Are the Turtles improperly designed?
 

I wonder, would the Turtles' design still make you think of ninjas if they did not carry Japanese weapons? The masks remind me more of Zorro and other pulp heroes, they're brighlty colored and the leather pads are not something that remind me of ninjas.
http://www.miragelicensing.com/comic...04misprint.jpghttp://ashokashta.files.wordpress.co...nja-jutsu2.jpg

They look pretty accurate for anthropomorphic mutant turtles to me. And how much more ninja could they look like? Wearing a black Ninja suit wouldn't look good on them.

The turtles are not human, so they don't need to wear clothes, it will slow them down and generate unwanted noise anyway. For protection, they already have hard plastron/shell front and back.

Human ninjas cannot choose to run around naked, so they had to wear dark color suits for both camouflage and protection, which will slightly compromise movement flexibility and silence, though these are kept to a minimum with suitable materials.

That being said, there have been a couple of times the turtles decided to wear like human ninjas when they weren't exactly in their right mind, ie. Night of the Dark Turtle from OT season 7 and Identity Crisis from 4Kids season 7 (BTTS):

http://i.imgur.com/tbLB7gm.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8T9GgSw.jpg

Do you really prefer them to look like these most of the time?

Well I know they have to too run around with very little clothing make the turtle aspect clear and what not. But I'm sure they could have something more "Ninja-esque" than Zoro masks and protective pads.

Well, certainly not black robes, and anything else would only make them less ninja-esque. Just look at the 2014 movie. :tlol:

Night if the Dark Turtle shall remain my all time favorite OT ep period!

That aside, I thought the black ninja clothes was actually a myth.

Huh. There's no Nicks version of those 2 examples?

This counts?

http://i.imgur.com/mYhpfZ9.jpg

Or this?

http://i.imgur.com/R4CKwln.jpg

They weren't exactly trying to be ninjas during those times though.

Let's not forget dark Leo from IDW. Hardcore ninja there.

Well here's my rendition that I came up with..
Sorry bout it bein sideways. I'm doin this on my phone.
By the way, the circle behind him is a hanging field hat...

The masks are not that inaccurate. They're supposed to give them a mysterious look and are pretty much based on karate headbands like liu Kang in Mortal Kombat, starting in part 2, and the Karate Kid.

Hate when people say they're out of place Zorro wear.

Overall clothing could be more ninja style. I like that drawing.

They're basically naked, that's improper enough.

But somehow we accept it. It looks right.

But, doing nitpicking, that Photo isn't very Ninja accurate either. real Ninja did not dress up in black karate gi suits, modern Martial Arts grading belts, and waved around fake fantasy swords that didn't exist until the 1960's. The hood and mask is an everyday use for farmers working in the fields, same goes for "ninja hand covers", regular people used those for protection from the weather and the sun, the hand covers are still used today. The Jika-Tabi the photo ninja is wearing is also a modern invention. normal Tabi is socks meant for wearing with sandals.

Although, that karate gi wearing hooded shadow warrior IS the look that is associated with pop-culture Ninjas.

The ninja Turtles don't really fill a lot of the criteria given from the esthetics of the Pop-Culture Ninjas, they do have knotted belts, sometimes. Or the belts are buckled or connected by clasps (maybe?). Their main Ninjas feature besides their "Ninja" weapons, is probably their feet, as it (save Nick cartoon) resembles the Tabi sock by sporting two toe digits.

I just kinda wish they'd stuck with these like they'd intended way back when (they, as you can see, were repurposed for Archie's wrestling costumes)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YSzzRLBav4...0/stumpleo.jpg

I hope those outfits come back in the Nick series or IDW comics.

I want to see them too, but the only one that really looks good is Don.

Yeah, now that interdimensional portals have been established in the Nick series, it'd be a perfect opportunity to have an episode where the Turtles end up on the Stump asteroid and have to take part in a wrestling match to get back home.

You meat Raphael right? Just to be clear:

http://i.imgur.com/fIwYJJN.jpg

Except you know... Lui Kang and Daniel don't poke holes into the headbands and wear them around around their faces, which is what Zorro does. That's why they're compared to him.

No I meant Don; I know who's who. I like Don's outfit better. As for who looks like a ninja, I guess Raph most in that picture? But none of them really.

Quoted again, as always and forever, of perfect accuracy.

I love when you school them.

I couldn't explain, not as slow as my connection is, but even I pointed out the black ninja clothes thing as being a myth. It's all a gimmick.

The turtles don't have very big foreheads. I thought it was obvious that's why they don't use them as headbands, instead masks. Aside from making them look "cool".

I thought the masks were just an excuse for PL and KE to draw their eyes like Batman's, because they wanted their characters' eyes to "glow" without being, well, glowing eyes.

Or some such ********.

This thread is very interesting. Resurrecting in hopes that we can (further) compare the TMNT concept to actual ninja.

Regarding the masks, even if TMNT is less based on real ninja conceits and based more on the Hong Kong movie variety of ninja, the masks being 4 bright colors (particularly Donnie and Mikey) doesn't really work as a convention of ninja fantasy and has become more of a statement about the era that the (cartoon) turtles came out of.

A friend and I had a conversation once about Hong Kong movies and western entertainment concepts of what a ninja is. He said that Playmates toys or David Wise (and the cartoon show producers and writers) should have used a color scheme of red blue, white and black because Hong Kong and ninja movies showed ninjas (usually a western hero/white man) wearing headbands, bandannas of red and blue but also more often black or white than anything... Never purple or orange.

When I was kicking around fan-fiction ideas for a dark/serious TMNT reboot I had Raph wear red, Leo wear blue, Mikey wear white (because of his lighter, more positive personality in various TMNT media) and Donnie wear a black headband because his skin tone is often depicted as a darker green.

Ultimately though, my fan-fic went a far more traditional route.

Anyway, headbands and body pads have far less to do with actual ninja but are awesome "costume" concepts for anthropomorphic superhero animal characters. As far as characterizations of the turtles, Leo fits probably closest to the western idea of bushido/ninja/samurai of the 4 of them. Raph's personality would not be conducive to the structured, disciplined life of a ninja, Mikey's neither and Donatello's use of technology (it's far more overstated outside of Mirage) isn't very ninja-esque either.