Despite the fact that Arita has illustrated hundreds of Pokemon cards during his 26 years of career life, Final Fantasy Games, Berserk: The Golden Ages movies trilogy which is a worldwide favorite by anime and Nintendo fans, his admiration and interest went to Culdcept.

“I supervised these three works, but all I cared about at the time was to get an excellent result in all three works which I love equally, but my admiration goes to Culdcept. For me it is art, and I feel proud that it is among my works,” he told Arab News

Culdcept is a series of turn-based strategy video games developed by OmiyaSoft. It revolves around virtual board game-like gameplay in which the player traverses a map and uses magical, tablet-like “cards” to defeat their opponents by forcing them to land on specific spaces and pay a toll, similar to Monopoly.

Arita was born in 1971 in Fukuoka, Japan, and now living in Tokyo, he started his career as a professional illustrator in 1996, and his first project was Pokémon TCG.

He designed and illustrated over 660 Pokemon cards, which made him a legend in the history of Pokemon graphics, and he also worked on the design of Final Fantasy XI for 11 years, as well as designing magazines and movie books.

Arita was a self-taught illustrator and naturally talented when it comes to the world of illustration and he said that his role model is Katsushika Hokusai known simply as Hokusai and is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

“When I was in high school, back in 1998, one of my friends introduced me to Final Fantasy by Yoshitaka Amano. I used to draw from time to time and Final Fancy was an inspiration as well as my favorite artist and role model Katsushika Hokusai” he said

Arita was talented enough to impress the creator of the world of Final Fantasy XI, named “Vana’diel” after he have seen his drawings on the “Arms and Armor” book which was released in 2004, Arita then worked on Final Fantasy XI for over ten years.

Arita said, “I enjoyed working with the team that built the Final Fantasy world, and we used to enjoy working together.”

Saudis have been always big fans of Japanese culture and anime productions an illustration that they have excelled in it and produced the first-ever Saudi-Japanese anime film “The Journey” which was premiered worldwide in 2021.

Thus, Arita advised young Saudis who want to be illustration artists for anime, manga, or video games to “Watch different illustration works more than once so that the ideas become clear to you, and make sure to present anime works that represent your Saudi culture.”

In the last five years, he started to meet more of his international audiences across the world where he appeared to the public at events held in Japan, America, China, Italy, and now Saudi Arabia.

He said that his visit to Jeddah is his first experience in the Kingdom and after he met the audience and saw how enthusiastic they are he changed his perspective about the country.

And as a gesture of love and gratitude, Arita drew an illustration for the “City Walk” zone in a Livestream before coming to the Anime Village from the hotel he was staying at and now he is offering it for sale on his website https://linktr.ee/mitsuhiroArita

Stickers, posters, cards, and crowds shouting were filling the air as Saudi fans were pumped to get their autographs signed after the talk was ended.

Arab News also met one of the very excited fans, Mohammed Fakhry a 35 Saudi entrepreneur and a huge fan of Pokemon cards.

Fakhry was carrying an album folder full of over 200 Pokemon TCG bringing back a nostalgic scene of 90s kids who used to take their collectible Pokemon cards to show them off to their friends in school.

“When I heard that the designer of the original card game was coming, I wanted to show him the appreciation and like with a recognition that looks what you did, what I still have and it still lives on. It’s not just the game. It’s not just something that you know, that was a trend it came in, it’s stuck with us. It’s part of our upbringing.

Pokemon was the first card game that I was ever exposed to. We collected we bought and we traded cards and we had the battles. So, this in my hand is actually the trading card collection, there are some first, normal some subsequent editions that came out and it matters a lot to collectors.”

Fakhry said it’s sentimental, and he and his friends’ collected cards because they consider it art.

Fakhry was astonished as he asked Arita for a unique signature other than what the rest of the audience had and it was an unforgettable moment for him.

 “I did get his signature and in fact, he does a very unique signature, where he mimics the picture that he drew because this is something he drew. So, as you see how well he drew the signature, this is something you don’t forget.”