Bad Omens Embrace Hentai on New Merch, and Someone’s Mad About It

People literally never cease to amaze me. One day things are okay, the next day they’re not, and everything just seems to shift without much rhyme or reason. This is why it’s a bit funny that Bad Omens, that band with songs about hedonism and suicide, has come under fire for a design they put on some of their new merch. Just because it could be slightly sexual.

The band’s new merch displays some very very VERY mild hentai, a Japanese style of pornographic anime and manga, but not even in any detail. The main shirt in question just has some red-eyed chic with a sort of, creamy substance dripping from her mouth. None of us are idiots—we know what that substance is, but without a dick to fully give it context, what harm is done?

State of the Scene, a podcast about, you guessed it, emo and scene shit, posted a picture of the shirt on their Twitter, and fan reactions were pretty supportive and funny. One fan said “Is.. the hentai in the room with us… that’s not even lewd… are people okay…?” Another tweeted “Their fan base is horny as hell anyway so what’s the point.” Something to mention—according to such internet fanfare, apparently it was but one single uptight prude who complained about the shirt. At least, there’s only one we know about.

Personally, I think the shit fuckin rips and is one of the mildest displays of anything sexual I have ever seen. Sure, if you know what hentai is and can make a very basic connection between this shirt and actual porn then yeah, this might be a feather-ruffler. But come on y’all (or maybe not “y’all,” just that one hentai hater). We have bigger things to worry about, like global warming or how Noah was so burned out they had to cancel the summer tour. Or, I don’t know, legitimately anything else.