Katakana Analysis (Final)

The words オレ and カワイイ, found written as such in a manga and on a magazine cover respectively, highlight two distinctive reasons for choosing to write in katakana rather than hiragana or kanji.

The オレexample was found in a speech bubble of a manga entitled 先生, in which the character speaking is referring to himself. It is written out in katakana rather than in kanji (俺) or hiragana (おれ), because the angular, "hard" lines of katakana serve to emphasize the masculine feeling conveyed by the word.  おれ is a form of the word "I", used by men, and is both more formal and more masculine than  ぼく, another form of "I" most commonly used by young boys . While katakana is thought to be more masculine, hiragana on the other hand, is thought to be a more feminine form of writing. In this particular manga, the male character speaking is younger than the girl he is interested in, so he tries to behave maturely to prove his manliness. Knowing this, it makes sense that katakana would be used here in his speech.

Having been found on the front page of CanCam, a fashion magazine, it is easy to imagine why katakana is used in the case of カワイイ. In this example, katakana is used to draw immediate attention the word. Because the subject of the magazine is fashion, the editors must have wanted to emphasize keywords pertaining to the styles highlighted inside, perhaps to give a preview to those browsing magazines about what to expect in the issue from just seeing the outside cover. Interestingly, surveying a large number of Japanese magazine covers reveals that カワイイ appears frequently on magazine covers in hiragana as well, not solely in katakana. In fact, a different month's issue of CanCam magazine features the word splayed across the cover in hiragana. It seems almost strange that a magazine targeted at young women would use katakana, when the magazine should be attempting to emphasize femininity. Maybe this plays into the choice of hiragana over katakana in that particular issue, in that it was chosen to exude femininity rather than catch the onlooker's eye.

The textbook definitions mentioned emphasis as a usage of katakana--this is seen in both examples--but they did not mention that katakana can be specifically used for emphasizing masculinity or femininity.