1999
Pokémon Goes Global, Publishing & Digital Experiments
In 1999, the international release of the Pokémon Trading Card Game brought Mitsuhiro Arita's early card illustrations to a worldwide audience. During the same year, he combined book illustration with personal digital experimentation: two Fujimi Fantasia Bunko novels credit him as illustrator, while surviving works from his early website document compact computers, mobile painting and digital studies.
Career Archive
Timeline Events
The international release of the Pokémon Trading Card Game introduced Arita's first-generation card artwork to audiences outside Japan.
His early Pokémon illustrations became some of the first works through which collectors around the world encountered his art.
19 January — 神仙酒コンチェルト ブートレガーズ (Shinsenshu Concerto: Bootleggers), written by Kohei Uno and illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita, was published by Fujimi Shobo; ISBN 9784829128664.
13 October — 天海飛行船ルゲイラング 1 いっぱいに帆をあげて (Tenkai Hikōsen Rugeirang 1: Ippai ni Ho o Agete), written by Shinobu Saeki and illustrated by Arita, was released; ISBN 9784829129210.
Arita continued experimenting with digital and portable-computer painting, an activity documented on his early personal website under the idea of Mobile Painting.
Surviving digital works dated 1999 include WINTER, Fish Study and BARESARK.
Other works preserved from the 1998–1999 website period include BLOOM, LEON & MACHILDA, BRUCE, ANGEL, NO FUEL, STORM, FIGHTER, WIZARD and MOS; their exact individual dates still require confirmation.
The Mobile Painting material is associated with a grey portable computer shown in Arita's archival photographs; it should not be confused with the visually similar yellow device sometimes found in later listings.