What if the Japanese had done a TMNT anime?

[Inyarear]

As a matter of fact, they did. If you've ever seen much anime, it's pretty much what you'd expect:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSS-Wv5A5uw

This brings the cultural borrowing (and plagiarism) full circle, since it's my understanding the American cartoon is loosely based on the comic books, which were intended as kind of a parody of Frank Miller's comic ROM, which in turn is inspired by the long-running Japanese manga Wolf and Cub.

[AnubisVonMojo]

Ah yes, Super Turtles. Heh heh. I bought this thing on DVD a few years ago from a local bootleg store called "The Zone". They sold less-than-professional DVDs of a number of movies that, at the time, had no commercial releases in the US, including a lot of Takeshi Miike stuff, the Lone Wolf and Cub movies, Legend of the Sacred Stones, and a number of anime series like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and this hilarious abomination. Unfortunately it was a two-part OVA and I could only ever find the first part up until The Zone closed down "temporarily"... which became permanently a few months later when a Footlocker moved into the space.

Inya, though the ROM reference fits the clip, are you being serious or is that a joke? Sometimes it's hard to differentiate... heh. Kudos on digging up the clip. 

[D-Man]

Interesting...I thought there'd be more tentacles in the Japanese version.   

Once again, this shows that Japan shouldn't steal too much from America (See: the japanese "Spiderman") and on the same token, America shouldn't steal too much from Japan. (See: "Power Rangers", "VR Troopers", "Beetleborgs" and anything in the same vein.)   

[HappyGilmore]

I have to see if I can find this.

I'm not a huge anime fan, but I love the Turtles.

[Inyarear]

Inya, though the ROM reference fits the clip, are you being serious or is that a joke? Sometimes it's hard to differentiate... heh. Kudos on digging up the clip. 

Actually, looking back through the comic book history book from which I got that tidbit (The Comic Book Heros by Gerard Jones and William Jacob, pages 265 and 278-279), I see I mixed up the title a bit. It was Frank Miller's obscure comic book Ronin that inspired Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird of Mirage Studios to come up with the TMNT as a spoof. All this riffing between cultures gets pretty weird after a while.

[AnubisVonMojo]

I know that Laird and Eastman also took heavily from Daredevil when putting together the Turtles as well. Radioactive chemicals gave Daredevil his heightened senses = Radioactive chemicals turned four pet shop turtles and a rat into humanoid mutants. Daredevil's sensei was named Stick = The Turtles' sensei is named Splinter. The ninja clan who were constantly up Daredevil's ass were the Hand = The ninja clan who are constantly up the Turtles' asses are the Foot. I'm not sure, but it's also possible that Shredder could in some way be influenced by the Gladiator, as both villains have bladed weapons on their hands and wear helmets that obscure their faces.

The thing I never understood about the Turtles though was the need for the eye masks. I could understand the use of elbow and knee pads and even the little strips around the wrists (the very first ninja turtle sketch was of Michaelangelo, who kept his nunchucks secured in his wristband), but it's not like they had civilian mutant turtle identities to hide...

[Inyarear]

The thing I never understood about the Turtles though was the need for the eye masks. I could understand the use of elbow and knee pads and even the little strips around the wrists (the very first ninja turtle sketch was of Michaelangelo, who kept his nunchucks secured in his wristband), but it's not like they had civilian mutant turtle identities to hide...

I'd always figured the masks were just convenient ways to identify each of the turtles quickly, sort of like those "colors" gangland punks wear: red for Raphael, orange for Michelangelo, blue for Leonardo, and purple for Donatello. Since they all get a lot of face time, it helps the audience for them to have those. What purpose they served in the old black-and-white comics, I don't know.

That whole "What secret identity?" thing was sort of a running gag in the cartoon, where the turtles were shown putting on one transparent disguise after another and somehow getting away with it in spite of being the only known green-skinned residents of New York.

[HappyGilmore]

I never got the eyemask thing either, especially in the beginning.  Originally they were all red, but then the cartoon happened and the producer was like, "Make different colors."

Eh, it all worked out eventually.

[inframan]

Originally the masks were all red, at least on the cover of the comics, they were black and white except the covers. The only way you could tell them apart was the weapons they used. I used to love TMNT when it was just a B&W comic, it was pretty gritty. The TV show pretty much runied it for me. I'd still like to see an animated version of the original turtles, not just the kiddie stuff.