User:Apopheniac/TCG staff

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This page contains information on TCG staff. The information here may be mainspaced later.

Akihiko Miura

Main article: Akihiko Miura
Sources: https://shmuplations.com/imadethat/; https://shmuplations.com/20questions1985/; https://www.mobygames.com/person/99884/akihiko-miura/; https://fm-7.com/museum/products/fjaj3wqv/; https://web.archive.org/web/20070823024019/https://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0311/soft/interv.html

Yuichi Konno

credited as "Manual Editor" for early TCG. believed to have sold rare cards under the name "Pkonno2002"
worked with Milky Isobe at Atelier Peyotl ("Peyotl Koubou") later Studio Parabolica, published Yaso magazine

Sources: https://www.elitefourum.com/t/fascinating-insight-into-some-tcg-history-related-to-pkonno/34349; https://www.elitefourum.com/t/pokemon-snap-cards/14489/263; https://zenmarket.jp/en/blog/post/9652/top-7-eerie-artworks-from-parabolica-bis; http://www.yaso-peyotl.com; http://www.2minus.com; https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ペヨトル工房; https://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~silencium/peyotl/; https://twitter.com/pkonno/status/1223979409205420032

Takumi Akabane

Main article: Takumi Akabane

赤羽卓美

Sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonTCG/comments/t574gg/original_pok%C3%A9mon_prototype_cards_recently_posted/; https://www.instagram.com/banet1965/?hl=en; https://blogzaodorpg.blogspot.com/2014/05/sidequest-48-entrevista-com-brian.html; https://web.archive.org/web/20070914140316/https://www.nintendo.co.jp/nom/0111/01/page02.html; https://web.archive.org/web/20150911225201/https://www.cinra.net/interview/2013/10/09/000000; https://henzine.jp/henjin/akabanetakumi/; https://note.com/tohrufuku/n/nc837b12423a0; https://www.weblio.jp/wkpja/content/赤羽卓美_赤羽卓美の概要; https://www.4gamer.net/games/136/G013687/20180911084/; http://nimonote.blog105.fc2.com/blog-entry-604.html

Kohei Kobayashi

referred to as "game director" by IGN and MeriStation, just "tester" in The Guardian. Nagashima is listed as "Executive Creative Director" in PTCGIC2024, Kobayashi may be succeeding him as director. will have to check rulebooks of upcoming sets.

Sources: https://www.ign.com/articles/pokmon-cards-are-designed-with-an-unexpected-philosophy; https://en.as.com/meristation/news/visiting-creatures-whats-behind-the-pokemon-trading-card-game-r/; https://www.millenium.org/news/405980.html; https://recruit.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/kk/; https://www.repubblica.it/tecnologia/2023/08/12/news/come_nasce_una_carta_pokemon-410591386/; https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/nov/01/how-pokemon-cards-are-made-creatures-inc

Kota Okamoto

TCG Senior Project Manager
Deputy General Manager, Pokémon Card Development Division

Sources: https://www.siliconera.com/pokemon-card-managers-on-origins-of-the-card-game-and-the-varied-illustrations/; https://new-graduate.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/pokemon_tcg_cross_talk/; https://www.famitsu.com/news/201903/14173198.html; https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2019/04/25/121986.html; https://www.4gamer.net/games/256/G025620/20190318026/

Keita Tsukamoto

TCG Senior Project Manager
Information Management Team Manager

Sources: https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2019/04/25/121986.html

Satoru Inoue

I have no clue what this guy's job title is

Sources: https://www.ign.com/articles/i-found-pokmon-tcg-heaven-and-its-at-creatures-hq-in-japan - 2023 - "Manager of the Game Design Team"; https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/nov/01/how-pokemon-cards-are-made-creatures-inc - 2023 - "tester"; https://www.millenium.org/news/405980.html - 2023 - "Manager and Game Designer"; https://recruit.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/is/ - 2022 - TCG quality control team manager + game designer; https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-pokemon-cards-are-made/1100-6459450/ - 2021 - "test room lead"; https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/09/09/trade-secrets-the-making-of-a-pokemon-card - 2018 - "head tester"; https://www.eurogamer.net/inside-creatures-inc - 2018 - "Quality Management Leader"; https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/08/24/how-pokemon-cards-are-made-in-8-steps - 2018 - "lead of the Pokemon Card Game Laboratory"

Kenichi Koga

Kenichi Koga is the Senior Art Director for the TCG. Prior to this, he was the Art Director from the XY Series through the Sword and Shield Series, succeeding Milky Isobe in the role. Koga was succeeded in his prior role as Art Director by Satoru Nagaya.

Sources: https://www.mobygames.com/person/246640/kenichi-koga/; https://web.archive.org/web/20190331103106/https://www.creatures.co.jp/igp/about/pokemon-illustration/

Satoru Nagaya

TCG Art Director

Sources: https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2024/en/column/article-1/; https://www.gameinformer.com/2018/09/09/trade-secrets-the-making-of-a-pokemon-card; https://web.archive.org/web/20231207171342/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/971/; https://www.mobygames.com/person/877880/satoru-nagaya/; https://web.archive.org/web/20210123050903/https://www.creatures.co.jp/igp2/about/pokemon-illustration/article-4.php; https://jobs.japandesign.ne.jp/article/interview/creatures/

Haru Saito

TCG Illustration Director

Sources: https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2024/en/column/article-1/; https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/nov/01/how-pokemon-cards-are-made-creatures-inc; https://www.millenium.org/news/405980.html; https://recruit.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/sh/; https://www.mobygames.com/person/1547461/haru-saito/

Natsuki Suwabe

was listed as associate manager of illustration team, now illustration director on new project

Sources: https://new-graduate.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/pokemon_tcg_illust_director/

Other known staff

Ryo Tsujikawa
- https://www.pokemon.co.jp/ex/pokemonryuoh3/special.html - game designer
Nomoto Seiya
- https://web.archive.org/web/20231207162149/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/877/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20231207162108/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/1228/
Kei Maeno
- https://web.archive.org/web/20231207174244/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/944/
Ikumi Fujishiro
- https://web.archive.org/web/20231207174037/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/1341/ - graphic designer
Hitoshi Okahashi
- https://web.archive.org/web/20231207171236/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/1380/ - graphic designer
Hiroshi Takano
- https://web.archive.org/web/20240112071210/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/1525/ - formerly in charge of game design
"Hanawa"
- https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/topics/20181206-OYT8T50031/
N.S.
- https://new-graduate.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/pokemon_tcg_cross_talk/ - Manager, Pokémon Card Development Division
S.Y.
- https://recruit.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/sy/ - TCG product planner
K.S.
- https://recruit.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/ks/ - TCG graphic designer
S.Y.
- https://new-graduate.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/pokemon_tcg_illustration_production/
K.R.
- https://new-graduate.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/pokemon_tcg_illustration_production_1/
S.Y.
- https://new-graduate.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/pokemon_tcg_game_designer/
T.M.
- https://new-graduate.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/pokemon_tcg_production_progress_management/
N.U.
- https://new-graduate.creatures.co.jp/cr_people/pokemon_tcg_graphic_designer/

Art Design Team members: Eiji Ide
Illustration Team, Associate Managers: Natsuki Suwabe, Ayaka Hagiwara
Illustration Team members: Yuuki Amano, Tsukasa Tamura, Naoki Kuroshima

Credited for Pokémon Card Development in E-Reader credits (staff of Pokémon Art Academy#Pokémon Trading Card Development are all listed elsewhere)

Masamichi Anazawa
Daisaku Nishida
- https://web.archive.org/web/20230329162403/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/428/
Yoshiharu Tsukuda
Yukinori Torii
Miu Tsutsumi
Tomo Suzuki
Chiaki Shinkai

SM Era staff

[machine translated]

Role \ Version	Ver. 01 (2016)	Ver. 02 (2017)	Ver. 03 (2018)
Developed by	Creatures Inc.	Creatures Inc.	Creatures Inc.
Produced by	Pokemon Co.	Pokemon Co.	Pokemon Co.
Game Director	Atsushi Nagashima	Atsushi Nagashima	Atsushi Nagashima
Art Director	Kenichi Koga	Kenichi Koga	Kenichi Koga
Game Design	Ryo Tsujikawa	Ryo Tsujikawa	Ryo Tsujikawa
	Kohei Kobayashi	Kohei Kobayashi	Kohei Kobayashi
	Daisaku Nishida	Hiroshi Takano	Hiroshi Takano
		Koga Oda	Koga Oda
		Chihiro Matsuda	Daisaku Nishida
		Daisaku Nishida
Art Design	Ikumi Fujishiro	Satoru Nagaya	Satoru Nagaya
	Satoru Nagaya	Ikumi Fujishiro	Ikumi Fujishiro
	Ayano Shinpo	Hidefumi Ide	Hidefumi Ide
	Hitoshi Okahashi	Ayano Shinpo	Hitoshi Okahashi
	Yukako Miyazaki	Hitoshi Okahashi	Kyoko Yoshida
		Rina Hanakawa	Natsuki Suwabe
Illustration Direction	Hidefumi Ide
	Furomoto Kanako
	Rina Hanakawa
	Kyoko Yoshida
Planning	Tomoaki Imakuni	Tomoaki Imakuni	Tomoaki Imakuni
	Keita Tsukamoto	Keita Tsukamoto	Keita Tsukamoto
	Kei Maeno	Kei Maeno	Kei Maeno
Editor	Chiaki Shinkai	Chiaki Shinkai	Chiaki Shinkai
	Yuki Ohtsuka	Koji Yoshida	Koji Yoshida
Debugging	Satoru Inoue	Satoru Inoue	Satoru Inoue
	Daijiro Todaka	Shunsuke Sasaki	Shunsuke Sasaki
	Shunsuke Sasaki	Shota Ishige	Shota Ishige
	Hiroshi Takano	Takashi Matsuzawa	Takashi Matsuzawa
	Shota Ishige	Yusuke Ebisawa	Yusuke Ebisawa
	Maara Kubota	Mikiya Shinma	Mikiya Shinma
	Ayumu Sato	Aya Fujiwara	Aya Fujiwara
	Takashi Matsuzawa	Furusawa Yuusuke	Furusawa Yuusuke
		Akio Yamada	Akio Yamada
Production Management	Yukiko Hori	Yukiko Hori	Yukiko Hori
	Seiya Nomoto	Kota Okamoto	Kota Okamoto
	Kota Okamoto	Keita Mori	Keita Mori
		Yuki Ohtsuka	Yuki Ohtsuka
Special Thanks	Game Freak Inc.	Game Freak Inc.	Game Freak Inc.
	Satoshi Tajiri	Satoshi Tajiri	Satoshi Tajiri
	Ken Sugimori	Ken Sugimori	Ken Sugimori
	Junichi Masuda	Junichi Masuda	Junichi Masuda
	Takao Unno	Takao Unno	Shigeru Ohmori
	Milky Isobe	Milky Isobe	Milky Isobe
Producer	Yuji Kitano	Yuji Kitano	Yuji Kitano
Executive Producer	Hirokazu Tanaka	Hirokazu Tanaka	Hirokazu Tanaka
Executive Producer	Tsunekazu Ishihara	Tsunekazu Ishihara	Tsunekazu Ishihara

XY Era staff

[machine translated]

Role \ Version	Ver. 02 (2014)	Ver. 03 (2015)	Ver. 04 (2015)
Developed by	Creatures Inc.	Creatures Inc.	Creatures Inc.
Produced by	Pokemon Co.	Pokemon Co.	Pokemon Co.
Game Director	Atsushi Nagashima	Atsushi Nagashima	Atsushi Nagashima
Art Director	Kenichi Koga	Kenichi Koga	Kenichi Koga
Game Designer	Shigeru Kanda	Shigeru Kanda	Shigeru Kanda
	Ryo Tsujikawa	Ryo Tsujikawa	Ryo Tsujikawa
Design	Hidefumi Ide	Hidefumi Ide	Hidefumi Ide
	Ikumi Fujishiro	Ikumi Fujishiro	Ikumi Fujishiro
		Aya Shinpo	Aya Shinpo
			Yukako Miyazaki
Illustration Direction	Asuka Ishibashi	Asuka Ishibashi	Kanako Furomoto
	Kanako Furomoto	Kanako Furomoto	Keita Tsukamoto
		Keita Tsukamoto	Rina Hanakawa
		Rina Hanakawa
Staff	Tomoaki Imakuni	Tomoaki Imakuni	Tomoaki Imakuni
	Daisaku Nishida	Daisaku Nishida	Daisaku Nishida
	Kent Kanetsuna	Seiya Nomoto	Seiya Nomoto
	Kasue Komama	Kiyoko Yoshida	Kiyoko Yoshida
	Seiya Nomoto	Kohei Kobayashi	Kohei Kobayashi
	Keita Tsukamoto
Engineering Director	Sakae Kimura	Chiaki Shinkai	Chiaki Shinkai
	Chiaki Shinkai
	Kiyoko Yoshida
	Koji Yoshida
Debugging	Shintaro Hayashi	Shintaro Hayashi	Shintaro Hayashi
	Kei Maeno	Kei Maeno	Kei Maeno
	Satoru Inoue	Satoru Inoue	Satoru Inoue
	Toshiro Todaka	Toshiro Todaka	Toshiro Todaka
	Shunsuke Sasaki	Shunsuke Sasaki	Shunsuke Sasaki
	Ayako Kawamura	Ayako Kawamura	Ayako Kawamura
	Kenichi Matsui	Hiroshi Takano	Hiroshi Takano
		Hikaru Muramoto	Miki Moriya
		Miki Moriya
Production Management	Kota Okamoto	Kota Okamoto	Kota Okamoto
	Yukiko Hori	Yukiko Hori	Yukiko Hori
Special Thanks	Game Freak Inc.	Game Freak Inc.	Game Freak Inc.
	Satoshi Tajiri	Satoshi Tajiri	Satoshi Tajiri
	Ken Sugimori	Ken Sugimori	Ken Sugimori
	Junichi Masuda	Junichi Masuda	Junichi Masuda
	Takao Unno	Takao Unno	Takao Unno
	Milky Isobe	Milky Isobe	Milky Isobe
Producer	Yuji Kitano	Yuji Kitano	Yuji Kitano
Executive Producer	Hirokazu Tanaka	Hirokazu Tanaka	Hirokazu Tanaka
Executive Producer	Tsunekazu Ishihara	Tsunekazu Ishihara	Tsunekazu Ishihara

Other sources

PTCGIC credits

2023: https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2024/en/ - most recent credits; https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2024/en/agreement/ - most recent credits
2021: https://web.archive.org/web/20220412041347/https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2022/ - credits; https://web.archive.org/web/20220512173434/https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2022/agreement/ - credits; https://www.pokewiki.de/Pok%C3%A9mon_Trading_Card_Game_Illustration_Contest_2022
2020: https://web.archive.org/web/20210617200324/https://www.creatures.co.jp/igp2/ - credits; https://www.pocketmonsters.net/news/3925
2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190330065544/https://www.creatures.co.jp/igp/ - credits

TCG rulebooks

https://www.judgeball.com/archives/tcg-rulebooks/ - archived from various eras

https://web.archive.org/web/20000229135623/http://www.wizards.com/pokemon/article.asp?cat=Rules%26file=page23 - archived WotC website Jungle credits

https://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/rulebook/xy8-rulebook-en.pdf - swap xy8 in url to other sets

https://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/rulebook/sm7_rulebook_en.pdf - swap sm7 in url to other sets

https://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/rulebook/swsh10_rulebook_en.pdf - swap swsh10 in url to other sets

https://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/rulebook/svi_rulebook_en.pdf - swap svi in url to other set abbreviation

https://archive.org/details/pokemoncard-rulebook-4/ - rulebook covering through 5th JP expansion. contains English credits at the end for JP expansions.

https://archive.org/details/pokemoncard-officialbook2000/ - Pokémon Card Official Book 2000 - has JP credits at the end, also deck lists from Game Freak/Creatures staff interspersed.; https://imgur.com/ggXzWuq - partial TL
JP XY Era rulebooks: https://web.archive.org/web/20140622120420/http://www.pokemon-card.com/rules/play/manual.pdf - v2, 2014; https://web.archive.org/web/20150327025727/http://www.pokemon-card.com/rules/play/manual.pdf - v3, 2015; https://web.archive.org/web/20160310045254/http://www.pokemon-card.com/rules/play/manual.pdf - v4, 2015
JP SM Era rulebooks: https://www.pokemon-card.com/assets/document/manual.pdf - v1, 2016; https://www.pokemon-card.com/assets/document/SM_SME_manual.pdf - v2, 2017; https://www.pokemon-card.com/assets/document/PCG_manual.pdf - v3, 2018

Miscellaneous

https://pokumon.com/pokemon-card-game-25th-anniversary-creatures-corporate-history-deck/ - 25th Anniversary Creatures Inc. Corporate History Deck
https://www.elitefourum.com/t/list-of-pokemon-tcg-artist-ig-social-media-accounts/35876 - List of Pokemon TCG artist IG/social media accounts
https://www.elitefourum.com/t/guide-to-early-pokemon-tcg-history-1995-test-card-versions/31779 - Guide to Early Pokemon TCG History - 1995 Test Card Versions

https://www.elitefourum.com/t/japanese-document-archives-trainer-mags-silver-bible-pdfs/33002 - Japanese Document Archives, Trainer Mags, Silver Bible PDF’s

https://pokumon.com/pokemon-card-fan-club-magazine/ - Pokémon Card Fan Club Magazine summaries

https://pkmncards.com/card/brocks-ninetales-gym-challenge-g2-3/ - pp.58-59 of Vol.6 of Pokémon Trainer Card Magazine is dedicated to a 2 page errata and sincere apology for changing the effect of Brock's Ninetales, and a briefly contextualizing the need for the errata to balance the game. The apology is signed by Takumi Akabane.

https://web.archive.org/web/20231207161251/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/1152/ + https://web.archive.org/web/20231207161537/https://garage.creatures.co.jp/blog/1181/ - Creatures LINE icons, worked on by TCG staff

https://recruit.creatures.co.jp/about/creatures_data/ - employee stats, run this through Wayback Machine