Ninja Batman (Batman Ninja)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: ニンジャバットマン

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jun 15, 2018

Producers: Warner Bros. Japan

Licensors: Warner Bros. Pictures

Studios: Kamikaze Douga

Source: Other

Genre: Action

Themes: Martial Arts, Samurai, Time Travel

Duration: 1 hr. 25 min.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 6.08¹ (scored by 32,990 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #9308²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2875

Members: 58,301

Favorites: 108

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Synopsis

At Arkham Asylum, Batman clashes with Gorilla Grodd while trying to destroy Grodd's newest invention: the Quake Engine. Amidst the chaos, the engine activates, and the entire asylum suddenly vanishes into thin air—Batman along with it. Once the dust settles, Batman finds himself standing in the middle of an unfamiliar road. He soon realizes that he is no longer in Gotham City—but instead in Feudal Japan!

The amazement quickly fades as samurai descend upon him, seeking to take his life. Later on, Batman's investigation leads him to discover that the one responsible for the kill order is none other than his archnemesis, the Joker. Following an encounter with Catwoman, he learns that the asylum's criminals had teleported there two years earlier—each ruling over a piece of Japan with Joker being the dominant warlord.

In order to return home, Batman must reactivate the Quake Engine, situated in the remnants of the asylum, now known as Arkham Castle. However, there is one problem: aside from his gadget belt, the arsenal that was once at his fingertips is all but gone. Ninja Batman follows the Dark Knight as he traverses a strange new environment, facing off against familiar foes in a bid to return to Gotham in one piece.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Ninja Batman
Other:	Batman: Gotham Knight, Ninja Batman x Poputepipikku Kindan no Collab CM

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Wayne, Bruce

Main

Yamadera, Kouichi
Japanese

Quinn, Harley

Main

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Joker

Supporting

Takagi, Wataru
Japanese

Grayson, Richard John

Supporting

Ono, Daisuke
Japanese

Kyle, Selina

Supporting

Kakuma, Ai
Japanese

Todd, Jason

Supporting

Ishida, Akira
Japanese

Isley, Pamela

Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko
Japanese

Pennyworth, Alfred Thaddeus Crane

Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu
Japanese

Gorilla Grodd

Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito
Japanese

Drake, Timothy

Supporting

Kawanishi, Kengo
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Satomi, Tetsurou

Producer

Morita, Shuuhei

Director, Storyboard

Yamamoto, Junichi

Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Mizusaki, Junpei

Director

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Opening Theme

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Ending Theme

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Reviews

Jun 8, 2022

SgtHappyWrath

Recommended

the story is kind of all over the place, makes no sense and out of character.

but it was the most hilarious, fever dream experience I've ever had regarding a batman movie. if you are a big fan of batman and like anime then you will find this movie hilarious. I suggest watching it in Japanese because joker's VA is great.

The art design is fun to watch honestly and aside from Damien's horrid hair cut the character designs are great too.

I found the background design a little lacking at times, giving off a feeling of emptiness.

there were a few out of character moments ...

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Nov 20, 2023

athenasanthem

Mixed Feelings

Story wise this movie is pretty dumb. The characters, who are detectives and fight evil crime lords, hope to win with the power of friendship and feel betrayed when the villains behave like villains. The voices really got into my nerves, it's just too annoying and high pitched for everyone, the joker was specially annoying with his moaning. To me, it seems like whoever make this really loved batman's concept and watched him as a kid, but didin't revisit his source material as an adult and wrote something that an 8 year old would find badass or whatever. Like, reaally, batman who watched his parents ...

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Dec 22, 2022

RebelPanda

Not Recommended

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.

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Ninja Batman

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Characters & Voice Actors

Wayne, Bruce

Quinn, Harley

Joker

Grayson, Richard John

Kyle, Selina

Todd, Jason

Isley, Pamela

Pennyworth, Alfred Thaddeus Crane

Gorilla Grodd

Drake, Timothy

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