One Piece Gave This Forgotten Marine a 2003 Carddass Card

One Piece Carddass EX Hyper Battle Card JO-C22 (Marine Photographer, 2003)

The Character: One Piece’s Marine Photographer

Card JO-C22 depicts a character identified as “Ata-chan,” a Marine photographer — a minor supporting figure in One Piece’s vast cast. The visual is distinctive: a purple top hat, a prominent mustache, a checkered vest, and the character posed on one knee with a camera and flash raised. The MARINE insignia in the card’s upper right corner places him within the World Government’s naval force — the institutional counterweight to Monkey D. Luffy and his pirate crew throughout the series.

Two game statistics appear on the card’s front: POWER 100 and DAMAGE 1. These mark it as a playable piece in a battle card game, not merely a collectible portrait. The copyright line reads ©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha · Fuji TV · Toei Animation BANDAI 2003, confirming official licensing from every party involved in One Piece’s production at the time. The “JO” prefix in the card number serves as a series identifier within the Carddass EX Hyper Battle lineup.

In One Piece, the Marines range from principled officers to deeply corrupt ones, and Oda fills their ranks with characters at every level of significance. Ata-chan, however, is a peripheral figure. The specific episodes or story arcs in which he appears are not confirmable from the card alone — a cross-reference with the original manga or anime would be needed to place him precisely in the narrative.

Carddass and Japan’s Vending Machine Card Tradition

Carddass is a distinctly Japanese format. Bandai launched it in 1988 as a vending machine card system, with dedicated machines placed in toy shops, convenience stores, and candy retailers across the country. Cards were sold individually at deliberately low prices — pocket-money-friendly by design, encouraging repeat purchases and the gradual accumulation of a complete set. Dragon Ball, Gundam, and Saint Seiya all came through the Carddass system before One Piece joined the lineup in the early 2000s.

The “EX” and “Hyper Battle” designations indicate a game-focused tier within Carddass — lines built around structured battle mechanics, stat-driven cards, and head-to-head play alongside collection. As One Piece’s domestic profile expanded in the early 2000s, Bandai broadened its Carddass offerings for the franchise, and this card is a product of that period.

One Piece in 2003: The Franchise at the Time of Printing

Eiichiro Oda began serializing One Piece in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1997. The Toei Animation anime adaptation launched on Fuji TV in 1999, and by 2003 the series was broadcasting roughly episodes 130 to 200 — the closing stages of the Alabasta arc and the opening of Skypiea. The franchise had already established itself as one of the defining shonen manga of its generation, and its global readership would eventually make it one of the best-selling manga series in publishing history.

A card dedicated to a minor Marine character like Ata-chan speaks directly to collectors interested in the outer edges of One Piece’s world — beyond the Straw Hats, the Warlords, and the central story’s main players. Cards covering this level of the cast, produced for Japan’s domestic market in 2003, have not been in active Japanese retail circulation for more than two decades.