Shirt.Woot

Everybody grab your torches and pitchforks! Let's run this artist out of Woot for not using proper Japanese characters! Aaaaarggghh!
We will not stand for this abomination!

I agree with CowboyDann. The Anvil shirts suck. I wish Woot! would go back to American Apparel which was a much better fit. If cost is an issue, I hope they consider Tultex.

CowboyDann wrote:-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.

ROGETRAY wrote:But...they're perfect for S'mores!!! :D

Real smores cannot be made in a microwave, and that's what those square wannabe marshmallows are for. Real smores use big fat round marshmallows and an open fire.

Someone has to stand up for the real smores and marshmallows.

Patchitect wrote:

Give it a break, and stop taking yourselves so seriously. If anyone asks you what it says, tell em "I'm HUGE in Japan"

I'd like to echo this. I suppose that to the one(s) so vested in the study of Japanese, the shirt may be a bit off color (a term used to say: You might be a tad obsessive about the ill-characters - pun intended.) Regardless, to this non-Japanese speaking or reading person, I love the friggen shirt! It's cute. It's funny. I know one person in my social network that would even note the Japanese characters being wrong. For the rest? I'll make something up.

-- "I'm HUGE!" ... Good suggestion! --

Well now I know the difference between scary and cute in Japanese. Thanks fellow wooters! Or should I say arigato.

I don't know any Japanese for real, but I'm picking out a few words based on sound from watching Sailor Moon anime. (it's horrid in dub so I have to watch it in Japanese, not that I mind) To my untrained ear the pronunciation of "kawaii" and "kowai" are too similar for me to distinguish, especially since Japanese anime speaking goes so fast. I've puzzled over what the subtle difference could have been between those two words for quite a while. Who knew a lengthy back and forth discussion on a so cute it's scary woot shirt could be so educational.

Also if this is true "Every marshmallow you eat shaves a month off your lifespan." then I'm gonna have a short life. I love marshmellows. nomnomnom

trekmiss wrote:Real smores cannot be made in a microwave, and that's what those square wannabe marshmallows are for. Real smores use big fat round marshmallows and an open fire.

Someone has to stand up for the real smores and marshmallows.

You'll come explain to my landlord about the fire pit in my living room, right?

Y'all are way too clever for your own good.
Sorry if this has been covered already (only got to page 2).
But it says:
TRIPPY
Can't you see it?
Yup

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

The color is Navy...

safyrejet wrote: To my untrained ear the pronunciation of "kawaii" and "kowai" are too similar for me to distinguish, especially since Japanese anime speaking goes so fast.

It's timing, the vowel is just held a half-beat longer or so in the double vowel.

Just got a reply from my native-speaking associate, he says it makes no sense to him, either.

inkycatz wrote:You'll come explain to my landlord about the fire pit in my living room, right?

Get one of those fireplace scented candles. That little flame is enough to roast a marshmallow.

trekmiss wrote:Get one of those fireplace scented candles. That little flame is enough to roast a marshmallow.

What a great idea!

Way too fattie-cute! MUST. HAVE. ONE.
Big squee love!

trekmiss wrote:Get one of those fireplace scented candles. That little flame is enough to roast a marshmallow.

Might I suggest…
http://www.yankeecandle.com/detail/emberlight/1237653

It's got almost a hickory-smoke smell ;)

hold on !!

I too think this is making fun of those janglish shirts with nonsensical english.

I normally can't stand things so ... kawaii ... but this shirt is tugging at my wallet strings!

crashchipmoos wrote:I agree with CowboyDann. The Anvil shirts suck. I wish Woot! would go back to American Apparel which was a much better fit. If cost is an issue, I hope they consider Tultex.

What the hell? When did they switch to Anvil? I figured they jacked up the price so they could stay with American Apparel. How do these Anvil shirts fit compared to American Apparel??

Now I don't know if I need a L or XL.

MikeHancho wrote:What the hell? When did they switch to Anvil? I figured they jacked up the price so they could stay with American Apparel. How do these Anvil shirts fit compared to American Apparel??

Now I don't know if I need a L or XL.

The men's shirts are very similar in size, but are a little shorter. They have also been known to shrink up to 3 inches in one wash. If length is important, go up in size, but it will also become very wide and weirdly shaped. Scan through this thread for opinions, comparisons, photos and other reviews.

ETA: Also be aware of giant neck holes. If AA shirts were tight in the neck you'll like Anvil necks better.

fickce4 wrote:
I would never consider buying this shirt...It's an insult, plain and simple...Only we Americans would be snobby enough...

If the artist was trying to be ironic or funny with the text, well, to be completely frank, they failed miserably. It does, however, come of as laziness on the part of both woot and the artist for not checking the Japanese or explaining what it's supposed to mean.

What I really find interesting, or telling for that matter, is that neither the artist or (with the exception of one comment) woot has said anything about the problem. You would think that given the numerous, vocal complaints about the shirt some effort would be made to address the issue or at least offer an explanation. Heck, an acknowledgment of the issue would suffice. It makes me wonder just how many of us would have purchased the shirt otherwise.

I am impressed with my fellow wooters' knowledge of Japanese and general integrity about the issue. And I am embarrassed for woot and the artist for ignoring their clientele.

It's impossible to even try to reason with this level of snobbery and self-important, self-righteous indignation. I'm every bit as disgusted with the 3+ pages of comments like this as you and similar commenters are deeply offended and personally affronted by some improperly spelled Japanese writing.

You (the general you) all sit there and wonder how on earth a travesty like this could ever happen, or how it is allowed to continue after you all have clearly shown the grievous error. What you fail to see is how telling that attitude is and what it says to the rest of us (accurately or not) about the way you view the world: "My personal opinion and the things that I find important are the only way to view the world and I can't fathom that there would ever be others that think differently or would ::gasp:: assign a lesser importance to these profoundly important ideals I have."

You may not actually think that self-centeredly, but your repeated proclamations about the error and insistence that everyone agree with you say otherwise. We get it: it's misspelled. You don't get it: the vast majority of woot's users really don't care. It's a cute shirt and it's not going to bother them one bit if some culture snob is upset because the characters don't make a real word.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln "Calm down, just calm down."

trekmiss wrote:The men's shirts are very similar in size, but are a little shorter. They have also been known to shrink up to 3 inches in one wash. If length is important, go up in size, but it will also become very wide and weirdly shaped. Scan through this thread for opinions, comparisons, photos and other reviews.

ETA: Also be aware of giant neck holes. If AA shirts were tight in the neck you'll like Anvil necks better.

Thanks for the reply. I'll probably try an XL. I'd prefer the shirt to be a little shorter than the AA anyway.

DylonCorp wrote:Ditto. Feels like everyone is trying way too hard to impress. IT JUST SAYS PUFFT ALL STYLY. What the heck.

if you can read Japanese it's really hard to see it as anything as a misspelling though.
So that's a definite no from me, which is of course too bad, the design is adorable.

deadtree wrote:if you can read Japanese it's really hard to see it as anything as a misspelling though.
So that's a definite no from me, which is of course too bad, the design is adorable.

Ignore the people who are saying the Japanese is wrong. It is perfectly fine. What is says is "zeniaai" which would be "love of zenia" (Zenia being "a genus of legume in the Fabaceae family." according to wikipedia). Could also be "Love of xenia", xenia being the Greek concept of hospitality.

Odd, as people like things.

it says pufft...

Speed to First Woot: 0m 45.114s
First Sucker: darclord
Last Wooter to Woot: random1up
Last Purchase: 3 minutes ago
Order Pace: 1m 23.118s
Woots Sold: 1100

First day sales 1100

Heck, at least I made it home before closing tonight, unlike last night, and Woot hard numbers for me! Happy End to yucky day.

Cillus wrote: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.

I thought maybe they were attempting to say "Zenia Love" but that still makes no sense. Haha I also took five years of Japanse! *high five*

Cillus wrote: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.

If you had two words in katakana side by side, and the first ended with the same vowel as the second started with, you would see a repeated vowel.

And to the people complaining about being pedantic, I was going to buy this for a friend in Japan. I imagine there would be a few people there who would notice.

Gatzby wrote:BLASPHEMER!

It looks like a practical solution to me for a common problem!

It will be interesting to see, with all the negative comments, where this shirt shows up in the "Reckoning" tomorrow. I know many Ghostbuster Fans were posting this on social networking sites so it might actually do well.

cocomonk22 wrote:Shirt says ゼニアアイ(ZENIAAI)

Why? Probably through this process:

1) Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is a Marshmallow.
マシュマロ (MASHUMARO)

2) Marshmallow is named after the marshmallow plant, which in Japanese is ウスベニタチアオイ (USUBENITACHIAOI).

3) But that is too long, so how about the common mallow plant instead? In Japanese, that would be ゼニアオイ (ZENIAOI).

4) Since this is a cute-version of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, let's change the word in an attempt to make it sound vaguely like KAWAII by changing the O to an A to get ゼニアアイ (ZENIAAI).

Unfortunately, I don't think even Japanese people would get the pun. Maybe it is a good shirt if you don't understand Japanese.

i like your reasoning the best and since i already bought the shirt ill tell people that this is what it is meant to mean... either that or the picking off katakana letters to make it look like the word "pufft"

nemosomen wrote:Ignore the people who are saying the Japanese is wrong. It is perfectly fine. What is says is "zeniaai" which would be "love of zenia" (Zenia being "a genus of legume in the Fabaceae family." according to wikipedia). Could also be "Love of xenia", xenia being the Greek concept of hospitality.

I'm totally late to this discussion, but here's my two cents as a Japanese/English bilingual speaker since birth who grew up in Japan. I can only see it as "Zenia love". I haven't followed Japanese pop culture in the last 5-6 years, but it was relatively common (mostly for cutesy girls and otakus) to add "ai" or "love" to the end of things/people to show your fondness for it/him/her. I think otakus use "moe" more now. Anyways, zeniaoi rolls off the tongue quite well. Changing one letter to mean zenia love works and is pretty darn cute. I can't see this as a clever way to write "pufft" or "happy". I just don't see it even if I cross my eyes... but if you do, congrats for having a more colorful imagination than me.

My thought process may be completely off mark from what the artist intended, but that's not stopping me from buying this shirt. In my opinion, even if this is just a typo, the graphic design of this makes up for it and I don't think my Japanese friends or relatives will give me a strange look for wearing this shirt.

morrdt wrote:I appreciate the shirt as a Ghostbusters fan, however, the shirt is technically incorrect.

Stay Puft was never caught in a trap, they crossed the streams to 'eliminate' him/her/it.

/don't cross the streams, ever

Well, ACTUALLY, that depends on the medium.

For the movies, it is indeed incorrect. For the cartoon series, The Real Ghostbusters, Mr. Stay Puft was indeed captured inside the traps...and not just in the opening sequence, but in episodes as well. Granted, it usually took more than just one trap, but they still did it.

Super fun and cute graphic. Great color! It's a bit stifling to wear on hot, muggy days because the print doesn't let you breathe and I had to give it a few washes to soften up the paint. Now that the weather is cooling off (from our triple digit temps), I'll finally be able to wear it more!

Just got here—like four months late—but I think I solved the bad kana mystery.

The shirt says ゼニアアイ, romanized "zeniaai," which is, in fact, gibberish. But a quick jisho.org search reveals that ゼニアオイ, "zeniaoi," is the Japanese word for the plant we know as the common mallow, from which marshmallows were originally made.

So how'd it get mangled? My guess is that the designer originally laid out the text in hiragana, where 'a' (あ) and 'o' (お) look a lot alike, eventually switched to katakana because it looked cooler, and miscopied the character.

Damn, I feel like that old bag from Murder She Wrote.