I don't use the debugger (except in exercises like this) so it's more trial and error than knowledge for me. Anyway, I found the issue actually revolves around whether p or print is used. 

$ perl -C -de1
...
  DB<1> print "\x{263A}"
☺
  DB<2> p "\x{263A}"
Wide character ...
...
☺

My guesswork here was based on a long-standing alias of mine: 

$ alias perlu
alias perlu='perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -Mautodie=:all -Mutf8 -C -E'

[download]

For example:

$ perlu 'say for $], "\x{263A}", "\x{ 263A }"'
5.036000
☺
☺

Update (checking for false positives): 

$ perl -de1
...
  DB<1> print "\x{263A}"
Wide character ...
...
☺

$ alias perle
alias perle='perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -Mautodie=:all -MCarp::Always -E
+'

[download]
$ perle 'say for $], "\x{263A}", "\x{ 263A }"'
5.036000
Wide character in say at -e line 1.
☺
Wide character in say at -e line 1.
☺

— Ken

In reply to Re^5: Problem with escape sequence \x for hex with spaces "\x{ 263A }" (update: codepage) by kcott
in thread Problem with escape sequence \x for hex with spaces "\x{ 263A }" by LanX

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