Your Guide to Laputa’s 1986 Animage Playing Card

The Club King From the 1986 Laputa Animage Card Set

Sheeta and Pazu Printed on a Single Card

This is the Club (♣) King from a playing card set based on Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa). At the center of the card, an oval frame contains a still from the film: Sheeta caught in a moment of surprise or concern, with part of Pazu’s arm or shoulder visible beside her, the two sharing what appears to be an indoor scene.

Sheeta’s full name is Lucita Toel Ur Laputa. She is the last surviving descendant of Laputa’s royal line — a legendary floating city hidden among the clouds — and carries a Hikouseki, or flying stone, a blue crystal bound to that civilization’s power. Her yellow top and red hairband make her one of the most immediately recognizable figures in Ghibli’s visual history. Pazu is a boy from a mining town whose late father claimed to have seen Laputa from the sky; the film follows their attempt to reach it together, pursued by government agents and a band of sky pirates.

Animage, Tokuma Shoten, and How These Cards Were Made

The “Animage 1986 Summer” in the listing title connects this card to Animage, a major anime magazine published by Tokuma Shoten. Tokuma Shoten was also Studio Ghibli’s primary corporate backer and the publisher that ran Miyazaki’s Nausicaa manga in its pages — placing it at the very center of the Ghibli story before the studio’s name was widely known.

Whether this card set was a furoku (a free insert enclosed with the magazine) or a separately sold tie-up item isn’t confirmed from the available evidence. Both formats were common in 1980s Japanese anime publishing. What is clear is that Animage’s summer 1986 issue would have been on newsstands right as Laputa was opening in theaters — the film debuted August 2, 1986, distributed by Toho. Publishing tie-up playing card sets timed to a film’s release was an established format in this era, giving readers something both practical and character-specific alongside their magazine.

The Historical Weight of Studio Ghibli’s Debut Film

Laputa: Castle in the Sky was Studio Ghibli’s first original theatrical release. The studio had been founded in June 1985 with Tokuma Shoten’s backing, partly on the momentum of Nausicaa (1984), which was produced before Ghibli formally existed. Laputa was the film that carried the studio’s name into theaters for the first time. My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke followed — but Laputa is where that theatrical run began. In English-speaking markets, the film became more broadly known after Disney’s North American distribution agreement took effect in 2003.

Merchandise produced in 1986 was made entirely for Japan’s domestic market, with no official export channels at the time. Items like this playing card now reach international collectors through Japan’s secondhand and collector networks. This listing is for a single card — one piece from what would have been a full 52-card deck. Complete sets from this era in good condition are uncommon, which is why individual cards often circulate on their own.