Japanese Kaomoji - How to see them properly?

[Haruto Uzumaki]

Here's a funny one for a change!
How am I supposed to correctly look at Japanese text emoticons, aka 顔文字? It took me long enough to understand the english stuff like ":3" and "<3" (I used to think this was a kiss for a long time ). I still don't even get what I'm supposed to see when people say "uwu" and "OwO", but for now, Japanese 顔文字 is the most important! So for example:

(・∀・)ｲｲﾈ!! - what am I supposed to be seeing here, the face part? Very confusing emotion...

( *´艸｀) - I understand the emotion of this one, but it's still unclear to me exactly what I'm supposed to be seeing...

('ω') - I've actually always been confused, even with the western :3 version, on what the curvy part is actually supposed to be... All I know is it's cute

(*´ω｀) - also the tilted eyes in general, I can't really understand what that means specifically either

(´ω｀) - looks more like a wink here maybe, but I'm probably way off... Actually it looks different just putting it in this text box so I don't know anymore

( ..)φメモメモ - I just found this while looking for other ones I'm confused about; is he searching for a memo? No idea...

(;´Д｀) I can tell it's crying, but the mouth is so funny to me that I literally can't determine if this is strictly a comedic cry or something to send when you're truly sad about something

(V)o￥o(V) - I wouldn't even begin to understand what this is...

(^^♪ - what's the music note for? I know it's a happy face, but that's about it.

(´ﾟдﾟ｀) - broken on here, but even in Windows I couldn't see a "face" in it

(∩´∀｀)∩ - high five?

(o|o) - ????

(p_-) - I think I actually recognize the face from an anime scene, but I don't quite understand what it means to make this symbol on your face.

Alright, that's all I have to ask about for myself, tell me about any others as well if you'd like guys thanks

 

[mdchachi]

I never learned all of those myself and I don't plan to start now!

 

[Majestic]

(・∀・)ｲｲﾈ!! Just a smiley face next to いいね. No special/deep meaning other than that.

( *´艸｀) Holding hands up to face while giggling or while embarrassed. Since the asterisk is used, I'd say it suggests embarrassment - the asterisk expressing a blush on the face.

('ω') Just a smiley face with a nose that looks like a dog's or pig's nose (cute).

(*´ω｀) Smiley or embarrassed face with nose that resembles dog's or pig's nose.

(´ω｀) Smiley faceI with nose....etc.

( ..)φメモメモ Writing a memo. The parenthesis and dots are a face, and the squiggly thing is someone holding a pen.

(;´Д｀) I think it will depend on the context. Not a single answer for every person using this.

(V)o￥o(V) Character from Ultraman series, Alien Baltan (バルタン星人)

(^^♪ Just a happy face, with the image being someone so happy they are humming, singing, whistling, etc.

(´ﾟдﾟ｀) The cyrillic character in the middle is an open mouth. Expression of suprise.

(∩´∀｀)∩ High five, I guess? Or joy, as in "raising the roof".

(o|o) Never seen it. A site says it's supposed to be "scarface". Can't imagine it would come up too often in conversation.

(p_-) Dude with a monocle looking skeptically at something.

Made use of the sites below

Trending Emotes Meanings and Examples - FastEmote

www.fastemote.com

Kaomoji: Japanese Emoticons

Kawaii collection of Japanese emoticons (kaomoji).

kaomoji.ru

 

[mdchachi]

(・∀・)ｲｲﾈ!! Just a smiley face next to いいね. No special/deep meaning other than that.

Except there are no smiles in the image. A beak maybe.

( *´艸｀) Holding hands up to face while giggling or while embarrassed. Since the asterisk is used, I'd say it suggests embarrassment - the asterisk expressing a blush on the face.

Then why are they showing the middle finger with both hands?

('ω') Just a smiley face with a nose that looks like a dog's or pig's nose (cute).

Or testicles.

(*´ω｀) Smiley or embarrassed face with nose that resembles dog's or pig's nose.

Could be a pig with an asterisk on its face.

(´ω｀) Smiley faceI with nose....etc.

If that's the nose there is no smiley to go with it.

( ..)φメモメモ Writing a memo. The parenthesis and dots are a face, and the squiggly thing is someone holding a pen.

Looks like some random thing that AI came up with expecting us to believe this explanation.

(;´Д｀) I think it will depend on the context. Not a single answer for every person using this.

This one clearly means punch drunk.

(V)o￥o(V) Character from Ultraman series, Alien Baltan (バルタン星人)

I can actually see this one.

(^^♪ Just a happy face, with the image being someone so happy they are humming, singing, whistling, etc.

(´ﾟдﾟ｀) The cyrillic character in the middle is an open mouth. Expression of suprise.

And other parts make clear that it's an expression of surprise of a disfigured person.

(∩´∀｀)∩ High five, I guess? Or joy, as in "raising the roof".

This means "I scored a point in croquet". The circles are the wickets that the ball passes through, the inverted A is the mallet that hits the ball, and the apostrophes are the ears of the player who is happy about their achievement. The emoticon can be used to celebrate a victory or a good performance in croquet or any other sport.

(o|o) Never seen it. A site says it's supposed to be "scarface". Can't imagine it would come up too often in conversation.

This is clearly a kaomoji version of

(p_-) Dude with a monocle looking skeptically at something.

this is a face with one eye closed and one eye open with a pirate patch, expressing a sense of adventure, mischief, or piracy. For example:

• (p_-) Arrr, matey, I've found the treasure!
• (p_-) Shiver me timbers, that was a close one.
• (p_-) Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

 

[thomas]

Emoji - Japanese emoticons

Emoticons (顔文字 (かおもじ, "Kaomoji" or "Emoji" are facial expressions pictorially represented by punctuation and letters to express the mood the writer is currently in. The term "emoticon" blends the words emotion and icon. Emoticons are frequently...

jref.com

(^_−)☆

 

[Majestic]

I actually thought emoji were past their "use-by" date.
Most of my casual communication is done with LINE, and everyone on LINE just uses stamps.

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

(・∀・)ｲｲﾈ!! Just a smiley face next to いいね. No special/deep meaning other than that.

It's hard to see a smile in this one

( *´艸｀) Holding hands up to face while giggling or while embarrassed. Since the asterisk is used, I'd say it suggests embarrassment - the asterisk expressing a blush on the face.

dang, I got it completely wrong... I thought it was like nailbiting or some kind of "cover your mouth in suspense" thing but could never really get what I was supposed to be seeing, that makes sense!

('ω') Just a smiley face with a nose that looks like a dog's or pig's nose (cute).

makes sense, i can see that then

(V)o￥o(V) Character from Ultraman series, Alien Baltan (バルタン星人)

I would've never guessed

(´ﾟдﾟ｀) The cyrillic character in the middle is an open mouth. Expression of suprise.

For some reason, now it shows up normal on the post and your reply to it, but when I reply to it, you can see it's glitched out, and it was even more confusingly disformed when I entered it into the post textbox

(o|o) Never seen it. A site says it's supposed to be "scarface". Can't imagine it would come up too often in conversation.

As in the movie? Strange

Thanks for the links as well! I'll use them to study some other ones I haven't seen yet, maybe I can try to use some of them for fun (although I don't know for sure how to pull up more specific 顔文字 with IME)

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

I actually thought emoji were past their "use-by" date.
Most of my casual communication is done with LINE, and everyone on LINE just uses stamps.

In the anime I've watched, I see this usage of stamps as well, but unfortunately for complex reasons like not having a phone number, I can't really make use of my LINE account. I often participate in communities on Discord instead, and 顔文字 are often used there still some people even still follow this apparently old japanese internet rule of only having a certain character limit per line before having to add a line break. I don't know how true that is, about it being a rule, because my old schizophrenic Japanese friend was the one who told me (and he's given me incorrect info quite a few times when we were friends...)