Open a Japanese secondary-market listing for a full art Pokemon card and there’s a decent chance you’ll see “CHR” or “CSR” sitting in the title next to the card number. On the Japanese card itself, that’s not dealer invention — it’s the actual rarity symbol printed in the card’s bottom-left corner, the same spot every Japanese Pokemon card uses to mark its official rarity. What’s missing is an English-side equivalent: the official English-language rarity system has no corresponding CHR or CSR category, and CHR/CSR isn’t defined in Bulbapedia’s Rarity article — the community’s de facto glossary — either.
This guide explains what CHR and CSR actually print as on Japanese cards, how the two differ, where the format is generally credited with starting, how VMAX Climax (S8b) built its version of the CSR tier at scale, why the English-language rarity system and Bulbapedia don’t carry a matching category, and what we currently have in stock across both rarities.
CHR and CSR are the official rarity marks printed on Japanese-language cards for full-art designs built around a Pokemon-and-Trainer-character concept — but neither has a matching category in the English-language rarity system, and Bulbapedia’s Rarity article doesn’t define them either. VMAX Climax (S8b, released December 3, 2021) is where the CSR tier appears at real scale. We currently carry three graded CHR/CSR singles, from Steelix CHR, currently listed at ¥8,693 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order), to Galarian Moltres V CSR, currently listed at ¥10,567. Graded singles like these move one holder at a time — once a listing sells, availability depends on our sourcing.
Prices below reflect our current Tokyo-sourced listings as of August 2026. We don’t carry every card mentioned in this guide, and prices we don’t quote directly are not implied inventory.
What Are CHR and CSR Cards?
CHR stands for Character Rare. CSR stands for Character Super Rare. Both describe a Japanese-market full-art concept built around pairing a Pokemon with a Trainer character, rather than presenting the Pokemon alone — the “Character” in both names refers to that human Trainer figure sharing the card.
On the Japanese card, CHR and CSR are printed rarity marks — the symbol sitting in the card’s bottom-left corner that every Japanese Pokemon card uses to indicate its rarity tier — so in that sense they’re as official as SR or UR. What doesn’t exist is an English-side match: the English-language rarity system has no CHR or CSR category, and the abbreviations aren’t defined in Bulbapedia’s Rarity article, the community’s de facto glossary, either — even though individual Bulbapedia card pages do carry the CSR notation in their infoboxes. That gap is exactly why the terms read as unfamiliar shorthand to English-speaking collectors despite being printed rarity information in Japan. It doesn’t make them meaningless here, either — grading pop reports, marketplace search filters, and price-tracking sites all treat CHR and CSR as working categories, and once you know the card numbers, they’re straightforward to identify.
Jolteon, numbered 193/184 in VMAX Climax, is one of the CHR-tier designs we’ve verified against both commercial listings and LimitlessTCG’s card database. We don’t currently carry a graded copy of this one, so we’re not quoting a price — our Quick Order page is the most direct way to ask us to source it.
CHR vs CSR: Telling the Two Apart
CHR and CSR share the same “Character” framing, but they’re not the same tier.
CHR (Character Rare) is the plainer of the two — a full-art card built around the Pokemon-plus-Trainer concept, finished as a standard holo full art without an extra foil layer.
CSR (Character Super Rare) is the escalation, most associated with VMAX Climax — a large block of Trainer-and-VMAX-Pokemon full arts finished with a thin etched holographic texture layered over the artwork. That etching is subtle enough that CSR cards are frequently mistaken for alt arts (AA) in online listings, even though dealers and collectors treat them as separate categories.
For a broader map of where CHR and CSR sit alongside SR, UR, SAR, and the rest of the Japanese rarity system, our Japanese Pokemon card rarities explained guide covers the full taxonomy. If you want to see how VMAX Climax’s CHR/CSR approach compares directly against a sister set’s alternate-art tier, our VMAX Climax vs VSTAR Universe box guide puts the two side by side.
Where the CHR/CSR Format Started
Neither CHR nor CSR has a documented “first appearance” in any official Pokemon Company or Bulbapedia source — Bulbapedia’s Rarity article doesn’t define a Character Rare category at all, official or otherwise.
What we can say is that the CHR concept predates VMAX Climax. In our SM11b Dream League pull-rate guide, we cover Steelix, numbered 060/049, sitting in a 12-card block that dealers including PunkOuter Games and Kanagawa Cards label Character Rare — from a set that released in Japan on August 2, 2019. Several collector and marketplace write-ups describe Dream League as one of the CHR format’s earlier appearances.
As we noted in our Dream League guide, the “early CHR set” description for Dream League is widely credited among collector blogs and secondary-market sellers — it’s not corroborated by any Bulbapedia record we could find, since Bulbapedia doesn’t define a Character Rare category to begin with. We’re repeating that framing here with the same caveat: treat it as community-reported, not a confirmed publisher fact.
We currently list a PSA 10 Steelix at ¥8,693 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) — the entry point of our CHR/CSR ladder. CSR, by contrast, is inseparable from VMAX Climax specifically: that’s where the category appears at real scale in what we could verify.
Inside VMAX Climax: How the CSR Tier Is Built
VMAX Climax (S8b) released in Japan on December 3, 2021, as a Sword & Shield-era high-class pack built largely around reprints of Pokemon V and VMAX cards, with Pokemon-and-Trainer full arts running through both the CHR and CSR tiers.
How many cards are actually in the set depends on which source you check: Bulbapedia’s set summary lists 285 cards, while LimitlessTCG’s own set page shows 277. We weren’t able to resolve that gap, so we’re presenting both counts with their sources rather than picking one as definitive.
Card numbers we’ve verified against LimitlessTCG and commercial listings:
| Card | Rarity | Number |
|---|---|---|
| Jolteon | CHR | 193/184 |
| Dedenne | CHR | 200/184 |
| Umbreon VMAX | CSR | 245/184 |
| Galarian Moltres V | CSR | 242/184 |
One inconsistency worth flagging: some secondary summaries of Bulbapedia’s VMAX Climax coverage describe the CHR block as roughly cards 185 through 197 — but Dedenne CHR is numbered 200/184, outside that range. We’re using the verified per-card numbers in the table above rather than that rough range estimate.
Umbreon VMAX, numbered 245/184, is one of the CSR tier’s higher-value pulls — though we don’t currently carry a graded copy, so we’re not quoting a price here either. Pikachu VMAX CSR, numbered 223/184, is another design from the same tier that we also don’t currently carry; for either card, our Quick Order page is the most direct way to ask us to source it.
Our CHR/CSR Price Ladder
We currently list three graded CHR/CSR PSA 10 singles, spanning ¥8,693 to ¥10,567:
| Card | Rarity | Set / Number | PSA 10 price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steelix (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | CHR | SM11b 060/049 | ¥8,693 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) |
| Dedenne (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | CHR | S8b 200/184 | ¥9,719 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) |
| Galarian Moltres V | CSR | S8b 242/184 | ¥10,567 |
All three sit within about ¥1,900 of each other, a tighter band than CHR/CSR singles can reach across the wider market. The ladder still crosses two different sets: Steelix comes from SM11b Dream League (2019), while Dedenne CHR and Galarian Moltres V CSR come from VMAX Climax (2021) — a reminder that CHR isn’t exclusive to any single release. Jolteon CHR and Umbreon VMAX CSR, both previously part of this ladder, are sold through for now; see the Where to Buy section below for how to ask us to source a replacement copy.
Graded singles like these move one holder at a time. Once a listing sells, availability depends on our sourcing.
For a full breakdown of what else is in the set beyond CHR and CSR — V, VMAX, SR, and UR tiers included — our S8b VMAX Climax pull rates and best cards guide covers the whole checklist.
Other CHR/CSR Designs to Know
Our own graded stock covers three cards, but VMAX Climax’s CSR block runs considerably wider than that. Rayquaza VMAX, numbered 252/184, is another CSR design from the same set:
We don’t currently carry a graded copy of Rayquaza VMAX CSR, so we’re not quoting a price for it here — if it’s on your want list, our Quick Order page is the most direct way to ask us to source it.
If you’re weighing VMAX Climax’s CHR/CSR approach against a different set’s alternate-art tier before deciding where to spend, our VMAX Climax vs VSTAR Universe comparison lines the two philosophies up directly, and our Sword & Shield-era Japanese Pokemon guide places VMAX Climax within the wider era it belongs to.
Where to Buy CHR and CSR Cards from Japan
We ship Japanese sealed product and singles worldwide from Tokyo with tracked delivery. For CHR and CSR specifically, your most direct routes are:
- Graded singles — Steelix CHR (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order), Dedenne CHR (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order), and Galarian Moltres V CSR are currently listed. Jolteon CHR and Umbreon VMAX CSR are sold through at the moment — use our Quick Order page to ask us to source a replacement copy. Graded singles like these move one holder at a time, so once a listing sells, availability depends on our sourcing.
- Sealed product — the VMAX Climax booster box, currently listed at ¥39,375, or browse our full Japanese sealed booster box collection for other sets that carry CHR or CSR-style designs.
- More graded singles — our PSA 10 collection covers Japanese chase cards beyond CHR and CSR, or use our Quick Order page to build a mixed order or ask us to source a card we don’t currently list.
For more on where CHR and CSR sit within the full Japanese rarity system, see our rarities explained guide. For the early-CHR context behind Steelix specifically, our SM11b Dream League guide covers the full set, and our S8b VMAX Climax guide covers everything else in that set beyond CHR/CSR. The full PSA 10 card list is a good next stop if you’re browsing more broadly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do CHR and CSR mean on a Pokemon card?
CHR (Character Rare) and CSR (Character Super Rare) are the official rarity marks printed in the bottom-left corner of Japanese-language full-art cards built around a Pokemon paired with a Trainer character. Neither has a matching category in the English-language rarity system, and CHR/CSR isn’t defined in Bulbapedia’s Rarity article — the community’s de facto glossary — either, though individual Bulbapedia card pages do carry the CSR notation.
What’s the difference between CHR and CSR?
CHR is a standard holo full art in the Pokemon-plus-Trainer style. CSR, most associated with VMAX Climax, adds a thin etched holographic texture over that same style — subtle enough that CSR cards are often mistaken for alt arts (AA), even though they’re treated as separate categories.
Where did the CHR/CSR format start?
There’s no documented official “first appearance” for either term. The CHR concept predates VMAX Climax — SM11b Dream League (2019) includes a Steelix that dealers label CHR, and collector write-ups widely describe that set as an early example, though that’s community-reported rather than a confirmed publisher fact. CSR is most associated with VMAX Climax (S8b), released December 3, 2021, where the category appears at real scale.
How many cards are in VMAX Climax (S8b)?
Sources disagree: Bulbapedia’s set summary lists 285 cards, while LimitlessTCG’s set page shows 277. We present both figures with their sources rather than picking one as definitive.
What’s the price range for CHR/CSR cards in your stock?
We currently list three graded PSA 10 CHR/CSR singles from ¥8,693 (Steelix CHR) up to ¥10,567 (Galarian Moltres V CSR), plus a VMAX Climax sealed booster box at ¥39,375. Graded singles move one holder at a time, so availability depends on our sourcing once a listing sells. Jolteon CHR and Umbreon VMAX CSR, previously part of this lineup, are sold through for now — use our Quick Order page to ask us to source a replacement copy.
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