Takashi Murakami ain't one to shy away from any marketable endeavor and so it's less of a surprise that the Japanese artist is creating his own trading card game and more like, well, why hasn't he already created Murakami cards?
In fairness, he kinda did. Murakami dropped a line of NFT flowers, one of his many NFT and web3-tangential projects, back in 2022 (he first got into NFTs at 2021, remember). Among the over 11,600 unique images generated during the NFT creation process, Murakami dropped in "108 secret images," according to the website for the Murakami Flower cards.
These images (and the pixel art that informed the other NFTs) influenced the creation of Murakami's Flower cards, his very own trading card game. Step aside Pikachu! Make way, Charmander! Murakami's flowers are their very own collectible characters now.
The Murakami Flower cards are very clearly indebted to the culture-creating cards that preceded them, including Pokémon cards and the One Piece TCG (trading card game), which Murakami claims are produced by the same manufacturer who's making his Murakami Flower cards.
Murakami is no newbie in the realm of marketable and resalable doodads but there's ample precedent here. He's already dived deep into web3-turned-IRL product by way of his partnership with Nike-owned RTFKT, as he told Highsnobiety in 2021.
"By bridging digital and real sneakers, a completely new commercial trading can be established," Murakami said. "Manufacturers no longer need to depend on the internal, closed-loop process to explore ambitious designs; without even waiting for the IRL release of their products, they can raise money digitally and complete the real designs without any compromise."
But Murakami Flowers is (technically) NFT-free, just a collection of colorful cards that embody the vivid Murakami ethos.
And vivid they are indeed, as each card wears a new character designed exclusively for the card line, some that transform Murakami's inimitable flowers into cute critters.
Obviously, though, Murakami's TCG collection is deeply affected by the viral monied success of Pokémon cards (and, thus, other flippable creations from the likes of Magic: the Gathering), as they're offered in booster packs that encourage blind draws and were even teased on Murakami's personal Instagram with a collab post that emphasizes the scarcity and implied value of Murakami's cards.
No big shock there, as Murakami is one of the most marketable artists alive right now, and definitely part of the reason that there's another drop scheduled for Murakami Flower cards.
Indeed, the initial pre-order on December 12 must've proven so popular that Murakami is hosting yet another pre-order offering via the Murakami Flowers' website come December 14, though only the Japanese-language cards will be available. Not that that'll slow the sell-out of this subsequent drop, though.
