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Do filler episode characters ever appear in the main storyline?
Do any of the characters from the Naruto filler arcs or movies show up again in the main series, or they are just strictly made for the fillers and movies?
I was watching Shippuden season 1 and at some point the opening and closing songs had scenes from the Priestess Shion movie, or the first Naruto Shippuden movie.

They are just made for those filler/movies, but they do appear in the story as, something you can call, easter eggs. They also don't interact with the story nor characters. They are just there as extras.

@AkiraMahisaseru Oh. You are alive. Yay! . And okay. Thanks. Just wondering. So they do appear in the main shady occasionally right? Any examples?

I'm so sorry!!!! I lost my phone, but I finally found it!!! Please forgive me.

@AkiraMahisaseru Whoa... Take it easy, love. You are forgiven even though nothing held against you. Lol. I take you are fine then.  but anyway, examples of the extras?

You know that one lady that has cristal powers, that one kid that was with her, and that one big dude that liked her (I think), sorry I forgot their names, they appeared in one of the newer episodes (I forgot the number but it's before the Sasuke's story episodes)

@AkiraMahisaseru I believe you mean Guren (the lady) etc. they appeared in the crowd wanting to see naruto in episode 479.

Ahhh... Thanksss! I'll look her up!

@AkiraMahisaseru But guren appears in a main episode before continuing into filler episodes.. The main episode being 89. And the fillers being 90 onward..

@LabhanshAgrawal that's her name. Thank you for the episode number too. You understood what I meant.

@AkiraMahisaseru So would you count her as a filler character? Even though she may have appeared in canon episodes as well as filler episodes?

@Hansen but she's an anime only character

@LabhanshAgrawal I guess that makes sense. Thanks.

@Hansen, I don't remember reading about her in the manga. She could have been there but I don't remember. I count her as a filler character since she didn't appear as an important character in  episodes later in the series.

@AkiraMahisaseru Oh. Alright. Thanks. I think she's an anime only character. Thanks again! Oh. I messaged you BTW so you can check it out when you can!

Didn't Naruto make a remark about Utakata (not sure about the name) in the anime, not the manga, after Tobi/Kabuto summoned the Edo-Tensei Jinchuuriki because of the filler in early Shippuuden.

Utakata was introduced during the so-named Tsuchigumo Kinjutsu arc, but he eventually makes his way in the main storyline as a reanimated ninja fighting in the Great Shinobi War.
It could be conjectured that he wasn't a filler character, but until Naruto chapter 515 at the earliest, the Six-Tails host was not identified by name.

In this picture, Utakata is second from the left.


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What was Avilio's alibi during the after-credits scene in episode 2?
In the after-credits scene of episode 2 of 91 Days, Nero questions Avilio about the circumstances of Vanno's death. Crunchyroll translates the dialogue as follows:

AVILIO: He stole Vanno's gun. I shot Serpente, but it was too late.
BARBERO: Your hands weren't tied?
AVILIO: Serpente said he'd let me pray. Then he tied up Vanno...

Is that actually his alibi? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that Serpente would have to steal Vanno's gun if Avilio were already tied up. And why would Serpente let Avilio pray and then tie up Vanno? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

No! This is an egregious case of getting your implied referents mixed up. The Japanese dialogue is:

AVILIO: ヴァンノが銃を奪われて…俺がセルペンテを撃ったが、遅かった。
BARBERO: 縄をかけなかったのか。
AVILIO: 祈らせてくれと、セルペンテが。それでヴァンノは縄を…

Here's what this actually means:

AVILIO: He stole Vanno's gun. I shot Serpente, but it was too late.
BARBERO: You didn't tie his hands?
AVILIO: Serpente asked us to let him pray. Then Vanno untied his hands...

This obviously makes a whole lot more sense. Avilio's alibi starts out the same as what actually happened - Vanno captures Serpente during the assassination attempt on Fango. But Avilio then claims that rather than begging to be spared, Serpente actually asks Vanno to let him pray. When Vanno unties Serpente's hands, Serpente presumably wrestles for Vanno's gun and shoots him before Avilio brings Serpente down.

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How was Goku able to teleport to the "Other World"?
In DBZ, Goku has teleported several times to the "Other World" (a place presumably inhabited by souls), his most significant trip there being when he brought Cell in his second form there to prevent him from blowing up the earth and one another occasion Piccolo was summoned there too before being summoned to Namek. King Kai's planet is at the end of Snake Way and Snake Way is in the "Other World".
This brings about the question of where exactly is it located and wouldn't that mean that a 'dead' Goku could have easily teleported back to earth just the same as if he were alive?

He could (And he sometimes did), but it's "forbidden", and Goku doesn't like breaking rules.
It's actually a different world in the same "dimension" as the normal world, so yes, Goku can freely teleport between the two.

Looking at this again, it correlates with the answer posted by Roy below and is actually more accurate in the sense that he can but it's forbidden. It's also worth noting that on these occasions he didn't do anything significant that would presumably alter the future.

You're right in a technical sense.
From http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Instant_Transmission

Goku can even shift through realms, having no problem teleporting from Earth to King Kai's planet, and from there to New Namek.

I think it's a matter of wanting to do it or not. Goku wants Gohan to grow up and reach his full potential, Goku believes his son can and will follow his steps as earth's protector. This can only happen if Gohan shakes away all his fears, and you can see how that happens as he destroys Cell.

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Why does Naruto use his mother's family name?
Is there any logical and canonical reason to why Naruto used his mother's family name, Uzumaki, instead of his father's family name?

According to the Naruto Wiki:

Suddenly orphaned, Naruto was left to grow up knowing nothing of his parents, receiving only his mother's last name as Hiruzen believed it was best that nobody knew that he was related to the Fourth Hokage.

and why is it best that nobody know about his relation to the Fourth?

Again, from the wiki, With Minato dead, Hiruzen once more assumed the role of active Hokage while deciding to protect the orphaned child by giving him his mother's last name to conceal his relation to Konoha's Yellow Flash

Maybe to prevent his father's enemies from seeking revenge on him?

Or to give him a normal (as possible) childhood?

@Veger That too

@Chetter Hummin, your theory would be correct, if the villagers wouldn't know,that Minato's wife was Kushina...what do you think about that?

@Rinneg4n Maybe the enemies from outside the village would not know that? Also, his mother cannot be the only person with that last name.

@Chetter Hummin To be honest, never thought about these ones...But the same could go for you: a) Minato cant be the only one with that  last name so, practically the danger that the "Namikaze" name could mean, it could also get a protection by blending him into society.(++ can;t imagine the outsiders attacking Naruto while he's still young, and when he's older, he could defend himself/ or maybe the other villagers wouldn't know that HE is Naruto Namikaze)

b) I think you have more chance to have only one person with the Uzumaki name, than more...I always thought that there are clans, and that's all, not too much separate guys (ninja, not villager): so Kushina must've been the only Uzumaki in the Hidden Leaf (or almost the last one from her clan), especially since after their death, Naruto was totally orphan, and not raised by his kins

The three main reasons for Hiruzen giving Naruto his mother's surname Uzumaki were to protect the village, Naruto, and the kyuubi.
Like the other posts stated, giving him the name Namikaze will make him a target for his father's enemies.
But there is more to Uzumaki name than just that. Hiruzen understood that the mysterious masked man (Tobi) didn't attack Minato Namikaze. What Tobi did was attack the kyuubi. And a fashionable trend seemed to be having the jinchuuriki as the Kage's son, for example Gaara was a jinchuuriki and his father was the Kazekage. So by giving Naruto the Uzumaki surname, this made Naruto + the kyuubi safer from anyone after the kyuubi.
Hiruzen also made sure to conceal the information about Naruto altogether, as shinobi that knew about the attack (on the kyuubi) were not allowed to talk about it (hence many people not knowing Naruto is Minato's son).
My extra 2 cents :
This all ties well with Naruto's personality, as the Uzumaki nature (brash personality, powered by will and conviction) better suits the main character of a shounen compared to the Namikaze depiction (Genius, excels at everything). Maybe I give Kishimoto too much credit, but I feel like he had this all planned out (with Naruto being the son of the fourth, yet having his mother's name and personality).

and his dad's hair, and once he master's the nine tails his extreme speed makes Naruto appear as a "Yellow Flash"

The reason why Naruto has his mother's last name is because if people found out Naruto was the son of the fourth Hokage, he would have been in danger. This was actually explained to Naruto by Minato Namikaze the fourth Hokage himself in episode 168 of Naruto Shippuden. Naruto got to punch his dad in the stomach which was very funny even if he was mad at him.

I agree with Demietra95. It is a custom in Japan for prestigious families to have more "weight" when it comes to last names (E.g. A samurai family is given preference over non-samurai ones), so it would be natural for the Uzumaki clan to be given priority over the Namikaze clan.

Hiruzen(the third Hokage) Decided to put Naruto's Surname as Uzumaki because the Uzumaki was a clan which has Split after the village was destroyed,which meant that Most of the Uzumakis were refugees, which meant that it would be harder to confirm that Naruto was Minato's child(although he has yellow hair instead of the trademark red hair of the Uzumaki's), Secondly, the Namikaze from what I see on the wiki was a clan that was located in konohakagure,and Minato was the only famous Namikaze(once again,Wikipedia.),so If Naruto was given Namikaze, it would be easier for Anyone hunting for the Kyuubi or getting revenge to Find Naruto and Kill/hold him hostage, which would put the village in jeopardy.Thirdly, Hiruzen wanted to give Naruto a normal life(which he failed because of mizuki =_=).

Can you link to or otherwise provide anything from canon to back this up?

I think a child's last name depends on what clan it has been born in. Naruto Uzumaki therefore show that he's a Uzumaki clan member. Just like Kushina Uzumaki, Naruto's mom. The preference of Uzumaki over Yamikaze is probably because the Minato and Kushina wanted to make Naruto less recognisable in public, as he is the 9 tail Jinchūriki and will be on the hitlist of many groups and organizations such as the Akatsuki.

Sasuke Uchiha comes from the Uchiha clan.
Hinata Hyuga comes from the Hyuga clan and so on.

I feel like Naruto was given Uzumaki was because of these reasons:

Hiruzen just didn't want another attack on Konohagakure involving Naruto.
The main character would be killed/taken hostage by groups (Akasutki, etc.)
Naruto would be constantly on the run (making the story intense yet boring)
Naruto wouldn't have met all the characters besides Akatsuki members (when Masashi Kishimoto made them)

Well according to me I think Naruto Uzumaki uses his mother's last name cause it was a reputed clan, however there was nothing about his father's clan in the scenario. though Minato Namikaze was the fourth hokage still there was no details about his family in the whole manga series.

Are there any sources to back your claim up?


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Given how Obito had acquired Bijuu in the past, why would he bother going to war?
I don't get this.
Did Obito think that it would be easier to go to war with the whole shinobi world rather than capture the 8-tails and 9-tails Jinchuuriki on the low like how he did with the other ones?  He basically ended up fighting not only both of them but also the entire shinobi world.
Would Obito's plans succeeded if he did not declare war and kept everything under the radar till the end?  I believe he'd have been successful and that he wouldn't have needed to summon Madara at all.

He went to war with the whole Shinobi world in order IN ORDER TO capture 8 and 9 tails. He could not do the same method like in other Jinchuuriki because: both are quite powerful and both are already under the protection of the Alliance (they were also mobile all the time). If he could get under their 'radar', he would probably do so but seeing as he did not, that just means that he either saw their protection as powerful or that it would be easier to take the alliance out of the way first or use them as bait, knowing how Naruto responds to that kinds of situations.

Obito declared war because he knew that the alliance would keep Bee & Naruto at a disclosed location since they had caught on to what the Akatsuki were doing. The war would allow him to draw out Naruto & Bee to complete the plan of bringing back Ten Tails in it's prime state.
He had Kisame gather intel, but then of course Kabuto showed up. Obito's plan was essentially to gather intel on the locations of the last two jinchuuriki, use the zetsu to distract the allied shinobi forces in a war, and lure Naruto/Bee out. It didn't work out like that, but he had a legit plan.

Indeed his plan would be a success if he kept it on the low but since bee was like a brother to the Raikage when he thought he was kidnapped he couldn't take it and since he knew it was an Uchiha with the Akatsuki who took him he called for that meeting (the kages summit) where they were going to discuss what to do against this organization especially with Konoha also been destroyed by pain, so Obito knew they he couldn't work on the low anymore that he had to step up and threaten them to declare war if they don't give up hachibi and Kyuubi and that's how the war started.
and of course, it was also for his own benefit since cuz like this he can lure naruto out.
But the part about summoning Madara, it's not a need, it's a deal, it was planed like this.
the original deal was to make Nagato resurrect Madara so that Obito can also fall in that ultimat genjutsu to be with Rin and kinda live his deepest desires happily ever after, but that also didn't when Nagato died and Kabuto summoned Madara in that form

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Why can Bijuu be controlled with only three tomoe Sharingan?
The Bijuu are legendary creatures created by Hagoromo himself.  Why can they be controlled by simple three tomoe Sharingan, which average Uchiha shinobi obtain?

Because the Uchiha are Hagoromo's descendents. Also, it is shown that Hagoromo developed Sharingan before he attained the Rinnegan. So basically he's the first Sharingan user. Hence establishing the link between Sharingan, Uchiha and Bijuu.

thank you for that it's been bothering me for a long time. I didn't really think someone was gonna answer.

I'll put up a more detailed answer if you want :)

@EroSɘnnin Reminder for you to convert your comment into an answer :)

@FumikageTokoyami thank you for the reminders, but I have procrastinated these answers for so long that my priorities changed. I may or may not create an answer for these posts.

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What does it take to be an alchemist, besides knowledge and technique?
This is somewhat related to the question, Why can't the homunculi perform Alchemy?
Alchemy is an essential part of life in the series, where not only have the State Military weaponized it, but seems to be at the center of religion and priesthood of neighbouring countries. And yet, only a handful of people practice it. If it's so essential, why can't everyone work with it? We are not experts at all the fields we use, but we use them in some limited capacity anyway. For example, we are not all doctors, but when we have fever, we pop antipyretics; we are not all computer scientists, but we can use computers in our own ways, and so on. In the FMA-universe, alchemy seems to practised by just experts.
We already know that sin-essenced homunculi can't perform alchemy, but Father is a Homunculus (the original one), and yet he can perform alchemy. Ordinary doctors (eg. the Rockbells) have the smarts for advanced study, but don't seem to use any alchemy. Skilled automail mechanics have specialized technical knowledge, but none of them use alchemy.
There are exceptional circumstances where Father blocks tectonic alchemy for everyone, or Edward giving away his portal. But why can't everyone else perform some simple alchemy? Is there an explanation for this in the manga, that is similar to Star Wars' "midi-chlorians"?

I added the fullmetal-alcheist-series tag. I'm not sure if the individual brotherhood and manga tags are necessary.

Alchemy is a combination of chemistry and magic, and it requires both knowledge and technique to make a transmutation happen. Though you're correct that alchemy is an important part of the series, for the people of Amestris, it's still something that's exceptional and out of the norm. (Remember how often citizens are impressed when Ed or Al use the simplest of alchemy to restore broken objects.)
Your analogy of pills and computers isn't totally accurate. Yes, we take pills when we have a fever... but do you have any idea how to make one of those pills? I'm sure you've got a general idea of how to start (you take some chemicals and put them together), but the actual specifics are much more complicated. Same with computers - we can use the programs on them easy enough, but do you know how to code one of those programs? This is how people view alchemy as well - they see a tool that can be used to fix/create, but the actual process is far too complicated for most people. After all, Ed and Al have studied almost their whole life, and most of the state alchemists have also spent a great deal of time honing their craft. (As a side note, this is probably the reason alchemists tend to specialize in one type of alchemy, such as Roy's fire or Tucker's chimeras - they learned all the chemistry related to that field, and would be much less effective doing something else.)
The Rockbell doctors can't perform alchemy because although they are very smart (and probably have some chemistry training as well), they don't know the alchemical techniques necessary to make a transmutation happen. Similarly for automail mechanics - they have a ton of knowledge of which parts make up a functioning mechanical limb, but they don't know alchemy. (Likewise, this is why Ed needs Winry to fix his automail all the time - he doesn't know how it works on a technical level. He can transmute some parts of it like making a blade out of the aesthetic parts of the arm, but he is unable to to fully repair the arm on his own... he needs specialized knowledge for that.)

Doctors can't make most of those pills either. They rely on other specialists, but we are all on a spectrum of competence at applying treatments. Most of us can look up medically sound home remedies and apply them. Nearly every office-worker who uses excel knows how to sort some data, without knowing the algorithm used. We are not all carpenters or electricians either, but we can use some of their tools and techniques while fixing things around the house. But more to the point of the question, is there an explanation in the source materials, i.e. manga or anime?

I think the answer above is the explanation—using alchemy isn’t like using Excel, it’s like recreating the application Excel from scratch every time you need to do something with it. Alchemy requires a complete understanding of the thing you’re working with before you can transmute it, and most people don’t have that.

Good answer. One other thing I'd point out is that alchemists seem to purposely hide and hoard their knowledge to some extent. Real-world alchemists did this by writing in codes and elaborate metaphors, and given how quickly Ed and Al realize that Dr. Marcoh's notes are encoded in a similar way, it seems like it's also a practice in this world. This would impede a lot of people from learning alchemy because they have to rediscover things. Ed and Al had a store of their father's notes to get them started, but not everyone would have that.


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Does Minato still have Yin-Kurama?
I thought Minato kept Yin-Kurama because I heard that Minato gave Naruto most of his nine tails chakra, but not all of it.
I wonder if Minato still has some of the Yin-half Kurama. If not please explain it to me.

I don't believe he does.
During the final battle, Madara largely succeeded in his goal of extracting Kurama out of Naruto.  This meant that Naruto was going to die if something weren't done.
Enter Minato and Yin Kurama.  A transfer of Yin Kurama was made into Naruto from Minato so that he would survive having Yang Kurama extracted from him.
It isn't the case that Minato contains Kurama any longer.


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Who is the first Oppai Loli ever featured in anime and manga?
The first time I ever saw Oppai Loli is Hestia from Danmachi. But, is Hestia the first Oppai Loli in anime and manga? Was there an Oppai Loli before her?

Did you just coin a term, which abbreviates to OL?

@Gao:  OL is reserved for office lady, as far as I recall...

@Gao not really. Hestia was already called Oppai Loli in Danmachi IIRC.

Note: this answer uses the term "loli" as defined by Japanese anime fans: it's either age-related or appearance-related (AniOta), or to the extension of either childlike face, short height, no waist, loli voice, or even deformed (pixiv).

Hestia is probably the first character that's called ロリ巨乳 (LOLI kyonyuu, big-breasted loli) in-universe, which is a famous term characterizing her physical trait, but there were many oppai loli before her.
Here are articles on AniOta Wiki (Japanese), Nico Nico Pedia (Japanese) and pixiv dictionary (Japanese) that list oppai loli characters with their traits. Here is a Google Sheets made by me for compiling a list of oppai loli characters based on those sources.
Based on AniOta Wiki, Nico Nico Pedia, pixiv Dictionary (+ some YouTube videos), Saori Kido, a 13-year old girl from Saint Seiya (December 1985) is the earliest oppai loli character.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Yuigahama Yui, Kashiwazaki Sena, Kirigaya Suguha doesn't fit the loli part in Oppai Loli. The main requirement of a loli is that she must be short and child-like. Furutani Himawari, Sasaki Chiho and Toudou Kirin can be called loli, although Chiho wasn't so loli-like IMHO. Hestia was definitely called loli. Not sure about the rest.


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What does "notice me senpai" mean, when a boy says it to you?
So this boy in my class said to me, "notice me senpai".  What does it mean?
   I think they like me, so does that have anything to do with it?

He wants you to notice him because he has a great admiration for you ^^
Senpai is an honorific used for experienced or older colleagues in a organization, like clubs, businesses or even schools.
All of this maybe means that this person considers you as a more important person and hopes to get attention from you.
http://www.dictionary.com/meaning/notice-me-senpai


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What is the lightning coming out from Boruto's eye at the end of 13th episode of Boruto?
Is this some power used by him unknowingly?

Related

related, but not giving the answer of my question, may be it is not expected from that question. I am asking about specific event.

maybe it was the chakra being drained from him?! we see that the lightning that comes out of his eye goes to class rep and then the monster gets bigger and is able toteleport. maybe the chakra gained from the eye made it whole?!

It is Dojutsu, the ability to detect things such as chakra which is generally unseen by a normal eye. At the age of 8, which is the age he is at currently within the anime, he is able to use it subconsciously, i.e. unknowingly but at the right moments. But if you watch the first episode where we see a teenage Boruto we see that Boruto is now able to use the Dojutsu, i.e. his eye on his own will.
The origins of this power are still unknown, and I can only speculate that this is somehow related to the seal that Momoshiki presents on Boruto's palm after Boruto defeats him.

Pretty sure the anime has not reached that point even yet. It started with Boruto starting at the Academy, which is long before the Chunin exams when he beat Momoshiki. So in Anime canon, the seal does not exist yet. Also, its noted the seal was given right after saying a cryptic warning that someone who defeats a god ceases to be a normal person.

@Ryan that is something that eludes me, because in the manga the dojutsu is an extension of his seal. The power was not experienced before it .


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At what point does Naruto surpass Kakashi?
When I see lists where they rank most powerful shinobi in Naruto, they generally rank Naruto near the top (usually 1 or 2). These lists generally don't even have Kakashi in the top 25, yet Kakashi is a Jounin, whereas Naruto has NEVER even been able to become a Chunin!
So at what point in the show is it that Naruto surpasses Kakashi?

Could you mention the source of the lists? Is it an official list? If it is not official, then they could use any metric to measure their power.

This is highly opinion based question. The lists you might be referring to are mostly personal rankings by individuals who are using bias/potential to rank individual Ninjas. For Example, Ina-Shika-Cho may be great in a team, but lose out individually. However, I'll try to answer the question based on canon information only.
Naruto surpassed Kakashi in terms of Raw Strength and power as a Ninja, when he mastered the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken. This is proven by the fact that he defeats a Ninja Kakashi had trouble with in his 2nd attack and pretty much one shots him.
This was an achievement that showcases Naruto's persistence and talent as a Ninja, creating a move that both his Father and Sensei (Kakashi, Jiraiya) couldn't do.
He had been moving up the chain for several instances (like defeating Itachi duplicate), but this is the most clear demarkation of his prowess is beating Kakazu 1v1 with his Rasenshuriken. This is further proven by the fact that Kakashi himself said it wondering if Naruto had surpassed him. .
Later also Kakashi admits to Naruto, that he might be even stronger than him now.
Finally, The moment where everyone acknowledges Naruto's strength and talent is clearly beating Pain. Jiraiya and Kakashi died fighting Pain, while Naruto was able to beat him soundly. This moment, leaves no premise for confusion. So somewhere between Kakuzu and Pain Naruto had surpassed Kakashi!

"Naruto surpassed Kakashi in terms of Raw Strength and power as a Ninja, when he mastered the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken" - No... Naruto surpasses Kakashi in raw power since the day he was born, it was all a matter of refining his chakra and being able to use it. He had no power boosts, the chakra was all his. And I never understood all this hype over Naruto with his "Rasenshuriken reveal" - it simply doesn't make sense. Naruto should be nowhere near high-tier Akatsuki level after only learning that one technique.

Kakuzu fought toe to toe with Shodaime, was smart enough to kind of see through Shikamaru's plans and soloed Kakashi (no MS) and Ino-Shika-Cho, and is the 5th strongest Akatsuki.  The only reason why Kakuzu lost was just to showcase naruto's new technique, but in actuality, he should be no where near him in fighting ability. It's pretty ironic that all Naruto talks about is "teamwork" but he literally tells the team to don't worry about it and that he will solo Kakuzu himself... only to be forced to be saved by Yamato and Kakashi.

Naruto's rasenshuriken reveal was all hype. One jutsu does not make him better than Kakashi, and certainly doesn't make him better than Sasuke. It was only after Sage Mode when Naruto is definitively more valuable in a fight than Kakashi. And this is ALL DISREGARDING how OP Kakashi's Kamui is.

And if we want to talk about Final Form Double MS Perfect Susanoo Kakashi, then technically Naruto doesn't surpass kakashi (all forms) until he gets six paths power.

@IknowMoreThanYou Not the place to debate. If you'd read my answer properly, it starts as, "This is highly opinion based question." You're entitled to your opinion as do I. I've tried to answer the question solely on canon points, where we see Kakashi himself wondering if Naruto had "surpassed" him. I would counter each of your points, but comments are not the place for such discussions. You're welcome to improve your answer, by adding your viewpoints there, rather than diss my attempt to answer solely because its not same as yours. Cheers.

This is not an opinion, friend. As you have wonderfully provided the quote where Kakashi says "I wonder if [Naruto] has surpassed me", key word: wonder. Key detail: no one knows, maybe they are the same level. And what exactly did Naruto do "in between" the rasenshuriken reveal and the pain arc besides training for sage mode? Nothing. It is not an opinion that naruto has surpassed kakashi post sage mode. It's neither an opinion that naruto has NOT surpassed Kakashi after rasenshuriken. I am simply providing the "A" in Q&A.Surpassed = clearly stronger/better. Unless they changed he definition.

Naruto surpasses kakashi by the pain arc after Naruto learns senjutsu. His genin status is only a rank. You're forgetting that Naruto trained for Jiraiya for three years and missed all the chunin exams in between.
If you really want to argue about Kakashi's Kamui and his Mangekyou Sharingan that he somehow found out about it in Shippuden Naruto is still stronger. His chakra reserves aren't insane.

You're definitely going to want to add sources to this.

Add sources that naruto is stronger after the pain arc? I mean there's a reason why he is called the hero of the leaf and not kakashi. Kakashi as a character is pretty weak if u take away his kamui spamming. The whole point behind the fact that sasuke naruto and Sakura train under the three sannin was that they would eventually surpass them. (Obviously jiraiya > kakashi

No...I had meant you're going to want to add sources to that exact point in time in which Naruto surpassed Kakashi.  Do bear in mind that Kakashi was made Hokage before Naruto, after all...

Pretty basic logic: Naruto is able to defeat pain. Kakashi is not. Ergo, at this point Naruto is stronger with his senjutsu. If you really want to argue semantics on how Pain's chakra was drained from destroying the village with his almighty push, you can, but that's a silly argument. After naruto defeats pain, Kakashi himself practically admits naruto surpassed him when naruto is leaning on kakashi's shoulder and is being carried back to the village

Kakashi being promoted to hokage first has nothing to do with being stronger. He was made hokage because he was older, wiser, and a better political figure to make peace treaties with the surrounding villages. Naruto is practically Jesus Christ at the end. But kakashi is hokage for the politics. If we are talking about strength. Tsunade should never have been made hokage. Kakashi and Guy outrank her in strength by far

This is the kind of thing you should add to your answer. I'm not disputing this; I want to to reinforce your answer, is all.

Why not the hidan , kakuzu arc ? Kakashi was not able to defeat kakuzu either , while naruto with his rasenshuriken did ?

Kakashi didn't use kamui... the entire plot hole surrounding kamui is debatable, therefore it's hard to say naruto is definitively better than kakashi without him using it.

Yes, Kakashi is a jounin, and yes Naruto didn't make it in the chuunin exam. But you have to remember that these ninja ranks aren't based on power or strength, but on discipline, tactical skill, and most importantly: taking the exams.
After the chuunin exams in the beginning of the story, Naruto leaves the village and was never able to take another exam. After he grows up and comes back to the village, everybody (his schoolmates) is a chuunin and Neji is already a jounin. He just didn't take the exams. I'm pretty sure he was disciplined and trained enough to make it to jounin.
Kakashi might be a genius tactician and skilled in everything ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu BUT he has the chakra content of a small puppy, as seen here, so in the general rank of power, he can't make it very far.
But that's about it, actually. His lack of chakra is his great downfall.
I would actually argue that Naruto surpassed Kakashi right about the beginning of Shippuden. Now, Naruto didn't have control over kyuubi then yet, nor did he have sage mode then BUT STILL, if he could dodge few raikiris (I remember this number being three, but couldn't find sources) that Kakashi is able to produce, he could beat him. At that time, it would be the battle of Naruto's life, but two chakra tails from Kyuubi would probably be able to handle that. If you think that that's too early, go forward a few episodes (40 to 43) and you have Naruto almost killing Orochimaru, that is reportedly stronger than Kakashi.

I don't think you understand how broken kamui is... especially war arc "spam mode" kakashi... if you really think naruto surpasses kakashi in the beginning of shippuden you could not be more lost.

My point was more in the sense that although he wouldn't be able to fight at Kakashi's level at the beginning of shippuden, he certainly had enough raw power power to beat him. Naruto's four tails against Orochimaru was proof of that. He managed to pierce three Rashömon gates with he's bijuudama, whilst Orochimaru couldn't even break Naruto's skin with Kusanagi. Now, I don't know how much penetration power raikiri has, but it can't be that much more then Kusanagi's (I presume)... And you're over estimating the control Kakashi had over his kamui at that point... Four tails Naruto is quite fast.

SInce the beginning of naruto part 1, actually since naruto was born, naruto had enough "raw power" to take on anyone (meanwhile kakashi's chakra reserves are pitifully low). Your argument that he had the raw power doesn't mean he surpassed kakashi in a battle, per say. The biggest plothole in the entire series surrounds kakashi's kamui and the fact that he didn't even NOTICE that he even had a MS for over 15 YEARS blows my mind. That's why it's hard to power scale kakashi in early Naruto shippuden.

My argument is that it is definitive after the pain arc that naruto has surpassed kakashi. The reason why kakashi lost to Kakuzu is because that's how kakashi was written as a character. If you look at all the battles Kakashi fights, he usually gets wasted/destroyed just to make his opponent seem good and the show hypes that said character up. Kakuzu is just another example of this fact. But in reality, if Kakashi used his MS, kakuzu would get curbstomped no question.

Also the argument that Kakashi had "no control" over his MS is so inconsistent. From the Pain arc, Kakashi used one lightning style jutsu, and a couple of kamui's and he stated that his chakra reserves were down to half. Only a COUPLE WEEKS LATER, mind you, he was spamming kamui left and right for plot convenience. The whole kamui storyline is poorly written and it makes it hard to scale kakashi in power.

I mean if Kakashi and Naruto were to get in a fight, how would Naruto stop the GG Kamui prank? Of course by the end of the series, Naruto and Sasuke could literally blitz anyone, but in the Hidan/Kakuzu arc, Naruto is not fast enough to escape a kamui attack.

Once Naruto mastered Sage mode, he could be fast enough to 'dodge' Kamui. He could just instantly attack Kakashi, thus not giving him time to react, and confuse him with multiple shadow clones. Naruto is known to be clever with his usage of shadow clones. i.e. deceiving opponents in terms of which clone is the real Naruto.

Yeah, when I was searching for a way to quantify Kakashi's chakra reserves, the most common answer is "Kakashi has however much chakra the  plot needs him to have". I mentioned his control over the Kamui because it took him a long time to rip off Deidara's arm, but somehow, just a few HOURS after that, he managed to, with not much chakra left and injured, swallow the whole suicide explosion ON THE FLY. Kakashi's power is definitely weird to measure. Maybe it's a ploy to fool the enemies into thinking he can't fight for very long (speculative).


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Are joke episodes common in anime?
Episode 101 of Naruto is a joke episode; it is set in between major plot events and revolves around trying to figure out what is under Kakashi's mask. It's also based off of an omake, which are often meant to be funny.
Is it common to have entire episodes dedicated to just a joke, or to have them based off of omake? While omake are relatively inexpensive to make, episodes are expensive, so it seems like this wouldn't be particularly common. Alternatively, it could be a useful way to fill up space in fillers in long anime, many of which I haven't seen. So, is this a common practice?

Episode 469 of Naruto: Shippuden was mostly bases on the omake Fu no Sho.

It depends on the series.
For series who have a guided plot and who have a specific direction they're going in, like Bleach or Naruto, having a comedic episode appear once in a while serves as filler, and something light-hearted for the audience to enjoy.  For instance, non-plot-related episodes of Bleach involving Don Kanon'ji were often joke episodes at intent, and Bleach even did an Arabian Nights' episode in the middle of the major Hueco Mundo plotline.
(I would argue, though, that Kakashi's true face became an ascended meme within the Naruto franchise due to the pervasive curiosity that Naruto and Sakura have when they go to visit him in the hospital, and come this close to actually seeing it.)
Less guided shows like Hayate the Combat Butler have joke episodes embedded and running alongside actual episodes to the extent that it becomes tough to filter out the noise from the signal.  However, with it being a gag anime, and it not getting ever serious (in animation), this is not only par for the course, but to be expected.
I would say that it's not common, but it largely depends on what demographic the show is trying to hit, and how they're portraying themselves - either as a story, plot and resolution-style show, or as a gag show.

I'm not sure if this is something there's information on/you know about, but what about episodes specifically based on omake, like Naruto ep 101?

@kuwaly:  I doubt that matters.  If the producers want to inject a humorous episode into the series, they'll do so, omake or no omake.

I realize that, but part of my original question is whether it is common to have episodes based off of omake.

I would make a note, that the younger the target audience the more likely filler episodes will be in the series.

Joke episodes or Fillers are quite common in anime which have many episodes like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece etc. Usually the fillers are put after a long battle or something substantially epic that has been happening over a number of episodes. There are few to no fillers in anime having less number of episodes (20-24 ep per season). I recommend finding out all the fillers ep and skipping them to get to the man plot. I believe you are are watching Naruto so here is the fillers list
http://www.animefillerlist.com/shows/naruto
http://www.animefillerlist.com/shows/naruto-shippuden

I know that fillers are common, but a lot of filler episodes are just regular episodes or part of a filler arc, not entire jokes built around jokes. The latter is what I was asking about, not filler episodes in general.

This only half answers the question, really.  What's being posed is if this is common, not if there's a way to skip past them.

I haven't seen all the anime that's out there but in all the anime with many episodes including Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Fairy Tail etc it was common.


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What are the pirates in Outlaw Star chanting when they use magic?
Whenever the pirate guilds make any use of magic, they chant something repetitively (example: on episode 2, about 3 minutes in, as shown on Funimation. It's not subtitled, and kind of hard to make out.
I'd imagine it's something in Chinese; their powers are referred to as "Tao magic", with one character in particular called a "Tao master".
What is this chant, and its significance if any? Note that this is on the English dub, if it matters.

It is very much the case that the pirates are associated with the Chinese Guild.  This much is said in the intro of episode 7.

This particular group of pirates are from the Hoppo system.  They are called the 108 Suns, the most brutal member of the Chinese Guild.

The chant itself is not Chinese.  It sounds more like faux Chinese, or at least something to sound as close to foreign as possible.  The sub doesn't make any attempt to transliterate the chant at all, and any announced senjutsu attacks are nonsensical phrases in both Japanese and Chinese.


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The colour of Naruto‘s Rasengan
In the anime it's clearly said, that every one sees the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Fox as red/orange, when Naruto uses it. But no matter what chakra Naruto uses for his Rasengan, it's always blue (like normal). Why is this?

Naruto's own chakra color is blue, which contrasts with the Nine-Tails' own chakra color of red.
Interestingly though, despite Naruto using the Nine-Tails' chakra to create larger and larger Rasengan, the color remains the same.  This might be a plot hole; this may be indicative of Naruto himself performing the attack with a larger amount of chakra under his control.

Canonically, Naruto's chakra color is yellow :)

@Wondercricket:  Is that pic from an official source?  Not seeing any mention of it anywhere on the Naruto wikia, nor has it fit canonically with the story and chakra battles (of note - the tug-of-war he had with the Kyuubi).

This may be true, but sometimes it‘s said, that he has no chakra left at all. Then he uses the chakra of the nine-tailed and everyone is surpised. In that case, he only uses the red chakra with no blue/normal left so it should be red in my opinion.

@Makoto I dug around a few sources and discovered this was stated in Chapter 91, page 16ish. This was when Naruto was training with Jiraiya. I wonder why there are inconsistencies

@Wondercricket I believe it's a mixup with the anime studio, they had to pick a color when animating but forgot to ask the writer of the manga.

Shinobi have chakra that is blue. naruto was not using the kyuubi chakra for the rasengan hence why it is not orange/red.


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What are Mori and Honey doing?
In the episode The Sun, The Sea and the Host Club. Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai are doing something with a couple of the girls in the background while Haruhi is under the umbrella complaining about the situation.
What is it that they are doing, and why does Haruhi act the way she does when she sees it? Does it have something to do with the class divide between her and the rest of the host club?

My guess is that it's supposed to be some sort of Kachāshī, a form of traditional Okinawan dance. They were on the beach in Okinawa but the dancing is wrong, which may be why Haruhi is going "???" at them.
For reference, here's the screenshot of the scene in question:

And some screenshots of the Okinawan dance:


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What did Chinatsu make?
In the first season on Episode 6, they play with oil clay, and the clay model that Chinatsu make was censored.

What exactly did she make? Are there any pictures without the censorship?

It's likely a nod to how terrible of an artist she actually is.  That is, when she tries to be good.
Earlier in the same episode, she was reading off a picture book to the group.  At the very least, it freaked Yui and Kyouko out a ton.

The likely inference here is that her art sculpture is so bad, that censoring it is the only sane way to show it to the rest of the world.

It was pretty scary.

To clarify, she's horrible at any sort of creativity when she "tries", in the second season she makes cookies and a scarf for Yui, the tests ones which she put no effort into looked perfectly fine yet the ones she made for Yui which she put all her effort into making was just as horrible as all her art, also when she spills ink on one of Toshinou's Mirakurun pages she tries her best to fix it, ruining it in the process


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Where does Team Rocket get all of their vehicles and machines?
Team Rocket usually uses some weird vehicle or machine. Where do they get them? Do they build them themselves or do they buy them somewhere?

Even though Jessie and James are pretty stupid, they are still a part of the larger organization Team Rocket where they obtain their funds. I believe that in the 1st season with the original 150 Pokemon they are also shown once meeting the boss for more funds, who gets pretty mad but in the end still grants it to them. (I can't recall the exact episode; it is too long ago.)
How does the organization Team Rocket obtain money? Well, if it was not quite obvious yet, by Jessie and James trying to steal each and every Pokemon quoting "they will make a nice buck" once in a while.

While its main focus is stealing or capturing rare and strong Pokemon, and subsequently selling them, it also funds and conducts cruel experimental research on Pokemon. Their oath, as posted on the wall of one of their many bases, is "Steal Pokemon for profit. Exploit Pokemon for profit. All Pokemon exist for the glory of Team Rocket." Their ultimate goal is to take over the world using Pokemon.

I have been using Jessie and James as an example due to your picture. There are more reliable Team Rocket members within their ranks which do manage to obtain Pokemon also managing to cover the failure of a member's cost.

at one stage it's show how low ranked they are in comparison to others as they are given Pogo Sticks as equipment while Casidy and Berch get Jetpacks

I think they build it themselves, because they explain how the robots work and they have a lot of mechanical equipment. I think Meowth builds most of the robots because 1, a lot of them look like him, 2, he drives most of them, and 3, he has the controls for the robots.


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Why is the nine tails afraid of Madara?
In a recent episode of the Naruto anime, the reanimated Madara tries to summon the nine tails but fails since it's sealed inside Naruto, later when Madara attacks with his Deep Forest jutsu the nine tails tells Naruto,"I'd rather be controlled by you than by Madara" and shares some of its chakra with Naruto to defeat Madara. Is it really afraid of Madara or is there some other reason?

nice point.. even for sasuke he says that sasuke's chakra is as sinister as Madara. So what is it with Madara and Kurama?

I don't read that as fear - possibly loathing or dislike, but I don't know why you think fear is what's behind these statements.

@Oded yes, but what gives way to that feeling?

@debal - "I'd rather be controlled by you than by Madara" does not suggest that Kurama is afraid - it isn't an expression of fear. It suggests dislike (anyone would be better than Madara - don't know why, but fear doesn't seem to come into it).

@Oded, srry for not being clear.. :) I was referring to why Kurama feels that way for Madara.. be it fear or dislike.

I don't think that it's fear per-se, more like... hate.
The nine-tails prefers to help Naruto voluntarily than be forcefully controlled by Madara (or Tobi, for that matter).
Manga Spoiler:

 The bijuu have feelings, and hate being treated as weapons, ever since the Sage of Six Paths dies, Kurama has known nothing but ignorance from humans. (Like when Madara yells at him to obey, or when Hashirama tells him that he's too dangerous and he must seal him.)

So helping Naruto was the better option.

I agree with the hate. Hate of being used or controlled.

And this coming from Uchiha Madara himself.

9 tails fears being controlled by Madara because he likes his current host. Plain and simple. The Uchiha have a past with him as well, as depicted in shippuden episode 2 when Sasuke uses his sharingan to explore Naruto's mind.
On a side note, the Jinchuriki (all demons as well) are beings that thrive via personal gain. A demon will not present itself to a human unless it wants or needs something that can be taken or given freely from the human. Perhaps 9 tails believes Madara is just another (1)manipulative asshole with the (2)last name Uchiha. 2 reasons not to go with him. Another reason could be that e believes Madara is weak >:p and unworthy of his acquaintance.

Nine tails never feared Madara. It only hates to be controlled and misused like a weapon. As an arrogant tailed beast Kurama doesn't appreciate to be controlled exscpecially by The Mangekyō Sharingan. However this method of control seems to be inferior to that of a Perfect Jinchūriki, since it turns the Tailed Beast into a mindless, unthinking animal being unable to use its other abilities as well as being unable to control the power output of the Tailed Beast Ball. source

I think it was because that Madara was the one that made him destroy something that he didn't want to I mean come on he was basically Madara's mind controlled slave .
Watch harshirama vs Madara  and you'll see why the nine tails or kurama attack the leaf village or at first tried to attack it until harshirama stop Madara by accepting his challenge to fight Madara which harshirama managed to first separate the kurama and Madara  with a contact seal Justsu which freed kurama from Madara's sharingan which made kurama blind and did'nt know what was going on until he woke up and found himself locked away in the hashirama's wife mito uzumaki the first jinchuriki.
kurama was with until she became ill and so they decided to find another what they called vessel for the nine tailed fox  which happened to be kushina Uzumaki the mother naruto uzumaki and the wife of minato namikaze or in other words naruto's dad and the fourth hokage which he stopped the real attack of the nine tailed fox where it was not Madara but it was another uchiha named obito that made the nine tails attack the village and then when he
Lost control of kurama , kurama started attacking because of what they are treating him as but luckily naruto's dad or the fourth hokage managed to stop kurama's attack and planned to seal him in naruto on the break of death he managed to complete the seal and said his last goodbye to naruto until those times where over that's where naruto was kurama's jinchuuriki for already 16 until the attack.
So guess old memories are coming back to kurama of the times of how he was treated and he was not scared of Madara he was very angry at him and managed to help and encourage naruto by giving him some of his power to counter the deep forest Justsu  and write now from naruto and kurama having a lot of issues while naruto was growing up and similar backgrounds on how they were treated they finally became friends , partners for a reason not just because they were alike to each other it's because they both wanted one and that is to protect and save the world they live in and that's why he is not afraid

Nah, I don't think Kurama is afraid of Madara.
I think what he meant by "I'd rather be controlled by you than by Madara" is that he didnt want to be fully controlled by his user (he wanted to have a say in decision making). Kuruma probably wouldn't like to be manipulated like a puppet.


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Did Yamamoto Genryuusai use all his power aganist Aizen?
During the Arrancar war saga in Bleach, Yamamoto fought against Aizen before the arrival of Ichigo. In the end of the fight he used a kidou that almost killed himself tying to defeat Aizen. If I remember, this kidou uses the body as a "fuel" for it to work.
Spoiler:

 But in the new saga, he showed his bankai against Juha Bach. And it's
 very powerful.

He said that never used his full power, why didn't he use it against Aizen? If he underestimated him, why would he use that kidou that almost killed him and ended up losing the fight, instead of using his bankai?

I'm going to risk and say "for plot purposes" but perhaps someone here has a better answer.

He did not use the bankai because he could not use it.
His bankai Zanka no Tachi absorbs the flames of his Ryujin Jakka into the katana blade. During the battle in fake Karakura town, Wonderweiss absorbed his flames. Later when the flames sealed inside Wonderweiss's body are about to explode, Yamamoto has to shield it with his own body, which left his own body in tatters. It is reasonable to assume that he was either in no position to activate his bankai, or the bankai would not be strong enough since he couldn't absorb enough flames.
If he had known Wonderweiss's abilities beforehand, he may have gone straight to his bankai from the start.

Humm I see, it really makes sense. I forgot about Wonderweiss's ability, Thanks!

Zanka no Tachi relies on flames no matter how you cut it. Wonderweiss by design should have been able to absorb them. The only ambiguity is in how much Wonderweiss could handle, but there is not enough evidence to determine if he would be overwhelmed.

@DazC You are missing my point. I did not say that he didn't use bankai because of Wonderweiss's ability. He shikai is very strong by itself, and like most shinigami, he started by using it. It got absorbed by Wonderweiss, and at that point, there was no use in using bankai, because the flames were gone. When the flames exploded, he had to use himself as a shield, which caused a huge damage to his body. That's why I said it is "reasonable" to assume that he couldn't use his bankai in that situation. Either this, or one can shrug it off saying "Kubo didn't think of it", and move on. Your call.

@Happy My point was from what was happening to Ryuujin Jakka's flames, using bankai would render the same results by technicality. Regardless of his damage; hence, why Genryuusai stopped using his zanpakuto (well before sacrificing himself in fact) was a tactical move to quickly deal with his situation. The logic is there. The ambiguity I mentioned was to obscure the possibility of whether or not Wonderweiss could be overpowered by Genryuusai's power. Plus, flames from Ryuujun Jakka are taken in bankai, but that doesn't make it necessary to achieve bankai (like starting out with it is OK).

It can also be pointed out that his bankai would have had devastating effects in the human world.  He completely disabled Toshiro's powers who was quite the distance away just by releasing it, because it rendered even the water in the air useless to Toshiro. That may have held him back enough that he never really had to use it until he was stopping wonderweiss's explosion, and it was too late.


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Has a bankai ever been silently activated?
To activate a Bankai or its ability, is the user required to perform some verbal command activation?
For example, Ichigo often yells

Bankai: Tensa Zangetsu

However, I'm pretty sure that I've read some silent activations, but I can't remember for sure.
So has a Bankai ever been activated without a vocal command?
Note that this is not a duplicate of Can a mute activate a zanpakutou, as that question asks whether it is possible. And this question asks if a silent activation has ever happened in the series.

Yes, it has.
After re-reading the manga, this happens twice. Once when Ichigo fights Ulquiorra for the first time in Las Noches

And again in his fight against Grimmjow

actually it happens three times, you skipped the first time when he saved nel from dordoni and then cut his horn of and then cut the snake monster in half.

A bankai has never been silently released before.  That is to say, a Soul Reaper has never silently achieved bankai in the middle of a fight and continued the battle.
Each bankai does have a formal declaration, even if it is a bit more sly than others (such as Kuchiki Byakuya throwing his sword down on some occasions), but there is still the ceremony of declaring it as bankai and revealing its name.

After re-reading the manga, I've found this to be incorrect. See my answer


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Why are school swimsuits with name tags such a popular item in otaku subculture?
How did it get so popular in otaku subculture?
What is the name of the proper name for name tag that's commonly found on female school swimwear? Sometimes it just says the name, sometimes just the class number, and other times both. What significance does it play both in-universe and in real life?

Maybe so they can identify their swimsuits if they leave them at school?

Here's a random YouTube clip of a Japanese school IRL.

It is probably what its like actually in schools in Japan.

It's the same for their bags, shoes and school uniforms. Because of the uniformity they implement at schools, almost all of their school things are identical so they put name tags on those to let them know which are theirs.

School uniforms are a fetish which gained popularity in anime. Most likely stemmed from school romance novels which was morphed over time into a fetish for lolicons wanting to have that rosy school romance with a childhood friend or something.

What is it called?
There doesn't seem to be a separate name for that kind of school swimsuit, but the the part with name and class written on it can be called either ゼッケン (zekken, literally meaning cloth) or 名札 (nafuda, literally meaning name tag).
Why is it popular?
I don't think there's a definitive or objective way to answer why school swimsuits are so popular in anime, but here are translations of some of the possibilities mentioned in various answers to a very similar Yahoo Chiebukuro question:

It's easier to draw everyone in school swimsuits than to make up a swimsuit design for each character
They make the character seem younger, inferior, and/or weaker
They expose some skin and show off a character's body while still seeming immature
It's moe (see related question: What does 'moe' mean?)
They have a simple design which is appealing
Lolicons prefer school swimsuits, and it's easier to please all of lolicons with school swimsuits than to attempt to please all the other groups with widely varying preferences

What is its purpose?
From the Japanese Wikipedia article for gym uniforms, which typically also include the same patch with a student's name:

In order to manage students and in the event of an accident while
  exercising, the student's name, class, attendance number (similar to
  an ID number), etc. are filled out on a white cloth name tag that is
  sewn or embroidered onto the clothing.

There was no relevant information in the article specifically for school swimsuits which is why I used the article for gym uniforms in general.

It's a bit difficult to find the name, though using the word from the Japanese Wikipedia page, it seems to be this: 名札.
To summarize the Japanese Wikipedia page on gym clothes:
It seems like there are two reasons to have these name tags. The first reason is for identification for emergency response. If a student is injured while exercising or, in this case, has a problem while swimming, they can be quickly and easily identified. Also, it allows for identification both to help people keep their clothing straight and to be identifiable to the teachers/other students in the class.
This is corroborated as well in the German Wikipedia page on mizugi, or Japanese swim-wear, where it states that the name-tags help teachers identify their students because identification is otherwise difficult due to the swim-caps.
The reason for it being so popular with otaku subculture is likely just that swimsuits in general are popular, and this is just one aspect of it. Additionally, they are used in schools primarily, so they likely show an aspect of innocence that is also popular.

Was this machine translated...? It's nearly incomprehensible.

Yeah. Sorry, but I don't know Japanese, and there isn't (as far as I can tell) a page on it in English. That's why I summarized it underneath the block text.

Relying on machine translation has skewed the meaning of the original text. The beginning of the first line reads "In order to manage students and in the event of an accident while exercising..." So it is more for in case a student gets hit in the head with a ball and passes out than if there is some major disaster.

Okay, thanks. I'll clarify that in the answer.

@Downvoters: what can I fix to make the answer better?

It's good that you removed the incomprehensible machine translation, but the fact that the answer is still based on it is pretty worrisome.

If there is anything else that will make my answer more reputable, please tell me.


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How are the themes and songs picked for a particular series?
Are the opening/ending themes, insert songs, and background music created specifically for the series they represent, or are they just picked by the producers/production committee based on how well they would fit their series?
What typically happens? What exceptions are there? How much have things changed now compared to the past?

Excellent question! It was interesting to analyze the economical ties between anime studio and music labels in anime, i.e. Aniplex / A-1 Pictures anime featuring artists from Sony (Himeka on Senkou no Night Raid, Boom Boom Satellites on Bounen no Xamdou), owner of both studio and label. If we talk about Bandai we have Lantis but I think there are not the only two cases due to Keiretsu or similar Japanese strong relationship between companies.

Are the opening/ending themes, insert songs, and background music created specifically for the series they represent, or are they just picked by the producers/production committee based on how well they would fit their series? What typically happens?

In most cases, opening/ending themes, insert songs, and background music are created specifically for the series they represent. Though, it can also be picked based on it's popularity. After all, the main objective is to promote both the series and the theme songs.

What exceptions are there?

About exceptions, which I think can only be applicable when picking a song depends on the deal between the companies (anime production/company and music company) whether they will allow a song to be used as an anime theme song. Well, anime can be a good promoter of a theme song and vice versa so it's a win-win deal for the companies, so exceptions I guess will be all inside their agreement.

How much have things changed now compared to the past?

I think the only thing that has changed pertaining anime theme songs are the popularity. Anime are more popular now than before globally so there is more opportunity of a theme song to have a different versions of languages (which involves purposely creating theme songs for the anime itself).
My basis is here,

The theme music for most anime tends to be catchy songs deliberately written for release to the pop/rock music market, if they aren't
  already actual pop/rock songs.
One reason is simply that anime
  provides an easy way for both hit and entry J-pop/J-rock artists to
  get more exposure and good lateral promotion. Platinum J-rock bands
  like L'Arc~en~Ciel and Orange Range frequently release their new songs
  along as themes in anime that are on the air at the same period as
  their respective singles or albums.
Another reason this is done is because many anime voice actors are
  also singers, often the more successful ones. (At least one such
  performer, Megumi Hayashibara, is both a formidable presence on
  Japanese pop charts and an internationally-known talent, as well as
  the recipient of more star and featured anime roles than any one
  person ought to have.) It's not unknown for production companies to
  organize some of their principal cast members into groups for
  recording CDs — the "Goddess Family Club" (Ah! My Goddess), DoCo
  (Ranma 1/2), the Maho-Dou (Ojamajo Doremi) and the Spirit Singers
  (Digimon Frontier) all come to mind. Either way, it's usually to a
  voice actor's advantage — they perform theme songs (as well as
  additional "character" songs), receiving a double benefit from
  exposure in two different markets (and the additional profit).
A third reason is that TV theme songs are the pinnacle of Japanese
  musical success. If a Japanese artist/group makes a hit album, the
  studio takes almost all of the profits. If the same group makes an
  album as a TV tie-in, the musicians themselves receive a much larger
  cut.

I think exception can be found in Nichijou's ending theme from the second half of the episodes. There is at least Tsubasa wo Kudasai, which is a song from 1970s and has been sung by many artists (it is also used in K-ON).

A song revival, perhaps? Song revival has to have a consent to the original singer/writer/composer. Can you explain further the exception you mentioned. (Sorry, I'm a bit slow today ;P)

Nah, I cannot really explain the why part. I only know that it is not a song written for the anime only.

Then it goes under the picking of the songs then. Probably. Those who are truly involve in anime production can really answer this. :)

I don't think TVTropes is a very good reference for this kind of question. What kind of sources do they use anyway (besides the random specific examples they give)?

I think not. Though I agree that anime theme songs selection is not that much appropriate with the site. But analyzing it, their answer provides sense and accuracy.


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Why is it hard to draw people running in animes?
Why is it so hard in many animes to draw people running?
I mean even if the whole anime drawing is good, somehow when someone is running it feels so awkward. Their body movements don't look realistic. Sometimes people seem to be leaping or scrolling. Sometimes their steps seem to be longer than a normal human could walk.
There are exception of course, but they are so rare.

Can you provide some examples, like specific anime, screenshots, or videos of this "awkward" running?

in general some of the older anime have problems with "normal" walking. the movements are not fluid and more "move the torso up and down, show no legs and move the scenery", walking done (see Inuyasha, haibane renmei or similar). but they got considerably better at it (see code geass, guilty crown, deadman wonderland and similar)

The walk cycle is considered to be one of the most basic aspects of animation.
American animators and animation enthusiasts often times scorn the Japanese styles and methods of animation as lazy, while Japanese anime enthusiasts deride the American style as clunky or too comical.
Why is that you ask? The answer lies in how these countries distribute their budget and time.
While American animation often times may seem lacking in it's attention to detail, it makes up for it the quality of their animation. American animation often times meticulous and original in how they animate motion, though sometimes content is reused cyclically, the animation is painstakingly frame by frame.
In contrast, Japanese anime uses a lot of shortcuts (to save budget and meet deadlines). Typically long scenes feature only the mouth of a character (and maybe other minor features like a waving hair or glittering eyes) moving during delivery of key information/dialog, or the short burst of motion of some character in some an action pose against an animated, cyclic, and stylized background (I'm looking at you transformation scenes). Often times these uses of dramatic still-shots are done against patterned (or static illustrated) backgrounds, sometimes a few moving emotive icons (sweat drops, question marks, small chibi animated heads) will accompany a some sort of monologue. Admittedly both styles of animation reuse shots and sequences, but it's more noticeable in Japanese anime for various reason (e.g., not enough budget and/or manpower). This is why Japanese anime is typically labeled as "lazy" by American animators and enthusiasts.
A typical walk cycle in animation consists of 8 keyframes typically:

The smoothness of an animation is typically determined by the framerate and amount of key frames in the animation.
In American animation, the animation is captured by shooting two frames of film per drawing at a rate of 24 frames per second (fps) to achieve the smooth motion of American animation.
Japanese anime, while it also runs at an average 24 fps, typically captures their animation at a rate of three or four frames per drawing in order to save money and manpower. Though it varies depending on the studio and tools used (e.g 3DCG) with main objects in the foreground (typically characters) are animated at 8 to 12 fps, while background objects can be animated at as low as 6 to 8 fps.
Lets compare the difference between one walk cycle that is 8 frame to one that is 16 frames, both at 60 fps:
 <-- 8 frames      <-- 16 frames
Notice the 16 frame one is smoother, but slower while the 8 frame is faster, but choppier. This is because it takes the 16 frame animation twice as long, covering more frames, to go through one cycle than the 8 frame one.
The varying of frame rates can also be be used to depict the expansion and compression of time (think bullet time from The Matrix). However generally choppy animation is the result of not enough keyframes in your animation. More frames mean more and manpower and/or time, which ultimately means more money is required. Japanese anime production don't typically have as big of a budget compared to American productions (but there are exceptions), so they must make do with what they have and cut corners where they can (like Shaft did with the certain Bakemonogatari TV episodes).

Great answer. And as you mentioned, American animation skips art detail for animation fidelity, while Anime will have highly detailed artwork with choppier animation. An interesting counterpoint would be Mob Psycho 100, where One's low detail artwork lends itself to a very high quality of animation.

In the creation of Japanese animation, the director creates the storyboards (think of them as scenes) to assign to key animators. I'm mostly unsure where the blame lies, but I theorized that it's mostly on budget and time constraints. The key animators are good are making people run in a 2D plane (x, y dimensions). However, some might find it difficult to do it in a complex perspective assigned by the director. Additionally, the director hands a specific amount of frames that they have to accomplish it in so it won't break the overall timing/flow of next scene. In some instances, the key animator is successful, but the inbetweener makes it appear "off".
It mostly depends on the key animator. Toshiyuki Inoue, Mitsuo Iso, Hideaki Anno, Hiroyuki Okiyura and Shinji Hashimoto were known as "realist" animators. Yoshinari Kandada pioneered the "Kanada" style. It's hard to describe what it exactly is, but it was prevalent in 80's mecha anime and in most Gainax anime. It's described as "spastic", or choppy looking. Despite Eastern animation favoring composition over animation, the fight/action choreography is hailed constantly.


text:
Why does anime usually air at night in Japan?
Many anime available are broadcasted very late in Japan. Few examples:

Photokano, 1:58 AM
Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties, 1:35 AM
Chihayafuru 2, 1:53 AM

Why are anime often aired at night in Japan even though they get better timeslots when exported to other countries? When did TV stations start to broadcast anime late at night, and is there a specific reason behind this?

FWIW, in the US, the programming block "Adult Swim" which has a lot of anime is a late night block as well. I think it even includes One Piece now which is pretty kid-friendly.

It's partly a matter of targeting specific audiences. Depending on what time a show broadcasts at, you can tell roughly what their target audience is.
Plenty of anime are broadcast in the morning. From this season, Danchi Tomoo airs at 9:30, Dokidoki! Precure at 8:30, Toriko at 9:00, One Piece at 9:30, Uchuu Kyoudai at 7:00. These are mostly shows which are aimed at younger children. Those also all air on weekends. There are some early morning anime which air on weekdays as well, but typically they air before school hours begin.
There is also some anime which broadcasts in the evening. These are generally programs which would be appropriate for a family to watch together or for older children/teenagers to watch on their own. Some examples of this from this season are Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 (5:30 p.m.), Train Heros (5:30 p.m.), Doraemon (7:00 p.m.), and Yuugiou! Zexal II (7:30 p.m.).
Late night anime are typically those which are targeting a mostly adult fanbase. In many (but not all) cases they aren't appropriate for younger viewers. Even if they are, they wouldn't be interesting to those viewers. At least in principle, the broadcast time is late at night so that children won't accidentally tune in while adults can still watch it or record it. Late at night, TV stations do not enforce broadcast restrictions as strictly as during primetime hours. Late-night anime thus has the connotation of having a lot of fanservice and moe, though that isn't always the case. For many of the shows, like Chihayafuru, it would probably be fine to show it in the evening, but since there are already established time blocks for showing anime, sometimes shows like that get shown as late-night anime anyway.

It's also true that most late-night slots are usually (though not always) purchased from the TV station by the production company directly. Since this doesn't require external sponsors, and because it's cheaper airtime, it's typically easier to get a late-night slot than a primetime slot, so this has become the default for a majority of anime which are not aimed at children. This is done essentially as a form of advertising for the final product (DVDs). Incidentally, this is also the reason why most anime production companies are gladly willing to sell rights to simulcast for next-to-nothing, because it serves as advertisement outside Japan, but DVD licensing rights are expensive (because the DVD is the final product and the way which they expect to make money).
Late night anime slots have existed on-and-off since the 1960s (one of the earliest being Sennin Buraku from 1963-1964), but the first really successful series was Those Who Hunt Elves in 1997. This was also at the start of an anime boom, and rather than trying to expand in the daytime, many new anime series opted to follow this and go for night slots. In recent years, this has become the default method for broadcasting anime, and a majority of anime are broadcast in late-night slots. Occasionally, some of those which are particularly popular will get rebroadcast in other time slots.
As for why late-night series in other countries sometimes get better slots than in Japan, it's likely because of the different business model. In Japan, late-night TV are essentially advertisements for DVDs. They are not aimed at being profitable on their own. In most other countries, there is a much smaller supply of anime broadcast (some of which was broadcast late-night in Japan), and it is often sponsored or on pay-to-view channels. Hence, they can afford to broadcast a lot of anime during the day because of less competition and better sponsorship.
English Wikipedia has some more information, though the article is poorly sourced and out-of-date. Japanese Wikipedia is a little bit better and more in-depth, but still has sourcing issues.

+1; Related: Otaku O' Clock

It's cultural. In Japan, anime is not limited to children or teens, and that trend is also growing here in the US.  However, in Japan, many families watch the programs together. There is also the fact that the Japanese attend school until much later than we do and many have after hours clubs, activities or cram school.
You may have noticed that in many Anime high school students are not on the way home until around or after sunset. When you consider those factors it all makes sense.


text:
How does Jigglypuff not fall asleep from its own song?
Jigglypuff's song is seen to be extremely effective in putting people and Pokemon to sleep, but how does it not fall asleep from its own singing?
Shouldn't it at least fall asleep after it's done?

I think people don't usually fall asleep when they sing lullabies.

Same reason you can't tickle yourself?

-_-  greaat.....now I will be singing this for at least two days at random intervals   After not hearing this since being a sophomore in highschool...in 1999.     Also, likely immune for same reason that rattlesnakes don't die from their own venom being inside their own bodies......

At first: As kuwaly mentioned, normally no one falls asleep while singing a lullaby. That's most likely the reason, but there are other possible points:

Like in the game, Pokémon using Sing aren't affected by the attack. This was most likely done to make this move usable, and was copied in the anime so the viewers aren't confused.
Some of the Pokédex-entries suggest, that you need to look in the eyes of Jigglypuff to be affected. As a Jigglypuff can't look itself in the eyes, it can't fall asleep. You can read the entries on Bulbapedia.

I also think I remember other Jigglypuffs falling asleep, too, but I'm not sure. That would mean, that Jigglypuffs aren't immune to the singing, but just aren't affected by their own attack.

This can be answered well with typical concepts of biology. While no species (to the best of my knowledge) is known that can send other individuals to sleep by singing, practically every species produces some kind of natural products that are fatal or unpleasant to others.
Consider, for example, tetrodotoxin known as the poisonous ingredient of pufferfish or fugu. Tetrodotoxin acts by inhibiting nervous sodium channels and thereby inhibits nerve signal transfer. This should affect all higher vertebrates that rely on nervous signaling. It is not produced by the fish itself but by numerous bacterial symbiontic species. They are not the only species to use this toxin as a defence mechanism; among others, so does the rough-skinned newt.
Naturally, it is interesting that all species harbouring these bacteria seem immune to tetrodotoxin. However, even more interesting is the fact that the common garter snake, a natural predator of the rough-skinned newt, has also developped some immunity. This could be traced back to a modification of said sodium channels that render them immune against tetrodotoxin.
A similar mechanism could and should be acting with respect to jigglypuff’s song. Potentially, one could assume that singing was either a method of self-defence (a sleeping predator cannot attack jigglypuff) or an attack method (a sleeping victim cannot run away). In any case, if jigglypuff were able to sing itself to sleep, that would be evolutionarily very unfavourable since it would present an easy target. Therefore, evolution probably selected those jigglypuffs who were able to withstand their own singing (and possibly also those, who enjoyed other jigglypuffs’ singing). This gave them an advantage in survival.
The exact mechanism by which jigglypuffs’ singing does not sing themselves to sleep would have to be researched by pokémon researchers in the pokéworld. However, I present the hypothesis that their nervous system reacts to the stimuli in a different way than other animals, humans and pokémon, possibly due to a different, yet to be discovered signalling molecule mutation.

What I think is that Jigglypuff can't hear itself when it sings. To whoever said you needed to look into its eyes, the Neon City episode in the anime had people falling asleep when they weren't looking into Jigglypuff's eyes. Maybe all Jigglypuff have different songs and ears, so the user of the song can't hear itself sing.

Status Condition Moves, like:
Hypnosis and Sing
For example, are primarily used to put Other Pokemon to sleep. They have no effect on the Pokemon performing the move(s). Therefore, whenever Jigglypuff is singing, Humans or Pokemon fall asleep. Her singing is primarily a "Status Condition" Move and that's it. If it was meant to be listened to, Humans and Pokemon would be wearing earplugs, so they don't fall asleep. It's even funnier when she stops singing, realizes that everyone's asleep, gets mad and draws on their faces with her microphone/marker.

Magic Coat and Magic Bounce - a move and an ability which reflect most status moves - would render this opinion moot.  Besides, the anime isn't entirely based on the games.

Actually, Jigglypuff does fall asleep from her own lullaby in this clip.

This answer would be better if the episode number is known since YouTube videos can be taken down at any time.

Perhaps when Jigglypuff sings, the direction and application of it's voice are ONLY directed towards everywhere but itself. I don't think it can't hear itself sing, because in every 1st gen episode it was in, it got mad that everyone fell asleep during its song. If it didn't think it could sing, or couldn't hear it, why would it be so mad? Also, in every 1st gen episode it appears in, it has a microphone that doubles as a marker. You can hear the reverberation of its voice in the Neon City episode, where it used loudspeakers, as well as in every other instance of it singing without loudspeakers. (except that one episode where it was quietly singing to itself as it walked down a road, and even then, if it couldn't hear itself sing, why would it continue singing?) In conclusion, if every time it deliberately sung for an audience, (and not for itself) it put a (hypothetical) sleep frequency in the music that was directed and amplified outward from itself, it would never hear that frequency, thus not falling asleep, but is able to hear its own song.

Thanks for chiming in and welcome to anime stackexchange! Your answer seems to contradict itself, particularly the first statement about the voice only directing outwards but then you argue that it can definitely hear its own voice. I would recommend forming a single sentence that holds the main idea of your reply at the end of your answer, preferably separated by a blank line.

Actually the reason jigglypuff is not sleeping hint hint hint hint is that it sing to everyone around herself and when she is singing is because that she knows not to sleep when she is singing so she can know what to say next.

O.O   Recursive statement hurts head.


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Is Pikachu on a diet?
I noticed that Pikachu evolved a little over time.
I wonder why he changed his form so much, so I'm a bit worried about Pikachu.

And I just burst out laughing lol XD

Does Pikachu eat food?

@kuwaly: At least in the anime, Rocko is often seen cooking meals, also for Pikachu.

As time passes, animation level and quality becomes better and better!

It's most likely a matter of different character designers over the different generations of the franchise. The original design was created by Game Freak's (original game's designers) character development team and finalized by artist Ken Sugimori. The games themselves had changes in Pikachu's designs, which were in turn mirrored by the anime:
 "Green and Red", 1996
 "Blue", 1996
 "Yellow", 1998
 "Gold", 1999
 "Ruby and Sapphire", 2002
 "Diamond and Pearl", 2006
 "Platinum", 2008
 "HeartGold and SoulSilver", 2009
Ken Sugimori is also one of the character designers for the first TV series from 1997. In 2002, Pokemon Advance had Sayuri Ichiishi as the character designer. And in 2006, Pocket Monsters and 2010's Black and White has Toshiya Yamada in charge of character designs.
 from the "Advance" generation

I wouldn't say it's Pikachu losing weight but a reasonable design alteration. The head can move realistically instead of just being glued to the body, the feet are better defined, and the arms are more expressive. Even the ears have some flexibility. If anything, the tail looks bigger.