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How long did Killi's journey through "The City" took?
From the first chapter until

 Killi restores the network interface gene

how long did it take? Years? Decades? Millenia?

Reading Blame! you can see different scenes where Killy is injured. Sometimes before entering into sleep mode to recover and sometimes after recovering, you can see 'in first person' scenes where numbers depicting offline time are shown. I recall those counts being in hours and around tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. So each time he is almost completely destroyed, several years pass by.
I'll update with page references and citations to everything I'm saying when I'm back home.
Anyway, that's subjective time from the Killy perspective:
He enters a dimensional rift when around the gravitational power generator, so he may have traveled far into the future or past after those chapters. It'd be hard to know, as his friends and enemies are all either dead or machines, and the megastructure has not many relatable temporal references.
Again, I'll check, but if I'm not mistaken, when moving within the megastructure with elevators some of them go at breathtaking speeds, approaching relativistic figures, and he spends several hundred hours in them.
TLDR: From the killy point of view, counting downtime, around millenia. From the world perspective: hard to know, but probably even more.
Disclaimer: I've only read and can only understand the english or the spanish translations. If anyone can read a japanese first edition, it may differ.


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How could Misaka 10032 be measuring Touma's life signals while holding his right hand
Index episode 14 around 14:00 minutes.
Touma awakens to find his right hand on Misaka 10032's chest. 10032 then states that she placed his hand there herself, and that she was reading electrical currents to measure his life signs.
Given that Imagine Breaker is a passive power, how could that be possible?
So, is it

A white lie. She wasn't reading him. Not likely because Misaka clones usually don't lie and show little emotion.
A plot hole. They just forgot what power was in the hand.
An animation faux. She was actually holding his left hand in the Light Novel.

maybe she's not using a method that Imagine Breaker would cancel out, something that's just generic technology since it's not like appliances and that shut down if Touma uses his right hand right?

@Memor-X whille it is true Imagine Breaker only works on the supernatural, there is no device in her hands, and she mentions measuring brainwaves....

It has been shown that Touma was always awake when he uses Imagine Breaker. Maybe it just won't activate if he is unconscious?

@AyaseEri during the arc in Italy, the Amakusa church uses Toumas hand to destroy magical clothes while he was unconscious

Interesting question. I verified that it was his right arm in the manga, but I'd like to see what the light novels say. Could it be because her power is reading electrical current internally (inside his arm), and not coming in contact with Imagine Breaker? There were also some cases where Imagine Breaker wasn't very effective because the power regenerated too quickly (A certain Level 6 esper comes to mind). So it could be that since Touma is in direct contact with Misaka 10032's body, Imagine Breaker can't negate her abilities quickly enough to stop her from using them.

@ShayminGratitude there is no level 6 esper. At least not permanently. There are angel-class esper (prollly the same guy you are referring to), but they are in another level of power. And when he held Mikoto, her electromaster powers were disabled, so that might not be the case.

I was referring to Level 6 Misaka in volume 10 of the Railgun manga. Touma's arm had to turn into a dragon to stop her (or whatever the heck happened).

Hm... I was going to suggest that since Misaka 10032 was holding his wrist and Imagine Breaker is in his hand, she wouldn't be affected, but Kuroko was holding Touma's arm at a point just under his elbow and was unable to teleport (using the Index manga as a reference).

@ShayminGratitude that was very temporary. And Mikoto was going to die (and wipe out Tokyo entirely) if Touma hadn't stopped her. Theoretically, the only 5 that could get to 6 permanently is Accelerator. But that project stopped at 50.155% completion anyway.

With only a vague idea of the context, my guess is that it could be pulse oximetry

If she was lying, that wouldn't be the first time she lied to him as a joke: in the anime's 2nd season, ep11 at 10:58, she lies about analyzing fingerprints on a vending machine and matching them to his.

This isn't much of an answer, but as the question does specifically ask about whether there is a difference between the light novels and the other versions, here are my findings:
In Yen Press's English translation of A Certain Magical Index: Volume 3, which hand of Touma's that Misaka 10032 is holding to her chest is unspecified. Here's the quote:

Lastly, he noticed Little Misaka's hands embracing one of his. It didn't really matter, but she was holding both of her hands to her chest...

Furthermore, it also isn't specified which side of the bed Misaka 10032 is sitting on:

After all, the only person in the room was Little Misaka, quietly sitting on a chair at the side of the bed-

Misaka 10032's explanation for why she was holding Touma's hand to her chest are same in the manga and light novel: she says she's measuring his brain waves and pulse via bioelectricity. Neither offers any more insight than that.
From this, one might find it reasonable to conclude that it was indeed an error introduced by the anime and that by the ambiguity in the light novels, we should conclude it was Touma's left hand because it would be impossible for Misaka 10032 to read his bioelectricity from his right.

Have my gratitude, my vote and the green checkmark.

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How many character have similar appearance with Saber (Arturia)? And who are they?
There are a lot of version of Saber (Arturia). Some that I know are the original blue Saber, Saber Lily, and Alter Saber.

I also saw some other version like Sakura Saber and Master Saber.
There are also Saber look alike, Jeanne d'Arc and Red Saber. So how many Arturia version were there and which one are Arturia look alike in Fate Universe or Nasuverse?

There are plenty of them actually. They're known as Saberface or like MHX said, Arturia Species.

from  Chibichuki!, Saber 4~8. Left to right: Saber Lion, Saber Lily, Saber, Red Saber, Sakura Saber, Saber of Red, Saber Alter, Master Arturia.
Among them there are only seven of Arturia in Nasuverse. They are Saber, Saber Alter, Saber Lily, Lancer, Lancer Alter, Mysterious Heroine X and Berserker Alter.
Arturia Pendragon

Saber and Archer

Saber : The main source of all Saberface. The usual blue Saber, one of the three main heroines of Fate/Stay Night visual novel. Known as the King of Knights, she is a legendary hero of Britain. She wielded the sword from the stone, Caliburn, but it was destroyed and her weapon now are Excalibur and Avalon.
Archer : Saber in swimsuit. Saber found her way to the beach and decided to play with water gun and become Archer-class servant.
Saber Alter and Santa Alter (Rider)

Saber Alter : Also known as Black Saber. She is dark hero version of Arturia Pendragon. She was corrupted by Angra Mainyu.
Santa Alter : Holiday-themed Saber Alter, Rider-class. She own a custom-made sleigh and wore santa outfit complete with a bag full of presents.
Saber Lily

Saber Lily or White Saber. She is a younger version of Saber before she obtain Excalibur and Avalon. In this state, she is known as the Knight Princess. Notice that she use similar but different sword than blue Saber. She was Arturia from after she drew out the sword of selection Caliburn, and had just began walking down the path of a king.
Lancer and Lancer Alter

Lancer : Also known as "Goddess Rhongomyniad". She's alternate version of Arturia where she used holy spear Rhongomyniad instead of Excalibur.
Lancer Alter : Violated by the curse of the Holy Grail. She rejected the Divine Spirit transformation process of Rhongomyniad. She remain known as "Artoria Pendragon" rather than be known as "Goddess Rhongomyniad"
Mysterious Heroine X (Assassin), Ultra Heroine Z, Berserker Alter, and MHXX

Mysterious Heroine X : Arturia tried to hide her identity as Assassin and tasked herself in eliminating all Saberface heroines. She wore cap to hide her identity and ahoge, although it sticks out of the cap.
Ultra Heroine Z : Alter version of Mysterious Heroine X who acts as the antagonist of the "Saber Wars" event.
Berserker Alter : The Anti-Anti-Saber. She's another alter version of Mysterious Heroine X. She use Altereactor to defeat Mysterious Heroine X.
Mysterious Heroine XX : A version of Mysterious Heroine X from further in the future. She is a Foreigner-class Servant and has taken up a job in the Servant Universe that involves hunting down Foreigners. She wields the variant of Rhongomyniad, a double-ended lance Rhongomyniad LR

Arturia look alike

Red Saber, Nero Bride, and Saber Venus

Red Saber : Totally unrelated with Arturia, Red Saber is Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, she was the Fifth Roman Emperor. Also known as Emperor of Roses, she looks awfully similar to Arturia.
Nero Bride : Alternate version of Red Saber in Fate/Grand Order. She wield different Noble Phantasm. She looks similar to Saber Lily with this white wedding dress.
Saber Venus : Alternate version from Fate/Extella through Heroic Spirit Apotheosis. She's the most powerful Servant in Fate/Extella game. She wields Photon Ray.
Saber of Red and Rider

Saber of Red : She is the "son" of Arturia, Mordred, but she is actually female despite being raised as the secret male heir to the throne
Rider : Unlike Arturia, she decided to take on one of her father's treasure, named "Prydwen". It's both ship and shield. And she decided to use it as surf board
Sakura Saber and Devil Saber

Sakura Saber : Okita Souji. She was the captain of the first unit of the Shinsengumi, a special police force in Kyoto during the late shogunate period. She was one of the best swordsmen of the Shinsengumi. But unlike the historic version, this Okita Souji is a female. She resemble Arturia in a lot of ways.
Devil Saber : She is a Counter Guardian formed through Sakura Saber's spiritual foundation taking in a Holy Grail filled with Seven Servants.
Ruler, Avenger, and Joan Alter Lily (Lancer)

Ruler : Gilles de Rais mistook Saber for her. She is Jeanne d'Arc, also known as Joan of Arc, the Saint of Orleans. She is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War.
Avenger : She is a creation of the Holy Grail born from Gilles de Rais's wishes shortly after the execution of Joan in 1431.
Joan Lily : She became young because she drank Gilgamesh's Potion of youth. Named "Joan of Arc Alter Lily", she wore santa outfit.
Gray

Gray is believed to be a distant descendent of Arturia because of her striking resemblance with Saber.
Master Arturia

Unlike all other Saber, she's not a heroic spirit, she's a master from the world of Capsule Servant. She wield a katana.

Others

King Arthur (Saber)

Not exactly Saberface. But he is male version of Arturia. He's a main character of Fate/Prototype.
Saber Lion

Not a servant, nor master. She's a parody version of Saber who acts as the mascot for the Fate/tiger colosseum series. Or pet, if you will. She also appear in Carnival Phantasm.
Saber Class Card

From Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA. Arturia power was installed to Miyu with blue Saber outfit and Illya with Saber Lily outfit. When manifested, Saber takes form as Saber Alter.
Artoria Pendragon

Came from Tsukihime spin-off of Melty Blood, Hana no Miyako, Artoria in this series is a trap.

I'm not familiar with some of these Saber. Feel free to edit or add some more in case I missed some. I made this community wiki after all

to add Gray also wields the same spear that Arturia used to kill Modred (and i think it';s the same spear Lancer Arturia uses). i recall reading that it's use it locked only those those related to Arturia

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What is the purpose of the weird gender swaps of certain Sabers they throw in in "Fate/Apocrypha"?
In Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night, while Saber was referred to as 'king', she was always a woman.
However, watching Fate/Apocrypha, we bring in Saber of Red:

 Mordred, who keeps saying they are King Arthur's (who is still the woman from Zero and Stay Night) 'son'.

The above character even refers to King Arthur as father and calls themselves 'his' son...
I don't get it... why did they gender swap these characters to women, just to have them refer to themselves as men (father, son, etc...). What did they want the audience to do with this? Is there any purpose to this?

why did they gender swap these characters to women

originally the roles of Shirou and Arturia were the opposite genders as the original concept for Fate/Stay Night (now as Fate/Prototype) had Ayaka Sajyou as the Master of Arthur with Gilgamesh also vying for Ayaka's heart.
however it was Takashi Takeuchi, the artist of Fate/Stay Night who convinced Kinoko Nasu to change Arthur's Gender

Kinoko Nasu's original story of Fate, Saber and Shirou were opposite gender to now. Takashi Takeuchi convinced to Nasu to change the gender of Saber but the essential theme had not been changed, it's the story about legendary heroes and "a boy meets a girl."

Source: Saber (Fate/Stay Night) > Development > Creation and Conception
In regards to Mordred, originally when Mordred first appeared in one of the Type-Moon Character material books Kinoko Nasu originally hadn't decided what Mordred's gender would be until Fate/Apocrypha and originally was siding on keeping Mordred male, however after Takashi Takeuchi put the idea of adding Mordred into the lineup it was thought 2 feminine male characters would be too much

Mordred first made an appearance in Type-moon's Character material book, with Takashi Takeuchi responsible for the character design. At that time Kinoko Nasu hadn't decided on Mordred's gender until Fate/Apocrypha. It was Takeuchi's idea to put Mordred as a new addition to Fate/Apocrypha. As Saber of Red Mordred was originally going to be male like the legend, but it was thought that having two male characters look feminine, the other being Rider of Black, was too much.

Source: Saber of Red > Development > Creation and Conception

Nasu: "Mordred is a girl, definitely. A man with that sort of outward appearance is... well, I guess a certain kind of person would consider it a prize, anyway.1 (laughs)"
Higashide: Saber was originally going to be male like the legend, but it was thought that having two male characters look feminine, the other being Rider of Black, was too much.

Source: Saber of Red > References > Citation 4: TYPE-MOON Ace Vol. 8 - Fate/Apocrypha interview with Yuichiro Higashide & Nasu Kinoko, p.080
What's Mordred's gender?

As for why, in universe, Mordred refers to herself as Arturia's "Son" she could be well aware of her own legend. the Arthurian Legends in the Nasuverse is still closely related to ours and in Fate/Stay Night when Shirou discovers Arturia's identity as King Arthur he does talk about how the Legend of King Arthur wasn't clear on who the King was pointing out that some legends suggested that King Arthur was a group of people.
since we know that when a Servant is summoned they are given extra knowledge to adapt to the time period (ie. Arturia's abilities to ride a Motor Bike, not thinking that the Airplane she flew in on was magic) we could suspect that Mordred is made aware of her Legend.
There is also the fact she wanted to be King and the King is generally the Son of the previous King but aside from that still male. Merlin helped create the illusion Arturia was male by making into a futanari psudo-male so she could conceive a child with Guinevere so Mordred may keep saying "Son" to keep the idea and she can replace her "Father"
There is also the fact that she abhors any discussion of her gender and displayed clear killing intention even towards her own Master, saying with no uncertainty that the topic is never to be brought up before her. though haven't not seen Fate/Apocrypha or read it properly i do not know what the discussion entailed and what she abhors about it (is it people referring to her as a woman or man? or that she could be like Nero and doesn't consider Gender an issue)
Out of Universe, we can probably speculate that either

Takashi Takeuchi just has a thing for it which is why so many of the Saberfaces using Arturia's design are Gender Reverse from their historical basis (Nero, Okita) and is projecting that in the Nasuverse (do we really believe he didn't suggest Female Mordred for the Fate/Apocrypha lineup when putting the idea into Kinoko Nasu's head)

Simply people like cute girls. Taro Yoko, the creator of Nier: Automata said it himself when being asked why he designed 2B like he did. Medea Takashi loves how cute Arturia looks and obviously the fans love them too, more so when you consider that the manga's target demographic is Shōnen and Seinen which are both male audiences which we can probably attribute to having been the same for the original Eroge Visual Novel and character design often is influenced by target audience (ie. why most Vampires in female oriented works (Kaname Kuran in Vampire Knight, Angel and Spike in Buffy and Angel) are handsome men)

1: i believe he's talking about Takashi here give his noble phantasm

Thank you for the detailed response :). So it seems, they went with women to up the sex appeal of the show for male viewers (unfortunate they would do that... lol), then had to adjust the King Arthur legend to fit their new changes. Then Mordred wanted to be recognized as a 'son' so she could inherit the throne as she needed to be a 'son' to do so. And I suppose Arturia was the actual father to Mordred, so even though Arturia is a woman at the time, it may just make more sense for Mordred to call her 'father'.

This helps it make much more sense haha. It was quite confusing in the show as none of this other background was explained and they were just going all willy-nilly with their genders.

Mordred is in fact Arturia's son in a biological way.  Merlin wanted to help Arturia produce an heir so he magic'd up a penis for Arturia and her sister Morgan Le Fay seized the opportunity to take some sperm and bear Arturia's heir (so said heir could then overthrow Arturia).  So, yeah, Mordred was already the result of incest in the usual legends, and this just takes it up to 11.


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Does the word "chuunibyou" originate from the anime "Chuunibyou"?
I was reading Black Lagoon and realized that Lotton is a bit like a chuunibyou. He called himself "The Wizard" and he always wanted to make a cool entrance before a fight but usually got his ass kicked quickly. In my opinion, he's a chuuninbyou. But no one ever mention that he's chuunibyou.
(Or probably he's not chuunibyou after all, but keep that for another question.)
Being the earlier anime (Black Lagoon was aired in 2006 while Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! was aired in 2012) it got me thinking about whether the word "chuunibyou" actually originated from this anime. Or probably it was not just as popular as now.

Can't say it's the true origin, but I do know the slang "chuunibyou" has been used on the radio somewhere in 2000 iirc.

TV Tropes explains it better than I could.

No, the word "chuunibyou" was not coined by the anime Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! (nor by Black Lagoon). The term is attested back to 1999. (For further reading, the TVTropes article linked in Aki Tanaka's comment seems good.)
Data from Google Trends seem to indicate that searches for this word were low but slowly rising until October 2012, when searches spiked (because that's when Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! premiered). Search volume for "chuunibyou" has since fallen off, but is somewhat higher than it was just before October 2012, even after you subtract out searches specifically for Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!. My point here is that in 2006 (unlike now), the word "chuunibyou" had very limited purchase and it is hence unsurprising that it would not be used in Black Lagoon.

Plus two more facts: 1) Black Lagoon's plot is set before 1999. 2) the only japanese guy in Black Lagoon is Rock.


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Why and how did Shiro kill Ganta's classmates?
I have watched only anime and Shiro is a mystery to me. It seems like she has two personalities. It happened more than once, she was so nice and suddenly somehow gone crazy, her face changes completely. Even if I'm right and she has some mental disorder, I don't understand her at all.
How did she get out of prison if she is a prisoner and then killed Ganta's classmates?
Was that out of jealousy?
I just don't get it.

I don't remember it very well but I think the plot was such that she and Ganta were friends since childhood and she's been turned into this killing monster by the scientists of the prison island. So when she was especially out of whack, her instinct was to break free and get Ganta so she could find some consolation in her good friend from sweet happy memories of childhood days. And her psycho killer state of mind somehow made her kill every classmate in the process.  It's hard and complicated to figure out a broken mind and there's really no point. What's done is done. You can only sympathize.

The answer to this question is not in the anime.
It's one of the main plot points in the work, and fully explained in the manga. Actually, MOST of what Shiro is is explained in the last chapters of the manga. So, you are NOT supposed to get her from the anime.
Some spoilers ahead.
Shiro is not a prisoner. She is actually a test subject from a research laboratoryy, the reason why the Branches of Sin exist, and the responsible for the earthquake that destroyed Japan. The prison was built later, above the lab she was experimented on, as a facade for the testing on people who developed Branches of Sin after the earthquake.
She escaped the prison simply because there is no real way to contain her at all.
Yes, she killed all of Ganta's classmates out of jealousy.
Extreme spoilers ahead.
In the past, Ganta knew Shiro, because his mother was on of the chief researchers at the laboratory, extremely involved in the inhuman experiments the girl was subjected to.
Gantas cared a lot for Shiro, and she liked him a lot too. They pretended to be each other's hero, "Aceman".
But in one experiment, a broken Shiro decided to kill some researchers to show her control over her developing powers, and Ganta ended up witnessing it. The shock made him forget what he saw, and forget about Shiro. He was then sent away to live in the city.
Some time later, Shiro would cause the earthquake trying to die. She still survived, and Ganta's mother built a system to seal the girl's powers to an extent, so she would not be able to try that again. She also gave the girl a small red stone she had developed in the laboratory. It was a substance that could null Shiro's powers. Ganta's mother then killed herself so no one would be able to deactivate the system and free Shiro's powers.
The years went on, and one day, due to the school's scheduled visit to the prison, Shiro found out that Ganta was living in the city and where he studied. She ran away from the laboratory to find Ganta.
She ends up killing all Ganta's classmantes for jealousy, and inserts the power to null her powers into Ganta, hoping he will then become her hero and save her, by killing her. She wanted to be killed by the boy she loved.


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Who did Kaito Kid meet first: Conan or Shinichi?
In Detective Conan series, Kaito Kid first appeared in episode 76.
Conan acted like he's never met him and he was looking forward to meeting him and putting him in prison.
But in episode 219, it seems like Shinichi has already faced Kaito Kid even before his body shrank.
How is that even possible?

There's no contradiction between the two episodes: in episode 219, Shinichi never saw Kaito Kid (even during the "duel" with the guns, Kid was hidden behind the sheet) and he didn't even hear the name "Kid": he did ask Megure what's the thief's name at the end, but Megure was so focused on the code that Shinichi gave up asking, while still thinking "but then, one day...", foreshadowing that the two may meet again in the future.
Episode 76 is adapted from manga chapters 156-159, while the Clocktower Heist segment of episode 219 is adapted from the Magic Kaito manga chapters 23-24 (beware a faulty fan translation of the these two chapters in which Shinichi calls the thief "Kid" all the time, which doesn't happen in the original as I said above).
The Shinichi vs Kid showdown was an afterthought, as in it wasn't planned when the first Conan vs Kid case was written (Aoyama said so in his comment for the book "Detective Conan vs Kaitou Kid Perfect Edition") and yet when he decided to write a prequel Aoyama was clever enough to find a way around this, by preventing Shinichi from seeing Kid and learning his name. A similar trick was used by Aoyama for the prequel encounter between Shinichi and Heiji three years before the current timeline: neither of them manged to get a clear look at the rival detective or to learn each other's names; that prequel also had the trick of Shinichi and Heiji both solving the case while thinking it was solved by the other detective, thus avoiding a contadiction with a previous story that showed Shinichi solving his first case one year before the current timeline. Another thing is that Shinichi briefly interacted with Heiji's mother in the 3-year old flashback even though he doesn't know her when she first appears in the series: this can be easily explained by the fact that she did nothing to stand out and had her face partially obscured by a cap and ski glasses, plus their interaction was very brief.
Gosho Aoyama likes his work to be coherent.


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Are these two people with the same given name the same person?
Are Emiya Shirou and Kotomine Shirou the same person?
He looks like Archer/Emiya.
If so, how did he become Kotomine and get a job as Holy Grail War Mediator?

no, Emiya Shirou and Kotomine Shirou are 2 different people. infact apart from their appearance resembling one another in a way the only thing they both have in common is that they are both people who end up become 2 different Servants for Holy Grail Wars and at one stage were also Masters
Emiya Shirou ends up one day becoming Heroic Spirit EMIYA and summoned as Archer in both Fate/Stay Night's Fifth Holy Grail War and Fate/Extra's Moon Cell Holy Grail War (though in the latter his name has become lost in history)
Kotomine Shirou is one of the Masters of the Red Faction in Fate/Apocrypha, Master of Assassin and Leader of the faction. however his true identity is  Amakusa Shirou Tokisada

Shirou's True Name is Amakusa Shirou Tokisada (天草 四郎 時貞, Amakusa Shirō Tokisada), the teenage leader of the Shimabara Rebellion. Born in the Edo period, he was a boy of miracles who could nearly be called a saint. However, how exactly he was discovered; a good half of his lifetime is wrapped in mystery.

Source: Kotomine Shirou - Profile - Identity (first paragraph)
He was originally summoned as the Ruler Servant during the Third Holy Grail War by the Einzbern Family instead of Angra Mainyu as Avenger however the war never ended properly due to the Nazi's stealing the Greater Grail thanks to Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia who then ended up stealing it from them.
in Fate/Aprocypha's timeline after the third war he spent time with Risei Kotomine and was "raised" with Kire Kotomine. he was later sent by the Church when the Mage's Association wanted a member of the Church to side with them in reclaiming the Greater Holy Grail from Yggdmillennia.

Differing from the timeline of Fate/stay night's Third Holy Grail War where the Einzbern family summoned the Avenger-class Angra Mainyu, they abuse one of the systems installed in the Greater Grail and brought forth Shirou as a Ruler-class Servant who was meant to be an impartial authority whom regulated the progress of the War. The Einzberns wished to call forth a proper Heroic Spirit befitting of the Ruler class rather than some nameless Eastern hero. However the act of summoning a Ruler was already a severe interference in the normal operating format of the Holy Grail War so he was a compromise with the advantage of his Command Spells
...
As Risei Kotomine rescued the Master of the Tohsaka, Shirou helped him with his rescue work. As Darnic successfully stolen the Greater Grail, the survivors were Shirou and Risei.
...
Risei prepared a family register, registering him as his son "Shirou Kotomine" (言峰 天草, Kotomine Shirō). He had joined with the Church thanks to Risei's connections. He entered the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament as Kotomine Shirou, but naturally Risei couldn't acknowledge him as his son there and approached him honestly as a friend. Around the time when Risei's son was born, Shirou had deliberately diminished his contact with Risei. Shirou remained distant from Risei's own son. Shirou consciously avoids Kirei Kotomine because Shirou noticed the "distortion" within his stepbrother.
...
As the Mage's Association decided to seek one Master from the Church in order to have their involvement prove the legitimacy of their cause. Having already hypothesized the possibility of a Great Holy Grail War—a situation with seven Servants versus seven Servants occurring instead of a normal Holy Grail War. In such an abnormal situation with seven Servants versus seven Servants and where even the previous Ruler had summoned his own Servant, the Greater Grail automatically summoned the Ruler for this war, Jeanne d'Arc, but Shirou had included even that into his calculations as an event within his expectations. Shirou promptly joined the Red faction as the dual mediator and Master sent by the Holy Church.

so as you can see the Kotomine part of his name was used to cover up his identity while the Shirou part actually comes from his real name

i see. I though he is some alternate version of Emiya Shirou where instead of Kiritsugu it was Kirei who saved him from fire/

I should also note that the Grand Order is calling servants across the entire Nasuverse. don't be surprised to see other Arturia-Sabers appear not to mention i one day expect Master Arturia to appear

@NamikazeSheena that was the original fan theory in the beginning until he was revealed to be Ruler from the third Holy Grail War. with the theft of the Greater Grail and Angra Mainyu having not been summoned to later corrupt it the Great Fire which claimed Shirou's Family has a low chance of ever happening (though it is stated in the wiki that despite the loss of the Greater Grail the Einzberns still continued with the Fuyuki Wars)

hmm, is it possible that Amakusa is alternate version of Counter Guardian Emiya?

@NamikazeSheena not really because the links to Amakusa that was on the wiki goes to a wikipedia page of the real life person as is the case with most Servants having real life bases (if not with slight alterations). it might be possible that Amakusa reincarnated into Shirou but i find no evidence that there is reincarnation in the Nasuverse or even someone in the Throne of Heroes being able to be reincarnated

the closest thing to reincarnation i am aware of is Michael Roa Valdamjong where he puts a part of his soul into his intended target to be reborn in, or Brunestud of the Crimson Moon but that is more of Arcuied and Altrouge having been born to one day become Brunestud himself

But wasnt he reincarnated anyway I remember something about if he was born again then he would do things differently just before he is executed for being the leader of the rebellion

Since Fate is about the possibility and other timelines in the same Universe, and it says that Amakusa Shirou and how he was discovered are wrapped in mystery.
Could it be said that Shirou could be set as a deterrent force sent back in time with wiped-off memory to save people, or maybe he wished to be a hero of justice and the grail made him be reverse reincarnated into a boy who had the same wish. Then he was killed, used as a Servant and repeated the process.
I feel that given what happens in Fate, nothing seems impossible.


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How is that possible for Priscilla to kill Teresa?
I read the manga and watch the anime. It was awesome, but in only one place it doesn't make sense at all. When Priscilla killed Teresa.
I know, Priscilla was no 2 and she was too powerful, and she's got awakened in that second. But still we are talking about Teresa! Her best ability was that she could read the moves of her opponent. right?

i can't remember correctly but didn't Prescilla Yoki surge to the level where she would become an Awakened Being when she went and killed Teressa?

@Memor-X yes, but that is my case. Teressa could sense every movement of her opponent. she could sense that Prescilla is comming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_f01KD07uc

Also in manga, when Clare awakened and became Teressa, she could beat Precilla (although she couldn't kill her unless she awakened her-selves)  so she had to be able to survive the first attack

if i recall correctly Clare only defeated Precilla because she awakened (not fully but close) while Teressa to my knowledge never partially awakened. also i'm not entire sure how much experience Teressa has against Awakened Beings and not sure how effective her abilities would be against them. it's possible that Teressa's ability to sense every movement wasn't enough against an awakened Precilla and was caught off guard. ofcause it's been some time since i've seen the anime and i haven't read the manga

@Memor-X was right, when Priscilla killed Teresa, Priscilla was already in an awakened state. It's true that Teresa could read the movement of her opponent because Teresa can sense the strength and speed of yoma energy flowing through her opponent's body. However, when Teresa fought Priscilla, Teresa couldn't read her movements because there was too much yoma power coming from all over Priscilla's body.
Claymore Chapter 22, Marked For Death 5, Page 26

But of course, Teresa was still able to match her. She was using just enough yoma power for her eye color to change to counter Priscilla. However, when Priscilla passed her limit, she begged for Teresa to kill her and Teresa turned back to her normal state, seeing Priscilla on her knees. At this point Teresa probably couldn't read Priscilla's movements and let her guard down for a moment leading to Priscilla being able to kill her.
In your comment, it's true that when Clare awakened and became Teresa, she could beat Priscilla. However, Teresa was that strong only because of Clare's feelings toward Teresa.
from Claymore final chapter, Last Scene, Page 7

Teresa wasn't as focused as she normally would've been because Clare made her a bit soft. Her friend even said the old Teresa would've killed Priscilla when she was lying there crying. The old Teresa wouldn't have let it get that far.


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Who are these characters?
I received 2 anime figure at a yard sale. Can anyone help me identify who they are.
Thanks a bunch

the bottom one is Mari from the Neon Genesis Evangelion Reboot movies. not sure of the top one

Those are Asahina Mikuru from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya:

and Mari Makinami Illustrious from Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance:


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Why does the website Anime Planet say that there are only 13 episodes of Natsume's book of friends, when CrunchyRoll has 39 episodes?
I'm just a little confused. I just want to make sure I watch everything in the correct order and such. Why does the website Anime Planet say that there are only 13 episodes of Natsume's book of friends, when CrunchyRoll has 39 episodes?

Natsume is divided up into 4 seasons. You can see the rest of them at the bottom of the anime-planet page:

It's similar with Anime News Network.
But Crunchyroll has them grouped together under one listing (but for some shows, the different seasons are listed within the show's page). They do that with a lot of multi-season shows, perhaps in an effort to make the favorites/queues work easier so you don't have to hunt down different listings for different seasons of the same show.

For the record, there is also a 5th season now, "Natsume Yuujinchou Go"

The seasons are named differently:
Anime Planet has:

Natsume Yuujinchou
Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou
Natsume Yuujinchou San
Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

And CrunchyRoll splits them as:

Natsume Yuujinchou
Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

For some reason

In other words, Crunchyroll bunches the first 3 seasons into one listing, numbered episodes 1-39.  This can be broken down by your mind as three 13-episode seasons.  Season Five is now available also, and catalogued as Natsume Yuujinchou Go.  "Go" is replaced by 5, though, and I have kept spelling consistent with what Toshinou wrote.

Natsume Yuujinchou have a many of season.
Until now there are 5 season
and every season approximately have 11 until 13
And there are a change with picture on season 5 because Natsume Yuujinchou move studio from brain base to Shuka studio.
And they are say on 2017 NY will have season 6


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What events usually happen at Comiket?
I only know Comiket from anime and manga: they usually sell their own doujinshi and do some cosplay.
Is this the only thing that actually happens at Comiket or are there a lot more things that happen? Maybe some kind of contest or something?
Also, does Comiket only exist in Japan? Is it different from Comic-Con?

It's like an anime convention, but the main focus of it is doujinshi. There is cosplay there is industry booths, people gather there for different reasons, but the main focus is the doujinshi.

If you wish to learn more, check out this slideshow explaining what it's all about: http://www.comiket.co.jp/info-a/WhatIsEng080225.pdf

@Krazer might wanna post that as an answer

You are correct: Comiket is the world's largest convention for selling/buying doujinshi, and includes cosplayers. However, it is not an anime/manga convention and as an experience is pretty much nothing like Comic Con or similar conventions to Comic Con such as Anime Expo.
Yes, Comiket only exists in Japan, as over 550,000 Japanese doujinshika (a.k.a. doujin artists) gather to sell their self-published works. It is held at Tokyo Big Site (in Tokyo) twice a year, in summer (called Natsucomi) and winter (Fuyucomi).
What Happens at Comiket
Comiket is almost entirely comprised of Japanese doujinshi circles (a circle is a group of artists) and individual doujinshika selling their doujinshi comics, light novels (in other words, fanfiction), and some "merchandise" of their artwork such as laminated cards and posters. Some of their works are based on real anime/manga series, whereas others are completely original self-published content. About 90% of these are explicit hentai. Only about 10% are non-graphic; of these, a fair percentage are doujinshi created by student clubs at Japanese universities (the quality of the art varies, but is generally well below that of what you may be used to seeing produced by prominent doujinshika).
What the rooms look like:

Aside from shopping for doujin works, there is not much else to see/do.
Although you can see cosplayers walking around doing their own shopping, many Japanese are shy, photo averse, and/or concerned about privacy, so there is a rule that you should not take any cosplayers' photo outside of the designated cosplay arena. Only when cosplayers are within the boundaries of this area are you allowed to photograph them. Even within this area, they mill about and do not necessarily pose for you to have their photos taken. This is a big difference from cosplayers at conventions outside of Japan who are often delighted to be stopped and asked for a photo. There may be a cosplay competition but I don't recall one being heavily promoted.
The line to get to the cosplayers area (in sweltering Tokyo August humidity):

There is only one room of vendors promoting licensed anime/manga/gaming titles, but 1) it is not very big, 2) almost all of the titles represented are niche (not well-known outside of Japan), 3) not much is available to purchase, since most of these booths are run by the production company or publisher to generate interest in an upcoming title (last year, most were bishoujo or bishounen titles. You will not see any Naruto, One Piece, Pretty Cure, Pokemon, or other mainstream stuff here, and definitely nothing of series that have already ended), 4) extremely few freebies are handed out at the vendor booths, and 5) none of the booths are retail stores/online shops. You can't find figures, trading cards, t-shirts, and that sort of stuff for sale here.
Although I had heard Comiket (inaccurately) described as the largest anime/manga convention in the world, in reality, the licensed anime/manga content constitutes less than 5% of the entire convention. You could go to Animefest in the Czech Republic to find more to do and buy of actual anime/manga than you'd find at Comiket.
The vendor room:

Interestingly, there is one hall that features about 20 booths of handicraft sellers who sell all manner of handmade stationery items and decorations. Most of their merchandise has no connect to doujinshi/anime/manga. I bought a squirrel clothespin magnet.
The handicraft booths:

Differences from Comic Con
Comiket differs dramatically from Comic Con in the following ways:

If you're into hardcore hentai, Comiket is your ideal convention, but if not, you will likely be quite disappointed, as there is very little else there.
Comic Con features many celebrity guests of honor, whereas Comiket celebrates doujin works, which are not technically legal according to Japanese law in terms of copyright, so although some professionals in the manga industry attend Comiket to go shopping themselves, they don't attend as advertised attractions and do not participate in events, as they shouldn't publicly condone the doujinshi market. If you spot your favorite mangaka while you're there, you shouldn't necessarily go up to talk to him/her, ask for an autograph, etc. since he/she is there as an individual in his/her own spare time.
Comiket doesn't have much in the way of planned events or competitions. Some of the vendors hold unscheduled mini-events like a talk show where interested consumers can listen to a spiel about the new product and then get a chance to win a promotional item as a sweepstakes prize. In contrast, Comic Con features

a massive programming schedule (close to 700 separate events in 2014), [...] hands-on workshops and educational and academic programming such as the Comics Arts Conference; anime and film screenings (including a separate film festival); games; the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the “Oscars” of the comics industry; a Masquerade costume competition with prizes and trophies; an Autograph Area; an Art Show; and Portfolio Reviews [...]

Comiket's vendors room differs in nature from, and is very small in comparison to, the exhibit halls (a.k.a. dealer's room) at Comic Con or AnimeExpo.


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What does this katakana above Black Star's autograph say in episode 2 of Soul Eater?
Here is a picture:

I think the katakana used are "ダンナミエ" which would be "dannamie" but I'm not sure since it doesn't make any sense to me.

It's 江, not ミエ.

it could be daNInamie or daSOnamie as well.  based on the n character. and yes the third could in fact be kanji which is one of the ones I havent learned yet

Black Star always address Shinigami-sama as 旦那 (danna), which is more or less the equivalent of "Boss" or "Sir."
Black Star is an idiot so he uses the kana (because he doesn't know the kanji) and the wrong kanji when addressing his autograph to Shinigami-sama. Here he means to say 旦那へ, which is essentially "To Boss." For some inexplicable reason, he uses 江 ("e" in this case). へ is pronounced え (e) in modern Japanese when indicating a direction (I.e. addressing something to someone). In other words, what he writes is the equivalent of someone writing "Two BOSS" on an autograph.

The katakana ダンナ appear to mean something like "husband". Though it has a kanji form (旦那), I've found a few instances on twitter where the katakana is used to mean the same thing: husband.
The kanji, 江, means "bay" or "river" and can also be a name, but I'm not sure how it fits with the katakana of "danna". I'm still learning Japanese and I'm fairly sure it means the same thing in Japanese as it does Chinese. Will edit if/when I find a better answer.

旦那 is only an informal title to address one's husband. Formally it's a title of respect to the master of a place or someone of high status, like Shinigami-sama.


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What is the name of the musical piece that plays in One Piece episode 722 at 13:54?
There was a soundtrack piece playing in the episode 722 of One Piece. It started playing at 13 minutes and 54 seconds in.  What is the name of that piece?  It starts playing when Luffy rushes Doflamingo saying that once the latter's defeated, everything will be okay.
P.S. If the name of that song specifically is within another song (an example being the piece "Difficult" being composed of both the songs "Shichibukai" and "Mr. Prince"), please specify the song part specifically.

The name of the OST you're looking for is Sanji vs Captain Honki and is from One Piece Movie 7: The Giant Mechanical Soldier of Karakuri Castle.
It is Track 35 in the Movie 7 OST list.
You can listen to the OST here.


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Is every human wizard a female?
In both LWA series and OVA, I only saw female wizards. The most likely to be a male wizard are Lotte's dad and the magical shop owner but I never actually see them perform any magic. There are also several non-human male character like  the Dragon Fafnir, but every human male seems to be a muggle. Is there any human male wizard in LWA world? If there are none, why all of them is female?

There appeared to be men at the Wild Hunt, but it wasn't clear if they were male magic users or some kind of spirits.

Nope, we see a wizard who is pretty clearly male in episode 25 at timestamp 21:26. (Behind Croix, wearing glasses.)

Could you add a screenshot / retranscription of the dialogue? :)

@Ikaros I just did :)

The series never states the existence or non-existence of human male magic users.
While we can assume from the setting that wizards likely don't exist, the best answer is:
We don't really know.


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Was it Ciel or Elesia?
In Tsukihime, Ciel is immortal because she was Michael Roa Valdamjong's previous incarnation called Elesia (on the left). [Slightly NSFW]

I am wondering which is her birth name, Ciel or Elesia? Who was it that decided on the name change? why did they change it from her birth name? and how did they get the other name?

Her birth name was Elesia. After she was defeated by Arcueid her body was retrieved by The Church, she somehow survived even after Roa left her body and her link with him made her immortal. The Church "killed" her repeatedly throughout a month as an experiment to research her immortality, and then she was taken y the Burial Agency, there she was given the codename Bow for her preference with proyectile weapons. According to this TYPE-MOON Staff Roundtable "Ciel" is taken from "L'arc en Ciel", "BOW in the sky" or "RainBOW" in French, though Ciel = Bow (Ciel means sky, it's the L'arc part that means "the bow") was a mistake on part of the scenario writer but it was already too late when the demo was released, so they ended up having Ciel being good at air combat as well so it didn't feel out of place.


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When will Oda finish One Piece?
Did Oda say when he will finish his work One Piece? Why has it been going on for so long?

Most of the time the ending date of a serialized manga can't really be known until the last few chapters, alternatively the start of the last Arc of the series.
As long as Oda enjoys drawing it and it keeps being a cash cow for both him and Shueisha it'll likely keep going, but last year Oda said that as of now the story is about 65% done. Doing the math it should be going for about 5 more years. But of course this is just a very rough estimate, it will depend on the length of the future arcs, while there's also the possibility that Oda will decide (or will be forced) to add filler arcs.

As for why it's been going for so long, there are two reasons:

Oda enjoys doing it (and didn't die yet)
It's a cash cow for Shueisha (so it hasn't been cancelled)

On a side note, One Piece isn't even that long, there are ongoing series with over a hundred volumes out there.
The longest running Shounen Jump series, Kochikame finished last year, it was running for a solid 40 years and has 1960 chapters in 200 volumes.


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What is this type of hairstyle?

Its a kind of hairstyle that has two hair strands hanging down from the top of the head maybe at the center of it

This is a sub-trope of Anime Hair, which is known as the Hair Intakes

A sub-trope of Anime Hair, this hairstyle resembles the hood scoops on a muscle car and also looks a bit like cat ears, allowing for the visual appeal of the Cat Girl in series that are too "realistic" to actually feature such a supernatural creature. Seems to be more common among females, though male examples are plentiful as well.
Seems to be especially prevalent in Visual Novels.

This is literally what the Japanese call it, the "Intake" hairstyle ("inteku kamigata"), after the openings on certain car hoods that channel air into the engine. E.g., https://twitter.com/p__hone/status/689132473758793728


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Can doujinshi get anime adaptations? Also can they become "real" Manga if good enough
Was wondering if doujinshi can get an anime adaptations and become real manga that are officially sold by companies.

Dupe for the first question: Rather then a company published manga, can a self-published manga become an adapted anime?

Anime Planet have based-on-doujinshi tag although the list is probably not complete

If by "doujinshi" you mean "self-published manga that parody other published works" (probably the most restrictive definition), the answer is yes. Examples:

Nyoron Churuya-san (a Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu doujin)

If you loosen the definition to "self-published manga", there are even more examples:

Sore ga Seiyuu!
Getsuyoubi no Tawawa

If you go further and consider all self-published works (including webcomics and text-only media), there are even more:

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (originally a series of posts on 2ch)
Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni (originally posted on "Shousetsuka ni Narou")
Re:Zero (likewise)
One Punch Man (originally a webcomic)

This is by no means a rare phenomenon. Self-published stuff that becomes popular gets commercialized pretty often.

Yes.
Example: Yoshitoshi Abe's, Haibane Renmei.

Welcome to [anime.se]. While this might be the answer, could you expand a little bit, perhaps by explaining a short history of this doujinshi turned into anime and manga? You can always [edit] to improve your post. Also, consider taking a quick [tour] to know more how this site works.

Yup.
Afro Samurai was a Doujin before being produced into an animated series, being self published through the magazine Nou Nou Hau
Any production company can pick up any work, regardless of who published it, as long as the right people give consent and are paid.


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Why would anyone think that Zeref is dead?
My question is a spoiler itself, you are required to be in/past Alvarez arc.

 Why would anyone think that Zeref is dead? He is right there in Alvarez a king as obvious as the sun, so how could the people in Ishgar seriously miss such a fact?

Put simply, that's all I want to know. Many people thought he was dead, others that he was simply dormant because of his low profile.

 But we know that Zeref said that he wasn't dormant at all himself. So why would people even think that? He was right there all along in Alvarez

he is known by different name in different places and he is so old that no body remember him or know him pretty well in present

@mirroroftruth the people in Alvarez know who he is.

IIRC they don't, they know him as emperor sapprigan or something but the Zeref

@mirroroftruth can u post a detailed answer with reference

Zeref Dragneel is 400+ years old, very few people know him and fewer than that who know his face or has seen him.
In Chapter 208: Death Preying, neither Elfman nor Evergreen recognize Zeref. Even Natsu doesn't remember him. Marijane seems to know a little about Zeref.

But we know that Zeref said that he wasn't dormant at all himself.

I don't know where did you find this information but, for some years he was inactive or in sleeping state. He awaken in Tenrou Island arc when he realizes Acnologia is coming.
As for Alvarez, He is known as Emperor Spriggan.

Zeref created this empire for the sole purpose of defeating Acnologia, obtaining Fairy Heart, and annihilating Ishgar.4 His plans regarding with Fairy Heart once captured was to relive his life with the Time Magic, Neo Eclipse. A plan the Spriggan 12 were not aware of.

When Makarov visit Alvarez to visit the Emperor Spriggan, he get shocked seeing Zeref as Emperor. Which also shows that how little the information of Zeref is available in present world. Makarov is one of the Ten Wizard Saints.

The image is from chapter 444: Emperor Spriggan, shocking face of Makarov when he sees Zeref as Emperor.

See chapter 250 page 4

first of all you should had mentioned that information in your question and look at same chapter page 3 where he says he is awoken, so the question would be which part was sleeping and which part never slept.

I think we have to wait then. Maybe there will be filler in the anime or something. It is unclear

As your wish, i think filler part is not good for reference and the awoken and sleeping part has different meaning, not pointing the same place, if it has then your question should be modified

I am saying that thing looks like some plothole. I am assuming things will be clarified once the Alvarez arc comes out on the anime. It may be more clear.


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How did Alphonse rebound his soul to his previous body?
Ed gave up his alchemy, so when Ed and Al lost there bodies (Al's body and Ed's left and right are), he received both his limbs and Al's previous body, Al's body was attached to the armor with a blood seal so Ed sacrificed his left leg and Al's body to bring there mother back to life. Here's where I'm at so after Ed lost his limb and they brought their mother soulless body back, he used his right arm to bound Al's bodyless soul to the armor, at the end of brotherhood Ed gave up his alchemy to bring their bodies back (Ed's arm and leg and Al's body) So how was his soul rebound to Al's original body?

Ed didn't get his leg back. He got his arm when Al gave his soul and they got Al's soul and body for Ed's alchemy but Ed uses an automail for his leg even at the end of the series.

So here's a summary of the timeline/trades:

Ed trades his leg for their mother. The leg ends up with Truth in the white space outside the gate.
Al trades his body and soul for their mother. Body and soul end up with Truth in the white space outside the gate (different white space than Ed's).
Ed trades his arm for Al's soul. Al's soul comes back to the real world. Ed's arm ends up with his leg in the white space.
Most of the series happens here.
Ed's automail arm is destroyed. Al trades his soul for Ed's arm (reversing the trade in 3). Al's soul goes back to the white space and merges with his body, Ed's arm comes back to the real world.
Ed trades his alchemy for the entirety of Al that's still in the white space with Truth: Al's body and soul.

So, Ed never gets his leg back (you can see he still has the automail leg at the end post time skip). Al does a trade himself in 5, which merges his body and soul and gives Ed his arm again, and then Ed brings all of Al back by trading his alchemy.


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Who is the woman who sings the ending song for "In the Beginning: The Bible Stories."
I would like to know the name of the woman who sings the ending song for "In the Beginning: The Bible Stories." It is very hard to find detailed information about this show.

You can find the information either in the Japanese Wikipedia article for In the Beginning: The Bible Stories or the corresponding aniDB entry under the Songs tab.
The ending theme is Rainbow Blue sang by Reimy.


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What was the purpose behind Daphne collecting data on the wizards?
In the Fairy Tail anime, what was the purpose behind Daphne collecting data on the wizards? Was it just to keep them busy fighting the Lizardmen while she destroyed Magnolia, or was she planning on using the data in some other way?

I believe that she was collecting data on wizards so she can find a dragon slayer worthy of her invention (the fake non-working dragon, i'd like to call it) to make it work and show the people back in her village that dragons are real and that she was not lying when she told them that she saw one.
And for the lizard men, I believe that she used them to distract the Fairy Tail wizards and focus on putting Natsu in her invention using Gray, so it can work. And I believe that she did not want to destroy Magnolia and do some evil stuff. She just wanted to prove that dragons are real.


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Is there a basis for the arm and leg wraps?
In Naruto, many characters have what appear to be bandages wrapped around their arms or legs. Is there a basis for this in any martial arts or military fighting styles?

These originate from a similar practice in the real world, where they are used in boxing, combat sports, and martial arts (largely muay thai, one of the more brutal sports). They are mostly seen on the wrists, but can be used on the legs too for the same reasons. (Legs are sometimes wrapped around the hips and thighs, but can be wrapped lower down as well.)
There are different types of wraps: cloth/elastic, gauze, or a type of cast material which is much firmer.
Cloth wraps help protect from superficial cuts and other scrapes; you may have seen (or been in) situations where, after a punch, your knuckles can get worn down or bloodied up as the skin dries/breaks from the impact. Having a cover over them would obviously protect them from doing so.
Gauze and stronger cast materials (and even cloth, to a lesser extent) are for protecting the wrist and hand from damage sustained while punching. They help by holding the hand in its proper shape by wrapping around the fingers and the thumb and keeping the structure intact when an impact is sustained.

(Source: Wikipedia)
It is more than likely that Naruto adopted this to have their characters appear as (semi-)realistic, prepared martial artists.

This makes some sense, but I wonder if there are other Japanese cultural reasons the characters dress this way. For example, Dororo (https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-09-03/dororo-tv-anime-1st-promo-video-cast-staff-visual-revealed/.136275) is shown with wraps around ankles and wrists, as are many peasants in the show, none of whom are depicted as combat-oriented.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttee#History regarding puttees as a standard military outfit in the Japanese and other armies.

One thing I don't see mentioned anywhere is the fact that bandaging is also used to tether items to ones body. Apart from providing protection, some parts of the body can simply be wrapped to be used as some type of pocket. Blades can be hidden on the inside of one's forearm, pouches attached to the leg, and many items from weaponry to medic kits to the main torso underneath ones clothing. Where do you think the ninja in Naruto pull all their weaponry from?


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Why is Edward Newgate called Whitebeard?
Why do they call him "Whitebeard"?
He doesn't even have a beard!

lol, that trollface whitebeard

Language - I love it. In some languages, that's called a beard, too, for example German (Schnurrbart, Oberlippenbart).

Imagine the disaster if they call him "WHITEMOUSTACHE".. lol

@maseru For laughs, here you can read the disaster on a page from chapter 133, where the name originally was translated as "moustache" as in "The Black Moustache Pirates destroyed Drum island."

Edward Newgate's nickname in Japanese is Shirohige (shiro = white, hige = facial hair). Japanese does not distinguish between beard and moustache1. However, a literal translation White Facial Hair sounds a pretty poor nickname for one of the World's strongest pirates, and even sounds comedic. Whitemoustache isn't much better either. Whitebeard has a nice ring to it.
Also, fairy-tail's Lucy's nickname for the Celestial Spirit King is "hige-oyaji" (translated as moustache-man, in context), and he has only a moustache, which suggests that "hige" is used to refer to both moustache and beard in Japanese.

1: Google Translate says that "Beard" is "Agohige", and "Moustache" is "Kuchihige". However, they did not call him "Shirokuchihige" in the original, so the distinction seems to be not widely used.

However, a literal translation "White Facial Hair" lol, +1 just for that

i think also the decision to use Whitebeard in translation was also reinforced by Blackbeard, a well known pirate, after all, you can't really have a pirate series without some sort of reference too him, even if it's a change to the first part of his name

Why is Blackbeard called Blackbeard when he only has perma-stubble? Whitebeard´s flawless mustache is manlier than a thousand normal beards.
And I quote:

A beard is the collection of hair that grows on the chin, upper lip,
  cheeks and neck of human beings.

A mustache is also a beard.

"A mustache is also a beard" - We all know that's not true; that definition is just poor...

This definition (from Wikipedia) says it grows on the chin, lip, cheeks, AND neck. I believe that means simultaneously, especially given their first image of it. xD

strong beard dont grow on chins, they move to the upper levels.

When the manga was being fan-translated, the translator left a note about how the name in japanese could be translated as white mustache or white beard.  His words went something like, "Who wants to be White Mustach when you can be White Beard."


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Is there any relation between hair style and character's personalities?
Generally speaking, hairstyle in anime represent the character personality, like short hair girl should become tomboyish or ponytail make a girl seems sporty, etc. But what about the others? Like long straight hair, or idiot hair, twintail, etc.
What is common hair style for girls and guys in anime and what are the character represent?
ADD
There's a really fine blog about anime hair colors here thanks to @user1306322 comment below, I want an answer like that, but it's about hair style

The answer here is relevant: http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/5650/what-is-this-hairstyle-called

@Maroon that's only for one hair style

How about this question? http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/2872/why-do-many-characters-tend-to-have-crazy-hair-colors-and-styles

And check out this fine blog post from the internet.

@user1306322 I've seen the question and Dimitri's answer give one example. I want to know the others

In a specific series it probably is reasonable to conclude that there's some relation, but I'm hesistant to generalize across all series, since there can be a lot of variation (e.g. with idiot hair).

There are a huge amount of hairstyles in anime, I doubt you can get an answer that will address them all

Yes, there can be some common traits that similarly haired characters share. Of course this is not a definitive guide  to a character's personality and there will be many counterexamples.
Here are a couple of hairstyles and their common personalities:
Short hair is often seen on tomboys or alternativly 'average' characters. This is presumably so that they seem boyish or have a hairstyle that is not very exciting.

Kanbaru Sugura , Monogatari Series - a sporty fujioshi who is perhaps more boyish than the main , male, lead
Ranmaru Rindou, Binbougami ga! - a female delinquent who was brought up in a dojo like a male
Yuki Nagato , The Melancholy off Haruhi Suzimiya - emotionless
Kumin Tsuyuri - Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! - a member of the club who naps a lot.. And not much else

Twintails are often childlike or are childhood friends, this is because twintails are uncommon among older women, but more popular with young girls and society has associated the two:

Lingyin Huang - Infinite Stratos, a childish childhood friend
Azusa Nakano - K-on! , a new (childish) member of the light music club
Yuno Gasai, Future diary, a childhood friend of the main character with simple motivations.

Drill hair is usually a sign that a character is either wealthy or refined. This is probably because rich characters tend to be braggarts.

Selnia Iori Flameheart - ladies vs butlers - from a rich family
Mami Tomoe - Puella Madoka Magi Magicka - an experienced magical girl with refined taste
Akira Kogami - Lucky Star - drills?
Celestia Ludenberg - Dangan Ronpa - from a prestigious family

And let's not forget the dudes. If you see this delinquent hairstyle, you can almost certainly categorise that character:

Mondo Owada - Dangan Ronpa, Member of a biker gang
Kazu, Redline - a rebel race driver
Eikichi Onizuka, Shonan Junai Gumi

I could go on and on, There are quite a number of examples
including the somewhat well-known hair antennae linked earlier
But I think this should answer your question - Yes there can be a relationship between a character and their hairstyle, but its not a solid rule.
Also you should bear in mind that hairstyle trends will have changed throughout time - what was once in is now out and visa versa.
You don't see many girls like this in anime today:

Amano Ai - Video Girl Ai -

Absolutely there is, when speaking generally, though this is not utilized in every single anime. The easiest way to familiarize yourself with the standard hair/personality types is to look at unapologetically harem (bishoujo) and reverse-harem (bishounen) anime and video games, because they heighten the main stereotypes with the aim of every viewer/player finding at least one type that is their ideal girl/guy.  However, older anime from the 80s and earlier have a fairly different (though not completely different) set of standard types than more modern anime do.
For bishoujo, check out: ToHeart, Ai Yori Aoshi, Love Hina, Tokimeki Memorial, Kakyuusei, Debut, etc. For bishounen, check out: Fruits Basket, Fushigi Yuugi, Haruka naru Toki no Naka de, Hakuouki ~Shinsengumi Kitan ~, Ouran Koukou Hosuto-bu, La Corda D'oro, Uta no Prince-sama: Maji Love 1000%, Starry Sky, Brothers Conflict, Free!!, Kamigami no Asobi, etc. You will recognize the same basic character/hair types repeated amongst these series. For 80s and older anime, check out: anything by Tezuka Osamu, Versailles no Bara, Glass no Kamen, Ace wo Nerae, Attack No. 1!, Ashita no Joe, Kagaku Ninjatai Gatchaman, Ginga Tetsudou 999, Candy Candy, early Gundam and Macross, etc. Recent moe series have recurring types as well.


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Is Doraemon supposed to end in volume 6?
In sixth volume, in last chapter it shows that

Doraemon goes to the future and didn't come back again. The chapter shows how Nobita trying his best to do anything without Doraemon, he got beaten with Giant and still refuse to call Doraemon. Doraemon find him still fighting Giant and help him to get home. It end with Nobita looking at his desk, where Doraemon come at the first time through his drawer. His drawer become a regular drawer without Doraemon's Time Machine.

This is the picture of that chapter

With that, it looks like Doraemon is supposed to end at volume 6. But we know that it didn't happen because it still continue and they didn't make an ending for Doraemon.
So, is Doraemon manga series are suppose to end at sixth volume or it just another story from Doraemon?

Doraemon has no official ending... which chapter or which manga are you referring to?

@Krazer it's last chapter on volume six, I don't remember the number. Probably more than 100. I've update my post

you have to realize different countries collect the chapters differently. Some countries combine the regular and Plus series, while other included "The Doraemons" spin-off manga into the total volumes for the manga.

Doraemon returns in the next chapter in the next volume.

The regular manga has 45 volumes. The Plus manga has 5.


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What was the deal with Haruhi's Endless Eight?
In Haruhi second season, there was 8 episodes that have been the same. The series of "Endless Eight" episodes are literally doing the same things over and over again. But it's not really the same thing, they re-animating and re-dubbing whole episode, they didn't being lazy and use the same source.
Here's the same sequence of different episodes when Haruhi called Kyon to ask him to swim with others at the pool:

As you can see they give different tones, angles, outfits, etc. That's too much effort for same situation all over the episode for eight episodes straight. So why did they doing it? Did they also did it in light novel? What is the point of "Endless Eight"?

There were eight episodes in the "Endless Eight" arc, not seven. (That's not why it's called "Endless Eight", though - I believe that's because it takes place in August, the eighth month. Plus, 8 looks like ∞.)

Whatever the reason was, they certainly trolled all their fans including me. I watched it as it aired that summer. Worst mistake in my life.

@senshin oh, sorry, I miscount it

@senshin When I look at AniDB, Amazon.com and Wikipedia I count 8. The Wikipedia list starts season 2 with Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody following 8 episodes of Endless Eight counting 9 at the last episode of Endless Eight. Good work though pointing out that August is another 8, I didn't notice that.

months don't have names in japanese. it's literally just "month 8".

I think it must have been artistic: A meta critique on the repetitive and predictable nature of modern entertainment, particularly shonen manga and anime. Or maybe a tribute to Andry Warhol's Empire, an avant-garde 8 hour film of just the Empire State Building. Regardless, I don't think we ever have or ever will see anything like this again. Except maybe for NFT projects.

The Endless Eight - How one of anime's most controversial arcs sent its fandom into a tailspin

Most likely the last arc of the show was originally planned to adapt The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi, but the producers changed their mind well into production, and decided to make it into a movie instead. As a result they had to fill in a seven episodes gap that they already bought the timeslot for, thus this gimmick was born.
They Endless Eight chapter in the novel is only about the very last iteration where Kyon figures out the solution.
The point of Endless Eight was to provide a reason for Nagato to do what she did in Disappearance, being the only one to remember the over 15000 iterations.

this seems to be correct answer but is there any source that says last arc of the show was originally planned to adapt The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi?

The characters seem to do "the same things over and over again" because they are trapped in what TV-Tropes call a "Groundhog Day" loop. The Wikipedia article on time loops explains it very short and crisp:

Stories with time loops commonly center on correcting past mistakes or on getting a character to recognize some key truth; escape from the loop may then follow.

The episodes initially aired between 19.06.2009 and 07.08.2009, which may be why these episodes have such a bad reputation: the audience may have already suffered from the silly season and these episodes added more frustration on top.
It might be a bit far fetched, but I think this is also a play on how cool an endless summer break initially looks to pupils and students for as long as they don't know what to do with all their time until they realize that they are right in the middle of the silly season and that an endless summer break could also mean an endless silly season.
As senshin already pointed out in his comment, the reason why they choose to make this story arc span accross eight epsiodes is probably because 8 looks like the sign for infinity: ∞ ( which surely is another trope or meme they choose to play with but that cannot find right now).

No one knows why director did it or what purpose it served. In the novels themselves, only last "loop" was recorded and the whole thing spanned not even 100 pages. If I were to speculate, then only reason why they did what they did was because number of coincidences during airing of the episodes were so high it was too good to pass on the opportunity. Also, if they didn't waste 8 episodes of it, then they would need to adapt some other material, which by the time of the show was just "Dissapearance" arc, something that later got much better movie adaptation.

While your answer reads like a pessimist opinion at first, the last part also sounds very reasonable.

Trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice.
They trolled everyone by airing the episodes out of order for the first season and the anime became really popular, so likely someone insisted to also have some kind of gimmick for the second season.

Lol sounds like huge conjecture for something with an official answer. Any references? Or well...is your answer meant to be 1 of those 'off-the-record' conjectures?

I know an awful lot of people who were terribly annoyed by the Endless Eight sequence (if only because it meant losing seven episodes of potential new content), and even now that you can just marathon all eight episodes without having to wait a week inbetween, it's quite a slog. I can see and admire all the work they put into each episode, and even I still think it was a dicey move. ...But I've got to say, if you do watch all eight episodes, the rush you get when they finally figure things out and escape the loop is on a whole different level than it would have been if they'd solved it on the first try. That may have been what the director was trying for. (By the time work began on Season 2, there were two more volumes of unadapted short stories - "Rampage" and "Wavering" - in the series, so even if they'd originally planned to use "Disappearance" and decided against it, there technically were other options.)


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How does the work relation between Shichibukai and the World Government?
Shichibukai are pirates who have allied themselves with the World Government. But how does it work between them? What are their rule between each other? All Shichibukai have a bounty, is that means if they got caught they still got punished? On Crocodile side, he work against the World Government, so the World Government sent him to jail. And Jinbe got jailed because he refuse to help the World Government to fight against Shirohige. But what if they didn't do anything wrong and someone able to defeat them and give them to the World Government? Are the World Government still punished them?

Shichibukai are famous pirates with large bounties who have joined with the marines. They help marines in tough situations and eliminate weak pirates. In return the World Government ignore their actions, business, etc.
As for the specific rules:

They have to pay specific amount (1/10) of their profit to the World Government regularly.
They will not indulge in any activity that will affect the peace of a country.
They will have to answer the call of the marines in tough situations.

In any case if any of the above rules is broken, the contract will be dissolved and their bounty will be re-activated.
For the second question, as long as the Shichibukai has not yet broken those rules, they will remain bonded with the World Government, thus the Marines will go after the group who defeated them.
Further information can be obtained from here.

The bounties on all Shichibukai are in effect always. The World Government doesn't end the bounty on selection as Shichibukai but just avoids its implementation. The Shichibukai have to pay certain amount of their piracy earnings to WG as tax and they have to work for WG in subduing other pirates.
They get caught only when

they act against WG or WG affiliated countries (e.g. Crocodile against Alabasta);
they don't follow WG's orders (e.g. Jimbei).

When someone defeats and hands them over to WG, they are

put in jail, if they acted against WG (e.g. Crocodile);
not put in jail, if they didn't act against WG (e.g. Gecko Moria).

When a Shichibukai place is vacant, WG trys to fill it asking a pirate to fill it (as they did with Jinbe). Alternatively a pirate can openly offer himself (as Blackbeard did).
The new Shichibukai has to have kind of a strong reputation (this was a pre-requirement for Blackbeard).
The deal:
The Shichibukai and their subordinates bounties get frozen. They get a pardon for their past crimes (e.g. Jinbe). Official protocol for WG forces are not to pursue Shichibukai, despite some marines despising them, like Smoker or Fujitora.
They are allowed to live on piracy as long as they don´t attack WG allies.
In exchange:
They must hand a part of their profit to WG (This rule is probably accomplished loosely due to WG not knowing all of Shichibukai activities).
They shall not act against WG nations or organizations (e.g. Crocodile). They can´t either ally another pirate crew, only add them to their own (Clearly explained at the Fujitora/Doflamingo/Law encounter at Green Bit).
They have to look strong, so they can´t afford a public defeat (as at first Moria´s defeat was not publicly known, he didn´t lose the title until the broadcasted War at Marineford).
They have to fight for WG under some circunstances not fully specified.
So if this rules are broken the Shichibukai title is revoked with all its privileges. The bounties are unfrozen (or even raised like Jinbe´s did) and they are treated mostly like any other pirate will be.


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Is there such a thing as Waifu-Wednesday?
I found an interesting phrase here on Facebook page,

What is Waifu-Wednesday? Is there such a thing as Waifu-Wednesday?

it's Facebook, do you really believe that?

@Memor-X That's why I ask it here :)

well this isn't an answer and just me but it's Facebook, i don't normally take what's posted there with even a grain of salt, anyone can make a page for anything

It's a common-ish internet trend among the self-proclaimed otaku of the world where they post images of girls (often dozens) they consider their waifu. There is such a thing, but simply because it's common as aforementioned; there is no "official" thing about it. Perhaps someone can provide a more fulfilling answer.

@eric Well, thats all there pretty much is to it. Not much else to say about it :)

Yes and no. No Waifu wednesday is not a officially recognized day for waifu's. Yes, it is a commonly used term in the Waifu-owning society.
Right now, Waifu Wednesday is used by people that have a Waifu/Husbando and use Waifu Wednesday as a mid week appreciation point for their Waifu. This is mostly done by spreading the love of their waifu's by posting Moe and or Kawaii pictures of their Waifu/Husbando.
For those not familiar with the term Waifu Check out "where does the term "waifu" come from?"

you could also use this link to add more information about the term "waifu" http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/4754/where-does-the-term-waifu-come-from

@Memor-X Nice, did not know/remember that was there :).


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How can Colonel Mustang create his flame alchemy differently?
When Mustang performs his flame alchemy, he doesn't clap his hands to create it, did he? He's only snapping his fingers:

The others seem to always clap when performing alchemy:

How does Mustang do this?

I haven't watch the 2003 anime so I don't know if there's any explanation there

It's his Ignition Claws. As explained in the 2003 Anime Episode "Fullmetal VS Flame", they create a spark when he snaps his fingers and he uses alchemy to manipulate the other elements to make explosions or fire. The claws have the transmutation circle on them, so if it's removed he can't use it, which is demonstrated during the fight and also later in the 2003 series when he fought Pride.
Ed on the other hand claps his hands because he's been to the Gate of Truth and creates a full array with his own body, thus requiring no circles. It is something only those who have been to the Gate of Truth can do, like Izumi.
While I refer to the 2003 anime, the fundamentals of Mustang's alchemy would be the same as how alchemy works is the same.

While your posts are informative, some parts are very hard to understand due to run-on sentence. It'd be nice if you could take some time to review your posts and fix this problem.

The clapping is only necessary if one does not use a transmutation circle. As stated by Scar, it is necessary to create a ring using the palms (in order to create the flow of energy properly). This is the case for Izumi Curtis and Edward Elric initially, being the only ones to recall their time within the Gate of Truth. Later (spoilers up to episode 60 or so),

 Alphonse Elric recalls his memories, gaining this ability; Roy Mustang is also dragged through the Gate of Truth to gain this ability as well.

Those using Philosopher's Stones are exempt from this rule for unknown reasons; it is perhaps such that the stone can provide the necessary flow without a circle.
You will notice that other alchemists who have transmutation circles need not clap: Major Armstrong, Basque Grand, and Giolio Comanche if I remember correctly. Even Al, after drawing a circle, does not clap:

Roy Mustang's flame alchemy is done by the transmutation of air (compressing it very densely), then creating a spark with his gloves to ignite it.

Edward claps to perform transmutations because he has seen the Gate when he attempted human transmutation. As a result, this, as explained by Izumi Curtis (at least in the manga and the Brotherhood anime) means that his body becomes an array, and so he can perform alchemy without a circle.
Mustang, as explained in the manga and 2003 anime, uses gloves that will create a spark when he snaps his fingers. Since the transmutation circle required is on the gloves he wears, he can perform the transmutation without drawing out the array. There are also other alchemists in the series that don't clap to perform alchemy: e.g. Armstrong, Kimblee, or Basque Gran (at least in the manga), so Mustang isn't the only character who does this.

Roy's gloves are made of a special material called ignition cloth, when he snaps it makes a spark. Then using the transmutation circle on the back of the glove,he uses alchemy to change oxygen density within the air molecules, then rapidly expands and contracts then by combusting hydrogen and then using the spark to ignite it.

Mustangs ignition glove is made from a material that produces a spark when rubbed together
His glove also has the Transmutation circle on it
If I remember correctly or have correct knowledge it has something to do with breaking down of H2O in the air to make pure forms of hydrogen to ignite a line of flame and oxygen to keep the flame Alive long enough to reach his target
My theory on It but it may be different

The Ignition Claw theory cannot be true, for during the fight with Lust in Brotherhood, Roy didn't have his gloves on. Rather, he snapped with his bare hands while sporting a Transformation Circle on his opisthenar.
What it could be is the constant construction of H2O and deconstruction of H2O using the oxygen and hydrogen already present in the air. By continuously reconstructing and deconstructing the hydrogen and oxygen withing the air, you create combustion within an initial energy source to start it. If you are interested, please take a look at Oxygen and Hydrogen combustion.
We also note that he has difficulty using his ability during the rain, and it can be said the humidity within the air may affect his proficiency at the construction and destruction of H2O; considering that the combustion involves the CONSTRUCTION of H2O rather than the destruction of it, it would be considerably harder to get a response in wet environments.
EDIT: Ah. Okay. I haven't finished the series, and I haven't picked up on an explanation yet. I was Googling around for one but wasn't satisfied, so made one up.

are you referring to this where he has a lighter to create a spark rather than the spark generated from snaping his Ignition Claw?

Roy didn't have his gloves, but he was using Havoc's lighter instead to create a spark. The in-universe explanation (given by Havoc, at least in the manga after the train hijacking) is that Roy simply needs a spark and to be able to manipulate oxygen concentrations (to enable combustion).

Ah, now that I've rewatched the scene, I've made a mistake. Not as complex as I would've like, considering the "painstaking study" that Mr. Hawkeye had to go through in order to create this type of battle alchemy, but mkay.


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How many ending does Clannad have in Visual Novel?
In the anime, Tomoya ended with one girl. But there's two ova's where he got a different ending, with two different girl.
I tried to play the visual novel once, and was able to get a good ending with Sakagami Tomoyo and Fujibayashi Kyou, but I never reach a good ending with Sagara Misae (manager of Sunohara's dorm) and Fujibayashi Ryou. How many ending are they in Visual Novel?

The regular routes in the Visual Novel are with:

Fujibayashi Kyou
Fujibayashi Ryou
Furukawa Nagisa
Hiiragi Kappei
Ichinose Kotomi
Ibuki Fuko
Miyazawa Yukine
Sagare Misae
Sakagami Tomoyo
Sunohara Mei
Toshio Koumura

There are three additional endings for the after story of the original game (therefore, routes opening up after continuing to the after story of Furukawa Nagisa). Another spin-off game is available that includes an after story for Sakagami Tomoyo, and is called "Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life".

Roel van Uden's answer is pretty accurate. However concerning Fujibayashi Ryou.

 There is no good end except for her end in Hiiragi Kappei's route.

I also found this a useful site: http://soukyuu.emevas.net/CLANNAD_guide.html

There actually is a good ending for Ryou and Tomoya, other than your mentioned one.


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Is Lelouch's Geass limited in what it can tell people to do?
Yes, I know that Lelouch can only use his Geass once per person, but can he control everything? I mean, if he says "I command you to do whatever I say", will it work?

Yes it would, and he have done so on multiple occasions.

 (For instance, on Schneizel, "Obey zero")

And this works forever?

There is no known time limit.

Yeah, he can order you to die, or follow his or anyone's commands for ever. He just chose not to at the beginning of the series.

There are limits mostly physical (breathe underwater forever), you just don't see it since he does extensive testing when he first acquires it to test possible limits.  It's also shown multiple times people can resist it to some extent if it goes against their core beliefs. But he can issue all encompassing slave command that's active forever unless geass canceled.

The "Obey/Serve Zero" command is a good example however Schneizel and the Damocles Guards obeys Zero which is whoever is identified as Zero (so it's actually meant to have them obey Suzaku in accordance to Lelouch's plan). a better example relating to the question of Lelouch himself telling people to obey him are the soliders is in the Imperial Court in episode 22. his command is "Be my slaves... NOW!"

Lelouch has done so several times. One of it is like Madara said. Here's another examples:

To Kururugi Suzaku, "Live!"
To Gilford, "Whenever you see Zero putting his hand on his collar, you will see him as Princess Cornelia."

The limitations is of course the physical limitations of the subject of the Geass power. For example if he ordered someone to go to the Moon on foot, then it will not happen.

So that means, that if i would command to someone, to live, then he wouldn't be able to die?

I think not. Just that he will do his best to survive. Like in Suzaku's case, when he was about to be sacrificed to kill Zero, he suddenly goes against his order and let Zero move from the bombing point.

Specifically, Lelouch gives the order "Live!" to [a particular girl] after she's been shot, as he's trying desperately to stop her dying. She's wounded too badly for an effort of will to save her, though, so she still dies.


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Can 3 people fuse using the potara earrings?
Consider the following scenario.
We have Goku, Vegeta and Trunks. Amongst the 3 they have 2 pairs of potara earrings.
Can Goku and Vegeta fuse using 1 pair of potara earrings and then using the other pair of earrings can Vegito and Trunks fuse ?
I understand potara earrings can only be used once in a lifetime, but here we have 2 pairs of potara earrings. So does the rule still apply ? If it does then Goku and Vegeta both use the potara twice, once in the buu saga and now in the next DBS episode. Or does this mean that Goku can only now fuse with Vegeta using the potara earrings ?

Even if they can, I don't think that that is a good idea. It would be hard for 3 person to control one body. Their battle potential would get hindered by excessive coordination necessary between the 3.

After doing some research to be sure, I came to the conclusion that there is simply nothing that proves or disproves this possibility. The potara may retain their power to fuse people multiple times over, or just as likely may not.


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Ratio of key frames to in-between frames in anime
In your average piece of animation, how many of the frames are key frames drawn by the animator, and how many are drawn by an inbetweener?
Even a small difference would have a huge impact; for example, having about a third of the frames be keys is a little over half the work for the animators compared to having half the frames be key frames, so this would obviously have a huge impact on budget, as fewer keys means you don't need as many key animators. I feel like a third or a fourth of frames being keys is probably average, but I haven't been able to find anything to support or debunk this hunch.
Anyone working in the anime industry, or familiar enough with it to give me a ballpark?

It is easy to find figures for the number of "cuts" per episode (around 300), and for the number of total drawn frames per episode (around 3000). But it is strangely difficult to find any key animators reporting the typical number of keyframes they draw per cut (I spent about an hour looking).

I would imagine that key frames done by the lead animator as opposed to in between frames would vary based on the scope and budget of the project, and the input of the director or producer.     As @senshin stated, self reported stats by lead animators is........quite scarce.

I think the ratio would vary greatly depending on the budget and the type of anime. For example, action anime with enough budget would have more key frames compared to romance anime of the same budget.

The answer is relatively simple when looking only at the ratio (ie. not at the number of keyframes over the course of an episode or minute of anime).
Since keyframes are used at the start and the end of a smooth transition, each movement, or transition, only has 2 keyframes, regardless of how many people or objects are moving over a period of time.
From clicking around on Wikipedia's Keyframe page we get that a movement can be drawn in about 12 frames.
With frame 1 and 12 being keyframes, the rest are inbetweens, resulting in a 1:6 ratio of keyframes/inbetweens, where the ratio can move to 1:12 if the movement/transition takes a full 24 frames, or may even drop down to 1:3 (for example) if additional keyframes are introduced successively in order to complete different motions starting and ending at different times.


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Why are the chapters named after other works?
Just noticed that some (if not all) of the chapter titles are named after another movie or book. There is

Chapter 005. Enter the Dragon
Chapter 031. God Father
Chapter 037. Mission Impossible
Chapter 041. Die Hard II
or Chapter 059. Groundhog Day

just to name a few.
And then I take a look at Wikipedia entry about list of School Rumble chapters and pick some random chapter and always find another work, film, series, or novel with the same title. Even side stories like

Side stories 15. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Side stories 25. Monsters Inc.
Side stories 54. Ocean's Eleven

are named after another works.
So I tried to see list of School Rumble episodes, and it looks like only the manga chapters are named after other works.
Some titles are related to the story somehow, but some titles seem a little bit random. Why do these chapters use other works' titles? Has there been any word from the author about this? Are all chapters named after other works' titles?


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Why was the kiss not shown?
In episode 7 of Yuri!!! On Ice, Victor and Yuuri share what is almost definitely a kiss on the ice. However, this kiss is blocked from view by a conveniently placed arm, as seen below:

Some people have said that the kiss wasn't directly shown because of Japanese censorship laws, while others have said it is just part of the norm of ignoring queer relationships in Japan. Is there any truth to either argument and any precedent or law to back it up?

Just to play Devil's Advocate: how can one say it's a kiss and not an overly affectionate hug? Bear in mind I'm saying this as one who will likely not see this anime and an seeing this gif for the first time.

It's obviously impossible to know for certain, but if you look at where their faces are (shown in https://goo.gl/images/GauUUx), spacing wise the most logical explanation is that they are kissing.

I've seen people comment that there's no real legal reason for censorship, and that it's more about cultural norms, which I find convincing as an explanation, but I also don't have anything to back that up.

@Makoto: the implication is somewhat stronger with the bit preceding it, I think.

when I tried to googled it, I found Shin Sekai Yori had depicted BL kisses (although I haven't watch it myself). So I don't think there's a legal reason for censorship.

@Maroon, the video actually convinced me of the opposite; it seems like he was trying to surprise Victor(?) with an almost-kiss. either way, very ambiguous.

It's *Obviously" something, what that "Obvious" something is is ambiguous.  Too me it looks like an adorable glomping lol.

In Naruto, Naruto and Sasuke, both are guys, had something you can call "kiss scene". So I would think there shouldn't be a problem showing this kiss.

@Akira Mahisaseru What kiss scene are you talking about?

@kuwaly, it's the one where Naruto is arguing with Sasuke. They were in the academy, it's when they were about to be assigned into teams. I forgot the episode, but it's in the first serie.

@kuwaly It was episode 3 of first series, beginning at time mark 7:14. Sakura had knocked Naruto to the ground as she tried to sit next to Sasuke.  Then all the girls crowded around for that honor.  Naruto jumped up to stare Sasuke down, trying to figure out why all the girls wanted to be close to him. Then ...

@Maroon:  Fair...but given the way that they landed afterwards, I still have my doubts.

I'm a little late to the party, but I think it might be more of an artistic choice than anything else.
Victor's arm is probably there to protect their own private moment together instead of it being due to censorship reasons.
There's a post on tumblr here that cites Kubo-sensei's tweet as an 'official' confirmation of the kiss. I'm a complete novice at Japanese, so the reliability of this source completely hinges on the OP's translation. If the source is right, however, and Kubo-sensei's tweet indeed heavily implies that the kiss is in fact, canon, then I don't think censorship is really much of an issue here.
Some have cited the cultural norm being the main reason like you mentioned, but I think it doesn't really hold if you examine what happened in the later episodes. They proposed and literally got engaged with gold bands on their fingers, and if the entire series was meant to be reflective of the queer culture in Japan, I kind of doubt that would happen.
What I have said is just mere speculation though; please take it with a pinch of salt.

FWIW there's some notion of a social backlash in the commentary here, but I doubt that was responsible for the kiss being hidden, since this appears to be more an issue of whether or not the implied kiss was going to be shown in the first place.

I think maybe it's not about ignoring queer relationships mostly because how much money they make off of yaoi, etc. I think they blocked the view because they want to make people excited and wonder was it a kiss or a hug. I think they are saving the real relationship in the second season.