Manga artist Pyocotan might be best known for signature illustrations in Japanese game magazine Gamelabo or CoroCoro Comic. His work is anything but cute. It's actually both wonderful and creepy—kind of like Robert Crumb.
Pyocotan, a hardcore Nintendo fan, recently picked up a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf and is passing the time by decorating his room with customized wallpaper and flooring he drew. What he's doing isn't just self promotion, but timely: Besides his own art, those posters feature a man's face are actually wanted posters for alleged murderer Toshikazu Koike.
The wanted posters, which say "Hey, Koike!" (おい、小池!), became iconic after Koike was on the run for over a decade. The poster's large font and the unorthodox phrase did not go unnoticed by the Japanese public and were parodied online.
Late last month, Yomiuri reported that Koike died of natural causes, evading capture. The original poster (below) was designed by Keizo Matsui, who worked for Apple as a design consultant. How's that for a wanted poster design pedigree?
Pyocotan wasn't trying to help capture Koike or anything (New Leaf came out after Koike died), but he was simply being aware of what's happening in the news and making somewhat of a subversive nod to an iconic wanted poster.
Drawing the images in Animal Crossing, including the "Hey, Koike!" poster, was taxing, eating up lots of time. And according to Searchina, Pyocotan is apparently distributing those posters in AC to those who ask. If so, wow, what a nice guy.
ニコ生しながら新作デザイン「おい、小池」 [@pyocotan]
『とびだせ どうぶつの森』で「おい！ 小池」のポスターを描いて話題に [Searchina]