These Aren’t the Star Wars Characters You Were Looking For
Unless, of course, you were looking for a Darth Vader with disturbingly tiny hands, a C-3PO with even graver sexual identity issues, and something that appears to be the spawn of an unholy union between a Wookiee and a tree sloth. These are Japanese karuta from the ’70s as found by my friendly acquaintance Matt Alt?karuta being a peculiar kind of Japanese cards that I don’t understand in the slightest. If you believe these were at all licensed from Lucasfilm, I have an awesome Blade Runner 2 script to sell you. Anyways, go see all the cards at Alt’s website here.
And while I’ve got you, let me give a friendly pimp to Alt’s new book Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide. You don’t need to be an anime fan to enjoy reading about the hideous monsters who were licking bathtubs long before modern perverts. Check it out.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.