Batman NINJA
Batman Ninja is a trip through time and insanity. It starts off well enough in modern times. Batman is clashing against Guerilla Grod and a host of other super villains with back up from the bat family. Something goes wrong (or right from a certain point of view) and Grods latest invention sends everyone back in time to Japan's Sengoku Period otherwise known as the warring states era roughly 500 years ago. While no historical figures from that time make an appearance like Nobunaga or Hattori Hanzo the show paints a picture (literally in some cases) of this era.
This however is when the insanity starts. Due to a delay Batman arrives two years later than everyone else only to find that the villains have taken over Japan. Luckily he runs into Selina who fills him in on the situation and takes him to a hideout. There it turns out Alfred also made the jump along with the bat mobile. That is the beginning of the end and the show drops off the deep end.
Batman drives to Jokers Shogun castle only to find out that the castle has a surprise! It can turn into a giant robot... Yes, a giant robot in the Sengoku era... The robot smashes the bat mobile which turns into the bat jet. The bat jet then gets skewered and Batman drops out of it in a motorcycle. Then the motor cycle turns into power armor. All that and Batman doesn't really claim victory as much as he made Joker show his hand.
At this point Batman gets rescued by... wait for it... Batmen Ninjas! Apparently there is an ancient legend that one day a man dressed as a bat from the future will come and ninja the heck out the bad guys. They take Batman as their new leader and plan their next assault. The next assault takes place on a giant ship that happens to be equipped with machine guns that they use against the bat ninja. Though being ninja they tricked the Joker with fakes and ended up forcing joker into a desperate gamble. A barrel filled with gunpowder!
The ship explodes taking the art style along with it as they now decide to use water colors and line art. Though PS2 cut scenes they come across two gaijin (foreign) farmers who look just like the Joker and Harley. They are but it seems as if the explosion wiped out their memories and they just are farmers now. Batman leaves them be and places them on watch. Though it isn't long till the deception is revealed.
Thankfully they return to the normal animation style and also up the insanity levels. It turns out that the reason they have all this tech is because of Grod manipulating the other villains into doing it and now the true power will be shown. Not before Joker and Harley reemerge and take over the castles and forming up Voltron (Okay, not really Voltron but close enough) with them.
Now you're probably thinking the insanity levels are at the point where they just couldn't get any more higher than this; you'd be wrong... Oh! So very wrong! Robin with a magic flute summons a seemingly endless flood of monkeys... These monkeys swarm the "Voltron" and win round one but round two starts and they too form a giant monkey! Then as the giant monkey starts faltering a huge storm of bats forms around the giant monkey forming into a giant Batman!
Assuming your sanity is still intact Batman and Joker have their final battle. The final battle is a traditional sword battle till it too goes insane. Batman is able to make shadow clones using bats and after a much too hard fought battle Batman tosses the Joker off the giant robot much to the Jokers delight. In the end Batman lassos the Joker before long. With the villains defeated Batman takes everything that shouldn't be there in Sengoku Japan back to the current time.
This Batman story is way over the top even by most anime's standards. While it can be fun to see how insane things get I was personally hoping for more of a less out there experience. From other sources it seems to go both ways, some like the over the top action while others were hoping for more of a period piece. Thus creates a bit of a divisive film.
The animation in this film is very well done but the art style can be off putting at times. The art is mostly CGI with some degree of traditional animation. The most jarring aspect of the art work is the scenes with farmer Joker and Harley. It changes to a kind of a water color world with very odd character depictions. It doesn't last very long but it was not a welcome change all the same.
If I have to levy a complaint is that they put in a ton of characters buy hardly used any of them. The rouges gallery while cool looking and slick are barely used. You have Death Stroke and you do nothing with him, a master swords man in ancient Japan? Kind of writes itself. Poison Ivy is drop dead gorgeous and that's about it. Penguin? He was there. The story mostly centers on Joker, Harley, and Grod.
The heroes don't fare much better. Robin who I guess is Damian Wayne is now a hyper optimistic kid who can talk to monkeys. Red Robin and Night Wing are there but do little other than hang out with the ninja clan. Red Hood has his moment with the farmer scene then does nothing. Cat Woman is well used and actually has a bit of story but it's the same one she always has. She's bad, now she's good! Now she's bad again but not really!
Now lets get to the story itself. The story is kind of lacking to be honest. Grod has a time machine that they get caught in and now Batman has to set things right. That's about it, no real side stories or character development. The B plot is virtually non-existent if there was one at all. Though the action does make up for it in spades and that's what this really was about. Making Batman fight the Joker in ancient Japan.
Overall, I have to give this a 6/10! It's a mostly slick package with over the top fights but not much else.