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Why do some Sharingan eyes have unique Mangekyou abilities?
Itachi, Sasuke, Madara's Sharingan and Danzo's "Sharingan" eyes have the "standard" Mangekyou abilities of Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, Izanagi and Izanami. (Granted not all of them have used all the abilities.)
However, Shisui and Obito's sharingan have unique Mangekyou abilities (Komoamatsukami and Kamui respectively). Why do some Sharingan eyes come with unique abilities? Do they get these abilities in lieu of the standard abilities or in addition to them?
Obito has always used Kamui and never been shown using the standard abilities, with his Sharingan (he once used Izanagi with a transplanted Sharingan), which makes me wonder if the special abilities are in lieu of the standard ones.

The spoiler markup seems to be not working for multiple paragraphs. If someone knows how to do it, please edit it. That would also help me learn.

I'm not sure if that was what you wanted. But it was not working because you had your sentences broken up into several lines. If you want to do it with that formatting you had before, you'll need to add double-space at the end of each line and a >! at the beginning of each new line. That way I think it'll work. Hope this helped! :D

@JNat Thanks, this is indeed what I wanted. I forgot about the 2 spaces thing of markdown. :)

Each Mangekyo is given a different eye pattern, and a different ability. Mangekyo literally translates to kaleidoscope, where each time you look you see a different, symmetric shape.

Itachi had access to Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi
Sasuke used Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi, which allowed him to shape and control his Amaterasu
Obito has Kamui. Obito also uses "throw-away" Sharingan eyes for Izanagi.
Shisui has a different one, the Kotoamatsukami.
Madara's ,Izuna's, and Indra's eye techniques were not revealed.
Kakashi has Kamui as well, since it's technically Obito's eye.
Danzo can use Shisui's Kotoamatsukami, since he has his eye. It's unknown if he can also any other Mangekyo Sharingan abilities with it (like Amaterasu or Tsukuyomi).

Also

Susano'o is achieved once you control both of the techniques in your eyes, regardless of what they are. That's the reason Kakashi (And Obito) for instance cannot ever achieve a Susano'o individually, but could when

 Obito's spirit possessed Kakashi and gave him both Mangekyo Sharingan

Which technique you gain isn't "predetermined". You cannot discern it before you gain the Mangekyo and it seems to be random, however it may be linked to an individual's personality and skill set - Itachi was incredibly skilled with Genjutsu, and gained the Tsukuyomi. Sasuke was shown to be very skilled with Fire Release jutsu and for much of the anime had a burning hatred inside of him, which may be why he gained incredible control over his Amaterasu. This is pure speculation however.
Many people have been speculating that Madara had to have the Tsukuyomi due to his use of Genjutsu on Oonoki, however all Sharingan users, whether or not they have the Mangekyo, can cast Genjutsu simply via eye-contact. The strength of this varies with the strength of the user, but with how powerful Madara is, his Genjutsu: Sharingan approaching Tsukuyomi levels of strength would not be unreasonable.
Additionally, Izanagi and Izanami are both jutsu that can be used by simple Sharingan users, without need of a Mangekyo or Senju DNA.
Ref: http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Sharingan , http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Mangeky%C5%8D_Sharingan

Thanks for the answer. I had a mistaken assumption that Izanagi and Izanami are techniques beyond Susanoo, but I read the manga again, and as you said, Mangekyou is indeed not necessary. Sasuke did mention once that one needs to have control over Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi to use Susanoo, but in the light of what you mentioned, he was likely referring to just himself. It is interesting though to note that Obito and Shisui have the same technique in both eyes. Also, if Obito had not gifted his left eye to Kakashi, he would have been able to use Susanoo. Interesting.

Now that 1 year has passed, this answer can be updated :D We can update Obito's , Kakashi's, and Madara's techniques. On that note, it is somewhat strange that the left eye generally has a different technique from the right eye, but not in Shisui's case.

@krikara: Actually, not we can't. Obito's has a different technique from the others. Madara's techniques were still not revealed (apart from the Susanoo, which is implied to be there for all maximum potential Mangekyos).

@MadaraUchiha Not sure what you mean. Obito has Kamui, same with Kakashi. As for Madara's techniques, see my explanation comment for user2042. We know he can use both Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu.

@MadaraUchiha: are you really sure that Susano'o can be activated as soon as you control both techniques in your eyes, regardless of what they are?

@MadaraUchiha have they revealed what unique ability Madarar's sharingan has?

This "answer" has a lot of misinformation. Sasuke doesn't have Tsukuyomi. Being related doesn't necessarily have any bearing on the Mangekyo techniques -- Sasuke had Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi, which allowed him to control Amaterasu rather than just creating it. Izanagi doesn't require Senju cells, as Madara used it to "negate" his death without having Senju cells ((he had Hashi's skin but it hadn't been integrated into his body yet)). Tobi had his Mangekyo when he used Izanagi, but he activated Izanagi with a spare Sharingan he had.

@RFKomos Sounds like a good candidate for editing. Feel free to [edit] this answer with more accurate info.

To perform Izanagi and Izanami, only a regular Sharingan is required (although Izanagi is further perfected when used in combination with Senjuu cells or genes).
Susano'o is "the strength of the tempestuous force that resides only within those of have mastered"1:

Amaterasu, "representing the light of the material world"1.
Tsukuyomi, "the nightmare realm, representing the world of the mind and darkness"1.

This means that any shinobi known to have used Susano'o, must have have mastered both Amaterasu (with his right eye) and Tsukuyomi (with his left eye) beforehand. Given this, unlike what Madara's answer suggests, the latter two techniques are not unique to Itachi and Sasuke, since Uchiha Madara has been seen to use the Susano'o. This means that, although it remains yet to be seen, he must have mastered Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi before.
As for the origin of the more "particular" Mangekyou abilities, there seems to be no reliable source from which one can take conclusions. However, one can speculate:

They can be some sort of mutations. Shisui's Kotoamatsukami seems to be unique to him, not rare, which could mean that he had some particularity that allowed him to develop this technique.
Obito's Kamui may have developped due to the fact that the eyes were "separated" (one with him and the other with Kakashi). As the series develops, we see that the jutsu is the same, but has some particularities depending on which eye uses it. This could mean that each of the users (Obito and Kakashi) may have somehow adapted the technique, or that Kakashi's technique is much weaker and has more downsides due to the fact that he is not an Uchiha.
Still regarding Kamui, the databook states that "with proficiency, it becomes a frightening jutsu that can suck a person whole into another world." My interpretation of this (especially the "with proficiency" part) is that with enough proficiency, Kakashi can master this frightening technique. However, the Naruto Wiki page on Kamui seems to interpret this as: with enough proficiency, any Mangekyou Sharingan user can master this frightening technique.
As for whether these "special" techniques are presented as a plus or as a substitute to the "basic Mangekyou techniques", there is also no information. But, given the fact that we never saw either Kakashi or Obito using any of the "basic techniques", I think it is relatively safe to assume that they are present in lieu of them.

1Naruto: The Official Character Databook

Honestly, I'd venture to guess that Tsukiyomi, Amaterasu, and Susanoo are a set of techniques that rarely occur among the Uchiha. Madara was famed for the use of the techniques, I suppose. Following this, it has been said that Itachi and Sasuke are far more than average, normal, or standard Uchiha, they seem to be exceptional Shinobi, even by Uchiha "standards". This may be partly because of their unique Sharingan, being able to access the Trifecta Tsuki-Amate-Susa combination. We, the fans, see this Trifecta as being the norm for Sharingan, when in fact they are likely a rarity among the Uchiha clan.

This is true. Obito stated that Susanoo is a rare occurrance for Uchiha. That means Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi are also rare.

Madara also can also use Tsukuyomi as his objective is to use infinite tsukuyomi which would only be possible if he possesses Tsukuyomi.
Maybe he could also use Amaterasu? That's why he could pull off his Susano'o. So, these three abilities (At least two) seem to be possessed by all Mangekyō users granted they have awoken them.
Maybe Shisui, Obito and Kakashi discover their unique abilities before these three. Hence, it can be deduced that either most Mangekyō have the same abilities and due to some unknown reasons some also have a special one.
Or it could be that Madara's, Sasuke's, and Itachi's unique Mangekyō abilities have yet to be shown. Or Kishi is just mad. Or maybe I am?

It's not certain that Madara can use Tsukuyomi, Remember the Obito is trying to use it, and he can't use Tsukuyomi. It's an interesting theory though.

Madara can in fact use Tsukuyomi. The Eye of Moon plan is using the moon to reflect his own sharingan, casting Tsukuyomi on everyone. Additionally, Tsukuyomi (and Amaterasu) is required to awaken Susanoo as stated by Sasuke. While Sasuke may have just been referring to himself and not MS users in a general sense, Japanese mythology depicts Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo as siblings. Thus it is safe to say Sasuke's statement works in a general sense.

@krikara: Need I remind you that Obito tried to pull off the Eye of the Moon as well (and he almost succeeded)? Obito doesn't have Tsukuyomi, both his eyes have a slightly different version of Kamui.

@MadaraUchiha Considering all cases, we really don't know how Obito planned to do it, whether it using the Shinju's, Madara's, or Sasuke's eye. But let us assume he wasn't going to use Madara at all for his plan. We still have two indicators that Madara can use Tsukuyomi: Sasuke's statement and Japanese mythology. And this excludes Obito's original statement, where he says reflecting one's eye for execution.

@MadaraUchiha
Madara did use Tsukuyomi against the Raikage, In the 5vs1 battle.

@MphLee Nope, that wasn't Tsukuyomi, it was a normal Genjutsu: Sharingan, just like Sasuke used. As far as we know, Tsukuyomi is as unique to Itach as Kotoamatsukami is unique to Shisui.

@MadaraUchiha I'm not sure, I'll check again. I know that we actually can't see in the scene how that Genjutsu looked to the raikage, but I this doesn't exclude that it was the Tsukuyomi: Tsukuyomi from an external point of view last few seconds, as in the 5vs1 battle, but yeah, even in sasuke vs Killer B it looks the same, but it was not the Tsukuyomi.
I'll check better anyways.

@MphLee Tsukuyomi cannot be broken by an external ally ("Release!") because it distorts the victim's sense of time. Thus ending within a few seconds (few days in the victim's mind). Madara put the Raikage under genjutsu in order to hit him more easily, and Onoki released it, which shouldn't be possible.

@MadaraUchiha Ah oke! I didn't know that (that Tsukuyomi can't be broken).

@MphLee Kakashi says that to Chyo when they battle (projected) Itachi when rushing to rescue Gaara. Chyo presents with the common battle plan against Dojutsu users. One ally falls to the Genjutsu, while the other attacks the user from behind, then releasing the jutsu. But Kakashi tells her it won't work because Tsukuyomi is too potent, as one stare would "insta-kill" any ally in 3 seconds, without the possibility of a release.

Following the manga, susanoo is only achieved by those who can use both, tsukuyomi and amatarasu. Japanese folk lore provides further insight to this because the three "techniques" are named after 3 "gods" who are siblings. We can infer that madara can use amatarasu since he is seen using both susanoo and tsukuyomi. On a side note, either purposely or through error, itachi is shown using susanoo without his mangekyo sharingan active, and madara is shown using it while using the rennegan. This leads me to believe that susanoo can be used at any time without the sharingan being active as long as amatarasu and tsukuyomi can be used. Further, an above answer suggests that obito's kamui is the only ability of his mangekyo sharingan. However, due to his attempt to use eye of the moon without madara, I think it's also safe to assume he can also use tsukuyomi. Should be noted however, the ten tails is NEEDED to complete the jutsu, and ITS eye is reflected on the moon, not the user, which could mean infinite tsukuyomi could be a seperate jutsu only usable by the ten tails and it's jinchiriki. Also should be noted obito used a small scale version of this technique in one of the movies, which drew naruto and Sakura into another "dream world". A small orb was present during the casting, which could lead to it being an entirely seperate, although similarly named, technique.
Unfortunately though, with the information we have, there is currently no definitive answer to weither or not there are an actual set of techniques possible for all sharingan users to unlock, or if the abilities between sharingan users themselves are unique.
We do have manga quotes stating that madara itachi and sasuke are exceptional among their kin, and we know they all can use amatarasu tsukuyomi and because of that susanoo. We also have manga quotes that say these techniques are rare within their clan. It is the lack of uchiha that make the techniques seem like the "norm"
Because 3 of the 5 uchiha who's techniques are known to us are the previously mentioned set. I'll save my issues with probability and chance lol.
Also, clearing up an above answer, madara was reanimated (edo tensai) with both eyes and in his "prime". Meaning all the techniques he had aquired during his lifetime would be able to be employed, including his aquiring hashiramas cells, and rennegan despite his aquiring the later on his deathbed. It was on his deathbed prior to his meeting obito, that transplanted BOTH of his rennegan eyes to nagato, and began to set his eye of moon plan into action. It was with the help of obito and black zetsu (madara's will) that the would influence nagato into his actions during the sage arc, and would bring to fruition the seemingly foiled plan. When the jinchiriki were captured and had their respective tailed beasts pulled from them, they died (exception garaa who died and was revived). They were reanimated (edo tensai) and reinfused with the tailed beast chakra, while the beasts themselves seemed to be sealed in the gedo statue, despite the former jinchiriki being able to use full beast transformations. Apparent from son goku being freed from the chakra rods embedded in him, but still being sealed in the statue, and proven at the dismissal of the edo tensai and the jinchiriki with no effect of the beasts themselves.
Finally, when madara is brought back into his real life body, he has NO EYES, until zetsu recovers the rennegan obito was using which was originally madara's.

Sharingan is activated by emotional distress as recently explained by the edo tensei hokages. Chakra from the brain hat is reflected in the eyes. My guess is intelligence and the level of emotional distress contributes to an ability. Something of note, Kishi loves his bloodline abilities and clan related abilitites. Iwould not be surprised if a bloodline plays a role in sharingan abilities. Recently it is mentioned that Sasuke resembles Madara's brother...

The abilities of the eyes are determined by the users skill and there own training. Amaterasu was given to Sasuke by Itachi and in his other eye he implanted blaze control so that he could incorporate Amaterasu into has chidori and as an example Sasuke was able to use part of Susano'o before he had blaze control and Amaterasu.
And to clear something up the user does not have to have Amaterasu or Tsukuyomi, they only have to master the two abilities that they chose to implant into there eyes through concentration and training which is shown when Kakashi uses Susano'o

The normal abilities of the Mangekyou Sharingan are Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi. However, there are not many Mangekyou sharigan users. If the user are skilled in genjutsu the user will eventually be able to use the Tsukuyomi better. For example Itachi was skilled in Tsukuyomi and that's why he can use it so well. Shisui was the best in genjutsu before attaining the Mangekyou sharingan so when he got the MS, he enhanced the genjutsu, forming Kotoamatsukami. Sasuke cannot use the Tsukuyomi as well as Itachi, but Itachi implanted his already skilled use of Amaterasu in Sasuke, so that's why Sasuke could use Amaterasu so well.
When Obito gained his Mangekyou sharingan he somehow gained his own special power called Kamui. His left eye is what Kakashi has and it's a long range power, whereas Obito's left eye is short range.
When the Mangekyou sharingan user can use the powers of the 2 eyes they may unlock the Susanno. Shisui's Kotoamatsukami used his two eyes; that's why he can use Susanno also.
Hoped this helped!

I edited your post to make it more clear and easier to read. If I cut anything important, you can change it back.

spoilers they have unique sharingan abilities because people are unique.
and to the guy who said that madara only transplanted his right eye to nagato. No HE DID NOT
he transplanted both eyes to Nagato when Nagato was so young he did not remember it.. he then used replacement eyes that he got from someone else. thats why nagato had both eyes.
he had the sharingan and Rinnegan while in Edo Tensei mode because the Edo Tensei brings a
person back in there living form. when he was revived with Rinne Tensei he had no eyes because  1 eye was in nagato and the other was in Obito
and the reason he could use susanoo still was because susanoo is a spiritual ethereal creature made of pure chakra summoned by a sharingan user who has has mastered a unique mangekyou sharingan ability in each eye
and for the guy who wandered how he could use susanoo while he had his Rinnegan active its easy. he awakened the Rinnegan naturally(albeit in a cheating manner) so his eyes evolved from pure EMS to an to the Rinnegan the completed Rinnegan has the full power of both sharingan and Rinnegan the reason is because the sages son Indra inherited his eyes in the form of the sharingan(because the Sharingan actually predates the Rinnegan and was one of 2 dojutsu the sages mom had(byakugan and Sharingan)

Consider this as a spoiler if you haven't found out yet.
Madara performed Tsukuyomi on Raikage on the episode he revealed his perfect Susanoo. The manga also mentioned that Madara gave his left eye to Nagato without him knowing, which was later taken by Obito. However, he had a spare left eye possibly, and yet not a right since he said he could take Obito's if Obito dies. Although Madara was reanimated with a fake right eye, it is still possible for him to use his Susanoo. A similar case would be where the Jinchuriki were reanimated with their Kyubi, even though the Akatsuki extracted the Kyubi from them before death. Once an Uchiha activate their trump card Susanoo, they can even use it while blind. So as long as they awakened Susanoo before death, they can be reanimated with it, but since it's fake, he probably couldn't unlock its true power of Amaterasu.

And by the way madara lost his right eye by somebody I forgot he mentioned while discussing with crippled obito


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Is the Hyuuga main family's juinjutsu a Swastika?
In Naruto, the Hyūga clan is divided into two houses: the main house and the branch house.
The main house members brand the branch house members with a Juinjutsu (Cursed mark), which has the objective of sealing away the Byakugan upon the death of the one branded. It also has the function of controlling the branch house members through the destruction of the wearer's brain cells, which can be activated by a hand seal only known by the main house members.
The seal looks like this:

Although the Hyūga Main Family's Juinjutsu was altered in the anime for its resemblance with a swastika (and the connotation with the Nazi regime), the manga version maintains its original design.
Quoting directly from Wikipedia:

The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit swastika - "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix. The swastika literally means "to be good". Or another translation can be made: "swa" is "higher self", "asti" meaning "being", and "ka" as a suffix, so the translation can be interpreted as "being with higher self".

Both these translations would fit (at least according to my interpretation) the secondary purpose of the Juinjutsu:
- To be good: the secondary function of the Juinjutsu is to control the branch house members, which is to 'make them good' (at least to make them submit themselves to the main house members' will).
- Being with higher self: the Juinjutsu links the branch house members ('lower self') with the main house members ('higher self').
Are there any canon sources that state:
If this resemblance is purely coincidental? Or if the seal is really a swastika?

Why its even altered in anime, if its because of its association with nazi then its too sad because Swastika is used way before Nazi's.

It is probably intentionally a swastika, though it is definitely not referring to Naziism. I don't know anything about Naruto canon, so I have no official source, but swastikas are often highly stylized and this certainly fits the bill. Googling for "Hindu swastika" or "Buddhist swastika" will yield plenty of images, some of which are pretty distorted (more than the image you've posted), so it's very likely not a coincidence. For instance, this Hindu swastika is very common:
.
Swastikas are common in Buddhism, Hinduism, and many other eastern religions (Buddhism being the most common in Japan), and are well-known in both the East and West, though with different interpretations. In particular, in Buddhism, the swastika is usually counter-clockwise (Nazi swastikas were clockwise, and the seal you have posted is counter-clockwise as one would expect of a Buddhist swastika). It doesn't have quite the same meaning as you've described in Buddhism; most Buddhists think of the Swastika as a symbol for eternity, protection, and good luck.
In Japanese, this Buddhist symbol is called manji or 卍字 and is used as a sort-of official symbol for Buddhism similar to how crosses represent Christianity. Maps usually indicate Buddhist temples with these manji. While Japanese people (as well as most other Eastern cultures) would recognize the Nazi swastika by it's design, they would not associate all swastikas with Naziism as many would in the West. In short, I'd be extremely surprised if anyone coincidentally drew one in a manga without intending some symbolism, and it's a common enough symbol that there may not be any official mention of it. The Wikipedia article has a lot of information on the subject, so it's worth a read.
As a note, swastikas are used in a number of other manga, including Yu Yu Hakusho and Blade of the Immortal (the latter retained the swastikas in the English versions).

Also the 卍 alone is read as まんじ, without 字. :)

It is also worth noting that in Bleach, the Bankai is written as "卍解".

So the swastika is 'automatically' associated with the meanings I and you said, in Eastern culture. Although I didn't think it had anything to do with Naziism (I already knew about the Swastika's origin, and had already read the Wikipedia page), I hadn't thought about the fact that the symbol in itself has a completely different 'automatic' association in our culture and in theirs. Nice!

@JNat The stuff about Naziism was more for other people who come upon this answer and don't know anything about swastikas apart from Nazis. In any case, as you say, the main idea is that swastikas are a pretty meaningful symbol in Japan, particularly connected to Buddhism, which wouldn't be drawn in just accidentally.

@Alenanno It seems that まんじ　can also be written as 万字　with the same meaning.

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Is "Anime Studio" animation software used professionally in making anime?
Is Anime Studio used by any popular Anime studios for actual, commercial Anime production?
I know it's fairly common with amateurs and quite a few Western Animation professionals, but has it ever been used to produce a full season of an anime series that was aired in Japanese TV, or some Anime of comparable scale? Or is just a marketing twist, and only ever Western animation of professional quality has been made in it?

I voted to close this question because it's offtopic; see here: http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4/what-software-is-used-for-making-anime http://meta.anime.stackexchange.com/questions/6/are-questions-about-how-to-make-anime-and-manga-off-topic/105#105

@looper: The rationale behind the upvoted answer is "They're [...] suited to Graphic Design and are more about the animation process (not unique to anime) rather than the medium itself." - how does that relate to my question? Do you suppose people at Graphic Design would be capable of answering it?

sorry, I meant the question, not the answer. Sadly, I can't edit my comment ...

Video production techniques and software selections don't fall in-scope of this site because Anime is part of the question. I understand there may be folks here can coincidentally answer your question, but that doesn't make the subject on-topic. This is a variation of the old "What is the favorite softdrink... of programmers" problem from Stack Overflow. Sorry. I hope one of our Graphic/AVP forums can help you.

@RobertCartaino: Are you serious? This is more of "does any of Fortune500 use GCC?". Though I guess, FAQ's definition "for anime and manga fans" is more thorough than expected - Consumers only, Creators are unwelcome.

@SF. Yes, this is an end user fandom site. Creators are certainly welcome to participate, but discussions of "Anime" do not extend into all facets of production techniques... much like we wouldn't discuss publishing, licensing channels, marketing,  distribution, etc, etc.

@RobertCartaino I can't find anywhere in the area51 discussions or on Meta implying that this site is restricted to the end user experience, and we've had some very good questions on anime production, so I don't agree with that stance in any case. Questions of scope seem like they should be decided by the community at large on Meta rather than inconsistently applied without discussion.

If Japanese anime studios do use this software, you'd think their user stories would consist of at least someone from Japan or someone who's done work with a Japanese studio.
The software itself seems more geared towards a small team (or one person) production which doesn't seem to fit in a large scale production involving dozens of animators, in-betweeners, story-boarders, etc.
I know that Makoto Shinkai (Voices of a Distant Star, 5cm/s) uses Celtx, After Effects and stuff like Photoshop and Illustrator. He's done one person projects. I also see Comic Works mentioned a lot on Japanese blogs. But it seems most large productions use software called "RETAS". I can't provide any sources to substantiate this claim but it's probably unlikely Japanese studios would use this software that looks like it's geared for smaller productions and use it for commercial anime production, it's more likely that they use a lot of different types of software to facilitate the process of writing->story-boarding->key-frames->inbetweens on a much larger scale. This blog post about AIC's animation process makes it out to be pretty complex.

+1 I was about to post a very similar answer. Also, the fact that their site doesn't seem to have a Japanese language option indicates that their target market probably isn't in Japan.

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Are Hell Butterflies living creatures?
The Shinigami use Hell Butterflies for communication while they are on missions and need to communicate with HQ (or vice versa).
Are Hell Butterflies living creatures or are somehow artificially created (like miniature robots) by the Shinigami?

The true nature of the butterflies was never revealed in the manga. Take a look at this page from chapter 59:

Here you can see Rikichi having troubles catching a butterfly that was trying to fly away, also trying to lure it with a female butterfly. That suggests us that the butterflies are at least living creatures (as far as you can describe an inhabitant of Soul Society as "living"), and not "robots", because:

It's useless to try to lure a robot with a female robot
A robot could behave better, and there should be no problems with handling it.

I would assume they are real butterflies that are being bred up in Soul Society and somehow trained to perform their duties. Maybe they are somehow different from normal butterflies (for example they could have been modified by the 12th division), but since it wasn't stated anywhere, it's just a speculation.

Maybe the robot butterfly went on a rampage, due to malfunctioning? :P

@Veger, doesn't seem like it's on a killing spree xD Renji looks a lot more dangerous ;)

I wouldn't say living, as far as Ichigo goes, but I think they are just as alive as the rest of the Shinigami. It doesn't sound like too far of a stretch for people of their caliber to have found a creature that does what it does and made use of it. Maybe it's along the same lines as the Den Den Mushi in One Piece.

I think they are asking if hell butterflies are real..as in real life. There are butterlies that look very similar to the hell butterfly in bleach.  Their purpose is revealed in the anime.  They are a communication system.  In real life hell butterflies are black swallowtail butterflies


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What's the difference between Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?
While the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu seems to be taught, the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is sealed, so nobody can learn the jutsu. Does that mean that there's a difference between these jutsus, aside from the number of Kage Bunshin created?
Or, why was the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu sealed away?
If there's no other difference, everybody could use this without reading the sealed scroll.

While the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu seems to be taught, the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is sealed, so nobody can learn the jutsu.

Weeeeellll... not quite! The Naruto Wikia seems to be a bit off on this bit, since the technique that was sealed away was actually the "regular" Kage Bunshin no Jutsu — the technique that's taught is actually the Bunshin no Jutsu.

Or why was the Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu sealed away?

The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a forbidden jutsu, and that was why it was sealed. Since its "massive version," the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, is just a variation of the same technique, it was also sealed away.
It is forbidden because of the danger it present to its user, since it distributes an equal amount of chakra between all the clones that comes directly from him. This could easily drain the total amount of chakra from a user who has less control over it.

Does that mean that there's a difference between these jutsus, aside from the number of Kage Bunshin created?
  If there's no other difference, everybody could use this without reading the sealed scroll.

As for differences between it and the normal technique, I'd say that the amount of chakra necessary would be its main difference in terms of execution — the more chakra you have, the more clones you can generate.
However, most people won't use the "massive version" of the jutsu simply because of the danger mentioned in the above section — not many shinobi can use such high amounts of chakra and safely maintain the technique steady.
Adding "Tajuu" in front of it is just something that Naruto does every once in a while (note that he sometimes generates huge amounts of clones even without saying "Tajuu") when he intends to generate a massive amount of clones instead of a "regular" one. You can double check this in the very first chapter, where Naruto reads the scroll and never makes mention of the "massive version" of the technique.

And it isn't known what the 'trick' is?

I think it was never stated. Neither in anime nor in manga.

Also, I just checked, and the hand seal is the same for the normal and the Tajuu versions.

they are the same jutsu, many times naruto used kage bunshin no jutsu to créate a really big mass of clones.
he added the tajuu in situations he would créate that or more amount of clones, its the same technique with the mass attached to it, i find this answer a bit lacking

Although I see what you mean, @xerido, the plot is pretty clear about only the Tajuu version of the technique being sealed. What do you feel is lacking here?

@JNat well in the first chapter , i mayby missinterpreted it but, it was the specific kage bunshin technique that was sealed, not the Tajū Kage Bunshin. And even in the very first chapter we see naruto doing  Tajū Kage Bunshin with only doing and saying kage bunshin, so i don't feel that the seal revealed something extra and the real limits to kagebunshins is your chakra reserves, as how kakashi perfectly demonstrates telling he can only create 1 bunshin

Uh... Something's amiss here, @xerido: I was pretty sure that only the Tajuu version was sealed in the scroll — and the Narutopedia seems to agree with me too. I'll investigate further.

@JNat,like all user created wikis sometimes info can get scrambled.
First chapter  of anime/manga.
Naruto needs to pass an exam, the requeriment is to make bunshin no jutsu. naruto fails is tricked and steals one of the sealed techniques scrolls. trains it and learns KAGE bunshin no jutsu. Tajuu is simply something he sometimes adds when he creates a massive amount of clones instead of what he tipically creates. The reasons for sealing the technique was:
it distributes all users chakra between clones
The exhaustion that the clone acumulates passes to the user.
enough to criple most ninja

Yeah, I get all of that, @xerido, and I don't disagree with the technique being pretty much the same, with only the amount of clones generated (and hence the amount of chakra needed) being the difference. I'm not sure if when I wrote this (it was a while ago) I had some bit of info I'm missing now... but what (past) me and you seem to disagree on is with regards to whether the "normal" version of the technique was the one sealed, or if it was the "massive" version of it. Maybe finding a raw manga of the first chapter might be helpful, to see if there's any issue with the translation... :\

If not, then I'll just edit this accordingly — it isn't much of an edit, and it wouldn't terribly disagree with the current version of the answer anyway. And maybe I just worded it poorly back then, because this other answer of mine points here, and I refer to "the regular version" as a forbidden technique...

See the above discussion, and the updated answer, @looper ;)

cc @xerido ^^^^

@JNat, everybody makes mistakes even myself, I think this answer is way better, as you already added, naruto is very inconsistent with the tajuu prefix. and most of the times it is when he is out of combat preparing for something, but here i can be wrong would need to reread it again

I think you guys are messing up the names of the jutsus, which makes it confusing for others who came to find out the actual difference between the two (like myself).
The jutsu that is often taught in the academy is called Bunshin no Jutsu, aka the move that Naruto sucked at. The one that was in the scroll in the beginning was the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, invented by the 2nd Hokage. It was sealed away because it takes much more chakra for this jutsu than for regular clones, which don't have tangible bodies like shadow clones do. When Naruto says Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, he means to make many copies of himself, this is when you would see up 100+ copies of himself. Tajuu means mass, hence Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu.
This reply might be really late but someone had to clear it up.

as stated by cat, tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu and  kage bunshin no jutsu are exactly the same technique.
The only difference is what stated cat the number of clones.
As the Anime/manga stated you decide how many clones you do at the momento you use the seals. Naruto simply adds tajuu to reinforce the MASS generation.
the rest of the answers are confunding bunshin no jutsu as the kage bunshin no jutsu. kage bunshin is what always was sealed in the scroll

The technique was considered a kinjutsu because it could potentially kill the user if they made too many shadow clones (the distribution of chakra potentially outstripping the user's capacity). With Naruto, he has ridiculous levels of chakra so it's not dangerous to him. High level ninjas like Kakashi know it and use it to create a handful of shadow clones, but Naruto and his insane level of chakra can create hundreds.
I can see Konohamaru being able to pull off a few shadow clones because he's a Sarutobi and they are a pretty powerful ninja blood line.

Got a source for this information ?

Kage bunshin no jutsu makes the amount of clones you want with an excess amount of chakra to still use jutsu. While tajuu kage bunshin no jutsu make a massive amount with just enough chakra to hold the clones and can't cast a lot of jutsu

I believe that Tajuu kage bunshin as opposed to Kage bunshin  is easier to use for large amounts of clones, rather than the 4-10 clones usually used in combat situations, then again at the start Naruto use Kage bunshin instead of Tajuu kage bunshin to fight Mizuki, so I could be wrong but as I said that's what I believe.

The difference between the two jutsu is that you gain experience and knowledge from other clones,(when naruto was learning the rasen-shuriken jutsu). Other than that these clones can actually take on a persona and react differently in the same situation, (during the ninja war you can see that each clone acts on its own when naruto distributed them), that is the major difference. The Tajuu was invented for stealth purposes (retrieving data). A ninja could send the clone in to find information and then release the jutsu from a safe distance and retain the knowledge the clone learned. Reasons for it being sealed, my guess is rogue clones that exhausted chakra and couldn't be released.

tajuu and kage are the same jutsu, they both provide knowledge to the user. tajuu is for mass , mass shadow clone technique it was added by naruto


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Do people in the anime or manga actually eat Pokemon?
In the anime, certain species of Pokemon are mentioned or depicted to be edible (by people or other Pokemon), like Magikarp and Farfetch'd.

Do people actually eat Pokemon? If so, what other species have been mentioned or depicted as edible, in either the anime or the manga?

Out of all the questions I could have ever possibly imagined, I have to say this is by far the craziest. (And now, most plaguing.) +1 ^-^

Modern Farmer makes a convincing argument about the food politics of Pokemon

In chapter 22, a human (Red) is almost eaten by a pokemon (Weepinbell) though.

In November 2012, Game Informer got the chance to ask a long-time Gamefreak producer what the deal is with eating in the Pokemon world.

Is everyone in the world of Pokémon a vegetarian? Do people eat Pokémon? When they are eating steak are they eating a Tauros?
Masuda: There’s a lot of fruits and vegetables in the world of Pokémon. There is also a variety of snacks and various candies and whatnot that come from the different regions. The Pokémon world is much more technologically advanced than the world of our own, so perhaps there is probably a lot of different food that we can’t even think of.

Source: Pokémon's Burning Questions

A disappointing answer, but a definitive and official! Well done! +1.

In the game they do: https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/15/20963329/pokemon-sword-shield-slow-poke-tail-curry-sausage

Some do, some do not.
It was mentioned by a developer once, that the Pokémon-world is better developed than our and most people are vegetarian. However, it can be seen, that some people eat meat, so I think you can say, that they eat Pokémon.
The following did not happen in the anime, but in the Pokémon-world
In the second generation of the Pokémon-Games (Gold, Silver, Crystal), Team Rocket sells tails of Slowpokes, which are a delicacy - That means that they're eaten, too.
Just to compare: In the anime, it's never shown, that Pokémon are killed, too - I think that's just because it's made for children ;).

The manga had a scene with a bunch of tail-less slowpokes tied up. Wasn't a pretty sight if you'd ask me.

Yes they do. Just like in real world we eat some animal and we keep some as pets.
Edible pokemons : Basculin, Slowpoke.
Humans eating Pokémon

Meat is often shown in the anime, but while it has never been directly shown to come from Pokémon, no other food source has yet been explained. It is known that some Pokémon produce edible foods and by-products such as milk, nuts and fruit. These can be safely harvested with little or no harm or discomfort to the Pokémon. However, it has been mentioned that some Pokémon are hunted and used for their meat: Farfetch'd in particular are noted for making a good meal, especially when cooked with leek, and were nearly hunted to extinction because of this, ultimately leading to their rareness.
During a story arc within the Gen II games and their remakes, the newly reformed Team Rocket begin stealing Slowpoke, cutting off their tails and then selling them as a rare delicacy. It is indicated that the tail is not eaten, but is sucked or lightly chewed on; similar to the manner in which a person would enjoy Honeysuckle.
While visiting the Canalave Library, it is revealed in the Sinnoh Folk Tales that Pokémon caught from the sea are eaten, and then the bones thrown back into the water. It is also mentioned that the Pokémon that were eaten will return fully fleshed.
  Ash and Brock imagining a cooked Magikarp.
In Pokémon Shipwreck, Ash and friends, along with Team Rocket are stranded in the middle of the ocean without food. Eventually, due to their hunger and the dire nature of their situation, Ash and Brock began to discuss and fantasize about eating James's Magikarp. Unfortunately for them and Meowth in particular, Magikarp's body composition renders it nearly inedible. Misty elaborates on this, stating that Magikarp are nothing more than scale and bone, thus there would be little sustenance obtained.
In New Plot, Odd Lot!, Harley has a flashback in which a class mate (who looks like May) stole his "snackie", which bore a resemblance to tiny Octillery, similar to the octopi served in some real-life restaurants. It is unknown if these were actual Octillery, or just food prepared and shaped to look like them.
It is possible, based on wording used in Cherubi's Pokédex entry, that humans, not just Pokémon have eaten Cherubi's ball-like appendage before. Also, according to its Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 Pokédex entry, Basculin are remarkably tasty, indicating humans have eaten them as well.

Slowpoke tails were crazy expensive in the game.

Well, this is a children's series. So I doubt actual Pokemon eating would ever occur in the series.
Though, it was shown once that Ash (even Pikachu) were eating meat once. Of what? Use your imagination :)

I've seen Ash and Brock eat meat but I doubt its pokemon. I think the meat eating thing is to make it more relatable to real life but doesn't actually mean anything.

From Chansey's pokedex entry!

Chansey lays nutritionally excellent eggs on an everyday basis. The eggs are so delicious, they are easily and eagerly devoured by even those people who have lost their appetite.

So the reason Chansey is rare... People eat the eggs :o

I know this is an old thread, but in the game "Hey, you Pikachu!", it shows Ash's mom cooking a seafood stew comprised of anything caught by the game player. Remember that this game was made for small children and featured their voice and microphone add-ons that allowed the child/player to 'talk' to a pikachu. I think that since Pokemon is Japanese based, eating 'seafood' pokemon was never deemed out of place. As for Misty down playing eating a Magikarp, she is a water pokemon trainer/gym leader and has an affinity to them. So her explanation could have been a bluff just to help save James' Magikarp from a gruesome end.

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


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Does the size of a person matter when Devil Fruit powers are involved?
As seen in the anime, Lily Enstomach grew herself into the size of a giant inside Luffy thus giving Luffy immense power.  He was strong with a weakness of becoming slower.  However, when he went into 2nd gear, the sheer power of turning into 2nd gear caused everything around him to be thrown back.
So does the size determine the amount of initial power the person has?
-The reason why I said initial was because power really matters on the training rather than the power of the devil fruit
Example:
Luffy, when he got bigger, the effect of 2nd Gear was stronger.
Let's say that Buggy's devil fruit (section-section) gives Buggy the ability to split and fly a range 25 meters around his feet.  If Buggy was the size of a giant or the size of Whitebeard, would the range increase?
This is not about how much the devil fruit is eaten.

Your question is not clear. I cannot understand what you're asking. Please clarify.

if I'm not wrong those episodes were just fillers, so I wouldn't bother deciphering things which could not be explained there.

Are you asking about the size of the person? Or about the size of the fruit he eats?

@madarauchiha i'm asking about the size of the person.

It's not about devil fruits, it's just that bigger things have bigger impact.
Let's say that a normal giant, without any devil fruit powers, can crush a warship into pieces. However a normal sized person would need some powers (haki, devil fruit, whatever else) no matter how strong he is otherwise, only because his body is smaller and his fist wouldn't make such an impact. He could break through the ship but the damage would remain local. A small hole on the ship, and that's it.
In the special case of devil fruit's powers the only information we have (while seeing numerous occasions of bigger attacks being more powerful, like Luffy's Gear 3rd and Ace's Supernova) what Crocodile said in the desert while fighting Luffy: a devil fruit power can be stronger based on how the user trains and uses it. That implies that indeed, size matters for devil fruit powers too, if the user trains himself and uses it that way. Not because of any devil fruit specific reasons, just because of the facts mentioned above.

This is why Luffy tends to use Gear Third whenever something big needs wrecking.

authors: سمر احمد الزهراني


text:
Does the original jutsu user feel anything when a shadow clone is dispersed forcefully?
According to the wiki,

While the technique can be extremely beneficial, attempting to use multiple clones for training purposes can be mentally harmful to the user, as not only is all the experience collected by the user, but so is all the mental stress from training each clone

Now, when a clone is destroyed, there must be some mental stress involved. So does Naruto (or anyone else) feel anything when their shadow clones are dispersed?
Nothing has been shown to indicate this (at least in the anime). I was wondering why this would not be applicable.

Well, actually the mental stress involved when a clone is forcefully destroyed being transferred to the original has been showed on a number of occasions in the anime, including once before the timeskip.
During the Invasion of Konoha arc:

 When Naruto fights Gaara, Gaara goes into the Ichibi Shukaku mode, and Naruto attacks Gaara/Shukaku using 1000 clones with the Naruto Niisen Rendan (Naruto Two Thousand Combo). He then attempts the Naruto Yonsen Rendan (Naruto Four Thousand Combo), but Shukaku fights back and destroys nearly all the clones. As Naruto is forced back, he exclaims, "That hurt a lot".

Later after the timeskip, when Kakashi tells Naruto that the pain experienced by the clone is transferred to the user, Naruto says in a dejected/annoyed tone, "I knew that already."

I think the Gaara thing is mainly because Shukakku hit the original as well. It's possible though.

@MadaraUchiha Yes, maybe it is as you said. That particular instance stood out (for me) because earlier the original Naruto took several direct hits, stronger than that one, and yet he did not say anything. So I thought that he really felt the pain of about 1000 clones getting destroyed. But then, anime characters do not always react consistently to events, so who knows about that?

Great discussion! +1

Yes, he does feel something. It was shown in the episodes when Naruto was training with Kakashi and Yamato (I don't remember exact eisodes, but it was about when Kakashi gave Naruto the paper to test his chakra affinity).
Kakashi Told Naruto that when he could increase the learning speed by using clones, because when the clone is destroyed, all the new knowledge it acquired is immediately transfered to the technique user.
Naruto said that he had never known about it, and Kakashi asked him to make a clone and to order the clone to follow him. They moved rather far away from Naruto, and Kakashi told the clone something, I think it was a joke, but I don't remember well. Then, after they got back and Naruto released the technique, he immideately had the knowledge of what Kakashi had said to the clone.

Thanks for the answer. But that would come under knowledge. I was wondering f the shadow clone feels anything while being dispersed and whether the user feels that as well. The expressions on the shadow clones' faces seem to indicate that they feel something atleast.

The clones definitely feel something, as they were seen to have facial expressions, as well as groaning to indicate they feel pain.
That feeling does not seem to go through back to the original. Even though knowledge, experience and even exaughstion seems to go back, there probably is a protection against physical injury and pain (otherwise, it wouldn't make the technique so useful).
In short, he does know when his clones are destroyed (because their knowledge is reflected back at him), but he doesn't feel their pain when they are hit by shuriken or receive fatal injuries.

Maybe he just doesn't feel anything because the clones are destroyed and not killed. They disperse once they got hit by a shuriken or receive a fatal injury. So they might not even feel something when they got destroyed. It's not like a "normal" Human being killed, they don't suffer injuries or bleeding to death, they just got released.

They do groan in pain, and their face suggests that they feel something

You basically answered your own question. It is indeed stated that Naruto receives the experience, mental stress and chakra of the clone. When a clone is destroyed, it, of course, had mental stress (as it just got attacked and killed).
Most of the times you do not see this, either because Naruto is used to this and has an immense capacity to endure this, or because the technique would become meaningless if he could not use it due to all the stress. (I suspect the latter)
Although, during the training where he uses his clones to decrease the training duration, it became clear that is was very hard on him due to the mental stress he received of his clones.

Thanks for the answer. There is another possibility: The clones disperse too quickly under attack or the stress is only passed when the jutsu is dispelled by Naruto (or others)

Well they tend to endure one or two blows (some even more), so I guess they do get some mental stress (which should/is pass(ed) on to Naruto).

Correct. But it never seems to slow Naruto down (though a single blow against him was sufficient to slow him down as a kid)

I think mental knowledge and experiences are transferred to the original once disperesed, but not physical pain. If that were the case, using the shadow clone jutsu would only be too risky and only used for emergencies.
I was actually wondering about the opposite scenario. Do the shadow clones share injuries of the original. For example, when kabuto severed the muscle in naruto's leg out, did the shadow clone created afterwards also have a severed muscle in the leg.

You could add the second para as a separate question. It is a good one.

The physical pain might not be transferred, but the knowledge probably is. Induced empathy could be rather severe.


text:
How does Starlight Breaker work?
Most of Nanoha's attacks consist of emitting some beam or ball of energy through her body or Raising Heart and firing it at the enemy. For instance, here's Divine Buster:

Presumably she just uses her own magical energy for this. But Starlight Breaker is an exception to that. The energy seems to gather up and fire at the energy from thin air. Different versions depict it differently, but it always seems like the energy isn't coming from Nanoha directly (except the little bit that she uses to initiate the attack). Here's the movie version, it's especially apparent in the upper left corner:

Is this just a visual quirk of the attack, or does it actually work differently from her other ones? And if so, where is all that energy coming from?

The starlight breaker actually gathers energy from the surrounding area - either left behind by Nanoha herself, or by other mages/combatants.
So it basically works like this:

Gather energy from the surrounding environment into a ball.

Nanoha hits the ball, which fires it.

Typically in a battle, all the mages will leave behind excess energy as a result of using their spells. So the starlight breaker is most powerful near the end of a long battle when a lot of energy has accumulated.

That said, Nanoha is not the only one who can use the Starlight Breaker. Reinforce does it near the end of Nanoha A's - mainly because she gains the abilities of those who's linker cores she has captured.

Nanoha also teaches Teana how to gather scattered energy. Teana uses this for her own variation of Starlight Breaker in Sound Stage X.


text:
How does Nagato create and use so many Rinnegan eyes?
The corpses that Nagato uses for the Six Paths technique also possess Rinnegan eyes! How did he get so many Rinnegan eyes?
Is it that the corpse used for one of the six paths has a Rinnegan activated by default? Or is it a convention that Kishi has maintained just to picturize and show us the connectivity?
Of course, they aren't true eyes.

 Even when Tobi possessed Rinnegan, his puppets (corpse he used) had both sharingan and Rinnegan! Now, from where did he bring 6 Sharingan eyes and 6 Rinnegans? Definitely they aren't real ones, What kind of Jutsu is that, that makes corpse possess eye technique?

Rinnegan occurs so rarely that the Sage of Six Paths was considered a myth, so those multiple Rinnegan's are surely not distinct ones.
Nagato's bodies seemingly having their own Rinnegan is an ability provided by the Six Paths of Pain technique. According to Narutopedia:

The Six Paths of Pain (ペイン六道, Pein Rikudō) is an Outer Path technique
  devised by Nagato after being crippled by Hanzō and rendered emaciated
  from the numerous chakra receivers embedded in his back by the Demonic
  Statue of the Outer Path. By piercing corpses with chakra receivers, a
  wielder of the Rinnegan can manipulate the bodies as though they are
  their own.

The article further says:

Because of the fact that he was crippled, Nagato channelled the
  abilities of the Six Paths into six different bodies (one ability per
  body). The only common features shared by these bodies were the
  Rinnegan they gained from this technique, the chakra receivers each
  were pierced with and their bright orange hair, which had been dyed to
  match the Deva Path's natural hair colour.

In other words, the multiple Rinnegan's are like "projections" or copies of Nagato's own Rinnegan, transmitted through the chakra rods. This theory can be further confirmed based on the following:

 In Tobi's version of the Six Paths of Pain technique, his six bodies received a Rinnegan and a Sharingan, and he had a Rinnegan and a Sharigan at the time.

The projection concept also holds up when you look at all the summoned beasts which also have Rinnegan eyes.

Without the help of Rinnegan sharingan wouldn't have been casted to puppets isn't it? much satisfsying answer.. Deidara :)

By being under his control, the Rikudo Pain and Animal Path´s summons have fake, but still potent Rinnegan. As we see in the Shinobi World War, when he uses the Rinnegan himself, he does it many times better than the bodies.

Could you please explain yourself? It isn't incredibly clear.

Sorry i did put it unclearly. Basically, Nagato´s Chakra influences the bodies that receive it via the Chakra Rods. Because they are corpses, they use his chakra (to which the Rinnegan belongs, as Chakra is basically a methapor for spiritual energy in Hindu). By extension of "belonging" to his chakra, they get the Rinnegan, although a far weaker version. Same goes for his Summons.

So basically, you're saying that their Rinnegan is a reflection of the one Nagato has?

@MadaraUchiha If I understand correctly, he meant 'Projection', rather than 'reflection'. What he points out is, the original rinnegan is far more powerful than the projected rinnegans possessed by corps. Evidently it's true, as we watched Nagato fighting Naruto and others when summoned by incarnation, he was hell powerful. Christy didn't choose fit words to express, but he's right..

@ChristianAurigFrøkjær, rather than calling(in your comment) "'Rikudo pein' are weaker than Nagato".. it's better to say "Nagato's using Rinnegan himself is far stronger than Rikodu Pein"" :)

I will explain this in my words, hopefully in a better and more concise way. Nagato has the Rinnegan. We've learned that the chakra rods transmit chakra (much like Wifi) What gives somebody (most) Kekkai-Genkai's is a genetic difference that causes a change in the natural Yang chakra in the person. (Body Chakra, such as Bone Manipulation and Kekkai Genkais that affect the physical form) Or the Yin Chakra (Haku's Ice Release or Scorch release, releases that allow a different type of Nature release or something similar to be used.) Then there are mixes between the two. (Namely, the Dojutsu. Affecting the physical form with the change and enhancement of the eyes and the special releases that come with them. The Byakugan is more physical (through affecting the physical chakra points and using their Eyes to learn how to use them) while the Sharingan is more mental, or Yin. (Being able to use special abilities such as Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi and other abilities.) Both of these sets of eyes are descendants of the Rinnegan, which affects the Yin and Yang chakras together. (Allowing for physical manipulation through some paths like Chakra Absorption while the Deva path gives a Yin ability that allows for a special form of space-time release.) The Rinnegan requires the genetics of the Uchiha and the Senju together. (Because these are the two brothers of the Sage of Six Paths) The reason why the Bodies resurrected or summoned by the Rinnegan have a lower-powered version of the Rinnegan because they receive the Chakra of Nagato, allowing them to manifest the Yin (Mental) chakra of the Rinnegan, but lacking severely in the Physical. Although the Yin chakra still allows for the manifestation of all of the abilities, they are severely weaker because they lack the Yang (the genetics) of the Rinnegan. Another example of this is in Obito's resurrected corpses. They have the ability to Manifest the Rinnegan and the Sharingan. The Rinnegan is still weaker than the one that Obito has, but the Sharingan isn't AS weakened as the Rinnegan. (This is because the Sharingan is more of a Mental, or Yin ability.) There is a third example of this ability in Sasuke when he received the Sage of Six Paths chakra, thus awakening the Rinnegan inside of himself. (Along with his Uchiha abilities turning the Rinnegan into the tomoed Rinnegan, which compensated for the loss of power in the Rinnegan, giving him an even stronger version due to the fusion.)

You may like to consider using multiple paragraphs to break up this wall of text.

There is no conclusive answer despite what the above responses would have us believe.  During the dissection of the Path that was in Konoha during the manga we can see that it still has a Rinnegan despite being long dead and the rods being removed.  That doesn't mean they're fully functional in any way but something remains even after that chakra stops transmitting,  It's still likely a technique but it's WAY more complicated than that.


text:
What determines the Abilities of a Contractor?
What determines the abilities of a Contractor?  In the anime two contractors have the same ability.  Both dealing having the powers of electricity.
So does this mean that there can many contractors with the same ability?

what two characters had electricity? As far as I can tell no two characters have same ability except hei and his sister. Hei is not an actual contractor (bai used her power to give him her powers), and their abilities not actually electricity but molecular manipulation. http://darkerthanblack.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Abilities

I personally believe the powers are more like One Piece (Ace and Akainu) in the sense two people may display similar abilities but the core nature is different.

It seems to be randomized as to what kind of power you get. If you could "pick" your power, every Contractor would logically choose things like shooting giant laser beams. Same with the remuneration, although it sometimes seems to be things that the Contractor hates, like the woman who hates smoking who had to eat cigarretes.

That women didn't hate smoking.  It was just that she quit during pregnancy.  Then her baby dies by choking on cigarettes.  And thats why the remuneration was eating cigarettes.


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Does a Devil ever get more Evil Pieces?
The High School DxD anime explains the devil ranking system pretty superficially. On the one hand, we know that to revive humans as devils and control them, one needs evil pieces. The precise number and type depends on the individual, but that isn't really important for this question. On the other hand, we know that devils don't keep the same rank forever. Low ranking devils also sometimes get promoted to higher ranks, and eventually they could control their own servants and presumably stop working for that master at that point. Of course, low-ranking devils can also die.
In these situations, it would seem like a pretty substantial blow to the original master if they can't control any more devils. Their army's strength would be permanently reduced. Does that master receive new evil pieces to compensate in these cases?

So far, even in the light novels that cover about 5x the material the anime did, It doesn´t seem to be possible to receive more Evil Pieces than the ones you were revived with initially.

I don't see any reason this answer needs to be community wiki. Did you intend to make it community wiki for some reason, or was that an accident?

Accident, my bad.

You won't get any reputation from CW answers, so it's usually only used on Meta for things like FAQ questions. If you care about that, feel free to delete this answer and resubmit another one which isn't CW. I'd probably accept this answer, but once I do you won't be able to delete it, so I'm leaving it unaccepted for now so that you have a chance to resubmit it if you want to.

I believe that even if you become a High or Ultimate Class Devil (Only two reincarnated devils have done so in canon) and obtain your own Peerage you still are a servant of your King. Kuroka was stronger than her King by a large margin but still served him. This means that instead of losing your legion you gain more legions (not proper terminology since a legion is over 5500 troops) that are indirectly under your command. Sirzechs peerage seem to be all high class but still serve him. Tannin himself is Mephisto's Queen but he is also a Ultimate-Class Devil and King and in the Top 10 of the Rating Game: in other words a hero of the Underworld. It is suggested that technically Tannin is still his servant but hard to confirm since even from the beginning Mephisto gave Tannin free reign to do as he pleased.
This is also supported by the fact that in volume one of the novels (and manga) Rias states that powerful peerage become status for their King. This would suggest such things remain even for servants that rose in status otherwise it would make more sense to make blood-status the requirement to get a set of Evil Pieces not Class since they would lose their property and the Devil's in DxD seem too greedy to sacrifice their valuables especially when their worth has become high.
Once you use it, Devils won’t be given a new [Evil Pieces].”
Quoted from Rias in Part 2 of the New Life Chapter in the first volume of the DxD novels.
Also I got this from the official DxD wiki (which holds copies of the translated novels):
There is actually no conflict when a Low-Class Devil starts his own group while still being a part of another peerage after becoming High-Class. When a Devil reaches High-Class, they receive a set of Evil Pieces to start their own group. However, even after going independent, Devils are still obliged to fight as underlings whenever their master has a Rating Game, for example, if Issei were to reach High-Class and start his own peerage, he would still have to fight as Rias' Pawn if she ever has a Rating Game.
And Evil Pieces that have returned have already stopped functioning and cannot be used ever again.
Said by Kiba in Vol. 12 of the Novels.

I'm not entirely clear what you're claiming. Are you saying that Issei (for example) could get his own set of evil pieces if he became powerful enough, but even after that he'd remain a pawn in Rias' army?

That is what it suggests. As I said the only cases that I know for a fact reached Ultimate-class was Grayfia and Tannin. Grayfia still serves Sirzechs even though with her Ultimate class status (and the status as the strongest Queen which means she is stronger than the former Dragon King Tannin who is also a Queen) she is only a single level below him. Tannin was the second one who rose from Low to Ultimate but he has made is own Peerage of Reincarnated Dragons. It has not stated he was released from mephisto's service but at the same time Mephisto gave him free reign even as a low-class devil

Thanks, and welcome to Anime Stack Exchange! I haven't read any of the novels, so I'm not aware of a lot of the stuff you're describing, but your answer does seem to answer the question pretty thoroughly.

Check my newest edit to my main one. It is on the bottom. I have not directly confirmed it but it does provide more evidence that my theory was correct. I am right now reading through the novels. Read volumes 1-3 in one day more like half a day while reading a number of other works. I think I read over 200,000 words. Finished volume 4 yesterday now reading 5-8. I am editing them as I go and plan on uploading my edited versions onto BakaTsuki. Also it was not Grayfia (SHe was a devil originally feel like an idiot) but Rudiger Rosenkreutz. He was a magician as a human but has become 7th in rank.

I read the novel and I vouch for the credibility of this answer. This answer IMO explains things better than currently accepted answer.

Wiki states:

If a Devil were to divert away from his/her master (then on known as a "Stray Devil" (はぐれ悪魔 Hagure Akuma)), they have to be captured or killed before they go out of control

Therefore, I think that if a demon stops following his master  the master will not get the piece back till the person is either captured or dead. Although nowhere is it really stated that this is the case, I can not solidly prove this.
Also, if I recall correctly, somewhere in the beginning of the series, Rias Gremory states that using a piece is risky. If you use the wrong piece you lose it.

Yes, you are correct about both of those points. Evil pieces can get wasted if they don't work, and devils can go stray. But that doesn't really answer whether it's possible to get more in either case.

@loganM If they are so carefull about the piece's I presume they are not re-aquireable. But it can't really be proven as they never mentiond re-obtaining them. All they tell is that if you go higher up in rank That you also can have your own legion. This means you can get more but still Dosen't state you can re-aquire.  It's a hard question.

When you become an HighRank Devil you receive your set of pieces (some of them could be mutant pieces). After spend a piece you're only able to exchange it but not ask for more, if he dies he dies with the piece, but there are a few exceptions as Issei (vol 11) after his death.

I believe a Devil can only gain more Evil Pieces through reincarnating Devils and those Devils reincarnating Devils and so on -- -- an example would be Issei -- even when he becomes Ultimate Class ; he is still Rias' Pawn - any devils he reincarnates will always be his servants and therefore Rias' by default through Issei being hers -- and of course on down the chain -- ---

Hi. Please try to modify your answer as I cannot seem to understand some parts so I cannot edit it myself (also try providing sources if possible). If I might suggest, try to avoid using unnecessary dashes. If you want to highlight important points, you can italicize or make them in bold font. Thanks! :)


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How to catch up on Dragon Ball Super?
I've watched DBZ, and ready most of the manga but for the last 3 years I've forgotten about Dragon Ball as I haven't had time to watch DBS or the movies. Well I really want to catch up. But I don't know how. And yes I'm aware how ridiculous this is considering the series is nearing its 100th episode. Please what's the fastest or most reliable way to catch up on it?

Has an answer here Do I need to catch up on anything before watching Dragon Ball Super? In Short, DB and DBGT aren't necessary, but DBZ episodes are a prerequsite, since DBS picks immediately after the Majin Buu Saga

Other than just flat out watching it there are two major routes.
A) Just read the manga, it's kind of close and gives a good summary in broader strokes,
B) Watch the movies battle of the gods and return of freeza then you've just got the zamasu arc and the current arc to watch :-)
For the record questions like this don't really belong here. Since it's so heavily opinionated, and can have no factful approach.
Conversations like that are better on forums like my anime list or other places.


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What percentage of hentai manga artists are female?
I've been wondering about that for a long time, and it turns out (after cursory googling) that a lot of the hentai mangas that get translated into English are drawn by female mangakas, according to their fans and sometimes the artists' personal pages (which not all of them have).
One thing to remember is that usually only higher quality works make the cut and get translated into English and posted on English-speaking hentai manga sharing sites, where the total ratio of male/female mangakas is not representative of the total number of hentai artists.
As I don't expect there to be enough info out there on the artists who don't make the cut, I'm more interested in the ones that do. But if there are surveys/statistics on the total number, that would be interesting to learn too.

As for what I've tried before asking: I found a couple of big torrents which list files starting with the mangaka's name (or pseudonym), but without ability to read Japanese, I'm unable to research any of them to find out their gender. That, and there being several thousand of unique artist names, is a massive undertaking. So unless there are already some statistics out there, I guess it's gonna take a while to get an answer.

I believe the results may be skewed since plenty of Mangaka's especially who draw Hentai prefer to use Pen Names, to keep the bias from their other works.

Yes, this isn't gonna be simple to figure out. I've read that some artists publish under multiple pen names, to distinguish between topics and art style. I'd like to bring to light all the possible biases like that too.

Does this also includes artists on doujin circle (self-publish), or only on published/serialized adult manga magazine (that get into the tankoubon)?

Also, a partial (notable?) list of adult mangaka on Japanese Wikipedia (SFW, no image). Probably you can start from there, although some don't mention the gender (but can be inferred by the name), and it'll certainly take time to do it manually.

Great starting point! Unfortunately I can't read Japanese, so hopefully someone will come along who can :p

If we are to believe Eromanga Sensei, then most hentai is drawn by pre/pubescent girls. O.O

I believe a simple reason for the high percentage is that female drawers have it easier to get correct anatomy on women, since they usually have free access to a nude model if needed (themselves). Most anatomy parts are shared by men and women, but getting breasts right in all their angles and positions seems to be much more difficult than male genitalia, in my opinion.

@SK19 I'd think it's because of the social expectations in japan for men to be office workers and less so for women, but that's just a guess

The answer is "we do not know".
Now, as others have pointed out, there is the issue of Mangaka using (multiple) pen names for their erotic stuff, but the other half of the story is that Mangaka like to stay anonymous even in a more general sense. Most of them don't like attention, which is why we don't even know who wrote, for example, Death Note. Could be a guy, could be a gal.
For erotic Manga things just get more secretive.
If I had to guess, I would look at the number of erotic Manga aimed at guys (~22.500) and the number of erotic Manga aimed at gals (~2.300) to get a rough estimate of at least 1:10.

Comiket is the largest fan convention in the world where many of those hentai artists sell their doujinshis. From the official introduction to Comiket (PDF, updated 2014),

Conventional wisdom tends to portray doujinshi as male dominated, but in fact, women comprise the majority at Comic Market.

A diagram showing 57% of the circle participants are women

The public, on the other hand, is around 60% male.
This doesn't mean that most hentai artists are female,  but at least a good portion of them should be. Some artists are confirmed male or female while others remain a secret.

Note that while the number may help, not all circles on Comiket are about hentai manga, or even manga.

Only 60% male? Evidence please?

I am a hentai manga researcher.
Although there are no exact statistics, the unanimous view of Japanese subculture researchers is that the percentage of female HETAI artists is about 30%.
This figure is the percentage of women working in the male-oriented commercial hentai manga genre.
There are many adult manga genres for women in Japan, and if female authors active in Yaoi, Yuri, and Teens' Love are included, the figure could exceed 60%.
It is therefore possible for female writers to be active in sexual genres in Japan.

Welcome to Anime & Manga Stack Exchange. This could be a starting point for a great answer. Could you [edit] and try to back up the answer by providing supporting sources/references? Thank you!


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What is this dance that characters in Nichijou do during the episode breaks?
I always seen this kind of clip in every of Nichijou episode (but with different movement). You can see them doing that on this Scene
Is this just some random movement?

Hey! I'd consider making your title (for this and the other recently asked Nichijou question) a bit more descriptive, since they're not likely to help anyone else in their current form — it seems highly unlikely that someone with the exact same question would ever be able to get here with the current title and description.

thanks @JNat, i dont know  how to describe it with my bad grammar and english...

Well, I didn't watch any of the scenes myself, so I lack some context on the actions and all that. But what about something like: "Why do Nichijou characters cross theirs arms in front of their chests?" or something similar? All in all, and even with bad grammar, just be more descriptive — the community will fix typos and the like themselves ;)

Can you suggest me the appropriate title for the other recently question that I posted before?

As far as I know, it's just an original dancing choreography designed to look endearing, cute and fun. Kids on the streets don't usually perform a dance while playing rock-paper-scissors (or jan-ken-pon).

kids probably not dance but they sometime sing and do some synchronize movement with their partner while playing janken (which probably count as dancing as well)


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Why does Evangelion manga's plot diverge from the anime?
I have read the manga, all of it, and I have watched the first 13 episodes of NGE. And it surprised me, because the plots were different with the manga (well, just some of it). Especially the ending in manga. I wonder why the ending and the plot were different? What's the reason for that?
And how was the manga made in 1994, while the anime aired in 1995? Which one came first? Was Evangelion based on manga?

the manga was a way to generate interest in the upcoming anime release. so it was published before the anime series. It's not really that uncommon.

You might be able to get more insight from this question that I wrote an answer to a while ago. Not a duplicate, but possibly of interest.

because the manga itself just ended in 2013, i mean the original series was ended long long ago ( 1995-1997 ) but what happen with NGE manga ? it took about 20 years to complete the series (1994-2013), why does the author didn't follow the original sources ?

Wikipedia seems to have an explanation about this while the info might not be updated.

why should it reiterate what the show does?

Because the manga is by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto not Hideaki Anno. I think he talks about it somewhere. Sadamoto simply had a more positive view of the story, so you see Shiji talking more. Not even Anno himself sticks that much to the story as the fans do, see Rebuild series. So, relax and enjoy.

Can you please provide the source to support your opinion?


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Where do the American and Japanese Transformers franchises meet?
The original Transformers TV series was created by the American company Hasbro, and was adapted into Japanese as well. At some point, the Japanese franchise split off into its own continuity, launching its own set of sequels and spin offs.
The questions is: What part of the American franchise is considered canon by the Japanese one? Minor details such as name changes are not to be taken into consideration.

According to the Wikipedia article on Transformers:

However, the Japanese broadcast of the series was supplemented with a newly-produced OVA, Scramble City, before creating entirely new series to continue the storyline, ignoring the 1987 end of the American series. The extended Japanese run consisted of The Headmasters, Super-God Masterforce, Victory and Zone, then in illustrated magazine form as Battlestars: Return of Convoy and Operation: Combination.

Also,

After the first season of Beast Wars (comprising 26 episodes) aired in Japan, the Japanese were faced with a problem. The second Canadian season was only 13 episodes long, not enough to warrant airing on Japanese TV. While they waited for the third Canadian season to be completed (thereby making 26 episodes in total when added to season 2), they produced two exclusive cel-animated series of their own, Beast Wars II (also called Beast Wars Second) and Beast Wars Neo, to fill in the gap. Dreamwave retroactively revealed Beast Wars to be the future of their G1 universe, and the 2006 IDW comic book Beast Wars: The Gathering eventually confirmed the Japanese series to be canon within a story set during Season 3.

Robots in Disguise was a purely Japanese creation that was highly censored and then banned from cable TV in the U.S. because its original run in Japan ended at the end of 2001, and it had references to building destruction and terrorism.
Also,

In Japan, the series Transformers: Cybertron showed no ties to the previous two series, telling its own story. This caused continuity problems when Hasbro sold Cybertron as a follow-up to Armada/Energon. The writers attempted to change certain plot elements from the Japanese version to remedy this, although this largely added up to nothing more than references to Unicron, Primus, Primes and Minicons.

authors: 大肚子视频搞笑_大肚子视频搞笑无跳转入口


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Why was Reiko "disposed of"?
In Shinsekai Yori (From the New World), children who show the potential to become either Akkis (fiends/ogres) or Gouma (karma demons) are killed off and removed from society.
Examples:

Katayama Manabu - He cheats in the ball tournament and is disposed of near the end of episode 2.
Aonuma Shun - He becomes a karma demon and dies after episode 10.
Kutegawa Izumi - She becomes a karma demon and is told to commit suicide in Tomiko's dialogue in episode 12.

But what about Amano Reiko?
She "disappears" at the end of episode 1. But what did she do wrong? It was apparent that she wasn't skilled with her juryoku (psychic power or Cantus). But is that reason enough to kill her off?

Hmm... I'm not confident enough to make an answer (since I've only been watching the show, never read the book) - but in the beginning, weren't Saki's mom concerned about her not being able to use juryoku? I think it's possible that those who cannot use juryoku are disposed of since it could cause a sort of "classism" that leads to disputes to those with and without juryoku, just like in the past when those with juryoku murdered people.

It's interesting to note that this "monument" bears the same stamp that is stamped on the names of kids that "disappeared," like Reiko and Manabu after her.

Shouldn't the examples be in a spoiler block? Particularly the second one.

@JamesWood If you want to, feel free to add it in. In this case I didn't feel it was necessary because it's a question you're more likely to ask at the end of the show when you're reflecting back at what happened.

@Mysticial I see what you're saying, but I feel fortunate that I've watched the show already since I had no idea it was about Shinsekai yori before I saw the page. With my screen size, the “examples” section is very prominent, and people could read it accidentally.

I will use the manga to answer this question. There are quite a lot of differences in the plot between the manga and the anime. However, the truth about the history of mankind, how the human population is reduced and consists of only Cantus users, and the checks and controls employed to prevent Cantus (Juryoku - 呪力) users from killing each other are essentially the same.

From the statement above, it seems that those who cannot control their Cantus well may unconsciously cause collateral damage. Although there is no example in the anime/manga, I guess that it is analogous to a shaky hand operating a water tap: the water tap itself is not broken, but the poor control causes the water (analogous to Cantus) to flow out much more or much less than necessary.
This is different from the case of Hashimoto-Appelbaum syndrome - Karma Demon (Gouma), where a faulty running water tap would make a good analogy of: the water just keeps running out without effective way to control the amount, like the Cantus power of a Karma Demon is constantly leaking to his/her surrounding subconsciously without any way of stopping. As seen in the anime, Shun can only redirect his Cantus to orbit the balls, but the power leakage cannot be stopped.

@Oblivexx, the Board of Education are skilled at memory manipulation.

! Saki and the others forget Shun later on.

There is an example in the anime. The short intro at the beginning of the very first episode.


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Have any successful manga artists picked up their skill without schooling?
Asking as a person who knows very little about drawing but has some experience and is interested in drawing manga. Is natural artistic talent necessary if someone wants to become a good anime and manga artist or has anyone done it based on raw effort and or determination?
Along that same note, have there been any current or past manga artists that have derived success based on only what they taught themselves without any formal training?
In a nutshell, I'm basically asking how important nature versus nurture is to art in general as it pertains to manga and looking for examples of such.

I don't think that this is really on topic. It's only related to anime and manga in the broadest sense of it being art, and it isn't really about anime or manga. It also isn't really answerable.

@kuwaly That's fine, you should close it then. Like I said, I wasn't sure myself.

I feel like a better (more on-topic) question might be, "Have any (current) manga artists picked up their skill through schooling only?" I'm not sure it's answerable, but I think it's more open to being constructive.

@commando, their is no definitive answer for this. Everyone has their own 'thing' that makes them learn or want to learn something. This question in it's current state is too personal and localized and is likely to start a discussion. To keep your question alive however, It has been edited it so it can be seen more as a question pertaining mangaka in history. Also see http://anime.stackexchange.com/faq#dontask

From what I could find...

Tite Kubo, creator of Bleach only went to high school and he only started to take art seriously around age 17.
Hiro Mashima, creator of Fairy Tail also didn't have any formal art training.
Nobuhiro Watsuki, creator of Kenshin.
Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy.
Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece (who was also a college dropout).

And there are many others but if you check around you can see that anyone doing anything in anime today was largely self taught. Most people only go to school to learn the theory and get a degree or certification. Having a degree makes you more likely to get a job in certain industries. (I suppose)
Truth be told, most of them went to art school but before you jump to assumptions, have you ever heard the term in college, 'you read for your degree'. If you haven't it means that simply going to school isn't enough, you have to go the extra mile and do the work. Artists like Akira Toriyama and Kishimoto were drawing years before that. Granted that might make you feel dismayed when starting but with determination anyone can do it. Like all skills, natural or not, they have to be nurtured.

..You have to be confident to draw..

As it relates to everything, not just art and anime, we as humans like to base what we want to do on the success of others but that can only get you so far when starting out. Just try something for yourself, its nice to have influences but If you plan to take it seriously you will have to be original amongst other things. I leave you with this comic.


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Is there a continuation of Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor?
I finished watching the second season of Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor, and seeing how it ended it seems like there may be a continuation since there are some questions left unanswered at the end:

 1) Amber seemed to have wanted Hei to know the prophecy so did she wanted Hei to seal Hell's Gate in Season 1 solely to prevent it
 2) Yin says for Hei to "Take her Life", since Hei's Powers are actually Pi's because she fused with him (her power being able to manipulate matter at the atomic level apparently) and Hei was only seen with his hand outreach at the end so is Yin now fused with Hei like Pi
 3) Those 2 Doll Twins had the same kind of Specter that Yin had where instead of a blob they had a human from and they said they was going to a 3rd gate that has just appeared so what is the 3rd gate and why has it appeared after the first 2
 4) There's the unknown being that would be born which is probably that child that came out of the coffin but also there's a huge black monolith extending out of Hell's Gate so does it has a connection to the kid

I'm wondering if there is a continuation and what form it is in (anime or manga). Since most anime are adaptations of manga, does a manga continuation already exists? And if so, are there any plans to adapt it into an anime?

According to both Wikipedia and MyAnimeList, there has not been any sequel produced to Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini. There is a 4 episode OVA prequel, produced after Gemini, Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha Gaiden, which fills in the gap between the first and second season.
There is also no continuation in any other form. Darker than Black was originally produced as an anime. There was a short manga adaptation, but it really only adapted the first season of the anime. There was, however, an original manga
continuation of that manga series, titled Darker than Black: Shikkoku no Hana. It is not an adaptation of Ryuusei no Gemini, but replaces Gemini completely.
To the best of my knowledge, there have not been any further announcements of other continuations of the franchise, and the most recent activity was over 2 years ago. It's certainly still possible that they intend to produce another series, but there is no news confirming any such intentions so it seems unlikely.

It doesn't look like there will be a new continuation to Gemini, but there's a lot of talk online about a third season which is a prequel that takes place in South America during the Heaven's Gate incident.
As to your other questions, they are all answered in the anime. The first season provides a good foundation for understanding the series, but in order to understand the conclusion for Gemini, you need to pay attention to the dialogues in the OVAs and then you should probably re-watch Gemini, and then your questions should be answered. As opposed to popular criticism, the series answers many of the questions most people end up having, which you might have as well. Basically, imagine that the Dolls are like a flood like in the popular story of Noah's Arc. They are constantly evolving (notice how much Yin changes) and are sent to replace humans by a higher being (notice Heaven's Gate and Hell's Gate, those weren't used just because they sound cool).
Contractors are like failed Dolls. They are rational like Dolls, but too full of emotions like humans. That is why Yin, who turned out to be the most evolved Doll, was trying to fulfill this purpose of replacing humans. None of this is outright told to you, it's all implied from specific conversations (most of which are in the OVA, especially the last 10 minutes or so of the last episode, and the second season, not the first).
As to who the boy is, if you note in the second season you will find out that the red-haired girl is a clone to her twin brother who is a contractor. The only thing is that his clones aren't perfect, such as she was cloned as a girl and not a boy. The boy that appears at the end is a clone of Yin (notice it's not perfect clone since it's a boy) which is the spawn of the new world, which is why they wanted the boy to start off with.
This development of Dolls replacing humans as the next form of evolution in humankind's history is similar to Elfin Lied, where people are to be replaced by the creatures in the show, and Guilty Crown, where the next form of evolution for humans is an immortal, crystal-like form where the consciousness and memories of humans will reside.
There's more to be explained, but I haven't seen the series in a while so I just recommend re-watching it, and just remember that most of your questions will be answered. Just pay attention to the conversations held and not so much all the action scenes. PS: I'm pretty sure the manga Darker than Black: Shikkoku no Hana is set after season one and before the OVA, it's not a replacement of Gemini. Also, you could read it because they talk a little about the evolution of the Dolls in the manga for a bit.

This appears to be all speculation


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Why is the Tiger/German Suplex wrestling move so popular among anime culture?
I see a lot of fan art that depict this move (even though nothing of the sort happens from the show/series where the characters came from) and even in Nichijou we have the school principal giving a deer a tiger suplex:

Shuichi drops a suplex in Gravitation
GTO dishes one out
Episode 87 of Gintama is: "Perform a German Suplex On a Woman Who Asks If She or the Job Is More Important"
From Lagrange, the mechas do one:

And all the endless fanart:

Why is this so popular? Is this because wrestling is popular in Japan? But why this specific move?

lol, I can't stop watching the gif :P

@SingerOfTheFall That whole sequence is hilarious, and it doesn't make a lick of sense

Because it's so brutal and yet, funny? XD

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference.  Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes.

The instance from GTO predates that video.

Yes, it's very likely because of the popularity of puroresu (wrestling) in Japan. Antonio Inoki is credited with making wrestling popular in the country and he himself was impressed with and inspired by the amateur wrestling style of Karl Gotch (nicknamed Kami-sama) who had become famous in Japan. The German suplex was Gotch's signature finishing move.

There's a compilation of Gotch's moves on YouTube.

Yeah, this is why, friend had confirmed it a few hours ago when I asked. He also said none of these moves are a "tiger" suplex which is a double underhook.


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What are all of Rin's cats that have names?
Of all the cats that have names, which cat is given which name (provide a picture or a description of its features)? How did Rin come up with these names?

Rin names her cats after famous people.
These are the ones I know of (collected from TVTropes, the Little Busters! Wiki, Wikipedia, and other sources):

Dorj (a nickname of Asashōryū Akinori):

Gates (Bill Gates): Unknown appearance.
Fabre (Jean-Henri Fabre): A rather chubby cat.
Einstein (Albert Einstein): Unknown appearance.
Lennon (John Lennon), on the right:

Tezuka (Osamu Tezuka): A shiny, blue (female) cat.
Schumacher (Michael Schumacher): Unknown appearance.
Hitler (Adolf Hitler): A spotted cat.
Audrey (Audrey Hepburn, I think): Unknown appearance.
Jackie (Jackie Chan): Unknown appearance.
Aristotle (no first name): Unknown appearance.
Isoroku (Isoroku Yamamoto): A small, grey kitten.
Cobain (Kurt Cobain): Unknown appearance.
Fedor (Fedor Emelianenko): Unknown appearance.
Hokusai (Katsushika Hokusai): Unknown appearance.
Yusaku, or Matsuda (Yusaku Matsuda): Unknown appearance.

However, you will notice how many are labelled "unknown" above; these are ones whose appearance I'm unsure of. These appear to be all of the cats she's named, but as she does not always name them directly or identify which one is which, determining their actual appearance is not always possible*.
* If I discover more appearances, I will add them upon discovery.

The following list is mostly from TVTropes, with a couple of extras added in. Note that all of them are named after famous people in history.

Lennon, Dorj, Hitler, Audrey, Kobain, Tezuka, Gates, Einstein, Fedor, Aristotle, Hokusai, Jackie Chan, and Matsuda.

It is well-known that Lennon is the white cat which is often on her shoulder, and Dorj is the particularly fat cat which is occasionally confused for a seal. However, most of these are going to be difficult to identify. They may not be described anywhere individually. Because of that, a complete answer is likely to be very difficult.
Also, Rin seems to get more cats every time the series is adapted, so a complete answer may be very difficult. The above list only includes ones which are present in the visual novel.

In the anime, only the following four pet cats of Rin can be identified with a name: (I put the episode number when we first learned of their identity in parentheses):
Lennon (ep 1):

Isoroku (ep 2):

Fabre (ep 4):

Tezuka (ep 20):

Other names were mentioned, and many more cats were shown onscreen, but we weren't told which was which, not even in the case of Dorj.
As for the visual novel, this neta collection lists these twenty names for Rin's cats:

Lennon
Einstein
Akutagawa
Aristotle
Irfan
Audrey
Guts
Gates
Cobain
Jackie
Schumacher
Tezuka
Hitler (Isoroku)
Fedor
Fabre
Hokusai
Mendelssohn
Yuusaku
Miles
Dorj