Hajime Kusajima is one of the foundational TCG illustrators, debuting on the Japanese Pokémon VS set with several Karen's Pokémon cards and arriving in English with the Expedition Base Set. His style has visibly shifted with the technology of each era: watercolour-and-ink during e-Card, then a computer-aided look with solid colours and tonal highlights through the early EX Series, and later heavier outlines, deeper shadows and bolder palettes. He stopped taking on new cards around the Sun & Moon era, leaving a total of 203 standard TCG illustrations and 22 in Pokémon TCG Pocket; in parallel he also did graphics work for PlayStation and PSP titles between 1995 and 2007.
First card
Celebi
Jul 1, 1999
Latest card
Scyther
Aug 3, 2018
Master Set
401 cards across English, Japanese and Simplified Chinese sets