Aya Kusube

About

Aya Kusube is a freelance illustrator born in 1966 in Saitama Prefecture, with deep family roots in Japanese animation — her late father founded Shin-Ei Animation and her brother still works there as a CG animator and lyricist, including on Doraemon, where she has also done conceptual design. She has illustrated for Pokémon since 1998, building a portfolio of 138 TCG cards plus several authored Pokémon Tales picture books, and her recognisable look mirrors a child's drawing — solid shapes with only a few key colours, accompanied by dense hatching or dot work in charcoal pencil. She has recently added 14 cards to Pokémon TCG Pocket as well.