sui Pokemon Cards: Acerola SAR, Espeon ex SAR Guide

Who Is sui?

According to Bulbapedia, sui’s work debuted in the Platinum: Arceus expansion in 2009 — a debut consistent with the earliest entry in the Limitless database’s exact-artist catalog, a 2009 Pikachu common (Arceus set, 71). The Art of Pokemon fan database confirms the same starting point, noting sui has been “working on Pokémon TCG illustrations since 2009.”

The style is distinctive enough to spot across sets. Per Bulbapedia, sui works with an airbrush technique built on “areas of highly saturated color and luminosity,” producing images described as “vibrant, atmospheric, and serene.” sui “specializes in depicting fantasy-scenes and animals” and “particularly likes producing images that have a sense of motion” — working digitally with a graphics tablet rather than traditional media. That combination of glowing color and implied movement is a large part of why sui’s Special Art Rares in particular tend to draw attention in a crowded chase-card market.

On card counts, precision matters. The Limitless database’s exact-artist search (!artist:sui) returns 197 English-language Pokemon TCG prints — the number we use throughout this guide. A looser, substring-based search on the same site returns 287 rows, but that figure pulls in unrelated artists whose names happen to contain the same string, so it should never be quoted as sui’s card count. Bulbapedia’s own tally, using a different unique-card counting method, lists 196 TCG cards plus 44 Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket cards. The Art of Pokemon fan database, which counts Japanese-inclusive prints, lists 277. All three numbers are legitimate; they’re just measuring different things, and we keep them separate rather than blending them into one headline figure.

sui’s catalog sits alongside other illustrators we track closely, including kirisAki and Mitsuhiro Arita, both of whom have their own guides covering their most valuable printings.

Trainer Gallery and Character Super Rare Cards

Beyond the two headline SARs, sui’s catalog includes several Character Super Rare and Trainer Gallery prints printed outside the main numbering of their sets.

Sylveon VMAX, Brilliant Stars Trainer Gallery (BRS) TG15, is a Character Super Rare with a direct “Illustrated by sui” credit on its Limitless card page. sui also illustrated Sylveon-EX from Generations Radiant Collection (GEN) RC21 — but the Japanese print history here needs a careful note. Per Bulbapedia, the Japanese Pokékyun Collection regular print (025/032) is sui’s work, while the Full Art print from the same Japanese set (026/032) is illustrated by a different artist, Kanako Eo. Print-variant confusion like this is common across Japanese Pokémon TCG reprints — the same card name can carry two entirely different pieces of art across its regular and Full Art versions — so we’re careful to attribute only the specific print that Bulbapedia and Limitless confirm as sui’s.

Hatterene VMAX, Crown Zenith Galarian Gallery (CRZ) GG47, is another Character Super Rare in sui’s confirmed catalog, continuing the same Gallery-subset pattern as the Sylveon VMAX print above. sui also illustrated the Mewtwo & Mew-GX promo card from the Sun & Moon Black Star Promos set (SMP 191) — worth flagging separately from the better-known Mewtwo & Mew-GX alternate art from Unified Minds (UNM 222), which carries a different illustrator credit entirely (5ban Graphics). As with the Sylveon-EX print split above, it’s a reminder that a shared card name doesn’t guarantee a shared illustrator.

The wider catalog beyond these Gallery and Trainer subset cards spans a long list of mainline prints: Galarian Rapidash V (Chilling Reign, Ultra Rare), Carbink (Art Rare), Radiant Venusaur (Pokemon GO), Jigglypuff (Paldean Fates, Shiny Rare), Mew (Unbroken Bonds), Giratina and Yveltal (both Unified Minds), three separate Vaporeon prints across Cosmic Eclipse, Call of Legends, and Undaunted, plus common and uncommon Eevee, Flareon, and Jolteon prints reaching back through the catalog’s earliest years. It’s a catalog built as much on volume and consistency as on any single chase card.

Beyond the Cards: sui’s Wider Work

sui’s illustration work extends well past the Pokemon TCG. Per Bulbapedia, credits include CD cover art, guidebook illustrations, artwork for the Rage of Bahamut card game starting in 2012, and work on Crusade of Purgatorio starting in 2011. The Art of Pokemon fan database adds that sui is “active in many fields including illustrations for other trading card games, browser games, CD jackets, and magazines” — a career footprint that spans well beyond any single franchise.

sui maintains a public presence under the handle @sui_toybox on Twitter/X, along with a personal site at suiseistarcomet.ame-zaiku.com, both listed by The Art of Pokemon’s illustrator profile. Beyond these verified points and the card catalog itself, no further biographical detail — real name, nationality, or personal history — has been confirmed through the sources we rely on, so we don’t speculate beyond what’s documented.

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