Last night I was wasting time on online (what else do you really do on the internet?), when I stumbled across this picture and nearly had an aneurysm as my brain struggled to comprehend what I was seeing:

Menstrual Dreamer by Magical Designer Mari-Chan

“WTF?” indeed.

Now, before you start thinking me to be some kind of sick degenerate who spends his evenings scouring the internet for pictures of menstruating cartoon characters, I assure you that the discovery was completely unintentional. A click here, a link followed there, and the next thing I know, the image of a nude wide-eyed nymph with multiple body piercings violently spewing forth a torrent of menstrual demons from her hairless gash is being burned into my retinas.

Only a Japanese person could come up with something as utterly-disturbing-yet-undeniably-cute as this. Gloomy Bear is another fine example of this phenomenon. If you aren’t familiar with that particular character, check out the animations here, here and here. A tad disconcerting, no? (I actually have a keychain of this one [pic here], although a numbing fear of loss of street cred’ has prevented me from using it thus far).

Say what you will about the unusual aspects of Japanese culture, it certainly can be fun!