Tsunako (つなこ, born January 28, 1986) is a Japanese video game creator and illustrator who worked for Idea Factory. She has designed and illustrated characters for various games and print media. She is best known for illustrating the Hyperdimension Neptunia video game series, published by Idea Factory and developed by Compile Heart, as well as the Date A Live light novel series, written by Kōshi Tachibana.[1]
Tsunako joined Idea Factory in 2007, beginning as a general game sprite creator for games such as Spectral Gene and Cross Edge. She later became the lead character designer for the Hyperdimension Neptunia game series,[2] and signed a deal with light novel author Kōshi Tachibana as the illustrator for Date A Live.[3] She has also made guest illustrations for games such as Sei Madou Monogatari.[4] She ranked 6th on the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2014 Top Illustrator Rankings.
On December 1, 2018, Tsunako left her role at Idea Factory and decided to move out of the city. She noted on her blog that her reasoning for this was one of her family members being in poor physical condition. She is still set to work at Idea Factory as a freelance illustrator.[5][6]