2011
Expanding Beyond Card Illustration
By 2011, Mitsuhiro Arita's professional activity had expanded far beyond trading card illustration. He remained involved with long-running projects including Final Fantasy XI and Bandai's Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride while increasingly taking on work connected with video games, visual development and larger entertainment productions. This period forms an important transition toward the major art direction and concept-design assignments that would become publicly visible in 2012.
Career Archive
Timeline Events
Arita continued his long-running professional relationship with Square Enix and Final Fantasy XI.
His work for Final Fantasy XI formed part of an eleven-year collaboration with the project.
Arita's multi-year work for Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride also continued during this period.
His professional activity was increasingly extending beyond conventional trading card illustration into broader visual development and entertainment projects.
Around this period, Arita became involved with projects that would lead to major credited work in video games and theatrical animation.
The following year would see major publicly credited work including SoulCalibur V and the Berserk: The Golden Age film trilogy.
4 March — Guardians of Ga'Hoole Volume 12 was released in Japan with Arita credited as illustrator.