Those weird little hand motions Trunks did...

[DonAce]

This has been bugging me for years, but why did Trunks do those weird hand motion things before firing that attack? Is he from Naruto? Does he know that you don't need those to do ki attacks in Dragon Ball? CAN SOMEONE HELP ME UNDERSTAND?! WHY DID HE ONLY DO IT ONCE?!

[VegettoEX]

The thing is, the Kamehameha gives us this weird impression that special attacks are used all the time. Most of them, though? Hardly ever! We arguably only get the Final Flash and Big Bang Attack once in the manga. The Souki-Dan is only used once in the manga. Even Cell's Makankosappo is anime-only. Taiyo-Ken gets ripped off a few times, and the Kienzan gets adapted.

So yeah, it's not SUPER weird that whatever Trunks' attack was there (later named "Burning Attack" in the video games) was only used once.

As for the hand motions... well...

I dunno, but it looked super cool even just as one single image on the page!



In general, though, I guess you could just attribute it to martial arts (someone with that background should chime in here) where you're basically gathering your strength and composure.

[DonAce]

Well, I won't deny that it looked super cool. I also admit that it makes me crack a smile at the cheese factor of it all, just ripping out everything to give Trunks the coolest intro possible. The strange thing is, in the anime, Freeza comments that the attack is just some low level blast. Yeah it's a small little addition of a line that the anime adds, but it just makes me chuckle to think that Trunks almost seems to know the camera is on him and wants to show off. I guess, it's best to enjoy Dragon Ball as a series of moments, rather than worrying about further implications to the larger world.

[Cetra]

You know the original Maximum Power Kame Hame Ha also had hand breakdance before even charging it?

[Danfun64]

It wasn't the maximum kamehameha, but it was a Kamehameha that Jackie Chun Muten Roshi did during one of the tournaments (forgot whether its 21st or 22nd), and the dance was mainly done as a way to differentiate between his real self and his fake self. It might have even been filler, but even if it wasn't the dance wasn't necessary...

[LuckyCat]

My guess, for the hand motions, is that it adds to the mystique of the character. Instead of doing a familiar attack, he does this really foreign and flashy attack. It also builds up the idea that Trunks didn't get to learn from the main cast except Gohan, and probably had to create some unique moves on his own.

[DonAce]

You know the original Maximum Power Kame Hame Ha also had hand breakdance before even charging it?

Yeah, Kame Sen'nin broke it out when he put out the fire on Mt. Fry Pan, and other early Dragon Ball Kame Hame Ha's had this, but at least it went away and I cut it some slack for not having a precedent of ki attacks being able to be performed without it. It's not a huge deal, just strange that we see crazy elaborate hand gestures show up for a nameless attack that doesn't even show up ever again, but like VegettoEX said, lots of special attacks only show up once.

[Cetra]

It is true, I could not find it. Only a hand breakdance without Kame Hame Ha, for some weird reason because I am totally sure I have seen it somewhere. I do not know why you think thought it was for differentiating as that was never said.

[Lord Beerus]

Rule Of Cool.

Toriyama wanted to make the mysterious youthful Super Saiyan even more mysterious, and on top of that "badass", so he had Future Trunks do flashy hand movement before his signature attack to provide more distinction for the character while making the moment he effortlessly destroys Freeza all the more memorable.

[Bansho64]

I had a very weird interpretation when I first saw that. I figured that he was gathering energy from different directions to put in one blast Now, I honestly don't know what he was doing.

[DonAce]

Rule Of Cool.

Toriyama wanted to make the mysterious youthful Super Saiyan even more mysterious, and on top of that "badass", so he had Future Trunks do flashy hand movement before his signature attack to provide more distinction for the character while making the moment he effortlessly destroys Freeza all the more memorable.

Yeah, I always figured it was just a cool thing for him to do, it was always just fun to me to wonder why Trunks would do it in universe

[Nejishiki]

I almost replied that he was doing it to distract Freeza before I recalled it was Trunks himself gaining his attention. It looks like Trunks was being impressive for nobody but himself. Maybe he just enjoyed outclassing a foe for once and could afford to perform some of his talents, such as when he had been slashing the other soldiers in equally impressive fashion.

[Captain Strawberry]

Well if he didn't make it flashy than it wouldn't look like some sort of special attacks. Like, the way the anime does it is they make the Kamehameha sort of flashy.

Maybe it's a requirement for his attack? Maybe it channels and charges his energy?? It just makes his attack... well look like an attack.

[Tyro]

When asked the same thing in a Reddit thread a year ago, Derek Padula said that they are Buddhist hand signs.

The short answer is "mudra." - Buddhist hand signs. They're a big part of the martial arts, and can be seen when a Buddha places his hands above his shoulders, back down to the waist, and once again over the shoulders. Then Trunks ends it with a final mudra with his fingers connected together and the palms open. Though we don't see that in this gif.
Tenshinhan does mudra before his techniques in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai as well. His in particular are linked to Buddhist iconography. In particular the Sun Tathagata, which parallels his technique's association with light.
Trunks' hand movements are so fast that it's hard to tell what they are, and per Toriyama's usual, he doesn't explain it.

[DonAce]

Oh, sweet! I bought the first volume in his Dragon Ball culture series and need to buy the rest. Thank you so much!

[Kunzait_83]

When asked the same thing in a Reddit thread a year ago, Derek Padula said that they are Buddhist hand signs.

The short answer is "mudra." - Buddhist hand signs. They're a big part of the martial arts, and can be seen when a Buddha places his hands above his shoulders, back down to the waist, and once again over the shoulders. Then Trunks ends it with a final mudra with his fingers connected together and the palms open. Though we don't see that in this gif.
Tenshinhan does mudra before his techniques in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai as well. His in particular are linked to Buddhist iconography. In particular the Sun Tathagata, which parallels his technique's association with light.
Trunks' hand movements are so fast that it's hard to tell what they are, and per Toriyama's usual, he doesn't explain it.

Beat me to it. Nice to know however that SOMEONE else out there other than me (someone significantly smarter than me no less: I wouldn't have known exactly which specific mudra Tenshinhan was doing) is also covering this shit.

Though I will add that, over time, stuff like this...

Rule Of Cool.

Toriyama wanted to make the mysterious youthful Super Saiyan even more mysterious, and on top of that "badass", so he had Future Trunks do flashy hand movement before his signature attack to provide more distinction for the character while making the moment he effortlessly destroys Freeza all the more memorable.

...gets pretty frustrating after awhile. Frustrating enough that one might find themselves eventually writing a three page, multimedia-filled dissertation on the entire history of one of the oldest genres of fantasy fiction in existence to try and counter-balance it. *cough*

Not that there aren't any number of random bits of non-sequitur wackiness ever present in this series (its a Toriyama joint after all: things like dinosaurs and Hoi Poi Capsules are quite clearly hardly anything vaguely resembling any kind of staple in other martial arts myths and wuxia legends), but the mythical martial arts/wuxia aspect is so painfully far, FAR the hell from one of them. Its the single richest and most defining aspect of the whole series, the edge that sets it apart from your usual Shonen schlock, and it remains an inexcusably continuous blind spot in fandom; one that ought to be where a VAST degree more focus and discussion should be centered around as opposed to inanity like what meaningless, made up number can be assigned to X character in X fight.

Bleh, I digress. Anyways, being of Buddhist origin, mudras are one of those areas where both Chinese and Japanese martial arts myth and a totally different culture (in this case Hinduism) overlap and converge by sheer association with the mutual religious lore. In Hinduism mudras are used primarily for religious rituals, prayers, and chants, as well as in conjunction with breathing and meditative exercises within Yoga. The central idea of mudras in Yoga exercises shares many direct similarities with its Chinese and Japanese martial arts applications: as a means of channeling and harnessing and directing the body's flow of Ki/Qi/Chi (in Hindu lore called Prana). In Yoga/Hinduism, its mostly for purely meditative/religious purposes and attaining spiritual nirvana: in Chinese and Japanse martial arts myth, its obviously geared towards combat.

I went into a ton of detail on the importance of deep, controlled breathing exercises and Meridians in the harassing, control, and usage/application of supernatural Ki techniques in Wuxia fiction and myth (and which also have a decidedly less mystical basis in real world martial arts) over in the first page of the giant Wuxia thread: Mudra hand gestures are another technique that go directly hand in hand with those principals as a means of helping to focus and direct the flow of Ki throughout one's Meridian pathways for use in a wide array of attacks from mystical Ki bolts (like Trunks' Burning Attack) or even in basic, albeit powerful, hand strikes. Many basic martial arts hand attacks have their original basis in Mudra gestures, such as open knifehands, finger pokes, and palm strikes, and Wuxia stories very often depict fighters' utilizing Mudra gestures to gather and release both offensive and defensive Ki techniques with routine regularity.

[Saiga]

Yeah that's great and all, but this is something Trunks only does once and never needs to do for his other techniques. I can see how that would be the basis for it, but for a one-off move that isn't even named in the story, it's just not very important.

Special techniques just doesn't seem to be as important to Toriyama as they are to the fanbase. Many characters only use their so called "signature moves" once, and some characters don't have a unique technique at all.

[RandomGuy96]

Trunks is just being a showy asshole, hence why he never does this in an actually serious battle. He really had no reason at all to do it, he could have thrown a generic blast (assuming that the "Burning Attack" was actually any more powerful than a generic blast in the first place) and it would have had the exact same effect.

Yeah that's great and all, but this is something Trunks only does once and never needs to do for his other techniques. I can see how that would be the basis for it, but for a one-off move that isn't even named in the story, it's just not very important.

Special techniques just doesn't seem to be as important to Toriyama as they are to the fanbase. Many characters only use their so called "signature moves" once, and some characters don't have a unique technique at all.

I think the perception comes from the anime, where characters spam attacks that they only used once in the manga. The biggest example is probably the Makan- Special Beam- that finger beam Piccolo used. In the manga it's used on exactly one occasion, fired by Piccolo in the battle against Radiz. In the anime he uses it against Raditz, then uses it to destroy Goku's ship,.. then uses it in training with Gohan, then uses it on Turles, uses it during training for the androids, uses it on Salza, uses it on Cell, uses it on Bojack, a clone of him uses it in Super Buu's head, he uses it on Baby-Gohan, etc. Super Buu also gets in on the action, firing it against Gohan, while Cell spams the attack almost as much as Piccolo, utilizing it against Piccolo, Gohan, Goku, and then Goku again in GT. The Cell Juniors even get to fire a bunch of them.

[TheMikado]

[TheGreatness25]

I always just looked at it as his way of building up Ki in a specific way. Hand movements certainly are useful to distinguish every move. If Gohan didn't put his hands up to his head, how would the Masenko differ from a Kamehame-Ha? I feel like the hand movements and attack names are necessary, because really if you think about it, every ki blast should be the same. Possibly different color, depending on the character's Ki, but certainly there should be no difference between a Final Flash and a Big Bang Attack; just unlock more or less ki as you do it. Plus, there's really no need to name them.

I think the hand movements, different types of Ki attacks, and all that are just "cool" things to add into the series.