Banzai! The underappreciated catch phrase of the OT
 

On my latest run of watching the OT, in particular beginning sometime in Season 3, we start to hear Raphael using which may very well be his underrated catch phrase: BANZAI! Given in a show known for its famous battle cries, its interesting that in this board's history, nobody has ackwlodged about this phrase which means that Raphael is taking action, fleeing, or ready to kick some shell. Thoughts?

Episodes
 

Any special episodes?

Yeah I also noticed this as an under appreciated phrase from the original cartoon. I guess I noticed it quite a bit because I'm a huge Raph fan but I thought it was used enough that it could have caught on. Obviously not as much as "Cowabunga" or "Turtle Power" but at least mentioned in general. So........"BANZAI!" :tsmile:

Bonzai? Shouldn't it be written Banzai?

It's looks like they were trying to give each turtle their own catchphrase. Mikey used "Cowabunga" a lot, where it was mostly Leo crying "Turtle Power" as he rallied the troops. Then they start Raph with "Bonzai".
So what did Donnie get?

Maybe it's because it, like Bebop's "MAMA!" scream, is stock voice effects, and are reused all the time, where as most of Mikey's Cowabungas are new.

Stock voices
 

The Making of Metalhead in particular features this stock voice, even though Hal Rayle was the non-stock voice of Raphael. Seasons 3 and 4 in particular were known for lots of stock voices used. We know Bebop's "Mama!", the "Girly Grunt", the Vernon Yell, and two of April's screams being stocked and reused, which I find quite cheesy. This is getting a bit off-topic, but do you know of any other stock voices used (OT and 4kids if they had any?)


So for catch phrases, it's:

Leonardo: "Turtles fight with honor!" (Ocassionaly said by Don)
Donatello: "That was my favorite (or best) bo!"
Raphael: "Banzai!"
Michelangelo: "Cowabunga!"
April: "What a (optional adjective) story!"; sometimes "This will be the story of the (insert time length)!"
Shredder: "Destroy the turtles!"
Bebop: "Say bye-bye, turtles (or some variation, especially shellbacks)"
Rocksteady: "It's toitle trashin' time!"
Burne: "Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!" (Seasons 4-7)

I forget where else I had heard it back then, but "Banzai!" was just the least original catch-phrase they used on that series. Probably why they only had Raph ever say it: making fun of the need for catch-phrases.
Yes.
I'm pretty sure "Turtle Power!" was normally the group's battle cry. "Turtles fight with honor" was mainly his IIRC.
"That was my favorite bo." :tgrumble:

Ya that sounds more him.

:tlol:.........sorry:toops:

Because that's Yokozuna's catch phrase!

They had banzai all of 2k3 merch. I have a tmnt stencil book and on one page it says banzai!

What about, MAMA!
Also the scream at the beginning of episode to of 2k3 had a commonly reused april scream.

Or "you little creeps!" or "it's like shootin' toitles in a barrel".

Here's some more:

Shredder: What the devil?!!

Krang: He'd say he would use his hands to do some certain thing and then say, if I "had" hands.

I think a lot of the characters have said what in blazes or what the blazes?

Could you refresh my memory? I only recall those being used once. I think I remember Shredder's "What the devil?" being used a second time, but I might be thinking of Turtles Forever.

Well, yeah.

Did people think this phrase was unique to the TMNT? I remember hearing it all the time on other shows as a kid. It's like shouting "Geronimo."

No, but I always thought it was a satirical thing to yell "Tiny Japanese tree!" as a battle cry.

Oh, yeah. Totally different words; totally different characters.

He said What the Devil lots of times, in Turtle Tracks, Shredder & Splintered, The Dimension X Story, Attack of the Neutrinos, Shredder Triumphant, Cyber Turtles and I'm sure there's other episodes also. Krang said if I had hands a lot of times also.

I always liked it when Michaelangelo said "Holy guacamole!", especially now that I've tried guacamole and love eating it in burritos!

Am I the only one who remembers at least one episode where the Turtles say in unison "Go Green Machines!"?

As for "banzai", the actual Japanese battle cry is "Tenno Haika banzai!", which means, "May the Emperor live for 10,000 years!" (When you think about it, look at how long Emperor Hirohito did live!)

Go Green Machine
 

Isn't it "Go Green Machine".

I've always found it kind of funny that although Krang swears that Shredder and his mutants are utter failures, he MANY times says "for ONCE you've done something right." :tlol:

Ah, yes, I remember this catchphrase, though when I was younger, I always thought he was yelling, "Bug's Eye!"

Big Trilogy
 

Especially the Big Trilogy,

In "The Big Blow Out", Shredder asks Krang why it is that when Rocksteady and Bebop mess up, Krang calls them Shredder's mutants. But at the end, when Rocksteady and Bebop are successful in retrieving the power source modules from the power station, Krang says, "For once MY mutants have dome something right!" :tsmile:

I love that trilogy
 

I love that trilogy