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Why are older anime releases (DVD/Blu-ray) at 30fps?
When I've bought (including imports) anime on DVD and Blu-ray, I often find that older ones around the 90s and specifically the 2000s will sometimes be at 30fps on the disc.
24fps or 30fps?
I was sure those shows were filmed at 24fps, but there's no way that's true as most 2000s-era anime and movies were done digitally which means direct-to-disc. It's possible that animations during this time were between 15 and 30fps rather than 6, 12 and 24fps as a benefit of using digital over film.
Sadly, I can't find any definitive source for which anime are native 30fps and which are native 24fps productions.
It's making me wonder because disc space is limited, and you'd be able to fit more episodes per disc if they ran 6fps less (24fps rather than 30fps) for 6-7 episodes.
I'm wondering if there's a source I can use to figure out which anime are native 30fps and if those DVD and Blu-ray copies are correct to have 30fps rather than 24fps.
Extra
It's not always the case that I can down-convert 30fps to 24fps either. In the two shows I've tried (Get Backers and Gintama), both exhibit inconsistent frame times and weird ghosting artifacts when making this transition. It's also possible I'm doing the conversion wrong.

I think there are several misconceptions here, especially surrounding

most 2000s-era anime and movies were done digitally which means direct-to-disc

but I can't speak with any authority about the production workflow of studios.
I can speak with at least a little authority when it comes to video/encoding, so I'll try to stick to that.
tl;dr
Up to the late 2000s, in regions that followed NTSC (as opposed to PAL or SECAM), pretty much all consumer TVs only had analog inputs (rf, composite, s-video, component video). They only had the hardware to display 30 frames per second (...almost, I'm sure I'll get into that later) and expected the signal to be interlaced, displaying 60 fields per second.
Since that's what the hardware supported, that's what got put onto DVDs. Japan used the NTSC broadcasting standard.
While I can't say for certain that no studios produced video at 30fps, I'm pretty comfortable saying that most produced (and still produce) video at 24fps. So there is likely no "native" 30fps. It's all just 24fps with a bit of trickery to turn it into 30fps.
The Long Version
Pretty much anything involving video is going to have an incredible amount of detail and math. I'll try to restrain myself.
I'm gonna go into some amount of detail about the history of video/film as background, because knowing that is going to be helpful to understand why "native 30fps" isn't really a thing for anime.
TVs have evolved over time
We started with black&white broadcasts at 60 fields per second, matching the frequency of AC power. The reason why it's fields and not frames appears to be due to slow phosphors in the first TV sets. Hitting every other scanline eliminated strobing effects.
Each frame would have its "even" numbered lines (the "even" field) scanned in the first pass1, and then the CRT beam would make its way back to the top of the screen so that it could scan the odd numbered lines (the "odd" field) to display the entire frame.
Color TV came along, and for a bunch of math reasons I won't go into (partly because I don't understand them), the framerate had to change so that the old black&white TVs could still display the video (without noise/artifacts appearing). This is why we have framerates of 29.97 (or rather, 30,000/1,001) for "video" and 23.976 (24,000/1,001) for "film". This video from Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths goes into a bit more detail.
Because they're close enough to whole numbers, I'll just be referring to it as 30fps/24fps from here out.
The point here is that we're still stuck with the consequences of practical decisions that were made 70+ years ago.
DVDs are a standard, meant for playback on TVs
The DVD format is standardized (a process that takes megacorps years to hash out amongst themselves and results in a lot of long, extremely technical books). You can't just throw whatever you want onto a DVD, at least not if you expect to be able to play it in a standalone DVD player.
They should all be 480i30 (720px wide x 480px tall, interlaced, 29.97 frames per second)2 and encoded with MPEG2 (Main Profile & Main Level) and packaged as a Program Stream because (as far as I know) that is what the DVD Forum decided on.
While DVD is itself digital, it had to output an analog signal so that it could play on the TVs that people had. It's hard enough to get people to adopt new tech. It'd be near impossible to convince them to get a new TV too (at least in numbers that would make DVD financially viable).
Film and Video
Film, like movies out of Hollywood, that kinda film, settled on 24fps.
Video, like TV broadcasts, settled on 30fps
Watching movies at home wasn't a thing until the 1970s, but when it became a thing, that framerate difference was going to need to be handled somehow. TVs of the time couldn't do 24 fps (heck, I think that having 24fps processing in TVs didn't really become widespread until the 2010s). So how are we gonna convert 24fps to 30fps?
The answer is Telecine (I believe in industry it rhymes with "whinny", like the sound a horse makes, or Whinnie the Pooh. No source on that.), a.k.a. 3:2 Pulldown.
You take 4 frames, split them into 8 fields, and then strategically duplicate some of the fields so that it blends together relatively smoothly. Honestly, the Wikipedia article on Telecine/3:2 pulldown probably does a better job showing it than I could hope to do. You end up with 5 frames for each of the 4 original frames, and 24 * 5 / 4 = 30. Problem solved!
Getting back to DVDs for a bit, you could do the 3:2 pulldown before encoding the video with MPEG2, but I believe that MPEG2 has a "flag" where you can encode at 24fps and have the playback hardware handle the field weaving.
This is why you can't just take the 30fps video you get when you rip a DVD and simply convert it to 24fps. You're going to get interlacing/combing artifacts if you try that. You need to de-interlace (or rather IVTC, Inverse Telecine) to reconstruct the original, progressive frames3.
Anime (finally)
As far as I know, studios produce at 24fps. That was the case then, and it's still the case now. If I were to speculate, I'd say this is motivated by cost (fewer frames = less money to make) and inertia (it used to be done at 24fps, the equipment they have works at 24fps, and it would be $$$ to replace that)
There may be some series that have title/credit sequences at 30fps and everything else at 24. Doing any amount of processing on those is a pain.
Japan did use NTSC as well (NA = region 1 coded on DVDs, JP = region 2. Geographic region-locking has plagued us well before Netflix and the fragmentation of streaming sites), so 24fps telecined to 30fps is what the DVDs coming out of Japan were.
Because of that, regions using PAL could (or were more likely to) get the short end of the stick. Releases in PAL regions (DVD regions 3, 4, 5) can just blend frames together4 to get to the 25 frames per second (50 fields per second)5 needed to display video on their TVs. They could also simply speed up the video (and pitch-adjust the audio). The method that gets used would depend on the producer/distributor and could change as time moved forward.
Beyond that, there isn't that much merit in reducing the framerate for DVDs. Single-layer DVDs can hold about 4.7 GB of data. Video takes up a lot of space. 24fps, 720x480, 32 bits per pixel6 means a single frame of video, uncompressed, is 1.38 MB. A single second is 33.17 MB. MPEG2 doesn't employ a ton of tricks to reduce the filesize like h264/h265/av1/etc... do. A typical episode off a DVD will be around 1 GB. Everything else being equal (it's not, but let's pretend it is), you'd be able to squeeze 5 episodes onto a single DVD instead of 4.
There's some way that distributors have been able to get 7 episodes on a single DVD (see the Hyouka blu-ray + dvd part 1 combo for an example). I assume that's because they're using a dual-layer disk instead of a single-layer one (which means you either wouldn't be able to see all the episodes on an old enough player/drive, or they may not be able to read it at all).
Computers/TVs have become a lot more flexible after the rise of HDMI, and processing power has also increased. As a result, Blu-Ray is also more flexible (capable of storing interlaced or progressive video, at a number of resolutions, at a number of framerates). If you find yourself with a blu-ray for an anime that's at 30fps rather than 24fps, that's probably a sign that it's... not a great release of that particular series).
Thank you for reading my TED talk.

1: even/odd fields can also be called top/bottom. Scanning can be done TFF (top field first) or BFF (bottom field first), but that detail doesn't really matter much for this discussion.
2: yes, I know that PAR, SAR, and DAR are a thing. As well as "active lines". Not gonna touch either of those here.
3: from my hobby editing days, I also recall a deinterlace + decimate process where the deinterlacing would reconstruct 5 frames (one being a duplicate), and you needed the additional "decimate" step to remove the one duplicated frame in the set. I can't quite remember the exact details. There were several different chains of AVISynth filters you could use to get from the .vob files you got from a DVD to something you could work with in an editing program.
4: see this section of the "Analyzing your DVD footage" guide on animemusicvideos for some more detail which is specific to anime (as opposed to, say, this link to doom9 which is about video processing in general)
5: yes, actually 25fps and 50 fields per second for PAL. They saw the mess with NTSC and specifically crafted their standard so that the framerate would be an integer
6: 32 bits/pixel is for RGB. MPEG2 uses the YUV colorspace with 4:2:0 sampling. That's one of the "tricks" they used to reduce the size of files. They literally discard some of the color data because our puny human eyes/brains care more about the difference in bright/dark and we'll be none the wiser... for the most part.

I've learned a bit about this since posting, but I really value your opinion that only 24fps animated content exists. That helps a ton. I've only ever heard people say "most content is..." without listining the oddities. This is more definitive.

I've also had issues scaling down 30fps interlaced (60fps when played back) down to 24fps. It seems like there's a good pattern to do it, but I'm not sure. I can go frame-by-frame and can see 2, then 3, then 2, then 3; although sometimes, it seems like they did some sort of frame-interpolation and messed it up ending up in weird ghost images between frames.

Many of the kids' shows I got on DVD from the library (for my kids) are on dual-layer discs. They typically have 8 episodes, and the full rip is about 8.9GB. It's actually extremely common for kids' shows to be on dual-layer DVDs. I thought those were mythical outside of recordable DVDs.

I'd heard that 25fps content in the DVD spec was simply sped up 4% to make up the difference; therefore, if you slowed down the footage to 24fps, you could recover all the original data but with 576 lines of resolution. Is this true?

Those ghost images may just be from some improper or out-of-order processing (to try to get from 30i to 24p) on your end, but it's probably impossible to say what's wrong without screenshots (and that'd be rather off topic for this site). Could be as simple as getting the field order wrong (TFF vs BFF). Trawling through sites like doom9/avsforum/videohelp (no affiliation to any of those) may prove helpful, as may some of the old guides on animemusicvideos[dot]org (historical affiliation). I'll try to do more checking on the PAL thing too.

@Sawtaytoes I've updated my answer a bit, and added a few additional references. If you did get a PAL DVD that was just sped up by 4% (same number of frames as the NTSC release), then slowing it down would work. Probably just up to chance if you got one of those though. The 576 line thing likely doesn't make a difference here since the source/master would be NTSC (525 lines).


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Why is Gintama's episode 305 full of contradictions?
So episode 305 came out recently, therefore spoiler alert.
Most of it is concerning the past...
In the past episodes' flashback it was shown clearly that ..

in this video,Takasugi lost his eye in a fight with alien.
Shuoyou, teacher, is taken from his school and then his is returned to gintoki who cries helplessly.
Shuoyou finds gintoki on battlefield and bring him to class with katsura and takasugi in it.

However in episode 304-305, this all contradicts

Takasugi loses eye by attack of Oboro
Katsura, Gintoki, and Takasugi are brought as prisoners and Gintoki is given choice to kill either students or teacher, on a top of mountain. Contradictory, to what been shown before many times: which is soldier hold gintoki down as teacher is taken prisioner and then on the same place his head returned and gintoki cries.
In this version, gintoki is already part of the Shuoyou school and it's infact katsura and takasugi who join later on.

Much like @Akaik mentioned in his answer, the main reason for the inconsistencies is entirely down to both Sunrise and Gori-Sensei not entirely knowing the details of these events as they go head first into making everything.
They pretty much admit to this using Gintoki to explain at the end of episode 306, where they include another Ginpachi-Sensei segment.  They even use the point you mention that previously it looked as if Gin joined Shuoyou's school after Katsura and Takasugi, when in the latest episodes it appears to be the reverse.  They make a joke about it not having a script at the time and that something entirely different is happening.
This is probably as close to an offcial answer that we'll get.
There may be other mentions to why the other points you make out have changed in-between episodes but no mention of this (even as a joke) has appeared in the manga as far as I remember.

Like mentioned by @Gorp, this inconsistency is mentioned in the Ginpachi-Sensei section of episode 306 and answered by Gintoki. Here's the chronology of what happened, starting from the foundation of the school.

Shouyou found Gintoki in a battlefield.
Shouyou created a school with Gintoki.
Katsura and Takasugi joined the school.
Shouyou and Gintoki entered the class with Shouyou giving Gintoki a book to wipe his ass like shown in the Ginpachi-sensei section of episode 306.
Shouyou's school was labeled as teaching children to overthrow the Bakufu.
As shown in episode 306 flashback, Shouyou stopped some patrol from drawing their swords against Sakata Gintoki, Takasugi Shinsuke and Katsura Koutaro.
Shouyou got arrested but was later released, probably with strict warning that this is his last chance and he must stop teaching. This is where Gintoki is shown crying upon his return.
Shouyou ignored the warning and continued to teach as shown in the flashback where Gintoki said that the Bushidou Shouyou taught and they follows won't be bend by such a thing (the threat).
Shouyou teach again for some years and was then arrested again. This fits with he fact that when Gintoki and friends fought in the war, they are older than when they are in school.
Gintoki and other Shouyou students formed a rebel group to save Shouyou.
The Dragon of Katsurahama, Sakamoto Tatsuma joined the group and act as the fund raiser.
As shown in the flashback where Sakamoto and Gintoki crash landed in a desert planet (it was in the first or second season of the anime, I forget which episode), Sakamoto said that he thinks that fighting is not the only way to protect things he deemed precious. He left the group and formed a trade company.
Sakata Gintoki, Katsura Koutaro and Takasugi Shinsuke got arrested and brought to a hill where Yoshida Shouyou is.
Gintoki chose to kill Yoshida Shouyou, his teacher, to save Takasugi and Katsura. His head was indeed returned to Gintoki. The setting might differs but the essence of the story is the same.

As for Takasugi losing his eyes to Oboro, it indeed differs from what shown before. Most likely it is because of both Sunrise and Gorilla-sensei didn't think about it when the scene was made. Which is also confirmed by Gintoki in the Ginpachi-sensei section of episode 306.

I'm pretty sure this is because the anime studio Sunrise didn't know much about their past either (the anime studio and the author most of the time don't have much interaction). The scene you mentioned was not shown in the manga but only in the anime.
So you can say Sunrise made a mistake just like how they skipped an important scene from the earlier episode that can prove that Sorachi was planning this right from the start.

Back then it's a fake trailer. Gori-sensei didn't write that. Ep.305 however, is canon.

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Why does Piccolo bleed two colours?

In the above pictures, his blood is of two colours.
Before Dragon Ball Z, his  blood was red but later on in the series it became purple.
What is the reason behind this?

Could this be censorship? Do the other characters bleed red?

This has been an item of discussion between Dragon Ball fans for a long time. Most of the information I've come across concludes that this is simply an animation consistency failure.

From Dragon Ball Neoseeker Wiki:

The vast majority of the manga was produce in black and white, with a few chapters being colored minimally. There were also an even smaller number of chapters in full color.

Since Dragon Ball was originally black and white, the animation studios likely did not know that Piccolo's blood was supposed to be purple until much later.
In fact, this Reddit comment points out that it happens with Frieza's blood too, discoloring it from blue to red.
While some arguments have been made wondering if this could be censorship, the blood changes were in both international and Japanese versions of the show. There are several cases of censorship that involve the Dragon Ball Z anime but I do not believe this is one of them.
However, there was some censorship on some international releases of Dragon Ball Z involving Piccolo's blood. These changes turned Piccolo's blood green.
A fact that points towards this color change being a blunder is that Piccolo's blood is recolored to purple in the first episode of Dragon Ball Kai, during the recap of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai. This screenshot is from Piccolo's reaction when Goku headbutts him. Interestingly enough, this scene also receives some censorship in international releases, recoloring the blood yet again to white.

As an aside, it is likely that not even Akira Toriyama really knew what color Piccolo's blood was supposed to be. In an interview with Toriyama, he states that he was originally unsure that Piccolo would even be an alien; he originally just created Piccolo to be demon-like.

Q: Speaking of Piccolo, did you think from the beginning of his background as a Namekian alien?
A: Of course, I didn’t think that at all (laughs). The Saiyans were like that as well. When I thought up Goku’s tail and the Ōzaru, I didn’t think Goku was an alien or anything. Piccolo either. Because I thought that up when God came out.
Mostly afterwards, I thought it through so that it would be consistent. For example, there’s the chair that Planet Namek’s Eldest sat in. That was mostly the same as the chair that Piccolo Daimaō had sat in when he first appeared. It was just missing the skulls.

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Which song is played in One Piece Episode 395 when Zoro loses his way?
Which theme song is played in starting of this Zoro's haki video?

The soundtrack you are looking for is called Three Towers.


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Why are dominators activated for drones and robots?
Aren't dominators enabled after a cymatic scan, which judges the living person's personality based on its brainwaves?
If so, why do the dominators get enabled in "lethal elimination" for drones in several episodes?
EDIT:
As people pointed out, for drones dominators often get enabled in "destroy decomposer" mode.

Dominators also have a "Destroy Decomposer" mode for destroying non-living objects. This is distinct from (and more powerful than) "Lethal Eliminator". I don't quite remember; are there cases when a Dominator enters Lethal Eliminator when pointed at a non-living object?

So far, dominators are shown to have only four enforcement mode. One is Non-Lethal Paralyzer used on targets with crime coefficient between 100 and 300. The other one is Lethal Eliminator used only for human targets with crime coefficient above 300. The third and rarely used mode is the Destroy Decomposer as mentioned by senshin and so far only used on non-human targets. Fourth is shown in movie only, called Explosive Destroy Decomposer.
Dominators have the Lethal Eliminator mode activated when pointed at drones because drones are non-living beings, therefore there is no need to use the Non-Lethal Paralyzer as it would be just a waste of ammo. Also since before activation Dominator scans the user to ensure its user's mental stability and that the user has the appropriate rights, pointing Dominator at drones or other non-living targets means that the user intents to destroy the target, which is why Lethal Eliminator or other lethal shots mode are assumed.
Dominators use destroy decomposer mode on drones mainly because the Lethal Eliminator mode makes the target grow bubbles and explode, which might be dangerous when applied to drones. There are two dangers, one is the explosion itself, since some sharp particles might fly out, and two is because only parts surrounding the shot will explode, which means some part of the drone might survive the shot. The left part might still function, which is why destroy decomposer is used to make sure that the target drone is completely eliminated.

First of all, I will state here that there were actually no occasions where the Lethal Eliminator mode was enabled for non-living objects like drones and robots in the anime. The reason is simply that Lethal Eliminator mode can only eliminate humans, not drones or robots. Apparently, non-living mechanical objects are much stronger and cannot be destroyed by Lethal Eliminator. Only Destroy Decomposer mode can eliminate mechanical objects. If a dominator was to be unlocked on a non-living object, it was automatically switched to Destroy Decomposer mode. On drones and robots, the dominator do not measure the crime coefficient and hue, since they are non-existent. Crime coefficients can only be measured on living humans, since the technology is to measure their brainwaves (at least it is implied so). Rather, the dominator reads a "threat level" to determine if the object is a threat. The "threat level judgement" is usually seen measured in a letter scale. "A+", the highest score on the threat judgement spectrum, indicates that the object the dominator is reading is extremely dangerous and should be eliminated. In the anime, almost all occasions of dominators reading an attacking drone/robot returned a "A+" score. Whether or not there's a "B" or "C" score is not explicitly specified, as these values were never shown to be returned. What actions the dominator will take against a lesser threat is also unknown. However, since the only mode for a non-living object (see the list below) is Destroy Decomposer, it is most likely that if the threat judgement is below a pre-set threshold, say "B", then the dominator is locked. This can only be implied though, as such a case of a lesser non-living threat had never occurred. We can also never know for sure how the threat judgement is read. Since there's no brain in non-living objects, the Sibyl System must've used a sophisticated method to determine the likelihood of said object causing harm or disrupting the work of PSB officers.
One thing to note here is that Lethal Eliminator mode is personnel-only, that is, they only activate on humans. On the other hand, although mostly the Destroy Decomposer mode was only activated on non-living objects, there were actually occasions where the Destroy Decomposer mode was activated and used on humans. The criteria for the modes of the dominator is as follows:

For humans with crime coefficient below 100, the dominator is locked.
For non-living objects with a low threat judgement (what exactly the criteria is is not known; see paragraph 1 for more details), the dominator is locked.
For humans with crime coefficient above 100 but below 300, the dominator is set to Non-Lethal Paralyzer, which temporarily stuns and paralyzes the target.
For humans with crime coefficient above 300, the dominator is set to Lethal Eliminator, thereby eliminating and killing the target. This mode will leave behind a grueling mess of blood and (possibly) body parts that have not been hit by the blast.
For non-living objects with a sufficiently high threat judgement, the destroy decomposer mode destroys the target. Note that this mode will leave no remains/debris whatsoever.
For humans that have a crime coefficient above 300 and additionally have been deemed as exceptionally dangerous by Sibyl, the Destroy Decomposer is used. Usual reasons for being deemed exceptionally dangerous include having explosives on their body, having sophisticated weapons, and having mechanical body parts and/or is a complete cyborg, although this last reason is questionable since Toyohisa Senguji was not determined to be exceptionally dangerous and eliminated by Lethal Eliminator instead of Destroy Decomposer. Also note that just as in non-living objects, for humans this mode will also leave no remains. Not even a little bit of blood or any body parts that have not been hit directly.

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How were the shogi matches sourced?
"March comes in like a Lion" shows numerous shogi matches between master-level players. I am wondering whether the matches shown in the series are representative for master-level play or whether it's just background material made up by the screenwriters. From what I read about shogi, it sounds like a serious art in Japan, so I was wondering whether the producers put in the effort to e.g. engage some expert players as consultants or reproduce excerpts of actual historic matches.

Wikipedia can be a good start.

I did check the German and English wikipedia articles on the series, as well as on shogi, but I didn't see anything mentioned in this regard.

What do you mean by actual high-level historic games? If you are asking shogi is what people play in reality, then yes. According to 日本将棋連盟, the oldest shogi pieces date to AD 1058.

I've rewritten my question to clarify what I'm curious about

' From what I read about shogi, it sounds like a serious art in Japan' - Ah so this is opposed to like chess in the US where we don't necessarily expect they'll be realistic setups and stuff? (My question was going to be 'what about chess in movies/series?', and then I think the answer is the quote at the beginning of this comment.)

When watching the series, I was wondering whether my impression was accurate that a lot of effort had been put in sourcing the game arrangements given that specific shogi situations were such a central theme. I mean this as opposed to how e.g. "hacking" is depicted in a ridiculously inaccurate manner when used as a plot device or sciency explanations are often total nonsense in movies.

I understand the question as Are arrangements of shogi pieces in the games drawn in the manga modelled on or reproducing game records of actual games between real professional(-level) players?.
First, the manga has a professional player as an advisor (He writes columns in interchapter pages). So the arrangements are definitely not random.
According to a blog post, some arrangements are actually based on real records, though not exactly reproducing them in most cases. So finally, the answer to your question is yes, at least partially.

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Where is it mentioned that Gon didn't get his Nen back after being healed by Something/Nanika?
I watched the entire Hunter x Hunter series and I've just noticed that it is not stated whether Gon got his Nen back after being healed by Nanika or not. And I'm curios... once he jumped so high on the Wolrd Tree (we also have to notice the speed) is it possible that his Nen was restored? It would be impossible for a person with the qualities of an avarage human to jump so high/be so fast after all...

From wikia :

According to Killua, the degree of wish that Nanika can grant is probably infinite

Killua ask her to "turn gon back to normal" so Nanika saved Gon turn him back to a "normal" kid, he nen is closed now. Ging say this to Gon in the chapter 345 he had returned to normal.

Your image is miniscule and impossible to read.

sorry i will put a link

Please don't post links to illegal 3rd party aggregators.

Btw what does "when I was with you it was coming out fine" really means? It means that his father could see it when they met for the first time? If he could see it then he actually didn't loose it all... he still haves a little bit of aura, but not as much as he had before (otherwise his father wouldn't have said "That's plenty", right?)

When Ging said that Gon has gone back to a normal life,  he probably meant an ordinary person. Every person has aura, though not everyone can sense it.

Yes, Gon can't sense his aura because he is in the level before started to training his nen.

I believe that Gon's aura is still there just not nearly as much as before. i think he gets it back or something because after Gon meets his dad and he and Killua split ways, Gon and his father fight together in the Dark Continent Arch. I'm not sure what happens in that arch yet because I haven't read the manga just yet.


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Have there been any hints by writers about Blast?
Blast is #1 among S-rating heroes; it is said that only Blast will be able to stop a God-level attack. However, we never actually see Blast, or get any hints as to who he/she may be.
The question is: has either ONE or Murata Yusuke hinted on who Blast might be?

Sorry but this is not a good type of question for this site. It invites lengthy lists of answers and broad discussion, which is more suitable for a forum than a Q&A site. But you might get what you're looking for on anime forums.

@Hakase  -  what if I just ask about official comments?

Sure, but you'll probably end up with no answers until the super obvious beyond any doubt info will appear in the upcoming season, and there won't be much use in asking coz everyone will know.

I'm talking about manga here; there's some hope in the light of current ark that maybe, just maybe, they'll have to deploy Blast. If there is one.

You have edited the question to seem less broad and I think it's actually alright now.

Blast appears during a certain, fairly recent (by chapter number) flashback in the webcomic.  The depiction is pretty fully detailed (full facial details are obscured, but it's more detailed than "vague shadowy outline"), and interacts with the character having the flashback.

His appearance seems vaguely similar to one or more characters in both the manga and webcomic, but for now that seems to be the only connection: vague superficial similarities--this particular style of face and hairdo seems to be common, and no one has ever appeared in this outfit before.


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What's with the fantasy hair?
All Out!! is a sports series about high school rugby. The teams are large, so there are many characters. I understand that the mangaka and character designers want to make each character stand out. They do a great job here. But a few stand out much more than others, due to what I think of as fantasy hair:

(ULC) Oharanu Etsugo -- "antennae hair", two small hair groups sticking straight up
(URC) Ebumi Masaru -- "anchor hair", two somewhat bigger hair groups sticking left and right from bottom of his head. He also stands out due to eyes often wild and almost constantly angry expressions.
(LLC) Ise Natsuki -- "horn-hair", they even manage to stick out of his helmet! (Rugby helmets have holes; his holes must be magically located.)
(LRC) Sekisan Takuya -- "ribbon hair", curly ribbons of hair at various angles

Are any of these styles something a Japanese teenager would actually wear? (Are some of them even possible?) Except for someone from another team commenting that Sekisan has really wild hair, these fantasy styles are treated as normal looks. The styles definitely help the characters stand out. With three tall blonds on the team, it is nice that two of them have unique appearances. Is blond hair fairly common among Japanese teenagers?
The strange thing is that the series is reality based; no-one has a beyond-human-capability ability or genius move. For example, another series might have a character grow up on a dairy farm, and now he has an unbreakable grip on the rugby ball due to 10 years of milking a dozen cows twice daily by hand. In All Out!! there is nothing but tough training and a great coach.
It is just ... it's just ... the fantasy hair, man.
related: Name of hair style with one strand sticking upwards and Is there a reason for the "Hair of Death" hair style?

This is nothing unique to all-out. This is infact so common in Anime that Tv Tropes has a page dedicated to it.
You've been warned, TV Tropes link - Anime Hair. Take a look at the image of Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh.

Find below the excerpt from TV Tropes

Usually, the most important characters of the story will have wild spikes or a cool-looking hairdo in order to stand out among the crowd. It also helps to create a distinctive silhouette that will stand out in branding, media, and merchandise. It may be one or more different colors that don't appear naturally in real humans (blue is a popular choice). Sometimes the hair appears semi-transparent, with the character's eyes visible through it, although this presumably represents hair fine enough that it isn't completely obscuring, rather than anything outré. Anime Hair is very common among protagonists of anime/manga for the Shōnen (Demographic), although the trend seems to be headed to more plausible styles: compare Son Goku's hair to Ichigo's.

Thanks for the link to the TV Tropes article. It calls out over 30 anime hair styles, including hair antennae. I am aware that wild hairstyles are common in anime, but I think it rare in reality based shows. Consider just sports genre -- Is there anyone in Haikyuu!! whose hair is as unrealistic as the 4 I mentioned? Days!? Free? Cheer Boys? Heck, in Yowamushi Pedal, Midousuji Akira's hair is the most normal thing about him. Thus I think All Out!! stands out in this regard.

@RichF This is more of a Confirmation Bias. From the Sports Genre, I can immediately think of Kuroko No Basuke or Eyeshield 21. "Not that uncommon" doesn't mean that  it is universal. As you correctly notice that sometimes authors try to keep the characters realistic and avoid the hair styles/colors. Also if you read the quoted part from TV tropes, it does mention, "although the trend seems to be headed to more plausible styles: compare Son Goku's hair to Ichigo's".

Not so much confirmation bias as those are the sports anime I've watched (oh, also Yuri on Ice). Checking, I can't see that any Kuroko No Basuke characters have unrealistic hair. The only one that stood out to me was a completely bald teenager. I agree with your major point (+1d) that wild hair is common in anime. My point is that All Out!! is unusual, mixing a very realistic scenario with a few unrealistic hairstyles. Also, its two MCs, Gion and Iwashimizu, have relatively normal hair.

I would wager that these hair styles have no basis in reality, and are meant to give the viewer an opportunity to remember these characters as they factor into this anime.  In that vein, I'd say it's worked; you can identify each of these characters by name, and they stick out in your mind.

I appreciate the reply. As far as character names go, I cheated.  I'm not good with Japanese names. Heck, I'm not even that good in remembering English names. You are right, though, that the styles help me remember who is whom.


text:
Why did Gohan lose his mystic form?
In Battle of Gods Gohan still has his mystic form, yet in Fukkatsu no F and in Dragon Ball Super he lost it. I believe it was in Fukkatsu no F that he says he can barely turn into super saiyan. Was it ever explained why he lost his mystic form?

Yes it was explained during this arc (I don't know the exact episode as I watched it when it was airing) that he lost control over his powers due to him becoming rusty. This resulted in him starting to train again with Picolo to regain the powers he once had, including his mystic form.
Gohan decided in the past to focus more on his studies rather than being a martial artist. This made him become rusty... very rusty, rusty enough to barely transform into a super saiyan. His mystic form is beyond that of a super saiyan. I am not sure how strong it actually is, but it is definitely more powerful than his previous super saiyan forms. It might be as good as ssj3, but that is just my personal speculation.
Since he focused so much on his studies he was able to achieve a lot things as for getting job offers and such (as seen in previous episodes). He completely neglected his trainings due to this and became very rusty as Picolo mentioned a couple of times throughout dbs.
I don't recall him turning into his mystic form though during the Battle of the Gods.
But to get back on your question, according to the timeline of dragonball it had been 5 years between Buu saga and DBS. During Buu saga he wasn't training much anymore and in those 5 years he didn't train at all (mainly due to Chichi not wanting him to turn out like his father). The effect of this probably lowered his powerlevel significantly which made him for him almost impossible to turn into ssj without training again.

In the movie he did, when fighting Beerus


text:
What is this huge symbol on the door in the Truth realm and in the Neon Genesis Evangelion opening?
In Fullmetal Alchemist the door in the Truth realm has a huge symbol with all kinds of things on it:

I've seen the opening of Neon Genesis Evangelion today and noticed that the same symbol is shown in the beginning of the opening around 0:10 - 0:13.
I first thought that it was just a random symbol in FMA, but now that I've seen it in the opening of NGE, I believe that it must come from something else since there is no connection between those anime.
What is this symbol, where does it come from and what does it describe?
Here is a more detailed picture of the symbol:

It's a slightly modified version of the Sephirothic Tree of Life as defined by Robert Fludd, who was a physician with interests in Kabbalah and other religious mysticisms. The globes (called Sephiroths) are thought of as being ways in which the universe shows its truths to humanity. They're also printed with the words God used in creating the universe in Genesis.

You can read up on it more here, but the basic idea behind it is that it is a mystic symbol representing universal truth -- and the Truth is on the other side of the door in FMA.
In NGE, however, the symbol appears after the Mass Production units form an inverted tree of life, symbolizing the opposite of creation -- destruction, death -- after crucifying Eva 01. This is part of the Third Impact, in which nearly all of humanity is reduced to LCL. You'll find that there's a lot of mystic symbolism in NGE.

The FmA Wikia seems to indicate that the picture is Tree of Life (also known as World Tree or Tree of Emanations or Arber Sephiroteca), as described by a 17th century English Paracelsian physician Robert Fludd. I'm having a hard time finding additional information about the diagram, but the EvaGeeks Wiki has a page that describes the different parts in more detail. It does seem somewhat related to the Sephirot, or Sefirotic Tree as diagrams depicting it are often called.

It also seems that this diagram is unique to Edward's Gate, as Alphonse's Gate has a different diagram, from 15th century alchemist George Ripley's text The Marrow of Alchemy. (I wasn't able to find out if the diagram itself has a name).

The designs on the gate are unique to the person: Roy's gate has the flame alchemy tattoo on it.

"adonai" in hebrew actually "my master" but its used as gods name. there is also some other names for god in judaism on the door such as "elohim" which means god, "elohim gabor" means god is brave, iah or YHVH also means god, on armstrongs fists it says "chazak" which means strong in hebrew, and the door also says "el" which is also a name for god usually put at the end of a word. for example, samuel in hebrew means "god heard" or "god listened". it also says "cherub" on the door and a cherub or the "cherubim" are the little angel thing thing on the ark of god or ark of the covenant which is basically a really holy large box made of gold that holds the tablets with the ten commandments and some other stuff.

Kind of provides some important points but remember, the question is what is the huge symbol, not what the words mean. Although you can include what these words mean after answering the main query of the asker.

On the door, there is a lot of Hebrew on it. On the bottom, it says 'Adonai' which translates to 'god' and 'Elohim gibor' means 'god is strong' or 'god is brave'.
Also, on Alex Armstrong's fists, 'chasak' is written in Hebrew which means 'strong'.
I feel like this show is more related to Judaism than any other religion by all the Hebrew and Jewish beliefs.

I think it’s co-opting an icon, rather than so much religious theology. This is also depicted in Black Clover. I believe it is more interest in the semiotics as opposed to symbolism. I.e it represents a path to “enlightenment”. Or in black clover, the path to the realm of the devils.


text:
Does Rin's Eclipse scene "Beginners" in Fate/hollow ataraxia follow the UBW route?
Is Rin's Eclipse (H-)scene (Beginners) in Fate/hollow ataraxia canon?
I'd like to know if it follows Rin's true ending. Just to make it clear, I'm not asking if FHA follows UBW, I'm asking if that H-scene follows UBW True End (or maybe Good End).

Memor-X said: i don't believe so. i recall reading somewhere that the scenes in question were made as an apology for the people who were disappointed with what happened in Unlimited Blade Works and the development of the scenes with Rin in comparison to Saber's and Sakura's own scenes. Because of when it occurs we can likely rule out that scene being the conception of Fate/Extra's Rin Tohsaka or her ancestor who is seen in the CG of a young Rin at the beach when she was a child (who still bares a similar appearance to Rin in Fate/Stay Night).

Why did you delete and repost your question?

Additionally, as mentioned in your previously deleted question, Fate Extra is of a completely seperate continuity the shares a common metaverse. No development in FSN or FHA is directly connected to Extra.

I had written in one of my comments I would delete it to get rid of so many unrelated comments and repost it once you took the "on hold" away. Since you didn't answer to that part I assumed it meant you saw it as something reasonable. Thanks for reopening it :)

Spoilers regarding the H-scenes ahead
I take it it appears too good to be true for you.
Now, is it canon? Nasu did confirm it as such.
If I had to state my opinion I'd say as a whole Rin's scene does seem very reasonable just like the other eclipse scenes. If something, I'd add that the competition part (they fight to win over who pleasures the other more; Shirou becoming even a bit cruel and unlike himself whe he tells her at the beginning to touch herself while he watches), Rin using her magic to make her weight disappear even when orgasming and the use of apphrodisiacs may be more like fanservice, but then again it is an eroge and since the very beginning Nasu made Shirou unable to give mana but through sex because he has no magical knowledge. You can't get more porn vibes than that.
Think that Rin becoming more feminine, enjoying herself with Shirou and starting to accept her feelings a bit more is what makes sense after the UBW route.
I was the first one to reply this question and now there are 5 other answers (there are 6 counting mine as of now, from кяαzєя, Memor, Lord, Echomateria, Dumpster Player and myself). I don't agree with some statements from  кяαzєя as I showed in my comments to his answer. After reading all the answers I have more reasons to believe it does happen after UBW. Some of the arguments given in other answers are that the eclipse scenes are canon as I had said in my original post, that they don't belong to Fate Hollow's actual game but are instead set up to be a direct continuation of some of the original game endings...
And it's true. They don't belong to the storyline followed by Fate Hollow and it's also true they've been composed to follow Fate Stay Night endings. It does make sense for them to be a continuation as their canonicity has been established by the game authors. Pretty much everyone defend this point of view (Echomateria, Memor, Lord and myself outright defend this point of view).
About Hollow's true ending, which happens outside the time loop, Memor and Dumpster didn't touch this topic as it wasn't asked by the OP. I would completely agree with Echomateria and Lord's answer in that regard though a. As echomateria said in his answer it would be an alternate reality, just like each route is an alternate reality from each other. So basically it would be another route made by Nasu. According to the creators an scenario also exists where it is actually the sequel to Stay Night. This was actually treated in more detail by Lord in his answer.
When Takeuchi was asked whether Hollow is the continution of all 3 routes his conclusion was that the reader should interpret it however he wants, so either way.

But hey, it's an eroge so everything's possible. Doing anything I want to a beautiful girl and letting her play and do things to me all night while at the time having my member strong as the first time all night long does seem nice, no wonder people prefer this scene over the other one in FSN. If we add that to the fact that in a few years she becomes love-struck beyond belief with Shirou  and gives up on beating him, hiding her feelings... (it is canon) she becomes the best heroine IMO. Saber is up there too...

In the end all heroines are awesome. With Rin you get to have lots of fun and she leads you (it feels great being led by a girl that strong and loyal). With Saber you get an equal relationship and is the most complete heroine. In the case of Sakura you are in charge and can do anything to her (even bad things) and she will always smile and try to please you. I think Nasu made them this way on purpose.

I see. Thank you for telling me your honest opinion.

You misunderstand what Fate/hollow ataraxia actually is. It is not a direct continuation of Fate/stay night. It encompasses the endings of all of the routes, while at the same time not being any of them. Despite all that has happened in Fate/stay night, the story starts from a situation where everyone, plus extra characters and minus a certain character, is present with nobody thinks thinking unusual, except Shirou (the plot elaborates on why this is the case).
It's mentioned that Fate/hollow ataraxia not appear to follow a particular route from Fate/stay night, and that it was written in a non-serious manner.
From an interview with Takeuchi and Nasu in Toradayo 61, Jan 2006, mentions:

Q: So, should it be best to think that Fate/hollow ataraxia isn’t a continuation of the Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heavens Feel arcs of the last game?
Takeuchi: Yes. It's not really what happens after each route, but more of a "counter" to "Fate/stay night" itself… is what feels more comfortable right now, I think. While there is a setting about this happening after this route, personally, I don’t think it's that important. Basically, I think the player should interpret it however he wants.
Nasu: I personally wrote "Reunion", the introductory portion of Fate/hollow ataraxia with the intention of it being the ending of a certain route in Fate/stay night and the ending of "hollow ataraxia".

He also mentioned that "it's best if you don't think too much about it," (Fate/complete material III: World material - FAQ with Nasu: Miscellaneous, p.136) when questioned about its place in the timeline.
All Fate/stay night routes and
Fate/hollow ataraxia happen in alternative universes of sorts. That's how Nasu's multiverse works – it's made up of several alternative sub-universes, so even mutually exclusive routes are all "true" or canon.
However, if you make an attempt to connect the dots, there is a route that fits (as noted in the above interview) with the storyline of the plot of Fate/hollow ataraxia and meets all the requirements to completely make this possible, but that's for another topic.

@ArthurPendragon What you heard but cannot cite is heresay and can't be claimed as "true." As I mentioned in the answer FHA encompasses all the endings, so therefore all the endings are canon, as in has happened in the FHA universe.

I deleted my question cause I felt it was somewhat stupid and I didn't expect you to answer it hehe. If someone is wondering, this was my question:
Memor-X said: "i don't believe so. i recall reading somewhere that the scenes in question were made as an apology for the people who were disappointed with what happened in Unlimited Blade Works." Is he right?

VERY IMPORTANT thing to consider: When Takeuchi was asked whether Fate Hollow is a continuation of Fate Stay Night his CONCLUSION was: "Basically, I think the player should interpret it however he wants" So yes, it can still be considered a continuation to all endings, a counter to fate stay night or the continuation to just one route. Another proof of that is when Nasu says "it's best if you don't think too much about it," when asked if it doesn't follow the routes. He's avoiding the question. It will be up to the reader to decide if it is a true sequel to all endings or to 1 ending.

So basically at the very least it deserves the title of one of Nasu's true endings, and depending on the reader's interpretation it could still be the true sequel to Fate Stay Night.

SUPER IMPORTANT THING TO CONSIDER: (before that I'd like to say that Nasu's words "it should be left up to the user's imagination" also bear out what I said before). Now, what I wanted to say is that neither Nasu or Takeuchi EVER said in an interview that it "was written written in a non-serious manner". When Nasu said "don't think too much about it" it was to avoid answering if it's a true sequel to all routes or not, it has nothing to do with it not being serious.

@Sanji you're taking words too literally here. It's best not to think too much about it. It wasn't meant as a serious work.

I am stating what he said, you're the one that's giving it the interpretation it wasn't serious work, something he never said. Look at the answers. When asked if it's the true sequel to every route they say "Basically, I think the player should interpret it however he wants" They don't discard it. Then the interviewer asks if it doesn't follow the routes (he didn't get an answer so he asks the same in a different way). Nasu then tells him not to think about it. To me it's clear he tells him to drop it. He can't discard the sequel nor his previous work (both the authors say the reader chooses).

What he may or may not have said is arbitrary. I never quoted him saying it. You're the one taking this interpretation too literally.

Well, I just wanted to make it clear he didn't say that. People don't usually read the source material, and while it wasn't quoted, saying "it's mentioned that..." just before dealing with the interview might make it seem it is actually mentioned that way.

I'm gonna express my opinion regarding the OP question. I will explain where I got got my info and how I came upon my conclusion.
My opinion based on Nasu and Takeuchi's words is that it can be considered a sequel to the original game if the reader wants it and therefore so would the eclipse scenes. I will also add a theory at the end of my post and it will be based on the way the eclipse scenes are set, my experience reading 100% of the Visual Novel and Nasu's answer to the first question.
http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Fate/hollow_ataraxia (at the end of the page you can see Nasu and Takeuchi expressing their opinion regarding Fate Hollow). I will use quotes of that.
Fate Hollow Ataraxia was sold back in the day as a sequel and even the true ending, now outside the loop, is called "sequel".
I side with Sanji's opinion in this regard. After reading the whole interview there's no question they don't deny it. The first question the interviwer makes is whether hollow is the after story or not. Nasu's answer was: "We mentioned it a little bit earlier, but “hollow” is set in Fuyuki city half a year after Fate/stay night. But despite that, the story’s starting from a situation where everyone, + some extra people and minus a certain character, is present and nobody thinks that’s unusual."
I believe it's normal he'd say that, after all he's describing the time-loop. But even so he finishes saying "but we believe it should be left up to the user’s imagination"
The second question is "So, should it be best to think that Fate/hollow ataraxia isn’t a continuation of the Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heavens Feel arcs of the last game?"
Takeuchi's answer is quite vague:"It’s not really what happens after each route, but more of a “counter” to “Fate/stay night” itself…..is what feels more comfortable right now... Basically, I think the player should interpret it however he wants."
Saying "is what feels confortable right now isn't a compelling argument". In the end he says the reader decides, just like Nasu.
The third question is yet again a similar version of the others: "Is it safe to assume that Hollow's "Sequel" follows none of the three routes’ endings in Fate/stay night? (meaning a parallel universe with different possibilities)" The answer Nasu gives: "It’s best if you don’t think too much about it".
What I see is that both of them arrive at the same conclusion, the reader decides, and want to leave it at that.
Once the characters get out of the loophole, if you like the ending your headcanon becomes canon because the authors say so. So the true ending of Fate Hollow would become the sequel to Fate Stay Night.
If you don't like it, then don't worry. The original story remains untouched and Ataraxia is either a fourth route or the ending to one of the original routes.
It might seem vague, but if both of them literally tell the reader to interpret it however he wants it's impossible to have a clear asnwer. They make canon both interpretations in a very straightforward manner.
About the interpretation it was written in a non-serious manner given by кяαzєя
It is based on the answer "It’s best if you don’t think too much about it"
No matter how I look at it, the only thing I see is the interviewer wanting a clear answer. It is the third time a very similar question is asked and this time Nasu makes it stop saying "dont think too much about it", which makes sense given his previous replies. Nasu knows they gave 2 vague replies the previous times "it will be up to the user" and he just sticks to it.
Another reason why I'm sure it's this way is that it would have been very easy to just say yes to the last question, saying it is another universe like he does with many of his works (Unlimited Blade Works, Prisma Illya, Fate Extra...).
In my opinion him not saying that would mean we are in the same universe and the reader can consider it a sequel to FSN if he wants to as they say. I'd also say Nasu actually gives a lot of credit to this work, which is btw is 2/3 of the original visual novel's size.
Nonetheless, I do believe, based on the way the eclipse scenes are set and my experience reading 100% of the Visual Novel and Nasu's words that there is better way to think Rin's eclipse scene happens after UBW.
If you finished reading the Visual Novel you must have realized the eclipse scenes take place outside the proper game. They're set up exactly to continue each route. In Rin's case, Shirou describes their previous time making love and past experiences in UBW. Rider would be Heaven's Feel, so would Sakura...
Nasu said " We mentioned it a little bit earlier, but “hollow” is set in Fuyuki city half a year after Fate/stay night. But despite that, the story’s starting from a situation where everyone, + some extra people and minus a certain character, is present and nobody thinks that’s unusual. While Shirou, the protagonist thinks this is weird, he can’t figure out what exactly is unusual. He’s in that kind of unstable situation, but he’s genuinely enjoying the “festivities” feeling that it’s great how everyone’s around".
Nevertheless, these scenes don't belong to that description and they're clearly staged after each route. They don't belong to the actual plot of the game. Nasu confirmed them as canon so I don't have any reason to believe they don't really happen after each route. In my opinion they're like a bonus.
It's not something very relevant but Memor said in a thread things like the fact that it is confirmed Rider-Shirou because of the love confession in her eclipse scene, not a very far-fetched comment considering Nasu said those scenes are canon.I would agree with him. So yes, in my opinion Rin's scene is canon and would take place after UBW. Or at the very least the authors tell you can interpret it that way.

I agree with your interpretation of the interview regarding the true ending of Fate Hollow.

YES, I don't think KRaZ€R's statement about the game not being too serious is right either as Sanji suggested in the comments stating Nasu never said that. My question was about that sex scene, but the game itself seems very serious to me. The slice of life scenes accurately reflect the characters motivations and Nasu tells us very important info regarding the past of some of them. Even if it's a time-loop most of the time, the characters themselves are the same ones from FS/N and the true ending, which takes place outside the loop,feels like the direct continuation of the original game to me.

For what I've read a dude trolled us by writing in wiki Nasu mentions it's not serious. This is based on his last reply "don't give it too much thought" and some people copy-paste him when talking about Ataraxia. To me, the true ending of Ataraxia is the sequel to FSN not because he says I can interpret it that way but because it is called sequel and the whole game builds up to consider it the sequel. Nasu doesn't do things like that without giving it a lot of thought.

Plus the game is considered canon by Nasu. In my opinion he didn't deny it's the true sequel cause it is, otherwise he would have said it's a parallel world in the last question as the interviewer seems to want him reply. Anyways, thank you for your reply!

To answer your question let's start with the question ¿What's Fate Hollow Ataraxia?
Fate Hollow is an alternate reality, just like each route is an alternate reality of each other. You can basically consider it the fourth route to the original game.
The reasons why it is called a sequel by many people are:

Because the authors say an scenario exists where it is actually a direct continuation. If they say so there must be some truth behind it.
I'm gonna make an example to make it more clear:
The thing is that Rin develops a new kind of magic. This was explained a little at the end of FSN.
This magic allows travel between dimensions and therefore routes. The example would be a hand that picks 2 girls and throws them to a new dimension/route. One girl is Sakura, who is picked from after the war HF. The other is Rin, from after the war UBW.
So, do we have different route? Yes, but Sakura comes from Heaven's Feel ending so her actions in Ataraxia reflect what she would do in her own route under certain circumstances. The same for Rin.
This second point is a reason to consider it kinda a sequel.

The eclipse/hentai scenes are quite different though from the actual game. They aren't part of Fate Hollow Ataraxia. They really are a fully-fledged continuations of the original game endings as they are written to literally continue them. They are something like a plus and are clearly written to continue FSN endings.
Nasu made a confirmation of them being canon. If we add the fact that they aren't part of the actual Ataraxia game and that they follow endings from the original game it would make zero sense to not consider them their continuation.

The eclipse scene begginers that you ask about references Rin and Shirou's sexual activities in UBW between other stuff. What Nasu is telling us is that their sex is going well, unlike in the original game. Nothing to worry about.
Sakura's scene happens after Heaven's Feel.
Saber's scene golden bathtub most likely happens after UBW good ending. It can't be the fate route as the first time Shirou and Saber have sex alone is the night before she dies, where he was so nervous he didn't even know what to do. There aren't more times to have sex as she dies afterwards.
Saber in Fate Hollow comes from UBW good ending. The way the H-scene occurs makes it seem they're not in a formal relationship (having sex sometimes is what their relationship seems to be about) and that Saber is fine and isn't gonna die.
It shouldn't come as a surprise though. In UBW Good ending Nasu hints strongly Shirou is gonna have sex with Saber.
Some hints are that Shirou's magical energy (semen) is needed to maintain saber as  Rin's energy isn't enough, Saber says in the  VN she's staying for him, Rin tells saber not to flirt with him and to stop looking at each other for so long. Basically one of the typical harem endings in a porn game.
We don't know if Rin and Saber have sex in Unlimited good ending as nothing is ever hinted/mentioned in either the eclipse scenes or the game itself that may point out they ever have a sexual relationship over there. Also, Rin provides magic to Saber thanks to her link and no sex is needed as she's an experienced magi.
The Rider scene happens after HF.
Basically it is revealed that Rider falls in love with Shirou and likes meeting him to have sex with him. In her eclipse scene she confesses she loves him. Rider says she thinks about him when she's alone but she feels bad about Sakura.

Is it something new? Not really, we just got a confirmation of what we already knew. Remember when Rider said she is sucking regularly someone's blood and that she can't let Sakura Know? That is mentioned somewhere at the end of Heaven's Feel in the original game. She thought that after 2 years living together with Shirou and Sakura. They're the only ones living together in the Emiya house (Rin lives in London). So it has to be Shirou as she thinks Sakura must not know. And how does Rider suck blood? She just bites you unless you're Shirou. In Heaven's Feel Route She finds Shirou so juicy she has sex with him as well. The rest of the people just got the bite.
My  final conclusion: I've based my answer on a few facts. We know that the eclipse/hentai scenes aren't part of Fate Hollow Ataraxia's actual game. We know that they were confirmed as canon by the authors. We also know that they are written to continue certain endings from the original game.
Final conclusion: To me it would make zero sense for them not to be their direct continuation.

One question. Regarding the true ending, which happens outside the time loop and appears to be a reat harem for Shirou. What is it?

As I said at the beginning of my answer Hollow is something like an alternative path, just like each route is a path from each other. You can consider that ending the result of another route made by Nasu. According to the authors an scenario also exists where it would be a sequel. I don't think you  should think much about it though. Everything is fantasy made up by Nasu, just enjoy all his works.

Nasu wrote that ending and he made sure it happens outside of the time loop.

I believe it is because Fate/Hollow Ataraxia is in a way very similar to another Type-Moon game and that's Kagetsu Tohya
like Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, Kagetsu Tohya is the "sequal" game to a Type-Moon game, Tsukihime, which has 5 Routes with about 2 proper endings (as opposed to dead end/game over endings) for each one. like Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, Kagetsu Tohya is set in a looped world where after the story progresses so much time (in Kagetsu Tohya it's 1 day) or Tohno Shiki is killed everything restarts.
They also both features bonus scenes which do not occur in the space of the main game. in Kagetsu Tohya these are called Ten Nights of Dream, quoting the link these are

The first seven of these stories were written by Kinoko Nasu like the rest of Kagetsu Tohya, while the last three are contribution works by others, essentially fanfiction. It is unknown if any of these stories are to be considered canon.

Good luck, Ciel-sensei

Ciel teaches the rest of the cast in her role as Ciel-sensei from Tsukihime. The story is mainly a comedy story, reflecting on parts of the series in the form of questions.

A Story for the Evening

Akiha solves a mystery in her boarding school. This story is a sequel to her true ending in Tsukihime.

Crimson Moon

A look at Arcueid's history as a True Ancestor, and her first fateful meeting with Roa. This story has Roa as the protagonist and shows him in less of an antagonistic light.

Red Demon God

The story of Shiki's father Kiri Nanaya. This story reveals much about the Nanaya family and the Demon Hunter Organization that they are connected with.

Nanako-chan SOS

Nanako (the spirit of the Seventh Holy Scripture) escapes from Ciel and hides out at Arihiko's place. This story has Arihiko as the protagonist and reveals how he and Shiki met in the past.

Imogirisou

A parody of the horror game Otogirisou starring Shiki, Akiha, Hisui and Kohaku.

Flower of Thanatos

Erotic story that takes place in an artificial dream world where Shiki, Kohaku and Hisui live in the isolated Tohno mansion.

Hisui-chan, Inversion Impulse!

Hisui goes insane with hilarious results. Takes place after Hisui's Good Ending.

The Tohno Family Con Game

Nearly the whole cast plays an elaborate game of tag for Kohaku's sake.

Dawn (or Daybreak)

The continued story of the girl that gets devoured in the park by Nrvnqsr Chaos in Tsukihime. Takes place after Arcueid's Good Ending.

As you can see a number of these stories follow particular endings, for instnace A Story for the Evening follows Akiha's True end because

 at the end Akiha recives a letter from Ciel saying that Shiki didn't die when he killed himself in Akiha's True End and saved him. Akiha is annoyed by this because it was Ceil who saved Shiki and not her

My belief that Beginners (the name of the scene as indicated here) is after the Unlimited Blade Works Route is becaue the same page i linked to says

Shirou is stranded at Rin's home during a rainy day. Both alone in an empty house they decide to remedy their previous sexual failures and make progress in their relationship.

if i recall what i read about the H Scene in the original Fate/Stay Night at the end Rin complained that Shirou wasn't gentle and they won't do it again. to me the above quote implies they already have a relationship and what happened in the H Scene in Unlimited Blade Works occured.
However this does not mean that Fate/Hollow Ataraxia is a sequal to Fate/Stay Night's Unlimited Blade Works Route

Thank you XD Yes, I think it's pretty much a given it happens afterwards

It's not stated to be, but you can pretend it is a continuation of the UBW True End. It's shown during the scene where Rin got trapped in the Second Magic Chest that in at least one alternative universe where Rin and Shirou are lovers, Rin actually dropped her tsun completely and is head over heels in love with Shirou to the point where she sounds like one of those sickening sweet lovebirds.

Thank you. I read the game so I know that scene. Most of it was included in the anime's last episode so it's pretty much the canon ending of UBW. I think it may happen in the good ending too (the lovestruck thing), after all Rin heavely hints he will be making love to her and Shirou will always be the same no matter what.

When I say it was included in the anime's last episode I obviously don't mean the calls themselves to UBW. I mean the key points like Lluvia crushing on him, Rin fighting for him to drive him away from girls (Lluvia in the anime and hrself in the call) and Rin dropping tsun part. This last part is shown in the anime in scenes like her sleeping on Shirou's shoulder in a train where I take it people can watch them or Rin resting her head on Shirou's lap while he caresses her. And they're in the public magical library and she doen't even blush.

We just lack middle-aged Rin from that scene. In the anime she's just 19 but in a few years she'll just say she loves everything about him lots of times and that she'd do anything for him. Anyways, did you realise that with the exception of the fate route (Last epiode: Shirou x Saber in Avalon) Shirou just has harems? In UBW true Lluvia likes him very much and Nasu mentioned they will have adventures even after graduation; in UBW good ending saber loves him (VN, Rin tells them not to flirt); In Heaven's Feel Rider loves him (amazing love confession in Ataraxia); In Ataraxia he gets everyone.


text:
How can Achilles and Astolfo lend Noble Phantasm?
Is it explained how Achilles and Astolfo can lend Noble Phantasm? I have only seen the anime so I am not sure if this is covered in the novels but for Charon to ask for a Noble Phantasm would indicate he knew that Achilles could lend Noble Phantasm to anyone or he specifically knew Achilles would run into Astolfo. From a previous question I asked it was indicated that this was a unique circumstance of Achilles being known for lending his Noble Phantasms and Astolfo borrowing Noble Phantasm. Is this a unique interaction between Achilles and Astolfo or is this just a power of Achilles or Astolfo?

In actual legends, Achilles is known for giving away relics (e.g. For Patroclus to impersonate him, lending him his chariot and armor), and Astolfo is known for receiving them in his legend (which is why he has so many different Noble Phantasms, which he collected through his adventures). These circumstances allow the two to transfer and recieve other Noble Phantasm, which would not normally be possible (although there are exceptions, such as Berserker from Fate/Zero).
The anime itself is a poor adaptation, and glosses over or outright changes a lot of context and background information. Therefore a lot of thing the audience should know are left out arbitrarily.

It was just plot armour. I'm pretty sure they can't make Karna lose to a piece of cardboard any other way


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What does Kakashi's Anbu mask represent?
In the Anbu, the people have to wear masks. I was wondering what Kakashi's mask represented. To me it looks like a cat, but other people say it looks like a fox.

Kakashi Hatake's Anbu mask resembled a dog's face with red and black markings around the eyes, sides, and mouth.
Source:Naruto Wikia

This will help you differntiate between a cat, fox and dog

That looks nothing like a dog.

it`s a dog . . .
you know just to keep a dog themed ninja going. . .
it would be funny seeing cat masked ninja summoning a horde of dog though

@NamikazeSheena well I guess that makes more sense..... kind of.


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"Full-time Employment is a Loophole in the Law to Make Wages Lower"?
In Episode 10, which itself is called "Full-time Employment is a Loophole in the Law to Make Wages Lower…" or 「正社員ってお給料を安くするための法の抜け穴...」 「Seishain tte Okyūryō o Yasukusuru Tame no Hō no Nukeana 」 (essentially taken from the dialogue)…
When referring to why Nene can't work as a playtester on weekends, they discuss:

Aoba: Why can't part-timers work on the weekends?
Kou: Oh, it depends on the company, but they're paid by the hour, so if they worked overtime and weekends, they'd get paid more than you, Aoba.
Aoba: W-Wait a minute! Is being a full-time employee just a loophole to make wages lower?
Kou: We can talk about that some other time.

What is this referring to? Is this something that also applies to the western world or some kind of business law in Japan?

If one is salaried, one doesn't usually get paid overtime. Aoba, presumably, is salaried, so like many full-time workers, she won't get overtime.
However as a part-time/temp worker, Nene would likely get overtime which is why she could end up earning more than Aoba.
As a general example, videogame programmers work longer hours for less pay compared to programmers in more "soulless" industries.
They usually have relatively more passion for their work than those from most other industries. Unfortunately, there are companies who are happy to exploit that to drive wages down.

Is this Japan-specific? In Europe, specifically Germany, a full time job will include a number of working hours in the contract (or some other, equivalent measure; if there is nothing, I’m pretty sure a standard is assumed) and anything above that is overtime and must either be payed out or reduced by granting the employee more free time. Tbh, I pretty much don’t know how the rest of the world sees this legally, though.

This is just a general explanation, if you are looking for specific details, try Workplace.SE.

@Jan Generally, EU states are more progressive in their approaches to workers' rights than either the US or Japan. In both the US and Japan, "salaried" frequently means "infinity hours per week".

@Jan That's not true in all of Europe - although it is usually true for lower paid jobs or jobs protected by collective bargaining agreements. But for managerial jobs or better paid professional jobs such as lawyers or consultants, overtime is usually taken to be included in normal pay. Where a playtester sits in Europe in this regard, I don't really know.


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Are anime still submitted to broadcasters in tape form?
In Shirobako, the studio has to deliver the tapes to broadcasters physically. I'm not surprised that this is a process, but I am surprised that there's nothing more modern in place.
Early on, we learn that Musani Animation has an FTP server to store their files - so why don't they just send the file over the internet?

I've heard some arguments that physical delivery is still faster, but I'm not sure I buy that - Japan's internet speeds are quite good and the file sizes shouldn't be overly huge as it should be the compiled product rather than files with image layers, audio tracks, CG models, etc all separate.
Are anime really still submitted by tape? If so, why?

The other argument I've heard in favor of tape is reliability - there's a million-and-one ways that a fully-digital file-transfer system can break down (lots of "moving" parts); transferring the finished product by physical means is a good bit more reliable. It's a plausible-sounding argument to me, though I don't know whether it's actually correct.

No, tapes are no longer used. The tape appearing in Shirobako is just a joke in reference to old times. DVD-R are used nowadays, and maybe sometime in the future, blu-ray will replace them. It seems like the trend of using DVD-R began at least in 2007. On a side note, shirobako are not necessarily white either in reality.
As to possible reasons regarding why they have to give it physically:

They are late so they don't have the time to send it by post.
The FTP server was down in the anime so they had no other choice.
Mark of respect and seriousness for the broadcasters.
No problem of "timestamp" proof (if the broadcasters refused to accept the shirobako because of lateness) since a person goes directly to give it.
Reduced risk of leaking the episode if it was given by another mean.

Sources:

moto-neta.com/anime/shirobako/
detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1185176891
img.animeanime.jp/imgs/thumb_h/44928.jpg
the anime Shirobako itself
Lots of other pages on Google when searching for "白箱"

This answer seems to confuse the "white boxes" that are given to staff, and the media that is sent to broadcasters to show on the air. I don't think a DVD-R would be considered acceptable to send to a broadcaster, even for an SD show. It obviously wouldn't work for a modern HD show. As I said in another comment the tape in the picture looks like it's a professional HDCAM digital videocassette. While I'm not sure how much use this format gets today, if they're no longer in common use it would been only a few years ago (not 2007) that Japanese broadcasters transitioned to something else.

So I went back to research following Ross Ridge's comment, and my answer is now:
Yes, they are still used (but a bit less since 2011-2012).

Basically, as networks and high-speed bandwidths are becoming more competitive, the transfer solution over internet is now the state-of-the-art regarding sending data to broadcasters. Dedicated solutions started appearing around 2011, and are being adopted progressively.
However, professional tapes are still the most popular means (as of 2016) to use as a master tape to give physically to broadcasters.
Effectively, animation software, such as RETAS STUDIO, takes care of network needs for in-house file circulation, then a professional tape recorder is used for the last steps of the post-production to "compile" everything, as you said.
As for possible reasons regarding why they have to give it physically in the anime:

They are late so they don't have the time to send it by post.
The FTP server was down in the anime so they had no other choice.
Mark of respect and seriousness for the broadcasters.
Reduced risk of leaking the episode if it was given by another means.

More details on the tape formats
Historically, anime studios mostly used D2-VTR tapes in the 90s-00s (SD quality), then progressively transitioned to newer formats.
Nowadays, the preference from the broadcasters' side basically dictates the expected format. Notably, the standard in the industry is HDCAM (1440x1080), whereas NHK is pretty much the only broadcaster to prefer having the master sent to them as a more recent and better HDCAM-SR tape.

Most anime studios, on the other hand, already upgraded to HDCAM-SR, which boasts compatibility with HDCAM, and so they can also be used to be sent to broadcasters regardless of whether the broadcasters use HDCAM or HDCAM-SR. However, a minority of studios cannot afford paying for a HDCAM-SR recorder, so they may prefer outsourcing the encoding to external companies such as IMAGICA or Sony PCL.

Regarding overseas broadcasters
The preferred solution is for the studio to edit out the black screen parts normally left for TV commercials, then capture the output content directly into HD data to be put onto a simple HDD with USB 3.0.
This is mainly due to HDCAM-SR being very costly, to the point of making it not worthwhile financially if it were to be used as a medium to send overseas. In addition, the great earthquake in Japan in 2011 destroyed the Sony factory where HDCAM-SR tapes were being manufactured, causing a shortage of tapes around the world. This event shaped the cost of the tapes, and so the process of how to send anime overseas at the time.
Nowadays, when there are requirements of simulcast, like for Crunchyroll or Funimation, the direct transfer solution is preferred, with software such as Aspera being the standard in the industry for fast file transfer (a normal anime episode may be around 37GB to send, whereas a special episode can easily go over 100GB).

More about shirobako
My previous answer revolved essentially around shirobako. I had some confusion (I give my thanks to Ross Ridge for pointing it out), so I will give a few more details about it to correct myself, but nevertheless leave the contents of my previous answer here.
As told in the anime, "shirobako" is historically a tape inside a white box. This medium is given to the studio staff so they can do a final check for errors before the master tape (the HDCAM-SR I previously talked about) is sent to the broadcaster. However, the term shirobako is also sometimes used to talk about the master tape.
This actually comes from the fact that shirobako are generally HDCAM-SR tapes, which usually come in white-ish grey boxes (like the picture above), the same as the tapes used to send to the broadcaster!
However, a trend of using DVD-R for shirobako seem to have started somewhere around 2007, and so the "white box" characteristic was no longer relevant.
A shirobako nowadays
On a final side note: boxes for HDCAM are typically black-ish grey, so the tape in the screenshot from the question is most likely a HDCAM tape.

Sources:

http://tonarino-kawauso.com/wordpress/column01/
moto-neta.com/anime/shirobako/
detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1185176891
img.animeanime.jp/imgs/thumb_h/44928.jpg

Justim Sevakis, who is a cohost of the ANNcast, day job is DVD authoring; from listening to him (they even did a show where Justin was a guest and not host) it is all digital.  I would be  really curious to see if anyone has ever made a non-digital medium (tape) that can hold 1080p video. I have friends who work in US TV stations and everything is stored on a server and I don't see why the Japanese would do it differently. You also have to remember that if you are producing TV for 1080p you need to shoot at a higher resolution. This is the problem with 4K video. In order to produce professional content you need to shoot at 8K the problem is getting a monitor that can view this resolution.

The question was about whether the show would be submitted on tape. The question wasn't about whether it would be digital or not.

@RossRidge Yes I said tape put the video on tape then rip it to hard drives so that people can use it.  According to Sam Pinansky, who ran Anime Sols (RIP), everything his team worked on was on Hard drives. His team never dealt with tape. Anime sols was specify translating old Anime from the 70' and 80's.

You said nothing about tape. The practices of a company that's neither Japanese nor a TV station aren't particularly relevant.

I apologize that you were not able to infer non digital medium as tape. Unless you are using tape drives for data backup, the data it stores is usually analog.  Another reason for this not working out would be that there is no standardization for tape drives and you are stuck with one vendor.

I didn't make that inference because tape isn't a non digital medium. The tape in the picture looks like it could be a HDCAM tape, a professional HD digital videocassette format that's used by TV stations around the world.

http://shirobaco.com/concept/ White boxes were originally VHS (tough I am pretty sure that Betamax was king for anime) they even say that tape is no longer used but white tape (translation for Shirobako), video media to be distributed to staff, is a term that has stuck around.

Your answer has little to no relevancy to the question posed by the OP about Japanese anime broadcasts. Please consider editing your question to reflect the question posed. If you insist on using American broadcast standards as part of your answer, at least try to explain how it related to Japanese broadcast standards.


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Was the Firebolt attack invented in anime, or does it come from another place?
In Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka , Bell Cranel has an attack called "Firebolt". So does one character in the anime/manga  Mob kara Hajimaru Tansaku Eiyuutan
Was the Firebolt attack invented in anime, or does it come from another place?

Firebolt is a spell in Dungeons and Dragons, and has been part of the ruleset since DnD 3.5 in 2003. I have no direct evidence that the DnD Firebolt spell inspired the Firebolt spells in the series you listed, but given DnD's influence on the medieval fantasy genre, and the RPG-style mechanics of both series' worlds, I find it very likely that that's where the spell originated.

Unless of course D&D took it from yet another place.  Very possible, but at any rate, not anime original.

I assumed it came from Dungeons and Dragons (I believe other ideas in Fantasy Anime came from it, I think I asked once about it) or Lord of the Rings


text:
Did the scene where Rimuru says "I'm not a bad slime" use to have "slurp" at the end?
I can't find anyone else who remembers it, but I'm sure that in the original Japanese version of That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime, Rimuru's line "I'm not a bad slime" was followed by "slurp".
This is from Episode 6; timestamp of 14:04 - 14:07 (on the cruncyroll sub at least, but it should get you around the area).
I watched it a few times before it got removed. It was removed from the sub after the dub came out and didn't have it. Maybe there are not any sub viewers in the groups I have talked to, but still.
Did this scene actually exist as I remember it?


text:
Can Gohan transform to Super Saiyan in Mystic form?
In DBZ, we see that the Elder Kai fully awakens the dormant power of Gohan. In this state Gohan can match Buu in his unfused form. But after Buu absorbs Piccolo and Gotenks, why doesn't Gohan go Super?
Is there any reason that Gohan couldn't transform to Super Saiyan form after the awakening?
Dragon Ball Super has canon continuity to DBZ and I've heard talks of Ultimate Gohan in it. Has more information been provided on Gohan's transformation in DBS? Please Note: Yet to see DBS beyond the initial movies.

I think I found a possible answer, because I had a similar question.
In Gohan article on Dragon Ball Wiki.

However, amazed at realizing that
  some of his power really was unlocked, Gohan apologizes to Old Kai,
  and resumes the ritual. After some time, the ritual is finally
  completed and Gohan is told to power up like he does for the Super
  Saiyan transformation; however, when he does, his appearance does not
  change, but his power and strength gain an awesome increase.

So it seems when Gohan got "Mystic Gohan", even though he increased his power, his appearance didn't change. So he couldn't transform in any other Saiyan form than the normal form, but he was still getting stronger.
I'm not sure if he is able to change, but the fact is, there would be no difference. He already got all his power in his normal form, without a change.

This seems like a good plausible explanation. I also did some reading of my own. It seems that when Gohan powers up for Mystic form, his eyes turn green for a moment. The reason of his strength is explained as same as the time they fought Cell. He doesn't waste energy transforming. Essentially he is at the same level as a SS3 without wasting any energy transforming as Goku did. He powered up but didn't transform.

@Arcane Chapter 497 seems to confirm this. Gohan is told to transform into a SS, but even though he gathers massive amounts of energy, he doesn't physically change. If this series was ongoing I would have expected Goku's words to be foreshadowing something great when he said I wonder if you can surpass this too.., but we never really saw any evidence of this.

In Dragon Ball Super when training with Piccolo Gohan powered up to super saiyan 2, and then he made a final effort and transformed into mystic form , passing from super saiyan 2 to mystic form in a gradual change, as a next stage, so no, now with Dragon Ball Super the answer is clear, he can't transform into super saiyan when in mystic form because it's another stage of power. You can see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G4shXF9bo0

The answer is actually no.  Gohan's Mystic Powerup IS his Super Saiyan transformation which is why elder Kai tells him to powerup as if he were transforming.

The answer is yes. His power was fully awaken and so he had no need to transform into super Saiyan. He could go super but he didn't know that Buu could absorb people and their power level.
When he is in mystic form his full power was awaken and he had the same power as he did as super Saiyan. so his base power was risen. He can still transform into a SS or SS2 at any point he wants to. Its just the fact that he has the same power level and so he doesn't see the point to.
A good sight for you to look at the goes more in detail is Dragonball wiki

Sorry, but I can't understand the point you're trying to make here. "He could go super but he didnt know that buu could absorb people and thier power level." I am asking why doesn't he go Super AFTER Buu absorbs Gotenks and Piccollo. Also if the base power of Gohan has risen, it seems logical to assume that his power in Super Saiyan should also rise accordsingly?

Also the link you gave also gives several conflicting answers with no clear canon proof and mostly theorized answers. I haven't found a clear answer as of yet

Gohan doesn't go super after buu abosrbs gotenks and piccollo beacuse at the very moment since his base power has risen the power needed to go to ss was a lot more and he didn't have that power yet.

Getting your information from the comments on a wiki page is not an accurate way to provide information to others.

Not a right answer, the right answer was giving in DBS in can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G4shXF9bo0

@Pablo after watching that you are correct it does show this in DBS. Thanks for the update. Always good to learn something new

It makes perfect sense that Ultimate Gohan (the official name for the "form") can go Super Saiyan. Whenever Gohan had sudden outburst of rage and power he utilized and unleashed very small portions of his full power, the greatest example of this was him transforming into and SSJ2 against Perfect Cell.
The Super Saiyan forms are only multipliers, and are NOT set levels of power. Ultimate Gohan is just Gohan with his potential unlocked, he can't get stronger than that naturally, but utilizing forms and skills like the Kaio-ken, and Super Saiyan forms would multiply his power.
For further proof, the Daizenshuu 2 clearly states that Ultimate Gohan can go Super Saiyan, and doing that would make him even stronger that Buuhan.

Actually, Gohan's Mystic Power-Up actually made it so his ki transformed to that of a Kai, but doing so made it so that his appearance doesn't change when he goes Super Saiyan.
When he fought Super Buu, he was actually a Super Saiyan 2 charged by Kai energy, but the Kai powers he got from his Mystic training made his Super Saiyan lose the aura and hair and eye color.
Apparently that Kai training has worn off by the events of Battle of the Gods, Resurrection F and Dragon Ball Super because he went back to not training.

According to Dragon Ball Wiki, Daizenshuu 2 commented on the possibility of Gohan becoming a Super Saiyan:

Daizenshuu 2 states that Ultimate Gohan is still capable of becoming a Super Saiyan, but even without utilising the form he surpasses Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks in power, if Ultimate Gohan was to become a Super Saiyan his power would likely rise to levels above even Super Buu (Gohan, Piccolo, Goten, and Trunks absorbed).


text:
Are the Kara no Kyoukai movies based off chapters from one book or separate books?
In the Kara no Kyoukai, each movie is referred to as a Chapter so I've been wondering if they all comes from a single book or separate books and when they say Chapter they are referring to the movie collection (like how some anime series use Chapter # instead of Episode #)

From the Type-Moon Wiki the chapters of the light novel are:

Chapter 1 – Overlooking the Scenery (俯瞰風景, Fukan Fuukei) Thanatos
Chapter 2 – Murder Speculation (Part 1) (殺人考察(前), Satsujin Kousatsu (Zen)) …and nothing heart.
Chapter 3 – Remaining Sense of Pain (痛覚残留, Tsuukaku Zanryuu) ever cry, never life.
Chapter 4 – The Hollow Shrine (伽藍の洞, Garan no Dou) garan-no-dou.
Intermission - Kirie/Fujino (境界式, Kyoukai Shiki)
Chapter 5 – Paradox Spiral (矛盾螺旋, Mujun Rasen) Paradox Paradigm.
Chapter 6 – Oblivion Recorder (忘却録音, Boukyaku Rokuon) Fairy Tale.
Intermission - Lio (境界式, Kyoukai Shiki)
Chapter 7 – Murder Speculation (Part 2) (殺人考察(後), Satsujin Kousatsu (Go)) …not nothing heart.
Boundary of Emptiness (空の境界, Kara no Kyoukai)
Future Gospel (未来福音, Mirai Fukuin) recalled out summer
Final Record (終末録音, Shuumatsu Rokuon) the Garden of Oblivion

And the animated films:

2007-12-01 (Japan, Part 1 - Fukan Fuukei) (same as Chapter 1 of novel)
2007-12-29 (Japan, Part 2 - Satsujin Kousatsu) (same as Chapter 2 of novel)
2008-01-26 (Japan, Part 3 - Tsuukaku Zanryuu) (same as Chapter 3 of novel)
2008-05-24 (Japan, Part 4 - Garan no Dou) (same as Chapter 4 of novel)
2008-08-16 (Japan, Part 5 - Mujun Rasen) (same as Chapter 5 of novel)
2008-12-20 (Japan, Part 6 - Boukyaku Rokuon) (same as Chapter 6 of novel)
2009-08-08 (Japan, Part 7 - Satsujin Kousatsu [conclusion]) (same as Chapter 7 of novel)

So the movies' chapters refer to the same chapters from the light novel.

So the chapters all come from the same book?

@Memor-X by "book" you mean a single printed release or light novel series (which is just called "Kara no Kyokai")? Because the 7 chapters span 3 volumes, but are all part of the same series.

i though it was either a series of light novels or a single light novel, didn't know it was both so i'm probably referring to whichever the anime was sourced from, if there is even a difference between the light novels and the single printed release

@Memor-X The series was released as 3 volumes, I think the first covered chapters 1-3, then 4-5, then 6-7. I don't think the individual chapters were released individually, but I could easily be wrong.

The first 5 chapters were actually published on Nasu's proto-blog (whatever you called those back in 1998) prior to receiving a print run (as 2 novels, not 3, I believe split up as 1-5 and then 6-7) in I think 2001. Mirai Fukuin is also based on a sequel novel (also titled "Mirai Fukuin" and released in 2008, seven years after the first two).

Oh, I should add that KnK was later reprinted as 3 books on smaller paper (bunko), which were split up as you describe (1-3, 4-5, 6-7).

@senshin Ah, that must be what I was thinking about, I've seen pictures of those 3 volumes before, had no idea how any of the previous releases were done though I knew that there were other releases


text:
Do Shojo and Bishonen overlap, or are they separate?
I was checking out the new season of anime and came across a self-described shojo anime, but judging by the cover art, name, and description, I assumed a Bishonen anime.  As I was making a joke to a friend, I realized that shojo and bishonen weren't the exact same thing.  Somehow I had conflated the two.
Are the two terms overlapping genres, or is one a genre and the other a subgenre?  I'm not sure where one ends and the other begins.

Shoujo is a genre of manga/anime targeted at girls. There's an explanation here that covers it, but basically, it's manga/anime where the target demographic is 8-17-year-old girls.
Bishonen is an aesthetic/style that refers to pretty boys, who generally have feminine and delicate features. It most often shows up in shoujo and yaoi manga/anime, but it isn't exclusive to them. An entire manga/anime can be drawn in the bishonen style or individuals can be. (Wikipedia)