Tatsu's Ineffectiveness

[Donnie]

Upon re-watching the original TMNT trilogy for the zillionth time, I noticed something that hadn't really caught my attention in previous viewings. Tatsu is so darned ineffective as a second-in-command. In the first film, he fights his own side in training and out of anger more than he fights his enemies. He crashes April's apartment, and if you look closely he literally just stands there nodding while the Foot do all the work, fighting the Turtles. At the end, he BARELY fights Casey. In the second film, he's even worse. I don't recall a single scene where he fights, save for the end scene in which he just gets smashed by the Turtles's shells.

Throughout history, many leaders or kings have chosen not to fight, and let their warriors do all the work for them until they had no other choice. But with all of Tatsu's grunts and angry stares and intimidation, you'd think the guy would have gotten his hands dirtier.

[Powder]

Yeah, I noticed this in recent years myself. He just stands there & intimidates teenagers, basically. He can kick their asses, but not any of the turtles or Casey.

He was effective at looking cool as hell, at least. Definitely left a lasting impression the fans, who longed for his return over two decades!

That said, despite being considerably less useful, I still prefer him to Hun.

[oldmanwinters]

Dude, that was his whole shtick in Hyperstone Heist!

[Coola Yagami]

Well to be honest.... had Casey not found a golf club, Tatsu would have whupped his ass. There was nothing Casey could really go against him.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Powder

Yeah, I noticed this in recent years myself. He just stands there & intimidates teenagers, basically. He can kick their asses, but not any of the turtles or Casey.

He was effective at looking cool as hell, at least. Definitely left a lasting impression the fans, who longed for his return over two decades!

That said, despite being considerably less useful, I still prefer him to Hun.

Atleast when he does resurface Hun isn't used as fodder and killed off in two issues/episodes.

Donnie, I never really thought about it,but you are right. It was always right there in front of us,but it took x years into adulthood to see it.

Another thing that bugged me as an adult was Shredder who fell into the garbage truck was in effect taken to the Foot's fallback spot, the Junk Yard yet why would a garbage truck go to a junk yard instead of a landfill/the dump? I assumed it was all the same thing as a kid thanks to Secret of the Ooze.

[Donnie]

Winters - Haha, totally forgot about that. A very true to character adaptation.

Originally Posted by Powder

Yeah, I noticed this in recent years myself. He just stands there & intimidates teenagers, basically. He can kick their asses, but not any of the turtles or Casey.

Exactly. And he gave a mean stare down to Professor Perry in SotO.

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

Another thing that bugged me as an adult was Shredder who fell into the garbage truck was in effect taken to the Foot's fallback spot, the Junk Yard yet why would a garbage truck go to a junk yard instead of a landfill/the dump? I assumed it was all the same thing as a kid thanks to Secret of the Ooze.

One of the many facets of that story that doesn't make much sense, haha. Even as a kid, I wondered to myself: how in the hell is Shredder still alive, when we see him get crushed by the truck? Never made sense!

[Wesley]

I only watched all the original trilogy for the first time recently, but I agree with what Donnie said about Tatsu. Tatsu at least looked badass in the first film, though.

[pferreira]

I agree with Casey he could really use something to clear up his throat.

[Andrew NDB]

What does the regular actor sound like, anyway? Does he have like a Mike Tyson voice? I never understood why they bothered dubbing another actor over him for so few, tiny lines.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

What does the regular actor sound like, anyway? Does he have like a Mike Tyson voice? I never understood why they bothered dubbing another actor over him for so few, tiny lines.

Good question. I'm not aware of any of his other projects outside of TMNT.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Donnie

Good question. I'm not aware of any of his other projects outside of TMNT.

I was curious if the reason was he could not speak English. So I looked up interview clips and could only find clips like the above of Obata speaking Japanese. Also, in Demolition Man he only grunts if I am not mistaken.

[Andrew NDB]

But I mean, whether he speaks English or not, if it's just one or two lines in like 2 places... you can still memorize them. If I'm in a movie in France, I'm pretty sure I can memorize some French lines to say.

[drewizzle88]

I watched a interview with him from 2008 in English and I didn't even realize he was speaking English at first.

*EDIT* found the interview

https://youtu.be/DzBxEr9kvqM

skip to 6:19

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

But I mean, whether he speaks English or not, if it's just one or two lines in like 2 places... you can still memorize them. If I'm in a movie in France, I'm pretty sure I can memorize some French lines to say.

Its something I have long wanted to ask someone in involved about. Perhaps Barron or another official felt children may not understand him when they filmed so that is why he did not have much more than simple lines and grunted. I found a link here that suggest just this and that Obata could not speak English. While I agree we could learn a few lines of another language and say it for the film so logically so could the Japanese actor,but its just not the direction the creators went in.
https://books.google.com/books?id=80...ish%3F&f=false

[newhire13]

It’s not uncommon. I’m sure he did the dialogue on set, maybe after reviewing everything his voice just didn’t have the feel they needed. Or, he was struggling too much with the dialogue and they wanted something clearer. Maybe they just really liked his look and always planned on dubbing it. But yeah, it’s so common I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for it.