kakkou 格好

In Japanese, kakkou 格好 means the "appearance" of something, in the sense of "how it looks" to you or to other people. In anime, it's often used to talk about how someone is dressed, specially if it's a weird outfit.

The word kakkou can also mean the "state," "situation" something is in when qualified by an adjective, and it can mean "suitable" when turned into an adjective. Sometimes, the long vowel is shortened and it becomes kakko カッコ.

Manga: Gabriel DropOut, ガヴリールドロップアウト (Chapter 20)

"Appearance"

The most common usage of kakkou 格好 is to talk about someone's appearance. Note, however, that kakkou isn't used to talk about their physical appearance, or their sudden appearance (or disappearance).

The word kakkou is used to talk about how their "external appearance," gaiken 外見, more specifically, the "form," sugata 姿, that they look at the moment. So it's used to talk about what they're wearing, for example.

{hade na} kakkou de dekakeru
派手な格好で出かける
To leave [home] with a {showy} appearance.
- To leave home dressed in a flashy outfit.
- hade da
  派手だ
  Showy. Gaudy.

In anime kakkou is usually used in a bad sense, like:

Manga: Gabriel DropOut, ガヴリールドロップアウト (Chapter 20)

Context: a girl suddenly finds herself in a reindeer costume.
u...
う･･･
Uh...
watashi wa nande
konna kakkou wo...!!
私はなんでこんな格好を･･･！！
Why I, this sort of appearance...!!
(incomplete sentence.)
- Why am I [dressed] like this...!!
- konna kakkou wo shite-iru
  こんな格好をしている
  To be making this sort of appearance.
  To be dressed up like this.

But the word kakkou isn't limited to outfits.

A difference between sugata 姿 and kakkou 格好 is that when sugata is used toward people, it normally refers to their outfit or how they look in the outfit they're wearing, but kakkou just means how someone looks in general.

So, for example, if a bucket of paint fell on you, nobody would call that a sugata, but they would say "what's up with that kakkou?" Why do you look like that, with paint all over you?

Furthermore, kakkou 格好 can be used toward things, too, to talk about the appearance of an object. Or even to talk about actions, how it looks when someone does something.

kami no kakkou wo naosu
髪の格好を直す
To fix the appearance of the hair.
To fix the shape of the hair.
To fix the hair. (so it looks the way it was before.)
{hen na} kakkou no boushi
変な格好の帽子
A hat of weird appearance.
A weird-looking hat.
{aruku} kakkou ga omoshiroi
歩く格好がおもしろい
[His] {walking} appearance is funny.
The way [he] walks is funny.

格好をする

When kakkou 格好 comes before the verb suru する, it means "to make one's appearance [like this]" where "like this" is the adjective coming before kakkou. This often means "to dress up like" or "to put on an outfit," thereby changing your appearance. For example:

{naguru} kakkou wo suru
殴る格好をする
To make it the appearance of hitting.
- To make yourself look like you're going to hit someone.
- To make a hitting pose. Like with your fists up and going to strike.
- But not to actually hit anybody, just look like you're going to hit.
- naguru
  殴る
  To hit. To punch.
dansei ga josei no kakkou wo suru
男性が女性の格好をする
Men make it a woman's appearance. (literally.)
- Men dressing up like women. (what it means in English.)
- josei no kakkou
  女性の格好
  A woman's appearance.
  Which looks like a woman.
- Men will make it so that their kakkou is a josei no kakkou, i.e. that their appearance is a woman's appearance, that they look like a woman. This is also known as:
- josou 女装
  Crossdressing. (wearing "female clothes," literally.)

この格好, その格好, あの格好

When the noun kakkou 格好 is used with the pronouns kono, sono, ano この, その, あの, it refers to a certain, specific kakkou. The exact way someone is looking.

kono kakkou
この格好
This appearance.
This way how [it] looks. The way [I'm] looking.
sono kakkou
その格好
That appearance. (near.)
The way how [you're] looking.
ano kakkou
あの格好
That appearance. (not near.)
The way how [I] looked in the past.
The way how [you] looked the other day.
The way how [he's] looking.
dono kakkou?
どの格好？
Which appearance?
Which way of looking?

A few examples:

kono kakkou wa hazukashii
この格好は恥ずかしい
This appearance is embarrassing.
This [outfit] is embarrassing.
- Who would wear this?
sono kakkou de deru
その格好で出る
To leave in that [outfit].
To enter the stage in that [outfit].
- This could mean to leave home, etc. in that outfit.
- Or to enter a stage, like in theater, in that outfit.
- Or maybe even to enter a stage in the sense of going to fight monsters in that outfit.
- Because deru 出る means a lot of things.

こんな格好, そんな格好, あんな格好

When kakkou 格好 comes after konna, sonna, anna こんな, そんな, あんな, it refers to the general way someone is looking. The sort of way they look like.

That is, the difference between kono kakkou この格好 and konna kakkou こんな格好 is that kono kakkou refers to the exact look—"with this kakkou I'm wearing right now nobody will notice I'm an elf"—while konna kakkou means "this sort of" or "like this," it means there's something about the look, that another look would also have, for example: "why do I look like this? Wearing this weird outfit." Any weird outfit would be equally problematic.

konna kakkou
こんな格好
This kind of appearance.
Looking like this. This way. Which is [bad]. (or good, maybe.)
sonna kakkou
そんな格好
That kind of appearance. (near)
Looking like that. That way.
The way you're looking like.
anna kakkou
あんな格好
That kind of appearance. (not ear.)
Looking like that. That way.
The way he's looking like.
The way it looked like (in the past).
donna kakkou?
どんな格好？
What kind of appearance?
What sort of look?

An example:

sonna kakkou de samukunai no?
そんな格好で寒くないの？
With that sort of appearance, isn't it cold?
- Aren't you cold in that sort of outfit?
- Aren't you cold wearing something like that?
- The "sort of" refers to the fact the outfit doesn't seem warm. Any non-warm-looking outfit would raise the same question.

格好いい, 格好悪い

When kakkou 格好 comes before the i-adjectives for "good," ii いい, and "bad," warui 悪い, it refers to the "impression" the appearance of someone, or something, leaves. Normally, kakkou 格好 is abbreviated to kakko カッコ in these words:

kakkou-ii 格好いい (格好良い)
kakkou-yoi 格好よい
kakko-ii かっこいい (カッコいい)
kakko-yoi かっこよい
Good-looking.
Leaving a good impression.
Cool.
Stylish.
Fashionable.
Admirable.
kakkou-warui 格好悪い
kakko-warui かっこ悪い (カッコ悪い)
kakko-warii かっこ悪ぃ
Bad-looking.
Leaving a bad impression.
Lame.
Uncool.
Pathetic.

"Situation"

The word kakkou 格好 can also mean "situation," the "state" or "condition" in which something is in. This is similar to the word joutai 状態, except that kakkou is used when things end up in a certain way, in a certain form, in a certain state, and when this happens it comes after an adjective or relative clause.

kaigi wa {chuudan sareta} kakkou ni natteiru
会議は中断された格好になっている
It's becoming so [it's] a state [in which] the conference was suspended.
- The conference was suspended, is the situation it became.
- The conference was suspended, is how it turned out.
- kaigi wa chuudan sareta
  会議は中断された
  The conference was suspended.
- The phrase above was a relative clause qualifying kakkou:
- kaigi wa chuudan sareta kakkou
  会議は中断された格好

"Suitable"

Another way kakkou 格好 is used is to say "suitable." This happens when kakkou is used as a na-adjective, or, more commonly, as a no-adjective. Synonyms include tekitou 適当 and fusawashii 相応しい.

kakkou no basho
格好の場所
Suitable place.
A good place (for doing something).
{kakkou na} basho
格好な場所
(same meaning.)
tekitou na basho
適当な場所
(same meaning.)
fusawashii basho
相応しい場所
(same meaning.)

The difference between kakkou na and tekitou na is that tekitou can mean "anything that's good enough." In other words, tekitou usually means "suitable" in the sense of "whatever. It works," The bare minimum. While kakkou means one suitable, proper place. In the good sense.

{tekitou na} basho
適当な場所
Whatever place you think is good. (do it there.)
- Just park it wherever. So long as you can park it it's good.
{kakkou na} basho
格好な場所
This is a good place for doing it.
- This is a great place to park. It's under a shade. It's close. Nobody else is parked around. Good place to park, I say.

The difference between kakkou-na and fusawashii is that fusawashii usually means something is "suitable" in the sense that it's worthy of something else. Sometimes this can mean that the something else is very good, like a king, for example, and it requires something as good and magnanimous as it. Other times it means it's bad, and fusawashii is something as bad as it.

fusawashii basho
相応しい場所
A place that suits what we're going to do.
A place that suits him.
A place that suits him, the king. A very good place.
A place that suits him, that scum. A very bad place.

恰好 vs. 格好

The word kakkou 恰好 is the same thing as kakkou 格好. It's just the same word written with a different kanji. The meaning is literally the same. There's no nuance or anything.

The reason this happens is because kakkou 格好 was originally written as kakkou 恰好, it started being written as kakkou 格好 instead after the Japanese language reform which occurred after the war.

For context: in the reform, the Japanese government chose around 2000 common kanji which it deemed essential, called the Touyou Kanji 当用漢字, "present-use kanji."

Such kanji would be learned and taught in school, and everybody—journals, books, manga, TV, etc.—would have to refrain from using less common kanji which weren't included in those 2000.

恰 was one of those uncommon kanji.

Since the media couldn't write 恰 anymore, they had to write kakkou as either kakkou かっ好, mixing hiragana and kanji, which looks like an orthographic aberration, or they'd have to replace 恰 with a touyou kanji, which is easier.

They replaced 恰 with 格, and that's why kakkou can be written in two ways:

格好
The modern way.
恰好
The original way.

Since 格 was chosen because it sounded like 恰, that makes kakkou an ateji 当て字 word, I guess.

Furthermore, the Touyou Kanji was replaced by the more modern Jouyou Kanji 常用漢字, "normal use kanji." But 恰 isn't in a Jouyou Kanji either so it's really not used anymore.

For reference, some other words that had 恰:

choudo
丁度 (恰度)
Exactly. Precisely. Perfectly.
- Just what I needed!
atakamo
あたかも (恰も)
As if.
- Just like if.

As you can see, the meaning of the kanji was "just."

Indeed, the original meaning of kakkou 恰好 was the "suitable" one. The meanings regarding appearance of things came later.

atakamo yoshi
恰も好し
As if good.
- 好し instead of 良し means it's "good" in the sense of "preferable."
choudo yoi
ちょうどよい
Precisely good.
- Just the way I want.