ANI-MOVIES, *Batman: Ninja

Well, this was different! Batman: Ninja is the second attempt at a full-length anime movie based on the Masked Manhunter, but this one is mostly one continuous plot, although handled by different Japanese animation studios. Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki was tapped to handle this non-Elseworlds story by Warner Bros. Entertainment. This one for the most part takes place in the existing DC Comics Universe, but isn't canonical.

Flash villain Gorilla Grodd comes to Gotham, and holds a special meeting in Arkham Asylum of all places for several of the local villains, whether they were asylum inmates or not. Grodd then activates a huge time machine that he somehow manages to smuggle in the worst secure criminal institution, and this transports himself, Joker, Harley Quinn, Bane, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Two-Face, and Deathstroke back to feudal Japan. Fortunately, all current/former Robins happened to be there too, plus Alfred, Catwoman, and the Batmobile. Batman himself shows up, but about two years later than everyone else, despite the fact that not everyone appears to be physically that much older. All of the Gotham criminals have set up their own mini-empire in Japan, with Joker holding the bulk of Grodd's time machine. Batman gathers the other Robins, and a ninja clan they allied with themselves with who believe Batman to be part of some ancient prophecy. After multiple betrayals, double-deals, and backstabbing, Grodd takes back his time machine in Joker's castle, which can of course transform into a mechanical mobile fortress. The other villains each have their own transformable fortress, and plan to have a big civil war, but Grodd takes control of them to merge their robots with his to a mismatched steampunk combiner mecha. Joker retaliates with Harley, wrestling control of the giant robot from Grodd. The gorilla gives Batman the power to control his army of "samurai monkeys", who merge with a humongous flock of bats to form a Batman-shaped colossus. This leads to final duel between Batman and Joker, who in the last two years the Clown Prince apparently was really working on his swordplay. The heroes eventually capture the villains, and do the timewarp again back to modern day-Gotham.

This production has at least more than one version as the Japanese adaptation has a strikingly different script from its American release, as original writer Kazuki Nakashima from Gainax had his screenplay rewritten for the American release. The animation style itself fluctuates a lot as well from CGI models similar to Berserk, to scratchy rotoscope styled format like in Tekkonkinkreet, usually changing at different plot intervals. As a story set in the given current DC Comics timeline, its very much out of place where characters like Two-Face and Poison Ivy have knowledge of robo-technology, plus Bane's brief cameo who went from being a luchador-styled fighter to a sumo wrestler(who they didn't show being taken back to modern day along with the other Arkhamites!). The most unbelievable segments involve the what could be called "ninja magic", where gigantic a Batman hybrid of multiple monkeys and bats, or Batman himself being able to turn into living flock of bats like Dracula in his showdown with Joker. Despite its current high praises, this tale of the Dark Knight is one that might not hold the same amount of water years from now.