Chiikawa’s Goblin and the HP Stat That Sums Up the Series

Chiikawa Goblin HP50 Trading Card from Bandai Carddass Vol.2

The Chiikawa Universe, Briefly Explained

Chiikawa — shortened from a title that translates roughly as “some small, cute creature” — launched on X (formerly Twitter) in January 2020, created by Japanese artist Nagano. The series follows a cast of soft, round characters through small daily events, rendered in a gentle, minimal art style. What gave it cultural traction, though, is the contrast underneath: a world where the characters work hard, feel deeply, and occasionally encounter situations that are quietly surreal or emotionally complicated.

By 2022, the series had expanded into a TV anime airing on Nihon TV. The official account on X grew past three million followers, and licensed merchandise reached markets across Japan and into Taiwan, South Korea, and China through official channels. English-speaking fans have also built communities around the series under the name “Chiikawa.” It now stands as one of Japan’s more prominent contemporary pop-culture properties, with reach well beyond its webcomic origins.

The Goblin Character and Its HP 50 Card

The Goblin is a recurring side character in the Chiikawa world: a small green creature with pointed ears, round rosy cheeks, and tattered cloth draped over its body. Rather than a named individual, it represents a species — one that appears alongside the main trio of Chiikawa, Hachiware, and Usagi in various scenes. Despite this secondary status, the Goblin has built a dedicated following among fans, and Bandai has produced merchandise featuring it across multiple releases.

This card, part of Bandai’s Carddass Vol.2 for Chiikawa, presents the Goblin with an RPG-style HP stat set at 50 — displayed in the manner of a classic video game status screen. The card also includes text representing the Goblin’s enthusiastic eating sounds, a reference that appears to trace back to a specific scene in the original comic, though the exact episode isn’t confirmed. That combination of cute character art with game-stat formatting is a deliberate design choice, and it reflects something consistent about the Chiikawa series: the recurring use of role-playing game conventions as a comic device, applied to characters who are, on the surface, anything but battle-ready.

Carddass and the Tradition Behind the Format

Carddass is Bandai’s trading card brand, first introduced in 1988 through coin-operated vending machines that dispensed character cards. Dragon Ball and SD Gundam helped establish it as a recognizable part of Japanese collecting culture, and the brand has continued across decades and into modern franchises. Cards are typically sold in random packs or through similar randomized distribution, which means individual cards like this one circulate separately on the secondary market as collectors seek out specific characters or designs.

For international fans of both Japanese trading cards and the Chiikawa franchise, this Goblin HP50 card occupies a specific niche: a format with deep roots in Japanese pop culture, applied to a supporting character whose appeal lies precisely in its understated, side-cast status. The Goblin is not among the three central characters most commonly featured in Chiikawa merchandise, which is part of what draws fans who gravitate toward the series’ broader cast.