text:
Who died in One Piece?
I have been hearing a lot of people say that "Nobody dies in One Piece", yet we have seen many people die like Ace, many of the antagonists' parents, etc. So it made me curious to all the people that ever died in One Piece. The answer should not include unnamed characters and focus on introduced characters that were confirmed to have died.

From the Top of my head: Portugas D. Ace died aswell as his mother Portogas D. Rouge, Whitebeard died, Monet died along with most people that remained on Punk Hazerd, Then there's Gol D. Roger (obvious), Clover and all the people from Ohara together with Jaguar D. Saul. Corazon died and so did the Water D. Family... And in a way Bartholemew Kuma died aswell.

I also had the same question..I mean people are brought back from dead if the need is to save one of the Stawhat crew..I mean their even their boat came to save them?

Here is a total list of the deceased to this point in One Piece:
NOTE THERE ARE SPOILERS CONTAINED BELOW READ AT OWN RISK
A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

    Joy Boy

K

        Koshin

L

M

         Mr. 7

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

 Vander Decken

W

Y

Z

The list is much longer than expected. Thank you very much for compiling this list. To summarize there are 64 manga deaths, 7 one-shot deaths, 8 anime-only deaths, 13 movie deaths and 1 video game death. That's a lot for a manga that never kills people.

I thought they might not be needed but went ahead and added them just to be safe lol

Ok sorry for spamming lol, but I just realized. Going Merry's not in the list ㅠ_ㅠ.

I didn't know whether to add the ship or not since it was not an actual breathing thing and more of a spiritual type being

Spoilez:  Gol D Rodger Dies

hmmm didnt also the skeleton guy die (although before he became a skeleton guy)? before he met ruffy.

You mean brook, in a way he did die.  I still miss Kuma who died aswell

@ChenOrihara Kuma is technically alive. If he was death, the Paw fruit would have reborn by now. Brook could be argued, because his spirit didn't go to afterlife yet.

Please avoid lengthy discussion in the comments, perhaps it would be best to move this discussion to chat?

Why are these images? I don't recognize half of them...

As far as I know, it was never said that the 2nd under V died. The 1st under V definitely didn't die. It can be seen in jail after having been defeated. This is based on the manga, though, not sure about the anime.


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Rub a dub dub, Thanks for the grub
Occasionally I've seen "itadakimasu" translated as Rub a dub dub, Thanks for the grub.
Most often it's used as an joking example of subbing/dubbing that doesn't stick strictly to the original Japanese script.
Where does it come from though? Was there a show that actually translated it as such?

I doubt it.  This may be more of a language thing than a meme really, since that phrase is commonplace [enough] in America, but itadakimasu has entirely different connotations.

If I'm remembering right, "Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub" comes from a deliberate trollsub circa the late '00s. Don't remember the details off-hand, though; I'll go internet-spelunking later.

HamtaroWarrior's claims that it doesn't have much to do with anime and that "It just seems to be a way to translate "Itadakimsu"." [sic] miss the point.
There is, in fact, a clear anime-related reason that "rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub" has become emblematic of over-localized translation: the abortive [gg] fansub of Toradora!! back in 2008 featured this very line as a translation of Minori's "itadakimasu" in episode 4 (around 08:52). This is an absurdly over-the-top translation choice, as any American could attest - Minori is certainly a cheerful and quirky character, but this goes well beyond that.
This was widely hailed as an innovation in trollsubbing on [gg]'s part, and was one of the factors that cemented their reputation as the leading trollsubbers of their time. I mentioned that the fansub was abortive - indeed, [gg] stopped subbing Toradora!! after episode 4, and I guess they decided to go out with a bang (all of the relevant blog posts I'd like to cite appear to have bitrotted out of existence, unfortunately). I emphasize this again - almost surely nobody actually thought that "rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub" was a good choice here. Rather, it was presumably chosen to get a rise out of its viewers (and succeeded quite well at it!).
It is as a result of this particular incident that images like this one exist (the "gg" column, at least). Likewise, the Sasami-san@Ganbaranai image in the question is a deliberate "homage" (if you can call it that) to [gg]'s Toradora!! subs of auld.

Well this is my bad, didn't find those details in 3 hours of net digginng :\

I could swear Tomo says it in the official English dub of Azumanga Daioh, but am not having luck tracking down a clip.....

Im very sorry that I accidentally tripped over this strand because now I feel obligated to contribute. When I was a pre-medical undergraduate at a small United Methodist liberal arts college in the late 1970's, I competed in intercollegiate athletics. We were obligated to "say grace" before a team meal, so this line was part of our team prayer. The full blessing was:
"Rub a dub dub, Thanks for the grub, Yea God! Amen!"
I hope this contribution rgarging the linguistic history of this irreverent ritual is helpful to this most fascinating discussion.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Why is Roa's appearance in the Hisui route different from that in "Near Side of the Moon"?
In the Arcueid and Ciel routes, Roa appears with long black hair in "Western" clothes.

However, I'm currently playing the Hisui route, and I've seen that the original Shiki Tohno appears in Japanese clothing with short white hair at the very end. (For what it's worth, the adopted Shiki in this route doesn't know about Roa, but the player does since she must have had to complete either the Arcueid or Ciel route first to play this route, and the information appears there.)

Yet regardless of the route, Roa and the original Shiki Tohno (which some translations name SHIKI) should be the same person. (The identity of the next reincarnation of Roa should have been decided by Ciel years before any of the different choices leading to different routes were made.) If so, why is there such a discrepancy between the appearance of Roa in the "Near Side of the Moon" routes and the Hisui route (and possibly other "Far Side of the Moon" routes)?

Note: it's possible that I'm missing information I would have gotten from playing the two routes I have left and finishing the Hisui one. That said, it doesn't feel like something so trivial that I can be pretty certain I'll get an answer if I wait it out.

It's because Roa is inside the body of SHIKI Tohno, Akiha's blood-related brother, from before the start of the game as SHIKI was locked away inside the mansion after his Inversion Impulse

 until Kohaku released him knowing he would kill his father, who sexually abused her as a child.

It is not true that:

Yet regardless of the route, Roa and the original Shiki Tohno (which some translations name SHIKI) should be the same person.

Roa is in love with Arcueid while SHIKI is in love with Akiha. This shows that between the "Near Side of the Moon" and "Far Side of the Moon" Shiki is confronting a different person. The Near Side Roa is after Arcueid while in the Far Side SHIKI is after Akiha.
The discrepancy between the two is caused by who the dominating will of the two is. In the Far Side routes, SHIKI's will dominates (while in the near side it is Roa's that dominates).

SHIKI is the main antagonist during the "Far-Side Moon" routes, the stories of Akiha and Hisui. SHIKI's inversion impulse keeps Roa from exerting his will over him, resulting in a very deranged individual obsessed only with getting revenge on Shiki for stealing everything from him. Roa doesn't have an appearance in these stories besides a brief mention from SHIKI that something in his mind wants to take over.

Source: Roa - Akiha's Route (1st Paragraph)
The appearance change would probably be related to who the dominating will is. For instance, in his previous reincarnation, Roa styles his new body to suit himself as with Elesia, who looks different from Ciel today.
On the Type-moon Wikia page you'll also notice that Roa and SHIKI share the same page in much the same way Saber/Saber-Alter/Saber-Lily do.

I was about to write a comment saying "maybe it's that Roa's personality didn't take over as much in the 'Far Side of the Moon' routes" --- guess that was probably the right guess.

@Maroon yes, as i quote out from the wikia Roa is mentioned in a Far Side Route being still inside SHIKI trying to take over

This makes sense, but I'm still slightly stuck. Why doesn't Roa take over in the Far Side routes? Does this have anything to do with the fact that he shares a mind with Shiki and the fact that Shiki is doing somewhat different things in those routes (compared to in the Near Side routes), and if so, what exactly? (I'm assuming that Roa takes over after Shiki moves back to the mansion, since the events from before the day Shiki returns should be identical regardless of the route.)

@Maroon I'm not entirely sure but it could be that in the Near Side Shiki doesn't kill Arcuied so he doesn't fight with her thus spending time away from the Tohno Mansion while in the Far Side he spends more time in the mansion and close to Akiha, seeing this SHIKI probably gets more defiant because he sees Shiki try and steal Akiha away from him and Roa may have underestimated SHIKI's Inversion Impulse. Another reason could be that Roa learned of Arcuied's weakness in the Near Side and took over but in the Far Side, still as strong as ever he hides away biding his time

as for when Roa takes over I'm not sure but I'm quite sure SHIKI was in control when Kohaku released him as it was SHIKI that killed Akiha's father which triggered Akiha becoming the family head and calling Shiki back to the mansion

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


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What are the characteristics of a "tsundere"?
Although this question might be a naive thing to ask, I believe that I would get an much detailed answer to this question keeping in mind all my simple questions answered wonderfully by people in the past. I read the wiki page on Tsundere but there's not much, I understand the broad definition where a person has a combative attitude towards a particular protagonist in any anime. What I am looking for, is an all-encompassing criteria/concept of a 'tsundere' and the highlights of their social behavior.

From  KnowYourMeme

The word tsundere is a portmanteau of the japanese terms tsun-tsun (turning away in disgust) and dere-dere (lovey-dovey feelings).

Typically tsundere characters are characters who aren't honest with themselves about loving another character. They'll often say things like;
"It's not as if it I did that for you, dummy - don't get the wrong idea!"
"It could have been anyone else, it's just because you were there"
Etc.
Generally, its obvious they have feelings for someone - they're just too shy to admit it, so they cover it up with insults, physical attacks or making it seem that something isn't a big deal (even though they really think it is - like an indirect kiss for example)
When closer friends point it out, they'll often blush and stutter:
"W..what?! There's no way I could love J-Jony, where d-did you get that crazy idea from!?"


text:
In Soul Eater, does Soul ever become a death scythe? If so, which episode?
I have heard rumors he only becomes a death scythe in the manga but it is still unclear. Has it just not happened yet in the anime?

No, it did not happen in the anime. (The source is my memory so is weak.)

No, in the anime of soul eater a death scythe is more of a conceptual goal than a visible state of progression, however, as the anime progresses a character who is an actual death scythe is introduced and it's power is displayed to reinforce that goal.
Keep in mind that the anime also ends at the internal investigation arc (chapters 38-40) as the Kishin arc - Arachnophobia vs DWMA - is anime only. I will leave out details if you haven't seen it to avoid spoilers but I do recommend watching it.
My source is that I watched the anime fairly recently and recall the details.

Also, there are condition necessaru for a weapon to achieve the leve/rank/form/state of a Death Scythe, and those conditions are only met in the manga.

Thats correct as well. I remember one of the requirements being 100 souls or something like that but I don't remember them in particular.

In the anime no, however know that the anime does not follow the manga entirely, as Hikari points out

Keep in mind that the anime also ends at the internal investigation arc (chapters 38-40) as the Kishin arc - Arachnophobia vs DWMA - is anime only.

is when the anime deviates from the manga as in the manga near the end

 Crona ends up becoming a Kishin and flees to the Moon with an army of clowns similar to the 2 clowns that Kid faced in the anime when he went to obtain the last of Ebion's Tools needed for Death

i havn't read the manga so i don't know exactly when but on Soul's Synopsis Wikia Page under Formation, partway though the second paragraph it says

 Spirit hands Soul Arachne's Witch soul and congratulates him on becoming a Death Weapon. The other members of Spartoi join them, as Soul, drooling and with a smirk on his face, consumes Arachne's soul and becomes a Death Weapon, signaling the birth of the elite student group, Spartoi.

Well, the anime very greatly deviates from the manga. In fact, only less than the first half of the anime follows the manga. The rest is completely different. Considering the events of the manga: (SPOILERS)

 Soul becomes death scythe after some time after the events of the Baba Yaga castle by killing a witch. Comparing it with the anime, they had to confront the Kishin right after attacking the Baba Yaga castle and the anime ended eventually. So I don't think Soul ever became a death scythe in the anime. He does become a death scythe in the manga in chapter 62.


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How does Araragi know Ougi in Mayoi Jiangshi?
In the beginning of Mayoi Jiangshi, we meet Ougi when she talks to Araragi in the traffic light conversation (i.e. "Did you know that there is a time when all lights at an intersection are red?"). I didn't really think much of the fact that it was this random girl talking to him, thinking it was a friend from school.
Once I saw Ougi in the other ones in 2nd season / tsuki, I realized that that was also Ougi. Now that Owari is out, we see where he first meets Ougi. Because of that, I thought that this part of Owari was at the very beginning of 2nd season.
However, this site puts it after Mayoi Jiangshi. How is this possible?

I was under the impression that the chronological order is something like this: 1.) the bulk of Mayoi Jiangshi (all the time-travelling); 2.) Owarimonogatari ep01; 3.) Araragi and Ougi talk about traffic lights.

We learn in the first episode of Mayoi Jiangshi that Araragi time-travels the night of the end of summer break, which is August 20th.
However, in Ougi's conversation with Araragi at the beginning, both are wearing school uniforms and clearly are at school. So the conversation cannot have taken place right before the events of Mayoi Jiangshi, since the "present-day" events of the arc take place during the summer holidays.
Moreover, after the conversation, Araragi says in his narration:

In the end, Ougi just wanted to teach me some trivia that all intersections have a three-second period where all lights are red [. . .] And I'm reminded of that trivia alongside memories of Mayoi Hachikuji. I'm reminded of those words along with a lost young girl. Every traffic light in the way was red. And in the instance she crossed on green, she was run over.
I recall it with the memories of that girl who died over 10 years ago. That summer's epic adventure. Along with that story that started as a petty concept but in the end grew into a giant tale that almost engulfed everything that was real.

(Paragraph breaks are mine.) This is before a break in the story and the subsequent introduction of the events of August 20th.
Here, Araragi cannot only be recalling the story of Hachikuji's death; he must also be recalling his time-travel adventure in this narration of his thoughts. (The appearance of a number of frames associated with events late into Mayoi Jiangshi in this section provides additional support for this.)
The conversation must then take place at some unspecified point after the events of Mayoi Jiangshi. Thus, there is no inconsistency with Kanbaru's introduction of Ougi to Araragi "on a certain day at the end of October" in Owarimonogatari.


text:
What's the name of the track that plays in One Piece Episode 630 from 13:30 - 14:00?
The soundtrack that plays when Fujitora makes his first appearance.
Episode 630 13:30-14:00
I have heard the soundtrack many times before. This soundtrack relates to a swordsman, that's how I feel.
Thanks

WHAT?!! NO ONE knows it???

The name of the OST is "Greeting Swordsman" and is from One Piece Movie 7: The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle
Here is the link to the OST and here is the extended version.


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Can Natsu eat fire from objects he burns?
I have been thinking that if Natsu can't eat his own fire, can he set some object on fire using his magic and then eat that fire??

wouldn't that still be his fire since it's his magic which starts the fire

But the object is burning and kind of producing new flames?

that might be true but i don't know enough about fires and physics to know

In the end, that will be his fire. As stated in one of the chapters (Finding), he cannot eat his own flames. It was even said by gray when he was fighting silvers.
I think the only possibility of him eating flames started by himself is by taking a match stick and burning some wood,etc. XD

As per the Fairy Tail Wiki

In addition, the user can consume external sources of fire to restore their body to a healthy state and regain their reserves of strength, something that also makes them immune to most types of fire, due to their capability of nullifying fire-based attacks by sucking them in and eating them; the consumed fire also seems to possess a different “taste” according to its “quality”. However, the user can’t eat their own flames, or things set on fire by them, to reinvigorate themselves.


text:
How much time have the Straw Hats spent with each other?
Rewatching a few episodes of One Piece made me wonder:
How much time did the Straw Hats spend with each other before the timeskip?  [It's not necessary for all of them to be present. I'm looking for the time span between the Episode 3 (when Zoro joins the crew) and Episode 405 (when the Straw Hats are separated by Kuma)]
How much time has it been since the timeskip (till the start of Zou arc)?

Several people have wondered this same thing before, and have done plenty of research on the topic. Below I've compiled a couple of the more popular ideas on the passage of time in the One Piece universe.
There was a similar question asked on Reddit:
How much time has passed in the One Piece world?
To which Redditor /u/jaydoubleyoutee responded:

Time in the East Blue is close to impossible to map out.
  Grand Line is a bit easier though. Loguetown, Reverse Mountain, and Whiskey Peak are the same day. They leave Whiskey Peak the 2nd day. Then several days pass when they reach Little Garden so I'm guessing it's been a week now. They are attacked by Wapol on the 8th day and reach Drum on the 9th. Four days pass and they meet Mr. 2. Five days til they get to Alabasta. The war breaks out two days later. Luffy sleeps for 3 days. They leave the next day, then get to Jaya the same day. They get to Skypiea the next morning and defeat Enel the day after that. So it's been like a month at this point.
  Then they reach Longring Longland and stay for four days. Three days later they reach Water 7. The next day is the Aqua Laguna. That night they raid Enies Lobby up until the next day. Luffy rests for two days when Garp shows up. Sunny is built in three days and they leave. Several days later, they reach Thriller Bark. They defeat Moriah at sunrise the next day. They sleep for one whole day when Brook joins. They leave two days later. So all this is between three and four weeks.
  Several more days pass when they arrive at Sabaody. Luffy is sent flying by Kuma and reaches Amazon Lily the next day. He wakes up from the mushroom after a day and befriends Hancock. Five days later they reach Impel Down. The next day is the war. Two weeks pass when Luffy wakes up at Marineford. So about a month has passed since they left Thriller Bark when Luffy decides to train for 2 years.
  Post-timeskip, it's only been three days. They reach Fishman Island and stay for a day. They leave and go to Punk Hazard. The third day is now on Dressrosa.

A comment, coincidentally by the same Redditor, on this question explains the 3 days post-timeskip:

Day 1: Straw Hats arrive at Sabaody. Go to Fishman Island. Beat Hody and challenge Big Mom. Tea Party in 4 days. Will take Pekoms and Tamago 3 days to get there.
  Day 2: Camie asks for the day off, so it can't be Day 1 since she had that day off too. Straw Hats leave Fishman Island and make an alliance with Law on Punk Hazard.
  Day 3: Law says on Day 2 that the paper in the morning will have Doflamingo's resignation. They reach Dressrosa that day. Pekoms and Tamago are still on their voyage to Big Mom.

Another way that people have tried to pinpoint the amount of time is the moon cycles that Oda depicts during night time scenes in the manga. Here is an excerpt from the One Piece Wikia on this matter:

In One Piece, Oda has depicted the moon several times, it has been discovered the moon's phases progress with the storyline's own timeline and therefore it can be used as a judge for the number of days that have passed on their journey. However from the first sighting in the Syrup Village Arc (waxing crescent) to the start of the Amazon Lily arc (waning crescent) would work out to be only 21 days by this guide. Although due to certain conditions on one of the phases seen, it could be as much as 42 days.

One point to be made is that we know the characters have only aged 2 years, the length of the timeskip. So the time spent pre-timeskip is definitely less than a year. Based off the information I've shared above, it's more likely to be just a couple months.
It definitely feels very strange when you consider how long we've been watching their journey, and I think Oda sensee agrees since he made this joke in SBS Volume 24:

Q: It takes while for time to pass in manga, doesn't it? Since it's a weekly thing. So, should we wait like 2 more years for Luffy's birthday?
A: No, no, no. He has a birthday every year, just like everyone else. It's just that, in Luffy's case, every year is his 17th birthday. Doesn't that make you jealous?

Yeah, that feels really weird. I knew they had spent less than a year based on their ages, but 21-42 days. Damn :|

when the straw hat crew reach red line just before Sabaody  they remark about how they are at the half way point of the grand line and that it has taken 1 year to get there.

Do you have an episode number or chapter number?

@Skeith, in the manga, chapter 490, page 9 and 10, no reference is made to how long they traveled to get there. Only the more recent additions to the crew, (Robin, Franky and Brooke), comment on how long ago they entered the grand line. Oda sure makes it feel like it took forever to get there though, with how the crew express themselves. But the manga does not define it to 1 year, and I doubt the anime would change that, but I haven't checked.

about the final note, it is known as the "Lum's law". In Urusei Yatsura you have like 5 end of year episodes, 10 Christmas episodes and a load of "summer just came" episodes. Ataru.. is still 17 at the end. Atlas, in Lum case you can just advocate that Beautiful Dreamer never ended. She got her wish granted...

This reddit comment has gone through the manga and noted the days. I have confirmed some by diving into the manga at certain points. Below is the comment, copy pasted. All credit to the original commentator, please.

I tried to go through the Manga...
East Blue Saga : about 15 days, Grand Line : About 77 days, New World
: about 41 days
Total : 2 years 134 days or about 2 years and 4 months
** - (didn't seem to have food to travel for more than a day)
Day 1 : Luffy leaves Fuusha Village
Day 2** :  Luffy is sucked into a whirlpool and ends up in Alvida's
base
Day 3** : Luffy and Coby free Zoro
Day 4** : Luffy and Zoro reach Orange town, meet Gaimon
Day 5** : Luffy arrives at Syrup Village
Day 6 : Luffy defeats Kuro
Day 7 : Usopp joins, Strawhats get Merry, Usopp paints the Strawhat
Jolly Roger, Strawhats meet Johnny and Yosaku
Day 10 : (Johnny says it takes 2-3 days to reach Baratie) Strawhats
reach Baratie
Day 11 : (it says 2 days later) Don Krieg attacks Baratie and is
defeated, sanji joins, Nami arrives at Arlong Park, Zoro is captured,
Nami frees Zoro, Luffy arrives at Arlong park, Luffy defeats Arlong,
party through the night
Day 13 : Cocoyashi village still parties
Day 14 : Luffy leaves Cocoyashi village
Day 15 : Luffy finds out his bounty, Luffy arrives in Loguetown, is
almost executed, leaves loguetown
Since entering Grand Line..
Day 1 : Arrive at Twin Capes, get Log Pose, head to Whiskey Peak,
reach Whiskey peak at sun down, spend the night at whiskey peak.
Day 2 : Leave Whiskey peak in the morning, arrive at little garden,
leave little garden.
Day 5 : (Kureha tells Nami that she had been infected for 3 days)
Arrive at Drum kingdom, leave Drum kingdom at night.
Day 10 : (stated that 5 days have passed since leaving Drum kingdom)
Meet Bon Clay on their way to Alabasta.
Day 14 (atleast) : (Luffy says its been 4 days since he last ate)
Arrive at Alabasta, meet Ace, reach Yuba at night
Day 15 : Leave Yuba in the morning, change plans and head to rainbase.
Day 16 : (Vivi said Rainbase was a day's walk from Yuba) Reach
Rainbase, head for Alubarna, Luffy beats crocodile.
Day 19 : (Vivi says Luffy was sleeping for 3 days) Luffy wakes up,
Strawhats leave Alubarna at night to find Merry.
Day 20 : Bid farewell to Vivi and leave Alabasta, find Robin on their
ship, a ship falls from the sky, Strawhats head for Jaya, Luffy beats
Bellamy.
Day 21 : Strawhats ride the Knock-up Stream to Skypiea, spend the
night planning on finding golden city.
Day 22 : Luffy defeats Enel, party at night
Day 23 : Strawhats leave skypiea
Day 24 (maybe) : Strawhats arrive at Long ring Long Land, win the Davy
Back fight, lose to Aokiji.
Day 28 : (It says that Luffy and Robin needed to rest for 4 days after
being frozen) Strawhats arrive at Water 7, Usopp fights Luffy, Robin
tries to assassinate Iceburg at night
Day 29 : Strawhats try to meet Robin at night, face CP9, lose, set out
for Enies Lobby
Day 30 : CP9 is defeated, Strawhats bid farewell to Merry.
Day 32 : (It says 2 days since the incident) Franky promises to build
Sunny, Luffy meets Garp
Day 35 : (It says 3 days after waiting for Sunny) Strawhats leave
Water 7 on board Sunny.
Day 36 (probably) : Strawhats enter thriller bark, beat moria before
dawn
Day 37 : Zoro takes Luffy's pain, Brook joins the crew
Day 39 : (It says 2 days later) Zoro wakes up, Strawhats leave
Thriller Bark.
Day 44 (may be) : (It says several days later) Strawhats reach the Red
Line, rescue Hacchi, head to Saboady, get sent away by Kuma.
Day 47 : (Sentoumaru says people sent by Kuma fly for 3 days) Luffy
arrives at Amazon Lily, fights Boa sisters, parties at night, finds
out about Ace's execution, leaves Amazon Lily at night.
Day 53 : (Gloriosa said Ace was about to be executed in 6 days)
Paramount war, Ace dies, Luffy escapes on Law's submarine
Day 67 : (It says 2 weeks since Paramount war) Luffy wakes up, meets
Rayleigh, decides to take a 2 year time skip
Day 72 (may be) : (assuming it takes 5 days to reach marineford from
amazon lily) Luffy sends the message 3D2Y to the crew
Day 77 (maybe) : (5 days return journey) Luffy starts training on
Rusukaina.
2 years later...
Day 1 : Arrive at Saboady, reach fishman island, defeat Hody, party
through the night.
Day 2 : Leave fishman island, arrive at Punk Hazard, defeat Caesar,
leave Punk Hazard
Day 3 : Doffy's resignation announced, crew arrives at dressrosa,
defeats Doffy, half the crew head to zou.
Day 13 : (they say Jack left 10 days ago because of Doffy's defeat)
rest of the crew arrives at Zou, parties though the night
Day 14 : Kinemon reaches the top of the elephant, Robin deciphers the
road poneglyph, Jack attacks Zou, Zunesha defeats Jack, half the crew
leaves for Tottoland
Day 21 : (assuming it took 1 week to reach Tottoland) Luffy arrives at
Cacao island
Day 22 : Luffy arrives at Whole Cake island, fights Cracker through
the night
Day 23 : Sanji beats Luffy, Luffy fights the enraged Army, is
captured, escapes, eats Sanji's food
Day 24 : Luffy meets Bege, Tea party is ruined, Luffy fights Katakuri,
the crew escapes Tottoland at night
Day 25 : Luffy is announced the fifth emperor, Revolutionaries save
Lulusia kingdom
Day 27 : (2 days after Lulusia kingdom is saved) Reverie begins
Day 31 : (we get the news of the 4th day of reverie) Moria invades
Blackbeard's island, Act 2 begins, Luffy beats Dobon
Day 32 : Komurasaki dies
Day 33 : Komurasaki's wake is cancelled
Day 34 : Komurasaki's funeral, Yasuie dies, Big mom arrives in Udon,
Udon is conquered by Luffy, Big mom and Kaido clash
Day 36 : Big mom and Kaido form an Alliance
Day 41 : (one week since Reverie ends) Raid on Onigashima begins on
the day of the Fire festival

Somewhere its said that the pre-time skip lasts for about nine months, while the post is still less than two month in. So the post-timeskip is true, but there is more spacing in the events of the pre-timeskip.

Where is this "somewhere"? Can you share a source?

Just look at Coby. Before, he was just a teenager (16) when Luffy and Zorro met him. But when they meet him again in the Water 7 arc, he is already a preadult (17).

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


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Why are these animes called so? (something;something)
There are manga/anime called "something;something", what for? does it server any purpose for identifying it as a series? example: steins;gate, robotic;notes.

There are, afaik, only three of these (namely, Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, and Robotics;Notes). All three of them are part of the so-called "Science Adventure" series. I find it not terribly surprising that a series of games/anime would use the same naming quirks throughout.

The Wikipedia entry for Steins;Gate begins with the following two sentences (emphasis mine):

Steins;Gate (シュタインズ・ゲート Shutainzu Gēto?) is a Japanese visual novel developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus and released for the Xbox 360 on October 15, 2009. It is the second game in 5pb. and Nitroplus' Science Adventure series following Chaos;Head and was succeeded by Robotics;Notes.

The entry for Robotics;Notes is fairly similar:

Robotics;Notes (ロボティクス・ノーツ Robotikusu Nōtsu?) is a Japanese visual novel developed and published by 5pb.. The game was released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video game consoles on June 28, 2012, with a PlayStation Vita port released on June 26, 2014 under the title Robotics;Notes Elite. It is the third game in 5pb.'s Science Adventure series following Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate and is described as an "Augmented Science Adventure" (拡張科学アドベンチャー Kakuchō Kagaku Adobenchā?).

Finally, the entry for Science Adventure reveals the following:

The Science Adventure series (科学アドベンチャーシリーズ Kagaku Adobenchā Shirīzu?) is a Japanese video game franchise created by 5pb. in collaboration with Nitroplus. The series currently consists of four main visual novel games; Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes, and Chaos;Child which have each received various ports, sequels, and spin-offs, as well as various manga and anime adaptations.

So, yes, it is as you assumed: They're part of the same series, made by the same company.
As for why the developers decided to use a semicolon in the name: why not?


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Why can Owl speak?
Nagi has his vocal cord removed during his back story.  In the majority of the story, however, he talks freely.  Some deadmen show extreme healing abilities. Did he regrow them? He was being courted by a group in power. Did they pull strings to have them replaced? Note that I have watched the anime but not read the manga.  I kind of expect the answer to be there.

I also only watched the anime, and I believe they he said that he spoke through a sound box somewhere through out the series.

This is from the Nagi Kengamine Wiki page:

Equipment - Soundboard: He has a soundboard installed into his mechanical voicebox. It allows him to make special sound effects, including but not limited to: air horns, clapping, and a rape whistle. Due to Genkaku hijacking its system, it also glitches so that all output turns into his moaning, much to Karako's shock and dismay.

So it appears that he has a mechanical voicebox. That also explains why he has a robotic voice. The technology is believable when you consider the scene where he pulls the little cell phone from his tooth in order to alter Minatsuki's penalty game to try and convince Ganta to join them.

This would come handy for future posts. Cheers~


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Tokyo Ghouls Third Season
Is there any news about tokyo ghouls third season in Anime? I have watched Tokyo Ghoul: Jack. It seems the episode of the history.  Did it has any connection with upcoming season?

No, there isn't any official source, at the moment.
You should not believe any website that isn't credible. Like ChristianDAILYNews or KPopNews, they are nothing to do with anime. They reported on Attack On Titan airing in Summer of 2015 July 26th. That was very illogical for people to believe.
Trusted sources include AnimeNewsNetwork & CrunchyRoll. If no one like them are reporting official news, then do not believe someone. Make sure they are putting up their resources & credits, to where they are getting this "information."
"Tokyo Ghoul's" American Licensor Funimation. Their president said there would be a third season. However, he has no ties to the anime's production committee. It`s a strange thing for him to say, as a head of a large company.
That's it though.


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How many total BDs and DVDs did The Virgin Witch Maria (Junketsu no Maria) sell?
Pretty simple question.  How many total BDs and DVDs did The Virgin Witch Maria (Junketsu no Maria) sell?  I wanted to know how well it sold and I don't really know where to find that kind of information, so I decided to ask it here :D

Please specify a date range or time frame. This site might be what you're looking for http://www.someanithing.com/

The date range would be since release until now.

From SomeAniThing. Roughly around 3-3.1K Sales. Sadly, that is extremely poor sales.

From SomeAniThing (A Website that takes into account, BR/DVD Sales from Oricon Charts & Amazon): "The Virgin Witch Maria" sold around 3,100 Sales, from all the volumes of BR & DVD.
This is unfortunate sales, for the series. The odds of a sequel is extremely low.
http://www.someanithing.com/3059
You can locate the sales, for exact units. On this link. Just look for "Junketsu No Maria" and total up the sales per volume.


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Who ended up placing fourth in block A of the autumn preliminaries?
After Souma's turn in block A of the autumn preliminaries, the standings were thus:

As you can see, there's a tie for fourth between Marui and Ibusaki. It was mentioned in episode 23 that if there were to be a tie that affects who passes the preliminaries, the judges would vote to determine who passes and who doesn't.
So I figure they must have voted on whether Marui or Ibusaki would be the fourth contestant from block A - but which one of them won the vote? During the after-party, Yoshino mentions that Ibusaki was probably sulking in his room, so I guess maybe Marui won? But nobody seemed to explicitly acknowledge that Marui had made it through, so I'm a bit confused.

Another contestant beat them both with an unrevealed curry dish that scored 91 points. Who it is was not revealed until later... it would seem that someone in the Elite Ten put him there for a reason.

Oh. That's weird. In the manga, was that contestant's existence at least revealed by the end of the preliminaries and/or was it pointed out that neither Ibusaki nor Marui passed the prelims? There's nothing in the anime through the end of episode 24 to suggest that this other contestant even exists.

He intentionally bumped into Souma on his way to the judges' table during the Preliminary Round (after Souma and Akira's showdown), but they don't officially meet until the second day of the Main Tournament.


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After seeing Sailor Moon Crystal, will I miss anything by skipping the first two seasons of the original anime?
I've been thinking of intermittently watching the original Sailor Moon anime (with subtitles) to get a sense of the plot (and to have something decent to watch).
Since I've already seen Sailor Moon Crystal and I've noticed that the first two seasons of the original anime seem to more or less cover the same material (and since Sailor Moon isn't a high priority series for me), I'm thinking of starting from Sailor Moon S.
If I start from Sailor Moon S, will there be any important plot points / character details that I will not know of because I won't have seen the first two seasons?
I did view the final recap episode of Sailor Moon R (and I could follow what was going on), but there wasn't enough detail that I'm completely certain I won't miss anything.

Great question!
After seeing Sailor Moon Crystal, will I miss anything by skipping the first two seasons of the original anime?
No... and yes.
No:
You are correct that Sailor Moon Crystal's 26th episode leaves off at the same point in the storyline as the end of the classic anime's R season.  If you go straight into the S season, you will not have missed out on any essential plot points, characters, or character details.
Yes: Sailor Moon Crystal is its own canon.  It follows the manga more closely than does the classic anime, but also has points where it veered away from the manga content in ways that conflict with both manga canon and classic anime canon. So there are 1) aspects of the classic anime's first 2 seasons which follow the manga in areas where Crystal did not, and 2) aspects/characters that are original to the classic anime canon and thus not covered in Crystal. The details about 30th century Crystal Tokyo differ significantly between the classic anime version and Crystal, but this will not affect jumping in from season 3 much since that material doesn't get mentioned again much from S onward. Likewise, the R season contained a plot arc that you'll have missed about the Makaiju tree and aliens who came to Earth, and the R movie contained an original story involving Mamoru's backstory, but as they are not referenced again later, you won't notice this at all. However, you will notice that some characters you met in Crystal are not in the classic anime (for example, Ittou Asanuma is absent from the classic anime until a tiny cameo in season 5, whereas Kumada Yuuichirou is a love interest for Rei original to the classic anime starting in the 1st season). So there will be moments where you'll notice things like, "I guess I'm supposed to know who this person is," or "I see that Mamoru actually transforms by magic into Tuxedo Kamen in this version," etc.
Recommended: Watch the first episode of the classic anime, then watch episodes 8, 10, 25, and 34 (the first appearances of Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako) so you can meet them in their classic anime personalities (Ami and Makoto are pretty similar to how you know them, whereas classic anime Rei and Minako are fairly different in personality from the personas given to them in Crystal). Then jump ahead to episode 90 (a.k.a. episode 1 of the S season).

Plot-wise the only big thing you'll be missing is the "Hell Tree" arc, which comprised the first 13 episodes of Sailor Moon R. This storyline doesn't exist in the manga or Sailor Moon Crystal. Character-wise you'll be missing a lot of character development that happens in the original anime. Sailor Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter are all pretty much bystanders in the reboot. In the TV series they had much bigger roles.
But no, you don't need to see any of it before watching Sailor Moon S. It was a TV series aimed at preteens. It's not very deep and is meant to be accessible. It's not the sort of show that assumes you've watched the show religiously since episode 1.
Sailor Moon S is also, in my opinion, the best season of the original anime, so it's not a bad place to start watching even if you haven't seen any episode of Sailor Moon before and don't know anything about it. On the other hand the next season, Sailor Moon SS, I'd consider to be the worst. It has its moments, but there are a lot filler episodes. After watching Sailor Moon S, you might want to consider skipping back and watching one of the first two seasons.

S and Sailor Stars have, arguably, the deepest, more serious parts of the series (S being the darkest, Stars being an ever-timely story of intercultural understanding). In my opinion, the best season is Stars (the 5th), and S is second-best. I generally recommend for people totally new to Sailor Moon to just start right at episode 173 (the 7th episode of Stars). Or you can skip straight from the end of S to beginning of Stars without missing much of anything that would cause questions in Stars (the only thing is that the villain from SuperS [the 4th season] reappears...

... briefly in Stars, but you don't need to know what she did in SuperS because her 6-episode arc in Stars is pretty much self-contained). I would say, after watching S and Stars, if you hanker for more Sailor Moon, then go back and watch from the 1st season.


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Can you conditionally kill someone with the death note?
Lets say you write "some dude dies of a heart attack at 3:00 PM if it is cloudy out". Does the dude die? What if you said "some dude commits suicide by gun at 3:00 PM if it is cloudy out", so that it is just up to him whether or not to decide to die.
Any idea what would happen in these cases?

If you write someone's name in the Death Note, they die.  You can write the conditions of their death if they are possible and if they are not possible they die the default way (heart attack).  If you could do this, it would mean you wrote his name in the Notebook and he could survive. That is impossible.
There may, however, be a way to do a conditional statement in a limited way to get information.  "Bob dies of a heart attack at 12:00 PST if he cheated on Kimmy.  He dies of a heart attack at 1:00 PST if he did not."  It is not clear if this would work or not. You clearly can do "Bob writes L's real name on the wall and then chokes" which would have him die of a heart attack if he doesn't know.  In any of the possible cases though, Bob would die and probably is dependent only on what Bob knows or observes.

So it can't really be used to do anything special. That's unfortunate.

Probably not.
This would imply that the death note could control people without killing them which Light would definitely have found out and abused.
To elaborate, imagine someone writing:
Do X, then if 1+1=3, die from a heart attack.
1+1 is never equal to 3, so the death note could be used to control anyone without harming them. That would contradict it being a notebook of death, also it's unlikely that light wouldn't have tried and done just that.


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Is it normal to 'erase' a seiyu?
Today I stumbled upon the Kotaku post regarding Ai Takabe's arrest in regards to drugs.
Besides her being erased from the credits, Bandai also announced that it’s no longer streaming Kill Me Baby as well as the 2009 anime Sweet Blue Flowers and the 2011 anime Wandering Son. Which are both animes Takabe had a voice in.
Has something like this happened before? Or is it considered normal to erase peoples existences from created products in Japan like has happened here, when a member of it's team commits a crime?

You, can send a message to the man at AnimeNewsNetwork. Justin Sevakis's known for his "Answerman" Column, will probably fill you in. answerman@animenewsnetwork.com, Just make sure you watch if it's answered on the website.

Like any company, they need to distance themselves for PR purposes and possible complaints (e.g., why are you showing an anime with a cocaine addict VA attached to it?). The industry is no stranger to scandals and abuses of power, which can cause backlash from audiences.

@Dimitri mx, I don't know if you saw but the answer to your question has been posted here by Answerman.

Kotaku says in its post here:

Increasingly, Japanese authorities have been cracking down on drugs and celebrities. Instead of letting these famous individuals off, like police seem to do in the U.S., the Japanese police and the country's media appear to make examples of them, stringing them out to dry. This might be a good thing! It also might be a bit much.

As Justin Sevakis puts it in his post here:

In Asia, it is expected that "talent" (singers/actors/show hosts/etc.) should be role models for society at large. When one gets in major criminal trouble (usually for drugs), what happens next is part of a very well-worn ritual.
Step 1: It's almost unheard of for the talent in question to fight the charge. Things will proceed as if they are completely guilty. If they're famous enough, there may be a press conference, in which they will apologize for letting down all of their fans, and cry a lot.
Step 2: The talent's management agency, record label(s), and any and all companies contracting that person to do work or appearances will immediately drop them from their rosters. Stores will remove their music, merchandise, and other media bearing their name from their shelves. Their listings will be removed from websites. I've never heard of whole anime series being pulled due to a voice actor getting in trouble, but it's fairly rare that a voice actor in prominent roles gets in trouble like this.
Step 3: Time passes, usually at least a year. The discs and merchandise that were pulled earlier quietly get put back on store shelves (and, presumably, streaming services). The talent works through the legal system, and once their debt to society is paid (any jail time, house arrest, or probation ends), the artist is free to try and restart their career, or go work at a convenience store. The artist is not re-instated at their old agencies, but is free to try again somewhere else and make a new start.

There are a few more such cases that have taken place in Japan such as the case with actor Shunta Nakamura, Manabu Oshio and others but the ones related to anime industry are as follows:
1. Noriko Sakai

Noriko Sakai, 44, was found guilty of possessing and using amphetamines in August 2009 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years. But unlike stars in much of the rest of the world, Sakai's conviction was marked as effectively the end of a career that made her popular across much of Asia.
Her record label, Victor Entertainment, had cancelled her contract and withdrawn all her albums from sale, while Toyota Motor had scrapped a lucrative advertising deal. However, in 2012 she returned to the entertainment business, and began performing in a stage play. She's since released new albums, and both it and a few of her older releases are back up on iTunes.

2. Ryo Aska

Ryo Aska of Chage and Aska was arrested for drug posession in early 2014, which caused Walt Disney Japan to remove the music video for the song "On Your Mark." Walt Disney Japan also removed the video from Studio Ghibli collection of short films that was previously released on DVD. In a way, Disney erased the short film from Studio Ghibli's back catalogue. It's as if it never existed. All Chage and Aska websites and social media accounts have either been frozen since then, or taken down, and are not active as of this writing.

A little correction, not Asia. Maybe East Asia or Japan, but certainly not Asia as a whole. There was a case in Indonesia where the vocalist of a band was thrown to jail because his personal sex video was spread online by someone who either hacked his laptop or stole it (don't quite remember). After the time he spent in jail he just need to rename his band (all personnels are the same as the previous band). Certainly, the contract of his band are all terminated, but his songs wasn't withdrawn from shelves. Thus, to say Asia as a whole would be a bit incorrect.


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Hellsing soundtrack − Unexpected incident
Among the tracks of Hellsing's OST albums there is one that abruptly ends at about 1 minute mark and it is called "Unexpected incident". I couldn't find a full version (if it even exists) and I'm starting to suspect that this actually is the fullest version, and it's called like that as a joke. Comments to youtube videos suggest the same, but I don't trust them.
Is there any official confirmation that this is indeed the whole track, or is there a longer version somewhere?
One of the many youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL0fFXO8apM

Well, the track is #22 on the RUINS album (in Japanese, the track is titled 「予期せぬ出来事」 Yoki Senu Dekigoto). The associated album scans don't have track lengths printed on them, but the enterprising user who entered the track listing on VGMdb indicated that the track was 0:59 in length.
I figure that's probably the whole track. Some random Japanese reviewer also lists it as 0:59, for independent corroboration.
(There's an amusing annotation beneath the track list on the poster that basically says "Per the intent of the composer, this recording includes noise and unexpected sounds". I suppose, then, that an unexpected lack of sound is not too far beyond the pale.)


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How can I find out when new English Dubbed One Piece episodes will be released?
I know there are currently over 700 One Piece episodes with subtitles, lots of people like the subtitles, I strongly prefer the English dubbed version. The English dub currently ends at 421 sadly.
How can I find out when new English dubbed episodes will be released?

By the way guys, if you're viewing this you might find it interesting that, looking back on this question asked three months ago, I've already watched all of the remaining episodes in subtitled form, and it will no longer bother you after watching 100 subtitled episodes. This is partly because I enjoyed the story so much.

Very true. Subtitled is kind of hard to get used to, but its well worth it since almost if not all anime is Subbed long before its dubbed, many of the more obscure but very good ones are never dubbed, and though it takes a while, once you get used to it, the impact to the experience is minimal.

You can keep a track of the dubbed episode DVD releases on Wikipedia where you can see that the dubbed versions of Episode 422-433 will be released on December 15, 2015 and the dubbed versions of episode 434-445 will be released on January 26, 2016.
The dubbed version is released online 2 weeks before the DVD Sales go out. You can find them uploaded on Funimation site or other sites.
You may also keep track of the DVD release dates on One Piece Wiki where too, you shall find the same information.
A final alternative is this site which is not only for tracking the release of the dubbed episodes of One Piece but also other anime.

If you are interested in streaming episodes, Funimation has a schedule up at this website address: http://www.funimation.com/schedule


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What makes an object 0.5th generation?
In the third arc ("The Ant and the Grasshopper"), the enemy object is described as being "0.5th-generation".
What does that even mean? I thought that the very first object to be built was itself already considered 1st-generation. Is a 0.5th-generation object some sort of subpar imitation or something?

Apparently it's a Generation 0.5 due to the fact it was not properly built, as the level of technology of its country was too low.

The technology level of the Oceanian military nation is not high enough to actually build a proper Object, thus the codename of Generation 0.5.

It contains several cheap measures in order to keep it even stable enough to move.

A single main gun is attached to the left side of the sphere. It's a few dozen meters long and reinforced with numerous steel bridge-like wires. It would likely have been fine without them, but there is a risk of the gun damaging itself with its own weight while it's held horizontal for long periods of time. It's a cheap countermeasure that would never have even been considered for a normal Object.

Therefore, since it is a downgraded version of a normal object and built with improper technology, it is called a Generation 0.5.

The prologue and afterword confirm that the Generation 0.5 was a degraded version of the Information Alliance's Gatling 033. The technology and design were given to the Oceanian military nation by the MIB.


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Who is Takashi's dad/mom?
In the story, it was mentioned that Reiko died young. So, who is Takashi's dad/mom and who gave birth to him/her if Reiko died young?

The backstory of Takashi's childhood and parents are explained in anime's 4th season, from episode 11-13.
Takashi's parents have already passed away, and their names were never been revealed. His mom died just after he gave birth to Takashi. His dad died few years later, before Takashi's taking elementary school (where he was already living with his relative's family). Because of this and his bad childhood experience, he became traumatic and decided to forget his childhood memory. This is the reason why there's little info about his parents.

Photo of Takashi's parents
About Reiko's child, from Japanese's Yahoo! Answers,

From 2011/3 issue of LaLa magazine (the one where Natsume's manga is serialized), Takashi told Tanuma that his grandmother (Reiko) wasn't married (but gave birth to Takashi's mother), and she didn't know her father (Takashi's grandfather). Reiko also died after she gave birth to Takashi's mother.

There's a theory that Nyanko is Takashi's grandfather, but it's never been explained in manga. Also, perhaps I have to find the manga chapter about Takashi telling Tanuma about his (grand)parents.


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What does it mean when Kenshin says 'oro'?
Throughout the series Kenshin has added 'oro' somewhat comedically to his sentences. Is there any actual meaning to this or is this just a speech style/pattern that he has?
In episode 62 he says it several times in a row and Kaoru points this out.

related answer: http://anime.stackexchange.com/a/22463/63

From Urban Dictionary:

A Japanese expression of confusion. Often used by otaku to indicate confusion/disorientation. People who read/watch "Rurouni Kenshin" may pick up the habit of saying "Oro!" because Himura Kenshin says it often in the manga/anime.

From Wikipedia page on Himura Kenshin:

Nobuhiro Watsuki added Kenshin's trademark "oro" as a placeholder to be an expression of the English speech disfluency "huh". Watsuki notes that he was surprised at how much it caught on, and how much he ended up having Kenshin use the sound during the series

You can watch a few of his Oro moments here  (and see that he usually uses it when he's confused/disoriented).

Oro, is nothing more than a confused portmanteau for uttering a word that has no real meaning. Similar to Dale Gribbles use of the word "G'h" when surprised or excited.


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What might be the real life inspiration of Oda behind writing One Piece?
What might be the real life inspiration of Oda behind writing One Piece? Does anyone has an idea about Oda's inspiration of writing One Piece?

I would like to share this after some research:

As a child, Oda gained interest in pirates through a famous television series titled "Vicky The Viking". He was inspired by Akira Toriyama, creator of Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball and aspired to become a Manga Artist. He worked as an assistant to different manga artists for a few years before finally starting out with One Piece in 1997.

references:
http://orojackson.com/threads/odas-inspiration-for-various-one-piece-elements.1425/
http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Eiichiro_Oda


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Which clockwisality should the swastika be in Bleach-related contexts?
In the context of Bleach, which clockwisality should the swastika have?
Should it be "卍解", or "卐解"? Or are both valid? Doing a google image search for both of them gets Bleach-related hits.

The Zanpakuto article in Bleach wiki says that Bankai is written 卍解. The Bleach article in Wikipedia Japanese also mentions lots of 卍解, but no 卐解 found. Both 卍 and 卐 can be read Man/Ban in Japanese.
The 卍 is read Sauwastika in Sanskrit and is more common in Buddhism than Hinduism. In Buddhism the left-facing sauwastika imprinted on the chest, feet, palms of Buddha and also the first of the 65 auspicious symbols on the footprint of the Buddha.
The 卐 is read Swastika in Sanskrit and is more common in Hinduism than Buddism. In Hinduism the left-facing sauwastika is associated with esoteric tantric practices and often stands for Goddess Kali.


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Why does Levi wear Titan Pajamas?

Does this have anything to do with the manga? Or is this just something that fans made up? Because I see so much people cosplaying as Levi in Titan Pajamas.

Having read all the chapters so far, as far as I can tell, there's been no mention of Levi's pajamas at all. I'd have thought it's just a fan-based thing.

It is fanmade.
The origin of the image is from 阿布 (Abu)'s Pixiv. He also drew some more Levi with Titan Pajamas, and other characters with Pajamas.
Seems it became popular after the image was shared on Baidu, with the real pajamas being sold.
Reference: AnimeAmino - Levi's pajamas


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Is Cocona a Reyvateil?
In Phase 1 of Ar Tonelico 2: Melody of Metafalicia when Croix's group is heading back to Pastalia after Cloche collapsed Cocona becomes targeted by Grand Bell Knights because she is infected with I.P.D.
To my understanding I.P.D can only be contracted by Reyvateil's yet no one bats an eye about Cocona being a Reyvateil rather her level of infection (thus the suprise deployment). both Luca and Cloche has had to have the Life Extending Agent administrated to them but Cocona has yet to receive one and while i've only just started Phase 3 there seem to be no indication Cocona is a Reyvateil (ie. she's not reading Hymmnos, not using Song Magic).
So is Cocona a Reyvateil? if so how far developed is she as a Reyvateil in comparison to Luca and Cloche

According to EXA_PICO wikia, Cocona is a 3rd generation IPD Reyvateil.
This, of course, needs a bit more explanation.
Reyvateils are artificial life forms created to use Song Magic. There are Purebloods and Halfbloods Reyvateil.
There are sub-classification under those two categories, but let's focus on Cocona.
By being a 3rd generation Reyvateil, it means Cocona was born from a Reyvateil mother and a human father. Normally, those children tend to be normal humans, but there are cases in which the Reyvateil genes are strong, causing the Song Servers to recognize such human as a Reyvateil.
As such, those Reyvateils tend to have a shorter life span, since their human body is not made to endure the constant energy surge form using Song Magic.
Yet, differently from Pureblood Reyvateils, they can live outside of their tower's range. That makes their Reyvateil part go dormant and they can live as normal humans.
Cocona is also an IPD, meaning she does not connect to the "correct" server, but to the Infel Phira server. The whole IPD situation is from the game's story and I guess there is no need to delve to deep on it.
So, to cut it short, I guess the fact that Cocona was a 3rd generation Reyvateil was already known or obvious to the other characters, since 3rd generation Reyvateils were not uncommon.


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Is Eruru Hakuoro's daughter?
In the last episode of Utawarerumono we see that Iceman gives the baby he has with Mikoto this ring before they get attacked by the research facility.

The ring Eruru wears in her hair is the same one that had been given to Mikoto's baby.

Does that mean that Eruru is Hakuro's daughter?

I don't believe so as Mikoto and Hakuro/Iceman only had one child while Eruru has her little sister Aruru. remember that the pact between Eruru and Utawarerumono was to save the life of her little sister Aruru who had just been killed during an earthquake1
However the Ring Eruru has is indeed the same same Hakuro gave to Mikoto as it is shown to have the same id credentials to access the research facility so it is more than likely Eruru and Aruru are decedents of Mikoto's and Hakuro's baby.
Also keep in mind that the Mecha used by Kuuya's Kingdom are the same as the ones the humans from the research facility used to survive outside and Kuuya's Kingdom seems to have been around for a while so i would suspect that a very long time has passed since Hakuro went ballistic in the research facility and turned all the humans in there into blobs. otherwise it's far too short of time for Mikoto's baby to reach Eruru's age while at the same span of time Kuuya's Kingdom are given the ability to use the Mecha and become one of the dominate forces on the continent
1: i think it was an earthquake which killed Aruru however i can't exactly remember. however i do remember from the visual novel it being revealed that Utawarerumono (or at least Hakuro) had appeared before Eruru and in exchnage for Aruru being revived Eruru was to become faithful to Hakuro which led him to question her love for him. she however ensures that she does love him herself and not because of the pact she made

No, Eruru is Mikoto's reincarnation. The ring got to her by sheer fate as said in the game. The daughter he had with Mikoto was dissected by the scientists along with Mikoto. That is the reason the scientists were turned to slime by his powers in the first place. You can find all this information on the Wikipedia page on Utawarerumono.

Actually i thought Mikoto was still alive in the form of Kamyu and transforms back into Mikoto near the end

Nope, Kamyu is just the sort of reincarnation of Mutsumi, that bird girl from the test subjects (Number 63) made from Iceman's DNA and Mutsumi was special in the fact that she inherited more of his powers and thought of him as her father.


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Can Sea-Stone objects be given Demon Fruit powers?
We've seen that inanimate objects can be made to 'eat' a Demon Fruit; can this process be used on a Sea-stone object?

We don't know. A similar question would be whether a Devil fruit that ate another Devil fruit would explode, but we don't know that either.

While a clear answer to that question hasn't been given yet, it is most likely impossible. Sea stone nullifies Devil Fruit powers to begin with, so even if it were possible to feed a sea stone object a Devil Fruit in the first place, the stone's effects would nullify the fruit's powers, rendering it useless.

We are still not sure about that. But I believe that a sea-stone cannot eat a demon fruit. It will just nullify the fruit or maybe destroy it.


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Is Ash's Pikachu stronger than regular Pikachu?
Is Pikachu stronger than other Pikachu or his Pikachu special type Pokémon.

Of course, his pikachu is so strong that at Elite 4 level it still cannot beat a level 5 (starter) Chikorita :P.

Actually, this answer does answer your question.

Ash's Pikachu has the Power of Plot WARNING: TvTropes.

By a regular Pikachu you mean by the anime standards? Then yes, it's above average.
But compared to Red's Pikachu from the manga it's a Magikarp.
In the manga, Red is one of the (if not THE) best trainers of the region. He actually uses his brain in combat. The Pokemon world in the manga is a lot harsher than the anime world (Pokemons are used as weapons to kill humans and other Pokemons). Ash would probably get destroyed by a random Ratata from the manga. So no, as per manga standards (it'd be one of the weakest).
Red's Pikachu is what I call a strong Pikachu. For instance, Red's Pikachu (very well trained, and very experienced in battles) has taken out all of Lance's (Elite Four) Pokemons in one megavolt attack. He's even made Lugia faint with that attack. And Red's Pikachu was about level 88 the last time I checked.
Source: Pokemon Manga and Pokemon Anime

The pikachu itself is not special it is however pretty strong since it was trained a lot.

Please add some references to back up your claim and expand your answer.

its hard to find a reference where it says its a normal pikachu, but the absence of anything that says its a special pikachu


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What's the order of Pokémon manga?
I found a lot of Pokémon manga. I don't know were to start, so whats the order of it.

There isn't necessarily a correct order to read them as the series consist of multiple alternative timelines.
If its the Pokémon Adventures volumes, you can find the order here.
The original series, Movie Adaptation Series and Game Adaptation Series orders can be found here.


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What is the meaning behind the changing frame in the Nemuro Memorial Hall elevator?
During the Black Rose Saga, as each candidate reveals their deepest hostilities and fears the frame in the elevator changes from
Butterfly > Cocoon > Caterpillar > Leaf
The butterfly is what the frame is when the elevator starts to move down, most of the time, it stops at the Cocoon before Mikage urges the candidate to "go deeper" with the Leaf appearing when the elevator is about to reach the room with all of the coffins.
I am wondering what is the meaning behind this changing frame?

The progression from butterfly to leaf suggests grasping at the "fundamentals" of something: the butterfly started from a catepillar eating a leaf. However, this idea of progressively digging deeper does not really explain the monologue progression. For instance, with Shiori, the progression is from:

Always hated Juri and wanted to take something away from her. ("Go deeper.")
Juri's kindness looked like she was making fun of Shiori. She thought taking away Juri's purported love interest would change things, but she only felt worse after doing so. Now she knows about the pendant, things are different.
In a good way, Shiori doesn't know what she should do now.
"It's no use. Why do you look at me like that?"

We do not as a general rule get increasingly "deeper" motives as the background image progresses. The main rule that governs how the monologue progresses seems to be:

Before "go deeper", consists of at least an allusion to some fears
After "go deeper", consists on an expansion on the fears and possible explanation of motives.

So while I would not read too much into the stylised elements (which is my general policy with fiction, when the meanings are not obvious), I can say that it at least fits for two reasons:

The butterfly "degrades" into what it is made up of, similar to how we learn what is behind characters' problems.

The progression of the image makes sense because it follows a pattern and isn't blatantly out of place. In a lot of fiction, the exact "meaning" of motifs or stylised elements will never be suggested; the important thing is that they will nonetheless not be out of place.
(To be honest, I think the opposite progression---leaf to butterfly---wouldn't be out of place were all of the segments replaced with that, and if that happened, I would have been able to make something up about how the characters are expanding and developing their motives.)


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Is shiki fuujin a summoning jutsu?
As we know, shiki fuujin jutsu summons the death god which takes the soul of the summoner and target. But is it a summoning jutsu or just a kind of chakra attack (like rasengan, chidori etc)?

Indeed, Dead Demon Consuming Seal or simply Shiki Fūjin is summoning Shinigami. But first, let's recall what requires for Summoning Jutsu to work.

Performer need to an additional donation of blood on the hand they signed the contract with.
Mould their chakra with hand seals and then plant the hand they signed the contract with at the location they wish to summon the creature.

We know that when Hiruzen Sarutobi performing this technique, he skipped steps such as donate summoner's blood and plant summoner's hand to the ground, or anywhere. AFAIK, Summoning Jutsu is classified as Ninjutsu and Space-Time Ninjutsu, where Shiki Fūjin is classified as Ninjutsu, Fūinjutsu and Kinjutsu. As Space-Time Ninjutsu Definition says, all summoning-based techniques are space–time manipulation related, as they warp the targets through a dimensional void to the summoner's location. This makes a clear classification where Shiki Fūjin is not a Summoning Jutsu, because Shiki Fūjin doesn't classified as Space-Time Ninjutsu. I guess even though Hiruzen is indeed summoning Shinigami, it can't easily state that it is a Summoning Technique since Shinigami is type of soul creature, maybe it is a kind of Summoning Kinjutsu instead of Summoning Ninjutsu or some sort of thing.
In a nutshell, Shiki Fūjin is mainly Fūinjutsu, which seal objects, living beings, chakra, along with a wide variety of other things within another object, such as sealing scroll.

Actually this technique is a sealing jutsu that summons the death god and seals away the soul, both the one sealed and the summoner.


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Absorbing nin-jutsu chakra (technique)
Here are the two scenarios,

In the movie Naruto Shippuden the Movie: The Will of Fire a ninja by name Hiruko while fighting with Naruto-san tries to absorb wind style Rasen-Shuriken. But he fails and exclaims that he can not absorb the technique.
In Naruto Shippuden anime series (I don't know exact episode number), when Naruto-san fights with Pain, one of the Pain successfully absorbs the Rasen-Shuriken.

Once the absorption is failed (in case of Hiruko), but other time its possible (in case of Pain).
Can anyone please explain how is this possible and reasons behind it?

The chakra absorbing technique used by Hiruko is Dark Release: Inhaling Maw. While in the case of Pain, or Preta path corpse to be precise, the technique is Blocking Technique Absorption Seal.
These two techniques seem to be no different right? No, it has a major difference.

Hiruko's Dark Release: Inhaling Maw

Classification: Kekkei Genkai, Ninjutsu, Chakra Absorption Techniques
Usage: Extract the physical and spiritual energy of another ninja, even from a considerable distance. He is able to completely remove the victim's chakra, potentially causing death.

Preta path corpse's Blocking Technique Absorption Seal

Classification: Kekkei Genkai, Ninjutsu, Dōjutsu, Fūinjutsu, Chakra Absorption Techniques
Usage: A highly advanced sealing technique that is capable of absorbing any chakra, regardless of any shape or nature transformation. As a result, this technique can absorb any ninjutsu based technique, rendering it ineffective on the user.

As I mentioned just now, there's a major difference, that is the classification. Note that Preta's path corpse's technique is classified as one of the Dōjutsu and Fūinjutsu. Dōjutsu, which possesses a number of passive abilities that normal Ninjutsu don't. Moreover, Fūinjutsu is also part of the classification. Recall what is Fūinjutsu -- Fūinjutsu are a type of jutsu that seals objects, living beings, chakra, along with a wide variety of other things within another object. Ultimately, Hiruko's Ninjutsu absorption technique is just an absorption ninjutsu. With any Ninjutsu that possesses larger amount of chakra than his absorption technique, he will end up being killed. However, Preta path corpse's Ninjutsu Absorption Sealing technique is stronger than Hiruko's one. Do you remember that Jiraiya sealed Itachi's Dōjutsu, Amaterasu with his Fire Sealing Method(A kind of Fūinjutsu)? Even the highest level of fire release that cannot be extinguished with water or any other normal methods could be sealed, not to mention it's absorbed by Hiruko's absorption technique. That's the power of Fūinjutsu.
[Source and info are taken from Narutopedia. A wiki filled with SPOILERS about Naruto series :)]


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Why did Miss Monochrome become a bear?
In Episode 4 of Season 2 of Miss Monochrome, Miss Monochrome wants to have an action figure made as merchandise for her concert tour. Her manager tells her it might be difficult, so she decides to become an action figure based on her own merits.
For some reason, this leads her to become a bear, as terrifyingly recounted in the following scene.

There seems to be some kind of silly pun in play here, but I couldn't make out what it was. What contortion of the Japanese language led Miss Monochrome to think dressing up as a bear would make her an action figure?

Since her name is Monochrome, I was thinking of Monokuma, a character from Danganronpa, which then explain why she became a bear (kuma is Japanese for bear), but no idea what does that have to do with action figure.

@SakuraiTomoko It was some kind of pun on the words figyua (figure) and what sounded like higuma, which I assume comes from kuma (bear). I was hoping someone could explain it.

Also, we needed more Miss Monochrome questions to help her on her way to becoming an idol.

Based on Torisuda's clue, Figuma is a reference to Figma, a company that sells action figures. Higuma sounds similar to Figma and it means Sun Bear (hi/日 = sun, kuma/熊 = bear). Thus, Miss Monochrome turned into a sun bear.

@snailboat Can you explain what the joke would be if you're right? Maybe in an answer? :)


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Is Digimon Tri canon?
There is a Digimon Adventure 1 picture in one of the episodes, but the public seem to have forgotten previous Digimon appearances in the real world.

Toei Animation, the original production company that put out Digimon Adventures, is definitely advertising it as a sequel to the original stories.
The release of Digimon Adventure Tri is supposed to be their gift
 to Digimon fans for the fifteen year anniversary of the ending of the original show.
You mention that it seems the public has forgotten past Digimon appearances in the world but I don't think so. After their appearance and destruction of the airport and town the news reporter states that this serves as a reminder of their destructive power.  The fact that this is a reminder proves that they've seen events like this before.


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Does Ciel Phantomhive ever kill anyone?
Whether it's direct (with his own hands) or indirect (orders Sebastian to do it), does Ciel ever kill anyone?

Ciel never killed someone using his own hands. However, he ordered Sebastian to kill people several times. There are also times where Sebastian killed people indirectly from Ciel's orders, like when Ciel ordered Sebastian to save him in the early episodes (episode 3 & 4 if I'm not mistaken) of the anime. Below are some of the occasions where Ciel directly ordered Sebastian to kill people.
In the Book of Circus, Ciel ordered Sebastian to burn down the mansion and killing the criminals and the innocent children inside.
When the Queen of England shows herself as a modified human and that her adjutant is actually the angel, Ciel ordered Sebastian to kill them.

To add a bit more context in the manga Ciel did in fact shoot the owner of the circus several times before ordering Sebastian to kill them. Also in the emerald witch arc he shot several zombies but they were technically already dead.

Yes, Ciel has killed someone.
He killed

 Baron Kelvin in season 3 episode 8

with his gun.

 Kelvin was still alive, so Ciel kicked him and was about to shoot again just Joker stopped him. But he died from blood loss, so Ciel did kill someone.


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How are the characters connected to the original game in Danganronpa:UDG?
During Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls we are told that the people selected to be hunted are related to the characters in the original game.
Some of these are relatively straight forward, but it's been a while since I've played the first game so some links are lost on me.
How are the new characters related to the old ones?

Naegi Komaru -> Younger sister to Naegi Makoto

Yuta Asahina -> Younger brother of Aoi Asahina

Kanon Nakajima -> Manager of Leon Kuwata's Baseball team

Hiroko Hagakure -> Mother of Yasuhiro Hagakure

Taichi Fujisaki -> Father of Chihiro Fujisaki

Ayaka Haneyama -> Member of Sayaka Maizono's idol group

Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg -> pet of Celestia Ludenberg

Takemichi Yukimaru -> leader of Mondo Owada's Biker Gang Crazy Diamonds

Fujiko Yamada -> Older Sister of Hifumi Yamada

Fuhito Kirigiri -> Grandfather of Kyoko Kirigiri

Takaaki Ishimaru -> Father of Kiyotaka Ishimaru

Kameko -> Stinkbug belonging to Toko Fukawa

Kenshiro -> Sakura Ogami's Love Interest / Rival

Aloysius Pennyworth -> Butler of Byakuya Togami

Bonus!
The following characters were scrapped from the game, but were included in the artbook.
Sayaka Maizono's sister & Chihiro Fujisaki's Mother:

source.

A lot of the links can be found if you go on the wiki. The targets were all the most important person to their corresponding character from the first game.
For Example, Hiroko Hagakure is Yasuhiro Hakagure's mother, and Yuta Asahina is Aoi Asahina's brother. But, not all of these figures are human. Celestia Ludenburg's most important person was her cat, and Touko Fukawa's was a bug.


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Is there any API available for Naruto?
I came across this Pokemon API service: http://pokeapi.co/
Just want to know is there any API available for Naruto anime?

Unless there is a Naruto game you are referring to, there isn't an equivalent one since the site you linked is about the Pokemon game not the anime.

I bet you're planning to make a fan-based naruto game, so instead of searching for API, you should first gather information such as character's stats. These websites provide detailed information about each ninjas:
Full characters' biography and stats
Full characters' biography, history and stats (Naruto wikia)
And then, you can apply those stats and info just like http://pokeapi.co/ do.


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Can Nico Robin really reveal the void century?
Nico Robin's goal is to find out what happened in void century that written in poneglyph, and she must read all the poneglyph to know the history.
Poneglyph is said scattered around the world, and each poneglyph is connected to another poneglyph.
But can she really read all the poneglyph and reveal the void century?
Because if I'm not mistaken about the Log Pose, it will point to the nearest island. How about there's some island missed by Mugiwara Crew and possibly have a poneglyph, that's mean Nico Robin can't read the poneglyph and she also can't reveal about the void century.

Yes, she can.
What you said about her requiring to visit all poneglyphs to decipher the Rio Poneglyph is true and has been stated in the Wikia also:

Only when the stones are read as one will they fill in the Void Century of the world.

However, it also says:

There are two types of poneglyphs: those that carry information about how to reach the other poneglyphs and those that carry the records of the "True History".

Hence, even if she were to miss an island, she would be guided there by another poneglyph. Finding the island is not much of a problem either because one can use an Eternal Pose:

Like a Log Pose, it records the special magnetic waves of a certain island within the Grand Line, allowing the user to know which way to go to arrive at their destination. Unlike a Log Pose, which resets its recordings on new islands, an Eternal Pose always points to the same island, no matter how long it stays elsewhere.
They appear to be available for purchase, though come at a high cost.

Actually, it is said that the true history is revealed by the Rio Ponelyph alone. According to One Piece's wikia page:

According to Robin, the Rio Poneglyph (...) is the message carried by all the poneglyphs along the Grand Line. It contains the true history of the One Piece world (including the "Void Century" of which research is forbidden). In order to find it, one must take all other passages from the other Poneglyphs with them on their travels, and it is only completed upon reaching the end of the world; in other words, the island Raftel.

Therefore, we can argue that all the Poneglyphs are required to reach Raftel in the first place. However, this is probably not true since none of the Poneglyphs so far even talked about Raftel. Things may change as the crew gets closer and closer to the end of Grandline.
Also it is important to note that in her search of the void history, Robin is not starting from scratch. In her flashback during the Enies Lobby arc, professor Clover shares his hypothesis about the void history to the Gorosei ("Five elder stars" in Japanese) while Robin is listening. He and the other archaeologists from Ohara had already uncovered much and seemed close to the truth according to the Gorosei's reaction upon hearing it.

What you quoted doesn't imply that there's a Rio Poneglyph on the Raftel Island. Rio Poneglyph translates to "True Text of History". It is necessary for Robin to have seen all the poneglyphs in order to figure out what happened in the Void Century/the whole history (unless she fills in the gaps on her own by predicting what a missing poneglyph or two might have stated, which is very unlikely.

Yes, even in One Piece, it has not been shown or proven that the Rio Poneglyph is on Rafter. I think it only says (I'll have to find the reference) that it is "believed" it is on the last Island of Grandline. Also, the quote says that the Rio Poneglyph "contains the true history of the One Piece world". It would not matter if she missed some Poneglyphs on the way, since the Rio Poneglyph is said to contain it all.

That's the thing. Doesn't it contradict this:  "In order to find it, one must take all other passages from the other Poneglyphs with them on their travels"

well, I agree with @AshisGupta, "and It is only completed upon reaching the end of the world; in other words, the island Raftel." She need to know all the poneglyph


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Would Infel has disappeared if she and Nenesha succeeded?
At the end of Ar Tonelico II - Melody of Metafalica when Luca and Cloche are singing EXEC_with.METHOD_METAFALICA/. Frelia is warning Infel that if Luca and Cloche are successful Infel will disappear because of what will happen to the Infel Pira, all the while Infel is saying she knows she's going to disappear because she designed Infel Pira.
But i am wondering, would Infel had disappeared when she and Nenesha tried to create Metafalica 400 year ago and succeeded? does this mean Metafalica was doomed to fail back then because it would require someone to sacrifice their life?

After reserching in the EXA.PICO Wikia about Infel, it seems thatn in the chance the Song was executed properly, no one would have died. As long as Infel's calculations were correct.
Infel developed METHOD_METAFALICA/. to patch the EXEC_METAFALICA/. song, which had requirements to strong, and ended up killing any Revaitail who sang it.
So, is is likely Metafalica could have worked back then, if Infel had not closed of her heart and caused the song to fail.
The reason Infel will die if Luca and Cloche succesfully sing METHOD_METFALICA/. is because she is now a sublimated consciousness living in the Infel Phira server, and the transmigration of Infel Phira would defragment the server's memory and delete her data.

Also, Infel wasn't at fault for the failure of her Metafalica attempt, but the IPDs that were supposed to sing with her and Nenesha: they betrayed her at the most crucial moment because they didn't like that Infel was creating Metafalica for Nenesha and for her research instead of for them.


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Is Conqueror's Haki Indiscriminate?
Haoshoku Haki/Conquerors Haki by definition is:

is a rare form of Haki that cannot be attained through training. Only one in several million people have this ability. This type of Haki allows the user to exert their willpower over others. It is said that whoever possesses this type of Haki has the qualities of a king.

As most have seen watching One Piece this form of Haki has a few displays from small scale to large. What I am asking is if it is indiscriminate. When released on a large scale can it spare individuals? I have seen the cases where single individuals can be targeted by this haki. (i.e. Shanks vs Seaking, Rayleigh vs Elephant) I know that it has been shown people withstanding the haki but that seems to be due more to fortitude of the individual than the user sparing those people. So could a conquerors haki user spare his/her crew if they know they are weak willed?

It isnt indiscriminate. Rayleigh touched on this subject when training Luffy. He said that luffy shouldnt use it until he could handle it properly to prevent unwanted "casualties". So it is indiscriminate when untrained like when luffy knocked out both allies and foes during the war.

No, it isn't indiscriminate.
It can be used by the user selectively.
As stated in the Wikia:

This type of Haki grants the user the ability to dominate the wills of others. The most common usage of it shown in the series so far is using it exert the user's willpower onto those with weak wills and rendering them unconscious. Whilst inexperienced users are restricted to merely overpowering the will of one individual or blindly knocking out weak-willed people around them, those with more expertise can pick out weak-willed individuals in a large group and knock them out without affecting the others.

An instance of this is shown when Camie isn't knocked out when Rayleigh uses it for the first time.

oh guess i should have read the wiki better and not skimmed through it lol.


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Is there any explanation for how Akihiko Kayaba managed to trap everyone in SAO?
It seems farfetched that Akihiko Kayaba would be able to sneak in all that malicious code into Sword Art Online without anyone knowing. Surely it would have been a big project with many developers. Furthermore, it seems like it would be difficult for him stop the other developers from fixing Sword Art Online. Even if he destroyed the source code or something, they still had a whole year to figure something out. Do the light novels shed any more light on Kayaba's scheme?

Doesn't seem farfetched when you remember that Akihiko Kayaba is the inventor of the NervGear and creator of SAO and being the guy at the very top of both of them he can easily slip code/functionality in after QA

This big thing to worry about here is the hardware - software is of secondary importance.

SAO Abridged gives a really good explanation for this.

@YetAnotherRandomUser Link please.

I've read the Light Novels and it doesn't really cover any more than the anime on how he managed it. And in all honesty, its entirely possible that he was able to slip all that coding in. My father is a programmer so I have a rough idea on how much code goes into a lot of projects and there are actually very few times that people get to view the code as a whole, with each person or group working a small part and then sending it in to add to the bigger project. With this knowledge in hand, being able to work that much code in wouldn't be too far fetched even if Kayaba wasn't top dog, but since he is it is very conceivable that it could happen.

Cyberson, do you disagree with  Clockwork-Muse who said 'This big thing to worry about here is the hardware - software is of secondary importance' ? Happy Easter!

Since Kayaba is known as someone with a high position for the development of the game and the NerveGear, he's probably highly involved with the development and he could have had some backdoor program or an admin level access to the system.
That way he can just remove the Logout option in the database as well as overwrite the program on the nervegear (as it's also connected to the internet via the pc) to fry the player's brain when attempted to be taken off (assuming he hid an extra "feature" in the hardware design that of the nerve gear that could amplify the voltage/ampere).

This is more of a personal opinion than an answer. Please support what you are saying.

@Tamz_m Cyberson answered that light novels doesn't have details on how Kayaba initiated his plan. My answer is an assumption, as a software developer, of what Kayaba could have pulled off assuming he has direct involvement with the development of the NerveGear and SAO system

@ Bahamut - I think you need to read the sites guidelines for answering questions. Questions for a start are not allowed to be asked if the answers are opinion based, therefore the answers also should not be just an opinion. Opinions should be in comments. If you are going to post opinions use links from external sites to support them/back them up.

Bahamut well...any external site to support re what @Tamz_m said?


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Why is part of Tenjin's hat transparent?
Everything else is solid except for the sliver that is hanging off the back. Why is this transparent?

The headgear is called a Kanmuri and that translucent part is just a thin layer of cloth/mesh attached to the headgear.

http://philippi-collection.blogspot.com/2011/02/headgear-of-japanese-shinto-priests.html

According to (http://www.kariginu.jp/kikata/2-2.htm), the semi-transparent part is specifically called an ei (纓).

@senshin Kanmuri is the headgear. I updated my answer so it would be less confusing which is which


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How does the Install Port appear when a girl becomes a Reyvateil?
So 3rd Generation Reyvateils are originally born as humans but if their mother was a Reyvateil they may develop into one later in life.
From my understanding all Reyvateil have an install port surrounded by a tattoo and since Gathnode Crystals and Life Extending Agents are Physical Objects that get inserted into a Reyvateil with both being somewhat painful this would make it into a hole right?
But i can't imagine how this hole appears. does the skin just open up one day? does a Reyvateil have to go under some procedure to have it made (ie. when they get their first Life Extending Agent) or is it a gradual process?

The Install Port isn't a hole: it's a mark on the skin that has the purpose of "dissolving" into waves any crystals made from a Parameno or Grathnode base that enter in contact with it so the Reyvateil can absorb them.

If it dissolves into waves then how does the Life Extending Agent hurt so much during insertions? i recall Aurica or Lyner commenting on the size of it but if it dissolves then size shouldn't matter

Because these waves enter in contact with her H-Wave component to extend her life, and having foreign waves enter their bodies like that causes a tremendous pain. It's somewhat like having a micro-nuclear meltdown taking place on their bodies, as waves are what make up everything in the world. Check this up for more details on it: http://artonelico.wikia.com/wiki/ARM_Backup/Ar_Portal_translation/Toukousphere/Issue_55

From the data the Exa_Pico Wikia gathered form the agmes and the Toukoushpere (a segment where characters answered questions sent from users), it seems to be concluded that, after a server mistakenly recognizes a 3rd generation human as a Reyvateil, it begins a long process of correcting what it sees as a somehow ignored Reyvateil that ended up with irregular development, and starts using this human's memories ands senses to develop a soulspace.
The process of developing this soulspace takes about ten days, in which the human enters a comatose state. At the end of the process, the human will have awakened as a Reyvateil, with a Install Port appearing in their body.
So, the Insatll Port appears automatically, after a girl awakens as a Reyvateil.
Unfortunatley, it is not clear of the Install Port is a hole, but from the way it is depicted, the symbol may work as a kind of portal for specific materials (data crystals).


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Which mountain did they try to climb over?
During the anime/manga, Kasuga & Sawa attempt to climb over the nearby mountain and reach the other side.
The work is set in a small town in Kiryū, Gunma so I was looking at the area on Google Maps, but it seems to be a very mountainous region:

Google Maps page
Is there any more precise information about where the show is set or the mountain that they climbed? I would like to know what exactly was over that mountain if they did manage to get over it

This site for pilgrimages  has links to Google Maps and a list of locations in The Flowers of Evil, but I can't find anything for the mountain Kasuga and Nakamura tried climbing before they were caught. I am also aware of some less centralised information others have found (e.g. here), but nothing for the mountan specifically.

There also appears to be some information on blogs mentioning pilgrimages (judging from a quick search), but I haven't had the time yet to sort through those and see if they have what you're looking for.

Now that my schedule has freed up a little, I reran my search for 聖地巡礼 悪の華. (I don't really know Japanese, but the former seems to be a good search term for pilgrimage.) Maps such as this one came up, and I found this blog post for the corresponding episode (i.e. episode 10). (I had "misplaced" this episode when I commented on this question earlier, which was probably why I couldn't give a quick answer.)
Here's a screenshot of the map. The markers for episode 10 locations are in green and are isolated from the main "cluster"---I am reproducing the section in question below:

So it looks like Kasuga and Nakamura started on Prefectural Route 66 before branching onto Prefectural Route 337. There are also some "real life v.s. anime" comparisons on the blog I linked to, which verify the locations listed here. It is not clear to me if Kasuga and Nakamura are climbing any specific mountain; it looks more like they are travelling north via some mountainous roads. Northwards, there seem to only be more mountains.
(I should note that it isn't entirely clear if the rotoscoped locations in the anime are supposed to correspond to specific locations in the manga---it is possible that some of the locations in the manga were intentionally ambiguous, and that anime producers were forced to choose one location or the other. However, it seems that the best we can do is use the information from the anime; I don't recall any more specific information being released.)
Incidentally, Google maps suggests that it is relatively easy to travel from Kiryu to larger cities such as Tokyo through flat land---it's not even as if the town is completely surrounded by mountains. More likely, the mountains take on some symbolic meaning for Kasuga.


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What is this in-game artwork of Monokuma referencing?
I've been playing Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls recently and I came across these two pieces of art in game:

You can probably tell from the picture, but the pannels are in a zigzag layout - and you have to look at it from a particular angle to get the full picture.
The first picture looks familar, but obviously it has monokumas in it instead of the original characters/thing - the second one seems to be a picture of Towa City - where the game is set, and might not be related. But seeing as it was the other side of the panels, I thought the text might be relevant.
What is the original artwork that the Monokumas have taken over?

The text reads: "おいでませ 塔和タワー", which means "Welcome to Towa Tower". I'm not sure whether it has anything to do with the original image (or if it do reference anything), though.

hmm, I guess it's probably unrelated - as I think the screenshot is taken from inside the tower

For those interested: The text in the first image reads "ものくま" or "Monokuma"

I believe it may be a monokuma version of the official 'Danganronpa Girls' / 'Danganronpa Boys' artworks

I'm not sure if the offical-ness of the male version, but both seem to have the characters bunched up on one side, with some small effect in front of them. In the monokuma version, this is replaced with blood.

Who is the martial artist and the person holding branches in the "Danganronpa Boys"? I don't recognize them, and if you count them in addition to all the recognizable characters, it goes over the "known 16 students".

@Wimateeka Much belated answer, but - the martial artist is Kenshiro, Sakura Oogami's rival/crush. The man with the flowers is Santa Shikiba, who's mentioned briefly in DR1 as being a the Ultimate Botanist who created the Monokuma Flower in the garden on the fifth floor.