Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, WotC, Yuka Morii

Pokémon Trading Card Game Artist Spotlight: Yuka Morii Vintage

This week's Pokémon Trading Card Game Artist Spotlight focues on the vintage cards of Pokémon TCG clay sculptor Yuka Morii.

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 Yuka Morii. Because Morii has been contributing to the hobby since the Wizards of the Coast era, we will break this Spotlight into a three-part series covering her Vintage, Classic, and Modern contributions. Today, we begin with Morii's vintage work.

Yuka Morii debuted in the Neo era of the Pokémon TCG. Her first-ever credit was in Neo Discovery, where she contributed three cards: Omanyte, Kabuto, Caterpie, and Corsola. Notably, Morii is the artist behind the first-ever Corsola card in the hobby.

From this very first contribution, the difference between Yuka Morii and other artists in the hobby is abundantly clear. Morii's art isn't based in drawings but rather in photographs of clay sculptures of Pokémon with interesting, dynamic backgrounds. This sets Morii apart in a major way and often gets her work referenced by collectors who build binders dedicated to specific artists within the hobby.

Other memorable Neo-era Morii cards include Shuckle from Neo Revelation and Dratini from Neo Destiny.

It's a shame that we never saw Japan's set VS adapted in the United States. Morii contributed quite a few cards featuring the Gym Leader Bruno's Pokémon, using a special set made to evoke his training grounds. Morii's cards from VS included Bruno's Hitmontop, Bruno's Ursaring, the holographic Bruno's Steelix, Bruno's Hitmonchan, Bruno's Hitmonlee, and Bruno's Machamp.

Morii began to experiment with difference background styles in the e-era with cards such as Vulpix from Expedition, Jumpluff from Aquapolis, and Pikachu from Skyridge. This is just the beginning of our Morii journey though. Next time, we continue with her cards from the Classic era of the hobby.

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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