Tsutarja Pixel Art

[brandman1996]

They aren't pixel artists.
Nor should they consider themselves artists in any way, if that's how they do things.

That's exactly how they do it. Look here for instance. It looks exactly like this, the official sugimori art of charmander. You get the color's of the in game sprite (add more if needed, here there are no more shades) and pixel over the art. Every fansite calls them Pixel Overs. Apparently here it's Pixel art.