The Pokémon Anime often has many references to other areas of the Pokémon franchise, the most obvious of which are games. However, it turns out that the Pokémon anime has repeatedly given thanks for the Pokémon Card Game—they never made it to the international version.
The idea of Pokémon TCGs existing in the anime world may seem a bit silly, but TCG cards will likely be very popular with kids who aren’t ready to own or train a Pokémon yet. It can even work as a simple way to introduce the idea of elimination matches to kids, something that will surely come in handy when they eventually move on to real Pokémon training. The cards appear almost identical to the real ones, even using the same back, although they are often viewed from a distance without much detail. No one has ever properly played TCG, but it can be assumed that because the cards are the same, the game aspect must also exist, rather than exist strictly as collectibles.
The Pokémon TCG exists only in the original Japanese Anime
In the anime, Team Rocket’s James is actually shown to be a collector of TCG cards and most appearances of TCG or TCG-related materials are attributed to him. In the Japanese version of the episode “Bad to the Bone”, James lays all his possessions on a blanket and is said to have the Dark Primeape card, which is derived from TCG’s Team Rocket expansion. In the later episode “Pearls are a Spoink’s Best Friend”, James is shown shuffling through the cards of various Hoenn Pokémon in an attempt to find a card that matches Spoink. Unfortunately, both of these appearances have been edited for the international release of these volumes. This trait of him more or less disappeared before the Sinnoh era of anime and is rarely mentioned. James seems to be a collector in general, as he moved on to collecting bottle caps and Poké Balls in the following seasons.
However, there is a Pokémon TCG card that has appeared in the international release. In Pokémon the Movie 2000, the villain Lawrence III is said to possess a Pokémon Ancient Mew card, which was distributed by cinemas for the release of the film. Lawrence claims the card was the start of his collecting habit, which eventually led him to attempt to capture Lugia. At the end of the film, the card is one of the few things left over from the crash of his spaceship, and he picks it up, vowing to start a new collection that’s a little more sensible in scope.
It is not clear why the Pokémon TCG is constantly being edited out of the foreign language versions of the Pokémon anime; perhaps it was deemed a bit too promotional, or maybe it was simply because the Japanese cards looked a bit different. Regardless of whether it continues to appear or not, Pokémon TCG exists in the world of anime.
