I don't remember learning that gesture in Catholic school.
In Japan, Flipping the Bird is considered a somewhat milder insult than in the West. As a result, it shows up a lot more often than one would expect.- Ace of the Diamond: A flashback during Act II shows Sawamura and Miyuki testing different ball grips for the Numbers. After he misses one too many...Miyuki: You're missing a lot. How are you gripping the ball?
Sawamura: Like this! (flips the bird)
Miyuki: Lower that finger, please. - Berserk: In Volume 33, pirate Captain Bonebeard makes the mistake of attacking the Seahorse, the finest ship of the Iith navy commanded by the "Sailing prince of Eath" Roderick of Stauffen. As Bonebeard retreats with his tail between his legs, the cheeky Isidro sees him off with a combined Bicep-Polishing Gesture and middle-finger-salute, shouting "I hope a shark bites your ass!"
- Rock does this
quite memorably in the second episode of Black Lagoon, flipping off the Extra Order mercs as he pulls his first Crowning Moment of Awesome by having the title ship launched off a ramp and the torpedoes launched to wipe out an attack chopper that was after them."You got FUCKED!" - In Bleach Isshin simultaneously flips Aizen the bird and knocks him several city blocks back (it's unknown if some sort of hand gesture was necessary or if it was entirely because he felt like it).
- The manga features Grimmjow grinning madly while flipping off the reader.
- In Episode 14 of Chitose Get You!!, Chitose does this to her teacher, Fuji-Sensei.
- Mina from Dance in the Vampire Bund flips off Rozemann as he helplessly watches Akira rescue her from his castle.
- Ganta of Deadman Wonderland does this to the crowd in the Carnival Corpse battle after they demand that he finish Minatsuki, the opponent that he just defeated.
- Dragon Ball:
- Bulma did this to Pilaf during an interrogation.
- Launch did this after beating up a Red Ribbon Army grunt.
- Dragon Ball Z: Vegeta does this to Krillin in one of the Frieza saga episodes.
- Almost every character in DBZ flips the bird at least once... except Goku, who prefers more childish rude gestures like sticking his tongue out.
- There's a chapter title page◊ where half of the cast flips off Cell.
- Even Buu does it!
- At the end of the series, a very rude boy did this to 4-year-old Pan when she accidentally bumped into him.
- In Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, Flazzard makes this gesture to Marm before his first defeat.
- Early in Excel♡Saga, when Excel is in prison, another prisoner asks if there's anyone she likes. She attempts to give a shy thumbs-up of "yeah", but accidentally flips her new friend off on the first attempt.
- The Fate/Apocrypha light novel has Mordred giving this to Adam. It was changed to a thumbs-down in the anime.
- Juza the Cloud in Fist of the North Star does this to Raoh during his final encounter.
- Flame of Recca: Recca flips the bird at Kurei when Kurei gives Recca the option to surrender rather than fight. This causes a bit of a crisis for Joker when the extremely innocent and sheltered Meno asks him what the gesture means.Joker (thinking): How am I supposed to explain F**K to someone like Meno? Recca, I hate you.
- In Fruits Basket, Haru does this to Kyo during their fight as he's saying "Go to hell!"
- Ghost in the Shell: Arise. Motoko is thrown across the room by a more powerful cyborg, with a broken finger landing in the 'bird' position.
- In Great Pretender, Abbie does this to the point of it being her characteristic, and it's her usual response to being given orders... or friendly words. When the rest of the team forms a Scooby Stack while peeking around a door, her "contribution" is her raised middle finger.
- Gunbured × Sisters: Shannon crushes hard on Dorothy and clashes with Maria about the latter's relationship with her. After Dorothy breaks up the incipient fight and leads Maria away, Maria flips Shannon the bird behind Dorothy's back as a parting shot.
- The Gunsmith Cats salute an annoying ATF agent this way as he leaves. As average residents of Chicago, it's reasonable.
- Hellsing: Jan Valentine enjoys this and does it to Integra just before he dies.
- During Cure Grace's cameo in Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure, poor cropping causes her V-Sign during her transformation to instead look like she's flipping the bird instead.
- In Hunter × Hunter, Netero does this to the Chimera Ant King while unleashing his ultimate unavoidable attack "Zero Hand". It doesn't work.
- In Episode 3 of Is This A Zombie?, Orito flips off Ayumu while challenging him to a round of bowling to see if he can start living in his house along with Yuu, Seraphim, and Haruna.Orito: If I win, I'll start living in your house today!
Ayumu: I don't understand.
Orito: (gives the finger) Say your prayers! - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: Jolyne Cujoh can do this in several different languages.
- In the final battle, Weather Report (now under Emporio's control) does this to Enrico Pucci before finishing him off.
- In The Legend of Black Heaven Watanabe hurts his middle finger causing him to involuntarily flip off a hulking black guy, triggering a chain of event that eventually led to his death.
- In the Lucky Channel portion of Lucky Star, Akira does this (though it's sort of hidden) when saying "It's irritating!" in a cheery voice about something Minoru had said.
- Episode 4 of Michiko & Hatchin: Michiko disses a stripper because the stripper's boobs have no bounce. According to Michiko, it must be because they're augmented. She finishes by flipping the (pixellated) bird.
- Not even My Hero Academia is spared. If only for a single panel, an angry Jiro pulls out a nasty middle finger at an appalled Kaminari in Chapter 59. Even if we don't know exactly why she did it, this easily counts as a nonverbal Precision F-Strike for her. Considering she typically threatens or full-on sticks anyone who irritates her with her earphone jacks.
- During the Training Camp attack, the villain Twice also performs this gesture at Dabi when he asks for a second clone of him, after the first one was quickly destroyed.
Twice: (giving the finger) Another small fry coming right up! (adds a thumbs-up) Leave it to me! - This is done several times in the manga version of Naruto. The anime, on the other hand, censored these scenes:
- In the first chapter of Naruto, we're treated to a flashback panel where Naruto is giving The Double Deuce to Iruka.
- Done quite a few more times, mostly by Kiba.
- Swirly Zetsu flips off Obito in his flashback as a Funny Background Event.
- Near the very end of the series, in a total Tsundere moment, Kurama flips off Naruto when the latter asks the former if he missed him.
- Shows up in Negima! Magister Negi Magi, where Chamo gives Fate the finger. Possibly. His super-deformed style makes it tough to tell, but that gesture probably fits the situation best.
- One Piece:
- When Eustass Kid and Trafalgar Law (two of the "11 Supernovas", rookies with huge bounties, including Luffy and Zoro) meet, Kid insults Law, who casually flips him the bird in response. This gesture was omitted in the anime version, but Kid's reaction to it is retained.
- After the time skip, Sanji does this to the crossdressers of Kamabakka Kingdom as a farewell.
- In the Colosseum tournament, Sai does this to "Lucy" (a disguised Luffy).
- The gesture fits very well with Law's defiant personality. When he is about to be shot (again) by former mentor/current Arch-Enemy Doflamingo, the man offers to allow Law to die via the Ope-Ope Fruit's Dangerous Forbidden Technique in exchange for one wish. Law's response is to troll him by seemingly agreeing, then demanding the impossible such as the revival of Doflamingo's brother (who Law idolized) and licking the assholes of every single citizen of the country Doflamingo took over a decade prior (which, disregarding sanitary reasons, Doflamingo's pride would never allow), and then taunting him one last time by stating that he'll never beat the Straw Hats or get Caesar back. All of this was before Law gave him the finger as one final "screw you" to his former boss. The anime again omits the finger, in favor of a montage of the many "miracles" that the Straw Hats have accomplished up to that point, along with one last defiant stare.
- During Whole Cake Island, Pudding has an Imagine Spot where her evil-self flips off Sanji as they bake a cake to stop Big Mom's rampage. Like the other examples, this is censored in the anime.
- A flashback shows a then-five-year-old Jewelry Bonney flipping off and giving the bras d'honneur at the same time to some kids who were annoying her.
- In Ouran High School Host Club, the Hitachiin brothers do this rather frequently.
- Becky from Pani Poni Dash! does this in the first episode. It wouldn't be as jarring if it weren't for the fact that she's an eleven-year-old teacher who did that to her students. She demanded respect as a teacher, and one of the students immediately smacks her on the head for being so disrespectful."Look, I don't care if you ask me questions, but please use your brain before you open your mouth. For the love of God, try to think of less boring things to ask. Understand, YOU *flips middle finger* LOW LIFEFORMS?!
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is full of it. Granted, it's not the worst thing in the show.
- Pop Team Epic: both Popuko and Pipimi make this gesture often. It's the manga's page picture for a reason.
- The Quintessential Quintuplets: While on the way to a school camp, Fuutarou and the Nakanos get stuck in the middle of traffic, so to pass some time they play a game where one person hides all but one finger behind their other hand, and the rest have to guess which finger they're holding up (with each finger named after a different sister). Fuutarou guesses that Nino is holding up her namesake (index) finger. Nino cheerfully informs him that it was actually the Miku (middle) finger, making sure that the back of her hand is facing Fuutarou when she does the reveal.
- Ranma ½: This shows up a lot because it's a milder insult.
- In an episode, when they fight the Gambling King, the King uses it to punctuate his rant/challenge. Then it gets returned to him... by Akane, of all people.
- Akane did it also in another episode, to Ranma; while hitting her on the head with her Hyperspace Mallet at the same time.
- Ryōga also did it once when talking smack to Ranma.
- Then there was the time that Nabiki flipped off Sōun. Given that she usually does it with her index finger, this is a non-verbal Precision F-Strike on her part.
- And man, Ranma flips off people a lot in the manga.
- A truly epic one happens in the Martial Arts Dining arc when Ranma is stuck in an iron corset and accidentally turns into his boy side.Sōun: You call yourself my future son?!
Ranma: (while flipping Sōun off) So yells my "dad," the little French maid!
- The British V sign makes an appearance in Chapter 2 of Rosario + Vampire when Kurumu flips off Moka after hypnotizing Tsukune into calling her a bloodsucker to her face.
- Rurouni Kenshin:
- Kaoru does this to Megumi as Megumi leaves to go work with the local doctor, in response to Megumi telling Kenshin that she's available if he ever gets bored of Kaoru.
- Sanosuke is another repeating offender of this, famously giving Saito the finger when he declares he brushed off the defensive skills Saito taught him to fight the way he sees fit.
- In an episode of Samurai Champloo called "Baseball Blues", a baseball team from America challenges Mugen and his friends to a baseball game, and a nasty fat player flips them off.
- At the start of the episode, when told his ship can't dock in Japan, the admiral of the American fleet announces "FUCK THEM!" (in English) while flipping the bird. It's pixellated.
- In Chapter 7 of Sensual Phrase Sakuya does this to spite his half brother Ralph, even saying "FUCK YOU!"
- In an episode of the Slam Dunk anime (the scene exists in the manga, but the bird-flipping doesn't), after scoring a bucket through his own individualistic work, Rukawa tells the rest of the team (Akagi included) that he couldn't pass to anyone because they were shaking in their sneakers. Invariably, they all get pissed, and Mitsui flashes the middle finger at the "bastard freshman, trying to give me a lesson".
- In one installment of Star Trek: The Manga, the Enterprise is up against a squadron of space mechas. Kirk orders them to stand down, and the lead mecha flips him off. (It's not actually shown; only the Reaction Shots of the bridge officers make it clear what just happened.) The significance of the gesture is, of course, lost on the alien observer on the bridge with Kirk.Melkor: One? One what? What is it trying to say?
Kirk: It's a very old Earth gesture, Mr. Melkor...and it tells me a lot about who we're dealing with. - In Episode 9 of TerraforMARS, Adolf delivers one to the Roaches, before raining thunder from above all while quoting epic Bible lines.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: You'd think that a show about a card game wouldn't have this, but you'd be wrong◊. This tends to pop up when the Hero or Lancer sets up a comeback so awesome, there's no need to bring the flipped finger up.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V sneaks one in when one of the Arc Villains starts spewing a blatantly false story about Reiji/Declan actually being in league with the Big Bad because they're father and son. Before he retorts, Reiji pointedly adjusts his glasses using only his middle finger, subtly telling the guy exactly where he can shove his lies. The dub deemed it necessary to edit the shot because of the gesture.
- In YuYu Hakusho, Kuwabara begins bashing Yusuke in comparison to his spirit sword vs Yusuke's spirit gun saying the gun is weaker. Yusuke responds with "That depends on which finger I'm using" while flipping Kuwabara off clearly. This was edited out of the Toonami block version. Yusuke does it again to Team Toguro at the Dark Tournament.
