kaomoji 顔文字

Kaomoji are Japanese emoticons that make your regular emoticons look like cave drawings. Using all available characters and punctuation, they can really turn your text messages into expressive masterpieces.

Is your neck hurting? No worries! While Western emoticons tilt their heads :-) kaomoji face you head-on (^_^)

Main reasons to use:

• Add some spice, flair, or pizzazz
• Capture complex feelings like (╥﹏╥) or (¬_¬")
• Confuse your elders who think you’re sending secret codes

Key features:

• Read upright: No need to tilt your head :)
• Windows to the soul: The eyes are the main conveyors of emotion ヽ༼ ʘ̚ل͜ʘ̚༼◕_◕༽◉_◔ ༽ﾉ
• Infinite flexibility: Combine characters to match your exact mood ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Try these out!

• Happy: (^_^) (´▽`)
• Sad: (T_T) (ಥ﹏ಥ)
• Angry: (╬ಠ益ಠ) (ಠ_ಠ)
• Love: (♥‿♥) (´ε｀ )
• Surprised: (°ロ°) !
• Shrug: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

For the pros:

• Table flipping: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
• Unflipping: ┬──┬◡ﾉ(° -°ﾉ)
• Dancing: (〜￣▽￣)〜 ♪┏(・o･)┛♪
• Ehm, well: ( ＾▽＾)っ✂╰⋃╯

Origin story:

Kaomoji combines 顔 kao (face) and 文字 moji (character). They emerged during the early days of the internet in Japan, when lack of face-to-face communication led to misunderstandings.

While Western emoticons went sideways with :), Japanese users decided that wasn’t nearly expressive enough.

In Japanese culture, eyes are considered windows to the soul, which explains why kaomoji put so much emphasis on them. Western emoticons might be all about the :) and :( but kaomoji users know the real emotion is in the (^_^) and (T_T).

(⊙﹏⊙✿)