Upper Deck released Marvel Anime Volume 1 back in 2020 and it was a massive hit among the Marvel card collecting community. The trading card set had a 90-card original base set that offered collectors new iterations on some of their favorite Marvel characters.

Featuring art from Marvel variant cover artist Peach Momoko, hits in the set included foil parallels, capsule characters that were inspired by Japanese toy capsules, Chibi style character art, hanafuda which paid homage to traditional Japanese hanafuda cards, artist autos and more.  

Upper Deck’s recent follow up to that series was Marvel Anime Volume 2. Diego, one of Upper Deck’s many Associate Brand Managers joined me on UD Live and shared some insight on the set.

When asked if there were tons of pressure on the product development team to capture lightning in a bottle twice Diego said, “How do you top the Peach Momoko set that came out? Well, you find a bunch of artists who specialize in that anime/manga style. They know their color pops and they do the set justice by bringing in their own flavor and their own styles into the set.”

Diego expressed that collectors can expect most of the heavy hitters Volume 1 to return.

“Of course as we know Peach Momoko led the charge with Volume 1. So we had to return on the Wood Block Echos, which is kind of a returning product as well. Then we go into out Capsule Card. These you get to rip open. You get to hatch a little surprise on the side, little factoids on the back as well. These are really fun to read too. Another big return are the hanafuda cards as well. These were a big hit in the last set. I never personally got to see any of it in that last set. But I think we’re lucky enough to have snagged a few here. Not only to mention, there are some other Chibi cards that came in to play as well. And of course we have to have our sketch cards in this set.” 

Collectors can also look forward to new additions to Volume 2.“We’re including a variety of artists. We have over 10 artists working on this set. So now the styles are going to vary but I think we tied it all together with our design language and using color coordinated designs as well to kind of tie the character into the card as well…(It’s) such a fun set to pull from. That you just have a variety of art, characters are all there. And then we have our specials on top of that. Like these foil boards are amazing. Not to mention the Japanese foil boards are also a great hit to come by as well. These have the Japanese texts on the back which (is) a really fun homage to what we’re trying to create in this set.”

One beloved Marvel character will have a storyline insert that’s essential to the trading card set. “Of course we have to touch on Wolverine here. He had a very big story arch in Japan. So we thought it was a perfect match here. Why not have an artist pick up highlights from that story arch and just kind of picture them on cards. They came out beautifully.”

Diego, being a fan of the anime art style himself, mentions there are a variety of inserts that makes the set unique.

“I’m huge on our Stax cards because you get the chance to kind of make your own Japanese cover here. So we have our base and if wanted to get funky we can start stacking these on top of each other and kind of create our own little mutant of a card here…Another exciting one for me was the Power Level. The artist that did these, they did an amazing job. That was Edward Huang. All the power level cards have this very powerful feel to them. All these characters in these action poses just feel like solid.”

The set also add a high-end quality value as well. “We don’t want to skimp out on collectors who pick up this set. It’s not one of our premier top tier sets. But I think in order to kind of appease that collector, we kind of have to put in some fun stuff. The woodblock prints fits in with the theme.”

The Kodomomuke insert adds some fun into the set. “This is a very playful set because this is kind of geared towards a more playful style. Kind of geared towards children but we’ve kind of just used it more to incorporate just like a playful animal element throughout the Marvel series as well.”

But you can’t forget the Chibi insert which was a fan favorite from Volume 1.

“I feel like this isn’t seen anywhere else kinda deal. They’ve really learned how to make even the most powerful characters just more cute, more approachable for just any age group honestly.”

The big draw of course, is the Hanafudu Booklet.“Once you pull one of these you know you did something right.  This is your case hit right here. Once you redeem this you scratch off (the back) of the card. You redeem it through us and we will send you a booklet of four hanafudu cards that that kind of make one complete image. So it’s kind of a puzzle piece. And now you have a chance of getting an autographed version as well which I think would be spectacular.”

The release of Marvel Anime Volume 1 opened a new avenue of opportunities for Upper Deck. “That was such a fresh set to us that I think a lot of us were just excited that we’re able to capture the anime style with the Marvel license on top of it. That was so fresh to us (be)cause that allowed us to go out to new artist and kind of be open like ‘Hey we want to explore this style what can you provide to us?’”

But one they knew had tons of potential to be a success among collectors. “Honestly I think it’s the dynamic poses. They’re always in flux, they’re always in movement. You can kind of feel the energy in them. You know they use very popping colors. When you use those kinds of colors, you’re really (capturing) those iconic moments as well. And I just think the art on these just come out so great. It’s all so very eye-catching and worth looking at every card you can honestly…seeing these beloved Marvel characters in anime form makes us hopeful of what we can see in the future.”  

With a loaded roster of Marvel characters, so many jumped off the pages. “I think what works the best for me is any characters with energy blasts. Where they have these elements of effects coming off of them. We translate those so well on to cards. It’s just gives it that dynamic feel and movement. “

Not only does the set pay homage to the anime and manga artform but Japanese culture as well. “This was definitely captured from the Japanese style of coin (op) machines they have over there. I feel like they have walls of these over there compared to what we have over here. And people are really into it and we kind of wanted to capture that style. Of course, we have a Steet Level, a World Level and a Cosmic Level. So, they are a variety of levels that you can hit upon there as well… It’s got that gotcha style of like you don’t know what you’re going to get. It’s a total surprise. It could be a numbered, could be great.”

But there were characters he knew he couldn’t wait to see as the set hit hobby stores. “We have such a robust checklist here. I believe this is 100-card (base set)…I’m just a big sucker for Moon Knight. He was one of my favorites (when I saw) that come in. The Daredevil card was another one of my favorites. Seeing that pose and how dynamic it looked really caught my eye. There’s a main artist that we feature here, Siya Oum. This artist has a lot of great character cards in here.”

The anime/manga style really helped villains pop in trading cards. “You can kind of feel that (sinister)coming off these characters. The treatment that the artist gave these characters were great. We should definitely highlight these artists and give them a chance to shine.”

But lesser-known characters are given the spotlight as well.

“When we come up with an insert like this, we dig through the books. We try to find characters that aren’t often used. We like to bring them out of the woodwork like Hit-Monkey here.”

While relying on Product Development Coordinators as well as the Art Team at Upper Deck provide tons of deep cuts to fill out a checklist. “When one of the product developers steps into a product like this where they may be not sure of, they go into research mode. And they will ask either their peers or their own research on top of asking our Art Coordinators. The Art Team has a strong grasp on what artists we can pull from to kind of create these amazing anime looking cards. And I think we all kind of flex as a team to kind of be like ‘Okay this is style that we want here…How can we capture more of that?’ And then the Art Team steps in and (says) ‘Hey we have all these artists that we can utilize as well.’ So I think for a Product Developer, once you have these variety of hits I think what (it) comes down to next is how do we kind of use these artists and use all of the variety of hits that we know that we can use and kind of fit them all together into one really cohesive product.”

With so many trading cards coming out annually it’s important to add diversity in the lineup. “It’s a huge win for Upper Deck to be able to tap on a lot of original artists to create our unique roster of characters. It’s not often that a company has access to a variety of artists that can capitalize on styles. Just having all those tools in the Upper Deck tool box really just fleshes a set like this out.”

As well as giving new artist with an established background in anime/manga a spotlight for new fans.“One, we can introduce newer artists who specialize in the style into the set and kind of be their first round with Upper Deck, maybe Marvel. Two, maybe we can inspire some fresh artists, who are up and coming who want to be part of something like this. Because we have open calls. We do accept a lot of portfolios and look at a lot of stuff. So we’re always trying to expand our artist base.”

So many talented artists worked on Marvel Anime Volume 2. We reached out to several and asked for their reaction to having their art be part of the set, which characters they were most excited to draw and how they artistically interpreted some of Marvel’s most popular characters.

Artist Lip Wei Chang said, “I tried my best to illustrate these Marvel Kaiju with my own unique style (which is most likely a hybrid of both elements of comic/manga/anime). (I) drew the scene in a wider angle, to showcase the Kaiju with good scale and depth. Then, ink with as many details as I could, keep the coloring simple and straightforward. Finally, apply dramatic lighting for the scene, to further increase the dynamic and contrast. “

While artist Edwin Huang wrote in, “Drawing Ms. Marvel with a Moe (Japanese cultural term for female characters) face was the highlight of my time on these cards. Drawing Black Panther was also a bucket list character for me!” 

Artist Tai Aoki responded with, “They are all amazing characters that were a blast to work on, but I might point out Pork Grind for having ridiculous, cartoon proportions while also being able to showcase a fair amount of realistic human anatomy. Regardless of how successful I was in executing this, I just had that much fun with this particular card.”

And finally artist Fahmi Fauzi mentioned, “Since I was a kid, I’ve always been excited to wake up early and watch my favorite anime shows on television. Their way of storytelling and art style have made quite a lasting impression on me, which affected my own artistic style in the future.”

Marvel Anime Volume 2 is now available is hobby stores everywhere.