I believe in sex, death, monsters, violence, mayhem, nostalgia, daydreams, excess, and anything out of control.
And so I also believe in Bangkillporn: Japan’s next gen bonkura pop artists and purveyors of bad taste and fine apparel.
Bangkillporn are three people – a power trio, really – made up of illustrators + graphic designers Superlog and Utomaru, along with cosplayer Omi K Gibson (below) providing planning and erotic vibes.
Each member has their own superpower: Superlog’s work (above) depicts demonic women with automatic weapons, dangerous curves and dynamite bodies. Utomaru’s designs nail the “pop ‘n cute” look of the eighties with dazzling line work and a frankly astonishing color palate. Omi K Gibson is the half-naked female shaman who bridges the gap and brings the collective vision to life by acting as the group’s model and muse.
Typically in bonkura (slang for B-movie and junk culture freak) anti-fashion, the black T-shirt is king, but Bangkillporn’s stickers and shirts dare to run riot across the color spectrum and break through to a new dimension of eye popping visual appeal. Also, 2/3ds of Bangkillporn is female, and while I don’t think their work has any underlying pretention or agenda, the results have more variety and range than just raw objectification.
But how much of this is by design? How much by accident? The gang was nice enough to answer a few questions…
How did Bangkillporn get started?
Around 2004, Superlog lost everything he had from gambling and was about to throw himself into Tokyo Bay. Luckily, Utomaru passed by and prevented Superlog from dying. Afterwards, they realized that they liked the same kinds of movies and manga and they started working together on illustrations and designs. A while later in 2011, the pair came across OMI in the middle of Tokyo where she was buck naked and scavenging through trash. They managed to tame OMI’s savage animal-like nature and together, they become what they are now.
How did you decide on the name “Bangkillporn”?
The name is a sequence of our three favorite words: “bang”, “kill”, and “porn”. It’s also inspired by the atmosphere of Spaghetti Westerns, like “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”.
How would you describe your brand’s image?
We take the influence of American movies from the ‘70s to the ‘80s, and tokusatsu and anime from the Showa era up to 1989, and we mix them together to create new art. We don’t see any other brands doing this, so we’d like to be the ones who do it.
How can foreigners get your shirts and goods?
Please e-mail us at [email protected] . We will be sure to write back. Since we have gotten some good feedback from people outside of Japan, we are planning to make a shopping web-site for them eventually.
What's next for Bangkillporn?
Since we just started, our first goal is to let as many people as possible to know about us. For starters, we will be living in the mountains and fighting bears with our bare hands (not a joke, it is out of respect to Mas Oyama). Also, we would like to participate in the San Diego Comic Con in the near future.
Do you have a message for whoever is reading this interview?
All three of us love old Japanese pop culture, especially from the Showa-era, so we hope to show and tell everyone about it using our eyes as filters. T-shirts are part of that, but in the future, we hope to make toys and create other kinds of designs. I’m sure there are many other people who feel the same way we do, so we hope those people will wear our shirts and us photos. That would make us very happy!
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