Teknoman X Reviews- Batman: Ninja

Review: Batman: Ninja. By Teknoman X



Considering I never do reviews, not even on the forum. This is a first for me. This clearly not the work of a professional.

DISCLAIMER: My opinions and comments in no way reflect the JustAnime Network staff, or anyone else on the planet. If they do, great. But I’m sure they don’t I'm sure I’d be told to go screw myself. Nothing new.



The story:

Spoiler

While battling Gorilla Grodd at Arkham Asylum, Batman is caught in Grodd's Quake Engine time displacement machine and sent to Feudal Japan. There, he is chased by samurai working for the Joker. During his escape, Batman meets up with Catwoman, who reveals everyone else arrived two years earlier (due to Batman being in the outermost area affected by the Quake Engine.) He learns from her that all of Gotham City's top criminals have become feudal lords after deceiving the Sengoku daimyō, battling each other until only one state remains. In order to stop the villains from changing history, Batman and Catwoman must get to the Quake Engine in Arkham Castle (formerly the asylum). Batman discovers that Alfred Pennyworth is also in the past and has built a Batcave outside Edo.


When the Joker's troops ambush the hideout, Batman storms his way in his Batmobile towards Arkham Castle, which transforms into a giant robot fortress. Just as Batman confronts the Joker, he is forced to leave and save a mother and child below from being crushed by the robot's hand. He transforms his Batcycle into an armored suit to defeat a sumo Bane and stop the robot hand, only for the mother to reveal herself as Harley Quinn and knock him down. As Batman is surrounded by the Joker's minions, he is suddenly whisked away by ninjas led by Eian of the Bat Clan of Hida. He learns that the Bat Clan helped Nightwing, Red Hood, Robin, and Red Robin upon their arrival, and that the clan had followed a prophecy of a foreign bat ninja restoring order to the land. Robin gives Batman an invitation from Grodd to a nearby hot spring. There, Grodd explains that he intended to send the villains far away so he could take Gotham for himself, but Batman's interference sent them all to Feudal Japan instead. Batman and Grodd agree to work together to return to Gotham.


Batman, Grodd, Catwoman, the Bat Family, and the Bat Clan battle the Joker and his forces by the river. They defeat the Joker and Harley, but Grodd turns on Batman, revealing his alliance with Two-Face before the Joker and Harley escape and blow up their own ship, taking Batman down with it. Having captured a power converter from Harley, Catwoman attempts to bargain with Grodd in bringing her back to Gotham; however, they need to obtain other power converters from Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Deathstroke to complete the Quake Engine.


Two days later, Batman recovers from his wounds and encourages the Bat Family to learn the ways of the ninja in order to defeat Grodd. Red Hood locates the Joker and Harley, but Batman discovers that they lost their memories from the explosion and are living their lives as farmers. A month later, the Gotham villains mobilize their castle robots for battle at Jigokukohara, the field of hell. Batman leads the Bat Family and the Bat Clan into the battlefield. After defeating the other villains, Grodd puts them under his mind control, with the intent of ruling the country himself. The Joker and Harley, however, crash his party from above, reclaiming their castle from Grodd. The Bat Family saves Catwoman and Grodd before the Joker merges all of the castles into the super robot Lord Joker. An injured Grodd gives Batman control of his army of monkeys; Robin enables them to merge into one giant samurai monkey to battle the Joker's robot. The samurai monkey then combines with a swarm of bats to form the Batgod to defeat Lord Joker before the Bat Family storm into the castle to battle the villains. The Joker reveals to Batman that as farmers, he and Harley planted special flowers that triggered their memories back once they bloomed. As the castle falls, Batman and the Joker engage in a sword fight. Using his ninjutsu skills, Batman defeats the Joker.


With the Joker and the Gotham villains defeated, Feudal Japan is restored to its original state and the Bat Family take the villains back to the present day. In a mid-credits sequence, Catwoman sells weapons and furniture from the castle robots to an antique shop while Bruce rides a horse-driven Batmobile to a party hosted by the mayor.​

My take on this:

This was an original and entertaining story. It had everything you’d want in an anime, a Batman story and a good movie to watch. There are some pros and cons about it, which I will get to soon. But I wanted to give my opinion on this first. Here goes. First as an anime lover, I couldn’t wait for this. As a fan of Batman, I really wanted to find out how the story and characters were done. I was somewhat disappointed. Why, you ask? Although it was well written and drawn, it could have been done a little better. Well, let’s go over the pros and cons I mentioned I was gonna get to earlier.



Pro: Batman. I liked to samurai/ ninja suit. It was cool. I hope he keeps it. Which made me think this was a back to basics story for the Dark Knight. If you are a fan of Batman, you’ll notice he’s become to reliant on technology. Being forced back to a simpler era got him to rely on his fighting skills and acquired ninja techniques to win the day. As a long time fan of Batman, I think this is a good thing.



Con: The Red Hood. I really like the character of the Red Hood. He’s basically Batman with murderous intent and the willingness to do it. My problem is he was way under used in this movie. He’s too good a bad ass to be a background player. He and Bats should’ve butted heads often to make the story more interesting.



Pro: Catwoman. Let’s face it, she is a feast for the eyes. Right, guys? She was perfect for the story and great at playing both sides for what she wants.



Con: No Barbara Gordon/ Batgirl: I would have rather have her than Red Robin since we already have a Robin on the team. Besides Batgirl looks way better in spandex and tight leather. Again, right, guys?



Pro: The Joker. Always the clown sicko of murder, chaos and mayhem. He is and will always be the deadliest of all of Batman’s enemies. He made it so difficult for Batman to achieve his goal because the Joker has no morals or a conscience. Plus he sort of outsmarted Gorilla Grodd, who is supposed to be a genius. Go figure. And the sword fight sequence between him and Bats, pure awesomeness.



Con. The english voice actor for The Joker. While I’m sure the guy did a great job in bringing out The joker’s insanity, I wish that Mark Hamill voiced crazy bastard. In my opinion, Hamill does the Joker better.



Pro: The feudal scenario. Having all of the Batman’s enemies as feudal lords made it kind of fun and exciting.

Con: Poison Ivy. Not that I don’t like her, I think Clayface would have worked better. He can disguise himself as anyone and sow seeds of confusion on both sides.



Since I’m out of pros, I have one more con: Deathstroke. The man is THE master assassin! Like Red Hood, he was very underused. The son of a bitch should have been a bigger threat to Bats and the team, even under Grodd’s control. What a waste. If the writers weren’t going to properly utilize him, someone else should have been used instead. Like Scarecrow or even Killer Croc.



Just a reminder, before y’all grab your barbed wired covered baseball bats and pitchforks to go hunting me down, this is just my review. Agree or not makes no difference to me. But I’d like to see your responses and add you own pros and cons if you don’t see them here. So, that’s it. Thaks for not wanting me dead. But I’m sure many of y’all cursed me for it. Oh, well.



This was Teknoman X for the review of Batman: Ninja. Later.