O Kawaii Koto

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Part of a series on Kaguya-Sama: Love is War. [View Related Entries]

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About

"O Kawaii Koto" is a catchphrase meaning "How Cute" which is associated with the main character of Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War! manga and anime series Kaguya Shinomiya. Conveying emotions of patronization and disdain towards a weaker person, the catchphrase gained popularity in the anime community both independently and in the form of image macros.

Origin

On May 15th, 2015, the first issue of manga series Kaguya-sama: Love is War was published in Miracle Jump magazine.^[1] In one scene, character Miyuki Shirogane is imagining a scenario in which his love interest Kaguya Shinomiya acts condescendingly, rubbing her chin and saying "O kawaii koto…" (jap. "how cute"), if he reveals that he is not romantically indifferent towards her (panels shown below). In many scenarios analyzed by Miyuke throughout the manga series, he imagines Kaguya reacting in that fashion.

IN MATTERS OF LOVE, THERE IS AN ABSOLUTE RULE THAT "THE ONE WHO FALLS IN LOVE LOSES!" WHAT SHOULD I DO.? IS MY ONLY OPTION TO TRY AND TRICK HER TO GET OUT OF IT.? REFUSE TO ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE THE ONE TO CONFESS! BOTH PARTIES, WITH THEIR INCREDIBLE PRIDE, IN OTHER WORDS, "THE ONE WHO CONFESSES LOSES!" FOR EXAMPLE OH? DO. DO YOU WANT TO GO SELL THE TICKETS WITH ME? YOU SEEM RATHER FLUSTERED. HOW CUTE.

In the anime adaptation of the series, the scene appears in the first episode I Want to Make You Invite Me to a Movie of season one of the series that premiered on January 12th, 2019.^[2] On February 25th, 2019, YouTube user AlphaWolfPaw uploaded^[3] the scene. The video accumulated over 145,500 views on YouTube in two years (shown below).

Spread

While the exact first use of the phrase or the corresponding image of Kaguya rubbing her chin in memes is unconfirmed, some of the earliest viral examples were posted by Redditors^[4]^[5] an_anonymous_corsair and Last_Aeon on January 27th, 2019 (shown below, left and right). The posts received over 1,200 upvotes and 4,900 upvotes in /r/Animemes in six months, respectively.

"You can't just watch an anime scene without subs and expect to understand it" Me:

Starting in late January 2020, the catchphrase gained notable popularity in memes, particularly in /r/animemes subreddit and in Facebook groups dedicated to anime memes. In addition to independent use of the catchphrase, the meme also spread in the form of image macros and still images of Kaguya rubbing her chin. The pose assumed by Kaguya during the scenes also inspired fan art.