April O'Neil's character design

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by AlZarkovski

I don't think David Wise was lying. He just made a mix of designs from April Mirage and Fujiko. The basis of the design was definitely taken from Mirage, but some of the elements (yellow jumpsuit, white boots and light anime styling) were taken from Fujiko. There is one particular episode that Wise was talking about and I definitely see similarities in this particular version of Fujiko with April.

https://thumbs4.imagebam.com/70/02/6e/MEI52VV_t.jpghttps://thumbs4.imagebam.com/82/58/c6/MEI52VW_t.jpghttps://thumbs4.imagebam.com/2b/1b/ed/MEI52VX_t.jpg

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Agreed!

Here are a couple of archived Facebook posts where Wise talks about the April-Fujiko connection:

Spoiler:

https://i.imgur.com/JXgiFBJl.jpg

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H4R...w?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EQF...w?usp=drivesdk
Aforementioned article:
https://screencrush.com/teenage-muta...imated-series/

The problem is that part of Wise's lying has involved the addition of references to things outside of Mirage, even when it made very little. One of of the things he stated is that the idea for Krang came from him needing to come up with a reason advanced Technology to be thing, so he took inspiration from some old movie about a disembodied brain monster and added the idea of the robotic body as the reason for Shredder to be involved. The problem is of course that if you know about the Utroms, this statement makes no sense, Krang is obviously just loosely adapted from the Utroms. And the less said about how he states in the posted interview that he came up with the Turtles' personalities despite the packet Mirage sent to Playmates described what they were supposed to be and how the Avengers movie somehow copied his work, the less this post will become a wall of text.

Likewise, the reason I can't trust David Wise's claim that he based April's design on Fujiko is because he made these sorts of questionable claims all the time. If you want a breakdown of the reasons I find the claim dubious, here's a list of them:

1. As already stated, April's design is virtually identical to what Corben drew, which was in turn based on what she looked like in her first appearance. It's really just color that's the big difference.
2. April's toy was part of the first wave of action figures, which would imply the basic design of what she was going to look like probably floated around before David Wise was involved.
3. Him describing what April should look like in the script means... What exactly? Describing what he had been shown from Playmates and Mirage? Generically describing a jumpsuit? Or does it mean the script said something like "Go look up Fujiko Mine, there's like one outfit that is a pink jumpsuit with pockets and a different one that is yellow with white boots, please copy the former with the color scheme of the latter"? Seems odd if it's the last one.
4. The mention of Mel Bush brings up the point of being able to find similar design elements between almost any characters if you look hard enough, the more outfits the characters wear, the easier it will get. Are we going to assume the costume designer for Doctor Who also took inspiration from Lupin III? And isn't it possible that "Yellow Jumpsuit" or "Jumpsuit with Pockets" is a generic enough description to match even more characters outside of these three? What if those jumpsuit designs are just generic enough to have been common in the real world?
5. Finally, let's note here that Wise brings up Fujiko in reference to someone pointing it out in this thread, he did not bring it up independently. This is what I meant about him potentially being told about it before making the statement, it made it so much easier for him to distract from the fact that the April's design basically already existed in the comics if something similar existed, even if it might just be a coincidence. Give a liar the string and he'll have a way easier time stringing you along.

I'm not saying it's impossible for Fujiko to have been the inspiration somewhere along the line but the assertions comes from speculation and a known liar with a messed up ego who was aware of the speculation, not to mention how we have at least one other who wore a nearly identical outfit in Doctor Who, which really just compounds the strong possibility that this could all just be coincidence.

Hell, if we're going speculate on which characters might have influenced April's design based on something as generic as her wearing a fairly plain looking jumpsuit, remember how many colorisations of April's first appearance makes the outfit blue? We also know Eastman and Laird were fans of Alien, so doesn't make Ellen Ripley a valid possibility for April's design?

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Hell, if we're going speculate on which characters might have influenced April's design based on something as generic as her wearing a fairly plain looking jumpsuit, remember how many colorisations of April's first appearance makes the outfit blue? We also know Eastman and Laird were fans of Alien, so doesn't make Ellen Ripley a valid possibility for April's design?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...len_ripley.jpg

And maybe Sigourney also helped inspire Mirage April’s perm in issue 4!

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

And maybe Sigourney also helped inspire Mirage April’s perm in issue 4!

Rewatched Avatar recently, I mostly brought up Ripley to demonstrate that a jumpsuit may be too generic of a design element to draw any conclusions from... But then it hit me...

Spoiler:

Yeah, that's a blue jumpsuit like in Mirage, with front pockets and rolled up sleaves just like with Fujiko and Fred Wolf. My god, I can't tell if it's an homage to her outfit in Alien, if it's a tribute to E&L for basing April on her or if that random Fujiko design is just that influential on character design! Maybe they wanted to pay homage to Fred Wolf April but were afraid the BBC would sue if they mistook her for that one Doctor Who character?

That's at least five characters we can connect with this design element.

[oldmanwinters]

Yeah, the jumpsuit/coverall look was weirdly popular on ladies of the 70s and 80s! See also the 1978 Kitty O’Neil action figure/doll Or Daphne in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo from 1985!

[neatoman]

Kitty O'Neil?...

... Oh!

And now I'm starting to think the yellow color scheme might just been a joke about her name.

[NeonTurtledude]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Yeah, the jumpsuit/coverall look was weirdly popular on ladies of the 70s and 80s! See also the 1978 Kitty O’Neil action figure/doll Or Daphne in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo from 1985!

and some 1987 tmnt staff did used to work for disney and hanna barbara

[AlZarkovski]

Originally Posted by neatoman

[LIST=1][*]As already stated, April's design is virtually identical to what Corben drew, which was in turn based on what she looked like in her first appearance. It's really just color that's the big difference.[*]April's toy was part of the first wave of action figures, which would imply the basic design of what she was going to look like probably floated around before David Wise was involved.

I don't want to be David Wise's lawyer, I don't know him at all, maybe he was a liar (I need to watch full interviews with him so I can form my opinion). But I don't see any reason why he couldn't just suggest changing the color of April's jumpsuit from blue to yellow when he remembered Fujiko.

I'm guessing (maybe I'm wrong) that the character designs for the show and the figurines were done at the same time. It was a kind of "room of ideas" where Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and the developers from MWS and Playmates were. I think Wise was there too and that's when the idea of the yellow jumpsuit was proposed.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Kitty O'Neil?...

... Oh!

And now I'm starting to think the yellow color scheme might just been a joke about her name.

Both O'Neil were quite adept at handling vehicles at high speeds!
https://www.mediafire.com/file/6njxd...7Neil.wmv/file

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by AlZarkovski

I don't want to be David Wise's lawyer, I don't know him at all, maybe he was a liar (I need to watch full interviews with him so I can form my opinion). But I don't see any reason why he couldn't just suggest changing the color of April's jumpsuit from blue to yellow when he remembered Fujiko.

I'm guessing (maybe I'm wrong) that the character designs for the show and the figurines were done at the same time. It was a kind of "room of ideas" where Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and the developers from MWS and Playmates were. I think Wise was there too and that's when the idea of the yellow jumpsuit was proposed.

The Corben cover is an alt cover and the contents of issue 2 were (as far as I know) still only in available in black and white. The yellow color could just as easily have been chosen at random, as previously stated, Mel Bush wore a nearly identical outfit on Doctor Who and Kitty O'Neil did as well. If we ignore color, we can also find even more instances of similar outfits. And as I keep saying, Fujiko Mine is a character who wears a lot of different outfits, the odds of her bearing a resemblance to other characters is very high as a result. It is not impossible for Fujiko Mine to be a direct inspiration and/or that David Wise influenced the final design in the show, it just isn't good enough to be conclusive.

The reason I don't take David Wise on his word is not just down to him being a known liar (though it is part of the reason why it's worth doubting him in the first place) but because it could easily have been a coincidence. And none of that really changes the fact that we're talking about a character who wore a jumpsuit before his involvement.

As for why it is known that David Wise was a liar, it's really simple, there are way too many instances of him making incorrect statements when he should have known better. Even when he wasn't strictly contradicting facts, there are still instances where it doesn't really make sense logically, such as the case where he claimed creative process in creating Krang was effectively him making an Utrom character without ever really thinking about them, even though he should have known about them and it just makes way more sense if it was all intentional. There are also instances of him dismissing his own involvement if the idea is ridiculed or unpopular, in those instances he never really took responsibility for them but he sure was willing to take credit for just about anything that was considered iconic about the show. So basically, according to David Wise, anything about the show that was liked was his idea even if you could prove it came from the comics or someone else, while any of the flaws or questionable aspects came from someone else, even if it would have logically been his fault if he really had the creative freedom he claimed.

It's called pathological lying, there was no real benefit to these lies beyond making himself seem more important than he really was. He was effectively like Cartman in the Fishsticks episode.

Spoiler: