The cartoonish children and animals featured in Yoshitomo Nara’s drawings, paintings, and sculptures enjoy widespread appeal because of their very adult bad attitudes. Whether the characters wield guitars or outsize knives, they have made Nara a genuine crossover artist, taken seriously by the commercial, critical, and academic branches of the art world. He enjoys the adoration of an eager fan base that snaps up his imagery on everything from barrettes to phone covers, leggings to alarm clocks.