Anime Influences in each series

[NeonTurtledude]

I've noticed that anime influences have been used a lot in TMNT, while it became more noticeable in the 2012,2003 and rise series, I think there are hints of it in the fred wolf cartoon aswell, while there was the 90s ova, that one is more obvious.

like the first season of the Fred Wolf series was animated by Toei, but there are some scenes where their signature style is noticeable, it's in a lot of the facial expressions, especially with Donatello, and there's also April who was inspired by Fujiko Mine from Lupin for her design and you can see that in her big black detailed eyes.

While you could say that the Fred wolf cartoon is the one that looks most like a "western cartoon", I really like the anime-esque style,

what do you think of TMNT taking inspiration from anime for different iterations?

[IndigoErth]

If there is it makes me wonder what people even consider to be anime these days? The FW looks like a regular late 80s/early 90s Western style cartoon to me.

2003 and 2012... I think people are stretching to try to find what they want to see. Don't personally see it in 2003 aside from maybe the design changes in the last season when it was being influenced by budget cutting cartoon trends we're still stuck with today. 2012... I don't count the additions of the sticker-like 2D stuff, those aren't enough to make it anime imo, so I don't see it there... speaking as someone who generally dislikes anime, and don't like that people seem to think Western animation should turn into it, so it's hard for me not to notice when the influence is real. In Rise I can see the influence to a point and I'm not fond of it. So that said... obviously I don't care for the Turtles being turned into it.

Note, not trying to judge your opinion, etc. on the matter or anything like that, just fyi.

[NeonTurtledude]

That's fine, the anime style isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I think over time with shows like Avatar, The Boondocks, and Totally Spies (shows with anime influences), the actual definition for "anime" has become more varied, it's a similar situation in japan too where they'll call shows like Spongebob "anime" because that's their term for cartoons in general, whereas outside of japan, we use the term anime to refer to that specific style/medium of animation.

then there's the fact a lot of those "late 80s/early 90s" shows were mostly animated in Japan, Taiwan, Korea etc. while there are some examples of mostly American or mostly British shows (like The Simpsons, Paddington, most of Disney, nick and cartoon network's productions, early looney tunes etc), a lot of animation from the 80s-90s era was outsourced.

everybody has a different definition, there are anime that are very "anime", there are western shows with Japanese animation and anime with western influences (like Cowboy Bebop).

I consider the Fred Wolf series to be a production that involved a lot of countries (considering the Korean studios that worked on the later seasons and the Dublin branch of Fred wolf's studio)

2003 TMNT is mostly a western cartoon but it did have Korean studios work on it (some of the same studios who worked on the boondocks and avatar)

2012 TMNT is a western cartoon with some anime influences (similar to how teen titans used them)

Rise is a western cartoon with a lot of influence from anime and other modern western cartoons

then there's the 90s ova which doesn't look much different in style to the Fred wolf cartoon aside from some anime-specific details in the facial expressions, mech suits and more saturation in the colours.

how I see it is there's "anime" and "anime-influenced", one means something animated in japan with those distinct details and tropes or just a general Japanese animation and the other just means something that has influences from anime while being a show/film/game etc not produced in japan

[neatoman]

Uh... Maybe this isn't intentional and some people might not even see it this way, but the way the 2003 show adapted the comics is more similar to how an anime would adapt manga. With plenty of issues being possible to map onto several episodes and mostly deviating in "filler" of sorts (though I hesitate to call original plots in that show filler, it's not like most of them were pointless to the overall narrative). Unlike most American cartoons which just sort of takes the characters and use vaguely similar premises to the point where you even question how many similarities are intentional because it might as well be a different story entirely.

That and I guess the mere presence of a tournament arc might be worth noting.

[NeonTurtledude]

yeah that's fitting,

[NeonTurtledude]

I've found some pictures of manga covers and lottery cards of the Fred wolf turtles and I like how it puts more emphasis on their expressions,

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FayZjVXXwAQIDbu?format=png&name=small
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FayZFgYWIAAKM_d?format=png&name=small

there was also a trading card which had some cool anime fred wolf turtle art

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FayaUxbX0AU_Dif?format=png&name=900x900


also, I think it's neat how the Japanese 80s-90s tmnt logo makes one of the symbols look like a turtle face