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Who is Kenshin based on?
I've been told that Kenshin, at least partially, is based on a real life assassin. Who was he based on, and what pieces of his story are inspired by this person?

According to the author1, he is based on Kawakami Gensai, a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period, who was executed by the Meiji Government.
Not having seen the series nor being familiarized with the Gensai's story, I cannot tell you how much of it is based on samurai's story and how much of it is fiction.

1: *Watsuki, Nobuhiro (2003). "The Secret Life of Characters (1) Himura Kenshin". Rurouni Kenshin, Volume 1. Viz Media. p. 56. ISBN 1-59116-220-3.


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Why didn't the First and Second Hokage's fight with full power against the Third?
When revived by Orochimaru, the First and Second were sent to fight the Third, however, we know today that:

 The First beat one of the most powerful ninjas in history (me), could heal himself without activating any special jutsu, could summon a freaking chakra sucking tree dragon.

Moreover!

 The Second had known (invented!!) Edo Tensei (meaning he could have broken free of Orochimaru's control), he also knew space-time ninjutsu.

With those abilities, plus immortality, they couldn't have possibly lost against the Third at their full power.
So in that case, why didn't they use their full power against the Third? Their emotions should have been completely erased, and made into a strict killing machine, and nothing more.

Are you sure this isn't just a plothole?

Perhaps Kishi still hadn't thought very much about all of Edo Tensei's possibilities.

Do you really belief that the third would survive me one Minute? Not to mention that Nidaime was with me.

What episode is it? Or it is still only in manga?

In the later part of the manga, the Second Hokage (Nidaime) thanked Orochimaru for making his jutsu more perfect because they were revived at their peak powers.
During the first time, Orochimaru's Edo Tensei was not perfect, due to which Sarutobi was able to seal them inside the Shinigami's belly.

And what episode it was when hokage were ressurected first time?

@Johnny_D it's episode 71 in the anime (the original, non-shippuden version), or chapters 118 and 119 in the manga

Revived or not, they're still not the real deal. The Third was not fighting against the real Shodai and Nidaime. That would have been perhaps a completely different fight.
Besides, the fact that Orochimaru's Edo Tensei might not have been that perfect and powerful (perhaps less perfect than Kabuto's), makes me (and not just me) think he used it for the sentimental effect it would have had on the Third, i.e. fighting against your predecessors, rather than actual relying on their (weakened) power only.

Only when Madara was revived, he was fully powered, and even more than that

@MadaraUchiha You were revived by someone else, though, weren't you? I've seen around the theory according to which Orochimaru weakened them on purpose to control them better. The one who revived you was much stronger.

@Alenanno: In terms of raw strength I don't think Kabuto is much stronger if he is stronger than Orochimaru, but Kabuto did mention that he had perfected Edo Tensei. But it's interesting how Kabuto could "value-add" on Madara...

@ArturiaPendragon Yes, I meant it that way. Kabuto would lose in a 1on1 fight against Orochimaru in open terrain. When they were preparing Konoha's attack, I remember Kabuto's face was terrified. Nevertheless, even if Orochimaru has great knowledge, Kabuto is really really really expert in things like "intellectual jutsu", if you get what I mean. After all, he was the one who cured and took care of Orochimaru in not-normal situations. You need to be skilled for that.

I think they didn't fight at their full powers because Orochimaru controlled them.

 Other than Kabuto, who lets the ninjas fight themselves (more or less).

Because he really controls them, they can't fight better than Orochimaru allowed them to do.

I don't think he explicitly controlled them. He let them fight, only they were mindless. Orochimaru can't use Wood element or Water element, he relied on them to do it for him.

@MadaraUchiha: Other then Kabuto, Orochimaru suppresses the personality of the victims. They still can use their abilities, but they're dumb shells.

@looper: The first and second still conversed with the third and apologized for having to fight him, so their personalities were not suppressed.

@ArturiaPendragon: You should read chapter 118 and 119: In 118, they apologize, in chapter 119, their souls are suppressed (the moment when Orochimaru puts his kunai in their head).

It's actually because the author (Kishimoto) did not plan out the entire story at that point. They used to describe the Third as the strongest Hokage, but this all changed when we got to Shippuuden. Don't bother trying to explain it within the Naruto universe - it's simply an inconsistency in the story, even if Kishimoto writes in some details to patch this error up later on. It's not a knock on the Naruto series though, as this show has been going on for over a decade.

I can think of two (2) theories about that:

They could've kept some "free will" to avoid using full force against a friendly, even though they were being controlled into. Perhaps their strength was enough to counter Orochimaru's control somewhat (but not enough to properly "release" themselves from his control). You see that, when summoned, one of the first things they did was "ask for forgiveness" from Sarutobi, because they had to fight.
It might be linked to the "sacrificial bodies" Orochimaru used to summon them: By law of conservation, the "package" cannot be forced to contain something that goes beyond their capacity, and thus limited the strength of First and Second. It was not a hard limit (the ninjas used were far inferior), but Orochimaru might be using THEIR full strength (but still be constraining First and Second's strength altogether).

Suspension of Disbelief aside, it might be the reason "why" they fought below their grade. That, or Sarutobi could manage both of them at once, but that's even more farfetched.

Well, by the law of conservation, infinite chakra is impossible. And yet, Edo Tensei'd ninja do not get tired, nor do they ever run out of chakra.

Do they? For it to last "forever", they must be involved in an "non-stopping fight", and since dead people cannot feel pain, they might just be using all the chakra of the body, squeezing the muscles and bones out, until there is no more drop of it and, eventually, fall down, not because they are tired, but just because they cannot get any more chakra from the body (and begin "draining" the summoner instead). It might take a lot of time, but perhaps if the fight drew longer, it could've happened.

I'm not sure about how well versed you are in the Manga. But Madara did things which were beyond human scale, a lot of things, and he wasn't even breathing hard. Also, based on latest episodes, it seems as though the jutsu itself has something to do with it (As the Second stated that the technique was improved from last time, and that this time they were resurrected at nearly full power)

Well, we are not measuring things within the "human" scale, but rather a more lax one, but i can see your point about it, it might be more related to the technique (and therefore, the user's chakra) than the old body's.

Towards the end of the manga, when Orochimaru summons all four dead Hokage with Edo Tensei after releasing their souls from the Death Reaper's stomach, it is stated that the first time around, all those years ago, when Orochimaru attacked the Hidden Leaf Village (Konohagakure) and failed, Orochimaru had purposely summoned the first and second Hokage without their full power, knowing full well that if he did so, he would not be able to control them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muriFb2rmeU
Infinite chakra needs to be put into context ... Like the first and second Hokage  had infinite chakra when they fought the third Hokage but still lost and the reason for that was simple .
Having an infinite amount of chakra does not mean  necessarily having an ability to raise your chakra levels indefinitely as in going from a particular energy capacity to raising it infinitely but like a battery which has a set power capacity being able to recharge or maintain that set power or chakra capacity to full indefinitely (my same argument on superman as he is  dependent on the suns power and since the suns output and life span including the amount of suns that exist are limited therefore his power to become stronger and stronger coincides with that limit like a rechargeable  battery with a limited recharger)
SO AN EDO-TENSEI CHAKRA DOES NOT GO ABOVE ITS NATURAL LEVEL FROM WHEN THE PERSON WAS ALIVE (UNLESS CHAKRA CAPACITY WAS IMPROVED BY CASTER) BUT RATHER REGENERATES THE SAME WAY A DAMAGE BODY DOES WHICH MEANS BECOMING A ZOMBIE SIMPLY PUTS YOU INTO A CONSTANT STAGNANT STATE OF FIXED EXISTENCE SO IF YOU'RE A LEVEL 9 THEN YOU CONSTANTLY REGENERATE AND  RECUPERATE  BACK TO LEVEL 9 REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOUR OPPONENT DOES TO YOU OR HOW MUCH  CHAKRA YOU USE UP PER JUTSU .
THE PROBLEM IS WHETHER MADARA WAS  RESURRECTED AT FULL STRENGTH BECAUSE IT SEEMED AS IF HE WAS AND IMPROVED TO BOOT AND EVEN IF HE WAS NOT , DOES HE HAVE JUTSUS WHICH REQUIRE GREATER CHAKRA CAPACITY LEVELS THAN HIS EDO BODY AND IS THAT REALLY BETTER THAN HAVING THE ABILITY TO RECHARGE HIS CHAKRA AND USE KAMIKAZE  MANEUVERS ?
From what I remember the first and second Hokage are only at 70% of their power in ZOMBIE form currently. while I do suspect it may be a good trade off for the second Hokage as his techniques seem to be based on talent for execution rather than power level, the first is like Gaara and Kisame in that their abilities become bigger and more powerful like a DBZ character by just using higher amounts of chakra  pumped into it although you would think they can just add more and more chakra to an already executed jutsu as time goes on but whatever .

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How did Madara Uchiha survive such a long time?
In the last chapters of the manga,

 When Tobi finally admits he is Obito and starts to remember what happened after the rock hit him, he meets Madara. How is this possible? Hundreds of years must have passed; how was he able to survive so long?

Somewhat related

but is an answer not a question... that's why i didn't see it.

I have the impression only some 100 years have passed. So, although unusual, it is possible for people to live that long. Anyhow, Madara's answer explains it.

Madara, when he was close to death, awakened the Rinnegan.
The Rinnegan allowed him to break the seal placed by the Sage of the Six Paths, and summon the Juubi's shell (The Gedo Mazo) from the moon.
Using it as a catalyst, Madara used Hashirama's cells in order to extend his own lifespan.
Once disconnected from the Mazo, Madara died instantly.

and why did he disconnected from the Mazo?

@Washu: His plan with Obito was that Madara will be revived using the Rinnegan he implanted into Nagato. For that, Madara would have to be dead.

Madara Uchiha didn't survive. The one who everybody thinks is Madara is acually Obito Uchiha because Obito said that he was going to take on Madara's legacy. This means the day of the nine tails attack Minato was actually fighting his own student. "Madara" (Obito Uchiha) is the one who set the nine tails lose and he says his name is Tobi which is just Obito switched all around with one "o" taken off.

I've fixed your grammar for this post, but I'm not sure this answers the question that was being asked. It would help if you could add some form of citations or support for your answer.

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Why didn't people of the Leaf Village want to get closer to Naruto if he is the son of the 4th Hokage?
Naruto was always discriminated against by the people of the Leaf Village because he had the Kyuubi inside. However, he is the son of the 4th Hokage and he was the one who sealed it inside him. Why, then, did they discriminate against him if it was in order to save the village?

Related

it didn't show when i was composing this question....

The details of how Minato sealed the Kyuubi inside Naruto, and the fact that Naruto is Minato's son was kept hidden from the villagers. The villagers believed that Naruto is the reincarnation of the Kyuubi, who killed their beloved Hokage. Having experienced the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha, they were also frightened about going near Naruto. Even the people who knew that the Kyuubi was sealed inside Naruto were worried about their own safety, and wanted to stay away from Naruto.

what an answer.. :)

The Masked Man pretty much nailed it. For future reference, even the fact that Naruto's mom, kushina was giving birth was kept secret, as the seal on kyuubi is weakest during child birth. So, if someone told the villager's that Naruto was the son of Minato and Kushina, when no one knew she was even going to give birth, it could be hard to believe. Especially, when only a few people knew about it. Furthermore, it was probably safer for Naruto if people didn't know that he was the Hokage's kid. That title brings a lot of enemies. Even Konohamaru had people following him 24/7.


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Was the Earth in the Gurren Lagann universe destroyed before?
In Gurren Lagann, when they are about to start the fight with the Anti-Spirals, they mention that the Spirals have tried to attack them before but lost. Then, in the episode when the fight is about to begin, you can see many destroyed battleships. Does this mean that the Earth was destroyed and rebuilt before? Or was humanity not completely wiped out?

It's important to note that Anti-Spirals were originally Spiral lifeforms. However:

 The Anti-Spirals realized the truth about the event called "Spiral Nemesis", an event in which the entire universe would be destroyed by an excess of Spiral power. Because of this, they purged themselves of Spiral power and became a collective consciousness (the black creature known as the Anti-Spiral).

The Anti-Spirals then made it their mission to ensure that no Spirals could contribute to this cataclysmic event; this included attacking Earth, where the Spiral lifeforms continued to live. However, they were unsuccessful:

The Anti-Spirals found heavy resistance on Earth, since this was the home of the native Spiral warriors. The Spiral warriors held off the Anti-Spirals, driving them back into space, before pushing further into Anti-Spiral territory.
   -- Anti-Spirals at the Gurren Lagann Wiki

Lordgenome, a powerful warrior, was the one who led the resistance against the Anti-Spirals and ultimately protected the Earth from destruction. However:

 Utterly immersed in the despair the Anti-Spiral had instilled within him, Lordgenome activated his most powerful weapon, the Cathedral Lazengann, and pushed humanity back to Planet Earth, determined to preserve the remaining spiral population by conceding to any demands the Anti-Spiral had. He constructed an imposing castle fortress called Teppelin, and created the Beastmen as enforcers to slaughter human beings living on the planet surface, driving them underground in hope their fear would keep them there along with burying the Lagann in the depths of the Earth's crust.
    -- Lordgenome at the Gurren Lagann Wiki

So, no, the Earth itself was never destroyed. The Anti-Spirals tried to obliterate the Spiral lifeforms, but they were not destroyed; they were only suppressed by Lordgenome in an effort to further the Anti-Spirals' protection of the universe.

Humans are not the only spiral life forms in the universe, there are many others that tried to face the anti spirals before humans and before that the anti spirals were spirals that chose to protect the universe from the spiral nemesis, so before them there were other spirals since spirals are any beings with a double helix dna or something like that so dont think spiral = human, cuz spiral is everything that evolves, from life to galaxies and so on u.u

Hi Nate, I believe that you could be right, but we usually want to back it up with some reference to the source material. Do you have any references you could provide to show your point?

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Do many anime play the main theme during the final battle?
While watching an anime series with a friend, he pointed out that "all anime play their theme song during the final fight." Now, I doubt it's "all", but sure enough, the main theme song of Digimon Tamers and the (first) OP of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood play during the final epic clash in their respective series. (And I'm sure there are many other examples.)
Do most anime do this? Is there a reason for it (as opposed to just playing a new epic piece)?

Tvtropes call that a Last Episode Theme Reprise, and mentions that it is used in video games as well:

Since it's standard practice to make a Theme Song as awesome as
  possible, said theme likes to find its way into a privileged position
  in the final battle. At The Climax of the series, when things are at
  their most epic, the theme gets played over the show itself. Typically
  we'll get to hear the verses not played in the opening, and sometimes
  the whole song is strung together for once.
The opening or closing theme can be used. Often this serves as an
  ultimate Theme Music Power-Up. Often it serves in this capacity for
  the show itself. The creators seem to be claiming their own Crowning
  Moment of Awesome with this music.
This is also common in Video Games, the most common being a reprisal
  or orchestral version of the main theme over the final dungeon or
  ending sequences.

I would say that it is at least not uncommon, since the page has an extensive list of titles that use this trope, to name a few:

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Dragonball GT
FMA
Eureka Seven
Witchblade

and many others. As for Is there a reason for it (as opposed to just playing a new epic piece), usually there isn't. If it is significant, however, it rather seems to be the Title Theme Drop trope;

If i remembered correctly Soul eater did this as well.

Hmm.. that tropes page also suggests Theme Music Power-Up as a reason. Which I guess makes sense; the theme song in the finale always tends to give me goosebumps (in a good series, of course).


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What does the 'belt' Orochimaru and the Sound Four wear signify?
The Sound Four wear a purple-colored type of belt or wrap around their waists:

Orochimaru, their master, also wore one:

Being some of the few ninja I have seen wearing one, does it have a formal name? What does it signify and does it relate or exist in real world fighting..? It feels almost sumo-ish, I think.

The belt they are wearing is generally referred to as an "obi."
The belt braided in the style of Shimenawa ropes, sacred Shinto ropes made by twisting together straws. It is hung horizontally to indicate a sacred Shintoism place such as praying hall or torii.
The Wikipedia article (linked above) notes that:

A variation of the shimenawa is used in sumo wrestling by yokozuna (grand champions) during their entrance ceremonies to denote their rank. This is because the yokozuna is seen as a living yorishiro (formally shintai), and as such is inhabited by a spirit.

Do you know if it signifies anything as it relates to Orochimaru.. why he wears one? I will accept for rank, that makes sense and thanks for the name, but the sumo bit throws it off somewhat.. still curious :)

I don't think it's mentions specifically, but I believe it's more for prestige showing readers that they are stronger than average and they shouldn't be crossed easily.


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How could the machine in Gantz manipulate life and death?
In the anime Gantz, after you die, you're teleported to a special room where a black ball orders you to do some missions in order to continue your life. You can win special prizes with the danger of possibly dying again and only get revived by the exchange of points. How is this possible? How does this machine have power over life and death, and even the power of resurrection?

I don't think it's ever explained how Gantz works. It's alien technology that's been mass produced by humans for the game.

According to gantz.wikia.com:

The black spheres known as Gantz, are objects with seemingly impossible abilities, mass produced in a factory in Germany, using alien military technology. This technology was sent to Earth by a species to help them fight off another alien species that had previously tried to invade them. Each Gantz sphere has a person inside, which the Room of Truth reveals was just a random person duplicated about to provide an interface. The alien broadcast only contained military technology, the point system and other aspects created by humans.
When [the people in the Room of Truth are] asked about souls, they were told the soul is just data, stored somewhere when they died, and would be reincarnated as someone else later on.

It seems the Gantz clones/duplicates a physical body and then uses the "data" of a soul from the original human to put them in the new body.

Congratz that is a good answer :)


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Why aren't mages trusted to remove their own limiters?
In Nanoha StrikerS (season 3), several of the high-end mages had limiters imposed on them to limit their power output thereby reducing their mage rank levels:

Nanoha Takamachi - S+ reduced to AA.
Fate Testarossa - S+ reduced to AA.
Hayate Yagami - SS reduced to A.
Lutecia Alphine - S reduced to D?

The purpose of the limiters was to limit the damage that could be caused to a small area and possibly to protect the mages themselves from overexerting.
Furthermore, limiters can only be removed by a high-ranked official.
With the exception of Lutecia (who was a captured antagonist), why were the mages not trusted to remove their own limiters if their purpose was to prevent accidental collateral damage?

If they could remove it themselves, what would be the point of even having a limiter?

The limiters are there to prevent accidental misuse. It's like a safety lock for guns. There to prevent misfiring. But when you need it, you are free to remove it.

I have a feeling it's to limit damage if they 'accidentally' go rogue.  Similar to how the military requires weapons to be checked-out of an armory (and ICBMs need multiple people to be launched).

I took it to be because the mages are like walking nuclear weapons (probably more destructive in the case of a really angry S+ mage). I'm sure any military command would feel safer with a lock on their strategic weapons!

This limiter is in place because high-end mages' powers become so powerful that they can present a danger simply by being unrestrained.
When a group of mages are in close proximity, or are working together, they must be limited. Because of their high amount of power, this much energy (mana) in one area would endanger the fabric of time-space (the series's equivalent of space–time).[Nanoha Wiki] So consider, if mages were to be allowed to remove these limiters without consent of the TSAB, they may do it unscrupulously, which could lead to unpredictable damage.
This is compared to a parallel in real life, where incredibly powerful weapons are sealed away for emergency; not every soldier on the battlefield has a rocket launcher because that would just lead to destruction (and high costs!).

This is similar to how a normal organization is restricted from carrying excessive weaponry during normal missions, only using such equipment in times of emergency.[DVD Booklet translation]

TV Tropes calls this Awesomeness Is Volatile, stating that "they'd run the risk of having their sheer combined power potentially warping the fabric of reality" and "[Hayate, Nanoha, and Fate] alone pretty much constitute an army".


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What song is playing during the first encounter with Granzeboma?
During Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen (the second movie), the protagonists encounter Granzeboma at about 01:32:30 into the movie, and a battle begins. (A clip of the scene can be found here; the music begins about 10 seconds in.)

I've listened to as many of the songs in the OST as I can find, and none match this noble, battle-laden theme. What music is it that plays during this scene? Is it even available?

I'm tempted to remove both [identification-request] and [music] tags so that [gurren-lagann] appends to the title for better SEO. I'm not sure how common this question is though.

This isn't an anime identification request; it's a request for the name of a song that plays during an anime. It has a single, unambiguous answer. Voting to reopen.

@Cattua sorry for the confusion since the close reason hasn't been updated at the time this was closed, but music ID has been declared off-topic since the beginning of 2022. Hopefully it's now clear since the close reason has been updated a few hours ago.

It is from the second OST, track 6, titled BafBaf! そんなに燃えるのが…好きかい ("BafBaf! Sonna ni Moeru no ga...Suki Kai?", "BafBaf! Being Fired Up Like This... Don't You Like It?").
The scene in the question starts playing from around 02:28 into the track.
The song was also featured in Gurren Lagann Parallel Works music video #2.


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How does the Mangekyo Sharingan blind its wielder, and why are some wielders not blinded?
A disadvantage of gaining the Mangekyo Sharingan is that it leads to blindness over time.

Source: Chapter 385, Mangashare/Binktopia scanlation
We have seen Madara, Itachi and Sasuke, all wielders of the Mangekyo Sharingan, use Susanoo. All three have gone blind or have worsened eyesight at some point*. Itachi and Sasuke have also been shown using Amaterasu which makes the eyes bleed afterwards.
Danzo Shimura, Obito Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake, also wielders of the Mangekyo Sharingan, on the other hand, have never used any of the above techniques and have never shown any sign of blindness*. Why didn't they go blind or have worsened eyesight?
What causes the blindness effect of the Mangekyo Sharingan? How does the Mangekyo Sharingan eventually blind its wielder?

*Please correct me (or suggest an edit) if I'm wrong.
Also, please feel free to suggest edits adding what chapters the events mentioned above happened, so question answerers can review it.

When did Danzo use the mangekyou?

@keinabel I recall Danzo using Shisui Uchiha's implanted Mangekyo Sharingan (Five Kage Summit arc). My memory is hazy on if he has also used it on other occasions.

Only 2 people have achieved Eternal Mangekyou. Eternal Mangekyou is a stronger MS which never go blind. Another way to not go blind is not use your MS frequently which Itachi always used, or use Hashirama cells.

An original Mangekyo Sharingan puts a strain on the eye. The ocular muscles are placed under a constant strain due to the unique chakra the Mangekyo consumes. That strain causes the user to gradually go blind.
Another person's eye doesn't (for some reason) produce the same strain. So the user's vision is intact.
Let's review the list:

Itachi - Awakened his Mangekyo on his own, going blind.
Sasuke - Awakened his Mangekyo on his own, gone almost completely blind, then took Itachi's eyes, and got his vision back.
Madara - Same as Sasuke.
Kakashi - Remember that the eye didn't originally belong to him. His Mangekyo is more similar to an Eternal than a normal one.
Obito - Presumably, it's because Obito has a high concentration of Hashirama Senju's cells. These constantly heal the eye, preventing it from going blind.
Danzo - Same as Kakashi, the eye didn't belong to him. Although using Sishui's eye did put a huge stress on his chakra and body.

Kakashi suffers the same side effect of Mangekyou Sharingan which he mentioned during the fight between him and Sasuke. Danzo is more similar with Obito in that he also have Hashirama's cells on the right part of his body.

But why can Sasuke see by replacing his nearly blind eyes by the blind eyes of Itachi?

@keinabel Sasuke was the one who went completely blind, but Itachi was on the verge of blindness, and could only see a bit. It is never stated that you need a fresh MS to get EMS as shown with Sasuke.

My guess is it places too much stress on the Optic Nerve, with the Eternal Mangekyou simply not using the Optic Nerve at all but rather a self genjutsu to transmit directly to the brain. The reason it needs to be a close relative's is because their chakra needs to be similar enough that it won't be rejected but different enough that the chakra forming the genjutsu won't simply disperse back into their chakra network.
Though it's not as if I could test that theory, given it's fictional.

So if someone was born half Senju or half Uzumaki and half Uchiha it is possible that one gains a pseudo-eternal mangekyou. 6 paths chakra also has some effect in the same way.
Body of the Sage = Senju or Uzumaki
Eyes of the Sage = Uchiha
Eyes plus Body of the sage = a balance in visual and physical prowess plus a chakra reserves that surpasses either bloodline.
I have made several OC's where this is the case.
as for canon evidence.
Obito Uchiha, half his body was grafted from Senju DNA his chakra was already mixed with it to the point when he awakened his mangekyou with it he could perform a combo of wood style and kamui which proves to be very deadly. that aside after that his eye suffers no bad side effects as opposed to Kakashi even after repeatedly using it for over a decade. That is because the chakra used in that eye is a combo of Senju and Uchiha chakra it heals his eye just as fast if not faster than the damage caused.
His right eye was still in his body and his right side is what was grafted onto him with Senju dna. Obito Uchiha is the only canonical evidence of this being the case.
6 paths chakra has also been known to negate and heal the side effects of mangekyou overuse as explained in Indra Otsutsuki's case and Kakashi after gaining both mangekyou in his eyes via Obito possession power up. Kakashi hasn't gone blind because his eye isnt actually his so side effects are less severe plus every time he uses it, it KO'd or killed him, like in pains arc.
Unlike most, I have watched the entire anime and read the entire manga.

Hey, welcome to A&M. I edited out the profanity, please try to avoid this in future answers and questions alike. To learn some more about the community you can take the tour which will teach to write even better answers.


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Why do so many anime and manga have timeskips?
In Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Reborn, and possibly many others, there are timeskips. Why are these so prevalent?

Rebuild of Evangelion (3.0) and Fullmetal Alchemist have these also, and only in the former does it seem to be important to the plot. I'm anxious to see if there's a reason behind this also.

There can be many reasons, but I personally think that the most important one is to give an opportunity for the characters and the story to develop to a new phase.
Naruto is a perfect example for it. What did we have in the first part? We learned about the main characters of the series, got acquainted with them, got familiar with their personal stories. We also learned about who were the true antogonists of the series. With that knowledge, we came to the time-skip.
But what was the situation before the time skip? All of the main characters were too weak to really be able to compete with the antogonists. What if Pain (spoiler)

 came to destroy Konoha in the end of the first season? What would happen?

The anime would probably have ended just there, that's what. By including a time leap, the characters are given the opportunity to change, gain new abilities and powers. A lot of background events might have happened. After the time skip the series are almost reborn: while the readers/watchers already know the personalities of the main characters well, they once again have no idea of their abilities and powers, no idea about the current situation in the world. It opens a lot of opportunities for the story developing. It's also so easy to use, and to correct mistakes with. If you see there's a mismatch somewhere in the story, you can always explain it by the events that happened during the time leap! Very convenient, isn't it?

Do you have any sources or are these just your thoughts? It seems like it could be right, and if nobody has any sources, I'll accept it, but I'm just wondering if anyone official has said anything about it.

@kuwaly, just my thoughts

Since you say there can be many reasons (which I agree with), it might be helpful to at least list a few of the other reasons.

Imagine having to wait through every day, every month, every year, or every decade to see your main character grow up. That would be longer than one piece. That's why we have time skips because the creator wants to give the main character a new technique so they learn it offscreen. Or so that the creator can have a little break. Maybe some other reason. I'm gonna name the in-universe reasons why each main character I know has a timeskip.

Naruto - To get stronger with jiraiya.
Luffy - To learn haki and get stronger to protect his crew and dreams.
Ichigo - I don't remember.
Goku - He was getting stronger.
(Is it a time skip if the show begins at the end of the time skip? If so then ...)
Meliodas - Protecting Britannia from demons and other threats.


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What happened to the barrier at the end of Digimon Tamers?
Warning! This question contains spoilers; most are tagged, but the question's very substance is itself a spoiler.
In one of the final scenes of Digimon Tamers, the entire cast is seen together:

The kids are standing around the portal between the Real World and Digital World, and their Digimon--as well as Calumon and Impmon--are sucked into the portal to return to the Digital World.   Following this, after some time had passed, Takato returned to Guilmon's hole under the "house" in the park, where he found a portal to the Digital World, which we are to assume works just fine.

(A more expansive explanation can be found in the last two paragraphs of this synopsis.)
Firstly, how can the Real-Digital barrier—which Henry's dad says has "stabilized"—regress the Digimon? A barrier, by definition, should act as a split between the worlds, rather than a "vacuum". And second, if the barrier is so stable, why is Takato able to see it open again?

In terms of the Digimon regressing:

 It seems to have to do with their initial bio-emerging being undone. And, since Digimon in the real world are synthesized false proteins, it would make sense that, without the Digital World being properly connected, their physical form would not be able to remain, so they reverted their evolution and returned to the Digital World.

As for the portal appearing:

Shortly before we see it, we see Takato running through the park, when a Digignome flies overhead. Since they are known to be able to grant wishes, in both the Digital and Real Worlds, it would make sense that it granted Takato's implied wish to see Guilmon again, opening the portal for him.


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Why do Spirited Away, Ponyo, and Arrietty have so much in common?
I saw that Spirited Away, Ponyo and Arrietty, all written by Hayao Miyazaki, seem to have some common traits:

The hero is a girl.
Moreover, she is a girl who is special in some way.
She develops a friendship with a boy that is an "insider" and they help each other.
She seems to take a spiritual maturity journey while also building that friendship.

Is there some mystical connection to these themes or it is a mere coincidence? Can someone shed some light on this matter?

Miyazaki is often identified as a feminist. Almost all of his films have strong female protagonists, usually fairly young girls, and challenge traditional gender roles in anime. This presumably explains the first point.
As for the other three, I don't think these are particularly uncommon or difficult to explain. The protagonist in anime is usually somehow special, because a story about someone totally normal isn't usually going to be very interesting. Likewise, for the third point, most anime have some form of (possibly implied) romance, even in short movies. However, there's not a lot of room in movies to introduce extraneous characters, so the love interest has to be at least somewhat related to the plot. As for the final point, that's just another way of saying that it's a coming-of-age story, which is very common, especially with younger protagonists.
So other than the first point, I think these are just common anime tropes that you'd frequently see elsewhere, especially in other movies.

I'd like to point out that the "girl hero" element shouldn't really be all that defining. It represents 50% of the choices.

@GorchestopherH While I agree in principle, in practice Japanese cultural views on gender roles are somewhat more restrictive than in western countries. If we consider Miyazaki's works in the broader context of anime and Japanese culture, it is a pretty notable departure from the norm. A fairly large majority of anime have male protagonists, though I don't have any statistics to justify that claim.

Right, which is why I said "shouldn't". The biggest market for your standard anime is going to be young males. That's just how it is, they buy more manga and watch more cartoons. Miyazaki focuses on female protagonists because he is able to make something that won't lose the default audience, but will add to the under-targeted demographic. It's not a sure-fire easy win of course, which is why it takes a genius like Miyazaki to really capitalize on it.

Hayao Miyazaki is a great writer, but he frequently recycles plots in his stories.  Compare the stories in Future Boy Conan, Nausicaa, and Laputa Castle in the Sky.  All post apocalyptic stories involving villains trying to find and use ancient super-weapons.  Whisper of the Heart and The Wind Rises both have main characters that struggle to create something great.  The main characters in Porco Rosso and Howl's Moving Castle are men mentally scarred by war who think of themselves as inhuman monsters, until the women in their life show them they aren't so terrible.
It is not surprising you have found the parallels that you did between Spirited Away, Ponyo and Arrietty.


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Why didn't Orihime use her powers to reject the creation of the Espada?
I finished the Hueco Mundo arc, up to episode 190, and I have a question about Orihime:
If Orihime can reject all things, why didn't she reject Aizen's creation of the Espadas? She can just say "I reject" and then cast at the Espada. POOF, gone.

Maybe she can only reject things up to a 'certain level'? (and needs (more) training to increase this level)

Because her power is limited.
Rejecting the Espada's creation would mean changing very powerful things, beings with extreme spiritual power would vanish.
She doesn't (yet) have this kind of power. She can't reject events of that magnitude.
She can reject an injury (and even that to some degree, as shown with Ichigo's cero-inflicted wound by Ulquiorra, she couldn't reject such a powerful event), and she can reject incoming attacks (again, to some degree. Yami in his weak form was able to break it with his finger).

Simply put, Orihime has the single most gamebreaking power in the story by being able to reject reality. The thing is, she´s also a pacifist medic, intentionally made so by Kubo to make it so there´s actually a plot. Why would you even write a story if a secondary character could kill every character in 1 second? You wouldn´t right? If she had the will and bloodlust to hurt others she could just go around deleting villains.

Maybe after the series ends, someone can write an alternate arc, "If Orihime was a sociopath."


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Can I increase my lifespan by killing myself using the Death Note?
Suppose I wrote that I will be killed by a UFO falling from space in the year 2315 while I am lifting.
Will the Note increase my lifespan? In other words, will I still be alive by then?

No. There are some rules that prevent this. From the Rules of the Death Note wiki:

The 23-days rule

How to use: XXVII

[...]
If you write, “die of disease” for the cause of death, but only write a specific time of death without the actual name of disease, the human will die from an adequate disease. But the Death Note can only operate within 23 days (in the human calendar). This is called the 23-day rule.

Situation/cause of death is impossible

How to Use: LIV

[...]
In the occasion where the cause of death is possible but the situation is not, only the cause of death will take effect for that victim. If both the cause and the situation are impossible, that victim will die of heart attack.

While an UFO falling on your head is technically unlikely, but not impossible, the fact that you'll be naturally alive by 2315 is impossible. You'll just shorten your life, not make it longer.
Setting death after original lifespan

How to Use: LVII

In the Death Note, you cannot set the death date longer than the victim’s original life span. Even if the victim’s death is set in the Death Note beyond his/her original life span, the victim will die before the set time.

But going to the main point of the question "Can I increase my lifespan by killing myself using the Death Note?". Can I use it to guaranty my 120 years? Let's say, I was born in 2000. So I wrote heart attack 2120. This will make sure that I'll live for 120 years?

@MichelAyres The answer is still no. I added two more rules from the Death Note that prevent this.

No. There is a rule specifically against that:

In the Death Note, you cannot set the death date longer than the victim’s original life span. Even if the victim’s death is set in the Death Note beyond his/her original life span, the victim will die before the set time.

So basically, you'll die of a natural (or whatever your end-of-lifespan-death would be) death before what's written in the Death Note would take effect.

it wouldn't work, because it's beyond your lifespan. but let's say, if you would ask someone with shinigami eyes if he can tell you, your remaining lifespan you could figure out your death date, and then write something like: [your name] dies peacefully at the 3rd may 2087 (just an example). i think this could work because, you still would die on your date of death.

This is actually incorrect, as the highest-voted answer states. The Death Note does not work for dates more than 23 days away.

you can give yourself, for example bradykardie which is a disease, and it's stated, the 23 day rule does not take effect when you give yourself a disease. so, can you escape the 23 day rule? yes. but you can't life till 2315.

The example you gave used a date in 2087. That is more than 23 days away.

yes its more than 23 days. but if you think about it, alone with the 23 day rule you prolong someones life. because after you wrote the name of a person, he would simply die 40 seconds later if you don't write a cause or a time of death. but let's say, you decide your victim will die 23 days later, if you wouldn't set a time or a cause of death, his life would end after 40 seconds. so basically, his lifespan, would be over then. but you gave him 23 days more, so he wouldn't die when his lifespan is over... so basically i think this still could work. btw sorry for my bad english

The point is simply that you wrote a date which is more than 23 days away. We're not talking about cases where you don't write a time or date. The example in your answer does use a date, and that date violates the 23-day rule.

so if you would write: bob zortö dies after his lifespan is over. would that work?

I would have to guess no, since after your lifespan is over, you're already dead.

I should have explained it better. So, if i would write: Bob Zortö dies peacefully after his lifespan comes to an end. Would that work?

No, for the same reason. After his lifespan comes to an end, he is already dead. Regardless, this conversation has gone on too long. The fact remains that your answer states incorrect information. If you'd like to discuss further, then once you've earned 20 reputation, you can come to our chatroom and we can continue.


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What are the real-life origins of CPU and CPU Candidates?
In Hyperdimension Neptunia, Neptunia is based on Sega Neptune. The name of her country, Planeptune is obviously a reference to Sega Neptune. My question is, what console the other CPU and CPU Candidates (Nepgear, Noire, Uni, and Vert) are based on?
Noire means black and her country is Lastation which is based on Sony Playstation. But, PS2, PS3, and PS4 all has black color. PSX/PSOne is excluded since it's gray. Which Playstation console is she based on?
The same can be said about Vert, which means green. There are several variations of XBox. Which one is she based on?
And what about Nepgear and Uni?
EDIT: Considering that Blanc's sister are Rom and Ram, which is obviously a reference to ROM (Read-Only Memory) and RAM (Random Access Memory), it might be possible that Nepgear and Uni refers to a certain peripheral/component/parts of the console. But still, what part?

It's possible that Nepgear is a reference to the Sega Game Gear.

Nepgear is based on the Sega Game Gear, its reference being that Neptune wears two hairclips while Nepgear only has one, possibly representing the maximum number of D-pads supported by the respective consoles the two are based on. (The Sega Neptune is equipped with two controller ports, while the Sega Game Gear requires a link cable to play with more than one player.)
Noire does represent the PlayStation as "Noire" means "Black" in French, the default color of PS2, PS3, PSP and PSVita. Her HDD form in Neptunia Victory is based on the original PlayStation, her human forms seems to be based on PlayStation 2, and the yellow diamond on her outfit being a variation of the Sony Computer Entertainment logo (seen upon booting up PlayStations). In Neptunia Victory, all of her Processor Units are based on PS consoles: Her default (Stone Gray) is based on the original PlayStation, Night Blue is based on the PlayStation 2, DX Silver is based on the PlayStation 3 prototype, Piano Black is based on the PlayStation 3 and Orbital-S is based on the PlayStation 4.
Uni is based on the PlayStation Portable, probably with her name derived from the PSP's optimal disc, the Universal Media Disc.
Vert and Leanbox references the Xbox and Xbox 360, but there is no concrete hint to which they are. Although, in the first game, Vert was said to have a problem with getting too hot; this may reference the 360's tendency to overheat. The Green Heart's outfit is revealing, preferably to easier vent heat.
Ram and Rom are both based on the Nintendo DS. As they are twins, they could resemble the DS' dual screen. The rectangles on their hats in their default outfit seems to represent the screen icons from the DS logo.

Each game in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series is different. They have different stories and different origins. As an example, in Re;Birth 1, the remake of the first game, the goddesses were fighting against each other in the start of the story. In Re;Birth 2, they were already friends in the beginning and Arfoire is technically dead.
With that in mind, when the first game was conceived, the latest consoles are the PS3, the Wii, and the Xbox 360. Noire, Blanc, and Vert's CPU forms represents these consoles respectively. The color scheme for Noire and the PS3 is black. For Blanc, it's white and blue just like the Wii. For Vert, it's green and white, just like the Xbox 360.
By the time the second game (Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2) comes out, the PSP and the Nintendo DS are already released. Ram and Rom represents the dual screen that the DS has and Uni represents the PSP. You can see how the front of Uni's dress matches the UMD holder of the PSP. Her color is also black, which matches the piano black color scheme of the PSP.
Although the goddesses represents the entire console line, their style changes with each generation as each game are different. With Victory 2, because the new Xbox One is the latest Xbox console, Vert's color theme changes to include black. Noire's color theme also includes blue due to the bluish color that the PS4 have.

Vert has been wearing black since the first Victory game in which case she was an alternate version from 1989. the X-Box One was released in Japan in Sptember 2014 while the game was announced in March 2014 but the console was released most in the west by November 2013 so I'm not entirely sure if the developers used the western release of the console or E3 to theme Vert as the PS4 was already released in Japan in Feburary 2014 (which is why they announced it would be released on PS4). ofcause with that said without know which story that Vert is in I don't know which Dimension she from

also the key difference between he first and second games in story is that the CPUs in the first game are 4 were born when the Ultimate Goddess split her power with Historie obtaining some of that power too. in Mk. II, I think in the true end route, there is a part where they go to see the former CPU of Planetune. also the true end of the original game makes the existence of Mk. II impossible unless it's set as a seperate universe

As explained by other answers above the CPU/CPU Candidates and Nations of the  Hyperdimension Neptunium Games (with 3 CPUs missing) are

Planetune = Sega

Neptune = Fictional Sega Home Console
Nepgear = Fictional Sega Portable Console
Plutia = Released Sega Consoles

Lastation = Sony

Noire = Playstation 3 (the system the original game was release on)
Uni = PSP

Lowee = Nintendo

Blanc = Wii
Ram and Rom = the DS and DSi1

Leanbox = Microsoft

Vert = X-Box 360 (as the 360 is from the same generation as the PS3. the X-Box is from the same generation as the PS2)

Eden = Hudson Soft2

Peashy = TurboGraphx 16

Tari = Atari

Rei = Atari Consoles

Soruce: CPU - List of CPUs
Noire's, Vert's and Blanc's console representations in the Ultradimension of Hyperdimension Neptunia V are a bit looser as the Ultradimension represents 1989 and to my knowledge out of the 3 only Nintendo had a console back then for Blanc to fall back to while Noire and Vert do not (Vert questionably could be PC)
the terms used in the games are taken from now Information Technology/Games terms however are altered for the series

Gamindustri = Game Industry, the constant battle for Shares is an indication of this as well as the value of a company on the stock market is the value of the shares. so in Gamindustri the more Shares one nation has the more powerful said nation is much
CPU (Console Patron Unit) - based off the term Central Processing Unit found in all the consoles
HDD (Hard Drive Divinity) - based off the term Hard Drive Disk. in one form or another all the consoles a CPU is based from had a form of hard drive. (the DSi allows the inserting of SD Cards)
DOS (Deity of Sin)

one definition can be that it is based off the term Disk Operating System, the background system used on computers (mainly Windows). this has been the definition i thought it was as the final boss of the true route is called DOS.Arfoire and since this boss is the underlying foundation of ASIC (this is the true Arfoire that had to be defeated not the previous one found in the normal route who is named CFW.Arforie)
Sakurai Tomoko however has suggested that DOS could be based off the term Denial-of-service attack which is used by criminals and fits with ASIC's nature3

CFW (Criminals of the Free World) - while there are many definition of CFW i believe in the context of Neptunia it's a reference to be Custom Firmware, normally used when hacking consoles for pirated content
Console Wars - the term used in real life to describe the constant battle between companies when they release a console to attract buyers to it. done so by inciting developers to develop games for the console, other peripherals such as motion senoring and system changes to include new features such as allowing Indie developers to release games or backwards compatibility
Arfoire - as per how it is pronounced, the R4 is a pirate hardware/software used on the DS for running DS Roms

 which may also be why CFW.Trick and Linda converted Rom to their side rather than Ram during the Lowee chapters of Mk. II

One should note however that as indicated in the Trivia Section of the CPU Wikia Page the term CPU was not used in the Japanese Version of the game much like that of Arfoire so the definitions i have provided above related to the English release of the games

1: both the DS and DSi were released in japan before the Japanese Release of Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk II. the games released for both DS consoles are labeled as DS and work on both systems (as opposed to 3DS or NN3DS games) however the DSi contained a redeveloped operating system and the reintroduction of Region Locking (not present in the original DS) making different operationally wise much like how Ram and Rom are different personality wise
2: as stated on the Wikia's Trivia for Eden there is a reference to Hudson Soft logo which also fits Peashy's color scheme however while Hudson Soft never released any consoles they did make the Hudson Soft HuC6280 CPU for the TurboGraphx 16
3: as you can see on Wikipedia the Acronym is DoS (with a lowercase o) while Disk Operating System it's DOS (with a Capital O) and the of the in the term Criminal of the Free World is omitted in the acronym CFW as such i would more side with DOS rather than DoS however i have no proper citation for which term was used in the English translation

DOS not Denial of Service?

@SakuraiTomoko actually that would be better given that ASIC are criminals and Denial of Service attacks are used by criminals, I just always used the other DOS because the boss of the true end if Mk. II is DOS.Arfoire and is the foundation of ASIC much like how DOS is used as the foundation for windows. ofcause both are Information Technology terms so probably need to see if there is a place which indicated which DOS is used

if planeptune is sega, nepgear is possibly the Sega Game Gear? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Game_Gear

@ToshinouKyouko as you can see with the link to the CPU list on the wikia Purple Sister is lined up with Fictitious Sega Handheld. however while the CPU's and their sisters are personifications of consoles it does say the Fictitious handheld Nepgear personifies, seen in the game being the N-Gear is a reference to the Game Gear

Neptune is based on the Neptune in name only, much as Nepgear is not directly based on the Game Gear.
The Neptune and Nepgear they are named after are fictional seventh gen devices. They can be seen in the media related to the games and occasionally in the games themselves.
Neptune: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/neptunia/images/6/6a/22dzw.png/revision/latest?cb=20141028005428
Nepgear(?)/N-Gear (named after Nokia N-Gauge? It can be used as a phone so...): http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/neptunia/images/b/b4/N-Gear.png/revision/latest?cb=20130906010712
Because she's not based on an existing line of consoles, ingame lore states that Neptune's CPU is upgradeable. I'm not sure if this is the case with Nepgear though...

Nepgear can't possibly be based on Nokia N-Gage. Nokia was never a major console maker like Sega, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. N-Gage was a phone that you can play games on, not console that you can use as phone.

I agree with Killua's comment, neptune could be a reference to Sega game gear. And Neptune is literally closely related to Sega's Saturn

Also with Neptune being Sega, and considering that sisters at supoosed to be made by the same vendor (like Noire and Uni for example), Nepgear being made by Nokia is very unlikely.

Where would the Nintendo Playstation go in that regard then? I mean if they can have a main character named after a non-existent console, that one could happen. There's also Pippin in Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution who is based on an Apple computer made by Bandai (a dedicated gaming computer in a similar vein to Commodore 64 and ZedEx Spectrum). Is she related to B-Sha, WonderSwan or the other Apple computers?


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Who's the girl on the cover of chapter 67?
Who's the girl on the cover of the Dragon Ball manga, chapter 67? Is it just random art? It is not featured in the chapter!

I'm more interested in knowing who the dinosaur is.

She is not known to have any name, nor has she appeared elsewhere besides the cover.
From Dragon Ball Wiki: "The cover of this chapter shows Goku and a young cavewoman riding a dinosaur with a prehistoric-like background."

When I saw that girl in that cover, she actually seemed to me like the girl from the next chapter (68) whom Goku has some interaction:

authors: R̶y̶o̶m̶e̶n̶ S̶u̶k̶u̶n̶a̶


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Why does the Chimera Ant bat suggest that water weakens sound?
In episode 99, the Chimera Ant bat says, "Water significantly weakens the power of sound!"

But water is a good conductor of sound. Why does she say this?

I would guess this is a result of the writer(s) noticing that humans cannot hear well while underwater, and equating that with poor sound transmission. (Our inability to hear underwater is actually unrelated to transmission quality.)

There is some physics to support to this so maybe asking this on the Physics stack exchange could help? I know it has something to do with the frequency changing when it hits the water but I cant remember whole reason.

Am I correct that she is attempting to hit something under the water from above it?

She probably says this because water weakens the effect of the technique, secret sound, that Bat.

Bat enhances her voice and produces a powerful sound wave infused with her nen that confuses and disorientates her enemies leaving them without guard for some seconds

In this scene, Gon rips a bit of his trouser pocket before making them damp with saliva and stuffing them in his ears, effectively making earplugs for himself.
Practically speaking, fabric itself doesn't make good earplugs, but by dampening it, it works quite well.
If Bat's sound waves cannot be heard as well, it won't have the same effect. Therefore it is weaker.
It's important to note that the original phrase was:
水は音波のエネルギーを著しく弱める
Which can be translated, taking in context, to: Water significantly weakens the energy of the sound wave.
Therefore it could be her referring to how water is weakening the effect of her technique, instead of sound in general.

Because water is more dense than the air, the sound does travel faster through water, i think about 4 times faster than air! but because water is dense it also needs more energy to moves the water particles ! which is why you can hear a faint sound in air but in water it doesn't even start, so you can't hear anything
in the end what you read in the link you mentioned is a talk about sound speed, which is indeed faster in water, and even faster in metal ! but there are variables such as initial energy needed for moving the particles, so you can hear
This site too, explains about sound travel under water
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/how-sound-travels-under-water/

Welcome to Anime & Manga! Rather than just saying 'it's basic physics', could you provide some proof in your answer? Short answers are often marked as needing additional citation.


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How and why do the characters speak Japanese?
In Ente Isla they have their own language, and I don't think the people there (especially the ones living on the land) know anything about Japan or Earth. So how could Emilia, her father and that one guy carrying that cart (in the flashback) speak fluent Japanese?
And if they actually know Japanese, why don't they speak it all the time?

They speak in their own language, but for the sake of convenience for the watcher, they probably record the scene in Japanese/" this world's language" instead of Ente Isla.

But why is their native language spoken almost everywhere else then? @nhahtdh

I'm not sure about the rule, but note 1) the language, as shown in the anime, is encrypted English 2) The flashback, iirc, is rather long, and the speech would have to be prepared in English, and the VA would have to act out the scene to convey the emotion of the characters, in the encrypted English.

The people from Ente Isla do not speak Japanese.
They are simply shown speaking Japanese for the convenience of the audience during the flashback.
The moments where they are shown speaking their own language instead of Japanese are when they are chanting spells, which might not be able to be cast in other languages, or when it is necessary to remind the viewers that they come from a different world.
When Maou and Alciel had just arrived in Japan, they did not know the language, so it is important to demonstrate the language barrier to the audience.
During Emi's flashback, all the parties involved spoke the same language, so there was no need at all to show a language barrier, instead it is easier to make the whole scene in the audience's language.

Thanks, but why is it convenience > authenticity? I understand that it's easier for the audience to understand the scenes, but universe-wise it's just "stupid".

The purpose of the animation, the manga and the light novel are to be entertaining and sell or get audience.
For that, convenience for the public is better.
Also, having all flashbacks and otherworld scenes be in a different language would require translation and subtitles, hightening costs.


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Why did Tobi use Kurama in his attack?
After perfectly timing the Release from Kushina Uzumaki's body, Tobi attacks the village using Kurama, the Nine Tails, in chapter 501.
Why did Tobi suddenly decide to use Kurama to attack the village? He was going to need Kurama for his 'Moon plan' as well. So why did he not just take it and leave?

A decent question. I think it's because Minato showed up right then and engaged Tobi in a fight.  And who could resist trying to one-up their teacher?  Unfortunately for him it backfired.  I'm not sure if much reason was ever really stated.  This might just be a plot hole that arose from the events preceding Kurama's attack not having been planned out at the beginning.

Chapters 501-502 never give or imply any particular reason for why exactly Tobi/Obito would attack the village at that time. Certainly, the smartest strategic choice would have been to simply extract Kurama from Kushina and immediately run for it as far and fast as they could.
The most straightforward reason is simply: rage. The Uchiha are famous for their fury, once their blood starts boiling, and it may be he simply saw red so went on a rampage with the most devastating weapon he had on hand. Remember that he had just been to Rin's grave and seen Kakashi there, reviving all those old, tormented memories, and from there had to immediately battle Minato. Minato was probably the most powerful and wily opponent he'd ever faced until that point, so battling him must have been frustrating. The combination of these events in such quick succession: boom!

Madara was the only person who in the past could control kurama and use him as a weapon. Since Tobi wanted people to think that he was Madara he attacked the village by using kurama.

Not sure that makes sense since nobody knew it was him who did it for a long time.


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Who was Annie apologizing to in episode 13?
After the great victory gained by humans against the Titans in episode 13, when the trainees were collecting dead bodies, Annie was apologizing to a dead soldier. Who was this? Was it Marco?

In wiki it is stated.

Despite her seeming callousness, she has expressed a level of guilt
  and shock, most notably when apologizing to a certain corpse after the
  battle of Trost

Various sources say it was Mina which may be true because;

Mina is shown sitting with Annie at the tables in the background of the
  first few episodes. That shows that they had some sort of friendship
  between them, as Annie is asocial and would have otherwise sat alone.

As counter argument: It is stated that Mina's head is bitten off but in the anime there is no such scene.

After Eren's leg is bitten off suddenly by one of the Titans, she and
  the other two attempt to kill the Titan that injured him. However, a
  group of Titans arrive out of no where and one of them kills Nac,
  catching her off-guard as another Titan grabs her 3D Maneuver Gear's
  wire, Mina killed anime Mina is caught by a Titan.  knocking her over
  to the wall. When she realizes where she is, it is already too late
  for her to escape; she is grabbed by the Titan and her head is bitten
  off

According to the recent release of volume 77, I think it was, its revealed that Annie did have a hand in Marco's death. After Marco overheard Bertholdt and Reiner's conversation about their true identities, he approached them and Reiner tackled Marco. After Annie came along, Reiner ordered her to take his 3DMG and leave him stranded. They watched a titan eat Marco in horror.

According to the wiki for Episode 13 Primordial Desire
it states that: "At the same time, Annie is also looking at a corpse of a soldier, apologizing to them." There is no name stated for the solider it was most likely just the face of a fellow solider that she recognized.
Jean finds and identifies Marco's corpse as he is assisting in the retrieval of the bodies. Marco's death is off-screen, so as far as for the anime the exact means of the death can not be identified.
Armin does manage to recognize Marco's 3D Maneuver during the attempt to Arrest Annie, when questioned she states that she "found it" so there is a potential that she may have done something that either led to his death or had a hand in his killing. ref(Marco Bott)

In the later in the series Armin finds out Annie uses Marco's equipment. Does that mean Annie killed Marco? @SWard

@tenten I added to my answer to cover this comment as well.

The corpse is shown to have 3DM gear attached which makes it impossible to be Marcos corpse as his gear was removed by Annie before his death. The hair on the corpse is dark and long, in the shape of a pigtail. It is very obvious that the corpse is Mina Carolina's.
Furthermore, Mina and Annie were illustrated to be very close as they sat together in the dining room, which would explain her apologizing to the corpse - she was her friend. Finally, Mina's head was bitten off which is shown in the image as well. If it was Marco's corpse it would be against the wall, like when Jean found him, but this corpse is on the floor, not against a wall, so it could not have been Marco.

Well, when it shows Jean talking to the lady who was asking about Marco, it shows a headless person on the roof. So I believe that was Mina. The person Annie was apologizing to was not Mina. Of course, it wasn't Marco either since he was bitten into. She could've even just have been apologizing to a random dead person.
If you read the manga, it does show how Reiner was forcing Annie to take of Marco's gear. Reiner, Bertl, and Annie were each saddened about Marco's death.
Even so, maybe Annie was apologizing to Marco. Reiner probably wanted her to take the body and dispose of it herself. She knew Jean would come by, knowing they were friends, so she propped it against a wall instead. That is my personal belief.
Annie has feelings too. It shows her crying over Marco in the Manga. Of course, she would do something like this to make sure Jean would know about Marco's death.

Concerning chapter 77, Reiner asked Annie to take Marco's 3D gear. She refused. Then Reiner manipulated her and forced her to do it by threatening her and her father. After much hesitation, she finally did it and she watched Marco being eaten. She cried a lot because Marco was being eaten.

It's Ruth D. Kline. Type up the episode on its wiki page and the list of characters featured there will show Ruth D. Kline so one of the deceased but more importantly, the one that Annie Leonhart was apologising to............ I'm glad I found it because Marco's death was outrageous. Such a fun loving guy..... killed due to treachery...... Jean should've beaten them all to a pulp..........

I believe that Annie was apologizing to Mina Carolina, because the corpse had pigtails along with long black hair, as Mina had. Also it wasn't Marco because his head was bitten into and he was half of a body, also Marco had his ODM gear taken from.

Please include relevant sources/references to support your answer.

This is a very old post but I’d like to give the confirmed answer. Annie was apologizing to Marco because it’s her fault he died. She took his maneuvering gear so that a Titan would eat him; she did this because Marco overheard a conversation between Reiner and Bertolt about “using my Titan,” they obviously had no other choice but to eliminate all possibilities of their involvement with Marley, the Colossal and Armored Titans. and the fall of Zhinganshina being known. Although it’s phenomenal character building, Annie who was raised to believe the island eldians are devils incarnate and pure evil, apologizing to one of said demons, it really shows the cognitive dissonance and dilemma Annie was going through mentally.

Welcome to Anime & Manga! We appreciate your contribution, but please [edit] and try to back up the answer by providing supporting sources/references. Thank you.

I think she she is saying sorry to Marco, but she's substituting some cadets body for Marcos, as Annie would assume the Titan wouldn't leave a body.


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Is there any proof that players really die in real life after dying in SAO?
So I watched the anime not too long ago, and it was the single most important rule in the game to not die, otherwise one would die in real life.
However, I never encountered an episode where they showed players die in real life.
I had my share of skepticism, but hey, we all get the story. Die in the game, die in real life. Cool problem which made story interesting.
Then I had conversations with friends about the anime and I was in for a surprise. They all firmly believe nobody actually died. Their basis for this argument was the episode near the end where it was mentioned that all players were logged out. They were convinced that it meant all players that were left, and all players who died in-game.
This, plus the fact that I never saw a person having their brains fried with a nerve gear made me think otherwise for a bit. If they really did die, they could have just died from malnutrition or the extreme stress of thinking it's the real deal. As to why no one woke up ahead, they could have been held in some limbo after in-game death until Kirito defeated the game.
But after doing some research, everyone else does say players died in real life - but have no proof. They all just said they will die because it was said that they would.
Can anyone point me to an episode (or manga chapter) that depicted someone had their brains fried with the nerve gear? or proof that someone actually died from being fried with a nerve gear (like a cemetery visit scene, certificate of death etc.).

I don't remember it being shown, but I think it was mentioned later in the series that some people died after people tried removing the headgear from the victims, before word got out that doing that was also fatal. (Posted as a comment 'cuz I have no citation.)

@Killua: I was originally going to dig that up and post it as an answer. As it turns out, at least in the anime, all that happens is that Akihiko himself digs up various news articles / footage about this happening, and if we're going to suspect him of bluffing, this probably wouldn't resolve the problem.

tl;dr: Players did indeed die from having their brains fried. Otherwise, it would be odd for Kirito to never be told and to make statements suggesting that he doesn't know.
A general meta-observation
Firstly, I should note that it would be very odd story-telling if we (and Kirito) were deceived about players having their brains fried and never were told that this was actually a lie, given how the "real death" factor was so intrinsic to the set-up of SAO. It's normal for stories to have plotholes or to leave some things unexplained; this, however, is more an issue of some sort of Occam's Razor for stories.
Observations from SAO
Halfway through the first episode, Akihiko states that there is no logout option, and that removing the NerveGear will result in death. He then pulls up a bunch of news articles and footage about the deaths that have already occurred. However, perhaps Akihiko is just bluffing and making fake news articles.
If Akihiko were lying, then it wouldn't make sense for the players to be trapped so long, as suggested by David Mulder; people outside could just remove players' headsets. Perhaps people outside wanted to play safe after the announcement (despite the reduced credibility, since the 213 who supposedly died would still be alive) or heard a different version (e.g. "After this announcement, everyone who tries to exit the game environment will be killed."). However, this can only be the case if they had cause to believe that NerveGear was capable of killing people.
Moreover, as suggested by Killua, these scenarios would seem inconsistent with Akihiko's conversation with Kirito after SAO is cleared:

Akihiko: Just a moment ago, the remaining 6,147 players were logged out.
Kirito: What about the ones who died? What about the 4,000 who died?
Akihiko: Their minds will never return. In every world, once you die, you're gone.

By this point in time, Akihiko sounds relatively forthright, and it would be really strange for him to omit information at this point if Kirito is going to find out the truth once he logs out anyway. However, it's still possible these people instead all died "from malnutrition or the extreme stress of thinking it's the real deal". (This still leaves the 213 who presumably would not have actually died at the beginning. Again, it would be very odd story-telling if they didn't actually die and we never knew.)
It's thus worthwhile to look at Kirito's interactions after he leaves SAO.
Post-SAO, in-universe evidence
In the first episode of the second season (about 13 minutes in), Kirito questions the government official who approaches him if he was sure that the players of Gun Gale Online have really been dying of heart attacks after being shot in virtual reality-like circumstances. He wonders if the GGO cases are similar to what happened in SAO:

Kirito: You're sure it was heart failure, right?
Kikuoka: What do you mean?
Kirito: [flashback to an image of the NerveGear headset] There wasn't any brain damage?

This suggests that players could indeed die from brain damage after being killed (or having had their headsets removed) in SAO. (Kikuoka even later mentions NerveGear's ability to destroy one's brain via its microwaves.)
Moreover, it probably was the case that players did die from this mechanism. If not, it would be odd for Kirito to not be aware of the fact, or for Kikuoka to not correct him (e.g. "Sure, NerveGear is physically capable of destroying brains, but that's not what happened in SAO."), when this scene takes place more than a year after SAO was cleared. (SAO is cleared in November; the GGO arc starts in December of the next year.)
After all, Kikuoka would presumably be aware of such cases as a government official involved with the SAO case. Similarly, Kirito was involved in the investigation---by the GGO arc he has told Kikuoka everything he knew about the SAO incident---so it would be expected that he would know of such specifics a year after the case.

I haven't seriously followed SAO in a while, so if I'm missing something, feel free to point that out.

It's also worth noting (and adding to the answer?) that if Akihiko lied, then it's odd that even after he is defeated, he did not come clean. He and Kirito still talk about "survivors" and "those who died", even after Akihiko knows his little experiment is over.

And if they wouldn't have died they would simply have taken everybody's helmets off rather than hospitalizing everybody with their helmets on.


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Why was Jellal Fernandes blindfolded?
In Fairy Tail (2014) episode 70, Jellal was wearing a blindfold and was being guided by Meredy. What is the reason that he was wearing this?

In chapter 369 (episode 240 aka episode 65 (2014)) Jellal crushed his own eyes to prevent himself from falling for Nightmare's illusions. Seeing how he does not have an artificial eye like Erza, he could not find another way to destroy Midnight's illusions.

So Jellal blinded himself remembering how Erza was easily able to beat midnight's illusions before because of her artificial eye. There for he doesn't have that handy cap that could very well have saved him he injured his eyes making him blind along with his other severe injuries from his fight with Midnight and the rest of the Oracion Seis. If you want my honest opinion Meredy did the right thing by helping him as at the time he was hurt and couldn't see. Also to her surprise the Oracion Seis helped protect Jellal from Rusty Rose and later he regained his eye sight as he removed the blindfold.


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Why do Killua and Gon pretend not to know Hisoka in episode 50?
In episode 50 of Hunter x Hunter (2011), Hisoka wants Gon and Killua to "Play dumb," and pretend not to know him.
Why? What's the purpose of Gon and Killua pretending not to know Hisoka?

If I remember correctly, Killua and Gon were kidnapped.

There are two things in play here.
The first is that they had rapport with Hisoka. This means that they could use him to their advantage later on, to break free, to take down a gang member, to get information from him, etc. If the gang was aware of this, they may intervene to stop this advantageous situation.
Second and more importantly, the gang members knowing that Hisoka knows them could be deadly for all three of them. The gang could interpret that as Hisoka being a traitor, or Killua and Gon being infiltrators. In either case, the gang would want to eliminate Hisoka, or Killua and Gon... or both.
So, due to their advantageous relationship and their potential threat to the gang's security, it was far more beneficial for all three of Hisoka, Killua, and Gon to pretend that they did not know one another.


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Why did the Black Butler anime diverge from the manga?
Halfway into season one of the anime the storyline changed from that of the manga and new characters were introduced. Then, because of the changes made in season one, the second season was also completely different to the manga. Book of circus, season three, picks up where one veered off. Was there a reason why they didn't just stick to the plot of the manga to begin with?

At the time the first season of the anime was developed, there was not enough published manga content to fill a season.
The first episode of the Black Butler anime aired on Oct 2 2008. (IMDB) At that time, the last completed arc was the Curry arc. The first chapter of the Circus arc was not published until August 18, 2008. (Kuroshitsuji Wikia)

Hehe, yeah I guess that makes sense. Thanks.


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Why do character colors sometimes suddenly change?
I've seen this used in almost all of the episodes, where during a fight or a scene the colors of the characters will change almost immediately, almost to an inverted color scheme, or sometimes a more muted color scheme.
In this scene, you'll notice that Josuke's Stand, Crazy Diamond, is normally colored blue/pink, yet during the fight switches to blue/green, while Killer Queen, who is normally Pink/Black/Gold, is switched to Gold/Black/Blue (body, gloves, skullpiece).
In another fight, seen here, not only does Josuke and Yoshikage change colors, but their stands change color to yet another different color, with Crazy Diamond turning blue/brown, and Kira Queen turning Blue/Green/Yellow.
Another example of Yoshikage and Josuke:

Is there a specific reason for doing this technique?  Why has David Co "switched" the colors sometimes during a fight?

Only reason I can tell, is just sloppiness or pushing an episode out.  Some series have a lot of issues, while others have fewer.....how should I put it.....gaffes?

It's to convey emotion and atmosphere. Similar to HxH's Hisoka when he shows bloodlust.

From what I know, Araki enjoys playing with various colour schemes, which is evident in multiple different colour versions of the characters in manga covers and coloured artwork, which the anime series has followed as it is a big 'part' of the look and feel of Jojo-series as a whole. For specific instances of colour, I guess it's mainly to enhance and add visual flavour to dramatic scenes.

If you noticed in stardust crusaders at the start when we first see Kakyoin, he calls Jotaro "evil" and after Jotaro says "Evil?" they swap colors, making Kakyoin and Hierophant purple and Jotaro and Star platinum green.
It would almost be like Jotaro's the "loser" and the "evil one" until it turns around, making Kakyoin the "loser" and the "evil one".
Thus Jotaro saying "I may be deemed a punk but i know nauseating evil when i see one"
That is my theory about it.
It might as well just be its own style of showing off cool colors but there may be a bigger meaning to it all.


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What happens to the members of W.I.S.E. near the end of the Psyren?
Towards the end of the manga,

 After Ageha presses Miroku to go a different way to making a society of Psi users,
 we are shown an airstrike that flies in and demolishes a huge portion of the forest.
 WE actually see Ageha and his friends escape, but there is no mention of Miroku and his
 companions.  In the last chapter, it is mentioned that the world "believes" they are dead.

Are we to assume that they die? Or is it that they go off into hiding?

If you look at chapter 145 (page 4) in the manga, you can see this:

Yoshina asks No. 7 about Ouroboros, and she says that it has disappeared into space again in exchange for her brother's and Grana's lives.
So, if we take the words of No. 7 seriously, yes, they died.

But since Mithra was killed in the end, doesn't what happen to Ourobros not happen? Because Yoshina altered the present (redirected WISE), that means the future could have never happened

If you read the next chapters they talk about the Time-Paradox maybe this is the reason why they still had to make the sacrifice.

Am I the only one who doesn't see an image?

No, I can't see anything either.

Weird i can see it....

@Washu I can't see it either. In the future, try no to directly hotlink to content hosted on other sites. Upload them to Imgur (click the image icon next to the curly brackets, on the Answer toolbar) to avoid broken content in the future.


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Where did the concept of multiple endings originate?
A lot of games (and even anime like Oreimo) have multiple endings in addition to the Normal Ending -- most commonly the Good End, Bad End, and True End. Which series or what medias first popularized this concept?
What was the intended effect back then? Has it changed/evolved over the years? If, so how?

Any examples of an anime with this?

If I had to take a guess, I would say western civilization invented both alternate endings and 2nd person stories. And Japanese anime/manga basically took this concept to add new flavors to their work. Though I think it was primarily popularized through visual novels.

Another example would be School Days.

In games, this goes back pretty far. Bubble Bobble had two endings, and DuckTales had Good/Normal/Bad. The film Clue is older than either of those and has multiple endings. Are you specifically asking about the Good/Bad/True trichotomy? Or just fiction with multiple endings in general?

In terms of games, it normally extends from the player having choices, these choices affect character relationships and events which change the the story to try and give a normally linear plot some openness or when there isn't too much game play involved.

For example, in Fate/Stay Night, in the Heaven's Feel Route, if you don't build up enough of a relationship with Sakura, when the time comes you are unable to go against your ideals of being a "Ally of Justice" and get a bad ending. By building up on the relationship, you abandon your ideal and instead stay by Sakura's side and help her

In the example above, the endings are decided by choices you make. In some cases, it's how you play the game:

For example, in Mugen Souls, by increasing the level of all of Chou Chou's forms and then viewing all the scenes in the Mugen Field where her different forms take over and speak, you see a final scene where all her forms reveal that they feel now that they no longer have a purpose as they were created by Chou Chou to fill the loneliness she felt, and now she had so many friend, they wasn't needed. However, the crew tells them that Chou Chou would still be sad if they disappeared and the decided to remain, and this leads to a scene in the final battle where Chou Chou plans to sacrifice herself to save Belleria from Vorgis, but is stopped by her other forms, since the level of these other forms is dependent on the number of Shampuru you have collected you also hears the voices of the people that have been turned into Shampuru and however even though they were forced into servitude they will fight and serve Chou Chou loyally and launch a separate attack at Vorgis to weaken him ready to the final-final battle

There are also some games tend to only have 1 ending and numerous bad endings as like a game over, these are normally backed up by a mechanic that enables the choice to proceed further into the game.

For example, in Sekien no Inganock ~What a Beautiful People~, if you don't form a solid image of both characters in the Inner Voices section in most chapters you will not have the 3rd option to extends "your right hand" and the options you have will always lead to a bad end (exception is the REBORN edition which you have the option to skip this section).

In terms of origins, while I'm not 100% sure, the earliest I have seen is in visual novels which were practically just text based with CG in the background so the purpose was to make a game that was still interactive.
Nowadays, unless it's a normal text based visual novel like Canvas 2, it's used as a form of replay value with a normal ending leaving the plot open-ended and the true ending bring about a conclusion, a bad ending also exists as a means to tell the player they majorly stuffed up how they played.
I should point out that all this information is first hand experience with English games and English translations of visual novels


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What are the plot holes in Naruto?
Can someone come up with a list of all the plot holes or contradictions Kishimoto has made in the Naruto Manga?

This may end up being too wide-ranging/excessively long, and a lot of things may end up being not necessarily contradictions but just not fully explained yet, because the manga isn't done.

Yeah I wasn't sure if this type of question is suited to be on SE or not. As for the not necessarily contradictions part, I am only looking for clear cut ones where Kishi said one thing in one chapter and then contradicted in another. Not explained situations should not be included.

Hope someone doesn't ask a similar question with regards to Bleach :)

Just out of curiosity, can something like this be considered a soft question?

@krikara Kishimoto has done some patchy narration once in a while. You will find plenty examples. For instance, Minato showed the Rasengan to Jiraiya and Kakashi, but not the Flying Thunder God. Instead he taught the FTG to 3 minor characters, including 2 unnamed characters. All because Kishimoto wanted to setup 5 Kage v/s Madara, and had previously screwed up by deploying the Mizukage far away to protect the Daimyos.

Also, Minato sealed Yin-Kyuubi within himself, then promptly died, and when he was reincarnated, he can already control the Kyuubi's chakra, something which his son achieved at the age of 16, after a lot of struggle. How did Minato suddenly gain control over the Kyuubi in zero time? Was he learning to control the Kyuubi inside the Shinigami's stomach? :o

@MaskedMan People can gain their Bijuu's power if they willingly cooperate.

Since the story is still continuing, even would-be plot holes can be patched over later. The only real hiccup that comes to mind is an art issue:
In Chapter 619 the four past Hokages are revived with the 4th Hokage's signature coat rocking the flames on bottom.
But in Chapter 630, the 4th Hokage arrives on the battlefield with coat in full flow with missing flames.

That is a pretty cool catch. But in response to your plotholes argument, there are some not patchable, for example, Kishi messed up some of Itachi's timeline.

mashashi got lazy drawing those flames. :D


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Can a person have 5 hearts like Kakuzu?
It is shown in the Anime that Kakuzu from Akatsuki has 5 hearts which he steals from the person he kills. Also he dies only when all hearts are destroyed. So can another person have 5 hearts like him or only he has that ability?

In the real world? Yes, this might be possible  read this
In Naruto? I doubt there will be another but yes the possibility is there. Kakuzu decided to get more hearts due to his stitching power. There might be more ninja's that have a similar power that could do this. Then again the chances are slim that another ninja would do the same thing.


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Why do the Black Star Dragon Balls exist?

If Kami made the Black Star Dragon Balls, why didn't Dende have to recreate them like he did with the original ones?
Why did Kami make the Black Star Dragon Balls in the first place? Namekians are supposed to be peaceful.
Why weren't the Black Star Dragon Balls scattered? They were all together when Pilaf found them. (How did Pilaf get past Korin)

Kami didn't create the Black Star Dragon Balls. The entity known as the Nameless Namekian did. This is from the Dragon Ball Wiki:

The Black Star Dragon Balls, or Ultimate Dragon Balls, are a more powerful version of the main Dragon Balls, created by the Nameless Namekian (before Kami and King Piccolo split).

So Dende not having to recreate them is possibly due to there being a different set of rules applied to them. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to point out when the Nameless Namekian made these Black Star Balls. However, it would make sense that the regular Dragon Balls had more restricting rules, since Kami had a responsibility as Earth's guardian to make sure they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands, so it would make sense for them to be rendered useless by his death.
Since now we know it wasn't Kami but the Nameless Namekian who made them, except that we don't know the exact time he made them, it could be inferred they were made during a time when the Nameless Namekian began developing a bit of a corrupted side within him with less than perfect intentions. The side that would later becomes King Piccolo.
They weren't scattered because they were supposed to be hidden. Since Kami had knowledge of the Nameless Namekian in him, he and possibly Mr. Popo thought it would be better to keep watch over them. Again, from the Dragon Ball Wiki:

The only people who would have known of the existence of the balls would have been Piccolo (due to him having all of Kami's knowledge) and possibly Mr. Popo, but King Kai also knew of their existence.

Although it probably wasn't smart to keep them all in one place, GT never really did make much sense.
Also, this slipped by me the first time around, but to further prove GT's logic isn't really logic, look at this snippet about the Black Star balls:

After the wish has been granted, the [Black Star] Dragon Balls spread across the universe... If all seven balls have not been re-collected and returned to the planet on which the wish was granted in one year, the planet will explode. In the Japanese version, Mr. Popo insists that not only must they be returned to the planet they were used on, but they must be returned to their original spot, hence why Earth still exploded a year

So not only did the Nameless Namekian make them, but once a wish was granted, he could never get to them again. Is space flight common already at that point in time? If it was, why make it near impossible to track the balls again without a Dragon Radar within a year, thus killing the Earth's populace?
Last but not least, if Kami did have knowledge (which would've later transferred over to Piccolo by them fusing and becoming the Nameless Namekian again), why not go ahead and destroy the Dark Star Dragon Balls before all the drama?

Dende didn't have to recreate them because when created Piccolo and Kami were joined together, then they split which then would make them disappear until when they joined back together again during the cell saga henceforth bringing them back; but being forgotten about they were never used.
The Black Star Dragon Balls would have been the first ones made on earth, and being made by the nameless Namekian whom would have been evil at the time would have something to do with it, but it's possible that they were made so powerful accidentally that they basically sacrifice the planet they're used on for whatever is desired. Of course unless they're collected and returned.
The Black Star Dragon Balls had to be together because they probably seemed safest at the lookout and they all have to be on the same planet otherwise the last one that they were used on would blow up in a year. Plus it would make sense having to be kept at the lookout because the guardians are supposed to protect them since they endanger the earth if used, but Dende's a noob so you gotta cut him some slack.


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Who did the prime minister call?
At the end of Ghost in the Shell SAC 2nd Gig, the prime minister was placed under arrest. She then calls someone from her phone (after the Americans don't answer her), and gets her power back.
The other characters kept saying, "She couldn't have called...", but we are never told who she called.
Who did she call?

From what she said about keeping distance from other countries, I think it was some Japanese organization, but still no idea of what kind.

@Hakase wasn't there suppose to be like an JASDF or something that was the main military power?...Been a while seen I watched it.

It seems that the prime minister had acquired a modest amount of military backing and/or created task forces that the governing body (and section 9) were unaware of.
Similar to the clone army in Star Wars, Sifo-Dyas believed he had commissioned the secret army "for the Republic" to be held in reserve for the coming conflict. Neither the ruling party nor the Jedi council were aware of "their" army.
Exerpt from wiki:

"During the refugee crisis, she is arrested under charges of treason
  for requesting United Nations intervention in the crisis, though this
  action on the part of the Ruling Party chairman was not sanctioned
  by either party, or electorate - her escape from custody and the aid
  of Section 9 prevented this secret coup d'état from becoming a
  reality, and also then sent a clear signal to the American Empire that
  Japan prefers a Stand-alone status within the international community.
This demonstration of capability, and the calling in of favours owed
  at the height of the crisis increased her ability to control Japan in
  the wake thereof. She also demonstrated that she held clout from a
  military stand-point: The JASDF was her tool of choice for reminding
  the contending land and sea force commanders where Japan's true
  military prowess was to be found, from both a domestic and military
  stand-point. Kayabuki displayed great wisdom by selecting Daisuke
  Aramaki and Major Kusanagi as personal advisors that prevented
  potentially cataclysmic events during the beginning of her
  premiership."

The bottom line is that she used the state's military forces (the two jets that buzzed the American sub), to protect the state, from the state, all without the state even knowing. Refusing to contribute to genocide against the refugees (and possible future citizens), the JASDF branch she called was obviously led by a patriot* who backed the State, rather than the Leadership.
Edit: *Actually, it is unclear as to whether or not the JASDF commander knew that Kayabuki had been arrested and was being fired. I like to believe in "true patriots" standing up for what's right, but it's also possible that the JASDF commander was simply not aware of Takakura's actions and would have refused Kayabuki's order, if he'd known. Since Kayabuki was being fired but wasn't fired yet (publicly), he also may have just been "following orders". The JASDF excercise is called a "favor", which leans toward the commander knowing the details of the situation and voluntarily following Kayabuki's order.

Is there any indication of that other than the sudden change of mind of the opposing parties? Maybe something happened later that revealed the existence of these hidden forced?