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Did this character die because of the Death Notes' new rule or because Ryuk wrote his name in a Death Note?
There is a one-shot manga for Death Note that was published on Mangaplus, on February 3th, 2020 (you can read the manga officially here.
In the final scene of this one-shot manga, Minoru Tanaka, the new owner of Death Notes, was selling the Death Note through an auction online and it sold for 1 Quadrilion Yen. The person who bought it was the President of the US at that time. The money will be transferred to the account of every person in Japan that has an account registered with Yotsuba Bank of Japan, 1 billion Yen in each account.
When Minoru gave the Death Note back to Ryuk, Ryuk got yelled at by the King of Shinigami, who said it's forbidden to sell Death Notes to humans. So for the first time, the King of Shinigami added a new rule for Death Note usage:

A Human who buys or sells the Death Note in the human world will die.
The seller will die when they receive the money and the buyer will die
when they receive the Death Note.

This canceled the transaction, but the money was already transferred to every person in Japan that had an account with Yotsuba Bank of Japan. But at the end, Minoru still died when he withdrew the money one month later after he gave up the Death Note's ownership because Ryuk wrote his name in the notebook below Light Yagami's name.
Question: What makes me confused is does Minoru Tanaka die because he withdrew the money since the new rule said "...The seller will die when they receive the money..." or does Minoru Tanaka die because Ryuk wrote his name in his Death Note just like when Light Yagami died? If so, why does Ryuk have to wait for one month and start to write Minoru Tanaka’s name in the Death Note?

Minoru died because of Ryuk, similar to how Yagami Light did.
Through the original Death Note Series Ryuk mentions that when the owners life would come to an end, he would write down the name instead. However, Ryuk has also shown that he is impatient in that sense.
As Minoru has broken the new rule, and obtained his payment Ryuk wrote down his name, as Minoru was set to die anyway.
The One Shot however does not cover whether this new rule would actually kill Minoru off even without a Shinigami writing his name down. However, knowing how Shinigami themselves have also died from breaking the rules set upon them, there is a high likelihood this would have happened non the less. Where I would speculate that the Shinigami King himself would be the one to pass down the punishment for breaking the rules.

You have lost, Light. Didn't I say in the beginning… when you die, the one who'll write your name down in a notebook will be me. That is… the deal between the Shinigami… and the first human to get their hands on the note in the human world. Once you enter the prison, I don't know when you'll die. It's annoying to wait… Your life is already over. You'll die here. Well, it was good while it lasted… We killed some boredom, didn't we? We did some various and interesting things…” - episode 37

the Shinigami King enforcing rules on Shinigami would make sense with Ryuk and Light as Light had been shot several times and was dying and Shinigami write names to extend their own lifespans. Ryuk would not have gained much, if any, extra Lifespan from Light so at that point it would be just boring work, unless someone else forces Ryuk to take Light's Life no matter how little Ryuk would gain

but what's the reason ryuk have to wait one month later before he started to write minoru name ?

@Gagantous That reasoning is still open for debate. A few off the possible reasons, albeit in question form can be found in chat

Minoru died because he was never aware of the new rule of the Death Note. The moment he got any type of payment, he was domed to die. Ryuk was not able to warn him about the rule since, Minoru told him to not appear and never show his face after the sell.  Also, he lost all memories of the Death Note the moment he sold the Death Note and told Ryuk to never show his face. I fell that Ryuk would have warn him if Minoru would not have been such a smart ass, as telling him to never bother him. Minoru studied the rules and calculated everything, but the new rule added at the last moment was unexpected and his downfall. Ryuk was just obligated to write his name, as his time had come by breaking a Death Note rule.

"The seller will die when they receive the money"
Minoru mentioned that he has to wait a month before getting the money all at once, because the bank put up a daily limit for withdrawing money. So Minoru waited a month before getting any money. Therefore he received the money a month after the auction and died.

Here's what I think.
Because the transaction never went through, the death note was still owned by Minoru. Minoru had told Ryuk not to get near him afterwards. Ryuk didn't want to wait for Minoru to die naturally and killed him.

“Because the transaction never went through, the death note was still owned by Minoru.”
The Death Note was no longer owned by Minoru, because he relinquished its possession. Between giving the notebook to Ryouk and Ryouk giving it to the buyer, it didn’t belong to any human.
If it worked as you suggest (buyer and seller switch at the same time), Minoru would still have memories of the Death Note when withdrawing the money and would have realised the transaction hadn’t been completed, which would be suspicious.


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Is Ryuk required to write (this user)'s name in their Death Note at the end of his/her life?
Is Ryuk required to write Misa's name in their Death Note at the end of her life?
Death Note Rule LXIV states:

gods of death are obliged to confirm the death of the first owner and
write down that humans name in his/her Death Note

Misa was the first human owner of the Death Note that was brought into the human world by Rem. Misa then gave up this Death Note, and then picked it up again later, and this time the Shinigami owner was Ryuk (Light made him and Rem switch notebooks). Obviously the responsibility of killing Misa would normally be Rem's, since she was the first to "drop" that DN in the human world. But then Ryuk also "dropped" it after he got ownership of it, and Misa "picked it up" and became the owner for the second time. Rem is dead, so she can't kill Misa. Does this mean that the responsibility transfers to Ryuk?
I know that the anime makes it look like Misa was about to commit suicide. And it looks like it's her idea, too--I seriously doubt Ryuk would have made her go through all that trouble (wearing the "handmaiden of death" outfit and fancy makeup, traveling to the place where Light died,etc). But we don't actually see her die. Would Ryuk be the one to kill her, now that her life is about to end due to her own intentions?
Does anyone know of anything in the manga, creator commentary, etc., that might clear this up?
(Rule is from the wiki here http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Rules_of_the_Death_Note)

That rule is an expansion on the rules which state cases when Gods of Death are allowed to return to their own world (more specifically it's the second part of "How to Use: LXIV")
Point one of those rules start with:

The following situations are the cases where a god of death that has brought the Death Note into the human world is allowed to return to the world of gods of death

While it is true that at one point Ryuk had ownership over Misa's Death Note he wasn't the one who brought it to the human world, so in Misa's case those rules don't apply to him.

But when does a DN stop belonging to the Human World? Light seems to think this is as soon as a Shinigami reclaims it. When he has Rem and Ryuk switch DNs, he tells Ryuk to drop the notebook on the ground. Now Ryuk is the one who "brought it" into the human world by dropping it. Rule 19 says that a DN can't be left in the human world without being found and used by a human. Rule 24 says a Shinigami has 82 hours to do this. If Ryuk didn't "pick up" the DN in some way after Light gave up ownership, he was in violation. But if he did, then he would've had to drop it again for Misa to find it.

That's a good question. The rules state when the note becomes the possession of the human world, but they don't state anywhere when it would belongs shinigami world again.
I think we have two options here:
1, Once a DN is possessed by the human world it will never belong to the Shinigami world again, even if it's brought back there
2, If a DN is retrieved by a Shinigami it'll belong to the Shinigami world again. But even if this is the case, during the exchange everyone involved was in the human world along with the DN. It isn't brought there again, hence the rule doesn't apply.

#1 doesn't really make sense: if the DN is in the Shinigami world, and a Shinigami is in full possession of it, in what sense does it "belong" to the human world? The "belonging" rule is connected to the rule that the Shinigami can't take the notebook back to the Shinigami world until the human owner gives it up or dies.

As for #2, that was my question--when is the DN considered reclaimed by the other world? When it's physically in the Shinigami world, or when a Shinigami reclaims it? Light's actions suggest the latter--if the DN still belongs to the human world, Ryuk could just hand it to Light, there would be no need for the whole production of dropping it on the ground. The fact that the participants are in the human world at the time may or may not be relevant. Is there anything in the manga or commentary that clarifies this?

I looked around, but haven't found anything that would clarify this. You might've stumbled upon a plot hole.

Thanks so much for looking into this, I really appreciate it!

He does not have to unless he wants to return to his world or for his own joy. Once the human owner is dead, he can reclaim the notebook, but it's not really a responsibility as he could let her live her full life. If she dies of old age or gives it up, he is free to go home, or if he simply lost track of who owned it, with Light gone and Ryuk being the owner of both death notes, Misa is now the human owner of at least one notebook.
It has been too long for me to confirm who wound up as the owner of Light's. It would have been the next person to touch it after he died.

Misa gave up ownership and sent the book to X-Kira. She neither had any contact with a Death Note from that point on nor did she hold any memories let alone ownership for the rest of the series. And N had all Death Notes in human possession destroyed as soon as he doublechecked that this wouldn't kill anyone who touched the book.

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Another question about the 23 day rule
Let's say there are two people with Death Notes, John Zeürtö and Bob Schnittlauchkäsebrot.
John Zeürtö writes:

Bob Schnittlauchkäsebrot dies 23 days after the latter willingly forfeits ownership of the death note.

What would happen? Some guesses:

Bob dies only after 23 days after he gives up the ownership of the death note, if he does or until his lifespan runs out.
Bob gets killed in 23 days.
Bob gives up ownership of his death note and then gets killed in 23 days.
Bob dies of a heart attack.

Who is giving up ownership? John?

This is awfully specific. Neither, the effect will have to resolve within 23 days or it's null and void.

@ʞɹɐzǝɹ It can't be void. Once a name is written in the note he will die. I assume it to be after 6mins and 40 seconds as with physically impossible deaths.

@PeterRaves Bob Schnittlauchkäsebrot is giving up the ownership

We might need a new tag: [tag:death-note-rules-puzzle]

The Death Note can only operate within 23 days from writing, so since the date would be impossible to fulfill it would be voided as Krazer said.

But once the victim's name has been written, the individual's death can never be avoided. LXII

Therefore it depends on the cause of death you write down.

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

By combining these rules I would expect Bob to die as soon as it is possible for him to do so according to the written cause of death.

http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Rules_of_the_Death_Note

so bob would die as soon he takes out his notebook?

@user6399 If John would write heart attack as the cause of death it doesn't matter what Bob does. I think he would die after 6 mins and 40 seconds of writing by John.

@user6399 Because the time of death is further in the future than 23 days, it would become void as krazer mentioned, so it would have been like John wrote Bob dies from a heart attack. I think.

but didn't l wrote something like: L Lawliet shall die 23 days after light yagami has died?

@PeteRaeves so if he would write another cause of death it could work?

@user6399 The cause of death isn't the issue, it's the time of death. You can't specify a time further in the future than 23 days.

but didn't l wrote something like: L Lawliet shall die 23 days after light yagami has died i know the movie has an alternate ending but still...

In the second movie L wrote "Heart attack. Dies peacefully after 23 days." https://i.sstatic.net/NpzXd.png

but if i wrote something like: bob schnittlauchkäsebrot bradykardie, however bradykardie will only occur when bob schnittlauchkäse without outside influence decides to give up ownership of the death note. i think this could work

@user6399 How does it matter whether or not Bob gives up his ownership? The death note can only work within 23 days. So if you write dies 23 days after whatever it will happen earlier.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

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What is the genjutsu called that Madara is trying to use to mind control the whole world?
What is the genjutsu called that Madara is trying to use to mind control the whole world?
He needs the ten-tails to be able to activate it.
I know it's been mentioned frequently in the series but I watch it over a very long period of time mixed with lots of other shows. The name eludes me.

Isn't this mentioned like every n episodes/chapter since its inception?

Been a while and now it's just episodes of being under its control. I hardly think this warrants a down-vote. It's hard remembering specific words in a non-native language.

plothole . . .
i doubt a genjutsu reflected from moon would affect blind people or other side of earth . . .

Ya true. Maybe it just takes longer to get those folks or suppose the only land is all on the same hemisphere.

It's called Infinite Tsukuyomi

The Infinite Tsukuyomi is a genjutsu that traps the entire world in an
illusion, enslaving them in a dream so that their chakra may be drawn
upon.

Telling more will be full of spoilers.


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What was Amuro Ray doing at the time Gundam ZZ takes place?
Why didn't Bright ask for Amuro's assistance in Gundam ZZ ,at least in the later parts of the series? What was Amuro doing in the Gundam ZZ time?


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In Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin what happens to the spirit if his 'owner' dies?
If the owner of the spirit dies, can the spirit chose another human?
And what happens if the spirit and the human are separated?  Will it obey someone else and if yes, under what circumstances?

On Japanese Wikipedia, it's mentioned that "if the human partner is dead, they will make a new contract with the family members/friends, or find a new partner by wandering to various places" (no citation yet though)


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DBGT: Does Goku die of old age when he turns SSJ4 in the future?

At the start of Dragon Ball GT, Goku was turned into a kid by Ultimate Shenron when Pilaf accidentally said "I wish you were a kid again!" after stating Goku became way too powerful and he doesn't stand a chance against him now,  but would if he were to be a kid again. (wish granted, goku turns back into a kid)
During his fight with Baby, Goku turned SSJ4 and with it, became so strong that the magic of Ultimate Shenron could not affect him anymore. This was stated in the anime. He was too powerful for Shenron's magic to affect him.

After turning back into his base form, he became a kid again. He didn't go back to being an adult. So Ultimate Shenron's magic reasserted itself when he was no longer SSJ4.

At the very end of GT, we see the future. We see Pan being a very old lady, and a mini-goku and mini-vegeta fighting in the World Martial Arts Tournament. The mini-Goku was implied to be Pan's grandchild. Since we don't see them, we can assume that all of the Z fighters have passed away from old age. Goku is now walking around the tournament grounds, all grown up again in his base form, still having his tail (proving the wish wasn't reversed, because then his tail would have been gone) just before the end-credits come into play.

The question
If the Goku we see at the end turned SSJ4, would he get old and die?
If Goku hadn't become a child and grown up again because of Ultimate Shenron's magic, he presumably would be dead of old age by the time of the finale just like everyone else is. But as we saw before, if he turns SSJ4, Ultimate Shenron's magic wears off and doesn't affect him anymore. So is Ultimate Shenron's magic the only thing keeping him alive? Without it, would he become old and die like he would have if it had never affected him in the first place?

related: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/39180/why-does-goku-become-an-adult-when-becoming-super-saiyan-4/39182#39182

No. The wish was to make Goku a child again. When he grows back into an adult, the wish will not be in effect anymore. The youth he gains would just be a side effect of the wish. The wording of a wish is very important, as can be seen when Shenron granted the wish to revive everyone on Namek killed by Frieza and his henchmen. That wish didn't revive the people Vegeta killed because Vegeta broke off from Frieza.
Supposing the wish is still considered to be in effect, he still wouldn't become an old man when transforming. The reason he becomes an adult is to negate the negative effect of the wish on his power. Once he becomes an adult again, the wish actually has a positive effect because it is keeping him in his prime. During the Saiyain Saga, Shenron told everyone he couldn't use his magic to kill Vegeta and Nappa because they were too strong. At the same time, we don't doubt that Shenron would be able to make the Saiyains immortal if their plans to get the Dragon Balls succeeded. So, it isn't just a case of Shenron's magic not affecting people who are stronger than him. It is also a matter of whether the person wants to be affected. This can be explicitly seen when Porunga is unable to bring Goku back to earth after Namek explodes because Goku refuses.
If you recall, King Piccolo wished to restore his youth, but he was also stronger than Shenron, as evidenced by him being able to destroy the dragon. The wish still worked.
Also, just in case anyone is confused, all the examples I used were from the original Shenron and Porunga, but they should still apply to Ultimate Shenron. The only difference is that Ultimate Shenron is stronger, so it requires more strength (super saiyain 4 level) to overpower his magic.

The mechanics of Shenron's magic is one of the most convoluted, inconsistent things in the entire convoluted, inconsistent DB universe, but you brought some good examples in to prove your point. +1.

Did Vegetta die when he went SSJ4 as an adult? The wish for Goku to be a kid again, wasn't a -make him a kid forever wish. Eventually he grows, gets older, and would eventually die. The transformation isn't going to make him super old or anything other than SSJ4.

Thank you for the answer, though not the point. It is stated in DBZ that Goku becomes "old" again, not because of the SSJ4 form itself, but because he was so strong the dragon's magic didn't affect him in that form. Vegeta wouldn't get older because he wasn't wished to be young again. Goku is kept young by magic, which dissipates whenever he gets too powerful.

No because of the fact that the transformation doesn't age the user. Also holding the assumption that Goku would have died of old age is also a bit of a stretch. Remember full-blooded saiyans age much slower once they hit adulthood. This was shown by aging Bulma,Yamcha,Chichi,Krillin etc from the Freeza arc to the Buu arc in the original.
Next, and the real clencher here is Goku's state at the end of GT. I haven't looked into it too much but it's theorized quite well by several folks that Goku learned eternal life when he left to train with Shenron after defeating Omega. I do sincerely doubt that the previous magic held over him would have any effect after that.
Finally, The wish was to make him a kid again. Since he grew out of that, the magic would not hold on him anymore. You assumed in your question that because he still had his tail the spell was still in effect but this isn't the case. Kami removed his tail as a kid permanently but once he reverted it came back. He never had it removed again.


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Is there any explanation on how Z fighters control the power of their ki based attacks?
I personally find this to be one of the major plot holes on dragon ball which makes any intention on defining their real powers pretty hopeless, although if there's something that explains it, which I'm not aware of, then it's not a plot hole.
I mean, depending on the situation if their ki based attacks hit something the effect can greatly change according to the situation, it can destroy just some landscape, a huge amount of it, a planet, a solar system, a galaxy...
If their energy attacks just destroy some landscape then there's no point in using them against enemies that could stand to something that would destroy a galaxy, so there's no reason for them to be used and it would be pointless. If they cannot control their destruction output everytime that there's a fight with their current power level the whole universe would be destroyed if some amount of ki based attacks are used in the fight and don't exactly go directly to one of the fighters.
But maybe they can control it according to their will of how much destruction they want them to cause.
Is there something that explains that seemingly relative destructiveness of their ki based attacks?
Thank you.

I always just assumed it was based on Density of energy. It doesn't make any sense if the only way to deal more damage was to make the blast bigger, because then its less energy in the area you actually want to hit.

I do not think they are any in-universe explanations for that. I have actually noticed some inconsistency in the damages the Z fighters can generate when fighting.
However, it is important to note that Dragon Ball is an old Shonen manga (first chapter was released in 1984). Back then, authors were not so rigorous and consistent with the plots and power levels as in other more recent mangas. Akira Toriyama regularly (and casually!) admits he has introduced many plot-holes in the Dragon Ball series.
On a side note, when Goku defeats Frieza, he is about 150,000 times stronger than when he fought Raditz. How much stronger is Goku in Super Saiyan Blue form? I reckon it can be difficult to be consistent when such exponential strength growths are involved.
From the latest Dragon Ball Super episodes, I suppose it is safe to say Akira Toriyama has not changed his approach to mangas and does not pay much attention to such minor inconsistencies.

where did that 1000 times stronger statistic come from? His power level was arguably at about 1000 for raditz, but the current most canon number for SSJ was 150,000,000 when he beat freeza. how is that 1000 times stronger.

@Ryan from memory I thought SSJ was about 1 million, my bad. But well, that proves my point even more

If you don't remember, Frieza boasted his power level was at about 1 million after his first transformation. Outside of that, Indeed its hard to say the reasoning. I just assumed it was based on density because the higher the density, the more damage that was inflicted in the volume consumed by the blast. I recall Vegeta used FInal Flash agaisnt perfect Cell, which spread out to be almost as big as planet earth after many many miles due to its power. High density in the center, but so much uncompressed energy that it expands rapidly.


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Can we infer how the Fifth Holy Grail War would have ended had Gilgamesh not intervened?
In the Unlimited Blade Works scenario, Gilgamesh intervenes in the Fifth Holy Grail War, kills Berserker, and seizes Ilya. If he had not gotten involved, can we guess based on knowledge from other scenarios what might have happened?

I'm inclined to leave this open, seeing as this is the sort of thing that Nasu is fond of making word-of-god pronouncements about (and he's made a lot of them, though I don't know whether or not about this particular topic).

My first thought was to close this, but the Fate series is deep and well developed enough that I do think there could be a reasonable answer to this. I also dislike our current trend of closing any question with a complex answer that isn't entirely well posed. Perhaps the OP could add some information? It seems you're asking about Unlimited Blade Works, is that correct?

I'm not a huge fan of the fate/stay series but I doubt that they had a working roster of who would defeat who before they made the Gilgamesh edit. Or if that was even the case. There is a high possibility that this alternative was never considered IMHO this is like asking could Goku have beaten Cell if Gohan was defeated?

Scenario 1: The Einzberns cheated....again! and thus win
the Einzbern family were at one point holders of the 3rd Magic, Heaven's Feel, which is what the Holy Grail War was original for, reclaiming this magic that at some point the Einzberns lost. Zouken had interest in Heaven's Feel himself because of how his soul was rotting and the Tohsaka only sought to use the Grail to reach the Root.
However the Einzberns have had a somewhat unfair advantage, the Greater Grail's "soul" if you will is that of Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern and the Einzberns have always had the components needed to finish the war.

the Lesser Grail which origianlly was a cup but after the 3rd war being the form of a Homunculus similar to Justeaze because if damaged would end the war as was the case in one of the wars and one needs the Lesser Grail to use the Greater Grail to have their wish granted
the Dress of Heaven which can control the Greater Grail

and in different versions of the third Holy Grail War the Einzberns use their knowledge of the System to create a new Servant to get the upper hand, either replacing Beserker with Avenger (which failed horribly) or summoning Ruler to be the absolute authority.
in this answer i explain what i believe the Einzbern's plan was in regards to Ilya. since she's the Lesser Grail if she was killed (being a Master) then no one gets their wish. it's like the Einzberns taking away the ball from the ballgame if things don't go the way they want, but instead of taking the ball away they make every other player destroy it. (it's for this reason Kotomine and Gilgamesh needed Ilya (or at least her heart) for their purposes)
Scenario 2: Angra Mainyu is born and no one wins
in the 3rd war the Einzbern Family summoned Angra Mainyu in the Avenger Class but was quite weak and was killed off early. his death contaminated the Greater Grail.
Kiritsugu concluded after his encounter with Angra Mainyu (talking to him via the radio, TV and appearing as Irisviel) that any wish would lead to destruction, even if Kotomine and Gilgemesh didn't have their own plans and a Master or Servant were able to get a hold of Ilya as the Lesser Grail for their own use and make their wish this would release the six billion curses of the world which Angra Mainyu now embodies.

The materialization of Angra Mainyu brought forth by truly opening the Holy Grail is an ichor that will consume every human being, 6 billion curses flowing out from the gate to hell. Gilgamesh specifically mentions 5.6 billion curses for an unknown reason. It is a reaper that will strike down all humans equally, an endless darkness that is born from humans and massacres them.

Source: Avenger - Abilities - All the World's Evil
in the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works routes of Fate/Stay Night even before anyone makes a wish the mud from the grail is already spilling and corrosive. in Fate when Shirou fought Kotomine he has to take care to avoid being hit my the mud Kotomine shoots at him as at one point he is grazed by it and is almost succumbed to the curses.
in Unlimited Blade Works Saber stops Rin in wading into the Mud Pool to reach the deformed Shinji because of what it would do to her (if i recall it was Saber's abilities which gave her some protection but it was describing that it was eating away it her)
Sakura as the Lesser Grail
while Sakura is also a lesser Grail thanks to Zouken infusing fragments of the one from the 4th war into his Crest Worms that are inside her Sakura's connection to the Greater Grail is to that of Angra Mainyu itself.
before she realized she was The Shadow it was already consuming people and Servants and unleashing Saber-Alter and Blind-Berserker. while Zouken might have been able to control Sakura for years in the end The Shadow wasn't under his control. it would have only been a matter of time before it controlled Sakura as the ribbons that's seen on The Shadow make up Dark Sakura's dress which was then used to bind her after her's and Rin's fight near to the end of Heaven's Feel.

I get the impression Illya would've agreed to team up with Shirou & Rin temporarily (Despite one of her goals being to kill Shirou) Kotomine would've then not order Lancer to help Rin, and waited towards the end of the war before he intervened.
Illya, Rin, Shirou, Berserker would then arrive at the church, to defeat Caster, Archer would then have to take on Berserker 1v1.
This fight could go one of two ways, Beserker could overwhelm him, since Archer has no form of terrain advantage, or Archer could spam noble phantasms(like Gil albeit slightly slower), buy enough time to summon UBW, then sword spam the rest of his lives away(Quicker than Gil). I'm assuming Illya will stay with Berseker though, when Shirou and Rin go to take on Kuzuki and Caster. I'll assume Archer wont sword spam in case he hurts Illya.
So i'll just say Berserker kills Archer, although Archer is at the very least taking 6 labors ... Which incidentally will make Shirou useless for the remainder of the route, since he can't gain anymore of his abilites/knowledge, and his projections are poor without understanding UBW.
Rin/Shirou VS Caster/Kuzuki continues as normal, until Berserker bursts in and kills Caster & Kuzuki. At this point Illya probably cares a bit more for Shirou and doesn't want to outright murder him, HOWEVER as a master she'll probably decide this is a good time to take out Saber. Rin will probably also want to seize this opportunity, and will taunt Illya, into allowing her to make a contract with Saber. Saber may object a bit, but she'll see it as the only way to save Shirou and Rin, Shirou will instantly agree to it...
They then agree to fight OUTSIDE of the church (pretty much for the sake of plot, but i'm sure the Berserker/Archer fight, and Berserker breaking into the scene would've caused significant damage to the structure, so it's unfavorable for all combatants) Saber can compete with Beserker since she has a compotent master, holds her own, defeats him with Excaliblast when the oppertunity presents itself. Illya then teams up with Rin, Shirou, Saber.
Illya gets kidnapped by Kotomine from Emiya household. Taken to Fuyuki temple, used as lesser grail (killed). Saber defeats Lancer, Rin & Shirou defeat Kotomine. Then it ends like the Sunny day ending of UBW :)

What evidenice backs any of this up? where does this impression you mention at the very beginning come from? this seems to read like a malformed version of just one route which you admittedly say "ends like the Sunny day ending of UBW"

Meh it's ALL complete speculation but i don't see a reason to get rid of Saber. Especially since Rin didn't have to give a large proportion of her mana to Shirou


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What was the favor Brovada mentioned in the Chimera Ant Arc?
In the Chimera Ant Arc, Reina and Brovada return home and Brovada says he did it for a favor. What was the favor and who did he do it for?

You might want to be more specific about which episode/chapter/scene this happened in.

Ikalgo (the octopus) had a chance to kill him when they were beneath the palace, but couldn't bring himself to do it. It was never clear if they actually had this discussion but I'm guessing bringing Reina home was returning the favor for not killing him. That's what the flash back showed as he said he returned the favor, too.


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What defines the art-style of Japanese manga?
Even though manga has lots of different art styles we still have an idea that certain styles are "manga style" and other ones aren't. What is it about an art style that lets us know it's manga style? What elements reappear across many manga? What distinguishes our idea of manga style from our idea of Western comics style?

To perhaps hint at the difficulty in answering this question, the picture you included doesn't really look like manga to me at all. In fact, the "manga-style" drawings on the top look more like 1980s American cartoons like GI Joe or Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, whereas the "realistic" drawings on the bottom remind me of older fighting manga, like Fist of the North Star.

Yah, those illustrations don't look like they're trying to distinguish between manga and western comics. Instead they look like they're distinguishing between more realistic and less realistic comic styles.

Well, then just ignore this image.

This is a very interesting question - but, as Torisuda points out, a difficult one to answer. In particular, there are many levels on which we can distinguish manga from other comic art - panel layout, character design, "framing" of "shots", speech bubble placement, use of color (or lack thereof), use of onomatopoeia (Japanese notwithstanding), screentones/shading, and beyond.

@ton.yeung I assume you're implying that the categorization is arbitrary and the only way to distinguish manga from Western comics is to yield to the popular vote or the opinion of recognized authorities. But the question actually asks specifically how to tell from the art style. The answer might be "you can't tell from the art style alone, it's purely definitional", but the OP did specifically ask how to tell from the art style, whereas your comment relates to how to tell in general. From your tone I gather you find that a stupid question, but that isn't actually what the OP asked.

@ton.yeung This discussion is fascinating, and unfortunately these comments are too small to contain it. I think there's a difference between "manga" and "the manga art style". Manga is manga because we say it is; as you point out, the spectrum of art styles in real manga is diverse, from the cartoonish One Piece to the baroque CLAMP, from the soft and fluffy shoujo look of Honey So Sweet to the odd juxtaposition of caricature and realism that we see in Onward to Our Noble Deaths. But I still argue there is some archetype in our minds of "manga style art"...

...otherwise we wouldn't be able to say that Legend of Korra is "manga style" and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is "not manga style" even though the latter is Japanese and the former is not. While the OP perhaps didn't express it in the best way, I see this question as asking "what are the defining traits of that archetype of manga art?", not "What's a magical test that can always let me tell I'm reading a manga just from looking at the art?", which is, as you say, an impossible and futile goal.

@ton.yeung I made a small edit that I hope clarifies the question. I'd like to add some of this material we discussed here in the comments, but I'm wary of adding a bunch of stuff and distorting the OP's question into my own.

http://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/13256/what-differentiates-manga-from-other-comics

It might be worth to move / ask  this question to https://crafts.stackexchange.com/ since one could argue it is in the same league as, what defines cubism or impressionism? Afaik, art in respect of history usually found distinct features in style of paintings and painters although with of course blurry lines between. I expect nothing less for this question too.

If you haven't read A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (his autobiography) before, you definitely should. It describes the evolution of manga from the 1945-1960, and this question is one of the overarching themes.

I'm not sure there is a specific answer to this. As you acknowledge, different artists have different styles. Both Japanese and western books vary from "cartoony" to "realistic". There are cultural differences seen in the art, such as in Japanese media adults often smoke, while in American media, they seldom do -- definitely not in titles geared to children. (Maybe they do in French media; that's why I switched from "western" to "American".)
Hell, sometimes an artist has extremes in his own work; consider Yoshiro Togashi and his "bad days" on Hunter x Hunter.  Here is a comparison of a page that got published in the weekly mag, versus how he improved it for the HxH volume:

Is the left even identifiable as manga vs comic book (vs fan art)? On the right, the main clue as to being a manga, at least to me, is the eyes of the upper right character. Otherwise it could be from a (somewhat dark) American funny-animal comic book, a la "Fritz the Cat visits a jungle".
Let's look at another page:

Is there anything innately Japanese or western concerning Jack Katz' work on The First Kingdom? If I didn't already know, I could not tell anything except that he is a remarkable artist (a mangaka in every sense of the word except his nationality). ... Hmm, maybe in Japan they would have to fade-out all the nipples.
I myself instantly recognize manga because the pages have to be read from right to left. The other instantly recognizable hint is that manga are typically b&w, whereas western comics are usually color.

well to me It's more about the lack of details. Be-sided the obvious eyes (tough they come in different styles) the main deference to me between comics and manga it's the lack of realism.  Comics use a lot of details in the hair, eyes, shading, and body...making the characters look more realistic. But in Manga for example they gather a bunch of hair into two line strokes and gives volume with shading, a vary cleaner look to the character. Idk, just less realistic I suppose.

If you do research you will find that the Japanese consider animation such as cartoons and anime to all be anime but some styles are usually seen separately.
www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-807827/the-anime-is-a-cartoon-argument
The main difference is the age.  What we call cartoons are things aimed at kids, while anime is usually aimed at older people as well as young but the so called cartoons pokemon and yugioh are anime.
The thing is us Americans just separated everything.
Definition of Anime by Merriam-Webster

a style of animation originating in Japan that is characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes.
a simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way, especially a satirical one in a newspaper or magazine.
  synonyms:   caricature, parody, lampoon, satire; More
a motion picture using animation techniques to photograph a sequence of drawings rather than real people or objects.

if it helps most of the cartoons we have in america are made in japan.and all of this started in japan.

You're answering the question "What defines anime?", not the actual question "What defines the art style of anime?".


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Do we know why B Gata H Kei triggered threatening letters to its creators?
I found B Gata H Kei a pretty boring, mediocre series and never finished it, but apparently some people got very worked up about it: Anime News Network reported in 2010 that the studio and writers responsible for it received "multiple threatening letters" demanding "changes in the anime's content and presentation".
Those who have watched the show know that it really has very little sexual content and is overall very tame; like its protagonist, it's all talk and no action. This makes it a curious target for such passion. The comments on the ANN story have a lot of speculation, and this Reddit thread posits the senders were angry over the dirty things being spoken by Yukari Tamura, but I'm curious if any details were ever released. Do we know what kinds of changes these letters were demanding, and what it was in the show that made people angry enough to threaten its creators with physical harm?

Wasn't it because it was implied that the girl wasn't a virgin anymore? Or was that only for Kannagi?

From quick research, the person who sent the letters are not arrested.
So we don't know the real reason.
Also the studio didn't disclose the details of the letter.
(They just say they won't change anything.)

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


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Why are old anime women often depicted as young girls?
Admittedly I don't watch enough anime to have full context, but in numerous situations I've seen what's depicted as a little girl is actually a woman 100+ years old. Is there a reason for this characterization? Is it a plot device, or is there cultural/historical reasons? There's a wiki article that talks about examples but not the history or reason for the trope: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ReallySevenHundredYearsOld/AnimeAndManga
Here's a relevant hilarious video conveying how age is often inconsistent with maturity or appearance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGxCMyLm6js

I think the term old and young is used differently depending on the perspective and this also depends on how the author made a certain race's average lifespan. For example, we usually see elves on some anime. What is young for them might be old for us. So we can't say that a hundred or so elf can be considered old because for elves, they usually consider them as young. If a hundred or so creature is considered young for that race, then of course they would be depicted as something young-looking.

Because there's a lot of people who love Loli characters.

Wait the video seems to describe the reverse situation: young anime girls depicted as older women namely 14 as 22 ? I believe it's the same as in Code Geass where the female classmates of Lelouch look like they're early 20s

I suppose this depends on your definition of "often". It also heavily depends on the kind of show you're watching.
If you're watching a slice-of-life anime which has its characters closely rooted in the modern reality as opposed to anything supernatural, then older women are typically drawn closer to what our expectations would be.
If you're watching an anime which is rooted in more supernatural, fantasy or "other-world" (isekai), then you're going to run into this a lot more often.
For instance, it's reasonable to say that an older human woman would look closer to what we would expect, since we have a more familiar reference point.  In a fantasy setting, it's not unrealistic to suggest that an older [insert race/species here] woman would look to us as if they were a much younger human woman.


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Why can Hiratsuka-sensei not get married?
I am asking this because I could not find a related post anywhere. From what I infer from the source material, Sensei is a woman who is unusual for her age and gender. Not only does she have childish tastes, she is tomboyish. Even when acting like an adult, she resembles an old man, in Hikki's words. Hikki himself wonders about it when hanging out with her, esp. when driven by her in her aston martin.
She also had several failed marriage interviews from what I read in Volume 5 and seems to attract "hobos" who took away her furniture.
Is her tomboyish/masculine nature the reason for putting off potential suitors? Does her nature also clash with the expectations of femininity in Japanese culture?

Not a very good answer, but perhaps it can be considered one of the running gags in the series (like Totsuka).

@Shuri2060 There is definitely more to that. In the light novels and anime it clearly stated that she was like Hachiman and Yukino in her younger days, a loner who did not have friends but learned to adjust to society. However, she is unable to attract long-term stable relationships despite being quite attractive and motherly. While at the same time she is also unusually masculine.


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What character/series did this person on Heroes of Cosplay cosplay as?
In the fourth episode of Heroes of Cosplay, the winners at Anime Matsuri were cosplaying Zeno (or maybe Xeno) Brothers.  When I Google for this all I find is a reference to Zatch Bell.  Whatever they were cosplaying did not look like Zatch Bell.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Can you provide a picture of the winners?

@kuwaly - I can't find anything on the web and the footage in the show was brief.  There were two opponents with swords and what seemed to be two sidekicks also with swords.  One of the sidekicks had white hair and an eye-patch.

Are you sure that these weren't two of the characters? http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130427233959/toonami/images/5/5d/Dufort_and_zeno_bell.jpg In Zatch Bell, Zeno is the brother of Zatch. Zeno is the short one with white hair. The only other Zeno Brothers reference I can find is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_brothers.

@kuwaly - Thanks for the legwork.  The segment is so short that it's hard to tell that they're cosplaying "The Last Story".

The character depicted (from the photo in @Jon-Lin 's answer) is Zael/エルザ from The Last Story video game, directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi.

The characters are from the game "The Last Story" for the Wii. It's an RPG made by Hironobu Sakaguchi.

You should not assume that nobody has heard of the game. I got more then 200 hours put in that game :). Just never happen to see this question pass by. Maybe you should improve your answer a bit though. Try to add a picture of Kanan and Elsa I believe it was. Also a link to the wiki page might be nice.

It has it's own tag over on http://gaming.stackexchange.com/ so it's not unknown.

According to the label of the episode:

The character's name is "Bonds" and it's from "Xeno Bros", which doesn't appear to be from any anime or manga. Strangely, google doesn't bring up anything for those search terms. The MC also mentions "vampires" during the performance part of the competition while they did some sword fighting.

The only thing I can find when I look up "Xeno Bros" on Google is someone who posts videos of themselves playing Halo under that name.

There is no way you could tell from the episode, but their group/team name is Xeno Bros.  An homage to Xenogears, Xenosaga and Xenoblade and a riff on Super Smash Bros.


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Who are these characters in the bookstore?
In Episode 16, when Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki decide to visit Konata at her part-time job, the latter asks them to pick up the latest release of a couple of manga. At the bookstore, they are served by a character who doesn't appear to be the "standard" extra seen in the series. Even after the three girls leave the cash register, the shot lingers on this character who is joined by her sister. All this seems to suggest that this is something of a cameo performance or a hat-tip to something else.

Who are these characters?

The cashier looked like Miyuki and the customer seems to look like Tsukasa and Kagami..

Actually, they are the Miyakawa sisters Hikage and Hinata (left to right, respectively). They are the main characters of the Lucky Star spinoff manga (and anime) Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku (The Hunger of the Miyakawa Family).
They make cameos in episode 12, 16, and 24.

That explains the hungry sister :) It'll be interesting to see if these characters are actually based on the ones listed in @atlantiza's answer.

The characters are Hinata Miyakawa(at the cashier) and Hikage Miyakawa from Miyakawa-ke no Kufuku - also known in english as "The Hunger of the Miyakawa Family".
Hinata works in Gamers part-time to fund her doujinshi buying habits.

In addition to their cameos in episodes 12, 16, and 24 in Lucky Star as mentioned in a previous answer, There are corresponding cameos of Konata and Kagami in Miyakawa-ke no Kufuku, at episode 5 and 7.
There's never any signal from the shows that the girls know each other and it appears to be purely coincidental that they bump into each other on occasion. The do live in the same area which would account for this.

As well as the Konata & Kagami, the shopkeeper of Gamers and Akira Kogami also cameo in Miyakawa-ke.
Summary from ANN:

The manga is based on the Lucky Star Moe Drill game series and centers around big sister Hinata Miyakawa and little sister Hikage Miyakawa's impoverished daily life at home (due to Hinata's wasteful habits) and Hikage's life at elementary school.

The show started to air in April 29, 2013,
5 years after the first episode of Lucky Star was aired on April 8, 2007.
The original manga of Miyakawa-ke was first published in 2009, (while Lucky star continues publication slowly but surely) so it's unknown as to whether these characters were meant to have such significance, or whether they were only chosen afterwards for the spin-off.

According to the list of Lucky Star trivia on ANN, it could be based off of Usada Hikaru (also known as Rabi-en-Rose) from Di Gi Charat. It's hard to find pictures of her non-transformed self, but I managed this one:

As you can see, the hair color and eye color match and she also wears glasses. But that's pretty generic, so here are the further similarities.
When Usada transforms into Rabi en Rose (her magical girl identity), she has bunny ears. The girl in Lucky Star has a bunny hairpin.
Also, the original Di Gi Charat series is set in a store called Gamers. Guess where that Lucky Star scene takes place? A Gamers store.

It's a little "censored", but you can tell that it's supposed to be Gamers.

Nice work :) I'm unfamiliar with Di Gi Charat; how about the sister?


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What is the viewing order of Fate-related works?
I've watched just the 2006 Fate/Stay Night anime series. I know there are other series in the franchise (Fate/Zero, Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya), as well as the Unlimited Blade Works movie, and the manga. I don't intend to read the visual novel since it's hundreds of dollars to import it, plus it's insanely long. What order should I take these works in, and are there any I can skip without losing out?

Fate/Stay Night Realta Nua on PC can be brought on Amazon Japan, it's 3 separate games (one for each route) but you need to clear all their endings to access -Last Episode, there's links to each "episode" is on Type-Moon's Website and siliconera says they cost 2,940 Yen each, convert that to Aus$ which is close to US$ and that's about $29.40 so close to $90 in total.

Here's the Type-Moon link i think you can use but i can't confirm as it's blocked at work for "adult-and-pornography" (despite Which of the Holy Night and Realta Nua being all ages)

@Memor-X Thanks, good tip! If I can spread the cost out a little, I won't be as unwilling to spend the money.

If you ask five people this question, you'll get six answers. There are conflicting opinions on this, and I'll try to outline the major options available in this answer. But first, a TL;DR
TL;DR
If you only want to watch anime:

Watch Ufotable's version of Unlimited Blade Works (prologue, first half, second half)
Wait for Ufotable's version of Heaven's Feel
Then, watch the Fate/Zero anime (first half, second half)

If you're willing to do whatever:

Read the Fate/stay night visual novel
(Optionally, watch the Ufotable versions of Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel)
Watch the F/Z anime.

It is generally agreed that Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero are the two core works of the Fate series. They both come in multiple forms. Whatever you do, consuming these two works in some form is the first thing you should do.
Fate/stay night

Fate/stay night was originally a 2004 visual novel that had three routes - Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel (in that order).
The 2006 anime by DEEN mostly adapted the Fate route.
The 2010 movie by DEEN adapted a highly condensed form of the Unlimited Blade Works route.
Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 saw another adaptation of Fate/stay night, this time by Ufotable, which adapts the Unlimited Blade Works route.
At some point in the future, Ufotable will release a movie or series of movies that will adapt Heaven's Feel
There is also a manga series that (I believe) adapts the Fate route, but I'm going to ignore it, because it's generally thought to not be that great.

Fate/Zero
Fate/Zero is a prequel to Fate/stay night.

It was originally a light novel series (2007). Fate/Zero has no concept of routes, so all media of Fate/Zero cover the same material, more or less.
It had a manga adaptation (started in 2011; ongoing). It was pretty good, but if you want to read it, I recommend that you do so after watching the Fate/Zero anime.
It was adapted into a 2-cour anime by Ufotable in Fall 2011 and Spring 2012.

Below, I discuss some possible scenarios for consuming F/sn and F/Z.

You want to stick to watching anime
In this case, the best option is:

Watch Ufotable's version of Unlimited Blade Works. Then, once Ufotable's version of Heaven's Feel comes out, watch that. Finally, watch the F/Z anime.

The next-best option is:

Watch the F/Z anime. Then, watch Ufotable's version of Unlimited Blade Works. When Ufotable's version of Heaven's Feel comes out, watch that, too.

There are pros and cons to watching F/Z first vs. watching F/sn first. Each one spoils material for the other. On the whole, though, I feel that watching F/sn first is the correct choice, since this is the "production order" of the series - the F/sn visual novel followed by the F/Z light novels.
For incredibly spoilery details on how they spoil each other, see below:

 If you watch F/Z first, you know how messed up the Matou family is; you know that the Grail is corrupt; you know about Kiritsugu's affiliation with the Einzberns; you know that Sakura and Rin are sisters; you know that Kotomine is not a good guy. These are all major reveals in Fate and Heaven's Feel, and I think that knowing these things in advance impedes one's enjoyment of those routes.

 On the other hand, if you watch F/sn first, you know how the Fourth Grail War ends - but this isn't a bad thing. That's how all the original readers of Fate/Zero went into it, and Urobuchi Gen wrote the light novels with that in mind - the dramatic irony that we know that everything's going to hell in a handbasket but they don't is what gives F/Z a lot of its impact.

I do not advise watching the DEEN F/sn anime (the TV series); it is poorly produced, both in terms of objective quality (art, animation, etc.) and in terms of faithful adaptation of the original work. If you really want to know what happens in the Fate route, I guess you could watch it, but honestly, lots of what happens in Fate is also referenced in UBW and Heaven's Feel, so you'll be able to piece it together after watching the Ufotable version of those two routes.
I also do not advise watching the UBW movie at all - Ufotable's version of Unlimited Blade Works is strictly better in every way that I can think of (animation, pacing, etc.).
But you already watched the DEEN F/sn anime
Well, in that case, you're sort of in an "ideal" position - now you can watch Ufotable's version of UBW and (when it comes out) Heaven's Feel, and at the very end, Fate/Zero. This best emulates the "production order" of the Fate series without having to go to the visual novel.

You are open to anything
You have one clear-best option.
Read the F/sn visual novel. Then, watch the F/z anime. Optionally ― if you can grok Japanese or tolerate fan-translated light novels ― read the F/Z light novels.
At any time after reading the UBW route, watch Ufotable's version of UBW; at any time after reading the Heaven's Feel route, watch Ufotable's version of Heaven's Feel (assuming it has come out). The Ufotable version of UBW has a few extra scenes, and is generally agreed to be a very good adaptation of the visual novel (given the constraints of anime as a medium). So, if you want to see your favorite fight scenes animated, or just want to hear more lines by your waifu, I'd say go ahead and watch it.

What about all the other Fate/asdfghjkl stuff?
In this section, I've mentioned the major Fate/ works that people often have questions about; if you have any other questions, leave a comment and I'll update.
Fate/hollow ataraxia
Fate/hollow ataraxia is the sequel visual novel to F/sn (released in 2005). You can read this at any time after finishing the F/sn visual novel. It will probably be rather confusing if you've only watched the Ufotable versions of UBW and Heaven's Feel, since they do omit a fair bit of detail that is important to getting the jokes in Fate/hollow ataraxia.
If you can't read Japanese, this may be an unpleasant experience. The English translation patch is... not great.
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya is a spinoff manga (parts one, two, three) that shares characters and universe concepts with F/sn and F/Z but is otherwise rather dissimilar. A 10-episode anime season aired in summer 2013 and another 10-episode season ("2wei") aired in summer 2014. A third season ("2wei Herz") is scheduled for summer 2015.
You can watch or read this at any time after finishing the F/sn visual novel or F/Z in any form. You will get more of the jokes if you've finished both and also gone through Fate/hollow ataraxia.
Other Fate/gibberish
There are also a lot of spinoffs. To name a few, Fate/apocrypha, Fate/Grand Order, Fate/strange fake, Fate/Extra, Fate/Extra CCC, Fate/Unlimited Codes, Fate/tiger colosseum, and Fate/Prototype. You can probably read/play any of these after reading the Fate/stay night visual novel or watching the 2006 DEEN anime or Ufotable UBW or Ufotable Heaven's Feel. None of them are particularly "important", but you may find them fun.
The rest of the Nasuverse
The Fate/ series shares a universe with a number of other works by Nasu Kinoko (the author of F/sn), including Tsukihime, Kara no Kyoukai, and Mahoutsukai no Yoru. Some of these are dependent on one another, but they're all essentially wholly decoupled from the Fate/ series. Read them if you like, or don't. Whichever.

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In my opinion (as senshin said, 5 people, 6 answer), if you are looking at the series from production release order, I'd do the following.
1) Fate/Stay Night Visual Novel
All works on Fate/Stay Night are adapted from this as

The anime mainly follows the Fate Route

Caster's Antagonist Role later in the anime is adapted from Unlimited Blade Works. (In Fate, she appears but is shortly killed. Her goal to prematurely summon the Grail was one of the main plots of Unlimited Blade Works).
Sakura's attacks on Rin in their battle during Caster's Arc is adapted from Heaven's Feel.

The Unlimited Blade Works Movie adapts the Route of the same name in the Visual Novel. However, it is more faithful to the adaptation than the original anime (I say faithful in a loose sense - you can't be faithful to a few hour long game in a movie).
The Unlimited Blade Works Anime series by Ufotable adapts the Route of the same name in the Visual Novel. is a more faithful then the movie because it doesn't try to compress everything into one movie. it also expands on the fates of a couple of characters who simply disappeared inadapts the Route of the same name the route
The Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel movie trilogy is suspected to adapt the Route of the same name (however currently only the first movie has been realsed)

In terms of which Visual Novel, Fate/Stay Night Realta Nua PC is your best bet as Realta Nua uses the same updated engine as what Fate/Hollow Ataraxia uses. Realta Nua PC is for all ages and in Japanese. There is an English Patch for it and it does add an option to view both the original H Scenes from the original Visual Novel and their Realta Nua Replacements (Shiro and Saber's Bed Scene, Rin's Contract with Shiro, Rider stealing Prana from Shiro).
2) Fate/Zero
Fate/Zero is a prequel to Fate/Stay Night. At the start of the Fate/Stay Night anime, you see Saber and Gilgamesh fight it out - this is sort of what happens in Fate/Zero (in the anime they don't fight but it may have been described in the Novel). Mainly, a lot of Fate/Zero is already revealed in Heaven's Feel like the state of the Grail, the Matou Family, and the true purpose of the wars.
Regardless of the route in Fate/Stay Night, they all start from the aftermath of Fate/Zero.
3) Any other anime
From this point, you will be well-versed on the events. As such, the anime titles will be an abridged version of what you've seen, but with more stylized fights (e.g. Archer vs. Lancer), which looks better animated in my opinion.

If you are looking at the series from chronological order, I'd do the following:

Fate/Zero
Fate/Stay Night (anime, if you really have to)
Unlimited Blade Works (I'd watch Ufotable's series over Studio Deen's movie)
Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel movie trilogy

While you say you don't intend to read the Visual Novel, you would miss out a lot. The Visual Novel isn't constricted to screening times, as such you can get quite detailed explanations of Nasuverse terminology such as True Magic, Magecraft, The Throne of Heroes, and how it's used with the Holy Grail. A lot of these are explained in the Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven's Feel Route, The latter has has only just been released partially as a movie with more films to be released.
Also finally in Realta Nua, after seeing all 5 endings, there is -Last Episode- which is in 2 parts: the first is a review of the Fate Route, while the second part is the true conclusion to the Fate Route where 2 people fulfill the conditions to perform a Miracle. You can also see it as a conclusion to the Fate/Stay Night anime since both the anime and the Fate Route have the same ending, as such, -Last Episode- would continue on from both. The original visual novel did not have this and a separate patch to Mirror Moon's patch was required to add it in.
Outside of anime there are:

Fate/Hollow Ataraxia (Visual Novel) - This follows the Fate Route. However, it does expect that you've played all the routes in Fate/Stay Night as it has elements that transpired in Heaven's Feel.

 The state of the Matou Family's as Zouken and Shinji are terrified by Sakura now that she is the head of the family and Alter-Saber being Saber's second personality

Fate/Extra (PSP Game) - This is set outside Fate/Stay Night. in the 1970's a certain event has drained Prana from the world. There are cameo's from Fate/Stay Night like Kotomine, Taiga, Rin's Lancer and Sakura, but their roles are different and not related to the original. Also, the Rin in this title, while looking like Rin from Fate/Stay Night, is not the same Rin but a descendant of Fate/Stay Night's Rin by at least 2 generations (implied to be either mother or grandmother).
Fate/Extra CCC (PSP Game) - A split from Fate/Extra like Heaven's Feel is to Fate/Stay Night. Sakura has a much larger role which also adds Gilgamesh into the mix. However, he's not so much as an ass as he is in Fate/Stay Night (though proudly showing off his naked body in front of Elizabeth as a weapon does show he's still got that ego).
Fate/Apocrypha (Novel) - If you've watched Fate/Zero or Played the Visual Novel then you know of the 3rd Holy Grail War. Fate/Apocrypha splits from the 3rd war where the Grail was stolen from Fuyuki. In this story, there are 2 teams of Servants and a new class, Ruler, which acts as mediator over the war. Also Mordred is summoned as Saber, keeping an established tradition in Fate series: the main Saber is related to Fate/Stay Night's Saber.
Fate/Prototype - This was what Fate/Stay Night could have been feature a Male King Arthur with a Female Master. the Holy Grail War also different with a different purpose.
Lord El-Melloi II Case Files - a side series following Lord El-Melloi II, AKA Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero, and Gray, a Descendant of Arturia's Bloodline, as they investigate mysteries in the thaumaturgy world generaly set around Clock Tower in London.
Fate/Labyrinth - set in the Seventh Labyrinth of Caubac Alcatraz (a Dead Apostle Ancestor) where someone had installed and activated one of the Subcategory Holy Grails in Caubac' labyrinth. Manaka Sajyou from Fate/Prototype appears but is now an existence connected to Akasha possesses the body of Norma who summons Arturia. this series is also one of the cases Lord El-Melloi II and Gray investigate

There are also other Nasuverse works such as Tsukihime and Witch of the Holy Night. Carnival Phantasm is a crossover of the Nasuverse like the heroes of Fate/Stay Night and Tsukihime trying to date all their heroines at the same time and alternate formats of the Holy Grail War.

@nhahtdh in the last paragraph I did mean like, Shiro and Shiki dating their heroines is like only one short but it is a good note of just crazy things get in the series, otherwise it's just my usual mistakes, you got everything right

I heard that one of the Casters in Fate/Apocrypha is William Shakespeare. The only thing that could possibly have made the Fate series even better is adding Shakespeare.

@Torisuda that's correct, Shakespeare is the Caster of the Red Faction in Apocrypha, strange since he seems to have no magical history unlike other Fuyuki Grail Casters like Medea or Solomon, however The Fuyuki Grail may still be in some way damaged as the Assassins in Apocrypha aren't the Hassan either

Or Shakespeare was a mage in the Apocrypha universe, the same as King Arthur was female. In any case, I accepted senshin's answer since I ended up following the advice to move on to Fate/Zero, but I upvoted yours. In the future I'll probably end up reading the VN after all.

I'll post this to help anyone like myself who can't get their hands on the visual novel.
As said in another answers, it's best to start with Fate/stay night. The new version that comes out is based on the Unlimited Blade Works route of the visual novel. As such, I recommend this viewing order.
Fate/stay night (2006)
Fate/Zero
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (2014)
Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel
This viewing order avoids spoilers ruining the series and lets you see each route to completion before moving onto the next route. Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night (2006) have Saber as the female lead and thus the most connected.
I would like to mention that while the 2006 anime receives negative critiques regarding its animation, when I watched it I enjoyed it. Anyway, I have definitely seen worse anime. Although I am under no illusion that it is better than the visual novel, the source material is usually better than anime adaptations.
Anyway I just thought to post this since the original question was to exclude the visual novels.

It was reveled that the upcoming animation in october is going to be the UBW route. Heavens Feel is going to become a movie but there is no hint of release date yet

Torisuda thanks for the vote I appreciate it. I have more news. At the moment someone is posting a translated version walkthrough of the fate hollow visual novel onto youtube. The channal is Rothran Agnos. From what I got from the translation it is the sequel to the fate route. The apperance of scenarios from other routes is due to Rin messing up a magical experiment briefly connecting parrell worlds and as Shirou put creating a situation were anything and everything became possible.

One last thing If anyone is looking for the translation for the fate apocrypha novel then it is currently posted on one of the translaters wordpress. canonrap.wordpress.com . If youre having trouble getting onto the page there is a link beside the translators name on the baka tsuki page. I would include the link but I'm not good at this sort of thing.

Read the Fate/stay night Visual Novel and it's sequel: Fate/hollow ataraxia.
The anime provide action scenes, but they don't give you the full story. Even the Heaven's Feel movies cut out the motivations for each character, leaving you with a kind of empty spectacle.

After watching the series myself, I have the perfect answer. Watch Fate/Zero first as it is incomplete, then watch Fate/Stay Night by Ufotable (the newest version which is still being released in simulcast).
I took forever to make the decision and I am relieved I chose it right. If you watch it the other way around, you will have no idea what is really going on. Thus, just go in order with the actual timeline of the story. Fate/Zero, then Fate/Stay Night. Easy Peasy.

"Watch Fate/ Zero first as it is incomplete" how is Fate/Zero incomplete? and for the record Ufotable's Fate/Stay Night is Unlimited Blade Works

I think he was trying to say that Fate Zero history doesn't End in the last episode but continues in the Fate Stay night, thus its "incomplete". Also I agree in that spoilers in Stay night are bigger than those in Zero. and watching zero would help you understand better Stay night if you watch zero first.

authors: m3u8播放器下载集腋成裘_m3u8资源在线天方夜谭


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What is the cover of Reset! Chapter 2 a reference to?
I've read three chapters of the manga Reset!, which takes place in the same world as Yuru Yuri. Each chapter's cover seems to be a reference to some other work. For example, here's the Chapter 3 cover:

Which is a reference to this famous Kanon image:

Here's the cover of Chapter 1:

Which I believe is a reference to this Little Busters image:

Here's the cover of Chapter 2:

I cannot figure out what this image is referring to. Since the other two were works by Key, I checked into Clannad, Air, and Rewrite, but none of them seem to match that logo. Does anyone recognize this image?

Now I feel stupid...
A little thought and twenty minutes with Google image search has got me pretty sure that this cover is a reference to Kud Wafter:

Kud Wafter is the spinoff of Little Busters that continues the story of Kudryavka Noumi, in the same way that Tomoyo After continues the story of Tomoyo Sakagami from Clannad. I forgot the spinoffs existed, so I didn't look into them.
The Reset! character on the Chapter 2 cover uses the name "Kudryavka" as a nom de plume for her poetry, which makes it pretty near a sure thing.


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Where does the word "Nyanpasu" come from?
Renge usually greets people with "Nyanpasu". The sub says "Meowning" which probably comes from "Morning" as a greeting. But "Morning" as a greeting in Japanese is Ohayo which is quite different than "Nyanpasu".
here's a YouTube video of how Renge said it
I don't really understand Japanese, maybe it comes from another word?

I think it's just her random, meaningless word for "Good morning".
I found an interview with the producer of Non Non Biyori.

　－－主要キャラクターの宮内れんげのせりふ「にゃんぱすー」はどういう意味があるのですか？
　小学1年生が考えた「おはこんばんちわ」的な（笑い）、いろいろなときに対応できるあいさつです。また、れんげというキャラクターは1年生ですが、いろんな意味でませています。知識も多彩で通知表もオール5です。
What's the meaning of "Nyanpasu" from main character Renge Miyauchi?
It's "Ohakonbanchiwa"-like. (laughing) A greeting phrase created by a grade 1 elementary school student. It fits many situations. Renge is grade 1, but she is too grown-up in many ways, and has lots of knowledge and a straight-A report card.

"Ohakonbanchiwa" is a greeting used in the old anime Dr.Slump, created by Akira Toriyama, the author of Dragonball. "Ohakonbanchiwa" is a combination of "Ohayou" (Good morning), "Konnichiwa" (Hello) and "Konbanwa" (Good evening).

In addition to what you said which is totally correct (it's an interview with the producer after all), it's good to add for those who don't have a little of knowledge about Japanese that "nyan" is the sound a cat makes in Japanese and "ohayou gozaimasu" is the standard way to say good morning, so "nyanpasu" is a way to mix both words (and "meowning" comes from the most accurate translation that could have)

I have looked this up before and found this:

But have you considered why “Nyanpasu” is a creative coinage of a new term in Japanese?
Japanese people and linguists may disagree on the exact etymology of the greeting “Osu!” This greeting is often used by people who are exerting themselves physically, such as karate students. (“Osu” is customarily used by men, and it is customarily used to greet people who are not older than the speaker. Thus it is a little funky when we see Renge, who is female, using it to address people who are older than she is.)
If we wanted to combine the cat-like meowing sound of “NYAN” to “OSU,” why wouldn’t we just say, “NYAN-OSU”?
Think about the way we say “senpai.” The “p” sound is a voiceless bilabial stop. The “n” sound is a nasal. When the nasal precedes the stop, it is very easy to slur “senpai” into “sempai.”
When using the nasal sound “n” before a word boundary, it is very easy to slur the sounds, and in the case of “nyanpasu” the voiceless bilabial stop replaces the conventional word boundary.
That could be considered funky.

Saying it's a combination of nyan and osu, but one that rolls off the tongue a lot more smoothly.
It seems like a decent explanation to start with.


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Why is Haruhi Suzumiya considered shonen?

Why is Haruhi Suzumiya considered shonen ?
There are some serious and hard to interpret dialogs in the series.
Or is it considered a shonen with some seinen mixed anime ?

The terms "shounen" and "seinen" are assigned to a work for many reasons, none of them really having to do with how intellectual or difficult the work is. The most common criteria are the age group and gender that a work is aimed at and the magazine in which a work is published (for manga and light novels), but the definitions for these terms are fuzzy rather than precise.
According to Wikipedia, the age range for shounen works is between 10 and 42 years old, although the largest portion of the audience is between 10 and 18. Even 10–18 is a pretty wide range, and the interests and abilities of boys between 10 and 18 are not at all uniform. As a personal anecdote, I first watched the Haruhi Suzumiya series when I was 18 and had no trouble following the conversations; I expect there are lots of eighteen-year-olds capable of following the series. On the other hand, the ten-year-olds would probably be more comfortable with something simpler, like One Piece. But then, there might also be some ten-year-olds who would enjoy the series; I first watched Eva, an extremely difficult series, when I was eleven, and although a lot of it went over my head, I still got something out of it. (Fifteen years of loving anime, among other things.) Given that variability, there's basically no way you can expect to neatly categorize works according to what age group and gender they're aimed at. You'll always end up with works too smart for some of the audience, works too dumb for others, and works that a lot of people don't quite get, even though they still enjoy them for other reasons. (People who watch Eva just for the shipping, who bug Hideaki Anno to no end.) In many cases, the designation of "shounen" or "seinen" is somewhat arbitrary, often made for business reasons like what magazine a manga runs in or what time an anime broadcasts.
And if we look at the content of the works themselves, things become even less clear-cut. Typically, we think of shounen as including works like Naruto, One Piece, and Dragon Ball. But Love Hina, Attack on Titan, and even Aria are also considered shounen. (Aria ran in Comic Blade, which is considered a shounen magazine.) Those three series have about as little resemblance to Naruto and Dragon Ball as Haruhi does. Wikipedia lists Maison Ikkoku as a representative seinen work, but Love Hina, which was heavily influenced by Maison Ikkoku, is shounen. (I even remember Love Hina being racier than Maison Ikkoku, though it's been a long time since I read Maison Ikkoku.) Granted, Akira, Berserk, Battle Royale, and Ghost in the Shell are definitely more mature than Naruto and One Piece, both in their themes and in their depiction of graphic violence. But so is Attack on Titan, and so is Eva, whose manga version ran in Shounen Ace. Shueisha found Attack on Titan a little too dark for Shounen Jump, but Shounen Magazine, which also carried Love Hina, consented to publish it. (Source). The cases of Attack on Titan and Maison Ikkoku show us how fuzzy the border is between shounen and seinen. It's more a matter of what one editor thinks of the work, and what's best for business, than any hard and fast rules.
In short, Haruhi is considered shounen because the editing department at Kadokawa Shoten thought it would appeal mostly to males between the ages of 10 and 18. They were making a judgment call, filtering out all sorts of conflicting information about the differences between ten- and eighteen-year-olds in general, the variation among individual ten- and eighteen-year-olds, and how similar it was to other works classified as shounen.


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How is 'Kuronue' spelled in kanji?
The only place outside of fanfiction I've seen the name "Kuronue" is in Yu Yu Hakisho, so I suspect they made it up. How is it spelled in kanji in the original media? Or is it ever spelled out?

His name is written 黒鵺（くろぬえ）according to the Japanese Wikipedia.
His name means "black chimera." The Japanese chimera is a mythical creature with a monkey's head, tanuki's body, tiger's limbs, and a snake tail.
If you do a Google search for 「黒鵺」, pretty much everything that comes up is about Yuu Yuu Hakusho.


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Why do Aya and Youko consider going to a ramen shop alone so amazing?
Consider the following page from Kiniro Mosaic.

Some context, in case you don't know the series: The three girls are in high school. Karen is the blonde, Aya is the girl with black twin-tails, and Youko is the girl with short light hair. Karen is half-British, has never lived in Japan before, and still has some trouble with the language and culture. That's why she says "It might be something normal for you two Japanese people, but for someone like me, it was a big adventure."
It was shown earlier that Karen is pretty outgoing, but the joke here seems to be that Karen thinks going to a ramen shop is something that's only a big deal to her because she's foreign, and it turns out that it's also a big deal to natives Aya and Youko. But why do Aya and Youko consider this "amazing" and "grown-up"? Youko's line about fast food restaurants suggests there's some cultural reference concerning ramen shops that I'm missing.

Shall I assume that these characters are in high school or younger? In that case, yes, it not so common for high schoolers to hang out at a ramen restaurant compared to a fast food place like McDonald's or a family restaurant like Jonythan's where they can stay for a long time using the drink bar (all-you-can-drink soft drinks/juice/coffee/tea), study there, chat with friends, etc. Ramen restaurants are generally not upscale and, as you can see in the illustration, strangers may sit next to each other at bar-like seating, so this makes it convenient for middle-aged salarymen to eat lunch there alone (again, this is shown in the illustration).  Ramen shops are not very conducive for having conversations, hanging out, and staying past when you empty your bowl. Thus, it's not a place that usually has a family or young people vibe.
If these characters are university students, it is less likely that the Japanese girls would consider Karen fearless, because university students tend to want to eat cheap and quick food, so ramen joints work for that, but it is still that case that many female college students wouldn't go to a ramen shop alone, and possibly wouldn't even go there in a group unless that group includes a male friend, because they will assume that the place will be full of college guys and older men. It's more common for Japanese university girls to eat at regular restaurants and cute cafés.

Yes, they're high school girls--I added that to the question. I realized when I saw your answer that Youko and Karen wear weird uniforms that don't strongly suggest high school.

I think that's the joke. Aya and Yoko are acting excited because Karen said "You could at least sound interested", so there taking the advice and are now interested in the conversation (over-the-top interested mind you).


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What is the meaning of the Yellow balls in the second episode of Denki-Gai?
One of the events of the episode is rolling a huge yellow ball. Hiotan is chosen to represent Umanohone, and there is some gag I did not get by that part.
What is the yellow ball supposed to represent?
Why is Hiotan embarassed and obviously aroused by the balls?
Why Hiotan says she can't be a bride anymore, after being trampled by one of the balls?

Tha balls are... balls, IYKWIM.

The balls were meant to be golden. In Japanese, "golden ball" is kintama, which is also slang for testicles according to Urban Dictionary. That's why the girls were so uncomfortable with this metaphor.

This is not how you answer, this is not how any one answer,follow this to edit your answer.

In the future, please don't indent your text; indentation introduces quote blocks and code blocks (for Stack Overflow, Programmers, and other code-using sites), and reading answers in code blocks is rather unpleasant.

probably a better reference than Urban, then again who knows if the meaning has been affected by urban

Well, this is correct though.

@Memor-X The answer originally just said "Go Google it", so I did, and Urban was actually the only hit within the first five pages that addressed that meaning of the word. The original answer that mirroroftruth's comment responded to was so appallingly bad, I figured anything I could do would improve it. But feel free to edit if you have a better reference.


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What happened to Aeka during the Nekoko and Mizuki stories?
In the Aeka story, we see that Aeka is stuck in an incredibly bleak situation where she's being bullied at school by Kyouka Nanjou. She gets out of this situation by the end of her story with the protagonist's help, but it's rough going.

After the Aeka story, I became obsessed and raced through the Mizuki and Nekoko stories in three days, so maybe I missed the finer points. Was it ever mentioned what happened to Aeka in these stories? Was she still able to escape from her situation without Kouhei's help?

I had forgotten that I took notes as I was playing the game. I shoved them off in a corner of my Dropbox and forgot about them, but they contained the answer to this question.
In both the Mizuki and Nekoko stories, Aeka attempts to commit suicide by jumping off the roof. She survives, but is hospitalized. She leaves behind a note accusing her tormentor, Kyouka Nanjou, which seems to lead to Nanjou's expulsion.

In the Mizuki story, after Mizuki leaves school, Kouhei becomes the student council president. Because of what he saw happening to Aeka while they were classmates, he makes bullying his signature issue and tries to end the culture of silence where bystanders protect the bullies for fear of being targeted.

As far as I can tell from my notes, the Nekoko story says nothing further about Aeka's fate.

In the bad ending, where you don't complete anyone's story, the narration states that Aeka just disappeared all of a sudden from school. Interestingly, you can get this bad ending even after Aeka has already attempted suicide and jumped off the roof. So she attempted suicide, was hospitalized, and then just disappeared all of a sudden from school.


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Did we ever find out what happened with Nagi between Volumes 36 and 38?
Spoilers, obviously, since this concerns the end of the Negima manga.
There were many confusing aspects of the ending of the Negima manga. Many, many confusing aspects. For a series that started out as Harry Potter crossed with Love Hina, it's amazing how many were the confusing aspects of the ending.
Nagi's appearances towards the end were possibly the most confusing. In 334th Period at the end of Volume 36, the group defeats the Averrunci, only to find that their leader, in the black robe, is apparently Nagi. He tells Negi: "Kill me. Then it will all be over…I'll be waiting" (KC USA translation), then disappears.
In Volumes 37 and 38, we go through the wrap-up to miscellaneous other plots, and it seems that no one says anything at all about Nagi, as the focus is mostly on Asuna. Then, in Volume 38, 355th Period, the story skips ahead seven years to the day of the Ala Alba reunion. And there's Nagi, sitting right there drinking tea with Albireo, Rakan, Eishun, and Evangeline. Nodoka, Yue, Makie, and Ku Fei are surprised to see him, but Konoka and Setsuna are just surprised to see him up and about, and make some remarks about his health.
What happened? Is there any supplemental material that explains how we went from the events of 334th Period to what we see in 355th Period? I read a blog saying there was some kind of legal issue going on at the time Akamatsu finished Negima, which may have led him to finish it early. Did that have anything to do with this? The entire story began with Negi wanting to find his father, so it seems pretty odd to go through 37 volumes of material, set up the story where'd he'd finally accomplish this goal, and then totally skip it.

I think you might want to clarify your wording on contractual and legal dispute, since I don't think that it is the case at all, from the article you are citing. It's more of him getting involved in the fight against the new law and stuffs so he needed some time to rest.

As for the ending, we probably will get a flashback in UQ Holder. Currently, we know nothing about why it ends that way.

@nhahtdh I've changed the wording.

Yes, in the real-world, there was a law set to be passed that would, in principle, give editors and the magazine substantially more control over the individual manga.  In the end not much came of it, but Akamatsu took it pretty seriously at the time and suddenly ended the manga in three chapters, seemingly in part to avoid and protest the perceived legal issues.  He has subsequently said that the ending was nevertheless the ending he had wanted and envisioned.
There is an ongoing sequel of sorts called UQ Holder that may resolve some of the unresolved plot threads.  It's set about 80 years after the end of Negima; Negi and Nagi have made cameo appearances in recent events; and Eva appears fairly regularly (probably about the same as in Negima).  It isn't entirely clear exactly where this fits into the full plot of Negima.  Some fans think this is the timeline Asuna hadn't returned in, and/or that the Eva we see was the one we saw heading off with Chao Lingshen to find someone, or any number of other possibilities.  Exactly which, if any, of these is true hasn't been settled.
As for how Nagi was seen as The Lifemaker (aka The Mage of the Beginning), this is part of a number of events that indicate the Lifemaker is something that cannot be killed in a normal way, and gets "passed on" to anyone who kills the current Lifemaker.  Why this happens is uncertain.  It could be a possessing spirit, with a goal to take over ever more powerful hosts to some unknown end; a sort of parasite (with much the same goal, just not a spirit per se); or maybe the Lifemaker serves some major and important function that those who best it find out about and cannot find any way to resolve other than to take on its mantle for itself.  The latter seems favored to me by what we know of what Nagi did between defeating the Lifemaker and the last time Negi, or anyone else, saw him, and the overall plot themes that are emerging in UQ Holder.  But that's just my opinion.

The Lifemaker was possibly the second most confusing part of the final story arc, but your theory on its true nature is plausible. I guess I should start following UQ Holder if I want to know more.


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Why does anime air in 4 seasons per year of ~13 episodes?
Most likely, the actual seasons are not a cause for the television broadcasting schedule in Japan. Furthermore, the seasons themselves don't much align to actual seasons, with "Spring 2015" ending in late June.
It seems strange to me that series air in such regular intervals and with such consistent lengths (only deviating by perhaps 2 episodes from what I've seen).
Furthermore, I'm no expert on western television, but it seems to me that western shows don't adhere to such a rigid schedule.
Notably, it seems that season lengths have changed in anime over the years, too. For instance, the original season of Naruto had 35 episodes, which is something I don't think would happen these days.
Is there a specific reason for this schedule? (cultural or otherwise)

It is for financial reasons.
In the past, many series had longer seasons: 24, 26 or 28 episodes for a season was common in the 90s (Meitantei Conan's first season was 28 episodes). Series that were pretty guaranteed to be popular enough to keep up selling a lot of toys to kids had longer seasons (Sailor Moon's first season had 46 episodes). Gag series from 4-koma comics are more likely to have a long series length (Nintama Rantarou's first season had 47 episodes and Chibi Maruko-chan's first season alone was a whopping 142 episodes). In the past, more people were loyal to their favorite series and collected the merchandise carefully, whereas Japanese children now are quick to switch their fads (from Pokemon to Youkai Watch, for example), so investing a lot into a series that'll get discarded next year is not financially-sound.
12- or 13-episode series started to appear in the late 90s as a way to animate and broadcast something (adapting a manga or video game, or an original series) that did not have a big enough fan base to sustain financing a full-length series (of course, this was in the era when everything was still drawn by hand). Previously, those sort of anime only received a one-shot OAV or a brief OAV series (for example, Koko ha Greenwood or Tokimeki Memorial).
Even though anime is mostly animated outside of Japan and by computer, lowering production costs, the industry is able to further expand the genres and number of titles produced by switching to a lot of shorter series over a smaller number of long-running ones. To have a long run, a series needs to keep viewers coming back (the sort of plot that can go on and on, like Inu Yasha) and sell merchandise well. Many genres of manga do not lend themselves to those epic series, so studios are creating shorter series that:

Can get something animated which in previous generations of anime production would never have had a chance to get animated at all because it's more niche.
They can make a modest amount of money off of it if it does well (and give it another season), or they can chalk it up to not too drastic of a loss if it doesn't do well and quickly move on to the next one.
Provide a nice, tight story arc that has closure at the end (though when they are not sure up to nearly the last minute whether they will get the green-light for another season, the ending can still fizzle).

Although the main reason is financial, a series where the very limited total number of episodes available to work within is known to the staff from the start can allow the writers to craft the storyline to suit the length with little to no filler, which offers a different sort of project than Rurouni Kenshin or HUNTER x HUNTER where you don't entirely know where it's going and how many episodes it will need to get there.
I'm not sure what you mean by "the seasons themselves don't much align to actual seasons, with 'Spring 2015' ending in late June." Japanese culture is very specific on when seasons take place, what is associated with that season, what to do during each season, what day of the year to switch from spring/summer school uniform to fall/winter school uniform and vice versa (called koromogae: see 2.07 here), what to eat in which season, etc. The seasons coincide with the Japanese academic year, so that the sakura (cherry blossom) trees are blooming in most of the country during graduation ceremony in late March and during the first day of school (on April 1st). This is a primary reason why, although Tokyo University has switched to the Western academic year, most schools in Japan strongly do not want to. Anime is usually keen to let the viewer clearly know what season it is in the story, and try to coincide this with the air date of the episode (New Year's Day, St. Valentine's Day, sakura blooming, the sound of cicadas in summer, mosquito repellent, summer festivals, ishi yaki imo (stone-baked sweet potatoes) in autumn, fall leaves, snow, etc.).

Awesome explanation! My note on the seasons was just that it seems to me like the end of June is actually pretty well into summer from my perspective (but that might just be a bit subjective)

@moegamisama, the 1st semester of the Japanese school year runs until mid-July and then universities have about 2 1/2 months of summer vacation (the 2nd semester starts October 1st), compared to about 1 month of summer vacation for elementary through high school students (dates differ slightly by school, some are in session in late July). June is somewhat in the middle of the first semester, and most of Japan has its tsuyu (rainy season) during June, so people associate June with umbrellas & hydrangeas (seen in many anime).

Inu-Yasha didn't just go on and on--it went on and on and on and on and on and on and on...I started watching it in middle school and I was at university by the time I heard they'd finally killed Naraku (I'd long quit the series by this point).

@Torisuda, Inu Yasha is aimed at the casual viewer, like families who flip the TV on & watch what's on or tune in regularly but not religiously (it aired on Sunday mornings like ONE PIECE, like the American "Saturday morning cartoons" timeslot). A plot of collecting jewel fragments (like Tsubasa Chronicle), can go on as long as viewers/readers are still interested, and then it can end whenever is convenient; Inu Yasha is like Doraemon or Meitantei Conan, where the bulk of the fans aren't expected to watch every episode, they just tune in whenever or rent DVDs when they feel like it

@moegamisama Believe it or not, summer actually begins in late June! Summer officially begins on the longest day of the year, the "summer solstice", which is June 21 (give or take a day) in the Northern Hemisphere. Likewise, winter starts on its own solstice, in late December. So even if you grew up thinking of, say, March as spring, most of it is actually in winter. Likewise for the other seasons. (Spring and fall have "equinoxes" rather than solstices, by the way.)

@ShayGuy Consider that another name for summer solstice is midsummer that's a bit of a weak argument. To quote wiki "From an astronomical view, the equinoxes and solstices would be the middle of the respective seasons, but a variable seasonal lag means that the meteorological start of the season, which is based on average temperature patterns, occurs several weeks later than the start of the astronomical season." So no matter how you turn it, be it astronomically or culturally: summer starts somewhere around the beginning of June. And even meteorologically your claim does not hold up: (cont.)

"Meteorological seasons are reckoned by temperature, with summer being the hottest quarter of the year", which logically has to fall before the summer solstice.

authors: Маргарита Герасименко