This Week in Games

Heart ToHeart in Lumiose City

Welcome back, folks! I worried about something over the week: I take my time exploring in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which means that I'm a few levels stronger than they are when I get around to fighting bosses. I've seen some people talking about the Xenoblade 3 battle system and how tough certain fights were, and now I'm wondering if all that exploration didn't ruin the battle system for me. It made me wonder if more games shouldn't incorporate some manner of level manipulation along the lines of The World Ends with You, wherein you can purposefully decrease your level at any moment to even the odds between you and other monsters. TWEWY also rewarded this, increasing drop rates for goodies respective to your level. It's a whole other thing to have to balance in a lot of games, though, so that's about as far as my bright idea went.

So, like, the thing with all the tiny miracles we cover is that sometimes they might be extremely out of left field. That's what makes them miracles, after all! That doesn't mean I sometimes don't think these are wild miracles when I put them on the scoreboard. Who had "Samurai Pizza Cats revival" for their 2025 bingo card?

Being That Bitch™, I at least try to be well-informed about old cartoons and games. But Samurai Pizza Cats was one cartoon that just slipped me by entirely growing up; I wasn't old enough to be aware of it as a kid. By the time I grew up to be aware of television, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles boom had long since been replaced by the Power Rangers boom. You could argue that Saban Entertainment was responsible for the downfall of Samurai Pizza Cats, even though they made the darn show! For better reading, read my buddy Kurt's series on the history of Saban Entertainment. For now, the short version is that Samurai Pizza Cats was an edited re-writing of Studio Tatsunoko's Kyatto Ninden Teyandee. Because they didn't get proper scripts or episode breakdowns for the show, Saban's production decided to go full-on farce with the dub: Samurai Pizza Cats is deeply self-aware, constantly making pop culture references or leaning on the fourth wall, and also endlessly charming in its goofiness. The show details the adventures of three pizzeria-owning cats (Speedy Cerviche, Polly Esther, and Guido Anchovy) as they do (goofy) battle against the forces of Seymore "The Big" Cheese and his army of crow-ninja. The show itself leans heavily on a cartoonish take of old jidai-geki shows about corrupt magisters laid low by wandering samurai; the American translation names the setting "Little Tokyo".

Of course, after 30 years of the franchise being all but forgotten, what better time to make a video game revival? Hey, it worked out for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge and Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind, right? But here's the clincher: they're playing this one to the hilt. It's one thing to make a side-scroller look like what your memories tell you old arcade games looked like; it's another to really nail the show's vibe and look. Developer Blast Zero is working hard on that front. To wit, much like Cuphead, all of the character sprites are 2D animations drawn on paper. This includes seamless transitions to more elaborate sequences for each character's special move. And I really have to give them major props for this because the game even has that old dusty-looking color scheme that a lot of older animated-on-cells anime have. This isn't what your memories tell you Samurai Pizza Cats looks like—this is just straight-up what the show looked like. Second, Blast Zero even went so far as to bring in the entire vocal cast for Samurai Pizza Cats, and even if their voices have more years on them, they haven't missed a single beat with their performances.

The hilarious part is that, yes, there's a Japanese trailer for this game using the Kyatto Ninden Teyandee branding—and Blast Zero was able to reunite the original Japanese cast for that version, too! So whichever version you're getting will be as close to a new episode of this series as you can hope for. Going by the comments, Japanese fans are very excited and having a bit of a moment (especially since the protagonist gives an open-ended "Let's meet again someday!" message in the final episode). They're similarly gushing over details like the trailer playing with the 4:3 aspect ratio and the hand-drawn animations.

There's a Steam page for Samurai Pizza Cats: Blast from the Past, but there's no release date yet. There's a strong vibe of genuine love for the franchise and a ton of effort to preserve the tone of the series (whichever version of the series your region got). I give Blast Zero all the credit for really pouring the love onto this series. Also, if you really want a deeper dive into the history of the series, Dan Olson has a great video on the matter.

Chinese game studios have made larger and larger inroads with the worldwide gaming industry, from mobile titles like the miHoYo stable or Path to Nowhere to big-budget console fare like last year's Black Myth: Wukong. Tencent and NetEase had made waves buying up interests in a handful of Japanese studios (as well as big-name Japanese talent), but it looks like there's been a change in the winds. Readers might have heard of NetEase's layoffs of some of the American-based Marvel Rivals. There have been some claims that the staff were "just" contractors or "just" R&D staff; in truth the laid-off staff included people who were instrumental to core Marvel Rivals features like the team-ups. Here at This Week in Games, we don't take kindly to layoffs. But I digress.

It seems like the knives have been sharpened, at any rate—and the Japanese talents NetEase brought onboard might quickly be next.

Recent news from Bloomberg has revealed that NetEase has tightened its purse strings with its Japanese talent; while NetEase boasts talent such as Toshihiro Nagoshi (creator of the Like A Dragon series) and Gōichi Suda's Grasshopper Manufacturing, the current orders from on high are that NetEase will afford the teamsexactly enough time to wrap up their current projects. Further reporting from Bloomberg contributors reveals that NetEase will not tolerate schedule delays and will not allot extra budget—even if money runs out. That includes the marketing budget, so don't expect these games to receive any visible push.

The news comes with further clarification on the sad fate of Ouka, the Visions of Mana developer that was infamously shut down the very day the game launched—according to Bloomberg, the decision to do so was made during the game's development. As many have realized, the decision to shut down studios and lay off developers has become fully divorced from any game's material success. If a game fails, you get laid off. If you make a tremendously successful game, you get laid off. It seems that the game industry cannot develop video games sustainably.

It's hard to not be a bit cynical at NetEase's actions; the writing on the wall is that now more Chinese IP are starting to gain ground worldwide (again: Black Myth: Wukong, Infinity Nikki, the upcoming Lost Soul Aside), they don't need to rely upon bankable or marketable foreign talent to help draw in interest from audiences abroad. Bloomberg's reporting also underlines that NetEase's leadership has surrounded itself with a new bevy of economic advisors, and nothing is trendier to economists than leaving people jobless.

With the game industry incapable of producing games at the absurd level it has established for itself, plus the constant layoffs that each studio sees, it really seems that the industry is just tightening the noose around its own neck. It's evident that the industry is trying to adjust to a post-pandemic model where people aren't buying as many games. People don't have the money to keep buying $70 titles, and nobody has the time to be playing massive games (there are plenty of folks who haven't even gotten around to Metaphor: ReFantazio!). Instead of transitioning to smaller games, the solution is... lay off the talent needed to produce games. What frustrates me most is the reaction to this all from people who claim to like games—the idea that "indies will save us." I hate that position because it speaks to an intense survivorship bias. Not every indie game has Lethal Company's success! It's romantic to think of how much passionate developers suffering for their art manage to make wonderful indie games, but suffering doesn't make for better games—and in the here and now, developers need dollars to pay their rent and support their families, not passion.

I also hate how a lot of people are looking at Chinese gaming with suspicion. While I'm not interested in Black Myth: Wukong and Infinity Nikki's gacha mechanics turned me off after my initial interest, I'm interested in what kind of games we might see from Chinese developers. There are long-running ongoing series like Sword and Fairy, Legend of Wulin Heroes or Path of Wuxia that I think would be absolute catnip for RPG enthusiasts in the United States. And that's just RPGs—I can only imagine the wealth of action, racing, or simulation games based out of China that we've simply never heard of in the United States. Lost Soul Aside isn't my speed, but I'm pretty sure there's a Chinese action game I'd go nuts over that I don't know about. The xenophobia extended towards Chinese gaming is not unlike that seen with Japanese gaming in the early '00s, and I'm not here for that. I have ready criticism towards several Chinese games for a variety of reasons, but I won't stand for folks speaking in broad bigotry. If I don't speak more often about Chinese games, it's because it behooves me more to focus on Japanese games on a website named "Anime News Network"—but also, let's show foreign media some respect.

I hate the state of the industry, man. I hate the endless layoffs, and I hate that there isn't more that can be done to help the people who've been left hanging. I hate seeing the constant claims from people that somehow indie game development is the solution to all of this. And I hate that it keeps happening and people are fine with it. You can only do so much to maintain accountability against careless studios. They can't all be Iwata, I guess.

Here's a new one—two tiny miracles in one column! We've discussed ToHeartin the past—AQUAPLUS' seminal 1990s visual novel where you fall in love with a gaggle of iconic characters (and a robot girl). We've also discussed its upcoming remake, a top-to-bottom 3D remake of the game set to release in the near future. Earlier this week, news dropped that the ToHeart remake received a release date in Japan: June 26th. Then we received an update the next day, this past Wednesday: Toheart is getting released in the United States! We're putting two on the board today!

It's hard to talk about how monumental ToHeart is because of the short thrift visual novels like it receive in the United States. So many anime and games referenced ToHeart in the late '90s and early '00s (Multi's robot ears became quite iconic). Unlike the Tokimeki series, which leaned into simulation mechanics, ToHeart was a bit more straightforward in its approach. You still had freedom in choosing how you spent your day, but it mostly revolved around who you spent time with. A combination of that and certain specific decisions made by each character would guide the player along a number of prescribed story routes, which tended to be mutually exclusive. If you wanted to see all of the stories, you had to play ToHeart multiple times—and you probably would anyway, since the cast was so strong. These included the stiff-lipped class president, Tomoko; your childhood friend, Akari; Serika, the would-be witch; and, most famously of all, Multi the robot girl. Also, the main character wasn't a player stand-in: protagonist Hiroyuki Fujita had an empathetic personality all his own, making him a character in his own right.

The ToHeart remake redoes all of the original game in 3D, with new models for every character. While the character designs are largely unchanged (bright, saturated colors and Multi's cute robo-ears), the style is a smidge more contemporary. I've seen some folks point out that a degree of retro charm is lost compared to the original ToHeart, which... yeah, that's definitely the case. I don't think it's necessarily to ToHeart's detriment, but considering ToHeart is so iconic of the '90s, it does feel right for the series to lose a bit of that '90s charm. It sure would be nice to have the original game available as an unlockable or even packed-in, but I won't lose sleep if it isn't, given how granular this remake is. No doubt plenty of the iconic ToHeart scenes will yank on your heartstrings, new look be damned.

The localization efforts for ToHeart come courtesy of Shiravune. We've discussed those guys in the past; they've handled the localization for a number of other seminal visual novels, albeit most of them on the adult side of things. These include games like the Kara no Shoujo trilogy, the Taimanin Asagi games, and the Kuroinu games. They've also handled some of AQUAPLUS' titles in the past, such as with Utawarerumono: Zan, Dungeon Travelers: To Heart 2 in Another World, and Aquapazza: AQUAPLUS Dream Match. The text overlay in the trailer might look unconvincing, but that's just for the trailer; the text in the game proper will likely look loads better.

AQUAPLUS has also stated that while they currently don't have plans for a ToHeart 3, a ToHeart 2 remake might be in the cards if the ToHeart remake does well enough. I hope it does! Tom James has proselytized about the power and importance of the Tokimeki series for years, and he's right to; the influences of these games reach far and wide among Japanese gaming, and it's all too heartbreaking to see visual novels reduced to a jokey-joke exercise in exploring what would happen if you dated an anthropomorphization of a Samoflange designed as an anime girl. ToHeart is likely going to be a hard sell for a mainstream audience, but anime fans have a lot of reason to look into it; this franchise was a big deal in the 90s, similar to how ToHeart 2 was a big deal during the '00s. That's why they made that fancy 20th anniversary statue of Tamaki Kousaka that I yearn for but cannot afford nor properly display anywhere in my room. These are starlets of another era, but they paved the way for what we have now. We're blessed that this game is coming to America. It's a great time for visual novels in America! Who knows, maybe the ToHeart Switch port will come to America too...

Well, I got what I asked for! Seems like The Pokémon Company International heard my complaints about promotional streams announced the day before and announced their Pokémon Presents stream last week! ...And then they scheduled it for this Thursday, putting it right up against our deadline. Eh, I'll take it. I appreciate the courtesy of a week's lead time. Anyway, Pokémon is for pacifying the rabid hordes!

Pokémon Concierge was a surprise hit over on Netflix: a stop-motion anime about a young woman (and her hapless Psyduck) as she tries her hand at managing a hotel for Pokémon. It's a lovely show with phenomenal animation and a fun vibe that offers a unique glimpse into what the Pokémon world is like outside of just battles. It even proudly displays a few of its awards nominations, like its nomination for an Annie Award in animation. New episodes are set to drop this September. Also, the first season's first four episodes are available for free on Pokémon's official YouTube channel through March 9.

Pokémon GO will also be holding an Unova Tour this weekend, wherein players will not only be able to find Pokémon from the Unova region but also encounter specific Gen V legendaries like Kyurem's Black and White variants, Shiny Meloetta, and Victini. Victini requires what's basically Pokémon GO's battle pass, which I'm not a fan of. Sure, the game needs some kind of monetization, but even now I'm not a fan of battle passes in mobile games. Yes, even if it means we get neat costumes for our favorite video game starlets. Man, I remember getting Victini for free with my copy of Pokémon Black; you just had to get the game at launch.

Speaking of Pokémon's mobile forays, Pokémon Masters EX will be featuring a unique banner event featuring the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire cast. Basically, it's protagonists May and Brendan (in gussied-up outfits, of course) teamed up with Primal Kyogre and Primal Groudon—along with Mega Rayquaza, for Stephen (he's there too, I guess). Pokémon Café Remix will feature a new dish (a special soda based on Appletini), along with the Galarian starters (Quaxle, Fuecoco, and Sprigatito) and either Appletun or Flapple as unlockable partners. The events start today, so you can nab 'em now. Cresselia and Darkrai, the two dream-based legendaries from the Gen IV games, are joining Pokémon Sleep. Pokémon Unite teased a new kimono outfit for Suicune, as well as a new gameplay mode: First to 500, wherein players compete to score 500 points in what effectively seems like a MOBA take on basketball (with certain bonus skills unlocking at certain point thresholds). Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket revealed the new Triumphant Light-themed booster pack, available now—and the promise of new additions to the game. For one thing, Ranked Matches will drop sometime in March. For another, Mega Evolutions will be coming to the app sometime later this year. Considering Pokémon Legends Z-A is bringing the mechanic back, there's no better time to push for Megas.

So, let's talk about the really big news! First off, The Pokémon Company COO Takato Utsunomiya revealed that all Pokémon games (as well as the trading card game) will be offered in a new language going forward. Currently, the games are released in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, traditional Chinese, and simplified Chinese; starting with Legends Z-A, you can add Latin American Spanish to that list.

This is a big deal! Latin America is a huge territory (as a reminder, That Bitch™ is Puerto Rican). The anime already has a Latin American Spanish dub and has ever since it debuted (fun fact: the Latin American Spanish dub makes James pepper his motto with lyrics from famous Latino singers, like Sandro de América or the belated Paquíta La Del Barrio). When it came to the games, though, you were pretty much stuck with the English version. On the one hand, this helped a lot of Puerto Rican kids learn English—hell, my best friends in high school learned English from Star Fox 64. On the other hand, that meant that even if you somehow found a Spanish copy of the game, it was in European Spanish. Ignoring that the European Spanish translation had its own fair share of translation hiccups (like translating the name of the "Slam" attack in terms of "slamming a door" instead of, like... a regular bodyslam), the dialect is nevertheless different. The vernacular isn't one-to-one, certain phrasings aren't the same, and you open the door to all kinds of gaffs.

While Spanish dialects are far more varied in Latin America (I could spend hours talking about the differences between Mexican Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish), a Latin American Spanish translation would nevertheless do a way better job of handling these kinds of potential barriers. One thing that sticks out from my childhood is that back when the Gen II games were released, bags of Cheetos or Lays Chips distributed in Latin America would have little plastic pogs of Pokémon. I don't know which dialect they were using, but uh... any of the pogs with Bug-types on them were very popular with my classmates because it referred to the bugs as "Tipo: Bicho." And while "bicho" (or the diminutive "bichito") are used to refer to insects in Puerto Rico, the term is also widely used as slang for sexual anatomy. So all those old pogs were referring to the likes of Paras or Ledyba as "Dick-types." This is why regional translations matter.

I don't think that this will change much for my native Puerto Rico, since so much of our media is sourced from America (also, Gamestop officially abandoned the Puerto Rican market in 2014 because they refused to pay local taxes). But this will mean a lot for pretty much everywhere else in continental Central and South America. Language is important, and making a game available in a regional language goes a long way in respecting the culture and background of the audience that enjoys your media. Consider the protests in Hong Kong when the Pokémon games changed various names from Cantonese to Mandarin.

The next big bomb was the reveal of Pokémon Champions, a new battling app for the Pokémon games. Hardcore Pokémon fans love the nuts-and-bolts of the basic battle systems, using unofficial platforms like Pokémon Showdown to both scratch the itch of competing in the meta while sidestepping all of the "fluff" of a Pokémon game. Y'know, the story, the training, the raising, the breeding, the need to track down TMs and HMs for specific moves. I don't personally find appeal in such a stripped-to-the-studs approach to the game, especially outside of something like Pokémon Stadium, which at least included minigames, tutorials and unlockables of its own—but giving fans an official means to play this kind of approach to Pokémon does hold appeal, especially since Champions will be compatible with Pokémon Home and allow you to import your own roster. You'll also be able to import Pokémon from Pokémon GO. While details are scarce, I'd hate to think that Champions would leave out core features; hopefully, it'll include aspects like the various battle styles (Doubles, Triples, Rotation fights and Sky Battles) and simplify acquiring all of the unique items folks would need (battle items like the Choice Scarf, mechanic-specific items like the Mega stones or Z Crystals, et cetera).

A lot of very angrily-written ink gets spilled over The Pokémon Company "not listening to fans" and "not giving them what they want." I don't believe a lot of that; I think that Pokémon fans can be a touch unreasonable. I'm getting rather ahead of myself, but I think we can put that to rest: GAME FREAK saw a niche and is now deciding to actually do something to fill it. There will likely be a lot of grousing in the future over Pokémon Champions lacking X or Y feature, but oh well. There's no word yet on an official release date (it's slated for sometime "late 2025"), but Pokémon Champions will release on mobile devices and the Nintendo Switch. I know the question you're gonna ask: No, there isn't word yet on a Switch 2 release. I imagine any news concerning that will wait until after the Switch 2 launches.

Finally, we got our proper glimpse at Pokémon Legends Z-A—and not a moment too soon, people were going nuts because nobody had said anything about the game. I get that nobody likes being left in the lurch (or being made to wait the better part of a decade, like with Silksong), but GAME FREAK already said the game wasn't coming until 2025. Anyway, we're in for a lot of updates. I was right about one thing: the game does revolve around reconstruction efforts in Lumiose City. They're just not necessarily in the past; the events of Legend Z-A seem to take place after the events of the Pokémon X/Y games. Hence, AZ and his Floette, who owns a hotel. The actual reconstruction efforts are being spearheaded by Quasartico Inc., who we'll likely hear more about in the future.

Okay, so, game stuff: Legends: Z-A will introduce a wholly-new battle system, which will likely be a delight to folks who break out in hives at the prospect of a turn-based RPG. Legends: Z-A will feature real-time battles and battles that take range and timing into consideration; you'll actually be able to dodge attacks in real-time and will also have to take attack timing into consideration. I've seen a lot of comparisons to the Xenoblade games, and the comparisons feel rather apt. It's a neat system, and I think it'll go a long way to bringing in newer fans. And hey, if you miss the old turn-based battles, that's what Pokémon Champions is for, right? Also, you can capture Pokémon that have been knocked out.

Lumiose City looks great and is really leaning into giving people a lived-in world of Pokémon and people. Trubbishes and Garbodors are living in alleyways, people at cafés are sitting at tables with their Pokémon, and there are Wild Zones where you can battle roving Pokémon. It's a take on the Pokémon world that we don't see outside of the anime.

Even now, there is a lot of griping about the game looking bad, and I think folks are just past the point of being reasonably satisfied. It feels supremely hypocritical for so many people to retweet memes about wanting shorter games that look worse and do less to react the way they do when it comes to Pokémon. And Legends: Z-A looks fine! It's clearly running at 30fps, but it looks fine. The city isn't ray-traced, but it looks fine. I know a lot of people would run to point at the Xenoblade games as examples of what Pokémon "could" look like, but these people forget that Xenoblade also runs at 30fps—and those games take a ton of shortcuts otherwise that aren't readily noticeable in screenshots to run even at even that rate on the Switch. I should know; I'm actually playing the game instead of bellyaching about graphics on social media.

I'm more concerned with whether character customization will be a mechanic in Legends: Z-A. While the game is working off of some sort of twist where your Rival's design will reflect your own, I'd very much miss the option to futz around with my Trainer's skin tone or hair color (especially since those options debuted in the original Kalos games).

Also, going by the title (and the Zygarde in the trailer), it's obvious Zygarde will factor into the story somehow. We don't know how yet, but part of the Direct revealed a Z-Cell hanging around on a windowsill, waiting for an enterprising trainer to come by and collect it. As a reminder: Zygarde is a cell-based Pokémon that gains stronger and stronger forms once more of its cells have been retrieved and collected. Its 10% Forme resembles a Doberman; its 50% Forme resembles a large snake; its 100% Forme is a humanoid giant.

We interrupt this column to bring you breaking news: there is a new Hex Maniac. You can peep at her design in the top-right corner of this map of Lumiose City. Again, Legends Z-A appears to take place a few years after the end of the Gen VI games, so it stands to reason that all of the old Trainer archetypes we saw in those games would've grown up a bit since then—and Hex Maniac looks older. Fanart of both her and the new Rivals have, as expected, inundated the Internet. We're anticipating major inundations of fanart; readers are advised to be on the lookout.

Also, starters: our options this time around are Chikorita, Totodile, and Tepig. There has been some consternation because the lineup is going for two starters from the same game instead of three different starters; I think this is a sign that people need to stop holding GAME FREAK to nonexistent patterns. There have never been any patterns with starters, and GAME FREAK isn't afraid to go on the lam when it comes to their creative choices. Trying to predict their moves is a fool's errand. Anyway, I'm happy with these choices—especially since we might see regional Kalosian variants for their evolved forms, Meganium, Feraligatr, and Emboar, to say nothing of possible Mega evolutions. Chikorita in particular needs it; Chikorita has long held the reputation of being one of the worst starters in the series (a combination of bad base stats, bad typing, and a bad move set). Chikorita is popular, sure, it has its defenders—but it's also definitely underpowered. I'm looking forward to it getting a bit of a much-needed boost. Emboar, too, needs a bit of help; Tepig is adorable, and Emboar is cool, but its stat spread was weird. Totodile is Totodile; he's never done anything wrong, and we are happy to see our bitey friend back. (GAME FREAK knew Totodile and Fuecoco would be too powerful if they were both in the same game; that's why they're in separate games.)

We don't yet have a release date for Pokémon Legends: Z-A outside of a late 2025 release window. I'm curious if it'll be a launch title for the Switch 2, but I think it'll still be on the Switch. Nothing sells a new console more than a new Pokémon game, but why stick folks with buying just one console when they might buy two? Backwards compatibility means kids can look forward to playing their game on either their old Switch or their shiny new Switch 2. The smart move would be some manner of graphical or fidelity improvement on the Switch 2, but really, they already gave us a new Hex Maniac, Chikorita, and Totodile. If that's not enough, I don't know what will.

In light of the success of Team Bloober's Silent Hill 2 remake, Team Bloober has announced that they'll be collaborating with Konami on a new game based off of an old Konami property. Details are currently short on the matter; more to follow...

Hidetaka Suehiro and Suda51's Hotel Barcelona finally has a publisher! Look forward to their new grindhouse game getting published in the US by Cult Games! You can read a bit about Hotel Barcelona (as well as Suda51's other ruminations about the game industry) in our interview with him from last year.

Longtime Gust fans might remember the old Ar Tonelico games on PlayStation 2. Good news: so does Gust producer Junzo Hosoi! In an interview with Noisy Pixel, Hosoi notes that he still has "a soft spot" for those games and would love a chance to work on them again. He also underlines that fan feedback is key to Gust considering the project...

That'll do it for this week. Monster Hunter Wilds came out this week! While I won't be able to join folks in the hunting of monsters, I look forward to seeing my friends enjoy their hunts and assembling their favorite fashion sets. I still prefer the Wirebugs and Palamute riding from Monster Hunter Rise, but Wilds looks phenomenal. I hope folks like it! Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.

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This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing JRPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers, and tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.

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