Michelangelo (2012 TV series)

"Michelangelo, he's one of a kind! And you know just where to find him when it's party time!"

- 2012 TV series Theme song

Michelangelo or Mikey is the "wild one" of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, (though, as the presumed youngest, he would be more accurately described as the 'eternal child'). Though he possesses a "child-like" innocence, he always brings his best game to a fight. He fights with two nunchaku, which convert into kusarigama.

He is voiced by Greg Cipes.

Personality
Michelangelo is the youngest, shortest, and least mature of his brothers, and he is 15 years old. Enthusiastic, positive and adaptable, Michelangelo is extremely creative and goes with the flow. He loves to joke and pull pranks especially with his brothers (he mostly uses water balloons). He loves pop culture and yearns to be a part of the real world; he insists that people will accept the turtles as equals, if given the chance. He is shown to be scatterbrained and somewhat dim-witted, often times causing trouble for the team. However, his brothers are often protective of him, especially his second oldest brother, Raphael.

Biography
Fifteen years before Rise of the Turtles, Part 1, the benevolent Hamato Yoshi purchased the four turtles as pets. Yoshi came into contact with a rat and had to fight against a couple of Kraang. During the scuffle, the aliens dropped a container of mutagen, causing the mutation of Yoshi and the turtles. Yoshi raised the turtles as his own children and continues to train them in ninjutsu.

Abilities
Michelangelo is considered the most athletic and talented of his brothers. His nunchakus match his flexible abilities when it comes to battle. While he's not as disciplined as Leonardo, strong as Raphael, or as smart as Donatello, Michelangelo's raw talent, agility and unpredictability make up for it. In Follow the Leader he, while fighting Leonardo, proves to be able to actually use moves from the capoeira fighting style. He also shows a lot of endurance. Splinter considers Michelangelo the one with the most potential to be more skilled than his three brothers combined, particularly complimenting his ability to fight without thinking (Although he cannot do this when actually asked to do so, panicking when Donatello asked him to confront the telepathic Doctor Victor Falco). Like his brothers, Michelangelo is stealthy, can hide in the shadows, sneak around without being detected, and use hand to hand combat.

Weapons
During most of the series, Michelangelo wields a pair of Nunchaku which, like his brothers with their chosen weapons, he is highly skilled with. In Pulverizer Returns, Splinter says that the boys are getting too reliable on their own weapons are makes them swap. After this process, Michelangelo is left with Leonardo's Katanas (which causes him to do an impersonation of his brother and make him believe he is the leader). During a fight, the turtles become uncooperative with their new weapons and swap back. When Splinter finds out, he takes away all of the weapons, stating that any object can be useful for real ninjas. When he and his brothers are trying to save Timothy, Michelangelo uses a chain and holds and fights with it in a style similar to his Nunchucks. Both of his Nunchucks can convert into Kusarigama. In Turtle Temper and The Gauntlet he also used a Yumi bow and like the rest of his brothers wields shurikans. In Target: April O'Neil, he briefly used a Kraang blaster which he picked up, and a plasma sword he stole from Chrome Dome, both which he dropped after he almost hits his own brothers.

Family

 * Leonardo - Michelangelo's oldest brother. He and Leonardo are the only ones that don't seem to fight that much with each other, but Leonardo sometimes criticizes his wacky personality and lack of intelligence at times. Michelangelo also tends to imitate Leonardo as a leader in a funny way. Michelangelo doesn't seem to interact with Leonardo as much as he does with his other brothers: Raphael and Donatello.


 * Raphael - Michelangelo's second-oldest brother. He gets beaten up by Raphael in a playful manner (sometimes violently), but they really do care about each other. Raphael is very protective when it comes to Michelangelo, such as facing his fear when a giant cockroach took Michelangelo in Cockroach Terminator or in I, Monster, when Splinter hurts Michelangelo, Raphael immediately becomes angry. It is also shown that Michelangelo cares for Raphael. In The Gauntlet, when Shredder electrocuted Raphael, Michelangelo was the one who ran to him to make sure he was okay.


 * Donatello - Michelangelo's third-oldest brother. He seems to fight with Donatello the most because of their completely opposite personalities, but they do tend to get along while they're fighting the Kraang and the Foot. Also, they seem to be really close as brothers. It is also shown that Donatello is very protective of him. Such as yelling Michelangelo's name when he gets hurt, or stopping Dogpound from killing him. (Nickname: "B-Team") He is closest to Donatello and they interact the most.


 * Splinter - Michelangelo's surrogate father. He usually doesn't understand his sensei's advice very well, and doesn't really take it that seriously, but he trains well under Splinter, despite his slight dimwittedness. Out of all the turtles, Michelangelo interacts with Splinter the least. But, when it comes to his safety, such as his other brothers, Splinter always gets concerned.

Friends / Allies

 * April O'Neil - Michelangelo's first human friend. He and April don't seem to interact much, but they care about each other as friends.


 * Leatherhead - Michelangelo's first mutant friend. When they first met, Michelangelo seems to be the only one who's nice to Leatherhead, but later on Michelangelo's brothers seem to accept him as well. When Leatherhead goes through the portal with Traag, he is very upset, and misses him a lot. He is the most upset about this, since he and Leatherhead were great friends.


 * Pulverizer - They never really talk.

Enemies

 * Shredder - Michelangelo's archnemesis. Michelangelo first met Shredder in "The Gauntlet" and was terrified at first, but he still managed to escape with his life, along with his brothers. He seems to be intimidated and scared by him, presumably more than his brothers. Maybe because during the battle, Shredder caused a part of a sign to fall on Michelangelo. His brothers immediately got him out.


 * The Kraang - Michelangelo's targeted archenemy. Michelangelo was the first of his brothers to discover these aliens with robot bodies and is freaked out by the brain/squid like creatures inside of them. Not much interaction is shown, but it is obvious that he dislikes them.


 * Baxter Stockman - Michelangelo's nemesis. Michelangelo accidently gave Baxter Stockman a power-up that made him a villain and an enemy against the turtles. He defeated Baxter by shoving bees in his face, causing Baxter to dislike the turtles. Although further interaction is unknown, he is shown to dislike him. He dubbs him The StockmanPod after Baxter upgraded his armor.


 * Fishface / Xever - One of Michelangelo's enemies. Thier interaction is shown not much, but it is assumed that Mikey doesn't like him. Michelangelo dubbs him Fishface after Xever mutates into a fish.


 * Rahzar/Dogpound / Chris Bradford - One of Michelangelo's archenemies. As a human, Bradford managed to trick Michelangelo into thinking they were friends. Although Michelangelo had taken a liking to him, even to the point of nicknaming his 'friend' Rad Brad. Bradford seemed to despise him and only became 'friends' to get information out of him and use him as bait. Bradford teaches Michelangelo the Death Dragon which Michelangelo presumably stills knows now. After they became nemesis, Bradford mutated into a dog-like creature which Michelangelo dubbed Dogpound. He sees Dogpound as a threat and most likely, Dogpound might despise Michelangelo the most out of all his brothers.
 * '''Snakeweed - Another of Michelangelo's enemies. He was the first enemy of the turtles who was named by Michelangelo.
 * '''Rat King - He is the first mutant enemy of the turtles who wasn't named by Michelangelo.
 * '''Spider Bytez - He is the second mutant enemy of the turtles who was named by Michelangelo.

Quotes
See: Michelangelo (2012 TV series) / Quotes 

Gallery
See: Michelangelo (2012 TV series) / Gallery

Trivia

 * Michelangelo's name is Italian, meaning "Who is like God, an Angel". Given the fact that he was adopted by Hamato Yoshi/Splinter, Michelangelo's full name would be "Hamato Michelangelo".
 * In Katakana, Michelangelo's name is spelt: ミケランジェロ (Mikeranjero).
 * While Michelangelo still fights with his weapons of choice, a pair of Nunchaku, in this incarnation they can both be converted into Kusarigama, (a "chain-sickle"), via a retractible blade inside of one of the sticks of each nunchaku, and extra lengths of chain stored in the other stick of each nunchaku.
 * This new feature actually makes it's first appearance in Rise of the Turtles, Part 1, when Michelangelo takes on a lone Kraang and in fear uses the blade of the kusarigama inside one of his nunchaku, slicing open it's face, revealing it to be a robot, (the actual first appearance of Michelangelo's kusarigama is shown in extended version of Rise of the Turtles, Part 1   during a change-screen, where the Turtles are ready to go up on their first excursion to the surface, as all four turtles are shown with their weapons, Michelangelo's nunchaku are shown becoming kusarigama.
 * He is the shortest one of the group, as well as the youngest of his brothers; Leonardo, Raphael & Donatello.
 * In this incarnation, Michelangelo is the one who primarily does the cooking, even after discovering Pizza.
 * He is the one who gives the names to the people that have been contaminated with mutagen, but also other things like the T-pod. He also gets somewhat irritated when someone else does the naming of new items & bad guys.
 * Michelangelo and Beast Boy (from Cartoon Network's Teen Titans) seem to be similar; same VA [voice actors], they like pizza (more accurately they both like junk food), comic books and video games, they like to make jokes, listening to music and goofing around, and they both even have the same skin tone (which is green), they're both the closest to the smart one of the group(Mikey & Donnie and Beast Boy & Cyborg).
 * He is shown to hate Polka music (see "'I Think His Name Is Baxter Stockman'").
 * His catchphrase in this incarnation is "Booyakasha!" (which is an equivalent of the infamous "Cowabunga!").
 * Michelangelo seems to develop his own unique fighting style, which he calls "hot nunchaku fury" although it's hard to estimate if it's really a fighting style or just a fancy name.
 * Part of his secret kata consists of Kamen Rider V3's henshin pose.
 * He was the first to taste pizza and so far he's the one who likes it the most. He will even eat it off the floor, or if it came from the trash, (as shown in Panic in the Sewers), and he overreacted after Donatello destoyed a slice with Kraang Water(as seen in Karai's Vendetta).
 * In "Never Say Xever", Michelangelo claims he wants a tattoo. When he shows them the tattoo by sweeping down his hand, the tattoo is the 1987 version of himself.
 * In Enemy of My Enemy, it is revealed that he doesn't know what "Booyakasha" means. He just likes yelling it because he thinks it fun. Donnie said it in Metalhead and Raph said it in New Girl in Town.
 * According to Greg Cipes, Booyakasha means, "Blessing and love to the very moment.". So when Michelangelo or any of the turtles say it, it means celebration to the hour.
 * He was the first turtle to show an anime-ish like face.
 * This incarnation of Michelangelo has ADD, is confirmed in his bio.
 * He has a proficiency for naming things and pranking.
 * He is the first turtle to hide completely inside his shell (TCRI (episode) and Target: April O'Neil).
 * Michelangelo appears for the first time without his mask in Slash and Destroy.