Search Limitless TCG’s card database for the illustrator name “Uta” and it returns 425 English-language cards and 561 Japanese-language cards. Almost none of that is actually Uta’s work — the search is a substring match, so it also pulls in every card credited to any illustrator whose name simply contains the letters “uta,” among them Megumi Mizutani and Saya Tsuruta. Run the exact-match search Limitless itself uses on individual card-credit links, and the real catalog is far smaller: 61 English-language cards and 73 Japanese-language cards. Those 61/73 figures are the exact-match search counts; the eight cards featured in this guide were each individually confirmed on their own Limitless card page to carry the literal credit “Illustrated by Uta.”
This guide sticks to what that exact-match catalog and Bulbapedia’s illustrator page can actually verify: Uta’s debut card, the shape of the catalog across sets and rarities, and the single PSA 10 copy of an Uta-illustrated card currently sitting in our vault. Bulbapedia’s page for Uta is a short stub, and it refers to the illustrator with they/them pronouns throughout — a convention this guide follows, rather than guessing at a gender, nationality, or real name that no public source confirms.
Uta is credited on 61 English-language and 73 Japanese-language Pokemon TCG cards (Limitless TCG exact-match count), debuting with Ponyta from the Cosmic Eclipse expansion. Our PSA 10 vault currently holds one Uta-illustrated card — the Galarian Articuno V SR:SA, S5a 074/070, currently listed at ¥20,497.
Catalog figures reflect Limitless TCG’s exact-match illustrator search (!artist:Uta), the same operator Limitless uses in its own card-credit links, checked on August 12, 2026. The in-stock price reflects our vault on the same date.
Who Is Uta?
Per Bulbapedia, Uta is an illustrator who has contributed artwork to the Pokemon Trading Card Game. The page is marked as a stub — there is no biography, no birthplace, no career narrative, and no stated art style, which is unusual next to the more thoroughly documented illustrators in our ongoing series. What the page does state directly is that Uta’s first card was Ponyta from the Cosmic Eclipse expansion, and it refers to the illustrator throughout with they/them pronouns (“Their first card was Ponyta”).
Bulbapedia’s own tally credits Uta with 62 TCG cards, plus 11 cards in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. That 62-card figure is close to, but not identical to, the Limitless exact-match count of 61 English-language cards cited above — the two sources use different methodologies and shouldn’t be summed or treated as interchangeable, and the TCG Pocket figure is a separate product tracked separately again.
Every card attributed to Uta in this guide was individually re-verified on its own Limitless card page, showing the plain one-word credit “Illustrated by Uta,” specifically to avoid the substring-search contamination described above. That verification step matters more here than for most illustrators: a name as short and common a syllable as “Uta” is exactly the kind of string that produces false positives in a simple text search, and we’d rather report a smaller, accurate catalog than a larger, polluted one.
This is also one of the thinner profiles in our ongoing illustrator series. Where guides on artists like Kawayoo or Naoyo Kimura can draw on a full Bulbapedia career section — debut sets, technique notes, work outside the TCG — the Uta page offers a single sentence about the debut card and nothing more. That’s a real constraint on what this guide can responsibly say, and it shapes the rest of the piece: the sections below stay close to the verified card list itself, because that list is the most complete record of Uta’s work currently available to check.
The Debut: Ponyta from Cosmic Eclipse
Bulbapedia states plainly that Uta’s first card was Ponyta, released in the English-language Cosmic Eclipse expansion. Beyond the Pokemon and the set name, the stub page gives no further detail about that debut — no release context, no rarity, no illustration description.
Separately, on the Japanese side, Limitless TCG’s exact-match illustrator list includes a Ponyta printed in Remix Bout (SM11a) #9, a Common, with the “Illustrated by Uta” credit individually re-verified on its card page. It’s tempting to assume this is simply the Japanese counterpart of the Cosmic Eclipse debut card, but neither source states that the two are the same illustration, and Bulbapedia and Limitless are tracking different regional printings independently. We’re keeping the two facts separate rather than merging them into a single claim neither source makes.
Beyond Ponyta: The Wider Uta Catalog
Ponyta is the one card Bulbapedia calls out by name, but the exact-match catalog runs from early Common-tier set fill through modern Secret Rare chase cards, spanning sets from the Sun & Moon era through the Scarlet & Violet era in Japan. A representative slice, individually verified against Limitless’s Japanese card pages:
Golem ex appears in the Pokemon Card 151 set (SV2a) at Double Rare rarity. Escavalier comes from Black Bolt (SV11B) at Art Rare, a full-illustration tier that gives the Pokemon the whole card face rather than a bordered portrait. Copperajah ex is a Double Rare from Snow Hazard (SV2P), one of the Scarlet & Violet era’s early expansions.
The rest of the verified sample rounds out the picture: Oranguru V (VSTAR Universe, S12a #130, Double Rare), Groudon (Terastal Fest ex, SV8a #80, rarity not listed on Limitless’s search view), and Garbodor V (Skyscraping Perfection, S7D #30, Double Rare) all carry the same individually re-verified “Illustrated by Uta” credit. The full table below lists every card in this sample alongside its set and number.
| Card | Set (JP code) | Number | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galarian Articuno V | S5a | 74 | Secret Rare |
| Ponyta | Remix Bout (SM11a) | 9 | Common |
| Golem ex | Pokemon Card 151 (SV2a) | 76 | Double Rare |
| Escavalier | Black Bolt (SV11B) | 146 | Art Rare |
| Copperajah ex | Snow Hazard (SV2P) | 54 | Double Rare |
| Oranguru V | VSTAR Universe (S12a) | 130 | Double Rare |
| Groudon | Terastal Fest ex (SV8a) | 80 | — |
| Garbodor V | Skyscraping Perfection (S7D) | 30 | Double Rare |
Read together, this eight-card sample spans both Common-tier set portraits and Double Rare or Secret Rare chase slots across several years of Japanese releases. With only eight cards verified against a 73-card exact-match catalog, this is a description of the sample itself rather than a conclusion about Uta’s output as a whole.
Of the eight cards verified for this guide, four sit at Double Rare (Golem ex, Copperajah ex, Oranguru V, Garbodor V), one is a Secret Rare (Galarian Articuno V), one is an Art Rare (Escavalier), one is a Common (Ponyta), and one has no rarity listed on Limitless’s search view (Groudon). Within this sample, Double Rare is the most common rarity, with a single Secret Rare rather than several — a distribution limited to these eight cards, not a claim about the full catalog.
In Our PSA 10 Vault
We checked Uta’s exact-match Japanese card list directly against our PSA 10 inventory, matching on collector number, card name, and the “Illustrated by Uta” credit rather than relying on the Pokemon name alone — the same standard applied across our illustrator series generally, where a matching collector number alone has been enough to produce false positives on unrelated printings. Against that standard, the result for Uta is a single match: Galarian Articuno V SR:SA, S5a 074/070, currently listed at ¥20,497.
None of the other cards described above — Ponyta, Golem ex, Escavalier, Copperajah ex, Oranguru V, Groudon, or Garbodor V — currently have a graded PSA 10 copy in our vault. If one of those is specifically what brought you here, the Quick Order page is the fastest way to flag interest for when a copy surfaces and gets graded.
Beyond the Cards
Outside the Pokemon TCG catalog, verified information about Uta is sparse. Bulbapedia’s stub page lists a Twitter account as Uta’s external link, and states nothing further — no other franchises, no exhibitions, no books, no confirmed non-TCG work of any kind.
Rather than filling that gap with speculation, this guide leaves it here: what’s documented is the card catalog itself, the debut credit, and the they/them pronoun note from Bulbapedia’s own text. Everything else about Uta — real name, gender, nationality, art background — is currently unconfirmed by any source we could check. We’d rather publish a shorter, accurate profile than round out the gaps with plausible-sounding guesses, and if a fuller biography becomes verifiable in the future, this guide is a candidate for an update rather than a rewrite.
Where to Buy Uta Cards from Japan
We stock PSA 10 Japanese singles and ship from Tokyo, and the Galarian Articuno V is the single Uta-illustrated card currently available in our vault.
For the wider PSA 10 catalog, browse our PSA 10 card list or our full PSA 10 collection to filter by set, illustrator, and price. If you’re comparing illustrators across our ongoing artist series, KEIICHIRO ITO, Kawayoo, and Naoyo Kimura each have their own dedicated guides covering their most notable printings. For anything not currently in stock, the Quick Order page is the fastest way to build a request.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Uta, the Pokemon TCG illustrator?
Uta is an illustrator credited on 61 English-language and 73 Japanese-language Pokemon TCG cards (Limitless TCG exact-match count). Bulbapedia’s page for Uta is a stub that refers to the illustrator with they/them pronouns and states their first card was Ponyta from the Cosmic Eclipse expansion. No confirmed real name, gender, or nationality is available from any source we checked.
What was Uta’s first Pokemon TCG card?
Per Bulbapedia, Uta’s first card was Ponyta from the Cosmic Eclipse expansion. Separately, Limitless TCG’s Japanese database lists a Ponyta credited to Uta in Remix Bout (SM11a) #9; the two are not confirmed to be the same illustration.
How many cards has Uta illustrated?
Limitless TCG’s exact-match illustrator search returns 61 English-language cards and 73 Japanese-language cards credited to Uta. Bulbapedia’s own tally is 62 TCG cards plus 11 Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket cards. These figures come from different databases and methodologies and should not be added together.
Why does searching “Uta” on card databases return hundreds of results?
A plain substring search for “Uta” also matches every illustrator whose name happens to contain those letters, such as Megumi Mizutani and Saya Tsuruta, inflating the count to 425 English and 561 Japanese cards. The accurate, exact-match count for Uta alone is 61 English and 73 Japanese cards.
Do we know Uta’s real name or gender?
No. Bulbapedia’s page for Uta is a stub with no confirmed real name, gender, or nationality. The page uses they/them pronouns, which this guide follows.
Is the Uta-illustrated Galarian Articuno V card in stock?
As of our August 12, 2026 stock check, our PSA 10 copy of the Galarian Articuno V SR:SA (S5a 074/070) was in stock and listed at ¥20,497. It was the only Uta-illustrated card in our PSA 10 vault at that time.
What kinds of Pokemon TCG sets has Uta worked on?
The verified sample for this guide spans Sun & Moon-era sets (Remix Bout) through Sword & Shield-era Japanese sets (VSTAR Universe, Skyscraping Perfection, Matchless Fighters) and into Scarlet & Violet-era Japanese sets (Pokemon Card 151, Snow Hazard, Terastal Fest ex, Black Bolt), across rarities from Common up to Secret Rare. That range indicates ongoing, multi-year work rather than a single limited run, though the exact start and end dates of Uta’s TCG career are not stated by any source checked.
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