Aya Kusube Pokemon Cards: TCG Illustrator Guide

Who Is Aya Kusube?

Aya Kusube (くすべあや) is a freelance illustrator born in 1966 in Saitama Prefecture, per Bulbapedia. Kusube’s early career centered on children’s books, magazines, and advertising illustration, built around a deliberately childlike, hand-drawn style. That style carried directly into Pokemon: starting in 1998, Kusube wrote and illustrated the Pokemon Ehon (Pokemon Tales) picture book series, years before taking on Pokemon TCG illustration work.

Because the Limitless Japanese database only indexes cards from the XY era onward, Kusube’s earliest TCG credits — anything from the original card game’s launch through the e-Series and Diamond & Pearl eras — aren’t part of the searchable record used for this guide. What is documented: 87 cards logged in that database, with the oldest currently confirmed at Rage of the Broken Heaven (XY9) in 2015 and the most recent credit covered in this guide at Mega Symphonia (M1S) in 2025.

That gap between the 1998 start date and the earliest confirmed TCG entry isn’t unusual for illustrators whose Pokemon work began through licensed print media rather than the card game itself. It does mean this guide is deliberately conservative: rather than estimate which pre-2015 sets might carry an unindexed Kusube credit, we’ve limited the catalog below to the seven cards that are individually confirmed against Kusube’s illustrator credit on Limitless.

Bulbapedia describes Kusube’s approach as a deliberately simplified, storybook-adjacent style — artwork built to read as “a child’s drawing” rather than the airbrushed realism common on modern chase-rarity cards. That grounding in picture-book illustration is worth keeping in mind across the catalog below: every card verified for this guide is a single-Pokemon portrait rather than a Trainer or Supporter full art, a contrast to the human-character-heavy catalogs that define some other illustrators’ work.

Kusube’s cards also appear in Pokemon TCG Pocket, the mobile companion app, according to Pocket Pokemon GO Hub’s illustrator index — a sign the catalog has kept pace with newer formats even as the physical card credits stay comparatively small.

Kusube’s catalog sits alongside other Japanese TCG illustrators we track closely, including Megumi Mizutani, whose own indexed catalog runs a similarly long span.

The Card in Our Vault: Alakazam AR

The one Kusube card currently graded and listed in our vault is Alakazam AR, 071/063, from Mega Symphonia (M1S) — Kusube’s most recent credit covered in this guide, released August 1, 2025. Alakazam is the Psychic-type final evolution of Abra and Kadabra, and one of the original Generation I Pokemon.

The M1S 071 slot is specifically Kusube’s Alakazam; the same number in the companion Mega Brave set (M1L #71) is a different card, Spiritomb, illustrated separately, so it’s worth checking the set code if you’re comparing listings elsewhere — a mix-up that’s easy to make with two same-numbered, same-year Mega-series sets sitting side by side.

Our copy is graded PSA 10 and currently listed at ¥4,944 — one-of-one stock, so when it sells, it’s gone.

For the wider Alakazam card market across sets and eras, see our Alakazam cards guide. For the rest of the set this print comes from, our Mega Symphonia set guide covers the remaining chase cards.

Where to Buy Aya Kusube Cards from Japan

We stock and ship PSA 10-graded Japanese singles from Tokyo. Alakazam AR, 071/063 from Mega Symphonia, is the one Kusube-credited card currently in our vault.

이 세트 구매하기PSA10 Alakazam AR [M1S 071/063](확장팩 "Mega Symphonia")

¥6,036수량이 얼마 남지 않음PSA 10

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The other six Kusube-credited prints in the catalog above — Regigigas VSTAR SAR, Gengar, Slowking, Beheeyem AR, Medicham, and Spiritomb — aren’t currently in our vault; for sourcing requests on any of them, our Quick Order page is the direct route. For the broader graded catalog, browse our PSA 10 card list, and for more on what a graded PSA 10 buys you over a raw copy, see our PSA 10 vs raw Japanese Pokemon cards guide.

Illustrator-specific collecting works best when you can track a name across every printing rather than one card at a time, which is why we’ve indexed Kusube’s full catalog above rather than just the copy currently in stock. Each of the seven cards shares the same pattern as Alakazam AR: a single-Pokemon portrait, Psychic-leaning subject matter more often than not, and a style that traces back to Kusube’s picture-book years well before any TCG credit existed.