Mitsuhiro Arita was a 26-year-old self-taught freelancer worried about his next paycheck when Creatures handed him low-resolution Game Boy sprites in 1996 and asked him to design cards for an unproven card game. He is the only outside illustrator brought in during the TCG's planning stage — and besides drawing the very first Base Set Charizard and Pikachu, he also designed the original seven Energy-type symbols (Grass, Fire, Water, Lightning, Psychic, Fighting, Colorless) that still appear on every card today. His workflow has barely changed in nearly three decades: pencilled rough draft, several alternates for Creatures to choose from, black-and-white line art, then full colour. Outside Pokémon, Arita has illustrated cards for Shin Megami Tensei, Monster Hunter, the Super Sentai TCG and Final Fantasy XI, and now hosts live-painting workshops at art schools in Japan and abroad.
First card
Venusaur
Jan 9, 1999
Latest card
Keldeo
May 22, 2026
Master Set
1,655 cards across English, Japanese and Simplified Chinese sets