Bella Sara, the publisher of collectible horse art trading cards, has recently released a new collectible card game with anime "chibi" style characters, called Bella Sara: Magical Chibis.  ICv2 had a chance to speak with Bella Sara’s Creative Director, Mike Boozer, at Gen Con, and he described the game:

 

"It’s a little trading card game. Whereas before we had fine art of our horses, now we’ve taken it to a little anime style--miniature horses, miniature magical friends--and we’ve developed a card game that you play by building a race track out of cards.  You can use as many cards as you want in any configuration.  And then, you’ll have a little character and you roll the dice and you go that many down the track, trying to race to the end of the track."

 

Magical Chibis was released in June, and like other Bella Sara products is supported with online content and toys.  The game is packaged in booster packs, each with five random horse, character, or friend chibi cards, one random "shiny card," and one ticket card with a code for online play.  Each booster has a suggested retail price of $2.99. 

 

Bella Sara currently plans to release one Chibis style product each year, in addition to its normal Bella Sara trading cards.

 

The Bella Sara property will also be the subject of a CGI OAV, in production by Entremedia Digital Films (see "'Bella Sara' Feature").