Warner Bros.
Batman Ninja is as high concept as it gets: license Batman’s universe to one of the best action directors in anime, Junpei Mizusaki, and let him go nuts with the entire Gotham coterie in Sengoku-era Japan.
The premise is ridiculous yes, but ridiculous in the same way that so many Silver Age classic comics that purported to show you “The Superman of the Old West!” or “The Batman of Argentina!” were.
Plot is thin beyond belief: Frequent Flash foe Gorilla Grodd (Fred Tatasciore) has laid siege to Arkham Asylum, which draws Batman (Roger Craig Smith, who is reliably great) and the entire extended Bat-Family to the scene.
Grodd’s plan turns out to be deploying a brand new time machine on premises and when Batman and Catwoman (Grey Griffin) try to interject, they along with the entire roster of Batman villains on hand are thrown back into the Japan of the early 1600’s.
Batman entered the time rift a second later than everyone else and finds himself three years behind his foes, who have used that time to carve up Japan into feudal territories and are jockeying for position.
Two things make this whole scenario work: one is that the action is fast and fun, everything you’d expect from a director who cut his teeth working on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The initial action sequence in Gotham is kind of a mess, but as soon as we get to Japan fights are clear, legible, and relentless. I particularly like the later action scenes with Nightwing and Red Robin where the team was able to make each one a distinct character and combatant– a trick the comics fail at these days.
The second, and primary thing that works is just seeing how all the various elements of Batman will “translate” to pre-modern Japan. From the opening ambush by “Lord” Joker (Tony Hale, also fantastic) where his men are wearing tengu masks with hideous rictus grins, to the sumo fight with Bane, to even small touches like Bruce Wayne disguising himself as a Jesuit missionary, the film continually delights long time fans by taking the essence of the characters and transfiguring it perfectly into the new setti
I really have to commend the voice cast as well: Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill loom large in fan’s memory, but Roger Craig Smith and Tony Hale have cut their teeth playing these roles in Arkham Origins and Arkham Shadow and bring a workmanlike consistency that is essential for establishing characterization under the bizarre circumstances. I’m not sure this project would have worked at all with actors coming in to play Batman and Joker “cold.” This project required a rock solid understanding of the characters to ground it and Smith and Hale delivered on that.
One thing that I didn’t like, and this might be off-putting for fans of Batman not familiar with Japanese styles of animation, is the decision to adopt a “clipped” style of digital animation where smooth motion is only reserved for the big action beats and exposition and dialogue is rendered like a silent film with the camera cranked incorrectly.
Also I feel like the film is “back loaded” where the first thirty minutes (outside Joker’s Japanese introduction) are very slow paced and then the film ramps up to a really impressive spectacle in the third act. I think this problem is exacerbated by the digital art style which makes an already slow section of world building also seem visually unappealing.
These are relatively minor problems though– if you love Batman or anime you should be able to get something from this story which is a real labor of love for the character and his extended world. This is a contemporary update to a Silver Age concept and I think it truly works.
Extras include the featurettes: East/West Batman, Batman: Made in Japan, and New York Comic Con Presents Batman Ninja.
Recommended.
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