Ken Sugimori "original" Raichu illustration for sale! (Some evidence to the contrary!)

[Kuchiki]

Hi all, recently a listing for an ‘original’ Ken Sugimori illustration has come up for sale from popular Japanese auction house, Mandarake auctions. The illustration (below), features Raichu and claims to be the same image that was used during the production of the 1997 ‘cardass’ series. The link to the item is here.

Unfortunately, I am in possession of some evidence that would indicate that this illustration was NOT drawn by Sugimori.

I believe that this Raichu was purchased privately from a Yahoo Auctions seller in approx 2023, when a number of other very similar illustrations were being sold.

These included illustrations of Snorlax, Omanyte and a Moltres (See below).

When these came up for sale originally on Yahoo Auctions, I had some friends of mine in Japan message the seller to query whether they really were illustrated by Sugimori, to which they got the following replies. (NOTE: “Fire” in the second screenshot is bad translation of ‘Moltres’, for some reason. This seller was also selling some original Street Fighter art at the time, which is why there is some reference to that.)

As you can see from these responses from the seller. They claim that these illustrations are NOT drawn by Sugimori. However, they do claim that the illustration was definitely used for the final cardass product. So, whilst not drawn by Sugimori himself, it would still be a pretty cool piece to own.

Unfortunately, the current bid on this Raichu is now over $25,000! A price which I am almost certain is due to the fact it’s listed as an original Sugimori. I dread to think what the final price will be on an auction that doesn’t end for another 3 weeks.

So, if you happen to have a few hundred thousand dollars available to spend on some Pokemon art, just be warned that this Raichu is very likely NOT drawn by Sugimori.

I will be sending my evidence to Mandarake tomorrow!

UPDATE: Evidence emailed to Mandarake (Tues, 11th Aug 2025). I will update this topic with their response.

UPDATE 2: It’s now been over two weeks and Mandarake are seemingly choosing to ignore the evidence I’ve presented them (no response whatsoever). I’m not really sure what to do from here, seems Mandarake have chosen money over morals!

[rtas]

@neos

[Corylus]

Twitter user @neostcg shared an auction on Mandarake with a supposedly original handdrawn illustration of Raichu from the 1997 carddass set. Do you think it’s legit? Even if not, it’s quite a decent scan of the artwork. It’s definitely fascinating to see how Raichu was painted on smooth paper^[1], which would explain the lack of texture on the carddass set and more uniform spread of the colours used. Looking at the bright orange of Raichu’s legs and the blue sparking effects on Thunderwave, there are hard edges while the rest of the illustration has soft gradients (cel shading excluded). I wonder if those are intentional? Maybe the water already dried before he could apply colour to the wet surface, which is essential for achieving soft gradients. Given how there were over 150 illustrations on a probably tight schedule, redoing it might have been to time consuming. However those are just assumptions of mine and could be totally wrong. One more thing: I’m surprised how the tail isn’t solid ink, but actually uses black watercolour. At that time Sugimori usually painted black parts of Pokémon (like Raichu’s eyes for example) pitch black with ink, so that’s something new I learned about his technique.

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1. Sugimori usually painted on textured watercolour paper from the brand Canson, which is a bit more absorbant, resulting in rich and vibrant colours. The carddass illustrations always had a different look from the rest of his portfolio, with less saturated colours.
   

   
   
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[smpratte]

Just a heads up I consolidated the Raichu threads.

[swolepoke]

You beat me to the punch! Thanks for getting the conversation on this started!

Unfortunately, I fully agree with you and I don’t think these are Ken Sugimori originals as well. I believe an in-house artist, or a third party, was hired to draw these for the Cardass series. Do I think they could be real Cardass artwork? Yes. Do I think Ken Sugimori drew them? No. Here’s a few reasons why.

Like you had mentioned, the seller of these on Yahoo Japan was very clearly a former employee of the company that produced Cardass, or so I’m assuming they were. We know this based on the fact that they were also selling original art for Street Fighter and other franchises. So with that in mind, there shouldn’t be any reason to doubt them when they clearly stated twice these are not drawn by Ken Sugimoris. For all we know, none of the items they were selling were real.

Another reason why I am skeptical of these is because based off interactions from in-person events and Twitter, with Kagemaru Himeno, Mitsuhiro Arita and even Ken Sugimori himself, we know all the original art stays with the artist, or at least back then it did. Kagemaru and Arita have brought original pieces to artist events in the US and Sugimori has posted dozens of images of the originals he still owns.

The biggest issue here is the original seller of these had a complete set of all the artwork and sold them 98% of them to a Chienese Animation Cel collector in China. I should also mention they have zero backround in anything Pokemon related, outside of animation cels. The new owner had previously reached out to multiple auctions houses in the US and was denied, since there is literally zero proof that they are authentic or drawn by Ken Sugimori. I had reached out to the new owner of these on Instagram and was quickly told I’m wrong. They’re in the mindset that the original seller, who they know said they’re not Sugimori originals, is wrong and doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Now that Mandarake is auctioning them off, they’re falling back on Mandarake’s preistge as futher proof to try and back these as being real.

The biggest concern here is the owner isn’t willing to accept these aren’t drawn by Ken Sugimori and is planning on slowly selling 100+ more of these as so.

TLDR: I think these artwork could be real, but they’re not drawn by Ken Sugimori. We can be confident in this based off artist events, twitter and the original seller themselves saying Sugimori didn’t draw them. The current owner of these will not accept that possibility and will slowly selling off 100+ more.

[Kuchiki]

Thanks for the comment!

You’re absolutely right that the biggest problem is that the seller won’t listen to reasoning regarding the art being by Sugimori.

That is essentially fraud. I’m hoping by drawing attention to it and contacting Mandarake they will at least revise the listing.

Like I alluded to, I still think these would fetch a hefty sum even without Sugimori’s name attached to them.

That’s if they’re legit of course. To me this Raichu looks pretty spot on and to fake water colour I can imagine would be pretty difficult! I’m no expert though. I agree that I think they are the actual artworks used on cardass, just not drawn by KS.

[thundermoo]

Im having deja vu from about 12 months ago

[Kuchiki]

What happened 12 months ago?

[thundermoo]

Old employee sold some cards and things, it didn’t turn into a big disaster or anything

[Kuchiki]

Oooooh sorry, yeah I’m with you! My bad.

[BANKS]

nah you’re good, banger first post, welcome to E4!

[Corylus]

So the 1997 carddass illustrations weren’t drawn by Sugimori? That could explain some of the stylistic differences. Thanks for the heads-up.

[SolemnStar]

Banger of a first post welcome to the forum. I wish this were a happier first post. But important one.

Also, this is not a good year for pokemon related scandals is it?

[Wargraymon]

If it’s real artwork drawn during that time period then I think it would be nice to own but the real artist needs to be tracked down before I would buy, if I had that kind of money anyway.

[Kuchiki]

Quick update!

Yesterday I forwarded all the evidence to Mandarake.

I received an email back from one of the team that they have forwarded my email to the relevant auction team.

I’ll keep you updated on their reply.

[Kuchiki]

Hey man!

Mandarake have supplied an update regarding the authenticity of the Raichu. It seems that they cite Bulbapedia as the main source of their research .

That tells me all I need to know about their level of “expertise” that their so called experts use to authenticate these things!

Mandarake | On the Authenticity of Ken Sugimori’s Hand-Drawn Color Licensed...

[mthursty]

Perhaps a revision should be submitted for bulbapiedia

[pfm]

Are you saying you don’t trust dittodan from neocities???

[boblethebanned]

HA had listed as an early auction preview the 1997 Carddass Meowth and holo Clefairy. Looked very good. They were pulled while still in early preview. Had no mention of Sugimori in the title or (fleshed out) description and were slated for a regular Wednesday auction if I recall correctly. About 6 months ago. Would be curious to hear what they have to say if someone wants to inquire. I can’t retrieve the exact auction / item details.

[Kuchiki]

I believe they were presented with similar evidence so pulled the lot from the auction completely.