AKIRA EGAWA Pokemon Cards: All Four VSTAR Universe Gold URs & SARs

Who Is Akira Egawa?

Akira Egawa’s Pokemon TCG credit debuted in 2019 with Riolu in Unified Minds. Bulbapedia identifies Egawa as a second-generation Pokemon player — someone who grew up with the games rather than discovering them as an adult hire.

Egawa’s international card count sits at 89 (114 in Japan), plus 36 illustrations for Pokemon TCG Pocket. That’s a substantial body of work, but the credential that separates Egawa from most set illustrators is pack art: Egawa painted the official booster pack artwork for four Sword & Shield expansions — Battle Styles, Chilling Reign, Evolving Skies, and Fusion Strike. Pack art is a different assignment than a single card; it’s the image that represents an entire set on shelves worldwide.

In 2022, Egawa served as a judge for the official Pokemon Card Illustration Contest — the evaluating side of the craft, not just the producing side. Outside Pokemon, Egawa has worked on Fate/Grand Order, Fire Emblem Heroes, and the One Piece Card Game, three of the biggest character-driven franchises in Japanese gaming and TCG.

Egawa’s Pokemon catalog runs from ultra-premium golds down to everyday VMAX promos: the s12a VSTAR Universe URs covered below, a Charizard ex UR in the base SV3 set, an Umbreon VMAX in s6a and again in S8b, a Pikachu VMAX distributed as an S-P promo, a Mewtwo V-UNION, and Special Art Rares for Team Rocket’s Moltres ex, Hydreigon ex, Mega Latias ex, Mega Hawlucha ex, and Blaziken VMAX.

What stands out across that list is range. Pack art requires a composition that works at a glance from across a store shelf; a V-UNION spans four physical cards that have to line up into one image when placed side by side; a Special Art Rare needs a full-bleed scene built around a single Pokemon with no card frame to anchor it. Egawa has shipped credits in all three formats, plus the standard card frame and the gold UR treatment covered next — which is a wider range of assignment types than most illustrators get inside a single generation of sets.

One Umbreon VMAX, Two Illustrators

Here’s a split credit that trips up a lot of collectors. The Japanese Eevee Heroes set (s6a) shipped Umbreon VMAX in two forms: the standard VMAX at card number 048, and the alternate-art “Moonbreon” at 095/069 — among the most chased modern Pokemon cards, and the same artwork that appears as a distinct printing in the English Evolving Skies set at 215/203. They look like they should share an artist. They don’t.

Egawa illustrated the regular 048, the standard-frame VMAX that most s6a boosters produce. The 095 alt art — Moonbreon — was illustrated by Keiichiro Ito, and it’s the card Ito is best known for. Two different artists, two very different market tiers, one Pokemon, one set.

We don’t currently stock the regular Egawa 048, but we do hold the Ito alt art: Umbreon VMAX HR 095/069, graded PSA 10, at ¥920,614. If Moonbreon is what brought you here, our full Moonbreon card guide covers its background, print history, and grading notes in detail, and the card itself is listed at /products/psa10-2641. For the wider Evolving Skies checklist it comes from, see our Eevee Heroes (s6a) card list and box guide.

It’s worth flagging this pairing for anyone assembling an Egawa collection specifically: a checklist search for “Umbreon VMAX” pulls both cards, and only one of them is Egawa’s. Ito’s TCG output is narrower than Egawa’s — a mix of standard rares and alt rares rather than gold URs or box art — and Moonbreon is the single card his catalog is built around. Egawa’s version of the same Pokemon is the quieter, standard-frame release from the same set. Knowing which is which before you buy saves a mislabeled search later.

Where to Buy Akira Egawa Cards from Japan

All eight cards above are graded PSA 10 and shipping from our Tokyo inventory. If you want the single strongest piece in the lineup, the Charizard ex SAR is the one to start with.

For the full graded catalog beyond Egawa’s work, browse our PSA 10 collection or the complete PSA 10 card list hub. For mixed orders across singles and sealed product, our Quick Order page is the fastest route.

Egawa’s work sits alongside other illustrators we track closely — see our guides to Naoki Saito, Teeziro, and Mitsuhiro Arita for more artist-driven picks from our current inventory.