As an artist, I really enjoy looking relaxing pictures from time to time. I sometimes even have them as my desktop background! Here, let me share some of my favorite desktop backgrounds with you.

Ahhhhh… I just love the sweeping hills of the one right there… better than the hills used as the Windows X.P background. And—OH!—that beach view! It almost feels like I’m there, feeling the cool sea breeze blowing across my face. And who doesn’t find that green-blue-yellow splotchy painting calming?? Yes… such beautiful pictures…

…but, hmm… I dunno about you, but there’s something familiar about these. A little TOO familiar. …!!! WAIT A FLIPPIN’ SECOND!


Card images sourced from pkmncards.com

OH MY GOODNESS, they’re actually the background artwork for many Pokémon TCG cards!

Hahah, ok ok, jokes aside… yes, that’s what’s going on here. Some time ago, CinnamonBiscuits brought to my attention a Twitter post by FanamelT which had revealed the source of many of the backgrounds on the earliest cards:

Then coincidentally, Alveinhero on the PA! Discord Server posted a link to a Flickr account with a TON of related backgrounds. Between those two sources, I was able to understand more about where these pictures came from, as well as discover that they were actually used fairly common in Japanese graphic design back in the 1990’s. Huzzah!

It turns out that these backgrounds come from a digital stock photo and artwork collection called Datacraft Sozaijiten, or sometimes simply Sozaijiten. The name “Sozaijiten” (素材辞典) clearly spells out its purpose, as it translates to “material dictionary”: specifically, it’s a Japanese-produced collection of stock pictures produced by Image navi corporation, broken up into well over 245 various volumes of shared concepts released on CD-ROM format. For example, Volume 1 is “Stone Textures”, Volume 10 is “Flowers”, Volume 20 is “Wild Flowers and Cherry Blossoms”, and so forth. Furthermore, it seems as if new volumes are constantly being produced every now and then, as in 2008 there was only 207, but in 2013 it was up to 235. Given this it’s most likely that the original artists working on the Japanese release of Base Set back in 1996 only had access to the earliest Sozaijiten releases, as most of the backgrounds seem to pull from the first 30 or 40 volumes.

Nifty, huh? So this page aims to reveal as many examples of Datacraft Sozaijiten on Pokémon TCG cards. You’ll not only get to see what images were used back in the earliest years of the TCG, but we’ll also include information about where you can find that background, as well as a preview of it. And if we’re missing something, just let us know over at the PA! Discord.

Move aside, Ponyta! Take two steps to your left, Wartortle! We’re here for the background images!

 

 

List of Cards using DS Backgrounds

To keep this list simple, we’ll just be focusing on basic card data—name, set and collector number—along with a scan of the card and a low-res copy of the original Datacraft Sozaijiten image. The list is also split up by set for easy studying.

That said, I want to make just a couple quick points:

  • Use of Datacraft Sozaijiten images are included on this page under Fair Use principles, specifically for the case of news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.
    • That said, I’m trying to use as lowest quality copy of the image as reasonably possible.
  • Card images are usually sourced from pkmncards.com and from Bulbapedia, if I didn’t scan them myself. It may even link to a Bulbapedia article if the original source is somewhat obscure and/or was never released in English.
    • For the REALLY obscure cards, they’ll be sourced from wherever we can find them!
  • This list is very incomplete. And not in a “well we got 99% of them but I’m sure one or two are left” way, but in a “we’ve only barely started; there’s still like 500 backgrounds still left to add!” way.
    • If you want to help out with this, we have a special thread in the PA! Discord dedicated to researching new cards and what photos they use for their backgrounds. Come check it out!

Finally, special thanks to Gareth48, who helped find a TON more backgrounds—some which I didn’t even think were part of a Datacraft Sozaijiten collection!—as well as set up a Google Sheets to archive the discoveries.

Without further ado:

There’s definitely more to come in the near future, so keep an eye out on this page for updates! Again, please feel free to swing by the Gareth48’s Card BG Matching Thread at the PA! Discord and share with us any new discoveries you’ve made. We’d love to see you there!