Taiga Kasai

Taiga Kasai (Japanese: カサイタイガ) is an artist for the Pokémon series. He was a participant in both the and the illustration contests, being the Japanese First Runner-up for the latter. According to Kasai, he begged his parents to buy him the tools to allow him to enter, as being an artist on the TCG had always been a dream of his. Kasai's runner-up artwork would be used to create his first Pokémon card, , one of the . When illustrating this artwork of , he carefully considered the contest's theme of how Pokémon would spend their days in the wild; seeing as Greninja is based on a ninja, he drew it as if it was planning a strategy for battle. 
Kasai also confirmed that he drew many drafts for each individual Pokémon that was eligible for the contest, though he knew his idea for Greninja was the perfect fit from the very start. That being said, Kasai admitted he struggled with the background of the piece, saying that his leading concern was making the subject stand out from the background itself. It didn't start to sink in that he had won the award until he had received the physical copy of the Greninja card, and seeing the existing TCG artists that he looked up to congratulate him on Twitter after announcing that he had won the award was a huge moment for him. He draws digitally, opting to use an iPad Pro.
He first began drawing after seeing a Pokémon illustration by his father, who was already an artist. He didn't think of himself as particularly good, though decided to go to art school when taking the entrance exams for university, which was where he began studying how to draw. Though Kasai first learned about Pokémon when he was in kindergarten through the stickers found on the series' branded Daiichi Pan, the first game he played was Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, which also happen to be his favorites. He first discovered the Pokémon Trading Card Game when sets were on sale at the theater when Kasai first watched M05, with his long-standing appeal for the game being as a result of its wealth of unique and talented illustrators.
In 2023, he made his debut as a game artist on Pokémon HOME and Pokémon GO. Kasai's favorite Pokémon is .
==Artwork==
===Illustration Contest Submissions===
PCGIGP2_Charizard3.jpg| submitted to the 
PTCGIC22_Greninja15.jpg| submitted to the 
===Official Artwork===
This is a collection of official Pokémon artwork drawn by Kasai.
There are cards illustrated by Kasai. For a list of cards he has illustrated, see here.
HOME Ceruledge and Armarouge Sticker.png| & Sticker from HOME
GO Froakie Community Day Stickers.png| Community Day Stickers from GO
GO sticker pgoFest2023 Carbink.png|GO Fest 2023 Sticker from GOKasai's Tweet about the GO Fest 2023 Stickers
GO sticker pgoFest2023 Diancie.png|GO Fest 2023 Sticker from GO
GO sticker pgoFest2023 Rayquaza.png|GO Fest 2023 Sticker from GO
GO sticker pgoFest2023 MegaRayquaza.png|GO Fest 2023 Sticker from GO
===Other games===
This is a collection of other Pokémon games that Kasai has contributed artwork to.
 StickersKasai confirming he drew the 2024 GO Tour Stickers
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==Works==
===Pokémon & GAME FREAK Releases===
Title 	Platform	Release date	Position
Pokémon GO 	Mobile 	2016-07-06 	Sticker Artist
Pokémon HOME	Mobile 	2020-02-12 	Sticker Artist
==References==
==External links==
* Taiga Kasai's Twitch
* Taiga Kasai's Twitter
Category:TCG illustrators
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