>>119013025The distinction here is that it was *marketed* as one.
"Kyatto Ninden Teyandee" (god, what a mouthful) was a kiddie anime that was implicitly a parody of samurai period dramas that dominate alot of Japanese TV, only with talking animals and robots thrown in for good measure. The closest western equivalent I can think of is Tail Spin which was a spoof/homage to old adventure serials, Indiana Jones and Legend of the Golden Monkey and so forth.
When it was brought over here, well after TMNT had its heyday, the American producers just took all the footage and dumped it in front of a bunch of writers and editors and told them to make something of it. No translated scripts, no guides or summaries; the writers just ad-libbed everything and ran with it.
