I received a question from a reader.
Q: What are the differences between: Kawaii, Kiree and Utsukushii ?
All are positive adjectives to show compliment for someone’s appearance especially for women and objects.
Kawaii means cute, and can be used for both toddlers (girl or boy) and good-looking young adults.
Nowadays, kawaii is also used to describe a guy with a baby face. Like you see below:
You can call him “ikemen” –abbreviation for Iketeru men. -Iketeru is a slang and means, cool. So Iketeru + men = Ikemen.
(good/cool looking guy) So, this photo, Koike Teppei is known as "Kawaii Ikemen".
(As a matter of fact, I like this type of guys :p)
On the other hand, Kiree is normally meant to depict a woman’s beauty.
However, nowadays there are some Kiree na otoko (beautiful guy) like Gackt.
So he is a "kiree na Ikemen" -beautiful looking guy.
By the way, Kiree can also be used for describing things or cleanliness.
Lastly, Utsukushii has a matured, decent and gorgeous image, like you see in this image:
“berusaiyu no bara” -it's a well-know comic story for girls in Japan.
Oh well, Gackt can be Utsukushii as well.
If you have any question about usage of Japanese language, please ask me :) I'd like to share with everyone in this blog.
