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If Leafe is only in living beings, why does the drain of it spread over inanimate objects?
In Pretear, Leafe is what makes living things be alive. However, when demons leach it from things, the leaching spreads over not only living things but also inanimate objects like bicycles. How does that work?

It's been far too long since I watched this series, but if you don't mind breaking the first law of anime ("real world physics don't apply to anime"), then this might be a decent explanation.
Bacteria are tiny lifeforms too small to see with the naked eye, and they're everywhere: floating through the air, on every surface you touch, all over your body, all in your body. Anywhere life can exist, bacteria are there. That's probably what the Leafe was flowing through.


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How does Hiruma get all the information in his black book?
Whenever Hiruma wants somebody to do something for him, he pulls out his little black book full of black mail material which has information on seemingly everybody.
I know he started the book to get approval to start the American Football club but is it ever explained how or where he gets all this information?  He seems to have dirt on pretty much everybody in Japan.

The information were gathered using hacked cameras, mostly in cellphones. The hacked network was that great, that he could get information of nearly anything in Tokyo, and he never stopped that network.
Funfact:

In one of Q&A column, it is revealed that the book was actually blank- All the information lies within Hiruma's brain, and the book only serves as a threat tool.

Source: Eyeshield 21 Wiki

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Why doesn't stabbing himself in the chest with Rukia's sword hurt Ichigo?
In the first episode of Bleach, Ichigo stabs himself in the chest with Rukia's sword to transfer her Shinigami abilities to him. Why does this not hurt him, while people can be hurt by hollows and while he is hurt by zanpakuto later in the show?

Rukia did not stab Ichigo. Ichigo had to impale himself in order for the transfer to work. This was necessary as it depended on Ichigo's acceptance of the situation and its entirety as well as Rukia's willingness to relinquish her powers.

Either way, that doesn't answer why he wasn't hurt by it.

A zanpakuto is born out of a Shinigami's soul, and it obeys its master's will. When Rukia stabbed Ichigo with her zanpakuto, it was her will to transfer her powers to Ichigo, and hence Ichigo did not get hurt. If she had instead attacked Ichigo as an enemy, it would have hurt him.
Although this is not canonical, during the zanpakuto rebellion filler arc:

 Ichigo did get hurt when Sode no Shirayuki attacked him.

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

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What's the significance of Kanon becoming "invisible"?
In Kami-nomi, Kanon (the idol girl) becomes "transparent" several times throughout her Arc. (eps 5 - 7)

What is the significance of this?
What does it mean?
Does it symbolize something?

looper's answer is correct but not quite complete. This answer will be based on the manga, mostly because I don't immediately have access to the anime, but also because I'm not sure how much of this is explained in the anime. Kanon's arc is flags (aka chapters) 7-10 in the manga.
As the other answer points out, Kanon's idol career made her fear failure, which in idol terms is not being seen by enough people to be successful. That is to say, she is afraid of social invisibility. Her fears manifested themselves physically, making her actually invisible, or at least transparent. That's why she disappears primarily when someone isn't paying attention to her, and reappears once someone acknowledges her. However, at the end of her arc, she doesn't stop being transparent until her self-confidence returns, which is the only way she could successfully perform at a large concert without being afraid of failure.

What that answer misses is how she becomes invisible, or at least transparent, since clearly it isn't something a normal person can do. The answer to this is implied in the arc:

This is an ability of especially powerful katetama (駆け魂, above translated as "runaway spirit"). It isn't really symbolism; rather, it's a very real illustration of in-universe mechanics that don't get a full explanation until much later. We get a better understanding of how this works in two future arcs (flags 81-89 and 90-101; feel free to point out if I missed any earlier arcs where something similar occurs):

These are Yui and Hinoki's arcs. In each of the arcs, the kaketama uses its abilities to widen the gap in their hearts. Yui's arc isn't the best parallel, but we do confirm that sufficiently powerful runaway spirits have the ability to somewhat affect their host's physical condition, in this case switching her body with Keima's. In Hinoki's arc, it's also confirmed that the kaketama generally use this power to widen the gap in their host's hearts (in Yui's arc this was a bit ambiguous). In her case, her problem was that the world was too small, and the kaketama worsened this problem by making her body larger, so that the world would seem even smaller to her. That is very similar to Kanon's invisibility problem, except much more powerful because Hinoki's kaketama was rather powerful.

So, a sufficiently powerful runaway spirit, whose host is saddled with some sort of issue, generally has some abilities related to that issue, which can affect things even beyond the host's mental state. These abilities are used to make things worse, widening the gap in their heart. It's a sort of self-preservation mechanism for kaketama. Of course, we already knew from the beginning that the kaketama could affect the host's mental state, but these arcs confirm that they can also have physical effects that would otherwise be impossible without some sort of magic. This is very likely what happened in Kanon's case. It's the only thing that is hinted at in her arc, and no other in-universe mechanic as of flag 200 or so could really explain this in any other way as far as I can tell.

Some people might point out an issue with this theory based on the events of flag 114 (within the "Goddess" arc). However, later events (flag 142) can at least somewhat explain this.

 In flag 114 it's revealed that Kanon is actually the host of the goddess Apollo, in the same way that Tenri hosts Diana. Based on Diana's initial conversation with Katsuragi, while the other goddesses should also have hosted kaketama, these were essentially a way of disguising themselves. So one would expect that Kanon's kaketama was rather weak, not strong enough to have effects like this. However, Yui is also hosting a goddess (Mars), and her kaketama was undeniably strong, even stronger than Kanon's, so it seems that Diana may have been at least somewhat wrong about that. Both Mars and Apollo were dormant during each of their hosts' arcs, which might explain why the kaketama were able to become more powerful.

Holy shit, this is in-depth...

Before Kanon became an idol, she was "socially invisible" - after the Citron broke up, she feared to be alone in front of a large group of people. The effect of being "transparent" expresses her shyness.


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In Neon Genesis Evangelion, why are Angels attacking?
Why are Angels attacking the earth? What's with "Adam" in the basement? And why are the three computers named after the Three Wise Men?
I love the story for the characters and the mecha-battles, but all the symbolism goes over my head. What's it all about?

Why are Angels attacking the earth?

It may be a cover story that they're attacking Earth, but in reality, they were "born" on Earth from Adam. Both Adam and Lilith were "Progenitors of life" that ended up on the same planet (Earth). The original race that created them had intended that they all land on different planets but Lilith landing on Earth was a mistake (the Classified Information document says that Lilith "crashed", and thus created the Moon). Adam spawned the Angels, while Lilith spawned all the life that exists on Earth, including humanity. The reason the Angels didn't inhabit the planet was because the Lance of Longinus, some type of failsafe device, disabled Adam, and that's how Adam was found in Antarctica:

The exact reason that they are attacking Tokyo-3, or in the case of Gaghiel the Pacific Fleet and Unit-02 (or possibly the embryonic Adam), seems to be for a number of different reasons.
One of the theories thrown around within the show itself is that they're trying to reunite with Adam, but Adam doesn't arrive in Tokyo-3 until episode 8 in an embryonic form, so the first few attacking Angels were apparently either mistaken that Adam was there or mistook Lilith for Adam (as Kaworu later did in episode 24). There aren't any official explanations on what the Angels were after, and the closest thing is from the Classified Information's Angel section which says: "Some of them were trying to access Lilith and reset all life, some of them had nothing in mind, and some were trying to recover their progenitor Adam."

What's with "Adam" in the basement?

We are originally told that "Adam" is in Terminal Dogma, deep underneath Nerv HQ. This is what Kaji told Misato in episode 15, along with the tidbit that any Adam derived life that came in contact with the white giant would cause the third impact. Later, we find out that the white giant on the cross is actually Lilith.
It's possible that "Lilith" was actually written into the series well after the series was in production, and that it could really have originally have been Adam (like what the original Proposal for the series would suggest). But regardless, if that was the case or not, it's revealed that Adam was discovered in Antarctica, frozen, and when the Katsuragi Expedition started to mess with it, the experiment went out of control causing a second impact. During all of this, Adam is seen as a "Giant of Light" in episode 21:

Which looks very much like an Evangelion, which is derived (or cloned, for lack of a better word) from Adam.
So retroactively, it's possible that Kaji was either lying to Misato to protect her from the truth, or he himself had been misinformed of what the white giant on the cross was.
As far as Kaworu goes, in the "Director's Cut" episode of 24, he was told by Seele where Adam's body was (in Gendo's hand) yet Kaworu still went down to Terminal Dogma, and was somehow expecting to see Adam down there, then was surprised to find Lilith. Not sure why, it doesn't make any sense.
By the time of the End of Evangelion movie, it's revealed that Rei Ayanami had the soul of Lilith, and during the movie, her and Lilith's bodies reunited.
Not sure if all of this really answers your question though.

And why are the three computers named after the Three Wise Men?

This is simply pedantic by the creators. From an interview with Kazuya Tsurumaki he says, about the Judeo-Christian themes: "There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool."
So the reason is probably that it looked/sounded cool, and that it would fit with the general theme of the rest of the show.

Awesome. Thank you. It seems best to set aside the cabalistic stuff at the end.

Would these make good questions: "Why does the cabalistic tree of life appear at the end of Evangelion?" or "What's with the strange symmetry of the Angels? Are they from a higher dimension?"

@luserdroog I think they're good questions, but I'm not sure if there are answers for them. But just because I don't know the answers doesn't mean someone else won't.

That's not what pedantic means.

There ought to be a prequel series. They could call it Neon Genesis.

The Kabbalistic tree of life is basically measuring you and your position from God. Gendo of course painted a Kabbalistic tree of life in his office where he sits at the top of the tree as if he was God. In EOE, Shinji was raised into the Kabbalistic tree and the mass-produced angels stick their cores (Jesus?) and was prepped to become God?
I have no idea. Whatever. Just my 2 cents.

That's one of the most frustrating things about NGE. It's a compelling conspiracy but they never actually explain it.


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What is the OVA boom?
I've heard this term used in a few places, notably on one of the Flavor Day nominations. A quick Google search shows me that it started in 1985 but there doesn't seem to be anything extensively documented (mostly because there's a lot of noise in the search results). What is it?

The OVA boom describes the exploding popularity of direct to video anime during the 1980s and 1990s that started when some of the very first OVAs became commercially successful in the 1980s. Specifically the OVA "Megazone 23" became one of the first  popular OVAs of the 1980s and sparked a chain reaction of studios making OVAs.
Back in the day the only serious way studios thought to make money off their anime was to either broadcast on television or make it into a movie. (Dragon Ball, Grave of Fireflies) Well, the introduction of the first successful "direct to video" animes showed studios that it was possible to make a lot of money off of sending anime straight to VHS or DVD for people to buy. This served as a milestone in the anime industry as the first time OVAs became a credible marketing model for anime.
This OVA boom in the 1980s did a number of things. First, it gave the anime studios a lot of wiggle room as to what they could turn into anime. When making anime for TV or movies the only choices are to make a long running plot or an incredibly short plot. With the OVAs an anime series could be of varying lengths and run times as long as they told the story. This gave anime writers more freedom as to what the plots of their anime could be since they didn't just have to write for TV or movies. Writers were no longer bound by the format of anime, they could write what they wanted and turn it into a 13 episode series for OVA release.
OVA popularity also meant that anime studios could spend more money making better quality anime since they could put more money into making 13 episodes as opposed to having to save up money to animate a long running TV series.
The OVA boom basically is the rise of the OVA in the 1980s as a result of studios seeing OVA as a credible way to make money off of their anime. If I got a couple of details wrong, I'm sorry about that but I hope this answered your question.


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Where does the Future Boy Conan movie fit in?
Future Boy Conan is a 26 episode TV series and a hour or so long movie. Where does the movie fit into the TV series? Is the movie a retelling of the series? Is it a side-story or a sequel?

The 1979 movie is a re-edited summary of the 26-episode 1978 TV series.
Google translation of the above link:

World 20 years after the world war broke out in 2008, the earth had undergone a transformation. On the island of strained island-living the grandfather and wild boy Conan, girl Lana strange day was washed ashore. Rana helped two people become friends with Conan, but it would have been taken away from the work-employee Montsouris we aim to dispatch in the world to show off the civilization of the old era of "Industria". Conan you lose your grandfather in the fight at that time, and after the island is left to follow the Rana. It is a grandson of Dr. Rao to hold the secrets of solar energy, Rana found myself being chased by administrative director Repka attempt to dominate the solar energy of the "Indus Rear". Adventure of Conan stood up to save Lana began. Movie re-edit the TV series.


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Where did the other survivors come from?
In the TV series Future Boy Conan, a massive war left the Earth in shambles and humans tried to flee the planet on space ships, except they all failed except for one that managed to crash on an island that somehow survived the destruction. All of the survivors eventually died except for Conan, who was born after the space ship crashed, and his grandfather.
Then a girl named Lana washes up on shore and talks about this entire country of people. If the Earth was destroyed and all the other space ships didn't make it, where did these people come from?

The war involved WMDs which destabilised the earth's magnetic core leading to massive earthquakes and tsunamis which led to the sinking of most major land masses and general planetary destruction. Some small islands (islets) did survive and survivors flocked to them.
The two belligerents of the war were the Peace Union and the West with the former being the aggressive warmongers who used said WMDs and the latter the more peaceful bunch. Industria and High Harbour are the respective post-apocalyptic remnants of these two powers which retain their ideologies.
The anime is based on Alexander Key's 1970 novel, The Incredible Tide. The linked wiki page has a decent synopsis of the story.

Very loosely based. The anime took the major plot line of the book but little else.


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What exactly are those "furby-balls" in Dog Days?
In Dog Days, when "normal" inhabitants get knocked out, they turn into "balls" that look like a cats with large heads and short limbs. (similar to the Furby toy)

On other hand, when the main characters get knocked out, they look pretty normal (by Anime standards).

*Put aside the fact that a main character that is knocked out is usually striped of his/her clothes for no apparent reason other than fan-service.
So my questions are:

What's the proper name for these "furby-balls"?
How are these "normal" inhabitants different from the main characters?
Do they "recover" back into human-like inhabitants?

I will make a proper awnser soon. I can tell you a few things allready. the name for those "furby balls" is told in the anime. i need te rewatch the series to get the name(think it was in the first few episodes when they are explaining to cinque how the battles worked). and to the question if they recover back to human beings. yes they do

Fanservice is a valid reason, isn’t it? ;)

The fur balls in the second season are refered to as 'beast balls'

I have been trying to get a satisfying answer for myself for this question, but it has proven to be very hard.
For your first question there is no real name for them as far as I can see. I have looked at the episode (episode 2 around 4:00 minute mark) to see how the different subbers named them.

So as you can see one of them names it "animal furballs" and the other names it "pet balls". What info I can give you on it else is:

The people from Biscotti turn into "Dog looking balls"
The people from Gallete turn into "Cat looking balls"
The people from Pastillage (season 2) turn into "Squirrel looking balls"

For the normal inhabitants can turn into the animal balls the following ways:

When they have been hit hard with a weapon (KO/unconscious)
When they get touched on the back or head

For your second question I have tried to look up information, but not much is said about it in the anime or is found on the web about it. The only thing I have been able to find about it is this:

It may be part of the protection magic. High-ranking fighters lose
  their clothes. Everyone else turns into a furball. A pretty blatant
  example of this happens in episode 9 of the first season. Vert Far
  Breton shoots a magical arrow which hits Ricotta while she's flying
  above them. Ricotta loses all of her clothes except her panties, and
  then a magical spear hurled at Vert's troops knocks them all out, but
  only strips her armor/clothing off.

Source: here under "Clothing Damage".
The third question is by far the easiest to answer. If you watch the second episode about at the same time mark I mentioned in the first question you will see them saying something in the lines of:

They will be rendered powerless for a limited time.

During this time that they are in their "ball form" the medics of the teams will "collect" them and bring them to the base camp of their team.

As a side note the original term for there fur-ball are "けものだま" as in 獣玉 or "beast balls"

My theory on the second question is basically that: knights and royalty have significantly stronger armor that can absorb a lot. If pressed on after destroying the armor, one probably could KO them completely, transforming them into "beast balls". However, it's probably considered polite or courteous to let them retreat instead and rejoin the battle later (since clashes between the "high-level" combatants are the main entertainment for the crowd at home).


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When do succubi mature?
In Lotte no Omocha, Astarotte Ygvar is a 10-year-old succubus. We know that she must create a harem before she matures, she will need to create a harem so that she can have a steady supply of "sáðfryma".
Do succubi mature at the same speed as humans (finishing puberty sometime between the ages of 15 and 17) or does puberty come earlier or later for succubi?

The following is a panel from chapter 2 of the manga. It states that Astarotte will become an adult in the next 3 years.

Given that she's 10 at the start of the story, it seems that she'll be matured to the level of needing a harem by the age of 13. That would correspond to roughly the middle of puberty in human girls, so it seems likely that succubi mature at roughly the same rate as humans, though perhaps slightly faster.


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How does the automail work?
An automail must be a masterpiece, as the user seems to be able to use it as a fully working arm/leg/... It seems however, that it's no regular artificial limb.
What's so special about an automail? How does it work? Are there any drawbacks?

@kuwaly's answer covered most of it, but here's a bit more information as well.

What's so special about an automail?

It's basically a prosthetic limb which has been optimized for fighting. Its name comes from auto- (as in "automotive") and -mail (related to armor). They were originally designed to give more freedom of motion to uses of prosthetics, but were soon fitted to combatants who had lost limbs.
There is nothing extraordinarily special about these limbs except their versatility and wide variety of uses. Additionally, this type of technology did not exist in the real world during the time Fullmetal Alchemist is set (early 1900s).

How does it work?

There are dozens of little parts to it, but it is largely composed of motors, tubing, and the external metal covering. Here's a couple images of its components (click to enlarge):

It has no internal power source; it draws its power directly from the impulses of the nervous system to run the intricate motors and other mechanics inside it (and of course, to control which ones activate when). So, when the synapses are sent, each part contracts with its motors, giving free, versatile movement.

Are there any drawbacks?

Of course—otherwise, why wouldn't people just cut off their limbs? ;)
kuwaly mentioned three major drawbacks:

It is painful to have installed (nerve connections are painful—in real life, too).
It is prone to breaking (just like a bone or limb).
It creates a reliance on an automail mechanic for tuneups and fixes, and mechanics can make mistakes!

There are two drawbacks that weren't mentioned, though. One is that it is quite painful during pressure changes; recall that when Ed went to the field with Pinako to dig in the rain (2009 anime), he was actually forced into vomiting due to the aching pain of the pressure system. The second is that the material can work against you; iron and steel can cause issues like frostbite when in cold areas, and are also quite heavy. (Some alloys alleviate this issue, though.)

You may also link a picture from FMA: Bortherhood episode 62 (if I can remember well), where Father destroyed Ed's automail. That may be also a nice demonstration.

It's not a bad image, but doesn't show much more. I've uploaded it here for anyone who'd like to see.

There's a pretty good description here.
To summarize it, automail is a prosthetic limb that connects directly to the nervous system and requires no external power because it uses the electrical signals from the brain as its power. They were originally created to be weapons but then became sophisticated enough to use as a prosthetic limb.
There are a few major drawbacks to automail. The first is that it is incredibly painful to install, as shown when Edward's automail is being installed. The reason for that is that it is being connected directly to the nerves, which send pain signals to the brain. The second is that they break. Edward's has shown to break. They can be transmuted by the wearer, which is an advantage because they can be changed into weapons and then back when needed, but theoretically, they could also be transmuted by an enemy who could get their hands on them.
Another drawback is that they are reliant on the person who is constructing them. As shown by the time when Winry forgot a screw, if the person who builds/installs it screws up, the automail can break or fall apart.
They can also conduct heat, being made of metal, so when it's very hot out, they will irritate the skin because they'll become hot.
Automail can also be incredibly expensive. The God's Model automail (shown below) has a price tag of 10,000,000 of whatever money they use.

Then Ed may came out kinda "cheaply" with his two prosthetic limbs... ;)

I think an explanation can be that in the Fullmetal Alchemist universe, there exist materials capable of converting neuron synapses (message signals from the brain) into mechanical waves, which are received by the circuitry in the automail and respond in its accordance. The automail limbs must be made to function as a real limb and its machine parts are made to provide the same contract and relax mechanisms as the muscles in our body.
It's just like in Inception with the dream-machine. Different universes, different rules.


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When do the Kodomo no Jikan OVA side stories take place?
Kodomo no Jikan has a 3-episode OVA released from 2007 to 2011. The episodes are side-stories which are not directly related to the plot, but I think they are still based on the manga chapters. As such, they should fall somewhere in the story.
Relative to the anime, where do these 3 episodes fall?

Wikipedia lists the 3 OVA episodes in question as follows:

Yasumi Jikan '~Anata ga Watashi ni Kureta Mono~' is between the 4th and 5th episodes of the 1st season.
Kuro-chan to Shiro-chan occurs between the 1st and 2nd episodes of the 2nd season (which is a 3-episode OVA season)
Kodomo no Natsu Jikan takes place after the end of the second season.

Kodomo no Jikan has 7 OVA episodes.

Kodomo no Jikan: Rin no Gakkyuu Nisshi is a summery episode of the
TV series. This OVA episode was released in 2008.
Kodomo no Jikan: Yasumi Jikan - Anata ga Watashi ni Kureta Mono is
a side story of the TV series. This episode was released 2007 during
the original TV series.
Kodomo no Jikan: Ni Gakki are 3 episodes and are kind of a sequel,
because they play after the TV series. This OVA series were released
in 2009.
Kodomo no Jikan: Kuro-chan to Shiro-chan is kind of a side story of
'Kodomo no Jikan: Ni Gakki'. This OVA episode was released in 2009.
Kodomo no Jikan: Kodomo no Natsu Jikan is one episode and is kind
of a sequel of 'Kodomo no Jikan: Ni Gakki'. This OVA episode was
released in 2011.

I'm specifically asking about where Anata ga Watashi ni Kureta Mono, Kuro-chan to Shiro-chan, and Kodomo no Natsu Jikan fall chronologically within the story. Your answer covers some of that (I think you've covered Kodomo no Natsu Jikan completely), but if possible I'd like episode numbers for what episodes of the main series or Ni Gakki the other two fall between.


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Is Blood-C set in the same world as Blood+?
I know that Blood-C was produced in-part by Studio Production I.G, the creators of Blood+, and it has a lot of similarities to Blood+, such as the appearance and name of the characters and the name of the manga/anime/film. Are they set in the same world or in some sort of parallel universe, or is Blood-C something like a reboot of Blood+?

Blood C

Blood+

As given on Wikia :

Saya Kisaragi has long hair that are similar to that of original Saya Otonashi, respectively of Blood+ in 1863 early version of Saya and 1972 Vietnam War in scenes only.
Despite major dissimilarities other than that they are different personalities, between the two Saya's of Blood+ and Blood-C, such as their backstory and traits for the character; they share the similar plot differently. For Example Saya Kirasagi sings when walking around town and the Other Saya Otonashi plays the cello but badly judging from the reactions of other characters.
Somehow Saya Kirasagi remains in mystery where she come from despite of her origins, unlike Blood+ Saya Otonashi comes from a chiropteran mummy
Saya never calls a sword in the series except in the opening when she mind controls her cover of the sword even as Tadayoshi Kirasagi gives the sword , before battles like Blood+ Saya from Haji and The Last Vampire from David.

It seems to be of a parallel or a totally different world because of the various differences shown in spite of the similarities introduced to make it of a series.

A lot of the grammar in this is really bad (in some parts almost to the point of being unreadable). Is this a direct quote from the Wikia?

@kuwaly yes. do check the link :).

It would be helpful if you could fix the grammar so it is actually understandable.

@kuwaly have tried some. hope it helps

The answer is not clear cut at all. While there are enormous facts pointing to two different worlds, there are several facts pointing to one single world.
Facts supporting a unified world are the fact that during the last episode of the series:

 After drinking the elders blood, she has a flash vision as her memories return. One of these memories during this time, and other times through out the series, is her fighting and killing a Chiropteran several times. Most of the flash visions are blurry, showing the shape of what appears to be a Chiropteran. In one of the last flash visions Saya has, it clearly shows her being attacked by a Chiropteran.

However, this could just be a coincidence if it was a joined but separate world, meaning that the two Saya's are different people. It is clearly stated that Saya is not the girls real name in Blood-C, that it was just a name given to her by her captor.
All in all, it is what ever you believe it is because the facts point to either side of the spectrum. you decide.

I edited the spoiler markdown into your post, since you had written SPOILER in the original. If I've messed up something in the process, feel free to go make some changes.


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What was the first mecha anime/manga to feature combining to form a super robot?
Shows like Getter Robo or Zambot feature vehicles that (slightly transform) combine to form a giant super robot. What was the first anime or manga to use the combining tactic and was there an inspiration for this?

I first saw the concept in Power Rangers, but that's not an anime :).

@MadaraUchiha I think a lot of the concept is tightly associated with sentai genre, because it was big television back in the 70's and 80's Japan, when Go Nagai was producing a lot of what would be giant robots, and some of his works fit the bill (e.g. Getter), so it was incorporated.

In most likelihood it was Getter Robo which first appeared in 1974. The story goes that Go Nagai came up with the novel idea of machines combining together to make a single giant robot. He communicated this idea to his friend and fellow mangaka Ken Ishikawa, who went on to create the Getter Robo series (which is why Nagai is often credited as a co-creator, if not sole creator).
On the other hand, Himitsu Sentai Gorenger (the first Super Sentai show) aired in 1975 and didn't have any giant robots, combining or otherwise.


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How long are people genin before they take the chunin exam?
Team 7 (Naruto's team) existed for at least while before they took the chunin exam, and they took on a number of missions before taking the chunin exams. I can't remember, however, how long they exactly existed as a team before the exam. How long were they genin before the exam? Is that the normal length? Is there some sort of mission requirement where they have to complete a number of missions before they can take the exam?

The exams happen twice a year. The genins that participate are chosen by their group leaders. So if the group leader is of the opinion, that they are ready at age 6, he sends the genin to the exams, if he's of the opinion that they are not ready yet, he lets them wait. There is no special requirement to take the exams (at least nothing was mentioned), it's just the group leader who decides. This can be seen in chapter 35, when Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma suggest their team for the exams. Although Iruka protests, he can't do anything against it. That does not mean, that the genin can't decide against it, though. A ninja can't be forced by his group leader to do the exam.

There is no definitve answer to this as no set age or timeframe is given in the manga, anime or on the wiki. Keep in mind ninjas like Itachi who became a chunin at age 10 and kakashi at age 6. (special cases yes but they did become chunin).
So if I were to give an answer, it would be until when they decide to take the exams.
As per the wiki

To become a chūnin, a genin participates in a large examination, known
  as the "Chūnin Exams".

Again, also as related, keep in mind that not all academy students become Chūnin, so that might apply here too.* No doubt they would have to try again.
And then again there is also this guy.. Kosuke Maruboshi who even though by choice, has been a genin for over 50 years. This could also apply to your question.*


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Do the Bleach light novels follow the manga plot?
I know that there are two Bleach light novels (BLEACH-letters from the other side: The Death and The Strawberry and Bleach: The Honey Dish Rhapsody). Do they follow the Bleach manga plot lines or do they diverge? If they follow the manga, what chapters do they cover? If not, what happens in them?

I found two other light novels that you hadn't mentioned also - Link

I know that there are two Bleach light novels (BLEACH-letters from the other side: The Death and The Strawberry and Bleach: The Honey Dish Rhapsody). Do they follow the Bleach manga plot lines or do they diverge? If they follow the manga, what chapters do they cover? If not, what happens in them?

The light novels seem to be short stories that the manga/anime doesn't cover, but run concurrently with the plot.
BLEACH-letters from the other side: The Death and The Strawberry was released November 15, 2006 and Bleach: The Honey Dish Rhapsody on October 31, 2008. So before volumes 25 & 36 respectively (not sure if this helps, don't read bleach myself)

Wikia mentions that letters from the other side: The Death and The Strawberry was a novelization of some of the earlier chapters
Again Wikia tells us that Honey Dish Rhapsody is set during the week Ichigo and his friends spent in Soul Society following the betrayal of Aizen.

'Spirits Are Forever With You' was released June 4th 2012 and covers the 17 month timeskip between volume 48 and 49. There are two volumes, these novels were written by a separate author from the other 3.
Forum discussion
Another Discussion.

'The Death Save The Strawberry' focuses on the same time period, but has a focus on Rukia and is written by the author of the first two books.
Yet another Forum Discussion
It's arguable if the light novels are canon or not, seeing as they were not written by bleach's mangaka, but there is no evidence to suggest that they are not.


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What is the significance of the symbol in Tanaka's eyes?
At the end of the Thanatos Report OVA (set after the events of the .hack//Sekai no Mukou ni movie) after Tanaka picks up a certain chip, a symbol appears in his eyes.
What is the significance of this symbol? What does it mean for Tanaka?

That's a "doubleware" crest, meaning that aside from Tokio (from //Link and //Versus) Tanaka is the only other doubleware revealed up until now.
Doubleware humans can withstand Real Digitize themselves within the virtual world without worrying about "Outer Dependency Syndrome," the gradual erosion of their mind and digital body.


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How can there be a one Nirvash, not to mention two?
At the end of the original series (Psalm of the Planets Eureka Seven),

 Nirvash left with some Scub Coral to prevent the Limit of Questions, so there shouldn't even be a Nirvash.

In the sequel, Eureka Seven Astral Ocean, both Renton and Eureka have one.

It's mentioned in Eureka Seven AO that this Nirvash (RA272, Mark I) was originally created by Renton (as a homage to the original Nirvash from Eureka Seven, "typeZERO.") for Eureka in the far future, and was named "Nirvash Neo."
This new Nirvash does not initially have an Archetype.


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Why are there holes in the ocean?
In One Piece, there is a hole which appears in the ocean.

Why is this hole here? Is it known what created it? And, are there other holes like it?

this will be interesting, it was a special IIRC

For one, there is the hole at Enies Lobby.

The hole in the ocean from your image is from the first One Piece special.
As for the reason why it was there, this is what I could find:

She opens it only to find just a skull inside. Usopp reads the back of
  the skull, which engraves about a treasure that can make anyone's
  dream come true. It lies deep in the ocean's naval. Then a large hole
  begins to form near the crater they crashed into, so Usopp, Nami, and
  Sanji prepare themselves in a diving barrel to explore the cavity in
  the sea.

So far we have seen two other "holes" in the anime.
The first of them being the whirlpool that is formed by the Knock Up Stream.
The second one is seen in the Maubeugemour Sea in episode 575 (this is a filler for the One Piece Film Z).

there is a big hole in Enies Lobby y'know


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How is Sajin Komamura a wolf?
Sajin Komamura is described as being an anthropomorphic wolf in the Wikipedia article, but everyone in the Soul Society is either someone who died or the descendant of someone who died.  There are (as far as I know) no anthropomorphic wolves in the living world, so where did he come from? Was he born that way, created, or is there some other explanation?

It hasn't been revealed yet.

well, if you read  http://www.bleachanime.org/forums/showthread.php?t=194 it says that he was severely burned ( could not find a real source confirming it though) . made allot of people start a theory it is just a transformation  " Yoruichi could stay being a cat if she wanted to."

@Dimitrimx: That was written in 2007, I don't think it has much merit nowdays.

@MadaraUchiha still no other source has confirmed or proven it wrong sofar.

It's kind of obvious that he wasn't burned, since his face were revealed, also see Oded's answer to prove that it was a born trait.

Bleach episode 539 has some answers.
Komamura is talking to his great grandfather:

 Who is a huge canine himself. From this it is clear that a canine appearance is a family trait. The conversation also reveals that they do have a special status, though it is not clear what exactly their role in Soul Society is. It is, however, clear that Komamura was born this way.

Bleach 556 has some further information - in a flashback to his previous encounter with his great grandfather, who says:

  So, he is not a wolf, but a werewolf. The clan originated in soul society, were banished, but did come back.

My guess that Komamura is some form of mutated soul but idk all I know is some soul reapers have a unique appearance and not all soul reapers look like humans but to be honest idk maybe it’s the soul equivalent of werewolf conditions

Welcome to Anime & Manga Stack Exchange. We appreciate your contribution, but pure opinion/speculation answer is discouraged. Instead, please [edit] and try to back up the answer by providing supporting sources/references. Thank you.


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Are Den Den Mushis conscious?
In One Piece there are some snail-like creatures that

..have the ability to communicate with each other telepathically through
  radio waves. The people in One Piece world take advantage of this
  ability by attaching buttons and receivers to them. Den Den Mushi thus
  take the place of telephones and other similar machines in the world
  of One Piece.

I have never seen one moving about freely. Are they fully conscious of their surroundings, could they move freely if they wanted to? Or do once they become tamed and personalized they just become fully fledged telephones?

There is only one sort of moving Den Den Mushi.
The only place where you see then is in the Tenth movie

Self-Propelled Visual Den Den Mushi
Shiki has a variant of the Visual Den Den Mushi called the
Self-Propelled Visual Den Den Mushi (自走式映像転送電伝虫 Jisō-shiki Eizō Tensō
Den-den Mushi?). As the name implies they are able to move and look
around. They also appear to be close to the same size as the larger
variant of the Visual Den Den Mushi and have attachments that allow
them to project what they can see to a monitor.

The Den Den mushi are normal snails untill people attach the phones to them.
This is taken from SBS 41(Q&A with author)

D: In Chapter 367, Sanji-kun destroys the Den Den Mushi. That's so
mean!!! The Den Den Mushi didn't do anything wrong! Even a Den Den
Mushi would cry if that happened to it! It cries when it hurts! It
cries because its heart hurts even more than its body! So let's
apologize to it, shall we? P.N. Naoko
O: Oh, well, you see... OK, I
admit, I may have created that impression, but it's okay. On the right
is a wild Den Den Mushi. It has the ability to communicate with its
species through radio (thought) waves. Humans attach buttons and
receivers to them so they can contact specific other Den Den Mushi.
So, you can destroy the receiver without hurting the Den Den Mushi.


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Are there any characters designed specifically for Norio Wakamoto?
Norio Wakamoto is a veteran Japanese voice actor with a long portfolio of characters that he's voiced. His craft is such that he often times gets pigeon-holed into a certain character archetype that fits a particular acting style of his.
This acting style is so prominent that you often have people try to imitate his voice, other voice actors/actresses that try to imitate him for fun, and even competitions at conventions (like at Moe Culture Festival 2012) for imitating him. These characters are usually evil (but not necessarily an antagonist), funny, maybe a little crazy. Characters like Onsokomaru (2x2 Shinobuden), Victoreem (Gash Bell), Garuda (Magical Quiz Academy), Katakuriko Matsudaira (Gintama), Amagumo (Desert Punk), etc.
Are there any characters (whether they fit this archetype or not) that were designed specifically for Wakamoto to play? I know there's Commander Wakamoto from Virgin Fleet, which I didn't find really matching the archetype, but it's hard to imagine that the names were just coincidence. Was Commander Wakamoto designed to be played by Norio Wakamoto?

Norio Wakamoto is not the only (though he is one of the most famous) seiyuu who has been pigeonholed on a certain type of anime character personality (though he is also capable of portraying other roles), to be specific, a villain character, but actually, there are a lot. You can see those people in this list.
About your question (which kind of confuse me so), I'm going to answer it bit by bit.
Are there any characters designed specifically for Norio Wakamoto?
Are there any characters (whether they fit this archetype or not) that were designed specifically for Wakamoto to play?
Yes, there are.
According to this link,

It's even gotten to the point where, instead of having him "work his
  voice to fit a character", they work the character to fit his voice.

so we may conclude that there are characters that was built to fit his voice, though the link didn't specify which actual anime characters were designed for him. But to answer your question, yes there are.
As for Commander Wakamoto, I can't really find a reliable source to support my thoughts (and I'm not familiar with the anime and the character) but I think, Commander Wakamoto wasn't designed for Norio Wakamoto. First of all, the character wasn't on the list of the villain character Norio voiced on the link above. If Commander Wakamoto was designed for him, then he should be at least listed there and was highlighted to be specifically designed for him. Their names are probably pure coincidence. And based on what you said, the character wasn't matching with the archetype Norio Wakamoto was pigeonholed with. I don't think I'm convincing enough but what's the point of working the character to fit his voice if it's not the archetype he's pigeonholed with?
Well the bottom line is, there are characters that were worked to fit his grandiose villain voice.


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Are there any female mangaka pretending to be a male?
Manga magazines are usually targeted to a specific age and gender of readers. Usually shounen manga are written by males even if there are notable examples of female artists working on shounen series (e.g. Rumiko Takahashi, CLAMP).
Are there any case of a female mangaka pretending to be a male using a pen name to adapt to a specific gender or just to challenge her readers and later reveal herself?

It's not what you're looking for, but Lucky Star's mangaka Kagami Yoshizumi is sometimes mistakenly thought to be a woman because he shares the name Kagami with one of the female characters, might be of interest

If they are really trying to hide their identity then we wouldn't be able to tell you about them :)

@atlantiza Maybe they're not trying hard enough.

Late comment: Akimine Kamijō (the author of Samurai Deeper Kyo) has often been mistaken for a man. She never appears in public and draws herself as a genderless violet silhouette.

I think none.
First of all, in this link, these are the only manga examples created by authors who pretended to be the opposite sex using pen names.

In the anime ef - a tale of memories, Hirono Hiro, 17 year-old male who is a professional mangaka, writes under the pen name Shindou Nagi, claiming to be female. Given that his work is shoujo, it's understandable.
In Otomen Tachibana Juuta writes sparkly romance shoujo manga under the penname Sachihana Jewel, and refuses to disclose his real identity even though the manga is hugely popular, because he's afraid readers wouldn't take well to their shoujo manga being written by a man. He goes as far as crossdressing whenever he needs to appear as Sachihana.
There's also his (Tachibana Juuta's) favorite mangaka, Mira-sensei (short for "Mirage") who dresses, speaks and behaves like a classic '70s shoujo manga character, for the same reason as Juuta. His motto is "Because we're professionals!"
In Himitsu No Hanazono the four brothers work under one female name to publish their shoujo manga.

Which all are male mangaka pretending to be female for their shoujo manga. And in this list are female mangaka, and you can notice some created shounen manga. If there are some of them who pretended to be male, then it should have been stated there because it's a must-know.
Why none?
According here, female mangaka were greatly accepted so I think there is no need for them to use pen names to hide their true identity, either for the reason of having their shounen manga accepted or the reasons you mentioned above. And there exists a lot of female mangaka who created/creating shounen manga.

Later popular artists include the highly prolific and successful
  Rumiko Takahashi and rising star Akira Amano (both drawing primarily
  shonen stories for boys) as well as the female collective CLAMP.

Furthermore, I think male mangaka receives more discrimination for writing shoujo manga than female mangaka writing shounen manga. It's much like the discrimination when females are okay to hold hands with females (most will think that they are best friends) while males holding hands with males are.. not so acceptable. If you know what I mean. :P
Well, the links I provided might not be complete or I might be wrong (forgive me) so I'll just update this answer if I find something. As of now, this will be my answer.

Thank you for the answer: as of now, sources you're citing are limited and vague, if you find more about the topic please add more sources to back up your conclusion.

Yes I agree that it is. Of course I'll update it if I find some more reliable source. :)

The creator of Full Metal Alchemist, Hiromi Arakawa pretended to be a male for a while as she was worried her being a female would give her less credit and readers. She originally called herself Edmund (or Edmond) Arakawa. Then changed her alias to something similar to her real name but masculine, Hiromu Arakawa.
Besides being afraid that fewer people would read her shounen works if they knew she was a woman, she is also allegedly very camera shy and there aren't a lot of photos of her online and she tends to draw herself as a human with a cow head and avoids interviews.
I'm not sure if there are any other examples of this though however I wouldn't be surprised.
A lot of the female manga authors who make popular works typically make it with male leads though and I think there are various obvious reasons there.


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What was exactly the CLAMP role in making Code Geass?
CLAMP collective is credited for original character design of Code Geass. Since the actual character design was made by Takahiro Kimura, what was exactly the CLAMP role in making Code Geass?

Ahm, the incredibly preposterous clothes :P

The Wikipedia page has a good explanation of the role that CLAMP played on the production.
To summarize it, CLAMP was contacted during the beginning planning stages. They provided ideas that helped with the development of the setting and characters. When they were developing Lelouch, Ageha Ohkawa, the head writer at CLAMP, said that she saw him as a character that everyone could relate to as being "cool" and a "beauty". Zero was one of the earliest developed characters, with the mask being a something that was felt to be necessary for a Sunrise (the studio) show as well as being something CLAMP saw as being unique design.
The finalized original character design art done by CLAMP was converted into animation character designs by the Sunrise character designer, who had extensively studied CLAMP's art and style. He focused on designing them to allow the other animators to apply them without moving away from CLAMP's original art style.

That was why Suzaku looked like Syaoran. :)

I never thought of that, but that makes sense.


text:
Why does Mika go insane?
What/who causes Lain's "older sister" Mika to go insane? What happened to her (physically and mentally)?

Layer 05 "Distortion" shows how Mika goes mad (spoiler from here).
At the beginning of the episode, she is apathetic but doesn't show any symptom of mental frailty. However, she is exposed to various traumatic events:

She witnessed a car accident on Shibuya caused by the traffic lights cracking, without any reaction while all around people are scared.
She has seen her sister both in person and on a big screen on Shibuya, but Lain doesn't confirm the fact.
She got a handkerchief containing a message:

Hell is full of the dead. and the dead shall wander.

She use the handkerchief to clean a stain caused by a boy. Later, she reads this message on a coffee stain:

Fulfill the prophecy.

The previous traumatic events (the coffee stain, the message) are now mixed with each other while she is hallucinating.
This is the turning point of Mika's insanity. Lain's father projection tells her how Prophecy is a way of Deus to interfere in the real world, and Mika seems to be a target of these actions, aimed to make her doubtful about her perceptions and, later, causing her dissociation. Lain can see a duplicate of her sister too in a form of a crystallized avatar at the end of the episode, and many other characters confirm the messages Mika was exposed to exist, so the first traumatic events are not hallucinations but a starter for her conditioning.
For reference, the abstract of episode 5 on Wikipedia is rough but clear:

 Lain's sister Mika is driven to the point of insanity due to the Knights repeatedly communicating the message for her to "Fulfill the Prophecy".

Ok I’m just throwing this out there: Mika died. She was hit by the car. The tv news verifies there was a fatality and the scene seemed to imply she was hit. What happened is that the afterlife was overcrowded so even though she died when hit by the car, she had nowhere to go (off topic, but another implication is that we need to transfer our souls online since the afterlife is too full to accept more souls). Her death by the car separated her soul and body-both of which are stuck in this world. The school girl outfit Mika represents her soul as opposed to casual clothes Mika her real body. Her real body goes home to have dinner with her parents. Her actual soul is stuck somewhere between this world and the next or the wired. The fulfilling the prophecy message she gets it’s probably meaning that she needs to move her soul on from this plain of existence to the wired since she has died and that is now where the dead need to go.  She hasn’t yet realized/accepted her death until she goes home and sees her real body living her life. At this point she sort of starts to move on. Causal clothes/body of Mika acts almost zombie like in this series because she no longer has a soul.
It’s also possible that Mika’s soul is straddling the line between reality and the wired after getting hit by the car-this explains some of the trippier scenes and how they could make sense.  It also explains how she is so unaffected by the car fatality unlike all the other bystanders-she was hit but refuses to accept it and therefore acts as if she doesn’t notice her body lying there as her soul walks away in denial of the event.
Also-if the fulfill the prophecy isn’t about moving her soul to the next world but some sort of message by the knights to help fulfill their agenda  (I am only up to episode 5 so I haven’t yet learned what exactly they are really after), then Mika now is continuously harassed by it as she has begun straddling between the real world and the wired since dying and the wired is overrun with this message due to the knights-alica and her friends are shown discussing how the wired was spammed with this fulfill the prophecy message by the knights and since Mika is now partially inhabiting this reality she sees the message spammed all over the (wired) world around her as well.
That’s my idea. What does everyone think?  It connects all the real world events and the trippy scenes of Mika into a coherent idea.
Thoughts on this?????  Lol I really want to discuss this with someone

Please include relevant sources/references


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Why does Usui wear glasses at home?
Usui wears glasses when he is at home, but at school he doesn't wear them. Hence, either he is wearing contacts at school, or he doesn't really need vision aid but he likes wearing glasses at home for some reason. Why does he choose to wear glasses at home, but not at school?

My guess would be that he has contacts but doesn't want to wear them at home, but I don't think it was ever addressed.

contacts are the most likely explanation.  some people find them bothersome so he may be more comfortable taking them out when he is not in public.

Usui-kun, wears contacts at school and glasses at home. Most probably, this shows how Usui is different from school and from the comfort of his own home. Revealing the real Usui when he is out of everyone's sight. ^^

What do you mean by different at school and at home? Does he prefer to look geek at home and wants to be cool at school? Do you have any basis for this? Probably in manga? :P :D :)

no.. actually, it was my own opinion :) I read the manga, but I couldn't remember if Usui reveals the reason why he wears his glasses out of school. Probably, the author or the writer just wants to show that usui has different sides to show. The usui one he would show in public and the REAL usui.

You have a point. And probably it also shows that Usui, the cool guy at school can also be lazy. I mean, he also gets lazy to put on the contacts and put on eyeglasses instead. And probably he's nearsighted. :P

In the question/answer segments Hiro Fujiwara sometimes adds at the ends of chapters, Usui said that he thinks he has 20/100 vision in one eye and 20/30 in the other eye. It was also confirmed he wore contacts at school.

Hi, this looks like a good starting point for an answer, and it would be better if you could add the specific chapter number as an official reference. Thanks!


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Why didn't Syaoran lose his memory?
At the end of Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card..

As the sealed card appears to go to Sakura, it chooses Syaoran as the one who will lose their most important feelings because Sakura used too many cards at one time.

However..

Crying and believing it's too late, but encouraged by the Hope Card, Sakura still confesses to Syaoran that she loves him and that he is her most important person. To her surprise, he gently replies that he loves her too, and Sakura realizes he didn't lose his feelings for her after all.

How was this possible? Was it because of the Hope Card?  I just need some explanation for clarification.

Before the Sealed Card was able to attack and gather Syaoran's most important feeling, the Hope Card negated it.
To explain it more clearly, it was because the nameless card nullified the power of the sealed card to obtain Syaoran's feelings. With regard to this, Sakura's powerful emotions towards Li made that happen. The Sealed card and the nameless card merged in the process, creating the Hope Card. That is why the Hope Card or the Love Card (which was called in the english dub) was the card who doesn't have a clow card counterpart, meaning it only exist as a Sakura Card because it was created by Sakura's feelings towards Li Syaoran.

What do you mean by negated? Is it a process?

As I understood back then (correct me if I'm wrong), the Hope Card was created because of Sakura's emotions plus the Sealed Card and the blank card. Am I incorrect?

To explain it more clearly, it was because the nameless card nullified the power of the sealed card to obtain Syaoran's feelings. With regard to this, sakura's powerful emotions towards Li had made that happen. Sealed card and the nameless merged in the process, creating the hope card. That is why the Hope Card or the Love Card (Which was called in the english dubbed) was the card who doesn't have a clow card counterpart, meaning it only exist as a Sakura Card because it was created by Sakura's feelings towards Li Syaoran...

I'm going to edit your answer because that explained better. :)

By the way, where did the nameless card came from anyway? -_-

the nameless card was then again, created because of the yearning feeling Sakura has for Syaoran when Syaoran returned back to Hong Kong. This answer will support the last statement I had stated above^^


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Is there any other manga artist/s whose style is like CLAMP's?
Is there any other manga artist/s (famous or not-so-famous) who caters anime or manga like CLAMP's style?
I'm talking about the cross-over style or the re-using of anime characters from one of their manga creations to another and the diverging of their stories. CLAMP is known for that style and it was loosely defined as the "Clamp Universe" or "Clamp Multiverse".
If there is, then who is that manga artist/s and what are those anime/manga that manga artist/s created, and if possible, a preview of the anime's/manga's plot?

Just to clarify: do you want to know what manga artists (other than CLAMP) have cross-overs or what artists have similar drawing style to CLAMP?

Manga artists who have cross-overs and have that same "multiverse" style like CLAMP's.

Osamu Tezuka, perhaps ?
In his mangas, the same characters would appear in different roles. Given the ammount of work he produce, it's not a big surprise he could do that. Don't think it was intensive like CLAMP, but was well used, in specific situations.
Tezuka had his Star System, and his characters would appear in many stories, sometimes without a formal reference (not being identified as such).
Examples:
Black Jack made some apparitions in Astro Boy... Astro Boy made many apparitions in Black Jack and in other mangas.

Were their stories similar to CLAMP's that had plots collided with each other?


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How does Pengin die in the fight with Emonzaemon?

At the end of the fight between Souda Emonzaemon and Maniwa Pengin in the episode 11, Emonzaemon starts firing random directions with Entou Juu, and somehow a bullet reaches Pengin's body to kill him. I don't understand how this happened. Even when Emonzaemon fired directly towards Pengin, none of the bullets reached him because of his extremely high luck. Then, how was Emonzaemon able to shoot him by firing random directions?

According to the novel, when Emonzaemon shot his bullets off all over the room, he was aiming for things made of metal, like the nails on the floorboards and columns in the room.
As his bullets ricocheted off metal objects, Penguin's luck was forced to be pitted against the luck of the metal itself, which Penguin lost out to.
This was explained that no matter how lucky Penguin was, his luck would not last forever, because like all humans, he will one day have to die. Metal, on the other hand, has a much longer natural life span, far longer than that of humans. Therefore the metal has accumulated much more luck over the centuries, if not millennia, far surpassing the natural luck of any given human gathered in their lifetime.

He ricochets the bullets off of his other ninpo, the blue ball he sent bouncing around the room.

Welcome to Anime.SE! Please consider expanding your answer. We want good, detailed answers, and not one-liners. Happy answering! :)


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Is Subaru ever caught in the vault?
During episode 6 of Ro-Kyu-Bu!, Subaru hides in a gymnastic vault in order to watch the basketball game, since Natsuhi is his substitute coach. Not wanting to be caught, he is unable to escape as the vault is moved into a storage room. Before he leaves, however, the girls come in and start to change, but then notice "something white" in the vault, and go to look.

However, the episode ends here, and episode 7 picks up in a completely different place and makes no mention of this. Was Subaru ever caught? What exactly happened here?

Since the bottom of Subaru's untucked dress shirt is seen and tugged on, one assumes by the scream that he was discovered.


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How were there 80,000 ninjas in the Shinobi World War in Naruto?
I have been watching Naruto anime for a few months and just started to watch Shinobi World War arc. I was shocked to see 80,000 ninjas assembled. Where did they come from? If we take into account that 5 countries and samurais make 6 countries total, each country would contribute around 12,000 ninjas. But only around 100 ninjas were seen in Konoha in the previous episodes. How did this number come from? Were they living in other villages under the orders of their respective Kage?

The rest are shuriken throwsers (i.e. those how die easily). A.K.A. unimportant unnamed characters.

Yes. But the number 80,000 is too high.

Really tempted to throw a "The number of shinobis here is too damn high!" meme, but I won't. So yeah. Don't forget that hidden villages are large, really large. Approximating the size judging by the kyuubi attack, I'd say there are at least 100k people there, easy. Seeing that many of them are shinobi, I'd say it's not too exaggerated to expect such a high number of ninjas from each village.

@MadaraUchiha your comment seems good enough to be an answer...

Just about 4 years ago, Orochimaru invaded Konoha with about 500 Sand + Sound ninjas, and Konoha had quite some trouble dealing with them. To me it sounds more like Kishimoto-san overlooked the minute detail. No big deal though, he is human.

remember though, the function of a Shinobi village within Naruto is to send teams of shinobi out to do contracts, so it is conceivable that a fairly large proportion of the population of each village is away on missions almost constantly. Following this logic, it would make sense that the villages would recall all these ninja to form their part of the Shinobi Alliance and we would see many more than we have previously. It's also possible that Orochimaru timed his attack when he knew the Leaf village was dramatically under-defended due to this.

Many of you make seriously good points, however you have to take a small step back and forgive Kishimoto, the poor man worked himself near to death and postponed his own honeymoon by 10 yrs. There's bound to be some plot holes. Yes there were multipule graduating classes resulting in near 200 genin a year, and in regards to the amount of chunin you have to remember that the only villages that made a major appearance at the chunin exams were the sand and leaf its likely that the other villages dident send hardly any of their genin to that particular chunin exams, besides the villages were allow

Let's approximate the size of the Hidden Leaf based on the size of the Nine-tails in his attack:

As you can see, the village is quite large. I can estimate a population of over 100,000 easily. Since many of them are shinobi, I don't think it's exaggerated to think that there are at least 12,000 shinobi there (probably more).
So that's where all of them came from. Don't forget that we are focusing on only one (two) set of academy students as they progress, in reality there are new (and old) classes every year that graduate, get their own Jonin sensei, and take on missions etc. Those unimportant characters are often seen as what I like to call "shuriken throwers" (they only know how to throw shuriken, nothing else). You usually see them die when a strong opponent arrives.

How do you explain the genin exams? For shinobi who live such a dangerous lifestyle, there must be many young ones to replenish the ranks of the older ones. Generously, there are 100 genin in the exams, and only a few that pass. Less than 10 chunins per year, from all the villages...! For there to be 10000 shinobi per hidden village, >99% must be genin, <1% must be chunin, and <0.1% must be jounin.

Furthermore, the Hokage oversees all missions. Even managing missions for 100s of shinobi must be time consuming, let alone 1000s.

I had the same question. If there are 12,000 ninjas in Konoha , why was Tsunade short of ninjas for all the missions? Isnt more likely that the ninjas are in the other villages of the land of fire?

The Databook shows ninja registration numbers, Jiraiya's number is in the 2300 range while Naruto's is actually 102k range as shown in episode 2 just after his picture is taken and he is told to retake it. It's not 12K range as shown in the databook. Considering there is roughly 38 years difference in age that means 100000 other ninja joined the roles of Konoha, roughly 2500/yr. So it's not hard to imagine Konoha putting up a large number of ninja for the fight.  Remember, their true strength of numbers is spread across the Land of Fire. That was one reason the attack on Konoha by Orochimaru was difficult to counter.
Also, its interesting that people think the Academy is the only way ninja join a village. Whole clans join villages for various reasons, and a village would not require each of them attend the Academy, they would likely be given tests to prove their skill and then placed in the hierarchy accordingly.
For anyone questioning the number of combatants I suggest looking at the numbers of forces Japan and China used from the 13th century onward in struggles with one another.

In 1592, and again in 1597, Toyotomi Hideyoshi decided to invade China (唐入り) through Korea and mobilized an army of 160,000 peasants and samurai.(Source)

The numbers are staggering, but consider this... The Cowboys NFL team averages 80K attendance for a single game.  So getting the number together isn't impossible.

The number of the shinobi is too damn high. If you look at the ninja registration numbers in the databook you can see that since Konoha's founding there were some 13,000 shinobi total who graduated the academy- Naruto was no. 12607. That's 13,000 over more than 60 years. And if you figure in old age and battle casualties of four world wars and constant minor conflicts there's no way Konoha could have anywhere near 12,000 shinobi. I doubt Konoha should have even 2,000. The only rational explanation is that there are a number of shinobi villages in the fire country other than Konoha we have never heard about and that they make up the rest of their forces.

Well the data book state the leaf population to be ranked 5 , rock 4, mist &cloud 3 and sand 2 , assuming the samurai are feared for their number they might be ranked 5 as well ( but they also might ranked 1)
The number of  shinobi behind each star range from minimum of 80K/23 to 80K/18 = 3.5K to 4.5 K.
Than the leaf as around 17.5K to 22.5K of active shinobi.
While the sand the weakest one as between 7-9K active ninja..

BlackG is right. Even the root gathered ninja from regular orphans with no clan. Every hidden village probably had underground organizations for recruting talent for the academy and for danzo's root.

I think a good theory is that not all Ninja come from that one village in each Nation? What dumb leader would recruit from a single village, however large? I see the Hidden Villages as the center of Ninja administration and leadership, and the place where a larger portion of active-duty Ninja are stationed. Certainly there are Ninja recruited and Trained in other regions of the nation. Other Clans, and academies? Just, as I said, the Hidden Village acts as the central hub. In this case, it is quite easy to imagine 12-20K Ninja a piece.
What about the small classes? 9 Students a class? Well, I imagine several answers to this. Firstly, let's ask how Naruto, the dunce who failed three times, is the same age and graduating class as Sasuke? My Thoughts? The graduating classes happen more then once a year. Likely several times a year. If there is one every two months (assuming Naruto merely has to retake the final semester or quarter after failing. It's the only idea that explains him being in the same class as people his age, despite failing 3 times), is would be 54 graduates a year. That is assuming Iruka's is the only class set. If there are 4 separate "graduating class'", and each one goes every two months, that is over 200 new Genin a year. That is much closer to replacement and growth numbers. And that is for one City.
And who is to say that is the only way to become a Genin? Perhaps there are some clan based methods? Or perhaps you can take a sort of Ninja-GED, if your old enough, skilled enough, and capable of competing on a Genin/Chunin level? Remember, Naruto is told he can be a Chunin merely by asking. Someone who didn't attend the academy, but can fight on a Jonin level, could perhaps be admitted as such without going through the Academy. The Academy / Genin system may be more of a Youth program to foster stronger members. It may not be the primary source of Ninja (although, considering that each Academy member outshines the pathetic "Shuriken-Throwers", it may be the source of the better quality ones. After all, training from Youth usually has that effect). Think about how most Military men didn't go to a Military Academy. But those who did tend to become Officers.
Also, to the person who lists the 5-point rankings, it may not be that each star represents an absolute amount (I.E 1 Star is a fifth of 5 Star). So, as an example, there may only be a 20 or 30K Population different (population, not Ninja Count) between 1 Star and 5 Star. So the Smallest City may still be 80K while Konoha is (I presume) around 100K. I question the size of the Land of Iron. It seems to be a small location, and how many Samurai do you see on the 4th War battlefield. It seems it's feared for it's skill, quality, and fortress.
But yes. That's my idea. Ninja are recruited and trained throughout the Nation, with the Hidden Village being the Central Hub of Ninja Leadership and Administration. As well as the City of Residence for the Most powerful Shinobi Clans.

Hello, welcome to Anime StackExchange. We are different than other sites in that we are not your everyday forum. We are a question and answer site. People ask questions about anime/manga and we give answer based on evidence shown in the media.
You answer is OK except that it lacks supportive evidence and that at the end of it you are asking another question, which is not okay. You can put it as a question on its own, but don't put it inside an answer for another question.


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What was the first manga in color?
I know that there are mangas printed in color as opposed to black and white. One example of this is Colorful by Torajirō Kishi, which is the only one that I know of. What was the first manga that was printed entirely in color--as opposed to just cover pages on tankoban being in color?

In the Wikipedia page for "Manga", it says this about the history:

In 1905 the manga-magazine publishing boom started with the Russo-Japanese War, Tokyo Pakku was created and became a huge hit. After Tokyo Pakku in 1905, a female version of Shōnen Sekai was created and named Shōjo Sekai, considered the first shōjo magazine. Shōnen Pakku was made and is considered the first children's manga magazine. The children's demographic was in an early stage of development in the Meiji period. Shōnen Pakku was influenced from foreign children's magazines such as Puck which an employee of Jitsugyō no Nihon (publisher of the magazine) saw and decided to emulate. In 1924, Kodomo Pakku was launched as another children's manga magazine after Shōnen Pakku. During the boom, Poten (derived from the French "potin") was published in 1908. All the pages were in full color with influences from Tokyo Pakku and Osaka Pakku. It is unknown if there were any more issues besides the first one.

So in 1908, there was a manga called "Poten" that was printed in full color. There's more info about "Poten" here:

When we look at the history of manga, we see a side which was brought about by war. The Sino-Japanese War kick-started the Giga-Nishikie boom, and the Russo-Japanese War brought about the manga magazine publication boom. In 1905: “Jijimanga Hibijutsu Gaho”* (Kyoto), “Nipponchi”; 1906: “Tokyo Pakku”; 1907: “Osaka Pakku”, “Joto Ponchi”; 1908: “Ehagaki Sekai”, “Warai”, “Shonen Pakku”* and so on. In 1908, “Poten” was published in Kyoto.“Poten” apparently comes from the French word “potin”, meaning “rough-and-tumble”. Unlike other manga, it is 34cm long and 19cm wide, yet it has been strongly influenced by other manga magazines of the time. That the centerfold spread was a large single sheet of topical satire manga and that all the pages were printed in colour were influences from “Tokyo Pakku” and “Osaka Pakku”.Also, on the last page there are four picture postcards which one can cut out and actually use an idea borrowed from Miyatake Gaikotsu's “Ehagaki Sekai”. It is unconfirmed whether there are issues other than the first issue. (Shimizu Isao) (*)...Museum collection


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What are the differences between normal version and director's cut version of episode 6?
According to Wikipedia - List of Gurren Lagann episodes, episode 6 has 2 versions:

The normal version which is first aired on May 6, 2007 in Japan, titled
"Sit in the Hot Tub 'Till You're Sick!!" (てめえら全員湯あたりしやがれ!!)
The director's cut version, which is released on DVD, having a different title
"There are Some Things I Just Have to See!!" (見てえものは見てえんだ!!)

What are the differences between the 2 versions?

According to the wiki:

The uncut version of this episode features more explicity such as:

More of Yoko's breasts are revealed. At the end of the episode, her top falls off completely-although we still don't see anything.
Gimmy's penis is briefly shown. (This is actually not seen as taboo in Japan, as Gimmy is considered too young to be sexualized.)

Scenes added include:

Kamina trying to peek at the girls.
The beastmen fool Kamina into giving up Gurren-by offering to remove the pixellation seemingly covering their nudity. (Of course, they
  aren't actually naked-just wearing tiny, skin-tinted swimsuits.)
The beastmen using a shock collar-like device on the girls.


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Why do the MISAKA Sisters narrate everything they say?
The MISAKA sisters from Toaru Majutsu no Index have this habit of constantly narrating everything they say in the third person, including the way they say it and actions during their speech. Moreover, the Last Order does it twice for every sentence.
Why do they do that? (And why doesn't anyone seem to notice?)

The sisters were created with suppressed emotions, as these were completely useless for the experiment. The lack of understanding their emotions and the shared memory causes them to miss any self-identity, thus they refer to themselves in the third person.
I don't know why Last Order says Misaka twice, maybe it's just because of her own personality because she's only 10 years old.


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What are Archer's twin swords based off of?
The Archer-class servant, summoned by Rin, in the 5th Fuyuki Grail Wars wields a pair of swords named Kanshou and Bakuya in close-combat.
Are these swords (especially their Overedge version, on the right in the picture below) based on real-life myths/legends or is in an original creation by the author/character designer? What type of weapons are they considered to be?

The swords that Archer used were replicas of real swords with the same names, which he made because he was greatly impressed by the originals. The original swords really existed (in real life), and were crafted by Gan Jiang and Mo Ye (pls refer to the wiki for the full text, I'll only put a piece of it here):

Gan Jiang (Chinese: 干將; pinyin: Gān Jiàng) and Mo Ye (Chinese: 莫邪;
  pinyin: Mò Yé) were a swordsmith couple who lived during the Spring
  and Autumn Period of Chinese history. A pair of swords were forged by
  and named after them.
According to the historical text Wuyue Chunqiu, King Helü of Wu
  ordered Gan Jiang and Mo Ye to forge a pair of swords for him.
  However, the blast furnace failed to melt the metal. Mo Ye suggested
  that there was insufficient human qi in the furnace so the couple cut
  their hair and nails and cast them into the furnace, while 300
  children helped to blow air into the bellows.[citation needed] In
  another account, Mo Ye sacrificed herself to increase human qi by
  throwing herself into the furnace. The desired result was achieved
  after three years and the two swords were named after the couple. Gan
  Jiang kept the Ganjiang Sword for himself and presented the Moye Sword
  to the king. The king was angered when he discovered Gan Jiang had
  kept one of the swords so he had Gan Jiang killed.

However, the legend doesn't really describe the appearance of the swords, so we can't say if Archer's replicas look the same or not.


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Was "Snow Rondo" all a dream or was there something more to it?
Near the end of the second OVA series (Patlabor: New Files), in the episode titled "Snow Rondo" (episode 14). At the end, Asuma Shinohara says it's not a dream and there are hints that it wasn't a dream, but also bits to indicate that didn't happen either.
Can anyone explain what exactly happened?

The OVA stated that the two timelines are real,
In the past Sinohara walked the girl (Yukie Kashima) in the snow, he liked her but he didn't say anything, maybe because he didn't have the courage to do so.
The first timeline is when Sinohara met her at the class reunion.
They had a good time together and they both liked each other.
When finally Sinohara tried to say something  she stopped him and said good bye.
In this timeline we all know that she is some kind of spirit.
The second timeline is when Sinohara wakes up again, and he hasn't gone to the class reunion.  Although he didn't see her again, he got the clue that his experience was real. The proof is the postcard he got in the second coat. And he knew what Noa get for him before she even told him.
It's a love story, the spirit just wanted to say goodbye for the last time before she went to a place far away, and this is the most romantic and fun way she could ever done that without making him scared or sad.
ps: it will help you if you watch Groundhog Day, the movie made on 1993.
It has looping time, different from "Snow Rondo" but essentially the same.

Its just about Asuma moving on from idealistic dreams of how his future would be, lines like "I look at this and think, is this really where I want to be?" Hint towards this interpretation and the scene at the end where lets go of the red balloon showing that he's satisfied with what has life had become. This interpretation is further solidified with the events that take place in episode 16, showing us that Asuma is having to face the difficult parts of his past becoming a part of his future.


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Why does Brad Pitt cameo in these manga?
I noticed in some of the manga that I've been reading that Brad Pitt is appearing in them.

He appears in Yakitate Japan under the name Brad Kidd, showing up several times during the series (both anime & manga) , mostly related to the Pierrot.

And in Arakawa Under The Bridge, it's said that he could be their neighbour on Venus
I know it's not unheard of for hollywood movie stars to show up in shows, but he appears noticeably enough in Yakitate Japan and the second occurrence made me think there might be more to it.
Is there anything behind the choice of western actor? I mean, they could have chosen Tom Cruise or someone else.
Does he cameo in any other shows?

So that was Brad Pitt in Yakitate Japan? I was about to ask who that person was. XD

According here, cameo/cross-over/parody of a anime character from another anime or a real celebrity is done for several reasons..

Sometimes a character's entire shtick will be that he or she is a
  thinly disguised imitation of some celebrity somewhere. The more
  blatant examples will often have a parody of that celebrity's name.
  This can be done for various reasons, such as to serve as a homage
  and/or parody, to make a point using the character, or simply because the writers think that it would be cool.
  Though some consider it done because the writers are out of ideas.

The reasons mentioned above can be the reason why Brad Pitt appeared as a cameo in both Yakitate Japan! and Arakawa Under the Bridge. Actually, Brad Pitt isn't the only celebrity/character parodied in Yakitate, as stated in the link given above.

Michael Schumacher doing an Initial D before going to Formula One.
Azuma mistaking Lake Iglesia with Julio Iglesias.
Kaiser's fans behaving like the Detroit Tigers fans?
One of Kuroyanagi's overblown pun-based reactions to tasting a turtle-shaped dessert has him turning into Gamera, the giant, flying, fire-breathing turtle kaiju.
Episode 68 appears to be a Lord of the Rings parody... with cooking.
One of the earlier episodes has the manager Matsushiro pulling a Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star) on Kawachi. Matsushiro Ken -> Kenshiro? It makes sense! 'Omae mo hatsuga suru' note
The Black Tri-Stars from Mobile Suit Gundam show up as three expert bakers from St. Pierre's Kyūshū branch. They tasted Kazuma's Black Ja-pan and had a reaction where they fought the Nobel Gundam from G Gundam which was piloted by Yukino (and had a caption reminding people they were still watching Yakitate!! Japan. ) They quit after the reaction.
In one episode, Pierrot eats "Alexandria" Egyptian Bread, with Kodaimai Miso flavoring and turns into Detective Conan.
In another episode, Kuroyanagi turns into Super Kuroyanagi (a parody of Super Sayain) by eating Takumi Tsubodzuka's Super Toro Aburi. He fights Kawachi in a DBZ-style fight. He turns into Super Kuroyanagi 2 (a parody of Super Sayain 2) and Super Kuroyanagi 3 (a parody of Super Sayain 3) as a result of eating Urchin-roe Chawanmushi bread.
In another episode, Kuroynagi turns into a parody of Monkey D. Luffy by eating Kazuma Azuma's Ōkuchi Wafuu (Japanese-style) Ja-pan Man.
Kawachi Kyousuke tries some kelp marinated in soda and turns into Pepmiman, a parody of Pepsiman. He rescues a girl from drowning at sea. He also beats two sharks that tried to eat the girl.
And there was yet another sequence involving Kawachi as a blond ninja in bright orange clothes.
Then there's this, done in the style of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which gets several other shout-outs, to the point where it is hard to believe the manga-ka isn't a fan.
When Meister Kirisaki decides to train Kawaichi, he talks about making him an iron man, complete with images of Kawaichi dressed as Gigantor

I'm not that familiar however with regards to Arakawa so I can't give examples. But the bottomline is, the reasons stated above might be the reason for having Brad Pitt cameo in Yakitate Japan and Arakawa Under the Bridge.


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Do the symbols on Kazuki's shirt mean anything?
In Buso Renkin, Kazuki, the protagonist, wears a red shirt with three odd symbols placed on the chest area:

They're not Latin characters and appear too simple to be Japanese or from other Oriental languages. What are these symbols? Do they mean anything in the story (or, if not, real life)?

It's said that the symbols stand for '963' and is probably a callout to his wife and novelist Kaoru Kurosaki, who collaborated with the author, Nobuhiro Watsuki, on the story for the manga.
There are many ways to read these numbers in Japanese, some that makes sense are:

9 → ku, 6 → ro, 3 → san = Kuro-san
9 → ku, 6 → ro, 3 → sa + (ki) ~= Kurosaki

His wife's Twitter handle is @kaworu963.
As a side note, one of the ships in the Alchemist fleet also bears this number:


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How much does a typical anime episode or series cost to make?
While it's pretty easy to find what is the budget for most anime feature films like those from Studio Ghibli, the average cost for making an anime series, much less an episode, is not readily available.
How much does an anime episode or series cost to make these days? Where does the money come from?
What is the breakdown of all the cost (to what part [e.g., script, sounds, edition, etc.] go how much of the budget)?

This is going to vary a lot depending on the budget of the series. The difference between high budget and low budget series is big enough that applying this to any individual anime is probably not a very good approximation. As an aside, this is essentially a rehash of my answer here, though the question is different enough that I don't think it's a duplicate.
A single episode of a typical anime today costs roughly 10 million yen. This Cruncyroll article from 2011 lists the following breakdown of costs for one single 30 minute episode of a 2011 anime had the following breakdown of costs:

Original work - 50,000 yen ($660)
Script - 200,000 yen ($2,640)
Episode Direction - 500,000 yen ($6,600)
Production - 2 million yen ($26,402)
Key Animation Supervision - 250,000 yen ($3,300)
Key Animation - 1.5 million yen ($19,801)
In-betweening - 1.1 million yen ($14,521)
Finishing - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Art (backgrounds) - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Photography - 700,000 yen ($9,240)
Sound - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Materials - 400,000 yen ($5,280)
Editing - 200,000 yen ($2,640)
Printing - 500,000 yen ($6,600)

for a total of about 11 million yen.
This image (in Japanese) is a breakdown of the costs of a single episode of the series Bamboo Blade. As you can see, the price comes in at just under 10 million yen. This site has some more info, as does this list (though not everything there is anime and most is old). But the bottom line is that the market price is roughly 10 million yen per episode, which comes out to 230 yen per frame. Some of that goes to things other than animation, but the bulk is for art and animation costs.
As for the source, the production company typically self-funds its own original anime. For example, Puella Magi Madoka Magica was funded by Aniplex. For adaptations, the publishing company typically provides some or all of the funding, as it serves as a form of advertising for the original. The details on these arrangements are very secret and can vary a lot.
Note that the production company also has to pay for the TV run in most cases, since late-night TV slots are purchased by production companies as a form of advertising for their final product e.g. DVDs (see Why does anime usually air at night in Japan? for more information on this). According to this blog post, for a 52-episode series airing on 5-7 stations, this would be in the ballpark of 50 million yen, or about 1 million yen per episode. They typically only make back their money at the point of DVD sales, which is why studios never know exactly how much money they're able to invest on a new series.


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What is Kazari Uiharu's esper ability?
Uihara mentioned that her esper ability is really weak, and additionally in the Railgun anime, when asked about her headband made of flowers, she asks "What headband?".
Is her ability to grow those flowers? Or is it the ability to use computers really well or something else?

Uiharu's ability is that she can keep the things that she touches at a constant temperature.
She reveals this to Haruue in episode 22 of the first season. (at roughly 7:30 including OP)
She also reveals that she has never told anyone else what her power is.

Not sure how I missed that.

It was only a few seconds out of a long series. Very easy to forget after a few years.

Now that would make for some serious CPU cooling.


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In which chapter did the Genei Ryodan fight the chimera ants?
In the manga, when did the Genei Ryodan fight the chimera ants?

Do you know anything more specific about what was going on, such as where he was or who was with him?

The Spiders first make their appearance in Chapter 224 of the manga. Needless to say a fight follows shortly after (next chapter).


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What is Lupin III's nationality?
Apparently, in Lupin III: Green Vs. Red, Zenigata is seen with a file that states Lupin's place of birth as unknown. However, according to this page, this particular work is not considered canon.
Lupin often refers to himself as French, Zenigata often says he's Japanese and on one occasion Lupin himself stated he's half-French, half-Japanese.
We know both his grandfather and father were French, but we know nothing about his mother (at least I think not).
Is there any source that states where he was born, what his mother's nationality is, or anything else that might suggest his nationality?

Most of the sources stated that Lupin III is half-French, half-Japanese - sources: 1, 2, 3, 4. There are also sources that state that his nationality is unknown - sources: 1, 2. But according to this:

Lupin is half-French, half-Japanese, though Monkey Punch, Lupin's creator himself said (in materials to promote the first Lupin movie) that he considered Lupin to be of no nationality – a citizen of the world.


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Does Naruto consciously control his clones?
I've seen when Kakashi was training Naruto with his elemental affinity that Naruto cannot see what his clone is doing until it is undone. How does he control the clone? Does it move and think like a separate entity? Can it think to try to kill the original?

Does it move and think like a separate entity?

Yes, the clones are completely independent, apart from the fact that Naruto can undo any clone he wishes to.
This can be seen when they collaborate and the fact that they need to communicate in order to do so. Note that when Naruto creates them, they know what he knows so he can think of a plan, create the clones, and everybody knows their role in the plan without a need to discuss it—they are still independent.

Can it think to try to kill the original?

Possibly. But seeing as they have a short life and have just been cloned, Naruto would have had to be thinking about that kind of thing himself already in order for a clone to really do that. And of course, since Naruto can undo a clone at will, it would mean that as soon as he senses a threat from a clone he can undo it.

Seeing as Naruto has had schizophrenic tendencies on some parts of the series, based on what you answered, his dark self can manifest in one of his clones. Hmm....

btw there is a filler episode in the anime, where his clones turn aginst him

@Vogel612 wasn't that a dream?

@iKlsR yeah. forgot that... has been a while and since then i stuffed my brains with programming and a sh*tload of awesome anime ;)

It's also shown multiple times in the anime that when Naruto takes sufficient damage, his clones disappear. I assume this is because he loses concentration, or something similar, so it seems like if a clone tried to kill him, the clone would disappear before doing anything too vital.


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Have there been any anime with actual product placement?
In Steins;Gate, Dr. Pepper is mentioned several times as the "An Intellectual Drink, For The Chosen Ones".

I've seen a lot of other shows that have stores or products with similar names to the real-life brand, so that the producers can avoid copyright issues.

Even though the inclusion of Dr.Pepper wasn't asked for by the Dr.Pepper company, after the release of Steins;Gate the sales in Japan for Dr.Pepper shot up. ref.
Have there been any anime where a company has paid for their product to be included in the show?

Notice it's not actually "Dr. Pepper", but rather, "Dk. Pepper".

TVTropes have a list

Hey guys what about manga? Is it the same? I saw dr pepper at oyasumi punpun manga.

@snailplane I remember when I play the VN it was "Dr People" instead of "Dr Pepper". I found a screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/8j3aojJ.jpg (source)

@snailplane Ah I played the Steam version with official English translation. Looks like they modified the CG during the i18n.

Yes. Sometimes it's a sort of "exchange" of product placement - the anime will show the brand in the show, and the brand will put something about the show on its products for a certain timeframe.
Code Geass: Pizza Hut

Rebuild of Evangelion

Tiger & Bunny: Various

I'm sure there are more examples but these are just a few.

I would like to add that the Pizza Hut references are edited out of the English localized version of Code Geass, in the Japanese version you can see the Pizza Hut logo clearly when the Pizza is being delivers to C.C, however in the english version either the logo has been totally removed or just the text with hat part made a bot more bluring

In addition to the other answers...
The first episode of the new Ghost in the Shell: ARISE series features various shots of various ads for the Surface tablet and the device itself.

The Evangelion Rebuild films have had long lingering shots of a Lawson's convenience store. Also, Misato’s fridge is stocked with Kirin beer.

In Macross Frontier movie, Ranka and Alto go into a FamilyMart convenience store as a plot point...

Ranka also has a CM song for Family Mart!

Well, there's Tiger & Bunny which plastered product placement to the extreme of its real-life sponsors:

Each of the city's most famous superheroes work for a sponsor company and their uniforms also contain advertising for real-life companies.

The show features "sponsored" super heroes who fight crime, with their sponsors plastered all over them like NASCAR, and in some cases, even doing in-show commercials for the actual product (e.g. Pepsi). Some of these in-show sponsors were actually sponsors of the show. The old Tiger & Bunny website (it's since been changed) listed all of their sponsors which had product placement: via archive.org.

I don't know if these companies actually went to the producers to pay for advertising spots within the show. It's probably more likely that it was a two-way street, working much like how anime get made in general, where the producers/studio will look for sponsors with an idea, and a contract and agreement is made. So these companies went into it knowing how their product would be placed in the show.
When the show was adapted into a manga, all of the product placement was removed (for obvious reasons).

Here. This one's from Nichijou.
And yes, it's the real thing as is featured in the credit: (0:59 in the ending 2)

Full Metal Panic has product placements of Budweiser and Heineken.

There's also "Pizza But" in TSR, "Bocari Sweat" in the original series.  Heineken was "Heibeken" beer. But somehow Budweiser remained unchanged.

Great Teacher Onizuka features a Vaio laptop:

There are also Infiniti and Nissan placements in Ghost in the Shell: Arise

The Katsuhiro Otomo-designed Freedom OAV series is a particularly fun viewing experience for product placement, since it came into being as part of a Nissin Cup Noodles promotional campaign.  In it, remnants of humanity live in a lunar colony where -- incidentally and inexplicably -- Nissin Cup Noodles are a primary food source.