Monkey Kaomoji

Ears made of @

The @ sign curls like a round ear, so a face with one on each side, like @(・ェ・)@, reads as a monkey straight away. The small katakana ェ in the middle, or its narrow form ｪ, is the muzzle. Put a little o on each cheek, as in @(o・ｪ・o)@, and the face gets the pale round cheeks of a cartoon monkey.

The big-eared monkey

A second classic style uses ⊂ ⊃ as large ears that stick out from a double bracket, with ⊥ as the nose and mouth: ⊂((・⊥・))⊃. Change the eyes and the same monkey can grin, squint or blush. This style is wider, so it fits best in a message rather than a short name field.

Monkeying around

• Cheering: arms up on both sides, ヽ@(o・ｪ・o)@ﾉ.
• Dancing: └@(・ｪ・)@┐ throws its arms out to the beat.
• Peeking: |・ｪ・)@ hides behind a wall with one ear showing, a cute way to say “just checking in”.
• Thumbs up: @(・●・)@b for “good job”.

Almost all of these use Japanese characters that phones and computers already have, so monkeys rarely turn into boxes.

Questions