The Teenage Ninja Turtles The franchise is certainly amazing, but there’s one glaring ingredient it’s missing: anime. I’m a huge anime fan, and have been for years. But deeper than that, I’m a fan of animation. Ever since I was a kid and then into my adult years, my admiration for animated storytelling has remained constant. There’s something so special about transporting audiences to a world beyond our own; exploring familiar themes in a fresh and innovative way.
Outside of anime, I've recently become immersed in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. After all, few characters have shaped the animation industry as much as those four brothers. However, a few years ago, I'll admit that I didn't know that This series is actually heavily inspired by Japanese culture and anime.But it makes perfect sense. TMNT fits right in with iconic franchises like Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, and Studio Ghibli's family-friendly projects.
When I discovered TMNT's Japanese origins, I was surprised, but not too surprised. After all, I actually consider Japan to be the art capital of the world (move over, Hollywood!). What shocked me more was the huge hole I discovered in the TMNT series after learning about its origins. With the series' huge success over the past few years, there's one flaw that I can't help but notice: there's no anime adaptation.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Looks Like It Was Built for an Anime
If there is any series that deserves to be adapted into Anime, it is TMNT.
My favorite installment in the TMNT franchise is the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, no matter how controversial that opinion may be. As I rewatched the series, I began to notice All the Japanese Easter eggs hidden throughout the series, seemingly in tribute to its inspiration. For example, the villains are called “yokai,” a term in Japanese folklore that refers to supernatural entities and spirits. Even in Michael Bay’s infamous live-action TMNT adaptations, the origin story of the main villain revolves around Japanese Samurai legends.
Aside from the countless Easter eggs hidden throughout the series’ numerous projects, the overall theme of TMNT fits perfectly with the familiar themes of anime. Each turtle falls into a “classic” anime trope. However, they do it well: the tough and strong older brother (of course, Leo can also be considered the oldest in some parts), the reckless middle child, the eccentric brainiac, and the adorable youngest brother. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the TMNT series would excel as a Shōnen anime series, filled with action animation, slice-of-life filler episodes, and epic side quests.
How TMNT Needs to Change to Fit an Anime
One painful issue that clearly needed to be changed in the TMNT series for it to work as an anime
Much of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series was built for an animated series. However, over the years and countless remakes of the four turtles' story, there was one major issue that needed to be fixed to make it fit into an animated film: there was a lot of controversy surrounding the series' use of Japanese culture and folklore.
The original TMNT comics and characters were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, two writers who found Japanese culture quite interesting in the 80s, hence the “ninja” thing. As I mentioned, many parts of TMNT have Easter eggs, but Very few of them truly respect their Japanese roots.
One of the most notable controversies (unsurprisingly) involved Michael Bay's 2014 live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. William Fichtner (Prison Break) was originally set to adapt the role of Shredder for the film. However, director Bay received a series of complaints of “whitewashing” from loyal fanssaid that since the Japanese Samurai was heavily inspired by Shredder, he had to be played by a Japanese actor. There was also some discussion around the turtles' “ethnicity”, but that was resolved; they are turtles, after all.
Tohoru Masamune was later cast in the role, placating the outrage of fans. However, it seems that Masamune and Bay were not interested in this issue, which also worried fans, as shown in an interview with ComicBookMovie.com. Although the original TMNT comics are not from Japan, comic writers Eastman and Laird drew heavily from ancient Japanese samurai and folklore, to the point where the turtles were almost given Japanese names.
However, many fans view the TMNT series as a failed attempt to incorporate Japanese culture into American media. If the series were to be adapted into an anime, this would clearly be a problem that would need to be rectified. Instead of occasionally mixing in inaccurate bits of Japanese lore, history, and folklore, a TMNT anime could easily create a story that revolves around the roles of Samurai, ninja, and the family philosophy that is so prominent in Japan.
The TMNT x Naruto Crossover Proves How Significant The Turtles Are in Anime & Manga
TMNT's Recent Collaboration Proves This Is the Perfect Time for an Anime Adaptation
The history of TMNT in Japanese entertainment is long and confusing, but it proves that Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie deserve their own anime and manga series. In the 1980s, Japan had its first TMNT TV show. as an anime by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Inc. However, due to a strange distribution plan to get the turtles on every possible screen in Japan, the show was released in three different versions, with three different dubs. According to TMNT Entity, this resulted in some voice actors not fitting the characters:
“This dub is noted for a few oddities, such as Donatello having a rather deep, husky, and masculine voice (provided by Huruta Nobuyuki) while Raphael has a confusingly feminine tone (provided by Seisuke Kameyama…his last name means “Turtle Mountain”). Perhaps most confusing of all, Shredder often refers to Krang as ‘Mr. Krang.’” ~ TMNT Entity
Since their rather disastrous debut in Japan, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have collaborated with a number of other brands. In 1995, after the cancellation of the TV Tokyo TMNT series, a revival was quickly established under the authority of Takara, the distributor of the Playmates TMNT toy line in Japan. Mutant Turtles: Legend of the Super Mutants first debuted in 1996 as a two-part animated OVA series produced by Bee Media, complete with a toy line, comics, and an original theme song by Hironobu Kageyama (formerly known for his “Cha-La Head Cha-La” song from Dragon Ball Z).
While the two OVAs are considered light-hearted, satirical takes on Japanese children's series, To this day, they remain the only known TMNT anime installments as of 2024. Additionally, around 20 comic book issues featuring various (mostly recycled) TMNT stories were also published. However, most of them are rarely known to fans today, as they were mainly created to promote toy lines with little effort put into their actual stories.
Despite the TMNT franchise's tumultuous history in Japan, 2024 has proven to be a much better year for the fan community. In addition to IDW rebooting the long-running Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comic series and continuing the Last Ronin Saga, they're moving forward with one of the most iconic collaborations of 2024: TMNT x Naruto.
In the upcoming four-issue series, written by Caleb Goellner (Sonic the Hedgehog) and illustrated by Hendry Prasetya (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), the half-shell heroes will team up with Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi to fight the evil Foot Clan. This legendary team-up is coming in the near future, which makes me (and probably other TMNT fans) believe that a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon now more meaningful than ever.
As a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan who has recently been involved with some of the most controversial installments, like Rise of the TMNT and Michael Bay's live-action films, I've never been convinced that we deserved an anime adaptation. From the built-in family values to the Japanese myths that shape the story, it seems like an obvious choice to adapt into an animated series, or at least a newer series than the previous TMNT OVAs released in the '90s.
With big announcements for the franchise in 2024, including Paramount's new Tales of the TMNT series, there's just one thing missing now: Teenage Ninja Turtles anime adaptation
Source: ComicBookMovie.com; TMNT Entity; IGN
