Akemi's Anime World

Engrish Vol. 1 Humor

Humorous use and abuse of English spotted in Japan, volume 1.

For the few of you perhaps unfamiliar with the word, "Engrish" is a term created to poke fun at the often amusing, slightly-off English product names or descriptions on Japanese products. There are whole sites devoted to it, but here are a few of my own personal observations.

The Spirit of Muchies

This was seen on the package of some "omanjuu" (a traditional Japanese confection, little sweet bean paste-filled cakes). "Okashi," for reference, just means "candy."

"The spirit of OKASHI. It is what gives a peaceful and pleasant mind to the human race. All the time, man seeks romance in the OKASHI. We have been working hard and carefully, and work on. To weave the romance and the fancy into each OKASHI. This, at last, we have made up "The HAKATA SEIYO-WAGASHI." If you taste the feeling and the spirit of the OKASHI which value tradition and living in the times, there is no pleasure better than it."

Man, these guys take their candy seriously. I like sweets as much as the next guy, but I'm not so sure it's the source of peace for the human race, and I can think of maybe one or two things more pleasurable than eating bean cakes. Perhaps most impressive is that they've apparently managed to build a "romance weaving" step into the factory line that these things come off of.