I talk about my interests a lot on this blog – playing the guitar, comic books, DC, Marvel, movies, online casino games that I like to play… And even though I talk about anime as well, as it is my great love, I believe I don’t talk about it enough. Especially since there is so much to talk about when it comes to anime. Anime has many genres! We are used to watching action Anime like Attack on Titan, superhero ones like My Hero Academia and One Punch Man, horror Anime like Death Note, and even cooking Anime like Food Wars.
The popularity of Anime is so enormous that there it has spawned so many genres and subgenres with an enormous fan basis.
One of them is the trading-card Anime genre which has been dying out in recent times. These Anime specifically revolve around a game with a set of rules woven into the story in some way. One of the best representatives is Yu-Gi-Oh!, which is not just a great trading card Anime but one of the best overall ones.
Today we remember some of the most popular ones.
Selector Infected Wixoss
In the case of Selector Infected Wixoss, the card game came before the Anime. Wixoss is a popular card trading game where players fight each other using fighters called LRIGs. They do so with the support of their cards.
Certain LRIGs are able to communicate with the girls chosen to wield them and they are called Selectors. After each victory, a Selector is granted a wish but if they lose three matches in a row the wish will turn into a curse.
Cardcaptor Sakura
According to some people, Cardcaptor Sakura is closer to the romance and magical girl genre. But since it features trading cards as well it fits here also. The main protagonist is a girl called Sakura and she accidentally releases a set of magical Clow Cards from her basement.
She is then tasked by the guardian of the cards, Cerberus, to find all of them and retrieve them. She needs to fight the personification of each card in order to defeat and capture it.
Chihayafuru
Chihayafuru is at the same time a recent and also a unique trading card anime. The story is centered around three students, Chihaya Ayase, Arata Wataya and Taichi Mashima. After Arate introduces the game called Karuta to the rest they all get into it.
Karuta is inspired by a form of Japanese poetry dubbed Hundred Poets. So in order to play the game, one needs to complete the first line of the poem by adding the second one. It is both unique and interesting.
Z/X: Ignition
Z/X: Ignition may have had a very short run of only 12 episodes but it is one of the best trade card Anime ever made. Particularly because of the faced-paced action and exceptionally animated fight scenes.
When portals that lead to parallel dimensions emerge strange monsters begin to invade earth. Five invading forces coming from these parallel are them fixated in a battle where each one of them is trying to destroy the other’s timeline. The story of Z/X: Ignition is original but the ending is predictable.
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Yu-Gi-Oh and the story of Yugi Mutou is rightfully the best trading card Anime even created. The story is familiar with both the hard-core fans and even people who are not that much into Anime. The trading card game was a success by itself. Duel Monsters cards are still being sold today people continue to play it.
As for the show, it lasted for eight years. During that period 40 million copies of the mange were sold. The anime was also able to launch no less than ten spinoffs after the series finished. It even gave way to four animated movies being released. Finally, there are more than 20 video games released during that period.
Yu-Gi-Oh! rightfully earns the number one spot on every list which deals with trading card game Anime and is by right the ruler of the genre.
