why teenage mutant ninja turtles is great:

• a badass set of familial protagonists who bicker and argue like real a real family but stick together no matter what
• april o’ neil, intelligent and investigative in every incarnation and never takes anything lying down, sticks to her friends like they were her little brothers, with an occupation that varies (between incarnation) from reporter to hyper-intelligent hacker. she picks up martial arts skills too so she gets in the kicking-butt fun sometimes
• karai, the shredder’s successor and the second-highest ranking member of the foot ninja, and a pretty japanese girl who isn’t sexualized. she’s arguably the most dangerous enemy of the turtles because they never know if she’ll be on their side or not.
• amazing characters from all over the world
• A WHOLE. LOT. OF POC CHARACTERS especially in the 2003 cartoon. this was one of the most diverse cartoons i’ve ever seen
• villains like baxter stockman good grief. just look at the recap of his backstory episode. wow. a poor black kid from the slums with a single mother who worked to the bone to pay the bills for her genius son so that he could go to school becomes one of the most terrifying villains ever. his backstory episode kind of traumatized me when i was younger ngl
• leatherhead, an (usually) ally of the turtles who is simultaneously a giant steel-crushing alligator (or crocodile) and a very civilized, gentle, kind, hyper-intelligent scientist
• the 2003 cartoon actually had very very very decent action animation for an early 2000s long-running cartoon

THEY’RE THE MEAN GREEN FIGHTING MACHINES