After nearly five years since I got my first Natta Wake card, I’ve finally completed this beautiful set! It was illustrated by none other than Kagemaru Himeno, my all-time favourite artist. Growing up with Jungle and Fossil, I’ve always admired her unique ability to combine colours and various techniques. I’m very sure her early artworks were one of the reasons why I fell in love with Pokémon back then.
The first card I purchased was Birthday Pikachu in late 2019. It was a completely random pickup, as I had just recently returned to the hobby and hadn’t yet decided what I wanted to collect. I simply went on eBay, saw a cool Japanese card, and thought hey, this looks nice, let me get it.
This set is also special to me because I only purchased one card per year. The timing of the first three were unintentional, and then I decided that continuing this way would make the set truly unique once completed. Here are the dates of acquisition:
- Pikachu: Sep 27, 2019
- Hoppip: May 4, 2020
- Mankey: Nov 28, 2021
- Sunkern: Jan 25, 2022
- Jynx: Aug 21, 2023
- Psyduck: Feb 29, 2024
My favourite of all is Mankey. I am inspired by the story, and whenever I need some Courage in my life (greetings to Phoenix =), I always remember how brave this Mankey was, reaching for those apples to share with his friends.
And I’m definitely not the only one enjoying these beautiful cards! Here’s a birthday boy Fido 
with his favourite mouse. Seeing this artwork made Fido’s day, and let’s just say I was happy the card was sleeved =)
Putting this set together was a lot of fun and, most importantly, a great lesson in being patient, engaged, and reminding myself that the journey is the goal.
For anyone interested in more information about Natta Wake, here’s a nice article on E4 by pfm.
Thank you all for stopping by and to Himeno for creating such a great set to collect!
A bonus Pokémon puzzle for muk
@muk When you posted a picture of your Christmas gift a while back, it brought back a ton of memories. And just like I promised in my reply, I’m sharing my favourite puzzles here too =)
Below on the left, there’s the Pokémon one, and right next to it, a slightly bigger world map. A few years back, I was super into assembling, and these two are probably my favourites. Just for reference, there’s a PSA card in the bottom right corner.
Thanks again for sharing, already looking forward to your next collection update!