Billie Eilish‘s new line of merch has been accused of plagiarism.

Earlier this week, the “Bury a Friend” singer announced she teamed up with Siberia Hills for an anime merch collection, which includes just one hoodie and one T-shirt. The clothing comes in both black and white and feature a group of bikini-clad anime characters over the Japanese spelling of Eilish’s name.

However, when the pop star’s team unveiled the new collection on August 7, people were quick to point out the characters resembled another artist’s work. Many users recognized the character Nozomi Tojo from the anime series Love Live!, however, the website AnimeNewsNetwork.com reports the fan art belongs to artist Makoto Kurokawa.

Eilish, her team nor her fashion collaborators have responded to the plagiarism accusations, but fans have been calling her out via Twitter, with some tweeting that this is “peak 2019.”

Meanwhile, others hope the artist has been compensated for their work even though technically neither should be profiting since the artwork is based on a licensed character.
This isn’t the first time Eilish has dealt with plagiarism allegations. Back in April, Dave Meyers, the director of her “Bad Guy” music video, was accused of using another’s person’s art without permission. On Reddit, fans speculated whether the idea behind the video, which featured specific imagery like disembodied heads in goldfish bags, was inspired by the photographers Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari.

Neither Meyers nor Eilish ever publicly responded to the accusations.

Source: POPCrush