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Why are anime mostly series instead of movies?
Notes:

Series of movies fall under 'movies' eg MCU, The Godfather, Frozen, etc.

Movies that are released as 'sequels to series instead of adaptations from scratch' I guess fall under 'movies' in this post. But maybe we can just ignore these movies.

There are lot of Western live movies, Western live series, Western animated movies and Western animated series. I don't see any particular bias to certain categories.
When it comes to anime, I notice there are lot of anime series but not really a lot of anime movies.
I checked out MAL just now

Top Anime

Top Anime by Popularity

They're mostly series. Many of the 'movies' on the list are actually 'sequels to series instead of adaptations from scratch', except notably Kimi no Na wa.
To clarify, there are 2 cases I guess here, but maybe it's the same answer for both:

Case 1 - There are some anime movies that are anime originals. But it seems (ok actually I'm not sure for anime originals) anime originals are usually anime series instead of an anime movie. Why is this the case?

Case 2 - There are some manga (or novels / light novels / visual novels / drama CDs / etc) adapted to anime movies (or series of anime movies) instead of anime series (which may or may not have movies that are 'sequels to series instead of adaptations from scratch'). But it seems the adaptation is usually going to be an anime series instead of an anime movie/s. Why is this the case?

Guesses:

For either case: Maybe there's a kinda compromise in that many anime series are pretty short (obvious exceptions are Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, etc) compared to Western series which sometimes go on for more than 5 seasons even if they still suck eg Once Upon a Time. Like many of these 'series' are actually better classified specifically as 'miniseries' or something. In this way, maybe there are about the same amount of anime series and anime movies if miniseries were counted as movies.

Eg We might consider Death Note, Hellsing, Lucky Star, Erased / Boku dake ga Inai Machi, The Quintessential Quintuplets, School-Live!, NTR: Netsuzou Trap, Cowboy Bebop and Future Diary as miniseries.

Ah I found this indirectly thanks to Dimitri mx ♦: Why is it so rare to see new long running anime series these days?

For case 2: Maybe manga is usually made with expectation of anime SERIES, not MOVIE/S adaptations? As for the few cases of manga that becomes anime movie/s (WITHOUT or at least before there's an anime series adaptation), I guess it might be the same reason as why some manga are adapted to anime series initially and then later there may be movie adaptations that are 'sequels to series instead of adaptations from scratch'.

A season can easily have 4+ hours of content and a lot of that would have to be cut if it was instead made as a movie.

@JoeW is your answer relative to anime as usually an adaptation from manga?

@BCLC What do you mean my answer? If you mean my comment a season can have 13+ episodes all 20+ minutes long which is 260+ minutes or 4+ hours.

@JoeW wait start over. Case 1 - I mean, there are some anime movie originals right? So when someone is making an anime original then why do they think to make it an anime original series instead of an anime original movie? Case 2 - And there are some manga directly adapted to anime movies instead of anime series right? So why adapt into an anime series instead of an anime movie or series of anime movies? / Now what I'm asking re your 4+ hours is: Are you talking about Case 2? Like maybe manga is usually made with expectation of anime SERIES, not MOVIE/S adaptations ?

Because a movie will be 120 minutes at most and more likely close to 90 minutes which is   at least half of the content that they could produce for a anime series? Just because some content isn't long enough for a anime season and is done as a movie doesn't mean that it is how it works for all series. Making it into a movie or a series depends on the amount of content that is available as a season gives at least double if not more run time for the content to be put in. There is a lot more work in making a  movie then a series as it is all at once versus over time.

Related: Why so many anime these days end prematurely?

@Dimitrimx oh wow thanks for sharing! I'm glad I know about that Q&A but why do you think it's related? oh is it about the 'miniseries' thing?

@JoeW You said 'depends on the amount of content' So you're assuming non-original anime is extinct same as Ocean? I mean, if this is about adaptation of material or 'content' ... then are you saying manga or whatever source material is probably made in mind thinking 'I must tailor this to be ready to be made into an anime series' ?

Why are you putting words into my mouth? That is not all all what I am saying. The fact remains that an anime season provides a lot more content in a different format then you would get with a movie. In addition to providing more air time in a season they are also able to draw in viewers to other content. If they stick with movies they need to hope that viewers are willing to pay for it and maybe willing to pay for other content as well.

The short version is because the people involved in paying to have the anime made benefit more from doing TV shows, since

they use anime as ads for the things they sell and

an unknown title will reach more people as a TV show.

If you want the long version, keep reading.
Context about the industry
The anime "industry" uses a production committee system. This means that various company come together to each fund a little bit of the anime. And each company gets some value out of this. This way the risk is spread around a bunch of companies.
As a consequence a few anime not selling very well or being poorly received isn't an existential threat to anyone. On the other hand, if you strike gold everyone wins.
There are exceptions to this approach, like Studio Ghibli swimming in money and just doing their own thing. Or KyoAni being part of the production committee to have more freedom, risk and reward.
But generally it is the production committee who takes all the financial risk, so they are the ones deciding what anime they want made, how to make it and who is going to make it.
The anime studio itself is just receiving a fixed amount of money to make the anime. Whether the project fails or not is not really their concern in this scenario.
Why TV shows are more common
A big participant on the production committee is usually the publisher of the manga or Light Novel. Their biggest interest in this whole thing is to market the source material. They want you to get hooked with the anime and they want anime to not really resolve the story, so that you will then go out and also pay for the source material.
From their point of view they want as many people as possible to see this anime.
Movies have a larger barrier to entry. You have to visit a cinema and pay a ticket fee. You also need to advertise that your movie even exists. TV Shows on the other hand just get a TV slot. Anime fans will naturally get to know about this new anime and can watch it relatively frictionless.
Other participants on the production committee might be more interested in selling figurines or the soundtrack. Most of them have in common that they don't actually care that much about selling the anime itself. The anime is an ad that people need to see to become interested in the things they actually want to sell you.
Why anime movies exist at all nowadays
You might have noticed the trend that most anime movies in the past decade (the 2010s) are either the continuation or summary of an already popular franchise or made by a studio specialized in making family friendly content or trying to become something like that.
There's no such thing as an Akira or Ghost in the Shell of the 2010s.
The reason is the same as what I outlined above. The production committee has no problem milking a popular franchise. It makes the franchise stay relevant and will therefore keep people interested in purchasing what they are actually trying to sell.
At this point the continuation movie doesn't need to convince people to see it. There are already enough fans interested. They can also later be shown on TV! If the franchise is generating enough money this is simply win-win. Especially if you are short on source material for a popular franchise. A movie won't eat as much available story and keep everyone interested while stalling for time to get more source material.
But taking the risk of making a movie out of an unknown franchise and advertising it seems like a bad idea when you could go for the cheaper alternative instead.

Thanks Ocean. Is length irrelevant? 1 - Joe W says 'A season can easily have 4+ hours of content and a lot of that would have to be cut if it was instead made as a movie.' 2 - You said 'A big participant on the production committee is usually the publisher of the manga or Light Novel.' Does this mean your answer is talking mainly about non-original anime?

@BCLC (1) A movie might be more expensive than a TV show. Or it might not be. So it's hard to generalize length. (2) I'm trying to generalize and most new anime are in some way related to something that already exists. Original anime are nearly extinct.

Thanks Ocean. Omedetou on reaching 1k rep. Actually I posted my own answer. Someone told me this happens in Western animation too. What's your opinion of this please? I kinda have a feeling anime is waaayy more into series than movies as compared to Western animation. Western animation has like so many Disney and Dreamworks movies. What does anime have?

@BCLC I'm not familiar with the current state of western animation, but it's worth pointing out that Disney started making movies in 1937, while Ghibli only started in 1984. (Dreamworks in 1998 and the various other Japanese studios focusing on movies around the 2010s.) If you compare the output of only the last decade your impression might change.

Alternative albeit indirect answer:
It's been pointed out to me that this happens in Western animation too actually.
So I guess my initial assumption is kinda wrong:

There are lot of Western live movies, Western live series, Western animated movies and Western animated series. I don't see any particular bias to certain categories.

I have a feeling the animated series : animated movies ratio is much larger in Western compared to anime.


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Why does the narrator call Kaguya by 1st name but everyone else by either last name or full name?
(If your answer is 'because the manga does it', then I'll just convert my question about the anime to a question about the manga.) In both sub and dub, what I recall is that the narrator calls Kaguya by 1st name but pretty much everyone else by last name. You can see for yourself besides the regular narration, there's also the official result at the end of a sub-episode.
Some examples from s1 and s2:
1 - Shirogane instead of Miyuki (eg S02E03)

2 - Fujiwara instead of Chika (eg S02E02)

3 - Ishigami instead of Yu (eg S01E06)

4 - Hayasaka instead of Ai (eg S02E04)

5 - Kei Shirogane instead of...well I think this 1 is ok since Kei is not a major character or at least has the same last name as a more major character (specifically a main character). (eg S01E08)

6 - Iino instead of Miko (eg S02E09)

But
Kaguya instead of Shinomiya (eg S01E01)

Possibly related:

How does last name-kun compare to 1st name-san?

Why does Naegi call Togami "kun" and Aoi "san"?

Edit 1: Guess: Wait...I think easy guess...far easier than the (cw) answer I posted. Kaguya is simply the viewpoint character and so is called by 1st name.
It's like Harry Potter: Iirc, JK Rowling's narrator calls Harry Potter as Harry and calls the rest of the characters the way Harry would call them except possibly for the title/honorific.

Eg Harry calls Ron Weasley as 'Ron', so the narrator says 'Ron'. Eg However, Harry calls Severus Snape as (Professor) Snape, so the narrator says 'Snape'. However, if Harry calls Severus Snape as (Professor) Severus, then I guess the narrator would say 'Severus'.

But eh could be double entendre. Like both viewpoint character and something in my cw answer.

Edit 2: Btw, in the afterword in Volume 22 Chapter 221.1, Aka Akasaka actually refers to Miyuki Shirogane by last name but to Kaguya Shinomiya by 1st name.

Just a cw answer since these are my own little conjectures. I don't quite have a good basis, but I have ideas based on a source outside the anime (eg the manga, the live action or an author interview).

Idea 1
My source is:

 the 1st movie.

This source makes me think that the narrator actually has an identity, namely

 Kaguya's cardiologist Dr. Shozo Tanuma. In the 1st movie, Tanuma and the narrator are portrayed by the same person Jiro Sato.

And it's actually said explicitly

 I'm the person in charge of the narration for this story.

Idk. In this case, I guess the narrator calls or later starts calling Kaguya by 1st name due to knowing Kaguya personally but doesn't know anyone else personally and thus calls the rest either last name or full name.
Of course we see initially at some point in

 the anime series that the supposed narrator doesn't yet do this...

 S02E08

and

Idea 2 (not mine)
Another guess I read elsewhere:
Also there's a reddit post that says Kaguya's dad is the narrator. I guess that would explain also things: Kaguya's dad calls Kaguya by 1st name and everyone else by last/full name.

Idea 3 (mine again):
Same flavour as the previous ideas: The narrator is simply someone who knows Kaguya personally but doesn't quite know the others personally or as well or at least calls them by last name but Kaguya by 1st name.

Idea 3.1. But instead of (Idea 1)

 Kaguya's cardiologist

it's like, say, a psychiatrist or psychologist that Kaguya sees in the future.

Idea 3.2. Or could be anyone Kaguya confides in that doesn't really know the others or at least fits the bill of calling Kaguya by 1st name and the rest by last name. I think for example Nagisa Kashiwagi fits the bill. We see in S02E05 that Nagisa, in h own thoughts, refers to Kaguya as 'Kaguya-san' and Miyuki as 'Shirogane-kun'.

(However, in actual conversation, Nagisa might address Miyuki directly as 'Kaichou' or 'Shirogane-san' or whatever.)
Note 1: In S01E05, Nagisa addresses Kaguya as 'Kaguya-sama'. Well, at least it's not Shinomiya-sama, so I think this doesn't rule out Nagisa.

Wait, au contraire, perhaps this previous Kaguya-sama actually suggests Nagisa is the narrator because -sama is the honorific used in the title if none of the other named anime characters so far (besides Ai) call Kaguya as Kaguya-sama and if there isn't a result at the end of a story that includes Nagisa's name.
Note 2: Oh in S01E10, Nagisa says Shinomiya-san. Okay I don't know what to think anymore for Nagisa. Lol. --> Why does Nagisa call Kaguya 1st Kaguya-sama then later Shinomiya-san and then later Kaguya-san?

Idea 4:
In the dub, Ai Hayasaka could be the narrator because AmaLee both voices Ai and dubs the openings. This also would explain why in the chapter titles, as well as the actual title, Kaguya is called Kaguya-sama.

Idea 5:
Chika is the narrator.

Akasaka said that he is like Chika in that he loves board games, and that he feels like her and has her personality when friends and family visit.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How could Nino blackmail Fuutarou with the photo without possessing it or any copies of it?
In S01E10 Legend of Fate Day 2, part of the
School Camping Trip Arc, Fuutarou pretends to be h relative 'Kintarou' from the photo of Fuutarou and the girl out of fear that Nino would blackmail h with the photo otherwise.
Based on S01E08, we know Fuutarou is indeed afraid of the leakage of the photo or at least that Nino would see it:

Nino: Is there something you're hiding in here?
Fuutarou: There's no telling what she'll say if she sees my old photo.

Nino saw it anyway. But then based on Nino's reaction, Nino has not seen the photo prior (unless Nino is somehow an extremely good liar). Also, Nino has not kept any copies of the photo (well, it's possible, but Fuutarou doesn't think anything like this). Nevertheless, Fuutarou is afraid that e could be blackmailed by Nino because of the photo.

Fuutarou: But she might be able to blackmail me with it.

Question: How could Nino possibly blackmail Fuutarou for the photo?

Presumably, Futaro isn't proud of his younger "yankee" days compared to his current image. So he's afraid that Nino could see through the Kintarou ruse and use the photo to ruin his social standing/reputation at school. The "embarrassing photo" blackmail is a pretty common trope in anime/manga.

Well thanks but... Of course that's exactly it IF Nino has a copy of the photo, But Nino doesn't possess any copies of it. That's the point. It's not a why would, but a how could. Does that make sense? Ah did you think I was asking 'How could Fuutarou be embarrassed if the photo was leaked?' (where in this case 'How could' is kinda interchangeable with 'Why would') ?

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


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Did Kazuki Takahashi had any involvement with the Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters Anime?
There still debate on whether or not Kazuki Takahashi was involved with the original Duel Monsters anime, since NAS Studio and TV Tokyo has changed some stuff that was not in his Original Manga.
And there's been no Comic Con Q&A, interviews, or any Volume notes that he ever stated he was officially involved.

Welcome to Anime & Manga Stack Exchange. Could you [edit] and mention some of the changes? The regulation for TV broadcasts may be stricter than printed media, if any of them is relevant.

Possibly related: How did the Yu-Gi-Oh anime differ from the manga?


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Why does Miku's colleague refer to Miku by last name but addresses Miku by 1st name?
From S02E10 of The Quintessential Quintuplets

Above, we see that Miku is working part-time at some bakery. Yotsuba is visiting Miku at the bakery where Miku has just started working part-time. Miku's seniour colleague refers to Miku as Nakano-san when talking to Yotsuba about Miku's initial failed cooking/baking.
Below, a few seconds later in the episode (which I guess is maybe an hour later in the characters' time), the seniour colleague addresses Miku as Miku-chan when Miku does a little better in the cooking.

This is not just the subtitles. The dialogue really says this. Ah here I found something on youtube: See for yourself from 11:40 to 12:15.
Question: What's up with this? Is Miku's seniour colleague really referring to Miku so differently from addressing Miku? Is the time skip here perhaps actually not 1 hour but several days (and so Yotsuba actually visits Miku more than once) ?

Cross-posted from Japanese.SE: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/95766/5464

This isn't because they just became closer; It's because of (strange) Japanese culture.
When people in Japanese refers to their colleagues or friends in formal conversation, they use family name regardless of whether they are close or not. I believe 99% of Japanese people always do this (including me), but I'm not entirely sure why. Though, it's not strictly limited to do the same, so some people prefer to refer their colleague/friends with their given name.
This often involves omitting honorifics (such as -san, -chan, -kun, etc), but in this case that does not seem to be the case (perhaps because Miku's colleague is talking to Yotsuba - the older sister of Miku).
I actually once had a situation where some of my co-workers didn't know my given name (actually, I didn't know their given name either). I even think that only the HR peoples or immediate supervisor might actually know the names of their colleagues perfectly well, since Japanese people often call them by their family name at work and there is little need to know their given name (unless you get to know them well).

Thanks. Yotsuba is younger but of course only by a few minutes. Does this change anything?

@BCLC That doesn't change anything I believe. Actually, we don't care about the age in formal conversations. For example, even the CEO would use Keigo (honorifics) to their every one of their employee. (and about Yotsuba... I sometimes mix up those girls and forget who's older or younger, my brain fuse isn't connected right :P)

@Skye-AT Their names all have a number in them to indicate which order they were born; Yotsuba's is 4 and Miku's is 3, so Miku is older (by a few minutes). Without that, yeah, it would be really hard to keep track.


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What do the 3 or 4 question marks (???) or (????) mean?
I see these 4 question marks when I read about Umineko (and I think Higurashi) usually on the fandom. (I can't remember where, but I think I've seen ??? and ???? outside the fandom too.)
Eg 1. The Bernkastel page.

Legend of the Golden Witch

Bernkastel first appears in the ????. serving as Beatrice's guest to view her games to kill her boredom. She also gives the reader a hint about Beatrice before leaving.

Turn of the Golden Witch

In the ????, she speaks to Battler and helps him regain his strength to fight Beatrice. She establishes herself as not just a bystander and wants to help Battler win.

Banquet of the Golden Witch

In the ????, Bern heads to the world of 1998 and enlists Ange's help in defeating Beatrice and getting her brother back.

Alliance of the Golden Witch

In the ????, Bern is lying in a bed with Lambda talking about Battler's theories. They laugh them off and then proclaim that Beato shall not win, and a miracle will certainly not occur.

Eg 2. The Beatrice page.

The ???? has Beatrice inviting Lady Bernkastel to join her game, who decides to become her opponent and help Battler.

In the ????, Beatrice also invites to her game Lady Lambdadelta, her protector and ally against Bernkastel. Lambdadelta seems to point out that Beatrice made it so that Battler would regain his will to fight on purpose.

Eg 3. The Rika Furude page.

In the Turn of the Golden Witch ???, Bern uses Rika's "mii" and "nipah" catchphrases and acts like they were something Bern herself used to say.

If your played the Umineko visual novel , you'd know that at the conclusion of each chapter, there are two separate unlocks, the tea party and an another thing (a hidden tea party). In Umineko, they are direct extensions of the story and not optional content.

Ah thanks кяαzєя♦ like epilogues?

2nd follow-up question - does Higurashi have this too?


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Difference between the 2 'true love' that Kaguya says
In the pilot/premiere (specifically Kaguya Wants to be Stopped, ch12 of the manga), Kaguya calls 'true love' as 真実の恋 (I think shinjitsu no koi しんじつのこい).

Later in the sleep-deprived fetish episode (in S02E05) Kaguya calls 'true love' as 本物の愛 (I think honmono no ai and ほんもののあい). The narrator also calls this 'true love' (in katakana トウルーラブ) and 'eternal love'.

(Also, for some reason, the narrator seems to introduce 2 other terms 真実の愛 - しんじつのあい shinjitsu no ai translated as 'real love' and 永遠の愛 - えいえんのあい eien no ai translated as 'eternal love'. Note the shinjitsu no ai vs shinjitsu no koi.)

What's the difference between S01E01 真実の恋 and S02E05 本物の愛 ?

In particular, what makes the latter 本物の愛 so 'cringe' or something? Is the former just as cringe? Or what? See what 2 of the other characters Nagisa (Kashiwagi) and Chika (Fujiwara) think about 本物の愛:

Nagisa says 'She actually said "true love"!'

Chika says 'Aren't you a little too old for that?'

What I got so far:

I know the Japanese language brilliantly has specific words for 'like'/'love' like suki, daisuki, aishiteru, koishiteru. In the latter 2 words, we can of course see the respective roots 'ai' and 'koi'.

Maybe not directly related, but I remember in the Japanese dub of Frozen whenever Anna (RIP Sayaka Kanda) said 'true love', it was translated as 'unmei' (fate, 運命, うんめい).

First off, I think that the translation 'true love' is used for both simply because it is more natural as English, as the following n-gram shows.

As a Japanese phrase, 本物の愛 is more natural but 真実の愛 does not sound too different. 本物 means real as opposed to fake and 真実 is truth as opposed to falsity.
So practically they are used synonymously here.
Now why the girl blushes is something to do with Japanese mentality. Generally people do not talk about love directly and also 本物の愛 sounds too serious  to talk about. It sounds naive as well. A natural response would be laughing as Fujiwara does. The girl is too polite to do that, and feels awkward.
Note in the manga version, right after the girl's blushing, there is a narration: (かぐやは)このワードが口に出すだけで恥ずかしいものであることを認識すらしていない. (Kaguya does not even realize this word is something too awkward to utter, where this word refers to 'true love').

2 - But anyway either 本物の愛 or 真実の恋, I think it makes perfect sense under the idea marriage or engagement. Here's what I think now: Nagisa is weirded out like 'Wow, Kaguya's thinking of marriage in such a childish ideal way like how little girls think about "marriage" in such an idealistic way?' It's cringe simply because such term 本物の愛 (or 真実の恋?) in this context is associated with childish, in particular girlish, ideals of marriage, BUT such a term isn't cringe in some serious conversation with, involving or about one's spouse, fiancée or serious romantic partner. Am I getting warm?

@BCLC Oh I misread, but in this context it should be safe to say they are the same. Re 1, there is no clear-cut distinction between koi and ai (the manga's subtitle contains a word 恋愛 which is usually translated as love), but generally koi is for the younger and ai is mature. E.g., first love is 初恋 and there is no word 初愛. Also a 10 year old girl may be koishiteru, but using aishiteru would be weird (unless the object is her pet or something).  Re 3, literally 本物の愛 would be closer. But again, English true covers both 本物の and 真実の.  The latter is not so commonly used.

Re 2, what exactly is considered childish is to think that there exists such a thing as true love. I don't know if this is a good comparison (and sorry if you are religious), it is like asking if there is God. It sounds a bit ridiculous for serious discussion. And for the last point, you are right but it depends much on the personality. If you are generally diligent (like 会長 in the anime) and dating a girl for some time, then saying 愛してる will probably taken seriously, but even then the girl might start laughing.

There is a famous anecdote that Soseki Natsume told his student to translate the English I love you as the moon is beautiful in Japanese. So expressing love in words is quite new and not assimilated well enough in Japan.


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Why didn't Sora / Shiro actually play chess (or 9LX) professionally instead of being hikikomori?
If Sora / Shiro is supposedly not just better than Magnus Carlsen and not just more talented than Wesley So but even better / more talented than ACTUAL ENGINES, then what are they doing being hikikomori instead of dominating the chess and 9LX worlds?
Note: Garry Kasparov on Lex Fridman's podcast (Lex has interviewed in this year the following chess players: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Levy Rozman and Alex & Andrea Botez...but not Wesley So huhuhu) says comparing Magnus to engines is like comparing Usain Bolt to a ferrari.
I'm guessing the answer is probably

Don't overthink it. It's unrealistic. Just pretend Sora and Shiro aren't actually theoretically rated higher than Magnus Carlsen (or Wesley So) and that the 1st episode was instead a 2000 FIDE rated sibling pair vs a 2000 FIDE rated god of gaming for the sake of mental sanity. In the 1st place it's completely unrealistic for any human to be better / more talented than superGMs or even just regular GMs without being known in the media let alone being better / more talented than an ACTUAL ENGINE.

My understanding is that they're so good at chess (and everything else they put their minds to) that it's become boring for them. They could have become professional chess players, and they almost certainly would have swept every tournament they entered, but they didn't want to because it wouldn't have been enough of a challenge for them. It's shown throughout the series that money and fame don't interest them - all they really want is a challenge.
In that regard, you can think of Sora and Shiro as being similar to Saitama from One Punch Man. He's so much stronger than everyone he fights that he can beat them in one hit without even trying, and is consequently bored out of his mind because there's no challenge anymore. Sora and Shiro are the same: it's not until Tet challenges them to an online chess game, and subsequently sucks them into Disboard, that they find the challenge they're looking for.
There's also the fact that competing in professional tournaments would entail a) leaving their room (most chess tournaments AFAIK are still held in person), and b) working individually instead of as a pair. At the start of the series, they are psychologically incapable of doing either of those things.
There is some willing suspension of disbelief required in order to accept that a person can be as smart as them in the first place, but the fact they don't do anything with that intelligence until they arrive in Disboard is perfectly understandable, given their respective mental states.

'money and fame don't interest them - all they really want is a challenge' --> I forgot the anime already but if this is true then however absurd and unrealistic that's that. thanks! Wait...when would you say is the 1st episode (or chapter?) that you get a clear indication as to how money doesn't interest them?


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What's 'bread factory'?
At around 6:26 in Episode 22 of Lucky Star, Kagami (the purple long hair twin girl) said,

I used to stir my yogurt and go on, 'bread factory!'

Then Akira asked,

Bread factory?

Kagami replied,

Haven't heard of it?

Kagami then blushed, Akira went on,

Hey, what was that just now? Bread factory? Don't be embarrassed, just 'fess up.

Kagami (blushing):

Shut up!

I totally don't get it. What's 'bread factory'? Why did Kagami blush?

Apparently they are talking about what they did in childhood, in particular, playing by pretending(?). Just before the scene, the  girl on the right (Akira?) says that she used to regard a straw half filled with coffee as Pocky.
In the scene, Kagami gives another example of such pretending play. The first line in your question means she did play by pretending the stirred yogurt as bread dough, hence "bread factory". She assumed the others would agree like she agreed with the Pocky example previously mentioned. But the girl with golden/light brown hair was puzzled and the girl with brown hair starts teasing Kagami, who blushed because she realized she was the only one (i.e., it is "oh, it is jut me?").


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Nishikata hides 100% Unrequited Love from Takagi even though Takagi already knows
Maybe related: How did Takagi know about 100% Unrequited Love in S01E04?

I watched Takagi-san out of order. In particular, I watched S01E07 before S01E05:

In S01E05 "Bookstore" (Ch9), Takagi finds out Nishikata bought a
volume of 100% Unrequited Love.

In S01E07 "Shopping" (Ch37) Nishikata denies buying another volume
and even makes an insane bet with Takagi.

So to me watching S01E05 after S01E07 I'm like...what was going on? Was it out of order production like in American animated series? I checked the manga chapters and apparently not.
I guess it's indeed no production order mistake but simply that Nishikata is just denying having bought a new volume even if Takagi already knows that Nishikata reads / watches 100% Unrequited Love...
Question: What is going on? Here's what I find weird.

i watched the powerpuff girls before, so i know the feeling. yes absolutely if it's just S01E07 without S01E05 it makes perfect sense. it's quite obvious why nishikata would want to hide if takagi doesn't ALREADY know. but given takagi already knows, i believe this additional embarrassment is only marginal. if you've spent 600 yen on a meal, then II don't think it's a big deal to spend an additional 20 yen for more ice or ketchup or whatever. I think there's a relevant English idiom / saying / aphorism here. There's 'In for a penny, in for a pound.' Here, you're already down a pound, I don't think it's a big deal to spend an additional penny.

The fact that takagi found out in S01E05 means nishikata is doomed to be teased by this anytime until death. hell i think even if nishikata stops watching 100% UL the fact that nishikata watched before is ammunition for teasing. I don't think it matters if takagi happens to see nishikata doing an action that takagi already knows nishikata does (assuming it's the kind of action that doesn't make a difference if someone is watching you do the action).

The bet is insane. There's no way takagi would get it wrong when takagi already knows. when i watched S01E07 i thought nishikata had maybe a 30-49% chance of bluffing takagi. I was so excited and thought 'Wow this is like that episode of Kaiji.' But when i watched S01E05, i think nishikata should have had at most a 5% chance of bluffing takagi and so I find the whole thing nonsensical.

Again, S01E07 makes perfect sense without S01E05. I think somehow Sōichirō Yagami - I-I-I mean - Yamamoto probably wrote those 2 chapters at the same time and forgot that they should be in opposite order or maybe only 1 of them should've been published as the origin story of when Takagi finds out about 100% UL. I don't think there's anything wrong with this kind of thinking. Let me know if you think there's something wrong with thinking this way eg S01E07 somehow depends on S01E05. Or maybe there's something like 1 is or is / was supposed to be a flashback or something.

Going from inference...perhaps Nishikata was a bit shy about it?
The particular work appears to be something that would be atypical for a shonen such as himself to read or consume, and given that Takagi has teased him for a lot of other things, he probably wouldn't have wanted this to be used to tease him.

But Takagi already knows, so what's to hide? It makes sense if you just watch S01E07 without S01E05 of course.

Put yourself in the shoes of a prepubescent middle schooler who has a subtle crush on the girl that keeps teasing him.  Nishikata is already plenty clumsy and awkward around her, and his sentiment - even if she knows something - isn't to give her yet more ammo to be teased.  Teenagers in love very, very seldom think rationally, even less so when portrayed in anime.

1 - i watched the powerpuff girls before, so i know the feeling. yes absolutely if it's just S01E07 without S01E05 it makes perfect sense. it's quite obvious why nishikata would want to hide if takagi doesn't ALREADY know.  but this embarrassment is only marginal. if you've spent 10,000 yen on something, then what's an additional 10 yen for some accessory? 2 - also what's up with the insane bet? there's no way takagi would get it wrong when takagi already knows. 3 - again, S01E07 makes perfect sense without S01E05. do you disagree? (I'll edit post.)


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What's up with Hamaguchi's being in a different class?
I was initially wondering where Hamaguchi is in the Camping Trip episode S02E07

Notice we see the pairs / groups:

Takagi x Nishikata
Mano x Nakai
Mina, Yukari, Sanae
Kimura, Takao
Hell we can see 6 named characters in the front row all together: Mina, Yukari, Sanae, Kimura, Takao and Tanabe-sensei.

And then Houjou's not with anyone we know.
I checked the fandom / wikia and apparently all the main or supporting student characters but Hamaguchi are in the same class.

Question: What's up with this? What's the difference to the plot if Hamaguchi is in their class?
You might argue Hamaguchi is a character introduced only later in (the manga equivalent of) s2, specifically S02E01, and thus is in a different class to avoid plot inconsistencies like 'Where was Hamaguchi during event X in s1?' But this doesn't explain Houjou who was also introduced only in s2, specifically S02E04.

Partial answer:
I'm not sure the plot changes much, but this is relevant for a minor joke in S03E06 where each class does their own thing for the culture / cultural festival.

Houjou talks about dropping by Hamaguchi's class.

 Hamaguchi doesn't want this. But Houjou goes anyway:

Again, this is a just minor joke, not really relevant to the plot at least anime-wise. Hence, this is just a partial answer.

Partial answer:
Actually in the same episode, there are 2 Houjou x Hamaguchi things. I'm not too sure of the details here. Maybe there's more in the manga.
1
Nakai comments about how Hamaguchi's food is cut differently or something.

2
They are in the same folk dance despite that they are in different classes.

As with my 1st answer, I don't think these are very relevant to the plot at least anime-wise. Hence, this is just a partial answer.


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Do the Wammy's House members speak to each other in English?
Related to this question: Questions about nationalities and languages in Death Note
It seems the Death Note 2015 series tries to incorporate the English language when appropriate, but even though Watari, L and Near are supposedly Western, they speak Japanese to each other. I guess it would be weird if they were played by Western actors even though their characters are supposedly Western. Artistic license and all that.
In the anime and manga (or Hell even in the films or series), is it safe to assume that the Wammy's House members speak to each other in English?
I guess it's obvious that when Mello and Near hear about L's death, they speak in English to each other and w/ the person who informed them about L's death.
What about for instance when Mello and Near were talking in the SPK place or whenever L and Watari talk privately? It's in English right?

They were all talking in Japanese though. In the comics, cartoons, live action films and live action series, they always talk in Japanese, not English.

@PeterRaeves LOL are you serious? Just because that's how they're depicted doesn't mean they actually are. Are Elsa and Anna really speaking English? Are Rapunzel and Flynn? Do Lelouch and Schneizel speak to each other in Japanese?

It seems safe to assume they're speaking English. This most likely is an example of a translation convention. As the first two paragraphs of that TV Tropes page put it:

When a group of people whose native language is not English are
  together, away from any English speakers, the audience may nonetheless
  hear them speaking perfect English.
This is not a case of Translator Microbes, in which an in-universe
  device is performing actual translation: We are meant to assume that
  the characters are really speaking their own native tongue, and it is
  being translated purely for our benefit (or the benefit of the casting
  director who is then free to hire English-speaking actors), like the
  dubbing of English dialogue onto foreign-made films.

Most of the time, when a translation convention is employed, the writers don't bother indicating that the characters are actually speaking another language, because the audience most likely doesn't care; the audience just wants to know what they're saying.
Further down the page, Death Note is discussed:

In the Japanese version of Death Note, the scenes at which Interpol
  convenes and speaks with a British detective, as well as Near's
  dealings with the American SPK and Mello's conversations with the US
  Mafia are all presented in Japanese; presumably, they're actually
  speaking English.
However, in the live-action movie, Lind L. Tailor, L's decoy, was voiced by an American, while a Japanese translator made a voice-over.
This is how it was done in the manga as well, although only the voice-over is shown.
  This is assumed to be in effect for Wammy's House as well, unless we are to believe that all the residents of an orphanage in England
  speak Japanese as their default language.

There's probably no real evidence anywhere in the series that the characters are speaking English (I certainly don't remember any in the manga). The audience can assume they're speaking English because they're at an orphanage in England. However, as part of the translation convention, we see them speaking Japanese on screen. It's presumed that the audience doesn't care that much to hear them actually speaking English, so the writers just cut to the chase and show them speaking Japanese.
Note, this is different from the situation where L, Near, et al. speak to characters whose native language is Japanese. There, we have to assume they are speaking Japanese (or everyone is speaking English--unlikely, as characters like Misa and Matsuda who probably don't speak English are seen communicating effortlessly with L). But when the Wammy's House members are speaking among themselves, it seems safe to assume they're actually using English and we see it as Japanese under a translation convention.

Thanks! What do you mean Matsuda and Misa probably don't speak English?

@BCLC Because they aren't very smart. That's why I singled them out, although there are lots of other characters who probably don't speak English.

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


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In episode 3, why did Lelouch kill him but not her?
In episode 3 of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Lelouch killed

 Clovis as he was leading operations against the resistance, and Cornelia did the same thing.

However, Lelouch did not try to kill her despite this. Why? It was even made clear that he had nothing to do with death of Lelouch's mother.

Clovis was killing innocent Elevens, not just the resistance/terrorists.

…just as former Viceroy Clovis was punished for ordering the slaughter of countless unarmed Elevens. We cannot stand by and allow such cruelty to be carried out, and so we made him pay for his actions. I will not repudiate battle on a fair and level field, but neither will I tolerate a one-sided massacre of the weak by the strong. The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed! Wherever oppressors abuse their power by attacking those who are powerless, we shall appear again, no matter how mighty or formidable our foe may be!

Source: Wikiquote - Code Geass - The Black Knights (Second Section)
While yes, Cornelia can be brutal like using a Knightmare to gun down the JLF who really stood no chance against one, she didn't order innocent people to be killed. Both she and Lelouch believe in the principle that "the only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed" and fight on the front lines with her soldiers, even telling Guilford off when he tells her to keep back.

During the Battle of Narita, Cornelia leads the attack on the Black Knights along with Dalton and Guilford. Guilford warns her to stay away and she responds by destroying several Burais.

Source: Cornelia li Britannia - Character History - First Season (5th Paragraph)
Clovis, on the other hand, ordered innocent people to be slaughtered all the while he hid in his G-1, and even started to beg Lelouch to spare him. Cornelia would more than likely not beg for her life to be spared, if she was to beg I would dare say it would be to spare her soldiers in exchange for her life
Also, Cornelia was originally assigned to Marianne's Guard before being ordered by Marianne herself to dismiss the guard and the palace's defenses on the day of her death. Under Lelouch's Geass, Cornelia revealed she was investigating Marianne's death herself.
Finally, Lelouch didn't have the time to finish her off anyway. Remember that while he was interrogating Cornelia, C.C tells Lelouch that Nunnally is in danger (due to V.V having kidnapped her). Lelouch's first priority is always Nunnally as, during the first attack on the Tokyo Settlement, he had the Black Knights protect the school because she was there. During the second attack, he had Rolo and Sayoko get Nunnally out of Tokyo and broke down when Nunnally was thought to be killed. With Nunnally in danger, he abandons the attack on Tokyo and his own vendetta against Britannia so V.V could very have well saved Cornelia inadvertently.

Lelouch needed her alive because she had info on the death of his mother which could help him unravel the truth.
By the time he finally gets to her and geasses her to ask the questions, the Black Rebellion is in full swing, so killing her after the questions would be a bad idea because holding the viceroy captive is an excellent way to force a victory. Of course Jeremiah then enters the scene and everything goes haywire.
After that, Cornelia disappears until the second half of season 2.


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What states besides Japan have a/the Sibyl System?
I'm in the middle of Psycho-Pass Season 1.
What states besides Japan have a (or the?) Sibyl System? There's this part in Episode 13 where 'world' rather than 'Japan' is used. Does the Sibyl System cover the whole world? Does it or do the dominators apply to anyone anywhere even in Antartica or International Waters? Are the police in third world countries using dominators?
I highly doubt Japan is the only place that has a/the Sibyl System because I don't see why the UN would just allow Japan if it disagreed or would not follow Japan if it agreed. It's like The Walking Dead: I highly doubt it's only the US that's infected. If so, the UN likely would've intervened already (like in world war z iirc).
If any of these cannot be answered without spoilers, please use >! and indicate degree of spoilers (or whatever is the site policy for questions like this).

Obviously, this had to be done with (major) spoiler(s). The spoiler below only to answer your question.
(spoiler for movie)

 Apparently japan is in the only one that operated Sibyl System (or any system alike). This fact shown in the movie.

On side note (this spoiler contains major plot spoiler - proceed with at your own risk),
(spoiler for s2 but not movie)

 The movie also shown the fact that the entire world actually get a dive in governance - anarchy everywhere. Then, only Sibyl System preserve peace in Japan. Not to mention how Sibyl System managed to replace the entire Japan Diet Member and convinced to measure the Psycho-Pass of the society - as the consequence of Akane's Request in Season 2.

I hope you'll finish Psycho-Pass and catch up to Season 2 (including the Movie of course).

ummm thanks hehehe. so whether or not other states besides japan has sibyl/dominators is a spoiler for psycho-pass? thinking about it more, i highly doubt japan is the only place that does that because i don't see why the UN would just allow japan if they disagreed or would not follow japan if they agreed

i think you could wait until you watch the movie, although it isn't fool-proof. as the nature of psycho-pass believing in some kind of oracle machine is still hard for most people, not to mention their secretive nature on how they actually operates - just like how we can't trust internet for privacy and such. not to mention the main point of psycho-pass is the conflict on accepting the oracle machine.

Okay fine thanks Tezla hahaha. my questions are not stupid; are they? It's like The Walking Dead: I highly doubt it's only the US that's infected. If so, the UN likely would've intervened already.

Actually Tezla, just to clarify, is it really the case that the viewers are not supposed to know if or what places outside Japan also use a/the Sibyl? Like, as far as we know Japan (the whole archipelago?) uses Sibyl and then we really don't know about how the world is outside Japan? (Assuming of course the setting really IS Japan... :| )

just to clarify, is it really the case that the viewers are not supposed to know if or what places outside Japan also use a/the Sibyl i think it was left that way to open a hole for new series/movies. did any anime actually tell everything and you start end up bored watching. i don't think whoever behind psycho-pass (not always Urbouchi) will do thing like that.

'did any anime actually tell everything and you start end up bored watching.' --> Tezla, honestly, I found the first 10 episodes kind of boring. I think the series would have been better if the ending of episode 11 was given or foreshadowed much earlier. Hence, now that you mention it, I find it kind of inconsistent that PP gives us all these details about these criminals whom I'm guessing have little relevance to the plot later on (don't spoil if they are hahaha)...

...PP may have benefited from doing something a little bit like what OUAT or HTGAWM does. Well anyway, hope that answers your question. Thanks

well, recent anime industry had different approach than their early years. story telling isn't the main part sometimes. but it's rather irrelevant to discuss this :) (or review an anime) here.

Tezla, I finished s1. Does your answer involve season 2? the movie?

yes, it related. that's why i hope you catch up soon with season 2 and movie. the first spoiler is the movie, the second one is season 2.

Hahaha thanks. wait are all the answers to my questions really spoilers? Even the ones about Antartica and third world?

i ended up not yet watching s2 or the movie but i decided to read the spoilers anyway. i don't find them that big of spoilers. are they really? i mean, i figure it's like the 'rosebud' in citizen kane spoiler. doesn't seem like much but when you start to watch citizen kane you realise how much telling what rosebud is is a spoiler. so once i start to watch s2, i will realise how big of spoilers they are?

Wait for the movie spoiler part...maybe not to do with psycho-pass or even anime specifically but is that really a spoiler? It sounds maybe simply like information not yet revealed, like maybe they just forgot to reveal it, rather than actual spoiler for an important plot point.

!!Warning: Major plot spoilers ahead. Proceed at your own risk.!!
Originally, only Japan have the Sibyl System, being the country that developed it. However, it is not exactly true that only Japan have the Sibyl System in use.

 In Psycho-Pass: The Movie, it is revealed that the entire world at that time is in never-ending conflict, wars, political fighting and civil unrest. Violence runs rampant in many areas. Gangs, mobsters, dictatorial and military governments fight each other, causing extremely large amounts of fighting and violence. Only Japan, which implemented the system, managed to stay in peace.

 However, it is also revealed in the movie that a portion of Southeast Asia Union (SEAUn) is trying to use the Sibyl System as an experiment, in an effort to cease violence in that region. That region is called Shambala Float. It is later revealed that the government is still corrupt and the system was a fake. Whether or not the Sibyl system was ever successfully implemented in other countries is never known.


text:
Why did Lelouch and Nunnally allow themselves to be seen in public?
After the Second Pacific War and Invasion of Japan, Lelouch and Nunnally decided to live under false identities (but they don't have plastic surgery and allow themselves to be seen in public).
Why? What exactly were they thinking? They really wouldn't be recognised? I seem to recall Cornelia and Kirihara recognised Lelouch.

The risk really wasn't all that great. Without the geass power, Lelouch never would've met Cornelia or Kirihara or any of the others that recognized Lelouch (Clovas, Euphy, etc...). Cornelia because Clovas would've stayed alive so there would've been no need for her to become Viceroy. Kirihara because he wouldn't have needed to meet with the 6 head families, remember he only meets Kirihara/reveals his identity to secure support for the Black Knights.
To expand:
While they lived at a school for Brittanians, Brittania is very caste based, and the castes don't mix much, besides a few outliers like Euphy the royal family doesn't mingle with commoners, which is what the Knights of the Round call the students of Ashford Academy and their families when they transfer to it. So no real chance of running into someone who would recognize them there.
As for those few - and it was very few - Japanese who knew their secret, they also all knew that he hates the empire and why he was exiled to Japan in the first place. So they are far more likely, if they ever ran into him, to support him and hide him from the Brittanians then to out him. As can be seen by Kirihara immediately throwing his support behind Zero when he learns that Zero is Lelouch.
Finally: (This block doesn't actually effect Lelouch's decision to be in public since it's not known to him at the time, but it's interesting to note for us viewers, since it explains why they were so safe for the 7 years before Lelouch gets geass.)

 At the end of Season 2 we learn that none of Lelouch's siblings were actually after him and his sister and mother when they were younger. In fact from their reactions they all actually seem to miss them. We also learn that the Emperor wasn't after them either and in-fact exiled them to Japan to keep them "safe" from his brother VV. And as far as we know VV wasn't actually hunting them again until CC came into their life and gave geass to Lelouch.  So no one in the Empire was actually hunting them at all.

Thanks ryan. There were some Britannians who knew about Lelouch like Suzaku and Milly and her family right?

Wait actually, Euphie, Cornelia, Clovis, Schneizel or someone could've gone to Ashford Academy to meet Suzaku or investigate the school for terrorist ties (ie Kallen)?

@BCLC, the only Britannians in Japan that know about them are Milly's family, who are very very loyal to his mother and are activity hiding Lelouch and Nunnuly. Suzaku is a Japanese person and despite how much they fight it's seen that Suzaku still holds feeling of friendship for Lelouch. It's also implicated several times that Suzaku loves Nunnely and so wouldn't ever endanger her by revealing their secrect.

@BCLC, Suzaku never would of become a Knight without the geass power going to Lelouch.  The Lancelot was only deployed - and with an 11 as the pilot! (it's noted several times that 11's can't be knights before he's made the pilot) - as an emergency measure to counter the extreme control over the battlefield that Lelouch was demonstrating. Without that the resistance would of been crushed, and Kallen probably would of died in the initial Shingiku invasion.


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Why didn't the experimentation for the 13-day rule push through?
Ep25 spoiler

 In the episode where L dies, he mentions wanting to test the 13-day rule. If the 13-day rule is disproven, Light and Misa become suspects again. L dies and then

apparently everyone seems to have forgotten about the test. What happened? I seem to recall most of the task force disagreed with L and then

 when he died, the majority opinion prevailed.

It would be prudent to note that the original Kira along with the 2nd Kira would have died, should the rule have been true.

@ʇosɥıuonʞʎonʞo Why is that prudent to note?

because of the lapse of killings for 14 days during Light's confinement

@ʇosɥıuonʞʎonʞo And then...? What? L thought the rule is fake. L wanted to test it, but then he died. Why didn't the remaining task force members test it?

basically the rule that saved Light and Misa from confinement is one that could easily be proven false, because there was no reason for Kira to suddenly allow himself to die

@ʇosɥıuonʞʎonʞo What? I don't understand at what you're driving. Are you trying to answer my question? Are you helping me improve my question?

I'm pointing out that this too was missed by the entirety of the cast, possibly leading the plot in another direction had it been discovered. But alas, it was never brought up again...

@ʇosɥıuonʞʎonʞo Ah so you mean you are inclined to agree that this might be a plothole?

Yes, I thought this would have been exploited later on in the series to reveal him as Kira, but that never happened.

@ʇosɥıuonʞʎonʞo Now all your comments make sense. Thanks. I recommend you state the context of what you're saying or something like that

@кяαzєя You can post that as an answer if you want unless you actually agree with Memor-X.

For them to test the 13-day rule the Death Note has to be used. the Task Force's disagreeing with L was over the fact they would have to sacrifice someone for an experiment.
The Japanese Police were already a bit iffy of L since the Lind L. Tailor incident where L had a condemned criminal sacrificed just to test how Kira kills and where they may be, and the Police and the Task Force have to keep the moral high ground and not go around killing people for tests/experiments, especially with the Death Note.
Also remember that the Task Force didn't learn about the Death Note or the fake rules until quite some time after Light's and Misa's confinement where "Kira" was a member of the Yotsuba Group, all the while Light was handcuffed to L. to the Task Force this was more than enough to clear Light's and Misa's names without stooping down to Kira's Level, L on the other hand can see himself on the same level as Light as per what he said in Death Note Relight 2: L's Successors

There are...many types of monsters in this world: Monsters who will not show themselves and who cause trouble; monsters who abduct children; monsters who devour dreams; monsters who suck blood, and... monsters who always tell lies. Lying monsters are a real nuisance. They are much more cunning than other monsters. They pose as humans even though they have no understanding of the human heart. They eat even though they've never experienced hunger. They study even though they have no interest in academics. They seek friendship even though they do not know how to love. If I were to encounter such a monster, I would likely be eaten by it. Because in truth, I am that monster.

Source: L - Quotes (9th point)
take notice of the lines i emphasized. it forebodes his death but also describes the kind of person Light/Kira is, and that L himself is just like that so L would have no problem "testing" the Death Note

Right disagreement. Thanks. Wow so if just one person agreed with L, Light and Misa would have been thrown back into suspicion? Hey actually so why didn't Mello test it and then report back the result if disproven?

@BCLC maybe but i would assume they would have to show they same to the same conclusions as L and not just agreeing with him. as for Mello i'm quite sure that aprt from him not being on the right side when Sidoh came down to reclaim his Death Note it was only L that suspected it was fake rule. i haven't seen the series in a while so i can't remember when Mello or Near found out about the fake rules

Mello found about the fake rule from Sidoh. He told Near about it in exchange for the picture of Mello

@BCLC still Mello was on the wrong side and the Task Force wasn't exactly trusting of Near. for the Task Force to believe Near Sidoh would have to call Ryuk out as if i remember right Ryuk wasn't exactly confirming or denying if the rules were fake or not


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Questions about nationalities and languages in Death Note
In the Death Note 2015 series, some people sometimes speak English. For instance when Raye Penber and Bell talk and when Lind L Tailor comes out on TV, it's in English.
The Death Note anime of course acknowledges the existence of the English language, like in the first episode, when people with English names are written down in the Death Note and when Near says 'Mister' Aizawa, but a lot of English speaking people instead speak Japanese.
So this got me to thinking,

Are L, Mello, Near, Watari, Beyond Birthday et al Western people (See here for Wammy's House question) who just so happen to be fluent in or at least sufficiently speak and understand Japanese?

L once adopted the alias Ryuga Hideki. How would anyone think that a Western-looking person has a Japanese name? Is his cover story that he was adopted by a Japanese family or something?

Are they necessarily British just because Wammy's House is in England?

In general, is there anyway to know for sure what language is being spoken between a Western person and an Eastern person in the Death Note anime? For instance, when Light and L talk, are they talking in Japanese or English? How about when Near and Light talk?

It goes without saying, but the anime probably works that way for the same reason the British Waver Velvet (who apparently doesn't have the best Japanese skills) speaks Japanese in Fate/zero. Anyways, interesting question!

with 2) Light's monologue explains that if L's name was really Ryuga then there was a risk the real Ryuga's face would appear in his mind and accidentally kill him and i have seen of a show like Dr Oz or Dr Phil that there were 2 women in the US who had the same first and last name so there is a chance that 2 people can have the same names. though in the anime i only remember people questioning if L was the Ryuga they know

@Memor-X I mean why pick a Japanese name? He could've called himself someone with the same name as a popular British celebrity maybe. To me it seems very suspicious that a British looking person would have a Japanese name

@BCLC i suspect L had the same thought as Light's monologue. he already concluded that Kira needs a name and face so even with L's face had Light tried to test his name out the real Ryuga may have died and that would not only limit the number of potential suspects but increase his own suspicion of Light. he could have probably used a British star but probably wanted someone Light would know already

@Maroon Japanese because it's an anime, I get that. Just liked in dubbed anime everyone speaks English. But in-universe, there has to be some explanation. Haven't seen f/z or f/sn yet, but I'm guessing in-universe, Waver was either speaking English or knows some Japanese...right?

@BCLC: I'm actually not sure---I mostly know of that detail because I heard about a drama CD where his lack of proficiency comes up. There are always interesting problems in anime with overtly "multicultural" settings though (e.g. here, or in Black Lagoon), where from the voice-acting it's hard to tell what language is actually being used.

@BCLC You are looking way too much into this. When you see a hollywood movie featuring foreigners, they speak English with a foreign accent (on purpose), but you never question where they had learned English from. Sometimes you let them speak a foreign language to make it sound cooler, but in comics you don't have subtitles. I mean, heck the American president in Death Note was speaking Japanese, which he obviously isn't capable of, but imagine how weird it would be if Ohba would write whole chapters in English. Do you think his audience would like that?

@PeterRaeves I dont expect those parts to be in English. Obviously he did speak English. I guess we'll never know what language Light and L spoke to each other. Some important parts I guess however would be the degree of fluency of Japanese of L. When L is listening to the Yotsuba conversation, does he understand? If there is no indication of language difficulty, it seems that he is fluent in Japanese. Is he? Can't find any official source. Anyway, how about the DN 2015 series? You would be fine with lind l tailor speaking or raye penber and bell conversing in Jap when they look western?

@PeterRaeves also what about the SPK? Do they know Japanese? When Light makes his speech at the end, is it in English for the sake of the Western people in the room?

@BCLC Why does it even matter? Obviously in a real setting they would have language barriers. The SPK would not understand Japanese, neither would L. Japanese is not part of any country's curriculum, while Japan on the other hand, has English in its curriculum, so Light would be able to fluently speak English, being the genius that he is. So Japanese people would speak Japanese among themselves and Light would speak English to L, N and M and then translate it to the others.

@BCLC "Would you be fine to see a westerner speaking Japanese?" I don't really understand the question. Why wouldn't I be fine? Especially in a fictional story with fictional characters made by a Japanese artists for Japanese people. I would honestly not be fine if he would speak English all of a sudden. In the DN 2015 series I assume they would use Japanese actors, like they did with Attack on Titan, where Asians are almost extinct.

@PeterRaeves They used Western actors in addition to Japanese actors. L was Japanese though. Not a problem I'm guessing as he is part Japanese as stated below

At least for L, his official profile says that he's fluent in Japanese, Chinese, English, German, French and Russian. I wouldn't be surprised if the other high-IQ guys were multilingual as well.
The author says L is quarter Japanese, and since he has black hair and black eyes, introducing L as Japanese shouldn't be that strange, I guess.
Again, at least for L, his profile says he's British (イギリス国籍).
Dunno.

1 Source? 2 Thanks! 3 Thanks! 4 Thanks for confirming my hypothesis that it seems impossible to determine :))

Death Note 13: How to Read, if I remember correctly.

@BCLC Actually the manga, anime and 2015 series confirmed the language they were speaking in though. In all those instances when Light and L talked to each other they were talking Japanese.

@PeterRaeves How do you know Light and L were speaking in Jap? Not surprising, but I don't see why they wouldn't speak English sometimes. What about L's first appearance on TV? What about L and the Japanese police in L's first appearance? Well I guess we'll never know. Hahahaha

We do know. Ohba wrote everything in Japanese, didn't he? Every character he ever wrote always talked Japanese... I don't remember Ohba ever showing them speaking English, ever... Do you have a chapter where any of them spoke English?

@PeterRaeves ok fight Light and L may be speaking japanese to each other, but L's first appearance on TV and to the japanese police: both were in english?


text:
Can I watch the full 'Nice Boat' replacement episode anywhere?
From KnowYourMeme: (spoilers for School Days)

 On the day before the airing of the final episode of School Days in Japan, a 16 year old girl killed her father with an axe in Kyoto. Due to an extremely similar scene present in the episode and to avoid relation to the axe murder, TV Kanagawa replaced it with a half hour of unrelated scenery with “Air on a G String” playing in the background. Among the shock and rage expressed among fans, a 4chan user commented “Nice Boat”, referring to the Norwegian ferry shown in the replacement footage. Immediately the phrase became a meme, however is far more popular in Japan than in English speaking countries.

The part with the boat is easily viewable on Youtube and other sites, but I haven't been able to find the full episode.
Is the episode bundled together with any merchandise or available legally online to stream/download?

The full 28-minute version of Nice Boat is apparently available on Nicovideo (you'll need to make an account or use a redirector like nicoviewer). I didn't see the original Nice Boat back when it aired, so I can't say whether it's the real deal, but it certainly looks right to me. The Nice Boat itself makes its first appearance at 04:36.
I would be surprised if Nice Boat were ever included in a home video release of School Days, though. At minimum, it's not included in the French DVD boxset or in the 2013 Japanese Blu-ray boxset.


text:
Who is to say if someone is 'murdered'?
Who is to say if someone is 'murdered' (This is the main question. The sentences marked with '?' are just to help provide motivation and context for the question) ?
Example cases:

Does suicide count as murder?

What if A accidentally or unintentionally (there might be a difference. I talked to a law expert once. not sure though) kills B, whether or not there are witnesses?

What if C kills D in self-defense?

What if some student E trips over and dies, without the death being intended by any of the other students, while there are no witnesses? How do the students know Monokuma would really state that E's death was an accident instead of calling a classroom trial to trick everyone?

Who decides if a killing is done in self-defense? Who decides if a killing in an accident? The students? Monokuma?

If one of the students has dissociative identity disorder like in Identity (2003), and one of the identities murders another student, what happens to the body containing the multiple personalities?

Re the self-defense (hardly spoilerous but just in case):

 There was this one murder claimed by the murderer to be self-defense, but it kinda wasn't.

Or it could be. I think that's kind of why we have juries, law experts, etc.
Oh and I guess 'not guilty by reason of insanity' is not a defense in Danganronpa.
PS I'm done with the anime. Go ahead and spoil other media. But please use spoiler tags for others.


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Danganronpa - What is supposed to happen if there are 2 or 3 players left?
So I just heard of this anime that resembles the Mafia/Wolf game.

However, when Makoto arrives inside the Academy, he loses consciousness and wakes up locked inside the school, where he meets fourteen other newly picked Ultimate students who are in the same situation as him. It is there that a sadistic, remote-controlled bear named Monokuma appears before them, telling them they will be imprisoned in the academy for the rest of their lives, and that they will be put to death if they violate any of the schools rules. He offers only one way for students to "graduate" from the academy: murder another student and not be identified as the culprit.

So if the culprit is correctly identified (majority vote or something?), culprit gets executed. If not, everyone but culprit gets executed.
What is supposed to happen if there are 2 or 3 players left?
I'm not so naive as to think that what is supposed to happen is what actually happens, but I think there should be a rule for that.
If there is no explanation in the anime or other media, please state such and if applicable why no explanation is needed (I might be overlooking something obvious).
Liar Game had a rule as to what happens in Minority Rule if there are only 2 players left. There was some detail about it. I don't think explaining that rule spoils the manga or series: If there are 2 left, the prize is split. To drop out, half of the prize must be given back, whatever the amount of the prize is (half of the full 2.1 billion or half of 1.05 billion).
PS I'm done with the anime. Go ahead and spoil other media. But please use spoiler tags for others.

Monokuma (the robot bear), has

 a fetish for despair.

And by 'Monokuma',

 I refer to main villain (whom I will be shortening to MV from now on) of the anime who controls Monokuma. The exact reason MV imprisoned those 14 students: to make them feel despair, and enjoy it.

In fact, the reason Monokuma created the rule that

If you murder one of your classmates and not get caught as the culprit, you can escape

is precisely so that

 the classmates who had an attachment to the victim will mourn his/her death, and the ones who became friends with the culprit, will feel guilty.

As to what would happen if only 2 or 3, or even only 1 will remain...

 It is never exactly stated what would happen if only 2 or 3, or even only 1 will remain (at the end 7 or 8 students remain), but judging by the MV's fetish for despair, MV would probably (remember there is no exact proof what she would do, so I used the word probably)

 A) not let any of the remaining 1/2/3 student/s go, unless they either murder each other, or will remain in the school for the rest of their life, feeling eternal despair.

 B) kill them, because MV will either get bored of them or MV will be annoyed by how optimistic they are about life, since the whole point of locking them in school was to enjoy people's despair, and when their despair becomes repetitive, or they don't feel any despair, MV's forced to kill/get rid of them.

Note:

Danganronpa was originally a video game series. The anime was released in order to commercialize the first video game of the series, which the plot of the anime is based on.

Because the video game is long, whereas the anime is only 12 episodes, it's rushed and left out a lot of details from the video game.

 Also, in the second game it's revealed that the MV did in fact have a back-up plan for when MV would get bored or annoyed of the 14 students MV's currently watching. In the anime, MV made other schools, and MV imprisoned other students as well, in order to watch them despair once MV would have had enough of the current students.

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


text:
Was Misa accessible to Light in the finale in the way that this proposition assumes?
Finale spoiler

 There's this video (alternative here) that proposes how Light could have beaten Near. A critical element of the proposition is that Misa is accessible to Light, but was she? I seem to recall Misa was in the custody of the SPK up until some time just before Light et al are about to leave

What the guy proposes in the video is impossible though. Misa has given up ownership of her note and her memories long time ago to Mikami, so she can't write down the names.

@PeterRaeves Why exactly can't Misa write down the names? Not sure I understand the relevance of the hypotheses

Misa doesn't know of the existence of the Death Note. Nor does she have a Death Note in her possession, or do you mean Light would give her a sheet of paper and tell her to write the names down Mika would send her?

@PeterRaeves Um, yes? That was what the video suggested right?

N only released Misa the moment L (and Mikami) were about to leave for the warehouse they were going to meet and he placed her into an unknown hotel. How do you suggest Light gets a piece of the death note there?

@PeterRaeves Post as answer?

She accessible, but not in the way the video assumes.
From the wikia episode plots:

Malice:
Aizawa thinks to himself that the reason this is happening is so that Light can either be exposed or kill Near. As Light accepts, Near lays out some ground rules: all members of the Task Force must be present, as all members of the SPK and Mogi will be there while Misa will go elsewhere. Near then gives the meeting location: an abandoned warehouse he purchased known as the Yellow Box, and also forbids the Task Force from leaving the Death Note behind, thinking to himself that this is what Light would want.
1.28:
The day finally arrives, and as Stephen Gevanni is on his way, Near announces that Misa has been moved to a luxury hotel, essentially freeing her. After Light confirms this, he asks Near to contact Mogi, who is with Lidner on their way, as to unlock the Death Note from a secure safe, each member has to put in a pin number that only each of them know individually.

Misa at that moment is a normal civilian girl, and there was no way for Light to safely get Teru Mikami (x-kira) contact Misa in the luxury hotel Near himself chose to placed her at whithout Near knowing. We can safely assume Near has a bug/tracker on Misa's cell phone (or can get a copy of the data). Or Mikami. Even if Misa is completely cleared, there is no way Mikami is not completely under electronic surveillance by 1.28.
Having Mikami contact Misa would have the same effect as not having his name written on the notepad. Light had very few pieces of DN left, if any by that time. It would be hard to find a piece where all those names could've been written (specially foreign names, with all those scribbly letters). And even if Misa was to text the picture of the names back to Light in 1 hour, it would give Near that much time to check the tracers and shut Misa down before she can forward the picture.
But the real problem was not assuming that Near would not find the DN inside a bank, the video gets that wrong. The unraveling of Light's plan was when

 Mikami broke his character, took the initiative (instead of just doing mechanically what he had always done) and went to the bank out of his schedule to kill Kiyomi. Nobody expected Mikami, a creature of absolute habit, to do something so spontaneous. Had he kept to his schedule, Near would not have found the DN in the bank.

TL.DR: He could have done that, but it would give away proof of his alter ego as Kira to Near all the same.

Peter Raeves

What the guy proposes in the video is impossible though. Misa has given up ownership of her note and her memories long time ago to Mikami, so she can't write down the names.

BCLC

PeterRaeves Why exactly can't Misa write down the names? Not sure I understand the relevance of the hypotheses

Peter Raeves

Misa doesn't know of the existence of the Death Note. Nor does she have a Death Note in her possession, or do you mean Light would give her a sheet of paper and tell her to write the names down Mika would send her?

BCLC

Um, yes? That was what the video suggested right?

Peter Raeves

N only released Misa the moment L (and Mikami) were about to leave for the warehouse they were going to meet and he placed her into an unknown hotel. How do you suggest Light gets a piece of the death note there?

Misa would have been released before the text would have arrived. This means that the piece of the death note should have bean hidden in a public area near the building she was being held up. It would have also needed to be in an area no one would take the piece.


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Why did Eren survive getting eaten?
In season 1, why did Eren survive when he was eaten by the titan during the battle of Trost? Why didn't that titan gain his titan abilities too? There hasn't been another example of a Titan Shifter being eaten in their human form and surviving.
Furthermore,

 when Armin ate Bertolt he absorbed him and returned to normal immediately.

And when Eren was eaten no one saw him transform and break out of the titan, meaning the titan had enough time to walk away from Armin.
Is this an oversight?

Good question.
It says on the Attack on Titan wiki page  about Titan Shifters that:

According to Rod Reiss, a shifter's power rests in their spinal cord, meaning that to gain the Titan powers, it is not necessary to eat the entire shifter, more so just biting through the spine and ingesting their spinal fluid. Analysis of a serum recovered from Rod Reiss has also revealed that the Titan serums, which is actually Titan spinal fluid,appear to contain ingredients based on human spinal fluid. However, it is difficult to study, because once the liquid makes contact with the air, it evaporates just like Titan corpses do.

It can be seen during the 5th episode of the anime

that when Eren is firstly bitten, his spine is not damaged.
Shortly after, he saves Armin, then the Titan bites his arm off and then swallows  without chewing him. This means that he got in the Titan's stomach without any damage to his spine, keeping his powers from being taken.
He then transforms and breaks free, from here being no need for me to continue with the story of how he escapes and goes berserk.
Moreover, when Armin eats Bertolt it happens like this:

It can be seen that Bertolt is bitten in a way in which his spine will be cracked open so his powers will be passed to Armin.
To sum up:

Eren survives during the Battle of the Trost because he keeps his powers and transforms fast enough to not be crystallized and regurgitated by the Titan.
He keeps his powers because his spine was not damaged.
Armin gained his powers by eating Bertolt's spine, as showed above.
Based on the previous information, these events were not an oversight from the author.


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About Lelouch and Nunnally during and soon after the invasion of Japan
[Note as of this revision: The answer below contains unmarked spoilers for s2.]

From what I remember: Lelouch and Nunnally were given as hostages to Japan. Britannia invades Japan. Lelouch and Nunnally somehow live.
Why exactly are they alive and not announced dead?
Here's what I understand:

The whole point of taking or giving hostages is to ensure certain agreements are kept. When Britannia invaded Japan, it seems whatever agreement Britannia and Japan had was breached and then Genbu or whoever should've executed Lelouch or Nunnally. Or well perhaps someone tried but failed, but I think that's unlikely.

If for some reason the relevant legitimate or de facto authorities of Japan didn't want to execute Lelouch and Nunnally (pity, morality, attempt at using them as double agents or whatever), then why weren't the deaths of Lelouch and Nunnally faked and announced (to show that Japan really does follow on its threats. Otherwise, in the future, people will not necessarily take Japan's threats seriously).

Could be remembering the series wrong, but it seems like they guessed Lelouch and Nunnally were dead rather than, say, found out from Japanese news. If I were 1 of the Britannian peeps, then I think I would find it suspicious that the Japanese authorities didn't execute or announce that they executed them.

Lelouch and Nunnally being sent to Japan as Hostages was itself another ploy. In Season 2 when Charles is explaining everything to Lelouch when they are trapped in the Sword of Akasha he revealed that he sent them away to protect them for V.V who had already murdered Marianne.
Also at the start of the series we see C.C watching a young Lelouch and Suzaku probably before the war so given the connection Marianne had with C.C during the series it's possible C.C (before being captured) was sent by Marianne to look out for her children.
Prior the start of the War Britannia haddn't fully developed their Knightmares which was one of the key pieces of technology which gave Britannia an edge

However, when Britannia finally developed its Knightmare Frames fleet and decided to invade Japan to seize control of the Sakuradite mines, consequently discarding Lelouch's use as a diplomatic tool

Source: Lelouch vi Britannia - Character Outline (2nd Paragraph)
This means executing them would have no merit. remember also that Lelouch had forfeited his claim to the Throne and before doing this the background chatter by the Nobles talked about them being lucky if Nunnally could be married off for political gain in her condition. their value as hostages were already much lower and Japan's main bargaining chip was their Sakuradite which, now with their Knightmares, Britannia could take by force and stop the other super powers from getting it.
Also i would think Suzaku and Todoh would have done something to save them if someone got the idea to punish Britannia by executing them (and i suspect at the start of the series were we see Lelouch vow to destroy Britannia it was Todoh who we see at the fire).
As for making Lelouch's and Nunnally's deaths known to be false this would probably just insult Britannia. the first thing that would be done if this happened was to denounce Japan's claims and because most Britannians look down on foreigners chances are that Charles would claim that Lelouch and Nunnally were impostors withother probably voicing their disgust that the Japanese have the audacity to use foreign commoners to pose as members of the Imperial Family.
Lets not forget that the heirs to the throne were fighting one another, while there are some would would want to protect Lelouch and Nunnally there are others who would use the war as a cover to kill them permanently removing them from the line of succession. weather the Japanese knew is or not doesn't matter as Lelouch would be opposed to it because it would be putting Nunnally in greater danger.

Thanks Memor-X, but  I think you should use spoiler text re the s2. 1 - After the 1st paragraph everything is just s1 right? 2 - 'consequently discarding Lelouch's use as a diplomatic tool'  - why exactly is Lelouch no longer a diplomatic tool? 3 - 'This means executing them would have no merit' - well in general I don't think executing hostages has any short term merit but I think it does show in the long run that Japan follows up on its threats. It's the same with not negotiating with terrorists. Hurts in the short term but is helpful in the long run. Am I wrong?


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Why do drama CDs and anime series of the same franchise use different voice actors sometimes?
In the Lucky Star anime, there is a scene where one character mentions something about drama CDs and anime adaptations of the same work having different voice actors. Ironically enough (and probably intended), Lucky Star is one of these franchises.

Character
Drama CD
Anime

Konata
Hirohashi Ryou
Hirano Aya

Kagami
Koshimizu Ami
Katou Emiri

Tsukasa
Nakahara Mai
Fukuhara Kaori

Miyuki
Nakayama Erina
Endou Aya

I can take some guesses at why this happens, but I've never properly researched it and therefore don't know the actual reason(s) why.

In the case of Lucky Star, this is because the drama CD predates the anime by about two years, and was produced by a completely different group of people. When Kyoto Animation took on the Lucky Star anime project, they decided to cast new voice actors. Why? I don't know in this specific case, but one possibly contributing factor is that drama CDs are likely to have a smaller budget than anime, meaning that there are probably more constraints on which voice actors can be hired. Then again, maybe the producers just didn't like Hirohashi Ryou as Konata, or maybe Hirohashi had scheduling issues (because, after all, the Lucky Star anime wouldn't have been part of her contract to do the drama CDs). Who knows?
This is a pattern you will see from time to time - there are some manga/LN franchises that get drama CDs before getting an anime adaptation. In these cases, the drama CD cast is likely to be replaced when it comes time to make an anime, simply because the production staff for the drama CDs and anime are different, and so there's nothing really necessitating that the anime production staff use the drama CD cast. Kara no Kyoukai is another example of this - there was a drama CD back in 2002, but the entire cast (besides glorious Nakata Jouji as Araya) was replaced for the movies.
On the other hand, when the drama CDs are a tie-in to the anime, you'll almost invariably see the same cast used for both, since they're both being produced by the same people/companies. I know of no exceptions to this, though I wouldn't be too surprised if there were some exceptions out there.


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Did Kaguya's cardiologist Dr. Shozo Tanuma have some prior relationship with Nayotake Shimizu (Kaguya Shinomiya's mom)?
The doctor Shozo Tanuma tells a story to Shinomiya saying he once had a lovelife that he totally relates to her. And in the end of Episode 8 he talked to the stars and said "Nayotake Don't worry your daughter is fine.". Well that totally make sense of why Shozo Tanuma became the doctor of the Kaguya's and takes first priority(maybe) to Nayotake's daughter Shinomiya.
Don't know if this was already shown in the manga. So does Shozo Tanuma once had a relationship with Natoyake Kaguya? or just known her for some time?

It could also imply that because Nayotake Kaguya died of heart disease Shozo Tanuma became a doctor and majored in cardiologist to protect Shinomiya Kaguya with the same disease that killed her mother.

Part1. Shozo Tanuma is a personal doctor/cardiologist of the Shinomiya family.

(Usually you see a GP or the doctor at an emergency department before seeing a specialist eg a cardiologist. So, yeah, to really see a cardiologist right away means this doctor has some relationship to this family. In this case, the relationship is that Tanuma is a personal doctor/cardiologist of this family.)
Part2. And thus knows all to well that Nayotake Shimizu died of cardiological/heart-related problems.

Part3. And then in the flashback, well... I'm not too sure. (I had to keep cropping the image because apparently it keeps exceeding the file limit.)

I thought this scene was showing Shozo's view on Kaguya when Kaguya's mom had just died or something, but I'm not sure about that. I was supposed to use this part as an emotional argument as to why Shozo visits Kaguya right away. But anyway there's the other stuff too.
Part4. In Chapter 252 of the manga (currently the anime is around Chapter 100 with S03E03),
(minor spoiler)

 'Dr Tanuma tells Miyuki about the story of Kaguya's mother.'


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What exactly are the rollbacks in Higurashi?
We know that the "mini-arcs" in Higurashi (When They Cry) all start with a sudden rollback. After some terrible events, the town looks normal again.
Closer to the end of the anime we are being shown that

 It's Hanyū who is responsible for the rollbacks, and she helps Rika keep (some of) her memories of what happened before the "rollback"

Now my question is about what those "rollbacks" really are. The wiki article, for example, says that they are

 time travels, and what Hanyū does is reverses time to let Rika relive those days again.

However, when I was watching the anime itself, I clearly remember Rika saying that

 what they did was traveling between "worlds", trying to find a "world" where everything was right (i.e. no murders).

Basically, if the first version is right, then

 all the murders didn't actually happen, because the time was reversed each time. In the second case (changing "worlds"), however, all those murders would be for real in each particular world.

Was that possibly just a bad/false translation of the subtitles I was using? And which version is right, after all?

I think the correct answer lies between what you're saying and what Wiki is saying.
Here's a definition of "kakera" (usually translated as "fragments") from Umineko no Naku Koro ni (the installment of WTC after Higurashi) EP4's TIPS:

Worlds of different fates and circumstances are called kakera, and
  witches who are able to cross the ocean of endless kakera are called
  Voyagers.

Hanyuu is taking Rika through different kakera, but she is also going back in time. If she just went to the same time in a different kakera, it might be too late for Rika to do anything. I believe towards the end of Higurashi, Hanyuu also states that her power is weakening and she can't go as far back in time.
If you're interested in knowing why/how Hanyuu has these powers, I'd definitely recommend playing the Umineko no Naku Koro ni sound novels or maybe even reading the manga. Don't watch the anime though... It doesn't cover that far into the story.

An Higurashi no Naku Koro ni official translation is available in English and should surely help in deepening the subject and avoiding translation errors from anime fansubs.

@chirale I have not played Higurashi but, as far as I know, Umineko explains the kakera more than Higurashi. What I quoted from was a translation essentially sanctioned by Ryuukishi07 - he gave them permission to translate and publish their translations for free. I don't see why this is less admissible than MangaGamer who translated it for profit.

I was specifically answering the very last sentence by grasshopper, who highlights limits in anime fansubs, and agreeing with your suggestion about playing the visual novel to get more details about the story. Mangagamer is not evil, actually is a group of visual novel Japanese companies who wants to sell abroad their products, returning profit to authors.

@chirale Sorry, I misunderstood because you replied to my answer instead of the original question. I didn't mean to imply that MangaGamer was evil either, just saying that Witch Hunt and MangaGamer are both pretty official but the only differences is MangaGamer does it for profit. (grasshopper isn't the one who asked, btw :P)

Right, it was SingerOfTheFall, I misunderstood.

why do you need umineko to answer this? i think higurashi kai already answers this...?


text:
Why does Lelouch need geass in both eyes?
In other question, it was clarified that Lelouch's two eyes Geass is to show the growing of Lelouch's Geass power and to stop his father's plans. what left of it to understand is, besides the "growing power" is there any difference in Lelouch's Geass demand power from before? I mean, in Mao case for example once his Geassh reached the limit and turned his two eyes he couldn't control it anymore, but in Lelouch case, we don't see any difference in the using of his Geass, so except the inevitable Geass growing power was there a difference in Lelouch's Geass using when he has 2 Geass eyes?

I have a theory about this.
The Geass consists in three stages:
Normal stage -> Lost control stage -> Both eyes stage.
The point with third stage is that, only in this stage, the user is able to complete his/her contract and become a Code. Lelouch and any other Geass' users will not show any difference in his/her power level or new abilities, since this stage only remarks the new capacity of the user to become a Code.
After watch the anime twice (and Akito once) I think this makes sense and there is not (as far as I remember) anything that contradicts it.

It's seems you missed big point, in Mao case once he came to (what you called) two eyes phase his ability changed - he could read minds even from miles than usually, not just "getting out of control" so - is Lelouch control ability changed or upgraded in some way?

This upgrade occurred before Lost control stage. C.C said Mao's Geass got stronger after each use (the same as Lelouch and another users, since this is a Geass' general rule) and, at the point when Lost control stage began, he was able to read minds even for miles from him. As far as I know, Lelouch did not receive any notable upgrade on his Geass after each use, but the point is that abilities' upgrade of Geass users occur between Normal stage and Lost control stage. When Lost control stage begins, his/her abilities has already reached it maximum level.

Actually, the OP of the question that you linked already said what is the upgrade of Lelouch's Geass: as C.C said, Lelouch will reach a point that even contact lens will not be capable to contain his Geass. So, here is what you are looking for.

you contract yourself, in the answer you say that  losing control of the geass is a stage and then in the comments you say the fact that lelouch needs contact lens (in other words lost control o the geass) is an upgrade, this "stage" is happening to everyone who has geass, in mao case he can't shut down his mind reader very much like and in lelouch case can't shut the geass in his eyes.