This is one bat shit crazy take on the Ninja Turtle franchise!
I hate to word it like this but this take on Ninja Turtles is very… Japanese. I think they were trying to fill a Japanese anime stereotype quota when the made this. You got giant robot looking things, power upgrade transformations, wacky facial expressions, goofy humor, fairy’s, ninjas, over the top dramatic fighting… Why was this even made?! Well the answer to that is: to sell toys. TV Tokyo produced this as a promotional tool to sell two new lines of Ninja Turtle figures in Japan: The Super Mutant line (first OVA) and the Metal Mutant line (second OVA). You can check out the commercials for these toys below!
So, the for the first OVA in a nut shell, the story goes like this: The Turtles find a fairy trapped inside a Muta Stone in the Temple of the Lost Muta Kingdom. As a reward for freeing her, she gives the Turtles the ability to transform into Super Turtles for 3 minutes, this transformation is called “Super Mutation”. How they even got to the temple or anything like that, I have no idea but the OVA begins with this story established. But wait, it get’s even more insane… When all four Turtles are transformed they can combine together (fusion?) and become what they call “Turtle Saint”. Oh and the bad guys conveniently found the dark energy stone so, they have more or less the same type of powers. Luckily, this is all explained within the first minute or so of the OVA…
In the second OVA the, the Turtles, Splinter and April head to Japan to help Kinzou Hattori to get rid of a ghost problem in the Hattori House. Meanwhile Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rockstread just zap themselves to Japan and try to steal the Tablet of the Seven Elements so that they can obtain Guardian Beasts powers.
The theme song is pretty catchy. It’s actually the same in both OVA’s. In typical Japanese fashion the song is all about fighting spirit, courage and not backing down from a fight…
You can check out a small sample of the opening for yourself…
Now for the most part, everyone looks the same as they did in the original cartoon…
But for some odd reason they decided to change up Shredders character design. And the funny thing is, it’s different from the one OVA to the next…
OVA 1 Shredder…
OVA 2 Shredder…
Speaking of character designs, I’m not too crazy about the Super Mutation Turtles. They look too much like humans. They actually have a human nose and mouth. It just doesn’t look right to me…
In the second OVA when they got the Metal Mutation, I didn’t like those character designs either. I think they just look too damn bulky. And on top of that they have a metal animal they’re assigned to. It’s just… a little over the top for me.
So are these features any good? Well, me personally I think they’re alright. I think it was just cool to see the Turtles in an anime. It’s a little over the top and a little too… off the wall? Although, the animation is a huge step up from the original cartoon and the plot is bigger and deeper than any of the weekly episodes of the original series. I’m a casual Ninja Turtle fan so perhaps that’s why I’m not entirely loving these features. Speaking of the plots being bigger. At some points it’s easy to forget you’re watching a Ninja Turtles cartoon. For example, take this scene. The Turtles are fighting the evil fairy (from the dark Mutastone) in space as Turtle Saint. She is pretty much kicking their asses, until the good fairy steps in and sacrifices herself, trapping them both into two different crystals. What?! That alone sounds nothing like any Ninja Turtles episode I’ve seen and these OVA’s are filled with that kinda stuff. Check the scene out for yourself and you’ll see what I mean…
But on the flip side, there are also scenes that are reminiscent of the original cartoon, with the addition of the anime style, that is. I think I like these classic scenes more…
So the bottom line. If you’re an anime fan or Ninja Turtle fan, these will probably keep you entertained. I mean, it’s not terrible it’s just very different from the typical Ninja Turtles formula. They even tried to milk this with a soundtrack album. None of the songs or background music was really memorable, I can’t imagine someone buying this to enjoy the music.
