#I'm just not allowed to mention 90's turtles in general

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TMNT Month: Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend The Weird Fun Turtles OVA that Didn't Loose It's Glasses (Comission for Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy heroes in a halfshell and welcome to tmnt month, a celebration of the most radical heroes of all for their 40th. For those just joining, i'm jake I do reviews.. and I ended up having to cut part of this month off as I needed to take the rest of last week off after.. well you know. I was.. not in the best place.

So I wasn't in any shape to write.. not helping was a chaotic weekend turned into week where my sister is in the hosptial. It''s been a slow recovery, but i've gotten there: Migrating from twitter to bluesky has helped as I can just watch people say funny things and talk stuff without getting flavor blasted with a dickhead forcing his opinon on me becuase he owns the place. You can find me there here

That plus seeing Hugh Grant sing radio heads creep and Weird Al and Will Forte give a full throated performance of hot to go, not to mention a loving supportive family, have helped me move past this hard time.

And in these trying times... this is honestly the perfect thing to come back with. A truly bonkers piece of a franchise I dearly love that's fun to dunk on but still genuinely fun to watch. It's insane by TMNT standards which are pretty high. The series is usually running from a pretty batshit place even at it's most grounded. But legend of the supermutants is easily one of the weridest experiments in the franchises history.

It came about for the reasons most things did during the height of the tmnt's popularity in the late 80's and early 90s

This OVA came about because in Japan there was a line of super mutant toys, and soon after another line metal mutants so to promote them, these ovas were crafted by tv tokyo, done in a style similar to the 87 cartoon. Why they didn't make one for the bodacious birthday turtles I have no idea

I mean I want to see pennywise poppin mikey fight raph the magnificent while birthday guest leo watches. Donetello is presumibly dead in this timeline.

In Loving Memory of Shark Fistin Donetello

As for why there wasn't more that's simple: TMNT was petering out at this point , on the final season of the 87 cartoon so there probably wasn't a ton of profit to be had. Now why it hasn't been brought here SINCE is a mystery as it's the kind of curosity tmnt fans would love and a good chunk of the cast is still around to dub it, and by this point nick finally has the rights to the 87 cartoon in full. It could be issues with TV Tokyo we just don't know.

There was also a manga that wasn't offically translated here but you can find on archive.org. It's also bonkers in the conkers, featuring shrinking, creepy masks and fanservice for all

I couldn't review them in here as it was a bit much to try and cram into one review but I also felt i'd be remiss if you all didn't see splinter rocking that loin cloth. I mean come on april , he deseves to show off his toned ass as much as you do.

While you won't get butts with this ova you do get twin faries, Shredder wanting to eat krang , overused running gags, the ending of sonic adventure, the star of ninja gaiden, a fuckton of mirrors, sexy lizardman rocksteady, murder, a seemingly endless joke about glasses, trains, and krang's silky voice used as an instrument of torture. These two episodes are insane, wonderful and I can't wait to show them off under the cut.

The Great Crisis of the Super Turtles! The Turtle Saint Appears!

The Turtle Saint Appears opens with a recap for an episode that dosen't exist, explaning the new status quo for our heroes: So our heroes were summoned by Krys Mu, a magical fairy that guards the mutatstones, 4 powerful stones that can super mutate their user and allow the turtles to become buff more humanoid super charged versions of themselves and also they can fuse now. This power isn't just for good as Cris Mu's evil sister dark mu is contained in an evil mutastone of greed that Krang uses on shredder , bebop and rocksteady since he ain't got no body and he's sad and lonely. Our heroes won and now stand ready. Now you may be having some questions. Valid ones like "Why this wasn't it's own episode", "why is shredder in dope new armor"

, and "Why is rocksteady's form a sexy lizardman"

And rest assured you'll get.. one answer. Just the one. He's very lonely. Shredder's armor is explained in the manga: the turtles destroyed it during their last fight with him, and Krang made him a spiffy new set that also gives him super strength and stuff. Something the special COULD have brought up instead of cramming this all into two minutes but I digress. The rest.. is left pretty vauge and is a bit out of this neck of the franchises usual reliacne on aliens and stuff. This is straight up magic, which I've seen isn't ABSENT, btu they usually use a super science hand wave.

I"m not going to be too harsh on this insanity though for a simple reason: this special was made to sell toys. I grant the 87 cartoon and all turtles cartoons after it show you CAN make a good cartoon and still merchandise the crap out of it, but with just an episode a piece to make a backstory for these and presumibly not just wanting to have an origin story an episode, I get the episodes picking style over subtstance, going for a flashier end of the world plot instead of two origin stories in a row.

We then get our spiffy theme song. It's endearingly cute talking about how their fighting turtles, not ordinary turtles and having a nice peppy bit. it's not my faviorite japanese tmnt opening but it's a close second out of two

I mean you can't hear that and not get hype. You just can't. Fun Fact: this dub also seems to have been done by TVTOKYO.. and didn't quite do so good as the darker astetic didn't play well to fans of the original. Alas.

So onto the episode itself: the stars are going out and to no one's suprise it's that no good bastard Krang done did it. He's feeding the stars to dark mu to power her up. Shredder is less than impressed and his mood dosen't improve when he finds out krang's plan: to blow up the earth

Shredder's temper tantrum increases when he finds out Krang wants them to live in dimension x instead and we move to the next scene as he rants about Krang being an octopus and how he's going to eat them.

We transition from Shredder's poorly disguised fetish to NASA where a scientest up in space notes the stars are going out. Mission Control asks if he has his glasses on. This gag... bothers me. It bothers me on a level it shoudln't especially given what a week i've had, but it's just the same stupid "YOU WEARING YOUR GLASSES" gag repeated. The only varation is someone in his shuttle finding his glasses.. but those were his backups. They just keep hammering this stupid gag into my skull while I pray for Krang to hurry the hell up and win already so this stupid glasses guy can go with the rest of the earth.

April reports on this naturally and we cut back to the turtles, splinter.. and april as it was a pre recorded segment for a change, and they discuss what's going on trying to figure out what this means. Mikey suspects THE ALIENS... and I mean.. he gets shouted down.. but krang IS an alien. He's from another dimension, but he's a creature that can live outside his physical body as a living brain and comes from another planet. He qualifies. I mean Shredder isn't but the special weirdly refers to shredder and the foot clan like he's not the only human member of a team consisting of robot minions, two mutant dummies and a living brain he wants to vore.

Crys Mu chimes in and confirms it's her sister dark mu: she feeds on chaos, sisters am I rite?, and thus this whole business is getting her ready to emerge which would end the world.

She needs more energy though so Krang sends out the dumbass patrol to go cause a ruckuss. The Foot Soldiers aren't present as their on vacation. No really their on vacation and we see them later having a good time on a beach. It's amazing and I applaud the gag. A lot of the humor in this special dosen't quite hit, but that gag is genius. This is why you have unions, with the guild of calamitous intent even henchman get paid days off, mechanical men or not.

So with a crimewave high with muggings mysterious, the Turtles go to tussle with their foes. In a touch I love splinter.. sees this for what it is and gets involved: The turtles go to fight team chucklefuck, and splinter goes to face Krang himself, something I love as... it's not a fight I think we've ever really gotten.

This is down to Splinter's roll in the franchise: he's for the most part the tough but fair mentor. There's been deviations as always: his 2012 self is still tough on the boys a time but has a gentler touch, his rise incarnation is a hot mess content to just binge on snacks and ignore his mountain of trauma, and his mutant mayhem incarnation has all the stern yet wise mentorship you expect.. but is also an INCREDIBLY awkward dad. There's universal traits: the love for his sons, a background in martial arts, the name hamoto yoshi if he was a human. But his roll tends to stand firm: he's there to support and teach the boys and when their without him their at their most frought and vulnerable.

But being the boys dad.. it also means it's a tad less fun to include him at times, and so the boys are mostly left to their own divicies, with Splitner stepping in being a sign shit has gotten THAT bad, like how he shows up during their first fight with the shredder in the 2003 cartoon , at the climax of the live action movie or my personal faviorite in the idw comics when Casey , part of the family at this point, is beaten up by his abusive dad again. Splitner rescues the boy, threatens his dad and makes it clear he's not going anywhere near the boy or else. Incarnations that loose splinter tend to feel lost afterwords wether it's temporary like his kidnapping in the movie or seeming death in rise, or permenant like his deaths in 2012 and IDW. The turtles are pure escapism and execs and writes probably figure kids, adults and whoever don't want their dad hanging over them every step. There to support them, love them and step the fuck in when things are worst.. but giving them space to let them just caper and have fun on their own. To have their own adventures.

As a result when Krang shows up, Splinter usually either isn't there to intervene, or assumes they can handle it. The 2012 series has him mildly involved, but he's more heavily involved with the foot storyline due to Shredder's unending hatred of him. Krang is just another one of the weridos his son punches in the face. Shredder is as much his arch enemy in most continuties as he is the boys.

So it's neat to see them square off.. but sadly there isn't an actual fight. The fights in this ova are mostly just.. people shooting their special attacks at one another. It LOOKS cool and what not but you can tell they didn't have the budget for actual full on fights and use sharp cuts and what not. So the turtles grapple with the super troopers while Splinter and Krang just .. make banter. It's disapointing. I mean I can play shredders revenge again and play the second to last level but it's just not the same. I do like that when they get flooded out of the lair Krang chastises Splinter for leaving the door open and the joke of Krang being more upset SPlinter barged in unannounced with Krys Mu by his side.

Sadly that flood means: it's time. the fight between the turtles and team chucklefuck lasted just long enough for him to do a sonic adventure and flood new york. Now our heroes gotta open their hearts or else, as Dark Mu arrises and she's.. Krys mu but iwth black hair, a sexier outfit and more power. Krang naturally has her use it on shredder and this is where this up to this point entirely normal special about the turtles turning into roided up versions of themselves who look meh and fight super versoins of their enemies, inclduign shredder as a giant terrifying dragon man for some reason, goes off the rails. Krang makes his shredder grow.. and as a result shredder is a GIANT MONSTER. Wow this really is the climax to a sonic game.

So Raph says what we're all thinking "Shit". Casual swearing in Japanese Childrens Media, you love to see it. We then get the greatest moment in either episode as splinter launches a giant murder ball of energy at the turtles.. and Splinter FUCKING CATCHES IT. Keep in mind Splinter dosen't have a mutastone, is deep in middle age, and isn't hurt at all from this, while Shredder has been given DOUBLE mutastone power and made into a fucking kaiju.. and Splinter STILL fucking blocked the attack. The action here may be slowly portioned out, but dman if it isn't fluid when it happens.

THe boys and splinter escape into april's news helicopter, which shredder bats at like a kitten. So Donnie.. has a clever plan. And a really clever one. He gets down there and fucking BAITS kaiju shredder, goading him into attacking a building.. enough to SAW IT IN HALF SO IT FALLS ON TOP OF HIM. Look this special is silly as fuck but you can't say it's not amazing. Donnie dropped a building on a fucking kaiju shredder.

Dark Mu decides to just fly into space and kill everyone because she can do that. She always could. Shut up. So the turtles have to use their ultimate power. The Turtle Saint. You think they'd save this for the line blatantly riping off saint seyia but no, their going full saint now merging into a bigger turtle man. And since I have the opprotunjity I gotta say.. the deisgns for the super turtles are mid as hell

Now i will give credit where it's due. The masks are dope as fuck. Their cool, heroic, and really pop. The rest though.. is just the turtles as more humanoid. Their pretty standard super humans and ther'es no diffrence between the four. Which is normal sure, but in a toyline that also got as weird and creative as "let's make raph a birthday magician", they could do better. I"m not saying "Let's make Raph a Birthday Magician is the peak of creativity.. but it is amazing.

The saint mode is a bit bettery. I don't like how white it is and wish it's midsection was yellow or green instead of blue, as Blue is leo's color. Same iwth the max. You could've made the belt Blue to represent leo. It gives the impression he's in control instead of what the Saint is: all four of them controlling one body. I still like it more than the base form though: while the coloring is off, it looks less generic, with the superhero outfit, mighty sword, giant wings and turtle feet more visable but also armored. It gives a better impression of this being a super mode the turtles use than the regular super mutation.

I also like how the saint functions: it has a three minute time limit, explaning why they don't just use it and beat everyone up, and it's HARD to use. Simliar to waht Steven Universe would do eventually, the fusion relies on the boys working in synch mentally.. and given how their all so vastly diffrent: the dutiful son, the angry wiseass, the loveable goofus and the science boy, it's very hard to actually CONTROL saint mode. So while it's mostly played for laughs Dark Mu genuinely dominates the fight and our heroes can't land a hit. I like when a super mode has limits, that it's not just an instant win button but something that you have to master.

So to win the day Crys Mu sacrifcies herself, pulling a goku and grabbing her sibling so the turtles can kill them both. They naturally don't want to stab their friend.. but Crys insures them as a spirit she can't die.

So naturallyt hey pull off their finisher for crys and kill both fairies. The turtles are then picked up by nasa. And... in a dark time such as this.. it's so nice that i'm getting paid to write that and to have watched that.

The turtles look out and see the crystals floating in space, implying both farieis survivied but are now trapped in the void... then we end on a joke and some end credits so we're just moving on from that. Crys and Dark only get mentioned in the opening credits. While Mutastones are involved it's pretty much a complete soft reset: the turtles mutastones are inert, so they need a fresh set and kenner needs a fresh set of toys to plug soooooooooo....

The Coming of the Guardian Beasts - The Metal Turtles Appears!

So for this adventure

And so are the turtles as Splitner got a message from a hidden ninja villiage he's cool with that needs his help. The thing is the setup makes more sense than last time: Splinter and Shredder ARE from Japan, and while Splinter got framed and thrown out of the foot clan, given what Shredder turned it into it's not a shock he'd still have allies who'd want his help.

Mikey of course goofs around and then has to shove himself into the taxi in a great bit of physical comedy. Back with Team Dumpdumb, Krang has found a new mutastone and wants Shredder to go get it, who bitch cries about how the mutastones are all trouble, he dosen't get beat up and how women are in star wars now and that displeases him. Krang gets him to do his bidding the usual way... by laughing in a very annoying high pitched voice till shredder does what he says. I know the 87 shredder isn't the most compitent shredder.. but I have to belivie he can outlast a laugh and go five minutes without whining like a toddler.

So they get teleported to Japan.. on top of a bullet train. The turtles are interrupted from a riviting conversation with a passenger about what thomas the tank engine character they are to deal with this.. and also have to hang the fuck on. I love this as until archer I hadn't thought of how.. fucking hard it'd be to actually fight on top of a moving vechile let lone one this fast, and it's a great gag. The turtles don't have to fight though as NINJAS arrive, including their leader and the one who sent for splinter, Hattori Kinzo who looks distractingly like Ryu, the protaganist of Ninja Gaiden

They use some shurikens to knock shredder off a train, again love this job so much, and take the turtles to their villiage to get their help. As it turns out he needs help guarding a sacred mirror that contains a set of sacred stones, fresh new mutastones. Unfortuantely for them a ghost of a bandit or something whose not really explaind shows uand just .. laughs. Yeah why the ghost came back is never really explained, he's left vauge as to if he's helping the turtles or team shredder.

Speaking of team ran out of names, they find our heroes and the shrine grows into a castle everyone starts climbing. eventually though raph questions

So they split up: the non mutant ninjas keep climbing and the mutant ninjas take the stairs.

This ends up not mattering as Bebop, Rocksteady and shredder beat the turtles and while Team Ninja tries to throw fake mirrors everywhere it fails and Shredder grabs the mirror.

So after beating Ninja Gaiden we get ARMORED versions of the villians. And look i've only read maybe a volume of saint seia, a manga about our boys they can be heroes, and frankly even that little tells me their just using the same gimmic, replacing the animals of the western astrological zodiac with animals of the chinese zodiac. That said while the concepts a blatant knockoff.. they do a good job making it thir own. If you compare the designs

There's defintely some similarites in the head pieces, but they vary it up enoguh int he actual armor to still feel creative and they look dope. Each one fits the turtles: Leo has a samurai garb, Raphs flame motif fits him and his animal, michealngeo has warm round edges and donnie's looks mildly cybernetic. It's smallt ouches but it's clear the animators put a bunch of thought into it. The toys themselves well.

Yeah these do not look great, with the indviduality gone for the most part and the armor clunkily fitting over previously existing molds. While I get the point of this it dosent look great. The designs for the others also look sharp: SHredder gets white tiger armor a perfect contrast to Leo's dragon, Rocksteady gets errr snakes and Bebop is a pirhana for some reason.

`I esepcailly love shredders looking like a dope upgrade of his normal look.

Our heroes are at a disadvantage easily getting curb stommped until the ghost who pointed shredder to the mirror.. helps them get it. Our heroes get their forms. And no I don't quite get the spider either but it looks cool and the fight here is a bit more intenstive if still mostly calling special moves. but the moves look spiffy and the finale is excellent. Shredder tries to retreaate as he didn't know till Ninja Gaiden explained it that the suits hav ea time limit so we get a neat beam struggle between him and leo.. that ends when the time limit comes too. The bad guys are beat but still have thier stones, but our heroes have theirs, everyone celebrates and the castle collapses because why not. NOTHING WAS RESOLVED

I like the metal mutants episode more as I write about it. The first one is more batshit insane, but this feels like a more solidly put together story. I mean it's still nuts, yo uhave the random ghost, but it feels far more in line with 87 tmnt: plenty of jokes but nice stakes and action to go with them and a premise and setup that could easily slot into the show before the red sky days.

Overall theses ovas are goofy fun. Probably not among the best turtles content but fun unique toy tie ins that are just long and batshit enough to be fun, but not so long they outstayed their welcome. I would've loved a full TMNT anime and still would at some point, but this is a pretty neat piece of turtles nonsense right when I needed it most. Thanks for reading.