So a friend sent me a screenshot of a Japanese shop looking to sell English Eminence in Shadow booster product, and that got me thinking. In real life, I’ve spoken about it several times about why I’m not a big fan of English exclusive first series. Even the term they provide for them irks me. I am not against English making its own unique series (at least unique in EN first). Granted, Japanese Weiss has many more exclusives, most of which are more than likely to never see the light of day in English.
What is with the image quality of some of these products on the EN website? Once again, I’m not obtuse to English having its own unique builds and more. Other language editions have been doing the same such as in China with that of series like Girls Frontline and Atelier Resleriana. English has also been doing this for several years with their first being that of Cardcaptor Sakura in 2019 (also the same reason why they’re no longer calling the product “English exclusive”).
For what it’s worth, Cardcaptor Sakura was an attempt at a unique design. There was a 2/1 Sakura changer that could transform into one of four different finishers. It was cool since it reflected how Sakura, in the series itself, would use the cards and don on multiple different outfits with their own powers to tackle specific foes. The problem was, the finishers were quite underwhelming and Sakura’s change costs were quite expensive as well.
The bigger problem came in the release that followed nearly immediately after with Japanese getting their own Cardcaptor Sakura series. To complicate things, similar assets were reused such as the images above but with the Japanese version getting better resolutions for their images used for the backdrops of cards. These two were fundamentally different series despite sharing some similar arts, and the Japanese series was just strictly far more powerful.
The Japanese art direction for the cards had more whimsical leeway (not saying English cards didn’t have their fair of fun designs). The Japanese side simply also had a more diverse array of different scenes for cards. To add to that, the Japanese side had a sequel set released several years later while the English side has seemingly abandoned the Cardcaptor Project altogether. The naming of “exclusive” left a sour tinge on people’s minds as English was then forced from henceforth to call their series “English First”, in case another language’s edition decided to make their own version afterwards. Was there a communication error between both sides of Bushiroad? I wouldn’t know.
However, that was English’s first full attempt at making their own unique series. They had a few exclusive cards or so like the ones that had been made for Fairy Tail beforehand, but Cardcaptor Sakura was distinctly their first separate designed set compared to the Japanese side. This would set the kind of precedent for many of their unique takes going forward.
English first designs have a somewhat general surrounding sentiment around them that they feel as if they’re designed to be very generic and lack the kind of flavour emphasis or even power that Japanese series carry. Many effects feel generic simply like a random character is assigned some sort of utility ability and that’s it. That’s not saying that Japanese fares particularly better in that environment either. But in compensation, English first series, at least the most recent ones, usually come with some powerhouse card or combo that is truly nonsensical. While some of these are very flavourful, they feel like, as I said before, a compensation, as the rest of the decks that are built around these cards feel rather bland in comparison.
Some of these have even received enough notoriety to warrant a ban on the English ban list. That in itself is ironic considering English had originally planned to have no ban list at all, but that was retroactively removed for obvious reasons.
There was also the fact that Nisekoi itself had been altered to have different cards from the JP version, a pre-emptive banning of Marika. Although, to my understanding, this is a rare one-off case.
And to give credit where credit’s due, there have been some mechanics and designs that feel like there was some effort put into them. They are slight references to the original series that the cards are adapted from that help relate the player to the fandom itself. For instance, there’s a memory mechanic in Guilty Gear: Strive that can feel or act like that of the game’s own tension gauge. Card Wars! is a fun card with a plethora of interesting and random effects. Ultimate Shadow gives off the vibe of Shadow’s own ultimate move in the series with a flavourful finishing effect that feels fitting. The problem is that many of these designs and cards are effectively one-off attempts. They may be used for one or two cards, but the rest of the series often is just a pile of generic cards.
And I think, that above all else, is what really makes English first series just rather unappealing. The card effects feel all around random with a few outliers here and there. The cards feel “half-baked” and just uninspired. It’s as if the team behind these card designs just took pre-existing effects, stapled them on a card, and dumped some random anime screenshot background and gave it a name. These series could have been pushed further in terms of theme and have more interesting unique cards as well.
The art direction chosen for the cards is also something. And given English’s track record, which hasn’t had the best sentiments all around, there’s a reason why there may be floating ideas that there’s a general mixed feeling from the playerbase towards these series.
One common argument is for the choices of which series get adapted into English first, but that argument I find has mixed results. For instance, when I asked locally about interest in The Eminence in Shadow, I heard from my own queries mixed thoughts. It turns out there’s a following of some kind for the series, and even as I’ve dabbled a bit in the released anime a few years back, I can’t in good faith say that there really was enough fan appeal to warrant such a release. Now why series are released likely has several reasons far beyond my own knowledge and guesses which may not solely include overall popularity, but many English series from before had mixed appeal as well such as that of Adventure Time and Batman Ninja. I’m not saying that there aren’t fans willing to buy product, but it feels there wasn’t much outreach about it and players weren’t exactly excited about reveals either.
PI/SE31-03RR “兄としての務め”士郎 (center)
Kab/W102-057R 天使とマスコット かなで＆クド (right)
Add to the fact that there are several series that are shared between EN and JP which lack newer support. Support, if it ever comes at all, arrives incredibly late, often years after the first debut of the original series. Even if there’s a port of a Japanese set, even then, the timing of its arrival in English can be incredibly random such as the first set of Project Sekai releasing in 2025 when the original Japanese version was out in 2022.
I can appreciate English attempting to make something their own, but, at least to me, there needs more vivid effort shown. Furthermore, this isn’t even including continuous problems that already exist beyond the differences of EN and JP with lack of advertising, support for stores, and many other problems that need to be addressed.