Fun fact many avid fans probably have started with a card game anime like yu-gi-ho.
These card game anime usually made to sell merchandise as you can probably tell, So character writing and narrative can be disappointing for those who are looking for a thrilling anime series.
The idea for these card game anime is to focusing on appealing to children that it appeals to nobody else.
So here are 13 of the best card game anime series of all time.
13. Selector Infected WIXOSS
This card game anime story is as follow It’s hard being the new girl, and Ruuko Kominato knows this better than anyone. She has yet to make any new friends after moving to a new town. Her brother sees her struggling and gives her a deck for the popular trading card game WIXOSS, hoping that it would help Ruuko connect with other people and forge new friendships.
In Selector Infected WIXOSS, each WIXOSS deck comes equipped with a LRIG card, which serves as a player’s avatar during matches. It all seems pretty straightforward, except for one thing. The girl drawn on Ruuko’s card moves and talks! Is that normal? She soon finds out when a fellow student at her school approaches her and challenges her to a WIXOSS battle.
Over the course of their match, Ruuko learns a few things. First of all, she is a Selector, a special girl who is gifted with a living LRIG. Secondly, Selectors have the opportunity to make a wish come true.
But, finally, if they lose three matches, they forfeit their chance to realize a wish and instead become cursed. Ruuko’s fight for her heart’s desire begins now.
12. Hunter x Hunter: Greed Island
This card game anime is about Gon and Killua go to the Southernpiece Auction for Greed Island. Rather than attempt to directly obtain it, Gon and Killua planned to let someone else buy it and then enter the game for that client.
After a brief run-in with Feitan and Phinks, the auction for Greed Island begins.
All items that are picked up on the island transform into cards. These items can be materialized into item form again by holding it and saying “Gain”.
If the item is not placed in the binder within a minute, cards that are turned into items cannot be returned into their card form again and the player would need to find the same item once more to get the card version again.
11. Cardcaptor Sakura
This card game anime is about Sakura Kinomoto is your garden-variety ten-year-old fourth grader, until one day, she stumbles upon a mysterious book containing a set of cards. Unfortunately, she has little time to divine what the cards mean because she accidentally stirs up a magical gust of wind and unintentionally scatters the cards all over the world.
Suddenly awakened from the book, the Beast of the Seal, Keroberos (nicknamed Kero-chan), tells Sakura that she has released the mystical Clow Cards created by the sorcerer Clow Reed. The Cards are no ordinary playthings.
Each of them possesses incredible powers, and because they like acting independently, Clow sealed all the Cards within a book. Now that the Cards are set free, they pose a grave danger upon the world, and it is up to Sakura to prevent the Cards from causing a catastrophe!
Appointing Sakura the title of “the Cardcaptor” and granting her the Sealed Key, Keroberos tasks her with finding and recapturing all the Cards.
Alongside her best friend Tomoyo Daidouji, and with Kero-chan’s guidance, Sakura must learn to balance her new secret duty with the everyday troubles of a young girl involving love, family, and school, all while she takes flight on her magical adventures as Sakura the Cardcaptor.
10. Fantasista Doll
This card game anime is about Uzume Uno is a young student and former champion of a trading card game competition.
She is trusted with a special device containing five powerful Fantasista Dolls.
These dolls are sentient virtual beings who reside in cards which are now controlled by their new master, Uzume.
9. Weiß Survive
This card game anime is about Takeshi was just an ordinary guy until a perfectly innocent study session with Michi – the most beautiful girl in the school – ended up with him being mysteriously transported into the strange dimension known as the Weiss Schwarz Battle Space.
Once there, a crazy but enthusiastic old man informs him that he is the chosen warrior and must win a succession of card battles to get back home. The only problem: he doesn’t know how to play!
However, with the expert Michi ready to teach him the ins and outs of this bizarre and improbably slapstick card game, Takeshi will learn the ropes and get ready for the card battle of a lifetime. Assuming he survives the training.
8. Duel Masters
This card game anime is about the world of Duel Masters is one of five great civilizations. Through a card game, duelists can bring these worlds into existence, making what was previously abstract into reality.
These skilled duelists are known as Kaijudo masters.Shobu Kirifuda is the best player at his local playground, and seeks to become a world-class master like his father. His first step on the road to conquest begins with winning a local tournament.
Rather, it should have, except he is destroyed by the best Kaijudo master in the world, Knight. Shobu loses, but upon remembering the words of wisdom his father instilled into him, decides to continue on the road of becoming a duelist who can enjoy the game for what it is.
And so begins his journey to victory－and as we all know, the journey is the most important part!
7. Bakugan Battle Brawlers
This card game anime is about mysterious cards came down from the sky one day. Capable of summoning powerful creatures from another dimension, they became the centerpiece of a new game called Bakugan.
The game gained instant popularity among children and teenagers, with the best of them competing in a worldwide ranking.Meanwhile, war for domination over Vestroia, the homeland of Bakugan cards, rages on. Invaded by the White Dragon Naga and his servants, the Doom Beings, the realm becomes increasingly destabilized.
Dimensions begin to merge and many Bakugan players come to realize that their pastime is not merely a game.Danma Kuusou, one such Bakugan player, intends to become the World Ranking’s leader someday.
However, during one of his fights he experiences a vision of a clash in Vestroia. The fight suddenly moves to Earth, where Danma comes into possession of a talking, mighty fire Bakugan, Pyrus Dragonoid. He soon gets dragged into the conflict, and together with his Bakugan Brawlers team, must traverse the dimensions and restore balance in a ravaged world.
6. Aikatsu!
This card game anime is about An idol’s brilliance illuminates the dreams of humanity. Starlight Academy, a holy ground for celebrities in training, seeks to realize this belief. Behind its rigorous entrance requirements lie not only the top young stars in the entertainment business, but some of the best memories these students will ever have.
Or so Aoi Kiriya believes. Alongside her best friend Ichigo, Aoi decides to apply for the prestigious private school in hopes of living up to the praise of the biggest idol in the world: Mizuki Kanzaki.
As they journey through the numerous laughs, friendships, and heartbreaks that await them, can the two girls light up the lives of others as Mizuki has done for them?
Whether it be chopping down Christmas trees, traversing obstacle courses, or even rock climbing, there’s always a playful new adventure to be found in the world of Aikatsu!.
5. Battle Spirits
This card game anime is about Dan now desires more exciting battles and stronger opponents. Thus it is that when Maru appears before him, offering the two, Dan leapt at the chance.
He is transported into the future, a time when Earth is threatened by demons from another dimension. Now, the fate of all humanity rests on Dan’s shoulders.
The price of failure is a re-set of Earth’s entire timeline.
4. Cardfight!! Vanguard
This card game anime is called Cardfight!! Vanguard features a world where the game Cardfight!! Vanguard is becoming the latest craze among trading card games, becoming a part of everyday life for people all over the world.
The game is not limited to Earth alone; battles between the creatures used by the players take place on another planet called Cray. The story begins with Aichi Sendou, a timid middle schooler whose meek attitude often leaves him a target for bullies.
Aichi was given a very rare card, “Blaster Blade”, when he was very young. It’s his one treasure that gives him hope. That is, until it gets taken from him. Although Aichi has never played Cardfight!! Vanguard before, he challenges the thief to a game in order to win the “Blaster Blade” back.
This high-stakes game quickly draws Aichi into the world of Vanguard battles, which will test and change his worth as both a player and a person.
3. Chihayafuru
This card game anime is about Chihaya Ayase, a strong-willed and tomboyish girl, grows up under the shadow of her older sister. With no dreams of her own, she is contented with her share in life till she meets Arata Wataya. The quiet transfer student in her elementary class introduces her to competitive karuta, a physically and mentally demanding card game inspired by the classic Japanese anthology of Hundred Poets.
Captivated by Arata’s passion for the game and inspired by the possibility of becoming the best in Japan, Chihaya quickly falls in love with the world of karuta. Along with the prodigy Arata and her haughty but hard-working friend Taichi Mashima, she joins the local Shiranami Society.
The trio spends their idyllic childhood days playing together, until circumstances split them up. Now in high school, Chihaya has grown into a karuta freak. She aims to establish the Municipal Mizusawa High Competitive Karuta Club, setting her sights on the national championship at Omi Jingu.
Reunited with the now indifferent Taichi, Chihaya’s dream of establishing a karuta team is only one step away from becoming true: she must bring together members with a passion for the game that matches her own.
2. Z/X: Ignition
The story of this card game anime is set in the not-so-distant future. Five “Black Points” suddenly appeared around the world as portals to parallel worlds. Immediately after, strange creatures began their invasion from these portals.
These creatures are the inhabitants of five worlds—the same worlds in different timeframes.
In order to ensure their own future timeframe survives, each of the five invasion forces battle to wipe the other future timeframes out. The key is one card-shaped device.
1. Yu-Gi-Oh!
This card game anime is about Bullies often target someone frail and weak—someone exactly like Yuugi Mutou. His beautiful childhood friend, Anzu Mazaki, is always there to stand up for him, but he can’t depend on her forever.
Katsuya Jonouchi, who is almost always accompanied by his verbal sparring partner Hiroto Honda, doesn’t seem like a bad person either, despite always bringing Yuugi trouble. But most of all, Yuugi wishes for a true friend who understands him and would never betray him.
Yuugi treasures his Millennium Puzzle, an ancient Egyptian artifact that was brought into his grandfather’s game shop. Believing that solving the puzzle will grant him his wish, he completes the puzzle, unleashing a new personality within him—the soul of the “King of Games.” Dark, twisted, strong, and reliable, the new personality named Yami Yuugi is the exact opposite of Yuugi.
Upon any injustice toward him, Yami Yuugi takes over Yuugi’s body and forces the opponent into a “Shadow Game.” The stakes are high as whoever loses shall have a taste of the darkness that resides within their own heart.
