I’m looking for anime characters with caret eyes. Like literally, whatever anime character style the emoticon is most closely based on ^ _ ^
For whatever reason, Google basically ignores symbols in searches and none of my workarounds have been successful. If there’s some specific terminology that would be helpful too but ultimately I’m really just trying to find characters whose eyes look like an upside down v when chuffed or squinting. Bonus points for round head.
Thats a kaomoji, but I don’t know if that will make your search any less unlikely to be fruitful.
Is a sideways caret acceptable?
I can’t find one either but know exactly what OP means. If we soften the carat:
Edit: source, I searched ‘beaming anime’
Beaming GIFs | Tenor
BTW, I don’t think there is any reason to think that kaomoji was based on an anime (or manga) style, but since that specific kaomoji was invented in 1986 (as mentioned in the wiki) you would need to look for anime characters from before then. But I’m pretty sure that you have things backwards and that using those stylings in anime is a modern convention that imitates the text characters. (Also keep in mind that a large percentage of anime is based on manga series and copies the style if that specific manga for that specific anime.)
Laughing anime character gave me this hit:
You want what’s called chibi style for the round head.
The term of art for a character with their eyes always shut (not necessarily as carets) is itome.
Check out Gin Ichimaru from Bleach at that link, he’s usually got them caret-style.
There’s a TV Trope for it, too.
For a list of specifically anime/manga characters to look up, here you go:
South Park
I think this character from Deputy Dawg sort of provides a prototype. A mole named Vincent who was always saying “What happened?” Even Mister Magoo wasn’t that blind.
BTW, this should not be confused with an anime character with a carrot butt:
