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Giving Someone the Pointer Finger
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What's the problem? Pointer fingers were made for pointing!
Many cultures in Real Life hold that it's not polite to point. In a lot of western cultures, this stems from a superstition that finger-pointing was how witches would jinx people. Of course, the fact that aggressively thrusting a body part at someone could possibly serve to annoy them probably has something to do with it.
In real-world Japanese society, personal space is at a premium and thus of the utmost importance. One is careful to avoid even the appearance of proximity, and one keeps one's hands at one's sides. Thus, in animeland, it is a gesture of extreme emotional importance to physically point at someone. This should be saved for only the most appropriate of times. If breaking out the pointer finger, it is traditional to be especially dramatic about it. A stylized "swirly" fingerprint symbol on the fingertip is optional.
However, most characters who Give the Pointer Finger aren't really doing it in an appropriate situation, which can signify either immaturity or status as a Large Ham.
Often used to denote a new rival or Unknown Rival, although more often than not it is simply the trademark of a hammy character.
Generally unrelated to giving someone the Finger Poke of Doom, nor is it really related to giving someone another finger.
Compare Sword Pointing, which is similar, but done with melee weapons.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Sana from Kodomo no Omocha is fond of the inappropriate use of this.
- As is Tomo from Azumanga Daioh.
- Pretty much everyone in Yu-Gi-Oh! does this seriously. And then, of course, there's the point at which they edited out some firearms.
- Protagonist Judai does this constantly in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, always accompanied by his Catch Phrase: "Gotcha! That was a fun duel!"
- Haruhi Suzumiya does this a few times in a non-homage context, because she's loud, brash, and doesn't care about personal space.
- Tsuruya has a tendency of doing this when she laughs.
- Used by Ichigo in Bleach when rescuing Rukia Kuchiki. When she started to object that he should save himself, he points at her and tells her that her opinions have been rejected.
- Also done when Ichigo and Ganju meet unexpectedly in Kuukaku Shiba's house. Hilarity Ensues.
- Used by Amelia in The Slayers when she is introducing Zelgadis and Gourry to her father, and trying to rally them to return to the fight with Zanafar. She also poses and points dramatically when they finally do confront Zanafar again. None of them pay attention to what she is saying and all of them comment on how impolite she is being, including Zanafar.
- Chii from Chobits, frequently does this — mostly while repeating whatever tidbit of information she just learned. Chii, at least, has the excuse of being an android who doesn't know proper etiquette.
- And she's too cute for anyone to get mad at her for long.
- Hikaru from Hime-chan no Ribon does this extremely closely to Hime-chan's face when declaring war over Daichi.
- Haruka (pictured above) from both Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome is rather fond of pointing...and shouting.
- Nozomi from Yes! Precure 5 does this while nitpicking at someone to distract them from anything they've noticed that had to do with her Secret Identity.
- Yuma Tonami from To Heart 2 does when the male protagonist beats her at something. She points at him and yells at him that he hasn't won yet.
- Konata's finger-pointing in the Lucky Star Dancing Theme has been parodied countless times already. Give her some space, viewers.
- The exposition sequence at the beginning of Detective Conan movies always end with Conan pointing at the camera to deliver his ultimatum. "There is only one truth!"
- Also, the detectives often point dramatically at the suspect when making their accusation. (Especially Mouri Kogoro, who is usually wrong.)
- The Kindaichi Case Files - Kindaichi also dramatically points at his chief suspect at The Reveal.
- Nenene rudely cuts off her chauffeurs in Read or Die the TV with a pointer finger because they have misspelled her name "Nununu".
- Early in Part Four of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Angelo points at Josuke during his post-defeat rant. Josuke punches Angelo's hand into a rock and tells him not to point.
- This was probably a self-reference by the author, since Jotaro (Part Three's protagonist) was practically synonymous with use and abuse of the pointer finger.
- Eyeshield 21: Hiruma does this a lot, rude bastard that he is.
- Not to mention Monta, who even has the swirl on his fingertips, even when he's wearing gloves.
- Kabuto Kouji from the Mazinger trilogy -Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer- loves doing this. A lot. Especially in Mazinkaiser. If there aren't a bare minimum of two instances of this in every episode, then you're watching the wrong anime. Usually accompanied by an In the Name of the Moon speech which will generally go something like "This Mazinkaiser will be your opponent!" The supporting characters tend to join in.
- Honorable mention goes to Tetsuya's Great Mazinger, whose Thunder Break attack produces and absorbs a lightning strike, then fires it out the pointer finger.
- Duke Fleed, the main character of the third series, sometimes fell into this, too.
- Allison from Allison And Lillia does this a fair bit; as a Genki Girl who clearly wears the pants (flight suit, actually) in her relationship with childhood friend Wilhelm, it's practically a given.
- Gauron from Full Metal Panic does this to activate his Arm Slave's special attack, and he doesn't give a damn about personal space. He's crazy like that.
- Pixy Misa in the Pretty Sammy canons does this fairly often.
- Zoro from One Piece does this to Tashigi when he rants about how she resembles his dead childhood friend, lapsing into really, really childish behavior.
- Naruto does this a lot. Being the brash, immature loud-mouth that he is, it's not surprising that he doesn't have manners, either. In the original before Shippuden, he usually pointed when accusing someone (usually a teacher or Sasuke) of undermining him or doing something behind his back.
- Sakura does this to Hinata in one Naruto Shippuden omake when suggesting that the chocolates she's making for Valentine's Day need an extra touch (unfortunately, the nutritional supplements she adds end up making them taste disgusting) to appeal to the recipient.
- Itachi has a more reserved, but far more weaponized version of this. When he points his finger at you, you've probably just been caught in a horrifying genjutsu.
- Ouran High School Host Club: A large percentage o Tamaki Suou's scenes involve this.
- *POINT*
- Renge is also a big fan, and specialises in the swirly fingertip version.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: THIS (dramatic upwards point) IS THE DRILL THAT SHALL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!
- Kyouka's pointing finger is prominently displayed throughout Kyouran Kazoku Nikki.
- Kare Kano: Yukino to Arima in the third episode; she's actually a rude bastard, and she probably enjoys invading his personal space anyway.
- While Light from Death Note usually keeps his hands to himself, he points emphatically at L during their post-tennis-match war of words.
- In Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Battler does this to Beatrice (Because well, she did just kill everyone on the island, most of them very messily; although he's pointing at her arguing that she didn't.) as a way of Throwing Down the Gauntlet.
- In Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, the titular detective has his partner point out criminals this way once he's figured the mystery out.
- Great Mazinger: 'SANDAA BUREKU!!!
- Kaze does this in Final Fantasy: Unlimited when he announces "The Soil Charge Triad to use on you has been decided!"
- In Mahou Sensei Negima!, Nodoka does this to the Big Bad, and later on to one of his minions. Fully justified as it's how she activates a magical item that allows her to learn their real names. As such, whenever she does this, it tends to be an epic moment.
- Kai from Beyblade! points his finger at Brooklyn. Dramatically.
- In The World God Only Knows, Keima uses this often in argument.
- The entire cast of Ranma ½ does this at some point or other.
- Ubiquitous in Doraemon. About the only ones who don't do this are Shizuka (who is a girl) and Doraemon (who doesn't have visible fingers).
- Natsu of Fairy Tail does this a lot to people he's yelling at or challenging to a fight.
- However, a more epic and dramatic example is Loke/ Leo, who does it to Caprico in a You Shall Not Pass moment.
Comic Books
- Just about any comic drawn by Jack Kirby.
- God almost always does this when sending someone to hell in Jack Chick's strips.
- Every major character in Scott Pilgrim does this. The cover of the first volume even features Scott triumphantly striking this pose.
- "Do you want to have SEX? I think we should have SEX. CASUAL SEX."
Fan Works
- Kyon's sister to Sasaki in Kyon: Big Damn Hero when the former accuses the latter of making Kyon lose his smile.
- In With Strings Attached, Paul does this several times in a nonserious way; he does it in Real Life.
- Though he has to stop gesturing altogether after he gets super-strong.
- Also, John does it to As'taris just after getting the Kansael. While jabbing his finger at the elf, he accidentally squirts him; and when he looks at his own finger, he squirts himself.
- Phoenix Wright in Turnabout Storm, it's his signature gesture after all. This time it's more jarring than usual, given the general lack of any fingers to speak of on the inhabitants of Equestria.
Trixie: Don't point that ugly sausage of a finger at Trixie!
Film
- In the film Ghost Rider, the titular character often does this
 , even when he really oughta know better (it's probably not wise to point and say "YOU!" to Satan himself). He once points threateningly to a young child while transformed, and then says "innocent!" and walks away. Said child passes out from the fear.
- Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is very fond of doing this in Full Metal Jacket.
- The Sunshine Boys "The finger?!? Again with the finger?!?"
Literature
- At the end of the first Harry Potter book, Ginny excitedly points at Harry after he arrives back at King's Cross and Mrs. Weasley tells her that it's rude.
- In ''For The Emperor'', Inquisitor Vaile confronts the treacherous Governor Grice, "pointing an accusing finger at him like a schola tutor admonishing an unsatisfactory student." Of course, she was wearing a digital needler that shoots poisoned darts.
Live Action TV
Professional Wrestling
- Western example: uber-star Hulk Hogan did this all the time when he made his big comeback. Inevitably, after the fingerpoint (punctuated by the crowd yelling "YOU!"), the match would be won within a minute.
Video Games
Webcomics
Web Original
Western Animation
- Toph from Avatar The Last Airbender tends to do this when she's annoyed, yelling at someone (namely, Katara), or just when she wants to make a point.
- The not so evil monkey that lives inside Chris Griffin's closet on Family Guy does this all the time.
Other
- Uncle Sam, who wants YOU for the U.S. army.
- For the Brits, Lord Kitchener, who wants YOU to join your country's army.
- Averting this trope is considered common speech etiquette. Bill Clinton is most famous for averting it, using the common technique of pointing with his thumb pressed against the first joint of his index finger, which became a hallmark of his impersonators.
- At Disney Theme Parks, "cast members" are trained to gesture with their whole hands, mostly for the benefit of international guests whose cultures follow variations of this trope.
- The cover◊ for Iron Maiden's single "2 Minutes to Midnight".
- When an object fails to break or deform in a suitably spectacular way on Daily Drop, Paul sighs... and then summons the crowbar with this very gesture.
- What made Ricardo Lagos famous in Chilean politics was mixing this, Kubrick Stare and "The Reason You Suck" Speech during a TV debate in 1989. While directly addressing Augusto Pinochet, who was still in power.
- In the US Military, a common subversion is to avoid pointing at someone with your finger, particularly if you are correcting them. Instead, it is common to point with your entire hand, in a gesture known as "Knife Hands". Use a "karate chop" motion for added emphasis.
- A lot of people criticized Arizona governor Jan Brewer for pointing her finger in President Obama's face during a meeting. A lot of people saw some Unfortunate Implications, saying that if she were a man or if Obama was white, she never would have had the audacity to do it in the first place.
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