Cards by Atsuko Nishida: TCG Illustrator Guide

Atsuko Nishida (Japanese: 西田敦子 / にしだあつこ Nishida Atsuko) is a graphic artist who has been involved with several aspects of the Pokémon franchise since it began. She was part of the graphics team on Pulseman, one of Game Freak's most successful early titles, working alongside Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri and artist Ken Sugimori. During the development of the first Pokémon games, she helped design key characters and several Pokémon, notably the cuter ones as opposed to the tougher ones.

Nishida is a character designer for the mascot of the Pokémon franchise, Pikachu. She stated that first design of Pikachu looked like a vertically long daifuku rice confection with ears. She also modeled Pikachu's cheeks, which are used to store electricity, after squirrels storing food in their cheeks. Nishida is also a fan of Eevee and the Eeveelutions, having personally designed almost all of the Eeveelutions, with the exception of Jolteon and Flareon.

She also contributed to the conceptual design of characters that appeared in the first few Pokémon movies, as well as several of the main cast members of PTS itself, including Ash Ketchum, Misty, and Brock. Nishida has continued to work within many areas of the franchise, credited on the majority of the core series games and movies, and has produced an array of original illustrations for the Pokémon Trading Card Game. She is also the illustrator for the mini-comic series titled Together with Pokémon! (Japanese: ポケモンといっしょ！) for a monthly children's magazine, Chara Pafe (Japanese: キャラぱふぇ).