What is the name of the celebration cheer?

[BM309K58SMERCH]

Usually, in Shogun 2, the soldiers do it during the pre-battle speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rus9svX8J3Y
But I'm more suprised I saw exactly the same here aswell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZdMk...tailpage#t=48s

I know what does banzai mean. But I'm just wondering what is the name of the action/gesture of raising both arms into the air. And also, is there any other types of cheering, or celebration gestures? and if there are other chants (but not variations of banzai)?

[rekishiotaku]

The concept of banzai has deep roots in East Asia. Banzai comes from the Chinese 萬歲 (wànsuì) and literally means "ten thousand years" often times large numbers in classical Chinese mean something like eternity or for a long time. In China and then later in Japan it was applied to the phrase "may the emperor live/reign for ten thousand years", in Japanese 天皇陛下萬歲(万歳) "Tennou-heika Banzai." It can be thought of as the equivalent to "long live the emperor". Sometimes the title of the Chinese emperor when translated into English was "The emperor of ten thousand years." Since there's actually no verb in the phrase 天皇陛下萬歲.
Later on in China, the concept of ten-thousand was reserved for the emperor, and so one might call the empress or noblemen a lord of a hundred years, or a thousand years.

In Japan, during the Japanese Empire the emperor once again became the symbol of Japan. And as such the military was thought of as acting on his behalf, and would yell "tennou-heika banzai" or simply "banzai" as a battle cry or as a victory cheer. During the early 20th century, some ideas such as democracy or even communism, both in China and Japan were given the traditional cheer "____萬歲/wànsuì/banzai!" In China, once the Imperial system was abolished, people sometimes said "Mao ten-thousand years." And in Japan, because it became so iconic, yelling "banzai" as a cheer or battle-cry is still done, even if the person is indifferent to the emperor. So in the modern sense you can think of it in Japanese as "hooray!." To add, in North Korea, they yell "manse" for Kim Jong-sung, -ill, and now -un. Meaning may Kim Jong-un live for ten thousand years.

The name of the cheer is maybe simply "banzai," since I think you could say "banzai wo suru" literally "do banzai,"
or maybe "banzai wo sakebu" in English "to yell banzai," but that isn't a real term or anything, its just a description. There is a name for yelling Banzai three times, which is something one would do for the emperor, especially at the time of enthronement, and now-a-days for your team or whatever, that is called "Banzai san shou" which would be in English "3 banzai cheers." As for the throwing up of the arms, its just to show emotion/expression, it is similar to clapping in the West, in ancient Japan clapping was a religious thing and still today you may see Japanese clap once before eating, or clapping twice when praying at a Shinto shrine. And yes there are other types of cheers, Japan today has a sort of cheer-leading that is unlike that of the West.

[furinkazan]

I really found the explanation of Rekishiotaku usefull (+rep)

Now here an excerpt of Stephen Turnbull's Samurai Warlords;The book of the Daimyô(p51):
[...]When the army was ready to move off, an attendant would tie the commander's sword round his waist, then his quiver of arrows(rarely encountered in the Sengoku Period) after which the daimyô would stand up, take his signalling fan and receive the shouts of his assembled troops. There were various ways of doing this, but there are two shouts in common - the first being 'Ei!' ('Glory!'), to which there is given the response 'Ô!' ('Yes'!). In the Shingen-kô-matsuri, the man playing the part of Shingen's gun-bugyô, Yamamoto Kansuke, orders the other generals to raise their swords, and calls, 'Ei! Ei! Ô!', to which the generals reply 'Ei! Ei! Ô!'. In the Uesugi version, it is 'Kenshin' himself who calls 'Ei! Ei!', and his generals reply 'Ô! Ô!' repeated twice.This shout was also given at the end of a successful battle.[...]

[BM309K58SMERCH]

Thank you both very much.

Japan today has a sort of cheer-leading that is unlike that of the West.

That is Ōendan, right? But it isn't used anywhere near warfare. But what about in comedy anime or manga, is it used as a type of cheering for fights or brawls?