For almost as long as Anime has existed anime merchandise has existed too. It’s a good way to capitalise on success and Anime Card Games are no exception. I think it is quite telling that Yu-Gi-Oh’s original television run began April 4 1998, the Anime Card Game followed in 1999, barley a year after. The artistic style of anime lends itself quite well to collectible cards. Anime is colourful and each Manga artist/Studio who interprets their work have their own style. It helps give each card game its own flair.
Table of Contents
- Naruto Collectable Card Game
- One Piece Trading Card Game
- Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game
- Dragon Ball Super Trading Card Game
- Bleach Trading Card Game
- Conclusion
Naruto Collectable Card Game
The Naruto Collectable Card Game was introduced in 2006. This is one year after the Anime’s 2005 debut English dub – the point where they were attracting a bigger audience outside of Japan. To play, Ninja cards combined with Jutsu, Mission, or Client cards. Players win by either earning ten battle rewards or forcing a deck out; as is common in collectable and trading card games.
The success of the Naruto Collectable Game in the US was astronomical. It achieved far beyond the demand Bandai had projected for it. The result was a product shortage that drove up card and booster pack prices as the cards became rarer; almost impossible to buy in shops. Even when in stock, packs consistently sold out and businesses were able to charge well above the prices of packs for the top competitors in the market.
The end of the game came in 2013 when Bandai moved to focus more on the Ultimate Ninja Storm series of video games. Having around 31 booster packs they could have continued to make sales, but at this point most characters had already been introduced into the anime and the series was winding down coming to an end in early 2017.
One Piece Trading Card Game
The first One Piece trading card game was released in 2002, only three years after the anime’s premiere in late 1999. This game did see some success, but the trading card game landscape was quite Wild West in the early 2000s and brands were still figuring out how to commercialise best. The 2002 version saw less than a year on American shelves. Objectively the anime was not yet at its best, with the Water 7 arc barely beginning by the time the card game had released its final expansion, 2005.
The One Piece Trading Card Game has been revitalised in 2022. The excitement in the story is at its highest, currently, as we are edging ever closer to discovering what the One Piece really is. In addition the anime has proved its longevity with over 1000 episodes aired. While good, it is not exactly a ground breaking game, but it has time to grow. We’ve done a full article describing rules, pros and cons at tabletoptemple, here, so we will not bore you with the details in this article.
Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game
Yu-Gi-Oh needs no real introduction. It is one of the big three trading card game franchises along Pokémon (whose card game actually came out before the anime!) and Magic the Gathering. Having been around since 1999 Yu-Gi-Oh now rosters 12,456 cards as of Jan 2022. To put that in perspective, the One Piece Card Game that we just discussed has around 200 cards released – this means Yu-Gi-Oh has around 50 times that number!
Player ship of Yu-Gi-Oh has been steadily declining since the early 2000s when it was at it’s popular – the same time as the anime. An argument has been made that the game is too complicated in recent years, Link Card, XYZ card and one turn kills have changed the game significantly from when it first began. While this argument does have some value, there is only so much you can do with a game that is 20 years old. In order to sell more cards they needed to introduce more mechanics. As a result some fan favourites, like Labyrinth wall have no real use in modern Meta. This being said, they have created dedicated decks for other fan favourites, like the Dark Magician or Red Eyes Black Dragon archetypes. This allows them to compete in the common meta.
Ironically, some of the original cards are too good for modern play and have ended up on the around 100 card forbidden list. So it does go both ways.
Dragon Ball Super Trading Card Game
Dragon Ball Super is the sequel the Toriyama’s original Dragon Ball following Goku and his friends in a ten year time-skip after the defeat of Majin Buu. The Anime series of this first aired in July 2015. It will come as no surprise that two years later a trading card game was released.
In similar fashion to the anime, the trading card game was a revitalisation of the 2008 game. In the game, there are four different types of cards:
- Warrior – Favourite characters like Goku, Cell, and Vegeta
- Technique – Like Kamehameha and Spirit Bomb
- Event – A way to change the dynamics of the battle
- Wish – Based on the wishes characters made in the series when the Dragon Balls were collected
The game’s roster boasts over 300 warrior cards, so there’s certainly some collecting to be done. However, the game has seen very little casual or competitive play. It is likely that even though Dragon Ball Super was a well-received sequel to the original series, it was not possible to emulate its greatness.
Bleach Trading Card Game
Bleach, the final anime of the big 3 in our list has a tragic story as it had the potential to be one of the best anime card games. The first episode of Bleach aired in 2004. Again, a short three years later, in 2007, the trading card game was released. The game was incredibly well reviewed getting a nomination for Origin’s “Game of the Year” and earning a semi-finalist position.
While the anime finished in 2012, the, now out of print, trading card game ceased publication in 2009. This bucks the trend of trading card games following the life cycle of the anime. Indeed, Bleach was at its popularity as the anime was wrapping up. Unfortunately, the Bleach Trading Card Game suffered as a result of the 2008 recession which had a major effect on Trading Card Game sales. It was really a case of wrong place wrong time because it could have been exciting.
Conclusion
Anime Card Games more often than not come from successful animes. This should come as no real surprise, but certainly a worthwhile statement to make. With a successful anime, you already have a fan base to pool from. Trading Card Games are really good money makers for businesses and fans simply enjoy the collectability aspects. At the end of the day, who doesn’t enjoy pulling a rare, or ultra-rare card from a booster pack?
