Fun Fact: The only Sonic character drawn with 4 fingers it's Fang the Sniper/Nack the Weasel, given he's a criminal and all that it's likely this design choice was deliberate
@@flarestorm9417 Metal Sonic has 5 fingers but I guess it's cuz he's supposed to be like Sonic in nearly every way while Omega isn't a robot copy of anyone.
I'd be more interested to know how the whole 4 finger character style first came about in the west and became so popular. I was pretty OCD as a kid and wondered why they did that for human characters. Still do!
There are plenty of articles on it. Western animators are lazy and animating 5 fingers for each character's hand was too hard and time consuming for them. The cartoons popularized this "trick" and copied all around the world. Japanese were not that lazy, and kinda perfectionist. Also, they were very limited of this possibility due to the cultural aspects mentioned in the video.
Raging Golden Eagle It's cheaper and faster to animate. In The Little Mermaid they even cut off 2 of Ursulas tentacles for that reason. So she's not actually a octopus lady but a squid.
Bob The Builder didn't lose a finger on each hand from cutting corner angles on a bandsaw for his ceiling trim....it was a bad opium deal with the Yakuza.
Bodgy Builder Got no license! Bodgy Builder Just takes cash! Bodgy and Windy, Dozy too... ...know all the shortcuts to make it look new Bodgy Builder Can we bodge it? Bodgy Builder Yes we can!
Also brazilian. Don't know what you're talking about CG. The ok signs (both with a thumbs up and forming a circle with indicator and thumb) are fine here. I can see how the second option could be used as a sign for "anus", but that'd depend heavily on context and isn't the most used meaning of the sign.
Geno344 well, you can play mafia games too, but those have a 18 rating. All this stuff is for kids, you can watch any offensive thing you want once you are mature
While characters lose fingers in Yakuza games, I cannot at all recall ever seeing a character with fingers missing and I've played about all of the series, excluding maybe two.
The OK gesture in Brazil was just meant what it is, the OK gesture. But if use it upside down with the middle to baby finger close to each other, then is a rude gesture. But that is very old, and is not even used as before.
6:02 You're almost there. Remember both the manga and anime were made primarily for a Japanese audience. My guess is that when Piccolo was first introduced in the manga, he was only intended to be a villain (so 4 fingers seemed fair) however by the time the anime was produced, Toriyama had decided that he would eventually convert Piccolo into a "good guy", so drew him with 5 fingers instead.
Also Brazilian and from a region where this can be seen as "offensive". But, we only see it as such, when the sign is made with the palm towards the person doing it (with the hand inverted). And it's dependent of context. The way it's showed in the video it's normally seen as "Okay".
hm... as a guy born and Raised in Brazil. The "Okay Gesture" is an okay gesture. I don't know where you got that information but I never once saw anyone consider it rude or even compared to the middle finger.
The Penal Code, Article 175, was made in 1907, and have not been changed till this day. "A person who distributes, sells or displays in public an obscene document, drawing or other objects shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than 2years, a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine. The same shall apply to a person who possesses the same for the purpose of sale." So that's why people censor adult stuff in Japan
minatonoyami Nah, using the word "anime" only for Japanese animation is purely a Western thing. Japanese people use "anime" for all animation, be it Studio Ghibli, Disney or Pixar.
What's funny about the word anime is that it's technically not a Japanese word. They copied the English word animation and then we copied it right back. It's a borrowed word from a borrowed word.
Funny, another reason for the four finger censorship is the fact that four is considered an unlucky number in Japan. Tetraphobia is a phobia of the number four which is common in East Asian nations. Most likely the reason for Guido's fear of the number.
Definitely interested in learning more about this! :) Crash Bandicoot characters have always had inconsistent fingers, some games they have 5 fingers, other games they only have 4, even the human characters, it's weird. I have noticed not only Diddy Kong having extra fingers, and toes when Nintendo took over after Rare left the company, but the whole Kong family as well way back in the day, though it grew on me almost immediately, I didn't mind it all that much though (although, they didn't alter any of the Kremlings' fingers, (including King K.Rool's) for some reason). I do find it ironic that original 4-fingered characters get extras in Japan, yet Nintendo created Bowser, and Bowser Jr., who both have 4 fingers. XD Also, really, the OK-hand gesture is considered rude in Brazil...? I guess you gotta be very careful when visiting certain parts of the world, huh?
I used to always wonder why cartoon characters always had 4 fingers, and I thought the reason was because 5 fingers were really hard to fit without making the hand look weird. However, I compared it to how Japan does anime, and I'm just here wondering "Why can't I draw 5 fingers without making it look weird?" Also, anime tend to have the middle finger and ring finger connected to each other when people wave at each other for some reason. No actual answer has been given though, so it's just an interesting thing to know.
I hate 4 fingered hands on characters, and it's for one simple reason. It came to be not as an artistic choice but economic one. Disney was a cheap bastard and tried to save money on animation by cutting off one finger. Also, they look awkward.
One theory I have is due to superstition reasons. In Asian cultures alike, the number 4 is unlucky. Why? Because it's pronounced 四("shi") and Chinese/Japanese use 漢字(Kanji) to identify different homonyms and homophones. There's a different Kanji with the same sound 死("shi"), but this time it doesn't mean 4 it means "death". Due to this Asians alike "avoid" giving bad luck to others by avoiding the number 4, it can't be written on prices, parking spots, floors, addresses, and so on. This is similar to how we Americans avoid the number 13 because we see it as unlucky.
I originally came to this video thinking it had to do with the belief of the number four meaning death in Japanese culture. But nope. Still cool though.
Well, i just checked it before i postet this comment. He has a thumb, the forefinger and the rest is a cluster of fingers. Who you are talking about is Kid Boo. Yes, he has only a thumb and the the cluster-fingers in the manga and five fingers in the anime.
Well.. this is very surreal and informative. I never considered that having different number of fingers for other cultures. I understand the Brazil one but for Japan. Weird
And I thought it was Mafia connected. I learned something new. Edit: Aha, so a mixture of both. The Yakuza lobbing off fingers and the Burakumin connection.
Something that might also be responsible for the 4 fingers taboo is that 4 in japanese is Shi, and so is die, there is so much taboo against 4 that a lot of hospitals don't even have fourth floors
Andrea Kinney it depends on which side is facing someone. For instance ✌means peace or victory, but if the BACK of this gesture is shown then you're telling someone to fuck off. Interestingly enough the v sign is believed to come from archers during the Battle of Agincourt (sourced from Wikipedia) as an insult to their enemy "This origin legend dictates that the English and Welsh archers who were captured by the French had their index and middle fingers cut off so that they could no longer operate their longbows, and that the V Sign was used by uncaptured and victorious archers in a display of defiance against the enemy". (Please note that I do not mean to offend anyone)
Reminds me of the Did You Know Gaming? episode about the Xbox, where they discuss an interview involving someone who was told that the colour black and the letter X represent death in Japan. Since when? I thought Japan didn't like four-fingered hands because the Yakuza cut their fingers off, and because four is death, though.
Godzilla has four fingers. He's a coelophysid, a really basal branch of theropods, while later, more derived clades reduced the number of fingers, three for tetanurines, two for tyrannosaurs, and one for living birds, although atavistic genes can trigger the growth of multiple fingers and if you look closely at a chicken's hand the bones for multiple fingers are there. Tiny and vestigal, but there. I mean I guess that's a little different because Godzilla's a dinosaur and all that, but to be totally honest having a straight up human depicted with four fingers for no adequately explained reason IS kind of shocking. Pretty simple: people have five fingers, so when it deviates from that norm there's just kind of an innate reaction that tells you something is wrong? I mean it's common enough to be desensitized to it and the Simpons characters have always been intentionally stylized to not look like ordinary people anwyas, so... I guess. It's just weird is all.
What's funny is Akira blatantly states in his Manghua that Piccolo was drawn that way for a specific scene to facilitate his counting down gesture. lol. But yeah, might also be because of Japan's Tetraphobia. Anything related to Four is scrapped or skipped. Even room floors.
The worst part is that all of this sounds like myth. I doubt any of these people would ever get into trouble for keeping these characters four-fingered in Japan. Stupid publishers being afraid of the non existent boogeyman and jumping the gun as always.
Clearly it's not a myth. The beginning part sounds like a myth and some group that feels oppressed by it still for some reason. However, I can completely understand the Yakuza culture being a problem in Japan and the country itself not wanting to give attention publicly to it. It could panic civilians about the amount of problems that could be happening in their neighborhoods related to the Yakuza.
I'm not saying that the history is myth. I'm saying that the public reaction publishers fear so much is the myth. As is said in this video itself, The Simpsons are allowed to have four fingers but doen't mention any backlash. I don't think people in Japan have ever complained about 4 fingered characters. Boogeyman.
The Simpsons is also pretty unpopular in Japan and, as noted, it was still an edit done in merchandise (because editing the actual animation of an American cartoon is not an act to be undertaken lightly)… But anyway, the act of cutting off the smallest finger is called yubitsume. It's not just a yakuza punishment still in practice but also was adopted as a protest symbol of Japanese nationalists. Not just symbolically, or anything-"切り落とした指を抗議先に送りつける場合もある。"-"There are cases in which disembodied fingers have been sent as a form of protest."
What about first assasin's creed? does altair have 5 finger in japan even the story tells that he have to cut one of hes finger in order to use hiden blade?
I was told once that the number 4 in japanese sounds extremely similar to the word death, so it's just considered bad luck in general and you can't buy packs of stuff with 4 cups or 4 plates for example
In Japanese kids cartoons from the late 2000s, they have four fingers. I don't think this is correct. A few shows come to mind. It's just a design choice
You know, if the four finger characters are references to this "lesser class" of people, wouldn't that be PERFECT for oddworld? Wasn't that what they were in-game?
Brazilian here, I use the Ok sign all the time, it can have that different meaning but only if you make it so. People can tell if you mean one thing or the another.
So then does Avatar include the Na’vi with five fingers? If so, how do the Na’vi tell themselves apart from the “Sky People?” Because all the human characters in their Avatar bodies have five fingers and faces that closely match the Na’vi. (With the exception of Sigourney Weaver, but I think that was done because she was the big star power)
5 fingered cartoons/animations make almost all hands of said characters looks oddly huge comparative to the rest of the characters body. Even in a less cartoony/comical animated character/cartoon with 5 digits on each hand just makes the hand appear to be 'swollen' or stick out because its so obviously wider than a normal hand would be.
Interesting. Especially since Dragon Ball’s Piccolo has 4 fingers in the manga but 5 in the show. And then Cell starts off with 3 fingers and gains a finger in each form until he has 5, but has 5 constantly in the show.
I also heard that the English word "four" sounds very similar to the Japanese word for death. As a result the number 4 itself has come to be associated with death in Japan and is considered to be an unlucky number, much like the number 13 in the west. Therefore in Japan the number 4 is avoided whenever possible, in much the same way as in the west buildings that are taller than 12 floors will simply skip the number 13 and the next higher floor will simply be labeled 14 instead of 13.
I believe that it's actually their word for four that sounds similar to their word for death. Makes more sense than "can't use that number because of what it's called in a foreign language".
This actually surprises me considering that Mickey Mouse and the Disney characters are largely popular in Japan (to the point where it isn't out of the ordinary for Tokyo Disneyland to reach full capacity), yet all of those characters are kept having four fingers in Japanese merch and media (at least those that originally had four fingers in the west). Snoopy is another character that is very beloved in Japan to the point where he has his own cafe and tons of merch in Japan (even his siblings have merch), and in all of his appearances in Japan he keeps his four fingered look. Other characters that have kept their four fingered appearance in Japan include Woody Woodpecker, SpongeBob Squarepants, and the Sesame Street Muppets. Maybe Japan doesn't mind too much when it's animals or other non-human creatures with just four digits or perhaps video game publishers are a bit oversensitive and more people in Japan nowadays are more aware of four fingers just being a stylistic choice for Western created characters, but I can't say for sure.
Also the number 4 四 (shi) in Japanese has the same sound as the kanji 死(shi) that means death. That's why Japanese people never group stuff in fours, this was taught to me by a Japanese chef who advised me to never serve anything in fours to a Japanese patron.
Back in high school there was this guy in class and when the teacher turned her back he did that peace sign infront of the projector casting a show of it but he then he started sticking one of the fingers on his other hand through the hole and most of the class started laughing.
I remember Fang the Sniper of the Sonic franchise was given 4 fingers instead of 5 specifically to imply he had yakuza connections without outright saying it.
Also the number 4 is considered bad luck in Asia for its similarity in pronunciation with the words for death or dead, suu in Chinese and shi in Japanese, that's why people in Japan count ichi, ni, san yon instead of ichi, ni, san, shi ("on" reading) making the number 4 a taboo equal or greater than the number 13 in some occidental countries. Also the Japanese word for seven is shichi, but to avoid pronouncing shi they say nana instead.
Yes, Shi is the On-reading (old Chinese reading) of the Japanese number 4, but it is only pronounced Shi in Japan, in China the real sound for that same number/character/ideogram is pronounced more like a Suu, with an U vowel sound very different to the one used in English. There are three different forms to transliterate the sound of the Chinese word for 4, in Pīnyīn (Mandarin) sì, in Jyutping (Cantonese) sei, and in Pe̍h-ōe-jī (Hokkien) sù or sì. But these sounds are not like the s, sh, ei, i or u sounds in English. Chinese phonemes are very different and there are not equivalent sounds in English.
It's so weird hearing Homer speaks Japanese.
ThereThereBearBears just as wierd as it is to hear goku speak english
He sounded like Mr Sparkle
Doooouuuuuhhh
snicksnack666 fucking weeb
Aye, I thought the same... feels wrong somehow. :D
Fun Fact:
The only Sonic character drawn with 4 fingers it's Fang the Sniper/Nack the Weasel, given he's a criminal and all that it's likely this design choice was deliberate
Didn't even notice that. Other than those characters being much less known, they were also made in Japan right? They aren't american or are they?
Yeah they were made in Japan
E-123 Omega also has four fingers, but I guess being a robot doesn't have the same connotations.
Also due to the fact that he's a creature known as a jerboa which have four toes. Yeah ignore his western name he isn't a weasel.
@@flarestorm9417 Metal Sonic has 5 fingers but I guess it's cuz he's supposed to be like Sonic in nearly every way while Omega isn't a robot copy of anyone.
That reasoning behind Oddworld is a strange one. Having four fingers for Abe would be appropriate for a class looked down on that packs meat.
Mudokons literally packed meat and were oppressed, they were not mobsters though.
Also, he's an alien
Actually, I was more confused why cartoons have 4 fingers rather than 5.
Is is easier to draw.
Give it a try.
It's just a style choice and less to draw.
Speed of drawing is also a factor (or was at least).
Easier to draw and easier to animate
because people are lazy and because shitty old disney cartoons do it so people like to copy them for nostalgia. (As in no good reason.)
I'd be more interested to know how the whole 4 finger character style first came about in the west and became so popular. I was pretty OCD as a kid and wondered why they did that for human characters. Still do!
because it is hard to draw 5 fingers
I don't think it's only because of difficulty drawing, but animal paws (cat and dog specifically) have only 4 "fingers".
Raging Golden Eagle It’s easier to draw and it’s way easier to animate.
There are plenty of articles on it. Western animators are lazy and animating 5 fingers for each character's hand was too hard and time consuming for them. The cartoons popularized this "trick" and copied all around the world.
Japanese were not that lazy, and kinda perfectionist. Also, they were very limited of this possibility due to the cultural aspects mentioned in the video.
Raging Golden Eagle
It's cheaper and faster to animate.
In The Little Mermaid they even cut off 2 of Ursulas tentacles for that reason. So she's not actually a octopus lady but a squid.
Bob The Builder didn't lose a finger on each hand from cutting corner angles on a bandsaw for his ceiling trim....it was a bad opium deal with the Yakuza.
Oswald Cobblepot or some union shit.
Bodgy Builder
Got no license!
Bodgy Builder
Just takes cash!
Bodgy and Windy, Dozy too...
...know all the shortcuts to make it look new
Bodgy Builder
Can we bodge it?
Bodgy Builder
Yes we can!
The Simpsons is my favorite anime
NO
Chota Beem is your favourite anime now
Your silly meme is technically correct, since Japanese people would indeed use the word "anime" to refer to The Simpsons.
Same nigga
Seinfeld is my Fav dopeamine
Mine too!
*"She's lower than a human. I bet she doesn't even have ten fingers."*
--Marisa Kirisame upon defeating Rumia, Touhou 6: Embodiment of Scarlet Devil
ohhh i get it now
Wow, holy shit I never thought of that
Imperishable Neet holy shit I never realized that, I thought it was just ZUN being weird.
Imperishable Neet
B O I
I remember that. Nice one!
Also brazilian. Don't know what you're talking about CG. The ok signs (both with a thumbs up and forming a circle with indicator and thumb) are fine here. I can see how the second option could be used as a sign for "anus", but that'd depend heavily on context and isn't the most used meaning of the sign.
Outsiders always think Brazil is like /r/watchpeopledie
It is ok now because globalization. But a few decades before it was an offensive sign, like giving the middle finger for someone.
Gustavo Zenker horrivel ter de falar isso em todos os comentarios né?
Gustavo Zenker This gesture means "OK" to divers as they cannot speak underwater.
topper
Someone should make a Cartoon where characters have 6 fingers for no reason whatsoever.
TheItalianoAssassino starring Ford
TheItalianoAssassino Gravity Falls has a character named Ford Pines has 6 fingers.
Characters with 4 fingers = bad
Games about the Yakuza = fine
I think it's more to do with the fact that the characters with 4 fingers are being marketed to children.
Geno344 well, you can play mafia games too, but those have a 18 rating. All this stuff is for kids, you can watch any offensive thing you want once you are mature
Yakuza games are not for kids, dumbass.
While characters lose fingers in Yakuza games, I cannot at all recall ever seeing a character with fingers missing and I've played about all of the series, excluding maybe two.
The Yakuza franchise is a mature franchise though.
Damn, didn't know bob was about that Yakuza life.
poyrayed as majima
What about Altair? I mean, the guy cut his finger off to use the hidden blade, what happened to him in Japan?
he has 5 fingers...
He had 6 fingers originally, so after he cut one off he still had 5. Crisis averted!
xYuushax sure, but meat class, yakuza, yadda yadda..did they just pretend he never cut a finger in Japan or do they say it?
MastermindX the finger cutting is still there, though. I wonder if they mention it
Andrea Quadrati Or Beyek from Origins seeing how the game takes place before Altair
The OK gesture in Brazil was just meant what it is, the OK gesture. But if use it upside down with the middle to baby finger close to each other, then is a rude gesture. But that is very old, and is not even used as before.
6:02 You're almost there. Remember both the manga and anime were made primarily for a Japanese audience.
My guess is that when Piccolo was first introduced in the manga, he was only intended to be a villain (so 4 fingers seemed fair) however by the time the anime was produced, Toriyama had decided that he would eventually convert Piccolo into a "good guy", so drew him with 5 fingers instead.
Hi, I'm from brazil. It is only in a few regions that this gesture is seen as an offense. Around here in Rio is still seen as a "Okay".
Also Brazilian and from a region where this can be seen as "offensive". But, we only see it as such, when the sign is made with the palm towards the person doing it (with the hand inverted). And it's dependent of context.
The way it's showed in the video it's normally seen as "Okay".
tbm não concordo, esse gesto é "okay" onde moro tbm.
Sò se meter o dedo dentro é q a coisa muda. hahah
hm... as a guy born and Raised in Brazil. The "Okay Gesture" is an okay gesture. I don't know where you got that information but I never once saw anyone consider it rude or even compared to the middle finger.
I am brazilzilzi! But i will speak in english: around the military dictature times that was meant something like a middlefinger(anus i think)
Why is hentai still cencored?
Ass Ketchup from Pellit Town to made you buy the uncencored-uncut-hyper-blue-ray vertion for 65$ instead of watch it on free streaming.
In short, an Ironic law that was made because of prudish Western Christians coming into Japan, shaming Japanese culture.
Kaimax_61 can I have da links?
The Penal Code, Article 175, was made in 1907, and have not been changed till this day.
"A person who distributes, sells or displays in public an obscene document, drawing or other objects shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than 2years, a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine. The same shall apply to a person who possesses the same for the purpose of sale."
So that's why people censor adult stuff in Japan
Kaimax_61 does that mean that the uncensored hentai I find on hentai haven is illegal or made for western distribution only?
The Simpson's in japanese. Amazing.
Niko Revo
You're technically right, since Japan uses the word "anime" for all animation.
fireaza mmm only japanese animation I think :thinkingFace:
minatonoyami
Nah, using the word "anime" only for Japanese animation is purely a Western thing. Japanese people use "anime" for all animation, be it Studio Ghibli, Disney or Pixar.
What's funny about the word anime is that it's technically not a Japanese word. They copied the English word animation and then we copied it right back. It's a borrowed word from a borrowed word.
fireaza So technically all animations is anime
Let me guess: It's because "four" is pronounced the same as "death"?
Tamanomizu that too. But the meat subclass and yakuza are more offensive than just a similar pronunciation
Andrea you forgot that you don't need yakuza for death to happen to someone.
I thought this too so i waited to the end to see if it was even mentioned, and it wasn't
yeah, that's the biggest reason I think honestly
Yup, I´m pretty sure that´s one of the reasons, too.
as a kid i always just assumed 4 fingers was due to creator laziness
This must be Mista's work.
Hiruma Berserker I get that, and I love that I do
sex pistoooools
Funny, another reason for the four finger censorship is the fact that four is considered an unlucky number in Japan. Tetraphobia is a phobia of the number four which is common in East Asian nations. Most likely the reason for Guido's fear of the number.
There are four comment in here
Let me make it five
Definitely interested in learning more about this! :) Crash Bandicoot characters have always had inconsistent fingers, some games they have 5 fingers, other games they only have 4, even the human characters, it's weird. I have noticed not only Diddy Kong having extra fingers, and toes when Nintendo took over after Rare left the company, but the whole Kong family as well way back in the day, though it grew on me almost immediately, I didn't mind it all that much though (although, they didn't alter any of the Kremlings' fingers, (including King K.Rool's) for some reason). I do find it ironic that original 4-fingered characters get extras in Japan, yet Nintendo created Bowser, and Bowser Jr., who both have 4 fingers. XD Also, really, the OK-hand gesture is considered rude in Brazil...? I guess you gotta be very careful when visiting certain parts of the world, huh?
I used to always wonder why cartoon characters always had 4 fingers, and I thought the reason was because 5 fingers were really hard to fit without making the hand look weird. However, I compared it to how Japan does anime, and I'm just here wondering "Why can't I draw 5 fingers without making it look weird?" Also, anime tend to have the middle finger and ring finger connected to each other when people wave at each other for some reason. No actual answer has been given though, so it's just an interesting thing to know.
If they care so much about such a small detail in games, imagine their attitude towards people with 4 fingers.
Can we just appreciate Japanese Homer's 'DOH!' for a second
I hate 4 fingered hands on characters, and it's for one simple reason. It came to be not as an artistic choice but economic one.
Disney was a cheap bastard and tried to save money on animation by cutting off one finger.
Also, they look awkward.
One theory I have is due to superstition reasons. In Asian cultures alike, the number 4 is unlucky. Why? Because it's pronounced 四("shi") and Chinese/Japanese use 漢字(Kanji) to identify different homonyms and homophones. There's a different Kanji with the same sound 死("shi"), but this time it doesn't mean 4 it means "death". Due to this Asians alike "avoid" giving bad luck to others by avoiding the number 4, it can't be written on prices, parking spots, floors, addresses, and so on. This is similar to how we Americans avoid the number 13 because we see it as unlucky.
But wouldn't it make sense for Abe and his kin to have four fingers due to them being in a low class themselves (them being slaves and food)
I originally came to this video thinking it had to do with the belief of the number four meaning death in Japanese culture. But nope. Still cool though.
+Tristan Roberts The number four also means death in China.
The cover box from Left4Dead was also changed because of that
Onii-chan No Ecchi ! Ok wtf is your channel banner
Majin Buu was also given Fingers in the Anime Version of Dragon Ball Z because of this reason, whilst in the manga, he had just meathooks for hands.
yeah, they added one finger....
No, they gave him Five.
Well, i just checked it before i postet this comment.
He has a thumb, the forefinger and the rest is a cluster of fingers.
Who you are talking about is Kid Boo. Yes, he has only a thumb and the the cluster-fingers in the manga and five fingers in the anime.
I believe I may be thinking of Super Buu/Buutenks/Buuccolo/Buuhan
That can be. Is a very.very long time since i last read the manga.
I can't find any pics on google where you can see clearly his hand.
Some of The Pokémon have four fingers and no one complained ?
Well.. this is very surreal and informative. I never considered that having different number of fingers for other cultures. I understand the Brazil one but for Japan. Weird
Brazil one is soo old almost nobody ises it as a insult
And I thought it was Mafia connected. I learned something new.
Edit: Aha, so a mixture of both. The Yakuza lobbing off fingers and the Burakumin connection.
*homer trying to perform human transmutation*
Some people lose an arm and a leg due to human transmutation. Homer got off lucky only losing a couple fingers
They also changed the derpy eyes to non-derpy ones for the Japanese Simpsons box art. I wonder why they did that?
My best guess would be that it's just because it looks physically impossible for humans to perform.
"dohs in japanese"
Something that might also be responsible for the 4 fingers taboo is that 4 in japanese is Shi, and so is die, there is so much taboo against 4 that a lot of hospitals don't even have fourth floors
So this three finger thing is as bad as someone giving another the V sign eh? Fair enough, we should respect each other.
V sign? I always thought the two fingers up meant peace
Andrea Kinney it depends on which side is facing someone. For instance ✌means peace or victory, but if the BACK of this gesture is shown then you're telling someone to fuck off.
Interestingly enough the v sign is believed to come from archers during the Battle of Agincourt (sourced from Wikipedia) as an insult to their enemy "This origin legend dictates that the English and Welsh archers who were captured by the French had their index and middle fingers cut off so that they could no longer operate their longbows, and that the V Sign was used by uncaptured and victorious archers in a display of defiance against the enemy".
(Please note that I do not mean to offend anyone)
4 is also a word called "death" in japan 死 (shi) that is also a reason. cause 死 is also a REALLY offensive word in japan
So it's more of a self-censorship by publishers than government's doing.
It's really something hearing Homer speaking Japanese. It's so unusual, I rike it.
Interesting. I didn't imagine that Piccolo's extra finger was a result of censorship. I simply figured it'd be much easier to animate.
Reminds me of the Did You Know Gaming? episode about the Xbox, where they discuss an interview involving someone who was told that the colour black and the letter X represent death in Japan. Since when?
I thought Japan didn't like four-fingered hands because the Yakuza cut their fingers off, and because four is death, though.
Since never. DYKG doesn't do their research right. They just look at the surface and go along with it.
Godzilla has four fingers. He's a coelophysid, a really basal branch of theropods, while later, more derived clades reduced the number of fingers, three for tetanurines, two for tyrannosaurs, and one for living birds, although atavistic genes can trigger the growth of multiple fingers and if you look closely at a chicken's hand the bones for multiple fingers are there. Tiny and vestigal, but there.
I mean I guess that's a little different because Godzilla's a dinosaur and all that, but to be totally honest having a straight up human depicted with four fingers for no adequately explained reason IS kind of shocking. Pretty simple: people have five fingers, so when it deviates from that norm there's just kind of an innate reaction that tells you something is wrong? I mean it's common enough to be desensitized to it and the Simpons characters have always been intentionally stylized to not look like ordinary people anwyas, so... I guess. It's just weird is all.
Because humans have 5 fingers, duh
Amazing humour
WOAH!
Havard: Nigga you want a scholarship/
What's funny is Akira blatantly states in his Manghua that Piccolo was drawn that way for a specific scene to facilitate his counting down gesture. lol.
But yeah, might also be because of Japan's Tetraphobia. Anything related to Four is scrapped or skipped. Even room floors.
The worst part is that all of this sounds like myth. I doubt any of these people would ever get into trouble for keeping these characters four-fingered in Japan. Stupid publishers being afraid of the non existent boogeyman and jumping the gun as always.
Clearly it's not a myth. The beginning part sounds like a myth and some group that feels oppressed by it still for some reason. However, I can completely understand the Yakuza culture being a problem in Japan and the country itself not wanting to give attention publicly to it. It could panic civilians about the amount of problems that could be happening in their neighborhoods related to the Yakuza.
I'm not saying that the history is myth. I'm saying that the public reaction publishers fear so much is the myth.
As is said in this video itself, The Simpsons are allowed to have four fingers but doen't mention any backlash. I don't think people in Japan have ever complained about 4 fingered characters.
Boogeyman.
The Simpsons is also pretty unpopular in Japan and, as noted, it was still an edit done in merchandise (because editing the actual animation of an American cartoon is not an act to be undertaken lightly)… But anyway, the act of cutting off the smallest finger is called yubitsume. It's not just a yakuza punishment still in practice but also was adopted as a protest symbol of Japanese nationalists. Not just symbolically, or anything-"切り落とした指を抗議先に送りつける場合もある。"-"There are cases in which disembodied fingers have been sent as a form of protest."
What about first assasin's creed? does altair have 5 finger in japan even the story tells that he have to cut one of hes finger in order to use hiden blade?
OK sign is ok here now, it used to be rude but it isn't anymore.
I assumed it was the old Yakuza pinky loss. Everything else was new information - great video from a great channel.
Couldn't blame that change. the number 4 is often an unlucky number over there.
I was told once that the number 4 in japanese sounds extremely similar to the word death, so it's just considered bad luck in general and you can't buy packs of stuff with 4 cups or 4 plates for example
I live in Brasil and the ok sign is ok
The thumbnail looks like a can you spot the diffrence picture.....
In Japanese kids cartoons from the late 2000s, they have four fingers. I don't think this is correct. A few shows come to mind. It's just a design choice
You know, if the four finger characters are references to this "lesser class" of people, wouldn't that be PERFECT for oddworld? Wasn't that what they were in-game?
Brazilian here, I use the Ok sign all the time, it can have that different meaning but only if you make it so. People can tell if you mean one thing or the another.
I would've thought it had to do with the symbolism of the number 4 itself (since one of the words for "4" sounds like the word for "death").
So then does Avatar include the Na’vi with five fingers? If so, how do the Na’vi tell themselves apart from the “Sky People?” Because all the human characters in their Avatar bodies have five fingers and faces that closely match the Na’vi. (With the exception of Sigourney Weaver, but I think that was done because she was the big star power)
I thought it was so there would be no controversy about a mistake where a character would put up the middle finger
5 fingered cartoons/animations make almost all hands of said characters looks oddly huge comparative to the rest of the characters body. Even in a less cartoony/comical animated character/cartoon with 5 digits on each hand just makes the hand appear to be 'swollen' or stick out because its so obviously wider than a normal hand would be.
This got dark real quick
Interesting. Especially since Dragon Ball’s Piccolo has 4 fingers in the manga but 5 in the show. And then Cell starts off with 3 fingers and gains a finger in each form until he has 5, but has 5 constantly in the show.
in japan, number four is the misfortune number(kanji onyomi is shi) and the yakuza was also plausible reason.
Surprised that it had nothing to do with the number 4's connection to death.
Also Japanese Homer let's go
I thought it would be something like "4 in japan sounds like the word death"
In Japan the number 4 is also an unlucky number associated with death.
That OK-hand gesture is more so a thing in Germany... I think. Maybe. I don't care.
I always thought it was the radiation.
According to the Sipsonsverse, giving Bart five fingers would make him an omnipotent being.
He drew a line on carpet with chalk?
I thought it's because the pronunciation for 4 in Japanese (四) sounds similar to the word death (死). It's the same in Chinese too I think.
I also heard that the English word "four" sounds very similar to the Japanese word for death. As a result the number 4 itself has come to be associated with death in Japan and is considered to be an unlucky number, much like the number 13 in the west. Therefore in Japan the number 4 is avoided whenever possible, in much the same way as in the west buildings that are taller than 12 floors will simply skip the number 13 and the next higher floor will simply be labeled 14 instead of 13.
I believe that it's actually their word for four that sounds similar to their word for death. Makes more sense than "can't use that number because of what it's called in a foreign language".
What I don't understand is that in the upcoming game Cris Tales Crisbell, Christopher and a few others have four fingers while some others have five
0:22
LoL you looked into the o
**punch**
Good. It kept bothering the crap out of me as a kid (and still does) that cartoon characters had only 4 fingers.
This actually surprises me considering that Mickey Mouse and the Disney characters are largely popular in Japan (to the point where it isn't out of the ordinary for Tokyo Disneyland to reach full capacity), yet all of those characters are kept having four fingers in Japanese merch and media (at least those that originally had four fingers in the west).
Snoopy is another character that is very beloved in Japan to the point where he has his own cafe and tons of merch in Japan (even his siblings have merch), and in all of his appearances in Japan he keeps his four fingered look.
Other characters that have kept their four fingered appearance in Japan include Woody Woodpecker, SpongeBob Squarepants, and the Sesame Street Muppets.
Maybe Japan doesn't mind too much when it's animals or other non-human creatures with just four digits or perhaps video game publishers are a bit oversensitive and more people in Japan nowadays are more aware of four fingers just being a stylistic choice for Western created characters, but I can't say for sure.
Why Yoshi and Bowser have 4 fingers then?
JUST BECAUSE
Piccolo looks good with 5 fingers because they are realistically proportioned
I think the Yakuza explanation is more plausible, although it probably depends on what island you are on.
That's a lot of work for a damn finger.
What about Heavy Rain?
The scene where Ethan has to saw his finger off?
It probably also may refer to the number 4´s association with death.
Nice video As always Censored Gaming
I live in Rio and never met a person who interpreted the OK sign as being flipped.
Also the number 4 四 (shi) in Japanese has the same sound as the kanji 死(shi) that means death. That's why Japanese people never group stuff in fours, this was taught to me by a Japanese chef who advised me to never serve anything in fours to a Japanese patron.
I always wondered why certain characters in Mario like Yoshi had only 4 fingers on opposed to 5!
Reminds me of a joke in the Astro Boy mangas in that Tobio would sometimes have 4 sometimes 5 fingers.
Didn't know about the 4 fingers insulting meat packing worker accidents
Back in high school there was this guy in class and when the teacher turned her back he did that peace sign infront of the projector casting a show of it but he then he started sticking one of the fingers on his other hand through the hole and most of the class started laughing.
here i thought it would have something to do with 4 being an unlucky number in japan.
I read that the Burakumin are now connected or related to the Yakuza pretty often...
I remember Fang the Sniper of the Sonic franchise was given 4 fingers instead of 5 specifically to imply he had yakuza connections without outright saying it.
But people in Brazil also use the thumb-index finger gesture without a problem... I do, at least.
I can still hear the main menu theme in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
Also the number 4 is considered bad luck in Asia for its similarity in pronunciation with the words for death or dead, suu in Chinese and shi in Japanese, that's why people in Japan count ichi, ni, san yon instead of ichi, ni, san, shi ("on" reading) making the number 4 a taboo equal or greater than the number 13 in some occidental countries. Also the Japanese word for seven is shichi, but to avoid pronouncing shi they say nana instead.
Yes, Shi is the On-reading (old Chinese reading) of the Japanese number 4, but it is only pronounced Shi in Japan, in China the real sound for that same number/character/ideogram is pronounced more like a Suu, with an U vowel sound very different to the one used in English. There are three different forms to transliterate the sound of the Chinese word for 4, in Pīnyīn (Mandarin) sì, in Jyutping (Cantonese) sei, and in Pe̍h-ōe-jī (Hokkien) sù or sì. But these sounds are not like the s, sh, ei, i or u sounds in English. Chinese phonemes are very different and there are not equivalent sounds in English.
5:06 Doraemon tattoos?
Quite intimidating.
I can confirm that the OK gesture is NOT offensive in Brazil