Kaoani

Kaoani (顔アニ (kao ani, face animation)) are small, animated pixel-art emoticons that often appear as bouncing or floating figures. They originated in Japan and are also known by names such as "puffs," "anime blobs," "anikaos," or "anime emoticons."

Kaoani typically take the form of simple, rounded characters with expressive faces. Common designs include animals, food items such as rice balls, colorful blobs, or stylized versions of popular cartoon and anime characters. Many kaoani are animated to perform specific actions, such as dancing, cheering, or laughing.

Their distinctive feature is a continuous looping animation, usually a bounce or hover effect, which gives the impression of floating or playful movement.

The most common file format for kaoani is the GIF, due to its widespread support for short, looping animations. Alternative formats, such as APNG, are also sometimes used for higher image quality and transparency support.

Kaoani became popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, particularly within anime and manga fan communities online. They were frequently embedded in Internet forum signatures, blogs, early social networking profiles such as MySpace, and instant messaging software.

Users employed kaoani to decorate posts, convey moods, or represent themselves visually, similar to avatars or expressive emoticons.

The creation and use of kaoani are closely tied to Japanese digital aesthetics emphasizing "cute" (kawaii) culture. Their popularity spread internationally through fan sites, web communities, and personal webpages. Kaoani are considered a related phenomenon to kaomoji, another Japanese-origin form of digital expression using text-based emoticons.

• Kaomoji
• Emoticon
• Smiley
• Kawaii

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