After 20 years as Takashi Murakami’s protégé, MR. has developed a career as an artist by focusing on anime and video game-esque renditions of everyday Japanese girls.

Singlehandedly undoing the stigma of producing paintings or drawings on paper in an anime style, Mr. has proved to be the first of his kind and the number of people following him on Japanese social networking sites like pixiv continues to grow dramatically.

Mr.’s body of work can be likened to the display of art in one’s own dirty bedroom. In fact, many of the new installation strategies which are emerging in Japan, as seen in events such as Tokyo’s “Chaos Lounge,” drew strong influence from Mr.’s practice.

After years spent laboring in the underground, MR. is now becoming a major presence in the mainstream.