Ayu's Fish Lips = Ahiru-guchi

[Uemarasan]

I don't know if this has been mentioned here before, but why do people still keep on insisting on calling it that? I'll admit, I think calling it "fish lips" is old and lame and is way past its expiration date. It's a real Japanese phenomenon with an actual name:

"Ahiru-guchi -- 'duck mouth' -- is a term used in Japan to describe a special lip formation said to be a common trait for beautiful women and men. Much like a common mallard, the perfect duck mouth has lips that jut out a bit from the face and purse slightly to create an adorable pouty look. Usually the lips' protruding is caused by 'yaeba' double teeth -- the cutesy dental malformation that idols must have to become popular.

Although the term ahiru-guchi has been popular for some time, the Internet has been particularly excited about the look in recent days. The image collection page on Naver for ahiru-guchi offers some fine examples, including our pick for the current master of the look -- "Nonno" model Miho Tanaka. The otaku of Japanese BBS 2ch seem particularly obsessed with the ahiru-guchi of seiyu anime voice actress and singer Aya Hirano. Each social group has its own duck mouth heroine, apparently.

In case the Internet does not give you enough duck mouth to lust over, April 3 will see the release of a new book called "Twitter's explosively popular, widely-beloved duck mouth" (『ツイッターで人気爆発! みんな大好き アヒル口』, translation ours) by duck-mouthed model Matsu-You. And for those who want to know why duck mouth is so attractive, listen to the experts at All About sound off on the look's historical precedents and subliminal biological signals.

While duck mouth and its first-cousin yaeba may be a very Japanese aesthetic, All About tells us, in all seriousness, that ahiru-guchi is surely universally loved, citing the international appeal of Donald Duck and Pringles. That may be true but we have yet to come across websites in other languages that show scores of women with two curved potato chips protruding from the mouth."

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/none/quac...h-japan-093969



Ah, thank you for the Internet and the desire for research. I'll just mark it up to AHS forum group think. Like how everyone here hates this certain photographer.

[Keiichi_JPU]

I'm sorry, I don't understand your post.

Do you think it's a bad thing? Or do you think the fact we call it fish-lips is bad?

I don't get it.

[primavera♥]

oh thank you. ^___^ i love this. i always thought the term "fish-lips" was just so gross and vulgar and unnecessary. and i can never really use it.

this is much nicer. and informative .thanks

[ayufan-]

Woow that their is acctualy a name for it omg weird

[Diana]

Originally Posted by Uemarasan

Like how everyone here hates this certain photographer.

I guess that why you posted that theme? I don't get you too Well.. I don't know why people were talking "fish lips" but it looked like that when Ayu was shooting some PV's and covers lol There were times when they put way too much lip-gloss on her mouth that it didn't look..very pretty or sexy if you ask me. And some people here were sick of the same pictures so they hate that photographer..
But when you mention it, it does look (on the article picture) more like duck mouth. Sometimes I make that face on purpose and friends tell me I look like a duck.. xD

[Kingdom]

Originally Posted by Uemarasan

While duck mouth and its first-cousin yaeba may be a very Japanese aesthetic, All About tells us, in all seriousness, that ahiru-guchi is surely universally loved, citing the international appeal of Donald Duck and Pringles. That may be true but we have yet to come across websites in other languages that show scores of women with two curved potato chips protruding from the mouth."

LOL whoever wrote this article is pretty... special.

I will stick with fish lips for now.

[minkAYuko]

Interesting articl tho Fish lips and duck lips are not the same. For the duck lips they push the upper lip and the fish lips push both making and O or U with the lips. (I'm not saying ayu has not made duck lips before)

I don't know why ppl call fish lips to everything, the shape for the fish lips is an U like saying YOU or wanting to give a kiss but in a exagerated shape.

What ayu does most of the time (like in the cover of MOON) is to push slightly the lips so they look fuller and she might even be blowing air trhough them to get a bigger look, this is a trick that models use all the time.

[*Petit*]

like dis u meen?

[minkAYuko]

^ yep it looks different from people to people depending what type of lips they have.

For instance the thing with Koda kumi is that her upper lip is smaller compared to ayu's fuller lips, so they don't attack koda like ppl does with ayu cause she would have to exagerate more the shape of her lips to match ayu's. But like I said, ayu exagerates the shape sometimes and ppl go all "OMG BAD PHOTSHOP/FISH LIPS"

[asmAyumi1992]

actually, at my country, the duck-mouth are already popular among teenagers and we do call them as duck-mouth.

but when i went across the internet, everyone seems using "fish-lips". so, it's not disturbing at all.

btw, i reli love ayu's "duck-mouth" although i hate when anyone does it

[xLuna&1LOVE]

Are you talking about her own lips? Then; no. She's has beautiful (plastic) lips. Maybe they are called 'fish lips' because they are big?

Spoiler:

-

^Not even close enough

[AyuWorld]

Originally Posted by xLuna&1LOVE

Spoiler:

-

^Not even close enough

OMG wth is that?? XDD

dont dare to open the spoiler again,that fish is just fugly

nwey,interesting article,n im okay with "fish lip",its a common thing and not gross for me and yes very common expression among japanese specially~

[pommy48]

Lol Ayu makes it puffier....not wider like other models who do the "duck face"

[Corybobory]

Why should we use the direct translation when there's already a word for it in English?

[Tony G]

I don't get this thread either. People who don't speak Japanese are going to have heard the saying "fish lips" before, not "duck mouth" or its japanese equivalent. Its not an accurate statement in English either, as ducks are associated with beaks, not big lips.

[Ranma Matsuri]

Originally Posted by Tony G

I don't get this thread either. People who don't speak Japanese are going to have heard the saying "fish lips" before, not "duck mouth" or its japanese equivalent. Its not an accurate statement in English either, as ducks are associated with beaks, not big lips.

mte

For as long as I can remember, people with big puckered lips are associated with fish. Just like people with buckteeth are associated with beavers and so forth. It's not a mistranslation or some form of disrespect, it's just what we call it in the west or at least where I'm from. I usually just call it a pucker or a pout though... that's just me.

In any case, this article was very informative (albeit kind of strange) so thanks for posting. I think fish lips sounds a lot better than duck mouth though.

[truehappiness]

Actually, I think duck mouth predates fish lips. For whatever reason, people on AHS started calling them fish lips, and I guess it stuck?

It's a really common Asian pose though, haha.

[C+R+E+AYUMI]

if "fish-lips" it's gross, what about "duck-mouth"? LOL

Anyway if there's already a common-used term in english there's no need of another foreign word.
In any case many thanks for this article, i found it interesting.

[microphone]

I do duck-lips a lot because I look younger and innocent. maybe i look stupid to someone else but i'm not concerned about that~

[C+R+E+AYUMI]

Originally Posted by microphone

I do duck-lips a lot because I look younger and innocent. maybe i look stupid to someone else but i'm not concerned about that~

we're not judging if it's beautiful or not, it depends on our own taste.
Honestly sometimes i like it too but don't like the exagerations.
The discussion it's focused on the used terms...