Mysterious Anime Deck
Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 07 Jan 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.
| Alissa |
07 Jan 2004 |
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Any idea what deck I just inherited? I'm going to try to attach a scan with a few of the cards, as well as the LWB that came with it. Brand name seems to be "Chobits".
This deck came to me, unwanted by someone I read for, and she passed it along to me.
However, I'm clueless on Anime. I don't know who this little blondie in my cards is, and I can't tell the suits!
There are no indicators on the cards of suits, only the four hearts you see in the cards corners. And those are on every card in the deck.
The cards are numbered with the word "ACE", as well as 00-9. Some cards don't have numbers (Court cards? Majors?) but other than that, they look much like the rest.
The only English says : Tarot Just For You.
And : Happiness is being safe and warm!
(What is it with the squishy cute Anime stuff anyhow???)
The card backs are all the picture of the blondie in a ballgown, looking almost Faery.
Anyone have any clue what I have, and how to use it??? ;) No, I haven't tried to read with it ... yet. The blondie is featured on almost every card, in poses that range from cute to suggestive (or maybe that's just my dirty mind, but two girls with their legs tied together in ribbons, looking fetchingly at the viewer ... well, you see where I'm coming from).
(The following is tongue in cheek)
Alissa : Well, here in the past I see you've been cuddling with teddy bears in the rain... But, look here!
No, it's not the Drowned Phoenician Sailor, it's the little blondie holding her knees. See the panty shot? You may get lucky in the coming times....
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| Alissa |
07 Jan 2004 |
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DOH~!
I forgot to attach the pic....
I had to shrink it so much, I dunno if it's visible.
And, edited to add, Ok so there it is. The far right is the back of the card, the long white gown. You can see several cards (they're skinny, like 2" wide) some with numbers, some without. I picked these at random for a couple of examples. The other graphic is the front of the LWB.
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| Alissa |
07 Jan 2004 |
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Ok, I'm picking through the deck and "reading" characters with the LWB.
And, here are the Devil, Tower, and World cards.
I told you this deck was strange....
Editted to add : And what are those cow-bell looking things on her ears? An attempt to make the cards look pastoral? A magical hearing device which gives Blondie awesome hearing powers? Pig snouts as ear warmers? Someone tell me, please....
As far as I can tell, this deck has only one card with a male on it (and he's with Blondie). Reading with one sex on a deck is downright disconcerting.
There's a lot of good/evil in the deck ... we see double images of Blondie (one in white lace, the other in black BDSM gear, like the World card). Often, the good and bad girls are tied together in the same card, or shown as bound together. What a message eh???
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| scorpio |
07 Jan 2004 |
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alissa, i think it might be sailor moon, you can see pics at tarotgarden. my niece is crazy over this tv series, so if you want to trade them, let me know! also i have seen the 78 card deck at ebay for around $20 and i think there are pictures there seems to be there alot. the cards don't look too intuitive, but the series seems to have new age themes, there is a cool cat that looks like mine that is psychic (i think, i should know more as much as i have spent on the dvd's!)
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| scorpio |
07 Jan 2004 |
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whoops, sorry alissa, null is right, they just looked alot like the sailor moon, same border n stuff!
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| Alissa |
07 Jan 2004 |
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Thank you null~! I intended to do a Google on the "Chobits," but your timely response helped me far more! :D
Chobits ... Chibots.... I get it.
So, she's an AI, and the hero struggles with his feelings for his unique machine.
I'm wondering how others think of this as a Tarot theme??? Anyone have any experience reading with this deck?
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| Umbrae |
07 Jan 2004 |
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Discussing this deck with Jeannette (or Tarot Garden) she said, "There's a gazillion of these types of decks, I expect that they're right in saying its the "Chobits" one. Just another anime deck -- these releases are oriented toward anime/manga fans, not tarot readers. Although correct in structure (22 majors, 56 minors in four suits A - 10 and 4 courts), the pictures on the cards have nothing to do symbiotically with any tarot system real or imagined. Keep in mind that anime/manga fans will often buy something for no other reason than it has pix of their favorite character(s) on it."
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| WolfyJames |
07 Jan 2004 |
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Since I'm planning to make a tarot for myself, based on horror games, I would say "why not?". But it takes someone who knows tarot to be able to conceive a tarot based on such a theme. And I'm far from being an expert myself.
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| urbandryad |
07 Jan 2004 |
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Ahhhhhh, Chobits! :D:D:D:D:D:D The Cutie with the ears is Chi! ^__^ Yes, those ears are a part of who the character is, she's sort of a robot (persocomp/chobit) person. A boy finds her in the trash and the whole basis of the story is their relationship, him teaching her how to be 'human', etc. :) I'm not much into the 'show' but I have read the 'manga' of Chobits, (anime fan here)
I agree with Umbrae. Fans will buy ANYTHING with their fav chars on it, if they are obsessed about it. I have WAYYY too many Harry Potter items with Professor Snape on them than is healthy! LOL!
*hugs*
Lee (who envies you having that deck, lucky duck! :P)
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| Alissa |
07 Jan 2004 |
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It grows on you.
Reading the link that null provided includes a cast of characters. Now, I know that that Blondie is "Chi," and the black leather clad Blondie is "Dark Chi," who knows more about Chi's programming that her regular persocom personality does. That makes for some interesting archetypal symbolism that Tarot can *almost* use.
I still don't get the cowbells for ears ;) but she's a robot, so I'll cut her some slack. Otherwise, I'm *down* with several of her outfits... the french maid, the school girl, the sailor girl, not to mention all that satin lace and ribbons. She's got quite a wardrobe (the stories mention someone mysterious - a possible bot - helps her with her wardrobe ... she can come to my house and help me next).
Chi spends a lot of time hugging her knees ... and bending over.... (ummm never mind, got distracted).
As I still can't make tell of any Suits whatsoever, I'd have to treat this like an oracle deck to read by. Strangest "Tarot" deck I've seen in a while.
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| Cerulean |
07 Jan 2004 |
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I saw the Chobits deck on a few anime-friendly sites, but I've restricted my anime decks.
http://cosplay.out-break.net/chobits.shtml
http://www.mygiftworld.com/chobitstarot.html
I'd like to also write a bit on a related subject, the popular tarot designs of
Ando Amano, Reiko Shimizu and Ayumi Kasai.
Here's a few other sites on anime decks:
http://ryen.net/tarot/
http://www.tarotpassages.com/himiko.htm
I think there are very few anime Japanese decks that really follow a 'tarot' theme that I can recognize. The tarot designs from the anime illustrators above were actually color illustration details from their various series or magazine covers---there wasn't one book or series that I could buy that would have the illustrations, characters and storylines all together.
There is one exception: the Mineo deck in the link above has one central storyline but it's so wierd and the deck is so expensive, this Asian period style of the images isn't within my range.
Of the three authors I mentioned earlier, I found that the Miracle Deck (Fantasy edition, Chinese) seems to be the most delicate and usable deck. The others are interesting to make up stories.
Since I know very few anime titles, I've been checking out tarots based on Final Fantasy (there's so many versions of games and cards under this title) and Spirited Away, but haven't found anything worthwhile. The art on your Chobits deck is very pretty, but I've got something similar in the Miracle/Fantasy, so I'm eyeing the Amano Tarot again...from sasugabooks.com or tarotgarden.com
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| Demonesse |
08 Jan 2004 |
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Interesting links; thanks for them. I'd love to see (and hopefully own) a Rurouni Kenshin/Hellsing/Ayashino Ceres/a proper X 1999 deck. Shame about such decks that are pirated in terms of copyright, though.
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The Mysterious Anime Deck thread was originally posted on 07 Jan 2004 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.
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