Knowing almost all Winglicamembers are anime fanatics, our being otakus is emphasized more by our ‘smilies’ in instant messaging (IM) conversations. Have you ever wondered where these smilies came from and how they came about? well, look no further! Here is a site I found featuring origins of smileys, with guides and other links of other types of smilies you could use on IM’s.
As for this article, I am focusing more on the anime ascii smileys. To check out more information, click here to go to the The Smiley Guide website.
I don’t know about others, but most of the stuff found below are new to me. Maybe we can use them in our IM’s soon! 
Anime has spawned one of the largest sub cultures on the net as it stands today, it has a massive fan base and although there are chat rooms for everything nowadays, anime has more than Anime is not to everyones taste but I love it! it’s fair share. Along with this massive influx in chatting, web building, emailing etc etc, the anime culture also has it’s own unique ascii emoticons used amongst it’s fans.
Unlike western ascii smileys where the emphasis is often in the mouth, anime ascii smileys have their emphasis in the eyes of the emoticon. left and right brackets frame the face and the smileys are read as they are seen, from top to bottom. Users often add arms and / or hands by using < and > either side of the emote like so <(o_O)>
| (^_^) or (^-^) | smile |
| (`_^) or (^_~) | wink |
| (>_<) | in pain |
| (<_>) | sad |
| (^o^) | singing |
| (^o^)/ | very excited (rasing hands) |
| (-_-) or (~_~) or (=_=) | annoyance, sleeping |
| (-.-)zzZ | sleeping |
| (¬_¬) | eyeing something or someone, rolling one’s eyes |
| (<_<) or (>_>) or (c_c) | skepticism, looking around suspiciously |
| (;_;) or (T_T) | crying |
| (@_@) | dazed |
| (o_O) | confused, surprise, disbelief |
| (O_O) | shocked |
| (0_<) | flinch, nervous wink |
| (._.) | intimidated, sad, ashamed |
| ($_$) | chaching! |
| (x_x) or (+_+) | dead, knocked out or giving up |
| (n_n) | pleased |
| (u_u) | annoyance, sarcasm, sometimes disappointment |
| (9_9) or (+_+) | rolleyes |
| (e_e) | up to mischief |
| (o_e) | twitching eye |
| (*_*) | starstruck |
| ;o; or ;O; | crying loudly |
| (I_I) | “What?”, mellow |
If you see any errors in link and content, pls. inform us asap.
