Packed as a question, but not a question in the sense that I want to know this. Just a fun discussion; what artstyle do you think is best?
I have devided the Pokėmon TCG into three era’s and picked a Charizard card for each. The Charizards are just an example, it’s about the overall artstyle of the era.
The first era is vintage (WotC).
The second era is semi-vintage (gen 3 - early XY).
The third era is modern (late XY onwards).
For me it’s WotC first, because I like the more simple style. It just looks clean to me and when putting something on display, these cards tend to get the most attention. Second would be modern. Although the Rainbow Rares are pretty weak in my opinion, they really stepped it up with Alt Arts and IR´s. I think that the ´in-between´ era is objectively the weakest, which might be supported by a lower interest in Pokémon. That being said, I still very much enjoy this somewhat more quirky era where it just seamed like Pokémon wasn´t sure what to do.
NB (I get that some people would not call early XY semi-vintage but I think that everything points to it being; dated artworks, low print runs, over 10 years old).
Hard to condense it but for the one that has more unifying art subgroups that isnt bland is going to be semi-vintage. HGSS era was wonderful in terms of art styles. Modern is awesome but many of the cards have such different styles within the same sets that it is hard to really get a feel for it.
To be honest there have been a lot of beautiful cards come out over the years. But im absolutely in love with the Terastal Festival Eeveelutions. They are just so damn good to look at! 44
Recent artworks have really blown it out of the water, in my opinion. I don’t even like Charizard, but the shiny terra Charizard art rare is a stunning piece of work. My vote is for modern having the best art- we have such a huge volume of fantastic artists showcasing what they can do with the canvas of a full card.
Mid era also had some great artwork, with the Pokekyun subset being my absolute favorite. We start to get a lot more pieces of Pokemon living their lives in an environment, which helps bring more perspective to these little creatures.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say WOTC era has some of the weakest artwork out there. Sugimori is an incredibly skilled artist, but the stock images on a stock background really do his work a disservice. They just don’t look great, in my opinion. Like all eras, there are some pieces that really stand out (light/dark Pokemon for example are stunning), but you have a lot more mediocre work than more recent generations because Pokemon was just getting started.
The time it’s had as a franchise to grow and develop has been important in the artwork evolution that we see today.
I love Nishida, Himeno, and Sugimori, and a lot of their watercolor work can be found in the e-Series era, so I would probably vote that.
However, I think this question is difficult to answer because art style is more similar than different for the commons and uncommons in each set. It’s really the rares and chase cards that differ significantly between sets, but judging the art style of a set or generation by their chase cards is not really helpful in my opinion.
Regardless, in terms of excellence in art across all card types and rarities, I would probably have to vote for S/M, SW/SH, and S/V, as the attention to art in modern sets has been at an all time high.
I would’ve said e series until recently, but theres just too much amazing and diverse artwork in newer sets. I do however appreciate the more cohesive feel of artwork given the fewer artists during e series.
I think there was a step up in artworks as a whole when the sun and moon era hit. I was blown away by team up and cosmic eclipse with their unique pieces. It just got better from there when the SWSH came along. Even low key sets like astral radiance have such beautiful art that I like more than a lot of older sets. Crown Zenith alone shows just how far Pokemon has come in terms of creativity. It was a great set to close off a legendary and epic expansion.
