Faded Twilight
Guide to Anime Emoticons
What exactly do those anime-style emoticons mean? Well, here's a guide that hopefully clears some of that up.
I'll continue to revise this as more emotes show up in usage. A note, though. Each one of these can be augmented with the use of sweatdrops, which convey some emphasis on the particular emote. Such as...^_^;; adds sheepishness to the regular smile emoticon. This is totally contextual. The double-parenthesis sweatdrop (such as ^^()) is pretty much the highest extent. Also, you can remove the period or underscore in many of these emotes, and the same meaning will be conveyed. It just adds additional emphasis to the emotion. A dash can be substituted for the underscore, also.
| Emoticon | Meaning |
| ^_^ | Smile |
| ^.^ | Smile, sheepish |
| =^.^= | Kitty smile |
| >^.^< | Another Kitty-style Smile |
| ^^ | Sheepish, smile (since it's quick to type) |
| -_- | Sad, annoyed |
| -.- | Tired, sad, annoyed |
| -.-.zZ | Asleep |
| c_c c.c | "Um...", sarcasm |
| o.o | Starey-eyed, generic emotion |
| o_o | Slightly surprised, starey-eyed |
| O_O O.O | Surprise, shock |
| o.O o_O O_o O.o | Surprise, confuddled (also called a "facefault") |
| c.C c_C | Used while saying something inappropriate. |
| >.o >_o >_O >.O | Ew! (This can also be done using o.< and variants) |
| >_< >.< | UGH! |
| x.x x.X X.X x_x x_X X_X | Knocked out, feel like I'm gonna die |
| ~.~ ~_~ | Stressed, sleepy, feeling anxiety |
| u.u u_u | Annoyed, exasperated |
| 9.9 e.e 9_9 e_e | Rolling eyes, feigning innocence |
| 6.6 6_6 ._. | Looking downward |
| o.- o_- o.~ o_~ O_~ O.~ O_- O.- | Suspicious |
| @.x @_x @.X @_X | Flummoxed, pretty much dead, exasperated. |
| n.n n_n | Happy |
| n.- n_- | Happy wink |
| ^_- ^.- ^.~ ^_~ | Wink, Sly wink |
| =_= =.= | Extreme anger |
| z.z z_z | Sleepy |
| @.@ @_@ | WAHAHAHAA! Insane. Nuts. |
| *.* *_* | Starry eyed. Pretty. |
| >.> <.< >_> <_< | Furtive glance. Often used in pairs. |
| v.v v_v | *mutter* |
| ;.; ;_; | Crying |
| T_T T.T | Extreme crying |
| -oo | Val's Emote. We don't know what it means, either. |
| :3 | Kitty face variant |
| X3 | Variant kitty face with eyes squinched shut - means ecstatic. |
| XD | Ecstatic |