Tatsu is the trainer of the Foot Clan and Oroku Saki's right-hand man.
History[]
At some point, Tatsu met Oroku Saki and was recruited into the Foot Clan, becoming trustworthy and skilled enough to train new recruits and serve as Saki's second-in-command of the New York City branch of the Foot Clan.
When Shredder arrives via smoke bomb to address the newest recruits, Tatsu demands that the most unworthy ones step forward and face Shredder in combat. Shredder chooses four of them himself, and they all fall easily to the Master. After newbie Danny Pennington snitches on the Turtles' whereabouts to the Foot, Tatsu leads the Foot Ninja assault squad that attacks Raphael on the rooftop of Second Time Around and move their attack inside to the other Turtles and April. When the building goes up in flames, Tatsu orders his ninja to "vanish".
Afterward, Shredder attempts to interrogate the captured Splinter on who these "freaks" are and how they know how to fight in the way of the old Foot Clan. Splinter gives nothing in response, angering Shredder calls Tatsu a failure for his lack of results on their last mission; after Shredder leaves, Tatsu angrily punches through a wall, refusing to shoulder the blame for his own mistake.
Still angered at his brief dressing-down from his master, Tatsu beats up the Foot Ninja that had returned with him from that mission, going so far as to even kill one of them.
Tatsu continues attempting to interrogate Splinter, but the rat is unyielding. Tatsu asks why Shredder is so concerned with the Turtles and Splinter, even as his "empire" flourishes, and he says it's because their fighting technique is familiar. After Shredder and Tatsu find that Pennington has returned and has been communing with Splinter and he sees the drawing of Leonardo that April had made, they realize the Turtles have returned to New York. Shredder says he will go handle them himself, and orders Tatsu to kill Splinter.
Before he can act, Danny and the Turtles' new friend Casey Jones arrive to rescue Splinter. Tatsu thrashes Jones, but he finds a golf club lying among some sporting equipment and knocks Tatsu out with it. Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie
After Shredder had been seemingly killed in the trash compactor in a garbage truck and their lair had been raided by police, Tatsu took to a base in the local garbage dump in an effort to regroup the Foot Clan. Shredder just happened to be not only still alive, but dumped into that very same landfill. Shredder returned and vowed revenge on the "creatures" that defeated him.
April's cameraman, Freddy, who was secretly a member of the Foot, found some mutated overgrown dandelions while she interviewed T.G.R.I. scientist Jordan Perry. He brought one to Shredder, which gave the ninja master an idea, sending out Tatsu with his best soldiers to steal some mutagen from the facility.
Having seen April's interview with Professor Perry, Splinter decided to reveal that the mutagen ooze that transformed them came from T.G.R.I. The Turtles went out to investigate the lab just as Tatsu and his Foot attacked. The Turtles and Foot fought over the last vial of mutagen, but Tatsu got away with it and kidnapped the Professor.
Under force of threat, Tatsu "coerced" Perry into using the mutagen to create a pair of mutants for the Foot - Rahzar, a gray wolf, and Tokka, a snapping turtle. Raphael and the Turtles' new friend Keno investigated the dump the following day, and they were caught sneaking around by Tatsu and some ninja. Keno ran for help as Raph tried to take on the Foot, but he was overwhelmed and captured as well. Tatsu had Raph tied up, and reported the "boy" was gone; Shredder had planned on that though, knowing that he could bait the other Turtles into a trap.
After the Turtles arrived and rescued Raph, foiling Shredder's plan but having been introduced to the Foot's new mutants all the same, Rahzar and Tokka trashed the city to draw the Turtles out once more. A fight erupted again between the Turtles and the Foot, and spilled into The Dockside Club. Tatsu took part in the fight, but was knocked out when Raphael and Leonardo punched him in both sides of the head at the same time. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie II: The Secret of the Ooze
Notes and trivia[]
- In the indicia of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie II: The Secret of the Ooze, his name is misspelled as "Tatso".
See also[]
- Character Gallery: Tatsu
- Appearances of Tatsu