PulloraX Magazine 3 min read

Japanese Card Rarity Codes: Pokémon and One Piece

What the letters on a Japanese card mean: AR, SR, SAR, UR, MUR, ACE, FUR for Pokémon and C, UC, R, SR, SEC, L, SP plus parallels for One Piece, with where each code is printed.

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30th Celebration M6a Japanese Pokémon — sealed booster boxMega Brave M1L Japanese Pokémon Booster Box — display viewOP-17 Japanese One Piece Card Game — individual booster box shown for reference

Market data

Market data in this article changes from time to time. Figures are dated where shown and are not a current price list.

Every Japanese Pokémon and One Piece card prints its rarity as letters in a bottom corner — AR, SAR, SEC, MUR. The letters are the fastest way to tell what you are holding, and they are not printed on the English editions in the same way. This page lists the codes in use today, the codes from earlier eras you will still meet in older boxes, and what a rarity code does not tell you.

Where the code is printed

On a current Japanese Pokémon card the code sits in the bottom corner of the card face, on the left on modern prints. On a Japanese One Piece card it sits in the bottom right, on the same line as the card number and the set code — for example OP09-001 L. Some older Pokémon cards carry no code at all; on those the rarity has to be read from the set list instead.

Japanese Pokémon — codes in use now

Code Japanese Meaning
C コモン Common
U アンコモン Uncommon
R レア Rare
RR ダブルレア Double Rare
AR アートレア Art Rare — full-card illustration
SR スーパーレア Super Rare
SAR スペシャルアートレア Special Art Rare
UR ウルトラレア Ultra Rare
MUR メガウルトラレア Mega Ultra Rare — the top tier of the MEGA series, where it takes the place of UR
ACE エーススペック ACE SPEC — one copy per deck
FUR フューチャリスティックレア Futuristic Rare — introduced with the 30th CELEBRATION set

Japanese Pokémon — codes from earlier eras

These are no longer printed on new sets, but they are exactly what you are opening in a Sword & Shield or Sun & Moon box:

Code Japanese Meaning
RRR トリプルレア Triple Rare
HR ハイパーレア Hyper Rare
CHR キャラクターレア Character Rare
CSR キャラクタースーパーレア Character Super Rare
K かがやくポケモン Radiant Pokémon
A アメイジングレア Amazing Rare
S 色違い Shiny — an alternate colour of the same Pokémon

Japanese One Piece

Code Japanese Meaning
C コモン Common
UC アンコモン Uncommon
R レア Rare — foil with a white border
SR スーパーレア Super Rare — full-card foil
SEC シークレットレア Secret Rare — the top tier, gold border
L リーダー Leader — a role, not a rarity tier: the card a deck is built around
SP スペシャルカード Special card — wanted-poster, full-art and anniversary treatments

Alongside those, One Piece prints parallel versions: the same card with the illustration running edge to edge. From the fourth booster set onward a parallel is marked with a star above the rarity code. The treatment collectors call a manga rare is a super parallel whose background is a panel from the original manga.

What a rarity code does not tell you

A code describes the print treatment of one card. It is not a price, and it is not a promise: sealed booster boxes and packs have random contents, pull rates differ from set to set, and PulloraX never opens or reseals a box to influence what is inside. If you are choosing between sets, the set files in the PulloraX Magazine list what each set actually contains.

Browse sealed Japanese Pokémon booster boxes and Japanese One Piece booster boxes, or read the checklist for buying Japanese Pokémon cards from Japan.

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