Concealing his reflections on postwar Japan behind a girl’s sweet gaze of innocence, MR.’s Hiromi—Blue Autumn Sky captures the artist’s signature opposition of appearance and reality. Executed in 2017, MR.’s life-size representation fits neatly into his celebrated oeuvre, where he draws from Japanese pop culture. The sculpture completely embodies mainstream Japanese kitsch appeal and street culture, exemplifying MR.’s expert incorporation of familiar themes and motifs. Otaku culture, referring to the consuming Japanese obsession with anime and manga, significantly influences MR.’s cartoonish depictions. Dressing his Hiromi—Blue Autumn Sky in neo-pop aesthetic, the artist heightens the trendy appeal of his portrayals to tap into Japanese notions of moe, the platonic adoration towards fictional manga and anime characters.

Furthering this attraction, MR. renders Hiromi in smooth, milky skin and embellishes her candy pink hair with animal hairpins. Conveyed in his emblematic style, Hiromi’s gentle gaze of naivete is also central to the work’s impact: when one first encounters the statue of Hiromi, they are immediately met by her blue and green puppy eyes of innocence. Hiromi’s ‘kawaii’ posture and soft smile further invite viewers to come closer, establishing an intimate relationship of exchange and admiration. Despite this deceitful surface appearance of cheerful innocence and simplicity, Hiromi—Blue Autumn Sky highlights a maturation and spotlights an emotional range compared to the MR.’s previous sexually explicit works. In fact, much of the artist’s works refer to Otaku culture, characterized by men obsessed with the world of manga, video games and animation. In the artist’s perspective, “it has only encouraged a kind of psychological complex I have in my approach to creating girl characters like them… Well, whenever I drew one, I wanted her to be as cute as possible. But by the time I finished, she wouldn’t look as cute as I wanted her to be. I’ve gotten better at it over time, and I can make my characters cuter now, but I’d like to make them even cuter.” (the artist on art, life and anime, TimeOut, 2016).

Behind the nostalgic, cute looking sculpture lies a melancholy atmosphere that contrasts greatly with the artist’s aesthetic. “I paint daily in order to escape the devil that haunts my soul...so I paint in resignation” refers to the economic and psychological troubles that has effected Japan from the Fukushima nuclear incident in 2011. Acting as a gatekeeper, Hiromi—Blue Autumn Sky gives us a glimpse into MR.’s ambiguous world of Japanese youth culture.

《Hiromi—藍秋天》畫中女孩天真無邪的凝視背後，隱藏了藝術家MR.對戰後日本的反思。他的創作的核心思想是反抗表象和現實，本作即是一例。這件真人尺寸的雕塑創作於2017年，並一如以往地取材自日本流行文化。這個雕塑揉合了各種為人熟悉的主題及風格，體現了日本主流俗氣的一面和街頭文化，可見MR. 對不同題材和圖案的嫻熟運用。御宅族文化體現日本人對動漫世界的極致迷戀，這種文化對MR.的卡通化風格影響極深。《Hiromi—藍秋天》採用新普普主義美學風格，當中造型新潮可愛的人物具有「萌」的特質，體現日本人對虛構動漫人物那種柏拉圖式的迷戀。

為了將這種魅力發揮得更淋漓盡致，MR.讓筆下的Hiromi肌膚細緻幼滑，並以動物造型的髮夾裝飾她粉紅色的秀髮。在MR.充滿象徵性的風格刻劃之下，Hiromi溫柔而天真的目光是本作的重點：觀者初次與Hiromi見面時，都會留意到她一藍一綠的大眼睛，眼神純真無邪。Hiromi「可愛」（kawaii）的姿態與溫柔的微笑彷彿在邀請觀者與她靠近，通過交流和欣賞建立親密的關係。在這個看似愉快、天真而簡單的表象之下，《Hiromi—藍秋天》展現藝術家更成熟的一面；與MR. 過往作品中直白的情色意味相比，本作展現出更複雜豐富的情緒。其實，藝術家許多的作品都與御宅族文化有關。御宅族一般指沉迷於漫畫、電子遊戲及動畫世界的男性。藝術家如此形容自己的視角：「我塑造這種女性角色時，心理上總是有一種糾結⋯⋯我畫一個女孩的時候，總是希望她越可愛越好。可是完成之後，卻發現她沒有我期望中那樣可愛。隨著時日，我畫得比較好了，能令筆下的人物更可愛，但我還是想令她們更可愛。」（引述藝術家本人，《TimeOut》，2016年）

這個懷舊、可愛的雕塑背後，隱藏了一種多愁善感的氛圍，與她活潑俏麗的形象形成強烈對比。MR.曾表示：「我每日都畫畫，為的是擺脫纏繞著我靈魂的惡魔⋯⋯所以我抱著最壞打算的心態繪畫。」他所指的是自2011年的福島核事故後，困擾著日本經濟的問題及心理上的創傷。《Hiromi—藍秋天》擔當著守護者的角色 ，讓我們窺見藝術家筆下含糊曖昧的日本青年文化世界。