‘TenPuru: No One Can Live on Loneliness’ is a romantic comedy manga created by Kimitake Yoshioka and published by Kodansha since 2018. The Japanese animation studio Gekkō debuted an anime adaption of the series in July 2023 known simply as ‘TenPuru.’ Crunchyroll began streaming it in North America.
Crunchyroll announced online that they had a cast for an English dub:
- Akemitsu voiced by Bradley Gareth (Guel in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury)
- Yuzuki voiced by Kelly Greenshield (Reika in My Home Hero)
- Tsukuyo voiced by Molly Zhang
- Kiki voiced by Monét Lerner
- Kagura voiced by Celeste Perez
- Kurage voiced by Morgan Lea
- Nyagosuke voiced by Monica Rial
- Mia voiced by Marianne Bray
- Akemitsu (Young) voiced by Monica Rial
- Harukaze voiced by Kent Williams
Mike McFarland is taking on the role of ADR Director.
You can watch the trailer below:
MyAnimeList describes the synopsis as follows,
“Born into a family of notorious womanizers, Akemitsu Akagami has been shunned from a young age and lumped in with his lineage as a skirt-chaser. As a result, he despises the Akagami way of life and vows to rescind the infamy of his family by staying celibate. But as fate would have it, Akemitsu falls in love at first sight on his way home from work one day. Unable to erase his feelings that are spiraling out of control, he resorts to his final measure—to practice as a monk and seal away his worldly desires.
Hoping to put his past behind him, Akemitsu travels to the nearest temple in order to receive Buddhist training. But fate tempts him once again: greeting him at the door is the girl he had fallen madly in love with, who lives in the very temple he wishes to train in.”
The Japanese band Aimi performs the theme song “Bonnō Paradise” as well as the ending song “Oidemase! Mikadzuki Tera” which is performed with the original cast.
The biggest issue with these last few episodes of the season is how all of the conflict doesn’t feel like a grand payoff for the season. Not only are some problems left hanging or completely abandoned by the last episode, but the episodes lay out teases for the next season rather than conclude everything for this one. A lot of the political conflict between Aretuza and Redania ends up overshadowing the status of Geralt and his allies, with a lot of screen time focusing on other characters than Geralt himself.
The massive elephant in the room with Season 3 is that Geralt of Rivia himself, Henry Cavill, is leaving the show. It’s very hard to ignore this fact and not see some of the areas where episodes either underutilize him or flat-out ignore him to set up other things for the eventual fourth season. Henry’s Geralt of Rivia does get some big moments in the first episode of Volume 2, including a fight with Vilgefortz that has been built up for a while. Unfortunately, how the fight unfolds will rub many the wrong way, especially with the fallout from it afterward. The penultimate episode almost completely forgets about Geralt as he is hiding with the druids after the battle at Aretuza.
As for everyone else, there’s a lot of hit-and-miss in these last few episodes. Ciri gets a lot of screen time and has the ability to display a range of emotions and reactions, especially when she arrives in a desert alone. She definitely gets the most care by the time the season wraps up, with a promise of things to come for her that will definitely speak to fans of The Witcher books. Yennefer gets to interact with the mages a lot more when she regroups with them and has a few good moments that assist Geralt in a major way. But there’s a lot more that happens after the fighting is done towards the last episode, where some major changes for her and Aretuza take place. Both Yennefer and Ciri feel as though they get more interesting conclusions this season than Geralt, putting them in places that seem better off despite the craziness in the last few episodes.
Other characters that have been around this season have elements that seem rushed if they aren’t killed off quickly. Jaskier finds himself together again with Geralt by the end, while his relationship with Radovid is quickly shoved aside. Many fans were adamant about the two of them having a relationship this season, mostly due to heavy changes from the books.
Because much of Volume 2 takes place at Aretuza, there’s no monster hunting for Geralt or anyone like earlier in the season. But are the fights still good to watch? Everything from the battle of the mages, Geralt’s clash with Vilgefortz, and his final fight are very much on par with the earlier battles of the season. The effects on the magic being used by mages aren’t better or worse than before, nor are the signs that Geralt uses here and there.
The ending of The Witcher Season 3 could have, and should have been better. The last three episodes of the season feel like a dull ending that doesn’t leave much excitement for a Season 4 to the show. Things are definitely changing for The Witcher, in and out of the universe, and it all might not be for the better. Fans will find themselves divided on continuing to watch the show or not, especially in light of Henry Cavill’s departure, but the second part of this season doesn’t make a strong argument to keep them around. There were some good moments throughout Season 3, but all of it has culminated to a bitter ending for most fans.
The movie has a great visual style that is reminiscent of the original TMNT comics, with its stylized edges and gritty vibe. But the presentation of the movie also feels like it could fit with classic 90s Nickelodeon cartoons and advertisements, where the characters and backgrounds have a fun and edgy look to them. Moments that have a grotesque tone or show something disgusting often look comedic, despite being darker in some cases. The movie isn’t afraid to be lighthearted and fun while balancing the darker undertones and subject matter that classic TMNT stories have tackled in the past. Each of the turtles has a distinct look to them that reflect their personalities and have a wide range of emotions in nearly every scene they’re in, both fun and serious. The same can be said for almost every other character in the movie, but the turtles definitely stand out from everyone else in the best ways.
Many aspects of the origin of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are tweaked in this movie but for the better of the story. Hardcore Turtles fans may not like some of the changes or the designs for a few classic characters, including a few that will be a big surprise. But if you go along with the story and don’t harp on the changes you’ll end up enjoying the emotion and fun ride that Mutant Mayhem takes you on.
The same can be said with many of the big events that happen in the movie. The main antagonist of the story is Superfly and his minions, which keeps the focus on mutants and the central theme of acceptance between the turtles and the challenges they face. Normally we’d see things like The Foot clan or the Utroms get injected into the conflict somehow, but it’s to see a TMNT story that gets away from that and focus on something different. That being said, the ending of the movie points in a direction that we can see this version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles going towards that makes perfect sense. So TMNT fans hoping to see more traditional parts of TMNT lore will be happy to know that this movie lays a great foundation and sets up interesting things down the line.
Jackie Chan as Splinter is both goofy and silly in many moments, especially when scolding his sons. But the old rat has some very cool action moments that fit well with Jackie Chan playing the voice, paying homage to the actor’s legacy in martial arts films and comedic prowess. Ayo Edebiri does the voice of April O’Neil and has solid timing when interacting with the turtles, especially when things get tense and the group is in trouble. The back n’ forth between her and characters like Leonardo are heartwarming and funny in many ways.
Out of the entire voice cast, the only ones that don’t have as much impact are Superfly, Bebop, and Rocksteady. Ice Cube voices Superfly and sounds exactly as you would think. Ice Cube’s voice is so distinct that it stands out too much in every scene, often feeling like it’s just Ice Cube in the moment as opposed to the character.
As a whole, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a fun story that attempts to be something a little different than what we’ve seen before. It has various changes to the backstory we know but also comes with a fun story that uses the changes for a purpose. Even if you’re not a big TMNT fan who knows the comics or cartoons, you can have a fun time watching this movie and getting into the franchise. Those who have followed the turtles for years will feel different ways about some of the changes made here, but they’ll definitely have a new version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for them to enjoy that adds new and exciting things to the ongoing legacy of the series they love.
The most annoying part of what you play in Killsquad comes from the overabundance of bugs and glitches. Every mission you drop into will suffer from things like texture pop-in, disappearing enemies, poor hit detection, and occasional control issues. Loading can also be a big issue when going from the menus into a mission, as well as different portions of missions that move you from one location to another. On missions with stone backgrounds or rocky environments, there’s a massive amount of texture pop-in that becomes ridiculous and very distracting. Running through a level when you have a large group of enemies pursuing you can lead to other technical issues all over the place. Making a concentrated effort to clear areas out can help alleviate this a bit, but playing a mission can quickly become not fun to play through.
Even the main menus of the game have issues going on. Moving the cursor around to make a selection can sporadically cause your character to rotate randomly, even when you’re not using the right stick to do so manually. Your character will just slowly begin to rotate as you move up and down to make selections. This happens a lot, even if you disconnect and resync your controller. It might be some sort of bug that causes this in the menus, but it’s present all the time and might cause other unknown issues during gameplay.
Completing missions can grant skill points to your character, allowing you to unlock new active and passive abilities. You can also find various items and equipment in boxes or from fallen enemies. Equipping new weapons and items can grant different boosts, especially with elemental stats that can deal more damage to specific enemies. Not every bit of loot you find will be useful though, especially if you find yourself needing to replay missions over because of failure.
Killsquad has a lot of problems that make it hard to enjoy fully. While the concept of cooperative missions and loot sounds great, the many technical issues it suffers from overshadow everything. It’s hard to get together others for a multiplayer session, forcing you to play alone. By the time you get deep enough into Killsquad to really enjoy most of its aspects, you’ve already suffered through a bad experience that lasted way too long. Had most of these issues been ironed out beforehand, Killsquad would actually be an interesting game that some could enjoy. But as it is currently, it’s a real mess.
