My Anime Neighbourhood Trivia Quiz

Answer: Attack on Titan

'On that day, humanity received a grim reminder' is a line spoken by Mikasa Ackerman, Eren Jaeger's adopted sister and one of the main characters and a survivor of the titans' attack on the district of Shiganshina. Titans are humanoid giants who kill and eat humans; some of them can disguise themselves as humans. An enormous skinless titan breaks down Wall Maria, one of the walls keeping the titans at bay, and Shiganshina is swarmed by titans. One of them eats Eren's mum Carla alive. Eren swears revenge on the titans and he, Mikasa and their friend Armin Arlert all join the military, and later the Survey Corps. The Survey Corps' job is the most dangerous of all, as their job is to reclaim territory from the titans.

('Number 63' is a reference to a particularly gruesome chapter of the 'Attack on Titan' manga which achieved notoriety among the manga-reading fanbase.)

Answer: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

'Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a magical girl anime with a twist. Madoka Kaname is an ordinary middle school girl looking for a purpose in life, and meets a cute little mascot who wants her to make a wish and become a magical girl...except said mascot is evil, and being a magical girl is not all fun and games as you have to fight witches and the more witches you fight, the more of a toll it takes on your soul. Madoka and her friend Sayaka Miki find out the hard way when Mami Tomoe, a veteran magical girl, gets eaten by a witch. The cold Homura Akemi - arguably the real heroine of the show - is another veteran with the ability to stop and rewind time, and becomes a magical girl so she can protect Madoka, before she either dies or turns into the most monstrous witch of all, Kriemhild Gretchen.

('Number 5' is a reference to the Puella Magi Holy Quintet, the name by which Mami, Madoka, Sayaka, Kyouko Sakura - another veteran and initially an antagonist - and Homura refer to themselves in the spin-off movie 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion'.)

Answer: Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works]

'Fate/stay night' started out as a visual novel, before being adapted as an anime, and Unlimited Blade Works is one of the three routes from the visual novel. Shirou Emiya, the hero and a budding magus, accidentally summons Sabre, who is revealed to be King Arthur - in the world of 'Fate', many male historical figures and legendary characters get a sex change - and gets dragged into the Fifth Holy Grail War. Each Holy Grail War involves seven Heroic Spirits, or Servants, fighting for the Holy Grail, and the winner gets to make a wish on it. There are seven classes of servant: Sabre, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Assassin, Caster and Berserker. The nameless Archer, whose special ability is known as 'Unlimited Blade Works', is revealed to be a future version of Shirou, who is more ruthless and cynical. The two do not get along because of this. Lancer, meanwhile, is the Irish hero Cú Chulainn, and has more than his share of bad luck, as he is forced to work for the evil priest Kirei Kotomine, a sociopath who enjoys making people suffer.

('Number 12' is a reference to the Knights of the Round Table - specifically, the Winchester Castle Round Table. Sir Lancelot is the Berserker servant in 'Fate/Zero', Sir Mordred is the Sabre of Red in 'Fate/Apocrypha', Sir Gawain is an enemy Sabre in the virtual universe of 'Fate/Extra', and Sir Tristan and Sir Bedivere appear in the game 'Fate/Grand Order' and are an Archer and a Sabre respectively.)

Answer: Overlord

'Overlord' is one of those animes where an ordinary human being gets sucked into a virtual world. In this case, it's Satoru Suzuki, a salaryman who plays an online MMORPG called YGGDRASIL, and runs his own dark guild, Ains Ooal Gown ('gown' rhymes with 'phone', not 'town' here, in case you were wondering about the rhyme). They rule over the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and anyone trying to enter the tomb gets killed by the monsters of the guild. When the clock strikes midnight and Satoru is the only player left, he finds himself in the body of his own character, a lich called Momonga, and the non-playable characters, or NPCs, have come to life and look to him for leadership. Changing his name to the name of his guild, Ains Ooal Gown immediately sets out to explore the world around him and conquer new territories, in the hope of meeting his old friends and fellow gamers - but at the price of him gradually losing his humanity.

('Number 41' is a reference to the number of Supreme Beings, aka YGGDRASIL players, who are viewed as gods by the NPCs.)

Answer: Fullmetal Alchemist

Edward and Alphonse Elric are the protagoinsts of 'Fullmetal Alchemist',and live in the country of Amestris where alchemy is common practice. They train under Izumi Curtis, a tough martial artist who lost various organs when she tried to use the practice of transmutation to bring back her dead child. When the Elrics try to do the same with Trisha, their late mum, Edward loses his leg and poor Alphonse loses his whole body, and spends almost the entire series as a soul encased in a suit of armour made by the brothers' friend Winry Rockbell. Ed teams up with state alchemist Roy Mustang in the hope of finding a way of getting Al's body back. Scar, meanwhile, comes from the region of Ishbal, which rejects alchemy on religious grounds, and is the survivor of a genocide for which he blames the Amestris state alchemists. He also murdered Winry's parents.

('Number 7' is a reference to the Seven Deadly Sins, after which the antagonistic homunculi are named. Envy was the one who started the Ishbal Civil War, by murdering an Ishbalan child in the guise of a soldier.)

Answer: Land of the Lustrous

Like 'Steven Universe', 'Land of the Lustrous' is about sentient gem people, but the focus is entirely on them and their battles with the Lunarians, a race of aliens on the Moon who want to capture the gems - known as the Lustrous - and make them into jewellery. Phosphophyllite is the protagonist, a Lustrous with a hardness of 3, which makes them easily breakable and not suitable for combat. However, they get around this later in the series by having gold arm implants and agate leg implants. Padparadscha is a Lustrous who is constantly sleeping and has holes in their chest which need constant repair. Bort is part of the Diamond trio and the strongest Lustrous, making them best suited for combat. Cinnabar is a solitary Lustrous who has to stay away from the others and operate at night, due to secreting poison. (The Lustrous are genderless, hence the use of singular 'they'.)

(Number 3 is a reference to phosphophyllite's hardness on the Mohs scale.)

Answer: Higurashi When They Cry

'Higurashi When They Cry' is set in the little village of Hinamizawa, where Keiichi Maebara moves after getting expelled from school. He soon discovers that the village is full of secrets, and falls victim to a disease known as Hinamizawa Syndrome, which makes people become insane and violent, culminating in them committing suicide by scratching their throats out. The main group of protagonists also features Mion and Shion Sonozaki, a pair of twins from a Yakuza family; Satoko Hojo, who has Hinamizawa Syndrome and is abused by her uncle and aunt; Rena Ryuugu, another newcomer to the village; Rika Furude, a miko who is revealed to be repeating a certain period over and over again with the help of Oyashiro-sama, the local goddess, and trying to find out who killed her in each period. The 'droopy-eyed nurse' is Miyo Takano, who turns out to be the main villain.

('Number 34' is a reference to 'Emergency Manual 34', the proceudre Takano intended to enact if the entire village was found to be infected. It involves trapping all the inhabitants in a sealed building and turning it into a gas chamber, and shooting anyone who escapes. Takano actually enacts it in the second-to-last chapter after killing the group.)

Answer: Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School (Side Despair)

'Danganronpa' is based on a series of video games focused around Hope's Peak Academy, a school for exceptionally talented Japanese teenagers, and the death games, or Mutual Killing Games, which take place among them. 'Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School' is divided into two parts: 'Side Hope', which is set after the events of 'Super Danganronpa 2', and 'Side Despair', which is set before 'Danganronpa' and tells the tale of the main villain of the series, Junko Enoshima, and her twin Mukuro. Mukuro is a soldier and assassin, and Junko is a model, fashion designer and genius analyst who is obsessed with despair. The two of them force the school council to kill each other, frame Izuru Kamakura - a student from the reserve course who was turned into the ideal student - and incite rebellion among the reserve course students. They also brainwash the class above them into joining their death cult, Ultimate Despair, by forcing them to watch a real-time snuff movie of Chiaki Nanami, the class representative. Said class are the cast of 'Super Dangan Ronpa 2', while Junko and Mukuro's class are in the original 'Danganronpa'.

('Number 16' is a reference to the number of participants in each Mutual Killing Game, eight boys and eight girls. This also included the school council, all of whom were killed in the massacre except the president.)

Answer: Daybreak Illusion

'Daybreak Illusion' is a dark magical girl series with a tarot theme. The organisation Sefiro Fiore trains magical girls wielding major arcana tarot cards to fight monsters known as 'daemonia', born from people's despair. Cerebrum, the main villain, grants people's wishes, with the caveat that they eventually turn into daemonia and he takes their souls. He also has an obsession with Akari, the heroine and wielder of the Sun card. Akari's mother wielded the card before her, and her father was researching daemonia, but turned into one when he got bitten by one, and she subsequently has the power to hear the voices of the daemonia while fighting them. This causes conflict between her and Seira, the wielder of the Star card, who hates daemonia due to them killing her best friend, and who does not trust Akari. The other main magical girls are Ginka, who has the Temperance card, and Luna, who has the Moon card.

('Number 22' is a reference to the number of major arcana cards in a tarot pack.)

Answer: Blood-C

'Blood-C' is part of the 'Blood' franchise, and like 'Blood+', the heroine is called Saya, but she is a different character with a different surname. This Saya is a katana-wielding miko who slaughters Elder Bairns, monsters who crave human blood. However, she is repeatedly unable to stop the Elder Bairns from killing local people or her classmates. She later finds out that she is actually in a 'Truman Show'-esque fake world, and that her classmates and teachers are actors and none of them actually care about her, save Itsuki, the class president who develops genuine feelings for her. She is also a human/Elder Bairn hybrid. Fumito, who runs a coffee shop and gives Saya sweets, is actually drugging her and harvesting her blood. He sics Elder Bairns on Saya's 'teacher', 'classmates' when they try to betray him (except for one girl, who is actually an adult) and the extras who make up the 'townspeople'.

('Number 26' is the atomic number of iron. Red blood cells contain haemoglobin, which contains iron. Tenuous, I know!)