I don’t necessarily think – given my American position – this is a “tradition” as it’s used here in anime. I don’t think the animators are saying “they should hold their fingers like this to keep up the tradition of graceful finger positions” – the thing isn’t an end in itself. I wouldn’t say there is any real intent behind this; it’s just a device to illustrate femininity, but where intent ends, subconscious takes over and then you’d have to view the transnational, transgenerational aspects of femininity.

What you’ve noticed in Anime are the same thing – I’ve seen the hand/finger positions that Mom demonstrated for us over and over again. Are these now only taught as part of an arts curriculum – ie, drawing, dance, etc? Or how is this tradition being kept alive?

xilex: Apparently Spider Man has his fingers in a different way, but I can sort of see what you mean. Actually, I think that’s the METAL position and thus makes it more masculine than feminine.

Watch it closely. The whole OP and series is full with this pose.

Personally, I think it looks very cute ^^b

coburn: I think it is “deliberate” because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a “normal” guy use it – wherein you speak of Yamie as a potential trap (I wouldn’t care; Tamaki, on the other hand, and I would become enraged), I think that because things gendered do or do not fall nicely within one side of the binary – male versus female – and labeled taboo, then by necessity it will have to be something. Maybe animators are copying this off those twentieth century ballet postures, and if so, would they then too be carrying over similar genderisms? Ballet was copied for reasons X, Y and Z, thus Japanese animators hinted as the resonation between Western themes and themes that were desired in their own animation – there’s the influence, I think.

Atashi: This may be the penultimate moe factor. I think the ultimate one is when the girl is sitting and they have their legs bent 90 degrees outward and have their knees touching one another. That probably warrants its own visual study, too. That is strange, as you point out, how it seems normal in anime yet unearthly in reality. I guess that’s anime for you.

vin-nii: I thought the Kimikiss and Geass connection was kind of funny. Kind of.

Moya: I will.

melissa: I played clarinet for like, five minutes, and thought my cheeks were going to die; though I’ve never really seen guitar playing done well in anime, all organic robot witches aside.

Calawain/Zentari/13sugars: I wasn’t thinking anything dirty, then again it could be subconscious…

Zan: Hmmm, it seems odd to me that people haven’t noticed this. That’s not a bad thing, it just seemed to blatant to me for quite a while. Though the Geass picture is probably the most interesting…the characters in question not even being human, and that the one with the feminine finger position could be lightly taken as a male, perhaps a masochistic artifact or representation of Suzaku’s GAR (or lack thereof?)

Kabitzin: I don’t think some of these positions would be easier to draw than a “regular” hand – what about Alicia’s? Then again, I have no idea how to draw. Situations involving males using this hand gesture seem pretty rare, so I can’t say, in that respect, that it’s “easier” or for “convenience”; “convenience” for me was never a frugal thing more of a way to denote gender.

Crusader: Thanks.

hyzen: Thanks.

IKnight: Mmhm, Turn 18. I didn’t notice that, mostly because I wasn’t really paying attention to that LogH screencap, per se, just Reinhard’s fingers. Similarly, I was trying to find an Irako Seigen finger pose but turned up nothing but a few effeminate snickers of his. But concerning what you said, it is significant, both of those social artifacts they hold as if they present status through another conduit. That was a nice observation.

BigN: Haha, I know what you mean. The flailing arms thing annoys me as well. I even see guys running that way occasionally.

BK: It is feminine.

C.I.: Thanks.

Olivia: This posture does feel pretty unnatural. It’s hard to keep it up (oddly I can’t do it in my left hand at all…lack of interdependence?). I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it sexist…it’s not quite demeaning, though you could make an argument though the lack of males performing this gesture – and when we did see males doing it, it was when they weren’t in a position of dominance. Gendered, yes, sexist, perhaps.