heh

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>>He often uses the
>>string
>>      ^_^
>>as a smiley. He tells me that non-rotated smileys are common to standard
>>among anime fans online.
>Does this indicate something about the predilections of Doug Wilson
>of our list, or is this smiley  enjoyed by non-animists as well?

There is a series of "Japanese" emoticons ("kaomoji" = "face
characters/marks") (or "smileys") which is parallel to the rotated ones
more usual in the West. Back in the day, I think there was a similar
non-rotated set in US use [alongside the rotated ones like :) or :-)], but
it fell out of use (AFAIK); now the Japanese ones are making some inroads
in the West -- of course especially among those interested in Japanese
culture (such as manga/anime).

I don't know much about manga/comics, but I like the non-rotated marks,
although I use only (^_^) = "smiling". There are a bunch of variants [e.g.,
things like the bizarre ^^)].

"Kaomoji" which I've actually encountered in use include variations on
(^_^), (;_;) = "weeping", (*^_^*) = "blushing", (^_^); = "sweating" [more
or less = "nervous", I think; there's a manga convention showing a big
'drop' by a character's head which I suppose is equivalent?], m(__)m =
"bow" [often = "sorry"/"apologetic", I think], (_o_) = "bow", (o_o) =
"wide-eyed" [I suppose = "astonished" or so]. Some claim there's a feminine
smile (^.^) -- "it's not ladylike to show a wide grin" -- but I wonder
whether this is really used much (I don't remember seeing it used, but I'm
not a regular on the Japanese women's bulletin boards, etc.). There are
many others including (`_^) = "wink", d(^_^) = "thumbs-up", v(^_^) =
"peace/victory sign", \(^_^)/ = "raised arms"/"banzai", etc., etc.

-- Doug Wilson