April's ethnicity moving forward

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by Sumac

It's hard to make someone named "Hamato Yoshi" anything else, but Japanese.
Unless Japanese would be considered "not diverse enough" by whiny crowd, that is.

Is it though? Hamato is not a real Japanese name and Yoshi could be short for Yoshiyahu which is Jewish.

Hamato Yoshi sounds Japanese enough to non-Japanese people in the same manner as "Shown Furcotte" sounds American enough for a Japanese audience

Even some of the Japanese dubs of the FW show had Yoshi renamed Yoshihama Takeshi so it sounded like a real name.

Originally Posted by Sumac

Irish April.
Talking with heavy Irish accent and swearing like a truck driver.

That's be interesting actually, have her be from Ireland and have immigrated to USA for her dream job.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Changing anything for the sake of change or to cater towards a certain demographic, with no real plot or character reason is stupid

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

That's be interesting actually, have her be from Ireland and have immigrated to USA for her dream job.

I can see it: down on her luck, semi-bum, slightly alcoholic April goes to work as janitor into Stockman laboratories and accidentally discovers mousers and so on.
But she still must swear like a truck driver!!

Though I guess, it wouldn't do for a cartoon.

Originally Posted by Whatswiththeheadbands?

Changing anything for the sake of change or to cater towards a certain demographic, with no real plot or character reason is stupid

If you don't fill the quota with characters of different races it's not progressive!!

Never mind that there is an Angel if you want black supporting character or Pimiko, Lotus and Karai if you want an Asian one.

[Andrew NDB]

Future iterations may try to -- like they attempted to with TMNT 2014 -- remove the Japanese connection altogether.

Chinese hate the Japanese and we need that China box office, after all...

[neatoman]

Well to be fair, can we really say that a character who is canonically a figment of someone's imagination brought to life, actually has an ethnicity in the first place? The only explicit deviation from that is Nick April, who was part Utrom.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Future iterations may try to -- like they attempted to with TMNT 2014 -- remove the Japanese connection altogether.

Chinese hate the Japanese and we need that China box office, after all...

Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Turtles!

Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Turtles!

Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Turtles!

Heroes in a Halfshell!

Turtle Power!

[DonnieTello]

As long as she retains her personality and role as a motherly figure towards the turtles, I don't care what race she is. But I think they seriously botched Rise in this regard because if they wanted to promote diversity, they did a very poor job (within the world of the show, at least) of it considering the only thing they could think to make April into was the most stereotypical archetype for a black woman humanly possible: the sassy black chick. Instead of making a black April they made a token. Woman? Check. Black? Check. Good, now our racially diverse cast quota is filled. Give her a unique personality? Why? We don't need to do any more work, make her sassy and call it a day. That's all the rest of our modern and so called "progressive" media has to do nowadays to make itself look good.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Well to be fair, can we really say that a character who is canonically a figment of someone's imagination brought to life, actually has an ethnicity in the first place? The only explicit deviation from that is Nick April, who was part Utrom.

By that logic, Turtles can be turned into Old Magical Karate Hamsters, since they are just a figment of someone's imagination.

Fictional characters, while not real, has some traits which define them. Not only in terms of personality, but also in terms of appearance. And yes, race is a part of those traits. This is why changing character race, with no explanation other than filling the quota, is stupid. It's like changing inherent part of the character. And whether their race is significant for their story or not is irrelevant.

Characters are defined in their entirety, not in "separate" interchangeable parts. You might change some parts of the character, but they are certain things, which should be beyond changes.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Well to be fair, can we really say that a character who is canonically a figment of someone's imagination brought to life, actually has an ethnicity in the first place? The only explicit deviation from that is Nick April, who was part Utrom.

Originally Posted by Sumac

By that logic, Turtles can be turned into Old Magical Karate Hamsters, since they are just a figment of someone's imagination.

Mirage April is a literal ink drawing brought to life

[neatoman]

Thanks, obviously I wasn't clear enough.

Yes canonically (as in "this is presented as being true within the story itself"), April is in fact one of her father's drawings brought to life thanks to a magic crystal. The only explicit deviation from this is the Nick cartoon, where her conception is instead the result of genetic Utrom experiments.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

Mirage April is a literal ink drawing brought to life

Let's not forget the cockroach orgies.

Lest we forget, and crimes greater than these rise to take their place.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

Mirage April is a literal ink drawing brought to life

That was revealed many years later, and is one of the most unpopular Mirage ideas ever.

[Candy Kappa]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

That was revealed many years later, and is one of the most unpopular Mirage ideas ever.

still canon

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

That was revealed many years later, and is one of the most unpopular Mirage ideas ever.

Meh. It was fine. People kind of got a little nutty about it, as if it was an attack.

"NOT MY APRIL!" etc., etc..

If you ever pick up "Origin" we get into that again. A bit.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Make her white again. There's no reason to change races at all. I don't think anything Rise does will stick with any future version anyway.

Originally Posted by Powder

I don't like change for the sake of change either, let alone for ideological or politically motivated reasons, but April's race isn't of much importance in the big picture. Certainly not to the same extent as Hamato Yoshi, for example. Granted her last name has its geographical ties, there's no saying she couldn't be a mixed race character to zero consequence.

That said, it matters far more to me that she be handled properly. Which is to say, done in the vein of Mirage. Not a news reporter, not a ninja in training, not a sassy bitch, but a smart, tech-savvy woman, thrust into the turtles' world. One whose role is more of a sister/mother/operative, not a peer in combat or a damsel in distress, just a human link for the turtles.

Originally Posted by Leo656

It's a Celtic surname, so she should probably be white. Being non-white or mixed-race invites too many questions and Logical Somersaults to explain away her backstory, when as others have said nobody can even really figure out who "April" even IS (or should be) as a character. Things are complicated enough without explaining why someone would have such an overwhelmingly Irish surname despite not physically looking like an "O'Neil". And it would, and does, beg an explanation. If someone can't even have a coherent Present, they shouldn't have an over-complicated Past or Pre-History.
-------

I'm not sure why so many people have such an aversion to April being a reporter. Perhaps it makes her "too active" in the stories, or more "glamorous" than she ought to be, but I'd personally argue that it's not only the most memorable version of April, but the only time she's ever been interesting.

Like, what else is there? In Mirage she was a lab assistant for 5 minutes, and then... ummm... the next thing I remember, there was Time Travel Shenanigans, and aside from being revealed as a Pencil Drawing Pinocchio, she got turned into a roach and f*cked other roaches, and then I stopped giving a sh*t what happened to her altogether because the story was terrible.

She's definitely in desperate need of an "Official" history. I absolutely HATE when a character has such a ludicrous mish-mash of conflicting "origin stories". If you ask someone, "Who Is ______?", there should be ONE answer, maybe two if they've been around for 5 or 6 decades, but that is IT.

April O'Neil isn't a "character", she's a visual that people remember from a cartoon show. That being said, I don't see why elements from the only memorable version shouldn't graduate into being "canon" status, to some degree.

Originally Posted by Sumac

Irish April.
Talking with heavy Irish accent and swearing like a truck driver.

On serious note: redhead April. If you want your ****ing diversity - invent a new character, stop recoloring the old ones. It's creatively bankrupt.


It's hard to make someone named "Hamato Yoshi" anything else, but Japanese.
Unless Japanese would be considered "not diverse enough" by whiny crowd, that is.

I agree with all of the posts above. So I'm not gonna add anything else. I love it when someone else, especially FOUR different people say EXACTLY what I think.

Originally Posted by snake

The go-to April that pops in my mind first is the OT one, and I’d wager that goes the same for the average fan as well.

She’s also got a huge rack and I feel that needs to be addressed more.

Eh it's not that big compared to loads of female anime and video game characters. It seems realistic in terms of proportions, in fact. I've never felt like it was distracting or ridiculous like they did with Nami and Robin in One Piece after the timeskip, for example.
I don't really care if April is attractive tbh, as long as she's not painful to look at. I didn't care much for 2k3 April in the looks department but I didn't think she was gross at all either. But she did dress a bit like a teenager for someone who was like 23(?), however. And that looked a bit odd.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Powder

Not a news reporter, not a ninja in training.

A journalist was one of the best ways for her to be a link to Human society 25–30 years ago. But these days, computer technician with hacking skills would probably be more attractive.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

Let's not forget the cockroach orgies.

Lest we forget, and crimes greater than these rise to take their place.

So, that's canon...
Ugh...

I need a bleach.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Redeemer

I wish Rise did this especially given how different the series is. This would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce a new female allies or protagonist or maybe even try to re-introduce Venus

Agree. Especially with 'Rise' trying to go supposedly younger, it would have even worked fine to go back to classic April as an adult who comes into their lives later on, should the series last that long, and have the same-age girl they changed April into be another new friend who comes into their lives sooner. Missed opportunity.

edit: And had she not been April, then it might have been fun to someday see an older version of the TMNT finally and bring her back as a young adult as well. Ah well.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy

Let's not forget the cockroach orgies.

Lest we forget, and crimes greater than these rise to take their place.

Boy oh BOY, did I hate Vol. 4.

[neatoman]

Oh hey look, Sumac got banned. I'm so shocked...