Teenagers From Outer Space

An RPG from R. Talsorian Games, based around the genre of Anime Comedies (Urusei Yatsura comes immediately to mind). Basically, a whole bunch of teenagers from Outer Space come to earth via an exchange program, and then the fun begins... the RPG allows you to create boundless worlds and adventures based on classic anime, such as giant robots (and the ever-popular Cosmic Battle Bikini), magic swords, catgirls (=^-^= mee-owww!), and many others... Throw in mimimal dice-rolling and an engaging environment, and you've got an RPG for the (well, someone's) history books.

Here's R. Talsorian Games' official description: Welcome to the world of Teenagers From Outer Space: the amazingly weird roleplaying game that lets you become a character in your very own (or even somebody else's) Japanese Animation Comedy Show! Complete with everything you'll need to create Silly Superpowers, Gonzo Gadgets, Bikini Battlesuits, Mecha Mayhem, Magical Girlfriends and the ever popular sex-changing Boy/Girl Gun, this new edition of the original award winning game is guaranteed to change the way you look at anime (and roleplaying) forever!

For more information, you can visit the TFOS Offical Website at http://www.talsorian.com/tfosindex.shtml, or surf on over to http://www.scruznet.com/~kibrick/tfos/kevlar/day1.html to check out the Kevlar play-by-email TFOS RPG in action.

Thrill-crazed space kids blasting the flesh off humans!

That's what's the tagline promises in the 1959 science fiction movie "Teenagers From Outer Space", a film obviously inspired by the outrageously hopped-up fear of teenage rebellion and juvenile delinquents of the time. The plot (such as it is) revolves around a force of Martians disguised as human teenagers paving the way for an invasion with the help of their lobster-like pet monsters, the Gargons. One of the space-kids (going by the unlikely name of Derek) falls for a human girl, in true Romeo and Juliet fashion, then saves the world and dies tragically.

Needless to say, the special effects are abysmal (unable to afford even a cheap mock-up of the monster, they used a lobster's shadow instead), the plot is weak, and "Teenagers From Outer Space" nowadays just screams B-movie. To add insult to injury (to the reputations of all involved with this film), TFOS was once mocked on the infamous Mystery Science Theater 3000.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the movie and the role-playing game in deek's writeup have nothing to do with each other.