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What is the relation between Ergo Proxy and Vincent Law?
I understand that one of them is actually the other. At first we are led to believe that Vincent is Ergo. But toward the end of the series, we discover something but I am not sure what it means: Ergo created Vincent to run away from himself. Also, in the beginning, when Vincent turns into Ergo, he loses control and doesn't remember any of it. Later on he starts to control Ergo, but at the same time he can talk with him.
So, basically, I don't understand which 'came first':
Is Vincent Law Ergo Proxy? Or is it the other way around? Or are they actually two different 'selves' that 'reside in the same body'?

From what I understand, Proxy 1 and Ergo Proxy are two separate entities. A miss conception, thanks to the English translation, is proxy 1 created Romdeau; this is not the case as Romdeau is described a flawed Dome in the same way as its creator, Ergo Proxy, is a clone on Proxy 1 and hence a flawed proxy (also shown by the fact he can survive UV rays).
This is further backed up by the relationship between Ergo and Monad. Monad we are told loved Ergo proxy due to their opposing natures of life and death, thus she comes to Vincent AKA Ergos aid at the end of the series rather than to help forefill Proxy 1's ambitions for Ergo to destroy humanities chance for a future on earth.
Vincent is therefore the human name of the being Ergo proxy while he has amnesia due to the removal of his own memories to prevent him from becoming the literal grim reaper on earth. Ergo Proxy was created a long time prior to the series by Proxy 1 as a means of revenge on humanity.
Of coarse I could be completely wrong but it doesn't really matter as the main focus of the anime isn't the plot but the moral and theological questions which arise from the setting and premise of the series. In short its a fantastic anime whether the ending is ambiguous or not :)

According to wikipedia under Other Characters - Proxies:

Ergo Proxy is a "clone" of Proxy One, Romdo's creator and guardian, who was created to help bring about the destruction of the human race because of Proxy One's anger at humanity's treatment of and plans for the Proxies, specifically Monad Proxy. Ergo Proxy often wears a white mask with elements of both The Phantom of the Opera and a harlequin jester to differentiate from Proxy One. Vincent initially has no control over his transformations, changing into Ergo Proxy whenever another Proxy reveals itself, but is implied to be in control of his abilities by the end of the series.

Regarding Proxy One:

The main antagonist of the series, he is Ergo Proxy's original and true self, and calls Vincent his shadow. He was first alluded to in episode 15 and is the one behind the events of the entire series, having created Vincent and then sent him back to Romdo from Mosk to start his revenge plan. Near the end of the series, Proxy One is revealed to be the one who fired the thermonuclear missile Rapture, destroyed Amnesia to hide Vincent's memories, and killed Donov Mayer.

To summarize, Vincent Law transforms into Ergo Proxy. Ergo Proxy is the proxy form of Vincent Law. He appoints Romdeau, his domed city, with a human regent and then gives himself amnesia, leaving himself in his human form (as Vincent). Ergo Proxy comes first, though he is a clone of Proxy One.

Does this mean that Vincent is to Ergo Proxy what Ergo Proxy is to Proxy One?

From what I can tell, not really, though I honestly don't understand exactly what Proxy One is. Vincent is what Ergo Proxy turned into after Ergo Proxy gave himself amnesia. They are the same entity. Proxy One is a different entity.

Vincent Law is Ergo Proxy, who is Proxy 1. Proxy one divided himself into two. That which is divided must become one. So Proxy 1 splits into 2, and one half leaves the dome, the other half remains. The half that leaves gets rid of their memory... who are they now? They are no longer the true Proxy Project creation. They are now gaining self-awareness and forging a new identity.
It is perhaps because they rejected their imperfect origin that they decided to dump their memory, and become Vincent Law. Victory over Law. He has claimed victory over the rules. He is no longer just a proxy. The amnesia effect allows us to follow him on his journey against the strongest enemy he'll ever face... himself. A journey we all must take if we strike out against what we were planned to be and instead seek out our own destiny.
So Proxy 1 is Ergo Proxy... He is both one and the same, and he must embrace every aspect of himself if he is to truly choose his own future. It's not an easy thing to do, but he has Re-l, or reality. He also has pino, and "in vino, veritas", or "in wine there is truth".
So moving forward with reality and truth, the lab project known as Proxy One will eventually embrace that he is Ergo Proxy, and yet overcome his origins and finally reach happiness by redefining himself as Vincent Law, victorious over the laws his very cells were programmed to follow. He felt the pulse of the awakening, and instead of dying, he awoke. He is the agent of death... or was... not anymore... He is Vincent Law, and Vince is in full control as he sails off with truth and reality, and a new autorave who perhaps represents the discipline he has finally achieved.


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Why is there a time limit on Tobi's dematerialization technique?
This question contains spoilers for early manga readers and anime viewers
Konan mentions during her fight with Tobi that Tobi's dematerialization technique can last for only 5 minutes. This can be confirmed as true since Tobi resorts to Izanagi to escape her ultimate technique, Kami no Shisha no Jutsu. It is later revealed that Tobi's dematerialization technique is actually just teleporting himself into his alternate dimension with Kamui.
However, earlier during the Five Kage meeting arc, he had teleported Sasuke and Karin and kept them in the alternate dimension for quite a long time. He also kept Fu and Torune in the alternate dimension for several days. This shows that he does not face any significant side-effects, like draining chakra, by keeping people in the other dimension. Also, staying in the alternate dimension did not seem to have any adverse effect, on at least Sasuke and Karin.
Why can Tobi not keep himself in the alternate dimension for more than 5 minutes? In particular, why could he not just escape Konan's ultimate technique by staying in his alternate dimension for 10 minutes, rather than use Izanagi?

I am not really sure how/if I should use the spoiler block here. I prefer to avoid putting the entire question into a spoiler block. I have gone through the discussions on meta, but could not come to a conclusion on what to do. If someone has better ideas on restructuring the question, please feel free to edit.

Nah! the technique you are following is a better one. You are warning it has spoiler, that is enough I guess :)

which chapter is the fihgt between konan and Tobi?

@debal Chapter 509, 510.

There's no definite answer yet.
The technique is about sending parts of yourself to the other dimension, to avoid being hit.
Two reasons I can think of are:

Since it's an activated mode type technique, it constantly drains his chakra. Five minutes are his limit.
He cannot keep parts of his body separated for so long, because there could be some sort of biological limitation of transferring oxygen and blood to the organs in the alternate dimension.

The first sounds more feasible to me, but since it isn't explicitly specified, we can't give you a definite answer.

Thanks for the answer. I did have the second reason in mind, and that makes sense when part of his body is teleported. It should not be a restriction when the whole of him is in the other dimension.

2nd point is awesome! :) so upvoting the answer ..

The second point is interesting but is it speculation or do you have something to back it up?  The first point seems much more likely.

Like I said, there's no definite answer on this one. It's all speculation because it wasn't revealed in the manga.

Maybe we can update the answer now. We know he needs to SUCK things up for long term storage, but that takes time, a few seconds in some cases it seems, while dematerialization is instant,

The answer is simple, the 2 situations you describe are actually 2 different techniques. This answer contain a minor spoiler about the ability, especially the wielder of the other Mangekyou Sharingan eye.
Kamui has 2 abilities.
1) The user can create vortexes that transport anything they suck in to the Kamui Dimension. Objects can remain in that dimension indefinitely it seems. The downside is that it takes time to suck objects in, and they are vulnerable while doing so. If Tobi tried to use this, he would be wide open and take the full force of those explosions by Konan. As well, Later on, Truth Seeking Balls (balls that destroy just about everything they touch) nearly touched him while he was trying to use this ability, because they got to him faster than he could teleport. He was forced to cancel the vortex teleport to dodge them.
2) Grant the users body intangibility, by temporarily transporting segments of the users body to the Kamui Dimension when objects in the main dimension come into contact with their body. The user is unable to attack while this is active. This is the one with a 5 minute limit, as it is not a complete teleportation, Only overlapping segments are moved. Tobi used this to dodge the 4th Hokage's abilities, but turned it off to attack, which is how Minato hit him with his Rasengan. This ability can be cast near instantly, though it may have a cool down after being turned off before it can be turned on again. Another downside is that if someone is in the Kamui Dimension, the segments of the body will be clearly visible to them, and they can attack it.
Now, Tobi had the right eye, which has ability 2, and could create vortexes, but only centered around the eye itself. It could control the direction of the sucking force of the vortex to a Cone shape, allowing him to decide if it was his target or himself being sucked in. Kakashi had the left eye, which could only create vortexes, but could do so at range, but the force could not be controlled, it was always spherical.

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Is the Nine Tails still stronger than the Eight Tails even though half of him was sealed away?
I've not read the manga series, so the question may be quite basic.
In an earlier discussion, it was said that the number of tails determines the power of the tailed beast. Since half the Nine-tail's chakra was sealed by the Fourth Hokage, does it mean that the Eight-tails now has more chakra than the Nine-tails?

It's not specified explicitly, but I think not.
Itachi told Kisame that the nine-tails had to be sealed last, because if it doesn't, the Gedo Mazo would be thrown out of balance, and break down. Akatsuki definitely knew about how the Kyuubi was sealed, because Tobi was there.

 In the manga, Naruto together with the Nine Tails managed to fire a bijuudama of equal scale to that of the Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven tails combined.

From those I conclude that even after half of him was sealed away, the Nine Tails still has more power than the rest of the tailed beasts, if not combined!

Tobi wasn't there when the Kyuubi was sealed. He retreated after Minato defeated him. (Chapter 503, page 6)

Thanks for the answer. But is it possible that the Kyuubi's chakra was getting replenished?

@ChetterHummin: Not likely, though possible. I'm saying it's not likely, because up until now, when the Nine-tails used his chakra in the manga, it was pure Yang.

I don't have any evidence, but I always thought that each Tailed Beast was exponentially stronger than the previous.  Something like 10x 1-tails = 1x 2-tail.
If anyone has evidence of this, edit it in the answer.
According to the questipon provided by JNat
The equation could be like this:   (x)t = beast w/ # of tails
(Addition)
1t + 1t = 2t

1t+ 2(1t) = 3t

1t + 3(1t) + = 4t

...

1t + 8(1t) = 8t

1t + 9(1t) = 9t

9t/2 < 8t
In which case the 1/2 of Nine Tails wouldn't be stronger than the 8 tails.
If it were like this, then the equation could be more like:
8! (8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1) = 8 tails

9! (9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1) = 9 tails

9t/2 > 8t
or it can be
8t = 7t + 6t + 5t ...

9t = 8t^x

9t/2 > 8t
x being the number of times stronger in which each tailed beast is stronger than the other.
This all depends on whether the tailed beasts are exponentially stronger than another or additionally strong

Yes, but the concern of the question is regarding the sealing of half of the Nine-tails' chakra. After said sealing, is that formula still valid?

well yea, say 9-tails is 10x stronger than the 8 tails.  With only half being sealed.  Hes now only 5x stronger.

Ok, seems fine. Also, see here, for discussion on Tailed Beasts' power equation.

@JNat There isn't any definite equation, but if each tail beast was exponentially stronger.  Then the power of the Kyubii can be stronger than all combined.

And another thing, the 8 tails lost a tail during the fight with sasuke so he lost 1/8 of his power.

Hmm... I'm not sure if it works like that. And here it is stated the the tails grow back, and that the Third Raikage once cut off all of his (the eight tails) tails. But it does not state references for those statements.

Well that would mean that the 9-Tails could infact regenerate the lost chakara from the seal similar to people using jutsu.

Not necessarily. Because losing a tail might not mean losing power. I think!

I don't think this math applies. For all we know, The sage wanted to divide the Juubi's chakra, but has underestimated it. It resulted in the nine-tails being 10 times more powerful than the rest combined. We don't know that much!, all we know is that the Nine-tails is so powerful that unless the Mazo already has all other eight sealed, sealing the Nine-tails will result in the Mazo not being able to sustain the imbalance and break apart.

The eight tails can regenerate its lost limbs remember? But that regeneration does not apply to his horn that the raikage has cut. So that means the eight tails didnt lose 1/8 of its chakra. And also according to the manga when sasuke revived orochimaru, they took one of the uzumaki clans masks and orochimaru released the reaper death seal so that he can reanimate the previous 4 hokage. And since Minato used this jutsu to seal half of the nine tails, then the moment orochimaru released the technique is also the time when the nine tails power is restored. But since the power of the tailed beasts is measured by the number of their tails I could say that the eight tails is stronger than the nine tails if orochimaru did not release the technique but since he did then the nine tails is much stronger. But remember what I am saying is according to the manga. We do not know which story is going to be used either the story of the manga or the story of naruto shippuden ultimate ninja storm 3.

I think Kurama is much stronger. Having half of his chakra taken away and a bit from naruto he was still able to form a tailed beast ball powerful enough to match the other tails collaborated tail beast ball. 8 tails would have had no chance.

Its because its matched with narutos stength he's by him self stronger then the 8 tails host so match that up with the rest of the nine tails and he's just epic

From what I have gathered it was his physical form that was not sealed, which is probably why in the anime his beast transformation is so different than Bees.  Just chakara, no physical form to stand on.

Kurama is stronger then all the other tailed beasts.
According to what Kurama says their power is determined by how many tails they have. With that he is implying that he is the strongest (which he is) and saying the one tailed Shukaku is the weakest of the 9 beasts.
That's why he hates Kurama.

What on earth are you trying to say?

Please consider clarifying your answer. Right now, it's impossible to understand what you're trying to say. As it is now, your answer will be downvoted, and even possibly deleted! Please try to improve it. You can [edit] your answer by clicking the link.

@senshin i understand it, the answer is indicating that the more tails a Tailed Beast has the stronger it is. Shukaku being the 1-Tailed Beat is the weakest and hates Kumara the 9-Tailed Beast (i haven't seen enough of Naruto to confirm that name) for having the most number of tails. similar to what Kohakuren says in Kamidori when describing her tails (it takes 150 years of experience to develop a single tail so she's lived for 1200+ years)

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What is the color of a manga paper?
The background color of a manga paper when scanned online is changed by the scanlators to white (#FFFFFF).
However, this is not the background color in an actual manga book. the color in the manga book looks little grayer in the paper.
What I am trying to do, is to publish a manga online with the same real background color.

What is the best estimation of that white-gray color?
What are the manga papers made of? They are not the same as a normal white printer paper.

Every paper will scan to be a different color (and thus, different hex code) based on the scanner and paper quality. Plus, not all manga will be printed on the same paper. Regardless of that, though, this is off-topic and would be better suited on a graphic design or manga writing forum, so I'm voting to close as off-topic.

@Eric I am trying to create a manga magazine and I need to know the background color of a usual shonen manga. an assumption of the color is fine. as long as it is very close to the real paper background color... my question perfectly fits in the manga-production category

@shnisaka Manga paper comes in all kinds of sizes depending on a publisher's specifications. The color of the paper does not matters as most pages in manga are monochrome (like with newspapers). Glossy paper is typically use for color pages as the colors come out better on that type of paper.

@shnisaka Note that we are discussing this question in chat here: http://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/8340058#8340058

@shnisaka as it stands now, your question is not a very good one and too localized to help anyone. In print, the color of the paper is determined by the paper stock used. You cannot find a specific color of a paper by the hex code. Print media goes by CMYK (Cyan Yellow Magenta Black) color, while media that appears on computers screen goy by RGB (Red Green Blue, Hex are RGB), because that's how colors are displayed by computers screens. However it you want to ask about the type of paper used for manga, that is a perfectly fine question and you can edit your current question to reflect that.

The color varies widely based on multiple factors:

Lighting
Paper type (I'll get there in a minute)
Scanner type and quality

Therefore, I can't 100% give you a color estimate (it could be anything from very light yellowish-gray to very dark gray).

As for paper types. There are also several types of paper that could be used for printing manga:

Newspaper-like paper, which is thin and has a slight gray shade.
Recycled paper, which is yellowish in composure and often has little "grains" in it.

There are probably a whole lot more, but that's the prominent two I know of.

The color also varies depending on the weight and thickness, if it's coated (books typically aren't coated, but photo books are), and if it's acid-free (not as yellowing as non-acid-free papers). It's better to go to an actual printer for a sample and use that sample as reference.

Age is also a factor. The manga I bought most recently is Hunter x Hunter vol. 37, in which the paper is bright white. My first ever manga was a used copy of the same series vol. 1, in which the paper is very yellow. They seem to change with age, and the exact coloration depends on the factors you mentioned, as well as things like environment, usage, yadda yadda, we could go on all day.

Magazines like Jump tend to use 85% recycled paper for their pages.

These tend to be cheaper than ones collected in published volumes. The color of these pages may very by publisher, but Jump tends to use green, yellow, and pink for their pages. The pages are cheaply made in order to keep costs down and because it's expected to have them be thrown away afterwards. Thus they are not suitable for long-term storage as they are fragile, vulnerable to deterioration from moisture and light.
As mentioned before the print paper used for magazine is mostly recycled. Usually when creating recycled paper, there is a process called de-inking is used. This involves bleaching to remove the ink and and dark spots or other imperfections like dirt. However as more recycled paper is involved in the process, the process becomes harder and more expensive. In order to save costs, coloring is used instead to mask the dark spots and other imperfections.
If you look at the sides of magazine you'll notice the pages are colored differently. The idea from the publishers is to vary the colors and keep things interesting and sometimes also separate different genres from one another.

You can't tell in scans because they artificially adjust the levels to clean them up, so often times the page colors go in noticed.

Solution: I also had this question, but I ended up having to make color combinations, print them out, and compare them to physical copies of manga I had. The closest color combination I was able to make was:
(R, G, B) = (238, 230, 201).

ik I'm 3 years too late but I was trying to do the same thing for a project, I did this in Figma using E4DAC9 as the color, and used this tool to add grain: https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1138854718618193875/noise-texture
the borders look drawn by hand because I used a paint tool with a brush that looks like a lead pencil and I just made different patches and cropped out a part that I liked out of the patch and saved it as a PNG. Then set that as the image for the border (stroke setting in Figma) and set the stroke to the tile setting at 100%.

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Why does Hashirama Senju possess such huge and terrifying chakra?
In the past three Naruto manga chapters (chapters 621~623), the story goes like this: child days of both Hashirama and Madara, and he (Hashirama) is just like every others in Naruto: a normal human being. But when Orochimaru revived all four Hokage in front of Sasuke, Hashirama raises his chakra level to threaten Tobirama, as it would crack all the walls nearby or maybe the entire basement (chapter 620). How could have Hashirama acquired this kind of power (chakra)?

Good question. Related (and possible duplicate): 1. Is the nature of chakra hereditary?, 2. What does it mean to have “powerful” chakra?, 3. How can one achieve incredible chakra such as that of the Third Raikage or Kisame?

I think http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/2088/what-does-it-mean-to-have-powerful-chakra
is more appropriate one thanks @Deidara-senpai

In Chapter 623, Madara tells Hashirama that he (Hashirama) should become stronger to change the world as per his ideals. Maybe that served as Hashirama's motivation to become superawesome. I think more would be revealed in the next chapters.

Ya may be both of them worked ridiculously hard to get strong I guess :)

Hashirama is also an Idiot Hero and considered Madara as rival, so he may have worked hard to become strong to compete with Madara, something like Guy does with Kakashi. :)

@Deidara-senpai: Thats true he is a goof alright just like naruto and Goku :)

The Hashirama-Madara Gaiden (flashback/side-story) is not finished yet so we can only speculate at the moment. But Deidara-senpai might be right. Hashirama got strong the same way Naruto and Jiraiya got strong. Hardwork. Lol But I'm more curious on how he learned the Mokuton. XD

Being the reincarnation of Ashura gets you a large pool of chakra I suppose.

When Naruto had gone to Mount Myoboku for his senjutsu training, Lord Fukasaku had mentioned

only those who already possess "extreme chakra levels" can utilise
  natural energy to invoke senjutsu

Source
Now we also know, Kakashi mentioned Naruto having large reserves of chakra (excluding the Nine tail's chakra). And this is the reason why Naruto could complete the Sage training and enter Sage mode, thereby giving him access to a larger amount of chakra.
The same goes for Jiraya, as he had completed the Sage mode training, and could enter the sage mode himself.
Thus we can assume, once in a while kids are born with higher reserves of chakra.
The same can be assumed in case of the first Hokage and Kisame, they could have been born with a large reserve of chakra.
Reason for assuming this is, First Hokage could enter the sage mode himself, and as for Kisame, we know the sword of his, Samehada would only attach himself to a ninja with good reserves of chakra. (Since the eight tails had more chakra and a more "delicious" one samehada switched allegiance and joined Bee).
In case of Naruto, Jiraya and First Hokage, their sage mode gave them access to a larger pool of chakra thus making them more powerful. On the other hand, Kisame could get access to a larger amount of chakra with the help of Samehada, that would "eat" the chakra of enemies and supply to Kisame.
Nothing much have been mentioned about the third Raikage, so I can't provide any proof to support my speculations.

When shinobi are reincarnated using the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation, they have unlimited chakra, as is stated on page 17 of chapter 591. It seems to be that instead of the character himself having incredible chakra from when he was alive, he instead had incredible chakra because he was reincarnated.

But dident Hashirama Already have a really huge mana supply before he died aswel?

Probably, but this is why he has a really incredible amount after he's reincarnated.

Hashirama is a direct descendant of the Sage of the Six Paths, but his chakra levels are beyond the normal notable chakra levels seen in both the anime and manga. I think this stems from both his heritage and his ability to use the Mokuton (Wood Release). As similarly noted in Madara's case, these two were born with exceptionally powerful chakra, even for their clan's standards.

The Impure World Reincarnation gives them an unlimited chakra, but at the same pool they had before. If that's the case, then we'd have a bunch of undead Hashirama leveled clones all over the place.
So, again, the display from Hashirama is his actual chakra level before he died (considered his prime). Now being able to use his chakra at top form because of the Impure World Reincarnation is ridiculous. It's like a constant recharge to 100%.
If Impure Madara and Impure Hashirama went at it, most likely a never ending fight would occur, but we now have different variables. The unknown power of the Juubi with Madara and Tobi vs the Kages, Kyuubi Mode Naruto and now Sasuke thrown in the mix. There's too much play given at the moment since we still don't know the true extent of the power of the chakra from Juubi, Rinegan Madara, Hasirama, Sasuke and Kyuubi Mode Naruto.

While the facts on your answer may be correct, I believe the OP's real question is: "How did Hashirama obtain such huge and terrifying chakra in life?" :)

Hasirama was a child prodigy and the only shinobi ever found that could use mokuton. So maybe hashirama was gifted with such abilities, plus he must have worked really hard too as the flashback shows. Moreover jubiis real form is a tree, shinju. That means originally when the chakra that was distribued among shinobis by ridoku, one must have gained somewhat extraordinary part of it, call it genes at play. And wood ability being the stongest of all elements being jubiis form must have demanded a high amount of chakra level which is why it was weilded only by him due to having great chakra reserves. Though it is surprising that the probability of someone getting wood affinity was so low to be only one person.

Rather than acquired, being born with it or blessed with since childhood would be more correct. The author's way of balancing the rivals, I guess. Madara too ended up showing off ridiculous powers. He single-handedly defeated the Five Kages after all and Hashirama was his equal in strength.
Nothing more specific has been provided so far.

The answer is actually pretty simple:

 Hashirama is one of Ashura's, Hagoromo's son's reincarnation, Ashura inherited the Sage's body and physical strength, there is where his and Hashirama's huge chakra reserves is from. He also could use all elements of chakra and the yin/yan release too. (Wood Release is yan Release Kekkei Genkai, because you can breathe life into forms with it.

The reason why Hashirama has such an powerful and enormous amount of chakra reserves (estimated to be even larger than that of Naruto Uzumaki) is partly because of both his Senju heritage as he is full-blooded and because he is the reincarnation of Ashura Õtsutsuki the younger son of Hagoromo Õtsutsuki (And the younger son of The Sage of six paths was blessed with his fathers body Yang energy/Physical energy granting him both a strong life force/stamina and powerful chakra) which makes Hashirama in a way in both body and spirit pure and royal
To go even further with this, its possibly also the same reason why he is the only one able to unlock the Wood release among the Senju's. As we know Wood release is a combination of both *Water and Earth releases but as the story goes on you'll also learn that it also heavily consist of Yang release which basically makes it a tessei kenkai so to speak.
So the reason why Hashirama Senju is the only one able to use the Wood release is because of his body itself which was said to be "brimming with vitality" as he could battle on for days before finally showing signs of fatigue and as he would heal from wounds without even waving seals surpassing technique in even that of Tsunade known as the greatest medical shinobi.

Pretty simple.
Hagoromo Otsutsuki, the founder of Ninja Arts, the Sage of Six Paths, had two sons. The eldest, Indra Otsutsuki, inherited his powerful Visual Prowess. The second Asura Otsutsuki, inherited his powerful chakra and life force.
Indra founded the Uchiha Clan, which is the clan of Sharingans, and Asura founded the Senju, thus some Senju would get his life force.
We can assume that since Asura Otsutsuki inherited his father's life force, all Senju have strong/powerful chakra, but if you are his direct reincarnate (Hashirama & Naruto), then your chakra is a cut above the rest.

Facts taken from the manga: (Remember, the Hashirama-Madara flaskback is not completed yet.)
I can think of two possibilities as to why he was more powerful:
a) Each ninja has their own motive in their life, and Hashirama's ninja way of life was to "Protect his Village and Comrades". Hashirama was very dedicated to achieving his goal.
b) Hashirama did use even Senjutsu. People with Sennin Mode can manipulate Nature's Energy, too. This made him more powerful than his normal state. People who can manipulate Nature's Energy become more powerful. For instance, Taijutsu becomes more powerful.


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How can Obito combine 4 different nature transformations?
How can Obito combine 4 different nature transformations, if he barely managed to control the Juubi inside him?
Using advanced techniques and nature transformations needs some focus on chakra manipulation, so how is he able to do this?

Obito using the 4 different nature transformations

Obito barely managing to control the Juubi

Maybe helpful: http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/304/is-it-possible-to-combine-all-five-chakra-elements

My current theory is that it's not actually combining 4 elements (and that the Third is wrong), but is actually Yin element. The chakra rod looks suspiciously like Pain's rods, only they function differently (destroy, rather than pierce and control). Regardless, it's a good question. +1

Obito is the Jinchuuriki of the 10 tails. Having the blood of the Uchiha + having the Rinnegan and the Mangekyo Sharingan + being trained by Madara himself, Obito would have surpassed any living ninja in technique and chakra depth, as well as natural talent. It was even said at one time that he was the same as the "Sage of the 6 paths".

It was even said at one time that he was the same as the "Sage of the 6 paths". -any proof of this?

http://ex1.unixmanga.net/onlinereading/?image=Naruto/Naruto%20c638/naruto-4283457.jpg&server=nas.html

Well, it was said that he was the same as the Sage of Six Paths by Madara, after he became the ten tails' Jinchuuriki. I wouldn't say that Obito surpassed any living ninja in chakra depth (what is that even?) or natural talent. However, having the Juubi and the Rinnegan should be enough to give the user all 5 elements, combining them? That's probably one of the Juubi's abilities? Or it may be that the technique is not an element fusion, but rather Yin or Yinyang element. Read my comment on the question.

I'm referring to depth in the way Itachi Uchiha described his own chakra a while back. Also, regarding your comment on the question, I wonder why 2 elements wouldn't be good enough for Yin Element and 2 more for Yang Element. A full ying-yang would round out 4 elements, just like the spirit element rounds out earth, air, water, and fire on a pentagram.

@Elemecca: Yin and Yang are different elements from the Elemental five. They aren't related to the elemental cycle and they are unique on their own. That much was already explained.

can this be related to the abilites gained from the tailed beast. For eg, naruto can heal people by using the nine tailed fox's chakra. By drawing an analogy we can say that Obito's ability to combine 4 chakra elements comes from becoming the jinchuriki of the 10 tailed beast. Even naruto did not have complete control over the nine tailed beast when his chakra caused wood element to gain life.

See chapter 375 of the manga, page 11. Jiraiya states one who posesses the Rinnegan can use all 6 chakra natures. In addition, controlling the Ten-tails is no mean feat, considering it's likely to be at least ten times as difficult to control as a normal Tailed Beast, which itself is hardly something a skilled shinobi wouldn't think twice about. Also, I'm guessing that controlling the Tailed Beasts doesn't require chakra manipulation and control, but rather willpower and determination - as demonstrated by Naruto himself.


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Who writes the plot for filler episodes in an anime?
Fillers are a given in most long running anime. If the anime is based on a manga then who writes the plot for the fillers?
Who decides the plot story for a filler season, so that it, for example, doesn't conflict with the original story of the manga?

Just a note, there were (many) cases where the filler plot did conflict with the canon.

Going by the quality of most filler episodes, it's the same guys who write the plots for hentai.

Specialized or experienced writers, and the original manga writers can all work the manga into a plot for an episode, but why pay them to write a new scene where nothing interesting happens.
Generally 'filler' is made by cheap writers. As mentioned in the comments, there are often conflict because the filler writers are paid less and so put less effort into background work. Unlike lead writers, filler writers wont always be provided with reference material for things to include or avoid.
Basically, if it is irrelevant to the season's story line, has no effect on character development, you have someone who works for less write it. Although, filler scenes with no dialogue and no interaction, like someone taking an uneventful walk down a straight road requires no script at all.
As for who decides, whoever decides on the main plot will probably view the filler storyboard before it gets scripted.

Do you have any sources for your information? This seems like a good answer but could definitely benefit from reliable sources.

Also, according to the TV Tropes page on fillers:

They are extremely common in Anime, where many shows have 26 or more episodes per season. The producers have to use filler just to meet contractual demands. Filler is usually something entirely original for the anime, but not always; many manga – particularly weekly manga – employ filler just as ruthlessly due to the extreme deadlines. Sometimes entire filler Arcs are created, most often because the series Overtook the Manga.

It's difficult to find information about who writes the filler arcs, but movies, which are similar in principle to filler arcs in that they don't interact with the main story line, are generally written by the same writer as the show. Bleach's movies, for example, are written by Masashi Sogo, same as the show. Because there are anime writers who are separate from the manga writers, they can add to the story without interfering with the work of the manga writer.
The fact that fillers are sometimes used to meet contractual demands makes it more likely that fillers will virtually always be written by the writer of the canonical anime, at least in those cases.


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What are the factors that go into the difficulty level of drawing an anime character?
I've noticed that in some cartoons (Batman Beyond) and anime (Hunter x Hunter, Naruto Shippuden) some characters are seen a lot, i.e. Inque in BB and Bisky in HxH.
I was thinking that some of the calculation behind that should be how easy is the character to draw.  But I'm not an artist so I wanted to know what factors make a particular character difficult to draw?
If you could explain in terms of the three anime (BB may or may not be depending on your perspective) that'd be great.

Really the characters that appear more often have a more complex drawing than the less prominent characters. Characters will not get more screen time because they are easy to draw (unless the studio has a bad budget, so not the shows you have mentioned). Also, the difficulty for each drawing style is different for everyone. Are you asking about how measurements and ratio differences between the styles affect how complex they are to draw?

This is a pretty interesting question, but as it is written right now it's a bit borderline. We don't allow questions about making your own anime/manga, but we do allow questions about how they are produced in Japan. As such, it's acceptable for people to answer with opinions of notable artists in Japan, but not from personal experience unless they've participated in anime production themselves (which I suspect no one here has). If you could edit your question to make it asking for opinions of professional anime/manga artists, that would be much better in my view.

Also, for reference, I think Batman Beyond is probably not considered anime by our definition since it was produced in the US by Warner Bros. and DC Comics, neither of which is a Japanese company. It may qualify as anime-influenced (which is sometimes allowed), but we haven't yet considered it so you'd have to ask on meta first if it's acceptable.

Every artist is different, some may have trouble with trees or female faces, while others with robots and buildings. If you wish to ask what certain manga or anime artist have trouble with, please change your question to indicated such, as this type of question can is more likely to have a definitive answer.

The biggest factor is probably detail and shading. Sometimes you'll see a poster, or promotional art of a character and see many intricate details in clothing, hair, face, and especially in the shading. When inbetweeners have to fill in all the frames that produce motion, all of the time that needs to go into drawing the detail and then shading it is increased 10-20 fold. So time and money dictate that the designs be less detailed so they are easier to animate.

@Krazer I don't really agree that "every artist is different" makes this a primarily opinion-based question. If it were restricted to notable anime/manga artists, I think it would satisfy all of the good subjective criteria. However, as it is right now, it seems to be soliciting non-expert opinions, so I think it should have been closed as a "Question on making your own anime or manga".


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How come nobody noticed Chapra's slave brand at the tournament?
In the first book of Osamu Tezuka's "Buddha", one of the main characters is Chapra, a shudra (member of the slave caste).
He is marked as a shudra by a brand on his foot; at one point he even considers chopping of his foot to get rid of this mark.
Later on, Chapra manages to pretend that he is a member of the much higher Kshatriya (warrior) caste.
During this time, he participates in a tournament. The tournament takes several pages, and it is clearly shown that his feet are not covered.
So how come nobody at the tournament noticed his mark? Did Tezuka overlook this, or did I miss something?

Calling on the Willing suspension of disbelief trope.
I think it was just an overlooked detail when it comes down to it.
To add on to this, as I recently reread Buddha, there are plenty of other spots where they should have noticed his brand. Like the time he was hung upside down after bragging during training. There really is no explanation. Maybe he came up with some way to mask it, like body paint, or something.


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Are there bands specifically dedicated to anime?
The example of the Seatbelts, led by Yoko Kanno comes to mind. All of Cowboy Bebop's soundtrack was composed and performed by them.
Looking at their discography, their albums are all from the Cowboy Bebop franchise, except their live DVD. However, I am unsure as to whether they were created for this purpose, or if they were just a perfect fit.
Are there any bands that dedicate themselves specifically to composing and performing for anime? Or that may be created specifically for a certain series/franchise?

I know I've Sound, but it's a music label, not a band and it started from karaoke music world, then Visual Novel themes performance and later anime openings and endings, featuring Lia and KOTOKO among their artists. A slightly different question could deepen this world however.

Yes.
Though they are not actually an actual and active band in Japan but Houkagou Tea Time (HTT) (composing of the K-On!'s characters' voice actresses) were created for the anime's purpose itself. Toyosaki Aki (Hirasawa Yui), Kotobuki Minako (Kotobuki Tsumugi), Hikasa Yoko (Akiyama Mio), Satomi Sato (Tainaka Ritsu) and Taketatsu Ayana (Nakano Azusa) actually performed (sung while playing their character's respective instruments) some of K-On!'s OST live during two of their live concerts, Let's Go and Come With Me. The voice actresses were taught how to play their characters' instruments for the live concert so I think HTT was specifically created in dedication for the anime K-On!.


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Why were most of the characters' names changed in the dubs?
In the anime Captain Tsubasa (I don't know if this is the most well-known name, since I knew it as "Campeões: Oliver e Benji", its Portuguese dub name), most of the characters' names were changed when the series was dubbed.
For instances, in the Portuguese dub, these are some of the names that were changed:
Ozora Tsubasa - Oliver Tsubasa
Genzo Wakabayashi - Benji Price
Ryo Ishizaki - Bruce Ishizaki
Taro Misaki - Toby Misaki (or Tobi Misaki)
Kojirou Hyuga - Mark Landers
Jun Misugi - Julian Ross
Hikaru Matsuyama - Philip Matsuyama
    Shingo Aoi - Shingo Au
Nakazawa Sanae - Patrícia Sanae (usually called Patty)
From what I know, almost every dub (if not every single one) changed some names when the series was dubbed. I also know that some of the changes were different from dub to dub.
Were these changes something that happened because every dub 'team' decided to change the names?
Or was it something that happened in the first dub, and that all the other dubs decided to follow (possibly because they were dubbed from the dub, instead of the original), unaware of the changed names?
Also, provided that the list is not too extensive, what names were changed in what dubs?

Captain Tsubasa IS a very popular anime that was said to inspire a sense of sportsmanship in children. Anime is well known for its influence on the audience.
When it was dubbed, (in Hindi (Indian)) the names were not changed since they could very easily be distinguished in my language as something foreign. The pronunciation varied drastically though.
I suppose the names were changed to make things easier as it was aimed at a younger audience who might have trouble remembering names they don't often hear in their regions.
If I recall clearly, there weren't any changes in the English dub either.
It also depends on the dub team. If I were young and I saw complicated names in a cartoon (not familiar with anime then) and others, I might as well prefer something else without giving it much time or chance.


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Where does Photon get his powers from?
In the eponymous series, I'm rather confused as to where the protagonist gets his powers from. He is called a "singularity" more than once but the why and how and what that means exactly is rather... sketchy. On one hand he seems to be the source of his own power, and yet he also seems affected by the reconfiguration happening towards the end of the series.
Does anyone know if there's an explanation or if it's just left vague on purpose?


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Did Shouko kill people to make the Setsugetsuka dolls?
It's hinted that in order to make a banned doll, you have to use human parts. In the manga, Charlotte is struck with how much bio parts Yaya has.
Did Shouko actually kill people to make the Setsugetsuka dolls?

Yes, she did (Yaya is a banned doll, as Charlotte discovers Manga, anime). Banned Dolls are created using living parts or a whole living organism, human or otherwise (like Frey's dogs). The best banned dolls use human parts, and the machine dolls (Yaya supposedly is one) are made from living humans altogether.
Anime episode 12, talk between Magnus and the teacher.
Shouko is shown in a flashback bargaining for Raishin's body (part of the reason she left Yaya with him to begin with) so she could make more automata also episode 12.
So all Magnus' dolls, Elf Speeder's butler ep12, Setsugestuka, and probably cannibal candyshe could use magic independently inside the vault. were once living people (or parts of) turned into automata.
Let's not even go into the ethics discussion... XD

I didn't follow the novel, and I stopped reading manga for some time so I don't remember reading about this. Do you have any reference for what you are saying here?

From the Anime and some manga parts.

I know this question is almost a decade old, but I'm going to give you the correct answer. The answers given by Mindwin Remember Monica are completely wrong.
It's true that Shouko used human bodies to create Banned Doll, but that's only true for creating Oborofuji. Shouko didn't use human bodies to make the Setsugetsuka. If you remember the scene in episode 3, she said: “That thing was a failure. It wasn’t beautiful at all.”. Shouko didn't like the Oborofuji. It was because of the way it was created. The Oborofuji was made from the body of death row inmates. She was forced to create it by Sakaki and the Japanese army. It went against her feelings. I'm sure that Shouko didn't kill the inmates on death row, but Sakaki did the killing blow. You don't have to kill a person to create a Banned Doll, it can be created by using a living object, as in the case of the Garm. The same goes for the Maschinensoldat such as Shin. The part where Charlotte saw Yaya's body was more human-like than Sigmund's was because it was made out of Shouko's Sell.
Let me clear something up about what Mindwin Remember Monica answered.

Shouko is shown in a flashback bargaining for Raishin's body (part of
the reason she left Yaya with him to begin with) so she could make
more automata also episode 12.

She didn't choose Yaya for Raishin in order to create more automatons. She wants to create a Machine Doll, and Raishin is one of the keys to creating it, using the Kuretsuba's Blood to make it happen.

So all Magnus' dolls, Elf Speeder's butler ep12, Setsugestuka, and
probably cannibal candyshe could use magic independently inside the
vault. were once living people (or parts of) turned into automata.

Magnus' Squadron is made up of Nadeshiko's organs. Shin is a Maschinensoldat made from a real, living human being. The Setsugetsuka is made from Shouko's Sell. There is no information as to how Eliza was created, except that she was created during the Renaissance period.


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What is the target of censorship in Library Wars?
What is the target of censorship in the Library Wars (Toshokan Sensō 図書館戦争) franchise? Is it political material, sexual material, or something else?

I suspect "censorship" isn't an appropriate tag for censorship happening in-world, rather than real-life. However, the only other tag I could come up with, [tag:plot-explanation], required 150 reputation.

In the past we've held a discussion about such meta tags and have deemed that they are, amongst other reasons, not that useful and are applied too inconsistently to be useful. Please see this meta for a full summary.


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How did Rock Lee pass the academy test?
I stumbled over this question on Facebook. I was wondering how Rock Lee got out of the academy and why did they let him leave?

Presumably he got out the same way everyone else did. What do you mean, exactly

I guess he refers to the part of the test where you need to prove that you can use Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique).

or any ninjutsu

One does not need to use Henge no Jutsu in order to graduate the ninja academy. Promotion throughout the entire series is never dependent upon a certain technique, but rather the capabilities of that shinobi determined by the Hokage and village elders.
Take a look at the Chuunin selection exam. Shikamaru received the only promotion yet there was no way he could have won the entire tournament.
While Lee could never use ninjutsu nor genjutsu, he was able to have very good technique with taijutsu and that allowed him to graduate. Lee just uses his chakra in a different way, but that doesn't make him any less of a ninja.
Same with Shino for that matter. Shino lets his bugs eat his chakra and then he can command them. So instead of making a kage bunshin, Shino uses a lot of bugs to form a clone.
Because every shinobi specializes in different areas, there is no set requirements in order to be promoted. The decision comes from the Hokage and the elders for Chuunin and above. For the academy, the instructor decides when the child is ready to be a Genin.

Although the final exams of the Ninja Academy do include a demonstration of Henge no Jutsu, that is almost certainly not the whole test. There should at least be demonstrations of Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, and probably a written exam and some sparring matches (not unlike what appear in the Chunin Exam, but scaled down). Rock Lee couldn't have gotten much more than a zero on his Genjutsu and Ninjutsu demonstrations, to be sure. But depending on the Ninja Academy's grading rubrics, he might have done well enough on the other parts of the exam to pass even with those zeroes.
It is also possible that Guy got these sections of the exam waived for him, due to special circumstances. But from a literary standpoint, it makes more sense for Rock Lee -a character who stands for achievement through ludicrously hard work- to have passed the exam even with the zeroes in place. Indeed, I'd argue that the most likely scenario is that Guy probably tried to get those parts waived, but Rock insisted on taking them anyway.

not all students had to be able to make shadow clones in order to graduate. Naruto was failed for not being able to make a shadow clone simply because he was worst in his class and had no skill in order to become a genin. Rock lee being exceptionally skilled in taijutsu had no reason to be failed while he had many skills in taijutsu


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What is the name of this anime with nekomimi?

I have been wondering for a long time which anime this is from.

Where do you get this from? The art style suggests that this is from the later half of 200x decade.

Please provide some more details, like the time range for the anime etc..

In future, it would behoove you to try using reverse image search on your image - the first 5 results are various booru-style image-sharing websites, all of which list the artist and make it pretty clear that this image (and the characters in it) don't originate from an anime.

This question appears to be off-topic because it is neither about anime nor manga.

Possible duplicate of Where is this picture from? How do I use Reverse Image Search to find the source of an anime/manga image?

This isn't from an anime. It's original art by this Pixiv user (warning, may be a bit NSFW) for her FC2 blog (also maybe not safe for work).
The characters in the image are:

Hayami Shizuku (white hair, green eyes)
Hutaba Akane (blonde hair, red eyes)
Hutaba Aoi (blonde hair, blue eyes)
Neko (brown hair)

(All below links are possibly NSFW.)
A larger version of this image can be found on Danbooru. Apparently, this image is just a drawing by an artist named Naomi as part of her 世界の果ての喫茶店 (Cafe at the End of the World) series.


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Why are there so many instance of young girls falling for older men?
Why are there so many instances of younger female characters falling in love with older male adult characters? Is it a cultural thing?

Can you give any examples?

@kuwaly in Card Captor Sakura one of Sakura's classmates (that one that becomes possessed by The Sword) ends up being engaged to her teacher but it's never shown in the anime, only in the manga, that could be one

darker than black: hei and yin

@rtr i think their the same age actually infact i think she was a child before the False Stars appeared

@Memor-X That was something specifically cited by CLAMP, where they disregard things like gender and biological age in relationships. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLAMP#Themes

It's plenty common in real life though in Japan there is this thing called "compensated dating"

@JonLin Although there maybe some connections here and there, I don't think this link is directly related to the tropes that appear in certain anime (e.g., Zettai Karen Children)

It is something that occurs everywhere and in all media.
Just look at Lolita, which was published in 1955 and features a relationship as you describe it.
I think need to be a bit clearer in your definition of "younger female" and "older male" though. A 16 year old girl falling in love with a 18 year old boy would fit your criteria too.
I take it you mean something more along the line of CardCaptor Sakura's Yoshiyuki Terada and Rika Sasaki, where she is a primary school student and he her teacher?
Things like this actually happen in real life too. Though most people in that kind of situation wouldn't want their relationship to be know for legal and social reasons.
The difference between Japanese and American (as an example) media coverage of topics like this is that in Japan, as long as no real child is harmed it's a-okay (at least as far as I know), and if there were problems they could just as well say it's a 800 year old god just looking like a child.
But in America a lot of people see it as catering to pedophiles and forbid it. Just look at all the interesting discussions about the freshly licensed and heavily censored "Monster Monpiece".
So even if it is an innocent relationship with no intimate contact it would be highly frowned upon in the US, while in Japan they'd just shrug their shoulders because no harm was done to anyone.
More generally speaking though: some people just like a more mature partner. Just look at Hugh Hefner and his girls (let's just all innocently assume they're not all after his money).

I like the last point that you made. It was common practice in Western society for parents to encourage their daughters to marry a man at least ten years her senior, even if they didn't pick him out for her. She would be reaching child-bearing age and he should already be self-sufficient and potentially prepared to provide for a family. American culture and its effect globally has changed that.


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When did the practice of having multiple series for a world begin?
I have seen at least two manga where there are multiple series told from the points of view of different characters, but all set in the same world and at or around the same time.
First is chrome-shelled-regios, which includes:
 - Chrome Shelled Regios
 - Chrome Shelled Regios: Missing Mail
 - a couple of others
The other is code-geass which includes:
 - Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
 - Code Geass: Suzaku of the Counterattack
 - Code Geass: Nightmare of Nunnally
 - a couple of others
Where did this originate and what was the first manga/set of manga to showcase this?

As I got no proof for this statement ill put it in this comment. I seem to remmeber that the multiple perspective's originaly started by animating game serie's (when they cry would be a good example of these) ill look around some more for definte sources

It started at least 2000 years ago with works like Homer's Illiad and Odyessy, and lost works, Hesiod's Theogony, and later, Virgil's Aeneid, among other things.
Most notably, the Illiad showcased the seige of Troy, focusing mostly on Achilles's role and his dispute with Agamemnon.
The Aeneid focused on Aineas, who fought in the Trojan War, and escaped Troy to found Alba Longa, where the founders of Rome were from (they presumably descended from Aeneas).
It is also known that there are lost works about the Trojan War, which describe other parts of the war such as the sack of Troy.

The other part of the question is: "What is the first anime/manga to do this?"

@kuwaly that would make it a very trivial and somewhat silly question.  every bit as silly as "what is the first anime/manga with a love triangle in it" or "what is the first anime/manga who's title starts with the letter k"

I see no difference in validity between this and http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/399/what-particular-anime-first-showcased-crossovers  or http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4874/what-were-the-first-anime-and-manga-based-on-real-idols or http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4873/which-might-be-the-first-anime-and-manga-time-loop-type or http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/3828/what-was-the-first-mecha-anime-manga-to-feature-combining-to-form-a-super-robot, all of which are considered valid.

@kuwaly Thank you for bring those to my attention.  I have downvoted 3 of them.  The one asking about the origins of giant robots, however, was fine because It Was asking about the origins of the trope, and not just which anime happened to be the first to have x

If you would like to add to this discussion about the validity/usefulness of these questions, here is the meta question: http://meta.anime.stackexchange.com/questions/738/are-what-was-the-first-anime-manga-to-show-x-on-topic.


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What is the drawing on Tomoko's shirt?
In episode 4, Tomoko is using a shirt with a drawing.

The shirt has a drawing of a face, and すぐる (suguru) written on it.
Since this series makes references to others quite often, I wondered if the shirt is a reference to something.
If not, does the shirt have any significance at all?

http://www.wordsense.eu/Suguru/ seems to define suguru as "male given name".
As far as referencing goes, I think it'd be reasonable to say it's just a picture of a guy's face where an equivalent to "guy" is written underneath.

I don't really buy this explanation. It seems too arbitrary. As noted here, suguru is internet slang derived from すぎる sugiru that roughly means something like "too much" or "excessively". I have a strong sense that Tomoko's shirt is related to this usage of suguru, but I haven't been able to figure out exactly what the relationship is.

Perhaps it's a double entendre. I could buy that she'd wear shirt that promoted "excessively" into "guys", "into" being that she's wearing a shirt of a guy. But I might be a little too imaginative. Or maybe the right amount. Hope you have better luck finding a better relationship of the two. I'd like to be sure in the end.

Suguru is also a common forename in Japanese.


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Does Tobi control his teleportation consciously?
When Tobi uses his selective teleportation power that causes objects to pass through him, does he have to think about it when he does it, or is it automatic?  I'm trying to find out if he is vulnerable to a sneak attack.
I know he is able to teleport at will, but I'm wondering more about his "ghost" ability that causes objects to pass through him.

I'm thinking that it is voluntary, since he uses his Magekyou to do it, and it is the same technique as Kakashi's.
Also because he is able to quickly change between using (to dodge an attack) and not using it (to attack someone). Furthermore, Naruto headbutted him and he did not dodge it.
Later, Naruto hits him with a rasengan, breaking his mask and revealing his identity as Obito. Although he was 'trapped' (because of the Bijuu-dama) on the other dimension, if it were automatic, I'm guessing he wouldn't have been able to not dodge it, being fried by the Bijuu-dama 'back here'.
EDIT:
Although I say voluntary, it may be seen as semi-automatic (or even automatic, for that matter), in the sense that he does not actually think about it, but rather acts instinctively. However, I think it is triggered by his will, and not entirely automatic.

To complete the answer of JNat, I think a better example could be the fight Tobi (or Masked Man) VS Minato, while Kyûbi is attacking Konoha.
If I remember well, as the final move of the fight, Minato throws a Kunai on Tobi's face and runs to Tobi directly after : to counter it, Tobi wants to let the Kunai pass through his head with his jutsu, then come back "real" and attack Minato.
But at the exact time the Kunai has finished to pass through his head and he becomes "real" again to attack Minato, Minato uses Hiraishin - Level 2 (teleports instantly over Tobi and hits him with Rasengan).
If it was automatic, Tobi would have dodged it, but the thing that it was so fast that it hit him, proves that he consciously uses it.

I think it's somewhat semi-automatic.
When he wanted to touch Rin, he forgot to undo his jutsu, and went through her. This tells us he doesn't necessarily consciously control which parts of himself he is sending to the other dimension.
He can however activate and deactivate it on will, like a master switch.

However, that was his first use of it. He still didn't fully control it.

@JNat: That only tells me it can be automatic, like "switch it on, and from now on body parts teleport automatically". I don't think he consciously pays attention to the parts he needs to transport.

I'm guessing that at some point he has to force himself not to 'auto-transport' parts of his body, but that would be because he is used to doing it instinctively, rather than automatically. Also, if he can force himself not to do it, I think it is safe to assume that he also has to 'force himself' to do it (although that may come easier with practice)


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What's the difference between the Full Moon wo Sagashite manga and anime?
I read a lot of the Full Moon wo Sagashite manga a few years ago and recently started watching the anime. It's been so long since I read the manga that I can't tell how much is different, but I remember my friend telling me a few years ago that they are very different.
Is there a lot of filler in the anime? Is the plot/story significantly different?
Please mark any spoilers as corresponding to either the manga or anime so those who have only seen one or the other don't get spoiled if they don't want to.
(If my friend was blatantly wrong and they are pretty darn close, I apologize and don't mind having the question closed.)

Here are the differences, there might be some spoilers. (If you know the story and you think something is a spoiler, please let me know in a comment so I can fix it).

Anime: Mitsuki claims to be called FullMoon during the audition.
Manga: This happens in another moment.

 In the Manga, Meroko's past is revealed: When alive her name was Moe and she was Mitsuki's grandma's best friend. She killed herself believing her friend had accepted the marriage proposal by the guy she was in love with.
 In the Anime, nothing is revealed except something about her Shinigami past, next to Izumi whom she loved.

 In the Manga, also Izumi Rio's past is revealed: When alive his name was Lio. He had a hard childhood. His father died when he was still very young, while his mother went crazy for the suffering and started to mistreat him, despising him and accusing him to be the reason why her new man left her. For this reason, in order to see his mother smile again, he kills himself being run over by a train.
 Farther in the Manga, we discover that Izumi's vision of his past is slightly wrong...

Manga: Fullmoon single is "Angel".
Anime: It's "Myself" by Myco (singer and Fullmoon's voice).
Fullmoon's second song Eternal Snow (always sung by Myco in the Anime only). The history of the carillon, that contains the song's melody, written by Aoi for Mitsuki and that the girl finds in a closet outside of the house (where her grandma locks her for punishment), is told by Takuto when he regains his memory.

 Anime: Another difference about Eternal Snow, appeared in the anime only, is the challenge with Madoka who, after a snitch, decides to make her debut too using the same song. Mitsuki feels sad about this since the song was written by her father and so it belonged to the Route L. But Takasu-san, the producer, refuses to produce it and worse, decides to produce Madoka in its place. So Ooshige and Fullmoon end up being without a producer. Ooshige is however a Route L's fan and so he askes Wakaouji to produce this song. He initially refuses, because he swore to stop having any relation with music. In the Anime Mitsuki runs away but she comes back after a day.
Manga: Something similar happens in the manga, where a song, written by Mitsuki is then found and sung by Madoka because of Izumi. The song's name is "Princess Marmeid". Furthermore, Wakaouji is not contacted by Ooshige, rather he spontaneously proposes himself as Mitsuki's producer, since he was searching her that ran away from her house. In the manga she doesn't come back until almost the end.

 Manga: Takuto Kira, the Shinigami, "dies" jumping from the hospital's roof, seeing by Wakaouji. Takuto Kira received a surgery to his vocal chors, because of a cancer. They are removed and since he lost his voice and cannot sing anymore, this brings him to kill himself.
Anime: When the throats problem is found out, Takuto rides a bike as fast as possible, deciding not to turn at a bend he encounters.

 Manga: When Takuto was alive, he had a girlfriend named Hikari, a beautiful model, that will meet Mitsuki too.

 Anime: Meroko is promoted from Shinigami to Angel.

Another big difference is about Eichi-kun (huge spoilers):

 He was Mitsuki's first love.
Anime: He dies two months after he arrived to America. Mitsuki knows nothing about his death and will find out during her trip to America, when she decides to visit him along with Ooshige, Wakaouji, Takuto and Meroko.
Manga: She knows about his death but she refuses it, so she talks as if he was still alive. This reactions sprouts from her feeling guilty because of the lack of reaction when he confessed his love for her, after kissing her.
 In the manga, this guilty feeling is much stronger and dramatic than the anime's, this is because she runs away after they kiss, the day before he went to America, while in the anime the kiss is not shown.

There are more differences in the Wikipedia page. If you want I can include them.

Wow, this is awesome. I'm confused a bit by #5 though - where is the difference?

@atlantiza I didn't actually see the Anime or read the Manga. This is what I found on the internet and I translated it. :) I think it means that that happens in the Anime only and not in the Manga. :)


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Was Itachi Jiraiya's source in Akatsuki?
Jiraiya always knew what the Akatsuki was up to. He was always saying that he had a "reliable source in Akatsuki."
So my question is if it could be Itachi. Because who else could it be? Tobi said "Itachi joined the Akatsuki as a spy" "He joined an organization that threatened his village." These quotes indicate that he might be the source in the Akatsuki after all, because no other had better access to information than Itachi. But I doubt that Jiraiya knew who the source is, and also he didn't knew truth about Itachi, so why would believe him? But what if he was anonymous? Someone could argue that he obtained information by himself, but let's be clear even Jiraiya, who is really good at gaining info and spying and infiltration. I doubt he could spy/infiltrate/gain information from Akatsuki by himself. In the Akatsuki, there are S-class criminals and Pain - so they would find out really soon about someone.

Could you add the chapter numbers you're referring to? Stating just a dialogue doesn't translate it's authenticity.

This is a really good question and its very possible, but you also severely underestimate jiraiya's abilities. As the Toad Sage he could literally have toads all around the 5 Great Nations listening for information for him, and the reason i have for this is he can summon almost any toad from Mt. Myuboku. And use normal toads to aid him in infiltration tactics. I mean look at the way he infiltrated the Hidden Rain Village right before his confrontation with Pain. He used a normal frog, not even a ninja frog, a normal frog. So despite the doubts you have he could have toads around the 5 great nations listening for information on the Akasuki. Like i said it is very possible for Itachi to have been the spy for Jiraiya, but at the same time i do feel you underestimate Jiraiya.

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


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Fairy Tail Ep. 326 song name
What is the name of that song in episode 326 when Achnologia had them trapped? The song played when Cobra says he can't die yet because he has friends of his own too.

I think you're looking for this one: Natsu's Resolve
They haven't released the OST collection with this one so you'll have to wait for a good quality version.


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Does Minato Namikaze want to do everything on his own?
I feel like Minato died because he tried to solo the Nine Tails, which worked, but at the cost of his life.
Hiruzen, the leaf shinobi, as well as the Anbu Black Ops, were all fighting the Nine Tails (and succeeding) until Minato came and teleported the Nine Tails like 10 miles away (in fact, they specifically said ”the Nine Tails is out of the village”) and tried fighting it by himself right after he fought Obito.
To me, this sounds like a "try hard" shinobi. Did Minato want to do everything on his own?

Minato did not want to do everything on his own – he was forced to do everything on his own. During the Konoha attack, Minato was performing his duties as:

A husband/father, who was protecting his family
The Hokage, who was protecting the village

Shortly after Minato teleported the Nine Tails away from the village, he wanted to contact Hiruzen to inform him what had happened, but he was interrupted by Obito before he had the chance. From that moment on, Minato had his hands full with protecting Kushina, fighting Obito, and defending the village.
As shown later in the series, Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique has the capability to teleport others with him… as long as he provides them his chakra to do so. Had he had the opportunity, Minato probably would have taken a few shinobi with him to aid him.
With that said, since the village was no longer in immediate danger from the Nine Tails, Hiruzen and a group of shinobi pursued Minato in an attempt to aid him. Unfortunately, they finally arrived at Minato's location after everything had taken place.

He attempted to reach the Third Hokage so that he could inform him of what happened, but was interrupted by… Tobi.
[…]
No longer being controlled, the Nine-Tails began retreating from the village, though it continued to attack the Konoha ninja that pursued it.
[…]
Seeing the Third Hokage nearby, Minato communicated to him a final request…
(Source: Narutopedia article on Minato Namikaze. Emphasis my own.)

Still doesn't really answer my question. Minato is a sweat/tryhard

Maybe it would help if you explained what you mean by "a sweat/try hard," as that doesn't appear to be an expression we're all familiarized with, @MenkaureBurns — I tried editing your question to clarify it a bit, but I may have misunderstood what you meant and mislead this answerer as a consequence.

Oh sorry, a sweat/tryhard is basically someone who takes upon a huge challenge for themselves for no reason.

Well, as the 4th Hokage that's his job.  It doesn't matter if there were millions of people with a great amount of power; it’s hard to fight Kurama.  Yes there were people there like the 3rd Hokage and the Anbu, but he did what he had to do to save the people that he loved, such as Naruto, Kushina, and also the village. Without him there would be no Hidden Leaf Village.


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Do Mob and Saitama live in the same universe?
In a former question it was pointed Mob appears in a cover photo of a One Punch Man manga. But also apparently Tatsumaki appears in a Mob Psycho manga (I've seen the anime but I haven't read the manga), in an apparent scene of the manga itself, not a cover.
Do Mob, Tatsumaki, and Saitama live in the same universe/planet? Kinda like Goku and Arale from Dragon Ball/Dr. Slump?

The answer is NO.
Saitama's world and Mob's world is totally different. We can see that the art style of the anime and the main character is almost alike that's because they were written by the same creator, ONE.
Mob appear in One Punch Man world.

(Image credit to @Pablo.)
Saitama appear in Mob Season 2 Opening. (Watch the cellphone, it's Saitama outfit.)

So why does these 2 not related story will appear on each other scene, I guess it was just a purely an advertisement purpose.

I'd more accurately call it a cameo, the same way that some main characters from Makoto Shinkai's films show up in his later works. Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion) famously used his characters like actors so it wasn't unusual for them to show up in multiple, completely different works.

Not sure why, but your answer says No, then seems to show the contrary.  Only until I get to the bottom and read the other comment does it make any congruency.

well, this was based on my opinion~

I don’t believe they live in the same universe since in season one episode two someone is seen reading one punch man not to mention saitama appears on the back of a mc Donald’s bag in episode three (or Mob’ Donald’s because copyright) so it seems saitama is just a novelty character in mobs universe

For me, i think that they are in the same universe and i have PROOF as you remember the episode that mob and his sensei reigen fought the ghost in a tunnel in the first season his sensei reigen suddenly got scared and suddenly released his phone quickly and show his phone to the screen with saitama's face to try to call him if something bad happens heres the link of the vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsGv6er1fcY
Stop the video @ 0:06 seconds and watch the phone

In episode 7 of Mob Psycho season 3, we also see Saitama as the background image on Mob's cell phone: https://i.sstatic.net/AhznL.jpg

To elaborate on kit's answer, the worlds of Mob Psycho and One Punch Man have incompatible canon. Psychic powers exist in One Punch Man, but other kinds of heroes do not exist as far as we know in Mob Psycho. Additionally, powers are public knowledge in One Punch Man since there is a hero bureau that protects everyone, and there are monster threats and such that cause very large amounts of damage, but psychic powers are a secret to the public in Mob Psycho. We can see this in Reigen's initial reaction to Mob, since he doesn't believe him when he says he has psychic powers. If he lived in One Punch Man's world, then he wouldn't have been so skeptical about the existence of psychic powers, but would have focused his skepticism on whether Mob in particular had them. From what I recall, his reaction was very much of someone who did not believe psychic powers exist at all.
Thus, it is most likely that the appearances of the characters in each others' universes are simply cameos. You can ignore them as far as canon goes, or you can simply assume a different version of Mob exists in One Punch Man. As far as Saitama appearing in Mob Psycho, he could be a fictional character if he only appears on cell phones and stuff. And it's worth noting that Saitama isn't famous in his world, so it doesn't really make sense for people to be using him as their cellphone wallpaper (it's possible to work around this, but due to the unlikelihood, it points to this probably not being the universe of One Punch Man.)
Regarding Arale, she also presents canon inconsistencies to the Dragon Ball universe. She may have meshed better with the original Dragon Ball, but by the time of the Dragon Ball Super episode she appeared in, the tone of the series has changed a lot, to the point where that episode felt a bit like a non sequitur. Vegeta even ends up getting self-referential and meta when he starts calling her a "character from an 80s gag manga". Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super aren't usually that meta, so it's kind of hard to determine how canonical that episode was, and thus how canonical Arale living in the same world is. The canon of Dragon Ball also presents some problems to Dr. Slump. Has Arale now died at least once, via Majin Buu?
Due to these inconsistencies, we can't really conclude anything definite with regards to the canons of any of these series.


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Is there a reason why the Konoha village gates in Naruto are really big?
The gates kind of looked like a weakness too me since summons can get in and destroy the village if they are caught off guard or the gates are not closed in time. Even if the gates are closed gates are very easy to break and since it is so big it would be a weakness in my opinion due to the summons. The reason why I see the gates as a weakness is since the wall is thicker and made out of tougher material, hopefully.

How can you say that the gates are very weak? Was how they're made discussed in the manga/anime? Because as far as I can recall, it was never discussed. How do you know the walls are tougher? Was it even mentioned? Also, how do you know that the guards can be caught off-guard by intruders? Are there only a few shinobi in patrol? Do you know there exact number or the jutsu they use to be able to say that they cannot react or will be overwhelmed by an enemy getting in? There seems to be many assumptions in the situation you are trying to describe in your question.

I took the assumption that the gates are weak from attack on titans since their gates were proven weak and that is the reason the titans got in. Not saying the gate is weak, it just doesn't seem like a good defence and I can't figure out why the gate was built that big. I just assumed the walls are strong since they look thick. No clue about jutsu, I'm just a noob who wrote to much to a simple question and doesn't know much 'bout Naruto. I will defiantly say I am assuming things.

If I were to speculate, I'd say the gate is mainly for accessibility. How else are visitors from other villages or people traveling to other villages go out of Konohagakure? Never have I heard of a village, fictional or real life, that is only surrounded by walls and has no gate. It could also be to keep wild animals out since if I recall correctly, Konohagakure is surrounded by a forest. It doesn't really matter if shinobi can easily destroy it. I mean, I doubt that there'd be no patrols on either side of the walls surrounding the village.

If intruders can easily get in, why destroy the gate in the first place? And if it's harder to get in, I doubt they would knock on the enemy's front door. It would make sense that the protection on the gate would be very heavy so I'm not sure they would go that way, either. Regarding its size, it could be for aesthetic purposes. I mean, who knows? Kishimoto never really discussed it in the manga.

Although there are usually patrols, thats not the main bulk of Konohagakures security. Its is revealed later on that their main security font is the Konoha Barrier team. @W.Are So assuming a Ninja is able to best the guards at the gate, their chakra would automatically be detected by the barrier team


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Is there a recording of Chopin's "Winter Wind" with the drums added, as heard in Your Lie In April?
I've looked everywhere for that Etude in A minor Op. 25 No. 11 with drums, as that song sounded so epic in the anime!! Any idea if that version of the song is purchasable or located anywhere online?

There is an album of the pieces actually from the show, called Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso: Our Music Book. Unfortunately, based on a version I found on YouTube, it seems like the Winter Wind on that album is just a standard rendition of the piece (presumably from the main recital). On that basis, I suspect that there isn't an officially released copy of the version with drums.


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Why did the esper children attack Tetsuo with the toys?
So I just watched Akira and I could follow the main storyline but it was unclear to me why the Esper children attack Tetsuo in the form of toys.
I can't believe they just did it to mess around. Especially since they act so mature later in the movie by first trying to stop, and after that going with Tetsuo.
So why did they attack Tetsuo with the toys?

Welcome! If you have two questions, it's better to split them into two actual questions (as in, two separate posts). That way, they can also have more specific titles too. I made this one be specifically about your first question, and encourage you to ask a separate question on your second... well, question :)

It's been a while since I saw the movie but I know in the Manga that Kiyoko (the girl esper) had a premonition that Neo-Tokyo would be destroyed and Tetsuo would be involved, prompting the attack.

This answer addresses the motivation; I would also add that when they attacked him in the form of toys, it was not just to mess with Tetsuo, but to actually kill him with their powers. They just did not expect Tetsuo to be able to resist them.


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Why wasn't Jiraiya burried in the Konoha Cemetery?
In Boruto episode 136, I noticed that Jiraiya's tomb is in the woods and not in Konoha Cemetery. Jiraiya is a leaf ninja so I assume his remains should be in Konoha cemetery and in fact he died because he was trying to save the village. The place doesn't also resemble Mount Myōboku.

Didn't watch Boruto, but... is that an actual grave, or more of a memorial? If I recall correctly, Jiraiya's body fell into the ocean and was not retrieved.

This answer has a passage from chapter 520 that confirms Jiraiya's body was unrecoverable as of the events of the 4th War — dunno, again, if circumstances have changed in Boruto.

Great. Never thought it could be a memorial though, I cant remember though if Jiraiya's body drop in the ocean. I'm not reading Naruto manga also. But, if his body is unrecoverable, any thoughts why his memorial is in this forest? Any significance to him?

No idea, no: that's why I left comments instead of an answer here :)

Could it be the place where Jiraya trained Naruto in the early days? I still remember some old naruto episodes where Jiraya trained naruto under such forest and provided holy talks around some old hay hut.

As JNat stated in the comments, this is a memorial for Jiraiya rather than an actual grave. Jiraiya's body was unrecoverable at the bottom of the sea, so there was no body to bury in the cemetery.
But given Jiraiya's importance and status, why wasn't he given a proper funeral?
Well, Naruto built this memorial outside the village shortly after Pain's Assault. This is likely due to the fact that during Pain's Assault, Konoha had just been destroyed and time to hold a funeral was not a luxury they had.

+1 for the idea that Konoha was not completely rebuild yet thus it might be the reason why Jiraiya was not given a proper funeral. But I am more interested "why that place", or "what is that place" for Jiraiya or Naruto why his memorial was placed there.

Jiraiya's body was killed in the water, he was thrown into the water at the time of his death, and the sight was too deep to find his body. It was Naruto who made him a statue in the woods just outside the Leaf Village


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Why does Misato dissolve into LCL and why did Asuka re-materialize?
These thoughts keep me awake at night:
After Misato is shot in the back while helping Shinji get to Unit 01- the elevator closes, she falls over, talks to herself/the deceased Kaji, Rei/Lilith/Adam appears above Misato and then there is an explosion.
But if the frame is paused at the right moment- you can see her body is in two separate pieces- however later there is a shot with her jacket in a puddle of LCL. Video for reference: https://youtu.be/63UIBoIF3mY?t=6m30s
I'm confused because one of the SEELE guys seemed very determined to remain alive until instrumentality occurred- He grins happily right before dissolving into LCL- and in the puddle of his LCL, his clothes and what looks like to be many medical devices that were keeping him alive into old age remains.
From what I understand- during instrumentality, only living things dissolved into LCL (So SEELE guy had all the medical devices, Kaji didn't dissolve, etc).
So I'm wondering why Misato dissolved into LCL because it looks like the explosion killed her.
I'm guessing it's possible that her jacket is just in a random puddle of LCL and she didn't actually dissolve- and her body could be off-screen.
As far as Asuka goes- at the end, her and Shinji re-materialize from the LCL as they will to. But she was killed by the mass-production eva units. I would assume that she also did not dissolve into LCL but then why did Asuka re-materialize if she was not a part of instrumentality?
I realize the director, Hideaki Anno, says there are no "right answers" to the meaning of the movie but I am wondering if there are any clarifications to these questions.
And please correct me if I'm incorrect on any of the above because I'm sure I have a few misunderstandings :)
EDIT: Defined my questions in bold and video reference added

I don't remember many details but my impression was that every human body part dissolved into LCL, whether dead or alive, severed or whole.

@Hakase I think you may be right because all the NERV staff/personal were dissolved as well even after being eliminated by the Japanese military

This was too long for a comment so I'll just add it as an answer, though you've pretty much already answered the question yourself.
This may also be interesting to you: https://forum.evageeks.org/thread/18930/Transition-guides/
The "transition guides" a shorthand for the phantom Rei's that appear when bodies are turned to Tang. They also appear differently for different people (Maya see's Ritsuko, Fuyu sees Yui), possibly to gather their souls to bring to that glowing red ball of swirling red dots (e.g. souls). This all predicates from the Anti-AT-Field happening, and a tidbit from what Kaworu says during that super confusing monologue at the end of Episode 24, the AT field being light of the soul. If the AT Field is the physical body, releasing the field frees the soul (the little red dot).
Based off of that, it's just assumed that everyone around the time of instrumentality was brought along for the ride, alive or dead. Then it's a question of whether the participants of instrumentality were actually interacting with each other (which seems like the point of it all), then we see Asuka, Misato, Shinji, and Kaji (the scene with Misato from End of Evangelion, possibly just a past experience, and during Episode 26, an active Narrator). Kaji being part of the mix could mean that the people joining Instrumentality could go back as far as many months since Kaji was shot months before Instrumentality started.

My understanding is that everyone at the time of Instrumentality becomes one (i.e. the sea of LCL) including dead people as long as their soul is still around, but I don't know if this was explicitly mentioned or not. Anyways, my interpretation is that Asuka's too prideful to stay "joined" to everyone, reasserted her individuality and thus, reincarnates her own body at the end.

Here is a stab at my question to try to clean up my own mess:
Hakase's comment is correct as a scene is shown that all the NERV personal killed by Japan's military did dissolve during instrumentality.

So the answers are:
Misato dissolved into LCL because all humans- dead or alive, dissolved into LCL during instrumentality.
Asuka also did dissolve into LCL- so all humans that ever existed could re-materialize after Shinji rejected instrumentality.
To clarify this:

I'm confused because one of the SEELE guys seemed very determined to remain alive until instrumentality occurred

I do not have as much basis for the following but I think the SEELE guy wanted to stay alive to make sure that the Human Instrumentality Project would happen, and to see it actually occur after all their efforts- as it was the organization's ultimate goal. So it was a misunderstanding to believe that humans must be living to be a part of instrumentality.


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How come Mr. Braun doesn't remember Suzuha?
In episode 16 Suzuha goes back in time. Unlike what happens when they send a D-Mail or time-leap, this doesn't cause the divergence ratio to shift — which in turn means all lab members still remember her, since she was just there.
However, after that, Mr. Braun goes to the lab to give Okabe Rintarou a letter from Suzuha, saying:

It's a letter from someone who once took care of me.

Does he not remember her working for him as a part-timer? That would be weird, given everyone else in the lab appears to still remember her.
Or is the name change — from Amane Suzuha to Hashida Suzu — along with the age difference enough to make him not realize they're the same person?

As you pointed out, yes it is because of the name change. But let's look at the timeline of events after Suzuha  travels back to 1975 without changing the divergence ratio.

1975: Suzuha Amane (19 years old) arrives in Tokyo but suffers amnesia.
1978: Yugo Tennouji (aka Mr. Braun) is born.
1999: Suzuha Amane (43 years old) remembers the events from before the time travel. In this time she helped Yugo Tennouji (aka Mr. Braun), who was 21 years old at that time, as Hashida Suzu. Suzuha Amane/Hashida Suzu suicides.
2010: The 19 years old Suzuha Amane arrives in Tokyo and applies as a part-time worker at Yugo Tennouji (aka Mr. Braun) CRT store. Yugo Tennouji (aka Mr. Braun) is 32 years old in 2010.

So he only knew a 43 year-old friendly lady with the name Hashida Suzu who helped him 11 years before the events of D-Mail. It's not absurd that he doesn't connect her with a 19 year-old Suzuha Amane.
Source: Suzuha Amane Wiki, Yugo Tennouji Wiki

So they only met in 1999, the same year she remembered everything and committed suicide? I would have read "someone who once took care of me" as something of a more lasting relationship between the two of them, hence my confusion about him not recognizing her, even despite the name change and age difference.

it's not stated how long mr braun was with suzuha or when he startet to live with her, but the date 1999 is stated with the events i mentioned. also mr braun said, that he didn't realy beleived in time travel when sern hired him.

My theory is that Mr. Braun does recognize Suzuha, but plays it cool.
Even if he's bad with faces and her appearance changed a lot in 20 years: Someone named Suzuha shows up riding your dead friend Suzuha's damn bike? The same bike that's still sitting in your yard because you weren't able to bring yourself to throw away in the last 10 years?
Secret agent that he is, Mr. Braun hides his surprise, plays his role and doesn't ask questions.


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Do all celestial bodies have a gateway?
After Father activated the nation wide transmutation circle, every soul in Amestris was absorbed into him and used to grasp the moon's gateway. He also opened the Earth's gateway and accessed all of Earth's alchemic power.
Does all of this suggest that all celestial bodies have a gateway, such as Mars or Saturn? And if so, how much power do you think you would obtain from said gateways?

Hmm, I think there's some assumptions in your question that needed to be fixed. First is that Father didn't opened the "Moon" gateway but opened the room for "God" that alchemy presents once there's eclipse, and that's also part of the question.
In ep61, after Father opened "God" gateway in the end of ep60, it's starts with Ed and Al reading in the alchemy book about Sun to be male and present the man specie, while the Moon does it for the female, and their combination (or eclipse) presents complete existence, non-male and non-female. Ed concludes it's not something just incredible but "God" (since God can't have male/female references).*

Backing to ep26, Ed explains the transmutation circle in Gluttony's tummy "Drop God to the ground and become perfect existence". al this coming together to the final events of FMA09 where Father fulfil that purpose, but to gain such power to pull out "God" he needed to open Earth gateway to achieve great power, only to pull out "god".

From here I will make some speculation, but based on above references they'r probably be true.
First of all, I fixed what you claimed to be "Moon gateway", we see that alchemy doesn't treat it that way, and more than that, though Father explained in ep60 that Earth has it's own gateway it seems that it used as you said because the power of alchemy. Once we will take the explanation of the alchemy source, it won't be far to say that even in other planets like Mars there's a gate, but the problem is the price - in order to open Earth gate Father needed to sacrifice the whole Amestris, who you gonna sacrifice opening Mars gate? it's empty of people.
Either than that, because Alcehmy FMA09 presented, it treated only the eclipse as "perfect existence" you wouldn't able to gain "God" powers from Mars like from the eclipse but only as much info the planet have, and unlike earth that contains people using alchemy, Mars gateway may not be strong as earth.
So though there's no evidence for other planets gateway it possible, FMA09 don't treating those beings because there's probably not much point in those, or the other way around - there's no gateway.
Once again, all this speculations based on the above, hope I answered much of your question.
*All the translation from the Anime is from non-english source, if there's some other version I will be glad to be enlighten.


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In which episode did Luffy say the following quote?
I want to know in which episode Luffy said the following quote:

You came without fear. Don't have any regrets, no matter what happens.
  This is the duel you wanted.

It's from Episode 236: this is a clip from the episode at the scene you mentioned.
The context is the duel between Usopp and Luffy: after Luffy decided to buy a new ship and abandon the Going Merry, Usopp abandons the crew and challenged Luffy to a duel. The cross talk is between the two of them just before the duel began.

While I don't have a specific episode number, I've found some context that can help you find it:
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/445238214
It sounds like this happened around the beginning of the Water 7 arc, which is around the time where the Going Merry had damage to it's keel and couldn't be fixed, and Usopp and Luffy get into a fight about it.

mmm it seems to me it was when the two giants Dorry and Brogy fought, since he talk about duel. but of course i'm not sure

finally you're right :)