Aquapolis / Skyridge Appreciation Post

[mrbigchip]

Aquapolis and Skyridge are popular for many seasons (crystal holos, small print runs (rarity), last WOTC sets, etc.), but the reason I truly love these sets is the themes and landscapes seen across the artwork.

I find the regions in these sets so interesting. They depict mysterious, isolated areas within the Pokémon universe, evoking a rich history and mythology.

• The forgotten civilizations’ mystique of the undersea ruins of Aqaupolis
• The temples and ruins with lots of images of the Legendary Birds
• The isolated and tough environments that are completely separated from humans (underground lakes, cave paintings / Ho-oh geoglyphs (Nazca Lines), volcanic lakes). It almost gives off a “survival of the fittest” vibe.

The different environments in these sets completely blend together, and I didn’t realize it until I came across all the Japanese pack art. While the Aquapolis and Skyridge generic artwork on booster packs and booster boxes is fine, it doesn’t hold a candle to the artwork from the Japanese sets (pictures below).

• The Town on No Map (awesome name)
• Wind From The Sea
• Split Earth
• Mysterious Mountains

This led me down a rabbit hole, where I learned as much as I could about the lore of these sets and the areas/landmarks depicted in the artwork. After all these years, I didn’t realize that all the areas in these sets depicted a region specific to the TCG, called the Puzzle Continent (Mysterious Continent). Similar to the Holon region, this has given me a new appreciation for TCG-specific lore. It would have been awesome if they integrated these into the games to explore, but keeping them exclusive to the TCG does make them extra special.

The Japanese pack artwork and images from trainer magazines / CoroCoro give us a lot more insight into this region. Without these, and just having the English sets to go by, we would never have truly learned how these areas connected with one another. Japan always gets the best stuff!

Puzzle Continent

Other Puzzle Continent Photos

Here are photos collected by MechaMew5000 from TCG packaging and Japanese Trainer Magazines that provide more details about the Puzzle Continent.

Town on No Map Photos (Aquapolis)

Credit: MechaMew5000

Wind From The Sea Photos (Aquapolis)

!

Credit: MechaMew5000

Split Earth Photos (Skyridge)

Credit: MechaMew5000

Mysterious Mountains Photos (Skyridge)

Credit: MechaMew5000

Below are some common areas and landmarks seen in the backgrounds across different cards in both Aquapolis and Skyridge. I love seeing these landscapes from different angles across the artwork, which gives more insight into this mysterious region and its different environments.

Aquapolis Artwork Shared Landscapes

Aquapolis Fountain

Aquapolis Lighthouse

Aquapolis Spire Mountain

Aquapolis Tower

Aquapolis Undersea Ruins

Credit: TwentyFour7 Reddit Post

Skyridge Artwork Shared Landscapes

Skyridge Ancient Ruins

Skyridge Ho-Oh Geoglyphs

Skyridge Mirage Oasis

Skyridge Mystery Zone

Skyridge Rock Formation

Skyridge Spiral Mountain

Credit: TwentyFour7 Reddit Post

TLDR: Sets with amazing worldbuilding across the artwork are awesome. They don’t make them like they used to.

[kookiedowh]

This whole unique worldbuilding aspect is definitely one of the main reasons I love these sets so much. I doubt it’ll happen since it really is a thing of the past, but it’d be amazing if they dropped another set with its own lore.

Another shared landscape aesthetic is this whole collection of these hot springs area cards from Skyridge/Mysterious Mountains. Really love the cozy aesthetic of these ones, and Ursaring is actually one of my fav cards of all time lol

[wisewailmer]

Expedition disrespected once more RIP

[nickofturl]

Who?

[muk]

That’s awesome, thank you for sharing!

[koaster]

Blastoise rolling up to steam roll some punks.

[mrbigchip]

Good call here!

[mrbigchip]

No disrespect to Expedition. Fantastic set. I just wanted to give some special love to artwork in Aquapolis and Skyridge / the four Japanese sets for how they portray this unique, rarely talked about, world that is the Puzzle Continent.

[666]

Beautiful stuff

[bigtechbill]

I think one can conclude Charizard is also in the same location as Moltres and Articuno in the Skyridge artwork. He appears to be on the ground near the broken spire/tower that Moltres and Articuno are circling.

[zubat]

Great post. Thank you for sharing. This makes me want to collect the full sets. Gen II truly was special.

[joponnes]

An incredible post, lovely to see this much art and all the cards gathered together like that! Would love to add more of these in my connected artwork collection but a lot of them are a bit pricy these days. Also, i would add crystal ho-oh too as part of the ho-oh geoglyphs