Know Your Gaos

In the English anime fandom, "know your gao's" or "know the faces" is a an NSFW meme template listing Japanese terms for four types of fetishized facial expressions: ahegao, gesugao, torogao and kusogao, plus an extra deemed the most important gao.

Unfortunately, the way the Japanese terms are labelled, or translated, in the often reposted meme is vague, inaccurate, and incorrect, so I made my own version of it, with literal translations and flowers, and I'm going to explain what the words are actually supposed to mean in Japanese.

• Translations
  
  • "kusogao"
• Origin

fukurettsura ふくれっ面

In Japanese, fukurettsura ふくれっ面 refers to someone's face when they puff out their cheeks.

Character: Hina-ichigo 雛苺
Anime: Rozen Maiden, ローゼンメイデン (Episode 5)

In anime, girls with their cheeks puffed out are considered cute (moe 萌え), and such images are said often to be of girls pouting, that is, they look like this when they're angry, or annoyed, or frustrated.

See "pouting" in Japanese for details.

• Meaning
• Examples
• References

"Pouting" in Japanese

There are various ways to say "to pout" in Japanese, depending on what you mean: hoppe wo fukuramaseru ほっぺを膨らませる, kuchi wo togaraseru 口を尖らせる, suneru 拗ねる.

• In English
• ほっぺを膨らませる
• 口を尖らせる
• Related Words
  
  • 拗ねる
  • プッと
  • ムッと

OAD

An OAD is an anime disc bundled in a limited edition manga volume. Specifically, it refers to an anime that never aired on TV, or anywhere else, that's included as a bonus with the purchase of a manga volume.

Source: japanesewithanime.com (CC BY-SA 4.0)

• Definition
• Acronym
• OAD vs. OVA
• References

akuma-mimi 悪魔耳

In Japanese, akuma-mimi 悪魔耳, "demon ears," or "devil ears," are the ears of fantasy characters that are pointed and curved upwards.

They're practically the same thing as "elf ears," erufu-mimi エルフ耳, except that elf ears tend to protrude outwards and can become extremely long, while demon ears protrude upwards and look short by comparison.

Character: Lum ラム
Anime: Urusei Yatsura うる星やつら (Episode 1, 町に石油の雨がふる)

• Examples

Elf Ears

In anime, elf ears are long, pointed ears, which may or may not be attached to an elf.

Elves: unnamed
Slime: Rimuru リムル
Anime: Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken, 転生したらスライムだった件 (Episode 4)

• Definition
  
  • Origin
• In Japanese
• Examples
  
  • Elf Elf Ears
    
    • Dark Elf Elf Ears
    • Half Elf Elf Ears
  • Demons Elf Ears
    
    • Demon Demon Ears
  • Other Elf Ears

tsuno 角

In anime, sometimes characters have "horns," tsuno 角, protruding out of their heads. Typically, this happens when the character is a "demon," akuma 悪魔, or part of the "demonic clan," mazoku 魔族.

Character: Jin 陣
Anime: Yū☆Yū☆Hakusho 幽☆遊☆白書 (Episode 39)

• Meaning
  
  • Kanji
• Examples

"Horn" in Japanese

There are various ways to say "horn" in Japanese, depending on what you mean.

• Animal Horn
  
  • Horned
    
    • Hornet
  • Horny
• Sound Horn
  
  • Trumpet
  • Vehicle Horn
    
    • Car Horn
    • Siren

deppa 出っ歯

In Japanese, deppa 出っ歯 means having upper teeth that protrude forward, ending up outside the mouth.

Literally, deppa 出っ歯 means "leaving teeth." A "tooth" or "teeth, ha 歯, that "leaves," deru 出る, the mouth. The ha は becomes ppa っぱ due to handakuonka 半濁音化.

Character: Ishino Arashi 石野あらし
Anime: Game Center Arashi, ゲームセンターあらし (Episode 1)

• Translation
• Examples

Lip Fang

In manga and anime, a lip fang is a cute anime fang drawn as an skin-colored indentation of the upper lip rather than as an actual tooth.

In Japanese, the term for anime fang is yaeba 八重歯, so a way to describe the lip fang would be hada-iro no yaeba 肌色の八重歯, "skin-colored yaeba."

Character: Astolfo アストルフォ
Anime: Fate/Apocrypha (Episode 16)

• Examples

yaeba 八重歯

In Japanese, yaeba 八重歯 means "overlapped teeth," that is: it's when a person grows up and their teeth become misaligned due to lack of space (overcrowding), and then one tooth gets pushed forwards or upwards, ending up in front of another tooth, rather than staying in line side by side.

Often, yaeba means having fang-like, protruding canine teeth, due to it often being the canine teeth that end up protruding when a person's teeth become misaligned. In Japan, this sort of yaeba is considered cute, and there are countless characters with yaeba in anime and manga.

Source: japanesewithanime.com (CC BY-SA 4.0)

• Meaning
  
  • Translation
  • Kanji
  • Culture
    
    • 付け八重歯
  • In Anime
• Etymology
• References

kiba 牙

In Japanese, kiba 牙 means "fang" or "tusk," and a fang is a long sharp tooth, typically the canine teeth. In real life, humans don't have fangs—since their canine teeth are relatively short—but various carnivorous animals do, including even domestic cats.

Character: Amanojaku 天の邪鬼
Anime: Ghost Stories, Gakkou no Kaidan 学校の怪談 (Episode 1)

• A cat with a gold eye and a blue eye, showing four fangs.

In manga and anime, some human and human-like characters do have fangs.

• Meaning
• Examples

Anime Fang

In manga and anime, some characters have a single triangular fang-like tooth normally visibly drawn sticking out of their mouths. This "anime fang" is part of the character's design, and is considered to be cute by some people.

Character: Sakura Hibiki 紗倉ひびき
Anime: Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? ダンベル何キロ持てる？ (Episode 1)

• Usage
• In Japanese
• Rendering
• Examples
  
  • Skin-Colored
  • Mouth Closed
  • Double
  • Feral
  • Demonic
  • Monstrous
• References

Jagged Teeth

In manga and anime, sometimes characters have "jagged teeth," giza-ba ギザ歯, also called "shark teeth," same-ba サメ歯, which are teeth drawn like two rows of sharp triangles.

Typically, characters that have triangular teeth may appear comically devious and monstrous. Some of them are indeed monsters, though most are not. Triangular teeth are also used symbolically when a character is angry.

A character with a single triangular tooth normally sticking out is said to have an "anime fang" instead.

Character: Valac Clara ウァラク・クララ
Anime: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 魔入りました！入間くん (Episode 3)

• In Japanese
• Examples
  
  • Permanent
  • Angry Symbol
• References

Triangle Eyes

In manga and anime, sometimes when a character is angry, scowling, they're drawn with semi-circle eyes, or "triangle eyes," sankaku-me 三角目, typically as completely white eyes, regardless of what their original shape was.

Character: Kurahashi Riko 倉橋莉子
Anime: Love Lab, Ren'ai Rabo 恋愛ラボ (Episode 1)

• Examples
• References