Meeting Mitsuhiro Arita at Collective Con- Jacksonville, FL

Hey guys!
This Saturday I had the awesome opportunity of meeting Mitsuhiro Arita at Collective Con. :sunglasses:
I am not going to lie, I felt like I was meeting Britney Spears (you would understand if you knew my level of excitement).

Thankfully, I was a able to take a few pics of the moment here!

Here is a pic of Mr. Arita and I :blush:

Arita signing my cards :blush:

My Staff Gyarados and Charizard :sunglasses:

I really really love this holo Pikachu variant that’s available in the Evolutions Theme Deck so I had to get it signed :grin:

This full artwork is part of the Pokemon Card Game Art Collection Book. He also signed it for me and the cards :heart_eyes: .

Some of my favorite 20th Anniversary Cards

I had such an amazing time, he is an amazing artist, and as a fan, I couldn’t be happier! He made my weekend!!!
Hope you guys enjoy the pics!

jjnoriega

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Those staff cards look insane!

The event looks much less packaged than at Worlds. Were you able to talk to him much?

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Yeah that staff zard looks like it might of been 10 worthy if the back was good, it looks good left to right. Still wishing i didn’t sell my staff zard for 250 but it wasn’t even 9 worthy. Crazy seeing that 10 in the thousands already. Wishing some events happen on the west coast soon.

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Thanks Scott!! I got there early so I was able to be one of his first in line. I did notice that as he was signing my cards the line started to grow. I did get to share with him my excitement and all. He was very friendly and the assistant he had with him was very cool too; he seemed happy when I told him that the Mew and Pikachu XY-P promos were one of my favorites of his newer artwork with Pokemon. Other than that, I didn’t talk too much lol I was a bit nervous lol! He is coming back to Florida in June so hopefully I can get to see him again. He also had a lot of his own artwork which looked awesome; very dark and adult like.

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I just love how round he drew the pikachus xD

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Good job jj and congrats:)

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i know!!! I love it, the original fat pika lol :wink:

thanks man! It was my first time meeting him so I couldn’t be more excited!

We need to get an ongoing list of all the places he’s going. I would have tried to make it down there had I known. That sounds cool and looks like you had a great time! Nice shirt!

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mitsuhiroarita.com/category/events/

June 11th(SAT)-12th(SUN)

Ocala, Florida

is the next one

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I second this and a list for other artist as well in the Pokemon TCG, it would be really cool for the collectors to be able to plan out trips to meet their favorite artist.

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Yeah, I agree. I couldn’t find anything regarding Ken Sugimori. He did publish a book recently with all of his most popular artwork and that would be nice to get autographed along with some cards :wink:.

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Cool! This is from his Biography on the website:

"BIOGRAPHY

HI, I’m Mitsuhiro Arita. I know I’m quite will known as an artist of Pokémon TCG, but I had been worked on a lot of another projects that you may never known. This is the first to visiting to Europe, so I want to introduce my self.

I was born in Fukuoka, Japan and now living in Tokyo, Japan. I started my carrier as an professional illustrator in 1996 and the first project for me was Pokémon TCG. Sounds like dream? But that was even before the first GBA Pokémon has not released. I honestly worried about to find another project before the end of my contract. Anyway, I started work on Pokémon TCG since the proto-type stage. I drew illustrations for prototype and designed first five energy mark as well."

He may be in the market for an editor

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@gemmintpokemon are you gonna try to come to the one in June?

There’s a strong chance I’ll be in FL in June. I could make a trip over there. I cannot go to Regionals in Indianapolis anymore. I had a commitment come up, so this would be a great way to do something cool still.

I can’t remember who I bought this from in this forum but I still have it after so many years and now it’s signed :blush:

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that’s awesome!!! I wish I would’ve gotten more stuff signed but I was afraid of making a line. I can’t wait to meet him again!

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Nice, this is making me want to purchase plane tickets to the event this summer, wishing he had some westcoast events this year.

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I sold 6 or 7 of those a number of years ago. Did you get that from me? If so…I want it back lol.

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I couldn’t remember if it was either you or Scott, but since you mentioned that you did sell some…I am pretty sure it was from you xD