighted files).
So the main things that allow rabb.it to do what it does (and this is based on interpretations of IP law, which mean that if taken to court with the right judge and lawyers this could change):

Limited room sizes
No hosting of content
Requires someone to actually have an account on the streaming site
Live stream (not providing a download)

That's not to say that someone couldn't get around those things, but in doing so they would probably be in violation of rabb.it's terms of service, although I'm not sure what they would do in that instance. It's also not obvious (to me) how they prevent people from using the service to get around geoblocking, which could cause them some problems at some point.

rabb.it is not p2p. a firefox instance runs on their server, and its audio/video output is captured and streamed to users' browsers over HTTPS. architecturally, it's a pretty standard web app.

Fair enough. I saw some reference to P2P relating to it, but that could very well have been an article about the service making a mistake.

on further reading, it appears there's an option to host the stream yourself, but i've only ever seen people use the "rabbitcast" feature which uses a browser instance on their server.

Yes, if you install the browser addon you can stream any tab on your own browser, bypassing rabb.it's internal firefox instance.

Based upon what I have seen browsing the website, the short answer is that Rabbit is not allowed to do it. I suspect that they are trying to get away with it for the same reasons YouTube gets away with hosting infringing content: Internet service providers, such as webhosts, are protected by D.M.C.A. safe harbor provisions codified into U.S.C. Title 17 §512.
These provisions exist so that webhosts and other such internet service providers are not held liable for the infringing actions of end users without their knowledge. The internet service provider is required to remove the infringing content upon discovery, and document a procedure for removing any infringing content at the copyright holder's request.
The reason I suspect this is based on Rabbit's terms of service which has specific provisions against using the service for the hosting of infringing content, under section II. User Content, subsection A. Non-infringing Content Sharing, which includes a D.M.C.A. takedown notification procedure. Here are some especially noteworthy excerpts:
The Company Service offers Users the opportunity to share content with each other. Company encourages such sharing but prohibits copyright infringement or the infringement of other intellectual property rights through the Company Service.
 Content Removal Policy.
We will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable law and are properly provided to us. If a rights holder believes that User Content has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, such rights holder or its agent or designee should provide our copyright agent with the following information in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act:
Notice that under How Does Rabbit Work section of the F.A.Q. they claim:

Rabbit allows you to share content with friends, video and audio chat, and text chat within a Rabbit room. You can share content with a virtual browser (Rabbitcast) or by sharing a Chrome tab using our Share on Rabbit extension.

Basically, they seem to be claiming that since the users are sharing the content, it is not their fault if their services are misused.
That much would probably be fine, but unfortunately for Rabbit, they are not in perfect compliance with the law because they are advertising their service for the express purpose of sharing television shows and movies for which an end user is unlikely to own distribution rights, so it could be construed that it is at their direction that the infringement is taking place. If such is the case, then they are not eligible for U.S.C. Title 17 §512 protection. Advertising services in such a way is what got Grokester in trouble in M.G.M. Studios, Inc v. Grokester, Ltd. I would not count on this service lasting, or at least not how it is now, since they seem to be liable for contributory infringement.

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


text:
Why did Aleister create the Science Side?
Why did Aleister create the Science Side? Do we actually know?
From TVTropes:

 Reality Warper: He is capable of omnipresence and other tricks. Confirmed when it is revealed at the end of New Testament volume 11 that he possesses something called the Archetype Controller, which can basically create or destroy Jungian archetypes, which would be like the equivalent of controlling tropes, in a way. It is revealed that, using this power, he literally created the entire concept of a "Science side", and made Academy City and its espers part of the archetype of "mankind’s worship of science".

As of revelations from New Testament 19, yes we now know.

 Aleister's first daughter died after caching Typhoid fever. It wasn't anyone's fault, it was just a stroke of ill fortune. So, Aleister decided to destroy all misfortune - that is, destroy all magic and religion. That would remove all forms of coincidence from the world, and no one would ever be unfortunate again. (Though, as Touma points out, that would mean that no one would ever be lucky again either.)

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authors: 高铁票如何升级一等座精忠报国_高铁商务座只有一张票花容月貌


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Is it possible that Itachi knew the truth about Tobi being Obito and not Madara?
Since Itachi Uchiha always said complete truth, is it possible that he himself knew the truth about Tobi being Obito and not Madara?

I think he knew that he is an Uchiha but I'm not sure if he knew that he is Obito.

While it is difficult to say whether Itachi later discovered Tobi was Obito, the light novels Itachi's Story make it clear that in the beginning he truly believed that Tobi was Uchiha Madara.
His reasoning, from pages 53-54:

Over the last three years, Itachi had wondered any number of times about the man's true identity. From what he could infer, Itachi had thought the man was perhaps a member of the Uchiha clan, but that changed to a certainty now.
[...]
When he thought about it like this, the possibilities naturally narrowed. The first was that a member of the Uchiha clan thought to have died in the Great War had survived, and become the man in the mask. It was a general rule that if a member of the Uchiha clan died in battle, their sharingan would be brought home by another ninja. So, the man couldn't have stolen it from a corpse. In which case, it made sense to assume that someone thought to have died was alive, and coming to the compound with his sharingan still in his possession.
The second possibility was that the man in the mask was someone who had broken away from the Uchiha. This was less likely than the first option. Because since the founding of Konoha, only one man had ever broken away from the clan and left the village.
Uchiha Madara...

And Itachi does end up going down the path of accepting Uchiha Madara is alive, and concluding the masked man is him, due to the overwhelming chakra he sensed, and the fact that Madara's death was never confirmed. I have also noted in the text, a part where Itachi was actually going down the right path with his thinking, one which might have led him towards Obito. Due to this, it is possible Itachi figured it out later, given his time in the Akatsuki and proximity to Toby.

Itachi clearly knew that Obito was the true leader of the Akatsuki, and he also knew of and feared Obito's (Sharingan) abilities, hence placing his own Mangekyo Sharingan on Sasuke and setting it so that Amaterasu activated when in the vicinity of Obito's Sharingan. Additionally, Itachi also had knowledge of his grudge against Konohagakure, which is why he confronted Obito/Tobi/Madara before the Uchiha clan massacre. However, Itachi never clearly states his knowledge of Obito's true identity, and also, Obito states during his first encounter with Sasuke that Itachi clearly knew more than he let on. It is never stated if Itachi knows that Tobi is Obito, but he clearly knew a lot about Obito.

this is what exactly is told in the manga and anime. And yes, I think that he knew about Obito's secret identity but didn't want to cause chaos by letting anyone know it.

A simple question... How? How does Itachi know about Obito?

It is just a personal opinion. Itachi was smart enough to reason that Madara would not be still alive unless he has some eternal "youth jutsu". So he must have deduced that it wasn't Madara but someone else who is just using the name of Madara. Also, Madara had nothing against Uchiha clan, he had always wanted to make Uchiha more powerful. So Tobi was not Madara. Also, if Itachi could perform tsukuyomi on Tobi, he could have known Tobi's secret identity but he did not want any bad blood. He was saving his life for Sasuke...
All these are my views.
Please tell me what are your views on this :-)

There is some evidence that Itachi at least knew that Obito was alive.
After Deidara and Sasuke fight, Kisame tells Itachi that Sasuke died and Itachi states that Sasuke is alive and that, like, he knew that is him and Sasuke weren't the only Uchihas left.

Itachi is one of the smartest people in the anime. Itachi knew about Obito from Kakashi when they were in one team in ANBU - The story of the Kakashi's Sharingan. Itachi knew about the moment when Kakashi cut Deidara's hand. All of Akatsuki knew about this situation.
And if you think more about that, from the story of Kakashi about his Sharingan, Itachi is smart enough to know about Tobi's true identity. He will understand that, if Kakashi has the same time-space as Mangekyo Sharingan, like Obito, they have the same eyes, or just Obito is Tobi. Itachi isn't foolish. Itachi was thinking about that things. That's the reason for Amaterasu in Sasuke's eye, after Itachi's death.

Itachi definitely knew that Tobi was an Uchiha, but there is little evidence, if any, to say that he knew that Tobi was Obito. Why I think that Itachi would know that Tobi wasn't the real Madara was because the amount of chakra emanating from Tobi, when the real Madara was present on the battlefield everyone knew about his presence.


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What was Rangui's plan at the Military Gala?
In Episode 5 - Sticky Trap, Rangui, the Black Widow, lures Lieutenant Hanadate to a room (presumably hers considering the number of bodies already there) and stings him up.
Near to the end of the series, we learn that Lieutenant Hanadate is Lord Omodaka, current chief of the Village of Oracles. Near the end of Episode 9 - Joy of Love, Omodaka says he is attracted to Zakuro as a part of the plan to defeat the kokkuri spirit. When everything is over, Zakuro thanks him for the ruse, but he insists that he's a poor lair. At the end of the episode, we see Rangui in bed with him commenting on that. When Omodaka gets up, he puts his mask back on, so we do know that Rangui knows how Omodaka looks like behind his mask.
So then what was her plan at the Military Gala in Episode 5? Her jealousy for Zakuro didn't start until Omodaka called her a filthy demon, which was much later.

@nhahtdh any better?


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How close is the game rules of Cardfight!! Vanguard in the anime compared to the actual game?
From my experience with game-based anime which you can actually play like Yu-Gi-Oh and Bakugan, the rules of the game in the anime is vastly different from that in real life game. For example, 1st season of Yu-Gi-Oh didn't require sacrifices for stronger monsters, and Yugi didn't automatically win by having a single piece of Exodia. In the Battle City Arc, when Joey fights a Rare Hunter, he has 3 of every piece while the rules state you can only have 1.
Since Cardfight!! Vanguard is in a way like Yu-Gi-Oh in which it has a real life card game (not sure if the anime is based off the game or vice versa), I am wondering if the game rules of Cardfight!! Vanguard in the anime is the same as that of the actual game itself?

The rules of the genuine card game hadn't been established when the manga wrote the plot from which the Duellist Kindgdom plot was adapted. And the Rare Hunter's set of three of each Exodia was bizarre in-universe; also, they were counterfeits.


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What's the range of a witch's barrier?
Throughout the anime, after entering a witch's barrier, the Magical Girls are seen traveling a long way inside a maze-like struture before reaching the witch's lair. The lairs of the witches are generally spacious. Take the witch in episode 3 for example, when Homura was chased around by the witch-turned-worm, the worm was shown to be quite small inside the lair, which suggests that the lair inside the barrier is very wide.
So what's the range of a witch's barrier? And do the witches have total control over their own barriers?

You should explain exactly what you mean by that, add some examples maybe, and explain why it is important to know.

I attempt to savage the question by editing in some relevant details from the anime. Hope it doesn't deviate too much from the original intention.

A witch's "Labyrinth" is technically a separated space which the witch hides in, as such, it doesn't so much have a range. We see this numerous times - no matter how far they travel inside a witch's Labyrinth, the Puella Magi more often than not reappear where they entered.

In the case of the first witch whom Mami faced together with Madoka and Sayaka, in which Mami saved an office woman from falling, the three entered the Labyrinth when they were on a bridge. After the witch was defeated, they reappeared on the same bridge.
Charlotte's Labyrinth appeared outside the hospital where Kyousuke Kamijou was in. Sayaka and Kyubee traveled a fair way into it to reach where Charlotte was asleep and kept a watch on her progress. Mami and Madoka also did a lot of traveling to get to Charlotte's lair. Despite all that, all of them sans Mami returned to the same spot that Sayaka and Kyubee had entered.
Homura's Labyrinth was inside her Soul Gem and contained in an isolation field which we see isn't all that big despite it being the size of an entire city (though it did have a limit which would then loop back into the city). We can confirm this when the Puella Magi broke open the roof and there were 2 Incubators looking down.

The case of Walpurgis Night, however, is different. In the timeline before the anime, which Kyubee commented that Kriemhild Gretchen would finish destroying the world soon, Madoka is seen inside a Labyrinth where Homura was fighting Walpurgis Night. However, at the end of the series/second movie, the fight took place in the city without the materialization of a Labyrinth, we can make 2 hypotheses from this:

Walpurgis Night's Labyrinth is that of the storm cell that weather agencies picked up and warned people about.
Walpurgis Night gets more powerful with each jump Homura does due to it being a possible cause for Madoka's Fate. In its final fight, its Labyrinth probably wasn't needed since next to nothing could stop it. However, its power doesn't grow nearly as fast as Madoka's, which is why after enough jumps, Madoka could kill it with one shot.

As for how much control a witch has over the elements in the Labyrinth, they don't have much apart from the formation of elements that they use for their attacks (e.g. Sayaka's wheels). The Labyrinth is more of a reflection of the Magical Girl's mental landscape before she became a witch. We also know that a Labyrinth forms before the witch is fully born, which is also the case of Charlotte whose Labyrinth had formed but was still sleeping as a Grief Seed even when Mami and Madoka entered (we see Sayaka and Kyubee keeping a watch on it).
Sources: Observations, Madoka Magica Trivia


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Did Isuzu have a crush on (or was in love with) Hiroshi, or was it just the scent?
It has been some time since I watched the anime (and I do not have access to it at the moment), but I recently saw an episode 1 excerpt on YouTube where the main characters are in the playground, and I couldn't remember if Isuzu really liked Hiroshi or it was just the wolf-scent thing.
I do remember they end up as "just friends"...
But did she really had feelings for him?


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How come Agemaki couldn't see Itsue afterwords?
In episode 7 - A Feline House, Agemaki takes Zakuro to his family's estate on behest of his father's request to return home. When they enter, Zakuro senses a spirit and assumed that Agemaki had her come to do something about it. When she questions him, Agemaki gets scared that "it's still around".
Agemaki later reveals that the spirit Zakuro may have been sensing is possibly the one he saw as a child which scared him. After being scolded by his father, Agemaki noticed Itsue, his pet cat, gone and assumed the spirit had taken her and even begged for Itsue's return but to no avail.
Afterwards, Zakuro tells Agemaki that Itsue never disappeared, and we find out that the cat that Agemaki's little sister has is Itsue yet Agemaki can't see her. Itsue transforms, revealing that she is actually a Nekomata Spirit and that the spirit Agemaki saw as a child was Itsue in her normal form (looking much larger because of lighting and Agemaki's own size). Itsue transforms back, and Zakuro tells Agemaki that Itsue can't remain in her normal form for too long and he can't see her in her cat form because he can't sense spirits.
However, when Agemaki was a child, he could see Itsue all the time. He has always been afraid of spirits and didn't know Itsue was a Nekomata. I am wondering as to why Agemaki couldn't see Itsue afterwards?


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When did Edea die?
In the third world (Chapter 6), in Sage Yulyana's sidequest to get the Conjurer Asterisk (after awakening 2 crystals) you learn from Dark Knight Alternis Dim, Templar Braev Lee and his wife/Edea's mother Mahzer Lee that the Edea of that world is dead.
However, at the start of the chapter, in a side quest before awakening any Crystals, Black Mage Ominas Crowe was expecting Edea to arrive to serve under his command. Before the fight with Knight Argent Heinkel, he questioned why Edea wasn't with Crowe.
After beating Braev Lee, he said Edea's sword was sent back to after her death. I can't think of why Ominas or Argent would have given a false report considering they just fought Edea and lost, or even how they got a hold of third world's Edea's sword, yet not show any surprise that Edea was actually alive (unlike Braev or Mahzer).
So I am wondering, when did Edea of the third world die? And were the Eternian Sky Knights forces in Caldisla not informed?

Been a while since I played this - where in the third world did you fight Braev? I think I revisited Central Command in all worlds but never could find him.

@Omega after awakening 2 crystals and seeing Yulyana you get a new Sidequest from him, first you fight Alternis in Edea's room in Central Command, Yulyana then will tell the party to go to the Central White Magic Tower (where Mahzer is treated) and that's where you fight Braev, after that you'll then go to the hidden village, find Olivia and fight the Venus sisters (which explains why they are missing too initially), then he'll tell you to go to where Norende was and you find Til and fight some random monsters

authors: عمار عمارعمار


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Can the Titans swim?
I have only seen the anime and haven't read the manga, but a question came to me:
Can the titans swim?
We know that they are abnormally light and strong for their size. However, the fact that they evaporate after dying kind of suggests that they are formed of some sort of compact water vapor, so should we expect them to melt when they come into contact with water? It's not like they disappear when it rains... Or maybe they can't swim because they're too stupid
Because, if they can't, this place in Paris could've been a possibility for humanity.

From http://www.parisetudiant.com/etudiant/sortie/l-ile-seguin-et-les-berges-de-la-seine-boulogne-billancourt.html

We're not shown anything in the anime, and I haven't really read the manga. From your comments about the weight of Titans, it would suggest that they at least can probably float in water. However, the place you linked to seems to be much smaller than the walled-region the plot of Attack on Titan takes place in. Given how there seem to already be some issues with managing the population, I can't really see that being a possibility.

Agreed, you'd need to dig a moat to enclose the walls.  Which, if the titans don't float, would need to be deeper than they are tall (or they'd be able to wade through).  And wider than they can jump/reach.  You'd likely end up moving enough earth to build the walls...  except we don't know they'd drown, though, so they might still be able to walk along the bottom.

This is more of a fascination or an intellectual question. Because if you think about it... Why build walls when you can live on water? Build a city in the middle of the ocean? While it may be controversial, it's not something that can be answered with backed up facts from Anime or Manga. (At least as of yet)

Well there are always abnormals to consider. Their 'skills' are unknown, maybe they are really good with skipping ropes. It wouldn't be abnormal to have a skill of being able to travel at water(swimming or wading or acting like a propeller) than at land.

considering titans don't appear to need to even breathe as long as the water were clear enough for them to get sufficient sunlight they could walk quite happily on the bottom if they didn't float

I don't know if we will resolve this anytime soon without more info from author (which i do believe they will provide as the author seems very into giving details to everything in the world).  Right now the titans are a little mysterious.  What floating comes down to are the rules of buoyancy.  http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy99/phy99x34.htm
So when we find out they are less dense (which they are) and have more air (they are giants), they may just float around.  Does their body expand with water intake? Then they may sink.

I suppose they would be like Brook of One Piece and be able to run over water <3.

i dont think they can't, because Titan body temperature is so high.
unless they swim in boiling water

If you take a look at the official closing theme of Season 2 of Attack on Titan you see the following:

Titan emerging from the water.

But the way that they emerge it suggests

that they actually don't swim but cross bodies of water by walking along the bottom.

Also from the scene we can derive that

if titans can walk along the bottom of bodies of water this implies that they either have no lungs or do not require oxygen for survival which is something that was actually discussed on Anime Stack before.

And finally we can see that

water does not harm them in any way whatsoever.

Titans do not need to breathe. Ymir was buried for decades, the titans inside the walls don't have respiration vents. They also don't need to eat (they vomit the humans they eat after a while). So they can either walk on the bottom of the ocean/lake/river or swim.

Correct. Another post I answered addresses the exact same concepts. In the Attack on Titan Anthology one illustrator in collaboration with the Attack on Titan creators creates a titan with transparent skin so that you can see they lack many organs including lungs.

Well, we know that all of humanity has been wiped out, except for the people living inside the walls.
Seeing as much of mankind lives on islands (such as the Japanese), it's safe to assume that Titans are able to cross water somehow. Presumably, they're able to float due to the previously mentioned attribute of their abnormally light weight.
There's also a river going through Shiganshina District that appears to be used for transporting cargo, so mankind is not oblivious to manmade bodies of water.

Good first answer! Welcome to the site :)

As a counter argument, it could have been the king (or someone else) that purposely infected those islands by injecting humans with the virus.

More than likely, their incredibly low density means they would be unable to submerge themselves in water, with only some exceptions to the Titan sifters using their strength, and even then they probably couldn't swim down.

The answer is we don't know. We have not seen (I think) a titan crossing a body of water.

We don't know if any other cities or islands used water to protect themselves from titans, but none seemed to be known to the populace. The massive size of the walls means that at least one of them should probably be near to the ocean.  I expect that they would know if individuals on boats were safe.  If moats were more effective than walls, they would be implemented in some capacity at the (reportedly) more important locations. It is highly possible, though, that they don't border the ocean.  There definitely isn't an ocean within the outer set of walls, so one has not been accessible for years.
I have not seen it rains on titans.  Ergo, I don't know if rain water would dissolve them.  If it had been the case, we would have already seen it in use.  I would be surprised if they did not try those experiments, but the "discoveries" of the military regarding their physiology still seem ridiculously mundane for having studied them for so many years.
Titans are light compared to their size.  Their density is low enough they should float on the top of the ocean.  They are probably, however, not light enough that the reasonably large ones would not touch the bottom when walking across the rivers of the size that have been shown in the series so far.  Do not forget that while a material with density lower than water will float in water, it will still touch the bottom if the water is shallow enough that their body is not sufficiently submerged to cause a large enough buoyancy. Regardless, whether they float or walk across them, I don't think moats could prevent them from crossing.

Ermm .. if the titans are light compared to their size then why the last titan, who was crawling extremely slowly in last episode of season 3, couldn't walk ?

@Sak because he was still absolutely huge. His density was still low but he was subject to the square cube law.

Some titans can climb. So it is a possibility that they can swim like this guy:
i know he's a shifter but in season 2 when they try to trap the female titan a titan tries to climb and then falls. so some titans may be able to swim.


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Why wasn't Suigintou's Rosa Mystica received by Shinku in the second season?
In the first season, after Suigintou was defeated/destroyed by Shinku, Shinku never received Suigintou's Rosa Mystica.
In the second season, Suigintou was restored, and this time around, she finally lost her Rosa Mystica after being destroyed during the final Alice Game.
While Hina Ichigo also didn't lose her Rosa Mystica when she lost, it was revealed in the second season that it only happened because she agreed to be Shinku's servant. When the Alice Game started in earnest, her Rosa Mystica was then received by Shinku.
How come Shinku never received Suigintou's Rosa Mystica after her first defeat, when it's shown that all the other Rozen Maidens lost theirs after being destroyed (with the exception of Hina Ichigo)?

Half of second season (Traumend) and including the OVA (Overture) contains materials that are original. Not sure whether it explains the discrepancies, though. I think you should give manga a read for the actual storyline.


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Was Tokugawa Ieyasu a fake?
In Fusé: Memoirs of a Huntress, when we see Tokugawa Ieyasu, he is chanting to a scroll, praying to "keep impostors out"
When Shino reaches him, Tokugawa pulls the sword out of the scroll before his head disappears into his robes and pops back out again, with his face looking like that of the father of the woman who gave birth to the first Fusé as depicted in the Kabuki Play.
During the fight, Tokugawa talks about how he would kill Shino, the last Fusé, to correct the mistake he made for allowing his daughter to give birth to them (the Fusé, not Shino). After the fight, his head disappears again to pop back out with Tokugawa's original face.
Was Tokugawa Ieyasu a fake, or did this change have anything to do with the sword he was holding?


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Which episode to start watching One Piece from to see Ace and WhiteBeard getting involved?
I want to start watching One Piece again but don't want to start from the beginning. I know most of the beginning where they assemble a crew and fight Arlong, Buggy, Crocodile.
I want to start at a point where all the big badass characters like Ace and WhiteBeard are involved while still knowing what's going on.  Which is the best episode to start from?

I suggest you to see it from beginning for better understanding but if you insist to see Ace and Whitebeard in action, probably from Sabaody Archipelago Arc starting from episode 385

I've seen most of the begging a couple times lol. Wheres a good place to start to not miss anything big but not in the begging like when they're still getting together.

@Sealkyuubinaruto That would probably be Sabaody Archipelago or Marineford Arc.

It's difficult to give an objective answer, so I'll summarize the arcs to give you an understanding where you should start watching without giving too much spoiler. I'll stick to recurring characters and exclude filler arcs, as I haven't watched those. For the exact episode numbers refer to this page.
If you want to skip to where all the big badass characters like Ace and WhiteBeard are involved you should skip to the Marineford Arc. In that arc you will see an all-out war going down between Whitebeard and the Marines to save Ace. I would recommend you to start at the Sabaody Archipelago Arc though, where a lot of new characters were introduced that will recur in the story. You could skip inbetween arcs if you want. If you would do so, you'd only have missed the introduction of Franky and Brook and the backstory on Robin.
East Blue

First half of the Straw Hat pirates are introduced.

Romance Dawn Arc:

Introduction of Luffy, Zoro, Coby, Red Hair pirates, (Alvida and Helmeppo).
Luffy rescues Coby and Zoro from the marines.

Orange Town Arc:

Introduction of Nami, Buggy (and his pirates).
Strawhat pirates vs Buggy pirates.

Syrup Village Arc:

Introduction of Usopp, Going Merry, (and Jango).
Strawhat pirates vs Black Cat pirates.

Baratie Arc:

Introduction of Sanji, Mihawk, (Fullbody, Johnny and Yosaku).
Strawhat pirates vs Krieg Pirates.

Arlong Park Arc:

Introduction of Arlong, Hachi, (and Mohmoo).
Backstory on Nami and Strawhat pirates vs Arlong pirates.

Loguetown Arc:

Introduction of Smoker, Tashigi and Dragon.
Luffy will be Pirate King.

Alabasta

Robin and Chopper join the crew.

Reverse Mountain Arc:

Introduction of Laboon, Crocus and the Rumbar pirates.
Strawhat pirates enter the grand line.

Whiskey Peak Arc:

Introduction of Baroque Works and Vivi.
Zoro vs Baroque Works.

Little Garden Arc:

Introduction of Mr 3 and two giants of Elbaf, Dorry and Brogy.
Strawhat pirates vs Baroque Works.

Drum Island Arc:

Introduction of Chopper.
Strawhat pirates vs king Wapol.

Alabasta Arc:

Introduction of Robin, Mr 2, Mr 1, Crocodile, Ace.
Strawhat pirates vs Baroque Works.

Sky Island

Introduction of some of those bad-ass characters.

Jaya Arc:

Introduction of Sengoku, Tsuru, Kuma, Doflamingo, Gorosei, Whitebeard pirates, Blackbeard pirates and Noland.
Getting ready to go to Skypiea.

Skypiea Arc:

Introduction of sky islands.
Strawhat pirates vs god Enel and his priests.

Water 7

Franky joins the crew.

Long Ring Long Land Arc:

Introduction of Aokiji.
Strawhat pirates vs Foxy pirates.

Water 7 Arc:

Introduction of Franky, Sogeking, Thousand Sunny, (Spandam and CP9).
Strawhat pirates vs Franky Family
Luffy vs Usopp
Sanji, Sogeking and Franky vs CP9.

Enies Lobby Arc:

Backstory on Robin and Strawhats learn new battle techniques.
Strawhat pirates vs CP9.

Post-Enies Lobby Arc:

Introduction of Garp and Dadan.
Ace vs Blackbeard.

Thriller Bark

Brook joins the crew.

Thriller Bark Arc:

Introduction of Brook, Moriah, (Perona, and Lola).
Strawhat pirates vs warlord Moriah
Strawhat pirates vs Kuma.

Summit War

Shit goes down.

Sabaody Archipelago Arc:

Introduction of Duval, Kizaru, Rayleigh, the Eleven Supernovas, World Nobels, (Fisher Tiger and his Sun pirates).
Strawhat pirates vs Rosy Life Riders.
Eleven Supernovas vs admiral Kizaru and Pacifista.
Strawhat pirates vs admiral Kizaru.

Amazon Lily Arc:

Introduction of Boa Hancock.
Luffy finds out Ace has been imprisoned by the Marines.

Impel Down Arc:

Introduction of Jinbe, Ivankov and Magellan.
Luffy brings chaos to Impel Down prison.

Marineford Arc:

Introduction of Akainu, Blackeard's new crewmembers.
All-out-war of Whitebeard pirates and their allies vs the marines and the shichibukai in order to save Ace from execution.

Post-War Arc:

Introduction of Sabo and Haki.
Backstory on Luffy, Ace and Sabo.
Three year training-timeskip of the Strawhat pirates.

Fishman Island

A glimps of the new techniques the Strawhats learned during the timeskip.

Return to Sabaody Arc:

Strawhat pirates regroup after their training.

Fishman Island Arc:

Introduction of Shirahoshi, Big Mom and Koala.
Strawhat pirates vs New Fishman Pirates.
Backstory on the Sun pirates.

Pirate Alliance

Doflamingo doing a lot of sick shit.

Punk Hazard Arc:

Introduction of Dr. Vegapunk, Caesar Clown, Kaido, Kin'emon and Momonosuke.
Strawhat pirates and Heart pirates form an alliance.
Strawhat pirates and Law vs Caesar and the Donquixote pirates.

Dressrosa Arc (ongoing):

Introduction of Tontatta, CP0, Fujitora, Bartolomeo, and A LOT of other characters that might make a recurrence in future arcs.
Strawhat pirates vs Donquixote pirates.

FYI, the main suggestion as to where to start is the same as my answer (unless you specifically don't think he should watch Strong World).  The Sabaody Archipelago Arc starts on episode 382.

@kaine 385 actually. 382~384 is filler. Aside from that I agree and upvoted cos I agree. I posted more details on other arcs for others that might not be as interested in badass fights as much as OP also cos boredom.

This is a nice summary, I love it. Please update this till the current arc. thank you. :)

I am biased and would prefer to watch it from the beginning... largely because I love the show and want to do that myself if I had the time.  Nevertheless, you don't need to watch everything in order to know what is going on now. The start of each arc is an acceptable place to try and pick up the show (though you will miss things obviously).
I would recommend that you start from episode 382, you will get to know the whole crew a just after they are finally assembled. Before this point there are several entertaining arcs in which the crew progresses through the East Blue and then Grand Line fighting Big Bads and gathers new members.  The current crew becomes whole in episode 381.  You get to see them in one arc together (which provides very important information) and then BIG things happen.  You will meet the characters who are the big players in the world as Luffy does and will get quick overviews of the now underpowered big bads from he previous arcs. This is a major turning point for the show and I don't think there is another good place to pick it up again until episode 517.  If you start there you will have missed the exact badasses you want to see.
Additionally, I would recommend you watch Strong World.  It is a canon movie between (i think) episodes 381 and 382.
Do not think, however, that I am saying that the first 381 episodes are not worth watching.  They are amazing and provide important backstory to every character.
I prefer subs and don't know where to find dubs anywhere but Hulu. Sorry for not being able to answer that part.


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Where did these songs appear in Black Rock Shooter?
I imported soundtracks for the Black Rock Shooter anime series (not OVA). As per my normal procedure, after getting them, I then searched for torrents of the same soundtracks so I could get ripped .mp3 versions (or FLAC which I could then convert to .mp3) which had the metadata and cover scans for when I put it on my iPod/iPhone (saves up on time having to edit 7589+ songs).
In the process, I found out that I didn't have one of the soundtracks in the torrent. It consisted of 3 tracks. (Note: these are how the track title meta data had them named)

Re:Make
NO SCARED
Rock,Scissors,Paper

All 3 had the Artist Meta Tag as ONE OK ROCK and the Album Title as AZCS-2013 (I think it's a catalog number). Below is the corresponding cover scan.

Though I didn't buy the soundtrack, I decided to listen to it to see if I had missed a soundtrack. It was good music, but I don't remember any of it. I know it's definitely not the Opening as that's the Hitsune Miku Black Rock Shooter song.
I would like to buy it, but first I want to know where in Black Rock Shooter these songs came from? (Quite possibly only 1 was used). If they happen to come from a different Black Rock Shooter media, I would like to know what it is so I can get it and check it out.

No Scared is the opening to Black Rock Shooter: The Game (on PSP).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnATga1UdHg

To add, "Re;Make" and "Rock, Scissors, Paper" were not used in any BRS things as far as I know - they're just other songs on the same album.


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Were the Twelve Kingdoms/Juuni Kokuki novels ever finished?
Twelve Kingdoms/Juuni Kokuki was an anime that I really loved and I was very disappointed when it got cancelled, also because it had some unfinished story arcs like the Gyousou/Taiki arc.
Since there are translations available of the novels (both official and unofficial), I have pondered about reading those. However, I always get the impression that though the novels do continue the story arcs in the anime (and more), they were never finished either, so if you were to read them you'd still be left with unfinished arcs (though perhaps ones different from the anime). While searching the internet, I can't seem to find a definitive answer unfortunately, the sources I find either do not mention anything about whether the novels were finished, or to me seem vague about it at best and mostly talk about that not all novels were translated.
Does anybody know whether the (original Japanese) novels have finished or has anybody read all the novels and can give the answer?

From the Wikipedia article for the series, it looks like it has, but I'm not sure.

I believe the main story has concluded, the subsequent volumes, The Dream of Prosperity and The Birds of Hisho (most recently in 2013), are collected short stories and previous unpublished stories set in various kingdoms. Kodansha USA currently holds the right for the series in the US, since the collapse of Tokyopop, with only 8 volumes of the original Japanese release having been published (Tokyopop merged the first 8 volumes into 4).

Thank you for the reply! From more searching I came across http://12ktp.inspirelight.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=499 where when I read the replies it seems to confirm my impression that though the Taiki/Gyousou story line was continued in the books, it was never concluded. I don't know though whether there are any other unfinished story lines or if that's the only one that was only partially finished.


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Why was Subaru Konoe transferred into Kureha's class?
In episode 12, Takanashi Punyuru appeared as transferred student in Sakamachi Kureha's class. However, when she was Kanade's butler (Subaru Konoe), she was on same class with Sakamachi Kinjirou. Why was she transferred to Kureha's class instead of Kinjirou's?

As I was reading manga of Mayo Chiki, I found the answer. I might have missed it while watching anime.
In Volume 3 Chapter 18 - Bayside Baby, when Kureha and and others met them at the beach, Kanade introduced Konoe as Takanashi Punyuru, a younger cousin of Konoe, and same grade as Kureha. This explains why Konoe as Takanashi Punyuru appeared as transfer student in Kureha's class.
Below is the part of chapter where Kanade says

She's in the same grade as you, so you don't have to add the "-san"

In this context, "she" refers to Takanashi (Konoe) and "you" refers to Kureha.


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Is there a way to give up ownership of the death note without losing the shingami eyes?
Let's say, John owns two death notes. One belongs to Ryuk and the other belongs to for Example Ragnarok. He makes the eyedeal with Ryuk, then, he gives ownership from the death note Ragnarok brought him. Will he now lose the shingiami eyes?

probably not as in this situation he is still a death note owner. I think you lose the eyes under the same conditions you would lose your memory.

@DarkYagami sorry i misread so i've deleted by answer for now, i can't find any evidence as i don't think it's ever stated what happens when a human has 2 Shinigami following them. i have a theory about the Eye Deal actually being made with the Shinigami who owns the Death Note and by giving up that Death Note you will loose the eyes (even if you own the other from another Shinigami). however this is flawed as it doesn't account for what happens with a Death Note without a Shinigami Owner like Rem's in the anime

On chapter 5, Ryuk stated that the shinigami eye was a deal between the shinigami and the human owner of a certain note, so it will probably be associated to that relationship, so the eye will be gone as soon as the shinigami leaves his side.


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Do Spell Ranks have any numerical equivalent?
Looking at Hayate's and Nanoha's spells, some of them are given a rank. For instance, Nanoha's Starlight Breaker is ranked S along with Blast Calamity and Hayate's Ragnarok, while Hayate's (or Reinforce's to be exact) Diabolic Emission is ranked S-
While there is information on Ranks, these seem to only refer to the TSAB's internal Mage Ranking and not how they relate to spells.
I am wondering if the Spell Ranks have any numerical equivalent to them – something similar to The Nasuverse Rankings (in which B = 40, A = 50, and the power after appending +'s is (Rank Value + (Rank Value x No. of +'s)), so A++ = 150).

There are no such numeric formulae; at least, not in the official materials. Numeric rankings are rarely mentioned in the show; one of the rare such examples occurs in an episode of the original series, where Nanoha's magic power is estimated as 1.27 million, while Fate's is 1.43 million. (They were both of AAA rank at the time.) "Plus" and "minus" are not modifiers that can be applied multiple times to a rank, either; "A+" is simply a rank higher than "A" and lower than "AA-".
Mage ranks are qualitative; they do not just measure amount of magic power, but also skill. They are usually granted by a test by TSAB; when this is not possible, i.e. in case of antagonists, they can be estimated. A spell rank presumedly signifies the rank of a mage who should be able to cast the spell, but this isn't a hard and fast rule: "Eternal Coffin" is a S+ rank spell, but Chrono (ranked AAA+) was able to use it thanks to his device's specialization for freezing magic; for another example, Teana (ranked B at the time) was able to use an AA-rank technique during a training to combine her projectiles with a barrier in order to protect them from an anti-magic field.


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How many different mental states of Banri are there in Golden Time?
It is more of a list of the different mental states of Banri and the mental states he is experiencing.
So, please correct me and expand the list. I will follow this model:

"name". When he appears. What memories he has. Whether he is a stable or temporary state of mind.

Pre-accident Banri. Shown in flashbacks. Has all the memories pre-accident, stable.
Post-accident (Main) Banri. The one that enrolls university and dates Koko. Has all post accident memories (including the hospital escapade). Stable during the first three quarters of the show.
Ghost Banri. Several scenes throughout the whole series. Only watches, cannot interact. Has all memories (since he is the incarnation of past Banri and watched main Banri all the time). "Stable", vanishes after his unresolved issue settles after Linda's confession/answer.
Possessed Banri. A few episodes in the mid-series. Has pre-accident memories, but is somewhat psychotic. Very unstable.
Tabula rasa Banri. Last quarter of the series. Is catatonic, no memories. Unstable, reverts to main Banri after a while. Sometimes shown in the transition between possessed and main Banri (do proper names have plurals? - cross posting to ELL.SE).
Healed Banri. Final episodes. Has pre-accident memories only. Stable, but may have gone into possessed mode offscreen during the month he spent home to retrieve the ring.
"Final evolution/Awakened" (sorry for the pun) Banri. Ending, after Koko's visit and the mirror epiphany. Has all memories. Probably very stable, since he is the happy ever after version...

So, did I get it right or am I missing/mistaking something?


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Why does the Aburame clan cover their eyes?
The explanation in Naruto Wikia was not sufficient so I decided to go through the trouble to ask here. :)
Given that the defining traits of an Aburame is to wear something to cover their eyes and to dignify their whole body, why is it that they cover their eyes in the first place? Whilst, the other noble clans like Uchiha and Hyuga never covers theirs? Does covering their eyes boost their power? Or does it have to do with the insects getting on their eyes? Or might it be that their eyes are not presentable or not to be shown to the public?
Any philosophies that might shed light to the importance of protecting the Aburame clan's mysterious eyes?

They do not cover their eyes. They use sunglasses/dim glasses for protection.
Since they are known for having the characteristics of insects, we can assume that they have crepuscular vision and some have nocturnal traits - meaning that they are most active in twilight/low light/night. Their eyes are highly adapted on low light.
Therefore, using their naked eyes are like humans using Night Vision goggles. Just imagine the amount of light they will receive during daylight.
Source: Insect Vision

The scientific explanation on this one is pretty much on the spot! But wouldn't it be more of quality and improve their ability to sense threat without their glasses on since their eyes probably can see more because it has more or improved lenses?

Yes, given that they have improved senses. But as you can see, there must be something special on their glasses. It can be an adaptive glasses too.

It's most likely that it's simply to look cool.
It's also entirely possible to just be a visual cue to help viewers to immediately identify a member of the Aburame clan. You can almost always tell what clan the character is in based on how they look.

Uchiha have black hair, dark or blue clothes, and the Sharingan,
the Hyuga clan have black hair, white or light colored clothes, and the Byakugan.
the Akimichi clan are usually rotund, have markings on their cheeks, have the kanji for 'food' (食, shoku) on their armor, and have some shade of brown or red for their hair.

My best guess is that the Aburame clan is shown with some form of shades, a heavy coat or jacket, and bugs that fly from their sleeves, which is why you rarely see their eyes.

I think it's so that insects don't crawl into their eyes, Maybe most abarume clan people don't totally love bugs in their eyes and wear goggles, but the more passive ones wear shades just to fit in.

For me personally, I think it's because they have bug eyes.
Check out season 3 episode 47, 7 min 35 sec into the episode. You'll see what I'm talking about looking at Shino's eyes.

Welcome to Anime.SE. There's an existing answer explaining why its insect eyes might cause the problem. Comparing to that, this answer seems too short in detail: why do they have to cover their eyes if they have bug eyes? Consider [edit]ing the answer to expand and improve it. Lastly, you might also be interested in taking a quick [tour] to get familiar with how this site works. Thanks!


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Why does Minori have a flower on her head?
In Toradora SOS - Hurray For Foodies (as listed on the DVD Cover of the NISA English Dub Release), I understand why Taiga and Ami have animal ears (Taiga is supposed to be the Plam Top Tiger and Ami is a dog because Taiga calls her Chihuahua). However, why does Minori has a flower on her head?
Example (subbed)
NOTE: Toradora SOS 1 and 2 are on the first BluRay disc which had Episode 1 - 9 and I don't recall any character trait of Minori which would indicate the reason for the flower in those episodes.

This is a little tenuous, but the kanji in Minori's name seem to have kind of a plant theme to them. In Japanese, her name is written 櫛枝 実乃梨 (Kushieda Minori). The kanji 枝, read eda, has the meanings "bough", "branch", "twig". The kanji 梨, read as ri, means "pear tree". That could be why they chose to symbolize her with a flower.
Denshi Jisho page on the kanji in Minori's name.