Shirt.Woot

Finally! A Ghostbusters shirt!

I'm interested! What does it say on it though?

Just in case.. Someone asked.

What in the world is zenia ai?

As a kid, I've always wanted but never had that Ghostbuster trap to complete my Proton pack.

So what color is it? Black or dark blue?
Thanks!

I was considering getting this shirt, cause it's cute and funny. Then I read the lines, "The marshmallow was brought to the Mediterranean in the 14th century and killed over 100 million people" and "A marshmallow is created whenever a child stops believing in Santa Claus." I immediately clicked the big yellow "Buy Now" button.

If you could be so kind, lovely woot staff, find the person who wrote the product description, and tell them they made a sale on the shirt because of their excellent description.

<3

joshobra wrote:I'm interested! What does it say on it though?

Just in case.. Someone asked.

It looks like it says:
"Zeniaai"

Which is written in kattakana, so it's meant to be an English word...

Maybe they were going for: "ジュウウル"? Which would be "Zuul"

I dunno...

kickmyassman wrote:It looks like it says:
"Zeniaai"

Which is written in kattakana, so it's meant to be an English word...

Maybe they were going for: "ジュウウル"? Which would be "Zuul"

I dunno...

Yeah I googled it, but nothing came up. I thought I just read it wrong, but I guess not.

Peppy. And I feel the urge to wield graham crackers like twin swords in self defense.

kickmyassman wrote:It looks like it says:
"Zeniaai"

Which is written in kattakana, so it's meant to be an English word...

Maybe they were going for: "ジュウウル"? Which would be "Zuul"

I dunno...

I took 5 years of Japanese... looks like gibberish to me. Ze Ni A A I. If it were a true borrowed work, it would be Zenia-i. I've never seen vowels repeated in katakana like that. Someone probably just looked at a syllabary chart and wrote down the ones that looked cool.

ThunderThighs wrote:Done. That's by the wonderful Sam who also does 'That's So Teddy'.

Excellent. Thank you for passing that on, and thank you for the information!

Maybe they were going for "mallow" which is ゼニアオイ

Google Translate

engrish is always funny/cool, but it doesn't work the other way around, so... pass :\

Aww, the artist managed to make something kowaii (scary) into something kawaii!

And I agree with others that the katakana on the shirt is probably gibberish, unless it's meant to be a sound effect?

Well, looking at it closely for the last five minutes looks like "pufft" in Japanese letters.

If that we're true, I dunno if my Asian friends will frown at me for it.

Or the designer deliberately misspelled the letters to avoid getting sued. Since everybody be suing each other for little things nowadays.

rawsteak wrote:Maybe they were going for "mallow" which is ゼニアオイ

Google Translate

engrish is always funny/cool, but it doesn't work the other way around, so... pass :\

I was just about to say that. It looks like a failed attempt to translate marshmallow to Japanese. Also that word refers to a plant, not the food.

-sigh- Another woot shirt that I ~kind of~ like but Anvil is pushing me away on. I'd like to let you guys know you've lost 4 shirt sales from me in the last 2 weeks because of anvil. After recent bad experiences with anvil It's going to take a design that really wows me before I make another shirt.woot purchase.

I'm just going to have to cross my fingers for this to show up in future randoms I suppose.

This a great shirt to confuse Japanese people and anyone else who happens to know katakana.

kickmyassman wrote:It looks like it says:
"Zeniaai"

Which is written in kattakana, so it's meant to be an English word...

Katakana means foreign word, not necessarily English. But in this case it's a Japanese word, think of the Katakana as writing in italics.

My dictionary says it means "a mallow; Malva sylvestris var. mauritiana.

The Japanese adds just the right amount of sophistication.

miyoshinum5 wrote:I was just about to say that. It looks like a failed attempt to translate marshmallow to Japanese. Also that word refers to a plant, not the food.

I concur with that assessment...

Otaku FAIL!

fiestea wrote:So what color is it? Black or dark blue?
Thanks!

The color of the shirt is Navy Blue.

We get this guy laid, we won't have any trouble!

samestman wrote:The Japanese adds just the right amount of sophistication.

Unless you consider the fact that it appears to be gibberish or a misspelling.

wd6cmu wrote:My dictionary says it means "a mallow; Malva sylvestris var. mauritiana.

Hmmm... I correct myself. That definition is for "zeniaoi" (ゼニアオイ). I wonder if there's a misprint in there?

wd6cmu wrote:My dictionary says it means "a mallow; Malva sylvestris var. mauritiana.

My dictionary says mallow is ゼニアオイ？ Regardless　I don't get why the artist didn't just use マシュマロ。。。

Edit: ^Yeah guessing misprint, somehow.

Invisiblemoose wrote:My dictionary says mallow is ゼニアオイ？ Regardless　I don't get why the artist didn't just use マシュマロ。。。

Edit: ^Yeah guessing misprint, somehow.

Or a bad pun.

Invisiblemoose wrote:My dictionary says mallow is ゼニアオイ？ Regardless　I don't get why the artist didn't just use マシュマロ。。。

Edit: ^Yeah guessing misprint, somehow.

Agree, or a poor attempt at vanilla-y? ;p (But that would require a 'ba'..)

What's he popping out of? Looks like the top of Wall-E or something. Maybe that's the pun.

Would have been INSTANT SALE if the katakana hadn't been total nonsense because the design is insanely cute.

wd6cmu wrote:What's he popping out of? Looks like the top of Wall-E or something. Maybe that's the pun.

That's the Ghostbusters' ghost trap. He is the Stay Puft marshmallow man.

You guys are all making me feel better. I read the Katakana, couldn't figure out what it might mean (only 2 years of Japanese here) and hoped someone in the comments would know.

I feel less stupid now that I see that none of you are really sure either.

wd6cmu wrote:What's he popping out of? Looks like the top of Wall-E or something. Maybe that's the pun.

*jaw drop*

Have you never seen Ghostbusters?!
That's the ghost trap!

MrsBones wrote:*jaw drop*

Have you never seen Ghostbusters?!
That's the ghost trap!

Yeah, should have seen that.

I'm emailing the image to a native speaker to see if he knows, but probably won't get an answer until tomorrow.

Kawaii = cute in Japanese
The word on the shirt is "cute"

Keep in mind katakana isn't for just english words, its for foreign words. I'm not saying its not an attempt at an english word, but I know many katakana words are french which confused the hell out of me when I first took japanese

I have had a native Japanese speaker living with me the last year. I am 100% positive it says "cute". You can double check it on google translate.

Maybe the nonsense word is a take
on nonsense japlish t-shirts.

Some of those t-shirts were enough
to turn a sour mood around.

Yeah, I'm passing on this one as well, due to the Japanese typo/gibberish (6 year student here, also can't make heads or tails).