text:
Is there any meaning behind what student's name appears in the episode name and eye-catch?
In the second season of Ansatsu Kyoshitsu, every episode's name appears with a "by XXXXXXXX", where XXXXXXXX is a student's name:

Then the same thing happens halfway through the episode, but instead of having the episode's name, it just says "Assassination Classroom Second Season", with a different student's name:

At first, I thought these might be significant to the story being told in that episode, and that the episode was in some way gonna be centred around that student. However, that does not seem to be the case (unless I'm seriously messing up the students' names).
Is there any significance behind what names appear in each episode, or are they just every student's names picked in random order and have no connection to the episode itself?

The names are picked in random order and have no connection to the episode. The name stands for the one who wrote on the board.


text:
What are the programming and computer references in Steins;Gate?
I want to know the programming and computer references present in Steins;Gate.
For example, I noticed the SQL database is referenced.

SQL is mentioned, as the question suggests. They even used company and trademarked names:

MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, SQLite, Access, ANSI

Of particular interest is the fact that Oracle, the company that owns Java, is present. It's rare to find original trademarks in anime.
A book for "Goodle Endroid", a clear reference to Google Android, can also be seen:

A book on SSH, the protocol used for remote administration, is shown, as well as a book that mentions Unicode, JIS (essentially the Japanese equivalent of ASCII), Java, Ruby 1.8/1.9, and Windows:

Comments are not for extended discussion; the conversation about answering your own questions has been moved to chat.

Those two books looks like OReilly ones. I found one with a similar bird sketch,

It's obviously meant to be an O'Relliy SSH book, but it's not the real O'Reilly SSH cover (pictured here in the JP edition: http://www.oreilly.co.jp/books/images/picture_large4-87311-287-7.jpeg )

Aside from what's mentioned in Wally's answer, following programming and computer-related items appear:
IBN 5100, a clear expy of IBM 5100 that was featured in the original John Titor forum posts:

@chanel textboard, very likely a reference to real-life 2channel:

@channel is indeed a reference to 2channel (hint: Shift key)

@AkiTanaka depends very much on the keyboard layout.

@Worse_Username What do you mean? Are there keyboards that don't output @ when Shift+2 is pressed?

@Wally: Most European keyboards have " on Shift-2, @ is shift-' e.g. on the UK layout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY#United_Kingdom

I believe the company that they were fighting against,'SERN', is an obvious reference to the company CERN. SERN is known to operate the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, the same goes for the real CERN.

Just like John Titor actually existed (most likely as a made-up character, but still). But this isn't programming nor computer-related, and neither is SERN/CERN.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Do ANBU Black Ops use a teleportation justu?
I am just a little curious about the ANBU, because of one scene while The 3rd Hokage was in charge of Konoha: when he was at his office, suddenly a member of ANBU appeared directly, without using the door or from the window.
Are they using a teleportation jutsu?

According to the wiki, skilled users of space–time ninjutsu (Teleportation ninjutsu) are:
Minato Namikaze, Obito Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha, Kakashi Hatake, Tobirama Senju, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, and Shin Uchiha.
So after seeing these names, I don't think any ANBU member was using teleportation jutsu, but, it could be the Body Flicker technique, according to me.
If it is indeed the Body Flicker technique, then in conclusion, those ANBU members were simply moving at such untraceable speed, that for others, it seems like that they just teleported.
So in short, it was not teleportation jutsu, but it was their greater speed which makes it seem as if he teleported. Also, I have seen one more question which says how Naruto was able to use teleportation jutsu, but in reality it was not teleportation, but it was simply his greater speed.

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


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Can fans convince a streaming site to show a certain anime?
If a streaming site, for whatever reason, doesn't have a certain anime of which you're a fan, can you gather enough votes in online petitions or facebook likes to convince the site to start streaming it?
When could this work, and when would this be hopeless? For example: do studios decide not to work with specific streaming sites, regions or audiences of less than N viewers?

Probably depends on the site.  They have to weigh the cost of getting a license and putting the content up vs. how much they can make by doing so.  I can't imagine there is a one size fits all policy for this.

then I'd like to know how it's calculated, but I asked that in another question already

Well, hopefully that question gets a good answer that can help you.  Ultimately, I believe it still depends on the site.  How they calculate how much they are likely to make along with other things is going to vary.  It will also differ between sites what they consider "worth it" vs. not.  I don't think we can give you a definitive answer.  If you are curious about a specific site, try contacting them and see if they can give you any guidance about what they would need to consider putting a show on their site.

The devil's in the details.  Likely guesses would be if the studio plans for an international release, and there are a lot of series that never plan for or didn't originally plan for one.

In most cases: No. They don't care about the fans, and care about profits. Most streaming sites have licenses to stream that show, which often enough is for exclusivity, such as with Netflix, or Amazon Prime. The licenses for these shows are either expensive from competition for it, or not worth the cost because of lack of response for the series. In the former case, the streaming site you're petitioning can do nothing about it, considering some other place will most likely already have the license, and in the latter case, can't see enough profits coming from it to make it worth the cost.

Well, I suppose the question was "How many fans (or response, as you say) is enough to make it happen?" and what you say is nothing I don't know already.


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How do Poké Ball capsule and seals work?
In the Pokémon anime and manga, the Poké Ball seal and ball capsule allows the Pokémon to get a fancy entrance, it is mainly used in contests but can be bought and used for fun. Is there any explanation of how these work?
Here is a complete Poké Ball with capsule and seal:

Here you see Dawn choosing the seal she wants:

Do you mean seals on ball capsules? If so, they're only in Gen IV and there's no explanation of the science given.

There is no canon information on how they work so far, but I've always thought that it was something to do with light manipulation. If a pokemon is released from a pokeball then there is a bright glow that is also emitted at the same time. The ball capsule alone has been seen used without a seal and the release is normal. I believe that is because the light was able to pass through the ball capsule without being impeded by a seal.
However when a seal is used the light has to travel through the seal on the way out and therefore takes on the appearance designated by the seal, similar to how holograms are theorized to work. This effect fades when the pokemon appears because that when the light usually fades. As I said though this is all theory and personal opinion. Hope this helps.

but the capsule opens as the ball does, so how will the light pass through the capsule, i mean, when the ball opens, the capsule opens in the same way, therefore light from inside of the pokeball should not be able to pass through the capsule, and the seal is on the capsule so it wouldn't exactly work, thanks for the answer though


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If the story and the names of Arslan are Persian, why is the theme Japanese?
I am from Iran and I saw just a few episodes. This story was famous in my parents' childhood and I really wonder why it is so different from the original story (the author is called Naghibolmamaulek). And why is the theme completely different from Persia?

Because it is a fictional works. They are just borrowing name and story.

Thank you for your care.I wasnot sure how to spell the name in english for it has a sound not existed in english

And they could change the name of the story if they wanted to be inspired by

The anime's based on Hiromu Arakawa's manga of the same name, which is, in turn, based on Yoshiki Tanaka's fantasy novel series of the same name. As the Wikipedia page for the latter states, it appears to have taken inspiration from a few different sources:

Whilst the protagonist's name (which is Turkic for lion) appears to may have been taken from the popular Persian epic of Amir Arsalan, other than this anachronism, Arslan and his Parsian enemies and allies primarily share many parallels with Cyrus the Great and other historical figures of 6th century BCE Persia (albeit with several liberties taken), whereas the conflicts with the Lusitanian forces (which bear the Byzantine Orthodox cross) – despite mostly French names and a certain religious zealotry implying a connection to the (Catholic) Crusades (again, with liberties taken)– appear to be based on the Byzantine–Persian Wars, specifically those of the 6th century CE. Furthermore, several names of prominent Parsian characters appear to be taken from known important figures throughout Persian history as well as the historically unsubstantiated legendary parts of the historiographic Persian epic Shahnameh. Additionally, supernatural elements mostly based on ancient Near East mythology increasingly play a role as the series goes on.

I wasn't able to find any reference to Naghibolmamaulek, the author you mention, but the short answer to your question is: the anime's based on a story that was inspired by the one your parents may have heard during their childhood, among others, and it is not a direct adaptation of it/them. As such, Tanaka (and possibly Arakawa too) took some liberties and changed a few things around.

I'm guessing that "Naghibolmamaulek" is Mohammad Ali Naqib al-Mamalek the author of Amir Arsalan. It looks like it might be an alternate transliteration of the last part of the name.

Makes sense. Not sure how I missed it, given I looked for similar patterns in names, but there you go :P


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What is the correct order of watching of the Ghost In The Shell series?
In this post, GITS stands for Ghost in the shell and SAC stands for stand alone complex
I've collected:

GITS arise quadrolgy
GITS SAC 1st gig
GITS SAC 1st gig solid state society
GITS SAC 2nd gig
GITS SAC 2nd gig individual eleven
GITS 2 innocence
GITS 2.0
GITS the laughing man

My queries are:

Except for GITS 1995, am I missing anything ?
What is the correct order of watching?

Thank you, i had searched with the word chronology so didn't get it.


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What is the background music in Your Lie in April that starts from 14:45 min in episode 4?
I've searched everywhere but couldn't find this music. It starts from 14:45 min in episode 4.

Is this the piano music that starts when we cut to Kaori's monologue about what she wants to do as a musician? The time-stamp seems slightly off; you might want to add a detail about the scene so it's clearer. In any case, if it's that, it sounds like an original composition.

As with this other answer, I was able to find the right song in this Amazon.co.jp page for the soundtrack, where you can listen to a 30-second preview of every song.
The song in question is track 26 of the first CD, アゲイン — meaning "again," what Kaori says at minute 15:04 to Kousei. You can buy the song individually here.
You can buy the full album in the Amazon page linked to above, but also from the show's official page if you'd prefer.


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What is the piano song that was played around minute 9 of episode 11?
What is the song (piano) that was played around the ninth minute of episode 11?

Turns out the music is the same one that plays on episode 4, around the 14:45 mark:

The song in question is track 26 of the first CD, アゲイン — meaning "again," (...). You can buy the song individually here.
You can buy the full album in the Amazon page linked to [below], but also from the show's official page if you'd prefer.

As with my other answers on finding songs for this series, I was able to find the right song in this Amazon.co.jp page for the soundtrack, where you can listen to a 30-second preview of every song.


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What happens when a member of the main house of the Hyuuga clan marries a member of the branch house of the Hyuuga clan?
I've been thinking about it for a while now, but what if a member of the main house of the Hyuuga clan marries a member of the branch house of the Hyuuga clan ?
I've searched everywhere for the answer, but I couldn't seem to find it anywhere.

I don't think that ever happened due to the strict rules of the familly that sees the branch members as a protection force for the main members.

I think the branch one would be treated as a main family from that time on, but only him/her and not his/her parents and siblings.

Until more is revealed, I would speculate that the two houses do not typically marry each other. But let's say that a marriage does happen, do they both get put in the same house? What about their children? Would the clan even allow marriages like that to happen?
If such a marriage is looked down upon by the clan, maybe it could mean the two are forced into the branch house or are ostracised from the clan completely. Maybe their children are placed into the branch house.
Maybe gender plays a role. It could be that the couple takes the house of the husband or wife. Ultimately, we don't know enough of the Hyuuga clan's marriage customs to give you a real answer.
In fact, there's not much info on what puts someone into the main house or branch house. Neji's father is put into the branch house although Neji's uncle is placed into the main house.
It's an interesting scenario for sure.

At the end of the day, both are still "Hyuuga".
We remember from all the way back to Hinata vs Neji that his father cries and says "I wish I bore you into the main family". Then, even if his father was a branch member, had his wife been a main member, Neji would be a main member as well.
Other than that, their problems were settled after Naruto puts Neji's mind back in his head after they fought in the Chuunin exam. In the flashback as well, Neji's father asks Hinata's father to tell Neji the full story when he gets older but at first, he refuses.
Hinata's father apologizes to Neji after his fight against Naruto and it is implied that there is some harmony between the 2 families. After that it seems that the tension between the families calms down.

Please add references to your answer (manga chapter or anime episode for instance).

That would probably be the most normal thing to happen : Neji explains in episodes 60-62 that everyone is considered side branch except the first child of the main branch, and that there is only one Main Branch.
Then, the only people the Main Branch could marry would be Side Branch people or people outside the clan, and it seems like they would usually marry inside the clan to ensure the Byakugan is passed down to the next Main Branch heir (however this may not be the case).
Therefore, I would assume that when a main Branch marries a side branch the one who was side branch would probably gain some stature but the one who was always main branch would still be the leader of the clan.

Sources :

Hyuga Clan Wiki.
Naruto episode 60-62.


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What is Kikuhiko's sexual orientation?
After the first season I was wondering about it. He even has some relationships with females but doesn't seem to exactly be interested.
Due to his complex relationship with Miyokichi and Sukeroku, things get a bit blurry (and even more so after I find out the author is experienced with the BL genre).
And even after the last episode in the 2nd season:

 where we get the possibility that he's still engaging sexually with young females

I still have this doubt: is Bon heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual, or asexual?

This might come across as haughty - it isn't meant to - but why does this matter?

@Makoto, don't matter. I'm just curious as fan and artist.


text:
What episode did Naruto combine Nine-Tails Chakra Mode and Sage Mode?
In which episode did Naruto combine Nine-Tails Chakra Mode and Sage Mode?  If possible, how did he know, or who told him to do so?

The first part of your question...

In which episode did Naruto combine Nine-Tails Chakra Mode and Sage Mode?

It's episode 381, or chapter 645.
And the last part...

If possible, how did he know, or who told him to do so?

It was Kyuubi who told Naruto that he'll let him use Sage Mode while also using his, as in Kyuubi, Chakra Mode.

Sources:

Nine-Tails Chakra Mode
Two Powers...!!


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Which Pokemon are animal based?
I have been thinking about this question for a while now. Since many Pokemon  are based around animals, which animals are Pokemon based on? I ask for the family of the animals, such as dogs, cats, mice and so on. The complete definition is in this link.
I would like a complete list if possible.

should be a lot, there's only 700 pokemon so far, and god knows how many animal on earth. That said, check this out, 15 Animals that haven't been made into Pokémon

note for future readers, my comment above was made before the edit, and the original question asked about what animal that doesn't have a Pokemon version of it, hence, my comment. But since the OP decide to change the question, my comment becomes obsolete, however, I decide to keep it because it has an interesting article about some animals that haven't been made into Pokémon.

@Dragon since there's 721 pokemon until XY, and also most of them are based on animal, I think I can write down all the list, but it's need more time to write them all XD

Is it okay if I'm not write all of the full evolution of one Pokemon? Just like my edited on Sam's answer?

@JTR As long as it is relevant, I guess it's not a problem

this is a list of all the animals I know of sorry if I typed it wrong.

parrot = Chatot
elephant = Panphy's Family
shark = Sharpedo
piranha = Carvanha
raccoon = Zigzagoon's Family
giraffe = Girafarig
bee = beedrill, combee's family
caterpillar = Caterpie, wrumple
mouse = Pichu's family
rat = Ratatta, Raticate
house cat = Meowth, Glameow's family
hyena = Poochyena's family
spiders (different species) = Spinarak's Family, Joltink's family
rattle snake = Ekans
Cobra = Arbok
Crocodile = Totodile's family
alligator = Sandile's family
camel = numel's family
ostrich = Doduo's family (technically dodo I think)
pidgeon = pidove's family
duck = Psiduck's family, duclett
pelican = Pelliper
angler fish = Chinchou's family
whale = Wailmer's family
coelacanth = Relicanth
horseshoe crab = Kabuto's family
crab = Kraby's family
lobster = corphish's family
goldfish = goldeen's family
carp = magikarp
clam = shelder's family
morray eel = Tynamo's family (?)
squid = inkay's family
jellyfish = tentacool's family, frillish's family
octopus = octillery
fox = eevee's family, Vulpix's family
dog = growlithe, electrike
butterfly = butterfree, beautyfly
owl = hoothoot's family
walrus = spheal's family
zebra = blitzle's family
pony = ponyta
cow = miltank
buffalo = tauros, bouffalant
polar bear = cubchoo's family
brown bear = teddiursa's family
ant eater = Heatmor
ant = durrant
praying mantis = Scyther's family
Kangaroo = kangaskhan
monkeys = mankey
apes = primeape, slaking
humans = tyrogue's family, throh, sawk, machop's line
ladybug = ledyba's family
eagle = staraptor
falcon = talonflame, Pidgeotto, Pidgeot
bat = zubat's family, woobat's family, noibat's family,
hermit crab = dwebble's family
mudskipper = mudkip's family, wooper line
gecko = treecko's family
turtle = squirtle's family
tortoise = turtwig's family
hedgehog = shaymin, cyndaquil
slug = slugma, shellos's family
snail = magcargo
penguin = piplup's family
frog = froakie's family, poliwag's family
barnacle = binacle's family
beaver = bidoof's family
moth = venomoth, dustox, volcarona
Rhinoceros = rhyhorn' family
hippopatamus = hippopotas's family
Mammoth = Mammoswine
Sloth= slakoth line,
Lion= Shinx's line
Crow: Murkrow's line
Pig: tepig's line
swine= Swinub's line
hercules beetle= heracross
toad= Bulbasaur's line
Tapir= Drowzee's line, Munna's line

there is more but that all I can think of right now.

Can you also mention which Pokemon is based on this animal? As it is, it's just a big list of animals so it's hard to relate it back to Pokemon.

thanks a lot for the answer, but is this the full list of animals that covers all the pokemon or just most of them? is it possible to get the full list? tell me if it's too much work to make a full list, then i'll give this as the right answer

this is not the full list, these were just a bunch I could think of

i'll keep adding more from time to time though

I tried my best to write down all of the Pokemons out there, here's the list :

Bird : Pidgey's Family, Spearow's Family, Farfetch'd, Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Hoothoot's Family, Togetic & Togekiss, Natu's Family,
Murkrow's Family, Skarmory, Lugia, Ho-oh, Taillow's Family, Wingull's Family, Swablu's family, Starly's Family, Chatot, Cresselia, Pidove's family, Sigilyph, Ducklett's family, Rufflet's family, Vullaby's family, Fletchling's family, Hawlucha, Yveltal
Flightless Bird : Doduo's family, Delibird, Torchic's family, Piplup's family
Ancient Bird : Aerodactyl, Archen's family
Canidae : Vulpix's family, Growlithe's family, Eevee's family, Abra's family, Snubbull's family, Houndour's family, Smeargle, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Poochyena's family, Electrike's family,
Absol, Riolu's family, Lillipup's family, Zorua's family, Fennekin's family, Furfrou, Swirlix's family
Felidae : Meowth's family, Mewtwo, Mew, Hoppip, Skitty's family, Shinx's family, Glameow's family, Purrloin's family, Litleo's family, Espurr's family, Volcanion
Turtle : Squirtle's family, Torkoal, Turtwig's family, Tirtouga's family
Frog : Bulbasaur's family, Poliwag's family, Croagunk's family, Tympole's family, Froakie's family
Lizard : Charmander & Charmeleon, Treecko's family,  Scraggy's family, Helioptile's family, Lickitung, Kecleon
Caterpillar : Caterpie, Weedle, Wurmple, Burmy, Sewaddle, Venipede, Larvesta, Scatterbug
Pupa : Metapod, Kakuka, Pupitar, Silcoon, Cascoon, Swadloon, Spewpa
Butterfly : Butterfree, Beautifly, Vivilion
Bee : Beedrill, Combee, Vaspiquin
Moth : Venomoth, Dustox, Masquerain, Mothim, Volcarona
Rodent : Ratatta's family, Pichu's family, Plusle, Minun, Bidoof's family, Pachirisu, Emolga, Victini, Dedenne
Snake : Ekans's family, Onix's family, Seviper, Milotic, Serperior
Shrew : Sandhrew's family, Drilbur's family
Rabbit : Nidoran (male)'s family, Nidoran (female)'s family, Wigglytuff, Azurill's family, Buneary's family, Bunnelby's family
Bat : zubat's family, woobat's family, noibat's family
Cicada : Paras's family, Nincada's family
Duck : Psyduck's family, Duclett's family
Sloth : Slakoth & Vigoroth, Slowpoke's family
Ape : Mankey's family, Aipom's family, Slaking, Chimchar's family, Pansage's family, Pansear's family, Panpour's family, Darmanitan, Electabuzz & Electrivire
Bovidae : Abra's family, Tauros, Mareep's family, Stantler, Miltank, Shaymin (Sky form), Arceus, Deerling's family, Bouffalant, Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, Skiddo's family, Xerneas
Jellyfish : Tentacool's family, Frillish's family
Equidae : Ponyta's family, Blitzle's family, Keldeo
Pinniped : Seel's family, Spheal's family
Clams : Shellder's family, Clamperl
Tapir : Drowzee's family, Munna's family
Crab : Krabby's family
Lobster : Corphish's family, Clauncher's family
Rhynoceros : Rhyhorn's family
Kangaroo : Kangaskhan
Seahorse : Horsea's family, Sklerp's family
Goldfish : Goldeen's family
Starfish : Staryu's family
Mantis : Scyther's family, Kabutops, Leavanny
Beetle : Pinsir, Heracross, Karrablast's family
Carp : Magikarp
Bass : Feebas, Basculin
Mollusca : Omanyte's family, Shuckle, Slugma's family, Shellos's family, Shelmet's family, Binacle's family, Goomy & Sliggoo, Zygarde
Seahorse Crab : Kabuto
Bear : Munchlax's family, Teddiursa's family, Cubchoo's family, Pancham's family
Hedgehog : Cyndaquil's family, Shaymin (Land form), Chespin's family
Crocodile : Totodile's family, Sandile's family
Ferret : Sentret's family, Patrat's family
Ladybug : Ledian's family
Spider : Spinarak's family, Joltik's family
Angler Fish : Chinchou's family
Salamander : Wooper's family, Mudkip's Family
Pig : Swinub, Spoink's family, Tepig's family
Remora : Remoraid
Octopus : Octillery
Manta Ray : Mantyke's family
Elephant : Phanpy's family
Racoon : Zigzagoon's family
Firefly : Volbeat, Illumise
Piranha : Carvanha
Shark : Sharpedo
Whale : Wailmer's family, Kyogre
Camel : Numel's family
Ant : Trapinch, Durrant, Genesect
Mongoose : Zangoose
Catfish : Barboach's family
Eel : Hauntail, Gorebyss, Tynamo's family
Coelacanth : Relicanth
Discus : Luvdisc
Cricket : Kriketot
Weasel : Sneasel's family, Buizel's family, Mienfoo's family
Skunk : Stunky's family
Hippopotamus : Hippopotas's family
Scorpion : Gligar's family, Skorupi's family
Freshwater Butterflyfish : Finneon's family
Dragonfly : Yanma's family
Otter : Oshawott's family
Centipede : Venipede's family
Hermit Crab : Dwebble's family
Chincilla : Mincinno's family
Sunfish : Alomomola
Flatfish : Stunfisk
Anteater : Heatmor
Mite : Magnemite, Bergmite
Dinosaur (if it's count as an animal) : Cubone's family, Lapras, Chikorita's family, Larvitar & Tyranitar, Breloom, Lairon & Aggron, Anorith's family, Tropius,
Bagon, Groudon, Cranidos's family, Shieldon's family, Gible's family, Dialga, Deino's family, Tyrunt's family, Amaura's family, Avalugg
Dragon (if it's count as an animal) : Charizard, Gyarados, Dratini's family, Flygon, Bagon's family, Rayquaza, Palkia, Giratina, Axew's family, Druddigon, Deino's family, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Goodra

That's my full list, I hope I'm not missed one of them.
Almost all Pokemon based on animal, that we're familiar with, or even animal that we doesn't know before.
Many of them are combined from two species at once, like Eevee's evolution that have some characteristic of Canidae and Felidae, so I put it on one of the family.
Source Various articles on Bulbapedia

I'll update as soon as possible.

mudkip is a mudskipper while whooper is based on a axolotl

@SamHendriks yeah I know, just like I said, Mudkip and Whooper are based on more than one animal. Mudkip based on mudskipper but also have some trait with salamander and axolotl because it's gills, and Whooper also true based on axolotl but also salamander moreover, Quagsire, Whooper's evolution is based on giant salamander


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What is playing on Shinji's walkman?
Shinji's Walkman (I don't know the exact term in English, but I already know it's a rare cassette player that didn't take off except in Japan), but what I'm interested is the music he is listening on it. (More specifically, the cassette have 26 tracks, and a duration of around 1h30 if I trust my memory of the appearance of the player).
I've re-watched NGE and the RoE:1.01, and the music have a great importance on Shinji's development, but we do not hear enough for any app to recognize it, and the name don't seems to be revealed in the credits.
Did the name of the cassette/compilation/music Shinji is listening to revealed in the show, a interview or any other "official" source?

Take a look at this cut from Episode 4 (via the official storyboards), and also the Shinji Ikari character page notes that the two songs that play are:

The two songs usually played on Shinji's SDAT are: Track 25 for "You are the only one" and Track 26 for "Blue Legend", respectively. The songs are from "Lilia from Ys", an image album for the "Ys" RPG series. The Vocalist is Kotono Mitsuishi, Misato's seiyu. However, Episode 02 has two Eva BGM pieces playing, while Episode 23 has a different vocal song for Track 25 instead.

Also on Youtube:
Aoi Legend, You are the only one

This article on EvaWiki has all the tracks played by Shinji's walkman/SDAT.
http://wiki.evageeks.org/SDAT
Edit:
Episode 2 - A-2 ("Background Music" - S² Works, Disc-01, track 02) and B-4 ("Fly Me To the Moon" - S² Works, Disc-01, track 27)
Episode 4 - "Blue Legend" (蒼いレジェンド Aoi Legend), track 3 of Lilia ~from Ys~ and "You are the only one"[5], track 1 of Lilia ~from Ys~
Episode 9 - "Blue Legend" (蒼いレジェンド Aoi Legend) and "Distant Empty Promise"[6] (遠い空の約束 Tôi Sora no Yakusoku), track 8 of Lilia ~from Ys~
Episode 15 - "You are the only one", track 1 of Lilia ~from Ys~
Episode 23 - "Ryoute Ippai no Yume" (両手いっぱいの夢 lit. Both Hands Full of Dreams), track 4 of Masami Okui - Gyuu
Episode 24 - Ode to Joy - Beethoven
Episode 25' - It plays nothing...
If you would like to know more there are
Music in Chronological Order of Usage and FLY ME TO THE MOON Guide


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Is Accelerator able to control the magnitude of vectors?
As we know, vectors have both direction and magnitude, and Accelerator's ability is Vector Change. I always believed that he could control both attributes of vectors, until my friends claimed that he could only change vectors' directions.
So is there any clear cut official statement to this question?

Some proof that he can control the magnitude of vectors:

He can propel himself by changing the vectors around his feet. Seeing as it initially has no speed, and suddenly it has, it means that the direction and magnitude was changed.
When he was first challenged by Touma, he kicked a stone as a warning shot, the stone flew so quickly, it made a nearby tower explode. Again, since the stone was at 0 speed, and went to supersonic speed (because that's what it takes to make an explosion like that), the magnitude was changed.

I'm sure that there could be more examples which I can't remember off the top of my head.

Oh yeap, that's very rational. Actually, I used your 2nd example to confute what my friends said before asking this question, but they say this stone-shot scene does not exist in the light novel nor in the manga, and the anime is misleading. They also said Accelerator makes things suddenly move fast just by focusing all the directions of forces onto one point. Though I really believe he can control magnitude of vectors, I can't find any official voice on this question.

@zwangxian: You (and your friends) should come over to our [chat] and have a nice discussion with some of our pros. I will try to find further examples that support the magnitude change.

@MadaraUchiha You pretty much nailed it here. He can control magnitude, and those are good examples from the anime.

I take the position that Accelerator cannot control the magnitude of vectors.
Indirect textual evidence

The Japanese for Accelerator's "vector manipulation" ability is: 向き【ベクトル】変換. The two fundamental properties of a vector are magnitude (大きさ) and direction (向き). If we ignore the furigana on 向き, Accelerator's ability translates as "direction changing" or "direction transformation". (Also, 向き isn't a synonym for vector in any standard usage, so there's clearly an emphasis on the "direction" aspect here.)
Consider the following quote from volume 15, with all furigana preserved:

一方通行【アクセラレータ】は何らかのベクトルを拾い、その向きを変換し、一点に集中して垣根帝督【ていとく】を攻撃【こうげき】している。

Roughly translated, this comes out to:

Accelerator brought together some manner of vectors (ベクトル), altered their direction (向き), brought them to a point, and attacked Kakine Teitoku.

We see here that there is an explicit reference to modifying the direction of vectors, and no reference to modifying the magnitude of vectors. This doesn't prove anything directly, but its absence is reasonably informative.
A cursory search across all 22 volumes of the initial light novel series (i.e. before New Testament) plus the two associated side story volumes reveals no cases in which 大きさ was mentioned within a few lines of ベクトル. (I might've missed something, though; this isn't all that great evidence. I'm just pointing out that there seem to be no references to the matter of magnitude either way.)

Physical arguments
Direct physical evidence that Accelerator cannot control vector magnitudes cannot exist (you can't prove a negative). It is easy, however, to demonstrate a reasonably plausible physical mechanism by means of which Accelerator could do everything he does without needing to control the magnitude of vectors (as I will do below). By the principle of parsimony, it follows that we need not assume that Accelerator is able to control vector magnitudes.
We begin by looking at energetic considerations. Consider a 1 kg lump of iron that is at room temperature. Roughly speaking, the total thermal energy of that lump is on the order of 1e5 ~ 1e6 joules. This is sufficient energy to propel a 50 kg human at a velocity of ~100 mi/hr, or a 50 g stone at ~3000 mi/hr (~Mach 4). If Accelerator is in contact with the earth, he has access to an energy reservoir roughly 1e24 times larger. Conclusion: Accelerator has access to enough energy to do pretty much anything, if he has a way to harness some or all of the thermal energy of objects he is in contact with.
The question remains: can Accelerator harness thermal energy? I claim the answer is yes.
Let us assume for the sake of argument that the only thing Accelerator can do is take a moving particle and alter its direction of motion (we're going to handwave our way past things like wavefunctions, Heisenberg uncertainty, and [in particular] conservation of momentum, because obviously Accelerator couldn't exist in the real world, so some physical laws have to give). Using this framework, let's see how Accelerator can do some things.

Accelerator wants to launch a stone at supersonic speeds. To do so, he directs the momentum vectors of a suitably-sized portion of the earth in the direction he wants the rock to move. This portion of the earth mostly-elastically collides with the stone and transfers its momentum to the stone, launching the stone at high speed. The aforementioned portion of earth gets slightly colder, but the earth is a huge heat reservoir, so it doesn't really make a difference.
Accelerator wants to launch himself at Touma. He uses his ability to direct the momentum vectors of a suitably-sized portion of the earth in the direction he wants. Elastic collisions happen, and he goes flying at Touma. If the momentum of the portion of the earth he's manipulating isn't large enough to get him moving fast enough after an elastic collision, he can augment the momentum of that portion by having the surrounding portions of the earth elastically transfer momentum into that portion, repeating as necessary to get the part that will collide with him moving fast enough. Elastic collisions in solids happen pretty quickly, so this should give him good reaction time.

In general, I don't think it's possible to formulate a valid argument of the form "Accelerator is capable of doing X, therefore he must be able to manipulate vector magnitudes". As long as Accelerator has access to warm matter (which he does unless you stick him in a vacuum), he has access to particles in motion, with their associated momentum vectors, which can be manipulated to do just about anything.
Closing note
Take all of this with a grain of salt - as the perennial "can Flash beat Accelerator" debates (and their ilk) demonstrate, Accelerator's abilities are not well-defined in a physical sense. Vectors don't physically exist - they're merely a useful mathematical abstraction we use to describe certain features of the universe. Trying too hard to justify Accelerator's abilities in terms of physical principles is a recipe for failure. In the end, Accelerator's vector manipulation does whatever Kamachi wants it to do.

Take this into consideration though. He learned Earth stomp before figuring out how to make a plasma storm. If he understood the concept of drawing thermal energy from other sources in order to propel himself/other objects, something so simple as creating a plasma storm shouldn't surprise him.

You really enjoy the new furigana support, don't you? :D

Well.. the idea that he can "stop" projectiles is enough evidence that he can in fact control the magnitude of vectors. No?

Accelerator's ability can be broken down into two parts: Redirection and Vector control.
Redirection is his defensive, passive posture which reflects any vector approaching his body.
Vector control is his active ability where he can choose to manipulate specific vectors by both magnitude and direction. This ability requires Accelerator to constantly be computing the combination of vectors he plans to use.
In the sisters arc, Accelerator demonstrated a few different types of vector control.

Vector Shooting
Wind Control
Plasma Storm
Earth Stomp

Vector shooting was when he kicked the rock at Touma. He was able to increase the speed of the rock and make it substantially faster than normal.
Near the end of the fight, he was also able to create this huge plasma field. This required him to gather wind in a specific location, and then further compressing the wind (wind control and plasma storm).
There was also Earth Stomp where Accelerator simply just stomps on the ground and controls the vectors to create a small rock attack upon the enemy. Along with that, Accelerator uses  the Earth to propel himself forward in other situations.
As the story progresses, Accelerator has a new arsenal of moves that require the manipulation of magnitude, however those were not covered in the Anime yet. As of the sisters arc in both Index and Railgun, these are the different types of vector control that have been displayed.

Just for the record, Vector shooting was not in the light novel. However, Earth stomp was in the light novel and it was specifically described as creating a rocketlike explosion at Touma. You can use this against your friend because this definitely cannot happen without increasing the magnitude of the rocks.


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What exactly is Beast?
In the anime series X (X/1999) Satsuki Yatōji uses a machine called Beast to aid the Dragons of Earth.
Satsuki Yatōji is shown to have the ability to interact with computers through cables inserted into her skin and to hack into any technological system however she does more than just hack system such as controlling cables remotely when connected to Beast and Beast's cable seem to be able to act on their own.
Also, all the Dragons seem to have some sort of supernatural ability as well. While Satsuki may not possess an ability herself, Beast was provided to her by Kanoe, and Beast itself doesn't look like just a machine.
I am wondering if Beast is something more?


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How did Kamui's last act save the world?
At the end of the Anime Series of X (X/1999). Kamui dies, so the Dragons of Earth would've won, thus allowing the destruction of the world.  However, Kamui creates a world wide barrier which prevents it.
From what I understand of the Barriers the Dragons of Heaven use, they allow damage caused within the barrier to not be carried into the real world, and the Barrier disappears when the caster dies. I think thta Kamui's final act in creating a world wide barrier has 2 flaws:

The destruction of the world had already started before the barrier was created.
Kamui died so the barrier shouldn't have been able to last.

So I am wondering, just how did Kamui's barrier save the world?

It is possible that he gave his all to the barrier so that it would be powerful and save the planet. A dying wish or something like that... It looked like that to me.


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Parody brand names in anime
Why do anime use parody brand names in their series, and what benefit do anime like Code Geass and Darker than Black get when they use original brand names like Pizza Hut? Do they get paid for promoting the brand? If not, so they have to pay the company for copyrights? What benefit do the anime/manga artists get in the end?

You might like to read http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4257/have-there-been-any-anime-with-actual-product-placement and http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/6432/are-real-life-products-always-connected-to-the-show-they-have-on-their-packaging

@ToshinouKyouko. Thanks. That was a good reference.


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In Gundam Unicorn, when Audrey reveals final coordinate, why does Banagher feel unease
In Gundam UC OVA EP 6, Banagher shared the final coordinate with Audrey, which I feel he trusted Audrey to put that into good use. However why is is that at around 27:00 mark, when Audrey revealed the coordinate to everyone, Banagher seems to feel betrayed?
What kind of outcome did Banagher wanted?

You should at least specify what Gundam series you are referring too, with a hundred out there

@Mansuro my bad. Added now


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Do Alkahestry have same limitations like Alchemy? Or some different limitations?
In FMA Brotherhood, Alchemy's limits were very well defined but the limits of Alkahestry are never mentioned. Is this ever described outside of the TV series, perhaps in other media or interviews? If so, what are these limitations?

Related: http://anime.stackexchange.com/q/29877/17758

I'm inclined to suspect there isn't, since the wiki and related sites will usually have information on that sort of thing (even if they're bad at keeping track of references), but I would need to check.

Sorry, I meant to say that the limitations aren't described, not that there aren't any, in case my wording was ambiguous. It seems likely that there are some restrictions.


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Can Natsu Dragneel still use his fire to grab things?
Can Natsu use his flames to grab things still? He used it that one time in fighting the wind guy when he fell off the railroad tracks.

Presumably...yes.
These has been nothing to indicate that he lost the ability to 'grab' things with his fire...he just hasn't done it since then. The same as how he hasn't made use of his abilities with basic Transformation Magic since he first learned how to do it (by turning into Lucy while tutored by Mirajane).
As for why he hasn't used it since...either the author forgot about it or, as an in-universe perspective, he hasn't needed it. The main reason he pulled that ability out during his fight with Erigor was because he was falling off a bridge and needed to get back. Since then, he seems to have figured out how to use his fire as a form of Jet Propulsion, meaning he can sort-of-fly. Not much need to pull yourself back up onto a bridge by grabbing it with fire, when you can just use your hands as rocket engines.


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What is the song played at 6:54 in the 5 episode of Parasyte - the Maxim?
Did anyone know? It's the scene when Kana looks into the eye of Shinishi, I really love this song, and it's not in the OST.

I found it myself, it's Migi Theme.

There is not actually a song by that name on either of the Parasyte OSTs (one, two).


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Why are Kuwabara and Yusuke's uniforms different from other students?
In YuYu Hakusho its possible to see that Yusuke wears a green uniform and Kuwabara a light blue uniform.  Nobody else wears uniforms like that in their school.
Is there an explanation?

This is probably the case of Transfer Student Uniforms as described on Tv Tropes:

New Transfer Students in places where school uniforms are a cultural default setting often wear their old ones until the school can provide them with a new one. In fiction, this shows the newcomer or outsider. When they get the current school uniform, this indicates they've been assimilated. If the student is meant to be a Fish out of Water, they will keep their old uniform throughout the series. In Japanese media, even rebels don't choose to abandon uniforms entirely; in American media they will do this even if the new school doesn't have uniforms. Compare the Non-Uniform Uniform.

And on that same page, it describes the incident in Yu Yu Hakusho (note Kuwabara's case):

Yusuke from YuYu Hakusho distinct green uniform annoys the faculty, since while technically acceptable he wears it just to stand out. Even Kuwabara wears a slightly different shade of blue than the standard uniform. This is anime-only, though; manga color images usually have Kuwabara and Yusuke's uniforms matching, even if the colors aren't always consistent, unless the artist was color-coding them. Keiko calls Yusuke on his green uniform in the dub, but the original doesn't really mention it.

It happens in a lot of other anime/manga as well, commonly enough to be considered a well known trope.


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Why does Yomi relate 3661 with "Samurai"?
In the last episode of Azumanga Daioh, Yomi relates 3661 with samurai word.

I know is a mnemonic technique to remember things, so things should be something like:
3 ~> sa ~> san
6 ~> mu ~> ??? (maybe shape of hiragana? む )
6 ~> ra ~> ...roku??
1 ~> i  ~> ichi

But I couldn't guess at all why relates 6 with both mu and ra. Any idea?

FYI, this mnemonic technique is called 語呂合わせ (goroawase). This one is really weird - I've never seen 6 read as "ra", and I'm not seeing any references on the internet to "3661" being read as "samurai", so I'm not sure what's up with this.

Japanese speakers may remember numbers by taking the prominent syllable from how they read numbers (語呂合わせ goroawase). There are more than one way on how to count: one that descended from Old Japanese (大和言葉 Yamato kotoba) and one borrowed from Chinese (漢語 kango). In the order of Yamato / Kango:

ひとつ hitotsu / いち ichi
ふたつ futatsu / に ni
みっつ mittsu / さん san
よっつ yottsu / し shi
いつつ itsutsu / ご go
むっつ muttsu / ろく roku
ななつ nanatsu / しち shichi
やっつ yattsu / はち hachi
ここのつ kokonotsu / きゅう kyū or く ku
とお tō / じゅう jyū

and so forth. Therefore, a syllable that corresponds to 3 can be either み mi, さ sa, or ざ za (the last being the voiced variation of sa).
For 3661,

3 = sa from san
6 = mu from muttsu
1 = i from ichi

The second 6 requires explanation. Notice that in the list above, "ra" does not appear. In fact, most of the syllables do not have a direct corresponding number, given that there are 48 basic syllables (plus 25 voiced variants and 21 digraphs). To force any given syllable into a number, people use various techniques.

Use English. つ tsu = 2, せ se = 7, え e = 8
Use modern Chinese. す su = 4 (written sì in pinyin but sounds like su), り ri = liù = 6
Swap vowels. This is what happened to the second 6 in 3661. Of all the syllables in the ra-line (ra, ri, ru, re, ro), only re (0 from rei) and ro (6 from roku) are defined. The Chinese technique also suggests 6 for ri. Therefore, 6 may be extended to ra and ru also. (The same thing happens in the ko/go-line where 5 fills in for ka/ga and ke/ge; and in the ma-line where 6 fills in for me and mo.)

An example of this extended list can be found at http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~b-jack/kouza/s-3.html
With these techniques in play, people might remember the first 30 digits of pi as follows:
San ishi ikoku ni mukau. Sango yaku naku,
3 . 1 4  15 9  2  6 5    3  5  8 9  7 9
Obstetrician goes to a foreign country. No misfortune after birth,

sanpu miyashiro ni. Mushi sanzan yami ni naku.
3  6  3 8 4  6  2   6 4   3  3   8 3  2  7 9
the new mother heads to a shrine. Insects chirp in the darkness severely.

I don't think the Chinese techniques really works, due to the divergence of the modern Chinese and on'yomi pronunciation refers to the original Chinese reading of kanji. Wu Chinese seems to have a strong connection with early kanji adopted by Japan (Around the Tang Dynasty). For example, the 人 kanji was taken from Wu Chinese, which pronounces 人 as {ɲɪɲ}, as opposed to Mandarin pronunciation, {ʐən˥}.

The verbal shifts that occurred in spoken is said to be primarily the result of successive waves of invasion from the north (most notably the Yuan dynasty). It's commonly accepted that Mandarin language underwent significant verbal changes as a result of the influx of northern people during this time, which displaced many populations which migrate towards the south of China. This is a possible explanation as to why, on'yomi pronunciations deviate widely and systematically from their modern Mandarin counterparts.

Whatever the case, the version of Chinese spoken in the eastern and central regions during the Tang dynasty (which is said when most of the character were adopted) more closely resembles modern-day Hakka, Min, and/or Cantonese dialects in terms of phoneme range.

That is precisely why the Chinese pronunciation works here. Chinese pronunciation (or its approximation), which deviates from Japanese pronunciation, comes in to fill the gap. The fact that Chinese pronunciation is different therefore helps, rather than prevents, this technique to be effective. Moreover, a rather well-defined pseudo-Chinese pronunciation exists among Mahjong players, which may be used as well. For instance, within Japan the 4 Circle tile is universally called "sū pin" and 9 Circle "chū pin". Notice the deviation from both the Japanese or Chinese pronunciations.

The interpretation for the second 6 is probably a special case. The only reasoning that makes sense to me is:

ら is the 6th note in the Fixed Do key notation (C, D, E, F, G, A, B / Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti).

In hiragana, ら, also resembles the "5" or "6" number.
Please note that since it's a play on words, there're many ways to make the numbers work, just like trying to get certain words to fit in an acronym. E.g. C.I.A can mean "Central Intelligence Agency" or "Chinese Igloo Appraisers".
There is really no right or wrong way to do 語呂合わせ【ごろあわせ】 (basically a pun/play on words) with numbers.
Typically when doing word play with numbers 0-9, the following combinations are used:

1: ichi, i, hitotsu, hito
2: ni, futatsu, futa, fu, tsu ("two"), ji (kan'on reading)
3: san, sa, mittsu, mitsu, mi
4: yon, yo, yottsu, shi, fo ("four"), ho
5: go, ko, i, itsutsu, itsu
6: roku, ro, muttsu, mutsu, mu
7: shichi, nanatsu, nana, na
8: hachi, ha, paa, yattsu, yatsu, ya, yaa
9: kyuu, kyu, ku, kokonotsu, kokono, ko
0: rei, re, zero, nai, wa (based on shape of the kana, わ), ru (circle, also shape), oo (based on resemblance to the letter "O")

Six can be written as 六「む (mu), むう, ろく (roku)」 and 陸「おか, りく (riku)」.
So he could have mistaken "roku" or "riku" for "ra".


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How is Vash able to transform his arm into a weapon?
In Trigun, Vash the Stampede is able to transform his arm into a big weapon with which he makes a hole in the moon. Is that transformation ever explained? Did he acquire this power after the spaceship crashed or did he have it since the beginning?

I don't know whether you have read the manga, so the following may be somewhat of a spoiler, because it reveals Vash's true identity.
Vash is

a Plant. Plants are inter-dimensional beings that are tapped as a source of power and energy for the planet Gunsmoke. They are beings that can generate energy and even food and water based on environmental conditions. Plants were invented by humans, and are usually kept alive in light bulb shaped containers and used as a power source. Vash and Knives are independent Plants, meaning they can survive independently (other plants depend on being kept in a special environment in their containers) and even use their powers of their own conscious will. (1)

The ability to transform his arm is called Angel Arm, and it is a

 natural ability of all Plants. It may take various forms, but is most known for it's usage by Knives and Vash in a form of a cannon. However, in order to activate the ability, they need a catalyst (such as the pistols in the anime).

Can you give me a link to read the manga... i cant find it :( @SingerOfTheFall

@Washu, unfortunately, it's prohibited to share links to illegal content on this site, so I can't give you any exact links to Trigun. However, most popular online manga readers (it's easy to google them up) will have Trigun.

@SingerOfTheFall so this is what vash... does this scene ever explained in the anime? i remember watching the whole series of the the anime but never found anything about this. it just ended how knives and vash had a confrontation. and vash won. is that really the end?


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How does the portal in Inuyasha work?
In the Inuyasha series Kagome goes through a portal to get to the Sengoku period of Japan. Is it ever explained how the portal works?

For what I have seen/read, it is never clearly explained how the well actually transports people from the modern age to the Feudal Era. However, the Inuyasha Wikia page on it has a consolidation of observations in regards to who can pass through the well in either direction.

The only human that is able to travel through the well is Kagome.
Inuyasha can travel through without any need of the Shikon Jewel; it
  is mostly because of his connection to Kagome that allows him to move
  between the two eras of time.
Neither Sōta nor Shippō are able to pass through the well; however,
  Sōta's voice could reach Inuyasha for unknown means while Shippō no
  success what so ever.
Mistress Centipede was killed and sent to the present era without any
  need of the jewel; it is suggested that demon's bones can pass
  through the well. In this case, Mistress Centipede was revived
  because she was near the Shikon no Tama (which was still in Kagome's
  body, unbeknownst to her).
Yura was able to send her hair to wreak havoc in the future; most
  likely because of the jewel shard she stole.
Both Sō'unga and Saya were able to pass through without the need of
  the jewel.
It can be presumed that only certain beings may pass through the
  well; a number of objects have the ability to as well.

Kagome is originally pulled through the well/portal into the Feudal Era by Mistress Centipede.

Yes. It was mentioned briefly in a set of episodes. Though it's not consolidated though.
My take on this:
Kagome is the reincarnated kikiyo carrying the sacred jewel. The Jewel secretly looks for its admirers which was the demons/humans and others in the Sengoku period. So, the jewel opened the portal for Kagome to come to Sengoku period. As long as the Jewel is there with the user, they can travel back and forth Sengoku and modern period.


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Why do Lala's inventions always turn out to be defective?
Lala's inventions in To-Love-Ru are always defective, mostly the cause of problems in every episodes. But why are Lala's inventions defective when Peke once explained (Motto To-Love-Ru Episode 6 "Night Tutor" to be exact) about how universally genius Lala is?

Looking at the list of Lala's invention on Wikipedia page of To-LOVE-ru - Japanese version), or a less complete list on To-LOVE-ru Wikia, most of Lala's invention has caused some sort of trouble as seen in the source material.

There are a number of inventions which are created and used right away without testing.
For example, unnamed drug in chapter 54 of original series, given to Rito when he disguises as his father during Mikan's house visit.
There are a number of inventions which explodes, or activates too easily, or not idiot-proof.
There are a number of inventions which has unwanted side-effects.
For example, Pyon-Pyon Warp-kun usually only warps living things, leaving the person naked after warped.

However, there are a number of inventions which are mostly stable, such as Peke, D-Dial and the expansion to Rito's house.
My theory is that all of Lala's inventions are work-in-progress or proof-of-concept, and the more an invention is used (which is equivalent to testing), the more stable it is. She is a genius in the sense that she can quickly create a working proof-of-concept. However, since she is not making a product, she doesn't feel a need to make her inventions practical, safe-to-use and idiot-proof.

The inventions are a plot device. If they weren't defective or otherwise used in the wrong way, there wouldn't be that much to tell.

According to Wikipedia:

Although Lala appears to be somewhat air-headed, she is well known on Deviluke for her genius-level intellect and enjoys making all manners of inventions, often prompting some disastrous effect or another.

As far as I recall, the defects in Lala's inventions tend to be side-effects rather than anything else. For instance, personal teleportation device being an undressing personal teleportation device instead. So it seems coherent to me with her being depicted as both an airhead and a genius.


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The Tree of Life in Evangelion
I've noticed references to the Kabbalah in a couple of anime I've watched.  One of them is Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Neon Genesis Evangelion has it in the sky in both the opening credits and in the series itself:

I also remember it was on the ceiling at NERV, but the best screencap I could find of that was too tiny to be visible.
So, my question is, Is there any deeper meaning to the use of the Kabbalistic tree of life, or is it just used because it looks cool?

I don't understand this question. It seems like you have 2 examples which could be using this for very different reasons. Furthermore, I don't think [tropes] applies as this isn't referenced particularly often in anime, at least not in comparison to other media. IMO it would be much better if you just split it into two separate questions, one about FMA and another about NGE, and were more specific with the question. Right now, it seems to be more about the Kabbalistic tree of life than anime.

Split into this and http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4798/the-tree-of-life-in-fullmetal-alchemist/4799#4799

As far as Evangelion goes, there's several statements from the staff concerning their placement and usage within the show (emphasis is mine):
From the Hiroyuki Yamaga: May 1998 issue of "Evangelion":

On the reasons for use of Judeo-Christian symbology in Eva
YAMAGA: I don’t know exactly why. I suspect that Mr. Anno may have read some book on it, and there was some thoughts he wanted to express on it. I personally am glad that, rather than Christianity, he didn’t express some obscure Buddhist theme, because then it would have been linked more with Aum Shinri Kyo. [LAUGHS]

From the Kazuya Tsurumaki: Q&A from "Amusing Himself to Death":

Can you explain the symbolism of the cross in Evangelion?
Kazuya Tsurumaki: There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice.

And from an NHK special "Extra Curricular Lesson with Hideaki Anno", a student asks:

"Why is that robot-looking thing called an Evangelion"?
Anno: "It is a Christian word meaning Fukuin or Gospel and it's supposed to bring blessings. Actually, it's a Greek word. I used it because it sounds complicated"

So in the case of Evangelion, it's used mostly to look cool. It's
more or less an internally consistent window dressing that doesn't contain any actual religious meaning. That is not to say that the symbology doesn't have other meaning within itself, especially in the context of the fictional show.

or else Tsurumaki-sensei and Anno-sensei were saying these things to try to pre-emptively deflect any objections arising from offended Westerners, after the show became (unexpectedly) popular in US and Europe...

yes it was in Gendo's office, therefore he believes in what it represents.
The whole nerv project was 1) to defend humanity against the angels and 2) the instrumentality project.
the tree of life probably relates to 2). The end goal was for humanity to become one so everyone can be 'happy'. I don't know the details of kabbalah but I imagine it relates to this.
Judaism/Christianity is a deep topic and probably does not directly relate to what evangelion was about. But there does seem to be a connection in terms of judaism/Christianity being about salvation of humanity, filling in that flawed nature we as humans have. which is what the instrumentality project was about.
Anno seems to have a focus on the question of how one solves lifes problems. The evangelion characters egos badly handling their life's difficulties. Religion tries to address this very question, placing importance on ones relationship with God to solve the question of how to live life("God is in his heaven, all is right with the world").
There is the connection that religion is a form of therapy and transformation. Jesus healed the demons that people suffered from. Life is about confronting our demons and living life the best we can. In M scott Peck's book: 'the road less travelled' He brings together God and psychotherapy. It is well worth reading to see the connection with religion(spirituality) and psychological problems, two big themes in evangelion.

Firstly, possession does not equate to belief. Just because I have a picture of Madoka doesn't mean i believe in witches. Secondly, other than this contentious link, you don't answer the question at all. Third, if you dont know the details of the Kabbalah, how can you even begin to answer this question? Fourth, that you imagine a link is in no way an answer at all. I can "imagine" the relation to some kind of other construed reasoning and we'd be no closer to an answer.

I don't attempt to give a final answer, and never stated so. Using inductive logic, possession would indicate belief, if you had a nazi flag in your bedroom, It would lead me to believe that you have some beliefs supporting nazis. This is not 100% certain, but what in life is? You don't need to know the details of kabbalah to know about it.. All human spirituality is connected, if you are connected to your own emotions and life, religious texts have relevant answers, just like the book of genesis. If your looking for 100% go read scientology, the closed minded fool that you are.


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Why do characters often pull down one eyelid and stick out their tongue?
I see characters making this motion frequently in anime.  They pull one (or sometimes both) eyelid down, and stick out their tongue.  What does that mean?  Where does the gesture originate and what's the history behind it?

This is the Eyelid Pull Taunt

This is the act of pulling down one lower eyelid and sticking out the
tongue and saying "Beh-da!" (Japanese) or "Nyaaaah!" (English dub). A
highly ritualized expression of disdain or disapproval, used
exclusively by children and immature adults. Basically the same as the
Western act of sticking out the tongue, cranked up a few notches,
though definitely not profane gesture.
In Japan this is referred to as akanbe (a corruption of akai me, "red eye"), and it's called mon oeil ("my eye") in France and Quebec. This is in fact a Franco-Japanese cultural trope, but you'll see it everywhere in anime.

I could not find a satisfying or credible enough link as to its origin(s) but from the akanbe wiki it seems to date back as far as the 20th century:

The use of the term was first mentioned by early 20th century author
Katai Tayama, in his 1909 story Inaka Kyōshi (田舎教師 Rural Teacher), as
a gesture used by the male students in the story.

Well, now I know what it's called, but I wonder if there's any sort of history of how it started??

@Danalog you didn't ask that in the question. I will poke around a bit more.

+1 But how exactly is it a "Franco-Japanese cultural trope"?

@iKlsR Sorry, I updated the question.  I intended to ask for more information than just the basics, and just didn't word it right.

@coleopterist from the tropes link it seems to have some roots in France as well.

@coleopterist ah, I could have sworn I had quoted the full tropes page.. hence the franco-jap bit.. :) Thanks for the patch.


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What's the meaning of the spell's name that Wendy uses to cure Natsu's vehicle-sickness?
In chapter 152 Wendy cures Natsu's sickness for vehicles. When doing this enchantment/spell she says TROIA:

What does that mean? Is it just a random word?
I ask this because troia is the Italian word for whore, but I hope it isn't related to this.  I'm reading the manga in English, so that's not an Italian translation.

This is probably just a random word created by the mangaka for the spell's name. It's probably just a coincidence that Troia meant whore in Italian translation. After all, it's a healing magic so it won't make sense that the mangaka chose that kind of word intentionally if knew that meaning in Italian translation. You can find Troia's full description here.


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Does every ninja become a jonin?
In Naruto, a number of ninjas have become jonin, such as Neji and Kakashi. Does every ninja who becomes a chunin by definition become a jonin if they live long enough, or do some remain a chunin forever?

Iraku is still a Chuunin and likely to stay a Chuunin.

@Nil I believe you meant Iruka not Iraku. There is, to my knowledge, no such character.

No not everyone will become a Jonin. As you may have noticed, some ninja like Naruto don't even become Chuunin. Naruto is a rare example however.
In order to become a jonin, a ninja must be extremely skilled. Jōnin are generally able to use at least two types of elemental chakra, some genjutsu, and above average taijutsu skills.
They are usually also appointed to A and/or S ranked missions alone while those under the Jonin rank usually go with a team, or not at all.

Was about to say something about the second line but the third kinda held it up..

Awww but you didn't mention the Eternal Genin!!!
And Naruto wasn't a real genin since Shippuden, it's just that no one bothered to go "Poof You're a chuunin now, here's your vest"

If they held a Chuunin exam for him, the opponents will all surrender before fighting him, unless its people like Konohamaru.

There are people who are joked at forever being genin (might be filler only though). In the War, there was the fight between the previous mizukage, where the ninja fighting him were incredibly stupid and unable to comprehend that he was an illusion. Their only non taijutsu attacks were throwing weapons, which they had to throw and regather several times before Gaara stepped in.

If you think about this from a real world military viewpoint, it is like asking if every recruit becomes a commanding officer. The answer is no. Also as related, keep in mind that not all academy students become Chūnin, so that might apply here too.
And as per the wiki

It is as of yet unknown what one has to undergo to become one. It is
  mentioned that jōnin are appointed, however there was mention of a
  Jōnin Exam in the anime's Kurama Clan Arc. When a ninja becomes a
  jōnin, they may be assigned a three-man genin team to supervise.

And then there is also this guy.. Kosuke Maruboshi who even though by choice, has been a genin for over 50 years. This could also apply to your question.

Some become Chunin, some become Jonin. No one knows how they become Jonin, but in the Anime both appointments and exams are mentioned as a way to become Jonin. Only power- and skillful ninja will become Jonin.

I know it's like a ranking. You have to undergo an exam or a test to be one ranking higher...
I don't know if this sequence is correct: genin, chuunin, jonin...
In the 1st episode of naruto shippuuden, it is known that naruto is the only one that's still a genin, others were chuunin and jonin.
There are other ninjas that maybe are still on the same level or ranking.


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What games does Faye play when she loses all of her money?
Faye is perpetually losing all of her money gambling.  We know she's addicted to gambling in general, but is there anything in specific that we know she tends to love playing (but always loses) at?

It's worth noting though that the picture above shows her winning against Jet. This is only because she's cheating on the game and Spike calls her out on it.

It was never explicitly stated in the anime, but in her first appearance, she was playing Blackjack.
Not sure how credible this link is but it does backup what card terms follow her..

...Faye is really good at gambling, especially where poker or blackjack is involved because she cheats ...

Also her aliases are Poker Alice and Queen Of Hearts. It can probably be deduced from that with any words she might have used in any games she played in the anime. So its possibly Poker and or Blackjack.


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Why were Youko's friends added to the anime?
I was reading that Sugimoto only had a bit part in the Twelve Kingdoms books, and Asano didn't even exist.  Is there any explanation as to why they were added to the anime?  Sugimoto has a pretty big role in the anime, but Asano felt pretty pointless.  Were they just added to give Youko somebody to talk to?

To be clear: You're talking about the novel, right? The Twelve Kingdoms didn't have a manga.

Whoops!  Shows what I know.  I'll fix the question.

It's important to know that in something like manga, even though thoughts are able to be shown, there is still a very heavy visual element for the reader. In a novel, like The Twelve Kingdoms, it is conveyed entirely through text and we are at the mercy of the characters' inner thoughts much of the time.
Asano was added largely as a confidant (and a childhood friend) of Youko; he is someone who could externalize the struggles that Youko has internally in the novel. Sugimoto, like Asano and even Yuka, fills a very similar purpose. Her role is described as a foil* for Youko, helping her to externalize issues that the viewer would not see (but would be able to read in the novel).
Asano also adds some serious depth to the story (some serious spoiler material here):

 The gradual loss of his mind and his inevitable death are very powerful, mostly because they follow his desperate want to find a purpose in his life. And where better for him to die than in Shoukei's arms?

* In literature, theatre/theater, etc, a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character.


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Is Kafuka Fuura even in the class?
Akagi (An) is in the attendance list in one of the first manga chapters, but it is later revealed that Kafuka Fuura was not actually there in person.  Therefore, she couldn't have been in the class as herself during the attendance check; instead she had to have been possessing one of the girls at the time.  So was the listed person (Akagi An) not really Kafuka?

According to the Wikia, it's unknown (but likely true) whether Kafuka was the same person as Akagi An or not.

In the final chapter of the manga, it is revealed that Kafuka had died prior to the beginning of the series, having her organs donated to a cast of characters that indecently make up the majority of Nozomu's class. However, she was "too optimistic to die", and thus possessed one of the main female characters in every scene of the series. In the bonus chapter of the 30th volume, it was revealed, that Kafuka continues possessing girls to be able to live on with Nozomu as his wife.
However, to let Kafuka be able stay with the teacher, all the girls have to live under one roof and go through a rotation of divorces and marriages (it has to be done to let Kafuka stay teacher's wife all the time), which makes it resemble a harem.

(my applied emphasis)
we do know that Kafuka wasn't in the class during the run of the series, however, we can't conclusively tell if she is the same person as Akagi.
Personally, I believe that she is not Akagi, as Kafuka was supposedly not alive during the series, and there's not much to suggest she is a ghost.
I imagine that during the flashbacks, the students refer to the character as An because that was her actual name. Then she became possessed by Kafuka, and with time the other students started referring to her as Kafuka instead of Akagai An.

Could you clarify the last sentence? I can't wrap my head around it :x

@user1306322 does that help? tried to make it easier to read, i don't know if I did

From what I understood, there was a student Akagi An in that class before, but she also got possessed by Kafuka, and yet An is never seen in person (but rather in body). Or do we always see one of Nozomu's girls controlled by Kafuka depicted as Akagi, and Kafuka's real body is never shown?

I think the latter option is what happens, but there's no conclusive proof of either way


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Why was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya broadcast out of sequence?
When I watched The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on DVD, the episodes were shown out of order. It was somewhat funny, since in the previews, Haruhi and Kyon argue about which episode number comes next, but other than that, I didn't see the point of it. It didn't have interwoven plot threads, or any in-universe reason to be shown out of order. It looks like in other releases, the episodes were arranged in chronological order, so it must not have been essential to the viewing of the series.
Put simply: Why did The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya have a version that was not in chronological order?

As far as I can tell (and admittedly this is a bit speculative), the reason was to spread out the plot to avoid having the second half be entirely episodic. The creators knew that the main plot (episodes 1-6 in chronological order) would not take a full season (14 episodes), but the next major storyline was not for a while, so they had to insert some episodic content. However, these 6 episodes don't leave much room for breaks, and equally importantly they would rather use canon content from the light novels than make up their own.
So the creators used content from future light novels. This let them intersperse the plot with the episodic material. The 6 plot-related episodes are all in order among themselves, and the others are placed in whatever order the director thought was best (e.g. in terms of character development).
I'm looking for something official to confirm this, but I've had no luck so far. Barring that, this seems to be at least the prevailing opinion of most people on the internet.

@person chirale's answer has that information, as does wikipedia

+1, but also, the stories in the light novels were often out of chronological order too. Sometimes it was a publication artifact (The Boredom preceding The Sigh), but The Rampage and The Wavering jump all over the place. I think the animators wanted to preserve that quirk of the series.

According to asosbrigade.com, the ASOS Brigade site run by Bandai:

The Regular Edition DVDs contain the exact same episode order as released in Japan on the R2 DVDs. [...] Due to pre-existing contractual obligations, the regular edition MUST contain the R2 DVD ordering of episodes. This was set in stone,  there were no exceptions. [...] After deeply intense negotiations to try and please the existing fan-base, we are able to release a Special Bonus DVD in the TV Broadcast order as an extra.

According to a DVD 1 review by ANN (May 31st, 2007):

Another oddity came in the fourth broadcast episode, which originally jumped ahead to episode 7.  This DVD release does not do this, however, instead opting to release the episodes in chronological rather than the scrambled broadcast order

According to the episodes list on ANN, the broadcast order against chronological order is:
Broadcast       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14
Chronological  11  1  2  7  3  9  8 10 14  4 13 12  5  6

This order is reported in the episodes list on Wikipedia as well, with DVD release following the chronological order with the only exception being the first episode.
asosbrigade.com reports the chronological order (C) as Haruhi's order, and the broadcast, "scrambled" order as Kyon's order (B). The Regular Edition DVD order is Haruhi's order, with the exception of the first episode.
Regular edition was and ever was in the right order because of "contractual obligation": Region 2 DVD (Japan) must apparently have the same content of Region 1 DVD (USA). Bandai was pressured by fans to release the "scrambled" version.
Why did they have to, back in 2006-2007? From here on, speculations: because fanbase watched the fansubbed version from the broadcast (2006-04-02 ~ 2006-07-02) and ask for that order. I cannot find evidence of requests by fans to do so, so we have to trust Bandai's words in the meanwhile.

Good question!
As far as I can tell, the broadcast was released in that order to improve the flow of the season's episodes, best establish the relationship between Haruhi and Kyon, and to best appeal to Haruhi's existing fanbase. This ties in with Logan M's entirely correct point about spreading out the plot.
The broadcast begins with The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina, which I believe was a fan-favorite storyline, to both satisfy fans and establish the weirdness of the Haruhi universe. The broadcast then leaps backwards in time to begin the story proper.
The rest of the episodes build the relationship between Haruhi and Kyon, culminating in Kyon's realization about Haruhi's first act of selflessness, just after the school festival.

From a writer's standpoint, showing the episodes in the order in which they originally aired was almost certainly a move to improve the flow of the story. If you read the books, although the idea behind Vol. 1 is fascinating, it's mostly the protagonist talking to various characters who explain the situation to him, and there's only one real action scene (or possibly two). Vol. 2 has lots of action, since it's made up of short stories, but no real overarching plot. By breaking up both volumes and scrambling them, they made the overarching plot of Vol. 1 cover the whole season, while using the short stories in Vol. 2 to provide the "action" episodes that Vol. 1 was lacking, and the discrepancies between the volumes (Why does that one character wear glasses in Vol. 1 but not in Vol. 2? Where did that other character go? etc.) helped to keep audiences interested and guessing.
In my opinion, putting the movie first was a genius move: It actually tells you a whole lot about the main story and the principal characters, but there's no way to know that or understand how deeply ironic it is until Yuki starts explaining the actual world a few episodes later. If the writers had put it near the end of the anime, the brilliant penny-drop moment when you realize that all the crazy stuff that you snorted at in the movie is actually happening in real life (well, sort of) wouldn't have existed.

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Is there any anime continuing or inspired by Golden Boy (Kintaro)?
Has any anime been produced that continues the 6 episodes of Golden Boy (Kintaro) or is otherwise inspired by it?

The Golden Boy OVA is only 6 episodes. There hasn't been any more adapted from the manga (which is a lot racier than the anime). The closest thing to a continuation is the recent "Golden Boy 2" manga which is outright pornography.
It's hard to say if there's anything that's inspired by Golden Boy. Tatsuya Egawa, Golden Boy's creator, produced lots of other manga and various degrees of pornographic films which you could say might be inspired by his other creations. Kousuke Fujishima, the creator of "Oh My Goddess", used to work for him as an assistant but I don't know of any interviews or sources indicating that he was inspired by Golden Boy.


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Are tentacle monsters really as common in anime as jokes and folks claim them to be?
A common stereotype about anime,  and to a lesser extent, manga, is that it is filled with tentacle monsters/demons, and that they are almost always violating a schoolgirl.
I know they are definitely a thing in anime, especially hentai, but I want to know HOW common of a thing it is in both hentai and normal anime and manga.
I have been into anime and manga for years now, and honestly have seen little of it without going out of my way to see it, but as there are folks that have been watching longer than me and also that there are tons of series, I thought I would ask.

It's a thing in video games as well, that's why Resident Evil 3 remake added this... fan service when the original didn't have it. It's only really common in hentai; normal anime are just plagued by panty shots and some other cliches.

Related/possible duplicate: Why are tentacles prevalent in anime?

Related, not the same; that one asks why it is common, I ask if it is. @AkiTanaka

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tentacle_erotica (Warning: contains NSFW content)

It's extremely uncommon in anime and ero-anime (hentai).
The notoriety stems from the late 1980s and early 1990s where grotesque monsters - some of them featuring tentacles - were popular, especially in OVAs. One such OVA is 3x3 Eyes (Sazan Eyes) from 1991. In episode 2 this happens (warning: sensitive image):

The key point here is that those were gory stories about fighting monsters. Those attacked and killed, but didn't have sex for pleasure. Not even in otherwise pornographic anime of that era.
There were a few exceptions of pornographic anime where tentacles are used in a sexual way, though. For example Injuu Gakuen La Blue Girl from 1992. That one is a parody with a ninja girl fighting demons and has a very lighthearted tone, despite things like this happening (warning: NSFW image):

Since those days tentacles have become a bit of an in-joke within the industry that gets referenced in various anime occasionally. Often it's just the tentacles without a proper monster attached, too.
If you specify tentacles with a monster attached that violate a schoolgirl then there are only very few anime that qualify. Tentacles themselves are a bit more common in ero-anime. About 10-15% of hentai feature a tentacle in some form or another.

There is a reason the tentacles trope came to be, as you can gleam from this incomplete list of anime and manga where naughty tentacles appear in that it is not "extremely uncommon" in anime, especially anime of the ecchi/hentai categories. From the top of my head, I can already think of Devil Hunter Yohko and Bastard...

...which do not appear in that list, but feature tentacles or slimes or snakes or other things shaped like tentacles engaging in some kind of violation against women or girls. We might need some numbers to be scientific, but you get the idea: any avid anime viewer is likely to encounter the tentacles trope or some extensions of that.

@Gao As mentioned, tentacles themselves are somewhat common, but tentacles with a monster attached that do rape a schoolgirl are uncommon. Don't forget that there are nearly 20.000 anime in existence. I bet you can't even find 200 titles (1% of all anime) that tick all three checkboxes.

Well, showing rape in an anime is already a very high bar restricted to late-night anime and adult OVAs. I was thinking more along the lines of mild fan service, like binding a girl with tentacles, and the question, a little unclear on what it is asking, didn't explicitly ask for rape anyways. Otherwise, I agree with your points.

@Gao I've been going off the first sentence of the question: "filled with tentacle monsters/demons, and that they are almost always violating a schoolgirl". Violation is the new political correct word to spell rape in porn.

@Ocean violate somebody (literary or old-fashioned) to force somebody to have sex. Everything new is old again.

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Jiro Horikoshi's Full Personal Diary
This is cross-posted from History Stack Exchange, since I suspect that I have a better chance of finding an answer here.
Jiro Horikoshi, the constructor of A6M "Zero", was one of the most prominent Japan's aeronautical engineers immediately before and during WWII, his life being dramatized in a (relatively) recent Hayao Miyazaki's anime "The Wind Rises". In the accompanying materials to the film, Miyazaki constantly references a quote from Jiro Horikoshi's diary, the same quote being present on the English Wikipedia page dedicated to the man. However, I wasn't able to find anything but a few excerpts from this diary, covering exclusively the last 9 months of Japan's participation in WWII (the excerpts can be found in the last chapter of "Zero: The Story of Japan's Air War in the Pacific - As Seen by the Enemy", 2002, which is a slightly updated version of the 1956 book "Zero!"). I also wasn't able to find a dedicated biography of Jiro that would be longer than several A4 pages, besides, different accounts of his life contradict one another. From this stem my following questions:

Was the full diary of Jiro Horikoshi ever published?
Is there a book-length biography of Jiro in any language? Or at least some biography that is substantially more complete than the one found on Wikipedia.

The only excerpts from his personal diary were published and publicly available are in Zero! by Masatake Okumiya and Jiro Horikoshi (with Martin Caidin).
However, there is a very notable but separate piece (i.e., not an actual diary entry) that he wrote after the war is a piece known as the "War End Diary/Journal". It is believed to be at the request of a magazine editor. This was displayed in an exhibition on the Tokorozawa Aviation Memorial Museum in 2013 featuring the life of Jiro Horikoshi. You can find photos of the exhibits here.

It's contents are reproduced in its entirety:

終戦日誌
八月十五日
正午ラジオが天皇が重大な放送をされると告げた時、私は突嗟に終戦の詔勅に違いない、と悟った。録音を再生しての放送は、お声がかすれて所々しか聞きとれなかったが、天皇の悲しい御言葉の一つ一つを聞き分ける必要はなかった。しかし、徐々に開戦も已むを得ないような雰囲気が作り上げられた四年前、さて現実に戦かいが起こってみると、敗戦までいかぬうちに何とか政府は手を打つのだろうと、漠然と考えてきた国民大衆はこれを聞いて何と感じたであろうか。
戦いは終わった。日本がすっかり消耗し尽くした後の、初めて経験する現実の敗戦。明日からわれわれは何をしたらよいのだろう。飛行機を造ることが終ったという以外現実には何も分らない。分らないが考えなければならぬ。社会的訓練の未熟、過剰な人口と狭い国土。自力では解決できぬ致命的な経済上の問題を抱えているこの国に、数年前のような文明国らしい生活が帰ってくるだろうか。
われわれに国際間の自由な交易を世界が許してくれなければ、疲弊から立ち直ることはできない。そもそも先進欧米諸国のブロック経済主義がこの戦争の根本原因ではなかったか。日本が、否日本の軍部とそれと結ぶ政治家が、外交で平和的に打開することをせず、武力に訴える所まで短気を起したことが戦争の近因ではなかったか。戦勝国民にも日本国民にもこの反省がなければ、日本の前途には長期にわたる経済および道徳の混乱がつづくだろう。それは日本人にはもとより、世界人類にとっても得策ではないはずである。
日本に壊滅をもたらした政策を指導してきた者が全部去らなければ、腐敗の種は残る。「誠実にして叡知ある、愛国の政治家出でよ。」　これが願いである。


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Can someone explain to me the ending of Guilty Crown?
I read some threads related to Shu case, for example that he took all the voids and illness of each people to save them but then Inori in some way she took them and die instead of Shu. And after that Shu becomes blind because Inori was like that before she dies?
I am not sure..

During episode 22 after Shu defeats Gai and both he and Mana crystalize, Shu then uses both his original King power and Gai's power to absorb every single void and Apocalypse Virus remaining on the planet. After this action Shu becomes fully crystalized and has a vision of Inori offering him the Guilty Crown and Shu accepts. By this acceptance of the crown Shu and Inori switch places. A trade happens and Inori receives all of Shu's illness and he receives hers. ref(Guilty Crown Wiki)

In the end Inori gave Shu her soul, Shu and Inori became one. Inori wanted Shu to live on which is why she gave her soul to him even though they can never meet again. Inori was blind before she gave her soul to Shu which explains why Shu is blind at the last part of ep 22.

Ok. Just watched this anime and the ending, like everyone else had me confused and bothered. Seems vague but after reading several discussions on forums I think I can break it down and explain the reality I haven't seen anyone else come to:
To understand what happened you have to think like the writer, and what thematic point they're making. Thesis is the main message of the story, anti-thesis is the narrative tool to highlight thesis, using Protagonist and Antagonists to represent these ideas. Shu and Inori are thesis and Gai and Mana are anti-thesis.
Shu's battle is against the selfish, survival of the fittest "natural selection" of human nature represented by Gai and Mana--who only seek to reproduce themselves, also Doth who represents the natural drive of reproduction. Shu's selfless nature and Inoris innocence represent the opposition to this.
In the end Gai wanted to save Mana, Shu's sister, because he couldn't care less about anyone else and was willing to sacrifice all of humanity to be with her. Remember when Mana talked to Shu about Triton looking at her?  Triton liked her and still did to the end. In the end Gai went to Mana's traumatized body before the lost Christmas event to be with her to save Shu's sister but they both died. However, since Shu was absorbing all the voids he took Gai's void power, his king power. Eve represents the potential to create a new world. Shu could have created a new world but with Mana's body gone there was no person to house the EVE creation power, but Inori was the whole time created solely to house the EVE power. Inori was preserved genetically with her last tear  that dropped and crystallized as the flower Shu took hold of. Having that Shu basically had Inori's soul.
This is where people miss the point, Shu had the king's power and could create the new humanity but EVE was gone. Inori was still existing though and came to Shu. Shu used his Gai void power to Bring EVE out of Inori, since that's the only way he could be with her---he took the seat as king and made Inori INTO EVE--remember Inori was a copy of Mona, and had the EVE power to remake the world within her--Shu just needed Gai's power to bring it out of her.
Since he was able to bring Inori's latent EVE power out Inori offers Shu her cradle, which is red string representing her soul and he took it, basically finalizing the creation process, HOWEVER, Shu did not destroy the world and remake it like the antithesis (Gai and Mana) were planning. INSTEAD he took Inori's soul like Gai wanted to do with Mana, to be one and with her forever, and he gave the world life by not destroying it and ridding it of the void plague.
Shu was still alive but at the end he and Inori were 'in heaven" (or the crystal plane as they said) together forever, their souls and hearts one, just like how Gai and Mana planned.   As for Shu losing his sight--he rid void powers from the world, and his void power was connected with his eyes, since his eyes were what drew out the voids of others, so when he got rid of the powers his eyesight also went. I think it's coincidence that Inori couldn't see due to the crystal plague that had almost totally consumed her body.
So to conclude, Inori's body was gone, but she became EVE (a new "Eve") in the process and took over the role as the force that provide the power to re-create the world, and since Shu took the cradle, signifying his unity with her as king, they both lived in heaven together for eternity from then on. He didn't lose her at all, their souls were united (and she isn't just some distant memory. He's really with her there in the other world and she's very much alive). If Shu healed Inori he would've died having taken all the void plague and she would've lived without him, she chose to give him her power as Eve and offer as an alternative to be Eve and let them join in spirit, which let them be together and still (even though she's just a soul in 'heaven/crystal world') save the world from the void plague. The alternative was Shu saves himself but the void plague kills Inori. If either of them were selfish one would've lost the other.  It's such a heartbreakingly warm story and hits you in the feels to know they transcended any level of love if they both lived physically. Their love truly rules all and would last forever.

The red thread of 'Fate/Life' (same thing Yahiro's void can cut) that connects them was unexpectedly severed by Inori moving 'away' from Shu. In the beginning of the series we know that Inori offers the same threads to shu, the meaning of it not fully understood yet by that time. Now we know that this thread symbolizes her Fate, and her asking Shu to 'take it' is her invitation to Shu into her Fate. In the end of the series we see Inori doing the same thing, and Shu fully accepts it and decides to rest in eternity with Inori inside the crystal, taking all the remnants of Void/Apocalypse from the world and into eternal rest. However, Inori did not wanted Shu to die, so before the 'end of all' she lets go of Shu and moves 'away'. She chooses to die alone and let Shu live, leaving the whole world 'without all Voids, all Apocalypse, and without Inori' knowing she cannot be saved anyways (There is no way to save her but by Shu taking all the Apocalypse from her, of course that would result in Shu dying and she didn't want that).

I guess Inori gives her soul to Shu before she died as the red strings in the anime represent a person's soul.
Also, it's not correct that Shu and Inori will never be able to meet again. They can still meet at that place called as 'spirit lobby', the place where Shu talks to Jun.

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In FMA: Brotherhood, why do Father's sacrifices remain alive after the sacrifice?
When Father sacrifices his five subjects—the five who have all seen the portal—why is it that they are all fine right after? I would have expected them to be gone, or dead, or something.

Short answer: There is no canonical reason for this.
Long answer: In English, a sacrifice is defined as:

an animal, person, or object offered in an act of slaughtering to God or to a divine or supernatural figure

However, a sacrifice in the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (and manga) canon is simply a being which has attempted Human Transmutation, and thus passed through the Gate of Truth. This sort of "activates" their Gate, so that someone with the right knowledge and setup (read: Father) can access it.
I think the Fullmetal Alchemist Wiki says it best:

Contrary to what the name suggests, the Human Sacrifices don't actually die and survive with no ill effects. In fact, the Sacrifices were some of the few humans to not have their souls dragged from their bodies.

So, why are they called sacrifices? It's really anybody's guess. In a way, they line up with another definition of the term:

an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy

In that sense, they are sacrifices; just not in the way we would typically think of a ritualistic sacrifice taking place.
So, no, no particular reason why they don't die, except... well, the author needed them alive.

For the same reason none of the people in Amestris die:  Van Hohenheim's plot to reverse the circle.  While this isn't specifically mentioned in canon, it does logically follow.

Because they were inside father and at the center of the entire nation-wide transmutation circle. That’s why Mei, Scar and the others above aren’t affected either. You can see them all get swallowed up by father’s black essence when he activates it.
That’s the reason why the military higher ups were so scared because they needed to be at central in order to avoid becoming ingredients for the stone father creates.
The “sacrifices” are only needed for their respective gateways to fight for father’s soul, then he uses their released energy to open the planet’s gateway and swallow god.
Kind of complicated but also they explain in different parts of the anime that as long as you’re at the center of the circle, you won’t be affected.


text:
What happened to the X's? Is their friendship over?
During the whole of the Alabasta arc, the Straw Hat Pirates had wraps on their arms concealing that they all had a black "X" underneath for means for making sure that they could tell the real Straw Hat from the fake made by Mr. 2's devil fruit the Mane Mane no Mi. The "X"s were revealed right at the climax of the arc, when the crew was saying goodbye to Vivi, as a sign that they were still friends even though they couldn't say it out loud.

Well, as I was watching the anime, I noticed that it was not long after that the "X" disappeared off of the arms of the Straw Hat Crew. Is this just that time went on and they wore off or is there supposed to be some deeper meaning to it?

Just because the Xs disappeared doesn't mean their friendship is over. The Xs probably simply vanished naturally; ink doesn't stay on forever, especially with how many battles the Straw Hats go through. Plus, Vivi is still keeping a close eye on what the Straw Hats are doing, which obviously means they're still friends.

Instead of yelling, the pirates raised their hands to signify that they were already friends with Vivi. They wanted to shout, but the marines would go after Vivi if they knew she had connections with the pirate, so they raised their hands instead.
and that doesn't mean the mark is disappeared their friendship will also disappeared.


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Has the acoustic version of Unravel been released yet?
The last song that plays while kaneki's holding hide in his arms while walking through whithout looking back, right at the last scene of the last episode... (which I believe it's an acoustic version of unravel, if my memory isn't tricking me). Has it been released yet?

I believe this is the song you are looking for. Tokyo Ghoul - Unravel (Acoustic).
If you want to purchase it, here is the link to the Apple iTunes page: unravel (acoustic version) - Single, by TK from 凛として時雨


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Who are these OS-tan?
XP-tan and 98-tan are easy to recognize, but who are the others? This page only tagged 13 with no location.

All the girls are Windows OS-tan. From top to bottom, left to right, the characters/objects in that image are:

NT-san
Vistake (Windows Vista)
SE-tan (Windows 98SE)
Dreamcast lolly
1.0-tan
Inu-T (Windows NT Workstation)
DOSKitty
WinCE
3.11-tan
98-tan
SE's mechbox
95-tan
ME-tan
2k-tan (Windows 2000)
XP-tan
Homeko (Windows XP Home)
Moseko (Windows XP Media Center Edition)