I know there’s a culture of being humble in Japan but I think she really believes it. If you disagree maybe you should tell her. It’s been my goal for a while to convince her to do at least one more hand-drawn pokemon card illustration
“I have never been a particularly good artist, neither in the past nor now. I think I may serve as a benchmark for ‘someone who can draw better than this.’ However, people deeply involved in Pokémon have said, ‘Arita-san expresses the depth of the Pokémon world wonderfully, while Himeno-san expands it broadly through manga and reports.’ Hearing this made my heart feel a little lighter.”
Like from a technical perspective, there are better artists. From a stylistic perspective, her art and Sugimori’s art is basically synonymous with Pokemon in the 90s/2000s
She said at the Charlotte Regionals signing “I hope people come.” (having not seen the line of 600+ people waiting at that moment). I really don’t think she understands the impact of her art. Literally billions of people have seen her art and millions have been emotionally impacted even if they don’t know her name.
Gosh, what a reminder that even legends are only human with thoughts like these. It’s hard to believe she could think that about herself. She has touched the lives of so many people all over the world. Just sent her some love
It might also be artists dilemma where everything you do, you think is bad because you are hyper critical of your own work. That happens to me a lot and I do it just for fun of it.
Maybe the community, or this forum, could send a thank you note for her art? Could be just a thank you or people trying to replicate her art. Getting this idea from FF14 where the community sang one of the composer’s songs and made a video as a thank you/keep going after it turned out he had been battling cancer.
I definitely think we could do something like that. It could be as simple as making a thread where people can post about her art (translated to Japanese) and I can link it to her. You can make it as long or short as you want. Or something coordinated (and relatively small) that could be sent
