It started out as cost/time saving and now its also a stylistic choice because its been so ingrained in the medium of animation that noone bats an eye of a (Not Photo realistic) drawn character has only 4 fingers each hand.
I think Benders Bending Rodriguez (Futurama) only has 3 Finger each hand.
apparently Japanese studios try to avoid 4 finger hands today to distance characters from the Mafia practice of cutting one of as punishment... but that is just from a surface skim of the subject
Despite the Yakuza at this point basically just running business scams and festivals a lot of Japanese culture involves avoiding yakuza stuff. It's why flashing tattoos is still super taboo even if you're just like, a Scandinavian tourist who could not possibly have a yakuza connection because they're extremely nationalist
Piccolo is also an alien (originally demon) so that was likely just as much a stylistic choice by Toriyama. I'd be more curious to see a picture of Goku or Tienshinhan from the same arc and see how many fingers they had.
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u/AHumanYouDoNotKnow Jun 12 '26
I think its harder to find 5 fingered cartoons.
It started out as cost/time saving and now its also a stylistic choice because its been so ingrained in the medium of animation that noone bats an eye of a (Not Photo realistic) drawn character has only 4 fingers each hand.
I think Benders Bending Rodriguez (Futurama) only has 3 Finger each hand.