Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Evolving Skies, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, sylveon

Pokémon Trading Card Game Artist Spotlight: Taira Akitsu

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 Taira Akitsu.

Taira Akitsu is relatively new to the TCG, with their first-ever contribution coming in 2020's Sword & Shield base set. Akitsu delivered two cards to that set including a Vulpix as well as the above Gastly, which showed off a gorgeous style that mixed soft pastels, delicate but confident linework, and respect of the original Pokémon house style showcased by Ken Sugimori in the character designs.

Akitsu's work continued on standard Pokémon cards (commons, uncommons, and rares) until Sword & Shield – Battle Styles, when we received our first-ever Akitsu-illustrated Full Art. That card was Korinna's Focus, which appeared both as a Full Art and Rainbow Rare.

Akitsu continued with a focus on Full Art trainers, contributing Melony to Sword & Shield – Chilling Reign and Zinnia's Resolve to Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies, showcasing a balance of dynamic poses and character-revealing expressions.

Recently, Akitsu has continued delivering chase cards to the Pokémon TCG, with many of those cards appearing in the Trainer Gallery subsets throughout 2022. These include Character Rares like the above Kingra and more Full Art Trainers like the above Adventure's Discovery, but perhaps the biggest Trainer Gallery hit we've seen Akitsu illustrate is the Garchomp V Character Super Rare which pairs Garchomp with the iconic champion, Cynthia.

My personal favorite Taira Akitsu card, though, is the Sylveon VMAX Alternate Art from Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies. It makes sense that this card is a $100+ chase card, as it makes Sylveon, a Friendship-themed evolution of Eevee, beam with love and positivity in its gigantic Dynamax form as other Pokémon slide around on its ribbons. This is easily a Top Ten ever card for me.

You can explore more of Taira Akitsu's artwork here. 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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