Ninja Batman

Fantastic movie! This is my 1st review btw, SPOILER WARNING ALSO!

There were references and easter eggs from JoJos Bizarre Adventure, Gurren Laggan, Code Geass, Naruto, Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop, and even the 1988 Batman movie from what I gathered!

Story

Very well done, although I wanted more then just 1 movie, here's hoping for a sequel!

Art

... Animation was great, it reminded me of what Borderlands 3 may look like whenever it gets revealed.

Sound

Effects were on fleek

Characters

There's quite a bit to say about the characters, There's most of all your favorite heroes and villains all in 1 85 minute movie with some unique changes. Bane was hilarious in the brief scene he was in and 2 face was a total badass! And the Joker was a great villain as usual along with Grodd who was surprisingly played in big role in this movie. Never thought Catwoman would make such a great Waifu. The fights at the end could have gone on longer, but they had to fit it all into 85 minutes.

Enjoyment

I came into this movie not expecting much and ended up getting a fantastic action packed joy ride with a great story and character development!

Overall

8/10

If you like action movies and or anime at all I highly recomment checking this one out and or buying the physical copy, TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Story: 1
Nothing atypical from the realms of DC when they are not actively implementing a propagandistic agenda (Endless resurrections, extraterrestrial invasions, the very conception of duela dent. Nothing too outlandish). In other words, a sentient gorilla sends all profitable DC characters back in time to Feudal Japan. Colonization ensues. All villainous characters transported back in time are now actively ruling sectioned states as feudal lords. Batman, meanwhile, has conveniently obtained back his batmobile, batfamily, and an entire "batclan" during this Feudal Farce. Nightwing dons Final Fantasy Cloud's hair for complimentary purposes while Red Hood's costume equivalent is a red basket which could cause the ... wearer to become prone to imbalance, blindness, and uneven tan lines (strangely, this is the most efficient means when trying to conceal your identity 7/10). Over the course of this Feudal Fiasco, the villains thoroughly industrialize Japan with Batman successfully reverting this damage using jutsus. Yes, Batman used ninjutsu naruto style to create a batsengan and restore order. Diplomacy at its finest. The End.

Art: 5
Anyone here really a fan of the amalgamation between CG + japanese animation? I thought so.

Sound: 5
They used their main score for the trailer. Kind of telling.

Character: 1
The character's hairstyles were the most compelling part of their personality.

Enjoyment: 10
Sometimes terrible art is so ridiculous it transcends all normative standards and thus inclines the individual suffering under such circumstances to ponder upon the metaphysical and begin to enjoy the absurd in proper Kierkegaardian virtue.

Overall: 1
It is not one of the better animated projects from DC (Batman: the Animated Series) and not as ironically entertaining as some other bizarre DC works (Batman: All Star).

Two months ago, Pop Team Team epic did their Batman vs. Joker crossover. One month ago, Dethklok animated music video series was continued with 'Batmetal Forever'. And today, Batman Ninja was released. Christopher Nolan was first bitch slapped in the face, then kicked in the nuts and now not even a 5-dimensional bookshelf can save him from the power of the new Batman Trilogy, and neither can it save you.

Story:

Batman is a manly man. This makes many people angry, so they decide to travel to Japan and kick his ass. Unfortunately for them, Batman is also a pretty bro person, so he calls his buddies ... Lobin, Alveleddo and Naito Wingu (Robin, Alfred and Nightwing if you weebs don't speak Japanese) and ask "yo, wanna kick some ass" and they be like "cool" and then they do. That's pretty much the entirety of the storyboard. It's simply an amazing action packet. I can unironically say I love the idea above everything else Batman related.

Characters:

I am really into that bro and manly stuff, but I occasionally also like that manly and bro stuff. This is a bit of both. Batman is pretty cool guy eh isn't afraid of any villain, and has abandont some of this moral faggotry which he is most famous for. Definitely a good call. This version of Joker is not exactly as talented in crossdressing as Jared Leto nor can clap his hands like Heath Ledger, but he damn cool alright, and shares the same smile with Heath for sure. Pretty much everyone is awe-inspiringly manly or sexy beyond belief. Especially Alfred who falls under both. Also, whenever he is on the screen I am afraid I will get murdered by him.

Directing:

"This is my Work, you and me, we're nothing alike."
-Mizusaki Junpei to Christopher Nolan

When I am watching Baatoman Ninju I really feel like I am in a city which ownership is clear to all of its citizens. I am at the 16th story window looking how bunch of assholes beat each others with shurikens, swordos and all sort of ninjitsu arts. Pretty neat. The audiovisual execution is superb. Pretty much anyone can see that only right decisions were made during the making of Batman Ninja. The target audience was very clear from the start, and not even the PG-13 logo is enough to make this look lame or restrained. By that I mean there was no holding back and the available-for-all-ages has not limited the work.

Art:

Holy production values. I never knew an anime could look like a comicbook. The details are insane, yet never too much. Almost remind me of 'Katanagatari' where simplicity and complexity live in harmony. The characters design can be referred to with just about any praising adjective, and if CGI looked this good every time, I wouldn't have to call it nu-anime anymore.

Sounds:

Lead composer is Yugo Kanno. Expect Hollywood tier action wobs and declamatory drops. The voice acting is what makes this so badass and manly. Everyone is mature and no typical loli tsunderes are there. High pitched vocal range is banned.

Enjoyment:

Ever since I saw the Japanese dubbed version of airplane scene ("It would be extremely painful" - "You're a big guy" - ".... 4 u", I have been wanting to see something exactly as entertaining, and damn if Japan didn't deliver. I can recommend this to anyone who ever hyped it.

Let's be honest. If this didn't have Batman and other DC characters in it, very few people would hesitate to call it a dumpster fire. But unfortunately, the story is confusing nonsense, the action scenes are messy, the low framerate is headache-inducing, and the pacing is just a pathetic failure.

Ninja Batman's plot sounds like a fun time on paper, but this film just skipped the whole storytelling process. To summarize the story better than the film does: Gorilla Grodd created a time machine, and now a dozen iconic DC heroes and villains are transported to feudal Japan. If Batman doesn't stop the Joker, he will ... rewrite history, and they'll all be trapped forever. Most of the screentime is on Batman and a few friends like Catwoman, Robin, and Alfred, all with spiced-up character designs to resemble the period.

The pacing is so fast that viewers need to give their total concentration at all times to understand what the fuck is happening. Typically your average superhero flick would do what's necessary to hold your attention by slowing down the pacing during exposition scenes to clarify the story, with some cringy comic relief to ensure no one gets bored. It's not the most impressive form of storytelling, but it's at least functional. Unfortunately, Ninja Batman opted to give us all the 'classic' cringy comic relief and very little of the typical formulaic storytelling. Instead, we're dropped into action scenes with the occasional catchphrase at the start and during fight scenes so we can gauge how important the character is.

At the beginning of the film, we see Batman running around the side of a building, then suddenly we're in Japan, and he's wearing a Samurai costume. Very little makes sense, and the movie expects you to forgive it by tossing in many familiar characters. It is a desperate attempt to make you feel nostalgia that is frankly so transparent it resembles a toy commercial. Of course, it's the definition of 'turn off your brain entertainment, but how can I criticize and appreciate what the film does well if I'm not thinking about it?

This one wouldn't be a problem if the action looked good, but it's at best decent and worst an eyesore. You'll quickly notice it's all in CGI. . Due to the overabundance of effects, individually animated objects, and a constant explosion of color, it is tough to keep track of what's occurring. While I can't deny it looks good when it focuses on one set-piece at a time, it is rarely content with simplicity. Instead, it wants you to be entertained, going so far as to vomit all over your screen to ensure you keep watching. The CGI used here isn't bad, but the character models are noticeably on a lower frame rate than the rest of the film, which gives them a headache-inducing inconsistency. Showcasing the franchise's iconic heroes in their feudal costumes and wacky anime hairstyles is what this film cares about the most. Still, no amount of topknots and katanas can distract us from the hideous janky character animation.

What's worse is the voice acting never fits with the 3D character models' mouth movements: this wouldn't have been such a distracting issue if the artists had drawn on the characters' mouths, sadly choosing the easier option. Finally, the English voice acting is mediocre at best. I would place it slightly below the modern DC cartoons. Batman sounds fine but nowhere near Kevin Conroy, only able to decently replicate his voice at a specific range and rarely allowed to showcase talent. It's clear the voice of the Joker was trying his best, and it comes through in his overdone performance, but he still has nothing on Mark Hamill. So if you're dead set on watching Ninja Batman, there's that to consider, the best actors don't perform the voices of the many characters. On the other hand, it does try and cash in on nostalgia at any chance it gets, always throwing random characters at you like Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Bane, Deathstroke, Gorilla Grodd, Poison Ivy, and of course, the Joker. It doesn't care if it makes sense that they're all teleported to Japan.

The dialogue depends way too much on the characters' previous versions. Rather than developing the characters, it gives us recognizable catchphrases. If you're not a fan of the DC, you will be lost entirely. No development beyond surface-level characterization makes it very hard for us to care about any of them, which is primarily why the stakes are not tangible. It should have been exciting to watch, but instead, it was just alienating and dull. At least the visuals were somewhat decent. The director threw a few exciting ideas into the mix to keep you from falling asleep. Halfway through, the film switches into a style similar to Masaaki Yuasa's work where the visuals look hand-drawn rather than CGI, and it genuinely grabbed my attention. It wasn't very visually appealing in its own right, but I appreciated the director trying to give us a reprieve from the CGI action.

There are a few references to past entries in the franchise. Usually, it was a single catchphrase you've heard millions of times before to distract you from the clusterfuck of a movie. The most notable reference was the ridiculous use of the giant mecha Voltron fighting against an equally sized mech in the shape of 1970s Batman. Nothing made sense, and it didn't matter.

They dug up plenty of old jokes to be milked more before sending them back home. Despite its nauseating visuals, the action is still exciting, but it's leagues below any previous Batman movies it steals its jokes from. Even the latest DC dumpster fires looked better than this. Nevertheless, there's still fun to be had with it, just like you could have fun watching the equally terrible Suicide Squad if you can forgive the horrible writing and messy directing. Unless you're a big fan of the DC universe, avoid it.

About as hot garbage as the DC movies in general lately, but for completely different reasons, because "Japan" - that means giant mechs and all the typical Japanese trope stuff.

Now that wouldn't be bad in and of itself. I'm even on board with the premise of going to feudal Japan with Batman. Good idea, could get crazy! But the way it was executed?! I can't write spoilers however, so I'll say this: the ending is so hilariously bad that I just can't help but laugh as I literally tear my hair out. It's so bad it's almost good, but then takes an additional load of ... crap onto itself and makes it terrible again.

Artstyle? Good. Music? Awesome. Characters? ehhh, the Joker kinda saved the day. Story? "Oh, no!"

I've talked about some Marvel related anime before with Blade & X-men. It seemed about time I looked at something DC related. This film came out in April & June of this year with a screenplay by Nakashima Kazuki and relative newcomer studio, Kamikaze Douga, handling the animation. So, how well does it portray the Dark Knight? Will it surpass Mask of the Phantasm as the best Batman animated film?

Story:

We open with Bats headed for Arkham Asylum where the villainous Gorilla Grodd is conducting an experiment. Now, you may wonder why they would poach a villain from the Flash for this when Bats has such a ... stellar rogue's gallery of his own. I don't know, because no one cares about the Flash since they de-powered Wally West. The result of the experiment is Batman, Catwoman, the Arkham inmates and some other people who were nearby being sent to feudal Japan where The Joker, Penguin, Two Face, Poison Ivy & Deathstroke become warlords. You may wonder why Deathstroke is in this when he's primarily a Titans villain and not insane so he should never have been in Arkham. Well, they poached him because no one cares about the Titans since the reboot gave it to one of the worst comic writers in history, Scott Lobdell. Yes, the same writer who portrayed Starfire as an emotionless sex robot. You may also  wonder how his villains all learned to speak Japanese but don't worry about it. Grodd's time machine has a universal translator function like the TARDIS. And now Bruce has to reunite with his allies and stop his villains before they can change history. 

The big issue with this film is that it tries to throw in random, out of place, stupid shit because it's popular in action anime. For example, the Gotham criminals all build giant robot bases that can combine into one massive giant robot base. Fortunately, the monkeys and bats are able to  coalesce into a massive humanoid form to combat it. It is, no exaggeration, one of the dumbest action sequences you will ever see. There's also this ancient bat prophecy that the bat ninja clan follows which leads them and their massively conspicuous bat adorned vehicles to Batman. Because ninja were definitely known for their ostentatious displays.

Honestly, the final showdown in this doesn't make much sense either. They basically set it up as a duel with Batman, master martial artist and hand to hand combatant, against the Joker, a man who's dangerous because he's unpredictable but who has very little skill in hand to hand fights. Yeah, this film had literally three characters who could reasonably match Batman in hand to hand combat; Deathstroke, Bane & Grodd. They only used the Joker because he's the most famous Batman villain. Which isn't good form for a narrative. 

Characters:

They screw up quite a bit with the characters in this. First off, neither Deathstroke nor Bane should be here since they aren't the types of insane villains who would go to Arkham. They'd go to a regular prison. Neither one gets used well either. They have very brief appearances and do basically nothing. The same could be said for Two Face, Ivy and Penguin. None of them serve much point. The film could have been much cleaner and less cluttered sticking with Grodd, Joker & Harley. But let's talk about the various Robins for a moment. Honestly, there's no reason for any of these guys to be here. They do basically nothing but go off to have ten second confrontations with the villains who do nothing. And it seems really counter to Damian Wayne's character to have him befriend a little monkey.

Even the more major characters are off. The Joker doesn't come across as particularly crazy in this. Then we've got Bruce. There's this scene I actually kind of like where Bruce expresses uncertainty over how he's going to manage trapped in the past without any of his usual resources. And I'm all for Batman being more humanised and less of a Mary Sue who can beat anyone in the galaxy with a week to prepare. The problem is that his "solution" is that he needs to learn to move and fight like a ninja. This is freaking Batman. He already knows how to move in the shadows, how to use gadgets to obscure his presence and how to fight as a world class master in any martial art. Batman doesn't need to learn ninjutsu, he's already an expert. I like the idea of showing his vulnerable, human side but that execution is rubbish. 

Art:

The film does look pretty good. Some of the action scenes are kind of bad, especially the giant robots versus combined animals one. It also does suffer from some dumb art decisions like giving Bruce a monk's hairstyle with a fucking bat cut into the middle. Even the goofy Adam West version would consider that too embarrassing. Still, the art style is pretty good, the film does have a nice visual aesthetic to it and when it has a strong action sequence, it does have a good spectacle to it. 

Sound:

 The acting is pretty decent. Even without a strong script to work off of they did get some strong actors like Kugimiya Rie, Kakuma Ai, Ono Daisuke & Yamadera Kouichi. The music from Kanno Yugo is all right as well. It's not his best. 

Ho-yay: 

There isn't any. Don't expect the canon Harley Ivy relationship that they've had going in the comics for a while. Which is fine because this film probably wouldn't have done a good job with it, like they don't with most things. 

Final Thoughts:

Ninja Batman is a pretty pitiful attempt at showcasing the Dark Knight. It doesn't know how to use a lot of the interesting characters it has in its cast. It doesn't know how to tell a compelling narrative. Bottom line, it's a bad film that has some decent spectacle moments. My final rating is going to be a 3/10. Next week, Garo: Honoo no Kokuin. 

Overview:

Good Ol' Kazuki Nakashima. This is the madman that wrote Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill. Now he has returned to tackle the DC comics universe and have his own run on Batman. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Batman were as gloriously stupid and over the top as TTGL? Your wish has been granted!

Plot:

Gorilla Grodd has invented a time machine and ends up sending the Batman Family and several of the Dark Knight's rogues' gallery back to feudal Japan. Why Nakashima went with Grodd when he is supposed to be a Flash villain, I honestly have no idea. Batman ... and Grodd are the last to tumble through the time portal, so when they arrive the others have already been there for 2 years. The Batman villains have each created their own fiefdoms and are fighting each other for domination of Japan. Each of the Batman villains is using a giant, transforming robot castle to aid in their conquest. It is later explained that Grodd built these robots for them , but this makes no sense because Grodd arrived at the same time as Batman and they already had the robots when Batman arrived. Nakashima gives no fucks. Batman is aided by Alfred and 4 of the Robins: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne. Oh and Catwoman is also there. Together they must ally with a Ninja clan called the Bat Clan and defeat The Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, The Penguin, and Deathstroke. So far this sounds like the kind of plot that would happen all the time in the goofy Silver Age of comics, but Nakashima soon adds his own unique touch. We soon get scenes like Damian Wayne summoning all the monkeys in Japan and having them randomly fuse into a giant Bio-mech monkey. The Bio-mech monkey then fuses with all the bats in Japan to form a giant Adam West Batman. Sadly they don't end up throwing galaxies at each other, but I'm glad Nakashima still has his old genius. Batman defeats the bad guys, everyone goes back to the present, and this will NEVER be referenced again. The End.

Characters:

Nakashima's take on Batman and the Joker isn't too bad honestly. The only characters that felt really off to me were Damian Wayne and Deathstroke. Then again, US Comics change writers so often that no characters are honestly that consistent. Scott Snyder Batman is not the same character as Frank Miller's Batman, who is entirely different from Tim Burton's Batman. All of them are named Bruce Wayne and have the same basic background, but their personalities, relationships, the way they talk, etc is all completely different. Nakashima clearly had fun writing these characters and his fun is actually infectious. It seems he does have a decent familarity with the DC Universe. This actually makes sense. Have you noticed that TTLG is basically just a comedy version of the 80s comic Crisis on Infinite Earth's? In that comic, a super powerful being called The Monitor is willing to use any means necessary to save the Universe from a powerful being called the Anti-Monitor. The Anti-Monitor comes from a universe of all anti-matter and wishes to destroy the positive matter universes. In TTLG, the Spiral King wishes to use any means to stop the Anti-Spiral from destroying the universe. The Anti-Spiral comes from an alternate universe that produces anti-spiral energy whereas life in our universe produces spiral energy. Yeah...I think Nakashima might be a DC fan.

Art:

The art is honestly the weak point of the movie. This is that same shit CG as Berserk 2016 and this was produced by the Studio that brought us Pop Team Epic. Yeah...it's pretty bad.


Overall:

This is a classic Nakashima anime. It's fucking stupid as all hell, but it's fun. Also this time he doesn't have a massive budget or his pal Hiroyuki Imaishi to help him out. While I still consider Kill la Kill and TTLG to be obscenely overrated, I've gained a new respect and affection for Nakashima. It takes a certain kind of genius to make stories THAT stupid and ludicrous. His writing is honestly quite unique and I look forward to his next work.

I'll preface this by saying a) I watched the English version, which apparently has an entirely different script than the Japanese and b) I haven't seen much of other Batman Animated movies so I don't know if they are all supposed to be like this.

That being said:

TL;DR - This is worse than Suicide Squad.

Maybe this is supposed to be a fun, gimmicky popcorn flick with quirky anime-batman hybrid redesigns and moments, but this was just too much.

Story: absolutely nutty - problems arise and are solved at complete whims and deus ex. Here's an example (spoilers). The batman villian's combine their mecha castles to ... convert into a mega amalgamation a la Super Sentai. Damian Wayne as monkey robin summons an army of monkeys to fight it. They, too, combine into a mega monkey mecha, but it's not enough. The bat clan arrive, and actual bats reinforce the monkey mecha into a Bat mecha. Now the villians' mecha can be defeated. What the fuck?

Everything is either rushed or a complete waste of time. At one point, Joker and Harley """""die""""", then pretend to be normal for about 5 minutes, and then, surprise, come back last minute into the final battle. Why even bother with the middle part? It offered no suspense, it wasn't a real twist at the end, and didn't prop up the Joker as a bigger antagonist than before.

The story is filled with stupid decisions like this. Basically every smaller narrative arc is a waste of time, and ultimately makes the whole story a waste.

Art: Slightly better than RWBY, and definitely not as bad as Berserk 2016. Also, there is a section where they switch animation styles which is mostly well-done. There's some bad rotoscoping at that section, but overall it was a nice change of pace. Setting and character designs were also good. Overall, if you wanted to watch something because it looked good, I wouldn't recommend this movie, but it can be interesting at times.

Sound: Sound design is relatively poor and sometimes the film is just completely silent (and not in the introspective or subtle kind of Mushi-shi way, it just seems they didn't have anything to put there).

Characters: It's a rehash of the archetypal batman vs joker dynamic, except worse. Batman tries to grow as a character and what he does is completely overshadowed by how the problems are resolved. Also, we don't spend anytime trying to ease our way into character development. Rushed as poorly as the whole story.

Enjoyment: At times, it's stupid fun, other times, it's just stupid.

Overall: Hard pass. Watch if you are want to see "samurai" batman and friends. Otherwise, it's a waste of time.

Prefacing this with the fact that I watched both the English (twice) and Japanese (once) versions of this movie before writing the review.

Batman Ninja is so shamelessly and unapologetically out of its mind. The people who worked on this clearly poured their heart into this movie even if it doesn't follow the conventional molds of what people expect from Batman and anime in general, and that's what makes it so good. They know it's cheesy and over the top, and they know it's a chaotic mess, yet they continue to ramp it up with more crazy shit that leaves you stunned. There are mechs and ... swordfighting and guns, and they completely changed Damian's original personality to a shonen protagonist type character because he's the token young male character. Batman even does Naruto hand signs at some point. There's Naruto running and a whole ass Gattai song for a mech merging sequence. The symphony of classic/cheesy anime tropes mixed with Batman is ridiculously hilarious and beautiful at the same time.

+ The character models and animation are a little janky in some shots, but for the most part, it actually looks really good. The fight choreography and environmental/character design is genuinely really pleasing to look at along with the visual effects (Kamikaze Douga also did the iconic 3D intros for JJBA). I absolutely love the character designs, especially for Joker and Catwoman. Also, Red Hood's helmet/mask was replaced with a basket which is so silly and I love it.
+ Voice acting in the Japanese version was amazing. Wataru Takagi as the Joker is such perfect casting (they also got a lot of other notable seiyuus like Yūki Kaji, Junichi Suwabe, and Daisuke Ono). In the English version, they've got voice actors like Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Strong, and in general, it's alright, but the lines and their delivery are objectively goofy as hell yet still super enjoyable because of how funny it is.
+ The sound mixing/SFX in the English version was like... bad. Everything but the voices was really quiet. But in the Japanese version, the music, sound effects, and voices were all mixed together perfectly. It was done by Yasumasa Koyama, who also worked on JJBA, Fire Force, Fate, etc. so you already know it's banging.
+ The plot itself is alright, I don't have much to say about it. It was pretty easy to follow. I really loved seeing all the different Batman villains because their character designs were so damn cool.

This movie is a joy and seriously unforgettable. It's disappointing that so many people dislike the movie because it doesn't follow the same old Batman story formula. I don't care if it's cringe or a mess; I can't *not* respect the pure, unadulterated passion shown in Batman Ninja. So many movies try too hard to stick to a certain structure, but this movie did whatever the hell it wanted, and did it passionately. And that's what made it so good and enjoyable to watch.

I overall liked this movie. Characters and story are fun and interesting, art is beautiful and it refrences feudal Japan and Batman comics quite well and music is good fit for this series as well (for similar reasons as artstyle). But where this series looses points in my eyes are pretty much all action scenes.

During action scenes there was too much noise on the screen and thus it was hard to follow what was happening during action scenes. After pretty much every action scene I was like: "Yep.. some things happened during that scene. Although I don't know what excactly". Also what made those ... action scenes bad where nonsensicle reveals during them. Okay.. Now we have robots. Okay they had managed to build a submarine. Okay. Instead of reveals like that I would have liked to see more strategy during fights (f.e using different fighting styles or techniques during fights, more ambushes and backstabbing during fights etc.). Currently it felt like most reveals came out of the arse. Now everyone is immune to influence of Grogg, and suddenly everyone who is evil is not. Such reveals seriously dampered suspense. Because this ova was quite action heavy, low quality of action scenes seriously lowered my overall score of this series.

That is why I give this series 6/10. Eventhough this series (especially outside
the action scenes) was quite well made.

Ninja Batman is a cool idea with a nice visual style. I saw a short clip of it on the internet— so hey— I'll check it out.

It's a shame the movie is dreadful.

My biggest gripe with the movie, is the audio. Holy shit. It is BAD. It makes the movie UNWATCHABLE. It's not even the dub quality, (Which may be great to awful, depending on what you think about English VA's) it's the mixing.

Watching this movie, sounds like someone is actively dubbing over EVERYTHING. Anything that is not speech is rendered to a mere whisper. It makes every single moment in the ... movie feel weightless and empty. Action scenes feel like they are being played on mute. When someone talks there is a palpable awkwardness in the air. It doesn't help that the CGI looks janky at times. The exaggerated Japanese lip sync to English voices makes it stand out even more. It feels like you're watching a child play with action figures, while a VA in their booth recites their lines.

Due to the bad mixing, there's a lot of dead air. Lots of scenes feel like they should have been cut shorter. Impacts and hits are missing their "oomph" factor. Halfway through the movie there's an art-style shift in the movie which is done pretty poorly. It's wiggly, with really obvious rotoscoping, and it doesn't look very good.

Oh, and they did my boy Robin wrong. What the hell is up with his hair?

The models and character design looks solid, but it all goes to waste. The animation quality varies quite a bit. The story is awful and pointless. There's nothing to care about.

All in all, you can definitely pass on this one. If you like Batman, or anime, it wont scratch either itch. 3/10. I'd give it a 2, but I like Joker's design and Catwoman's chest.

Superheroes are inherently silly. Every serious superhero is just twisting the idea
of an actual classic heroic figure.
Batman is literally a guy that dresses up like a bat to fight criminals, uses bat-themed weapons, driving a bat-themed car, motorcycle and flying a bat-themed plane. Does that seem realistic to you?

Batman is silly, so why can't there be a silly movie about Batman? If more people were to accept that idea, this movie wouldn't be this overhated. It's not your ordinary Batman film but it's not trying to be. Who the hell expected a serious story from the guy that created Kill la Kill and wrote Gurren ... Lagann? Anime was made to be fun, the same goes for comics, so why does everyone think both mediums should be realistic, deep and dark? There's nothing wrong with these kinds of stories, but there should be room for all different kinds of them.

Story (5/10)
"But it doesn't make any sense", is probably something that a lot of people will think here, and they're all right. To pretend that Ninja Batman has a sensical and coherent plot is simply wrong. But the script directly enables the movie to be as awesome as it is. Its lack of serious tension is what allows it to create mindless fun. But unlike TTGL and KLK, which are both series, it's nigh impossible to create both mindless fun and a coherent plot simultaneously without having to reduce the strength of one of the elements.

Art (10/10)
The character designs alone would make this a really good-looking movie. But combine that with the stunning combination of CGI and handdrawn animation and you get a outstanding visual presentation. From amazing CG mechs to beautifully crafted handdrawn character acting, NB uses pretty much every style imaginable and excels at all of them.

Sound (6/10)
Nothing special, does its job well enough but isn't memorable at all. Jokers VA was awesome though, probably the biggest reason as to why I enjoyed his character.

Character (9/10)
Basically no one acts like they're supposed to. Most characters have been changed to allow for the most potential fun, which, like I have already stated, is what makes this movie so great.

Enjoyment (10/10)

Turn off your brain and you'll have an amazing time, I promise!

Overall (9/10)

A combination of a great superhero in a great medium, Batman Ninja made for an entertaining romp, giving something for both fans of the character and anime to enjoy.

The story is pretty straightforward, focusing mostly on the Batman vs Joker part. Everything is fast paced and seems to be fuelled by the Rule of Cool (as expected from the writer of Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill), making for some truly awesome stuff going on. Rarely does the story waste time or stretch things out, keeping me entertained from beginning to end.

Speaking of entertained, while some might be sceptical about the CGI, the ... blend between this and the drawn art is stunning. The action is well-directed and fluidly animated and since most of what’s happening is action, I feel blessed.

Now, as for the characters, the people behind the scene stayed true to the source material, letting them keep their quirky personalities. Although most of the side characters don’t get a lot of time to shine, this doesn’t take away from the overall story.

To top it off, the music does a fine job of underscoring scenes, making the dramatic scenes more dramatic and creating more hype during the fights. As for voice actors (in the dub, maybe I’ll edit this when I’ve seen the sub), they deliver pretty good performances. I have to give a special mention to the Joker, whose voice seems more hammy than I’ve heard before.

Well, I most certainly had a fun time with this one. Definitively, I’d recommend it. If you’re a fan of Batman like me, watching Batman Ninja is a must.

It's like DC Gintama, accidentally or not.

I can't believe anyone green-lit this, it takes all the tropes of a JUMP anime and smashes it into one convenient unintentionally hilarious package.

The voice acting is overboard. The cuts are abrupt. The hairstyles are hilarious. Everyone makes alliances of convenience you wouldn't normally see in universe. The plot is so contrived, and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense- but that's nothing abnormal for an OVA DC movie. There are lots of explosions which pad the area you would normally expect to see any plot or character development. It seems to ... somehow have both a tenuous grasp of both the European and Japanese cannon.

It's so bad it's good.

Batman Ninja is a popcorn movie that tries to do a lot of things with a lot of characters. While there are a plethora of ideas for characters, conflicts, and theming, none of them really get developed into anything more than mere story beats. What you're left with is several extremely entertaining set-pieces that are laughably absurd, but without any real meat to them.
If your goal is to spend 90 minutes in fun anime and cartoon clichés, mustache-twirling villains and all, you've come to the right place. If you are looking for something that's not as shallow as a puddle, you should look elsewhere.
Pitch your ... tent and light a bonfire, because we've got some serious camp here.

This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen. How can you not like this masterpiece. I mean this has the most bullshit plot twists i've ever seen along with the complete and utter lack of any fucking logic. 10/10 would watch again.

Because MyAnimeList says this is not long enough even though this is literally the best summary of the whole damn movie i'm just going to list some ecchi anime for you all to enjoy.

highschool DxD, to love ru, Highschool of the dead, Prison school, makenki, Monster musume, Infinite Stratos, Hundred, Conception, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, Keijo, Saijaku ... Muhai no Bahamut, Over the testament, Ichiban Ushiro No Daimaou, Trinity seven, Boku no Kanojo ga Majimesugiru Sho-bitch na Ken, isuca and Ishuzoku Reviewers.

You can all thank me later.

Yo when i watched this it made me cry because of how bad it is
also at least if you are going to watch it 100% DONT WATCH THE DUB IT IS SO BAD!
I was not a big fan of the story, animation, sub/dub, I experienced 0 enjoyment and i cant see why anyone would like this garbage

this will be a waste of your time do not watch if you dont want to experience pain inside

this is just my opinion, its bad so please tell me why you think its good as I would like to know someones opinion to see if they have the same ... opinion

This movie is amazing, I loved it. I'm a huge fan of both the Batman characters and Japanese culture and this movie is a beautiful explosion of both. With lots of actual beautiful explosions. The art is fantastic, and the music is gorgeous. Now that I've got that out of the way I can say why other people might not love it as much.

The main idea is that the main characters in Batman get sent to feudal Japan. The characters that get focused on are Batman, Catwoman, Joker, Harley Quinn and Gorilla Grood. I'm certain that the only reason other characters are there ... is because the people who made this movie liked them.

The writers assume that you already know who the characters are. Now that I think of it, there is no mention whatsoever of any character's backstory. So if you don't know who the comic book characters are like Red Hood, Nightwing, and Red Robin you might be confused (I don't know how many times I've tried to explain that there's multiple Robins to my parents).

I don't know what to say about the story. It's barely there. Anything that happens is just an excuse for more crazy fight scenes and such. They try to connect everything at least, and there's a reason for things happening. Sure the reasons might be stupid but at least they're reasons.

So in conclusion I loved it mainly because I'm the exact type of person this movie was made for. If you are also that type of person I absolutely recommend it. If you aren't well then you might still enjoy it if you can accept the mindless beauty.

The art and the animations are great. It seems really odd at the beginning, but the amount of details is incredible. The characters look amazing and the whole film has that ancient Japan look to it.
The story is a bit trash, to be honest though, but what do you expect from the "Batman and all the others time-travel to feudal Japan to become ninjas" anime? Very light spoiler ahead! My main issue with the story was that Power Rangers stuff in the middle of the film. You know when you'll see it.
Still, everything else was very good. I think the creators did a really good ... job bringing Batman to anime. It's really hard to review this without spoilers, but I think you should definitely check out the Ninja Batman movie.

Fantastic movie! Never expected such a movie. When I first saw the titel I couldn't believe. And thought by my self its going to be a boring movie. But at the end it was very enjoying too watch. SPOILER WARNING AHEAD!

From what I gathered! There were some references from JoJos Bizarre Adventure, Gurren Laggan, Code Geass, Naruto, Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop, and even the 1988 Batman movie.

STORY
Very well done, it was your typical batman animation.

ART
Animation was great to watch. Very smooth, and the art style at 'Jokers memory loss' scene. Was very impressive.

... SOUND
The soundtrack was beautiful, very enjoying, Even during the battle scenes, the soundtrack perfectly matches the moment.

CHARACTERS
There's quite a bit to say about the characters, There's most of all your favorite heroes and villains all in 1 85 minute movie with some unique changes. Bane was hilarious in the brief scene he was in and 2 face was a total badass! And the Joker was a great villain as usual along with Grodd who was surprisingly played in big role in this movie. Never thought Catwoman would make such a great Waifu. The fights at the end could have gone on longer, but they had to fit it all into 85 minutes.

And I even think that each character played a roll as each of the Feudal Lords at the time of Oda Nobunaga.

ENJOYMENT
I came into this movie not expecting much and ended up getting a fantastic action packed joy ride with a great story.