You’ll want to zoom in on this picture to catch all the delicate details.

Yoshitoshi Shinomiya is a deservedly respected force in the Japanese animation industry, not in the least for overseeing and creating some of the most beautiful shots in Makoto Shinkai’s box office miracle “Your Name“.

Shinomiya is a particularly prodigious talent in that he dual-wields skill sets – not only is he a capable and innovative animator and background artist, but a talented illustrative artist too. Being great at animation doesn’t always preclude that you can make a good illustration – conveying a story in one image is a wholly different challenge to a combination of moving ones, after all.

With the Pokémon franchise rolling out the second edition of its animated reboot movie line, Pokémon the Movie: Everyone’s Story, the PR machine is really gearing up into overdrive, and hiring Shinomiya to illustrate the movie’s posters is a super-effective decision. Check out Shinomiya’s gorgeous painting of the Everyone’s Story cast below.

This stunning, sunlight-dappled scene introduces us to the core cast of the movie – of course the eye instantly scouts out series protagonist Satoshi (or Ash, in English-speaking countries) along with his trusty Pikachu, who is gallantly catching Satoshi’s hat out of the air for him. The surrounding cast of quirky characters are less familiar: the reboot movies each have their own characters with matching mini-arcs, all brand new for each movie.

Much of the movie’s PR is centered around that cute blonde girl with an Eevee in front, Lisa, who is a total newbie to training Pokémon and is voiced by ex-AKB48 member Rina Kawaei. Walking in front of her we have the green-haired, recalcitrant scientist Trito, played by actor Gaku Hamada. Behind Lisa is another girl, Largo, who spends her free time by herself in the forest. Largo is played by Mana Ashida, a renowned child actress who you might recognize as baby Mako Mori from Pacific Rim!

Watching over the proceedings from a balcony is Kagachi, an urban legend fanatic who can’t stop telling tall tales – he’s portrayed by actor Kohji Okura. But the real star of the show in my opinion is that funny little old lady leading the procession – Pokémon-hating senior Hisui, who is played by none other than one of the greatest seiyuu of all time. That’s right – it’s the eternal voice of Goku, Masako Nozawa!

Shinomiya’s poster does a great job of giving all these new characters their own spotlight, using lighting and body language to tell us how things might play out in the movie itself. It goes without saying that the art is beautiful; the dreamy, misty color palette pairs with the obvious motion of wind in the picture and perfectly highlights the tagline in the center (“Let’s get going while the wind’s still blowing!”).

It’s unsurprising that he pulled off such a stunning visual, though. This is, after all, Shinomiya’s second time producing artwork for the Pokémon reboot movies. Here’s his gorgeous take on the first film, Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!.

▼ The tagline reads “Let’s walk side by side“

No wonder even Makoto Shinkai himself dropped by to compliment the poster of a movie he had nothing to do with.

▼“Oh, Mr. Shinomiya drew Pokémon…! It’s beautiful.“

Make sure to get a good close-up look at the poster when you head out to see the new movie: it’s playing in theaters across Japan as of July 12, and we’re especially excited to see a certain Silver legendary entity that hasn’t had top billing since 2000.

Source: Kai-You
Featured image: Twitter/@cagerow555