We get signals anywhere… Strange, strange signals…
Apparently, the emphasis of live hair is being used again this Winter season. Yup! It’s that piece of sentient hair that characters can move according to their will. It’s not that you need to be stupid to understand, but hey, that’s the aho in AHOGE. Now, let the memes rain!
Ahoge literally means stupid hair. Whoever thought of describing stupidity on something as harmless as hair must be nuts. But IT’S JAPAN, what would you expect? Surprisingly, this “trait” has been whole-heartedly accepted by fans, as this depicts some kind of cuteness to a character.
Ahoge are mostly seen being sported by females, and are often seen in action during comedy scenes. They come in all lengths, numbers, shapes, and sizes. Although it’s a case of a 50-50 ratio, some ahoge are “sentient”. It’s either the piece of follicle is moving by itself like it’s got a mind of its own, or it’s being controlled by the person who owns said ahoge. They move, they twitch, and even contort to different sizes and shapes according to mood or powers (if applicable).
See the unique idea? A character is made famous by this single strand of hair, and the same strand is immortalized by carrying the character’s personality. They won’t even need to open their mouths to tell that they are going to ask a question. All they need to do is sport a question mark using their ahoge. Radio frequency and signal reception? No problem! Straighten your ahoge, adjust to left or right to check for strength, done! Want to point to a certain direction? Easy as cake! Knowing that all other ideas for making a person unique seem cliche, this dual dependence seems to do the trick.
Now, the ahoge craze doesn’t need to be prominent for it to be able to be recognized. Some are insinuated by the fans themselves. When they feel like it, they add it to a character, make it come alive or just make it stick out, PRESTO, done deal. Soon, you’ll see other artists doing the same, and if the ahoge got lucky enough, it gets used on the real deal.
Categorizing the matter further, here are three types of ahoge:
- SINGLE STRAND. This is the standard and superior type of ahoge: A single piece of hair sticking out. Not really a trademark, but if given importance grants a character a whole new personality. It may have versatile characteristics, and can also be “sentient”. These kinds of “traits” are mostly used on this type.
- TWIN ANTENNA. This is the second and inferior type of ahoge. It’s not as famous as the single strand type, but some famous characters are also known by this. There were attempts of making these inherit character personality or sentience, but most don’t get pulled off easily. This type is only famous for one “function”, which goes by its namesake: acting like an antenna and recieving signals of some sort.
- POLY-ANTENNA. A very rare type of ahoge. Follicle spam causes characters to be unique, but the strands seem to be useless since they don’t even do anything.
Can you guess the following ahoge characters? If you can’t figure out, you can just click on ‘em and see who’s who:
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