[　格好いいと可愛い　] ASIDE from gender, what are the differences in implications and nuances when it comes to "kakkoii" and "kawaii"? What would someone usually mean when they call a girl "kakkoii"?

Personally, I've always thought of "kakkoii" for women to be synonymous with "chic", "cool", "elegant", "impressive", "sleek", "mature confidence", "eloquent", "badass", etc.

Images that come to mind when I think of women that I'd describe as "kakkoii" are for example: women in fitted suits and black dresses, an air of nonchalance, a mysterious quality, smooth voices, someone who's got that drip, Hedy Lamar, etc.

回答

yusant

2023年4月1日

日本語

@jackierin

Your description is quite true, although I didn’t know who is Hedy Lamar, so I checked. I think she may look Kakkoii for someone who actually saw her movie.

Kakkoii women may mean many figures and characters, but they are those who each of us think ideal.

Some people will cite women who look cool in appearance
Or who made outstanding achievements
Or who lived incredible life
Or whose lifestyle is just cool
Or whose sense of value is just fit for us

An actress I think Kakkoii in classical movies is
Marlene Dietrich, especially her low voice.

評価の高い回答者

この回答は役に立ちましたか？

jackierin

2023年4月3日

英語 (アメリカ)
ベトナム語準ネイティブ

@yusant Thank you for answering! This was really helpful, I'm relieved to know that I haven't been using it wrong haha. Marlene Dietrich is very kakkoii as well! A lot of glamorous Old Hollywood figures tend to be.
Also, if you don't mind me asking more questions: is "kawaii" have a sort of, childish connotation to it? Or could it just mean "gentle" and "endearing"— not necessarily in a childish way?
This is my line of thought, so hopefully it's understandable. Saying in Japanese that a person's "sweet" (甘い) actually means that you consider the person naive.
Anyways, I wonder if "kawaii" may have an infantilizing undertone to it in certain contexts.

yusant

2023年4月3日

日本語

@jackierin

Yes,kawaii has a nuance of childishness or innocence, but I think this sense of childishness is more permissible in Japan than American culture.

You may note Japanese popular anime characters of girls are all kawaii, with big sparkling eyes, small cute mouth and surprisingly big breast (sorry I have to say this.)

So it’s surprising for me that these kinds of kawaii girls are also popular in Western cultures now.

I once posted a question and asked why so many hiNative users choose this kind of kawaii girls character as their icon.
One of them answered, they use them because they are cute, but said that if such a person exists in real life, he doesn’t want to be friends with her.
I thought this interesting.

Anyway, kawaii has a nuance of childishness, innocence, immaturity, but it’s been permitted in Japan as a kind of virtue. It’s much changed from, say, 30 years ago, though.

評価の高い回答者

この回答は役に立ちましたか？

jackierin

2023年4月4日

英語 (アメリカ)
ベトナム語準ネイティブ

I see! Also, there are many tropes, concepts, and aesthetics that are cool to us as stories, yet we wouldn't want to actually touch in real life. For example, "bad boys" are fun to watch in movies, but it would take a toll on a person's mental health to get caught up in the unideal situations that may come with getting involved with one in real life.
Please correct me on this, but I think the "soft girl" fashion and aesthetic is a good example of balance where "kawaii" doesn't look juvenile. Like these outfits that I attached!

Thanks again for indulging me! I'm asking as a reference for character design. I'm trying to create a fan comic, and one of the characters is a pro chef who loves cute aesthetics. She has like this obsession with the concept of "kawaii", and incorporates it into her work.
The most fun part about doing this fan comic is the outfits and props. When it comes to those aspects of her, I want those things to sort of reflect some of the classic elements of "kawaii", while still being wearable. Of course, there are a lot of overlapping concepts and fusions that can happen when it comes to style. So, to stay true to incorporating "kawaii": I want to keep some of its elements such as, gentle and traditionally feminine.

Youthfulness seems to be a universal virtue in any culture, but that doesn't mean that one has to sacrifice maturity. I'm also curious. Does the idea of "yamato nadeshiko" have any influence or correlation to "kawaii".