Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend: The Fowl Mouthed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles you WISH you had!

Teenage Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend was never officially released in the United States. Clips can be found on YouTube. It was officially licensed by Mirage, owner of all things TMNT.

Do not adjust your monitor. There is nothing wrong with you.

Yes, this is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles anime.

Yes, it's official.

And yes, it's rated for adults, because WOW the language!!

I want you to imagine the original 1987-1996 TMNT cartoon, mixed with Sailor Moon, with R rated language and generic anime bewbs thrown in. That's what you are in for if you can find a copy of this forgotten OVA.

So once upon a time, it was 1996. While the TMNT craze had died down in America, it was still a hot property in Japan, with a new toyline just hitting the market from Takara. With a blessing from Fred Wolf, the man behind the 1987 TMNT cartoon series, TV Tokyo went straight to work producing a two episode OVA for the newest toys, Supermutants and Metal Mutation. The shows were put on VHS tapes, and launched for the Japanese market on May 21st, 1996.

Fred Wolf, Mirage and the original TMNT team, sent over used cels from the original cartoon, which pop up every few frames, amid newer, anime-style updates of everyone's favorite characters.

You can just smell the merchandise through the screen watching the 25 minute episodes, which speed you through a story before you have a chance to grasp what's going on. And fans of the original cartoon may cringe when they see the updated story.

Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo all call each other Leo-chan, Dona-chan, Raph-chan and Mike-chan, which is funny and hard on the ears at the same time. For those who don't know, -chan is usually reserved for  children, young girls and your ultra-whipped boyfriend. Guys usually tack on -kun, which is for male friends. All four are flakey, and require Splinter to tell them their every move.

April has unsettling peach lipstick, a reduced bust-line and harsh, blue eyes. They tried too hard to make her look more American than she does in the old cartoon. But overall, her character is less annoying than her US counterpart, which is helped by the fact that Emi Shinohara voices her. Emi voiced her while wrapping up work as Sailor Jupiter for Sailor Moon Sailor StarS for those who don't know.

Splinter, BeBop and Rocksteady all look exactly as they do in the cartoon, albeit the latter two have more animated gestures. 

Krang for the most part looks normal, but has the worst anime voice I have ever heard. Shrill and screeching, his laugh is like nails on a chalkboard.

Shredder is the most drastically changed. He can now transform into a hideous (and cool looking) bone monster, but his non-transformed state is that of a teenaged girl, living inside the body of an evil warlord. He's a crybaby, whiny, and not very believable until transformed, picture Sailor Moon as Shredder.

Joining the cast is Crys-Mu, an ancient fairy spirit that grants the Turtles Muta Stones, which allows them to become humanoid, steroidal turtles for three minutes at a time. Her nemesis is Dark Mu, an evil spirit who briefly aids Krang.  In the second episode, we also find a gang of ninjas, who used to be Splinter's students before he arrived in America.

The first episode sees Krang trying to blow up the Earth by harnessing magic from Dark Mu, with the intent of eventually going back to Dimension X, while the second episode follows the Turtles to Japan, where the group of four earns Shogun-style armor in a fight against Shredder.

The language fits the scene, but can be unsettling to long-time fans of the show. We're not just talking an occasional "Damn" like Raphael dropped on us in the first live action film. Oooooh no no no no no. We're talking shit, we're talking questionable references, and the popular fansub never added those in, they are in the original script! Nice going Japan, nothing like adult language and a toyline aimed at 5 year olds!

Half of the animation is all gags and humor-based, while the other half of the episodes features stunning, fast paced action scenes. It's a real shame this never made it officially to America, but YouTube is rife with clips of the 90's fansub.

If you can get a chance , give the OVA a try. There's a twinge of nostalgia hidden in this mass of blatant marketing, and it's a must see for original fans of TMNT. Like the cartoons, it has absolutely nothing to do with the comic book, but the campy humor makes up for it.

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