Shinji Kanda Pokemon Cards: The Giratina V Alt Art & Foil-Scan Art

Who Is Shinji Kanda?

Shinji Kanda is a digital illustrator born in Kyoto in 1986. According to Bulbapedia, Kanda’s Pokemon TCG debut came in 2022 with Magmar, card 016 from the Starbirth (S9) set — a relatively recent start compared to illustrators whose Pokemon TCG credits stretch back decades. In the years since, Kanda’s TCG output has stayed small and deliberate: 31 main-TCG cards plus 9 Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket cards; the Limitless database lists 39 Japanese-language prints including reprints.

What sets the debut apart isn’t the subject — it’s the process. Bulbapedia records that the Magmar debut card was made by drawing in colored pencil directly onto a sheet of heat-shrink plastic, then heating it so the plastic contracted and pulled the color into a denser, more saturated finish. It’s a physical, almost craft-project technique rather than a purely digital one, and it’s an unusual way for any illustrator to introduce themselves to a card game built on a digital printing pipeline.

The technique behind the Magneton promo, SVP 159, is just as unusual and just as deliberately hands-on. Per Bulbapedia, Kanda made that card by scanning a crumpled sheet of aluminum foil — using the folds, creases, and light-catching texture of the foil itself as the raw material for the artwork rather than painting or drawing it from scratch. Between the heat-shrunk plastic and the scanned foil, these two cards read less like conventional illustration and more like physical-material experiments that happened to end up on trading cards.

Those two techniques are why Kanda’s catalog is worth knowing despite being a fraction of the size of prolific illustrators like Mitsuhiro Arita or the promo-heavy output in our Kouki Saitou guide. Kanda’s name doesn’t show up often, but when it does, the card is usually made differently from everything else in the set.

Other Notable Cards in the Catalog

Beyond the Giratina V, Kanda’s 31-card catalog includes a handful of other cards that show up when the artist’s name is searched, per Bulbapedia and Limitless. Roaring Moon ex, SAR, from SV8a card 218 and Galarian Moltres AR from s12a card 190 are both part of that wider catalog — neither has passed through our PSA 10 vault, but they’re worth knowing if you’re building out a fuller picture of Kanda’s work. The catalog also includes Aerodactyl (SV2a 142) and Sableye (M6 046), rounding out a body of work that spans several recent Scarlet & Violet-era Japanese sets.

Two cards from that wider catalog did pass through our vault graded PSA 10. Magikarp, AR, from SV1a card 080 was last listed at ¥46,927 and is currently out of stock. Seismitoad, AR, from SV11B card 109 was last listed at ¥31,720, also currently out of stock. Both sit well below the Giratina V’s price level.

Together, the Magikarp and Seismitoad listings show Kanda’s catalog isn’t a one-card story even though the Giratina V dominates the pricing. Both are standard alternate-art treatments rather than the hand-made techniques behind the 2022 debut and the Magneton promo.

Beyond the Cards: Shinji Kanda’s Wider Work

The material experiments behind the Magmar and Magneton cards make more sense once you know Kanda is also a working gallery artist in his native Kyoto. He has held repeated solo exhibitions at KUNST ARZT, a Kyoto gallery: “Painting Ovelberry” in September 2022, built around an imaginary town called Ovelberry; “Exotic Ghost” in March 2024; and “Kemono-michi,” running March 20–29, 2026 — his sixth solo show at the gallery in two years.

The exhibition texts describe work that expresses surreal inner worlds through minutely detailed rendering, and frame his Pokemon card illustration as one facet of a practice that sits alongside fine art. That’s the collector-relevant point: a Kanda card isn’t a detached commission — it’s an extension of an active exhibition practice, which is consistent with a TCG catalog that stays small and technique-driven rather than high-volume.

The Pokemon side has put him in front of collectors directly, too. Per Bulbapedia, Kanda held an official signing session at the Pokemon 2025 Europe International Championships on February 21, 2025. He also runs an Instagram account under @kandashinji.

Where to Buy Shinji Kanda Cards from Japan

We source and grade Japanese PSA 10 singles out of Tokyo, and Shinji Kanda’s Giratina V special art rare is a card we track for sourcing requests, even with nothing currently sitting in the vault. Because all three Kanda cards we’ve carried are out of stock right now, the fastest path to a copy is a sourcing request rather than an active listing.

For the wider PSA 10 catalog, browse our full PSA 10 collection or the PSA 10 card list to filter by set and price while a Kanda copy makes its way back through the vault. Our Japanese PSA 10 price guide covers how we price and grade across the wider catalog, and if you’re comparing illustrator-specific vaults, our sowsow guide and Akira Egawa guide cover two other small, high-concentration catalogs in the same vein.

If the Giratina V special art rare is what brought you here, that’s the card to flag first. The Magikarp and Seismitoad alternate arts are the more accessible entry points whenever they resurface, and all three can be requested through the same Quick Order flow.