The finest Pinsir stock pot. Stock. And generic.
As the only person not born in that area, I am steadfast when I say sugimori arts suck. After base set they shouldn’t have made any more art that contain basic stock images and backgrounds. Fun fact: Sugimori arts are the easiest art for a non artist to replicate. If you do it good enough, I’m pretty sure that some fans wouldn’t know the difference. That’s how easy it is,
Most people have the counterclaim that it started everything and/or "nostalgia. Keep in mind arita was also in base set and arguably a better artist. We need to stop acting like this man is one of the best artist in the field and get back to reality.
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I prefer my Sugimori with glaze. 
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No one made this claim. At the same time, it’s hard to take you seriously Vert when you critique art this way:
The issue here is certain folks confuse Sugimoir as a freelance artist hired by Creatures to make TCG artwork which is not the case. As art director for Game Freak, and the pokemon franchise for that matter, it’s only respectful to invite him to illustrate a handful of cards here and there.
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Fun fact: There isn’t any research to back this claim, I can already think of one artist that I could draw their artwork in microsoft paint in 30 minutes>
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So without sugimori, we basically wouldn’t have good pokemon art, and we wouldn’t have Rayquaza, which means I wouldn’t have existed. 1/3
No explanation needed 2/3
The fact that I never knew he made shining gyrados low-key makes my comment irrelevant, also it’s 3/3 so my argument is kinda invalid now.
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I think it’s perfect for the timeline it was used as the baseline introduction to Pokémon. However, it’s no longer that timeline 29 years later where it’s not enough to sell sets to the mainstream audience and most people are familiar with said Pokémon, which is why Sugimori’s assets are no longer used after Sword & Shield era
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We are always learning
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What’s your favourite card as far as artwork goes
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And yet in the same set we had Mitsuhiro Arita. I’d argue Arita’s cards are more iconic and evergreen.
Honestly, the only reason I don’t think it’s fair to criticize Sugimori for the cards is because he most likely did not design any of them. At the same time, too many people use nostalgia as the basis for good art.
I cannot take any criticism of modern art in good faith when people then point to Sugimori or bad CGI models as the pinnacle of TCG art. Yep, the cards Sugimori didn’t even design and models limited to late 90s/early 2000s software is the pinnacle, sure.
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Great points! Also it’s not his role to create highly stylized illustrations. Sugimori and Arita are tasked with creating the mainstream, standard of what a pokemon should look like. This enables more stylized artists like Komiya, Kanda, and Morii to go wild.
You can’t get one without the other:
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I go back to my PSA grudge, people grading can become to focused on the grade and perfection on the label instead of taking a step back and liking the card for what it is instead of liking it because of what someone else says it’s condition and quality is
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kinda relates to completionists, I s’pose.
If you HAVE to get everything or get a perfect copy, the enjoyment and appreciation is in the accomplishment, not the actual collection. (I feel this with my Lands sometimes, as I buy bulk to get just 1 good copy. SO I do understand GEM Mt collectors a little.)
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I totally get the idea of completionism and getting everything matching but sometimes I think people get caught in it and only care about the completion instead of the original goal of collecting a, b and c.
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I personally don’t dislike many of the stock images used as background for TCG cards, since they barely re-use stock artworks for multiple cards (minus some small exceptions, like these; these; these; etc.). In fact, I think some of them are rather unique, especially now that it’s known where a lot of stock images are from and see those backgrounds without the Pokémon or effects applied to them: Early Sets - From Stock Image to Pokemon Card Background.
I also don’t dislike the Ken Sugimori stock Pokémon itself on TCG cards. (Although I defintely enjoy his full artworks a lot more, like Shining Gyarados; Pokémon Breeder Fields; Town Volunteers; Pokémon Fan Club; Fieldworker; etc. etc.)
Having said that, what I mostly dislike, is how much his stock Pokémon images return on all kind of different products, instead of new unique ones. I collect everything Seviper for example, both TCG and non-TCG, and after a quick count, 228 out of 385 non-TCG Seviper items (excluding about 25-50 items more I have yet to photograph) are using one of the six different stock Ken Sugimori depictions of Seviper, and 47 of those remaining items are figures/plushies.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why they use his stock depictions on a lot of products, but some of my favorite non-TCG Seviper items are those that didn’t use those stock artworks for a reason: they’re unique.
One big example are the Amada Attack stickers: the six yellow outlined stickers, starting from the third row. They’re cool, and some of my favorites because they depicture Seviper in new and unique ways. (The first two rows of Amada stickers, as well as the last two promo Amada stickers, are using the six Ken Sugimori artworks.)
Greetz,
Quuador
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Pikachu is more likely to be the son of Ho-oh than Arceus.
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x item (blister packs, tins, display boxes, ect) has better pulls than x product. It’s all random, aside from perhaps sets where the factory workers have stolen hits enmasse (fusion strikes) but even then, I don’t know if people know which products have better pulls for those sets. An LGS owner tried to sell me a prerelease kit for journey together for more than they usually go for, due to there being better odds of pulling good cards. I doubt there’s any better odds regardless of what the product is. Perhaps searchability changes depending on the product, but true odds I doubt.
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Not sure how unpopular this is but a thought I had..
Rillaboom’s design without the drum and drumsticks is fantastic.
I really don’t like him with the drum or drumsticks. I think they make his design look awkward and silly. He looks like a proper gorilla without them. And something I dare to ask, where do they come from..?
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