She did not have to go that hard, but she did anyway. We are grateful
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THAT is a fire pokemon! Glad I already started an Egawa collection.
I have really appreciated that with the recent sets (Sun Moon too) we are seeing more gritty art styles. Before, TOKIYA, Kawayoo, and a few others used a more manga-esque style, but we rarely saw stuff like this, if EVER. it mostly still felt cheery and comical, in some sense, but this is magnificent, and it’s not the only one. Hopefully, it continues.
‘***’
We could see more cool sci-fi arts, with the setting for this gen!
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This one is lovely as well but Dunsparce as a larva gives me the syntax error. Should be a Forretress or Shuckle instead.
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Adding Celebi is an interesting choice, never thought Celebi was a bug…
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Pretty sure it’s supposed to basically be a onion fairy
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The layout and foiling on these are beyond horrible but Arita really went all out with the illustrations, they look incredible! Framed prints would be quite something.
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The sableye and ttar’s refractions in the gem are awesome! Having arita do every one of these was a bit overkill, but it was glorious overkill!
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the biggest pitfall of the tag team cards was the yellow corners/logo. Its way too distracting and was the main reason I put off collecting them. Many, many beautiful arts though.
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Agreed. Those borders, abominable as they are, would probably work a bit better without the yellow. How these illustrations had to happen in the era of GXs and flat Vs…oh the pain! Borderless, japanese texture and non-iridescent foil. They would’ve been unstoppable.
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IMO another pitfall is that some of the alt art versions are worse or not much better than their normal counterparts… mostly because arita did the normal ones and the alt arts just can’t compare in some cases lol.
the alt arts are strictly better than the V’s in the SWSH era. they’re are so distinctively better. but you can’t really say the same about the tag team era.
For example
vs
The arita artwork is just much better
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Part of it, I’m convinced, is that by choosing Arita to do every basic tag team card, they ensured that the bar to beat would be really high. If they’d chosen Komiya, or EGAWA, it’s probly have been similar, but an artist like Scav, Yuka Morii, or TOKIYA (while good - with far less dynamic range in their work) it’s less likely so many would be bangers. Just IMH&SO.
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Part of it is definitely that Arita just set the bar high. But the more I think about it, I realize it actually has less to do with the artists they picked and more so that alt arts hadn’t really developed an identity yet.
The alt arts in SWSH are better not because they’re picking better artists but because they feature a distinctive look: abundant cameos, dynamic poses, unconventional scenery, experimental art styles, etc.
None of the S&M alt arts had cameos. Which is such an important part of alt arts nowadays. The first big alt arts of the SWSH era were Urshifu VMAX and T-tar and the cameos they had were such an important part in paving the way for future alt arts imo.
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Good points. Cameos take advantage of the bigger canvas the alt arts provide. Still, the alt arts now have some that are not as good, TBH, and I think again, with all the eggs in one basket, a single artist doing all the illus. MUST either hit or miss. TagTeam was just a perfect storm, and honestly, some of the alt arts from that era ARE better than Arita’s. I’ll be the first to gush over Arita’s work, but these come to mind.
There are several elements at play here, but this does make me think of a great question:
Are we in the Golden age of the TCG? Is it because of the Art? Is it not actually the Golden Age, in-spite of the art? Or are these questions poitnless cuz there’'ll be more than one ‘golden age’?
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I totally agree on the Gengar and Mimikyu alt. I pulled the regular art when it came out and decided there wasn’t much point in chasing the alt when the regular art was so good. Some of the Tag Team alts are amazing, but I do think there is more consistency with the SWSH alts.
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If someone did a 1-to-1 remake of GSC in this art style, maybe with some more dynamic battle animations, I would buy multiples of every copy and give them out. Would love a remake in the Octopath Traveller style.
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