Poi (っぽい)

About

Poi (っぽい) is a Japanese word roughly translated to “supposedly,” which has become associated with the Kantai Collection character Yuudachi. Additionally, because of Kancolle’s focus on warships, the word has also become a commonly spammed word in the chat for the similarly-themed game World of Warships.

Origin

Kantai Collection was released in 2013.^[1] In the game, the character Yuudachi was noted to use the word “poi” as a vocal tic many times, probably as a reference to the uncertain fate of the World War II warship the character was based on.^[2]

Spread

On October 31, 2013, Nico Nico Douga user 零～ゼロ～ uploaded a “PONPONPON” parody based around Yuudachi and poi, which has gained over 700,000 views.^[3] Upon the airing of the Kancolle anime in January of 2015, several supercuts of the many uses of poi in the show were made.

World of Warships Trolling

In March of 2015, users of the game World of Warships, reported instances of the game’s chat becoming spammed with poi, due to the game’s thematic connection to Kantai Collection.^[4] This was later reported by websites such as Kotaku.^[5]

Search Interest

References