Sailor Moon CCG

Sailor Moon CCG captures the Scouts at the peak of their DiC/Cloverway North American dub run, when after-school syndication and Saturday morning Cartoon Network blocks had turned Usagi and her team into the definitive early-era shoujo anime crossover hit in the West.

The game

Published in 2000 by Dart Flipcards under license from Toei/Kodansha, Sailor Moon CCG is a two-player duel where each player builds a Scout team around Sailor Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto and faces off against the four Seasons of villains (Negaverse, Doom Tree, Black Moon, Dead Moon) drawn from the anime run. Mechanics use Heart points for damage and a Transformation system where Scouts can re-enter play after being defeated.

The context

Anime CCGs were a small but growing niche in 2000 (Pokémon, Digimon, Dragon Ball Z already shipping), and Sailor Moon was the female-audience entry into that category. Dart Flipcards licensed the property at a favourable rate because the North American Sailor Moon dub was officially in hiatus at the time, and the CCG was part of reviving merchandise interest.

The collector angle

Premiere, Crystal Tokyo, and a small Super S-themed wave are the main English print runs. Japanese Sailor Moon CCG releases (printed earlier in Japan by Bandai) are a separate and substantially larger card pool that does not cross-play with the Dart Flipcards version. Foil Eternal Sailor Moon and Chibi Moon promos from 2000 convention appearances are the visible chase pulls, and uncut sheet promos from the 2001 Otakon exist in small collector quantities. The lens-flare foil Tuxedo Mask rare is one of the most iconic pulls in any anime CCG.