Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon Trading Card Game, wizards of the coast

Pokémon Trading Card Game Artist Spotlight: Naoyo Kimura – Debut

Our weekly series Pokémon Trading Card Game Artist Spotlight focused on the iconic debut of Naoyo Kimura in the Southern Islands set.

Throughout the years, the Pokémon Trading Card Game has featured a variety of incredible art styles. Now that the hobby has been around for more than a quarter of a century, we have seen the artwork of Pokémon TCG cards elevated by daring new artist choices as well as illustrators who have been veteran contributors since the very first releases. Let's take a journey through the eye-popping, mind-expanding history of Pokémon TCG artwork by exploring some of the hobby's most interesting and unique artists. Today, we will spotlight Naoyo Kimura. This will be a four-part series showing Naoyo Kimura's work over the years, including their vintage, classic, and modern work. First, today, we begin with Kimura's iconic debut.

Kimura's Pokémon TCG career began with a notable nine-card contribution in the special set, Southern Islands. This special set was initially released as two promo folders of nine cards each in Japan to promote the second Pokémon film. The artwork here was originally drawn as larger postcards which were then sectioned off into separate Pokémon cards. Kimura arrived on the scene with a soft, illustrative style showing Pokémon existing together. This may be one of the strongest debuts in the hobby's history.

Kimura's Southern Islands cards are taken from these postcards, referred to as the "Tropical Islands set" within the larger Southern Islands product.

First, the Jungle postcard:

Then, the Beach postcard:

Then, the Sea postcard:

The final cards by Kimura that featured in Southern Islands were: Primeape (with Venomoth in the background), Vileplume, Lickitung (with Rattata in the background), Wartortle (with Horsea next to it), Slowking (flanked by Bellsprout and Psyduck), Exeggutor, Lapras (with Dratini nearby), Marill (backed up by Magikarp), and finally Tentacruel (with the iconic Dragonite flying in the distance behind it). Can you imagine a more iconic debut?

Be sure to check Bleeding Cool every day to follow our in-depth Pokémon TCG coverage as we explore the hobby's past, present, and even future with upcoming set reveals.

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