About

"You Make My Kokoro Go Doki Doki," which roughly translates to "my heart goes lub dub" in English, is an expression primarily used by English-speaking fans of anime and mangas to convey feelings of love or admiration, in a similar vein to other Japanese-derived phrases like "my waifu" and "I hope my senpai will notice me".

Origin

The Japanese-English hybrid phrase "you make my kokoro go doki doki," with kokoro meaning "heart" and doki doki being the onomatopoeic word for the sound of a heartbeat in Japanese, is believed to have been coined by members of the English-speaking online communities devoted to manga and anime fandoms. The earliest known use of the expression can be found in the title of an original comic drawing submitted by DeviantART user SunshinexKite^[4] on January 15th, 2012. That same day, Yahoo Answers user ThatOneUnicorn submitted a post^[1] inquiring the meaning of the phrase.

Spread

On February 8th, 2012, an Urban Dictionary definition for "my kokoro goes doki doki" was submitted by user Kokodoki,^[2] which reads:

"Kokoro" is Japanese for heart, while "doki doki" is an onomatopoeia for heartbeat. This phrase is often used ironically or in a humorous context to express admiration or love.

On September 15th, 2012, an anonymous poster on 4chan's /sp/ (sports) board^[3] replied to a thread with the phrase "my heart started doki doki-ing all over the shop".

Examples

Overall, the phrase has been mostly used by English-speaking fans of Japanese anime and mangas on fan art communities, such as DeviantART^[5] and Tumblr.^[6][7]

Derivatives

In addition, there are a few spin-off expressions derived from the original phrase that incorporate parts of other English idioms and Engrish terms, most notably "my Kokoro Is Brokoro" ("my heart is broken") and "right in the kokoro" (right in the feels), which have been used by anime and manga fans on Tumblr^[8][9] to express feelings of heartbrokenness.

Search Interest

External References