What is [emo i] mean?

[EMO I] is the Japanese slang, often used amount young generation. It is based on a word [Emotional]. The Japanese love to touch a bit of English words and create their own words.

Originally it came from one of the music genre [emo], indicated the emotional rock music which was very emotional melody and expressed loneliness, agony, crying, etc. Although the young Japanese people started using [emoi] around 2007 it became so trendy around 2016 when the Sanseido, one of the publishing companies released a book called [the new trendy slang 2016] which was the ranking No2.

When to use it?

[Emoi] is widely used. Such as 「sadness」「sentimental」「emotion」etc, when it is difficult to express the complex feelings in words. Apart from that, it is also used for [nostalgic] [lonely] [admirable], [stunning] situations.

The examples

この歌詞エモい」「文章がエモい」「なんかエモい風景」…

This lyric is emoi, the sentence is emoi, it seems emoi scenery… , use as an adjective.

Hope it is informative and interesting to you.

Arigato!