2channel's AA Cats
∧＿∧ ／￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
（ ´∀｀） ＜ "Depict your enemy as a soyjak." - Sun Tsu
（ ） ＼＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿
｜ ｜ |
（_＿）＿)
Long ago before there was 4chan, there was a website called 2channel. It was an anonomyous Japanese textboard that became one of the biggest internet communities in Japan. Because the textboard did not support image embedding, users created their own images out of text. This type of art is often called "ASCII Art" or "AA", but is more accurately referred to as "Shift_JIS art" or "SJIS art" due to using the Shift JIS character set (as well as a non fixed-width font).
Many of the AA images evolved over time to become popular memes, with characters such as Mona and Giko becoming comparable to wojaks or rage faces. Sadly, there currently isn't much of a community for them on the anglophone web.
Content Warning
2ch was the predecessor of 4chan, so be aware that you may encounter discussion of things like racism and pedophilia. I don't endorse or condone that sort of thing, but I'm documenting it here anyway for educational purposes.
Also: Because the images here are all made out of formatted text, this website will look weird on mobile. RIP screen readers.
That's a nice webpage, Senator. Why don't you back it up with a source?
-―- ､
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I'm glad you asked, Jack. Despite their past ubiquity, information on AA characters is often hard to find online. I got most of my information from these websites:
English Websites:
Japanese Websites:
Copying & Pasting AA:
I'll try to list my specific sources at the bottom of every single AA-related page on this site, and even a few non-AA related pages.
I want to visit 2channel!
The original 2channel website (2ch.net) no longer exists, but these websites are similar. Most of these websites are in Japanese, but 5ch has a few English boards, and Channel4 is entirely in English.
Note that these websites are not merely for posting AA, just like how 4chan is not merely a website for posting about wojaks. I know, I was dissappointed too when I found out.
If you just want to browse and post AA characters, I recommend the /ascii/ board on Channel4.
