I'll add all the info I have on the uploaded card at the picture title, like so.

This and the previous card belong to the same artist, you can find him on twt @ryutmr. I like how healthy the characters look, they seem to be enjoying themselves in a bright, sunny day. The hightec nonsense frying pan on the previous picture is adorable.

Post edited on 22nd Jul 2022, 11:00am

You can easily find a lot of adult manga and illustrations by this prolific author. 火浦R (HiuraR). He has a Twitter @hiurar and a pixiv users/5772729.

This artist still very much active. Twt @punipoyo
Sometimes I'll make assumptions about what series the card belongs, when that happens, I'll add a ().

This artist is currently working in the gaming industry. More illustrations can be found on his Twt, @8nyanco

I wish I could find more of this Fantasy series. I love this flat with muted colors style, it's realy cute. Also I'm 99% sure this artist, たつねこ, wrote his own wikipedia page. I just know it.

This is a neat idea for a thread, OP. You're right, these cards do radiate that '90s style. I'm intrigued to see what else you dig up.
I don't know if you've seen this, but there's a wiki page about these cards, and it looks like the series ended in 2011, not 2008:
https://e-shuushuu.net/wiki/index.php?title=V.I.P

Post edited on 22nd Jul 2022, 10:25am

Love the slightly off sitting position on this one and the obsession with bow knots. When I first saw this illustration I sensed a female sensitivity in it particularly in the hair and clothing. Turns out it is a female artist. There's a English entry for her on wikipedia, look for Ryō Ramiya.

>>3820
Hey anon, I hope you'll enjoy this thread. I actually saw that page and completely forgot to check on it while writing the OP, I stand corrected. I didn't find any cards from such a later period yet, I hope there are some out there. I actually just purchased a CD collecting an entire series of an earlier edition on Yahoo. I don't want to give anyone high hopes yet though, I have bought CDs in the past but they're so old by now a lot of them are corrupted. We'll see. If it works I'll definitely share the contents itt.

>>3822
>I didn't find any cards from such a later period yet, I hope there are some out there.
The 2010 and 2011 runs do at least have some of their art online, albeit with watermarks. More importantly, they have a list of the artists involved, which might help in tracking down more of them.

>Summer 2010
https://web.archive.org/web/20101121074812/http://www.axia-info.com/v2010s/index.php
https://web.archive.org/web/20101113203039/http://axia-info.com/v2010s/prc.php

>Winter 2010
https://web.archive.org/web/20110108062351/http://axia-info.com/v2010w/

>Winter 2011
https://web.archive.org/web/20120125062128/http://axia-info.com/v2011w/

This artist encapsulates a lot of the 90s aesthetic in his work. Bigger heads, bolder lines, flatter colors and high contrast highlights. There's a childlike grace to his art. If a child could improve her drawing skills without losing any innocence, I like to imagine that's how the drawings would look like. I knew about this artist thanks to Doki Doki Vampire and it was a nice surprise to find art by him on VIP as well. He's currently working on character design for mobile games and whatnot. Very active twt @kokomahi. You can also read Doki Doki for free (and legally) on mangaz.com/book/detail/49341. Despite what the card says, his pen name is kokomahi, not kokomai.

>>3823
This is gold mine, thanks! I've been focusing most of my efforts on auction sites since a lot of those images become inaccessible once the bidding ends. I have that nagging feeling I need to comb everything in those as quickly and thoroughly as I can. I'll carefully go through the links you provided later today, I already spotted several cards in there I like and want to know more about.

This card is by the same artist as >>3817. A lot of cards around for sale in auction sites are signed by the artist. I guess people usually did purchase them in Comiket directly from the artist himself/herself and asked them then and there to sign it.

This is a nice thread.

>>3823
>??木信孝
Huh, it's unfortunate that the Wayback Machine mangled the kanji like this. The wiki linked by >>3820 confirms that it's 髙木信孝 (Takagi Nobuyuki), perhaps best known for Kokoro Toshokan. In previous years, he contributed under the name Boo or BOO (pronounced ぶぅ) as a member of the circle M・blem.

V・I・P'99 WINTER VENUS-13
page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e1018659340
page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f1018670185

I'd post the image too, but I won't because I figure OP will do a better job of cleaning it up than I would. But judging from the two photos of the front side of this card, it looks like this card is shiny and reflective in such a way that a single scan wouldn't do it justice.

>>3824
>Despite what the card says, his pen name is kokomahi, not kokomai.
It's worth noting that his Wikipedia and pixiv Encyclopedia articles indicate that ここまひ is supposed to be read as ここまい (Kokomai). The romanization "KOKOMAI" also shows up on the front cover of volume 1 of Doki Doki Vampire.
Some words that were historically written with ひ have the ひ pronounced as /i/ nowadays and are typically written with い to match that pronunciation. But in some cases the old kana orthography is alternatively used, e.g. in the title おもひでぽろぽろ (Omoide Poroporo).

No 2Dbijinga collection would be complete without a miko.
Artist's info and gallery:
https://twitter.com/akiyoshi_anorak
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/304907

I've been avoiding to post links to twitter since I know ib denizens usually have a problem with social media but honestly it's annoying for lurkers interested in finding more about the artists itt to have to copy and paste every twitter link, so I'll start to just link them normally from now on, I hope that's OK.

>>3826
I'm glad you're enjoying it anon and thanks for your help. Don't shy away from posting any images you find btw. Even if I already have it, I'll put it at the end of my posting line and repost with any PS edits if I find I can improve it. The one you linked I do have it. Here's the list of auction and sales sites I meticulously comb through regularly: Yahoo, buyee, suruga-ya, aucfan, shop.r10, rakuten, lambissue, mandarake, ebay and amazon. If you find images in any of those sites, chances are I have it as well and will post it here eventualy. Regardless, you should post whatever VIP related things you feel like it. Two people looking is always better than one. I might miss something and new auctions are always coming up, you never know.

Within VIP there are also series or single cards promoting media franchises, VNs, games, anime, manga, etc. Here's one such case.
Artist's info
https://twitter.com/_sakurazawa_
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/125969

>>3832
It's an usual thing for one artist to have designed several cards. Same artist as above.

I love this style as well. A little less goofy and lightheared proportions but still very friendly. It gives the character a warming, approachable personality and charisma.
Artist info
https://twitter.com/kerorinnet
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/2255114

>>3827
Speaking of Photoshop, I don't know what version you're using, but newer versions have a Perspective Warp tool that makes it super easy to straighten/flatten out pictures of cards that have been taken on an angle.

Another signed card. He wrote 'Please return the book by tomorrow.' Notice how he was careful enough not to write over the character. I like this one. It feels like what a Pokemon char would look like if Pkm were more adult-oriented.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/harashow_llcorp
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/22937

>>3835
I'm using CC2019. I'm not sure how much I want to alter the original picture. I feel like I should alter as little as possible, there's always a possibility someone will come along and be able to do a better job than me at it. I'll try do the warp next. Maybe later I'l just dump all unaltered pictures I have for download, that would solve the problem.

One of my favorites. This artist is currently the president and executive producer of Studio Saizensen. Coincidentally, Umihara Kawase is one of my favorite game franchises out there and I posted a fairly large review for one of their games just a couple months ago >>/vg/14447. It's a small world.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/st_saizensen

Post edited on 23rd Jul 2022, 10:21am

I get a little sad seeing how some artists completely abandon their early style for whatever is in vogue. They do this of course in order to continue to be a competitive force in the market. Still, part of me wish they didn't. I found one auction listing by a guy selling a 'complete 99 Summer set', stating there are 180 cards. We'll see, for now I'm assuming there's 180.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/Aoi__Nanase/

Even professors emeritus at the University of Tokyo can draw characters for obscure Comiket card collections sometimes. The seller listed this both as Summer 99 and as a promo card for マリオネットカンパニー (Marionette Company) an early 2000s VN trilogy I never heard about before. I quickly looked through the main characters from those games and none of them look quite like this, so maybe it's a mistake. I'm mentioning just in case I'm wrong and this is in fact a promocard for those games.

Artist info
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoichiro_Kawaguchi

Post edited on 23rd Jul 2022, 11:40am

>>3815
>>3817
>>3825
These are my favorite. Not a fan of the oddly shaped heads that were common back then.

Also, I wonder how doable it'd be to make a reproduction based on these images using some phostoshop and ai.

Post edited on 23rd Jul 2022, 11:12am

>>3840
The most shocking part of all this is that Zima was still being sold in Japan until last December - and it was actually popular there!

The summer series was probably the most well received. There are a lot of Summer cards out there.
Artist Info
https://twitter.com/kimizuka_aoi
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/2357347

>>3841
2D girls artwork on VIP when focused on more regular proportions have the tendency to have a higher sexual energy to it and it's way less whimsical as a result. There's also a sort of erotic tension to it that is hard to describe. I can definitely feel it on >>3825. My favorite of the ones posted so far is probably >>3819. Of course this is all in my head, it might feel completely different for you. Don't pick favorites yet! We have a very long list to go! I hope you'll continue to enjoy it!

>>3841
Honestly I should just purchase them. Problem is I don't know when to quit and can end up spending enough money I could neet on for a full year, it can get quite ridiculous. I did purchase an official CD gallery with one of the earlier sets, but that as far as I'll go with this. If the CD is not corrupted (happened before) I'll share itt. I found a blog entry by a guy saying there are so many cards he decided to focus on just the artists he liked, so I'm guessing there's just too many out there to seriously try to collect them all, even if you don't need to pay international shipping. Besides, I have enough weeb stuff as is, I can't allow myself to get carried away with stuff like this.

>>3842
Oh, now I want to have a taste of that drink.

Here's the reason this thread exists. I found about VIP thanks to this one, card 09 from the 99 Winter series. I was looking for artwork by this artist and this came out in the results. Did some digging and here we are. You'll notice he changed his style almost completely in the last couple of decades.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/kagap_t
http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~hime/index2.html

I could not identify the artist behind this card.

I tried my best, but the result is quite shoddy.

>>3847
I hope this helps you.

>>3848
Amazing. Is that from the cd mentioned here? >>3843
Would like to know where I could find the others too.
Edit: found this gallery https://exhentai.org/s/6e7f32720c/1161719-68

Post edited on 23rd Jul 2022, 4:44pm

Here's one of the later ones, 2007.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/zaklero

>>3849
Nope, that wasn't me. The CD will take around 3 weeks to get here. I'll let you guys know when it arrives.

This artist has a very popular style and a fairly large following.
Notice how the backs changed from one year to the next. There's a lot less information in 2007. I much prefer lots of info on the back.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/mikeou_
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%BF%E3%81%91%E3%81%8A%E3%81%86

Artist info
https://twitter.com/yokotamamoru

>>3848
Based on this, I think the card originally looked more like this, with a white border and blue background. This is mostly conjecture though.

Could not find any direct accounts to this artist but if you look up his name several galleries of his work comes up. Here's one: https://akuma.moe/?q=artist%3Ajinnojyou%24

>>3853
Looks good. Just for the record, I'm not making any color assumptions with my uploads. All I'm doing is trimming anything that isn't a card in the picture and adjusting exposition, removing that excessive glare that hides the picture. I'm not touching color balance or anything like that.

Here's one picture probably ruined by a shitty smartphone camera.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/BooMblem (Not 100% sure this is the correct artist, there's a lot of Boos out there as it turned out.)

VIP cards were sold in small, sealed packs. I've seen this one for sale in several different auctions, apparently it was a very common one you would get in every other package.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/nishi_iori (This artist changed her style completely since her VIP days.)

Post edited on 24th Jul 2022, 7:55am

This card would feel nostalgic even in 99. It very reminiscent of late 80s character design you would see in sci-fi manga titles like カプリコン (Capricorn). I like it but don't see something like this making a comeback anytime soon.

Artist Info
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%A8%E3%81%8C%E3%82%8F%E3%81%AF%E3%81%AA%E3%81%BE%E3%82%8B

And here's another one that would also feel nostalgic even at the time it came out. Also very inspired by stuff like カプリコン. There are many Ichi artists out there and none I found appears to be the person behind this card. More research required.

Such a collection would not be complete without a maid, so here's one. I can't find the artist behind this card att.

And here's another maid, this time by Boo, same artist as >>3855. Also I'm confirming that is the correct twt account for this artist.

>>3857
IDK, she kind of looks like she could be a .hack character. Still nostalgic, but in the other direction.

Here's an interesting one. This is not a card, it's a phonecard... well, OK it's a card, but you could use it to make calls on payphones, unlike the other ones I posted. I wonder if there's any credit left on that one. I tried my best to remove this damn glare and this is the best I got, sorry about that.

Artist info
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%98%AD%E5%AE%AE%E6%B6%BC
I looked but it doesn't seem like this artist has an online presence. I might be wrong though.

>>3861
Yeah I can kinda see it now that you mentioned it, but even .hack characters look cleaner than that. That girl has like 8 different types of materials on her eyepatch alone, kinda crazy.

Post edited on 24th Jul 2022, 1:33pm

Same artist as >>3838

Someone in charge of VIP really, really liked this one. And I'll tell you why...

Artist info
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naru_Nanao
https://twitter.com/ice_to_choco

>>3864
2 years later they made a poster using the artwork from it. Hard to believe on the entire 2007 Summer set they were promoting there wasn't a single illustration they could use instead of going with artwork from a previous collection.

Post edited on 24th Jul 2022, 2:42pm

I'm not sure if this is the same author as the mind behind HunterXHunter but I couldn't find any other Togashis out there.

Spent most of the day today hunting for more cards. I have about 500 of them now. This is getting out of hand, I need to come up with a work schedule to edit these things. I want to do it quickly but something always comes up, specially when looking for information about the artist.

Artist info
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A3%AE%E4%B8%8B%E8%96%AB

Tohno is being a nuisance with posts not getting through or getting delayed today. Speaking of nuisance, here's a really low res. image of a VIP card. It's a little disheartening to only find a digital copy of this quality, but hey, one picture is better than none, right?

Post edited on 25th Jul 2022, 11:14am

I have a lot of these lower quality ones. Not much I can do about it I'm afraid. I'll continue to look for better copies of them. In the meantime these will do, hang in there anons.

It's interesting to notice how so many of these characters fall in two categories. The ones transpiring innocence and the ones transpiring eroticism. Here's one of the latter.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/narumis

>>3868
And here's one of the former. I fell in love with this artist. His characters feel whimsical without giving any airs of idiocy, which is hard to do. He has at least 3 VIP cards that I know of. Unfortunately he deleted his twitter and pixiv accs. Reason unknown. He was working on a comedy title until 2019 called Ultra Kaijuu Gijinka Keikaku published by Dengeki G. It's not that good (at least vol1 isn't).

Artist info
https://myanimelist.net/people/10623/Bakutendou
https://gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=bakutendou

Artists info
https://twitter.com/Kai_Seven_
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaishaku_(manga_group)

>>3866
It looks like this card was actually illustrated by Tatsuneko, a far more obscure mangaka:
https://www.mangaupdates.com/authors.html?id=9039

Could not find much info on this artist, but here's one title he published:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A9%9F%E5%8B%95%E6%AD%A6%E9%97%98%E5%A4%96%E4%BC%9D%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%887th
If you look for his name on amazon.co.jp you can also find another title of his 童子装甲BEE.

>>3869
That looks pretty erotic to me.

This is the type of artist I wish all of them could be. Strong online presence. We need more of that.

Artist info
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A5%BF%E8%84%87%E3%82%86%E3%81%85%E3%82%8A
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/454539
https://twitter.com/yuuri_nishiwaki

>>3871
Ah! Thanks for correcting me anon, I appreciate it. Yes, that did sound very weird, but the seller put that name in there on the title of the listing and I ran with it like an damn idiot.

Artist info
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E8%B0%B7%E5%B7%9D%E7%9C%9E%E4%B9%9F
https://twitter.com/shinyaradio

>>3873
Yeah but she's not aware of that. >>3868 definitely knows, you know? It makes all the difference.

>>3875
>definitely knows, you know? It makes all the difference.
Hmm, I actually see it as the opposite. >>3869 reminds me a tsundere character intentionally trying to arouse, without wanting to admit it, while >>3868 makes me think they're casual and a bit clueless. Red vs pink hair also contributes a bit to my perception.

There are many Kazufumis out there, none I found seem to be the one behind this illustration. I like this one, feels like a character for a nice and involving JRPG I don't know about it yet. It's embarrassing to post pictures of this quality itt in 2022, I hope I can find alternatives soon. This is just so we know it exists.

You can explore his site at least through wayback machine, maybe there's something in there I missed.
https://web.archive.org/web/20050115000000*/http://ww4.tiki.ne.jp/~kazufumi

Artist info
https://twitter.com/S_kikuchi
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8F%8A%E6%B1%A0%E6%94%BF%E6%B2%BB

>>3877
She's not clueless, please consider the evidence I present to you:
1- She has a tattoo (high body awareness)
2- Goes to a salon to get her hair done (thrives on attention)
3- Unabashed bikini user (and pulls the strings in front of strangers. pft!)
4- Blinks to strangers

On the other hand!
1- Sloppy hair, probably cuts it at home due to diffidence and anxiety
2- Mom made gave her a bikini to go to the beach but she hides it under regular clothes anyway
3- Grudgingly has to take it off to go swimming and gets immediately flustered and confused when someone stares at her
4- Unaware how good she looks

Now you tell me sir who is in the right here. I believe I am... this is the internet after all.

>>3879
Eh, I didn't notice most of those details(just judged based on facial expression and hair color) and am admittedly biased by my preference in art style.

If you ask me what is an important step to become a famous mangaka, I would say it's very important to not be named Togashi, otherwise your information will be buried by a million links mentioning a much more famous Togashi. It will take tohno-chan levels of tism to find your information online and you should not count on such a thing ever existing in your lifetime. Also this is the younger brother of HunterXHunter author Yoshihiro Togashi and the brother-in-law Ms. Takeuchi, of Sailor Moon fame.

Please someone explain to me how is that a winter outfit.

Artist info
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%86%A8%E6%A8%AB_(%E6%BC%AB%E7%94%BB%E5%AE%B6)
https://web.archive.org/web/20120128185148/http://www97.sakura.ne.jp/~metalbox/

>>3880
I'm glad you're lurking this thread anon.

Post edited on 25th Jul 2022, 1:40pm

Speaking of names, don't use a pen name that is also a common word, like 神髄 (shinzui). The only info I found on this artist is his own dead website:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040930184540/http://www.d2.dion.ne.jp/~shinzui/
https://web.archive.org/web/20030813223400/http://www.d2.dion.ne.jp/~shinzui/mokuji2.htm
And some of his doujin work here:
https://otakurepublic.com/product/tag_page.html?tags=390709&type=suggest

You can find an artist going by the name Shinzui in several booru galleries but if it's the VIP Shinzui or other Shinzui I cannot tell.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/shinji_kirisawa
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/506383

Artist info
https://twitter.com/misapoko
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/43822

Artist info
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%99%B6
There's an interview with this artist, you can read it here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160213150734/https://manga-time.com/interview/20080205-2.html

Very intense gaze. Same artist as >>3868.

Adorable illustration.

Artist info
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/17774
https://twitter.com/chiruwo3
http://chiruwo.net/

Artist info
https://twitter.com/kiri_idu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumi_Kirihara
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/12062048

This card reminds me how unusual it is for manga to use prehistory as setting. In fact I don't remember any, close I can think out of the top of my head is Papuwa-kun but he's not a caveboy, he's just lost in some weird idyllic island imbued with powers.. or something. I have to read that title again, I can only remember I liked it.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/minakatasunao
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/209109

Artist info
https://twitter.com/takatoayumi
https://skeb.jp/@takatoayumi
https://tkt-store.wixsite.com/fomu
Watch her draw on yt!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTfLB3Lk4tVdonJ8UZAmZpQ

Today I'll be uploading the characters I find the least visually appealing amongst the cards I've collected so far. Might as well get it over with. I just don't get these, it's my fault. If you like them let me know, I'm curious to hear from people who can appreciate them.

Same artist as >>3881.

Huh, I swear I didn't realize I would be picking on this author so much. ごめんね冨樫先生。
Same author as >>3891, >>3881

This is the author behind D4 Princess, a lighthearted, feel-good mecha and magical girls title, really cute. The art is actually fine in this card, it's just the costume is not complementing the figure one bit.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/harashow_llcorp
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/22937

I think this style and design does have a place, but it's not in my heart. I could not identify the artist behind this card att.

I like her current style a lot better. Also I bet this should be a winter card but they added to Summer for some reason. Maybe a mistake? It really feels like a winter card to me.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/bell_o2
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/4991173
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%8A%E3%81%8A%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8D%E3%81%B9%E3%82%8B%E3%81%AE

This artist passed away in 2011. His art lives on. お悔やみ申し上げます。

Artist info
https://mangaseek.net/person/860.html

I could not find any direct info about this author. All I know att is that he was or is part of the 遊星本舗 circle and worked on another card collection called Aquarian Age:
https://www.aquarian-age.org/
You can also find his old work here:
https://otakurepublic.com/product/tag_page.html?tags=294916&condition=used At least we get a good idea about the covers.

>>3890
Her art seems to follow the times closely. To be honest, I prefer the 2006 look.

>>3897
This card is what people who hate anime think all anime looks like.

The eyes. They're so intense and in an very specific and uncomfortable manner. Feels like she's screeching in pain inside and is desperate to shout for help but something... or someone, doesn't let her. There's an intensity here that saps my mental wellbeing.

Artist info
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiji_Gotoh
http://goto.cute.or.jp/
His website is really useful to collect VIP data. Go to gallery you'll find all the illustrations he did for VIP in 99 and 2000 including this one.

>>3898
I'm the type of person who will browse safebooru for hours looking at artwork but I never really paid attention to the artists themselves. It never occurred how most of them are always changing and trying to update their style. It was a surprise to me.
>>3899
Hah that's true. The eye size is not what bothered me on that card. I mean I really like the one I used on the OP, it's one of my favorites and the eyes there are huge. It's a combination of things I guess.

>>3900

Only results I could find for this artist are related to this very card. Further research required.

One of the interesting things about gathering information about these artists is finding out a bunch of games I never heard about before. I'm even building a backlog at this point. For example, this artist is the character designer for 雛鳥の囀with殻の中の小鳥. I'll check it out sometime.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/arai_kazuki
https://dochashiko-manga.com/2022/07/02/%e4%b8%89%e9%a3%9f%e7%97%b4%e5%a5%b3%e4%bb%98%e3%81%8d/ (free story by this author)
https://ec.toranoana.jp/tora_r/ec/app/catalog/list?searchActorName=%E6%96%B0%E4%BA%95%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BA%E3%82%AD

Same artist as >>3837.
Now, this looks like a character in CCS. The one that starts evil but it's only because she's trying to solve the same problem as Sakura using bad magic, without yet realizing Sakura's way of solving the same problem is better. They end up being friends afterwards. She also secretly falls in love with Sakura at some point.

Same artist as >>3870.
Here's one more Fantasy card. >>3819 still my favorite as far as Fantasy goes.

When the clothing looks uncomfortable, it saps some of my enjoyment when looking at the artwork. This parafernalia does not look comfortable.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/piyopoo/ (not much artwork here though, but she uploads lots of pictures of her very nice and expensive kimonos. I love kimonos so I guess it could be worse.)
And! You'll love this, she's a prominent player at the Japanese circles of Magic: The Gathering. http://www.mtgwiki.com/wiki/%E9%87%91%E6%BE%A4%E5%B0%9A%E5%AD%90

This is the type of background that complements any figure. We need more flowers and trees on the backgrounds of VIP cards. Half your charm is how good the flowers on the background looks.

Couldn't find much on this artist att. https://vgmdb.net/artist/51080 for some CD covers. If you look the name up, some more artwork for auction can be found.

And here's another nice background for a VIP card. I dislike the foil cards, I don't think it complements the artwork at all. It's rare for it to look good (image at OP being one of the exceptions). I much prefer nice background art instead.

Artist info
http://blog.livedoor.jp/natsuno1/ (some artwork can be found here)
https://twitter.com/natsunosuika
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/1039317

Same artist as >>3884.
Speaking of backgrounds, some are weird. Look at this one. Is that a key coming out of her head?

Here's another odd choice for a background. This one is getting in the way in an almost offensive manner. Real pictures do not belong here. Specially not the ones you took from your hotel bedroom the day before editing these. Was nothing else available to complement the artwork? Was it time constraints or this is a fully calculated artistic decision?

Artist info
https://twitter.com/exhminakami (Only a few followers att. >>3815 follows him, I hope they're friends irl.)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%B4%E4%B8%8A%E5%BA%83%E6%A8%B9
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/543279
And here's a nice surprise:
https://archive.org/details/Cotton-manga/img001.jpg
He did a Cotton manga! As I mentioned in my Umihara review I quite like Cotton as well so this is great. I might post about this one on /ma/ later.

We're not done with the hotel lampshade yet! Using real pictures as backgrounds happens a lot in cards from the year 1998. Same artist as >>3817 >>3825.
I'll link normally here:
https://twitter.com/punipoyo
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/16584138

Same artist as >>3881

>>3911
Nah, the artist used a photo of a desk/table for the background. That's just what was on it.
I think it looks great by the way.

>>3911
This card reminds me so much of Erika from Hacker's Memory, plushies and all.

This image contains the character art for the 98 Winter Venus card depicting Boo's original character, Ishimaru Mika. She has at least four variations: Venus (this one), Fantasy, Natural, and Costume. Source is his personal website: https://web.archive.org/web/20150626233649/http://homepage1.nifty.com/Mblem/G1.html
I believe this is the same girl as in >>3860, correct me if I'm wrong.

>>3855
Found this image from the same place as >>3917.
>>3860
>高木 信幸
Interesting that the back of that card actually reads "髙木信幸" even though his name is actually 髙木信孝 >>3826, commonly also written as 高木信孝, where 高 is the more common or standard form of 髙. It's strange that neither any variation of his name nor any alias of his that I'm aware of shows up on the artist list for VIP Final (https://web.archive.org/web/20050211043109/http://www.ufo.co.jp/FB/maker/vip_f/list.html) even though his art for that card is clearly visible on the index page.
He also has this Pixiv account: https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/34965

>>3837
>tomorrow
That should be "the due date". It's 期日, not 明日.

>>3840
>Artist info
That would be 河口洋一郎 according to that article. The artist's name is 川口洋一郎. Are you sure they're the same person?

>>3846
According to https://e-shuushuu.net/wiki/index.php?title=Trading_Cards_Illustrated_by_Ramiya_Ryou the artist is the same as >>3822 as I suspected and the card is from 2002 Summer.

>>3849
Nice. I guess it's no wonder that Poyoyon Rock's art looks like Watanabe Akio's, given that they are the same person.

>>3919
Hello anon, I appreciate your attention. I'm doing this thread before bed half asleep most times, please continue to look out for any blunders, I'm sure there will be more to come. I would like to make this a complete and accurate catalog of VIP cards and the artists involved, so your help is most welcome. Right now I'm focusing on getting the most cards cleaned up and uploaded here with at least some basic info on them as fast as possible. I figure if we have like 500 pretty and neat VIP gallery itt it would be easier for people to find an artist they like and do some research themselves, it might be fun. I'll get there.

Now, you're right. 河口洋一郎 is definitely not 川口洋一郎, even half asleep this crass mistake is embarrassing. I looked up "マリオネットカンパニー" "川口洋一郎" this time and unfortunately again couldn't find any info on the actual artist. I did find he has a credit in another game, 英雄志願 Gal ACT Heroism (pic related) but that's about it.

>高木信幸 髙木信孝 髙木信幸 高木信孝
The names can get finicky! I have found artists who toy with the kanji on their names and it makes an annoyance to track. Then again a lot of these guys don't really have an online presence and people reselling cards make some really interesting mistakes themselves at times. Well, part of the fun I guess.
>期日, not 明日
Yup, clear as day, and I mistook 河 for 川 before that. I really should be more careful when doing research for these. I got so happy finding the artist that I glazed over the fact it wasn't the same person at all.
>Illustrated_by_Ramiya_Ryou
It's funny how obvious it is when someone points it out. The obsession with bows and knots really gives away..
>>3917
It does look the same character to me, too. Also nice find!

There's a very comforting warmth in the characters made by this artist. Notice the same background used on >>3814.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/dai_greyhound
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/16037203
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisuke_Moriyama

>>3915
I'm glad you liked it. The background felt a little odd to me, nothing serious like the lampshade, but it made me notice it.
>>3916
You're right, it does look similar. Are you a Digimon fan? I was always dimissive of Digimon because they don't look as cute as Pokemon, imo that is. Then I go the 'oh well, I already have my fill of that with pokemon' and forget about it. Maybe I should take a closer look.

Here's another maid. Not nearly the last one.

Artist info
https://twitter.com/shanghaihoneybe
https://www.pandako.net/ (some artwork can be found here as well)