In Japan, there are so many ways to express your love for a character, like eating festive character cakes or plastering them all over an “ita-bag” (extremely painful on the wallet!) However, a recent trend has given birth to a whole new expression of otaku love – recreating your favorite character solely through Twitter emojis!
The hashtag “sutekka de oshi wo tsukureru senshuken” (loosely translating to “can you make your favorite out of emoji championship”) has garnered countless Tweets of well-known characters, with fans from overseas also joining in the fun. Many are surprisingly accurate, so if you’re not convinced yet that emojis are enough, just see for yourself!
To begin with, this hardworking Link fan didn’t give up even after hitting the emoji limit. By repeating the process of publishing the unfinished picture, saving it then then adding more emoji, they managed quite an intricate portrayal!
Carrying on the Nintendo legacy, iconic Pokémon characters Ash and Pikachu are instantly recognizable even in emoji form!
This adorable Mimikyu might even be mistaken for a digital drawing.
Everyone’s favorite sensei, reporting for duty! Kakashi’s even holding his precious, er, educational materials.
Despite Hinata’s unique hairstyle, this Haikyu!! fan somehow managed to make it work… with croissants!
Have fun dissecting this magnificent My Hero Academia – what’s that in Deku’s hair?!
Now, it’s time to duel (with emojis)!
Hold up, Kaiba’s not looking happy about this latest battle with Yugi!
Kagura seems to be lacking a little motivation, munching on some colorful dango.
Maybe we can get more motivation from an idol… but both the original and the emoji version are looking quite smug.
To top it all off, admire the effort it took into recreating Yamatonokami Yasusada’s traditional clothing. (What do you mean, he wasn’t a pirate?)
If you’re keen to see more of this magnificent collaboration between Twitter emoji and anime, simply visit the tag here! Which character would you want to emoji-fy?
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.