Todd Ciolek
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kidfenris.bsky.social
Todd Ciolek
@kidfenris.bsky.social
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
surprised it took this long for a publisher to try this with a 'real' series. next we'll see a series with an AI-created original Japanese dub.

you folks would not BELIEVE how much the production companies want to do this. they want to never hire actors SO bad!!

ok maybe you WOULD believe it ☹️
Hey just so you know Amazon decided to give us an AI ENGLISH DUB of Banana Fish instead of actually hiring real voice actors
it is fucking hot garbage
#bananafish #anime
November 28, 2025 at 10:06 PM
The Red Cross is giving out Pac-Man socks and gashapon toys when you donate blood, and if you flip the gashapon over it changes from Pac-Man's smile to a disgusted grimace.
November 28, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
This shit is why I'm getting less and less work on anime and having to scramble to ask around with YouTubers for help letting me do their CCs just to pay my damn rent. There's enough anime to caption out there that I should not be fucking struggling.
After publishing this article, I've heard from many that CR seems to be using AI to produce dub CCs. Now, thanks to a slip-up CR had with episode 6 dub of The Banished Court Magician, we can say that with 100% certainty: Crunchyroll is using the AI service Ollang.com for its dub closed captions!
November 28, 2025 at 8:27 AM
You know, I've never really written about Emerald Dragon and why I like it so much. Let's fix that!

www.kidfenris.com/2025/11/emer...
November 28, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
Everyone should check out the recent US localization of Tokyo Godfathers—a great dub cast, including Shakina as Hana. As well, the new English subs on that same GKids Blu-ray are great (currently the Tubi version is still a fantastic film but some queer translation choices are unfortunately dated)
Reminder to add TOKYO GODFATHERS to your Christmas movie watchlist this season! Grateful to have given (English, dubbed) voice to the trans anime icon, our beloved Hana, in this Satoshi Kon holiday classic from @gkids.com! Watch it for free on Tubi or rent it on AppleTV!
November 28, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Cool, that rightmost shot is from Moon Dancer, the canceled Sega RPG where all of the character portraits were repurposed shots of movie stars!

www.sega-16.com/2020/04/unfi...
November 28, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Instead of my favorites, I'm gonna pick ten underrated MST3K episodes.

-Devil Doll
-High School Big Shot
-Invasion USA
-The Girl in Lovers' Lane
-Teenage Crime Wave
-The Space Children
-The Deadly Mantis
-Monster A-Go-Go
-The Amazing Transparent Man
-Teenage Caveman
November 27, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
remember folks thanksgiving is the one day that your dog is allowed to plug in all twenty of your toasters on the same circuit as a treat
November 27, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
from a recent event commemorating what would've been Kenji Eno's 55th bday, a roundtable interview with 4 former WARP devs: Tomohiro Miyazaki, Hideki Sudo, Naoya Sato and a fella by the name of Fumito Ueda www.4gamer.net/games/999/G9... 🇯🇵

can't go over the whole thing atm, but one related story:
[インタビュー]発売から29年。鬼才・飯野賢治が作った「エネミー・ゼロ」の壮絶な制作現場や裏話を上田文人ら元WARPメンバーが語る
1996年に発売された「エネミー・ゼロ」は,“敵が見えない”“音だけを頼りに敵を倒す”という斬新なシステムや,プラットフォーム変更などでゲーム史に強烈なインパクトを残した。故・飯野賢治氏が率いるWA…
www.4gamer.net
October 21, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
it sure is bizarre to see the same crap that affected visual novels for so long affect a non-visual novel game.

steam censors really don’t care about anything that doesn’t sell gangbusters: bsky.app/profile/euro...
Valve responds with "additional context" following Horses Steam ban controversy

www.eurogamer.net/valve-respon...
November 27, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
November 5, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
マニやんとマリアちゃん
November 25, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Nice selection! Ninja Gaiden II and Bionic Commando are just great, Kid Icarus is a neat game that never got much attention (it wasn't even released in Japan), and Battletoads is LET'S GET WARTY.

Sure you don't want to throw in, say, the Game Boy version of Pit Fighter to even it out, Nintendo?
Nintendo added more games to Switch Online!

NES:
- Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
- BATTLETOADS

Game Boy:
- Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters
- BIONIC COMMANDO
November 26, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
This was my white whale for a long time, but the sourced audio sample during Xenogears' "Blazing Knights" boss fight track was taken from Christian Brando's manslaughter trial in 1990!
November 24, 2025 at 5:55 PM
My definitive Star Wars ranking:

1. Return of the Jedi
2. The Ewok Adventure: Caravan of Courage
3. Ewoks: The Battle for Endor
4. The Ewoks cartoon
5. The Rise of Skywalker

I've heard there are Star Wars things without Ewoks but who knows if they're any good.
November 25, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
This quote is worth a screencap or two. #gits #ai
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Julien's is running a big auction of Jim Henson Company stuff, and if I had a few thousand to spare I'd for sure get my very own Three-Eyed Crudder from that Dark Crystal sequel.

www.juliensauctions.com/en/items/207...
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance | Three-Eyed Crudder Puppet
www.juliensauctions.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
A quick one for Sunday night: how a tiny bit of Kolchak the Night Stalker ended up in Final Fantasy

www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com/blog/how-kol...
How Kolchak: The Night Stalker Influenced Final Fantasy — Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games
The cult TV series lives on in many ways, including a certain monster character.
www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
I spent all of Halloween on this, an explanation for the classic horror movie origins of Darkstalkers — now with more Kolchak: The Night Stalker than you ever expected in 2025!

www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com/blog/darksta...
The Secret Origin of the Darkstalkers — Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games
Designer Alex Jimenez explains how the Universal monsters live on in Capcom’s ghoulish fighter.
www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:00 AM
See, this is why Final Fantasy VI should have kept Angela and Lara in the script!

But yeah, this is interesting, though it's a lot like the Bechdel Test in that it's more a novel point of discussion than an analytical summation of a work's feminist qualities.
The proportion of female to male dialogue in Final Fantasy. #advx25
November 23, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
It's my favorite day! It's the 38th anniversary of the Max Headroom signal broadcast intrusion!

1st incident lasted 25s during the 9PM news on WGN-TV in Chicago; The 2nd, 2hrs later, lasted ~90s on PBS affiliate WTTW during Dr. Who.

You can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqge...
Max Headroom 1987 Broadcast Signal Intrusion Incident
YouTube video by andrew867
www.youtube.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Todd Ciolek
The time has come, licensors: Dragon's Heaven in 4K in US theaters.
November 22, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Now's the time to get California Crisis on the big screen everywhere!

www.kidfenris.com/2016/03/cali...
November 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Yes, the Master System is indeed underrated, but praising Psycho Fox is going a little too far.
November 22, 2025 at 12:38 PM
From the library fundraiser: a Sailor Moon book aimed at very young readers. There's something neat about merchandise from that brief span when companies gambled on Sailor Moon being a smash hit with kids in North America (instead of the slightly older, more cult following it eventually landed).
November 21, 2025 at 9:28 PM