Ilya Kushvinov, the popular artist who has been put in charge of character design for the upcoming Death Stranding anime is being accused of tracing or otherwise copying artwork.

According to some, Kushvinov in the past allegedly went by the online handle KR0NPR1NZ which had posted artwork that appeared to have been traced. The artwork featured popular characters from shows and movies like Cowboy Bebop and Kiki’s Delivery Service.

However Kushvinov denied the allegations and in a Reddit post stated that while he didn’t trace, he used the art for “study” and he apologized for not crediting the original artists.

First of all, that wasn’t a traces, a more like master copies (so I haven’t painted over those, but copied: basically original image on the left, my canvas on the right and I am trying to analyze the master work or a photo by reproducing it), but the trouble was that at that time I was uploading those to the social networks with just stating that it’s a study, without giving proper credit to the original (being not mindful enough, I was thinking like “of course everybody has seen the original and would understand that this is just a copy”), so that unintentionally made a lot of people think that I am trying to show those as my original illustrations. After I got it pointed out to me, I realized my mistake and apologized on my DeviantArt page, edit all the info about the copied works, and decided to stop this kind of practice.

It bears mentioning that these accusations are all approximately 8 years old, and it’s clear that Kushvinov has talent as a character designer and animation director, having directed the anime music video for “Let You Down” for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

However for some internet users, they feel that as a matter of ethics, Kushvinov’s past allegations bear repeating.

Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is now available for PC (via Steam), Mac, iOS, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Death Stranding: Isolations is set to air exclusively on Disney+ sometime in 2027.