Watching anime means opening yourself up to cultural aspects of Japan that are unfamiliar to most of us, such as the tendency of characters to get nosebleeds when they think of ecchi things, or the “jelly doughnuts” from Pokemon that are actually onigiri rice balls. Another of these is the odd Japanese facial gesture known as あかんべえ akanbeh, which is when a person pulls their lower eyelid down, exposing the red part under the eye, usually while sticking their tongue out and saying beh! It’s a popular Japanese insult usually done by children, which dates back to the Edo Period, where it became part of a famous rakugo comedy routine. Just as this cute Japanese gesture is new to anime fans the first time we see it, the popular American gesture of raising the middle finger must have been strange and mysterious to the Japanese when it first entered their awareness in the late 80s. I remember anime and manga of the period being filled with characters displaying the gesture randomly, despite the likelihood that very few knew what it meant, or how dangerous it could possibly be if used in the wrong context.
