Xileets' Mitsuhiro Arita Collection

bk2 13 - Unbroken Bonds, Unified Minds, Hidden Fates, Cosmic Eclipse. (And my wallet was now dead not really, but you know…)
More Tag team pokemon! Not sure if I LOVE these pages or hate them because there’s so much color.

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bk2 14 - Gen 8! Sword and Shield, Rebel Clash, Darkness Ablaze, Battle Styles…
The first rainbow rare from Arita, and Guess What?! We’ve reached the end… for now. :sunglasses:

Looking back at the whole thing and with commentary:
Imgur Album: imgur.com/a/xbKJNNV

UTube playlist: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL134bZTiqdVJSiPzCj3B8Kk5ju_z_v_85

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Japanese Base Set 1, 2, 3 boxes. Haven’t included these yet! I went back in forth with the seller after he sent me a gym challenge JP box instead of the Base set box. he was gonna give me a refund, but I’m glad I convinced him to send the correct box… &^%#…seriously, Dude?! Anyway, These look great! I did a video for these in my youtube series, so I just included an older IG photo I used, here.

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Beautiful. It’s common knowlegde at this point but I’ll say it anyway: English box/booster artworks have NOTHING on the Japanese ones! They’re lightyears ahead in design. Personally I like the Jungle box the most, there’s so much attention to detail!

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Love the Japanese boxes. Agreed with @muk - the English releases hardly come close. My favorite part of the old OG series is the single prong on Charizard’s head. It’s funny looking back on the old comics that were only released in Japan because Pokemon like Venusaur, Charizard, Nidoking, Clefairy, and Magneton were all repeatedly featured in multiple comic strips.

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Completely agree! I started with JP, in fact, I didn’t open an English booster until after I’d opened JP Neo Gen. US packaging rarely gets there.

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I like the single-spike zard, but I also like the alolan Executor. Arita did know he was predicting the future.

Also, 2 cool things about the Fossil box: There are Zapdos and Magikarp skeletons… different, and as far as I know, the only Ditto ever drawn by arita.

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I don’t think I ever even made that connection about the box art and Alolan Exeggutor!

And speaking of - is there a Magikarp skeleton too on the Fossil box?

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New inside cover card. I figure since it would be one of the earliest packaging or promo material, I might as well make it the new cover. Aside from the name, I don’t know much about the set it’s from, and I’d love some more info: 1996? Carrying Case Set

My Deck Memo Card - I love the gastly cameo, and the abra bubbles; there’s also, technically, a red cheek pikachu on this too.

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Can’t go wrong with anything Arita, that’s a lovely trio you picked up there!

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Amazing commitment to a legendary artist. You feel the emotion in every one of his illustrations

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I’ve yet to meet Arita San, but eventually, I’ll make that happen. For now, this will have to hold me over; on one of my favorite Mon, none the less.

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Everytime I come and look at your collection post I am just FLOORED by how amazing your collection is. Arita may not be my favorite artist, but for sure his art is one of the most iconic within the TCG.

Question, how long did it take you to do this? And I know you stated somewhere, but what are those binders and where can I get them? Lol

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heh. Thank you. :grin: I started with the WotC cards in high school. I would just take my favorite arts and put them in a binder. In College, as I started to study art, I realized they were mostly Arita, and were all very recognizable as his work, so I decided to collect every one. That was around 2008. Cards were WAY cheaper back then, but I was severely broke, still I’m really glad I did because today…

Were I to do this, starting today, I’d definitely skip the cards I don’t like. Basically, just start with what you love. Also, I’ve even got some proxies, as you see, just because I had a limit: No single *binder card* for more than $20. Today I’ve increased that, and make a few small exceptions for today’s market if it’s not something I’d rather spend on a life experience.

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Thanks for your time! I agree it’s hard to collect a lot of cards under a certain price point, especially if the artist does a good chunk of the art for the game. I’m thinking of going after a set of cards from Aya Kusube because that ballpoint pen style is just amazing. I’ll certainly not pick up some of the cards I dont like with your advice. And it’s interesting with that proxy idea!

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I’m starting to upload videos to the Arita youTube series again. Just a heads up if you’re watching, and a single notification might get lost in the deluge. Had some medical issues with my voice, among other things…
=)

Haven’t posted this in the thread yet:
This is the Japanese booster art for Ex Dragon, however, in english Big Box stores, it was a store promo tin with packs and stuff inside. LOVE this thing. =) And a very affordable piece for any artita collector. (About $20) AND BTW, new videos are starting to drop. Every other Friday is my target.

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Don’t forget about the little cards! :slight_smile: Picked up a few great family battle pack cards including arita and sowsow.

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I love seeing artist collections! That scyther card is one I love personally :grin:

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I also love artist collections. Lots of variety. That scyther stood out to me too, even tho it’s not an arita card. :slight_smile:

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