Imakuni? Pokemon Cards Guide: Every Japanese Print We Verified

Who Is Imakuni?

Imakuni? (今宮) is Tomoaki Imakuni, a staff member at Creatures, Inc. — the company behind the Pokemon TCG — involved in various parts of the card game including illustration. Outside the office he performs as an eccentric musician and contributed music to the Pokemon anime, and inside the hobby he’s known for a deliberately comedic public persona that the TCG’s promo output has leaned into for decades.

That persona is why his name keeps showing up on cards that are jokes first and playable Trainer cards a distant second. Nothing below is a competitive staple, and none of it was designed to be one.

For collectors, that’s exactly the appeal. Japan’s TCG promo history is full of cards that exist because of a magazine issue, a vending machine, or a one-off event rather than a set release — and an in-joke aimed at Creatures, Inc.’s own staff is about as niche as that history gets. The rest of this guide lays out what’s actually been confirmed to carry his name, so you know exactly what you’re looking for before you go hunting.

How These Were Distributed: CoroCoro, e-Reader Packs, CDs and Vending Machines

The ten cards above didn’t come from booster boxes. Between them, they cover five distinct Japanese distribution channels:

• CoroCoro Comic magazine insert — the “Imakuni?” Trainer card itself. Our own CoroCoro promo cards guide covers this channel in depth, including our verified CoroCoro anchor.
• e-Reader-linked promo pack — “Shining Imakuni?” as P Promo 18.
• CD promo — “Dance! Neo Imakuni?”, tied to Imakuni?’s music releases rather than a set or magazine.
• Vending machines — “Lose?”, “Imakuni?’s PC”, “Imakuni?’s Nasty Plot” and “Imakuni?’s Corner”, all dispensed rather than sold as sealed packs.
• Standard promo-card numbering — “Suzukisan” (XY-P Promo 297), “Imakuni?’s Doduo” and “Imakuni?’s Whismur, Loudred & Exploud ex” (T Promo series), issued the way most ordinary Japanese promo cards are.

The XY-P numbering on “Suzukisan” puts it in the same promo family as several cards we do currently list — the Charizard EX CoroCoro anchor below is numbered 030/XY-P in that same series.

XY-P Promotional Cards print

XY-P Promotional Cards print

Neither of the two prints shown above is an Imakuni? card — they’re shown here only to illustrate the XY-P numbering family that “Suzukisan” also belongs to.

Where Imakuni? Cards Fit in Our Catalogue Today

We searched our full live catalogue — 2,453 products, checked today — for “Imakuni” in any product title. Zero matches. This print is not listed on our site at the moment; sourcing requests for Imakuni? cards go through Quick Order.

What we do list is a card from the same CoroCoro Comic distribution channel: the PSA10 Charizard EX 030/XY-P, currently listed at ¥176,000 (~$1,107), distributed as a magazine insert rather than pulled from a booster box — the same mechanism that put the original “Imakuni?” card into collectors’ hands. Our dedicated Charizard EX CoroCoro guide covers that card’s own history in full, and the broader CoroCoro promo cards guide covers the magazine’s promo history beyond this one card.

If your interest in Imakuni? is really an interest in Japanese promo cards as a category, two more of our guides are worth a look: the Munch/Scream promo cards guide covers another novelty character-promo series in the same spirit, and since “Imakuni?” is itself a Trainer card, our female Pokemon Trainer cards guide approaches Japanese Trainer-card collecting from a different angle. For a wider promo overview, see our broader Japanese promo cards hub.

Frequently Asked Questions