@imakunizauntie Himeno has that great sense of old school traditional Japanese weirdness that I wish more art featured.
4 Likes
Himeno is without a doubt up there with Arita, Sugimori and Kinebuchi as one of the definitive god tier artists. I adore her early works, like in Jungle or Vending. Everytime she draws a sunset, you know you’re in for some magic.
I’d love to see more of your Himeno collection!
4 Likes
Sorry for my late reply. I made a photo of page where Komiya talks about his favorite card and translated the text as well.
It says:
“Diglett is a simple-looking Pokémon. If you relax your concentration, it dissolves into the scenery, like a good piece of chocolate melts in your mouth, and disappears.
What goes on in the head of such a fragile existence? He wants to become an unwavering and overwhelming presence. He wants to surpass Legendary Pokémon and similarly strong enemies.
To bring out his quiet ambition in a vivid way, more than simply using stylish, cute background colours, I wanted to show his bravery, as if he was willing to die in battle. His revenge (Chushingura) is just about to start!”
*Chushingura is referring to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABshingura
Honestly, his writing is even crazier than his art style.
Here’s a bit more about the magazine:
It’s called Illustration and is not an official Pokémon product, but a magazine that focusses on anything illustration related (the latter half of the magazine is about the best Japanese book covers of 2020, which I loved just as much as the Pokémon card related part).
As for Pokémon, it includes:
- Several pages of selected card illustrations.
- A long interview with Mitsuhiro Arita
- Insights into the production and evaluation process of a card illustration
- An interview with the current TCG art director
- Seven card illustrations from illustrators that don’t work for Pokémon (my highlight; I’ve attached a photo at the bottom of this post)
- An interview with Nishida Yuu, who became a card illustrator after winning an official competition
- A talk with Sowsow, Kirisaki, Saito Kouki and Himeno Kagemaru
- 20 illustrators presenting their favorite cards (among them Aya Kusabe, Sui, Yukiko Baba and of course the Komiya I translated above).
It was a fun read, but to be honest, there wasn’t much new information. We learn a bit about how some of the mentioned illustrators work, how they started working with Pokémon and what they pay attention to when creating a design.
And before you ask: No, sadly the card designs of those seven illustrators will not be printed and released…
7 Likes
Dude, thank you so much for that! I love his interpretation and to finally hear what went through his head drawing it. His style of talking/writing definitely matches his style of illustrating.
Am I being correct in that Kusube’s favorite card is the Omanyte right next to the Diglett? That’s super cool to know as well!
Sorry to bother you any further, but may I please ask you to share the other illustrators’ favorite card artworks, too? You don’t even have to go through the effort of translating. I’d assume there are a lot of people interested in that (at least I am for sure)! 
4 Likes
Kusube says this Omanyte might be the closest a Pokémon is to looking like an actual living thing.
I will try to upload the other artist’s favorites tomorrow, when I have better lighting 
4 Likes
I cannot thank you enough, @thesirknight! And I know I’m not the only one. Echoing what muk said.
I’ll look forward to another episode of your insight! I have a magazine in my cart right now on ebay. Though I cannot read it, it will be a marvel to look through.
4 Likes
Over the weekend a friend of mine let me sift through his cards and take any Komiya cards I wanted for my collection. I left with 23 cards, but it motivated me to move from casual to active collecting.
A few days later and I’ve purchased about 150 cards illustrated by him lol missing the big hitters like the Touch Change Generation, Pokykyun and Scream Psyduck, and a few others that aren’t quite as expensive. I’m skipping the New Years Present jumbo, but I’ll print out a high quality picture of it and slap it on the inside cover of my binder to at least have some representation for that card.
It feels like I’m going too fast now, but I’m really having a lot of fun with this collection. Plus the vast majority of the cards are super cheap which is a strange, but welcome feeling considering the last few years I had been working on expensive e series sets.
I’ll post pics of my binder set up later.
7 Likes
These are favorite cards of 20 Pokémon card illustrators. I don’t have a scanning device, so this is the best I could do. If you have any questions regarding the magazine, feel free to ask.
5 Likes
You have all changed me. Now I’m looking for Suzuki and komiya ex series cards. I love ex series Suzuki. The artwork just draws me in. There’s a gravelar from Deoxys that is awesome.
6 Likes
Artist Komiya Collectors of e4 - General Thread. Haha. This thread was never intended to be so Komiya-heavy, but I won’t complain 
I really do think it is one of the best artists to dedicate a binder to - mostly very affordable, always refreshing and he’s in the game long enough that you can see a gradual evolution of his style.
@tonysandlin , that sounds awesome and I’m glad you seem to have as much fun as I do! The speed of completion naturally slows down a bit once you get to the more obscure cards. Personally I don’t regret buying all the cheapest ones in one batch. It felt like a steal to cut down the shipping costs that much and fill in SO many gaps in the binder.
I’d love to see the way you organize your binder to compare it to mine!
@hisoka107 , ha didn’t think I’d see you here, Mr. PSA 10 ex completionist Just kidding of course, you’re more than welcome! Komiya did quite a lot of FANTASTIC cards during the ex era. Many of them look especially good as reverse holos IMO. The Sandshrew will always be one of my favorites and Exeggcute is one of the best meme artworks in all of Pokemon.
Regarding the other artist you mentioned, Suzuki; I haven’t heard of them before and their output seems very small. But man do I have to admit that their trilogy of Corphish’s is amazing. Haha.
7 Likes
Ohhhh and not to forget, THANK you, @thesirknight! It’s super cool to have this kind of information in this thread. After all, is there any better place for this in the internet than here? 
2 Likes
@muk ,
THank you! I never thought I’d be here. That sandshrew is one of my favorite artworks. I really like the Drowzee as well from Delta Species.
Have you seen the artwork from Ex Legend Maker? that set has some amazing artwork. Victreebel, wailord, Gengar, Arcanine, growlithe, and my all-time favorite is Omanyte.
6 Likes
Holy crap I’ve never seen that Misdreavus, AMAZING. Dude I’ve already made the conversion of religion to EX’s, @hisoka107, stop tempting me with the whole series’/era from which they came. I have too many goals right now damnit. That Victreebel has to be one of Kizuki’s best.
2 Likes
I’m in the process of trying to complete a binder with one of each illustrations by sui. Really love her style and the overall softness to almost all of her cards.
It’s captured really nicely in her fanart as well which can be seen here.
suiseistarcomet.ame-zaiku.com/gallery/fanart/index.html
A few of my favourites are:
I am trying to collect in Japanese exclusively but as part of trying to find all the cards she had illustrated a few of these seems to only be available in English as alternate arts.
Specially its the following from this list: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Category:Illus._by_sui
Clefable (HGSS)
Clefairy (HGSS)
Cleffa (HGSS)
Dwebble (Legendary Treasures)
I have not been able to find these in any Japanese releases (decks, promos etc.) so I wanted to ask in here if anyone are aware of those 4 cards in Japanese? If not ill have to live with those being in English.
4 Likes
12 Likes
The Dwebble was also released in the Japanese Mewtwo vs Genesect Deck Kit (006/016).
The Call of Legends Cleffa, Clefairy, and Clefable artworks haven’t been released in Japanese I’m afraid, only in English, German, French, and Italian.
Greetz,
Quuador
2 Likes
Thank you - I somehow missed that Dwebble.
It seems to also be the case with the Vaporeon alt. art she did for Call of Legends. Oh well, I’ve already made space for those English cards in the binder so ill have to live with it
2 Likes
The link to the Komiya spreadsheet on the first page appears to not be working. Can someone share the latest version?
1 Like
Still works fine on my end. Maybe try with a different browser or clear the cache of your current browser?
Keep in mind though, the latest 4-
5 sets aren’t included yet. I’ll update it soon.
1 Like
Got it to work on Firefox. Thanks Muk.
2 Likes