Tetsuo Hara has drawn a Pokémon card. The Fist of the North Star creator and The Pokémon Company announced it on Friday, November 6, and the card is the “Maxie’s Passion” Special Art Rare from the Hadō Seeker expansion, which launches on November 27, 2026.
His second card for the game
It is Hara’s second Pokémon card. He illustrated the Palafin EX Special Art Rare in December 2024, and he said he hopes fans enjoy this one as much as that one. The original illustration will be shown at the Pokémon Center MEGA TOKYO store in Ikebukuro from November 30, 2026 to January 11, 2027, which puts the artwork in front of Tokyo shoppers through the New Year.
Hara’s name carries weight beyond trading cards. He is the artist behind Fist of the North Star, Fist of the Blue Sky, The Magnificent Bastard: The Legend of Keiji and Ikusa no Ko – Oda Saburō Nobunaga Den, and he sits on the board of Coamix. He has also done card art for Magic: The Gathering in 2023, promotional art for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and promotional work for McDonald’s Japan.
That mix explains why The Pokémon Company keeps coming back to him. A Special Art Rare is a card people chase for the art as much as for the pull rate, and Hara’s style is built for a small frame: heavy line work, wide shadows, faces that look carved. Put that next to a water-type Palafin or a Team Magma leader and the contrast does the work on its own.
The commissions have come in a steady line. Magic: The Gathering in 2023, the Palafin EX card in December 2024, and now Maxie, with promotional work for a Mad Max film and a fast food chain in between. Whatever else is on Hara’s desk, the trading card jobs have not stopped.
Why Maxie, of all characters
Maxie is an odd choice for a prestige slot, which is part of the appeal. He is the leader of Team Magma from the Hoenn games and has never been a fan favorite in the way the champions are, so a Special Art Rare built around him is the kind of decision that makes a set worth opening.
When and where to see it
The Hadō Seeker set arrives on November 27. The illustration’s display in Ikebukuro starts three days after launch and runs through the New Year, so anyone visiting Tokyo in December will be able to see the piece at full size rather than at 63 by 88 millimeters.
Other card games are moving at their own pace. The Naruto card game launches worldwide in June 2027 with a Pierrot-animated trailer, which is a different way to sell a set. For Pokémon, the draw is simpler: the company has a retail network that can put a physical original in front of the public, with a permanent London store due in 2029.
Why it matters
The Pokémon TCG has spent the last few years bringing in artists from outside its usual roster, and manga illustrators are the clearest beneficiaries. A card by the person who defined the look of 1980s action manga is a genuine draw for collectors who grew up on Fist of the North Star and drifted into the card hobby later, and the Ikebukuro display is the company admitting the art is the product.
Fist of the North Star, meanwhile, has not needed a new series to stay visible. Hara’s work keeps turning up in places nobody would have predicted a decade ago, and a Pokémon card in a November set is a good example of that.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Tetsuo Hara’s “Maxie’s Passion” Special Art Rare card, via Anime News Network.
