Masakazu Fukuda has been drawing Pokemon cards since 2003, and the catalog that’s built up since then runs to 468 English-language credits and 295 Japanese-language credits in Limitless TCG’s databases — two separate counts covering largely overlapping print runs, not a total to add together. Before any of that, Fukuda spent the 1990s in character and graphic design work across the game industry, then went freelance and carried that design sensibility into a two-decade run on the Pokemon Trading Card Game.
This guide works from Bulbapedia’s biography of Fukuda, Limitless TCG’s card credit database, and a direct crossmatch against our own PSA 10 inventory. It covers the debut cards, the Pokemon ☆ (Star) card series Fukuda illustrated in full, a sample of the wider catalog spanning Sword & Shield and Scarlet & Violet-era sets, and the artist’s substantial body of work outside the card game — from 1990s console art direction to Kamen Rider merchandise. Where the record doesn’t say more — birth date, the names of those 1990s employers, awards — we leave it there instead of guessing. This guide also does not use gendered pronouns for Fukuda; we refer to the artist by name or with “they/their” throughout.
Masakazu Fukuda has 468 English-language and 295 Japanese-language card credits in Limitless TCG’s databases, illustrating for the Pokemon Trading Card Game since 2003 and providing artwork for every Pokemon ☆ (Star) card in the series (per Bulbapedia). We do not currently have a Masakazu Fukuda PSA 10 listed. If you’re after one of the cards covered below, flag it on our Quick Order page and we’ll confirm sourcing.
Card and biography details verified against Bulbapedia and Limitless TCG as of August 2026.
Who Is Masakazu Fukuda?
Per Bulbapedia, Masakazu Fukuda was primarily involved with character and graphic design at multiple game companies during the 1990s — Bulbapedia does not name the specific companies, so this guide doesn’t either — before moving into work as a freelance illustrator. Fukuda has been providing artwork for the Pokemon Trading Card Game since 2003, which puts the TCG career at just over two decades and counting.
The Limitless TCG artist database returns an exact-match result of 468 cards in the English-only database and 295 cards in the Japanese-language database for a search on Fukuda’s name — identical whether searched as a substring or as an exact match, so there’s no other artist name polluting the count. Bulbapedia’s own internal tally, using a different counting method again, lists 472 TCG cards illustrated so far, plus a separate 43 cards in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. Because the three counting methods scope things differently, we’re citing all of them separately rather than combining them into one number.
Bulbapedia quotes Fukuda’s own description of the work as cute, colorful, and vibrant — a self-assessment that lines up with the cards covered below, and one worth keeping in mind heading into the next section on Fukuda’s best-known series.
That 1990s-design-to-freelance-illustrator path is worth sitting with for a moment, because it shows up in how varied Fukuda’s later credits are. A career that starts in character and graphic design for game companies, rather than in fine art or manga, tends to produce an illustrator comfortable moving between very different formats — video game art direction one decade, trading card portraits the next, apparel and card-game tie-ins after that. The sections below on video game credits and merchandise work follow that same thread.
The Debut: EX FireRed & LeafGreen
Fukuda’s first Pokemon Trading Card Game illustrations, per Bulbapedia, were Meowth, Persian, and Tauros, all from the EX FireRed & LeafGreen expansion. That set anchors the start of a catalog that has since grown to hundreds of cards across two decades of English and Japanese Pokemon TCG releases — everything covered in the sections below sits downstream of those three debut illustrations.
The Pokemon ☆ Cards: Fukuda’s Signature Series
The single fact that separates Fukuda’s catalog from most other Pokemon TCG illustrators: per Bulbapedia, Fukuda provided the illustrations for every Pokemon ☆ (Pokemon Star) card in the Trading Card Game. Pokemon Star was a chase-rarity subset in the TCG, and having a single illustrator credited with the entire series is unusual.
Bulbapedia’s description of the approach is specific: Fukuda purposefully exaggerates the angles and colors used on Pokemon ☆ cards to make them stand out from standard-rarity printings of the same Pokemon. That’s consistent with the “cute, colorful, and vibrant” self-description quoted above — the exaggeration is a deliberate stylistic choice on a subset built specifically to be a visual step up from the regular card pool.
One more biographical detail from Bulbapedia worth noting here, since it ties directly to Fukuda’s card output: the illustrator’s favorite Pokemon is Lugia.
It’s worth being precise about what “every Pokemon ☆ card” does and doesn’t tell you. It’s a claim about a specific, named rarity tier — not a claim that Fukuda illustrated every card in any given set, and not a claim about later rarity tiers like Pokemon-ex, GX, V, or VSTAR full arts, which draw from a much wider pool of illustrators including Fukuda alongside many others. The catalog section below covers examples from those later tiers on their own terms.
Inside the Fukuda Catalog
Beyond the Pokemon ☆ series, Fukuda’s catalog runs across two decades of sets. The cards below were individually confirmed on their Limitless TCG pages, each showing “Illustrated by Masakazu Fukuda” as the credit line.
The Radiant Blastoise (Pokemon GO, S10b #18) and Sparkling Hawlucha (VSTAR Universe, S12a #78) pair are both Radiant Rares — the Sword & Shield-era “かがゃく” (kagayaku, “sparkling/radiant”) rarity tier. Landing two Radiant Rares in separate sets is a useful marker of how consistently Fukuda’s work has been chosen for that particular rarity.
Snorlax V (Shield, S1H #45) is a Double Rare from a Sword & Shield-era Japanese set, and Muk & Alolan Muk-GX (Double Blaze, SM10 #99) is a Secret Rare from the preceding Sun & Moon era — together they show the catalog carrying through the GX-to-V generational transition.
Rockruff (GX Ultra Shiny, SM8b #183) and Guzma (Light Consuming Darkness, SM3N #56) are both Secret Rares from the Sun & Moon era, the Guzma card notable for being a Trainer illustration rather than a Pokemon portrait — a reminder that Fukuda’s catalog isn’t limited to creatures alone. Charcadet (Shiny Treasure ex, SV4a #217) brings the sample into the current Scarlet & Violet era as a Shiny Rare. Across these seven cards alone, the catalog spans Sun & Moon-era Double Blaze and Light Consuming Darkness, GX Ultra Shiny, the Sword & Shield-era Shield set, Pokemon GO, VSTAR Universe, and the Scarlet & Violet-era Shiny Treasure ex — seven separate Japanese expansions spanning multiple eras.
Beyond the Cards: Video Games, Merchandise, and More
Fukuda’s illustration work extends well past the Pokemon Trading Card Game, starting with credits from the 1990s video game industry that Bulbapedia lists in detail. Fukuda served as Production Design and Art Director on Zero Divide (PlayStation, 1995), worked as assistant enemy character designer on Tengai Makyou III: Namida (PS2, 2005), and was a Development Artist on Culdcept Saga (Xbox 360, 2006).
Within the Pokemon franchise but outside the card game itself, Bulbapedia credits Fukuda with providing artwork for deck kits and special packs sold in Japan, as well as booster pack and theme deck artwork for English and European releases — specifically the Majestic Dawn set’s booster packs and the Polar Frost and Forest Force theme decks. Other listed illustration work includes Pokemon Center shop goods illustrations dating back to 2007, a Uniqlo Pokemon T-shirt design from 2009, and card illustrations for Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride starting the same year — showing the same character-design background from the 1990s carrying into merchandise and other card games well after the Pokemon TCG debut.
Bulbapedia also lists a set of personal interests for Fukuda: a fan of mecha design who admires designer Hajime Katoki, a reader whose favorite manga artists include Katsuhiro Otomo, Masamune Shirow, and Akira Toriyama, a keen biker, a practitioner of wide-angle photography, and a listener of electronic music and late-1960s music — particularly James Brown.
Taken together, the video game credits, the Pokemon merchandise, and the Kamen Rider card work describe an illustrator whose output was never confined to a single franchise or medium. The 1990s design background explains the range: art direction on a PlayStation fighting game and enemy character design on a role-playing game sequel are a different discipline from painting a Pokemon ☆ card, and Fukuda’s résumé, as documented by Bulbapedia, moves across all of it.
Fukuda in Our PSA 10 Vault
We checked all 401 rows of our current PSA 10 inventory against Fukuda’s 295-card Japanese-language Limitless list, matching on collector number and card name together rather than name alone. Every inventory item whose collector number happened to coincide with a number in Fukuda’s list was individually reviewed, and in each case the card name did not match — for example, an in-stock “Umbreon & Darkrai GX 182/173” shares a collector number with Fukuda’s XY #182 Blacksmith, but they are not the same card.
The result: we do not currently hold a graded Masakazu Fukuda card. If one of the cards covered in this guide — the Pokemon ☆ series, Radiant Blastoise, Sparkling Hawlucha, Snorlax V, Muk & Alolan Muk-GX, Rockruff, Guzma, Charcadet, or any other verified Fukuda print — is what brought you here, the fastest way to move forward is a request through our Quick Order page, where we’ll confirm sourcing and next steps.
If you’re browsing while a specific Fukuda card is sourced, our PSA 10 card list covers graded cards from other illustrators that are in stock right now.
Requesting a Fukuda Card from Japan
We source and ship Japanese Pokemon cards and sealed product from Tokyo with tracked delivery. For an illustrator like Fukuda, where we don’t currently hold graded stock on hand, the process runs through a direct request rather than an existing listing:
- Flag which Fukuda card you’re after — a Pokemon ☆ card, Radiant Blastoise, Sparkling Hawlucha, Snorlax V, Muk & Alolan Muk-GX, Rockruff, Guzma, Charcadet, or any other verified print — on our Quick Order page.
- Browse our current PSA 10 card list or the PSA 10 collection for graded cards already in stock from other illustrators.
- If you’re comparing illustrators across our ongoing series, our guides to KEIICHIRO ITO, Souichirou Gunjima, and Sui cover other artists built on the same catalog-plus-crossmatch research standard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Masakazu Fukuda?
Masakazu Fukuda is a Pokemon Trading Card Game illustrator with 468 English-language and 295 Japanese-language card credits in Limitless TCG’s databases. Per Bulbapedia, Fukuda worked in character and graphic design at multiple game companies during the 1990s before becoming a freelance illustrator, and has provided Pokemon TCG artwork since 2003.
What was Masakazu Fukuda’s first Pokemon TCG card?
Per Bulbapedia, Fukuda’s first Pokemon TCG illustrations were Meowth, Persian, and Tauros, all from the EX FireRed & LeafGreen expansion.
Did Masakazu Fukuda illustrate the Pokemon ☆ (Star) cards?
Yes. Bulbapedia states Fukuda provided the illustrations for all Pokemon ☆ (Pokemon Star) cards in the Trading Card Game, purposefully exaggerating the angles and colors used to make them stand out from standard printings.
Do you have any Masakazu Fukuda PSA 10 cards in stock?
Not currently. We checked Fukuda’s full Japanese-language Limitless catalog against our live PSA 10 inventory and found no matches. Flag the card you want on our Quick Order page and we’ll confirm sourcing and availability.
What has Masakazu Fukuda worked on outside the Pokemon TCG?
Per Bulbapedia, Fukuda’s video game credits include Zero Divide (PlayStation, 1995, Production Design and Art Director), Tengai Makyou III: Namida (PS2, 2005), and Culdcept Saga (Xbox 360, 2006). Fukuda has also illustrated Pokemon Center merchandise since 2007, a 2009 Uniqlo Pokemon T-shirt, and Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride cards starting in 2009.
How many cards has Masakazu Fukuda illustrated?
Limitless TCG lists 468 cards in its English-only database and 295 in its Japanese-language database, both exact matches with no other artist name included. Bulbapedia’s own count is 472 core TCG cards plus 43 in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket.
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