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How does Gankutsuou compare to the original book?
Gankutsuou is based off the story, The Count of Monte Cristo.

I haven't read the original novel, but I loved Gankutsuou. How close to the original are the plot line and characters?
Was it a faithful rendition or was there some artistic license, because there were several scenes which, to me at least, seemed at odds with a book that would have been written in 1884. (Mostly futuristic elements)

The book doesn't take place in the distant future (5053) and starts in Rome as opposed to the Moon. The focus of the book is on the count and not on Albert and the anime tells the events of the book out of chronological order. Additionally, there's a significant change around episode 18. From this review on Amazon:

With Edmond's character being key to the story, Edmond only caring about revenge in the anime was the reason behind the change of direction towards the end. In the novel Edmond was persuaded by Mercédès to alter his plans, yet in the anime Edmond turned a deaf ear to her and continued... This one seemingly minor change had a huge impact on how the story progressed beyond that point.

Some other minor differences:

Albert and Franz weren't that close in the book.
Abbé Faria from the book saves Edmond from suicide, is omitted from the anime
The novel doesn't have the same supernatural transformation of Gankutsuou possessing Edmond's body like in the anime.
Edmond and Fernand were originally good friends in the anime, not so much in the book
Fernand is trying to become the president of France in the anime, but not in the book


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Why are the seven deadly sins used so often in anime?
Pretty much as my question states itself. Why are the seven deadly sins used so often?
In a lot of anime I have watched/re-watched, lately I notice either a reference to the 7 deadly sins or their use. For example, in anime like Full Metal Alchemist and Soul Eater, these 7 sins are referenced as an obstacle to bypass or enemies to overcome.
Is there a specific reason for this? Or is this a reference of them being beyond sin?

First, this question begs the question of “Are the Seven Deadly Sins often used in anime?” Full Metal Alchemist and Soul Eater are provided as examples.  Both series deal with the concepts of souls, taboos, and consequences of breaking said taboos.  It makes sense that in such a storyline, like stories featuring shinigami, you might come across inclusion of the Seven Deadly Sins (a.k.a. capital vices or cardinal sins).
However, a lot of anime which contain the Seven Deadly Sins as a plot element or even as a reference do not immediately come to mind…  Whereas if you asked why the Five Elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Void) are in so many anime, or why Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Four Symbols (Azure Dragon of the East, Vermilion Bird of the South, White Tiger of the West, Black Turtle of the North), the Chinese Zodiac, Journey to the West (Sun Wukong, a.k.a. the Monkey King), vampires, or such themes are in so many anime, I could more easily and quickly form a list of series that contain these recurring themes.  So in contrast, the Seven Deadly Sins are not a major, frequently-occuring theme in the corpus of anime and manga.
The second question asked was “Is there a specific reason for this?” Of course it is easier to write a story around a borrowed theme, or to incorporate one to give support to the story you already want to write, or to simply insert one that has a built-in fan base in order to pull in an audience already primed to find it interesting.
However, to answer whether there is a specific reason in regard to its use in anime (as compared to, say, use of it as a literary device in American comic books), we should consider by what means a Japanese mangaka or anime director could have even heard of the concept of Seven Deadly Sins in the first place.
Basic Japanese education does not include mention of anything that touches on religion virtually at all, even in courses such as History or Literature; it is safe to say that over 90% of Japanese university students have not even heard of the Apostle Paul, who remains one of the most famous figures in world history even from the perspective of non-Christians. They do not have a basic literacy regarding the Bible or other religious texts (including Buddhist and Shinto texts).  Unless they attended a Catholic high school, they cannot likely name the main strands of Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism), name the Ten Commandments, name the Beatitudes, or so on.  So the chance that they would have received any mention of the Seven Deadly Sins (which is a much later product of Christianity than the New Testament) within their educational career is very low. Academic writing, writing skills, and creative writing are not generally taught in Japanese schools, and Japanese education does not generally highlight recognizing, analyzing, or making use of literary themes, also rendering the chance of exposure to the Seven as simply a literary reference inside of an academic class low.
Since we cannot look to educational institutions as a likely source of knowledge of the Seven, we should consider other possible sources. Christians in Japan make up less than 1% of the population, and of those, some are "in the closet" and do not mention that they are secretly Christian to any of their friends. Thus, it is not likely for a mangaka or anime director to run into the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins or other Christian-related topics of conversation in regular day-to-day life interactions.
It makes more sense for those Japanese who could recite to you a list of what the Seven Deadly Sins are (and I guarantee you, this would be a meager percentage of the population!  I cannot even think of a single one of my Japanese friends here in Japan who I imagine could do it [even though I teach in the English department of a high-ranked Japanese national university and am a doctoral candidate in the Religion department at another]), to have heard of it, most likely, from either 1) coming across it in a prior manga or anime or light novel, or 2) reading of it within the sort of Japanese novels considered to be decent, respectable literature by most Japanese (something like Akutagawa Ryuunosuke or Murakami Haruki).  If the Seven Deadly Sins are found in modern Japanese literature, that is a prime source that could have spread the concept.
Since most average Japanese adults do not read manga and do not watch anime, if it was primarily spread through either of these two mediums, we’re looking at the demographics who would know of the Seven Deadly Sins as 1) young children and 2) otaku, neither of whom are a majority in an aging society.
Realistically, what we are looking at is that some author or mangaka in recent history found out about the Seven Deadly Sins and thought it would make a nice trope; then, readers of said novel or manga heard of it, then one of them gave it a different spin in his manga, then someone else saw it there and adopted it, and so on.
One specific reason that a Japanese author or mangaka originally latched onto the idea of Seven Deadly Sins might be precisely because it is not common knowledge in Japanese society: it is novel, foreign, and niche. The Bible originates from the Middle East (which still bears the sense of an exotic, far-away place to the Japanese), though, perhaps unfortunately, most of the Japanese conceive of Christianity as “Western.” While the Seven Deadly Sins are most well-known within Roman Catholicism, their origin is not actually Western. The origin dates from before the East/West schism in Christianity and involves Eastern church fathers. Also, there is wide variation among the strains of Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism’s many branches, indigenous Christianities), not all of which recognize a set of Seven Deadly Sins (some Eastern ones do, some Western ones do not).
To put it simply, the Seven Deadly Sins has a curious, intriguing, "Other" aspect to it from the Japanese perspective.  Precisely because it is not familiar or easy to understand gives it a juicy hook.  This means the reason for its use in anime is different in nature from the reason/s for its use in works produced in countries that have a history of Christendom where it is commonplace for the average Joe to have at least heard of the Seven Deadly Sins.
The third question asked was “Or is this a reference of them being beyond sin?” I am not clear on what is being asked in this question (What does “them” refer to?), but an additional factor which should be considered is that, in Japanese language, the word used to translate the Greek word for "sin" is 「罪」(tsumi), which commonly refers to crimes. The average Japanese person does not have a conceptualization of any sin that is not criminal/against the law/severe (such as murder or theft). Thus, the more globally-recognized definition of "sin" as something that one could do which is either 1) mild in its effects (laziness, tell a 'white lie,' shove your brother) or 2) internal/an attitude (lust, greed, pride) is not understood as fitting the definition of 「罪」 to the Japanese. (This means that every missionary and pastor in Japan must go to some pains to re-explain the word “sin” to their would-be converts, because most Japanese do not think they have ever committed a sin at all, since they have never done anything that would warrant getting arrested). The Seven are, therefore, not the easiest things for Japanese to conceive of as fitting the definition of what 「罪」 is, since none of them are illegal: wrath, greed, pride, lust, and envy are things you can keep to yourself without affecting others, and sloth and gluttony are looked down upon as personality flaws but not the sort of things you’d need a Savior to rescue you over. Japan is a rather don’t-ask-don’t-tell, do-whatever-you-want-in-the-privacy-of-your-own-home-and-just-don’t-bother-anyone-else-about-it society, so the Seven Deadly Sins are not necessarily things that the average Japanese even considers make a person evil, bad, or guilty: if you lust over your bishoujo dating sim video game or porn, even on your lab computer at university right in front of everybody, or mention that you’re going out to feel up a stranger's breasts for a fee at the hostess club afterward, your labmates don’t think you need to be punished or forgiven.
So we come back to the fact that the content of the Seven Deadly Sins themselves would be viewed as unexpected and even somewhat bizarre, whereby it could become a theme that sticks in subcultures in which having niche knowledge is valued.

@ton.yeung, Your comment and down vote are curious, since I had not intended to post an answer to this question in the first place; I only bothered to spend the time to post an answer after you specifically requested me to do so: "@seijitsu you should post an answer..." Normally, a person would take such a request to imply that you wanted to hear more than what I had already written in the comments section of your answer.

@ton.yeung While I can understand that sometimes a detailed answer can be a bit too detailed, one must not discount an answer for length alone. Seijitsu has at least taken the effort to bold the more important points for those only looking for the gist of the conversation. If you do feel that there portions are misleading, difficult to understand, or are technically inaccurate. please let the answerer know what parts could be improved upon.

@ton.yeung, the StackExchange rules that govern which reasons you can down vote an answer on account of are listed here. According to the rules, we may not legitimately down vote on account of length or whether we hold the opinion that "no one wants to read" it (since other members have up voted this answer, that is not applicable in this case, at any rate).

@seijitsu: I find this answer of yours quite enlightening, and your style of writing is clear and clean. I hope you continue to contribute answers of such quality. As for the downvotes, the help center only gives a suggestion on what it should be used for, not a rule to be enforced (and there is no way to enforce it).

I am, in fact, seriously considering praising your answer with a bounty. But it doesn't make sense for a 180 rep user to award a 1700 rep user … ^^'

Note that the seven deadly sins are not mentioned in the Bible. The closest is Proverbs 6:16-19: "There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community." The ones we know originate from the fourth-century monk Evagrius Ponticus.

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What is the tradition behind having magic come from eyes?
In a number of series, magic is eye-based, where the eyes either fuel the magic or are the conduit for it. Examples of this are Fai in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and the Uchihas and Hyuugas in Naruto, as well as a few other families in Naruto. Is this based on a specific tradition or have a specific cultural history. If not, where was the first time this appeared in anime/manga?

This may be related to the old adage, "The eyes are windows to the soul."

good question , +1

First off  where was the first time this appeared in anime/manga?
I believe that would be Basilisk, which is based on a novel The Kouga Ninja Scrolls wrote in 1958.
As I could not find a definite source saying were it came from, all I say here will mainly be speculation.
Eye powers are mainly based on Myths. On the Internet there are loads and loads of myths regarding special eye powers such as  The eye Myth and the Black eye myth
There also is a statement The eyes are windows to the soul.
A lot of anime eye powers are based on a soul or other form of power. One example would be Naruto:

Chakra is essential to even the most basic technique; it is the moulding of the physical energy present in every cell of the body and the spiritual energy source

Another statement that's a bit more from the scientific corner is "The eyes and mind are still one big mystery"
Even in science, it is one big mystery what your brain is exactly used for (at least some spots of the brain). As the eyes are directly connected to the brain, the scientists believe the eyes could be influenced by these unactivated parts of the brain

The 10% of brain myth is the widely perpetuated urban legend that most or all humans only make use of 20%, 10% or some other small percentage of their brains. It has been misattributed to people including Albert Einstein. By association, it is suggested that a person may harness this unused potential and increase intelligence.
  Though factors of intelligence can increase with training, the popular notion that large parts of the brain remain unused, and could subsequently be "activated", rests more in popular folklore than scientific theory. Though mysteries regarding brain function remain—e.g. memory, consciousness — the physiology of brain mapping suggests that most if not all areas of the brain have a function.
One possible origin is the reserve energy theories by Harvard psychologists William James and Boris Sidis in the 1890s who tested the theory in the accelerated raising of child prodigy William Sidis to effect an adulthood IQ of 250–300; thus William James told audiences that people only meet a fraction of their full mental potential, which is a plausible claim

This is also a reason why it could be used in anime/manga. As a lot of manga/anime contain fantasy objects fague theories like this provide for perfect creative potentials.
The eyes are also a good placement for special abilities. Eyes are almost always in the screen as most of an anime expressions will be shown through their facial responses (big eyes over exaggerating smiles etc etc). As a viewer, your main attention will also be placed on these body parts.
As I said this is mainly my own point of view, and will be looking forward to more answers/information.

What do you mean by "fantasy objects fague theories?"

@Krazer was not really sure how to say that as i aint a native english speaker. Loads of anime contain non realistic, Fantasy based storys, characters, powers and such. Open theorys can be used in you own imagination to creating something totaly differing of what i could think of and so on

Magic coming the eyes are part of Magic Eye Trope which can be linked to the origin of having Psychic Powers which already started in 1870, which I think is also the origin of characters having source of power or magic from their eyes.

A character's eye has great supernatural power. Usually, the eye
  grants the user power over perception, either the target's (illusion,
  mind control) or the user's (telepathy, premonitions, clairvoyance,
  etc). In most cases, direct eye contact or at the very least
  line-of-sight is required. Other restrictions may apply.

We know how the trope comes to be in common media, but how about anime/manga?

It goes the same for anime and manga. There are a lot of examples cited at the link I have given.

The question asks for the origin in anime/manga though, your answer only addresses when the trope in general might have begun, but not for anime/manga.

I think that's where anime/manga also came from. A lot of manga artists based their characters/characters' personalities from topic discussed from psychology, and one of good examples are psychic powers.

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How are ditzy characters classified?
How are ditzy/airhead characters classified in anime/manga? For example, while Lucky Star's Kagami is a tsundere, her airhead sister, Tsukasa, is a ________?

Her sister's name is Tsukasa.
I've seen characters like that tagged as 'Ditzy' on some sites but I don't know if that's an actual thing...

@MrPineapple Thanks. I'm actually looking for a Japanese classification along the lines of tsundere, yandere, etc.

I think Tsukasa's isn't included in the dere classifications because dere means lovestruck and I think dumb or stupid characters fall into different classification, though I'm not sure to what.

You are probably looking for the term dojikko for Tsukasa:

Dojikko is Japanese for clumsy with the feminine suffix "-ko"
  added on the end. The attraction is not limited to Japan, the concept
  of a Cute Clumsy Girl has worldwide appeal, mainly because her
  clumsiness makes her more approachable. The main difference is that in
  the West a Cute Clumsy Girl is probably supposed to make the audience
  chuckle, while Dojikkos tend towards making them say, "Awwww! She's so
  cute!"

Source: TVTropes article on dojikko
Also, Kagami is not really a tsundere, unless you think she is in love with Konata, which some fans really do seem to support. She should probably be classified as the tsukkomi (straight man) in manzai, where Konata is usually the boke:

Called manzai in Japanese, this is a kind of Straight Man and Wise Guy
  duo, but it's also the interaction between two characters who
  constantly play off each other. A boke's job is to set up the gag by
  telling a story or explaining a fact which is obviously false (making
  him an idiot) or flawed (making him sneaky). The tsukkomi is, roughly,
  the Straight Man who has to correct him, often physically.

Source: TVTropes article on manzai
Edit: Since dojikko didn't seem to be a proper answer, I looked up more character types on Japanese websites and think I found exactly what you're looking for. It actually fits in really well with my explanation of manzai above. My new answer is that Tsukasa is a tennen boke (natural boke, also translated as natural airhead):

A tennen boke is an eccentric person who has exceptional talent in
  being a natural boke. Even though a person can be called a tennen
  boke, there is no such term as tennen tsukkomi. In manzai, the boke
  deliberately entices both the tsukkomi and the audience's laughter by
  executing a calculated line. However, the tennen boke describes
  someone who naturally (without any preparation or purpose) says
  boke-like things.
It can also be called simply "tennen" or "tennen kyara" (tennen
  character).

Source: Translated from the Japanese Wikipedia article on tennen boke
So basically, a boke is someone who says dumb things on purpose in order to anger the tsukkomi and make other people laugh. However, a tennen boke says the same dumb things without realizing they are actually dumb.

Thank you. Although clumsy != ditzy, dojikko is close.

@coleopterist I've added information about another character type that may be what you are looking for

Thank you :) This is interesting too. But it seems that tennen boke is part of a manzai act rather than something standalone. (BTW, Google Translate offer henjin as a translation of airhead which seems, well, hen.)

@coleopterist You've misunderstood. Tennen boke is not part of any sort of act - it is someone's natural personality.

is it possible kagami is a tsundere even if not gay for konata? say a platonic tsundere. tsundere is not necessarily romantic right?

I think Tsukasa Hiiragi falls under The Ditz character classification since she's not too fool to be The Fool.

The Ditz is a character whose defining characteristic is profound
  stupidity. Female ditzes tend to be sweet and naive, while male ditzes
  tend to be oafish but lovable. The Ditz is written to appear
  unintentionally funny. In drama series, he or she provides comic
  relief.

I think Tsukasa's character doesn't fall into any of the deredere classifications because first of all, deredere means lovestruck and she doesn't have any love interest in the anime.


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Why was the "Anime no Chikara" project interrupted?
Back in the 2010, TV Tokyo's anime department and Aniplex began a project called Anime no Chikara. After producing three anime with original stories, Sora no Woto, Senkou no Night Raid and Occult Academy, the project was put on break and never resumed.
The president of Aniplex Koichiro Natsume said in 2012, "unfortunately I cannot say that this was a success", but he didn't say exactly what was wrong with the project.
Are there any sources or data explaining why Anime no Chikara was aborted? Is this suspension related to Senkou no Night Raid controversies regarding the interpretation of Manchurian incident, causing the episode 7 to be released online only or there are more practical reasons behind this decision?

Because it wasn't financial and popularity success?

I tend to agree with Euphoric here. I think the series that were a part of it just weren't successful. Unfortunately I can't find any viewership numbers to back this up.

One thing that Koichiro Natsume said was that it was a one year project. It's difficult to tell from what he said if it was planned to be one year from the start or if it ended up being one year, but if it was planned to be one year, then it wasn't aborted but instead just ended.
One thing that he said was that there were supposed to be four projects. Only three were released, which may have been the failure that he was talking about.
In regards to episode 7, they actually played a replacement episode (episode 7.5) the same day that episode 7 would be released, so they actually did have an episode that day. From reading about it, it doesn't seem as though they were forced to stream it online but chose to instead, but it is difficult to tell.
It is difficult to tell exactly how voluntary ending the program was, but Koichiro Natsume at least implies in his interview that it was intended or at least ended up more as a learning tool than anything else.


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Is there a term for "two-faced" or "reverse-tsundere" characters?
Is there a (Japanese) cultural term for reverse-tsundere-type or two-faced characters who are sweet on the outside, but mean people on the inside. Like Kanako from Oreimo and Akira from Lucky Star?

Akira is a Nice Character Mean Actor according to TvTropes. Still don't know for it's Japanese equivalent.

And so is Kanako.

Actually, the term is still tsundere.

The word is derived from the terms tsun tsun (ツンツン), meaning to turn away in disgust, and dere dere (デレデレ) meaning to become 'lovey dovey'.
  — Tsundere, Wikipedia

There are, then, two types of tsundere: Tsun (Type A), and Dere (Type B).
Type A, also known as harsh, is what we typically consider tsundere; they are typically angry, mean, or pessimistic on the outside, but have a sweet side that they reveal to characters they like (or in other similar situations).
Type B, also known as sweet, is the reverse of Type A. These characters are typically sweet and kind on the outside, but have a hidden meanness inside of themselves that they sometimes unleash, usually in a response similar to that of Type A.
Originally, the term seemed to refer to Type A only, but has expanded over the years:

The term was originally used to describe characters who began with a harsh outgoing personality, but slowly revealed a soft and vulnerable interior over time. Over the years the character archetype has become flanderized, and is now generically associated with a character who flips between the two emotional states at the slightest provocation.
  — Tsundere, TVTropes

So, it seems the way the word tsundere is structured, it can have either tsun as the default mood, or dere, meaning it can be used to describe either variation of a character. In your case, though, you're looking for a "Type B Tsundere".

I agree. Though the term tsundere mostly refer to those characters with love interests. Note that dere means lovestruck or lovey dovey.

Instead of tsundere, it's haraguro (腹黒).
It means a character who is "two-faced", acts nice but vicious with certain people or in secret.
Example of haraguro character: Maki from Seto no Hanayome.

The definition of haraguro is "wicked". Is there any reference to "acts nice"?

@AkiTanaka hara is the abdomen, the inside or interior, so haraguro is wicked on the inside: https://vndb.org/i1251.


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Why do many anime not follow the manga? Why are they usually made shorter?
Many anime do not follow the manga history and are made shorter. However there are a few that do follow it or try to finish the history with the manga like the big three (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece), Death Note, and FMA Brotherhood. But others finish the anime without the real ending like FMA, Ouran High School, Pandora Hearts, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. Why is this so? Is it because of the high cost? Or the lack of popularity?

FMA is an interesting case, as the 2003 anime series was started to match up with the manga, but the manga was not finished at that time. So, they went ahead and made their own ending. FMAB was made after the manga was completed, so it was more true to the story.

@Eric: IIRC, for FMAB, the manga is not yet complete when the anime starts airing. But the manga does end sometime before the anime ends.

@nhahtdh Yes, you're correct. But it had the same end result.

There seems to be a little ambiguity here: An anime could choose to not follow the manga for reasons of not being shorter. Is this question about / should this question be about specifically for the shortening case?

The television broadcaster allots a specific number of seasons for the anime, depending on commercial considerations, such as popularity of the source material (manga), target audience, timeslots available, etc. If the manga would not conclude by the time their allotted season ends, they usually create an alternate ending, so that the audience does not feel like they abandoned the series.
The more popular series such as Naruto or One Piece can reasonably expect that they would get several seasons, till the manga ends and hence can follow the manga closely. However, such anime could also end somewhat abruptly, if the broadcaster decides to not allot them any more seasons at some point, as it happened with Bleach after the Fullbring arc, for example.
In some cases, when the anime production company works closely with the mangaka, they can keep their ending consistent with the manga, even though the manga has not been published, but this is rare.

The work between the production company and the mangaka is key for the complete production of the anime ok.

Just to make sure there is no misunderstanding, I did not mean anime production company working with mangaka is rare, but cases when anime ending stay consistent with manga even though the manga ending is not published is rare. Many times the mangaka plans for hundreds of more chapters, and may have not even worked out the ending. One such example is Gantz, whose manga still continues though the anime aired for 2 seasons in 2004.

Generally with cases like Soul Eater, Ouran, Kaichou wa Maid-Sama and Ao no Exorcist is that they've run out of source material or that the manga simply hasn't reached far enough past that point to continue the anime. The first Fullmetal Alchemist anime came out when the manga wasn't anywhere near done, and therefore branched off completely after

 Hughes was killed.

It's hard to say, since there's a lot of reasons.
Some are just horrible decisions.
Some are money motivated.
Tokyo Ghoul is a recent example of how NOT to adapt a manga into an anime, which basically ruined it FOR NO REASON (since the manga was almost in it's 2nd to last arc when the anime started development, so all the material they were basing the anime on was already there and ready to use). (Even anime-only viewers that had never read the manga were able to pick up on the fact that something didn't feel right....nice action scenes to be sure (when the whole screen wasn't blacked out since someone decided it was a brilliant idea to run a gory series like TG on a network with strict censors), but the plot, characters, and pacing was meh...a lot didn't even realize it was supposed to be a seinen series and mis-type it as shounen when describing it)

Rearranging events that made no sense to rearrange to begin with (introducing several noticeable plotholes, such as Kaneki actually getting WEAKER as the story progressed, since in the first arc (after the intro arc) he demonstrates sudden melee fighting skills, but none in the 2nd arc in his fight with Amon, where as in the manga it was his inability to control his Kagune in his fight with Amon (and lack of fighting skills that forced him to use it) that convinced him that he should learn to fight without relying on it until he could control it properly as to not endanger his friends and allies, which is why he'd become much stronger during the Gourmet arc).
Completely altering the MC's personality into a helpless useless baby that did nothing worthwhile until the last arc, where as in the Manga he was just understandably lost/confused with the completely new life he'd been forced into and adapted to it rather quickly and well. (one of the biggest differences being in the first episode/chapter, where defining character moment was changed completely. When faced with a monster and threat of death, Manga Kaneki fought, while anime Kaneki fled). Also the fact that Manga kaneki discovered most of the stuff about being a ghoul by himself, where as anime Kaneki has to be told every little thing.

A similar thing was done to Shinichi in the new Parasyte anime, but only for the first episode or two at which point he jumped back to his manga incarnation (which according to Madhouse, was because modern anime fans have had their brained rotted out by years of terrible anime that they can't properly detect subtle shifts in personality unless they're beaten over the head with it with extremely blatant evidence of personality shifts such as dramatic physical/psychological changes).

Leaving out A LOT of character development across the board. (this is ESPECIALLY bad for a seinen series being adapted because one of the biggest differences between a seinen and shounen is that seinen tend to have much deeper looks into character development, where as shounen is generally more superficial or glossed over in favor of focus on action due to being marketed to younger audience with less attention span and wanting to see more explosions (Obviously the only real definition for Shounen vs Seinen is which magazine the source material ran in, which results in stuff like Death Note or AoT being shounen despite having the sort of themes and depth you expect from a seinen.)
FILLER SCENES in an anime that was already way too short, that could've been better spent on the cut character development or scenes actually in the manga that were pretty important but cut in the anime. This is the WORST kind of filler. If the anime had been ~24 episodes and they added a bunch of filler that expanded and fleshed out the world to get them to the point where the anime ended (if properly adapted the beginning through Aogiri arc to it's full conclusion, rather then simply stopping in the middle like the anime did would've taken about 18-19 episodes), AFTER they'd properly adapted everything that was supposed to be there, then that's good filler. But when you're already having to prune the story (and some element could be pruned without hurting the overall experience, like Amon running out to dig up Hinami's father's mask to prove the mother and child were ghouls, which showed Amon was dedicated, albeit recklessly so to hunting down ghouls, but wasn't critical to his character since he showed his revolve and beliefs A LOT)) to get it to fit into the Season length, filler shouldn't exist at ALL. Taking Hinami's father's episode scenes as an example...IF the anime had the run time to allow it, AND it was treated as a flashback instead of currently happening, then sure, it would've added to the story and been useful, but it served no purpose in the anime and was so unimportant in the manga it was only mentioned in passing. We already cared about Hinami because of what happened to her mother....and seeing what happened to her mother already let us imagine what happened to her father who we knew was killed before the story began, so wasting almost a 1.3 episodes worth of run time on HIM, was pointless because we're not going to care about Hinami any more then we manga readers did already without having to know him, which could've been better spent on Kaneki/Touka (in disguise) visiting the CCG's Ward 20 office (giving the audience some crucial insight into how ghoul's bodies work and exactly what the stakes are for the future of ghouls) that ACTUALLY HAPPENED in the manga. Or the non-existing plot over Jason's pliers, which didn't happen in the manga, because in the manga RC suppressants were used, where as in the anime, since they skipped everything involving how a ghoul's body works, they had to make Quinque steel surgical implements a anime-original plot point, and then wasted even more time on it then just explaining RC would've taken.
Tokyo Ghoul is a rather gritty and Psychological seinen manga, but the animating studio (who are mostly known for shounen series) animated and paced it LIKE a shounen series (the author of the manga is on record as being very disappointed with the direction they took in the adaption), which caused a lot of the explored themes and struggles as to come off as very superficial, with the skeleton of the plot they used serving as just padding to move from action sequence to action sequence, including throwing in new action sequences that never happened or were deliberately never shown in the manga because action was never supposed to be the focus.


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Why does Lupin have both prowess and infantile behavior when it comes to women?
Why does Lupin seem to be both skillful with women but also devoid of seriousness and is infantile towards women?
What is the source and purpose of this equivocated attitude towards women?
And Lupin is by no means the only male character to do this. This theme seems to run like a red thread through most of the anime where male character seem to have the main role. But compared to other male characters Lupin is an adult making "faces". Is there a Japanese culture influence in this  funny-faces making or this is just a manga/anime original contribution?

Lupin is a globe-trotting thief which makes it rather difficult to build meaningful relationships with women. You can perhaps relate his situation to that of another philandering gallivanter in James Bond. Bond is another who is skilled when it comes to women (no doubt through years of experience) and flits from one to the next at the drop of a hat. When Bond did try to create a stable relationship with a woman, it ended in disaster. The same sentiment could well apply to Lupin who is happy to have dalliance after dalliance, but never commits to a relationship. The only notable exception is his, well, sadomasochistic affection for the well-apportioned Mine Fujiko who is part of the same world as he is.
The goofy character is just something that makes the anime entertaining. FWIW, neither is he all that goofy in the manga nor is he particularly chivalrous. His WP page elaborates thus:

In Monkey Punch's original manga, Lupin is cocky, quite crude, and for the most part remorseless. He is very much the ladies' man, often using them for his own gains, but is not beyond forcing himself upon women who resist him. This is in stark contrast to his better-known anime self (excluding the fourth series), who despite being a skilled thief, comes off as a goofball that will go to great lengths to right injustice, who also shows a chivalrous streak that compels him to help those less fortunate than he.

The goofy, lecherous persona is also a very 70s/80s thing and can also be seen in some of Lupin Sansei's contemporaries such as City Hunter.


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Has Japan stopped producing anime based on western stories?
I did some research to see if there exists an anime that was based on western stories and I have found some here (including the only one I can remember, Cinderella Monogatari). I have noticed that all anime there were old, thus, making me wonder if Japan totally stopped creating anime that are based on western stories.

No. There are a number of recent Japanese anime based on Western stories. Some examples:

Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo based on Alexandre Dumas, père's classic French novel, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, aired in 2004-5.
Romeo × Juliet loosely based on William Shakespeare's classical play, Romeo and Juliet, along with numerous references and characters from other Shakespearean plays aired in 2007.
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland is an erotic, lesbian rendition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, aired in 1995.
Powerpuff Girls Z is a magical girl anime series based on the American animated television series The Powerpuff Girls, aired in 2006-7.
Deltora Quest based on the series of children's books of the same name, written by Australian author Emily Rodda, aired in 2007-8.

There might be plenty more. I will update the answer with more examples if/when I find them. :)

There was also a bunch of collaborations recently between Marvel Comics and Madhouse: Wolverine, Blade, X-men, and Iron Man. Also a DC Comics collaboration with several different studios that produced the anthology Batman Gotham Knight. Oh, and Witchblade.

Many Ghibli movies are based on Western stories. Recent ones include Arrietty, Tales from Earthsea, and Howl's moving castle.

@Deidara-senpai Lets not forget Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, a free adaptation of Dumas' Count of Monte Christo. Also Heidi, Girl of the Alps, adapted from the Johan Spyri novel. Future Boy Conan, based on The Incredible Tide by Alexander Key. Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline, a French/Japanese co-production, based on a long running French comic.

@Deidara-senpai Also, you should include Oyayubihime Monotgatari (based on Thumbelina), which the OP mentioned, and Trapp Family Story (based on the novel The Story of the Trapp Family Singers which inspired The Sound of Music)

I don't think this answer needs to contain every single recent example... I think it's sufficient as is, and adding more examples would be pedantic.

@atlantiza I did say I would update the answer if/when I find them, but I did not say anything about whether I would try to find them. he he he. ;)

@Deidara-senpai Yes, but if you list a lot, there isn't much added value. I'd rather see 5 good examples instead of all 100 examples.

@atlantiza I know what you mean. I wasn't planning to even try to find any more examples. As per my first comment, I only have to update the answer if I find any more examples. If I don't even try, there is nothing more to do.

I think the question was already answered (since it was answerable with either yes or no, and by some examples to prove the answer) so there's no need to update or add more examples. :)

I just said I would update with more examples, but I never intended to do it. Ah, never mind, no sense of humor here.

At least, there's the World Masterpiece Theater. Between 1969 and 1997, and 2007-2009, they produced anime based on a classic book or story, also western. I can't find anything that tells me whether it's over.
Besides from that, I don't know any anime based on western stories.

Haven't heard any latest anime based from a western story as well. Maybe they have stopped, though not officially.

@xjshiya: That's what I'm thinking as well.


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What Bankais exist within Soul Society?
Bankais are the zanpakutōs' ultimate form. They have their own name and usually a special ability. Apparently, not everyone has a zanpakutō with this form. And it looks like bankais are exclusive to captains, since Ichigo can use this form as well.
So what are the zanpakutō with bankai form that have already appeared in the anime/manga (along with their names and abilities if possible)?

I'll point out that ALL zanpakuto have Shikai and Bankai forms.  The reason not all of them can transform is due to their wielders either not being strong enough, or not being in synch enough with their swords.  We've seen a few non-captains use Bankais (the bald guy, and Renji are two good examples).

As SingerOfTheFall pointed in his answer Captain Byakuya stated that:

Even the four noble families, whose members are always exceptionally
  talented, have only a member capable of bankai every few generations.

At wikipedia states that:

Only 4 non Captains in the Gotei 13 to have achieved Bankai

First Division
Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto (山本元柳斎 重國 Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni)

Ryūjin Jakka's bankai "Zanka no Tachi" (残火の太刀?, lit. "Long Sword of
  the Remnant Flame") upon release causes all of the flames produced by
  Yamamoto to disappear into the blade. The bankai is comprised of four
  abilities based on the cardinal points:

"Zanka no Tachi - Higashi (East): Kyokujitsujin" (残火の太刀･東　旭日刃) in which all the flames are concentrated on the edge of the blade,
  incinerating everything it touches
"Zanka no Tachi - Nishi (West): Zanjitsu Gokui" (残火の太刀･西　残日獄衣) where Yamamoto envelops his whole body in flames, reaching up to
  15,000,000 degrees
"Zanka no Tachi - Minami (South): Kakajuuman' Okushi Daisoujin" (残火の太刀･南　火火十万億死大葬陣) - this techique resurrects the burned and
  incinerated dead which were struck down by the blade using its burning
  state, it is roughly translated to "great army of the 10 trillion
  buried by flames".
"Zanka no Tachi - Kita (North): Tenchi Kaijin" (残火の太刀・北 天地灰燼) - a powerful slash attack, incinerating everything in one fell swoop.
  Translated as "heaven and earth are burned to ashes".

Chōjirō Sasakibe (雀部 長次郎 Sasakibe Chōjirō)

His bankai is "Kōkō Gonryō Rikyū" (黄煌厳霊離宮, lit. "Yellow-Glittering
  Royal Villa of the Stern Spirit") can produce a bolt of lightning from
  the blade which extends and transforms into a dome of lightning,
  stationed far above the users head and fastened to the ground by a
  large number of lightning pillars. These pillars can be controlled at
  will to shock the opponent.

Shunsui Sōzōsuke Jirō Kyōraku (京楽 次郎 総蔵佐 春水 Kyōraku no Jirō Sōzōsuke Shunsui)

Unlike other Soul Reapers, Shunsui possesses paired zanpakutō called
  Katen Kyōkotsu (花天狂骨?, lit. "Bones of Heavenly Blooming Madness").
  While the blades are normally two daisho swords, their Shikai state
  resemble dao or falchions. When released with the command "Flower Wind
  Rage and Flower God Roar, Heavenly Wind Rage and Heavenly Demon Sneer"
  (花風紊れて花神啼き 天風紊れて天魔嗤う Hana Kaze Midarete Kashin Naki, Tenpū Midarete
  Tenma Warau), Katen Kyōkotsu gains the ability to "turn children's
  games into reality." One such game, Bushō Goma (不精独楽?, Lazy Spinning
  Top), involves spinning around wind like a top. Another, Takaoni (嶄鬼,
  Mountain Demon), declares that whoever is the highest is the winner. A
  third technique, Kageoni (影鬼, Shadow Demon), forces the players to
  alter their own shadows; whoever steps on a shadow, even their own, is
  declared the loser. The fourth game is known as Iro-Oni (艶鬼, Colored
  Demon) where players call out color and then slice the enemy where
  that color is displayed. However, if the color is not on the body of
  the person who called it out then the damage given is minimal; the
  more that the declared color is prevalent on the declarer's body, the
  more damage the attack will commit. A fifth game is called Daruma-san
  ga Koronda (だぁるまさん が こぁろんだ, The Dharma Doll Fell Down), a game
  similar to "Red Light Green Light". The sixth and final game is called
  Kageokuri (影送り, Silhouette Sending) which is a game where if a person
  is staring hard enough at another person's shadow, then their opponent
  creates after images of themselves. Katen Kyōkotsu's bankai is called
  Katen Kyōkotsu: Karamatsu Shinjū (花天狂骨枯松心中, "Heavenly Bloom Madness
  Bone: Withered Pine Lovers' Suicide"), which he uses only when his
  allies are at a safe distance from himself. When released,
  Shunsui's bankai covers a large area around Shunsui in an aura. This
  aura changes others' perception of the surrounding environment, making
  them perceive it as darkened, bleak and gloomy, and causes others to
  feel varying levels of melancholy and despair. While it maintains
  its shikai form, its bankai allows Shunsui to manifest various
  stories, which can kill opponent easily. It also manifests the spirit
  of Shunsui's zanpakutō, a Feudal-Japan-style mistress referred to as
  "Sakuranosuke" who created a silent kunoichi bodyguard from her being
  to hold Shinken Hakkyōken until Nanao eventually asks for it.

Second Division
Soi Fon (砕蜂（ソイフォン） Soi Fon, pinyin: Suì Fēng), born Fon Shaolin (蜂 梢綾（フォン シャオリン） Fon Shaorin, pinyin: Fēng Shaolíng)

Soi Fon's Zanpakutō is Suzumebachi (雀蜂?, literally translated as
  "Hornet").
Suzumebachi's Bankai, Jakuhō Raikōben (雀蜂雷公鞭, lit. "Hornet Whip of the
  Thunder Immortal") composes of a greatly enlarged version of the
  shikai form that encases the entirety of Soi Fon's arm, which she
  mentions as being bulky and incapable of concealing, and thus unsuited
  for use in missions requiring stealth. In this form, Suzumebachi
  becomes a long-range weapon and looks like a large rocket launcher;
  its main offensive capability allowing Soi Fon to launch a high-speed
  projectile that resembles a large missile. The thunderous recoil
  produced by the weapon requires Soi Fon to be anchored to a nearby
  stationary object via an enhanced cloth-like material (which doubles
  as armor) called Ginjōtan (銀条反, lit. "Stripe of Inverted Silver").

Third Division
Gin Ichimaru (市丸 ギン Ichimaru Gin)

Gin's Bankai is "Kamishini no Yari" (神殺鎗 which means "God Kill Spear.")
By adopting a stance where he firmly grips Kamishini no Yari with both
  hands and places the Zanpakutō's hilt squarely on the center of his
  chest, Gin is able to utilize the tremendous extension and contraction
  properties of his Bankai to an even more terrifying extent than its
  normal state. This occurs in the form of a piercing maneuver where the
  extension and contraction of the blade becomes almost completely
  unseen to even the most diligent of observers.

Shūsuke Amagai (天貝 繍助 Amagai Shūsuke)

Amagai's Zanpakutō is Raika (雷火, roughly "Flash of Lightning").
Raika's Bankai, Raika Gōen Kaku (雷火豪炎殻, literally "Lightning Flash
  Flame Shell"), enlarges the blade and creates a giant conch-shaped
  guard worn across Amagai's arm, with the handle of the blade hidden
  inside it. This form gives him greater control of his fire attacks,
  his most powerful technique creating giant dragons of fire to encircle
  and crush his foe.

Fourth Division
Yachiru "Retsu" Unohana (卯ノ花 烈 Unohana Retsu)

Unohana's Zanpakutō is Minazuki (肉雫唼, roughly "purify the flesh").
Her bankai is Minazuki (皆尽?, "All Things' End"). When activated it
  releases a thick, oily substance from the blade. Its powers have yet
  to be revealed. Minazuki appears as freed Zanpakutō spirit in the
  Zanpakutō Unknown Tales anime arc with Minazuki's form being a mute
  figure of unknown gender in a hooded robe, pretending it was
  imprisoning Yamamoto. Unohana has a scar on her collarbone inflicted
  by Zaraki Kenpachi when they fought prior joining the Gotei 13. She is
  also a skilled swordsman and have mastered all kind of swordsmanship
  techniques. In a new release of the manga, she is still shown fighting
  Zaraki Kenpachi. She then calls forth her Bankai, saying "Minazuki"
  and it appears that her blade is releasing blood as she slashes
  Captain Zaraki. It also appears that in an illusion, their flesh is
  peeling away from their bodies, and they are still fighting but as
  skeletons. It is still difficult and to early to truly understand what
  her Bankai actually does.

Sixth Division
Byakuya Kuchiki (朽木 白哉 Kuchiki Byakuya)

His Bankai is Senbonzakura Kageyoshi (千本桜景厳, "Vibrant Display Of One
  Thousand Cherry Blossoms")
When released, his blade disappears, and a thousand blades, resembling
  sakura petals, come upon his opponent and slash them multiple times.

Renji Abarai

Hihiō Zabimaru turns his sword into a skeletal giant-snake like sword that
  has a head. It can dissemble and reform at Renji's will and can shoot
  focused reiatsu at the head.

Sōō Zabimaru is compacted into form predomately worn by Renji
  with the snake skull smaller and affixed over Renji's right hand as a
  combination blade gauntlet and shield while a skeletal simian arm
  hovers just slightly above Renji's right arm. Sōō Zabimaru's signature
  technique Zaga Teppō is a close range attack where Renji uses his
  spiritual pressure to conjure a large snake skull that incinerates
  whatever it bites down on.

Source about Renji's bankai

Seventh Division
Sajin Komamura (狛村 左陣 Komamura Sajin)

Komamura's Zanpakutō is Tengen (天譴, literally "divine punishment",
  translated in the English manga as "sword of heavenly retribution").
Tengen's bankai, Kokujō Tengen Myō'ō (黒縄天譴明王, roughly "vidyarāja of
  black-roped divine punishment", translated in the English manga as
  "divine retribution, black ropes of ruination") brings forth the
  entire giant, which also copies Komamura's movements.

Eighth Division
Shunsui Kyōraku (京楽 春水 Kyōraku Shunsui)

His bankai is unknown, but when asked by the Espada Coyote Starrk to
  show it to him, Ukitake warns him not to reveal it where so many
  people could witness it. Katen Kyōkotsu (花天狂骨) appears as a free Zanpakutō
  spirit in the Zanpakutō Unknown Tales anime arc as two separate female
  beings: a Feudal-Japan mistress and her silent ninja bodyguard,
  wielding Shunsui's swords.

Ninth Division
Kensei Muguruma (六車 拳西 Muguruma Kensei)

Kensei's bankai is named Tekken Tachikaze (鐡拳・断地風, lit. Iron Fist
  Earth-Severing Wind). The combat knife transforms into two bladed

Kaname Tōsen (東仙 要 Tōsen Kaname)

The Zanpakutō Tōsen uses originally belonged to his now-deceased
  friend and is called Suzumushi (清虫, literally "pure insects", but read
  as "cricket"; translated in the English manga as "bell bug").
Suzumushi's bankai, named Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Kōrogi (清虫終式紅閻魔蟋蟀,
  literally "Suzumushi, final style: Enma cricket") creates a large,
  black dome centered at Tōsen's location and anchored to the ground
  with ten rings. Anyone within the dome loses four of their five
  senses, retaining only the sensation of touch. The weakness of this
  technique is that whoever is touching Suzumushi's hilt is immune to
  the dome's effects, so anyone able to grab Suzumushi recovers their
  senses for as long as they remain in contact with the hilt.

Eleventh Division
Ikkaku Madarame (斑目 一角 Madarame Ikkaku)

Ikkaku's Zanpakutō is Hōzukimaru (鬼灯丸, referring to the Japanese name
  for the winter cherry, meaning "demon light").
Hōzukimaru's bankai, named Ryūmon Hōzukimaru (龍紋鬼灯丸, literally
  "dragon-crest demon light"), takes the form of three oversized weapons
  connected by a thick chain: two blades in each of his hands and a
  fan-shaped blade, adorned with a carving of a Chinese dragon, which
  floats behind him. Aside from the increase in power, his Bankai offers
  no special abilities, and is noted to be unusual for a bankai in this
  aspect.

Twelfth Division
Mayuri Kurotsuchi (涅 マユリ Kurotsuchi Mayuri)

Mayuri Kurotsuchi's Zanpakutō is Ashisogi Jizō (疋殺地蔵, roughly
  "leg-cutting Buddha").
Ashisogi Jizō's bankai, named Konjiki Ashisogi Jizō (金色疋殺地蔵,
  literally "golden leg-cutting Buddha", translated in the English manga
  as "divine leg-cutting Buddha"), takes the form of a giant caterpillar
  with a baby's head and a silver halo. The creature breathes a
  poisonous derivative of Mayuri's blood which is lethal to anyone who
  breathes it, aside from himself and Nemu.[45] It can also run through
  and skewer opponents with the multiple blades that erupt from its
  chest. Mayuri has physically modified his bankai so that it will
  self-destruct and return to its sealed state if it attacks him. It is
  also shown that Mayuri changes the poison he uses every time he shows
  his bankai.

Thirteenth Division
Rukia Kuchiki (朽木 ルキア Kuchiki Rukia)

Hakka no Togame increases the area of influence of Rukia's
  ability to reach the temperature of absolute zero. Upon release, a
  pillar of cold mist rises up into the air from where Rukia is and
  covers a wide area in her vicinity. Anything within the area of
  influence of the mist is frozen. Once frozen solid, victims crumble
  away within seconds. Physical contact with Rukia herself causes other
  people to begin freezing solid because of how cold she is. While it is
  a powerful Bankai, it is also a difficult one, as the slightest
  mistake could kill Rukia. Because Rukia is physically affected along
  with everything else in her vicinity, the amount of time she can use
  her Bankai appears severely limited, as prolonged use can potentially
  cause her damage, so she is required to melt slowly when leaving this
  state, otherwise she would risk damaging herself.

Source about Rukia's bankai

General's Sources
Extras

Some images
As SingerOfTheFall pointed out in his answer about the one that appeared only in the anime.

Shūsuke Amagai (天貝 繍助, Amagai Shūsuke)
Raika Gōen Kaku (雷火 豪炎殻, Lightning Flash Flame Shell): Amagai holds
  out his Zanpakutō in front of him as fire swells around him. Raika
  becomes a large and more detailed version of its former self. Raika
  Gōen Kaku takes the form of an enlarged sword, and turns the edge of
  the blade a crimson red color, with a hook at the end. The inner side
  of the hook-blade sports several jagged edges. A large white shell
  with a light-purple trim covers the hilt. A massive hollow
  pauldron/shield with the handle is hidden behind it. The sword is
  about as tall as Amagai in this form.

The list is missing some Bankai. Fell free to edit, I'll do it when I find some.

Ichigo new bankai didn't appeared yet in the manga. just his new zanpakutō.

Just post a comment if the info is out of date.

Doesn't hurt to post a bounty ;3

Shunsui is on there twice (first and eighth), Shūsuke Amagai is on there twice, and Kenpachi's bankai is missing. No idea what to do about Ukitake though, we may never get to see his bankai though its probalby safe to assume he has one.

@Ryan I don't remember, but didn't he switch division when he became captain ?

Shunsqui was officially the 8th division capitain, but was promoted to First division captain after Yamamoto's death. So layout wise it is set up correctly, but we have him in Division 1 with a bankai description, and in division 8 without a bankai description. Shuskue honestly should not be in the list itself and only at the bottom (being non canon and all) but i may be biased on that bit.

No, captains are not the only ones that are able to us bankai. Do not mix the reason and the consequence: it's not like they have bankai because they are captains, but rather they are captains because the have bankai, achieving which is one of the requirements to become a captain through showing one's proficiency.
Except for the current and former captains,

 Abarai Renji and Madarame Ikkaku

are known to have achieved bankai.
Another characters include (more spoilers):

 Shūsuke Amagai (anime-only) and Chōjirō Sasakibe

and, of course, Ichigo. Note that being able to use bankai shows one's exceptional skill and proficiency. In chapter 162, Byakuya stated that "even the four noble families, whose members are always exceptionally talented, have only a member capable of bankai every few generations".

Zaraki Kenpachi is an example of a Captain appointed on basis of his sheer power, even though he hasn't even mastered Shikai.

@Arturia, power isn't equal to proficiency. There are three ways to become a captain. Proficiency test includes showing Bankai in the presence of at least three captains, including the Captain-Commander. Zaraki, though, became a captain by trial of combat - not just "by strength". That includes defeating another captain in front of at least 200 witnesses from that captain's sword. And that is also the only method he could use, exactly because he never mastered his sword.

The Bleach wikia page has a listing of all the types of Bankai and which ones have been achieved. There are bankai's that have been achieved by non-captains.

Who possesses each Bankai, and what are their abilities?

(Taken from the list from the above link)

Ichigo Kurosaki : Tensa Zangetsu
Renji Abarai : Hihio Zabimaru
Ikkaku Madarame : Ryumon Hozukimaru
Sajin Komamura : Kokujo Tengen Myo'o
Kaname Tosen : Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Korogi
Mayuri Kurotsuchi : Konjiki Ashisogi Jizo
Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto : Zanka no Tachi
Shusuke Amagai : Raika Goen Kaku
Toshiro Hitsugaya : Daiguren Hyorinmaru
Kensei Muguruma : Tekken Tachikaze
Chojiro Sasakibe : Koko Gonryo Rikyu
Byakuya Kuchiki : Senbonzakura Kageyoshi
Sui-Feng : Jakuuho Raikoben
Gin Ichimaru : Korose Kamishini no Yari

I think "Korose" is not a part of the name of Gin's Bankai.

Kiskei Urahara
Bankai - Benihime = Crimson Princess
Known uses: Benihime can be used to create what is known as a blood shield which shields Kiskei from attacks that could cause certain death.

can you provide some source to back up your answer


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What are the PVP rules in the Sword Art Online MMORPGs?
The show, Sword Art Online has 2 Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games in it, Sword Art Online (SAO) and Alfheim Online (AFO). What are the player-vs-player rules in these 2 games? Sometimes the rules seem to either make no sense (being able to attack someone in a home town but not be attacked back) or seem contradictory (requiring a mutual duel sometimes and sometimes not).
Also, I realize the rules from the 2 in-anime games are probably different. Where SAO seems to have free PvP in non-safezones, AFO requires duels (but only sometimes?).
Do the light novels go into any details about this?

Warning, there are spoilers in this answer if you haven't watched SAO completely yet.
For the SAO arc, outside of towns, you're constantly "flagged" for PvP. From the beginnings, when you're getting explained how the players are divided:

Inside the city, or the places mostly referred to as «Safe Areas», there was protection implemented by the system and players couldn't hurt each other. But it wasn't like that outside. The stragglers made teams with other stragglers and ambushed other players —which was in many ways much more profitable than hunting monsters— out on the fields or the labyrinth areas.

Players that commit crimes are marked orange (i.e., their cursor turns orange). From when Kirito and Asuna encounter the troop from The Army in the forest:

More importantly, whenever a player committed a crime, their cursor would turn orange and wouldn't turn back to green for a long time.

Note that attacking an orange player doesn't change your cursor to orange. From when Asuna steps in to stop Kuradeel from killing Kirito:

Kuradeel bounced back up as if he had springs and attempted to form an excuse with his nervous voice. But before he could finish, Asuna's right hand flashed and the tip of her sword tore Kuradeel's mouth. She didn't become a criminal since her opponent already had an orange cursor.

Inside of towns, you have the town protection in place, which doesn't allow open PvP, so many new players originally stayed in town to be safe. You can attack other people in towns, but it won't do anything except for some special shiny effects and knockback.
If players engage in duels, there are several options:

First Strike Mode - from the duel against Kuradeel:

I nodded in reply, then pressed Yes and chose the «First Strike Mode» from the options. This was a duel that could be won either by landing the first clean hit or by reducing the opponent's HP to half.
Complete Decisive Mode - from the Inner Area PK incident:

But unfortunately, there were still some loopholes around this rule. One of them is when the player's sleeping. There are times when players, with their energy exhausted through long durations of battle, are basically unconscious when they go into a deep sleep, and unable to wake up even with some stimulations. With that opportunity, one could raise a request to duel in «Complete Decisive Mode» and moved the sleeping opponent's finger to press on the OK button. All that was left was to literally make the opponent sleep like the dead.

The other options are not explained or mentioned as far as I can see.
For the ALO arc, there's PvP against other fairy races in your native race's (controlled) towns. From when Lyfa/Suguha shows Kirito around meeting Sigurd:

Somehow, a circle of onlookers had already surrounded them, drawn by the signs of trouble. If this was a formal duel, or if he were an actual Spriggan spy, then fine. But it would be dishonorable if Sigurd instigated a fight with a tourist like Kirito, who can't even fight back in this area.

And in that same quote, it's mentioned that a "formal duel" is possible, but that's not further explained. Outside of towns, you can fight without restrictions. This can be seen by people just fighting about everywhere. Note that if a race's lord is killed by another race, the other race will gain control over that lord's territory. From when Lyfa explains why the Salamander want to stop the Sylphid-Cait Sith alliance:

"Also, if they kill the Lord, they will get some amazing bonuses. They will unconditionally receive 30% of the lord's funds stored in the mansion, and for ten days, the territory that the lord rules over would become occupied, then they are free to set taxes and take that money. That is a tremendous amount of money. The reason why Salamander became the largest force in the game was because in the past, they had set a trap for Sylph's first Lord and killed him. Normally lords don't venture into neutral territory. In the history of ALO, only one lord has ever been killed."

There is no such a thing as a player with a red Cursor. The Cursor can be green, and the cursor can be orange. It turns orange once you hit player with green cursor outside a duel and out of safe area. It doesn't matter if you killed him afterwards, robbed them, or just ran away. The cursor revert back overtime to green the first three times. On the fourth time, you have to complete a quest. It permanently turns orange the fifth time. Red guilds/players are something that made up by players to differentiate murderers.

@Krazer I don't think that's true. Although I don't have the show in front of me to double-check, the assassination group that was sent to kill off the main characters at the end of the inner-PK arc were red I believe.

Found it: Red Players

@Mysticial That's not how it goes in the light novel. Search for "The killing guild «Laughing Coffin»".

@Krazer On the same page you linked, there is this sentence: "First, if he fell as a red player, he wouldn't be able to continue staying in the guild and the clearing group." Also this sentence: "In a certain sense, they were the biggest enemy of the clearing group, bigger than the boss monsters, the red players." There are a few more but I'm sure two will suffice. Just search for "red player".

@atlantiza PK guilds and players in SAO are dubbed "Red" by players to differentiate them from normal criminals, because their cursor color is also orange. If you read up a bit more for the paragraph I noted you'll see that Johnny Black (a "red" player) had a orange cursor.

Based on only the Anime (especially episodes 5-7), the rules for Sword Art Online are this:

Players normally can't damage each other in inner-areas (such as towns). But they do suffer from knock-back (as shown in episode 11 when Asuna attacks one of the Liberation Front members).
The only way for players to damage each other in inner-areas is to have a duel.
It is possible to die in an inner-area duel. (It's the only way to die in an inner-area.)
Both players must consent to a duel. But "consent" is only getting the player to push a button.

What to get from this:

If a player is asleep, you can pickup the player's hand and push the button for them, thereby initiating a duel. Since the sleeping player is unprepared, you can kill the person. Hence a "sleep-PK" in an inner-area. (episode 5)
The entire arc of inner-area PKs were actually fake PKs using the "durability" of the clothing.

In Alfheim Online, the details are less clear:

In hometowns, natives can attack outsiders, but outsiders can't attack natives.
There isn't much about duels. (At least I don't recall seeing anything about it.)

And I haven't read the light-novels so I don't know if it's clarified in them. But like other shows, it's entirely possible for the rules to be slightly different between Manga/Novels and Anime.

It is not possible to die in a duel. Your health gets reset.

@MichaelSpencer: Yes you can if the duel is in "Complete Decisive Mode", see my answer. Also, how would the sleep PKs mentioned in anime and novel happen?


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Why does absorbing the Spirit Wave from Genkai involve such a painful process?
In the middle of The Dark Tournament, Yusuke Urameshi gets to fully inherit Genkai's power of the Spirit Wave by absorbing a ball of energy from her.
However, this process turns into an excruciating trial for Yusuke, almost killing him, and keeping him doubled over in extreme pain for a long period of time, so much so that his Spirit Animal, Poo, is also in pain and flies to him to try to help.
My question is, why is it such a painful procedure to learn and absorb this power?

Spirit Energy is a part of one's life energy, like an extension of one's soul.  When Genkai transfers her spirit energy into Yusuke to teach him the technique, it is incredibly painful for him to receive such an overwhelming amount of energy/soul at once because his body takes  time to adjust to the new levels of energy.

You would think then that Genkai would experience he same kind of pain

@TylerShads I would think that too, but there are a few things that could counter it. First, she may have split it slowly, over a few years, and possibly have done so a long time in the past. Second, Loosing it is not like gaining it. In a fight, they can use almost all of it up, little consequences, but Yusuke had a sealed bottle that was already full before Genkai shoved several times more than his capacity into it. he had to spend days preventing the bottle from shattering under its own pressure, forcefully increasing its size. That is expected to be painful.


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Change from Gold Roger to Gol D. Roger
Was there ever a reason given for the name change? I thought at first that it was possibly a mistranslation in the initial episodes. However, in LogueTown Luffy visits a bar named "Gold Roger" and considering the owner knew Gold Roger you'd think they'd get the name right.

There hasn't been any change, I think.
The real and first name is ゴール・D・ ロジャー (Gōru D. Rojā, Gol D. Roger), but he is also known by the name of Gold Roger. I think it's just an in-universe thing.
That said, his real name carries the D. which in the story is being described as "more than a simple initial", often mentioned when talking about The Will of the D:

In the series, few characters have the middle initial "D.". This mysterious middle initial has been called "the Will of D" (Dの意志 - D no Ishi) or "D's will" by several characters in One Piece. [...]

By the way, the  meaning for the D. has not been revealed yet, but it certainly holds great importance and is likely to be a major point in the development of the One Piece story.

The change wasn't the name as a whole, but how people said it.  Like how people say (Alex) or (Alix)

@Blue It's not a radical change though. I mean, if everybody calls you Bob, but your actual name is Robert, your name hasn't changed. People will simply call you by another name, but you'll always be Robert. Gol D. Roger is the real name, but since it has a nice word hidden in it, people call him "Gold Roger" but that doesn't change his name neither in the universe, nor in the Manga itself (for us).

Yea, but people just got lazy in saying the "d" so they just referred to him as Gold

@Blue That might be one of the reasons, sure. But if I was Roger, I'd be offended! :P

@Alenanno Even Roger himself was offended (chapter 576)

There is a flash back around the time of the Whitebeard war where Gol. D. Roger is talking to either Whitebeard of the villain form the strong world film.
Here Gol remarks that people have begun calling him gold instead of Gol. D. and laughs about it asking the other person if he wants to know why the "D" is important.
This scene is set 10 years in the past so the name change began around then and slowly spread around the world the way words do. The purpose for the name change appears to be a sign that knowledge of the will of "D" is fading form the world.

One reason of the change of Gol. D. Roger's name to Gold Roger was due to slang.  People would rather just connect the name making it Gold Roger than having to say more syllables.
Another reason would be that the treasure One Piece is thought (One Piece isn't confirmed to exist) to contain gold.  Since his name's spelling is close to gold, people then just start saying Gold Roger.
In my opinion, his name change would be due to the laziness of the later generations.


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What did Madoka wish for in the original timeline?
I just watched the show - Madoka spends most of it trying to figure out a good wish to make.
One episode shows Homura in presumably the original timeline, where she's just a shy new kid and Madoka is already a magical girl along with Mami, which means Madoka had in fact made a wish in this timeline. Is it ever mentioned what did she wish for?

She wished the cat in the opening (named Amy) to be saved from being run over by a car. This is revealed in the Drama CD 1.
More info about wishes in the series: https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Wish_theories#.E2.9C.94.C2.A0Timeline_1_-_Save_that_cat.21
More info about the Drama CD 1: https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Drama_CD_1

Sounds like Madoka alright lol.

You bet, in another one of Homura's timelines, Mami joked around that she'll have her wish for a huge cake lol! I think it's a clue to her timid and bashful personality.

I wish they release a "video" version of this drama audio CD!  :P

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


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Why are all the agency cyborgs female?
I just watched both seasons of the Gunslinger Girl anime adaptation. I'm not sure if this is addressed in the show or the manga, but why are all the cyborgs female? I take it that they are kids because it's easier to condition them - are there any male cyborgs in the manga?

The simple answer here is that this is what makes up a "Fratello" team, an older male handler and his young girl cyborg. This relationship is a really important theme throughout the series. They are young because they are easier to condition, plucked from traumatic experiences so they can form a strong new bond with their handler who has complete control over the conditioning and how much is needed. Like with the instance with Triela, where she sometimes expressed a bit of a rebellious (for lack of a better word) tendency toward her Hilshire, understanding the situation she's in and what the conditioning does, her bond with her handler trumps everything. Also see: Elsa, where her bond with her handler was so strong that it went to extremes (death).
I remember reading somewhere that this sort of relationship was easier to control as opposed to an older Female (or male) with a young boy, where the boy could be less cooperative and obedient, but I can't find that reference right now.
To answer your other question: No, there were no male cyborgs.

It'd be great if the reference can be provided because when I was researching this in Japanese (and a quick research in English), all I found are theories from: boys' adaptability from conditioning/body modification, using girls to make it easier to deceive target, and girls are easier to control the relationship (your answer). So whether it's an official statement or a fan theory, I hope you can make it clear.


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How was Aku no Hana's rotoscoping received by other animators?
In the anime version of Aku no Hana, the animators chose to use a technique called Rotoscoping:

Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over footage, frame by frame, for use in live-action and animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a rotoscope, although this device was eventually replaced by computers.

This resulted in the animation looking more realistic and quite different from typical anime, as pictured below.

Online, I've seen both love and hate for the style, but I'm wondering: Have any Japanese animators commented on it? According to TVTropes, it has a bad reputation in the West with animators such as Richard Williams and Milt Kahl, but it makes no mention of Japanese animators.

I believe interpolation rotoscoping is more used then the original rotoscoping.

There's not much information out there, perhaps because it is bad practise to criticise fellow animators. But there is information from the people who were involved:
Firstly, The mangaka was satisfied with the way the anime was animated, and the studio itself was happy with the outcome, wanting realism without making it completely live action and wouldn't be opposed to doing it again with another series, mentioning that Mushishi would be a good candidate for the style.
Vertical Inc., who publish the manga in English, have also stated their support for the stylistic adaption - Vertical Inc. Tumblr
The industry as a whole isn't opposed to rotoscoping in the industry, Kuuchu Baranko also implemented it for one character's appearance and there was little outroar on the internet

Kids on the Slope also used the technique for animating the characters playing instruments, most notably the drums;

It also wasn't the target of much negative feedback either.
Personally, I think that if a large unconvential stylistic choice was made for an entire anime, there will always be negative feedback, and that makes a lot more noise than positive ones.

It's not the rotoscoping itself, but the combination of rotoscoping along with the omission of various details that cause negative reactions.  When the brain is given visual data to process, it doesn't immediately distinguish whether what it's shown are objects in the real world or images on a screen or paper.  The brain looks for various cues, like the relationship between lines and shading and color, and automatically searches for and identifies patterns that it can use to determine relative positions of objects, motion of living things and other objects, human motion and facial expressions, and other features that are important for survival.  As such, when the brain perceives patterns that aren't actually there it will never the less still include those patterns in the final processed image that we "see."  This is the basis for pretty much every optical illusion ever created.  On the other hand, when the brain is given an image that approaches realism but is missing various cues or the cues are slightly off,  the brain freaks out and releases cortisols and other chemicals to simulate pain and initiate a fight or flight response.
Basically, images that approach realism too closely without actually making it all the way there will appear extremely "creepy" and be off-putting, and not just to some people, but to everyone with a functioning visual cortex and adrenal cortex.  But that's exactly what the studio was shooting for, so mission successful?  It simultaneously adds to the atmosphere but breaks immersion, which makes it difficult for people to project themselves into the story with the exception of a few scenes where the audience is allowed to vicariously explore deviant behaviors.
So when seeking other animators' opinions on Aku no Hana, I'd be wary of people who conflate the style with its psychological and physiological effects.


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What did Hare want to give to Shu at the moment of her death?
At the point where Hare got shot, after healing Shu, she says, "Shu... I'll give you my..." but dies before finishing her sentence. What did she want to say to Shu?

Just as user4670 said, she would probably say, "Shu, I'll give you my heart," that is the most practical answer.
However, since the sentence does go unfinished, it's really up to the imagination of the watcher what she would say, even if the answer can be quite obvious.
Another few possibilities are "...my soul." as well as "...my love." However these are probably the least likely answers of the three possibilities, despite all three representing a similar meaning.

I think she wanted to say: "Shu I give you my heart". After all she did entrust Shu with her void before, and she wanted to show that her heart belonged to him, because she loved him.


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Why do some anime in Japanese contain English?
It seems that many anime and manga aired or printed in Japanese, before they are dubbed or localized, contain English text or lyrics.
I've tagged a couple of examples here.
The first is from Digimon Tamers, wherein there are a couple English lines within the otherwise Japanese title sequence:

And another example from Neon Genesis Evangelion, where the text on the monitors is printed in English:

There are countless other examples (one I couldn't find was another scene from Tamers in which a beer can reads "BEER"); so, my question is:
Why do these English words make their way into otherwise entirely Japanese productions?

To expand on all the great answers a little: This is somewhat of a false perception. I'm sure there are Japanese people wondering why Americans get tattoos that say "Soup" and "Ugly". Or French people that wonder about the American fast-food place "Au Bon Pain". It sounds better than "The Good Bread".

@DampeS8N Except it's not only things like that: In North America, there are not cartoon songs that randomly have lines in French or Spanish, nor are the computer displays in Norwegian when the characters are still in their homeland. It may be somewhat a false perception, but Japanese have far more immersion in English than we do in other languages.

Computer displays and things should occasionally feature English in other countries for the same reasons that an American film should feature French on street signs in Paris. Because English is common on these devices. Also, the Japanese do what we do with Chinese and Japanese, for mostly the same reasons. It is different and cool.

There are two different ways that one can use English words in Japanese.
The first is through loanwords. The Japanese language was more-or-less standardized during the Meiji Restoration, in the late 19th century. Before that, Japan was a very isolated culture for a very long time, so a lot of concepts simply didn't exist in the language. As a result, it was decided that rather than creating new words for all of these concepts, they would just borrow the words from other languages. Most of the words came from English, though there are also some from other western languages.
In this case, the words are written in katakana (カタカナ). There are a very large number of loanwords, but it's fairly standardized what is a loanword and what is not. Also, some of the words are pronounced differently in Japanese than English (e.g. energy becomes エネルギ (enerugi) with a hard g sound). In case it's ambiguous how to pronounce English words in Japanese, these are also usually standardized.
That doesn't really represent a use of English, though. The loanwords are borrowed from English, but both the meanings and pronunciations can be radically different from the English words. They're better described as Japanese words which are based off English words. The examples you've given don't really fall into the above category, but there are many examples like this so it's worth mentioning.
The other way they can use English is just by writing/speaking in English. The examples you've given seem to fall in this category. This is done to sound/look cool, because most people in Japan only hear and see Japanese for most of their day, so it stands out. Since most Japanese people have at least a passable knowledge of English vocabulary (it's part of the standard curriculum), it's a way to make a statement, sort of like how stylized fonts would be used in English except a bit stronger.
Now that we've made that distinction, we can answer the question. The answer to your question "Why do these English words make their way into otherwise entirely Japanese productions?" is that English is fairly common in Japan, not just in anime/manga. This isn't solely a phenomenon about anime/manga, nor am I convinced that it's particularly common in anime and manga. For instance, you can probably spot several instances of English in this picture of advertising in Osaka (I found 3, with another 2 cases of the Roman alphabet being used to write non-English words, and quite a few katakana loanwords as well):

So in summary, it's because English is common in Japanese culture. But that's not a very satisfying answer by itself. Rather than answering the broad question of why modern Japanese culture often uses English (which I think might be better posed at Japanese.SE with some modifications) I'll address the particular cases you have mentioned, in part because a full answer to the former question is probably impossible and in part because it's off-topic.

Using English is very common in music, where whole lines may be written in (oftentimes broken) English. This is not solely a Japanese phenomenon, as Korean and Chinese pop artists also often use English (Indian pop artists do so very frequently as well, but English is a fairly common language in India). As far as I can tell, it isn't particularly common in anime songs, though of course I don't have any statistics to back that up.
Essentially, it's done in music to sound cool, for the reasons I listed above. It also somewhat expands their audience, since people around the world speak English. I don't know if there's an analogy that would be familiar to people who only speak English, but the closest I could come up with is that Latin is occasionally used in English-language music.
In fact, English use in Japanese music predates J-Pop itself (which is the genre that most anime music falls in). Japanese rock musicians in the 1960s and '70s were mostly inspired by their western counterparts, most notably the Beatles. For a time, Japanese rock singers believed that the Japanese language was too restrictive to be able to sing rock-style, so most of them sung in English (see here). The first really successful band to sing in English was Happy End, but even after that, people continued using English at least occasionally. It's possible to write long academic papers on the use of English in Japanese music, but I'll stop here for brevity.

For Digimon Tamers, and indeed many series, the title is displayed in English. In fact, most series now have both an English and a Japanese title, which do not always mean the same thing. In the case of Digimon, the word 'Digimon' comes from two English words, 'Digital' and 'Monster'. Tamers is also an English word. The title could be written 「デジモンテイマーズ」, but it's more authentic-looking to use the English title. As for why the title was chosen in English to begin with, again, this is best explained via the rule-of-cool, since English sounds different and interesting. Of course, not all shows do this, and it's mostly a stylistic decision, so it's probably impossible to give a better explanation.

As for Eva, most computer systems, even in Japan, are based on English. Most programming languages are also based on English. As a result, it seems more authentic (or at least, it did at the time) to have computers and technology things entirely or mostly in English. I don't know if this is changing, now that there are Japanese-language programming languages, operating systems, etc.

As for "BEER", it is not uncommon in Japan to advertise beer in English. This example is a fairly small company which I found from reading Moyashimon, but it's certainly not uncommon for beer to be written in English. I don't really know why. My suspicion is that this is because beer originated as a western drink.

I could probably go on for a while, but I think this answer is already too long and there's no point to continuing to list examples, so I'll end it here. As I said above, this might make a good question on Japanese.SE if you phrase it appropriately. It could also make a good question on the proposed Japanese Culture site.

Excellent answer! I'd like to add that Japanese highscool students are required to follow atleast six years of english courses during their junior and senior years. English is also part of the entrance exams to universities( The difficulty of these tests in some cases seem to be on the low side though ). These two variables also add in popularity among the Japanese.

It's a pity you didn't mention "Engrish" in your answer.  That also supports your claim that it's rather common in everyday life in Japan.

@user314104 Engrish is also very common, especially in music. That's where the "broken English" comes in. Japanese people generally have a pretty good knowledge of English vocabulary, but not as good for grammar (this is just on average, and of course there are many exceptions) which results in the broken English that we often call Engrish. The term Engrish itself is sometimes seen as a bit insulting in Eastern cultures (though not usually in the West) so I tried to avoid it in the answer.

Just a note: “エネルギー” comes from German, not English (like the word “ベクトル” for “vector”), where it does have a /g/. Most loans from English still resemble standard (southern) English pronunciations. Were “energy” and “vector” taken from English, they'd be “エナージー” and “ベクター”, respectively. Note the lack of coda /r/ in both (from non-rhotic English).

There are, though, a few mutated loans I can think of. There's “チーム” for “team” (due to a lack of [ti] in native Japanese), and “エッチ” for “H” (probably having become corrupted due to, ahem, frequent use).

It should be noted that this doesn't just happen in anime. If you were to go to Asian countries where they use Chinese characters (China, Japan, etc.), you will see English text on things such as food products or T-shirts. Sometimes the text is gibberish and makes absolutely no sense at all. They do this in order to make the product more appealing, to have variety. There is not as much variety for Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana in fonts, e.g, in English, we have fonts such as Times New Roman or Impact. On the other hand, Kanji characters and the like can get confusing if it follows a certain font. It would be easier to read standard Kanji as opposed to reading Kanji in, say, Courier New (if that's even possible).
So, in order to make the characters bigger, to have more impact on their viewers, they use English instead of their own language. You can make the curve on "D" on "Digimon" bigger and you'd still be able to read it as "D" or you can change it to a certain style to fit the anime's genre, but you can't change any part of the character "デ" without it retaining its meaning.

It seems that katakana are more flexible than kanji and hiragana, even if less so than Latin. See logos for No Game No Life, Kill la Kill and Nisekoi.

Of course, many of these are going to be English names transcribed into Japanese.

Japan was and is very influenced by Western culture, and Japanese song composers sometimes add in English lyrics into their songs as some sort of "special effect", even though it may not grammatically perfect.
As for Japanese appearing in anime, the producers may be trying to invoke a "foreign" feel to the scene or objects (like the "BEER"). Science-ish elements of an anime (especially computers and monitor text) are most frequently represented in English, using all kinds of technical English nouns and adjectives (as well lots of numbers and symbols), because it invokes the stereotype that Science is this "cool and complex process that cannot be understood".

Depending on the context of the inclusion of English, the reason is different.
Earlier Usage
From early Meiji up through pre-war Japan, English-language education in Japan was stronger than it is now (in other words, Japanese mastery of English has sharply dropped in recent history, and the Japanese government's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology [MEXT] is still attempting to raise the level through a variety of teacher trainings and education reform in hopes of catching up to the current level of English-language education in China, South Korea, and other Asian nations). The older the manga/anime/song is, the more likely the mangaka/screenwriter/lyricist accurately understood English. Older titles feature snippets of English because at that time, more Japanese people had a working grasp of basic English.
Cultural Connotations
In Japanese language and culture, loanwords, garaigo, wasei eigo, and Engrish (each of these terms refer to distinctly different linguistic entities) bear connotations of "new," "cool," and "young"/"youthful," so in Japanese advertising, English words, French words, and katakana are utilized for products that the manufacturer wants to project an innovative or coolness factor, whereas they are intentionally and carefully avoided for products associated with concepts of tradition, vintage, and long-term repute (this is not only true among young Japanese, but is the general association among the populace; you can see this reflected in titles and character names from manga written in the 70s). Manga, anime, and j-pop generally fall into the "novel and exciting" category rather than into the traditional Japanese arts category, so peppering them with English, and Japanese variations on it, contributes to the association of the medium with "contemporary" and "hot." Digimon is definitely a series that wanted to be the "next big thing" in the footsteps of Pokemon, so "new" connotations can only be a plus. The arenas of manga, anime, gaming, and j-pop are very competitive and fans can be fickle; being new and cool is important for a successful launch and for maintaining a prominent place.
Being 'Other'
Returnees (Japanese who lived/studied abroad and have returned to Japan), haafu (people of Japanese descent, such as half-Japanese, half-Caucasian), and international students are sometimes featured as characters in anime and manga. The tenkousei (transfer student) is an enduring theme. Often, the creator of the work concludes that the character needs to speak English, German, or another language (at least once) in the story to evidence having been out of the country. This is an alternate case in which English or Engrish is inserted: while it gives the character a coolness factor, it predominantly provides an 'Other'-ness factor that contrasts the character against the others. The reason this works effectively is that, unlike the earlier generations of Japanese education in English, among young people, English is viewed as very 'Other,' foreign, and difficult: it is not something "we Japanese" speak in daily life; a classmate who can speak fluently is considered a novelty. Because mangaka and anime directors are more likely to have been educated in Japan, such as at the prevalent anime manga seiyuu senmongakkou (anime/manga/voice acting trade schools), they are not the most likely demographic to have studied abroad, worked abroad, or worked in an international company with branches in Japan; this is not to say that none of them are fluent or near-fluent in English or that none of them possess intercultural communication skills, but it is the case that not all of them have a functioning mastery of English or intercultural sensitivity. This may be a factor in why the English or Engrish that anime characters who lived abroad speak is often pronounced in exaggerated stereotyping of non-Japanese as boisterous, loud, outgoing, etc. and that when these characters speak Japanese, they talk in a mispronounced caricature of Japanese that does not accurately reflect the sorts of mispronunciations that actual non-Japanese of varying mother tongues do. This also is done to portray 'Other'-ness.
A Lingua Franca
Among younger Japanese, despite not generally using English themselves communicatively for listening and speaking (most recent and current English education in Japan is grammar-focused reading and writing), it is considered to be the lingua franca of the planet and is associated with "international" and "globalization." In current Japanese education, the subject of Japanese language is called 「国語」 (kokugo, meaning "national language," rather than meaning "Japanese". If, for example, the United States did this, instead of the subject of English it would be called the subject of National Language). In contrast to this, the other language subject in Japan's curriculum is called 「外国語」(gaikokugo, meaning "other/outer country language/s") but in the majority of schools, the only language offered for gaikokugo class is English. This further entrenches English as the international language in Japanese people's minds. When they see a Caucasian in Japan, they are overwhelmingly more likely to ask, "Do you speak English?" in English to the person than they are to ask, "Do you speak English?" or "Is Japanese alright?" in Japanese to the person. Many Japanese recognize that their English language ability is weak, but look forward to, and some are already working toward cultivating, a future in which they envision more Japanese being able to communicate in English. This is why sci-fi series such as Neon Genesis Evangelion select to include English, which is considered the way of the future: the plot involves the leaders and militaries of the entire Earth trying to work together, so settling on an in-universe lingua franca is realistic. Some anime do select Japanese as the in-universe lingua franca, but English is a common choice.
Settings and Props
Modern Japan has brands and store names that are always written in English or romaji, so when parodies of these restaurants, convenience stores, food packages, soda cans, etc. show up in anime, they are illustrated to match the logo of the famous brand (usually, the name is slightly skewed in order to avoid licensing fees). This is the reason that the word "beer" can be illustrated in English: the beverage is often written as such on the beer glassware and interior decorations in Japanese pubs, so the letters form an easily-recognizable shape to Japanese people without them having to feel like they are reading English while leisurely watching an anime.
(An Aside)
While English and Engrish do appear in many series, sometimes a non-Japanese reader/viewer assumes that English is being used in a case when, in fact, it is not. Sometimes it is romaji, sometimes it is a non-real language (such as how names in HUNTER x HUNTER are written in Latin letters but do not adhere to a consistent real language: Gon Freecs, Curarpikt, Leorio, Quwrof Wrlccywrlir, Wbererguin, etc.), and sometimes other languages that employ the Latin alphabet (such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica) are included in anime for reasons that may, or may not at all, be related to the Japanese utilizations of English.

Thank you guys for the explanation, it really helped. But I think there was something left out. I think the other reason there a English courses in Japanese high schools is because we're living in an increasingly English speaking world. A good percentage of Japan's business is with America. Schools are teaching English more simply because it might be needed one day. You can't have a business transaction if you don't understand what the other person is saying. It's very true that America and other English speaking countries are having a lot of influence over Japan, and the proof is seen within the country itself, via advertisements, school, language, art technology and overall daily life. I've been to Tokyo before and was lucky enough to catch a business man talking on his phone in English, and I stopped on the street to take a look around me and marvel at the simple fact that I could actually understand some of the things I saw.

I think English being taught is only a small part of the reason. And it also depends a lot on the people whether they find it OK to use them in song or advertisement in everyday life. So the reason why Japan (actually, not everyone, but there is enough mass of people) is so accepting towards the use of English phrases should be traced back to their culture and their history.