Anata wa Bukimi – You are Weird
Literal Translation: “You are weird / creepy” (Anata wa = You
are; Bukimi = weird, eerie, creepy)
Overview: Does everyone around you seem a bit creepy? It might be best not
to tell them up front, so you can be subtle about it with this shirt (who’s
gonna know?).
Details/Background: Bukimi is translated as “weird”, “eerie”, “ominous”, “creepy”.
Simply put this shirt says: “You are weird”, but “bukimi” implies
that the person is a bit on the scary side – someone that you should
be aware of or keep an eye on.
The “anata wa” portion of the phrase essentially means “you
are”. Personal pronouns aren’t used nearly as much in Japanese
as they are in English and this is especially true for the word “anata”. “Anata” is
not normally used with someone you do not know very well or with someone of
a higher stature or social position than yourself – it will probably
feel a bit to straightforward or even jarring to the average Japanese person.
That is what makes this shirt all the more exciting to us!
A Japanese person looking at a foreigner wearing this will probably think
it is just pretty funny – much like a native-English speaker would find
Engrish shirts, even though there are no grammatical errors.