Michelangelo is the youngest, shortest, and least mature of his brothers. Enthusiastic, positive and adaptable, Michelangelo is extremely creative and goes with the flow. He loves to joke around and pull pranks, especially with his brothers. He loves pop culture and readily accepts opportunities to widen his social group. As a brother and friend, Michelangelo is always openly playful and affectionate. While not very bright or book-smart, he can surprise others with his intuition, his keen sense of heart, and his quick graceful reflexes even in the absence of conscious thought.
Michelangelo has the capacity to be scatter-brained, naïve and excitable, which sometimes causes trouble for the team. However, his brothers are protective of him on occasion, especially his second oldest brother, Raphael. Though they find his idiocy rather irritating, they often freak out when he shows intelligence. Michelangelo sets a trend early in Season 1 of giving designated names to various mutated enemies, getting very upset if someone else names them before he can, this is evident when he finds out that Donatello named The Newtralizer.
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 acrobatic and talented of his brothers. His nunchuks match his flexible abilities when it comes to battle. While he's not as disciplined as Leonardo, strong as Raphael, or as smart like Donatello, Mikey's raw talent, agility and sheer unpredictability make up for it.
Potential: Splinter considers Michelangelo the one with the most potential of all of 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 Dr. Victor Falco). His potential also translates to his intelligence. This is show whenever he is in Dimension X.There, Mikey is shown to known how the dimension works, what its creature's are, and how to handle Kraang technology in the dimension.Even outside of Dimension X, there are numerous of times where he is shown providing critical knowledge, such as when he and Raphael were looking for Casey and coming up with a solution saying they can use their two T-Phones to triangulate the location of Casey's phone (a real-life mobile phone tracking technique that requires a good grasp of Euclidean geometry). He also displayed the ability to formulate Retro-Mutagen. However, this was merely a onetime display of his use with chemicals.
Creativity: Michelangelo has to be quite creative both in an out of combat. This mostly when he comes up with the names for most of the villains that they fight in the series.
Kobudō and Nunchaku Proficiency: Michelangelo was trained by Splinter in the art of the nunchaku. Aside from using them to wrap around and opponent's joints and weapons to disarm, Mikey swings and strikes with them in the manner akin to flails. Given Mikey's unpredictable nature, his able to make extensive use of his nunchucks in rather uncommon but effective ways in a fight as well as mix his attacks with the capoeira fighting style.
Kusarigamajutsu: Mkey's ability with the nunchaku also translates to his use of the kusarigama. His nunchucks both posses a retractable blade at the end them and can also extend in chain length. With it, Michelangelo possesses an even greater range of attack than with his regular nunchucks, able to swing it overhead and strike with the bladed end, or entangle his enemies with chain and swing them around.
Kama Proficiency: In Vision Quest, when the Turtles were preparing to venture into the spirit plane, Mikey forged himself a pair of kama to use in battle.
Tonfa Proficiency: While traveling in space to fight the Triceritons, the Fugitoid invented a pair of laser tonfa for Michelangelo to fight with.
Kyūjutsu: Michelangelo also possesses aptitude in archery and uses a yumi and arrow to fight long-ranged.
Shurikenjutsu: Michelangelo can throw shiruken with remarkable accuracy.
Strength: While Mikey is not strongest of the turtles he is stronger than the average human. He was able to throw barrels over his head at Spider Bytez. He was also strong enough to kick back Rahzar during the fight at the Auman Chemicals factory.
Speed: Michelangelo is able to move at great speed, able to free run on rooftops without losing momentum. He also possesses great reaction speed, allowing him to dodge projectiles such as lasers the Kraang's blasters, and enemy attacks. He can also spin his nunchaku at incredible speed to at momentum to his strikes
Stealth: Being taught by Splinter, Michelangelo, as well as his brothers, are able to be one with darkness and hide and move within the shadows without being noticed.
Weapons
During most of the series, Michelangelo wields a pair of Nunchaku with which, like his brothers with their chosen weapons, he is highly skilled. In some episodes he refers to them as 'chucks'—such as in The Kraang Conspiracy he says "Okay, that was just gross, dudes. I have April Derp on my chucks." (April Derp had been reduced to black goo at this point).
In The Pulverizer Returns!, Splinter says that the boys are getting too reliant on their own weapons and makes them swap. After this process, Michelangelo is left with Leonardo's Katanas (which leads him to do an impersonation of his brother and make him believe he is the leader by virtue of having the swords). During a fight, the Turtles become uncooperative with their new weapons and swap back. When Splinter finds out, he takes away all of their 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 shuriken. In Target: April O'Neil, he briefly used a Kraang blaster that he picked up, and a plasma sword he stole from Chrome Dome, both of which he dropped after he almost hits his own brothers.
During his time in space, Michelangelo used Laser Tonfas and a Laser Blaster created by Fugitoid as his main weapons.
Relationships
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 Leo sometimes criticizes his excitable behavior. Mikey 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 Raph in a playful manner (sometimes violently) which is almost always punishment for Mikey's stupid or irrelevant comments. Raph is very protective when it comes to Mikey, such as facing his fear when a giant cockroach took Mikey in Cockroach Terminator or in I, Monster, when Splinter hurts Mikey, Raph immediately becomes angry. It is also shown that Mikey cares for Raph. In The Gauntlet, when Shredder electrically shocked Raph, Mikey was the one who ran to him to make sure he was okay, and in The Pulverizer he's the one who stays at Raph's side when he gets poisoned, and takes care of him. In Slash and Destroy, when Slash beats up Mikey, Raph was deeply shocked by this and stopped Slash.
Donatello - Michelangelo's third-oldest brother. He seems to fight with Donnie 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 Donnie is very protective of him and does things such as yelling Mikey's name when he gets hurt, or stopping Dogpound from killing him. (Nickname: "B-Team") He is closest to Donnie and they interact the most.
Hamato Yoshi / Splinter - Michelangelo's adoptive 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, Mikey interacts with Splinter the least. However, when it comes to his safety and that of his other brothers, Splinter always gets concerned.
Hamato Miwa / Karai- As she spends most of her time personally dogging Leonardo or taking on all comers at once, Karai has limited interaction with Mikey. However, when Mikey learned of her familial relationship to Splinter, he incredulously queried, "She's our sister!?" As shown in The Pig and The Rhino and Serpent Hunt, Mikey has completely accepted Karai as his sister, and is one of the most visibly affected when Karai says a final good-bye to the turtles.
Ice Cream Kitty - When April found a stray cat and left her for Michelangelo to look after, the stray cat ate some ice cream laced with the mutagen that mutated her into Ice Cream Kitty. At first, Mikey was horrified about what would happen if April discovered what happened to the cat. But later, Mikey brought Ice Cream Kitty to battle against the Rat King. Since then, Mikey decided to keep Ice Cream Kitty as his pet.
Friends / Allies
April O'Neil - Michelangelo's first human friend. He and April do not seem to interact much, but they care about each other as friends. In Buried Secrets, a rift temporarily formed between Mikey and April after Mikey suspected and attacked the woman claiming to be April's mother; but Mikey was later proven right, April's "mother" had to be destroyed, and Mikey and April's relationship mended. Later, Mikey told April that he and his brothers are her family. In The Croaking, after Mikey's brothers and Casey are angry with him for making a mess in the O'Neil Farmhouse living room and he ran away from home instead of cleaning it up, April was shown to be defensive of Mikey and sensitive of how the others sometimes mistreat him.
Casey Jones - A friend and ally, but the two were seldom shown interacting in any more meaningful way until Meet Mondo Gecko, when they bonded over a strong shared interest in skateboarding.
Leatherhead - One of Michelangelo's first mutant friends, the two hit it off very quickly and came to share a loving bromance. Mikey was the first person since mutation ever to show Leatherhead compassion, and the two developed a strong mutual affinity and rapport. Mikey has proven to be one of the few influences that could calm Leatherhead down from his fits of rage and make him feel at ease. Indeed, they became extraordinarily affectionate and intimate, with Mikey giving Leatherhead massages and body rubs in attempts to calm him down when angry and even sleeping spooned together on the Living Room floor. In TCRI, when the Turtles saw Leatherhead again for the first time in the episode, Mikey immediately reacted with love at the sight of Leatherhead sleeping. Later in this episode, Leatherhead became stranded in Dimension X, and the two would not meet again for an entire season. Later in Into Dimension X! after the long-imprisoned Leatherhead managed to send a message through a portal to the turtles, Mikey was shown to strongly care and miss Leatherhead in a series of tender sepia-toned flashback scenes, and he impulsively leapt into Dimension X to rescue him. This reunion was short-lived, as Leatherhead soon went missing again during The Invasion, Part 2 and neither he nor Splinter joined the others who fled to the O'Neil Farm. Mikey and Leatherhead met again in Battle for New York, Part 1 and Part 2, with their mutual affection undiminished as they shared tender caring embraces in three separate scenes over course of the two-part episode's events. Leatherhead is one of the few people to consistently call Mikey by his full five-syllable name "Michelangelo," rather than just "Mikey."
Timothy / The Pulverizer / Mutagen Man - Michelangelo acts positively towards Timothy, but seldom interacts with him, and sometimes forgets he even exists. In The Pulverizer Returns!, Mikey saw the newly Foot-recruited Timothy from afar and commented, "Anybody else find this dude kind of adorable?" Later in that episode, when Timothy sent a text message to Donatello, Donnie said, "Text message from you-know-who." But Mikey had forgotten all about Timothy, and Donnie corrected, "Text message from everybody-but-Mikey-knows-who." When Timothy later turned against the turtles and started drinking mutagen, it was Mikey who named him "Mutagen Man."
Jason / Mondo Gecko - In Meet Mondo Gecko, when Michelangelo and Casey Jones went out to get some action, they encountered another reptilian mutant, who Mikey nicknamed "Mondo Gecko." What Mikey didn't know is that Mondo worked for Fishface and had him and Casey captured. Feeling bad for what happened, Mondo tried to liberate Mikey and Casey, but all three of them end up competing against Fishface in his deadly game. Using team work, Mikey, Casey and Mondo competed in the race and defeated Fishface, freeing Mondo from Fishface's exploitation. What really fascinated Mikey about Mondo are having to touch his eyes with his tongue and his "old-school" catchphrase, "Cowabunga!"
Enemies
Oroku Saki / The Shredder - Michelangelo's archnemesis. Mikey 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.
The Kraang - Michelangelo's targeted archenemy. Mikey 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 - One of Michelangelo's enemies. Mikey accidentally gave Baxter Stockman the T-pod, which upgraded his armor and made him a more competent villain. He defeated Baxter by shoving bees in his face, further heating Baxter's dislike of the turtles. Although further interaction is unknown, he is shown to dislike him. He dubbed him The StockmanPod after Baxter upgraded his armor.
Xever Montes / Fishface / Mr. X - One of Michelangelo's enemies. Mikey dubs him Fishface after Xever mutates into a fish. Mikey later helps free his new friend Mondo Gecko from Xever's exploitation.
Chris Bradford / Dogpound / Rahzar - One of Michelangelo's archenemies, though his mixed treatment of Bradford has proven more complicated than that of clear-cut enemy. When Bradford was still human and a public martial arts celebrity, Mikey deeply admired and fanboyed over Bradford, wanting to become his friend. They eventually accepted each other's friend requests on Facerange (a fictionalized version of the website Facebook). Bradford was actually very much not Mikey's friend, but he managed to trick Mikey into thinking they were friends so that Bradford could extract information and use Mikey as bait to help his secret master Shredder get to Mikey's Master Splinter. During their time of false friendship, Mikey nicknamed Bradford "Rad Brad", and Bradford taught Mikey his signature kata, the Death Dragon, which Mikey later demonstrated it to his brothers in the Dojo. But when Splinter witnessed Mikey perform this move, he instantly recognized it as a Foot Clan maneuver that Oroku Saki had used against him in the past when he was still human. When Mikey had outlived his usefulness, Bradford declared he was never Mikey's friend to begin with, and was actually sworn enemy to Mikey, his brothers and his Master Splinter, and that he was a disciple of the Shredder. This revelation deeply hurt Mikey's feelings, ended all pretense of friendship, and all but killed his affection towards Bradford. Later, Bradford mutated into a dog-like creature which Mikey dubbed "Dogpound". Mikey called him "Rad Brad" one more time even after this mutation. Even later still, Dogpound mutated again into a werewolf-like form, which Mikey dubbed "Rahzar". Mikey's Bedroom had a life-size cardboard cutout of human Chris Bradford, which Mikey never got rid of even after they had cemented their mutual enmity, and was still standing in his room when they finally had to abandon the Turtle Lair. In Vision Quest it was shown that Mikey's spirit enemy is Rahzar with after a struggling battle Mikey defeated him in the spirit plane.
Snakeweed- Another of Michelangelo's enemies. He was the first enemy of the turtles whom Michelangelo nicknamed.
Michelangelo's name is Italian, from Hebrew and Greek derivation. The component Michel- is from Hebrew מִיכָאֵל, (Mīkhāʼĕl), meaning the question "Who is like God?". The -angelo component is from Greek ἄγγελος (ángelos), meaning "angel; messenger." The name originally referred to the Archangel Michael.
In Katakana, Michelangelo's name is spelt: ミケランジェロ (Mikeranjero).
Given the fact that he was adopted by Hamato Yoshi/Splinter, Michelangelo's full name could be "Hamato Michelangelo," or in Western naming order, "Michelangelo Hamato."
Michelangelo's Nunchaku, plus Kusarigama upgrade
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 retractable 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 its 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 its face, revealing it to be a robot, (the actual first appearance of Mikey's kusarigama is shown in extended version of this episode 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, Mikey's nunchaku are shown becoming kusarigama.
His mastery of Ninjutsu includes: Taijutsu, Qigong, Nunchakujustu, Kusarigumajustu, Shurikenjustu, Archery, Throwing water balloons, Hensojustu, Sui-ren, Intonjustu, Kayakujustu, Naming stuff, and Pranking anyone.
He is the shortest one of the group, about under 5 ft tall as well as the youngest of his brothers.
In this incarnation, Michelangelo is the one who primarily does the cooking, even after discovering pizza. He cooks well enough that his brothers prefer him to make breakfast, but he does not usually cook so well that his brothers are fond of what he makes, usually because he uses unpalatable combinations of ingredients. Leatherhead is most fond of Mikey's cooking.
But in Pizza Face, it was shown that Michelangelo also makes homemade pizzas. He even makes his own pizza crust from scratch, which in real life is typically the most complicated and time-consuming part of making 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 and bad guys.
Michelangelo and Beast Boy (from Cartoon Network's Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!) seem to be similar; same 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), and they are both the closest to the smart one of the group (Michelangelo & Donatello and Beast Boy & Cyborg). Interestingly, Michelangelo and the other Turtles would later be featured in the Teen Titans Go! episode, "Truth, Justice and What?".
His catchphrase in this incarnation is "Booyakasha!" (which is an equivalent of the Turtles' famous "Cowabunga!"), thoughMikey has said "Cowabunga!" and "Booyakabunga!" (an amalgamation of "Booyakasha!" and "Cowabunga!") in the series as well.
Michelangelo seems to develop his own unique fighting style, which he calls "Hot Nunchuck Fury". Although it is hard to estimate if it is really a fighting style or just a fancy name.
Part of his secret kata consists of Kamen Rider V3's henshin pose.
In Rise of the Turtles, Part 1, he was the first to taste pizza and so far he is the one who likes it the most. In Panic in the Sewers, it is shown he will even eat it off the floor, or if it came from the trash, and confesses to loving pizza he finds on streets and rooftops. In Karai's Vendetta, he overreacted when Donatello destroyed a slice of pizza with Kraang Water.
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. However, the word was actually originally coined by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen as part of his satirical reggae persona Ali G.
He was the first turtle to show an anime-ish like face.
