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I like April O'Neil's character design from the original turtle series because I simply thought she looked pretty. As an adult her looks remind me a little of Fujiko Mine and Daphne Blake. This may be shallow but I never cared for 2k3 April's character design. Clown red har, ghostly white skin...she looked awful. I appreciate her characterization but I was no fan of how she looked. Actually I got to say that the 2k3 series did not do a good job drawing female characters in my opinion, they kind of looked like scrawny guys with long hair. I am not a fan of making April a bombshell or a plain jane. Some girls like seeing female characters that are stunning looking and well rounded characters complex characters outside of their looks.
I think it is just a turn off your mind and forget the real world for a bit and just enjoy some entertainment and pretend you are like them (or are them) for a little while. Not all girls are like, "wah, this character is objectively better looking than me! I feel bad about my self now," honest to goodness some girls will just enjoy watching sailor moon or Black Canary and some of the enjoyment comes from how pretty they look. Personally I can take both, I thought that Mirabel from Encanto had a good character design even though she was animated to look average and definitely not be glamourous. I do feel that some animated version of recent Wonder Woman have become less appealing and people act like, "hey at least she looks like a warrior now" I saw a recent animated justice league movie and she looked like a soviet union female athlete and her head looked like a helmet. The hell? They want her to look more "realistic" and so far what I have seen has not impressed me. If you want her to look powerful and physically appealing the 2001 Justice League character was perfect. She looked both powerful and physically appealing.
To take this back to the turtles, I always liked April but I was never into the franchise because of her. I was always all about the turtles and what was going on with them, they were the stars and show and they were the ones I found interesting and low key identified with. I liked the turtles for a reason that identified with. I was brought up strict, and I mean really strict I was almost never allowed to go any where and it was hard to socialize with kids my age outside of school. So, as early as the original series, I identified with the seeming depression the turtles seemed to have to be stuck in the sewer unless they had business topside, or that Splinter seemed strict with them. Watching cartoons as a kid you see these cartoon characters with endless freedom, wondering all around town, adults seemed to not be on top of them usually and they were always socializing. The turtles pretty much had to keep to themselves and seemed their very situation put unfair restrictions on them, I identified with that. It did not matter to me that they were all boys, their sex did not really register to me as important. The fact that they were wacky, talking turtle people drew my attention more than them being boys instead of girls. So I never really needed a token girl character to identify with. In later incarnations of the turtles where they had to sneak behind Splinter's back to do what they wanted top side was I identified with too, because when I got older I learned how to be sneaky so I could some freedom, because I would basically have to ninja my way around my house and my parents to go places and get in and out of the house. And Splinter being a hard ass strict parent that the turtles had to deal with felt all to real to me. So that's my two cents.
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