Amin Abbas Dubai

Japanese illustrator Mitsuhiro Arita, well-known for working on Pokémon Trading Card Game for more than 20 years, spoke exclusively to Arab News Japan about his inspiration and experience in his career.

Arita also worked on Final Fantasy XI for 11 years and did concept design for the theatrical animation film BERSERK: the golden ages I-III, books and magazines.

At the beginning of his career, the illustrator said he landed his first job in 1996 and intended to be an artist in order to test his skills.

“My first project was the Pokémon Trading Gard Game. I’m the first one who worked on the Pokémon Trading Card Game as a freelance artist and I had been working on it for over 24 years until today,” he told Arab News Japan.

Although Arita has been in the industry for a while, he said he had faced many challenges throughout his career.

“The work-life balance is the most challenging point for me. I’m always trying to my best, so the rest of my life is naturally going to be messy,” he explained.

Despite his long career with Pokémon trading cards, Arita said he wanted people to know that he works on other projects.

“I want people to know that I’ve worked on a lot of work outside of just Pokémon. I’m doing YouTube Live Painting regularly to let the people about me as an artist. I’m not only drawing Pokémon,” he said. “I also worked on Final Fantasy XI and XVI, the animation film BERSERK: The Golden Age Arc Trilogy, and many other books, games, concept design for animation.”

Arita added that he was also working on selling his original works in an online store he plans to launch.

The Japanese designer said he had always been a fan of anime and manga including series such as Space Battle Ship Yamato, Cyborg 009 and Robot shows created by Sunrise.

“But if I have to choose one, AKIRA by Katsuhiro Ohtomo is both for the best manga and anime,” Arita said.