OK girls and guys, how does one define "cute?"

United States
February 28, 2007 10:14pm CST
Japan has a very cool side of its culture, and it is the concept of "kawaii," which essentially means "cute." It's in all corners of Japanese culture. Kawaii is in the music, dance, architecture, everything. "Hello Kitty" is kawaii, and so is all the anime. "Kawaii" embraces youth and tends to discount age. Music groups in Japan tend to be dominated by all-girl and all-boy groups, with a much higher percentage of all-girl groups. The interesting this is that all these all-girl groups -- such as Morning Musume and Hello! Project -- draw large, mainstream audiences, people of all ages, and not necessarily just men and not necessarily just women (and very few girls, actually). This is because "kawaii" is a universal concept and frankly I really enjoy it. I have some insights on posts available at http://www.writingup.com/blog/Radicalpatriot because it is my feeling that American culture can use more "kawaii" than gloom.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@hopefoo (1145)
• Malaysia
1 Mar 07
Domo-Kun - The cutest thing on earth. Mascot for NHK, lives on a comet, watches tv all day.
How does one define cute? Let's see.. "Ugly but adorable"? I'm a fan of anime and watch a lot of those on tv. There's this channel called Animax and they show all sorts of anime from Genzomaden Saiyuki to Ghosts in School to Pikachu. I'm not an Hello Kitty fan but I love Mashimaro from Korea and my favourite Japanese one is Domo-Kun!!! Domo-Kun is the exact definition fcr cute. Ugly to the max but so oh oh adorable! Lives on a comet, watches tv all day with his cute friends LOL and check out the teeth! RAWR! I also like Gloomydoll. They're like Domo-Kun but they're white and there's always a knife with a red spot in the shape of a heart on where the heart is supposed to be. I won a few in an arcade in Yokosuka.
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
1 Mar 07
Lol that's americans for you, all blood, violence, and darkness. Just shows our tastes I guess..I have to admit I enjoy both kawaii and dark and bloody violence. Just my duel nature I suppose..liking things which contradict eachother. I define kawaii (cute), as something or someone which is outright, undeniably adorable. So cute you could melt and just coo over this person, animal, or thing. Because it's just sooo cute. Actually I think alot of people have a weakness for cute-ness.. Cute-ness has gotta be one of nature's more creative ways to protect what isn't always 'scary' enough to protect itself I think lol.
@kathy77 (7486)
• Australia
1 Mar 07
In Australia we define "cute" as in a small baby looks cute, as they are small and beautiful looking so we say they are cute, we say it when someone talks and they way they explain something to us, also we use this term when we are talking about small animals which are very cute,. Yes it is better to use cute than gloom
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
1 Mar 07
Not only Japanese are famous for this... but also China and most asian countries. I think this derives from Asian girls looking much younger than their age when they are 18 or 20. Asian girls looks naturally cute. They are born that way. They look shy, innocent, young and pretty. This combination equals to cute. For my part... I find the chinese girls the cutest... as their face features are a lot softer than the japanese.