Gorilla Grodd's time displacement machine transports many of Batman's worst enemies to feudal Japan -
along with the Dark Knight and a few of his allies. The villains take over the forms of the feudal
lords that rule the divided land, with the Joker taking the lead among the warring factions. As his
traditional high-tech weaponry is exhausted almost immediately, Batman must rely on his intellect and
his allies - including Catwoman and the extended Bat-family - to restore order to the land, and return
to present-day Gotham City.
(Source: Anime News Network)
Some ask "why review something you don't like". The answer is: as a warning. There are plenty of things I dislike in anime. This one movie however is the only thing in the world I can think of that genuinely has absolutely no value to it. It is appalling. When I say this movie is worthless I genuinely mean that. I don't know how anyone involved in its production can be satisfied with themselves at all. Genuinely one of the top ten worst experiences of my life which is a feat in and of itself. This is an insult to batman fans. A disgrace to anime. And an abomination to the human race. I'm genuinely ashamed to be a part of the same species that created this and I feel like every time I am reminded of its existence that my day is ruined and my life worsens as a whole. Do not watch this garbage. There is nothing to gain from doing so. No comedic value in the "so bad it's good" kind of way. No fanservice in any sense of the word. Nothing. Everything this movie has to offer is simply a waste of time. I regret ever having watched it. I would love to get to the review where I state everything bad about it but I want to say something good first and that is a seemingly impossible task. Imagine in your head for a moment something truly awful you remember experiencing. Be it some food that made you throw up, an extremely bad video game you spent 60+ dollars on. Just anything that you can think of that was pure regret from the moment it happened. That is this movie except it's stretched out to fill the length of a film. It is a genuinely horrid experience in which you witness some of the worst art style and animation I have ever seen coupled with voice over-acting with a lousy script that has a TERRIBLE plot and no substance whatsoever. I would've rather watched an hour and a half long commercial for batman toys than watch this because at least in the hypothetical commercial the goal would be to sell me something thereby giving it purpose. Here it is as if they didn't even try to do anything even remotely interesting with the characters they were given. As a long time batman fan I have read and seen countless stories that not only managed to make me think harder about the character and life in general but also feel for fictional characters. This film did the opposite, it is devoid of feeling and made me think my emotions were being drained by a black hole that left nothing but an empty husk that only knew surviving and not living. I cannot imagine why or how the people that made this managed to fuck up a concept like samurai batman this badly but they did. All they had to do was copy the batman Manga verbatim and that would have been lazy but at least it would've been hundreds of thousands of times more enjoyable than this. Stay away from this unless you'd like to torture someone by having them watch it on loop. P.S. it didn't let me give it a 0. This shit is absolutely worthless which to me warrants a 0. The only 0 I'd ever give is this. Due to the nature of the site I am forced to give it a 1.
I could preface this review by going on a whole video essay-like rant about how much I love comics. Just comics in general. I mainly grew up reading the European Donald Duck ones, Marvel Adventures, tie-in comics for Star Wars and Power Rangers, as well as a famous Polish one that remains largely unknown to foreign audiences - Tytus, Romek i A'tomek, that is - and roughly 70% of my sense of humour comes from re-reading the same Garfield strips constantly. And then by the time I was in middle school, I would often go to a local bookstore (RIP Matras, you were the best) with my dad, which then led to me getting pretty hardcore into manga, regardless of whether it was the privilege to pick up a volume or two of FMA or skimming through Spice and Wolf and thinking it's like the most hardcore piece of pornography I ever perused, careful not to get noticed by one of the store clerks (not that I ever saw anybody get in trouble with a clerk there, but you know, teenage curiosity, teenage fears). Point being - comics are something I hold dear, regardless of their origin - but at the same time, it's so much fun comparing what sort of themes, tone and messages will each of them contain, as well as what sort of aesthetic will it decide to go with in order to really get them across. We've come to associate certain tropes and ideas with specific countries' popculture so heavily that a bunch of associations come naturally. And that's what makes it so fun when they intersect, or when authors from one country try to recreate the charm of another - we get to see what one cultural circle's impression of another is, what they think defines it, and so on - regardless of whether it's meant as a stylish tribute (as was the case with __KEYMAN: The Hand of Judgment__) or a hilariously over-the-top parody (best exemplified by the __Ninja Slayer__ multimedia franchise, especially its novels). Same can be said for movies like 2022's __Bullet Train.__ Regardless of their specifics, seeing what happens when multiple cultures' ideas on what's cool, funky, visually and thematically interesting blend is just, for the lack of a better word, FUN. img(https://files.catbox.moe/7nxhrg.png) img(https://files.catbox.moe/6hk6x0.png) And that's exactly what Ninja Batman is - FUN. It's unapologetic, stylish, over-the-top, no-brakes FUN with a capital F, capital U, and capital N. It's pretty much got everything you'd expect from the title - a blend of one culture's iconic, often ridiculous, cultural icon, the ninja, with one of the biggest icons of US comics ever - Batman himself. Now, personally I'm far from the stereotypical comic book store nerd, I've barely checked out any Batman media outside of the occasional standalone comics and cartoons, as well as Tim Burton's brilliant movies, but I get the gist of who and what Batman is, and I'd assume you are too. Well, this movie takes everything you think of when you think Batman, and seamlessly mixes it with everything you think of when you think ninja. It's got everything - ninja, samurai, battles between feudal lords of Sengoku-era Japan, katana, shuriken, these funky puking fish ornaments on top of roofs, sexy kunoichi, awesome samurai regalia, and so, so much more. Hell, remember when I mentioned Power Rangers earlier? Well, let's just say, if you're familiar with the show PR was based on - Super Sentai - or tokusatsu cinema as a whole, you will love what this movie will pander to you specifically with. img(https://files.catbox.moe/yj6zmn.png) The plot is exceedingly basic, even reminding me of some of the less favorably reviewed isekai stories out there at times - but here specifically, it's all it needs to be. Especially considering it manages to squeeze in a few interesting nuggets of dilemmas for those of you that enjoy superhero comics for their pondering on the nature of good and evil, heroism and villainy, and so on. It primarily feels like a demonstration of what can happen when a studio works with the loose concept of "Batman, but ninja" and makes something positively INSANE out of it. Best I could describe what this movie feels like would be a comparison to playing with figurines from different lines as a kid and making up plots to justify them working together. Better yet, I'd say it's like creating a ridiculous Lego minifig from spare parts and coming up with whatever the hell he or she is supposed to be based on loose ideas like "it's, uhhh, Batman, ninja, in uhhh, samurai armor" - and that's a large part of what makes this movie so enjoyable - it makes you feel like you're a kid playing with superheroes and supervillains again. There's a lot of this odd, yet strangely familiar childlike joy present, with the occasional "fun-edgy" flair that really sells it. This thing's a mech, that thing's a mech, duh, of course it is, because mecha are cool, fun and awesome. And this movie takes being cool, fun and awesome to heart. img(https://files.catbox.moe/r1i890.png) img(https://files.catbox.moe/hdbqyu.png) Lastly, I have to praise the animation, music and sheer power of the movie's three dominant artstyles. Those of you familiar with the studio's previous works will already know what I'm talking about - Kamikaze Douga already made a lifelong impression on some of us a long time ago, regardless of whether it was with the openings of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the sheer musical insanity that was Sturgill Simpson's Sound&Fury, or any of their other miscellanea. img(https://files.catbox.moe/u2nybc.png) Their proficiency within the medium extends to not only beautiful and insanely stylish animation, but charming, memorable, artsy and infinitely awesome character design too - not to mention a reasonable amount of silly and cute ones as well - as much as I'm not a fan of tacked-on mascot characters most of the time, I have to admit Robin's little monkey friend was quite adorable. As far as being adorable goes, though, the one that won my heart was, quite easily, Catwoman (and not just because it'd be hard for me not to like a badass femme fatale with a silly maneki-neko theme and, let's just say, __easy on the eyes__ bodysuit and body language). img(https://files.catbox.moe/urs93b.png) img(https://files.catbox.moe/xte7uh.png) Additionally, her outfits throughout the movie are clever homages to some different incarnations of hers, which I can't help but love - for example, note how similar her civlian disguise is to the 1960s live-action take on the character! ~~~img(https://files.catbox.moe/uustsk.png)~~~ img(https://files.catbox.moe/7lzvdi.png) Summarizing - while I doubt this will be a lifechanging movie for you (well, unless you're an artist and the sheer stylishness of it encourages you to embrace the craziness of your own style or even make it even wilder), it's unquestionably just a fun, wild ride with no brakes, and one that's sure to please fans of both Japanese and American comics with how unapologetically stylish and awesome it is, and one you'll appreciate even more if you've ever thought about what really makes a comic, what its defining characteristics are, and what it is that keeps making you come back to it. _Oh, and lastly - I'm only detracting a few points because my favourite Plane Scene character, Bane, is a one-scene wonder and doesn't re-appear until the very end. Truly he was, too much of __A 大 GUY 4 お前__ to handle. Had he appeared more, I would've given this a 100/100 rating, easily._ img(https://files.catbox.moe/j4btdh.png)