Arita marked twenty years of continuous involvement with the Pokémon Trading Card Game, from its prototype and original 1996 release to the modern card era.

His earliest Pokémon artwork remained familiar to an international audience while he continued creating new illustrations for the game.

Mitsuhiro Arita contributed card illustrations to Culdcept Revolt for Nintendo 3DS.

Culdcept Revolt was released in Japan in 2016.

The game's credits explicitly list Mitsuhiro Arita under Card Illustration.

Arita had been professionally involved with the Culdcept series since the original game in 1997.

Arita has described Culdcept as one of his most important works.

By this stage of his collaboration, Arita had created approximately one hundred card illustrations for the Culdcept series.

His Culdcept work covered a wide range of fantasy subjects, creatures and characters.

Arita's long involvement with the franchise combined his interests in fantasy illustration, games and card-based visual design.

14 January — Shark Wars Volume 2 was released in Japan, followed by Volume 3 on 12 July.

Adventurer Kit, Volume 1, joined Arita's fantasy book and game-related illustration work.

December — Arita contributed to the historical publication 信長の天下布武, issue No. 72.