Back in the wonder years of Pokémon, a strange fella called Tomoaki Imakuni was heavily involved with promoting the Pokémon Trading Card Game, as well as the anime in Japan, singing the Japanese songs and such. However, most people in the West probably first heard about him through the Pokémon Trading Card Game game on the Game Boy Color. As I never had this game as a youngster (my friend did though) I never knew about this, but recently, through the dark yet wonderful art of emulation, I beat this game and battled Imakuni? numerous times. Why did I battle Imakuni? so many times? Well, because he is such a funny character and mainly he gives you a load of free booster packs as a reward for beating him. However, on the fourth time defeating him, he will give you a bizarre Trainer Card that you may have seen him use during the battles with him.
Even if you are not familiar with the rules of the Pokémon TCG, I am pretty sure you could probably guess that confusing your own active Pokémon is a bad idea. Also, I am not going to even begin to question the line about Pikachu. Odd, but as I always say, Only in Japan! Believe it or not, this card actually exists in real life and is considered a 'joke card', and it can be seen below.
This card has a different translation to the one in the Game Boy Color game:
Your Active Pokémon is now Confused. This card cannot be put down on the field as a Pokémon. Dances and sings in the Pokémon Card Game TV CF Song "Can You Name All the Pokémon?" If you see him in the streets, be sure to greet him by saying "Imakuni?, hello".
The game text is probably funnier, but it would be pretty funny to own this card to tell your TCG bros what it actually does. To activate the event where you battle Imakuni? in Pokémon Trading Card Game, talk to the girl in the water club lounge, save the game and reset the game. Then go around to the other lounges for all the different clubs. When you hear weird music playing, you are in the right place, and you will see a weird guy dressed in black looking at a poster, talk to him and say yes to a battle. He is easy to beat so destroy him and happily accept your prizes. You will see him in other club lounges from now on, so keep an eye out for him until you beat him enough times to get that insane self-titled trainer card he gives out. If you can't be bothered to play the game all the way through to battle Imakuni? (you really should though, it is a highly addictive game that makes you regret never playing the card game as a kid) there is a video below you can watch.
There are actually quite a few Imakuni? themed joke Pokémon cards that were only released to Japan, all accompanied with silly texts printed on them. Probably the funniest one is called Imakuni?'s Nasty Plot.
The text on the card literally translates to:
When you play this card, you may remove damage counters when your opponent isn't looking. And no matter what you are told, pretend you don't know about it. This is Imakuni? soon after his coat turned red again. If you happen to see Imakuni? in the streets, always say "You look thinner than you do on TV."
It's okay, I laughed too. I never thought I'd ever see a Pokémon card that actually encourages cheating. Sadly this card is banned from the official card games, which is sad, as it would highly benefit someone who sucks at the game like me!
