So i recently opened my own Unified Minds box and got a few of the new Tag Team artworks from Arita (Mew & Mewtwo, Garchomp & Giratina, and Umbreon & Darkrai). I have to say I am blown away by the beautiful artwork by Arita. This prompted me to look at more of the cards drawn by Arita. I do have to say, I prefer these GX versions than the secret rare versions from 5ban, which has that digital, 3d look, which works well for some but mostly they look a bit lackluster/stiff. I might be old school when I say I have a preference for the mixed medium that Arita seems to work in these days. I got into some MTG stuff in recent years because of the great artwork. Now, it seems Pokemon is upping the ante here too.
Then I looked at some of the upcoming/new Japanese sets and I have to say I am very pleased to see a new art style being introduced in Dream League, which was just released in Japan. The pokemon is combined with a trainer or person in the artwork. In my opinion, this adds another cool dimension, which we saw in some Trainer/Support cards in recent sets, but is now fully embraced. That full art secret rare Vileplume GX (with Erika) is beautiful/magnificent! This S&M era has been a nice rebound for art for Pokemon. I am seeing a lot of creativity and variety and it seems like we are constantly getting massive sets each release. It’s pretty amazing. I am mostly a WoTC era collector but I do have to say the new stuff is looking phenomenal. I might have to save some of these cards for my binder collection. Can’t wait for the English release. There better be an English release.
Also, I noticed that the Japanese release would get a few unique arts that don’t cross-over to the English release. The one that comes to mind is the Charizard & Reshiram GX from Double Blaze 97/95. good stuff!
It’s coming, it releases soon in a Promo box! But yeah I agree, I prefer these hand drawn GX cards and alternate art GX cards to the CGI artworks. I hope this trend stays for the future V cards as well even though the ones revealed had CGI artwork.
The international versions are printed with the classic yellow border… thoughts?
To me, full art + yellow border feels like the normal artwork is actually extended - special yet familiar. I think they cater to collectors very well in that sense.
Does anybody remember when pokemon first introduced cards without a yellow border? Was there some sort of outrage?
I’m wondering because in MTG, when the Amonkhet Invocations were revealed, “they didn’t look like Magic cards anymore!”. In Pokemon on the other hand, different card-styles were introduced as early as the EX-era (?). Now with these trainer-fullarts, some people are upset because the cards have the classic border. If we were only used to yellow borders and these were the first cards to take them away, would we hear the same complaints?
For some reason I like the silver, feels like it blends better with the card. Just like the Gold Star Charizard to me looks better with a silver border vice the classic yellow.
