As most superhero franchises stem from comics and graphic novels alike, it makes sense for them to be converted into animation. Maintaining the art style but adding fluid movement and voice acting can be classed as an upgrade by most, achieving visuals not possible in reality. The true beauty is that animation projects allow different interpretations, different settings and new characters without much justification required. Due to extortionate box office targets, the framework for feature length live-action superhero films are quite rigid to ensure success with minimum risk. Yet, wouldn’t you like to see what would happen if Batman teamed up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Or how would Batman adapt to the way of the samurai? The answer for the latter we find out in 2018’s Batman Ninja.
Responding to an alarm set off at Arkham Asylum, Batman & Catwoman get caught up within Gorilla Grodd’s time displacement machine, sending him back to Feudal Japan. If that wasn’t enough, some of his greatest villains have travelled too, getting there ahead of him and setting up camps across the regions. With his gadgets rendered useless, no batmobile and his enemies with a head start, how will Batman survive, let alone return to modern day Gotham? With a primarily all Japanese cast, I must admit I was unfamiliar with the voice actors. Kôichi Yamadera as Batman and Wataru Takagi as Joker both have over 300 acting credits each on IMDb, prolific careers within anime. On the other hand, director Junpei Mizusaki’s experience is limited to the animation department for video game Mega Man in 2004 and a few other projects..
From inexperience, however, new visions are created. There are still plenty of uneasy alliances, backstabs and twists that will keep you on your toes, but this is where the normality ends. Starting from swords, the weaponry grows to outrageous proportions, facilitating near-apocalyptic war. Each villain has their unique contraptions to do battle with, some literally built from people and animals. At stages, I felt I had accidentally started watching a Transformers film with scenes of Godzilla vs King Kong superimposed in. Adding to its impressiveness is that the fight scenes were filmed with live actors first and the animation created using that footage, ensuring some semblance of realism. This corresponds really well with the animation style where, no matter how massive the scene gets, it still runs smoothly and, whilst I am certainly no expert, it suits the over-the-top nature usually prevalent with anime.
Aesthetics aside however, there’s not much substance here to comment upon. It feels like they’ve come up with the idea initially, loaded it with action plus a few familiar faces, and then attempted to build a story around it. There are arcs and narrative detours resolved in 5 minutes for the sense of a shock, and villains with quite a significant pedigree either defeated instantaneously or featured briefly just for recognition purposes. I believe, given how the story is set up, Batman Ninja would’ve worked better as a TV series in order to flesh out more of the characters and provide some much needed depth. A novel concept at the beginning turned tired after overreliance on one mechanic, resulting in a missed opportunity. There are aspects to enjoy here which will appeal to a target audience, but not enough to satisfy Batman or anime fans.