The Pokemon Trading Card Game has been around since the dawn of the pocket monsters in 1996. The game has seen many iterations and changes over the years, includingthe recent removal of fairy-type Pokemon. But among that history is one mistake that has survived since 1996.
Pokemon is owned by three entities, which comprise The Pokemon Company. First there is the video game’s creator, Game Freak. Nintendo is in charge of publishing the video games and Creatures Inc. handles spin-off games and the trading card game. Creatures designed the Pokemon Trading Card Game with Japanese publisher Media Factory in Japan and gave Wizard of the Coast (thecreators of Magic the Gathering) the publishing rights in the United States.
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From the very first card released in Japan however, there was an error. The back of all of the cards depicted the Poke Ball as opening the wrong way. Traditionally when the Poke Ball opens the center button rises with top half of the ball, but the back of the cards had the button sticking with the bottom half of the ball. A recent post on Twitter from @JustMightyJake reminded almost 5,000 people of this error this past week.
The error was first made on the original Japanese cards, and naturally Wizards of the cost simply copied the same design of the opening Poke Ball for the US. The reason for this is likely because at that point inPokemon’s history it had yet to be agreed upon how exactly the Poke Ball should look and function. The Poke Ball in the originalPokemon RedandPokemon Bluevideo gamesdidn’t feature a button at all and showed the ball exploding open and closed, likely due to sprite limitations. The originalPokemonmanga too also features different designs for the Poke Ball. The real reason people view the Poke Ball on the back of the TCG cards as opening wrong is because it conflicts with the anime’s design, which solidified that the button rises with the top half of the ball. In fact, the second image in the first tweet from @JustMightyJake is taken from the anime.
What is funny though is that the backs of the Japanese cards no longer contain this error. When Pokemon was becoming a global sensation in the early 2000s, the original Japanese namePocket Monsterswas changed toPokemonto align it with what the rest of the world knew the property as, which meant a new card back needed to be designed. That is why modern Japanese cards are the only ones to feature a Poke Ball on the back opening properly.
The reason the design on the back of the cards hasn’t changed elsewhere in the world and likely never will is because it would disrupt the cohesion of fan’s collections and more importantly, would have an impact on official tournaments, since the backs of all cards must be identical.
Hopefully fans will one day come to appreciate the error as a mark of Pokemon’s long history and evolution instead of being frustrated by it.
Fans looking to collect more cards with the incorrect Poke Ball design on the back should be on the lookout for the next expansion that was just announced,which is called Champion’s Path. The set focuses on theSwordandShieldgames and will feature new cards for the Gigantamax forms of Pokemon like Alcremie and Drednaw.
