Summary
APokemonfan has shared a collection of cards they’ve picked up from the early days of thePokemonseries, which feature surprisingly violent imagery. ThePokemoncards use artwork by the iconic series artist Ken Sugimori, who was responsible for designing the early pocket monsters of the series.
Pokemonhas been going strong for over 20 years, and while thePokemon TCGseries is well-known and loved, they aren’t the onlyPokemoncards to exist. This particular set ofPokemoncards actually predates thePokemon TCGseries, and many fans never knew it even existed.
Reddit user RoyalCities shared images of thePokemoncard set they picked up that features old artwork by Ken Sugimori. ThePokemoncard set was a bit puzzling for the OP, as they initially weren’t sure what they had. While some of the cards are simple illustrations of iconic pocket monsters, a number of them feature surprisingly violent artwork of various Pokemon pulverizing each other. For example, Ditto is subjected to abuse by bothKrabby and Kingler, who stretch and squash the Pokemon, respectively. Psyduck gets bullied by Tangela and Tauros, while Exeggutor is seen stomping on Diglett.
Pokemon Card Origins Explained
It turns out that these arePokemoncards from the Carddass line. The cards date back to 1996, pre-dating thePokemon Trading Card Game, with one card released for each of the original 151 Pokemon. Many fans were surprised to learn about these cards, as they not only didn’t know there was a card series prior to thePokemon TCG, but also because much of this artwork has been rarely seen elsewhere. One of the other interesting elements of the artwork is that this series is so early that it features some of the original designs of Pokemon, likeCharmander having visible back spikes, which only appeared in the Gen 1 games.
While the exact value of thisPokemoncard set isn’t known, it’s an interesting piece ofPokemonhistory that’s exciting for fans to discover all these years later. FellowPokemonfans seem to be particularly enthusiastic about the attacks shown on the cards, as outside of the anime, manga, andPokemonfan animations, battles have never been depicted quite like this. To this day, Pokemon fights typically consist of one Pokemon doing a move and its opponent being struck by it, rather than the two physically interacting as seen here. While it would be extremely difficult to create complex animations for attack interactions between all possible Pokemon, this artwork gives a glimpse of what it could be like.
Pokemon
Pokemon is a franchise that needs no introduction. One of the most successful media empires in history, Pokemon spans games, television, films, manga, merchandise, music, and more.
