Inside the Violent Mind of Otaku Artist MR

Takashi Murakami collaborator, MR. is wellregarded for his illustrative, animeinspired paintings and cartoonish sculptures. However, the Saitamabased creative resents the cutesy label often slapped upon his work. From when I was around 13, my family had a rough time, he admits. Like with my older brothers domestic violence. The effect this turbulent upbringing had on work is striking, considering the saccharine sweet designs that he often subverts with aggressive paint splashes and brush slashes. As a teenager, he was obsessed with manga, video games anime and was subsequently tagged as an otaku, a subset of Japanese culture primarily made up of young males who forfeit social skills for personal pastimes. When I was a teenager, I thought otaku was something embarrassing, says MR. I was embarrassed that I was an otaku. Eventually, however, I started thinking that embarrassment could be a weapon it is interesting to let that embarrassment explode. We head inside the ar