How does someone notice these things.
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Seems to be a D, and the rest spells DARK, based on the booster box:
Since the Japanese set name is Darkness, and to Light…, the SHINE and DARK are pretty fitting I guess.
And good job noticing, TIL as well thanks to you! 
Greetz,
Quuador
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TIL
Koga doesn’t have a holo card in vintage Japanese
Dark Raichu is in the Neo era sets in Japanese
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Ah yeah, I remembered that was odd when I first discovered it as well. I received the full set of gym leader’s in a lot once along with some other cards, and Koga was the only non-Holo one. Kinda sad when I discovered seven of them had holofoil versions, but the Koga was only available as non-holo.
And regarding the Dark Raichu being in the Crossing the Ruins… (Neo Discovery) set, did you also know that the WotC #9 promo Mew was in the Fossil set? Japan could get all 151 Pokémon with the first three sets (Base, Jungle, Fossil), but in English we would be missing the Mew which was released as promo.
Also, the Dark Raichu was the first card that was released internationally before Japanese. That card alone apparently caused the Team Rocket set release to be delayed at the time, because they were waiting for improvement of Nintendo.
Greetz,
Quuador
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I didn’t know about the Mew during the late 90s but I had that TIL two years ago when I started collecting again and saw it on eBay with a Fossil symbol. I’ve spent most of the last three days going over every gen 1 Japanese old back card. I’m actually looking at gen 2 right now, and I believe vs/web/ereader and onward are all new back.
A minor TIL was that Meowth Promo Wizard 10, Eevee Promo Wizard 11, and Dark Persian Promo Wizard 17 were never holo in Japanese.
Edit: Food for thought on Koga. Perhaps there was an unreleased Gym Deck? Giovanni got the holo in the gym base set but the other six gym leaders were only holo in the gym decks. If they weren’t planning on a Koga gym deck then I wonder why they didn’t make him holo.
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One of the Japanese M Mewtwo EX prints has a typo. 
Vanishing Strike.
Bulbapedia’s page on this card implies that the error did get fixed, but I can’t find any images of a corrected version.
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What a great topic to discover, thanks Quuador!
Another TIR for me was when I realised in the early sets the cards were numbered by alphabetical order of the english names…
As a French collector for years I couldn’t see the trend in the numbering of these sets…!
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When I got my first aquapolis crystal, I disappointingly realized they don’t have the cool holo around most of the card like the skyridge crystals, but I also found out the last little bar on the left side right above the E isn’t holo, nor is it for any of the holos in aquapolis.
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Isn’t that a proxy?
I dont think so. I just got this pic of google to show as an example, my card as a kingdra. Regardless all aquapolis cards have this.
Just checked some of my Aquapolis holofoils, and you’re indeed right. Never knew this, so thanks for sharing.
Expedition Base Set and Skyridge holofoils don’t have this, nor do the Aquapolis reverse holos.
Greetz,
Quuador
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Might as well make this my first forum contribution:
I realised for the first time a couple of days ago that 1st edition & shadowless Magikarp all have an error of two “breaks” in the text box at the bottom of the card.
The gaps are mirrored top-left/bottom-right.
How I hadn’t noticed it in the last 21 years, I’ll never know?!
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@quibble Didn’t even know that. 
And I think a lot of people haven’t noticed that, but thanks a lot for sharing. Always interesting to learn about those kind of small things. Oh, and welcome to the forum!
Greetz,
Quuador
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Thanks @Quuador! 
Haha, well happy to be of help in that case. I do have to wonder what other little errors and mistakes we still haven’t noticed after all these years?!
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Apparently all Japanese Reverse Holos of the Ultra Force (SM5+) set can come with both black text at the illustrator and set number, or white-outlined text. I learned this from someone on reddit.Here a random example:
The “Illus. match” and “003/050” texts are just black on the left card, but black with white outlines on the right card.
And here another one:
Looking at my own collection, it seems they’ve added the white-outlined texts for any Reverse Holo and Full Art cards for the second halve of the SM era and the entire SwSh era. Some examples of cards with the white-outlined illustrator and set number: the three Reverse Holo Detective Pikachu promos; the 400/SM-P Full Art promo; the Reverse Holos from the V Starter Sets; the Munch full art promos; etc.
I think that this SM5+ was the set on the turning point where they decided to add the white-outlined texts to Reverse Holo and Full Art cards from that point onward. So the ones with black text is a first print run, and the one with white outlined text a second print run. All sets prior to the SM5+ set have black texts, and all Reverse Holos and Full Art cards after the SM5+ set have white-outlined texts. (This only applies to Japanese cards; all other languages, including Korean Reverse Holos/Full Art cards, are with black texts only.)
Too bad the SM5+ set doesn’t contain a Pikachu nor Seviper, but a nice TIL moment regardless.
EDIT: This apparently also applies to the SM1+ set.
Greetz,
Quuador
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Unowns are a special kind and most of the times spell out something. TIL that the unown of the neo premium file 2 spell out neo, never knew that and it is so obvious now haha.
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@thymeee just in case you didn’t know yet, the Unowns on the Japanese Neo 4 (Destiny) booster box spell out “SHINE” and “DARK”. On the booster pack, only “SHINE” and “D” is visible, though.
I generally don’t like Unkown as Pokemon at all, but it’s really mind-blowing when you find out stuff like that for yourself.
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I actually have more shadowless cards with those two breaks than without, it’s not mutually exclusive to the 'karp!
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I’ve noticed the same thing and on some 1st editions too! What a strange widespread error for them to make.
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