Chiikawa Carddass Vol.2 Zou Card: Bandai's Trading Card Tribute to Chiikawa's Beloved Elephant Character
What This Card Is — and the Franchise Behind It
This is a single trading card from Bandai’s Carddass line, specifically from the Chiikawa Vol.2 set. The card features Zou (Japanese for “elephant”), a character from the Chiikawa universe, and carries the in-card stat notation HP 50 — a game-style parameter that reflects how this Carddass series assigns character attributes in a collectible card format. The phrase “Noreppoitchi” printed on the card appears to be a phrase associated with Zou’s character in the series, consistent with Chiikawa’s signature use of distinctive, character-specific language and sounds.
Chiikawa — full title Chiikawa: Nanka Chiisakute Kawaii Yatsu — began as a webcomic posted to X (formerly Twitter) in January 2020 by manga artist Nagano. Its world centers on small, rounded characters navigating life with a tone that mixes genuine cuteness with surreal, sometimes unsettling situations. The series attracted a huge following online before expanding into a TV anime that began airing on TV Tokyo in April 2022, broadcast in short-form episodes of around one to two minutes each. Bandai, Sanrio, Sega, and other major manufacturers have all released official licensed merchandise, making Chiikawa one of the more notable social-media-origin franchises in recent Japanese pop culture.
Meet Zou: Chiikawa’s Purple Elephant Character
Zou is a supporting character in the Chiikawa series — not part of the central trio of Chiikawa, Hachiware, and Usagi, but recognizable enough to have made a clear impression on the fanbase. Visually, Zou is rendered as a bipedal, deep-purple elephant figure with a trunk, large ears, and a small tail — an unconventional design that stands apart from more typical kawaii animal characters. The character design, like all of Chiikawa, comes entirely from Nagano’s original work, and shares the franchise’s characteristic blend of gentleness and mild strangeness.
Carddass: A Long-Running Format in Japanese Collectible Culture
The Carddass format has a history stretching back to 1988, when Bandai introduced it as a vending-machine trading card system. Over the decades it has carried licenses for Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, SD Gundam, and many other defining Japanese IPs. Cards are typically dispensed from dedicated Carddass machines or capsule-toy-style vending units, with individual cards sold one at a time — a format that naturally lends itself to single-character collecting and set completion.
Alongside gashapon capsule toys and food toys, Carddass represents one of the foundational formats in Japan’s small-collectible culture. The Chiikawa Carddass line fits squarely within this tradition, launching in step with the anime’s broadcast from 2022 onward. Vol.2 indicates this card is from the second release in the series, following an initial Vol.1 wave. For international collectors, the Japanese-language text on the card — including the HP stat and character phrase — is a straightforward marker of a product made for the Japanese domestic market, carrying the Bandai Carddass name that collectors in many countries already recognize from other series.
Price: $9.44 | View on eBay
