Pilemon T-Shirt

Of all the wacky cross-culture mash-ups that come out of Japan, this one gets serious chutzpah points: Phenomenon paired seminal post-punk band, Public Image Limited, with animated feline time-traveler, Doraemon on two new T-shirts. The graphic mixes PiL’s logo with a more subtle reference to the cat’s colors, whiskers and collar. Of course if it takes you a minute to make the connection, Phenomenon sends it home by titling the shirt Pilemon. I think it’s both brilliant and bizarre to pay combined homage to an important band that released its greatest hits (so far) album in 1990 and an anime icon who fell into the shadow of Sanrio, but it does beg three questions: 1) Precisely how many people listen to post-punk and watch anime? 2) Why now? And 3) How quickly is John Lydon going to call his lawyer about this? Looks like white is already sold out. Black is available here.