A Most Bizarre 6-Fingered StoryHuman beings have 5 fingers on each hand. Piccolo is from the Planet Namek so he has 4 fingers. Oh, sometimes he's shown with 5 fingers, but then again this is the same Mr. Akira Toriyama who drew Yajirobe twice on the spine of the covers. Also, Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) initially had 4 fingers. It is well-known that the inspiration for Atom came from early Disney films, and a character called Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse had 4 fingers, so Atom was drawn with 4 fingers as well. Later, when Mr. Tezuka met with a Disney employee who had worked on Mickey, he asked why Mickey only had 4 fingers, to which he got the following response: "Because if you animate him with 5 fingers, it looks like he has 6 fingers when he's moving." After that, Atom was drawn with 5 fingers. In any case, fingers are a pretty famous topic in manga, but 2004 saw some strange occurrences: one after another, titles from famous shonen magazines started showing people with 6 fingers. The first to do it was Magazine. The following is a scene from Oh Great's "Air Gear," where Kazu is holding a turd. He's grown an extra finger. What was great about 2004 was that this didn't end quite yet: next, we have Takeshi Kai's "Prince of Tennis."
During this time, we saw Mr. Kai's talent in full force as we also had a referee suddenly teleporting to the opposite side of the court, among other incidents. What happens twice will happen a third time. Next up was Sunday, with Takashi Shiina's "Zettai Karen Children."
Even Mr. Shiina, a veteran author, fell victim to this phenomena. 6-finger syndrome hit all 3 major shonen magazines...how exciting. Translated by Neuroretardant Note: The most recent 6-finger incident happened with Takeshi Obata's Death Note, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. |
Manga ZombieComiPress teams up with writer Udagawa Takeo and translator John Gallagher to publish an online version of the English-language translation of Manga Zombie. Finale: PanelosophyPanelosophy - Recession Special An ongoing conversation about the philosophy behind manga both in the U.S. and abroad. Manga RankingTop Manga Series and Volumes for March 2009 Monthly charts of comparative manga rankings based on aggregate online sales listings from Matt Blind. |
Game or mistake?
Weird! I don't like six-fingered hands, that's freaky! I prefer 4-fingered ones, but anyway, if my english is good enough all of this 6-fingered story is a "game"!? ...or do mangaka make mistakes while drawing hands?
They were mistakes.
They were mistakes.
I noticed a six-fingered
I noticed a six-fingered hand on Asuka in (I think) volume six of the Evangelion manga. I don't remember which chapter. This would have been pre-2004.