text:
Did they finally put an ejection mechanism in Lancelot?
During the first launch of the Lancelot, the development team says that they haven't been able to install an ejection mechanism in it. Even though the Lancelot gets new upgrades as the story progresses, no mention about the ejection mechanism gets made. Did they finally install it?

It's assumed so since the page for the Lancelot Conquista, the upgraded version of the original Lancelot, lists it as one of its design features while the Lancelot does not list it. So one could assume that before it was officially ordained as the Conquista the Cockpit Ejection System was added in.
When the Lancelot was equipped with the Float System in Stage 20 - Battle for Kyushu it was designated as the Z-01/A (the Lancelot is designated originally as Z-01 while the Conquista is Z-01/D). C.C's Lancelot Frontier (which is more or less another Lancelot) is listed as having the Cockpit Ejection System and it too is designated as the Z-01/A1 so to narrow down the time we could assume that it was between Stage 20 the Ejection System was installed and the ordination of the Conquista
We know that the Lancelot Albion had to have had one installed regardless for the successful completion of the Zero Requiem

 As Suzaku needed someway to escape from his exploding Knightmare when he faked his death to later assume the role as Zero

Also on the Cockpit Ejection System does say this

All production-model and most prototype Knightmare Frames are equipped with this system. The only Knightmare confirmed to lack a cockpit ejection system is the Z-01 Lancelot. This flaw is later addressed in the Lancelot Frontier, which except for its color is otherwise identical to the Lancelot's. It is unknown whether Suzaku's final machine, the Lancelot Albion, had an ejection system.

though the last sentence seems contradictory since the Lancelot Albion's page says

In the last episode, it is hinted that a cockpit ejection system might have been built into it.

1 - the designantions are shared between Knightmares when massproduced. the Glasgow's designation is RPI-11 which is shared by the Knightpolice (who are retired Glasgow's) so the Z-01/A being shared between the Lancelot and Lancelot Frontier could be an indication that the Frontier's specs are what was planned for possible Mass Production of the Lancelot before the inception of the RPI-212 Vincent which later led to the Mass Production Model RPI-212B Vincent Ward

So what you are saying is that since it is not mentioned, lancelot is assumed to have it installed?

@userXtreme please have a lot at my answer now, if there is something that is left unclear let me know and i'll try clearing it up


text:
What's with Rei's appearance at the very beginning?
At the very beginning of the Evangelion anime, when Shinji is waiting for Misato, he notices Rei standing across the street. She then disappears after he turns away and looks at the spot again.

What's with her appearance here? Surely this can't be the "real" Rei, given that later, I think we see Rei in bandages when Gendo Ikari goads Shinji into piloting the EVA? I'm assuming that this could be some sort of foreshadowing (?), but even so it doesn't make sense for Rei to literally appear before Shinji, unless this is some sort of illusion.

There is a mind boggling theory for this. If you are an avid reader of EVA Geeks you would enjoy it very much. So here is my small take on it.
Rei appears with the same uniform in the End of Evangelion standing on a sea of LCL. Here is the scene:

Shinji, when he first sees Rei at Nerv, recognizes her and makes a connection to the girl in the school uniform. So he is not hallucinating when he sees the image of Rei.
At this point there are a few theories:

The Rei which is seen could be Eva Unit 01 which is trying to contact his mind.
Another theory is that Shinji has mental visions of Rei in episodes 16 and 20 which could be Rei herself contacting Shinji telepathically.
A nice theory would be that Rei has the DNA of Yui Ikari and Lilith. So essentially, it's two mothers watching over their sons: namely, Yui looking after her son Shinji in the first episode and Lilith, who is the mother of Lilin, or all mankind, looking after her sons / daughters (let's not go on that path) in the End of Evangelion (picture above).

Mind blowing theory:
        I swear this is one of the mind blowing theories I have read about Evangelion. But it gives reason to your question.
In episode 23 Ritsuko shows Rei's room. If you notice the wall it has the words "Top, Bottom, Strangeness". This presumably is put there to show Rei's powers or nature. In quantum physics these three represent a sub atomic particle called the quark. The six types of quarks are: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. As you can see, three of the quarks are listed in Rei's room. The way it is related is that quarks defy classical physics. They can be at two places at once. In End of Evangelion, Rei is seen everywhere. At the sub-atomic level the particles do not follow the laws of physics, so much that they can create effect without cause, or they can reach their destination before starting their journey. So this could give you reason why she could be at two places at once or show up as an image at the beginning and at the end.
P.S.: I did not come up with connecting the quark theory, but I did realise the writing on the wall meant that Rei had a connection to quarks or just that she likes quantum mechanics a lot (like me :D). But EVA Geeks had this connection posted and credits to them for this mind boggling theory.
Source at EVA Geeks: Theory and Analysis: Rei's Ghostly Appearances and Quantum Mechanics.

Great theory! One minor quibble: "quarks defy physics" seems slightly misleading -- surely (if my physics memory isn't completely off), it's more that they simply contradict what we would expect from classical mechanics (or, I guess, general relativity)? (By the way, I did some editing for formatting -- feel free to make some edits if I've changed the meaning of something.)

Exactly, I just phrased it improperly. They just contradict classical mechanics and do what we don't expect. Your absolutely correct on the physics point of view.

Since Rei ultimately ascends into a superbeing (Adam/Lilith hybrid) in EoE, it's perhaps not surprising that she has the ability to replicate herself multiple times, appear in multiple locations at once, and go backwards and forwards in time...

source: Stack Exchange

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text:
What manga did Natsumi and the others read?
In episode 7, Natsumi started to read what looked like a manga magazine, and the others start reading it with her.

Does it come from a real manga? If it does, what manga is that?

This is the Monthly Comic Alive. It is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Media Factory.

Picture from comicvine
This episode here is the July 2013 issue or as a number 201309.

I am pretty sure the mange she is reading here is Omae o Otaku ni Shiteyaru kara, Ore o Riajuu ni Shitekure! (おまえをオタクにしてやるから、俺をリア充にしてくれ！)
Information

Type: Manga
Volumes: Unknown
Chapters: Unknown
Status: Publishing
Published: Apr 26, 2012 to ?
Genres: Comedy, Romance, School
Authors: Aoki, Mutsumi (Art), Murakami, Rin (Story)
Serialization: Comic Alive

Kashiwada Naoki was determined to lead his high school life without
  anyone knowing that he’s an Otaku. However, his classmate Bishoujo,
  Koigasaki Momo, who was rumored among the girls to be a bitch, found
  him out!? Before the despairing Kashiwada, she said something
  undoubtedly surprising.
“Aren’t you an Otaku? Then, make me into an Otaku!”
The love story of two individuals bounded by an agreement of Otaku and
  Riajuu starts!!

from MyAnimeList
Scene
The scene you see on the left page of the secound image is in the tenth episode.

Picture from Mangapark

and the manga title?

@ShinobuOshino Im sry I thought the whole magazine :o I added the manga now in my answer.

The manga on the cover is Seikoku no Dragonar. It has received an anime adaptation just last season (Spring 2014).

The manga that she is reading inside is Omae o Otaku ni Shiteyaru kara, Ore o Riajuu ni Shitekure! (lit. I will turn you into an Otaku, so please turn me into a Riajuu).
The pages are from the end of chapter 10. Below is the 2-page spread for comparison. Note that the art is not even distorted (which is usually done to avoid copyright problem), which suggests that it has received an okay from the author.

since both answer are correct I accept the first one, thanks :)

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


text:
Who is the guy with blue hair in the picture?
While watching episode 18 of Zettai Karen Children, at 10:49, some random characters seem to walk into the scene. And I seem to recall that the character that walks by is from some other series, all tough I'm not too sure which one.
So who is the guy in the middle of the picture that's getting hugged by this tiger?

That's Hayate from Hayate no Gotoku and apparently, the tiger is also from the same series, he's Tama

Ayasaki Hayate
Tama

Hayate's character description

Butler of the Sanzenin, Hayate, although underage, has had to work to support his unemployed parents. He moved from job to job since he was nine, but through this he has gained considerable and practical knowledge on how the world works. However, Hayate has terrible luck. Called a 'combat butler', Hayate is skilled with firearms and is physically invincible, even surviving after being hit by vehicles.

And the guy in the lower right corner is Nabeshin.


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How much of the original Sailor Moon anime isn't from the manga?
While I went through the first 7-8 episodes of the original Sailor Moon, I noticed a few episodes that didn't really advance the plot much. (An example of this would be the episode where Jadeite poses as a radio announcer and sucks the energy out of women who receive fake declarations of love.) I have also found lists of filler episodes on the internet, such as this one, for the original Sailor Moon.
I've also noticed that a lot of "unnecessary" plot seen in those episodes of the original anime is cut from Sailor Moon Crystal, though to some extent this also just makes sense given that they have a limited number of episodes to work with.
How closely does the original anime follow the manga? (I understand that they are probably more or less similar in terms of plot, but is there a significant portion of episodes or "filler" that's original material and not from the manga?)
Edit: I am referring to the original Japanese anime, not the English (or European) dubs - I already know that those involved quite a bit of censoring of things like nudity or same-sex relationships. I should also add that I just got into Sailor Moon, and so am not too familiar with it.

Depends on which version you're talking about, the US Dubbed version had episodes from the original Japanese version cut out and others reworked to make it less plot intensive, also major elements were reworked, Ziocite is a guy, Michiru and Haruka are cousins, the theme of Sacrifice/Death is greatly watered down in the Death Busters Arc. it's probably safe to say the US Dubbed version varies greatly because it varies from the original Japanese version

I think that Sailor Moon Crystal is aiming to follow the manga story more, but I'm not sure about the original series

@Memor-X: edited the question to clarify what I'm asking.

In the original, the only difference i know of is that Hataru's body was more damaged so she's more machine in the Manga. originally i thought the anime followed the manga faithfully however when i learned that Crystal was doing that i just looked up the Death Busters Arc to see if Michiru and Haruka remained as lovers in the manga (they apparently do)

@Toshinou Kyouko: Yes, producer Atsutoshi Umezawa announced that the reboot would “not remake the older anime” (kyuusaku anime wo rimeiku-suru no de ha naku,「旧作アニメをリメイクするのではなく」) but would “animate from scratch Takeuchi-sensei’s original work” (Takeuchi-sensei no gensaku o aratamete zero kara anime-ka suru,「武内先生の原作を改めてゼロからアニメ化する」).  However, it has made some minor changes within the episodes that have aired so far.

You are correct that, overall, the classic anime has more non-plot advancing material (i.e. filler) than the manga does. On the other hand, in many cases, the anime boasts more plot and depth of storytelling, whereas the manga plows through each story arc in a more bare-bones, brief, and (arguably) flat style. As a couple of examples: 1) whether villain or ally, many characters in the manga are introduced and then promptly killed off in order to move on to the next character. Only in the anime are enduringly popular minions such as the Witches 5, Amazon Trio, and Animamates developed into personable and sympathetic characters. 2) In the manga, it's not as clear as to how the Starlights enrolling as students at Juuban High School is very necessary to advancing the plot, whereas in the anime, as a result of their schoolmates friendship with Usagi, Ami, (Rei: actually, she attends a different school but she usually comes over to their campus to hang out), Makoto, and Minako, which took the span of a whole season to develop to the point of mutual trust, leads the Starlights to end up being the only ones who stand with Sailor Moon and protect her until the end; without their encouraging pep talk, she would have given up her star seed to Sailor Galaxia in episode 198 (if she had done so in order to escape her grief, everyone in the galaxy would die permanently, the end).
(While it is the case that Sailor Moon Crystal has, for the most part, avoided filler, the storytelling is arguably lower in quality than that of the classic anime [Crystal's viewer numbers have sharply crashed, a drop of 77%]).
The number of changes in the classic anime from the original manga is so high that it would take an online encyclopedia to list them all. As just one narrowed example, consider the LGBT content:
The classic anime invented the following popular LGBT-related content which was NOT present in Takeuchi’s original manga (and thus, is NOT present in the reboot):
~ Kunzite/Zoicite: in contrast to serving as the 1991 anime’s sole canon gay couple, in the original manga, Kunzite had a straight romantic relationship with Sailor Venus (Codename ha Sailor V volume 3), and Zoicite is shown in a manga illustration with his arms around Mercury, implying that they were also a heterosexual couple on the Moon Kingdom.  The live-action Sera Myu (Sailor Moon musicals) incarnations follow these pairings.  The 2013 La Reconquista musical paired up the male generals with each of the female sailor soldier guardians at a ball, and particularly highlights a prominent and cute relationship between Zoicite and Mercury.  The completed 2003-2004 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon live-action TV series does not include any romances for Kunzite or Zoicite.
~ Fiore: one of the classic anime’s original characters, featured in the R movie and the Another Story video game, could be interpreted as liking Mamoru, though this was never explicitly affirmed or denied.
~ Fish Eye: a gay cross-dresser who fell for Mamoru in the classic anime, is, in the manga, merely an mildly-effeminate monster-of-the-day (the same could be said of Hawk’s Eye and Tiger’s Eye - all three of their outfits are… unique).  In the manga, he never cross-dresses or expresses any homosexual interest.  He only attempts to seduce Ami (Mercury).
~ Sailor Starlights: in the classic anime, this trio flipped back and forth between female and male when they transformed from sailor soldiers into civilian guise and developed intriguing relationships to varying degrees with the Earthling sailor soldiers but, in the manga, there are no fun Taiki (Star Maker)/Ami (Mercury), Taiki/Makoto (Jupiter), Yaten (Star Healer)/Minako (Venus), or Yaten /Luna vibes.  Those were introduced in the anime along with the sex-switching that challenged gender norms.  In the manga original, Ami hates Taiki, Michiru (Neptune) hates Yaten, and Haruka (Uranus) hates all three - that’s really the entire extent of the interaction between these extraterrestrials and the solar system soldiers.  Usagi, Minako, and Makoto blush and get heart eyes when the Three Lights transfer to their high school, that’s it.  Even Yaten’s passionate and undistracted devotion to Kakyuu Princess is original to the classic anime, and the anime’s Haruka vs. Seiya rivalry and Seiya/Michiru flirting were not in the original manga… heck, basically anything you liked about the Starlights in the classic anime wouldn’t show up in a reboot.  Taiki’s softening toward his astronomy teacher and his sweet hospitalized fan or laughing for the first time in years; Yaten as a cat person who constantly flips his bangs in annoyance; Seiya’s boy-next-door softball training, amusement park date, and conflicted, unrequited love in the vein of Taylor Swift’s You Belong With Me that spanned 28 episodes (82% of the final season) with Usagi?  That’s all original to the classic anime.
The manga Three Lights are always female and demonstrate zero personal preference for passing as male.  Manga Yaten and Taiki are merely girls without any sexual preferences indicated, who disguise themselves as boys for a mission.  Since neither of these characters display any attraction to anyone, they’re not lesbians.  Since they’re not particularly masculine by any stretch of the imagination, don’t identify as male, don’t evidence any interest in gender identity whatsoever, and wear feminine clothing in private, even attempting to identify them with cross-dressers is a little shaky - in their minds, their boy band costuming is just a disguise rather than a conscious lifestyle choice.
That leaves us with Seiya (Star Fighter) alone, who is attracted to Usagi in the manga.
Seiya (Star Fighter)/Kakyuu: it can be interpreted that manga Star Fighter had feelings for Kakyuu Princess before arriving on Earth but this is not overt.  Kakyuu resting her head on Seiya’s shoulder was only shown in the classic anime, not in the manga.
In contrast, in the original manga, there was:
~ Sex-switching Usagi (Moon) and Minako (Venus), which was not included in the anime.  Many English-language websites bemoan the fact that Takeuchi-sensei was shocked that, in the classic anime, the Starlights were male in civilian form - but she’s the one who thought up sex-switching in the first place.  In the manga, Usagi uses the Hensou Pen (Disguise Pen) to transform herself into a man (a groom [pages 190-191 of volume 1 of the Kanzenban {Perfect Edition}]) and Minako uses her compact to transform into a male in BSSM itself (a Mugen Gakuen [Infinity Academy] student [pages 167-169 of volume 5 of the Kanzenban]) using the phrase “Moon Power!” (「ムーン・パワー」).  As an aside, Minako also twice used her compact to transform into male form in Codename ha Sailor V (a teen idol [pages 115-118 of volume 1 of the Shinsoubon {Reprint Edition}] and a samurai [pages 140-141 of volume 2 of the Shinsoubon]), both using the phrase “Mikazuki Power Transform!” (「三日月パワー・トランスフォーム！」).
~ Haruka (Uranus)/Michiru (Neptune): yes, they have a romantic relationship in the manga, BUT very little is shown or said of it when you contrast it with their classic anime version: although you would see a good amount of Haruka/Usagi action including their manga kiss, manga Haruka/Michiru romantic scenes and dialogue are sparse.  Almost all of their suggestive lines, Haruka’s clearly stated answer to what her koibito’s name was ("koibito" is a Japanese word which can mean either simply "girlfriend"/"boyfriend" or can mean "lover"; usually in the context of shoujo anime, it refers to the former), and their moving interlude after Galaxia removed their bracelets originated in the classic anime. Fans who met Haruka through the anime might also happen to be surprised to discover that her manga version wears a high school girl’s school uniform, mini skirts, girly blouses that show off her cleavage, and a polka-dotted scarf - in the manga, sometimes she presents as a man, but other times she’s rather feminine; it was only in the older anime that she consistently dressed masculine.
~ Haruka (Uranus)/Usagi (Moon): Haruka/Michiru fans may be disappointed to realize that there’s a lot more Haruka/Usagi than Haruka/Michiru visuals in the manga, and there’s also a brief Mamoru/Michiru vibe.  People who like the idea of Haruka/Michiru being monogamous would be challenged by manga Haruka’s amorous advances toward Usagi in full knowledge that Usagi has a boyfriend and while being in an apparently open relationship with Michiru.  The classic anime Haruka flirted with Usagi and Minako, but it was only in 2 episodes accompanied by Michiru’s bemused comments which indicated she didn’t consider it anything serious, whereas the manga Haruka pursued Usagi a lot more seriously.
~ Seiya (Star Fighter)/Usagi (Moon): in the manga, there’s some chemistry and a kiss, but most of what Seiya does in the manga is send Usagi anonymous postcards.  The duration in which the Three Lights attend school with Usagi and friends is all too brief.
So that's just one example of the countless large and small differences between the manga and the classic anime.
There are positive changes (Serenity/Sailor Moon committed suicide twice in the manga, whereas in the anime, she didn't), neutral or disputed ones (some fans like the serious manga Rei [Mars], whereas others like the anime Rei who teases Usagi as a friendly sort of love/hate rivalry), and generally-received-as-negative ones (the manga Shitennou had served Prince Endymion in the Silver Millennium and returned to loyalty, giving him strength, whereas the anime version had no backstory of their being loyal to him). The aspect where the manga/anime difference is greatest is that the end of the manga and the end of the anime are completely different. Some fans like the manga version better, some like the anime version better.

Accepted this answer because while the main thing I was interested in was whether or not the manga had as much non-plot advancing material as the anime, this is nicely detailed, and while I wasn't looking for them originally, it's nice to know about non-filler changes in the anime.

@Maroon, ah, I see; okay, I will add a comment about non-plot advancing material into my answer.

Instead of revisiting all the differences between the original, the dub, and the manga, I wanted to contribute some input on the filler.
According to Wikipedia, the original anime and the manga were produced almost simultaneously (the manga had a 6-week head start). Different studios deal with this situation differently. Fairy Tail took a one-year hiatus when the anime caught up with the manga. Bleach introduced anime-only story arcs that would last about a year and return to the manga story arc once that was done.
Instead of waiting for the manga to get a head start or coming up with filler story arcs while the author came up with more material, Sailor Moon was rife with filler episodes. As a result, the plot is slow to advance and some of the deeper, character-building aspects of the manga were left out. Though it isn't the origin, Sailor Moon is definitely a poster child for the Monster of the Week trope.
Today, Sailor Moon Crystal is essentially covering a chapter of the manga with each episode. The Dark Kingdom story arc was completed after 46 episodes in the original anime, but Sailor Moon Crystal packed it into 13 episodes and deviated from the Monster of the Week trope set by its predecessor.


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Why does Miki keep pulling out a stopwatch?
I'm currently on episode 10 of Revolutionary Girl Utena, and I've noticed that at certain points someone (most likely Miki, if I'm not mistaken) will pull out something that looks like a stopwatch or a counter. (This happens in the beginning of episode 10 when the Student Council is discussing the next duelist, and also happens earlier in some of the points concerning Nanami.) Some sort of clicking sound will accompany this.

But I'm not really sure what this is supposed to signify (if anything). Is Miki counting something, or is this supposed to just set the tone for something? If so, what is this "something"?
Update: In episode 11, Miki pulls out a stopwatch again after asking Touga if he's just treating his sister like a pet (in the translation I was watching) and states a "time" of 6.54 seconds. But I'm still not sure what he's counting. Afterwards, the discussion immediately goes back to Nanami's loss to Utena.

It's most definitely an electronic stopwatch.

@user1306322: definitely. but the "cuts" were relatively fast so before pausing to take a screenshot of it, I wasn't very sure.

I was pretty sure his role in the Student Council is the secretary so him using a stop watch could be seen as him taking the "Minutes" of his interactions (like how a secretary takes the minutes of a meeting). however this doesn't explain why he uses the stop watch at infrequent times since i do remember him taking out the watch outside Student Council Meetings. it may have something to do with the symbolism in the background of the meetings we see in later episodes.

Yes, it is a stopwatch. Ikuhara Kunihiko (Director/Producer, Storyboards, Original Concept) answered this question in an Animage interview with Be-Papas, the animation studio that created Utena:
Translation by a fan:

Animage magazine: The next question came up most often.
Question: What does Miki measure with his stopwatch? (reader from Hokkaido)
Ikuhara: Let’s just say that it’s connected with the structure of the world.
All: (laugh).
Enokido Yoji (Animation Composition, Chief Screenwriter): That’s a really hard-to-understand answer.

Thanks! I suppose this doesn't actually clarify much for me, but it looks like as good an answer as we'll get, without speculating on things.

I would downvote Ikuhara's answer - if it were on this site...

Miki uses her stopwatch during certain conversations with the other members of the student council, mostly while they are in private. I believe she is timing moments of significant things that they say to one another that has an alternate meaning than the physical.
The themes in this story are very abstract and metaphysical but all interconnected, like:

The symbolism of the staircase spiraled straight to heaven is the character's feelings of hope about important memories and feelings they all have and wish to keep eternal.
The shining castle in the sky is just a mirage to signify that shining everlasting hope that some keep close to their hearts and hope to attain once again.

But everything has cause and effect and is on an eternal clock of action and reaction. A spiral of spira mirabilis, times and moments stacked upon one another to create the reality we live in now. These moments are algorithms in the universe and everything plays an important role in this grand play, and we are all actors playing our parts.


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Does tanuki hot pot actually exist?

Searching on Google, I found some food related to tanuki like tanuki udon (not sure if they really use tanuki). But I can't find anything like tanuki hot pot. Does this kind of food actually exist? Do they actually eat tanuki?

This question might fall under the same close criteria as my first question here.. while the question actually references an anime, the real question is out of anime and thus can be answered without references to anime (just as demonstrated by gareth). I therefore opt to close this question.

@Vogel612 Yea you are actully right. But as I can read from the help center, it would say that the question is "OK". There is no scope defined in this middle part. I think he ask the question with the motivation of "I would like others to explain ______ to me" and the question is in "context of an anime or manga". If it is really allowed I do not know. btw My name is Gerret and not gareth ;)

Whoops... well with my sleep deprivation when I wrote that comment it's not further surprising that I misread that.. If there is no scope defined I'd say it's the perfect moment to ask the community by means of a meta question.

Makiko Itoh answered the question "Do people in Japan actually eat tanuki in hot pot?". A side information of her shows "I write about Japanese food and cooking and am Japanese".
I quote her answer below:

A long, long time ago it may have been more widely eaten, but these days it rarely is. Even when it is eaten it's limited to certain regions, and to certain seasons. Tanuki are omnivores, and the meat of omnivores is supposed to be very unpleasant.
You do see a lot of dishes that are called tanuki, e.g. tanuki udon, but that usually means it has some tenkasu (tempura batter crumbs) in it. The 'tanuki' part of such dishes has nothing to do with the animal - it comes from 'tanenuki', or 'no main ingredient/filling' - i.e. tempura batter without the shrimp or vegetable or whatever.

Another article, which writes about interesting names of food, says:

Do Japanese people eat fox and raccoon dog?
“No way!”
Don’t worry!  They are  just a name of foods and any fox and raccoon dog are NOT cooked.

(Raccoon dog = Tanuki)

Another answer by bluemoonmemory for the question "Do people really eat tanuki?":

Because raccoon dog is not cultivated but just hunting game in limited
official hunting season, the supply is scarcely limited. Most of
Japanese never eat tanuki but rabit or sort of fake instead actually.
In addition, tanuki soba or tanuki udon is just name only. It doesn't
contain any tanuki meat or tanuki extract. It is soba or udon with
topping something non-animal products deep-fried that old people long
time ago once had thought it as if tasted like tanuki or much better.
Raccoon dog meat has heavy animal smell urinal. This modern society of
Japan people prefer beef, pork and/or chicken much more to wild animal
meat. They don't need to eat tanuki anymore.

With these information, I would say that Japanese generally do not eat tanuki. Only the food is called like that, but it is actually made from other animal or even vegeratarian. But I would not deny that it is eaten in some regions, and especially a long time ago.

I found that before, but the way she answer, but the way she answer, she doesn't look sure about it

@ShinobuOshino Updated a little bit. This is all I could find about it...


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What's this anime on the DVD cover in part of this photo?
A friend of mine linked me a following meme picture:

I would like to know what's the name of the DVD he's holding in his hands.
I think I've once seen that DVD cover he is holding in his hands but for the life of me can't recall anything from it. No name, nothing.
For some reason this thing started to bother me and so I'm wondering does anyone recognize the anime he's holding in his hands. But to be honest not sure if it's even an anime. I believe it was some kind of OVA but am not sure.
After searching for it for sometime I couldn't find anything. Hopefully someone knows better than me.
Thank you in advance.

Searching for the image resulted in this title 影のセクハリスト ～孕ませ王位継承騒動～, which roughly translates to Sexual Harasser of the Dark ~ The Impregnation Mayhem for Throne Succession ~
Here is a clearer version of the cover (NSFW).
Here is the link to official website (NSFW) and its entry on vndb.
It seems to be a eroge, not an anime, though.
The site describes it as a "magic school slapstick love comedy".

The image matches up, but could you perhaps give a bit more detail about the anime in question?

I am not so much proficient in japanse to provide a "readable" traduction of the site I linked to (which corresponds to the original company that produced the game). I do not know the game myself.

Hmmm it does seem relatively obscure (as an anime I mean) in the English speaking world (at least from a quick search with the kanji). At any rate, good catch!

More information about this is available at http://vndb.org/v7705. That said, it's a pretty standard nukige without any particular notability outside of this meme, so I don't think a lot more needs to be said here.

"A real female ofcause, smells, is dirty...ofcause because its a human being, it has lots of things. So we have this anime, isn't it clean and pretty", until you realize that @LoganM 's link has it tagged to have Bukkake, which i assume smells, is dirty and hardly not clean or pretty


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Why was there an apparent violation of the law of cycles in Rebellion?
In the Rebellion film, we see Homura turn into what she realises is a witch (after she discovers some oddities about the version of Mitakihara city she's supposedly living in) because of her despair.
This reason for her turning into a witch makes sense to me because it would be "valid" under the laws of the universe prior to Madoka's changing of them. However, I'm a bit confused about how Homura managed to become a witch after the law of cycles came into "effect", if under this regime, magical girls disappear instead of becoming witches once their energy is used up.
Why exactly then was there this "exception" to the law of cycles? (I might have missed something since I haven't really followed Puella Magi Madoka Magica very closely.) I suppose the fact that Homura is the only person around who knows of what the former "regime" was might be important in this, but I think I probably missed something when I watched the film.

From the wiki page this should be the part:

As Homura realizes that said witch must be no other than herself, Kyubey appears and reveals that she had fallen into despair and when she was about to become a witch, he and the other incubators isolated her soul gem to set a trap for Madoka, in order to take control of her power. However, when Madoka appeared, she had forgotten about her duty as the Law of Cycle and her power as such, thus Kyubey kept observing her until that point.

My guess would be: the Incubators trapped the soul of Homura before the occurence of the Law of cycles i.e. moments before becoming a witch (which is also confirmed by the incubators at a certain point when they say that Homura is between the two states), and it shouldn't contradict the law of cycles because after all it's Madoka who stops the magical girls from turning into witches.
She decides then to become a witch in order to destroy her own soul, so that Madoka won't be trapped by the Incubators, who wanted to study her so that they would have been able to restore the old (magical girl->witch) rule. After all, Homura's soul was kept there for that reason (I previously wrote "her" but it was ambiguous).


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What are the differences between the original and the re-cut versions of Psycho-Pass?
I know that the original show has 22 episodes and the re-cut version has 11 one hour long episodes. However, I want to know if there are any major differences. What are the differences between the 2012 version and the 2014 version of Psycho-Pass? Did they add new scenes or information?

The new edit version of Psycho-Pass has:

Reanimated Opening and Ending themes
Additional minor scenes (for example in episode 1 there are two new soliloquies not seen in the original). These tend to be placed midway during the episodes to allow for a better transition between the two old episodes.
Redone animation of particular scenes (and some additional CGI in places)
Some music changes in scenes

There's nothing substantially different in the new edit version, so if you have seen the original there's not a huge benefit in watching this version and you should still be able to watch the sequel Psycho-Pass 2 in Fall 2014 without worries.


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Why did Light want to kill Near?
In Episode 37/Chapter 106, Light wants to kill Near. But what was his plan? Why did he want to kill Near? Was this because he was angry and wanted to kill the one who was responsible for his capture?

By that point in time, Light wanted to kill anyone who threatened or insulted him (though he would not really want to admit the latter one).  His ego and desensitization had risen to the point that he did not not really care who he killed.  Near claimed to be L's true heir and the one who could bring Kira (as known as L now and also known as Light) down.  Of course he wanted to kill him.
I don't think he would have seriously entertained any other idea at that time even if he bothered to come up with it.  He was more inthralled with his godhood than even the battle anymore.
Note: I don't think it mattered that at episode 37 (the last episode) that even after killing Near, he would still be captured.  He wanted to kill Near because he insulted/threatened him.  If he could avoid capture, though, he would have probably done that planning on killing him later.

His plan was to write his name in the Death Note page in his watch. Maybe they wouldn't notice in time or hesitate to shoot him? Didn't work.

In chapter 106 (i just read it again) light planed to kill Near to convince the other into letting him free. @kaine

Was that is Episode 37 too? don't have the manga and didn't remember that statement.  In either case, he came to the meeting intending to kill him and he wanted to kill him due to the events there.  If he thought killing him would increase his chance of survival even slightly, it is obvious that would just add to his reason for trying to kill him.

Yeah he said it in chapter 106. You can read the manga at mangafox.com @kaine

FYI (only because I didn't at first), mangafox isn't legal. Its not on crunchyroll (which is).  I based my answer on the anime (and your question implied either). If an answer comes along who can answer better for manga, accept his.

Hey, don't insult me. I didn't knew that mangafox is illegal. @kaine

Wasnt an insult. I didnt know at first as it had a legal disclaimer and i said it in case you didnt know.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

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


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Which episode of Sailor Moon is this scene from?
Which episode of the classic Sailor Moon anime are these screenshots of Usagi (Sailor Moon) and Mamoru (Tuxedo Kamen) from?

It's from the Sailor Moon R movie.

The fragrance of a flower at the botanical gardens reminds Mamoru of a
  long forgotten memory from his childhood when he met Fiore, an alien
  boy who was travelling the galaxy on his own. Before Fiore left, he
  made a promise to Mamoru to bring him flowers.
Once banned from society to a far away galaxy, the Kisenian flower, a
  plant that grows by consuming the energy of living beings, awaits to
  be found by someone with doubtful heart and weak will on whom to prey,
  since it is harmless without a proper host — to then transform the
  host's weakness and fear into dark power.
What will happen when lonely Fiore finds Kisenian during his journey?
  How will he react to finding out about the passionate relationship
  between Mamoru and Usagi? Will Sailor Moon be able to save Earth and
  the ones she loves from Fiore's jealousy powered by the accumulated
  hatred of the Kisenian against people?

YouTube link of that particular scene


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What is this guy with a cross scar on his left cheek reference of?
In the first episode of Danna ga Nani wo Itteru ka Wakaranai Ken, there is a scene of the husband proclaiming his hate towards working. His face changed to that of some character with a scar on his left cheek. His speech pattern also changed to that of a samurai:

Hataraki takunai degozaru! Zettai ni hataraki takunai degozaru!

What is the reference in this scene?

There is a internet meme in Japan, that a collage picture from Rurouni Kenshin manga and the text "I hate to work, I certainly hate to work."

Reference

Nicopedia's entry on 「働きたくないでござる」 (Japanese)

For further reading (in Japanese), see e.g. Nicopedia's entry on 「働きたくないでござる」.

It is a reference to Himura Kenshin, from Rurouni Kenshin.

This is noted not only by the scar, but also by the way the sentences are ended.

Does this character say anything similar to what he was saying "I don't want to work."

I can't recall any particular moment when he said something like that, no.

Himura Kenshin is also known as the "Hitokiri Battousai", Battousai the Manslayer, Rurouni Kenshin.


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Why does Wrath want Ed's limbs?
In the 2003 series, Wrath is the homunculus created from Izumi Curtis' child, who either was stillborn or died shortly after birth. After Ed finds and interacts with him, he realises that Wrath has his leg and arm, and if I'm not mistaken, Wrath talks about wanting the rest of Ed's limbs. Wrath acquires the arm and leg when the brothers attempt human transmutation
Later, after Ed's disappearance into the alternate universe, we also see Wrath fitted with automail that was intended for Ed. According the wiki, this happens after Dante forces the removal of the limbs.
Why did Wrath "need" or "want" the limbs in the first place? If I'm not mistaken:

There wasn't any note of the child Wrath was created from having deformities, which suggests that Wrath had his "original" limbs that didn't come from Ed.
This suggests that Wrath might have wanted Ed's limbs for some other purpose (e.g. wanting them in themselves, wanting to be able to perform alchemy), but I don't remember if this was explicitly stated anywhere.

Could someone shed any light on this, and perhaps provide an episode I could refer to and rewatch?

If I recall correctly, he wanted them so that he could perform alchemy. I believe it was stated explicitly, but I've watched the series a few years ago, so my memory may be tricking me.

@JNat: Yeah that seems likely; if I find a "quick" answer to that effect I'll probably either just delete or post it.

I've only seen the 2003 series once, but I think Wrath was also jealous of Ed and wanted his limbs so he could become more like him.

Wrath's goal was to be more human, like the other Homunculi. However with Wrath, he wanted to take Ed's life, in other words making everything that Ed owns his own. He already had two limbs that Ed "gave up" so why not take the rest?
I'm quite sure he even says that he wants to take "everything" from Ed during their fight under Liore when Sloth and Wrath appear (where Ed first discovers Sloth is his mother and we find out Wrath's weakness).
This can also be seen during the fight against Sloth in the weapons factory. Wrath takes the box in which Ed stored bone of his mother's and fused it into himself, taking something Ed owned for himself.


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Who is this person with four eyes in OP song?
He appears recently in OP song. Is he an enemy? An ally?

I remember I saw him in manga, pretty sure he was an enemy

Pretty sure that's not a "person".

I'm not sure how much further the anime series but he looks like this guy,

 He's Gotoh (link contain spoiler), he's the mayor's confidant and the most powerful parasite of the series


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Law vs Breed: why didn't Law use room to remove collars?
Law's room ability is a very strong technique, and he can use it to slice whatever he wants.  Why doesn't he use it when fighting against Breed to remove collars from other animal and chopper?
I don't know the chapter but it's on episode 626.
Here is a YouTube link.

you should at least had mention chapter or episode, it would be easier to look.

It was a filler episode which is not taken from source material (i.e. manga). The fillers are just to extend time for the anime so that it does not catch up to the manga.
This happens in Naruto quite a lot and One Piece has only three filler arcs, so don't think too much about that episode, as it is there only to extend time

One Piece currently has 12 filler arcs but that is still not really that many considering how long the show has been on the air.

and the plus with OP filler arcs is that they mosty happen between arcs, so no breaking of story

He was waiting for the right time. He was waiting until he got enough intel on the enemy before making his final move. If he spoiled the surprise early on, Breed could have counter-acted accordingly and might even have been able to re-attach the collars and order Law to never use his Devil Fruit again. Law didn't know Breed's full power yet at that time and just playing along. Remember how he only pretended to attack Luffy. Law was wearing ear-plugs and he wasn't under Breed's control at that time. He willingly attacked Luffy pretending to obey.
Law did the same thing on Punk Hazard, where he waited to remove the handcuffs when everyone was caged by Caesar. He didn't want to let his enemy know he was free to move about. He waited until he was out of sight, letting the enemy (Caesar) think he was defeated, giving him a lot of space and time to freely move about preparing his final counter attack.
Finally, I think Law is incapable of actually removing the collars, since he didn't actually removed them himself, even when he shambled to the submarine and had plenty of time to do so.


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Who killed Alice?
In anime we are not told who killed Alice, but I'm sure it does in the manga, so I want to know who the real killer is. In the Pandora Hearts anime, Vincent Nightray was there when Alice was killed. Does it make him the suspect in Alice's death?

No one killed her. Alice committed suicide

 When Jack was trying to get Oz (B-Rabbit) to destroy the world

From the Alice/History Page of the wikia:

Alice worried as she could feel the danger of the situation sinking in, and so she grabbed a pair of scissors off of the table nearby ... Suddenly Alice plunges the scissors into her chest, commiting suicide to prevent the Intention from being able to take over her body and give [B-Rabbit] more power to destroy the world.

Of course this is only stated in the manga as the anime only really goes into detail with the connection between Alice and the Intention of the Abyss and does not show what truly happened during the Tragedy of Sablier or the real perpetrator.
In Vincent's History, during the Tragedy of Sablier it states that he arrived after Alice died before running to find Gilbert. The part in the anime where Break is with the Intention and she is breaking down when Vincent showed up is after Sablier had fallen into the Abyss and Alice was already dead.
The pages listed will contain heavy spoilers as the anime only stops part-way and I think the last two episodes actually deviate from the manga — at least the Wikia says in the trivia for Episode 24 - Kyrie that it is filler.

This epsisode is to say that this is a filler. This never happen in the manga thus making it a filler.


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What is the reference in the scene where the husband jokes about naming children?
In episode 10, when the couple is discussing children's names, the husband makes a reference by saying "If it's a boy, then Shinji. A girl, then Rei" （男なら「シンジ」、女なら「レイ」）.

What is the reference being made in this scene?

This pose is typical for Gendo Ikari from the Evangelion series. It even has a page on knowyourmeme and is also featured as an example for 'Finger Tenting' on tvtropes.

In the series he has a son named Shinji and daughter (sort of) named Rei.
(The reference right afterwards is also to Evangelion's Kaworu)

Gendo's pregnant wife Yui says that exact line in a flashback scene.

@SystemDown - late comment, but I'm watching episode 20 of EVA, where this comes up, and the line is said by Gendo, rather than Yui, who simply asks him if he's made any decisions about names.

@Maroon - Yeah I remembered the scene, but didn't remember the details all that well. Thanks for the correction!


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Does an Oedipus the King manga actually exist?
In episode 2 of Terror in Resonance, Lisa is shown reading a manga that depicts the events of Oedipus the King. Does such a manga actually exist?
A preliminary search in English didn't give anything useful, and it's pretty likely that this manga might have been invented for the sake of the anime, tying into the other allusions to the work (which seem to be relevant to the plot, but since I'm only on the second episode, I can't tell yet).
But since I enjoyed the play, I'd like to ask just in case there is such a manga, and if my searches just didn't work out.

I don't know if you're asking this question without the knowledge that Oedipus is originally  from a Greek mythology or not. He is a tragic hero and a king in Thebes and his name translates to the Ancient Greek "Swollen Foot". Here's the wiki for that.
To answer your question: No, I don't think a manga version of Oedipus the King exists. Although there may be an English comic about it somewhere. The reference in Zankyou no Terror was most likely for plot rather than an actual cameo.
As a disclaimer, I haven't finished it either and stopped at episode 9 or 10. Also, this is my first shot an answering a question here @stack-sites, I hope I did good :)

You did just fine, welcome aboard :)

Yep, the reason I was interested in whether such a manga exists is because I read Sophocles' dramatisation of the myth and rather liked it. Anyways, thanks!

Accepting this answer since while it seems true that some adaptation exists, I was mostly interested in whether the manga shown in-universe does too.

I don't know if it's the same manga you mean, but there is a manga about the story of King Oedipus. Manga of the Greek Myths: Volume 4, Tragic King Oedipus, by Machiko Satonaka, released 25th February 2004 by Chuokoron-Shinsha, Inc.


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Why isn't Lust covering up her tattoo?
In one of the early chapters of Fullmetal Alchemist (chapter 8 I believe), when Edward and Alphonse go with Armstrong back to Resembool for repairs, we see Lust on the same train.

Here, her tattoo isn't covered up, unlike later in chapter 34 when she meets with Havoc on a date.

The second image is from the end of chapter 34. This is after Hawkeye runs into Barry the Chopper, and after Mustang has started his investigation into the higher ups (which is shown in the same chapter). Envy is also shown tracking down Mustang's activities in that chapter, but this is before Edward tells Breda about what he knows from Laboratory 5.
This seems to imply that she covers up her tattoo to look more "normal" in public, but if that's the case, why wouldn't she be covering up the tattoo earlier? Or is the assumption that she covers up in public not correct? (Thinking back on it, it alos might be relevant that the tattoo isn't that large - which isn't a detail I currently remember - and therefore suspicious-looking to someone who doesn't know).
EDIT: I don't think Mustang's team knows about the homunculi specifically at this point in this. Although they have detained Barry the Chopper and so know something is up with the philosopher's stones, I remember Alphonse mentioning the homunculi's existence right before the section where Lust is killed, and Mustang being shocked by the revelation (at least in Brotherhood, where he proceeded to lose control of his driving).

What do you mean "earlier"? When does she not cover it? (Other than in private, of course.)

@キルア: I'm referring to her appearance on the train (in the first image).

Ah, gotcha. It was so tiny I didn't even notice it. :P

Isn't the first image from before the homunculus are discovered and the second image after? i remember Ed saying they could identified by the tattoo so Lust could be hiding it to hide the fact she's one of the homunculus now that they have been discovered

@Memor-X: edited my previous comments into the text, since they might be relevant.

It might be because she thinks that she is not going to encounter anyone of importance in relation to seeing her tattoo and so she didn't feel the need to cover it up.

I've only seen the original anime, so I might have a wrong idea about her personality (and thus motives). My first guess is that on the train, she's just in the general public and has no reason to cover it up (not to mention the outfit looks like it shows some cleavage, which might be helpful and seems to be in line with her personality) while for the date she covers up to hide the mark from the military who may or may not know about it. Even if they don't, it's definitely an interesting mark that would draw attention.
My second guess is simply that she covers up on the date to look more modest and less "slutty".

You might want to specify which anime series (of FMA) you watched in your answer.

@Maroon I've edited it to say that I've only seen the original anime.

Accepting this answer for now - your reasoning more or less explains her behavior (even if you've only seen the 2003 anime) as far as I'm concerned.

Because in chapter 8 nobody know her and her job was just "follow" at distance. She's not showing her self to anybody. In chapter 34 she must talk face to face to Havoc, who is part of the investigation about homunculi. It's too risky let him see her tattoo. Two totally diferent situation with absolutely diferent kind of risk.


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Why does Kaiki keep changing shirts?
In episodes 21 and 22 (at least towards the beginning of the latter episode) of the "second season", we see Kaiki in a number of shirts in the same scene in the Okinawan cafe.
He first appears in a pink shirt (which he wasn't initially wearing in the airplane):

Before changing to a blue shirt and a yellow shirt:

In the toilet, we see him in what appears to be a different pink Hawaiian shirt, and in the beginning of episode 22, we see him in an orange shirt:

The changes in shirt seem to coincide with "pauses" in the conversation - e.g. pauses indicated by the "black screen", or Kaiki's own thoughts (accompanied by images such as departing airplanes). But the conversation between Senjogahara and Kaiki probably takes place over a bit more than the course of one afternoon. If that's the case, should Kaiki's changes of shirt be taken as something stylistic without much meaning, or is there some significance to it?

I think one useful thing to keep in mind is that this part is narrated by Kaiki - we're seeing the world as Kaiki describes it. And, Kaiki being who he is, he's probably lying to us about what he sees, for whatever reason.

@senshin - yeah I figured that might have some relation to what was going on in that episode. A lot of what Kaiki says is most definitely straightout lying (e.g. he says he doesn't know Senjogahara earlier), and that makes sense on a visual level.

As you can see, the interior coloring of the cafe changes too. We could assume that they're moving together to a new place every now and then, or that the cafe decorator is currently working 400% with customers still in the cafe. Senjougahara also changes her "disguises" between scenes. We can assume they have enough money to afford all that, and are changing between their meetings.
But what's really going on is probably just Shaft doing a comedy thing with changing decorations to somewhat lighten up the mood of a very serious discussion between Kaiki and Hitagi.

I somehow didn't quite catch Senjogahara's changes in disguise as well (though in retrospect they clearly did change).


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Which anime series was the first to be aired on Japanese TV?
The first animated segments seem to go back all the way to 1907, and most of those older segments only got broadcast in cinemas and the likes. Even after those, most animated segments on TV consisted of short animations of roughly a few seconds.
So with that my question: Which anime series was the first to be aired on Japanese television? And I am asking about multi-episode series, or multi-segment series.

Films were released in cinemas, not broadcast, but there were animated films, Japanese TV animations in the 50s were commercials or interstitials, Otogi Manga calendar was a TV animation, but not the first anime series, Astro Boy has been first because, it was the first regularly broadcasted anime series.

According to the Trivia section on IMDb page of "Future Boy Conan", it says it was the first.

First animated series to air on Japanese Public TV, NHK.

Incorrect.  There were series airing in the 60's, like the other answer states.  Other shows like Gigantor, Astro Boy came out around the same time.  IMDB can be full of it at times.

however the trivia section (which you don't quote or link to) just says "First animated series to air on Japanese Public TV, NHK." while your link only says the year. while wikipedia confirms the year and date of when the series aired a previous answer also has links to wikipedia with series that predate this. it's possible the trivia is actually saying that it was the first anime series to air on NHK but NOT the first anime series to air


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How does Don Flamingo's fruit production work?
I'm new here and I'm wondering what kind of Devil fruits Don Flamingo produced.

Are this Fruits as Strong as normal fruits?
If maybe the fire fruit already exists, can they produce the same fruit another time, so there would be 2 fire fruits?
Can they manipulate which fruits they produce? or is this a random process?

Well, SMILE is always a zoan, so it will never be 2 fire fruits :) Otherwise... we don't know yet.

ah SMILE is just zoan? didn't know that. thx

This is still unknown. We still don't have any precise details on how the factory works.
We just know that the Smile are Zoan-type fruits, and that probably they achived these smiles by studying a prototype artifical fruit made by Vegapunk (i.e. the dragon fruit that Momonosuke ate).

Well, we do know it is not exactly a factory. But more something like a orchard. And that it uses rivers induced with SAD to produce the devil fruits. SAD was the material vega punk used to create the artificial devil fruits.


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Why is there a censoring sound in episode 6?
In 11:25 of episode 6, there is a bleep sound, but I don't know why is it being censored. Jibril and Steph are surprised by it, so would it be a dirty joke or something else?

There is a reason why Jibril and Steph are surprised in this situation. As you should know Steph and Jibril are girls, so the question would be "what is a girl's nether region?". It is obvious that a girl's nether region would be their:

Vagina

From otaku - Censorship:
As this is considered as a dirty joke, it is censored because ま☆こ in direct translation does mean "Nether Regions". If there is no censorship in this scene, it would violate "Japanese Censorship Law". When it is uncensored the word would be まんこ (romanized as
"manko") which directly means vagina.
Hence, the censorship in episode 6 of No Game No Life.

The Japanese text there is ま★こ ma*ko, which (to someone who knows Japanese) is obviously a censored form of まんこ manko, which does refer to the female genitalia, as Sukeibe points out.
The key insight here is that manko is in fact vulgar slang for the female genitalia, which is why you will see it censored. The translation "nether regions" fails to capture this vulgarity, I suppose because it's constrained by the rules of word chain (can you think of a vulgar term for the female genitalia that begins with "n" and ends with "s"? I can't...). If a technical/medical term for the female genitalia were used instead (e.g. 女性器 joseiki lit. "female sex organ"), it would probably not have been censored.

Wait a second, does that mean that from that point on in the game, Shiro, Steph, and Jibril's vagina dissapeared?

@EnricoSusatyo Well, I guess. If you jump to ~12:50 in episode 6, you see that the three of them have Barbie-doll-style anatomy at that point.


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Does Erza die in episode 10, 2014?
Massive, massive spoilers. Do not read the answers that may pop up!!!!
In Fairy Tail (2014), Episode 10, Kagura unsheathes her sword and it apparently looks like she  killed Erza. I have not been reading the manga lately and haven't read the latest chapter of fairy tail.
So does Erza die?
Screenshots:

If you didn't understand from the screenshots, Kagura finds out that Simon died because of Erza's weakness. Kagura draws her sword, Erza says "sorry", and we hear her slash her sword and see the next scene where there is blood.

no, she still alive

@ShinobuOshino- I had a feeling someone would say this. xD

No main charters die in Fairy Tail...

The preview does show her alive and kicking...

She died and reborn as Kushina Uzumaki  :v

No, she still alive, it's Erza after all
I'll try to keep the spoiler to minimum so if you really want to now what happen next you can read it on your own, or wait for next episode, this is a next chapter from manga after that episode
Chapter 315: Rosemary

Thanks for that. I can't wait till the next episode. (Woo-hoo).

Without spoilers -
As a fairy tail mage, she will make sure hatred will never win and Kagura will come to her senses on the matter of Jellal.

After watching Fairy Tail (2014), Episode 11.

 Erza does not die, neither does she get hit. In the animation, the blood is not supposed to be there. In the comic, Erza was hit in the right shoulder by Kagura's slash, while in the animation they edited this part out.


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Is this supposed to be a reference to Chinese socialist posters?
In the first episode of Nekomonogatari (Black), we see this drawing of Araragi during his conversation with his sister at the beginning.

The text here states, according to the subtitles (and reading the text right to left):

IT'LL WEAKEN ME AS A HUMAN (COLOUR ART WORK)

I don't imagine the actual text here to be particularly significant though.
In either case, this reminded me a lot of Chinese socialist posters used for propaganda, but I am not sure if "interpretation" is correct, given that I haven't really been exposed to anything similar from any other East Asian countries (namely Japan, in this case). Is my interpretation correct, or can this drawing of Araragi also be interpreted as a reference to some non-Chinese drawing style (perhaps of the variety used for propaganda in another country)?

While I have not seen this episode yet, let me chime in to confirm that this image looks awfully close to typical war propaganda posters. They do not have to be Chinese actually, Russians looked the same, as did those by Western countries at the time.
The drawing style was, as far as I know, mandated by the circumstance around the second world war, meaning they all look similar. The messages are also (maybe surprisingly) similar, as is the facial expression of energetically staring into the upwards, far distance.
The text in the example given is Japanese, which I sadly cannot read.
Chinese and Russian as well as other socialist propaganda made particular use of red colors:

(source)
For comparison, American propaganda from 1944 often used the same painting technique:
 (source)

Thanks for the response. You might want to upload some of the examples you give though (mostly in case of linkrot and to streamline reading the response).

I was almost going to, but would this not lead to possible copyright infringement?

Hmmm... There might be some public domain ones on Wikipedia, though I'm not completely sure.


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Are all wishes actually possible?
In the beginning episodes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Kyubey offers the teenage girls in the series the chance to have a wish come true in exchange for becoming a magical girl, and moreover seems to imply that any wish can be made possible.
However, in the last episode, Kyubey tells Madoka:

Since you're now the central point of karmic destiny from numerous different timelines, no matter how enormous the wish, you will likely be able to make it come true.

This of course seems to imply that with some other magical girls, some wishes are too "enormous" to come true. But this seems to contradict Kyubey's earlier words, and this doesn't really seem to be a point of deception either.
Given this, are some wishes actually impossible for some magical girls, or is there perhaps actually no inconsistency here?
EDIT: I've only watched the anime series, and while the first two films sound a lot like an adaptation of the contents of the anime, I don't know much about the Rebellion film. If this is of any "importance", I am referring to whether or not all wishes are possible prior to the aftermath of Madoka's final decision to remove all witches in time and space from coming into being.

It's true for any given timeline prior to mass time-jumping. After that, many timelines became connected and the conditions became different from what Kyuubei was originally stating this rule works in. But like in all magic worlds, it's more of a guideline than a rule.

It could be assumed that every wish is possible, yet Kyubey may lie about a wish being possible since granting a wish will also drain the universe of energy. Kyubey will most likely only grant a wish if the energy outputted from a Magical Girl becoming a Witch is greater than what was needed to grant the wish, indicated when Kyubey sometimes says something like:

Your wish has conquered entropy

It's assumed that the amount of energy to resurrect someone would be far greater than what would be generated by most Magical Girl/Witch transformations. After all, since Kyubey's race can manipulate souls (ripping them out of bodies and making them into gems), they probably know how much energy would be needed to make one.
The only wish which may in fact be impossible is something that affects the laws of thermodynamics in a way that entropy no longer exists. Otherwise, a Magical Girl like Homura or Oriko who knew about the transformation process probably would have sought out a Magical Girl who could make such a wish. (I'm assuming Oriko knew since she knew of Madoka becoming a witch who would destroy the world and would question Kyubey as to why.)
Of course, to change the laws of thermodynamics, it probably would need someone on Madoka's level to be able to produce enough energy by changing into a witch so strong it would destroy the universe.

The problem is that in the final universe we see in the anime series, we do see the magical girls existing - they simply disappear after having used it up. In the last episode, after exiting a fight with Mami, Kyoko laments that Sayaka has disappeared after using up all her power, just when they were becoming friends.

@Maroon are you referring to what i said in the last paragraph?

Yes. It's possibly that I confused that outcome with "Ultimate Madoka's universe" though, but to me that universe ("Ultimate Madoka") sounded more like the universe prior to the scenario created by Madoka's decision in at the end of the anime series.

@Maroon just edited my answer, i was referring to the events of the third Movie Rebellion which take place after the series. in the timeline now after Rebellion Akuma Homura's universe is the final one

Ok, what are you referring to with the "Ultimate Madoka" universe then?

@Maroon after Rebellion the Universe as been recreated twice, first by Madoka as we see in the anime and again by Homura in the movie. i refer to the first recreation as Ultimate Madoka's universe and the second one i refer to as Akuma Homura's universe

@Maroon have edit my answer to only be about the original universe, the main constraint of granting a wish is the amount of energy that's balanced out from being consumed to grant the wish and created from transforming into a witch

That line is likely just because reversing time is literally also reversing entropy, where normal wishes only need energy which may or may not be generated by reversing entropy.


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Is it common for games to get a anime?
A lot of anime are based off of the plot of a manga and/or light novels. Sometimes an anime is an original work that gets a manga story afterwards, but that isn't always the case.
I remember watching Amagami, where you could obviously notice that it was based on a game, and some are even named after the games such as Final Fantasy.
So how common is it for a anime to be based of a game? I have only seen it once or twice but is it really that uncommon? Or are they just animated in a way that you won't directly notice that it comes from a game unless you already know so?

I would think they mostly serve as prequels like with Tales of Vesperia First Strike or the .hack series. otherwise the games they base off from are Visual Novels and they try and either combine all the routes into 1 or focus on a particular route (Steins;Gate, Fate/Stay Night, Cavas 2, Clannad, ef). not sure if it's common/uncommon though

I am not sure if it is common, but dramatical murder is a game and it is getting turned into a anime and i think diabolical lovers was a game before it got turned into an anime.

Just like in this answer, let's take a look at /u/homu's data.

This basically answers your question right here: between 8% and 15% (avg. 10%) of anime in each year from 2000-2013 were based on a video game of some variety. Games are a minor but not insignificant source for anime.
Now, if you're asking "what percentage of video games get turned into an anime", the answer almost certainly rounds to 0%. There are a lot of video games out there (probably in the high hundreds per year, at least), but less than 200 anime per year, only a fraction of which are based on video games.
This data set only covers TV anime (thus excluding ONAs, OVAs, and films), but I see no reason to expect that an unusually large percentage of any of those media would be based on games.

I think i remember seeing this before in one of my previous questions.

@MiharuDante Yes, the answer I linked at the top of this post was an answer to one of your questions.

Historically, games may have been more likely to be adapted into OAVs & anime films than into TV anime series, so it's unfortunate the graph above excludes these. In the past, when gaming was a more niche demographic than the viewership of TV anime, shoujo games that got animated were usually OAVs before 2005 (such as Fire Emblem, Angelique, Haruka naru Toki no Naka de, & Sotsugyou "M"). Since 2005, more shoujo games have been adapted into TV anime; this is likely also the case for bishoujo dating sims like Tokimeki Memorial, Debut, & Kakyuusei.

Indeed. I've seen a few anime based on video games, and while they aren't that common, they aren't uncommon, either. Some anime are literally used to promote games, but these are usually card games like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Duel Masters. One of my favorite anime, Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi, or Bridge to the Starry Skies, is based off of a visual novel!

One of the answers above has numbers to back its claims.  While your claims are largely anecdotally accurate, there's no substantive evidence to back them up.

I understand. I'm no expert, I just want to help any little way I can.


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What are the characteristics of the Geass power?
When I recalled every type of Geass in the two seasons, I was asking myself what the characteristics of Geass are. For instance, I was wondering if every Geass power needs someone other than the Geass user (examples are Lelouch's Geass and Mao's Geass), but there were some people in the second season to whom the rule doesn't apply. (I don't know how much I can say without giving spoilers.) The effects of the Geass vary a lot, so I think I cannot find any attributes that are common for Geass-effects.
But are there some characteristics/rules/etc., which are the same for every Geass-power?

I edited your question for clarity and grammar. If I've somehow changed the meaning of something, feel free to edit that back in though.

@Maroon I noticed that and I am grateful. My english is (as you can clearly see) not the best and I am happy that someone corrected me so that other users can understnad what I am asking for. You did well and left the meaning of my question unchanged, well done.

@Sirac I'm pretty sure that the various Geass powers have nothing in common, other than that they manifest in the eyes of the users.

"I was wondering if every Geass power needs someone other than the Geass user (examples are Lelouch's Geass and Mao's Geass)" you sentence seems to cut off here, what do you mean needs someone other than the Geass User?

I'm writing up something of an answer, which might address @Memor-X.

@Maroon if i read that sentence correctly using your answer as a fall back Sirac is asking if all Geass powers affect another user?

@Memor-X my interpretation was more of "does usage fo the Geass require another person" when I first saw the question, which might have been wrong, but I figured that it made sense as a question since Rolo doesn't seem to necessarily require someone else per se.

I'm removing my answer - I realized from senshin's comment that I forgot about some other users, so the basic gist of my comment doesn't really seem right now.

There are some basic characteristics/rules/constraints that are common in all canon Geass Users

Their power can not affect Code Barer: We see with with C.C when Lelouch tries to command her and Mao's obsession for C.C was given birth from the fact that her mind was the only one he could not read. Also Charles blocked Lelouch's order when his Code became active
Each use increases power: Mao, Lelouch and C.C before she got the Code, use of their powers increased it's strength and thus they were unable to control it. Rolo while he was always in control of his power the same power stopped his heart. as the power got stronger we can assume that the strain on his heart got worse aswell, dying before it fully went out of control. the children
The Sigil manifests within the eye(s) when the power activates: with all characters the Sigils appear in the eye(s) when the is used and remains in the eye(s) when the user no longer as control. Lelouch's sigil disappears when he lost control due to the Contacts he wore. C.C's uncontrolled Geass was lost when she received the Code. Bismark's power wasn't active all the time because he had his eye sown shut and the wiki seem to indicate he couldn't turn it off.
A user surrenders their powers when they obtain The Code: When C.C gained the Code she was no longer able to user her power while Charles didn't use his power after the Code resurrected him. it's unsure if the Code being inactive or not causes a user to surrender their powers as when Lelouch was being careful not to be affected by Charles's power a second time however didn't know he had an inactive Code
A User's Power will isolate them: if we look at all the user's powers, consent use would isolate them for society. Lelouch being able to get anyone to do anything he wants, Mao being able to always being able to read someone's true thoughts. the love C.C revived was always false love induced from her Geass and Code Barers being immortal. every power has the possibility of isolating someone from the rest of the world as we have seen in other fiction how disenchanted with the world one becomes if they could always see someones true thoughts, see the future or never receive unforced love.

This last point may or may not be true because of the Geass Order

Powers are unique: we have seen that every character had a unique power. this however there are some contradictions to this,

The children of the Geass Order - they force a Black Knight Pilot to attack his allies, the Wiki notes that it may be more puppetry
Shin Hyuga Shaingu - it's speculated that it works the same way as Lelouch's from the limited observations in Akito of the exiled

In these cases we are unsure who the Contractor (Code Barers) is. the only Code Barers who were in Britannia were all affiliated with the Geass Order (C.C and V.V were directors, Charles probably became defacto director after V.V's death) and because of the nature of the Order's research these power may have in fact be fabricated. this is plausible because of Julius Kingsley as if he is Lelouch then Lelouch was not at Ashford the entire time in the 1 year gap and the fact that the emperor sent him with Suzaku (who too knew of Geass and possible the Order having been shown the Sword of Akasha) it is pleasurable that The Order could have studied Lelouch (the only exception to this if Julius is Lelouch's Twin Brother).
As for your comment

I was wondering if every Geass power needs someone other than the Geass user

If by this you mean "can Geass only affect another person who has does not have Geass or under the effects of someone else's Geass" then no. in the First Season Lelouch uses a mirror to cast Geass on himself to make him forget about the plan to save Nunnally from Mao, this way Mao could not read his mind and detonate the bomb. Also Mao uses his power to read Lelouch's mind numerous times to see every move he would think up when they play chess and to discover he was Zero to break Shirley (though Mao had to focus hard in order to target Lelouch and not everyone else).
In the Second Season, Rolo uses his Geass on Lelouch in the OSS H.Q which is when Lelouch figured out that Rolo's Geass affect one's perception of time because Lelouch was counting the second on the clock before hand.
Bismarck Waldstein's power is to "see the future" however we only uses this in combat when he uses it on Suzaku while he mentioned to have used it on Marianne. his powers isn't fully explained however we can assume he sees the future of "Cause and Effect" so when he uses it on Suzaku he sees the Before Images of Suzaku's piloting of the Lancelot. Suzaku use the Geass put on him to "Live" to overpower Bismarck's power.
And of cause there is Charles who wiped Lelouch's memories after the first season with his Geass and Lelouch was able to order him to kill himself at the Sword of Akasha (before hte Code Activated). there is also suspicion that non human entities can be affected like when Lelouch orders "God" however i have speculation on just what happened here.

Thank you for that detailed answer. When you asked what I meant with "I was wondering if every Geass power needs someone other than the Geass user" I meant that the Geass power would be useless for the user if he was all alone (Lelouch could use his power on himself once, Rolo's Geass would be useless as well as Charles' Geass), but that point is unclear because there are exceptions (like Bismarck's Geass).

@Sirac hmmmm, Lelouch used his Geass on himself however he did that to get passed Mao's Geass. Charles and C.C may have been able to reflect their own Geass back at them but it then comes down to what good if any could come from it, C.C would be forced to love herself and Charles could rewrite his own memories or seal his own Geass.

Weather or not a Geass Power is usable when the user is alone will be dependent on the power. so far we have yet to see a canon Geass Power which could

Arguablely Waldstein's power could fall into that category, but without further information it's hard to tell for sure.


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What's so important about hibernating?
Why do they need to hibernate? Chisaki is on the surface and didn't fall asleep, and I don't see her become sick and all, which means that it's fine if they don't hibernate.
Also, Hikari, Manaka, and Kaname didn't age after hibernation. Why is that? Is it that everyone who hibernates doesn't get older? And why are they naked? None of other Shioshishio villagers lose their clothes when they hibernate.
This is picture of Manaka hibernating; she didn't age or wear any clothes.

In the final episode, Hikari's father explains:

Children born to a person of the surface and a person of the sea lose their Ena. For this reason, the people of the sea had to hibernate before the surface met its demise. We had to make sure that there were enough descendants to leave behind and that there was a chance at a future.

Hibernation in this series seems to be equivalent of Cryonics. Which is where an organism is preserved for virtually an indefinite amount of time by being frozen. During this process, the organism is frozen in time and does not age.
So the belief is:

There's an apocalypse coming. And everyone on the surface will die.
If the entire population of Shioshishio marries into the "surface people", there will be no one with Ena to survive the apocalypse.
So the only way is to hibernate through the apocalypse.

But then Hikari's father continues on:

But Miuna prove me wrong. Miuna has Ena now. That means there's hope for the future even if we wake up.

This is why everyone wakes up.

So biologically, there is no need for an individual to actually hibernate. That's why Chisaki is fine having been on the surface the whole time.
On the other hand, there's nothing in the Anime that seems to explain why Hikari, Manaka, and Kaname woke up naked on the surface.

so it leave the question who wakes them up. Hikari's father?

@ShinobuOshino I believe it was implied by Uroko that the sea god wakes them up. But I'm not 100% sure on that.

@Mysticial It was not Uroko, even though he probably knew they awakened and had the power to stop them from doing so. But "why Hikari and Kaname awakened on their own" seems like a good site question on its own. As for Manaka, she did not awake on her own. she was awakened.


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Are all apparitions on Monogatari based on actual stories?
In the Monogatari Series, there are a lot apparitions. The ones that can easily recognized as corresponding to actual stories in real life are the phoenix (Araragi Tsuhiki) and vampire (Araragi Koyomi, Oshino Shinobu). What about the others? Here's a list of apparition that appear so far in anime

Crab God (Senjougahara Hitagi)
Lost Cow/Snail (Hachikuji Mayoi)
Monkey Paw/Rainy Devil (Kanbaru Suruga)
Snake God (Sengoku Nadeko)
Flame-Wreath Bee (Araragi Karen)
Black-Hanekawa (Hanekawa Tsubasa)

In the case of Hanekawa, they said that it's a new kind of apparition. Are all of them based on apparitions in "real-life" stories?

While it's difficult to prove a negative, and there's no telling where Nisio Isin got his inspiration from, I would be willing to claim that that most of the apparitions appearing in the Monogatari series aren't quite based on real-life stories.
Broadly, one point in favor of this position is that other people on the internet (in Japan) have also tried to find origins for the various apparitions and failed. Given the popularity of Monogatari, this strongly suggests that there indeed aren't any real-life bases for most of the apparitions, though, of course, this doesn't amount to conclusive proof.
Crab
Hitagi's crab is a difficult case to handle. Crabs are a semi-frequent feature of Japanese folklore - see, for example, the tale of the Crab and the Monkey (which Meme mentions), or the legends surrounding the Heike crabs, so we can't discard out-of-hand the possibility that the "Weight Crab" (omoshikani) has basis in actual legend. Nonetheless, it seems improbable.
Meme claims that legends of the "Weight Crab" originated from peoples living in the mountains of Kyushu. However, he goes on to point out that the areas from which these legends originated - the mountainous parts of Oita and Miyazaki - are not actually places where you will find any crabs. Meme brushes this off, explaining that it's easier to concoct grand legends about crabs when you don't have any actual crabs at hand.
I'm not convinced that this really makes sense in a real-world context, though - do people tend to feature in their legends creatures that they have little contact with? I'm no anthropologist, but it seems unlikely. Someone familiar with the folklore of Kyushu would know more, I'm sure.
There are also some things about Hitagi's crab that just seem too convenient. For example, its name is incredibly punnable in ways relevant to the plot - 思い omoi "thoughts" vs. 想い omoi "feelings" vs. 重い omoi "heavy". The resolution of this arc is strongly related to the realization that the crab took not both Hitagi's weight, but also her feelings from her. It would be a damn surprise if there was an existing legend out there that matched up with this. Far more likely is that Nisio Isin thought that this would be an amusing pun and invented a legend to go along with it.
The points I've made in this section also generally apply to Mayoi's Snail and Nadeko's Constrictor.
Snail
Again, it's difficult to make a strong claim that Mayoi's snail has no basis in actual legend. Snails are not prominent features in Japanese legend, though.
Rainy Devil
The "Monkey's Paw" does have a basis in real-life - a short story by W. W. Jacobs titled as such. And that's the problem - Kanbaru's apparition wasn't a Monkey's Paw, but rather a Rainy Devil, which is an apparition possessing only superficial similarities to the Monkey's Paw of Jacobs's story.
It's pretty clear here that Nisio Isin was deliberately playing with the reader's expectations by having the characters themselves incorrectly identify the arm as a Monkey's Paw - and then they go to visit Meme, who pulls the rug out from under them, revealing that it was something else altogether. This strongly suggests that the Rainy Devil is a creation of Nisio Isin's.
Constrictor
To a certain extent, it's very difficult to show that the Constrictor (jagirinawa) has no basis in legend, since there's nothing terribly unique about it - it's a snake that possesses people. That's basically all there is to it. Snakes are certainly common features of legend throughout the world (as Meme points out), and I wouldn't be surprised if some group of people somewhere in the world did believe in a constrictor snake that possessed people.
Like with the crab, though, this is most likely a case of the author taking a motif well-established in folklore and putting an original spin on it.

I'll update this answer later with more details. A few notes in the meanwhile:

Hanekawa's cat is certainly an invention of the author, as you point out.
Shinobu explicitly identifies Tsukihi's phoenix (the shidenodori) as having some unusual features that don't match up to the conventional conception of a phoenix.
Given that Karen's bee is a fabrication even in the context of the story, I'd imagine legends of it don't exist out here in the real world either.

And for Monogatari Second Season:

 --There are no tigers in Japan. And besides, Hanekawa's tiger (the kako) is far too punnable to be real, just like Hitagi's crab.
 --Jiangshi are a real thing, though Monogatari jiangshis appear to differ from real-life jiangshis in some minor ways.
 --Nadeko's kuchinawa might be inspired by snake legends, but it's pretty obviously original for the most part.
 --The apparition-eating darkness of Onimonogatari only makes sense in the context of the Monogatari world. It wouldn't make sense for it to be based on a real legend.

Great answer! Have you been familiar with this topic?

I know I miss lot of apparition here, nice job covering it up

In a short awnser no they are not.
Nisio isin did take inspiration from some other works of literature but in reality the appereritions are not real.
In actuality the apperitions that are haunting the girls are foils for their characters
Hitagi gets a crab because she portrays a strong outershell that pushes others away yet hides a soft interior. Like many Tsunderes.
Mayoi was a foil for araragi's sisters so she was a snail or a cow because in japan cows usually block roads when one is trying to get home slowing them down in the process, just like araragi didn't want to go home so he ended up meeting Mayoi. Also she is called a snail because the kanji for cow is also in the kanji for snail.
Suruga gets a monkey because in japanese and many eastern cultures monkeys are said to be full of jelousy which is why people portray the phrase "see no evil, do no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil" with a monkey as their representatives. That phrase contributed a lot to suruga's spirit. As she was jelous because she had heard that Hitagi was in a relationship, confronted araragi in her own way with puns and innuendos due to the author and destroyed araragi all because of her jealousy
Sengoku gets a snake because she is portrayed as a victim character. She is wrapped in snakes to make her look moe which is the point to her character too. She is the only one to not be cursed trough her own doing in bakemono. She is given snakes so that she would be placed in bondage positions for the viewer and she kinda liked it also because as a victim she had to either act or be crushed like a mouse and so she did act making her develop further in otorimonogatari.
Hanekawa is tricky because she was given a cat due to her pure nature as a person and as a lustful one in her black hanekawa form.
Also to get her other tiger form you should read the story "a beast under the moonlight" which is about a man that turns into a white tiger to reak havoc in japan and is the influence behind her spirit in Nekomonogatari white
Karen's spirit isnt given much tought due to the orgin of Nisemonogatari. Nisio isin wrote this one as a fanficfion for himself. Nisemono means fake making the title fake story. So these stories both karen bee and Taukihi phoenix were not really given much thought like the others.
And araragi being a vampire was just to give him a way to deconstuct the harem genre. Araragi is made imortal so that he can risk his life to help the girls and is tought by shinobu that because he wants to help that makes him hurt others without his intention. Just like how he went against black hanekawa and suruga without saying something to Hitagi. This is why shinobu is conected by pain to him. He is a deconstruction of the male lead and is given an actual representatios as how horrible going out of your way to help others can really be


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What's this symbol used by the Nazis?
I'm on episode 5 of Black Lagoon, and I noticed this symbol being used by the Nazis on a flag and on a red arm band worn by one of the leaders of the group.

What's this symbol called, assuming it corresponds to something in real life? Is there any reason this should be used over a more recognisable symbol like the swastika? It doesn't correspond to anything listed on the Wikipedia page for Nazi symbolism.
EDIT: In response to the idea that it might have been censorship specific to Funimation, I decided to look up the episode on a Chinese streaming site I use. The symbol there was identical to the one in the Funimation episode. Of course, this doesn't mean that there couldn't have been censorship on the Chinese end as well.

just speculation but i'd dare say that it's to avoid the negative connotations assigned with the Swastika, much like how in a reenactment of Raiders of the Lost Ark by Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida despite the fact that Nazi's are in it anyway. also the west often confuses the  Buddhist symbol with the Nazi's one

@Memor-X: I figured that might be the reason for it, but I wasn't sure so asked.

well i only speculate why the Nazi's here aren't using their normal Swastika for this anime and for all i know Funimation has done some censoring and the symbol your seeing here may have been the Swastika in Japan, it's not like they haven't done graphics editing in anime before during localization

@Memor-X: checked and edited my response into the question. I will however note that I have a suspicion some of the vague nudity in Sailor Moon was touched up on the same streaming site, so it's hard to say.

A key note here is that they are Neo-Nazis.

This is the symbol of the Sturmabteilung,  a paramilitary organization within the German Nazi Party, whose methods of violent intimidation played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
It's made up of an "S" (in lightning bolt shape) and an "A" and is probably a reference to Neo-Nazi groups evading the Swastika ban by using other related symbols.

I'm not sure which Swastika ban you are referring to, but according to Wikipedia use of this emblem is prohibited by the same law in Germany as for the Swastika (in Nazi context). Just for info.

@LiveWireBT Many Nazi-related symbology are banned in European countries as an effort to curtail neo-Nazism. Even when banned, such symbols are still far less recognizable than swastikas, and thus serve as more discreet symbols of white supremacy.

That's the symbol for the Sturmabteilung, or Storm Division of the Nazi Party. They always wore the brown uniforms, and were the main tool used to strike fear into political enemies of Adolf Hitler. It was in fact used during WWII by the SA, so it's not a Neo-Nazi creation. It's not a reference or an attempt to avoid Swastika bans as this was a genuine symbol used. They didn't use the symbol on their armbands. I'm 99.99% sure all armbands worn had the Swastika on them. The Waffen Schutzstaffel took their place after the Nazis REALLY kicked in.


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Can the skills shown in Kuroko no Basuke be achieved in real life?
I recently started watching Kuroko no Basuke and have watched it up to episode 5. The skills shown up till now are ridiculous. Can those skills be achieved by people in real life? I'm taking about physical abilities like speed, jump, agility, etc., not stuff like the Phantom Pass.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is an out of universe question

See http://meta.anime.stackexchange.com/questions/808/is-anime-physics-a-tag-we-should-keep

Seeing as you're on episode 5, this is going to have spoilers.
While the "Misdirection" which makes him invisible is probably at least rooted in reality, I don't think it can be taken as far as the TV series makes it out to be. It would be one thing to misdirect someone who's defending, but to make yourself invisible to people watching from the crowd or the bench is a little bit incredulous.
The "Invisible Pass" is something that is described as more of a "tap pass" and it uses misdirection. That's probably something that people do in real life, though again, maybe not to the fantastic results we see in the show.
The "Ignite Pass"/"Ignite Pass Kai"/"Cyclone Pass" are probably things that you could see basketball players do, but the way they're animated and the speed in which they're shown in the show makes it impossible in real life.
The "Vanishing Drive" is another misdirection, and like the first invisibility misdirection, it's probably something people can do in real life against a defender, but everyone else in the arena would obviously still be able to see the player. In the show, it makes it seem like Kuroko goes right through the defender for everyone, not just the defender.
The "Misdirection Overflow" is clearly something that can't be done in real life given how spectacular the effect can be. The explanation of how this trick works isn't sufficient in making players "disappear" and trick everyone. Stuff like this make Kuroko seem more like an illusionist instead of 1 among 10 players on a court.
The "Phantom Shot" is really just an odd way of shooting the ball. It's something people can surely do in real life, but why would they if they can shoot normally? It's unique in the show's story because Kuroko can't shoot.
I think that's as far as they've gotten so far in the anime.

thanks but what about other stuff except these special moves like the speed they move and turn at is that possible

@NoLifeKing That's harder to say, for the most part, the regular basketball looks no different to me than watching NBA highlight reels so I don't see why not.

Many of Aomine's formless shots are unachievable outside the realm of lucky. Midorima's shot arc is excessive but the half-court shot (without the crazy arc) is within reason. Murasakibara's quickness and speed can be explained, but that crazy power with that body frame is insane. Akashi's emperor eye. A good eye, tons of experience, and athletic ability. Kise's Copy... well, there's plenty of people out there that are like that. The zone is explainable, but the reasoning on how it can be "tapped" into (in the anime) is dubious.
My two cents on Kuroko's misdirection and Misdirection Overflow:
Most coaches and players define misdirection as putting their attention on themselves to create space for others (which is Overflow). Kuroko's misdirection if applied in real-life only allows for, at most 3 1/2 feet of separation. It's almost unbelievable to shake somebody's line of sight that it distracts the defender to lose sight of their mark entirely.
Physical abilities alone, outside of the generation of miracles, they're all normal (and achievable). Hyuuga's streaky shooting, Takao's Hawk Eye, Kasamatsu's speed, Kiyoshi's right of postponement... They are all within reason
Watch a Japanese basketball game... There's a great disjoint on how basketball is played in Japan in real life and Japan in the anime world.

I think misdirection can be achieved by learning, because if you learn to constantly use silent steps and slide your feet for a moment, you'll eventually get the disappearing down. Since it's on a daily basis for me, it's like being an assassin or ninja being sneaky. That's my conclusion.

Highly possible to do all of these things, including the phantom pass. Though, your height and the strength in your legs would have to be incredible to pull of the jumps and continue running as they do. But all can be achieved, the phantom pass is more of an actual technique used in basketball.
Though you won't see something like that used often, coaches teach fakes more than they do misdirection. It requires no ball handling; well at least almost none. If you want to achieve misdirection, most is natural. The misdirection or 'phantom pass' used in Kuroko no Basuke, is most achieved naturally.
It's not something easily taught, I can naturally use it. It's as simple as a fake, maybe even easier. Stay invisible until you know you have a chance to score, call for a pass earlier to who you plan to pass to you. Once you arrive at the rim, almost like a phantom, the players not paying attention to you. Jump at the rim, since you are most likely to be blocked at a shot, put your hand up if above your shoulder and grab the ball, in that instant, shoot it back over your shoulder to an open teammate on the three point line or one with a defense who doesn't expect you to do so. If the ball is passed too low, lower your hand to the ball, the palm of your hand facing behind you. After you feel the ball in your hand, either grab and pass in that instant. Or you can hit it back down in an instant to your teammate, just like above, open or with a defender who doesn't expect it.
For jumping, it's just like in the anime, train the strength in your legs, hauling things back and forward on sand. Leg workouts of any kind, you'll be able to jump in no time. I've got an insane jump but I have to jump over and over, just like in the anime. Kagami's jumps only get higher. You start using more and more strength to put yourself into the air, realizing you need to use more strength. Your body responds to this and launches you higher.
The agility is possible, but very-very hard. The speed is the same as anything else, work your legs, train on getting faster, and the higher you raise your stamina, the faster you'll be able to run, as well as maintain the speed. Sorry for the 10 page long response. But it's not really easy to explain how all of the skills you mentioned can be obtained, as well as performed.