Mona (ASCII art)

Monā (モナー) is the most well-known Shift-JIS art character. His name comes from his favorite phrase, "omae mo nā!", which is best rendered in English as "look who's talking!". He is considered to be one of the mascots of 2ch, the largest Internet forum in the world.

Related Topics:
Shift-JIS art - 2ch - Internet forum

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Mona is distinguished by his pointed ears, and a face consisting of the universal quantifier symbol (upside-down capital "A") for a mouth, flanked by an apostrophe and grave accent for eyes. When rendered from behind, he has a small, round tail.

Related Topics:
Universal quantifier - Apostrophe - Grave accent

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Mona was invented very early on in the history of 2ch. An Internet troll constructed the Mona character with his keyboard and had him say a standard complaint about Internet forums-- "You people have too much free time". The first post following up to this simply copied and pasted the artwork and said, "Look who's talking!" This became an instant catchphrase and Mona was put to use across the forum.

Related Topics:
Internet troll - Internet forum - Catchphrase

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There is also a taller variant, known as Hattoushin Mona (literally, "eight heads high Mona"), or simply Hattoushin, frequently spelled "8toushin". He is frequently depicted in mock-homoerotic poses, or pursuing 1-san, originally with murderous but more recently lustful intent.

Related Topics:
Homoerotic - 1-san

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The ā (アー) sound in Japanese is sometimes interpreted as an "ar" or "er" sound, so some refer to this character as "Monar" or "Moner". Without an "official" reference, the accuracy of any English spelling cannot be verified.

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A variant with dots (in Shift_JIS art, the katakana middle dot) for eyes, rather than the apostrophe and backtick, has been named Morara (モララー, sometimes spelled "Moraler" or "Moralar") or Matari (マターリ, also spelled "Matterly" or "Mattarly") and is considered a separate character.　He sometimes characterized as being more sensible than the whimsical Mona, but in many cases they are interchangeable.

Related Topics:
Katakana - Middle dot

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