Left Handedness in anime?

[DryMaltExtract]

Wow, I didn't think such views on something as stupid as what hand you write with would still exist these days. I'm left handed and I've never heard anything really except "you write with your left hand?", which is always just a general question out of idle curiousity, nobody really cares. Though I do get the occasional, "you know they used to think left handed people were associated with the devil and bad things", which I always took as a compliment on account of my being a bad person but whatever.

I keep hearing various things like this(such as xenophobia and such) about Japan and it makes them seem really primitive, like they haven't caught up with the western world and what not(sounds rude but whatever). Not that every society in the world should conform to the behaviour of others or anything but harassement over something a person can't change (without a great deal of effort) is really stupid.

The only real problem with it is at a young age when you're drawing with crayons and you get it all over the side of your hand.

I also wonder at times, did people often have trouble fighitng saito based on his left handedness? His strikes and such seemingly would come at angles and directions because it would be more natural on account of the left handedness. Well whatever.

On a side note, I like the call my right hand the slave hand, for I make it open doors and other such menial tasks so undeserving of the greatness that is the left hand.

[Pick]

By the way, could someone explain to me - is Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary girl Utena left handed or not? I got confused. Her oponents are left handed mostly (like Kozue, Shiori etc.), or left handed ocasionally (for ex., Saionji. In his first duel he used right hand - in his second duel with Utena he clearly used his left hand). But I just can't get the case with Utena herself. She plays basketball with her left hand, she always opens the gates to the arena with her left hand, yet she duels equally with both hands - left and right (in her second duel both Saionji and Utena used their left hands). In the movie Utena is clearly right handed (curious - Jury isn't, though she used to duel with her right hand in the series), she draws Anthy with her right hand for proof, but what is the main point in the TV series?

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by Pick

By the way, could someone explain to me - is Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary girl Utena left handed or not? I got confused. Her oponents are left handed mostly (like Kozue, Shiori etc.), or left handed ocasionally (for ex., Saionji. In his first duel he used right hand - in his second duel with Utena he clearly used his left hand). But I just can't get the case with Utena herself. She plays basketball with her left hand, she always opens the gates to the arena with her left hand, yet she duels equally with both hands - left and right (in her second duel both Saionji and Utena used their left hands). In the movie Utena is clearly right handed (curious - Jury isn't, though she used to duel with her right hand in the series), she draws Anthy with her right hand for proof, but what is the main point in the TV series?

You're thinking too hard.

[Kempis Curious]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I can't pass up a chance to show off anime trivia smarty-pantedness.

Haruka from FLCL uses a left-handed bass guitar to hit things with and make robots grow from people's noggins. I only have AMVs on hand to check which hand she uses to swing with, and it seems inconsistent. (LAWD that was a good anime.) Does anyone have the baseball ep handy? Does she bat left?

-k

curious

[Kyuven]

Originally Posted by Kempis Curious

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I can't pass up a chance to show off anime trivia smarty-pantedness.

Haruka from FLCL uses a left-handed bass guitar to hit things with and make robots grow from people's noggins. I only have AMVs on hand to check which hand she uses to swing with, and it seems inconsistent. (LAWD that was a good anime.) Does anyone have the baseball ep handy? Does she bat left?

-k

curious

Haruka is ambidextrous

By the way, could someone explain to me - is Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary girl Utena left handed or not? I got confused. Her oponents are left handed mostly (like Kozue, Shiori etc.), or left handed ocasionally (for ex., Saionji. In his first duel he used right hand - in his second duel with Utena he clearly used his left hand). But I just can't get the case with Utena herself. She plays basketball with her left hand, she always opens the gates to the arena with her left hand, yet she duels equally with both hands - left and right (in her second duel both Saionji and Utena used their left hands). In the movie Utena is clearly right handed (curious - Jury isn't, though she used to duel with her right hand in the series), she draws Anthy with her right hand for proof, but what is the main point in the TV series?

Utena is ambidextrous

[hooliganj]

Everyone in Utena is ambidextrous, since the point was to position the characters for the best looking camera shot. I doubt there was anyone standing around saying 'they can't pose like that, they're right handed!'

If I recall correctly, Hajime Saito trained right-handed just like everyone else, but in a fight he would instinctively switch to his left hand. It's hard to say really, since I've only done a little reading on the subject.

Any baseball show is going to have at least one character on a rival team that's a southpaw, since that's a legitimate obstacle that one has to cope with in that sport.

This one is drudged up from distant memory, but wasn't Rally Vincent from Gunsmith Cats supposed to be left-handed?

(side-note: another lefty here, and yes I know it's sinister in Latin)

[Wolfsbane68]

Hmm, Saiyuki's Genjyo Sanzo is supposedly ambidexterous but consistently favors his left hand for trick shots (and slugging ppl really hard) . But then, it goes with his general 'tude.

[mememe]

This is a strange thread i'm left-handed and i've never been paided out about it and the people that notice it go "omg you're left handed" and try to write with their left hand to see how it feels like and me vice versa. It is a real novelty . But you notice no one is really left-handed or right handed because people still use the other hand such as for other things.

You people actually notice what hand anime characters favour :0,

I'm with Kyuven they are all ambidextrous!

[BuGGY!!]

About the frowning upon left handers thing, I know for a fact that it's true in the old days for the Chinese, maybe it's applied for Japanese as well.

Back in the days when my parents were young (they're around mid 40's), left handers were frowned upon. Few of the simple reasons that was explained to me is that:

-When they had dinner at a round table, the left hander would arm clash with the person next to them, because 1 person is using left arm for chopsticks and other is using right.
-At school, they didn't have very big classrooms and people often had to sit very close, again there would be arm clashes when ppl used pencils.

I'm sure there's better reasons than that. That's all i can remember atm (coz they're interesting ones :P)

One of my uncles (dads brother) was born left handed, whenever he tried to use his left hand for writing or using chopsticks, my grand dad would hit his hand very hard with a stick.

That uncles till this day, uses right hand for everything. But in my generation, that doesn't happen anymore, I have a cousin that's left handed and uses left hand for everything.

My dad teases him about it almost whenever he sees him use his left hand. But I think that's only because he was brought up in a generation where it wasn't accepted.

[Kinny Riddle]

Edit: Another old thread before the hack that I didn't know existed, but now would be a good time to revive this now that it's merged.

Being a lefty myself, I tend to spot lefty characters quite quickly.

The ones I know of:
Prince of Tennis - there's too many to list them all here, probably the only anime where leftys are well-represented, or rather, over-represented
Our chibi protagonist is obviously one.

Fullmetal Alchemist - Edward Elric, though I believe Ed is left-handed by circumstances rather than a born lefty. But as long as he's using his left-hand, I guess I

SHUFFLE! - Fuyou Kaede!!! The first time I saw the OP where she holds the chopsticks with her left hand, I thought it was an artist mistake, but then ZOMG! Primula and Rin held their's with their right hand, plus there're many scenes that shows her using her left hand. I don't see a lot of cute lefty girls in anime.

As for games, nearly everyone in Chrono Trigger is a lefty (Toriyama's error ) and Sephiroth is a lefty.

[Nightbat®]

Originally Posted by maxthelostboy

My mom is left handed and back in the 60's when she went to school her teachers forced her to write with the right but the teachers were old hags. Just like the other guys story:*(

My uncle as well
and again: forced to write right handed by some old hags

I tell you: it's them old hags that cause all ills in this world!
Acid rain, empty batteries, toast landing butter-side down, Win95,...

We should unite and strike them down!

[1.0.7.]

i can only remember two instances of lefties in anime..
sephiroth FF7 and his entire brood in advent children are lefties
then of course.. is madarame ikkaku of bleach.. he's a leftie too

i'm a leftie, when i was a kid people used to create such a hassle about it..
i remember my mom encouraging me to use my right hand for everything except washing my ass..
and of course i inherited my left-handedness from her , and it never worked..
then again you know, as much as it is frowned upon..in this part of the world (south-east asia).. us lefties are pretty revered
a common lefty compliment is that we're smarter and more artistic than normal people.. is it true? well, can't prove it yet..but it sure makes good conversations

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by 1.0.7.

i can only remember two instances of lefties in anime..
sephiroth FF7 and his entire brood in advent children are lefties
then of course.. is madarame ikkaku of bleach.. he's a leftie too

Damn you to HELL, I wanted to point that out!

*sigh* Yes, Sephirtoh, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo were all lefties. It looks like Reno was, too; whenever he used his nightstick, it was always in his left hand. Cid might have been, but since he has a two-handed weapon, it's a little harder to tell.

R.

[Jaden]

The nasty guy in Hikaru no Go who bets 10k against Mitani is left handed, but uses his right hand to fake inexpirience/drunkness.

[JokerD]

Zoro from One piece is left handed, usually he uses 3 swords but when he uses only 1, he uses his left hand to hold it.

My sis is left handed, and I often sit on her left side during dinners, no problems so far, must have gotten used to it. Her elbow 'spars' with my dad's if his on her left side though. Also my grandmother is also left handed and she dots on my sis a lot.

On culture, Malays (Malaysia and Indoesia) use their right hand for almost everything and their left for wiping their a$$ after taking a shit. Since they sometimes eat with their hands... well, I hope you can understand why using the left hand is generally frowned upon, it's not that bad now I think.

[Nightbat®]

Originally Posted by JokerD

On culture, Malays (Malaysia and Indoesia) use their right hand for almost everything and their left for wiping their a$$ after taking a shit. Since they sometimes eat with their hands... well, I hope you can understand why using the left hand is generally frowned upon, it's not that bad now I think.

hmm not washing your hands after a sanitary stop is a reason to frown upon
left-handed people? o-...kay....

[Ayu-ayu]

Don't forget the title character of Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha is in fact left-handed--something never expressly pointed out, yet consistently drawn throughout both series.

[mippa]

Okay, I am a leftie, and I live in Japan and I write both Japanese and Chinese, and it is now time to clarify some things:

left-handed (or "south paw") people are not persecuted for these archaic reasons you are all listing. Japanese are still superstitious, yes, but the main reason left-handedness is discouraged in these countries is because it is near impossible to write with your left hand! The stroke order requires you to pull from left to right, and with a brush or pen, in order to get the right thickness and ticks of the strokes, you have to pull left to right, instead of pushing left to right--and when doing calligraphy, I really had to force myself to use my right hand.

So really it has more to do with something really practical--writing the Japanese and Chinese languages. Not these silly "evil" and "bad luck" things you are all spouting off about. ^^; Seriously guys, the Japanese and Chinese aren't that backwards anymore.

Additionally, let's remember episode one of Mushishi...the kid in that was left-handed.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Kyuven

Haruka is ambidextrous

That's horribly incorrect. The director described specifically that Haruka is left handed.

The only reason why you would call her ambidextrous is if you don't want her to be left handed.

(South paw here.)

[Sector 6 Slum]

Originally Posted by Rowan

Damn you to HELL, I wanted to point that out!

*sigh* Yes, Sephirtoh, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo were all lefties. It looks like Reno was, too; whenever he used his nightstick, it was always in his left hand. Cid might have been, but since he has a two-handed weapon, it's a little harder to tell.

R.

Did anyone notice that even though Sephiroth was a lefty in Advent Children he holds his masamune right-handedly during the battles in the game?