In many manga and anime involving modern schools, there is a scene on or at least showing the rooftop of the building. It is a place students can freely go to, often depicted with having a bust-height railing along the edge and the typical 'small building' from which you leave the school building, often also having a ladder to get up (nonetheless being a popular 'hiding' or 'being alone' spot even without one).  I wanted to ask: is this one of many clichés about Japanese culture that appear throughout the whole media type, or are they a common thing in Japanese schools?
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Why there are many scenes in anime that take place on roofs, particularly the roof of schools?  School roof seem to be a popular place for students who want to be alone with no one else there. Sometimes they come in for lunch, or just relax there.     Angel Beats!, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Kampfer, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica  This is also on the roof, but it's hopital roof  The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya  They even use it for fighting scene  Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou  Sometimes there's even a garden on the roof of the school.  The World God Only Knows  Any reason why does this common occurrence?
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First off, the title is misleading; feel free to improve upon it.   I've noticed words surrounding titles often start with upper case letters, but I'm uncertain if this is correct. After reading  I cannot find rules that justify the uppercase letters.  EXAMPLES:    1) The student union building of many universities is abbreviated SUB but I often see the full name written as "Student Union Building". By itself "student union building" is not a proper noun since it doesn't refer to one unique entity but when speaking of a certain university it might.   2) Common buildings often have names beginning with upper case letters. For example, I've seen fire hall written as "Fire Hall" and city hall written as "City Hall" ().   3) I have a ticket which reads "Winter Formal Dance".  Is the  capitalization of these words correct? If so, then why? Is it a matter of rules, or is the deciding factor whatever the owner decides? For example, if a swimming coach decides practices on Wednesday will be known as "Wednesday Practices", would it be correct to always write 'practices' with the upper case "P"?
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I have just seen this on the top Pokémon on a gym. This is the first time I've seen it, so I'm not sure if it can/should apply to all Pokémon in the gym, or just the top.    What does this mean, and what does it apply to?
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In Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice) my current interpretation of the X on someone's face is that the protagonist does not wish to acknowledge or socialize with this person. An extension of this could be perhaps that he does not wish to hear their "voice", if we were to stretch somewhat on the themes of the story.   Ueno is the only person I can think of when in the reconciliation phase gets the X on and off. I can understand it being a part of the protagonist's difficulty in attempting to reconcile with her and understand her motives (which interestingly play similarly to his own of attempting to reconcile Shoko with her classmates while she tries to reconcile him with his).   suggests it is his disgust for her.  I'm looking for any other interpretation preferably with evidence of when the X comes on and off. Is there a concrete pattern behind why and when the X is put on a person?  If I have time and can find the images I'll add a few with chapter references to better show examples of what I mean.
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There are plenty of manga that never had an ending for many reasons. For example, High School of the Dead's mangaka, Daisuke Satou, . Some mangaka also cannot continue their work because of health problems, as well as other reasons. Say the original mangaka either prepared or did not prepare an ending himself/herself, can another mangaka continue their work? Has this ever happened before?
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It is about school in the future. In this system, all classes are taught through television and students all learn at home. Students get to decide what classes they wish to attend and teachers get paid by how many students sign up for their courses. As a result, teachers resort to tricks to get attention. One dresses up as a clown, another wears a bikini, etc. There is an older teacher who decides to teach the old-fashioned way. That's all I remember.
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It's a world that includes fire, water, air, earth, shadow and light users. This world has at least one archipelago with a king, that's died in the previous squashing of rebellion, his descendant lives known only to few. At the beginning of the series a girl is on a fire-owned submarine vessel that gets attacked by Shadow rebels. The Shadow rebels have at least one base in the archipelago and train people there. I'm not totally sure, but I believe there's also an island that has a lot to do with trade. Also, the fire... clergy, I guess? Has absorbed the light part, so basically there are only 5 separate elements remaining.  Some info I'm not quite 100% sure about, but I think the king of the archipelago might also be called The or a Pharao  Unfortunately this is pretty much all I remember.
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I read a very special book a few years back. We follow a boy who lives in a world where, if one moves far enough in a direction, that person gets distended and changed in size.   The boy works on laying tracks for the train, on which his city is. The city has to continually keep moving or it also will get squashed.   It's like a world like if one end is pinched and then dragged out like a piece of rubber string or bubble gum.   The book is not older than 10 years I think.  Hope I was clear enough...
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Good day! Explain it to me please:)  Is is right to say:  Five-storeys houses  or  Five-storey houses?  Thanks a lot!
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Though at the time I saw it I did not know it, this would be called "anime" today. It was in English, and I don't remember if the characters lips matched the audio track. I couldn't have been older than about 3rd grade, so that puts it around 1985ish I believe.  It was released theatrically in the United States, I do not know if it was a limited release. I saw it in Cincinnati, Ohio. No idea what movie theater chain.  The story was rather typical, young man who goes on the hero's journey. Definitely science fiction elements (flying vehicles, maybe spaceships). He comes across or is given a sword hilt without a blade. He learns to use it, and when he does it acts as if the blade is there. At the finale, he has lost the hilt entirely and, thinking that he has lost, almost gives up. But a (voice in his head, his mentor, can't remember what) something tells him to try despite this, and it's as if he has the sword even without the hilt. He then triumphs.  Can anyone identify this movie?
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There are plenty of guides on hiking mount Fuji, and how to get there in the summer (the "open" season, July- early September).  I have read and been told that although the routes are technically closed after mid-September, and highly advised against between November and June (due to snow and bad weather), they are still accessible/open "at your own risk." It's just that the huts/stations are closed, and the busses/trains don't run (so you need a car).  Has anyone had experience with this? Can you drive to the 5th station (of any of the routes)? Are the paths still open?  Thanks.
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In episode 350, we see that the Third Hokage took on to take care of Naruto. But towards the beginning of the anime Naruto is seen to be living alone.   Did Naruto live with the Third? If so, why did he leave there?
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What are the instances that there is no manga (like Naruto, Bleach and One Peace) release? Are there certain events that prevent them from releasing? Then what are these events (aside from taking a break)? Is there some sort of calendar of events for this?.
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There's been a couple of questions lately about different creatures/rocks/trees that are living at a different time-rate than humans, and it got me thinking about a story that I'd read when I was in 6th grade and hoping to find again.  I read the story in English, in the US, in 1980. Here's where it gets tricky... the story was actually on a card, maybe 6" x 8", with a small illustration on each side. It was in a teacher's box with many other cards (different stories) in a classroom. We were assigned to read a story/card once a week or so and there might have been questions about the story on the card itself, or we might have just had to note that we read it. I don't think that all the rest of the stories were necessarily Sci-Fi, just short stories to get the attention of a 6th grader. I do not remember any of the other stories.  The story itself was short, as I said, maybe 2 pages (card sides) long, and illustrated with 1 or 2 drawings of 2 large (maybe 30-50') statues that vaguely resembled Easter Island statues but had arms and legs. One statue was sitting/laying on the ground, and the other was standing nearby. There had been pictures of the statues taken quite a few years previously, and a person was in a small plane taking more pictures now. Comparing the pictures it was noticed that the statues were slightly moved (the standing one's hand had moved closer to what appeared to be a gun on it's hip), and it was determined that they weren't statues but rather creatures who lived at a much slower time rate than humans, and that the standing one was coming to the defense of the fallen one.  Does this sound familiar to anybody?
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First of all, I have to say I read this on some scanlated site. But there are quite a few page that look unfinished.  Here are some of the rough page I found. Top pictures, From Historie 80 and 94. Bottom Pictures, Historie 82, 96, and 97. (Click to enlarge pictures)     Noticed that . If they want a shadow building they can do it better.  At first all panel are finished but later, probably after chapter 80, they begin having unfinished drawing. Hitoshi Iwaaki other manga series  doesn't have this kind of drawing style.
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This is a somewhat peculiar question, and I recognize that it may end up being closed.  However, it concerns something that has been puzzling me for some years about Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.  (Atwood's well-known feelings about SF notwithstanding, this novel is clearly science fiction.)  Early in the book, there is the first description of The Wall:     The Wall is hundreds of years old too; or over a hundred, at least. Like the sidewalks, it's red brick, and must once have been plain but handsome. Now the gates have sentries and there are ugly new floodlights mounted on metal posts above it, and barbed wire along the bottom and broken glass set in concrete along the top.   Aside from the sidewalks being made of the same brick as the wall, there seems to be very little that marks this wall as specifically identifiable.  And yet, from the first time I read this passage, I knew this wall.  Having lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I could tell that this was the wall of Harvard Yard, which I walked beside some many times over the years.  Reading on in the novel, it quite clear that I was quite correct in my identification of the wall.  What I a wondering is whether this was a particularly lucky flash of insight on my part, or whether there was something in the text that pointed to Harvard Square as the location of the book.  Is there something, early in The Handmaid's Tale, that points specifically to its geographic setting?
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I'm trying to find an short story I read in a collection about ten years ago. Publication date before 1980.  Here's everything I remember:   The story is about kids who found an old book with stories about schools in the 20th century. In this future, kids study at home with a robot teacher. They don't know how to study with other kids. These kids (maybe sister and brother) run away from their teacher to read this book in a loft or cellar. They liked those stories about schools.