TMNT: Superman Legend // Licensed to Cash-In
Anime covers a ton of genres, a ton of ideas, and almost all of them can be twisted in a way that is uniquely Japanese. However, what happens when Japan decides to take a crack at an American IP? Do they make a similar product, or do they just go whole hog wild and crazy?
Take a wild guess.
What we’re looking at today is the legendarily weird Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. Created in 1984 as a parody of Frank Miller’s time on Daredevil by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, it took only a few issues before the mutants themselves were in space, fighting against alien triceratops. The cartoon from 1987 ramped up the weird, lasting 10 years as one of the longest-running saturday morning cartoons without a name change or rebranding.
It did go through a massive art shift by the eighth season, though.
These later seasons are known as the “red sky” era by fans, as the skies are literally red in most scenes for style reasons.
Come 1996, the franchise was suffering in America for several reasons. The third theatrical motion picture (released in 1993) had made back double its budget, but the critical and audience reception drove New Line Cinema to reject ideas for a fourth movie. The fact that they literally could not make the movies any cheaper didn’t help things. This would eventually result in the Next Mutation television series coming from Bandai the following year to a seriously mixed reception.
1996 was also the last year of the original cartoon series, which had been dipping in the ratings thanks to strong competition from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. The toy line itself was also running dry of ideas, having made official crossover figures with Star Trek and the Universal Pictures library of classic monsters a couple of years back.
Finally, a Captain Kirk who doesn’t mind admitting he wears a hairpiece!
These molds genuinely look amazing. I wanted them so bad as a kid.
That Raphael was something I also wanted badly. Especially after I’ve now seen This Island Earth.
No, seriously. As you can see, they even did the Universal Classic Monsters twice, though making April the bride to Michaelo’s monster is questionable. Perhaps plans to make Donatello the Phantom of the Opera (the one missing “classic monster”) fell through due to the success of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, but that’s just speculation on my part.
Sales in Japan were a little better, but the show had been taken off the air by this time, and had been dubbed by at least two completely different translation teams on different networks at different times. And yes, each network had their own voice actors. It must have been massively confusing. In fact, 1996 had the series taken off of TV Tokyo at the time, replacing the cartoon with the new fairly obscure anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.
However, Playmates’ (the company in charge of the action figures) had some figures that they really wanted to hype up in Japan. As such, they shoved money at Bee Media and Tsuburaya Productions to make a pair of direct-to-video episodes, known as an OVA or Original Video Animation.
And they are crazy.
The VHS cover of the first OVA episode.
Officially titled Mutant Turtles: Chojin Densetsu-Hen, or Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend for those who speak English, the two episodes focused on specific sub-lines that look to have been made to appeal to the Japanese audience… though most of these figures had already been released in America at this time. Both episodes use the dubbing cast hired by TV Tokyo, which appears to have been the more commonly used cast. This includes Daiki Nakamura as Leonardo and Hidenari Ugaki as Donatello. Unique theme songs seem to have been made up for the pair of episodes, featuring the theme Power Up Turtles being sung by the legendary Hironobu Kageyama.
The first episode, The Great Crisis of the Super Turtles! The Saint Appears!, was released on May 21st, 1996. This episode focused specifically on the Super Mutant sub-line of action figures from 1994. These were hyper-stylized figures who eschewed the slightly chunky design of the 1987 era of the franchise, instead looking like they came from American comic books at the time. Chiseled muscles, a team logo on their chest, facemasks that look taken from Image Comics, and massive weapons were the order of the day.
Why yes, Rocksteady does look rather naked.
Like most toy line variants from Playmates, this never really made it to the cartoon in America. However, this episode was designed specifically to hype this toy line. As such, you would assume that the episode would be about introducing these new forms, and setting up a simple story to hype up the figures. You would think.
The three minute timer is never followed.
Instead, the audience is giving a crash-course in what gave the turtles their powers. They followed Shredder to a lost island, awoke a fairy called Crys-Mu, and she granted them the powers to turn into hyper forms of themselves. This can only happen thanks to the Mutastones, which the Turtles activate by shouting out “Super mutation!”
Also, Shredder, Rocksteady, and Bebop have their own super mutant forms, despite Shredder not being a mutant. Honestly, they look fairly badass.
Yes. That’s the Shredder in the middle, looking like a bootleg Digimon.
...oh, and the Turtles can also fuse into one super-being called the Turtle Saint, thanks to the magic of anime.
Thanks for spoiling the shocking revelation less than 2 minutes into the show.
All of this is spilled before the massively dramatic opening sequence. Japanese fans would have been at least familiar with some of this, as this OVA actually spins out of a weird little manga called Super Turtles that set all of this up.
Not that anyone in America would have known this. When I first saw this as a fansub off a burned CD from a friend in high school, it was royally confusing.
Anyhow, Shredder, Krang, Rocksteady and Bebop are all in space for vague reasons. They are experimenting on their own Dark Mutastone, and the stars of the universe start blinking out. Relaxing in their sewer lair, the turtles wonder what could be at fault. Their new friend Crys-Mu knows, however.
That’s Leo for you: pushing the exposition.
Dark Mu! Dark Mu is an evil fairy held within the Dark Mutastone, keeping their branding on point. The art style is also remarkably fantastic for this OVA, with a great cleaned-up version of the 1987 cartoon designs. There’s just a slight exaggeration that works well, but it feels like these could almost be “lost episodes” of the original series. Aside from everyone speaking Japanese, anyhow.
Now that they know who is likely at fault, the turtles charge up to the surface to fight Shredder and his minions. They happen to be literally around the corner, thanks to Krang randomly banishing them to the middle of New York City. Everyone uses their stock footage to transform, and a battle begins. While losing rather quickly, Shredder demands to have Foot Soldiers sent to help out.
But Krang can’t. He gave them all a vacation.
This is amazing. Can we get a NECA figure of this?
Krang reminds Shredder that he gave the three of them power-enhancing items, and Shredder decides to finally make use of them. This gives Shredder, Rocksteady, and Bebop the power to access hyper-anime-powers and they use them with vigor.
Shredder: Anime as Hell
Meanwhile, Master Splinter and Crys-Mu confront Krang at his base, trying to prevent the pink brain from resurrecting Dark Mu from inside the Dark Mutastone. Unfortunately, Dark Mu awakens, and the Earth itself shakes with fear at her power. Tornadoes rip across Miami, for example, wrecking the holiday the Foot Soldiers are on. A tsunami threatens New York, with the massive wave overtaking the Statue of Liberty.
This same tsunami stops the fight, with the evil super mutants getting washed away while the Turtles hang out on the rooftops.
Oh, sweet. They’re getting ready for Archie Comics’ dark future TMNT.
Everyone somehow reunites outside the flooded Statue of Liberty, with the Technodrome just floating around nearby. Krang is jubilant in his own way, as Dark Mu is awake!
This is someone’s fetish.
She strikes the Shredder down with a massive bolt of dark energy, only for it to actually transform the Shredder into a kaiju!
Shockingly, he does not seem to have an action figure. Not even as a giveaway.
Michelangelo seems to have the right attitude.
The Dark Devil Shredder launches a massive Dragon Ball Z attack at the turtles, the size of a small building. Luckily, Master Splinter somehow catches it and stops it, despite treading water some 20 stories above the flooded New York streets.
Realizing they’re out of options, the Turtles combine their Mutastones and-
-actually, they play silly games in the flooded streets of New York, causing millions of dollars in damage by dropping likely-populated buildings on the head of the Dark Devil Shredder. It puts him down, but Dark Mu announces her plans to destroy everything, starting with the Earth. Finally, they choose to merge into the Turtle Saint and fly up into space to take down Dark Mu.
They also then fly up into space, and reveal that the four turtles are each in charge of their individual pieces when in Saint Turtle form. Flailing around comically, the Saint Turtle barely survives attack after attack, but Crys-Mu grabs Dark Mu and asks for the Turtles to kill both of them at the same time. This will, in theory, kill them both. The Turtles hesitate, not wanting to kill a friend. Then the ghost of Master Splinter shows up and says he’s cool with it.
Time for two faeries to die! As the two explode, the 3 minute timer for the Super Mutation form expires… and somehow drops them off in the American space shuttle Endeavor rather than letting them die in space. Unfortunately, the Mutastones were left in space, and the Turtles can no longer transform. They collectively shrug as the shuttle Endeavor goes home, and the credits roll.
As for the toys that this show was hyping up, they’re surprisingly well represented without getting in the way of telling a reasonably good story. They look awesome, a few of them launch off anime finishing moves, and the animation is great enough to make them look sweet in motion. However, there is a figure that we never got in America!
Yes, Saint Turtle got a sweet release. Like the other Japanese releases of the Super Hero line, the Saint Turtle comes with a shell to mimic their pre-transformation forms. He also has a massive sword, and wings. While the most basic rendition of the Super Hero figures did release in America, we certainly didn’t get this sweet vacuum-metallized super Turtle.
When doing research for this article, I even found out that we got different figures than Japan did. While America’s figures in the Super Mutant line were big, massive, and super heroic, the Japanese ones were actually smaller in scale to make the transformation from normal turtle to Super Mutant more affordable. Pixel Dan on YouTube put up a solid comparison:
That’s the American ones on the left, looking ‘roided out.
And as for the Saint Turtle?
Not gonna lie, he looks positively badass in that painted and chromed silver. These figures can be found on eBay for absurd prices, but they’re probably worth it if you’re into those Lean, Green Mutant Machines. There doesn’t seem to have been a non-Turtle in this Japan-only style, but that just makes the taller-than-normal Rocksteady, Bebop, and Shredder larger and more threatening for play.
Coming exactly one year later, the second toy commercial in animated form was released: The Coming of the Guardian Beasts: The Metal Turtles Appear! This one focuses on the Metal Mutants line, which feature metallic beasts that the four Turtles and Shredder can fuse with to take armored forms. These were somewhat similar to the Cyber Samurai line, where the Turtles and their foes donned metal armor built into the figure to become giant futuristic Samurai mecha… but with a twist taken from Saint Seiya in terms of all the armor now being chromed in various colors. It’s really striking.
I also kind of dig the un-armored armor the Turtles are wearing. It gives them uniforms without being overly uniform, giving them almost a Power Rangers feel.
The armors, though, look amazing. Also, Leo seems to be missing his hat.
The armors themselves also formed beasts that could stand alongside the Turtles or Shredder, and they looked quite incredible on the toy shelf. There were even plans for a Metal Armor Bebop and Rocksteady, as early toy catalogue previews show. These designs even show up in the anime, but not in any of the commercials we see included on the tapes. Here is one of the few looks we have, however, and they look fairly awesome.
It’s a real shame. They look kinda awesome.
Oh, and there was also going to be some recycling of the third American movie’s figures, as an armored horse was also planned. Weird!
And it looks like the wiki picture was also missing a sword?
But enough about these toys. What was the episode about? Well, the viewer is given a crash course on the previous episode, with the events of Dark Mu vs Crys-Mu. It fills time, saves on budget, and allows for the narrator to give us a new nickname for the turtles:
Again, I really love this version of the 87 designs.
With New York City still devastated from the massive flood from last episode, the Turtles have decided to go to Japan. No one seems to care that they went on public airlines, and are parading around in public, though. I mean, Tokyo and NYC are both filled with what people would consider “weirdos,” but 4 foot tall talking turtles?
Cramming four turtles, a human-rat, and an intrepid reporter into a taxi, the Turtles seem to have a mission. Meanwhile, Krang is driving Shredder nuts by continually laughing for hours on end. It turns out the Technodrome has located a new mutastone in the middle of Tokyo. Shredder suffers from some mutastone-based PTSD, while Krang verbally abuses him and demands he fetch the mcguffin.
Meanwhile, the Turtles take Japan’s impressive train system to their destination.
I swear, this is more of an advert for Japan than it is for toys.
It turns out that Hattori Kinzo from a ninja village hidden deep within Japan has called upon Splinter for help. The note is literally the letters “HELP” written in calligraphy across a scroll, which is genuinely hilarious. As it turns out, Shredder and his cronies have also hopped the same train… by being dropped in front of it, being hit by it, and sliding down the side of the train in front of the Turtles. The humor level is much higher for this episode, and it’s rather appreciated here.
Atop the high speed bullet train, the Turtles try to face off against their foes, only for everyone to nearly fall off the train. Once Shredder hears he’s in Japan, he’s overcome.
Also, Shredder has some new armor for these OVAs. It’s kinda weird, but it works.
Shredder is blown to the back of the train by the wind, but Rockstready and Bebop decide to push what little advantage they have and use their blasters… for the first time in years.
Rocksteady & Bebop being effective? In my Turtles?
Considering the series had bounced back and forth between being less violent and being absurdly comical in the later years before the serious ‘Red Sky’ seasons, this is genuinely bizarre to see. The turtles scatter, running away from the blasters. Luckily, the very ninjas who asked for help appear, sending dozens of ninja stars flying to cause Shredder, Rocksteady, and Bebop to fly off the train.
The reason why Hanzo and the ninja village asked for help is because of their sacred mirror. A treasure to be guarded, it also happens to have special stones inlaid on the back. These stones are called “Miyuu Taishi,” which sounds stunningly like “Mutastone” in Japanese. Now we know what the Shredder is after!
The Turtles are also given some totally sweet armor by the Ninjas that isn’t just to sell toys. Honest.
Buy all four now!
Shredder, Rocksteady, and Bebop all show up to steal the mirror, and Hanzo the ninja makes the small shrine they’re in explode. This somehow results in a massive castle rising up from the crater, holding the mirror on the roof. It’s anime. I’m not going to ask questions.
And so a race ensues, with everyone doing their best to climb the fortress to reach the mirror first. While they climb, the Ninja reveals that the mirror will enhance the powers of anyone who looks at it. This means that those who are evil will become empowered with evil, while those who are good will be empowered with good.
Shredder and his goons reach the top first, but the Ninjas are able to hide the mirror among dozens of imitations. Unfortunately, now no one knows which is the true mirror. So now it’s a real scramble to find the mcguffin!
Also, Krang is now here. Because!
They literally just run past him.
Shredder is able to find the magical mirror, and summons the power of three spirits to him, Bebop, and Rocksteady. They become empowered and gain the armor this anime was made to hype. As mentioned, despite never having their figures released, Bebop and Rocksteady use those exact designs.
There’s also only a six minute window in which someone can be empowered, so it kind of undermines much of the tension in the plot.
Luckily, the Turtles are also able to get their hands on the mirror, and summon up the four guardian beasts of hope.4
The armors don’t look as cool without the metallic chrome.
Everyone launches their most anime attacks, sending energy animals and massive explosions at one another. It comes down to a Dragon Ball esque energy assault, when the time for Shredder, Rocksteady, and Bebop expires and their armor poofs away. Shredder is able to remove the three stones on the mirror representing their armors, but the mirror remains behind.
And that’s it! Presumably, there’s an untold adventure where the stones are returned and the powerups are lost… but the credits just roll like they ran out of budget. Considering it was made to just hype up some action figures, it makes a demented level of sense.
These are genuinely some good bits of Ninja Turtle content. Yeah, it’s weird to hear the Turtles talk in Japanese. Yeah, there’s a lot of minor quirks that are unique to Japan in the voice acting, but the animation’s style fits great with the old series. There was no American release, so you get to rely on some fansubber’s translation, but it seems accurate enough to what little Japanese I’ve absorbed through anime.
This isn’t the only time Japan has made use of an American property for some original content, nor was it even the first. After all, there’s the infamous Batman manga, and the excellent live-action Spider-Man show that introduced the world to giant robots fighting alongside spandex-costumed heroes.
What, thought I was joking?
It’s a wild and weird world, guys. We just live in it.
