Ch'rell (2003 TV series)

"Like the Phoenix, I have risen from the ashes! And into my fire, you shall fall."

- Shredder in The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 2



Ch’rell (also known as Torrinon, Kako Naso, Duke Acureds, Oroku Saki, and the Utrom Shredder) is a notorious intergalactic war criminal, who has adopted numerous aliases. He is the only known blood-red Utrom (as opposed to the species' normal pink appearance), has a purple scar over his left eye and three horn like protrustions on each side and the center of his head.

Ch’rell acts as the primary antagonist in the first three seasons of the 2003 TV series and in Turtles Forever. But as a minor antagonist for the rest of the series.

History 2003 Series
Ch'rell was the greatest scourge of the universe, immensely intelligent even by Utrom standards, the cause of confirmed millions, if not billions, of deaths. It wasn't until after three centuries of searching that the ship under Mortu's command captured him. Enroute to home, Ch'rell escaped and sabotaged the ship, causing it to crash-land on Earth. Ch'rell escaped out into the wilds of Feudal Japan. He caught the first exo-suit prototype, which was made from what they could salvage from the ship so the Utroms can hide amongst the humans. Placing samurai armor around it, Ch'rell took on the guise of the Shredder, flipping the three-toe sign of the dragon of the Ninja Tribunal, just like what the original Oroku Saki did, to create the Foot Clan, a band of his own loyal ninja. The Shredder has planned to secretly fight the Utroms and their human Guardians for a thousand years. He commanded some humans to forge the Sword of Tengu out of Utrom metal. When it was done, he killed its creators, fabricating the tale that it "fell from the heavens" and was made by the goblins.

By the 20th century, Ch'rell's public name is Oroku Saki, a multi-billionaire secretly leading a massive criminal empire with the Foot. Years after World War II, the Shredder learned of the Utroms' Japanese base from their unsuccessful Guardian, Yukio Mashimi. The Shredder had his Foot attack the compound but was unprepared for the secret escape pods. It wasn't until Hamato Yoshi came to take revenge on Mashimi for the death of his girlfriend. The Shredder ordered Mashimi to fight Yoshi alone and Yoshi ultimately wins the fight and escapes.

Ch'rell at sometime before of after this, found an abandoned young orphan girl named Karai. He adopted her and raised her as if she was his own. He taught her everything he knew about ninjutsu and leadership, explaining to her that the Utroms were wrongfully hunting him (and in his mind they were).

The Shredder would later follow a lead that the Utroms were in New York. He took a contingent of his ninja there, leaving Karai in charge of the Japanese division. He located Yoshi and demanded to know the Utroms' location but the Guardian refused to answer and the Shredder killed him in front of his pet rat, Splinter.

Fifteen years later, Ch'rell became intrigued with the strange creatures that constantly interfered in his operations. He wanted to meet with these creatures, hoping to bring them to his side. But when the Turtles found out about his evil nature (though Splinter was hardly an unbiased witness), they refused to join them. But the Shredder was more skilled than them and nearly killed them when Splinter tricked him into dropping a water tower on himself. Ch'rell was unharmed by this, but it did delay him long enough for the turtles to get away.

Ch'rell had his ninja search the sewers to draw out the Turtles. He eventually cornered them in a closet in April's shop, setting the place aflame. But Ch'rell had to be absolutely certain that his enemies were dead and Baxter Stockman "confirmed" they were dead. But this distraction allowed the Turtles to assault his tower. Just they were about to have their final confrontation, Stockman, augmented as a cyborg, interrupted, intent on getting revenge on both his enemies. After Stockman was defeated, they continued their fight. The Shredder regained the Sword of Tengu but then lost it to Leonardo. He grabbed the latter's katana and they struck each other. Resulting in Leo beheading the Shredder. The Turtles then use the sword to disable the tower permanently. But unaware of his true nature, the Shredder picked up his robotic head and planned his next move. He salvaged Stockman, who had nothing but a head left and attached to a robotic spider, tortured by voice command.

When a mysterious light from a building was sighted, Ch'rell knew the sign—the Utroms were hiding there. He had Stockman infiltrate the compound and open the sub doors. He found the Utroms' transmat, which they intended to use to return home. But Ch'rell planned to use the device to conquer his home. But despite the Turtles' efforts that disabled Stockman's voice commands, an unconscious Shredder dropped an implosion device, forcing the Utroms to use the transmat. Near the end of its countdown, the Shredder awaken, determined to take down the Turtles himself. Donatello electrocuted his suit, disabling it. Ch'rell then revealed his true form, intent on taking his enemies down with him. But they use the transmat to get out and Ch'rell presumably perished in the implosion.

Somehow, Ch'rell survived and was retrieved by Karai, who brings him to a secret medical facility inside Foot Headquarters, where he is healed by worms. Once his recombination is complete and Karai ends the gang war on New York, the Shredder is reborn. Hun had managed to recover a number of Utrom devices to create more advanced robots. But the Turtles along with the dillusional Triceraton Zog located his barge hideout and Zog sacrificed himself to defeat the Shredder. But the Shredder survives once again.

In the aftermath of the Triceraton invasion, in his Saki guise, Ch'rell used his wealth to rebuild New York, but his reconstruction was actually a cover to salvage Triceraton tech to create a large spaceship to return to the stars. He held a good-bye party, saying he'd be leaving New York and that he would return someday to his "adopted" home, indicating he later planned to come back to conquer. But he had to launch prematurely, for the Turtles and the EPF attacked his new mansion. In the ensuring fight, Ch'rell's exo-suit was badly damaged, revealing his true form to Hun. His ship launched, with only him, Karai and Doctor Chaplin aboard, leaving many of his troops and weapons back on Earth, but he was confident he could contact his other forces elsewhere. Ch'rell installed himself into a larger, four-armed suit and went to finish off the Turtles, who had stolen aboard. He nearly succeeded but for Karai's last minute interference. But EPF missile launches made things difficult and the Turtles attempted to overload the core. Luckily, an Utrom ship came by and placed the ship in a stasis field, evacuating everyone before the explosion.

On the Utrom Howeworld, Ch'rell was placed on trial. Many testimonies were given and the judges ultimately sentence him to eternal exile on Mor Gal Tal, an ice asteroid.

It's also worth noting that in an alternate future visited by Donatello, Shredder had taken over the world. In this version, Splinter and Casey Jones were already killed in battle, Mikey had lost an arm, and Raph an eye. Hun had Baxter's brain sewn into his right shoulder and was in a wheelchair, and was now working with the Turtles. In a final battle, the alternate versions of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Hun, Stockman, and Karai died, Don faced the Shredder, but the Shredder's massive exo-suit was too powerful for him to defeat head on,, but Don managed to kill the Shredder by shoving the Turtle Tunneler into his face. This left April as the only surviving member of the main cast, though Don going back home would make sure this would never happen.

Fast Forward


Cody keeps his armor in a hall where other things from the Turtles lives are being kept. In the episode Clash of the Turtle Titans Ch'rell appears in the story at the beginning that Mikey is telling.

In the episode Timing is Everything, when trying to find a way to bring the Turtles back to present day, Cody and Sh'Okanabo's devices accidentally opened portals from different points in time all over the city. One of them sent Leonardo and Cody back to the exact point where Ch'rell was first defeated by having the Water Tower fall on him. He'd follow them through the portal but would be defeated and sent back by the Fast Forward TMNT and Sh'Okanabo. Raphael couldn't help making a time travel joke at the Shredder as they got rid of him. Oddly, he refered to Sh'Okanabo's technology as magic despite being an alien himself. However, the strange inviroment may have made him think that magic had been used.

Back to the Sewer
Tempus Fugit:When the Turtles are sent by Viral into the not-so-distant future, they encountered three Shredders fighting: the Tengu Shredder, the Utrom Shredder, and a new Cyber Shredder, he attacked them a couple of times until the Turtles escaped to the present, where Viral followed them and escaped to the internet. While searching for a source to recharge herself, Viral draws the power from a data vault belonging to the Foot, accidentally transforming herself into the Cyber Shredder who is a cybernetic engram of Ch'rell.

Something Wicked:He appears in a flashback while the Cyber Shredder is telling how he got into Cyber space.

Identity crisis:He appears in a flashback in leonardo's memory.



Turtles Forever
Ch'rell makes his next appearance in this special, found by Krang and the "1988 Shredder", who hoped to gain Ch'rell's support in whatever field of battle they would fight on. However, Ch'rell received help from Karai, and rebuilt a new exoskeleton, as well as refitting The Technodrome with Utrom technology to make a new ultimate weapon. Upon discovering the extensive nature of the turtle's many incarnations he realized that so long as a ninja turtle team existed, he would never be able to fully conquer the multiverse. So in a clever perception, he captured both his ninja turtles and the turtles of 1988, hoping find and destroy the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe, which would destroy every universe's ninja turtles in the reaction, even if it means destroying himself.

It took three ninja turtle teams, Karai, 2003 Splinter, 1988 Shredder, Krang in the fighting and the bumbling help of Bebop and Rocksteady to destroy Ch'rell with the Technodrome's laser. When 1988 Donatello mused aloud if Ch'rell was gone for good this time, Splinter and Karai both agreed that their Shredder never stayed dead for long and would most likely have a chance to return.

Video Games
The Ch'rell version of Shredder appears in the following games.
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 video game)
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (GBA)
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare
 * TMNT: Mutant Melee
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Battle for the City
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Double Damage

Action Figures
The following toys were released based on Ch'rell's Shredder.

2003 Shredder: Modeled after his original Armour from the 2003 cartoon, but with a slightly bluish tint to his armor. Accessories include two Swords of Tengu (which can combine at the handle), a guan dao, and two shuriken.

Armorized Shredder: A slightly modified version of the previously released Shredder 2003 Shredder figure, the armor on this figure is silver. The shoulder and hand armor is vacuum-metalized and detachable. The helmet is also detachable, revealing Oroku Saki's visage below.

Mutatin' Shredder: Retooled from the 1993 Mutatin' Shredder to appear closer to the 2003 version. This version had a black kimono and a helmet more closely designed to the 2003 Shredder. Saki's scar from the 2003 is also missing (the head is a completely different sculpt). Accessories include a guan dao and a canister of Ooze (green slime version - not the small faux canister that was included with previous toys).

2004 Air Ninja Shredder: Visually similar to the first 2003 Shredder, it also comes with flight gear including wings and a jet pack, and a cross strap design on the figure's front. Other accessories include two Swords of Tengu.

2005 Combat Warriors Shredder: Also visually similar to the first 2003 Shredder, the main difference is the lack of shoulder armor. Combat Warriors Shredder has weapon spinning action. Accessories include a guan dao, a tri-point staff, and two Swords of Tengu.

Feudal Shredder: Based on Shredder's armor from the Secret Origins episodes that took place in feudal Japan, only his armor is a little darker. This figure has an action feature that makes him 'crumple' in defeat when a button is pressed on his chest; a dial on the back sets him back to normal. Accessories include a guan dao, and removable shoulder and hand armor, and a removable helmet.

Ninja Action Shredder: Yet another figure designed after the 2003 figure, this one has two guan dao permanently strapped to his back. Ninja Action Shredder has a cartwheeling action feature. His only accessory is a vault door to cartwheel through.

Behind the scenes

 * Peter Laird and Lloyd Goldfine both had direct involvement in creating this new "Evil Utrom" twist on the classic villain Shredder in preproduction (shown in the gallery below). In 2003 several concepts of what the 'Saki' Utrom, Ch'rell could/would look like were created by Laird himself. Specific 'tweaks' by Peter were also made on the final look of the restraining helmet used to shackle Ch'rell in Mortu's prison aboard the Utrom's ship.


 * No official toy of the actual physical Utrom form of Ch'rell was produced. However, one was almost released. Steve Murphy did reveal some concept art on a never made Ch'rell figure that would have been released in late 2008. The visual ( shown in the gallery below ) shows a take off of Ch'rell's restraining helmet that was attached to a scorpion-like, mechanical bio-suit complete with firing missiles and bladed pincers.