tsuno 角

In anime, sometimes characters have "horns," tsuno 角, protruding out of their heads. Typically, this happens when the character is a "demon," akuma 悪魔, or part of the "demonic clan," mazoku 魔族.

Character: Jin 陣
Anime: Yū☆Yū☆Hakusho 幽☆遊☆白書 (Episode 39)

• Meaning
  • Kanji
• Examples
• Hand Sign

Meaning

The word tsuno 角 means a "horn," or "horns" in the plural. It may also refer to other horn-like protrusions, such as the tentacles of a snail.

Note that the English word "horn" has other meanings. See "horn" in Japanese for a list of senses and translations.

Manga: Machikado Mazoku まちカドまぞく (Volume 1, Page 10, 体で学べるてこの原理)

• Context: Yoshida Yuuko 吉田優子, Shamiko シャミ子, grew horns and a tail overnight.
• nanka tsuno haeta--!!
  なんかツノ生えたー！！
  Horns sprouted [out]!!
• ato shippo!!
  あと尻尾！！
  [Also] a tail!!
• haeteru
  生えてる
  [They're] sprouted. (literally.)
• hae-sorotteru--
  はえそろってるー
  [They're both] sprouted.
  • A compound verb from haeru and sorou 揃う, "to complete [a set]," in the sense that horns and tail make a full set.
• ishi de ugoku--!!
  意思で動くー！！
  [They] move by will--!! (literally)
  • In the sense Shamiko can move them like she can move a limb, i.e. they're part of her body.

Kanji

The kanji of tsuno 角 is also used to write kado 角, which means a "corner" instead. That is, these two words are homographs.

• machi-kado
  街角
  "Town corner." Corner of a street of a town.

Examples

In anime, characters with horns tend to be oni 鬼, a type of apparition in Japanese folklore.

Anime girls with horns in general can be called tsunokko 角っ娘, while the oni specifically onikko 鬼っ娘.

Character: Lum ラム
Anime: Urusei Yatsura うる星やつら (Episode 1, 町に石油の雨がふる)

Besides the oni, horns are also common in monster girls.

Character: unnamed
Anime: Demi-chan wa Kataritai, 亜人ちゃんは語りたい (Episode 1)

• The monster common type of monster girl. Known as:
• sakyubasu
  サキュバス
  Succubus.
• inma
  淫魔
  Lewd demon.
• muma
  夢魔
  Dream demon.

Character: Incubus インキュバス
Anime: Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san. Z, よんでますよ、アザゼルさん。Z (Season 2) (Episode 12)

• inkyubasu
  インキュバス
  Incubus. The male variant of the succubus.

Monster girl characters that have horns also may have a cute "fang," kiba 牙, "tail," shippo 尻尾, and "wings," tsubasa 翼, and pointed ears, known as "elf ears," erufu-mimi エルフ耳, or akuma-mimi 悪魔耳, "demon ears."

Character: Lilith リリス
Anime: Machikado Mazoku まちカドまぞく (Episode 8)

• Context: a tehe pero てへぺろ pose.

Character: Yoshida Yuuko 吉田優子, Shamiko シャミ子
Anime: Machikado Mazoku まちカドまぞく (Episode 1)

• Context: laughter lines.

Character: Valac Clara ウァラク・クララ
Anime: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 魔入りました！入間くん (Episode 3)

• gizaba
  ギザ歯
  Jagged teeth.

Surprisingly, they're not all demons. Some just look like demons.

Character: Ashido Mina 芦戸三奈
Anime: Boku no Hero Academia 僕のヒーローアカデミア (2019) (Episode 18, 文化祭)

• kuro-shirome
  黒白目
  Black sclera.

Hand Sign

The corna コルナ is a hand gesture signifying horns, and the devil, and the evil, among other things. It looks like this:

Character: Shinra Kusakabe 森羅日下部
Anime: En'en no Shouboutai 炎炎ノ消防隊 (Episode 18)

• Context: Shinra awakens.
• rokku-n-rooru!!
  ロックンロール！！
  Rock 'n' roll!!