Best Absol Art

One of Absol’s earliest cards has a surprisingly fun release history! Illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita, this snowy Absol artwork first appeared in Japan in 2003 as part of the ADV-P Promotional Card series. Rather than coming from a booster pack, it was given away during a Pokémon Fair campaign at 7-Eleven stores in Japan, where customers could receive promotional Pokémon cards with qualifying drink purchases.

Japan actually released the artwork twice during the promotion. Absol 034/ADV-P was the Non-Holo version, while 035/ADV-P received the Holo treatment (I only have the cosmos holo. Will make a post once I get the non-holo variant). Instead of treating the foil as a simple variant, the two versions were assigned completely separate promo numbers—making both distinct cards to collect.

A year later, the same Arita artwork made its way overseas in EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua (2004) as Absol 96/95. The unusual numbering immediately gives away that something is different: the set officially ends at 95, placing Absol beyond the normal set list as a secret card. But even then, you couldn't simply pull one from a booster pack! Absol was distributed as a Holofoil box topper included with booster boxes of the expansion.

That gives this artwork a particularly neat collector lineage: it began as a Japanese convenience-store promotion, received separate Holo and Non-Holo ADV-P releases, and was then repurposed as a secret-numbered English box topper the following year. From 7-Eleven drink promotion to 96/95 secret card, it’s one of the more unusual journeys an Absol artwork has taken—and an especially memorable early piece by Mitsuhiro Arita.