The Day Dratini Grew Up

EDIT: Oh, Himeno is actually a woman. ^_^;

How I Became a Pokemon Card – Kagemaru Himeno is a TCG artist who first started illustrating in the [Jungle] expansion for cards like Jolteon, Flareon, and Vaporeon, and who more recently illustrated cards for [Great Encounters], such as Blaziken and Togetic. She is a consistent artist throughout the history of the Pokemon TCG, having illustrated a card in almost every major set.

What most TCG players probably do not know about Ms. Himeno is that she released a popular Pokemon TCG manga (comic book) in Japan many years ago, titled “How I Became a Pokemon Card.” The manga provides stories behind Himeno’s earlier illustrations, tying her tales to the world of Pokemon. A total of six volumes was released, each with five to seven chapters on average (each chapter provides a story on a single card).

Thanks to Ketsuban, a popular Japanese manga translator in the Pokemon community, we will now be hosting scanlations of Himeno’s work.

The first chapter of the first volume Himeno released, titled “The Day Dratini Grew Up,” details the story behind Dratini from [Team Rocket]. Click the chapter’s title scan below to go to the chapter’s page, and then read the instructions on top.

[Image No Longer Available]

I wonder who the young trainer is who saved Dratini… Looks like he is the kind of guy who would end up working in a lighthouse or something. :p