Why the Japanese Side of Pokémon Keeps Catching Our Eye

We were digging through a bulk box last weekend, hunting for a couple of commons we still need for our Surging Sparks master set, when one of the kids held up a card and said "found it!" We hadn't. It was the right Pokémon and the right art, but the text was all in Japanese. That has happened to us more than once now, and honestly it has turned into one of the more interesting parts of getting back into this hobby: seeing just how much of the wider Pokémon world lives outside of English.

We're staying English, for now

We aren't branching out from English yet. Our binders, our master sets, and the way we track everything on the site are all built around the English releases we at least somewhat know. But you don't have to collect Japanese cards to notice them everywhere. Scroll any collecting feed and Japanese sets, alt arts, and promos are right there next to the English stuff, treated as part of the same conversation. A lot of the game's most talked-about art shows up in Japanese first, so it ends up on everyone's radar whether they collect it or not. Once you start noticing it, you can't really stop.

The "found it" that wasn't

Part of what makes a master set fun is the hunt, and a lot of that hunt happens in bulk. So when you're flipping through a pile and you spot the exact card you need, there's a little jolt of "yes." Then you flip it over, or look a little closer, and the numbering is different and the language is different, and it's a Japanese print of the same Pokémon. Close, but it doesn't go in the English binder.

It's a small thing, but it's happened enough times that the kids now double-check before they get excited. The card is real and the Pokémon is right, it's just printed for a different binder than the one we're building. You can watch our English sets fill in over on our digital binders here on the site.

A master set is language-specific, so a Japanese card can be the exact Pokémon you need and still not be the one your binder is waiting on.

The exclusives that keep catching our eye

Here's the thing though. Some of the coolest cards we've seen, old and new, only exist in non-English versions. We're not chasing them, we're just admiring from a distance, and there are a few that have really stuck with us.

A few of the non-English cards we keep admiring: the Mario and Luigi Pikachu, the Rayquaza Poncho-wearing Pikachu, and the Van Gogh Museum's Pikachu with the Grey Felt Hat.

The new Captain Pikachu, tied to the Pokémon Horizons anime, is awesome, and it first showed up in non-English releases rather than an English set. It's a great example of a card the whole hobby knows even though most of us have never seen one in English.

Then there are the two that might be our favorites: the Mario Pikachu and the Luigi Pikachu. Both are 2016 Japanese Pokémon Center promos (#294/XY-P and #296/XY-P), Pikachu dressed up as the Mario Bros., and they are exactly the kind of card that makes you smile. There's just something perfect about crossing over two of the biggest things Nintendo has ever made.

The Poncho-wearing Pikachu series is another one we love. Those are Japanese-exclusive promos that were never printed in English, where Pikachu wears a little poncho of another Pokémon like Rayquaza or Mega Charizard. Some of the rarer ones have sold for thousands, which puts them firmly in the "look, don't buy" column for us, but they are so charming.

The Van Gogh Museum did a Pokémon collaboration back in 2023, and the whole thing is gorgeous. The card everyone chased was the Pikachu with the Grey Felt Hat, which famously caused a frenzy at the museum, and there's an Eevee in that same collab inspired by his Self-Portrait with Straw Hat. It's the quieter, artsier corner of all this, and it's the kind of crossover that makes even non-collectors stop and look.

There's an "aura" to the original language

Beyond the exclusive cards, there's just something different about holding a card in the language the game originally came from. Our oldest called it "aura," which honestly might be the perfect word for it. Same Pokémon, sometimes the same art, but the Japanese text gives it a little extra something, like you're a step closer to where all of this started.

A "grandmaster set" someday, maybe

We've floated an idea in the house that we're not committing to, so much as trying on for size: a "grandmaster set" of something we love that includes both the English and the Japanese versions of every card. It's the kind of thing that sounds amazing at the dinner table and slightly terrifying when you actually think about the cost and the hunt. So for today we're sticking to what we know, keeping our English master sets going, and letting the Japanese side stay a "maybe, someday."

If you collect Japanese cards, we'd love to hear how you do it, and whether you keep them separate or mix them into your master sets. And if you're English-only like us, have you ever had a "found it" that turned out to be Japanese? Come tell us over on YouTube, or tag us on X @Adventure_Coll. We're genuinely curious, and there's a real chance you'll talk us one step closer to that grandmaster set.