Batman Ninja was created by the director, Junpei Mizusaki, and the screenwriter, Kazuki Nakashima. Character designs were done by Takashi Okazaki, who you may know as the creator of the amazing anime Afro Samurai (seriously, if you have never watched it, you need to) and the movie was produced by Kamikaze Douga, another name you may know from the recent, hilarious anime, Pop Team Epic (It’s absurd. You should definitely watch it).
I want to start off by saying I’m an avid comic reader and Batman has been my favorite superhero since I was a kid, I’m also a huge anime fan, so when this movie was first announced it was like a dream come true; two of my most favorite things becoming one. At the same time, I was also incredibly nervous about how it would turn out. I mean, anime and Batman aren’t two things that are generally associated together (unless you count Batmanga, but even that’s unrelated to this).
On one hand, you have Batman, a very serious and dark character, on the other, you have anime, which can be serious and dark, but can also get really ridiculous and pretty out there sometimes. That being said, this movie had an interesting take on this combination that wasn’t what I was expecting.
Batman Ninja starts in the familiar Gotham City where Batman is fighting Gorilla Grodd, who claims to have finished his greatest creation – the Quake Engine, a time displacement machine. During their battle, the machine is activated, sending everyone in the area to Feudal Japan. Batman barely jumps into the portal before it closes and upon his arrival, he is chased by samurai wearing Joker masks. It is during his escape that he runs into Catwoman, who had been transported two years early due to her entering the portal before Batman.
Along with Catwoman, all of Gotham’s top criminals (who were present in the building where Gorilla Grodd had gathered them to debut his machine) were also transported to Feudal Japan. The criminals have deceived the Sengoku daimyō (powerful lords of Feudal Japan), became the new feudal lords and are now battling each other for domination over Japan.
To keep them from changing history, Batman, Catwoman, and the other Bat-family members (minus Batgirl…which is stupid because she’s amazing) must get to Arkham Castle where the Quake Engine is guarded, and get everyone back to the future (heh) before the damage becomes irreversible.
You can watch Batman Ninja in either English or Japanese. Here is also where a line can be drawn. If you watch it in English, it is still entertaining, but I recommend the Japanese version. We’ll get to that though. First, some general points. Now, Batman: The Animated Series is a show I grew up watching and there are parts of this movie that are very reminiscent of it.
For example, I LOVED Harley Quinn. In almost every media format over the last several years, Harley Quinn has undergone a lot of changes that I was NOT a fan of. I didn’t like her in DC’s New 52 (her solo title or Suicide Squad), I didn’t like the early era of Rebirth, and I loathed her in the movie Suicide Squad (no offense to Margo Robbie, it wasn’t her fault). I missed the original Harley, the zany one from the animated series, and I feel like Batman Ninja was able to capture that version of her and the Joker as well.
Everything about this movie felt much more inspired by BTAS than the comics – which I think is a good thing. This isn’t a comic-canon movie so it shouldn’t only draw from comic-canon material. Batman, Joker, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Gorilla Grodd were all fantastic to me, they seemed like the characters I have been familiar with since my childhood. For instance, the Joker was crazy and silly, but also had that psychotic darkness we all know and love.
Batman was, well, Batman, most of the time and during those times I felt he was accurately portrayed. However, he had some not-very-Batman emotional moments and he gives the Bat Family a weird speech and is being all optimistic because they are all he needs and it’s just…sweet? But Batman isn’t sweet…so it’s mostly weird.
Speaking of the Bat Family, I wasn’t that interested in Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, or Robin (and his weird little monkey companion…yes, he has a pet sidekick). They were kind of boring and didn’t serve much purpose other than to add more familiar faces. The same goes for Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Penguin, and Deathstroke. I was so excited to see them in their ruling kingdom and then they barely got any screen time, and what little they had was mostly anime yelling.
None of them got to do anything cool. Well, Two-Face kind of did, but it was short lived. I feel like they didn’t even need to be there. Even the fight scenes where the Bat Family pairs off against a villain was meh. The cool scenes came from Batman vs. Joker and Catwoman vs. Harley Quinn. Seriously, they were epic. In particular, the final fight between Joker and Batman is probably the best fight scene I’ve ever seen between those two.
All of that being said, the reason I recommend Japanese over English is because this IS AN ANIME. The castles turn into giant robots and then combine Megazord-style to form an even bigger robot…in Feudal Japan. As an anime fan, I thought this was so cool, but at the same time I was torn because this is a Batman movie and why are all of Gotham’s villains building/piloting giant robots? Well, the answer is: because anime. Watching it in English broke that wall for me. Things felt out of place, out of character, really just off in some way. Things felt over-the-top and goofy and while it was entertaining, it wasn’t amazing. But when I watched it in Japanese, it was like everything made sense. Even the most ridiculous parts (Batman literally does Naruto hand jutsu) were somehow…better. Because I was watching it as an anime, not as an animated comic movie.
Basically, if you like anime and you like Batman, you will like this movie. If you just like Batman and have never watched or don’t like anime, then I can’t really say that it will be up your alley. Still, it’s worth watching because even though it gets ridiculous, it never stops being entertaining. It has a good and unique story premise, it has familiar characters, and it has really great hero to villain (and giant robot to giant Batman made out of bats) fights.
ENGLISH OVERALL SCORE: 7 / 10
JAPANESE OVERALL SCORE: 8.5 / 10
Comments are closed.