Quuador's Collection - Spare book closet put to good use

The first fourteen language parts were Chinese (click here to go to that part); Dutch (click here to go to that part); English (click here to go to that part); French (click here to go to that part); German (click here to go to that part); Indonesian (click here to go to that part); Italian (click here to go to that part); Japanese (click here to go to that part); Korean (click here to go to that part); Polish (click here to go to that part); Portuguese (click here to go to that part); Russian (click here to go to that part); Spanish (click here to go to that part); and Thai (click here to go to that part).
And the first two special parts were the Unofficial Pikachu cards (click here to go to that part) and Jumbo Cameos (click here to go to that part).

Three new autographed Pikachu cards arrived the day before yesterday, so it’s time for the Autographed ‘Pikachu around the World’ part of my collection. I’ve split them up into three categories below: autographs done by illustrators of Pokémon TCG artworks; autographs done by voice actors/actresses; and all other miscellaneous autographs that didn’t fit in the previous two categories.

Autographs:

Let me once again start with a picture of all autographed Pikachu cards in my collection in chronological order of how I received them, except for the two Jumbos at the bottom (the one with seven autographs would chronologically come just before the Cherry Blossom Afro Pikachu with Kouki Saitou autograph, and the Veronica Taylor autographed Jumbo card with certificate would come just after that):

Illustrators:

Let me start with all autographs of illustrators. I will also go over them in the order I received them, but grouped together per illustrator.

The very first autographed card I got was an English EX Sandstorm Pikachu autographed by Mitsuhiro Arita and authenticated by Beckett, which I won from a PWCC auction. Soon after I won both the other Beckett authenticated Base Set Pikachu in PWCC auctions as well. One Shadowless Red Cheeks with Mitsuhiro Arita’s English autograph and one unlimited edition (Yellow Cheeks) with his Japanese autograph. I bid on both of them, because I liked that one was the English autograph and the other the Japanese. The other eight autographed XY Evolutions/Expansion Pack 20th Anniversary cards were done through the service provided for the Italian Milan Cartoomics event at the start of March 2017. One English Shattered Ice Pikachu I had in my duplicated stack, and one of each available language of the XY Evolutions/Expansion Pack 20th Anniversary set: English; Japanese; German; French; Italian; Spanish; and Korean. Mitsuhiro Arita autographed all of these with his Japanese autograph. Below also a picture when mr. Arita was autographing my cards.


Next we have a Japanese 090/XY-P Full Art Pikachu promo autographed by Imakuni? (Tomoaki Imakuni). Imkauni? is not the illustrator of this card in particular (which is Hitoshi Ariga), but he is an illustrator for the Pokémon TCG. I won this card in a Yahoo Japan auction. I’m not sure if the November 1st, 2014 date signifies something, like an event where Imakuni? was present.

The next autograph from an illustrator is Kouki Saitou. In January 2019 Kouki Saitou was at the Dallas Regional Championships event in the US to autograph, but I honestly forgot about it. When I saw the Japanese 211/SM-P Cherry Blossom Afro Pikachu promo with cute doodle on eBay soon after I couldn’t resist buying it. Later on I also bought the English POP Series 4 Pikachu from a fellow Efour member, because the POP 4 Pikachu artwork is among my favorites for Pikachu.

In Spring 2019 Midori Harada was going through Europe to some events. I’m not sure about all the places she visited, but I know one was in Rome, Italy and the other was at the FACTS (Fantasy Anime Comics Toys Space) event in Gent, Belgium on April 7th, 2019. An online friend of mine who’s a fellow Pikachu collector (he actually owns the largest Pikachu TCG collection in the world right now) who lives in Belgium, met her at the event and also had her autograph two cards for me. One is the English Reverse Holofoil FireRed & LeafGreen Pikachu and the other is a Japanese Shayman LV.X Collection Pack Pikachu, for which I had some duplicates lying around.

At the same Dallas Regional Championship event a year later in January 2020, Masakazu Fukuda was autographing cards. This time I did remembered in time, and send in a Japanese Pikachu Gold Star as well as English Great Encounters Seviper through smpratte’s autograph service. Both of these are personalized to me (as “To Kevin C”), and also contain doodles (of Charizard on Pikachu and of Rayquaza on Seviper).

Next we have an Ooyama’s Pikachu from the third Japanese Vending Machine Series (Green), autographed by OOYAMA (aka Kouichi Ooyama). Based on the date (August 10th, 1999), we know this card was autographed during the Japanese Challenge Road Summer 1999 event, at the Hokkaidō conference in AXES Sapporo (Sapporo) to be exact. This one I bought through eBay, and it’s actually one of two autographs in this post that might not be legit (the other being the Ikua Ōtani autographed Pikachu mentioned later on). Comparing it to some other Ooyama autographs I’ve seen, there are some differences of both the face and the “O” and “Y” in OOYAMA, and the same eBay seller was selling some obvious fake Ken Sugimori autographs I noticed after I had already bought the card, which was suspicious to say the least. If anyone has any opinions or concerns about the legitimacy of this autograph, please let me know (through PM)!

Next we have a German and Italian Skyridge Pikachu autographed by Yuka Morii. She’s known for her clay-figure TCG artworks, and I contacted her through her Instagram after someone tipped me. I send in a German and Italian Pikachu on purpose, since I figured Japanese illustrators usually only see Japanese and English cards. Both of them are also personalized towards me (as “To Kevin”). In addition, she send back a Japanese Thunderclap Spark Pachirisu as additional gift. She was a sweet person to talk to, and I’m grateful she autographed these cards for me. :blush:

Not too long after I also contacted a fairly new Pokémon TCG illustrator through his Twitter: Ryuta Fuse, after being tipped by the same friend who told me about Yuka Morii. Although his English wasn’t too good, which made the communication a bit difficult, I was able to send in an English Sword & Shield Pikachu that he send back autographed, including a cute doodle. Just like the previous I’m very grateful that some Japanese illustrators are willing to do this, since I’m pretty sure they’re officially not allowed to autograph cards outside of official events by the Japanese Pokémon Company if I remember correctly.

Voice actors/actresses:

Next we go over some Pikachu cards that were autographed by voice actors/actresses of the anime and games.

The first are two cards autographed by Veronica Taylor, the voice actress of Ash Ketchum, Delia Ketchum (Ash’ mom), and May for major roles and of Diglett, Goldeen, and Sentret for Pokémon roles, as well as a bunch of minor roles, for the English anime until the end of season 8 (so the first three Generations of Pokémon). I got the smaller English WotC #27 promo first, which was actually my fourth autographed card after the three Beckett authenticated Mitsuhiro Arita autographed Pikachu cards mentioned earlier. The Jumbo with added Certificate of Authenticity of Dynamic Forces I got a few years later. Both of them were bought through eBay.
Here a short video of Veronica Taylor using the voice of Ash.

Next we have another autograph I’m not entirely sure is legit, which is an English BREAKthrough Pikachu autographed by Ikue Ōtani. She’s most known for being the voice actress of Pikachu in both the anime (in all languages) and games, but she’s also done a lot of other minor roles, and voices of Japanese Pokémon, which can be found on the linked Bulbapedia page and of which the most heard one would be Wobbuffet (Sonans). Unfortunately, I’ve only been able to find six autographs of her through google images. The ‘k’ in Ikue and the line she draws diagonally upwards for the ‘t’ in Ōtani are the biggest differences when comparing mine to most of those, but there is one (English XY Evolutions) Pikachu autographed on the same day that looks rather similar to mine. I haven’t been able to figure out which Pokémon event this was on December 15th, 2015, but I’ve heard 100 English XY Evolutions Pikachu were autographed by Ikue Ōtani (all numbered x/100), and were given at this event. It’s plausible she autographed all these cards in a hurry explaining the differences seen with the other examples, but given the differences I’m not sure what to think. This card I bought on eBay back in 2017.
Here a short video of Ikue Ōtani using the voice of Pikachu.

Next we have an English Roaring Skies Pikachu autographed by Sarah Natochenny, who took over the English voice actress roles from the earlier mentioned Veronica Taylor for Ash Ketchum and Delia Ketchum in the anime since 2006, and has done them since. Since then, she’s also done a lot of other character and Pokémon roles which can be found on the Bulbapedia page. This one I bought on eBay last year.
Here a short video of all three voice actresses of Ash in the English anime (the third being Kayzie Rogers, who voiced Ash in a single movie in between Veronica Taylor and Sarah Natochenny), as well as the Japanese voice actress Rika Matsumoto.

Miscellaneous:

Next we have all the other autographs which didn’t fit in the previous two categories.

The first is related to the previous voice actors/actresses category, which is the autograph of a singer. Jason Paige, the singer of the English anime opening of the original season 1, to be exact. I bought this card through his webshop, which he opened two years ago or so.

Next we have a Japanese 229/BW-P Full Art Pikachu promo autographed by the Pokémon TCG Master Division (ages 15+) World Champion: Tsuguyoshi Yamato. You may notice the autograph is different than the one present on the released 2004 World Championship Deck - Magma Spirit. Thanks to this IG post of alecpokemon, I’ve learned that the autograph used on the deck is his actual name: Yamato Tsuguyoshi (大和嗣佳), whereas the autograph he used on the Pikachu below as well as on the card Alec posted is Yamato Tamashii (大和魂), which means Japanese spirit or Spirit of Yamato. I bought this card on eBay for buyout within a few minutes after it was listed, which was about 2/3rd of the price this card was going for without autograph.

Then we have a Japanese 068/SM-P Full Art Pikachu promo autographed by Ponyta Ishii, one of the hosts of the Official Japanese Pokémon Card YouTube channel. I bought this card from Yahoo Japan for about 30 bucks, the same price as this card was going for without autograph at the time. Only after that I noticed the autograph was from a YouTuber, so I thought it was a bit of a bust. About a year after I bought it I heard it wasn’t just any YouTube channel, but instead the official Japanese Pokémon TCG YouTube channel. I’ve also seen a Ponyta autographed by him, including his business card - which is printed on actual Japanese TCG cardboard and has the new Japanese back.

Next we have a card that isn’t a Pikachu. I only have three non-Pikachu TCG cards with autographs, the other two being the Seviper and Pachirisu I’ve showed earlier. The third is this Japanese Mystery of the Fossils Gengar, with an autograph of Dr. Sameji. (Sameji means ‘shark’ in Japanese, and as you can see below, his autograph is very recognizable because he interleaved a shark with it). I’ve also mentioned his autograph earlier in the Jumbo Cameos part, which is featured at the back of the Tropical Present post card. He worked as a programmer for some of the earlier GameBoy Pokémon TCG games, and frequented Japanese Pokémon events and tournaments dressed as an alter ego character, similar to how Dr. Ooyama was usually dressed.

Next we have have two of the autographs that arrived yesterday. Both are Japanese Pikachu from the Kuchiba City Gym theme deck, one autographed by Aknouichi (アクノウチ), the “researcher” for Dark-Type Pokémon, and one by Haganezawa (ハガネザワ), the “researcher” for Steel-Type Pokémon. They were both coworkers/assistants of the previously mentioned Dr. Sameji. Both of the cards are dated December 19th, 1999, which was the day of the Doduo Tag Match Corner event, a parent-child Pokémon card tournament in the Official Pokémon Card Gym of Osaka. The top post in this Japanese blog briefly mentions this event, which is also where the photo of Dr. Sameji came from and it also has a photo of the female Steel-Type researcher who’s autograph you can see on the right in the picture below (I have yet to see any picture of the male Dark-Type researcher). This Doduo Tag Match Corner was one of the Challenge Road 1999 side events that were briefly mentioned in the earlier linked Pokumon article.

Next is the third new autographed Pikachu card in my collection that arrived this week. This Japanese CoroCoro Surfing Pikachu promo is autographed by Fake Dr. Ooyama. OOYAMA and Dr. Ooyama were two alter egos that Kouichi Ooyama used for events/tournaments he visited, but there is also another person who was the character Fake Dr. Ooyama, who’s actual name is Shinichi Samejima. Here a picture of Dr. Ooyama and Fake Dr. Ooyama side by side, taken from the Japanese Pokémon Trainer’s Magazine vol. 3. Both of them have a white coat like Dr. Sameji and the Steel/Dark-Type researchers, but Dr. Ooyama has a Japanese (old) card back on his head and Fake Dr. Ooyama an English card back. Based on the date (August 4th, 1999) this was also autographed at the Challenge Road Summer 1999 event we mentioned earlier at the OOYAMA autographed card, but this time at the Kantō conference in Tokyo International Exhibition Center (Tokyo) a week earlier. The Fake Dr. Ooyama autograph can just like the Dr. Sameji autograph be found at the back of a Tropical Present post card, on the Summer 1999 print to be exact.

And the final autographed Pikachu card in my collection is another Jumbo Base Set Pikachu, but with seven autographs on this single card instead of one!
The first two in silver you might recognize, since I started with his autographs at the start of this post: those are from illustrator Mitsuhiro Arita.
The Gengar autograph with DMTM below it is from Mike Boozer a.k.a. “Dark Master Trainer Mike”. He was a WotC representative and was present at Pokémon events in the earlier WotC days. He’s also pretty well-known for spreading the rumors and pictures of the Prerelease Raichu.
The one that drew the glasses on Pikachu with MTM above it is Mike Gills a.k.a. “Master Trainer Mike”, who was a manager for Pokémon Organized Play.
The sideways golden autograph that’s also on the artwork of Pikachu is from Steven Kam a.k.a. “Dark Master Steven”, who was a manager of the marketing department for WotC and also attended a lot of Pokémon events back in the day.
The BDS autograph at the bottom-left is from Richard Walkoski aka “Big Daddy Snorlax”, a top level Pokémon TCG tournament organizer and judge.
And the final autograph at the bottom-right is from Yukinori Torii. He’s a Pokémon Card Laboratory employee, whom handle the Research and Development (R&D) of the Pokémon TCG, and are basically the creators of the Pokémon TCG in Japan. They are in charge of designing new Pokémon TCG cards, and have the authority on any matter related to the TCG. Yukinori Torii showed some of his e-Reader cards at some of the events, and he also worked on many Pokémon-related games. Searching his name on Bulbapedia results in multiple search results.
I bought this card on eBay when I recognized Mitsuhiro Arita’s autograph and saw the PCL, and only after that started researching who’s autograph were actually on it. I got a lot of help from multiple members on the forum in identifying them. :blush:

And there you have it. All autographed Pikachu cards, or actually all autographed cards, I have in my collection.

Just two more ‘Pikachu around the World’ parts left to go now. Next will be all one-off misprinted Pikachu cards (e.g. miscuts, off-centered cards, ink dots, square cuts, etc. etc.), and after that all altered/extended Pikachu cards.

Greetz,
Quuador

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