Difference between the usage of 君 and キミ


From what I read earlier, **君【きみ】** can be used for "you". But in many
instances over the Internet, I have seen **キミ** being used instead of
**君【きみ】**. What is the usage difference between the two?

If I take the following sentence for example

> ちょっと、そこのきみ！

which means "Hey, you there!"

Can it be written as both

> ちょっと、そこの君！
>
> ちょっと、そこのキミ！




Choice of script in Japanese writing is often a stylistic attempt by a writer
to convey some non-standard subliminal meaning. There have been some
interesting analyses on this topic done over the years. Just to give you an
idea of some of the findings, one study found that certain characteristics
were often attributed to script usage, as follows:

**Hiragana:** feminine, soft, smooth, round, tender, simple, childish, lovely,
elegant, etc.  
**Katakana:** novel, foreign, emphasizing, hard, fake, male, futuristic,
sharp, jarring, angular, etc.  
**Kanji:** scientific, rigid, masculine, formal, hard, difficult,
intellectual, visual, substantial, etc.

It’s clear that 君 is usually written in kanji, so a writer’s decision to use
キミ would definitely be an attempt to inject something different into the
‘tone’ of the word. In your example, perhaps it is an extra sense of
irritation that the writer is trying to express. Or maybe a sense of urgency.
The point is, deciding to use a script which is not conventional is a way to
infer different layers of meaning. What that meaning is can depend on things
like the writer's intention, the context, the characters, etc.

