Summary
14 new
Pokémon GO
-themed cards are releasing in June, but they’re exclusive to China.
The cards all have brand-new art exclusive to the set, called
Brave Stars
.
Collectors may face challenges acquiring unique art cards from China.
Numerous releases have been made for the Pokémon TCG since the franchise was conceived, but a new set is raising eyebrows within the community for multiple reasons. Key among them is the art on these Pokémon GO-themed cards and where they will be released, which will make them hard to obtain for some.
As revealed by Pokébeach, a new set of 14 cards will be adapted from the 2022 set modeled after Pokémon GO. The set will be called Brave Stars, and will be released solely in China on June 18. Each card will have brand-new, exclusive art, some with major differences to their counterparts in English and Japanese. That puts this card set in a rare group of cards that aren’t releasing in Japan yet have exclusive art.
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Chinese Adaptation Of The Pokémon GO TCG Set Has All New Artwork
The Shift In Art Might Be A Legal Issue
A comparison of the Pokémon TCG art shows that the style and theme of the cards vary dramatically at times. For example, in the original Bibarel art, the Pokémon is featured alongside another Pocket Monster in Smeargle. However, in the Chinese art, Bibarel is on its own and is seen lying on a blanket. On another card, the original version of Snorlax had 3D styling to it as the Pokémon slept in front of the house, but in the Chinese version, a variation of the scene is drawn in 2D. These small changes do help the cards stand out.
It’s unclear why exactly the Chinese art for the Brave Stars set is so different, but a simple answer may have to do with copyrights. Specifically, the ones surrounding Pokémon GO. The popular mobile title is banned within the country, and if one looks at the original cards, they have a copyright that ties them to Niantic, as well as a Pokémon GO logo stamped in the bottom right corner of the artwork. In order to adapt the set for a region in which Pokémon GO isn’t supported, Creatures Inc. likely opted for all new illustrations, in part to replace the artwork which adopted GO’s 3D models.
This new Pokémon TCG set using all new art will likely increase the cards’ desirability among collectors. Releasing exclusively in China could make them highly sought after, and difficult to obtain in the West. Only time will tell, but the restrictions on their distribution could inflate their prices on secondary markets, especially if there is difficulty in purchasing them from other regions.
Source: Pokébeach
Pokemon
Created by Satoshi Taijiri , Ken Sugimori , Junichi Masuda
First Film Pokemon: The First Movie
Latest Film Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
First Episode Air Date April 1, 1997
Summary
Spanning over twenty-five years, Pokemon, known as Pocket Monsters in Japan, is the multimedia franchise created jointly by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. Conceptualized by Satoshi Tajiri in association with Ken Sugimori and Junichi Masuda, Pokemon is set in fictional worlds where people live together with tamable creatures known as Pokemon. Humans who catch, raise, and battle the creatures are known as Pokemon Trainers. They head out on extensive journeys across their continents to raise their Pokemon with the ultimate goal of competing in tournaments to become the champion. Pokemon spans several massive properties, from a long-running animated series to a successful trading card game, to the medium that started it all, video games. In addition, Pokemon began the “two-game” trend where two versions of a game would release and include different Pokemon/features between the versions, encouraging players to meet up with others and trade so they could “catch ’em all.”
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