Batman Anime Turns the Dark Knight Into a Ninja, Looks Insane
Imagine every Batman character in an epic war, except it's several hundred years in the past.
by Corey PlanteBatman is already basically a ninja anyway — albeit one with tons of money and gadgets — but a new anime from Warner Bros. Japan brings the Dark Knight and the rest of the Batfamily to feudal Japan to fight usual villains decked out in ancient Japanese garb.
Released on Friday during Tokyo Comic Con, the trailer for Batman Ninja is exactly what it sounds like, and it’s totally bonkers.
Tons of familiar villains show up: the Joker, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, and even Gorilla Grodd.
Per usual, the Joker leads an army of goons all wearing helmets with his smile plastered on. This Joker looks absolutely horrifying in this animation style — more so than usual. Towards the end of the trailer, the good guys fight some kind of giant robot, which is truly crazy if this is indeed supposed to be feudal Japan.
Thankfully, Bruce has his handy butler Alfred and a four-man squad of Robins: Nightwing, the Red Hood, Red Robin, and a regular Robin that’s probably his biological son, right?
Joker is a total creep.
Per usual, Catwoman looks like she might be Batman’s frenemy — at one point she’s seen standing alongside the Batfamily during some kind of battle.
The whole thing has a very 7 Samurai feel to it, especially when Batman dons some badass armor. Batman’s also far more expressive than usual, which makes for an interesting take on the character. A number of fantastical elements integrate well with the setting.
The pacing through much of the video is rapid as characters clash. We see Batman fighting Joker and Catwoman fighting Harley, but each Robin also gets their matchup. Other characters on both sides are bound to pop up. At the 1:04 mark, a red-headed woman enters the fray. A split-second later, we see a hand flip a coin up into the air, which almost certainly means there’ll be a Two-Face in the mix somewhere.
Is that you Two-Face?
Unfortunately for folks in the U.S., the trailer was released exclusively in Japanese without subtitles, so it’s hard to discern what’s going on in the plot.
All in all, Batman Ninja looks like it could be the most novel and sharply animated version of the Dark Knight to date.
Batman Ninja hits DVD and Blu-Ray sometime in 2018.
