April O'Neil (2012 TV series)

"April, it seems you have a rare gift: A Sensitivity I have trained my entire life to develop...
 * -Splinter"

April O'Neil is an ally to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

History
April met the Turtles when she and her father (Kirby O'Neil) were attacked by the Kraang. She was afraid of the mutants at first, but started to trust them thanks to Donatello. The group was unable to fight effectively as a team, which resulted with the Kraang succeeding in kidnapping April and her father. While she was trapped in their hideout, April tried to trick the Kraang into letting her escape, but her plan failed. Later the Turtles came to her rescue. Eventually, they succeeded in saving April, but the Kraang got away with her father. Later, the Turtles met April at her aunt's apartment, where she would now be staying. April was safe, but upset over the loss of her father and determined to find him. The Turtles promised to help her get him back.

Since then April has become good friends with the Turtles and cooperated with them on various missions.

In ,"New Friend, Old Enemy" she shows Michelangelo how to use the Internet to make friends online.

In, "Metalhead", April reveals that she's set up an online message board "to collect unusual sightings around New York... People send in pics, videos...", amongst which she also gets stuff that might be able to help in her endeavor to find and save her father from the Kraang: She also played a very active role by infiltrating a Kraang hideout and learning their plans to put mutagen in the city's water supply. She was also able to defeat one of their guards on her own, and escape to inform the Turtles of the enemy plans.

As of "Monkey Brains", April has begun training with Splinter in the ways of the ninja. While she is not on the level of the Turtles in terms of fighting skills, she has shown improvement in matters of stealth and spying.

In "Panic in the Sewers", she refuses to let the turtles give up, and volunteers to spy on Shredder to find out his plan. At first, everyone rejects, but seeing they have no other way, they allow her to do it. She finds out Shredder's plan: To destroy the sewers with chlorosulfonic acid. After getting out of the building, April says she's gonna hitch a ride and see where they go, but Leonardo objects. Because of Dogpound's acute hearing, he hears them over the phone and captures April. Later on, after Raph and Donnie stop Fong and the Foot Clan, she kicks the door of the van open, knocking him out.

In "Mousers Attack!", April's phone is stolen by some Purple dragons as part of The Foot's scheme to locate Splinter. Her phone is later replaced with a "T-Phone".

In "TCRI", April has found out that the Kraang are really after her, not her father. The reason for this is still unknown.

In "Baxter's Gambit", April asks Splinter to find her a weapon. After trying out several different weapons ending in horrible failures, Splinter settles on giving her a tessen that he had hoped to give to his long lost daughter. It looks like an ordinary fan, but it is in fact made of metal and has a razor-sharp edge.

In "Karai's Vendetta", she becomes a target for the Foot Clan. Karai, dressed in casual clothing, comes up to her, and quickly befriends her. However, April realizes who she is, and tries to run, aided by Mr. Murakami. However, while being good at running away, she is cornered, and pulls out her tessen. Karai compliments the weapon, yet quickly disarms April and utterly overpowers her. April keeps getting back up and fights back, but Karai toys with her and severely injures her. Karai questions what makes her so special, trapping her in an arm lock, and April angrily proclaims what has changed, including the death of her mother. This touches a nerve in Karai, lowering her guard and allowing April to send her tumbling down a subway staircase, and allowing her to escape. Despite her escape, Splinter states she should stay in the sewer temporarily. With the Foot now after her, along with the Kraang and likely thanks to her very narrow escape, she is unsafe out in the open. She reluctantly accepts, wanting the enemies of the turtles defeated so she can return to her normal life.

Personality
April is a smart, strange, tomboyish, and shy sixteen year-old girl with an indie rock vibe. The fact that April feels more comfortable with four mutant reptiles than with her high-school peers should tell you a lot. She is also feisty, determined and resourceful. She is fiercely loyal to her mutant friends, as seen in Panic in the Sewers. When the turtles were ready to give up, April volunteered to find out Shredder's plot. She is also somewhat reckless too.

Friends
While she is friends with all the Turtles, April seems to have the closest friendship with Donatello. He has a crush on her, but she seems to be either oblivious, or indifferent about it. However, in, "Enemy of My Enemy", April was upset when Donnie said Karai was a better kunoichi than her. Yet, she seemed a little annoyed by Donnie's attempts to flirt with her. In "'Karai's Vendetta", April had a picture of him covered in flowers and hearts. Also in this episode, when Donnie yelled out, "My sweet princess is alive!", it is possible that she did in fact, hear what he said. She responded, "Let's agree that did" after he asked if he muted that, so that is another clue that she knows his obvious crush on her; she pretended she didn't hear that so that he wouldn't be embarrassed. So it is unclear if she has feelings for Donnie or not. She is a really close friend to Donatello, since he keeps risking his life to save her and complimenting her. The other turtles do care about her, especially Mikey and Leo. When she was upset, Mikey tried to comfort her by offering her a tissue, which she declined. When Leo didn't know what to do about Karai, he went to April for advice. The only one she doesn't seem close to or have a relationship with is Raph, as they rarely have conversations. However, they do seem to have a similar mindset, both warning Leo about Karai. Raph also seems to look after April in a way like all the turtles do, such as when they all opposed her to spying on The Shredder.

April seems to be on good terms with Splinter, despite knowing little about him. They share the student-teacher relationship like he has with the turtles. Splinter decided to teach her, when he realized that she has empathy, and he decided to teach her to be a kunoichi. She seems to respect and care for him, especially when she was forced to fight him. Since training under him, April has learned much about Splinter's past (including the loss of his wife and daughter), showing that he now trusts her greatly, and he even gave her the weapon that he intended to give to his daughter, which April accepted honorably, showing that their bond as teacher and student has deepened greatly. He has also called her my child . This suggests that he considers April as one of his own[an adoptive daughter] like the turtles.

While April's relationship with her father has not yet been explored very deeply, her determination to rescue him shows that she cares for him very much. Her only other known relative is her aunt, whom she used to live with, until Master Splinter asked her to stay and live in the sewer until Shredder and the Kraang are stopped and quit looking for her. April's mother, Mrs. O'Neil, is presumably deceased.

She also has a friend named Irma, based on her 1987 cartoon counterpart. Not much is said about her, but it's possible she'll be introduced in the series later. She called her in the episode," Mousers Attack!.

Murakami seems to be a close friend and mentor to her. They're always protecting each other from danger such as April protecting Murakami from the Purple Dragons, and Murakami with April from Karai. It's likely that he was the one who taught April basic Japanese words and parts of the Japanese culture.

Enemies
Karai is the only other girl human April has come in contact with. Although it's established that they are enemies, it's shown that they have a lot in common. They both lost their mothers (probably at different points in their lives), they speak Japanese, they are both associated and are love interests of the Turtles, they are both kunoichis and they know martial arts.it is suggested that April dislikes Karai due to the things that the turtles have told April about her. That and the fact that Karai used Leo's feelings to divert his attention.

The Kraang have been April's archenemy from the very beginning of the show. She didn't know why she and her father were kidnapped, and hated them because of it. However, she's now discovered that there's something about her that's different than other humans. It's unknown what the truth behind April and the Kraang is, but it's likely that the Kraang want to use April for their invasion on the Earth.

Powers and Abilities
April seems to have an ability to sense emotion (similar to Splinter), though she can seemingly see into their soul, such as when she recognized a mutant monkey to be Dr. Tyler Rockwell. This could indicate that since she is a soulful person, she can detect someone who has true emotions, as opposed to one who mimics them or is a sinister individual. This seemed to be evident when she looked into the monkey's eyes, possibly judging if he is a good person, though the way that she does it is unkown. As of more recently, we've discovered that she can hear something that Splinter (who has good hearing), couldn't. It is likely that these two powers are innate, or possibly something in her genetics that she never knew she had. This greatly fascinates Splinter, who claims that he's never developed such an ability.

Appearance
April appears as a young-looking shy 16 year old. She has ginger hair that appears to be tied up on a small ponytail and curved bangs that go to the right. She also has a yellow headband. April wears an elbow-length black shirt with a yellow and white sport shirt with the number "5" over it, blue denim shorts, black leggings, brown bandages/bracelets around her wrists, white high socks with two blue stripes on them, with black low-heeled boots. Though you may not notice it, April has a clip on her right back pocket of her shorts. The clip is colored gold and has a little ball with a heart. There also appears to be keys that we are guessing to be house keys. April is very slim and has blue eyes with one eyelash, and freckels. Donnie finds all of these features "attractive", leading to his crush on her. In "New Girl In Town", she is seen wearing pajamas, which consists of a yellow long sleeve button up shirt, and floral pants.

Trivia

 * April's name comes from the Latin "aprīlis", meaning "of the month of the goddess, Venus". April's surname, O'Neil, is of Irish origin; derived from Irish Gaelic, it means "descendant of Niall". Her surname implies that April has family roots in Ireland, making her ethnicity/nationality Irish-American.
 * April is called "April-chan" by Mr. Murakami, who she likewise addresses as "Murakami-san".
 * In Japanese, April's name would be 四月 (しがつ, shigatsu), meaning "the 4th Moon"; (moon = month and April is the 4th month) or 卯月 (うづき, uzuki), meaning "Moon of the Rabbit". In Katakana, April's name is spelt: アプリル (Apuriru).
 * In this incarnation, April is 16 years old: The reason for this is that Nickelodeon thought it would be odd for an adult woman to be hanging out with teenagers (the Turtles). In this incarnation, she is an only child, whereas in other incarnations of April in the franchise shows her with an older sister, Robyn.
 * The number five on April's shirt may be a reference to her role as "The Fifth Turtle".
 * After the events of "Rise of the Turtles, Part 2", April is curently staying with her Aunt, (though it as yet to be specified whether she is the sister of April's father, Dr. Kirby O'Neil, or of April's mother). April's Aunt is herself currently living in the same building as an antique store called "Second Time About". This is likely a reference to some of April's previous incarnations working in an antique store with a similar name, "Second Time Around". After the events of "Karai's Vendetta", April has to stay in the Lair with Splinter and the Turtles until they can defeat both the Foot and the Kraang.
 * April currently attends Roosevelt High School, (named after one of the American Presidents, and the school mascot is the "Roosevelt Viking"). After the events of "Karai's Vendetta", April cannot go back to school until both the Foot and the Kraang are defeated. According to her picture on her student ID, shown in "Panic in the Sewers", April used to have glasses and braces.
 * As of the events of "Baxter's Gambit", April is now armed with a Tessen, (lit. a "Iron Fan", better known as a Japanese war fan), a weapon that Splinter had one day hoped to give to his daughter, Miwa, who April reminds him of. April will now be focusing her fighting style around the real-life Japanese martial art of Tessenjutsu. The Tessen has a sharp edge when spread open, and can also be used as a throwing weapon.
 * Before settling on the Tessen, the weapons April went through are a Chigiriki, (a staff with chain), a Mace, (a club), a pair of Kama, (small scythes), and a Manriki (a length of chain with weights on both ends).
 * So far there are seven episodes in the series that April has not appeared: "Turtle Temper", "I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman", "It Came From The Depths", "The Pulverizer","Cockroach Terminator", "Pulverizer Returns! " and "Parasitica".
 * In "Karai's Vendetta", she comes in contact with the toxic water from the Kraang's home dimension yet is unharmed, despite it dissolving a piece of innoccent pizza moments earlier. It is unknown why.
 * Donnatello's caller ID he gave April is called "Donny Boy". It should also be noted that flowers and stars surround his picture as well as a bow or butterfly on his mask and a silhouette of a cat.
 * April knows how to ride a motorcycle.
 * April stands about a head shorter than all four Turtles. In all other incarnations she is several inches taller (her height usu. given in toys and related media as between five-five and five-eight). In the Season 2 model sheet for Casey Jones, his height is listed at 5"8 compared to April at 5"1, making April a full head shorter than Casey.
 * April has the phone number of Irma Langistein, also called Weirdo McGee. One of her friends humans.

Gallery
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