{"id":56254,"date":"2026-01-29T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=56254"},"modified":"2026-01-28T18:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:52:29","slug":"manual-of-japanese-retro-game-alone-valued-at-over-1400-usd-includes-photos-and-commentary-by-late-celebrity-ai-iijima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/manual-of-japanese-retro-game-alone-valued-at-over-1400-usd-includes-photos-and-commentary-by-late-celebrity-ai-iijima\/","title":{"rendered":"Manual of\u00a0Japanese\u00a0retro game alone\u00a0valued at over $1,400 USD for including photos and commentary by late celebrity Ai Iijima\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Rare retro games&nbsp;retailing for exorbitant prices is nothing new, but a&nbsp;Japanese manual for the 1995 side-scrolling action platforming game&nbsp;<strong>Magical&nbsp;Pop&#8217;n<\/strong>&nbsp;has been making rounds on social media for its ridiculously high selling price.&nbsp;Discovered&nbsp;by X user&nbsp;and retro game&nbsp;collector&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kandori_retro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kandori&nbsp;Taro<\/a>,&nbsp;the manual&nbsp;is priced at 217,000 JPY (over&nbsp;$1,400 USD). Interestingly, an old label still stuck to the packaging&nbsp;valued&nbsp;the&nbsp;manual&nbsp;at&nbsp;only&nbsp;100 yen,&nbsp;or about $0.6.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">100\u5186\u306e\u30b2\u30fc\u30e0\u306e\u8aac\u660e\u66f8\u304c217000\u5186\u3067\u58f2\u3063\u3066\u305f\ud83d\ude28 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0Sdy5CYT7I\">pic.twitter.com\/0Sdy5CYT7I<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u795e\u53d6\u592a\u90ce@Retro Games\ud83c\udfae (@kandori_retro) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kandori_retro\/status\/2009630275429703876?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 9, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Post translation:\u00a0I found a\u00a0100-yen game manual\u00a0being sold for 217,000 yen.<\/em>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Magical&nbsp;Pop\u2019n&nbsp;was met with mixed reception&nbsp;as a game,&nbsp;it has become an&nbsp;exceptionally rare collector\u2019s item over the years&nbsp;because&nbsp;it&nbsp;cast&nbsp;Ai Iijima as the voice of protagonist&nbsp;Princess. Ijima was a celebrity who famously made a successful transition from&nbsp;the&nbsp;adult film industry into mainstream entertainment. She died at the&nbsp;young age&nbsp;of 36, shortly after retiring from the public&nbsp;eye.&nbsp;Since Ijima\u2019s photos and comments are printed on Magical&nbsp;Pop\u2019n\u2019s&nbsp;box and manual, these items have become extremely valuable even when sold separately from the game itself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While some are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ultimaneko\/status\/2009648034557399079?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">surprised by the manual\u2019s&nbsp;actual&nbsp;price<\/a>, those aware of Magical&nbsp;Pop\u2019n\u2019s&nbsp;legacy&nbsp;are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/4880_963\/status\/2009747119066824708?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more concerned about its authenticity<\/a>. The 100 JPY price tag could have been the manual\u2019s&nbsp;previous&nbsp;price, whereupon it was changed after the seller learned&nbsp;of&nbsp;its true value.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30d0\u30ba\u3063\u305f\u306e\u3067\u5ba3\u4f1d\u3068\u3044\u3046\u304b\u81ea\u6162\u3067\u3082<br><br>&#8230;3\u672c\u6301\u3063\u3066\u307e\u3059\ud83d\ude02 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nR0VfN6VTY\">pic.twitter.com\/nR0VfN6VTY<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u795e\u53d6\u592a\u90ce@Retro Games\ud83c\udfae (@kandori_retro) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kandori_retro\/status\/2009948474641625527?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 10, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Post translation: Since my\u00a0previous\u00a0post went viral, I suppose you could call it advertising or showing off, but&#8230;\u00a0I&#8217;ve\u00a0got three copies of Magical\u00a0Pop\u2019n.<\/em>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On a side note, just to let others know how serious he is about collecting,&nbsp;Kandori&nbsp;Taro revealed that he owns not one, but three copies of Magical&nbsp;Pop\u2019n.&nbsp;Considering how much a single manual goes for,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;safe to say that finding and&nbsp;acquiring&nbsp;those copies&nbsp;wasn\u2019t&nbsp;cheap.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/retro-game-and-console-prices-in-japan-soar-with-inflow-of-overseas-collectors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Retro game and console prices in Japan soar with inflow of overseas collectors<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/pokemon-fan-discovers-rare-misprint-gameboy-title-in-their-closet-potentially-worth-thousands-of-dollars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pok\u00e9mon fan discovers rare misprint Gameboy title in their closet potentially worth thousands of dollars<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The official manual of the 1995 Japanese side-scrolling platformer Magical\u00a0Pop&#8217;n\u00a0is so sought-after by collectors it can sell for over $1.4k.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":56257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-56254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Manual of\u00a0Japanese\u00a0retro game alone\u00a0valued at over $1,400 USD for including photos and commentary by late celebrity Ai Iijima\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The official manual of the 1995 Japanese side-scrolling platformer Magical\u00a0Pop&#039;n\u00a0is so sought-after by collectors it can sell for over $1.4k.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/manual-of-japanese-retro-game-alone-valued-at-over-1400-usd-includes-photos-and-commentary-by-late-celebrity-ai-iijima\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manual of\u00a0Japanese\u00a0retro game alone\u00a0valued at over $1,400 USD for including photos and commentary by late celebrity Ai Iijima\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The official manual of the 1995 Japanese side-scrolling platformer Magical\u00a0Pop&#039;n\u00a0is so sought-after by collectors it can sell for over $1.4k.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/manual-of-japanese-retro-game-alone-valued-at-over-1400-usd-includes-photos-and-commentary-by-late-celebrity-ai-iijima\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-28T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/20260128-56254-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1195\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"857\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Manual of\u00a0Japanese\u00a0retro game alone\u00a0valued at over $1,400 USD for including photos and commentary by late celebrity Ai Iijima\u00a0 - 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