Where did the Langenstein as Irma's surname come from?
 

In the Fred Wolf series, the very same series Irma debuted, she's literally only referred to as Irma. April has a surname like she originally did in Mirage and even Vernon and Burne have surnames as well. But Irma was just... Irma. And I never saw her being called Irma Langenstein until a few years ago. I first noticed it in the Shredder's Revenge video game.

I don't know if any of the modern takes on TMNT have given her the surname Langenstein or not. I haven't kept up with the Turtles in ages and the ****ing Bay movies killed my interest in the property. But she sure as hell was not named Langenstein in the FW series. Sounds more like fandom/fanon than canon.

I did a deep dive on this earlier this year, didn’t come up with much. I searched posts here with various possible spellings. I can only assume it came from a fanfic that might even predate this forum.

I also think someone might have edited IMDb to reflect it back when you could do that easily and that helped it stick.

Fanon that became canon.

I believe ssomething similar happened with Pokémon. In many fanfics you see Brock being called Brock Slate and Misty being called Misty Waterflower, even though in the anime, the manga and the video games... they're literally just called Brock and Misty. In fact, it's quite rare for Pokémon characters to have surnames, so I dunno why fanfic writers felt like Misty and Brock needed surnames.

I think they gave Ash a last name cause he's the main character and I guess 4Kids or whatever felt Ash Ketchum was more marketable than just Ash. I believe in Japan he was just Satoshi. No surname.

Because his name is a play on the gotta catch'em all slogan. And naturally, his mother, Delia, also has the same surname as him.

In many countries outside the US, kids grew up with the English dub names as well, like here in Portugal, for example.

Not all countries got the English Pokémon names, though. Germany and France have their own names for them.

This was still in that weird time where Japanese anime and game characters got their names changed to European-sounding names when exported to Europe and USA. Captain Tsubasa suffered that too a decade before. Kids grew up knowing Oliver instead of Tsubasa and Mark Lenders instead of Kojiro Hyuga, for example.

Inazuma Eleven does that in the video games, but no one likes that anymore because that series has been around ever since the internet was already a big thing. Plus many people just watch anime with subs these days.

Pokémon just keeps the localised names of characters and food out of habit/tradition, I guess.

No, it was to match the lip flaps in the English dub. His name is just Satoshi in Japan with no last name.

And, like I said, a play on the gotta catch 'em all slogan. Ash gotta Ketchum all, basically.

Pretty smart marketing, imo.

Yeah, in Japan the catch 'em all logo doesn't even exist. That's why people were confused why Ash wasn't capturing every pokemon he saw or completing the Pokedex, because in the anime the writers never intended to do that. Also helps that the anime treats the Pokemon as real creatures with personalities and not game data like the games, so giving a main character a whole bunch of pokemon they'll never use is pointless.

There was a Kanto episode where they showed what happened to the Pokémon Ash caught that were stored in the PC. It's a whole episode where Prof. Oak has to feed dozens of different Pokémon everyday plus the 40 or so different Taurus Ash caught that one time :lol:

They got rid of the Catch em all slogan after Gen 2 though it did come back I think for Gen 6 I think once Pokemon Go made Pokemon popular again with casuals.

Also Pocket Monsters was the name of the games until I think Gen 8, Pokemon was only an abbreviation, it's only in the last decade or so that Pokemon was also the name of the franchise in general.

Let's not forget that the gaijin names for the different Pokemon became the official international names, only Japan has their own names for the Pokemon. Other countries have to use the english puns as their names.

In France, Germany and I'm pretty sure South Korea as well many of the Pokémon have their own localised names.

In Germany, Geodude is Kleinstein. Snorlax is Relaxo. Charmander is Glumanda. Just to name some examples.

In France they also translate the names of characters from other series. Rosalina from Mario Galaxy is named Harmonie iirc in French.

No idea about Spain and Italy. Those are also two European nations that literally translate everything, so I'd not be surprised.

Bobby Curnow did confirm that, no, the character did not have a surname according to Nickelodeon's character sheet.
https://forums.thetechnodrome.com/sh...in#post1759822

So at least as far as Paramount was concerned by 2018, the character didn't have one. And in case anyone was wondering, IDW #83 is probably the first known instance of that name actually being used by an official story.

You mean this Irma?

https://64.media.tumblr.com/3d977ed2...dabc8f689a.pnj

https://media.tenor.com/dJrZnhM2eJkA...hy-bashful.gif

:lol::lol::o

Memes about dogs? What about them? :P:lol:
:trolleye::eyemouth::shifty::tanime:

https://youtu.be/tvirXOPNy-0?si=5WTWDGa7Ds7merJK
https://youtu.be/bDOLLIrTk4Y?si=A8tkoJr420W_JYLa

Hm... Normally, I avoid replying to you because I'm pretty sure you're a troll, but this is something I wanted to talk about.

Character design in Mutant Mayhem and Tales is typically meant to be ugly or at least skewed. Most characters have features like crooked teeth or misaligned eyes, not Irma though, Irma looks surprisingly symmetrical.

I find it endearing how Prowler will just remake his own threads after a couple of years. :lol:

Even his replies are remakes of his replies, he also mentions Misty Waterflower example in that thread.

I wonder if MM/Tales Irma makes fun of Puke Girl…

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....SR232,232_.jpg
*cries in troll*

That thread oldmanwinters linked is not mine, though? It's Original TMNT Fan's.

And yes, I know I tend to repeat myself. Often I have conversations that I don't remember that I already had a a couple of years ago. A few people in other places before have even joked I must have Alzheimers. :lol:

A funny thing is when I run into an old thread and was about to respond with something... and then I saw that I had already said the same thing on another post a few years earlier.

Why does she look like 4Kids April?

Before this, I created an original character for a TOTTMNT version that essentially brought back the 4Kids-style April, but under the name Anna. I also talked about Shinigami and how shipping in the 2012 TMNT series is basically impossible. Looking back, those ideas may have been taken into consideration, because now we have Irma, who reflects a lot of those same elements.

I also asked ChatGPT your question: "Why does Tottmnt Irma look like 4Kids April?"

In what sense?

In the sense that she’s not an affront to the eyes, I suppose.

They are both skinny, white, red-headed women in purple shirts.

From a commenter’s perspective, I’m not sure what kind of answer you’re expecting here—maybe you’re looking for confirmation.


I do have a few working theories, though:

1. The 2003 TMNT series treated its female characters with more respect and consistency, and it wasn’t afraid to show them as genuinely capable and impressive in their own right.

2. TOTMNT already leaned into the “reporter April” angle, so introducing another female character could have added a fresh dynamic rather than retreading familiar ground.

3. There’s a lot of unpleasant baggage around how female characters have been handled in other TMNT iterations—especially the sketchy, exploitative emphasis on shipping and appeal. This is very much in line with the habits of the Teen Titans creative lineage, where questionable choices in clothing, framing, movement, and romance often reduced female characters to props for bizarre male-centered antics rather than treating them as full characters.

Someone summarize, I don't have time to watch an 18 minute youtube video.

Mostly padding for time for ten minutes by talking about what she was like in the show to eventually get to the point that there appears to be no real production for the surname, concluding that at best it was some obscure detail in production but is most likely just a fan fiction detail that wormed its way into official material. It's mostly just stuff you can find in this thread, including using this forum as a source.

... Kinda weird to see my own joke about Magrat Garlick and the question I asked to Bobby Curnow in that video...