Following an extremely successful first run on the network Nickelodeon has decided to reboot it’s still somewhat freshly acquired Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IP for the second time. Following the 2016 end of the original 2012 series, this series has the Turtles as rookie, untrained ninja dealing with martial arts as well as the mystic arts of New York City & the mutations caused by the villain Baron Draxum, voiced by WWE’s John Cena.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a 2018 reboot of Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is produced by Nickelodeon Animation & Flying Bark Productions, it will premiere on Nickelodeon on September 17, 2018, but the first five episodes are available on Nick.com & the Nick app.

Editor’s Note: This review will be written as an overall perspective of the current episodes available for viewing. Minor to major spoilers from each episode may be present.

The Turtles as they appear in the 2018 reboot.

Another decade is nearly complete and along with it comes another TMNT series. While it shares the Turtles’ name, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wants to quickly remind you that this isn’t like any series before it. Though it’s not harsh enough to long time fans to not sprinkle in a few references to previous incarnations here and there, but they’re far and few between in a rather pleasant fresh take on the Heroes in a Half-Shell.

The Turtles are definitely new in ‘Rise’, but improved will be up for debate within the community for quite some time.

THE GOOD: Perhaps the most powerful, eye popping feature of Nickelodeon’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the design of the core characters themselves. In this version of the series, while Ralph, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey are brothers per say, they’re actually four totally different species of turtle whereas in previous incarnations including the 2012 series they’ve always been brothers by blood. This is a rather unique dynamic to their relationship, and it could lead to some interesting individual backstories for the four in the future. Two other key redesigns are April O’Neil and Turtles sensei Master Splinter; April who has been African-American before in the comics, takes on the appearance for the first time in a TV adaptation, Master Splinter who’s always been presented with a design of an authoritative like look commanding respect is shaped to be a goofy comedic relief design. I’m certain people will have much more issue with Splinter’s design over O’Neil’s given the history, but this design choice oddly works from the little of him we’ve seen thus far. Going back to the Turtles, I thought it was kind of cool how they opted to have Mikey possess a design more akin to the classic look as a sort of reference to the past, which the last few Turtles series has been famous for. While some will probably think of it as just a hot take to cool down the community who was in an uproar over the designs, I honestly think it was just a glaring reference choice made by the producers.

Nick wants it’s 2018 TMNT direction to be heard loud and clear, and that is commendable.

Another thing that makes Rise of the TMNT standout compared to series past, especially when compared it’s 2012 big brother is the fact that these Turtles are untrained, barely skilled, and clumsy oafs. In a bit of spoiler territory, as of episode 4a, the Turtles have still gone untrained. I thought it was hilarious how this fact was pointed out after their trademark weapons got destroyed in their first real battle and Leonardo mentioned that their weapons were “priceless” when discussing their defeat, it felt like that was a bit of an inside joke by the production team. Now suddenly they’re in possession of magical weapons that they have to master, on top of the little weaponry talents they had with their classical weapons. It really adds to the new comedic direction while providing solid storytelling and world building. The staff have really brought home the fact that these are totally different Turtles and the idea is it’s set in a completely new universe we’ve never seen before. Thus far, what Nick is going for is working. We aren’t going to see old school, long-time villains like Rocksteady & Bebop, Shredder, etc here, or at the very least not for some time if they choose to use them at all. Most, if not all of the villains presented will be 100% exclusive to ‘Rise’ and created by the Nick TMNT staff, which again goes back to the push for it to feel new and fresh.

The first five episodes of Rise of the TMNT is showing some early promise.

There’s also been some changes made to the personalities of the Turtles. For example, Ralph is the leader and is a bit of a softy this time around, but he does still have anger issues, Donnie is the funny one, Leo is the optimistic one of the group providing confidence for the team, and Mikey is the artist & prankster. April O’Neil has also been given a personality change, she’s much more brazen and ready for action compared to any other incarnation & she’s a bit fearless. In the pilot episode when they meet villain Baron Draxum, while the Turtles are finalizing a speech to give Draxum, April dives in an attempts to save the mutant dog, stunning the boys. Speaking of Draxum, the pilot does a solid job of giving us an idea of his character, he’s not necessarily a bad guy, but at the same time what he’s doing and wants to accomplish isn’t right. He basically wants to protect mutant kind, while also wanting to mutate humans. He’s seemingly taken a liking to the Turtles and wants to train them himself after they take hold of his weapons. Something else I’d like to discuss is the voice acting. It’s some fun work by a surprisingly entertaining cast, the four stand outs for me personally are Kat Graham (April O’Neil) John Cena (Baron Draxum), Josh Brener (Donatello), and  Ben Schwartz (Leonardo), my favorites being Brener & Schwartz of the group. Overall, the voice acting performances as a whole are very excellent.

A new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe is ready to be explored with plenty of world building available.

THE BAD: It will take some getting use to, especially coming off of the heels of the 2012 reboot, which was viewed by many as a masterpiece. However, I think that a few episodes will do for most.

Longtime fans of all ages should give the first five episodes a try before final judgement.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles won’t draw in every fan of the franchise immediately, but I do feel as though that over time the community will grow to accept it. If I’ve learned anything about the series from viewing the first five episodes it’s this, there is definitely potential and it will only continue to show itself as Nick and the team behind the show get more comfortable with the material they’re working with. Otaku Dome gives Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles an 80 out of 100.