The Legend Awakens

The 11th set of the Pokémon TCG, Neo Revelation, was released in late 2001. The set was the third (and penultimate) set in the second generation of the Pokémon TCG, and it completed the introduction of all 100 of the Gen II Pokémon into the TCG. The set was released alongside the following blurb:

From beneath a fire-ravaged tower, three ancient and powerful Pokémon emerge. The journey of worldwide adventure continues with the revelation of these legendary Pokémon.

This of course referred to the three legendary beasts of the Johto region which were appeared in the set: Entei, Suicune and Raikou.

Legendary Beasts (Neo Revelation)

However, these three beasts were not the true revelation of Neo Revelation. Rather, the true revelation was the revelation of two secret rare ‘Shining’ cards: Shining Gyarados and Shining Magikarp. These cards were manufactured with a special reflective coating and were inserted into Neo Revelation booster packs on an extremely limited basis. In fact, the cards were so rare that they were numbered outside of the official 64 cards in the set. Shining Gyarados was numbered 65/64 and Shining Magikarp was numbered 66/64.

Shining Gyarados / Shining Magikarp (Neo Revelation)

Of these two mysterious Shining cards, Shining Gyarados was particularly significant. In fact, it is difficult not to see Shining Gyarados as one of the most significant cards in the history of the Pokémon TCG. This blog will explain what made Shining Gyarados so significant, and why, in the opinion of the author, Shining Gyarados is the greatest Pokémon card of all time.

In summary, this blog will focus on the three most significant aspects of the Shining Gyarados card, namely its:

1. Historical significance.
2. Worldbuilding significance.
3. Artistic significance.

Of course, in reading this blog it should be remembered that the claim that Shining Gyarados is the greatest Pokémon card of all time is inherently subjective. It should be remembered that part of the beauty of the Pokémon TCG is that collectors can form their own opinion on the best cards, based on their own aesthetic values and personal preferences. It is hoped, however, that by the end of this blog the reader will at least appreciate the significant credentials of Shining Gyarados, which is an otherwise somewhat underrated card.

A New Revelation

When it was first released, Shining Gyarados was a card that was truly unlike any card that had previously existed in the Pokémon TCG. It possessed new and unique features that would become fundamental to the Pokémon TCG, and in many ways it foreshadowed the future artistic direction of the TCG. In fact, it is arguable that no single card before or since Shining Gyarados has so drastically changed and influenced the landscape of the Pokémon TCG.

Shining Gyarados

In order to fully appreciate what made Shining Gyarados such a historically significant card, it is useful to consider its three key contributions to the TCG:

1. Shining Gyarados defined the concept of a ‘secret rare’ Pokémon card in the Pokémon TCG.
2. Shining Gyarados marked the introduction of what are now called ‘shiny’ Pokémon in the Pokémon TCG.
3. Shining Gyarados shifted the artistic style of holographic Pokémon cards, and was an influential precursor to modern day ‘alternate artwork’ and ‘art rare’ cards.

Each of these contributions is explored in further detail below.

The most historically significant contribution of the Shining Gyarados card was that it defined one of the most fundamental concepts of the Pokémon TCG: secret rare cards. Prior to the Neo Revelation set, rarity in Pokémon cards was primarily determined by the card’s holographic status, with holographic cards being considered the most valuable. However, after Shining Gyarados secret rare cards became a mainstay in the Pokemon TCG.

Thanks to Shining Gyarados, we now understand a secret rare Pokémon card to have three key features:

1. It is numbered outside the official set.
2. It is more difficult to pull than the other cards in the official set.
3. It has some special feature that distinguishes it from the other cards in the official set (such as a gold star, the word ‘shining’, or an alternate artwork, for example).

Secret rare Pokémon cards will often contain the rarest and most desirable artworks in any given set, and secret rares frequently represent the pinnacle of each era of the Pokémon TCG.

Now, it should be noted that technically the first ever secret rare card was Dark Raichu, which was released in April 2000 in Team Rocket (the 5th main set of the TCG). Dark Raichu was numbered 83/82, and so it was the first card to be numbered outside of the official number of cards in the set.

Dark Raichu (83/82 – Team Rocket)

However, aside from its numbering, Dark Raichu did not possess the other two key elements of a secret rare Pokémon card: it was not harder to pull than the ordinary holographics in the set, and it did not possess any special feature that distinguished it from the other cards in the set. As a result, Dark Raichu failed to ignite the concept of secret rare cards, and the concept was absent from the next 5 sets of the Pokémon TCG. It was not until Shining Gyarados was released in Neo Revelation (the 11th main set) that the concept of secret rare Pokémon cards truly took hold in the Pokémon TCG.

Unlike Dark Raichu, Shining Gyarados contained every feature of a true secret rare card. Firstly, it was numbered outside the offical set (at 65/64). Secondly, pull-rate data suggests that Shining Gyarados was genuinely much more difficult to pull than other holographic cards in the official Neo Revelation set. It is estimated that Shining Pokemon cards were seeded in only about 1/3 Neo Revelation English booster boxes, and only in roughly 1/300 Japanese booster packs. Thirdly, in addition to its rarity Shining Gyarados also contained a special feature that distinguished it from every other card in the official Neo Revelation set: it was, of course, a ‘Shining’ variant of the Pokémon.

These three factors combined to make Shining Gyarados extremely popular when it was first released. Almost all collectors were enchanted by the idea of this exceptionally rare, secret Pokémon card that was unique from the official cards within the set. Following the excitement generated by Shining Gyarados, the concept of ‘secret rare’ Pokémon cards quickly took hold and became a fundamental feature of the Pokémon TCG. Shining Gyarados was immediately followed by six more secret rare Shining Pokémon in Neo Destiny, followed by the secret rare Crystal Pokémon in E-Series and secret rare Gold Star Pokémon in the EX era. Like Shining Gyarados, these secret rare cards have remained as the most popular and desirable cards of their respective eras.

Iconic Secret Rare Cards

In the modern era of the Pokémon TCG, secret rare cards have continued to appear nearly without fail in every main-line set of both the English and Japanese Pokémon TCG. And despite over two decades having passed since the release of Shining Gyarados, the formula for a secret rare card has remained unchanged. Like Shining Gyarados, the secret rare cards of the modern era continue to be numbered outside the official set, they are significantly rarer, and they possess special features that make them unique (such as containing an alternate artwork, or being rainbow or gold).

Modern Secret Rare Cards

Additionally, like Shining Gyarados, the secret rare cards of the modern era continue to be by far the most popular and valuable cards in each set. Secret rare cards such as the alternate artwork Umbreon VMAX, Lugia V, or Rayquaza VMAX, for example, have enjoyed unrivalled popularity and have set new price records for modern cards.

Umbreon VMAX / Lugia V / Rayquaza VMAX

Ultimately, by successfully defining the concept of a secret rare card, Shining Gyarados opened the Pandora’s box to an entirely new dimension of the Pokemon TCG. Without Shining Gyarados we may never have seen many of the most unique and special secret rare cards that followed in its footsteps, such as Gold Star Pokémon, Crystal Pokémon or alternate artwork cards (to name a few). Given how important secret rare cards have become in the TCG since Shining Gyarados, it is difficult not to see Shining Gyarados as one of the most historically significant cards of all time.

Not only did Shining Gyarados mark the true genesis of secret rare cards within the Pokémon TCG, but it was also responsible for the introduction of another historically significant feature: shiny Pokémon.

A shiny Pokémon (or shining Pokémon, as they were originally called) is a rare Pokémon with a different colour scheme to the ordinary variant. The concept of shiny Pokémon was first introduced in the second generation of Pokémon video games, Gold and Silver, as a way to show off the new colour-capabilities of the Gameboy Colour. In the Pokémon video games, shiny Pokémon are incredibly rare, with their odds of appearing ranging anywhere from 1/4096 to 1/8192 encounters.

Despite their rarity (or perhaps because of their rarity), the concept of shiny Pokémon has remained extremely popular beyond the second generation of Pokémon video games. Many players of the new Pokémon video games still spend countless hours hunting the elusive shiny variants of their favourite Pokémon, and there are entire communities built around the concept of ‘shiny hunting’.

With the popularity of shiny Pokémon in the Pokémon video games, it is unsurprising that shiny Pokémon have also remained a popular concept within the Pokémon TCG. Since Shining Gyarados, the concept of shiny Pokémon has recurred in numerous different formats in the TCG, and shiny Pokémon often occupy the rarest and most desirable positions in a set.

Notable examples of shiny Pokémon in the TCG include, of course, the Shining Pokémon from Neo Revelation and Neo Destiny, the Gold Star Pokémon from EX, the shiny Pokémon in Call of Legends, and the heavily featured shiny Pokémon in the modern Shining Legends, Hidden Fates and Shining Fates sets (the latter of which included the iconic shiny variant of Charizard VMAX, one of the most memorable cards from the modern era). Most recently, shiny Pokémon have appeared in the modern era in the Shiny Treasure ex set, which included a delightful shiny Mew ex card. There is little doubt that shiny Pokémon will continue to feature in new and exciting formats in the future of the Pokemon TCG.

Charizard VMAX (Shiny Star V) / Mew ex (Shiny Treasures)

While shiny Pokémon have not had quite as great an impact on the Pokémon TCG as secret rare cards, it is undeniable that without shiny Pokémon the TCG would lose an important aspect of its mystery and charm. Shiny Pokémon are an important part of the Pokémon world because they represent the very idea of rarity, which is an intrinsic theme in the world of Pokémon. Shining Gyarados is historically significant as the first card to bring these elusive and fascinating Pokémon to the TCG.

As well as marking the beginning of secret rare and shiny Pokémon cards in the Pokémon TCG, Shining Gyarados was also historically significant from an artistic perspective. In particular, Shining Gyarados was the first main-series holographic Pokémon card to depict the Pokémon in its natural environment. In this way, Shining Gyarados was an influential precursor to the ultra-popular ‘alternate art’ and ‘art rare’ Pokémon cards of the modern era.

Although we are today familiar with alternate art and art rare cards, holographic cards were very different in the early days of the Pokémon TCG. In the first ten sets of the Pokémon TCG, from Base Set through to Neo Discovery, holographic cards did not depict Pokémon in natural environments. Instead, Pokémon were simply depicted against blank holographic backgrounds. Of course, there was the odd environmental element, such as some vague trees in the holographic Jumpluff from Neo Genesis, or the moon in the background of the holographic Umbreon from Neo Discovery. For the most part, however, holographic cards remained devoid of any environmental elements.

Early Holographic Cards

This was quite a strange state of affairs, given that even in Base Set there were many non-holographic common cards that contained vivid environmental depictions of Pokémon. Indeed, it may have been the result of drawbacks in the printing technology at the time, making it more difficult to print holographic patterns onto more complex artwork. Or it may have simply been that the Pokémon Company preferred blank holographic backgrounds for stylistic reasons.

Early Non-Holographic Common Cards

Whatever the reason was, Shining Gyarados changed things. Shining Gyarados was the first holographic card to adopt the style of depicting a Pokémon in its natural environment. Rather than a blank holographic background, in Shining Gyarados we saw a vivid artistic scene in which the clouds and the waves glistened with a special reflective foil. This represented a significant shift from the traditional style of blank holographic backgrounds.

After Shining Gyarados, the number of holographic cards depicting Pokémon in their natural environment increased dramatically. For example, in the following set, Neo Destiny, we saw a holographic Shining Charizard depicted flying away from the viewer through a rocky canyon. And in the next set, Expedition, we saw a holographic and ultra-realistic Feraligatr, swimming menacingly towards us through a mangrove river.

Feraligatr (Expedition) / Shining Charizard (Neo Destiny)

Fast-forward to the modern era and holographic cards depicting Pokémon in their natural environments have become the most dominant cards in the modern TCG. These cards now come in the form of ‘alternate artwork’, ‘character rare’, ‘art rare’ and ‘special art rare’ cards. Notable examples of these cards include Dragonite V alternate art, where we see Dragonite floating in the clouds above the Tianzi Mountains, and Leafeon V alternate art, where we see Leafeon playing amongst a pile of crunchy autumn leaves. 

Dragonite V / Leafeon V

Cards of this style have steadily become the most desirable in the modern TCG, and the Pokémon Company now releases a substantial number of holographic ‘art rare’ and ‘special art rare’ cards in each set, depicting Pokémon in all manner of natural and scenic environments.

Modern Art Rare Cards

In the context of this artistic timeline, we can appreciate Shining Gyarados as the first holographic Pokemon card to shift the TCG away from blank holographic backgrounds and to instead depict a natural and environmental artwork which transported the viewer into the world of Pokémon. Being the first holographic card to adopt this style, Shining Gyarados was, in many ways, the first ever alternate art or art rare card.

As such, as well as defining the concept of secret rare cards and being the first shiny Pokémon in the TCG, Shining Gyarados was also historically significant because it shifted the style of holographic cards and foreshadowed the future artistic direction of the Pokémon TCG.

Ultimately, Shining Gyarados was a visionary card that was at the forefront of the transformations of the Pokémon TCG that occurred during the Neo-era. It introduced several groundbreaking elements to the TCG and shaped the future of the TCG, and many of the greatest cards that have been printed over the last twenty years owe their genesis to Shining Gyarados.

Beyond the Pixels

Beyond its historical significance within the Pokémon TCG, the Shining Gyarados card also made an important connection to the world of Pokemon outside of the TCG. In particular, the card depicts an extremely memorable scene from the second generation of mainline Pokémon video games, Pokémon Gold and Silver.

In the storyline of those games, the player encounters a Red Gyarados that is wreaking havoc at an enormous lake known as the Lake of Rage. In order to fully appreciate the Shining Gyarados artwork, it is useful to tell the story of the Lake of Rage and the Red Gyarados encounter.

The Lake of Rage is located in the Johto region of the Pokemon world, just north of Mahogany Town. The Lake of Rage is described in the games as a huge lake full of clear, blue water. It lies in a secluded area at the northern-most point of Johto, with only a few residents living nearby. 

The Lake of Rage is described in the games as having been formed when, long ago, many Gyarados joined forces to create a fearsome and destructive storm. In the aftermath of the storm, rainwater filled the crater left by the Gyarados’ destruction, and so the lake became known as the Lake of Rage. In the years that followed, the Lake of Rage became, surprisingly, a peaceful place where nature was left largely untouched by humans.

The peace and serenity of the Lake of Rage is disrupted many years later, however, when Team Rocket make a hideout in Mahogany Town and begin transmitting radio waves across the region. These radio waves enrage a Red Gyarados that dwells at the Lake of Rage, and it begins a destructive rampage upon the lake, tipping boats and scaring swimmers.

The player must then travel north towards the Lake of Rage, defeating several members of Team Rocket along the way. Upon arrival at the Lake of Rage, the player must surf on the lake and approach the Red Gyarados, triggering it to attack the player and resulting in an epic and hard-fought battle.

After the battle with the Red Gyarados, the player obtains a Red Scale, which falls from the Gyarados and is described as glowing red like a flame.

The player then returns to the lake’s shoreline to speak with Lance, a mysterious character, who alerts the player to Team Rocket’s hideout in Mahogany Town. The player then travels to Mahogany Town to kick Team Rocket from their hideout and stop their troublesome radio transmissions. The Lake of Rage then returns to peace and it ceases to rain at the lake each day, and so the game’s story progresses.

Over the years, the encounter with Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage has become one of the most memorable events in any mainline Pokémon game. Any player who has played Pokémon Gold and Silver (or the later remakes of those games) can likely still recall the excitement of discovering this mysterious and uniquely coloured Pokémon. And for those players who played the original Pokémon Gold and Silver games, the encounter is a lasting memory because for those players the Red Gyarados would likely have been their first ever encounter with any shiny Pokémon. Shining Gyarados is, therefore, a powerfully nostalgic card, which almost all Pokémon fans can relate to.

The mythical and mysterious encounter with the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage was translated perfectly into the Pokémon TCG with the release of the Shining Gyarados card. It made perfect sense that, just like in the video games, Shining Gyarados was the first shiny Pokémon encountered by players in the TCG. Additionally, by numbering Shining Gyarados as a secret rare card that existed outside of the official set (at 66/65), the Pokémon Company was able to perfectly represent Shining Gyarados as a Pokémon that was so rare and mysterious that, officially, it should not exist – just like the Red Gyarados in the games.

What really made the Shining Gyarados card so special, though, was the way that the card was able to vividly capture how the encounter with the Red Gyarados feels in our imagination, as opposed to how it looks in the video games. The Pokémon video games, of course, are held back by their pixels and graphical limitations. In the Pokémon TCG, however, artists have full freedom to depict the world of the Pokémon games as it exists in our imagination. Artists are free, in short, to bring the world of Pokémon to life.

And so in the Shining Gyarados card, the encounter with the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage is brought vividly to life through a detailed and imaginative artwork. Rather than simply looking at pixels in a game, in the card we can see the water crashing and the wind raging, and we can feel the roar of the of the legendary Gyarados. We can also see the darkened skies and intricate, spiralling clouds above. It is a truly artistic depiction, which a video game would be simply unable to convey. 

As such, in its vivid depiction of the encounter at the Lake of Rage, the Shining Gyarados card illustrated the power of the TCG to take the world of Pokémon beyond the graphical limits of the video games. Ultimately, Shining Gyarados demonstrated that the Pokémon TCG is not a mere afterthought to the video games, but instead has an important world-building role within the wider Pokémon universe.

Through the Dragon’s Gate

This discussion would not be complete without some analysis of the most important part of the Shining Gyarados card: the artwork itself. After all, artwork is arguably the most important aspect of the Pokemon TCG.

The Shining Gyarados artwork was illustrated by Ken Sugimori, the first art director of Pokémon and the artist responsible for illustrating all 151 of the original Gen 1 Pokémon. Sugimori has also illustrated the most Pokémon cards of any artist, having illustrated almost 1000 separate cards. Shining Gyarados is one of the few artworks illustrated by Sugimori as a TCG-exclusive artwork, meaning that the artwork was intended for the card only and not for any other promotional material. As is typical of Sugimori’s style, Shining Gyarados contains a simple yet timeless and beautiful artwork. The card depicts a majestic and fearsome Red Gyarados emerging from the depths of a turbulent sea, its body shimmering with an otherworldly glow. The dynamic composition and intricate detailing make the card a true masterpiece of Pokémon card artwork, which few other than Sugimori could achieve.

A lot could be said about what makes the Shining Gyarados artwork such a masterpiece. For the purpose of this blog, however, we will limit our analysis to the three key visual elements that Sugimori has adopted in the artwork, being:

1. the storm,
2. the Shining Gyarados, and
3. the boy in the boat.

The Shining Gyarados artwork is set against the backdrop of a dark and turbulent storm. This setting immediately strikes the viewer; we feel as though we can hear the crashing of the waves and the booming of the thunder in the darkened skies above. For those old enough, we know instantly that this must be the Lake of Rage.

In its depiction of the dark and stormy waters, the Shining Gyarados artwork is reminiscent of an epic maritime painting depicting ships on stormy seas, such as the work of JWM Turner (pictured below). Those paintings use the raging water to symbolise violence, chaos and the unfathomable, and to remind us of the frailty and powerlessness of human beings in the face of the awe-inspiring power of nature. This symbolism works perfectly in the Shining Gyarados artwork to convey the unfathomable rage and awe-inspiring terror of the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage. Indeed, the raging storm is a backdrop that perfectly befits the Pokédex entry found at the bottom of the Shining Gyarados card:

Once it appears, it goes on a rampage. It remains enraged until it demolishes everything around it.

After the storm, the next key visual element of the Shining Gyarados artwork is the Shining Gyarados itself. Shining Gyarados is a symbolically important Pokémon.

Leaving aside the Shining aspect for one moment, it is worth briefly noting that Gyarados itself is a symbolically significant Pokémon, that reflects the Chinese ‘Dragon’s Gate’ myth and symbolises the core lesson at the heart of Pokémon. To learn more about this, read this blog.

To understand the symbolism of the Shining Gyarados, the first thing to consider is the position of the Shining Gyarados card within the context of the Pokémon TCG. In other words, what was Shining Gyarados intended to symbolise as the penultimate card of Neo Revelation?

As mentioned in the introduction, Neo Revelation was the third set of the second generation of the Pokémon TCG. Neo Revelation was preceded by Neo Genesis and Neo Discovery. Neo Revelation was an important set because it completed the introduction of all 100 of the Gen II Pokémon into the TCG. As such, by the final official card of Neo Revelation (i.e, the 64th card), all Gen II Pokémon had been introduced into the Pokémon TCG. Of course, however, the Pokémon Company did not choose to end the set here. Instead, they chose to provide two extra, unofficial cards: Shining Gyarados (65/64) and Shining Magikarp (66/65).

The importance of Shining Gyarados in this context was that it symbolised that although the discovery of all 100 of the new Gen II Pokémon was complete, there was still far more left to discover within the Pokémon world. Neo Revelation could easily have ended at the 64th card, and followed the pattern of its predecessors. However, by secretly including Shining Gyarados and Shining Magikarp the Pokémon Company provided a glimpse into the unknown and kept the mystery of Gen II alive. The mere sight of the Red Gyarados and the Golden Magikarp left us wondering what other mysterious new Pokémon might lurk undiscovered within the Pokémon world, and rather than feeling that our journey was complete we instead realised that the borders of the Pokémon world had expanded far into unknown territory. Indeed, in the very next set, Neo Destiny, our journey would continue on a new path, during which we would discover many new Shining Pokémon.

Shining Pokémon from Neo Destiny

As well as encouraging curiosity about the mysteries on the path ahead, the inclusion of Shining Gyarados at the end of Neo Revelation also encouraged us to reflect on the path behind us, and how the Pokémon world had changed during the second generation.

In the first generation of Pokémon, Gyarados was an iconic and highly nostalgic Pokémon, owing to the fact that almost all players of Red and Blue could remember fishing up a Magikarp with an Old Rod and grinding it to Level 20 to evolve it into a Gyarados. In the second generation, however, Gyarados had shed its iconic blue scales and instead its scales were a burning red. In this way, Shining Gyarados symbolised the way that the second generation of Pokémon had changed and evolved.

Old Rod (Neo Revelation)

At the same time, however, the return of such an iconic Gen I Pokémon at the conclusion of Neo Revelation symbolised the interconnectedness of the two generations of Pokémon. Shining Gyarados symbolised that the second generation of Pokémon was ultimately a balance between the old and the new, rather than being something completely new. Indeed, it even is possible that the contrast between the red and blue Gyarados was intended by the Pokémon Company as a subtle homage to Pokémon Red and Blue.

Gen I Sprite / Gen II Sprite

The final element of the Shining Gyarados artwork is, of course, the boy in the boat. The boy in the boat is an interesting addition by Sugimori because, at this stage of the TCG, Pokémon were rarely depicted alongside humans. The inclusion of the boy in the boat helps to emphasise the sheer scale of the Red Gyarados. The tiny boy, being rocked back in a tiny and flimsy boat, provides a powerful juxtaposition to the tremendous Red Gyarados and the fearsome storm.

In this respect, the Shining Gyarados artwork is reminiscent of artwork from the Romantic era. During the Romantic era, artwork emphasised themes such as intense emotion, imagination, mystery, and the awe-inspiring power of nature. Often, Romantic artworks would juxtapose the power of the natural world against the insignificance of the human being. Notable artworks of this kind include the iconic Romantic artworks of Casper Friedrich and JWM Turner pictured below. Like the Shining Gyarados artwork, in these paintings we see tiny, minuscule figures in powerful and overwhelming natural landscapes.

Romantic artwork was concerned with more than simply demonstrating the insignificance of humans within the power of nature, however. Romantic artwork was also concerned with demonstrating the concept of the ‘sublime’ within nature.

The ‘sublime’ refers to a mixture of competing feelings that create an ethereal or other-worldly experience. According to Romantic artists, the sublime could only be experienced when one is confronted with the vastness and power of nature, the universe, or the divine. The sublime was often evoked through depictions of grand, imposing landscapes or powerful natural phenomena such as storms, tsunamis or tornados, which convey a sense of the infinite and the uncontrollable. The sublime is a mixture of feelings of wonder, awe and beauty on the one hand, combined with terror, fear and danger on the other. According to Romantic artists, the feeling of the sublime is the highest emotion that a person is capable of feeling, and it is a feeling that allows a person to transcend, very briefly, into the supernatural or ethereal.

In the Shining Gyarados artwork, Sugimori depicts the sublime within the Pokémon world. The boy in the boat no doubt feels a sense of terror and fear at the tremendous power of the Red Gyarados and the danger of the raging storm. Simultaneously, however, the boy no doubt feels a sense of wonder at the mysterious Red Gyarados before him, and a sense of awe at the beauty of the swirling storm above. The numinous and supernatural nature of the scene is emphasised by the shimmering constellation of holographic foil, which also underscores the immense power and rarity of the Red Gyarados.

Indeed, in Sugimori’s depiction it seems as though the swirling clouds are at once high above but also bear thunderously down upon us. It is as though, in that moment, the sky and the Gyarados and the sea have merged together into one single cohesive beast. And as the Gyarados surges from the seething water and inhales, the clouds above churn and spiral as though drawn into its breath. And so the Shining Gyarados artwork evokes not only a sense of fear but also a sense of awe at the breathtaking and celestial beauty of the scene. These feelings, of awe and fear, terror and beauty, combine into a singular transcendental and sublime emotion.

Ultimately, the Shining Gyarados artwork does what all great artwork should do; it makes us feel something when we look at it. We can feel the spray of the water, cold against our face. We can hear the roar of the sky and the water and the Red Gyarados. And we can feel the sublimity of the awe-inspiring scene. The artwork captures a single split second moment, as the gaze of the boy and the Red Gyarados meet. In reality, this moment would be over in a fateful flash. But in that moment, it’s as though reality itself has warped and twisted before our eyes and we are provided with a timeless window into the divine. In one single moment, Sugimori captures all of what makes the Pokémon world so powerful and alluring, and provides us with arguably the most beautiful and meaningful artwork in the history of the Pokémon TCG.

A New Destiny

Shining Gyarados in many ways represented an awakening of the Pokémon TCG. It sparked the beginning of secret rare cards as a mainstay in the Pokémon TCG, it introduced shiny Pokémon, and it foreshadowed the future artistic direction of the TCG. It also demonstrated the important world-building role of the Pokémon TCG, and it contained one of the most beautiful and timeless artworks in the history of the TCG.

Shining Gyarados was a card that was far ahead of its time and yet fit perfectly in Neo Revelation. It was the ultimate symbol of the themes of the Neo-era, of genesis, discovery and revelation. Ultimately, more than any card before or since, Shining Gyarados set the Pokémon TCG upon a new destiny.