Are Mitsuhiro Arita's 1997 Trophy Pikas Illegitimate/Fake?

General
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I was reading a great article about the Pokemon card concept - to - creation process shared to me by @effectspore :
www.gameinformer.com/2018/09/09/trade-secrets-the-making-of-a-pokemon-card

The interviewer talks with Mitsuhiro Arita, and explains,

Arita keeps a binder full of all the cards he’s drawn over the years (the company sends him every card he’s illustrated), and it’s a pretty thick binder, holding 537 cards. Although he’s still a freelancer, The Pokémon Company remains his biggest client, and drawing cards for the TCG has been a major part of his career.

The article was published Sep. 9 2018. Out of curiousity, I checked Bulbapedia for cards illustrated by Arita. There are presently 574: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/w/index.php?title=Category:Illus._by_Mitsuhiro_Arita

This list excludes direct reprints such as Base 2, Legendary Collection, and the non-holo rare variants from sets like Jungle, Fossil, etc. It does include Evolutions, so perhaps the designs or dimensions for the art were slightly tweaked for the Evolutions run, enough to be listed here. Another excellent theory by @chok is these reprints, except for 20th Anniversary Pack (Evolutions in English), were not printed in Japanese and thus not included in the list as unique artwork.

I calculated the cards released in Japan PRIOR to September 2018, and was able to remove 37 from the list (5 Rebel Clash, 2 Sword & Shield, 1 Dream League, 8 Unified Minds, 8 Cosmic Eclipse, 5 Team Up, 1 Hidden Fates, 7 Unbroken Bonds). This leaves us with the referenced 537 number.

An important note – the list includes the Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos Black Star / CoroCoro Jumbo Promo, which cannot fit in a binder. It’s possible Arita still included it as part of his “binder” collection, perhaps in a back flap. It’s also possible the Ishihara & Pikachu GX Tag Team for Ishihara’s 61st birthday was illustrated and created two months prior to his birthday in November 2018 (this is not included in the Bulbapedia list).

Anyway, my point of concern is – The 537 logical cards listed include the original 1997 No. 1/2/3 Trophy Pikachus.

So now we have a bit of a scandal – Pokemon may have sent card illustrators, along with employees, trophy cards!

Since these cards were NOT awarded to the winner, what should be done with them? Should they be destroyed, as they are forever tainted by being an unofficial method of distribution?

I invite proud owners of '97 Pikachus to share their thoughts, and others to butt in unsolicited as well.

Disclaimer: This thread, while interesting recent knowledge to me, is intended as sarcasm. I’m very petty when it comes to proving points. I recognize it as a character flaw but c’est la vie. No offense intended to anyone.

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Maybe all illustrators got a Pokemon Illustrator Card.

Pokémon illustrator +20

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I would still consider them as a spare copy of the trophy, they were printed with the same process, for the same time nd for the same purpose

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If an illustrator has an illustrator the world has gone to s***. burn him and his card. No resale value. Prob OC too, f*** that

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so the true holy grail is actually Arita-san’s binder

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Let’s ruin all the true collectors’ art appreciation by calculating which illustrators have the highest market caps. I assume Arita and Sugimori are way ahead in top 2 but Nishida is also up there with the Illustrator. Also, like it or not, 5ban Graphics is also up there with the Worlds trophies.

And the obvious answer is that Pokémon themselves are the ones buying the Real Proxy Handmade Custom Pokemon Trophy Card listings to give to Arita; they would never simply award a card to someone who isn’t the 8 year old that won the tournament.

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Those illustrators would have been made right around Princess Diana’s death…

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Man thank you for this. Rough day and your comment had me burst out laughing.

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That ‘should be destroyed’ comment that guy made still makes me laugh. I wonder if that guy will have any awards he’s earned in his life time to be destroyed when he dies.

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I don’t want this thread to be a pile on him. I was too vocal at the time and regret it. He may still be active or lurking.

Edit - fuck I’m such a hypocrite with this whole thread :slightly_frowning_face:

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I feel like it makes sense for illustrators and others involved in the process to receive copies of cards they’ve illustrated - probably more than one as well - not only as a thank you but as something they can showcase in their portfolios without having to pester Pokémon about getting pictures from specific angles and whatnot. Likewise Pokémon themselves will print copies of these cards for display purposes - a Snap Pikachu is on display at one of Japan’s Pokémon Centers and it’s very doubtful they had to acquire this back from the winner.

I feel like with all the copies we’ve seen appearing for sale recently it’s probably naïve to assume any card has an actual distribution under 100.

It wouldn’t surprise me either if the reason we’re seeing copies appearing for sale recently is because employees may have entered into some form of secrecy/no-resale agreement which could have expired recently.

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All trophies that cannot be proven to have come from the og winner need to be burned immediately

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What’s the difference between this case and The cards Pkonno received? In my opinion any card that was printed by the official printing machines and made its way outside is legit. I condemn those who distribute cards in illegitimate ways (like the guy smuggling out the gold star dogs/cats) but I don’t condemn the cards.

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I personally love that there are spare trophy cards. If anyone is concerned about their legitimacy and happen to have some, I am accepting donations! I will happily collect these “illegitimate” copies.

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I feel like these would actually be worth more due to them being owned by the guy who illustrated them.

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Is the guy in that interview of last year an illustrator? Sometimes I really wish I could understand Japanese, both vocally and reading…

Here the video I’m referring to (casual Pokémon Illustrator card in the binder at 2:56):

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Greetz,
Quuador

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@quuador nope those are Game Freak employees not contracted Illustrators.

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I noticed indeed. I’ve put the description into google translate and it mentioned the interviewer name and two names of GAME FREAK.

Greetz,
Quuador

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That’s Hironobu Yoshida, who’s both!

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Anyone who wins a card, sells a card, buys a card, opens a card from any product, has a card gifted from the manufacturer with artwork they drew, or otherwise obtains a card in any way other than making it themselves from scratch is an abomination.

Unsold custom cards are the only true real legitimate cards because they are made by and belong to their creator.

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