Illustratoren van Japanse Pokémon-kaarten: wie tekende wat

Every Japanese Pokémon card carries its illustrator's name, printed small at the bottom after Illus. On a special-art card the illustrator is the reason the card is wanted at all — and the publisher keeps no public index of who drew what. This is ours: 242 illustrators credited on 1,921 special-art cards across 51 Japanese Pokémon sets, from Tag All Stars (SM12a, 2019) to 30th Celebration (M6a, 2026).

“Special-art” here means the rarities where the artwork is the point: AR, SR, SAR, UR, SSR, MUR, CHR, CSR, HR, S and MA. Ordinary C, U and R cards are left out of the totals.

The most prolific illustrators

5ban Graphics is a design studio rather than one person, and it leads by a distance: 192 special-art cards in 41 of the 51 sets. Behind it the counts fall away quickly — aky CG Works (55 cards, 26 sets), takuyoa (36, 25), nagimiso (34, 17), PLANETA Mochizuki (33, 22), GIDORA (31, 26) — and 47 illustrators here are credited on exactly one special-art card.

The index

Sorted by number of special-art cards. A linked name has a page of its own, with the cards shown as images.

Illustrator	Special-art cards
5ban Graphics	192
aky CG Works	55
takuyoa	36
nagimiso	34
PLANETA Mochizuki	33
GIDORA	31
Hideki Ishikawa	31
N-DESIGN Inc.	30
Akira Komayama	29
Kouki Saitou	29
Naoki Saito	28
Ryuta Fuse	26
Sanosuke Sakuma	26
Teeziro	25
Toyste Beach	25
AKIRA EGAWA	24
GOSSAN	24
Yuu Nishida	24
kantaro	23
Souichirou Gunjima	23
Studio Bora Inc.	20
Atsushi Furusawa	19
OKACHEKE	18
DOM	17
PLANETA Tsuji	17
saino misaki	17
Hitoshi Ariga	16
Jiro Sasumo	16
Jerky	15
Mitsuhiro Arita	15
Oswaldo KATO	15
Shigenori Negishi	15
Shin Nagasawa	15
sowsow	15
Taira Akitsu	15
kirisAki	14
Ryota Murayama	14
hncl	12
Kagemaru Himeno	12
Megumi Mizutani	12
REND	12
Saya Tsuruta	12
AYUMI ODASHIMA	11
Eske Yoshinob	11
PLANETA Yamashita	11
Saki Hayashiro	11
Toshinao Aoki	11
Yukihiro Tada	11
HYOGONOSUKE	10
Masakazu Fukuda	10
Mina Nakai	10
Misa Tsutsui	10
Saboteri	10
Tetsu Kayama	10
Yano Keiji	10
yuu	10
akagi	9
Cona Nitanda	9
En Morikura	9
KEIICHIRO ITO	9
kodama	9
Kyoko Umemoto	9
mashu	9
Nurikabe	9
OKUBO	9
KIYOTAKA OSHIYAMA	8
MARINA Chikazawa	8
MINAMINAMI Take	8
Mizue	8
Nelnal	8
otumami	8
Scav	8
Shinya Komatsu	8
Tomokazu Komiya	8
0313	7
Kuroimori	7
Ligton	7
Narumi Sato	7
NC Empire	7
sadaji	7
satoma	7
Shibuzoh.	7
Shinji Kanda	7
Susumu Maeya	7
Taiga Kasai	7
Takeshi Nakamura	7
Tika Matsuno	7
Tomowaka	7
Yoriyuki Ikegami	7
kurumitsu	6
Lee HyunJung	6
miki kudo	6
Miki Tanaka	6
Mori Yuu	6
Mékayu	6
Nisota Niso	6
osare	6
PLANETA Igarashi	6
rika	6
SIE NANAHARA	6
Takumi Wada	6
Whisker	6
You Iribi	6
Yuriko Akase	6
aoki	5
aspara	5
chibi	5
Gemi	5
IKEDA Saki	5
Iori Suzuki	5
kawayoo	5
Kazumasa Yasukuni	5
Kurata So	5
MAHOU	5
matazo	5
Nakamura Ippan	5
Oku	5
SATOSHI NAKAI	5
Shimaris Yukichi	5
tetsuya koizumi	5
Tonji Matsuno	5
Amelicart	4
Anesaki Dynamic	4
Ayaka Yoshida	4
Bun Toujo	4
danciao	4
inose yukie	4
James Turner	4
Katsunori Sato	4
Kinu Nishimura	4
Krgc	4
Masa	4
MUGENUP	4
Narano	4
Natsumi Yoshida	4
Orca	4
PLANETA Hiiragi	4
Rond	4
Shiburingaru	4
sui	4
Uninori	4
YASHIRO Nanaco	4
Yoshimi Miyoshi	4
Atsuya Uki	3
Aya Kusube	3
Dsuke	3
Fujimoto Gold	3
GOTO minori	3
Hataya	3
Iwamoto05	3
Kariya	3
Masako Tomii	3
Ounishi	3
Raita Kazama	3
Rianti Hidayat	3
Satoshi Shirai	3
Shinya Mizuno	3
Taiga Kayama	3
Terada Tera	3
TOKIYA	3
tono	3
toriyufu	3
USGMEN	3
Yuka Morii	3
zig	3
Arai Kiriko	2
Asako Ito	2
Ayako Ozaki	2
cochi8i	2
Fumie Kittaka	2
Gapao	2
Haru Akasaka	2
Heisuke Kitazawa	2
HICO KIM	2
Kamome Shirahama	2
kamonabe	2
Keisin	2
Keisuke Azuma	2
Makura Tami	2
Misaki Hashimoto	2
Motofumi Fujiwara	2
Mousho	2
nisimono	2
Nobuhiro Imagawa	2
Nobusawa/Mochipuyo	2
Pani Kobayashi	2
ryoma uratsuka	2
takashi shiraishi	2
Tsuyoshi Nagano	2
Uta	2
Yoko Hishida	2
Yoshioka	2
YOSHIROTTEN	2
Yumi	2
Yuya Oka	2
Akino Fukuji	1
Apios	1
booota	1
buchi	1
burari	1
CHORISO	1
Eri Kamei	1
hanabushi	1
Haruko Ichikawa	1
Hasuno	1
Hiroyuki Yamamoto	1
Hoshino KURO	1
Jumpei Akasaka	1
June	1
kanahei	1
Kanami Ogata	1
Kazuhisa Uragami	1
Kazuki Minami	1
Kazuma Koda	1
Kedamahadaitai Yawarakai	1
Ken Sugimori	1
Koji Nakata	1
KYUPIYAMA	1
LINNE	1
Megumi Higuchi	1
mele	1
Minahamu	1
mingo	1
Mugi Hamada	1
Nabatame Kazutaka	1
nagano	1
Naoyo Kimura	1
Natsuko Shoji été	1
Natsumi Miyanose	1
okayamatakatoshi	1
ORBITALLINK Inc.	1
Po-Suzuki	1
Q-rais	1
so-taro	1
take	1
Tetsuo Hara	1
toi8	1
Tomomi Kaneko	1
Tomomi Ozaki	1
Yoshimoto Yoshimon	1
Yuka Tanaka	1
Yukiko Baba	1

Looking up a single card

To go the other way — from a card to the person who drew it — open the set in the PulloraX Magazine and use its full card list: every set file lists each card as numbered in Japan, with its rarity and its illustrator, and has a search box above the table.

What the credit does not tell you

A well-known illustrator does not make a card valuable on its own, and this index is not a price list. It also says nothing about which box a card came from: Japanese booster boxes are sealed and their contents random, so no illustrator can be bought to order. What the credit gives you is a way to collect along a thread — one artist, across eras — instead of one set at a time.

For the letters beside the card number see rarity codes, and for the set code itself set codes. Browse by era: MEGA, Scarlet & Violet, Sword & Shield, Sun & Moon.