Naruto Card Game Premier Demo Events: Dates and Prices

Bandai has dated the first NARUTO CARD GAME events in ordinary game stores. On 13 October 2026 it published a Premier Demo Event page on each of the four editions of its NARUTO CARD GAME site: English, Japanese, English (Asia) and Traditional Chinese. The four do not describe the same event. The English page runs two waves between 5 February and 5 March 2027. The Japanese page names 11 stores, the first on Saturday 16 January. The two Asia pages say early January, name no store yet, and make you verify a face photo before you can apply.

Bandai's New York Comic Con announcement three days earlier gave these events a month and little else: no store list, no sign-up route, no prices. Our June 2027 launch breakdown covers that announcement. This post covers what the 13 October pages add: dates, a store list for Japan, how you apply in each region, which demo decks you play, and what the two event exclusives cost and contain.

Everything below is read from the four Premier Demo Event pages and Bandai's 13 October news report on its NYCC announcements, all checked on 14 October 2026. Three of the four pages say their details can change without notice, and the Japanese page says its products are still in development.

Four sites, three versions of the event

All four pages sit at the same address on their own edition of the site, premier-demo-deck-event.php, and all four are dated 13 October. The two Asia pages differ mainly in wording, so in practice there are three versions. Here is what each page says:

Three things are the same on all four. You apply through BANDAI TCG+, Bandai's tournament app. You play with one of two demo decks, a Naruto deck or a Sasuke deck, which you cannot take home. And the same two products are on sale: the CHAKRA Set and the NARUTO vs. SASUKE playmat.

The naming is not consistent even inside one page. The English page's title says Premier Demo Event and its body twice says Premium Demo Event. The English (Asia) page swaps between Premier Demo Deck Event and Premium Demo Deck Event. If a store or a social post uses any of those names, it means this.

English site: two waves from 5 February

The English edition of the site is the one that carries Bandai's US, European, Australian and Middle Eastern event pages: Gen Con, New York Comic Con, PAX Aus, SPIEL Essen, Paris Games Week, Lucca, Tabletop.me in Dubai, and the Orlando and London fests. Its Premier Demo terms:

• Wave 1: 5–19 February 2027. Bandai's 10 October press release says Wave 1 runs at "select large-scale stores participating in BANDAI TCG+".
• Wave 2: 19 February – 5 March 2027, with more participating stores, per the same release. The two waves share 19 February.
• Where: no list yet. The page tells you to search for your local store in BANDAI TCG+, with the app's game title set to NARUTO CARD GAME, and says more details are coming.
• Applying: through BANDAI TCG+, with player applications "Planned to Open in January 2027". You must apply from your own account. Proxy applications are prohibited, and applying from more than one account gets the application invalidated.
• Gift: none listed. The Japanese and Asia pages both list CP-001; the English page does not mention a gift at all.

The merchandise notes are where this page breaks from Bandai's convention booths. It says Bandai will "prepare enough merchandise to accommodate the participating store's capacity, so all event participants will have the opportunity to purchase the merchandise", and that a store may sell what is left to the general public after the event. It sets no per-person limit. Compare Bandai's SPIEL Essen, Paris Games Week and Lucca pages, where the $35 Official Playmat -Arriving in 2027- is "Limited to one item per person" and "Available in limited quantities each day". Bandai's own 13 October NYCC report words it less generously, though: there, both products "will be available for purchase in limited quantities" at the Premier Demo Events.

Both products are also listed for BANDAI CARD GAMES Fest 26-27 in Orlando (7–10 January 2027) and London (15–17 January 2027), which come before Wave 1. Those fests' own NARUTO CARD GAME pages still read "Details will be updated in the future" on 14 October, so they add no purchase terms of their own yet. Our BCG Fest teaching-session guide tracks those pages.

Japan: 11 stores, starting 16 January

The Japanese page is the only one of the four with a store list. In date order:

Each window ends in a 当選発表, a winners' announcement, so a Japanese seat is awarded after the window closes rather than first come, first served. Applications go through BANDAI TCG+.

The page has two loose ends. Its headline says the events run at 10 stores nationwide, but it lists 11. And Kyoto is the one store that appears in none of the three application windows: the March window names only the Hokkaido and Aichi venues. Until Bandai corrects one or the other, the page does not say when Kyoto applications open.

The participation gift is the CP-001 Chakra Card, listed as a 参加記念品, a participation memento, with no survey condition on this page. Our CP-001 breakdown covers what that card prints. The merchandise is priced in yen, tax included: ¥1,650 for the CHAKRA Set and ¥3,850 for the playmat, one of each per person. The notes add that participants get priority, that every item has a purchase cap, that payment methods vary by store, and that Bandai will also sell both products outside these events.

Asia: early January, face photo first

The English (Asia) and Traditional Chinese pages give the same thin outline: events planned from early January 2027, locations to be announced, and applications through BANDAI TCG+. The Traditional Chinese page adds that its event listings use the NARUTO CARD GAME (JAPANESE) title, and both pages say the products on sale are the Japanese version.

What both pages do spell out is the gate. "A face photo must be registered in advance to participate in this event," and "If your profile does not display 'Face Photo Verified' during the application period, you will not be able to apply for this event." Verification "may take one week or longer". Minors cannot register a face photo, but the pages say they can still apply from their own account. BANDAI TCG+'s own facial-recognition page lists the regions the feature covers: Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Taiwan. The Japanese Premier Demo page itself does not mention a face photo.

So with no dates published yet, the useful thing an Asia-based player can do now is get the face photo verified. Bandai's BANDAI CARD GAMES Fest pre-registration pages in Asia carry the same requirement, as our teaching-session guide covers.

Both Asia pages list CP-001 as a gift for participants who complete a survey; the English (Asia) page words it as a survey "after the Tutorial Session", the same wording Bandai uses on its convention tutorial pages. Both list the CHAKRA Set and the playmat with no price, for participants only, one item per customer, while stock lasts.

Two demo decks, and Sasuke's Leader number

Every page gives the same deck rule: participants play against each other with either the Naruto deck or the Sasuke deck, and the decks stay at the store. Bandai announced three Starter Decks on 10 October, led by Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara. None of the four Premier Demo pages lists a Gaara deck.

The English page illustrates its Demo Decks section with two Leader cards, Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. Both carry the same stats and text as the Leader cards on Bandai's ABOUT page: DMG 1, POW 3, LIFE 15, and the same orange Recovery bar. The new detail is a number. On the ABOUT page, Sasuke's card number sits underneath Bandai's own callout graphic, and our rules-text transcription could not read it. Here it is printed in full: N-012. Naruto is N-001.

The page does not say how many cards a demo deck holds, or whether these two Leaders are the ones inside the decks. It shows them; it does not list deck contents.

What is actually in the CHAKRA Set

The Premium Card Collection vol.00 -CHAKRA set- is a folder of six cards. The English page pictures all six under the product, and the numbers are printed on the cards: five Chakra cards, C-001 to C-005, and one Summon card, S-001.

Set those next to the generic cards on Bandai's ABOUT page and the product makes sense. The ABOUT page's C-001 carries the same number and the same line of text, on a plain orange spiral with no character. Its S-001 carries the same number and text on a black card with a white Naruto silhouette. The CHAKRA Set prints those numbers again, with full illustrations. The deck format on the ABOUT page is a 51-card deck plus 5 Chakra cards and 1 Summon card, so five Chakra cards and one Summon card is exactly one deck's resource slots. That is our reading of the numbers; Bandai has not said whether these cards are tournament-legal or how they differ from the ones in a Starter Deck.

Two smaller details. The CP-001 giveaway card and the two Leader samples print NOT FOR SALE in the margin; none of these six does. And the Summon card's Naruto is the same illustration as the Premier Demo Event banner at the top of this post.

The playmat is Wave 1 only on the English site

The English page splits the two products by wave. The CHAKRA Set is "Available at Premier Demo Wave 1 and Wave 2". The Official Playmat -NARUTO vs. SASUKE- sits under "Available at Premier Demo Wave 1" only, and the page adds that the lineup differs between the waves. Both are also listed for the Orlando and London fests.

This is a different mat from the Official Playmat -Arriving in 2027- that Bandai sells at its convention booths for $35 plus tax. That one shows Naruto and Sasuke over an orange sweep; this one is a split painting of the two mid-clash. On the English site, then, the listed routes to the new mat are a Wave 1 store, the January fests in Orlando and London, or whatever a store has left over after its event. The Japanese page does not split its products by month.

Where this sits on the road to June

Bandai's own site has caught up with the NYCC date. Re-read on 14 October, the English homepage reads "Arriving in June 2027", and the roadmap graphic on the ABOUT page now ends on a 06 "Scheduled Release" marker. The same graphic still shows "In-Store Tutorial Sessions Roll Out" in month 01.

On the 13 October pages, January holds in Japan, whose first store date is 16 January, and on the Asia pages, which plan early January. It does not hold on the English site, where Wave 1 starts on 5 February, matching the "February 2027" in Bandai's 10 October press release. English-site players apply in January and play in February.

Bandai's 13 October news report also says what comes after: Premier Demo Events "will be restricted to select stores, with regular Tutorial Sessions becoming available at a wider variety of store locations later on". So the Premier Demo is the first, smaller tier of store play, not the whole in-store programme. The 1 million Demo Deck campaign is still listed for spring 2027 with no new details, and Bandai's next major announcement is still Jump Festa in December 2026.

If February is too long to wait, Bandai's convention tutorials are the earlier route. Bookings for SPIEL Essen and Paris Games Week (22–25 October) and Lucca Comics & Games (28 October – 1 November) opened on 14 October, and our Paris Games Week and Lucca guide has the details.

What Bandai has not published yet

• The English-site store list. The page points to a search in BANDAI TCG+ and says details are coming. There is no list of Wave 1 or Wave 2 stores yet, and no country breakdown.
• The exact January application date on the English site, and whether seats there are first come, first served or a draw. The Japanese windows end in a winners' announcement; the English page does not say how seats are allocated.
• Asia dates and stores. Both Asia pages say early January, planned, with locations to come.
• Prices outside the US dollar and the yen. The English page prices only in USD, and the Asia pages give no price.
• Seats per store and session length, on any of the four pages.
• What is in a demo deck, and whether the CHAKRA Set cards are tournament-legal.
• Kyoto's application window, and which of the Japanese page's two store counts is right.

The English page also lists no participation gift, where the other three list CP-001. If Bandai adds one, or publishes the store list, this post gets updated rather than replaced.

Read from Bandai's NARUTO CARD GAME Premier Demo Event pages on its English, Japanese, English (Asia) and Traditional Chinese sites (all dated 13 October 2026), the 13 October news report on the NYCC announcements (English and Japanese), Bandai's 10 October 2026 press release, the NARUTO CARD GAME homepage and ABOUT page, Bandai's SPIEL Essen, Paris Games Week and Lucca event pages, the BANDAI CARD GAMES Fest 26-27 Orlando and London pages, and BANDAI TCG+'s facial-recognition page, all checked on 14 October 2026.