When the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made their debut back in 1984, they shook the world. The concept of four brave anthropomorphic turtles bearing the names of notable Renaissance artists was original. Such a thing had never been heard of before! They were a big hit thanks to their unique and endearing personalities. They are not the only interesting anthropomorphic characters in the series, though.
There is no turtle in this video. Instead, it concerns Ninjara, also known as Umeko, Raphael’s fox-human girlfriend. As a lively and downright badass figure who could hold her own, this sassy character was created by author Steve Murphy and illustrator Michael Dooney. She was also the first character to ever fall in love with a turtle, which is interesting. She told us this tale!
Ninjara Backstory Explored
Ninjara made her début in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles issue #28 that was published back in 1992. Steve Murphy, Chris Allan, Brian Thomas, and Barry Grossman all gave her introductions. We learned about her background in this issue when it was revealed that she belonged to a long-extinct Japanese race of fox people.
She was acting as an assassin and henchman for Chien Khan, a master martial artist who was a supernatural hybrid made up of half human and half dog, when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first encountered her. You may be wondering how he ended up this way.
The only way a demon by the name of Noi Tai Dar could rescue his life when he was on the verge of death one time was to combine him with his Pitbull. His physiology and appearance were permanently changed, but his life was saved. Chien Khan assisted the demon in crossing across to the Earth realm in return for this favour. Ninjara consequently worked for a very strong man. He also controlled the Dog Star Gang, a criminal organisation that rivalled the powerful Foot Clan and was less of a gang than it was an empire.
You’re probably thinking how did Ninjara meet the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles if she operated in Japan, halfway across the world from them? Well, Chien Khan and his evil plans were the reason. To help the demon that had saved his life cross over to the Earth plane as promised, Chien Khan kidnapped April’s love interest who was a Chinese-American warrior dragon fireman known as Chu Hsi so that he would be able to take control of the warrior dragon to aid in the task.
Now April was the only human ally of the Turtles, and they shared a great bond with her so this kidnapping triggered a chain of events during which the turtles helped April track Chu Hsi’s scent across the world, all the way to Hiroshima, Japan. The word of their presence in Hiroshima quickly spread and reached the ears of Chien Khan who dispatched his assassin to kill them. And this assassin was none other than, you guessed it – Ninjara.
Her assassination attempt on the Turtles is how she first meets them. They face off against each other and after a short-lived battle, she realizes that the real reason Chien Khan needed the warrior dragon, Chu Hsi was so that he could use him to destroy a nuclear plant which would in turn release incredible amounts of energy that would aid in the demon Noi Tar Dar’s crossover.
This act would pretty much poison the entire Japanese countryside with radioactive energy and nuclear waste material but Khan did not seem to care about the major harm that would befall the Japanese people. She began realizing that the master she served was far from perfect and was shocked when she realized that Khan did not care about the consequences at all.
Chien Khan’s evil plan was eventually stopped by the two deities known as Izanagi and Izanami and she helped them defeat both Khan and the demon as she switched loyalties. It was after seeing the sheer cruelty exhibited by the man she had served for so long, that Ninjara decided to leave her country behind and moved all the way across the world to join the Turtles in their travels and adventures.
While she was definitely a great addition to their team because of her history and experience as an assassin which gave her an advantage during combat, another thing happened. Raphael fell in love with her and soon, the two of them started a romantic relationship. Raphael was the first Turtle to fall in love, and experience love and romance before eventually breaking it off and parting ways. But hey, they were hella cute while it lasted! Reciprocal love relationships featuring any of the four turtles in any officially sanctioned TMNT continuity were uncommon at the time TMNT Adventures was first released. It was the one-sided attraction that was more frequently depicted in TNMT plots, but most relationships were only ever friendships.
Their relationship started as a fun fling but became more serious as time went by and she started living with the Turtles. She assisted them on many adventures and missions – she went everywhere with them, from the Middle East to the darkest corners of space, and was an integral member of the team from issue #29 to issue # and life seemed great for Umeko. However, good things always annoyingly, seem to come to an end.
One day, her brother, Naga showed up at the Turtle lair and this was when her family history was also explored in the comics. Her brother informed her that there was trouble at home – some hunter had been making sport of her family members and hunting them down one by one. This cruel hunter had captured their grandmother and Ninjara was needed to rescue her and put a stop to this madness, once and for all.
Unable to refuse a plea for help from her own family, Ninjara decided to go back to the island she was born on, and like a dutiful boyfriend, Raphael accompanied her once again, back to Japan. Ninjara’s clan lived on a hidden island, tucked away from the mainland and it is here that Raphel would find out that ‘Ninjara’ was not her actual name and that it really just meant ‘outsider’, with her real name being Umeko. During their stay in Japan, Ninjara reunited with her former handsome fox boyfriend, Kenji which obviously made Raphael a little jealous, but nothing to call home about.
Okay back to rescuing their grandmother. This tale was the ultimate case of family betrayal as Raphael and Ninjara would quickly learn that Naga, her brother had betrayed them in order to get their grandmother back. The betrayal stung as they learnt that Naga had traded Ninjara to the hunters so that they would release their grandmother.
It also turned out that their grandmother could have freed herself at any point if she wanted to. Ninjara and Raphael were chased by the hunters as they attempted to flee but got cornered next to a passage that led to hell (yes, you heard it right, a doorway to hell). Well, they ran in, having no other option and the hunter followed them into hell as well – that is one dedicated hunter if I may say so myself. However, things go horribly wrong here as a female demon entices Raphael, and let us just say that Ninjara did not take very well to that. However, they managed to lose the hunter in the underbellies of hell and they came back safely.
Her next major appearance was in the Future Shark Trilogy where Raphael would get relationship advice from his future self because present-day Raph was really struggling in the relationship and differences between Umeko and him had begun to rear their ugly heads.
A major issue for them was that he would outlive Umeko because he was a reptile and she was a fox – that is definitely not something fun for people in a relationship and it showed that somewhere, they were unevenly matched and not meant to be. However, despite these major differences, Raphael’s future self-advised him to treat her well and not let her go. But the truth was that the two of them had way more differences than they had similarities and commonalities and it was honestly a surprise that they had made it so long together.
They had very few things in common, few of them being their skills and their intensiveness. On the flip side, Raph had a tendency to be quite pessimistic and Umeko was definitely not a fan of that because it did not appeal to her. So, after spending a fair amount of time together, Umeko and Raphael drifted apart, getting too busy with their missions and adventures and with taking down bad guys. However, Umeko’s individuality was swallowed up and she became stuck under the shadow of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Her needs and wants soon became overshadowed.
On their fateful trip to Alaska, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles met an alpha wolf-man hybrid names Mokoshan who had been recently widowed. It turned out that he was somehow related to the Japanese fox race that Umeko hailed from. And well, Umeko, who was already unhappy with her partner and her company became impressed with Mokoshan. She was falling out of love with Raphael anyway and this new wolf-man caught her eye.
Not only was he extremely impressive when it came to combat, but he was also much closer to her people than Raphael ever was, simply by virtue of biology. After crossing paths with Mokoshan, she would go out and try to save some wolves the next day but would end up getting shot in the process. It was Mokoshan who then nursed her back to health, increasing her admiration and feelings for him. Naturally, this made Raphael extremely angry – a little green-eyed monster called jealousy reared its ugly head and things went from bad to worse.
It was after this incident that Umeko eventually broke up with him because she wanted stability and consistency in her life and believed that she no longer wanted the lifestyle that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and by extension, Raphael led.
As Ninjara realized she was no longer in love with Raphael and expressed her desire to remain in Mokoshan’s community, the head of an Alaskan clan of human-like wolves, their romance ended because of personal issues during the Moon Eyes Saga.
Although it wasn’t intended to be, Issue #70, where Raphael and Ninjara split up, marks her final appearance in the Archie Comics continuity. The characters’ future is uncertain because Archie canceled the comic before it could continue with its new plot.
After the Archie series ended, Stephen Murphy and Chris Allan were permitted to keep on using Ninjara because they invented her rather than Kevin Eastman or Peter Laird. She briefly appeared in her own comic, Ninjara: Seed of Destruction, which was printed in the Radio Comix anthology Furrlough. She first appeared in issues #47, #48, and #52 up to this point.
She’s no longer hanging around with teenagers, according to the tagline. Mokoshan had left Ninjara a widow at this point, and the couple had a daughter named Moka. After Mokoshan was killed by an unidentified human sniper, just like his first mate had been, Ninjara took Moka and left the wolf clan. She then travelled to Japan with her son while working as a bounty hunter to find the person who had killed her husband. Her only lead was a token bearing the kanji symbol that the sniper had left behind.
However, there was a reunion where Ninjara and the Turtles came together in 2014 for the 30th anniversary of the Turtles. Murphy and Allan were invited back to do a small story based on this universe. Murphy had originally planned to introduce a new girlfriend for Raphael but was asked to keep the story timeless which resulted in the return of Ninjara as Raphael’s girlfriend one more time.
Ninjara’s place in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle lore is somewhat of a divisive topic amongst fans with some people unhappy with the fact that she was depicted as being as skillful as the turtles. However, some fans were also uncomfortable with one of the turtles being involved in a romantic relationship with someone from another species. However, she continues to be one of the most badass characters ever to have been introduced in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The writers took fan criticism in their stride and went ahead with this unique storyline, giving Raphael a femme fatale girlfriend.
What Makes Ninjara So Powerful
Umeko was not a damsel in distress in any shape or form. She might look delicate and appealing, but she actually was a badass ninja and wielded a sword like no other. A formidable swordswoman, she was feared by any who crossed her. In fact, she is a femme fatale in the world full of men, or well, anthropomorphic male animals that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles offers us. Apart from being an excellent swordswoman, she was also renowned as being the best thief in Japan – you couldn’t keep anything away from her nimble hands – if she wanted it, she would get it.
To add to her repertoire of skills, she was also a highly skilled martial artist, thus the name Ninjara, a clever and feminine play on the word ninja – and her skills were known far and wide. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are obviously also masters of martial arts; however, Ninjara was not far behind. In fact, she was considered to be equal, or nearly equal to the four of them when it came down to pure skill.
Apart from her combat abilities, she was also really good at scaling walls as she could climb over and across them with surprising ease – this probably had something to do with her agile figure and nimble, yet graceful movements. Last but not least, she also was a fox after all and thus had the keen sense of smell that her kind possessed along with being as stealthy as a fox during operations. All of this makes her an extremely powerful and formidable opponent, whether one faces her during combat or otherwise.
Ninjara ushered in an era of romance and shipping that was previously unheard of in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While that might have been unpalatable for some, her character immediately became popular due to how charismatic and badass she was. Do you think adding Ninjara as Raphael’s love interest was a good choice? Let us know in the comments section below!