In the summer of 1996, the classic Ninja Turtles cartoon will began it's last season. Many toys for the cartoon were made like two certain toylines called Supermutants, and Metal Mutants.
This special never came to the US and and we never knew that this obscure special ever existed...Well until the internet got big.
You guys may remember I mention this on my "You will Cry In Japan" blog post. However, at the time, I only saw a short intro that was posted on youtube, as well as a few bits and pieces. This time, I watch the whole thing.
The episode starts with a "How we got here" recap of how the Turtles become Super Mutants. It said they went to an underground shrine of the Neutrino Kingdom.
This is kinda interesting since the series never really show much of the Neutrinos' world. All we know is about them is three kids who hate war, and they are TOTALLY 80s(more so than the Turtles). The sad news is, you only see the shrine for a few seconds. So much for learning more about their culture.
Inside the shine, the Turtles meet a fairy named Crys Mu
Hey! Look! Listen!
She gives them these special crystals called Mutastones. Kinda of a strange name since these magic crystals have a name to a chemical substance we see throughout the series. Anyways, the Turtles use the stones to transform them into Super Mutants. You can tell this is getting weird and all anime-like. They look like tall green Wolverines.
Hey Bub
They can only be in these forms for three minutes. Now why do I have a feeling they going to be in these forms alot longer? I heard in Dragonball Z, Goku had to defeat his enemy and leave before the planet blows up in five minutes. Goku got this done in 10 long episodes. I guess anime writers think time moves slower or something?
Not long after TMNT got their super modes, Shredder and goons invade the shrine and take the Dark Mutastone.
They use the stone that turns Shredder into a dragon while his two goons look like they took on some steroids. Yes, you read that correctly.
The Super Turtles have a surprise on the villains and use the stones where they can merge into a powerful being called Turtle Saint. No, I'm not joking.
Since when they were Voltron?
Our heroes pwned the baddies on one strike and they fly away Team Rocket Style. Gee, I guess those steroids didn't help.
The "How we got here" recap ends and the opening credits play. I swear, the 1st few seconds sounds exactly the same as the 1st few seconds of the Ghostbusters theme. Go listen here
Now the recap and opening is over, the actually episode starts with a space shuttle captain witnessing stars are vanishing. A member of NASA doesn't believe this and tells the astronaut that he left his glasses on Earth. The astronaut denies this. This will become a pointless running joke. What's weird is Krang is hanging underneath the space shuttle.
In the next minute, he's inside the Technodrome. Did he teleport or something? Was he spying on them?
You should be asking Krang that
Well this is the 1st time I heard any of the villians voices in Japanese. The Baddies sound right but good gosh, Krang has this high pitch voice. Imagine Krang high-pitch angry tone but it's stuck in that tone all the time. I need to lower the volume to save my poor eardrums.
Everyone in this 2-part anime special looks the same as the original series, except the colors are in a brighter tone. There is one character doesn't look like their western cartoon counterpart and that's Shredder. He's wearing a different type of armor. They did this to match his new toy at the time.
The villains are trying to free an evil spirit know as Dark Mu. She is sleeping inside the Dark Mutastone.
Even Splinter agrees
Dark Mu's awakening is causing the stars to disappear. You sure it isn't Xehanort that's causing this?
Seeing them react anime style is weird.
The two insult each other by calling each other, Sawaki-chan and Stupid Octopus. I guess this is what they're normally called in the Japanese version.
The next scene shows the Turtles watching April's report of the disappearing stars as she's interviewing a member of NASA and the astronaut and we hear the two still arguing about those stupid glasses. The turtles turn off the program and discuss the matter in their Japanese voices. They sound weird and their voices sound deeper than the originals. Splinter on the other hand has this cool deep voice. What made me go WTF is when Mikey called Donatello, Dona-chan. Like dude, What the Shell?! It's weird seeing Mikey give Donny a Japanese nickname.
It seems their watching their American counterparts on the TV.
April comes in and Raph ask if April use a portal right after finishing the broadcast. She answer by telling him the footage was pre-recorded. Gee, was Krang on that space shuttle pre-recorded message or something?
Crys-Mu told them the disappearing stars must be Shredder and Krang, who is awakening Dark Mu. Mikey has a different suggestion.
Don't bring that dumb controversy here. *sighs* I think Micheal Bay didn't know what he was talking about when he made an off-hand comment about the Utroms' connection to the Turtles.
They go street level and meet with the villains. The good guys figure that the bad guys are there to distract them while Dark Mu is awakening. Bebop and Rocksteady tell them that's exactly what they're doing. Shredder scolds the two like always but in ANIME STYLE!!!
The villains use stock footage to go Super Saiyan. The Turtles go through stock footage and shout, "SUPER MUTATION!" as they transform. Because this is TMNT in ANIME STYLE!!!
During the battle, Shredder asked Krang where are his foot soldiers and he told him that they're on vacation. Now why would robots be on vacation?
Krang told Shredhead and his goons they have power controllers to unleash their full powers. Seriously, this sounds like DBZ.
Meanwhile more jokes about the missing glasses.
Couldn't agree more. Continuing onward.
Raph attacks Shredder with his "The Spinning Top of Super Violent Wind!" Shredder activates his power controller and returns.
The Turtles got their shells kicked.
*gasps* Ra...Raph. This is a kids show. You can't say stuff like that.
You can't say stuff like that either.
Seeing the TMNT all anime-like and cussing is kinda ruining my childhood. Yes, people do abuse the words "Ruining my childhood" but they're complaining about some alternate universe incarnation of whatever they grew up with. Any remake or reboot has no effect on the original and they're perfectly safe but this special isn't based on a later incarnation of the turtles, this is the same exact universe as the classic cartoon. So yeah, it's jarring to see the very same turtles cussing.
Splinter and Crys Mu easily entered the Technodrome with no problem whatsoever. Usually it takes nearly an episode to go through the Technodrome. I can understand the foot soldiers are on vacation but what about all booby traps the Technodrome has? Anyways, Splinter starts fighting against Krang
Jeez Splinter, that's a little extreme for a kid's cartoon.
There is bad news, Dark Mu is opening her eyes. This causes bad weather all over the planet. Tokyo Tower and the Eiffel Tower collapsed while Mao's picture at the Chinese imperial place falls. I'm guessing this 2 episode special takes place after the Turtles vacation trip to Paris.
The Punk Frogs in the Florida swamps make their 5 second cameos as they witness a tornado.
Hey, where's the 4th frog?
Remember when I said, the Foot Soldiers are on vacation. Well here they are at Miami beach.
I got nothing to say.
They even quote Team Rocket
Back in New York, The Turtles take a beating from Bebop and Rocksteady, which I wound never said in the classic cartoon since those two are so dimwitted. Suddenly, a giant tidal wave comes and smash against the Statue of Liberty(Must resist Day After Tomorrow joke).
Whoa! All of New York got completely flooded. Did the entire population survived? I never seen something like this big happen happen in the classic toon(besides Channel 6 blowing up or the season 3 finale). Yes, there were a few floods in the show but they were a few feet tall, not big enough to send the entire city of New York underwater.
The Technodrome started to float on surface, which doesn't make sense since the Technodrome was stuck underwater during one season.
The Turtles and Splinter swam to the surface. April comes in with a news helicopter. I'm guessing they're the only survivors. Let's have a moment of silence for Casey Jones, Rat King, Mondo Gecko, Channel 6 news crew, and others I forgot.
The 1st thing she does is throw a fireball at Shredder. This turns him into a Godzilla-sized dragon named, Dark Devil Shredder.
You can tell the size difference between Shredhead and the Technodrome.
The viewers opinion in a nutshell
I can understand if the Turtles do it since they're in Super Anime Mode and grabbing fireballs and tossing it may be normal for them but not for a human-sized rat that has no super powers.
Now I think about it, I think the Turtles should of revert back to their regular forms since it's been over ten minutes since they transformed.
Donny has a plan to defeat the new improved Shredder. He leads him to a skyscraper. The Shredder shoot a fireball at Donny.
Hadoken!
Donny jumped out of the way just in time as Shredhead’s attack cause the top half of the skyscraper to fall down and hit him on his head. This knocks him out. It's sad because he was only in this mode for a few minutes and he’s defeated. How anti-climatic.
This guy weaker than the American Godzilla.
The Turtles wondered how the mayor would feels that they topple a building to defeat shredder. Is the mayor alive from the deluge?
Well with Shredder out of the way, Dark Mu appears in front of the Turtles and tells them she’s going to destroy the planet. She heads off and flies to space. Splinter tells his sons that they need to merge to form Turtle Saint. They used the power of stock footage and shouting their transformation name to combine. Splinter tells them they can only use this form in 100 seconds
Why do I have the feeling they’re going to be in this form longer than 100 seconds?
The space shuttle pilot is still whining to NASA that he didn’t lose his glasses. The Turtles and Dark Mu fly by and nearly hit him. The shuttle itself grew eyes and got angry at the turtles.
Ok, we went from Dragonball Z to Loony Tunes
The forces of good and evil clash but the Turtles have a hard time figuring out which way to attack since Turtle Saint has four minds in one body. Imagine if Devastator’s six components argue on how to punch the Autobots.
The Turtles start comparing their disagreements on how to use their body to which hands they use when preparing rice bowl, miso soup, and chopsticks. Them talking about Japanese food shows that they been raised by Splinter, or it’s the fact this episode is made by Japanese writers. I thinking it's more like the latter.
Crys Mu comes and grabs her evil counterpart behind and….This causes Dark Mu’s boobs to bounce. Yes, your beloved childhood cartoon has bouncing boobs
With the evil fairy in her grip, she tells the TMNT to unleash their final attack to seal up Dark Mu. Saint tells her the final attack will seal her up as well. She and Splinter(who somehow has telepathic powers) tell Saint to go accept Crys Mu’s sacrifice or the planet is gone. Also, it's been more than 100 seconds has pass.
They unleash their final move on them.
Crys Mu said thank you to the TMNT before she and her dark counterpart return to crystal status.
This is kinda sad scene but it's also kinda weird since in the classic cartoon, no one dies. The biggest thing the show had balls to do was blowing up the Channel 6 building in season 8 and that was when the show sort of somewhat went a darker direction. It's just weird seeing someone sacrifice themselves like this.
The TMNT wakes up and find out that they're inside the space shuttle. I don’t know how got in exactly. Did the shuttle activate a tracker beam or something?
They take a look outside the shuttle and see the crystals.
That’s somehow deep for a cheesy 80s cartoon. You never see the Turtles talk like this. Yes the line itself is cheesy but by 80s/90s Turtles standards...Well it's somewhat deep.
The shuttle takes them to Earth as the Turtles comment on whose going to clean up the flood.
That's the 1st episode of this 2-part anime. This is incredibly weird to see the turtles like this, and it doesn't help it's based on the old cartoon. It is fun to laugh at for any fans of the Ninja Turtles or to simply say WTF at the whole thing.
Season 5 of the 2003 series had the Turtles get magical training and fought against a demonic Shredder that can transform into a dragon. Did that season ripoff this obscure special? Well anyways, their powers didn't scream Anime Style!!! The show was far serious to begin with, and the Shredder in the 5th season was establish as a demon to begin with that Shredder from seasons 1-3 took his identity. Season 5 didn't seem weird like this two-episode special.
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