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Fist of the North Star's Tetsuo Hara Draws Special Art Rare Pokémon Card

Tetsuo Hara's X (formerly Twitter) account announced that the legendary manga artist has drawn card art for the Pokémon Trading Card Game on December 3. Hara illustrated the Palafin EX Special Art Rare card for the forthcoming Terastal Festival ex set launching on December 6.

The Coamix website posted an interview excerpt from the February 2025 issue of Monthly Comic Zenon magazine about Hara's work on the Pokémon card. When asked what he focused on when creating the illustration. Hara stated (roughly translated) he wanted to add his unique coolness while maintaining the Pokémon feel. He added, “This time I drew a lot of fists, and paid particular attention to expressing the reflections of light and water, and finished with the image of the fists leaving afterimages, like the Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken [attack].” The February 2025 issue of Monthly Comic Zenon will go on sale on December 25.

Hara is known as the artist behind Fist of the North Star, Fist of the Blue Sky, the Gifū Dōdō!! Naoe Kanetsugu -Maeda Keiji Hana-gatari series, Ikusa no Ko - Oda Saburō Nobunaga Den, among others. He has also provided card art for Magic: The Gathering in 2023, promotional art for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and promotional art for McDonald's Japan, among others. Hara currently serves as a board member for Coamix Inc.

Sources: Tetsuo Hara's X/Twitter account, Coamix's website (link 2), Pokémon Card Game's website