I’ve been working on this for 20 years. Every unique Mitsuhiro Arita card illustration, and some other items. The binders are mostly chronologic. Starting from the very beginning of the TCG, and I’ve included every unique card illustrated by the great Arita, even the bad ones. It’s like a trip through the history of the TCG and my own collecting journey.
I love the consistency in his shading and texture, and his use of odd camera angles and focal lengths to capture motion and grandness in a scene. Few others do it quite the same. Like my more recent artist collections, it’s that consistency that made me want to do a collection, but his style and technique is the one that caught my eye from the very beginning, and has continued to do so, even while others have faded.
As time goes, I’ll update the binder pictures in this first post, and it’s been a long-haul and very fun, and of course, NEVER done! Before anyone calls me out, YES there are proxies of cards that I simply don’t want to spend the money on, or have in slabs and am too lazy.
I’ve more recently moved the collection to a 3 x 4 binder and have refreshed my youtube series on this collection art in a Quad HD version. Click here for my quad HD Arita Youtube Series. Whenever I remember to do another video… Once a century. bahaha!
Awesome, I’d love to see more artist collections like this on e4! With Arita you have obviously taken on a huge task. Looking forward to see your updates!
I would like to see them as well, because it’s like a re-visit of the history of the hobby. I open my binders, and I can go into the WotC era, or the ex era, or even current stuff. How the cards have grown, nostalgia, frustration too, lol.
I’ve been enjoying your Mitsuhiro Arita and KAWAYOO playlist thus far, @xileets. Although I do now notice I’m a few episodes behind because I forgot to subscribe to your channel (done just now, woops). Will watch the videos I haven’t seen yet tonight after work.
I put a couple new videos in the queue for release if you’re following those. And I need to do one on this! I think I overpaid, but as usual with these, there are few if any recent sales, so who knows!? I LOVE it though, and way cheaper than keeping the sealed boxes. Heartgold Soulsilver PkMn center binder (correct me if I’m wrong).
Yeeeees. I love artist specific collections. Arita is responsible for my first love with Gyarados. He’s also active on Instagram and seems to support the collection base who show a genuine love and interest in his artwork. Those binders for the HGSS series are beautiful too.
Wait wut, Arita did these? Mmmmmm. I’m not judging by any means because from this style until the end of the HGSS era (sneakily adding my opinion that this time was Gen 4’s jewel in the crown that I want these remakes to achieve the same grand look) really seemed like Himeno however that style already left her long ago unfourntately. Thank you for sharing, Arita never ceases to amaze. So many overlooked gems in his catalog.
Also nice user theme @xileets! Such an underappreciated line and to some of us the gateway into literally taking interest into Pokémon in itself before knowing anything about it.
When I first startded collecting, I made binder pages of all my favorites, and realized they were all very similar in style. Then I noticed they all had the sa,e artist: some “arita” guy. This was probably 2006. Anyway, there ya’ go! That’s kinda how it starts for everyone, huh?
Indeed! In the 20th anniversary collectors’ art book, Arita is credited with doing these, and he answered a few Qs about them. Definitely his work. I’m not sure about how this item was identified for retail, however.
I’m lightly trained as a visual artist, so when I look at an illustration, I usually look for the technique and finish of Arita. He has a very smooth line-style, because he does a lot of his work by hand, unlike most artists today. Also, the way he uses lighting is very recognizable, when you know what to look for. Sometimes, I get tricked, though. For example, 5 Ban actually has some cards with arita-like lighting. But I can usually pick an arita art when I see one. He does have a HUGE portfolio, and a lot of the promo works and packaging aren’t labelled or signed, so some may never be known.
Curious:
Should I post the whole album page by page here? Or should I just include a link to the whole thing on imgr?
I got the last rev holo I needed today, so it’s comin soon! I just want to get past this semester, next week, before starting to photograph these albums…
Post it here! It’s a collection thread after all, meant to show pics of your collection. Not a “link to your collection” thread
Beautiful Kabutops btw!
Pictures taken, working on reducing the size. 40 4K pixels is a lot of bits. IN the meantime, here’s an awesome playmat by Arita. *I Think* I’d bet money on it.
Aight, So, if you’ve been following my Mitsuhiro Arita collection elsewhere, I have not posted the updated version with all the rev holos that I ever want to include. BUT here it is! And a link to the imgur album.
Heartgold Soulsilver PkMn center binder (correct me if I’m wrong).
I just want to get past this semester, next week, before starting to photograph these albums… 
