Mr. Murakami

**Mr. Murakami**, also called **Murakami-san**, is an elderly blind man who owns and operates a noodle shop. He is a character in the 2012 TV series and first appears in *Never Say Xever*. Murakami is a skillful Japanese noodle chef, who runs a noodle shop called **24/7**. His restaurant operates through a Japanese-inspired process, with customers putting their orders through a token machine and giving Murakami the token with their corresponding order - even though he is blind, he is able to feel the token's engraving and determine what the customer wants. He becomes a friend to the Turtles after they save him from an extortion attempt by the Purple Dragons. Despite being blind, he knows what the Ninja Turtles are, but accepts them for who they are (mostly because they saved his life more than once).

After they save him from the Purple Dragons, Murakami rewards the Turtles with a dish called "pizza gyōza" (a type of Japanese-style dumpling that is stuffed with pizza ingredients) which the Ninja Turtles love. When the Turtles attempt to flee from the Foot, Xeverholds Murakami hostage to force the Turtles to stay. While Xever is able to outmatch all four Turtles, they are able to hold him off with a water tower and save Mr. Murakami, who happily gives them more pizza gyōza.

In *Karai's Vendetta*, April and Karai go to his restaurant. Because April had never seen her face to face and Murakami had not heard of her, they are unaware that Karai is an enemy, and April actually befriends her. Murakami knows something is wrong when her tile reads Turtle Soup. After Karai tries (and enjoys) April's pizza gyōza, the latter is about to try some of the soup, until she learns of its nature. She tries to leave, but is unable to escape the much more skilled ninja. Murakami then buys April some time by throwing the turtle soup in Karai's face and blocking her path. Despite his efforts, Karai then corners April and beats her up, yet April is able to escape.

In *The Wrath of Tiger Claw*, Murakami is again seen serving the Turtles pizza gyōza. As he does, he informs them that his business is more popular than ever because of pizza gyōza then gives the Turtles more. He is later seen beat up when Michelangelo returns to retrieve the pizza gyōza doggy bag. He informs the Turtles that he was assaulted by a girl and a growling man. Murakami says that they were looking for the Lair and that he told them nothing as he does not know where it is, but instead told them where to find April and Casey Jones. The Turtles realize "they" were Tiger Claw and Karai, then try to contact April and Casey without success.

In *The Fourfold Trap*, a Murakami hologram is used to capture Mikey via a bowl of poisoned pizza gyōza that knocks him out.

## Powers and Abilities

Though Murakami is blind, he gets along fine with his remaining senses, being able to tell that the four young men that saved his life twice in as many days were in fact humanoid turtles. He is also shown to be a skilled chef, able to prepare fine dishes.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Mr. Murakami has a Miraculous of his own. It is the Bat Miraculous and his Kwami is Ekko.

## Trivia

* Executive producer Ciro Nieli named Murakami after a friend of his, presumably *Teen Titans* collaborator Glen Murakami.
	+ This is also the family name of Jimmy Murakami, co-founder of Murakami-Wolf studios, which produced the 1987 TV series.
* The sign above the door of Murakami's restaurant contains Japanese kanji, 村上, which translates to Murakami's name, meaning "upper village".
* The window blinds in Murakami's restaurant have the same general design as the kitchen's room divider in the lair, but are red instead of blue.
* The actor who voices Murakami, Sab Shimono, portrayed Lord Norinaga in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3.