My Hero Academia’s Mina Ashido and Japan’s Shokugan Cards

Mina Ashido Clear Card Gum No.183 by Ensky

A Transparent Trading Card From Japan’s Food-Toy World

This is a single trading card — number 183 — from Ensky’s Clear Card Gum series, specifically its fourth installment. The “clear” in the name describes the material: transparent plastic rather than the standard paper stock of most trading cards. Light passes through it, and the printed character art takes on a layered, luminous quality that behaves quite differently from a conventional card when displayed or held up to the light.

The card features Mina Ashido, a prominent supporting character from My Hero Academia. She appears in the U.A. High School gym uniform — an orange shirt marked with the school’s “A” logo and a dark skirt — in a full-body dynamic pose. The gym uniform is a recognizable look for fans of the series, closely associated with training sequences and specific arcs throughout the anime.

Mina Ashido and the My Hero Academia Universe

My Hero Academia is a manga by Kohei Horikoshi, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from July 2014 through August 2024. Its anime adaptation launched in 2016 and ran for seven seasons, with multiple theatrical films released alongside. The story is set in a world where most people possess superhuman abilities called Quirks, and follows Izuku Midoriya as he works toward becoming a professional hero despite being born without powers. The series drew a substantial international fanbase through licensed streaming in North America, Europe, and across Asia.

Mina Ashido — hero name Pinky — is a first-year student in Class 1-A at U.A. High School. Her Quirk, “Acid,” lets her produce and control corrosive liquid from her skin, which she uses in combat, for defense, and even for propulsion and movement. Her appearance stands out even within an already visually varied cast: pink skin, yellow and black irises, two small horns on her forehead, and a pink afro. Her personality is outgoing and energetic, and she has a noted talent for dancing that surfaces at several points across the series. That combination of a striking visual identity and a warmly written character has made her a consistent fixture in fan art, cosplay, and merchandise throughout the franchise’s run.

The Shokugan Format and What Clear Cards Offer Collectors

The shokugan format — the Japanese term translates roughly as “food toy” — is a retail tradition with roots in 1970s Japan that became widely popular through the 1990s and 2000s. A small collectible is packaged alongside candy or gum as a single unit. The food is nominally the primary product; in practice, the included toy or card drives the purchase. Manufacturers like Ensky have built entire product lines around this structure, pairing trading cards, mini-figures, and stickers with various sweets.

The clear-card variant adds a dimension that paper cards cannot replicate. Transparent plastic cards can be layered, held to a light source, or framed in ways that play on the material itself — effects the notes describe as a key part of their appeal to display-focused collectors. This particular card sits at number 183 within a run that extends well into the hundreds, a structure that naturally draws collectors who track down specific characters or numbers to fill gaps in a set. Outside Japan, shokugan products see limited official distribution, so items like this one typically reach international buyers through direct import.