You might not know Japanese illustrator NekoshowguN. But you damn well should.
The young artist first made her splash as part of the Osaka art collective Digmeout. She's done art for music games GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, but her highest profile work to date is lead character and weapon design for Goichi Suda's upcoming hack-and-slash Lollipop Chainsaw.
Before that, NekoshowguN was doing illustrations of Nintendo characters in her freetime—for fun. (These illustrations have no official connection to the Kyoto-based game maker.) And before that, she was playing Nintendo games.
Her art is pulpy and glossy, covered in lipstick and blood. There's pure sex appeal mashed with pure terror.
"I loved video games since I was a kid," NekoshowguN recently told Kotaku. She grew up playing Mario and Zelda. "I'm kind of stuck on recollections of meeting Nintendo characters. Surely, I'm not alone."
No, NekoshowguN, you are not.
For more of NekoshowguN's work, visit her official site as well as her Flickr page. Images courtesy of NekoshowguN.